Note: Holy word count, Batman! And yeah, INB4, Kana is kind of twisted. In a bad way. Thaaankfully after all of this goes down, it's going to be less day-by-day stuff and more small time skips because DAMN I realized that we have a bunch of chapters that basically took place over the course of a month.
Of all days they could have been stuck on standby, of course it would be today. Kana was entirely aware that frustration and impatience were practically emanating off of her in a physical form, but the fact that her squad had been landed in the jonin standby station during the third stage of the Chunin Exams was nothing short of infuriating. Her teammates hadn't said a word to her in the three hours they had been sitting in the waiting room they were confined to and Kana was thankful for that – she didn't want to deal with trying to force a conversation right now and was trying to focus on the medical ninjutsu text in her lap.
"So I heard you and Genma are an item now."
If Koh could see her eyes through the small round holes in her mask, he would have literally withered and died right on the spot; they flitted up at him and she momentarily wished she was a genjutsu user just so she could knock him out. "Excuse me?" she hissed, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. There was a pain radiating in her arm where she had been stabbed by Neji's kunai a few weeks back, small but noticeable enough to where it only added to her bad mood.
The rancor in her voice didn't appear to go unnoticed, because her three teammates reacted at her tone; Kana could feel Tenpo become wary, shoulders stiffening, and Tirahashi looked up from the book he was reading. Koh crossed his arms but didn't seem to be genuinely bothered by her attitude. "Well, you know, I heard Anko chatting with Izumo and Kotetsu-"
'Well, that's where Kotetsu heard it… that woman isn't eating pie she's sticking her fingers into everyone else's.'
"-And I was just wondering if there was any truth behind the rumors. That's all."
Kana closed the book and didn't respond, merely folding her hands and closing her eyes in agitation; if she had learned anything, it was that her teammate only worked off of what he was given so he would shut up when he realized he wasn't going to get a response. Anbu members were known for being cold, but somehow this gossiping loser made it in? It made no sense.
When he wasn't immediately given a response, Koh apparently decided that he need to keep pushing the issue. "I'm just saying, good on you if-"
"Nisa, stop talking," Tenpo interrupted. The rest of the team heard it, too – there was some sort of explosion in the distance, and the four looked out of the large window that looked out over the village. A large cloud of grayish brown smoke was billowing up from the stadium, but they couldn't see much else.
'Still…' Kana activated her Kurogan and focused on the stadium, eyes searching for some sort of explanation.
She sucked air between her teeth when she saw Sasuke, Genma, a Sand jonin and those three Sand siblings facing off on the ground. The Gaara kid looked as if he was in pain, but Sasuke was on his knees. Kana noticed that the stadium was full of attendees that appeared to be slumped over, and… Shock slammed into her body like a speeding train.
She spoke hastily, not bothering to elaborate on unnecessary details. "Captain, there's fighting in the stadium seating. Something's wrong – I don't see Lord Hokage or the Kazekage. It looks like everyone that isn't a trained shinobi is passed out, most likely due to a large-scale genjutsu." Her eyes flitted around the stadium before moving to the roof, "I found the Hokage, he's with – he's being held by the Kazekage on the roof! The Anbu Commander is already taking his team-"
There was another explosion, one closer by, which was shortly accompanied by the faint footsteps of running in the hallway.
The team immediately fell into formation, the impending squabble immediately forgotten, with Kana positioned on the right point of the diamond they formed. Yugao and one Anbu member she didn't recognize burst into the room just a few moments later, "The village is under attack by the Sand and Sound," she said hurriedly, "Lord Hokage has been captured by the Kazekage! Corp 5 is to immediately deploy to the Uchiha and Hyuga districts where it is expected the next point of entry will take place!"
It made sense. A vast majority of the Hyugas would be at the stadium to watch Neji fight, and the others would be on duty as shinobi. With the Uchiha district completely empty, it would be a particularly vulnerable part of the village that was close to the Academy and Hokage's office.
Tirahashi already had the large window opened for the rest to jump through. They understood their orders.
"Tsuki, scan the area to 100 meters outside of the village," Tenpo barked.
"Already on it, sir." As much as she wanted to run to the stadium and protect the boys, she had a job to do, so she pushed her concerns to the back of her mind for now.
Activating her Kurogan at such a high speed was always a little disorienting at first, that was for sure, as it was as if she was stepping into a near-identical alternate dimension that was zooming past her, lines blurring and bouncing chakra forms everywhere. Still, she focused ahead and almost felt her heart stop. "Sir, there are at least a hundred of them," she said hurriedly, "It looks as if they are attacking the village in groups of twenty. The wall around the village is destroyed in several places in what I assume are access points, including right where the Uchiha district is. There are several already making their way through - we will meet them head on in a few minutes."
Usually her captain would swear under his breath at bad news, but he only increased his pace ahead of them. "You and Nisa run ahead and try to slow them down. We want to keep them from entering the village any further."
Koh and Kana both bolted at his orders, racing past the other two who weren't able to keep up with their level of speed – the world became blurry as she focused chakra to her feet to increase her pace, knowing full well that her teammate wouldn't be able to match it. Just like she said there was a group of twenty shinobi making their way past the treeline and across the small grassy area that would get them into the streets. "Ten Sand, ten Sound," she informed Koh, "All jonin. Think Captain will buy us a round when we get them all before he arrives?"
It was a rhetorical question, said only to project her concerns over how completely outnumbered they were, but her teammate still gave her a disheartened chuckle in response from behind, "Nah, he's a cheap ass. At best we'd get shitty convenience store brand scotch." He ended on that note as the enemies came into his field of view; Tenpo and Tirahashi were both very fast – you had to be, if you wanted to be in Anbu – but they still considerably lagged behind. It would be a few minutes before they caught up, at best. Koh's frowning bear mask mirrored her own grim expression.
"Closing in on 500 meters. It doesn't look like they're going to try avoiding us, but they'll probably split up and attempt to flank so a few get by." Her mind worked at the potential outcomes of such a direct approach – she wanted to keep the collateral damage minimal but they didn't have a lot of options at the ready for something like this. "From what little I've seen they focus more on ninjutsu and genjutsu, so their taijutsu is a little lacking. We need to split up, put about 20 meters between us and drop a paper bomb every fifteen. We won't be able to stop them all but we can slow them down as much as we can. 200 meters."
She heard him alter his direction, heading left, so Kana angled herself to the right and reached into her pouch; she flipped onto the next house and used the flip to subtly place a paper bomb on the roof as she sprung herself forward with one hand, grabbing the remaining nine she carried with the other.
It wasn't long until she was down to one bomb, which Kana slapped onto the blade of a kunai knowing full well that she wasn't going to be able to hit anyone that saw her coming, but the explosion would injure a handful of them. At fifty meters she focused a small amount of chakra into the bomb and threw the kunai towards the pack of what she assumed her the Sound nin, realizing that she had never actually seen a Sound shinobi other than the three whose visa application she reviewed with Genma. Their uniforms were bulky and impractical, which only reinforced what Kana had said earlier – they weren't interested in relying on hand-to-hand combat and ninja tools.
One of the shinobi sidestepped the kunai just as Kana signed; the small amount of chakra she had infused into the bomb's seal was enough to amplify the explosion, increasing the radius and intensity of the blast. One of the enemies was launched in her direction so she jumped up to swing her leg around; the boot connected solidly with the bottom of his chin, and the pressure caused by the force of Kana's foot and the speed of which he was flung at resulted in a satisfying, 'Crick, crunch,' of both his jaw and neck snapping one after the other.
She quickly moved on to the next shinobi, which was probably the last one she would be able to attack before the rest landed or regained their footing. Kana didn't waste any time with focusing her chakra to her fingertips in black cones before stabbing them directly into his neck, slicing through his camouflage scarf and piercing through his airways in a flash as blood spurted onto her gloved hand.
Adrenaline coursed through her body like a river rapid. She didn't need her kekkei genkai to know that one of the other Sound ninja was attempting to hit her from behind – the cones extended to encase her hand like a sharp glove as she turned and began to stand from her kneeled position, thrusting her hand out. Kana's fingers tore through his loose shirt just a second before burying themselves into his stomach at the same time as two paper bombs went off in the distance. Heat enveloped her hand as she grabbed a fistful of soft and rubbery intestines; his agonized cry and the strangled gasping of his teammate drowning in his own blood barely registered with her when she yanked her hand back, effectively disemboweling her opponent. She could see that six of the twenty had already escaped but hadn't yet reached the paper bombs so if she worked quickly Kana would be able to get to them before they got too far. Three more explosions dropped that number down to five.
"Sound Strike!"
Uh-oh.
Kana pushed off of the roof tiles and launched herself to the side just as the shinobi finished his hand seals, taking a large breath. 'A projectile attack, got it. Probably only goes straight,' she noted while signing for her counterattack, 'Meaning he's not going to be able to move for a second or two.' Two more paper bombs went off in the distance, this time with a pained shout.
Five chakra senbon flew from her fingertips as she landed on the next roof, her other hand grabbing at the tiles to use the momentum to slide back around to the edge of the roof, kicking off of the edge as the senbon pierced his body. Senbon weren't very effective as lethal weapons unless you had extremely precise accuracy, but the burn of her chakra caused the shinobi to stumble back and grip his belly. It was just enough of a distraction for Kana to propel herself onto him and climb her way up to his shoulders – she wrapped one leg around his covered neck and slammed the back of her upper arm down on the side of his head, the satisfying snap of his neck sending a thrill up Kana's spine.
She jumped off of his lifeless shoulders and landed on the ground with a soft 'thud' before racing towards her next opponent, who had attempted to run past her on the street level. "Chakra Wave!" she cried, thrusting her hands out and releasing a black pulse of black chakra from her palms; the jutsu worked something similar to a sound wave, and the irony was not lost on Kana as it tore the paper windows to splinters and ribbons, knocking over a street light just before it passed through the Sound jonin. As several of his internal organs ruptured the man fell to his knees and screamed, paying Kana no mind as she flashed to his side and releasing another pulse to scramble his brain.
With the those she killed with the paper bomb included, and the four Koh had taken down, that made eleven in total. Her eyes scanned the immediate area for the rest – Tenpo and Tirahashi had already caught up and had engaged the three that had survived the paper bombs, meaning that they only had a handful left to take out. Kana leaped back up to the roof just in time to see Koh take two kunai to the chest, doubling over.
'Oh no.'
Kana moved as fast as she could, ignoring the building guilt as she watched her teammate receive the brunt of a wind jutsu that made him clutch his head as blood rushed out of various orifices. There was time for dealing with her failure later.
Just a couple of seconds later she was lunging forward over Koh's figure to throw out her leg in Guy's favorite entrance attack, Leaf Hurricane, but with a twist of her own: Kana focused chakra to her leg and released it as her leg swung, leaving a black arc of pure chakra in its path. Her foot connected solidly with the first Sand shinobi, who instantly dropped after his cheekbone and nose were driven back into his head, but missed the one who had seen her coming. Still, the chakra trail caught his face and he screamed as his skin began to peel away.
'Four more.'
A man nearly double her size jumped back to form hand seals for a jutsu she didn't recognize but appeared to be wind style, if she read the seal types correctly; her feet only barely touched the wooden roof before she grabbed Koh by the collar and sprang out of the way of an invisible shimmer, dropping her teammate to propel herself at the Sand jonin, who was still coming down from the jutsu. Kana reached out her arms, grabbed his tan flak jacket by the shoulders and used the momentum to swing around as she pulled a kunai off of his leg; the girl plunged the kunai into his shoulder and free fell with her hand firmly wrapped around the handle, the blade violently ripping through his body.
Blood covered her shoulder and right arm by the time her small body uncomfortably hit the roof, and the shinobi's chakra-less body crumpled next to her, blood and an organ pushing through the flak jacket.
'No time to rest, three more,' she thought to herself as her hands dropped the kunai to flash hand signs. She saw Tenpo and Tirahashi close in on their location. "Dancing Flower Jutsu!" Kana cried as a large ball of chakra erupted from her lips and divided into seven smaller balls that curved out and around towards two of the remaining shinobi that were charging at her.
While she had no doubt she would be able to hold herself in a fight, she was relieved to see Tenpo flash over to the third in an attack just as Tirahashi began to pull Koh away from the fray – Kana wasn't entirely positive that she would have been able to keep all three of them away from her injured teammate. Anbu weren't escorts.
The Sand shinobi dodged her attack just as she jumped to her feet, barely allowing her time to draw the sword strapped to her back as she jumped back to put a little distance between them. A flurry of shuriken cut through the air in Kana's direction and only gave her about two seconds to register what was happening before she could jump to the side again – those couple of seconds weren't enough for her to fully get herself out of the way so she brought the sword up to deflect what she couldn't dodge, though one managed to get through her defense and slice through her black uniform pants, cutting the surface of her thigh. The pain was minor enough for Kana to know she wasn't in any danger so she focused chakra to her arms and back as she flashed forward.
"S-so fast-" one of them gasped just before her sword began to cut through his abdomen.
Kana smirked at his final words. "Not just fast," she quoted her sensei, "But also powerful." Her chakra-enhanced muscles rippled when the sword cut cleanly through his organs and spine, exiting through the other side of his body in just a second before she moved onto the second target. Kana spun with her leg out to deliver a firm kick to the Sand jonin's knee, a wave of satisfaction joining in with the adrenaline when it bent at an impossible angle with a 'Crack' as he collapsed with a scream; she wasted no time in stabbing him through the midsection to pin him to the roof, crawling up his heaving body and grabbing his bare face.
"You think you can come into our village, after we worked so hard to build peace, and try to kill our people?" she hissed, watching his eyelids slide shut as she drained his chakra, "I don't think so, you piece of trash. Your attack is going to fail, and you're going to die all alone here-"
'Ah, damn, he died before I could drain the rest.'
Kana stood up and ripped the blade out of the Sand ninja's belly, wiping the blood on his tan jacket before sliding it into the sheath on her back. Tenpo had dealt with the lone survivor, and she could only see that there were only two chakra figures standing behind her – guilt spiking back into her chest as she saw the grey and white figure of Koh's body lying beneath Tirahashi's hands, no trace of chakra left.
She turned around to face the surviving pair, hands balled into fists, and knelt. "I'm sorry, Captain, I underestimated the Sand's capabilities when I made the call for us to split up and attack the groups separately. I know you two were close... I take full responsibility for his death."
The captain was silent. Tirahashi's shoulders slumped. A deceptively gentle breeze rolled through, cooling her flushed skin and rustling the loose strands of hair that had escaped her twin buns.
"We'll come back for his body later. Right now we need to focus on fighting back the invasion." Tenpo's pained words cut through the heavy silence between the trio, and the fact that he blatantly ignored Kana's apology caused her stomach to twist. 'I fucked up.'
Tirahashi and Kana both nodded in agreement and rose to their feet in silence, chasing after their captain when he took off in the direction of the sounds of battle; Anbu weren't meant to become close to each other – the nature of their work was too dangerous for them to risk being emotionally attached to each other, whether it be to avoid acting rashly to save one another or becoming depressed if they died. Knowing that made Koh's death even worse - knowing that after two years since their team had been assembled, she had killed the only person Tenpo had ever fallen in love with.
'I am so sorry.'
A kunai flew through the air with just enough distance for Kana to fling a pair of shuriken to throw it off course with a 'chink.'
Her captain's head whipped around in time for him to see the second kunai and dodge it, but his obvious reduction in reaction time didn't go unnoticed – he was really messed up. The group of Sound shinobi wasted no time in closing the distance between them and performing hand seals, the air shimmering with their two sound jutsus whizzing towards them; Kana could see that there were two on the ground making an attempt to flank them, and anger sparked in her chest as she backflipped off of the roof to land in front of them.
"Do you think we're so stupid to really believe ninja would attack with half of a team?" she snarled, thrusting a chakra-filled palm out to strike the closest one in the center of the chest; a burst of chakra blasting through her hand and into his body in a move that mimicked Gentle Fist, but instead of cutting off a chakra point it burned at his inner organs. Kana grabbed his throat as he crumpled with a scream, throwing him into his teammate to give her enough time to focus her chakra to her fingertips like before. She was on top of the next shinobi less than a second later, fingers buried in his throat, watching the light fade from his eyes as he drowned in his own blood.
The next hour was a blur. Bones snapped beneath her hands. Blood splattered across her vest. Kana remembered being angry – she didn't understand why this was happening. What did they do? Why did they deserve to be attacked like this?
Her movements were fluid, calculated. Her vision was sharp and red as she tore her way through the enemy units with Tenpo and Tirahashi by her sides. The rage she felt was immeasurable, almost painful – she didn't want them gone, or to just leave them be. Kana wanted them all dead, even as she felt herself begin to reach her limit.
Chakra manipulation required an exorbitant amount of chakra and control, and she had been fighting almost constantly for an hour and a half at least. Even for an elite shinobi, that was more than just a marathon. Even so, she felt irritation pick at her when she found herself holding back for her companions' sakes as they lagged behind; she understood that they weren't as fast as she was, and didn't have as much stamina, but Kana wanted to scream at them to pick up the pace.
"Tsuki, listen to me," Tenpo said sternly, his breathing labored as he came to a stop, "I'm sure you can tell that Rain and myself are at our limits – we can't keep this pace up. Ordinarily I'd keep us together as a team but things aren't ordinary and right now the village needs every available shinobi fighting."
He was right, and that wasn't just her anger and impatience speaking – both of their chakra signatures were flickering weakly, meaning even if they tried to fight they would be overpowered in no time. They needed to fall back, but the village needed everyone at the ready to push back against the waning invasion. "We're going to start assisting with moving the injured to the hospital. You go ahead and take out as many of the enemy units as you can."
"I understand, sir."
She didn't waste any time in turning on her heel and darting in the other direction towards the stadium; she could already see that the invasion was thinning out, it was only a matter of maybe another few minutes before the enemy forces began to pull back. All of Team Guy and Kakashi were at the stadium, as well as Kotetsu, Izumo, Raido and Genma – Kana needed to make sure everyone was okay. She needed to be there. She reached down to her leg where she had been cut earlier and used her fingernails to scrape at the injury until it reopened, coating her fingers with blood.
Not like she could really tell the difference between the blood that had already been on her hands and what she had just drawn. Kana was a mess. She flashed hand seals for the summoning jutsu and slammed her hand to the ground, watching the symbols squiggle across the dirt. 'Hanako, I need you!'
Just as she felt her chakra dip to dangerously low levels, a puff of smoke appeared before her and Kana could feel the soft black fur of her favorite ninneko against her gloved palm. Summoning the bakaneko required more chakra than one of the smaller cats, but she needed to conserve her strength and Hanako was an invaluable asset to have in a fight.
"It's been a while, sad girl," the oversized cat purred, "I see you've decided to remodel the village."
Kana grabbed onto the red vest the Hanako wore and jumped onto her back, ignoring her attempt at a joke. "We need to get to the stadium," she said hurriedly, tightening her knees on the cat's sides as she tore down the road, "The village is under attack by Orochimaru and his men, and we've been betrayed by the Sand."
Suddenly, the large chakra barrier that had been reaching up to the sky disappeared over the stadium roof. 'Lord Hokage! He did it-'
Lord Hokage's chakra signature wasn't present; Kana focused so she could make out the details, and the rage she had pushed away came flooding back like a red tidal wave. Orochimaru and four Sound shinobi were leaving, with the Third's body lying lifeless on the roof tiles and a group of Anbu chasing after them.
"Change of plans, Hanako, stop any ninja that isn't from the Leaf," she hissed, "Lord Hokage is dead. I can see that the others are holding their own just fine."
Hanako's paws slid along the road, sending up a cloud of dirt in her wake, as she changed course to start charging towards the gaping breaches in the Konoha wall; they were gaining on the retreating forces quickly, not even Guy or Kakashi's ninken could outrun the ninja cat. As they rapidly approached the nearest group Kana began to focus what little chakra she had left, realizing that she wouldn't have enough to perform any of her advanced jutsus. She'd be best off just using her chakra claws, unless…
"I am granting you some of my power."
"Unless you want to activate it"
Kana cracked a grim smile at the irony of what she was about to do, 'Let's see just how useful this can be,' she thought to herself as her demon arm formed.
Hanako leapt into the air with a loud roar before landing on three Sand shinobi, catching a fourth between her jaws as the kunoichi on her back launched herself forward. She jumped up the wall's rubble with as much speed as she could muster, her feet barely coming in contact with the broken stone before she was propelling herself forward again.
The first shinobi went down before he even realized Kana was behind him, a surprised shout alerting his teammates as the black chakra blade sliced through his body and was redirected towards the next closest nin – Kana lunged onto his chest, holding herself up by his flak jacket just as the blade was buried into his chest.
There was a split second where Kana felt completely empty – where the last of her chakra escaped her body and her vision flickered as her muscles relaxed. Less than a heartbeat later, though, her chest tingled and Kana felt a surge of energy rush through her body as if she were being electrocuted.
It felt fantastic.
It was almost as if the people around her were moving at only three quarters of their normal speed – Kana's body and mind moved faster than she thought was possible. 'Is this what it feels like to open the gates?' she wondered gleefully as she jumped up and dove down onto an escaping Sound kunoichi, pulling on her arm for leverage to swing her arm down, cutting through bone and muscle.
"Sad girl, there is a group of enemies heading towards a breach in the wall to the south of here!" Hanako called, sinew hanging from her pointed teeth and her large paws covered in blood. Kana grabbed the last Sound shinobi's face and allowed a burst of chakra to ripple down her arm and through his head, her black eyes focused on his so she could watch him die as she waved the bakaneko over. "What are those markings?"
Kana jumped onto the large feline's back again just before she darted along the wall's exterior; she could see a total of fifteen enemies, all Sand units, making their way out of the opening and into the forest. She grinned. "Don't worry about me, Hanako, it's a new chakra type I just discovered. There's a jutsu I've been working on, though, so I'd appreciate it if you just kept them close together now that we're out of the village." Her words were nearly lost to the rush of the wind, but Hanako's excellent hearing picked them up and she gave an amused meow as they closed in on the retreating forces.
The black blade dissipated as the kunoichi centered her chakra, or whatever the hell this weird power was – her body converted other types of chakra into her own, but this seemed like a bizarre combination of the two. It felt amazing, invigorating, but also dirty and slimy. 'I hope this works…' she thought to herself as she dismounted the feline, who continued running around the enemy platoon to herd them in.
"Hah! They sent one little girl after us?" one laughed to the group, "And a cat? Is this a joke?"
Hanako growled threateningly, "You better hurry up, sad girl, or else I'll kill them myself."
Kana appreciated the distraction the bakaneko created, which gave her just a few extra seconds to build up as much chakra as she could before her hands whirred together to make a long combination of hand seals.
"What did you say, stupid cat?"
"Shut up and pay attention, Chizuru, we don't have time for this!"
"Chakra Barrier Prison!" Kana shouted, dropping to a crouch and flinging her hands out; it started like a small black fire, encircling the confused platoon before rising up about fifty feet in a frightening inferno that flailed at the sky. When it smoothed out to what looked like a smooth glass wall she stood up with a satisfied smile, dimly aware of the tingling sensation that told her the curse mark was stretching around her ribcage while she strode confidently toward the captured shinobi.
She kept concentrating on the barrier but felt chakra build up in her arms as she began flashing hand signs again. The barrier bowed beneath her hands before allowing them to sink through its surface, suspended in the strange chakra field that licked her skin. "Pulsing Chakra Wave!"
It was beautiful. Just as the name implied, waves of chakra undulated through her palms and into the barrier with a harmonic thrumming sound – she could feel the chakra pass through their bodies and become absorbed into the farthest part of the barrier, rippling around the barrier's circumference back to her hands and pulsating outwards again in a rhythmic pattern. Kana could feel every blood vessel burst, every organ that popped. The chakra burned at their clothing and melted their skin.
Kana watched each one of them collapse to the ground, too agonized to scream or cry out. The feeling of life escaping a living being's body as their very being was popped like a balloon was something indescribable. She allowed her rage to fuel her chakra, intensifying each wave so that she could feel the ninjas' bodies become reduced to piles of mushy tissue and bits of clothing scraps and metal chips before releasing the jutsu with a contented sigh.
"What is the point of me sealing the curse mark if you're just going to use it anyways?" a familiar voice barked at her from behind. She had seen him coming, obviously, and she knew he would have been upset but the anger in his voice pulled her out of whatever trance she had been in before. Kana's legs trembled as she turned, a wave of exhaustion flooding her body, and was thankful for Hanako's presence as she padded up by her side.
She turned to face the small group, using Hanako for support, and felt her heart skip a beat when she saw the horrified looks of horror that met her gaze - Kotetsu and Izumo both were frozen in place, wide eyes focused on the group of bodies Kana had just liquefied. Genma had a much better handle on his emotions but still looked startled as he assessed the damage she had caused, while Kakashi just looked pissed.
"Is everyone okay?" she asked weakly as the marks began to recede – the surge of energy she had felt was lessening, and Kana realized she didn't know what was going to happen once that strange chakra was gone since she only had a tiny bit of her own accumulated from her body's conversion process.
Kakashi's eyes narrowed and Kana could practically feel his frustration stab through her from his heated gaze, "Lord Hokage is dead, and there were a lot of casualties suffered but the attack appears to be over. If you're asking about the kids, they're all fine. Guy got them all to safety a little while ago." He practically spat the last words out at her.
Hanako crouched to the ground for her companion to sluggishly crawl onto her back as the marks disappeared into the seal. "That's… That's…" What, good? She was glad that her dear ones were safe, but this wasn't a good situation. The village was devastated. Kana finally deactivated her Kurogan; she didn't think it was possible, but she was apparently capable of enough energy for adrenaline to rocket through her body as she gaped at Izumo with alarm. "Izumo, your arm-"
"The blood isn't his so don't worry about him," Kakashi snapped, "Why did you use the curse mark, Kana?"
"I… I, uh…" The angry intensity of his mismatched glare caused her mind to go blank and Kana struggled to come up with a response; her hands dug into Hanako's fluffy black fur for comfort, realizing that she couldn't actually remember the last time she had been scolded or felt as if she was in trouble. It was a strange sensation, and she was too embarrassed to do anything other than to tear her eyes away from his to look at her bloodied arms.
This seemed to only agitate Kakashi even further, as she could actually hear him clench his fists at her. "We'll talk… Need to… injured..."
Kana somehow managed to lift her head to face the group, eyebrows furrowed in an attempt to help her focus her blurring vision; she struggled to maintain her grip on Hanako's fur as her hands became too weak to form proper fists, only loosely holding on to the ninneko who looked back at her to ask her a question.
"Hey… wrong…?" Genma's voice was muffled against the sound of her heart racing in her ears, but she could vaguely see that he was asking her a question.
'Even when he's unhappy, he's handsome…' she thought as the world started to tilt to the right.
The last thing Kana remembered was feeling her body fall into strong, warm arms that smelled like cinnamon and musk.