Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_377

("Floating Brain")
The canon inspiration for the central hub.

———

There were ways to protect the mind from outside invasion. One such method was using highly specialised and complex genjutsu to place mental blocks inside the target's mind to stop them from divulging sensitive information in case of capture and interrogation. The genjutsu protected the mind against the administration of truth serums that lowered the target's inhibition and made them much more susceptible to revealing knowledge they wouldn't otherwise.

It also protected the mind against the Hidden Leaf's Yamanaka clan.

Since their creation, the Five Great Shinobi Nations—including Hidden Leaf Village—were locked in an active arms race where they competed against the Yamanaka clan in terms of trying to come up with better and stronger ways to defend against the Mind-Body hiden jutsu that itself improved over generations.

At the start of the post-Warring States Era, the Yamanaka clan was possibly the biggest problem in the shinobi world. They were stealing secret and confidential information directly from the people's minds, giving the Hidden Leaf a massive advantage in terms of intelligence, which they used to gain and assert their advantage over other Hidden Villages.

It had gotten so bad that giving false information to foreign intelligence operatives and spies or keeping them in complete darkness had become a common and necessary practice, as being captured by Leaf meant a meeting with a Yamanaka who would scour the mind for any and all information.

Even Hidden Leaf was cautious of the mind walkers that resided in their house.

However, that couldn't be the solution, so the villages began researching ways to keep the "bloody mind walkers" out. Genjutsu was soon identified as a promising avenue, and it was pursued with such vigour and desperation that it actually became a success when a young Hōzuki Gengetsu from the Hidden Mist created the first working genjutsu that blocked a Yamanaka from accessing memories.

He would later go on to become the Second Mizukage of the Hidden Mist Village.

But what Inenpachi had before him was definitely not genjutsu. It felt like a natural part of the central hub, something that was created by the mind for some purpose.

He stepped off the tunnel and floated into the spherical room. Instantly, a massive pressure pressed down on him, shoved him down, and he collided into the web of yarn.

"Is something wrong?"

Outside, Takuma felt something was wrong when he felt a tinge of pressure following Inenpachi's hand on his head shift.

"Your brain is tougher to traverse," Inenpachi said calmly. In his experience, telling people he saw something wrong in their minds tended to freak them out and make them exponentially more difficult to work on. He wanted to find out more about this anomaly he had never seen or read about before.

His choice of words seemed to do the trick as Takuma seemed pleased that his mind was difficult for a Yamanaka.

The pressure inside the mind was a natural response of the mind trying to protect itself. It was a common occurrence for a Yamanaka, but he had never felt a response this strong, and this was when Takuma was willing to have him in his mind. He couldn't imagine what it would be like if he was forcefully trespassing against his wishes.

He endured the pressure, manoeuvred around the yarn web, and floated close to the brain. It sat in a brain-shaped hole in the wall, and he could tell it was still intact in one piece, but half of it was on the other side, shrouded in darkness. As he held a hand to the brain, a scroll as thick as his body slid out of the brain tissue. He closed his eyes to focus on the brain and received all sorts of information about Takuma, from his stress levels to how well he processed inputs like sensory and motor domains. His brain seemed to be exceptionally proficient in processing auditory inputs, which meant he had excellent hearing.

He checked all the things he had originally come to check before setting his eye on the metal door.

He floated up to the vault-like door, which was so black that it seemed to absorb all light. He noticed that the web of yarn seemed to be avoiding the door, as the space in front of it was empty. The door didn't seem to negatively influence the central hub, which reaffirmed his feeling that this was a natural structure, but he also couldn't deny that the wall shouldn't be there.

A fever was the body's response to kill the virus; it was completely natural and beneficial, but that didn't mean everyone should always have high fevers. The metal door gave off the same feeling.

He raised his hand towards the circular wheel on the door and instantly felt the pressure grow heavier, as though it was warning him not to touch it. When he grabbed the wheel, he felt the pressure double, and it was still rising. He needed to hurry because Takuma's mind was trying to crush him, and it seemed to be fully capable of doing so.

He twisted the wheel until the door clicked loose, and suddenly all the pressure disappeared like wind behind a wall. The panel as thick as a foot swung open to reveal infinite nothing in the form of darkness.

Inenpachi looked down with wide eyes at a child of nine or ten with skin the colour of ash and hair that disappeared into the darkness standing behind the door. He was barefoot, and his stone-coloured rags hung on his malnourished, bony body like clothes hangers.

"Takuma?"

The child—a spitting image of Takuma—looked up at him with solid black eyes of infinite darkness. He opened his mouth and his jaw dropped a little low before he let out a horrifying scream that hit with soul-crushing pressure that brought a primal fear that instantly made him pull out of his mind with no second thought as a world of pain assaulted him.

After Inenpachi was gone, the ash-skin child closed his mouth and stepped back into the darkness as the door swung closed. The wheel turned and locked the door, returning equilibrium to silence to the central hub of Takuma's mind.

In Inenpachi's office, the iryō-nin and his research subject were on the floor, screaming in pain, both of them clutching their heads.

"W-What did you do!" Takuma screamed as he shakily stood up and took out a kunai. To fall the next moment, his balance was shot, and his vision had quadrupled. He felt his heart pumping faster than in any fight he had been in, and felt adrenaline suitable for a horse in his veins.

Inepachi stopped screaming and lay flat on the ground with eyes wide in shock, fixed on the ceiling. His chest heaved and fell rapidly as though he was out of breath. Takuma called for him a few more times, but he didn't respond.

Takuma calmed down as the pain subsided and his balance and vision returned to normal. He approached Inenpachi, who seemed out of it. His eyes were unfocused, and he seemed listless, as though he were unconscious with open eyes. His caution faded, and his worry for the iryō-nin took over as he saw him lying still on the floor.

"Inenpachi?"

Takuma touched the man's arm, which seemed to snap him out of whatever condition he was in. Inenpachi hurriedly sat up and turned around to grab his shoulders with a firm grip. He was sweating so much that droplets dripped from his nose and chin.

"There's something really wrong with you, Takuma," said Inenpachi in a severe tone. His usual calm, gentlemanly demeanour was nowhere to be seen; he seemed almost fanatical as he shook his shoulders.

"W-What?"

"Forget about shadow clones or anything else. We need to talk about what I saw in your mind because I fear something that shouldn't be there in the deepest depths of your mind."

Takuma thought he was exaggerating, but the look in Inenpachi's eyes told him otherwise.

———
.

What Inenpachi told Takuma concerned him greatly. The way it was described made him stressed about the thing inside his mind that even a Yamanaka couldn't be sure about.

The only silver lining was that Inenpachi was confident that whatever it was was the creation of his own mind and not the work of any external force—but that didn't really matter much in the moment.

Takuma ended up telling him that he had no memories from before he was ten years old, in desperation that if he gave some information, Inenpachi would recognise what it was and come up with a solution, and everything would be good.

He chose his words carefully because he didn't want anyone to know about his real secret. He also withheld the matter of repressed memory vision and the headaches whenever he tried to think about his past.

"Your missing memories might be because of this separation," Inenpachi said in speculation. "It might be because of a traumatic experience your mind is trying to shield you from by burying it, but I must advise, this is not healthy. I have seen cases of repressed memories, but never seen anything like yours. We have no idea what might be happening on the unseen side. It might break one day and flood your brain, which could cause untold damage. It's imperative that you pre-emptively deal with it on your own accord at your terms so we can solve this with the least amount of hardship."

Takuma wasn't ready to talk about it any longer and wanted to leave immediately because just sitting there began to feel claustrophobic.

"I-I... I'm not ready to talk about it right now," he said, unable to meet eyes with the iryō-nin. For some reason, he felt ashamed of this moment of weakness. He hadn't come to the Yamanaka for mental health purposes, but for a research collaboration, which had now derailed before it even started because of him.

"I understand," Inenpachi replied with complete understanding. "Take as much space and time to think about it before deciding what you want to do, but don't ignore this... Talk to someone you trust about this first..."

He thanked him and got out of there as fast as possible. After leaving the clinic, he found himself in a park. The afternoon sun hung in the sky as he sat on a bench under the shade of a tree. His foot tapped rapidly against the ground while he felt anxious to puke up everything in his stomach.

He was sure that the divide in his mind was because he took over the body, and whatever lay behind belonged to the "boy". He always knew they hadn't disappeared despite never receiving the memories. Now he had proof that not only were they present, but his possession of the body had turned them into something abnormal. It felt like having a bomb inside him that could blow up at any moment without warning.

He tilted his head back up and covered his eyes with his arm as he felt tears because he was scared of potential futures. Just a few days ago, he was getting angry from feeling emotions that were not his own as they intruded on his sense of identity. Now, that anger had turned into intense fear. What if he cleared the mental block, and the boy's memories mixed in with him and changed him? Would he still remain himself when he had someone else's life experience?

He had already lost everything from his previous life. All he had remaining was himself. Now that sole thing was at risk of getting tainted.

Ignoring it also wasn't an option. If he left it there, there was a high chance that things would grow worse beyond imagination.

He didn't know what to do, even though he knew that there was only one choice. It terrified him so much that the choice of ignoring it and pretending it didn't exist was dangerously tempting. Just thinking about it was so anxiety-inducing that he couldn't wonder what would happen when he actually took some steps for change.

Denial had never seemed to be attractive.

He sat there for many hours until he was mentally exhausted from worrying and no better than when he had left the clinic. There was only one place he wanted to be and only one person he wanted to talk to.

With that thought, he headed home.