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

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"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.

"We still have to get through it," Sakura reminds him.

Naruto hefts his sword and shield. "Well, they won't take care of themselves. Let's get busy!"

Sasuke shrugs—there is not much else for it—and steps over the threshold.

Instantly, his doppelgänger fires an arrow in his direction, forcing Sasuke to duck and those behind him to scatter. He does not pause in his advance, raising his own bow and sending a volley of arrows back. Sasuke's comrades regroup, quickly clashing with their own doubles.

In close quarters, Sasuke and his twin clash with daggers, hacking and slicing at each other, lashing out with hidden blades or sharp kicks to vulnerable body parts. Each of these is blocked with ease, and their strength is so equal they end up staggering backward and away from one another. Only to dash forward once again.

Up close, Sasuke notices that though their faces are blank and lifeless—like puppets controlled by a string—their opponents are deadly and quick.

Every strength he has, so does the other, and wherever he compensates for weakness, his double does as well. In the periphery of his vision, he notes Kakashi trading blasts of magic with his doppelgänger. Fire cancels out ice, electricity renders waves of earth to nothing but dust in the air. Naruto and his clone trade blows of shield and sword, their movements telegraphed like a dance, while Sakura and her twin grasp each other by the hands. Both dwarves try to wrestle the other to the ground but cannot break the stalemate.

"We can't keep doing this!" Naruto grunts, ducking a swing of the shield from his opponent.

Sasuke does not want to agree, but he has little choice. Their doubles will probably never tire, and he does not have the luxury of waiting around to get a lucky shot. Especially when that lucky shot might be against him.

"We need to treat this as any other attack," Sakura calls out. "The same way we face any group of enemies."

Take out the mage, then pick off the ranged fighters while distracting the foot soldiers.

There is no need to speak this plan aloud, as they have been fighting together long enough to know what tactics work. Naruto steps up his speed, knocking his double momentarily off-balance, and takes a swipe at Sakura's opponent. While he engages the enemy dwarf, Sakura takes a run at Sasuke's twin, distracting him long enough that Sasuke can slip into the shadows. He sneaks up behind Kakashi's copy, fitting another arrow. In a perfect world, once they defeat the enemy mage, Sasuke and Kakashi can rain down a hail of arrows and magic on the remaining fighters.

But that is not what happens.

Naruto is soon overwhelmed by the combination of his and Sakura's clones, thrown backward by their force and reduced to simply dodging. And Kakashi's doppelgänger might be trading blows with their mage, but it does not stop him from trapping Sasuke in place with a paralysis hex.

As the elf waits helplessly for the spell to wear off, Sakura falters in front of his double, unable to deliver a crippling punch to the back of his neck. The other Sasuke takes advantage, lashing out behind him with a knife that she only just dodges, the blade cutting across her cheek. The doppelgänger tries to follow up with a lethal slash to her throat, but Sasuke deflects this with an arrow as the paralysis hex dissipates.

Only to find himself knocked painfully across the face with the blunt edge of the enemy mage's staff.

Stars circling his vision, Sasuke backs away, trying to reorient himself. He slips back toward the antechamber, taking cover behind the large statue there.

He is not the only one; soon the rest of his comrades are beside him, cradling various injuries and fending off attempts by their doubles to follow them into the small room.

"Can I just say...what the hell?" Naruto demands, blood streaming from his nose and mouth where the edge of his opponent's shield clipped him. "Are we really that tough? No wonder no one's ever beat us yet!"

Kakashi and Sasuke take their places at either end of the room, hovered in the shadows of the archways to guard from magic and metal projectiles. Sasuke discovers he must pick up a lot of the slack because apparently Naruto's double uses more Templar abilities than the real one does. It dispels any of Kakashi's larger invocations with ease.

"This trial is not just fighting ourselves," Kakashi muses. "It is fighting our best selves. Imagine yourself at your most focussed, your strongest, most well-rested..."

"Compared to starving and exhausted and bleeding internally?" Sakura grumbles, frustration colouring her normal cheer. "We should still be able to do this. They're us for Stone's sake! We know our own weaknesses better than anyone!"

"And so do they," Sasuke says, sending a volley of freezing arrows out to stop Sakura and Naruto's clones from coming closer. "They are not regular opponents. Regular tactics will not work here because we are not regular individuals. Each of us have specific skills and talents that when used in conjunction with each other makes it a difficult force to beat."

"So, you're saying they're stronger together," Naruto suggests, and then groans. "Well, no shit! Why do you think we swapped opponents? To separate them and make 'em easier to beat!"

"No," Sasuke replies as Kakashi creates sends a fireball at Sasuke's double. "You have been trying to exploit the weaknesses you know. Not the ones you might not."

"That makes no sense!"

"Oh!" Sakura blurts, staring at Sasuke in surprise. "Yes—yes it does!"

"I believe an explanation is warranted?" Kakashi suggests, summoning a blizzard into the other room. It will not last long, especially with Naruto's twin able to nullify it, but it will buy them time.

"Sasuke's an assassin! He tried to kill us all before, so he would have to know our weaknesses," she explains. "I look out there, and I see my friends. I see your strengths and maybe the most obvious weaknesses. A blind side or a weak ankle. But Sasuke...you had to find the unexpected weaknesses when you were hired to kill us!" They wince as Kakashi's double sends an invisible rock through the air, making the entire chamber shake dangerously. "Tell us—how would you kill us, if you still had to?"

Naruto makes a startled choking noise and Kakashi looks grim beneath his mask, but Sasuke knows what she wants. He nods.

He turns his attention back to the individuals barring their way, and he orders his mind to disassociate from the people beside him. To see these familiar faces as nothing more than targets.

"You must do as I say," he orders. "Do not question it, just do it." When the others nod, warier than the others, he goes on: "This is what needs to happen..."

His mind races with every detail he has unconsciously collected on these people since they met, thinking of every scenario and personal failing that can be exploited. As he outlines what amount to his early plans for murdering each of the other three, Naruto grinds his teeth and Kakashi's brow furrows. Sasuke does not allow himself to even acknowledge Sakura's reaction.

With the plan set, they take one last moment of relative safety behind the wall, and then rush forward as one. Kakashi and Sasuke, as usual, offer cover for Sakura and Naruto to get to their doubles. To the unknowing eye, their tactics are the same as earlier.

As they fight their individual battles to stalemate, Sasuke remains keenly aware of everyone else's position. He tracks when his comrades subtly and slowly move into a formation. At last, Kakashi's doppelgänger is on one side of the chamber, while the other three are herded away from him.

That's it!

"Now!" Sasuke orders, ducking the blow of his double and somersaulting toward his enemy, firing off three arrows as he rolls to his feet. The enemy burns the shafts to cinders, but Sasuke does not let up, sending volley after volley onward to keep him busy. Meanwhile, Kakashi telekinetically blasts Sasuke's double, sending him flying across the flor. Sakura and Naruto disengage from their opponents and make a break for the enemy mage while Kakashi summons a freezing blast over the other three. He focusses his assault on Naruto's double—if he is too immobilised, he cannot use his
Templar abilities to nullify the magic.

Sakura and Naruto zero in on Kakashi's double from both sides, while Sasuke pelts him with arrows from greater and greater distances. Cloaked in the shadowed corners of the room, he searches for an opening. Kakashi's clone deflects the missiles, using his staff to keep Naruto and Sakura out of his range as he does so.

"Sooner would be better!" Kakashi calls, maintaining his onslaught of ice on the three enemies as he speaks. There is a worrying edge of exhaustion there, suggesting he is running out of mana.

Naruto's clone twitches, but Sasuke cannot allow himself to dwell on that. Instead, his eyes trail the arc of the enemy mage's staff, trying to catch the patterns and repetitions in its movement, the openings in the sweeping motion—

There!

He lets one arrow fly at just the right time, and it slides through the air, sneaking through a gap before the mage's staff can deflect it. It slams into the man's breastbone with a sickening wet crack that sends him staggering backward.

"Finish it!" Sasuke orders. Though he senses hesitation on both Naruto and Sakura's faces, they move forward in unison. Naruto shoves his sword forward, punching through the mage's abdomen, and Sakura's axe sweeps out, lopping head from shoulders.

The body slumps with a nauseating sound, its head several feet away.

Naruto swears in disgust, and Sakura's free hand goes to her mouth in horror, but they do not have time for feelings.

"Pull yourselves together, it is not him, you fools!" Sasuke snarls, because they do not have time to give in to sentiment.

"R-right," Sakura says, and hurries past the mage's body.

Naruto's double has finally thrown off Kakashi's spell and emitted a blast of purifying energy to dispel the magic. The Templar has a tendency to pop up where they do not want him, having all of Naruto's skills when it comes to speed. Sakura and Sasuke both have an eye for his weaknesses and flank him together. Meanwhile, Naruto makes a play for Sakura's double, distracting her. It should be easier this time without his doppelgänger backing her up, and with Kakashi keeping Sasuke's twin occupied by several blasts of arcane power.

The Templar ends up being more of a challenge than Sasuke expected, focussing his efforts on eliminating who he considers the weaker opponent. Taking out the archer is, of course, the preferred opening strategy of their group. Sasuke's teeth rattle as the edge of the Templar's shield catches him in the head, for once being a hair too slow to dodge it. Dizzy, he sees the flash of a blade heading for him and knows he will not be able to move in time to avoid critical injury.

There is a wordless yell of rage, and the templar folds from behind as Sakura tackles him, knocking him to the ground. As they wrestle on the floor, the struggle causes Naruto's double to lose his helm. Sakura takes quick advantage of this, delivering one final, solid punch downward.

Blood spurts and bone breaks, before the familiar blond figure gives a full-body twitch and goes still.

Two down, Sasuke thinks dimly, as he gets his balance back. He opens his mouth to tell Sakura to go for his twin but pauses when he notices the bone-white colour of her face.

He has seen her injured near the point of death, terrified by giant, poison-spewing spiders or agonised at the sight of broken bodied villagers destroyed by the Blight. But the expression on her face is of utter anguish—a woman being burned alive or torn to shreds. Naruto is her friend, in many ways her brother, and doppelgänger or not, she was forced to kill him.

It hits Sasuke for the first time, how this must feel to the others. That by the end of this trial they will all know the feeling of murdering a comrade.

And how he led them to do this without thought. He switched off his own feelings with sickening ease and expected them to do the same. Sakura requested this of him, and rather than stop her, he let her burden herself with an experience that will haunt her always, no matter the artifice involved.

His empty stomach clenches, and he might give in to the urge to vomit, if it were not for the fact two of the doppelgangers remain.

Sakura is shaking when she looks up at him.

"Are you okay?" she asks him, strained. It boggles the mind because in a way, she just killed her closest friend, but she wants to know if he is all right.

He is saved the trouble of answering as the archer's arrows throw Kakashi backward, and Sakura darts over to help him. At the same time, Naruto takes a run at Sasuke's double. He knocks him aside, deflecting a finishing blow by hammering at him with his fists, and Sasuke remains alone to face Sakura's empty-eyed twin.

He has seen her spar in close quarters before, and she has excellent defences. If he has any chance of keeping her occupied, let alone winning, he will need to fight dirty.

Dodging and sliding past the punishing blows of her axe and her fist, Sasuke slices outward with his knife. Every so often he darts into her attack range, risking a crippling blow if she catches him, on the off-chance that he can unlatch the ties in her armour. Whenever he comes close, the nicks in the leather straps and ties wear a little thinner. Every bruise and glancing blow from her makes his bones shatter, but every bit helps.

When her breast-plate finally falls away, she does not bother reattaching it, too keen on making a grab for his neck. If she catches hold of him, he will die—but she has left an opening.

Sasuke lunges with his dagger.

She expects this, blocking him so strongly with her bracer that the bones in his left arm snap. But he is already following through with the other hand—and the dagger he had concealed there. It is one of the enchanted blades they have picked up, crackling with electricity from a lightning rune. He thrusts it forward with all his might into the fleshy part between her ribs.

Her breath punches out of her, the sound a facsimile of surprise.

He knows, distantly, that it is not real, but that does not stop the sense of accusation in the her staring green eyes. In that moment, the wall he erected between his task and the grim reality of the situation vanishes. He is left staring at his hand in Sakura's chest, her blood dripping down his wrist.

In the distance, he hears a body hit the floor—his double, he suspects—and the others calling out to confirm they have all made it through in one piece. But his victim's blank-green eyes keep Sasuke prisoner, and he finds himself unable to breathe even as the body slides backwards off his blade and to the ground.

This time he does not try to stop the bile from rising and spilling from his throat.