Hanako

"You're back so soon, Nako-chan," said Ibiki, giving me a slightly warm welcome.

"I just decided to get back to work since Neji has too. He worries too greatly for my wellbeing. He's chivalrous but I can provide for my own," I said as I headed for my office.

I liked that here I didn't have to hold back on my intelligence. I could say big words and wouldn't have to repeat them and dumb them down for anyone. Ibiki was the only one nice to me ever when I was here though, so I was glad he was the first to greet me.

"I have an interrogation in a couple minutes, if you'd like to sit in and give your input," he offered.

"I guess I could, but I still do have a lot of work to catch up on," I told him, knowing there was a stack of files on people I'd have to go through and write psychological reports for on my desk.

"Leave it for later, kid," he said, ruffing my hair, "Let's make your first day back a good one."

"Okay…" I said giving in, but not managing to suppress a smile, "Who's the prisoner?"

"Your favorite kind, one of those really twitchy ones that thinks screaming, 'You'll never get me to talk!' is like being in a movie," he sighed, shaking his head.

"So he's young?" I inquired, walking behind him.

"Probably mid-twenties, leaking intelligence between here and those sneaky Kumo rebel bastards."

"You'll probably want to attack those lonely feeling he has from being an orphan and relate it to why he hasn't been rescued. It goes along with his little movie plot delusions," I told him before we walked in.

He took my advice easily, probably having the same ideas as me anyway. I sat in a chair in the corner and just watched. I admired the way Ibiki didn't have to lay a finger on the young man to have him spewing his information within 5 minutes. My presence was usually a breaking point for most people. Sometimes the way I would just sit and stare at them as they were mentally tortured perturbed them over the edge, screaming their evil plans and knowledge at me to try and escape Ibiki's mind traps. Sometimes Ibiki would send them over the edge by pretending I wasn't real and that he couldn't see me. In a way, this sort of thing was amusing to me. Watching these people who were out to harm our village and destroy our way of life get what they deserved felt like justice. Sometimes, when Ibiki would use me to play tricks on their minds, it made me feel like I was abusing my brilliance. All I had to do was talk to them about what I could infer from their mere presence while staring and not stop talking about their insecurities and fears until they screamed at me like madmen. Once, a full grown man had burst into tears like a child and begged me not to speak of his deceased brother, but I did anyway since I could tell it would push him to the edge and he ended up having a heart attack from the stress. The doctors had saved him, but I hadn't done many interrogations after that, unless with Ibiki. Once we had the information we needed from the mere boy, Ibiki let the ANBU in and we walked out together.

"Thanks for sitting in, Nako-chan. That death-like stare you give these men is like no other, making it easier to push them to their limits a lot faster," he commented.

"Death-like stare?" I asked.

"You stare unblinkingly at them sometimes and it scares them witless," he explained as we walked to the main room to turn in the report on the young man.

"Oh… I just zone out sometimes and I stop hearing them talk. Talk is useless when your behavior gives away every detail. I just watch them move, and breathe, and think and it all becomes apparent was is true and what is false," I told him though he probably already knew all that.

"Our little lie detector," commented one of our fellow coworkers as he passed the conversation while toting a stack of reports.

Turning to the head ANBU running the Cypher Corps, I asked, "What's my next assignment."

"On the right of your stack of files is the most important assignment," he replied without looking up.

Just by looking at him, I could tell Lady Hokage hadn't spoken to him as of yet, but for now it was not my place to speak. Bidding Ibiki good bye, I went to sit in my office, on the floor, falling asleep with a file on my left, right, and lap.

Neji

"Calm down!" My uncle commanded me as I paced like a lion in and out of his study.

"Don't tell me to calm down when Hanako is missing!" I yelled back.

"Neji, we'll find her. It'll be okay," my mother told me, but I was having none of it.

"She could be dead in the streets somewhere!"

"You're over reacting."

"No, I'm not! We all should be worried about her! It's passed midnight and no one can find her!" I shouted, trying to think of what was going on.

"You said she was going for a walk, but you said she went to Ichiraku to meet Sasuke for lunch. And you said Sasuke told you he was never supposed to be there and hasn't seen her once since a few days ago. She probably ran off because she feels alienated here. This will be fine. Your cousins went to her family's home and said she wasn't there, so she didn't go running back to the abuse. Calm yourself down, Neji, or you can sit in your room and wait until we find something out," my mother said, touching my arm.

Nodding, I tried to keep ahold of the coil that had sprung loose within my chest with the worry.

"I see Hinata now," my uncle informed us.

My mother grabbed my arm to make sure I didn't say a word that would spook Hinata into sputtering out the information she was sent to get from the Hokage. She came in, slightly out of breath. We waited patiently for her to tell us the news.

"Sh-She's working right now…" she told us.

"Working?" my uncle asked with confusion.

"H-Hanako works with the Cypher Corps… Th-They said that H-Hanako fell asleep in her office…" was her reply.

"She shouldn't be working, she's still hurt," I said, pulling away from my mother.

"Her foot doesn't hinder her work at the Cypher Corps, Neji, so it is fine if she wishes to return to work. She will just have to be lectured on the importance of informing us where she is going." My uncle replied.

"But why would she lie to us," I demanded.

"B-Because she feels she doesn't belong here, Neji…" Hinata said softly, "Sh-She feels like she's a burden to us…"

"She isn't! Is she?! She needs to stop thinking that! It's not right!" I spat angrily.

"No one thinks that, Neji. She's just used to a different lifestyle," my mother told me, "Perhaps it is us who need to change, not her."

My uncle wasn't pleased by her statement and sent us all out. He was sure that those at the Cypher Corps would take care of her and return her tomorrow. But Hinata and I didn't leave faith in the Cypher Corps and headed over to the shady looking building on the other side of town.

{AN/ A special thank you so much elmms for telling me that chapter 10 and 11 were doubles! I encourage all of you who have read up to this point to go and see the update! (3/7/13)}