Given that this was during interrogation and Araki's words were not concealed from them, they all felt that this might be part of Araki's plan.
"You..."
The last Kumogakure was so angry he couldn't speak. He had prepared himself for torture, and he felt he could endure any kind of abuse.
But...
What he never expected was...
This boy is really unpredictable!
They had no intention of interrogating them; instead, they planned to directly torture them, using cruel methods like drug testing.
"Give me one of those pills too!"
He stared at Araki, gritting his teeth as he spoke. At this point, he could clearly see the bulging veins under the skin of his companions, as if some creature was crawling on their bodies. The constant writhing of their bodies showed that they were all in an extremely difficult situation.
Now, as the only one who is not experiencing pain, he feels a strong sense of guilt.
He wanted to share both the joys and hardships with his teammates!
"This medicine is very expensive. Even if you wanted it, I wouldn't want to give it to you!" Araki shook his head bluntly and said with a sneer, "Besides, I deliberately didn't give it to you. I wanted you to see the miserable state of your companions, and then let them see you in their despair. Did you feel the resentment in their eyes?"
"What does this mean?" The last ninja immediately looked at his companions and suddenly noticed that everyone's eyes seemed to faintly reveal resentment and malice. That hatred wasn't directed at Araki, but at him. This greatly shocked him, and he instinctively asked in confusion, "What's going on?"
"As I just said, those poisoned by the Red Spirit will experience hallucinations over time, and may even develop paranoid schizophrenia. If nothing unexpected happens, they already believe you are the traitor who betrayed them. After all, they can't hear a word you said to me, but they can imagine you begging for mercy in their minds," Araki said with a smile.
"How could this be?!" The ninja's expression suddenly changed drastically. He could die, but he wanted to die honorably, and he absolutely could not leave behind the reputation of a traitor in the hearts of his comrades.
Don't you think this is funny?
As Araki spoke, he took out another handful of red pills, the very same Red Spirit he had just given to those people.
There must be at least thirty or forty of them in this handful.
It doesn't look as valuable as he claimed.
"Now let's test the second phase, increase the dosage a bit more, and guess what will happen..."
Araki walked up to the first Kumogakure ninja and stuffed the two Red Spirit into the man's mouth.
Then they walked forward one by one.
They continued until they had stuffed two Red Spirit into the mouths of each of the five people.
As these pills entered their mouths, they instantly transformed into streams of air that flowed into the cells throughout their bodies.
Almost instantly, their hearts began to beat faster, their breathing became more rapid, and they appeared to be having more difficulty breathing. Their skin turned slightly pink, and their body temperature could be felt rising steadily. Their eyes, which had been half-open, suddenly widened, their pupils dilated, and they became lifeless.
At the same time, their throats were churning, as if they wanted to say something, but they couldn't utter a word. Yet, judging from the ferocity of their expressions, it seemed as if they had spoken their innermost thoughts.
"If I'm not mistaken, they've completely entered an illusion, or rather, a dream—a nightmare, nothing more." Araki turned to the only normal ninja and said, "Look at them, they seem to be cursing. Guess who they're cursing—me, or you?"
You're a devil!
The ninja seemed to have lost all his strength; his body swayed suddenly, and he almost fell to the ground.
Every second now feels like an eternity to him.
He suffered no physical harm, but he was tormented mentally.
Chapter 24 sowed the seeds of doubt!
Araki's actions not only baffled the remaining Kumogakure ninja, but even Jiraiya and the others couldn't understand them.
but...
They weren't given much time to think.
As the second batch of Red Spirit entered these people's bodies, their physical reactions became even more exaggerated, and the pupils of each person's eyes turned white.
At the same time, hissing sounds could be heard from their throats, indicating that air was constantly flowing out and rubbing against their throats and vocal cords, but they were unable to utter a single word.
You're a devil!
The only remaining ninja from Kumogakure trembled, not from fear of Araki, but from the guilt and helplessness he felt seeing his comrade in such a wretched state.
He would rather be the one suffering right now than watch his teammate's misfortune from this perspective.
Unfortunately, he has no other options.
and...
Just now, he seemed to sense from the boy's words that his companions were having hallucinations, believing that he had betrayed them and revealed all their secrets.
This is what makes her very dissatisfied.
I want to explain.
He wanted to explain things to his companions.
But now none of his companions can hear him.
This was very important to him. He could die, but he could not die with such a misunderstanding. He did not want to leave behind an image of betrayal in the minds of his comrades before his death.
But now he has no way to solve this problem.
In an instant.
The reason why Araki singled out this person, who wasn't poisoned, was that his eyes were bloodshot, and his inner struggle had reached its limit. Looking into Araki's eyes, one could see a very strong sense of indignation.
I didn't say anything!
I did not betray you!
Can you hear me?
"I would never betray you!"
"..."
The Kumogakure ninja roared one sentence after another, his voice filled with heart-wrenching pain. Even he himself overlooked a very serious problem: why he could still speak.
Araki paid no attention to the hysterical roar of the Kumogakure ninja, his face still bearing a faint smile, as if it had nothing to do with him.
Araki's voice only resumed after the Kumogakure ninja, who had been shouting for a while, got tired and stopped.
"Don't stop!"
"Continue!"
"It's only been less than ten minutes!"
Are all the ninjas from Kumogakure this short?
Araki said meaningfully, a faint smile on his lips, looking at the Kumogakure ninja with a strong sense of sarcasm.
"..."
The Kumogakure ninja had realized the situation he had just created, and that he had been completely mocked by the boy in front of him. However, he didn't care about personal honor or loss at all; he was more concerned about his image in the eyes of his comrades.
"I know what you're up to. Give up. I won't tell you anything. Everything you're doing now is useless. Don't underestimate the will and resolve of the Kumogakure ninjas!" the Kumogakure ninja said viciously.
"I never expected you to say anything..." Araki shook his head, his expression unchanged, as if this was exactly what he wanted to say. He continued, "As I just said, from the beginning I never intended to get anything out of you. I'm not interested in your purpose for coming here at all. What I care about is torturing you."
"You..."
The Kumogakure ninja was speechless for a moment. Looking at Araki's appearance, he cursed him as a devil in his heart once again.
Since he became a ninja, he had never encountered an opponent like this, who didn't play by the rules at all, leaving him completely clueless as to how to deal with him.
So much so that he now has absolutely no idea what the person in front of him is going to do next.
It seems that everything he said was true.
But it gave him the feeling that every word he said was a lie.
It's hard to tell what's real and what's fake.
This put him under tremendous pressure.
He kept his mouth shut and didn't say anything more to Araki, because he still felt that Araki just wanted to get some information from him, so talking more would not do him any good.
"However, I'll treat them differently than I treat you!" Araki spoke again, his gaze fixed on the five people, who were currently writhing and twisting on the ground, their bodies covered in various bumps, as if swarms of insects were crawling under their skin. "The torture I inflicted on them was physical, while the torture I inflicted on you is psychological. I won't kill you, but I believe there must be some irreconcilable misunderstanding between you!"
"What exactly do you want?" The Kumogakure ninja's face turned extremely ugly. He knew very well that he had neither the conditions nor the qualifications to negotiate with Araki, because he would never reveal what he knew. This was the most frustrating thing for him.
"It's almost time."
Araki ignored the last Kumogakure ninja and instead went to the five poisoned ninjas, stuffing a pill into their mouths one by one.
"What did you feed them?" the Kumogakure ninja asked again, his heart filled with indignation at what had happened. If looks could kill, Araki would have been dead hundreds of times over by now.
"Antidote!"
Araki uttered two words calmly, then turned and walked step by step towards Jiraiya, standing directly in front of Jiraiya under the watchful eyes of the others.
" Jiraiya-sensei, my interrogation is over. You can take them away now," Araki said softly.
"That's it?" Jiraiya was stunned. He had seen Araki build up for so long, and thought the latter was preparing some big move, but now, all he got was a lonely surprise. This left him with an indescribable feeling.
"Yes, it's done. The timing was quite precise, just under half an hour." Araki nodded.
"You're showing me this?" Jiraiya's lips twitched slightly.
Not only was Jiraiya puzzled, but the other two beside him, Minato and Kushina, were also full of doubts, having no idea what was going on or why such a thing had happened.
In an instant.
Everyone looked at Araki with eyes full of doubt.
"Yes."
Araki nodded, paused for a moment, and then added, "That's all I'm showing you. The rest is for the Anbu."
"You mean..." Jiraiya narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to guess Araki's thoughts.
"There were six of them in total. Five of them were poisoned and experienced hallucinations so intense that they couldn't distinguish between reality and illusion. But one person didn't experience any of that. If you were that person, what would you think?" Araki asked with a smile.
"I would find it extremely torturous," Jiraiya said without hesitation. He had witnessed the scene firsthand, and he had seen the inner struggle of that Kumogakure ninja. There was nothing wrong with that.
"And what if you were one of those five people?" Araki asked again.
"Hmm..." Jiraiya thought for a moment, then his eyes widened suddenly, his pupils contracted sharply, and he said, "I might think that the person who didn't suffer persecution might be a spy sent from another village."
"That's right!" Araki nodded in satisfaction and said, "This is exactly what I wanted!"
"I see!"