Necropolis demon
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto…I swear…yes, I did try to kidnap Kishimoto…yes, we made an arrangement, thus the reason why we have that delicious pic of Sasuke naked and covered with snakes in the 2nd Shippuden opening theme. Lolz.
Necro: I am so confused right now. You have no idea. I re-read this story and damn it I made myself confuzzled. Oh and….chapter 400 and 401 waaaaah! Itachi should be a Saint…! I KNEW his reasons were something like that! When I read 401 earlier today, YES TODAY, I was like…ZOMGWTF? Must. Post. Chap 12!
--o00o--
Bloodlust
The rain poured down on me as if in lament, mercy be damned I deserved those bitter words, but my heart still ached for that thread of compassion. I am a damned creature, and I knew this very well from the start, but could evil such as I deserve pain such as that of a beloved brother's hatred? I would've wept in turmoil, drowned in it, died in it, but I could not summon my tears, all that echoed in my disturbed mind were those words of malice and rejection…what more if I had told him of my Lust for him…?
…Of my Love for him.
I walked onwards in the rain, I was no longer welcome to his home, his insults made sure of that, chasing me away with words of cruelty and spite, and him refusing to look me in the eye as though we were strangers…as though I was a mere leper to him, a Nothing. And it felt so cold, those words of his that pierced through me like a stake of ice. Colder still when I knew…when I knew that I had probably hurt him more than he hurt me…this was why I did not want him to discover me in the first place, I feared this rejection that poisons our love…
In my head his voice rang louder than the singing rain…harsh, vindictive…those words strung together…hurtful.
'I don't serve tea to the dead' he had said…Oh why did I find this all too painful? Was it because he'd finally chosen to treat me as though I was? …Because he had finally heeded my advice?
'…you will be Itachi…the memory' …such spite and ill will.
'Uchiha Itachi…Deceased brother of mine…' Oh yes, it hurt…because I was truly dead to him now.
But what hurt me the most…
'May you rot in your own Hell…and burn till the end of eternity…unchanging evil that you are…I rid myself of you.'
That…had done me in, plunged the blade through my heart and tore me from the inside…it exploded like a festering pit of fire and burnt flesh…I felt myself fall off the bridge of sanity.
I wanted to die. I wanted to hang myself. I wanted to slit my throat. Drown myself in a river somewhere. Climb up on one of those houses and fall off head first, crack my skull and watch the blood ooze out. Take a knife and plunge it through my pulsing heart, show it to everyone…show everyone that I was a desolate fool. Always so calculating…but oh so fragile it seemed.
…I felt lost…and then…it came to me.
'May you rot in your own Hell…and burn till the end of eternity…unchanging evil that you are…I rid myself of you.'
Burn till the end of eternity…such irony in those words…at first I'd thought that he meant the Circles of Hell to be my Inferno, yet my 'own hell'? Such a choice of words…
And what of that remark…Unchanging evil, he had called me…all too odd for an insult, it occurred to me…
…and so I pondered…
He knew.
o00o
My feet carried me to the slippery rooftops and I darted back to the isolated home, thoughts of confusion racing in my head. Sasuke had known all along…and I was too blind, too naive to even think of that ever happening on its own. That cunning little bastard had stumped me for the last time, playing me out like that.
I landed in the tomato garden, the mud felt disgusting under my feet yet I was careful not to step on the precious produce. And there he was, sitting under the sheltering roof with a plate of sliced tomatoes and a cup of that herb tea of his, a devil with an innocent façade…The crafty little demon child.
…how I loved that in him.
"You knew," I said as calmly as I could, it was taking all my will power not to take him roughly by the arms and shake the truth out him.
The rain continued…
…Nothing. He just ignored me as though I was not there. I stepped forward. No reaction. Another step. Nothing.
I came as close to standing directly in front of him, looking down from where I stood towering, a madman soaked, eyes flashing dangerously, and yet he refused to look at me, opting to look past my shoulder and at the rain clouds over head that continued to pour. I was wet, hungry and irritable from not having fed on a single mortal that night. I did not need this insolence from him. So frustrating it all was to me.
Just like that, I snapped and grabbed his arms in a swift movement, tackling him to the floor. I heard him gasp. Surprise was eminent on his delicate features, his eyes showed panic and he seemed paralyzed for a moment, the tea and tomato slices had spilled on the tatami mats.
He looked up, fear in his eyes as he looked at mine. What did he see? Anger? Turmoil? Hell? Fleeting remnants of my broken sanity?
Regaining his composure he spoke acidly, "get off of me you demon!" he cried out loud, trying to push me off of him but all was in vain. He struggled under me long and hard, but I would not yield, I wanted to know everything he knew…he'd let on so little of what he had been aware of. He thrashed and thrashed, stubborn, trying to twist away and escape as though his life depended on it. Again, I wouldn't move, he struggled again, desperate, panicked, scared…still nothing.
My arms were blocking him from both sides as I sat on his thighs as an extra measure…I looked down at him, precious little thing, my wet hair leaving droplets of water on his porcelain cheeks. It was all too enticing…our bodies so close like this, absolute torture every time he attempted to struggle for freedom. But I kept still, I needed my answers first.
He was gasping by the time he was done with his thrashing about, too spent to even glare properly at me. Instead he looked to his side, at the wasted tomatoes and sighed in surrender, defeated at last.
I smirked mentally at this little triumph.
He kept quiet, stubborn as he was. I tried again…only calmer, "You knew…"
It was almost instantaneous, his feisty reply, "That you weren't as human as you thought you were? Yes, yes I did know." He spat viciously at me, those eyes of his full of determination not cower in fear…Fear, I did not want this from him…I did not want him to fear me.
"…how?" I replied.
Such anguish he must feel, having kept this knowledge…this sin that damns me to Hell in his eyes…
So soft, his voice, so shamed as he spoke to me miserably, reminiscing what must have been painful to him from long ago, "It was when you first held me in your arms again…mother had passed away that night…and you were there to comfort me, pathetic sobbing child that I was." He said disdainfully, humiliated at his weakness.
Ah yes…the night Mikoto…our mother, died…when I came to him in the guise of a servant, a guest, one of the mourners.
He continued, "I had hazarded a guess that it was you, that servant who offered me his kindness…I even told you that you felt familiar to me…hoping that somehow…somehow I was right to think that it was you. And yet…, I doubted myself…doubted what I thought I knew. You were so good at it, an expert at spinning lies to fit your evil whims…such believable half-truths you spoke of…I often found myself questioning my suspicions… 'Is it really Aniki?' I asked myself countless times…yet out of all those times, there came no definite answer…"
I let out a breath…he sighed wistfully.
"…From then on I watched you more, but you were…you were too much…with those fabrications of yours that made me question my own sanity. Gradually my thoughts digressed from my early speculation, for indeed, to my knowledge the dead could not return to the living, and you had been dead for about a year, oh so very dead. I had seen your burial, I was there! Who was I to think that you had not gone to heaven…'Is he a friend of my Aniki? …A colleague perhaps?' I finally came to wonder…I was so confused."
My eyes scanned Sasuke's expression, no longer did he seem as angry as before…in fact, he seemed almost…lost…defeated, tired and weary from such thoughts of my mysterious self. So fickle was my guise, to bring him to such lengths of bafflement.
"It…it was only then…when that fire started, when it was too late, when you had not the chance to hide yourself in your attempt to save me that I found out that…you really were alive. And yet…you weren't at the same time. I thought you were a ghost…and yet here you are, a man…or so I would like to believe."
…It must've been excruciating for him, to have been so close to his Aniki yet so distanced by fate…it seemed to me that we were never meant to feel the touch of the other, as though Destiny had been irked by my sheer devotion for him…such devotion that has driven me to hurt him as I have done so for so long. …It pains me more to know…that the more I wanted to protect him, to shield him from my damnation, from my curse, from the filth of my festering sins and greed…the more I was killing him inside, making him feel as though his existence was but an accident and that he had no true purpose. Everything that made him an Uchiha, stripped away with the cogwheel of Time. No…stripped away by my hand…
That anger in him raged again, I could feel him starting to struggle against my vice grip…I slackened and he was free…he sat up straight and frowned.
"…What…exactly happened to you? Are you still the brother I once knew?" he said to me, so sure was I that he had an idea of what I was…and yet, he wanted to hear it from me.
My mask was off, all he waited for was for me to look up and show myself to him. I had run out of options, he had to know.
"Do you believe in Vampires?" I asked him.
He stilled.
…"I've become a Vampire", I said, plain and simple with no dramatic speech to accompany it…he did not need such frivolous things from me, and I dare not try to justify myself in the sense that I might further raise his hatred for me.
At first I saw him aghast as though the fear had not settled in just yet…but as his gaze fixed pointedly at my features he scowled in defiance. He knew it was true, all this time he must've had the idea…but he refused to believe.
He might've expected me to be a ghost…or a demon pretending to be his Aniki…but never a Vampire.
Because…we all know Vampires were beyond any sort of redemption.
"…Lies, a 'Vampire'? What do you think I am demon? An ignorant child?" he spat viciously, thinking that I was toying with him, "How could you make such a stupid claim, have you no shame? Come off it! Stop pretending to be my brother!"
A reverberating smack sounded throughout the silent room…he slapped me.
My left cheek stung…
His eyes were teary.
…I immediately felt guilty.
"How…dare you give me such a senseless alibi! I don't know what to think anymore…are my brother's tortured soul? Or are you a demon who haunts me and claims to be him! If you truly are my brother…then why can't you just stop being so secretive and tell me the truth? You coward! I've had enough of these lies!" he moved to strike me again but this time I was prepared, with one sudden move I caught both of his wrists in one hand and held them high above him.
Sasuke blinked. My movements were too fast for him to catch…
A moment of silence…he looked at me, at my eyes…
…My eyes…one thing about being a Vampire is that no matter what I do my eyes were always the most difficult to conceal…I could feed myself blood to make my complexion as normal as can be, I could paint my nails to hide the marble-like quality to them, my fangs only appeared in the midst of my hunger, but my eyes…oh…at a distance they seemed normal but in such closeness the irises would forever be bloodshot…
And if they were to gleam maliciously, one knew immediately to flee from me.
That moment, he watched my eyes…fascinated with them…they were wine-like that night for I had calmed down a bit. And in that sense, they were beautiful…sensual…captivatingly so. With that I'm sure deep down he truly believed what I had claimed to be, he had known in the very beginning that Evil shrouded my every move…but he couldn't grasp the notion of me being…this…perhaps somehow he pushed these ideas aside, hoping against all odds that I had manage to pull some sort of impossibly brilliant stunt to give the illusion that I was what I was… he stubbornly refused to admit it to me, choosing instead to stick to the bliss of ignorance. Deep inside Sasuke knew. He said it when he cursed me to my own Hell, when he called me an 'Unchanging Evil'. But at the face of this superstition, this witchcraft…He denied it all I'm sure.
"This-this is…" another awkward glance at my red orbs, "…I've had enough of this" he whispered looking down…mostly to himself I suspected, now all of a sudden out of breath…He gently freed himself from my grasp and then stood up without a word, choosing to leave the room as though he had not just witnessed my true nature.
I sat up and watched his retreating form, "Where are you going?" I said, but he gave no response, "I've told you what you've been aching to know…what happens to us now dear brother?"
He stopped…and looked back at me, his face a mask of indifference once more though his body trembled …I hated this side of him, hated it with a passion, "Well…Aniki…I don't really know…and I could care less what you are…Vampire, Spirit, Ghost, Demon…or what ever it is you claim to be. The truth remains that you've committed a grave fault against me, and I'm afraid your theatrics tonight won't earn my forgiveness. I don't care what happens now Itachi, I'm just…tired. I am sick of caring about you."
"…so you admit you still care?" I tried once more, hoping I could rile him up for the sake of keeping him with me.
But he did not relent, "…I'm tired. Good night."
"I won't leave you ever again Sasuke." I spoke softly…
"Yes you will…in fact, knowing you you'll probably be gone when I awake from slumber. If you truly want to correct all this…then by all means, disappear…so that I can at least pretend that this was all an awful dream."
"I cannot do that…I no longer have a reason to hide from you dear Otouto. You now know of what I am…of what curse has befallen me."
His lips pursed into a thin line, "I still refuse to believe you."
"Then I will prove it you Otouto, prove to you that I am indeed a Vampire, this wretched shell of a man once great, accursed with sin and disgrace…and when you've come to believe in my so-called 'lies' I will tell you everything, of why this tragedy has happened to us…of why I left you…I promise you that Sasuke."
I wanted him to at least look at me as I spoke, I wanted him to see my sincerity…but he refused to grace me with a glance, he did not even acknowledge my heartfelt promise and instead made a mockery out of it by closing the sliding door behind him as I continued to watch him…longingly. So bitter he was to me…I cannot stress enough to you how much his actions wounded me.
Alone I sat in that desolate room, the rain outside was starting to quiet down into a sleepy drizzle. I watched as the clouds began to make way for the stars, and I felt defeated for indeed, how far have I fallen when my little brother could make me lose myself as I have never before done so.
Before…I could bend him to my will and that would be that, but now that Sasuke…my once so gloriously submissive Sasuke has grown into this fine youth, I felt the full impact of how much authority I had lost over him. He no longer blindly followed me towards a pit of fire…he had become defiant, unnervingly cruel…my feelings betrayed me, I've lost to him by losing him.
The drizzle outside continued…and soon I felt sleepy…
Even though it was night, the time of the Vampires, I fell to the spell of slumber. I chose to lie on those accursed tatami mats, those mats that never ceased to taunt me with their familiarity…with the scent of spilled tea and tomatoes invading my senses as I slept.
I would prove myself to him even if it killed me.
o00o
My damp clothes from the night felt cool against my skin, the wind was blowing ever so slightly, so gently as though it meant to rock me into sleep…I welcomed the breeze, fresh and comforting as it was.
Then…all of a sudden…it was hot, scorching hot when I felt myself drawn back to consciousness. My whole body ached as though I was slowly being roasted in an open fire, memories of years ago flooded my mind, those images so grotesque…so disturbing even to the coldest of hearts. My clan…Uchiha…dead within the night…
Oh it haunted me. The pain was slow, gradual, heightening…
…So hot…burning…I couldn't care less, I had not the strength to…it was all too painful. My skin prickled, my lips dried and bled…I opened my eyes only to have them immediately blinded by the flaring light.
…the sun was rising, the presence of its harmful rays known to me, searing my flesh like heated metal. The room started to brighten up with hues of pink and yellow as it goes with sunrises. I sat up, my eyes still closed lest they be burnt again, I panicked…the night before came back to me in a rush of emotions. I remembered, I had to prove myself to Sasuke…I vowed that I would.
Backing away from the gradually invading sunlight, I soon found myself pressed firmly against a screen door, defenseless thing that I was at that moment. My common sense told me to open that door and flee into a darker room, but I chose not to, instead I sat there on the mats cross-legged and faced the coming morning head on. My eyes started to water, no, bleed…and I could smell that metallic scent coming forth from them in a never-ending flow of crimson. The blood tears landed on my parched lips…I felt the cut on my mouth throbbing in pain.
Thoughts of Sasuke came to me…those days we shared in innocence, how I missed them, yearned for them. And him, little adorable Sasuke of mine, whom I loved so much that it hurt…I remembered our youth, those secret messages of ours, our favorite past times…playing by the fish pond outside…staying in my room whenever the rain ruined our day…His tiny fingers fitting loosely into my hands…my hair tickling his cheek as I watched over him sleeping soundlessly into the night without a worry…
My skin suffered much as the light came in contact, I couldn't hold back the mortifying screams of agony that left me as my flesh reddened and seemed to slowly cut itself from the inside like a disease. It hurt like no other. From within me I sensed a heat stirring from the depths of my lungs, I could taste my blood…smell it…every inch of me was in agony…my fingers, oh how they bled mercilessly as well.
…He used to beg for me to let him sleep in my room, back then he thought I was everything. I was his day, his night, his everything…he refused to do anything without me there watching.
It was almost funny, the extent he had gone through to make sure that he could spend as much time with me as he could…
…dragging me into warms baths whenever I had the time so we could bathe together…
…attempting to bribe me with my favorite dango so that I would tell him about my day…
God I missed my childhood…
Sunrise was almost complete…the whole room was almost engulfed in that wretched light. I sat in my corner…refusing to seek shelter.
I would die there I thought as I leaned back to that screen door…and to think, that Sasuke was beyond that thin veil of wood and paper.
If he did not take me back into his arms and grant me forgiveness…then my immorality, be damned! I would rather burn and die. My sins would be waiting for me in Hell.
I laughed…pitying myself…grieving for myself…at long last, I was to die.
…I felt no fear…just hollowness, weariness…a moment of insanity perhaps.
I welcomed Death.
But then…the screen door behind me slid…I fell backwards.
Then found myself dragged from behind by a pair of arms.
Then…all was dark.
I knew he couldn't let me just die like that…he was just as stubborn as I was after all.
I couldn't help but give a small smile.
o00o
Necro: I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed this story, and also my other story "A Brother's Promise" of course, I really appreciate it. New readers, hello! Don't forget to drop a review! Peace! ITACHI!! I HEART YOUZ! SASUKE!! ME HERE 4 YOUZ!
