Sasuke next saw daylight when the hood was ripped off his head. Or perhaps "harsh lamp light" was a more accurate way to put it. It glinted off the animal masks hovering in the darkness beyond, and nothing else.
"Seat him," said one, a grimacing tiger. Sasuke was plunked down somewhat more firmly than was comfortable on a narrow stool.
"Orders?" asked another, from behind a blank-eyed falcon.
"Secure him," came another voice, this one from a pebbled lizard's visage. "No special measures. Wait for further instructions."
"Understood," said the falcon, and Sasuke's hands were jerked unceremoniously downwards as they were tied to a ring on the floor.
Sasuke opened his mouth, took a few milliseconds to find his rasping voice. "I see you took your sweet--"
The falcon swept a gag into his mouth with precision speed, cutting off his retort.
Well, thought Sasuke, staring up at the gleaming, expressionless masks, this genjutsu got a lot more realistic all of a sudden.
He had never studied this part – at least, not in the Academy – but he was pretty certain what would come next. Undoubtedly beyond the reach of the pale circle of light in the center of this room, there were various... implements that would encourage him to tell them everything they wanted to know. What they were, and what they would do to him, was entirely up to Madara's imagination.
Sasuke could hardly wait.
He was on the edge of madness, to be sure, and he knew it, but a larger and larger part of his was whispering, "Bring it on." Bring on the pain, the fear, the hatred – bring on the feelings that would ground him in reality, the feelings that he knew he could resist Madara with. Replace the subtle whisperings of confusion bubbling up from the depths of his mind—Itachi's name on the Leaf monument?-- with the stark clarity of pain.
Nothing I suffer, he thought in a rather deranged way, is anything compared to what Itachi suffered...
He had merely lost everything he loved, after all. Itachi had been made to destroy it with his own hands.
Behind the gag he grinned savagely. Bring it on, indeed.
"Cocky," commented the tiger.
"Await orders," commanded the lizard.
"It isn't like we can't imagine what they'll be," replied the tiger.
"Await orders," repeated the lizard, an edge to its voice.
"Understood." The tiger was silent then, looking down at Sasuke.
The silence continued for some time.
Not one of them moved. Sasuke would be damned if he lost control before they did.
Bring it on, Madara.
Three clangs at an unseen door somewhere behind the tiger's head broke the silence abruptly.
"Tiger," ordered the lizard with no inflection. The tiger vanished into the blackness.
The conversation that followed was muffled, probably purposefully so. There were jutsus for that purpose as well. It took nearly a minute for the tiger to appear back in the circle of light.
"Deer wants to interrogate verbally," it reported, with what Sasuke imagined was just the slightest hint of disappointment. "No extreme measures. Basic safety inspection."
"Understood," said the falcon, and abruptly Sasuke found his head jerked back, and two fingers shoved roughly down his throat. He gagged, would have vomited if there had been anything in his stomach to vomit up.
"No cyanide pills," the falcon confirmed in a tone with no inflection. "No hidden gas bombs."
Another hand grabbed Sasuke's eyes, pulling the lids wide. For a second Sasuke flashed back to having his eyes plucked out in Itachi's genjutsu – braced himself--
"No sign of particular ability aside from reported by the witnesses," the lizard continued. "Tiger."
Three seconds later, Sasuke was naked.
"No marks on skin. No weapons hidden on body." There was a pause, sadism somehow leaking into mere silence. "Request permission to do final check."
"Permission granted," said the lizard.
Sasuke went white hot, then cold with humiliation as the tiger performed the "final check" on a place he couldn't imagine anyone with a shred of honor planting a bomb. He clamped his teeth around the gag and vowed, he would not cry out--
"Enough," said Lizard a little tersely. "Bring the prisoner uniform."
Less than ten seconds later, Sasuke was clothed.
"Hood the prisoner," ordered Lizard, and Sasuke was thrust back into darkness.
