This was a fun chapter, mostly there to give you Mika's backstory.
Enjoy.
Hinata's kick slammed into Mika's chest, sending him back sans chakra. She felt herself smile, knowing she was stronger than she looked. "Hurts?"
Mika huffed at her. "You know it did, you hit harder than Ibiki at times. Now, let's hurry with this spar, I have to go to Torture and Interrogation in like an hour."
She sighed. "You're lucky, your D ranks are better than mine. I had to walk a dog yesterday." She actually groaned, happily realizing something. "I love that I can show my real thoughts around you. I feel so confined by others, but with you... it all comes out, my real self."
He nodded, before vanishing with an impressively fast body flicker, one she tracked with her eyes. She easily blocked his next strike at her side, turning to knee at his chest even when he blocked it with his palm. She heard him hiss at her. "Stop hitting me so hard... and I feel the same with you."
"You picked up the body flicker really fast." She responded.
"I'll show you before I go to the D ranks."
Their spar went on for a went for another twenty minutes, with Hinata claiming victory by palming Mika's chest sending him skidding across the water. "Ibiki wants you to practice more taijutsu, right? I think you are doing well, I think in a few months it will catch up."
"I hope so. Having someone to actually go all out on helps."
Neither of them noticed the eyes of Ibiki on them as they sparred, the mourning present on his face.
:::
'That poor boy, to think he has endured so much and yet become so competent.' Ibiki's eyes went to the boy's path, what he had endured over his long life given the struggles present in his paperwork. Paperwork Ibiki had checked out of curiosity. 'Abused by his father to the point of near death, forced to take his own father's life. Mother gone to the winds, likely to another village as she was a civilian nurse. The boy even had brothers and sisters, and yet he is entirely alone...'
His heart ached for him, to think he was a good person and yet not warped by the darkness of his reality. The boy could be a good person, a great person, or even a greater ninja. He just needed to stay on a good path, and Ibiki would ensure that. That sort of darkness could warp the boy into something vile, but it could also make him into something greater than most others. Empathy was born of suffering... so it really depended on the boy and the path he would go down.
"I will be there, helping you walk a better path, Mika... you deserve better and frankly, we all deserve better than the dark path you could do down without guidance."
:::
An Hour Lady
Mika found his way into the Torture and Interrogation department, which was found under the Academy of all places. It took about five minutes to reach it through a secret doorway that Ibiki had instructed him to find. When he reached it, Mika found himself cringing at the air of darkness, pain and cries that echoed around him. A man was present in front of him, heavy set with a grey beard.
"What are you doing here?" he asked. "Wait, you're Ibiki's brat, right?"
Mika nodded. "I am... Mika. It is always so cold here?"
The man nodded, a dark smirk on his face. "It makes our patients all the more sensitive to pain."
"That makes sense." His cold, bored tone startled the man.
"You aren't bothered?"
"Not really... now, how may I help?"
"By delivering messages." Ibiki intoned, suddenly next to him, startling the bigger guy but not Mika. "That is why you are here. I have one here, take it to Anko Mitarashi, she's six floors down, room forty four b."
Grabbing the papers, Mika nodded. "See you soon, sensei."
And Mika vanished, rushing off to do his task, listening to the darkness and screams filling the air about him.
;;;
Ibiki sighed as the Tonbo turned to him. "The kid's got guts, most cannot stand the screams."
'The boy's been through worse than what we dish out. Be good to him, or they'll be hell to pay."
His subordinate cringed. "Yes, sir."
And as he left, Ibiki could not help but sigh. 'I wish you become a good man, Mika, we cannot afford another Itachi or Orochimaru.'
Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.
This was a joy to write.
Love, your Ninja Overlord,
Mika.