True to my word, here we are a Saturday away. It's longer so hope you guys enjoy.
I don't think this is really necessary, but, WARNING: Minor violence in the latter half of the chapter.
What do you think of the story so far?
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
April 24, 2032, Vehicle of Sasuke Uchiha, San Francisco Time- 9:53
Sasuke sighed vexedly as he drove a very drunk Naruto back to his apartment. NOTHING was more annoying than having to put up with the blonde idiot while he was drunk, so it was with much relief that Sasuke had finally gotten Naruto to fall asleep in the back of the car.
But still, fifteen minutes later, he was startled by a loud wail/scream/dying cat.
"Hinaaataaaa! Pleeese doon't haate meee!"
Sasuke slammed on the breaks as the car came to a stop and he looked, suspiciously warily, behind the driver's seat.
A still drunk- very badly drunk at that- Naruto was hunched over his phone, and wailing in a very injured tone.
"Hinata...wheenn did you starrrt tallking like a boy?" he asked, before seeming to come to a realization and say, "I'm sorrry Mrr Ichirraku! Iii must haave gotten the wrrrong numberr!"
He took the phone away from his ear, and Sasuke asked in incredulity, "And just what do you think you're doing?!"
Naruto started taking off his shoes and socks, with some mad antics, even coming awkwardly close to his face as though searching for something. Sasuke covered his face with a palm, miffed.
Then, Naruto whipped out his phone again and redialed.
"Hinaata! Pleaassee doon't haaate me!' he sounded very bruised and dejected.
A small muffled reply of "N-Naruto?" was heard in reply.
"I can't find you anywhere! I've looked in my socks, and my shoes, and my pockets, and my rucksack! And even in Sasuke's hair! Wherree arrre yooou?!"
"Wh-what are you talking about?"
"I promise I'll stop annoying people! I'll- I'll- " he trailed off, looking for something o say, "I'll brush my teeth! And I'll comb my hair every day! And I'll even stop wearing the orange clothes which Sasuke says are so annoying! I-I-I-" he gulped, "I'll even stop eating raaameeen!"
He was sure the raven haired girl on the other side of the phone would be positively mortified by this time. The whole scene was comical- and Sasuke was about to step in to spare his friend any further shame.
The timid subdued voice from across the phone said, "Wait...Naru-"
"Please don't hate me! I haven't slept in centuries because I'm thinking about you! I can't live without you! You're the only one there is for me! I really can't live without you!" He interrupted, "I promise I'll stop being so cheesy on dates- I don't think I've ever asked you on a date, have I? Hinata! Go on a date with me! I swear it will be super-" at that point, Naruto's eyes rolled into his head and he fell over unconscious.
The phone fell from his hand and landed with a soft 'thud' on the floor of the floor of the car, its speakers still echoing the Hyuga's voice. "N-Naruto?" More muffled sounds of panic followed.
Sasuke groaned in annoyance as he picked up the fallen phone.
"There is nothing wrong with Naruto- he's just fallen unconscious. Drunk, as you can hear."
"Sasuke?"
He recognised the voice which answered the call to belong to an all too familiar pinkhead.
"Hn" he said in response to her question, "Wasn't this supposed to be Hinata?"
"Wasn't this supposed to be Naruto?" she retorted.
"Naruto is fine. He's just-"
"Drunk, yes, you mentioned that. Hinata is now unconscious, I'll let her know."
An awkward silence ensued. Sasuke inwardly wondered if this would be an opportune moment to apologize for earlier- wait, What?! Why would he even be thinking about apologizing? He was slightly put off by their earlier conversation at the doctor's office- but that was only because he was supposed to be the one cutting things off with Sakura, not the other way around. He had come to an agreement the previous night that it would indeed be best if he cut off things with her-even if he was somewhat dubious of this in light of the events of the day- but still, he was not about to attempt a reconciliation with her.
Before he could say anything, she spoke first. "You can take this as an official notification that you are to clear your schedule for tomorrow morning and present yourself for interrogation at the FBI office. If you fail to comply we will not hesitate to use force to bring you in."
Was this about the revelation of his true identity? He sighed resignedly saying, "Sakura, it's not what you think-"
"I don't think you even know what I think. And you are not entitled to make assumptions either. Save the excuses for tomorrow." she said harshly, ending the call.
Sasuke looked down at the phone in his hand, his mind reconjuring the image of her retreating figure from earlier that day. Just like then, even now he couldn't stop thinking about how he could have better handled the situation.
Ultimately, he knew that even if he wanted to, he couldn't develop any sort of feelings for the pinkette. It would distort their plans far too much, and he couldn't loose sight of his original goal.
The picture of her delicate face gazing up at him from across a table in Ichido's flooded his mindscape. The melodious sound of her laugh, and the feel of her slender body against his.
He clenched his fists and threw the phone into the back of the car in rage. Why can't I get her out of my head?
Sighing again and deciding to get a move on, he looked back at Naruto, an unconscious snoring mess.
Oh yeah, it was that idiot who made this mess in the first place. He was the one who dressed up as 'Sasuke Uchiha'. He had dragged Sasuke with him to the Hyuga's party. He had tried to set he and Sakura up on a date, and he was the idiot who let their identity switch come into an unwanted light.
This is all your fault, idiot.
April 24th, 2032, Alleyway south of the Market Area, San Francisco, Time- 10:12
"Feel that? Succinylcholine. Sound familiar? Isn't it something you science types ought to know about?" Ino smirked as she pressed a syringe into the struggling writhing grey haired man on the floor in front of her.
To think this rat was so closely connected to this case. Sakura thought with disgust as she glared at the man.
Kiba kicked him in the stomach, to which Kabuto had no response. Kiba's dog, which he had brought with him, barked loudly in reply to that. He couldn't even flinch in pain. A gag was tied around his mouth.
Neuromuscular blocking drugs like the one they were using had that sort of effect.
They had abducted Kabuto with little trouble as he returned home from some bar or tavern of some sort. And they had already run through most of the details of their interrogation. Naruto's call had come through a while before they were about to leave, and whatever he said, it had Hinata as red as a tomato, ultimately fainting- although that was from a mixture of exhaustion and embarrassment. And Sasuke...well, Sakura wasn't quite sure what to make of that? He sounded sincere- and Sakura didn't like holding grudges. If he would only sincerely apologize, it would all be water under the bridge. And though she chided herself for it, she wanted it to be water under the bridge. She couldn't trust him yet, but she was starting to consider that perhaps he did have a good reason to have done what he did. Maybe she should have given him the benefit of the doubt? The idea was nagging at her the whole time as they moved towards their destination.
According to what Shikamaru had already gotten on Kabuto, he had been aiding Orochimaru into whatever experiments they had been doing for quite some time now, and the idea of that served to further aggravate her riled state.
Back to present, Ino bent over peering closer at him. Her leather jacket was lined with a multitude of pockets and pouches home to the poisons and drugs she so loved to fight with. It had become almost a habit.
Kabuto hadn't taken well to his captivity.
"Now I'm going to give you two options. You can answer our questions with as little resistance as possible- resulting in little bodily harm to you- or you can make this hard for yourself and let me strengthen this dose. Who knows? This kind of muscle relaxant can even stop you from breathing- if in excess, that is." she laughed, stooping down to take out the gag stuffed in his face.
The other man's eyes flickered between the three of them, as an expression of humour crossed his face, his lips curling into a smirk. "You can't do anything to me. I can report all three of you." He let out a short laugh.
Gritting her teeth, Sakura stalked closer at that. That was it. He had the nerve to laugh at them after everything he'd been accused of. She grabbed him by the hair and pulled him up to eye level.
And from the way he was looking he'd just try to play around with his words like the snake he worked for until they let him go.
Slamming his head against the wall, she said, "I don't thing you get the gravity of this situation."
Kiba came up to stand next to her, mirroring her threat with an animalistic growl. "We will hurt you and burn you and torture you within an inch of death to the point you wish you were dead. We will break you physically and mentally until you are at our feet begging for relief, we'll send you to hell and back." he said.
Kabuto whimpered as he started to look like a cornered animal. His voice shaky, he said, "T-that makes you m-murderers. Y-you'll be penalized. T-taken off the task force."
Sakura almost laughed. As though he was one to talk about murder. His involvement in their case was all but confirmed.
"You can accuse us all you want, but we will not kill you until you tell you tell us what we want to know." Her lips curled in a vicious snarl. Boy, she was pissed. Looking at this man and thinking of what he could have done to Yuki- what he could be doing to many more kids- made her sick. And he still refused to give them what they wanted.
Kabuto's pupils dilated in fear.
Ino put a tentative hand on Sakura's shoulder.
"Sak- that's enough. Any more and he'll pass out from the fear. I think he'll talk now."
Casting a spiteful glare in his direction she loosened her grip, letting him slide down the wall into a crumpled heap on the floor.
"Now you can start by confirming that you're in league with Orochimaru and his experiments." Ino said crouching down to his eye level.
His silence earned him another kick from Kiba. "Answer the question."
"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" he said.
Ino brought out a pocket knife and lightly traced the tip of the blade over his fingers. Singling out his left index finger, she raised the blade threateningly and plunged it into the tip of his finger...
Or at least that's what Kabuto thought she was doing as he tried to flinch and scream, "Yes! Yes I work with Orochimaru! It's true! All of it!"
Once he peeked open his eyes, he found her blade not piercing his skin, merely resting against the skin of his finger.
"That's better. Now..." she picked out his middle finger and started tracing patterns on it, keeping her eyes trained on his facial expressions. "How long has this gone on for?"
"Not long." he said.
"I want a number."
"S-seven y-months."
"So you started this 17 years ago?"
His lack of protestation confirmed the truth in her statement.
"You tried to lie to me..." she said coldly, pulling away and standing up and cocking her head to the side, "We don't like liars."
Following that she kicked him over so that he was sprawled face ground on the cold floor of the alleyway they were in.
She walked back to Sakura and Kiba who were standing a few feet away. "Your turn."
Kiba moved forward and picked Kabuto up by the scruff of his neck. "Listen up turd, you've got five minutes to tell me what you're doing for Orochimaru or I sic my dog on you!"
Kabuto looked from Kiba, to Akamaru who was standing next to Ino, and back to Kiba. Akamaru growled and bared his teeth, which prompted Kabuto into saying, "Funding! I siphon money from the Sahara group into Orochimaru's research!"
Kiba smirked. "Now we're talking. That's not all. What else!"
"I-I help him get the buildings he needs for his experiments!" he added in a panicky tone.
Kiba shook him around and beckoned Akamaru over. The dog moved to stand behind Kabuto, which scared him enough to add, "I help him get some of the...resources he needs for his research too!"
Sakura's eyes narrowed at that. Walking to join Kabuto, she asked, "What resources?"
"A-a few test subjects and whatnot." he said, his words slurring together at high speed.
"Test subjects? Or children."
Kabuto seemed to realise that she knew exactly what she was talking about as he said, "I-I don't-"
Kiba punched him in the stomach, letting go of his shirt and letting him fall to the ground saying, "None of that bullshit! There's no point hiding it from us. That will only make it harder for you."
"The Sahara group runs a multitude of poorly managed orphanages! I help get kids from there- ones nobody will notice once missing- and give them to Orochimaru so that he can experiment on them."
The bland tone in which he said it- as though the children were objects and not infant lives- as though the only reason why he was letting the information slip was to save his own skin- that's what prompted Sakura's next action.
She stood on his outstretched hand and took a lighter out of her hand.
"How long has this been going on for?" she asked, grinding her foot harder on his hand.
"A-about 20 years." he said. The man was roughly 40, so that made him 20 at the start of his criminal affiliation.
"How many children do you have at present?" she dropped to one knee, resting the other lightly across his head. Though she said nothing else, inwardly she seethed, and it took a great deal of self restraint not to pummel the man.
"W-we have them in strongholds in a few bases. Orochimaru doesn't do all of his research here- he flits between countries."
"You're avoiding the question. How many?"
"I-I don't know. In San Fransisco now? Maybe 150-200?"
He mentioned it like it was a casual figure. Not talking about hundreds of innocent children. And that was what warranted her slamming her knee into his head and pressing it violently into the ground.
The hand with the lighter hovered over his head with an open flame, where he could easily see it. It was about a hair's breadth from setting his hair alight.
Playing with the subject's mind. That's what Ino had done with her blade, and Kiba with his dog. And now Sakura was doing the same. Even though they couldn't actually injure him, they could make him believe otherwise. Psychologically, Kabuto was so riddled with fear that he would give them whatever answers they wanted. And if he lied, it was quite easy to realise what he actually meant.
"Where?"
"Russia. St Peters burg!"
She set alight a few strips of old newspaper, letting them fall next to his head, close enough for him to feel their intense heat.
"Where?!"
"Switzerland. Geneva!"
She brought the lighter so close to his face that he couldn't focus on the edge of the flame.
"I'm going to ask one last time. Where. Are. They?"
"San Francisco! Mission district! Warehouse 4b, behind the other food and supply storage houses!."
"Is that the only one?" she asked, crushing his skull with her knee some more.
"That's where the most kids are. I honestly don't know where the rest are!" She released the pressure on his head only to bring it back by tenfold.
"Please! I swear to god I'll tell you everything and anything you ask! Just let me go!" He was almost in tears.
Sakura brought the lighter even closer to his face, so that the flame almost licked across his skin. Just before she crossed his breaking point, she abruptly withdrew and stood up, turning to Ino and Kiba.
"Lets go. We're done here."
Whoa! A whopping 3k words! That's the longest I've had in this story. Admitted, that last part was fun to write. It's fun playing with a criminal's mind.
Read and Review!- tell me what you think!
~Raven