| [Jan. 26th, 2009|12:19 pm] |
Ibiki had been not so much dreading this moment, as putting it off until it absolutely had to be dealt with. He'd been avoiding even thinking about it since that day a week ago when a list of newly recruited ANBU agents had caught his eye. The document had been lying in plain sight on Shida's desk, stamped with the red inked seals that marked it highest security. A pencil casually dropped on the papers had obscured birthdate and rank, but pretty well underlined the name and registration number of his friend and former genin teammate, Shiota Natsumi.
Shida had probably set it up like that, laying the pencil just so, Ibiki thought. It was the sort of mind game his mentor liked to play.
Ibiki hadn't let it throw him. He'd continued that day's interrogations without interruption, and only after hours done a little discreet digging to ascertain that Natsumi was indeed joining ANBU's ranks.
He should have congratulated her, he told himself, but it was awkward. She'd talked too many times, with too many stars in her eyes, about joining ANBU's exalted ranks. When they'd advanced to chuunin together, it had been one thing, but at seventeen he'd easily made special jounin, while Natsumi, with her weak chakra, remained a chuunin. Her bitter envy, beautifully disguised to all but Ibiki and maybe her family, had been enough to convince him it would be the height of cruelty to taunt her with his having joined ANBU when he did.
Nearly two years had passed, during which the lies had come easier and easier to his tongue. Working in Intel. Classified. Nothing he could talk about directly. His meetings with Natsumi had been regular, though infrequent, and it had been a simple matter to tell her about his brother, his mother, his latest model ship, and omit the details about what he'd been doing lately. He'd even found ways to tell her, in little half-truths, stories from work. He'd heard about an interrogation in which this funny thing happened. He talked to a guy from T&I who reminded him of their old sensei.
It had been harder and harder to even consider telling her the truth.
He turned around, coat swirling around his shins like a guilty conscience--like a sign in glowing letters telling her he wasn't just in Intel, not even just in ANBU, but wore the uniform of ANBU's Information Extraction unit. More commonly known as torture and interrogation. His own parents didn't know he worked there.
"Natsumi." He smiled, but didn't take a step towards her yet. "I only just heard you got the tojou promotion and took the oath." His fingers traced out a salute, caressing the hidden tattoo on his left biceps. "I was going to come find you..."
Shida could probably smell that lie all the way down in the basement. Ibiki hoped Natsumi was a little less astute. |
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