A strange new life

4.12

Down stairs, corridors with sturdy bare stone walls, and dungeon-like passages I followed Inoichi. Was this where they kept captured enemy ninjas? I didn’t know. Probably not. I don’t think they would keep dangerous enemies so close to the administrative center of the village. Why was I here? We crossed paths with a few other shinobi, all dressed in the same oppressive black attire Ibiki wore during the first phase of the chunin exam. It was all very sus. I think I was in a spot of trouble.

We stopped in front of a heavy wooden door. Inoichi pushed it open, looked at me.

I shrugged. It wasn’t like I could refuse. I stepped inside. Soft white walls, two opposite couches and a small center table. Warm light above illuminated the room. No windows or any other door. Chakra bundles across the wall to the right side of the door. An observation room? I didn’t follow protocol. I sat down before being invited to.

Inoichi followed me inside, closed the door after him. Sat down on the other couch.

“Thank you for looking after Ino during the attack.” Inoichi gave me a sort of half seated bow. “I’m glad she has such good friends.”

That wasn’t what I had been expecting. For a moment, I thought the man would put me in shackles, throw me into a dank, dark little room, accuse me of some conspiracy or another. Exile me. Did they exile shinobi? I didn’t think so. I popped my board out. Wrote my question. “Am I in trouble?” I guess being direct wouldn’t hurt.

“No, it’s—” A knock at the door interrupted the man. “Just a moment,” he said. Got up, went to the door. On the other side, a kunoichi with dark hair held a bunch of papers. She offered them up. Inoichi took them. “Thank you.” He said. The woman bowed, left. The door closed again. Inoichi returned to the couch, sat down. Placed the papers on the table. “Tell me about yesterday’s events?”

This wasn’t how normally I made my reports, but I guessed the situation was strange enough with the attack and the Hokage’s death. I recounted the things I remembered. Seeing the ANBU shinobi among the crowd, suspecting something could happen during the matches, not going all out against Naruto to save my chakra and stamina. I told him what I remembered about the ninjas I fought. The conversation between Kabuto, Kakashi and the shinobi from sand, which I still didn’t know the name of. I described my fight with Tayuya, her jutsus, speed, actions. I told him about going up the roof, seeing Orochimaru’s body. Leaving and helping Ino reach her house. The other parts after that I left out, at least until the part about the sword. I recounted the events, about Kakashi’s suggestion and lastly my arrival here.

Mid all my talking, chakra tendrils tried to crawl inside my head. My own chakra slurped them all, and left me hungry, stomach rumbling. Inoichi twitched the first time it happened, but not the second, third, or tenth.

“On your report about the events of the Forest of Death,” Inoichi said after I finished writing, “You mentioned Orochimaru put you under a genjutsu,” he took a few of the papers from the pile in the table, read it. From the other side, I caught glimpses of the words. They were written in a code I couldn’t read. Damn, I wanted to know what they said, and break the code. I mean, deciphering things was cool. “Yet Hatake Kakashi mentioned in his analysis of your team your resilience regarding genjutsu. Can you elaborate on that?”

They wanted to know why the attempts to get into my head didn't work? I remember feeling something similar soon after I told Kakashi-sensei about the ‘dreams’ when I was younger. Was that Inoichi? It happened a few more times over the years, but until now, with the man trying to read my mind to my face, I never connected the dots. Did I want to tell them why it didn’t work on me? Not really. It wasn’t anything I had active control over. If I talked about it, I might find someone to help me understand, but given my track record with people teaching me stuff, it was bound to be more trouble than it was worth.

I shrugged. Wrote my answer. “It just doesn’t work on me. I can always tell when someone tries to put me in a genjutsu.” Except Orochimaru.

Inoichi nodded, looked at his papers again. “Tell me about the events in the Chunin exam.”

I recounted what I remembered. Meeting Kankuro, Temari and Gaara a week before the exams started. I wrote about Kabuto and my suspicions at the time. About Orochimaru attacking us, team ten’s help, Sasuke’s strange behavior and the fight after I woke up.

Inoichi kept asking questions about older and older events. The tendrils never stopped trying to get into my head. Each time with a different approach or intensity. “Tell me about your training methods. Kakashi’s analysis puts you as the strongest genin of your year, even if Sasuke scored higher on academy ranking.”

That was new to me. Did sensei really think that? Warm fuzzy feelings spread in my chest. I took my board, was about to write, but stopped. Instead of describing all my training methods, I wrote something Kakashi told me a few months ago. “Clan secrets.” I showed the man my board.

He gave me an unimpressed look. Yeah, I did agree with him. What clan? But as Kakashi-sensei said, those were my ‘secret’ training methods. I didn’t have to share it if I didn’t want to. And I didn’t want to explain how I came up with that methodology. Couldn’t say I copied from fanfics I liked, could I?

Inoichi didn’t push. “Tell me about the dreams you told ‘Wolf-san’ when you were five.”

That was a big jump. I guess he wasn’t interested in my years in the academy. I tilted my head. Inoichi didn’t talk about the S-rank mission first. That was my code with Kakashi-sensei. Those were his instructions to me. Never talk about it to anyone, but if someone wanted to talk, they’d mention the S-rank mission first. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” I wrote.

The page flip stopped mid gesture. Ino’s father looked up from his papers to me. “I work for the intelligence division. I have access to all the reports. There’s no need to keep that information secret.”

To make my point, I erased my message, wrote the same thing again. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” Even if he was from the intelligence division, he didn’t know the code. I wasn’t about to ignore the mission Kakashi-sensei gave me when I was five.

Inoichi placed the papers down, rifled through the others, picked a different one. “I’ve been having dreams.” He read out loud. “In my dreams, I’m not myself. But someone called Orochimaru.” He placed the paper down, took another. “This is a report made by Wolf-San of the ANBU.” Inoichi looked at me. “Signs of stress, higher heart rate, frequent deep breaths, constant fidgeting, avoids eye contact.” He looked at me. “You know what those point out to?”

I knew. I learned about it at the academy. Kunoichi lessons talked a lot about reading body language. A ninja needed to know when they were being lied to. Those were the most common things to look out for. But why now? It’s been seven years already. Was it because the Third was dead? Couldn’t they even wait until his corpse cooled down?

You think I lied. I was about to write, but realized the trick. The man wanted me to admit to knowing about the dreams by going at it from another angle. I shrugged, there was nothing I could say here, even if my reaction gave a lot away.

Like he had read my mind, but probably just interpreted my body reactions, the man spoke again. “I know you lied then, and that you are lying now. It isn’t smart to lie.” He put the papers down. Looked at me. His voice was emotionless, cold. “Tell me about your dreams.”

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