From the Light Comes Darkness

Journey’s End in Sight

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1


“Come on, Hinata!” The pink haired kunoichi said.

“Yes, Hinata, share him!” The blonde chimed.

“No!” The furious Hyuuga heiress snapped.

“They’re at it again.” Neji said to Lee and Tenten. His poor wife was being pestered by the two other kunoichi over what Sakura and Ino determined as ‘mating rights’. Their excuse was that there was no longer any decent males in Konoha for them to marry and they thought that they would try their chances with the only handsome male left to them, that handsome male just so happened to be Neji. Neji was flattered by the attention. Hinata was not.

“If either of you go near my husband in any intimate way, I’ll hunt you down and make you pay.” Hinata left the stunned girls. “I’m not the shy girl that you remember, ladies.” Her eyes met Neji’s before they looked back to Ino and Sakura. “I am also much stronger than you remember, so don’t push it.”

“What do we do now, Ino?”

“We go past Hinata and go directly to the man. Men always like plenty of attention.”

“Sasuke didn’t.”

“I bet he would have if it were Neji paying him that attention though.”

“Ino!”

Hiei chuckled at the girls. “What is it?” Yusuke asked as he plonked down beside Hiei, offering him some food.

“They’ve been pestering the Hyuuga girl again. “I don’t see why though. Hyuuga Neji isn’t really that good looking. Personally I think one of them should be with Nara Shikamaru. I’m sure that I saw him watching the girls, but which one I have no idea. If only that pair could see past looks, they would see the real jewels.”

The two kunoichi’s antics hadn’t slipped past the other ninjas either. In fact they were the talk of the group, although none would say what they were talking about to either of their faces. Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura could become quite terrifying when provoked.

Orochimaru sighed as he went to put a stop to the girls’ cavorting. “Ladies, can’t this wait until we’re back in Konoha? We all have to live with each other until the mission is over, so that means leaving the Hyuugas alone.” He calmly stared at the girls until they stopped glaring at him. “I mean it, if you really want to try fighting, then I’ll leave you both unconscious in the next village for any male to do what he wills with you until we return.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” Ino shouted, Making Orochimaru grin.

“Do you really want to find out?” Orochimaru asked. “If so then I’m very happy to follow through with my threats, girls.” The two kunoichi could see that Orochimaru was serious and they backed down. “Good, now just remember what I said, and the next instance…”

“We won’t do this again.” Sakura said quickly.

“Good.” The Sannin snapped. “We have enough on our plates as it is without the two of you making things worse.” He turned his attention to Fukuro once more. “Have you remembered anything?” He asked. He knew that Fukuro’s memory had been returning slowly as the journey had progressed. All he had left to remember was the last four years and his memory would be complete.

“Orochimaru, I know that you’re impatient, however my brother’s mental health comes first.” Itachi said. “Last time this happened he remembered something that I’m sure that we all would have rather remained forgotten. Slaughtering one’s own family isn’t a pleasant memory.”

“Itachi, if we can’t get to Chimamirehisakata as soon as possible there could be others like your brother. Do you really want another clan to suffer as yours has?” Kurama asked. “Fukuro is the only person that we can rely upon to help us, and if he can’t then what do you suggest we do?”

“I haven’t forgotten about them.” Itachi growled. “I just want this over with as soon as possible so we can get on with our lives.”

“Then please let Orochimaru do what he must. He needs to know everything so we can thwart that group’s plans and so we can move on without looking over our shoulders.” He gave a small reassuring smile. “So Fukuro can know that he is totally free of the group that had him destroy his family. So that we all know that the world is safe and that no others will be injured or killed.”


While Itachi and Kurama were talking, Fukuro was trying hard to remember what events had transpired at that point and after. What had happened after he had killed the Uchiha clan was blurrier than what had happened beforehand. “I can’t remember!” Fukuro shouted angrily. “Why can’t I remember?” He slammed his hands against the desk in front of him. Suddenly he was drawn back into his memory.

FLASHBACK

Fukuro was dragged into the room and dumped at the feet of the woman that he only knew as ‘Mistress’. He had seen her very few times in the past, but when he had it wasn’t pleasant. From where he had landed all he could see was her knee length boots. A toe of the boot nudged his chin, telling him to look up. A pair of amethyst eyes met his, and there was a cruel smirk on her face. “Why did you fail us?” She asked. “We have held you here for seven years and still you refuse to apologise for your failure and finish the job that you were assigned.” She laughed when she saw Fukuro’s eyes narrow. “Had you been repentant more mercy would have been shown. After all this time and leniency shown to you I have been called in to deal with you.”

She picked up the teen with ease and threw him into a chair. “Since I hate being let down, I’ll have to make an example of you I’m afraid.” She sounded too pleased to be truly let down. Then again the other members of Chimamirehisakata often called the Mistress a sadist. The woman reminded Fukuro of Orochimaru, and had gained the title ‘Orochi-hime’ at that instant, and even as she punished him, he found himself almost mistaking her for the Sannin. Her purple eyes mocked his efforts to stop himself from screaming at her to stop.

When she pulled back, Fukuro curled into a ball. “I’m sure that you won’t disappoint me again, will you, Fukuro-kun?” Fukuro shook his head. “Good boy. To prove it, I have a little job for you. One of our associates has gone missing ands I want you to find and eliminate him. I then want you to take over his position in the organisation that he leads. Since you have been taught the error of your ways, I’m sure that I can trust you a little more. However, this is a delicate mission, and I need to make sure that certain information is kept quiet. I don’t want everyone knowing out business, so I’m going to make sure that what has happened to you while you were here remains locked away. I trust that you’re not going to fight me, are you?” Fukuro shook his head.

The next thing that he remembered was sitting up. “I don’t want to hear anything from you until you have secured Akatsuki for us.” She handed Fukuro a scroll. “This is where the main group can be located. We don’t normally accept traitors back among us so easily, however in this instance you have the chance to partially redeem yourself. I’ve heard that Uchiha Itachi is a member of the group. Get rid of him and consider yourself pardoned.”

“Y… yes mistress.” Fukuro stammered. Even with the Mangekyo Sharingan he had been helpless. It was obvious in the way that she had never made eye contact that she knew of his abilities, that she knew of the weakness of the Sharingan. Either she had been told, or she had previous experience. The latter was a thought that didn’t bode well. “I’ll do as you say, Mistress.” Could he actually turn against his brother? His eyes moved to the scroll in his hand. “May I open it, Mistress?” She nodded and Fukuro opened the scroll, seeing two words on the scroll. One was the name of a village, and the other was, what he guessed, a password. The name of the village made his eyes widen. Even he knew where this place was. “This is…!”

“Yes, that’s right.” The woman said with a smirk. “Right under the nose of one of the most powerful ninjas in the world.”

END FLASHBACK

“What?” Orochimaru asked, now knowing the signs that Fukuro had remembered something.

“We’ve been moving away from where we wanted to go.” Fukuro said. “Do you know a village named Kubota?”

“Yes. It’s a village close to Otogakure… Wait a moment, you mean that’s where they are?” Orochimaru said, shocked that a group could lie so silently under his nose and be so dangerous to his… health.


The group hurried back to the Land of Sound, formerly the Land of Rice Fields to the village. However when they arrived at the village, they saw the entire population had been slaughtered. Many had been ripped apart and others had been crushed by giant snakes. They hadn’t been long dead either. Some of the bodies were still warm. “Who could have done something like this?” Hinata cried, when she suddenly heard a baby cry, and ran towards a house. Nestled in a cradle was a small baby, a small baby with white eyes. Her baby. On the floor beside the cradle was the woman that they had met in the village, the woman that almost had her baby stolen. “Inabikari Suiren? Hinata said, noticing that the woman was still breathing, she realised what had occurred in the village. “You stole my baby!” She shouted, but just before she could kill the woman, Neji stopped her. “She took our little girl!”

“We have her back, and she is already dying for her crimes.” Neji said as he lifted Kikyo up. “We need to go home to take our little girl back where she belongs.” Neji placed their daughter into Hinata’s arms. “Come on love, let’s bring our daughter out of this nightmare.”

Orochimaru knew that snakes had been used, but for snakes of such power… ‘Let me take over.’ He heard Mamushi say in his mind, and he allowed the snake out enough that he could see the area. A small movement caught Mamushi’s attention, and before the thing could move, Mamushi had it pinned. The ‘thing’ turned out to be a black snake. On closer inspection, it was a black python. “Who sent you and your kin here?”

“You must be Mamushi.” The snake hissed. “My mistress commends you on your speed, even if she is still able to move faster than you. Did you think that it would be so easy to defeat my mistress?” Mamushi tightened his grip on the snake. “Run away, viper, the python has returned.” A moment later and Mamushi crushed the snake in his anger.

“Seiryoku!” He shouted, getting the Kyuubi’s attention. “We have a major problem. It seems as though Uwabame has decided to return after we defeated her and her kind all those centuries ago.”

Seiryoku, having taken over Naruto’s body, approached Mamushi. “If she is ‘awake’ then that means that Shitabininaru isn’t far behind.”

“Shitabininaru? Uwabame? What are you talking about?” Kurama asked, approaching the pair.

“I’ll tell you later.” Mamushi said. “For now, we need to get out of here and devise a strategy to use. We don’t know where or when they’ll strike, however the will do so in the near future. Uwabame has already shown her ruthless face, and Shitabininaru won’t be far away either. We really need to return to Konoha, the seat of the Seiryoku’s power, before we can do more.”