Better or Worse

Warnings (for this part): OrochimaruxSasuke, snakes, rape, torture, angst, etc

Part 2

It took Sasuke two weeks to purge the last of Kyuubi's youki from his body. Although he'd only taken a fraction of the demon's energy, that fraction was an enormous amount in itself. His mother was horrified. His father was so proud that his lecture about attempting too much too soon was given as an afterthought. Requests had begun to arrive before he even made it home. During the two isolated weeks he spent cleansing himself, the house was bombarded by harried and hopeful messengers. He's set out to establish himself as an exorcist. He'd done just that. He'd soothed the infuriated Kyuubi. Now even exorcists in other territories were contacting in hopes of him dealing similarly with their own more troublesome demons. Sasuke had no intention of doing that. It was still a mark of pride that they'd ask him, a fledgling with only one demon on his record.

There was enough trouble brewing in his own territory, without borrowing trouble from others. Humans weren't the only ones who gossiped. Some of the demon lords who'd been restless since Itachi was claimed were now clamoring for attention. Sasuke didn't know if it were because they knew he was finally available, or because his first run had been with the nine tails. Either way, the floodgates were open. He spent his last day of isolation in the archives, determining which of them was the biggest threat to the humans under his protection. The one he settled on was the one Itachi had been forced to go to the most during the last three years. A particularly nasty demon who bent traditions at every turn but didn't break any clearly enough to be shunned. It was suspected to be the demon responsible when children turned up missing. His, no, Sasuke corrected himself, its territory was a very small portion of land, with no human villages nearby. But the lesser demons in its service were known to range far and wide. Itachi had considered it a greater threat than Kyuubi because it didn't focus its actions on any one village.

His mother lodged a formal protest. Having healed Itachi, she knew what sort of damage the snake demon inflicted. Its energy was nothing compared to the nine tails, but its methods were particularly painful and dangerous. Sasuke listened to her objection and then sided with his father against her. It wasn't that he didn't believe her. Itachi's accounts had made it clear that this snake demon was exactly the sadistic sort he'd expected the nine tails to be. That was exactly why the demon couldn't be slighted and given an excuse to wreck havoc on their people. The demon stretched traditions, but it did adhere to them. As long as it continued to do so, it would be respected the same as the rest.

Despite his determination to follow through, he did accept the antidotes his mother offered him. The demon was very consistent with its poisons of choice. While Sasuke was required to respect the demon, he was not required to trust it. Damage could be healed, but only if he recovered quickly enough to get home after the demon finished with him. He took a dose of each before they got anywhere near the demon's territory. He also dosed his horse. Itachi had lost two horses due to 'accidents' involving the snake's underlings. The snake had taken pleasure in making him navigate the difficult terrain back to the carriage. Animals weren't protected by tradition the way humans were. The mountain trail was hard enough to navigate on horseback without having to crawl back down while injured and bleary-eyed.

He was followed the entire way up to the shrine. The demons here were bold and rude, much like the demon they served. He abandoned his horse a fair distance from the shrine, protecting it with a kekkai. The last part of the trail was rocky and steep, winding along a sheer drop and a cliff face. The shrine itself lay on a wide rocky plateau, in full view of the sun. The stone was hot beneath his legs when he took his place. He willed himself to get used to it quickly. He'd be burned all over by the time this was done. With no villages nearby, he couldn't have someone erect a kekkai. Itachi had always gone without, so it wasn't likely the demon would be insulted. The moment he let his lifeforce flare, the demon showed itself. It was in humanoid form, long black hair, slanted eyes, and an inhumanly wide smile. It was also naked and very aroused. Sasuke didn't bother to drop his eyes or bow his head. He'd done that for the nine tails because it had been horribly insulted in the past. This demon had never been slighted at all.

"I've waited a long time for you," said Orochimaru. "Take that off before I shred it."

Sasuke didn't react to the threat. A single tear on the robe was equal to a declaration of war. The snake would never break the rules that openly. He undressed, leaving the robe at the foot of the shrine. The demon looked him over, giving a too wide smile.

"Not a mark on you? Kyuubi must not have favored you as much as rumor has it. I'd rather have gotten you six years ago. You're almost as big as your brother now."

Sasuke struggled to give no sign of how cleanly that taunt hit home. The demon sneered at his lack of response, and then it was on him. He was thrown to the ground, a hand in his hair dragging to hands and knees as the demon entered him in one harsh thrust. He swallowed his scream. This demon had less energy than he'd absorbed from Kyuubi. The sooner it began transferring, the sooner it would be done. The snake moved viciously within him, pounding and tearing, but not drawing blood to make the motion easier. Something slick slid around his face to push at his clenched teeth. His eyes snapped open. Pink and wet. It was the demon's tongue, impossibly long even in human guise.

'Open,' Orochimaru ordered.

He choked as it went straight for his throat and thickened until it had cut off every bit of his air. Hissing laughter struck his ears as the cool body stretched over his back. Punishment for not crying out? No, the demon had intended to torture him from the start. It suffocated him until his vision darkened and he felt the first stirrings of panic. Another addicted to the scent of fear. The demon came with a small burst of thick, cold, youki. Not enough to change his eyes, more than enough to make his stomach heave. He was shoved onto his back and the demon stretched out to lay on him, smiling down at him, hands framing his face with just enough force to make the bones ache threateningly.

"Did Kyuubi go easy on you? I was easy on Itachi his first time with me. He was so very young. I had to restrain myself not to break him."

The demon had nearly killed him. That was the reason Sasuke had been given those extra three years. The demon smiled at him, wider and wider until its face split in two, narrowing and lengthening. It transformed into a giant white snake, heavy and cold scales along the length of his body, crushing his back against the hot stone beneath him. A forked tongue flicked out like a whip at his eyes, so he flinched.

'I intended to take my time with you since we'll be seeing so much of each other,' the demon spat in his mind. 'But you went to Kyuubi before me. That pathetic fox, who can't even control a small village of humans getting precedence over me? You shouldn't have done that.' It's jaws gaped wide enough to swallow him whole, and then it spewed in his face.

Sasuke cringed, closing his eyes tight as tiny wormlike snakes squirmed over him. They were slimy with a putrid stink of stomach acids. He wanted to be sick but didn't dare. Their bites were no worse than an insect. But then the venom set in, like acid spreading beneath his skin. They bit him all over, paying special attention to his nipples and cock. One squirmed inside and bit him where it hurt the most. The pain was instantaneous, excruciating. He screamed, his body shuddering on the edge of convulsions. Paralysis was setting in fast. Unable to move, but so sensitized he felt everything. The antidote he'd taken would lessen the duration, not the potency of the poison.

'Don't you like my children?'

One of the tiny snakes wriggled at the tip of his cock, biting from the inside until it was swollen and inflamed. Others were chewing on his neck, their venom narrowing his throat until he could barely whimper, let alone scream. Tears streamed down his face. One of them bit at his lips, pushing against his teeth. The demon knocked it away with a flick of its tongue. The tip of its long tail curled around his waist, lifting him upward until his head fell back.

'You will pleasure me,' the demon stated. A long glistening pink cock slid from a slit in its scales. It was smaller than it should have been, but more than long enough to hurt the edges of his mouth and tear at his narrowed throat. Frustrated growls sounded in Sasuke's head. 'Use your tongue. You can still move that.'

He tried to obey. His mouth was so full he could barely shift his tongue at all. The demon pulled back, urging him to suck and rub the narrowed tip before sliding back in. Its youki flowed into him again, a shallow trickle. It was dragging this out. All the while the little snakes continued to bite him all over until the pain became a numb burn. Then something bigger pushed into him, hard and cold, with sharp scales that shredded him as surely as the demon had threatened to do to his robe. He sobbed around the cock in his mouth and the demon moaned in his head, thrusting forward to come deep in his throat. The burst of energy reddened his eyes, but it wasn't all the demon had. It wouldn't go without expending itself completely.

The venom had spread so far he couldn't even tremble from the pain. He could only watch as the demon's cock slid from his mouth and thickened to its normal size. He'd be grateful for the tearing and the blood if he was going to fit that inside him. The serrated snake left his ass and the demon whipped around, replacing it in an instant. He almost threw up. If he could have lifted his head he was certain he'd see the bulge in his stomach, battering away at his insides. A feeble cough brought blood to his mouth. The demon remained as deep in him as it could get, fucking him with short rapid thrusts. Its energy was gushing into him now. He was barely conscious when his eyes bled as it finally came. It immediately disappeared, expended, exorcised. He struck the hot ground hard, blood and semen dripping from his ass. His muscles were torn too badly to keep it inside until he could clean himself properly. He lay still, throbbing all over as he waited for the antidote to kick in enough for him to move.

Itachi had gone through this. For three years. No, for at least sixteen longer than he was obligated to. The demon had sent for him again and again since the day Sasuke was conceived. He would pay a penance to Itachi when he got home, and to his mate, if his brother's demon mate wanted one. Experiencing this first hand told him exactly what his brother had suffered for his sake. Sixteen years of this. His muscles wakened enough for him to roll onto his stomach. He threw up violently, vomiting a mix as sickening as what was dripping from his mutilated ass. Sixteen years. Nothing Itachi asked would make up for that. But his demon lover was fiercely possessive. It would assign a suitable penance. He had to believe that. Otherwise he'd never be able to look his brother in the eye again.

He'd resigned himself to crawling down the path to his horse when he felt a demon approaching. It was too strong to be one of the pests that had hounded him on his way up the mountain. The energy was cool like the snake's, but it couldn't be him. He'd absorbed every last bit of energy the snake demon had. It wouldn't be able to manifest in the human world again for at least a month, possibly longer. A rogue, perhaps, looking to take over the snake's territory in its absence? Or a shunned demon eager for easy prey... He couldn't exorcise even a weak demon now, let alone a shunned rogue. As strong as it was, it could break one of his kekkai's if it tried hard enough. Physically, he was too weak and battered to fend off an animal, let alone a demon. But he was swollen with the snake's youki. He could and would use that if necessary. Demons avoided exorcists the same as humans did when they were strumming with demonic energy. An exorcist banished demons back to their own realm, draining them until they couldn't manifest anywhere else. They could also destroy. Any demon foolish enough to press a charged exorcist could expect nothing less.

He heard the steady clops of hooves around the bend, and then his horse entered the clearing. He was shocked. He shouldn't have been. The kekkai he'd placed on it was to protect it from the snake's minions. Of course it wouldn't hold against a demon just as powerful as the snake itself. The animal had been raised to ignore demons the same as it ignored demonic energy. Still, the way his horse walked so placidly with a demon striding beside it was unnerving. Almost as disturbing as the demon itself. A silver five-tailed fox. If the snake had been angry that he'd gone to Kyuubi first, it would be enraged once it knew a fox had entered its territory.

He thought he should have been ashamed to be seen in this condition. He was slicked with frothy slime from the bites, swollen, torn and leaking a sticky mess on the rock where he sat. He must have made a disgusting sight. He didn't feel any shame, though. No one looked good after an exorcism, especially a violent one. That was one of the reasons demons traditionally gave them as much time as they needed to purify and heal between jobs. Demons especially disliked seeing an exorcist tainted with the scent and energy of a rival. No, he wasn't in the wrong here. If anyone should be shamed and uncomfortable, it was the demon for coming to him now. This was beyond rudeness.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. The demon was tall for a fox, small for the number of tails. It had enough youki to be a lord of its own territory, but there was only one fox demon in this part of the world. Its energy was strange as well, night to Kyuubi's day.

'I was curious,' the demon responded. 'There are so few of us left.' It stopped a polite distance away, sitting on its haunches and jerking its head at his horse. The mount sniffed, touching noses with it, before crossing to stand beside Sasuke. 'Kyuubi is very taken with you. That's a first for him. I can see why now. You're bold for a fledgeling. Everyone is talking about you. None of the demons left here compare to Orochimaru, save the mated ones. Will you vie for the powerful ones outside your territory?'

"No. I have no intention of intruding on other exorcists' lands." Although the fox was right about the other demons in his family's land being weak compared to the snake, it alone was enough of them to keep him occupied. Two weeks to heal and purge, two weeks more to handle the lesser demons, and then the snake would have recovered enough to cause trouble again. And if Kyuubi had taken a liking to him, he'd undoubtedly be seeing it again. "I have no business with you." He said it as politely as he could given the circumstances. Aside from catching him at a bad time, the fox had been respectful, even helpful, and it must have traveled through the demon realm to see him.

'I'm mated,' the fox said, in an amused tone. 'Our kind mates for life. I wouldn't touch you if you were fresh and irresistible. I certainly have no interest when you reek of the snake. I merely came to see for myself the exorcist who broke Kyuubi from his pointless post.' Its ears flicked back. 'He has watched that village since its infancy. Even shamed by them as he was, he refused to abandon them.'

"He hasn't!" Sasuke's throat hurt from speaking so loudly, but he was too horrified to care. "He-"

'Didn't he tell you as much? He's finished with them. Finally. He offered the territory to me, but my mate has kin he's loathe to leave behind. The others are fighting even now to see who will secede.'

"What about Kyuubi?" asked Sasuke. The nine tails couldn't just abandon its territory. It was unheard of. Such powerful demons only passed their land to their children, ensuring that it remained in their blood forever.

'He's considering that now. You realize none of the demons in your land could contest him if he chose to usurp their territory. This mountain is much more fertile than the pathetic forest he's been watching for so long.'

The ramifications made Sasuke dizzy. If Kyuubi ousted Orochimaru, the snake would be on the warpath. As widely as its minions were spread, the entire area would be in an uproar. Surely if he'd gained favor with the nine tails it wouldn't repay him by destroying his land.

'He's still considering,' the fox sniffed. 'He may decide to range freely for a few decades. He's not fond of chaos, despite rumors to the contrary. Just know this, what he wants he gets. Only a fool would deny him. That goes for you as well as the snake.'

"I have been nothing but respectful of him," Sasuke said coldly.

'I know. That's why he likes you. You have a good mindset for a fledgeling. It's a shame you won't be doing this much longer.'

Was that a threat? The fox's tone was as friendly as a demon's could get. It stood and shook itself, tails waving in the air. Sasuke watched it warily.

'I won't insult you by offering assistance. Protection, however, is a courtesy. Travel at your convenience. You'll not be bothered.' Wtih a fluid flick of its tails, it vanished.

A spirit fox, Sasuke realized. An entirely different breed from the nine tails. Although the snake would know it had been here, a spirit fox had no true physical presence in the human realm, so the snake couldn't take insult. Demons followed their own rules of respect and engagement when dealing with each other. Its energy was enough to send the snake's minions into hiding, with no direct contact to excuse retaliation later. Clever. He didn't take the courtesy to heart. Going to Kyuubi had been bold for someone with no experience, but it was nothing any exorcist wouldn't have done. Itachi would have done it if he hadn't already been mated when the nine tails reappeared ten years ago.

A wave of his hand brought his horse to its knees and belly beside him, so he wouldn't have to rise to reach his packs. He took another dose of the antidotes before patching himself up as well as he could. The physical damage was incidental. His mother had healed worse for Itachi. If she had been male, she'd have made a horribly proficient exorcist. Only human females could give birth to exorcists, so it was the ultimate taboo for a demon to touch one. It hadn't always been that way. The first exorcists had been mikos. Demons learned the hard way that a miko impregnated by a demon would only give birth to demons. Now, mikos were more valuable than exorcists themselves. While it was his father others petitioned, his mother held the true power in the household. He'd be reminded of that when he returned. Although he loved and respected her, he would be glad when she finally accepted that he was as capable as Itachi. Then she would allow herself a daughter and stop treating him as one.

Even with the fox's guarantee of safe passage, the trip was slow and excruciating. His horse had velvet hooves, picking its way along with as little jarring as possible. He was dizzy with gratitude. If it survived long enough, he might even give it a name. Animals were expendable, lost at the whim of any petty demons around. Yet without a well trained mount, exorcists wouldn't be able to function. He could no more bring his mother with him than he could expect demons to come to him. Killing an exorcist's horse really was the lowest insult a demon could give. It was no wonder they did it so often. His attention wandered, latching on to any non-physical distraction. The mountain was alive in the absence of demonic activity. The wild life froze upon his approach, too terrified of the familiar youki to flee. There were a surprising number of wolves, all ragged or disfigured by bold wounds. He wondered what sort of demons the snake had in its employ. Claw marks marred the worst of them. That wasn't the work of snakes.

He drugged himself the moment he reached the carriage and slept the entire way home. The conveyance was protected by his mother's wards. Not that it was necessary on their own lands. The wood had been saturated with Uchiha blood, his father's in this case. The scent proclaimed it for what it was. As long as it didn't enter the heart of a demon's territory, it could travel anywhere on Uchiha land unmolested. Not even rogues would break that taboo. They'd be set upon by every demon in the region if they dared. The only real threat came from human raiders, outcasts who considered exorcists no better than whores. Fools, in other words. They rarely got close enough to launch an arrow, let alone an actual attack. The demons protected their exorcists as thoroughly as they did the individual villages they were loyal to. They took pleasure in making sure any would-be raiders died slow, grotesque deaths. Then they delivered the mutilated remains to the humans with the closest blood ties. That was the one time demons had free passage into each other's territories, when making sure a message hit home.

Sasuke woke as he was being lowered into the temple pool. Despite his mother's talents, she lacked the strength to lift him now that he was taller than her. The service was provided by a tall black-clothed handler. Though most humans were as repulsed by tainted exorcists as they were by demons themselves, they took no chances. This one had dark hair and pale skin, marking him as a relative, if not an Uchiha himself. Handlers were a breed apart. They could handle someone infested with demonic energy without response. Sasuke understood revulsion, considered it a natural reaction, but he didn't need or want to see it when he was physically and emotionally exhausted. He'd glimpsed pity and hurt in the eyes of the ones who'd handled Itachi in the past. This man was much better than they'd been. If anything, Sasuke considered handlers more an object of pity than exorcists. They were provided for and considered essential, but their training made them unable to interact normally with others, even their own parents. The ones most able for the task were the ones least able for anything else. He let himself be positioned in the pool and didn't fight when his mother's energy washed over him, lulling him into a painless sleep.

The healing process took days. He was aware of the steps, though he slept through most of it. The pure nature of a miko's energy enabled her to heal. Sasuke could have learned to do it himself if his mother had ever needed help with Itachi during his youth. She hadn't. And he'd seen no point learning to heal when he'd never be able to again after his first exorcism. Purging took much longer and was done in private. The handler, or another of his kind, was the only one to enter the temple during that time, delivering food, most of which would be removed untouched. Since his mother was drained from the healing, his father placed a kekkai around the premises, as much to protect them as to ensure Sasuke's privacy. Expending demonic energy was dangerous. No two demons were alike. With the nine tails it had exploded in furious waves so suffocating he'd passed out on the first try and been forced to go outdoors to purge the last of it. The snake's was as curled and cold as the demon itself. Naturally. His mother must have been warned by Itachi, because she sent a drug with his meal on the fourth day, just when he'd begun to worry that the strength of his heaves would cause internal damage. The mixture soothed his stomach until he was able to finish with less effort. Then he retreated to the archives, placing his own kekkai around it as a sign that the purging was done. True isolation was necessary for his energy to recover. He spent the time identifying the silver fox and its relationship to other known demons.

The spirit fox's territory was extremely remote. A strange region by all accounts. The mikos there had taken to killing their newborn sons in a bid to end the exorcist tradition. The demons had retaliated by impregnating the mikos themselves and taking the male halfbreeds to act as exorcists. Naturally, they'd lacked the human energy that made exorcists so attractive, so it was in vain. With only one exception, the halfbreed exorcist the silver fox had taken as a mate the moment his ten years of service were up. The other demons had rebelled at losing their only exorcist. Kyuubi had been called in to silence them. The nine tails had done so by slaughtering all but the silver fox, making it the undisputed lord over the entire region. Outrageous. What was even more bizarre was how the silver fox ruled its newly claimed land. The mikos no longer killed their male progeny because there was no longer need for exorcists at all. The spirit fox and its children took willing mates from the humans there.

Willing mates. The entire concept was ridiculous. Humans appealed to demons because they were weak prey, repulsed by them, frightened, unwilling victims. Demons liked exorcists because they had so much energy to taint, they were healed and purified between uses, so they could be ruined over and over without dying, and they were compelled to do so to prevent weak humans from suffering a worse fate. Demons took exorcists as mates because they were greatly possessive and hated to share. Once the exorcist became saturated with the demon's energy, or mutilated beyond repair, they were discarded and only taken up by others if they managed to heal and purify themselves enough to be attractive again. Sasuke knew Itachi was content with his demon mate. He assumed that was because Itachi had become so numb over time. Nothing his mate did would compare to what he'd lived through as an active exorcist. Being mated was the lesser evil. It was still a temporary obligation. Once the demon tired of him, he'd spend a year purifying himself before resuming his duty as an exorcist until he was claimed again or grew too old to be attractive prey. Demons could slow the aging of their human mates but the instant they discarded them those years caught up. Those who'd been kept in the demon realm as mates aged even worse when they were abandoned. No one would choose that fate willingly. Any who did, only did so because the alternative was even worse.

Sasuke supposed that after ten years of dealing with the snake even he'd rather be taken as a mate by anything else. By then, their brother clan of Hyuugas would have at least one infant exorcist. Like Itachi, he'd be required to occupy the demons until the child was ready to replace him. He'd also have a sister being raised to marry into the other clan, assuring a future generation. His mother had told him as much before leaving him to purge. She was tired, resigned, but also proud and eager to have a daughter. He planned to live long enough to see her grow up. Itachi had survived longer than that. He wouldn't be outdone by his own brother. With that in mind, he turned his attention to the demon who'd claimed Itachi as a mate.

The water demon was very young by demon standards. An ocean dweller, it ruled the villages along the coast to the east. It had appeared during Itachi's first month as an exorcist. Hurricane season. Itachi had gone to it that first time out of gratitude for its protection of the coast. Sasuke doubted the demon would have been so vigilant if it hadn't been new and eager to establish its territory. That encounter had set the trend for their interaction thereafter, with Itachi going to reward good behavior rather than to suppress bad. He'd left warnings to future exorcists never to exorcise the shark demon fully. The waters were a highly contested area and it would be dangerous to have them unguarded even for a short period of time. The demon was occupied defending its territory too much to make the sort of trouble other demons did in their own areas. Besides which, the only humans it had devoured were the ones foolish enough to swim out after dark. Better they be devoured by it than by its rivals.

There was little information about the actual encounters. Minimum injury, though the demon had a great capacity for damage if enraged. Sharks themselves were natural killers and the demon was no different. Purging was recommended to be done outdoors and underwater, if possible. Its energy varied depending on how recently it had eaten. Itachi's notes recommended it be approached at low tide when it was hungry enough to start getting a little too close to local fishermen. In a starving state, it was to be considered more dangerous than the snake and should be placated with the highest priority. Itachi had apparently kept it sated enough that there had never been an incident in that region. Sasuke could see why the demon had claimed him as soon as his ten years were up. His brother had managed the fledgling demon so well that the villagers made their offerings happily, thanking it for every good haul and weathered storm. They considered their resident demon a blessing rather than a curse. If Kyuubi did give his domain to a new demon, Sasuke hoped he could establish a similar rapport between it and the estranged villagers. It was much easier keeping a pleased demon content than soothing a constantly enraged one.

The problem was that most demons were so old and entrenched in their ways that they demanded respect through fear. If there was any gratitude on the part of the humans, it was for not torturing them any more than usual. They didn't care that the resident demon kept others from attacking because it attacked them itself. They became so accustomed to it that they only sought out an exorcist when the death toll spiked unexpectedly. Then, if they were lucky, they'd have a month of peace before it all began anew. Sasuke knew he couldn't change relationships like that any more than he could make Kyuubi's village understand that it was their own insult that had caused the demon to slaughter their men for the last ten years. An ancient insult meant nothing to those who'd lost loved ones. If the nine tails began killing again, they'd assume that was what demons did because that was what they were used to. And they'd be right for the most part. Many demons did just that because they could, because they enjoyed it. Because they'd never been worshiped by a loyal village simply for ruling their own territory. What Itachi had done with his demon mate was what all exorcists hoped to accomplish at least once in their lives. One of their ancestors had done the same with Kyuubi when it had first come into their land. Only recent insults had turned the nine tails from being a vigilant defender to an object of fear for the same village that had once thanked and worshiped it.

Sasuke added his own reports to the archive. Itachi had been too used to attempt Kyuubi without deepening the insult. Sasuke was proud to be able to fill that out himself. He was still going on the belief that the nine tails would not abandon its territory. It was too powerful to be a wandering rogue. But if it did, then other exorcists would need any information he could give on the demon's manner, past, and energy. He recommended that no exorcist with more than two years' experience approach it. It was ancient, hugely powerful, but it responded well to honest respect. He was sure it wouldn't have gone so easy on him if he hadn't been the first person in so long to treat it with the respect it deserved. He believed the silver fox's claim that Kyuubi disliked chaos. Even its 'rampaging' had been limited. The snake's contempt proved that Kyuubi had lost face in the eyes of the other demons for not exacting a harsher revenge on the village. Any demon willing to risk humiliation before its own kind was worth placating at all costs. They were certainly preferable to hungry sadists like the snake. Its kind thrived off pain and fear. Demons like the nine tails thrived off awe and respect, which was what any rational human would give such a powerful creature.

Itachi was sitting on the steps when he finally came out of the temple. He'd sensed him the moment he released his kekkai. His brother was overflowing with demonic energy. He'd never gotten close to him following an exorcism. Now he halted on the top step, unable to come any closer. He couldn't even touch him or he'd have to purify himself all over again. His brother rose, turning to face him. There was a black windmill in each of his red eyes. Would his own eyes look like that once he learned to absorb more demonic energy? It was an Uchiha trait. Some exorcists changed in more subtle ways.

"Sasuke."

It took all of his pride to answer in kind. He was no longer little brother. He was an exorcist and this man was the human mate of a demon in his domain. "Itachi."

With a small smile, Itachi extended his hand toward him. "Kisame wants to see you now. You won't need your robe."

Not an exorcism, then. Penance. With something akin to relief, he descended the steps and accepted his hand.

.-.
TBC