Centuries
Celestia193's Author's Note: Alright, and here comes the blood, though the chapter ends on a high note. Well, slightly higher note. Better than ending on a bad one, anyway. Orochimaru gets what's coming to him, Sasuke gets to be a badass, and there's a little bit of fluffy sweetness. Enjoy!
Chapter 20
While Kakashi and Indra take one flank, and Jugo takes another with Karin and Suigetsu, Sasuke flits across the rooftops, following his instincts, his heart, towards his mate. He was fully aware that this district had been renovated many times since he used to frequent the brothels, but there were some buildings, shrines and temples here and there that remained the same. And even a few of the old buildings had managed to last the ages, and several earthquakes.
And judging by the direction from which Itachi's presence was coming, and growing stronger, Orochimaru was hiding out in one of the few buildings still standing from the era of the Flower Cities. Sasuke's favorite. And it was just insulting, really, to turn this place into a den of evil.
Vampires ahead, fledglings, most likely. Sasuke wrinkles his nose. Orochimaru did always love having his fledglings around And they had a habit of causing no end of trouble. So he drops from the rooftops, rolling silently across the ground as he approaches the gates to the brothel, unsheathing his chokuto and holding it aloft. "…Come."
Bang. Bang! BANG! Their guns were firing fast and furious as the fledgling vampires charge towards him. Clearly, they didn't think his ancient weapon was a match for modern technology.
They were dead wrong. The steel of the chokuto flashes through the air, wielded with vampiric speed and the practiced hand of a shinobi, cutting each bullet in half as they approached. Sasuke had always believed that if technology wasn't broken, it shouldn't be fixed. As was the case with those who knew how to wield a sword.
Besides, who did these fledglings think he was? Bullets, even if they struck true, were hardly going to slow down a vampire of his age. After all, they were no stake to the heart, nor powerful enough to rip a heart right out of a vampire's chest, or to take one's head clean off.
And it was because of this mistake, that within two seconds of the bullets beginning to fly, two of the fledglings also proceed to lose their heads, one of the surefire ways of killing a vampire. And one that Sasuke knew well, and employed on many an occasion. As such, the cuts were perfectly clean, like carefully sliced ham.
The fledglings kept coming though. In the background, the sound of screams could be heard. Clearly, Indra, Suigetsu, Jugo, and Karin were already hard at work. the scent of blood filled the air. So much blood it was almost like the days of his youth.
As bullets flew through the air, being sliced in half and redirected towards other young vampires, Sasuke quickly became a whirlwind of death, striking the heads off of anyone foolish enough to come within three meters of him. And for those special few who managed to get within three feet, he bestowed a special prize.
Reaching in with his left hand, and ripping the hearts right out of their chests, coating his arm with blood in the process. But it didn't matter, for he was far too used to blood. So used to it, in fact, that in the instants between deflecting another bullet, and cutting off the head of another opponent, he would lick the blood from his hand, feasting on vampiric blood even as he battled.
Every drop made him stronger, replenished just a little of the strength lost over a century and a half of inactivity, the strength that he had begun replenishing that night, when he killed and drained the blood of thee incorrigible criminals. And now he would feast on the blood of Orochimaru's minions as he fought his way through the front gates of the brothel and towards the front door, sowing a path of pure destruction on his quest for his mate.
There were even some older vampires in the mix, into their second or third centuries. Orochimaru must have started keeping them around to bolster his forces. He'd never keep an elder though. They'd be too close to his own power, too independent, too much of a control risk. Though these adults were far more challenging than the fledglings, having seen Sasuke's prowess with his weapon, they coordinated attacks. Gunfire from all directions to distract him as they charged towards him.
This…this was what the meditation training was for. To be able to simply let go, and then focus without focusing, to use instinct to observe and react in fractions of a second. And, as Sasuke whirls in a circle, dodging bullets, and slicing those that wouldn't be dodged, he pulls his tanto from its sheath, adding a second blade to the mix as he digs his feet into the ground, his mask glimmering in the dim light as he traps one of the older vampires between his swords and the gunfire, sending her head flying into the air, black hair spilling across the ground as her head takes the impact of several bullets, before falling to the ground as well.
The would-be assassins all fall one by one as Sasuke becomes little more than a blur. As soon as they landed on the ground, there was a path. A clear path towards a door. Though it likely wouldn't last for long. Sasuke had his chance, and he had to take it now.
Sasuke races towards the door, tearing out the hearts of a couple of fledglings on the way, before racing into the near darkness of the halls. His high leather boots, more convenient for stashing spare knives in than traditional tabi, don't make a sound as he flits through the halls of the brothel.
Itachi did not belong in a place like this, where Sasuke had so many memories of…the before. He did not belong in this place that Orochimaru had commandeered. Did not belong anywhere near that snake to begin with.
He spots a few more vampires within, darting up behind them and slicing off their heads in an instant, the sounds of their bodies and heads falling to the floor echoing through the silent corridor. He was close. Sasuke could almost taste Itachi's scent in the air.
There.
There was blood in the air, Orochimaru could smell it. And it excited him. It seemed that he'd been found by the little demon. "How sweet…a family reunion." And revenge. Satisfaction. Everything that Orochimaru had ever wanted to rain down on Indra and that damn Uchiha brat was going to come to fruition. Indra was a complication that he had foreseen, but would have to be fast in order to act against. First, however, was Sasuke. And the oni was on the approach.
Sasuke was nearby. Itachi swore that his heart skipped a beat at that knowledge, even if it couldn't beat. "I hope you still find it sweet when my Mate tears you to pieces." Itachi snarls at him.
"I wonder if you'll still be so eager to see him when he arrives, drenched head to toe in the blood of just more of his thousands of victims." If there was anything about Sasuke Uchiha that impressed Orochimaru, it was the sheer body count that the brat had racked up. And while he was still human, no less. When he was turned, that number only skyrocketed. "A youngling as innocent as you…with a man who made his living slaughtering, lying, and whoring around for political ideals. An interesting match…" The pale lips curl into a smirk. "The truth is, Uchiha is far more like me than he would ever want to admit."
"Did he kidnap someone's mate because he suffers from an inferiority complex based on who his sire was?" Itachi's eyes narrow. "Because otherwise, he's probably still coming out ahead if we're comparing and contrasting."
"I simply wanted a better mentor, someone whose power was worthy of me. I approached Indra, ready to serve him, learn from him, and he passed me over to scour those pitiful human descendants of his, searching for a protege of his own." Orochimaru had been passed over for that brat. "And it's unfortunate…that when I killed him the first time, he refused to stay dead."
"And you couldn't have found someone else to mentor you?" Itachi seethes at him, his fangs bared. "You had to let your petty jealousy consume you and you tried to take someone's life purely because of their ancestry?!"
Orochimaru's glowing yellow eyes flicker to Itachi, and he takes the boy by the chin, pulling his face forward as he bares his own fangs. "That is no longer of consequence." His lips are pulled into a gruesome smile. "Now, I simply exist to revisit the pain and humiliation I suffered on Indra and that brat. And you are the instrument I will use to do that. You will break the demon's spirit, and his death will cost Indra the one he loves like a son." Love, such a foolish, naive notion.
"You can't beat Indra, so you target the closest thing he has to a child. You're little better than a cradle snatcher." Itachi bites him hard, tearing at his lip. "How pathetic to have wasted seven centuries on nothing, but jealousy. How fucking meaningless!"
Orochimaru snarls, wiping the blood from his face, and backhanding Itachi hard enough to crack his neck. "Insolent child. Obviously, I will have to put great effort into training you to be obedient."
Itachi yelps in pain as he goes flying from the bed onto the ground, the chain pulled tight but he gets up. "I may not be Indra and I may not be Sasuke or Kakashi, but I have their blood flowing through me." His eyes flash red. "The power may have been diluted, I don't know. But I do know that it means something and you were sired by a nobody. That wouldn't have mattered, if you had cared to stand on your own two feet instead of on someone else's legacy though." He slams into Orochimaru. "You're pathetic. A leech. That's why he didn't take you in. Not because of your lack of pedigree."
"Why you ignorant little-" Orochimaru pulls on the chain around Itachi's neck, tugging the fledgling towards him, and aiming another strike at his face, only to yelp in pain as a dark, triangular knife sails through the air and pierces clean through his hand. The only indication that the door had even been opened by one thicker shadow, lingering in the darkness.
"S-Sasuke?" It had to be him, right? Itachi couldn't see him though. "Is it really you?" It had to be though. He could feel him.
Hissing, Orochimaru drops Itachi back onto the bed, pulling the kunai from his hand and tossing it to the floor as the shadow steps forward, clad all in black, with the terrifying rendering of a hawk on a porcelain mask, covered head to toe in nearly a hundred different scents of blood. And from behind the mask, there slowly dripped dark red droplets that hung just for a moment from the figure's chin. A vampire…one who drunk the blood of their enemies.
Orochimaru leers at the shinobi. "The Oni of Edo, loyal servant to the shogunate, and the man responsible for the deaths of nearly all who staunchly opposed them. A terror on the battlefield, and the nightmare that haunted the dreams of the people well after disappearing into legend."
It was him. Everything would be okay now. Itachi decides now was the time to take the chance. He was still chained, but the chain did allow for a few feet of movement. That was all he really needed.
So he did the only thing he could think of at the moment. He slams into Orochimaru's back and sinks his fangs into him. Tearing at his throat, trying to create more of an opening for Sasuke.
"Damn you, brat!" Orochimaru curses, grabbing behind him, and trying to pull the baby vampire off of him and away from his carotid artery. He yanks roughly at the boy's hair, nearly ripping it from his head.
Moving like a ghost, Sasuke flits across the room, slicing through Orochimaru's fingers, and dropping the digits to the floor as he slams his tanto through Orochimaru's chest. Not a fatal wound, but definitely enough for it to hurt as he pries Itachi off of the older vampire, putting himself between the two.
Itachi feels dazed. He was probably bleeding from Orochimaru's rough treatment of his hair, but he notes with more than a little satisfaction that the vampire wouldn't be able to do that again. Sasuke had sliced off some of his fingers.
The chokuto flashes in a shimmering arc through the air, flinging blood in a semicircle between Sasuke and Orochimaru. The sword, however, was not all that was in the air. In it, hung a powerful sense of bloodlust, and not all of it came courtesy of Orochimaru.
Sasuke's muscles were tense, ready to spring forward in an instant. Itachi had been found, he had Itachi. Now…only one thing remained to do. "Orochimaru…" Sasuke's voice, a dark growl. "Today, you die."
"I was about to say the same to you." Orochimaru lunges at him, long nails scratching along Sasuke's cheekbone. "I've waited for centuries for this moment." Today, he would finally kill him. He'd finally reclaim his pride.
Pushing Itachi aside and down onto the bed, Sasuke catches Orochimaru by the arm, using nothing but his physical strength to hurl Orochimaru through the air, slamming him against the fragile wall, and taking down all of the paper screens on that side of the room.
Orochimaru goes flying and tries to get up. "You will die today!" His fangs looked like those of a demon as he struggles to stagger to his feet.
Whirling around and cutting clean through the bed frame with his chokuto, Sasuke frees the other end of the chain, providing Itachi with new movement. "Go!" He completes with spin, stopping to face Orochimaru once again. "Indra and Kakashi are waiting for you!"
Itachi hesitates for a moment before he runs off. He wanted to help Sasuke, but this was something his Mate had to do for himself and so he would.
Orochimaru charges at Sasuke. He would either die now or Orochimaru would perish, but one way or another this would be decided tonight.
Once Itachi is out of sight, Sasuke, knowing to expect an attempt at a lethal strike, side-steps in a flash, his chokuto swerving downward and striking at bone, cleaving it as his sword passes through the tendons and cap of Orochimaru's right knee.
"AHHHH!" Orochimaru screams in pain. It was complete agony to feel the tendons sliced through in such a fashion. "I will not die here!"
As the sword passes through the rest of the knee, Sasuke flips himself head over heels, cutting once more into Orochimaru, this time, at the elbow. Yes, Orochimaru was going to die here. But Sasuke was going to take his time. Orochimaru had expected an immediate fight to the death, Sasuke was prepared for both. He was prepared to block incoming lethal strikes, but also to return strikes of his own, meant to dismember the elder vampire.
Orochimaru had never felt such rage before. "How dare you mock me?!" Was the other vampire holding back?!
Sasuke wasn't holding back. He was being slow, methodical, and using his knowledge of the human body, gathered over the course of centuries, to properly inflict this punishment. "You took my mate. You killed me. Endangered my friends. And tried to take revenge on my Sire." He watches as Orochimaru, reduced to one arm and leg, struggles to stand up again, losing the futile battle.
He brings his sword down again, severing Orochimaru's other flailing arm at the shoulder. "You called me the Oni of Edo, and for good reason." He was a monster, and sometimes…he would play with his victims if they were truly the scum of the earth. He removes the hawk mask from his face, revealing the streaks of blood around his mouth from feeding on Orochimaru's followers. "And this monster's face is going to be the last one you ever see." He severs the last limb at the hip, reducing the other vampire to nothing more than a stumpy body.
"I will fucking kill you!" Orochimaru hisses as he tries desperately to attack the demon. "I will send straight to Hell!" He could do this. The vampire wouldn't die. No. Not tonight!
"No, you won't." Sasuke's gaze turns to ice as he lifts his chokuto to Orochimaru's neck. "Because thanks to you, I'm stronger now than I've ever been. Forced to drink so much blood that it makes me sick." The blade gleams a bloody scarlet in the dim light. "And you…are reduced to no more than a snapping, squirming, pitiful excuse for a vampire." He kneels, his sword holding Orochimaru back by the throat, keeping those still vicious, bloody teeth away from him as he reaches for the elder vampire's heart.
"Die!" He snaps his teeth at him violently. "Die!" He wouldn't die like this. Even as Sasuke reaches for his heart, he struggles.
Sasuke's hand plunges deep into Orochimaru's chest, feeling around for the cold, unbeating heart. "Die, snake." And he rips the bloody organ out of the stump of a body, raising his sword immediately after, and cutting Orochimaru's filthy head from his shoulders.
As the body, or what's left of it, falls to the ground, lifeless, Sasuke raises his sword once more, flinging every drop of blood from it, before sheathing it and picking up the severed head, walking from the ruined room with it. After all, he did have a promise to keep.
Kakashi had been reduced to fighting Anko, now that most of Orochimaru's minions were dead. It was a battle he had hoped he wouldn't have to fight. "Yield!" He still didn't want to have to fight it, as he had to force himself onto the defensive in order to keep her safe. Not the easiest feat to accomplish, as only one of them held a katana.
Anko kept coming at him, fangs bared. "I'm sorry." She couldn't control her body. "Compulsion. If you'd stop moving, I could make it quick and painless!"
Well, dying certainly wasn't on Kakashi's agenda, so not moving wasn't really an option. "Orochimaru will be dead soon enough, and you'll be released from his command! So just…tone it down!?"
Her hand waves slightly as Anko struggles for control. "Just run!" Damn it! Why couldn't he stop moving or run away from her?
"Damn it!" Kakashi prepares to sheath his sword, ready to go ahead and tackle her, if that's what it would take. But the sudden sensation of his childe approaching the 'battlefield' proves a momentary distraction. "Itachi!?"
Itachi races over to him. "Sasuke is fighting Orochimaru." Thank goodness, he had finally found Kakashi. "I think he is winning or he was when he told me to run. I didn't want to leave him, but he was insistent." Tears of blood stream down his face. Vampires cried blood.
Sasuke was in there, fighting Orochimaru alone. The thought nearly made Kakashi's heart stop beating. Metaphorically, of course. "He's what!? What happened!?" He eyes his child with equal amounts astonishment and fear, then noted that there was a chain dragging from Itachi's neck, bruises in the same location, and his hair definitely needed a good brushing and washing at the very least. He looked like he'd had a pretty close encounter with a sword too.
A bloody shriek echoes from inside the brothel. And then, a long, drawn-out silence.
"That's...Orochimaru's voice." Anko's stares in shock as she looks at the building. "He's...gone." She didn't feel the urge to attack Kakashi anymore. The compulsion had been broken. "He's really gone."
Kakashi breathes a sigh of relief, flinging the blood from his sword, and replacing it in its sheath. "Then I believe that Sasuke will be returning to us soon." And though Kakashi knew better, that battle had felt as though it had lasted a lifetime.
Itachi and Anko nod dumbly. Neither seemed to know what to say. They were both just staring at that building.
Seconds turn into minutes, and from around the corner of the building appears one blood-spattered warrior, holding a severed head in one hand, staggering a little as he approaches with a blood-stained mask once more obscuring his face. The greasy black hair clutched in his fist…belonging to the pale, vile snake whose head hangs by the ninja's side.
Anko wanted to look away but she couldn't. She felt as though she was going to vomit. The vampiress thought she had a strong stomach and she was certainly no stranger to bloodshed, but this was...on another level.
The ninja approaches, slowly reaching for his mask, loosening the bands holding it to his face, and letting it slip down around his neck. "…It's done." Sasuke holds up Orochimaru's head for their inspection. "He's dead." Then, he reveals the shriveled, sickly dark crimson heart held in his other hand. "I ripped his heart out first. What's left of him is lying on the floor in there." It hadn't really been a fair fight. After all, Orochimaru simply didn't have Sasuke's skills in combat. Few did.
Itachi sighs in relief as he throws himself into Sasuke's arms. "Thank God for that. Are you alright?" He looks him up and down. He honestly couldn't tell. "I hope...that's more his blood than yours on you." He was drenched.
Sasuke nods. "Only a little of it is mine. A few stragglers caught me on the way back. But most of it…" Well, actually, he wasn't sure. "I must have killed at least a hundred vampires trying to get to you. They…bled a lot."
He didn't really know how to feel about that. "Let's just go home, My Love." Itachi wanted to kiss Sasuke, but his lover was also drenched in the blood of Orochimaru and apparently, dozens of other vampires.
"Yeah…" Sasuke didn't really want to hang around here any longer. "Let's go home." Besides, he had a head to put on a pike, as promised.
Well, the head was on a pike, even if Kakashi didn't really think it was all that healthy, or pleasant, or…well, it just didn't say very good things about Sasuke's mental state. He'd seen the body, or what was left of the bloody thing, and he was pretty sure that even Indra was a little disturbed, in addition to being proud.
Which is why he was far from surprised when Sasuke went into the bathroom to wash up three hours ago, and hadn't come out since, barricading himself inside. He was probably trying to scrub the feeling and scent of blood from his skin. That was going to take a lot more than just a little shampoo.
And his own childe…well, Itachi had seemed more than a little traumatized on the way back, and Sasuke's exhausted silence, while understandable, clearly hadn't helped. But he was at the very least diligent enough to get himself washed up in his own bathroom. Everyone had needed washing up after that bloodbath.
Still, his childe sitting on the couch looked more than a little shocked by this unfortunate, but unavoidable turn of events. "Itachi…do you want to talk about it?"
"There's not much to say." Itachi sighs as he looks away from Kakashi. "I should have known better than to go off with Anko. I should have realized something was wrong." The woman had seemed too nervous of Sasuke for it to be normal. "I fought her and I put up a good fight, but obviously she won in the end." His age was his greatest handicap.
Orochimaru was dead now, but he had reawakened something dark in Sasuke. "Orochimaru taunted me. I wouldn't classify it as assault, but he was either going to tear me to pieces or make me his plaything." Probably both. "He talked about cutting out my eyes or fingers, but he said my eyes were too pretty. That he would teach me. That he'd break me." He remembered it all with vivid clarity.
"I lost my patience towards the end. I tried to feign submissiveness." It hadn't worked. Orochimaru had gone too far. "So I tried to attack him and that's when Sasuke showed up. You know the rest." What more was there to say?
"Well, we may be vampires, but that doesn't mean that we're immune to mistakes." Kakashi had made more than a few in his own lifetime. "…And we're allowed to be afraid, too." Were Kakashi in Itachi's position, he would most definitely have been afraid. "I know that you've seen a side of Sasuke that you never knew existed before, but…loving him means knowing that the darkness you saw, is part of who he is, and that darkness has been there since long before I met him. No one will blame you if you're scared, least of all, Sasuke." Despite that… "I just hope that you can learn to accept that that part of him exists as a shield to protect those of us that he holds close to his heart."
Itachi sighs and shakes his head. "I was aware of it and while seeing it was a bit traumatic, he's my bloodmate." He wouldn't abandon Sasuke over that. "I'm more...frustrated with myself. I'm always the weak link." He could negate some of it with training, but time was what he needed most.
Kakashi's gaze softens, and he puts a hand on Itachi's shoulder. "Time will come, though you'll likely be the youngest of our family for the foreseeable future. But it's not always your age that determines your strength. Intelligence, experience, training, and the ability to formulate plans, and remain calm, even under duress. These are things that can drastically increase the odds in someone's favor. Especially for someone like Sasuke, who, even though Orochimaru had almost three hundred years on him, was simply better equipped for battle. It is what Sasuke has known for most of his life. And in that respect…you're lucky to have grown up in an age where you were considerably more removed from having any need to fight at all."
"I'm aware of that." He wasn't ignorant. "You can't deny that I'm going to be at a disadvantage for the foreseeable future against any of your enemies, Sasuke's, or Indra's, who are older than me. Usually considerably so." What kind of mate was he? He was constantly endangering Sasuke.
"Yes, you will be." It was true, Kakashi couldn't deny that. "But you won't be forever, and it's best to be prepared for the day when you will become a formidable vampire in your own right." And with Indra remaining close, just in case, their coven had grown in strength. The addition of Anko, after being rescued from Orochimaru's compulsion, was an awkward situation, but one that Kakashi intended to smooth out as soon as possible. "Besides, the fact that you were not turned on Sasuke during the battle indicates that, like me, Sasuke, and Indra, you can resist compulsion by older vampires. It takes a strong mind, and quite a bit of latent power to accomplish such a thing, especially against one as skilled in compulsion as Orochimaru."
Itachi rolls his eyes at the last part. "Are you saying that being stubborn is a vampire superpower?" As if he could ever be tempted by that vile abomination.
Kakashi chuckles at the thought. "Well, it seems that our line makes it one. It's either a superpower of ours, or we're all just infuriatingly stubborn." Honestly, it could be either. Then, he tilts his head, hearing the sound of a door opening, and another closing. "…Sasuke's bath is over, it seems." Well, at least he hadn't found a way to drown himself, then. Not that that was possible for a vampire, but still.
"Should I go to him or give him space?" Itachi wasn't sure and he hated not being sure how to best comfort his Mate.
"Go to him." It was the best choice, in Kakashi's mind. "Sasuke has returned to a very dark place in order to bring you home safely. So if there is anyone who might be able to pull him out of it, it's you." And he shuddered to think of what might happen, if Sasuke were left to his own devices for too long. "If you have the strength to embrace and light his darkness…then you should go."
Itachi nods and quickly strides off towards Sasuke. If Kakashi thought it was a good idea, it was probably a good idea to see him.
All was quiet in Sasuke's bedroom as the shinobi moved about like a ghost. The blood cleaned from his skin and hair, his armor thoroughly washed, producing so much blood that the washing tub looked like the aftermath of the Boshin War, he still felt…dirty and sick. He'd thrown up more than a little blood, simply because of the sheer amount that he'd consumed.
But it had served its purpose, and now, Itachi would be safe. He would be able to live free of the shadow of that conniving snake. In the end, that is all that mattered. Everything else was just…numb.
"Sasuke?" Itachi slowly peeks into the room. "Are you alright?" He wasn't entirely sure what he would find.
"Yes." The whisper of an answer was dull, toneless, and automatic, a reply that Sasuke had given thousands of times to hundreds of questions. Though, not usually while dressed in a sleeping yukata.
The younger vampire quickly saunters over to him. "It's okay." Itachi kisses his cheek and wraps his arms around him. "You did what you had to do. You don't have to worry. I'm not going to judge you for it."
"…You should." After everything that he'd done, it was only natural that someone should judge him. Why not his mate? "I did earn my name as the Oni of Edo for a reason."
"I don't care about that." He kisses his forehead. "You saved me, Sasuke and I went into this knowing about your past." Itachi had to get through to him somehow. "You aren't the villain in this story. Not anymore. Orochimaru was." He was gone. "He can't hurt us anymore. Leave it at that, My Love."
But he was. Once upon a time, he WAS the villain in stories. And Sasuke knew it. "Knowing and seeing are two very different things." And now, Itachi had been exposed to his darkness in a very big way. "…You should be terrified of me…hate me…curse me…"
He shakes his head. "Terrified of your abilities, yes." Itachi places a gentle kiss. "I could never be terrified of you, though. Sasuke, I love you. I don't hate you and I would never curse you for saving me."
His mate…wasn't afraid of him? Didn't hate him? Sasuke felt both like a child hoping for approval, and a teenager expecting rejection at the same time. And the self-loathing… It hurt. It all hurt like a sword to the gut, twisted until it could move no more. "Why? Why would you bother with someone as…broken and twisted and violent as me?"
"I told you why." Itachi smiles at him teasingly. "Though I suppose you're the slow learner in this case. Because I love you." He rests his head on Sasuke's shoulder. "Unconditionally. Isn't that what it means to be a bloodmate?"
"Unconditionally…" Yes, that's what it meant to find your bloodmate. Your…in human terms, soulmate. Was it wrong for Sasuke to prefer the latter term? "Yeah…" And, despite his reservations, Sasuke's posture relaxes, and he sags a little against his mate. "I love fighting…but I'm so tired of killing…" He just wanted to go to bed and never leave.
"The killing is over for now." Itachi kisses Sasuke's forehead tenderly. "We can relax now. Come to bed and I'll give you all the cuddles you want."
…Cuddles sounded nice. "Okay." Sasuke didn't even protest as Itachi coaxed him over towards his bed, hidden behind the drawn scarlet and gold curtain.
He smiles and lays down on the bed, pulling him into it with him. "It really is a beautiful bed." It felt like something royalty would have.
Sasuke closes his eyes, laying his head against Itachi's shoulder. "Designed just like one of the styles of bed in a Chinese palace. Comfortable and private."
"That sounds perfect, right about now." He runs his fingers through Sasuke's hair. "It's alright. We're both safe now. He can't hurt anyone ever again."
"Yeah…" The most important part, after rescuing his mate. Making sure that Orochimaru couldn't hurt anyone else. "…When I found out he'd taken you…I was scared." Sasuke's heart…just couldn't take it. "He could have done anything to you, and I might not have…" Arrived there in time, seen him alive again, gotten Itachi home safe…
Itachi kisses him and offers him a reassuring smile. "He could have, but he didn't." Sasuke was still traumatized by the experience as anyone would be and that gave Itachi something else to focus on. "You saved me. It doesn't matter what could have happened."
"It does…because I promised to protect you…and I failed, just like before." It seemed like no matter what Sasuke did to try and protect the people he loved, it always backfired spectacularly. "I'm not strong enough to protect you. I'm sorry…" Worthless. He was completely and utterly worthless as a mate.
"Sasuke, I'm here." He shakes his head. "Clearly, you're strong enough to protect me or I wouldn't be here." Itachi smiles at him. "I feel perfectly safe with you. You're a very good mate. Don't torment yourself so."
Sasuke's eyes flick open, falling on his sweet, innocent mate. His mate who should never have to deal with the pain in Sasuke's heart, but wanted to help anyway. "…You're my heart. In every way, shape, and form…you ARE my heart." And if anything happened to his heart again, the fragile organ might finally shatter.
"I know." Itachi kisses him and smiles. "And your heart wants you to relax." He snuggles up against him. "It's over now. I'm sure that Kakashi can handle Anko and if he can't, Indra will certainly think of something."
"Yeah…" Indra could handle things now. Sasuke was just…tired, so tired…and Itachi's scent was a comfort as his eyes slid shut again.
Itachi sighs in contentment as his hands slowly drift over his Mate. "For now, let's just get some sleep." Sasuke had more than earned it.