Starring:
Date: May 17, 2016
Summary:
Atsuro, Kenta and Tatsuo interrogate the three prisoners from the group that tried to kidnap Tatsuo. They discover that there's a traitor among the staff that sealed Isobu into Tatsuo. Someone, likely this same traitor, knocks out the guard and kills two of the prisoners while they're busy.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Tail Hunters - Interrogation Gone Wrong"
Konoha Prison
After they had brought a few of the evil types who'd been trying to capture Tatsuo back from the surprisingly fake city they had been put in holding. They'd beat them up pretty bad and it took a good week for healing before they could be interviewed. Or rather interrogated. Tatsuo wanted to be involved and thankfully Atsuro was due to his position. Kenta was there due to his Yamanaka heritage and healing ability. Tatsuo waited outside the holding area where the three men were in separate areas.
Kenta is dying to know why the would-be kidnappers tried to take Tatsuo. Or rather, he's pretty sure what one of the reasons is, but the specifics isn't too clear. For example, what did they intend to do -after- they took Tatsuo. How did they even know about the boy? The medic-nin approaches Tatsuo with a slightly stony expression on his face. He didn't really want to deal with the kidnappers, such foul men, but it's the only way to get the answers that they need. "Konichiwa, Tatsuo. Are you sure you want to be here?" he asks his student in a low voice.
The door leading to the outside opens, and Atsuro and Taizen step in, both looking rather serious—this /is/ an interrogation, after all. "Hello, Tatsuo." Taizen's tail wags only slightly as he speaks, "How are you today?" Atsuro speaks more directly, echoing Kenta's question, "Are you sure you want to do this? We don't torture our prisoners, but an interrogation is still a pretty intense thing." Atsuro turns to Kenta and greets him with just a nod, and Taizen only looks to him and wags his tail slightly. It's not the kind of atmosphere for friendly chatting.
"Um, yes, I'm sure," Tatsuo says with a bit of a shaky tone. He swallows to settle his nerves a bit before he nods quickly. "I'm fine. I want to know why they wanted me. I want to be here to find out." He looks between the others with a small smile, trying to look sure of himself.
Kenta turns to bow deeply to Atsuro and Taizen. "Konichiwa," he says in the same somber tone that he addressed Tatsuo with. "I'm ready to do the interrogation as soon as you are, Atsuro-senpai. Umm… this is my first time doing this with real subjects instead of practicing on a clan mate, so I'm not sure how long it'll take me to read what we need from them. Mind reading isn't a guarantee either." The young man looks sideways at Tatsuo. "Tatsuo, you should stay behind us at all times. Even though the men are bound, it could still be dangerous for you."
Atsuro nods. "Okay," he says, "You can come with us then. I think Kenta will be doing the hardest part." He looks over to Kenta and nods. "We have faith in you," he says, "But if you start to get exhausted, give me some kind of signal, okay? Nudge my right foot with your left so that the prisoner doesn't know why we're leaving." Better not to let them know they've won a round. "And that's right. These guys didn't seem too… well, smart, but we can't underestimate them." He opens the door to the first holding cell and steps in.
Tatsuo shuffles his feet a bit but nods to the two superior shinobi. He prepares anyways, just in case something horribly unexpected happens.
As they enter the first cell the man is there that Taizen had smashed into a fake building. He looks a little worse for wear but is in overall health shape. When the first three enter he just glares. It's when Tatsuo enters that he seems surprised. Perhaps at having the victim of his attack so close? Or maybe just not expecting him to be there in such a situation.
Kenta steps into the room with a stern expression on his face. "You're in the presence of the Jounin Commander. Be respectful," he tells the prisoner in a voice that's surprisingly hard voice for him. He watches the prisoner with unreadale eyes for a few seconds before he turns to the two higher ranked shinobi. "Umm… Atsuro-senpai… Taizen-senpai. Tell me when you want me to start. You might want to ask some questions first."
Well, Atsuro knows how to deal with a glaring prisoner. He folds his arms and stares casually into the man's eyes without blinking. When Kenta instructs him, he gives a short nod, then turns back to the prisoner. "Before that vein in your head explodes," he says, "Consider how well we've treated you and compare it to how poorly we could have treated you. I was ready to have you beaten and starved, the Hokage was ready to have you beaten and starved, but this man…" He points to Tatsuo, "Went to bat for you. So when I ask you these questions, just remember why you still have all your teeth left. Number one, how did you come to learn about Tatsuo?"
Tatsuo stays back and listens to what Kenta and then Atsuro say. The last one causes him to blink in surprise but then he manages to put on a tough face so that it doesn't show too much. That'll have to do!
The prisoner looks between the others as they speak, his eyes settling on Atsuro. He snorts in indignation at not only the 'good' treatment but also the question. "I know you leaf folk are the nice type. You wouldn't do nothin to me anyways. Heck you even had a healer on me. I ain't telling ya nothing and you can't make me!"
Kenta frowns at the prisoner. "You were only given treatment because we didn't want you to die. You have to be well enough for questioning…" The young man folds his arms across his chest. "Umm… but even all these questions that Atsuro-senpai's asking you is only a courtesy. We don't -need- your cooperation to find out why you did what you did. Konoha's shinobi clans have special abilities beyond any other village. We can take this knowledge from you anytime we want and it'll be less pleasant. Ummm… just think about that for a second."
Bluff called? Well, maybe Atsuro's just going to keep on bluffing! "Ah, yes, kindly Leaf nin wouldn't hurt a fly. I'm sure that idea will be of great comfort to you when you're getting the intel beaten out of you and whatever idiot told you that around the campfire is /still/ around the campfire telling it to the next poor hostage." He takes a step towards the prisoner. "We're not stupid; we know it wasn't all a coincidence that you chose Tatsuo. Now, you can still avoid anything too unpleasant if you just tell us how and why."
While Tatsuo remains back and quiet the man looks from Kenta to Atsuro. He sneers at the latter all the way up until he starts getting closer. Then the sneer fades a little. Atsuro can be quite imposing after all. "Hey look I don't really know nothin. They just told us what the kid looked like and said to make sure he was alive." The man doesn't seem very comfortable anymore. After all if Atsuro starts swinging it's really going to hurt.
Kenta keeps his arms folded across his chest. He steps forward also, but his short and slight stature doesn't add much to the intimidation effect. "Who exactly are you talking about? Umm… these people that told you how Tatsuo looks like. What do they look like? Where are they from? What -exactly- did they say to you?" The young man leans forward slightly to look the prisoner in the eyes. "We want to know everything. Every time shred of information that you can remember. Atsuro-senpai is going to be unhappy if you purposefully leave anything out. I'm a Yamanaka, so I can tell."
"See," says Atsuro, "Now you've put me in an awkward position. Are you, despite everything indicating not, actually clever enough to come up with a convincing lie? Or is it really the case that whoever's in charge of this whole thing knew better than to tell a lackey like you what this is all about." He nods in Kenta's direction. "That sounds about right to me. Tell us everything you know about these people. And your answer had better not leave us unsatisfied."
Tatsuo's eyes widen a bit when the man starts getting antsy and, luckily, the man can't really see him thanks to Atsuro and Kenta kind of blocking the view. Sure, Kenta might be a tad bit shorter than Atsuro, but when the man is bound to a chair there's only so much he can see anyways. "I-I'm not lying!" the man insists, leaning back against the chair back when Kenta leans in. "It was all through the Boss, he didn't even give us another name!"
Kenta glances up at Atsuro. Then, he looks back at the prisoner. "You're saying that you don't know -anything- else at all? You haven't even seen these people?" He tries to make a disbelieving snort, but it just sounds for a second like he choked on his own spit. Kenta rubs at his throat briefly. "Ok, then. Tell us more about what your Boss told you. And which one is your boss anyway?"
Atsuro sighs. "I really doubt that the same idiots who planned that lame ruse somehow managed to perfectly conceal their identity. Think harder. You didn't see him? You don't know where we can find something of his?" He actually walks up to the chair and lifts a leg up so that he's kneeling on it. "And remember, we'll know if you're lying. A little detail could save you a huge pain."
"Of course I knew what they looked like," the man scoffed, then suddenly paled as he thought about his hot-headed retort. "It was the one who told us to kill you at the village. And to take the kid! It's the same person, always the same person that's in charge." He tries to spill that as fast as he can as he looks wild-eyed between the two 'larger' types. He really doesn't want to get his teeth knocked out.
Kenta watches the prisoner keenly. "Umm… I think he might be telling the truth, Atsuro-senpai. Maybe we can allow him a free pass from whatever you want to do to him… this time." Suddenly, Kenta steps forward and slaps a hand to the prisoner's forehead. "But just in case he -is- lying, I'm going to double check." The young man concentrates as he sends his consciousness into the prisoner's mind and starts probing around for information that might be useful to them.
Atsuro nods slowly, regarding the prisoner with narrowed eyes. "That sounds… reasonable. Now, we did take a couple more of you prisoner, so if what they say matches what /you/ said, then I guess you'll get off easily." He looks over to Kenta and nods. "Of course, it doesn't hurt to double-check." He steps back from the chair and watches to make sure everything goes okay.
Curious, Tatsuo steps forward when Kenta moves towards the man and puts a hand on his head. He really kind of wants to see this. He's heard of Yamanaka abilities, and seen Kenta use some in combat, but this…was just new and interesting!
The man didn't have any defenses against the intrusion and when Kenta dove in he'd see pretty much what the man said with perhaps a small tidbit of new information. Every time the Boss was seen they looked like a different person. Yet they always knew the same things and had the same manuerisms and such. Something that makes it seem more a henge than different people.
Kenta pulls back with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Interesting. He was telling the truth, but he neglected to tell us that the Boss used a different henge every time he appeared." The young man glances to the rest of the group. "Umm… do you think this would be considered a purposeful omission? We did say that he needs to tell us -everything- he can think of. He didn't tell us about this… We probably would have found out when we go talk to the rest of his colleagues anyway, so it seemed very silly of him to hide it from us."
"Hmmmm…" Atsuro looks up at the ceiling for a moment. "Yes, very silly." He leans in towards the prisoner and looks him in the eye. "Not sure why you went to such lengths to defend this person. Obviously they had zero respect for you. Probably don't even care what kind of situation they've landed in." He leans back, "But we might need to ask you some questions later, so I won't bloody that ugly face up. For now."
The poor man shrinks under Atsuro's gaze but he doesn't respond. Apparently he can't think of a proper response to that question, or at least one that he thinks would be a worthwhile response.
Tatsuo exits the cell, holding the door open for Kenta and the two Inuzuka to leave as well before he'd close and latch it once again, leaving the man to his solidarity once again. The Nara says nothing, just chews on his lower lip as he looks back and forth between the others silently to see what they might have to say…
"Umm… he actually really didn't know too much after all. But we did learn something. That Boss of his is very paranoid, which makes sense considering what these men are trying to do," Kenta comments as soon as the door's closed. He furrows his brows in thought. "I really hope that we didn't end up with all prisoners that don't know much. This could be one of those schemes that's layer upon layer of secrecy and contacts, which would make identifying the core perpetrators very hard."
Atsuro turns and leaves the cell, Taizen following behind him. "Less than we'd like," says Atsuro, "This Boss is better at hiding their identity than he is at planning ambushes." He folds his arms and takes a moment to think. "We can sniff around the scene a little more too. There's probably enough scent remaining, we might be able to sort out who was who. Let's check out the next one." He moves to the next door.
Tatsuo nods a little before he moves to the next door and looks between the others, then opens the door to let them in first. Inside is the man that Kenta had captured and then severed all his poor tendons and such. The guy isn't even really tied down as much as propped up after that. Still, the ropes are there to keep him in place either way. When the door opens he raises his head, eyes widening a bit with…fear?
Kenta enters the second cell after letting out a sigh where the prisoner can't see him do it. Interrogating prisoners is so unpleasant. He shakes his head and waits for the others to enter before he does. Like the last time, the young man announces what's going on. He clears his throat first and fixes his gaze on the prison. "Ahem… umm… This is the Jounin Commander. You might remember him from that incident that caused your capture. Then, you should also realize that he's very unhappy about the attempted kidnapping of a valuable Konoha shinobi. He's here to ask you some questions and I suggest that you answer them promptly. Umm… and truthfully too."
"That's what I suggest too." Atsuro puts his hands on his hips. "Now, let's save us both the trouble of me taking you into the next cell and showing you what happened to the last guy. You answer my questions truthfully and nobody gets hurt." He nods to Kenta, "And if you don't answer truthfully, he'll know. I'll give you a moment to think about that, then let's get on to question number one." After a second's pause, he says, "What do you know about the Boss, the one in charge of the whole kidnapping attempt?"
"N-nothing! Nobody knows who the Boss really is!" The man is quick to answer and by his wide eyes there isn't going to need to be much threatening going on here. "They look different each time, sometimes it's even a girl!" While the man offers the information Tatsuo once again hangs out behind the others. Actually he hands out right near Taizen like a comfort animal as he reaches up to scritch him behind the ears slowly while he watches and listens.
Kenta glances at Atsuro. Then, he takes a step forward to ask his own question. "We already know that. Tell us something that we don't know. Umm… like do you know where the Boss is from. Or has he ever let anything slip that might reveal who he is? Has he mentioned any other people that he associates with? Anything that you can think of at all. Umm… the reason why you're alive is because you might have useful information." Kenta sounds slightly uncomfortable saying that last line, but he tries to hide it.
Atsuro nods deliberately. "We still need to know about this Boss. Was there some specific place they always met you at? They never slipped up and, say, gave you anything? Even a note telling you the plan for the ambush?" He takes a step closer, "And while we're on the topic of that plan, how did your little group come to learn about Tatsuo anyway?" He looks to Kenta. "Now now. The other guy is still alive. I mean, technically."
Yes, once again Kenta's scary words don't seem to have nearly as much affect as Atsuro simply stepping forward. The captive swallows loudly from his seat when the large Inuzuka does move forward and begins his persistent questioning. Again the man answers quickly. "O-our base wasn't far from where we attacked you. The Boss didn't want to have to take the kid very far. We-we all stayed there for a few days before they told us the plan." He swallows again, almost seeming to have a dry mouth before he continues. "I overheard the Boss talking to someone. It sounded like they knew a lot about Konoha, like they were a former Leaf nin or something. He told the Boss about the kid!"
Now this is more information than they had before. Very important information. Kenta quickly looks at the Jounin Commander. "Atsuro-senpai, I'm going to need to look into this. I need to know -exactly- what he remembers about that conversation." The young man steps forward slowly to see whether Atsuro will stop him. He lifts his right hand out towards the prisoner's head with the intent to dive into the prisoner's mind to probe the memory while it's still fresh and easily accessible from such a recent reminder.
Atsuro nods, though the tightening of his hands on his hips at the mention of this rogue Leaf nin hints that his calm is shaken. "This is important information," he agrees, "Anything you can get about the location of the base or the identity of this… traitor would be a huge help." He looks to the prisoner and narrows his eyes. "Now, this won't hurt you at all… IF you don't resist."
The man quickly shakes his head to say he's not going to resist though he watches Kenta now with wide eyes as well since he's going to be doing…something. Tatsuo pats Taizen distractedly as he steps up next to Atsuro to watch once again
.
As Kenta dives into the mans mind he would find himself deep in a forest. A small camp was set up, a few tents and a number of sleeping rolls not in tents are around as well. Through the mans eyes Kenta would find himself wandering off away from the camp, likely to relieve himself. But then he hears voices.
"You're sure this is the boy, this Nara?" a female voice says as Kenta quickly hides behind a tree.
"Yes, I was there for the sealing process. It's him in the picture." A male voice, gruff, though the figure is somewhat hidden by shrubbery.
"You better be right with what I'm paying you. If not I will find and kill you." With those lovely words spoken the two split and the man/Kenta quickly retreats back to the camp…
Kenta's hand jerk backwards. He looks slightly shocked, but manages to control his expression again within a few second. "Atsuro-senpai, if you have any more questions to ask, you should go ahead. Umm… then, we need to discuss our findings and check the last prisoner." The young man pauses for a second. "But I don't know what we'd do with this one, unless he can continue to make himself useful to us somehow…"
Atsuro stays silent, looking from Kenta to the prisoner, then back to Kenta again as he waits. Then once Kenta has given his opinion, "Got it." He glances at Kenta, doing his best to hide his curiousity for the time being, then turns back to the prisoner. "One more question," he asks, "Why did they want Tatsuo? I can guess what it is about him, but what was the step /after/ the kidnapping?"
The man shakes his head quickly at the last question, also shaking off the daze of having someone toy around in his brain. "The Boss never said. Whatever it was they kept it all to themselves! I swear! Please don't hurt me anymore!" Anymore than he has been with his severed tendons and all that. It was already plenty bad enough. At least in his eyes.
Tatsuo backs up once again and opens the door once it seems their done - then he freezes, eyes wide before a single hand sign fills the surrounding area with mist. It's only there a brief second and then it's gone and Tatsuo steps out of the area and crouches next to…the unconscious guard.
Kenta's eyes widen when Tatsuo suddenly fills the area with mist. Knowing that something must be wrong, he removes a tag from a pocket and holds it at ready. As soon as the mist drops, Kenta goes kneel by the unconscious guard's side. "What happened? Who did this?" the young man murmurs in an urgent voice. "Did you sense the intruder with your mist?" He warily looks around for a second before he touches the guard with his free hand to perform a diagnosis. "Wait a second! What about the other two prisoners?! Something could have happened to them while we were with this one."
"Squeeze." Atsuro turns and takes a sword from Taizen's vest. "Guard this prisoner," he says, "We'll go check on the others." He looks to Kenta, then Tatsuo. "I'll check on the first prisoner," he says, "And make sure he's still here. Kenta, you see what you can do for the guard. Tatsuo, watch his back. Once I'm done in the first cell, we'll go see about the third prisoner." He turns to check the first cell they visited.
Tatsuo shakes his head slightly at Kenta's question on whether or not he sensed the intruder. "No, there's no one close by. I checked out to the street and that's busy." Obviously. Tatsuo stands and looks to Atsuro with dark, sad eyes. "They're dead," he says softly, looking to the door that Atsuro is approaching before lowering his eyes. He takes a deep breath and a look of calm, false calm though it may be, settles over his face before the mist reforms but only lightly, not blocking view but giving Tatsuo an indicator if someone nearby moves. After that a large bubble of water forms around the prisoner they'd just left, ensuring no easy access to him, though it freaks him out a bit.
"It must be the Konoha shinobi that was talking to their Boss," Kenta says in a somber voice. He sets down the tag that he was holding, but makes sure to form a skin tight seal barrier around himself. It's only afterwards that he holds both hands over the unconscious guard to start healing the man. "When I did my most recent probing, I was able to look at memories of that conversation. Whomever the mysterious traitor is, it's someone that was part of Isobu's sealing process. That's why he knew about Tatsuo. The list of shinobi involved is short, so we have a place to start."
Atsuro frowns and sheaths his sword. "If I were a betting man," he says, "I'd say that our traitor is a current Leaf nin, not an ex." He turns to Kenta. "At the sealing? Seems like whoever it was came just a little too late." He looks over to Tatsuo, "Do you remember who was present at your sealing?" he asks, "Because if you don't, we should get to the restricted records and make sure nobody's decided to shred a few files."
Tatsuo shakes his head a little at Atsuro's question. "No…it was over many days and it was…" he ducks his head and looks to the side as he thinks back. "It…it was hard to remember anything." Because of the pain. But he leaves that out of it. Water forms around the other doors and they open, water moving inside to float out the other two captives. Seals mar both of their foreheads and seem to have burned through their skulls. As for the guard, another seal is hidden on the back of his neck though this one only works to keep the man unconscious.
"You're right, Atsuro-senpai. We're going to have to hurry." Kenta nibbles on his bottom lip as he removes his hands from the unconscious guard. "There's a seal on this guard to keep him asleep. I don't have time to break it. We'll have to take both him and the prisoner out with us. Umm… and hand them off to someone else to take care of them, preferably a group of Jounin. The prisoner will have to be relocated to a more secure area while the guard goes to the hospital."
Atsuro regards the floating corpses, eyes narrowed. "Tai, go to the administration and tell them what's happened. Tell them we need more guards here and a seal expert. And find us a better cell—have them reinforce one if they have to." He takes a step towards the door. "Tatsuo, Kenta, and I will be at the archives. Tell them to send guards out to us too. There's no telling if whoever did this knew about those records too."
Water wells up around the corpses as well as the prisoner, keeping them safe, then around the guard to ensure his safety until the guards arrive. Once that's done Tatsuo's false calmed eyes turn to Atsuro and Kenta. "I'm ready to go," he says simply, his tone surprisingly neutral all told. These deaths don't sit well with him at all, prisoners or not.
Kenta straightens to his feet. His face is even unhappier than when they first started. "I'm ready to head out when you are, Atsuro-senpai. There isn't much else that I can do here. I really hope that this traitor isn't going to try to break into the archives, but I won't put it pass him. This could be a good opportunity to catch him. If not… I hope this guard can remember something when the sleeping seal is broken."
As Taizen goes on ahead, Atsuro turns back to face Kenta and Tatsuo. "This is a bad ending," he says, "But we've gotten some critical information. We'll discover the identity of this Boss, and then we'll make them wish they'd messed with some other village. Come on, we're heading to the archives. If there's anything missing from the file, we'll have the whole village on lockdown. We /are/ going to find them." He turns and heads out the door.
