Ino was the kind of girl who seemed like she should be accompanied by jangling electric guitars. Even when she was crouched in the pool, the water soaking her sneakers, soaking her pants, she stood with an easy grace, looking about with flashing eyes that were shields of their own; eyes like that reflected only her own ambitions; the evil of a place like this couldn't penetrate them.
Rose petals rested on the surface of the pool. All around her were statues and rose bushes and hedges. Above the sky throbbed, the colour of a sunset. Trees in the distance, and then the dark maw of the castle before her. She was alone.
That wasn't good. Did that mean the others were alone too, split, scattered along this place? She emerged from the pool, stepped onto the mosaic that was partially covered with leaves and ivy. The wind rustled the rose bushes, swept along the white surface of the statues.
ooo
Naruto stepped out onto the balcony overlooking the rose gardens and reflecting pool. Behind him were his quarters, he assumed. He had found them on his own, while he was traversing the darker places in the castle. The room was large, cold and empty. A black four-poster bed, a large wardrobe. There was a mirror, which frightened him, but the glass was so smeared and opaque that he doubted it was any danger. There were a number of suits hanging in the wardrobe.
On the balcony rail, a twisting cord of ivy began to move.
No, not ivy. An adder coiled up, looked at him lazily. He backed away. How did Orochimaru think he was going to sleep in this place if there were snakes everywhere?
"Nice view, ain't it?" the adder said.
The shock at the snake talking came and passed quickly; it was no nuttier than the rest of Naruto's day.
"Pity there's not much else," the snake added, looking out at the reflecting pool. "There's the castle and the rest of the spatial dimension, but it only goes as far as Mr. O's psychic influence extends."
"What is Mr. O, anyways? Who is he?"
"He's kind of a ghost, I guess. Kind of."
"Can all the animals here talk?"
"No."
"Oh. Who was-- who was Mr. O when he was alive then?"
"God, I dunno." The snake twisted up, bobbed up to meet Naruto's gaze. "He was a scholar, I think. Some sort of scholar. He's got that library of his. I don't know. He doesn't tell us animals much. We get kind of a rough deal here -- there's no sun for us snakes to lie in; not much of a sky for the birds to fly -- oh, something's happening."
Something was. A dark flock of black birds were wheeling and swinging over the woods beyond the rose garden. The tornado swung about then shot down, disappearing into the trees.
"Wonder what's going on," the snake said.
The room door opened. Naruto looked back, saw a raven standing in the door frame, wings outstretched. "The master," it said, "has requested you get ready for dinner. Jackets and pants are in the wardrobe."
"I don't really want to join him," Naruto said. "Given my whole forced captivity and all."
The bird shrugged. "It was a request."
"What does he want exactly? With me, I mean."
"To have dinner with you?"
"No, I mean-- this. All of this."
"The castle?"
"His kidnapping me."
"Oh, I'm sure I have no idea, sir."
"I'd like to go home."
"Me too, sir. Inform me if you change your mind about the dinner."
The bird turned and vanished into the dark corridor. The door slowly closed behind him.
ooo
Sasori and Deidara were starting to regret following Shikamaru's orders to get into the circle Hinata had drawn, which has sent Sasuke and the others off in a now-you-see-them-now-you-don't kind of way that scared the crap out of them. Especially now since they were now alone -- Shikamaru, Temari and Jugo were nowhere to be seen. Sasori and Deidara stood under dark gnarled trees. Above a black clouds of crows lunged down at them.
They ran.
"This place has quite the aesthetic!" Deidara shouted, skidding down a leafy hill and heading past the trees. "A gloomy but deadly sort of atmosphere, don't you think?"
"Now is not the time, Dei!" Sasori shouted, running after him.
The crows swept down at him. Sasori leapt off a tree trunk, dashed across the branches, escaping their snapping beaks. Deidara spun, throwing globs of clay. Explosions rocked the tree tops, branches falling, crashing into the piles of leaves.
He landed and his legs sunk into the ground up to his knees, the soil turned to a dark gloppiness. "Oh," he said. "Not good."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sasori land. Sasori turned and saw him. That was when the skeletal hands burst from the muck, snatched his collar and yanked him down, the blackness closing over his face.
"Oh good god," Sasori said, stumbling back. "Oh good god."
ooo
There was a noise and that noise was the creaking of the tree branches in the wind, and the sound of Sai's weight from where he dangled from his dress from the tree.
Down below, a flash of pink. "You look ridiculous, Sakura said. "Absolutely ridiculous."
"Oh do I?" Sai said, twisting slowly about, looking down at the young woman. "That's crazy. Can you imagine? Ridiculous. Who would have thought?"
"This is why you don't wear dresses. Jeans work for every situation imaginable."
"But then I wouldn't be fashionable. Can you see my purse anywhere?"
"Oh, you'd rather hang from a tree than be unfashionable? Is it really that important?"
"No, what's important is staying graceful under stress."
"So you have to wear a dress, then?"
"A well-tailored dress is grace incarnate. Listen, could you please see if my purse is around?"
"Why-- why do you need your purse in a time like this?"
"It's got my cigarettes in it."
"Oh, yeah, cigarettes. Those are important."
"Think you could, I don't know, help me down, instead of standing there?"
"Dude, you're, like, fifteen feet up."
"So?"
"So that's really high up."
"Yeah, and I'd really like to not fall to my death, thanks."
"What do you expect me to do? Shimmy up there? Catch you?"
"I don't know. Try and find my cigarettes."
"Shouldn't we, I dunno, look around for the others? We'll find Hinata. Her circle-thing put you up there."
""Well don't -- don't leave me here."
"Stop moving -- you'll fall--"
"Yeah, I'm aware, thanks."
"Why do you smoke so much anyways?"
Sai didn't say anything. The reason for his smoking was lost to antiquity, a twelve year old boy watching the flickering images of Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Vivian Leigh, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Audrey all suck ash in their own inimitable way. When they smoked, the cigarette became a part of them, part of the grace of their movement.
Sakura had never smoked. The smoking fad at the highschool had come and gone without snatching her up. Fads never touched her; Sai knew Sakura would go on to college or university or wherever, unsoiled by the prejudices of the previous school. She rarely even drank, not out of some principle, but rather just that alcohol had yet to really float into her metamorphic existence. She would drink when she wanted, not drink when she wanted. The social context never mattered to her.
"Maybe I should have a look around," she said.
"Sakura," Sai said, "if you leave me here, I swear to God I will hunt you down and bury you."
The bush next to Sakura rustled and Kakashi emerged from it, standing up straight. "Children," he said. "We need to stop bickering."
"Mr. Kakashi," Sai said. "Oh thank god."
After they got Sai down, they pushed through the trees and found a rushing river. Bushes and small trees grew alongside the water, and beyond they saw Iruka crossing, stepping lightly over a series of stones.
When he reached them he said, "I can't find Hinata or the others. That spell was supposed to drop us into a localized position, dammit."
"Yeah," Kakashi said, stepping past him and peering into the trees.
"Orochimaru did it," Iruka said. "He had to have. He -- I don't know -- screwed up the transport, the -- the whatever--"
"Ghosts were always your specialty, right?"
"Long time ago," Iruka said. "We were -- we were just a bunch of kids, weren't we? Lucky to still be alive. God."
Kakashi turned, regarded him intently. "Sure."
"At any rate, the creatures we used to fight were very different from Orochimaru."
"What's the plan then?" Sakura asked.
"We find my purse," Sai said, pushing aside brush and branches, looking around.
"We have to find the others," Iruka said. "Kakashi--"
"Yes?"
"Take the others and go find Sasuke and Hinata and Ino. I'm going to that castle and get Naruto out."
"Alone?"
"I'm the one with the most experience with ghosts, right?"
Something sparkled in Kakashi's eye. "Right."
ooo
Who would build a castle like this?
Ino pirouetted slowly on the top step of the castle, surveying the statue garden, gazed at the roses, the ivy, the trees. Who had the money for all of this? What year was the castle anyway? There were turrets, and spires-- certainly this wasn't a castle made for war or protection, though: there were no outer embankments, no walls, nothing resembling a fortress except for those turrets. Decoration. Anyways, she thought; I suppose no one builds a gigantic castle out in the middle of the woods for protection. Who was this Orochimaru?
She tried the doors. Some sort of dark wood, laced with a metal -- bronze? They were huge. They were locked. Great.
She wondered what it would be like to grow up in a place like this? She herself grew up in a farmhouse out in the middle of fields and pastures. Every time she stepped out the door the wind would try its best to throw her off her feet.
It must be quiet in a place like this, sheltered from the wind by the trees and the shadows.
Doors had never stopped her for long. There was a window a story up. She leapt, kicked off the stone, yanked herself up the ivy and grabbed hold of the windowsill.
Oh goodness, it was slimier than she expected. She dug her feet into the stone, trying to keep her grip, but, oh no, she was slipping, she was going to--
The window slid up and someone reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her up and into the castle.
It was Sasuke.
"Jesus," Ino said, looking up. "The hell are you doing here? Where's everyone else?"
"No idea. Could you please be quieter?"
Where were they? Ino straightened, looked around. A small chapel, pews made of oak, and an altar near the front. Stained glass windows, but not one showing anything Ino associated with Catholic imagery.
"Demons," Sasuke snarled, going to the door at the back of the room. "Devil-worshippers. That sort of thing."
Something about that didn't feel right to Ino. There were women in the windows, but they seemed more interested in bathing underneath waterfalls than in demonic orgies. The men had antlers, not horns. Some of the women had the legs of goats. Many of them were busy copulating, either with each other, with animals, with trees.
"What kind of castle was this?" she asked.
"Who knows?" Sasuke said darkly, pulling open the door and peering out. "Does it matter?"
"How'd you get in?"
"Same as you. Climbed."
"Have you seen the others?"
"Not yet."
A voice said, "This was a shrine to a fertility cult once, a long time ago."
They turned sharply. Sasuke sucked in his breath, gritted his teeth.
There was a man sitting in a pew, facing away from them. He was tall, lanky, perhaps gaunt, but Ino could not see his face. Even when he cocked his head to look at them, the shadows obscured his features. "You can imagine how pagans were frowned upon three hundred years ago."
He titled his head slightly, the light encroaching upon his jawline. Ino saw a thin pumpkin grin spread across his face. "Sasuke. You came."
Sasuke stepped forwards, gazed levelly at Orochimaru. "Listen to me. Are you listening to me?"
"Oh yes."
"I've been training and learning how to kill people since I could walk. I've studied a lot of martial arts in my lifetime. I can think of at least nineteen ways to kill you where you stand right now."
"How lovely."
"Do you understand me?"
"You're threatening me?"
"I am. That's exactly what I'm doing. I want to make myself as clear as possible. Take me to Naruto right now or I will kill you."
"I thought I was already dead."
Sasuke shifted, pulling a large frying pan from inside his coat. Orochimaru watched him intently.
"Sasuke," Ino said, "that's a frying pan."
"It's an iron frying pan," Sasuke said. "Do you hear what I'm saying? It's made of iron."
"Yes," Orochimaru said. "And iron can harm the fae folk, the elves, the boggarts, the redcaps, the et cetera, et cetera."
He stood up, turned, walked up to Sasuke, coming into the light. Ino stepped back; she hadn't been expecting those eyes. Snake's eyes.
Sasuke swung the pan. Orochimaru caught his wrist, twisted it, snatched the pan away in his free hand. The gaunt man examined it, turning it over. "You don't see these very often any more, do you? Iron pans. All teflon now, yes?"
Sasuke stared angrily. Orochimaru released his wrist, shrugged. "I'm not one of the fae folk. Right, I'd like to invite you all to dinner. Naruto will be there, I think."
He turned around, approached the altar, set the pan down upon it. "All in all, it will be a lovely affair."