Naruto made sure to stay close to Furui as they were led through the camp, his eyes constantly scanning his surroundings as he carefully made his way through the cramped corridors in between the camp's tents. He put effort into trying to avoid tripping on any of the guy lines that crisscrossed their path as they moved their way through the encampment.
The camp seemed to be set up like an organised maze, with the majority of the tents being made to look exactly the same so it was impossible to know what was in which, as well as also making navigation difficult by removing anything that could be used as a reference point.
On top of that was the fact that there were armed ninja at every turn, watching their every move with several of the more cautious Shinobi lightly fingering their weapons as they kept an eye on the strangers in the camp. It was more than a little unnerving for Naruto, but every time he hesitated Furui was always there to give him a small nudge and a light squeeze on the shoulder before anyone noticed.
Despite the fact it should have been impossible to find their way around the camp, Mei was leading them with a confident stride that showed she knew exactly where they were going.
After almost fifteen minutes of walking, they came to a stop outside of one of the tents; this one however unlike the other similar ones they had passed, had two grim looking Shinobi standing outside it acting as guards, which Naruto cynically thought to himself the only made the thing stand out more from the others around it.
Naruto was fairly sure they had been led in several circles throughout the camp before they came to a stop in front of this tent, which was probably done to make sure they were lost, Naruto was after all a new and untested recruit.
The two guards outside the tent snapped to attention as Mei moved to stand in front of them, before the both of them walked away when she gave them slight a nod of the head. When the two were out of sight she turned back to Furui, only for her eyes to move down to look at Naruto, a gentle smile spreading across her face as she knelt down to his level and laid her hand gently on his shoulder.
"Ok sweetie, Furui says you will be able to help us convince the man inside this tent to answer our questions. So I want you to tell me what you will be doing?"She asked her voice kind, yet holding a note of firmness to it which revealed to Naruto that this was a woman who was used to giving orders and having them obeyed.
Naruto however upon hearing that frowned under his mask before shrugging the hand off of him. He knew it might come across as slightly petulant or childish, but at the same time he didn't travel all the way here to be treated like a child, he came here to grow stronger, which was something he wouldn't be able to do if he allowed people to talk down to him.
However instead of deliberately calling her out on it, Naruto stood silently and stared at her from under his hood with his baleful blue eyes. After a few minutes passed Mei's smile turned back into a smirk as she stood up, seeming to be satisfied with something, though Naruto wasn't sure exactly what it was.
Deciding he just wanted to get it over with so that he could rest and get himself settled into the Outcast Camp, Naruto spoke in a quiet voice that would be too low for any would-be eavesdroppers trying to listen in to hear. "What do you need to know?"
His question got a raised eyebrow, but the older woman seemed to take it in stride as she just gave him a casual shrug of the shoulders. "Anything that might be of use."
"Do you need him alive after you get the information?" Was Naruto's bland reply, a response which got a raised eyebrow from both Mei and her bodyguard, the two of them clearly quite surprised by such a young boy asking such a question.
"No, once we have the information he will be killed anyway…why?" Mei said carefully, her gaze once again on Naruto only this time it was more cautious and assessing.
Instead of answering Naruto gave a silent nod, motioning Mei to lead the way inside the tent. While still looking curious, Mei turned to the man with the eye patch who upon meeting her eyes pulled the flap of the tent back without a word and held it for them to walk through.
The first thing Naruto noticed when he walked into the tent was the fact it was almost completely empty, with nothing inside other than a man tied to a chair in the middle of the space, and a desk with blank paper covering it and a pen in the corner. Said man looked to have been on the wrong end of an earth Jutsu, his clothes were torn and covered in dirt.
With the only clothing that wasn't damaged being the Mist Headband on that was on his head. The prisoner was also covered in a number of injuries, with a both of his eyes blackened and swollen shut and several of his yellow teeth missing.
However other than his sorry state, there was nothing much else about him that would make him stand out in a crowd. He had short brown hair and brown…eyes, he was neither muscled nor skinny. In fact looking at him everything about the man just seemed plain and bland.
Naruto stayed back in the shadows as the three adults moved to stand in front of the Mist-Nin, choosing to remain unseen for the moment as he instead just watched the proceedings. The moment the prisoner saw them the Mist-nin's battered face twisted into a sneer and he tried lean back and spit at Mei, only to fail and have it fall in a dribble down his chin.
"Fucking freaks, I'm not saying anything to you creatures. I'll die before I talk!" The man snarled out, his speech slightly garbled by his injuries but his words still quite understandable to everyone in the room. What wasn't understandable however was who he was speaking to, was he speaking to the bloodline users or the Outcasts?
Naruto didn't know if there could have been a better moment for him to make himself known, and smirked under his mask as he stepped forward to stand between Mei and Furui.
"That can be arranged…I'm hungry."
As intimidating lines go it was probably a good one, or at least it would have if it did not come out of the mouth of a ten year old who was wearing a mask that looked more clownish than intimidating.
For all of three seconds after he moved forward to treveal himself there was silence, before it was broken by the Mist-nin suddenly bursting out into insane laughter as he looked a the short figure of Naruto.
"HAHAHA! Are you kidding me! You're getting a brat to interrogate me now? HAHAHA!" The man shouted, his strained and high pitched voice carrying slight, as he continued to guffaw, or at least as much as was possible while being tied to a chair.
Instead of answering the man and before anyone else could do anything, Naruto pulled out the knife he had got from Itachi and with a step forward and a single arm movement he used it to slash the Mist-nin's throat.
There was a spray of blood from the cut, as instead of being a precise cut aimed at making a kill as clean as possible it he had instead just slashed the man, the blood that sprayed out of the man's now gaping neck covered Naruto, the blood hitting his mask and dripping down it.
The ghastly sight certainly made Naruto's mask look more intimidating. But Naruto ignored the blood as it dripped down from his mask and soaked into his coat, instead he just wiped the blood off his knife and returned it to his sheath, acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened.
...
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