|| - Mirrors - || A Pein One shot

The sun's scarce rays scattered and filtered through the canopies of the trees. I jumped from limb to branch, branch to limb, in hot pursuit.

I could see those I was chasing farther up. They were threatening the Akatsuki, and I had a score to settle with them. There was more than one now. It seems as if they had met up with more ninja, back-up.

I switched my pace moving up farther, faster. There were only three of them. I could tell one of them was not a Jounin. They were lost. I knew my place around here, and they didn't. They were completely lost. I knew where they were heading, a complete dead end.

They were trapped, another easy kill for me, another target to release my pent-up anger.

They stopped. A huge cliff face stopped them. They had no place to run. I smirked. Now it was my time to move in. They turned around. The inexperienced one was a boy. The other two were of course Jounin, and they were female. One of them turned to face me. Her odd gold hair was in her face. I couldn't see her eyes. What was she hiding?

"We know who you are," she said. Her voice was flat, yet I could make out a small trace of fear. I smiled cruelly.

"And why should that matter?" I responded.

"We don't want to fight," she said. "What you're doing is wrong!" I approached closer.

"This is my goal," I said. I could care less of what she said.

"Then we have no choice," she said. She lifted up her hair revealing her eyes. They were a deep burgundy with flecks of gold spiraling around them. I had no time to think.

Immediately I was sucked into some odd place.

I was surrounded by mirrors. My reflection was everywhere. I could only see myself. No where to go.

I turned around. The woman's voice echoed.

"Only from my kekkai genkai can I do this. Now I can keep you in here and torture you with your own mind," she said. I couldn't think. I turned around. My hands tracing the mirrors that surrounded me. For once, I, Pein, was caught off guard. I was now in some alternate universe. I turned around and saw my face. I turned again, and all I could see was the myself, the cloak swirling. I took a tentative step. Everything did the same. I turned to see one of my other bodies, one of the six Peins. They were scattered around. I walked once more, some mirrors held different pictures, but many were of just me. I was trapped.

Would I ever get out?

I turned to see my reflection. There I stood. My face pale and smooth. The light around me reflected the multiple piercing on my face. The bottom ones on my lips were like fangs ready to bite. The silver piercing decorated and glittered in my ear. My red hair shone brightly in this mirrored place. Then my eyes, my gray Renningan eyes, bored back into themselves. A small amount of doubt flickered in them. Why was I doubting myself? I was Pein. Nothing could stop me.

I slammed the mirror. I was going to get out. The glass cracked, and a figure caught my eye from behind, one of the other mirrors. I turned around. The figure darted to another mirror. I followed. I could tell this couldn't be one of my bodies. It was too lithe... like a body of a… women. I rushed forward. The figure stopped. It was her…

I had forgotten the genjutsu completely. It was just the mirrors, me, and her… It was Tekai, my death…

Tekai

She was my opposite, yet my complete mirror image. Her skin looked so delicately soft and so pale like the color of the moon's soft glow. Her shimmering hair that was cut in multiple layers framed her face, giving her a beautiful delicate shape. Her almond-shaped eyes stared back with the intensity to melt. I gasped. She was so breathtaking. No matter how many times I saw her. She never failed to catch me of guard. I couldn't help but gasp.

We stared at each other, unmoving, as if we were trying to soak up each others presence. Had it been so long since I had seen her…

I had tried to push her away. Anything, any thoughts, images of her, back into my mind. They brought me pain, such unbearable pain, yet I could never let her go. Never. I looked over her once more. I realized then that I loved her, loved her more than anything. I could never deny it. She was my being, my entity. I could never let her go. We were so entwined with each other. We knew each others secrets and fears, our loves. We locked our eyes together again. I knew she had to be the one. I smiled at her, and she returned it with one of her dazzling ones.

I rose my hand to her slowly. She did the same. I knew it. I loved her… so much.

She looked so real… maybe, maybe it was her, my Tekai, my death, my beautiful death. She looked so real. The longing I felt was unbearable. I forgot this was a mirror house. Maybe it was her… I wanted to touch her, hold her, love her…

I rose my finger tips carefully, softly. She did the very same, mirroring my action. The seconds passed, floating and passing by like eternity. I wish it was eternity, the length of time I would stay with her. We smiled once more. No sad smiles like the end. More seconds, the longer it felt. It felt like..

Forever.

Eternity. My finger was centimeters from hers. It was her. My finger touched hers. A split second, and then everything…

Shattered

Her beautiful image shattered into millions of glass pieces. The whole places completely collapsed. The falling pieces sliced my skin as they fell to the floor. The brilliant reflections only reflecting red. Red, red, and more red. I felt nothing; no matter what cut into my skin.

It wasn't her. She wasn't real.

Tekai.

Nothing, no physical pain, could amount to what I felt. I felt the floor give away, and I was falling. The broken mirrors reflected red, my red, my blood. I felt a surge of anger. She had left. Why? I closed my eyes maybe she would be there. Now I was engulfed in black. I thought back to my opponent.

"Only from my kekkai genkai can I do this. Now I can keep you in here and torture you with your own mind,"

Torture me with my own mind.

That's exactly what she did. She tortured me with her. The genjutsu, I remembered. I quickly did some signs. I knew how to break these. I had worked with Itachi once, and I figured out a way out of his jutsu.

I was back again into the realm of the living. I wanted to stop and lie down, mourn for my loss.

Where was she now?

I remembered my opponent. She gaped at me, her eyes wide, her mouth open. I stared at her. She looked stunned.

"Y-your mind… it's so… in such turmoil. How can you suffer so much?" she asked. Tears fell down her face. "I s-saw how much pain you're in. How do you handle that? I have never seen so much pain."

I stared back at her. She hadn't even felt a fraction of what I really felt.

"And you will never be able to feel all the pain I feel," I said to her. She was crying still. I didn't want to look at her. She had made me suffer. I made hand signs quickly and then charged at her. I hit her, a dead shot. She coughed out blood. Her blood splattered my hand. There was no room for sympathy or mercy in the battlefield.

"I-I'm sorry," she sputtered. More blood on my hand. I saw the life slip out slowly. I knew this pained her.

No Sympathy. No Mercy

I didn't care. Not even causing other people pain soothed my pain. My deeply embedded wounds. No, nothing could compare to this. I turned to the others and killed them too, slowly, painfully. They were dying; dying like I was on the inside. Becoming dead, dead like I was…

I turned away from them, and I moved on. I walked farther and something metallic caught my eye. A mirror. I picked it up, holding it so the light reflected off of it. I swear I thought I saw her, her smile and brilliant captivating eyes. I sighed, but I knew it wasn't her…

I kept the mirror, shoving it into my cloak. It would be another memory, another memory linking to her…

Maybe, maybe one day, I'll be able to touch her, hold her, love her… without her leaving or breaking apart…