| [Oct. 1st, 2010|11:43 pm] |
The redhead took off her mask, revealing dark, unreadable eyes that didn't go with her coloring, but would as soon as a pulse of chakra turned them crimson. Uchiha Aki, Shida's prodigy. A rising star in the unsavory world of torture and interrogation. She waited until Genma was seated before folding long legs up under herself and settling across from him. Sugimoto chose the nine-o-clock point, between Genma and Aki, and the medic, whose name Genma still hadn't learned, pushed a wad of blankets up between Genma's back and the tree behind him, giving him something to lean against. When Genma glanced up, he saw the IV bag hung from a senbon driven into the same tree's bark.
"As soon as you start to tire, Genma-san, lie down," the medic said.
It was interesting that they didn't tell him to lie down to start. Were they trying to give him some illusion of control? Because as far as Genma was concerned, he was already exhausted to the point of shaking.
Even with Aki's Sharingan eyes quiescent, Genma felt like she was looking through him. "Where do you want me to start?" he asked. "This... the whole thing..."
"We know about the events that led to Hatake-san's decision to approach Iwagakure for help under the new treaty," Aki said. "What I need to know is, how well did they hold to that treaty? By the looks of you, I'd say not very." She lit a cigarette, and when she saw Genma's eyes on it, passed it to him and lit a second for herself.
Genma let the tobacco shroud him, felt his thoughts blurring on the vibrating edge of the nicotine.
"I've already briefed Aki-san on what I observed when I was allowed into your cell," Sugimoto said. "And Mikawa-sensei was given an abbreviated chart that purported to detail the treatment Iwagakure's medics gave you, Shiranui-san."
"You don't trust it, Miho?" Aki inhaled slowly, but huffed the smoke out with a disdainful snort. "Neither do I, obviously." She waited another beat. "Shiranui-san..." She paused, then started again. "Genma-san. I'm not going to waste your time pretending this is nicer than it is. I've been fully briefed on your history with Iwagakure. Were you interrogated?"
"Yes. But..." Smoke was hardly any protection, and Genma realized with a shudder that he was still wearing the thin khaki prison clothes Iwa had provided.
"But?" Aki prompted.
"They tried to break us both, but they tried a lot harder with Kakashi." Was that the truth? A lie? Had they really been trying to break Genma at all? There had been long isolation and confinement, painful medical procedures, experimentation by Kumoto and the assistant on Genma's hands. That threat to break his toes (Just like before. Exactly like before, but this time Kumoto was supervising the breaking as well as the repairing) aborted by Genma's self-induced seizure.
But precious few questions.
"They drugged him." Genma's voice fell into the dull monotone of all survivors of catastrophe. "Isolated him. I assume they deprived him of sleep and food. Made the room too hot for him, I think. He was sweating. I know Ku—" He choked on a raw acid surge in the back of his throat. "Kumoto. Their medic. He put an IV in and bandaged Kakashi's wounds at one point. From the fight before. The interrogator never really touched Kakashi, except when he shaved his hair."
"You observed all this?" Aki cut in.
"Video feed. They... Made me watch a video feed. Hours. Days. I don't even know. It was looped and edited, so I couldn't tell how much time had passed. The bastard torturing him shaved his head, but never hit him. Blew smoke in his face, though. Made Kakashi cough. Kakashi had inhaled that solo-T before..." He broke off abruptly and looked sharply at Aki. "Don't smoke around Kakashi. Don't..." His own cigarette tasted suddenly foul, and he ground it out.
Aki nodded and put her cigarette out, too. |
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