Morino stood with his arms crossed in the corner of the room, silently watching as one of his agents, Hisato, was trying to extract information out of an Ame Shinobi. The man had tried to infiltrate Konoha and would have succeeded if it wasn't for one of the new ANBU catching him in the act. Uchiha Sasuke had turned into one fine Shinobi in the four years after graduating. He was now high in the ranks and if he didn't love the fieldwork as much as he did, he would have been a personal guard to the fifth Hokage, Hatake Kakashi.

The Ame nin was yet to scream, despite the methods used to persuade him. It was quite gastly, actually, there wasn't an inch of skin left untouched and he was definitely mentally bruised as well, but it seemed not to bother the man all that much. They hadn't even gotten his name yet.

In front of Morino and a little to the right stood one seriously bored blond adolescent, absentmindedly fidgeting with the collar around his neck and staring ahead of him. The sharp nails scratching over the metal surface was enough to get one's hair to rise. He hadn't focussed on anything in the room yet, but Morino was damned to let that trick him. He knew better than to think anything went past the blond. That became all too clear when the Ame nin got enough rest before the next attempt to let his eyes wander around the room. They locked onto Naruto. It seemed that eyes always wandered naturally to Naruto and as soon as his eyes met Naruto's, the man chuckled. "I thought my village was messed up, but a kid in a torture department? And a prisoner at that! That's really messed up." His voice was raspy and mocking and he seemed to want to continue, but Naruto had locked eyes with him. The purely evil glint in the red eye made the man choke on the rest of his words while coughing up blood. The way Naruto hand twitched, clasping the collar around his neck, and the muscles in his back tensed was a tell-tale sign he had found something interesting to him. "Toy?" He chirped, sounding a lot younger than he actually was. In the four years he's been locked up, the constant darkness had stunted his growth, but just a little. His skin was pale and he always seemed to have wide eyes, adapted to better see in the darkness. Despite it all, he didn't look unhealthy and his physical appearance, lean muscles and sharp eyes, gave away that he was well trained.

Morino leaned forwards, placing his right arm on Naruto's right shoulder and his face next to Naruto's left ear, keeping his eyes on the Ame nin.

Naruto just shivered in excitement knowing what was coming. He all but kept himself from jumping up and down, waiting for Morino to speak. "Do you want to play, Naru?" At hearing those words Hisato dropped what he was doing and scurried out of the room; he did not want to be here if Naruto was going to be involved. It was necessary, because the nin refused to talk, but really, it was too cruel to watch for him.

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, keeping his eyes fixated on the Ame nin that lay completely restrained on the metal plate. "Alright, give me a second." Morino padded Naruto's shoulder, walked around him and to the Ame nin. With professional precision, he quickly undid the buckles keeping the Ame nin strapped down and turned back to Naruto. "Don't go and kill him, now. Just get him willing to talk. Knock on the door when you're done."

He didn't get an answer from the blond, who stood there licking his lips and grinning like a maniac with his eyes still on his new target. "Naruto." Morino snapped his fingers to get his attention. Naruto snapped his eyes to Morino, the grin switching to a smile and his blue eye shining brightly. "Yes, Papa?" Morino sighed, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. "I told you not to call me that." He looked back at Naruto, pointing a finger at the boy. "No killing!" With that, he turned around and left the cell. The door closed behind him with a heavy thud.

The Ame nin watched Naruto sit down on the ground, still staring at him. It was unsettling the way the boy's eyes glided across his skin, taking in every detail. He sat up struggling against the pain from his bruised muscles and cut skin. It wasn't surprising when several wounds started bleeding again, staining what remained of his clothing in a new layer of red. "What's up with you, anyway, kid? If you're also a prisoner, why are you so lovy-dovy with that bastard?" His voice was raw and rasping and he tasted the distinct flavour of metal as he spoke. Swallowing hard, he closed his eyes to let the pain settle again.

When he opened his eyes again, he was met with odd eyes not five centimeters away from his face. His eyes widened, but otherwise the Ame nin didn't show his surprise. He hadn't heard any movement and he knew his hearing was quite keen. Maybe the torture had affected his hearing? It wasn't uncommon to mess with senses as a form of torture, but if they had, they hadn't done a very good job with it.

Seeing the eyes so close up, he could almost see the turmoil going on side the blond's head as the red and blue flickered, seemingly fighting for dominance. "Morino-san is nice. I like him." Naruto said smiling. The Ame nin noticed the elongated teeth, white and well taken care off and very sharp looking. It made the kid even more nerve wracking to look at.

With ease Naruto slammed the Ame nin back onto the metal plate, before jumping up himself, planting his feet next to the Ame nin's hips crouching down and placing a clawed hand on his chest. The force knocked the breath out of the Ame nin, leaving him gasping for a few seconds. "He gives me toys and presents." There was childish happiness in Naruto's voice as he spoke.

Naruto sat down on the Ame nin, letting his full weight press down on the man's abdomen and using his legs to pin the Ame nin's arms down. He leaned in close. "You're unlucky, though, because you see, Morino-san said no killing and to get you to talk. Do you have any idea what kind of things I can do to you without you dying or losing the ability to talk?" He cocked his head as he talked, his voice completely void of emotions as if he just summed up some facts. He held one of his clawed fingers dangerously close to the Ame nin's eyes, watching the man's eyes widen ever so slightly in fear. Naruto grinned once again as he pressed his pointy nail into the right eyeball, right through the pupil so the Ame nin would see as much as feel what he was doing.

There wasn't so much as a grunt out of the man. "Tsk, boring." Naruto pulled his hand back, releasing a flood of mixed liquids to drip out of the eye. The clear liquid inside the eye mixed with blood leaked out and left a trail on his cheek.

Naruto sat back in thought, trying to think of ways to get the man to scream. "You can do whatever you like, rat, but I'm never going to talk!" The Ame nin grunted, tugging his shoulders in an attempt to free his arms.

"Ah, well, here's the thing." Naruto purred, winking as he spoke. "There is no real reason for me to stop. I don't need you to talk. All I want is to entertain myself. There is no end goal, nothing you could say or do would stop me. There is nothing you can do to gain any kind of control over this. All you are right now is a chew toy, and all I want to do with my toys is break them." He spoke in a soft voice, letting the words sink in and watching a little despair settle in the Ame nin's eyes.

"You can't. They told you to get me to talk. You can't kill me!" He hissed back.

Naruto smiled and leaned in close again. "You don't need eyes to talk. Or arms. Or legs. Or about half of you organs, most of your skin..." He ran his nail over the Ame nin's cheek, leaving a shallow cut behind. "Your genitals... Mental stability also isn't necessary, I'm living proof of that. Oh, there is so much I can do to you before you lose the ability to speak and, really, do you think Morino-san will care if you end up a mutilated mess?" He looked the Ami nin dead in his remaining eye and with a red flash in his own, Naruto disappeared.

The Ame nin looked around bewildered. There wasn't a trace of the blond and the room seemed different. More empty. Silent, until a small scratchy sound interrupted the silence. It sounded close and made an uncomfortable feeling settle in the Ame nin's stomach. The feeling just seemed to grow more intense and when it started to itch and feel like it moved, the Ame nin looked down to see his skin crawl. Something was crawling underneath his skin and as he watched, he saw more and more movement. It started hurting, burning and scratching and digging deeper and deeper into him.

He moved his hands over his skin, desperately trying to stop the movement, but all it did was chase it movement elsewhere. He couldn't stop a pained and fearful grunt from escaping him as it burrowed deeper into him, shredding through everything as it went. He was being eaten from the inside out. All that they left was just enough for him to survive, to stay conscious through it all.

It spread, down to his toes and into his fingers. They crawled up his neck, leaving nothing but bruises and pain in their wake. His throat felt constricted by the sheer amount of them pushing their way up. He clawed at his neck, desperate to release the pressure, but unable to touch them. He scratched his skin open, fingers digging deep and coated in blood.

He turned around, letting himself fall off the table and landing on his hands and knees. The pressure made him retch, but all that came out was blood from his injured insides.

Something ripped through his head. He heard it rip, even over the skittering of whatever was moving around inside him. His good eye blurred with tears as he let out a pained scream. Every part of him, all the tissue that made him, it was torn apart. He placed his arms around his head and screamed again when they tore into his brain. The world blurred and he blinked his eye in an attempt to clear it again. His damaged eye started filling and as he was leaning forward, small black carrion beetles started to fall out, skittering away across the floor until they were hidden in the shadows of the corners.

A dam seemed to break, and all the pressure build up in his body seemed to force its way out of his eye. He fell to his side, unable to breath or move and feeling the beetles that were once underneath his skin now run over it.

A set of bare feet appeared in front of him and Naruto crouched down, cocking his head to look the Ame nin in the eye. "Did that hurt?" He asked with a soft smile. The Ame nin stared back at him, opening his mouth in an attempt to speak, only to realise his lungs weren't filling with oxygen. No matter how much he heaved his chest, using all the strength he had left, air wasn't entering his lungs.

He gasped, again and again, grasping onto the blond and begging with his eye for this to stop. He didn't want to die like this. This was a useless death without any meaning. Dying to protect the secrets of his leader was one thing, dying just to entertain a deranged teen was something entirely different.

"Huh, I guess I went a little too far. Morino-san would be angry with me if I left you like this. Thank Kami it's only your own imagination doing this." Naruto placed his hand on the Ame nin's head and flushed it with chakra. The next moment, the Ame nin heaved for breath as he sat up, the sweet oxygen filling his lungs once again. He was seated on the table and looked around bewildered. He let his hands run over his body, feeling for any signs of injuries, but the only injury he found was his gouged eye and the remains of the torture.

Naruto stood at the end of the table, staring at him with red eyes. The Ame nin looked at him, fear evident on his face. "Wha...what did you do..?" Naruto smiled the most evil of smiles. "I can see your fears. I can bring them to life. Over and over and over again, until nothing is left but that fear."

With a red flash, everything happened again, quicker and more intense. Every possible thought the Ame nin had seemed to seep into the nightmare, making them worse with each time the blond teen started them again.

With the next red flash, the Ame nin made his way to the door as quickly as possible and started banging on it, hoping to be relieved of his waking nightmare by returning to good old fashioned torture. He screamed as he banged on the door and Naruto walked up next to him. He also started banging on the door and yelling for the guards, making the Ame nin falter in his movement. He stumbled away from the blond, who once again grinned at him. "Sorry, they can't hear us." Naruto slowly dissolved into smoke as the pressure build up in the Ame nin once again. He didn't hold back anymore. He screamed and writhed on the floor, desperately hoping for this to end only for it to begin from the start once again.

The door opened after five minutes. For the Ame nin it had been endless hours. Morino looked up from his place across the hall and watched as Naruto cheerfully walked up to him, be it a little out of breath. He ruffled Naruto's hair. "Had fun, kid?" He asked and received a happy nod as an answer. "Alright. Stay here, I need to finish up."

Naruto sat down on the floor watching Morino walk into the room. The Ame nin sat in the corner, rocking back and forth, incoherently mumbling about beetles inside him. Morino cleared his throat and the Ame nin looked up. Desperate relief showed on his face as he practically crawled to Morino, muttering and begging to get a chance to tell them everything as long as they kept the bugs away.

Morino smirked, glancing back at Naruto, who already was preoccupied again by a blank stare and fidgeting with his collar. He wondered what the hell went on in the mind of the blond sometimes, but as Naruto's eyes rose to meet his and Naruto attained a small, but affectionate smile, he couldn't help but be reminded of his younger brother and he smiled back. There was still good in the boy, despite it being broken over and over again by adults.

Hisato stood next to Naruto with his arms crossed. The room was soundproof, because if the rooms weren't the screams would get really annoying, so he didn't know what happened in the room. "I don't even want to know what you did." He said, looking down at Naruto. Like Morino, he had a smirk on his face, more impressed that anything. When Naruto didn't answer he sighed. "Unless you would want to tell me, of course. Maybe teach me?"

Naruto glanced up through his lashes before looking ahead of himself again. "It's not hard, but I don't think you can. Genjutstu, but different, making fear real. Nobody is without fear. I can see it, the core of fear in everyone. It looks a lot like hatred. Almost the same colour." He clenched his hands around the collar, feeling his nails scrape his skin without cutting through the callous caused by the collar.

Hisato sat down next to him, intrigued. "Do you like it? Scaring people that is?"

"Do you like hurting them?" Naruto threw back. Hisato didn't answer, not trusting if he could answer honestly and Naruto didn't say anything anymore either. A few minutes passed in silence, only disrupted by the scraping sound of Naruto's nails.

"How do you see fear?" Hisato wondered out loud, not really expecting an answer. Not even aware he spoke his thought out loud, but he got an answer anyway. "Demons see more than humans can." The tone of voice startled Hisato. It was so cold and distant he wasn't even sure it was Naruto who had said it. Usually the boy sounded happy, or at least filled with emotion. This was spoken void of any emotion.

"I don't think you are a demon." Hisato said. He didn't know much about Naruto's situation, just that the boy had been there for a long time and that Morino practically saw him as a little brother. Despite Naruto's appearance and abilities, he still saw Naruto as a nice kid. Maybe a bit naively so.

Naruto looked at him in surprise and after a second of staring, he started laughing so hard he startled Hisato, again. It was a little contagious, though, and after a while Hisato found himself laughing almost as hard as Naruto was.

That is how Morino found them. He sighed and called for attention. "Hisato, take him to a cell. Yamanaka-san has been called to collect the information. Naruto, we are going for a walk. Outside."

Naruto stared up at him with the biggest eyes, the blue one shining brighter than it had done in quite some time. "Really?" He asked, jumping up and practically glomping Morino, looking up at him with sparkling eyes. It was a very rare treat indeed, for Morino to take Naruto outside of the facility. Usually it would be in the dead of night and only because Morino said he saw some kind of sadness in Naruto for some reason. Naruto didn't really understand that, but took the chance to go outside nonetheless.

"Yes. I need to speak to the Hokage and you need to be there as well. Get ready. You look a bit grimy." Naruto huffed at that last remark. It wasn't like he had much control over when he got clean clothing or a chance to wash up, but with a quick smile he disappeared into the hallways, making his way to the shower room. Morino followed a few paces behind.

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