A/N: Alright so I deleted the last few chapters because they are being changed. I changed a lot in this chapter and I realized that Tooru is not in a good state mentally. I know my old reader. hang in there. I will have actual updates starting tomorrow I think. Depends on how far I can get on editing today. But I think it is for the best. I hope you guys enjoy the story and all that jazz.

Please leave a question, comment or a thought! I want to talk with you guys!

Chapter 35: The Smile

Shikamaru:

I walk to my fathers door. Shikaku Nara, Jonin commander. I knock.

"Come in," I hear him say.

I walk in a see Inoichi Yamanaka, Ino's father. I know there is a lot they could be talking about.

"Am I interrupting something?" I ask.

My father shakes his head, "No, Inoichi already got that down with my afternoon nap."

Ah, so I was right. He would have been napping. But that doesn't help e now. I need to figure this out. And from the looks of it, I have two people connected all over the place. I should be able to get this better.

"What's up Shikamaru?" Inoichi asks.

I normally don't visit my dad in the middle of the day.

"I wanted to ask you about someone," I answer.

This piques both men's interest. Shikamaru Nara asking about someone, and asking fathers about it? The boy too smart for his own good asking for help. It isn't uncommon. But I need a starting off point.

"And who would that be son?" Dad asks.

"Tooru," I answer.

Both men look at each other. Did I say something wrong? I mean. I want to know. Kakashi ordered her to be our friend and now she is so focused on something. Normally I would ask my friends, but I highly doubt any of them would know anything about Tooru.

"Why are you asking about her?" Inoichi asks.

"Yes, why are you," Dad chimes in.

"I'm asking because something feels off about her. I don't know what it is, but I vaguely remember seeing her." I answer.

Inoichi looks at my father. I can hear my father thinking. Meaning I asked the right people about Tooru. I know this is odd, but there is something off about the whole day.

I put my hands in my pockets and walk all the way into my dads office. I close the door. Looks like this could be a long conversation. But it needs to happen.

Mako

She plays more and more. I want to get out of here. I think the smell is the worst thing about being in here. She knows how to play with the senses. I give her props for that. Not many people can do that. These are all good to know about her.

But she also knows who I am. Lucky Mako.

Eventually I build up enough chakra to get out of the illusion.

All I know is that I have a really bad headache from whatever she just did to me. It took me a minute to break fully from what she did before. But now she won't get anything out of me.

"Looks like you really are worthless." I taunt.

I watch as the brats eyes go wide. I think I may have finally hit a nerve in that little head of hers. I can turn this around for the better and survival of me. This little girl hasn't won this talk of ours yet. I will make it out of here alive and I will make sure that this Tooru girl is the first one we get rid of. I vow that will come true. If we leave her alive she will destroy us, and she could do it very quickly.

"You know that in the dream you were living how you wanted. How pathetic is it that all you want is friends? You weren't worthless to me when you were knocked out. In fact you were pretty fun. You on the other hand are not pretty. But you really are worthless. Letting emotions get the better of you. Worthless. You are nothing in here. You could be so much, but here you are being a pawn, something that no one cares about. I know you can't do anything…"

That's when I feel a fist come to my face. I hear a crack coming from my jaw.

Oh crap.

She has the look. The look that knows the person wants you dead, in a way that no matter how hard you try you can never fight your way out of it. I have truly made her truly mad. Any way that she could kill me she probably has had along with countless others. I grin, good, now she might slip up and I could get out of here, maybe killing the brat. I need to get out of here.

If I can get her to come with me she could be great help to us in the future. I need this. I want to prove I am the best. So what if she knows about me? I have the chance to make everything right now.

She doesn't know how to control her emotions. She doesn't know, a flaw for her. One flaw, and the fact she has no true ties to the village.

"Don't you dare," She whispers.

Another fist to the gut. I feel the blood and my lunch coming up. She moves out of the way, avoiding the puke. I wanted to hit her. I feel a healing hand to my jaw. I tense up.

What game is she playing? She is healing someone who is her enemy.

She knows how to play good guy, bad guy. She is good about this. Healing someone, paying with their mind. I already hate this. I know she is playing with her power.

"Do you have a death wish Makoto? I will kill you where you sit, and I will do horrible things to your body when I get the pleasure of looking at all your secrets," She is in my ears.

I cringe. How the hell is she in both of my ears at once? This isn't an illusion though. No way could this girl be this powerful! I can't even read her, yet I know she has the idea to poison me right here and right now.

I know she isn't playing around. Or maybe she is. She is getting pleasure in playing with me. I know that I have to stop this. If I can get away with her only knowing my name, everything will be fine. I would need to leave my village, but that might not be such a bad thing.

"Now, tell me why you joined the group," She demands.

I close my eyes, there is no more pain in my jaw, but I don't think she healed me for the fun of it. She has to have fantastic chakra control to manage these many things. She puts chakra in her punches, but not enough to kill me like the pink haired girl. I know for a fact that I am in a lot of trouble if this goes on for any longer, but I should die with the secrets of the group hidden away.

Only, I know I cannot die here, the leader will be mad if I did. We have a plan and that plan involves every member to take part in.

Lying, I can lie my way out of this. And so far that is my only option.

Lying is what a ninja always does anyway.

"Oh you know, to gain power," I finally say.

She moves away from me. I follow her with my eyes. She is thinking. Just what about I have no idea. I know though that if she sees through my lie, I will get the root of all jokes coming. She will kill me and right now dying is not an option. I need to make it back to the clearing, I will be a rouge ninja but that will be fine.

Anything would be better than sitting here and getting tormented by her.

No, I am not getting tortured by her. I will get punished for being in this situation but I got information. That is all I need right now.

I look around the room. I know I need to think fast if she walks out of here, I will have no chance of ever leaving here. I remember the guy, she seemed to be attached to him. For some weird reason he was attached to her.

The stupid love story.

This girl is really pissing me off. I need to get out of here. I feel how tight the ropes are, pretty tight, but I can be stronger. I can take her on, she probably has wasted a lot of chakra. I look back at her, her demeanor has gotten darker since I last looked. There is this weird smile playing across her face, one that I do not like.

She stands frozen, looking against the wall. Maybe I should rile her up again, she is bound to make a mistake then. Or I'll die, either way it would be better than talking to this girl. She needs to waste her chakra, more than she already has. These things require a lot of chakra, right now she will pay for doing all of this.

"Girl, you're such an idiot. You really think you can get any information out of me? You sure are dumb. I think the boy toy from your dream would like you a lot better if you just showed something. Man, you are weak. I didn't think you were that pathetic. I think you should go hide away and rot. Poor you, you couldn't even save people. You seriously don't think anyone cares right?" I pause.

She is tensing up. I know here in a few seconds I am going to get punched, hard too. I push chakra into my muscles, ready to bust, she begins to turn.

Shikamaru:

"Shikamaru, there is something you should know, Tooru is someone that Lord Third wanted no one to know about. So she was made to work in the shadows. You remember the time at the park right?" Dad asks.

I nod my head, "Yes, Choji stuffed a chip in a little girls mouth and she ran away. You told me to help her."

My dad and Inoichi look between each other. I know there is something they aren't telling me. But there are always things that people don't tell me. When I am actually bothering to look into something it is something I want to do.

Something still isn't adding up. I mean, why is she being ordered to be friends with us?

"Well," Inoichi begins "We can't say much, but she is known as the mystery ninja. We don't know what Lord Third did to her, we don't know what she does. But we do know that she is… hidden."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

Hidden? Lord Third? Something happened, only I don't know what. And it looks like they don't know either.

Or maybe they do.

"We mean, that Tooru is a special case, like Naruto and Saskue are. She had an unfortunate childhood and Lord Third… did her a favor," Dad speaks very slowly.

Like Naruto and Saskue? That could mean a lot of things. Not only that but everyone has something different that happens to them.

What isn't adding up is how slow they are talking about this. Normally Inoichi will talk and talk, allowing for a few comments from my dad. But here they are taking turns.

"You guys aren't speaking in normal patterns. Why?" I question.

"Shikamaru, it's… a matter of… keeping things in place." Inoichi states.

"Kakashi will know more." Dad adds on.

I nod, "I will go and speak with Kakashi right now then."

I stand up and thank both of them. I turn away and head to Kakashi's office.

Mako:

She is slowly turning towards me. I can feel the anger.

I don't like it.

She knows killer intent.

But for it to be the powerful… this strong. I don't like this. This is worse than the leaders. I can feel her tension. This is different from anything else.

She walks up to me.

Walks

She doesn't spring or run over to me. She walks. And she has a smile playing across her face.

I remember that smile, a woman had that smile before.

No, don't show fear.

Tooru places a hand on my shoulder and pushes the chair over. I am looking at the ceiling. How did she do that?

She is hovering over me.

She holds up one of her hands and a single drop of water comes from her fingers.

It lands on my forehead.

But it keeps going. Soon, it is the only thing I can focus on.

Tooru:

Drip.

I have control.

Drip.

I am a ninja.

Drip.

I will get the information out of Mako.

Drip.

I will not kill Mako.

Drip.

I watch as Mako's eyes go wide. I feel my lips tug up. I am enjoying myself way too much. But, why shouldn't I be enjoying myself? This man wanted to do something awful to me and he also got me in trouble with lord sixth. That is something I can never forgive. Even with everything that I have seen, this is upsetting me a lot. And I never want to…

I hate people who are late. Late is one of those things that I cannot stand.

I hate people. I want to be left alone. I want to find mother. I want to know, I need to know. Who needs people? Nothing will change what happened.

I was late once.

I should have been faster.

'Come back Tooru'

The coos, the hushing. The crying.

Drip.

I feel my finger itching to break open someone skull. I want to know. I should know.

Maybe being a dog isn't right for me. I like playing too much.

People being late pisses me off.

Mothers cry, the sound rings from my ears. The want to be important.

Drip.

But Mako is fun to play with. Mako's screams are music to my ears.

Late screams, late people, and a late life.

Maybe I should stop. But what fun would that be? I need to do this, something is overpowering me to want to harm Mako in the worst way that I can.

Another scream.

Drip.

Mako looks in pain.

Drip.

I tilt my head.

Drip.

Mako should talk.

Drip.

Ibik

Standing there horrified by Tooru. Mako is screaming and Tooru is smiling. But it is a smile that tells me that she is not all there. I've known Tooru since she was little, and I have to admit, she is pretty messed up in the head.

She doesn't go this far though. She knows what she is allowed to do.

I should go in there. I need to go in there. But I never have seen this side of her, and it's scary, even for me.

I need to think of a way to get her to calm down, but right now she is scaring me. I don't even know if there is any way to calm her down. But the question she just asked would go unanswered, and she would probably not be happy if that happened.

"I can't…" Mako mumbles.

"Oh? What can't you do Mako?" Tooru asks, her tone is too sweet.

"I joined because of power… and because it seemed like fun," Mako whimpers.

The dripping stops, "Go on," Tooru is still on top of him.

"I can't get away with things in my village, but I can in Hana Bakemono. Everything is free game, there is an order but it is so small that I forget that we have one," Mako rushes.

Tooru grins, "Hana Bakemono, finally have a name," she laughs, "And what are the goals of Hana Bakemono?"

"I… I can't tell you…" Mako stammers.

Tooru holds up her hand and a flame ball appears, "This flame could or could not burn off your flesh, see how I have an option? Speak."

There is silence. Tooru starts to bring her fist closer to Mako's pelvis. She looks like she is having too much fun.

I don't blame her for the pelvis though. How he's been talking about her…

That's when it finally snaps about what might have happened in the cave. He tried didn't he?

"Okay, we want to start a village that rivals the five great nations!" Mako screams.

Tooru does not pull back from his pelvis though.

I run in. I need to stop this. She got information, I can take it from here.

"Tooru, we have the information that we need," I say.

She doesn't seem to hear me. I run up and grab her arm, making sure to keep the flame away from me. She struggles against me and I decide that using my height against her is the best thing that I can do right now.

"Let go," She hisses.

I pull her against my chest and hold her there for a few minutes. But those few minutes don't come without punishment. She is punching and kick me as hard as she can. Which hurts a lot… she can pack a hit. Not splash hit but a very chakra focused in areas, all over my arms and legs. I know that I will have to get them looked at by Sakura.

But she calms down and I look down at her. I feel my chest becoming wet. Her shoulders are moving up and down.

"We will be back Mako and I too would like to ask you some questions," I say to him.

He nods, "Yes, whatever you say and I will answer anything that I can."

I scoop Tooru up into my arms, making sure to keep her face hidden. I give a nod to the guard as I leave with Tooru in my arms.

I walk to her house. She does not need to be in this kind of pain. I snicker at myself. Why did I let her go so far to where she snapped? There is still a lot about her that I do not understand.

She is quite a mystery. I need to tell Kakashi what she found out though.

I open the door and go inside. I walk her back to her room and lay her on her bed. She needs to sleep. After that freak out, she needs it. I haven't seen her do that since she was a little kid. What even happened to her?

Kakashi knows, but he won't say anything.

I grab some paper and explain to her what happened with Mako. I don't go into great detail but I tell her enough. She has a right to know and she can watch the security tapes if she wants to when she wakes up.

I get to her door and turn around to see her still asleep, I close the door and head out. I walk into the kitchen and find Yamato sitting down.

He looks up, "Oh, Ibik!"

"I've come to drop Tooru off," I reply, moving toward the door to leave.