I made muffins yesterday and they were awful. I also scraped up my hand grating lemon zest. So that was fun. Also uni already sucks and its week two. I am somehow already behind.

Now, I just want to say, it is deliberately vague. Sakura is alive, though. She's not in any danger of dying, our dear imprisoned drama llama bois don't want that at all. And she's also just a normal chick. She has no powers or anything. There are some clues in the chapter as to what's going on and Sakura's role in letting the Uchiha go free.

Sayaka is very important to this. But probably not in the way you think.

Day 2: Reflection

Sakura screamed, short and terrified as she fell, thrashing and grabbing desperately at the sides of the well in the hope that she would be able to catch herself on something.

There was a sharp shock of pain as the palm of her right hand caught on something sticking out of the wall.

The sound of icy wind whistling past her ears.

Her heartbeat, thumping in her chest, blood rushing through her ears.

Sakura closed her eyes, bracing herself for the inevitable impact. She knew what it would do her. Shatter her spine, cripple her, break her bones, rupture her organs.

But it never came.

Sakura just kept falling.

Her eyes opened, and she looked up. The top of the well and Sayaka's grinning face had disappeared. Now Sakura couldn't see anything at all. The air was colder now, almost freezing and her fingers felt numb, her thin leggings and jacket doing nothing to keep her warm.

She twisted as she plummeted and gasped in horror when she saw the bottom of the well approaching. It was speeding towards her, so fast that Sakura couldn't do anything but watch as she approached her death.

Then she hit the bottom

And it was soft.

Instead of the hard slap of stagnant water she was expecting, the ground Sakura landed on was almost… cushiony. It seemed to mould to her weight, cushioning her fall.

The breath still slammed out of Sakura's lungs and her back arched. She gasped for air, eyes flying wide, and she automatically sat up, trying to get away from the sharp pain radiating down her spine. And then she flopped backwards almost immediately when her lack of oxygen made her head spin.

She writhed for a moment, trying to get her bearings.

Something icy cold and sticky touched her arm and she shrieked, jerking away from it immediately. But there was more sticky, oozing blackness touching her. It was oozing around her legs, sucking them down, her arms, her back, her stomach.

Mud.

Sakura thrashed wildly, yanking one arm free. It came out of the black mud with a sickening slurp and she sobbed in terror. The oozing, icy blackness was everywhere, drawing her in, dragging her down.

Her heart thundered in her ears and her chest felt like it was about to burst.

Sakura screamed, thrashing and then her flailing hand slapped against the wall. She grabbed at it desperately as she sunk further into the sticky, freezing mud. She dug her fingers into the cracks of the wall, trying to use it for leverage. But there was nothing for her to hold on to and her fingers just scrabbled uselessly at the wall. She felt terror bubbling up her throat as her weight dragged her further and further down. She grabbed at the wall and then her hand hit something that felt like a bar.

Sakura grabbed at it desperately, holding on so tightly she thought her knuckles might snap under the strain. The sucking feeling on her lower body was getting worse and she sobbed, looking back up towards where she knew the top of the well was.

"Ino!" She screamed. "Naruto, help me!"

But her voice just echoed around the cold, dark well. And there was no answer.

She yanked on her other arm, still stuck in the mud and it came free agonizingly slowly. She could feel strands of that freezing mud clinging to her jacket, making it heavy and cold against her skin.

The mud closed around her ribs and she strained away from it, gasping in fear.

"Ino!" She screamed. "Ino, please!"

The mud kept pulling her in and her chest was the next to sink below the freezing mudline. She tried to use the bar to pull herself up, out of the muck but it was no use. It was too heavy, and her limbs were practically immobilised by the weight of it pressing down on them.

It rose around her neck and Sakura burst into tears, stilling clinging to the bar. She strained her head away from it desperately as it crept higher and higher.

Then the bar snapped under her hand.

And Sakura slipped.

There was a moment of crushing pressure and then…

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

No cold, oozing mud, no icy air that made her lungs, no stinking odour of stagnant water and centuries old mould.

In fact, the air was warm now, pleasant even. Instead of the smell of mould and wet mud, Sakura could smell dust and stale air. She was lying on something hard and there was a crackling noise that reminded Sakura of her childhood camping trips with Naruto and sitting around the campfire Kushina had built.

She opened her eyes slowly, half expecting to find herself hallucinating under a suffocating layer of mud and water. Instead she was lying on her side on worn wooden floorboards. There was a layer of thick grey dust coating them, and just opposite her, there was a full length mirror leaned up against the wall. It was cracked, a long branching split along the full length of it.

Sakura tilted her head back and saw that there was a merry little fire burning in a little stove. It bathed the room in a warm glow and making Sakura's cold skin tingle with warmth.

Sakura didn't understand.

She lay there, staring at the fire, wondering if this was the afterlife. The flickering orange flames were almost mesmerising as they danced merrily, the wood crackling and snapping as it burned. It was cosy, quiet, relaxing.

But… What was going on?

Sakura pushed herself up slowly, pulling her eyes away from the fire. As she put her right hand down, there was a sharp twinge of pain and Sakura yanked it back. She turned it over and blinked in confusion at the deep cut there, oozing red blood, the edges jagged and torn.

When had she hurt herself?

Falling.

And then a flash of pain as her hand whipped by something.

Sakura squeezed her hand into a fist and her palm throbbed in response, hot and achy. She let it relax with a hiss, pulling her sleeve over the wound. It stung but she knew she had to keep it clean. As she waited for the blood to start to congeal, she looked around.

The room she was in was small, two sliding shoji doors on the wall opposite the fireplace, a desk tucked neatly into a corner. As she sat up, Sakura's back bumped into something and she jumped, jerking away automatically and her head snapping around.

It was a bed, covers rumpled as if the owner had just gotten out, one pillow askew. Sakura relaxed slightly, heart still racing.

She stood up and turned in a slow circle. The room was small, the bed, mirror and fireplace the only objects in the room.

Was this a hallucination brought on by stress? Was she slowly dying, and this was the scene her brain had chosen to comfort herself?

Sakura looked at her hand, poking at the sluggishly bleeding cut. It stung, and she hissed, shaking out her wounded palm. It definitely felt real.

She looked down at the bed behind her, crouching to brush a hand along the mattress. It was firm, the covers cold. The pillow was similarly cold, though squashy instead of firm. Sakura looked around the room again. The heat from the fire, her aching hand, the tang of dusty, stale air all seemed real enough.

But how could it be?

As she tried to figure out what was going on, Sakura's eyes fell on the mirror. It was ornate, gilded in shining gold and inlaid with scarlet rubies. But where it should have been beautiful, it was monstrous. Instead of delicate leaves and flowers carved into the gold edges, there were hideous beasts, snarling and contorted in ways that left their spines and limbs looking snapped and broken.

Sakura got an awful feeling in her stomach at the sight of that mirror. There was a sense of offness about it, from the horrible frame to the missing pieces.

There was something wrong with it.

But what?

The longer she looked, the worse the feeling got.

It was when Sakura shifted, just a little to the left, that she realised what was wrong with the mirror.

There was no reflection.

The mirror sat directly opposite the bed and both she and it should have appeared on the shining silver surface. But neither of them did. Instead, the mirror only showed an empty room and a blank stone wall, roughly carved.

She took a step back, eyes huge.

The back of her knee hit the bed and she stumbled backwards, falling onto it with a thump. It was surprisingly comfortable, with more give than Sakura expected, and it groaned under her weight. But she ignored all of that in favour of staring at the reflection.

Still an empty room and a blank wall.

A horrible thought occurred to Sakura.

Was the reason there was no reflection because she was dead?

Sakura felt a bit sick. She stared at the horrible, broken mirror for a little bit longer and then unable to bear the thought of being dead, looked away. She struggled to keep her composure, tears filling her eyes and her breath coming in quick, short bursts.

She just wanted to go home.

Her eyes fell on the pair of shoji doors and she was on her feet in an instant, half running, half stumbling over to them. She yanked them open, her heart in her throat and hope rising in her chest-

-and gasped in horror at the deep, impenetrable darkness beyond. It seemed to ooze forward, pressing against the edges of the doorframe. It seemed to coil and roll, and the air, warmed by the fire started to cool.

Sakura yelped and danced backwards as the black fog crept forward. It was freezing, curling and probing over the ground as if it was looking for something. She could feel the cold, frigid and numbing creeping into the room and the merry crackling of the fire seemed to get quieter.

"You cannot go that way."

Sakura screamed, leaping nearly a foot into the air at the quiet words, seemingly coming from behind her. She spun in a circle, away from the horrible darkness beyond the doors. But the room was quiet and empty, just as it had been before. She cringed, curling in on herself.

Sakura squeezed her eyes shut. This was an awful, awful place and she wanted to leave. She didn't want to be here, seeing these things, hearing these things. She just wanted to go home, laugh about all of this with Ino and Naruto.

"Who's there?" She asked. She tried for confidence, for strength, but it came out quiet and afraid. "Why are you doing this to me!?"

"I am not doing anything to you." The voice said.

It was male, sad and tired. But there was a hint of laughter in the words, as if before, he might have spoken words filled with happiness and joy.

"Close the doors." He said. "Or it will come here."

"What will?" Sakura asked, eyes snapping open. Her voice was stronger now and she felt her fear give way to anger and frustration. "What will come here?!"

"You saw it. The darkness outside this room." He said quietly. There was no anger in his words, only quiet resignation. "It will hurt you. Close the doors." He said again.

As he spoke, Sakura searched for anywhere he could be hiding. She looked into the dark corners of the room, tilted her head to look under the bed. But there was nothing and nowhere he could be hiding and there was no one else in the room with her. "Where are you?" She asked, still watching the quiet, empty room warily.

"Close the doors. Please."

Sakura turned, saw the darkness had spilled over the doorframe, was coiling and reaching for something. It seemed to hiss and recoil when she came near, drawing back as if stung and she gingerly, afraid and tentative, reached for the doors.

The handles were freezing, almost icy to touch and she slammed the shoji doors shut as quickly as she could, the metal handle burning a brand of icy pain in her palm. The darkness disappeared and slowly, slowly, the warmth and quiet ambience of the room began to return.

"Where are you?" Sakura demanded again. Her fists were balled. This was a sick joke of some sort. A prank that Naruto and Ino had set up to force her to believe in ghosts and Sayaka was in on it. But even as she thought that, Sakura knew it wasn't true. How could they have faked the well, the sticky mud? The darkness that hissed and coiled like it was alive? "Who are you?"

"My name is Kagami."

Sakura made a face. What an old fashioned name. "Kagami?"

"Yes." He sounded so sad, so quiet and lonely that despite her anger, her heart ached for him. What had happened to him, to make him so sound so sad? "What is your name?"

The question seemed loaded, but his voice was so earnest, so hopeful that Sakura couldn't help but answer. "My name is Sakura." She said, voice hushed.

Silence.

"That's a nice name." He said finally.

"Kagami," Sakura said slowly, taking a step forward, still holding herself and peering around the room. Half of her was sure he would leap out at her from somewhere and declare himself a friend of Ino's and that this was all an elaborate ruse. The other half didn't know what to think. "Where are you?"

She stepped in front of the mirror, still peering under the bed. It was the only possible place he could be. A movement out of the corner of her eye, caught her attention and she whipped her head around.

She gaped in confusion and horror.

Right there, in the mirror, the room was no longer empty. Instead, a lone, dark haired man sat against the blank stone wall, arms propped up on bent knees and head tipped back to stare at the dusty ceiling. He was dressed like the actors in the re-enactments Ino sometimes made her watch, with strange sandals and heavy, plate armour. Around his forehead, a shiny metal plate, etched with a strange snail like symbol.

She looked around, even though she knew he wouldn't be sitting behind her. But even so, seeing the empty space where he should have been, to be reflected in the mirror, made her shiver with fear. She looked back at him, half terrified he would jump out of the mirror and eat her.

But he didn't. All he did was let his head fall forward, staring out of the mirror at her. There was a sad smile on his face, dark eyes crinkled at the corners. "Hello."

Sakura had no words. She didn't know what to think. She took a shaky step forward, hand over her mouth.

And then another. And another, until she was standing in front of the horrible, monstrous mirror. Kagami watched her curiously, but didn't make a move to stand up, only shifting so he was cross legged and his hands loose in his lap.

Sakura swallowed. "Y-you're…"

He smiled again.

She reached up, hand shaky. "You're in the mirror." She breathed, hesitantly touching the smooth surface. It was freezing under her fingertips and she yanked them away with a gasp when the surface rippled under her touch.

She stumbled back a step.

"I am." Kagami said very quietly. "How did you get here, Sakura?"

"What's going on?!" Sakura demanded, at her wits end and her patience snapped. "Who are you?! Did Ino and Naruto put you up to this?!" She hissed. She didn't wait for him to answer, striding forward to yank the mirror away from the wall.

It all made sense now. There was a corridor behind the mirror, clever lighting to make it look like it was a reflection-

-Behind the mirror, solid, cold stone.

No corridor.

No man.

Just stone.

"Well?"

Kakashi tucked his radio back into its pouch. Next to him, Genma was grim faced and silent.

Chief Nara sighed. "Jesus, nothing?"

"Nothing, Commander." Genma said quietly. "We had the teams comb the compound, top to bottom. No girl. We came back to report while teams 6 and 7 head out to start sweeping the forest."

Kakashi rather thought it was all a bunch of fuss about nothing. College students were wily and had the most freedom they would ever had. It wasn't uncommon for them to skip town on a whim and show up a few days later, broke and tired. It had happened numerous times, and each time, they turned up, safe and sound.

Having the entire force out at two am seemed like overkill. But when the Mayor himself asked the Police Chief to send out search teams, you damn well sent out as many men as you could. And unfortunately, that meant Kakashi was dragged out of bed at two am by his grumpy ass partner.

"Right, you two are heading back to the station. Question those kids." Chief Nara said tiredly. "Let me know if they tell you anything else, whether she was stable, happy, depressed. In the meantime, we'll keep sweeping the forest."

"Yes sir." Genma said.

Kakashi just saluted lazily. He owed Lord Minato, a hundred times over, but his son was a troublemaker and no doubt, the girl was too. He expected her to show up sheepish and rumpled the next morning.

Genma punched him in the arm when Shikaku walked away, cap under his arm, heading for where the mayor was talking quietly with three college students huddled by an ugly orange car. "Can you, for once, not be a smartass? I don't want to get stuck doing paperwork again because you decided to be rude."

"Oh, calm down." Kakashi said lazily, ambling towards their cruiser. "You worry too much."

"Idiot." Genma said, all sass and snark. He snatched the keys from Kakashi. "Just for that, I'm driving."

"Oh darling, keep that up and I might just kiss you."

Genma glowered at him. Kakashi grinned. One mention of the inappropriate nickname and Genma lost every single argument they had. One of the perks of the brunet man being younger and greener than Kakashi in the academy. "Just get in the car."

The ride back to the station was quiet. The orange car followed them sedately, easily keeping up with their powerful car. Kakashi wondered who was driving, Lord Minato or his troublemaking son.

Inside, the station was abuzz, many of the night shift beat cops rushing around in some stupid attempt to look busy once word had come through that the mayor himself would be making an unexpected visit. Kakashi thought they looked like a bunch of headless chickens.

Idiots.

"Kakashi."

He turned, saw that Lord Minato had ushered the three young adults inside. The blonde girl, Interrogator Inoichi's daughter, was white as a sheet, eyes puffy and red and curled up in a brown leather jacket. The other girl was trying to comfort her but doing a rather poor job of it. Naruto looked antsy, bouncing from foot to foot, eyes worried and creased at the corners.

"Captain." He said, shaking his old teacher's hand.

The Lord Mayor smiled tightly. "Come on, Kakashi, how long have we known each other?" He teased. His eyes fell on his partner, reaching over the counter to grab at something. "Genma, I almost didn't see you there!"

His partner straightened and Kakashi rolled his eyes at the lollipop that disappeared into Genma's pocket. "Captain!"

Lord Minato rolled his eyes. "You two…"

"Dad? What are we doing here?" Naruto called, voice pitchy and uncertain.

The blonde girl burst into silent tears.

The Mayor's face creased. "Right. Well, I'm glad its you two and not anyone else." He said lowly before walking back to the huddled mass of young adults. Kakashi heard him explaining the situation and the dark haired girl, the one who had reported the missing girl in the first place looked at them. There was something in her eyes that unsettled Kakashi.

Kakashi let Genma handle the kids, preferring to hang back and look bored as his partner ushered the first one, Naruto, through to an interrogation room. Lord Minato sat with the girl's, comforting Inoichi's daughter with quiet words and a smile.

"What's up, old man?" Naruto said as Kakashi entered the room, but his smile was weak, and his eyes were red rimmed and watery.

"Your friend is missing, that's what's up." Kakashi said gravely, throwing himself into the seat opposite Naruto. He studiously ignored the glare Genma shot him. "And we need to find her."

Naruto looked like he might start crying, raking his hands through his hair. His chin quivered, and he looked utterly pathetic, sitting there. "I don't know what happened. We just… We just want to invite her along, because she's been so busy with studying and I didn't want to her to be stressed out. It took us ages to convince her to come. It was just meant to be a bit of fun. But she didn't want to come upstairs with Ino and me and so she and Sayaka were just looking around downstairs-"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down kid." Genma said kindly. "One thing at a time. You went to the compound, just to have a bit of fun, what kind of fun?" He asked.

Kakashi folded his arms. He wouldn't be surprised if Naruto was into weed, it wouldn't be unusual or an offence.

Naruto took a steadying breath. "Ino and me, we like you know… all the paranormal stuff. We always watch Ghost Catchers and Haunted Stories and that sort of stuff." He said, staring at the table. "We had this radio-" He scrabbled around in his pocket for a moment and showed them the funny looking radio.

It was nothing special, just a piece of junk that you could pick up at any of the mystical shops around town. Kakashi accepted it nonetheless. The kid seemed earnest enough.

"It started growling, like this deep, scary growl and Ino and I, we thought it was a demon dog." Naruto said. "Sakura said it was just the house settling."

Kakashi thought that Sakura sounded rather sensible.

"Okay, the demon dog." Genma said indulgently. "Did you all go and look for it?"

"No. Sayaka and Sa-Sakura thought it was stupid." Naruto whispered, scrubbing at his eyes harshly. His voice was shaky. "They wanted to look for swords and stuff and so we split up. And then next thing I know, I hear this horrible scream and when we get downstairs, Sayaka is talking all about how Sakura ran off, saying there was something in the room with her."

Kakashi pursed his lips when the twenty one year old burst into tears.

"So she ran away, because she was scared. Did she get scared easily, Naruto? Is that why you had to convince her to go?" Genma asked, probing but gentle.

Naruto laughed. "No, Sakura isn't afraid of anything." He blubbered. "She thought all that stuff was stupid, she doesn't believe in any of it. She says Ino and I are silly." He rubbed his face, chest heaving. "She wouldn't get scared by this stuff! She wasn't even scared when the growling happened. She just… She just came because we asked a-and… We just…"

Kakashi looked at Genma and shook his head.

Naruto was distraught. They'd get nothing out of him until he calmed down.

"Alright, that's okay, Naruto." Genma said kindly. "How about we get your dad, okay? And something to drink? Coffee? Orange juice?"

Naruto rubbed his face and looked up at them pleadingly. "Please find her." He begged.

Kakashi felt a twinge in his lower belly. "We will, don't worry." He said, surprising himself. Normally, he let Genma play the gentle, kind cop and he just sat there and glowered occasionally. But Naruto's distress was real and despite how much of a rambunctious idiot he was, Kakashi was still fond of the kid.

"You just stay here until we get the Lord Mayor, okay?" Genma said, rising from the table. As they left, his partner slipped his notebook back into his pocket. "So the girl wasn't afraid of ghosts, didn't even believe in them."

"Not unusual for people to get creeped out in a haunted house, no matter how much they're not afraid." Kakashi said easily. They walked back into the waiting room and Lord Minato was on them in an instant. "You might want to go in there and calm him down. He's pretty upset." He said.

His older teacher's jaw clenched. "Thank you." He said, before sweeping past Kakashi and Genma.

Genma sighed. "Who do you want next?" He asked, as they eyed the two girls huddled in the uncomfortable chairs.

Kakashi eyed the dark haired girl. She was the one who had called it in. Sayaka Watanabe. "I don't care."

Genma snorted. "Sure you don't." He nodded at the dark haired girl Kakashi had been watching. "I want her."

"Why?"

His partner looked at him and Kakashi knew that his partner had the same unsettled feeling he did. "She wasn't crying."

"She's crying right now."

"At the scene." Genma said in exasperation, as if talking to a small child. "She was making a lot of noise, but there weren't very many tears."

"Mm." Kakashi didn't say anything about the strange feeling he got around the girl. While his gut feelings were hardly ever wrong, it was early days and he was still of the mindset that Sakura would show up, sooner rather than later, alive and well. "Well, shall we then?"

Genma nodded at the officer standing over the girls, signalling for them to escort the dark haired one to another room.

As the officer and Sayaka walked past, Kakashi caught a glimpse of a white mark, tattooed on the inside of her wrist*.

Sakura put the mirror back, eyes wide. Kagami was watching her, his reflection moving strangely as the mirror vibrated and rippled. It made a metallic thunk as it hit the wall and the picture of Kagami shivered, the glass settling after a moment. Sakura's breath caught as one of the cracks in the mirror spread, rising higher and higher and distorting the line of Kagami's arm.

"Why…? How?" She breathed. She stumbled back a step. Horror was rising in her throat, confusion choking her and pity clouding her mind. "What are you…"

"An elaborate and cruel cage." Kagami said quietly.

Sakura reached for the mirror again but didn't touch it. It was still grotesque and awful. "I don't understand." She whispered. "How is this possible?"

Kagami looked tired. "Do you know the story of the Uchiha compound, Sakura?"

"Of course I do. We learn it when we're children." Sakura said, not quite understanding.

"Tell me." He said, shifting to he was leaning more comfortably against the wall. He smiled at her again, reassuring and soft. "Would you?"

Sakura crept around in front of the mirror again. It still creeped her out, not seeing a reflection. There was a tiny part of her screaming about how wrong this all was, yelling for her to take her chances with the blackness beyond the doors and get away from this mirror and the man inside it.

But another part of her saw how haggard he looked, how tired and just how small he looked, sitting there, all alone.

He smiled hopefully.

And Sakura's heart went out to him.

So she sat down in front of the mirror, tucking her legs under herself and folding her hands in her lap. "Well, in class they taught us that the Uchiha were a clan of great ninja warriors." She started. "They built this great compound, on top of the mountain, overlooking the mountain. My teacher said it was strategic, but the history book said it was because one of the founding members though the view was beautiful."

Kagami chuckled. "What do you believe?"

"I don't know. I suppose it could be both?" Sakura said, startled out of her thoughts. "They were a prosperous clan, big and powerful with the strongest warriors in the whole land. But…" She remembered the stories Ino and Naruto had told her with wide eyes and bated breath. "There were rumours that the clan leader and his brothers were demons, immortals with bloody powers that they used to destroy rival powers."

The man in the mirror was quiet, pensive as he waited for her to continue.

"Of course, that's all rubbish." Sakura said. "I rather think that people made up whatever they could to explain away war." She shook her head. "But I guess it doesn't matter. Because one day, a rival clan attacked and in one night, the entire Uchiha clan was dead and the leader and his brothers vanished into the night."

"What do you think happened to them?" Kagami asked.

Sakura shrugged. "I think they died in the chaos. They were men after all, not demons or gods, or whatever story people made up. My friend thinks they're stuck under this mountain, he thinks they're demons of some sort." She explained at his nonplussed expression.

"Ah." He said, smiling faintly. "And what then?"

"Well… I guess people moved on?" Sakura said a bit lamely. Outside of the festivals in Konoha once a year where street performers occasionally dressed up in grotesque costumes and pretended to be the rumoured Uchiha demons sealed away in the mountain, the Uchiha clan was never spoken about. They were long dead and aside from their compound, rotting away on the mountain, there was nothing left of them.

It was rather sad, to know that a whole family line was gone, just like that.

"So they became a story to tell children in lessons?" Kagami asked quietly.

Sakura nodded. "It's a shame. I wonder what the compound looked like when it was full of people."

"Perhaps you still might." Kagami said quietly.

Sakura looked at him strangely. "The Uchiha are all dead? And the land is protected by the council, no one is allowed on it."

"And yet here you are."

Well, Sakura couldn't argue with that. She huffed at her knees. Her thoughts returned to her friends and she looked up at the ceiling, wondering if they were looking for her. She knew they would be but all she could think was that they would never find here, not in this windowless room with a door leading into freezing darkness.

She squeezed her eyes shut so she wouldn't cry. It wouldn't help. Instead, she shook her head to clear her thoughts. Kagami had been watching her, eyes sympathetic. "Why… You… This is crazy." She whispered. "I'm talking to a mirror. Are you even real? Or am I just hallucinating this whole thing as I suffocate to death?"

"Suffocate?" Kagami asked curiously. "In what?"

Sakura laughed bitterly and pointed at the ceiling. "This girl my friend has a crush on… She went nuts and pushed me down a well. I think I'm drowning in mud right now." Saying the words out loud brought it all home and despite her best efforts she felt tears rising in her eyes. She swiped at them desperately. "Oh god, I'm dying."

For some reason, she found it almost funny.

"Why do you think you're dying?" Kagami asked after she had regained some of her composure.

She hiccupped. "Because what the Hell else could be going on? I was in a well and now I'm here and you're in a mirror and those doors lead to nothing at all." She said, pointing at the shoji doors a little ways from them.

"Sakura, do you know who I am?" Kagami asked gently, folding his own hands in his lap. He was cross legged now, eyes fixed on her face.

"A figment of my imagination?" She asked.

"Think." He urged her. "It will ease your mind."

Sakura sniffed, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. She took a deep breath, shuddering and halting. "You're Kagami."

He smiled and nodded. "Think, just a little bit more."

Sakura cocked her head, trying to figure out what he was getting at. She looked at him, saw the plate armour, the bandaged ankles and wrists, the strange empty holster on his back. He unwrapped his wrists and then held out the white strapping for her to see. There, embroidered on the thick fabric, a tiny red and white fan.

Her eyes snapped to his.

"What is my name, Sakura?"

"Kagami…" She whispered. "Uchiha."

His smile was very sad, eyes downturned. "Indeed."

"But the Uchiha are dead!" Sakura insisted, leaning forward. She didn't understand. What was going on?

"Every myth is based on truth." He said quietly. "My name is Kagami Uchiha and over a thousand years ago, my brothers and I were sealed under this mountain to languish in darkness and madness." His tone was cold, dark and full of rage.

It sounded wrong coming from his kind face.

Sakura was quiet, unable to truly believe what she was hearing. Demons? Sealing? Magic? A man who was over a thousand years old? All of it was impossible. This had to be some fever dream she was having. It couldn't be real. Things like this didn't happen in real life, only in ridiculous movies.

"Why?" She whispered, unable to truly grasp what he was saying. "Why would someone do that?"

He shrugged, face falling back into lines of exhaustion. "Jealousy, envy… Fear, arrogance. Who knows? The minds of men are… Fickle and easy swayed by others."

Sakura looked at him sharply.

The minds of men.

He was speaking as if he wasn't a man.

"Will you help me, Sakura?" He asked. And then Sakura heard the note of pleading in his voice, the desperation there. It spoke of loneliness and isolation, of years of no one to talk to and nothing to do.

"I can't…" She breathed. "I'm not… I don't believe in all that stuff." She said. "This is some sort of dream, isn't it? You're not real and when I leave here, I'm going to die."

"You are not going to die." He said, matter of fact and firm. There was no room for argument.

"Of course you would say that." Sakura sniffed, swallowing hard. She didn't want to die. She had so much she wanted to do, people to help, things to see, things to try. "You're a part of my imagination."

"I will not let you die, Sakura." He murmured. "I know the way out, and if you help me, I can show you."

"Out of here?" Sakura asked, hope blooming under her breastbone. She scarcely dared to believe it.

He nodded. "Out of this room, out of the mountain. Home."

Sakura wanted to go home. She wanted to curl up in bed and read a book, wanted to make a cup of hot chocolate and plan out her meals for the week. She wanted to call her mother and make plans to go for lunch, to watch those trashy daytime television shows on her laptop.

She looked at Kagami and saw the same longing on his face. She wondered how awful it must have been, to sit alone in this room for all those years with nothing but the fire to look at. She wondered how he hadn't gone mad.

And she just knew she couldn't leave him here, looking small and sad.

"What do I need to do?" She asked, finding the knot of courage in herself. It was small, but it was there.

Kagami looked at her, eyes narrow.

"We'll both get out of here." She said strongly.

His eyes softened. And then he said something in a foreign language. It seemed musical, almost lyrical. And as it caught her ears, it sound almost like she should understand, like the words were just on the tip of her tongue.

"What?"

"It is nothing." He murmured. He shifted onto his knees. "Do you see that gap, in the mirror?" He asked.

Sakura saw it. A tiny little shard, missing from the very middle of the reflective glass.

"I need you to find it and put it back."

"That's it?" She asked, frowning. It seemed too easy. Simply finding a small shard of glass and placing it back? That was all that was needed to break the seal on a thousand year old cage? It seemed too little. "Are you sure? What about the rest of the mirror?"

"That is the only piece that matters." He said quietly.

Sakura stood up, dusting her leggings off with her palms. "Why?" She asked. There was still a part of her, the rational part that insisted this couldn't be real, that this had to be brought on by lack of oxygen or too much stress or something. But louder and more hopeful than that voice, was another that reminded her that she had to get back to her friends.

That she couldn't just let this man stay down here.

"Only the kindest of hearts can put it back." Kagami said. "Without true intentions, it will burn you alive."

Sakura cringed. "Burn me alive?" She repeated, fear curling in her stomach.

Kagami smiled. "You agreed to help me, even though you don't know me. I think it will know you."

"I don't know what that means." Sakura muttered, wondering why he only spoke in riddles. She had never liked it when people did that. She always preferred them to tell her straight, give her the facts and tell her their thoughts without hiding anything.

But she wasn't dealing with a normal person.

At least…

That's what she thought.

Sakura looked around, for any place a shard of glass might be. She searched around the mirror, front and back, looking for any raised shadow, any gleam of light. But there was nothing. Of course, that would be too easy.

So she moved back to the bed. As she worked, flipping the mattress and patting it down methodically, Kagami talked to her.

"How old are you, Sakura?"

Sakura looked up from where she was groping around in the pillow. "Twenty one." She answered automatically.

"And what do you do, to dress so strangely?" He asked, peering at her clothes owlishly.

Sakura looked down. Her leggings and sneakers were hardly out of place. But if Kagami was over a thousand years old… he would never have seen a woman in such tight clothing before. She dropped the pillow, snatching up the blankets to shake them out instead. "I exercise in them." She said.

"You train?"

"Well, yeah." Sakura said, looking at the ground for any sparkle of glass.

Nothing.

"What do you train in?"

Sakura started pulling out the slats of the bed, peering into the little holes they left behind. They made a messy pile behind her and she sneezed at the dust she was kicking up. "Running mostly, but sometimes my friend makes me play tennis."

"I do not know what that is."

Sakura thought. "Um… You hit a ball with a racquet." She said. "You have to get it over a net."

Kagami looked bewildered by her explanation. "I do not understand." He said.

"I'm not explaining it very well." She admitted. The bed was empty, which only left the desk and then, after that, the doors that led to darkness. She put the slat she was holding down and walked over to the desk, avoiding the mess she had made. "I only do it sometimes though. It's just for fun."

"Then what else do you do? You are very well spoken… Are you a scholar?" He asked, sounding genuinely curious. When Sakura looked at him, he had moved closer to the mirror, was watching her intently, head tilted.

He looked very much a like a young boy.

"Um… Kind of?" Sakura said absentmindedly, pulling open the only drawer on the desk. It was empty save for more dust and she clicked her tongue in annoyance. "I study medicine mostly. When I graduate, I'll go into neuroscience and become a surgeon."

Silence.

She turned around and saw Kagami blinking at her. She smiled at him sheepishly. "I'm going to be a doctor." She said simply. "I help people get better when they're sick."

"A healer." He said.

"Well, that's not the word we would use." Sakura said, pulling the desk away from the wall with a loud screech. She peered behind it, under it, along the sides. No shard. She even ran her hands under the edges, along the bottoms of the table and drawer. "But sure."

Nothing.

"You must care about people a great deal, to want to help them, even if they are strangers." Kagami commented.

Sakura shrugged. "Everyone needs a little bit of help sometimes and well… We could always use more doctors." She stepped back from the desk. "It's not here." She said.

"What is?"

"The piece." She said. "It's not anywhere I can find it… the only place left is…" In unison, they both turned to look at the closed doors. Sakura loathed the thought of going back in there, feeling the icy cold of the black smoke. "It makes sense."

"It does." Kagami said.

Sakura took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. She had said she would help. And she would, even if it meant going in there. As she walked over to the doors, she imagined that the icy cold was what Kagami had meant when he said it would burn her alive.

Burn her alive.

Sakura froze and then spun on her heel.

The fire flickered happily behind her, jumping and crackling away cheerily. She hurried back towards it, peering into the orange depths with narrow eyes. She could hear Kagami asking what she was doing, but she ignored him in examining the glowing hot coals at the base of the fire.

She searched the flames for a few long minutes.

And just as she was beginning to think she had thought wrong, she saw it. The smallest gleam of white hot glass, right in the very centre of the flames. It was nestled in amongst the glowing coals, almost the same colour and no larger than her pinky finger.

"I found it." She murmured. "It's in the fire."

"Ah." Kagami said a bit redundantly.

Sakura chewed her lip as she straightened, trying to think of a way to get it out. There were no tongs or anything she could use to push it out, nothing that wouldn't get her burnt at all. She could smother the flames, but then how would she see to put it back?

Sakura looked around at the heap of blankets she had abandoned on the ground. It was the only way. She would just have to hope that she could find her way back to Kagami's mirror by touch. Mind made up, Sakura strode over to pick up the dusty blanket. She shook it out once, coughing at the cloud of dust that swirled around her and then made her way back to the fire.

She watched the flames for a few moments and Kagami didn't say anything, obviously seeing what she was about to do.

And then Sakura threw the blanket onto the fire, spreading it wide so it covered the whole of the little blaze. As soon as it landed, she was stomping on the coals, stamping out the flames as best she could. The room was immediately plunged into darkness so thick it almost seemed tangible.

Sakura knelt, groping around for the blanket. She kept it over the flames as tightly as she could, screwing up her nose at the acrid smell of burning wool.

Sakura pulled the blanket off after a few minutes. The red hot coals glowed darkly, barely enough to light the floor around the stove. The glass gleamed in the centre of the fire, still hot. Using the corner of the burnt blanket as a glove, Sakura reached for the little shard.

Carefully, she levered it out, eyes fixed on it. "I got it." She whispered, barely breathing she was so afraid to drop it and accidentally burn herself. She could feel Kagami watching her and she looked up at him with a smile as she stood up.

As she did, she accidentally stepped on the corner of the blanket. It pulled hard and she stumbled when the blanket ripped out of her hand. The shard went flying.

Without thinking, Sakura snatched it out of the air before it could shatter against the ground. The sharp edges cut into her hand, once again reopening the cut there and Sakura hissed, loosening the fist she had made.

The mirror shard glittered darkly, stained with her blood.

"I got it." She said breathlessly, wincing as she dropped the shard into her other palm. Her bleeding palm stung, hot and achy and she knew she needed to be more careful if she didn't want to get an infection. She looked up, saw that Kagami was pressed up against the mirror, eyes wide. "I got it." She repeated reassuringly.

He drew back slightly, obviously relieved. "Are you alright?" He asked, pointing at her hand.

"Yeah." Sakura said. "It's okay."

"It did not burn you?" Kagami asked.

Sakura blinked, looking at the bloody shard of glass. She had just pulled it from the fire, but it was cool in her palm. "Oh…"

"I thought so." Kagami murmured.

"Thought what?" Sakura asked, padding over to the mirror. She didn't have much light to see by, only what was given by the glowing coals behind her. But the mirror glowed burnished orange in their light, easy to see when the rubies caught the light.

"It knew you."

"I still don't know what that means." She said darkly, examining the mirror closely, trying to figure out which way the shard went in.

"You will." Kagami said cryptically.

"So what, I just put it in? That's it?" Sakura asked, picking the bloody shard carefully. She twisted it this way and that until the edges lined up with the hole it had left behind.

"That is it." Kagami breathed. He had stepped back from the mirror, eyes alight with anticipation.

Carefully so she wouldn't drop it, Sakura slid the shard into its home with a light click. For a moment, nothing happened. And then, there was a flare of light from the shard, white and brilliant. It flared out, along the cracks in the mirror, sealing them back into one solid piece of glass.

And then it was over, in a matter of seconds.

"Did it work?" She whispered.

Kagami stepped forward, reaching for the mirror. Sakura backed away a step, wringing her hands.

There was a sigh, almost like dust hitting the ground and Kagami's hand slipped through the mirror. The silvery surface rippled like water, parting around his pale arm.

Sakura's eyes leapt to his, a smile on her face.

Kagami was smiling too and for the briefest of seconds, Sakura was sure that his eyes were red.

But then they were black again and he looked sweet and childlike as he beamed at her and in one swift movement, he stepped through the mirror, ducking his head like he would under a doorframe.

He wasn't much taller than her, perhaps half a head. But he was broader in the shoulder, his chest wider and stronger than her own.

Sakura opened her mouth to ask him what it had felt like, walking through a mirror when there was a loud groan. Her eyes snapped to the mirror, where the noise was emanating from. She gaped in surprise when the room in the mirror began to collapse in on itself, the stone crumbling to ash and the floor heaving.

In moments, the room was gone, leaving the mirror pitch black.

And then, with a loud crack, the mirror split, straight down the mirror. A strong hand wrapped around her upper arm, dragging her backwards and she shrieked in shock when the mirror shattered, shards exploding outwards in a shower of white and silver.

The shards hit the floor with a musical tinkle, glittering in the firelight, looking like star dust as they gleamed. Sakura looked at the mirror in shock and saw that the blood red rubies inlaid in the gold were loosing their brilliance, fading and dulling. The gold was tarnishing and in places, breaking off altogether.

And then, with another quiet sigh, the mirror crumpled into dust at their feet.

"What the Hell was that?" She demanded, hand over her heart. She looked up at Kagami, who was still holding her arm. His eyes were fixed on the mirror, narrow and mouth set in a strangely triumphant smirk.

"A fitting ending." He said.

Sakura made a face at his cryptic words. "You really need to stop doing that." She muttered.

"What?"

"Speaking all… Riddle like." She said, pulling her arm free of his hold. She took a deep breath. She knew that it was stupid, doing all this. All of this was an elaborate dream brought on by her subconscious in response to stress and lack of oxygen. But there was still a tiny part of her that believed she would go home. "You said you knew the way out."

"I do." Kagami said, turning to face her.

Sakura squeaked when he took her by the shoulders. "What are you doing-"

"Out is down." He said. "My brothers still languish below us and they must be set free."

"Brothers?! Out is down- What the hell does that mean?!" Sakura demanded, unable to quite comprehend what he was saying to her. She squirmed away from him, glaring at him warily. "I want to go home! You said I could go home!"

Kagami closed his eyes, hands falling to his sides. "Thank you, Sakura." He said, and Sakura felt her heart stutter in her chest when his eyes opened. They were blood red, almost glowing and three strange comma patterns swirled around his pupil, almost mesmerising. "Truly."

And then, the floor gave way beneath Sakura's feet and she was falling again.

Kakashi swore when there was a loud rumbling from deep within the Earth and the whole building shook violently. The whole office froze, and everyone's heads snapped up. He grabbed the doorframe as Genma slammed into his back, widening his stance to keep his balance.

A mug slipped off a nearby desk, shattering on the ground with a loud crash.

And then it was all over.

The ground was still, and the rumbling had quieted. For a long moment, they all stayed where they were, staring at each other, at the windows, around the office in confusion.

"What the Hell was that?" Someone asked, voice hushed.

Kakashi looked out the window and saw that the dawn sky was blood red.

*The tattoos on the wrists are important my friends. Keep them in mind.

It's longer than I wanted – I wanted to keep all the chapters around 5000 words but this is closer to 8500 lol. Don't expect them all to be this long, but I had to set some stuff up. There are a few clues here and there to the overarching plot, but nothing that will really give anything away I'm afraid. Do not fret, all will be revealed!

Kagami means mirror (Wiki and translate, it's also the same character in Chinese I think, which also reads as mirror), hence the mirror he was trapped in and the title of the chapter. All of the subsequent Uchiha and chapter titles have something to do with the character's name or something that is central to them as a character. I was just going to go off the character's name but Itachi is literally called weasel, so that was... Yeah.

Also, demons is probably the wrong word for what I have in mind for the Uchiha. Primordial beings is probably more apt.

One last thing, Provocation (the ShiSaku I was writing) went through like six name changes but I finally have one I'm happy with. And I've finally got the plot mostly fleshed out in my brain, I just need a bit of time to sit down for a little bit and smash it out. I should have done it instead of writing this but this chapter came a lot more naturally.

Let me know what you think guys and I hope you all enjoyed!