Naruto groaned in pain as he began to awake from blissful unconsciousness, though right about now he was wishing he didn't wake up at all. What the hell had happened? He felt like he had practically been run straight through...
He gasped in agony before opening his mouth in a wordless scream, feeling white hot fire run straight through his chest; burning, searing pain...
He gasped in agony, in an odd sense of deja vu and moved to place a hand over his heart as a phantom pain shot through him, before realizing that he could not do so.
He blinked slowly and looked at the small room he found himself in. He frowned in distaste before sighing. A prison cell. It's been awhile since I've been in one of these.
Naruto experimentally flexed his limbs and quickly discovered the reason for his current lack of any ability to move. After all, being shackled directly to the wall of the cell would do that kinda thing. There were thick metal braces on his arms or legs that kept him standing and unable to move, and his arms were up above his head.
He grunted as he pulled on them to test their strength. They were made pretty well actually. It'd probably be possible to snap them if he was at a hundred percent, but he wasn't very confident in his ability to do so at the moment.
How did he get here? What had made him a prisoner? The last thing he remembered was... was...
He gasped in agony before opening his mouth in a wordless scream, feeling white hot fire run straight through his chest; burning, searing pain...
He snarled and threw his head back against the wall of the cell. Why couldn't he REMEMBER? Everything else before the last few days was there clear as crystal, lucid and vivid as if he had just experienced them a few minutes before.
Kakashi had brought them all out to celebrate the recent successful raids on the Oto encampments and to announce that he and Anko were going out now. Then she had decked him for being so blunt and obvious about it instead of letting us piece it together ourselves. Took all the fun out of it, she said. That was a couple days ago.
Lets see... Hiashi finally stepped down as clan head of the Hyuugas and ended up making Neji leader due to his obvious skill with both fighting and foresight. He supposed that the reason he picked Neji over his daughters was that in war you really need to have the best leader available, and direct bloodline or not Neji was still Hyuuga; the best in fact. Hanabi was probably a bit peeved at the whole thing but he was pretty sure Hinata-chan was overjoyed at the whole matter, Neji really did deserve that position. But that was a few days ago too.
Oh, when he tried to ask Sakura-chan out on a date again she ended up telling him she was experimenting with Ino now. That little declaration stuck with him a bit, he remembered. Sakura-chan was blushing bright red and he ended up having to slap himself to get the admittedly nice mental image out of his head.
He growled again out loud. Damn it that was a couple days ago too! He knew that much, so why was there a frightfully large spot of his memory where nothing was there?
"So, you're awake. I thought I heard the snarling of a wild animal. Seems I was correct." A young man in a full ninja bodysuit stepped out of the shadows directly across from the cell. Naruto's eye twitched in agitation. This guy just oozed casual smugness.
Naruto glanced again at the man's clothing. The bodysuit was a dark blue, enough to seem black in the dim lighting of the prison. He was completely covered except for his eyes, which were a piercing green. The man also had twin swords on his back. Whether they were ninja-to or not, he couldn't tell without the man turning around to give him a good look. He was dressed like a covert or black ops ninja; those that must always hide their identity.
The man pulled out a small clipboard from seemingly nowhere and leveled his gaze with Naruto's. "Name, age, and birthplace?"
Naruto gave him a flat stare. "I'm being interrogated?" Though in his head he was thinking, there are ninjas who still don't know me? Thought I was pretty famous by now.
"Yes." The man deadpanned. "Name, age, and birthplace?"
"Uzumaki Naruto. Eighteen." Naruto said flatly. "And Konoha, obviously." He replied, glancing up at his head where his forehead protector lay, with Konoha's symbol of a leaf engraved into the metal of it.
"Konoha?" The man quirked an eyebrow and also glanced at the symbol on his headband but that was it. He wrote something on the clipboard. "Where is that?"
Naruto quirked an eyebrow right back. Obvious questions much? Is he just being used to train an interrogation rookie or something? "Fire Country."
The man gave him a blank stare for a moment before unlocking and opening the door to the cell. He then looked the blond shinobi directly in the eye. "Say again? Where is Konoha located?"
Naruto's eye twitched. Deaf idiot. "Fire Country."
The ninja in blue frowned and mumbled to himself. "I hate this part."
Naruto's eyes widened and he attempted to lurch forward suddenly as a fist ended up finding its way buried into his stomach. Unfortunately being shackled to the wall made such a thing impossible, and so he merely spit some saliva onto the face and mask of his assailant from the force of the punch, and then violently coughed a few times. Not that the man appeared to really care.
"What the hell did you do that for, Asshole?" Naruto spat out as he glared at the man.
The Asshole, as Naruto decided to refer to him as, looked at him neutrally and asked again. "Where is Konoha located?"
Naruto glared forward at the Asshole. "Fire Country."
A fist once again magically found itself buried in his stomach, and as Naruto ended up spitting over him again the man sighed silently. "Its gonna be a long, irritating day."
The Asshole wasn't incorrect in his assumption. Every simple question he asked besides "Name" and "Age" ended up with him forcing to beat up the blond. What seemed to Naruto as perfectly reasonable answers (and things you could mostly discover by picking up a book, at that) would apparently always lead to the Asshole punching him. So he was understandably getting a bit ticked off, pain tolerance and awesome regenerative abilities aside.
"Okay, I'll bite. What the fuck is wrong with you and with my answers that you feel the need to keep freaking punching me?" Naruto snarled at the man after a particularly nasty punch broke his nose and knocked his head back against the wall. Sure, it'd been broken more times than he could count, but that didn't mean he liked having his nose busted up.
The Asshole looked up from his clipboard and leveled a neutral stare on the blond. He turned his eyes back down to the clipboard and continued writing something. "Obviously, your answers aren't what I want. So you're either lying really terribly or simply don't feel like making the effort to give me the truth."
"Except I AM telling you the truth, Asshole!" Naruto growled at him. "I'm from Konoha in the Fire Country!"
"Except that's where you're mistaken." The man sighed in irritation. "We have no information on either area you speak of, and while a simple town being unknown is possible; unlikely, but possible, there is assuredly nowhere in the world called the 'Fire Country.'"
Naruto seemed to stare in shock for a moment before regaining his bearings and rejected that answer. "You're fucking with me."
"No, Naruto, I most definitely am not 'fucking with you', as you so bluntly decided to put it." The man seemed to let off a small smirk even though Naruto couldn't see it through his mask, before he walked over and grabbed the blond's nose and quickly snapped it back to its proper position. No need to force it to heal incorrectly after all. The Asshole's eyebrow quirked a bit at his lack of a reaction to setting his bone, but shrugged and turned to leave.
"H-hey! You can't just ditch me here! I haven't done anything wrong! Let me out!" Naruto yelled, pulling at the shackles for emphasis. "And I sure as hell didn't give you permission to talk to me on a first name basis." He mumbled as an afterthought.
The Asshole turned and looked at him confused. "I thought you said your name was Uzumaki Naruto?" Completely ignoring his request.
"I did." Naruto stared at him as if he were stupid.
"Ah, you say your surname first." The man stated as if he just noticed, which he probably did, pulling out his clipboard again and scribbling something out.
"Duh." Naruto deadpanned. "Let me out now?" He gave a big pleading smile.
"No."
"OH COME ON! At least tell me what the hell I did to be put in prison!" He struggled once again against the thick shackles, hearing them groan in protest of trying to hold him but otherwise succeeding in their job.
The Asshole stopped and sighed a moment before turning his head to look at him. "Your way of arrival was odd and unknown and almost everything you say is obscure. A village of ninja can't accept anything unknown if we wish to survive."
Naruto stared out of his cell at where the man was. He didn't know why Konoha and Fire Country were apparently 'unknowns', but looking from their point of view he supposed if he didn't understand anything a prisoner was spouting out of their mouth he probably wouldn't let them go either.
The blond shinobi sighed and looked up to the ceiling of his cell. They could have at least put him in a more comfortable position... or given him some food...
It was a couple hours later when he heard footsteps moving towards his cell. Good, because he was getting really bored, and counting the number of impressions made in the walls and floor of his cell and the number of creases in his clothing got really boring after the first hour. It was 205 and 140 respectively, in case you were wondering.
A woman walked around the corner beyond his cell and began unlocking it. Naruto's brilliant sapphire eyes became cold and analyzing for just a moment as he sized up the new ninja. She appeared to be wearing the top half of a purple battle kimono, which honestly appeared to be struggling to hold in her rather large assets, and had a large pink ribbon going around her waist to hold it closed, with the bow part on her back and with the ribbons trailing behind her a few inches short of touching the ground. She was wearing a black bodysuit underneath, covering her legs completely and going down her arms, though much of the suit wasn't visible at all because of purple boots and gloves in addition to the kimono.
She had sharp hazel eyes and relatively short black hair, which would be about to her shoulders were it not pulled into a messy ponytail. But the most beautiful thing about her had to be the tray of food she was obviously bringing to him.
He grinned widely despite his somewhat bloody face. "Thank Kami, I was starving! It feels like I haven't eaten for days!"
She quirked an eyebrow and smiled at his upbeat attitude despite being a prisoner but then just shrugged. "You probably haven't. You've been shackled down here for a bit, and I doubt you ate anything the very moment before you decided to appear in a fireworks display consisting of burning down our forest. Quite a dramatic entrance. I'm Sheena by the way."
He sweat-dropped and smiled nervously at her. "Naruto. And I burned down the forest?"
"Yup. A lot of it anyway. You were just kinda found in the blast zone of a fiery explosion without a scratch on you, with all of our trees burning around you." She frowned at him. "Don't do that again."
"Uhm, sure, if I remember how to do it I'll keep that in mind."
"Oh Kami, you're not claiming amnesia are you?" She sighed as she put a hand to her forehead. "Seriously, that's the oldest trick in the book."
"Hey, its not like I can't remember anything at all. I just can't remember the last two or three days." He replied, frowning.
"That's still awfully convenient. Suddenly forgetting the day where you cause a gigantic explosion in our forest, even though you were right in the center of the whole thing." She grinned knowingly at him, while he just continued to frown.
"Hey, I'm being serious here. Besides, who ever heard of someone just lying in the middle of the ground in such a danger zone without a scratch on him? Isn't it more likely I was just planted there after the explosion happened?" He retorted, but he knew the chance of that was low too. More than likely Kyuubi simply healed his wounds from the blast, so it looked like he didn't belong there.
Her smile disappeared and was replaced by a frown. "That's... possible, I suppose." She said, bringing in another metal tray-looking object which ended up being a small folding table. She pulled it in front of Naruto and put the food tray on it before pulling a key out of her shirt. Naruto couldn't help it when his eyes automatically locked onto the tiny object in her hands before she pulled it away and began to make 'tsk tsk' sounds.
"Don't go getting any funny ideas now. If you answer our questions you'll be out of here in a few days tops, since we don't have a ton of reason to keep you here. So don't throw your life away by trying to escape and forcing us to kill you." She seemed to remember his bloodied face for a moment and then smirked at him. "Though it seems like you've already made an enemy out of the person before me by not answering their questions huh?"
He grumbled to himself while Sheena leaned up to reach one of the shackles on his wrists; she was a bit shorter than he was. "I was answering them just fine, he just wasn't believing my answers is all."
"Not believing you? He's usually pretty tame, so either you were being difficult or weren't giving proper answers." She said to him without really looking at him, finishing unlocking one of the shackles and then stepping back and leaning against the cell wall.
"Aw, not going to unlock the rest of them for me? Cruel." He said with a mock pout. He knew it wouldn't be that easy. "But seriously, I was answering the questions honestly. The idiot just doesn't know what Konoha and Fire Country is so he takes it out on me."
"I haven't heard of either of those places either, so I guess that answers the question of why he kept punching you." She replied and took notice of his shocked expression. "Hurry up and eat so I can get out of this dingy place, one hand is plenty to eat with. There's a festival tonight and I'd really rather not be down here instead."
He looked suspiciously at some weird meat-thing on the tray before shrugging and biting deeply into it. Meh, it's not ramen but it isn't bad. Funny aftertaste though. "What's the festival for?"
"It's to celebrate allying ourselves with the king of Tethe'alla. The festival is more of a way to drive a point home if anything. We've been the spy network and shadows for the king for years, it's just that nobody knew about us. Now it's out in the open." She nodded to herself, apparently pleased with her own explanation.
Naruto sweat-dropped, but still continued eating the odd but not-too-terrible food. "Shouldn't you... not tell your prisoner about the people your spy network work for? That stuff is usually pretty classified."
Her eyes widened a little and she laughed nervously. "Ahahaha... well I'm sure you won't tell anyone right? Plus everyone will know pretty soon I'm sure. Letting one prisoner know a few days in advance is no big deal." She began nodding to herself again.
"Uh, sure. Whatever you say." He replied, quirking a small smile. She's a little ditzy. Or just clumsy with her words. He then mulled over what she said. "Wait wait wait back up a second. Did you say king? Not Daimyo?"
"Yep. Not sure what a Daimyo is, but we're the personal ninja of the king of all of Tethe'alla!" She puffed her chest out in obvious pride, doing interesting things to her anatomy that Naruto was a bit too confused to appreciate as his late teacher would have wanted him to.
"And by "all of Tethe'alla" you mean?..."
The woman put two fingers to her temple and he could just imagine her counting down from ten to try and not blow up at him. "You know, Tethe'alla? The world? King of the world?"
"T-the WORLD?" Naruto sputtered out. "Are you off your rocker? There's no way that's true!"
"You know, the amnesia thing is still pretty lame. At least learn to lie properly." She said as she began to 'tsk tsk' at him again.
"I'm not lying damn it! You're the one saying crazy stuff like there being a 'king of the world'! That's bullshit!"
She rolled her eyes at him. "No more bullshit than you saying you're from a place that doesn't exist."
"But it does exist! I grew up there and practically traveled the whole place, it obviously exists! Just because you haven't been there-"
"And stop right there!" She yelled dramatically, cutting him off and poking him in the forehead. "There's no such thing as Fire Country, unless its possible for a place to be as small as an island and called a country at the same time." She smirked. "We've explored the whole world over. Nowhere we haven't spied on. And nowhere called Fi-re Coun-try."
"Or the Elemental Nations?" He asked incredulously, with his mouth slightly agape.
"Nope!" She chirped happily, unashamed that she caused his currently crestfallen expression.
Naruto managed to get a rein on his emotions again after a moment. "I'll believe it when I see it. It wouldn't be too hard for you to lie to me while I'm stuck in a prison cell, probably underground and unable to see the world that you're talking about. You just want me to think I'm crazy."
"Don't have to make you think it, you already are. Though, yeah, I suppose it would be pretty easy to lie wouldn't it?" Sheena shrugged, unconcerned. She walked up and gathered up the tray and table that he was finished with and put his wrist back in its shackle over his head. As she moved to leave she turned and smirked back at him. "Well, I've got a festival to get to. Enjoy your nap!"
"Bring me back something!" He yelled out before hearing Sheena's laughter echoing down the long corridor. "Yeah yeah, sure. Go and enjoy the festival. Not like I wanted to go or anything." He said with a yawn before his eyes widened in realization. "Shit. I shouldn't be getting tired yet. I've just been drugged haven't I?"
Sheena licked absently at the ice cream cone in her hand while sitting on one of the small stone fences surrounding the village water well. She probably shouldn't be gorging herself on the treats, but she usually couldn't get them unless she went to Meltokio; the capital always had something new for her to try. A few ninja had apparently brought the ingredients and recipes of a few of the capital's delicacies over just before the festival to make it just that little bit nicer.
The festival ended two days ago now, and her turn to feed the blond enigma was coming up soon. She hadn't been down there since before the festival. She didn't really mind doing it much, she just wished it wasn't so boring down there in the cells. Not that it was any more interesting up above though, she mused.
Sheena took another lick of the vanilla ice cream and fingered the purple choker around her neck that she had bought during the festival. It was kind of tacky, and a little too girly for her honestly. Which made it the perfect present to tease Naruto endlessly with during the hour she was going to have to stay down in the dreary place.
Hey, he only said he wanted me to bring him back something. Not that it had to be anything cool, expensive, or even a color he'd like.
She actually hoped they'd be permitted to let him out soon. It seemed kinda paranoid to keep him locked up so tightly down there. Even if he was probably a bit of a pyromaniac, all he had done was make an explosion about a quarter of a mile from the village and burn down about a dozen trees. Really odd and weird, sure, but he hadn't hurt anyone as far as she could tell so the interrogation was kind of excessive.
She shrugged. It wasn't really her problem. She didn't even know the guy.
Glancing up at the sky she noticed that it was almost noon, judging by the sun. Not quite time to go down and check on Naruto, but it probably wouldn't hurt to ask Tiga if they had gotten any new information out of him over the last two days. Knowing what to expect couldn't hurt.
She hopped off the stone fencing and popped the last part of the cone into her mouth at one time and shivered slightly at the sensation. Cold, but really good. She loved vanilla. Part of her was tempted to go buy yet another one, but instead she continued onwards to the house of the Chief.
As she entered she was immediately struck by the sound of arguing. She twitched slightly at the volume; she really wished they'd be quieter. There were quite a few people already here, surprisingly.
Her grandfather Igaguri was where he always was, lying on a futon in the far back corner of the Chief's house, shrouded by a curtain while he was in his comatose state. Sheena felt a flash of guilt build up within her quickly before she immediately squashed it. She was used to doing so by now.
Tiga was sitting quietly in his normal position in the back of the room, with his traditional garb consisting of a light brown kimono. His short black hair was allowed to fall limply in its natural way, and he still had the short beard that he had grown after becoming Chief. His stern black eyes intently watched the two men in front of him.
Kuchinawa stood behind and to the left of Tiga, in his dark red ninja bodysuit that hid most of his features from the world. Only his green eyes were visible, everything else being covered by the suit or by black armored accessories, like his gloves, boots and face mask. He had a simple ninja-to strapped to his back.
Orochi, as always, looked almost like a perfect mirror image of his brother Kuchinawa except he was wearing a dark blue bodysuit, contrasting with his sibling's dark red and had twin wakizashi strapped to his back.
The man he was arguing with was the one she knew the least, though with good reason. He was a scientist and doctor sent here to Mizuho a little over a week ago by the king to serve as a medic and to pass on valuable medicinal practices before he left. Sheena believed his name was Kizuna. He was wearing a classic white lab coat that was open and showed his casual civilian clothing underneath. His hair was brown but appeared to be starting to grey from age, and he was wearing round glasses.
The argument appeared to be quite serious. Tiga, even as the chief, was simply sitting with his eyes closed, just soaking in the words said on both sides.
"He must be sent back to Sybak! His regeneration is astounding; bordering on absolutely ridiculous! A cut or scrape is healed within a minute and it takes five times the normal amount of drugs to keep him down for any reasonable length of time!" Even though he was yelling his eyes were practically shining while thinking of the possibilities.
Meanwhile Orochi's eyes, in sharp contrast, turned cold and harsh. "What of our morality? The man is an innocent, all things considered. Burning down a few trees isn't even grounds for imprisoning him, we only did so as a precaution due to how close he was to the village. Yet you wish for us to send him off to Sybak despite the fact that he has done nothing wrong?"
Sheena quirked an eyebrow in realization. "You two are arguing over Naruto?"
The two turned slightly to acknowledge her with nods, but otherwise did nothing to change their stances.
Kizuna narrowed his eyes slightly but was still practically beaming. "What does right and wrong have anything to do with this situation? Despite being a prisoner for just a few days, he is still a prisoner, and studying his ability could save thousands of lives across Tethe'alla."
Orochi was still not amused. "You continue to call him a prisoner when we are saying that he has committed no crime, unless being incredibly confused by his situation is a crime. Why do you keep insisting on calling him such?"
Tiga opened his eyes to look at Kizuna while the doctor just kept smiling at Orochi in that disarming way of his. "As soon as he became a criminal, Meltokio, and by proxy the research institute in Sybak, became free to do with him as we please. We have full obligation to use criminals in any way that could improve Tethe'alla or society in general. Criminals have no rights you know."
Orochi's eyes narrowed dangerously and his fingers instinctively twitched towards his sword, but a glare from Tiga stilled him. The Chief turned his head back towards the doctor. "You will have your man. An escort will be ready for you to return to Sybak tomorrow morning."
Kizuna smiled as he dropped to his knees and then bowed graciously to the man, putting his forehead on the floor. "Thank you Tiga-sama."
The doctor rose from his kneeling position and then bowed to Orochi as well, though the ninja made no reaction to it. He then calmly moved towards the door and left, no doubt to either check on Naruto or prepare for the trip tomorrow.
As soon as the man left Sheena let out a breath that she didn't even realize she had been holding. Why did this whole situation feel very tense and wrong?
Orochi sighed and turned towards Tiga. "Tiga-sama, I must honestly say that I do not like this. Submitting to these people's wishes to do such things to others..."
Tiga nodded and frowned. "I do not like it either Orochi, but we must think of the village first. We can not disobey the will of the king or those who serve him, especially not directly after it has come out that we work for him as well. Unfortunately, we have no choice in these matters."
Sheena was somewhat confused however. "Is it really so bad? Sybak seemed like a pretty nice place the times I've been there."
Orochi shook his head. "But Naruto will not be going there to live Sheena. There is a darker side to Sybak. Kizuna's request was just a nicer way of saying they wish to make him a glorified research subject." The man frowned sadly. "He will be caged and studied to discover the secret of his ability to apparently heal himself without the use of mana."
Sheena looked disgusted, understandably. "That's terrible. How could they do something like that?"
Orochi was about to speak again before Tiga spoke first and interrupted him, his eyes sad. "Yes, it is a terrible thing, but there's nothing we can do about it. The village's continued safety must come before an unknown man. It is best if we simply forget he existed after we deliver him to Sybak."
All three ninja nodded in acceptance, even Kuchinawa who still hadn't said a word, but inside Sheena was still disgusted with the situation. This isn't right.
Naruto groaned and tried to open his eyes but found extreme difficulty in doing so. Part of his mind was telling him to go back to sleep because of how sluggish he was feeling, the quicker thinking part of him was wondering just how much drugs his captors must have pumped into his system to keep him down so effectively for so long.
Finally opening his eyes a little he was immediately blinded by the sun. When had they moved him outside? Actually, it felt like he was still moving right now. He lifted a hand to his forehead to block the sun's rays and mumbled a bit to himself.
He heard a few voices and looked to his side to see what was going on. There was a blurry outline there that looked distinctly feminine, but with his head pounding and the sun behind them he couldn't really tell.
The next moment he saw her move forward and felt cool metal press against his neck.
The woman whispered to him. "I'm sorry." Then blissful darkness claimed him once again.
Sheena yawned slightly but otherwise stayed alert. It had been a while since she had a mission and even with one as distasteful as this, she wasn't about to let the group be swarmed by bandits or monsters.
They were currently pulling Naruto along on a cart usually meant for produce. Kizuna was walking ahead of it, while Sheena was on the right side. A ninja named Derek was pulling the cart along while wearing casual civilian clothing rather than ninja garb. Sheena didn't know Derek all that well; though she was pretty sure his wife was the one that she kept going to for ice cream.
She heard their unwilling passenger groan and her eyes widened. He was waking up already? Damn, they weren't kidding when they said it took a lot to keep him down. The amount of drugs the doctor put into him would have kept an elephant down for over a day, but it had only been a few hours and he was waking up again.
The doctor apparently heard the groan as well because he turned to look at her. "Don't let him wake up. Put him under again." He then simply turned forward to look at the path again.
"Yeah yeah I know." She muttered and searched her clothes for the syringe the man had handed to her before they left. She held it in front of her eyes and gazed sadly at the dark blue liquid inside. Naruto really didn't deserve this.
She turned back to him in time to see him lift his hand up to cover his eyes and mumble something that sounded suspiciously like 'I feel like shit.' She quirked a small smile that quickly disappeared when she noticed he was becoming far too aware too quickly.
She mumbled a quick apology; to Naruto, or to Kami for what she was doing, she didn't know. She then pressed the needle against his neck before watching the light practically vanish from his eyes as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Sheena felt sick as she hid the syringe back inside her clothing. Watching his eyes just fade out like that... she may as well have killed him herself instead of what was apparently going to happen to him.
She wanted to just let him go. He was completely innocent from this, but the village had to come first, and she vowed to never let her village down again.