"A long black hair?" Madara asked, pacing leisurely across his bedroom, a long cotton nightshirt shifting slightly with every step. Jiraiya had never seen Madara and Sasuke's private rooms before, but perhaps he was trusted enough now, or something. Sasuke was sleeping peacefully on the bed – Jiraiya noted that there was only one bed, proving his suspicions true – and the young man looked so comfy and innocent that the former police chief let himself gawk, if only just a little. "How long exactly? Long like mine, long like Itachi's? Could you be more specific?"
Jiraiya held out his fingers to show the approximate length of the strand of hair, that he really really shouldn't have even had access to, but Naruto was clearly too wound up to have cared that Jiraiya followed him downstairs. Madara nodded, thoughtfully.
"So it could be Orochimaru, then? He's just been released, hasn't he?"
Jiraiya frowned at that. "Well, yes, he's just been released, but it wasn't dark enough to have been his – or even yours."
"So it was a long brown hair. You need to be more specific with these things, Jiraiya."
"Well, it was only one strand, sir. So it was hard to tell. I know it wasn't as black as Uchiha hair, but it wasn't really light enough to say brown. It was very dark, sir."
Madara was clearly annoyed by Jiraiya's inability to have perfect recall. "Get out, go get me Itachi."
Jiraiya bowed deeply, and stepped out of the room, immediately blindfolded by Kagami upon his exit, as he was taken back downstairs. Okay, so he wasn't really trusted in Madara and Sasuke's private rooms – not enough to know how to get there without a guide – but at least he'd been, and that wasn't something that many of the guards could say for themselves.
He found Itachi in the dining hall, a room that Jiraiya hadn't explored much although it was a part of his permitted boundary. The dining hall for their organization was massive, and organized by rank. On a slightly elevated platform, there was a long table, with a massive regal chair at its head, in the chair to it's left, Setsuna was greedily gobbling down an omelet that looked like it had more steak in it than eggs. Kagami sat down as they approached, not in the seat to the right of the throne, but in the one directly to the right of that, which Jiraiya thought was odd until he got close enough to see why. The chair to the right of the throne was covered by an overgrown rose-bush, with real roses prickling all over it. Jiraiya had taken them to be a design. There were ribbons and small bundles of wildflowers intertwined with them, in a way that was really quite beautiful, in its own different and intricate way.
Itachi was sitting between Kagami and Shisui, and Shisui had Tekka on his other sides. The chairs across from Itachi, Shisui, and Tekka were all empty, and had wildflowers on them, much like the chair beside the throne, though without the roses and ribbons. Teyaki sat at the head opposite the throne, which was clearly Madara's.
"Who's chair is that?" Jiraiya asked boldly, pointing towards the seat covered in rose-bush. Even as he asked the question, the answer was on his lips. Itachi raised an eyebrow, thinking him a fool for even making such a ridiculous inquiry.
"That was Uncle Izuna's chair." He said quietly. "The one across from me was my fathers, beside that my mothers, and beside that, Obito-San's. Auntie Uruchi puts wildflowers on the chairs of the dead at the beginning of every meal, to tempt their spirits to come eat with us." Upon closer examination, Jiraiya did notice that there were plates of food set out for all of the empty chairs apart from one – the throne.
Instead of asking why no one would serve a plate for Madara's spot, he posed a different question that was guaranteed to give him the answer he was looking for. "Why isn't there a spot for Sasuke-Kun?"
Oddly enough, it was Yashiro who answered him. "Madara-San hasn't eaten at this table since the day after Izuna-San passed. We thought it'd be a bit absurd to represent Sasuke's presence at a table he's never even sat at, much less eaten on."
Teyaki cleared his throat. "Please, Jiraiya-San, you've proven yourself a true member of our family, sit down and eat with us."
Yeah, right. Enough of a family member to eat with them perhaps – but he would never have the true immunity of the last name Uchiha. The rule to 'never betray' didn't apply to him at all, and it never would. But where to sit? He couldn't take the seat of someone dead. That would feel too wrong. Reluctantly, he did what felt very wrong, but still less wrong – and ate at Madara's abandoned post. No one seemed to mind it.
"Who tends the rose bush?" Jiraiya asked, able to really examine it closely now that he was seated next to it, and wondering how much care would have to go into keeping an outdoors plant striving inside, on a chair, covered in other decorative things for this many years.
"Nagato-Kun does it," Hikaku answered, "He takes excellent care of it, and hasn't damaged the chair any at all with the clippers or the thorns. None of the scratches on it are from him..."
"Zu-Chan was rough on that chair while he was alive, anyway. It was his second favorite." Tekka but in pleasantly, smiling at some memory that most likely wouldn't have amused anyone but the few Uchihas who really knew Izuna – a group that he was a proud member of.
"Why only his second favorite?" Jiraiya asked, curiously.
"His favorite was the one in the throne room that used to be next to Madara's, but he was cremated in it." Itachi answered, finishing up his breakfast of plain white rice quickly, and excusing himself when Jiraiya reminded him that Madara wanted him upstairs.
"Izuna Uchiha got cremated in a chair?"
"It was in his will," Kagami said fondly. "His favorite piece of furniture was actually his bed, but he was quite adamant about it not being burned. Something about how burning his bed would be a sin against everything he ever believed in and the chair was less blasphemous."
Tekka snorted openly at that and shook his head. "The bed was quite impressive..."
"Is that the bed that Madara and Sasuke sleep on now?" Jiraiya had no idea why he was suddenly in such a curious mood, but no one seemed to mind answering his questions, and if he was going to be completely honest with himself – knowing the ins and outs of the Uchiha system had always been a wee bit of an obsession for him anyway.
"No, Izuna's bed is set up in one of his old private rooms. No one uses it. I think Madara has some sort of alter or something up there, but no one's been allowed into the room since he moved the bed, so I wouldn't really know," Kagami answered.
Jiraiya munched casually on the breakfast that seemed to have been served for him at some point without him noticing. "So, if I'm in Madara's seat, and Sasuke doesn't even have one, where do they eat?"
Everyone at the table looked pointedly at their other family members, but the question hung in the air, unanswered. Right. Not that trusted, then.
"If you've had enough breakfast, I think you might do well to get back to the club." Kagami said at barely above a whisper.
Jiraiya knew when he was being dismissed.
XxBxExLxOxVxExDxX
Upstairs, Sasuke was just waking when someone knocked on the door. The teen wiped his eyes in a way that Madara found to be delightfully precious, and gazed around in that sleepy way that he always did in mornings – looking for his bed-mate. When his tired obsidian orbs landed on his Uncle's pacing form, his face broke out into a breathtaking grin.
Madara was opening the door when Sasuke's smile set itself into place, but he caught the last of it when he turned around and smiled back, padding over to the bed and placing a tender kiss on his lover's lips. "Good morning, Angel..." Madara murmured against his nephew's mouth, kissing him again simply because he could find no good reason not to.
Sasuke sighed, and pulled Madara down on top of him, but did not initiate any further sexual contact, choosing instead to bask in the presence of a warm, welcome body flush against his. There was nothing more comfortable than Madara to Sasuke, it didn't matter how they touched. Uncle Madara's lap was the best chair. Uncle Madara's chest was the best pillow. Uncle Madara's body atop his was simply the best – much too good to be compared with furniture. He inhaled greedily and tightened his arms around the man.
Stepping through the doorway, Itachi blatantly ignored all of this.
"You wanted to see me Uncle Madara?"
Madara didn't answer, much to preoccupied with the simple act of laying atop such a deliciously frail and flawless body. He hadn't realized until just then that even with all of the scars, bruises, and whatever else – Sasuke could still be considered completely and entirely flawless. How odd. He'd never thought of it that way with Izuna. Then again, Izuna really hadn't received any proper physical damage until... well, he'd think about that later. Or he wouldn't. Yeah, he probably wouldn't. Maybe he should, but…
Oh.
Sasuke wasn't wearing anything under this sheet... quite a thin sheet, as far as sheets go. Definitely thin enough to make sure that Madara's imagination was not at all needed to enjoy this position. But Itachi was here, which would, somehow, be inappropriate.
With much reluctance, Madara pushed away from his lover's sinfully delicious embrace, and turned towards the nephew that was really just a nephew. Less than a nephew, really – but he wasn't complaining, so whatever.
"Yes, Itachi. I want you to get me a sample of the hair from the crime scene and run it with one of our forensic teams to see if we can get a match."
"Neji Hyuuga."
Madara blinked. Twice. "Excuse me?"
"I've done that already, Uncle. Yesterday."
Madara didn't know whether he was impressed or annoyed. The fact that Itachi was withholding information and inadvertently cock-blocking made him want to lean towards annoyed, but that wouldn't exactly be fair. "Any particular reason why you thought it wise to not tell me that you've known for an entire day who the killer is?"
Itachi didn't answer the half rhetorical question, instead opening up a brief case that Madara hadn't noticed him bringing in, and laying out several files on the foot of the bed.
"Neji Hyuuga is a fairly amateur assassin for the Hyuuga family, a criminal organization that has recently sprung up in the more southern regions of japan. Hikaku recently got into a bit of a skirmish with one of their foot-soldiers, and it has resulted in a war between our families, though from what I understand, they don't want us to know that we're fighting it yet."
Madara was quite impressed with himself for following all of that while Sasuke squirmed around behind him and latched on to his neck. He took a deep stress-filled breath and shook his head. "We can't afford another war right now. The police are already taking up too much of our time, and it'd be even more difficult for the Akatsuki to keep up their stamina if we have to go up against unfamiliar enemies."
"Should we meet them for a truce, then?" Itachi asked, carefully. "I thought perhaps Sasuke could be of assistance with that. I couldn't help but notice that girls are quite taken with him," Though not as much as you are was an unspoken addition to Itachi's sentence that everyone in the room heard even though it wasn't said. "And their leader has two daughters, one of which is around Otouto's age."
Though Itachi wasn't capable of telepathy, nor did he posses any psychic ability, he could read the "ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY NOT!" loud and clear, as it displayed itself on Madara's furiously incredulous features.
"Girls are gross."
Sasuke's first sentence of the day. How quaint.
"As gross as girls are, they can end a war just as easily as start one. Hinata Hyuuga is no Helen, surely, but-"
"Ew... just – ew. No." Sasuke stretched and the oh-so-thin sheet flitted off of his upper body, revealing a chest that would warrant a visit to the local hospital. Itachi took a moment to wonder if Madara had actually tried to bite the child's nipple off. Neither of the men on the bed seemed bothered in the least by the revelation of Sasuke's abused flesh.
"Otouto, I'm not saying you have to marry the girl! Just tell her she's pretty or something."
"But she's not."
Itachi glared at his insubordinate sibling. "You haven't even seen her."
"Is she prettier than me?"
"I,"
"What?"
"It's I, is she prettier than I. And no, she's probably not." Madara commented, running an absent minded hand across Sasuke's jaw bone softly.
"You haven't seen her either!" Itachi was seriously starting to get frustrated with these two.
Sasuke seemed completely unphased by his brother's agony. "Of course she's not prettier than m- I. There's only one person who ever was."
Awkward silence.
"Anyway, whether she's prettier than you or not, telling yourself that you're pretty isn't going to stop you from getting killed – telling her might, though."
Sasuke grinned playfully. "You want me to tell her that I think I'm prettier than her?"
"She, prettier than she. What did you do in all of your language classes, love?" Madara asked, tutting in amusement.
Sasuke's playful grin broadened. "Synonyms. See, like this: Penis, Cock, Dick, Pri-"
Itachi put his head in his hands. Why was no one taking anything seriously anymore but him? Were his brother and uncle always this silly in the mornings? He wouldn't know. They did everything alone until after noon, usually.
"Uncle Madara! I am trying to make sure that Sasuke does not die!"
Well, that got through to the man, at least. Sasuke looked thoroughly affronted by his uncle's sudden seriousness, and made quite a show of burying himself under the sheets and "going back to sleep" even though he was most definitely awake.
"I do want a truce with the Hyuuga family. Talk to the others and please try to see if there is a way to settle one without trading Sasuke's affections for his life, please."
Itachi nodded, and left the room – leaving his relatives to their morning ridiculousness.
XxBxExLxOxVxExDxX
It wasn't that Sasuke didn't know better. No, that would be silly. Of course he knew better. He knew all sorts of things. He knew that usually when he woke up in the morning, he thought that his hands were pale and white, and that his hair was dark and black. He thought that bodies are made up of four limbs, a head, and a torso, and that a human being had ten fingers and ten toes. Sasuke thought that candles caught fire, and fire could burn, but water puts fire out.
He'd been so wrong though. Here he was, the smartest person in the world, and now there wasn't a thing that he didn't know. He knew about the little people who watched him every day, and the way that his thumb nail was so long it could reach the ceiling. He knew that there was an absurd infestation of rabid rainbow racoons taking over the streets of japan under their absolutely genius gang name, the "Triple Ra" as inspired by the Egyptian sun god.
But the racoons wouldn't hurt him, because he was their leader. When he tried to explain all of this to Suigetsu, he was told that he was having a very good trip.
This inspired new thought, and suddenly he was on a plane. Oh, but it was such a beautiful plane! The windows looked out to the sky, as most plane windows do – but the clouds were huge purple hippos that wanted to sing songs with him. Sasuke sadly told them that he didn't really know any songs, and they started yelling at him, because he was so stupid.
Suigetsu said to be careful. A good trip can turn into a bad trip instantly if your mind's in the wrong place.
Sasuke's plane landed in a field of color, where little cartoon animals came up to play with him, and hold him, and comfort him, and talk about how it was okay that maybe there was only one person in the world who cared about him – because that one was enough.
Sasuke thought of Madara. He was so beautiful today! Absolutely glorious! More glorious than he'd ever been before! His hair was long and flowing, and glossy, and just perfect. Sasuke ran his fingers through it for seventy years before they reached the bottom. Or maybe it was just a second. He didn't know. Oh and Uncle Mada's chest! Had it ever been so firm? So completely and entirely whole before? Then suddenly he was gone, and so was everyone else, and nothing was there but the little people.
Sasuke shrieked and thrashed trying to escape the demons that meant him harm, but they were eating him alive and there wasn't anything he could do about it. His next conscious memory was of himself, sitting next to Suigetsu (Had Suigetsu been there all along?) and looking down to see that his arms had been tied to his body with his belt, like a straightjacket.
Apparently, Sasuke had suffered through a "fucking twisted ass trip" and that was most definitely a Very Bad Thing. Capitalized.
Fine. So then acid wasn't his drug of choice either... on to the next.
XxBxExLxOxVxExDxX
It was an accident. A complete and total accident. Sakura knew that. She knew that she hadn't done it on purpose, but – oh fuck – this wasn't the kind of accident that people get forgiven for. She should know, shouldn't she? She worked for the police herself! She was Sakura Haruno, the deputy of the police chief himself, so she knew the laws backwards and forwards. She knew that really, she was just barely allowed to have a gun – and she knew that she was supposed to shoot to hinder the offender's ability to run or harm – not to kill.
Fuck.
She'd really messed up. How the hell would she tell Naruto this? That she'd killed a man. She'd literally killed a man! Her whole life was over. She hadn't meant to, really! But he'd snuck up on her in a dark alley, and she'd panicked, and oh god she was going to jail for sure!
Unless...
Surely, with a murderer antagonizing the Uchiha's already, no one would really assume that she'd done it, right? Honestly, with all the killers running through the streets, who in their right mind would make her out to be the one guilty of such a heinous crime?
She just had to make it look like it wasn't her. That was all.
When she approached the dark vacant parking lot of Red Cloud, she had to admit that she felt a little guilty. But leaving a body – this body in particular – at this club would be the safest bet. It would simply look as if the same person who'd been challenging Madara was continuing to do so. No biggie.
But Sakura Haruno was wrong. Perhaps if she'd done something differently, things wouldn't have happened the way they did, but she did, so they did, and maybe in the end one could say that it was all her fault. Maybe, but lets not lay blame. In truth, it was many a person's fault. It was the Hyuuga family's fault for standing up to Madara in the first place. It was Sakura's fault for making it look like the Hyuuga family did something they wouldn't have dared to.
It was, mostly, Madara and Sasuke's fault – for thinking that they were immune to any ill-will that their lives had planned, simply because they had each other. But even the best of us become fools in love.
XxBxExLxOxVxExDxX
Outraged was not quite enough of a word to summarize the way Madara Uchiha felt at that moment. Two of the worst possible things that could ever, ever – happen … had now occurred. How in the hell was he supposed to cope with this? Number one – Sasuke was missing. Just plain up and gone, and he couldn't even act like he was surprised, because the kid had been missing quite a lot lately, and almost always returned in a certain … state.
Then, to hear that there were police vehicles at his establishment, when he hadn't heard of a raid or anything! Not good, not good, not good...
Luckily, the bigger of those two issues came sauntering through the front door just in time for Madara to decide not to hang himself. As much as he wanted to be mad at Sasuke for up and leaving like that, all that he could to was embrace the child, hold him tight, and make a mental promise never to let go. He promised himself that often, and often broke that promise, but he was only human, after all.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to be out so long, but-"
Madara hushed him sweetly, kissing every possible surface of his skin, then removing his shirt to kiss some more skin that was previously unavailable for kiss-age. Wait. Those marks were not there this morning.
"Sweetie, what's this?" Madara asked quietly, running callused fingers over the one-and-a-half inch markings that were on Sasuke's arms.
Always too honest for his own good, Sasuke's answer was simply: "Bad trip."
Now the thing about being the biggest drug dealer in Japan, is that you're very familiar with druggie behavior and terminology. Madara had no need to question his nephew about what a "trip" was, or how having one that was "bad" could result in damaged flesh. In fact, Sasuke was lucky that someone had pinned his arms to his sides. Kids scratched their own skin down to the bone on that shit. Fucking LSD. Honestly, what the hell was wrong with the men working for him?
Shisui wasn't stupid enough to supply Sasuke with drugs again... who was it this time? Ugh! Why did he have to figure this out? Why couldn't Sasuke just live a life that was an identical reflection of his own perfect little self? Everything about Sasuke was absolutely wonderful except for the choices he made. It was actually quite inconvenient that he seemed so convinced to experiment with drugs. Especially because, knowing Sasuke, when he found something that he liked, he wouldn't tell Madara about it. Really, Madara didn't mind Sasuke coming home with the aftereffects of his new experimenting, because it showed that he had enough control over it to not fear intervention.
Madara was about to question Sasuke on who had babysat him and made sure he didn't do anything too crazy, when the door to their bedroom was slammed open in a way that could only mean something horrible had happened.
"Madara-Sama!"
Next thing he knew his arms were full of whimpering blond. Madara hugged without questioning, and pet the younger man's hair gently. Sasuke seemed too stunned to even be jealous.
"What's wrong, Dei-Chan?" Madara asked in a sweet tone, even though he already knew that he didn't want to hear it.
Deidara wailed and collapsed, burying his face in Madara's pants leg and continuing to cry. A polite knock came from the open doorway, and Madara looked up. He had a concerned frown firmly planted on his face, but he wasn't nearly concerned enough to be prepared for what came out of Kagami's mouth.
"We've figured out why the police are at Red Cloud. They've found Sasori's corpse laid out in the middle of the parking lot. He was supposed to be doing rounds that night in the alleyways around the club, but I didn't worry much when I didn't hear from him. But he's... well, he's-"
"You don't have to finish." Madara rasped out, too utterly and entirely stunned to think a single thing.
Kagami didn't have to finish. He hadn't said they'd found Sasori's body. Or that they'd found Sasori himself. No. They'd found his corpse. That pretty much said it all, didn't it? Who the fuck would be bold enough to put the corpse of a legitimate member of the Akatsuki – A group made up entirely of the children Madara had raised himself from birth – and kill them?
Just when those Hyuuga bastards had agreed to a treaty, they fucking killed one of Madara's children!
"Setsuna!"
For just one moment, Madara had the hysterical thought that Setsuna would be able to hear his own name from any distance away. The man appeared before him with a wide grin on his face. Clearly he had the news. Clearly he knew it demanded action.
"Bring me Hinata and Hanabi Hyuuga."
"Dead?" His sadistic cousin's eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning.
"Alive." Aaaand, now it was the day after Christmas. Christmas with no presents. Christmas alone with no presents. Madara just couldn't let his poor sweet cousin be so pouty, now could he? "Fine, they don't have to be unharmed, but alive, Setsuna! I mean it!"
Although Setsuna was slightly dampened by the idea of not making an impression on the ladies as a murderer – he was, at his best, at least quite the rapist. He'd have his fun. As he was leaving, Itachi entered, looking more flustered than Madara had seen him since the night his parents died.
"Uncle Madara, they didn't do it!"
As if that's what he needed to hear right now. As if he cared who the hell had killed his son. Sasori was dead. Dead. Fuck... that wasn't even a thought that would go through his head properly. Poor Deidara looked like someone had just ripped out his soul, and even Sasuke was a little morbid. Such a sweet little thing, Sasuke was. The only reason he was sad was that Madara was sad. Sasuke wasn't a creature that had ever explored his own emotions properly.
"All of you get out. Kagami, Deidara shouldn't sleep alone tonight. Put him in with one of the children, they'll help him."
Kagami nodded, and carefully ushered Deidara out of the room. Itachi was a different story altogether.
"No! I will not leave, and I will not let you punish the Hyuugas for something they didn't do! Will you stop acting on impulse and just think about this! Their target has been to taunt you all along! They scolded your irresponsibility with Sasuke by killing a member of his personal guard. They murder children because its something you've always been above doing. They plaster Sasuke's face on their victims because it pains you to see. This doesn't fit their pattern! Killing Sasori doesn't make sense for them, Uncle Madara!"
Madara's eyes were like ice. "The head of the Hyuuga clan just took my son. I'm taking his daughters. It's already in motion, so just leave it."
"He didn't do this!" Itachi cried out desperately, jumping into another logical tirade about how it made no sense for the Hyuugas to attack this way after just agreeing to a truce. Madara tuned him out, until Sasuke spoke and broke the chaos.
"Itachi," Sasuke said quietly, cutting through the yelling at barely a whisper. Itachi looked towards his brother, eyes desperate for help. "I'm not going to let Uncle Mada kill those girls, Itachi. You can leave now."
Immediately all of the calm returned to Itachi's usually stoic mental state. "Thank you," He breathed out in relief.
"I'm not doing it for you, you idiot." Ah, there was the Sasuke we all knew and loved. "He'll tear himself up if he kills them and you were right. So I suggest you go and figure out whether or not you're right, because if he has any legitimate reason to kill them – I'm certainly not jumping in front of the gun."
And so, with a grateful bow, Itachi left the room, and Madara felt slender arms embracing him sweetly.
"I love you," Sasuke muttered, kissing his uncle's neck, then burrying his face in it – the sign he'd been using to show he was upset from the time he was very, very young. Madara smiled softly at the familiarity of that gesture, and held his young lover even closer.
"I love you too, Baby." He responded, kissing the soft spiked hair that had somehow leveled itself with his lips.
Maybe that was the problem that started it all. Sasuke had, in that moment, shown Madara how easy it was to find a moment of peace and joy amidst a sea of chaos and depression. How could Madara have kept an open eye to the pieces as they shifted along the board without him? He was just the King, moving one slow space at a time, as all the pawns gave their lives for him. Perhaps Setsuna was the queen, moving quickly to protect him, and destroy any threatening enemies. Yes, everyone had their place. Kagami and Tekka were castles. Itachi and Shisui were knights. Even Inabi and Hikaku had a place in the rank, as bishops.
But who, then, was Sasuke? Madara wondered... He didn't see the answer, even though it should have been staring him right in the face. Then it struck him so hard that he almost laughed. Oh, well Sasuke was – of course – the hand that moved all the pieces.
The hand that would show no signs of a sore loser when the opposing player said "check mate." No, that hand would not quiver, and would not complain. It would not analyze the board to see what move it had made incorrectly. It would do nothing – feel nothing for the game as a whole. Those pretty slender fingers would be wrapped firmly around the king, and cheat the whole game – lifting the piece clean off the board before letting it get captured by the enemy.
But no one else would care then, would they? No. Of course not. Who cares if you're still holding on to a chess piece when all the other ones are taken?
In the end – you still lost the game.
A/N: Sorry that I took ages to update. I have no internet at my house, and no energy to go to the library until today, so it wasn't really a top priority. Anywho – I hope this chapter wasn't too crazy :/
I kind of wanted to end it after Sakura's bit, but my facebook friends have told me that they prefer otherwise xD
PLEASE Review! It's kind of imperative. I'm not threatening you or anything, but my motivation comes directly from reviews, so they're kind of necessary.
Either way, I love you for reading!
-Beloved