I'm sorry! I swear this will be the last cliffhanger in this fic unless my brain turns against me. Haha! Not long until the end. I'm guessing another 2 to 3 chapters max. Yeah! Then I can say I've officially finished a fic, which has never happened. Not much to say about this chapter. It's short. No matter what I did it stayed like that and I got sick of trying to fight it. Soooooo, here you go. I hope you enjoy.

Naruto doesn't belong to me.

Chapter 13: Truths

Ryou jumped forward and clamped a hand over the girl's mouth, cutting off the ear-shattering shriek. "Shhh! You can't make any noise. You don't want us to get caught do you?" The girl shook her head as much as the brunette's hand would allow, btu couldn't stop the whimper. Nodding in understanding, Ryou released her and turned her away from the room. "Just don't look okay? That's a girl." Even as he spoke, his face turned an ominous shade of green. Kushina felt hatred bubble up inside her chest and she couldn't stop herself from slamming a fist against the wall. Minato jumped slightly at the sound.

The room was dark, filled with only a soft green glow that cast deep shadows across the room and into the corners. Machines and screens lined one of the walls and examination tables lined the other. Ten tanks stood in the middle. They were filled with a luminescent green liquid. Small tubes at the top pumped more of the liquid and another unidentified substance into the tanks. It wasn't the sci-fi setting that had scared the blond girl though.

It was the bodies.

Inside the tanks, small, shriveled human-like creatures floated in the goo. There forms were tangled in amass of wires and tubes. On several of the examination tables, carcases in several stages of decay and mutilation were laid out for all to see. Their chests had been torn open, revealing the white bones of their ribs and organs.

Kushina felt her stomach flip and turned just in time to save everyone from revisiting her pathetic lunch. Wiping her mouth after her stomach stopped heaving, she glanced up at the others. Aiko had tears in her eyes, pupils dilated and filled with terror. Ryou looked to be fighting the urge to empty his stomach as he stopped the young girl from screaming. Minato stood where she had left him, staring at the figures with disgust, pity, and anger.

"What the hell are those things," Ryou chocked out. Minato shook his head, limping over to nearest container. "What are you doing? Don't touch it!" The blond teen put his hand against the glass, palm creating condensation on the cool material. The creature inside turned to face him, and stared at him with wild human eyes. It was humanoid, but covered with dark brown fur to match its long hair. Fingernails were long and sharp, as were the teeth. It's spine ,so close under the ski that the vertebrae were visible, had elongated and broken through the tail bone, creating a boney tail. Stumps of flesh and bone protruded from it shoulder blades, skin molted and raw. Seeing Minato, it wriggled in its tube and threw itself against the side of the glass, hoping to attack the blond.

Kushina walked up to him, and looked at the monster. Unlike the monster the Hideki had become, it seemed to be more of a mix of human and animal than a human turned into a creature. She could still see the human intelligence and emotions in the figure's eyes. There was one thing that caught her eye though. "They're kids. They can't be more than ten years-old." Minato turned to face her, eyes wide in shock.

"What?" The redhead shook her head and stumbled backward, trying to tear her eyes off the deformed children's bodies.

"Jun has been experimenting with humans. I don't the details, but I saw them. That was what that monster in the forest was. And Hideki... Hideki..." She bit her lip to keep the tears from flowing. All the last weeks' emotional and physical demands finally caught up with her. Collapsing, she pounded on the ground. "Damn it! Damn him! Damn this entire fucking country!"

Ryou rushed over to her and placed his hands on her shoulder, kneeling in front of her. "Red? C'mon Red. Pull yourself together. What happened? What about Hideki?"

"He's dead. I killed him. They turned him into a monster. He was going to kill me. I couldn't do anything to help him. I killed him."

"Which is probably the best thing. He wouldn't have wanted to live like that. You did what you had to." The two looked up at Minato. His eyes were distant as he looked at the room. The kunoichi felt a wry smile pull at her lips. Leave it to Minato to be the one to make sense out of any situation. Swallowing the tears, she nodded and stood up, Ryou watching her carefully. "So Jun's been doing human experiments?"

"I don't know why, but he is. There's a whole room of them beneath this house."

"Well, there's only one way to find out." Ryou got to his feet and walked over to one of the machines. "There might be something in here. They have to write down something at least." He quickly typed something into the machine and read whatever was on the screen. Minato joined him.

Kushina felt a tug on her hand and looked down to see Aiko. Kneeling down, she forced a smile to appear on her face. "What's the matter?"

"Are you alright Miss Kushina?" The smile vanished from her face and she met the girl's eyes.

"Why do ask?" The dirty-blond reached up and ran a tiny finger over the teen's cheek. A droplet of water clung to the digit. A tear. The redhead chuckled and patted her charge on the shoulder. "I'll be fine Aiko. Don't worry about me okay?" The little girl made a face that clearly told her that the girl didn't believe her, but dropped the subject anyway.

"Got it!"The two girls turned to look at the brunette. Ryou's eyes skimmed over the page he had brought up, his face growing an ugly red and green the longer he stared at the screen. "That bastard! That fucking bastard!" With that declaration, Ryou finally emptied his stomach, his face flushed and covered by a film of sweat. Rubbing the brunette's back to provide whatever comfort he could, Minato leaned over and read what his friend had seen.

"It's like you said. Jun's been experimenting on humans, adding animal DNA to their bodies. He's trying to get some kind of 'super warrior'." Minato grew pale as pictures showed up on the screen. "This has been has been going for a few years now. He was using condemned criminals for the experiments, but he ran out." Anger laced his tone as he said the last part. He cursed and Kushina felt a bead of sweat trail down her temple. She had only heard the blond curse once before and that time hadn't been during the bets situation. It took a lot to piss off the Yellow Flash. Whatever it was, wasn't good.

Finally the suspense got the better of her and she frowned. "What?"

"Jun proposed this war to the Kage just to get more 'supplies' for his experiments. He's been using prisoners as guinea pigs. That's why we've never been able to get them back." The blond turned back to the screen and quickly read through it, his face getting paler by the second. "He's moved on though. Just mixing humans and animals isn't enough now. He found another way to reach his goal."

"Which is?"

"The idiot is trying to make the perfect Jinchuuriki, the perfect combination between demon and human." Ryou stood up, wiping his mouth of the bile on his lips. "Using these experiments, he thinks he found the way to create one where the demon's power is totally controlled by the host, but the host can not be taken over by the demon. Its ridiculous! The way he's suggesting will only kill the host. That much power will make a person mad! That's why Jinchuuriki are feared and hated! You can't trust them, and definitely can't control them." Kushina felt her heart stop. Her entire village had been destroyed just so this monster could play with his little experiments? Her temper flared, but something nudged at the back of her mind. Both of the boys were avoiding her eyes, looking anywhere but her. Her frown deepened. They weren't telling her everything.

"What else?" Ryou shuffled self-consciously, rubbing the back of his neck. Minato finally met her eyes and stared at her, brilliant blue met dark green, pleading for her to reconsider. "What are you not telling me Minato?" The blond closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"It wasn't a group of rogues. The attack on Whirlpool was planned." Kushina was sure her heart stopped. No. It couldn't be true. If it was, it meant that Debiru was... that this whole mission was... Grinding her teeth together, the redhead willed herself not to scream. No! Debiru could have been lied too. He might not have been involved. They had killed him after all. She needed to believe that she hadn't been lied to this entire time and there was no way she wanted to believe Jun.

"Kushina. There's more." Ryou shot a glare at the blond, but Minato just returned it. "She deserves to know."

"Can't it wait until later, when we don't need to worry about getting caught?"

"No! I want to hear it now." Ryou glanced at her, concern evident in his gaze. Minato just took another deep breath and nodded.

"They were looking for someone. There was a prophecy about a possible Jinchuuriki. 'The child of fire and water will..."

"'The child of fire and water will be born during disaster. They will conquer the ultimate beast and gain immense power. Peace will be brought to the war-torn nations and they will be united under one name. The child of fire and water will be the greatest warrior and the great whirlpool will become legend.'" The trio turned to stare at Aiko. The girl fiddled her fingers and stared at the floor.

"Aiko? What do you..."

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt anyone! I can't help it! I'm sorry! No matter what I do, it won't go away! They won't leave me alone, no matter how much I ask. I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please don't hate me! Please don't! Don't let them hurt me! Please help me! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" A sob tore from the girl's throat and she collapsed. Kushina rushed forward, the protective instinct taking over her.

"What's wrong Aiko? You didn't do anything. What happened? How'd you know the prophecy?" The girl just continued to cry. Her thin arms wrapped around the redhead's waist and buried her face into the teen's lap, mumbling an apology over and over again.

"She's prophetic." The wonder and amazement were obvious in Minato's tone. Ryou just quirked a brown eyebrow at him.

"She's what?"

"Prophetic. She can see the future. There' a report on her in the file." Minato motioned toward the screen where a picture of the dirty-blond was posted. "Jun heard rumors about her and took her in. Not long before the attack on Whirlpool either." All eyes turned to the sobbing child.

"Please don't hate me! I'm not a freak! I'll be good. I promise. Don't hate me!" The redhead lightly patted the girl on the back. "Master Jun told me not to tell anyone because they'd hate me like the people at home did! Please don't hate me! I've been good! I'm taking lessons to stop it! Master Jun promised I'd be normal! Please don't be mad Miss Kushina!"

"We're not mad at you Aiko. It's all that bastard's fault. He's the one who's been doing this. He's playing with people's lives." She looked up at the boys and frowned. "I don't get it though. Why wasn't I one of his freaky experiments? Why was he teaching me? What does that prophecy have to do with Whirlpool?"

"The thing I can think of is that he thinks 'fire' is Konoha and 'water' is Whirlpool. The 'ultimate beast' must be a the demon he wants to use for his Jinchuuriki. Thank about it. It would have to be someone from both of villages and the 'great whirlpool' can be translated into Uzumaki. He must think you're the person depicted in the prophecy."

"Hell no! So not only did they planned this entire war and killed thousands of people just so that just so they could run their little experiments! They destroyed and killed my entire village just so they could get to me! " Silence met her exclamation as the three other people in the room looked at her. "I'll kill them! I'll make sure Jun and his rats pay for what they did!" Jumping up form her spot on the floor, Kushina marched over to the door.

"Red! Red! Stop!" Ryou rushed in front of her blocking the door with his arms spread out. "What do you think you're doing? You'll get yourself killed if you take him on by yourself." The redhead pounded on his chest, emotions fueling her actions.

"I don't care! I'm going to kill that bastard if it's that last thing I do!" When the brunette refused to moved, she back up and glared at him, continuing to pound on his chest. "Let me out! I have to kill him!" Catching her wrist in his hand, he tried to calm her down.

"Red listen to me! There's something else you need to hear." Arms wrapped around her waist, and tried to pull her off the medic, but Minato barely had enough energy to stand much less fight off an angry redhead.

"Kushina! Calm down!"

"They're not dead!" The redhead froze and stared at the man before her.

"Wh... what?"

"They're not dead! Not all of them at least. Some of them escaped! Jun's trying to find them as we speak incase they missed another Uzuamki." Kushina couldn't stop her mouth from hanging open. She tried to from words, but her throat seemed to not be working. "You can still find them Red. There's still a chance. Kushina, I..." Minato tensed and pulled the stunned Kushina away as fast as he could. Rolling so that he took the brunt of the fall, Kushina was allowed full view of the sight enfolding in front of her. The hinges of the door squeaked as the metal slab opened and steel flashed in the dim light. Ryou turned and tried to dodge.

"No!"

Warm blood splattered across her face as she gaped.