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(Word Count: 2,128)
I woke up to a stinging pain on my cheek and a massive headache. Panic seized me and any sleepiness vanished instantly, I tried to sit up but I couldn’t. I was completely bound. I couldn’t even move an inch on my body.
Doing my best to push down my panic, I tried taking stock of my situation. I was strapped down to a metal table. An operating table most likely, though the thought made me sick to my stomach. I was also naked. I was going to be tortured, wasn't I? Danzo had me. Wait! Grandma! That's when I remembered the attack. How she was killed, the pain and horror on her face. The blood. I'm going to kill every last one of them! Tears of frustration, hate, and loss welled up. The cursed grin of that devil flashed in my mind. Somehow I knew my misfortune was all that things fault. Somehow, someway, I was going to kill it.
Then Sakumo’s voice raged in my mind again. "YOU KNEW?! YOU KNEW THE FUTURE, AND YOU DIDN'T SAVE HER!?" Of course. Danzo wanted me because I knew the future. He killed grandma because he was targeting me. Was it really all my fault?
A mixture of guilt, shame, and a slew of different emotions churned in my mind. But there was also anger and a steely resolve formed. Danzo wanted to know the future? There was no way I was going to tell him anything. Torture me as he wants, I'll die before I give him anything.
Somehow, that didn’t sound like such a bad thing anymore.
A door opened behind me, and a man stepped into view. Surprisingly, he wasn't wearing the standard ROOT uniform, so whoever this man was, he was an important member. I could see his face clearly. He had orange hair and looked strangely familiar, though I couldn’t really place where. Then it hit me, he was a Yamanaka! Danzo’s pet Yamanaka member.
My face paled. If they had Yamanaka members combing through my brain, none of my secrets are safe.
"Hello, Norihide Sakai. My name is Yamanaka Fuuto. I am the one in charge of extracting any and all knowledge of the future from your mind. Now," he holds up a very familiar scroll. The scroll I had written everything about the future so I wouldn’t forget. I cursed myself, of course they would find it! They were ninjas! "Let's start with this. What language is this written in?"
He unscrolled it. I was shocked. Again. How had they gotten through the password? It must have been written on my face because the man smirked. "Come now, you didn't really think your novice fuinjutsu could keep us out did you? I admit your password was pretty good. But when there's so many flaws in the script itself you can simply overwhelm it with your own chakra." He gloated.
"Now answer the question. What language is this and what does it say?"
"Go screw yourself." I spat.
"Wrong answer, Norihide." He placed a palm on my stomach and his hand flashed with lightning. I screamed and convulsed as all the muscles contracted involuntarily. It lasted only a few seconds, but I was already in a cold sweat from the pain.
"Go screw your mother!"
Another round of taser and convulsions. "What did you see of the future? What did you write down?"
"KILL YOURSELF! AHHHHH!"
When he was done tasering me, he gave a small chuckle. "Ah, such bravado. They all start out this way, but they all break in the end. You're only making this hard on yourself, Norihide. Tell me what I want to know and it'll all stop."
The torture lasted for hours. A few minutes in, Fuuto had switched tactics from lightning to knives, and he cut long shallow cuts all over his body. Just when I was about to pass out from lack of blood, he healed me just enough to stop the bleeding. Then it was placing a cloth over my face to waterboard me, leaving me drowning and choking for air.
My throat was raw from screaming. Please, someone save me!
~~ WRIN ~~
Dai hoisted the grocery bags easily into one arm so he could knock on the door with the other. No response. He knocked again. "Mrs. Norihide! It's me, Dai!" He called out.
"Do you think they're out training?" Guy asked curiously.
Dai on the other hand was concerned. "No, son, I don't think they are. Stay here, Guy. Something doesn't feel right." He handed the bag of groceries to Guy.
Opening the door, he called out again. "Mrs. Norihide, it's Dai! I'm coming in!" But then he caught the heavy scent of blood. "Mrs. Norihide!" He rushed in.
The house was well lit from the lights, which were left on. So when he burst into the dining room, he saw blood splatter on the wall behind the table. Coming around the table with a sinking feeling in his stomach, he saw the cold stiff body of Mrs. Norihide.
Her throat was slit, her face frozen in horror, and she laid in a large pool of blood. Dai's heart broke to see her dead, and he feared the worst for little Sakai. But he was a ninja. Now wasn't the time for grieving. There would be time for that later. Right now, he needed answers.
Dai began examining the body to search for any clues he could get. The blood wasn't quite dry yet due to how much of it there was, but from the rigor mortis of the body, he could tell that she was dead for close to 12 hours already. From the dinner out on the table, they were attacked during dinner and she was killed immediately.
Leaving her, Dai quickly searched the house. It was torn apart and ransacked, interestingly enough, some floorboards in the center hallway were ripped up as well. No sign of Sakai though. But why would they want to kidnap the young boy?
He needed to report this to the Hokage immediately.
Dai returned to his son. "Son, something serious has happened. I need you to return home immediately."
"What happened? Is Sakai alright?"
"I don't know, son. For now, head back home."
With that, Dai dashed off towards the Hokage's office. He burst through the doors, ignored the secretary's protest, and directly entered the Hokage's office.
"Lord Hokage! There's been a murder and a kidnapping! The Norihides, and little Sakai was taken!"
The hokage was busy talking with Tsunade who had just returned from the frontlines against Suna. When they heard Dai’s words, both of them paled.
“When was this? Who took him!” Tsunade demanded.
"Just now, I came from the Norihide house and found Mrs. Norihide's body. From the rigor mortis, it must have been around dinnertime last night." Dai explained.
“I had him protected! It must have been a team of people. Dog! Mouse!” Hiruzen called. Two ANBU appeared kneeling in front of the Hokage’s desk. “Go to the Norihide’s house and search the grounds! Fox should have been watching the boy. Find out what happened there. I want to know everything.”
Silently, they flickered out immediately.
Tsunade was pissed. “I’m heading out too. I owe Sakai a lot. I’ll be personally heading this investigation.”
As she was about to leave, Dai stepped forward. “Wait, Lady Tsunade! Allow me to join you! Sakai’s been like another son to me, let me help!”
She nodded tersely. “Follow me.”
They both flickered out. Hiruzen slumped back into the chair and ran a hand through his hair. “This job will make my hair fall out.”
Together, Tsunade and Dai went to the Norihide house, joining the ANBU Dog and Mouse. Mouse knelt before Tsunade. “Lady Tsunade! We’ve found the body of Fox, the ANBU that was watching over them. He was killed by several poisoned senbon needles. From the angles, it’s clear there was a team involved. No other traces were found of the attackers.”
Tsunade examined the body and one of the senbons used. From the state of the body, it was one of Suna's poisons. But she had just come from the frontlines there. There was no way for a team of Suna ninjas to make their way into Konoha. Someone was framing them. It had to be from within. Tsunade’s mind immediately went to Danzo. That snake would definitely do something like this. He had been actively taking out Senju and Uchiha teams already. Of course he would try something with Sakai. Guilt bubbled up within her. Sakai had specifically asked her for protection from Danzo. She was supposed to be there for him.
~~ WRIN ~~
Danzo made his way through a dim hallway, the only light were some flickering lanterns on the wall. He entered into a small lab, designed for interrogation. Walls were lined with various tools for torture. Lying strapped down on a metal table in the center of the room was a bloodied, scarred, and unconscious, Norihide Sakai. The source of his troubles lately.
Yamanaka Fuuto stood nearby, drying off his hands of blood. “Lord Danzo.”
“What have you gotten from the boy?”
Fuuto gave a small sigh. “The boy has proved more troublesome than expected. He has yet to give me anything.”
Danzo gave an angry grunt. After they had tried to read directly from the boy’s mind, using the Yamanaka’s techniques to pull out the boy’s memories as written scrolls, they had discovered that all of his thoughts came out as some foreign language so it turned out to be worthless. Except for one thing, it was obvious from the amount of lines of scroll being pulled out of the boy’s brain, that the boy contains far more memories than merely 4 years worth. This confirms that the boy actually saw or experienced something.
Luckily, the boy had written down an entire scroll’s worth of what appears to be the same language. If they can get the boy to tell them what the contents of the scroll are, his linguists can create a key to translate not only the scroll itself, but the boy’s entire life. They’ll have everything the boy saw from the future.
"Break him if you have to. Get me that information. Tsunade’s been investigating and for some reason, she's been trying to find our bases. It must be some warning the boy gave her that set her on our trail."
"Yes, Lord Danzo."
Danzo left them. As he walked back through the hallway, he could hear a faint scream from the room.
~~ WRIN ~~
The next day, Tsunade and Dai were with 5 ANBU ninjas. They had found the main headquarters to Danzo’s ROOT. Knowledge of where the headquarters of an ANBU Commander is hidden is very restricted. Now that they finally found it, Tsunade didn't want to waste any more time.
She kicked the door down. Even though it was reinforced with steel, the doors still burst inwards with a scream of tearing metal. The loud crash echoed throughout the interior.
They dashed into the headquarters. They searched every room, ignoring protests from the ROOT ANBU that were inside. Any ROOT ninja that tried to stop them were instantly blown away by Tsunade.
They made their way into a huge chamber, deep underground. Danzo strode forward angrily. “What is the meaning of this! What are you doing here, Tsunade!”
Tsunade looked back coldly at the man. “That’s Lady Senju to you, Shimura Danzo. Where is Sakai? I know you have him!”
“That’s nothing but a baseless accusation! I do not have the boy. Feel free to search the base, but afterwards I’ll be bringing you up on charges of invading the headquarters of an ANBU Commander and attacking my men! This is treason!”
“You won’t scare me with your title, Danzo. When I find him, I’ll be coming for your head next.”
“Get out!” Danzo roared.
“We’ll be searching this base from top to bottom first. This is an official investigation under the Hokage himself. Cooperate or I’ll arrest you.”
“Tsk. I’ll be speaking to Hiruzen about this.” And with that, Danzo left.
Tsunade turned to her team. “Spread out in teams of two and search every inch of this place.”
They searched everywhere, checking for hidden rooms or passages, searching documents for any mention of Sakai. They found nothing.
“D*** IT!” Tsunade shouted, punching the nearby wall, cracks spider-webbed out shaking the entire hallway. “No wonder he was so confident. Sakai must be held at a smaller hidden base somewhere. Did we at least find anything incriminating?”
One of the ANBU shook his head. “No, Lady Tsunade.”
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she thought about what she should do. I need some help. I need to speak to Jiraiya and Orochimaru.
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