Fandom: Naruto

Pairing: KakaIru

Status: Mondo WIP

Notes: Sooooo, first of all, this fanfiction shares a title with a novel by Robert Penn Warren. This story is in no way connected with his book. At all.

This little prologue is only the beginning of this story. I'm not sure yet where it's going from here, but I posted this to see if anyone would be interested in the least. So, here we go.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

All The Kings Men

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the king's horses and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Prologue

It was sterile. It was monochrome. It was dark. He didn't like it.

Mostly, he just wanted to make something suffer for this.

Ryu couldn't remember a time that he wasn't angry, but this was a new level of annoyance. The men had gone back into the mirror room and he couldn't hear them now. It didn't matter; he didn't care what they had to say. He just wanted out of here. Now.

The air in the room was dry and set at an incredibly infuriating lukewarm temperature, making his throat raspy and his lips cracked. The metal chair that The Demon had pushed him into was hard and cold, just like the table that his forehead rested on. The change in temperature calmed him slightly, but his duty to protect still rampaged through him. His nerves stood on end, his foot twitched, ready to fight. But everyone responsible was behind the mirror.

He could feel them watching.

Kiyoshi was upset, he could feel it. He was screaming and hiding. And who had done that? Them. The Demons had made Kiyoshi afraid. They would suffer.

Ryu lifted his head and searched the bleak walls that surrounded him, his ribs aching from the strain it caused on his abdomen. The fight was over. The danger had passed and he was quickly becoming tired from being here so long. The Demons were gone for now and if anyone needed him, he would come back. Until then, he could sleep.

-~-~-

Ibiki stared at the all-too-thin man quietly, wondering how things could have spiraled out of control so quickly. The man had fought for his life, that was for sure. Blood was still matted in his spiky, silver hair and even though he wasn't showing it, his ribs were surly aching from where Ibiki had kicked him.

Where The Demon had kicked him. Right.

"Why did he call me a demon?"

"He's probably angry because you kicked him and dragged him out of his house." The old woman standing with him turned away from the two-way glass and began writing on her clipboard again. "He's actually probably thinking of ways to make you die a horrible death."

Ibiki raised an eyebrow and hummed, taking a slow sip from his coffee. It was practically grime and sludge, but it kept him awake through mind-screws like this. Jounin were known to be unstable, but how this had gone on for this long without his knowledge, he wasn't sure.

He knew nearly nothing. Nari Michiko, however, knew all about this. She just wasn't telling him anything. His fingers drummed on the desk and he turned to face her, his eyes squinting inquisitively. Michiko smiled to herself, wrinkles forming around her green eyes.

"Ibiki-san, you need to trust me. I know you don't understand now, but I will explain everything soon. For now, I believe you should send for the help I requested as soon as possible." Ibiki's hand slammed down onto the table, the force denting it's small wooden structure. His other hand found its way onto her collar, pulling her close to his face.

"Nari-sama, there is a man in there who is out of his mind! Hatake Kakashi might not be the sanest person, but it isn't like him to attack me in his home. He is not the kind of ninja to hold back the details of a mission and he is not the kind of person that would sit in there and plot ways to kill me." Ibiki pulled her impossibly closer so that she could smell the 'coffee' on his breath. "Now, tell me what is going on, or your psychiatric license will be shredded and you will have to get a job shoveling dirt!" Michiko's smile had faded, but the determined look in her eyes intensified.

"First of all, you need to get Umino Iruka here now. Until he gets here, you and I are going to stay in this room. Secondly, you obviously do not understand what exactly is happening here." She stepped away from Ibiki and pointed towards the glass. "You are correct in saying that Kakashi-kun wouldn't do any of those things. Unfortunately, that man isn't Hatake Kakashi."

Ibiki's face went through several different emotions incredibly quickly. Michiko smugly decided that she liked confusing this man; it was fun to watch him trying to keep his shinobi-esque composure. He was still standing there, though, looking at her and blinking.

Finally, he stalked out of the room, flagging down the ANBU that stood watch at the door. The masked man floated over, received whispered orders and disappeared in a whirl of smoke. Ibiki came back in, obviously trying to calm himself.

"Why do we need Iruka-sensei to talk to-" Kakashi? "-whoever the hell that is in there?" He asked quietly.

"I believe that is something I should wait to explain, at least until he gets here." Michiko looked curiously at the lead interrogator's face. "You look concerned, Ibiki-san." Ibiki's eye twitched.

"One of Konoha's best shinobi has been possessed by some evil killing spirit. I think I should be concerned."

"Possessed isn't the word I would choose Ibiki-san. "

"Then what word would you choose, Michiko-san?"

"It's termed Dissociative Personality Disorder. Ryu, the man sitting in there, may have the same face as Hatake Kakashi but you can be sure is not the same person as Hatake Kakashi. But unfortunately, he may be the only person who can tell us what happened to Fukui-san."

Ibiki blinked, scowled and decided that he was going to most definitely need to get a new coffee maker for this room.