Fujita patted him on the shoulder. "Good. Can you stand?"

"Of course he can," said Aki. She twisted her wrist in a way that forced Takajin down to his knees. "Can he kill is a much better question."

"Ah--" said one of the politicians by the door. He was blocked by the shoulder of a tall man in ANBU armour. "I thought we'd agreed--"

"You don't talk," Aki said, in a voice that clanged like iron. "Well, Hatake?"

With Fujita's help, Kakashi hauled himself to his feet. He staggered, exhausted down to a cellular level, but kept his balance. Everything ached. He felt like he could float away.

Takajin's face was set and stony when Kakashi looked down at him. Dark-eyed. He still looked handsome, even with Aki's hand wrapped hard around his throat and the throttled flush riding high on his cheekbones.

This was the man who'd tortured Kakashi without putting a mark on him. Who'd drugged him, played around inside his head, made him believe he'd killed Genma, twisted his dreams, given him nightmare fodder for the rest of his life--

Done his job. Just like Kakashi did his job.

"Hatake?" said Aki, managing to sound patient and pointed all at once. "You want his blood or not?"

This was the part where civilians and politicians wanted you to be noble, Kakashi thought. To make a grand forgiving gesture that left you with a breathing enemy and no kind of revenge.

"I hate to be the voice of reason," Fujita murmured in his ear. "But if you kill him, we lose every edge this little infraction has given us."

There was also that.

Coldly, Kakashi weighed duty against his personal feelings, and chose like he always did.

Then he called a boiling fistful of raw chakra into his palm, unformed and unshaped, like a messy chidori without the birdsong, and clapped his hand over Takajin's right eye. Flesh sizzled and burned under his touch. Takajin screamed, shocked loud, then bit it off with a deep groan. Kakashi felt the eyeball burst and melt away.

He withdrew his hand. Strips of skin came with it. Takajin bucked in Aki's grip, then froze when she cut off his air entirely. After a moment of stillness, she let him breathe again.

"Nice," she said.

Kakashi shook his hand, felt his balance go, and wound up braced against Fujita's shoulder. The diplomat's face was entirely expressionless. Kakashi drew a dizzy breath.

"Iwa's owed me an eye for years," he told Takajin.

The torturer exhaled shakily. Then looked up and smiled through the ruins of his face, exactly like he had in his genjutsu. "See you around, Hatake."

Kakashi just nodded, leaned harder against Fujita, and let the silent diplomat drag him out of the cell.