Chapter 3: Calm
Hiruzen stared up at the large orb of water, ripples spreading across its surface, giving the sphere a sort of shimmering effect.
The third Hokage was currently standing in front of the ball that represented the entirety of the barrier surrounding Konoha. The enormous mass of liquid was the main defense that was used to detect enemies so, naturally, this matter warranted his attention.
Under normal circumstances, should there be an actual intruder of sorts, he wouldn't directly get involved, instead opting to let either the Black Ops or other ninja do their job and intercept them. Small scale disturbances didnt require his attention other then a minor report either written or verbal and he had never actually needed to lift a finger against anyone. Up until that point, everything had ran smoothly and the systematic cut off of all unauthorized personnel hadnt needed to be changed at all.
The situation seemed rather precarious in Hiruzen's eyes, the unsettling feeling he had been ignoring seeming to only strengthen as he continued to gaze at the quivering mess hovering before him. The barrier had been a key part of detection and without it, it wasnt an exaggeration to say that the hindrance was equal to walking around with a blindfold on. Getting it back up would take some time and within that time they would be unable to pinpoint the enemy location, allowing them to slip into the Hidden Leaf unabated.
"What are your orders Lord Third?" Shinto inquired, breaking Hiruzen away from his own thoughts. "Shall we take it down and then reset? Whats the trouble?"
The third Hokage turned to look at Shinto, offering a quick nod in response. "How long do you think it'll take you to have it back up and ready?"
The current predicament wasnt too severe as long as one remained calm and thought about it carefully. Panicking over things made everything worse and the best actions to take were keeping a cool head and thinking about the various approaches towards solving the problem. This was something that Hiruzen had learned during the course of his life and it was this that lead him to solve many scenarios that would've otherwise become an issue.
"Itll take around an hour," Shinto responded after some internal debate. It was clear he was unsure and purely guessing when he said this but that was all Hiruzen really needed, an approximate number to go off of.
Turning around, the third Hokage began relaying orders to the five shinobi present inside the building.
A plan was formed rather quickly. The group of five would round up a good number of other ninja and begin a wide spread sweep around the entirety of Konoha, one that would rule out all means of entry. Should any personnel find any indication of an intruder, he/she was to fall back and alert others to said invader. This system would be utilized until the barrier was reestablished and everything was returned to what they should be.
Once the plan was full explained, everyone dispersed to complete their given tasks, the Detection Division setting to work on resetting the barrier and the Interception Division rapidly moving to the Village to alert their fellow ninja. This was akin to a high level mission in which their home could be attacked at any given moment, none of them ruling out the possibility of foul play. It was something they absolutely had to take seriously.
"Now all thats needed is to pay a visit to our guest," Hiruzen muttered. "He may or may not be the cause of it all."
From a curiosity to a possible suspect for the chaotic barrier, the child that the Anbu had captured was looking more and more suspicious with each passing second. Being unable to know if the youth did or didnt cause the malfunction, Hiruzen was forced to be wary and would most likely have to be much harder on the individual then he cared to be. While he wasn't going to outright torture the boy for information, he didnt plan to cut him any slack. Putting the whole Village at risk was just something he couldnt abide.
Tipping his hat slightly, Hiruzen left the building and began heading for building housing the Konoha Intelligence Division, a vast organization with many sub-divisions that serve various functions. One such division, namely the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force, dealt with detaining targets and extracting information from them. It was here that the boy in question was being held, secluded in an underground cell awaiting his own questioning.
Of course, just because he was situated in such a division didnt mean that Hiruzen planned to have the youth tortured. If anything, he would much rather prefer simply asking questions and getting an honest answer then having to use brute force. Unfortunately, he didnt live in the kind of world where mere talking caused others to open up but rather in one where torture was the only way to get the answers he wanted and sometimes even that wasn't enough.
(("Hopefully we won't have to take that route,")) Hiruzen thought as he arrived at the front of the Intelligence building, a rather large cement building that had definitely seen better days. (("If I'm lucky, I can just talk things out with the child and maybe coax him into letting his memories get looked over."))
There was another way of getting answers aside from torture and that was utilizing the Yamanaka, a clan that specialized in mind techniques and jutsu, to delve into another persons thoughts and scan through their memories. This technique took a while to set up but when it was used, an experienced user could potentially look through days worth of information in mere minutes. This method was something Hiruzen preferred over the usual torture that was performed and felt much more efficient then the latter.
Of course, its not as if they could simply use this method at any given moment as there were many counters to this technique that prevented others from accessing the mind. Self destructing the mind was a common counter, one that was self employed in case of capture. Various ways of nullifying the usage of the Yamanaka technique made the actual torture of the enemy a much more common scenario.
As Hiruzen made his way to the back of the building and down a stairway leading underground, he once again hoped that everything would proceed as smooth as possible.
Well, if you want to make things quick and easy for yourself then there is another method." A deep voice filled Hiruzens ears as he reached bottom of the stairs. He wasnt sure of how long the conversation had been going on, but it appeared someone had already begun to commence the formal interrogation.
Walking down the torch lit hallway, the third Hokage listened closely to the words so as to pinpoint just where the interrogator and the invader currently stood.
Judging from what the Anbu member was talking about, it sounded like he was giving the child the very same option that Hiruzen had been thinking of. It was actually a relief to hear someone mention it as it meant that he wasnt simply being too nice or weak to go through with torture.
"A technique? I'm sorry but that doesnt make sense." Hiruzen heard the child reply, a light voice reaching out from the innards of the cell a dozen feet away.
This sentence actually confused the man, prompting him to almost stop in his tracks.
The response he had been expecting fell into one of three categories. It was either yes, no, or asking for some time to think it over and then give the final answer. It wasnt a very complicated method and it was pretty straightforward so any questions were usually about how long would it take or were there any other options.
This was the first time he had heard someone claim it didnt make any sense. A technique that allowed one to read someone's mind wasnt too far out of the ordinary in regards to the various other Justus in the world. It genuinely surprised him that someone would state that such a thing wasn't logical.
"It doesnt have to make sense," Hiruzen said aloud after a few seconds of collecting his own thoughts. "All you need to do is comply."
That was when he finally got a good look at the child who had appeared out of nowhere.
The youth was rather small, only around 154cm with black hair slightly tan skin, and the blackest eyes Hiruzen had ever seen. The boy wore rather strange clothes that didn't seem to fit with any sort of village the Third was aware of, a sleeveless black tank top and black shorts that were ripped in various places.
Perhaps the most noticeable thing about the youth however were the countless scars that ran the length of his arms, legs, and a much smaller scars lining parts of his face. He wasnt sure what had caused all of them, but he reckoned that each one had its own story to tell.
After a quick and thorough once over, Hiruzen shifted his attention to the Anbu member.
"Lord Third," the masked man said immediately, standing at attention.
You may leave," Hiruzen said as he waved his hand. "Go and get everything ready."
"Sir," he said before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Nodding calmly, Hiruzen turned to look back at the young man, one who currently held a rather flabbergasted expression, a shocked look on his face as he gazed at the spot the Anbu member had just been. It was almost as if the kid had never seen such a thing before which made Hiruzen began to question quite a number of things. However, before he could begin to comment on it, the child before him took notice of his gaze and, similar to a mask falling over his face, managed to easily conceal his expression behind a calm facade.
(("Did he just suppress his own emotions?")) Hiruzen asked himself as he opened up the cell the child was in.
He didn't really feel a need to talk nor did he feel a need to ask any questions. Knowing his own nature, if he were to talk to this kid and like him even slightly from just a small interaction, it would make him impact him slightly should he turn out to be an enemy.
Without even asking the youths name, he quickly chopped the side of the boys neck, forcing him to pass out.
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