Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-sensei, I'm just borrowing his world for a while.
They took the three outside quick and fast so as to prevent the chance of a warning outcry.
Ibitsu closed her eyes as the pain became too much to bear, and scrunched herself down into the corner as small as she possibly could. She was very good at doing that, and as she did so she could almost hear her mother's voice, criticizing, always criticizing. Her father's dismissals. This was why she hated the dark, why she hated to sleep in her own quiet room. It was never quiet for long due to the voices in her head. At least when she was sleeping in Toride's room there were the snores from the other girl to drown them out. And there was the quiet peacefulness that Iouka emanated even when she was just in the house.
But here it was just too quiet, and she was frightened. She didn't know where she was, or why she was brought here, but she knew it was for nothing good. She had tried struggling out of the ropes that bound her, but they were too tight and well knotted.
"Sensei..." She whimpered. "Taihei-kun..." Then as an afterthought she added Toride and even Omai to her plea. "Come soon, please."
They were rather surprised to find no wards surrounding the building, but they could also feel a great power beginning to build somewhere inside. It did not feel right, and the ninja could not suppress a shudder, particularly when Toride looked into her brother's eyes and saw something dangerous burning there.
Ibitsu opened her eye as the pressure in the air changed and looked up to see someone silhouetted in the doorway. She had to blink her eye a few times in order to let it adjust to the sudden light after so much darkness.
After a moment she was able to tell that it was the third person who had been in the room with her, the one who had taken her eyeglass, the one that she had been unable to read properly. Her eye widened in astonishment. The woman, for she could tell now that it was a woman, looked just like her. She couldn't hold in an astonished gasp.
"Don't flatter yourself, oujosama." The woman said in a scathing voice that also sounded a lot like her own, though Ibitsu had never spoken in that tone to anyone. She had never even thought to do so. "It's just that it hasn't worn off all the way. Believe me, I don't like looking like a little sheep like you."
"Sheep." Ibitsu murmured through her gag.
"Not a bad body, though." The doppelganger said, her hands moving down her sparse curves in a way that made Ibitsu blush furiously. "Or it would be if it had gotten the chance to grow up."
At this Ibitsu felt all the blood that had rushed to her cheeks rush away again, leaving her face dead white. This woman was talking as though Ibitsu were already dead.
"Be careful." Sensei whispered. "There's got to be a trap somewhere." Her students nodded, both wishing that Ibitsu were there with them, but for different reasons.
Ibitsu could have told them where the trap was instantly, but Ibitsu wasn't there.
Toride could hear her brother grinding his teeth and hoped with all her might that this would be over. The sooner the better. Their mother would be most upset if they had to visit the dentist-nin after this was all over.
"Now, oujosama, it's time to go." The non-Ibitsu said with an unpleasant smile. With a touch of her finger the ropes reconfigured themselves and Ibitsu was pulled to her feet, then to a stumbling walk as the woman beckoned her out of the dark room and into the forbidding light.
"This is so strange." Sensei murmured. "Where are the wards?"
Taihei said nothing, his attention snagged by a shadow standing in the darkness. The shadow nodded, then disappeared at Taihei's return nod.
"They're taken care of," The boy said.
"Taken care of?" Sensei demanded quietly. "Taken care of by whom?"
"Someone who wants us to succeed." He replied. "Let's go get her."
Ibitsu looked around the room one-eyed as she was tugged through the doorway. What she could see did not look promising. It was a rather large room, occupied by single table in the precise center of its empty floor. Scrawled on the ceiling and walls and floor, all leading to the table were runes of some ward, and they glowed with a pulsing, unwholesome light. At the four cardinals the other people she had seen were positioned, their hand clasped in hand signs, the low murmur of their chant filling the air.
All in all it had the feel of a sacrificial chamber, and Ibitsu, struggling against the inexorable pull of her captor, had no doubt as to who the intended sacrifice was to be.
"What do you want of me?" She demanded shrilly.
"Isn't it obvious?" The false Ibitsu said, "You have a bloodline limit. We want it."
"You...want my eyes?"
"Just the one would be sufficient."
Ibitsu stared at her, even as her feet dragged her towards the table. Then she burst out laughing, a touch hysterically, but laughing all the same.
"My eye?" She strangled.
"It's strange that you find this funny." The false Ibitsu said with a quizzical tilt of her eyebrow.
"That you would do this to take the one thing I hate most." Ibitsu shrieked. "Take it! Take it! I shall be glad to be rid of it!"
The false Ibitsu stared, taken aback.
"I wish you all the luck in the world!" Ibitsu screamed, now in full blown hysteria. "Invest in painkillers!"
The false Ibitsu gasped.
Hands grasped Ibitsu and pulled her into a familiar embrace, a familiar body. "Ibitsu-chan, what a thing to say." Sensei said, cradling her gently in her arms.
In the next moment Taihei was at the false Ibitsu's back, his kunai at her throat. He looked as though to have every intention of using it but had been told not to and it was irksome. Ibitsu stared at him through her hysterical tears, her feet still trying to pull her to the table in the middle of the room, even with Sensei's strength surrounding her.
"Kill me and it can't be stopped!" The false Ibitsu shrieked.
Ibitsu looked around the room and found the other four enemies trapped in spheres of Toride's force-fields. Even so, their hands remained clasped and their chanting had not faltered.
Taihei's kunai moved, drawing a thin red line against the woman's throat. "Didn't you hear me?" She cried, her eyes, so like Ibitsu's wide and suddenly fearful.
"He can't hear you." Toride gasped from where she was standing, supporting herself against the wall. Making and sustaining four such large force-fields was her utter limit. As it was she had barely enough chakra left to keep her standing. And not helping was the eldritch chakra running now through the runes covering the room. "He's far past that point now. Congratulations."
"Taihei-kun!" Ibitsu gasped.
His eyes looked at her, just a flicker of recognition passing through the blue irises that seemed too wide. And suddenly, and for the first time, Ibitsu was almost frightened of her nakama.
"Stop this." Sensei said, her voice cold. "Stop this now, Baikin."
The false Ibitsu stiffened in Taihei's hold, her hair darkening slightly, her eyes turning to some ugly color between orange and violet. It seemed the jutsu was wearing off. "How do you know my name?"
"I realized who you must be when I recognized the village we were heading to." Sensei lifted one arm from Ibitsu and reached in her pocket. "And when I saw this." She opened her fingers to reveal a small round piece of smooth wood. It wasn't much to look at but at the sight of it Baiken gasped longingly, her fingers reaching out to it. Then she looked confused. "But, I took that from you."
"You thought you did." Sensei said pleasantly. "But I know the person who made this thing, and I know how to use that fact to my advantage"
"Give it to me!"
"And why would I do something like that even if you asked?" Tsu's face hardened. "It's time for this to stop, Baiken."
"And as if I would stop just because you told me!" Baiken screamed. She snapped her fingers and the runes flared. Ibitsu found herself torn from Tsu's grasp.
"Sensei!" She cried, grasping for Tsu's fingers. They slipped away, and Ibitsu found herself being carried inexorably towards the table in the middle of the room. At the same time, the bubbles of chakra around the men at the four corners burst and they attacked, two on Toride, and two on Tsu.
Tsu turned on her attackers, unable to help her student.
As Ibitsu cried in terror recognition dawned in Taihei's eyes and he thrust Baiken roughly to the floor before darting after Ibitsu. "Ibitsu-chan!" He reached her just before she touched the table, and, grabbing her, turned so that he hit the table instead.
Then the runes there flashed and he screamed.
"Taihei-san!" She cried as he slumped to the floor. "Taihei-san!"
"What a pity." Baiken said from behind her. "But it's still not too late. I will have it, I will have them both!"
Then she froze. She looked down to find the kunai Ibitsu had taken from Taihei's limp hand protruding from her stomach. Then looked up to find the hard orange eyes of the girl who had it in her grasp.
"I...won't forgive you." Ibitsu said. "Stop this."
"No." Baiken gasped, her hand covering Ibitsu's on the kunai. "Give it back."
"Stop this and you can have it!" Tsu yelled over her shoulder. "You can have one or neither. Your choice, Baiken!"
Baiken stopped for one agonizing moment.
Ibitsu felt her fingers tighten over hers, and Baiken looked down at her with longing in her eyes. Then they closed and she spoke one word. The runes stopped glowing, and the pull that Ibitsu had still been feeling stopped. "Stop, everyone." Baiken said. "It's over."
The men who had been fighting Tsu stopped, uncertain.
"Keep an eye on then, Toride." Tsu said softly as she walked to the center of the room, her blue fan still in hand. In the other she clasped that small piece of wood. "Never let it be said I do not keep my word."
Baiken looked up. "Can you..." She coughed, slumping slightly. "Can you release it for me?"
'She's dying.' Ibitsu thought. 'I've killed her. I've killed her!'
"Move back, Ibitsu." Tsu said, taking her grip gently off the bloody kunai she still held. "See to Taihei."
Ibitsu's eyes widened. Taihei! She turned and took his head in her hands, relieved to find he was still breathing.
"Kai." Tsu said, pressing the small piece of wood into Baiken's hand. In that instant a glow seemed to come over the woman, and then another woman was standing where she had been. She was rather tall and not terribly pretty, with a thin face and sunken cheeks. But in her eyes, and on her face for a moment was a look of such bliss that made her truly beautiful before her hand slipped from Tsu's and she fell lifeless to the ground.
The look on Tsu's face was one of pity as she turned and knelt beside Taihei and Ibitsu. She reached out a hand and felt Taihei's pale face. "He'll be okay. But we need to get him back to the village quickly." With a soft sound she gently pushed Ibitsu away and gathered Taihei onto her back. Grunting, she hefted a few times to settle him.
"Taihei?" Toride was suddenly there. Ibitsu looked over and found the four remnants all surrounded by one chakra shield. They packed close together, trying to avoid touching the glowing sphere. With a timid hand Toride touched her brother's back. Her face was as pale and drawn as his. Her eyes were afraid.
"He'll be all right, Toride-kun." Tsu said confidently. "Don't worry."
Ibitsu turned suddenly. "Voices." She said. She opened her left eye. "Ten people."
"Enemies?" Tsu asked.
"I...can't tell." Then she closed her eye with a look of pain.
"Toride, see if you can find her glass." Tsu-sensei said. Then when Toride made no move to leave her brother repeated the command sharply. Toride jerked, then left the room with a small angry bow.
"Sensei?" Ibitsu askedin a small voice when she had gone. "What was that thing you gave Baiken-san?"
Tsu looked at the fallen woman. "Her true identity."
"Her...true...?"
"Baiken had a unique ability. She was able to take the forms of other people, and she could hold them as long as possible as long as she had something of theirs. Like she was planning on doing with your eye. Several years ago a move was made to put a stop to it, and her true form was taken and sealed in that piece of wood by... by a member of the ANBU. As long as it was sealed she was unable to retake her own form." Tsu nudged the woman's body with her toe. "I guess in the end the desire to be herself overcame her desire for even the power that you could give her." Tsu turned. "Ibitsu-chan, what's wrong?"
"Sensei... Sensei, I killed her." Ibitsu looked down at the woman. "I killed her."
Tsu nodded her head. The first was always the hardest to get over. "You did what you had to, and I'm very proud of your quick action."
"But I...I was so angry. She hurt Taihei-san..." She looked up, and her eyes were swimming with tears.
"Ibitsu...chan..."
Both women started. "Tai...Taihei!"
His eyes were very blurry and unfocused, but he seemed to see her. "You're okay. I'm so...happy." Then he smiled, and lost consciousness again.
Ibitsu burst into tears, and Tsu, with a smile, stroked her pale hair with her free hand as she sobbed and wiped her eyes on her bandage-wrapped arms.
She was still crying when Toride pelted back into the room, excitedly waving Ibitsu's eyeglass around on its strap. "It's okay! They're Konoha ninja!"
"How in Kami-sama's name did they know?" Tsu asked in wonder.
Only Taihei perhaps knew, but he wasn't in any condition to say anything at all.
...
