Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Standard Scores
Standard scores have a mean of one hundred and a standard deviation of fifteen. Scores ranging from eight-five to one-hundred fifteen are considered average. It is derived by subtracting the mean of the normative sample from the individual raw score. Then the total is divided by the standard deviation
The first time Shbi gave me pocket money, I didn't know what to do with it. Ten-year-old me stared at the Ryo placed in the palm of her hand like it was an unforeseen entity yet to be discovered. Meanwhile, ten-year-old Shino pocketed his share and politely thanked Shibi for his allowance.
I couldn't fathom what I was supposed to do with it. Or what I'd done to deserve it. Shibi suggested books I might like to read or decorations for my new room. I scoffed at every suggestion. What a waste of money. Later that same week, Shino bought a new butterfly net. While my money lay heavily and disparagingly in my pocket. Too afraid it would be taken away; the money never left my person. But there was nothing I wanted… deserved. I think I ended up treating Shikamaru and Chouji to ice cream just so I could stop thinking about it. After that, whenever Shibi gave me money, I did one of three things with it:
1. Squirrel it away for a rainy day.
2. Hide it in Anzu's apartment so she couldn't refuse it.
3. Do something nice for Shikamaru and Chouji
Why am I bringing this up now? Because Inoichi just asked me to describe my hobbies and interests and I was drawing a blank.
It was after lunch. The sun was high in the sky and Inoichi and I had been at it for hours. Rubbing my forehead, it took willpower to not put my head down. We had started with the IQ test. I was asked to solve matrices, recall numbers read aloud, and put puzzles together in my head without manipulating any pieces. And that's only naming a few. All tasks started with stupidly easy questions and built into mildly challenging ones. And after my brain was turned into mush, Inoichi decided it was time to have a heart-to-heart.
"What?" I asked; staring through blurry eyes.
"Hobbies", Inoichi repeated; tapping the eraser of his pencil against his notepad. "What do you like to do?"
Sighing, I fidgeted in my chair; questioning the validity of this inquiry. "Math, I guess".
Inoichi hummed as he scribbled something down. It wasn't just Inoichi I had to contend with. After running their initial tests, Tsunade and Shizune brought me back for an EGG and an FMRI. Last night, I slept at the hospital to participate in a sleep study. They even had a Hyuga examine my chakra. Needless to say, I was ready for this whole ordeal to be over.
What is it about math that you like?" Inoichi pressed.
"It's consistent", I yawned. Mostly genuine, but trying to move this thing along. "Math is hard to argue against and there isn't anything emotional about it".
I felt like someone had turned me inside out. My organs exposed for critique. There wasn't anywhere to hide. "What about your friends? What do you like to do with them?"
Why did any of this matter? I wanted to counter. My hand found its way to my left front pocket. Diving in, it fingered the edges of the little slip of paper I'd been carrying since returning to the village. It had become my companion while waiting between tests and doctor's visits; something to focus on other than turbulent thoughts. Still, the cartoon toad was no closure to dancing.
Inoichi arched an eyebrow and leaned forward in his seat; a nonverbal ask to answer the question I was happy to let pass. His pen was still. But that didn't fool me into thinking that he wasn't calculating opinions. I forced my hand from the pocket. Leaving the slip of paper behind. Now wasn't the time for distractions. Despite craving one. "We eat food and laze about", I answered; leaning against the backrest of my chair and slouching my shoulders.
Inoichi's pen began tapping on his clipboard. "And you enjoy that?"
"Yes". The response fell from my lips like a criticism.
One Inoichi had no problem interpreting. "I know Chouji likes to eat and Shikamaru likes to nap. But what about you?"
My left hand curled into a fist. "What? I can't like them because eating and sleeping are someone else's interests?"
Inoichi chose not to accept the provocation. Instead, he allowed silence to build. Using it like some sort of uncomfortable pressure to goad more words out of me. It was a tactic we used in T&I. Specifically when we were sitting across from civilians or weak-willed genin. "Are we done yet?" I asked; whining like the brat I am.
Though all Inoichi did was hum before posing a different question. "On a scale of one through four with one being very much and four being not at all, how would you describe your feelings of safety while in the village?"
I blinked. "Really?" I challenged; folding my arms across my chest. "You couldn't even have the decency to make the scale one through five? There's no neutral response when you use an even number for a Likert scale". Honesty, it felt wrong to even call it a Likert scale if there weren't at least five possible responses.
Scribbling something down, Inoichi took his time before reinstating eye contact once again. "So you neither feel safe nor unsafe in the village?"
My eyes directed themselves towards the ceiling where I started counting ceiling tiles. "Though I suppose that is one way to combat central tendency error; forcing someone to have an opinion. When in actuality they couldn't be paid to care either way. No, most likely, having a four-point scale would only cause the data to cluster over the two and three. That way raters could still avoid the extremes. And that's without discussing the limitations of a Likert scale regarding the lack of mean measurement and how it's more quantitative than qualitative".
"… So on a scale of one to four…"
With the number 133 and words and phrases like apophenia, emotionally immature, and chakra-adaptive floating through my head, I was reinstated to T&I as an active-duty shinobi. Reportedly a little unhinged but overall, not a threat. Something Tsunade did not seem surprised about. But I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop.
T&I's new location was directly under the Hokage monument. "Let's see prisoners try to escape from this far down", Tsunade explained as she led the way down dark twisting tunnels.
I walked in the middle with Shizune following behind. Hands shoved in my pockets, I couldn't prevent one of them from shaking. While the other was busy feeling the edge of the little slip of paper. What if this underground bunker we were heading to wasn't for T&I. Prisoners escaping? Sounded like a good place to keep an apophenic science experiment locked away.
But it was an empty fear proven to be groundless when the tunnel ended and opened into a large room. Desks were already grouped together in pods. There were two more desks than last time. Anko had already claimed hers based on the number of empty take-out containers sitting on top of one of them. On one of the walls hung a corkboard with filing cabinets framing each side. Already a dizzying amount of papers were pinned to it.
Ibiki and Anko hadn't been idle in my absence. That much was evident by the stacks and stacks of files stacked and spread out on each desk. A door on the furthest side of the room swung open. "Come on, Ibiki!" Anko exclaimed; exiting the room with her head turned behind her. "We know enough to warrant a mandatory interview". She, in all her spikey hair and fishnet glory, was a welcomed sight.
"Not yet". Ibiki answered; following behind Anko. Dark bags hung under his eyes but he moved with a familiarly steadiness that absorbed any sense of worry. "Not until we have-" At that moment, Ibiki saw what Anko had not. "Lady Tsunade", he greeted pausing to stand at attention.
Anko's head snapped forward as her feet stilled. But her focus landed on me rather than our leader. "Kid! Finally. Do you know how much grunt work I've done since you've been gone?"
I scoffed and turned my face away. "Ibiki, Rion has been cleared. You can bring your student up to speed", Tsunade announced; drawing my attention back to the center of the room.
Ibiki sighed; eyes darkening. But he didn't disappoint. During my time abroad and on medical leave, he and Anko combed through records, analyzed financial reports, and made lists of suspected victims and suspected perpetrators. The end results consisted of these facts:
1. About ten years before my birth, there had been a significant increase in miscarriages and stillbirths in impoverished neighborhoods.
2. About ten years before my birth, Konoha started an outreach program that provided free "pre-natal vitamins" to expectant mothers resigning in neighborhoods falling below the poverty line. Like the red district for example.
3. The program was still ongoing.
4. The leading philanthropist behind the program; Danzo Shimura
Setting down the case file I'd been handed, I looked up at Ibiki and the other adults who were waiting to witness my reaction. "But how is Orochimaru involved?" I asked. We had moved to the desks before starting and now everyone occupied a chair.
There was no doubting his involvement. That was impossible after all the forty-eight nonsense and talk about being a receptacle body. Shizune was wringing her hands together as Ibiki sat with a stone-like posture. "It's just theory work for now", Ibiki said. "But we believe Orochimaru may have had a hand in making the pre-natal vitamins".
Why? I wanted to ask. But I knew that would be jumping ahead. Something unwise when we didn't have all the answers. Or all the questions. "They aren't prenatal vitamins", I settled for instead.
Anko stopped what she was doing with a stack of paperwork. "You've seen them before?"
Nodding, I thought about the cartoon toad in my pocket and ignored how much I wanted to pull it out. "And no one is fooled by them. At least not in the red district". Tsunade leaned forward; the bored expression she'd worn through most of Ibiki's explanation slipped off her face. "They use them to hopefully end the pregnancy or at least kill the fetus".
It felt awful to say aloud. Like admitting to a personal fault. "Why not go to the hospital?"
I shrugged. Wasn't the answer obvious? "Guilt. Shame… Money". Shizune frowned as if she felt the plight of all those I just referred to. Mom had used them. So had Anzu. They always worked. At least, for our family they did. There were some mothers who ended up with babies who weren't stillborn. The polite thing to do in that situation was to never mention it.
"Can you get us a sample?" Ibiki asked face void of emotions. It was a sharp contrast to Tsunade's ire and Shizune's sorrow.
Blinking slowly; aware Anko was studying my every facial tick, I nodded once. I'd have to go back to the red district. Talk to people I wished dead. Though it was still in the realm of possibility. My response pleased Tsunade. "Then we'll be able to analyze the vitamin and figure out what they're made of".
"That still doesn't explain why Danzo is a part of this", I pressed. "What does he get from helping the red district with birth control?"
Anko slid a list of names in front of me. No surnames. Only firsts. "All these kids are missing. But no reports were ever filed" Anko explained. "We didn't know about it until we started interviewing the working girls".
"The first one dates back about eighteen years ago", Ibiki added as my mind finished drawing connections. "Recognize any of the names?"
I shook my head. Apparently signaling I was done because Tsunade snatched the list from me in the same moment.
As Tsunade scanned the list, Ibiki continued. "Every name on that list shared similarities. They went missing either at the age of six or after being dismissed from the academy. Each of their mothers had taken the vitamins".
I stared at Ibiki longer than I probably should have. Where this was going was standing out as if it were the only word printed in bold. The problem was that I didn't have any reason to know about it. "You think…" I chose my words carefully. "Orochimaru and Danzo worked together to design and distribute pills to pregnant women. Orochimaru for the purpose of having bodies he can put souls into. And Danzo because…"
Ibiki finished the sentence for me. "He needed soldiers for his foundation".
"I thought he was after children from clans", Shizune said; looking alarmed as she looked at everyone in turn.
Tsunade pursed her lips as Anko shook her head. "He was. Until Hiruzen-Sensei put a stop to it. I found the old man's notes on the matter in his office". Tsunade's tone was back to bored. Clearly, this wasn't new information to her.
"But what do the pills do?" I asked. Orochimaru's purpose we could guess. He let enough slip during our last fight. Danzo, however, was still a mystery.
Shaking her head, Tsunade said, "We need a sample and to test those on this list to know for sure".
"Which means we need access to Danzo's foundation", Ibiki concluded.
"And Danzo needs to be out of the way while we do that", said Anko. She had our eyes fixed on Tsunade. "Preferably locked in a cell". The feral edge in her voice was more telling than her words. Knowing her feelings about Orochimaru, anyone who worked with that psychopath was probably seen as equally evil by Anko's standards.
Drumming her fingers on the desktop, Tsunade took her time. Danzo wasn't like any other shinobi in the village. He was too powerful with influence amongst the other elders. It would be impossible to order him into T&I custody without a major headache and a ton of pushback. "I'll let you know when that can happen", Tsunade agreed. Causing Anko to grin devilishly at her.
It became a little easier to breathe. Alright. Good. There was a plan underway. Our time aimlessly wandering in the dark was over. And with something to focus on, I could further suppress all the bubbling emotions that kept inconveniencing me.
"One more thing", Ibiki said. My breath hitched and he waited for me to look at him before continuing. "We'll need to interview your sister".
My stare hardened; eyes narrowing. "No".