~~~~~

Kana nearly had a heart attack when she was woken up by a voice that she barely recognized. Old, grouchy, gravely, and worn. Two red eyes with blueish green pupils stared back at her, his face almost completely covered in a mask.

"Get up kid," He grumbled. "We got things to do."

Kana rubbed at her eyes, sitting up out of bed and pouting.

"It's Kana! Not kid!" She exclaimed.

"Why does being called a kid bother you so damn much?" He huffed.

"Because name means a lot to me!" Kana pouted, sticking out her tongue. "Old man!"

"Old man?" He wondered aloud.

"If you can call me kid, I can call you old man!" She smirked.

"Whatever, just hurry up and get ready." Kakazu mumbled.

He abruptly left the room, shutting the door behind him. Kana stuck out her tongue one more time before standing up, stretching her joints. She quickly got ready for the day, wearing her training clothes instead of her mission gear; she wore a red t-shirt and black sweatpants. She combed through her hair quickly and tied it up, then hurrying out of her room. Kakazu didn't even glance at her before he began walking off, his cloak swaying after him. Unlike Pein, he said nothing, simply expecting Kana to follow. She quickly hurried after him, stopping only when they reached the training room.

"Where's Sasori?" Kana asked, looking around the room.

"He isn't coming, although two other people are." Kakazu replied. "You already have mastered what Sasori is in charge of teaching you, now we can branch off into different areas."

"What areas?" Kana inquired, tilting her head.

Kakazu massaged his face, sighing into his mask.

"There are the basic three, taijutsu, genjutsu and ninjutsu," Kakazu explained. "However, there is much more, like kenjutsu and fuinjutsu for example."

"So what am I starting with?" She asked.

"Taijutsu and ninjutsu," Kakazu replied.

"Taijutsu is like physically fighting, right?" Kana asked.

"That's right, and ninjutsu is using elemental attacks," Kakazu said. "Attacks using fire, water, earth, lightning and wind."

The door creaked open slowly, and out stepped two people; Itachi and Deidara.

"Did you miss me, un!" Deidara exclaimed.

Itachi just nodded, following the hyperactive blonde into the room.

"Are you guys here to help me with my training?" Kana asked.

"That's right," Itachi nodded, eye narrowing. "And you start now, give me twenty laps around this room."

Kana paused, blinking once in confusion before she began running. Deidara ran after her, grinning after he caught up in seconds.

"Come on Kana!" He cheered. "You can do it!"

Kakazu rolled his eyes. He was a good cheerleader, but an awful teacher.

~~~~~

"Get up," Itachi sighed. "You aren't done yet."

Kana huffed, her chest rising and falling in a ragged pattern. She laid sprawled out on the ground, sweat making stray pieces of hair stick to her face.

"Never would've pegged Itachi as a slave driver!" Deidara giggled.

"I just want her to get stronger." Itachi replied, his thoughts drifting to another person entirely.

"And I didn't want to be roped into babysitting." Kakazu huffed.

"Aw, it's not that bad.." Deidara replied. "Kana's the sweetest little thing!"

"This is an organization of S-rank criminals that will bring peace?" Kakazu sighed.

"We will do it!" Kana exclaimed. "I don't know much about how this world works yet, but I do know that peace is something that I want to help achieve! If there was peace, would any of you left your villages?"

Kakazu went silent for a moment, then chuckling.

"Well, you're not wrong kid," He chuckled, staring down at her. "Peace does sound pretty good."

"I'm going to make sure it happens, old man!" Kana grinned.

Itachi and Deidara smiled, knowing that just like that, Kana had made Kakazu like her.

~~~~~

The next day during training, only Kakazu came, explaining that he had a lot to go over. Her taijutsu training was going well, so far only focusing on her form, stamina, speed, and strength. 

"Have you been taught about hand signs yet?" Kakazu asked.

Kana shook her head no, attentively listening to his words.

"Then let's start by drilling hand signs into your head," Kakazu sighed. "Do and say exactly what I do."

"Tiger."

Kana watched his fingers, interlocking all her fingers but her thumb and pointer finger, pointing them upwards. "Tiger."

"Hare."

Her left hand copied his, pointing to the right, with her other hands pinky going over her thumb. "Hare."

This continued for five minutes until he had shown her all the signs; bird, boar, dog, dragon, hare, horse, monkey, ox, ram, rat, serpent and tiger. He then instructed her to memorize and practice them.

"And promise me that you'll go ask somebody for help if you forget one." Kakazu sighed.

"I promise!" Kana nodded.

"Good, on to the next order of business then," Kakazu grumbled, reaching into his cloak and pulling out a small stack of what looked to be sticky notes. "Chakra nature."

"That'll tell me what element I can use, right?" Kana asked eagerly.

"That's right," He replied, handing her one of the little white sheets of paper. "Now hold this and channel your chakra through it."

Kana did as told holding the paper between her fingers, she channelled her chakra through the paper as Kakazu reeled back in shock. What happened to the paper happened almost too fast for her to describe. The paper crinkled, was soaked, tore in two, burned into ashes and finally, crumbled to nothing.

"What did I get?" Kana asked.

"Well, lightning crinkles the paper, water soaks it, wind makes it tear, fire burns it, and earth makes the paper crumble." Kakazu replied, placing a piece of paper between his fingers. "I've only seen a reaction like that once before."

The paper between Kakazu's finger had the same reaction, crumbling to nothing but dirt. Kana just looked at him in confusion.

"Kana, you and I are the same," Kakazu smirked. "We can use all of the chakra natures."

~~~~~

As the sun set and the day came to an end, the Akatsuki prepared to go to sleep, all except Konan and Pein. 

"Are you seriously going to go out and do this?" Konan asked.

"I have to Konan, that and I have a plan." Pein replied, shoving some extra kunai into his weapon pouch.

"What plan?" Konan asked, her eyes widening. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Mostly because I didn't know how to tell you." Pein sighed, pulling his headband on tighter.

"Just tell me." Konan huffed, crossing her arms.

"I plan on taking over Amegakure, then handing it over to Kana when she is ready." 

"Are you crazy?" Konan asked.

"I believe she will do a good job." Pein explained.

"Have you told... Him?" She whispered.

"Yes, and while he doesn't like it, frankly I don't care." Pein scoffed. "I want what's best for this world, and right now, I believe it's Kana."

"Fine, but at least let me come with you." Konan bargained, placing a hand on her hip.

"No, Konan, stay here, I still need you to make sure everyone is ready to go for tomorrows mission," Pein ordered. "Especially Kana."

"But Nagato-!"

"Konan!" He cut her off. "I'm leaving."

And with that, he was gone, on his way to Amegakure to kill a certain man. While his friend's death was Hanzo's fault, it was also the fault of another man, one who wasn't even involved in Ame's affairs. But Pein pushed on, running through the night, knowing he wouldn't be sleeping tonight.

A/N

I hope you all know who's joining next! Look out bitches!