Ibiki felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up when he saw his little brother being carried unconscious past his office towards the cells. He glanced at Sakura who was still pouring over the medical book he'd bought her and making notes. Idate was older, and it was just a glimpse, but he looked like he'd imagined he would.
He stepped out from behind his desk. Sakura glanced up at his movement but he waved a hand at her and she returned to her book. He stepped into the corridor and frowned when he couldn't see his brother. The low murmur of voices throughout the complex was constant. He strode down the corridor and checked each cell finding them all empty.
He inhaled sharply and hurried to the morgue that was attached to the building and he let out a sigh of relief when it was also empty but it begged the question of where did his brother go. He ran back to the front desk and scowled when he found it unmanned. Of all the times for Iwashi to take a break he thought.
The break room was empty. Mitarashi's office was empty. There was no one in the corridors. He could hear people talking but there was no one around.
He stopped and gave his chakra system a jolt. When nothing changed he formed the hand-signs and flooded his system with chakra before dropping it all instantly.
"Kai," he growled and felt instant relief when people swirled into being around him. He checked the cells again. He checked the morgue again this time going through and opening all of the chiller doors just in case. He stopped Iwashi coming out of the break room and demanded to know who had brought his brother in and where he'd been taken.
Iwashi blanched and rushed to consult his clipboard. "Says here he was taken to room 201 taicho."
"201? But that's..." Ibiki pressed his hands together and flared his chakra several times to break the genjutsu.
He hadn't even left his office and Sakura wouldn't look at him.
"I'm sorry Morino-san," she whispered. "You said I'd have to learn how to use fear. Fear for one's precious people, the hope that they're okay..." she trailed off.
"That was a mindfuck and a half Haruno, it was layered and each layer was strong. Don't be sorry. That's exactly what a good genjutsu needs to be. I'd say what you just did was a solid B-rank. If you put that level of complexity into your other genjutsu's, then I don't think I've got anything else that I can teach you."
Sakura was both elated and disappointed. It seemed that each genjutsu was personal to the person who created it, similar techniques and ideas were used, demonic illusions, false surroundings, sleep and paralysis, escape and interrogation. They also usually had to be tailored to the people or person it was being used on. But, foundations could be built and now she had something to use as her foundation, she could start building up and working on other genjutsu's to keep in her bag of tricks.
"Well then, maybe you can show me the old T&I seals you told me about," she suggested.
"Tonbo Tobitake has been instructed to show you to the room we've got them in when you're ready. You can take all the notes you want, but the cuffs and the doors stay here." Sakura stood, taking the hint that he needed space.
"Thank you Morino-san, your teaching has been invaluable," she bowed a full ninety degrees and held it a touch longer than necessary to show her gratitude.
"You're welcome kid, now get out," his gruff command holding equal amounts of pride and affection but with a hint of pain. She scooped up her books and high-tailed it out of his office and to the front desk where Iwashi was lounging with his feet up on the desk along with another chūnin dressed in the T&I uniform- this one with bandages over the top half of his head. They were throwing senbon into the target attached to the roof.
"Haruno-chan!" Iwashi called out, both surprised and happy to see her. "I've been meaning to track you down. Your tags are amazing, and I might have accidentally promoted your skills to the rest of my team on my last mission, when they came in handy and saved all our arses."
"You need more don't you?"
"I need more," he grinned.
Sakura pulled out a sealing scroll and pumped a miniscule amount of chakra into it and it revealed several boxes that held neatly packaged items.
"Are you serious!" the bandaged chūnin gasped. "This is who you got those tags from?"
"Ah Haruno-chan, this is Tonbo Tobitake, one of my teammates, and also my colleague here in T&I. Tonbo this is Haruno Sakura, and yes, she is the seal maker of those explosion tags," Iwashi introduced. "You look like you've expanded your selection Haruno-chan."
"I have Tatami-san," she grinned. "I now have smoke bombs, knock-out bombs, and paralysis-sleep seals, containment seals, perimeter seals, barrier seals, trap seals, trigger seals, security seals, and privacy seals all of my own design, improving on-or at least I think improving on range, duration, and overall strength. The privacy seals give off a green hue when they're working, they flash blue when they're being tampered with, and red once they've been broken. I've also got sealing scrolls that hold more than you'd expect considering their size."
"You're the one Morino-san is letting have a look at the old seals." She smiled.
"Yes, he said to find you when I was ready to have a look. If you've got time now, I'd appreciate it."
"Hold on I need to re-stock," Iwashi said poking through all of the boxes happily. "The security seals are home protection?" he asked looking at the neatly printed labels on the box.
"Yep, attach one onto every external entrance- windows and doors. Make a seal sequence at least five seals long starting with Dragon and ending with Horse- so seven seals total minimum, and then channel chakra into each of the seals with the main entrance- that's the front door for those who never use it, both first and last. You can add access to people who come and go regularly, just get them to do the seal sequence and channel a bit of chakra into the seal on the front door. Anyone who doesn't have access can't get in, and if someone does manage to force themselves in not only will they'll regret it but all of the seals will glow. The seals need to be replaced every four months."
"How much are they?"
"Pack of twenty-five seals is fifty thousand."
Iwashi choked. But Tonbo looked intrigued. "The home security seals available at Good on Paper need to be replaced ever two months and cost thirty thousand for twenty seals. I also believe that visitors and guests have to enter through the front door even if they have the entrance sequence. Do you have an order form?" he asked turning his head towards Sakura.
"Yeah. I wasn't planning on going into business but I'm getting a regular group that buy from me, and order forms help me keep track of my stockpile." She handed them both a miniature sealing scroll after carefully inking their names onto the outside label. "An order form is sealed inside. Fill it out seal it up and give me the scroll. I'll seal your order with a new order form inside to give back to you when I collect payment, or you can seal the payment up in the scroll when you order. The form lists what I can provide and the cost."
Iwashi opened his scroll and released the order form. "Novel, but compact and discrete. I like it."
Sakura sealed away the stock she carried with her and turned to Tonbo. "Can we go have a look at the seals now Tobitake-san?"
"Of course Haruno-san. I'm interested to see what you'll make of them."
They left Iwashi on front desk duty and Sakura was led to a room two floors down. Inside was a steel table and two equally hard and uncomfortable chairs. There were three doors propped up against the wall and two sets of cuffs hanging from the door knob of the later two doors.
"Does this mean that the door seals have been upgraded three times, and the suppression cuffs twice since the start of T&I?" Tonbo nodded confirmation. "Can I look at all of them, or just the latest ones in this room?"
"You can look at all of them in this room," he said settling onto one of the chairs and breaking out a book to read, smiling as she squealed like a kid in a candy shop and practically skipped over to the first set of cuffs to peer intently at the seal carved into them.
She had at some stage pulled out a notebook and started jotting down everything she could see with both her eyes and with her chakra. Tonbo watched fascinated as she approached the work in a logical and methodical fashion with the dedication of a career researcher. She focussed solely on the chakra suppression cuffs, only inspecting the doors to see if they were linked in any way.
Sakura spread her notes over two journals, one was solely breaking down what was already there. The other noted down questions, ideas, and possible symbol combinations.
Tonbo locked her into each set of cuffs at her request, and she made a flurry of notes in both journals while she was still bound. He bound and unbound her several times and each time she found out something new and to his astonishment managed to unlock the cuffs herself.
Chakra suppression cuffs.
Cuffs that required chakra to be channelled into them in order to be unlocked.
She unlocked them herself.
While she was wearing them.
Calling for reviews.
~G