Note: Phew. I just finished writing the last bit of the first Naruto timeline arc, and I realized how this ff is full of really unhappy moments. Makes me feel kind of bad. I'm also working on introducing the next stage of her kekkei genkai and transitioning into the Shippuden arc. Honestly, the story's already at 130k words so I'm wondering if I should split this up into separate stories (With Growing Up being the first Naruto arc, and the Shippuden and Final arcs being their own stories) if anything for the sake of keeping things nice and neat. Or would you guys rather it just be in one giant story with like 100 chapters?

Please let me know :) Also, the story just got 2k reads and I've gotten so much feedback from everyone since the last chapter. Thanks a bunch!

Seeing the two highest ranking members of the Interrogation Force enter the Anbu Commander's office sent a chill down Kana's spine; she tried to not stiffen too much as they were greeted by her superior. She deadpanned behind her mask and fought against the sudden onset of anxiety that welled in the pit of her stomach, wondering if her few late-night rendezvous with Itachi a few years ago had finally been discovered. "If I may, sir… What's going on?" she asked warily.

"We need to ask you a few questions about your mission," her commander said calmly, "Specifically, about your return."

So, no, this wasn't about her technical association to the Akatsuki.

"Your teammate said he had left you in the forest about a day's travel outside of the village due to the injuries the two of you sustained while in the Village Hidden Among the Dreams. Is this correct?" Inoichi asked, flipping through what was obviously Diyo's mission report.

"Yes. We had been poisoned with a toxin that ate chakra while inflicting a great deal of pain, but I had been poisoned in three separate doses and suffered wounds that left me too injured to move on my own. Yuta had been mortally wounded long before we departed the village, as well, with shuriken dipped in the same poison lodged in his heart and lungs. My teammate was also gravely injured, but could still travel. I ordered him to leave us as to ensure the intel we had acquired made it back to the Leaf. If I hadn't, we all would have died of chakra depletion and/or blood loss."

Ibiki hummed, narrowing his eyes as if he was trying to read her face. Which he was. "And yet you still managed to find your way back to the village." It wasn't a question.

"Do you have any affiliations with shinobi from other villages?" Inoichi asked, his calm demeanor offsetting his partner's intimidating one. He closed the mission report and held it down to his side, locking his shockingly blue eyes on her own through the slits in her mask.

She knew where this was going. Kana kept her breathing steady and willed her heartbeat to a normal pace, "I have a contact in the Village Hidden in the Mist, Snow and Moon, as well as in both Jomae and Genjutsu Tree Villages. All of which are logged in my file," she said flatly.

The Anbu Commander sat behind his desk in a silent attentiveness; she knew he was paying extra special attention to every movement she made, and Kana suddenly felt as if her body was being used as a weapon against her as the three studied her intently.

"We are well aware of your recorded contacts," Ibiki said, "But we're not asking about them."

"Do you have any idea who it was that brought you back to Konoha?" Inoichi asked. They were both intentionally speeding up the pace of the veiled interrogation, and it wasn't going unnoticed. "The gate guards said that two shinobi had dropped you off in plain view but immediately used the Flicker Technique to disappear."

"Seems a little strange that a friendly would just drop you on our doorstep and run instead of taking you to the hospital, doesn't it?" Ibiki added.

Kana kept herself calm. Anbu couldn't be arrested by normal shinobi, so her superior being in the room with the two high-ranking interrogators told her that the situation could turn very ugly if she answered their questions wrong. The last thing she needed to do was let them get to her, so she took her time with recalling what she could from that day. "I don't know who-"

The scarred tokujo cut in, "So a random pair of shinobi just happened to find you on death's door after half of your team was killed on a mission, and your other teammate was sent off on his own?"

It was a low blow, one that would have cut deep if Kana hadn't been expecting something like that from the man. "Let me finish, Ibiki," she said in a low voice , "I remember… Two figures - men." She bit her lip and concentrated, "But I don't know who they were… I mostly just remember looking up at the trees… And I honestly can't remember what they looked like."

"So to the best of your knowledge, they were just two good Samaritans?" Inoichi asked, skeptical but looking genuinely curious.

Kana furrowed her brow as a thought occurred to her, "I actually assumed they were from Konoha… Did they trigger the sensing barrier?"

"No," the commander responded, "But it's possible for a Leaf shinobi to manipulate the barrier."

"I know that, but I was unconscious."

"Were you?"

She scowled at Ibiki as if he could see it, "You and I both know that the gate guards' and medical nin's reports were sure to emphasize on how I was unconscious and nearly dead." Her eyes moved back to the blonde jonin, "Why don't you just use the Psycho Mind Transmission technique to get into my head and see for yourself?"

Probably because his partner got hard-ons from barraging people with questions.

Inoichi gave a grim smile and handed the mission report over to Ibiki, "Because I respect you as a shinobi enough to believe it isn't necessary." He motioned her to come closer and reached a hand out, "May I?"

His palm was warm against her head, and Kana tried to focus on that instead of how bizarre it felt to have someone rifle through her mind like it was a filing cabinet.

Raido had her hands pinned over her head as he rammed his hips down into hers painfully, choking out a moan against her clavicle-

Lee and Kana were sharing spicy curry, chatting about Tenten's combat techniques-

She curled up into a ball on the bed and remembered how Yuta felt as he died-

Tears streamed down Guy's face. His hand held hers in a protective hold-

Genma and Aoba laughed with Kotetsu-

Inoichi stopped when he reached the scene with Kana waking up in the forest.

There was a rustling in front of her.

Kana couldn't lift her head to the noise, but she was able to blearily make out the faint sound of footsteps.

"You can go back to wherever you came from, I'll take it from here."

Sandaled feet appeared in her line of sight before the figure kneeled; all Kana could make out were purple and grey blurs.

Momoko disappeared and the figure reached out to her.

Kana's head fell back as she was lifted from the ground.

It was morning.

His body was warm.

He smelled like soap and lavender and sweat.

"Why are we helping this girl? I never took you for a man with a soft spot."

'I know that voice…'

Her eyes rolled to the side to view the man that was speaking. He was blurry, at first, but as Kana forced herself to focus she slowly found herself able to make out details.

Pale skin.

Wide mouth stretched into a wicked grin.

Purple markings around piercingly yellow eyes.

His appearance triggered her body into alert. Kana moaned hoarsely and willed her body to move, only managing to twitch an arm.

"Relax, you're safe," the man holding her cooed, "Why, my lord, it would be such a waste to allow such a promising candidate to die out here in the middle of nowhere, wouldn't it?"

Kana focused her hazy gaze on the person carrying her.

Dark eyes peered down at her coolly, but gently, from behind round glasses and she could feel herself being adjusted in his arms.

Silver bangs framed his face, which was half-hidden by the high neckline of his purple shirt.

Kana could only stare up at the lightening sky as she blacked out.

The next memory was the girl waking up in the hospital so Inoichi released the jutsu, looking down at her with a concerned look. Despite the extensive training she had gone through to conceal her emotions, Kana couldn't help but bring a trembling hand up to her chest to grip the flak jacket.

"You said you recognized one of their voices," Inoichi said calmly, "Did seeing their faces help?"

Kana fought to keep her composure against the building explosion of emotions that threatened to burst forth; she screwed her eyes and nodded. "He… I… I didn't get a clear look, but… Their names were Kabuto Yakushi… And Orochimaru."

The Anbu Commander was just as unreadable as before, but Ibiki visibly bristled and took an aggressive step forward, stopping only because Inoichi held out an open palm to signal for him to stop. "What is he doing near the village? Why would he help you?"

"Ibiki, our job is to acquire information. Not accuse our comrades of treason," the jonin said calmly.

"From what I read in your files, you encountered Orochimaru in the Forest of Death where he placed a curse mark on your body. Have you come across him since?" the commander asked, just as emotionless as before.

The kunoichi began to shake her head, but the memory from the training field flashed across her mind. Her eyes flew open, "Th-there was a moment when I was training with Neji Hyuga. The curse mark activated, and we couldn't figure out why, but I remember seeing Kabuto in the woods -"

"You saw him and did nothing?!"

Kana whipped her head around and glared at Ibiki from behind her mask, "Shut up and let me finish, tokujo!" She had no qualms about using her superior rank against him, even if she did respect the hell out of him as a shinobi for doing what he did for the village. If she had the frame of mind at the time, she would have wondered how it was possible that he and Anko ever managed conversation.

She looked back at her commander, "At the time, Kabuto Yakushi was registered as a Leaf genin-" One that Ibiki had passed in the first round of the chunin exams, might she add, "- and the only reason I knew who he was, was because I was assisting Genma and Hayate with registration. I saw a figure behind him, but I was debilitated by blood loss and the curse mark and couldn't see well even with my Kurogan. I can only assume now that the figure was Orochimaru."

How stupid was she? Of course that incident in the forest wasn't the end of things – not when a madman like Orochimaru was involved. Why did Kana believe that things would be over just like that? What, just wait for the mark to disappear and it would have been just another day?

A hand on her shoulder pulled the girl from her thoughts. "In the memory, Kabuto referred to her as a candidate. It could be that he wants to keep her alive to observe her," she heard Inoichi say, "It's one hell of a coincidence, but it could be that they stumbled across Kana in the forest and didn't want her to die yet."

"Observe her? So he's probably tracking-"

"Ibiki, remember that Kana is still a member of the Anbu Black Ops on top of being an accomplished jonin," the commander cut in, "There's no way two shinobi could constantly track her on her missions without her knowledge."

She didn't bother to mention how she had basically been tracked from her way back home from the Dream Village.

The reminder only seemed to rile the tokubetsu jonin even further, "Then we can only assume that she's a spy for Orochimaru!"

"I could feel how shocked she was when Kana saw his face," Inoichi cut in, frustration layered well beneath his calm appearance, "I can guarantee you that she's just as in the dark as the rest of us. And a hell of a lot more scared."

"You two go report this to the Elders. I want to have a word alone with my subordinate."

The tokubetsu jonin grunted in disapproval, but he left the office with Inoichi without protest.

Forcing her rising panic under control, Kana looked up to meet her commander's gaze through his Anbu mask, "Sir, it's true that Orochimaru marked me," she said coolly through clenched teeth, "I understand that the circumstances may be cause for suspicion, but I think I've more than proven my loyalty to Konoha. Might Guy, Hiashi Hyuga, Kakashi Hatake, and several others would all vouch for me if my service record isn't enough-"

A hand being raised cut her off mid-sentence. "I do not doubt your loyalty to our village and its leaders," he said calmly, "You are correct in believing you have more than proven yourself as an invaluable asset in Anbu. I only want to reassure you that you're not in any trouble and will not be removed from service or punished in any way for the incidents that have transpired. I only wanted to inform you in private that I have decided to promote you to Anbu Captain."

Kana froze. "Sir?"

"Ordering your teammate to leave you in the forest was the right decision. Because he didn't have to carry you and Yuta, Diyo was able to return to the village in time to relay vital intel and seek emergency medical attention. I understand that you have been experiencing some doubt over your teammates' deaths, as recorded in your most recent psychological evaluation, but your ability to take charge of a situation and think critically in a position of leadership, completing the mission successfully, is what we look for when promotions are involved. You would have been promoted much sooner if there were any positions needing filling, but we lost several captains in the last month and don't have enough eligible candidates to fill their spots."

She dropped to her knee and bowed her head, "Thank you, sir. Knowing you place that much faith in my abilities is something I don't take for granted."

The man leaned back in his chair and handed the kunoichi a file as she stood, "Here is your first assignment. Your squad leaves at dawn. Dismissed."