Disclaimer: See the first one.

Yeah, I didn't expect this to be popular; Skull Prison sure wasn't. I'm mostly writing all this for the amusement of writing it, and for the experience it offers. This chapter should be easier to read.

How can people stand all this noise?

Kakashi turned again in his hospital bed, direly wishing he could rip out the pipes gurgling water through his room, or lock his door and shove a towel underneath it, or at least yell at the people that went about their lives outside his open window that he couldn't bear to close. It wasn't that he couldn't handle all of the noise… he just didn't want to. It grated in that one spot on his nerves right between annoyance and intolerance, and he was biting into his mask to keep from making a big deal about it.

It was nice to be in an actual bed for a change, but did he have to be stuck in a hospital of all places? Of course he did; that was a stupid question and he felt like an idiot every time he asked it to himself. He was malnourished, drained, bruised, beaten, had several infections, and a hole in his back made by a kama to top it all off. Right now might've been the best he'd felt in months, but he was so sore and weak it took effort to get up and walk around for an extended period of time. Still… he couldn't help but to hate it. Hospitals were places of pain. They were where he went when Rin couldn't heal him, either being gone on her own mission or his condition beyond her help. And he hadn't stayed in the hospital for more than a few nights for years; he just stayed at Rin's apartment if something lingered, like overusing the Sharingan.

So being in a hospital like this meant one thing to him: Rin really is gone.

He spent a lot of his first few days here regretting what had happened, and what decisions he had made. He wasn't able to protect Rin in the least, and those three months were more hell for her than they was for him. The only thing she could do was to get used to it, to grin and bear it, and to grasp hold of any positive, no matter how minute or low, that she could find. In the end, he couldn't do a single thing for her. Even his final request he couldn't think of anything, instead selfishly marrying her and taking away her final request as well.

Pale and scarred, dressed in an ANBU uniform that had become too big for her, she was still a beautiful bride in his opinion. Maybe he should have stopped the ceremony, but he couldn't; he cherished the look on her face too much and there was no way she'd let him say "no" there. Maybe he should have stopped her when she kissed him on that blanket on the floor… Yes he definitely should have then. It would have been kinder for her, to keep her from forcing herself to be touched after what happened, just to give him one night. It was a night that she knew could be their last, but that didn't mean he should've taken advantage of it.

Damn fine way to protect her, Kakashi. If Obito could come back, he'd stab you in his own eye for this.

All right, that's an exaggeration. Kakashi tried his damnedest to get the two of them out of there. He just didn't succeed; the enemy was cunning and he wasn't strong enough to overcome it. If there weren't ninja in those woods, Rin would've escaped without any trouble and he'd likely be the one in that noose. On the other hand, if they didn't try to escape, maybe Rin wouldn't have been dragged out in front to be the first—and only—prisoner executed. Was it better to die for standing up than to stay quiet in your chains to live?

Kakashi turned over again and looked at the ceiling. Okay, he couldn't just lie here all day, even if he can't move around. He sat up and snatched the book Jiraiya had brought earlier from the table. He'd read Icha Icha Paradise before, but he didn't like it much then; he preferred Jiraiya's first book far better. However, when Jiraiya visited him he brought it by as a present to alleviate Kakashi's boredom and try to lift his spirits… he even gave him a couple more books he didn't write so that it didn't seem like he was forcing him to read his work. Kakashi had finished the other books, so this was all that was left.

The sun was setting, elongating the shadows in the room and tinging them slightly red by the time Kakashi heard Tenzo's voice calling him. "Kakashi-senpai?"

"Hn?" He finally looked up from Jiraiya's novel; he was already halfway done. "How long have you been standing there, Tenzo?"

"A minute or so… you didn't hear me for a little while. Is that book so interesting?"

"I suppose it is." Kakashi looked down again and shut the book.

"Ah, you didn't have to close it like that on my account. You'll lose your place without marking the page you were on."

"I'll just find it again. What's up?"

Tenzo smiled and sat in the nearby chair. "I just thought I should drop by. You know, Yuugao and I were very worried about you and Rin-san. Hokage-sama did put out a search for you, since he couldn't believe either of you would defect from the village, but we couldn't come up with anything. You were even declared dead a month ago. Not that we gave up hope, but…" His smile fell and he dropped his head. "…It was just taking more manpower than we could spare, and the Sandaime didn't want it to turn into a personal mission."

"You don't need to explain yourself, Tenzo. I understand. With all the mystery surrounding the whole thing, and with how long such an operation seems to have had to run, I can hardly blame the Hokage or any of you for what happened… except…" Kakashi shook his head. "…I just wish they had interfered at that 'Gallows Party' a little sooner."

Tenzo frowned and he struggled a moment to think of something to say. "What was the experience like, Kakashi-senpai? I've been in holding cells and such before, but that was mostly in training. You don't seem to be that much worse for wear, like I've heard other captives had been."

Kakashi found that he didn't like being referred to as a "captive", but it wasn't like there was any better word. "The training helps with enduring it. They didn't do sleep deprivation… I admit there are times where events seem a little fuzzy, though. Some starvation, but it was mostly rationing and not hard to endure. There was a lot of torture and interrogation—they were very adamant about that, even though a lot of the interrogation didn't seem to make sense. But it was mostly sensory deprivation. Small cell, no light, thick door and walls."

"Sensory deprivation…" Tenzo nodded with a somber look on his face. "I remember reading about the long term effects in the academy and during psychological training. I definitely see why so many of the ninja that came out of that couldn't function anymore after months of that."

"Like I said, the training helps. Plus, I was lucky; Rin was in a connecting cell, and she helped me cope. We talked, passed the time together, and she even managed to hide away a small light from the guards for us to use. I don't think there was a topic of conversation we didn't cover. There were times I felt fed up with her voice, and other times that I wished she wasn't in a joining cell since I could hear when the guards came in to torture her, but whenever she wasn't there… It's just unbelievable how much of a difference that can be."

"There were times when she was taken out of her cell?"

He nodded. "For both of us. That's when we were tortured and interrogated."

"But, you just said that they tortured her in her own cell."

There was a silence. "…They did a lot of things to her in her own cell."

Tenzo's eyes widened in understanding and a painful lump formed in his throat. He didn't know how to respond to that; even though it was statistically likely that something like this would happen, he never imagined having it happen to someone he knew, let alone someone he knew that had recently been killed on top of that. And here he was, making his senpai—a witness to the whole thing—relive the experience. "I'm sorry."

"There's no need for apologies, Tenzo; I'm just telling you what happened. If I didn't want to answer, I wouldn't have, and if I could endure three months of living it, I won't have any trouble with a few minutes of talking about it. I even detailed it all in a report to the Hokage yesterday."

"Eh? They're actually making you work?"

"No one made me; Hokage-sama requested it, and I delivered. I was bored out of my mind, anyway, and it helped take my mind off the noise of this hospital."

Tenzo never thought of the hospital as being particularly noisy, but he didn't mention it. "So do you think you'll be going back into active duty any time soon?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I might take a month leave after I get out of here, to get back into shape. Sooner rather than later just seems best. However… I think I'll quit ANBU for now. Maybe get a fresh team rather than fill an empty spot." Kakashi smiled so that his eye curled. "Maybe I'll even luck out and not have to be captain for a while."

The kohai smiled back, trying not to linger on the fact that his team was now, effectively, dissolved because of what happened, because his senpai that always kept a cool and practical viewpoint didn't want to replace the closest person to him. Or maybe he was still being practical; he might not be up to ANBU duties even after a month of therapies and retraining. "You might end up being made a sensei instead."

"Hn?" Kakashi thought on that a moment seriously. "Maybe. Who knows?"

Tenzo was actually joking when he said that, but on second thought, he decided Kakashi wouldn't be a bad sensei. Tenzo certainly learned from him by being under his command.

In the pause that followed, Kakashi considered for a moment telling him what had happened before the end: Kakashi's impromptu marriage with Rin. It only seemed proper that he should know about it, even though it didn't amount to anything and it changed absolutely nothing. Still, they were all comrades. "There's another thing…"

Two porcelain-masked men in cloaks silently entered, stealing away Kakashi's attention. Tenzo turned to look at them himself. One of them was in a normal ANBU cloak and a cat-like mask, but the other had the uniform more matching the Root division underneath. "Otomatsu-san?"

"Ah, Tenzo-san. We don't mean to cut your visit with Kakashi-san short, but we must speak with him regarding some sensitive matters on his experience." The normal ANBU made a slight bow, though the Root didn't budge. "I hope you don't mind."

Tenzo raised a brow, but he stood and smiled regardless. "That's fine." He turned back to Kakashi. "I'll be sure to bring Yuugao with me next time I come. She wanted to come today but she had business with Hayate and his family."

"Really? Those two are moving quickly. Ah, then again I'm still thinking of three months ago. That sounds good; I'll see you later."

Tenzo made a nod and exited, though he did give the Root ANBU a look as he passed.

When the three were alone, Kakashi sighed and regarded his new visitors with a deadpan stare. "Is there something you wanted to ask me, Otomatsu? I figured I put enough detail in my report to the Hokage yesterday."

"The detail is good enough, although it's confusing," Otomatsu started, "You see, we've gotten a hold of some of the documents from that prison. We've been comparing them with your accounts, and your information has been invaluable in filling the holes."

"There are contradictions, though," the Root cut in coldly. The first ANBU turned towards him.

"Contradictions?" Kakashi wouldn't see where there'd be contradictions; other than the questions during interrogation, the dates (which he found out was off by a week by the time he left, but he made sure to mention that) and the feeding times, "life" in that place was otherwise pretty consistent.

"Maah, maah, you don't need to get into that yet," Otomatsu said to his companion, "It's going to be a shock to him. Let's lead up to that part, all right? Kakashi-san, the truth is, even with the information we've gathered, we still don't seem to be any closer to figuring out the reason or the perpetrators. You described the guards as being of various nationalities. How about the ninja?"

"I didn't see the ninja until the end, and they were cloaked and didn't speak so I couldn't tell."

"I see. You weren't aware that some of the staff in the interrogation rooms were ninja, then?"

"Were they?" Kakashi frowned under his mask. That would make sense; they seemed to know more about interrogation and torture than the guards that came into Rin's cell. However he rarely even saw them, himself usually hooded through those experiences. "I don't know their nationalities either, in that case; I never saw their faces. They had different accents, but…" Kakashi thought hard on it a moment. "They did share terms between them more than the normal guards did. Like they had been working together for a while."

"What sort of terms?" The Root ANBU pressed. Otomatsu sighed at his forwardness.

"Let me remember… the word 'yuurei' was used a lot whenever they were talking about documents. I was under the impression that was the name of their filing system. Hn… might have had something to do with paper members or fake organizations. They talked about reporting to the 'dajare'. Never figured out if they were talking about a superior with a funny name or if it stood for something else."

"Can you think of anything else, Kakashi-san?"

He shook his head. "Not at the moment; it was mostly method of phrases, anyway. I can report it if any come to mind. So is that all you wanted to know? Are you going to ask me about that contradiction now?"

Otomatsu looked to the side, as if upset. "It's a bit difficult. Um, you said you had experienced a lot of hallucinations during the your capture, correct?"

"Yes. I did."

"And they would get very realistic, right? To the point it might be difficult separating reality from illusion?"

Kakashi's brows furrowed. "Well… yes, but I know that not all my experience was illusion. I probably confirmed some things from those files you'd obtained, didn't I?"

"You did, so we know that most of your words are truth and free of delusion. However there is the matter of Rin-san…"

"What about her?"

The Root cut in again. "The documents we managed to acquire indicate multiple times that you had no visual, physical, or auditory contact with Yagami Rin."

Kakashi didn't understand the words he said or what he was implying for a few seconds, and when it hit him he nearly choked. "What?"

Otomatsu berated the Root. "You didn't have to put it like that!"

"What do you mean I had no contact with Rin? She was in the cell next to mine. I heard her voice everyday, saw her face after she stole that small electric light. We even got married. I couldn't have imagined all of that, could I?"

"You must understand, Kakashi-san," Otomatsu continued in sympathetic tones, "The files simply state otherwise. The two of you weren't even in the same wing of the prison, let alone connected. And there was a brief mention about your final request that you say in your report was to marry her… the documents have you on the list of those who denied their final request."

"That can't be." Kakashi felt weak, but his voice remained curt. "There has to be a mistake. The documents have to be wrong."

"Considering the convergence of intelligence we have on the incident otherwise, there is more inclination to think that the files are right in this regard," the Root said, "The files state that you and Yagami Rin did not have connected cells; they imply that the cells actually connected to yours and Rin's cells were both empty throughout the duration of your incarceration. There is no contradiction in the files, just from your report."

Kakashi shook his head. He couldn't believe that; it didn't make any sense. Of all the things to contradict… "So you're trying to say that I hallucinated all my interactions with Rin."

"That would be the conclusion," the Root answered simply. Otomatsu sighed again and looked to the floor.

"I see. Well, if that's all, then I suppose you're done with me. It's been good seeing you, Otomatsu."

"Kakashi-san, please." Otomatsu held up his hands. "We just want to know how you managed to plan that escape with her if you didn't speak during the three month period. We thought maybe you replaced the memory of the method with fabrications and were hoping we could jog your memory of it by telling you the truth."

"I'm actually a telepath," he answered flatly, "We conspired by magically projecting our thoughts to one another."

"Like the Yamanaka clan?" Apparently the members of Danzo's foundation aren't taught such subtle humor.

"There's no need to be sarcastic…" Otomatsu said, exasperated.

"We're finished with this conversation, Otomatsu," Kakashi said, laying back in his bed and looking out the window. "You can leave now."

"…" Otomatsu bowed. "I wish you a quick recovery from your injuries, Kakashi-san." The ANBU left together.

Listening to their footsteps until they dwindled to too soft for his ears and mixed with the other hospital patrons, Kakashi kept his eye trained on the sky outside until he was sure his visitors were long gone. He was glad to be rid of them; the Root shuffled his feet around awkwardly and it grated on Kakashi's ears. He didn't think on what they said, because he didn't want to think about such things. Instead, he pulled up Jiraiya's book and slowly flipped from the beginning to find where he'd left off and continued reading.

Then he laughed.

He didn't remember the book being so funny, but for some reason the perverted romantic comedy really hit him well this time around. Maybe he was able to enjoy and relate more with the playful frustrations between the main protagonist and the girl he was chasing, or maybe he was just happy to have something cheer him up and make him chuckle. Even the plot was pretty good… good enough for him to be disappointed when he reached the end, knowing that, with how it ended, this was just the first installment of a series Jiraiya must have been setting up to write. When did he plan on writing the next one?

The sun was long since buried under the horizon, so he turned the lights on. They hummed to life and, instead of getting annoyed at the sound, Kakashi merely turned to the first page of his book and started all over again.

Yuurei – ghost, phantom. This word is used to describe "fakes" that only exist on paper but have no substance, like yuureibuin (paper member who never shows up at meetings to their club), yuureishain (bogus employee), or yuureigaisha (bogus/paper company).
Dajare – pun.