Ooops? This chapter I started awkwardly, without knowing exactly what I wanted to write, and before I even noticed it became a monster compared to all the ones before it. Ehehe. Enjoy?
6
Being called to assist during an interrogation was nothing new to Yamanaka Inoichi. His clan signature jutsu came in very handy whenever they had difficult subjects—those that didn't crack even after the more… questionable methods for acquiring information—or when there were unforeseen complications. Even though he was good at it, he wasn't part of T&I for a reason. He hated invading other people's minds, and hated even more having to torture them from within just to gain information. T&I was aware of and respected his position, so he usually was only called in as a last resort.
That day, though, the atmosphere was noticeably different from other times.
Firstly, the one who called for him was the Sandaime himself, through the help of one of his personal ANBU. That was not that strange per se; what made alarms ring inside Inoichi's head were the added urgency to the words in the message and the uncharacteristic tenseness in the body language of the usually stoic messenger.
"Yamanaka Inoichi-dono is needed urgently in cell five, Torture and Interrogation Division, by demands of the Lord Hokage. He insists that Yamanaka-dono do not dawdle for anything, as this is a matter of Village Security," were the words spoken, and they immediately made Inoichi forget about his plans for the day and rush out of his Flower Shop towards the proffered location, no questions asked.
Secondly—he mused as he jumped to the roofs, adding chakra to his legs to enhance his speed—, 'Village Security' was a vague code used only when referring to their Jinchuuriki; as for any other situation that could present itself there were much more specific codes. The Kyuubi was a wild-card, though, and it wouldn't have been intelligent to make obvious reference to it—it could cause unnecessary panic or give away more information that they were comfortable with to possible spies. (Yes, they were paranoid. They were shinobi, after all.)
Thirdly… well, he could feel the tension once he arrived at T&I quarters. The same ANBU who had summoned him guided him towards cell number five, and he could see two more of his companions waiting stiffly beside the Hokage who, until Inoichi arrived, had been watching intently what was happening behind the one-way mirror.
Once the Sandaime noticed his arrival, though, he tore his gaze away from the cell and greeted Inoichi with a nod of his head.
"Thank you for coming, Inoichi-kun," the man said sombrely. "I know you don't particularly like to be called down here, but… your talents are needed, today."
"I gathered as much, Hokage-sama," Inoichi replied respectfully, glancing towards the prisoner. He was glad to notice that it wasn't the certain small blonde girl he was half-heartedly expecting, but he was at the same time extremely confused because it wasn't. What was happening?
The prisoner—a blond man, young—seemed completely at ease sitting with his hands crossed over his chest, slightly slumped over his chair, legs extended in front of him, one over the other in a rather lazy position. He didn't look like much at first sight, but there was a reason everybody was so tense, so Inoichi forced himself to pay more attention to detail.
He understood why was he called almost immediately.
The chakra suppressant manacles—which had been at one point restricting the man's movements—were broken, resting uselessly on the floor, and seemed to have been corroded by an acid of some kind. (Or, Kami forbid it, an overcharge of chakra. As much as he didn't want to consider it, as those manacles had seals created by Jiraiya-sama himself, the last seemed the most plausible explanation. It also supported his theory about why everybody seemed so uneasy.)
"Who is that?" Ibiki asked, carefully cataloguing everything about the man's looks. When he reached the face, though, he felt his blood freeze in his veins. "That's—"
"It's not Minato," the Sandaime interrupted him firmly, "He told us that his name was Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto—nineteen years old, Jounin, Kyuubi Jinchuuriki," he explained, stressing the parts that were… problematic.
"And you believe him?" Inoichi asked incredulously, but then noticed he was being rude and apologised, "Sorry, Hokage-sama, that was out of order."
The Sandaime chuckled humourlessly. "It's fine, Inoichi-kun. I can understand your surprise. And to answer your question—" he contemplated it for a second, "—No. We didn't. Not when he stated it for the first time, but then—"
"Yamanaka-san," a gruff, loud voice interrupted them from behind the glass, and Inoichi turned sharply only to find himself eye to eye with demonic red. It was impossible for anybody to see through the one-way mirror from inside the interrogation room, and neither should the subject be able to listen to what was being said behind said glass, but it seemed as if this self proclaimed Uzumaki knew exactly where Inoichi was standing. "Good for you to join us," he said amicably, though his fierce look and bloodthirsty smile belied his words. "Would you care to come in here, take a look in our head, confirm our story, and proclaim us a non-threat for Konoha so we might be able to get out of this dump and start to understand what the fuck has happened to us? I'm bored here, and Naruto is bitching nonstop inside our head and I really don't fancy getting a headache."
Dumbfounded, Inoichi turned to his Hokage, who nodded tiredly.
"Yes. That—" he said darkly. "That's why we need your assistance."
And that is how Yamanaka Inoichi, head of the Yamanaka Clan of Konohagakure, found himself sitting in front of a man who looked like a carbon copy of Namikaze Minato, but for the red eyes and the wide whisker marks on his cheeks.
"You will have to sit still and close your eyes," he explained awkwardly to the man—being?—who looked too amused for Inoichi's tastes. "I need to be in contact with your head as to provide a link—"
"—to my psyche, yeah, yeah. We're familiar with the proceedings," he drawled lazily, waving a hand in a dismissive gesture. "Get on with it. Just—" he narrowed his eyes, "—as I warned your partner here, do anything untoward… anything… and I'll destroy you, Naruto's precious person or not," he threatened, and Inoichi cautiously nodded his understanding.
He couldn't be sure if the man was bluffing, had a case of split personality, or was really telling the truth—as impossible as that sounded. Well, he wouldn't know until he went inside his head and confirmed it one way or another, so he took a deep breath, put his hand over the man's forehead, and closed his eyes.
"Psycho Mind Transmission," he muttered, activating the jutsu. When he opened his eyes again, he was inside the prisoner's mindscape.
He had to blink and do a double take, disoriented. Never before had he encountered a mind that looked like this one, as a series of pipes over a floor covered with water. It strongly resembled a sewage, sans the smell.
"Lovely, isn't it," said sarcastically the same voice he had interacted with outside, though it now reverberated with much more power.
"Kurama, don't be an ass," a second voice chastised the first, and Inoichi was shocked to see a young man with cerulean blue eyes puffing up his cheeks in indignation. He wasn't looking towards him, though, but towards a huge, red, nine-tailed demon fox. Inoichi gaped. "You know that it won't change, no matter what I try. At least the stupid cage is gone."
"Yes, well. It doesn't really matter, does it? You should be paying attention to our guest—he seems to be a little out of it," the giant demon fox commented, looking over the Yamanaka with mirth. Mirth.
I must be dreaming, he thought dazedly, It's the only explanation. I won't ever again let Shikaku convince me to drink that much sake. Never.
"Oh, right!" The kid—who acted nothing as he had outside—exclaimed and fixed Inoichi with an apologetic look. "Sorry, Inoichi-san, Kurama can be such a hassle, the bastard—especially when he takes over and scares the shit out of scary people like Ibiki-san without consulting with me first!" He finished, growling, once again facing the giant demon fox without an ounce of fear and Inoichi could not understand.
"Your guest, brat," the fox reminded the blond, yawning obnoxiously and curling comfortably on the floor. Inoichi had the sudden urge to laugh hysterically, because the giant demon fox that had terrorized Konoha mere seven years before looked awfully ready to take a nap, as if he were just a common fox, or cat, or maybe a dog.
It didn't make sense.
"Right, right," the kid said, and smiled sheepishly towards Inoichi. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto," he introduced himself, and then pointed with his thumb at the dozing demon, "and that's Kurama—though you may know him as the Kyuubi."
"My pleasure," the Kyuubi—Kurama—grumbled, and Naruto rolled his eyes.
"He's an old, grumpy furball, that's what he is. He may have been a powerful, scary demon years and years ago, but don't let him fool you, he's not evil at all."
Kurama snapped his teeth in warning, growling lowly in his throat. Inoichi jumped in fright. Naruto just scoffed and ignored the pissed off demon, and Inoichi still could not understand.
"What… what do you mean?" He asked, finally finding his voice.
"Well, he did attack Konoha, but that wasn't his choice," he explained patiently, as he had to do this many times before. "It was Obito's fault—before he was reformed and abandoned his Madara guise. He used his special sharingan-thingy to control him or something like that."
Kurama groaned in distaste. "Sharingan-thingy? Something like that? Seriously?"
"Oh, shut up! If you don't like how I explain things, then do it yourself!"
"There's no point in that, just let the man scan through your memories—that should be enough to convince him."
"Oh," Naruto sounded surprised. "That's good! Well, what do you think, Inoichi-san?" He asked earnestly, and the Yamanaka couldn't say no, even when he had already confirmed what he had came in for in the first place. But—
Knowing a little bit more about this Naruto and how he came to be in their Konoha—where their own Kyuubi Jinchuuriki resided, seven years old and in good health—was an opportunity he could not, in good conscience, turn down.
So he accepted.
When ten minutes later he exited the mind of Uzumaki Naruto—nineteen years old, Jounin, Kyuubi Jinchuuriki—he was shaken and sweaty and completely in awe of the blond kid in front of him, who was watching him with worried cerulean eyes, sitting inside cell number five inside the Torture and Interrogation Building.
"He—" Inoichi started, unsure of what could he say, after all he had witnessed. "He's telling the truth. He's Uzumaki Naruto, son of Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, Hero of the Fourth Shinobi War and soon to be Seventh Hokage," he stated, completely ignoring the reactions his revelations caused in the others in the room (it seemed that at some point they had been joined by the Third and his ANBU protection detail). "It's—It's an honor to meet you, Naruto."
The young man—the incredibly brave, powerful, and amazing young man—blushed and rubbed the back of his head, laughing bashfully.
"Oi, don't say things like that, Inoichi-san," he protested weakly. "Kurama says they'll go to my head."
"Inoichi!" Ibiki growled angrily. Inoichi looked at his friend, expression still slack after seeing so much concerning Naruto's life. "Can you explain what are you talking about?!"
"Certainly, I'm very interested in listening to the full story, too," added the Sandaime seriously, and Inoichi was about to answer affirmatively when something unexpected occurred.
Naruto turned brusquely towards the Hokage and gasped. "Jiji? Is that really you?" He choked out, voice tremulous.
He sounded so painfully young, and Inoichi suddenly remembered that in Naruto's Konoha—whether it was in a different world, time line, dimension or whatever—, the Sandaime had died when he was only twelve; the first loved one the boy had ever lost.
Warily, the Lord Third nodded, appraising Naruto carefully. The young man studied him back for a small moment, and then his lower lip trembled. Suddenly, he threw himself to the older man, crying in happiness and relief and sadness, startling everyone and making the ANBU surround him with kunai pressing dangerously close to his vital points. He ignored them.
"It's really you! I can't believe it! I missed you so much, jiji!" He exclaimed, sounding so honest that the Sandaime finally relaxed and, after gesturing the ANBU to retreat, gingerly embraced the trembling teenager.
"Well," the man stated, still wary but now with a touch of warmth softening his tone, "I believe you have much to tell me… Naruto."