Ninja among Thieves

Chapter Four

4/12

Morning

His eyes shooting open Akira groaned as the light from his window blinded him with the bright morning sun. Sitting up with a groan the raven haired teen attempted to process the discussion he had with Igor in the velvet room. Though calling it that while being locked up in prison could have used a better word. Though he would be lying if the mysterious long-nosed man hadn't hit the head on his current state of mind.

'Prisoner indeed.' Akira thought morbidly.

Sighing and putting the strange dream and its meaning to the back of his mind Akira got ready for the day, determined not to be several hours late this time. The purpose of his awakening, to defy Fate? At this moment it was a little too much for the teenager. As he buttoned up his school jacket, before noticing that the rain had started to come down in sheets. Saying his goodbye to Sojiro the teen easily made his way to the train, managing to board it before it left. As was the case for most trains in Tokyo it was packed, with Akira sardined against the door since he was one of the last to board. He didn't mind, as it would allow him to be one of the first off. It helped that his lean frame allowed him to squeeze in more comfortable than say someone like Naruto.

Before he could tune out the various rabble of the train riders several conversations caught his attention. Most of them had to do with the train accident that had occurred yesterday.

"What was the conductor thinking, charging into the station at top speeds like that?"

"Didn't you hear? The guy totally lost it." Another student replied to the first one.

"Hah… It's been happening a lot lately."

"All these accidents are because people are suddenly losing their minds, right?"

The other student let out a groan as he responded "Well, between the economy sucking and how depressing the news always is, it's not all that surprising."

The rest of the train ride was muffled by the constant clamor of the packed riders. It allowed Akira a moment to let his mind wander over the events from yesterday. Despite the grim reality of dying he had to admit that he was itching to go back. The exhilaration of freedom that came from that place was something he never knew he needed in his life. Before long the train had come to a stop, letting its grateful and impatient passengers out for some much-needed air. It didn't take long for Akira to make it to his next train which was thankfully not as packed as the first.

As he walked to Shujiin under the umbrella he brought Akira could not help but think on why the school had turned into a castle. It only added to the question when he thought of the killer creatures and a 'King' Kamoshida ruling over the place. From the conversation he and Naruto overheard it seemed that some of the staff, the principal chief among them, inflated Kamoshida's ego to such heights that honestly made the teenager want to do…. something. It was easy to see how Kamoshida could see himself as 'King" of the school. But how did that translate to a castle replacing the normal school even if it was only for a little while. Taking note that he hadn't seen Naruto or Ryuji he wondered what their take on the situation would be.

NaT

"I am Mr. Ushimaru, your social studies teacher. I'll be teaching you the rules of society this year."

Naruto was paying little attention to the teacher at the moment as yesterday's events playing over in his mind once again. From the 'castle' version of Shujiin to his meeting of Igor the blonde groaned as he decided that it was, in Shikimaru's own words, troublesome to think about. What mattered more to the blonde shinobi was the fact that someone had enough power and knowledge to somehow extract or lock away the parts of the Biju that he had before he was transported to this world, and the fact that his partner, Kurama, was seemingly held by the big bad guy himself for some reason. Though that reason was pretty obvious now that he thought about it.

"Hmph… you all look like you've been spoiled growing up."

Kurama was the strongest of his brothers and sisters, a fact that he liked to gloat about on a daily basis. Even before he had become synchronized with Kurama the power Naruto could call upon was great if not extremely dangerous. He worried what exactly his partner was going through at the moment, and more specifically how he could hope to free and restore the bijuu along with his nine-tailed friend.

"Before we learn society's rules, maybe I should start with the rules of being a decent human being."

Which brought him back to the castle that he, Akira and Ryuji had arrived at before having to fight their way out of. From his experiences with genjustsu (horrible he may be at it) the blonde ninja could tell that the castle and its inhabitants were real, if the bruises and aches from yesterday were any indication of that. He really wanted either Shikimaru or Kakashi here to somehow explain what the hell he had gotten himself into. Though that cat creature seemed to know a thing or two about what was going on. Maybe he coul-

"Mister Uzumaki!"

"Eh?"

"The greek philosopher Plato divided the human soul into three parts. A soul in composed of appetite, spirit and what else?"

The blonde ninja could only stare back at the questioning teacher with could be adequately described as a 'huh?'

"Ummmm, mind?"

"Incorrect. Though the mind is responsible for forming it logic is the third part of the soul according to Plato. Perhaps if you would focus on the lesson instead of daydreaming?"

Naruto nodded slowly as the rest of the class made their not so quiet comments about the blonde delinquent. For some reason he felt like Iruka and several other of his teachers were laughing their asses off right now. Despite the needless comments Naruto could feel the gaze of Akira, who seemed to know the answer if his amused smirk was anything to go by. Shifting his gaze over he raised his eyebrow at Ann who was glaring at her fellow blonde with a gaze that could melt steel. Not knowing what he had done this time Naruto merely sent them both a nod in return.

As the teacher continued the lecture Naruto's attention once again went back to yesterday's events Naruto always had a hard time listening to lectures, even more so about boring stuff such as this. Though he kept his grades up to not bring too much attention to himself Naruto's attention was miraculously brought back to class when Mr. Ushimaru started to talk about the accidents that had been happening

"Bizarre accidents have been occurring frequently. Those are but the actions of such scum. We don't need crude people like that in this school. Understand?"

"Hai sensei!"

Naruto groaned as he looked at the clock, dismayed to see a good chunk of time still left for the class and day.

After School

Both Akira and Naruto exited the classroom, one jubilant that the school day was over and the other sweat dropping at his companions actions. To be fair the blonde gave off an aura of joy for something as simple as school ending.

"School isn't that bad."

"Wrong!" Naruto turned to the black-haired teen next to him pointing at him accusingly. "School is evil like ramen-haters and duck-haired emo's."

"That is disturbingly specific."

"Which one?"

Akira shook his head at the blonde's antics before noticing two figures at the stairway in front of them. Nodding silently towards them Naruto nodded before moving to stay out of sight as they watched Ann and Kamoshida. Both teens felt a little sympathetic as they noticed that Ann looked like she wanted to be anywhere but in front of the teacher. Said teacher looked disturbingly like his castle version at the moment, towering and leaning into Ann as they talked.

"Ah, Takamaki-san." Kamoshida stopped the girl, his confident grin on his face as he kept talking "You looking for a ride home? Things have been pretty dangerous with all these accidents."

The pig-tailed blonde took a unconscious step back before responding, her tone one of indifference "Sorry, but I have a photoshoot today. It's for the special summer issue, so I can't afford to miss it."

"Takamaki-san is a model?"

"Yeah." Naruto whispered in response "She's apparently been modeling for a couple of months. It's probably why Ero-yaro set his sights on her."

Kamoshida face morphed to one of disappointment before responding "Hey now, being a model's fine and dandy, but don't work your pretty little self to the bone. You mentioned you weren't feeling well? Something about appendicitis?"

Both Naruto and Akira could only wonder how long Ann had been using that particular excuse, though they had to give her props for rebuffing the teacher for so long. If his counterpart was anything to go by that was most certainly not the case for other students. Ann looked like she was getting ready to bolt, if the tense posture she had was any indication.

"Yes, I keep planning to go to the hospital, but I've been very busy." The girl next words seemed to be forced out of her mouth along with a fake smile that the two teens could see form a mile away "Sorry to worry you."

The teacher seemed to lean closer as he seemed to gain some of the presence that his other self had "You must be lonely too. I feel bad for keeping your best friend at practice so often. That is why I asked you out in the first place." As he turned to walk away he looked back, as if sensing the two teens eavesdropping. "Oh and before I forget be careful around the new transfer student. Seems he and Uzumaki have become fellow troublemakers…"

"…..Yeah sure."

As Kamoshida walked away, a little more anger in his stride the two eavesdropping teens stepped out for the corner they had been behind, only to get a withering glare from Ann.

"….Hello." Akira said, trying to break the rather awkward atmosphere. Naruto stood next to Akira, not really sure what to say. Normally he would joke and try to get under his fellow blondes skin, but had a feeling now was not the time for it. Ann merely closed her eyes before letting out a frustrated sigh.

"You saw nothing."

"Uh…" Naruto leaned back as Ann stomped right up to his face, really not in the mood for any of the blond's mischief she was sure he would do. Naruto merely held his hands up in the universal sign of surrender.

"Right nothing. Have a good day Ann." Naruto responded as he beat a retreat rather than further annoy the irate girl. Akira merely nodded as he made to follow, neither teen noticing the look of worry and regret Ann shot in their direction as they walked down the stairs.

School Entrance

"Yo."

Both Akira and Naruto threw the thuggish teen questioning looks, having seen the teen at the top of the steps before he noticed them.

"Who were you again?"

Ryuji eye twitched before his gaze moved to Naruto. "You told him to say that didn't ya?"

"Surprisingly no." the blonde Uzumaki chuckled before continuing. "So I'm guessing you wanted to talk about yesterday?"

Ryuji nodded as he continued "Yeah. I tried to write it off as a dream but I couldn't do it."

"To be fair it did seem rather weird. And that's putting it mildly." Akira responded before Naruto groaned in discomfort. "Speaking of which how are you? You did take the worst injuries if I recall."

"Better than yesterday. But I'm with Ryuji on this one. Having known the ero-yaro for six months this is connected to him in some way."

"My thoughts exactly! I wanna find out what's up with that place, no matter what. You two are the only ones I can rely on since you have those weird powers in there."

Both teens withdrew into their own thoughts. Naruto knew that his injuries were somewhat better, but he wouldn't be able to take as much punishment as he did yesterday. Kami it was annoying to not have his level of healing form before. He also had to consider the dangers of that castle which were mostly unknown. One of the things that Jiriaya had pounded into his training regime was the need for information before going into a fight. Despite being an irredeemable pervert, he was known as one of the greatest spymasters of Konoha. Acquired knowledge had helped him survive even during the final fight against Kaguya after all. The other thing that Naruto knew was that Kamoshida was in actuality abusing his male students physically, while sexual harassing his female ones. One only needed to look at the state of the volleyball players after practice to confirm that. If his sneaking around for pranks was any indication the man was a bastard through and through. His mind was made up rather easily.

Akira mind went through several memories before he answered. The events that led to his placement in Shujiin and Tokyo. How he had felt helpless as events spiraled out of control ending with a record, having to move from his home for a year, and basically become a prisoner in all but where he lived. He wouldn't wish that on anyone. If half the things he had heard from his fellow classmate were right then Akira knew there were other things that the teacher was doing as well. Remembering the words of Arsene, who he could feel even now, he nodded in agreement.

"Sweet. So I think we should retrace our steps first."

"Wait. Didn't you notice something was off when we went through that alley?" Naruto pointed, having a distinct memory of something shifting around him when they were walking.

"Now that you mention it yeah." Ryuji responded, before shaking his head. "But just in case we should probably go back to when we first met."

"It would give us a chance to remember anything odd that would have happened." Akira agreed. Naruto shrugged, knowing that something would pop up. His luck was kind of weird that way.

"So how do you guys think they built that giant freaking castle? I mean it would be pretty noticeable right?" Ryuji said as they came upon the street where they had first met.

"Honestly it seems impossible. I mean we went straight to the school, no way could they have built something on top of the school like that in one day." Naruto responded. In his mind the blonde was thinking of different realities, as some shinobi could bend time and space to their whims. But to hide an entire castle?

"Not to mention." Akira cut in as they stopped "The officers said that the school looked fine even though they had just been there."

Ryuji groaned as he listened to his fellow teenagers. "Dammit. This is getting more confusing by the minute. Alright so we met here and went this way. Be on the lookout for any strange things okay?"

Both Akira and Naruto nodded, though Naruto suspected that they had to do something to get the castle to appear. 'Ugh.' Naruto thought 'Ryuji was right, this is confusing. Doesn't help that I've only been here for six months.'

The three teens kept a lookout as they walked the same route they had yesterday. By the time they arrived at the alley facing the school their hope was dashed for anything to suddenly jump out at them. Though it was a distant hope at best.

"We went the same way." Ryuji muttered as they stared at the school. "You guys notice anything out of the ordinary?"

"Nope

"No unfortunately."

"Wanna try again?" Both Naruto and Akira stared at Ryuji, who merely slumped in defeat.

"I don't think that's the solution." Akira said before they wasted more time with retracing their steps. It had to be some sort of condition that needed to be fulfilled. At least that's what the raven-haired teen assumed. Both Akira and Ryuji flinched as Naruto snapped his fingers with a look of realization on his face.

"What about that weird app on your phone? The one with the red eye?" Eyes widening Akira pulled his phone out as the two blondes stood behind. There on his phone was the app, a red eye with a pupil of a black star.

"Oh yeah! When we escaped it said something to the extent that we 'returned to the real world'." Ryuji stated before the three regarded the app on Akira's phone. For some reason it unnerved Naruto, who could have sworn he saw the app shimmer with wave-like motions.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Naruto commented, getting a nod form Akira who pressed the app. Much like a standard Navigation app it showed their location, along with a tab for previous entries. Ryuji was grinning triumphantly as he swiped the phone form Akira's hands, earning a little annoyed huff from the teen.

"I was just about to press it you know."

Ryuji chuckled sheepishly as he handed the teen his phone back. Clicking previous locations his phone came out with a voice as the app seemingly started.

"Kamoshida…..Shujin Academy….Pervert…..Castle."

The three teens raised their eyebrow at the combination of words. Naruto and Akira had already deduced why they combined. Considering the castle seemed to house a 'King' Kamoshida, who if his representation of Ann was any indication was a pervert of despicable portions. The castle was rather self-explanatory.

"Beginning Navigation."

"Sweet, so now we just retrace our-"

Something shifted around them, though only Naruto and Akira seemed to notice. Ryuji looked up as he seemed to notice something was happening as well.

"Akira did you?"

"Yeah."

"Holy crap what's going on?" Both teens turned back to Ryuji, who was staring at the phone in Akira's hand. The icon app had taken over the whole screen, though it seemed to flicker in and out with static. A red haze settled over them as they turned their attention to the school. A moment later ripples of black and red covered the Area, revealing the castle form the previous day.

NaT

"All right, we made it back!" Ryuji said before running past Akira. As the blonde teen entered the courtyard Akira caught up to him Just as the teen was turning around. "We made it back- That means what happened….. Wait where's Naruto?"

Akira's eyes widened as he turned back, seeing a distinct lack of Naruto, as if he had seemingly disappeared. "Did he not come with us?"

"Dude, your clothes!" Looking away and down Akira saw that he was back in his attire form the previous day, a sense of exhilaration returning as he took in his appearance Arsene came to the forefront of his thoughts, as if to reaffirm what had happened yesterday.

"Dude." Ryuji said as he took in the other teen's appearance. "It's just like yesterday with you and Naruto. Shit! Where did he go anyway? What the hell is going on here?!"

"Hey!" A boyish voice yelled as quietly as he could. Turning to the direction of the voice both teens saw the same cat-like creature from yesterday rushing towards them. Arriving next to them he spoke again, whispering while regarding the two teens. "Stop making a commotion."

"Morgana right?" Akira asked. Morgana seemed to be greatly pleased that one of the people he had met had remembered him. Though he noticed the distinct lack of a whiskered blonde. "The shadows started to act up, so I came here wondering what it could be."

Morgana let out a sigh as he continued "To think you guys would come back to the entrance when you barely escaped the first time. And where did whiskers go?"

"We don't know. He was with us when we started to shift but…"

"He'll be fine. Guys tougher than he looks." Ryuji said, though both Morgana and Akira could detect a bit of worry for his fellow blonde. "So what is this place? The school?"

Morgana nodded at Ryuji's question "It is."

"But how is that possible. A castle doesn't just show up on a school." Akira commented as he took in the place now that they weren't being chased for their lives.

"The castle IS the school." Mona responded, putting emphasis that they were the same.

"Huh?"

Morgana merely continued despite the interruption. "But only to this castle's ruler."

"Which means Kamoshida." Akira finished, getting a nod of approval from Morgana and a confused scowl from Ryuji.

"Wait then why it is a castle? I mean sure the bastard sees himself as king of the school but…."

"And that's where it comes from. His distorted desires make the school look like this."

Ryuji growled in frustration as he stomped towards Morgana. "Explain it in a way that makes sense!"

Morgana sighed again as he regarded Ryuji "I shouldn't have expected a moron to get it…"

"Hey!"

Before Akira decided to get them back on track a scream of pain sounded form the castle. What made it more unnerving was the fact that they could hear it from behind stone walls, meaning that whoever had screamed was in a lot of pain. Ryuji and Akira had paled a little, knowing that it could have been them yesterday if things had gone differently.

"Were those-"

"Probably the slaves captive here." Morgana said with a massive amount of disgust. Ryuji's eyes widened in disbelief as Akira noticed that the screams continued, though softer than the massive scream form before.

"Is this for real?" As if to make the situation true another piercing scream rent the air, making the three more uncomfortable every minute. "Shit, it's for real."

"And more than likely it's the people we saw from yesterday." Akira noted. While he hadn't been around the school for more than a couple of hours Ryuji had seemed to recognize some of the prisoners they had crossed.

"Yeah! I recognized some of them, they even had our schools gym uniform!" Ryuji paled as he realized what was happening "Holy Shit."

"It nothing new. It's like this every day. Though he may have gotten worse since you three escaped yesterday. I imagine Kamoshida wasn't too thrilled about losing three prisoners. Speaking of-"

"We don't know where he is unfortunately." Akira said, worried about where Naruto had ended up. He was pretty sure that he had come through at the same time, but where could he be now. Before he could think more on their wayward companion Ryuji had tackled the door with anger and frustration.

"You think this is a game Kamoshida?!" Ryuji yelled as he kicked the door for good measure. Not that it helped with opening it. Morgana had rushed the irate blonde and was trying to get him to calm down, a feat that was not easily achieved by any means. Akira was taking in the area to make sure they wouldn't be ambushed by any of those guards from yesterday.

"Alright, Alright sheesh. Anyway Monamona-"

"It's Morgana!"

"Whatever!" Ryuji rebutted before growing serious again. "You wouldn't happen to know where we voices are coming from would ya?"

Morgana looked between the two teenagers, hesitation in his features. Or at least that's what Akira assumed. He wasn't fluent in cat-person body language. Morgana would probably be able to help them find Naruto as well, since Akira would assume he had landed somewhere different than them.

"You want me to take you to them?" Morgana looked down before looking at Akira, a glint in his eyes as he did. "Well, I guess I could guide you there. But only if you come with us. Speaking of which where the other guy?"

Both teens shared a worried look. While it would be okay if Naruto had just been left outside when they 'warped' Akira was certain that the whiskered blonde was here somewhere. Making their way to their escape point form yesterday Akira could only hope that wherever Naruto had ended up he would be safe.

?

Naruto groaned as he raised himself up from the carpeted floor he had landed on. It must have been a thin ass carpet, because he felt the stone when his body had impacted it. Looking around Naruto assumed he had landed in a storeroom, probably in the upper levels of the castle. While he had entered several daimyo's castles. While the room was gaudier than a storeroom was, he could see that the room itself was barely used if the dust caking the various boxes and shelves was any indication.

"Well, this is a surprise."

Naruto turned around, his shakujo from yesterday as he prepared to strike the being who had apparently snuck up on him. Only to freeze as another version of him stood there, in his shinobi attire he would usually wear before he had arrived in this world. Everything was similar with the only difference being the bright yellow eyes that stared at him in amusement.

"Wha?"

"Come now, it might have been a while but surely you remember me?"

It only took a moment before Naruto came to a startling realization "Dark me?!"

The yellow-eyed Naruto scowled as a vein in his head throbbed. "Just call me Menma."

Naruto chuckled embarrassingly before growing serious "So what are you doing here?"

Menma took a moment to stare at his counterpart, before sighing and sitting on one of the various crated strewn about. "I can't sustain this form for long, so I'll have to make this quick. I trust you are wondering why you can't use chakra at the moment?"

"I assumed it was because my coils had been damaged from whatever sent me here." Naruto responded, having thought about why he couldn't access his chakra many times. It had been a rather hard adjustment period for the leaf shinobi when he couldn't even access the seals that had been tattooed on his body by Jiriaya as a birthday present.

"That's part of the problem." Menma sighed before continuing "I trust you have met long-nose?"

"Igor?"

"Yep. Apparently I was to be your original persona, but some complications arose. Whoever is behind what's going on decided that using the tailed beasts would prove better than I." Menma leaned forward "Leading to me being sealed away much like Kurama was."

Naruto's hand reached for his stomach were the seal resided, something he hadn't seen for the past 6 months because it required Chakra to see. Naruto's mind was running rampant with theories about how that would have affected him. Luckily Menma decided to intervene before he had a chance to fry his brain.

"You know how chakra is the combination of Spiritual and physical energies right?" Naruto nodded as Menma continued "Whatever sealed us took your spiritual half and sealed it with me."

"That…." Naruto slumped in defeat at the small yet believable explanation from his other half. "Is very believable. But how can I talk to you now if you and my chakra was sealed?"

"Fortunately it seems whoever sealed me just resealed the gate and not the functions of the seal." The smirk on Menma's face was vindictive, and more than a little scary now that Naruto thought about it. "The pathways that Kurama's chakra went through still remain."

Naruto's eyes widened before he jumped up, pumping his hand in the air triumphantly. "Yatta!"

"Did you hear something?"

"I think it came from the storeroom."

"…"

"…."

"You are such a baka."

Naruto whipped around to face Menma, only to see empty air where his darker half had been. "Stupid dark spiritual half."

Hearing the sound of metal encased footfalls Naruto took a moment to look around the room, before diving behind a stack of crates near the door. Not a moment later two guards, one in the dull grey metal from yesterday and golden plated armor burst through the door, scanning the room with their swords and shields at the ready. Naruto restrained himself from the surprise attack he had been planning as a red and dangerous feeling aura emanated from the golden knight.

"Are you sure there was someone here? Lord Kamoshida doesn't tolerate failure after yesterday's escapees."

"I heard someone shouting sir!"

Using his ninja training Naruto had silently crept out of the room as the lower guard was reprimanded by his apparent superior. Making his way into the hallway Naruto grimaced as he realized there were no hiding spots in the immediate vicinity. There were, unfortunately, plenty of stone statues of Kamoshida in all of his 'glory' lining the hallway. Noticing the guards were done with their searching Naruto quickly slammed the door before pushing one of the rather ostentatious statue to fall, blocking the two guards form getting out. Snickering at the expression that castle Kamoshida would no doubt have Naruto made himself scarce as he tried to figure out where the hell he was.

With Akira

'This is the same as yesterday' Akira thought as they proceeded down to the dungeons they had escaped from yesterday. While Morgana's explanations did make sense Akira was wondering why the 'Palace' even existed in the first place. They had been given evidence right in their faces when the world around them flitted in-between the normal school and the castle they were currently in. Akira thought back to his interactions within that Velvet prison, and how they seemed to just further the mystery surrounding their current events.

Morgana had stopped before they got very far into the dungeon, and it was easy to see why. One of those guards form yesterday was patrolling the path ion front of them, though he seemed to not have noticed them at the moment.

"Oh crap! It's one of those things from yesterday." Ryuji whispered, fear evident in his tone.

"It would make sense that there would be guards from where people escaped." Akira said, eyeing the thing looking around.

Morgana nodded in agreement before letting out a sigh "My thoughts exactly. It looks like we won't be able to avoid any more conflict. While it would be better if we had whiskers here we'll have to make do."

"Anything we can do so that the odds are in our favor?" Akira asked as he tightened his gloves.

Morgana nodded "Ambushing enemies, especially from behind, can break the hold that the creator of a palace has over them. You'll need to aim for their mask to get the best results."

"So get the mask. Got it." Ryuji said, getting a nod from Morgana as the cat-like creature readied himself. Akira waited until the guard had turned around to continue his patrol route before rushing past the door they had been hiding behind. Leaping onto the back of the guard Akira swiped his hand down before getting a good grip on the guards mask in question. Ripping his arm back the guard screamed before falling into a puddle of red and black goo before reforming into one of the floating jacko-lanterns he had fought yesterday.

"Nice dude!" Ryuji yelled as he stood back form the confrontation. Morgana rolled his eyes at the non-persona user before standing next to Akira, his saber drawn from somewhere. Rolling his shoulders Akira darted off, landing three quick swiped to the jacko-lantern. He had to doge back as it retaliated with a swing of its lantern.

"Zorro, Garu!" The form of a black clad figure sporting a mask similar to Morganas with a stylized 'Z' belt buckle answered the call. Its upper body was larger than its lower, but the feeling of power it gave off was similar to what Akira felt when he would call Arsene or when Naruto had summoned his own persona. The persona in question swiped his rapier at the floating Jacko-lantern before green blades of wind surrounded it. The enemy didn't stand a chance as they collapsed inward, dispersing the enemy into particles of black.

"All right!" Morgana cheered as his weapon disappeared. Akira smirked as his own weapon disappeared before Ryuji walked up to them.

"Damn." The blonde teen started "I thought it was an illusion but_"

"That's the power of a Persona." Morgana piped up before Ryuji could continue "It's the only way to fight against the shadows of a palace with any success."

Both Akira and Ryuji took note of hat before Akira finally noticed something off about their location. Looking around he noticed that the cells that had housed the prisoners where now empty of everyone, making it unnaturally quiet.

"The cells…." Ryuji and Morgana turned to him "They're empty."

The group of three looked in several cells before coming to the conclusion that they had been moved sometime yesterday to today their musing were cut short when Ryuji came back running after checking on several more cells.

"Crap, there's more of those knight things coming!"

The echo of the hall was quickly filled with approaching metal footfalls inching ever closer. "In here!" Moragana dragged the two teens into an adjacent room before closing the door as quietly as he could.

'This room is different somehow.' Akira thought as he walked further in. Before his very eyes the room shifted from dark dungeon to one of the school's classrooms or clubrooms. IT only lasted for a moment before the room shifted back, replacing classroom with dreary dark dungeon.

"What the hell? That was a classroom?!"

"Keep it down." Morgana hissed at Ryuji before settling down. "The castles ruler has less influence over this part of the castle. The reason I can tell is because the distortion is less here."

"The classroom." Akira responded. As if in response to his answer the room shifted between dungeon and classroom again.

"This place is another reality that the ruler's heart projects." Morgana said as if stating the obvious. Unfortunately Ryuji was not the …brightest mind out there.

"You mean this is how Kamoshida sees the school? Shit makes no sense at all!" Ryuji exclaimed before slamming his foot.

Akira piped up before the two could get into another argument, something that he attributed to a clash in personality "So since Kamoshida basically believes the school is his domain this dimension was created?"

"Almost. You could say it's a world in which his desires created this castle over your school." Morgana explained before continuing "I call such a place a 'Palace'"

"Hold up." Ryuji but in shaking his head "You're telling me that this 'palace was created because Kamoshida thought of it?"

Both Akira and Morgana glanced at each other before turning their attention back to a chuckling Ryuji Said blonde teen snarled and looked like he wanted to punch something, or more likely someone. "That son of a bitch!"

"You must really hate this Kamoshida guy." Morgana commented before flinching when Ryuji turned his angry scowl on the cat creature.

"Hate doesn't begin to cover how I feel. Everything…" Ryuji snarled again as he stomped around "Everything is that guy's fault!"

Morgana sighed before turning away "Look, I don't know what happened between you two, but don't let your emotions get the better of you. In here that can mean death."

"You mean those shadows we keep running into." Akira said as he took a seat to relax from the previous fight.

"Yeah what the hell is up with those things? Turning from knights into those monsters?" Ryuji asked taking a seat across from Akira. Morgana seemed to be mulling over his explanation before eventually coming to a decision.

"Those are shadows, monsters created from the negative emotions of normal people. They take different shaped because of the desires and emotions of people. Its takes an abnormally strong shadow to make those under it follow orders."

"Kamoshida. The one that we met yesterday in the dungeon." Akira surmised. He remembered the shadow Kamoshida ordering around several of the other shadows when they were about to be executed.

"You gotta be kidding me! Now he has an army of monsters at his beck and call?" Ryuji said, slumping down as the realization slowly dawned on him.

"Not an army like you're thinking." Morgana tried to alleviate their concern. "More like a guard force that can replenish itself."

"That's….not much better." Akira commented, getting a nod of agreement from Ryuji. "So what's your reason for being here?"

Morgana looked surprised by the question, though recomposed himself not a moment later before answering. "I wasn't always like this."

"You mean a cat?" Ryuji commented before leaning back as Morgana got in his face.

"I'm not a cat! I was once a human. I just lost my form before I got here." Morgana started pacing as he continued to talk. "It's why I came here in the first place. Though I didn't find any answers before I was caught myself."

"So what can we do?" Akira asked, now having three goals in mind at the moment. While Morgana's seemed to be more of a long term goal it was still one to be ready for. Finding Naruto and those imprisoned students was more of the current goals right now.

"The prisoners should be near here. If we hurry we should be able to get in and out before anyone notices." Morgana jumped down form the table and approached the door. Before he opened it he turned back to Akira and smirked. "I'll be counting on your skills this time rookie. Got it?"

Akira nodded as he made his way to the door himself, followed by Ryuji. They would get to the bottom of this and hopefully run into Naruto before they made their escape.

Another update my readers! Read and review would you kindly!

SandewrPAlly