Chapter Four: Inquiries


(Wednesday)

"Mikoto!" The name starts Sasuke out of his thoughts. He's grateful they called the name that would attract the least amount of attention. Uchiha or Sasuke would have been much too obvious. Tsunade has a smart assistant.

Sasuke stands. "Mother, I realize this is going to bother you, but I'm going to have to request that you stay here."

Unsurprisingly, he receives a heavy sigh, dropped shoulders and a disappointing look from the still sitting woman.

"I would feel more comfortable meeting Tsunade alone," he continues in her silence.

"So, you just expect me to stay here." Her voice is quiet.

Sasuke inwardly cringes. "Yes."

He holds his palm out for the clipboard.

"Fine," she pouts, handing it over. "We only scheduled a basic checkup, so, I will respect your privacy. However, I will be talking with Tsunade about the results."

"I understand." Step one is complete. He turns to follow the nurse through the white door near the reception desk after giving her the information clipboard.

They make their way down the long hallway and through some turns before they arrive in a sterile medical examination room.

"I'd like to meet Dr. Tsunade in her office."

The nurse with the name tag "Shizune" closes the door. "You're not going to get out of this exam. The doctor will be in here soon. Please change into the gown."

With a (forced) polite smile, she closes the door.

Sasuke turns to look at the flimsy paper outfit left in the corner. There is no way in hell he is putting that shit on.

Taking a seat on the paper cover of the chair, he patiently waits for Tsunade to arrive. It takes maybe ten minutes before the door opens.

"Sasuke," the blonde woman greets. "It's been a while; I was shocked to receive that emergency phone call last night. You're lucky I owe your mother a favor. Normally, I have a very busy schedule." She shuts the door and smirks "Why aren't you in your gown?"

The teen gives her a disgusted glare.

"Oh, don't be like that," she waves him off. "I took time out of my busy schedule to do this after all. Usually, this would be Shizune's job."

Sasuke reaches into his pocket and pulls out a jump drive. "I don't know if you are aware, but I just spent the last three years with Orochimaru."

Tsunade pales, all hints of a smile drop from her face. "I figured you were not in the best environment, but I would never have guessed you were with my old associate."

"I'm not interested in an exam. In exchange, I will give you this." He holds up the black device. "On it, you will find my current medical history, advanced medical technology beyond anything you have ever seen, all of the research for any surgeries performed on my body, and a few additional experimental projects. I've already gone through the files and deleted some of the darker ones. Sound doesn't deserve the technology falling into the wrong hands."

The corners of her mouth turn down. "If you're trying to bribe me, you are doing a terrible job."

Sasuke sets the SanDisk next to him. "It's not a bribe; it's a compromise. No need for an examination will just bring up questions when you can find all the answers on here. We don't need to waste our time."

"I promised your mother I would give you an examination," she says firmly.

"And you will after you have been through these files. This way you won't have to stop every thirty seconds when you find a discrepancy."

She folds her arms across her chest, calling emphasis on her already large breasts.

Sasuke has to fight the urge to curiously glance down from her face. She must have got work done. There's no way those are natural.

"Fine," the younger says, noting her hesitation. He needs further convince her so that she won't reject his proposal. "My eyes automatically switch to night vision in the dark. Orochimaru made adjustments, so my NCOR1(1) has been turned off, and I produce less myostatin (2) which gives me nearly twice the amount of strength and speed than the average male. My metabolism moves quickly, so I have to eat a lot. He also installed a Bionic Ear that increases my hearing range, balance, and equilibrium. Lastly, a cosmetic effect was added in so I wouldn't look like the fucking hulk. It was important to keep my appearance mostly reasonable so that I could blend in with the average athletic citizen."

Tsunade's mouth opens, but Sasuke keeps going, not interested in hearing her disbelief. "I am not going to be another test subject. Take the offer, or I leave."

After staring down at him for another minute, she concedes "Alright, I don't have time to argue." she picks up the jump drive. "I'll look at this and phone when I'm ready to set up an appointment. But next time, you do what my assistant says and change into your damn paper gown."

"Fine," he agrees. At least he wouldn't be subjected to the gawking and prodding today.

"Fine." She turns to leave, but Sasuke has one more concern.

"My mother is going to ask you about today's appointment."

She looks back at him and scoffs. "Brat, I'm not going to tell her you chickened out. I'll make up some excuse about waiting for the test results to come back. In the meantime, your body is very strong. Now, scootch on outta here."

He exits the room. "I didn't chicken out; I'm saving us time."

"Keep telling yourself that. You should be able to find your way back to the waiting room." The sound of her heels clicks as she makes her way towards the left hallway.

Ignoring the urge to tell off the woman, Sasuke returns to where his mother is sitting. She grimly looks up from her cooking magazine. "So?"

"She said I'm very fit and has to wait for some test results to come back."

"I'm still calling her tonight." She closes the glossy pages and sets it down on the table next to her.

"Hn."

"You're just like your father." Standing, she rolls her eyes and slides her purse over her shoulders.

It doesn't take them long at all to get back in the car and arrive the police station.

They go in, and his mother speaks to the receptionist to take care of her missing person report. Not too much later, Sasuke oddly finds himself in an interrogation room sitting across from Hiashi Hyuuga, a federal officer.

No doubt his father pulled some strings to be standing behind the glass window to his left, despite the rivalry between their families. He wonders if his mother is also standing there. Probably not. Fugaku wouldn't allow it. The less amount of people to hear of his shame, the better. Sasuke's father is doing it for the pride of their family, but the teen couldn't help but still feel slightly grateful. He doesn't need others witnessing this interview.

"So," the man with pale eyes brings back Sasuke's focus away from the window and back to the person sitting across from him. "You've spent the last three years in Sound."

Sasuke raises an eyebrow. "Yes." Why is this turning into an interrogation? Oh, right. It's because the Hyuuga family and Uchiha family are continuously pissing each other off. This is a ploy aimed at Fugaku.

"In one of their military bases." It's not a question.

"Yes."

"What, exactly, were you doing there?"

Sasuke lets out a slow breath of air, careful to keep his face blank. "I was taken." If Hiashi is going to make this difficult than Sasuke would play along.

The brunette clasps his fingers together on the surface of the metal table. "Yes, but for what? Information? Did they want to know the Fire Lord's schedule, his security secrets? Or did they take you for the prostitution ring?"

The teen allows his nose to scrunch up in disgust. "I wasn't forced to have sex with anyone. I was taken because Orochimaru wanted a lab rat."

"Uh-huh. And why did he come all of the way from Sound to grab you? I'm sure there were better candidates he could have obtained from a closer location."

Sasuke holds back a growl. "He was probably running a low supply from his country. Besides, he wasn't after me originally."

"You know this because he told you?"

This man's condescending attitude is starting to get on his nerves. Time for their little charade to be over. "No, I know this because he was eyeing Naruto before he spotted me approaching him."

The smug look on Hiashi's face drops.

"What?"

"I'm saying whoever was guarding Naruto that day did a shitty job. I was the one who had to take care of the problem."

"So, the man came here targeting the Fire Lord's son and decided he was happy with just an average citizen instead?"

"I'm not just some 'average citizen.'" If Sasuke were younger, he would have rolled his eyes. "I'm an Uchiha. My family works with national security. I knew what it meant if he was going after Naruto. I told him that if he didn't take me instead, I would make him regret it and notify everyone on the block."

The federal officer leans back in his chair. His expression morphs into one of grudging respect. He is silent for a minute.

Sasuke takes this time to wonder how long they are going to spend in here today. Maybe he could get out of the shopping later.

"Why didn't he just take the both of you and run?"

"Naruto didn't see us. We were about five houses down. He wouldn't have had time to drag both of us into the van. Besides, we were trained in self-defense. Together, the two of us could have taken him down. If he pulled out a gun, we would have forced him to fire and alert the neighborhood."

Sasuke's let's out a deep breath. It's too early to lose his patience; he needs to calm himself back down. Getting riled up is precisely what this man wants.

"Okay, so he took you and then left."

"Yes. Are we done talking about this?"

"What stopped him from coming back?"

Instead of answering, Sasuke gives the man a long, blank stare. Beating this man senseless is not going to make this session go by any faster. Looks like he is determined to waste both of their time.

'I distracted him.' This answer would result in some suggestive comment, and the little respect he's earned would be down the drain. It wasn't like what they were imaging. Orochimaru was indeed creepy, but he knew better than to mix business with pleasure. The teen just made sure to more than surpass any expectations the scientist had of him. It kept the man busy and focused on him.

While in Sound, Sasuke had become Orochimaru's "final product" of sorts. Any projects performed on his body had been tested and perfected on countless other bodies first. As a result, he became their finest military soldier.

To be clear, Sasuke didn't spend his entire time on that horrible island; that was just their base location. Most of the last two years were spent doing work for Sound's leader. A lot of jobs he did were in other countries, so it was necessary to keep his well-known Uchiha features hidden with a disguise. Orochimaru showed amusement with his attempts and even helped design Sasuke an outfit.

As Taka, his clothes had consisted of black boots, dark pants, and an open white jacket with a modified hood that pulled far over his face. The unique material went down to his nose and allowed him to see through the fabric without having to lift his chin. There were also attachments where the hood met the collar to make it difficult for the cover to fall back. Very convenient during altercations. The jacket also had a hidden sheath on his back that had a slit where the hilt of his katana would stick out. Orochimaru designed the front of the jacket to stay open as a taunt of "you can't touch this." Or at least Sasuke would like to think so. The eye candy alternative was more demeaning.

He actually wore the jacket yesterday. With the hood down to cover the empty sheath opening, it looked like your average, everyday teenage outfit. Naturally, he made sure to hide his katana before visiting his parents the day before.

A shift in the posture of the man sitting across from brings his focus from the man's nose to his rising eyebrow. Sasuke has been staring for quite a while.

Great, now they are thinking the worst.

"I made a deal with Orochimaru."

"Offering sexual favors?" The gleam in the interrogator's eye is back.

"No! Fuck you." Sasuke snarls before he could stop himself. Clenching his jaw, he relaxes back in the chair to try and calm himself down.

"I would consent and cooperate with all medical procedures they wished to perform on my body. I also helped them with a few military operations and worked for them as a soldier."

The sooner they finish this, the better.

"You expect me to believe that this was enough for them to change their plans of taking Naruto?"

"Orochimaru never changed his plans. He still wanted revenge against Minato. After all, it was the man's fault he didn't become Fire Lord and was exiled from the country." He fires back quickly.

"Don't speak so disrespectfully about our leader, Boy!"

"Hiashi, you're done. Switch with me." an intercom voices before Sasuke can curse the man's lineage. A good thing because his father would have him grounded for the rest of his short life after hearing one of the extensive expletives he learned in Sound. They could get quite vulgar. Or, maybe, Fugaku would have praised his son for shaming Hiashi. Hard to tell.

Ibiki strolls in. Sasuke remembers seeing his scarred face around when he was little. The man took enjoyment from intimidating everyone he could. It looks like they sent in the big guns. Why is Ibiki here for a simple kidnapping investigation, though? Maybe they paged the man when Sasuke dropped Naruto's name.

Hiashi rises and gives Sasuke a dirty look before forcefully shutting the door.

The teen works to school his expression out of its disgust. Hyuugas.

Working to rein back his rage, he takes a few calm breaths and reminds himself that acting out here is not going to help him accomplish any of his goals. He used to be able to watch when Orochimaru would make examples of those who broke the rules with his cruel punishments and keep his composure just fine while newer recruits were losing their lunch. In comparison, the fact that this trivial matter made him lose his cool is just pathetic. His father must be so ashamed right now.

While Sasuke is clearing his mind, Ibiki makes himself comfortable and stares him down. "Today we've established that you've kept Orochimaru occupied for the past three years and directed his attention away from the Land of Fire. You have our thanks for that. However, I have to ask if you gave Sound any information regarding Naruto or anything from your family's company?"

First, his nose flares. The rage coiling in his gut he is supposed to be suppressing explodes. A rush of fire hurls its way through the rest of his body, making his heated limbs shake. Sasuke could tolerate them insulting his pride but when it came to his best friend, his family name… they've gone too far. Did they honestly think he would blab USO secrets as well? Tch, he had already given away his future. No way in hell he'd give Orochimaru anything else.

Sasuke's vision clouds. He clenches his fists tightly and slowly gets to his feet.


A/N:


And I'm going to stop it there. Yes, I'm a meanie pants. The chapter was getting pretty long. As for the footnotes:

(1). "Scientists have suppressed a gene in mice called 'NCOR1'. This gene inhibits muscle growth, and so when it was turned off, the mice grew muscle that was much larger, more dense and had a greater number of mitochondria than normal mice. The genetically mutated mice were able to run twice as fast and for twice the amount of time."

This was a real-life project collaborated with researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and two Swiss institutions, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Lausanne.

(2). "What if I told you that one of the reasons that most people aren't ripped, jacked, shredded, etc. is that our bodies prevent us from making lots of muscle? That's right, your body is conspiring against you, preventing you from getting that muscular frame! Our bodies produce a chemical called myostatin which limits muscle growth. So if someone could stop producing myostatin, or produce less, they could get really strong."

Above is a quote from an article about "Real Super Strength!". Science is what gives Sasuke his boost. I didn't want to use supernatural elements. You can look the articles up if you wish. :P

As a general note, the government in place in Sound, Fire, Rain, etc. are systems I'm making up as I go. It's fanfiction. I can take a few liberties (this statement can also be applied to the paragraph above). For example, Fire's government is heavily based on the system in the Canada. Also, a little bit off the states. I based Sound's new system vaguely off Amsterdam. Let me know if this starts to confuse anyone.

It's probably very apparent by now that I felt a lot of inspiration for this while watching "Arrow." Don't worry, while there are some resemblances; the story goes in a completely different direction.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, any of the articles, or Arrow.

Next chapter: You get to see one of Sasuke's colorful insults and a quick scene of Naruto. Who's excited? :D