"Make sure that gets to him." At the sound of Kazuma's order the bird took off in the location of the unknown recipient of the message. The dark expression on his face returned as the darkness began to consume him again. 'Orochimaru..... You won't get away with the deed you did to Kioko. I will make sure of it.' The Nakamura, unknown to most people was deeply in love with the female Uchiha. His feelings for Kioko had developed during their childhood together. Even though Kioko always claimed that her heart belonged to her big brother alone, it was apparent that she returned Kazuma's love. In fact, Kazuma was the only man Itachi ever approved to be with his younger sister. Once the crow was out of site, Kazuma began walking through the halls of Orochimaru's hideout.
There was no doubt in his mind that Kakashi and the others would make their way to Orochimaru's hideout. It was only a matter of time before they would arrive but that was something he'd worry about when it came to it. The brownish blonde medic continued down the dark corridors before entered the lab that he shared with Kabuto. The room was filled with various organs and body parts from their various experiments. On the far side of the room, Kabuto was doing an examination on the unconscious Takuya. His back was to his best friend and his eyes were fixated on the monitor before him, which displayed all his medical information. "I take it the mission went well, Kazu?"
Kazuma let out a small laugh as he leaned against the stone wall. "I ran into some difficulties. However, it's nothing I can't take care of. How is Lord Orochimaru's condition? Any improvements since I left this morning?" The snake Sannin was once again having problems with his replacement body. The one he currently has was beginning to reject him and this made him increasingly ill.
Kabuto walked over to his desk and pulled out a report, examining the results before handing it to Kazuma. He thanked his partner before scanning through it. "I see, there hasn't been any change. From my last examination I would say, he has two months maximum before he needs to switch bodies again, which will give us time to run our tests." With that he placed the report down and began to make his way out of the lab. Kabuto fixed his glasses again before turning back to Kazuma, "Be warned, he's in a foul mood."
The Nakamura shook his head slightly, "He's always in a foul mood, Kabuto." He stated in a nonchalant tone before closing the door behind him. Even though Orochimaru's body was slowly falling apart he refused to be treated as a vulnerable child. His ambitions for power wouldn't be stopped by such a set back. Kazuma then made his way to his sensei's bedroom and as he walked in he was somewhat surprised not to see another corpse lying on the ground. "Seems your feeling better, Lord Orochimaru." The snake Sannin looked up to see his left hand man and gestured for him to enter.
"Kazuma-kun, I do hope you've come back unharmed." Orochimaru's concerns for Kazuma were both truth and deception. Both Kazuma and Kabuto knew that Orochimaru would have taken Kazuma's body long ago if not for the inconvenient as he put it, side effects of his ability. The Nakamura simply nodded in response to his statement before standing beside him. "It won't be long now before my ambitions become a reality. Even though I failed to obtain an Uchiha body, this Takuya was a nice catch and will work perfectly for me. Soon very soon, all our plans will bear fruit." Kazuma broke a small smirk as he agreed with Orochimaru at the same time pleased how well his own plans were working out.
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The crow flew close to the Hidden Rain Village and its coal colored eyes scanned over the area for the recipient of the message from the sound ninja. In the distance it locked on the familiar cloaked figures of the Akatsuki. Kisame looked over his shoulder slightly to see the crow coming toward his partner. "Itachi-san, in coming." Without as much as a turn of the head, Itachi raised his right arm, allowing the messenger to land. Itachi's eyes wandered down the bird to the container and snapped it off. With the burden of the container removed the bird let out a caw before spreading its wings and taking off. A few moments passed before he looked at it and noticed its origin. 'From the sound village? Could this be from…. No… Orochimaru has no idea how to even reach me. That must mean it came from, Kazuma."
Itachi opened the container and pulled out the message, unrolling it carefully. As he read it Itachi formed a fist with his free hand. Kisame was curious as to what made his partner loose his self control. He had not known Itachi to ever lose his cool about anything, even in battle. Before he could even utter a sound Itachi was already starting off, after pocketing the note. "Itachi-san?"
"We're going Kisame." Kisame let out a small sigh as he caught up to Itachi and began walking beside him again. He looked over at him and could see the annoyance in his onyx eyes.
Once they had reached the border of the hideout, Itachi could sense the presence of Zetsu. He turned his head slightly to see the messenger/ spy of the leader. "Where are you doing Itachi-san?"
"To eliminate Orochimaru." He said simply as he walked passed without another word. Both Kisame and Zetsu were bewildered at Itachi's sudden desire to hunt down the snake Sannin. Even though they were curious about it, they knew better then to press the issue any future, unless they wanted to sign their own death wishes. In an instant they had disappeared in the mist, on their way to the sound village.
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Kakashi and the others were making good progress toward Orochimaru's hideout. Kioko's tracker wolves lead the way following Kazuma's scent. As they were traveling through the trees, Kioko looked up at the sky and noticed the darkening clouds. A few moments afterward she felt a few rain drops on her head. That was a sign they had to stop and set up camp somewhere. She made her way back toward the ground and that caught everyone's attention. Naruto of course was the first to say anything, "Kioko-chan, what's wrong? Why did you stop so suddenly?"
As if answering his question the rain started to fall around them. The Jounin looked at each other before nodding as if they had read each others thoughts. "There is a cave not to far from here. We can use that for shelter tonight." Kakashi explained as he took the lead, bringing everyone to there temporary base. It wasn't long before they had gotten their camp set up and a fire going. "We will move out in the morning when the rain lets up."
Naruto looked over at his sensei with a look of objection. "But sensei, if we do that, we will lose the trail!" Sakura leaned over and nudged him innocently gesturing in Kioko's direction. The rain wasn't their only problem, the fight from early had taken its toll on Kioko and the fatigue was setting in. The blonde haired ninja let out a small sigh before nodding in compliance with what his sensei had said.
"Alright then, everyone rest up." With those words everyone slid in their sleeping bags and began to drift off to sleep. Kioko's wolves huddled around their mistress to keep her warm. Hours have pasted since the group of ninja had fallen asleep. It wasn't to long afterward that Kioko began to dream again.
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A seven and a half year old Kioko was wandered around the village in the afternoon. In her arms she was carrying a bag of groceries for her mom and by her side was a small wolf pup. The two were on their way back to the Uchiha estate when suddenly Kioko accidentally bumped into on of the villagers. The impact sent her backward, onto the ground. Kioko's wolf came over to her letting out little whimpers as if asking if she was alright. The person she ran into turned around was about to offer his hand to help her up. Kioko broke a small smile as she reached up to take the guys hand when suddenly he slapped her hand away. "You're that monster from the Uchiha clan."
Others in the area sent glares in Kioko's attention, looks of disgust and you shouldn't be here. A few tears started to form in her eyes as she heard this. She didn't understand why everyone seemed to hate her so much. As she tried to pull herself up from the floor a few shuriken came flying in. Kioko quickly jumped out of the way and she saw they had come in the direction of one the leaf village Chuunin. The young girl dropped her bag and took off trying to get away from the aggressor. The attacking ninja knocked her back into a wall and her eyes widened in fear as he made his way toward her. "Please, leave me alone…" Kioko pleaded but he didn't seem to listen.
"You are nothing but a monster. Creatures like you don't belong in this village!" He pulled out his sword and prepared to strike again. Kioko's body wouldn't move as fright too over. Once he got in range her began to swing his sword and Kioko clamped her eyes shut. Her body tensed waiting for the blow but it never came. Instead the wolf pup and bit the chuunin's leg, making him let out a loud shout in pain. "Get off me you mutt!" He bellowed. The pup held on tight and Kioko's eyes widened in shock as she saw his heroics. After a few moments he shook the small creature off his leg sending him flying to the ground hard. "NO! Yoko!" Kioko shouted.
Now the Chuunin was even more furious then had been previously and moved closer to finish things off. Her body still wouldn't move that well as she saw her short life begin to fly past her face. A few moments later Fugaku, Kioko's father came around the corner and saw that his daughter was in trouble. "Kioko get out of there!" He shouted. She tried to move but her legs seemed to be glued in place and her eyes shut again. "KIOKO!"
Hearing her father's voice the second time snapped her out of her fearful state and her eyes snapped open, revealing the Sharingan. In a flash she moved, grabbing the kunai from the ground, and made her attack. Being that she was still small, she was able to dodge his sword strike and then from under him gave him a powerful punch under the chin, sending the ninja up in the ground. The adrenaline was still going through her veins at his point and she finished him off with what appeared to be precursor to Sasuke's Lion's Barrage. Fugaku had a total shocked expression on his face as he looked at what Kioko, had accomplished. He came over and bent down to make sure she was alright. "You alright Kioko?"
Kioko looked up at her father and nodded. "I'm fine, Otosan." A relieved expression appeared on his face as he heard that. Fugaku was also surprised to see what she had also obtained the Sharingan. "That's my girl." He said proudly as he helped her on her feet.
A few minutes later more members of the police force came around the corner. "Teichou! Everything secured here?" He simply nodded as he gave the order to arrest the chunnin and walked off with Kioko close by his side.
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Kioko woke up a few moments later, taking a few deep breaths. She looked around trying to get her barrings and was relieved to know it was just a dream. The young woman tried to go back to bed but it proved to be an futile indever. There was only a few hours left before the sun came up so she sat there and looked at the dwindling fire. Not too long after that Sasuke woke up and joined his sister. "You alright, Kioko?"
Kioko snapped out of her thoughts and looked over at Sasuke. She didn't realize that her sharingan had returned to her and saw a somewhat shocked expression on her brother's face. "What Sasuke? Do I have something on my face?"
"No, no… its just that… your sharingan is back." She broke a small smile as she let out a small breath, deactivating them. "How?"
"Last night, I had a dream about the first time I had gained my sharingan." As Kioko spoke Sasuke looked over rather interested. The younger Uchiha never really knew how either Itachi or Kioko had gained their regular sharingan. The only thing he did know was they both mastered it at a young age. He looked at her as if begging to find out more about it. "Well… apparently I got mine when was fighting one of the village's chunnin. I tell you I was pretty scared, but I have father to thank."
"Father helped you?" Kioko simply nodded to her brother's question. "That chuunin would have killed me, I know that. If he didn't show up and call out to me, I don't think I would have found the strength inside of me to do it. It was strange but it was one of the best feelings… seeing father so proud of me." Sasuke was happy to hear his sister's tale and broke a small smile. With that Kioko stood up, "Guess I better prepare breakfast for everyone. Care to help me?" There was no hesitation in Sasuke's response as he nodded and walked out with his sister to grab some food for the group.
Sasuke looked back up at his sister with a smile. 'We are getting closer to getting all your memories back. Soon you will be back to your old self.'
To be continued….