EDITED: July 15, 2016

4

Behind the one-way mirror, the observers scrutinized the strange blond man with keen eyes.

"Ugh… my head!" He moaned as he regained consciousness. There was a slight movement of his arms—pinned down by the manacles—which was enough to tell Itachi that the stranger had tried to take the aforementioned head in his hands, probably to appease the headache. The man startled and opened his eyes suddenly, using them to inspect his surroundings blearily. "Huh?" He sounded confused. "What—?" He asked to no one in particular, and then he groaned. "Oh, this is just awesome. First I'm delusional and then trapped in an interrogation room. Peachy, just peachy," he mumbled angrily, puffing up his cheeks in aggravation.

Itachi lifted a fine eyebrow behind his ANBU mask. He was barely thirteen, and he had deemed the stranger to be approximately on his early twenties while unconscious, but now he wasn't so sure.

Was it normal for dangerous shinobi to act so… childish?

(Even though Sandaime-sama and Morino-san did not appear to consider the man a threat, Itachi was certain that he was dangerous. The sheer pressure of his chakra had told him so, and the man had been unconscious!)

The gesture made him think of Sasuke, and he felt a twinge of regret. There was a high probability that he wouldn't be able to avoid breaking yet another promise to his little brother. Depending on how stubborn the man being interrogated was, Itachi could be on time for Sasuke's training or really, really late. He didn't know which he preferred, to be frank.

He loved Sasuke with all his being, but his training time was usually supervised by their father. Itachi had taken to avoiding Fugaku as much as he could, and not just because the man was even harsher on Sasuke when Itachi was present, but also because Itachi was not comfortable being around the man that was planing to start a war with his own Village—even if he was his father. This was especially true since his cousin and best friend, Shisui, had informed him that Fugaku had actually ordered Shisui to keep an eye on Itachi and report back to him if he observed any compromising behaviour on the younger boy's part.

That had been a huge shock.

Itachi was just glad that his best friend had the same ideals he had—that he believed that peace was possible; that the Uchiha weren't above the rest of Konoha. He hoped that this complicated issue could be resolved without bloodshed.

"Sakura-chan will kill me when I get back," the blond man moaned despairingly, bringing Itachi back to the situation at hand. He scolded himself mentally for not paying attention and focused on the subject. "Where am I, anyway?" He asked curiously, trying to look around, "Furball, any idea?"

Itachi frowned. Who was Sakura? And who was he talking to? Was he delusional? It didn't appear so—and even though Itachi was too far away to see his eyes, these didn't seem to be unfocused and lost. A communication device? No, that didn't make sense, either. They had revised him and taken his kunai pouch and every other suspicious item from his person before strapping him to the chair.

"No need to get snippy with me, you bastard!" He growled, and it sounded like an answer, but nobody had said a world apart from him. Itachi had to glance towards his companions to gauge their thoughts from what little they expressed through their body language. Tora and Ushi seemed tense, but their masks didn't let him read much more into it. Sandaime-sama looked slightly concerned and deeply focused, with his brow furrowed in a stern line.

"No, this can't be Konoha," he denied vehemently, and the wording actually made the ANBU flinch. What? "I'm telling you, it's impossible! Why?" The blond's voice was incredulous. "Why would they ship me to T&I? You reckon—," he cut himself off mid sentence and looked suspiciously around once again. He sniffed the air and immediately levelled a glare at the general direction in which Morino-san was still standing. Sharp sense of smell, Itachi noted in his mental assessment of the subject. The blond swore loudly and then lowered his voice to a whisper, "Damn you, furball, you could have told me earlier!" The accusation was told under his breath, and Itachi had to really strain his ear to catch it. That's why it surprised him so much when the man bit out in a loud voice, "Who are you, bastard?! Show yourself!" The growl was aggressive, showing he wasn't scared in the least.

"I believe that you don't understand your position here, shinobi-san," Ibiki said silkily, pushing off the wall and prowling towards the prisoner like a deathly predator. The subject just glared harder. "You don't get to ask anything of me—the one who makes the questions here… is me."

Itachi was impressed with the man's intimidation technique. Soft, but menacing nonetheless; it contrasted sharply with his scary visage and normal brusque behaviour. Too bad it didn't seem to work on his prey.

"Ibiki?" The stranger asked, losing his glare and looking bewildered. "What…?" He blinked cerulean blue eyes in confusion, face open and without any noticeable hint of deceit. "Is this a joke?" He demanded, irritably. "Argh, Kami," he groaned. "This is Anko's way of punishing me for eating the last stick of dango, isn't it? I promised her I'd buy her more! Damn her!"

His grumbles stopped when he suddenly had a kunai pressed dangerously close to his carotid artery. Gulping audibly, he looked at Morino-san askance.

"You are Ibiki, right?" He asked in a small, uncertain voice, completely different from the loud one he had demonstrated until then.

"I am," the man admitted reluctantly, a great deal of suspicion coating his tone. "The question here is, who—are—you?"

The teenager—Itachi was at this point almost certain that the blond wasn't that much older than himself—looked suddenly very afraid, his earlier incomprehensible ease with Morino-san disappearing into thin air.

He blinked. "Uh… Naruto?"

I've made it a game out of changing perspectives and writing from the point of view of different characters... It's fun! I'd like to know if the differences in their personalities and ways of thinking are being transmitted... I mean, it's noticeable they are different? Or am I making them too plain?

I'm open to suggestions! Whether they may be about a particular scene you'd like to read, or a character whose point of view you'd love to see. Or anything, truly!

I hope you like where this is going! Cheers~!