'My Dear Booklet… I'm enjoying my happy and carefree vacation in Kirigakure's minus five-star prison. The weather sucks, my room sucks, the meal sucks, the programme sucks, everything sucks... But I still have all my teeth and limbs, which is pretty nice. Love, your starting-to-get-mentally-impaired Owner.'

'… I can't believe I made a mental postcard for my booklet... Oh well, then, I'll write one more. Maybe for mother-, shit, no, not for her or father, they'd freak out if they… wait… it's a mental postcard. They won't get it…. I've officially reached my lowest point. Sooo fuckinnnn'great.'

He inhaled deeply and winced as another senbon was pushed into him. Kirishichi had moved towards the sensitive parts of his body. He did it so slowly, Kese imagined a slug racing with him. The blond kept or rather tried to keep his mind distracted all the time. He had found out it helped him feel less pain; and he wanted to bypass drugs by drinking only minimal and eating nothing at all.

He was starving, he was thirsty, he was weak, and he needed sleep like air, but couldn't get any because of the constant pain. He didn't know how much more he could take, but he was definitely reaching his end.

He could feel Kirishichi's breath on his skin. The shinobi always whistled a song while working on him, and he was doing it at the moment as well. The sheer melody tied knots in the blond's stomach and made him shiver.

Another spike; this time into his armpit. His tensing muscles only made it worse. Kese held onto his family's memory. He wanted them to come to him and free him from his agony. To wash the pain away from his body and embrace him in the softest hug he had ever received. – Please… Come for me… - he barely breathed it in Magor, not feeling his tears rolling down on his cheek. – Take me… home…

The world around him was blurred, but he saw someone moving towards his face. – I can end all of this. – he heard. 'Anything…I'd do anything…', he thought. – You only have to speak, Kese. To tell me a few things I want to hear. I'm not asking much.

His misty eyeballs slowly moved towards the source. He tried to speak. "What would you like?", his lips formed, but no sound came out from between them.

- Tell me, Kese. – the voice was soft and caring. – Who are you working for?

- Who… am I… - he whispered, the rest of the sentence mutely came out of his mouth. The voice answered with a kind yes. He repeated it in his mind, trying to understand those words.

He closed his eyes, and the voice slowly listed him other words, names of places and people. – Which one? – he was asked again. Kese's lips moved, trying to choose one from the list and answer. – Yes? – he was asked eagerly.

Unexpectedly, his mind cleared. He felt the world again.

Kirishichi's perverted head was in front of him, his ears close to the blond's dry mouth. – Fuck youh… - he breathed, a bleak smile appearing on his lips as he saw the shinobi stiffening. Kese gathered all of his remaining strength and smirked. – I am working… for no one.

He would have enjoyed Kirishichi's reaction, had he not passed out before he could have seen it.

It had been a while since he had dreamed about his ancestors and their memories. He was being tossed and tumbled between stories, as they melted and flowed into each other, sometimes giving birth to surprisingly absurd images. The dreams changed from hazed and random to clearer and more focused. Kese saw different individuals talking to him, with mostly frowns and anger on their faces. He felt similar towards them, but couldn't hear what they said, because all he heard was Kirishichi's whistled melody. He was tied up to his spot in the interrogation room, and Hatsumi appeared in front of him. She was singing that melody while caressing the blond's face. She pressed her tummy to his body, then her soft lips to his, and he kissed back without hesitation. He peeked from under his tired lids and saw Hatsumi turning into Emese. His kiss got more passionate, then all of a sudden, he pulled her closer, buried his face into her neck and started crying. He was shaking, trembling in pain, he couldn't hold his body up, he slowly slid down to the ground, dragging the woman with him as he just cried and cried.

His eyes were filled with tears when he woke up. His chest was aching. He felt miserable, pathetic – and broken. He felt he was done. Next time, he wouldn't be able to defend his mind against them. He just wanted the interrogation to end, and his pain…

Where was his pain?

He didn't feel any pain. He almost forgot this feeling. Not feeling any pain? But… how?

He thought he was still hallucinating. He raised his hands, he saw and felt his fingers healed. He narrowed his eyes at them. He bit them, still no pain. He touched his beaten face. He searched for every injury he received during his interrogations. They were gone. Only his scar tingled, but he was used to it.

He was truly and completely healed, and all he could think of was that it had happened before. The shinobi had healed him, to give him hope, then to rip that hope away from him by starting everything from the first step. He knew he was to experience their methods from the very beginning, again. For the fourth time already. And it frightened him at first.

But this time, something was different: he looked around with eyes full of disbelief. He wasn't in his dark and wet and disgusting cell. It wasn't much bigger, but the walls, the bed, and everything were clean at least. It even had a window up high, with damp light coming through it. And, to his greatest joy, there was a properly functioning toilet with paper. Then, there were his clothes. He didn't have his stained rags on his body. He was wearing grey trousers and a pullover; they all looked similar to the standard mist shinobi uniform.

He frowned, still looking around and at his body. 'Something's happened', he repeated it in his mind.

He had been healed, put into a better cell and got new clothes. Something must have happened while he was unconscious. Had they finally stopped treating him like a worthless criminal? Did they want more from him?

Did they simply want to give him one more, bigger hope to crash later?

No. He was treated differently. He wasn't a prisoner to break any more. They wanted something else. They must want something else from him. He hoped. Yes, he did hope it would be different this time. And his hope helped him gather the last bites of his mental strength and armour himself with it. He would endure, he had to.

Maybe he wouldn't have to endure any more. He narrowed his eyes at the door. It wasn't as plain as the one before. It had a handle and a hole even, unlike the previous one. He just had to find something to help him pick the lock or at least crush it. The handcuff would come later once he was out.

He quietly stood up and examined his bed then the toilet. He jumped and reached for the window. He found nothing he could use, his cell was empty. What could he do now?

His thoughts were disrupted by loud pounding on the door. He had to lie still until he got a chain to his handcuffs. After that, he was led to a clean room with two chairs opposite to each other. 'Please, no, don't start it again!', he shuddered fearing the worst, after the shinobi who had escorted him left.

He didn't know where he was, like always. He expected a few hours of waiting like usual, and he expected no one to be there, like usual. So, he was truly dumbfounded, when someone stepped in and greeted him with a charming smile.

- Good morning, Keshe. Please, sit down. - the blond's breath refused to leave his lungs as he blinked at the person in front of him. She smirked at his expression. – Didn't expect me, my dear blacksmith?

Kese closed his dry mouth and shook his head. – Good… morning? I'm surprised to see… you… here.

- Aw, where did you leave your fine manners? Last time you called me "beautiful lady". – she stepped to him and stroked his quite stubbly chin.

The blond clenched his jaw; not because he was touched by an attractive woman, but because he had grown to hate that woman during his interrogations. She was the boss of Kirishichi and Choujuurou after all, and everything they had done to him had been on her order. He took a deep breath as he stared into her eyes with a quite unfriendly face. – Why are you here? What do you want from me?

- You've figured it out already, Keshe. – the prisoner's eyebrow twitched, and she noticed it. – Does it bother you if I say your name?

- It's Kese, not Keshe*. There's a slight difference.

- I don't hear it. – she waved her hand and stepped away. – I'm listening to you.

- What do you want me to talk about?

She nearly chuckled. – Please, Kese, you've proved yourself to be quite smart. Don't play dumb now.

- You pronounced it well this time.

- I don't have all day off. - she pulled a chair, sat down and placed a mesh leggings covered leg onto the other. - Let's get over this quickly. – and she waited. So did Kese. Night and emerald eyes were inspecting each other, battling with mute stillness, trying to suck intentions and thoughts from the other ones. It was the Mizukage who grew tired of this first. – You know, I don't want to hurt a man this handsome. – she sighed and stood up. – But if you stay silent, you'll leave me no other choice.

Kese's ears caught something in her speech. He switched on his other senses for a moment, and he didn't know if he should smirk or frown. He kept his expressions collected, waiting for that only - and presumable painful - choice the shinobi was about to do while he was trying to get out of the illusion. She readied a hand-seal and put on a strange smile, her voice echoing in the blond's head.

- I will not be gentle.

She kicked him to the wall first, then inhaled and spit something above Kese's left shoulder and arm. It was goddamn hot. And it melted the wall. He tried to get away, but the Mizukage appeared in front of him, grabbed his neck and pushed him back. That bizarre mixture crawled down towards his body. Kese felt the radiating heat on his skin, he tried to get away from it with no success, and when it reached him he cried out. He had felt much pain in several forms in the not so far past, but what he felt in that moment in that illusion beat them all.

His skin felt burning, no, evaporating under that hell. It was like his flesh was put under a blanket of white-heated jelly-like metal, and he couldn't escape from under it.

- If you want to keep your arm, hurry up and start speaking. – she commanded, getting ready to spit a little more of that thing. But the blacksmith's suddenly stopping cries and rising laughter confused her.

He laid his pain-filled eyes upon her. – Nice genjutsu you have there… - then he opened his eyes in the real world as well. – … Mizukage.

He was chained to a wall, to that wall, in that room. He was leaning forward wearily. He wasn't healed, he didn't have clean clothes on just a ragged trousers. There was a hooded and masked ninja in front of him, with her hands forming a seal. He didn't look at her, he was staring at the woman in the shadows. The Mizukage's smile wasn't honest. – Tentouchuu*, you can leave now. – her words were command, not permission. The ninja bowed at her and walked out quickly.

Mei crossed her arms and stepped closer to him. She looked annoyed. – I didn't believe how remarkably obstinate you are. – she was really close to him and her cleavage was more revealing than last time. Kese grimaced when he figured out she was using a different way to get him to speak. He held his ground: nor the sight of her lips or her body, neither the fantastic scent of her perfume managed to distract him.

He didn't feel any kind of attraction towards her. He hated her, he hated her form the bottom of his heart, and she didn't change that fact with her looks and seductive acts.

- You will not speak, will you?

- I've already told you everything. – he growled.

- Are you sure? – she pouted, her fingers slowly wandering from his wrist to his shoulder, then down to the scar around his belly button. No reaction, the blonde stood still. – I did hear you might say something special to me if I… - she rose to the tip of her toes, pressing her body to his and leaning to his ear. - … whisper sweet things to you… Like this, perhaps?

'Oh, dear god…', he had to try hard to not lose his composure. Her breath caressed the so sensitive skin on his neck and ear. They were his greatest weak spots, and if it was to be touched or kissed he wouldn't be able to stand still, no matter how hard he tried or how deeply he hated. He could not let his weakness be exposed in front of this woman. – What do you want from me? – he snarled, trying to get her away from his neck. He succeeded: Mei stiffened and pulled a little away, so Kese went on. – I'd be dead by now if you didn't want something from me. Why am I still alive then?

She smiled and turned her gaze away. – Why are you?... – she wondered. Her tongue licking her lips as she stepped away from him. – Hmmm… We are offering you a deal.

He raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing her expressions. – Deal?

Her voice turned deeper and more serious. – A quite generous one. - she hesitated for a moment. – You have certain… qualities we want to harness. The deal is this: you offer us your abilities and your discretion, which we gladly accept. In exchange for your freedom and your life.

He took a few seconds to comprehend this. He narrowed his eyes. - You want to tell me… I have to work for you to get out of here?

- Clever.

- What work? – he slightly shook his head to clear his mind. – What abilities?!

Mei smiled slyly at him. – The same that got you here.

Suspicion dropped from the blond's face, and was replaced by incredulity and concern. He turned his gaze to the ground, and forced his eyes shut. He forced them so much, they started to hurt. His chest rose and fell heavily, and he hissed through his gritted teeth. – You want me… to kill? To your command?

- Yes.

He looked up into her eyes. – No. – he shook his head. – I won't do this. I'd rather stay here and rot away.

- You wouldn't stay here. You would be executed publicly as a serial killer and a member of the group which attacked me. Oh, and there's your home island. The mysterious Silent Island. – she watched the blond's expression darkening as he mutely radiated his killing intent onto her, his eye growling "Don't you dare!". She put on a smile then dropped it, and instead showed a stern face. – If you do not accept this deal and do not do as we command you, we will treat your island as an enemy of our land, and we will occupy it.

- You mean exterminate?

- I didn't want to say it this roughly.

His fist clenched and every muscle in his body tensed painfully. This deal enraged him more than everything they had done to him. If he weren't tied to the wall he would have killed her. Or at least attempted to kill her. But he wouldn't have succeeded.

He was very well aware of the difference in power between them. She was the Mizukage, basically the strongest ninja in the Land of Water and someone way out of his league in a fight. If he tried to lay a finger on her, he would get melted into oblivion. If he tried to contradict her, rather her and her army of shinobi, he would not only get himself killed but his family and the Magor's whole village as well.

He hung his head and shook it. He didn't want to kill more. After finishing with the pirates he had wanted to resume his ordinary life as a blacksmith. He had plans with forging, with Konoha, and everything. He didn't want to give up on these, he didn't want to lose these plans forever. He also didn't want his family and the Magors to suffer because of him. But he didn't want to work for the Village in the Bloody Mist as a killer. As an assassin. He heard Gorou's laughter in his mind.

His muscles relaxed in defeat. He felt so helpless. The deal seemed fair but it was not. There was just no good choice.

- So? – the Mizukage asked seeing the change in his posture. A few seconds later he spoke. She had a satisfied smile on her face as she walked out. – Happy belated birthday, Keshe!

Tears run down on his face as he whispered. - Happy belated birthday to me…

Notes:

* Difference between Magor-spoken "Kese" and Elemental-spoken "Keshe": in them, both s and sh are pronounced like ʃ , like sh in "English". Kese's ears are just too sensitive, thanks to him understanding more languages. For him, his Elemental-spoken name is a bit wetter and Magor is a bit dry.