Caught in the Darkness

EPILOGUE: The Eternal Light

Kakashi had been summoned to Tsunade's office. He entered the room with a sullen face. The blonde looked up at him when she heard the door cringe open, but she wasn't at all expecting him that way. "I take it the mission to retrieve Sasuke was a failure?" she asked bluntly.

Kakashi sighed, but he didn't say anything in reply. The Hokage stood up, Shizune —her assistant— looked at her worriedly, but remained silent. "Sasuke is gone, huh?"

"I took Naruto to the hospital," Kakashi finally said. He looked up at the Fifth with narrowed eyes. "You shouldn't have sent Genin to bring him back. They almost died out there."

Tsunade looked down grimly. She knew Kakashi was right, but there was nothing she could have done about it. All Jounin were busy attending other missions, and only those Genin were available. Even if she had tried to stop them, she knew they would have gone out looking for their friend either way. "I take full responsibility for my actions as a Hokage," Tsunade said. "But there was nothing else that could have been done. Sasuke left on his own accord, and I couldn't risk any more capable Shinobi for a traitor who even if brought back would only leave again."

Kakashi, deep down, knew Tsunade was right; but even then, he couldn't seem to accept that fact. He couldn't admit to himself that things haven't changed, and he failed himself once again.

"What's with the all the gloom in here?" Jiraiya asked, sitting from the window sill with his legs hanging inside Tsunade's office. The blonde looked at him and sighed.

"You should know."

Jiraiya knew. "Don't worry about Sasuke. He will be all right," he muttered. "Hanako has sent Hayabusa to watch out for him." They all looked at the Sannin with wide eyes. Jiraiya only looked forward, his eyes lost. "Orochimaru already performed his jutsu on somebody else, so Sasuke will be fine for another three years."

They all sighed in relief. What Jiraiya said seemed to calm everyone's nerves for a moment. Orochimaru's immortality jutsu required of a new vessel every three years, and they feared he had used Sasuke. But know they knew he didn't, so Sasuke was safe; but still in the enemy's lair. "Willingly," Jiraiya snapped. "He left willingly," he repeated. "He either didn't know where he was going, or he did pretty well."

"What are you talking about, Jiraiya?" Tsunade asked.

"Hanako Uchiha is the only person I know that has escaped from Orochimaru alive and well, so maybe Sasuke took this opportunity knowing that Hanako knew all of his patterns. She was with Orochimaru for five years after all, she lived through his Tensei Jutsu, while he was still developing it."

"And your point is?" Tsunade asked again, this time with a raised eyebrow. She needed Jiraiya to elaborate his explanation a little more.

"What if...Hanako and Sasuke are up to something?" He suddenly asked himself more than the others. "What if...Hanako has finally found a way to defeat Orochimaru and is using Sasuke as bait?"

"What are you implying?" Kakashi narrowed his eyes at him. Hanako would never use someone she cared about as a prize to attract the predator.

"You don't know about that," Jiraiya looked at him. Kakashi realized then that he had spoken out loud. "Hanako has changed a lot, if you meet her now you will not recognize her." Jiraiya took a deep breath. "I did some research on Hanako, and I found about things that I really wished I didn't know."

"What things?" Tsunade frowned.

"Now I understand why the elders wanted her dead when she was born," Jiraiya muttered. "Hanako will be very dangerous if she gains back all of her memories." He looked at the other three people present in the room. They were all looking at him, not understanding at all what he was saying. "We cannot let that happen."

* * *

Hanako stood in an empty cave, deep inside one of Akatsuki's hideouts, in Mountains Graveyard. She took off her red falcon mask and let it drop to the ground beside her feet. Then she walked down deep into the corridors. That was the place where her story began, there was no better place for her to start going back to her story than the beginning of it all. The place where all of her memories draw her back to.

She continued walking until she recognized a pile of rocks covering the entrance of a room. She smiled slightly. She remembered hiding Madara's corpse inside that cave. She closed her eyes and tried to make up everything inside that room, and when she pictured a rock in her mind she switched places with it.

When she opened her eyes again, she frowned. The room was utterly cold, but something was wrong. 'It doesn't smell like death in here, and it definitely should,' she thought. Hanako activated her Mangekyou Sharingan and her blood ran cold inside her veins. The room was empty. Madara's body was gone.

Hanako crushed the entrance, making her way through the rocks. She was alone in the hideout, and she screamed at the top of her lungs. 'Where is he? Where is he? Who took him?!' Hanako panted heavily as she fell on her knees. "Where is he...?!" she gritted her teeth. Madara's body was the only thing that could give her the answers she needed. No book could tell her who she was before she died. No book could return her memories. Only Madara could but he was gone. His body was gone. "Well...dead you couldn't have been of much help, could you?" Hanako muttered to herself, slowly standing up.

The Uchiha clenched her hand into a tight fist, and punched the wall beside her. Blood dripped down her knuckles as she pulled her hand away. "Obito...what have you done?"

* * *

Obito walked down the dungeons in Akatsuki's hideout in the South. They had a bunch of hidden bases cross countries, so that members could rest safely during long missions. But none of them knew that in that hideout in specific, there were cells built for prisoners. Obito had been careful to hide the entrance to that damp place, so that no one would interfere with his own plans.

He slowly opened the barred door, and it cringed loudly as he pulled it. There was a girl lying flat on the ground. Her long brown hair was strewn over her head, and deep cuts and bruises covered her body. Obito neared her and took off the shackles that chained her to the wall.

"What's going to happen to me?" she asked lowly, her body completely sore.

Obito smirked at her from under his swirled mask. "What do you think?" he asked. "I'm setting you free."

Her eyes stared back at him, opaque and empty. All sanity had been drained from her after hours and years of relentless torture. "Free?" she asked again, her voice void from emotion. "I am...being released?"

Obito chuckled. "Yes," he nodded. "But I need you to do something for me." Obito looked down at her with his eyes shining in a bright red color. "Do you remember Hanako Uchiha?"

"Ha...na...ko?" The girl squinted her eyes, trying to link the name in her mind. A face popped up in her head, and her eyes widened slightly. "Hanako...Hana-chan..."

"Yes, Izumi, Hanako is here." Obito crouched in front of the girl, and lifted up her chin —forcing her to look at him. "I need you to observe her; and if she does something that goes against me, I want you to finish her." He let go of her and straightened back up. "You were never a prisoner here, you were kidnapped by some criminals before the massacre and finally managed to escape, understood?"

Izumi nodded obediently. It was an action she had gotten used to after years of defying him. Hanako was alive, she had known that. But she couldn't feel anything towards it, she couldn't feel anything at all anymore. She was wrecked, completely broken.

Obito disappeared, and the cellar was left open for her. Izumi looked up and inhaled deeply. The scent of dry blood stained the place, but she had grown accustomed to it. She was free, but she didn't know what to do with it. It was like she had forgotten how to live.

"Hanako...Uchiha..." she repeated as if it was a name she had carved into her mind. The name of a prey she needed to hunt.