"That's my story..." Hanako sighed after she finished telling Itachi the real truth.

"So, I knew that Madara was your great grandfather, but was he the one who trained you for the Chunin Exams...?" Itachi looked at her with confused eyes.

"Yes..." Hanako pursed her lips, looking away from the Uchiha male. "I'm sorry, I lied to you, every single day. You were always asking if something happened, if I was hiding something, and I always lied to you saying that everything was fine and that I was okay."

"Don't forget the fact that you also had the Mangekyou and didn't say anything..." Hanako sighed.

"About that... Shisui had told me that I should keep it a secret, that's why I didn't tell you."

"And still you told the Police Force..." Itachi raised an eyebrow at her, making Hanako look at the ground with a regretful face.

"Sorry about that... I just wanted them to trust that I could help them protect the clan... but I just ended up guiding them to misfortune, didn't I?" Itachi's gaze on her softened upon seeing Hanako retracting herself into a submissive position.

"The past is past, there's nothing we can do to change it." Itachi sighed. He wrapped his arm around her waist and brought her closer to him. "It's all right now."

Hanako looked at Itachi with widened eyes. "Oi! What do you think you're doing, Hanako!" The girl flinched at Hayabusa's screech and looked behind her shoulder to see the bird flapping his wings so hard that the air around them felt like knives. Itachi covered Hanako protectively as he glared at the bird. "I thought you would be meeting Kisame? Who's this guy?"

Hanako looked at Hayabusa with her Sharingan activated. "Maybe I would tell you if you stopped flapping your wings so hard!" Hanako spoke loudly at him, making him land right over her shoulder as he pinched Itachi's arm so hard that the Uchiha had to pull away.

"I see, you must be Hayabusa" Itachi commented while holding his injured arm. "You're not so friendly I guess..."

"Itachi! Watch your mouth!" Hanako widened her eyes at his comment before looking at her falcon with worry. Hayabusa only scoffed.

"So, you're the famous Itachi, huh?" The bird leaned closer to the man. "Listen carefully, if you even dare to hurt Hanako only once more, I will rip you into threads and feed your meat to newborns in my nest. Do we have an agreement?"

Hanako gulped as she looked at the Uchiha. Itachi only smirked. "I have no intentions of hurting Hanako," he said. "Why would I harm someone I care about?"

"Why would I believe that? Coming from the man who murdered his entire clan in cold blood," Hayabusa retorted.

"Hayabusa!" Hanako looked at him with a frown. Itachi's smirk disappeared from his face as he looked away. "He didn't mean that..." Hanako looked at Itachi, noticing his gloomy look.

"It's okay, I'm not affected by that anymore." Itachi jumped off from the boulder. "You should go back to the village before they notice you're gone. I suppose you're under ANBU's watch."

"More like Kakashi's watch." Hayabusa looked at the Uchiha male with intent eyes. "Kakashi will take care of her from now on, you can go back. We don't need you."

Itachi took a deep breath before he turned away from them. "Wait!" Hanako also jumped off from the boulder, forcing Hayabusa to rise up and maintain himself in the air beside her by constantly flapping his wings. "When will I see you again?"

Itachi only smiled at her before he disappeared into a bunch of crows that scattered around. He didn't say anything, perhaps he wasn't thinking about coming back in a while? Hanako felt her heart falling into her stomach and she trembled slightly. She could already feel tears running down her cheeks. Unconsciously, she lifted up her hand to caress her lips. Her own lips that had connected to his a few moments ago. "Why...?" Hanako shook her head. "Why did I kiss him? I'm such an idiot..." She covered her mouth.

"Hm? Why are you crying?" Hayabusa asked as he looked at his owner.

"Because I thought I had moved on... but... even after a second of being in the same place as him, I could already feel my insides burning, goosebumps in all of my body, my face hot and that immense urge of kissing him..." Hanako took a deep breath. "His lips are so sweet, soft and adictive..." Hanako looked at the falcon. "I want to kiss him again, already."

Hayabusa sweatdropped as he looked at her. "Say that to one of your girlfriends, okay? I really don't know anything about kissing or lover problems, ya'know?" Hanako looked down as she took a deep breath. "Stop wasting your time babbling nonsense! Let's go!" Hayabusa flapped his wings, rising high in the air as he flew back to the village. Hanako looked once more to where Itachi had disappeared and shook her head.

* * *

Itachi reached the closest hideout while still holding his injured arm. He clicked his tongue and let his arm go to check his hand. It was covered in blood.

"How did it go?" Kisame stood at the entrance once he noticed that his partner was near. The smirk on his lips disappeared when he saw the blood on Itachi's arm. "Are you hurt?"

"Hayabusa isn't very friendly, you should have warned me about that..." Itachi muttered, walking past him into the base.

Kisame scoffed. "Well, I didn't know. He never attacked me." Itachi glared at him.

"You think this is funny?"

"Well, it is..." Kisame smirked, watching his partner take off his cloak to analyze the wound in his arm.

Itachi had huge gash in his bicep. "I think I'm going to need stitches..." he muttered lowly as he reached for the first-aid kit he had hidden in the base in case of an emergency.

Kisame observed him taking care of his wound. "Kakuzu is there, in case you want some help."

"I'm fine, thanks." The Uchiha took a needle out of the kit and some thread, and started stitching himself. Kisame sighed. "Who else is in the base?"

"Everyone," the tall blue-skinned member scoffed. "It's been awhile since we were all together, of course the only ones missing are Leader-sama and Konan-sama."

Itachi cut the thread with his teeth after he finished doing his stitches and looked at Kisame. "What a coincidence, don't you think?"

"What do you mean?" Kisame frowned but Itachi didn't say anything. He finished cleaning the wound as he observed the members entering the room they were in.

"Oh? I never saw you getting injured, it looks like miracles really do exist," Hidan commented as he looked at the Uchiha with a mocking grin.

"Shut up, Hidan. Coming from someone who injures himself all the time, it isn't funny." Kakuzu glared at his partner. Itachi noticed that he was holding a bunch of scrolls in his arms. It was probably a bunch of missions they had to do.

"Fine," Hidan rolled his eyes. "You really don't have the slightest sense of humor, do you?"

"New members tend to be cocky and arrogant. They don't know their place until they end up dead," Sasori said, resting inside his puppet Hiruko, a round defensive puppet made out of wood and iron, resistant to most attacks. When he spoke, his voice became aggravated as it forced its way out.

"Oh?" Hidan looked at the puppeteer with a mocking grin. "You're fucking joking, right?" Hidan looked back at his partner. "See? Even Pinocchio has a sense of humor."

"Say that again and I will stick a poisoned knife in your throat," Sasori warned.

Hidan shook his head as he clicked his tongue. "I already drugged myself once with your stupid poison, Sasori. Those were some sweet 3 days of pleasurable ecstasies I have to admit, until I had to poop it out of my system." He chuckled. "I'm looking forward to the repeat, though. Maybe you can mix it with some of your blood so we can have our fun together." Hidan smirked with wink.

"Shut up before you get yourself killed, Hidan." Kakazu looked at the rest of the members. "We have three options of missions. Money. War. Terrorism. Which one do you want?"

"Kisame and I will take the money," Itachi hurried to say, earning a pat on his shoulder coming from Hidan.

"Hey, you truly can be nice when you want to be, right Mad Eyes? We'll take war then, Kakuzu!"

"No, your abilities are the least useful to fight in a war. We'll leave that to Sasori and Deidara. We are going with terrorism." Kakuzu looked intently at Itachi. "If you're going to collect the money, make sure to count it at least twice, I won't tolerate any mistakes. Let's go, Hidan."

Kakuzu turned around and walked towards the exit of the base. "Why do you always make the fucking important decisions?!" Hidan nagged.

"Because you don't have any brains for it."

* * *

"Hello," Kakashi finally appeared to meet his team at the bridge, late as always.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura and Naruto snapped at him.

Kakashi chuckled. "Well," he scratched the back of his neck, "a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way today..."

"LIAR!"

"Shut up, both of you," Sasuke said with a tired sigh. "Kakashi, where's Hanako?"

Kakashi rolled his eyes at his cockiness. "She's not coming today-"

"NO!" Naruto looked at the Jonin with widened eyes. "If she's not here then it means..." He covered his eyes and shook his head furiously before looking at his sensei with worry. "Another D-rank mission?!"

Sakura sighed before looking at the blond with a raised eyebrow. Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest and let out a scoff. "No, there's no mission today," Kakashi said, calling the attention of the three Genin.

"Huh?"

"I actually called you here to give you this," the Jonin started saying as he looked in his pouch for some documents. "Here, I nominated you guys for the Chunin Exams."

Naruto's eyes glistened as he grinned excitedly. "Kakashi-sensei!" The Jonin looked at him strangely. Naruto jumped at him and hugged him tightly.

"Oi!" Kakashi's eyes widened in surprise.

"Arigatou, Kakashi-sensei!" The blonde yelled again. Sasuke smirked when he received his form while Naruto skipped away holding his. Sakura looked at it, but-unlike the others-she didn't seem as excited.

"Will I..." she thought. "Will I be able to keep up with them?" She looked at her teammates. They were both reading the form; Naruto, over and over again while grinning stupidly. He would also look at the raven haired boy once in a while with a glare as if saying "I will kick your ass."

"You guys are free to choose if you want to do it or not," Kakashi said with a soft smile as he appeared behind the pinkette and placed a hand over her shoulder. "So, think about it and don't stress yourselves."

"I'm definitely doing it!" Naruto yelled as he started walking around in circles.

"Me too." Sasuke looked at his sensei with a smirk. Sakura was the only one who didn't say anything and only smiled.

Kakashi looked at each of the three and sighed. "Well, if you decide to do it eventually, just go to room 301 in the Academy six days from today." The three of them nodded once and Kakashi waved at them. "That's it, you're free for the rest of the week. Think about the exam and don't stop training, these are not vacations." And with that, Kakashi disappeared in a poof.

* * *

Hanako sat over a branch of a tree in the training grounds, reading her book about the Akatsuki members very thoroughly. She bit her lip when she got to Itachi's page. It had been three days since she saw him. Hanako shook her head and closed the book before leaning against the bark. She looked at the sky, watching the clouds move through the leaves of trees.

"I finally found you," she heard Kakashi say and looked up to find him on the branch above hers.

"Can't you get a little less creepy?" Hanako raised an eyebrow at him. Kakashi appeared on her branch, right in front of her. The Uchiha followed his movements cautiously, with narrowed eyes.

"We have a mission." The Jonin handed her a scroll and she looked at it briefly.

"A-rank?" she asked. "But I thought we were a Genin team."

"The kids have to prepare themselves for the Chunin Exams, I nominated them in the last meeting."

Hanako looked at him with wide eyes. "There was a meeting?!"

"I told the Hokage you couldn't assist but that I would update you about it. Don't worry," Hanako threw the scroll at him, hitting him on his head. Kakashi only sighed and looked at her.

"Why didn't you tell me? I would've gone!" she snapped.

"It was boring anyway-"

"I would've gone anyway!" Hanako repeated. "It was our responsibility!" Kakashi sighed, rolling his eyes while Hanako clicked her tongue. "You men are all the same," she muttered lowly. "Always wanting to do things by yourselves without asking if we can help..."

Kakashi just ignored her babbling. "Where's the scroll?"

"It probably fell to the ground after I hit you with it." Hanako shrugged. Kakashi looked at her for a second before he jumped off the branch and picked the scroll from the ground.

"Come down here so that we can discuss the details."

"No," Hanako closed her eyes and relaxed against the tree. "If you can go alone to the meeting then I guess you can deal alone with that mission..."

"Come down before I make you," Kakashi warned in a dark tone.

But the Uchiha just scoffed. "I'd like to see you try-" she traded off as she opened her eyes widely. Kakashi had tied a wire into her ankle and was pulling it down, dragging her to the edge of the branch. "When did you-?!" she never finished asking when she fell off the branch and into Kakashi's arms.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," he mocked. Hanako knew that he was hiding an arrogant smirk under his mask.

"Let go of me, you dickhead!"

"Fine." Kakashi literally just let go of her, raising his hands over his shoulders. Hanako fell on the ground, hitting her butt in a loud thud. The Uchiha took a deep breath before looking up at the Jonin with deadly menacing eyes. She shook her head and reached her ankle to untie the wire and stood up, dusting the back part of her skirt.

"Thanks, these were clean clothes."

"Just wash them," Kakashi shrugged. Hanako looked at him with a glare.

"Do you have any idea how much it takes for me to do the laundry? Everything has to be clean and perfect! No stains or creases!" Kakashi looked at her seriously.

"That's your choice," he said as he placed his hand on her shoulders and turned her around. "It seems to me that the dirt will go off if you dust it properly," he said as he started to dust her skirt.

Hanako slapped his hand away and backed away a few steps, trying to hide her red face. "What do you think you're doing?!" she inquired in a high-pitched nervous voice. "You don't dust a lady's...lower back area..."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at her as he crossed his arms over his chest. "You're the one nagging you're dirty, are you not?"

"Are you speaking in a double sense?!" Hanako glared at him.

Kakashi chuckled slightly at her face. "No, never..." he muttered, looking away.

"Kakashi!" Hanako snapped. "You should stop reading those books, you know?" she huffed. "You're such a pervert, I'm starting to lose my respect for you."

Kakashi sweatdropped and looked at the Uchiha with pitiful eyes. "Is that so?"

"Yes!" Hanako closed her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Anyway, what's the mission about?"

Kakashi shook his head and opened the scroll. "We just have to take out some bandits that have been circling the Daimyo's mansion," Kakashi said.

"Sounds easy, why is this A-rank?" Hanako asked as she looked at the Jonin.

"The bandits are said to be Kusagakure rogue-nin. A team of Jonin and Chunin Shinobi." Hanako nodded with a sigh. "Try getting out information from them before killing."

"Hai, will do." Hanako stretched her muscles. "So, who else is coming with us?"

"No one." Hanako jumped and looked at Kakashi.

"No one?"

"Nope."

"So, it's just the two of us?"

"Mmhm..."

Hanako frowned. "Just...us?"

Kakashi looked at her. "If you don't want to come-" he started saying but was suddenly interrupted by the Uchiha.

"No! It's fine! I'll come..." she chuckled nervously. "But, I want to make a deal..."

"A deal?" Hanako nodded.

"If we finish the mission in less than two days, you have to take me to the exact spot where you found Kaito-sensei's body." Kakashi stared at her seriously. "So, what do you say?"

"Two days?"

"It's just some bandits, I'm sure we can take care of them in just ten minutes." The Uchiha shrugged.

"Don't underestimate your enemy," Kakashi slapped the back of her head. "But, your deal sounds interesting. If we finish our mission-as you say-in 48 hours, I'm taking you to the exact location I found your teacher's body. Which I suppose, you're interested in the symbol I found. You are going to use Essence on it to find the killer, aren't you?" Hanako just looked at him seriously. "However, if we complete the mission in 48 hours and 1 second...even if it's just a second later, not only I'm not taking you anywhere near that location; but you'll also have to take your brothers under your custody and stay in the Leaf Village for as long as you're a Shinobi." Hanako smirked.

"So, you know about them?"

"The Third might have mentioned them at some point. Uchiha Ryusuke and Uchiha Hayato, right?" Hanako's smirk was wiped from her lips. "The Uchiha Twins?" Hanako sighed and looked away, she was starting to feel her eyes burning.

"48 hours. The timer doesn't start until we both place one foot outside the gates," she said, looking at the ground.

"I'll meet you at the gates in an hour." Kakashi turned her back to her.

"Make it one hour, Kakashi, not four. Please, don't be late. I'm sure the Memorial Stone will be there when we come back," The Jonin looked at her from over his shoulder.

"I'll do my best." With that, he disappeared.

Hanako let out an exasperated sigh and punched the tree behind her, cracking the wood until the tree made a loud noise. She then fell to her knees, gritting her teeth. "Jeez...Why does he have to be so...UGH!" At that moment she seemed to remember something. She looked around herself. "Where's my book?" she asked herself desperately. She circled the tree, nothing. She returned to the branch, it wasn't there. Hanako covered her mouth when realization hit her. "You've got to be kidding me!"

* * *

Kakashi got to his home and sat on his bed as he looked at the cover of the book. It was simple, just a plain gray cover, no drawing or titles or anything. Hanako seemed to be looking at its contents too much with a serious analytical face. He was dying of curiosity too see what was written in there, but he was also debating with his morals.

"Maybe just a little peek..." he uttered to himself as he was about to open the book but immediately stopped himself. "No... It may be something personal of Hanako... if she discovers I read this..." Kakashi sweatdropped, imagining all the possibilities Hanako could have to take her revenge on him. "No," Kakashi shook his head and left the book over his desk right next to Hanako's pendant. "I also have to return this." He touched the tomoe with his finger and sighed. "Well, I have to get ready for the mission. This time I can't be late."

* * *

Hanako walked across the streets in a fast pace, heading to her home. She wasn't paying attention to her surroundings, she was only focused in hoping Kakashi wouldn't read the book. What if he asked where did she get it from? What would she say to him?

Hanako suddenly bumped against someone and fell backwards. She sat up, sobbing her forehead as she looked forward to find Asuma and Kurenai looking down at her with widened eyes.

"Oh..." Hanako hurried to stand up and bow apologetically. "Sorry! Asuma-san, Kurenai-san!" Hanako straightened up and smiled sheepishly. "I'll pay more attention to my surroundings." With that said, she just continued past them. The two Jonin looked back at her and chuckled slightly while shaking their heads.

Hanako reached her home and prepared her stuff in just 10 minutes, Hayabusa looked at her worriedly as she moved from side to side inside the house just muttering stuff under her breath.

"Are you still sane?" The falcon asked from the window sill.

"No, I think I finally lost it..." Hanako sighed before letting herself fall over the couch.

Hayabusa chuckled. "About time you reached the last stage of insanity, acceptance." Hanako glared at him.

"Aren't those the five stages of grief?" she asked while raising an eyebrow.

"They apply to almost everything," commented the falcon.

"It's not the time to make fun of me, Hayabusa!" Hanako covered her face with a cushion.

"What are you so worried about? Did Orochimaru stalk you again?"

"Worse," Hanako pushed the cushion away and looked at Hayabusa with regretful eyes. "Kakashi has the book about the Akatsuki."

Hayabusa burst out laughing.

"It's not funny, shouldn't you be freaking out?!" Hanako yelled at him. Hayabusa just continued to laugh, he couldn't even fly properly. He would end up falling to the ground and rolling around. Hanako rolled her eyes, inflating her cheeks.

"You're actually worried about that?" Hayabusa asked when his laughter died down, 5 minutes later. "What's the worst that could happen? He asks you where you got it from?" Hanako looked away. "You'll live, in the best of cases he won't even look at it," he chuckled. "Don't worry."

"I'm going to the gates... I have a mission." Hanako muttered lowly, feeling embarrassed as she picked up her bag and walked slowly to her front door. When she opened it, her eyes widened upon finding Sasuke standing at the other side.

"Are you busy?" he asked.

"I have a few minutes, why?" Hanako frowned.

"We need to talk."