Chương 381: CH_10.15 (381)

Krait and the assault squad successfully captured their target at the bunker. He was transported home to be interrogated by Kestrel at the facility managed by Torture and Interrogation. However, unlike the scientists with loose lips, the supply courier had the mouth of a monk who had taken a vow of silence. That would've been a problem if she weren't a Yamanaka.

In a room with a stone-grey floor, walls covered with dirty, square white tiles, and a single bulk hanging from the ceiling, a bruised and beaten courier was tied to a metal-frame bed. He lay unconscious with Kestrel's hand cupping his head as she sat on a chair behind him. She was using her clan's hiden jutsu to observe her memories. Krait sat in the corner on a chair with his arms crossed for the past three hours. The room was so small that if he stretched his legs, he would reach one of the bed's feet.

She was vulnerable while using the jutsu, so he was there to ensure nothing happened. He felt restless in the silence as not a single word had been spoken since she had begun. He knew Yamanaka's hiden jutsu took time, as the mind was nature's most complex creation, but he didn't expect it to take so much time. They were on a tight timeline. They didn't know where the courier came from or if someone was waiting for him to return.

If he remained missing for a long time, there was a chance that people on the other side would get suspicious. They wanted to get information they could quickly act upon and catch ROOT unguarded. According to Kestrel, recent memories were the easiest to access. She could access two to three days of memories quickly before it became difficult to find specific memories inside a mind.

Every time a person slept, it became a bit more difficult for a Yamanaka to locate the relevant memories without going through several tedious processes and trying different things which took a lot of time and effort, and didn't guarantee success. Fortunately, the courier didn't have protections installed in his mind, which made things a little bit easier, or they would have needed anywhere from a day to a week to enter the mind with her skill.

Another hour and a half passed until there was finally a movement from Kestrel. She moaned tiredly as she removed her hands from the courier. She wore an unpleasant, laboured expression which worried Krait into thinking she hadn't found anything useful or actionable, but her displeasure came from sweaty and oily hands after having them inside hair for several hours straight.

"Well, that was something," she said while wiping her hands with a handkerchief.

"What is it?" Krait asked, unable to tell anything from her tone or expression.

"Do you have water?"

"Yes. Of course!" Krait hurriedly passed his canteen to her. Using chakra for several hours surely must've been difficult for her.

"So what did you find? Do we have a location?"

"We have a location." He immediately recognised the city's name.

"Ratel looked into people whom the scientists killed, and all of them came from the region around this city. This guy must've also transported the human and animal test subjects to the bunker." The carcasses in the bunker and his blood boil. They were treated like resources and tools to further their research without humanity. Kestrel gave more information she had seen in the memories, like the rough location of their base and the number of people the courier interacted with.

"So what's next?" she asked.

"We move out first thing tomorrow morning," said Kestrel as he began to think about what he needed to do to move out. He had to report to Campbell and Barbary about their findings, ask them to authorise using the assault squad, coordinate with them, and organise the mission. It screamed late overtime. He sighed, "Times like this make me wish I learned a clone jutsu like Ratel."

"How is he? Didn't he look out of it recently?" Kestrel asked after emptying out the canteen Krait caught the canteen tossed to him.

"Did he? I don't know, I have been busy. What happened? Did he say anything?"

"Not really. He's the quiet type. When he's silent, you can actually tell he's focused on work—""How he has so much energy, I will never understand," he sighed. He didn't think he had that much energy when he was Ratel's age.

"—but for the past couple of days, it feels like his mind is somewhere else."

"Can you be more vague?" he asked.

"Let's just say it's an interrogator's intuition," she shrugged. Getting information out of people was her trade, and speech was only a part of how people communicated; there was just as much to glean from the non-verbal. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"Maybe he's thinking about his new ninjutsu? I heard he got it as a performance bonus," said Krait. He heard from the staff that a jutsu archive access pass had come from the headquarters for Ratel.

"Maybe, but I don't know," Kestrel didn't sound convinced.

"I'm not going on this mission. Information is in high demand, and we need more of it. I'll stay here, so take him with you." Krait thought about it before nodding. Ratel, with his clones, was matching the workload expected from Dhole when dealing with processing documents, and they needed him to continue on, but unlike the recent visit to the bunker, they needed more than just Krait to accompany the assault unit. ———.

Yamanaka Inenpachi sat opposite his newest patient, Takuma, who seemed uncomfortable in the cosy leather lounger. He didn't say anything and instead waited patiently for Takuma to open the conversation at his own pace. There was time for him to be assertive, but by coming here, Takuma showed a willingness to improve his situation, which was more than enough.

"I want whatever's in there out and gone!" Takuma all but vomited his words with much discomfort as though the act of speaking those words was excruciating. Inenpachi wrote his thoughts down in his journal. Takuma wanted the mental block "out and gone", indicating that he saw it as entirely negative. It was not at all surprising. No one sane would be happy about having an unknown entity in their mind.

"What are your expectations of what we'll find on the other side?" he asked.

"Nothing good," Takuma spat.

"Why do you say so?"

"Come on, Doc. That block exists because of a traumatic memory. There's nothing good on the other side." Takuma's body language was entirely negative and closed up, which was a problem if they were going to work on removing the block. Inenpachi once again jotted down some notes. It was interesting how Takuma accepted the presence of the mental block.

Most people with repressed memories didn't acknowledge their presence because, in their view, they had no memories of their trauma, and the mind was actively encouraged to keep things that way. His active acknowledgement of the block's existence was a unique circumstance.

"Not everything behind the block would be traumatic," said Inenpachi. According to Takuma, he had lost all memories from before he was ten years old—which was yet another unique feature because such widespread memory loss was firmly out of the norm. Generally speaking, only memories directly tied to the trauma would be blanked out, but here, his whole life was turned dark.

"Don't you feel incomplete without those memories? Don't you want to find who you were before your memory loss?"

"No." Inenpachi was surprised by the vitriol in Takuma's tone. He glared at him as though he had suggested something horrendous.

"Please expand on that," he asked.

"Yes, while I would like to know who Takuma was before me, I don't feel incomplete. I have worked extremely hard to make myself who I am today. I'm proud of what I have accomplished. I am my own person, and those memories have no bearing on my identity!" A realisation dawned on Inenpachi. When Takuma said "out and gone", he wasn't just talking about the mental block; he was most definitely also talking about the repressed memories.

He truly wanted everything gone, as though he wanted that part of his mind lobotomised. He was looking at a part of himself with open hostility—a hazardous point of view. However, pointing it out to him could worsen the problem. People didn't like to be confronted, and right now, as emotional as he seemed, confronting him didn't seem like the right move to Inenpachi.

"Unfortunately, I can't vaporise your memories, at least not without taking major risks." He observed Takuma's expression, and fortunately, he didn't seem to like that option, which meant he didn't hate the mental block enough to accept the risk of self-harm. If Takuma had even mentioned anything even close to it, they would've spent weeks fixing that dangerous line of thought, which would've been difficult because he seemed impatient about being here.

"Our first focus should be understanding the nature of mental block. You need to be familiar with the anomaly before you can eventually remove it."

"What do you mean?" Takuma frowned.

"You're a Yamanaka. Mental blocks were created to combat your clan. You must've something to break it."

"That's all true, but not in your case."

"Why?" Takuma leaned forward, his eyes narrowing.

"Because someone externally places the blocks we deal with; they came from outside, so someone could remove them from the outside. Your block is a natural existence created by your mind in its deepest depths to protect you from yourself. I can only guide you through the process, but the onus to deal with it will remain firmly on your shoulders." After their meeting, Inenpachi had done his own research and conferred with his peers about the matter without disclosing Takuma's identity.

In truth, he could do a few things; after all, he had opened the gate in the mental block, which meant his jutsu could partially influence the block, but everything he read, heard, and intuited with his experience told him not to interfere because it could seriously harm Takuma if he tried to push it. It was far better for Takuma's health if he dealt with his own strength. Moreover, getting involved in the process would help him come to terms with the mental block and the existence of the memories behind it.

Takuma looked like he had been hit with a sledgehammer and collapsed in the lounger, suddenly looking exhausted beyond his years. He stared at the ceiling for a minute before finally speaking,"I don't want to change... I fear"—he took a deep breath—"I fear those memories and experiences will change who I am. I have problems with who I am right now, but I don't want to lose what makes me myself... I am scared, Doc. I'm scared of losing myself. It's the only thing I have," he whispered at the end.

"You will be who you are, Takuma. Those memories are yours, they won't change you," Inenpachi said to dissuade the fears.

"In fact, those memories might even help you understand who you are. Perhaps a habit you don't know why you have suddenly become clear. I urge you not to be scared and to understand it instead. It's alarming and unnerving because it's unknown; understanding it will shed light, which will bring clarity." Takuma didn't reply and continued staring at the ceiling before sighing and sitting up straight.

"Let's do it," he said. It looked like he had come to an acceptance, but to Inenpachi, it seemed more like resignation. Inenpachi had a choice before him. He could first work on Takuma's negative view and only then deal with the block. Or, he could do those things simultaneously. He couldn't say how long it would take Takuma to change his unhealthy mindset, and during that time, things behind the block could continue to worsen.

The block's existence was akin to a bomb, and the longer they left it unattended, the greater the danger.

"When do we start?" asked Takuma. Inenpachi made his choice.

"Let's start now."