Content Warning Please Read!
Series contains Male/Male content and sexual themes. So, if you aren't comfortable reading such
stories, then please DO NOT read further, and please refrain from commenting.

Disclaimer
I do not own any of the characters or anything from the Naruto series even though I'd love to xD The plots of my stories are my own however

Authors Note

This series consists of 13 chapters. Parts do follow events in the Naruto Shippuden series, therefore SPOILER ALERT for later chapters is thus issued.

Pain sat in his chair up off the Akatsuki training field, giving the arena a feel similar to that of a Greek coliseum, with the gladiators fighting a lion, Pain being the king they entertain. For the time being, Itachi was the lion fighting off each member Pain threw at him. The raven always seemed to have the upper hand in any pairing between him and the other Akatsuki members, however. Pain could tell the raven wasn't giving his all during his sparring matches though. He watched as the raven kept his distance from Hidan, his current sparring partner, who was desperately trying to get the raven's blood for his "ritual" and win the match. Itachi kept dodging Jashinist's attacks and deflecting them. The two's dance continued for about a half hour without any progress on either side before Pain decided he would intervene.

"Itachi." Pain's voice boomed through the arena and effectively froze the two of them. Hidan glanced sideways at their leader, waiting for his next words. Itachi turned to face Pain, away from Hidan, giving him an opening that he instantly noticed. Hidan slowly crept closer and swung his triple bladed scythe at the raven, which he dodged and knocked out of Hidan's hands without his eyes straying from their leader.

Hidan grumbled and pulled out a kuni he had hidden in his cloak and jabbed it at Itachi, not giving up just yet. The blade connected with the raven's shoulder, tearing his cloak and nicking him just enough to draw blood onto the blade.

"Yes!" Hidan ran away to his circle, half the field away and licked the raven's blood off the blade. Itachi sighed and kicked Hidan's scythe up off the ground where it had landed after he had knocked it free of Hidan, and launched it at the fiend. The blunt end struck Hidan's back and threw him past his little circle, face planting into the ground. The scythe landed, blade down in the circle, breaking it on impact. Hidan noticed and glared at the raven,

"You ruined my rutual circle! " He burst, staring daggers at the raven haired male.

"Was it not clear that I wanted the two of you to STOP?!" Boomed Pain's voice a second time. He stood and gripped onto the railing in front of him, "You two are done." He stood up straight and knitted his fingers together behind his back. He looked to his right momentarily where right next to him was Konan, followed by a portion of other members. Then he looked to his left, picking the next of his subordinates to spar with the raven. "Tobi. Care to replace Hidan?"

"Sure thing boss!" Tobi threw himself off the balcony and landed on the field, a hundred feet below. Hidan huffed and joined his team mates at Pain's left, taking his designated seat.

"I almost had him." Hidan insisted, plopping down in his chair, sulking.

"Didn't look like it to me." Pain stated plainly, sitting back down. He watched as the two ravens started their fight, Itachi keeping close to the masked member, knowing his technique. Tobi could always make objects like kuni and shurikin "phase" through him. So Itachi had to settle for fist to fist combat. Even so, it didn't help him much with the masked members evasiveness, much like his own.

After ten minutes of no progress on either side Itachi brought out his mangykyo and Tobi froze. Pain's ringed eyes widened and he rose from his seat as soon as Itachi had brought out his advanced sharringan.

"Itachi, your taking it to far." Pain growled. "Pull back." The longer haired raven ignored his leader and Tobi fell back on his ass, his masked face raised to Itachi's. "Itachi!" The raven's stare on Tobi broke as he looked up at his leader, a streak of crimson running from his left eye. Pain gasped and felt his heart throb in his chest at the sight. He hated it when Itachi used his mangekyo like that. He knew the effects of the it's extended use. He knew Itachi's eye sight was deteriorating the more he used it.

Pain vanished from his place among his subordinates to appear standing in front of Itachi, separating him off from Tobi. "Stop. Using. Tsukuyomi. Now." His ringed eyes bearing holes into Itachi's crimson and black eyes. Pain's stare sent a shock to the raven's core and he broke his hold on Tobi. "Don't ever use Tsukuyomi unless you're in a dire situation. You hear me?" Itachi drew a hand over his face, wiping away the blood from it.
"You're going to make yourself blind other wise. And we both know you don't want that."

Itachi shrugged, his eyes fading back into their usual onyx black and looked away from his angered leader. "What's it matter to you?" Asked Itachi, Pain snapped and grabbed the front of Itachi's cloak, drawing the raven in closer to himself.

"I don't want to see you go blind, how about that? Your a member of the akatski, I am it's leader. So you will do as I say. I can bet you, you won't be half the fighter without being able to SEE your opponents. Which is a big deal." Pain could hear Tobi get up and move away quickly. He didn't bother look and see where he was going because he knew he would join the other members as they watched him and Itachi argue.

"Are you sure that's it?" Asked the raven, his onyx eyes staring at him knowingly, an unspoken suggestion lingering in his words.

Pain dropped the raven's cloak, letting his arm swing back to his side. "What's that supposed to mean, Uchiha?" He didn't back away, though he felt uncomfortable all of a sudden being so close to the raven. He knew he couldn't back away. He couldn't give into the raven like that.

"I know you're being protective over me."

Pain's eyes narrowed, "How do you figure?"

Itachi brought a hand up to his chin, like he was thinking deeply, "I can just tell." Pain scowled at him. "I can see the pain in your face when you see me use Tsukuyomi- Not just that though, when I use my mangekyo in general."

"Watch yourself Uchiha." Pain widened his stance and looked up at his men. They had been watching the two of them, not quite knowing what was going on. He was sure Tobi told them everything he had heard before he left though, so they would get the jist. "Well, are you guys ready to see how its done?" The Akatsuki members started talking amongst themselves.

Zetsu leaned forward, "No way, Pain you're going to fight Itachi? This is going to be a fight of a lifetime. two powerhouses.. going at it. how intriguing."

"Get ready pretty boy." Pain said turning back to Itachi.

"Right." Itachi took a step back and widened his stance, waiting for Pain to make the first move, of which made Pain snicker.

"Not a good idea Uchiha." Pain's eyes widened and out of one of his sleeve came a long black blade. The trees and grass curved inward toward him, and Itachi felt his body being pulled as well, like a vacuum was sucking him in. He leaned away and tried to back up further but it did him no good, the pull against his body was far stronger.

"Shit." Itachi brought out his own sword and slammed it into the ground, the blunt end facing Pain so he held onto it, trying to make it into an anchor. His hair pulled out of its usual pony tail at the back of his head and whipped around his face while he hung onto the blade.

"Come on, aren't you gonna fight me Uchiha?" Pain teased, "Or are you scared I'll kick your ass?"

"Tch. Not even close."

"So fight!" He demanded.

Itachi bit his lip and pulled his blade out of the ground letting the pull drag his body to Pain. He knew what the red head was planning, he was going to draw Itachi in and supposedly stab him with his blade. That much was obvious. What the raven didn't know was what his leader would do with him if he succeeded. He knew Pain didn't really want to hurt him. Much.

The raven managed to time his movements just right and kicked the blade aside without harming himself, and aimed his sword to slice through Pain's shoulder. At the last second Pain caught the sword in his hand, drawing blood as he gripped onto the blade with no hesitation. As if it were something he did often.

Itachi's eyes flashed to the crimson dripping from Pain's hand. The raven knew he had intended to land a blow on his leader, but once he actually saw his blood he felt bad. Pain noticed the raven's negligence to continue and wondered why he felt bad. He didn't seem especially attuned to his feelings or anything, sure sometimes the raven would say something strange like he had earlier, suggesting the feelings Pain tried to ignore he had for the raven. He had talked himself out of believing there was a future with the long haired raven long ago, he had convinced himself that the raven would never return his feelings as well, which had depressed him greatly.

It didn't help that every single one of the Akatsuki members had eyes for the Uchiha. Few of them getting the chance to actually be with the raven. Pain shook himself mentally and refocused on the gorgeous man in front of him, who looked to be on the verge of apologizing for drawing his blood.

"What's with you all of a sudden huh?" Pain asked, referring to the sudden change of attitude from the raven. Pain took in a deep breath and told himself to pretend the man in front of him was just some opponent, or else he wouldn't be able to harm the him. He slammed a fist into Itachi's stomach and knocked him on his back. He nealed down slowly next to the raven and gripped the front of his cloak again, lifting his torso from the ground.

"You're the one that wanted to fight, not me." Said Itachi, "So what's gotten into you that you have to fight me? Are you trying to prove something?" Pain's face scrunched together and he dropped Itachi back to the ground. He stood and landed a foot on the raven's chest with a thump, making the male wease.

"It's your fault for suggesting shit earlier." Said Pain through ground teeth. Before he could blink Itachi haqd grabbed Pain's ankle, slid out from under his foot, and kicked the back of his knee, making him fall forward.

Not a second passed and Pain felt heat radiating from behind him, then Itachi's arms snaked around his waist, holding onto him and keeping him from falling to his knees on the ground. Pain's heart skipped a beat and jumped into his throat when he felt the raven's body pressing against his backside. Again Pain forced himself to swallow his feelings, to keep himself from moaning and asking the Uchiha to hold onto him tighter and kiss him. He swallowed all his feelings to put on the continuous charade that he didn't have any feelings the raven. Pain forced himself to speak, "Ita-! Nngh, what are you doing?!" He felt one of the raven's hands slip into his cloak, causing him to shiver involuntarily. "What the hell are you doing?!" He gripped onto the wrist of the hand the raven had worked into his cloak which was lowering slowly, just passing his belly button. Pain's grip on the raven's wrist stopped it's progress down his body.

"Itachi, d-don't." Pain barley got the words out, his throat constricting in on itself, making his breathing labored as well.

"You don't mean it." Itachi purred in Pain's ear, his words sounding more a tease than anything else ever could. Pain looked up out of the corner of his ringed eye to see the rest of the Akatsuki members up on the balcony, watching quietly, taking everything in.

"Yes I do." He slipped out of the raven's grasp and backed up a ways away. "What the hell was that? Don't toy with me Uchiha!" The second the words left his lips, Pain regretted it.

The raven's eyebrows raised, "So you do want it. I knew it."

Pain felt the lump form in his throat worsen. "I... don't know what your talking about." Pain's chest ached, he wanted so much to take it all back and tell the raven his feelings he had for him, but he just couldn't do it.

"Yes you do-" Itachi was interrupted by the balcony all of a sudden,

"Is everything okay? Pain-sama are you all right?" Deidara asked, leaning against the railing.

"We're done." Replied Pain, straitening his cloak and turning his back on Itachi. "You've all worked so hard, let's go home. I'm sure Tobi can cook us up something delicious." He forced a small smirk at the masked member and vanished a second later, leaving his fellow Akatsuki members to follow suit.