Chapter 27: Interrogation

Sasuke led Tensai and Yuko inside the prison. He forced them to make a left towards another cell block that was not being used by the group. Sasuke then forced Tensai into one cell and Yuko into the other and shut the cell doors.

"What is the meaning of this?" question Tensai.

"It's a security measure," Sasuke answered. "Once Naruto gets back, we'll be asking you questions."

"After we answer these questions, are you going to kill us?" asked Yuko.

"Depends on your answers," Sasuke replied coldly.

Yuko backed up the cell wall in the back of the cell. Tensai didn't let Sasuke's words frighten him but at that moment he just viewed Yuko as a weak minded girl.

"You act tough, but you don't scare me," Tensai said as Sasuke was walking towards the enterance of the cell block.

Sasuke stopped in his tracks and turned to look down towards Tensai. His look didn't change when he spoke.

"I'm not trying to scare anyone, the truth is, your answers to our questions will determine if we let you live and stay here or die."

Sasuke turned back and walked out of the cell block.

Tensai stayed quiet for a few minutes to make sure Sasuke wasn't anywhere near the cell block to hear what he was about to say. Once he was ready, he walked over to the bars closest to the next cell over where Yuko was being held.

"Yuko," he called out.

When Yuko heard Tensai's voice call her name, she wanted to ignore it but she walked towards the front of her cell, closest to Tensai's cell and let out a deep breath.

"What do you want Tensai?" she asked.

"When they question us, don't you dare say a damn thing, you hear me?" demanded Tensai.

"What if I do?" challenged Yuko. "You won't know and besides why are you trying to keep it all a secret now, the lab was overrun."

"Because of the lab being overrun!" Tensai yelled. "It doesn't fucking matter anymore!"

"They need to know!" protested Yuko.

"Yuko!" Tensai continued yelling, "Do as I God damn say and don't fucking tell them anything or when I get a chance, I'll cut out your tongue!"

"Fine!" Yuko said.

Naruto watched from the other side of the fissure Shikamaru was talking about as all the Walkers he had led away from The Prison fell, trying to reach Naruto. It had been at least an hour since he had left The Prison and was kind of anxious to get back and interrogate those two people.

Other than that, there was something else that was bothering him, he felt so tired after just using his Kage Bunshin to help kill off a few of the Walkers that he didn't know if he could make it back to The Prison without collapsing. It was quite strange given the fact he could nearly go all day constantly creating Kage Bunshin and keep training.

"What the hell is going on with me?" he asked himself. "First Kurama's ability to quickly heal my wounds has slowed and now this."

Naruto looked himself over to see maybe he had gotten bitten recently and didn't realize it but scanning over himself, he didn't find any bite marks now felt like he had an injury on his back. He didn't know what was causing this tiredness and lack of healing.

Naruto released himself from his thoughts and realized the horde of Walkers he had led were gone. They all had fallen down of the edge.

Naruto dared to make more Kage Bunshin to get across which he barely managed to do. Once he got across, he started feeling dizzy and lightheaded.

"Shit," Naruto cursed. Before he passed out, Naruto managed to get himself up a tree to safety just in case anymore Walkers came back.

Night time had fallen and Naruto still hadn't returned from leading the Walkers off to their deaths or hopeful deaths and Sasuke felt something had gone wrong. Sasuke saw Shikamaru and Shino enter The Prison, just earlier he saw Tenten and Choji leave so it must have been a shift change at the gate's guard towers.

"Shikamaru," Sasuke called out.

Shikamaru turned, "What is it Sasuke?"

"Guard the newcomers, I need to find Naruto," Sasuke ordered. "He should have returned by now, I fear maybe something happened."

"Uh, sure," Shikamaru said.

Shikamaru took Sasuke's place as he walked outside and headed towards the gate.

"Open the gate," Sasuke said.

"Naruto said to stay here and watch our new guests until he comes back," Tenten said.

"I know but he should have been back by now, I need to make sure nothing happened to the idiot," Sasuke continued.

"Now that you mention it, he has been gone awhile," Tenten said. "Alright, but be careful."

Sasuke didn't reply back as he left The Prison in search of Naruto.

Sasuke reached the fissure and started looking around. He looked down the edge but it was too dark at the bottom to see anything. Sasuke performed a few hand signs and shot out a big fire ball towards the bottom. After doing so, Sasuke felt something strange. Pain.

He never felt pain after performing his jutsu before, why would it start now? Sasuke pushed that question to the back of his mind as he focused on the fire ball that was illuminating the darkness below. The light revealed the hundreds of Walker corpses but he didn't see any blonde hair.

"Doesn't look like he fell, unless all those Walkers fell on top of him," Sasuke said to himself.

Sasuke looked up into the trees and found an odd looking shadow in one of them. He climbed the tree to get a closer look and found Naruto sleeping on one of the branches.

"Dobe," he said to himself.

Sasuke walked up to Naruto and kicked his foot a few times.

"Hey, get up," Sasuke said.

Naruto opened his eyes to see nothing but darkness. He turned and looked up to find Sasuke looking down to him.

"Sasuke?" questioned Naruto. "Where the hell am I?"

"You outside you idiot, don't you remember?"

"I remember leading Walkers to a cliff and then nothing else," Naruto stated.

"Come on, we got guests to interrogate," Sasuke said.

"Oh yeah!" Naruto struggled to get to his feet.

He felt wobbly and unstable but managed to keep upright as he and Sasuke headed back to The Prison.

Sasuke and Naruto reached The Prison as Tenten opened the gate to let them back in. Naruto still felt tired from the earlier events so he decided he would interrogate the newcomers tomorrow.

"I need more rest, I used a lot of chakra to led those Walkers to that fissure," Naruto said as memories of the day returned to him. "We'll interrogate those newcomers tomorrow."

"Tch," was all the sound Sasuke made and walked away.

Before Naruto entered The Prison, he saw Hinata, sitting at Kiba's grave. Ever since they put him in the ground there, Hinata and Akamaru spent most of their time there. Naruto felt it was time for Hinata to start the process of moving on since it had been four months since burying Kiba but wasn't going to be the one to tell her. Truth be told, he hadn't spoken at all to Hinata since the slap and he was going to let Hinata be the one to break the ice when she was good and ready.

Naruto opened his eyes as a small amount of daylight penetrated his cell. He sat up in his bed and felt a presence. He looked over to his right to find Sasuke standing outside his cell.

"How long have you been waiting for me to wake up?" Naruto asked.

"I didn't really pay attention," Sasuke answered.

"Well can you leave so I can get dressed?" Naruto said.

"Hurry up, we need to interrogate those newcomers," said Sasuke as he walked away.

"Wait, who the fuck is in charge here?" Naruto asked himself.

Sasuke waited outside the cell block he had placed Tensai and Yuko in and it felt like an eternity for Naruto to get dressed. They had been alone with each other far too long, enough to collaberate a story to keep them alive and at this point he felt it useless to even ask any questions.

"You ready to do this?" asked Naruto, who walked up and Sasuke nodded. "Wait, before we go in there, which one are you taking?"

"I'll take Tensai," said Sasuke.

"Alright, then I take the girl," Naruto said.

They both walked into the cell block and found Yuko and Tensai asleep. Naruto began banging on the cell bars.

"Alright you two, wake up," Naruto said.

"Oh your back," Yuko said as she sat up on the bed.

"Yeah, I'm back," Naruto said as he opened the cell door. "Come with me."

Yuko nodded and exited the cell door as Naruto led her out of the cell block.

"Wait, why am I not going with her?" asked Tensai.

"No dumbass, you two are being interogatted seperately," Sasuke said. "Did you really think we'd ask you two questions in the same room?"

"Kind of, I mean we didn't commit any crimes, we just needed help," answered Tensai.

"It's not that you're a criminal, its that we don't trust anyone," Sasuke said.

"Where are you from?" asked Sasuke.

"I'm from a small village in Kaze no Kuni. We thought we were safe since we were in the middle of no where but a week ago a large horde of the dead found us and well me and Yuko were the only ones to get out alive," answered Tensai.

"This is a good place as any," Naruto said.

Naruto had led Yuko to the infirmary. It was now empty as no one had been injured or fallen ill in quite some time so it was a perfect place to interrogate the woman without any interference from anyone or anything.

Yuko sat down in a chair that Naruto offered but Naruto chose to stand at the moment. There was an awkward silence that made Yuko uneasy.

"So where are you from?" asked Naruto.

Yuko contemplated her answer. She wanted to tell the truth but was afraid of Tensai. Maybe she could tell the truth and get Naruto not let on what he knows.

"Well?" Naruto asked, waiting for a response.

"I'm going to tell you everything but whatever you say has got to stay between us for now," Yuko said. "Please!"

"Fine."

"Whatever Tensai will say to your comrade won't be the truth, but mine will," Yuko began. "We are from what we thought was a secure laboratory in the mountains of unclaim land straight north. When the dead began to rise we were tasked to find the cause and maybe a cure. We were basically studying this virus."

"Why'd you come here?" asked Sasuke.

"I didn't choose to come this direction, me and Yuko just ran and just so happened to find this place," Tensai answered. "We just kept running but the Walkers just followed and it just attracted more and the horde got bigger."

"So why'd you come here?" Naruto asked.

"While we were studying this, we never did find a cure before the fences around the lab fell down allowing the dead to infiltrate. Me and Tensai managed to fight our way out and just ran. We didn't have a particular place to go, we just wanted to get away and we did our best but some of the dead just started following us and they attracted more of them and before we knew it, there was this big horde of dead trying to eat us," Yuko answered.

"How many people have you killed since the world became shit?" asked Sasuke.

"None," answered Tensai. "You guys are the first alive people we've ran into since we left that village."

"Have you killed anyone since the world collapsed?" Naruto asked.

"No," Yuko answered. "You are the first contact with alive people since we ran away from that lab."

"I think I have all the answers I need right..." Naruto began but Yuko continued.

"Don't trust Tensai. He threatened to kill me if I told you any of this," Yuko warned. "I have a feeling he had something to do with the horde breaking through the fences to overrun the lab but I can't prove it."

"Well I promise you I won't tell anyone what you told me yet and I'll make sure to have someone keep an eye on Tensai for the time being," Naruto asked.

"There is one more thing I have to tell you," Yuko continued.

"What's that?" asked Naruto.

"While we were studying the virus, we did connect it with a change in a Shinobi's body," Yuko began.

"Change? What kind of change?" asked Naruto.

"A Shinobi's ability to mold chakra and use jutsu," Yuko answered. "The virus changes the chakra into something that can still keep you alive, but it can't be molded to use in jutsu."

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.

"Whatever this virus is, it's changing your chakra signature into something unusable, meaning you are losing your ability to use jutsu. The more you use your chakra now, the faster you'll lose the ability to use jutsu," Yuko warned.

Naruto couldn't say anything. Losing the very abilities he had worked so hard to gain was being wiped away by a virus that ended the world?

"I know Shinobi live by the jutsu, but as we know it, there will be no such thing as ninja anymore," Yuko said. "Also, that change in the chakra, we believe, is what reanimates you when you die."

"We had a friend that die a while back that wasn't bitten and turned, is that have something to do with this chakra change?" asked Naruto.

"Yes," Yuko answered. "You don't have to be bitten to turn, the virus has invaded everyone."

"How do you expect me not to tell my group this information?" Naruto asked. "This is something everyone needs to know."

"Please, just until I can convince Tensai to let me..." she stopped when Naruto put his hand up.

Sasuke stood their in silence, processing everything Tensai said to him but something was quite off.

"You're lying," said Sasuke.

"Um, what?" Tensai said, nervously stuttering.

"I don't believe anything you said," Sasuke said. "Why were you wearing lab coats?"

"We, uh, found them along the way," Tensai answered. "It made us look important I guess. We thought maybe they would convince any surviving groups to let us join them."

"So you're going to sit here and continue to lie knowing I caught you?" asked Sasuke.

"I'm not lying," Tensai said.

Sasuke had heard enough and closed the cell door. He knew Tensai was lying so he would not be letting Tensai out of the cell.

"That is all I have for you," Naruto said. "You will be allowed into the group. Depending on what Sasuke gets from Tensai, if he doesn't believe he is worthy of staying, then we will exhile him and you can tell everyone what you just told me without fear."

"Sounds like a deal," Yuko said, smiling for the first time since finding The Prison.

Naruto and Yuko walked out of the infirmary where Sasuke was waiting for them. Naruto led Yuko and Sasuke to the cell block the group was using as their housing.

"There are a bunch of empty cells on this block, you can pick one that hasn't been claimed and it's yours," Naruto said.

Sasuke looked at Naruto and whispered, "She pass your interrogation?"

Naruto nodded.

"I need to speak with you about Tensai," Sasuke whispered and walked out of the cell block.

Naruto followed Sasuke who took him back to the infirmary where they could speak without the fear of listening ears.

"Everything Tensai told me, I believe is bullshit," Sasuke said. "I don't want him here."

"What did he tell you?" asked Naruto.

"He told me he was from some small village out in the middle of nowhere in Kaze no Kuni. Saying they stayed because they believed they were safe and then some massive horde stumbled onto this village and killed everyone except them," Sasuke began. "I didn't believe it from the start."

"Yuko told me they were in some secluded laboratory studying what ever made the dead rise," Naruto said. "She also told me Tensai threatened her not to tell us some information they've discovered."

"What's that?" Sasuke asked.

"I'll let her tell everyone later, first we must exile Tensai," Naruto said.

"Agreed," Sasuke said.

Naruto and Sasuke walked back to the cell block they kept Tensai in and walked to the cell they had kept him in.

"So, do I get to stay?" asked Tensai.

Sasuke opened the cell door and allowed Tensai to step out of the cell. Without words, Naruto and Sasuke led Tensai outside The Prison and to the gate. When Naruto was close enough for Tenten to spot him, he gave the signal to open it.

"Hey, wait a minute, what are you doing?" asked Tensai, starting to panic.

"Your stories don't match," said Naruto. "I felt she told me the truth."

"You didn't," Sasuke said.

"Yes I did!" yelled Tensai. "So you're going to believe some bitch over your fellow man!"

Naruto punched Tensai in the jaw.

"One thing I won't tolerate is the disrespect towards anyone in my group!" Naruto said with venom. "Yuko is part of my group now so I would watch what you say."

Sasuke pushed Tensai a few inches, "Leave, you're not welcome here."

"Yeah, fuck you all!" Tensai yelled. "You will regret this!"

The gate closed as Tensai continued to berate The Prison and Naruto's group as Naruto began to walk away. Naruto stopped and turned to Sasuke slightly.

"I don't trust him to actually leave the area," he whispered. "Find a way to keep an eye on him."

"Of course," Sasuke said.

"Tenten, Choji, come down from the guard towers and come inside," Naruto ordered.

Tenten and Choji came down from their posts and met with Naruto.

"Choji, go inside and tell everyone to meet me in the courtyard, some very important information needs to be said."

"Okay," Choji said as he walked toward The Prison.

"What kind of information?" Tenten asked.

"I'll be letting our newest addition to the group tell you everything," Naruto replied.

After a few minutes, Choji had rounded everybody in the group outside in the court yard, including Yuko.

"Yuko," Naruto called out and she stepped forward. "I need you to tell everyone here what you told me earlier."

Yuko turned to face the group. She was a bit nervous but now that Tensai was out of the picture, she could be herself and let everyone know what she told Naruto.

"Okay everyone, you're going to need to sit down for this one," Yuko said.

"There it is, our hide away," Lee said.

Lee was standing on a tree branch looking straight ahead where The Prison wall and front gate could be seen over the horizon.

"The Konoha Prison? Really?" asked a female voice who was just a silhouette as she stood in the darkness of shade provided by the canopy.

"Yeah but the walls really help keep the Walkers out," Lee said. "It's just as perfect as Yamato-san's Northeastern Outpost he built."

"You're right and who's leading this place anyway?" asked the female.

"You will see shortly," Lee answered.