Naruto : Struggle Of Childhood

Allies

There were few things that could possibly be worse than this in Naruto's opinion. He was about to be tortured for information by one of the most infamous inquisitors in the ninja world, and there was nothing that he was going to be able to do about it.

Morino Ibiki stared at him, and since Naruto was between two ROOT ninja, he was feeling even more nervous. That didn't mean that he was going to show anything though. Naruto kept a look of total lack of understanding on his face and hoped that Ibiki couldn't read him too deeply.

"So, this is that Taiki person?" Ibiki said, looking him over, "Yes, I remember you. Bring him in."

The two ROOT nin starting moving, and Naruto, not wanting to be dragged or anything like that, started to walk with them through the door into Ibiki's...interrogation room.

It was a place that Naruto had once heard Jiraiya talking about when he spoke of the big people in Konoha in Hakumei's briefing before their mission. From the tone of Jiraiya's voice, Naruto had always expected the place to be a dark dungeon filled with screams and very large, dramatic looking torture equipment. What was really there was a large, plain room with a desk with two metal chairs facing each other across it. A single lamp was lit on the table, providing the only light in the room. There were no windows at all. While the room didn't look like a torture chamber, the plain white walls, lack of carpet and completely cut off aspect of the place gave Naruto a feeling of unease.

"Sit him down," Ibiki said in a bored voice, "And get lost. I don't want you two breathing down my neck, while I perform a delicate job."

Naruto was forced into one of the two seats, and noticed that the light was aimed so that it fell into his face in a very uncomfortable way.

"Shall we inform the Hokage of this?" One member in a smiling monkey mask asked.

"Don't bother," Ibiki barked, "You've been getting false reports about people turning up in places they shouldn't all day. Maybe you should bring in the people reporting it. This is a precaution and you know it. If you reported every rumor about someone sneaking around, the Hokage wouldn't be able to leave his office. I'll question the brat, and if the report's legit, I'll hand him over to you two. Until then, allow me to do my job in peace."

The two ROOT members bowed and left.

Naruto and Ibiki were alone in the room, and there was no one to help him. Slowly, Naruto took a deep breath and cleared his mind. Jiraiya had taught all of them just how to handle torture if they were ever put under it. Naruto slowly built up a memory of the celebration of the victory against Zabuza and prepared to dive into it.

"Hm, you look like you've been taught pretty well," Ibiki said, looking him over, "but if you answer my questions like a good boy, it won't be necessary."

Naruto looked at him, prepared to answer with the truth only if it was in his interest.

Ibiki smirked a little, as if reading his mind, "Alright, kid, were you in the ninja district this morning?"

"Nope," Naruto said, "I was in my hotel room, which all my teammates can verify, and I went to one of the ramen bars around here. Then I got rounded up by Konohamaru, who seems to want me to train him for some reason, and made to come with him. That's it."

Ibiki looked at him and smiled, it wasn't pleasant looking, "I'm going to tell you this only once. I have sent my team to track your whereabouts, and if you're lying, it's going to be even more unpleasant for you. It's only because you're from a village that's allied with us that you're getting any kind of investigation at all. If you were from one of the other villages, you'd be in a cell right now. If you are lying, the relationship will crumble, leading to an attack on Kusa. Are you sure you don't want to tell me anything?"