AN: I felt like writing something out of my usual vein (In case you can't tell, it's written anachronistically. Don't know what that means, look it the fuck up). Inspired by a discussion on the "Hated Naruto Pairings" forum that I frequent regularly to take the piss out of fangirls, which basically was about the interesting implications of what ItaSasu would really be about. Also, there are going to be some bits and pieces from Itachi's POV. Hopefully you don't look at this on the surface and take away your own impression.
X section dividers for new style, derpderp.
EDIT: Now better than ever, with twenty percent more fiber!
xxx
"I'm sorry, Sasuke. This is the last time," Itachi whispered.
His bloody fingertips trailed along Sasuke's forehead, and he smiled sadly. Then he was dead, body slumping to the ground. Sasuke felt weak, sick, faint. He collapsed onto his back and watched the rain drop down from the sky as he fell unconscious. He did not weep.
xxx
They clung to each other desperately in the abandoned stone building; their mouths met with searing heat. Sasuke's legs were loosely wrapped around Itachi's waist, letting most of his weight be supported by the half-rotted cot and Itachi's arms. They exchanged no words, for there was nothing that could not be expressed through touch and taste and sight. There was an unspoken agreement that they were never to speak of it.
Their passion was a forbidden fruit, sweet and succulent, rotten and bitter.
xxx
Itachi lightly jabbed two fingers at Sasuke's forehead. He said, "Forgive me, Sasuke. Perhaps next time."
His thin fingers mussed Sasuke's hair, and for a moment, Sasuke thought how pale the boy looked, how ill. Itachi was outside, on missions most of the time. If anything, he should be as tanned as Fugaku. But then again, their mother was rather pale herself, even though she spent much time outside tending the garden. Perhaps some people simply didn't tan in the sun, his childish mind rationalized, ignoring the light bronzing that adorned Mikoto's face.
Itachi glanced back, smiling, with that odd tinge of sadness that was distinctly Itachi in his eyes. He waved goodbye.
xxx
It was one of their secret trysts, disguised as private training or a solitary mission. There was always a chance of being caught in their depravity, but a habit that was always done in utmost secrecy had a lower chance of being discovered. They did not speak, nor did they cry out with passion. That was the rule. The latter was more difficult; Itachi would gasp and grunt through the ordeal, a slave to his brother's affections.
Their lips were centimeters apart, eyes watching each other. Their breath was heavy, moist with unexpressed desires. Itachi smiled a bit, with the same touch of despair.
xxx
In the full moon, Sasuke caught Itachi's pale face and the glint of red as Itachi glanced back. Itachi was weeping, crying, but for what, Sasuke never knew.
There was no sad smile that time, no apology.
xxx
Their first foray into sex, a time that was glamoured over as each touch became more bold, but first impressions were lasting impressions. It was after that that the rule of silence was declared, ironclad and unbreakable.
It was the sharpness of Itachi's voice, the hitch in his gasps that had spurned Sasuke to explore further, see what created such reactions in his quiet brother. There was something distinctly wrong about what they were doing; Itachi had whispered in his soft voice that he knew that it was wrong, he had discovered that his feelings were wrong, everything about what was transpiring had to be wrong. Sasuke had said then that murdering the clan was worse than this, and then his rage and hate melted into sex.
xxx
Sharingan burned into him, wall digging into his back, the wood splintering. There was a heartlessness Sasuke had never witnessed there before. Itachi was the gentle one, soft-spoken and the embodiment of all the traits that had been ascribed to Mikoto. Not this cold, silent man that stood before him, pinning him to the wall. Not the clan's murderer. This was not Itachi!
He tried to avert his gaze, but Itachi was the clan prodigy, and always would be, and Sasuke could not break the Sharingan's hold on him. So he inwardly seethed. He wanted to drag the real Itachi into the light.
"It's because you lack...hatred," the stranger whispered, "that you cannot kill me."
xxx
There was a noise at the door of their meeting place, and then Itachi appeared. Dark circles ringed his eyes. Sharingan was perpetually activated. He had lost weight since they last met. Without word or thought, Sasuke crushed Itachi into an embrace like so much velvet and pressed his lips to Itachi's neck. The beads of his necklace were cold against his lips. Itachi grasped the back of his head and pulled Sasuke up to meet his lips.
xxx
Madara gleefully whispered several shocking things into Sasuke's ear about how Itachi was his protégé, how Itachi was this and that, how Itachi wept after the purging of the clan. It flew Sasuke into a blind rage, and he stormed off to find his older brother and make him talk, even if it meant breaking the promise of silence. Even if it destroyed the last mote of happiness he could find.
xxx
It was a brief look that Itachi gave him during that final battle, one of undisguised desperation, that caused Sasuke to reconsider his original plan. It was very clear as to what Itachi's intent was.
Itachi wanted to die.
xxx
Itachi had a brief flashback to a moment when he was in the Konoha ANBU. A strange man in a hood approached him. His words were strange, full of knowledge that only the most privileged of the Uchiha were privy to. He knew what Itachi's final mission was, and they struck a deal. The stranger's tutelage and aid in exchange for Itachi's loyalty.
Madara—for that was his name—whisked through the compound like a sharp breeze, gleefully slaughtering anybody in his line of sight, leaving Itachi's family to Itachi.
And there Sasuke was, bursting through the door. Itachi tried to make him hate, for hate was all that Itachi deserved.
xxx
Itachi poked at his brother's forehead and made an attempt to smile. Perhaps it was the strange new feelings that had awoken with the onset of puberty, the strange attraction that he felt towards other boys. Itachi did not like it. He regimented it into the darkest pits of his mind, and even managed to form a relationship with a girl in the clan.
So Itachi ruffled Sasuke's soft black hair and ignored the terrifying fluttering of his heart that happened when his little brother smiled.
xxx
The last day they spent together in a small encampment, Itachi was the one who broke their ironclad rule. It was barely whispered, more a sigh than his own voice.
"Let's be done with the rules. I have no use for them anymore."
Before Sasuke could say anything, Itachi grasped at his chin and planted a scorching kiss on his lips. When he pulled back, he deactivated the Sharingan. He must have aged a decade.
"I am going blind, Sasuke." His quiet voice broke. His eyes slid away from Sasuke's face, no longer looking at anything in particular.
Much to Itachi's surprise, Sasuke gently touched the edge of his jaw. Itachi held Sasuke's hand there, absorbing the warmth. He closed his eyes; they burned, and he knew that Sasuke saw the damage that had been done by years of constant activation.
They stayed that way for a long time.
xxx
He had trapped Sasuke in a genjutsu, in the hopes that his brother would see reason. Their lives would have ended up like this in the end, but perhaps it was for the better. Itachi's illness had begun to go out of control. None of the healers he visited could cure him. The only way to keep it at bay was with expensive medicines, and now those, too, ravaged his body. His death would be inevitable.
He tried everything he could think of to dissuade Sasuke from the reckless path he was on. Lying, the Mangekyo' s powers. There were always little opportunities that he could have taken to kill Sasuke, but the Uchiha clan must be rebuilt, must be restored to its former glory. Madara must be slain, to truly rid the clan of his taint.
His last plea towards Sasuke, an involuntary one, was the desperate gaze of a lover, trying to find the true person underneath a pointless ruse. And Itachi thought of Sasuke as a lover, for that was the only word that would suffice. They were brothers no more.
And if Itachi's love was wrong as everyone else dictated it should be, then God must be a tyrant.
xxx
Itachi walked Sasuke home from the academy. It had been Sasuke's first day. They stopped at a little fruit stall. Itachi ordered the sweetest thing he could find on the menu, but Sasuke wanted the bitter grapefruit. Itachi chuckled a bit and ran his fingers through Sasuke's hair, messing it up. Sasuke batted the hand away and Itachi beamed down at him, without the sadness Sasuke was familiar with.
When they got their snacks, Sasuke ran ahead, trying to race Itachi to the Uchiha compound.
"Sasuke," Itachi called out.
Sasuke turned back and went to his brother's side. They walked hand in hand into the setting sun.