Standard disclaimers apply. Warnings: slight torturing and language.
Chapter III: Interrogation
The sound of footsteps brought Kankurou back to consciousness.
For a minute, he thought it was Gaara walking around aimlessly in the halls, while Temari would be downstairs falling miserably to make breakfast. But as his senses began to kick in and he took in his surroundings, he came with the morbid conclusion that he definitely not home.
Where am I? He thought taking in the dimly lit one-man cell. Solid concrete walls made up the room with no form of air circulation, making the room stuffy and hard to breathe. Perspiration and foul human odors filled the room. There were no windows to cleanse out the smells, and if it weren't for the light bulb above the ceiling, then it would have been pitched black. Kankurou was lying in the middle of the room, face down on the dirt floor, arms twisted under his body; shifting his arms he felt a wave of pain coming from his hands. Again he moved his arms, and that same prickling feeling coursed through him, almost as a needle was digging its way along its flesh.
And then everything came flashing back: Gaara's injury during the Finals, his fight against the bug-nin, the retreat from Konoha, the ambush from Konoha's ANBU, Temari's injury, and the capture...
Damn, they took Karasu… Everything was taken: passports, water, weapons. And after robbing them, he was left tied up in this filth and shit, like some pig. To think a great puppet master like himself would be forced to crawl around in the dirt.
To make matters worse his legs were bounded with rope, so it took a bit of time crawling against the wall and then leaning against it.
Temari…
Again there was that prickling feeling, sharper this time and much more painful. He looked down to his hands feeling a set of black, sharp needles digging into his left thump and index finger. Oh fuck this is bad! A wave of panic spread through him as he saw the worst enemy of a puppeteer.
Just them the door opened before him, filling the room with natural light. Two men appeared by the doorway both of them wearing the typical green chuunin vest and the Leaf Village headband.
"You awake?" One of them said bending over to look at Kankurou. "Damn boy, you've been asleep for almost two days! Does Sand spend-- Oww! "
"Yeah, I'm awake, and who the hell are you?" He responded, affectively kicking the man under the chin through is bonded legs. Sensing the trouble, the man's partner ran to his side kicking Kankurou to the side in case he could have escaped.
"You brat!" the injured man said, holding his jaw. "You should be thankful you're still alive!"
"You still haven't answered! Who the hell are you? And where's my team!" the Sand shinobi asked from the floor.
"We're the one's asking the questions," the man that kicked him said. Performing a quick jutsu to his bounded legs, he roughly lifted Kankurou to his feet and pushing him to the doorway.
"We're going for a little walk, so don't even think about doing anything!"
----
Yugao Uzuki sat at the interrogation room, arms crossed over her chest. She was a beautiful, powerful woman with violet hair and dark blue eyes, and a position of Konoha's ANBU. Lately though, she didn't look as beautiful with her tired eyes and pale face. ANBU had been mobilized and dispatched to bring in any lurking Sand or Sound ninja to get any possible information concerning the whereabouts of Orochimaru. Konoha Invasion was roughly two days ago, and the council was angry at the one responsible for their heavy losses. But so far very few enemy shinobi had been captured and those that did knew nothing him.
Normally, interrogation was not part of her job, she just gathered them up. But according to Aoba, a team of ANBU had been scouting the forest when they came upon the three Sand genin that appeared during the Chuunin Exams. He had remarked that he was very surprised by their strength, considering that they were so young and genins at that; but Yugao paid no attention to their praise, she had other plans in mind. Anxious Yugao requested her captain to allow her with the genin's interrogation. These genin had a connection with Baki, and she swore on her lover's grave that she would avenge him.
The door opened and two guards walked in, the Sand genin walking silently in front of them. He was tall dressed in black and violet face paint with the Sand's symbol shining brightly on his forehead. He didn't say anything, but simply sat down across from her, not looking terrified, but rather bored. Clearly Sand shinobi were great charlatans.
"I have a few questions for you," Yugao began getting straight to the point. "If you answer them properly, then perhaps will negotiation your sentence."
"Sure thing," he said, a smirk appearing in his face. "My favorite color's—"
"I'm not asking for those things!" she said angrily bringing her hands down roughly on the table top. "Right now everything is a complete mess because of you guys, so I'm not in the best of moods!"
"I could tell…" Kankurou answered rolling his eyes.
"You were involved in this whole mission. Sand and Sound were allies in the invasion of Konoha. Where is Orochimaru?"
He shrugged.
That just got her even more upset. "Stop playing games with me! I don't need your pathetic humor!"
"Who said I was playing games? I don't know who this Orochimaru guy is."
"Obviously everything was carefully plan, and you're telling me you don't know who the one behind it was?"
"Pretty much," Kankurou responded tone the exact opposite of his interrogator.
She glared at him with her gray eyes; he seemed all oblivious to this. But he did notice when she smiled wickedly at him. "A puppeteer like you should know what this is?"
This time he didn't give her a smart mouth comment. Of course he knew. He had been rigorously trained as a puppet master, and had consequently acquired the most dangerous and ingenious puppet by the greatest puppet master in all of Suna. He recounted stories and various books that described a puppeteer's worst enemy.
"It's a thumbscrew," she responded slowly as though he didn't know. "One of the many instruments that Konoha's ANBU Torture and Interrogation Squad possess. I prefer to demonstrate things rather then explain them," she said lifting her hands up from the table. Putting her thumb and index finger together, she turned it slowly to the left. The thumbscrew worked best if it was done as slowly as possible and that was exactly what she was going to do.
The thumbscrew was literally a vise set between the fingers, and liked a true vise when you start twisting the knob the walls started to come together. In an instant he felt the pain that he had been dreading.
Kankurou tried to not show the pain he felt as the needles on either side of his thumb and index finger dug into his flesh. But as the seconds past, he realized he couldn't keep a yell of pain escape his lips.
"Not so funny now are you?" she said enjoying his pain slowly turning her fingers to the left.
The walls of the thumbscrew started to move closer together. Slowly his fingers were turning into a deep bluish color, like when a finger gets smashed against the door. What felt worse was the needles that were not under his fingernails. He dared a look at his hands and saw in horror as his fingernail was painfully being torn off from its roots.
"You crazy bitch!" he yelled out wanting to land a blow on her, but the guards were quick to his side and held him down.
…Cr…ack…came the sickening sound as the fingertip bones started to feel the pressure surrounding them.
"Not until you answer my question! Where is Orochimaru?"
"Bitch, I told you I don't know! This was all a highly classified mission! We didn't find out about this until a few weeks before the Chuunin exams!"
She stopped, and stared at the boy. So they were blindly following orders, she thought. "Where are the rest of the Sand and Sound shinobi? Where did they retreat to?"
Kankurou huffed, pain receptors running to his brain. He couldn't answer this question; he'd never forgive himself if he betrayed Suna. "I don't know. We assumed it was a clear victory, so we never discussed the retreat."
She wasn't buying this. Again she moved her fingers together, bringing the walls closer together. This thing was going to complete destroy his fingers.
"A bit cocky, you Sand shinobi are?"
He let out another yell of pain as he felt more blood gushing from the opened fingernail.
"Well, we Sand shinobi aren't so weak," he answered, his hands covered in his blood.
Yugao Uzuki glared at him. "Funny thing to say, considering that you're captured and your comrades have abandoned you. Tell me this and I might not crush all of your fingers... a man with a turban covering the left side of his face, Baki was his name. Was he your sensei? "
"What the hell does this have to do with anything?" he asked relieved that the pain was finally over.
"Answer it!"
"Yeah, Baki was my sensei, since I was six. What of it?"
"What of it?" she said outraged. "He killed him! He… killed Hayate," she said softly stopping from her torturing. "We were going to get... married..."
"It's because of you!" she said rising from her chair and throwing a hard punch on his face. It was with so much force that he was thrown of his seat and crashed to the floor. "You killed Hokage-sama and Hayate!"
Fallen on the floor, she quickly picked him up by the collar glaring at him with pure venom.
"I swore his revenge!" She muttered grabbing a quick kunai and pulled it under his neck.
"Look lady I didn't kill the Hokage or that proctor!" Kankurou answered bravely, despite the somewhat insane look in her eyes. "He was probably dying already!"
She didn't like that response, pushing the kunai to his neck to start drawing blood, the ANBU was about to stab the kunai deep within his neck until it came out of the other side of his throat...
"Yugao you really shouldn't be so violent," a deep baritone voice said amusedly walking to the front door. "Like the boy says, you shouldn't be putting all the blame on him. He shouldn't be persecuted and discriminated for being a Sand shinobi."
The violet-haired women threw him to the ground. "All Sand shinobi are the same," she muttered before walking out and slamming the door loudly behind her.
Kankurou cough violently from the ground saliva and bits of blood falling into the white, tile floor.
"I apologize for Yugao. You see she cared deeply for Gekko Hayate, and he was killed by your sensei."
"Oh yeah that gives her a perfect reason for killing me," Kankurou said sarcastically. "Psycho." He looked up to see a tall dark man dressed in a long black overcoat. Scars ran all over his face, while a Leaf Village headband covered his bald head. "You're the examiner, Morino Ibiki, was it?" Kankurou said out loud as the tall dark man entered
He smiled even though it couldn't exactly be called one, considering all the scars in his face. "I'm glad you remember me."
Yeah, I remember you, Kankurou thought to himself, remembering the written portion of the Chuunin Exams. He messes with people's head.
"Unlike Yugao, I really don't like these things," he said referring to the thumbscrew, taking into notice his bleeding fingers. With a quick jutsu, the torturing device was quickly gone. The very needles that had made their way deep into his flesh were yanked out of his skin making him growl softly at the pain. Like a shovel being pushed into the earth and water came flowing out, blood flew out of the opening, dripping to the floor.
He looked at the damage of his two fingers. Who would have thought that they would have brought him so much pain? His fingers hurt like a bitch right now and his fingernail was practically falling off his skin, but what he feared most was that he now couldn't use two of his fingers to form chakra strings, Karasu would be defective now.
"Kankurou, was it?" Ibiki said sitting down on the chair where Yugao sat moments ago. "Please take a seat," he said with formality.
Again Kankurou stared at him, eyes narrowing in suspicions.
"I'm not going to do anything to you. I just want to talk." Hesitantly, Kankurou sat down, still on edge.
"I was very impressed by your performance in the Chuunin Exams. So young, and yet your fighting style and techniques don't resemble the typical genin. From what your stats shows you've already done A-rank missions?"
He nodded.
"My, my quite impressive." he answered as though he was talking to an old friend. "I… did a bit of research in my spare time. Sand shinobi mostly consist of family squads. Siblings and cousins are trained together and then put under the same squads. So your current teammates are your brother and sister, is that right?"
His body was not bounded anymore, so he could freely attack, but the idea didn't seem as great as he looked at the three guards, as well as Ibiki in the room. They had weapons not to mention two of their fingers weren't crushed. It was best to humor him. "That's right," he answered not wearily not sure where Ibiki would be going with this.
"You're team happens to be called the Kazekage's Children," he stated more than asked.
So this is where he's getting at?
"Look, Kazekage-sama wouldn't care if you put us under ransom. So you might as well forget about it," he answered bitterly. "He didn't even come to our graduation ceremony, what makes you think he'll come and save us?"
"By your tone of voice I see that you don't like him."
"I just don't care about him."
"The Kazekage has completely disappeared from Konoha. Aren't you wondering what happened to him? He is your father, after all."
"Not really," he answered emotion taking over. "He never cares about us, so we never cared about him. We complete the mission, and if that's good enough for him that's good enough for us."
"By 'we' do you mean your teammates, I mean your siblings?" he asked curious.
"We all felt the same way towards him; except for Gaara I think he even hated him even more than both of us," Kankurou said nonchalantly remembering how Gaara had always looked at the Kazekage as though he had wanted to kill him, except when they were in Konoha he thought.
"Gaara, you do realize that Kazekage-sama was upset about your behavior," Kankurou said walking along side Gaara as they approached the final Chuunin Exams. The Kazekage had come to pay them a visit during the late hours of the night.
"Kankurou," Temari whispered to Kankurou as if telling him to drop the subject. Gaara had not bowed when the Kazekage entered their room that showed an ultimate form of disrespect.
"The man deserves no respect," Gaara answered keeping his eyes on the road. "Besides that wasn't him."
"What are you talking about?"
"That wasn't him. His eyes were more sinister than usual."
"I think Gaara knew that the Kazekage in the Chuunin Exam was an imposter."
Ibiki shifted slightly taking all this in account.
"It must be frustrating to have no mother, a neglecting father, and a demented brother, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Kankurou muttered looking to the tabletop.
"After all... what is it that you're fighting for? Your father will never acknowledge you, he'll always see Gaara no matter how much stronger you'll get. And you'll probably never match up against him."
He didn't respond.
"Suna has always living in the past. Maybe it'd be best if it came to present. Wouldn't you agree?"
"I guess."
"Gaara seems to have an important connection to the village, am I right? Perhaps, even more so than any regular shinobi, but what is that?"
"Kazekage-sama…" he paused finally realizing what he was about to say. He had been warned against this. The existence of Shukaku was highly classified and it was with great strain that the Kazekage kept Gaara's identity a secret.
"I know what you're trying to do! You're trying to make me backstab my village, but you know what that's not going to work. I'd be dead before I became a traitor!" He answered angrily.
"No you're missing my point," Ibiki said. "I saw Gaara fight against Rock Lee and against Uchiha Sasuke. He has an enormous amount of power, but that could be dangerous. I'm worried not just for my village, but yours as well. I mean something so powerful could very well destroy an entire village. If you were to just tell us more about him... "
Kankurou remained silent.
Ibiki sighed. "What is it that you're hiding? It's a win-win situation for all of us. Gaara maybe your brother, but he does not treat you as one. I believe he threaten to kill you... I thought you hated him?"
"It's true," he said thinking back. 'I don't really consider you my siblings… if you get in my way, I will kill you, too,' Gaara had said ruthlessly, slowly moving his hand in front of him getting ready to crush him with his sand.
"But it wasn't because Kazekage-sama acknowledged him, or that he killed mother. Hell, I don't even care that he's stronger than me... I... I hate him... It was because he… he made Temari cry," he said head bowed down as he remembered that event that happened so many years ago—of sand and blood and screams; and him standing completely useless as he watched his older, much stronger sister dissolving into a vulnerable heap on the floor.
"Very well. And you know nothing about Orochimaru?"
"I told your friend I know nothing about him. One day two Sound shinobi came to the Kazekage's office, one had glasses the other was wearing a long black cloak. That's all I know."
"Orochimaru had everything carefully planned, even going so far as fooling an entire village. He probably took out the Kazekage," Ibiki thought going over the information in his head.
"Hey!" Kankurou asked angrily as he saw Ibiki standing up. "I answered your stupid questions. So where are Temari and Gaara?"
Ibiki kept walking towards the doorway.
"Hey! Answer me!"
"They're dead."
"W-what?" Kankurou asked completely bewilder at what the man said.
"You heard what I said," Ibiki responded turning to look at him. "Gaara had his entire defenses down, so it was no problem getting rid of him. I just asked about him because I was interested in his behavior during the finals. As for Temari, the poison killed her off."
"You're lying! They can't be dead!" he said although his own voice was shaking with fear.
"Take a look at this," he said throwing two headbands on the table. One was a deep blue color while the other was black both of them had the Sand Village symbol carved on the headband. Slowly with his left hand he picked the blue neck one. There was no doubt about it. These really were Temari's and Gaara's headbands.
"You're... lying," he repeated.
"Poor boy still in doubt," Ibiki said frowning at him. "Both of them were strong shinobi and to think the only time both of them really needed you. You backed off. You couldn't save them. Hmm…" he said smiling at him. "It's funny because you mentioned that Suna doesn't have weak shinobi. I guess you forgot to count yourself."
The puppeteer looked at the jounin a hint of surprise in his face. He held his smashed fingers together no longer taking notice of the blood and the pain.
"Put him back in his cell," he said closing the door behind him. "You're going to be there for a while, kid. Considering that Suna doesn't care too much for its captured shinobi."
The guards took a hold of him and with another jutsu bounded his hands together. They pushed him towards the doorway, and for once Kankurou didn't protest.
A/N: Thumbscrew, also known as the pilliwinks, is an actual medieval torturing instrument used by the Inquisitors; it is also used on the toes and larger one's can crush your joints.