Nine

Author: princessgolux
Title: Nine
Fandom: Naruto
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I gain no profit from this story.
Chapter Pairings: hints of past Ibiki/Mizuki (sort of), Ibiki/Hokushin (threatened, non-con)
Chapter Rating: NC-17
Story Rating: NC-17
Chapter Warnings: AU/AR; M/M, and very, very vague hints of two minor characters in non-graphic semi-sexual situation. Interrogation with the threat of sexual assault, mind-fuckery.
A/N:


Chapter Nine: Beginning


The Pearls & Swine Entertainment Palace
Kado City, Steel Country
518 A.T.D

“Get in here, numbskulls. We’ve got work to do.”

Ibiki followed Dai and Chi-chan into The Lady’s office. He scowled at the kid from behind his dark glasses. Even in the close confines of the small room the boy was ignoring him, staring at the monitor wall fixedly. Ibiki really couldn’t blame him. He had no idea what possessed him to say that to the kid.

“All right, boys,” Tsunade said, nodding at the monitor. “There’s our target.”

All three looked intently at the myriad images of the two men, the entire wall now taken up with views of their faces from every camera in the casino area.

“Chi-chan.” Tsunade snapped, pulling their attention back to their boss. “How far has your little project gotten? Can you intercept and disrupt Collar signals yet?”

“Sort of, Lady Dan.” Chi-chan said, frowning. He glanced at Daisuke nervously, but the blond man kept his eyes on the monitor, not returning his look.

“What the hell does that mean, brat?”

You’re on your own, kid.Ibiki thought, suppressing a un-Marco like smirk. Sink or swim, little boy. Sink or swim.

He supposed no one would really know if Marco smirked, but it was the principle of the thing.

“Well?” Tsunade prodded sharply.

Chi-chan took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. His gaze steadied behind his glasses. He looked less boyish than he had mere seconds before.

Swim, then. Ibiki acknowledged with a trace of satisfaction. Good boy.

“I can intercept Collar signals, My Lady.” Chi-chan said matter-of-factly. “I cannot change them yet – I’m close but I haven’t quite cracked that bit. However, I can shut them off for a brief period of time.”

“How brief?” Dai asked neutrally, still looking away.

“I can only go by the three Collars I have to work with, but the signal of the strongest chips I’ve experimented with can be suppressed for at least eleven minutes.”

“That’s not enough time.” Dai’s voice was flat.

“I agree.” Tsunade sounded grumpy.

“No, My Lady....it just might be.” Ibiki shook his head, staring at the monitor. Something had piqued his interest...what was it?

Peripherally he vaguely registered Dai beginning to ask a question, only to be waved down by Tsunade, who was watching him closely. He could feel her waiting, like a circling hawk waits for a mouse shivering in the grass; he pushed his awareness of her to the back of his mind and waited for his own prey.

There.

“I believe it can be done.” Ibiki said, an idea solidifying in his mind. “How long will it take to set up the signal block?”

“Fifteen minutes.” Chi-chan replied immediately. “But I’ll need to be closer. The security room in Block 6 is close enough, it should work.”

“Use the one in Block 5 instead.” Ibiki said. “Our guests will be going into the Rose Room.”

“Got it.” Chi-chan said, his former enmity seemingly forgotten.

“Good.” Ibiki said approvingly. “Go set up and wait for my signal. Don’t start until I give the word. Understood, Chi-chan... no...” he corrected himself. “Chishima?”

Chishima inhaled quietly, shocked, then determination steeled his features and he nodded once.

“Understood, Marco-san.”

“Good. Go.”

Chishima vanished and Dai leveled an assessing look at Ibiki.

“So,” Ibiki cleared his throat, blushing a little. “What information are we specifically trying to get?”

Tsunade and Dai exchanged looks.

“Well, we know what they’re here for.” Tsunade said reluctantly. “And we know who sent them.”

Ibiki blinked.

Then what do you need me for?

“If it’s at all possible,” he said, as politely as he could, “I’d like to know those things before we start. We have limited time and...”

“They’re here to try to hire me.” Daisuke sighed. “And they were sent by a man who represents an extremely important organization. You’ve never heard of it, I can pretty much guarantee you that much, but in ten years they’ll basically be running the underworld.”

“The organization’s name is Akatsuki. And the man who sent them is Touji Mizuki.”

Ibiki froze.

...the scent of pine needles crushed and disintegrating under his feet...the flash of dark eyes...thin wrists beneath his palm...

“Touji...Mizuki?” he asked, not completely certain he’d heard correctly.

“Yes...?” Dai looked at Tsunade, alarmed. “Is that a problem, Ibiki?”

Feelings were flooding through Ibiki, faster than he could process them, memories of a black-eyed boy he’d once known. Fierce possessiveness warred with fear, complicated joy, and a hunger that seemed to have no end.

He tried to keep his voice neutral. “Is he our target?”

“What? No!Absolutely not.” Dai was getting angry, Ibiki could feel it.

But...

“You may not be aware of this,” he said, “but Touji Mizuki is a Konoha nuke-nin. Calmly. He is wanted for questioning by the Council of Fire Country. Calmly. There is a standing order from the Hokage himself to bring him in if discovered.”

“This order supercedes that.” Tsunade said. “Touji is untouchable.”

Untouchable? Ibiki’s hands began to shake. He was losing control of his heartbeat, but he couldn’t stop himself.

“I...I’m not sure...Tsunade-sama...I think....the Hokage-sama...”

Oh damn. Tsunade closed her eyes. Why is it always complicated?

“Look at me, Ibiki.” she commanded. “Touji Mizuki is un-fucking-touchable, got that? You will not go near him. Ever. Is that understood?”

“Tsunade-sama...!”

“Lady Dan!” Chakra was beginning to crackle around Tsunade’s profile. “Remember that, idiot!”

“I’m...I apologize, Lady Dan.” Ibiki bowed low, mortified. “But Touji Mizuki...?”

“You don’t have to know, and it’s better if you don’t.” Tsunade’s tone was final. “The only reason you’ve been told this much is that I would rather have this discussion in private, not in front of our targets during their interrogation.”

“But hear this loud and clear, Morino Ibiki. Touji Mizuki is untouchable. You don’t go near him, you don’t talk to him, you don’t interact with him in any way. If you are walking down the street and he drives past, you get away from him. Do you understand that? Immediately.”

“Consider that a direct order from the Sandaime Hokage himself.”

There will be things you may be asked to do – or not to do – that may seem strange. Keep in mind, however, that your mission leader speaks with my voice. If that person judges a course of action to be correct, take it as a direct order from me.

Ibiki felt himself nod, as though his body was being controlled by someone else’s jutsu. He could hear his heart beating and the smell of pine was overwhelming.

“Yes, Lady Dan.” he heard from far, far away.

His heartbeat was so loud...

SMACK!

Ibiki flew backwards, crashing into far left wall, away from the images that winked and twinkled. Shocked, he looked up at Dai standing above him. The blond man looked angry, his green eyes darkened almost to hazel. Saki poured off of him like steam from boiling water, raising the hair on the back of Ibiki’s neck and making him leap to his feet without thinking, his training and reflexes reacting to a potentially deadly situation.

“This is the beginning, Ibiki.” Dai said fiercely. “This is the start. Of everything. This is your mission, the first important moment of it. And I need to know if you can do this. I need to know now. If you can’t, go back to Konoha. Leave. Right now. Because if you can’t do this and you stay, you are a danger to everyone here.”

...a danger...?

... take it as a direct order from me...

...a danger...to my mission...?

...I trust you, Ibiki...

...Hokage-sama...?

“I can do this.” Ibiki said forcefully, stung. “I am a Konoha shinobi. I will complete my mission.”

“So.” He straightened up, suddenly aware that he had a kunai in his hand. He sheathed it, his hands still trembling. He felt foolish and exposed. “Just what are we trying to find out, then?”

“First, we need to know what Touji-san is trying to hire me to do.” Dai’s saki was less intense now, retreating like an ebbing tide. “That’s the easy part. They want to tell us that. It’s what they’re here for.”

“The part they’re not going to want to tell us is why Mizuki wants to hire me, and what he hopes will happen when he does. That’s the part we’re going to have to work for.”

Hyper aware of the doubt in both pairs of eyes watching him, Ibiki pointed at the monitor.

“We should be able to get that in under eleven minutes.” Ibiki said. “Can you play back the last twenty minutes of footage in time-and-a-half?”

The images began to flicker past, the pause in conversation as they watched cooling the atmosphere and draining most of the tension away.

“Watch the small one, his movements.”

Tsunade caught it almost immediately. “Good call, boy.”

Dai was still searching the scene, puzzled.

“The small guy keeps moving around the big guy.” Tsunade explained. “He’s watching all the angles.”

“It’s a protective pattern.” Ibiki said. “Usually in these situations the bigger one is protecting the smaller one. But I’ll bet with these guys it’s usually the other way around.”

“Why?” Dai asked.

“Any number of reasons, really. What’s important is that the big guy is the weak link. That’s where we’ll apply pressure.”

“You got a plan?” Tsunade said, impatiently. “Cause I’ve got stuff I need to get to.”

“Yes, my Lady.” Ibiki said. He turned to Daisuke.

“Here’s the plan.”

“I will kill you, do you hear me?” Nagare raged, pulling at the metal bands binding him to the iron chair. “I will cut out your heart.”

He flexed his muscles in every direction possible, but there was no give. Cold steel wrapped around his biceps, his forearms just below the elbow and at the wrist, his chest, his neck, both thighs just below the hip and right above the knee, his calves just below his knees, above and below his ankles, and right at the balls of his feet. There was steel circling his forehead, just above his eyebrows, and most infuriating of all, bands wrapping around his hands at the palm and around every finger at every knuckle, including his thumbs.

No hands, no jutsus. No way out.

He roared in inarticulate fury as Marco, the big man who’d led them into this hellish trap, arranged Hokushin carefully on the bed. Hokushin’s face was slack from the drugs, but his head lolled over to face Nagare and the stark terror in his eyes sliced through Nagare like a newly sharpened blade. Nagare could almost feel himself bleeding, his mind and heart aching painfully.

“I’ll kill you.” Nagare forced the words out, his throat closing with the force of his pain and anger. “I will kill you.”

Marco began unbuttoning Nagare’s shirt, supremely unconcerned.

“Unfortunately for you, that’s not an option.” He peeled away the outer layers of Hokushin’s clothing as he spoke, bit-by-bit exposing pale, delicate skin.

“You can’t do this!” Nagare said desperately. “We’re Akatsuki! We told you that...wait...you can’t...stop!”

Nagare knew he was begging now, but it didn’t matter.

“Please.”

“Please...stop...”

Marco paused, one hand on Hokushin’s body armor, his last defense.

“Why are you here?” he asked. With the wrapping around his face and the dark glasses shading his eyes, Nagare couldn’t tell what he was thinking. But he sounded so courteous, so polite it chilled Nagare to the soles of his shackled feet.

“Like I said, we’re here on behalf of Touji Mizuki-sama.” Nagare spoke quickly, never taking his eyes away from Marco’s hands on Hokushin’s chest. “He wants to hire Himawari-san. It’s...”

His voice broke.

“Its a straightforward business deal.” He cried. “Why...why are you doing this?”

Marco seemed to weigh this, and Nagare’s mouth dried out, hope and dread mixing queasily in his stomach.

“Not good enough.” Marco said finally, and Nagare’s heart sank.

He cried out in protest as Marco unzipped Hokushin’s body armor and pulled it aside, revealing tiny pink nipples and skin so pale the blue-green veins could be traced through it.

“What do you want?” he cried. “I’ll give it to you! Just...just leave him alone!”

Marco continued as if he hadn’t heard, swiftly stripping the helpless youth and repositioning him like a doll. He propped Hokushin’s head up on pillows, tenderly, anchoring him there with his dark, pleading eyes boring into Nagare’s horrified face. His legs pointed toward Nagare. As Marco spread them apart, Nagare could clearly see Hokushin’s limp penis and the tiny pink hole behind his soft smooth balls.

“Oh gods...” Nagare cried, wanting to shut his eyes, but incapable of abandoning his partner any more than he was being forced to already.

Marco turned his cloth-covered face toward Nagare.

“From here,” he said, his voice still so damned polite, “you have two options.”

Nagare tore his eyes away from his partner. “What? Options?” He searched the hidden features of his torturer, hoping to find something human there. “What do you mean?”

“Option one. You tell me why you’re really here. Option two. The drug I’ve given your pretty boy here goes into its second stage, no longer paralyzing just his limbs, but slowly paralyzing his lungs and heart. He asphyxiates slowly.”

“No...” Nagare whispered.

“Really, the rape would be incidental at that point.” Marco cocked his head to the side. “More a way of passing the time. Making his last moments memorable. And I hate being bored.”

He balled a fist and looked at it, then looked back at Nagare.

“Plus,” he said, flexing and curling his fingers, “my hands get cold in the winter.”

Human? There’s nothing human here.

“You’re a monster.” Nagare hissed.

“Yes.” Marco said immediately, without heat. “I am. Choose.”

“Touji-sama...”

“I don’t believe for a moment that Touji-san would hire a thief.” Marco said conversationally. “Even one as infamous as Himawari-sama. Akatsuki has every thief in Kado working for them already, they have no real need for Himawari-sama’s services. And the truce between the Lady Dan and Akatsuki has held very nicely for the last seven years. She controls gambling and prostitution. They control everything else.”

“Except for Himawari-sama. Himawari-sama is the only thief and assassin in Kado who doesn’t work for Akatsuki. And he belongs to Lady Dan.”

“It’s really a very simple arrangement.” Marco continued, “And neither party has ever had to cross the other. But here you are. Soliciting Himawari-sama’s services, which belong exclusively to my Lady and have for four years, to steal a trinket, a bauble, a necklace worth less than five thousand ryou...and you claim it’s a straightforward business deal?”

By now his voice was hard, uncompromising.

“That’s an insult. To Himawari-sama, and to my Lady.” He turned back to the still figure on the bed and grasped one ankle, drawing the leg up and out.

“No! What are you...?”

He balled his fist and drew back his arm. “You haven’t made a choice, yet. And my hands are getting cold waiting for you.”

“Its a test!” Nagare screamed. “Its a test! Its a...oh my gods...its a gods-be-damned test! Please! Please, please, please....! Its a...”

“A test?” Marco asked harshly. “A test of who, or what?”

“I don’t know...” Nagare sobbed. “Please...”

“You have ten seconds. Nine. Eight. Seven.”

“I don’t know, really, I don’t...”

“Five...four...”

“He didn’t say!” Nagare was crying, tears rolling down his cheeks. “Touji-san didn’t say!”

Marco lowered his fist slightly. “Tell me what he did say.”

“He said that Akatsuki was interested in Himawari-san.” Nagare spoke as fast as he could, watching Marco’s hands. “He said that the necklace was cheap, but that it belonged to the Daimyou’s daughter – it would be impossible to get. He said that the level of security was...that he wanted to test...that he was...the necklace wasn’t important. The job was a test. Akatsuki is interested in Himawari-san...the necklace is cheap...the level of...”

“Stop.” Marco said.

Nagare stopped talking. He was still crying.

“Thank you, Nagare-san.” Marco said, politely. “You’ve been very helpful.” He held up a pressurized syringe. “This is the antidote for the drug your lovely partner has been given.”

He pressed it into the meat of Hokushin’s thigh and it hissed.

He held up two more syringes.

“These are not harmful. They will merely erase the last ten minutes of your memory. You have been in here for just under nine minutes now. By the time I finish talking, the amount of time you will lose should cover just about everything that happened in this room.” He injected Hokushin with the second syringe.

Nagare’s heart leapt when Hokushin jerked his leg as the drug hissed into his blood. The antidote was real, his partner would be mobile soon. Even now he could see Hokushin’s hands scrabbling weakly for his clothing. They would get out of this, and if the gods were kind, that bastard Marco would still be in the room when Nagare’s hands were freed.

“This one’s for you.” Marco said, pressing the syringe against his arm. “I will return in three minutes.” He bowed.

“I look forward to meeting you then.”


Nagare idly kicked the side of his chair and scowled at the roses decorating the little sitting room they were cooling their heels in. His arm itched and his head hurt. The little red light in the periphery of his right eye was bugging the shit out of him.

If Collars had to record stuff, couldn’t they at lest make it less obvious to the guy with the camera in his head?

Where the hell were their drinks? And that creepy mummy-guy, Marco. What the hell was taking him so long? They were Akatsuki, man. This Himawari guy should be thankful they were here to get him out from under the Witch of Steel Country.

“Nagare, calm down.” Hokushin was strangely pale and irritated. “Touji-sama is counting on us. We must represent him well.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Nagare said, disgusted. “I’ll behave.”

When the door to the casino reopened a moment later, however, and Marco came into the room, Nagare was unprepared for the wave of rage that swamped him. He found himself halfway out of his chair before he even realized he had begun to move. His hands were fisted tightly, so tightly his fingers began to throb, and his blood was pounding in his head so hard he didn’t notice at first that he had begun to growl.

He would have blindly rushed his host, was rushing his host, with the plain intent to kill. The only thing that stopped him was Hokushin hand clamping around his arm.

“Stop, Nagare!” Hokushin said sharply. “Get a hold of yourself!”

Nagare resisted for a moment, all his instincts telling him the man in front of him needed to die. But he allowed Hokushin to pull him down, to guide him back into his seat behind the wrought-iron table. He suppressed his fury, shaking with the effort it took.

“My apologies, Marco-san.” Hokushin said in a strange, soft voice. “Have you discussed the matter with Himawari-san?”

Nagare didn’t want to take his eyes off of the man standing quietly in front of them but he’d never heard that note in Hokushin’s voice before. He risked a quick glance over at his partner, usually so calm and collected.

The glance grew into a stare.

Hokushin was terrified.

We’ve got to get out of here. Nagare thought grimly. We need to leave. Now.

“I’m very sorry to say that at this time Himawari-san is not available.” Marco was saying. “Please let Touji-san know that we appreciate his regard.” He waved hand in the general direction of the casino.

Nagare felt more than saw Hokushin flinch at the movement.

“Your drinks are on the house.” Marco bowed. “Please enjoy our establishment, gentlemen.” He swept out the door.

“Nagare...” Hokushin said in a small voice.

“We leave.” Nagare stated flatly. “Now.”


Ibiki found Dai alone in the Block 5 security room, going through the footage of the interrogation. He had a flask of sake in front of him and a cup next to his right hand. He was playing the final confession sentence by sentence and making notes, muttering under his breath as he wrote. He looked up as Ibiki entered.

“Ibiki.” he said neutrally, and stood up, crossing to the other side of the room.

Ibiki had braced himself for the inevitable backlash. He was under no illusions about people’s reactions to monsters, even when they were needed. Yet he found himself angry, furious with the hypocrisy that demanded he do his job and then shunned him when he did.

He swung around, indignation welling in him, clawing at his throat.

“It was risky going back in so soon.” Dai said, handing him a cup retrieved from the small tray on the far side of the room. “Do you think it’ll trigger the suppressed memories?”

Ibiki blinked. He coughed, clearing his throat.

“No...” he said mechanically, “the Lady says those memories are gone for good.” He sat down across from Dai, who filled his cup with alcohol. “And the Collar recorded my leaving, so they had to see me come back.”

“Their reactions were so strong.”

“The body remembers.” Ibiki took a drink. “Even when the mind doesn’t.”

Dai nodded, apparently satisfied. “A test...” he mused. “ At least I know they’re interested.” He gulped down what was left in his cup and refilled it.

“You want them to be...interested?” Ibiki felt his way delicately through the conversation, unsure what information he was allowed. The lack of reaction to his brutality was throwing him off, making him second-guess the man frowning at his notes in front of him.

“Well...” Dai scratched his nose. “...sort of.”

“Maybe you should take it.”

Dai’s brow furrowed. “You think so? I’m also sort of playing hard to get, here.”

“Not for them,” Ibiki said, thinking about it, “but do the job anyway and then make sure they know.”

“Pass their test on my terms.” Dai’s face lit up. “That’s great. I’ll take that to the Lady in the morning. Thanks, Ibiki.”

Ibiki gave a little nod, sipping his alcohol. The silence that fell was not uncomfortable.

“Ibiki.” Dai said after a while. “Here’s what I can tell you.”

Ibiki’s breath caught. He put his cup down slowly, all his attention focused on Dai.

“For reasons that I can’t go into, I have to get hired by Akatsuki. But!” he looked up at Ibiki, his face very serious, “I have to get hired in such a way that just hiring me is a coup. Akatsuki needs to work very hard to hire me, because I need to be hired for a very, very specific job.”

“I can’t tell you what that job is. I’m actually not entirely sure what will happen once I take the job, to be honest. That part is...well...anyway.” he faltered, looking uneasy, “...the point is, it’s a job that we think should be opening up within the next year. So that’s our window. Between now and then we need Akatsuki, specifically Mizuki, to want to hire me. Not just for my skills, although I need to impress them there, too. But also for my honor.”

Ibiki raised his eyebrows.

“I know.” Dai sighed. “But they need to be absolutely certain that I will never, ever betray them. That’s the only way I’m going to rate the job I’ve got to get. So I have to outthink, outfight, and outlast anything they can throw at me until they know I can’t be re-bought. That once I’m paid for, I’m theirs. I’ve got to be dirty enough to hire and clean enough to trust.”

“Believe me,” he rubbed his face, “I’m not sure I can pull it off, either. But the fact that Mizuki is testing me...that’s good. It means he’s starting to want me, mostly right now I think because he doesn’t have me. But it’s a start.”

Ibiki nodded. “And a good one, I think.”

Dai lifted one shoulder wearily. “We’ll see. Now all we can do is wait.”

“Then we should sleep.” Ibiki said firmly. “I’ll report to the Lady. You get out of here and go to bed.”

Dai gave him a lopsided smile and turned to pour the last of the sake into his cup.

That smile!

Familiarity swamped Ibiki, nostalgia so thick he almost choked. Covering, he went to the door, deep in thought. Pieces were starting to fit together.

But the whole picture could get me – or someone else – killed. he reminded himself.

Still...

“Ibiki.”

“Yes?” Ibiki replied, still turning over his old memories in search of something elusive.

“Thank you again. For tonight. You got exactly what we needed, and I’m grateful.”

“There’s no need to...” Ibiki started. Dai interrupted him. “I’m not going to ask you about your relationship with Touji Mizuki.”

Ibiki stiffened, glad he was facing away. “That’s good. It’s none of your...”

“...but even though I say this is the beginning,” Dai went on, raising his voice slightly, “know that one day there will be an end.”

“And on that day,” Dai was unexpectedly fierce. “Touji Mizuki is all yours.”

Shocked, Ibiki closed his eyes, vibrating like struck wire as Dai’s ringing pronouncement sunk in.

Mine.

He knew he needed to respond, had to say something to acknowledge the gift he’d been given. All the gifts, really...acceptance, information...and this last. He didn’t even know what to call it. He knew he should reply, should give thanks. But he didn’t have words, couldn’t come up with anything that wouldn’t be dangerous.

And then memory slid into place. And he knew.

He waited until he could be sure of his voice.

“May I give you a piece of advice?” he said finally. His words were husky but he chose them with care. “You need to watch your diction.”

“My...”

“Yes.” Ibiki said. “Most of the time I can hear Moon Country in your voice. I assume that’s where you’re from. I’ve only heard it once or twice, but it sticks in the mind, as I’m sure you know.”

“But sometimes,” Ibiki went on, softly now, “sometimes when you’re just with me, or the Lady, or Chi-chan, your diction changes. And you sound different.”

“You almost sound...like you’re from Konoha.”

The quality of this silence was distinctly less comfortable.

“...Ibiki...?”

“Good night, Daisuke.” Ibiki said, smiling to himself, and left.