Author Note: Disclaimer, no contents of Naruto have been thought up or invented by me. This is purely a work of fan fiction and is not meant for promotional or finical endeavors. This is meant to be made in respect and admiration for Massashi Kishimoto's series and all the content of Naruto are property of Massashi Kishimoto. Please respect the fans, and fandom of the series by remaining polite and open minded while reading.
Naruto's eyes snapped open. His breath caught in his throat as his vision quickly adjusted to the gloom around him.
He must have been moved while he had been being interrogated.
Fighting down a rising sense of panic the young ninja blinked and shook his head. Inhaling deeply he concentrated about what his body was telling him about his surroundings.
He was looking up. Which meant he must have been lying down – no surprise after having been knocked unconscious by a Yamanaka. The dull dark grey plain above him then would have to be the ceiling of wherever he was at.
Which was cold. Very, very cold if what his mind was sluggishly processing from his body was correct.
Turning his head to the right Naruto jolted as he cheek pressed down against cool, sleek metal. His eyes focused in on the gleaming, spotless material – it smelled of chemicals, sterile like a hospital – before shifting and looking towards what was in front of him.
Pushing himself out of a steel chair – one hand resting heavily against the stone wall behind him – was Inoichi. Naruto couldn't make out much of the man's features as the single, small rectangular light fixture positioned in the middle of the wall was rather dim, but he could tell that the Yamanaka Clan Head lacked much of the energy he normally possessed.
Inoichi turned his head – as if he could feel the younger ninja's gaze – and despite looking... dazed the Jonin forced a tight smile across his face.
Naruto nodded in response and despite not finding himself able to smile back he felt the grip of fear that had instinctively grabbed hold of his heart lessen a little bit.
With nothing besides the half exhausted Jonin occupying the space to his right Naruto made the gargantuan effort and swiveled his head so that he was facing fully to the left.
And immediately wished he hadn't.
Standing at parade rest an arm's length from his left was Morino Ibiki. The Torture and Investigations specialist was unmistakable in his long black trench coat and heavy black boots.
And perhaps the worst identifier – the fact that the aging ninja had his horribly mutilated head bare and opening to viewing for all.
His face as he looked down at Naruto wasn't friendly or even impassive, but the harsh stone visage of a judge that gazed on those before him and knew without a doubt that they were guilty of something.
Perhaps anything.
Behind the man on neat and organized wracks were the tools of his trade. Some had wooden handles, some just bare, pitted metal. The business end of each and everyone of them shined with a wicked brilliance.
As his eyes feverishly scanned across the forest of regimented steel Naruto could feel his very being begin to curl itself into a tight ball as every few seconds he would stop and stare at a tool that was oh, so very familiar to him.
He knew his mind was playing tricks on him, but in each and every single one of the tiny reflections being cast by the hateful weapons of torture he could see a full-toothed, cherubic smile.
No longer able to look at the scene before him the redheaded shinobi jerked his head so that his eyes were staring at just the blank stone ceiling again.
Except it was no longer blank.
The shadows covering the stone face seemed to have lengthened and the neat, miniscule cracks that had once been the only things marring the empty, flat expanse had vanished and been replaced. The ceiling as it was now was warped with bumps and dips.
Half broken stalactites dotted here and there, each one splotched with deep patches of rusty red and with their broken and sharded points aimed at the young shinobi like so many daggers.
Each and everyone of them long since party to the realms of pain and murder.
Unable to take any of it any longer Naruto pushed his muscles as hard as he could and jerked himself up – to get away.
Pain blared across his arms and legs as the tight straps holding him down did their jobs and held against his burst of strength. As his body convulsed up and then came crashing back down against the cold metal that he was trapped against the slight discomfort of the heat being sapped from his body surged upwards until it felt like his body was being pricked apart by thousands of molten hot needles.
The realization that he was naked came and passed with barely any attention at all as Naruto's mind fixated itself on things more important to him.
He was trapped.
Trapped and everything was going back to how it had been.
His mind began to choke itself as he realized things may have never changed. A dream, a genjutsu – insanity. Any of those things could have explained the bizarre turn his life had all of a sudden taken.
But even with all the hardship he had gone through and what he was and was not – even with all of that he had been free.
He had been free and he didn't want that to be a lie.
A hand grabbed him by the jaw and twisted his head so he was no longer looking at the ceiling but staring into Yamanaka Inoichi's eyes.
His arms and legs burned even more than they had after his first attempt to get up. While he couldn't feel it, wasn't even aware he was doing it, Naruto knew he was still struggling to get out of the bonds.
Gone from the Jonin's face was any of the frazzled exhaustion from earlier and in its place was a tight look of determination just barely tinged by panic. His mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out of it.
Naruto knew Inoichi must be speaking – he might even have started shouting. The young ninja just couldn't hear it over the heavy drum beat of blood that was rushing through his head.
The sound pounded and pounded, faster and faster and Naruto knew he had started to hyperventilate.
Naruto watched as his own panic must have started to influence the older man trying his best to calm him down. Inoichi's brows lowered and lines carved themselves across his forehead. The Jonin pulled his hand away from the redhead's jaw so that he could wipe away the sweat that was welling up from his skin.
Naruto's eyes dilated wildly and Inoichi disappeared. In front of him instead was Kakashi's corpse as it had been when Orochimaru had been forcing it to walk around in a twisted perversion of his sensei. The skin was overly dry and badly cracking in some places – small patches of brown blood spanning across the wounds like grotesque stitches. It was a body made old while it still had been in its prime and which had just barely stood before death's door.
Inoichi returned. His eyes were wide and he had moved backwards a bit. The worry on his face had completely overtaken the confident, reassuring facade he had been plastered on moments before.
Naruto's throat hurt. He felt and tasted the blood that was now pooling into his mouth. Slick, thick, and coppery.
He had screamed something. Screamed and snarled something in such rage that he had cut his tongue on his own teeth.
Inoichi's mouth moved. He said one last thing and was lost underneath the drone of the drums and then he was moving.
Going away.
Naruto squeezed his eyes shut as hot tears dragged their way across his cheeks. Darkness took up place in his mind and shut the dim light. Shut out the images of the ceiling, of Inoichi, and of Ibiki.
But then the darkness smiled and opened the door to other memories.
Of pain.
Of the corpses of friends.
Of blood, and death, and broken dreams.
Of Kabuto.
Of Orochimaru.
Naruto's eyes snapped open. He could feel his chakra – all of it – pumping through his body. His muscles coiled and his body jerked.
He could finally hear again as the metal beneath him screeched as it bucked and then shattered from the sudden tidal wave of stress that slammed up against it. Falling to the ground as the abused metal collapsed Naruto grunted as it cut into his back. The young ninja moved his arms and ripped all four of the bindings that had so far resisted him away from his limbs and then stood up from amoung the wreckage.
Inoichi was nowhere to be seen, but Ibiki had remained in the room and since been joined by four ANBU.
"Restrain her." The Captain of T&I's voice commanded out. His tone was terse and as soon as he finished speaking he cupped his hand to his ear and continued a half muffled conversation he must have been in before his prisoner had escaped. "...get to the subject now... find out what... if it happens we are not..."
The first ANBU, a man with a mask stylized to look like a horse and as about as huge as one could imagine a person to be, lunged.
The chakra infused kick that blurred forward to meet him sent him lunging backwards with surprising quickness.
Some part of Naruto's mind knew he shouldn't be fighting. That he should just let himself be – his mind practically hissed as it snarled away any of the words he tried to think of – restrained and wait for things to calm down.
He couldn't be captured.
He would not be trapped.
The big ANBU moved forward again and Naruto's body tensed. Every fibre of his soul told him to throw out another kick, but one small part of his mind knew something wasn't right.
Just as the horse-masked ninja stuttered to a stop and feinted back, Naruto spun on his heel and caught another one of the ANBU in the gut with a punch. The woman had been quick – she was thin and as like to the spider on her mask as a human could get – but Naruto wasn't exactly new to combat either.
He had years of experience well beyond his age and had been trained by the best.
The woman slammed up against the wall and gasped. She clutched at her side in pain and then collapsed against the floor like a puppet that had had its strings cut.
Naruto completed his spin with barely any time in between and faced the three ANBU that still faced off against him.
Across the room Ibiki looked over in frustration and frowned. "We do not have time for this – deal with her."
The redheaded shinobi could feel his face go pale as the ANBU pulled out kunai and tightened up their stances. An animal part of the young ninja's mind snarled at him. He had been right to panic – to fear. There would be no safety in his old home; not for him, not now.
This wasn't about getting captured anymore.
The fight was a blur as both Naruto and the group of ANBU went all out. The ANBU got in cuts and slashes but couldn't get any substantial wound across as their target moved like he was made of liquid. Naruto slammed his fist into stomachs, chest, and jaws and caught people in the ribs and shoulders with his kicks but had to spend too much time dodging and wasn't able to take another one of the masked ninjas out of the fight.
Naruto was desperate but he refused to become reckless. He continued to dodge and take small wounds and give back out the best that he could. The ANBU on the other hand were by far better than him, but seemed to be getting more reckless as the seconds went by.
It had to be something to do with the conversation Ibiki was engrossed enough in that he was completely ignoring the fight going on right in front of him.
A kunai dragged itself right above Naruto's eyebrow and he hissed has blood started to drip down over his left eye. In response he caught one of the ANBU's in the face with his elbow and felt a crunch despite the mask protecting the ninja's face.
The fight separated. The three ANBU disengaged and took positions around Naruto. Horse in front, the one with the blood trailing from underneath his mask to left, and the last to the right.
Naruto grimaced as the blood began to really interfere with his vision but knew if he took even a moment to wipe it away he'd be done for.
Less than three minutes had passed since his escape.
The third ANBU moved first, coming in from the right. As he got closer Naruto realised that his mask was supposed to be a lizard before he kicked the other ninja in the knee and then caught him with a vicious uppercut.
Naruto was shocked as the man went flying back.
Then Horse had the other side of the redhead's body in a bone creaking lock. The huge man could move fast and Lizard had purposefully taken a blow in order to take advantage of that.
As he struggled futilely time seemed to slow down to Naruto. He noticed that the door to the cell that he was in had opened and a wide eyed Inoichi had returned and was looking at the carnage that had been wrecked.
The blond haired man looked once again like he was about to shout something.
Naruto realised he didn't know where the last of the ANBU – the one he had given a bloody nose – was at.
Twisting his head as far as he could his eyes could just barely make out the tip of the kunai that was coming down for his neck. The young ninja redoubled his struggles but was still unable to give himself any leeway.
His whole body stung from all the wounds he had taken and his mind was reeling from the shock and anger that was slowly sloughing its way off like a pile of burnt flesh.
He was tired, low on chakra, and starting to calm down.
Calm enough to know he had gotten himself killed by his own village in a fit of panic.
Naruto couldn't help it. As he felt his eyes prick, but remain dry as he had nothing left to give, he let out a dry, bitter chuckle and stopped struggling.
The sound left his mouth and hadn't even ended and everything exploded into action around the young redhead.
Horse was effortlessly pried off of Naruto's body and shoved away in a single motion. The kunai's course was stopped dead as a strong, gauntleted hand grabbed the final ANBU by the wrist and locked his arm in its place.
Naruto's laugh was muffled as he found a new arm closing around his back and pulling him to someone's chest. His face was buried in soft folds of pristine red and white that smelled faintly of a fragrant, slightly fruity pipe smoke.
The young ninja's mind was lost and still broiling with rage, but something about the situation he was in pushed back at that negative emotion and helped curb the fear that lingered in the corners of his mind.
"Hokage-sama!" Ibiki's voice rang out clear in place of the void that the had been left by the abrupt end to the combat that had so filled the room with noise. "My Lord – have you not seen the reports from the observation team! The chakra flare up in the village... you can't -"
"Silence!" Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, cut across his subordinate.
Sarutobi loosened his grip on the ninja in his arms and Naruto immediately balled his hands in the older man's robes in response – holding on dearly as the man pushed the two of them slightly apart.
Naruto was staring up into the face of a man he had seen die. Of a man whose funeral he had attended – the first funeral he had ever attended in his life.
A man who was beyond anything else family to him.
The berserk fury that had taken a hold of the younger ninja screeched as it was all of a sudden assaulted by feelings of shame, and guilt and above all else pure, undiluted happiness in the place where it had just before ruled unchallenged and supreme.
Sarutobi smiled as the well of complex emotions broadcasted themselves across the eyes of the scowling child in front of him. "Uzumaki-san, do you think you could calm down for me?"
Naruto's heart felt as if it had burst as the old man addressed him with his name. It was only a part of it, but it had also always been a part of who he was.
And it seemed it would stay like that.
Helpless to do anything but beam in response Naruto nodded and pulled what was left of his chakra – which he had hadn't even realized had long since manifested physically around him – under control. The young ninja sighed as the burden and strain of the wild output of energy that he had been maintaining vanished.
Closing his eyes Naruto buried his face back into the Hokage's robes.
"Lord Hokage-" Ibiki broke the silence, but kept his voice quiet. "- it seems the situation from before has manage to... dissipate itself."
Naruto felt the cloth of Sarutobi's outfit shift as the old man nodded and let out a long "Hmmm." Hiruzen reached down and ruffled the short red hair of the shinobi clinging to him as he thought about his next words. "Then I believe it is time to move this... discussion to a more suitable setting."
The Hokage attempted to move forward, but was stopped when Naruto refused to remove himself from his current position.
"Uzumaki-san I don't imagine we will be able to get much of anywhere as things currently are – do you think you could find yourself somewhere else to stand?" Sarutobi kept his voice light and gently held the readheaded ninja by both arms.
Naruto shook his head – rustling the Hokage's robes fiercely – in response and then took too small steps backwards in the direction of the door.
Sarutobi Hiruzen laughed uproariously and took two small steps forward.
Stealth chapter. Hope you guys like it - it has some highs and some lows and was a lot of fun to write. Thank you to all 235 of you that read Chapter 10 and those that possibly read it a couple times. I get these things out for you.
Once more thank you for reading and all the reviews and if you ever want to talk my PM box is always open and I will respond.
P.S. We've broken 40,000 words. That's over a hundred pages by industry standards.