Madara led him by the arm down the third corridor they had turned down since they left the dungeon, and Sakura, behind. Practically non-stop, Madara had chattered on and on about his plans, constantly changing things and contradicting himself. They were nearly to the end of it when Madara opened a door on his right, and promptly pushed Sasuke in.
Sasuke caught his balance and spun on his heel to face Madara, only to have the door, quite literally, slammed in his face. Sasuke clutched his dripping nose and glared at the metal door as Madara's laugh came muffled through it.
Madara said sneeringly, "Just wait a minute while I bring in the person who wants to see you, and then we will all get down to business."
Sasuke tried the door, even though he knew it was pointless, and nodded his head when he felt the seal on the door emitting trace amounts of chakra. He wasn't getting through that door easily. He then glanced around the small room, finding a table, cushions, and a lamp. He made his way to the table and sat down on the formally white, dingy cushion.
He traced the lines of the wood with his finger on the low wooden table while he thought. Since there wasn't really anything else he could do while waiting for Madara to return, he started to drum his fingers. He wanted to stay alert, but the stress was catching up with his body the longer he sat with nothing to do. He grimaced as he once again tried to figure the ancient Uchiha's game.
So far, the old man had been stringing him along, hinting at about a dozen different reasons as to why he had brought him here. Sasuke scowled as he inadvertently thought of Sakura.
She was…difficult to figure out. She chewed him out one minute, and then hugged him the next. He surprised himself by telling her more than he intended to about Itachi, and even hugging her back. Hadn't he just been prepared to lecture her about her lack of understanding? Didn't he still want to push her away while he figured out his next move?
He supposed he was looking for some form of comfort, whether or not he would ever say it, and she used to be someone precious to him that he trusted. But all the same, it was a moment of weakness that simply could not be repeated.
He would work with her to escape and regroup with whatever was left of the army. After that, she would simply be the once-friend of his mistake ridden past. Nothing more, nothing less.
Sasuke purposely drove his thoughts from her, choosing to think of his brother instead.
The clang of metal against metal was replaced by the squelch of metal against human flesh. Sasuke leapt back from his brother, awaiting the 'BOOM' of the explosive tags he planted on him.
He glanced at his bloodied shoulder where Itachi managed to strike him with a kunai in their most recent clash but ignored it in favor of watching his brother emerge from the smoke, like in some horror movie.
Sasuke stared down his brother for the second time that day, as he watched the missing arm of his brother reform. It was like watching some evil paper-mache monster. Itachi's expression changed again, and he clutched at his head.
Sasuke watched him intently, remembering the last time it happened was when his brother first attacked him. Panting, Itachi spoke for the first time since the first attack, "Sasuke, get out of here."
"No way, not until I find some way to free you!"
"Foolish little brother, this is not something you can do on your own. I didn't go through everything I did just to watch myself kill you, and not be able to do anything about it!"
"Then what should I do Itachi! Watch you be used like some puppet, after everything that happened to you, by that sick bas-"
Itachi suddenly cried out, now squeezing his head, as if the pressure somehow could block out Kabuto's commands. Sasuke slipped once more into his fighting stance. He knew sadly that his brother's momentary control of himself was about to end.
Straining himself, Itachi managed to say one last thing to his brother, "Sasuke, the most important thing is to rely on your comrades, together, and you stand a chance against Madara. Especially because you've always been reckless when it comes to your emotions, you let them control you, and that's how Madara gains control of you so easily."
Sasuke glared at Itachi, indignation and anger swelling inside him. He waited while the last of Itachi's control and will vanished, and then lunged for him. They fought minutes more, all the while, Sasuke contemplated Itachi's words. He mulled it over silently, secretly wondering if his brother was right.
They traded blow for blow, fireball for fireball, but Sasuke lost strength and chakra while Itachi did not. He grimaced again, feeling his body's strain, but unable and unwilling to give up so soon. Itachi deserved better than to be used like that, and no matter what it took, Sasuke wouldn't let him down again!
The sudden shock wave of someone's jutsu accidently hit the brothers, and the brunt of it hit Sasuke. Before he could fully recover, he saw Itachi from the corner of his eye, sword swinging in hand. He brought up a kunai just in time to save his neck from the unforgiving steel, but he didn't have the balance to escape Itachi's knee.
Sasuke was quickly hit with a succession of blows to his chest and abdomen. He finally was able to land his own blow, and Itachi went careening away. But Sasuke fell to one knee and coughed up blood into his hand, his entire torso beyond mere pain.
But he didn't have any time to lament the injuries, because Itachi was soon up and on him again. Sasuke blocked each attack less and less effectively, receiving dozens of cuts and abrasions, until finally, Itachi impaled his side.
Sasuke inadvertently cried out, and frantically pushed the blade out, trying but failing to stop further tearing. Itachi retracted his blade and lifted it above his head, his face cold and expressionless, just like Sasuke remembered it from his nightmares of the massacre as a child. Then suddenly his face flickered, and as the blade fell, Itachi's lips twisted into a small frown.
But what imprinted on Sasuke's mind the most were the tears that spilled from his brother's eyes, and the admonishment his brother said earlier. Sasuke silently and tearlessly cried with his brother as the blade slashed down and into his chest.
Itachi was already off to face his next opponent as Sasuke fell to the ground gasping for air. He let himself relax, figuring death couldn't be much worse than life, so he might as well not fight it. Distantly, he thought he heard someone shouting his name, but he couldn't be sure with all the noise of war.
He let his thoughts drift to his brother, and the failure to help him. Sasuke quietly asked him for forgiveness again, even if Itachi couldn't hear him. He then thought of Naruto, and their latest battle, or rather, their last battle. He silently asked Naruto's forgiveness as well, for failing his closest friend. He thought of Suigetsu, Karin, and Juugo. Two of whom he abandoned, and the third who he had tried to kill. He begged their forgiveness. Finally, he thought of Konoha, his former home, his real home. He thought of its streets, the Hokage Mountain, and its people, the hundreds of innocent people he had once vowed to kill. He regretted that he could not protect them from the same corrupt council members that harmed his family. He pleaded with them for forgiveness, even if it was just in his mind.
The feathery feel of healing chakra provoked him to open his weary eyes from the memory montage of the people he had wronged. His heart squeezed when he saw who it was, the one person he hadn't asked forgiveness from specifically.
Sasuke was shaken from his memory entrenched stupor when he heard the door to his room unlocking. He turned Sharingan eyes to the figures slowly being revealed by the slowly opening door. The frown on his face deepened with a furious anger in his gut when he saw the two most evil men standing side by side, their matching smiles chilling the very temperature room.