The Huntress

Mother

Her head throbs, forcing her to wake. The memories of the past twenty-four hours rushed through her mind in a blur. Everything was vague and hazy. She remembered what happened, but it felt as though there was a cloudy film covering it. Her eyelids felt heavy, and the pain radiating through her skull caused her to feel the throbbing behind her eyes. Opening them was too much of a task. When she finally forced them open, they're met with the all too familiar figure she had the displeasure of meeting.

"What do you want now Scarface?" she growled, "Would you like to pull off my fingernails one by one with a set of pliers, or have you had your fill?"

She does her best to glare at him, but she was too mentally and physically exhausted to give it her all. Her energy drains, and lets her head fall again. A tinge of guilt briefly washes over Ibiki. However, he reminds himself that everything he does is for the overall safety of the village.

"No, that won't be necessary. Apologies, I never introduced myself. My name is Ibiki Morino. I'm the head of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Task Force. I hope you can forgive me; the last time anyone from the Land of Sound was in the Leaf Village, our Third Hokage died protecting the village. My apologies again for our paranoia. I always say it's better to be safe than sorry." He maintains eye contact to ensure his genuinism.

Katsume chuckles a bit, mentally patting herself on the back for her correct assumption about him being the interrogation task force. Okay, sure, she was irritated, and the degree of torture seemed like overkill, but she's not ignorant. She could understand putting the safety of the village above all else, as well as the extra precautions, given she's from the same land that killed their previous Hokage. It still fucking sucked, though.

"Does this mean I'm free to go speak with the Hokage? It's just that I'm getting mixed signals, you're apologizing, but I'm still handcuffed to a chair." She jiggles her wrist, making the cuffs clang against the metal.

"Yes, I will be escorting you personally."

She deadpans," Do you have to?"

He smirks and walks up to her, kneeling down to unlock the cuffs. She massages her wrists and stands up. Her legs quivered, just how long had she been in that chair? Is it still the same day?

He shows her to the door, opens it, and allows her to walk through before following behind her. Taking the lead, he escorts her out of the building. They walk through the entrance, the bright sun making her want to cower away back into the shadows. She squints, and her brows furrow in pain. She expected it to be late evening. Maybe all the excruciating pain just made it seem like she had been there for hours.

Ibiki noticed her confusion, "It's the next morning, you passed out from the pain, so after we extracted the information we needed, we just let you rest."

Katsume scoffs, "Oh, you're too kind. Though, maybe for the next torture sesh, you could move me to a bed after I pass out. My neck is killing me." She says sarcastically while rubbing her sore neck.

Just because she understands doesn't mean she wasn't going to be petty about the whole thing. There was something else occupying her mind, though. "Is the Hokage...expecting me?" She asked more nervously than she would have liked. Now walking beside her, Ibiki knew what she was really asking. Lady Fifth's personal affairs were above his pay grade. His only job was to assess potential threats to the village and Hokage, and from the information they extracted the night before, he came to the conclusion this woman was not one of them. So, he might've left the possibility of the visitor being the Hokage's daughter out of the report he had given her earlier this morning.

"Yes. She's expecting a citizen from the Land of Sound."

Katsume sighs in relief. Maybe this Ibiki guy wasn't so bad.