The sealed kunai

Chapter 12: Shoulder to the Plow

Naruto and Tsunade walked through the prisoner corridors of Anbu Headquarters. Naruto had been summoned by Tsunade during his leave from active duty and was asked to accompany Tsunade and Shizune to Anbu HQ to check out a prisoner. All Naruto was going to do was train in the Forest of Death that day anyway, so he didn't really have any problems with being called out by Tsunade, but he was somewhat confused on what he was doing there.

Picking out his ear as he followed Tsunade and Shizune, Naruto finally questioned his purpose in their presence, "Uh not that it really matters to me or anything, but what am I doing here? Why do you need me to see a prisoner?"

Shizune turned back with a smile and gave him his answer, "A captured enemy ninja is for some reason far too weak for us to interrogate by normal means and they happen to be too high profile to just go ahead with anyway, the info they might have could be vital to us, too vital for us to lose due to negligence Naruto-kun."

That answered part of his question but opened up a few more, "So why the hell am I here again? If their body is weak, get a Yamanaka to go into their mind or something. What do you expect me to do that no one else can? I don't interrogate people, I kill people."

Tsunade, Shizune, and even Tonton sweat-dropped at Naruto's cavalier description of his own on-the-job-skills. Tsunade got over it first, "Because brat, you seem to have a knack for pulling things off when it's really necessary. We can't go into her head for some reason, attempting it injured Inoichi when he attempted to do so. Also, you do need to get some kind of paycheck don't you? Or are the Suna genin reimbursing you for all of the things they're using in your house?"

Naruto face-fell but swiftly pulled himself back in line with the others, "Okay. So who is this prisoner? Are they dangerous?"

Tsunade shook her head, "Not really, since as I've already said, she's very weak right now. Besides, she's totally disarmed and you've already defeated her once already."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "I've only fought one person that could still be alive and possibly be imprisoned right now. What, pray tell, is the real reason you're sending me in to do this for, just so I know?"

Shizune smiled back at him, "Tsunade-sama thinks you have quite a convincing air about you Naruto-kun. If anyone could get this girl to talk without resorting to force, we think it could be you."

Naruto sighed, "Fine... But if she spits at me or does something stupid I'm leaving right after she catches a backhand from yours truly, I swear to Kami. I should have proved my point by how I kicked her ass the last time though so I could just be paranoid."

Tsunade gave him a dry look as they made their way to the holding cells, "Violent much brat?"

Naruto pointed to the hitae-ate on his belt, "My entire job revolves around varying degrees of violence baa-chan. If I wasn't violent, I wouldn't be so damn good at what I do." The group came across the cell that housed Naruto's mark for the day, "All right. Will a guard let me out when I'm done?" The two women and pig nodded, "All right, I'll see you guys when I'm done then."

Tsunade nodded as Tonton oinked and Shizune waved goodbye after opening the door for him. Naruto sighed before slapping himself and putting on his game face before slinking into the cell and shutting the door behind him. He looked across the cell and ended up locking eyes with the red-haired girl sitting on a bed in the corner. Her brown eyes looked at him in curiosity, then changed to anger, and then to fear. Naruto held up his hands in a placating manner as he walked in to let her know he wasn't there to hurt her.

As he looked at her appearance she looked pale, paler than should have been healthy. Her eyes had bags underneath them, probably stemming from some kind of exhaustion, and she did look very weak, spot on with Tsunade's explanation of her condition.