Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I am not affiliated with Viz, Shonen Jump, Toei, Disney, or Kishimoto in the least. Rated for torture, violence, controversial topics, sexual abuses and conducts, profanity, drugs (alcohol is not planned, but is possible considering my track record) and general horror and psychological twisting.

This is a series of one-shots related to The Matsubaran Incident and events based around it. If you have read Skull Prison, the file Sasuke read on Kakashi is actually referencing the incident itself. As such, since Kakashi and Rin are the only canon characters that experienced the incident first hand, most of the one shots will pertain to them directly. There will be some that do not.

This article was featured in the international ninja periodical "Kunai String Monthly" which deals with and reports on many global topics and has over 49,000 subscribers. It was researched and authored by various staff members of the periodical and published in Issue #64.

The Matsubaran Incident refers to an unexplained series of events in Tanima no Kuni (Land of Valleys) by the mountain Matsubaran-zan and the valley it shoulders. The time of this incident, according to some reports, could have spanned up to five years or more, and mostly took place within the walls of a small, undocumented prison facility hidden within the base of Matsubaran-zan itself. These occurrences are surrounded by conflicting reports, missing documentation, political confusion, and puzzling circumstances, making it a very notable mystery. It ended with a major and highly-publicized unexplained event on June 15, Year 203* when the prisoners were "released", but subsequent investigations have come across bizarre occurrences of their own and are often lumped into the mystery. It is a popular controversy even today, and is the subject of many conspiracy theories pertaining to the ninja governments.

The Prison

It isn't unusual for ninja to disappear from their hidden village; in fact, each village has its own standard procedure when one of their ninja comes up unaccounted for according to certain circumstances. Because of this, most of the reports of the ninja that went missing did not attract a good deal of attention further than placing the ninja on "missing-nin" status and alerting their own jounin elite. The victim ninja most often disappeared during a mission, quite suddenly leaving a post without notice to their leader, or even after already having finished the mission and on their way back to base. It also was not unusual for pairs or even whole cells to be taken. The victims were never civilians. Only high-ranked shinobi have been confirmed, the lowest known rank among them being a veteran chuunin.

All were placed in a prison facility within the craggy base of Matsubaran-zan, adjacent to the Eastern shoulder of the valley. Reports suggest that the facility would have been difficult to build without the use of earth-based jutsu. Its entrance was largely obscured by the overgrowth of whisk fern for which the mountain was named. The ninja report no memory of actually being seized, although they might remember events proceeding it, suggesting they were rendered unconscious before taken, and first wake up within their cells, already stripped of their effects and clothed in rags.

None of the ninja were able to use any jutsu involving chakra control, which they identified as being caused by advanced seals on their chakra that they believe were made while they were unconscious. Some have managed—through secret training, long reworking of the seals, and already superior chakra control—to regain some use of chakra, but never to the extent that they could escape. If any prisoner was discovered to have been getting past the seal, a new seal was made.

The prison cells were stone, 2.8 meters long from the door, 2.0 meters wide, and 1.8 tall. The walls were approximately one meter thick. It is unknown why the ceilings were so low, as the hallway connected to them appeared to have normal height, but it has been theorized that the difference in height was also about a meter, so it might have been for security. The cells had no windows or light; even the doors are completely sealed of light while closed. The only opening other than the door in each cell was a hole, twenty centimeter's wide, where a wall meets the floor. This hole was shared with the cell that also shares the wall and connected to a sewer system. There was a metal grate within the hole that separated the cells as an added security measure. If a prisoner occupied both cells, they were allowed to converse through the hole.

The guards that tended to the facility did not appear to be ninja themselves, although it was suggested that ninja might have been staffed, though the affiliation of the ninja is unknown. Indeed, the operation appeared to have no outright political or military ties to the prisoners. There were interrogations and verbal abuses, but they didn't seem to favor one viewpoint over another outside of "the opposite of whatever the captive was" and accents varied. Some of the tortures used seemed to be of Kirigakure style, although the prison itself seemed to be similar to Iwagakure-nin bases in construction, and the seals often used were more indicative of Konohagakure and Otogakure; the mesh itself has brought up a high amount of debate.

Although the guards frequently accused the ninja of various crimes, the crimes they accused them of were not always the same, and any requests of clarification by the prisoners on why they were being held or what their crimes were had largely been ignored.

The Prisoners and Their Treatment

All prisoners were tortured and placed through interrogation procedures. Methods varied from prisoner to prisoner, generally relying on their elemental affinity (for instance, lightning-based ninja mostly underwent lacerative tortures with wounds to open air, whereas an earth-based ninja would undergo a great deal of electroshock torture) and held very little schedule. Feeding was also infrequent and starvation was sometimes used in trying to punish or break inmates. Male prisoners were only tortured in the interrogation room.

Captive kunoichi underwent worse procedures than their male counterparts. They could be tortured at any time, both in the interrogation room and in their own cells. Guards also were allowed to take advantage of them in their cells, and frequently did; every surviving kunoichi reported that they had been raped at least once by the guards, sometimes in midst of torture. Males heavily outnumbered them by the time they were released (they had a far smaller ratio compared to the ratio of male-female in ninja ranks despite all other ratios being representative), suggesting they were more prone to being killed through these conditions. It is unconfirmed if any male prisoners endured similar treatment.

At the end of the incident, there were 28 prisoners counting the kunoichi killed shortly before they were freed. Of these, there were at least two of every hidden village or ninja country, including shinobi from Tanima no Kuni itself. Investigations suggest that there could have been as many as 600 prisoners through the duration of the prison's function.

Most information that isn't classified, heavily censored, or damaged/destroyed that deals with the patterns of prisoner switching and death has been obtained from a Kirigakure ninja (his name has been censored from most official documents) who had been captured in January of Year 198. This makes him the longest survivor in the prison at five years and four months, the next one being a Kusa-nin at two years and four months. According to him, prisoners tended to die at about an average of two-to-three months, usually due to self-induced starvation, and rarely changed cells, only freed them up. Women did tend to be removed permanently from cells more quickly than men, usually after being unresponsive for an extended period of time following a brutal rape. There was one instance he reports a woman who had been impregnated during her incarceration and was starting to show before her death.

Due to the intense sensory deprivation, all victims have been afflicted with lasting, if not permanent psychological damage, which will be addressed later in the article. During their imprisonment, they all reported various hallucinations, starting as early as the first forty-eight hours of consciousness. Many ninja retreated into their own safe delusions, while others were continually haunted with waking nightmares and frequently relived battles they fought. Sometimes the dementia could become so violent that they harm unknowingly harm and even kill themselves.

If they were lucky, they had additional stimuli provided by the companionship of someone who might share an adjacent cell. As such, those who did have that luxury became inseparably close to their fellow prisoner, even if they were sworn enemies from rival nations before. There were peace agreements signed and even a few marriages from this camaraderie as a result.

On June 8, Year 203, all remaining prisoners had their last torture session and were officially told they would be publicly executed in a week's time and were granted each granted one final request. Different staff seemed to handle the prisoners from that time forward, and they kept to their word on granting any final request they found reasonable. No torture occurred during that week, and the women were not raped. On June 14, each prisoner was taken from their cell, cleaned, and were given the clothes they were originally obtained in including their hitai-ate, although they were not given any weapons or tools.

Invitations

Throughout the month of May in Year 203, various leaders on the continent received strange cards inviting them to something titled as a "Gallows Party", signed by the Daimyo of Tanima no Kuni. It is important to note that, during this time, the country didn't have a daimyo; there had been a great deal of internal political strife and the last Daimyo, Sekiban Tonbo, had stepped down to avoid civil war.

The Country of Valleys cordially invites you and any guests you may bring to our Gallows Party. We would be honored to have your presence to our show of exciting and professionally performed executions, all guaranteed to be authentic and righteous. Seats overlooking the proceedings from above will be reserved for you.

Sake, Hors d'oeuvres, and Dinner

Fifteenth of June, four o'clock in the afternoon

Valley of Matsubaran-zan (Open air)

Quite sincerely yours, The Valley Daimyo

Among those who received this invitation were the daimyo of other countries, including former Daimyo Sekiban Tonbo, the Kages of the five great ninja nations, major ninja leaders of other hidden villages, and some high ranked aristocrats and ninja clan elders. Citizens of Tanima no Kuni, including their ninja, heard often by flyers, newspaper articles, and sometimes rumor about a large, open celebration that was to take place by Matsubaran-zan, but there was no real agreement concerning what sort of celebration it was, even among those who have heard about or seen the official invitations.

Although there had been an increase of ninja disappearances up to this point across the continent, no one had linked suspicions that this was connected with the upcoming event.

The Gallows Party

On June 15, Year 203, a platform was erected in front of a clearing and some elevated seats in the valley that Matsubaran-zan shouldered. Although there was a lot of distaste for the highly publicized but nonetheless unexplained invitations, there was still a large turnout, mostly of locals, who came to Matsubaran-zan out of curiosity. Similarly, although many of the officials that were invited declared against being manipulated by some cocky anonymous note-sender, others still came, including daimyo (although the daimyo that came brought their personal guard) and all five kages.

"By the time four o'clock came by," said a woman who witnessed the event, "The whole valley seemed completely packed with people."

When the time came, the invited officials in the bleachers were served sake and hors d'oeuvres by some hired caterers and told that dinner would come later.

Meanwhile, the prisoner ninja were being taken out of their holding cells in the prison complex. Although none of them remember going in, and were often hooded when taken out of their cells for interrogation and hygiene, they had never been brought through the length before. All mention how many checkpoints they had to go through while being flanked by guards, even kept chained the whole way.

They were taken out of the complex into open air in this formation, and most of the ninja were stunned from suddenly being introduced to sunlight since this was the first time they had seen any for a while, up to years for some. At this point, there is a bit of a divide in accounts, most likely since the prisoners were all very distracted from the sudden stimuli. It is disagreed on whether or not all prisoners were in chains or not… an important point since two ninja somehow managed to escape at this time. They were the only two shinobi from Konohagakure that had been captured and survived in the prison. They managed to use jutsu to fend off the guards and ran for the woods to escape, but one was retaken by the guards and the other, Yagami Rin, a student of the Yondaime Hokage, had to be apprehended by the ninja staff. The attempt seemed to have been organized, a highly debated point as sources indicate the two had no contact with one another since they were captured.

The procession of captured ninja continued to the stage. The crowd began to get restless at this point, and the officials watching from the raised seats were puzzled and offended at the sight. The kage and leaders of other ninja villages had recognized their missing ninja among the procession and were becoming alarmed.

There wasn't time between the guards to discuss which ninja should go first, so the ninja staff that had apprehended Yagami Rin forced her execution in the beginning, hanging her from the noose and dropping her body below the stage. As the next ninja being taken to the gallows fought against his captors, the kage and village leaders interfered and attacked the guards and staff ninja on the stage, immediately setting to action in freeing their missing ninja and trying to apprehend the ones responsible. The Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, lead the attack as the kunoichi that had been executed was one of his own.

The crowd went into chaos at this and some guards managed to escape in the confusion. Most of the guards were killed by cloaked staff ninja, their former captives, or angry village leaders and outside ninja, so few were actually arrested or captured. The ones that were captured shortly afterward committed suicide or died mysteriously. The staff ninja had all escaped but one, who chose to self-immolate in a fire jutsu rather than be discovered.

It took several hours to retain order in the area after the execution. Most of the public officials fled to avoid any danger from the resulting mob, but the massive amount of ninja present working together on ending the matter had ended the possibility of a riot. The only daimyo to stay until the end was of Fire Country.

Aftermath

None of the countries would come forward and admit that they had anything to do with the incident, Valley especially since their government wasn't even in stable condition at the moment. Although the experience did bring ninja who were involved into a more lenient view of each other in respect to their countries, there was a great mistrust that rose from the incident, as there wasn't a clear enemy to rally against. Conspiracy theorists suspected that this was a result of the ninja world's way of doing things, through clandestine military operations and inhumane interrogation practices. However, no theories, official or otherwise, have been able to address every point: why they chose Matsubaran-zan in Tanima no Kuni, why they chose the specific ninja that they did, why they kept them for so long, what purposes they interrogated for, and why they chose to execute them in the fashion that they did, most likely knowing that the event would be interfered considering their invitations.

The ninja that survived showed varying degrees of recovery. The ones who stayed for years and ones who were not psychologically strong (either by lack of training or by preexisting mental imbalance) were no longer fit for duty and had to be discharged. Many of them had great difficulty reintegrating into society, and the worst cases couldn't even function in everyday life. There was a suicide and an accidental death as a result, so others were highly moderated in their hospitals for their own protection. Many chose to quit being ninja, while others took leave for long periods of time. Those who did return to active duty showed a decrease in accuracy, speed, and tolerance of external stimuli and social interaction even after complete physical recovery.

There was a change in many ninja laws across the continent as the result of what happened. The missing-nin laws granted the largest amount of change, where more effort was put into finding ninja that had disappeared or defected to either rescue them or dispose of them. Tanima no Kuni destabilized shortly afterwards and abolished their already dissolving ninja village in favor of reconstructing a new one, though they have not decided on a village symbol as of yet. Peace talks and treaties gained a different pressure between the governments that both strained relations as well as forced leaders to consider possible interpretations of their actions in light of the incident. Kirigakure had the most change as a result among the five major villages, as this forced their laws concerning cruel methods of training ninja to become more lax, a breath of fresh air after what had happened during their Yondaime Mizukage's reign.

Ever since, there has been a drive to discover what might have been behind the whole thing. However, the complex had mostly been destroyed afterward by the escaped ninja staff and their documents were either missing or burned for the most part. Some of the documents had been obtained by the various countries and are now highly classified material. Very little of what has been discovered has been brought to light, furthering any dissenting feelings and further fueling the debate and theories that surround what had happened.

*The tenth year after the Kyuubi attack in Konohagakure.

Matsubaran – Japanese for "whisk fern".

I had to do a lot of research for this, so it took a while for me to finish.
Do you think there are inconsistencies with "Skull Prison" here? Because there isn't... :)