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Orochimaru began to breathe heavily. Kabuto strained to hear better. Was his lord's condition worsening?

"Misaki!" Orochimaru spoke suddenly.

Kabuto was visibly startled as he peeked over his shoulder; hands busy preparing another tonic.

"What about her?"

Kabuto had no idea why her name tumbled from his lips. There was no immediate reason for it.

"She's beyond our reach," Orochimaru rasped.

Then, the weakening snake lord had another hacking fit while Kabuto stood there bewildered. He didn't know what he meant, and Orochimaru-sama didn't elaborate. In any event, Kabuto was more concerned for his master's health than that sorry excuse of a kunoichi wench.

Kabuto had nursed a hollow feeling all week. It wasn't disappearing. Something uncertain hung on the horizon.

Soon, Kabuto feared that everything would change...

Misaki could wait.

Kabuto immediately went back to his irreplaceable tasks as a medical nin.



---



Misaki awoke to heavy footsteps of boots against the floor. The owner of the boots moved slowly. Like a predator. And Misaki well knew that she was the caged prey.

It was inevitable what happened now, and Misaki was in a perfect place to contemplate it. Alone on a cot in a stone cell.

"I warned you..."

Was this what Orochimaru-sama had attempted to warn her about?

She was aware that it all ended here. Last night's river of tears had dried on her face.

She was pathetic. An absolute traitor. She couldn't even be a spy. Misaki obviously lacked good judgment. Now, there was no reason for her to be alive.

She groaned and looked right up into the face of Ibiki. Surprisingly, he was smiling. Was he truly happy for her predicament, or he was trying to catch her off guard? She couldn't tell.

"Rough night, Misaki?"

There was no humor in his tone, and it belied his casual expression. Her uncle was a master manipulator and she likely had no idea what she was in for. Misaki was officially on Morino ibiki's bad side.

Kabuto, Orochimaru, save me.

Of course, she had failed her mission. She had no worth to either man any more. Perhaps they would let her rot here.

Ibiki moved on. Misaki sincerely wished that she would disappear like fog by the time he returned. Misaki was still there when she was served a bowl of rice gruel. The horrible day was already beginning. If Misaki could, she would freeze the sun in the sky and keep it from rising.

In the midst of her soaking dread, the order came that she was to be moved to an interrogation room. A guard was positioned on either side of her to ensure that she did not escape punishment. Misaki gasped when a roaming hand slipped through her hair. She stiffened, but she realized that she had to keep moving. At the moment, her will was not her own.

"Pretty like spun gold," one of them intoned. "What's a nice girl like you doing here?"

Misaki didn't answer him. She had nothing to say, not even a retort.

Misaki was pretty like the poisonous flower. She could be appreciated from afar, but could never be held. What a lonely life. Yet another person was happy with her appearance, but never cared or bothered to know her heart or what dwelled inside the garden walls that surrounded the wilderness of her mind.

Misaki was stuck.

A short while later, Misaki sat across the table from him, Morino Ibiki, head of T & I. Also, her paternal uncle.

It automatically occurred to her to beg for her uncle's forgiveness. She hoped that he hadn't forgotten taking her out for ramen, training with her, instructing her, and even giving her his coat when it had unexpectedly started to rain.

"Oji-san, I'm..." Misaki started.

Ibiki scowled. Misaki realized that she had no right to call him that now. The book he had carried in with him slapped against the wooden table as he viciously opened it.

"We're going to start the interrogation now," he informed her. "Be ready."

It was as if it was another training lesson. Morino against Morino.

Misaki reflected that she would be getting ready for school now. The birds would be singing and fluttering in the trees. The clouds would be moving across the sun...

But, maybe it would be all right. Misaki was his own flesh and blood after all.

"Now, who are you? Do we even have the right person?"

"I'm Misaki. Morino Misaki."

Ibiki rested his scarred chin in his hand. "Correct. Unfortunately. State what your business at the academy was last night."

"I was looking for something."

"What?" Ibiki remained poker-faced.

"A book?"

"For what purpose?"

Misaki bit the inside of her cheek. "To help me study."

Ibiki bared his teeth. "At midnight? You're humoring me, Misaki. Who was the man you were with?"

"Yakushi Kabuto," she replied mechanically.

it was as if she and Ibiki were engaged in a complicated dance. Misaki didn't know how to dance, but Ibiki knew all the steps.

She didn't have a chance.

"Do you know him?"

"From the Bingo Book." Misakai answered him, but she couldn't hear own words.

"Personally?" Ibiki looked up.

Misaki wondered how personal Ibiki meant. Would Ibiki be ashamed of how she felt about him? If he knew that she still carried a torch for him no matter how cruelly he treated her?

"No."

Ibiki visibly weighed her answers. It only took a matter of seconds before he turned his attention elsewhere. He folded his hands on the table.

"Yeah. There's a few holes," he conferred with his men

They nodded ever so slightly, and Misaki swore that she saw them inch closer towards the table. At Ibiki's command, Misaki knew they would pounce on her.

Misaki felt a feeling of trepidation. It was as if she was being sucked into the floor.

"Are you sure you don't know Yakushi Kabuto?"

Misaki remained silent. She imagined a gentle zephyr caressing a deep field of flowers. Then, she imagined herself at the bottom of it. No worries. No cares.

"Have you met him before? Before you came to this village? One last chance."

At the Sound.

But, Misaki didn't want to confess. It wouldn't help her case. And, she would betray the Sound.

"No," Misaki nearly cried.

He got her now. Misaki had sealed her own fate. She truly was her own worst enemy.

"Take her to the Honesty Room," Ibiki said gravely.

It had been so quick. Misaki hadn't even had time to prepare. She noticed that Ibiki's eyes had never left her own. Her lying eyes.

Misaki could only speculate how one was made honest in the Honesty Room. Her skin already itched considering it.

What was almost worse than the prospect of pain was the betrayal that palpably radiated off the tall man. How Misaki hated herself in that moment.

Her two escorts clung to each of her shoulders in a grip of steel as she was as she was led through the maze of corridors and rooms that comprised T & I. Their party stopped at a huge door. It creaked on its hinges as it was thrown open.

Misaki couldn't even begin to count the many instruments that smiled at her around the vast chamber with sharp teeth that were designed to impale, rip, stretch, and crush. She wondered if this is how Ibiki had gotten his scars. So, this was the Honesty Room.

Lurking in the back of her mind, Misaki always knew that there was a catch. Kabuto had been right. He had been right to mock her. She had just buried it and pushed it down in the hopes that she wouldn't have to deal with it. Well, the seeds had sprouted.

She noticed that Ibiki's form had blended in with the very shadows when he stepped forward.

...Misaki had lived through this before. Her subconscious had tried to warn her.

His towering figure loomed over her. She would be no match for him.

Oh, yes.

His touch would elicit screams...

The dark towering figure was Ibiki himself.

It was ironic the source of all her nightmares was her own uncle. The family she had been hoping to find. The knowledge of it now was brutal and almost anticlimactic. Misaki wondered if the scarred man ever had an inkling too.

Misaki was bewildered. Her emotions flitted this and way like trade winds. Had Kabuto done this to her? Had she done this to herself? Who was to blame?

She wondered how he would start. Maybe with the Iron Maiden. Or perhaps Ibiki would begin with something a little less lethal. It was her first time being tortured after all. For information that she didn't even know.

She could see that Ibiki was ready to start. He wore a rueful expression. Whatever Ibiki did next, Misaki was aware that she had precious seconds to make a decision. As did he.

It was too late for their relationship; it was already ruined. Threads of DNA or not.

Every facet of her life so far had been a sick joke. She was sure that the pale man was laughing somewhere. All Misaki could do now was save her skin.

I am so sorry, Kabuto...

She already knew that he couldn't hear her and wouldn't care if he could. He hated her. Misaki saw the truth, and it was razor-sharp and diamond bright now.

Misaki could no longer abide the story she had been constantly been telling herself. She wasn't a flower princess on a voyage to find her kingdom; she was a criminal on the run. There would be no triumphant reunion with the king. There was just...life. A cold reality. She was now a suspicious weed growing out of a crack that the village was trying to eliminate.

All Misaki had been was the pale man's pawn. How things could have been different if she remained in the Kusagakure.

Ibiki nodded to his underlings. One viciously grabbed her arm and steered her towards the center of the room. Konoha would learn what they needed to know one way or another.

Suddenly, the truth burst out of her. It flew out of her mouth as if on swift wings.

"Okay, so I do know Kabuto. I'm a spy for the Otogakure. I work for Orochimaru-sama."

There. The damage was done. The truth had been told wondered if any damage would be done to her

All Misaki wanted to do was go home, yet there was no chance of that happening. She no longer had a home.

Ibiki's expression was unreadable yet intense. Very intense before he flicked his gaze over towards his men and smirked.

"See. I told you there would be no trouble, didn't I? I didn't even have to scratch her."

The interrogator on the right nodded. He was white, drained, and even had appeared almost concerned for her. Misaki knew that she wouldn't have lasted long under this treatment.

Misaki knew that he he shouldn't have bothered. After all, she was nothing

Misaki was promptly returned to her cell. She wondered if she was to be executed. Was she that dangerous?

From out in the hallway, she heard Ibiki answer her own question.

"She is a prisoner of Konoha. My prisoner."

Prisoner. Misaki was always someone's prisoner. She wondered if it would always be so.

Clearly, Misaki wasn't going anywhere. Not for a while.

Ibiki then wandered into the prison and just sat in a nearby chair. Ibiki didn't speak for a few moments. Neither did Misaki.

"You even had me fooled, girl. Consider it an honor."

Misaki shook her head. "I didn't want it to end up this way."

"Well, as I always say, life is pain. You have a new friend to meet to meet tomorrow. His name is Yamanaka Inoichi."

Misaki knew that name. He was Ino's father.

Oh, would she have to face Ino too? She would die of shame.

"He's going to scan your memories for more information on your background and see If that's all a lie too. Though, it would be more direct to use the good old-fashioned way. It might be worth a shot."

So. Ibiki had no qualms about hurting her. But, at least Misaki would finally know the truth about herself.

Once more, Misaki prepared herself for agony. Truth in itself was a kind of torture.