Genma watched in horrified disbelief as Kakashi brought both hands up in the Tiger seal. "No jutsu," Genma barked, struggling to rise. He got up onto one knee before he fell, and rolled to his side again, staring in terror at Kakashi.

Nothing happened. Kakashi mouthed the word to break a genjutsu, focused his chakra, stared hard at Genma...

Genma felt the pressure wave of Kakashi's chakra radiating out from him. Kakashi didn't burst into flame, or fall backwards convulsing, or suffer any of the other unspeakable fates Genma envisioned in the split second between seeing Kakashi's hands go up and feeling Kakashi's chakra flooding out.

Kakashi continued to stare in horror at him. Utter, disconnected from any hint of reality horror. Was he still drugged? Was he even, Genma thought with sick dread, really there? How better to convince a man that an imposter was his recently-tortured partner than to make him act like a paranoid as fuck, traumatized ninja?

Genma couldn't move his hands into the Tiger seal for his own attempt at a kai. And the warning still shook him: Kumoto says if you try a jutsu, it will kill you. I believe him. Of all the threats Genma had heard from his Iwagakure captors, that mild warning carried by far the most weight.

"Kakashi--" Genma started.

Kakashi brought his hands together for another kai. This time the pressure wave of chakra made Genma feel ill. It seemed to drain Kakashi, who shook, staring. His face was unmasked. His hair was shorn. And both eyes were wide open, Sharingan whirling.

Was it illusion? Was it real? Genma avoided looking into that sickly spinning red iris.

What could he ask? What sign would prove he was himself, and that was really Kakashi?

"How did I kill Arihiro?" Genma bit the words out, bitter as the bile in his throat, and waited. If it was an imposter, there would be no way he'd know, but if it was really Kakashi...

Genma braced for a blow.