Itachi swept out of the shadows, descending onto Sasuke, who was held fast by the table.
"Goodness, look at you," Itachi said softly. "How unfortunate."
Sasuke began struggling in earnest. "Get away from me."
"Why? Leave you now, when you need my help the most?"
"I don't need your help."
"You want me to leave you here."
"Yes!"
Itachi stepped up on the table, kneeled down, as if straddling Sasuke, pressing his face close to his brother's, almost close enough to touch noses.
"I'm serious," Sasuke said. "Keep away from me."
"Sasuke, don't you ever think about what could have been?" Breath like ice. Frost sparkled on Sasuke's cheeks where it touched him.
"No."
The vampire's voice was almost a whisper. "But here you are. Almost gift wrapped for me."
Itachi swept forwards, closing his shadows over Sasuke.
"Stop it," Sasuke said, feeling the effect of Itachi on him. God, he was starting to look like him. They both took after their father.
"There's something to be said for being together, isn't there? The family unit."
"The fuck you care. You killed them all."
"I want to extend the same gift to you."
"They're all dead."
"But you won't be. Not completely."
"Itachi--"
"How does that sound? An eternity together--"
"You can't--"
"Why not?"
"Take me away--"
"What?"
"It'll take me away from--"
"From Naruto."
"Fuck you."
"We can't. We're brothers."
"Go away."
"All I hear is the death cries of your living self, Sasuke."
"Itachi--"
"Quiet. It'll be over soon--"
"No--"
A noise.
Itachi looked up, looked over towards the steps near the fireplace. There was a silhouette standing there, just standing on the steps.
"Hm," the vampire said.
There were beads of dust on the table that held Sasuke. Sasuke watched them float upwards, coming together. There was sand billowing out from the steps, swirling around the figure on the steps.
The sand swept upwards, hurtled across the ceiling and crashed into Itachi.
ooo
It was official: Ino hated oubliettes.
For one, it stunk. The passage had clearly not been cleaned for some time, and it took a long while for the stench of death to leave any sort of pit. It came up towards her where she was held, pressing her feet and hands against the side of the drop, stopping herself from falling. The stench made her gag.
She tried to remember what her parkour instructor had told her: There are two aspects to effective movement--your level of balance and your level of hesitation. You must only hesitate the split-second it takes to find your balance. Any more and you'll fall. The trick is to be as fluid as water. The human body is not a static entity -- it is a creature always in motion; even as your foot touches ground, you should be already turning, moving towards another place to fall.
God, look at me, she thought; I hate myself. I'm in a haunted castle, stuck in an oubliette, and I'm still emotionally detached. I'm a robot, I'm just a frigging computer. I hate it.
She pushed off her right foot, bounced off her left, shot up the passage and braced herself beneath the opening to the pit. How to get out? She saw the gears, each attached to each other, extending to mechanisms lodged deep within the rock itself. She tried pushing at the gears; they wouldn't budge.
There must be some way to open this from the inside. Anyone building this would need some way to operate it, to maintain it. It had to break down eventually and someone would have to take it apart.
But it was connected to the chair, wasn't it? Orochimaru touched a button and gears connected to the chair had to turn, and those gears would turn the gears beneath this trapdoor. There was no way in hell some girl would have be able to turn these fuckers with her bare hands, no matter how much she worked out in her spare time.
But these were old, weren't they? Hundreds of years, at least. And they couldn't have been made of steel, or any sort of alloy strong enough; not three hundred years ago. They'd need to be made of a delicate metal, something that could be set perfectly into one another. She braced her hands against the side of the walls, strained, and whirled upwards, slamming her feet into the gears.
She almost fell, almost hurled to her death, but she managed to hold tight, even as pain rippled up her legs. Fucking gears. Fucking castle. Fucking oubliette.
No hesitation. She found her balance, pressed hard, then swung up again, slamming both feet against the gears. This time she knocked one loose, heard it skitter against the wall, then crash down in the darkness below.
No connection to a big heavy chair this time. Just a trapdoor and its hinges. She swung up, braced herself with her feet, then pushed upwards. The flagstone moved, barely, but she was strong enough to push it a few inches open.
She saw a storm of sand slap against Itachi, who hid from the violence with his dark cloak. The sand vanished him from sight, and then let him reappear. He whirled upwards and out of Ino's vision.
Oh man. What was going on?
She forced the flagstone up, pulled herself out. She hit the floor, rolled, as the sand came about, crashing into the table. The table exploded, and Sasuke hit the ground, covering his hand from the hailstorm of fragments.
Ino came to a crouch, saw Itachi become a shadow skidding back as the sand crashed down at him again and again. She ran towards Sasuke, snatching up a fallen candlestick as she went.
"Pathetic," she heard Itachi say.
Something was happening. There was fragments of table flying about, tile exploding upwards, sand shooting through the air. She saw Gaara, of all people, approaching Itachi. He was not smiling. Instead his eyes were wide. He looked confused.
Itachi, a darkness in the midst of everything, growled. "Does Orochimaru really think he can beat me with a child playing around with shadow-powers?"
A chill in the air.
Sasuke came to his feet. "We have to get out of here."
"Y-yeah," Ino said.
Sand was icing over, falling to the ground in shards of frost. It looked like it was snowing around Itachi, who stood up, a boiling miasma of darkness.
Gaara was stumbling back, tripping over himself to get away. A sheen of ice crackled over the floor, flew up the fragments of the table, began to climb up the walls.
Ino shivered violently. She'd never been so cold in her life.
"Run, Gaara," Itachi said. "If you can."
Gaara ran. Itachi didn't pursue. Instead he turned, a silhouette of pitch and darkness, two burning red eyes staring in Sasuke's direction. Sasuke froze, staring back.
"Do you see, Sasuke?" Itachi said.
"Oh my god," Sasuke said.
There were no windows here to leap through. Ino grabbed Sasuke by the arm, wrenched him towards the nearest exit.
"Sasuke," Itachi hissed.
Ino pulled the door open, shoved themselves through and shut the door behind them.
ooo
What was Shikamaru?
No hesitation, only a sort of glee in his eyes, the way he turned, his sword crackling out of existence in the midst of crimson energy. Temari watched him hack off the first head of the beast.
This didn't make sense. Temari shouldn't be here, shouldn't be in the depths of some swamp water, shouldn't be seeing Shikamaru sweep the heads of a monster that seemed specifically designed to unsettle her.
Besides, now she couldn't breathe. The air in her lungs had gone stale a long time ago, and she felt like her lungs were about to split apart. She swam for the surface, kicking out as hard as she could.
Temari.
Oh shit.
Down below. Beneath her. She could see Kankuro rising up out of the mud, made of mud, this mud-brother reaching up for her, grabbing at her ankles.
Why her? Why was this place specifically trying to scare her? She screamed, she couldn't help it, the bubbles bursting out of her mouth all at once.
Keep control. She pushed out, struggling for the surface. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Shikamaru. Who was he? Why was he handling this so well? There he was, lopping off another head.
ooo
The moment Naruto felt leaves whipping past him, he grabbed hold of the branches. Ah shit, he felt them breaking. Kicking out, he tried to grab hold of thicker bows. One of them slammed into his stomach, knocking all the wind out of him and rendering him limp and useless. He hit a second, rolled along it, managed to grab hold.
Lucky, he thought; no broken ribs. No broken ribs and that's so very lucky.
He lay there against the tree, panting, trying to force himself to work again. He heard fluttering feathers above -- just a bird or someone sent to collect him? He turned, looked down. Only a ten foot drop. He forced himself to a crouch, dropped to the next bow down, then dropped down to the ground.
Well. He was out of the castle, at least.
"Naruto?" he heard Kabuto say.
Looking up, seeing Kabuto run across the reflecting pool and up onto the stone. He looked the incarnation of relief.
"What are you doing here?" Naruto said.
"Here--" Kabuto said, looking around. He looked up at the castle, then back at the reflecting pool. "Where-- where is here?"
"Good question. Not entirely sure. How'd you get here?"
"Not sure of that either. Where-- Have you seen anyone else here? Sasuke-- have you seen Sasuke?"
"Sasuke? You're with Sasuke?"
"Erm, yeah. I'm here to-- rescue you. I'm here with Sasuke."
"Where is he?"
"He's -- honestly?" He adjusted his glasses, looked miserable. "I think he's in that castle."
Naruto's spirits sank. He turned back, looked up at the spires. "In that castle?"
"Which castle is it?"
"Orochimaru's castle. You'll never find a more wretched hive of--"
"Listen, we need to get out of here."
"Well, we're not going anywhere if Sasuke's in that castle."
"It's taken care of."
"What?"
"Someone else went in there to fetch him."
"Who?"
"Uh--"
"Who's all here?"
"Well--"
"Well?"
"Everyone, I guess."
"Who's everyone?"
"Iruka, Sasuke, Hinata--"
"What? Where?"
"Sasuke's in that castle."
"Well, then--"
"What are you wearing?"
Naruto looked down at the leather. "Good question."
He turned back towards the castle. It stood there, lurching over here, massive, forbidding. Sasuke, in there. Goddammit.
"Naruto!"
At the sound of the voice, he turned, looking back. It was the rose pool just beyond the hedge garden, beyond the statues. He saw Shikamaru and Temari emerging, soaked. Shikamaru ran his hands through his hair, twisting out the water. Temari looked pinched and pale.
"Not you again," Naruto said.
"Hold on!" Shikamaru shouted. "Don't you go anywhere. Don't you go anywhere, goddammit. I've been looking for you to just suddenly run off. You stay right there."
"I don't have time for this, Shikamaru."
"Stay right there, dammit."
Naruto walked up the steps of the castle, up towards the door. He heard the castle groaning, responding to his presence. You want me, Naruto thought; come and have me. "Open up," he said.
The doors responded instantly, swinging open with a moaning sound, a sound almost sexual in nature. He ran into the castle, and they swung shut behind him.
"I--" Shikamaru said, when he reached the steps. "I really hate that kid sometimes."
"He looked good," Temari said. "At least he's still alive, right?"
Shikamaru looked up at Kabuto. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Got in through the witch-circle," Kabuto said. "Same as you."
"With the vampire?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I bet."
He danced up the steps, went to the door, tried the handles. Locked.
"I'm just glad to get out of that swamp," Temari said.
Shikamaru didn't like this. The castle felt like it was shifting, like it was coming alive. The stone felt cold to the touch, yet he sensed a consciousness, something ancient and lecherous.
His sword exploded into existence in a crackle of red energy. He swung, cut the doors in two. They burst from the impact, wood splinters showering the steps. "That's the way we do it," he said. He kicked in the door, walked in.
Temari felt it instantly. She stumbled back, feeling the swirling presence touch at her thighs, dance along her nipples. Temari, it said, in a warm breath of sexuality. "What-?"
"Temari," Shikamaru called from the door. "Let's hurry this up."
What's happening? Temari thought.
ooo
This is fucked, Sasuke thought, following Ino as they ran along the corridors. I can't want to kiss my brother. I just can't. Yet there had been a moment back there--
No, he thought. This, this right here.
This if fucked.
All around him he felt the castle come alive. This was bad, he thought.