Illusion and Reality

Beneath the Hokage Building, dull iron chains clanked in a secret chamber of the Interrogation Department.

Confinement seals packed the walls, their dim blue light washing over the armrests of an iron chair.

Sasuke gripped Urashiki by the back of his collar with one hand and hauled him before the chair. With a downward thrust of his arm, he slammed the battered body heavily into the black iron interrogation chair covered in seals.

The locks snapped shut, trapping his hands and feet in iron rings without leaving even enough room to turn his wrists.

The chains tightened at once. Blue seals crawled up the armrests and over Urashiki's wrists, sinking into his flesh one after another and locking away the last traces of Chakra deep within his meridians.

Naruto stepped forward, bit his fingertip, and pressed his bloodied palm against the wall.

A crimson isolation barrier spread upward along the grooves between the floor tiles, swiftly covering the four walls and vaulted ceiling. Even the faintest Chakra fluctuations in the room were filtered out one by one, unable to travel beyond the door.

Sasuke drew the Kusanagi Sword. His wrist did not waver as the blade stopped before Urashiki's throat, less than half an inch from his skin.

The violet-red Rinnegan in his left eye lit up, its Eye Power rising steadily. Chakra had already reached toward the other man's consciousness. All that remained was to tear through his mental defenses and forcibly search his memories.

Yet Urashiki did not even try to dodge. With the blade pressed to his neck, his body continued twisting wildly in the iron chair.

His blue eyes rolled madly in their sockets, his gaze sweeping over the iron walls again and again, refusing to settle on the two men before him.

Two seconds later,