❝Speak❞ - A Memoir (Book 1)

02 - Interrogation

Chapter 2

***

I woke with a start, and slowly opened my eyes to look around. Almost immediately, I heard voices, making my heart jump violently in my chest. While trying to escape, I found that I couldn’t move my arms.

I looked down to find that I was in a chair and that my arms were locked to the armrests and my legs were locked to the legs of the chair. Words couldn’t describe how afraid I was.

Where am I?!

What is this?!?! Was all I was able to think at that moment.

“Well, I see you’re awake” says a voice from directly above me.

I looked up to a very scary face and felt tears surfacing in my eyes as I tried to scream, knowing that sound could never come out; no sound ever does. Besides, what does screaming ever do? Nothing.

“Now, speak up; where did you come from?!” he asked glaring at me.

Feeling utterly unnerved, I stayed frozen in the chair, unable to speak. Not like I was ever able to speak. And so, I just sat there crying as the scary man asked me questions I was unable to answer.

***

“Hokage-sama!!” exclaimed a leaf village shinobi, entering the Hokage building.

“What is it?” asks said old man in a huge chair.

“The child, sir, she refuses to speak” answered the shinobi.

Sighing, the Hokage stands up from his chair and heads toward the rather small shinobi. “So, what do you suggest we do?” he asks.

The shinobi is shocked for a minute before regaining his composure; “well, if I was the child, I personally wouldn’t want to tell Ibiki anything. So I would think we should give her someone to trust”

The Hokage smiles, obviously liking the idea; “So who do you think we should use?”

“…Well, I think we should use a member of ANBU corps; just in case she’s dangerous” says the shinobi. “But out of all the available ANBU, I would go with Hatake Kakashi” continues the shinobi.

“I see, you may leave” says the Hokage. “Oh, and tell Kakashi to see me immediately”

“Yes, Hokage-sama” replied the shinobi before leaving.

***

Little did I know that while I busy crying my eyes out, the village leader was busy figuring out what to do with me; and so I had no idea why a masked man would suddenly come into my presence to free me from the chair.

“Ibiki-san, Hokage-sama says that won’t be needed” said the masked man to the scary man.

“No, I will make her talk, I’ve never failed, and I refuse to start now” replied the scary man. I simply sniffed and listened to their conversation though I didn’t really understand much, at that time.

After talking back and forth for a few minutes, the masked man finally unlocked the metal things around my wrists and my legs and I could finally move again. Immediately, my first thought was to run, but where was I supposed to go, I had no idea where I was.

While I waited to see what would happen, I wiped the remnants of the tears from my eyes, but before I could completely wipe them, the masked man was in front of me. He looked like he was smiling, but I wasn’t so sure.

“Have you eaten yet?” he asked, his voice somewhat muffled through the mask. I slowly shake my head. That wasn’t what I had been expecting.

“What would you like to eat?” he asked sounding like he really wanted to know. I just shrugged, unable to speak.

It almost looked like he frowned through his mask, but again, I wasn’t sure. But before I could be sure, he stood up straight and held out his hand. “Come”

Still feeling scared, I refused his hand and instead, moved them behind my back. Taking the hint, he took back his hand and began walking toward what I assumed was the door. Not knowing what else to do, I decided to follow him. I had no idea that decision would change my life.

“Don’t you have any shoes?” he asked, looking at my feet. I looked also and shook my head. Meanwhile I took that time to look over his features. I noticed I could only see one thing on his face; his right eye. He had white hair that stuck up in weird ways and a metal plate on his forehead with a weird symbol on it. He was tall and he looked fairly young, considering that I couldn’t see his face.

I wanted to know who he was, and why he helped me, but I didn’t know how. Before I could do anything to gain his attention, he turned to me and again it looked like he was smiling.

“Where are my manners??” he asked; am I supposed to answer that?? (I would later learn that he asked a rhetorical question) he crouched down to be eye to eye with me and said; “my name is Hatake Kakashi, what’s your name?”

Hatake Kakashi… I just stared at him, not knowing what to do. I wanted to tell him my name, but two things stopped me. One, I still didn’t trust this man, and so I was still afraid of him because I had no idea if he would attack me or not. And two, even though I wanted to badly; I couldn’t. So, as always, I opened my mouth to say something, but no sound came out. No sound ever comes out.

He looked confused, but said nothing about it. Instead he led me to a restaurant that smelled really good. He sat in one of the many stools and I sat a stool away from him, with one more stool between me and a blonde boy who was eating.

Of course I hesitated a bit, but my growling stomach made the decision for me. Kakashi ordered something and I had to point to what he had to order my own. The man who took my order looked like he didn’t quite understand why I did that but said nothing of it.

The food was delicious, though I was scared to eat it at first; not until Kakashi tried it first. The man seemed a bit mad but again, said nothing of it. I could feel the blonde boy watching me and I felt scared all over again, but he soon left, and I felt a little bit relieved.

After finishing the food, which I learned was called Ramen, I followed Kakashi into a bright place with a lot of shoes.

“Pick whatever you want” he said motioning to the entire place. I walked around the whole place looking at the many different types of shoes, and every time someone came I would hide behind one of the many shelves of shoes. Finally I walked over to a pair of small red shoes. They had small heels and a strap to connect the two sides of the shoe.

“So you like that one?” asked Kakashi, coming up behind me. I ran all the way to a small bench by one of the shelves before my mind registered what was going on. He blinked and took the shoe from me without a word.

“Does it fit you?” he asked referring to the shoe. I shrugged, looking away. “Sit” he said, so I sat. He held my foot up to try and fit the shoe on it, but I quickly pulled it away. Taking the other shoe from the shelf, I pull it on my other foot. It fit perfectly.

Kakashi tells me to take it off so he can pay for it, and that’s how I got a shoe. Although I did try to keep the shoe so he couldn’t pay for it, but it didn’t work. As long as he had one, he could pay for it, so he ended up paying for my new pair of shoes. Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but wonder why he was being so nice to me.