Trigger warnings and psychological effects are in play, so beware.

Composition by Brunuhville.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dark Sun

She had no idea why she thought to pick up one of the flowers, but it was instinct because she was enchanted by how beautiful they were. Itachi never gave her anything except protection and guidance. They smelled so sweet, the petals looked so velvety, the color dark and rich like the deepest desires of the human body, heart and soul...

...and her instincts simply told her to grab one and think to entice him by running the petals across her own lips, because her sensations were going against her judgment now. Just the two of them, he with his cloak discarded, she still in her dress, and no alcohol hindering her common sense, but that also meant once a border was crossed, there was going to be immense regrets - but would SHE regret it while he would?

There isn't going to be anything inappropriate in the bed. Just try to be honest with each other after a good night...but what if it ends differently?

His eyes followed her every action as she reached for the blossom closest to her, but as soon as her forefinger and thumb closed around the stem, she was shocked to find it was still bearing some thorns. Crying a little, she felt the piercing into her fingertip, drawing it back to see the dark bead forming. She heard the inhale of breath from Itachi, and a soft growl; looking up, she saw his back to her. He smelled her blood, but what was it to him? It smelled a little salty to her. And then she had to ask him if he wanted to have a lick and heal it, since there clearly wasn't any bandages around, but his answer was clipped.

He said her blood was tempting and intoxicating, causing it in her body to thrum and her heart to pump faster, but he refused even the slightest sample. "Why?" she wanted to know.

"Because..." Now he turned around to her. "...I won't be able to control myself. I told you that when human blood is tasted, it's an uncontrollable frenzy. You should never taste blood of a human unless it's going to become something more..."

Itachi halted his sentence then and there.

What does that mean: a mating service or something?

"And the reason I tasted your grandmother's blood the night she came across my chamber was only because I hadn't fasted for over two decades. I never asked for hers again. I won't ask of yours for any reason unless it were something else, and that is a fate I won't wish upon you unless dire circumstances called for it."

Unless the situation was dire...

He was saying that he desired her more than he should, but he couldn't taint her when there was so much more at stake, and that it would be only if they were at the cross between life and death - more for her.

"And besides that, I don't wish to have my heart shattered like before," Itachi finished, locking his eyes with hers, but they were their normal onyx rather than red. It was then that she felt like she was sucked into that vortex alone without his power pulling her in, but gazing into the windows to his soul opened the door to the past, revealing bright light in the darkness.

The images were all Itachi's past.

~o~

There was shouting and blasting, smoke in the air.

Blades clashed. Blood spilled across the earth and across floors.

This was a civil war - a war that would last a century and a half to come.

She knew what this was: the Ōnin War which would mark the first of many conflicts in the Warring States, where bloodshed and struggling for power would become normal, every day life. After the shogun left behind no heir in 1464, just three years prior. Then came an unexpected birth of a son that left plans to have his younger brother be his successor causing unrest and the breakout in Kyoto which would eventually be destroyed thirteen years later.

Rebellion was in every corner, which the shogunate tried and failed to stop. The fighting would eventually go to the dividing of warrior clans and their feudal lords...to which there would be no winning, and only degrees of losing and survival.

It was also during this day, in early June of 1467, that a child was born after the family home was broken into, prompting the patriarch to bellow orders in getting his heavily pregnant wife who was in labor out of there to safety, where they would be safe in the retreat of a friend and ally. On the way, while the poor woman was shrieking and pushing at the midwife's order, some enemy samurai would come their way, even thieves, and the husband fended them all off. She had never thought to see such might in a man, protecting his wife and their newborn coming...

...and it wasn't long before there was a healthy cry piercing through the trees. It was a son who was bathed in the nearby river, and his mother forced to rest more but hold him against her breast, weeping always and whispering the name she and her husband chose for their firstborn.

"Itachi. Brave and strong little boy who will make a difference..."

But sadly, he would not grow up with a happy childhood, for he would eventually find himself scarred by the horrors on the battlefield, and he would learn to wield swords and kunai before he could learn to read. At the age of four in the middle of one harsh winter, he killed a man who dared to approach his mother who was pregnant with her second child. He protected both her and his unborn brother or sister.

In the middle of the summer to follow, when there was always still smoke in the air, few moments of peace, this child came into the world, and he was another son whom they named Sasuke.

Itachi was lifted into the heavens as he took in the sight of his newborn brother who would one day see the tragedy and destruction he was forced to bear, and he could do nothing but guide him and help him survive as he had.

But as the boys grew, Sasuke was nothing like his elder brother, for he loathed how things were - as much as Itachi - but expressed in a manner different in that he spited how they had to just be used and tossed aside by their feudal lords, like tools that were no longer needed.

He was whipped and beaten for his rebellion, and by his own father who said this was their way of life, and he had to swear obedience one day when he understood. Sasuke was five years old, and by this time, Kyoto was burned to the ground. Starvation was worse than ever for the peasantry.

The younger Uchiha brother was forced to see the big picture when Itachi snuck him away from the rebuilt family compound to see the outside world, so that he wouldn't become indulgent one day and see the lesser humans like the rest of their people.

Eventually, things got so much worse, especially with the code of the warrior for all samurai and their families. Disgrace meant honorable suicide or live out life stripped of privilege.

Fugaku Uchiha, father of Itachi and Sasuke, was one of many to commit seppuku, asking his own wife to help drive the blade into his abdomen. But before that, he'd contacted a former ally of his to take in his two sons to guide them and train them, make them honor what was left of their family name.

Mikoto, mother of both boys, was devastated and traumatized to the point of declaring that she would join her husband in death than live in ruin. She wished her boys the best in life and to remember who and what they were...and what they fought for.

They did not see her repeat the ritual she performed behind closed doors.

Little did they know what kind of man they were going to live and train under truly was. Orochimaru was from a samurai family that diminished in numbers on the battlefield rather than disgrace. As soon as thirteen-year-old Itachi and eight-year-old Sasuke settled into their new home, to be looked after by a young doctor named Kabuto who acted as a father figure to all orphans who would one day be warriors, they discovered a hideous truth that happened to all children who misbehaved or disrespected their elders and superiors.

There were young boys who were beaten in unspeakable ways, and one such befit the word unspeakable, when it was one day that Sasuke was ten years old and he fifteen that he became a man all too soon by the present's standards. The younger brother apparently disobeyed once that Itachi rose up and pleaded to take his place.

The gleam in Lord Orochimaru's yellow eyes told HER everything, that she had to squeeze her eyes shut for her psyche's sake, though she heard the sounds that were clothes ripping, grunting and thrusting. She didn't want to look...but she did open one eye partially and saw the pain in Itachi's eyes as he sacrificed an important part of himself just to protect his otouto.

Traumatized to the point he denies himself anything good in life, all for his brother and the rest of us...no, shut it, Hanaru.

Many of the boys grew to become warriors without a real conscience except to fight for glory, where only a few retained noble ideals...and Itachi Uchiha and his younger brother were among the few. The elder loathed spilling innocent blood all because they disrespected his class in the mildest to severe forms.

But to see him riding in full glory, in armor and wearing a frightening mask along with his helmet which protected his face and caused enemies to fear him...it made her blood boil to see that he was defending his country and region, with his brother beside him - whom she saw not far behind in the right - but for a man who made them do unforgivable acts in order to get to where they were now.

But Itachi took the worst of it.

At this time, the peasantry was beginning to rise up to the samurai dominance over them, even gaining their own weaponry, and managed to force clan armies to leave their province. Konoha, like the rest of Japan, became the target of the Ikki which continued to grow in numbers and eventually overthrew the military governor. Three years later.

Sasuke Uchiha fled the riot, going into hiding with some other fellow fallen warriors, after Orochimaru was killed...but his brother was captured. He was seen as one of the villains in the eyes of the people instead of as a hero, but he acted on orders.

The things she saw and couldn't tear her eyes away from: he got the most out of the abuse before his trial, because the peasants didn't follow the rule of the samurai. She didn't see ALL of him, but she saw him completely nude and whipped not only to the back, but to his genitals and buttocks. He did truly scream in pain that it made her break down and weep hysterically.

He was eventually brought out on a wooden platform and stretched out, still naked, his hands tied above his head and so were his ankles. He was taken out to be left to die, and not to be beheaded or hung by the neck...but to be thrown into the river to drown, and it was by this time he blearily looked up at the sky, the last word slipping through his lips that no one could hear from him.

"...Sasuke."

The sun he saw had turned from glowing white-gold to black ringed with red-gold...an eclipse to represent that everything had turned upside down.

~o~

He thought he would drown, for he lost consciousness as soon as his lungs closed in on himself, cutting off all air supply and his vision turned black, but then he burst back to awareness because of the pain that made him feel like he was on fire, and it seemed to go on for an eternity.

He was sure it was just as worst as what those men did to him when he was in captivity. But when the pain was over, he felt like he was in the warmest water ever that sent him to a divine place in order to escape brutal reality...he was awashed with such a pleasure that he had no idea what was really going on...and then something else.

His throat was dry, meaning he was thirsty. But what happened to him?

"My, you're thirsty already. Well, no matter. It happens all the time, like it did with me. Here, my boy, you can have this..."

Something was placed to his lips, and it felt like rock - a small cup, and he lapped up the liquid that was inside like it was water, for it couldn't taste like it either. Then he noticed how it was rather delicious, and he didn't think much of it. When he was done, he finally opened his eyes and blinked, taking in his surroundings. He was in a dark place that was lit with a couple lamps, and he was now dressed up in a plain dark yukata.

He wasn't dead. Someone had rescued him - but how did he survive the trip down the river?

Now he looked upon the one who stood beside him and offered him his drink which satisfied his thirst. There was a resemblance to himself, including the dark hair and eyes, but the mane was like a wild animal. Yet the face was calm and kind, analyzing him and his every move. Itachi frowned, asking him who he was and not yet looking down to see what he had drunk - yet.

"I, my boy, saved you from those treacherous currents. You were indeed dying, but there was only one way to save you. And I'll be honest with you when I say that your world has changed entirely."

Suddenly, the air shifted. He knew he wasn't going to like what was going to be said to him. How had this man rescued him and healed him? Why did he feel so strange, so cold...?

And then he looked down and saw what was in the rock-like cup: red liquid...BLOOD. Aghast, he threw the dish away, hearing it smash into pieces. "WHAT DID YOU GIVE ME?!" he roared, falling off the slab he laid on, stunned that he felt little pain. He saw the door and immediately made a dash for it, but as soon as he slid the door open, he shrieked in pain as the sun not only blinded his eyes, but he felt his flesh scorch.

Damn it, what happened to me?! Why was I on fire?!

There was a dark chuckle behind him. He whirled to glare viciously at the man who "saved" him. "I tried to warn you, but you didn't listen."

"Then answer me as to what you did to me - and why did you make me drink blood?" Itachi hissed, baring his teeth, and it was then that his tongue felt something peculiar. It was as if maybe two of his teeth were sharper than he remembered, and bringing a finger to his lips, he did feel just that. Now he was overwhelmed with hatred and some terror as he realized WHAT he was.

The man before him chuckled, baring his teeth, too, and showing the elongation of two in the top front. "You are just like me now, Itachi: a demon. A creature of the night who will forever walk in darkness, surviving off the blood of any living creature."

A vampire.

He fell to his knees. Never did he once do that and stifle tears of anger and hatred, never since he was a child, but this time he unleashed everything he had. That meant he would never be Sasuke's brother again, even if he did find him. He was alive again, but he was no longer human. He was going to have to do inhuman acts to keep himself alive. This man was going to show him how to - but then he learned the man wasn't alone. Stepping out from somewhere in the shadows was a beautiful young woman, pale and had long dark hair held in a tight bun, eyes glittering like dark honey, and her skin was whiter than snow.

"Introductions are now made, dear Itachi. I am Madara Uchiha, and I have lived far longer than you have, before you were born from my line and not directly by me. No, you and your own brother descend on my dead younger brother's side. And this here is Asami, my ward who I, too, saved from the brink of death."

Itachi simply looked over Asami without feeling much of anything but a mild stir, except that gleam in her eyes suggested so much more that it all happened in a heartbeat, and he did nothing to stop it.

From then on, he would blame his new birth and lack of strength to overcome this one's abilities and corruptible charm.

~o~

She was sucked back into the real world and fell to her knees, aghast and struggling to breathe, and then someone's arms wrapped around her, picking her up bridal style and laying her down on the single bed. She looked up into unblinking dark eyes that betrayed nothing except one thing.

Pity.

That was ALL?! No sorrow or sympathy? Nothing that gave away the still-human side of him, if he wasn't physically? If that frozen heart of his still felt anything...

He keeps all his memories alive so not to repeat any mistakes, and to make him see how life really is; also, make sure no one else endures them. He doesn't even want to be involved with what we all want...

That also meant he was relieved she knew, but was anticipating her response. "Are you disgusted?"

By disgusted, he meant the things that were done to him before he lost his brother and was changed into what he was now. She saw the face of Madara Uchiha, but also that Asami succubus. What she did to him...Hanaru was glad the bitch was dead so she didn't have to kill her herself.

"What happened after that? And tell me yourself so that I don't have to dig into your psyche again!" He sighed and sat down beside her, looking her square. Hanaru sat up to listen to him.

"Madara revived me, yes, and at first I never understood why, but he did promise me that I could find my brother again even if I couldn't have my hopes up. I didn't trust him at first, not even after what he revealed he did to me - nor did I accept Asami because I had no interest in such things. Although I had no choice to because my brother was out there, and he was the only family I had left. But to condemn him like I had been..."

Yes, I understand. Just as I thought I was torn apart after Madara took Naruto and made him a demon host.

"Everything was a hefty price from the start. I learned Sasuke had been taken prisoner, too, by peasant rebels, and Orochimaru's house was dissolved after his death. I had spent five years with Madara, learning to control my thirst and needing more time to come, but I was ready to rescue my brother who was now the same age I was when I died and was reborn," Itachi said. "That meant I had to kill the ones keeping him hostage for ransom.

"I couldn't bring myself to change him into me, but he was vehement and wanted to be with me as a brother again. So I left him because I wanted a better life, even if I had to live eternal life alone but with the mate that I was certain I didn't love the way she wanted me to, even if I did care to an extent, and..." He halted there, but she knew what he was going to say. That one time they "did it" was good even if it was forced on him. She wanted to tell him that rape was never fine, even if he did it for someone else, and he knew that.

"Well, after I left Sasuke once more, many years had gone by, and I never heard from him again. It was around the time the Nankai Earthquake occurred south of the country. He sought me out by then, revealing that he went and found the way to find immortality himself without my approval. Five years after I left him and remained with Madara and Asami, he found a small coven of vampires called the Sound Four, and after he got what he wanted, he wiped them out himself before he ended up one of them against his will. I was devastated that he would do this to me, and for a long time, I never spoke to him. He didn't seem to forgive me, either, for turning him away when he gave up humanity just to be with me. Until Asami convinced me that he was still my brother, and after all I did for him, he wanted for me."

So, Sasuke did what his elder brother always did for him. "And what about between you, her and Madara?"

He exhaled. "He had, for the longest time, planned to one day overtake the entire world, but he did not yet have the means. I could not support his cause, so I turned against my own creator, fought him but got away unscathed. He cursed and told me we would someday meet and fight again, for I was too much of a true, proper challenge with no reason to hold back. I had become a great pupil and something of a son to him that he never had...but he had no heart since he lost his humanity. And Asami, the one I had thought would be the one for life, had used me all along. She gave up on me being her 'man' who would do whatever she said. I had always done what I could to please her, but I learned that women, inhuman and not, could be manipulative beneath the surface. So, I left her as well, but she didn't bother pursuing me.

"Sasuke and I rekindled in time, but the strain was still between us. For barely three centuries we had time together, learning to have animals rather than humans, and he was there when I met my future second mate after leaving Asami. When the great famine towards the end of the eighteenth century occurred, that was when I came across her when she was struggling with her family's crops. She was from an honest peasantry, but a victim of the times. Declines in the crop fields as a result of poor weather as well as volcanic eruptions; the ash would be the cause of damage. I had an instinct to save her when she was affronted by a pack of ronin, and I didn't kill them, but I activated my Sharingan." He smiled wryly.

"Vampires awaken their own abilities that are not planned by choice, but come from within, and it's rare that a family clan could have one single gift. For example, the Uchiha have the Sharingan. I spent barely two decades learning to use it, and when Sasuke and I reunited, I taught him how to master it. Anyway, back to Izumi: I could have hidden my true self from her, and at first she was scared, but I showed her that she didn't need to be afraid of me. I believe it was that time I could already see that she wouldn't be anything like Asami.

"She lost her entire family, and I kept watch on her from the shadows because I felt it was a responsibility. I even felt obliged to leave her the dead animals that I caught and drank from, but made sure there was enough blood left to juice in the meat." Now THAT could be mistaken for a morbid joke. "This went on for about a year. I visited her at night only after feeding, but sometimes I felt like I wanted more because of her scent and her innocence, joyful outlook despite grim reality. I never knew anyone like her, and Sasuke at first wasn't pleased because he feared that even if I DID want another mate and a second chance, it meant condemning her and he would end up being the third wheel."

Hanaru gasped in utter dismay, unable to believe such a thing. "But no such thing would happen," Itachi said heatedly. "And I didn't want to make her into one of us, no matter if times were hard right now for her, but seeing that she was alone, had no one and nothing left, I gave in and took her when the night was still young. She didn't complain about one thing, except the injustice that was hiding away in the dark, wished someone could have the answer so that we could walk among the humans without any fear. And there was another matter that we were always faced with, that we had to elude everywhere we went," he said, and that was when he paused for a moment, leaving her to figure out the answer: vampire hunters.

That also meant he had reached the point where he met the organization which was none other than her family's.

Itachi shifted back then and there. "I would rather keep this short. It's a part of the story I'm not too happy to discuss, because if betrayal wasn't enough, losing someone I considered a best friend ensured that I could not afford another blow like that. Izumi was killed by one of the Senju soldiers under Hashirama's father, resulting in my brother lashing out and killing the man for me before I could...and Hashirama's father, your great-grandfather, showed such superior human strength than I've faced in ages, as you know. You know how the rest of the story ends," he finished with a slight smile tilting up at one corner.

Brought him right to me.

So this was the story behind each tomoe in his eyes: the first was when he awoke and was traumatized that he became a monster that he tried not to be. Next was his brother letting himself be turned into a vampire, and third was Asami's treachery...ending with losing Izumi which was the cue for the powerful Mangekyo.

And her simple idea of a story in which he'd seen more, done more than she could have comprehended was an understatement - more than an understatement until she ran out of words. She squeezed her eyes but couldn't stop the flood, and damn him for saying he didn't need her tears or her sorrow. He more than deserved it from her.

This in front of her was a real man who had endured more than he could bear, and so had his brother. See, Sasuke had himself a good woman, and Itachi had two losses that third time had to one day be the charm. "God damn it, Itachi."

No idea why she had to say that of all things, but romance novelty aside, she meant it and was going to take that first jump before the big dive off the cliff. Why would she do this now after what she'd seen and heard, and what was going to happen in the near future?

Because in case she might never have a chance, sooner or later. Now was as good as any time.

For some reason, she could hear the song in the air that she wasn't even singing, which had been early that evening which he had been present to, and afterwards, told her during their dance that from the first time he heard her, he thought he was listening to a wood sprite.

My heart in your hands, the past in your eyes, smiling in your arms, crying with the time, the song of the birds from this darkness; remember me all my sadness, dancing the song of the stones...down the rain in an ancient earth.

She knew she had been the one to kiss him when the New Year clock struck, and she was going to do it again because this time she was sure of herself. Never mind his wish that it couldn't happen again.

"Hanaru -" he started, about to object as expected when she silenced him.

"Shut up, Itachi. I want to do this for you, after everything you went through, and I don't care about your past where I have seen more than I should - and felt more than anyone else who didn't experience what you did could have. So just be quiet and let me kiss you!"

So she did, and he didn't utter a word when her soft, warm lips touched his soft, cool ones, igniting an intense fire that held them in place and burned to such a blissful hellfire.

Finally we see Itachi's backstory (specifically how he came to be and seeing Madara), which I chose now to reveal sooner than later like when we first see Alucard's near the end of Hellsing Ultimate. And not only Crispin's badass vampire voice-over background, but once more, real Japanese history from feudal times.

1467 - The Ōnin War starts, marking the beginning of the Sengoku period, during which violence and power struggle has become the norm.

1477 - Kyoto is completely destroyed.

1488 - The Kaga Rebellion overthrows samurai rule, establishing a theocratic state Kaga Ikki (peasantry and lesser samurai army) in now Ishikawa Prefecture.

1498 - Nankai earthquake.

1782-1788 - Great Tenmei famine.

Oh, and that song Hanaru repeats in her mind towards the end is once more by Trobar de Morte, "The Song of the Stones".

If you're going to review, please don't flame or hate me. :(