Torture

It was said that the lowest level of the Hokage Building was where the Anbu worked. Xingran had never joined the Anbu, nor had he ever been taken there for interrogation, so he could only rely on hearsay and secretly wonder whether he would get to see the true face of Anbu headquarters this time.

But clearly, Xingran's hopes could not be realized. After entering the second underground level, the two Anbu who had led him there stopped before an utterly unremarkable iron door. They had no intention of saying anything more. After gesturing for Xingran to enter, they shut the door and left.

"Yamanaka Xingran, a member of the Yamanaka Clan. Let me see... also Hai Yi's ward. Then you'd better prepare yourself. You should know that when facing Konoha's interrogation team, the wise choice is to tell us everything you know."

After Xingran entered the room, the pitch-black surroundings made him mildly uncomfortable. Then a deep voice emerged from the darkness, thick and heavy, carrying an oppressive gloom.

As soon as the man finished speaking, a harsh light came on and shone directly into Xingran's face, making him feel terrible. This was treatment reserved for interrogating prisoners. He was a Konoha ninja, and he had done nothing wrong. He should have been sitting in an office where sunlight streamed in, drinking green tea while recounting his story to someone taking notes.

After several seconds of adjustment, Xingran finally made out the room. There were no windows—though windows would have been useless underground anyway. The room was roughly fifteen square meters. A desk stood beneath a lamp, with two ninjas wearing Konoha Headbands seated on one side and a small wooden stool on the other. The stool was very low. It was easy to imagine that anyone sitting on it would be noticeably shorter than the people across the desk, multiplying the sense of pressure. This was a standard interrogation room.

"Sit. Start from the day you left the village and tell us everything exactly as it happened." The same man spoke again. Only after Xingran sat on the low wooden stool did he see who was sitting opposite him.

The hideous scars on his face, combined with the intimidating gaze of a mafia boss and his black trench coat, made his identity unmistakable. He was Konoha Special Jonin Morino Ibiki. It was said that the scars on his face had been left behind when enemies tortured him brutally.

The captain of Konoha Anbu's Torture Department, he had served as the chief examiner for the first stage of the Chunin Ninja Exams Naruto and the others took. He could thoroughly grasp an opponent's psyche and was skilled at manipulating their minds. He was known as the "sadistic chief examiner."

No wonder he had mentioned Hai Yi. One was from the Torture Department, the other from the Intelligence Department, and both were captains. They worked together frequently.

The person seated beside Ibiki was much more of a nobody. His face and hairstyle had no distinguishing features, and he wore only the standard attire of an ordinary Chunin. Xingran did not pay much attention to him.

Since neither of them wore masks, and Xingran had no interest in looking at muscular men's bodies, he naturally turned off his X-ray vision after seeing them.

X-ray vision and super hearing were the first abilities Xingran had manifested. After several days of control training, he still could not use them with greater precision, but he could at least turn them on and off at will.

"That day, our captain told us that our team could finally carry out a B-rank mission. We were all excited. The target was a group of bandits wandering into the Land of Fire, but in reality, most of them were rogue ninjas wearing Iwagakure headbands. The captain said that ever since the Third Tsuchikage admitted defeat in the war, Iwagakure had produced a large number of rogue ninjas. They refused to accept the Tsuchikage's weakness and decided to leave the hidden village... I'm a Sensor Ninja. Our Yamanaka Clan has always fought in that role, so I was usually positioned at the rear of the formation. But this time, the enemy made a huge detour specifically to surround us, and I was the first one they attacked because I was at the back... I detected them shortly before they attacked. Since it was my first time facing enemies, I got nervous. While sounding the warning, I threw out all the shuriken in my ninja tool pouch. I accidentally threw out an Explosive Tag too... They probably weren't Iwagakure rogue ninjas. Not that many Iwagakure ninjas could use Water Release, much less use it so proficiently. But it didn't matter... My leg was injured, and I knew I definitely couldn't escape, so I fired off a distress signal without authorization. Before I passed out, I saw the captain's head get cut off. I don't know anything after that."

Xingran had already reviewed the details of that day's team wipeout on the way here. So, when Ibiki questioned him, he began recounting what had happened while seated on the low stool.

Ibiki listened carefully, but his gloomy eyes made Xingran feel as though he had been seen through. It was extremely uncomfortable, causing Xingran's account to become somewhat disorganized.

After Xingran finished, Ibiki remained expressionless. No one could tell what he was thinking. Xingran felt he had been very cooperative in telling them everything, so he prepared to stand up and leave.

Just then, Ibiki's deep voice sounded. "The usual procedure. Confirm it again."

Confused, Xingran had only risen halfway when he turned toward Ibiki. What did he mean by confirming it again? Did he have to tell the whole story over?

But at the instant Xingran turned around, a pair of hollow eyes appeared before him. Their gazes met, and in less than a second, Xingran blankly sat back down on the low stool.

The ordinary ninja beside Ibiki did not seem to make any move at all. He merely stared at Xingran, and Xingran obediently recounted the events of that team wipeout all over again.

This was standard practice in the Torture Department. First, they gave the subject a chance to recount everything voluntarily, but they trusted the results they extracted themselves more. They used genjutsu to hypnotize the subject, then followed up on the information from the initial account to ask for details that even the person involved might not have noticed.

Xingran was the only survivor of Team 16, so Konoha had no choice but to be cautious. If several people had survived, it would have been easier to deal with. But when only one person survived, even if that person was from Konoha's renowned clan of secret techniques, they could not rule out the possibility that he had been turned by the enemy or placed under their control. Therefore, the interrogation was not limited to Xingran's statement; other tests and interrogation methods were indispensable.

And this time, Ibiki discovered something they had initially overlooked. Although the attackers had dressed as Iwagakure rogue ninjas, most of them used Water Release ninjutsu. From this, it seemed highly likely that Mist Ninja were trying to frame Iwagakure and reignite the conflict between Konoha and Iwagakure. But the matter was not that simple.

Through Xingran's memories, Ibiki discovered that these people might not have been from Kirigakure at all, but Kumogakure ninjas in disguise. Not only were they skilled in Water Release, but their taijutsu was also exceptionally powerful. More importantly, though they had hidden it well, portions of their skin showed through in certain places—bronze-black skin that was particularly noteworthy. Xingran had initially wanted to mention it in his first account, but he remembered that many people who lived near water also had bronze skin. Worried that he might mislead his own people, he held back.

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