A/N: OK, so wow. I'm a little spaced after writing this. I just sat down and forced it out. Ther is also the long-awaited flashback, at last, kinda imbedded here. Let me know what you think, yeah? I'm not sure where exactly it is going after this, but i'm trying to figure it out. Right now I am rewatchign all of my Naruto, to try and get a new hold on al the characters...

Sorry, no Kakashi or Iruka, maybe next time. Those two...they are so difficult to work into a chapter...I'm thinking of maybe doing a chapter solely from their point of view, maybe a few chapts ahead...

Sorry it's taken so long to finally get to this point where i can start getting into the plot...also, please tell me where you personally think this is headed, it might give me some more ideas as to how to go about getting there....There just might be a Hokage scene in the near future...

My worries are many, so please tell me what you think.

NO NEW CHAPT UNTIL I GET 25 REVIEWS!!! It's even 2/3 of the way done already....

Chapter Eight: Memorized Response

Ibiki was silent after his initial announcement. He could hear Akari behind him breathing, the shuffle and scrape of fabric against her skin as she shifted.

When she didn't come around to the other side of his table, to take a seat in the only other available chair, he almost thought she was getting ready to run., but the she came around, her head bowed, hands clutching her yukata closed.

Ibiki scoffed, and said scornfully, though he knew he didn't mean it, "A little late for modesty, don't you think?"

Akari did not reply, trudging past him stiffly and sat in front of him directly, in the chair across from him. She kept her head down and seemed to be focusing largely on simply just breathing. Ibiki stared at her for a long moment, her pale skin shadowed by her messy hair, hair that he knew was soft, her yukata, though it covered most of her body, was slipping off one shoulder, revealing the near perfect impression of his teeth that was left there from last night. He felt an odd mix of pride and regret at the sight. Proud in only the way a man could feel, but regret for now and for the past, and for so many things.

He had awoken early that morning to the sound of birds chirping, and had gotten up to prepare something for his pounding head and demanding stomach. That had been nearly two hours ago. After eating he had stepped out to his office and let those there know that he wouldn't be in today, that he was going to work from home. After grabbing the files he would need, he had teleported back to his apartment and waited for Akari to awaken. Now he sat with a mug of coffee in front of him, thinking of all the things that had passed through his mind that morning, trying the gird his loins and get on with what he was about to do.

He sighed, took a deep drink of coffee, and rested his free hand on the small stack of files just to his left. Akari's eyes followed his hand and she stared at the files. Her eyes remained trained on the files as he moved his hands around to clasp them together and with a great flexing and bunching of his muscled arms and chest, with the light catching and the scar tissue that dance across his flesh, He brought them up and back to rest on the back of his head.

The movement made him look physically larger and brought attention to his face and head, and their grisly display, as well as the muscles that corded along his tall frame. It also made him tilt his head forward to accommodate the position of his hands, putting his face in shadow, his eyes gleaming out of it. The T&I leader knew how intimidating he looked like this, and he knew that Akari knew it, too.

Ibiki let the silence stretch out before him, letting his body language set the mood. Akari was smaller than him, as nearly everyone was, and was sitting with the wall at her back and at her side, with the table in front of her. She could have made a run for it, and she still might, but her position and the open air at Ibiki's back made it all but a guarantee that she would be caught before she could make it out of his apartment.

"So," he murmured after a moment of thinking over how he might start this…interrogation? No. Conversation? Not, that didn't fit either. This whole encounter was a mix between the two, interrogation on the professional, conversation on the personal level. "Do you have anything you want to say? Anything that you want to add to your earlier report of your failed mission to the Rain Village?"

Akari stared down at her lap and said "No."

Akari would have been shocked if she had seen the look of regret and distaste that crossed his face at her answer.

"There has been news lately of movements on the borders. Sound Village has also been active. However, we have no spies in the Sound. We did in the Rain. Yet, you came back with nothing that could be of possible use. Why is that?"

Akari stiffened slightly, taking offense at the implied insult to her work. "I believe I have already given my report on my mission, which included my reason's for it's failure, sir."

"Cut the bullshit, Suzuki, and give me my answer."

Akari said nothing, staring down.

"Why did your mission fail?"

When she still didn't answer, Ibiki brought both his hands down, as fists, and pounded them into the table. Akari jumped and Ibiki gritted, "Answer me."

"I--I was found out."

"By who? How? Give me details or so help be, God, Akari, I'll take you underground."

Akari winced at that. She had been underground before, when she had been training for her position in his unit. Underground meant the underground torture rooms and cells that most interrogation business went on in. It was the underground portion of his building.

"I--"

Ibiki lunged across the table and wrapped on scarred palm around Akari's left arm and hauling her towards him. Her yukata fell a bit more open, revealing more marks of their activities the night before. Bringing his other hand up, Ibiki wrapped his palm around her chin and pulled her close to him, until their eyes were scant inches apart.

"If you have in any way betrayed the Leaf village, I will personally make you pay for every piece of trouble that comes of it. So you had best start talking. Now."

"I… I didn't betray anyone, Morino."

"And you weren't captured, either." Ibiki released her and they both slid back into their respective chairs. Ibiki shift one hand over the files on the table and leveled a hard look at Akari. "Lie to me, now, Suzuki, and see what happens."

God, the water came again, rolling forcefully down her throat and clogging her nose, ending up in her lungs only to be coughed and sputtered back out as the water stopped for a brief time…

Akari said nothing and just starred at the table.

…and it hurt so bad, so badbadbadbadbad….

Ibiki stared at her, thankful that she was quiet, that perhaps she was thinking. That perhaps she might actually tell the truth.

…the words were coming now, they were yelling demands down at her, but it HURT, and she couldn't move, and the drugs were starting to muddle her mind and make her body feel oddly heavy in her restraints…

She was hunched over in a very introverted position, palms towards her own body, head ducked, body leaned in towards itself. Ibiki touched her then, a light placing of his hand against her bare shoulder, arm extended across his small table.

….she was burning, on fire, the metal coldness that drifted across her hand pinched her, sliding painfully and when it got to the end of her finger it ripped into her flesh and pulled out the nail there, and the blood began to pour to the symphony of her screams that she forced to stay locked behind her lips…

Akari flinched away from him, slamming herself back into her chair so hard it scooted back a half foot. She slowly raised her face and stared Ibiki full in the face, with darkly defiant eyes. "My reasons for not telling you the full truth, are my own. I assure you they have nothing to do with your unit, and nothing to do with anything that would effect my loyalties to Konoha."

…they were asking questions again, HE was asking questions, accompanied my slow, soft touches, sensations that danced along her skin far away from the actual point of contact, teasing her into straining towards her, into trying to lean into his touches…

"Tell me the truth, Suzuki."

…and her begging was trapped into small whimpers, the tense aching only relieved by the throbbing in her hand, and only her clenched and aching jaws stopped her begging from turning into coherent words that would form answers to his questions…

"No."

…his breath was hot against her face as he continued the touch her, and the cold metal was once again dancing over her hand, this time slick with the blood, and God, it was almost too much, and her jaw hurt, and her whole entire body just BURNED…

Ibiki was quiet for a long time. His physical attempt to get her to talk weren't working, and he knew her well enough, was too intimately acquainted with her skills as a ninja, to know that ay drug he gave her would have to carry a big kick with it to get her to talk that was. And actual torture, thumbscrews, water boarding and all that, would only work to shut her off more completely from him.

…her whispered hotly in her ear, incessant threats to her family, friends, her body, dark threats that would frighten anyone who thought straightly, but he still touched her and she was just so hot…

He would try for something else, the type of interrogation that worked only on few. "I own you, Suzuki. I think you've forgotten that. Everything that you are, as a person in the community, and a ninja, as a member of anbu… all of it is in my hands. I am your boss in every sense of the word. I also have access to everything incident report and mission recap that has ever went down in this village." Ibiki once again brushed his hand over the files. "I know things, Suzuki. I make my living on knowing things."

…his teasing was unbearable, his words, both threats questions and soft convincing murmurs only registered in the most shallow depths of her mind, all of her mind was consumed by the heat and his voice and his touch…

"I know you, Suzuki. Akari. I made sure I knew you. I own you."

…she screamed and she prayed, all in her mind, and then when the room went cold and her body was left to burn, she screamed out loud, and she screamed and screamed and screamed loud and long, and she screamed…..

"Yeah…you know me, sir. But you don't know my job. You cannot see me as I am away from you. And you're smart enough and enough of a bastard to be aware of this. So you cut your bull shit. I've had enough of this."…the heat was leaving, slowly, so slowly, and it was quiet and cold in the room and she was all alone, and he was gone…

"Who found you out?" Ibiki ignore her bastard comment and stared at her, his own dark eyes as alight as hers were. "Or perhaps…" Ibiki slipped one hand into the small stack of files and slowly slid one out and over until in was resting in front of her. "I Should be asking who allowed you to get away?"

He was gone.

AN: Your are NOT reviewing!!! So, just to tease I'm going to post this little snippet from the chapter that is already halfway done, just waiting for incentive to be posted (my 25 reviews).

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She had recognized his posturing right away, knew the reason for it. She had seen and registered in her mind his every move, memorizing his reason for it and she had kept her own self contained, feeling her misery in having to lie to Ibiki acutely, but also her anger in him doing this to her. One might think that the whole having sex thing might had softened his outlook on her person. And then it hit her. And then she got mad and started to answer his questions, even as she could see that he was leading her like a dog on a leash, cornering her like she was a fox and he was a hound, moving her right where he wanted her.

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Now go forth and get my damn 25 reviews!!!