Dance With the Devil

Authors: KeairaxSeiaa & Wasurenaikara
Title: Dance With the Devil
Warnings: Boy-love, brotherly love, spoilers up to the recent manga chapters involving the Uchiha, non-con, angst.
Rating: Eventual NC-17 (In chapter two! It would be in this chapter, but LJ said no. Chapter two will probably be posted in a week give or take a few days, unless there's an overwhelming demand to have it up sooner. xD; *kind of busy but will go out of her way if asked to*)
Characters: Primarily Sasuke and Itachi.
Pairings: Mmm, ItaSasu.
Summary: Itachi is captured by Danzou and scheduled to be executed. Unable to handle the idea of his revenge being stolen from him, Sasuke confronts his brother and stumbles upon a great deal more than he bargained for. This is a story of hope and despair, of being beyond redemption and knowing you can never go home again.

Dance With the Devil

Chapter One: Left for Dead

There was a sort of poetic irony to all of this to Itachi. That was the only thought he managed to humor as his arms were sharply twisted behind his back and cuffed together. Almost immediately, he was blindfolded as well, then felt the hands on him force him to his knees. How had he not seen this coming...? Then again, perhaps he had. Perhaps he had and simply remembered what he had known all along. That they owned him, through and through. That he had no choice. That he had never had a choice.

So all that was left to think about was the irony of it all. Being betrayed by the very people who had forced him to betray his own clan.

Danzou and his ilk had called him here to 'discuss Sasuke's future in the village', only to ambush him and promise that Sasuke would never wake from his bed tonight if his beloved big brother didn't cooperate with them. First thing tomorrow, Itachi was scheduled for a court martial in which he would naturally be found guilty of all charges. The morning after that, he would be executed outside of the village, and his body would be disposed of by a small squad of ANBU whose members had every reason to hate him.

His squad.

They would make a thorough job of it, Itachi knew. The people who hated him the most now were the ones who had once loved him most back then, after all.

"You should take comfort in this, Itachi," he could hear Danzou sneering as his ankles were shackled together for transport to his underground holding cell. "Your long fight is finally over, and with your death, your brother's future in this village will be secure."

Somehow, as he was dragged from the room, Itachi discovered that Danzou was right. Itachi was tired, had been tired. He hadn't been doing a great deal of living these few years past. At this point, he thought somewhat morbidly to himself, having him executed was really only a matter of formalities.

This village had taken his life a long time ago.

"I trust this all meets your approval, Godaime Hokage-sama?" Danzou asked lightly, almost jokingly as he shuffled the few papers in his hands and glanced over at her.

To her merit, she smiled back and gave him a dismissive wave. "I'm certain you're only doing what's best for the village. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm rather feeling a drink." As she let herself out, her smile dropped from her face, and she listened to Danzou mutter about her behind him. Let him underestimate her ability as a leader. That was fine. If he wanted to give her the invaluable gift of turning a blind eye to what she did, who was she to turn it down?

By the time Tsunade had made her quick detour and was then well on her way to her favorite bar for a long night of drinking with Jiraiya, Naruto was ducking out of his apartment despite it being the middle of the night. He headed straight for Sasuke's apartment, trying to come up with something, anything to throw off the ANBU detail Tsunade had informed him was keeping an eye on the place.

Oh, God. Sasuke was going to kill him. But.

He couldn't think of anything else.

Grimacing to himself, he climbed in through Sasuke's window and immediately straddled his teammate's sleeping form on the bed.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry but I missed you so much I couldn't wait until morning!" Naruto apologized loudly enough for anyone listening in to hear, pinning down Sasuke's hands to keep himself from bodily harm before he had a chance to explain himself.

Sasuke, for his part, took being straddled and pinned by his teammate rather well. It wasn't the first time it had happened, after all. He opened his eyes slowly, calmly, but the Sharingan was already spinning within them.

"What," he began quietly, "the hell," he continued, emphasizing the curse, "do you think you're doing?"

Naruto had spoken loudly. Maybe this was some sort of distraction? It had to be, why else would the idiot be risking life and limb - one 'limb' in particular - to do this? But, then, Naruto's loudness was no indication of anything. Sasuke had learned over the years that Naruto's volume seemed permanently set higher than necessary.

"Showing you how much I miss you," Naruto insisted as he leaned in, making as though to kiss Sasuke on the neck. He stopped just short of skin, whispering his next words quickly. "I need you to listen to me very, very carefully, Sasuke. You're being watched right now, by ANBU. I really don't know what's going on, but Tsunade told me that we can't let them know we know anything no matter what. So I need you to pretend to be into this, and in a second, I'm going to draw your blinds. Okay?"

Ah. That made sense. But the moron was later going to regret not coming up with something less... uncomfortable.

Sasuke's only response to Naruto's words was to lift his hand, tangling his fingers in spiky, blond hair and letting out a low, pleased moan. For someone who seemed to loathe human contact, he felt he was doing a fairly good job of faking this.

Naruto let himself carry on the charade a minute or so longer, figuring he'd give the ANBU detail enough of a show to convince them not to stay tuned for what was to come. He went as far as shrugging off his jacket, drawing the blinds in the same motion he took to set it on Sasuke's bedside table. Then, as soon as he was sure they were out of sight, he quickly climbed off of Sasuke, a little bit pink in the cheeks.

"Er, sorry about that," he mumbled, remembering to keep his voice down. "Tsunade-baba said it was an emergency, so I ran right over and that was the best plan I could come up with."

Sasuke sat up, rolling his eyes as the blankets fell from his bare chest. His fingers loosened around the kunai they'd been clutching beneath the sheets, and he set the weapon aside on his nightstand. "You're lucky you didn't get stabbed." The harsh words were somewhat softened by the flush dusting his own cheeks, much more obvious on his pale skin. "What's the emergency?"

"Geez, you're taking this well," Naruto muttered, subconsciously stalling for time. Running a hand through his hair, he stared a little at the flush on Sasuke's cheeks. "Do ANBU details show up on your doorstep a lot or something?"

"A detail followed me for a while after the massacre," Sasuke responded, sliding out of bed. He'd never been sure if they'd been following to protect him in case Itachi came back to finish him off, or to watch him to see if he'd been somehow involved. He had no idea how an eight-year-old would have managed to aid in the killing of his own family, but then he wouldn't have expected a thirteen-year-old to do so, either. "Why are they here now?"

"Um... Promise not to do anything rash or stupid once I tell you? And by that, I mean anything you think I would do," Naruto sighed as he watched Sasuke get up a little warily.

Sasuke moved towards Naruto, Sharingan eyes narrowing. "No."

"Fine. Then you'll have to guess what Tsunade told me through a series of interpretive dance, ass," Naruto challenged, crossing his arms as he stood. Sasuke was definitely not winning this argument, not with a squad of ANBU sitting outside. It wasn't like there was a group of freaking kittens waiting for Sasuke to run out of his apartment. These were ANBU. As in that-organization-Kakashi-sensei-used-to-be-in-but-will-no-longer-speak-of. There was just no way Naruto was going to let Sasuke handle this the way he usually handled things.

Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest, unintentionally mirroring Naruto. "Start dancing, then." He would make no promises about what he would and would not do when he had no idea what he was about to be told. Though, if Naruto actually starting dancing, he'd probably just lie and agree to Naruto's terms.

"C'mon, Sasuke! For the love of-- You can do whatever the hell you want, as long as you don't provoke the ANBU outside to use you for target practice, after I've told you everything, okay? I just don't want you bolting out of here before I've finished three words," Naruto sighed, hating it when Sasuke called him on his bluffs.

"...Fine." He wouldn't provoke the ANBU. He wasn't a moron, after all, unlike the other person currently occupying the room. If whatever Naruto told him required that he do something the ANBU wouldn't approve of - which Naruto seemed to believe it would - then he would simply make sure he did it without attracting their attention.

"Okay, good." Naruto had to pause a moment then to try to work up the nerve to speak, knowing he was about to change everything. Tsunade had been alarmingly vague on the details, but even with what little she told him it was enough to know that something big was going on and that Sasuke was at the center of it.

"Itachi's back," he finally forced out, watching Sasuke carefully, ready to tackle him to the ground if he had to. "The village elders had him arrested just now, or something. Tsunade-baba watched it happen, and... Apparently he's going to some sort of military trial tomorrow and he's going to be executed the day after that. That's all she told me, but she gave me this map and... I don't know what's going on. Do you know something I don't?"

Sasuke froze, his mind racing. The first emotion he felt, surprisingly, was fury. How dare Konoha, the elders, take over his mission? Killing Itachi was his whole life, and they had no right to interfere. An execution... he should be happy, but this was all wrong. Itachi wasn't supposed to die in some public execution, he was supposed to die at Sasuke's hands.

"Give me the map."

"Sasuke--" Naruto began, sounding irritated that both Tsunade and Sasuke appeared to be using him as a convenient messenger. Knowing how important this was to Sasuke, though, he dug into his pocket and produced the map in question, which was something Tsunade had drawn onto the back of a large restaurant napkin. It showed the facility where Itachi was being held, had the best path to his cell marked, and listed exactly how to avoid the guards down to when shifts changed over.

Below it all, in Tsunade's familiar drunken scrawl, were five, simple words, underlined twice.

Find the truth for yourself.

Dark eyes scanned the map, then the sloppily scrawled words beneath it. The truth... He knew the truth already, what could she possibly mean?

It didn't matter, really. He needed to see Itachi for himself before he could even believe that Konoha had really managed to capture his brother. And if they had... well, he didn't know what he would do. But he'd figure it out when he was there, and looked into his brother's eyes again.

Sasuke looked at the map one last time, memorizing its contents, then formed seals and blew a light flame into its center, burning it and dropping the ashes into the trash. Tsunade had helped him - he'd make sure, at least, that no one knew what she'd done. "I'm going."

Naruto's first instinct was to insist on going with him, but this matter was private enough that even he felt hesitant to inject himself into it. He had glanced over the map as Tsunade had been drawing it and those words... They were for Sasuke's eyes only. All of this was the cumulation of every misery, every injustice Sasuke's life had ever known, and as much as Naruto wanted to be there for him, he came to the understanding that this was something Sasuke had to do alone.

But he, being Naruto, could hardly leave it at that and so he sighed, sitting heavily back down on the bed.

"Come back here by morning, okay?" Naruto instructed sternly, expression, for once, unreadable.

Come back to me.

"It'd be a pain if I had to explain to all those nice gentlemen perched in the trees outside your window how I'm so bad in bed that you ran off halfway," he went on to drawl, flopping down onto his back.

Sasuke tugged a shirt over his head, glancing for a moment at Naruto. "Who said you could stay in my apartment?" he drawled, though he didn't really object. The ANBU needed to think he was still in here with Naruto, anyway.

And he'd be back by morning, surely. Unless Itachi killed him, somehow. He wouldn't point that out to Naruto. Speaking of Naruto... "I need a distraction. For the ANBU."

Sighing heavily, Naruto grabbed his jacket off the table and pulled it back on, casting Sasuke an extremely half-hearted glare. "Figured as much. You're lucky I'm good at running from guards." Shaking his head, Naruto brought his hands together into the seal for his kage bunshin and made a fairly decent clone of Sasuke. Then, taking the clone's hand, Naruto headed for the door.

"Morning, okay? You owe me," Naruto called over his shoulder as he dragged the clone of Sasuke off, then allowed his voice to go to back to its usual volume.

"C'mon, Sasuke, let's go back to my apartment! I forgot the present I bought you there!"

The real Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest, waiting a few minutes. He knew this was necessary, but still annoying. If any of those ANBU were particularly talkative (or just had a twisted sense of humor, which seemed to be common in most upper-level nin), it would be all over the village by tomorrow that he was sleeping with Naruto. Girls would be committing suicide left and right - well, maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

Once he was sure that Naruto and his clone were gone, Sasuke slid his shoes on and slipped out his window, leaping quickly across the roofs of Konoha. His heart was already pounding in his chest, and it had nothing to do with exertion. Soon, he would see Itachi.

Halfway across the village at that moment, in a basement cell sectioned off from all the others, Itachi was quietly counting off the seconds until all this came to an end. He found himself surprisingly at peace with it all, wondering only vaguely if there was anything after life. It probably bothered him less than it otherwise would have because either possibility sounded fine to him. If there was, he wondered what would happen to him. If it wasn't too late to apologize to his mother, to Shisui. If he would even see them, or if he would go wherever people who betrayed and murdered everyone who had ever loved him went. Maybe he would see his father there.

And if there wasn't, well...

He was tired. He could use some real sleep, uninterrupted by nightmares and enemy ambush.

Wearily, he shifted his arms from where they were shackled to the wall over his head. His thoughts wandered to where Sasuke was, how he was, if Danzou would keep his promise after Itachi was gone. Itachi didn't trust any of them, but at the very least...

The Godaime would keep Sasuke safe. And once the Uchiha clan's dark past died with him, Sasuke could live his life as he wanted.

The dripping water at the corner of Itachi's cell helped him keep track of the time. It was another six hours to dawn.

Tsunade's map and instructions had been perfect. With the memorized directions, Sasuke managed to find his way down to the dungeon where Itachi was being held and avoid the guards at the same time.

It was dark. Sasuke stopped as his eyes adjusted, and activated the Sharingan just in case. Itachi's hands should be separated, preventing him from making seals (but then, he'd known people who could get around that), but Sasuke had no idea whether they would have blindfolded Itachi, or otherwise warded him to prevent him from using his own Sharingan. This whole thing was strange - how had they captured someone as powerful and elusive as Itachi? And how were they keeping him here? Itachi wasn't the type to be easily held.

He could see a row of cells and moved slowly towards them, peering into the first one he passed. Nothing. He slid his hand along the bars as he moved towards the next one, the cool metal somehow comforting.

The second cell was where he found Itachi. Arms shackled above his head, as he'd expected. Sasuke simply stood there for a moment, staring at his brother as best he could in the dark. Trapped this way, he looked almost like the Itachi that Sasuke had known - or thought he'd known. He stomped down on the slight bit of sympathy that bubbled up inside of him. This was the traitor who had murdered his family. Tortured him. This was where he deserved to be.

Head snapping up toward the sound of Sasuke's approach as befitting of a shinobi of his caliber, Itachi pulled against his restraints and tried to make out who was coming to visit at this late hour.

"If you've come to mock me again, Danzou, you're wasting your breath," he spat. The footsteps didn't quite sound like Danzou's lumbering gait, but... Who else knew he was here? Tsunade certainly wouldn't come, she wasn't that stupid. There was no saving him now, and the most comfort anyone could offer him was a swift execution.

"I am not Danzou," Sasuke spat, as if the very idea were insulting to him. He gripped the bars of the cell, leaning a little closer to get a better look at Itachi. "How did they capture you?" he demanded.

At that sound of Sasuke's voice, Itachi's entire body stiffened and his eyes widened against the rough cloth of the blindfold, breath stalling in his chest. It-- It couldn't be-- Had Danzou betrayed him after all, or...?

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm rather feeling a drink.

What was she trying to do?

Very slowly, one by one, the muscles in Itachi's body relaxed and when he spoke again, his voice was wiped clean of emotion. This was who Sasuke needed him to be, less a person and more an object of hate. "...what are you doing here?"

"What do you think?" Sasuke leaned closer, nearly pressing his face through the bars. "I came to see you like this. Imprisoned, worthless." God, it felt good. Now that Itachi looked like a killer again, Sasuke got some sort of sick, vengeful pleasure out of seeing him this way, bound, defenseless. His hands tightened on the bars.

"I see time has not made you any wiser," Itachi retorted coldly, sitting up straighter. He didn't want Sasuke to see him this way, but... there was really no point in letting it bother him. It wasn't as though Sasuke's opinion of him could be degraded much further. Itachi let himself take some morbid humor out of this reminder.

"In the end, you couldn't even bring an end to this. What are you now, little brother...? Twelve? Thirteen? The way you are now, you could not even defeat who I was at your age. You never had a chance against me," Itachi went on, words mocking but voice as blank as his expression was.

Sasuke's fists clenched tighter. He jerked angrily at the bars, then noticed the keys hanging on a hook on the wall nearby. The guards weren't too worried about Itachi escaping, apparently, but Sasuke didn't pause to think about that. He snatched the keys off of the wall and unlocked the cell, jerking the heavy, metal door open and stepping inside, letting the keys drop to the floor. "Yeah? Well, I bet I have a chance against you now."

"Fight me, then," Itachi invited, holding his head up defiantly despite how badly as wanted to drop it in shame. "This would be the only way you could hold your own, wouldn't it?"

Go on, little brother. Express your hate for me on last time, and do not miss me once I'm gone.

Sasuke drew his fist back and hit Itachi, anger spurring him forward. "I've held my own just fine since you killed our entire family," he spat, his throat feeling strangely tight. He rubbed his knuckles, glaring at Itachi as he did so despite the fact that the other couldn't see him. "But, you wouldn't know that, since you've been gone the entire time."

He wasn't quite sure where that came from, it just came out. Even if Itachi had been around, Sasuke wouldn't have wanted him taking care of him. But he still, somehow, blamed him for having to raise himself, for being alone.

For a moment, Itachi was silent as he felt the blow to his cheek sting, wrists bleeding sluggishly from where the metal shackles had dug into them at the sudden pull. Somehow hearing it from Sasuke made it more real. The years had worn at the memory of that night, as Itachi forced himself to forget for the sake of his own sanity. But hearing that accusation on Sasuke's lips...

Itachi really was the worst of the worst. Someone who spilled the blood of his own mother. His best friend. Someone who had left the person he loved most in the world able to feel nothing but hate and contempt. He had stolen everything from Sasuke, stripped from him everything that was good. He had killed his little brother that night too, leaving someone else entirely behind. Someone who did not know how to smile or cry, someone who could not believe in the good things in the world, who watched the shadows for his brother to come calling. It was a crime for which Itachi could never be forgiven.

"What do you want from me?" Itachi finally asked, wishing a little guiltily that he could see his brother. Hold him. Take a few moments of selfish comfort before his life came to an end.

Sasuke honestly didn't know what he wanted from Itachi. Was he still that little boy, silently begging for just the slightest praise from his big brother? Was that why it stung so much when Itachi called him weak? Or did he simply want vengeance? Itachi's death at his hands? He wasn't sure which it was, or even if it was a mix of the two.

"I don't know," he admitted, looking away from his brother. Itachi would die the day after tomorrow. If he did want something from him, he needed to figure out what it was, and quickly.

"Then you should go. You can't be seen here with me," Itachi dismissed, unknowingly mirroring Sasuke by turning his head away as well. It was dangerous for Sasuke to be here. If anyone caught him, everything... Everything Itachi had fought for, worked for, sacrifice for, it all... It would all have been for nothing. Danzou would assume that Sasuke knew something. Maybe have him executed too.

Itachi couldn't let that happen.

Sasuke was determined to stay, then, if only so that he wouldn't be obeying Itachi. "No." Why couldn't he be seen with Itachi? This was his brother, who everyone knew he wanted dead. Why would they work so hard to keep his presence from Sasuke, even going so far as to post ANBU guards outside of his apartment? There was something they didn't want him to know, and it seemed Itachi didn't want him to know, as well.

"What's going on? Why is everyone so desperate to keep me away from you? What is it you're not telling me?"

"What is there to know? I killed our clan, you said so just now yourself. If you are not here to take your revenge, you have no further business here," Itachi answered a bit clinically, leaning back against the wall.

No. Something was off. Sasuke didn't like being played for a fool. He yanked the blindfold off of Itachi's face, eyes narrowed. "Say it again." There was no guarantee that he would be able tell anything by looking into Itachi's eyes as he spoke, but it was the best option he had if his brother was so unwilling to cooperate, and Itachi was incapacitated so this was probably the only opportunity he would have to safely look into his brother's eyes since the massacre.

Surprising even himself, Itachi took that moment to smile. There was Sasuke, right before him. Grown and healthy and taking after him so well. They both looked like their mother. With this... He could spend more time with Sasuke, more time even than he had left in this world. His brother honestly wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but that fact only endeared him to Itachi more. Always had.

"Foolish little brother," he whispered darkly, eyes flashing from black to red.

"Tsukiyomi."

Sasuke didn't even have time to scream before he found himself no longer in the dark, cold cell, but rather in a room of his old family home. He immediately flinched, expecting the blood, the bodies, but there was nothing. He thought, for a moment, that maybe Itachi was going to make him relive the entire massacre again, from start to finish, but a glance at the window told him that it was about mid-afternoon, judging from the sunlight streaming in. The massacre had taken place at night.

What was Itachi doing?

His eyes darted around the room, searching for his brother as he fell back into a defensive stance. This was some kind of trap, he just needed to figure it out before it was too late. He wanted to know why Itachi's chakra hadn't been blocked - were the elders really that stupid? - but he didn't have time to think about that right now. He'd experienced Tsukiyomi before, and his heart was already pounding in panic at the memory. Any distractions right now could result in anguish that he wasn't sure he could survive again.

"What are you doing, little brother?" Itachi asked from the door as he stepped in, sliding the screen shut behind him. He was no longer in his prisoner's garb or his Akatsuki cloak or even his ANBU uniform. Instead he was dressed in a loose-fitting clan shirt and the pants he usually wore to sleep, because they were comfortable and their mother had bought them for him, he'd told Sasuke once. His hair was pulled back in its usual ponytail, though his bangs were shorter than they had been in the cell. In fact, he looked exactly as Sasuke remembered him to, before the massacre had ever touched their lives.

"You don't honestly think you can fight me here, do you?"

The way he spoke, however, was his cold, detached, murderous self exactly.

Sasuke took a step back, shaking his head. Was this some new form of torture? He'd never wanted to hear that voice coming out of the brother he remembered. It was the real Itachi, of course, but he didn't like having his memories tarnished more than they had to be.

"What the hell is this?" he demanded, gesturing angrily at the room around them. "What are you trying to pull?!"

"You weren't about to leave, so I could only assume you wanted to spend time with me," Itachi answered flatly, crossing over to his closet in an unsettling show of normalcy. He opened it, peered inside, and began to sort his training clothes. It appeared that their mother had just washed the laundry and left the basket in there for Itachi to fold.

Itachi was hoping that by the time he reached the limit of his ability to hold his Tsukiyomi, Sasuke would be well enough sick of him to leave right away before he did get his stubborn self caught by the guards.

"Yeah, right!" Sasuke snapped, watching his brother sort his clothes with unconcealed scorn. "I wanted answers! If I had to spend time with you to get them, well, that was just a sacrifice I had to make!"

Itachi's room... his brother, back turned, sorting through clothes in his closet. It was all too normal. This was torture in its own right. But while the torture was still as harmless as it ever got, he needed to try to get answers. Sasuke knew very well that within Tsukiyomi, his circumstances could change in an instant.

"What is it that you're hiding from me? That everyone's hiding from me?"

"Stop asking questions, Sasuke. They're dangerous. You're old enough to understand that everything comes with consequences," Itachi answered evenly enough, turning slowly back to Sasuke as he found himself unable to keep himself facing away. How many nights had he spent imagining Sasuke growing up? Thought about what he would look like, how he would sound... And now he was here, close enough for Itachi to touch. Well. Not really, but things were real enough within this elaborate illusion. Just as hate was kin enough to love that it was enough for Itachi as well.

He was a person who was beyond forgiveness, beyond deserving of anything but Sasuke's contempt, and yet somehow that was okay. He would always be a part of Sasuke, all those warring memories of who he had been and who he had been forced to become. There was no fixing what they had once had, but... To Itachi, Sasuke's hate was a proof of his love. The more Itachi could get Sasuke to hate him, the more he could see the love the hate had been born of.

Watching him now, glaring at his once-beloved big brother, it... It hurt Itachi, to be honest, but only in the best of ways. This was all he could ask for, and it was wonderful.

Sasuke took a step back, uncomfortable with the way his brother was looking at him. It wasn't the dismissive glance it had been since the massacre; it was something else, something that made his chest clench tightly. "Everything involving you is dangerous," Sasuke retorted, doing his best to stand his ground. "I don't care. I want to know."

"Knowing won't bring them back," Itachi replied shortly, something that was very close to pain briefly registering on his face before it was quickly gone again. "I'll be dead in just over a day, little brother. Why are you still asking questions at this late hour? What's stopping you from getting on with your life now?"

"Now knowing." How could Sasuke ever move on if the truth died with Itachi tomorrow? If there was something more to his clan's massacre, he needed to know what it was. His life, his existence would never be... complete if he lost any chance at that knowledge. "Tell me."

"There is nothing you need to know," Itachi insisted, beginning to lose his temper at Sasuke's stubbornness. It wasn't his fault, Itachi knew. He had no idea what he was asking about, only that he wanted to know. And he had a right to. It was just... Everything depended on Sasuke not knowing.

"Why do you hate me, Sasuke? It's because I murdered our parents and destroyed your childhood, isn't it? Nothing I tell you, no amount of questions and their answers can change those two very simple facts, however much you may wish it so. So there is nothing to tell."

"Who says I want it to change those facts?" Sasuke demanded, relieved that Itachi had revealed at least something about the information that was being denied him - it apparently had to do with Itachi's motives in killing the clan. "I have no idea what it is that's being hidden from me, or how exactly it relates to me, I just want to know what it is." He sneered, then, what little information he'd gained making him feel as if he'd also gained a slight bit of power over his brother. "But thanks for the hint."

"You should learn some humility, little brother," Itachi warned, an edge of anger to his voice as he stepped forward, catching Sasuke by the wrist. This was the last place there was in the world that shared memories of them that were untainted by the massacre and the events that shortly followed. It seemed fitting to end things here. Maybe if he took away all that was left of Sasuke's good memories of him, he would let go. Go on with his life. If Itachi made himself too painful for Sasuke to remember, maybe then Sasuke could finally be free.

And to be quite honest, Itachi was not so entirely selfless as he seemed. He was about to die. If he didn't do the things he wanted now, he would never get to.

"Says the egomaniac." Sasuke tried to jerk his wrist away, but found his brother's hold too strong. The slightest bit of panic rose up in him as he found himself unable to access his chakra - probably an effect of being within Tsukiyomi. "Let go of me."

"You've been wondering what sort of trap this all is since I pulled you into it, haven't you?" Itachi asked lightly, ignoring Sasuke's words as he gestured to the room around them. "That, at least, is one question I am willing to answer, little brother. Are you curious?"

Sasuke swallowed thickly, keeping his gaze as Itachi even as his brother gestured around the room. "Fine," he said, fists clenched, body tensed warily. "What's the trap, Itachi?" He didn't understand. If it was to torture him in the ways Itachi previously had, this was the wrong setting. Wrong time, wrong room. No one had been killed in Itachi's bedroom, certainly not during the day. If the trap was to torture him with this impression of the happy domestic life they'd enjoyed before the massacre, then he'd admit that it was original, but only mildly effective. There had to be more to it than this.

"Everything you've ever known about me is wrong, down to this, little brother," Itachi informed Sasuke softly, voice painfully empty. He wanted it to be more than that, but he knew he could not afford it. So, instead, he shut his eyes and leaned in, one arm firmly locking around Sasuke's waist to hold him in place. Then he kissed him hard, his own blood brother, one who had once trusted him and looked up to him and loved him--

Sasuke froze, his entire body stiffening as his brother's lips pressed against his. This - this wasn't anything he could have ever anticipated. For a few moments, he couldn't move, dark eyes wide at his brother's sudden, surprising move. Slowly he began struggling, his shock giving way to horror and fury. As a child, he would have adored any attention Itachi gave him, even this - perhaps especially this, because it would have meant, to him, that his brother loved him enough to focus so intently upon him. Now, however, he struggled violently, free hand shoving at Itachi's chest. "M-Mm...!"

Itachi's grip held strong as he backed Sasuke against the bed, forcing him down against it. As always, he paid close attention to every breath Sasuke took, every tremor, every movement of every muscle. He took it all and utilized it against him, manipulated him with it. It all felt deeply wrong to him, but he had long ago accepted it as something he had to do.

"You hesitated, little brother," Itachi observed, smirking slightly as he straddled Sasuke's body, holding Sasuke down entirely with his own weight. "Could it be that you wanted this from me all along?"

Sasuke's fury doubled in intensity and he renewed his struggles, nearly panicking at the feeling of his brother's bedsheets beneath him. "What are you doing?!" he gasped, breathless and not quite sure why. He couldn't get Itachi off, and this was the torture, but how? Why? Not even Itachi could possibly...

But he could. He obviously could.

"Surely you're old enough now to understand my intentions," Itachi answered as he fastened Sasuke's wrists to his bedposts with restraints that had likely not been there moments before. Once Sasuke was securely bound down, Itachi was able to sit back a little, producing a single kunai from his pouch. He toyed with it in his hands a moment, watching as the light filtering in through the window cast of the sharpened edge.

Sasuke stiffened again, feeling utterly vulnerable with his chakra gone, his wrists bound, and his brother contemplating a weapon above him. "You're sick!" he hissed, beginning to thrash on the bed as his shock and fear again turned into fury - a defense mechanism Itachi himself had fostered within him. "Get off of me!"

"I know I am," came Itachi's flat, perhaps slightly bitter response as he slid one hand be neath the wide opening of Sasuke's loose shirt, fingers curling tightly around the hem. "Now I would hold very still if I were you, little brother. This world may not be real, but the pain any wounds you sustain will be very real."

And that said, Itachi began to cut Sasuke's shirt away, the blade of the kunai sliding against Sasuke's stomach just shy of breaking skin.

Sasuke went still again, not enthusiastic about the possibility of getting sliced open. His gaze remained on Itachi, eyes burning with cold fury and a renewed promise of death even as his pale chest rose and fell shakily and a bit quicker than usual beneath the kunai. Meanwhile, his mind raced, trying to think of any possibility of escaping this, even though he knew it was impossible. This was Tsukiyomi. Once Itachi had pulled you in, you were completely as his mercy. Not even Kakashi-sensei had been able to escape it...

Itachi was able to make quick work of Sasuke's shirt with how well Sasuke was behaving, which he then pushed clear off Sasuke's chest to give himself access. He kissed Sasuke again, the action hungry and searching, hard enough to bruise. The flat of his palm was pressed against his younger brother's bared chest, nails digging into the soft skin. He wanted to burn his touch into Sasuke, make the memory of it last longer than his life could, have it linger to keep Sasuke's company long after he was gone. Itachi found himself a little possessive. He couldn't help it. He had lived almost his entire life for Sasuke. Though he knew it could never be so, he wanted to be the world to Sasuke again.

But this, this hate and this violence, this complete corruption of everything this act should have been, it was all they had. All that they could have.

Sasuke let out an involuntary whimper at the sudden stinging where Itachi's nails dug into his skin, and instantly regretted it. He wanted to give Itachi no satisfaction, to somehow remain stoic throughout whatever was about to come, but even now he knew it was impossible. Maybe, maybe if Itachi hadn't been kissing him, he could do it. Itachi had already abused his body more than once, though never in this way - he could, maybe, handle that. But the kisses were intimate; no matter how rough, they weren't the impersonal pain of a fistfight, they weren't two faceless bodies moving together.

Itachi kissing him made it real. This was his brother over him, cutting away his clothes and digging his nails into his flesh, marking him possibly forever in a way not even Orochimaru had managed. And this was only the beginning.

Dragging a hand through Sasuke's hair, Itachi trailed the kisses down his brother's neck until he could bite down on the junction of Sasuke's shoulder. He wanted to mark Sasuke so badly, wanted to leave some small part of himself on his brother that was visible, that would forever be a testament that he once lived and loved this boy. But this was only a dreamscape after all. There was nothing of substance here, much like the whole of Itachi's life. Thinking that, he only bit down harder. If nothing else, he could brand the memory of these marks into Sasuke. It was better than nothing.

The hand that had been at Sasuke's chest slid down, finding the waistband of Sasuke's pants. It traveled over the fabric, cupping against the contour of Sasuke's inner thigh, grazing over his crotch.

Sasuke hissed, taking a sharp breath through his teeth. Itachi's touches had already been drawing reactions from his body against his will, and feeling his brother's hand there was almost too much. He hated himself, hated not being able to control his body. It was his, dammit. He couldn't control anything else about this situation, and now his own body was reacting in ways he didn't want it to, and to his betraying brother's touch.

"Stop it," he gasped, gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut. He wanted to stay strong throughout this, but he could feel the beginnings of tears in the corners of his eyes, and hated himself all the more.

"...you've never been with anyone before." Itachi's voice was soft for this, almost accusing. His hand reached up and brushed over the corner of Sasuke's eye before he drew it back, finding it wet. This realization horrified and sickened him almost as much as it filled him with a twisted sense of pleasure and satisfaction. These terrible things he felt in regard for his brother were a part of the reason why what they had could never be anything but broken. It was wrong of him to do this to his brother to begin with, against Sasuke's will at that. But he wanted to. And worse than that, he was taking his little brother's virginity from him, against his will, and still Itachi only wanted to push him further. Stopping never even crossed his mind.

Because no matter who came after, no matter who Sasuke was with for the rest of his life, Itachi would have been the first. With this, every aspect of Sasuke's life would be tainted by him.

Sasuke turned his head to the side, unwilling to look at Itachi in the face of his (true) assumption. The faint flush on his pale cheeks was answer enough. He wondered, if only to distract himself, just how Tsukiyomi managed to mimic real life so perfectly, right down to the blush on his cheeks.

It was too real, but he supposed that was what made it torture.

"You know..." Itachi murmured, lowering his head to kiss Sasuke once more, this time absently enough that it was almost gentle, "...you've always been the one unspoiled constant in my life, and I have always been the one corrupting yours. It seems fitting for us, somehow." At this point, Itachi sounded as though he was entirely talking to himself. He pulled Sasuke's pants down his hips, inch by inch. There was a certain kind of reverence to it, as wrong as it all was. Itachi could feel his pulse surge at the thought that no one had been this intimate with Sasuke before him, that he was the first to see his brother vulnerable this way. That in this moment, the body beneath him belonged to him alone.

Sasuke kept his head turned away, his eyes squeezed shut, unable to watch as his body was bared to his brother. He didn't want to see the look in Itachi's eyes as he looked at his naked form. He wondered why it mattered to him, if it was possible for Itachi to be any further ruined in his eyes, but still he couldn't look and that was probably all the answer he needed.

"Fuck you," he whispered, usually firm voice shaking as he continued struggling to hold back tears. He didn't know why he was on the verge of crying; Itachi had a way of making him feel like a child again, which was only more disturbing now.

"Since when do you use language like that, little brother...?" Itachi scolded a little breathlessly, caressing Sasuke's cheek with the back of his hand briefly as he smiled because smiling was all that could keep him crying. He brought his other hand between Sasuke's legs, caressing as well. It didn't precisely matter to him if Sasuke enjoyed this, as he suspected the trauma would be much the same to his brother regardless of how this went. The mental shock of being turned on by being raped by his own brother, who he hated deeply, would likely overpower any comfort the actual pleasure offered him, but on the other hand...

It would be a pity if Sasuke spent the rest of his life associating sex with pain.

Sasuke shuddered, his body stiffening again, trying to draw his legs together in some form of protection. No, no... One tear managed to spill down his cheek, furthering his embarrassment, and he shook his head roughly to try to rid himself of it before Itachi noticed.

But nothing escaped Itachi's notice, least of all in a world of his own making. He leaned up a little and caught Sasuke's jaw firmly in his hand, holding his brother's hand in place as he watched the tear progress slowly down Sasuke's cheek. His gaze was impassive, calculating almost. Then he leaned down and very carefully kissed the tear away, licking his lips as he tasted Sasuke's despair between them. Something in Itachi's resolve set just then, and he very, very gently pet Sasuke's hair as a concerned, almost brotherly expression crossed his face.

"My dear, dear little brother," he murmured before his hand twisted around a fistful of Sasuke's dark locks, jerking Sasuke's head roughly back to expose his neck.

"Since when has crying ever saved you...?