Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto.

It's been a while since i did a chapter fic! I've had no time with the computer lately, and have seriously been suffering withdrawels.

Anyway, this is another Ibiki fic (XD), except it deals with something no other Ibiki fic does- Ibiki's recovery from his torture. I know that's true, because I've read all 213 Ibiki fanfictions in English, all the ones in Spanish, and half the ones in French. i've read a couple that touched on the subject, but none that went in depth. This won't be all emo or whatever, so don't worry.

Also, it has Inoichi in it. I'm almost out of time here, so forgive me for any spelling errors. Rating may go up.

Enjoy!

It was a beautiful day, the day they found him. The trees blazed with color, with every hue of green there was. The sun shone, birds chirped, and bees hummed over the ice cream of children, who were in such a good mood they didn't even have the heart to deny the merry insects.

It was a coincidence that Inoichi was at the Gate that day. He was strolling by, whistling a merry tune and thinking about his daughter's upcoming birthday when he heard the guards shift almost imperceptibly. His gaze switched immediately to the open gate, where he witnessed a group of ANBU racing towards him, one of them oddly bulky, with something extra large on his back.

For ANBU to come in the front gate, it must be serious. Inoichi intercepted the first ANBU to arrive, who was sporting a deep gash to the arm and an exhausted expression. "Jonin, right?" he huffed.

"Yes."

"Identification code."

"005492."

"Find my comrade. He needs help."

"Injury?"

"You'll see."

Inoichi sidestepped the ANBU officer, who set off in the direction of Hokage Tower. He approached the ANBU he assumed the man had been talking about, and realized that he was carrying someone.

"Are you injured?"

"Get him to the hospital! Don't waste time!" wheezed the ANBU.

Inoichi hoisted the person from the tired ANBU, and nearly gagged at the smell of rotting flesh. "Is he alive?"

"It's Morino. Go!"

Inoichi put him on his back and ran, his mind reeling. Morino had been missing for over a month, presumed dead. Was this emancipated stranger really Ibiki? The longer he spent on Inoichi's back, the more bodily fluids that drenched his clothes. The man's head knocked against Inoichi and smeared the back of his neck with blood.

If this really was Ibiki, Inoichi seriously doubted he would survive the night. Ibiki had been a big man, taller than even Jiraiya. The person he had carried here was smaller than most genin, skin stretched taut over bone. He hadn't had time to get a good look, but he assumed that he was heavily injured by the blood and the horrible smell that choked him even now.

He reached the hospital and unceremoniously dumped the bleeding man into the arms of a nurse, who stifled a gasp and hurried away with him. It was then that Inoichi got his first look- and nearly threw up. Now he recognized him as Ibiki, but wished he hadn't. He was covered with open wounds and crusted, infected sores, the worst of them hastily bandaged by the rescue squad. Unwashed limp brown strands of hair hung from his head in clumps, a far cry from the clean-cut hair Ibiki normally kept. The thickest bandage was on his head, which although wrapped tightly was dark with blood. Inoichi could see ragged bone through the torn flesh in several places and the half-healed scars from the earliest days of imprisonment.

Inoichi sat in a plastic hospital chair, the ridges digging into him uncomfortably. He stared at his hands, his day turned upside-down by this. He had known Ibiki, worked with him, even gone drinking with him once or twice. Ibiki had a sharp sense of humor tempered by a seriousness that never completely left, something Inoichi had liked about the man. He knew Ibiki had been raising his brother since the death of their parents, shortly after Idate was born. He knew it had led to the slowing of the time it took for Ibiki to become a chunin. He knew were he worked, that he was good at it, and that he didn't entirely dislike it. Inoichi had figured this was all he needed to know. Taking a deep breath, he paced the hall, his sandals hardly making a noise on the linoleum floors.

He was a ninja who was accustomed to death, who had grown up around it, become a man around it, married around it, and had a daughter with the full realization that some day she might go on a mission she'd never come back from. That feeling was one he'd become accustomed to, even comfortable with.

But what happened if you came back from a mission you had every right to die on? Even the thought chilled his blood. It was ridiculous- he worked with the men and women who had succumbed to that possibility, sucking the memories out of them without a thought to what happened to them. They almost never make it home- most of them were executed, unless an ally of Konoha's demanded their return. In all his years he had never even bothered to think about what happened to them once they came home, what their quality of life was. He wished the best to those nameless souls who had suffered at the hands of the Leaf in the name of justice, as they were just trying to serve their own village or meet their own goals, whatever they may be. Filled with a melancholy sense of impatience and unhappiness, he couldn't bring himself to either sit back down or leave, so he approached the nurse at the desk. He hesitated after seeing her disapproving look, but plowed on regardless.

"Do you have any info on the man they just brought in?" he asked, his hands gripping the front of her desk, slowly turning white from the pressure.

She raised an eyebrow. "Which man? This is a shinobi hospital, you know."

"The highly injured one." he pressed.

Her condescending expression didn't change.

"Ibiki Morino." he finally clarified.

Her expression fell into one of guarded disinterest. "I'm sorry, that information is classified to everyone but the Hokage and his close family."

Out of a sudden desperation fueled by Inoichi's sense of empathy and curiosity, he blurted, "I'm the closest he has to family. His only brother died just a month ago, and he has no one else. I'm all he has."

The nurse's eyes softened just a little bit. Inoichi hoped it would be enough to get him info, but he wasn't sure, so he continued. "I was the one who brought Ibiki back, and he looked-" Suddenly, Inoichi couldn't put it into words, how bad Ibiki had looked. How certain he had been at first that this person was not alive, that this couldn't be Ibiki because Ibiki wasn't dying like this, bleeding out into his arms. He couldn't explain why this was so important to him either, but it turned out that he didn't need to, as the nurse led him to the ICU's biggest and most private room, reserved for high-ranking ninja who would be there for quite some time.

He stood there waiting, staring at the blinds that hid Ibiki from view, thoughts running wild in his head. Why was he even here? Hadn't he been headed on a stroll through the village, planning on heading home and spending some time with his wife and daughter? Now he was standing in the ICU, waiting to hear from a doctor about the condition of a man he barely knew.

Eventually, Shizune stepped out of the room, sighing deeply. She removed her doctor's mask as she did so, and Inoichi noticed that it was splattered with blood. She noticed Inoichi, and strode over to him.

Inoichi was grateful that it was Shizune who was Ibiki's doctor. She was the head of staff when Tsunade allowed her to take some time from their travels and return to her home. Tsunade herself was the only one whose expertise could top Shizune's, and she wouldn't return to Konoha even for a day.

"Inoichi?" Shizune seemed surprised to see him, although in a resigned way, like she was too tired to really question it.

"I'll all he has." he repeated, realizing that it may very well be true. No one else had come running to see what had happened, even though what happened at the gate had probably caused a commotion and it had been more than an hour since Ibiki had arrived at the hospital. Ninja moved fast- if someone was coming, they would already be there.

Shizune nodded wearily. "Well, he's still alive, for now."

"Do you expect him to make it?"

"An hour ago I would have said no, but now…anything could happen. That man is one hell of a fighter, I'll tell you that much. I've never seen any shinobi with injuries as severe as his, and I've worked in this hospital since I was twelve. This goes beyond all human boundaries of morality and decency. Maybe it's because I was raised here, but I've always assumed even interrogators had some basic respect for human life," Shizune leaned against the wall, her shoulders sagging. "Would you like to know what his injuries are?"

"If you want to tell me."

"It's a long list. You're the one who brought him in, right?"

"Yes."

"So you'll understand what I mean when I say I can't even begin to describe it. Most of the injuries you saw were the minor ones, relatively speaking." Shizune's voice was rising out of pent up frustration. Inoichi recalled the injuries that were supposedly minor and felt sick to his stomach.

"Both of his arms are dislocated and broken in the standard torture position-" she was referring to the position that prisoners were commonly held in, where their arms were suspended above their head- "and both of his legs are broken in multiple places, his left significantly worse than his right. Putting it simply, his hands are crushed, along with his everything below his ankles. His jaw is broken, as are all of his ribs, his nose, his back, and his neck. His head trauma is so severe that we can't tell how bad the brain damage is. There could be none, or he could spend the rest of in a hospital bed. That is, presuming he gets through the next week."

"He's alive?" said Inoichi in disbelief.

"I'm just getting started. We had to reconstruct several of his internal organs and reset most of his bones. He was exposed to fire several times, and has third-degree burns all over his body. Severe sexual abuse over a prolonged period, and there is evidence of excessive shock torture. He's been drugged up with a hallucinogenic and several complicated antibiotics that are probably the only reason he's still here. He's missing all of his fingernails, and he was circumcised probably two weeks ago. I found evidence of whips, broken glass, blades, cigarette burns, acid…The infection is a major problem. It's taken an entire teams of medics just to keep him alive this long." At seeing Inoichi's look she cut off. "It's horrible…absolutely horrible."

"I know." Shizune seemed to be on the verge of tears, and Inoichi didn't know what to tell her. Half of him just wanted to be at home. The other half wanted to sit down and cry with Shizune.

"There's more…"

"There can't be," he whispered. He wanted to sit down, or throw up. "I'm sorry, Shizune, but I don't want to know any more. I'm not so invested in Ibiki that I can do this. Spending this much time in the hospital drains me."

"I don't blame you…I'd better get back in there anyway. We're still working on him. You know…" She paused as she entered the door, pulling on a new doctor's mask. "I'd say the only thing he's got going for him right now is that he isn't conscious. That would be too much for anyone to go through." She shut the door.

As he walked home, Inoichi couldn't help wonder what she meant. Everything Ibiki had already been through was beyond imagining.

And for the first time, it occurred to Inoichi to wonder if they broke him. How much information had they gotten out of the man? Ibiki, who rarely went on field missions and was-had been- rising through the ranks of ANBU so fast that rumors went around that he'd be head of T&I in a year, had been trusted with some of the very most important documents the Leaf had to offer. The big man, while intimidating, was someone you could easily pledge your trust to. Although young, his position in the Leaf was high. They had all trusted Ibiki with everything they knew about border positions, the patrol squads' shift changes, all the Intel they received from prisoners...If they had Ibiki for over a month, how long did they have until that info was put to use?

And who was they? Out of the five Great Nations, it was only Stone that had any remaining animosity with, resulting from the Third Ninja War, and their shared peace treaty forbade the disregard for human rights as had been displayed…although that didn't mean anything, what with the Foundation creeping out of the corners of the Leaf, and Inoichi was sure that the Stone had something similar.

But this wasn't their style. Iwa, along with Konoha, had adopted a quicker and more humane practice when it came to dealing with prisoners. This also ruled out most of the practices of the other three villages…

Then he remembered. It was when Idate had defected that Ibiki had gone missing, and Idate had been killed after stealing the Thunder Sword of the Nidaime and of the scrolls of sealing. Aoi Rokusho…wasn't that the name of the chunin who ran to the Rain? Inoichi mentally slapped himself for not connecting it much earlier. The Rain, which was known for its backwards practices that lead to its being a lower status than the other villages (contrasting sharply with Hanzo of the Great Salamander, who was the most famous member of the Rain village), might just be barbaric enough to torture Ibiki to that extent.

Inoichi thought of Ibiki's career then, and what it meant to the village. He was a valuable asset, hardly easily replaced. He doubted Ibiki could return to his work now, not ever. Yes, ninja returned to shinobi life after being tortured (the Hatake kid was one example), but it was doubtful that Ibiki would ever function normally. That was, if he survived. For a brief moment, Inoichi almost wished the man had died, It would certainly be easier on Ibiki.

Inoichi was startled out of his thoughts when he reached home. Ino, who was turning 10 soon, rushed towards him and hugged him around the middle. "Daddy! What took you so long?"

Inoichi shrugged, not wanting to explain himself. "I stopped by the hospital. Sorry for the delay."

His wife Tonakai, who was related to Shikaku in some distant way (second cousin or something), smiled at him from the door to their home, her brown hair down around her shoulders, as she refused to put her hair up in the customary Yamanaka way.

"You've been out for hours! Where were you?" Tonakai yawned, a half cleaned dish at her side.

He kissed her cheek and promised to explain it later. His well-furnished home and flower shop seemed surreal and too bright to look at, and he closed his eyes briefly.

"Dinner's ready."

Inoichi made some dumb joke he couldn't remember, and sat down to eat. But as he looked at the food, he just felt nauseous, thinking about Ibiki. He raised the fork to his mouth, and with someone else's ears listened to Ino's chatter about Sakura's latest faux pas and his wife's soft voice talking about her lunch with Yoshino.

He put his fork down.

He couldn't eat.

I have more time! :) (Library computer)

Anyway, as you proabably figured out, Tonakai is an OC for Inoichi's wife, because I figured she needed a name. I think it means reindeer. If Ibiki's injuries seem excessive, remember that this all happened in the course of a month and these are ninja, who possess healing chakra (although my inner sadist gleefully notes that this doesn't heal scars).

Ibiki will actually be in it next chapter! :) This is a hurt/comfort manly thing, so it is not yaoi. At all. Inoichi is happily married. Usually I wouldn't have to say that, but with our fandom...

I said the Foundation instead of Root, but I'm not sure which one's more correct. I believe the dub says the Foundation, but I also read online translations, which say root, and that's what i'm more up to date in...

The name of the fanfiction, Deal Me A Bad Hand, refers both to Ibiki's life and that Ino-Shika-Chou, which is the name of their formation, is also a winning hand in Hanafuda, a Japanese card game.

Please review! :)