Part II Doppelganger

Visit to Cirrus

Raikage Maruyama Rikako is going over the monthly reports from every province in her land. All official appointments have been made as far as she knows, but she may have missed some. It's been six months since she's taken over. The country is back on shaky but standing legs. There is plenty in the treasury to help rebuild – the previous Daimyos and Raikages were hoarders. One report catches her eye. She doesn't recall coming across it before. It's from a small province in the northeast mountains of Cirrus. What catches her eye is the name on the report, Arai Asuto. Arai… that is her biological father's family. She hasn't given them much thought as it has been pounded into her that she is the last of her advanced bloodline, but that is on her mother's side. Her father's side she's neglected. The report appears to be an accounting of expenses and a grant renewal request.

Rikako calls for one of her advisors, a young man, about her age, an expert in the genealogy of the clans of Thunder Country. He kneels in front of her. She never cared for these formalities, but they keep everyone happy and in line. They like to follow old customs.

"Raikage-sama…"

She flips the report to him. "What do you know of this place and the Arai clan?"

"The Arai clan are known as scholars rather than shinobis, although a handful over the generations have become shinobis to the consternation of the head of the clan. They run a hospital and research facility in Cirrus. Their specialty is genetics."

Rikako frowns at the news, that would make sense.

"Why wasn't I informed earlier?"

"Well, it's an obscure province. They probably only file reports semi-annually to request funding. They're allowed to function independently. There are no official appointments required there as the province is under the control of the Arai clan."

"How far is it from here?"

"Normally, it would be a half day trip, but I imagine your lordship could cover it in a couple of hours."

Should she inform them ahead of time? No, she wants it to be a surprise. She wants no pretense, no time for them to hide something from her, if anything. A research facility like that must have secrets.

The next morning, Rikako summons her great eagle. Flying, she should make it there in an hour. There are no pressing matters. She should be back by lunchtime.

The hospital is not terribly accessible. It stands halfway up in a mountain niche. What sick person could make his way up here? she thinks as she lands by the front gate. It's locked and there are two guards who ask her what business she has.

Rising to her full height, she announces in her most commanding voice, "Idiots! To whom do you think you're talking? Show your Raikage some respect! Start bowing now and maybe I won't lightning fry you into smithereens!"

The two guards are taken aback by this announcement. They're not sure whether she's telling the truth. Way out here in the northeast away from the political center, they haven't seen the new Raikage, though they have heard of her competence and common sense and bad temper. She's smaller than they expected, so if she weren't the Raikage they could probably take her, but it is better to be safe, so they let her in without further ado.

She dispenses with the eagle and does a quick scan of the guards' minds - thugs, not terribly bright, not privy to what's going on inside. One of the guards gets up from kneeling and asks if he should call ahead to the director. She shakes her head. "No, this is a surprise inspection." He nods nervously. Those black eyes like empty voids threaten to suck him in.

There are another two guards by the building entrance. Rikako ignores them and walks directly up to the receptionist and asks for the director. As she flounders for an answer, Rikako extracts the information from her mind and finds her way to his office before he can be warned.

She lightning blasts open the door to the director's office. Lightning blasts are way more fun than fire jutsus, she thinks wryly.The elderly man in a suit covered by a lab coat barely raises an eyebrow. "Raikage-sama," he stands up and bows low, "please come in. We've been expecting you…but we did expect you to knock first…"

The director, Arai Asuto, is her uncle, her father's older brother. A tall man of medium build with short salt and pepper hair and kind soft brown eyes. I wonder if that's what my father would look like if he were still alive. I wonder what made him to decide to become a shinobi rather than follow in his family's footsteps.

He calmly shows her the facilities and meticulously explains the function of each instrument. "Here is our cloning facility, for years we were trying to analyze the Hyuuga Byakugan eye we received, but to no avail. The doctors in Konoha were smart enough to render it useless."

Rikako thinks, yeah, dear old Otori was good at stuff like that.

She sees a door marked in red, "authorized personnel only." There's a special lock on it and chakra suppression charms. "What's behind those doors?"

"Oh, just various patients."

"Patients or test subjects?" He's prepared, he has mind blocks up, good sturdy ones.

Shrugs, "Same difference really."

"Show me."

"As you wish Raikage-sama," he says, but a bit nervously.

The rooms are more like jail cells than a hospital room. Most of the patients appear to be comatose with tubes running in and out. There are about 20 such rooms, 10 on each side. Halfway down the hall she stops and stares.

She sees her in a straightjacket – almost a twin - same height, same build, same eyes. The girl is thinner, with a slightly longer face and no scar across her left eye. She sits on the floor and stares into space, but suddenly aware of their presence, she runs up to the door and presses her face wildly against the small window. Rikako feels as though she were looking into a mirror, or rather a funhouse mirror with its distorted depiction of reality. Their eyes meet and lock. Their thoughts exchange in an instant.

The so-called research facility is where they hide their failures. Shinobis too dangerous, too insane to be allowed to roam free, but too valuable to execute. The previous Raikages must have known about this place. The advisors and perhaps her grandfather as well. They are all dead. None of them had informed her, they didn't trust her, she didn't need to know, or was it because they knew that could be her ultimate fate. Does Hizashi know? It doesn't matter – she knows now.

"Why was I told I was the last of my line?"

"For all intended purposes you are…the patients here…have all been rendered sterile."

"She's my sister?"

"Yes, your older sister, by about four years. Rei was brought here for treatment when your mother was pregnant with you. She started showing signs of instability when she was two. By the time she was four it was clear she had to be...admitted to this facility. It seemed we had her under control for a while and when she was ten she was allowed to join the other kids at the shinobi academy. She became a genin at 12. But then…one day…she killed her genin teammates and put her jounin sensei in a coma for months. No one knows why. Her sensei lost most of his memory."

"So she's been held here for the past 12 years? What did you do to her?"

"Well," he starts to cough, "run tests, blood tests, uh, the usual."

"What else?"

"Umm, brain scans, we tried to stabilize her mind with chakra shocks."

"Drugs?"

"Yes, that too."

"What is she like untreated?"

"Well, she has moments of clarity which could last days, but then she becomes violent again. Anything can set her off. She's extremely dangerous - it took two elite platoons to take her down the first time."

The Shattered Mind

That afternoon Rikako is back in her office. She waves a few locks of hair away from her eyes. She decided to cut her hair months ago because it just took too much time and effort to maintain, not that she did much maintenance, but now every minute counts and she could not afford to waste any time. She pulls out the case files she requested from her uncle and starts to read Rei's first. She skims the plethora of paperwork...

…signs of problematic behavior observed at age 2…demonstrated by poor social behavior, lack of response to parents, inconsolable tantrums, aggressive, self-injurious behavior with repetitive motions such as head banging…seizures with no known pathology...leaks chakra while sleeping resulting in destruction of loose objects in the nursery…

…problems progressed…condition deteriorated…age 4 admitted to present facility for treatment and study…subject appears to suffer from delusions and hallucinations, emotional withdrawal, exhibits irrational behavior and often unintelligible speech…chakra leak has become stronger and more destructive…

Gradual improvement with drug therapy and chakra shocks.

Attempted integration with mainstream students at age 10.

Subject appears to be cured and requires only periodic checkups.

Age 12 - readmitted after killing both genin teammates…victims had defensive lacerations to arms, post-mortem puncture wounds to the face and neck, cause of death determined to be cardiac arrest from exposure to high voltage - most likely lightning jutsus. Jounin sensei found in a coma with internal bleeding, brain hemorrhage, and neurological trauma, recovered after 3 months, but appears to have retrograde and psychogenic amnesia surrounding these events…

From their minds touching in that instant, Rikako knows why she attacked them - she felt left out. Their sensei was playing favorites.

She closes the file thoughtfully. Could this have been herself, if it weren't for her adoptive parents' patience and teachings?

The Awakening

She has that hollowed crazed look, typical of those who bang their heads on the walls to stop the voices and of those who eat food from bowls like animals. Her mind has been in a fog, not knowing one day from the next. Then a spark of light, of recognition, then a blazing flame when their eyes met and they exchanged thoughts. Her life, she wanted it, that's what she deserved, not the other.

That thought, of the other's life, that drew her to the surface of sanity.

How to escape. She refuses food for two days and pretends to be unconscious. Concerned, the guard who brings her lunch enters tentatively to take her pulse. She uses her legs to knock his from under him. He falls and bangs his head, stunned for a second, enough time for her to smash her legs down on his neck, breaking it. She may not be able to use her chakra in this room, but she's kept her legs and taijutsu in shape.

In the dead of night, she exercises her legs. And her arms in the straight jacket were always pulling and straining. She was not insane really, just...troubled... just needed some anger management. It is only when they give her the treatments does her mind cloud over. She takes his kunai from the leg pack with her teeth and cuts herself free from the straightjacket, also lacerating her arms, but she doesn't notice the pain or blood. She places the body on the bed and covers it with the blanket. She takes all his weapons and packs. She quickly eats the food the guard had brought, and leaves it out for the other attendants to collect. This should buy her a couple of hours at least. The guard's clothes are too big for her, she'll have to find someone her size, but they will do well enough to fool the cameras. It's lunchtime, few people are around and the guards are inattentive, they won't notice the oversized clothing on a small figure in their monitors.

She uses the guard's access card to open the door to the special section. All is quiet. She needs clothes her size, then to escape from the building and then the grounds. There are only a few guards and now that she is out of that area, she can use her full powers. But killing too many people would be more risky. She uses her mind, convinces the receptionist to use the ladies room, easily breaks her neck with a stranglehold. She hides the body in a stall and puts on her clothes. She takes a kunai and carefully cuts a vertical line across her own left eye. She doesn't even flinch. She uses her mind to find an empty office. The top brass always had a room with a view - with a window. Their windows had no bars, not like the examination rooms. She uses her camouflage techniques and concentrates chakra to her feet. Soon she is out of the building and away from the grounds.

Konoha is to the west. The memories she saw from the other help her home in on its location. Hiding, keeping off the well trodden paths, away from high ground, she scurries through the bushes, through thorns and rough stone trails. First stop is Kakashi's place, then the parents.

It takes longer than she thought to get there. By the time she arrives at his doorstep, she is starving, dehydrated, exhausted.

When she wakes, she feels him looking at her, studying her. She sits up to get a better look at him. He's better looking in the memory. Strange taste the other had. This guy seriously needs a haircut. She had to be careful, not to look at him directly, not to speak too much, or he would know.

The Other

"Mama…" she collapses in Rika's arms sobbing.

"What's happened?" she brings her inside. Her father, hearing the commotion comes in too.

"Kakashi…he…"

"What did that bastard do? If he hurt you… I'm going to rip out his sharingan!"

"Stop it," Rika says to him. To her daughter she says, "Calm down, what happened?"

Her body racked with sobs, "It's over, truly over now."

"Why don't you go upstairs, wash up, take a rest. I'll be up with some tea and we can talk."

She nods and walks slowly up the stairs. Once upstairs, she plops happily down on the bed and looks around the room. Not much here, it's pretty bare, guess most of her stuff is over at Kakashi's. Some books and scrolls, the titles are very boring – "History of Konoha from the First to the Fourth Hokages," "Chakra Control and Medical Applications," "How to Maximize your Chakra Efficiency in 12 Easy Steps." What a boring bookworm she must be.

It was so easy fitting in, she just became what they wanted, someone to love and protect, a child to comfort and care for. That way they did not look too closely, did not notice she was not the other.

Despite what men think they want, they all wanted a woman weaker than them to show their dominance. That Kakashi was no different. But yet, why did he push her away, did he suspect? She over reacted, couldn't help it, that inner rage that she couldn't control, that got her into trouble time and again. Even the drugs hadn't helped. But the thoughts from which the rage originated were not her own.

He got away, tricked her with his clone. She probably doesn't have much time before he sounds the alarm, so she better enjoy it while she can. This could have been her life, with loving parents and friends. Too bad the other takes it for granted and shows no appreciation. She doesn't deserve them.