AN: I know this is late, I apologize, there isn't internet at my new house so I'm posting this from my parents (blah). But it's a long chapter, for me anyway.
Incase there was any confusion, Ino is 19 in this, and Neji is 20. All other ages have been adjusted accordingly.
~begin story~
Ino was up before dawn the next day, she usually was on mornings she would be working for the Torture and Interrogation department, and she stood on her balcony slowly sipping her coffee and watching Konoha begin to awaken as the sun crept it's way over the horizon. The day would undoubtedly prove to be both long and unpleasant, but she always found she could counter its after-affects by spending her morning enjoyably.
She sighed as she pushed herself away from the railing and headed back into her apartment to deposit her now empty coffee mug in the sink and slip on her shoes before heading out onto the streets. She meandered down the roads between her home and the T&I building at a leisurely pace, knowing she had left herself plenty of time to spare, and smiled at the few others she passed on her way; mostly vendors just opening shop or ninja just coming home from missions. She kept a close eye on the latter, making sure none of her comrades had been seriously injured, but saw nothing to give her pause.
The Torture and Interrogation building looked the same as ever when she arrived. It was an unremarkable building from the outside, designed so that anyone who didn't already know what it was would let their eyes slide over it without giving it a second thought. Once inside Ino made her way down a long cement corridor that nearly thrummed with the energy of hundreds of hidden seals and traps designed to keep "guests" inside and any friends foolish enough to attempt a rescue out. She opened the heavy metal door at the end and squinted as her eyes were assaulted by the too-bright artificial light of another hallway, the light being another precaution meant to temporarily blind any prisoners that needed to be moved from one dark room to another, though it was little fun for the ninja that worked there to deal with either.
Ino ignored the many corridors that branched out from the one she was in and counted the unmarked doors that lined the hallway until she found the one she knew led into Ibiki's office and rapped lightly on it with her knuckles.
"Enter," came the harsh command from the other side.
Ibiki's office was never particularly neat, but it looked as though all hell had broken loose today. Piles of papers littered the desk and chairs, a pencil holder had been overturned and spewed it's contents across the floor, and Ino was able to count eight paper coffee mugs lying discarded around the room, meaning that Ibiki probably hadn't slept last night. The man in question was sitting at his desk, in the only chair not occupied by a paper stack, and pouring over a scroll of some sort. He didn't bother to look up when Ino came in.
"Have a seat Yamanka," he said once the door was closed.
Ino raised an eyebrow at this, but decided to surreptitiously move the papers from one of the chairs into a previously unoccupied corner and then sat herself in the newly freed chair. Ibiki sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face before finally looking up at the young-woman sitting opposite from him, and Ino made a mental note that he must be very tired for him to make such an open display of it.
"All we know about this subject thus far is what we've been able to glean from the bingo books," Ibiki started, never having been one to mince words, "His name is Haikibutsu Kasu. He is a missing-nin from cloud and a part of a group of rabbles that still desire the destruction of Konoha because of certain casualties suffered during the war between the two villages."
Ino cocked her head to the side in question and Ibiki nodded, continuing with a more in-depth explanation.
"Both cloud and Konoha suffered great losses of life during the war. It came to the point that the villages, Cloud especially, felt the need to send children barely out of the academy out onto the battle fields in an attempt to build-up the forces. Both sides lost some of their most promising talent, seeing as the clan geniuses were some of the first to be sent out. These radicals, including our current guest, have never forgiven Konoha for the loss, or learned to live with it. The incident involving the attempted kidnapping of Hyuga Hinata only fueling their ire. Their goal is the total devastation of Konoha, starting with it's most promising youth."
Ino nodded and gazed absently at the edge of Ibiki's desk for a moment, giving herself time to absorb this new information, before looking back up to meet the interrogator's eyes.
"Where is he?"
Ibiki stood and made his way to the door, gesturing for Ino to follow as he walked out into the hallway. As they wandered through the many maze-like corridors he continued his debriefing.
"As per the regulations of our treaty agreement with Cloud, they have been notified that we have one of their missing-nin. Apparently this one used to be involved in something big because they are sending hunters to come retrieve him rather that simply allowing us to deal with him. That means we only have roughly three days to learn what he was doing lingering around our walls before we lose him and the information."
Ino 'hmmed' and nodded once more, it certainly explained why she had been called in so quickly.
Ibiki stopped to open a door and all talking ceased. The prisoner they had been discussing was centered in the room, encased in a large bubble of concrete that looked like an outgrowth of the floor itself; covered in various seals to prevent him from using even the most basic jutsu. Tonbo was standing against one wall along with another Yamanaka, a cousin of Ino's, who would presumably be functioning as her 'spotter', ready to assist incase she ran into any traps within the man's mind that she couldn't handle by herself. Ino was always grateful for the precaution but was also very confident of her own abilities; it had been years since she had needed any help with such things after all.
With a deep breath and a moment of final preparation Ino stepped forward and began to form the hand seals necessary for her families signature jutsu. With a final seal and a murmur of the techniques name Ino found herself standing within the mind of her subject.
If the twists and turns, unexpected starts and abrupt ends of the T&I building's intricate makeup were confusing, the human mind was infinitely more so. To Ino it had always resembled a giant web made of light. The most recent memories glowed the brightest and looped around the outside following and interconnected path that spiraled towards the oldest memories at the center. But it was far from being as simple as a set of stepping stones. Each memory had a network of threads extending from it, linking it to other memories and bits of information the person believed were relevant to the memory's situation. There were blank spots where things had been forgotten, smears where a person had attempted to forget things, and piles in some places where one memory was overpowered and buried by another. It was in this type of jungle that Ino now found herself.
She carefully navigated her way beyond the most recent thoughts of Ibiki's work the previous day, knowing from experience that it would produce nothing helpful if Ibiki hadn't managed to draw anything out himself. She then sifted through the time he had spent lingering outside of the walls. It was obvious to her that he was searching for a weak spot that could be exploited and used as a point of entry. He wrote reports and sent them off to someone at times, but since they were all in code they offered little help. Apart from these things and the area the man had been sleeping in for three days to avoid detection by the border patrols, there was little else to be gained. So she moved on.
Carefully moving backwards through the mans mind she watched his uneventful trip to Konoha and came upon the first mental trap that had been laid in the man's mind as she watched him near his place of origin, which appeared to be a large mountain cavern. She quickly and cautiously disassembled the trap and was very nearly startled when she saw a mountain of a man suddenly standing in front of her in the eyes of the man who's mind she was invading.
"I want you to find us an easy way into Konoha," the man was saying, "It would be advantageous to have a team on the inside once they become aware we are moving. The scum that is Konoha will undoubtedly become wary after they realize their first sons have fallen."
This statement perked Ino's interest and she moved further back in the man's mind to learn exactly what he meant.
Meanwhile, Ibiki had taken station along the wall beside the other two men, pulling a chair over to give his feet a break. Ino's technique was highly effective, but also time consuming.
It was several hours later that the young woman pulled back from her subject abruptly, gasping for air and looking rather shaken.
"Ino," Ibiki stated, rising quickly to his feet and striding towards her, worried because it had been a very long time since she had seen anything within a prisoners mind that upset her so badly, "What happened? Are you alright?"
The girls knees buckled momentarily and he put an arm out to steady her. He was taken back when she raised her eyes to his and he saw that they were filled with infinite pain and sadness. Her voice shook when she finally answered him.
"It's a trap."
~page break~
"Mujihi-sama," a man said as he approached the looming figure still standing at the mouth of the cavern.
"What is it Tero," he responded, more a command than a question. His deep baritone echoed off the cavern walls in spite of the fact he had not raised his voice.
"We have not gotten our regular report from Kasu yet," the smaller man answered, wringing his hands together and blinking his beady eyes before continuing, "it is likely that he has fallen into enemy hands."
Mujihi shifted his weight but never took his eyes off of the plain below him. He looked completely unaffected by the news.
"It matters very little," he replied, "Kasu wasn't producing any useful information and we can carry on without him. By the time Leaf's interrogators get anything of our intentions from him it will already be to late for them."
"Of course Mujihi-sama," Tero nodded, and without another word he slipped back into the shadows of the cave.
~page break~
Neji's team stood off to one side of a stream, all smiling good humouredly at their client/charge. He was walking around very gingerly in a manner that made it quite clear he was unused to riding a horse. Neji had offered to slow the pace to make him more comfortable, but he had adamantly refused.
Neji huffed a small sigh of amusement and chagrin as the man attempted to bend over to refill his water canteen, and then looked back in the direction of Konoha. It was a habit Neji had found himself falling frequently into since the start of this mission. It was very unlike him to be distracted by anything, but he still could not shake his feeling of unease.
Shrugging his shoulders as if to rid them of some unseen weight he turned back to the rest of the group.
"We should start moving again shortly," he ordered gently, "We are only about a half a days journey from our destination and we've already spent enough time dawdling that we won't make it tonight."
"You mean we're spending another night out of doors?" Kansei asked, looking unreasonably shaken by the prospect. "I was hoping we would make it there by night fall."
Neji smiled good naturedly at the man and shook his head.
"I'm afraid that's not going to happen Zetsumei-san," he replied, "and for the safety of everyone involved I will have to insist that we stop for the night once we lose the light."
The man huffed and nodded, clambering back onto his horse.
"Lets cover as much ground as possible then," he stated.
Neji nodded and picked up his pack, the rest of the team following suit, and with just a minutes work they vanished into the trees.
~TBC~
AN: Aaaand the plot thickens. I had to proof-read this one myself, so I hope I didn't miss too much. Please let me know what you think, reviews make me and my inbox happy.