SOOOO

Yeah, I pulled a sneaky on you.

*Puts on cool guy glasses* "Deal with it" *Does funky dance*

Anyways, time for some actual news – I have decided that WE *grins like a maniac* shall take a dive into Naruto's mindscape! Or whatever the fuck it's called… damn, I need more caffeine… and probably some sleep, since I haven't slept in a few days, but SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK GOD FUCKING DAMMIT

Yeet

Inoichi sighed. While yes, Anko's request had been 100% reasonable, he just didn't want to look around Naruto's mindscape. He was about to say no, until he remembered that it was his job to look around in people's mindscapes.

Currently, he stood before a room that the boy was contained in. Pushing open the iron door, the hinges screeching painfully, Inoichi saw Naruto restrained on a table. The treatment people received in this place was a bit… harsh, certainly, but it was necessary. Shaking his head, he walked up to the table.

As he got closer, he realized that Naruto must've been sedated. Pushing back the boy's hood, Inoichi performed a few hand-signs and put his hands on Naruto's head.

Suddenly, Inoichi wasn't in an interrogation room in the hidden T&I building. He was in a large forest, of sorts.

The sky was dark, a thin layer of mist covering the seemingly dead forest. All the trees in the forest looked dead, black, but somehow not burnt. Grey looking grass waved slightly in the wind that came from everywhere and yet nowhere at once. Walking cautiously, Inoichi noticed something dripping off the trees into small black puddles.

Walking towards one, he crouched down and dipped his finger in it, bringing it up to his nose.

Ink.

The trees were dripping ink.

Shuddering, Inoichi stood and calmed himself down before wandering off to explore. He needed to find the core – the central part of the human mind. Once he found the core, he could probe and test the memories through Naruto's view.

What most people didn't know was that, when living through another person's memories, you felt everything they felt, thought everything they thought, and so on.

Slowly, a lake came into view.

Wanting to know, Inoichi crouched once more and dipped his finger in the lake. He brought up his finger once again, and the scent of ink attacked his nose. Standing and wiping the ink off, Inoichi noticed a cave with an eerie presence radiating from it.

Cautiously, Inoichi stepped on the lake. The ink seemed to solidify under his feet, supporting his weight as he shifted more of it onto the ink.

Bouncing up and down slightly to see if it would support his full weight, plus some, he made his way across the lake and towards the cave. Reaching the cave, Inoichi braced himself, and walked in. Ink dripped from the rocky ceiling above him, a drop of ink hit his shoulder. However, Inoichi didn't notice that. He noticed the temperature dropping.

As Inoichi walked farther into the cave, he heard whispering. He hadn't noticed that before. Soon, the cave gave way to a huge rocky room, the ceiling farther up than Inoichi could see, trace amounts of mist blocking his vision.

The whispering grew louder as he slowly walked into the room.

Then his eyes adjusted, and what he saw shocked him.

There were giant bird cages littering the rocky room, some hanging from the ceiling, others resting on the ground, and some broken with the metal bars bent out of place. Then he saw Naruto.

Naruto sat in one of the cages, knees pulled up to his chest, rocking back and forth as he whispered to himself. Above the cage, a light grey sign came into view with the word "Paranoia" written in ink. Ink dripped from the word, as if it were still wet, sometimes landing on Naruto.

Inoichi called out for Naruto, but the boy didn't answer. Sighing, Inoichi walked closer to the cage. Then he noticed a couple of other cages… with Naruto in each and every one of them.

A different sign hung above each cage.

Fear. Anger. Sadness. Happiness. Disgust. Pride. Hate. Envy. Bloodlust. Every emotion or feeling possible had their on cage with a Naruto in it.

Each Naruto sat – or stood – in a posture that represented each sign above their cage.

The Naruto in Fear screeched and wailed, hands banging against the iron bars of the cage, tears streaming down his face. The Naruto in Anger shouted and barked at the one in Fear, cursing at it and telling it to shut up. A glare rested upon his face. The Naruto under Sadness lay on the ground, sobbing, muttering incoherent sentences.

Each Naruto acted the way their sign said they would… all except one. Happiness.

That Naruto hung suspended in the air by chains, beaten and bloody, broken.

Briefly, Inoichi noticed that each cage was arranged in such a way that all the cages centered around one area. A giant puddle of ink.

There, in the middle of that puddle of ink, stood a nine-tailed fox made of ink. The tails waved around in the misty and thick air slowly, dripping ink every now and then. Suddenly, a pair of pale blue eyes opened. The eyes glowed unnaturally, reminding Inoichi that nothing about this place was natural.

Above the fox hung yet another giant bird-cage. The sign above it was "Indifference".

That Naruto stood straight and still in the middle of his cave, looking off into the distance at nothing. His fingers tapped at his side impatiently.

Suddenly, the Naruto under Indifference spoke up.

"What brings you here, mind-walker?"

Inoichi regained his bearings and replied, "I have come to inspect your mindscape, Naruto. Tell me, why are each of these cages listed with an emotion and one of you in it?"

Waiting for an answer, Inoichi watched as the ink Nine-tailed fox stood still, pale blue eyes still glowing.

"Order must be maintained. The original was defective, broken. And so, the Demon split him apart into Us. We rule over this body, second only to the Demon itself. This body is a vessel for ours – and the Demons – bidding, doing as is commanded. In order to maintain balance and order, we must be split apart." Naruto said, his monotone voice sending chills down Inoichi's spine.

Inoichi nodded slowly, trying to view the bigger picture. But he needed more information.

"Tell me more. Why does this splitting maintain order and balance, as you put it?"

Naruto's monotone voice filled the air once more, briefly making Inoichi notice that all other noises in the cave had ceased, with exception to the noise of ink dripping from the ceiling and hitting the rocks below.

"We are the council. The Demon gives us orders, and the council decides how it shall be done. Failure to do as the Demon commands will be met with punishment. As a council, each of Us argue on what to do, with me as the final judge choosing which course of action would be the best. It is only after this manner that we can maintain order. Without this system, we would be as useless and defective as the original himself."

"What happened to the original?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed.

"The Demon found out about the original and his defectiveness, his uselessness, and punished him. In the process, We were created." Inoichi noticed that Naruto emphasized anything that referred to the "council". Words such as "We" and "Us" were emphasized.

"Where is the original?"

The inky fox demon below the central cave emitted a low growling sound, but Naruto still answered, cautious lacing his voice.

"He has been contained within the core, where the Demon can keep an eye on him at all times and personally guard the core to ensure that the original cannot escape."

A pale blue glow emitted from the large puddle of ink below the Nine-tailed fox, revealing a large pale blue sphere buried deep inside. Inside the sphere, what Inoichi assumed was the original, a Naruto floated in place, seemingly unconscious. Something seemed to swim around the outside of the pale blue sphere, but Inoichi couldn't make out what it was.

Looking back up, Inoichi glanced to the cage that was labeled "Happiness".

"What happened to him?"

"He rebelled against the Demon, and so, he was punished."

Inoichi knew what to do in this sort of situation. This type of situation was quite rare… for a person this young. However, it often manifested in the minds of broken ANBU, the variation depending on the person. But each one was roughly the same.

You needed to negotiate with the Judge, the one in control, in order to gain access to almost anything.

Sometimes, the Judge would grant you access if you merely requested it. Other times, the Judge would either present a challenge, or a requirement, to access to anything. Sometimes, the Judge would flat out deny you access to anything or to certain areas, such as memories, emotions, or knowledge.

Inoichi stood still, debating on what to do.

The Judge acted as a gate-keeper, a guardian, a sentinel, who had the purpose of running everything and keeping watch over the mindscape to defend it from intruders, such as Inoichi. But sometimes the Judge would be merciful and allow the mind-walker free access to roam the mindscape.

"I request access to your memories."

The Naruto in the cage labeled "Indifference" narrowed his eyes once more, a slight pale-blue glow coming from his eyes. He looked over to the cage labeled "Anger" and then back to Inoichi.

"I will grant you access under one condition."

Two large iron doors rose, slowly, from the depths of the giant ink puddle below the cage. Two smaller inky Nine-tailed demon foxes stood, each one in front of a different door.

"One of them only lies and the other only tells the truth. You may only ask one question of each before you make your decision. One of these doors leads to Our memories while the other leads to a pit of eternal darkness and pain, where you will be trapped forever if you choose incorrectly."

Walking up to the ink foxes, Inoichi considered his options.

He had to come up with something that could reveal the lying one, and thus the one that leads to the pit of eternal darkness, so that he could take the other path.

"Is there a cage above us with a sign that says "Indifference" above it?"

One of the inky foxes blinked, it's pale blue eyes still glowing.

"No."

"Yes."

Inoichi turned to the one that said "Yes" and walked towards it.

"I choose this door."

The iron door opened inwards, away from Inoichi, creaking as it opened, revealing a long and dark hallway.

The hallway was padded, like the padded cells of the insane, with various iron doors on each side. The padding was torn in places, leaking ink, while the ceiling seemed to be made entirely of ink, swirling slowly but somehow not dropping to the ground.

Inoichi steeled himself and walked into the hallway. He opened the nearest iron door and peered inside, showing Naruto's oldest memory.

A two year old Naruto sat on a bed in an empty and grim room, the walls painted grey. There were no windows, nothing to reveal what time it was.

The room was literally empty – no closet, no desk, not one bit of furniture except for a small and worn down bed. The door to the room was wooden, light in color, but pale. It appeared to be in poor condition.

Naruto turned around and slid himself off the bed and walked towards the door, reaching out to push it. After a few minutes of pushing on the door, Naruto realized the door opened inwards and looked for a door-handle to turn, or something to let him out of the room.

There was no handle.

Stumbling backwards, Naruto fell into a sitting position and stared at the door, not bothering to get up.

He looked down at himself – he wore a simple over-sized white T-shirt and black shorts. Both were in tatters. He turned to look behind him, at the bed, but noticed it was just a mattress. No blanket or pillow. Not even sheets.

Naruto turned back around and pulled his knees up to his chest, a sob threatening to escape.

Tears streamed down his cheeks, which he quickly wiped away, as he realized something.

He was all alone.

Stepping backwards, away from the door, Inoichi closed it and shook his head.

Hours had passed before Inoichi exited Naruto's mindscape.

He looked around the room he was in, the sudden light making him squint. Naruto's mindscape was dark – both literally and figuratively.

Turning, he saw Anko behind him, arms crossed and impatiently chewing on a stick of dango.

Anko walked towards the door, opened it, and left the room. Inoichi followed her and closed the door behind him.

"So, how is he?"

Inoichi sighed. "He should have been put into an institution and given loads of therapy long ago."

Anko pulled the stick out of her mouth that she had been chewing on and fiddled with it.

"Go on."

"It's run by a Judge and council of his emotions. Apparently, the emotions act as a council that run him that follow the Fox's orders. I'd say this manifested back when he was four, maybe five. Hard to tell from the view of a small child."

Taking a short break, Inoichi inhaled deeply. "He's a sociopath, no doubt, with multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia, and a very severe case of OCD and scopophobia. If the war with Kumo hadn't just begun, I'd suggest that he be hospitalized and given therapy immediately. However, given that his skill-set is needed, or will be needed… all we can do is wait."

Anko smacked a wall. "Shit."

Inoichi nodded.

The woman turned back towards Inoichi. "Not to mention, problems just got worse. Uzumaki Kushina is still alive… that bitch. She's back and is supposed to train Naruto, her son, in chakra manipulation and shaping. That's going to make something go wrong… more than it already has. That bitch should have died when she was supposed to die."

Inoichi stood still, eyes wide.

"W-wait… she's alive?"

A chilling voice announced the presence of another person right behind Inoichi as it whispered into his ear.

"Yes, I'm alive."

A/N Section

You'll note that this chapter was posted RIGHT AFTER the previous chapter, instead of a week to a few weeks after.

Two updates in one day, huh?

Lucky for you.

ANYWAYS, I wanted to spice things up. You see, while YES, I do have a plan for the story, it isn't… exact, per se. I have a general idea of where I'm going to go with the story and certain events along the way that have been pre-planned… the rest of it, the finer details, are made up along the way.

I have the attention span of a Goldfish. Anyways (once again) I don't want to be "normal" in my story. Most Naruto fanfics, even the insane ones, depict the mindscape as a sewer, generally in poor condition. I wanted this one to give a more… eerie feeling when you picture it in your mind. I mean, come on, a sewer isn't that creepy. But a big-ass cave, giant bird cages, ink creatures, and multiple people in one mindscape? Now THAT actually gives me the chills.

Before I go, I have two more things to say.

Many people don't seem to know the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath, for whatever reason. A PSYCHOPATH is born that way – no change in events will stop them from being a psychopath. A SOCIOPATH becomes what they are after they are born via some event or a chain of events. Usually these events are traumatic in one way or another, and thus it permanently changes the person from who they used to be.

Finally, for those of you who don't know, scopophobia is the fear of being watched. I myself actually have this… I hate being watched, and I feel like I'm watched all the time, even if I'm completely alone in a room in an empty house.

Anyways, enough chit-chat. If you have questions, feel free to leave a review or send me a DM and I will answer pretty quickly. I will do my best to answer any and all the questions you have unless it contains a spoiler… at which point I will tell you that it would spoil the story and that you'll find out later on. Cya!