Telanadas

14

Author's Note: For once I'm proud of the action scene, so that's something :P Also, I once again changed some aspects of the game to be less confusing for the story. Canon sticklers need not complain :D

_____  

"So..." Kakashi's slow, speculative drawl is what brings Sasuke back to the present. "This is...new."

His tone is innocent, but the raised eyebrow is not.

Instantly, Sasuke is several feet away from Sakura, refusing to look at her—refusing to look at any of them as his mind races to process what just happened.

Confusion, pain and rage war within him. Before his eyes, he can still see Itachi's face, preternaturally and maddeningly calm. It is the same way he looked the night he slaughtered their people.

Bile rises in the back of Sasuke's throat, because how did he let himself get so drawn off-course? Traipsing along on a useless quest like this, to save the life of a jumped-up shemlen noble? Justifying it with a childish notion of improving himself? How exactly was he intending to accomplish this? By absorbing the talents of others through osmosis?

He needs to return to his mission, to leave this place.

Fists clenched, he glances back at the door they came through, past the archway and the riddle chamber. The way is now shut. Kakashi said the only way out is through, and Sasuke decides that as soon as they are finished with this foolhardy expedition, he will leave.

He has become weak beside them and forgotten himself.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura prompts, the note of concern causing a muscle in his jaw to clench.

Just how much of that weakness is because of her?

He does not answer, instead turning to Kakashi. "Whatever nonsense you are spewing, we do not have time for it." He jerks his head to the chamber before them. "We are halfway through this travesty of a trial, let us be done with it."

Kakashi's eyebrow raises higher, but he does not offer another comment.

"Actually..." Sakura begins faintly, but a beat later her voice comes as strong as ever. "I don't think that was a test just now. I think...I think it was a reward."

Sasuke cannot help looking back at her now, if only to shoot her a disbelieving look.

"You call that a reward?" Naruto demands, voicing his own reservations.

"In a way, it was," Kakashi says, standing beside Sakura. "A chance to face the past is a rare opportunity not offered to all who seek it."

"Are we going?" Sasuke interrupts, impatient. He heads for the left side of the antechamber, not bothering to wait for the others. There is another arched doorway before him and he makes his way toward it—

Only to freeze when he sees the unexpected individual on the other side.

At first, he wonders if he has come face to face with a particularly clear mirror. His identical image stares back at him, the only discernable difference in the blank cast of the eyes. But he finds no glass here, and the rise and fall of the other elf's chest is out of sync with his own.

The rest of his party catches up, pausing behind him. As they near the archway, shadows appear beside Sasuke's double: facsimiles of the other three.

"That's...us," Naruto points out, nonplussed.

"It seems we are meant to battle ourselves," Kakashi muses. "If that is not symbolism, I do not know what is."

"Tch. It's irritating, is what it is," Sasuke says.