The blonde was laughing at his question, head tilting and shoulders scrunching as he closed his eyes and let the sound echo down the hall Morino had confronted him in.

"Why do I laugh?" Naruto grinned, looking at Morino Ibiki and then the hand the large man had placed on his shoulder, Morino looked as well, but his heavy hand remained and his heavy gaze returned despite the silent hint to remove his appendage. He had been the silent boy in the academy taking the lessons to heart; Shinobi must see underneath the underneath.

Naruto laughed, breaking him out of his reflection.

It seemed as if the blonde could never stop, but he hooted lightly and drew in sharp breaths, "I practically knew you would do that!"

Morino Ibiki was head of the Interrogation Corps; he knew the inner psychology of any nin he came across within five minutes of conversation and observance. Why in the world would this blonde genin be any different? He could read every minute move of his body; he could decipher every word for the hidden meaning and find out where true loyalties lay- and this one genin had stumped him with something as simple as his laughter of all things.

"I asked you a simple question Uzumaki." And it was a simple question, he had been reading into Naruto's every move for days, since watching him at the chuunin test. There had always been the slight question to his sanity due to the conflict of Kyuubi's chakra and the hate of the villagers and misguided nin, but Naruto seemed to be crazy for entirely different reasons.

He was always laughing.

He had no reason to laugh, not any that Ibiki could see and he had been watching closely for a while. He was trained to watch closely, look closely and scrutinize every single detail he could; it was almost instinctual for him to examine a person as soon as he first looked at them.

The kid was interesting enough during the initial test, but Ibiki had started to actually bother watching the boy even after his portion of the test, seen how he reacted and observed the other fights and how he created a new technique for his multiple bunshins to use from simply observing his friend.

He had seen an entirely different child than he and others put forth- simply because he was cheerful and oblivious to most things didn't mean he was an idiot. He had no one to teach him how to interact with people, he had no one to show him that you needed to pay attention in class, and he had no one to tell him why he was hated. So he was oblivious about these things and appeared the idiot.

But there were the things he had extreme experience in, things that the blonde could talk about like the seasoned shinobi that actually made it to retirement. He knew exactly what to say to someone who'd lost their family, could gaze unflinching into hate filled eyes and stick up for the underdog like no one else would.

Naruto was honest and pure and determined. He was just Naruto. And he was still the most fun out of the entire rookies! He had heard the kids talk, heard the students whisper excitedly about the games the blonde played with them when he was free and had even caught him playing with them once.

He grinned, canine like, up to him, short for his age but that was probably from malnutrition and hunger in his childhood. His tongue briefly came out, an insolent expression on his face as he closed one eye and laughed. "You ask a question and it's not simple anymore!" His laughter rang out again.

Ibiki found he was irritated and amused; something he had never quite been to this extent before.

He knew the blonde was good at judging people, and he put personalities into the simplest and bluntest words- he should know he had heard him muttering once … … …possible case of multiple personalities? ...did he talk to the fox? ...did he notice he did it? ...was it on purpose? ...

The blonde sighed happily, shoulders going up and then down with the exaggerated emotion before he was grinning full out and almost blinding the poor old interrogator in front of him. "But I smile because I can help them!"

A confused look, rather empty to anyone else but Ibiki felt his eyes narrowing and his head tilting slightly on his neck. Maybe Naruto would continue…

But the blonde grinned Machiavellian like up at him and stuck his tongue between his teeth, tapping his foot on the ground as he waited.

Ibiki snarled lightly and gave in, wondering exactly how good the blonde was at reading people and giving them subtle hints that really no one else but him would notice on anything other than the subconscious instinctual level; "Just how can you help them?"

The smile dimmed to something soft like sunsets, even the genin's hair seemed to droop with a gentler emotion. "I had nightmares all the time," I have nightmares all the time, "so I know exactly what it is to be a shinobi, a tool to kill." I've seen the blood and gore in my dreams because I have a trained and ancient killer in me.

"So I know my path; I will create my own ninja way." I decided I don't want that for me, so I am going to change it.

"But they don't know exactly what they are getting into." They are ignorant of the true shinobi- death dealers and assassins, we fight dirty as long as we win and complete the mission.

"And since they will be shinobi anyway, I wanted them to be kids for just a little while longer." I can give them something more that will be taken away later…

"So I decided to make them laugh, give them some fun." Fun that I never really got to experience …until someone gave it to me…

"I…know what it is like to kill, to feel the blood on your hands as you slowly come back to reality from the numb controlled sensation of the job." –the kill; I go through it every night when I sleep.

"So I had to make them laugh. Even if it was at me…" That way they could laugh, and then when they are older and I can't make them laugh any more they can still look back.

"So Morino man, does that answer your question?" There was that brighter grin again, and Morino Ibiki could only watch as the blonde bundle of sunshine literally bounced about the room with his extra liveliness- was it excess energy from his clashing chakra systems?

And still the blonde was laughing. He was laughing as he left the interrogator and his laughter and joyful hollers still echoed faintly back to him as the blonde went out of sight.

It was all about the laughter.

.x.x.x.x.xxXxx.x.x.x.x.

I kind of made Naruto slightly crazy…oops? But I guess in a confrontation he would either get angry/defensive or laugh it off, hence the craziness. Sorry if it is too ooc.