Naruto jumped awake, his eyes wide and his heart beating fast. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he tried to see through the darkness that surrounded him. The blonde could vaguely make out the inner linings of the small room he was in and, what looked like, a large mirror on the wall in front of him. 

He moved to get up but found himself restricted though he couldn't see what was binding his wrists and ankles, he certainly knew it had a chakra suppressing seal on it as his chakra refused to respond.

The blonde looked around, frantic. Panic began to take place in the deep roots of his chest. He even felt the Kyuubi shift as the adrenaline hit Naruto. The blonde doesn't know how he felt it but he knew the beast was unsettled.

"Naruto" A voice called to him. The chuunin looked left and right, up and down but found nothing.

"Naruto" The voice called again, almost soothing.

______

"Naruto!" Sakura's voice filled his eardrums as he jumped away from the pinkette. He knew he shouldn't have stolen her icha icha book but he figured it'd be funny. He was mistaken.

"Get back here!" Sakura bellowed as she chased after him. 

The blonde simply grinned as he jumped from roof to roof. Sakura glared heavily at the blonde before seeing an opening in the trees to cut him off as he headed to the T&I building.

She smirked before heading that way. Naruto, on the other hand, watched her go toward the shortcut and cursed. He thought about how he'd get to the meeting place without being caught by his pink-haired teammate's web of traps.

The blonde grinned as he went quicker before stopping on a tree and jumping down just outside the base.

"Doton: Sutōn Kajirimasu (Earth Release: Gnawing Stone)"  Naruto barely heard his teammate whisper before he turned around only for his feet to be caught by the earth. He looked down with a frown, trying to move. He hadn't planned for her to come out with a new jutsu. 

"Cha!" Sakura leaped in front of him before lunging at him with a chakra powered punch. Naruto gulped before performing hand signs at lightning speed. 

The blonde quickly put up his hand as his futon: Sensougouheki (wind style: rumbling wind wall) jutsu developed just in time to block Sakura's punch. Though the wall immediately collapsed as soon as Sakura's punch hit.

"Jeez..." Naruto muttered before forcing chakra to his feet and jumping into the trees.

Sakura glared up at him before smirking, gaining the blonde's full attention. Naruto glared down with suspicion.

"Wha-" He began before being pushed forward by an incredible force. Pain spread throughout his back and neck. As the blonde flew into the T&I building, Kakashi and Sasuke calmly walked out with Ibiki and looked at the scene before them. Ibiki wasn't sure whether he should've stopped it as Naruto seemed to be near death at this point.

Naruto breathed out in pain as he attempted to move. He looked up at Sakura in the trees with a pained expression before his eyes trailed to the, now muddy, clone on the ground.

The chuunin cursed, he should've seen that coming.

Slowly, he reached for her book and gulped as her eyes watched carefully with a glare. He gently placed the literature on the ground before slowly getting up with pained grunts and moving away.

Sakura quickly jumped down and grabbed the book before hiding it away.

"Tch...Ra, you didn't have to go so hard" Naruto muttered as he clicked his shoulder back in place.

Sakura glared at the blonde, not saying a word, before moving toward him. At first, Naruto flinched in fear and again in pain before realizing the pinkette was trying to heal him.

He sighed in relief as his bones and muscles were slowly fixed.

Kakashi cleared his throat with a bored expression whilst Ibiki looked at the two as if they were aliens. Sasuke simply shook his head at the blonde - He should've known better.

"Shall we get started?" Kakashi questioned before gesturing to the T&I entrance.

With a nod from each of the three chuunin, Ibiki turned and lead the way for the four ninja.

'You'll be separated from here on out" Ibiki grumbled as the group stood in a large room with three windows looking into the three small rooms.

Naruto grew determined as he glanced at his teammates, gave them a nod, and stepped into the room on the left.

Sasuke didn't bother expressing anything as he simply walked into the room on the right.

Sakura gulped and glanced at her Sensei, who watched her closely. Her eyes grew hard as she, too, became determined to get through this without going crazy. She stepped into the room in the middle.

Kakashi watched as they all sat down in the chairs and chakra suppressing bands came up and tightened around their wrists and ankles. 

Out of all of them, he was probably the most nervous. He knew they'd get through it, he just didn't know how they'd cope with it later on.

Ibiki turned to the Jounin with a smirk "Let's begin".

___

The chuunin were each given information about a minor anbu mission that took place a few months ago and were told not to reveal it under any circumstances. 

First, Ibiki brought in his Genjutsu expert and placed them under a genjutsu that made them believe they had escaped with the help of an outside source who tried to trick them into giving the information willingly. 

Luckily, the trio weren't very sociable and almost immediately cut down the outside source once they started asking questions about their selected information.

Ibiki raised a brow at their sensei who gave a nervous smile. He couldn't be held responsible for his personality traits rubbing off on them.

The next step involved pitting them against each other but that didn't work either as they always came to a compromise and when Ibiki ordered to have genjutsu be more aggressive, the chuunin simply knocked their genjutsu-version teammates out.

Ibiki became more irritated as time went on and no one broke.

The T&I master then tried infiltrating their minds but only managed to get minimal information such as the level of shinobi that took part in the mission, information about what villagers were doing and images of the shinobi stopping at night to rest.

Ibiki turned to Kakashi with a glare, wondering what kind of training the Jounin had put these kids under.

"Don't look at me, you're the expert on torture" Kakashi smiled and held up his hands in surrender, enjoying the struggle he was having with breaking his charges.

"We prefer to call it enhanced interrogation" Ibiki spat with a glare as turned back toward the trio. He called into three of his shinobi and instructed them to begin the next stage.

Kakashi had to concentrate on slowing his breathing as the shinobi entered the room to begin the physical side of torture.

"You don't have to be here for this, Kakashi" Ibiki muttered as he kept his eyes on the chuunin.

Kakashi said nothing as he continued watching.

Hours later, the shinobi had worn-out expressions on their faces as they left the rooms - now having to cope with torturing fellow leaf kids. 

Kakashi watched them go before turning back to his kids who were covered in blood and barely conscious. 

"They've done well...extremely well" Ibiki said and muttered at the end.

"Hm?" Kakashi voiced as he kept his eyes on the chuunin.

"They leaked very little information and what they did leak had the pattern of a fake chase. Even in mental and physical torture, they protected the village. Though, the pink haired one could use a little more work on mental stability." Ibiki summarised as he read from his notes.

Kakashi turned to him to continue listening as the torture expert continued.

"She seems to have a second personality that acts on aggression-"

'Explains a lot' Kakashi thought.

"-But that personality is weak. When she was pushed past frustration of answering the same questions, it leaked out which made it easier to obtain information. Other than that, she's strong in mind."

Kakashi thought about how he'd work on this second personality to get it up to par with Sakura's main one.

"The Uchiha, did particularly well but that's to be expected from what I've heard Itachi put him through" Ibiki paused, looking at Sasuke, before going back to his notes "He expressed a great sense of stubbornness and silence which works well in this situation but he was succeeded in angering his captor with it. Instead of throwing them off his tail, he took it head-on"  Ibiki looked up at Kakashi. 

"It's up to you whether you think this is good or not" 

Kakashi gave a nod before Ibiki went back to his notes again.

"Lastly, the Jinjuuriki. We were rather hesitant to try anything with him but upon the order of the Hokage and yourself - we ran the same tests on him and found that he's an idiot" Ibiki sighed roughly with irritation in his voice.

Kakashi almost laughed but simply smiled and waited for him to continue.

"Whether purposely or accidentally, he gave us the wrong information and continued to change his answers each time a question was asked. None of his answers could be used in a fake chase which makes me believe he had actually forgotten the real information given to him. What are your thoughts on this, Kakashi?" Ibiki questioned, looking up at the Jounin.

Kakashi closed his eye before looking at Ibiki head-on "He's no idiot" Was all the Jounin had to say.

Ibiki paused, his eyes widening slightly in realization, before chuckling "Your team is impressive. They've all passed the tests and can continue to the final stage. I'll let you do the honors of getting them out of here for now. Be back in two days time." Ibiki said before leaving the room.

Kakashi noticed Naruto first as he jumped awake and looked around the room in confusion and fear.

The Jounin sighed, hoping they'd all be alright after this, before pressing a button to talk to Naruto and calm the blonde down.

After releasing the chuunin from the rooms, Kakashi took them out into nature in order to calm their minds. They kept eyeing each other with suspicion which was natural seeing as they were pitted against each other in the genjutsu.

Kakashi took them to the old shack he'd shown them earlier. The sun barely showed through the thick foliage but Sasuke breathed out in relief as he found a spot where they could relax. Trudging over, his teammates followed with some distance between all of them.

Kakashi sighed. He knew they'd have to regain their trust for each other before they could go back to the village and deal with everyone else. They needed each other more than ever right now.

The Jounin watched as the three sat around the area and tried to meditate, like their sensei had taught them before the torture, in order to calm their fragile minds.

Sakura sat against the base of a large tree that was hidden by the shadows. Sasuke sat by the sunlight against another tree but kept his face in the shadows and Naruto sat close by, more in the open, but still against a tree.

"You've done extremely well, the hardest part is now though." Kakashi looked at each of them with seriousness. "While you were placed under genjutsu, you were pitted against each other. This will happen when caught by enemy nin. You need to find a way to differentiate between real and genjutsu." Kakashi finished, hoping they'd get the hint.

"Like what?" Sasuke glared.

"They have access to our minds, our secrets aren't secrets to them" Sakura muttered with a scowl.

"They don't have full access. No one can ever have full access unless they willingly give it" Kakashi cleared.

A moment of silence followed as the three thought about it.

"What about our names then?" Naruto suggested with a pained expression. He hated feeling so much mistrust towards his family.

"Our names?" Sakura questioned with an arched eyebrow.

"We are the only ones that shorten our names but we also always use it even in front of others." Naruto explained.

Sasuke glanced over at the blonde in interest.

"What if we use our names as each others if we suspect we're in genjutsu?" 

"Explain To" Sasuke muttered with a frown.

Naruto rolled his eyes "In Genjutsu, you guys will call me Ra, Sasuke will be To, and Sakura will be Ke" The blonde said as he pointed at each one "This way, if someone calls us by another name-"

"We know they're imposters" Sasuke muttered with a smirk.

"That's all well and good but since we've talked about it. It's in our minds now, they can get to it" Sakura muttered with a sigh.

Naruto grinned and moved upright from the tree he was leaning against "They wouldn't be after that kind of information" 

"It's not a bad idea" Kakashi interrupted "But if you're going to keep that kind of information secret from the enemy, you'll all need to strengthen your mental resolve" Kakashi advised.

The three remained silent but Kakashi could feel the determination and reassurance they now felt again with each other.

Sasuke leaned his head back on the tree he was leaning against and smiled as the birds flew past with grace. He listened to their chirps and the wind blowing softly through the leaves. 

At that moment, he felt peace.