"Alright Itsuki, I need you to tell me the last thing you remember," Dan (Dan. Dan, why is he alive. He's alive? When did he die again) is before him, speaking in soft tones, his words slow and almost forcefully calm.

Itsuki keeps a hand at Anko's wrist, noting how his pointer finger and thumb could touch and still have a lot of space. He crosses his leg over the other, still comfortably fitting next to the wall on the bed, and lifts the wrist to the front of him, pressing curiously around the chubby hand and skinny wrist.

"The last thing I remember," he mumbles as if only to himself, "Anko's boobies shrank--"

There's a loud smack noise and a burning pain spikes in his head-- Anko had punched him, head wound and all, so now his brain's spinning, brain juice sloshing dangerously. He turns to where he thinks Anko is, holding his head and nursing the big bump right there.

"Ow," he makes a point of saying it.

"Now, Anko dear, I know he definitely asked for that one," Dan made a dying noise like a strangled toad, (was he laughing?) "but please hold back on his head. It may have been healed but it's not completely intact yet."

Itsuki yelps, instinctively whimpering when Anko suddenly tears her hand away from his lap.

Anko hmphs, "if he's got enough energy to be a pervert, he's fine!" she snorts, and Itsuki jolts when he realizes the weight beside him is lifting and shifting away from the bed.

His hands reach out, drop forward, and jerks around, but when he doesn't manage to locate anything a despaired noise rips from his throat.

The emptiness returns, and stares back down at him, scrutinizing his every twitch. He freezes, stays perfectly still. A fear washes over him, petrifying him, and he can't move.

He's scared of moving.

What's beside him? 

What's around him? Will moving give him away? If he moved now, will the enemy find him? In a second, he'd be dead, and no one would even know. He shouldn't move. This was a solo mission and he can't fail it or they'd lose the war.

So he clamps his lips shut, and doesn't breathe. Because heavy breathing (when did his breathing become so heavy? So quick? So frantic?) would give away his location as well. He stays so perfectly still, because he thinks he's in the middle of the forest.

He's in the middle of the forest, in the center of enemy territory, spying on the enemy which he had just lost sight of. The enemy's noticed him. It was a standstill battle and the first to find the other wins. He would either mess up here and die or stall through this and live.

He doesn't breathe, he clenches the sheets under him so tightly his fingers are cold and white from effort. He remembers what Kakashi's told him before. He closes his eyes, pulls a hand over his mouth to hide the bottom half of his face.

A warm hand wraps over his, and abruptly he remembers where he really is.

He gathers himself, his other hand landing on top of Anko's-- and his fingers crawl up, slowly conjuring mental images as he registers that this hand is a human, a person he trusts, and he reaches around, the girl taking his hand and putting it on her shoulder as he slowly makes sense of the human form in front of him, remembering how humans were shaped and slowly understanding that there was a human beside him on the bed.

Anko lets him wrap his arms around her back, and bury his eyes into her shoulder. He stays there, breathing slowly, taking in her presence like it's the only thing that matters in this world.

He hears sounds. Maybe there's a window in this room, but he hears the town outside. It smells like a bright and sunny day, and he's unnerved by it.

Even before the war, he spent years living in the dark side of the Shinobi of Konoha. The concept of peace became nothing but a fearful calm before the storm to him. Killing his own emotions and faking a lack of sympathy for his own health, Itsuki didn't like the silence.

It takes him a while to gather himself again, and he breathes out, loosening his grip on Anko, raising his head but never letting go.

"Hey, Anko," he manages, "how old are you now?"

There's a pause before Dan speaks up again, apparently explaining something to Anko, "well, a pot did fall onto his head. Tsunade-san told us to be prepared for some memory-related defunct."

Tsunade...? The last time he met the esteemed Hokage-sama, she was at the Gokage Summit, ordering him through Shikaku through Inoichi, and she had told him to find the scroll of-- oh, right. Time-Genjutsu-Dream-Illusion, Whatever this is.

Anko squeezes him closer, "I'm nine years old!"

Itsuki hisses. Then, a second later, "how old am I?"

"Ten!"

"Well, what about uh, Kakashi-niisan?"

"He's always fifty years old!"

"Ah."

Itsuki reaches to his hair, and although the bandages were removed he still feels blood-crusted hair from the apparent incident. He doesn't remember it happening. He doesn't remember this incident in his past. You really think someone would remember if a pot fell on their head when they were ten years old. Apparently not Itsuki.

If he's ten years old... that means he'd just graduated the ninja academy. In another year Anko would follow his lead to graduate, along with their other teammate, and team Orochimaru would be complete.

Right. At this point of time, Itsuki was still under Orochimaru's cohort.

"Are you calm now?"

He flinches when Dan begins talking again, more of surprise (he'd forgotten Dan was even here. Being unable to see sucks) than of fear.

A moment later, Dan asks, carefully this time, "tell me any and everything you remember. About yourself, about where you are, irrelevant information is fine too."

"No being a pervert!" Anko adds sharply.

Itsuki manages to let a laugh rumble from his throat at that, because he missed this. He hasn't had a proper conversation with Anko in years, him in the ANBU and her in the Academy and all. It was harder for them to indulge in their banter out in the open.

"My name is Itsuki," he begins, calming himself from every instinct in him screaming that this is a trap, this is an interrogation, they're trying to get information out of you and they're going to kill you after they scrounge everything out of you.

"I'm from Konoha," his voice weakens, faltering, but he pushes through because he knows these two are people he trusts and he's not an ANBU he's not an ANBU now, now he's just a measly Genin and everyone's worried about you, "I'm a Genin..."

He feels their stares burning into him and he tightens his hold on Anko.

"I'm uh," he pauses, "not in a team, because I'm apprenticing under Orochimaru-sama," then he stops and thinks, "I live next to Hatake Kakashi..."

It's been about a decade since all this information was his, (it's also been a while since he's given information like this without being tortured for it,) so he takes a while to recall anything of importance, trying his best to seclude certain information from his mind as not yet, I can't tell him that because it hasn't happened yet.

By protocol and experience, Itsuki knows he should tell him things such as recent missions, conversations-- but the only lead in the time frame he has now is that he's a Genin, and that's really nowhere to start.

Family? Itsuki barely remembers them.

He thinks, then observes, "Anko is letting me bury my face in her boob-- OUCH!!"

"Anko!"

"He was asking for it!"

Somehow managing to stay clinging onto Anko, Itsuki buries his face into her stomach and seeped out words like a currently dead soul. Dan groans in exasperation, how hard could counselling get? Someone send in a pediatrician, or Inoichi!

"That's it. I forgot everything. My name is wood. I am dead," Itsuki croaks robotically.

"Look, now he's being difficult!" Dan whines, maturity forgotten.

"He's always like this!" Anko insists sharply.

An old man's laughter fills the air, and Itsuki's at first confused that the two immediately stop bickering. He can feel Anko tense sharply.

"Lord Hokage!" Dan is first to address the man. There's the sound of chairs dragging out of the way, so Itsuki figures he's moved to crouch down before said man.

"Hokage-sama, how long have you been there?!" Anko is less tactful about her tone as she straight up gawks, "we didn't even notice you!"

The old voice chortles, "now now, young Anko. What has Orochimaru taught you about indoor voices?"

Itsuki flinches, and his grip tightens around Anko's shirt.

He swallows when he hears the voice, and yeah, he should've expected this. Seriously, why did he think it wouldn't anyways, because the deep, hearty chuckle he's hearing is warm and inviting. It's the same man that, although painstakingly busy, never fails to find a time to praise his efforts and skills and--

And Itsuki remembers having to stand by, helplessly watching him die.

"Hokage-sama?" his voice escapes him as confused and perhaps a little needy.

He feels a warm, wrinkled hand against his head, so gentle and caring as it ruffled his hair-- and Itsuki leans in to the touch, knowing he should be happy.

After all, the esteemed Hokage scrounged up some time in the midst of his paperwork and his business to visit you, really, Itsuki should feel honoured.

All Itsuki really feels is a crushing understanding that he's a burden. He's bothering the work of the most important person in the village-- for what?

This is a Genjutsu, he believes.

This isn't, a more logical part of him supplies. If it was a Genjutsu you'd be seeing it, that's what Genjutsu do. It doesn't make sense to cast an illusion that had no images. It just didn't work that way. What if this was hypnotism and it's all an elaborate act?

He knows that's not possible either. Not to such gratifying detail, for such an insignificant soldier. Enemies were better off killing him.

He curses himself for actually enjoying this lie. (It's not a lie.) All of these people are fake, illusions, they're dead and how could you even think of spending a few selfish happy moments when in truth the Fourth Great Ninja War is happening and more people are dying as you wait?

A part of him doesn't care that it's all (maybe) a lie.

"It's unfortunate, Itsuki, that this had to happen to you."

For a moment, he wants to believe that his favourite Grandpa is still alive and loving and for a moment, he just wants to pretend it's all real and indulge in the love.