Against the World

"When you catch someone in an illusion you become the god of their world."

-x-

The whole situation was a mess and Itachi couldn't remember the last time he was this stressed.

When he was assigned to Base 121 he knew in theory that it was possible something could happen to Aoki and Hayashi and he would be left in charge. However everyone had believed the chance of it actually happening was next to zero. This was supposed to be what amounted to a fluff assignment. Easy. No pressure. Practically a working vacation.

The Hokage wanted Team Four to dip their toes into the war, and he needed someone who was familiar with them and their abilities present to watch over them. Instead the girls ended up shoved off the deep end in the sort of attack they shouldn't have experienced for years to come. It was a miracle they survived, owed partially to their surprising competency and partially to all the people who died for them.

When they first arrived and Aoki insisted on sending the girls to Frost, Itachi had been furious. They were supposed to receive training and instruction before they were thrown into a battle. Once word reached the Hokage he had been furious too. In fact, the Hokage was angry enough to place Team Four under Itachi's direct command, removing any authority Aoki or Hayashi had over the girls in terms of assignments until they returned to the village. Yet in hindsight it was probably one of the things that saved their lives when Cloud attacked. It gave them some experience and an opportunity to learn from their mistakes in what ended up being a comparatively low pressure battle, though it hardly seemed like it at the time.

The battle in Frost was run of the mill by the war's standards. There were countless others like it, and it wasn't of any particular significance. Cloud's assault and pursuit across Hot Water, on the other hand, was the sort of thing that would make it into the history books one day.

Itachi couldn't help but wonder if he made the right calls, if there was something he could have done better. He wasn't sure if seven survivors was impressive given the circumstances or an indication of his failure.

Itachi had plenty of battlefield experience, even significant battles such as this, but he'd never been in charge. He'd never been the one making the choices. Could someone like Minato-san have done better?

While the battle certainly weighed on his mind and didn't help his stress level, it wasn't the main offender. What came after was worse.

First, no one knew why Cloud attacked like that, meaning it was imperative they discovered their motivations. Second, what little intelligence they did have on the matter indicated a mole, likely Hayashi. To be seen was whether the man in question was a traitor or if he'd been replaced with an imposter and no one noticed. Itachi wasn't sure which was worse. Third, he now had to deal with Mist and navigate a political minefield.

He was beyond grateful that Mist had stepped up and helped. If they hadn't his only other option was Orochimaru, and he'd prefer not to risk exposing Leaf's connection there.

The issue was that since Mist became involved things got complicated. Itachi and the other survivors were being housed by Mist's grace, which left them in a vulnerable position. Furthermore, several Cloud ninja had been captured at the end of the battle for interrogation and Mist had jurisdiction, even though the entire thing was far more relevant to Leaf.

If the interrogations had progressed quickly that wouldn't have been an issue. Mist could have their fun and share the highlights, then turn over the prisoners to Itachi so he could escort them back to Leaf and they could perform their own interrogation in a reasonable time frame.

But nothing on this assignment worked out nicely for Itachi, so why would this?

Unlike Leaf and Rock, Mist didn't have any mind readers, so they had to do it the old fashioned way. Three of them broke within the first two days, but they didn't know Cloud's motivations for the assault. It did confirm that they'd been given orders to leave no survivors, at the very least.

When five more days had passed with no progress on the remaining prisoners Itachi knew he had to get involved.

What ensued was one of the most hellish weeks of Itachi's life to date. Mist was insulted that he didn't believe in their ability to break the prisoners and felt he was overstepping. He had to assure them that no, of course that wasn't it. He just had a Yamanaka handy, who could speed things up when time was of the essence. Yet Mist insisted they needed just a little more time.

The entire week he felt like he was bashing his head against a wall until it finally broke. They argued in circles until Mist had to admit that time was running short and they reluctantly allowed Aiko-san to come in.

Itachi couldn't describe how relieved he felt when they agreed. Finally, something was going his way. They could finish this up and get back to Leaf. His own bed and his mother's home cooking were in sight.

So of course they hit a snag.

Aiko-san took care of the first five prisoners in two hours, but the female prisoner posed a problem. She had mental defences that rendered the Yamanaka clan jutsu useless. Aiko-san got nothing from the woman even after spending two hours attempting to breach them. Not even her name. After admitting defeat Aiko-san tapped her glasses at him, indicating her bloodline still worked.

That was one of the few silver linings of the situation, the other being that the chances of the prisoner knowing something just sky rocketed, however it was far from ideal. Her bloodline was useful, but if she was to actually make use of it on the prisoner she would need to do a traditional interrogation.

According to her file she was trained for it, and her teammates were trained to support her or even carry out interrogations on their own. While Aiko-san's bloodline gave her an advantage over Mist's interrogators, Itachi wasn't sure it was enough to do it on her own in a reasonable time frame. Her file indicated she performed best with support from Sekai-kun and Sakura-san.

There were two problems. The first was Mist. While they'd been willing to let a Yamanaka into their interrogation chambers, letting Leaf do a traditional interrogation was an entirely different matter. A Yamanaka could do something Mist couldn't. Without telling Mist about her bloodline, which was out of the question, it appeared that Leaf couldn't do anything that Mistalsocouldn't.

The second issue were the ages of Team Four's members. It was incredibly rare for people their age to be trained in interrogation. Itachi had hoped that he could get away with playing off his use of Aiko-san as all Yamanaka being trained to use their clan techniques in such a manner, which was even mostly true. They just usually didn't allow such young Yamanaka access to prisoners even if they could do the job in theory. For her and her team to do a traditional interrogation on the other hand meant revealing that Leaf had trained literal children in the subject, which wasn't a good look.

There were several reasons people as young as Team Four weren't trained in interrogation.

To start, it was nasty business. If it were a common thing to do then civilians were bound to hear of it at some point. Children torturing people sounded nearly as bad as people torturing children to a civilian's delicate sensibilities.

Another reason was a matter of trust and clearance. Interrogators were routinely exposed to highly sensitive information. It usually took a lot of time to determine individuals were trustworthy and mature enough for the position. This was why young Yamanaka usually didn't get to test their skills on prisoners. In Team Four's case they were tested carefully to determine they were qualified in this manner, but that took a lot of time and resources. It wasn't worth it in most cases. It was more efficient to wait for people to demonstrate the necessary qualities themselves, which typically came with age and experience.

Then there was the matter of desensitization. It was a gradual process, and typically children weren't far enough along in the process to be suitable for interrogation. Inexperienced children tended to get squeamish at the notion of cold blooded torture. They often needed more time to accept violence outside of combat. Back in the early days there had been a lot of lost potential because the interrogation broke the children performing them rather than the subject.

That last point indicated that Team Four had gone through some serious desensitization training despite their age and came out of it intact, which was true, though ignored the circumstances. Namely that the girls already had experience on the other end. No matter the circumstances though, it wasn't a good look for Leaf.

Alas, it seemed he had no choice.

The rest of that day was spent arguing in favour of letting Leaf's surviving interrogation team try next. He was very careful not to specify precisely who from his contingent was on that team. It would be easier to get them to agree to letting children do it if they had agreed to a team beforehand.

It was still a nightmare though, and Itachi just wanted it to end.

-x-

Twenty Four

We worked on our plan late into the evening. We called in one of the other Leaf ninja to be a guinea pig for a genjutsu I wanted to use. Bou ended up being the lucky volunteer, and his feedback was very helpful in fine tuning the genjutsu and making it realistic and uniform. By the time I went to bed I had great confidence that it would work as intended. Fortunately for him, the genjutsu itself wasn't traumatic, just integral to our plan and perhaps a bit boring.

Sakura meanwhile commandeered one of the now spare prisoners to practice a jutsu on. It was one she learned for the purpose of interrogation, but didn't have a lot of practice with. She needed to be able to perform it perfectly and with confidence. It wasn't very impressive if it faltered half way through the interrogation. It was only because I knew her so well that I was able to tell she felt distressed by what she was doing, but she persisted until she had mastered it. She knew how important the matter was. Her perfectionist streak helped as well.

While we did that, Aiko made a question tree to make sure that she hit all the key points once the prisoner broke. We were uncertain whether we could break the woman enough that she would lower her defences for Aiko to get in, or if Aiko would be forced to go about it the way everyone else does. She also talked to one of Mist's interrogators to get an idea of how the prisoners were treated over the past two weeks.

Once we finally retired for the evening we slept soundly. When I woke up the next morning I felt well rested and refreshed.

A distant part of me wondered how I could sleep so well after making plans to torture a woman. It was incredible how easy it was to stop caring about something and get over your moral hangups when push came to shove. Sometimes the only way to cope was to stop caring, and I was becoming apathetic at a startling rate.

I put a halt on that train of thought when the time to return to the conference room came. Like the previous day, Haku led Itachi and my team there and Itachi was forced to engage in a repetitive power play with Bitchy Blue.

It was a waste of time, she had already agreed to give us three days, but she seemed intent on complaining about our methods. She was upset that we didn't seem to even try to get anything out of the prisoner the previous day and just "wasted time" playing dress up.

Itachi must have had the patience of a saint if he'd been putting up with this for two weeks already. He assured her that we were professionals who knew what we were doing, reminded her that she had agreed to give us three days, and told her to save her complaints about our methodology until we were finished.

He seemed to have great confidence in us, and I hoped that we would prove to Mist that it was warranted.

After Mist finished with the obligatory posturing, we were once again allowed the conference room to prepare. While we got ready, we sent a request ahead to knock out the prisoner, which Mist agreed to do on our behalf. Aside from Bitchy Blue and her toadies, Mist was fairly accommodating in facilitating our interrogation. Most of them probably just wanted the intelligence and didn't care who extracted it.

Only Sakura dressed up as she did the day before, though she added a cute pink purse to her ensemble. I would remain hidden this time so my regular clothes were fine and we decided it was best if Aiko looked professional. In fact, this time we did our best to make Aiko look older. We wanted her to doubt her perceptions of Aiko.

Aiko used several easy tricks to age herself. We adjusted one of her usual blue uniform tops so it was more form fitting and emphasized her bust and hips, which were admittedly more developed than most thirteen year old's. She carefully contoured her face using makeup and applied some cosmetic tape to pull her features just so. The end result left her face looking slimmer and more mature. Finally, she put on a pair of ninja sandals that had a thicker sole and a heel to them to make her look taller. On her own she was just over five feet, but with the sandals she got an extra two inches. Still on the short side, but tall enough to be a short young adult rather than a teenager who was still growing.

Once she was done Aiko could easily pass for a seventeen year old. Perhaps even a bit older if someone was generous. This would help with the image of a serious, experienced interrogator.

We did a quick rundown of our strategy and signals once they were dressed. When we were content that the interrogation would proceed smoothly we requested an escort to the interrogation block.

-x-

Aiko entered the cell first to make sure the woman was unconscious. Seeing that she was, she invited me and Sakura to follow her inside.

I positioned myself at the back of the room against the wall, well behind the concrete chair and out of the prisoner's view. Aiko stood with her back to the opposite wall, facing the prisoner directly. She was perfectly positioned to read her mind.

Sakura approached the prisoner and woke her up. "Hello pretty lady!" she cooed. "It's wonderful to see you again. Last time I did the talking, but this time you're going to, okay? Just answer Yamanaka-san's questions and everything will be okay. Do you understand?"

"Go to hell." The woman spat angrily. It seemed she had some fight left in her. That was fine.

Sakura slapped her. "Now, now, that's not very nice. Is that any way to talk to a nice little girl like me?"

"You're no little girl!" she snarled. "Get rid of that stupid transformation, it won't work!"

Sakura released one of the woman's wrists from where it was chained down, grabbing it in a bruising grip. She brought the woman's hand to her face, her hair, her shoulders. She used the woman's hand to slap herself hard enough to leave a red mark on her cheek. She then restrained the arm once again.

"Did that feel like a henge to you?" Sakura said with a pretty smile.

The woman remained silent.

The transformation jutsu was versatile and powerful despite being an academy jutsu, but it had its weaknesses. If you touched someone who was transformed you could often feel the chakra that was maintaining it. It was also easily disrupted by forceful touch. If you hit someone with enough force or hurt them badly enough it would often flicker if not completely dispel. Lastly, it was hard to mimic the reddening of the skin from such a slap accurately.

It was wise of Sakura to use the woman's hand for the blow, it ensured she knew that Sakura had used enough force to disrupt a transformation, but her appearance didn't even flicker.

It was possible to be skilled enough with the transformation jutsu to minimize those issues, but it took years of practice. The woman may suspect Sakura was one of the people who dedicated the time to it, but the doubt was there. Her certainty that Sakura was using a transformation was gone.

"Glad we've established that." Sakura said sweetly. "Are you ready to answer Yamanaka-san's questions?"

The woman didn't answer.

"Let's start simple, what's your name?" Aiko said. She had adjusted her voice to sound a bit lower than usual so she sounded older.

The woman didn't answer.

"Alright, how about your rank and registration?"

The woman didn't answer.

Sakura pouted. "You should answer her pretty lady! Unless... you don't want to be so pretty anymore?"

Sakura ran through some quick hand signs and summoned fire to the finger tips of her right hand. She brought her hand to the woman's face, not quite touching but close enough to feel the heat, and traced the air above her jaw with her index finger.

The woman's head jerked back, trying to get as far away from the fire as she could.

"Are you going to answer Yamanaka-san's questions?" Sakura asked.

The woman didn't answer.

Sakura pressed her finger to the woman's face, retracing her jaw. The woman grunted in pain.

"You think pain will work?" She sneered at Sakura. "It hasn't so far."

Sakura shrugged, reaching in the purse and pulling out a mirror with her free hand. She held it up in front of the prisoner. "What do you think so far? Are you still a pretty lady?"

I couldn't see the woman's face, the angle of the mirror was all wrong, but Aiko's lips twitched, so she must have made quite the expression. Or perhaps her thoughts on the matter were what amused Aiko.

"What's your name, rank, and registration?" Aiko asked. "If you tell me, we can fix it. Show her, Sa-chan."

Sakura tucked the mirror back in her purse and instead summoned up a familiar green glow. She traced the woman's face along the same path as before, this time healing instead of hurting, then let the medical chakra fade away. She pulled out the mirror again and showed the woman her face.

"See, good as new!" she exclaimed proudly. She then brought her right hand up again and traced the woman's jaw, redoing the damage she had just undone.

"Name, rank, registration." Aiko repeated.

The woman did not answer.

Sakura began to run her fingers across the woman's face, leaving burns wherever she touched, holding the mirror with her other hand so the woman was forced to watch her skin bubble and blister and char. Twice, the woman tried to look away, but Sakura grabbed her chin and forced her to look in the direction of the mirror and Aiko, which had the secondary effect of worsening the burns on her chin.

"Name, rank, registration. Then this all goes away."

"Yeah! You could be pretty again."

The woman did not answer.

They kept it for another half hour, but still, she did not answer.

That's fine, that was expected.

Aiko gave a nod, and then it was my turn.

-x-

Ichi Kana stared at herself in the reflection of a shop window on her way home from the market. It had been months since she had managed to escape captivity and return home, but the burn scars never faded. By the time she returned to Cloud not even their best medics could fix the damage.

She was horribly disfigured.

Before she could walk the streets of the village and she would receive jealous glances from other women and admiring stares from the men. Now people looked at her with pity, or worse, turned away in discomfort and disgust.

Her own children couldn't stand the sight of her. Her youngest daughter, her darling baby Takai refused to be alone with her. It was devastating.

But it was worth it, because she did not break. She had protected her village's secrets and returned a hero, albeit an ugly one.

She turned away from the shop window and continued home to her small house on the eastern side of the village, near the outskirts. It was a nice home despite the size. Well maintained. The siding was white, freshly painted just a year ago by a team from the academy. There was a small yard with a swing set for her youngest to play on.

She unlocked the door and quickly put away the groceries. When she finished her eye caught on the family photo that had been taken just a few weeks before Mist and Leaf had captured her. She looked so happy, so beautiful, in the photo, with Takai and Amai on either side.

She must have lost track of time because before she knew it she heard the front door open.

"I'm home!" called the familiar, darling voice of her youngest daughter.

"Welcome back!" She called.

Her daughter ran right by her, straight to her room. From experience Kana knew she wouldn't come out until her sister came home. She would have to wait to find out how her day at the academy went.

Amai would be home soon. She was already a ninja, but during Kana's absence she'd been permanently stationed in the village so she could care for Takai, and that hadn't changed with her return.

Kana began cooking dinner. It was the least she could do for her precious daughters.

She was well into the routine of cooking when Amai returned.

Amai greeted her mother with a kiss on the cheek—she was such a sweet girl. Kana was lucky her oldest didn't shy away from affection despite everything. She knew Amai hated looking at her, but her sweet girl loved her enough to work past it.

"Go check on your sister, Amai-chan." Kana ordered gently.

"Of course, Mama." she agreed.

Not thirty seconds after her daughter left, Kana heard an ear shattering scream that abruptly cut off.

She dropped what she was doing and raced towards the source of the noise—Takai's bedroom. She burst in and froze at the sight in front of her.

Her oldest daughter was collapsed on the floor, glassy eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. A familiar, distinctive kunai lodged in her throat.

Sitting on her youngest daughter's bed was a man she had never wanted to see—that no one ever wanted to see. The man who had killed her older brother more than a decade ago. And he was cradling her youngest—now only—daughter as she napped, a kunai to her throat.

This couldn't be real. Why would the Yellow Flash be in her home? Why would he kill her daughter? It didn't make sense.

Was... was this a genjutsu? But no. She had never seen the man before, she had only seen his photo in the bingo book. He looked older than he did in his bingo book picture, which made sense if this was real. It was well known that the photo was nearly a decade out of date, but it was hard to get their hands on an updated one unless Leaf felt like releasing one of their own.

She had no way of knowing what the Yellow Flash would actually look like, and the amount of detail, the realism to the way he aged...

Kana could fill in all the details about her home and her daughters for a genjutsu. She could not fill in the way the Yellow Flash aged. If she were filling in the Yellow Flash's appearance, he would look as she typically imagined him—young, like when he killed her brother.

It had to be real. Oh god, it had to be real.

"I have some questions for you." he said, his voice deadly calm. "If you answer them your remaining daughter will be fine. If you don't she'll end up just like the other one."

Kana fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face. "Why me? Why are you doing this to me?"

The Yellow Flash smiled cruelly. "You didn't think we'd really let you get away, did you? You know something. Something about why Cloud attacked us in Hot Water, don't you?"

"I-I..." Kana stuttered. She did. She did know something. But...

But it didn't make sense. Why would the Yellow Flash come to interrogate her? If he could get into the village, why come after her? There were better ways to get the information. Better people to ask.

There were better things for the Yellow Flash to do in her village if he made it in undetected. He was not an interrogator. He was a combat ninja.

But it had to be real, right? How would she know what this man looked like? Unless... unless this was a genjutsu and the caster did.

"This isn't real." she whispered.

The Yellow Flashed twirled one of his special kunai. "You're right. It's not. But that doesn't mean it won't work."

"It won't!" she denied, standing up. That wasn't her daughter in his arms. It wasn't her daughter dead on the floor. Her girls were safe back home.

She tried to break the genjutsu but failed. Why...? Oh, the chakra inhibitor. She wouldn't be able to break out. Still, she knew it wasn't real. That was enough to get through it.

The Yellow Flash stood, holding not-Takai by the neck. "Maybe you're right. But we'll see, won't we?"

-x-

I was slightly surprised it took her so long to realize she was in a genjutsu. I thought she would have realized the moment she saw Minato-san, but it took her a bit longer.

Unlike when I had been using genjutsu in battle, I was focused on the connection the jutsu established. The information that could be passed through the connection varied depending on how much the caster concentrated on it. At minimum it allowed me to know whether the target was caught in the genjutsu, and that's all I could afford in battle. If I went to the other extreme and I really focused on it, it was like I was watching the entire experience unfold. There were many benefits to this, such as allowing me greater control over what the victim experienced and the ability to gather information from it.

Of course, using genjutsu like this in battle was a horrible idea. In the relative safety of an interrogation chamber, though? It was perfect.

I'd learned a lot so far, information that would be crucial going forward.

I wasn't the only one who was following along with Kana's experience in the genjutsu though. Aiko was focusing hard, her pupils barely pinpricks of blue on black as she took in everything Kana was thinking while subjected to the genjutsu.

Despite our hopes, the woman's awareness that it was a genjutsu did help her maintain her silence, despite the graphic torture I had Minato-san inflict on her daughter in the genjutsu, flaying her alive with his hiraishin kunai. After awhile I brought in her late husband. I had him yell and scream at her for letting this happen to their daughters. Why wasn't she stopping him? She had the power to. All she needed to do were answer his questions.

Still, while it was a disappointment it was not a setback. We had expected this outcome. All was going according to plan.

-x-

I kept the woman in the genjutsu for three hours before Aiko gave Sakura the signal to knock out the prisoner. The three of us left to take a lunch break. The woman would be out for quite awhile.

We once again returned to the conference room. We could have went to the mess hall for a meal, but neither Sakura nor Aiko wanted to walk around dressed as they were, so I unsealed some bento I'd had stored away.

Over lunch we discussed our findings. My genjutsu turned out to be more fruitful than I expected. Not only did we get the information needed for the next phase of the interrogation, but apparently the woman had actually thought of the names of several people who would know more about the matter than she did.

To no one's surprise, Sakura and I didn't recognize any of the names. Aiko recognized one of them from her work with the intel department, though, and was confident that even if intel didn't have a file on the rest, they would by the end of the month.

After discussing our findings we moved on to reviewing our plan for what we would do next. Aiko offered some little tidbits that she picked up from the woman's thoughts that would help, but otherwise nothing had changed.

With nothing left to discuss and our meal consumed, I sealed away the empty containers and we headed back to the interrogation chamber. It was time to begin the final phase.

-x-

Aiko and I entered the interrogation chamber first. As expected, the woman was still unconscious. I retook my place against the back wall where the woman couldn't see me, but this time Aiko joined me.

Five minutes later Sakura walked in carrying a tray. On the tray was a plastic spoon and a bowl of what could only be described as "slop." It was the same meal the prisoner had been receiving for the past two weeks. She set the tray down and woke up the prisoner.

"Meal time, pretty lady!" she declared with a bright smile. "From now on it's my job to take care of you, okay?"

She proceeded to spoon feed the prisoner who let her without fuss, already used to the routine, though usually it was someone else who fed her.

"I'll be back to feed you tomorrow, pretty lady!" Sakura said once the woman finished her meal. With that she left, waving on her way out.

We remained still behind the woman for a half hour until her head drooped and the tension in her body eased. The drug had kicked in. She as asleep once more.

Aiko walked to the door and opened it, letting Sakura back in. Aiko returned to my side while Sakura crept up directly behind the prisoner. She reached around and pressed her hand to the woman's stomach, speeding up the woman's metabolism. Once she was sure the drug was mostly out of the woman's system she pulled her hand back. Next she reached into the purse and pulled out a needle to inject the woman with a fresh dose of the chakra inhibitor. When she was done she stepped back, taking her place on my free side.

We waited a few more minutes for the woman to wake up. Once she did I ensnared her in another genjutsu. A different one this time. I nodded to Aiko, and she circled around to make eye contact with the woman again, even though it would be awhile before the real interrogation finally started.

-x-

After those girls first tried to unsettle her with their little dress up games and then a genjutsu, they mostly left her alone.

Every day that pink haired girl would come back and feed her. She still put on that disturbingly cheerful and childish persona, but she no longer tried to question her. She just fed her the drugged slop and left.

Kana felt proud of herself. She was fairly certain she knew what was happening. Nothing those Mist and Leaf bastards had tried so far was working, so they must be waiting to bring in someone better.

It was also possible they were hoping the solitude would get to her, but given the way they drugged her she doubted that was it. It would be much more effective to keep her awake for days on end than to drug her so much that she was only awake for a few hours each day. In theory, of course. Even if they did that she wouldn't break.

Kana hadn't broken yet. She never would. That's why they trusted her above the rest, after all.

She counted the days by the number of times the pink haired girl came and fed her. She was aware that it was possibly more than that, though likely not less. Every time the girl came she was hungry. If they were feeding her more than once a day she wouldn't feel so famished.

A week went by.

Two.

Three.

Four.

A month.

Then one day when the pink haired child woke her up it was not to feed her. It took Kana a few seconds to process what she was seeing and she immediately tried to flare her chakra and break out of the genjutsu.

Of course those damn chakra inhibitors prevented her from doing so.

"Nice try!" she hissed instead. "You've already tried this. I know it's a genjutsu! It didn't work last time and it won't work this time!"

The pink haired child giggled and shook her head. The man who had entered the room with her didn't react, he just continued to chain a small, achingly familiar child up to the wall across from her. Takai.

The man left when he finished her task, leaving her alone with the pink haired child and the Yamanaka.

Just those two. That wasn't her daughter. It wasn't real.

Were the girl and the Yamanaka even real? Kana wasn't actually sure about that either. But it didn't matter. All that mattered was that Takai wasn't.

"It's an illusion." she whispered to herself. She made it through this before, she could do it again. She could.

The pink haired girl threw back her head and cackled, breaking character for the first time. "Oh no, this time it's real."

"Your tricks won't work on me." Kana growled over the cackling. "There's no way."

"Sa-chan!" The Yamanaka reprimanded, and the girl immediately returned to character. Then the Yamanaka turned her focus on Kana. "Did you really think our last genjutsu was a real attempt to break you?"

Kana scoffed. "What else would it be?"

The Yamanaka grinned wolfishly. "Information gathering. We learned a lot, you know. Why don't you tell her, Sa-chan?"

The pink haired girl brightened and started skipping around Kana's chair.

"That's right! We learned your daughters are named Ichi Amai and Ichi Takai! We learned what they look like!" she sing-songed as she made the first lap.

"What else?" The Yamanaka prompted.

"We learned Amai-chan is a ninja! A genin! And Takai-chan is an academy student!" the girl chirped as she made a second lap around her.

With each lap around the chair, the girl revealed what else they knew.

The father was dead. Lap.

She described their home. Lap.

She rattled off her address. Lap.

With each lap Kana felt her chest tighten. It was... it was very possible this was real.

Eventually the pink haired child climbed in her lap again, like she did that first day. "It took awhile, you know? We wanted to bring both Takai-chan and Amai-chan to play, but in the end it was too much work to take a genin.

"An academy student though? Not that hard. She's no one important after all. It took awhile, but it wasn't that hard to get an agent in the village. Merchants come and go all the time, you know?"

Kana tried to look away, to close her eyes, but she pink haired child tugged her chin or brought a scorching hand to her face whenever she tried.

"They also tend to travel with a lot of stuff. It wasn't hard to smuggle a single child out if you know what you're doing." the girl continued.

Kana was glad it had been a day since she ate, because otherwise she would have thrown up.

"Mama? Mama! They said you were dead like papa! What's going on?" cried a groggy voice. "It hurts! Where are we?"

Oh god. It was real. It wasn't a genjutsu.

They had her daughter.

The pink haired child climbed out of her lap and slowly walked towards the wall where Takai hung from her wrists.

Her palm glowed with fire.

"Well, Ichi Kana," the Yamanaka smirked cruelly. "Are you going to tell us what we want to know?"

Kana shook her head. She couldn't. Even for her precious daughter she couldn't.

The Yamanaka raised a brow and crossed her arms. "Very well then. Sa-chan?"

The pink haired child smiled cruelly, bringing her index finger to Takai's beautiful, innocent face.

Her daughter screamed.

Kana broke.

-x-

Outside the genjutsu, I split my focus between listening to Aiko and feeding the questions she supplied into the genjutsu.

It only took us two days.

Everything had gone according to plan.

-x-

Notes: Just according to keikaku. (Translators note: Keikaku means plan.)

Some Itachi POV! I like to call it "Itachi's horrible, no good, very bad mission." It ended up being a lot longer than intended, but it gives some insight into the interrogation situation.

Cloud characters often had adjectives as names in canon. I'm not giving them all adjective names, but I did for Kana's kids. I pulled up an adjective vocab list, but there could be some mistakes. Takai means expensive. Amai means sweet. I thought they were good adjectives for someone who adored her children from the day they were born. Kana was just the first name that came to mind for the prisoner.

There are also some notes on clan names for Cloud and Sand added to the databook. It will help explain my choice for Kana's last name and the implications of it—namely that she got to where she did through hard work.

To be clear, Sekai practised warping perceptions of time on Bou. They did the drugging thing to make it easier to affect Kana's perception of time. It's a lot harder to make it seem like a month has passed if they need to make it seem like 16 hours per day have passed rather than 3.

I hope I did okay with the interrogation and it was easy to follow what was happening and by the end it was clear what their plan was.

Also yes, you should feel bad for Kana. She is not a bad person, she's just a normal person doing her job.

P.S. Still kinda a miracle, though it took longer than last time. Term is ending in a few weeks. I might write to relax or I might be too stressed/busy.