Okimi
Towering walls of ice rose from the stone floor, up as far as the eye could see. Okimi found herself standing at an intersection, four identical passageways branching out before her.
The air was bitingly cold, her breath forming small clouds with each exhale. The ice walls glowed with an eerie, pale blue light, casting distorted reflections of Okimi reflected from the wall opposite themselves, ad infinitum.
Okimi let her thoughts wander as did her feet; she explored the twisting corridors.
Where was she? What had she been doing before this? This place was bizarre. Bizarre enough to be the Corruption. But there was no such malevolent oppressive feeling that the Corruption gave off.
When she rounded a corner she spotted a woman with beautiful long white hair. Unlike her own, her hair was so white it almost seemed to shine, like a field of white snow. It was difficult for her to even make out the individual strands. It was as if every other white she had seen was actually a shade of light gray and only now for the first time, did she see true white.
When the woman turned around, Okimi he had to blink twice. She had the same face as Okimi as well.
"Where am I? Why do you look like me?" Okimi asked.
"'Look?' 'Where?' Those don't actually apply." the other Okimi said.
Okimi thought for a moment. "I'm inside of my mind. Have I been affected by a genjutsu?"
"I don't know, but I know one thing…" The other Okimi held up her stub of an arm. "Why did you do this?" She asked.
"It was necessary to bring Kurotenshi to our side," Okimi said. She wasn't sure why she'd said 'our.'"
"He is weak. You should have let him die."
"He is an Uchiha. With time, he will become an invaluable asset. It was a sound strategic decision."
"Oh, please. Keep telling yourself that. He is weakness incarnate. We could make better use use of that sharingan. Just imagine what what we might be able to do with our ocular cursed seal layered on top of a sharingan."
Okimi opened her mouth, but for once she didn't have a retort. That was obvious to her, so why then did she…
"You are soft. You have forgotten who you are. You are a weakness." A Spectral Scythe formed in the other Okimi's hand, but instead of a ghostly white, it was black as of shadow and seemed to boil in the air. "I will slice you off and eat you, and then I will become you, the real you."
Okimi formed her own ghostly white Spectral Scythe and charged forward. Their blades let out unearthly hums as they collided with one another. They released a flurry of slashes, but the other Okimi seemed a bit better somehow. Whatever feints or double feints Okimi made, she always predicted them. Finally, the other Okimi's Spectral Scythe knocked hers to the side and passed through her arm.
Okimi's arm seemed unharmed, but she knew the effect of her Spectral Scythe. She dropped her scythe as her arm went limp and her soul arm fell to the ground.
Okimi turned and ran, but the other Okimi pursued.
She chased her through the twists and turns. Okimi tried dropping caltrops and explosive tags but the other Okimi avoided them easily enough. But looking back, Okimi noticed something about where the explosive tags had detonated.
She stopped. Dead end.
The other Okimi slowed her pace now that her prey was cornered.
Okimi tossed her last explosive tag shuriken on the ground between them.
The other Okimi stopped, examining Okimi's pensive expression as if trying to decipher her plan. But Okimi knew the other Okimi couldn't know. She had never looked behind her to see the effects of the explosive tags.
The explosion went off and the ice floor crumbled. Underneath was a room with a familiar-looking crimson carpet. Okimi leapt down.
She didn't bother taking in the scenery of the luxurious chairs and exotic potted plants, but ran down the hall. When she realized there were no footsteps coming from behind her she slowed her pace to a halt, then crept back towards the other room. There was no point in using Soul Projection to scout against this opponent.
She held out a mirror and looked at the room's reflection. To her surprise, the hole she had entered through was gone.
This was a place she had once known well, the house she had grown up in.
She continued down the hall, more slowly this time, past some paintings. They had been paintings of her ancestors before, but now each painting was of Okimi herself, or rather, of different altered versions of Okimi.
The one that particularly caught her eye… She couldn't say exactly what it was, but there was such darkness in those eyes. It was as if all of the evil of the corruption was condensed into a single person.
She realized she was panting heavily and standing frozen in fear. She averted her eyes and quickly walked past. Get ahold of yourself, Okimi. You've encountered actual monsters. How is a picture still so damn intimidating!?
She opened a door and burst into the bedroom, where she saw a tiny Okimi aligning stuffed bears and turtles, different toys into two lines facing one another. Okimi knew she was enacting some imaginary battle in her head.
Little Okimi looked at her and said, "Will you play with me?"
"No," Okimi said.
Little Okimi walked over to Okimi and tugged at her skirt, "You have to play with me," the child ordered.
Okimi wasn't sure what to do in this situation. If someone her age was being demanding, she could just give them a boot to the face, but she didn't really want to do that to a child.
Little Okimi puckered her lip.
A whirlwind of emotions whirred through Okimi's head. She found her lips beginning to curl, but forced them back down into a frown, then shouted, "Alright! Fine, you win!"
Okimi stared at the dragon plushie she'd been handed, utterly baffled. Little Okimi bounced impatiently beside her, eyes wide with excitement.
"Come on, make him fly!" Little Okimi urged.
"Uh... whoosh?" Okimi said flatly, moving the dragon in a small circle.
Little Okimi rolled her eyes dramatically. "No, no, no! Like this!" She grabbed the dragon, making it swoop and dive while making exaggerated roaring noises that were more like screaming with her little girl voice.
Okimi winced at the volume. "Right. Of course. How could I forget the, uh, roaring." She tried to formulate some strategy to get herself out of this situation and leave the child, but this situation was too bizarre. The gears on her normally strategic mind had just jammed. She would just have to play along for now.
Little Okimi thrusted the dragon back into Okimi's hands. "Your turn!"
Okimi cleared her throat, blushed a little, then said "Rawr... I am dragon. Fear me and my... scales?"
"You're not even trying!" Little Okimi pouted.
Little Okimi held up a plush shark. "My shark jumps out of the water and bites your dragon's head off."
"That's impossible. An attack like that couldn't possibly penetrate dragon scales," Okimi said, clutching the dragon plushie.
"Then my shark drags him into the water and makes him drown." She threw the shark at Okimi's dragon, where it bounced off and fell to the floor.
"Wait, wait," Okimi interjected, frowning. "Shouldn't we establish some ground rules? Perhaps a turn-based system with clearly defined attack and defense values?"
Little Okimi stared at her blankly. "What's wrong with you? Just play!"
"I'm trying," Okimi muttered. She picked up the dragon, making it flap around. "The dragon uses its strong wings to propel itself through the water, overpowering the shark and returning to the air."
"Booooring," Little Okimi groaned. "Make him punch the shark!"
"Punch the- that's not realistic for neither inter-species nor underwater combat..."
"It's pretend!" Little Okimi shouted, exasperated. She grabbed a nearby teddy bear. "Fine, this bear is gonna beat up both of you!"
The bear proceeded to "pummel" both the shark and dragon. Okimi watched, bewildered, as Little Okimi provided sound effects for each hit.
"Shouldn't we de-escalate this conflict?" Okimi suggested weakly. What started this war in the first place? She pondered.
Little Okimi ignored her, lost in her imaginary battle.
As the "battle" raged on, Okimi made a mental note: if she ever got out of this genjutsu or whatever it was, she was never having kids.
She looked towards the doorway. The child was distracted. Now was the time to make a break for it. But as she watched, she saw ice creep from the wallway outside, spreading along the walls and into her childhood bedroom.
Okimi stepped into the hall. It was so much darker than before, and there was a trail of blood leading up to heavy mahogany double doors.