Author's Note: A thousand apologies would not suffice for how long I have left this story, or any of my stories un-updated, or informed my followers about their status.

Between the pandemic, assessments, submissions and an inexplicable bout of writer's block I have had to neglect my stories.

The lockdown has given me a real chance for some introspection.

I have struggled long regarding fanfiction, and many a time was tempted to leave this all behind.

But all the reviews, follows and favourites that the stories have received have reminded me why I fell in love with fanfiction in the first place- the creative freedom and the friendships that follow as a consequence of good writing.

And once again, I apologise for that, as a fan of good fanfiction, I know first-hand how vexing it can be when a good fanfiction (which I hope my stories are) is left unfinished.

After having reviewed the content, I have decided that some changes are forthcoming.

The updated pairings stand as:

Naruto/Ino

Shikamaru/Temari

Jiraiya/Tsunade (maybe in the background)

Kakashi/Anko (again most likely in the background)

Neji/Tenten

As for the two other members of Team 7, I am undecided for now, as even in canon they barely make any sense together.

d coherent flashbacks to the past.

The main reason I have chosen Naruto/Ino is that I feel their personalities in this story mesh together, as whilst both have quite sharp minds, Naruto is more strict and to-the-point, whereas Ino is more carefree.

And before I forget, Naruto does not like nor pretends to like Sakura in this.

If anyone would like to beta this story, please PM me.

Unfortunately, I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters.


Konohakagure no Sato

They never saw him, they never did.

How could they? He never allowed them to. No one - except a handful.

And of those privileged individuals, half were currently outside the walls of the village.

And another was aware of his current intentions, which left only one.

He was the only one Naruto ever allowed to recognise him.

The others were all far superior to him to be deceived by his mask.

He was the only one not to judge him, yet also the only one not to know the entirety of the truth.

And that was why Naruto trusted him; because he was one of the few who didn't despise him, one of the few who didn't look down on him as if he were the root sum of all that was wrong with their lives, as if he wasn't protecting them all simply by just having a beating heart.

He subconsciously moved his eyes towards the subject of his thought, engaged in a poor attempt to camouflage himself in all-black attire, at the entrance of the Adult Bookstore.

A smile crept its way across his face, and he snorted to himself 'Iruka-sensei is such a closet pervert'.

The boy broke himself out of his reverie to re-scan his surroundings. His choice of terrain had been intentional.

The casual passer-by would fail to see the small orange bodysuit perched atop Mount Hokage (I know that isn't the actual name, I just think it's sounds cool).

He had deliberately chosen that spot, and garbed himself in those clothes. At dawn, the fading sun cast its titanic illumination upon Mount Hokage, affording a cloak of secrecy to any inhabitants; which was further augmented by the orange eyesore worn by the currently sole occupant of the giant mountain.

Naruto loved Konoha this time of day. The receding orange light of the sun cast the village in an orange dye, making him feel like he was watching a live and moving oil painting. Yet he was not there to gaze at the sights, no- his true intention was something far more important.

Yesterday, at a private meeting with the Hokage he had been informed that there was a traitor within the ranks of the Konohakagure no Sato Shinobi Academy; and that his mission was to draw and capture the traitor, alive if possible.

Naruto had the trust of his leader, and hence was given full freedom to sort out the specifics of the mission, and he had not disappointed - devising a plan that Danzo himself would be proud of.

He was well aware that all the shinobi teachers bar Iruka-sensei had deliberately tried to sabotage his development by not paying attention to him or by failing him repeatedly in exams. Thus, his plan was to fail the graduation exam- this way any unneeded attention would not be drawn his way, and he would be safe to carry out his ingenuity.

For Naruto was not the dumb, loud-mouthed prankster everyone took him to be.

He was aware:

Aware of his heritage as the sole heir of the Fourth, as well as the only known remaining Uzumaki, and most of all, of his status as a jinchūriki - or the power of human sacrifice - someone chosen as a vessel for one of the nine great and terrible tailed beasts.

He was also aware of the numerous attempts to sabotage both his academic and personal life by shinobi and civilians alike and, therefore since the time he had started at the academy had been the personal spy of the Sandaime Hokage - his grandfather in all but flesh and blood

As a light breeze passed by, Naruto picked up a slight disturbance in the wind. He silently smirked, the mission was on.


Mizuki was glad he hadn't given up his search, for it had finally payed off. He saw the demon brat sitting with his back to him. Wearing a malicious grin, he silently approached the boy, gripping the boy's shoulder with fake sympathy.

"Hey Naruto, how are you?" he asked, his voice filled with fake concern.

The boy slumped his shoulders and answered without looking at him "I failed the exam again, Mizuki-sensei. Why? I studied so hard this time. It's so unfair."

Mizuki narrowed his eyes at this, Naruto barely ever paid attention in class, instead opting to play cheap parlour tricks on the hapless residents of this village. Anyway, none of that mattered now, not when he so was close to his goal, "Don't be disheartened Naruto, you gave it your all."

"It doesn't matter, Iruka sensei still failed me" the demon sniffled, wiping his nose off with his sleeve.

Mizuki put a hand on his shoulder, in a fraud offering of sympathy, "I understand...In fact, I'll let you in on a big secret..."

If Mizuki had been any wiser, he'd have noticed the slightest of smirks on his former student's face...

Just as he was about to leave, he remembered the most important detail and called back "Oh and Naruto, make your way over to Training Ground 44, I'll find you there."

Once he left, Naruto set for the Hokage Tower with to inform the Sandaime of his former teacher's treachery.


Midnight, Training Ground 44 aka the Forest of Death

The death-like vice of silence over Training Ground 44 was disturbed by the rustling of leaves and shaking of branches.

The seed of this disturbance was a black-clad figure streaking across the ominously named 'Forest of Death'.

Said figure stopped its movements, surveying the oppressant area around him and decided to halt.

Naruto took off his mask and took out a seemingly generic scroll. Doing the one-handed Kage Bunshin seal, he unsealed the Scroll of Sealing.

He'd been running for a while, and he was sure it would take another hour or so for the next shift of security to start duty. And in about 15 minutes time, the daily cleaning crew would have arrived and wiped away any evidence that he was in the Hokage Residence. In other words, it was the perfect crime.

Except for one variable, the criminal was not looking to get away with his crimes, he was stealing for the security of his home.

Having nothing better to do, he opened up the giant scroll, and set about perusing its contents. 'Well, jiji never said not to open the scroll' he mentally told himself.

A small section at the bottom of a page caught his eye, and he looked closer, finding the words 'Shikabane no Jutsu' written in barely legible script (It's in Boruto, but I wanted to show it here). This piqued his curiosity, a jutsu like this would have near-unlimited capabilities especially against opponents without the use of chakra.

He removed an empty scroll and copied down the contents on the original scroll.

To his puzzlement, his pen didn't work. He replaced it with another, which still wouldn't write. He scribbled gibberish onto the empty scroll, which appeared just fine. Then why couldn't he write the technique of the jutsu down? In all his admittedly short time as a shinobi, he had never experienced anything like this, nor had he expected to encounter anything like this, and he was sure this bizarre occurrence was down to one of the ninja arts.

The blonde refocused his attention of the Forbidden Scroll, flipping its pages till he got to the end, where he found of all things, a post-it note stuck to the sheet (Let's just pretend post-it notes exist in Naruto).

He read the contents of the note, and didn't know whether to marvel at the genius of the note's author, or to rip it out in sheer frustration:

Now now Naruto-kun, better men than you have tried and failed to copy the Scroll of Seals.

You didn't think it would be so easy did you?

Well then again you are still a young gaki, so let me explain something to you.

When the Forbidden Scroll was drawn up my own sensei the Nidaime Hokage, Kami bless him, had the insight to devise a mastermind security feature- chakra perception.

The Nidaime imbued upon this scroll to detect the chakra of the reader/s, and thereby gauge the purity of their emotions and intentions. He also added a feature to prevent anyone from writing down the contents of this scroll.

As for how he managed to do that, well I'll just have to tell you that on my deathbed...

Yours Faithfully,

Sarutobi Hiruzen

He decided to do the latter, and moved to tear the note off, and found that the note wouldn't budge. Begrudgingly accepting defeat, he mentally vowed retribution 'Just you wait old man, I'm going to get you back for this one.'

Having no other option, he decided then that in the time it took for Mizuki or someone else to find him, he would have at the very least learned the basics of this jutsu, and then move forwards from there.

Making a dozen shadow clones, Naruto set about at his task...


One hour later

Umino Iruka could feel it, almost touch the titanic pool of chakra closing in. He always was an adept sensor. It was the one shinobi art he had always excelled at.

And he was going to need it now more than ever. He'd been woken up at the dead of night by his colleague Mizuki, who told him that their former student Uzumaki Naruto had fled with the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage's residence.

That had been enough to rouse him from his state of grumbling. Since then, he'd been on the lookout for his wayward former charge. Iruka had a hard time accepting that Naruto could do this. He was a prankster yes, and he never paid attention in class, but one thing Uzumaki Naruto could never be was a thief, much less the thief of the Scroll of Sealing.

It was with that hope that Iruka had set out, without any weapons, trying to get to the bottom of this mystery in a way that ensured the Scroll was found and returned to its rightful place, and that nothing happened to young Naruto.

After all, he was his favourite student, not that he would tell anyone. That would be the height of unprofessionalism. But that didn't stop him from silently urging Naruto on, wishing for him to attend and pay attention in classes, for he reminded him a lot of himself.

Both were orphans, and in Naruto's case, had never known or seen his parents. Both were pranksters in their youth, not out of wanting to harass others, but because of being starved of any meaningful attention, and as such even insults were preferable to being ignored.

Iruka stopped just as he arrived in front of the source of giant chakra.

Jinchuriki or not, Naruto's chakra reserved never failed to awe him, and he thanked his stars for the fact that Naruto did not have the ability to make physical clones of himself yet, otherwise it would've been impossible for him to catch the real Naruto.

Reminding himself of the boy's stubborn yet delicate state of mind, Iruka halted for a moment before entering the clearing.

To his bamboozlement, he saw Mizuki with the Scroll of Sealing in his hand, his other reaching into his back pocket.

He wordlessly slipped back into the bushes, wanting to find out more about the situation before intervening and finding out just what the hell was going on.


Five minutes earlier

Mizuki hastened over the sides of the trees, travelling horizontally so to avoid his shoe prints on the branches. 'Those fools would never think to check the tree-trunks, and by the time they'll think of it I'll be long gone" he sneered as he could sense a large reservoir of chakra just ahead 'Finally' he grinned maliciously, 'the Scroll is mine!'

Deciding to carry on with the act until he could get close enough to the brat, Mizuki adopted the fakest smile he could manage and greeted his soon-to-be-victim.

"Hey there Naruto, I take it you've been working hard" he said, observing the torn and dirtied clothes covering the demon container.

The boy gave back an equally fake smile and produced a thumbs up "Absolutely Mizuki sensei, now I can finally become a Genin."

"Well that's what I'm here for, now give me the scroll so I can test you."

He almost fell over from the sheer weight thrown at him. Disregarding the demon child's freak display of strength, he set the scroll aside and reached for, inside his back pocket, his kunai.

"What are you doing Mizuki sensei?"

"Just taking out my examiner's sheet, don't you worry Naruto" and just as he took the boy's name, removed his hand out and launched the kunai at the the orange-clad figure, seeking to finish the nuisance once and for all.


In the bushes

Iruka could see what was about to happen, and he saw Mizuki launch the kunai at their former student.

Knowing that he could not stop the kunai in time, he did the only thing he could- and jumped at Naruto, hoping to move him out the way.

By his fortune, he managed to push Naruto out of the way.

By his misfortune, he wasn't able to move out the way in time, and was struck in the side, promptly falling to the ground like a sack.


Mizuki cursed his luck. Just as he was about to finish the brat, Iruka somehow intercepted it, and was hit himself.

This was bad. Mizuki had not expected the scar-nosed fool to find them so fast. His plan depended on killing the beast and using the jutsu his benefactor had shown him, and by the time anyone realised something was wrong he'd be well out of Konoha.

But this was not the way things could be now. He would have to kill both student and teacher, and quietly, before anyone else learned of their presence in this forest.

"Iruka, what are you doing here?" he spat out.

"Wh-what do you think you're trying to do, throwing a kunai at your student like that?" Iruka coughed out, "And why do you have the Scroll of Seals with you?"

Mizuki chuckled at the fool's naivety. "You still don't get it do you? You were tricked, a mere puppet of my genius. And now, I shall finish off that nuisance hiding behind those trees and take what is mine! If you know what's best for you, you'd stay out the way."

Of course there was no way he could let Iruka live, not after what he'd witnessed. But by giving him an out, Mizuki wanted to lull the man into a false sense of security, so that when the time came to snuff him away he'd be less of a hassle.

Unfortunately for him, Iruka was not about to go down so easily. He stood up shakily, an arm over his injured side in a protective stance "I, I won't let you do anything to Naruto" he declared with a newfound strength in his voice.

"My my, looks like the good professor grew a bone or two. And tell me, how do you plan on doing that? Your wound prevents you from over-exerting yourself, and if you can't do that then you can't stop me from hunting down that demon fox, and once I kill him, you won't be of this world for much longer either" and with that, Mizuki set off deeper into the forest, no doubt in his mind that that was where his prey had headed.

Iruka groaned and gave pursuit to him, knowing that he only had one option left.


He grinned, this was too easy. Using a simple Henge whilst giving chase, he had located his target within a few minutes. He threw a kunai at his feet, only to be shocked when the demon jumped and turned around in mid-air, evaded the kunai intended for his ankles and fired off one of his own.

Mizuki dodged in the nick of time, the kunai grazing his right ear. He frowned, since when was the demon so good at his kunai. As if in response, the demon stopped in front of him and a pair of shuriken, which sliced off the bottom of Mizuki's sandals this time.

"How did you know that I was not Iruka?"

'Naruto' gave him a cheshire grin before bursting into a cloud of smoke, and in his stead appeared "I'm Iruka."

Mizuki growled and fisted his hands "Why would you look out for that monster! The one who killed your parents!"


Up from the treetops, Naruto was hearing in on this conversation, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Below, Iruka was leaning onto a tree, having lost copious amounts of blood. He would survive, but his chances were slimming with every passing moment. Mizuki seemed to be egging him on to curse his parent's killer, meaning Naruto's tenant, and by consequence Naruto himself. It was this that Naruto was listening for. Whether or not his trust was justified, or if the people in this village who hated him would add another member to their ranks.

"You know, whether I or that demon fox take it, the impact would be the same. This scroll imparts limitless power to the one who wields it. There's no way that Naruto, the monster Fox won't use its powers."

"You're right" Iruka conceded. Above them, Naruto closed his eyes in dejection.

But the following words would change Naruto's life forever, "If he was a monster fox. But Naruto is different. He's a hardworking student who I recognise. He's earnest, clumsy and because of his burden shunned by everyone. That's why he knows the pain of others. That's why he's not a monster fox, he is Uzumaki Naruto of Konohakagure no Sato!"

In the years to come, Naruto would vehemently deny any such accusations, but in that moment for the first time in years he shed tears of joy, of relief, and above all for being accepted.

Naruto wiped his tears and put on his mask, sliding down the tree with a kunai, slinking into a hedge underneath.

Mizuki took the fuma shuriken off his back, spun it with his fingers and charged at Iruka, intent on finishing him off for good this time. Instead, just as he was about to sever the man's head off, he was violently struck on the nose and thrown back about 20 feet. The shuriken left his hand to slice through the treetops.

As he got up, he saw a masked figure in front of him.

"Now who the fuck are you?" he growled, wiping the blood off his face. Looking at the person's stature, they couldn't have been bigger than a pre-teen.

The person answered by delivering a blow to his gut, forcing him to expel more blood from his mouth this time.

Mizuki lay on the floor groaning, slowly loosing consciousness. The last thing he remembered before closing his eyes was the mask being taken off, and looking up at a whisker-faced boy with blue eyes and blonde eyes. Realising the deception, Mizuki gave a silent scream in his minds 'What the FUCK!'

Naruto turned his attention to his other former sensei. Iruka himself was on the verge of unconsciousness. He moved towards him, hesitating for a moment before bending down and placing a hand on Iruka's shoulder. "Thank you, thank you for everything you've ever done for me. You have no idea what you just said means to me. But right now we need to get you to a hospital, Iruka-sensei."

He looked back, where a team of ANBU were about to transfer Mizuki over to the T&I department. He nodded his backwards at Iruka sensei, and a couple of them came over, picking Iruka up his shoulders and ready to leave.

"Wait" Iruka requested, "Are you not coming?"

"No, I need to see Hokage-sama."

"Then I have something to give you". He looked at the ANBU "If we could get a moment?"

The mask-wearing duo understood, gingerly letting go of him and vanishing instantly into the darkness.

"Close your eyes Naruto."

"Why?"

"Just consider it my last instruction to you."

Naruto looked him at for a moment before closing his eyes. When he opened them he felt a new weight on his forehead which wasn't there before. He touched his forehead and felt a foreign object, metallic and cool to the touch. "A hitai-ate" he gasped almost inaudibly. He hugged Iruka sensei tightly, holding onto him for a good few seconds before letting go, staining Iruka's chunin vest with his tears of gratitude.

"I'll never forget this sensei" he promised the elder man, before signalling the ANBU to come over and take Iruka.

Once he was alone again, he turned around to pick up the Scroll of Seals, only to find it not there. He gave a small smile, realising that he'd once again been played by the Sandaime, this time by having the foresight to instruct the ANBU to take the scroll without Naruto finding out. Sweeping one last glance at the desolate jungle around him, Naruto re-attached his mask and left for the Hokage Tower.


During the reign of the Shodaime, an incoming visitor would find the Office of the Hokage littered with various scrolls on healing and mokuton jutsu, and dispersed along with them pictures of Hashirama's friends and family, both deceased and living. Among them were the occasional self-help guide on the art of gambling, strategically placed so as not to draw any unwanted attention from the brother of the Hokage, or from his beloved wife.

When the Nidaime came into office, he donated all of his predecessor's jutsu scrolls to the various education departments of Konoha, and burned all the gambling jutsus- he knew his brother would only keep them to spite him; not once had Hashirama ever so much as given a second glance to them. In their stead were shelves decked with books on politics, history, jutsu invention and kinjutsu - which contrary to what you think were not so easily to pilfer- the infamous strength of the then guard of the Nidaime Raikage (and future Sandaime Raikage) could not bring the books to budge an inch, and as always where the Nidaime was involved, this secret too was never unravelled by an outsider.

By the time the Sandaime was elected by his former sensei and Hokage, he elected for a more friendly approach. Gone were the old desks heaving with books whose mere title no one could read out, and in their stead were portraits some of the most important moments in Konoha's history and Hiruzen, living up to his title of 'The Professor' had personally written helpful descriptions underneath them, giving the room a museum-like appearance. Years after the maturation and eventual betrayal of one of the Sannin, Danzo would attempt one of his numerous hidden raids of the office, finding in the process hidden behind the portraits stashes of the Icha Icha novel series.

For the brief period that the Yondaime occupied this office, it was more reminiscent of the way it was during the rule of Hashirama, only instead this time the mokuton and healing jutsus were replaced with fan mail and love letters from kunoichi (and shinobi) not just from the Leaf, but reaching from the notoriously isolationist Cloud and Mist villages, which required shredding weekly, lest the ill-famed wife of his find out and raze the office down again.

Hiruzen lay in his chair in a semi-trance like state, recollecting old memories whilst waiting for his youngest Shinobi. The smoke from his pipe wafted around the room ,and revelled in the pleasing aroma.

He heard a slight tap on his door, and gave permission to the seeker to enter. A mask-wearing figure walked in, and nodded at him. Hiruzen closed his eyes and went through the ritual of bringing up a privacy seal.

When completed, he reopened his eyes and nodded back.

The person lost their mask, to reveal his grandson-like figure.

"I trust you are alright Naruto-kun."

Not that he had any doubts, but as the Shodaime had taught him, it was always best to begin with an enquiry into the wellbeing of his shinobi. It reinforced the shinobi's affection and respect for their Kage, and as a by-product, to the village.

"Hai."

"I'll accept an official written report tomorrow, but you may give a quick narration of tonight's events."

"Very well. As you know, the traitor Asakawa Mizuki (AN: Couldn't find a canon surname, so just gave him a random one, it means 'shallow' for anyone curious) planned to get away with the Scroll of Sealing and frame me in the process. Being the jinchūriki of the Kyubi and having the reputation that I have in this village, it would've been plausible enough to a large number of shinobi that this was within the realm of possibility. Until someone realised, that the Scroll was still missing. With this in mind, Mizuki divulged to me an apparent second way of passing the Genin exam, by stealing the Scroll of Seals and mastering a jutsu in the time it took to be found. In order to ensure maximum intrackability, he instructed me to go to training ground 44, where the presence and movement of various large creatures make it nigh-impossible to detect any traces of outside presence after a day or two."

"Once I was told of this, I swiftly came to you, and arranged a plan where you would be under the pretence of a deep sleep and the shinobi guarding the Scroll would be placed under a harmless, passive genjutsu by yourself. We had also agreed that, for the duration of this mission I would be backed up by a guard of ANBU corps in case something went haywire. Once the guards were out of the equation, I moved in and left with the scroll. Sticking to the various underground tunnels that the Root no longer use, I entered the forest and ventured deep inside. I then stopped in a clearing, and with my curiosity getting the better of me opened up the scroll in order to learn and note down its contents."

"To my surprise and disappointment, I couldn't transfer any information from the scroll, and then flipped through the pages for an answer as to why? Lo and behold, to my surprise you'd come up with yet another way to torment me" Naruto spat in faux rage.

"Oh you mean this" Sarutobi smiled, seemingly summoning the Forbidden Scroll out of nowhere and pointing to his note. Naruto quickly went through a series of handseals and expelled fire from his mouth, burning the pink square off. The Third chuckled and gestured him to continue.

"I then decided to make shadow clones to learn a jutsu until the time Mizuki came. As I had guessed, he arrived an hour later, and would have eliminated one of my clones were it not for the intervention of one Umino Iruka, who intercepted the kunai with his own body and injuring himself heavily in the process. I recalled my clone and observed their interaction. Iruka had guessed what had happened and gave chase to Mizuki, who was trying to find and kill me. Iruka henged himself into me, whereas Mizuki transformed into Iruka, and after a brief chase, Mizuki was about to finish off Iruka. It was at this point that I intervened and neutralised him. The ANBU then received my signal to move in, which they did, and took the prisoner to the T&I department headquarters."

Sarutobi pointed to the cool metallic piece atop the boy's forehead "And what of that? Where did you get that from".

"Iruka-sensei gave it to me."

Sarutobi smiled, understanding the development of a new bond between the two.

He straightened up then, listening very closely to Naruto's answer to his next question "And what were the shortcomings of your mission plan?".

"Well, I hadn't anticipated that Iruka-sensei would be involved, and because of my misjudgement an innocent was almost lost today" he admitted.

"Hai, and you should keep this in mind for future missions. A mission plan is never set in stone, and must always be designed to allow for any adjustments or alterations. Your mission plan was, on the basis of the known information solid, but you should have done further research prior. You could've made clones and done surveillance on the target, could've bugged him or searched his apartment for more information. After that, a more robust plan would've been possible."

"Hai Professor-sama" Naruto bowed.

"You look so much like your father Naruto" Hiruzen smiled, now that their professional obligation as Hokage and ninja was over, "but your eyes, Kami do they remind me of your mother".

"So I've been told oji-san" Naruto agreed.

"This was a success Naruto, and a good education for you. Most shinobi find themselves unable to put ink to paper when tasked to come up with their first ever mission plan. You not only formulated one, but also executed it to near perfection. Keep up your progress, and it won't be long before you'll be in my seat."

"Thanks, Old Man."

"Now go home and get a good night's sleep, you have your team listings at the academy tomorrow".

Naruto bowed once more, and taking his signal to leave, put his mask back on and exited through the window.

"Some things never change" Hiruzen chuckled, his mind flashing back to a like-minded boy with white hair and red face markings...


Later that night, Konoha T&I Headquarters

Contrary to popular belief, the Konoha T&I Headquarters was not an underground lair composed of dungeons or torture rooms, it was rather a sleek five-storey building, and at first glance seemed no different to a corporate office. Indeed, its employees did not dress up in shinobi wear or traditional robes, instead having a dress code of suits and trousers, and skirts for the ladies.

T&I employees were far more likely to spend their whole professional career filling out request forms for what were termed "observational systems", but were in reality extreme-pain causing and often lethal torture weapons. No, only the very best in the business were afforded the opportunity to actually do any 'T&I' activities. And those privileged men and women rarely found themselves in this corporate setting.

Instead, those privileged men and women set up office directly underneath this structure, in what was the much less known 'Information Extraction Rooms' or IERs. For all practical purposes, this was the actual T&I Headquarters, an actual underground lair featuring uncountable dungeons separated by cabins for employees and the sporadic storage cabinet for torture instruments.

It was inside one of these undistinguishable dungeons that one of the privileged individuals was carrying out his privilege, on the body of the traitor Asakawa Mizuki, who was howling and crying or mercy. Not that he would find any, not from Ibiki. He had the screams of a thousand such 'clients' before, and he would hear the screams of a thousand more before his time was over.

His face belied the true nature of his current activity. He was puffing out from a cigarette every now and then, caressing and drawing smoke from it as if he were at a Social at the Konoha Gent's club, instead of the darkest dungeons in the Land of Fire.

As for his 'client', his outward appearance and behaviour was an exact mirror of his inner anguish.

The cancerous smoke of a thousand cigarettes wafted in the air, forcing unbearable coughs out of him. This only exacerbated the pain and intensity of his shrieks and yells, feeling the agony of his body slowly being torn apart.

He thrashed and squirmed, unable to remove the tears out of his eyes due to the shackles holding his limbs in place.

If Mizuki had known this was the price of capture prior to his mission, he would've never accepted.

All those lessons those long hours spent under His hand, and that slippery assistant's. He had been tricked, led astray into believing he would gain a power, a power he now realised could never be his.

He could barely hear the voice of his tormentor over his own wails, and it was only after the bastard had grabbed his hair and shoved his face into his that Mizuki could hear him "For the last time, what do you know?"

"I already told you, I know nothing" he croaked out. He'd have loved to spit at the disgusting man, so bashful and crude in both appearance and temperament. But he found in this state the mere thought of doing so left him bereft of energy.

"Well, we'll find out soon enough" came the reply, as a second figure emerged from him, this one with blue eyes and blonde hair held together in a ponytail.

"Wha-what? you mean to say all this torture was for nothing? This could've happened from the beginning?"

"Precisely."

"Yo-you monster! What kind of sick bastard are you?!"

Not that Mizuki would ever confess, but the pair of hawk-like stone-grey eyes that glared at him in response had induced the most fear he'd ever felt in his life.

"You are lucky, that this gentlemen here thinks your mind may be of some use, otherwise I would've separated that which makes you a man from the rest of your body by now."

Mizuki gulped, feeling waves upon waves of terror overcome his mind. He understood now just why they called this man 'The Bringer of Pain'.

The second man stepped forward, his eyes perusing Mizuki deeply, as if he could enter into his mind without any jutsu. He'd heard of him too- Yamanaka Inoichi. The head of the mind-walkers division, and the foremost mind-reader Konoha had seen in generations.

"Would you like for him to be unconscious, Yamanaka-san?"

"Later perhaps, I would like him to be awake for now."

Before stepping away, Ibiki aimed the butt of his cigarette right between his eyes, drawing out another yell from the chained prisoner.

Through watery eyes, Mizuki could see the mind-reader come close to him, and could feel the touch of two fingers to the temple of his head. The Yamanaka uttered the name of some jutsu he couldn't make out, and then all was blank...


In Mizuki's mind

Inoichi found himself in a dark lair, reeking of serpents and unfamiliar chemicals. 'Well, we can finally confirm whose work this is' he thought to himself.

Just ahead of him, Mizuki was leaning in front of a throne. On that throne sat a hooded figure, almost hissing out instructions to his disciple. Inoichi went through another set of handseals "Kioku Hoki no jutsu (AN: Memory retention technique, please tell me if the Japanese is correct, I'm using google translate).

As Inoichi listened in on the twisted teachings, he found himself in shock of what he had just listened to. 'The depravity of that monster! Does he know no bounds!'. Realising that this information must be transferred as soon as possible, he removed himself from the mindscape, and returned to the world of the flesh.

He had always hated this part. Once, his father had described it as being akin to being woken up with a bucket of cold water. And that was exactly how it felt. When he returned, he saw Ibiki leaning against a desk, and the prisoner right where he was. Inoichi looked to a seemingly solid wall, and gave a gesture to it.

Instantaneously, it disappeared and was replaced by the Sandaime Hokage. He looked back, to see Ibiki had exited the room. Not that he didn't trust the man, he would trust his life on him, but this was the way the intelligence system worked. No one bar the Hokage and a select others knew the full details. In a world where teenagers could massacre entire populations and one could not trust someone as far as they could throw them, compartmentalisation was like holy scripture- it must always be abided by.

"How is it, Inoichi?"

"It is bad Hokage-sama. Worse than we had feared."

"I see. It is not unexpected, my former student always had a lack of morality".

Inoichi passed on what he had heard to his superior, and by the time he had finished a grim look had settled on the wizened old man's face.

"Knock him out, and this time take me with you."

He accepted the command, decking the prisoner in the back of the head and repeating the earlier process, this time accounting for the guest he would take into the realm of the soul.

This was the main reason he had a job - the perusal of the unconscious mind.

To the average person, including shinobi the mind was like a box. Open when they were awake, and closed when they were asleep.

This could not be any further from the truth. The mind was like the wind. It could be slowed, shielded against or even harnessed. But it could not be stopped. Similarly, the mind never ceased functioning. It could consume information in a subconscious state, only the person would not have any knowledge of that information once they woke up. That information was locked away in the deepest, most concealed recesses of the brain. And Inoichi was the foremost lock-smith of that door.

This time, the setting was of a laboratory, underground as well. On a table lay the prone form of the convict, Asakawa Mizuki. He was currently being operated on by two mask-wearing figures, both having hidden their faces. One of them was no doubt Orochimaru. The other person was an unknown, and for now not the focus of their attention.

Once the patient had been stitched up, one of the figures performed a series of handseals, in a strange language that Inoichi could not understand. He could feel the Sandaime stiffen next to him, meaning he was aware of what was going on.

A dark energy shifted throughout the prone body, and the memory ended.

He had a sense that no further mind-walking was required, and he extricated the both of them out of Mizuki's mind.

The Sandaime went and took a seat. His face was ashen-grey, and this moment he did not look like the 'God of Shinobi' the entire village had grown up admiring, but a fragile old man whose mistakes had caught up with him.

"What is the next course of action, Hokage-sama?"

The man replied without even looking at him "The boy must die."

Understanding who he was referring to, Inoichi took out a kunai and struck it deep within the chained man's heart, snuffing the life out of him.

The Third signalled for Ibiki to re-enter, and Inoichi looked back at the corpse.

To his abject horror, the corpse had fallen to the ground- and the reason for his horror was, the corpse was no longer that of Asakawa Mizuki, but of the container of the Nine-tails, Konoha's own Uzumaki Naruto.

"Wh-what is this?" he managed to ask against all the confusion and sickness.

"That gentlemen, is Orochimaru's new technique" the Hokage announced "Corpse transformation. He knew that there was a good chance Mizuki would be caught, and he took that chance as an opportunity to carry out a new experiment".

"As well as an opportunity to stick it to us" Ibiki added.

"Burn the body, I do not want any complications."

"Hai" Ibiki agreed, and executed a simple Katon jutsu which erased any signs that a corpse had ever been there.

The Third then turned to the mind-walker "I shall expect a full report of his memories no later by tomorrow afternoon". After receiving a response in the affirmative, the leader made to return to his home. Just before he could forget, he turned around and gave a final instruction "As always, you do not have the liberty to divulge to anyone what you just witnessed. Any attempts to do so would be met with equal retribution" and with that he was off.

He too wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. Not after witnessing how demented and insidious his former student had become. 'Orochimaru, just how far will you go?'


And that's a wrap for chapter one. Stay Safe!