Naruto the Sharingan Wielder
Chapter IX: Investigation and Interrogation
After the funeral was over, the Anbu guards decided to interview Sasuke Uchiha since he was the last person that knows about what Itachi had been up to after the murders at his own home. As an investigation into the murders begins, Sasuke decides to tell the guards about the secrets that Itachi has been hiding and why he never revealed it to the village. This could have a huge impact on Konoha and naruto's future since Itachi got him involved as well. So today, this chapter will go in depth about Itachi's dark past. Enjoy it.
"So, it appears that you guys are taking me to see the Hokage about my brother's actions against my family right?" said Sasuke as he looked at the guards in front of him.
"You're very observant, Sasuke. Now, we all know that you are the lone survivor of your clan, but Hokage-sama requests that you comply with us if you want to see your former brother be brought to justice for the crimes he committed." Said the guards as they escorted Sasuke to the tower. The raven-haired shinobi was reluctant about being interrogated at first, but he agrees to do so in order to make sure that Naruto does not get involved in this mess.
"All right, but only if you promise that you don't get Naruto involved in the interrogation." Warned Sasuke.
"Like we said, it's not up to us to decide Naruto's fate, the Hokage will decide what's best for him now. You don't need to worry about him since he is in good hands with the medical staff. I know you are doing what you can to help him, but we are certain that he will make it through this. Let's go, Sasuke, we don't want to keep the Hokage waiting." Finished the guards as they took Sasuke by his arm as the headed off towards the tower.
Back in the hospital, Sakura and Kakashi waited outside of the operating room wanting to know how Naruto was doing since the operation began. But since Naruto was still in the operating room, they are still working on his injuries to make sure he does not open them up during the recovery process. Although the operation took at least 4 to 6 hours to complete, Naruto would be looking at a long recovery after this and months of therapy to follow. This would mean that he would not be allowed to participate in ninja battles after a surgery unless directed by an instructor or the Hokage. But the blonde was not worried about that since his operation came to be a success, but there was nothing normal about the pain that he suffered from Itachi. Although he tried to avoid thinking about the damage done to his body, he decided that it was time for him to move on and live a normal life. "Ever since Itachi turned my life into a living nightmare, I can't forgive him for what he had done to me and the family that me and Sasuke had loved. I don't know if I am able to let it go, but Itachi has to be stopped before he strikes again. Although I am told not to be in combat for a while, I think I will spend some time around town for a bit in order to speed up the recovery process so tht I will be able to regain my strength back. Right now though, I need to find Sasuke to make sure he is okay." He thought to himseff as he continued walking down the street without looking at the villagers. Although he knows that pain has been a part of his life, he didn't want to go through it a second time because that would only cause him more emotional pain.
As Naruto continued down the streets, he could notice the villagers standing outside of the Hokage's office shouting crazy things such as "Kill the traitor naruto!, Down with Itachi!" while throwing rocks and other items at the windows and the walls of the office. This causes the Hokage to duck for cover before he could get hit. "Ugh! What have I gotten myself into? First Naruto was nearing death and now this? If there was a way that I could quell the rioting outside, than I can easily interrogate Sasuke in peace without all this commotion." He thought with a disgusted look on his face. Soon he heard a knock at the door and said, "Come in!" As the door opened, the silver haired jounin arrived with the report from the Medical Examiner's office and showed it to the Hokage. The photos revealed that Naruto's scars were indeed from Itachi, including the swelling and the bruises which have embedded onto his body. "Hokage-sama, from the photos, I can tell that these wounds are fresh and some are just a few days old, but with beatings like this, Naruto was beaten to a pulp and knocked unconscious before the murders occurred. The fractures on his arm and legs indicates that the guards snapped him like a piece of wood while Itachi inflicted the other blows. I couldn't find anything that is not broken, but needless to say, Naruto's body was shattered."
The Hokage looked at him for a moment and said, "Yeah, but the bottom line is, Naruto may have survived his injuries, but still, a long road to recovery is better than nothing, right?"
"That may be, but still Itachi will pay for what he did to his own people here in Konoha." Finished Kakashi as he heard footsteps coming from the hall. It must be Sasuke Uchiha cominng for the interrogation. As kakashi opened the door, he could notice the ambu guards following close behind Sasuke, as they entered the office.
"Hokage-sama, We've brought Uchiha Sasuke here for the interrogation with the council members and the clan heads. We do believe that he is the only suspect and the lone survivor of the massacre. Unfortunately, Naruto is also on his way and he fears that if Sasuke is being framed for his parents murder, it would put further complications in this village." Said the Anub guard.
"I understand your concern, Anbu-sama, but I don't want people being mendacious, okay? Due to the fact that all of the five great villages are burgeoned rapidly, we need to question what advantages we can use in order to better protect ourselves from getting hurt. Take naruto's situation for example, the more we exacerbate it, it will make the situation even worse. So we got to be careful, okay? Not everyone can be trusted around here." Said the Hokage while taking charge of Sasuke.
"We understand Hokage-Sama, but there is a possibility that Naruto's aberrant behavior might have been the cause of this tragedy and it could affect the kids in his age group. We need to ensure that he is not a threat to other people. We feel that with him separated from Sasuke, we might be able to figure out the truth of who was really responsible for this heinous crime." Continued the guards.
Kakashi then looked at the guards and interjected, "That won't be necessary. Besides, since the majority of the clan heads don't know him that well, they classified him as a taciturn individual, but sure he may be a loner like Sasuke is, just give him a chance and then Konoha will finally accpet him for who he is. Now, if its not too much trouble lets get the council members and the clan heads into the meeting room so that we can get this interogation under way." He then stepped out of the office and headed over to the meeting hall with Sasuke and the guards following close behind.
At the meeting room, everyone was still scratching their heads about why someone like Sasuke should be interrogated since he was not the mastermind behind this crime, but the council members still wanted to get the truth out of Sasuke in order to put the real culprit behind bars. Even Shikaku Nara was worried that if the wrong individual was accused, It would seriously jeopardize the alliance with other villages. But the Aburame clan head didn't seem to mind as long as someone comes forward and confess, everything will be fine. Soon, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mikotado arrived and said, "We now call the interrogation of Uchiha Sasuke to come to order. Bring the defendant in here immediately!" Soon the anbu guards arrived with Sasuke as he settled down in the interrogation chair with them standing right next to the hokage and the civilians.
Soon, one of the special jonin instructors arrived at the interrogation room, including Ibiki Morino, the exam proctor and the commander of the Anbu Torture and Interrogation force. Although not everyone fears Ibiki, some of his colleagues might think otherwise before crossing paths with the commander of the ANBU guards. However, many have deep respect for him since he has a soft but strict side and would go after anyone who dares messes with him. "All right, now that I've got your undivided attention, we all know that uchiha itachi has now been officially declared as a traitor of Konoha and has been branded as an S-Class criminal and is still at large. Since he was responsible for the murders of his entire family, he now plans to frame Sasuke uchiha of committing the murders. So, as we interrogate the sole survivor of the massacre, we need to make sure his best friend naruto didn't nepotize anyone else. Otherwise, this interrogation could end up in jeopardy." He said with a evil glint on his face.
One of the villagers that works at a local grocery store spoke up, "Naruto has been the bane of our lives and now you are actually going to let him walk away with murder? That's not right! we all know that he was at the Uchiha Compound on the night of the murder, that demon bastard deserves to be executed!"
Suddenly, the villager could feel a hand with sharp nails grabbing him by the neck, "Try saying that again, and you will become Kuromaru's next meal. Naruto-san has been through enough already and now you want to abuse him some more? Sometimes even I wonder if you people have any feelings for the kid, but with that aside, what proof do you have that Naruto committed the murders? Tell me or else I will sink my claws into your throat!" warned Tsume as she continued to tighten her grip on the civilian. As the others watched with amusement, they can see that her pretentious manner actually saved Naruto from a near death experience. As Ibiki watched, he couldn't help but laugh and thought to himself, "Damn, Tsume seems to be twice as dangerous as Anko, but she never ceases to amaze me, but back to the interrogation at hand." He then turned his attention towards the raven-haired boy and asked, "Where were you on the night that your parents were murdered?"
Sasuke looked up at him and said, " I was out at the training field working on some of my techniques with Naruto. Although I did look down at him as being a dead last shinobi but still he was everything to me and will always be a part of my life. While I was training, I realized that something was not right and that's when I realized my own parents were stuck with a psycho killer."
"I see, so ever since you adopted Naruto, you felt that iwas necessary to check upon your parents, but before the muderes started, you rmom and dad were fine and itachi didn't wanted to harm them right?" continued Ibiki
"Yeah, you may think that my brother is nice and all that but you saw what that cold-blooded monster did to them! He took my family away from me and Naruto and tore our lives apart! I wasn't going to forgive him after what he did. If he was here, I would have killed that bastard with my own hands. But I fear that my own strength will not defeat him since he is more of a jonin-level shinobi and his strength is something that we can never comprehend. As far as I know, my former brother, poisoned with revenge, has demonized Naruto in order to cover it all up." Finished Sasuke.
Everyone in the room looked at Sasuke with a look of shock and suspense as they heard Sasuke telling the court about how naruto was "demonized" by a famed protégé but one of the villagers stood up and shouted, "Stop!, Sasuke, how could you say that about Itachi, I thought you were the one to protect him and now you are just going to turn against him? Have you no shame? Can't you not accept the fact that your hatred towards him is only causing you more misery?" But before he could get up to remove Sasuke from the chair, he could feel the approach of a shadow hand grabbing him by his mouth. "Sit down and keep quiet! You already know by now that Itachi is more of a threat to this village than anything else in this world! Sasuke is telling the truth for once about his former brother and here you have the audacity to misjudge him? Why I might have you removed out of the room in the next 15 seconds if you don't keep your trap shut!" warned Shikaku as he tightened his grip on the villager before releasing him back on his chair.
As ibiki witnessed to what happened in the room, he just breathed a sigh of relief knowing that these disruptions won't delay the interrogation, however, the villagers be sent out of the room if there are any futher disruptions. "All right, Sasuke, I think I understand where you are going with this, but despite the damages that Itachi did, you could have at least tackled him or gave him a few punches to knock him out cold, but unfortunately, Itachi refuses to stop his relentless assault on the family that you loved and eventually killed them, isn' that right?" he continued.
Sasuke looked at him while trying to wipe the tears from his eyes with his hands, but soon, one of the jonin guards handed the raven-haired boy a kleenex. After Sasuke regained his composure, he said, " Yes, I could have stopped Itachi from his relentless attacks, but his powerful Mangekyo Sharingan and the Tsukoyomi prevented me from making any sort of attacks on him. And with naruto held as a hostage by that monster, I couldn't do anything! I would have contacted the Anbu, or maybe you, or any of the villagers around that were available to stop Itachi, but since he got away, it was too late to stop him, and I couldn't save my family." He then paused to take a piece of snack from his pouch and eats it to take a break before the interrogation continues.
Moments later, Ibiki returned to where Sasuke was sitting and asked him, "Sasuke, before your parents were murdered that night, did you recall or hear anything that Itachi had said to the Hokage beforehand?"
Sasuke placed his hands over his head and thought about it for a moment and suddenly, he rememberd something. "Yeah, I do recall that Itachi was planning take care of Naruto and protect him from harm. However, Itachi never did say anything about killing his family or trying to get rid of him. I never would have imagined that he would have planned this from the start. Here I thought that Itachi would act as a big brother towards Naruto, but instead I found a flaw in his plan."
Ibiki looked at Sasuke for a minute and asked, "Wait a minute, you said that Itachi had a "flaw" in his plan? What did you mean by that? Was he lying about protecting Naruto from the villagers in order for him to gain more power for himself so that he can rule all of Konoha?"
"He did, he lied to the Hokage about protecting Naruto. However, when I saw what Itachi was doing to that kid, I knew that he was luring Naruto into my house to get rid of him so that the sharingan will solely belong to my elder brother and no one else. He is ensuring that no one else will get their hands on the sharingan. But like I said, since my father was grateful enough to give some of that power to that kid, I feel sorry that Naruto got dragged into this mess. Bro, if only I had been there sooner, I …., I could have saved my family and none of this would have happened." Said Sasuke while attempting to dry his eyes. He then pounded his fist against the wall knowing that his brother will pay dearly for tearing apart the family that Sasuke loved. It was time that Sasuke gets all the attention and not Itachi.
Ibiki then walked back to his desk and said, "Thank you, you can step down now Sasuke." The raven-haired boy stepped down from the stand and walked back to the audience and settled down next the anbu guards. Personally, Sasuke has been taking this hard ever since his beloved family was slaughtered and Naruto was nearly left for dead. As the Hokage looked at Sasuke in the audience, he felt saddened by the tragedy that has affected not only Sasuke, but the entire village as well. All the stress has been placed on the Hokage's head and it would take a while for him to recover from this. Even naruto and Sasuke would take a long time to recover from this personal tragedy as well since their lives are already at risk. At this point, the boys will have to adjust life without their parents around which will be difficult to do since they have to train hard to prepare for the upcoming battle against Itachi.
A few minutes later, naruto appeared in front of the Hokage and the audience. As he took the stand, he had a feeling of what Ibiki would ask him despite what happened to Sasuke's parents. And he would have the pleasure of letting Itachi taste his parents blood after the murders took place several weeks ago in the Uchiha compound. But as Sasuke watched from the audience, he knows that he will be the one to eliminate Itachi and avenge his parents since he took the murders personally and says that no one disrespects the Uchiha clan and gets away with it. "Naruto, I know what you are trying to do and I am afraid that there is not much you can do for me. I have to take care of that monster myself and I will rip his heart out if I have to. This way, you will be spared of any burdens that might incur on you." Thought Sasuke to himself.
As Ibiki approached Naruto, he asked him, "Naruto, where were you on the night that Sasuke's parents were murdered?'
Naruto paused for a moment to think about his where abouts, "I was at a nearby training field working on my moves. Once night had set in, I decided go home until Itachi's bodyguards stopped me." He said.
"What did they say to you? Did they say that they wanted Itachi to kill his brother's parents?" continued Ibiki while he looks at Sasuke in the crowd.
"They just told me to stay away from Sasuke and that I was not to train with him anymore. However, I don't remember them telling me that they wanted Sasuke's family to die. I wanted to continue training with Sasuke because we shared a powerful bond of friendship together." Continued Naruto. As he looked around, he could notice that everyone else in the room seems to think that he could be guilty of this incident, but without any proof of him actually committing the crime, Naruto could be exonerated from blame and this trial would be over in a heartbeat.
Ibiki was concerned about Naruto's safety when he said he was trainign with Sasuke, but decided to show him the gruesome pictures of the crime scene that was taken on the night of the murder. "I show you people's exhibits A-D. Do you remember these scenes from that night that you were at Uchiha Compound?"
As Naruto looked at the photos of the bloodied room and the corpses of Mr and Mrs. Uchiha, he started to remember that night, "I….. I do remember these scenes, but I also do remember that I was bound and gagged when I attemtped to save Sasuke's parents, I begged Itachi to stop what he was doing and he started beating me like crazy and knocking me out cold. After that… I don't remember anything else except seeing Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha dead right in front of my very eyes." He replied sadly. Suddenly, Naruto could feel a sharp pain in his head and started to remember how Itachi had used Tsukoyomi on him and put him into such brutal mental torture. "That day, I wil never forget how that monster used Tsukoyomi on me, its coming back to haunt me!" Before Ibiki could go on, he could see that Naruto was starting to feel some uneasy movements while he was on the stand and suddenly, he collapsed to the ground in pain. Not knowing what was going on, Ibiki started to feel his head and deduces that he still is suffering from the after-effects of Tsukoyomi. "Naruto, Are you okay? Wake up, buddy, wake up!" but not matter how hard he tried to wake Naruto up, there was no response from naruto after he collapsed on the ground out cold.
Everyone in the room was looking akwardly at what happened as the medical team arrives and took Naruto back to the hospital for observation. Moments later, the Hokage arrived and asked, "What the hell happened here? Did Naruto…." He began.
"Naruto had collapsed during the trial. I fear that he may still be suffering from the after-effects of Tsukoyomi. As I have checked in the notebook, that technique is very dangerous and people who are affected by it will suffer its after-effects. Now that I know what Itachi had done, we might have enough evidence to put that killer behind bars for good. We are pretty sure that Itachi is capable of using such power on an innocent child like this. I am afraid that we cannot interrogate him any further until he fully recovers." Finished Ibiki.
The Hokage looked at him and said, " Very well, Ibiki-san. But I am relieved that you had stopped the trial or else this place would be courtroom chaos. Anyway, now that we got enough evidence to prove that Itachi kiled his family, we should see if Naruto can make a full recovery. After all, we don't want to see him go through this nightmare again. I think Tsunade may have cured him of his injuries but she did mention that Tsukoyomi will permanently put him at risk if he doesn't fully recover from this. The visions of what happened that day are still affrecting Naruto emotionally, but it also left scars on him that may never heal. Right now, I am still worried about Naruto's future here since the entire Uchiha clan was slaughtered because this whole thing was my fault, I should never have sent him to Itachi because I never realized how dangerous he was. God forbid, I should have placed him with a better family like Shikamaru or Choji's relatives."
Ibiki looked at Sarutobi for a moment and placed a hand on his shoulder while saying, "Relax, Hokage-sama, none of this is your fault. You did the right thing by putting Naruto into a family that can understand him, but Itachi is the one to blame here because of how poorly he treated the child. You saw what happened to him and from what I can see, that child isn't fully protected. We need to come up with a plan of protection for Naruto-san immediately before anything else will happen. I think we konoha shinobi are fully committed to this. What if we tell the clan heads to have their sons and daughters look after him for a while? Their parents could also assist too because I think this way, Naruto will be less vulnerable from the threat of Itachi Uchiha for a while. This will also give him a chance to recuperate for a while."
"Are you sure about this? Okay then, assemble the clan heads into my office first thing tomorrow morning at 9:30 am so that we can discuss a plan of action to protect Naruto. Also I want to ensure that Naruto gets placed into a better family immediately following the meeting. Furthermore, I need the anbu guards to keep an eye on naruto in the infirmary for extra protection as well. I hope this plan of yours works, Ibiki-san because this is our last chance to protect Naruto from harm, if not, than I am afraid that there will be no other way to protect him from the threat of Akatsuki or Orochimaru for that matter." Replied the Hokage as he leaves the room but not before smiling at Ibiki and thought, "Naruto will be guaranteeed protection from any threat that comes after him. He is in good hands now."
Back in the hospital room, the doctors were working on getting him back into consciousness when Tsunade and Shizune arrived on the scene. "Tusnade-sama, how good of you to come. You saw what happened to Naruto and…" began the medical team.
"Yes, I know I saw the whole thing. I jjust don't get it: why is Naruto always having these nightmarish visions about Itachi murdering his whole family?"
"The effect of Tsukoyomi is still torturing him, my lady. This had happened during the trial in the courtroom. If we waited any longer, Naruto-san wouldn't stand a chance of surviving. We got to get him back into consciousness immediately!" ordered the medical team.
"Shizune, please hold Naruto steady while I apply some healing techniques on him to reverse the Tsukoyomi effects." Ordered Tsunade. She did so immeditealy while the team uses their genjutsu technniques on him so that he doesn't move around so much. " Hang in there Naruto, we will have you back to normal in no time!" she thought to herself while holding Naruto's hands. As the process went on, the Tsukoyomi starts to dissipate from Naruto's mind slowly, but he is in for a long recovery ahead of him. As Kakashi watched from outside of the room, he felt better knowing that the child will pull through as long as protection is there for him. But he knows that Uchiha Itachi is still out there looking for him since everyone has been warned about the potential danger going on in Konoha. But despite what happened, Naruto will never forgive Itachi for what he did and he swears that vengeance and justice will be served once Itachi is captured and sentenced to death.
Back in the office, the Hokage was busy writing his reports of everything that had happened today when there was a knock at the door. "Come in." he said. The door opened and Konohamaru shows up and said, " Ji-sama, Will Naruto be okay? Because I seem to see that he has been through a lot since the murders of his best friend's family. I can only give Naruto my blessing, but what's happened to him lately?"
The Hokage looked at his grandson and said, "Konohamaru, Naruto has been heavily affected by a technique called Tsukoyomi from a very bad man. Athough the guy had escaped the village after murdering his entire clan and leaving Naruto to die. I just cannot see him suffer for much longer. I've decided to put him up for adoption with a better family here in the village so that he wouldn't have to suffer anymore pain. So tomorrow I am going to hold a meeting to all the families of Naruto's friends and maybe one of them will keep an eye on him for a while until the Itachi incident is resolved."
" Really? Well, that's really great news, but can you please tell Naruto that I wish him for a full recovery? He is one of my closest friends that I have known for a while. I just cannot watch him suffer either." Replied Konohamaru sadly.
" I know how you feel about Naruto, but right now we are doing the best we can to protect the child from harm. The damage cannot be undone after what happened earlier. Naruto will be in good hands, I promise you that. Now you should get some rest, I can guarantee you that this whole nightmare will be over by tomorrow." Replied his grandfather while rubbing his head.
" All right, but promise me that Naruto will be out of harm's way," continued Konohamaru as he walked out of the door. As the door closed behind him the Hoakge thought to himself, "Naruto, I really wish this whole mess didn't hae to get you involved. You were innocent to begin with. But I can promise you this: Itachi will get what's coming to him soon!"
And with that, everyone of Naruto's friends got the message from the Hokage regarding the meeting tomorrow and many of their parents were notified about it as well. "Man, how troublesome. I was thinking for sure that the child would recover, but now I know that will not happen yet." Said Shikaku while he read the note sent to him by the Anbu guards. But he finally realized that this meeting was very important to him.
Kiba's mother and sister also got the message from the Hokage as well. "This is bad, Kuromaru. But we cannot allow a child like Naruto suffer. I think this meeting will definitely give the child a chance to recuperate and it will have us take a shot at Itachi and send him to his doom. We Inuzuka clans can definitely tear the Akaktsuki to shreds if they dare attack Naruto again." She said to her daughter and son.
"Let us hope so. I've already seen enough of Uchiha Itachi. That guy is bad to the bone and he must be stopped immediately. Naruto is also my friend, I will not allow him to die this easily. And I swear to god if any forces of evil dare to lay a hand on him, I will rip them to shreds aswell, right Akamaru?" said Kiba.
Akamaru barked with a smile on his face and was ready for action. By the next morning, all the clan heads were assembled in the meeting hall at the Hokage's office. They were prepared to defend Naruto from Itachi at any cost and will not make any false moves. Once Ibiki arrived, he orders the clan heads to sit down while he makes his announcement. " Ladies and gentlement of Konoha, as you may know, Naruto still hasn't fully recovered from the effects of Tsukoyomi and who knows how long his recovery operation will be in effect. With that being said, Itachi is still considered a threat to all of the people here in Konoha and he must be stopped at all costs. Also, I've already made a decision to the Hokage about how Naruto should be protected, that is all. So now I would like to direct your attention to the Hokage please. Thank you." Ibiki then stepped down from the podium to allow the Hokage to take over.
"Thank you for the announcement, Ibiki-san. Now then, everyone. You all saw what happened in the courtroom last nighty right? Since it was my idea to put Naruto up for adoption by the Uchiha clan, I never realized that Itachi would cause such shame and harm to his own people. But I am not going to make the same mistake again. Now I know this decision will be hard for you guys to swallow, but I've decided that Naruto should be placed under watch by you guys. I need all the clan heads to keep an eye on him and kep him protected from harm until the Itachi incident is resolved." Said the Hokage.
Everyone in the room was shocked upon hearing what the Hokage had announced, including Hiashi Hyuga. But he wasn't too impressed with what Itachi had done. Even Shikaku was rubbing his head when heard about the protection plan. Everyone's reaction will either keep Naruto out of harm or put him at risk of death. This time. Naruto could be looking at months of recovery and recuperation with the help of his friends and the family members.
And stop… I think you've pretty much heard what the Hokage had said about Naruto wanting protection. But the question is will the clan heads approve of this? This question will definitely shake their entire village to its very foundations. But you will know forcertain about what everyone's reactions will be in the next chapter. Until then, tell me what you think of this one and I will see you all next time.