Since this is late just a quick note - thanks for reading & the awesome reviews, and sorry this took so long...
Chapter 12
"You said there was something to report. Just say it!" Tsunade demanded, barely repressing the urge to scream. He was just a worker bee, after all, and she had to be mindful of the comparative strength of her presence. Her long nails bit into her tightly fisted palms with the fury of her restrained demand.
The fidgeting lab tech, the one who drew the short straw and was sent before her to make this disclosure, nearly peed his pants anyway.
"Well, ah…we were ready, we had everything prepared, and we retrieved the, ah, evidence from the vault. But there's a bit of a problem, you see. I really…I mean, I don't think it just happened, it might have been clear back when they were preserving the evidence…this isn't the lab's responsibility normally…"
"Come on, spit it out! What the hell are you talking about?"
"The Uzingan experiment, Lady." He cringed as he said it and seemed to lose an inch or two in height.
"Oh, no, no. Don't you dare tell me…"
He swallowed hard and just blurted it out. "We pulled the head from the preservative. We had everything prepared, we followed all of the protocols. But there was nothing there to test. The eyes were gone."
"What do you mean, gone?" she growled in increasing volume.
"The head was in pristine condition, other than the neck trauma at the point of separation. But there were no eyes in the sockets. Nothing."
"Son of a…were they removed surgically? By jutsu? Decomposed? What?"
"We're working on that now. Now this is just my unofficial observation, but I didn't see the things you would expect from a surgical removal. They just weren't there."
"Are you saying this isn't recent? How could this have gone unnoticed? You get back in there and get me as many answers as you can! Tell your senior to pull the chain of custody records, get names and times for everyone that ever looked at it. Tell him to get every available soul working on this, I want an answer, and if I don't get it soon, I will come there myself to find out the reason why. Do I make myself clear? Why are you still standing there? Move! Now!"
The lab tech scrambled out the door, nearly falling as he stumbled around the corner in his haste to get clear of her furious chakra.
"Get me Ibiki!" she bellowed to Shizune in the foyer. How the hell had this happened right under their noses?
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Kakashi repeatedly twirled a kunai on its sharp tip on the end table next to his easy chair, as his slumped form draped itself carelessly over the arm. Each time the weighted weapon clattered and fell he picked it up again, giving it a slightly harder spin, absently watching it twirl, wobble and fall. The sounded echoed slightly in the large room and down the empty hallway, highlighting the excessive amount of living space this estate afforded its single occupant.
He snagged the kunai abruptly mid-spin, gripping it in his fist and stabbing it fiercely into the table top. The wooden top split with a loud report, cleaving the piece clean in two and sending the lamp and mug resting on its surface smashing to the floor.
This mission was for shit. He had too much time to plan and little opportunity to execute any of it. Patience was one of the few natural talents he ran a bit short of. He hauled in a deep breath and let it out with a frustrated huff of sound.
It wasn't like he could push it out of his thoughts during the day, knowing Iruka was somewhere with Danzou. The old one-armed demon was getting his decrepit claws into the last man that should have ever been gifted to him, sent unknowingly like some sacrificial lamb. A sweet lamb that used to reel in ecstasy under his touch, as he possessed that addictive body, making his bid to be the only thing of meaning in that remarkable mind.
Why they couldn't just execute the traitorous fiend to end whatever menace he represented was beyond him. If the Uzingan was a threat the old man perpetuated, it would be one less conspirator behind it. Surely suspicion of collaboration with a mass-murderer would be enough to take that ancient hawk down once and for all.
Iruka had been victimized by it far too much already.
Charging Kakashi with protecting him from it again was bitter medicine. Tying his hands by forcing him to do it covertly was unspeakably frustrating.
The clock was crawling. Another hour before he could station himself in the trees in the courtyard behind the chunin section and watch Iruka to see what his homework was tonight. Since Iruka elevated to jounin he'd given in to the custom of leaving his windows open most of the time, in order to receive the messenger birds for emergency call-ups. It was a requirement of the job. Kakashi had been aware of it for quite some time. Iruka-watching was, after all, a long-time hobby that had been disrupted during the drawn-shades and darkness phase. On rare occasion, usually after a particularly unsettling mission, he came by and stole a harmless look or two. It wasn't a big deal, or even all that much of an invasion of privacy. Window-surfing was a popular pastime for quite a few of the nin; and when the window was open, the mask was always on anyway.
His meeting with Ibiki had been cancelled this afternoon, at least there was that one small blessing. Having Moreno breathing down his neck was an annoyance he could do without.
He tossed the kunai up with a flick of his wrist, spinning it in the air, catching it smoothly and launching it again and again. Watching it spin in the air, something clicked in his head. An inspiration.
He caught and kept it this time and traced it across his thumb in a controlled cut, calling up his lead summon.
"Mood swings?" the pug asked archly, observing the minor destruction.
"Got a big, big one for you, Pak," he said.
The nindog eyed him warily. "This can't be good."
"Hey now. This is serious. It's tough, and a little dangerous. But I know you're capable."
"I'm listening."
"First, you'll have to be able to do this undetected. I'm thinking…jutsu you to flea size? Then…"
"Hold up! I can do stealth, I do not do flea."
"Your stealth would have to be perfect. We're talking ANBU level detection and higher."
"If you're married to that flea idea, call an Aburame. If you want me, I can go full stealth, and I can prove it. I've been practicing."
"We'll test it and see. You'll come with me this evening. If this works, I need you to keep an eye on Umino and tell me everything you can about what's going on with him during the day."
"Ah, Iruka-sensei," the dog said wistfully. He raised an eye in a meaningful look at his leader. Kakashi seemed to wince upon hearing that obsolete name.
"It's just a mission. From Tsunade. A real one. Iruka's training with Danzou, and they both think it's on the level. But really, it's only been arranged so we can try and see what the old man is up to. Iruka's in there blind. I'm supposed to watch him, see what's happening to him and try to keep him safe."
The tone in Kakashi's voice took the urge to needle him right out of the pug's heart. "Sounds easy enough."
"Let's go see if this can work. If it does, I need you to go with him tomorrow and see what's actually happening when he's training."
They trotted out into the cool evening air in the direction of the chunin section. Kakashi suppressed his chakra, his signature aura, and all the seething anxiety to focus on setting up this test. If Pakkun could successfully spy on Iruka at close range just outside his apartment, he should be good enough to tail the man to his training and get some first-hand information on just what they were dealing with.
The tension was still making him sweat in spite of the cool temperature, and from the look Pak shot him, he moved to suppress his scent as well. It had been a long time since he'd been on a mission that bothered him much at all, he'd done it all so many times. Maybe he was just getting old, but whatever the reason, this was extremely hard to keep a handle on.
From the new look on the dog's face, he'd successfully controlled his trace odors. Well, at least that was something.
xxxxxxxx
"Danzou-sama, what has happened to you?" Iruka was blinking, hastily stripping off his mask to widen his visual field.
"Nothing, nothing at all. Katas, now. Demonstrate.
"But your arm…your head…what..?" He went to reach out, wanting to use his hands to check the reality of his vision. He was brushed off abruptly.
"What about them?"
Iruka shook his head hard, staring in disbelief. For a minute, it had seemed that his trainer was disfigured. But now that vision was clearly false, because both arms and hands were moving quite naturally to point him irritably to his place on the mats. The same had been true of the man's face; he looked into two demanding eyes now instead of one.
"Katas. Now."
The stare drew him into silent obedience and he began to execute the first routine. His concentration was still divided, and his performance should have been sub-par. But his body moved as if on its own, leaving his mind to grow more and more aware of his unstable surroundings. He had been sure that when he came into the room he had been greeted by a lone eye; Danzou's other eye and the rest of his forehead were swathed in bandages. Then a dizzying feeling had caused him look down and shake his head hard, and when he brought his head back up the false image was gone - his mentor was perfectly fine. But now it felt like someone else was watching, drilling him with the intensity of their attention.
The next series of movements brought his line of sight up and around in the direction of that odd feeling and he cascaded through the emotions ignited by what he saw.
Jeninki stared with two madly spinning Uzingan eyes. It froze Iruka in mid-move, locked in place with an arm outstretched. His heart raced madly in this all too familiar situation, as if his life were about to be changed brutally yet again.
"I could watch you all day," Hidata sighed, oblivious to his distress.
"It's him?" Danzou asked. "You're certain."
"Absolutely." Jeninki's familiar voice sounded pleased and rather calm.
"To keep…or to take?"
"Well, that's the hard part, isn't it? Tough decision."
"You have time. He's not ready to take yet. He is getting there quickly, though. When he sees through my genjutsu, we'll be close. Very close. He slipped through for a moment, just a little bit ago." Danzou said.
Jeninki stepped forward, nearly touching Iruka's chin. "If I had to decide today, I would keep. I prefer someone taller to take."
"You don't have to do either yet. Be patient just a bit longer."
Jeninki tapped Iruka on the temples to release him. The surroundings grew dark and silent, and with a jolt he came awake from the unsettling dream. His hands were gripping into the mattress, and a dull ache greeted him behind his eyes.
Another crazy dream. It was 2 AM and he knew there would be no going back to sleep after this one.
He would have thought that his dreams would feature the snakes, insects and scorpions, or even the more rudimentary tortures from his training. But instead they were vague, with little action and nonsensical plots. They always seemed to center on the old man himself, and repeatedly Jeninki would be in the dream, too. Nothing ever really happened that was frightening in the classic sense, so he couldn't exactly define them as nightmares; but they made his blood run as cold as any gore-filled vision of horror.
He sat up and half-stretched, restless and wide awake. In bare feet and pajama pants he rose into the chill air of his bedroom and padded out to the larger area of the living room. He began the warm-up for the katas and wished just a bit now for a mirror. It would make the katas easier to perfect; but there another thing his instincts told him he needed it for: his identity. There was a nagging feeling of displacement and a growing uncertainty. He expected to be a stronger self as he labored to extinguish his emotions; to replace the weaknesses within with steely strength and stolid, monolithic singularity of mind. But somehow, instead of becoming a stronger Umino Iruka, his sense of self was becoming vague, and he felt a personal vulnerability and weakness at his very core. He would have to work harder, and confide in Danzou-sensei about this unexpected shortcoming.
His mind was not on his practice as it should be; instead, he turned and twisted his thoughts around the things that refused to let him concentrate in peace. It had gone this far, he would have to see it through now. The doubts that were taking little bites at his resolve were his own pathetic desire to run back to his old, familiar way of life like some frightened child. There was nothing there for him anymore, not really. There was nothing to turn back for, no viable direction but forward. The only thing worse than the idea of going back was the idea of stopping here and now. Half-stripped of his humanity, this was a terrible state to be in. Lost. If he couldn't go forward and make this work, and he couldn't regain the bitter balance of his former existence, he would be lost. His remaining emotions could not ignore the fear and pain of being stuck in this state. His meditations refused to bring him absolution from that; at least, not yet.
He knew his mentor would do him the honor of listening, and he had no doubt that he would be the path to the solution. The more his training progressed, the more his clarity of mind improved when he stood in the powerful presence to receive the lessons for his destiny in ROOT. In the sanctity of the training room there were no doubts and no fears.
He would gladly stay there night and day until his training was complete. It was only after he left and returned to this disjointed part of his existence that he felt the thorny truth: how very much he did not fit in here anymore, and how very deep that cold fear went that he might not complete the metamorphosis into ROOT shinobi.
He abandoned the half-hearted exercise for a seat cross-legged on the floor. Tanned fingers touched his face under the mask in the places where the older man's had been, imagining he was there, showing him interest, spending such effort to advance his skills. He would be stranded if he didn't get Danzou's help; he didn't think he'd ever needed anything more.
x
The bare aura of the ninken outside the apartment window never registered, and Pakkun felt secure that this new mode he'd trained for was perfect for this task. With practice, he had learned how to let his body release from the summon, but keep his sentience in the present. Moving around was still a little tricky, but with no body, his master's chakra was simply not there to be sensed, and his own ethereal bit of life was, as he had suspected, no more provoking then the insects or the birds in the trees. He felt just a bit smug. Kakashi, cloaked to the best of his ability, still had to hang back a good distance in order to spy on his subject undetected.
After Iruka had retired for the night, Pakkun stayed to see if he would be able to do this for several hours. As long as he was undisturbed, it seemed he could maintain this indefinitely. In this state, the relative darkness of the apartment's interior was not an issue - unlike Kakashi, who had to rely heavily on the glow of the nearby streetlamp when he lurked, another one-up the ninken had on him. He even ventured in part-way through the window at one point. The test results were flawless.
It was a little jarring when Kakashi summoned him back to his estate. The silver-haired nin snatched up the little dog in concern when he staggered from merging with his form during his reappearance.
"Pak! You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, leggo already." He shook all over and snorted once his feet were back on the ground. "Hrf!"
"So?"
"He never seemed to sense me while he was sleeping. He never saw me when woke back up. He looked like he had a nightmare, got up and started working out just a little while ago."
"Then this could work. Pakkun, this is really important. We can't have any screw-ups here."
"I don't see how it could go bad. If anything looks off, if I think they're getting suspicious, I just let go and follow my body. It takes effort to stay in this state. The minute I lose concentration, I'm out of there anyway."
"He leaves early in the morning. We'll need to be waiting."
"Are you planning on sleeping until then? Because I am. If you're going to stay up fretting the rest of the night, I'd just as soon go."
"Okay, go rest. I'll bring you back. It's going to be early."
Pakkun puffed away and Kakashi dropped into a chair at his kitchen table, his chin resting heavily in his hands. This was driving him crazy. He'd have to force himself to sleep if he was going to get any. The unrest raged in his head and turned his muscles into hard cables of tension. His usual cool had worn thin.
Nightmares. Well, Iruka certainly had the right to a few of those. Even if he wasn't going through hell right now, which he probably was, he'd been through plenty before for reference.
His chunin used to sleep like a baby, soft and silent in their darkened bedroom. He ought to know, he'd spent many a night looking over that quiet form when he couldn't sleep himself. No matter what Iruka reported the next day in the way of the occasional strange dreams or nightmares, his slumbering body never revealed them. It was as if he knew Kakashi was watching, and he withheld even those hints of his innermost thoughts.
Kakashi himself had to admit that his take on that might have been just a bit over the top.
It was quite a change if Iruka was demonstrably having bad dreams, and totally unheard of for them to wake him. With his ROOT training to suppress his emotions, Kakashi supposed it was the only opportunity for his ravaged psyche to let loose.
He waited without giving sleep a second consideration, daydreaming obsessively about lost souls, heroic rescues, disemboweled enemies, and brunettes, grateful or not, captured safely in his arms.
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It had not been a good start to Ibiki's day. The urgent message from the Hokage to report to her directly did not prevent him from invading the lab first. Cowering and talking entirely too much, those workers had little of use to say. Hidata's head had been returned to float in the viscous yellow liquid of the preservative after their examination; it was now re-homed in a barrel-shaped heavy glass crock for display. The missing objects of interest had disappeared without a trace from the hollow sockets. No traces of deterioration, implosion or surgical removal - whether self-destructed or stolen, the method had to have been jutsu.
The head was basically useless now, but Ibiki declined to correct them on it. He figured that at some point, when they got tired of looking at it, it would dawn on them that they needed to get rid of it.
He hadn't actually looked at the eyes when he shut them, but he felt for their presence with his hands, and had done so on purpose. The eyes of certain clans were always closely guarded after death, a prime target for hunter nin and clan members who would want to take them back to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. To look into those eyes without protection was instant death for a variable length of time after the user passed away; their power would begin to wane eventually, and in three years time they would lose all of their life force. Near the end of their power, it was less dangerous to work with them, and thus they determined the timing of the battery of tests and experiments, to learn all they could to defend against them. It would be vital information if their suspicions about Danzou's powers turned out to be valid. If they couldn't be located in time, this avenue to find a weapon against their influence was lost.
The lab had dusted the original container for prints and it was clean; which made sense and proved nothing, all the lab personnel wore stretchy latex gloves, and any thief worth his salt would take at least that much precaution. Ibiki commandeered copies of the ledger the security chief was currently examining, detailing everything and everyone that went in and out of the vault.
x
When he finally entered the Hokage's chamber she waved him to a chair that he didn't take.
"Well? What took you so long?"
"I went to the lab to check on the situation myself. We've got a tight timeframe; in just six to eight more weeks, they were going to be inert. They still will be if they haven't had their longevity enhanced. We've cut it very close, Lady Tsunade." Ibiki looked grim. "If we can't retrieve them in time, the next best thing would be their destruction."
She frowned and slapped the desktop. "We should at least know when this happened by now, if not who took them and how."
"We sealed and preserved the head immediately. No one would have been foolish enough to look at them while they were fresh. I believe they were there when we took the steps to preserve them - I know they were there at that time. But I did not venture a look at them."
"Obviously."
"I have the record here of every access to the vault since that time. The quarterly inventories all show these remains accounted for. Of course, that doesn't speak to the question of whether the eyes were there all along or not. And there are other possibilities besides theft. There could have been a jutsu, a protection that caused the eyes to destruct to prevent them from being analyzed in order to preserve their secrets. It would make sense that a jutsu of that sort would be delayed. You'd want them to be intact as long as they were active enough to destroy anyone who looked at them, if you suspected an enemy had taken them."
"Yes, well…we would have had those secrets. Our lab rats are sharp. They had a battery of new tests and experiments at the ready like you wouldn't believe. If we do manage to get them back I want them taken directly to the lab, and I want no less that two senior jounin stationed to guard them at all times."
"This timing with Danzou - you thought it a suspicious coincidence already. I'm not a big believer in coincidence, I would make a strong inference that if the situation is theft, then he is our thief. Perhaps there's more to it now. I could conduct a covert search of his property."
"Do it. Make sure you're not detected. But if you do find that he has them, bring him directly to me. If he stole them we won't play the game a minute longer, I want him to answer to me right away. If he took them, I'd call it hard evidence that he has access to that power since he doesn't want us to develop a defense against." Tsunade glared out the window at deepening sunset. "What does Kakashi have to report?"
"Nothing. Umino seems to be coming home with katas and meditations, some newly healed wounds, nothing outside of the ordinary for training. I don't like it. It sounds like he knows we're watching." Ibiki stood and followed her gaze out the window. "Danzou's tactical skills are superlative. Trying to get anything past him requires the utmost skill and attention to detail. This property search will be difficult to pull off."
"I'm sure that he realizes that I don't trust him. I led him to believe that Iruka came to him as a reject, a worthless bone I tried to throw his way to shut him up about the ROOT nonsense. That we picked him because of the damage to his face, his age at becoming a jounin, his lack of a place to fit in. He thinks I threw him away because I foolishly didn't see him as having value." Her eyes grew cold with the responsibility of her position as the warm colors of the deepening sky mirrored in them. "He has had Iruka long enough to see him for the tremendous resource that he is. The ass probably thinks he's pulled one over on me, that I was too stupid and conventional to see Iruka for his potential. That sort of superior thinking is his stock and trade. In that regard, the setup was perfect to pander to his ego. And he's playing it back the same way. I'd wager that his training is ungodly, and he's making it appear banal to conceal the fact that Iruka is capable of being a true ROOT shinobi, in the style I believe he feared was no longer possible. He's just hiding his cards. He's still playing our game."
"I may need a diversion in order to do the search. With your permission?"
"Don't blow up anything too expensive."
Ibiki nodded. "I'll forewarn you. I may need to borrow a jounin or two. Most of my ANBU are still doing eliminations to assist Sand."
"Just don't use Kakashi. He needs to lay low so he doesn't draw attention to his task."
"I wouldn't have used him anyway."
"Ibiki…never mind." The torture specialist certainly held a grudge. Tsunade couldn't fathom why an unsavory exchange between two people in a relationship had such an effect on his opinion of Kakashi.
"No. What is it?"
"This thing with Kakashi. Is it all from that one event? It bothers you that much?"
"You make it sound petty and insignificant. Understand that he lied to me about their relationship and his intentions, and then he twisted my words when he told Umino why I allowed him in. He used me and my facility to take advantage of a man held helpless in the official operation of a mission. 'That one event' was my responsibility. I have no excuse for not questioning his motives in the first place, and for letting it go on just to see if Umino would stand up for himself. Between that and our botched retrieval, I'd say we fucked up royally. It still infuriates me how damned proud he was of what he did in that visiting room. I should have gone in there and jerked him out by the throat."
"Ibiki. If you went in there, while things were in progress, made a scene, rescued him…what would that have accomplished? You think he would have felt any better? That things would have turned out all that differently? Why does…unless…is it because Iruka thinks you didn't care? Did you want him to know that your impulse was to protect him?"
"My watch. My man. My orders that put him in that place, restrained in that way. And I just let another man destroy any reason that soldier ever had to trust me as his superior. It might as well have been me in there. I'm a specialist, I know people, I know individual quirks and qualities. I should have known what Kakashi's intentions were. And it was just when I was getting a lock on Umino's unique talents. There was something different there, something rare. And we destroyed it. It's inexcusable. At least I have the substance to regret it." Ibiki could count on one hand with fingers left over how many times another shinobi had beat him at his own game of psychological cat-and-mouse. That defeat would never, ever be excused away. The particulars of the incident and the identity of the victim aside, Kakashi had slapped Ibiki's face and walked away unscathed. So far. Some day, some how, that score would need to be settled.
"Kakashi regrets it, Ibiki. He'll never let you know. But believe me, he regrets a lot of things when it comes to Iruka."
The scarred shinobi was unmoved by her defense of someone so unprincipled. "We should table this for now. I need to concentrate on the logistics of getting into Danzou's and getting a look around."
"On that we can agree. Move on this as soon as possible."
"You could call Umino in, hold him off from reporting for training for a few days in case this blows up."
Tsunade shook her head. "There are too many possibilities to pull the plug on a hunch. There's been no indication that he's in any danger. We stay with the plan for now. We still need that information, now more than ever. The goals haven't changed."
"As you wish."
Ibiki gave a stiff bow and left the room.
As if any of this is what I wish, Tsunade thought bitterly.
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Iruka was alert as he headed along the familiar street, overcompensating a little to make up for his lack of sleep, using his chakra as usual to make sure he wasn't followed. The sun was ready to crest the hills, highlighting his way with a soft glow; teamed with the crisp chill of the dawn it was an energizing contrast after the gloomy introspection of last night.
Kakashi appeared again, giving him that little wave that he once thought was so cute, and that monosyllabic greeting. Again, Iruka ignored him. But this time, the copy-nin began to move in his direction after he passed.
Iruka moved ahead several paces before he turned and pointed accusingly.
Kakashi stopped in his tracks. Me? the hand to his chest and raised eyebrow questioned. He shrugged, turned, and went the other way.
Iruka kept track of him a little longer this time, making sure he went his own way. The copy-nin was a little bolder today, making that little move. He hadn't been back with more fairy tales about Naruto gone missing or goading him and throwing down physical challenges. He had simply reappeared in the landscape nearly everywhere Iruka went since the day he came knocking at the door, as if the months of pointedly avoiding him had never happened.
He's gotten over the revulsion, Iruka surmised. He must have decided that he could go for a little action in spite of the hideousness, made palatable by the porcelain façade. Training had not reached the point where Iruka could engage in sex purely for the physical benefit of exercising his organs, preventing stagnant fluids and promoting his general health, disregarding the connection with his partner otherwise. He understood that he would get there eventually, and he was quite certain that he would know just how effectively he'd been prepared when his sensei was ready to test him with this activity. His own aversion to it meant simply that he was not yet properly trained. At the point in his development where he could do this without emotion, in an efficient, businesslike fashion, to allow access to his elderly mentor on command, he supposed even Kakashi could be had without discomfort or displeasure.
If the irritation and provocation from just seeing that shock of silver hair was any indication, he wasn't making nearly the progress Danzou had indicated. The copy-nin was still a distraction, an unwelcome one at that. He hurried now, even though he was early, anxious to be sealed away in in the room where his discomforts had meaning and his pain was a clear path to his goal.
Pakkun probably didn't need the assist, but it couldn't hurt, and Kakashi wanted to see Iruka for himself while fronting this bit of misdirection anyway. The blue-masked nin still acknowledged his existence, and that was reassuring in a small way.
x
When Iruka disabled the tags and entered through the sagging wooden gate, Pakkun slipped in undetected as well. Without his body he couldn't track by smell, but having the pony tailed jounin in his line of sight was perfect. He traced along after him, impressing himself with his own ethereal abilities.
The next door was on the face of an old building, and they lost the warm brilliance of the rising morning sun when they entered the doorway into the cold, shadowy realm. Pakkun's instincts began to sharpen with alert at the sense of danger and depravity.
It grew colder and darker the further they moved into the bowels of the building. Iruka seemed to have no qualms. He arrived at a closed, blackened door and knocked twice.
"Reporting. I will enter." No reply came from within. Iruka made signs to release the door and they were in.
The room bombarded the ninken with negative force. Visually, its cavernous interior was sparse and poorly lit, and not unlike one of the interrogation theatres in Ibiki's compound.
But the vibe here was so much darker.
Pakkun's state gave an odd sensitivity to his vision, and this empty room was teeming with slips of moving shadow. They seemed drawn to the quiet shinobi as he stepped into the room. The ninken sensed dozens of presences here, wafting about and reacting slightly to Iruka's every movement; in contrast, Iruka didn't seem to see or react to them at all.
In the back of the room another door opened and Pakkun shied away by floating up to the ceiling. He passed by and through many of the shadow-presences on the way, but they did not disrupt his trip, nor did they seem at all aware of him. So far, his recon was working smoothly.
It was Danzou, shrouded in a daunting yellowed chakra. The pug saw him clearly in several elements. The man's body was old, but his aura was still powerful and it seemed wise to keep a distance from it.
His body was wrapped and cloaked in cloth, concealing an eye and arm that were both missing and present at the same time. It was beyond the pug's ability to understand, so he took in the information as best he could to relay to Kakashi. The effect of all of these visions, on the whole, was to create a room filled with surreal, unhealthy chakra and the pall of some foul activity poised for execution.
His former friend Iruka-sensei was fitting in smoothly with this dismal scene somehow, adjusting on an subconscious level and letting go of the purer end of his chakra's spectrum. Like a chameleon, he adapted almost seamlessly the longer he was in the room. By the time Danzou had settled himself into a chair and began addressing his student, their wavelengths were very close.
On the old man's command, Iruka went through a complex kata and then stood motionless for his next order. Pak saw nothing out of line. The few corrections the man called out were accurate; for the most part, the moves seemed to have been well-practiced and correct. It seemed that Iruka had made an acceptable showing.
Danzou stood and went to the cabinet on the back wall, opening one of the glass doors. His missing arm reached in and came away brandishing a knife of the same indefinable appearance, with a wicked blade that was barbed on one edge and serrated on the other. He crossed the distance to his student fluidly and brought the weapon to Iruka's throat in a sweeping motion, placing the edge on sensitive flesh with unmistakable intent.
Pakkun watched in alarm, on the verge of releasing in order to go get Kakashi. It was impossible to tell if the phantom arm and its weapon were a threat in the physical sense. Iruka was controlled and impassive at the sudden move, but from the movement of his eyes, Pakkun decided he saw the blade and the arm in some form of reality. When his eyes met Danzou's, the missing eye blazed and launched a flood of that yellow force straight into Iruka's eye sockets.
Instead of reacting to the attack, Iruka gave in to it. He began to speak, describing a dream and asking for help with its interpretation. He confessed to weakness of mind and begged for guidance; all the while the elder man's phantom eye sent tendrils of itself out to thrust into what appeared to be a receptive subject.
The true arm came up and roughly tugged at the buckle on the blue mask before snatching it off. The gnarled fingers fisted into the back of the dark hair and pulled, further baring the throat to the blade. He made a slight cut and a dark dribble of blood oozed out to meet the shimmering weapon's edge.
Danzou shook his head. He seemed disappointed. He let go of the hair and took away the blade. He was telling Iruka how far he had to go still. It wasn't about being immune to the fear of being sliced, he was saying. It was about being impervious to it. When the blade's bite no longer drew blood, it would be the sign that they had reached the next level.
Kakashi will think I've gone insane, the pug thought, just taking in without trying to comprehend anymore. This was no training he'd ever heard of before.
Iruka thanked Danzou and leaned into the fingers that traced over the taboo of his face. His gaze followed that touch calmly, taking in the sensations. The gnarled hand was disdainfully smearing blood across his disfigured cheek, to paint his student the evidence of his failure. Pakkun's stomach rolled. How could Konoha possibly justify sending an ally to be damaged so deeply as this?
Both the flesh and phantom hand, now empty, captured the bowed head between them and that vile yellow chakra flashed again. When he removed his hands and turned away, it seemed Iruka was frozen in place, no longer reacting.
The atmosphere grew thicker, and another presence began to enter the room behind Danzou. Pakkun strained to perceive it as best he could. Was it a doppelganger being produced from the old man? It was like the arm and the eye, there and not there, and almost painful to try and bring into focus.
Suddenly the slips of shadow began to dart erratically and swell with energy. The room's rising instability began to disrupt the pug's hold; when the figure that entered the room raised its arms high above its head, the answering rise in energy from the shadows blasted him hard; he barely released from the jounin's dimension in time to avoid being damaged by the seismic disruption of his thought processes.
Whatever or whomever that had been, it was incredibly powerful and dangerous. He had to get these strange observances to Kakashi. He had witnessed it and he still wasn't sure what he had seen; the only thing the knew for sure was that whatever was happening to Iruka-sensei, the man himself still seemed completely willing to submit to it.
He rejoined his body in the dimension of waiting and gathered his will for a self-directed appearance to his master.