A/N: Well, there I went telling lies again. I was sure that I would have been able to finish this beast last night… heh heh, oops. My bad. But anyhow, here it is. Read. Enjoy. Review. And for heaven's sake, don't forget to feed the cat.

… or something…

Chapter 7

Betrayal

After getting that first strike in, Kurogane was having a hard time gaining any more ground in the fight. His double was employing moves so odd and utterly ridiculous that it was almost impossible to hit the guy. On the brighter side though, at least his double wasn't managing to do him much damage either. The ninja had never seen anything like it; it was almost as if the guy had spent most of his training working on how to dodge and had therefore gotten very little practice in striking. The blows he did manage had little power behind them anyway.

The real Kurogane held his sword in both hands and charged the imposter, aiming to make a fatal blow. Fake Kurogane did a strange sort of ballet twirl out of the way, attempting to get around behind his attacker to land a surprise hit.

This guy is a freaking novice! Kurogane thought as he easily avoided the attack.

"Kurogane is getting tired…" his double panted. He leaned against the wall next to Syaoran and Sakura who were tied up, side by side, on the floor.

"Well, I suppose I'll have to end this now, then," the real Kurogane smirked.

He was just about to use his signature "hama ryuuoujin" move when the clock began to chime again. This wouldn't have stopped him if it hadn't been for Syaoran's yelling.

"Sakura hime!"

Kurogane whipped around to see what all the commotion was about. Then he saw it; though the princess's eyes were closed, a strange glimmering could be seen beneath her eyelids.

"Mekyo!" someone said.

He dashed forward to cut the girl's ropes, not sure what good this would do, when the other Kurogane grabbed him by the back of his collar. The sudden restraint caused him to choke and fall on his butt. The fake Kurogane came around and sat on his stomach, pressing his thumbs on a precisely chosen spot on either side of his neck.

The ninja couldn't move. His double applied a little more pressure, a smug grin spreading across his face. The real Kurogane could feel himself getting sleepy, consciousness slipping away from him at the attack on his pressure points.

"You loose," the copy whispered in his ear.

The warrior tried to utter a final insult but was couldn't speak a word. Unable to stay awake any longer, Kurogane closed his eyes. And things were rather dark.

Fai helped Syaoran untie himself. The boy snatched up Sakura, now a chicken, and held her close.

"What will we do, Fai san!" he cried. "Sakura hime has become a chicken!"

"Don't worry Syaoran!" the imposter ninja said. "Kurogane sensed the feather! It's higher up in the clock tower! Once you get it back, everyone who turned into a chicken will become human again!"

Syaoran sighed. "Thank goodness."

Then he looked over at the real Kurogane; Fai had gone to his side and the ninja's head was now resting in his lap. The wizard's face had an unshakably serene expression as he brushed back the unconscious warrior's bangs.

"Will he be alright, Fai san?" the boy asked timidly.

"Yes, Kuro chan will be fine," Fai said quietly, continuing to run his fingers through Kurogane's raven hair.

"Erm… then—then maybe we should…uh…" Syaoran stammered, somewhat shaken by Fai's display of affection toward the ninja.

"…Right," the mage said, snapping out of his reverie. "I could use some help with this, then."

The other Kurogane bounded over to Fai and took one of the ninja's arms and draped it over his shoulder while the sorcerer took the other.

"Do you want to go on and get Sakura chan's feather while we get rid of Kuropan?"

"Yes."

"Alright then. We'll be waiting for you. You know where to find us."

"Right," Syaoran nodded. Without another word, the boy scooped up Sakura-pyo in his arms and exited the room, heading for the next set of stairs.

Kurogane opened his eyes and sat up. Where was he? The room was kind of dark with only a few candles lighting the area. It looked strangely familiar… But his brain was feeling foggy so that he couldn't grasp the memory.

"Perhaps I can help you with that," a deep voice said from a dark corner. He looked into the black abyss of the room, squinting to make out the owner of the voice. That's when he saw it: a big, pink, plush, bear-face-shaped pillow, and it was talking to him.

He stared. He blinked. Then he shouted "OH, SHIT!" The ninja jumped to his feet, drawing his sword.

"STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"

The bear pillow laughed sinisterly. "I had a feeling that might work."

Keeping his eyes trained nervously on the carnivorous pillow, Kurogane dashed from the room, slamming the door shut behind him

(A/N: Alright, I'm getting tired of Kuro's double not having his own name, so from now on, I shall refer to him as Kurotwo. That works nicely.)

They were all in the living room waiting for him. Everyone; including Yamazaki and Princess Sakura, who seemed to have returned to their human forms. In fact, the only one from their group that Kurogane didn't see was Mokona but he couldn't honestly say that he was missing the obnoxious manjuu bun.

But he did see that the fake Kurogane was also there with them. The real Kurogane glared at him as he approached, seriously thinking about giving the bastard a kick in the shins.

"Hey bastard, I'm seriously thinking about giving you a kick in the shins," the ninja growled.

Kurotwo looked at him, an infuriating grin, not unlike the one Fai often wore, on his face. "Look at me!" he giggled. "I'm Kurogane!"

"No you're not, you dumb ass!"

Then Kurogane noticed something strange: not one of his other companions even acknowledged his presence. Curiously, he waved his hand in front of Fai's face. There was no reaction. Frowning, the ninja waved his hand in front of Syaoran's face. The boy blinked, as if feeling the draft from the hand moving past his eyes, but just stared blankly forward. Kurotwo plopped down on the ground, still grinning stupidly.

"Ooh, look at me," he said in almost a taunting manner. "I'm Kurogane and I'm picking my nose!"

"Umm…Kurogane san…please don't," Syaoran stammered. "That's really gross…"

Fai sat down next to Kurotwo and pulled the ninja's finger out of his nose.

"No, no, Kurochin," he scolded lightly. "That's yucky."

"YOU BASTARD! DON'T YOU DARE PICK YOUR NOSE IN MY BODY!" Kurogane roared.

He turned his back on the pair of them, glaring in Sakura and Syaoran's direction. The princess's face started going red, something the ninja found odd considering that they supposedly were unable to see him. He stomped down the row towards her, his most formidable scowl on his face.

"Ah…D-don't you think…Kurogane s-san is acting… strange?" she commented, her face becoming more scarlet by the moment.

"Kuronya! You're so much fun now!" Fai squealed. "Hold me!"

"Ok!" Kurotwo agreed.

The wizard jumped on him, fastening himself onto the fake Kurogane like a leech.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!" he shouted. "GET OFF OF HIM!"

Fai completely ignored him and continued to glomp on Kurotwo.

"HEY!" the ninja yelled. "OI! I'M TALKING TO YOU! LISTEN TO ME DAMMIT!"

"Did you hear something, Kuropun?" Fai asked Kurotwo.

"Nope!" the copy said happily.

Smoke practically pouring from the ninja's ears, Kurogane turned on his heel and stomped out of the house, unable to bear being ignored any longer.

When he got outside, he realized that though it was nearly pitch black out, there were people milling around everywhere, talking, laughing and climbing on rocks. He couldn't see any chickens around so apparently everything was back to normal. Kurogane scowled again; everything except for the fact that no one seemed to be able to see him.

He approached a group of young girls that were all chattering joyfully in a tight knot. It was very possible that his group was just messing with him and pretending that they couldn't see him.

"Anyway, he was pecking me like this and I was like, 'hey. Quit pecking me.' Except I was a chicken, you know? So it sounded kinda like "cluck cluck cluck." And he's like 'cluck cluck' which, I'm not sure, but I thought it must've meant something like 'make me' or something. And then I was like—"

"Hey," Kurogane interrupted. "Can you see me?"

The girls (whom I shall now refer to as 'the chick clique') stopped talking and looked at each other, a peculiar expression on their faces. A wave of relief washed over the ninja; so he wasn't invisible after all. The chick clique put their heads together, pushing Kurogane out of their circle, started whispering excitedly and proceeded to burst into fits of poorly suppressed giggles.

"He's cute!" one of them hissed.

"Shhh! Don't look at him!" another one whispered frantically through her laughter.

"You guys! Quit laughing!" the leader scolded, though she was also having a hard time keeping a straight face. "Just pretend like nothing happened!"

"HEY! THIS ISN'T FUNNY!" Kurogane snapped, brandishing his fist. "QUIT TALKING ABOUT ME LIKE I'M NOT HERE, BITCHES!"

The chick clique forced themselves to stop laughing and tried to resume their conversation, though they were unable to look at one another for fear of bursting into giggles again.

Muttering angrily to himself, the ninja stomped away. Something strange was going on here and he was determined to find out what it was. But how could he make any headway on the problem if no one would talk to him? Kurogane wandered aimlessly as he mulled this problem over in his mind.

Before he knew it, he was on the edge of town, near Minoru's house. He thought briefly about going in there and beating the rich bastard into a bloody pulp. True, it wouldn't help him solve his problem but at least it would make him feel better. Smiling wolfishly, Kurogane pushed back his sleeves and got ready to leap the fence into Minoru's yard when a voice stopped him.

"Hey, look! It's Kurogane!" the voice trilled. "How's it going, chum!"

The ninja turned around and found himself facing…himself. A snarl formed on his face and he turned away from the fence to face Kurotwo.

"You bastard! What's going on here! Talk, or I'll cut you in half!"

"Why do you keep wanting to cut me in half?" Kurotwo demanded. "Why not cut me in thirds? Or perhaps sixteenths?"

"QUIT AVOIDING THE QUESTION!"

"You wanna know what's going on? Do you really wanna know?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure? I don't think you're gonna like the answer very much."

"So what! I don't care what the answer is! Just tell me what the hell is going on!"

Kurotwo looked him in the eye very seriously. "The truth is…"

Kurogane leaned forward, listening intently.

"The truth is…"

Kurogane's eyes widened a little; he was actually dreading the answer.

"The truth is…"

"TELL ME ALREADY!" the ninja snapped.

"I'm not telling!" Kurotwo sang, jumping up in the air and doing a pirouette. "Tee hee hee hee! Kurogane's not telling! Kurogane's not telling!"

"YOU BASTARD!" Kurogane shouted, pulling out his sword. "I'M GONNA CUT YOU IN HALF!"

"There you go with that 'cutting me in half' thing again," Kurotwo frowned as he continued to twirl like a top. "I've heard that one already. Come up with something different."

"YOU'RE GONNA DIE, SON OF A BITCH!"

"Kyaaa! Kurogane is angry!" Kurotwo squealed.

Then the imposter became serious. "Ha. That was fun. But, all joking aside… I'm afraid that if anyone here is going to die, it will have to be you."

Kurogane smirked, glad that something he could understand was about to happen: a fight to the death. "I think not."

Kurotwo threw back his head and laughed. "You're right," he said. "Some other people might have to die too."

"I'm with you, Kuropun!"

"So am I."

"All of us are."

Three figures stepped out of the bushes that littered the side of the road. Kurogane's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

Fai, Syaoran and Sakura approached the showdown, taking their places behind the fake Kurogane.

"What are you all doing, helping out the enemy!" the ninja demanded.

"I'm sorry Kurogane san, or whoever you really are," Syaoran said, the shadows that fell across his face making him look truly evil, "but I cannot allow you to live. Not when you are trying to kill my friend."

He drew Hien and smiled determinedly at Kurotwo, who ruffled his hair.

"Nor can I," Fai said, taking a handful of darts from his coat pocket and fanning them out like playing cards.

Sakura stepped up silently beside the wizard, a frown of concentration on her pretty face and a staff of wood in her delicate hand.

Kurogane stared at them all, wearing a shocked expression. They met his gaze with nothing but malice in their eyes.

The ninja sighed resignedly and put on his game face, though someone who was looking closely may have been able to see the disappointment and betrayal behind it. This regret was for all of them but his gaze lingered especially long on Fai. Just before the wizard's attack, Kurogane could have sworn he saw a glimmer of longing in those crystal blue eyes…but as he whipped a dart at the ninja, it vanished and Kurogane decided that he must have imagined it.

A/N: Oh ho! Look at me and my bad self! I'm leaving it at a suspenseful part! Hee hee hee!

I do hope that the answer isn't as obvious as it seems to me, but then again… I'm the one writing this thing so I ought to know where it's going. I think I'll be able to wrap this up in the next chapter. I also think I'll have that up today but… don't listen to me 'cause I'm just a poopy liar pants. Later dudes!