Obsession
It runs in the family.
…
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.
Pairing(s): Itasasu.
…
Fugaku Uchiha, with his obsession for control, what eventually drove the family to insanity.
Mikoto, the devoted wife, who gloried in perfection.
And their son, Itachi Uchiha, the worst of them all.
…
Obsession for out-siders would be a temporary infatuation that would eventually fade away with time. For the Uchiha's, obsession was a sickness with no cure.
Itachi Uchiha was not born a prodigy.
He was raised as one.
He was an ordinary kid, with ordinary IQ, born into a strange family. From a child, he grew his hair short until his mother beat him into growing it long. She knew it knotted and it was hard to brush but it was her vision of perfect and her son would reflect it for her. With her tight leash on her son and her husband's restraint on her, Uchiha was a perfect family. No one knew what went on behind closed, locked doors.
Itachi's obsession came with a developing boy in his mother's womb.
'The unwanted child' it was called.
Their parents fought. Itachi watched and waited, because he knew this boy was not ordinary. He was a mistake in the Uchiha family. Mistakes don't just happen in a family like theirs and Itachi ate it all up. He enjoyed this. He enjoyed listening to his mother and father, recklessly arguing, smashing their prized china and imported glass. The words 'abortion' and 'abandon' reached his ears and his stomach suddenly twisted with anger.
When his mother was rushed into the emergency room, screaming and groaning, he stood outside patiently, sitting quietly with his hands in his lap.
He waited a long time.
Hours passed.
Inside, he heard the wailing of his mother finally accompanied by a higher pitched, which seemed to die down into whimpers. He was not allowed in by the doctors and although he smiled politely, his insides squirmed in turmoil. His father drove him home, stony-faced, face sour as beads of sweat ran down his forehead. Itachi smiled, revelling at how his father was slowly losing his cool.
He did not have control over this situation.
A boy had just been born under the name of Uchiha. Whether he liked it or not, whatever he did, Fugaku now held responsibility of yet another child.
When the bundle was handed into his arms a week later, he wondered how a mistake could be so beautiful.
Itachi imagined him as ugly, disgusting and with a swollen head. Instead he held something purer and flawless. The Uchiha mansion's familiar chilling atmosphere pressed down on his body and Itachi realised he now had something to preserve. This child would not be his mother's or his father's but his own. He would raise it different; raise it in this house yet away from its accursed hosts and aura. He'd rushed out of his mother's room, clutching the child in small arms, taking it down the hall and into his room, locking the door behind him with a slam.
'Sasuke' he'd called him.
Mikoto and Fugaku had not yet bothered to find a name and so they came to call him as Itachi did.
He held a 12 month year old Sasuke Uchiha in his arms, watching silently from the doorway as his parents fought. He'd been awoken by Sasuke's quiet crying and had taken his brother into his arms, sitting them up in their bed as he listened to banging downstairs. Slowly slipping out, he opened his door and watched.
His mother's beautiful face was contorted with ugly anger. She looked at least ten years older than she was.
Fugaku had stumbled up the stairs, tie undone and the smell of sake thick in the air around him.
The two grappled and with one small, meaningless push, Fugaku had sent his wife toppling down the stairs.
He heard his mother scream, her normally composed voice shrieking as she fell backwards and tumbled over, finally coming to rest quietly on the living room rug. A puddle of red began to pool from her head. Itachi's eyes rested finally on his father, whose expression went from horror to calmness. He turned onto his eldest son.
Sasuke began to cry, his wrenching sobs filling the empty mansion, tears falling in fat drops, spilling into Itachi's shirt as he clenched fists in Itachi's hair.
"Itachi… Not a word." Fugaku said in a level voice. "Not one word…"
His crazed eyes then darted to Sasuke, who continue to bawl in Itachi's arms. His pupils seemed to dilate, sweat beading on his forehead.
"Itachi… pass me your brother."
Itachi steeled, tightening his hold.
"Give him to me."
His hold on Sasuke's waist almost threatened to suffocate the toddler.
"NOW ITACHI!"
"NO."
Fugaku turned away, breathing heavily, steadying himself with the stair railing as he dry-heaved. He stumbled forward and Itachi took as step back. Fugaku then pointed a shaking finger at the bundle in Itachi's arms.
"It's him." He wheezed. "It's the little demon. He possesses this house. HE'S-HE'S KILLING EVERYTHING!"
Itachi warningly backed into his room.
"He has to go… yes." The man said to himself crazily, nodding his head.
He sprawled forward and as he did so, Itachi activated his Sharingan and slammed his door shut, to wait out the night. He hushed Sasuke, whose cries have subsided from fear. The large onyx eyes stared up at him through thick eyelashes, his innocence shining through like a glow in the dark of the night.
Then, he decided what he must do.
…
"E-tachy… tachy, E-TACHY!"
Itachi watched fondly from his tatami mat, at Sasuke running around clumsily screaming babble, throwing plush kunais at trees and watching them bounce off.
'E-tachy' seemed to be one of his favourite words in his small vocabulary range. He learnt it much sooner than 'mama' or 'papa' since both was not around much. Sasuke tripped over several times, landing butt-first into the mud but he got up anyways and continued his nonsense. Itachi smiled in thought as he realised how un-Uchiha Sasuke acted. Around Sasuke's age, Itachi would have been already under tutoring, perhaps already professionally training. Although Sasuke was not the typical Uchiha, prodigy and all, he had not failed to inherit the unearthly good looks and porcelain skin.
He heard his mother making lunch and finally his father's footsteps, which came to settle behind him.
Itachi turned and settled blank eyes on his father.
"Yes, Father?"
Fugaku opened his mouth to say something but then closed it, sighing.
"Tell Sasuke to come in. Lunch is ready."
Itachi turned around and smirked, standing up to go scoop Sasuke up.
His father seemed to no longer be in control of the family.
…
When Sasuke was five, Itachi realised there was something sick inside of himself.
Something strange, uncontrollable and obsessive.
He'd feel it, whenever he was around his adored little brother, just watching him be fawned over by the girls in his class, being surrounded by boys. He'd feel that sickness coming over him, crawling under his skin like poison and he wanted to walk up to those children and crush the life out of them.
This new, sudden jealous monster inside of him grew compulsive.
It scared him.
Sasuke was oblivious and would sit on Itachi's lap, squirming around and whispering endearingly to his beloved aniki, unaware of all the mixed feelings he was creating, the turmoil he was building up inside of his older brother. He'd say 'I love you' over and over again until everything he did to Itachi felt sexual for the older. His father was no longer a threat to Sasuke. Fugaku was too afraid to do anything as long as Itachi was around and he always was. Mikoto didn't touch Sasuke, only cooked and cleaned like Fugaku asked. Itachi realised, in horror, that the one Sasuke needed protection from was himself and the bizarre feelings he'd developed for his sweet, innocent little brother. Sasuke needed a way out of this ill-fated blood-line and Itachi knew how to achieve it.
On their last day, Itachi walked into his own bedroom, expecting to find his little brother asleep but instead was confronted with two big onyx eyes staring up at him innocently from his bed.
"Aniki?"
Itachi smiled in the darkness, bringing a gloved hand to Sasuke's forehead.
"Aniki, where are you going?" Sasuke asked. "Why have you got those clothes on?"
"Otouto, I've been called out. There's something urgent I have to take care of." He said with a sad smile, running a shaking hand through black-blue locks, threading the silk between his fingers one last time. "Promise me you'll sleep soundly and I'll be back before you wake up."
"I promise, aniki." Sasuke said proudly. "I love you…"
Itachi's breath hitched as he tucked Sasuke in.
"I love you too."
More than you'll ever know.
"Goodnight…" he whispered.
He looked down at the pink parted lips and leaned down, pressing a soft kiss on them before swiftly exiting.
…
Sasuke awoke with a start, pressing thin, pale fingers to his red lips.
He swore he could still feel those lips on his own, like wings or a soft breeze. He wasn't even sure if he'd imagined it.
No, not a dream, a memory.
Suigetsu shifted from beside him and groaned, turning his way.
"Sasuke… what..? What's wrong?"
Sasuke turned away from the water-nin and closed his eyes.
"Nothing, just a dream…"
…
End.
-FIG-tree.