Note: I'm at the point where I need to start figuring out who the hell Kana's getting shipped with and I'm kind of losing my mind over it lol. Also, I'm kind of obliterating some canon for the sake of story, sorry! Guy and Kakashi aren't technically old enough to have been sensei then, as I think they would have only been about 17 or 18 at the time. I also don't think they met Itachi until after he joined Anbu but... Fuck it. Artistic freedom and shit lol. It's an OC. I'm trying XD
Anyways, please review! Reviews make me happier than follows and faves
"… Maru… Seal…"
Kana heard voices. She pushed through the fog in her mind, willing her eyes to open and her voice to make noise. Her limbs felt like lead against whatever she was laying on; it was soft and warm, so she wasn't in the forest anymore. She forced her brain to remember what had happened. Kana remembered being with her team in the Forest of Death for the Chunin Exams, after meeting that team from the Sand, patrolling the area for Orochimaru.
'Oh. Yeah,' she thought to herself.
"We need… No time… Take… And get back to…"
She mentally evaluated her body's condition. She didn't feel much pain other than a dull ache in her forearm from where she cut herself, a stronger ache in her back and a small pain at the bite location. Anxiety welled in her stomach at what Orochimaru told her – he was giving her some of his power? What did that mean? What about Sasuke?
People shifted and Kana listened to their footsteps as they exited the room, shutting the door behind them. After a few minutes of struggling, Kana's eyes fluttered open; there were white tiles over her, a large window to the right and a small group of people standing in a half circle with their backs turned to her. Okay, so she was in the hospital. That made sense. Kana tried to call out, but her voice only managed a pathetic sounding whimper. Still, it caught the attention of the handful of jonin and they turned towards her - her eyes were immediately drawn to Genma, who was giving her a chipper smile. Kakashi stood to his left and Raido was on his right. The sight of Guy just behind them was her biggest cause for concern, because the haunted look in his normally jovial eyes told her that something terrible had happened while she was out.
"Exams," she croaked as she propped herself up on one elbow, "Guy, did they-"
Guy's face darkened even further and Kana felt her stomach plummet. Raido closed his eyes and gave a half-hearted chuckle. "You face off against one of the sannin in the forest, which lands you in the hospital for three days while we panic over how your body's covered in strange markings and some weird chakra - well, chakra weirder than normal - and your first concern is how their exam went?"
Kana barely heard the scarred jonin as an impatient rage began to swell in her chest as her sense of dread continued to build, "Guy, are they okay?"
"There was a preliminary round for the third stage once all of the teams got to the tower," Guy started solemnly, "Lee… Lee lost to one of the Sand ninja, a kid named Gaara." Her mind flashed back to the brief encounter she had with the team. She remembered the hatred that burning behind his bluish green eyes, the anger that dripped from his words as he threatened to attack her. "He's still in the hospital recovering. You would have been so proud to see his determination, Kana. He fought so hard. Even if it meant…" She could see he was fighting back tears, and they didn't look anything like the tears of pride he held for Lee. "He's badly injured. He lost."
'Oh, no…' Kana felt as if there was a lump in her throat and tried to swallow it back down in vain. "And the others? Sasuke? Tenten and Neji?"
Guy just stared at the ground and Kana almost cried out of pure frustration. She wasn't there for her friends, and now getting information was like squeezing water from a rock. Genma seemed to realize that Guy was too emotional to continue speaking, so he pushed his hands into his pockets before speaking up. "Tenten is doing just fine but she, too, lost in the preliminary rounds against a Sand nin named Temari. Sasuke won in his fight. Neji and Hinata fought each other in the tower, but Hayate and the other jonin interfered before Neji killed her."
Killed? Questions raced through Kana's mind as confusion replaced her irritation. Kana knew full well that Neji hated Hinata for things she simply was unable to control, but she never thought he would go so far as to use the exams as an excuse to killer her in cold blood…
"There are more important things to worry about, though, Kana," Kakashi stated, "You weren't the only one Orochimaru cursed in the forest."
'Cursed..?'
Kakashi pulled a chair up from the wall to sit next to Kana's bed. "When Orochimaru attacked you, he used a special type of senjutsu to place a curse mark on your body. He did the same thing to Sasuke Uchiha just couple of days before you, though it appears they're two different marks. Sasuke's is on his shoulder and looks like three rounded hooks, whereas yours is on your chest and looks like three curved lines." She pulled the collar of her hospital t-shirt out and looked down; sure enough, there were three lines pointing to the center of her chest in a strange circle. Kana just stared in disbelief at the markings as the realization of what had happened finally set in: She attempted to take on one of the three legendary sannin and lost. But she didn't just lose to him, she was still alive. No, Orochimaru had claimed her in some way.
What was worse, he did the same exact thing to Itachi's little brother. The thought angered and saddened her at the same time, so Kana bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut to force back a wave of emotions that threatened to crash over her. She dropped her shirt as her head snapped up to meet Kakashi's gaze. "Tenpo and the others-"
"Are alright," he assured her, "They said that once the barrier jutsu stopped, Orochimaru had vanished."
She sighed in relief, though the feeling of anxiety and dread didn't fade. "So what do I do, about… What's going to happen-"
"Just like I did with the Uchiha boy."
Self-hatred and anger joined her anxiousness as she struggled to keep her composure. "Is Sasuke okay?"
Raido sat down on the edge of her bed and reached out to pat her shin through the blankets. "For right now you don't need to do anything," he said, "You have a cracked rib and a few bruised bones so the nurse said you can leave the hospital as soon as you woke up. However…"
"I'm going to have to seal that curse mark," Kakashi finished.
"And Sasuke?" she snapped.
Concern flickered in both Kakashi's and Genma's faces. "He's fine, we start training in a couple of days," Kakashi said, a stern edge to his voice that almost made his words sound like a warning.
Kana nodded and stared at her hands in her lap before speaking again. "Guy, I told Neji about how I would be taking over his training for the third stage," she said, "Can you have him meet me tomorrow at the usual training ground?"
Guy hadn't moved from where he was standing, but his head had at least risen up to watch the conversation. He nodded grimly and exited the room. She didn't mean right this second, but okay. Kana threw the blankets off of her body and swung her legs over the edge of the bed so that her back was turned to the others. "Do we know how the mark works?" she asked, her fingertips grazing the cloth just over the center of her chest.
"As long as you don't intentionally use it, you should be fine," Kakashi responded, "The mark relies heavily on its bearer's willpower. Unless you want to activate it, it will lie dormant in your body until it finally disappears."
"Is there any way to remove it right now and just get it over with?"
"Not without seriously damaging your body, no."
Kana sighed and stood up from the bed. "So why are you all here?" she asked, "And where are my clothes?" Her ribs ached, but she was able to move freely without too much discomfort. That was good, it meant she'd be able to participate fully in Neji's training in a couple of weeks.
Genma picked up her backpack that had been placed on the floor at the end of the bed and placed it on top of the sheets; she pulled the zipper open and tipped it over onto its side, picking up the bottom corner and lifting the bag up to dump the contents onto the bed. Kana's neatly folded clothing fell out into a messy pile. Whoever packed this almost seemed to intentionally leave out any sort of clothing that may have marked her as a shinobi. And her underwear. She gave Genma a questioning look, who shrugged apologetically and clicked the senbon between his teeth. "Sorry, I'm not too comfortable with digging through a girl's things."
Kana only rolled her eyes and yanked her hospital-issued sweat pants down her thighs, wiggling a little so that they dropped down to her ankles; the cool hospital air felt refreshing as it rushed up to meet her legs, and she was glad that she was brought shorts so she could continue to enjoy it. Raido's eyes shifted so that they stared pointedly out the window, a slight pink tingeing his tan skin; it appeared that even though the group had seen each other naked in the past due to varying circumstances, he still was uncomfortable with her stripping to the plain white panties that clothed her butt.
"I knew you trained with Guy but damn, Kana."
With her shorts in hand and one foot out of the sweatpants that pooled around her on the floor, the kunoichi gave Genma an incredulous look that screamed "Are you fucking kidding me?" The man bit his senbon and blushed in embarrassment, throwing his eyes to the floor. "I'm just… Appreciative, is all. I mean you're cut."
Her eyes slanted. Raido laughed and shoved him with the palm of his hand, "That's why you never get any dates, Gen, you need to learn how to properly compliment a woman."
"That, and he spends all of his spare time with Izumo," Kana muttered as she slid her shorts up to where her waist dipped in, "Maybe it's not the ladies he's interested in complimenting."
Genma coughed in surprise and Raido's laughter rang loud enough to be heard three villages away. "Man, I could have sworn that he and Kotetsu were dating. Genma, you sneaky dog!"
Kana snorted. Kakashi lazily rolled his head to the side, "Are they really?"
"Of course they aren't, Kakashi, damn!" The suddenness and intensity of Genma's rejection of the idea only caused Raido's laughter to rise to a roar. Kana started laughing, too, and even Kakashi's shoulders bounced as he chortled.
She pulled her t-shirt off and suddenly really hated Genma for being too immature to grab a bra for her. It wasn't as if she desperately needed one, though, considering her muscular figure didn't provide much for a feminine body… Still, the extra support would have been appreciated as she slid the top over her chest. It was a tight black turtleneck crop top that stopped just beneath her breasts, with an open back that had black horizontal straps. The sleeves stopped at her elbows, meaning her stitched up wound glared angrily at anyone who looked at her forearm. It occurred to her that it probably looked like she tried to commit suicide.
Kana dropped her arm and looked up at the three men before her. "Seriously, why are you all here?"
Kakashi shrugged and leaned back in his chair, "Believe it or not, it was mostly a coincidence. I came here with Guy, who looked like he was going to jump out of his skin if he didn't get here for the tenth time today, and we ran into these two goons in the hall. Before you woke up we were just talking about the curse mark, what happened and how security is going to be tight until we figure out what Orochimaru's up to."
"I know it's hard for you to believe, kid, but there were quite a few people that grew concerned when they saw Tirahashi running through the village with your limp body," Raido added, "No everyone has the ability to just see if someone is alive or not."
She could imagine how that must have looked. "Oh… I, uh…" her brain struggled to find words to express her gratitude, but it came up blank. Genma placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it. We're just glad you're okay. You gave us quite a scare, lady."
Kana looked up at the older man, who was giving her a gentle smile. He squeezed her shoulder and his eyes drifted downward. "You're so small."
"Genma…" Kakashi groaned. Raido covered his scarred face with his palm and shook his head with a sigh.
The way his eyes widened slightly make Kana wonder if he had actually meant to say that out loud or not; he pulled his hand away to play with the senbon that was twisting between his lips in circles. "I didn't mean that as a bad thing, I just… Sometimes forget how much muscle you can pack into someone that-"
"Yes, Genma, that's what happens when a 17 year old trains every day. You could learn something from her." Kana rolled her eyes at the level of sass Kakashi presented to him as he cut him off and leaned against the windowsill; Genma was an extremely accomplished tokubetsu jonin that would give all three of them a run for their money in a fight, so she doubted there was much she could actually teach him. He wiggled his senbon and cleared his throat in response. "Whatever, I'm hungry. Anyone wanna get some lunch?"
Kakashi's stomach rumbled in response. Raido shrugged and stood up from the bed, "I could go for some dumplings and sake, yeah."
"Already thinking of booze at two in the afternoon, Raido?"
"Stuff it, Kakashi, it's my day off. Dick."
The girl reached up and scratched her scalp, realizing she hadn't eaten anything other than rations in about a week. And the last ration she had was three days ago, apparently. "I like the sound of dumplings," she agreed, "Shikaku's boy told me that steamed sesame pork buns have been added to the menu at the place next to the flower shop so I want to get some of those, too."
Raido scoffed, " 'Shikaku's boy.' You need to stop hanging around us geezers, Kana, you're starting to sound like us." He laughed and walked towards the door. "Anyways, I need to run a quick errand for the Third so I'll meet you guys there."
Genma followed suit, eyes still plastered to his feet, "Yeah I gotta do something, too. You two go on ahead."
When the door shut behind the two, Kana sighed and scanned the room for any sign of her belongings. It looked like someone had taken all of her gear back to her apartment, including her hair tie - she really wished someone like Tenten had packed the paper bag with her things, someone that knew what she needed. Kana pushed her hair back out of her face and tried to tightly braid it so that it wouldn't come undone too easily.
"Why don't you leave it down for once?" Kakashi asked as he stood up from his seated position. The tall man walked around the bed and reached out to weave his fingertips in her neat braid. Just like the last time they saw each other, he wiggled his fingers up the braid so that it came loose. Kana just stared at the small amount of face that was exposed to her as his grey eye looked her hair over.
Kana started wearing her hair in a braid when she was little, after Neji said he liked it. It felt almost unnatural to allow it to hang loosely around her shoulders like this but it wasn't as if she had much of a choice in the matter - she didn't have any hair ties so it would just fall out anyways. She started to walk towards the door , hoping Kakashi knew where to go as she stepped into the hallway.
"Oh, and about what Genma said earlier… Don't listen to him. You look fine," he said calmly as the door shut behind him with a soft click. Kana's lips twitched into an unenthusiastic grin and shrugged at his comment. She chose the life of a shinobi, knowing that it wasn't going to be a glamorous one. Her body wasn't soft, but that muscle density kept her alive. "I think he was just trying to forget about how worried he was while you were out," he continued, "I don't know if you realize this, but you have quite the fanbase." Kakashi's voice was lighthearted, and the joke made her smile. "He, Kotetsu and Izumo came by a couple times a day to check in on you, almost as if they were some sort of sentry. Though Neji didn't appreciate how his alone time kept being interrupted so he just sat outside of your window for a few hours at a time."
At first, the thought of Neji pouting like a child caused Kana to roll her eyes and giggle. Her thoughts went somber, though, as she recalled what had been mentioned earlier. "When Genma said Neji tried to kill Hinata… What did he mean exactly?"
Kakashi sighed, "Yeah I figured you were going to bring that up. You know about Neji's fixation on fate so I can skip the preamble, but in his fight with Hinata he began to try and convince her to give up by explaining how her fate was to always be inferior. After Naruto started screaming at her like a cheerleader she refused to back down, despite hardly being able to stand, and even went so far as to tell him that his outlook on life was a sort of flaw. He then tried to kill her in a fit of rage."
It was Kana's turn to sigh as her shock melted into disappointment; just a week ago she was talking to him about how proud of him she was, and then he goes and reminds her that he's still just an angry child beneath his cool demeanor. Her mood didn't lighten any when Kakashi finally stopped at a door on the first level. "I'm going to stand out here, if you don't mind," he said. Kana shook her head wordlessly and slid the door open enough for her body to slip through.
Just as she expected, Guy was sitting in a metal chair that was seated next to his pupil's bed. His large body was hunched over, shoulders slumped and head hanging low. Kana could only place a hand on his sagging form as her eyes took in Lee's pitiful form. He was bandaged nearly head to toe and bruises littered his boyish face.
"They didn't want to pump him full of painkillers," Guy whispered, his normally jovial voice hollow and broken, "So they put him into a medically-induced coma until the worst of it subsides."
The teenager pulled up her own chair so that she could at least let her old sensei know that she was here. When she sat down, Kana extended her right arm to gently push back Lee's bangs. His hair was so soft against her skin. It fell back into place as Kana brought her hand down to rest on top of Guy's, which was holding Lee's in a gentle, almost cradling way. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there for them."
"Was I… Wrong to teach him to use the Gates?" he asked after a long pause.
Kana shook her head. "I don't think the problem lies within what he knows, Guy, but how he uses it. He's still too naïve to understand that there are times where giving up, backing out of a fight, is necessary."
"He's just so determined… To prove how capable he is as a shinobi." Guy's voice shook as he spoke. Kana lifted her hand to place it back on the wide expanse of his shoulders so he didn't see them tremble as she avoided looking her injured friend.
"A capable shinobi understands his limits. You need to show him that. He looks to you for validation, and doesn't care what anyone else has to say as long as he has your approval. You and I both know that once he is able to grasp that concept, he'll be able to truly show the world what an excellent ninja he is."
Guy half-chuckled, half-sobbed in response. "You know, you would make a fine bride for my Lee here."
"Bride, or mother?"
This time, Kana was granted a genuine chuckle. "Good point."