"I only -- I didn't want to kill them," but Sasuke was fully aware that he'd been drafted into T&I for those seals alone. The look he'd earned when he'd ventured that the seals might be more useful for low-level interrogation because they didn't cause pain -- but he'd had no choice.

"I couldn't kill them," he repeated, staring upward through the fingers in his hair, trying to understand if he was being understood. "Sensei, they were innocent -- none of them should have been involved at all. What could I do?"

A moment, and then more hesitantly: "What should I do?"