Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

A/N: See? I delivered on the faster chapter; it's been in the works for a while, now. And it's nice and long...or as long as they ever get here. Enjoy.

"Let go; I can walk on my own," Raidou snapped, trying to twist his arms from the restraining grips on either side. The two ANBU—just past their rookie year; he knew them vaguely, but had never run a mission with either—tightened their holds.

"Can't do that, sorry," the one on the left apologized. Asuma, he thought the name was. They walked in silence out of the Hokage tower, then took to the roofs under a basic concealing genjutsu, heading back to ANBU.

The basement had several entrances, a few through the headquarters building, and two doors from separate, nondescript buildings off to the sides. It was to one of these that the guards led Raidou. After showing the sheaf of papers to the guard, the man opened a heavy metal door, letting them down into a brightly lit staircase that led to the bare white halls of the Torture and Interrogations department.

Morino Ibiki met them in the main hallway. A tall man, he had strong features and thin eyes. "Raidou," he said with surprise. His eyes flicked over the two guards, then returned to Raidou's face. "I assume this isn't a consultation, then."

Asuma shook his masked head. "Orders from the Hokage, on recommendation of the Chief of Police," he said quietly, handing the papers to Ibiki.

The young man skimmed through the orders, shuffling the papers from hand to hand. "I better give these to the Captain. Take him to holding cell 6. Tell the Hokage that we'll start tomorrow; it's not listed as urgent."

Ibiki's hands clenched into fists on his captain's desk as he leaned in towards his superior. "What do they want to know from him?" he snarled. "They've got his whole file, his whole life's history. Is he a traitor? Selling information to Suna?"

"No," the Head said, tilting his chair away from Ibiki's spittle-throwing tirade. "It's orders from the council; you read it. Just do your job, Morino."

"My job is to interrogate prisoners, not to torture my comrades."

"Your job is to do what you're told," the Head barked. "You're Torture and Interrogation, Morino. Stop disgracing yourself." Then he smirked. "It'll be a good learning experience for you, Ibiki."

"Where's Raidou-nii?" Naruto stood, looking slightly dejected, at the foot of Genma's bed. A little annoyed, too, because Raidou had said they would train after school today, and he hadn't shown up.

Genma tipped his head to watch him from around the single leg hoisted up in the air. "Haven't seen him since yesterday, kid. Did you check with Hayate or Kakashi?"

"Don't know where they are."

"Hayate's still in the hospital. But he might not be awake right now; something to do with his head after hitting that tree. Tenzou went home, and I have no idea where Kakashi is. Try Hayate first," he suggested. "Then come back here and tell me what you find out." Naruto nodded, and left the room, turning down the hall to find Hayate.

Genma waited, growing anxious. The vague warmth that had sat in his chest since yesterday faded into cold tension. Raidou was always responsible, always let people know where he was going and what his plans were. If he would miss a meeting, he told them. When Naruto returned with the news that Hayate was asleep, but Tenzou had been sitting with him and said he didn't know either, Genma sat up. A few twitches of the ropes, and the sling fell loosely to the bed. He lowered his plaster-sheathed leg carefully, then swung both over the edge of the bed. "Genma-san?" Naruto asked. "What are you doing?"

He gestured to the door. "Go get Tenzou, and tell him to steal me some crutches." Naruto grinned at the mischief, and darted out.

Tenzou was much more disapproving when he arrived; despite being years younger than his sempai, he frowned sternly down on Genma. The older ninja blinked innocently up at him. "Crutches?" he asked sweetly.

Tenzou reluctantly tossed them onto the bed next to him. Genma readjusted his senbon, then slipped the crossbars under his armpits, standing carefully. When he tried to put weight on the injured ankle, a soft hiss escaped from between his lips. With a half-hearted grin, he let the crutches do the work.

"Genma," Tenzou warned. "You shouldn't be walking yet. The medics said a week of bed rest."

"Screw the medics," Genma said pleasantly. "Naruto, get the door."

The boy rushed over and pulled the door open. He waited in the hall as Genma maneuvered his way out, and began crutching down the hall. The stairs posed a slight problem, but Genma took them with aplomb and a judicious use of chakra. He pointedly ignored Tenzou's sidebar about the drawbacks to the squad if he fell and broke his neck.

Naruto stuck out his tongue at Tenzou, expressing his complete agreement with Genma on the question of safety versus finding Raidou. Tenzou rolled his eyes and kept a careful eye on Genma so that when they did find Raidou, he would still be in one still breathing, reasonably healthy piece. Raidou would have all their necks if he weren't.

He wasn't in the hospital; Tenzou had insisted they check with the desk before leaving. After leaving the protesting nurses behind, Genma suggested they try Naruto's training field. It turned up empty. Genma headed to headquarters next. At the front desk, he asked if Raidou was in. The ninja shrugged, riffling through papers. "He's not signed out, but that doesn't mean much around here." His tone showed his contempt for the effectiveness of ANBU bureaucracy. Genma crutched on, leaving Tenzou to hurriedly thank the man before catching up.

They pounded on Raidou's door, and Genma scanned for his chakra. He chewed his senbon end nervously as they left headquarters with nothing. Halfway out the door, he turned back. "I need to see the mission schedule," he demanded. "Is Namiashi listed?"

"I can't tell you that," the man sighed. "You know that."

Genma leaned towards him, planting his hands on the desk. Tenzou caught the crutches as they began to fall. "Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan needs to know, boy. Namiashi's on his squad, and hasn't shown up to practice. Do I need to go bring the Copy-Nin here to drag it out of you?"

"He's not on a mission, okay?" The ANBU snapped angrily, slapping the scroll shut. "Now go away and stop bothering me!"

Genma gave him a fake smile. "Thanks." He grabbed his crutches from Tenzou and limped out of the building. It was nice to have a legend on his team sometimes.

"So now what?" Tenzou demanded. "You've browbeaten controlled information out of a colleague, and no luck. What will you do next?" He was exasperated with Genma, but also actually rather curious.

Genma bit the needle hard, arresting the slow circular movement of absent chewing. "I didn't lie at all, Bunny-face, so don't get all riled up. And now," he grinned, "we blackmail."

Tenzou threw his hands up in despair. "For heaven's sake, Genma."

"Genma-san, what's blackmail?" Naruto asked.

The Hokage stood at the head of the council table, hands linked behind his back, weathered countenance grave. "A response to my message to the Kazekage has just arrived." The faces of the most powerful men in the village watched him with various expressions of anticipation, reservation, or faint fear. Hyuuga Hiashi's face was set in his typical stoical blankness. The Hokage glanced briefly at Uchiha Fugaku, resenting Fugaku's obviously only vague concern about the proceedings.

"To summarize: Suna cannot give Konoha military support, but also assures us that they will not aid Kusa either, if they press a conflict. He offers supplies, but at an inflated price." Most of the faces around him slipped even farther towards gloom. "On the positive side," Sarutobi added, "An ANBU squad on the Grass border has intercepted a messenger from their village. When they arrive, we will probably learn who Grass is blaming for the attack, and whether the missing-nin they have been gathering are intended for us." His smile was strained, but he offered it anyway. "This might all be a simple misunderstanding." But he didn't believe it himself.

Fugaku joined in the appropriate murmurs of hope washing across the table, but his eyes showed none of the eagerness of the others'. It would be best if there were no war, of course. Fugaku couldn't wish his village into something like that. But if it were resolved too quickly, he would lose his chance to punish the Hatake who had stolen a sharingan and murdered an Uchiha. And that would not be acceptable.

As the Hokage asked for a report on the village's current stock of food in case supply routes were blocked, Fugaku let his mind consider how his own plans had been set in motion. The slur to Uchiha honor would finally be resolved when Hatake folded. It was too bad he hadn't given in more easily, but there were always innocents in the crossfire. Even the village's beloved Fourth Hokage had known that.

The two guards stopped the little party as they pushed into the entrance hall of the Intelligence branch. "Authorized personnel only." It looked like a standard office waiting room; padded chairs lined the walls, broken up by a few windows looking out on the street. A grayish rug with the faded remnants of a navy blue crosshatch pattern covered the floor; a few old magazines lay on a battered coffee table.

Genma raked his eyes across the two men blocking his way. "Shiranui Genma. I'm authorized," he snapped. "Bunny-face, go sit over there and wait like a good boy." He gestured vaguely at a couple of chairs against the wall.

"Can I come?" Naruto asked, looking hopefully up at Genma.

He shook his head. "Only really boring people are in there," he smiled down at Naruto. "You wouldn't like it."

Naruto made a face. "I don't like boring. I'm staying with Bunny!"

"My name's Tenzou," Tenzou reminded them all in exasperation. "Call me Tenzou." He was getting kind of sick of the mask jokes.

Genma raised a single eyebrow at the two ninja still blocking his way. "Who are you here to see?" one asked tiredly.

"Niigata Daichi."

They pulled aside. "He's down the hall three doors from—"

"I know where his office is." He waved to Naruto and Tenzou, and limped into the hall.

Niigata was bent over his desk in a tiny office, stacks of chakra-sealed file folders surrounding him and an intense expression adorning his face. He looked up as his visitor paused in his doorway. "Genma."

"Hey, Daichi."

Niigata blinked, and slid his papers into a folder. A flare of chakra shut it firmly, and he pushed it aside. "Either you hit your head or you want something from me." He appraised Genma suspiciously.

"Hayate's the one with a concussion," Genma said pleasantly. "I need help."

"Definitely," Niigata said, deadpan.

Genma narrowed his eyes. "Stop. I need to find out where Raidou is."

"Raidou? Why? Aren't you two inseparable?"

"He didn't show up to an appointment. He's not at HQ, he's not in the hospital, or anywhere else I can think of. The last anyone saw him, he was responding to an urgent summons by the Hokage."

"He's probably on a mission, then. Genma, I'm really busy right now what with this mess your squad cooked up. Raidou's probably fine."

"And if he's not?"

They locked gazes across the room. A moment of silence, then the Intel agent sighed. "Where are you going to be for the rest of the day?"

Genma grinned in relief. "Training field six for the next couple hours, then probably back at the hospital. Thank you."

"You owe me," the older man told the hunter. "Big time, Genma."

"Whatever you want, Niigata." Adjusting his crutches, he limped away.

Daichi rubbed his forehead, then stood up. After checking his files to make sure they were safely closed, he locked his office door and left in the opposite direction as Genma.

Tenzou laughed when Genma related the events. "Blackmail? You just asked him nicely."

"I was teasing you, kid. And this worked just as well. Anyway, it's amazingly hard to get blackmail material on Intel agents. Though if you want to help..."

Tenzou ignored his suggestion. "How do you know him?" he asked instead. "I didn't think they'd let you in at all."

"Don't underestimate your sempai," Genma said majestically. The effect was broken when he nearly tripped over the crutches as he posed. "Damn. Niigata's one of the handlers that works with our squad. You'll meet him soon enough. And he's also one of the coordinators for the western border districts."

Tenzou nodded, absentmindedly snatching Naruto out of the way of a passing cart. "So he'll come find you if he learns anything?"

"When, dear Tenzou. Niigata is good at what he does," Genma said smugly. "He's an obnoxious ass, but he's good. He'll find Raidou."

They'd left him alone all night, and no one had come in the morning. He told time by the familiar rhythms of the changing shifts outside the door, and the growing ache in his arms. Raidou was thoroughly annoyed by the time the door swung open on its silent hinges, because annoyed was better than afraid. He worked up anger at the chakra suppressor on his wrist and the manacles binding his hands to the wall. He resented the cell and the walls and the humming fluorescent light, muttered curses at Uchiha Fugaku and the whole damn council. And when Ibiki stepped in, hands tucked in the pockets of his long trench coat, he channeled it all towards the tokujou.

"Well, this wasn't exactly what I imagined that get-together we had planned looking like."

"Shut up, Namiashi." The words were condescending and cold. Raidou growled, but shut up. Ibiki didn't bother asking if he'd cooperate easily; the answer was obvious. Raidou was a ninja. "You know, you pose a bit of a problem to me." His narrow gaze met Raidou's with no trace of emotion. "You're still a Konoha shinobi, so some limits have to be observed. Yet I was given orders for the full workdown. That in itself is an issue. But I know most of your buttons, Namiashi."

"You also erased half of them," Raidou inserted with a friendly grin up at the man towering over him.

Ibiki took a pace forward and bent down to lay a calloused hand on Raidou's left cheek. "I can undo my own handiwork, Namiashi," the younger man said. "Much as I hate destroying such good efforts. See, that's not the problem. The problem is I know you too well. Even if I did break you," and his fingers pressed a little harder into ridged scars, "I know it wouldn't do any good."

"So don't bother," Raidou suggested loudly. He ignored the hand on his face; it was just skin, and scars meant nothing.

"Very few physical tactics will work on you." Ibiki stepped back in the small cell, and leaned against the whitewashed wall. "And bringing you to the breaking point with those would probably leave you completely useless even if you were innocent. Most of our best genjutsu you taught us or helped test. So genjutsu is worthless; you'd just break out of them all." Nineteen and still growing into his height, but already too fierce to be handsome, Ibiki let a small, anticipatory smirk bloom across his pale face. "There aren't very many other ways." Coming from Ibiki, it was clear the words were a threat, not a setback.

"Come on, Ibiki," Raidou tried to reason. "You know this isn't serious. Just another of the council's stupid power plays."

Ibiki shrugged. "I know." The smirk didn't leave his lips. "But this is my job, Namiashi." He refused to let even the briefest whisper of regret color his tones.

Raidou's face hardened. "I understand," he said quietly, acknowledging his counterpart. "But I have to do mine as well." He let his eyes drift to the left of Ibiki's head, regulated his breathing.

"That's not necessary right now," Ibiki told him quietly. "There are still a few more things that need to be done before we can get started."

Raidou didn't respond. It made no difference that he'd learned most of these tricks in this very place with a younger Ibiki sitting nearby, learning the same. Now, the countless hours he'd spent coaching the up and coming interrogators on genjutsu techniques and nuances were meaningless. In this place, now, he was a name and a number and a rank and a village and nothing else mattered or existed. That was how it went.

They hadn't even finished training when Niigata arrived. His face was drawn, and he was running. "Genma."

The hunter disentangled his crutches from Naruto's awkward wire trap. "Fix the knots, kid. They were too loose."

As Tenzou helped Naruto coil the knotted wires on the ground, Niigata drew Genma aside. "Bad news."

"What?"

"Military Police sent him down to T and I."

Genma blinked. "ANBU's got immunity. Only the Hokage could..."

"He signed off."

"Why?" The word was strangled, choked out on a ragged breath.

Niigata shrugged. "Don't know. Genma, don't get involved." He reached out and grabbed Genma's arm. "It's not about Raidou, and it's gone beyond what you can fix."

"Does Kakashi know?"

"I doubt it. I had to get this straight from Ibiki."

"Fuck," Genma whispered. He wrenched away from Niigata. "Tenzou!" The teenager looked up, then hurriedly stood at the dark expression on his sempai's face. "Naruto, go home."

The boy jogged over, and wrapped his arms around Genma's leg. "No!" He could tell something was wrong, and it had to do with Raidou.

Genma stared fiercely down at Naruto. "This isn't a choice, kid. Go home." He shook Naruto's hands off.

"Genma, you shouldn't leave him alone," Niigata said, a flicker of something approaching guilt in his face.

"I have to get Raidou," he snarled back. Digging in his kunai pouch, he pulled out a short knife. "Naruto. Take this, and stay out of trouble." The blond boy caught the kunai awkwardly, barely able to avoid getting cut by the razor sharp edges. Not a practice kunai, this one, but a killer's weapon.

Dropping his crutches to the ground, Genma freed his hands for three quick seals. I'm coming, Raidou.

Ibiki left. He walked tall and ice-faced from the room, locked the door behind him and reset the chakra wards. He paced calmly to his office, a few doors down from his captain's but much smaller, and closed the door calmly. Calmly, he observed the room. Then he punched a wall. The impact shivered up his arm and his fist stung. The force might have shattered his knuckles if the wall had been bare stone, but Ibiki had found that even ninja who knew the effectiveness of soundproofing jutsu could be intimidated by padded walls and the very blatant visual signal they gave. It was also lucky that he was located several levels below ground, and thus had no windows he could break when the stapler bounced off the far wall. Raidou was his friend.

Ibiki had delayed as long as he could. The Hokage wouldn't see him. Uchiha wouldn't see him. He'd protested to his Captain, and the older man hadn't given a shit. A learning experience...A heavy glass paperweight shattered as Ibiki surrendered to silent rage.

When he'd worked the uncontrollable edge off of his anger, Ibiki swept up a sheaf of papers from his newly disarrayed desk and pulled the cold, smirking mask of his work-face over his features. He had other cases to attend to.

Genma slammed into view outside the ANBU headquarters, and released the huge swell of chakra it had taken to get him there in less than a heartbeat. Through two sets of doors, then he was running down the stairs, barely touching a quarter of the steps. The door at the bottom was locked and chakra-keyed. Before he reached it, he had palmed two half-size senbon and begun the chakra manipulation that would read the seals infusing the locks. Working infiltration had taught him quite a few very useful skills.

Two minutes after kneeling down before the barrier, he pressed his left hand to the door, flared his chakra, then pulled the makeshift lockpicks out of the keyhole. The door swung open.

The six guards in the foyer looked at him with decidedly unimpressed expressions. Genma glared back, building the anger surging in his chest into a wave of killing intent that swept his own fear to the back of his mind and beat against the men blocking his way to Raidou.

"You're not allowed in here," one of them said. Hands already held weapons.

The word came out low and rough. "Move." The walls of the tiny room pressed in around him, no windows to relieve the pressure of being deep underground. Escape was behind him, an open door at his back. Genma stood his ground. "Move!"

A kunai glinted in the thick, artificial light. "Leave, Shiranui." They knew him; the Chief of Police had warned them to expect him.

Genma stalked forward, every muscle tensed. He stopped a foot from the extended tip of the kunai. "Leave, or we have orders to consider this a sign of mental disturbance." Genma's jaw clenched. They thought it was a favor; a few days for a Psych evaluation, then he'd get sent home. Better than a court martial or his own appointment with T and I.

But Genma thought differently. If it was the Military Police who had taken Raidou, they probably still had his early records. ANBU files were sealed, but his genin and chuunin history, and a little thought, was all they'd need to know that confinement in those little white cells with locks and no windows and no way out was the worst possible threat. Blood slid across his tongue in a thin flow as the end of his senbon cut into his cheek. He had to run, get out, get away. He wouldn't be able to take the white rooms again. Katsu-chan.

"Move!" Genma had to get down to where Raidou was, rules and insubordination and Psych be damned.

Six against one was hopeless. It made it worse on both sides that no one really wanted to hurt each other. They were comrades, after all. He only managed to flatten two before he slumped to the ground.

Momtami opened the door with false bravado on her face. "Yes?"

The dark, flat-eyed ninja on her doorstep looked down on her from his superior height. "Military Police." His vest sported the stylized star and Uchiha crest of that organization. "Is Uzumaki Naruto here?"

She nodded reluctantly, but blocked the entrance with her body. "He is." A ninja she didn't know had dropped him off a few minutes ago. The young man had had a polite smile and had explained that he was helping Naruto with schoolwork. A sweet young man, Kimiko thought. Now Naruto was up in his room. 'Resting' he'd said, before clattering up the stairs.

"He needs to come with me, now," the young man said.

"I can't just send him off with a stranger!" Kimiko protested, wary of this ninja who was not polite or sweet, and mindful of her duty to the Hokage. She shuddered at the cold, disdainful look he treated her with.

He slipped his hand into the pouch at his waist, and she drew back, nervously. But he only withdrew a folded, official looking paper and offered it to her. Kimiko took it, and opened it carefully. Her eyes snapped up to meet the Uchiha's amused smirk. After a moment of deliberation, she pocketed the slip of paper tucked inside the notice. She was a widow, with an uncertain income and three growing children to clothe and feed. And she couldn't disobey the police, right? Anyways, they were the police; she could trust them. She twisted her head back into the house. "Naruto!"

"Get up, Namiashi." Ibiki pulled him to his feet, the cuffs detached from the wall but still trapping his arms painfully behind his back. "Come on." Raidou clenched his teeth and stumbled up.

Down the familiar halls Ibiki escorted him, and into one of the interrogation rooms. But, and Raidou looked around in confusion, not the right side. The interrogation rooms were furnished with large, one-way mirrors so the proceedings could be observed from outside. The victim went on the reflective side. Ibiki was shoving Raidou down into a padded chair facing the mirror, and through the shadowy layer he could see a bare cell with a single metal chair bolted to the floor in the center. A countertop stocked with paper and pens and a few recording devices stood in front of him. Loops of wire yanked tight around Raidou's legs and arms, attaching him solidly to his chair. So whatever was going on, he wasn't forgiven yet.

Ibiki flicked a few switches, darkening this side of the glass, turning on the bright lights on the far side. Then he opened the door again, and signaled down the hallway. "And we begin, Namiashi."

He stared with morbid curiosity through the glass. "I still don't know what you want out of me, Ibiki. What you want me to say."

The teenager linked his hands behind his back and turned his bulk to the glass. "As far as I can tell, Namiashi, the Uchiha wants either evidence that you are a traitor, or that Hatake is. Have you decided to cooperate with him?" The details of speech made all the difference. With him, not with me. This wasn't Ibiki's desire, only his duty.

"When hell freezes over, Ibiki," Raidou said pleasantly. The door across the mirror swung open.

Ibiki bent down and whispered in his ear. "Feeling cold yet?"

Raidou's heart froze.