November 3032, 2 years after the beginning of the 4th Great Ninja War
We all have a bit of "I want to save the world" in us, that's why we're here, in the shinobi world; that we were there, in the Academy. I want you to know that's ok if you only save one person and if that person is you.
Part of me died in order to survive. I may grow again, but never will be the same.
Now, we're just strangers with the same memories.
"I thought you were dead."
"Well, didn't every one?"
"You were supposed to be dead."
"Well, didn't every one too?"
"What?"
"What?"
"What does this mean?"
"What?"
"The "everyone should be dead" part."
"Oh."
"Oh?" He asked with his brows raised, his face twisted with annoyance.
"I heard we were kind of extinct."
"You sure as fuck were. Then" He stopped himself just as he as about to say "Madara" and tilted his head to the side, searching for something in the man - something he didn't find. So he continued as if he never stopped. "Madara came out of nowhere, then Obito climbed through the gutter, then even fucking Itachi appears to me-"
"Itachi appeared to you?"
"Then you - " He was cutted mid sentence.
"What do you mean by Itachi appeared to you?"
"Really?" His voice was the perfect mix between annoyance, disbelieve and total blankness - the latter winning as all good interrogator has to. "That's the part that caught your attention?"
"Kinda."
"Fuck you." He said pointedly, stating with the same emotion he uses to go please, excuse me, thank you at the market. He then exhaled, shaking his head, lighting the cigarette in one fluid motion.
Recovering from showing one speckle of emotion, his finger covered in energy met the man's jaw straight, making two teeth fly out. With a loud sigh that could be mistaken (not really) by a course a weak green chakra checked him and let him at a situation stable enough to continue the interrogatory.
"Shit fuck, that hurt." The man said and spit blood to the side.
"That's what you get when you try to fuck around."
"I wasn't!"
"I am the one that does the questioning!" The voice reverberated through the walls with the same strength his lightening used to do. He was made of electricity. The man in the chair didn't budge.
"I just wanted - you know me -"
"No, I don't."
"Come on, for the old times."
Two teeth missing didn't stopped the man from shooting a blinding smile that didn't carry all the brightness that Gai's had, but it had some shepiness glee that makes your lips quirk up immediately.
"Give me something. Now." The sound of chirping birds began to tweet in the room. A exasperated gasp was heard in front of the man and his smile fell.
"You're not going to chidori me." Only the sound of the birds fighting to be the one chirping the loudest answered him. "Are you?" Louder. "Ta-"
"Don't." His voice was as dead as all those who met the end of the ball of electricity in his hand. "Don't call me that. Tell me what do you know. Now. This is the last chance."
"He wouldn't like if you did that."
The man didn't even finish the sentence before Kakashi was over him. He flew straight to the ceiling due the way he aimed and his chair broke leaving his body to fall lump on the floor, just one of his ankles still tied and his left arm with the chains, but the wooden arm of the chair gone.
"What the fuck, Hatake? I thought you were going to Chidori him!"
"You thought I would murder a fucking man that surrounded himself peacefully offering intel and information without asking nothing in exchange?"
He had only one eyebrow raised and gave just an eye corned glare. He smiled reassuring anyway. "We will get there."
He turned his eyes to his forever present book. Except that the book that was open in his hand had none of the letters of Jiraya's, but the infos they gathered the last months. As he had an infinite collection and very were the same copy, not even the special edition or anything like that, he sacrificed the books, turning them into endless pages of data, scoop they could obtain.
Since Madara flet the battlefield over an year ago, they had to deal with was left: nothing.
Their only connection to Madara was Obito and he was now dead. Kabuto and Orochimaru were out of the picture as well, so the Allied Forces dig the whole Great Nations over anything useful. They dug up out ghosts, ditched out rivalries, scooped every single inch of everything. All scrolls they could lay hands onto, all bandits they could snitch, all underground labs, hide outs, every fucking thing. And they always
It wasn't easy, though. The tension between the nations was building up again. Day in, day out they found rogue ninjas attacking each other's lands. One year may not seem longer, but into a world used to be with a kunai at its embrace into the sleep, every feather seems a threat. One year ago, the only threat was Madara and all the puppets; now he was out of the picture and everyday he was looking more and more like a faded nightmare, so it was easy to see enemies in the ones that were right in front of you.
Nothing happened yet, but everyone felt in the air it could happen at any minute.
And Sasuke disappeared so timed in perfection with Madara that even the man himself might've have been displeased. The Five Nations were beyond displeased - if they wanted Sasuke's head before, now they wanted it toasted and shappened into little flamingos.
The Uchiha should be extinct.
A groan made Kakashi take his eyes out of his annotations and the sound of two bottles put down on a table.
"Mornin'." He said with his forever eye crease. A snort was heard.
"That really hurt. I thought you were going to kill me."
"I don't kill and tell."
Despite the blood coming from his nose and mouth he laughed and if his arm wasn't broken and hurting so much he could've even point at him and say "I saw what you did there". But it was hard to breath.
Kakashi was leaning onto one chair in the fair middle of the room and brought it to the middle, sitting the man in it while the green chakra made sure he wasn't to die. Relieving the pain, however, wasn't part of the deal (yet).
"Yeah, he appeared to me." Kakashi said out of nowhere while the man was finishing being tied to the chair.
(The woman was making ridiculous amount of strength to make sure the prisoner was properly tied to the chair when Kakashi said that. She turned her head so fast that a twirl of hair hit the man square in his face and the her locks were heavy with the amount of blood. Her hair was completely washed in blood in the mere seconds it nested in his face. Some people would add some relief of pain, would be shaken in the face of the raw nature of interrogation. She had seen her amount of interrogations and seen her amount of collateral damage when they don't healer didn't took pity.)
"When I died." Kakashi was looking at his book, his finger running over some words - for once, he was actually reading.
"What?" The man still had the vocal chords to sound loud.
Kakashi just kept examining the dossier, making a mental note here and there.
"Really, I mean it." The prisoner was suddenly very serious.
("Oh, that you want to talk about?" A third voice raised, the anger in those words poisonous enough to melt the floor. That was sushed with the wave of a hand. Kakashi didn't miss the way those eyes widened at him and how he wasn't yelled at because the mouth was too busy gaping. The man didn't see it.)
"You died too?"
Nothing but the angry breathing.
One step was taken. Shit, no Kakashi whispered angry so low it was a doubt someone besides him heard.
"How?"
The man seemed eager to know, like a puppy waving its tail when his owner comes home. ("I am going to rip his head" Kakashi made another shush hand and "I am going to rip your head—"
He hissed under his breath. Calm down he said, it seemed. The fuck I will, something akin was said. The man laughed. He was signing his death sentence and didn't even know.)
Kakashi decided it was for the best just to say it already.
"Yes, I did. I died."
The confession didn't seem to ease his eagerness.
"I got it, but how?"
"Why do you care?"
"Why not?"
"You haven't spoke shit since you've come here. Why should I say something?"
"Dunno." He just shrugged.
His nose was broken and his voice was a bit nasal, some blood dripping down his chin. His left eye was a deep purple with black on the corners and two of his fingers were broken. He was fighting against the pain, breathing hardly, but was still humorous. It was amusing to watch.
Kakashi got fucking tired of it.
Before another threat came from over his shoulder he punched the man. And again. And again. He punched him about nineteen times before he passes out. The main focus were his nose, his chin, his stomach and a prod just for good on the crotch.
A whistle followed by a "Oh my" and Kakashi thought it was Anko in the room. "Didn't know you had it in you, Hatake."
"You sound like Anko."
That seemed to be an insult good enough for him to be left alone.
He went to check in his book and they stayed in silence. He was trying to see if he missed somehow, somewhere how that man was alive, how they would have overseen something like that, something that big.
"How is he?" This time he was shushed and he fought the urge to roll his eyes. After a few seconds he felt his patience wearing thin. "Are we really -"
The hand came up again to shush him.
"Don't be a child there, Hatake. Be quiet." He lighted a cigarette. "Oh, and light one for me too."
With one cigarette in his hand and the other in his mouth, the woman came to sit by his side at a table.
"Why did you shush me?"
"His chakra paths." She took a deep drag and went silent.
"That is fucking magnificent. What about it?"
"They are working in perfect condition, but I notice I was the first one to touch them, heal them in ages."
"How long would "ages" be?"
"Over ten years?"
Both his eyebrow rose until they were lost in his hairline.
"That is downright impossible. So if he is who he alleges he is -"
"How long is he here?"
"Six days, Kakashi. You told us to only call you if we couldn't get nothing."
He ran his hand over his face and took a drag and a sip. A ton of papers were all over the table. All the notes they took of what the prisoner said. The things they got were in the line of "I heard old man Teuchi is 'bout to get some concorrence", "When I was four, we had a swing that the older man, just imagine that, set on fire when they had a fight. If they fought a lot? You tell me."; "My dog died when I was on a mission"; "I hate spicy food most of the time"; "Land of Water fucking sucks at winter"; "I once met a man with a ginger hair that had its own punk band and he was good on mosh pits. You don't know what is a mosh pit? What kind of interrogator are you?"; "my mom was a kunoichi, thank you very much, we used to get take orders or to get food from my cousin"; "yeah, I had a girlfriend once. How that's not what you asked me? You asked me to tell you something.";
"It has to be something here."
"You are the genius."
He gave her a dark look, which she just shrugged off, but he saw the thin lines in her lips.
"Kakashi," she called over from her place in the table. He just hummed. "we are gonna laugh of this stupid shit one day."
"I know. I just wish I was fucking laughing now."
"Well, "When I lost my virginity, you see, it was with a civilian girl, fuck clan shit, but she actually said another man's name. Yeah, that hurt." or "Once my team captain had gonorrhea"". She pointely looked at him and he just gave her the middle finger, which made her laugh. "Really, I want to make him swallow his teeth, but when he's unconscious I feel less murderous and, come on," she grabbed a piece of paper, looking rather proud of herself, "I remember vividly having a nightmare of a wood-faced terrifying man.". I bet Tenzo would be proud of himself. And if he knows Tenzo -"
"Yamato"
"Oh, fuck off. If he knows Tenzo and know his creepy face we're just…" She sighed, putting the papers back, but Kakashi understood. He was looking at paper after paper and searching over his book.
"Something is missing."
"My teeth."
"Ready to talk?"
"'Can try'." The man was obviously now struggling with speaking, so the woman healed him superficially, making sure no vital points were affected and helping with his teeth. He tried to mouth a thank you, but didn't quite manage with the amount of blood coming out of his mouth.
Kakashi had a pained expression on his face. None of them could see. She was healing and sitting him more properly and Kakashi was left looking at them, his arms crossed in front of his, his back to the wall, the table at his side. Maybe one day he could describe to someone how much it was for him to conduce this interrogation.
Once the man was sitting in the chair, his features now recognizable and less swallow, but still bruised, Kakashi, again, just blurted, his voice as impassive as ever.
"Pain, from the Akatsuki. He killed me when he invaded the village."
"And how are you alive?"
"I could ask you the same."
The man hissed a bit when he tried to take a deep breath — his rib was broken, sure as hell wasn't okay. With just a look he signalled for the man to be partially out of pain - he looked about to enter in shock. With a sound of relief and the sound of a cigarette being smashed into the floor he simply said: "How did Itachi appear to you? Was he still alive?"
Clearing his throat, he fled the question.
"You were right on "everyone should be dead", but apparently no one really dies, do they?"
"They kinda do."
"Who died?"
"Do you want to do this in chronological order?"
It was the limit. Tsunade hit the table with her hand so roughly it broke the thing in two, leaving some dust up (and messing up completely all the papers). All Kakashi could do was sigh.
This time Kakashi's hand couldn't shush her and she seemed ready to rip his hand off. Tsunade didn't like to be shushed. She only agreed on staying in silence and not letting all of her healing chakra take place because Kakashi thought it was better for her to remain unknown as much as possible. The man didn't seem to know she was once the Hokage so he could be kept in the dark a while longer.
"Stop shitting me, you brat. Start talking or you won't be able to feel the relief of a healed wound until another one is made."
"So, it really is the Slug Princess. It is a honour to finally meet you."
Tsunade didn't seem flattered as she pulled the man in her direction with enough strength to dislocated his shoulder to which he howled in pain.
"Tsunade!" Kakashi hissed, again, now saying her name, when he took her hands out of him and she let go off him, letting him fall as a piece of pudim. He was still holding her hands and even though he was much taller than her, she was looking him in the eye and what seemed to be the beginning of a I've told you already discussion the man said, for the first time in almost one week, something worthy
"He always talked about you." He said in a relaxed tone, even though he had now one more bone in his body causing him pain.
"Who? Who, boy? Who talked about me?" Tsunade was over him, grabbing him by his shirt again, but not so violently.
He smiled, toothless, but his eyes turned to her, as if he was happy. "Orochimaru."
Her hands glowed green without him saying anything. In a heartbeat all his injuries were healed, but she didn't give him the benefit of the pain release immediately. Just bones mending and bruises leaving without the numbness they could put with their chakra.
"So, I take you still care for your old team mate?"
"Do you?" Kakashi asked back and the man, for the first time, retracted into himself. Tsunade lifted one eyebrow.
Orochimaru wasn't a taboo between them, but it wasn't discussed without the presence of everyone. An interrogation seemed to be the very exception and he was so talkative out of nowhere, but Orochimaru had betrayed them so many times they wouldn't risk it. It could be just him throwing a bait after he didn't have anything else. Orochimaru was always an ace upon the sleeve.
Tsunade made a point to heal him terribly slowly, mostly making pressure over his wounds and causing more pain before the healing end.
"Tsunade..." Kakashi said, asked tiredly and then the man was ready to go. She left a bruise with the shape of her hand over his arm, though.
"Okay!" The man raised his hands, bruise in place, in not so mocked surrender. "Okay. I will collaborate."
"You don't have to "collaborate", kid. That word we use to war prisoners, nice war prisoners. You came for yourself. Even though I'm beginning to think we should've thought of something a bit worse for — Oh, finally!" She interrupted herself and turned to the door.
Ibiki marched in, just shooting a look at the broken table and placed a few tools at the floor, just where Kakashi had stepped on his cigarette.
(It's funny how it always left black traces. Asuma's didn't.) He then handed a small bottle to each Hokage-ish in the room and left a bigger one beside the tools. Tsunade whispered something that sounded a lot like "set the boy on fire for a show" to which Kakashi regarded her with a hard look over his drink. In the top of her magnitude Tsunade stuck her tongue out and Kakashi was left wondering if Sakura and Tsunade hadn't overpass the limit of time one can spend with another.
The door closed with a click and Ibiki stepped to the middle of the room, his hai-tae hiding his bald battle scars. His face was as dangerous as always.
He looked the man from head to toe. Took in his mischievous hair, his turnout clothes, the way the dry blood was all over him, his dry lips with fresh scars — the fresh scars all over him from the interrogation, the old scars from his life, the way his smile was boyish under the layers of pain and hours of torture, the absence of his eyes, two shallow spots regarding him back, his hands with bones in awkward positions. Everything in him screamed homeless plus interrogated and that image never was pretty. The smile, still, was out of the picture, escaping the frame.
"So it is true. You're alive."
"Pretty much, uhum."
"And you came back with an attitude"
"Wouldn't say I did-"
"I wasn't asking."
"Oh"
"Okay."
He double checked the boy again and turned to Tsunade
"What do we have?"
The eye exchange between her and Kakashi wasn't missed by Ibiki.
"We have a lot of my patience lost in here. I swear to God I didn't threw a chair at his face 'cause there isn't any here despite the one he's sitting."
"Yeah, I know," Kakashi said, rolling his cigarette in his fingers "I asked them to remove anything that could be thrown."
"What? Why the fuck? I could've- this could've gone a lot faster if I- how dare you?"
"Tsunade!" The woman fixated her gaze at his face, her face flushed and looking like she could throw him. "Calm down. You're not good at the whole information gathering"
"What?"
"You need to keep your cool." The man answered instead of Kakashi, flashing a smile, like he was being truly helpful.
"Oh, you brat!"
Apparently, both men forgot how fast Tsunade could be because in a blink of an eye the man was punched to the wall that cracked minimally (interrogation rooms have to have the strongest walls for obvious reasons, but of course Tsunade would be able to crack it).
Kakashi sighed with a hand in his temple and felt he was again dealing with a team of gennin.
"Tsunade! Jesus Christ, calm down."
"Why the fuck would I calm down? We're walking in circles. This fucker probably came here just to seek shelter."
"We're still at peace." Ibiki said plakant and still with his face resembling a doberman ready to jump and drool between his teeth.
"For the moment."
"You ruined the chair, Tsunade." Kakashi pointed.
"Fuck the chair." She was fumbling, tidying up her clothes, dusting them off. They looked at the man laying at floor - for the third time of the day. He wasn't moving. "Oh fuck, don't tell me I killed him."
"You didn't." Kakashi waved with his hand while he was handed a chair by the door. He raised the door of the ground with one hand and set him with another. This chair didn't have arms, just a seat and a backboard. He was slipping out and Kakashi had to hold him to avoid him from falling face flat to the ground
"He's out again."
"Why are you giving me this look, boy? Every punch this boy took was well deserved. Now wake him up."
"You're the medic."
"Enough with this bullshit." Tsunade his the ground with her feet and it made a whole on the concrete. The floor was also harder than the regular ones. "Enough! I am not going to be shushed anymore nor suppressing my chakra." She marched in the direction of Kakashi. "Get the fuck out of my way." He rose up carefully, eyeing her strangely. She put both hands in the man's temple. "Wake the fuck up, boy!"
The man jolted awake and his not-eyes (his sock balls) widened, his back straight.
"I've had enough of this. I am the Fifth Hokage and you all will treat me as such. You included, Hatake. I don't care you wear the hat now. I will not bow to no one, kid."
Knowing better than trying to placate her, Kakashi just shook his head in understanding and let her.
"Ok, kid, I am sick tired of this. You haven't proved being valuable to us so far. We can feed you to the wolves in the blink of an eye. If you just marched here thinking your name would protect you, you were dead wrong. You are lucky you are alive, because your name is almost a curse here and you should've known better."
"I do know." His voice was throttled, but serious. "I know about my name."
"Why did you use it then?"
"Would you hear otherwise?"
His voice was tired and broken, his gleeful lost in the cracks of the wall.
(It clicked inside Tsunade. She had a jumpstart based on her descendants. How serious would she be treated without being a Senju? At her time, during the Second War, women were nothing but medic-nin. She became a Legendary Sannin. But would've she even have had the chance to try to prove her worthy without this backup? She was just a girl like many others. She would have remained the same. People were now threatened by her intelligence and her strength, but would the Third Hokage took her under his wing if she was just a blonde temperamental girl? Would he value her? Or she would be what Sakura were to Kakashi?)
"In the end, all you have is your name." He said and smiled and she could fucking see her little brother there, in that smile. Not all the ninja had to say they wanted to be Hokage to shatter her with her grief. That man managed.
In the silence that stretched, Tsunade kept eyeing him, until she gave him her back and drunk with drops falling over her chin.
"What did he tell you?" Ibiki asked, massaging his temple.
Ibiki was a very collected and closed man. Very few people managed to get on his nerve and Tsunade was one of those.
"Nothing!" The moment passed. The man smiled. "He didn't tell me nothing! Not one useful thing. And then Hatake decided it was better if he didn't know it was me."
"Hatake was right."
"I fucking know Hatake was right." If she could throw something or slam her hands at something, she would've. Instead, she just waved her hands and her hair was falling loose. "It didn't fucking work. The boy knew it was me."
"What did he know?"
"About the village?" Kakashi answered leaning into one pilar. "Not much. He was alien to most news, so he didn't know about me being the Hokage and knew mostly about whispers about Tsunade, nothing concrete."
"The War?" Ibiki raised his eyebrows.
The I&T usually (never) discuss anything in front of the prisoners, but this one was different. There was no need to hide these things from him. It wasn't like they were discussing the nothingness he gave them so far.
"Didn't fight in it." Ibiki wrigled a eyebrow but Kakashi waved him off, taking another sip. "Was at a civilian village, but protected them through Madara's."
"The whole month?" His voice was cruel and dead as ever despite the surprise.
"Uhum." The three of them turned to him. "I was very helpful. Not completely useless."
In a flare of chakra that seemed to heat the whole room Ibiki summoned The Cage. Tsunade's lips quirked in a cruel smile. Kakashi drank.
Apparently, the man's good humour was the last thing people wanted from him. On the other hand, he was perfect on pushing people's strings.
Immediately, he was out of his chair and pressed against the iron cell, straps closed over his wrists and ankles.
"Why aren't you cooperating?" Ibiki said marching in front of him.
"I am!" It was impossible to tell if he was joking or not.
"You aren't"
"What do you know about Madara Uchiha?"
"Almost nothing."
"Almost?"
The man cringed.
"I know what everybody knows. Legendary shinobi, founder of The Leaf, came back from the dead and started a war."
"And that's all?"
"That's all."
"Why should we believe in you?"
"Why not?" He asked in some tone akin defiance. Morino hated defiance.
Ibiki's summon glued to one of his arm and, keeping his whole body in place, pulled it to a point it almost fell of the junt.
"Fuck! What's the need of doing that? I am telling —"
"I am going to ask again. What do you know about Madara Uchiha?" Ibiki leaned, his hands crossed over his back, his face dangerously close even if the man couldn't see, he could feel the hot breath at his face.
"I fucking told you already!" The smile was gone. A grimace of pain took its place. "I know shit about him."
"You seemed to know a lot just two seconds ago."
"A lot?" A harder push. "Fuck shit. I don't know shit about him."
"How do you know about the War?"
"Is there someone that doesn't?"
Morino straightened his back and knee quicked him at the stomach. The man spit blood.
His arm was so straight and pulled to the side it made him look like half a puppet.
"Do you like the pain, boy?"
Kakashi could see the retort coming (you're the one that get off on it) and stepped in.
"How do you know about it?"
"Everyone knew." He was panthinf. "Even the civilians. They took a lot of -" he was having a hard time breathing, sweat falling from his temple and his face was growing pale. "Many, many were killed. They didn't know who Madara was."
"Then how did you know the war was against him?"
"People talk."
He went silent and it couldn't be said if it was due the pain or stubbornness.
"Morino." Tsunade ordered with a shake of her head. His arm was pulled harder and the skin was ripped. His baw filled the room and seemed to enter their minds like a woodworm. "Unlike you." She finished with her voice strong.
The man was looking at them, laboured breath and his empty eye balls were producing tears.
"Shinobi." He said finally.
Tsunade healed his wound, making it stop the bleeding and at the moment his face was about to contort to relief, she pressed with enough strength to crash his bones.
"Fuck! Fuck woman!"
"Talk." Ibiki ordered, low and deliberated.
"You, shinobi, you talk. Every village you walk in, you leave whispers behind. I only managed to pull all the pieces together in time to protect them."
That was enough of an answer for the day.
"Where have you been in the last ten years?"
"Around?" It pulled even more. He didn't say anything else.
"Around?" He was quiet. "Just around?" Another pull.
The bone falling out of place was heard among the howl, the guttural sound. If he screamed when Tsunade hurt him that was a whole new level of Dante's Inferno. Tsunade wasn't smiling anymore.
"Tell us about." Kakashi's voice came down like a thunderstorm over the place. Yet, over the screams, a storm is always welcome.
"I " He was screaming over the pain, but it was nothing more than they already knew.
Ibiki looked at them, asking for quiet permission.
He proceeded.
The summoned cage was in the process of attaching his whole body to the golden iron chains (not even Kakashi had seen what they do, just the results) when he said:
"Wasn't I the one that didn't actually need to cooperate 'cause I am not a prison-"
(Something flicked in the air. Not outside, not something Kakashi even recognized at the moment. Something flickered out of the man's body. A body's flicker under his eyes got through the sharingan and then:
"Fucking changed my mind." Kakashi pushed himself off the wall, his eyes dark. "Tsune, please, leave."
"Hatake, what are you"
"Just leave."
The summoned cage disappeared leaving the man to fall half to his feet beside the chair. He didn't had the strength to pull himself up.
Ibiki didn't need an order.
"Lord Hokage." He bowed as he left. Kakashi's cut this bullshit was said to the closed door.
"Fix him."
"You don't talk to me like that, boy!" Tsunade was with her finger pointed so closely to his face it was a surprise she didn't pulled out his eyes as well.
"Tsunade, the man is bleeding in the floor and he will get into shock before I can say "suflair"." Her chest was expanding and her hand was raising and he didn't know if it was to slap him or lecture him. "Please, Tsune?"
"You take this." She put a pill down the man's throat, sitting him up. Kakashi rose a questioning eyebrow at her. "Jesus fuck, don't you listen to her rambling?"
"Oh."
"Hum, would you two mind telling me what she just shoved down my throat? It would be anticlimactic to die poisoned after a week of torture."
"Oh man." Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose.
"And, well, be glad she doesn't ripp your eyes off. It sucks to live without them."
Even Tsunade's finger stopped in the air.
He had to be fucking kidding.
Questions like "How does he know her finger is at his face?" or "Did he hit his head so hard he doesn't know when to stop joking?" or, the one they kept asking, "Is he really blind?", but at the stupid joke Kakashi felt the urge to burst into laughter.
That was it, the joke was funny, he wanted to laugh, but he wasn't allowed to. He nevertheless chuckled a bit to himself and the six eyes drove into him instantly. Tsunade's forehead vein throb and the man just fell into little chuckle himself — six eyes because the last pair of eyes were from Sakura that was perched just out of the window, prepping. A second later she was caught by Morino and almost fell off. Kakashi laughed a little more. No one asked why. The few cons of being the Hokage.
Still smiling, Kakashi turned to him, and punched him punctual in the face. It was clear as the day that Tsunade wanted to do the same. Her eyes were frantically rushing through the whole room and at every second her face grew redder. She was still searching for something to break or to throw or some shit like that. The woman was fumbling and heat among with chakra was circling her. A fair man would probably back off, but Kakashi didn't give a single removably shit.
"You sound like a teenager. Please, leave and break some things outside."
She didn't move an inch and the murderous stare was now directed to him. She really looked like a rebellious teenager, with such a young face and temper. He really wasn't up to put with any of this - the interrogation, Tsunade, the war, the way his stomach roared, the smiling man with an already growing slowly bruise at his cheek. He just was fucking thirsty and he wanted nothing but drink himself 'till he choke on his vomit and died. He ran a hand over his face, feeling the weight of being Hokage, being a prodigy ninja, being a drunk, everything. He hold back a sigh.
"I let you pick the tool I'll use." Kakashi said, defeated.
It was like offering a candy to a small child in exchange of its goddamn silence — except it was so twisted it was like buying a ticket straight to hell or something like that.
The woman just gave a sinister grin and even his blood ran cold. She eyed thoughtfully the tools at the floor: a small axe, a sharp little knife, a really big scissor, a thumbscrew, a whip, an electroshock weapon (his favourite. He would always put his own electricity), a instep borer, a tanto, (for fuck's sake) a katana, a boot (used to crash injuries, don't be fooled. One type was made of four pieces of narrow wooden board nailed together. The boards were measured to fit the victim's leg. Once the leg was enclosed, wedges would be hammered between the boards, creating pressure. The pressure would be increased until the victim confessed or lost consciousness. Newer variants have included iron vises—sometimes
armed with spikes—that squeezed feet and metal frames employed red-hot), a hammer, a nipper, a saw and a switchblade.
He remembered an article he read ages ago about torture methods some sick preachers would use on heretics.
"While the accused heretics were on strappado or the rack, inquisitors often applied other torture devices to their bodies. These included heated metal pincers, thumbscrews, boots, or other devices designed to burn, pinch or otherwise mutilate their hands, feet or bodily orifices (...) "
He was good at torture, just as he was good at everything. He didn't have any hesitation to retrieve information. He often killed the victims after the suffering that made them sell their souls - no use on keeping some one who might speak someday - leaving no trait of his actions. But now he couldn't actually kill him afterwards. He didn't even knew if he would kill him at any time.
But, right now, he resigned to punch and poke him with sharp objects, hot metal burns, hang him upside down by the hands till it resulted on a dislocated shoulder, boil a soup under the fire underneath his seat, pull all his limbs each way stretching the skin, slit his ankles and ask him to run, cut little fingers, make so much noise he would throw up and pass out, expose him to exaggerated light and then let him meet darkness for what would seem eternity, not letting him sleep, starve him, whip his legs and arms, puncture nails at his hands, poke slowly under his fingernails just for then rip it away, he would rip off the new eyes he had, hit him on the spots that would hurt for days, tie and smash his balls, burn his tongue, rip his teeth; the list went on: blinding with light, bone breaking, branding, castration, water torture, cold cell, combing, crushing, cutting, dehydration, drowning, dry-boarding, dunking, flagellation, foot roasting, foot whipping, hamstringing, hypothermia, impalement, keelhauling, kneecapping, noise , oxygen deprivation, pressure points, sawing, scalping, sensory overload, shinbone crusher, sound (extremely high volumes, dynamic range, low frequency, high pitched noise, intended to interfere with rest, cognition and concentration), strappado (also known as "reverse hanging", stress positions, thumbscrew, waterboarding...
Without counting the psychological torture - if he had the will to do it today.
But he wouldn't kill him.
And the best was that he could heal him to perfection and then do it all again.
Kakashi felt her chakra signature in front of the window that showed the interrogation room — she managed to pass by Ibiki and return to the window.
Sakura had not only seem, but inflicted a lot of torture methods, some she learnt from watching him. She knew he was looking directly and precisely where she was. She shifted her leg from one leg to another. She wasn't sure what she was waiting to see, but she felt compelled. When Tsunade closed the door, she eyed her skeptically, but her face dropped when she saw the look on Sakura's face: Determination. Anger. Outrage. Chagrin. Madness. Displeasure. But the most shocking one was the familiarity her eyes leaked.
Tsunade knew from that moment that Sakura wasn't not even remotely the girl she once knew.
War changes every one.
She just didn't expect Sakura to change so much.
The girl panicked at a genjutsu of her childish crush impelled and, now, she was just staring as she was about to predict his movements. It all departed, vanished when the whole room went black. He had placed a jutsu that wouldn't allow any of them to see or hear what was going on.
Few had the privilege to seal, berate an interrogation room. Even amongst interrogators, even amongst ANBU it was rare. Hell, even amongst the Hokages.
Sakura was pure ire at this moment. Kakashi could sense it, but he had more pressing matters in hand. The man was their best lead to anywhere as they had nowhere else to go and everyone wanted to take a look at it, but Kakashi just now realised the man would open up to him only.
And that made perfect sense.
Kakashi dragged a chair (he caught when he got Tsunade out of the door) into the room and put it directly in front of the interrogated. He lifted his head slowly, his face stoic and his eyes betraying nothing.
"You know me. You know me. You know what I am capable of. You've seen me do it enough times already, but you were never at the end of it." He put one foot over the seat of a iron chair, leaning both of his arms into his leg, the other one at the floor. He lit another cigarette. "You are today. And I suggest you talk."
The silence stretched until he hit his left hand with an enormous strength with the hammer and the sound of broken bone filled the room. The boy spat blood from trying to bite his on tongue not to scream. Kakashi slapped his face.
"Don't fucking do it."
The man was breathing hard, blood already dripping from his chin and his hand.
"I can't see why you don't talk. Shit."
Taking a deep drag, running his hand over his overly messy gray hair, nails meeting the scalp, Kakashi closed his eyes and did his best to copy Kakuzu's jutsu and turned his hand into something earthy - and hit the man's side with full strength. The bones cracking filled the room.
Kakashi immediately healed the worst damage - he always did that in interrogations.
"Why aren't you talking?"
When the man didn't say anything, barely opened his eyes, he sighed and lifted the hammer again only to smash it at the wood of where his arms were tied. At the shock of not being attacked combined with the pain of actually being attacked, he opened his eyes. What was left of his eyes as all the man had was to hollow balls.
His sight was a bit terrifying. His hair was long, a beard tickled his chin, his face and visible body were full of nasty scars and he had no eyes. His whole body was covered in blood at one point or another, his face was pointing in strange angles from being badly healed. He was bone and flesh, his skin pale. Children would have nightmares about him forever.
Kakashi kept taking drags on his cigarette while the eyeless eyed him. With a loud sigh he smashed his cigarette at the man's left hand. He hissed and contorted his face, breath ragged.
"Talk."
It was an order. Not an interrogation one, but a fielding one. One you don't disobey.
Sighing a deep sigh, the man finally spoke, none of the boyish bubbled through him this time.
"They can't hear us." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Kakashi didn't answer. "Okay. What do you want to know?"
"How are you alive?"
"I wasn't supposed to. I was ready to die, it was my intent." He stopped, considering his words. "I just ended lying in pain, with a twisted wrist and an ankle, shoulder broken, another one dislocated, just a inch of a broken spine - tough luck - a broken arm, the femur was terribly fucking exposed fracture. There was no point in trying to distinguish broken bones from scratches from what could've been burns in other lives. It just hurt like hell. Blood was coating me everywhere and I have never wished death so much. " It was like he was seeing all of that again, all his body completely unusable, lying waiting for dead. "But death didn't came. A farmer did." He skirmishes on the chair. Kakashi placed his hand above his and he shrunk further in the chair. His hand began to glow green.
"I am shitty at healing, but I can try enough so it stop hurting so much." He muttered below his breath, his voice as detached as ever while he was trying to piece everything together, but nothing made sense still. "Go on."
"The farmer took me to his house and rolled me up on bandages. He wanted to take me to an hospital, but I didn't let him. I told him I wanted to die and, well, I couldn't see it, but I am pretty sure he looked exasperated. He just shoved me further in the bed and said he was still bringing wood to the house and he would be back in a few hours. Before he left he gave me water and I drank like a golden fish that got back to the ocean." He chuckled humorless and shook his head a bit. "I didn't want to die. I had to." After swallowing hard, he dropped his
head and Kakashi was sure he would be leaning his arms to his knees if he could, so he untied the man after finishing poorly fixing his other hand.
"Do you smoke?" Was blurted abruptly.
"Well, not really. And I am almost sure you didn't as well, taic-"
"I didn't, but I do now." That being said he shoved the cigarette onto the man's mouth and lit it. He didn't complain and didn't choke. Sure as hell he had smoked before, but who didn't? At some point in the life everyone smokes, even if just a drag. The human curiosity was something else. And, if not by curiosity, someone always shoved down their throat a cigarette just for 'Give it a try'. That was how he smoked for the first time. He was eleven and an older guy in a mission just tucked the cigarette to his mouth and he cuffed all the way long. He only smoked again two years later, the day Obito died. The day Obito died changed absolutely every aspect of his life. Was the first time he got drunk too, despite his small frame walking into the bar. Probably bar owner's don't give a shit about how old you are, as long as you pay. Which wasn't the case as the boy shunshied away. So he made the man smoke and smoke he did. Even people that didn't smoke took long, blissful drags, the nicotine always calm them down and that was what was needed. To calm down. Calm down and feel some sense of faux protection. Calm down and pretend he felt at home. Calm down and stop his shaking hands as he was sure the story of the farmer didn't end well.
"He left a bottle of water." Was spurred out as the way the smoking question did. "A few hours later, I guess, I was a bit relieved from the pain, so I guess he put something on my glass. If it was poison, I didn't care at all, but it was just painkillers. Even though just painkillers developed to something much bigger. Something I never would've seen."
Kakashi's eye darted to the window he knew Sakura was behind. The blind man obviously didn't see it, but he sensed his abrupt movement. He was still in a pretty good shape to someone without eyes.
"Know someone that went through the same drug problem?" His question was met with silence, as the interrogator was interrogated with a simple question, he stiffed. Kakashi forced his heart to beat into a ordinary rhythm. There was no way he knew, he could've known.
The man kept talking as if he didn't notice he said something that turned the tables.
"His wife came home less than half a hour than her husband. I heard their whispers in what I assumed was the kitchen, but couldn't make out what they were saying, but only in that moment I realised their accent was odd. Apparently, I was carried long away from the village and was at a civilian one. In a moment she popped at my side and placed her hand at my forehead. Burning, was what she said and after that I passed out from the pain as she set the first bone back to its place. I must have been really drugged as I just woke up several hours later. Then the healing process began. It took three months before I could even walk again. Not having chakra healing is shit. Even as I sensed little waves of my own chakra, it didn't really help that much. Only after two more months I could begin training again. As I was alive, I might as well be useful. I didn't know if I should head back, but it was my original plan, but then, god knows how long after, I heard about the massacre. And I threw up. And again and again. The thought that Itachi slaughtered the whole clan made my hair's in the back of my neck stiff. It wasn't like him, he was the most pacifist person I've ever known. You know that too." It wasn't an accusation, but it sure felt like one. 'I can't believe you believed he was a cold blooded murderer when you should've known better' was what was left unsaid. "Anyway, unlike you, I knew about the coup, so it all clicked in place. And I felt like an utter piece of shit. I was a coward. I could've stayed and fought, but I decided it was better to run away. To chicken out and let someone bare alone such a responsibility."
"You shouldn't be ashamed of that."
"Being a coward?" The bitter note wasn't missed by a beat.
"Sacrificing." When the man sneered, Kakashi blew a full mouth smoke into his face which made him cough. Kakashi smiled deviously. "Don't be a martyr and don't be dramatic. It doesn't suit you."
They smoked in silence for some time, the only sound their own breaths and heartbeats. All around was quiet. He flared his chakra to let them know it was alright and they didn't need to worry. Not that they were worried, the two women. They were probably just pure ire.
"I know about it."
The man said in a soft voice, his not-eyes turned to the floor, something akin affection in his voice. Kakashi head snapped at his direction, his eyes widening and he's never been so happy for one's blindness.
"About - " Kakashi's voice was barely a whisper, it could be taken as a mountain claiming the morning sun. You can't hear unless you are paying attention. He uttered so low, hopping the topic would die.
Did he know about Sakura? If he did, all he said until know was utter and pure bullshit. He was nothing but a traitor. There was no salvation here. There was nothing for him here.
"I know about the two of you. I've always had." Kakashi decided in that moment that he preferred when he was being judged than being pitied.
Because that's what it was: pity. And it wasn't about Sakura.
It was worse. It was about a ghost. A ghost that laid untouched for so, so long.
So he said "Hum."
"I couldn't not know." The man went on, the small smile forming in his lips. The tiniest of it, the blood still at his tongue. "I was his best friend, after all." He lifted his head and looked at Kakashi.
"Sasuke is dead."
The change of subject could be interpreted as him running from the primer matter, but it wasn't. He just felt he needed to voice it.
"So I've heard. But I got to say I thought it was just a rumor. And... did he really killed Itachi?"
Kakashi nodded before even realise he was talking to a blind man. Again. He really wasn't used to blind people at all. He was used at people's stare, mostly the stare of those who died by his hand.
"I see." No, you don't, his mind filled in and he almost felt bad for the poor joke. Almost. "Ta—"
"Don't." He was cut harshly. "Don't call me that."
"Why not? You were my captain, after all."
Silence.
"You think you don't deserve it? The respect?"
Silence.
"Why?"
He asked again and again silence it was.
"Is it because of him?"
Silence.
"She doesn't know about it, does she?" Shit, what? How did the kid even knew about her. He was staring intently at his direction with such a scrutinizing way he wondered, not for the first time, if the man was really blind. "I am really blind" fucking mind reader as well? "And I don't read minds. I'm just used to it. Without sight, I had to learn to handle myself."
"Why you didn't want to speak?"
"Would you, Kakashi? Be honest with me? If you vanished and was declared dead for over a decade would you be happy to open up to people that easily?"
He deflected.
"We're not just people, we're comrades." The words sounded empty even to him.
"No. You aren't. You are strangers. You can take me as traitor any second and send me to death."
There was a clock ticking in the wall and for the first time Kakashi noticed that. Probably the clock alone was torture. He stood there in silence just staring at the man, wondering what he should do. He was not a traitor, but he had over a decade to come back and didn't.
"Why?"
It was all he said. He didn't elaborate. Didn't press or ask further. Just why. Just understand and answer why.
"Because."
Fucking great.
He sighed. Kakashi took from his pocket a small bottle he always carries with him.
"Do you drink?"
The man tilted his head as if giving it a thought for the first time ever. "I guess." He shrugged.
Kakashi took a big gulp and passed it to him that hissed.
"Strong shit." Kakashi fulfilled before he spoke. The man smiled.
"Everyone says that?"
"I said that the first time I drank it."
"It's not sake. Is it vodka?"
A silver eyebrow raised so high it disappeared over his hairline.
"How do you —"
"I traveled East. I didn't settled down as a farmer raising goats. I've been everywhere. That's why i didn't return."
"Why did you take all this time to say it to me? Tsunade could've killed you. She wanted to. She was willing to, even."
Again, he shrugged.
"How do I know if I can trust you?"
"Kid, I'm the Hokage."
The man laughed and he sounded the same as he did when he was sixteen.
"You do sound the same as you did all those years ago, taichou."
"Don't call me that." Kakashi said in a heartbeat, always that harsh voice at his given titles.
"Lord Hokage is better?"
He just rolled his eyes and offered the bottle again.
"So."
"So."
Kakashi rolled the chair in front of him and sat on it, his usual slouch even if all of his senses were completely tuned.
"Ready to talk, Shisui?"