"Everyone came out fairly scraped up, except maybe Sasuke. Adela was the worst." Poisons were nasty.

Itachi tried not to breathe a sigh of relief. He really was getting to paranoid. Itachi nodded. "There's always the possibility that it's a copycat, someone who admired his style and decided to use Orochimaru's name to his advantage, or it could be a decoy--maybe Orochimaru trying to make us think he's with Oto. That's not likely, but..." Itachi gave a little shrug and felt a sharp pang. If he'd grabbed Ashiko, would they know these things for sure? Probably. Or not. It might take longer than that to crack her.

Itachi felt a little sick at the thought. Torture had never been his strong point. He was good with genjutsu, but physically torturing people had never been something that came easily too him. It shouldn't matter if it made his stomach sick. He should be stronger. He should do what was necessary to protect Konoha. They needed intel on Oto, and Ashiko could have given them that. She was a civilian, and he couldn't have taken her down easily. Low risk, high rewards.

"It's troubling," Itachi added after his white knuckled pause.