Chapter 3 – Mission
Everyone looked at the imposing figure that had just spoken. He was a tall man and had a very scary look on his face. He had to be someone important due to the clothes he was wearing. Everyone just did not like being in the same room as the man.
"Uh, can you…" one brave student spoke but he was quickly silenced with a glare.
"Did I give you permission to speak?" Ibiki demanded, tossing a little bit of intent. The boy quickly sat back down. He faced the class and continued. "As I said, my name is Ibiki Morino and that is all you will get from me. Today's exercise is for this class to learn more about me. You will be released into the village to do your best to get more information. You have until lunch to complete this objective. However, there will be penalties."
"W-What kind of penalties?" asked a kunoichi.
"If your information is weak, you will fail. If you are late arriving back, you fail. If you don't impress me, you fail." Ibiki said. Everyone looked at the man with wide eyes. "Now, if you all have your teams, the exercise begins now." Everyone got up and filed out quickly to complete the exercise.
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Naruto and Kiba faced the other two of their team. The first was Choji, the plump ninja who you will never call fat if you knew what was good for you. The second was Shikamaru, the laziest person in the entire village. They all just stood in the yard of the academy just looking at each other.
"So, what's our plan?" Kiba asked.
"I don't know about you guys but I'm going to lay down here and watch the clouds." Shikamaru said.
"What are you talking about? We have an exercise to complete!" Naruto exclaimed.
"I didn't ask for this exercise. I was going to just go to sleep in class when that guy showed up and ruined it." Shikamaru stated.
"Hey, we're not going to fail just because of your laziness!" Kiba shouted.
"Hey guys, let's calm down for a second." Choji said.
"Look, what would be the point? If everyone is thinking like everyone else, they are probably heading to the archives to get information of this guy. That place will be crowded and stuffy. I'm not going to go there." Shikamaru argued.
"Well then, we won't go there. We'll go to the place that he works!" Naruto said with a loud voice. This gets the attention of his teammates.
"What are you talking about?" Choji asked.
"The clothes he wears, I know where he might work. I've been there a couple of times. So come on, let's go and we might get some information about the guy." Naruto said, urging the group. Kiba was in but the other two were no so forthcoming. That's when Naruto got an idea. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a wad of coupons. He held them in front of Choji. "These are some vouchers for Ichirakus' ramen. You help us get a good grade and they're yours."
"Sold!" Choji exclaimed. Shikamaru sighed and looked at his friend. He just scratched the back of his head and gave an annoyed grunt.
"Fine, I'll help out." Shikamaru said. All on the same page, they began to follow Naruto to where the guy might have worked. After a few steps, Naruto stopped them and gave them all a look.
"What's up Naruto?" Kiba asked.
"Look, whatever you see happen, don't do anything and don't laugh at me." Naruto warned. The others were confused by that.
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It took all of Kiba's willpower not to bust a gut right now. This had to be the funniest thing ever. Shikamaru, Choji, Akamaru and himself just watched as Naruto was face down on the ground, being searched by the people of the Konoha Village Prison. It took a whole five minutes for the group to search and remove every bit of items Naruto might have been carrying. He was then picked up by the people there and released. Naruto just grumbled at the workers there.
"You know, this is getting really old and unnecessary, Tonbo, Shimon." Naruto said with a frown. A man with the upper half of his face is completely wrapped in bandages and his forehead protector is drawn all the way over his eyes and a man with shoulder-length brown hair with two long bangs in the front just gave him a look.
"Well, if you didn't prank us so badly that time, we wouldn't need to do this every time you enter here." Tonbo replied.
"First of all, you found no proof it was me! Second of all, if I did do anything, it was because you jerks started it!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Why are you here Naruto?" Shimon asked.
"The group and I have to do an assignment of a ninja of the village. We were given the name Ibiki Morino. I recognized his uniform and assumed that he worked here." Naruto said.
"Well, you're right about that. He's the head of the Torture and interrogation Force." That surprised the four males and puppy. "Ibiki Morino is one of world greatest interrogators. He's well known as someone you never want to get captured by. He doesn't just get the information out of you, it's said that he can't take your soul as well." Shimon said
"R-Really?" Naruto asked nervously. The two just chuckled at him.
"No, not really but he is very skilled. He can subjugate any one to huge amounts of pain without getting physical. It's an ability that he has that has earned him such a reputation. He's also good at reading people and very insightful. He's a master of human psychology and one tough son of a bitch." Tonbo said
"How tough is he?" Kiba asked.
"He has a bunch scars on his body that is never seen. Those are all from being tortured himself. Some of them are pretty brutal. Despite that, he never gave up any information to the enemy." The guys looked amazed at what was told to him.
"Wow, this guy sounds bad-ass! Is he here? Can we speak with him?" Naruto asked, getting a curious look from his friends.
"Sorry Naruto, he's out for most of the day. I don't know when he'll be back." Shimon explained.
"Well, do you know anyone else we can talk to about him?" Naruto asked. Shikamaru looked at Naruto with wide eyes.
"Well, I know that he's pretty close with several ANBU members and the former head of the department." Tonbo said.
"Yeah, the best bet would be to seek out Inoichi Yamanaka. I doubt you'll find any ANBU that has worked with Ibiki more than once." Shimon added.
"Thanks Shimon, Tonbo. You've been a real help." Naruto said. The group left the prison and stood outside. Shikamaru gave Naruto a look.
"Why did you ask them if there was anyone else that we could talk to? Don't we have enough to give that Ibiki guy?" Shikamaru asked.
"I don't think that's enough. Look at what we have so far. We know that he's the head of the Torture and interrogation Department. He's the world greatest interrogator, highly intelligent and tough as balls. That isn't enough to take back." Naruto said.
"Come on Naruto; don't make me do any more work." Shikamaru whined.
"Just stop Shikamaru! We doing something interesting and you want to mess it up because your laziness! Don't you want to get one good grade, even if it's just this once?" Kiba argued.
"Kiba does have a point." Choji said, munching on his bag of chips. "I would like to take home a nice grade. When I do, my mom cooks up something really good." Akamaru barked, making it four against one. Shikamaru sighed and surrendered to the pressure.
"Okay then, what's our next move?" Shikamaru said with an annoyed grunt.
"Okay, we need to split up and get some information. Kiba and I are going to find us an ANBU that has worked with Ibiki before. I know where one hangs out. You two, are going to speak to Inoichi sensei because of how close your families are. He might be more forthcoming with you two than us. After you get what we need, meet up at the archives and we get the general information about him." Naruto said.
"That sounds like a solid plan." Kiba said.
"Alright, let's get this over with." Shikamaru said with a sigh. The group split up and made their way to their targets.
XXX
Finding Inoichi was not hard. He was either at home or with his buddies, who happened to be their fathers. This time, he was home. Choji and Shikamaru saw with his wife, Noriko. Upon seeing then, Inoichi disengaged from his wife to face them.
"Hello boys, why are you out of class?" he asked.
"We are doing some troublesome exercise with some troublesome people." Shikamaru said. Inoichi looked confused at turned toward Choji.
"We are doing a report about the shinobi of the village. We were given Ibiki Morino. We learned that he succeeded you for the leadership of the Torture and Interrogation Department. We were wondering what you can tell us about the guy that we did not learn in his personal file." Choji said.
"Well, I can't tell you much as it would be classified. What do you want to know about Ibiki?" Inoichi asked.
"I guess, just how feared is this guy? Is it just talk or is it all true?" Shikamaru asked. Inoichi chuckled and looked at the two.
"Ibiki's reputation is well earned. The mission he took to the border of the Water Country basically says it all." Inoichi stated.
"Why's that?"
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"Seriously, who haven't you pranked? They didn't even give you a choice. They just tackled you and slammed your face into the ground." Kiba said with amusement. Naruto just gave him a glare before the ANBU had finished their search.
"Okay Naruto, what do you want?" the commander asked.
"I was wondering if you knew anyone who has ever worked with Ibiki Morino? We have to do a report on the man and we're just getting more information. We have a lot but we are very curious as to just how tough this guy is?" Naruto said. The ANBU commander nodded before he spoke.
XXX
It was now after lunch and Ibiki was not very impressed with the class. All of them probably made their way to either the library or the records department. They got his basic information and that was it. Anyone who did that immediately failed the exercise. There were a few that gave a little more but it was something that could have easy been falsified. He even failed the last Uchiha who looked like he wanted to challenge him. It was amusing. Now, it was the final team that had the person who started all this. He was curious as to what they got but he wasn't holding his breath.
"Okay brats, what do you have to say?" Ibiki asked. Naruto was the first one to step up.
"You are Ibiki Morino, head of the Torture and Interrogation department. You earned the position at a young age from Inoichi Yamanaka, your second sensei. You are known as one of the world top interrogators, able to get the information without causing physical pain. You prefer to attack the mind, gaining control of your captor's soul." Naruto said.
"You are also very tough when it comes to talking interrogation. On one mission, you were captured by the ninja of the Hidden Rain and tortured for days. It is how you have gained those scars and several other injuries that we can't see. Even after you were saved, you revealed nothing to the Rain ninja." Kiba added.
"Your reputation is well known even in the Water Country. Your rep is so feared that one of the future Seven Swordsmen of the Mist killed an entire team that he was supposed to protect just to avoid getting captured by you." Choji said.
"In all, you are probably one of the scariest people in the Leaf." Shikamaru finished. They stood and waited for Ibiki to give them their grade. He just stared at them for a while before he started to laugh. The class was shocked at the laughter of the man. He quickly calmed himself and looked at the instructors.
"Finally, I meet some ninja. These guys are the only one who will get full marks." Ibiki said. Everyone is shocked by what he had just said. Shouts began to ring out and accusations are being thrown around. Ibiki unleashes his killer intent and everyone was quickly silent. Ibiki glared at everyone in the room besides the final four.
"You children need to start acting like shinobi. This exercise was to test how well you did at information gathering. All you did was go to the archive and get basic information. These four went further and did some actual work. They learned things that you should have worked to get. It isn't just going to be handed to you on a silver platter. You're angry because they did the work and you all didn't? You bring shame to the term 'shinobi'. Just for that, everyone beside this group has failed this exercise. You don't like it, tough." Ibiki stated. With that said, Ibiki left the class. That's when everyone turned their attention to the group. They all gave the class nervous smiles.
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