Disclaimer: I don't own the Naruto series or any of its characters.
Warning: Manga spoilers ahead.
To Forgive, Divine
Pain was quite surprised to find someone sitting on the statue that formed a sort of balcony for his tower. Even Konan only stood there on rare occasions, since she could easily overlook the village by discorporating into a cloud of paper butterflies. And the person who sat there now wasn't even her.
Itachi, of all people, was sitting on the edge of the statue, letting the village's nearly-constant rain soak through his Akatsuki cloak. He didn't appear to be looking at anything in particular; he was just sitting there and staring off into the rainy distance.
"The people of the Rain revere you as a god." Pain blinked at the sudden statement. If asked a question, Itachi generally answered in as few words as possible, and he certainly didn't start conversations often.
"Yes."
"They trust you to delineate the borders between right and wrong."
"Yes. Since the end of the civil war, I have administered justice in this village."
"And if one of your subordinates came to you with a prisoner, and told you that the man had killed his own family, what would you do?"
Slowly, Pain approached Itachi until he was standing directly behind the other man. The rain was coming down fiercely, draining through his hair and running down his face in rivulets. Itachi's legs dangled over the edge of the statue, his right sandal in danger of falling off and knocking out some unsuspecting person walking far below.
Itachi continued to gaze at nothing, not even turning to face the Akatsuki leader. "Could you forgive a man who'd done the things I've done? Could any god?"
Pain was silent for so long that Itachi thought he wasn't going to answer. But finally, he said in a surprisingly soft voice, "A civil war is different than a war between separate countries. In a civil war, the people you're fighting are your neighbors, your friends, sometimes even your family. There are many in this land who have been forced to raise their weapons against their own kinsmen. If I were to condemn them all, I would have few followers left."
"So it is merely a decision of practicality, then?"
"You misunderstand. Those who fought their parents or siblings or children in our civil war did so because they believed it was the only way to save the home they loved. The gods see the innermost secrets of our hearts--they know not only what we do, but why. If a man kills because of rage, or jealousy, or greed, his ancestors and the gods will both condemn him. But if he does so because he believes he has no other choice, or because it is the only way to save a greater number, then mercy is warranted."
Itachi nodded slowly but said nothing. Pain considered himself a fairly good judge of character, and his eyes allowed him to see tiny fluctuations of chakra that would have been undetectable to anyone else. So he had known, from the minute he met Itachi, that the other man felt an all-consuming sense of anguish over what he had done. And he had always known that Itachi would someday atone for the massacre in what he believed was the only way he could--by dying at his own brother's hands. He knew, too, that the physical damage caused by the Mangekyou Sharingan was progressive. So long as Itachi continued to use it, it would corrode his body from the inside out. If he wished to face his brother on reasonably equal footing, he didn't have much time left. It would have to be soon, or never. And if he's asking a question like this...
A condemned man should not have to be alone in his final hours, Pain thought. And so he drew his cloak around himself and sat beside Itachi until the other man stood and vanished into the rain.
A/N: When I wrote the first chapter of "A Rain of Endless Leaves," I said in the Author's Note that it was my way of saying goodbye to one of my favorite fictional characters. But then I got the idea for this fic. I would say that this is my goodbye to a really kickass character, except that I then got another idea for an Itachi-centric story, which is now about half-written. *facepalm* I guess you know a character's compelling when you keep wanting to write about them, even after they've departed for the Great Ninja Village in the Sky.
As always, reviews would be greatly appreciated!