Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.

Warnings: Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), OCC behaviors and personalities, a number of original characters and obscure canon characters to flesh out family trees, random chosen last names to give a number of characters surnames, and who knows what else.

AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.

Chapter Thirty-Six: The Report

October 26, 0295 AtD, 9:51 PM
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni

Shikaku idly watched as his teammate pushed his way through a crowd of Chuunin in order to reach the booth that he and Chouza had commandeered a half an hour earlier. His lips twitched in amusement when a couple of the Chuunin attempted to take offense at being shoved only for the haggard blond to snap and snarl at them until they apologized to him and fled to a safer part of the bar. It was always rather amusing for the Nara when Inoichi lost the polite and friendly mask he usually wore in public.

Or rather, it was always amusing to see other people's reactions to Inoichi dropping his mask.

Of course, it would be far more amusing if the reason that Inoichi's mask was slipping at the moment wasn't related to a certain troublesome teenager. Sighing, Shikaku flagged down a passing waitress and ordered another three rounds of drinks and appetizers as Inoichi finally reached their booth. As the blond dropped down heavily onto the wrap around bench beside Chouza, Shikaku eyed the rather prominent bruise on Inoichi's face before he noted the dark circles under Inoichi's eyes and the various bandages adorning his person.

"You look like hell," Chouza bluntly announced as he too took in Inoichi's current less-than-perfect state.

"Nice to see you too, Chouza," Inoichi half-growled and half-muttered as he leaned forward to pillow his head in his arms on top of the table.

"I take it that things are as bad as we feared they might be?" Shikaku inquired as he pulled his eyes away from Inoichi to scan the room for the other individuals they had invited to their little meeting.

"Yes and no; in some ways it's even worse," Inoichi replied without looking up.

"What do you mean by 'worse'?" Shikaku demanded with a frown as he snapped his gaze back to Inoichi.

"I'm not answering that until the others get here; I refuse to repeat myself."

"Mendoukusei," Shikaku complained as he slouched deeper into the bench seat.

A bark of strangled laughter rose from Inoichi while Chouza just shook his head and grinned at the two of them. Shikaku wanted to be amused at the situation too but he's far too worried about a certain troublesome teen. And that too was rather troublesome. He was not supposed to be the worrywart in this group – that'd always been Inoichi's job. Shikaku had always been the one that was supposed to sigh and drift off to sleep while assuring the others that everything will be fine and there was no need for any thing so troublesome as worrying.

And yet here he was worrying over Kojimaru's state of mind, again.

To be fair, there was cause to worry. He couldn't quite forget the deadly spike of ice that had come so very close to eviscerating him after Kojimaru had lost control of his temper and his Hyouton in Kasai's office a few days ago. Nor could he forget the amount of damage the teen had done to Kasai's office in less than five minutes. Part of him was still surprised that the entire building didn't crash down on their heads after he'd seen the sheer number of holes that had littered the walls and ceiling of the office. Not to mention the damage that the ice must have done to the floor.

Shikaku's frown deepened as he recalled that the only reason why he hadn't been skewered was because of Tenzou's quick thinking. Oh, he very much appreciated the brown-eyed teen's quick actions. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that Tenzou had reacted several precious seconds before Kojimaru's meltdown occurred. It was as if Tenzou had known what was going to happen before it happened. And that should not have been possible.

Then again, those two were so in sync with one another that Tenzou might have sensed the slight fluctuations of Kojimaru's chakra. However, if that was the case, then he should not have been able to get his wall up in time to prevent any injuries completely. If only because Kojimaru hadn't lost his head until Jiraiya had spoken Orochimaru's name but by that time, Tenzou had already been moving to intervene. Shikaku supposed the gaki might have been acting upon what he knew of Kojimaru's temper and based upon what it was he had known that Jiraiya was testing.

The arrival of the waitress with their drinks and Chouza's snacks drew Shikaku out of his musings and he dug a handful of ryo out of his pocket so that he could pay for the drinks and food. The woman had barely vanished onto the crowded barroom floor when Jiraiya turned up dragging a disgruntled looking Hatake Kakashi along behind him. A brief glance at Inoichi (who was still draped on the table) had Shikaku sliding closer to Chouza so that the two new arrivals could sit down. Normally, Shikaku wouldn't have bothered but he didn't think Inoichi was going to budge for anything short of a dire, village-wide emergency.

Or little Ino-chan; his teammate would move heaven and earth for his precious little princess even if he had one foot in the grave.

Another waitress turned up with more drinks before Shikaku had even finished shifting his seat and this time it was Kakashi who forked out the cash for them. Though, from the scowl on the younger Jounin's face, it wasn't exactly his choice to buy the drinks and Shikaku figured that Jiraiya had bullied the teen into paying for them. The last person to arrive was Morino Ibiki and the sadistic Head of the Torture and Interrogation Department looked more than a little displeased. This time, Kakashi was the one to grudgingly give up his seat at the end of the booth because Ibiki gave him a pointed look and a growl when Kakashi had made to climb to his feet in an attempt to keep the end seat.

There were still three people missing (Kasai, Kosuke, and Kisuke) but Shikaku knew those three men would not be joining them for their discussion. Kasai had declined because he couldn't show up in his mask without the rest of the customers panicking over his presence and he wasn't about to let anyone know who he was under the mask (his job depended upon his anonymity). Kosuke and Kisuke were absent for similar reasons; though in their case it was their desire to protect their wards' identities that had kept them away.

That didn't meant that those three men wouldn't be filled in on what was discussed in this informal meeting. Shikaku would be filling both Kosuke and Kisuke in first thing tomorrow afternoon (because doing it first thing in the morning would be too troublesome) while Jiraiya or Kakashi would be the one to report to Kasai. No, scratch that. Inoichi had probably already given a preliminary report to Kasai (since the Commander was Kojimaru's direct supervisor); that would certainly explain why he wasn't in the mood to repeat himself. That would leave Kakashi to do a follow up report for Kasai and Jiraiya to fill the Hokage in on what they discussed tonight.

He did wonder why Ibiki had been included in this meeting though. Chouza was there because he knew both Kojimaru and Tenzou (even if he hadn't been as involved in their lives as he and Inoichi had been). The heavyset man would also be able to offer up an 'outsider's' opinion. Kakashi had only been invited because he was the teens' ANBU Captain and because the gaki would have thrown a huge temper tantrum if he'd been left out. The silver haired teen disliked being kept out of the loop on general principle and the fact that two of his subordinates were swathed in layers upon layers of mysteries probably irked the hell out of him.

Jiraiya was there because he was fully aware of who both boys were and because he was a fuuinjutsu expert. Chouza qualified as a fuuinjutsu expert as well but few people knew that. Shikaku wasn't entirely certain that Jiraiya was aware of the Akimichi Clan's extensive knowledge and use of seals and he wasn't about to clue the man in on that information if he wasn't. Few people outside of the Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka Clans were aware of that information; the Hokage, Kasai, and the shopkeeper of the store where the clan sold their more popular seals were all that came to mind.

Oh, and both Kojimaru and Tenzou knew as well. But those two boys were pretty much considered to be part of the Nara Clan for some troublesome reason. Probably because Shikaku had been their official babysitter when they were younger and both boys had been semi-permanent (if part-time) occupants of the Nara Estate for the past twelve years. In fact, they still turned up every now and then even though Shikaku hadn't been their official babysitter in years. Their status as honorary members of the clan was how Shikaku had gotten away with naming a non-clansman as Shikamaru's godfather.

Of course, he was paying for that decision now; the damn gaki had taken great joy in corrupting his son with un-Nara-like behavior.

Ah, well, at least Yoshino is happy with the troublesome brat's troublesome influence, Shikaku thought to himself as he watched Jiraiya activate a minor privacy seal tag to prevent their conversation from being overheard now that everyone had at least one drink at hand and plenty of extras on the table so they wouldn't need to worry about ordering more.

Shaking his head, Shikaku stretched out his legs to kick Inoichi under the table before he demanded, "Everyone's here, Inoichi; will you tell me what the hell you meant by 'worse' now?"

Inoichi lifted his head to give Shikaku a mock glare of annoyance for the kick before he sighed and pushed himself all the way up. Shikaku noted the way Kakashi, Ibiki, and Jiraiya all eyed the lurid bruise on Inoichi's face with open curiosity before they took in the rest of his appearance.

"That's quite an interesting badge you have on your face," Jiraiya commented once his little inspection was complete as he poured out his third saucer of sake since sitting down. "I'm surprised you didn't have a medic fix that for you so it didn't ruin your pretty-boy image."

"I did; twice," Inoichi countered as he reached up to lightly brush his fingers over the bruise that ran from an inch below his left eye down to his jaw and from his left ear to his nose. "They managed to lighten it by three shades and heal the hairline fracture that came with it but deemed that it would be better to allow the rest of the bruise to fade naturally."

"What did you do to earn that little trinket?" Kakashi asked curiously as he twisted the lid off of the bottle of beer he'd snagged from the collection of drinks covering the table.

"Nothing, technically; I merely misjudged the extent to which Tora had been caught up in his nightmare when I went to wake him up and he woke up swinging. I suspect that the fist he hit me with had been reinforced with one of his Kekkei Genkai because it hurt like a bitch when he socked me. As bad as that was, what I really could have done without was his attempt to castrate me with his ice before I could finish snapping him out of his nightmare."

Both Kakashi and Jiraiya choked on their drinks the moment Inoichi announced that Kojimaru had attempted to hit him below the belt and Shikaku smirked in response to his teammate's sense of timing. He knew his friend had purposefully waited until both men had been drinking when he'd added that little nugget of information.

"I never realized the gaki had such a cruel streak," Jiraiya muttered as he brushed sake off of his face and clothes before he mopped up what he'd spilled on the table.

"Nice to know he learned something from all of those lessons I gave him," Ibiki drawled with a sadistically smug little smirk on his face.

"He didn't get that from your lessons," Shikaku corrected as he twirled his empty sake saucer in circles while he debated on whether or not he wanted to bother with the effort of pouring himself another shot. "The crotch was one of the gaki's favorite targets when he was knee-high to a stag because he thought it was so funny to see grown men brought to their knees when they were hit there. I thought he'd out-grown that stage once he hit double digits."

"Apparently not," Chouza interjected with a snort in between bites of grilled squid and all of them chuckled.

"Why didn't you use one of the suppression tags I drew up for you before he tried to make a woman out of you?" Jiraiya inquired with a slight frown after the laughter died down. "I made those for you for a reason, you know; and it wasn't just to practice my calligraphy skills."

"I did," Inoichi retorted with a scowl. "He didn't try to neuter me until after I'd slapped the tag on him."

"I thought you said he tried to castrate you with his Hyouton?" Kakashi asked as he frowned beneath his mask. "How was that possible if you'd used a chakra suppression tag on him? Or did he rip it off first?"

"He did use his Hyouton in his attempt to neuter me and no, he didn't remove the tag; the tag didn't work. I thought maybe the tag itself had been a dud or that I'd messed up the activation due to the fact that his attacks turned lethal the moment I pressed the tag to the back of his neck. That wasn't the problem though. The problem is that suppression tags don't work properly on Tora."

"Wait… what?" Shikaku blurted out in surprise as he fumbled the sake saucer he'd been playing with.

"How is that possible?" Kakashi inquired again at the same time as Jiraiya demanded, "Why is this the first time that I'm hearing about suppression tags being ineffective on the gaki?"

"Has any one ever tried to slap a suppression seal on Tora in the past?" Shikaku asked in response to Jiraiya's demand as he tried to recall if he'd ever seen a chakra suppression tag used on Kojimaru during the numerous training sessions he'd observed throughout the years he'd known the teen.

"Yes, Kasai and I used them extensively during the two years we trained the boys and their teammate," Ibiki answered in a thoughtful tone. "The tags worked on the gaki just fine during those training sessions."

"Did they?" Inoichi countered as he snagged an unopened bottle of beer. "Or did they only appear to work because Tora knew he wasn't supposed to draw on his chakra while wearing them? It certainly wouldn't be out of character for him to 'play' along with the rules during his training sessions. I know for a fact that that was how he managed to hide the true extent of his stamina and endurance from several of his instructors when he was younger."

"Are you implying that Tora downplayed his abilities just so he could slack off on his training?" Kakashi demanded as he sat up in his seat and scowled.

"No, Tora never slacks off on his training," Shikaku automatically defended as he shot the younger Jounin an annoyed look in response to the implied insult against his pseudo nephew/son.

"Tell me, Kakashi; do you remember the state that Tora was in at the end of the Hyuuga Affair?" Inoichi inquired softly as he leaned his elbows on the table and pinned the teen with intense blue eyes and Kakashi gave a single jerky nod in response to the question and the near-glare. "Now picture a six year old in the same condition because he'd been driven into the ground just for the sake of training."

Shikaku watched the blood immediately drain from the young prodigy's face and knew the teen immediately understood the implications. The shadow user then deftly poured himself a new shot of sake to rid himself of the mental image that Inoichi had just painted and quickly downed it while he listened to Inoichi finish driving the point he was trying to make to Kakashi home.

"Tora taught himself to judge how far he pushed himself in his training by mimicking Kuma. His reason for doing so in the beginning was rather childish; he hadn't wanted to surpass his only friend at the time. However, a side effect of his determination to moderate how far he pushed his body was that he prevented his then fragile body from being broken because he was pushed too hard, too fast by his teachers and trainers in an attempt to take advantage of the high stamina and endurance that his healing ability gives him. His healing ability is very much a double-edged sword that could just as easily kill him as help him."

"I knew that there were drawbacks to his ability but hadn't connected his ridiculously high stamina and endurance to his healing ability," Kakashi quietly admitted.

"Most people don't but what you have to keep in mind is that his healing Kekkei Genkai constantly washes away the usual signs of fatigue that a body develops through exercise or a lack of sleep. His reserves also replenish at a rate that's at least three times faster than the average chakra user. He could, theoretically, run full out for three days non-stop while going without food or sleep due to the size of his chakra reserves in combination with his healing ability. He'd pay for it afterwards but that doesn't change the fact that he could do it."

"And he technically hasn't reached full maturity yet," Chouza tacked on the end of Inoichi's spiel.

"None of that tells me why you think things are worse than we feared they would be," Shikaku interjected at that point in an effort to prevent the conversation drifting further down the tangent that it had turned down.

"I'm still waiting to hear more information on why you think my chakra suppression tags failed," Jiraiya stated before Inoichi could give Shikaku a reply.

"Look, I've already gone over everything once today with Kasai and I'm not in the mood to sit here while all of you hit me with dozens of questions about every little thing because I'd really like to get some rest tonight," Inoichi growled out as he shot all five of his listeners a glare. "So, if you'd all shut up and just listen, it would be a lot easier for me to give you the information you want."

Shikaku wisely kept his mouth shut. His blond friend was usually fairly even tempered but that didn't mean he couldn't get angry or that he wasn't willing to yell and bash heads if someone annoyed him enough. That was especially true when he was overly tired and based upon the dark smudges under his eyes; Inoichi hadn't slept all that well the last few nights (if he'd slept at all). Once everyone had been properly glared into submission, Inoichi took a long drink of his beer before he settled back in his seat and began giving the group a run down of what he'd learned over the past three days.

"Since everyone here is already aware of what happened in Kasai's office on the twenty-third, I will skip rehashing those details and start with my observations of Tora's behavior during the discussion I held with his guardian several hours after the meeting with Kasai. As expected, Tora was rather subdued when he arrived for that meeting and he only spoke up when he was directly addressed by one of us. He mostly remained in control of himself during that discussion and the worst he did was freeze his tea once."

"Once the meeting with his guardian had been finished, I took Tora home with me so that I could keep an eye on him for the next couple of nights to determine how deeply the seal's removal would affect his sleeping patterns. I'd suspected that he would have nightmares but I never anticipated just how badly those nightmares would affect him; I don't think he got a single hour of uninterrupted sleep while I monitored him. In fact, I spent more time sitting in the kitchen talking with him about his nightmares than he spent in bed each night. Not even Kuma's presence reduced the number or severity of his nightmares."

"If his nights were terrible, his days were even worse. The past three days, I dragged him out to one of the more remote training grounds at the crack of dawn to work with him on maintaining control of his temper. The first day, I decided to trigger his temper and wait him out in order to see the full extent of the damage he could do if left unchecked. I'm still not certain if that was a stroke of brilliance on my part or if it was the biggest mistake I've ever made."

"His temper had transformed the entire training ground into a glacier and by the time it stopped expanding two hours later and I could get in to check on him, he'd frozen himself inside a chunk of ice that was ten feet thick from his ice spikes merging into a single block. When I first found him, I thought his Hyouton had killed him due to his complete loss of control and I lost at least ten years of my life. Luckily for me, things weren't as dire as they had seemed at the time or I'd have been lynched by a mob of angry friends and adopted family."

"I didn't discover that he had survived being frozen inside of his own creation until I had tried to chip my way to him with a kunai. The sound of metal striking ice caught his attention and he slid out of the ice much like the two of them slide out of a tree when they use their Mokuton to travel through wood. It would take him the rest of the day to fix the training ground but on the plus side, he was much calmer as we talked about his anger and his memories while he worked."

Inoichi paused at that point to finish off his beer and Shikaku watched Kakashi and Jiraiya both twitch with impatience at the short break. He suspected that Ibiki was just as impatient but the younger man was as expressive as a brick wall and Shikaku couldn't be bothered to put in the effort to try and read his non-existent expressions right that second. Chouza, on the other hand, was a rather patient man while Shikaku himself was just too lazy to let himself get worked up despite the fact that he was more than a little impatient as well.

"The second day wasn't much better; though thankfully the glacier didn't make a second appearance. Instead, I spent the entire day trying to get Tora to snap himself out of his anger. I didn't have much success. However, I did learn several things over the course of the day. Tora can't fight while he is lost in his rage; he freezes up and lets his ice take control of him. The chakra suppression seal tags don't work properly; the seal merely slows the rate his ice grows at if he is already channeling chakra when the seal is applied."

"Tora only loses complete control of his temper and Hyouton when Orochimaru is mentioned; his other known triggers still only make him angry enough to drop the temperature and grow hoarfrost. Additionally, Tora did not once draw on his Mokuton when lost in his anger; the only time he lost control of his Mokuton was when he felt even a smidgen of fear alongside of his anger. And lastly, the ice grown while he is in a rage is far colder than the ice he grows normally and it can not be scratched by an ordinary kunai or melted; not even when a high level katon jutsu is used on it."

"Today's session was both the most productive and the most frustrating," Inoichi continued after opening another beer and wetting his throat again. "Unlike the first two sessions, I brought Kuma in today to help keep Tora grounded after I'd gotten a fairly clear picture of how little control Tora had over himself once he loses his temper. That was how I learned that Tora will not lose control of himself over hearing Orochimaru's name as long as Kuma is touching him. If the two of them are within arm's reach of one another, Kuma can snap Tora out of his rage within seconds just by calling his name or touching him."

"If there is more than three feet separating them, it takes a little more effort for Kuma to snap Tora out of it. It also takes him far longer to snap Tora out of it if Kuma allows Tora's temper to rage long enough for his Hyouton to start forming solid ice as opposed to just forming hoarfrost; even if they are standing within three feet of each other. I also learned that physical contact or close proximity with someone other than Kuma does not have the same effect on Tora. However, being in physical contact with him after he's lost his temper does reduce the chances of being skewered by ice as the initial barrier that forms is defensive in nature, not offensive, despite the deadly nature of the ice formations created."

"So basically, the best way to snap Tora out of his rage (for those of us who are not named Kuma) is to slap a knock-out tag on him or to talk him down before he sinks too deep; the former is obviously far easier than the latter nine times out of ten," Inoichi finished a touch sourly as he dropped back against the booth.

Shikaku hummed thoughtfully as he eyed his friend for a moment while the others digested everything they had just been told about Tora. After a minute or two had passed, Shikaku asked, "How much can you tell us about what you learned from your talks with Tora without breaking his trust?"

"Not as much as I'm sure you all would like to hear," Inoichi answered tiredly. "Tora is even more skittish about trusting anyone outside of his small, self-made family than he was previously. The reason for his renewed and increased trust issues stem from his memories of his time in Orochimaru's hands. The seal suppressing his anger had also affected those memories; dulling and blurring the details simply because they were connected to Orochimaru. And with the seal no longer affecting those memories…"

"Kuso!" Shikaku loudly swore before Inoichi could say anything further as he immediately understood the implications of what Inoichi had been in the process of revealing. "Chikushou!"

"Precisely," Inoichi gravely agreed.

"One of you want to share with the rest of the class?" Jiraiya demanded in an irritated tone.

"Tora's healing ability is capable of filtering sedatives out of his bloodstream; meaning that a normal eight hour dose is lucky to knock him out for an hour," Shikaku reminded the older man. "Sleeping seals are never used during surgical procedures due to the fact that the chakra in an active tag would interfere with said procedures. Essentially, that means that Tora frequently and repeatedly woke up during any procedures performed on him."

"What that basically means is that Tora remembers far more of what had been done to him as it was done to him than we previously believed due to the seal affecting those memories," Inoichi added as soon as Shikaku had paused to take a breath. "On top of that, Tora is older and has read all of the reports pertaining to Orochimaru's experiments and that basically means that he is now capable of comprehending far more of what he heard, felt, and saw in those memories."

"What does that have to do with the gaki's trust issues?" Kakashi asked in confusion.

"Orochimaru was not working alone," Chouza quietly pointed out as he set the zucchini tempura he'd been about to eat aside. "He had dozens of underlings working with him and only a small handful of his subordinates were caught during the raid on his lab. There is no telling how many of them are still living in the village today because they managed to escape notice in the wake of Orochimaru's escape."

"Tora calls those underlings that came into contact with him faceless because their faces all blurred together," Inoichi continued as he leaned forward to proper his elbows on the table so he could cradle his head in his hands. "He is afraid to trust people he doesn't know because he doesn't know if this stranger or that neighbor was one of the faceless ones that contributed to his pain and terror during his time in the lab. The fact that those memories are clearer and more detailed than they were prior to his seal being removed only intensified that insecurity even if they still don't give him actual faces to assign to his former tormentors."

"It was my understanding that Tora's memories of that time had been damaged," Ibiki stated with a deep frown and a tone that almost sounded concerned to Shikaku's ears.

"Those memories are damaged but that doesn't mean that he can't remember anything; the memories were damaged, not erased or removed. If anything, you can liken the damage done to Tora's memories to the damage that would be done to a mirror or sheet of glass that was dropped. Each individual memory sequence was shattered into hundreds of pieces and while the smallest of those pieces were lost, the larger fragments still remain and provide some insight into the original contents even if they are all out of sequence."

"Has he opened up to you in regards to what he can now remember of his time in Orochimaru's hands?" Ibiki inquired as his left hand briefly rose to brush across the bandana that Shikaku knew hid the torture scars that decorated the other man's scalp and the reason for his [Ibiki's] earlier concern became readily apparent to the Nara.

"Somewhat; he doesn't really like to talk about those memories and he tends to gloss over the details when coerced into talking about them. However, the fact that he has talked about them at all is encouraging because he hadn't talked about them in the past but that might have been due to the seal making them unimportant in his mind. The same applies to his nightmares due to the fact that all of his current nightmares are fueled by those same memories."

"Were his memories and nightmares the only topics you broached with him during your talks?" Kakashi inquired in a bland tone that practically screamed curiosity.

"No, we also spoke about those topics that came up during his evaluation on the twenty-third and the information he'd gotten from the investigation reports on Orochimaru's depravity. I also spoke to him at length about those missions he had been on that necessitated a visit to my office since he first earned his hitai-ate to ensure that the seal hadn't skewed my assessments of his mental health during his original visits. The last topic discussed were the mood swings he's been experiencing as a result of entering puberty."

"Is there anything else at all that you can tell us?" Jiraiya asked as he pushed another beer towards Inoichi.

"No, not if you're asking for more information about what Tora and I discussed over the past few days. I can, however, tell you that aside from being rather quiet and subdued…"

"Meaning he pretty much clammed up and tried to make himself invisible without actually resorting to using a jutsu to hide or escape," Shikaku muttered under his breath.

"…he functioned and behaved fairly normal when around others," Inoichi continued without acknowledging Shikaku's interruption. "That was especially true whenever he was in the presence of my wife and daughter. I know most of his behavior around them was a mask but the fact that he had enough control over his emotions to maintain such a mask in their presence for hours at a time was heartening. If only because it was evidence that he still has some control. The fact that he didn't bother to mask his inner turmoil when I was alone with him was also a good sign since it meant that he wasn't trying to hide anything from me."

"The last bit of information I think you might be interested to know, Jiraiya, is that the seals that hide Tora's original eye color no longer flicker when he feels any strong, negative emotions like they used to. I'm not certain if that change is because the mental suppression seal was interfering with the disguise seal or if it was because the original seal that changed the color of his eyes had a flaw in the design though."

Silence fell over the group as soon as Inoichi finished his informal report. Shikaku eyed the blond for a moment before he pushed yet another beer in his direction. The lazy Jounin then poured himself out another shot of sake as he allowed all of the information he'd just learned about Kojimaru to settle in his mind. He could now almost understand Inoichi's earlier claim that things were, in some ways, worse than they had expected they would be. He also hadn't missed the fact that there was much that Inoichi wasn't saying and figured that the things that had been left unsaid would give him a clearer picture of the teen's current state of mind.

Mendoukusei; what a troublesome headache, Shikaku silently complained as he sipped at his sake.

"What kind of tests did you run to determine that the chakra suppression seals did not work on Tora?" Jiraiya asked after several minutes of silence had passed.

"I slapped more than half of the tags you gave me on him. I attempted to use them while he was channeling chakra, I placed them on him and had him attempt to channel chakra, and I even tagged him a couple of times while he was asleep to test him when he didn't know I was testing him. If he was actively using his chakra, the tags only made it more difficult for him to draw on his chakra and slowed down the growth of any ice. On the times he wasn't channeling chakra when I tagged him, he managed to form one to two jutsu out of ten attempts and they would be less effective than if he had not been wearing the tag. And if he didn't know the tag was there, he'd pull off three in five jutsu."

"What are the odds that his apparent immunity to chakra suppression seals is related to the reason why genjutsu doesn't work on Tora?" Ibiki inquired thoughtfully.

"Right around fifty/fifty," Shikaku answered without giving the question much thought. "It's the constant fluctuations in Tora's chakra that we've theorized are a by-product of his healing ability that prevents a genjutsu from snagging hold of his senses. The standard chakra suppression seal is designed to cut all access to a person's chakra by placing a barrier over the chakra network that blocks the person's chakra. The twisting nature of Tora's chakra due to the fluctuations could very well allow just enough of his chakra to slip through the barrier and allow him to still use jutsu."

"What about the 'corrupted' nature of Tora's chakra? Could that also be a factor in why the seal doesn't work?" Kakashi asked in the wake of Shikaku's answer.

Shikaku automatically nodded in response to the question before he offered up the information that had been on the official reports from the research team put together to look into Orochimaru's experiments; a team that Shikaku's uncle had been in charge of all those years ago.

"Yes and no; the corrupted nature of Tora's chakra is closely linked to his healing ability according to all of the tests that had been run on him, his blood, and his chakra. That ability also stemmed from a secondary source of energy that was similar to but at the same time different from chakra that Tora had been born with according to the limited information that had been pulled from Orochimaru's research notes and from Tora's medical exam at the time. At some point after the Mokuton was integrated into his system, the secondary energy merged with his chakra and the end product of that merger is his chakra corrupted."

"Despite the corruption, his 'chakra' still behaves like chakra in most cases. The known exceptions are his inborn healing ability, the higher than normal rate of his chakra production, his immunity to genjutsu, and his inability to use any of the Shodai's Mokuton Jutsu in their original forms – an inability which would theoretically extend to his use of the Hyouton as well if we had access to any of the Yuki Clan's original techniques for him to try and learn. His chakra also doesn't react well with plant matter… or actually, I should say that his chakra reacts all too well with plant matter due to his Mokuton; causing even dead leaves to sprout new life."

"Yeah, I've seen him grow clones from dry twigs and old leaves at the drop of a hat," Kakashi snorted. "I also saw him coldly decimate an entire army of his own clones using his Hyouton. I'm not looking forward to facing one of his ice creatures in a training spar; those damn things are vicious."

"You think his ice creatures are frightening? You should see the carnage he can wreck when he brings a five mile stretch of forest to life using his Mokuton," Ibiki countered with sadistic glee. "He single-handedly wiped out an entire gang of seventeen slavers in two minutes flat after he had witnessed one of them backhand a little boy that wouldn't stop crying for his okaasan. It took us three days to piece what was left of the slavers back together so that they could be properly identified in order for their bounties to be collected."

"Tora dislikes child abusers," Inoichi drawled in a knowing tone.

"That's an understatement if I ever heard one," Shikaku deadpanned as he recalled the other stories he'd heard about Tora's encounters with various child abusers over the years.

"What are the chances that Tora executed the two men that he caught molesting his little stray?" Kakashi suddenly asked in a pensive tone.

"Non-existent; Tora does know how to exercise restraint and he knew he was on a mission at the time," Inoichi replied without even stopping to think about his answer. "However, if he ever crosses paths with either man again in the future, you can bet your ass and a full year's pay that they won't survive that second encounter. If not for the potential political fallout, he probably would have taken the time off so that he could return to Kumo to take care of those loose ends but Tora is not foolish enough to risk triggering the war that we barely dodged just to eliminate those two men."

"That's good to know," Kakashi murmured as he relaxed in his seat once more.

"As I was saying," Shikaku stated in order to steer the conversation back to Kakashi's original question regarding Kojimaru's corrupted chakra. "The number of areas where the corrupted nature of Tora's chakra actually interferes with what we'd considered the natural order of chakra usage are fairly limited. If the interference wasn't limited, then none of the seals used on him would work and he in turn would not be able to use even a basic storage seal or exploding tag let alone any of the non-elemental jutsu he knows."

"The fact that it does affect a handful of areas is why I said it was possible that the corrupted nature of his chakra could be affecting the seals. Specifically, the fluctuations in his chakra (which are created from minuscule changes in the balance of the physical to spiritual energy ratio that makes up his chakra), as I mentioned earlier, could be disrupting the seal's effectiveness."

Kakashi thought about that information for a moment before he silently acknowledge Shikaku's point with a brief nod before he asked, "And you said it was those fluctuations that made him immune to genjutsu as well?"

"Yes; the constant little changes to his chakra prevent another's chakra from latching onto his senses because that chakra is disrupted by said changes," Ibiki confirmed since he had been the one to discover and extensively test Kojimaru's immunity to genjutsu over the two years he'd trained the teen.

"Does that include Sharingan induced genjutsu?"

"That… I don't know; there were no Sharingan users in my department during the period of time that I helped train the two gaki," Ibiki replied as he frowned in response to the glaring hole in his testing methods. "You will have to test him on that and let me know whether or not he is capable of shrugging off a Sharingan induced genjutsu."

"Yeah, no; that's not going to happen," Kakashi countered with a head shake and a slight bitter edge to his voice. "I'm banned from learning Sharingan activated genjutsu courtesy of the current Clan Head; they're still pissed as hell about Obito giving me his eye on his death bed. And I'm not on good enough terms with any member of the clan to approach them to request they help me test Tora's immunity to their precious techniques. They'd be far more likely to demand Tora's head on the platter in outrage that an 'orphan of no standing' dared defy them by being immune to their jutsu."

Shikaku winced as he could easily see the Uchiha Fugaku doing just that. The man was a hard-nosed bastard that didn't understand the concept of compromise. The man's wife was far less uptight but in order to get access to Mikoto (Fugaku's wife) one would have to go through Fugaku. And the rest of the clan consistently bowed to the whims of their Clan Head bar a few brave souls that dared to buck the system. Shikaku knew part of the problem was the accusations and rumors that there had been an Uchiha behind the Kyuubi's attack but he didn't know how much truth was in those rumors.

Even taking into account the increased hostilities between the Uchiha Clan and the rest of the village over their supposed involvement in the Kyuubi's attack didn't change the fact that the members of the Uchiha Clan as a whole were rather stubborn and prideful. They had been that way for many decades. However, there had been a time when they had been willing to compromise in the past; if they hadn't been willing to do that, then they never would have been one of the founding clans of Konoha. Sadly, their ability to set their pride aside and work with others seems to have died at some point between the First and Third Great Shinobi Wars.

"There should be at least one Uchiha within the ANBU Corps that you could approach," Ibiki stated as his earlier frown turned into an actual scowl.

"If there is, I've not yet had the dubious pleasure of crossing paths with them," Kakashi replied sardonically. "Or if I did encounter one, they simply didn't announce themselves."

"I'd recommend approaching Uchiha Shisui if either of you wish to test Tora's genjutsu immunity against a Sharingan," Jiraiya suggested before Ibiki could make another comment. "The boy's still young yet, barely in his teens if I recall correctly, but he's considered to be the most talented Uchiha in his generation. He's also well known for disregarding the usual rules and traditions that the rest of the Uchiha Clan follow religiously. Sensei recently earmarked him for potential ANBU recruitment during the next round of open enrollment for the Corps."

"There's no point in making any plans to test Tora against a Sharingan Genjutsu just yet," Inoichi interjected before either Kakashi or Ibiki could comment on Jiraiya's suggestion. "His mental and emotional state is far too chaotic right now and adding the stress of fighting off yet another form of genjutsu is not going to do him any favors. Also, you need to keep in mind that his body chemistry is changing right now and it could well throw off the results of any tests. It's also entirely possible that he could lose his immunity to genjutsu by the time he's finished going through puberty."

"All the more reason to start making plans to have him retested," Ibiki stated with a small smirk and Shikaku almost felt sorry for Kojimaru; that smirk promised pain and humiliation. "It wouldn't hurt to send Kuma through a few more tests as well.

"They pranked you recently; didn't they?" Shikaku asked out of the blue and Ibiki immediately scowled in response to the question. "I'll take that as a yes. What did you do to earn a prank?"

"Nothing; the little snots decided to prank me in an attempt to get me to give their other friend some time off."

"It's not an 'attempt' if you give into their demands," Inoichi flatly corrected his boss and Shikaku nearly snickered at the flat look that Ibiki gave the blond for his comment.

"What did they hit you with?" Kakashi asked with obvious glee; though whether that was in appreciation of a well played prank or if it was because someone else had been targeted by the two teens, Shikaku couldn't say.

"They infiltrated the T and I Building without anyone noticing and filled my office with at least three dozen stray cats."

There was a beat of silence before everyone not named Ibiki burst out laughing. The intimidating Department Head let them laugh it up for another two minutes before he sucked all of the amusement out of the air with his next statement.

"And inadvertently uncovered several months worth of sabotage to my department's holding cells and in the wake of that mess, I unearthed three traitors and two spies that had been with my department for years."

"Mendoukusei," Shikaku complained as he pinched his nose. "Those two have the oddest damn luck."

"I couldn't have said it better myself," Ibiki retorted with an undertone of frustration. "That little complication is why I requested to be included in this meeting." Ibiki then turned to Inoichi and asked, "Will you sign off on Tora doing a side-job for me tomorrow?"

"What is it you wanted him to do?"

"In exchange for giving their friend the requested time off, I asked for two days from both boys in return. I intend to have them test the department's security. They agreed and initially offered me the twenty-seventh and the fourth. The only question is whether or not you think Tora is cable of participating in the evaluation at the moment."

"Even if he's not; letting him go through with the 'mission' would be one way of determining how his current issues will affect his performance within a relatively controlled environment," Kakashi pointed out. "While Tora and Kuma are evaluating your staff and poking at the building's security, someone else could easily take the opportunity to evaluate Tora."

"Are you volunteering to do said evaluation?" Inoichi countered as he considered the teen from over the top of his fourth bottle of beer.

"I've got nothing better to do; so, sure, why not," Kakashi agreed after a slight moment's hesitation.

"I'll have one of my subordinates also evaluate both teens," Ibiki offered on the heels of Kakashi's agreement. "Since Tora being off his game is liable to trip Kuma up due to how close they are and how long they've worked together."

"You'll want to find a way to completely disguise your chakra signature since your signature is unique enough that it'd be far too easy to pick it out of a crowd and Kuma is a chakra sensor while Tora is chakra sensitive," Shikaku suggested once it looked like no one was going to object. "Otherwise they'll know you're there as soon as you get close enough for them to sense you and if you're following them around in an effort to observe them, they'll know something is up."

"He can use the same seal that's used to disguise Kuma and Tora's signatures," Jiraiya stated as he glanced up from the notebook that he'd pulled out at some point. "I'll draw one up for him once we're done here."

As the others finished hashing out the details of the spur-of-the-moment live evaluation, Shikaku silently worried about the chances of Kojimaru and Tenzou's hidden identities being uncovered by Kakashi. He already knew that Kojimaru didn't yet trust the Jounin and in his current state of emotional turmoil, the perceived threat to his godfather might just set him off. At the same time, he knew that Kakashi needed to see that Kojimaru could keep his personal issues out of the mission because otherwise the silver haired teen would never trust the younger teen.

Shikaku happened to catch Inoichi's eye at that precise moment and the moment their gazes connected, the blond tapped his foot against Shikaku's ankle to spell out, 'I've got it covered', in Morse Code. Shikaku inclined his head slightly to let him know that the message had been received; that was one less thing he had to worry about at least. Snagging hold of the sake bottle that he'd been nursing since he'd arrived, Shikaku poured out the last shot of wine into his saucer as their little informal meeting wound to a close now that Inoichi had finished his report.

Less than a half an hour later, Jiraiya dropped the privacy barrier as all six of them said their goodbyes to one another and began migrating towards the door. As he parted ways with his teammates, Inoichi passed Shikaku a scroll holding a copy of his official report on Kojimaru's current mental state and a copy of Inoichi's personal notes on what he'd learned from his discussions with Kojimaru. Basically, Shikaku had just been handed all of the information that Inoichi had not been able to speak about in the presence of the others.

A brief review of that information before he went to bed would leave Shikaku with a foul taste in the back of his throat and a migraine.

It also left him with hope that Kojimaru would be able to pull himself together and pull through this latest issue.

He might even manage to survive puberty with his troublesome personality in tact, Shikaku dryly thought to himself as he slid into bed beside his wife.

Translations: Japanese to English

Chikushou – damn/damn it
Gaki – brat
Kuso – swear word
Mendoukusei – 'how troublesome', 'what a drag', or 'this sucks'

10-18-16: Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes.