AU: Hello everyone! It's me, again, with a new story that I just fell in love with, therefore this will be my main priority from now on! Please look forward to the next chapters!
Also, lots of love to my amazing beta, Kaline Reine, who was kind enough to spend an entire night helping me! She's a great writer and if you haven't read her stories yet, you definitely should!
WARNING: This contains yaoi and incest! If you are against any of those please don't read further!
Everyone else, please enjoy and review!
Prologue: Cast out
On the outside, we were and always would have been the typical brothers that hated each other. We followed the pattern; we were doing everything just as the book said. We hated each other and ended up taking two completely different roads in life.
He was the outlaw, the one hunted by justice, the criminal and the murderer. He allied himself with those forsaken by society and never looked back to the normal people who could not fuel his ambitions or arouse his interest.
On the other hand, I was the one that came to lay justice upon people like him. I was one of those who'd go to extreme lengths for what they believed to be right, even if it meant losing myself in the process.
I was everything he was not, and he hated everything that I clinged to in order to stay sane. Or so it seemed, because in truth the two of us were just the same. Screw the whole scenario with the siblings that fight against each other, who have completely different beliefs and weapons; no, we were not at all like that.
It was paradoxical, really, how the path that I chose made me sacrifice so many things, turned me into someone else, while the path he chose did not seem to affect him in the slightest. I had to step all over the justice I held so dear so many times in order to protect it, that in the end I was not myself anymore. In the end, I was more like him than me and that thought ate at my very soul.
We were the same.
Although we hated each other, saw the world differently and wanted different things, we were the same... Nothing about us was right, and the sins we bore were countless, yet in the end, I was the only one who had to sacrifice anything, because he had always wished for that; he deliberately chose his sins, embraced them, longed for them. I never wished for such a life, yet in the end, I did not know what else to do, I knew no other way of living… or dying. My very existence now orbited around the very own injustice of being and there was no way to change it anymore, so I just lived with it.
Chapter 1: Cruel justice, bitter sacrifice
Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one.
The words kept repeating themselves, over and over, in his head; there was no escape, he knew it already, but what seemed right a second ago was now wrong and worthless.
Was it really wise? Was it really for the greater good? Laws are just something made up by humans, to contain the harmful instincts of other lower human beings; they change with time and perception, but so does the word "right". He had always believed that he was being led by a sense of justice and righteousness, but just like the law, such values also faded with time.
What was once immoral becomes the normal; something dully accepted by society, and something that was once moral develops to become a taboo. Nothing was absolute, not even justice, so why should his justice be the one true justice?
He had sacrificed his life for it, but now he could not convince himself anymore that he was completely right. The seed of uncertainty was growing in his head and he could feel himself slipping away. He could not afford to slip away; not now...
He looked around, studying his surroundings, trying to cease away the feelings that were overwhelming him. The building was rather abnormal in that day and age. On the outside, it looked normal, but once you entered it, the ruins of the former place looked like a graveyard for concrete walls. An old flat, a building for refugees that they were raiding.
People like the residents of that place were a taboo in their society, something no one wanted to approve of, yet something no one wanted to deal with. So here they were, getting rid of them. It was, in fact, really low of them, but Sasuke knew he had no choice but to obey the given orders, no matter how absurd they were. That's why someone from the special unit like him was scanning the place for homeless, unregistered people.
As he went up the stairs, he felt bad for the ones he was going after this time. It was not enough to stop him from completing his job, but he did not approve of it nonetheless. They were not his usual type of prey; they were not a threat. They were simply not lucky enough to be born in a decent environment, so they were trying their best to survive in another way. He knew why people like them did that. Facilities that dealt with such cases were at best horrible, and they'd rather live in old, destroyed buildings than go there. They were nothing more than an eyesore for people who'd occasionally spot them outside, trying to find something to eat, because in truth they would never even dare to look at a registered citizen out of fear of being found out and taken to a care facility.
They did not have to worry anymore, he thought. They were going to be killed, that was what he had been ordered. The system was merciless to those who refused it and as nonsensical as it was, those innocent people were given the same treatment as the real criminals.
He finally saw them in a corner, gathered together, elders and children, trying to comfort each other in the coldness of the rain that was pouring in from the cracked ceiling.
He aimed at the smallest child, trying to stop his suffering first, but just one second before he pulled the trigger, his heart stopped. The crying expression of the man holding the child terrified him, and although it would have been virtually impossible for them to see Sasuke, he was pretty sure that man knew he was there.
He killed them all.
The world is a cruel place, merciless to those who can not be accepted by the shallow perception of other human beings. The majority declares what is right or wrong and those that cannot comply with their beliefs end up being cast away, judged and sentenced to a life of moral imprisonment.
In such a world, the truth of his existence and his secrets had to be locked away; he lived his life lying to normal people, yet hypocritically telling the truth to the ones in control, who wished nothing more than to attach strings to him and use him as a puppet; such was the world he was living in.
"What are you still doing here? I was told that everyone was taken out and we can leave." His team mate said, walking up the stairs to see Sasuke leaning on the wall near a pile of corpses.
"Indeed they were. I will stay here some more." He answered, and the other man simply left the room, not saying another word.
The blood was making its way to his feet, and each time he looked at their terrified faces, he could see tears still wet on their cold cheeks. This could not have been right, he was slowly falling lower and lower, all for the sake of keeping his golden shackles.
"Is this the justice you seek so dearly?" A deep voice echoed in the hollow room, freezing Sasuke's blood and making his hair stand.
As much as he hated to admit it, it was not.
"Yes, it is. The law is to be applied to everyone, why should we care for those who break it? Do they care about us?" He answered coldly; he would not admit anything to him, not to him.
"You and I both know those people were not a threat to society. You killed that little child for justice? Hah, don't make me laugh."
Suddenly, as if materializing from the cold rain, he was in front of Sasuke, fixating him with his inexpressive eyes, stripping him of the walls that shielded his secrets. His face was a mask with no expression, framed by the two scars beneath his eyes. As if to protect his last trace of dignity, the raven haired man smirked at the one in front of him, trying to push away his stare.
"Who are you to judge me or my ways? What I do is right." It is not. "And just as you made your choice, I made mine, this is what I want." It is not.
His mind was running rampant with thoughts that did not match his words, but he hoped that he could not see through his lies; although he could.
"You are such an obvious liar, little brother." He said and laughed, a bitter ironical laughter that bit deep into Sasuke's conscience.
His brother could see right through him.
"Itachi, do you wish to die so much?" he said, pointing the gun he held in his hand at his brother.
His sibling simply shrugged, smiling and inviting him to pull the trigger.
"You can't shoot me."
"I can." I can't. "I will." I won't.
His hands started shaking, cold sweat running down his spine. He was cold, he was terrified. He could not kill the man in front of him, as much as he wanted to; he was still unable to pull the trigger. Oh, how many times he had imagined this, standing in front of him, aiming at him and making him pay, but this was not right.
He couldn't have killed him right then and there; it was not right. Not after he had just admitted to himself that his brother was in fact right, because if he was right, if what Itachi said was the truth and if Sasuke killed Itachi, what was there for him to live for?
Robbed of his justice, robbed of his hatred, what could have kept him alive? Nothing. He would have died, and he was not ready yet; he was a coward.
"You see?" The mocking voice echoed in his head, his brother laughing at him, at his cowardice; he was right yet again.
"What do you want?" He gave up and simply asked, wishing with all his might that Itachi would just vanish.
"Me? Nothing. I was simply bored, little brother, so I thought I'd pay you a visit. I missed you." He said, tilting his head to the side with a worried expression, mocking him even further.
"Spare me of your crap!" Sasuke shouted, unable to control the shivers that were shaking his entire body now. "What do you want?" He asked again, stressing every word, trying to calm himself down.
"I want you to come with me. I have something planned for you."
"Make me." he simply growled, making his older sibling laugh in a way befitting of a maniac. He was thoroughly enjoying his little game; he liked to torture him.
"I will."
He took a step forward, then another one, rapidly closing the distance between the two of them. Sasuke's body finally gave up on trying to stand straight, he collapsed under his own trembling knees. He did not want to die. There was no other outcome to that situation. He either killed his brother or complied with his request, both meant dying to him; he was too weak to die.
He could feel Itachi's sadistic smile, spreading all over his face. He was enjoying that; he loved tormenting him. Memories flooded him, that night 2 years ago, the pain, the change, the sorrow of being turned into something inhumane, the agony of the burden he was now bearing. Ever since then, he had one wish: to see Itachi suffer just like he did, and ever since then he was too much of a coward to do anything but crawl on his hands and knees, trying to keep on living; his choices reflected that, he became a dog for the government, all just so he could live another day.
"Do you know, Sasuke, you have been blessed. There's no one like you; you are unique." He knew what his brother meant, but that was no gift.
He kneeled in front of his terrified body, still looking down on his pathetic attempt surviving; there was no place for dignity, just survival. He felt nothing, he saw nothing, he knew nothing; the world was cold and just one touch, one disgusting feeling made its way to him. Itachi's lips were roughly pressed against his own, curling into a smile underneath; slowly his tongue made its way in, moving inside his mouth with ease, just to retreat a second later.
Only after a while did Sasuke realize he had a pill in his mouth and was forced to swallow it. He started coughing in disgust; he wanted nothing more than to throw up, to erase the feeling of his brother's lips pressed against his own; It made him sick.
Without even noticing, he stood up and ran toward the window; Itachi did not stop him. He jumped, terrified of looking back; he jumped from the fifth floor, knowing his body could handle even more than that distance. Only when he was in the safety of the street did he stop to look back, to see Itachi watching him from the window, grinning.
"Not even that body of yours can handle that poison, I made it especially for you. You have three days to find me Sasuke. Hunt me; find me, or else…" He paused for a second to laugh and mock him and when he stopped his expression was deadly. "…You'll die."
I wonder what will happen next? Please review, I always love to hear from you! It makes me want to keep writing!