Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, but this fanfic and the ideas and original characters within it are mine.

Summary: We've all seen the stories where someone is transported to the Naruto world, so what if things are switched. How is our world going to handle Naruto? Non-crack

Note 1: This story is set pre-Sasuke betrayal, post-Godaime. It's about the time that Sasuke is released from the hospital, but before Sound gets him.

Note 2: I went back and put in a setting at the beginning of every new scene and will continue to do so. If you are confused about time or place, please reference these.

Announcement: I have officially ABANDONED this story. For more details, see my profile.

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Humane Studies

Chapter 4: Interviews

10:02 pm, Day 0, America, Area 51, Complex D7, Third Level

Kire, Head of Psychology, stood nervously in front of a long, curving wall, behind which were thirteen subjects whose origins and abilities were, for the most part, still unknown. Kire had just finished talking with the main Head, Shia, and decided to get the first meetings with the subjects over with tonight despite the late hour. That nap on the underground shuttle wouldn't allow him to fall asleep for another few hours at least. So after printing out the current notes about the various subjects and nabbing one of his coworker's clipboards, he'd gone to the Third Level.

In a way he was looking forward to getting to know the subjects, who might very well be aliens of some sort. However, as with any project he undertook, Kire felt a gnawing kind of fear that he might screw up at some point, and had to fight the urge to turn around and find something fun to do—like harass Kerisu with Shota—instead of completing his objective.

And so, with a sigh, Kire opened the door of A1, pasted on a smile, and stepped through.

--

10:03 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A1

1756…1757…1758…hold…1759…

Rock Lee was known for his perseverance in training, his rigorous stress on improvement. Bearing this in mind, it was quite understandable that, even when almost completely restrained (even his fingers had individual clasps), he still found a way to train his body. Lee was currently doing full body muscle strains against his bindings, pushing with all his strength as a replacement for weight lifting and other exercises. This exercise felt strange without the usual tension against his skin from his suit and the weights about his ankles, not to mention the awkward upright position, but he considered this a new experience and therefore worth enduring for an enrichment to his youthful fire.

Yosh! I must show Gai-sensei this new exercise!

This exuberant thought brought up the memory of where exactly he was—or, to be more accurate, where he didn't know he was. According to his fellow peers, they had been transferred to some kind of other "dimension." Not being familiar with this word, Lee had only been able to look around in amazement at the strange place they had been in. The buildings that had stretched high and mighty and the black, hard ground were foreign to his limited knowledge of the world and its ways. It had brought a fire into his heart to explore and conquer this grand new environment, and so he had excitedly followed their appointed leader's command to follow the strange moving beast that had sped by them.

Later while they had been trapped in the walls of beasts and buildings and his great rival Neji had confirmed Shino-san's claim that the people surrounding them lacked chakra, his heart had burst with a strange mix of sympathy, confusion, and a nervous joy. While Lee himself did have some chakra, it was only enough to sustain his life, and he had absolutely no control over it. Finding out that there may be other people (and so many!) with a predicament similar to his was like finding the secret to opening all eight gates without any risks, or like breathing again when he had forgotten he was holding his breath.

But these people who were so like him were a threat. He had found himself pitted against them and their new and strange weapons, and this was almost a depressing thought. He had quickly cheered himself up with the notion that it was all a big misunderstanding and that, once they realized that Lee and his fellow shinobi were not intending an infiltration, they would generously help them in their quest for home.

To his disappointment, they had been forced to defend themselves, and still they had fallen.

This was a point that he was feeling minor shame over. When Tsunade had ordered his team to be on the next Genin Evaluation, she had specifically come to him and told him that he was not to attend because of his still healing injuries. Lee had protested vehemently, and gone through a myriad of exercises to prove to the medic-nin that he was just as capable as his teammates. In the end the new Hokage had grudgingly allowed him to accompany his team, marking his records as fully healed with hospital leave, but she had told him to take it easy. However, Lee knew his body better than anyone, and he could tell that he wasn't quite done healing yet. His movements were sluggish compared to his normal speeds, and he could feel the strain it put on his bones.

It was for this reason, and this reason alone, that Lee was hit by the incoming dart. He had dropped like a boulder as darkness crept into his vision and mind, already feeling the guilt of letting his team down because of his lies about his condition.

When he came to, he found himself restrained by metal, his wonderful green suit taken away. He lamented this passionately—what would Gai-sensei say? How much would his training suffer? Shortly after, he collected himself with the sudden question of why he was restrained and where he was. The blank white wall in front of him gave no answers. The same could be said for the few people who had entered the room—one man with a long black ponytail had been poking his arms and legs for a while, and taken what he had called "samples." The man had seemed nice enough, but it wasn't very comforting when needles had come into the picture. He had taken Lee's blood and checked his body temperature and swathed the inside of his cheek, and then left with a cheerful goodbye.

Once Lee was alone, he quickly became anxious to get back to training. His whole schedule was thrown off, he knew that already, but he had to at least get some exercise in, which led to his current discovery of a new way of exercising.

Lee had been repeating these body strains for what felt like hours when the hidden door to his right opened and a stranger entered. Unlike the man with the pony-tail from before, this man was tall with curly hair. The man was smiling genially as he closed the door and came over to stand by Lee, his hand poised over a clipboard.

"Hello," he said pleasantly, "my name is Kire, what's your's?"

Lee stared at Kire in confusion, and then registered his question. Fire lit in his eyes as the chance to spread his name came into realization.

"I am ROCK LEE, Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast!" he proclaimed, and would have struck the nice-guy pose if his arms weren't clamped down. "What nation do you hail from, Kire-san?"

"Uh…Japan," the man said, writing something down quickly on the notepad held within the clipboard.

"Japan?" Lee answered, wracking his mental maps of the different lands surrounding Fire Country. "I have not heard of such a village. Is it very far from Konoha?"

"I would expect so," the man said in an odd tone.

Ah, the man must be nervous to be talking to a foreigner! Lee gave a sparkling grin and said, "If I have not heard of it, then it is surely not on the enemy list; therefore, we are brothers in youth! I have heard that you do not have chakra, Kire-san?"

The man looked surprised. "No, I don't."

"Yosh! We are truly brothers, then, and you will understand my need to train. You must return my suit to me so that I can continue my youthful dreams!"

"Your suit," Kire said slowly. "The green one? I've seen it, it's quite…unique. You seem to have done something to it with, er, chakra. Could you possibly tell me what the purpose of it is?"

"Ooooh!" This man was obviously interested in intense taijutsu training, just like Lee himself. It made sense, he thought. If this man had no chakra, then his only chance to be a ninja was to train hard in taijutsu, and Lee could empathize. "It is a magnificent invention of my sensei that will allow you to train the body twice as much as normal! The suit forces you to use your muscles not only to perform regular exercises, but also to combat the strain of the material. Wearing it full-time means you are training every second of the day and night!"

"Ah, I see. So you like training, then?"

"If I am to become a taijutsu master and prove myself worthy of being a ninja, then I must train as much as possible! I will do 5000 body strains, and if I cannot complete that, I—"

Lee paused as he realized that the body strains were really the only type of training he could do at the moment.

"Please sir, I must return to training! No, my whole group must return to Konoha! Can you help in this most important mission, Kire-san??"

The man was looking a little uncertain now, slowly backing toward the door. "Um, well, I'll see what I can do…" he trailed off awkwardly.

Tears of gratitude rushed down Lee's face. "Thank you, my youthful brother!"

"Sure thing. Bye." Kire all but ran from the room, leaving Lee to continue his exercises and thoughts of flaming youth.

--

10:15 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Third Level

Kire breathed a sigh of relief as he closed the door behind him. That kid was insane! Before he could go off on a mental rant, he pushed the conversation from his mind. He didn't want to deal with that right now. Instead, he moved to look into the next room, which housed the still sleeping adult. Ninja, eh? So this man was some sort of ninja teacher to these kids? The multiplying mask was still on his face and both his eyes were closed, making the vertical scar on one very clearly visible. From what Kire remembered of the reports, that was the same eye that was red with black markings. Kire wondered if it had been implanted during a surgery of some kind, and the scar was from the entry cut.

He shook off his pondering and continued to the next SR. He glanced at the pale complexion and golden eyes of A3. The holes in the side of his cheek were barely visible from here, but it still made Kire shiver at the idea. Bugs living in your body? Yuck! He covered up his revulsion and entered the room.

--

10:19, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A3

Not for the first time, Shino considered how much of a failure their unspoken mission to find home had been.

When they'd first arrived in this "other dimension," Shino had been leery of allowing his bugs to explore. He'd had to weigh the need for knowledge of the terrain against the possibility of unknown hostilities attacking his miniscule allies, and in the end decided that two Byakugans were acceptable enough to scout the area. Thus, his bugs had initially stayed with him.

Shino had later sent a few diagnostic scouts out, when they had been cleverly and cleanly trapped by the enemy. The results were shocking. His bugs had returned to him and, in their language of emotion and intention, had expressed a desire for food that had not been found in the other humans they had visited. Their jobs were usually to memorize a specific chakra signature, in case the person needed to be identified later.

The knowledge that the enemy didn't have chakra at all and yet were still able to make an attack that none of the shinobi present were able to see was disconcerting, to say the least. It reduced Shino's bugs' abilities by a significant amount, as they could not drain the enemies of chakra. Shino kept the rest of his miniature allies with him after that, not wanting to risk the enemy's unknown weapons cutting down his numbers. So, like the rest of his team, Shino had fallen back on the classic shinobi operative weapons: kunai and shuriken.

Of course the slight headway into negotiations that Shikamaru had managed just had to go sour. Before Shino knew it, his shinobi allies were falling down all around him. He himself felt the sharp prick of a weapon entering his skin, not being able to dodge at the high speeds the weapons worked at. Desperately going on the defensive, his bugs had begun absorbing the poison being injected into his system. The type of poison was soon apparent: as soon as they absorbed a bit, the bugs would drop off into oblivious sleep. Even as Shino sent fire at the enemy, he felt the pricks of pain indicating more attacks. Finally, the amount of poison entering his system got too high for the bugs to balance, and Shino also fell into oblivion.

The only consolation Shino found in the whole debacle was that he was fairly certain he'd managed to cut someone's foot off. Really, did those people think they were hidden well behind that hunk of glass and metal? Their lower legs were woefully exposed, as were their backs (not a single one of them were keeping a look-out for a third party). Shino had earlier come to the conclusion that the people who had no doubt captured them were not shinobi in any meaning of the word. It was disappointing, in a way.

Shino would have been thinking with a clearer head, but he was panicking in a way. Waking up completely alone was something he hadn't experienced—ever. The normal hum of business from his bugs was absent. Shino thought he should have felt colder without their presence, but he felt oddly warm. The metal restraints felt shockingly cold even through the fabric of the white suit he had woken up in. He swallowed against a dry throat and tried to ignore the gaping hole literally left in his chest cavity where the bugs normally housed themselves. His lungs had more room to move, but it felt harder to breath. His heart had fallen into an erratic rhythm.

The experience was a torture all its own. Shino barely noticed his surroundings, so focused was he on his internal state of being. His thoughts meandered randomly through the past few days and the possibilities of the future, but more than often he found his attention shifting to the horribly wrong feeling of everything. His bugs followed a strict internal clock, which usually allowed Shino to know the time of day no matter his surroundings. Now his sense of time was completely thrown off. He had no colony to consult with about their next collective move, no way to explore his cell, no way to find the other shinobi. There was none of the normal activity in his body and he could feel his stomach rumbling, a feeling that was usually easy to ignore in the cacophony of other sensations. Now it felt ominously loud.

In short, Shino was completely lost.

But he wasn't lost enough that he didn't notice the man who entered through a hidden door to the right. He wore a large white overcoat buttoned in the front that made several possible professions run through Shino's mind.

Still, the first question that ran through his mind, the first impulse he had to suppress, was "Where are they?" And he meant all his allies, human and bug alike.

In the end he still had his self control, and managed to not ask his questions and keep a blank face throughout the man's futile interrogation. He disaffectedly noticed that the man's hair was very curly and that he talked with his hands a lot. There were laugh lines around his mouth and his eyes were too large and innocent.

As for the questions, most were what he expected, but the one about his age surprised him. What could knowing his age help with? Perhaps in combination with knowing his last name, they could pinpoint exactly who he was within his clan. Or maybe it was for paper filing reasons. Shino gave up on the line of thought in the face of the next attempt at small talk. That was another weird thing: it wasn't all questions. The man seemed to be trying to get Shino to participate in a conversation. He even introduced himself as "Kire," though this was probably a codename.

Shino was a little surprised that the man gave up so quickly. This Kire didn't resort to intimidation, threats, or torture. He just appeared to be disappointed at Shino's lack of response and then bid him farewell before leaving.

Shino quickly dismissed the man and found himself dwelling on his current state. He had a headache developing. The metal restraints felt colder than ever against his skin and Shino had to sniff to suppress a sudden strong urge to sneeze. It seemed he'd already been here forever, and forever kept dragging on and on with Shino stuck in its powerful grip, trying not to lose his mind and composure to shock.

--

10:33 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A4

"So how are you doing?"

Tenten glared at the man who had been interrogating her for some minutes now. He had come in, clip-board in hand, and started asking questions: what was her name, her age, where was she from? He acted as though she should be giving up the answers willingly, and had an annoyingly pleasant attitude about the whole thing. However, the most vexing thing of all was that he wasn't even treating her like a proper ninja—he was treating her like a child, and that really ticked her off.

Tenten had grown up as the second child with three brothers and a sister. Only one of her brothers were near enough to her in age to be any fun. She and her family had also lived in what she called "boy-ville." The only girl who was her age and who lived nearby was completely stuck-up. Soon, Tenten's brother, the one she played with since they were little, had made friends with the other boys in the neighborhood, but didn't want her to come along because, as he said, "you're a girl."

So Tenten had been stuck playing with her two youngest siblings. The Ninja Academy had been a welcome relief from the redundancy of home, and it was there that she was taught that boys and girls were equal in the arts of a ninja. Tenten was hooked from that day forward. But even then, she would look around and notice the smaller number of girls passing the test to become genin, and would notice that the most powerful shinobi were males.

"Men are just made to be stronger than women," her mom had said as she washed dishes while Tenten's father was outside nailing together a clubhouse for her brother and his friends. Then she patted Tenten's head. "Why don't you go play with the other kids, now?"

Tenten didn't want to believe it, but looking around at the various inhabitants of Konoha, at the simple physical differences between males and females, she had eventually admitted to herself that it was true: men were made to be stronger than women.

This realization threw her into depression, and her ninja studies began slipping. She had started resigning herself to the fate of a housewife like her mom, and was just about to quit the Academy when a girl a year younger than her was enrolled. The girl was plainly a Hyuuga, but was very quiet-spoken for coming from such a prestigious clan. When Tenten tried talking to her, she found that the girl, Hinata, was actually the heir to the clan.

This acted as a metaphorical slap in the face for Tenten. All her ideas about male supremacy were shattered, especially when it became apparent that even the second runner-up for clan heir was also a girl, Hinata's younger sister Hanabi.

From there, Tenten had done a little research. She'd learned about the Sannin, and how Tsunade was considered just as powerful as her teammates, if not more. But it still wasn't exactly what she'd hoped for: the "Legendary Sucker" was known for her strength, yes, but mostly for her medical skills. Medicine, to Tenten, sounded like the epitome of female put-downs. It screamed "I'm not powerful enough to fight, so I'll just heal instead."

Tenten had avoided medical practices as much as she could after that. Her sensei had looked quite confused at her deep scowl when they learned first aid. When weapons practice came around in her second year at the Academy, Tenten found that she had much better depth perception than her classmates, and her aim was very advanced for a first-timer. Now, three years of practice later, she had near-perfect 100 accuracy. Tenten's knowledge of weaponry was as advanced as Lee's taijutsu or Neji's Byakugan control.

This "other-dimension" business was all a bit strange, as was the unusual look of this world. But in the end, as evidenced by the man currently interrogating her, it was still the same: the enemy was still treating her inferior.

Tenten mentally tallied the dimensions of the room—or as much of it as she could see. 7 feet to the wall in front of her, approximately 11 feet on either side (the wall was at a slight slant, making Tenten suspect that the area behind her was larger than the area in front of her), and 10 feet to the door on the right side of the front wall, which was the door the man had come through.

The man was slowly working her temper higher and higher. He had introduced himself as "Kire" and then started hounding her with questions. If anyone who knew Tenten well enough was present, they would know the tell-tale signs of her rising annoyance by the slight twitch of her fingers in their small restraints. If weapons had been present, the man would be Swiss cheese by now.

After Tenten refused to say "how she was," the man dropped a name she knew.

"So how's Lee been, lately? He's a bit disappointed that he can't train at the moment…"

Tenten turned her glare up a few notches at the man's casual tone. He'd switched tactics. Now he was trying to catch her by surprise by revealing that he had found out Lee's name. A name was the first step to destruction for a shinobi who had been caught by the enemy. If they knew your name, then they could get information on your abilities, find out where you were from, and then you'd really be in trouble.

Tenten fiercely promised that she wouldn't fall for it.

When this latest question still didn't get a verbal reaction from Tenten, the man switched tactics again.

"When was the last time you had your hair cut? It's looking a bit frayed at the ends there. And what's with the buns you came in with? Clearly not your style."

Her cheeks grew taut with a mix of anger and embarrassment, though at least she managed to keep the blush down. Tenten never gave her hair as much attention as girls like Sakura and Ino, and because of that it was rather lacking. But why should she care? She was a ninja, dammit! Ninjas didn't care about appearance unless it jeopardized a mission. Yes, Tenten reminded herself as she took a deep, calming breath, you're a good ninja, unlike those two airheads. Their fight in the prelims was pathetic.

Of course, this reminded Tenten of her own disastrous fight, but she batted the thought away. It was a bad match-up, she thought. I just have to train harder. And she would…

…as soon as she got out of this hell prison!

"Look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot. Why don't we call a truce. I'll answer your questions if you answer mine. Deal?"

Tenten ignored the annoying man and his latest tactic. And so it continued, until Kire finally gave up trying to get Tenten to talk, and left her to her triumph.

--

10:47 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Third Level

As soon as Kire shut the door, he heard over the speaker the brown-eyed girl saying "hah! Take that." She was smirking through the one-way glass.

His eye twitched. Cheeky little brat. This didn't spoil his newly returned good mood, though: baiting her had been rather amusing.

Kire gave a small sigh and moved down the hall to the next room. He paused outside it, looking through the class at the boy with his hair in a spiking ponytail. This was the subject that Shia had wrung a promise of answers from.

Feeling that his prospects were slightly better with this boy, Kerisu entered the room.

--

10:48 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A5

Shikamaru had dozed off at some point. It took him considerably longer without the comfort of fluffy white clouds drifting across a blue sky, and with the discomfort of his unfortunate situation, but he still managed. It came with the 200+ IQ.

The hidden door opening woke him up. Shikamaru eyed the man who came in with an expression that was at once lazy and judgmental (or perhaps judgmental for its laziness?). Overall he reminded Shikamaru of a large puppy. Or rabbit. But there was a strange kind of intelligence in his eyes. It wasn't the genius sort found in Shikamaru himself, or Sasuke or Neji; it was the kind that spoke of an intuitive understanding of the happenings in life and the motivations that drove people.

A perfect interrogator, Shikamaru concluded.

"Should I assume you are an associate of the woman from earlier?" Shikamaru asked.

The man looked surprised that Shikamaru had volunteered to speak first, but he smiled and nodded. "Her name's Shia, and mine is Kire." The self-dubbed Kire flipped through his clipboard briefly. "So, you know that we're on a, er, mission to find out about the unique abilities of you and your group. I have a couple questions, if you wouldn't mind."

A very devious idea formed in Shikamaru's mind. The way he had worded that…and if this Kire was working with the woman who had dragged a promise out of him…yes, it could work. In this game of wits, Shia had made the first aggressive move, and now it was time to spring his counterattack.

Meeting Kire's eyes, Shikamaru answered "alright" in a laid-back tone.

The honest smile Shikamaru received gave him a small stab of guilt, but he ignored it. "Thank you, Shikamaru. Alright, so: how old are you?"

Shikamaru was already mentally laughing at the waste this questioning session was going to be for them. "I'm almost 13," he answered truthfully, cooperatively. That woman, Shia, wouldn't be able to say he hadn't cooperated.

"Oh the woes of the teen years," Kire said with a grin, then continued. "The white-haired man you were dragging around with you, he's your sensei?"

"Not mine specifically, no," Shikamaru answered carefully, uncomfortable with how at ease Kire seemed, as though they were having a casual conversation over tea.

"Oh, I see. So who is your teacher then? Or do you not have one?"

Shikamaru eyed the man lazily. "Sorry, but you've used up your quota of questions."

Kire blinked in astonishment. "I'm sorry?"

"You said you had 'a couple questions.' You have just asked me two questions, which I answered. I've fulfilled my end of the bargain."

Kire's stared disbelievingly at Shikamaru, who stared back through half-lidded eyes. Checkmate; the man was no match.

"I didn't mean that literally, though!" Kire tried to reason.

"Oh? Well I'm sorry, you should have been a little more specific. Oh, and you can tell Shia that I've fulfilled my promise: I cooperated with your questions. Now, if you don't mind, you interrupted my nap."

And Shikamaru closed his eyes and tried to get comfortable again, ignoring the absolutely gobsmacked expression on Kire's face.

He soon heard the man storming from the room, and when he peeked out his eyelids saw that the room was indeed empty. He felt a small wave of triumph run through him as well as a sense of freedom. He was no longer obligated to answer any of Shia's questions: his debt was paid through her coworker. This was an immense blessing, as there was a sharp quality in Shia's maneuvers that put Shikamaru on edge; he idly wondered how much of a challenge she would be at shogi. However, in this game, Shikamaru could safely say he'd claimed victory. Score: Shikamaru—1, Shia—0.

--

10:56 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Third Level

Kire closed the door with a bit more force than necessary and glared through the one-way glass at Shikamaru, who had just outsmarted him as if Kire was a three year old.

Kire brought intensely sarcastic thoughts to mind to cover up his temper while it settled, then rubbed his forehead wearily. Oh God, Shia was going to be so pissed off…

He sighed and collected himself, then made his way to the next door. The boy behind it had rather creepy, empty eyes. His hair was unusually long: not a lot of men, even in Japan, wore their hair that long in this day and age. Kire wondered if it was part of a tradition, and vowed that he wouldn't screw up this interview. He would get answers from the white-eyed boy if it was the last thing he did. With this conviction, he opened the door.

--

11:02 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A6

Not many people would enjoy feeling blind. In fact, most would be downright hysterical if they lost their sight. For this reason, credit had to be given to Neji, for he was feeling particularly blind at this point in time.

Neji had woken much like his comrades (though he did not know this), strapped to a vertical bed and facing a white wall. While the others were helpless to see more of their new environment, Neji knew better, so he quickly activated his Byakugan to take a good look around.

At least, he tried to.

Blinking his eyes rapidly, Neji tried once again to activate his family's eyes. He closed his eyelids carefully and concentrated, then snapped his eyes open to activate his chakra.

Nothing happened.

At this point, it must be admitted that he lost his head a bit, trying repeatedly to use the technique despite his obvious inability to do so. Finally he got a grip on himself, taking a deep breath to clear his panic-filled mind. Then he calmly and strategically evaluated what might be wrong with him.

The thought that maybe he just could not use the Byakugan without hand seals came to mind, but Neji dismissed this because he had practiced too much without hand seals to suddenly need them again. A second idea was that he was out of chakra, but this was also discarded on the grounds that he was not feeling any symptoms of chakra exhaustion. It was possible that his tenketsu had been closed. This idea was thrown out almost instantly as he realized he felt no pain along his chakra outlet points or in his system. Running out of options, he finally decided to check his chakra pathways manually to make sure nothing was obstructing the way. And by manually, he meant through meditation, a long-lived practice in the Hyuuga clan.

Falling into a meditative state, he began to search through himself for anything wrong with his chakra system. His tenketsu were undamaged, as were his chakra coils and container.

But wait…as Neji brushed along his chakra container, the 'Abyss' as it was called by some, he noticed the oddly docile nature of his chakra. Immediately he knew that this was the problem. Mentally trying to call forth any of the chakra in this calm pool had no results—it was as though the energy was weighted down by a strong gravity, shackled just as he himself was.

Neji allowed his mind to surface from his meditation, not quite sure what to think of this discovery. Had the people without chakra—the people he had dismissed as weak—been able to do something to his chakra? Neji thought back to the events leading up to his capture. Hatake-sensei, who Gai-sensei frequently ranted about, had been overseeing their Genin Evaluation. Had Neji not been humbled in his fight with Naruto during the chunin exams, he probably would have detested being sent with a bunch of first year genin. As it was, he instead looked forward to challenging the persistent blond again.

Unfortunately, Neji's plans were dashed. Hatake Kakashi had order them to prove their survival and trapping abilities in a simple exercise involving opposite teams and flags. The constant onslaught of the opposite team had kept all the young shinobi busy, and Neji had not been able to challenge Naruto to a spar. While he was planning to do so the second day of the Evaluation, the interference of the strange black-cloaked enemy had prevented it. Neji had spotted the puppets only after his party was surrounded, and the implications of this did not vote well for the Konohanians.

What had happened afterward was the single most out-of-body experience that Neji would ever experience in his life. Having the Byakugan activated put him in a unique position, allowing him to see nearly everything that was happening on the battlefield in the same breath of time. In an instant, Neji saw that they were surrounded by clay-filled puppets. Components in the clay led him to conclude that it was C4, a substance he only knew of due to the extensive Hyuuga library. Astoundingly, the chakra lines from every last puppet were linked to only one person, who hung back in the deep shadows of the forest. Surrounding them in a triangle formation were three other cloaked enemies, one with traces of the C4 on his hands and in his pockets, the second with a giant scale-covered sword strapped to his back, and the third with red Sharingan eyes. ("A mole in their own ranks destroyed them," his uncle had once told Neji.)

At the same time, Neji saw his own team, with Tenten just pulling out a weapon-filled scroll and Lee in a ready stance, though he was spinning slowly, not seeming able to decide which direction to face. In Uzumaki Naruto's team, the last loyal Uchiha had activated his Sharingan and was staring in shock at the Uchiha traitor as said traitor materialized in front of Naruto. Naruto was likewise staring at the dark-haired man in surprise, though his face was quickly shifting to recognition with a hint of fear (Neji felt his gut twist at this. If it was enough to make Naruto fearful, then they were all in a load of—). Haruno was calling Naruto's name in fright as she finally noticed the imposing figure in front of Naruto.

The genius Nara boy and his team were standing quite close to Neji. The Akimichi was standing in front of his two teammates while the Nara had his hands in a seal that Neji had never seen before—a circle that was all thumbs and forefingers. The Yamanaka heir was looking around in bewilderment. In Neji's cousin's team, Hinata-sama was doing something strange with her chakra, circulating it slowly and precisely through her chakra coils. Her dog-training teammate was just pulling out a couple pills from his pocket, glancing at the third teammate for confirmation. This last teammate, of the bug-using Aburame clan, shook his head shortly at the Inuzuka, never taking his eyes (which were revealed to Neji through the sunglasses) off Naruto's sensei.

Then Hatake's chakra had done some very intricate things that Neji was positive he had never seen before and, quite possibly, would never see again. Then he was floating and colors and images were passing by him faster than Lee—without his weights. Or perhaps it was that he was flying rapidly passed all the images. Strange cold and hot tingles were traveling through his body at irregular intervals, as if the colors around him were leaking into his body, engulfing him. There was no direction, nor gravity; Neji did not even have a body. Was this death, was this the explosion of the C4?

Then his feet were resting against solid ground, and the sensory input from the clearing in Fire Country was gone, to be replaced by a foreign environment. Neji studied this briefly and, once satisfied that there were no immediate threats in the vicinity, he turned his attention to his group. Hatake-sensei's chakra was at critically low levels. Neji was secretly impressed at his ability to remain conscious long enough to explain the situation to them and appoint a leader, though Neji was a little miffed when designated to listen to a boy a year his junior. Nevertheless, he'd decided that the Hatake's judgment was sound. From gossip Neji had heard about the chunin exam, the Nara boy was a genius at strategy and outmaneuvering his opponent. He would make an adequate leader.

The strange roaring object zoomed by, and the blonde girl lost her composure. Neji was mentally thankful that he had Tenten on his team; the alternatives were obviously far worst. Tenten was quite professional, almost resentful of being labeled as "girly" in any way. Neji had been skeptical of her skills at first, but now readily conceded that she was the most accurate shot he had ever seen.

Neji contemplated the purpose of this alien thing. Perhaps it was a mechanism for transport? Rather like a miniature train, he mused, after analyzing the components shooting out of a pipe at the back of the machine. Yes—engine, inside seating, mobility…it reminded him very much of a train.

When the shinobi had set off, Neji kept his eyes fixed on the large blind spot behind the group, constantly tilting his head ever so slightly so that his personal and only blind spot was never in the same point for more than a split second. He had to force himself to trust that his comrades were competent, and not to analyze the area in front of him as well as behind.

The machine that eventually followed them kept their pace easily, but did not come closer, even when they reached the max speed for the group as a whole ("A team is only as strong as its weakest ninja. You must never be the weak one. You are a Hyuuga, and Hyuuga are always the strongest.").

The shockingly fast attack that left a smoking hole in the ground very close to Hinata-sama had Neji sweating a bit. If anything were to happen to her under Neji's care, he was certain he would not live to regret it. He should have seen the trap coming. He had the Byakugan, for Kage's sake!

Neji was shocked to find no trace of a chakra system at all, let alone chakra. Did this mean that these people were not shinobi? Hatake had said that this was a different dimension. Neji's knowledge of such things was vague, but he understood the implications. How strange a world this must be, one not centered around chakra usage. While these thoughts went through his head, Aburame Shino told the group their mutual discovery.

Neji noticed Lee's reaction to the discovery and had to fight to not roll his eyes. Lee was far too excitable. Thank God for Tenten.

While Neji was gathering as much information on the enemy as possible, the last Uchiha apparently lost his mind. Neji, having a bloodline of his own and much more extensive knowledge of the Sharingan than a Hyuuga was supposed to (despite, or perhaps because of, the distant relation of the Byakugan and Sharingan), understood that what had transported them through dimensions was some higher form of the Sharingan. He also understood that Sasuke was currently attempting to achieve this higher form, and after Shikamaru restrained the lunatic boy and talked him down, knew it had something to do with killing Naruto.

Coming back out of his memories, the young Hyuuga found himself dwelling on this point while he stared unseeingly (and wasn't that oxymoronic in itself?) at the wall. Uchiha Sasuke was Naruto's teammate and, presumably, his first rival. Neji found himself strangely envious of this position. Sure, he had Lee running back and forth, doing handstands and cartwheels and who knows what else just to beat him in a spar; but just as Kakashi was weary of Gai's constant challenges, Neji was weary of Lee's. It was too easy to best Lee in a fight. It no longer carried the same intrigue.

Then Naruto came along, a boy who was a year younger than him and dead-last of his year. Neji, naturally, was the top of his year, and yet that annoying loud-mouth had somehow managed to beat him in the Chunin Exam Finals. It was downright humiliating, both to Neji personally and to his clan, but at the same time…Naruto had inspired him. It wasn't just the power and skill Naruto had shown during the fight, either. It was the fire (NOT Lee's fire). The hopelessness that came with being a Branch member of the Hyuuga clan had seemed to melt away when it came in contact with that fire, when Naruto's indomitable spirit and forceful promises had expanded to include Neji's life story. After that, his cage no longer seemed to be impenetrable. His uncle had acknowledged his talent and started training him. It was the best turn his life had ever taken.

But there was still the niggling demand of his pride, overshadowed by the larger desire to be even with the obnoxious boy who had changed his life forever. If he could rise to that level—not even to surpass him, but just to be equal to him—then maybe he could be great, too.

Yet Neji did not have the honor of claiming that spot of rivalry, of being able to try again and again to best Naruto, growing the whole way until Naruto could acknowledge him as an equal. It was the last Uchiha—the boy who was the best of his year and from a clan related to Neji's own; the boy who had lost everything once and yet still had far more than Neji could ever claim. That boy got to have Naruto's rivalry as well.

And that was just plain unfair.

A hidden door opening had Neji snapping his useless clear eyes over to the man entering. His build was gangly, age probably late 20s or early 30s, no sign of hostility in his stance and he was missing the heavy shadow visible on anyone who had experienced hardship in their life, shinobi or not.

Neji snorted in derision. This was his interrogator? He verbally spat on fools like this daily. If they thought they were going to break him with this weakling, they had another thing coming.

"Hello," the man said, smiling carelessly and sauntering over to lean against the wall in front of Neji, which was only a bed length away. The man was holding a clipboard, but upon examining Neji's face (his eyes lingered noticeably on the exposed Cage Bird Seal on his forehead), he folded it under his arm. "My name is Kire. I'm here to check up on you and your friends. How have—"

"Where are they?" Neji cut him off rudely, holding his head high and his voice higher. Arrogance practically oozed off him from years of knowing he was a part of the strongest and most feared clan in Konoha.

The man blinked, smile slipping a bit in puzzlement, but then it came back softer. "No need to worry. We're not here to hurt anyone. You and your friends are perfectly safe, I promise."

What was this moron spouting? Did he honestly think that his lies would allay what Neji knew was coming? Where were the needles? Where were the mind-crippling genjutsus, the threats of poison, the false promises of escape?

Amateurs, Neji concluded.

"So," the man continued as though he hadn't been interrupted, "how have you been?"

Neji contemplated a few demeaning responses, expression flat and bored. In the end he simply said, "you are not a threat" condescendingly before turning his eyes to the side in obvious dismissal.

"Ah, come on, don't be like that," the man was saying now, sounding slightly fearful. Neji mentally patted himself on the back. He already had the supposed interrogator falling apart. "Hey, you can use chakra, right? To make this big, blue—bubble—thing," the man said, gesturing with his arms.

This, not surprisingly, captured Neji's attention, and he eyed the man sharply, reassessing his earlier opinions. Reconnaissance? he wondered. The man was lithe enough to slip in and out of places easily. Had he been present during their capture? No…he's simply a diagnostics expert, Neji realized as he took in the man's white suit. The term 'scientist' was not common in a world of ninja, but it was still present, and Hyuugas had extensive education.

This would be the type of expert who would pick apart Neji's eyes to discover the secrets of the Byakugan, and then sell the information to the highest bidder. Neji's bloodline limit, unfortunately, was rather more obvious than, say, the Sharingan. There was no hiding the fact that Neji was of the Hyuuga clan.

Slight panic began to set in, and then confusion. If this man was a scientist, as Neji surmised, and Neji was obviously a holder of the Byakugan, then why had the man not examined his eyes yet? Why was he not dead on a slab of stone being cut to pieces? And why, why, would the man say he meant him no harm?

The vein on Neji's forehead was going into overdrive to try to calm the headache that was slowly growing. Frustrated at not being able to find answers, Neji decided to start digging—get as much information out of this softie as possible.

"Why have you brought us here?" Neji asked in a clear, cold tone.

"Well we have to keep an eye on you. We're quite curious about your abilities, you see. It would help a lot if we could get information from you guys instead of having to go digging around. We're not here to hurt anyone."

"You already said that," Neji snapped, letting out a bit of his annoyance.

"I'm just trying to drive the point home. Despite what you said, you seem to believe me and my coworkers are a threat. I assure you, we mean no harm."

"If you mean no harm," Neji said, feeling increasingly foolish for arguing with his captors over such petty details (of course he was lying, but Neji needed to know why he was lying), "then why am I strapped to this bed in a solitary cell?"

"Room," Kire corrected quickly. "This is not a cell, just a room, and we need to keep you separated and…uh…restrained because I doubt you will cooperate with us otherwise. Am I incorrect?" he asked slyly, a grin tilting his mouth.

"Hmph."

"I thought not."

There was silence for a while, with Neji trying to stare the man down and Kire tapping his clipboard lightly, still having yet to write anything down.

"How old are you?" Kire finally asked.

Neji's eyelid twitched. "How old are you?" he asked back snidely.

"29," the man responded easily.

For shinobi, this was old indeed. If the man had been a ninja, he would have been one of the elite to have survived so long—either that or so low in the chain that he would be doing menial tasks around the village for the rest of his career. But, Neji reminded himself, this man was not a ninja in the slightest. There was no mark of physical training on him, and he had no chakra. He was a scientist who wanted information about Neji and his comrades.

Neji decided that he would bait the man—give him meaningless information (read: information that could not be used against Neji or Konoha) while pumping the man of his information (read: information that could help Neji escape).

"I'm thirteen," Neji finally answered sourly. Despite knowing that his age was useless for the man to discern anything about him, Neji was still a very private person. He didn't like being forced to say anything about himself.

"Ah, thirteen. Just starting into the awkward teen years, eh? Got your eye on any girls yet?" Kire asked with an easy grin.

Neji stared at him blankly. "What?"

The man waved his hand. "Nah, never mind; guess you're still too young."

Neji bristled at this. He was too young for something? Who did this guy think he was? Neji was legally an adult since the day he graduated from the academy. He had taken on missions of infiltration and espionage. He had seen people killed in fights (though he had yet to kill someone himself).

"I'm not a child," Neji said coldly, glaring with equal freezing fervor.

"I never said you were."

Kire's serious tone made Neji back down momentarily.

"So, you're from Konoha?"

Neji stiffened again, wondering where the man had gotten such information.

"Your friend Lee told me," Kire explained when he saw Neji getting defensive again. "He seemed very intent on getting back to Konoha. How is it that you arrived here?"

"Where is 'here'?" Neji asked back.

"America—the United States of America."

Two words stuck out in Neji's mind: United and States. "America" meant nothing, but United States implied a working system of government. Every government had an army and chain of command, which meant organization, planning, cunning. It also meant that this man, regardless of who he was or what he wanted, had to listen to someone higher up. Kire, though far from a shinobi in lifestyle and upbringing, shared one thing in common with the heavily trained assassins: they were both mere pawns, moved about and controlled by someone of higher authority. And no matter what Kire's personal plans might be, he had to obey that higher authority.

Which, oddly enough, instilled some sense of kinship in Neji. It was like the caged bird scenario all over again.

"We traveled here," Neji said.

"Ah. How did you do that? How long did it take you?"

"I don't know," Neji said evasively. "I wasn't the one who organized the move."

"Who did then?" Kire paused. "Was it the white-haired man? Your sensei?"

Neji regarded him suspiciously again. "He is not my sensei."

"But you do have one, right?" Kire persisted. "You are a…ninja-in-training?"

Neji was going to beat Lee to a pulp if they survived this. Instead of showing his surprise at being found-out, Neji raised his chin haughtily. "I am not a ninja-in-training. I AM a ninja, and I could dispose of you in an instant." Hopefully that would instill proper fear into the man. He was taking Neji and the other shinobi far too lightly.

Kire stilled. "…From where I stand, I could much more easily do so to you," he pointed out. "But I won't, because I'm not here to hurt you, let alone kill you. I'm just here to learn about you."

Neji snorted quietly. In his world, knowledge was just as dangerous as an outright death—perhaps even more dangerous, considering that knowledge meant power to the enemy and danger to many allies whereas death was quick and hopefully singular.

Kire changed the subject. "So you're a 13-year-old ninja. If you're not a ninja-in-training, then why do you need a teacher?"

Neji would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't busy deciding if the true answer to this question would be dangerous for the man to know. If Kire knew about the team set-up, then he might go to extra lengths to prevent teammates from combining forces. Then again, Neji reminded himself that they were already trapped as it was. Neji had been the second-to-last person to fall to the darts (his Byakugan told him). Even if Naruto had escaped (and look at that, he beat Neji again), Neji thought it unlikely that the blonde could rescue them. They were probably deep in hostile territory right now. There was no way Naruto could get through a composed government system, no matter how good he was.

Keep it simple, then. "I'm a new ninja."

"Ah, I see. How old is 'new'?" Kire asked curiously. He still hadn't written anything down on his clipboard. It was currently residing under one of his crossed arms.

"I got my headband a little over a year ago."

"What makes your sensei deserving of the title?"

Neji opened his mouth to answer and then stopped with a glare at Kire. The man had almost made him explain about the ninja levels: genin, chunin, etc. Neji had become too comfortable.

"Because he's a powerful man," Neji answered instead.

"But he's not the white-haired man?"

"No."

"Is he the teacher of…" the man rustled through the papers on his clipboard, "Shikamaru?"

This man knew Shikamaru's name too? Did Shikamaru tell him? Neji had thought Nara was smarter than that. Lee hadn't given away their names, had he? No, this man didn't know Neji's name yet. However, Shikamaru had given his name to the dark-skinned man who attacked them…perhaps that man had told this one? They must be working together.

"No," Neji answered.

Kire must have realized that he wasn't going to get anything out of Neji with this line of questioning because he changed the subject again. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong subject.

"Why are your eyes completely white?"

It was at this point that Neji found it prudent to shut his mouth and imperiously ignore the rest of Kire's attempts at conversation. There was nothing more to be gained from continuing their interplay when Kire was obviously done with the "easy" questions. One valuable bit of information had been taken from the encounter, though: it proved that Kire and his "government" didn't know about the Byakugan, and Neji intended to keep it that way.

--

11:27 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Third Level

Kire walked out of Neji's room with a sigh and began writing down the highlights of their conversation. He had thought he was finally getting somewhere. This was the first subject to actually provide him with a near-full conversation. The rest had been insanely weird (Lee), completely silent (the stoic A3 and angry A4), or too witty (Shikamaru). But the arrogant boy had clammed up as soon as Kire had asked about his eyes. Perhaps it was an uncomfortable subject, sort of like bringing up Ukire's mismatched eyes?

No…Kire was an expert at analyzing people, both innately and through training; he could tell that the boy had not been uncomfortable or insulted with Kire's line of questioning. His haughty look expressed that it was according to his own will that he ignored Kire. This suggested some form of planning. For whatever reason, the arrogant boy didn't want Kire to know anything about his eyes.

Kire wrote a few notes on this before checking the next window. He paused as he saw that the SR had been shuttled somewhere else. A quick check with the computer confirmed that A7 was currently in the Medical EA, and Kire remembered that A7 had been hit with a bullet in the course of his capture (even if a wound was never found). The Medics were probably checking to see if they could get any information on this strange occurance.

Kire skipped the empty place in the wall and looked through the window of A8, the fiery blonde girl whose mind did unusual things and who hadn't taken to Kire well.

Kire decided that he had already met her and skipped her SR. The next SR, of A9, was also gone. The computer said it was in the Physiology EA, and Kire's notes reminded him that Kerisu was still examining the boy's enzyme tattoo.

Finally, Kire came to an SR that was present and that contained an occupant that Kire wasn't afraid to confront: the SR of A10, the dog-looking boy.

Perhaps the phrase 'afraid to confront' needs redefinition, Kire thought as he walked into the room and immediately noticed the boy's sharp teeth and claws.

--

11:39 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A10

Kiba was not known for his cool temper; quite the opposite, actually. When he got angry, it was with fiery insults and sharply gnashing teeth. This was one of those times. Waking up chained to an upright bed, his most recent memories being of a sharp prick to the neck in the midst of a battle, Kiba was seriously pissed off. He hadn't been this mad since he was seven and some girl had called his mother and sister "butch."

And after hours of hanging in an empty white room that smelled like disinfectant, a hidden door to the right opened. Kiba's nose was immediately assaulted by the strong artificial scent of cologne—which in his mind was just a polite way of saying "perfume for men." The scent was attached to a curly-haired man who walked in with a nervous gait. Kiba metaphorically pounced on the opportunity.

"Alright you bastard, where's Akamaru?" Kiba growled in the most menacing way possible, baring his canine fangs for good measure.

Perfume-man paused, a flicker of fear and uncertainty running over his face. Good; the idiot should be afraid. No one tangled with an Inuzuka without bringing the whole pack down on them in retribution.

"Is Akamaru your dog?" perfume-man asked.

Kiba bristled angrily. He could hear in the man's tone how he was brushing off the importance of Akamaru, as if he were a common guard dog or household pet. "He's my partner, and if you've done anything to him, I swear you'll pay with your own blood," Kiba vowed viciously.

Perfume-man looked taken aback at the threat. He held his hands up in a placating manner, and Kiba finally noticed the clipboard he had. That was strange.

"Hey, no worries; your, er, partner—Akamaru, was it? Interesting name—he's perfectly safe and healthy. We've given him food and water aplenty. He's a cute dog; I had a pug when I was younger. Named her Sophie."

Kiba could hear the sincerity in the man's tone, but it didn't keep him from distrusting what was said. "Sophie?" Kiba asked jeeringly. "What kind of name is that?"

"It's European; my father is Italian born and bred. I used to visit there a lot as a kid, but I haven't been there in years. By the way, my name's Kire."

"Hmph. You smell like a girl," Kiba insulted him again. What else was he supposed to do? He was hanging here, virtually helpless, while Kire was standing there and talking as if nothing was wrong with the world, as if he wasn't holding Kiba and Akamaru and whoever else prisoner.

Oh God, Hinata. Had they caught her too? And Shino! Kiba remembered the prick of the needle in his neck before he fell unconscious. Even with his enhanced senses he couldn't dodge the speeding projectile. But Hinata had the Byakugan, and Shino had his bugs. Maybe she had managed to dodge and escape? Perhaps Shino had made a bug clone? They couldn't all have been caught, could they?

"So, where am I? How'd I get here?" Kiba wished he could ask for food as well, but he wouldn't trust anything given to him here. It could easily be poisoned, or worse.

"Ah, I was wondering when you'd ask. You're currently under surveillance of the American government. We brought you here. I actually have a few questions of my own."

Kiba glared warily. "Yeah right, as if I'd answer anything you ask."

"Look, I know I probably seem like the bad guy here, but honestly, we're not going to do anything horrible to you guys—" Ahah! So the others were captured after all, at least some of them. "—so a little cooperation would be nice."

Kiba snorted. This guy was worst than a fresh Academy student. Even they knew not to trust pretty words—at least, the smart ones did. The rest…well, they usually didn't make it to shinobi ranks anyway. If they did, they were the first to die or betray the village when captured. Kiba would not be a traitor. His loyalty was one of his greatest strengths, carefully cultivated over generations and generations of Inuzukas and their canine partners. "You're smoking something if you think I'll give away any of my village or family secrets, Perfume-man."

Kire's eye twitched in annoyance at the name, and Kiba grinned proudly. So his barbs were finally getting to the man.

"That's fine," Kire said, sounding as though he was forcing himself to speak civilly—which he probably was. "You don't have to give any secrets away. We'll stick with simple things. So I hear you're a ninja?"

Was this guy seriously on crack? "Duh," Kiba said, and right after the word passed his mouth, he remembered that no one who had captured them had had chakra. Could it be that this man wasn't a ninja? Were there any ninja here? Kiba didn't really know what a "dimension" was, but he definitely realized that this place was different from where he came from. The very air stank like a burning building, or…or a Blacksmith's shop. Yeah, like when the Smith was melting a particularly pungent metal, like copper. Kiba could gag just thinking about it.

Thankfully, that same smell was not present in this room. The strongest smell was whatever cologne the man was wearing. Under it were the scents of other people who had come and gone. Some of their smell was on him. Kiba blushed lightly when he realized that someone had undressed and redressed him into the white suit he now wore.

"Pedophiles," Kiba muttered.

Perfume-man apparently hadn't heard his last comment. "Yeah, I guess that's a given, huh? So you're what, twelve? Thirteen?"

Kiba eyed Kire warily. That 'guess' was eerily close. "Twelve," he answered shortly. Kire had opened his mouth to ask another question, but Kiba cut him off. "Hey, I asked two questions and you asked two questions, it's my turn now."

"Oh, so that's the way it'll work? Alright then; ask away."

"Fine, I will. Actually, you never answered my first questions. Where am I and where is Akamaru?"

"You're in a high-security facility, and Akamaru is here as well, in another room like yours."

"You mentioned the others—who do you mean?" Kiba tried to word his question carefully. He knew that at least some of the other shinobi had been captured, but he didn't know how many, and he didn't want to alert this man if any had managed to escape without notice.

"Let's see; there's twelve others besides you, I believe."

Kiba's hopes sank at hearing this. It seemed no one had managed to escape. "Are any of them hurt?" he asked next.

"Nope, everyone's fine, as far as I know. So, my turn, then. How do you manage not to bite your tongue with teeth like that?"

Kiba might have laughed if he wasn't feeling so dejected. "I'm used to it; my teeth have always been like this." Kiba shifted as much as he could in his restricted space and looked Perfume-man dead in the eye. "What do you plan on doing to us?"

Perfume-man suddenly looked sad. "Why do you all think we're such a threat? I mean, I guess the restraints don't exactly inspire confidence, but honestly, we're not about to start dissecting you for information."

"Then why not just let us go?!" Kiba asked, honestly confused and getting angry again. If these people weren't after clan or village secrets, then what could they possibly want with a rogue group of ninja?

"Because we still need to understand you. You and the other ninjas have strange things about you, things we've never seen before, and we have to know what they are, and more importantly, why they are."

So he was some sort of interrogator or spy. Either way, Kire was a direct threat to Kiba's family's secrets. If it meant keeping his family's honor, Kiba would ignore any threats posed to himself. There was nothing more to be said.

Kire seemed to sense his sudden resignation. "One more question, and then I'll leave. What's your name?"

Kiba looked at the man in surprise. His name? Inuzuka was known well enough to be catalogued. "I'm Kiba."

"Kiba. Heh, 'Fang.' How appropriate," Perfume-man said before giving a jaunty wave. "We'll talk again soon, Kiba."

Kire left, and Kiba once again found himself staring at a blank white wall. The only difference this time was that he knew there was an invisible door on one side, and that somewhere hopefully nearby, his friends, teammates, and partner were waiting. For now that thought would have to be enough. With so many ninja all piled into one place, there was only so long before one found a way to escape or at least cause some havoc. Kiba grinned. He hoped it was himself.

--

12:06 am, Day 1, Complex D7, Third Level

Kire found himself walking out of the room with a slight bounce to his step. That had been the best interview by far! While he had been slightly intimidated by the boy's appearance at the beginning, it turned out Kiba was more bark than bite. Though perhaps the bite would have been more pronounced had he not been chained down. Still, Kire felt he'd made at least a little headway with this subject. He took the time to write down all the important aspects of what Kiba had said while he checked the next room. Apparently, A11, the girl with white eyes, was in the Medical EA, probably having her heart checked. That scabbing business had sounded pretty nasty. The next room (Chouji's, his notes supplied) was also in the Medical EA for observation. That left only one room, that of A13, the pink-haired girl.

This should be good, Kire thought sarcastically to suppress his worry at the sight of the ill-looking girl.

--

12:22 am, Day 1, Complex D7, Subject Room of A13

Sakura was scared out of her mind.

Immediately post-ceding the Chuunin Exam, portions I and II, the library had had a frequent visitor in the form of Sakura. The Chuunin Preliminaries failure had searched frantically for all the information available on one Orochimaru, also known as the snake Sannin and traitor of Konoha. The information on his attempted arrest and subsequent desertion was kept buried in the public records under mounds of other paperwork. Sakura had put her keen intellect and determination to use and managed to find all the right loopholes in order to view the records of what Orochimaru's crimes had been. What she had dug up was not pretty at all: horrific descriptions of human experimentation gone awry, manipulation of children into murdering machines (which, in a ninja's mind, was different than a killing machine, namely themselves), and many other disturbing endeavors.

Some of the accounts had been written by the surviving victims themselves (and, as Sakura discovered, these were precious few). These had perhaps been the most disturbing to Sakura's young mind because it forced her to realize that there were people out there who had lived through these nightmares. Intellectually, Sakura had known that there was evil in the world and that it did touch people, but…it had never been anyone she had known. Reading the eye-witness reports and thinking about the situation with Sasuke had been like a slap in the face. What if Sasuke was one of Orochimaru's experiments? Sakura hadn't slept a wink the first night after she'd had this thought.

But what was truly frightening her at this moment, about this situation, was that the eye-witness accounts she had read were matching up quite squarely with what her own eyes were seeing. She was pinned to a vertical bed with thick metal bands, not even able to move her head or fingers, and all around her was a vague, flat white. For hours now she had merely stared, wide-eyed, at the wall. Sweat bourn of fear trickled down her neck and filled the room with the smell of terror. It hung thick in the air, clouding her mind. Her state was almost identical to what happened when Orochimaru had turned his Killing Intent on her in the Forest of Death. So it was no wonder that when a hidden door on the right opened inward, Sakura immediately closed her eyes, not wishing to see the hideously inhuman yellow eyes that she remembered from her single encounter with Orochimaru.

Sakura heard a couple footsteps (which was odd in itself, as shinobi usually moved silently unless they were trying to make a point. However, her terrorized mind didn't dwell on the particulars—it seemed like something the sick man would do anyway) before the door closed, and then there was silence. Sakura trembled in place, not daring to make a sound.

The door opened again. The foot steps sounded again. The door closed. Sakura's eyes flew open, immediately darting to the door, and then she froze.

Staring back at her, with curiosity and sympathy clear on his face, was a man. His hand was on the door handle, but Sakura wasn't paying attention to this. The first thing she noticed were the similarities between this man and Orochimaru—a thin face and tall, slinky build—and her heart raced in her chest. But then it calmed as she fully took in the many differences: this man had short, curly brown hair, large forest green eyes, and dimples from smiling too much. Sakura relaxed a little, now evaluating the man's dress. He wore a white overcoat, and she could see black pants and shoes sticking out the bottom. The collar of a dress shirt poked out from the top of the coat.

The man suddenly cleared his throat, hand hiding a smile. "Hello," he said pleasantly. "My name's Kire, what's yours?"

Sakura blinked. "Oh, um, uh…" Should she answer? This "Kire" may not be Orochimaru, but it was possible he worked for him, just like that back-stabber Kabuto. "My name's…Yuki. Yeah, Yuki. Eheh," she laughed nervously.

He paused and jotted something down on the clipboard he had. Was he taking notes? "I see. That's a nice name. I have a friend named Suki and her eyes look a lot like yours, very pretty."

Sakura couldn't help a flustered blush. No one had ever said her eyes were pretty before. The only thing people seemed to notice was that her forehead was too big. If anything about her appearance was ever mentioned, it was that.

Kire smiled kindly at her, discretely jotting another note down. "You also have very interesting hair. Does your mother or father have the same color?"

"Um, um." Was this Kire a mad scientist like Orochimaru? Wild possibilities ran through her mind: did he want to know about her parents' hair because he was planning on trying to copy the gene for it, or see if there was any more resilience in pink-haired people than people with other kinds of hair color, or some other diabolical mad scientist gig? It sounded like some experiments Orochimaru had performed. That would mean he was after her parents. "I don't know. They, er, died when I was young."

Kire nodded slowly and offered his sympathies. This time he didn't write anything down on his paper. Instead he clasped his hands, with the clipboard in them, behind his back and smiled.

"Does the name Rock Lee mean anything to you?"

A thrill of fear ran through Sakura. They had the others too! Two wells of emotion brewed inside of her: one of guilt for being useless yet again in a mission, and one of secret relief that she hadn't been the only liability. Rock Lee was strong, much stronger than her, and yet he had been caught as well.

"No," she answered, not wanting this man to connect anyone to her if he was planning some weird experiments. Sakura couldn't imagine what the importance of her hair color might be, but if the strange man was asking, she could only take it as a warning sign. The reports on Orochimaru were far too like this.

He nodded pleasantly. "Alright then. Have a good night."

It's night already? Sakura thought as Kire turned to leave. Wow, had she slept through the entire day? Or had the dragging time of when she'd been paralyzed by fear been longer than she'd thought? It had felt like an eternity already.

Sakura released a breath of relief when the door closed behind Kire. Now she began puzzling over her options. Right now she was merely relying on lying to keep her secrets, but that might not hold up against torture. Sakura knew she wasn't strong enough to be resilient to true torture if she went into a fear-frozen state just thinking about Orochimaru's experimentation. Torture chambers were far worse from what she'd read: torture experts were actually trying to make you feel pain, whereas scientists merely did what was needed to get their experiments done. Of course, the reports on Orochimaru suggested that he was some combination of the two.

Sakura sighed and hoped that this scientist wasn't the same as Orochimaru, though her hopes weren't high.

--

12:30 am, Day 1, Complex D7, Third Level

Kire left the room with a short eye-roll, a little disappointed by the obvious lies the pink-haired girl had told. But the poor thing had seemed rather distressed, so he hadn't pushed.

He tapped his pen on his notes as he made his way to the Psychology Experimentation Area, reading them over to be certain he hadn't forgotten anything. Then he went to the nearest computer and began entering the information he'd managed to obtain into the database and updating it. He idly wondered when he'd be able to speak to subjects A2 and A12, who had both yet to wake up, A11, the white-eyed girl with the scarred heart, A9, the boy with a dangerous enzyme tattoo, and A7, the blond who, rumor had it, had driven Shia into her bad temper earlier that day.

Yesterday, Kire corrected himself as he glanced at his watch. He fought back a yawn as he finished entering the information and then trudged back up the stairs to head to bed.

--

Bikenu Shia: Main Head

Mante Raifu: Head of Technology

Vinlo Kerisu: Head of Physiology; Experts: Masayo Shota

Enmaro Kire: Head of Psychology; Experts: Setano Suki

Minamo Ukire: Head Medic; Experts: Derubi Akane, Kamara Jiru

Subjects/Shinobi: A1—Lee, A2—Kakashi, A3—Shino, A4—Tenten, A5—Shikamaru, A6—Neji, A7—Naruto, A8—Ino, A9—Sasuke, A10—Kiba, A11—Hinata, A12—Chouji, A13—Sakura.

Announcement: I have officially ABANDONED this story. For more details, see my profile.

Sadly, there will not be a next chapter, so unless I see you in another story: farewell.

-Itallia