Sasuke didn't realize until today that he actually hadn't ever seen Madara drive before. Usually, whenever he went out with the man, they were in the limo. Or, one of their guards was driving. Today, there were no guards. It was just the two of them, and while this was always how Sasuke thought he would prefer it – he had to admit it was a little disconcerting.
They were on their way to someplace where Madara said they'd be staying alone from now on, and although Madara insisted that this was for the benefit of their relationship, and he wanted only to be with Sasuke, it was clear to the teen that this was not the case. Oh sure, Madara really did love spending time with him. He even loved it when that time was spent alone. But this was different somehow. This didn't feel like vacationing together, no matter how hard he tried to make it seem that way. It felt, rather, as if they were running away together; which wasn't something that Sasuke was opposed to. Only, he couldn't imagine what they'd possibly be running from.
After all, they were the two best killers in the country – save for maybe, maybe Itachi; but he was getting blinder every day, and probably weaker too. He was ill. He'd never fully recovered from the beating, and he was depressed to boot. Sasuke had no idea what the hell had been wrong with him the past couple days, but it left him with the distinct impression that Itachi and Madara were keeping secrets together again.
He didn't like that. It went farther than his jealousy of Itachi. He didn't like it, because when people like Madara and Itachi kept secrets, it usually had something to do with the death of a third party, and while Sasuke didn't much mind anyone other than Madara's death, he didn't like Madara's reaction to people dying.
"Won't you please just tell me what's going on?" He asked for what must have been the thousandth time as the car pulled smoothly into an unpaved underpass. It felt like going down a rabbit hole. Fleetingly, Sasuke recalled a vague childhood memory of having an acting troop come in to perform Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and how he had asked Madara if he thought that Alice looked pretty in her dress, and Madara had said that nothing in the living world held beauty to him anymore. Sasuke wondered if Madara still felt that way.
"Do you think I'm pretty, Madara?" Sasuke asked, casually. Madara still hadn't told him what was going on, but he'd kind of accepted at this point that it just wasn't going to happen.
"You're the most beautiful thing in the world," Madara responded, effortlessly, without even taking his eyes from the road to look at his nephew.
Sasuke frowned. "The whole world?" He asked, "Or just the living world?"
Madara didn't answer.
Sasuke sighed, "It's okay, you know. It's okay with me that you prefer the way he looked over the way that I do. It's okay that you loved him more than you love me. It's even okay that sometimes, you wish he'd just killed me, rather than have killed himself."
"That's enough." Madara said, tightly.
"That was it though, wasn't it?" Sasuke asked, "Izuna must have been suspecting betrayal from Obito and my parents before then, but he didn't know for sure until they handed me over."
Madara was looking very directly at the dirt road ahead of them, but Sasuke knew he wasn't being truly ignored so he continued to talk, "Izuna knew that they wouldn't have actually handed me over unless they knew the police were coming that night. The reason he didn't confront them about it right then and there was because there was no way a newborn baby could have survived a battle in the middle of the throne room. You would have either been forced to fight with me in your arms, or had to put me down, where I would have been left helpless during god-knows what sort of chaos."
Madara's hands clenched uncomfortably tight on the steering wheel. Clearly, this was something he didn't feel like talking about.
"When you said that Izuna died for us, you meant it. That wasn't a lie. He took the battle to my parent's house because he saw your immediate attachment to me, so he didn't do what he normally would have done, and kill me on the spot so that your movement wouldn't have been delayed."
Madara let out a deep and submissive breath, clearly realizing that Sasuke wasn't going to shut up so he might as well just give the boy what he wanted and converse.
"Yes," Madara said, "If I had not shown my favor for you, Izuna would have murdered you in cold blood in order to save my life, and his own. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"I don't especially want to hear anything," Sasuke answered, honestly. "All that I want is the truth, and I think that I deserve as much. But if you don't want to talk about it, that's alright. We can talk about why the hell we're driving through some kind of creepy underground mole-tunnel instead, if you'd like."
Madara snorted at Sasuke's description of their location, and pulled up to the front of a small sort of shack that seemed to be growing out of one of the tunnel's walls. Sasuke had no idea how Madara was even pretending that this was vacation anymore. He raised his eyebrow, but his uncle acted like he didn't notice. Instead, climbing out of the car and walking around to open Sasuke's door for him.
Aw. The perfect gentleman. Sasuke smirked to himself and stepped out, hearing Madara close the car door behind him and start to unload Sasuke's many suitcases from the back seat and trunk.
The shack looked clean enough, though Sasuke narrowed his eyes upon seeing that there were several bolt locks on both sides of the door. So that a person inside could always refuse someone entry, but also so that a person outside could deny escape.
It didn't take genius work for Sasuke to realize that Madara would probably end up locking him in here at some point, but whatever – if that's what it took for the man to feel like he was safe, then fine.
He entered the shack without much hesitation, and took a look around. It was deceptively clean in here. Nothing like what he'd have expected from the outside looking in. It was set up like a studio apartment, with one big bed shoved all the way into a corner. Beside it, there was a deep mahogany wardrobe, much like their own at the warehouse. Several feet over, a kitchen area, complete with what Sasuke discovered to be a fully-stocked refrigerator.
The living room area had no television, but was instead adorned with what must have been at least three or four ceiling-high bookshelves, each filled to the brim with enchanting tomes of old, that Sasuke couldn't wait to dive into.
There was a door, also, and upon opening it, Sasuke discovered the bathroom. It was relatively plain in relation to their usual en-suit, but he found the quaint-ness of it all to be a delight. On the wall above the bed, there were several decorative swords. A little bit of fidgeting with them revealed that they were also able to be used in combat if necessary. Fascinated by this, Sasuke poked and prodded more at the art until he felt Madara standing directly behind him.
"What're you doing with that?"
"One of the swords is loose," Sasuke answered, showing that with not even a firm tug he could slide one of the swords right out of its Chinese-dragon covered scabbard and up to his uncle's throat in only a moment. "See?"
Madara was non-pulsed by the blade up against his neck, and flicked it away with only slight irritation, using two fingers.
"Do you feel comfortable here?" He asked, sitting tiredly down on the bed and pulling Sasuke into his lap, the forgotten sword clattering to the floor in the process.
"Hmmm…" Sasuke shifted slightly so that he could rest his head against Madara's chest, "Yes, I think this'll do. Why? Leaving me already?"
Madara did not seem fazed by the news that Sasuke had already expected his departure. After all, that front door was a tad obvious.
"I'm afraid so, my love. I trust you'll entertain yourself well enough while I'm out?"
Sasuke snorted. "Uh-huh. Give Itachi a nice hard pinch on the ass from me."
Alas, Madara did allow himself to display some shock. Sasuke wondered if it was about him knowing that Madara was probably meeting up with Itachi, or about him mentioning Itachi in a way that wasn't completely platonic or hateful.
"What?" Sasuke asked playfully, "I just wanna know what he'd do. Can you picture it? You'd just walk up to him and say 'this is from your brother,' and pinch him on the ass. He'd probably spontaneously combust or something."
Madara just shook his head and gently pushed Sasuke out of his lap, "Lock me out,"
"Aren't you locking me in?"
"Of course. Lock me out anyway."
With a slightly annoyed huff, Sasuke did just that. Although he couldn't shake this weird foreboding feeling that something very important was about to happen without him. This wasn't so bad, after all – important things happened without him all the time, but this time … he felt involved somehow; and he didn't like being left out of the loop.
Releasing a deep sigh, he noticed the sword on the floor and put it back where it belonged, then turned towards the bookshelf – resigned to his fate.
XxBxExLxOxVxExDxX
"You watch him more than I do," She said, approaching the man who was seated gracefully on a white marble bench, looking anxiously downwards.
"Of course I do," The man responded icily, "I always have." He didn't turn to look towards her, instead for a moment his head snapped hurriedly to the side, looking towards the golden-trimmed gate of the white picket fence they were surrounded by, and then back down, "It's because I love him the most."
"That's an absurd suggestion, even from you." The woman answered, sitting beside him, "I am his mother after all. Naturally, I love him more."
Izuna turned to Mikoto then, giving her a cruel glare as if she was the most disgusting thing he'd ever seen. "Then why was he there that night, Imouto?" He whispered, "Why did you make him see? It was Sasuke you left with Madara, not Itachi. It was always Sasuke for everyone but me! And look what that's lead to! Look!"
And Mikoto did look, but not downwards, where Izuna's eyes were rapidly moving back and forth, as if taking in something very complicated and horrible. She looked toward the gate, that was slowly opening, the way it did whenever it was preparing for another death. She couldn't take her eyes away from it. She knew the way the afterlife worked. You couldn't see anyone you didn't know. She wasn't able to tell that the gate was opening unless it was opening to accept a soul she was already familiar with, and she felt her heart beating in her throat, hoping that it wasn't either of her children.
Suddenly, Izuna grabbed her hand and squeezed it hard, and a moment later the gate flung itself open, and through it came a bleeding, gagging figure that she could barely make out. Slowly, as the man passed through the gate, his wounds were healed, and she could almost recognize his face when his blood-shot eyes widened, clearly having recognized hers.
"Miko-Chan?" He questioned, seemingly stuck somewhere between nervousness and excitement. He looked beside her then, and his eyes widened even further, and began watering. In a moment, he had leapt over to the bench with them, and wrapped his arms so tightly around Izuna that it looked like her poor brother might break. "Zu! It's really you, isn't it? I'm not dreaming!"
Izuna still hadn't torn his eyes away from the human world, and he was now squeezing hardly at their new companions arm rather than Mikoto's hand.
Squinting her eyes a little, she finally recognized him. "Setsuna," She breathed out, "What on earth was able to kill you?"
"That damn fucking son of yours, that's what!" He screamed, directly into Izuna's ear.
"Hush," Izuna hissed at them, "It's hard enough to hear everything as it is."
Setsuna was simply gazing at Izuna like all his prayers had been answered. Finally, he tore his eyes away from his elder cousin and looked at his youngest, embracing her in a warm hug.
"Mikoto, you selfish traitorous cunt," He whispered lightly into her ear, "I've never been happier to see you."
She laughed and hugged him back, "That's a little harsh, isn't it?"
"Absolutely not." Izuna answered, still looking down. "You'd think that after the tragic death of our parents, you'd have learnt that betrayal is wrong, but nope! You go and do it yourself," He hissed out, "And now look – your kids are following in your footsteps."
Setsuna giggled at the shocked and appalled expression on Mikoto's face.
"The tragic death of our parents?" She questioned icily, "Izuna – do you remember how our parents died?"
He finally looked away from Itachi down below, and faced his sister, "Of course I do," He said casually, "I did kill them, after all."
"Hey where's everybody else?" Setsuna asked, "Is this heaven? Cus so far I'm thinking that with the three of us as the visible inhabitants, it might be the other one, ya know? But hell's not so bad if this is hell, I guess."
He was ignored. "You've killed six Uchiha's Izuna! Six! Don't you think it's a little bold of you to call me the traitor?"
"I didn't have a choice, Mikoto! I didn't have any say about anything! All I could do was keep myself and Madara alive! And you put me in a position where all I was able to do was kill people who I cared about – and for what?" She had opened her mouth to answer, but Izuna ignored her, "Imouto, " He said, softly, looking directly into her eyes, "We would have just let you go."
Mikoto looked shocked, as if she'd never even considered that. "What?" She whispered, "What are you saying?"
"Don't you get it?" Izuna asked, neither of them looking towards the gate, which was now opening and shutting very quickly as soul after soul after soul passed through it, "You're my baby sister! Your sons are my nephews! For fucks sake, me and Mada love you!" He screamed, now standing up and looking heatedly at her. She felt like he was burning her, but didn't dare look away. "We love you, and we love that piece of shit husband of yours and if you two had just asked to leave the family with your children we would have let you go!"
The thought of this seemed to overwhelm her, and she turned away, shocked and horrified to see all the faces that had gathered around them.
"But what about me, Zu?" Izuna looked over to the man who had addressed him, and his eyes didn't soften in the least, if anything – the fire intensified. "Did sweet perfect Madara love me enough to hand over the throne?"
The loud and harsh sound of a slap shook through the space, seeming to bounce off the gathered bodies like they were echoing walls. Obito's face was healing even as it began to redden from the imprint of Izuna's callused hand. "Of course he did." He said plainly, "But you never deserved to lead. You're a disloyal worm and I wish there was a hell just so you could rot in it. I'd kill you all over again if I could."
He then looked away from Obito, his eyes darting rapidly from face to face, finding all but three of his relatives in the gathered crowd. Itachi and Madara had really killed them all, then. He didn't know they could do it.
"You know," He said addressing all of them, "When we grew up, we weren't raised as each other's guards, or doormen, or drivers, or hit-men. We were raised as each other's family. Maybe if any of you had thought to remember that, we wouldn't all be here. Or at least, we wouldn't have gotten here like this. Maybe if there was any one of you save for myself who could say you tried to offer Itachi comfort in his life, he wouldn't have caused your death. What would any of you do if Madara told you to murder each other? Could you do it with such ease? Such complete detachment? I mean hell! I just watched what happened, Madara himself didn't have the heart to kill half of you – so how did Itachi do it?"
No one answered him. So he answered for them. "Because Itachi didn't have a family, did he? You lot didn't give him one. Why shouldn't he turn on you? What's stopping him?"
"That's enough, child." Izuna looked to the face of Teyaki, who was the one that had spoken to him.
"I didn't mean for any of this to happen, Teyaki-San," He whimpered, feeling himself being embraced by strong arms, he began to cry softly into his father-figure's chest. "I'm so sorry for everything … It's all my fault. If I hadn't let myself die, Mada and Sasuke wouldn't ever have-"
"Shhh," Teyaki soothed, "Hush now, it's alright."
And so, in the heaven that was really not heaven at all – things began to settle themselves into place. But back on earth, the chaos continued.
XxBxExLxOxVxExDxX
By the time Sasuke made it to the warehouse, it might as well have been over. He hadn't been able to shake the overwhelming foreboding vibe, so he'd gone to see what the fuck was happening, and walked in on Itachi murdering Teyaki.
There was blood everywhere, and a body count that had to be sky-high, and the only living person left on the scene was Itachi. Sasuke ignored him for a moment, running around and looking at every single body before he ran back up to Itachi, who was beaten and bruised, and bleeding himself – from several areas, including his eyes.
"What have you done?" Sasuke asked his voice broken and terrified, "Where is he?"
"Who?" Itachi asked, and Sasuke almost killed him right then and there.
"YOU KNOW!" He shrieked, lunging at his brother and clawing at him furiously. All training he'd ever had was flying out of the window and replaced with pure hurt and anger and fear. He couldn't remember how to properly throw a punch, couldn't remember the dagger that was constantly kept against his leg in case of emergency, couldn't remember how to strangle a person quickly and effectively. All he knew was that Madara had left that morning – doubtlessly to come here, and was now nowhere to be found.
So he kicked and screamed and bit and scratched and thrashed against Itachi – but for all his emotional effort, he somehow did not manage to kill him. Instead, he was left there, a wrathful ball of emotion – and Itachi was gone to who-knows-where, and Madara was gone as well, and nothing seemed to be left for him, except the pain that was wracking through him.
Madara wasn't dead. He couldn't be dead. He wouldn't let himself die like this.
But even though logic was telling him that it didn't even make sense for Madara to be dead, with his body not even here; all that he could feel was the sensation of falling. And then – he really was falling, and fast, and he'd hit his head on something in the process it seemed. So slowly, everything was fading to black.
-End of Chapter-