Songs For The Heartbroken: That's What You Get

Chapter 31

Being on the receiving end of the Mind Walking jutsu of the Yamanaka Clan was not a pleasant experience. Walking naked around Konoha would have been less of an exposure. Letting someone explore the deepest, darkest corners of your brain was very scary to say the least; you can cover your body if exposed, but there is nothing to shield your thoughts once the barriers of the physical have been breached.

Even if allowing the person doing the mind walking was supposed to make it easier for all parties involved, one's mind will still unconsciously try to defend itself when faced with a foreign presence. I could clearly feel my mind recoiling when Inoichi-san's chakra first disturbed my own. My chakra system had been through enough genjutsu to know they were no good, so when a foreign signature mixed with my own, my body decided it was having none of it.

But Yamanaka Inoichi was not head of the Interrogation department for nothing. He stripped my mind of its walls with frightening ease and started to dig for everything and anything that would help him get what he wanted. He wasn't looking to incriminate me, nor did he want to spare me. No, Inoichi only wanted the truth in order to make up his own mind.

He flew from my childhood memories to my first meeting with Itachi, to the night he put a sword through my gut. From the first time Shisui agreed to train me, to the moment I found his hidden letter. From Hana and I's first day in the Academy to the night she agreed to take Sasuke under her care. Minute by minute, second by second, Yamanaka Inoichi flew through the archives of my life. Until he came to the point where Orochimaru was about to give me his snake. And then, it all came to a screeching halt.

My memories would not move forward. And when they did, it took an unusual amount of effort from Inoichi and a whole lot of pain from me. My brain burned, as if someone had poured acid over it. Inside and out, from the back of my head, to the crown, to the back of my eyes and all the way to where Inoichi's fingers touched my forehead, I burned. Maybe I screamed, maybe I didn't, I wasn't quite sure. Even after my interrogator forced the information out of me, I felt as if my skin were on fire and my eyes saw no more. It was hours, maybe days, or most likely just a few minutes; but the burning never seemed to stop. Until it did.

My eyelids were heavier than I'd ever felt them. It took all of my energy just to open my eyes. The baby hairs on my temples and on the back of my head stuck to my skin with the weight of sweat. Droplets ran down my spine and made me shiver as a chill shook my body. I heard someone say the fever was my body's reaction to a foreign presence in the organism, and would fade in an hour or two.

I didn't recognize the voice, and the arms that pulled me up from my chair and dragged me out of the room felt foreign, unfriendly, unyielding. Someone gave me a blanket before the door to the cell shut behind me, leaving me in the dark, alone and shivering. Naked, bare, and still not lacking a single item of clothing.

My mind felt like it had been put through the grinder. Memories mixed together, names did not match the faces assigned, and feelings flew around and intertwined in ways I did not think possible. I found myself calling out for my brother in between tears and broken sobs. I felt vulnerable, weak, broken, and for the first time in my life, I wanted someone else to do the saving.

I was cold, I was weak, I was alone, and as much as I hated it, I felt sorry for myself. My mind was the only thing nobody had ever been able to hurt, and now, all my fears, all my secrets, all my hopes and dreams had been dissected, torn apart to be studied and evaluated. My very soul had been bared, and now, I felt like somebody else owned it.

I lost track of time. Not that I was able to do anything other than shiver and hold the rough blanket tighter to my chest anyway. But at some point, the door opened again. The masked figure seemed familiar, but I couldn't say where I'd seen it, or if I ever had in the first place.