Chapter Five: Tentative Promise.

A hardy bento box sat in front of him on the table. The aroma wafting from the delicately cooked meat, its juices soaking into the fluffy jasmine rice, with a multitude of vegetables on the side. Oh. And the juice box they had brought him.

He was grateful for the food, but… Jeez. So they were treating him like a 'refugee', huh? More like a kid. A minute later one of the same lackeys came back in, dragging a wooden chair to replace the one he had broken, so Raio could sit while they talked.

Raio ignored the pair of chopsticks they had given him and stabbed into a slice of the golden pork cutlet with a curved talon. They had cut it for him too, in thick pieces. It was probably the chef that had done it– but the idea of his interrogator, so stern and serious, cutting it with a knife for him…

It did make him giggle. Three pairs of eyes were focused on him as he stuffed the meat into his mouth, ignoring everything else in the box. Just focused on the pork. While he chewed (only chewing three times before swallowing the whole thing down), his interrogator spoke.

"Can you tell me what you remember from Orochimaru's care?" Ibiki asked, ready to copy down whatever Raio said. "His goals, what he has said about Konohagakure, our troops, anything of relevance."

Raio wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, the hot grease a delightful slick against his strained skin. "He didn't say anything about anything else to me. He 'edited' me when he wanted, and… well, there were always a lot of assistants. But he was always really happy with my progress. I guess."

He tilted his head.

"He-... was starving me before… before transporting me, so I'd be weaker," Raio grabbed the juice box they had provided him with and hit the straw against the table. The pointy part ripped through the plastic easily. "I don't really know anything else. He doesn't tell me anything. Except– something about finding a… I dunno, he uses a lot of words. He's really wordy. 'Catalyst', 'vessel', something about a windmill."

Raio found himself picking at some white scales that patched over his knuckles as he talked. Repeating everything felt so odd. Every memory he had, they were being held so far away. His trials and vivisections and his father cracking his bones to reshape them into something better. Always something better. It was so far from his fingertips now.

He was somewhere new now. So he didn't have to worry about it, right?

"He said I was going to be him, or that he was going to be me, or something like that. I never really got it."

Ibiki listened sympathetically. "That must've been really hard for you. Anything about The Leaf?"

Raio balked. The kind validation, though brief, was much more than he was used to.

"It … was. And no, I don't think so. I hadn't heard of Konoha before you said it to me. But I know of other villages," He said the last part quickly, rushed. "Kusagakure! Shitty place. And Amegakure. That's it."

"How do you know about these places?" Ibiki was as cool as ever, but his subordinates seemed alarmed at the mention of Kusagakure.

"I get… memories, sometimes," Raio explained, sipping on his juice box. It was flavored like lychee. The sweet substance was new to him, a new taste, and he finished his drink in seconds. "After eating. That's it."

Ibiki wrote another thing down. "Is this something Orochimaru gave you?"

"I think," Raio found it quite funny that they were refusing to refer to his father by his first, informal name. "He seemed really happy with it, so I guess so."

"Are all of his experiments like you?"

A breath of air was stolen from everyone in the room. Raio turned his head to the side, his nose crinkling.

"... No," He bit out with sizable distaste, notable loathing. "I was his special one. His magnum opus."

Always unique, always singled out, always given so much attention. The memory from yesterday passed over like a ripple to a pond. Quick, seamless, and Raio forgot all about it. Pushing it to the back of his mind until it didn't bring up any other emotions. Any other thoughts.

The questioning went on, and on, and on. Raio was growing bored rather quickly despite the situation. He decided to observe his jailers and see what he could pick out from them.

The uniforms they were wearing were well-made. Smooth fabric, it seemed, though rather stiff… perhaps it was armored? Clever. Raio huffed an amused note to himself. Briefly, he wondered if it was any better than his thick skin, or his chitin. Probably not. He wouldn't let them know that.

"In your time in his care, did you see any other test subjects? Children, those who had been kidnapped." Ibiki asked and lingered on the last syllable. He fell silent as to get an answer from Raio.

Raio was privy to these tricks. But he played the innocent part and nodded. It was annoying in the most egregious way, but he was able to talk without thinking too much. "Yeah. All the time. He would chain people to the walls with— collars, first, or they were strung up. They usually died that way too."

A silence passed. Ibiki was still waiting for him to elaborate more, was he? Fine.

"When I was younger," Raio said, and he decided that these captors weren't good enough to earn the exact number of subjects he counted. "Much… much younger, he got a bunch of kids and tried putting something Senju in them. He was frustrated because they all died."

Ibiki nodded. If he recognized it at all, he didn't emote— the other two shared a glance, however. Maybe that little experiment was already shared knowledge. He wondered why these two were even in the room if they were lesser than Ibiki. Protection? Back-up? He decided to give it a test.

"My mouth is really dry," Raio admitted, putting his hand flat over his chest. "Could I get another drink?"

Ibiki turned his head slightly, only to reveal his eyes to the two standing in the back of him, and nodded. The one on the right quickly unsealed the door and disappeared.

So just subordinates, Raio supposed. Maybe it was a power thing.

"Thanks."

He was sitting normally, now, and mimicked Ibiki's posture. Back rigid, hands on the table. Raio always hated sitting still. His tail mesmerizingly moved back and forth behind him, still punctured through the back of the chair.

"Tell me, Raio," Ibiki put the notepad down and looked him in the eyes. Unwavering. The adrenaline that had ebbed out of Raio came back in a dizzying rush when the shinobi's tone morphed into something much more serious. "Are you a threat to the village?"

What kind of question was that?

What the hell was he asking?

Raio's lips parted. He was much more pale, now, and his hands were slightly clammy while they rested atop the table. Was this a yes or no question? Rhetoric? If he answered truthfully, he wouldn't leave this room. But could Ibiki tell if he was lying or not?

"Anyone can be a threat," Raio mumbled, and recalled what captives Orochimaru had in his 'care'. "Just give them a knife and a motive. I just wanna live."

"'Live', being…"

"You know. Not confined to a room. Or— questioned. Or treated badly. You know, live. I wanna go run around outside and eat dirt and see the seasons change," Raio slowly exhaled, then. He couldn't lose his composure in such a tentative situation. "And I don't wanna get attacked just for living."

"I see." Ibiki picked his clipboard up again. Something in it, something in that gesture sent him deflating. He needed so badly to just get inside this interrogator's head. Not knowing, not being able to guess what was happening was making him twitch in agitation. "You heard me say that your well-being is going to be entrusted to our government, yes?"

"Yeah," Raio answered carefully.

"After this, if you are deemed cleared, then you'll be provided with government housing. Your own place to live as you'd like. So stay diligent in answering my questions, will you?"

The effect this had on him was immediate. Raio shuddered like his whole body was being rebooted, then he looked at Ibiki with wide eyes. A flitter in his chest rattled against his ribcage. His heart was thundering, like he was running instead of sitting perfectly still.

"What?" Raio's voice came as a breathless gasp. "You're serious?"

He nodded. By then, the door opened again, and the subordinate came back with a canister of what looked like green tea. It seemed chilled from the condensation on the ribbed plastic container, but Raio was focused on the unwavering face of his interrogator.

"You'll find out soon that I'm not lying," He said, and his subordinate put the container on the table before retreating to his original position. Ibiki cleared his throat. "I know your traits are organic, but what of the mark on your throat?"

Raio recoiled. That was one question he didn't know the sore answer to. Raising his hand, his fingers went to the circled mark on his throat.

"I… I don't remember how I got it," Raio said. Hammering into his head was the feeble hope that Ibiki would believe him. "I think I was born with it. I really don't know. Sorry."

"I understand."

A red-hot flare of panic engulfed Raio when Ibiki moved. He wasn't just reaching for something, he wasn't putting his notepad down. He was getting up to leave.

"What? Hey— hey!" Raio stood up, his tail ripping free from the chair in kind. "You're not done questioning me, are you? I really don't know what the mark on my throat is. Where are you going? Wh- what are you doing?"

After the genuine promise of life, of freedom, of a home, he was turning to leave. Raio hadn't done anything wrong, had he? It was his answer. He knew it was his answer.

Ibiki turned his head to peer at Raio. He didn't change his posture at all. His hands were in his pockets, his back still facing the little mutant. Raio's face twisted to grit his teeth in his desperation.

He was sympathetic. "I'll be back tomorrow. I need to go get things done regarding your stay here."

Twisting like an eel, Raio recoiled. He had been wounded. Was Ibiki just here to give him food, pry things from him, to just leave again? "But–"

"I'll be back tomorrow," He said firmly, leaving no room for discussion—no room for Raio to try to say anything else. But something gave because, after a moment, he spoke again. "Is there anything you'd like in the meantime?"

Oh.

Raio turned his head from side to side. Not shaking his head 'no', but regarding Ibiki with both of his eyes separately. The bandaid attempt at calming the creature down had worked, but it left him scrambling for things to think of, to keep going.

"I want…" He struggled to think of something. There was a terrible whiplash from the abhorred panic he was facing not a second ago, and the revelation that Ibiki was going to come back. The moment an idea came he blurted his answer, "A bed. I want a bed."

"Okay."

Ibiki turned his head again and stepped out of the room Raio found himself trapped in.