Against the World

"It always happens just when you think you can rest."

-x-

"Hello, Hanako-nee-san." Junichi said as he entered her room. He sat down in the chair at her bedside. "How have you been?"

"As well as can be expected." Hanako replied. "I'm tired. I grow weaker by the day. I don't think I can work much longer."

"Don't worry, you don't have to. I'll take care of things." Junichi promised, taking her hand and running his thumb along the back of it. "Has Sekai-chan visited you recently?"

Hanako finally smiled. Asking about Sekai always brought a smile to her face. "Yes, just the other day. She's been making an effort lately."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"I think she knows I've been running out of time. I wish I didn't have to leave her. The poor girl, she's been through so much already." Hanako paused to take a shuddering breath. "I wish I could have done more for her. I wish I didn't have to—"

Junichi cut her off with a shushing sound. He reached out and tucked a wisp of silver hair behind his big sister's ear. "You don't need to worry about her."

Hanako closed her eyes. "I can't help it."

Junichi decided to change the topic for now. "Let me tell you what my wife got up to yesterday."

"Oh?"

"Yes, she and my son—"

"Stop. I don't want to hear about him."

Junichi flinched. Right. How could he forget? "I'm sorry. How about I tell you about the time..."

-x-

Twenty Three

I barely remembered the trip to Mist's base. This time no one carried me, instead I ran side by side with Itachi and a woman I recognized from the barracks but did not know the name of. The three of us were the only Leaf survivors. Assuming Aiko, Sakura, and the other two made it to the Mist base safely, meaning that from over two hundred of us, there were only seven survivors from the initial attack.

Cloud had come incredibly close to achieving their goal of completely annihilating us.

Mist was doing much better by comparison. They were in far better condition when they joined the fight, and they suffered perhaps a dozen deaths, though a good half of the Mist survivors were returning with not insignificant injuries.

Which circled around to why no one was able to carry me despite the fact that I could barely keep up, even at our relatively slow pace. Itachi and the woman from the barracks were too tired to do it. The Mist nin were either too injured to carry me or carrying someone too injured to travel on their own.

Or they were carrying one of our six prisoners.

There were five men and a woman. Two jounin, three special jounin, and a chuunin from what I'd gathered. I wasn't sure how or why they were selected as prisoners over their comrades. Perhaps it was based on rank. It could have been about who they were related to. Maybe it was based on who was easiest to capture. It could be a combination of those factors, or it could be something else entirely.

There was no real concern of them escaping before we got to the base or getting free and attacking us. Itachi had placed each of them under S-ranked genjutsu. Their chances of breaking out were practically nonexistent, but just to be safe all their weapons were taken and they were restrained. Someone from Mist had injected them with a chakra inhibitor as well, similar to the one that had been used on my team back in Earth Country.

The base was located on and spanned the entirety of an incredibly small island about twenty kilometres off of Hot Water's north-eastern coast. I suspected the island was man made by Mist specifically for this base.

We arrived well after sunrise. Since the three of us from Leaf were exhausted rather than seriously injured, they took us to some sort of office and had us fill out a bunch of paper work under the scrutiny of several fresh faced Mist nin. By the time I was done I was so tired I didn't even remember what the paperwork was for, only that Itachi had needed to help me fill it out properly and ensure I didn't say something I wasn't supposed to. Once it was done they gave me a green bracelet and told me I needed to wear it at all times while on the base. Itachi and the woman, who was named Kaori, got matching bracelets of their own.

I was also instructed that I was expected to wear my forehead protector with rank pin visible whenever I was moving around the base. I was permitted to remove it for sleeping, bathing, and if I was in the infirmary, but it had to be close by and on display. I was given a run down of which areas I was allowed free access to, which amounted to the mess hall, the barracks I would be assigned to, and the corridors between the two. Anywhere else, I needed explicit permission and/or an escort.

Once the bureaucracy was taken care the three of us were escorted to the infirmary, where Sakura was waiting for us at the entrance. It had only been about nine hours since I'd seen her, but I felt like it had been years. She looked tired, but more rested than the last time I saw her. She probably caught a few hours of sleep and had something to eat.

Mist graciously allowed Sakura an entire room in the infirmary to care for us. There were two beds and three chairs crowded into the room, leaving barely any space for Sakura to work. One bed was occupied by the second medic who was unconscious and had an IV hooked up to his arm. His forehead protector and rank pin were prominently displayed above the bed. The other bed was empty, but Aiko and my valiant steed were dozing in two of the chairs. They woke briefly when we entered, but once ascertaining that they were still safe they returned to their slumber. I wasn't sure Aiko really processed that I was here.

We would have no medical privacy from each other here, but at least we had it from Mist. That was better than nothing, even if I'm sure all of us would prefer the kind of privacy we got back in the village or even on a Leaf base.

Sakura directed the three of us to all sit on the empty bed. We sat practically squished side to side, my legs dangling freely over the edge while theirs reached the floor proper. She summoned green chakra to her hands and did a quick diagnostic on each of us.

Kaori was mostly fine. Exhaustion and soldier pill overdose. Sakura prescribed rest and food, and forbade her from using chakra for the next few days. The woman had a few gashes and bruises that Sakura promised to properly treat later, but for the moment she roused Aiko and directed her to clean and bandage the cuts.

Aiko grumbled at being woken but did as directed even though she seemed half asleep. Tsunade-sensei had mercilessly drilled first aid and proper wound care into the two of us even if we weren't actual medical ninja. While neither of us could perform any medical ninjutsu and weren't experts by any means, we were well suited to assisting Sakura with basic tasks and triage.

Itachi received similar diagnosis and directions, though he was distinctly lacking in battle wounds.

Since it seemed he wasn't going to mention it, I told Sakura about that blinding light Cloud had used and how Itachi had his sharingan active for it. She frowned and admonished Itachi for not mentioning it sooner. She requested permission to check his eyes, to which he reluctantly agreed. She spent a good ten minutes on them before she was satisfied, though she told him to follow up with her sometime in the next five days. With his medical assessment finished, Sakura directed him to take a seat in one of the empty chairs.

Since I had taken the supplements, I didn't get off nearly as easily as the other two did. On top of that, I had some minor damage to my hearing and apparently had a cracked rib. Sakura was distinctly unhappy with my lack of awareness, but given how badly my chakra coils stung and burned, she had to admit she wasn't surprised that most other pain seemed minor to me. She gave my eyes a quick check as well before declaring them to be fine.

As soon as Aiko was finished caring for Kaori's wounds, the older woman was kicked off the bed. Aiko graciously let her have the remaining chair and found a spot on the floor to curl up in.

Sakura directed me to lie down on the bed and brought a glowing hand to my temple, knocking me out.

-x-

When I woke up the room was considerably emptier. The other bed was still occupied by the other medic, but he was awake and no longer connected to the drip. Two of the chairs had been removed, and the one that remained was right next to my bed, unsurprisingly occupied by Aiko.

"Sekai!" she exclaimed, beaming in excitement at seeing me awake. "Stay here, I'll go get Sakura." She was gone before I could respond.

"Do you know how long I've been out?" I asked the man in the other bed. I really needed to learn his name, but no one had ever said it. Might as well ask. "...What's your name?"

The corners of the man's lips tugged up in a small smile. "Hara Satoshi, thanks for asking," he said dryly. "You've been out for about three days."

It was only my natural stoicism that prevented me from blushing. I was quite certain he was indicating he was aware I typically didn't bother learning other people's names. However even if I never saw him again, he was one of the reasons I was still alive. I probably owed it to him to learn and remember his.

"Three days, huh?" I murmured to myself. That wasn't too surprising. My chakra coils still stung a bit from all the overproduction, but they felt a lot better. I was out long enough for them to start to recover, but not entirely.

"I was out for a bout a day and a half," Satoshi offered. "My coils are almost recovered. Sakura-sama said that ordinarily she would have released me, but given the circumstances she'd prefer to have me here with you, even if I'm not in top form."

My lips curled into the slightest of smiles. Sakura-sama, huh? That was certainly new. I'd never heard someone refer to her that way before. Sakura must have really impressed Satoshi at some point.

"How is she?" I asked him. It hadn't occurred to me when I first came in, but Sakura had taken several soldier pills herself. She may have had a chance to rest between treating her group and mine, but it wasn't long enough for her coils to recover.

Satoshi seemed to know exactly what I was worried about. "From what I know she hasn't used chakra since she finished with you. According to Aiko-san she's been taking it easy and resting."

It was then that Aiko returned with a freshly woken Sakura in tow. I could tell by the scowl on her face and her unbrushed hair.

"Good to see you're awake," she said as she examined me. "A little sooner than expected, but not to a worrying degree... You should be able to eat just fine, but no chakra for at least another two days do you understand?"

I nodded obediently.

"I'm serious, Sekai. The supplements prevent the pills from consuming your body, but they don't protect your chakra coils. They'll need as long to recover from a dozen soldier pills as usual." She emphasized.

And yeah, she was probably right to remind me of that. While it hadn't quite been a dozen solider pills, it wasn't far off, and I hadn't been thinking of my chakra coils when I was downing the pills. I really should have been more conservative of my chakra during the last battle. I could have made it without any if I hadn't pushed myself trying to keep up with the likes of Itachi and Haku. They weren't necessary to stay alive like the ones I'd taken earlier were.

I wasn't going to tell Sakura that, though. She'd be furious.

-x-

It was two days later that I was finally released from the infirmary and directed to the barracks.

Unlike the Leaf bases I'd been to, Mist apparently gave their ninja some semblance of privacy. Instead of two large rooms separated into male and female barracks, Mist had dozens of smaller ones designed to fit six people each. All seven of us from Leaf were shoved into one of them. Sakura and Aiko played rock paper scissors to determine who would be sharing a bed with me. Sakura lost, but argued her way into switching off every other night.

No one was sure how long we would be staying, but Itachi was frequently in meetings. I wasn't sure what they were meeting about, but he frequently came back with an air of frustration surrounding him so I had a feeling they weren't as productive as would like. Perhaps they were arguing about something?

The rest of us mostly stayed in our room, occasionally wandering to the mess hall for a meal. Haku and Ice Boy, who I learned was his younger brother Yuzuru, frequently say with us while we ate. They were both friendly and kind, but it felt weird talking to them, so I finished my meals as quickly as I could.

During our down time I learned the big guy's name was Kumasaka Bou. I made sure to thank him for carrying me, but he just waved it off. Apparently he was a taijutsu expert with few if any ranged skills and if he wasn't carrying me he felt he wouldn't have been contributing much to the group. It frustrated me that he didn't accept my gratitude when he'd been stuck with a role that many would feel demeaning, but I let it go. He knew I was grateful, that was all that mattered.

I also discovered that Kaori was from the Kojima clan and distantly related to Kairi-sensei. She and Aiko had met a few times.

We were careful not to discuss anything of importance out loud in case Mist was listening. One night when I was sharing a bed with Aiko, I told her what Itachi and I had deduced about the attack via her bloodline. She wasn't able to respond verbally, but given her expression and solemn nod I knew she was already running through everything she'd seen while working intel on base.

We spent a week like that. After quietly consulting Itachi, he gave me permission to work on my math in our room. I got the impression that he would have preferred it if I didn't, but he knew I needed a distraction. Without it I doubt I would have been able to keep putting what happened to Pinky-taicho and who knew how many others into my mental "deal with it later" box, and processing that was not something that was safe to do until we were back in the village.

Though the actual weight of the seal slip was negligible, I couldn't help but feel like it was weighing me down from where I kept it in my weapons pouch.

-x-

On our thirteenth day at the Mist base Itachi brought Aiko with him when he left. She returned with him later that night looking exhausted. Despite our curiosity, Sakura and I knew better than to ask.

The day after that he took me and Sakura, too. Haku met us outside of our room and escorted the four of us through a labyrinth of corridors that I did my best to memorize.

He stopped outside a door and knocked. It was promptly answered by someone I vaguely recognized from when I did all that paperwork. The man stood aside and gestured for us to come in. The door closed behind us, leaving Haku outside.

The room appeared to be some sort of conference room. The walls were plain white without any decoration and the only furniture was a large table and a dozen or so chairs surrounding it.

Three people were already sitting at the table, two women and a man, and the rest of us joined them, bringing the total to eight. Four for Mist, four for Leaf.

A woman with light blue hair scoffed, drawing our attention. "Really? This is the rest of your interrogation team? No."

I stilled, resisting the urge to grab my knees. I couldn't afford to do that in front of these people, no matter how anxious I was at the prospect of doing an interrogation again. We hadn't done one together since we finished our training.

"I assure you, despite their age they are well versed in the art of interrogation." Itachi responded. "I have every confidence they will perform adequately."

The woman, who appeared to be in charge, sneered. "The Yamanaka already failed on the woman, you expect the medic and the academy student to do better? I said no."

"The prisoner in question has mental defences that rendered Aiko-san's clan jutsu ineffective," Itachi replied, his voice like silk. "This happens sometimes, but that does not mean the prisoner isn't susceptible to other methods. Aiko-san is not dependent on her clan jutsu to carryout an interrogation, and her team is trained to support her."

"We tried traditional methods and got nothing, which is why we agreed to let your Yamanaka take a crack at the prisoners in the first place." Bitchy Blue argued. "I don't see what more these three can do that our interrogators can't."

"Aiko-san made more progress in a day than you did in two weeks," Itachi reminded her viciously. "What reason do you have to deny us the opportunity to try? There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. Should they fail then you can pick up where you left off."

Bitchy Blue pursed her lips but didn't respond.

"Let me remind again that the capture of the prisoners was a joint effort and we're trying to discover why they attacked Leaf," Itachi pressed. "The information could be urgent, we've already delayed long enough letting your people try and fail to get anywhere."

"Fine," Bitchy Blue snapped. "Your so called interrogation team has the day to see what they can get out of her."

Itachi scoffed. "That's ridiculous. You had her for two weeks and got nothing. Not even a name. Give us at least a week."

Bitchy Blue leaned back and crossed her arms. "Three days. Final offer."

"Acceptable. I'm sure that's plenty of time for my team to break her." Itachi agreed with a satisfied smirk.

-x-

Mist wanted to lead us directly to the prisoner in question, but we asked them to give us a room where we could prepare privately first. They seemed disdainful of our need to prepare but allowed us use of the conference room, which I doubted was actually private, but it was better than nothing.

"What do you recommend?" I asked Aiko once we were alone. (Or as alone as we could get.)

"She's a mother." Aiko said. I didn't ask how she knew. Her bloodline usually worked even when Yamanaka techniques failed. The woman probably thought of her own child when she saw Aiko last time. "We'll use that against her. Do you still have our disguise kits, Sekai?"

"Yes, it's been awhile since you two updated yours, but as long as you included something a few sizes up like recommended I should have what we need." I said as I unsealed three backpacks and a makeup kit from my arm.

"What roles should we play?" Sakura asked as she dug through her bag, sorting what looked like it might fit into one pile and anything too small into another.

"The prisoner is in her mid to late thirties. That makes it hard to narrow down the age of her child. For now we want to look as young and harmless as possible. Innocent." Aiko told us. She looked down, curling her upper lip. "I'll need to bind my chest for this."

Under Aiko's direction I chose a delicate lavender dress that covered the seal on my arm and matching Mary Jane flats with white, frilly socks. Sakura was forced to go for a pastel green summer dress, as the better suited white one was too small. She matched it with a pair of white ballet flats that pinched her feet. Like Sakura, Aiko had little choice in her attire due to a growth spurt since we last updated our kits. She ended up in a white and blue civilian school uniform.

We quickly changed, aware we were likely being watched. Once we were dressed we got started on our hair and make up.

We decided I would keep my hair down, but with a large bow on the top of my head that matched the dress. We used a bit of white eyeliner to make my eyes seem wider, and I popped in a pair of blue contact lenses. Blue eyes were far more innocent looking than yellow. Finally, I added a bit of blush to give my face some much needed colour.

Aiko's hair was too short to do much of anything with, so she just combed it and donned a beret that matched her uniform. She chose a light pink, shimmery lip gloss, purposely applying it poorly. She added a touch too much blush to her cheeks. She wanted to look like a young girl experimenting with makeup for the first time.

Sakura braided her hair into pigtails and tied floppy green ribbons at the ends. She didn't bother with any makeup. Despite being thirteen, she was still fairly baby faced.

While we did our hair and makeup we discussed our strategy for the first session. I would be shy, hiding behind Sakura and Aiko as much as possible. Sakura would be bubbly, eager to see the woman. She would get close, sit on her lap. Compliment the prisoner's hair, tell her she's pretty. Ask what happened to her. Offer her clumsy first aid. Aiko would be protective of the two of us and seemingly keep her distance, but really she would constantly reading the woman's thoughts.

During this session we weren't going to bother trying to get her to tell us anything about the attack or Cloud. We would spend it learning about her instead. We would discover her weak points, what to exploit when it really came down to it.

Once we were ready I pushed up my sleeve and sealed our kits and clothes back in my arm. We got strange looks from the Mist ninja as we exited the conference room, but Itachi just looked amused. I had a feeling that once were were back home he would tease me about this.

-x-

The prisoner was sitting in a chair, restrained, in the middle of a concrete room. They kept her dosed with the chakra inhibitor and her wrists were shackled to the armrests, her ankles to the legs of the chair. The chair itself was made from concrete and directly attached to the floor.

The walls were spattered with a disturbing number of blood stains, and the floor was even worse. It was particularly bad at the foot of the chair and around the drain.

Sakura wrinkled her nose. "This place is gross." she declared as she entered, running ahead of us. "Why would they keep such a pretty lady here, nee-chan?"

The prisoner in question was indeed a very beautiful woman, even dressed in scraps and covered in barely scabbed over wounds.

"Sa-chan!" Aiko scolded and as stared at the prisoner. "Get back! You have to be careful here!"

"Nee-chan, please!" I whined, clinging to Aiko's hand. I positioned myself so that it looked like I was trying to hide behind her, but ensured the prisoner got a good look at me and how small I was.

"It's fine!" Sakura giggled, skipping closer to the woman and climbing on her lap. "I just want to see the pretty lady."

The woman looked sick. She probably knew what we were doing but that wouldn't stop it from working. She squirmed, trying to get Sakura off her lap, but Sakura just wrapped her arms around her neck and squealed, like the lady was playing a game with her. She eventually settled and pressed herself as far back into the chair as she could. Sakura let her.

"Sa-chan, get away from her! They told us she's dangerous! We're not even supposed to be here!" Aiko protested, and I nodded vigorously in agreement.

"It's fine, nee-chan, I bet the pretty lady is super nice! She looks like a mom!" Sakura said with an innocent smile. "Hey, pretty lady, do you have any kids?"

The woman didn't answer. Sakura pouted. "Aww, won't you talk to me?"

The woman swallowed and turned her head away. Sakura grabbed her cheek and forcefully turned it back. "That's not very nice," she pouted. "You won't talk to us, you won't look at us... So mean..."

She hopped off the woman's lap and returned to me and Aiko. She picked me up and held me in front of her. I looked down, away from the prisoner. "Nee-chan!" I protested, squirming slightly.

"If you won't talk to me, how about my imouto-chan?" Sakura suggested. The woman looked like she wanted to puke. With my small stature and the way I was dressed I looked to be maybe six years old.

"Nee-chan... I think she's hurt." I whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear me. "Maybe that's why she doesn't want to talk to you."

Sakura gasped. She set me down and ran back to the woman, hovering around her, examining her for injuries. "Oh, no! I think you're right. Imouto-chan, why don't you go get a first aid kit? Maybe if we help her she'll talk to me!"

I looked to Aiko for approval, and she sighed but nodded. I left the room, closing the heavy steal door behind me. The Mist nin keeping guard raised an eyebrow at me, but didn't comment. He looked interested in what we were doing. I nodded at him in acknowledgement. The first aid kit was right outside the room, but I waited a few minutes before going back inside with it, to keep up the illusion.

I pulled the door open, pretending to struggle like it was too heavy for me until Aiko helped. "Nee-chan, I have the first aid kit!"

I brought it over to Sakura, then ran back and hid behind Aiko again. Aiko took my hand and held it tightly.

Sakura took out some ointment and bandages and proceeded to clumsily take care of the woman's injuries, all the while regaling her with made up stories about our parents and the fun things we did with them, or the times they were mean. Whenever the woman tried to look away, Sakura always grabbed her head and turned it so Aiko could maintain eye contact.

Sakura went on, and on. The topics seemed childish and inane, but they all had a purpose.

"Sa-chan, we need to go!" Aiko whined after awhile. "We've been here a long time. Someone will come and we'll get in trouble."

Sakura pouted but agreed. "Maybe tomorrow the pretty lady will talk to me."

-x-

We asked if we could use the conference room again and they agreed.

Aiko told us what she had discovered.

The woman had two daughters, one who was fourteen and one was six. She loved them more than anything else in the world.

The father died two years ago, but before that they were always arguing.

The woman had a vain streak. People always praised her good looks and she took great pride in making other women feel ugly.

She had an older brother who'd died in the third war. He'd been one of the many killed by Minato-san.

The woman wasn't scared of bugs, per se, but she definitely didn't like them.

It was all very, very useful information, and we used it to establish our plan of attack.

-x-

Note: I figure that even as allies Mist and Leaf wouldn't want each other in their spaces without getting a detailed record of who was there, why, for how long, etc. Hence the paperwork.

Mist being difficult about allowing Leaf to do the interrogations is just politics and a power play. It's to be expected. Since it's their base they have every right to deny Leaf. If they'd managed to get what they wanted from the prisoners without Leaf, they probably would have shared the intel with Leaf, then let Leaf take them back to the village so they could do their own interrogation. It's the fact that Mist got nothing useful out of them that has them reluctant to let Leaf take over. It's a blow to their pride. Letting a Yamanaka, no matter how young, use their fancy jutsu on difficult prisoners? Fine. Letting a team of young girls do it the hard way? If they succeed it's an embarrassment to Mist.

Background that Sekai didn't learn but you might be curious about: Mist managed to break three of them, but they didn't know much of anything relevant to the attack. Aiko checked them to confirm. The other two had the same deal. Aiko of course learned a lot of other stuff from these five and will write up a detailed report on it for the village. She gave Mist and Itachi a less detailed report immediately afterwards.

The girls got training in interrogation. Gotta make use of that. What do you think of their tactics so far? To be clear, Sakura was saying things that would bring up associations for the woman, and Aiko was reading her thoughts to pick up on those associations.

Warning that next chapter might be a bit graphic. I'm not sure how explicit I want to be about the interrogation and how much I want to leave up to your imaginations.

Also like. Wow. I did not expect my little "contest" to be so popular. I'm surprised by the amount of effort everyone has put in!

P.S. This is another miracle. Don't get used to it. I'll lose inspiration or get too busy eventually.