INTERLUDE_1.1

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— After the events of Chapter 12 —

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The Hokage's Office was part of an administrative building. Situated on a floor heavily guarded by shinobi in-charge of Hokage's protection. The entire floor was only accessible to those with certain security clearance, and every outside visitor was noted at the entrance and designated an escort to keep on with their movements.

On that floor existed another entry point that worked both as a second emergency exit and an entrance for those who wanted to enter the floor without being seen.

A man with dark blonde hair tied in a ponytail resting over his shoulder walked into an empty dine-in takoyaki deli with no signs outside. The building was narrow and short, with a counter stretched from one end to the other with only four barstool-styled chairs for customers. A short middle-aged woman with a mean look dressed in white sat behind the counter reading a fashion magazine.

When she heard the door chime, she glared at the ponytailed man.

"Three-and-half plate to go. Make 'em crispy and zingy," said the man.

"175-ryo," said the woman, her voice gruff.

"Wasn't it 140 before?" he asked.

"Do you want it or not?"

The man sighed, "Make it quick. I will be using the bathroom."

The woman followed with her eyes until he disappeared into the back of the restaurant. She opened her magazine and started to read again.

The back of the restaurant had two doors. The blue one had the lavatory sign, while the other was painted gray. The man faced the restaurant door and pulled it by the doorknob before pushing it down and turning it to open the door. The room's inside was a storage unit with all sorts of things stuffed into it. The man made his way to a wooden cabinet and pulled it open to reveal a set of stairs stretching underground. The stairs led to an underground tunnel with rough excavated walls with wooden supports, illuminated by yellow light bulbs hanging off the top. They shed just enough light to make the path barely visible enough for safely walking.

At the end of the tunnel, the man found a figure wearing a white porcelain mask with a boar design and red markings sitting on a stool beside a steel gate.

"Hand, before, room, white, arm, thick," the ponytailed man said to the masked man and wondered if he should've put on his own.

The masked man stood up and patted the ponytailed man on the side of his arm. The hand stayed for a moment before the masked man stepped back and nodded. The man turned his back while the masked figure turned to the steel door and swung the large circular wheel on it in a specific pattern to unlock it.

The man nodded to the masked figure and stepped through the door that closed behind him. The door opened to another stretch of stairs that led to an empty room, opening up through a large floor tile.

The man knew that even though the room looked bare, three people were watching him at that very moment. He didn't try to discern their position and simply walked out of the room and tread the familiar corridors until he was standing in front of a door.

He knocked on the door in a specific way and then waited.

A few seconds later, he heard, "Come in."

The man straightened his clothes before stepping inside the room. The room was large, somewhat oval, and filled with stacks of unfinished paperwork. There was a desk with large windows overlooking the village behind it.

"Lord Hokage," the man knelt down and greeted the man sitting behind the desk.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up from his paperwork and asked the man to get up. "How was he, Raven? Anything of concern?" he asked before bringing his smoking pipe to his mouth.

"Nothing out of order, Lord Hokage," said Raven. "The subject suffered a panic attack that put him into a coma..."

"A panic attack?" the Hokage lowered his smoking pipe. "He's but a child. What was the cause?"

Raven shook his head. "It was as the report stated— the subject's mind is muddled, and with the intense emotional distress behind the panic attack, I couldn't find the exact cause. If I could get some time and assistance, I believe I can get that information."

The Hokage had assigned him a mission to pose as a doctor and use his clan's abilities to inspect the subject's mind. Takuma was the child's name. At first, he was confused about why the Hokage had asked him to infiltrate a child's mind. But after reading the report on the subject, he understood why the Hokage had been concerned by the subject suddenly ending up in the hospital. To think a child, who hadn't even graduated from the academy, would have such a past. It saddened him greatly when he saw the scars mentioned in the report present on the boy's body. The boy would carry them throughout his life.

The Hokage shook his head. "We have already tried to get more. It didn't work back then." He sighed, "I thought his mind would heal with time, but I believe it is still the same?"

Raven nodded. The boy's mind was protecting him by repressing the memories of the past. And as it protected the boy from himself, it also protected him from his clan's jutsu. He couldn't pass through the blockages created by the mind— if he tried to force it, he would damage the boy's mind. If he had assistance from his clan members, he could peer through the natural blockages and get more information... but the risk of damaging the boy's mind wouldn't go away. Raven glanced up at the Hokage— he could tell the Hokage didn't want to go through with that.

"What about the update you were provided?" the Hokage asked. "Were they confirmed?"

Raven nodded. Even if he encountered the blockages in the boy's mind, it didn't mean he came out empty handed. He was handpicked as part of the masks for a reason.

"According to the subject's memories, Maruboshi Kosuke has been teaching him for the last few months. The subject isn't performing well at the academy and has been training under Maruboshi Kosuke to resolve his grades. They meet every day as long as Maruboshi Kosuke doesn't have a mission that renders him unable to attend— even on those days, the subject goes to their meeting location and trains on his own."

The broken memories, covered with dark haze, had provided him enough to confidently support his claims.

"Do you wish for us to investigate Maruboshi Kosuke?" asked Raven.

"That won't be needed," the Hokage shook his head. "I have known Kosuke for long. There's no one more loyal. If nothing showed up on the preliminary search, there's no need to investigate him more." He then asked, "Could his condition be the cause behind the panic attack?"

Raven didn't offer an answer immediately. He thought about it and recalled what he had experienced in the boy's mind. "I can't deny the possibility. The subject's mind is repressing memories to protect him, but the mind is as fragile as it is strong. Given a strong enough stimulus, something could've escaped the bindings that caused the boy to experience heightened levels of stress that triggered the attack. The subject was defensive when I revealed my identity..."

"Most people would be," said the Hokage.

Raven nodded. His clan's ability came with a stigma. "... and refused to talk about what caused the panic attack, but that doesn't tell us that it was his past that caused the attack. It could've very well been something recent that caused it. The subject has been very worried about his academy performance."

"But to suffer a panic attack..." the Hokage tapped his wrinkly finger on his table. "Very well, if the condition of his mind hasn't changed, there is no use in pursuing this any longer." He looked at Raven, "Add your findings into the report and close this case."

"Should we add surveillance on the boy?" Raven asked.

"No. Thank you, Raven. You may take your leave."

Raven bowed and turned to leave when he stopped and doubled back. "One more thing," he said.

"Yes?" the Hokage said as he browsed the paperwork on his desk.

Raven pursed his lips. When he was in the boy's mind, he felt jumpy. It wasn't uncommon. The human mind was a complex puzzle yet to be solved; even after the generations of his clan discovering its secrets, there was so much they didn't know about. He had felt all kinds of sensations when he was inside people's minds— every brain reacted to his infiltrating presence in its unique way.

The Hokage looked up when he didn't speak. "Raven?" he asked.

"... No, Lord Hokage... It's nothing. I will take my leave," he decided not to say. It must've been because of the boy's past, all that he had gone through, that had led his mind to repress his memories.

"Very well," said the Hokage and returned to his seemingly never-ending piles of paperwork.

Raven bowed and turned to leave. By the time he was out of the door, he felt confident in his reasoning. Even if he was ANBU, the Hokage didn't need to know the functioning of his clan's jutsu.

... It was just that the sensation this time was the strongest he had ever felt.

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