Rubbing her finger along her mug, Kana awkwardly sat across from Naruto, thinking of how to bring up the topic of leaving Konoha.

Naruto slurped his iced coffee, smiling cheerfully, completely oblivious to Kana's internal struggle. He glanced up at Kana, watching as her eyebrows bunched together and her shoulders hunched forward.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Naruto asked curiously.

Kana sighed, bringing her eyes up to meet his gaze.

"Naruto, how have you adjusted?" She asked, slowly taking a sip of her drink.

"I've been doing fine since you helped me out," Naruto replied. "Thanks for that by the way."

"It's no problem," Kana brushed his thanks off. "But have you talked to your friends or teammates lately?"

"Well... No." Naruto paused. "I haven't seen Sakura in about a week and Sasuke is out of the village. I've been busy training and haven't had time to talk to my friends."

"You know that's a lie, Naruto," Kana said, making the boy flinch. "You've had free time, but you haven't reached out to them, why? Is it because you're scared of how they'll see you? Scared that they'll hate you once they know that you eat hu-"

"STOP IT!" He roared, everyone in the small coffee shop turning to look at him.

"Why? Is it because I'm right?" Kana pushed, watching as anger boiled to the surface.

"What do you want?" He seethed, glaring at her, his eye flashing between blue, black and red.

"I want to offer you a chance to come home with me, to Amegakure." She replied, calmly sipping her drink.

"Why would I? This is my home." Naruto growled.

"No one here understands you, understands us, Amegakure has people just like you and me, it is a place everyone and anyone can call home." She explained, a fond look on her face.

"I can't just abandon my village!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I never said that you would abandon your village, you would just transfer villages, and of course you would be allowed to visit Konohagakure." Kana further explained.

"I can't do-"

"Don't decide now," Kana interrupted. "You have until the tournament to decide."

Kana placed down a handful of money and stood up.

"I'll see you around Naruto, think about what I said." She said.

As the door shut behind her, Naruto's glass shattered in his hand, not leaving a single scratch on his skin.

~~~~~

"That was a bit harsh."

Kana turned to Kaneki with a questioning look.

"Was it?" She asked.

"You implied that his friends don't understand him." Kaneki replied with a bored shrug.

"You were listening in?" Kana asked, more interested than angry.

"Well, I just so happened to be nearby." He shrugged.

Kana rolled her eyes. "I was simply doing my job."

"Your job?" He asked.

"It was an order from Pein-sama, I must have him join us." She replied.

"You do whatever they tell you to?" Kaneki asked.

"Well of course, they are my family." Kana aggressively answered.

"Just make sure that you look out for you first," Kaneki said. "Family comes second.

Kana gave him a puzzled stare.

~~~~~

"What was your family like Shin?"

Everything around her was silent, but Shin replied in her head.

'It was alright I guess.' He replied.

"Did you have a mom and a dad? Or any siblings?" She asked.

'It was just me, my mom, and my dad.' Shin sighed. 'Although as I got older we didn't get along.'

"How come?" Kana asked.

'I was always hungry, and we were always on the run.' He replied. 'They never said that they hated me, but I could see it in their eyes when they looked at me.'

"Is my family good?" Kana asked.

'Tough question... I suppose they are good to you.' He answered.

Kana nodded. Staring up into the darkening sky.

~~~~~

A snapping noise echoed around the apartment as Naruto broke a finger off of a hand and yanked it free. He brought the finger to his mouth" tearing off the flesh as easy as someone eating chicken.

He tossed the small bones into the trash and sighed, wiping a droplet of blood away from his mouth.

Glancing at the clock he noticed that it was still early afternoon, so he decided to go look for his sensei to get some more training done.

He double-checked that he had all his ninja tools on him before heading out, locking the door behind him. As he walked through the streets he found himself holding his breath whenever he passed a restaurant or food stand, the smell making his stomach churn.

Kana's words rang through his mind.

"No one here understands you, understands us."

He scowled, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets as he trudged along. His button nose twitched, trying to get used to the feeling of sifting through different scents. He tried to lock onto the scent of his sensei, but there were too many people, animals, and different foods around for him to accurately separate them all.

Distracted from trying to track his perverted teacher, he didn't notice when two of his friends crept up behind him.

"What are you doing?" A lazy voice drawled.

Naruto jumped, whirling around to face Shikamaru and Kiba (Akamaru was on Kiba's head).

"Oh, hey guys," Naruto greeted, smiling. "What's up?"

"Well we were heading to the hospital to go see Lee," Kiba grinned. "You wanna come?"

"Sure!" Naruto chirped.

Akamaru yipped on Kiba's head, making Kiba's brows scrunch up in confusion.

"Are you sure?" He asked his companion.

Akamaru barked twice in response, making Kiba's eyes dart to Naruto's shirt collar. There was nothing unusual about it, except for a single drop of blood that was barely visible. 

"Don't jump to conclusions." Kiba scolded his dog.

Akamaru growled, barking again, making Kiba's eyes widened. He sniffed the air, confirming what his pet had told him. The blood on his collar wasn't his, it had a completely different scent from him. 

"You finished arguing with your dog?" Shikamaru asked, pretending to be uninterested when he was actually concerned about their 'argument.' 

"Yeah, Akamaru was confused about something, we're all good." Kiba reassured him, giving Shikamaru an underlying look.

Shikamaru nodded, his eyes narrowed.

"Are we going to go see Lee, or what?" Naruto asked, sick of waiting around.

"Yeah, let's get going before visiting hours are over," Shikamaru sighed. "And while we're there we can visit Choji."

"Choji?" Naruto asked.

"What a drag..." Shikamaru sighed. "I hate having to explain things..."

"He got a stomachache." Kiba explained for his lazy friend.

 "This is Choji we're talking about, right?" Naruto asked in disbelief. "I didn't think it was possible for him to get a stomachache!"

"He's only human Naruto, this sort of thing can happen to anybody." Shikamaru shrugged.

Naruto flinched.

Only human.

'Not anymore...' He thought.

A/N

Sorry if these chapters seem boring. There is a lot of dialogue, but I promise this all is important! The characters are all going through their own internal struggles, and I'm trying to focus on all the changes I'm making to the storyline. So far, I'm sure most of you have figured out that I'm focusing on Naruto, Kana, and Sakura quite a bit, and for good reason. I will get to the Chunin Exams soon, but I have to get through all of this first!

Hope you liked the chapter!