Thank you for the inspiring reviews; do let me know if this goes off-course.
Chapter 4
"So what has you so perpetually pissed off?" Jeninki asked, facing the other man from across the room.
The scarred man suppressed his intense dislike and shrugged. This was more like it. If the bastard was getting chatty, he might get careless enough to reveal something.
"Tired of being used?" Jeninki persisted.
"What's it to you?" Iruka shot back. "What's your game, anyway?"
"Oh, I don't have a game. Your village is playing the fucking game. I'm just trying to end it."
"Really. What game are we talking about here?" Iruka glanced up, then back away. There it was, that stare again, irritating and somehow disruptive.
"You think your little corner of the world is so perfect. If it's so perfect, why is there a death sentence for leaving? The people of this village aren't free."
"Oh, come on. That's your excuse to abduct our men? For our own good?"
"Look. You tell me. If you decided you wanted a life living on the coast, could you do that? Could you just pack up and move to any location you wanted to live in?" Still the Leaf nin looked away at each attempt to lock him in his gaze. Jeninki was growing a bit impatient.
"There's no coastline in Fire Country, you know that. Of course you can't just go live at the coast."
"Yeah. So you do get it. You aren't free, and you just accept it. You're enslaved, man. And even worse - look at what you've done for a living. You're brainwashing the next generation to accept the same shit." Jeninki folded his arms. "What happens if they order you out on a mission. Any choices there, either?"
Iruka glared, not quite meeting the look drilling from those dark brown eyes. "Everyone willingly does their duty. The strong have to protect the weak. The rules are there to protect everyone."
"Hot shit coming from a deserter. There's more than one way to live, there's something more important than the sword. You know, I'm in this cell because I missed a payment, not because of the ninjas that haven't returned. I paid the mortality fee up front when I submitted my scroll. If those guys died on this mission that was fine. But someone figured out that there never really was a fatal mission, and that means I'm behind on the rent. Now I'm in here because I gave those men a key to a perfect world and set them free. You see, I freed them and now I'm trapped because of it. I'm stuck here until I prove they're dead, pay up the rent or hand them back over for punishment. It all boils down to the money here. This village is so corrupt I don't think I'll ever get the stench off."
"You're a pretty lousy liar. You expect me to believe that this is some trumped-up charge over money and mission contracts? If you freed those nin they would have reported back. Your story's full of holes."
"Oh, no, I'm on the up-and-up. I had a number of chats with them, very much like the one I'm having with you. They're very intelligent young men. They saw the truth almost immediately. It just took their hearts a bit of time to let go of the past. But once they did, no way in hell was I going to hand them back over."
"You expect me to believe this lame theory turned them into instant traitors?"
"Open your pea brain. I've just told you the sky is blue and you've closed your eyes to prove me wrong. Mull it over. Try to dig down and remember what it felt like to dream of becoming a man. Then think about the way you have to live now, doing only the things deemed acceptable by the powers that be. You're a very angry, unhappy soul. You don't have to be a boot-licker if you choose not to. Look at yourself and tell me you're satisfied with how things have turned out for you."
"I'm…" he started to defend his dedication to the village. Then he had a slight doubt. Then he caught himself; he was supposed to be in jail for desertion, and his story was that it wasn't true, so he wouldn't be so quick to defend a government that imprisoned him falsely, would he? It shouldn't be so confusing, keeping his role as prisoner here separate from his true self. He didn't realize where his eyes were cast as he struggled to clear his thoughts.
But Jeninki did, and he explored the depths of his cellmate's eyes, marveling at the confusion he could inspire with his deep stare and hard truths.
x
The two bickered back and forth, and Ibiki watched them impassively. All theory, no substance. He needed locations, dates, times.
They weren't fighting anymore, the dominance thing settled in a way too subtle for most to interpret. Ibiki had been watching cell cams for a long time, though, and as he had predicted, Iruka was not the dominant one. But there was far less disparity than he had expected.
More often than not, Jeninki was working Iruka and not the other way around. Iruka needed to be reminded to use all of his available talents to get the rogue nin to slip.
It was a bit disappointing to see that he was already veering off-task.
x
The men were released into a small outdoor exercise area. Jeninki distanced himself from Iruka at first, then came close, speaking in a low voice.
"You know your place here. A man with your looks, I'll bet the higher ranks use you without even asking. They do, don't they? I can tell by the look on your face when I said that. It's not going to be like that in the new village. Everyone has the same rights, they won't have them doled out according to chakra level. Genin, jounin, chunin, villager, sannin…all equal. Freedom is like that. It means everyone can have what they want if they're willing to make the effort to be a part of the village, instead of outrageous riches going to the meager few while the rest go without."
"Get away from me." Jeninki's eyes had locked with his and he shook his head to clear it before he could break the gaze.
"No. You need to listen. You're an unhappy man. You're being used like a slave, a second-class citizen. Think about it, Iruka. Who used you last, who used you worst? Would you really miss them, or this place, that much?" Jeninki's eyes sparkled with passionate belief, and Iruka was drawn back into their pull. An odd, uncomfortable emptiness welled up in his stomach as his thinking slowed just a bit. It seemed to open his mind, letting the other's point of view enter uninvited to take up residence; as if they were thoughts he'd harbored all along.
Kakashi's name and Ibiki's leapt to his mind as potential answers to the man's question before he could try to shut out those thoughts. No, he wouldn't respond to such infidelity. But his mind refused to stop working on the question. Wouldn't he miss them eventually? Because in the short run, the ache to get away had been preying on his mind every day.
The pause was just long enough that Jeninki knew his words had taken advantage of the opening and were hitting home. When you push something, the motion is away from you. He didn't need to push these thoughts now that they were embedded. Instead he broke eye contact and turned to walk away, bringing the momentum back in his direction, drawing his target in.
"You're full of shit, Jeninki," Iruka called after him. The edge in his voice was dulled. As if he were shoring up his own resistance, ever so slightly uncertain now.
The prisoner just raised a hand to acknowledge the words with stopping or looking back, heading for a drink of water and to give the other inmates a once-over. This could be a fertile field for converts. More than one village had been built from the discarded miscreants of another.
xxxxxxxxxxx
"Look, Umino, I'm leaning towards pulling you out of there. What the hell is going on?" Ibiki snarled at the chunin after the guards that delivered him bowed and left the monitoring room.
"I'm getting him to talk. You must be hearing all of this. We know what he's up to now, right? And that the nins aren't prisoners. I just need to get him to tell me where this village is that he's trying to start up. Is it true that he has these men on a mission contract?"
"Watch yourself. He's a master of half-truths and deceit. He used a phony mission scroll in order to abduct the shinobi. This has nothing to do with the billing department."
"Oh." So was that true? Was Ibiki playing him or Jeninki? He startled himself with his own disloyal lack of conviction. He was not at all confident that Ibiki was telling him the truth, either.
"Yeah, well you've managed to get him to do a lot of talking. Just because it comes out of his mouth doesn't mean it's the truth; just look at the bullshit he's spouting. We need to know exactly where those missing shinobi sleep at night. Are you still able to go on? You seemed pretty unstable at times. Is that for real?"
"I'm not unstable, give me some credit. He thinks I am, and that's how I'm getting him to talk."
"I'm not so sure. You know, I thought I told you to buddy up, get cozy, make him feel good. Whatever this is you're doing is way out in left field. Still, you are getting more out of him than we had before." Ibiki looked darkly at the smaller man. "I'm leaving you in, then, but not much longer. Maybe a little more carrot and a little less stick from now on, hn? You do get my drift."
Iruka got his 'drift'. Much as he resisted it, Jeninki's words came back into his head. The man was too accurate in a lot of ways. The superiors used his body as they saw fit, whether using it themselves or directing him to give it to others, without a second thought. As if it was theirs to do with as they pleased.
No, he told himself firmly. That was the criminal's warped spin on it. Iruka's body had been prepared for service to Konoha voluntarily, and he willingly gave the reins to his superiors due to their greater ability to judge how he would best be of service. To serve and protect. A noble way to live, at least in theory.
One foot on each viewpoint, he nodded to Ibiki and held silent. He didn't know how he felt about it any more, which scenario held more truth. Not that it mattered, he was a citizen and bound by the shinobi laws whether he agreed with them or not. That was how laws were. That was part of being a citizen, no matter where you lived.
In the prison the mindset was different, maybe that was having an influence on his thinking. The laws were not taken as gods, set in stone, shameful to disobey. The people here had challenged them and lost, but most defended their decisions to do so, some right up to the executioner's blade. Maybe that was what set Iruka's mind to thinking in new ways, subversive, dangerous ways. He needed to get the goods on Jeninki and see for himself that the laws of Konoha would be just and reasonable. The man that was shaking his beliefs could become the example that reaffirmed them.
But it wasn't Jeninki that gave him the next hard tip away from his classic loyal, lap-dog thinking. It was a close comrade.
tbc