Taboo

Title: Taboo



Fandom: Naruto



Author: Shi-koi



Genre: Romance, angst, action.



Summary: [ItaNaru] When Naruto ends up in another world very similar to his own, where the Yondaime is alive and the Uchiha clan is thriving, he finds out that sometimes, the last things we ever want to see are the truths we are faced with. Previous SasuNaruSasu mentioned.







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Chapter One





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AU-verse







The four-man ANBU squad flitted silently through the trees, leaping with uncanny precision from one branch to another. They left no tracks and made no sounds.





Their target was a large tree-lined meadow just beyond the wall that lined their city. The reason? A massive chakra explosion had been felt not a half-hour earlier, just before their noon break. The shockwave of energy had stunned everyone, even the untrained villagers unused to sensing chakra.





Since it originated so close to Konoha's bordering city wall the Yondaime had given orders for then to gather data about what had happened and to assess the danger level.





The captain stopped, motioning for the three men flanking him to spread out from the other sides before darting into the grassy field, his black uniform and white body armor clearly visible in the green grasses. He stopped a few feet away, red sharingan eyes whirling behind his ANBU mask, searching for traces of genjutsu or ninjutsu.





He found none.





Stepping forward, the ANBU captain stooped down before the battered body lying prone on the ground. The figure was bloodstained and covered in cuts and bruises. Long blonde hair, which he could see was matted red with even more blood, covered it's top half.





Uchiha Itachi leant forward, lifting a section of the hair away and checking for a pulse. There was one, but it was erratic and faint. He rolled the body over gently, mindful of the wounds. One hand signaled for the others on his team.





”Get a medic-nin,” Itachi ordered, staring at the blonde. “This one's going no-where.”





The other ANBU nodded, disappearing in a swirl of air and leaves.





Itachi turned back to the unconscious male below him. There was something...familiar, about him. Something he couldn't quite place.





::insertpagebreakhere::





Naruto hurt. That was the only thing on his mind when he started to come to. He could feel someone poking at his right arm, sending small sparks of pain thrumming through it all the way up to his shoulder. Naruto tried to swat her away. It had to be a her, since only Tsunade-baa-chan, Sakura-chan or Hinata-chan would ever dare treat the 'Kyuubi vessel'.





After the battle, chances were that it was Tsunade-baa-chan herself, trying to reassure herself that her necklace hadn't passed on its curse and killed Naruto.





The hand was back. Naruto batted it away groggily. “'M fine, baa-chan. Go 'way. 'M not dead yet.”





At that, Naruto fell back asleep, the effort of moving and talking too much for him.





::insertpagebreakhere::





“Are there any indications of his village?”





Uchiha Itachi took off his mask before shaking his head. The Yondaime stood in front of the desk before him, his bright blue eyes drawn with worry. “No. The only items retrieved from him were a few scraps of generic type cloth, available in any village, and one necklace.”





The Yondaime looked up at that. “Necklace? Any names, initials or symbols on it?”





Itachi shook his head. “No. But it seems to be made out of a special ore. It's valuable enough to buy most of the Fire Country, if not Konoha outright. If he wanted, this guy could easily own just about anything he wanted.”





“Could his wounds have come from an attack for his belongings?”





“There were no tracks around him, and the way he was lying...unless he knew how to teleport, which is a Jounin level skill...”





“Makes it unlikely that someone would have been able to reduce him to this state if they were mere thieves. So he could be a neighbouring villages' shinobi then?” The Yondaime asked, thinking heavily. “He could have been protecting the necklace for his employer/s. Or he could have been tasked with transporting it.”





Itachi shrugged. “It could be a trap.”





“Oh...?”





“It's a mystery. An unidentified male shows up out of nowhere with a chakra explosion large enough to rival that of the Legendary Sannin themselves with nothing on him but a necklace of almost unimaginable worth. He is half dead yet there are no signs of a struggle around him.” Itachi frowned. “I don't like it.”





“Well, I wouldn't want him to feel threatened when he wakes up, but I won't have this village put at risk. I'm going to assign you to him. Treat it as an 'A' class mission, and keep a close watch on him. You're young, so he probably won't be expecting too much from you. Maybe a new chuunin at most.”





“Agreed.”





The Yondaime stopped by the large window looking out over Konoha. “Try and find out everything you can about him. I'll put out feelers in the other villages about a man matching his description. See if the hospital has anything new to report.” The Yondaime paused then, slanting an amused look at his erstwhile apprentice. “Oh, and Itachi...”





Itachi gave him a curt nod. “Yes.”





“Keep a close eye on this one. I don't know why, but something's giving me chills.”





“Acknowledged.” Itachi stood, replacing his mask. A moment later he was gone.





The Yondaime stood by the window for a while longer, a small smile tugging at his lips. It was about time Itachi made a new friend.





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A nurse stopped the masked ANBU captain when he neared the room with the blonde.





“It's odd,” she was saying, “but when we cleaned him up we found some strange markings on him. There are a set of three scars on each of his cheeks and what looks like a seal on his stomach.”





“A seal?” Itachi fought not to look surprised, even though his face was covered.





The nurse nodded urgently, biting her lip in worry. “It's bad, whatever it is. The seal, it's massive. It's not very clear, in fact, until we washed off the blood we didn't even notice it. It reaches all the way around his waist, but the majority of it circles his navel. That part, that part is massive.”





“So whatever it's holding has to be strong.”





The nurse made a sound of agreement. “We've had our resident specialist look at it. He says it's a work of art, and that there may be more than one seal overlapping each other.” She paused, looking nervously from side to side, lowering her voice. “The seal is complicated. Too complicated. Hasegawa-sensei said that the only ones truly capable of such seals are Yondaime-sama or his master, Jiraiya-sama.”





Itachi closed his eyes for a moment. “If this man is someone Jiraiya-sama has sealed, he may be dangerous.” He glanced at the nurse, giving her a sharp nod of approval. “I'll sit with him. You organise a report for me to take up to Hokage-sama about your findings.”





The nurse gave a sigh of relief at the thought of having a skilled shinobi sitting in with the unknown patient. “Thank you, ANBU-san.” She scurried away, leaving Itachi standing in front of the private hospital room.





Itachi waited a moment before opening the door and glancing warily around the room. The blonde was still asleep, motionless on the bed. A quick once-over with his sharingan ensured that no traps lay in wait and so Itachi stepped inside, closing the door behind him with a soft click.





The black-haired shinobi stopped at the edge of the bed, staring down at the figure lying there, an oxygen mask on his face and an IV in his right arm. He looked...helpless. Instinct told Itachi that that helplessness was not reality, that there was something inherently strong about this youth.





Itachi always listened to his instincts.





Now that the blood had been washed off and most of the bruises and cuts were gone, Itachi could see the others' face clearly. He was a lot younger that Itachi had thought. He looked like he wasn't even a year or two older than Itachi's own sixteen. His face was still slightly round with youth, although the promise of maturity was beginning to show. His long blonde hair with somewhat messy short bangs had been braided and lay on the bed next to him, the shade of yellow-blonde looking remarkably similar to another blondes' hair.





The other was neither tall, nor short, and probably didn't weigh as much as he should for his size, but to Itachi's experienced eyes the muscles on the blonde were a dead giveaway to his line of work. Only a ninja would have such a defined musculature. He had a slender, lithe build, good for fast maneuvers and rapid reactions. Being large and strong was all very good and well, but speed was better than strength when it came to saving your own life.





Stepping back, Itachi drew out a handful of paper seals, placing them around the room before activating them and hiding them within a minor genjutsu. It was unobtrusive and would go unnoticed for the most part. They were designed to warn Itachi of any approach towards his position, or in this case, the room his was currently in. He wasn't going to take any chances.





At his command, should the stranger prove to be a foe, Itachi could form a seal to make them disappear, which would send a signal to another seal hidden in the Yondaime's office, warning him of the danger. Itachi knew that the Yondaime would know the other part of the seal was there, since he'd been the one to teach Itachi this method, but better safe than sorry.





Itachi moved a chair next to the bed and sat down. The red of his sharingan eyes unwavering despite the wait the knew he'd probably have.





The wait wasn't as bad as he thought it might have been. Less than two hours of waiting – which was nothing to an experienced shinobi, the figure on the bed moved, coughing lightly.





Itachi leant forward, tugging off the oxygen mask. A pair of the clearest blue eyes he ever seen on anyone other than his mentor opened slowly, before Itachi suddenly found himself flying backwards, impacting heavily on the wall opposite the bed.





Shit! I never even saw him move. That's impossible. No-one is faster than the sharingan! Itachi leapt up in a fraction of a second, exploding the seals. He saw the blonde rip the door open and run, catching only a glimpse of the hospital clothes he was wearing before he disappeared around a corner.





Itachi gave chase, dodging some very surprised hospital staff, some of which had obviously been knocked out of the way.





The blonde came to the end of a corridor, his body visibly tensed and settled in a wary half-crouch. His eyes seemed glazed.





Itachi paused. If the blonde was attacked, he could very well believe himself in enemy territory. The young shinobi stood still and carefully removed his mask, tying it to his belt, before holding out one hand as one would to a frightened animal.





The blonde looked at his hand then back up at his eyes, confusion marring his features.





“Look,” Itachi said softly, avoiding loud sounds, “I know you must be confused right now. But we aren't going to hurt you.”





The blonde took another step back, until his back hit the wall behind him. He shook his head lightly, pressing one palm against the side of his head as though he were in pain.





“Sa..sasuke?”





Itachi was taken aback. How the hell did this guy know his younger brother? His brother was the only one he knew in Konoha with that name.





The blonde shook his head again, a cry of pain tumbling from his lips. “Why...? You...betrayed me. You...hurt me. Sasuke?”





Itachi took the chance to step forward. “How do you know that name?”





The blondes' head shot up, blue eyes suddenly piercing and hard. They cleared slowly and coherency returned. His face paled and the blonde looked Itachi up and down intently. “You...you're not...!”





Itachi took another step forward and was prepared this time when the other youth tried to flee. Another squad of mixed Chuunin and Jounin had arrived just in time to see Itachi corner the blonde. The fight was swift and sharp. The blonde was obviously still tired and wounded.





It took less than a minute for Itachi to subdue the blonde on the floor, quickly casting a ninjutsu directly onto him to prevent him from using his arms and legs to escape.





::insertpagebreakhere::





Waking up in a strange place was not high on his list of things he liked to do. Waking up to find the man who'd just tried to kill him staring at him intently was most definitely not on his list, at all.





Naruto reacted before he could even think, and he acted with all the instincts of the animal he possessed inside. He lashed out and ran, barely managing to dodge the people he vaguely recognised as hospital staff as he fled down the corridor.





Sasuke was still after him, although one part of him wondered why Sasuke hadn't killed him already...unless, maybe Sasuke wanted something else from him instead. The Kyuubi was a hot commodity as far as the Akatsuki were concerned, and he knew Sasuke wouldn't want anyone else to have the Kyuubi's power.





If only he knew what that damn seal did!





Naruto tried to use his chakra to run, a horrible feeling of dread encompassing him when he realised that although he could feel his chakra, he couldn't use it.





The corridor ended abruptly, and Naruto skidded to a halt, spinning around in a half-crouch. His pursuer appeared a moment later, red sharingan eyes boring into him, burning at him, promising even more pain and betrayal.





Naruto could barely breathe. Images flashed before his eyes of when he was a genin, fighting with Sasuke as a team.





Their mission to the Wave Country. Realising what Sasuke was, that he was a friend. Their fight at the Hidden Falls. Working together for one glorious instant.





Other images streamed past, and with each one Sasuke's eyes became darker, bloodier, colder. Their humanity slowly leeched out, until, finally, there was nothing left but the shell of the man he should have become. Orochimaru's puppet, and eventually, someone who would become Orochimaru's body.





The man spoke slowly though, with a voice that was somehow smoother, gentler than Sasuke's darkly mocking tones.





Memories slowed, then trickled to a halt, the pain they caused finally draining away. Naruto blinked, shaking his head and within moments some semblance of normality returned, and with it the ability to rationalise and think.





Naruto quickly scanned the man before him, his eyes widening when he realised that he hadn't been running from Sasuke.





But the Uchiha clan had been erased, annihilated, completely and utterly destroyed except for two survivors. The killer and Sasuke.





So who the hell was this guy?





His mind worked furiously, analysing all the possibilities. Then Kakashi came to mind. It was possible for a person's eyes to be transplanted from the donor, whether willing or not, and the recipient would gain all the advantages, with few drawbacks. If they were strong enough to control them.





Naruto couldn't think of anyone other than the Akatsuki who would be willing to do such a thing. How much time had passed while he'd been in that bed?





But then...did this mean that Sasuke was dead?





Or could his brother have been betrayed by the other eight members and had his eyes stripped from him? No. That couldn't be it. Even Orochimaru was afraid of Uchiha Itachi. If Orochimaru was almost undefeatable, Itachi truly was unbeatable.





In any case, standing around here was not going to be an option; but without knowing how to get his chakra working again, Naruto knew he'd be at a severe disadvantage.





His eyes flickered to the side, and he made a run for it, knowing as soon as he moved that he was caught. Naruto didn't care, there was no way he was going down without a fight. He was kicked, punched, slammed against a wall then hit to the floor, rolled over with his hands pinned behind his back in the space of a double breath. He heard a ninjutsu cast on him just as he lost all control over his arms and legs.





Shit! Shitshitshit! Naruto drew in deep gasping breaths, trying in vain to dislodge the other male sitting on his back using only his shoulders and upper body strength. His hair slid down in front of his eyes, blocking his vision, and Naruto finally conceded defeat, frowning heavily and cursing under his breath.





The man on his back leant in low, his mouth hovering close enough to Naruto's ear for Naruto to feel the warmth of his breath. “That's some mouth.” The other male said in amusement.





Naruto fumed. “Bastard. Get the fucking hell off me!”





The other Sasuke-lookalike snorted before standing, and a few moments later two of the reinforcements looped their arms around his and hauled Naruto upright, his arms and legs still hanging uselessly.





“Where do you want him?” Naruto turned his head up and glared at the tall chuunin on his right.





::insertpagebreakhere::





Uchiha Itachi was actually enjoying himself, although he allowed no emotions to show on his face. The blonde was a lot shorter in reality standing than he looked when he was lying down, but the pure power in his hits when he defended himself had a hell of a lot of potential behind them.





It was odd that the blonde hadn't used his chakra, but it wasn't completely unheard of for some injuries to cause the body to pump it's entire supply of chakra into it's healing.





Still, with the way he was being held, and the lack of height, combined with the glare directed at one of the chuunin holding him made the blonde appear to be nothing much more than a petulant kid who'd just been told off.





Itachi stood to one side and motioned back down the corridor before answering the chuunin. “We'll put him back in his room. We'll strap him down if we have to, but he is wounded, so I don't want us to be responsible for any more of his injuries.”





The blonde turned that vivid blue glare of his back on him when he suggested that, and Itachi allowed a small smirk to show on his face. The blonde's eyes narrowed into slits and he actually growled.





The two chuunin had no problems relocating the blonde back to his bed under Itachi's watchful eyes, while the others left, returning back to their posts or wherever it was they were supposed to be now that the crisis had passed.





The two Chuunin left in the room went to stand guard by the door. Itachi righted his chair and sat down beside the bed, staring with his sharingan-red eyes at it's unwilling occupant.





“You know,” he said after a few moments, “that jutsu doesn't prevent you from speaking. I only immobilised your arms and legs.”





The blonde stared at him for a moment, his eyes firmly assessing before he snorted and purposefully turned his head away.





The wait stretched out for almost twenty minutes before the blonde turned his head back.





“Where am I?”





Itachi frowned. “You don't know?”





The blonde made a noise of frustration. “Of course I don't fucking know! Do you think I'd've asked if I did?”





Itachi just shrugged at him. “You're in Konohagakure no Sato. Currently in a hospital, as you can see.” He tucked one hand under his chin. “Did you want to be here?”





The reply was so faint Itachi missed it. He sighed instead. “What do you call yourself?”





That seemed to throw the blonde. “I don't believe this is Konoha. How the hell can you not know who I am. If this really were Konoha you'd know me.”





There was some definite disgust, and maybe a bit of self-contempt in that statement, and Itachi couldn't understand why. Still...for this guy to believe himself known in the Leaf was very interesting.





“Oh? I've never seen you around before.” Itachi said calmly.





The blonde snorted. “All you'd have to do is drag someone in from the street, let them take a look at these,” he looked down at his cheeks and Itachi found his gaze wandering to the odd three slash marks on each cheek, “and they'd know who I am instantly.”





Itachi resisted the urge to shake his head. It wasn't a move that was very becoming to a shinobi of his rank. “Look. I've lived here all my life and I know a good deal of the people that live here, but I've never seen anyone that looks like you other than our current Hokage, Yondaime-sama, and --”





The look of total shock on the blonde's face made him pause.





“Wh...what did you...say?”





Itachi slowly recounted his sentence.





“The...Yon...daime? Not Godaime?”





“Of course not the Godaime! Why? Is the Yondaime in danger?” Itachi pushed down the sudden spasm of fear that erupted in his insides. He gripped the chair so hard his hands turned white. “So help me, if you know anything...” Itachi trailed off at the unseeing look on the blonde's face. He stopped, forcibly calming himself down and taking a few deep breaths.





“How...? But...?” The blonde suddenly started shaking, thrashing with all of his strength against his bonds. It didn't seem to matter that he couldn't use his extremities, he just kept on throwing himself from side to side. “Let me go! This is wrong! I don't belong here! Dammit! Let me go!” The blonde finally stopped, a trickle of tears slowly sliding down his face. His blue eyes were screwed tightly shut and his lips were pulled taut, although with his sharp eyes, Itachi could see the tremble in his jaw.





His voice was quieter after a moment, and Itachi could hear the pain in his voice. “Please. Please. You don't know...I shouldn't be here. This is wrong. This is wrong.”





“Who are you?” Itachi asked then, and the blonde flinched at his tone.





There was another long silence before he was given an answer. “My name is Naruto.”





“Where are you from, Naruto?”





The blonde – Naruto, Itachi knew now, shook his head. “I can't tell you. I can't tell any of you.”





“You know if you don't tell us, we'll assume you're an enemy. Are you a ninja?” Itachi asked him quietly.





Naruto shook his head again. “I told you. I can't tell you.”





Itachi looked at him carefully. “If you don't answer me, I'll have to assume you are a threat to us. If I do, that will mean handing you over to our interrogation specialist, who is someone you do not want to meet.”





Naruto gave him a mirthless smile. “Let me guess, Morino Ibiki, your head Torturer and Interrogator. I'd assume him since my reaction to the current Hokage means that I could be a high level threat.”





Itachi clenched his jaw. Yes Morino Ibiki was an interrogator, but he was also the best, and the most secret one to anyone below Jounin level. Regular people and even most of the chuunin and lower ranked shinobi didn't know who was in charge of that unit. That this person did was a definite indication of something that needed swift investigation.





Itachi came to a decision and stood, motioning to one of the chuunin. “Watch him carefully,” he said, trying to ignore the gnaw of worry in his stomach, “I'll try and be back soon.” The chuunin nodded in understanding. Itachi made a quick seal and disappeared in a puff of smoke.





Naruto stared at the ceiling. Things just didn't make sense. How could he go from a battlefield to...this. This wasn't Konoha. If it were, Naruto would have been kicked out of the hospital by now, and most likely refused treatment. If he'd been suspected of conspiring against the Leaf he'd probably already be under lock and key awaiting torture.





Then there was the whole Kyuubi issue. There were very few people who didn't know who he was, and nearly all of them were his age or younger. Even then, they could easily recognise him as someone their parents had told them to stay away from because of his whisker marks.





The older people, which included the current hospital staff, would have known who he was as soon as they examined him. Hell, the seal on his stomach was a dead giveaway, yet no-one had called him a monster, freak, disgrace, or any other insult which seemed to be thrown at him daily, regardless of his sacrifices for his home village.





Just what the hell did Sasuke do to him? Naruto knew it was some sort of seal, but he'd never heard of a seal which did this, whatever this was. Hell, for all he knew, he could be trapped inside some sort of weird genjutsu, and without his chakra he'd never cancel it. If it wasn't, then he was in deeper trouble than he thought.





Could he have been thrown back in time? Maybe before the Kyuubi attacked? Or was he living out a dream? It didn't have to be a good dream, but that was more likely than time-travel. Not to mention it would be pretty dumb of Orochimaru to send someone as powerful as Naruto currently was against his past self...unless...something else had happened.





Was he even in his own world at all any more?





::insertpagebreakhere::





Itachi appeared in a flash of smoke in the office of the Hokage, startling it's single occupant.





“Itachi?” The Yondaime stood and crossed to the other side of the desk, placing his hands on Itachi's shoulders, his eyes showing worry at the pallor of his students' skin.





“We're going to need Ibiki-san.”





“That bad?”





Itachi nodded. “The man we found, his name is Naruto. He didn't give any family name or clan affiliation. He's definitely had training. I don't know if he is a shinobi, or what village he hails from...but he is dangerous.”





The Yondaime sighed, moving to stand before the window. “I see. What makes you think we need Ibiki's skills?”





“Something he said. He was shocked when I mentioned you. He seemed to think Konoha had a Godaime.”





The Yondaime turned around slightly, just enough for Itachi to see the blue of his eyes, a blue that was identical to the stranger, Naruto. It unsettled him.





“Do you think he knows of some plan to remove me? Maybe have me killed?” The Yondaime shook his head, sunshine yellow spikes waving slightly at the movement. “Itachi. I won't be killed that easily. Okay? I'm not going to leave you behind to the mercy of your family. I told you before. I'm. Not. Going. To. Die.”





Itachi looked away, clenching his fists. He unstrapped his mask from the back of his belt and slipped it on. “I don't care.” He went to make a hand seal when another hand, tanned a golden bronze from the sun, stopped him, covering and preventing him from finishing the seal.





“Itachi.” Yondaime's voice was soft. “I know you care. I've taken care of you for five years and you're like a son to me. I found you. I saved you. I did everything I could to raise you into the man you are becoming; and I have never gone back on my word.”





“Minato-sensei...” Itachi began, his face tilted down and his voice dispirited, “...go and see him for yourself. After Ibiki-san talks to him. You're strong sensei, but it only takes one mistake, just one, and your word won't be able to do a damn thing about it.”





The Yondaime sighed, looking tired, his blue eyes sad. “Sometimes I hate them for what they did to you. My own village, my own people, and I almost overlooked their actions. Sometimes I wonder how you would have turned out if you'd had to spend so much as a month longer in the care of your...loving...family.” The Yondaime paused there, recognising from the stiff way that he held himself that Itachi was trying to put the matter from his mind. He gave up for the moment, changing the subject. “Go tell Ibiki I need to speak to him, then continue your watch at the hospital.”





Itachi nodded once, finishing the hand seal and disappearing in the familiar puff of smoke.





The Yondaime watched the empty space for a minute before returning to his desk, although his mind was far away, returned to to day he'd first met Itachi on a personal level instead as one of the many faceless shinobi of Konohagakure.





Uchiha Itachi had been talked about all his life, and as the Yondaime, Minato knew Itachi's stats and mission logs almost as well as the back of his hand. He'd met the boy briefly when he'd graduated, and when he'd taken the Chuunin exam and passed with flying colours...but it wasn't until Itachi applied for the Jounin examination at the tender age of 11 that Minato truly met the Uchiha prodigy.





What he found was a boy who had little regard for his own life, and was fast becoming jaded with the world, someone who questioned his purpose, his life, his very being.





People feared him, feared his abilities, his sharingan and his family background. He had no friends and from what Minato managed to glean, even his family made him feel as though he were no more important than any other ninja tool in the arsenal of weapons owned by the Uchiha clan.





His one redeeming feature, his one slight tenuous link to his humanity was his little six year old brother, but even that link strained him. He saw himself in his brother and wanted – would do anything, to preserve what he saw as the last of his innocence, and the mirror of his own reflection by keeping his brother pure and unharmed.





Yet the harder he tried, the worst his father, the Patriarch of the Uchiha clan treated them both.





There were some things a man just didn't interfere with. Hokage or not. The seals of the Hyuuga family and the politics of the Uchiha clan were among them.





Until Minato saw the cracks in the mask the 11 year old Uchiha Itachi wore every day.





It didn't take long for Minato to get Itachi to open up, after all, the personal attention of the Hokage was something to be encouraged, and Itachi was all but ordered by his father to go with the Yondaime and cultivate a friendship with the man through any means necessary.





That was the beginning of the friendship they shared, and the only thing preventing Itachi from becoming Minato's true son was their last names and their family blood. Outwardly, Itachi became the Yondaime's apprentice and student; personally they had both forged themselves into their own little family. One that both of them would do anything to protect.





The door to the Hokage's office opened and one of the guards stood there. “Sir, Morino-san is here as requested.”





The Yondaime nodded. “Thank you, show him in please.”





Morino Ibiki was twenty-six years old, and while he did many things by-the-book, he had a flair for working within those guidelines which struck fear in many people. He wore typical Jounin gear, and entered the office straight-backed and with his shoulders squared. “Sir,” he said sharply, “you asked to see me?”





“Yes,” Minato said, motioning to a seat in front of his desk. He waited until the other man sat down before continuing. “There is an...issue, I need your skills with...”





::insertpagebreakhere::





Naruto closed his eyes and forced himself to begin thinking properly like the ANBU he was. While he was unable to control his body from the neck down, he could still move his head, which meant that he wasn't completely helpless, unfortunately, his inability to access his chakra was his main disability.





Naruto knew that he had three options. The first option was to simply do nothing and see what happened. The second was to find out if he was in a coma or a genjutsu by forcing pain upon himself, which he could do by biting himself, even though he highly doubted that if this was a high level genjutsu technique like the ones employed by the Kurama clan that a small thing like pain would break it. The third was to activate one of his latent seals, much like Tsunade-baa-chan's Genesis seal.





The latent seals he had in strategic places could be activated mentally, and each contained their own chakra source, carefully built up over long periods of time. Each one was for a specific jutsu and could only be used once before needing to be reapplied, which took time and chakra. The good part about these one-use seals though, was that they were invisible until accessed, and since the chakra in them was latent, they could not be found even by a person using doujutsu, as the seals and their chakra simply seemed to blend into the body's natural chakra pathways.





The bad part though was that almost every one would physically damage him or even kill him since he was unable to move out of the area of impact or effect, and the other remaining ones were specifically for healing or boosting Naruto's own impressive speed, stamina and strength, which were nigh on useless in his current situation.





So, Naruto could employ one of his less destructive techniques and hope he didn't kill himself from the effect, or he could simply wait and see what would happen.





It was as he was contemplating this that the sound of leaves on the wind caught his ears, and Naruto opened his eyes to see a swirl of leaves settle softly on the floor, leaving a grim-faced man standing in the centre of the room.





Naruto swallowed a groan and forced his face into impassivity. Morino Ibiki. Great. Granted it was a much younger Morino Ibiki, one without his head-gear and with virtually none of his famous scars...but still...





When Ibiki wrapped a sheet around Naruto's body and threw him over his shoulder, Naruto made up his mind there and then. If Ibiki tried anything that threatened his secrets and health, in that order, Naruto would use everything he had to to get away from these people.





There was no way in hell he was going to betray his precious people, and Naruto had no idea what he was really up against.





::insertpagebreakhere::





The room Ibiki took them to was underneath the ANBU tower. It was plain, stark and unfriendly. The walls and floors were stone, there were no windows and the lights were a harsh white fluorescent glare beaming down at them.





Ibiki ignored the two masked and robed ANBU standing in the shadowed areas of the room, and deposited the blonde from his shoulder onto the single fixed chair in the room, a metallic parody of a dentists chair, complete with thick leather straps. The sheet was tugged off before Naruto was strapped down, the leather bands on his arms pulled especially tight over the hospital-issue top and pants.





Bringing over a short stool, Ibiki sat down facing Naruto, whose on chair was set at an angle so he was almost sitting, but with his legs straight out in front of him.





When Ibiki focused his icy stare upon him, Naruto sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, staring up at an unlit point on the ceiling when he re-opened them.





“I hear you've already heard of me,” Ibiki started blandly.





“Yeah, so?” Naruto forced his voice to show only disinterest.





Ibiki shrugged, his muscles visibly tense to Naruto's keen eyes. “Just making small talk before we begin.”





Naruto snorted in vague amusement. “What, you've got a list or something?” Naruto asked with a grin.





“Or something,” Ibiki agreed.





“Well,” Naruto said, his grin still firmly on his face, “ask away then.”





Ibiki frowned slightly. “And you'll answer them?”





“I'd shrug about now, but seeing as I can't seem to move my body from the neck down, I'll say this instead. Ask about something that won't hurt me to answer...and we'll see, ask me something that could hurt me, and by 'me' I mean me and my precious people, and my answer will be 'no fricking way', 'kay?” Naruto said, his grin widening into a large smile that, considering how bright it was, seemed to be quite threatening.





“Oh? Any particular reason why? You already seem to know about Konoha, our Hokage and even the names of some of our population.” Ibiki stated flatly.





“Yeah, so? For all I know I could be inside some freaky genjutsu that snake-bastard made, or I could be in an enemy base drugged the hell outta my mind, so as I said, ask me stuff that I can answer and I might, ask me stuff that those Oto-nin are after and I'm not gonna answer.” Naruto snapped his mouth shut when he realised that he was starting to lose it, his deteriorating language a stark indication of how afraid he was, even if it was well hidden.





He'd never been that good at hiding things, but Naruto had still undergone the training, and one of the first things they'd been taught, besides the 'once you speak, it only gets harder to stay quiet' rule, which couldn't really apply to him, since he couldn't stop talking at the best of times meant that he'd have to subscribe to the other rule he'd been taught, which was, give on the small stuff, and keep the big stuff hidden.





In other words, act like a damn shinobi and detract the attention from what they want to what you can use. That wasn't as difficult to Naruto, who could talk rings around his friends and utterly confound his enemies. Give and take, just manipulate the information while you do so, as Sakura had advised him, after his first four failed attempts at passing the Torture and Interrogation portion of his ANBU exams, which, ironically enough, he'd had under Morino Ibiki.





Ibiki focused sharply on the blonde. “Snake-bastard? You mean Orochimaru? One of the Sannin? Wait, Sound? I've never heard of any such hidden village.”





“You're kidding, right? Otogakure no Sato? You know, in Rice Country? Formed by Orochimaru, formerly of the Akatsuki, formerly of Konohagakure no Sato, left because he wanted to continue his experiments after he fled from Konoha and extremely pissed off at Sandaime-jiji 'cos he wanted the Yondaime Hokage position and Sandaime-jiji gave it to blondy instead of him...you know, that village?





“How well do you know Orochimaru?” Ibiki demanded.





“When you say how well, do you mean like as in heard of him, or seen him, or fought him, or do you mean like snuggly-snakes, 'cos y'know that's just ew-yuck.” Naruto made retching noises and crossed his eyes to emphasise his complete disgust, managing to make himself look faintly green.





Even Ibiki looked disgusted at that.





“Hmn. I first met him when he bit my team-mate at our first Chuunin exams a few years back when we were twelve. He gave him the 'Heaven' curse seal and did something funky to my stomach which made it impossible to use or focus my chakra, some sort of five-point seal, but ero-sennin got rid of it.





A little while after that I summoned Gamabunta for ero-sennin to fight the snake-bastard and I fought his lackey Kabuto for a while, but I got knocked out, and when I was out he snake-bastard tried to kill me but he got Tsunade-baa-chan in the chest with Kusanagi. It was a good thing she had her Genesis seal though, 'cos it healed her right up and she saved my life.





The snake-bastard got away though. He kept popping up constantly after that, and we're currently at war with him, which is why I've told you this much, 'cos if you are keeping me under genjutsu I haven't said anything you don't already know.





The last thing I really remember though is being on a battlefield, Leaf against Sound, the Three Legendary Sannin on the field again against each other, and us, their protege, us, fighting each other...at least, until Sasuke-bastard did something to me. Some sort of seal...made me feel like I was being ripped apart from the inside..felt so...” Naruto started retching for real this time and Ibiki just managed to pivot the chair to it's side in time for Naruto to vomit noisily on the floor. He hadn't eaten anything so it wasn't much more than stomach bile, but Naruto still felt horrible.





He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself when flashes of the final battle caught up with him, and he saw again the look of triumph and cruel heartlessness in Sasuke's red-stained eyes. He saw the look of horror on ero-sennin's face and heard the muted screams from familiar voices. A tear started to form, and Naruto screwed his eyes closed harshly to force it away.





Naruto felt his chair tilted back up and his face was wiped with a damp cloth. He opened his eyes to see one of the masked ANBU holding the cloth in one hand and offering him a sip of cold water in a clear plastic cup, which the ANBU held to his lips for him. Naruto sipped at it carefully, so as not to make himself sick again. He finished and gave the ANBU a wan smile and a quiet thanks.





“You said 'Leaf against Sound', didn't you?” Ibiki asked quietly.





“Yeah,” Naruto said, sounding tired.





“And you believe yourself to be in the hands of the enemy.”





“Maybe, maybe not. I suppose could just be delusional, but I'm not going to be able to do anything, am I?”





Ibiki clenched his teeth. “Look, one of the things I've been asked to find out is the threat against our Yondaime Hokage. Our agent stated that you thought Konoha had a Godaime and not a Yondaime, can you explain this to us, as it won't conflict against yourself even if you have rationalized this to be a trap. As this is obviously old information to you.”





Naruto laughed dryly. “Fuck! Go in for the kill why don't you? Shit, you bastard.” Naruto's laugh this time was interspersed with gulping breathes of air, and it took a few moments for him to calm down.





“Fine, if that's what you want. I'll give you a history lesson from my...unique...point of view.” Naruto sighed. “The Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, was Konoha's most beloved Hokage. He was especially famous for his actions in the Iwa-Konoha war. He was named the 'Yellow Flash' because of Hiraishin no Jutsu, and his Rasengan technique. He died on the 10th of October seventeen years ago when the great and terrible Kyuubi no Kitsune, the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon, attacked Konoha and tried to raze it to the ground.”





Naruto paused, taking in a few deep breaths. “The Kyuubi was too powerful to be killed, and so the Yondaime summoned the Shinigami and used the Shiki Fujin to seal the Kyuubi away for all time, only the cost of the jutsu was the soul of the user, in this case, Namikaze Minato. The Kyuubi was stopped, but Konoha lost their much loved Yondaime.”





Closing his eyes, Naruto continued, speaking softly. “The Sandaime took over again, and Konoha continued to prosper, until Orochimaru invaded Konoha and killed the Sandaime, leaving it to the council to select a new Hokage. The Hokage they selected was Tsunade-hime, who was brought back to Konoha by the Toad Hermit, Jiraiya. Thus Tsunade-baa-chan became Konoha's Godaime.”





Naruto chuckled softly when he finished, the old feeling of deep-seated loneliness and sorrow that he always got when thinking about the Yondaime and his sacrifice and the impact that had on Konoha and his own life. The guilt at being the Jinchuuriki of the Leaf, along with the anger and the frustration of his position rising like familiar bile in his throat.





“So as far as you know both Sarutobi Sandaime-sama and Namikaze Yondaime-sama are both dead, and Konoha is at war with the village created by the rogue Snake Sannin?” Ibiki clarified.





“Yeah...” Naruto said quietly.





Ibiki stood and wiped a hand over his face, sighing with what sounded like disappointment. “I'll be busy for a bit. Stand guard until further notice,” he said, nodding to the ANBU. After a moment he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.





Naruto forced himself to relax back in the chair, since there was literally nothing else he could do.





::insertpagebreakhere::





Tbc...





::insertpagebreakhere::