Oh man, this is such a difficult fic to write. I can't explain it, it just is… I keep rewriting and replanning and coming up with more ridiculous backstory…
You guys can expect flashbacks later on, by the way. Probably of the Madara/Akatsuki/Oro origins story, which I had a really bizarre dream about the other day. Seriously. You know you're a tad crazy when you're having tea party dreams about your AU settings.
Anyway, new chapter after, what, a month? I wish I could say this would get updated more frequently, but it probably won't :\ Sorry. At least it's more frequent than Oro's appearances in canon ;D
As ever, thanks for reviews and favs and all that and you people are cool and okay this is over now.
When a decadent cake arrived in front of him not five minutes after he awoke, Itachi's first reaction was suspicion, followed by concern. It then took him a good ten minutes of staring at said food, practically glaring holes in it, for him to realise who the thing had almost certainly come from. The understanding pleased him – he was starting to wonder if he had been forgotten about. Clearly, the cake said otherwise.
It was not large, but it certainly was enticing. Clearly done with some form of lavender scented icing, it had a slight purple tinge to it, and combined with the cream towers, decoration and oddly perfect looking blueberries, he did have to wonder how much money Orochimaru had for him to be spending it on top of the range bakery for his client.
Sighing, he poked at the nearest cream tower, and was delighted to find it fresh. However, he quickly recoiled, upon recalling that he was in prison, and being sighted with such a nice cake would probably warrant him a fairly speedy beat down from the larger, less refined inmates. Indeed, after a few minutes deliberation, he decided that it would probably be best to hide the snack, though that was not before he cut himself a little slice with the kindly provided knife.
A jealous groan sounded, and he was slightly sheepish, not that he showed it, to be met with a mournful looking Kisame staring at the cake from his opposite cell. "You… must have a nice friend."
Itachi, given that he quite liked his burly neighbour, decided that maybe he would share it. "The same one who met me a few days ago."
Kisame frowned, nodding in a bitter understanding. "I never got cakes from outside friends. Didn't even think it was allowed. Then again, I have weird reactions to milky stuff…"
That was, admittedly, a slight relief to Itachi. He hadn't really wanted to share his cake, despite his initial thoughts of punishing himself in jail. He had, since meeting his lawyer, decided that the occasional treat was not such a bad thing. In fact, it would just remind him of what he was missing, and make it all the more painful. At least, that was what he told himself and was beginning to believe. The me of a week ago would be ashamed… "I was going to give you some, but in that case…"
"Yeah, you don't want me going all lumpy and swollen."
The Uchiha decided not to comment. Indeed, he thought with distaste, he did not want that.
At the same early morning moment across the city, Sasuke once again found himself pacing. His left ankle, which he had managed to harm by slipping on an ice sheet outside the gates of the Uchiha compound, groaned in protest with each step, but he pointedly ignored it.
Kabuto had made several attempts to calm the boy down as they waited, albeit not patiently, outside Orochimaru's office. They had made their presence known, but were apparently being ignored. He wasn't entirely sure what his boss was doing in there, probably some last minute pre-prison visit preparations, but every second seemed to be killing the young Uchiha.
"Did you tell him I was here?" Sasuke asked for what was roughly the sixth time.
"I tried, but as I said earlier he didn't let me finish. Shall I get some tea for you?"
The Uchiha paused in thought, before answering. "Yes, alri—"
He did not get to finish, however, as Orochimaru's office door swung open to reveal the man clad in his usual over-the-top winter attire, complete with fur, copious amounts of jewellery, ruffles and an eccentric, ornamental hat. He paused upon seeing Sasuke's quizzical look.
"… What ever are you doing here, child?" He asked after a few moments of a stare down.
Kabuto frowned and resisted another heavy sigh. "I did tell you he was—"
"You most certainly did not."
"Fine, I tried to tell you."
"Again, I am sceptical." He turned impatiently to Sasuke, before something appeared to click in his mind, and his face went through a range of emotions including what looked to be a sudden recollection, sheepishness, deep thought and an eventual vague relief. "Actually, I suppose it is rather fortunate that you saw fit to show yourself here…"
Sasuke was again, perplexed. He seemed to recall the last time that he spoke to Orochimaru, he has his hopes and dreams stepped on with no remorse. Apparently, something had changed in the last few days, but he wasn't exactly complaining. Though, with the man apparently needing no persuasion to accept Sasuke, his meeting with Kabuto did appear to have become irrelevant, irritatingly.
When the Uchiha boy motioned that he was fully listening, Orochimaru continued in an airy tone, belying nothing of the significance of his request. "I am on the verge of departure, as I am sure you can tell, so I shall keep this brief: how do you fancy working for me for a little while? Certainly, I will help you with your… goals concerning your brother, but it would be nice to have some assistance."
Kabuto choked. He really did wish that his superior would consult him before randomly propositioning children.
In response, Sasuke blinked, not exactly having expected that. The decision was easy, however, this would allow him more of an opportunity to get Itachi killed off. "I… I don't see why not. It's not like I have anywhere else to be."
"Indeed, I suppose your home education has somewhat fallen through… No matter, I shall step in and lend my delicate hand!" Orochimaru decreed, apparently pleased with his act of benevolence and general goodwill. He took a few steps forward, patted Sasuke on the head affectionately in what was assumedly an attempt to bridge the silence, only to be met with a glare, before sweeping out of the room before anyone could say anything.
A silence followed before Kabuto pushed up his glasses and addressed Sasuke with a bemused expression. "No, I don't know what just happened, either."
"... Does he often do that?"
"All the time. Get used to it."
And just like that Sasuke found himself, without elaboration or real purpose, working for the lawyer who had initially swept him aside without a second thought. Desperate times… he thought wryly.
The Akatsuki table was engulfed in a foul mood. The members sat in silence, shoving the 'food' into their jaws, most of which were tight with anger.
Once in a while, one of them spat out a sentence. "Stupid Uchiha. They think they're better than everyone else."
"Just like f-mph-ucking bloody Madara."
"Don't speak with your mouth full, Hidan."
From the far end of the table, Zetzu spoke up. "Speaking of our boss-" He took a look at Nagato and cleared his throat, "Well, out of jail boss, heard anything else from him recently?"
"Not since last week," Nagato replied, "although I'm not expecting to."
"Hate that guy." Deidara hissed, stabbing a particularly disturbing looking lump of what was supposed to be chicken with his fork. "All Uchiha are so damned high and mighty, I mean, if I had it my way, all of them would just go and take the nearest broom handle and shove it up their asses until-"
As usual, Nagato raised his hands in calm reconciliation, cutting off the blonde before he could go further with his fantasy. "I want him with us."
Sasori snorted in doubt and returned to whatever bizarre newspaper he was reading. No one quite wanted to ask him what it was, as doubtless it'd be something thoroughly inappropriate - somewhere along the lines of 'Necromancers' Nightly' which had been a firm favourite of his old partner back when they were still free citizens. He hadn't quite dropped the habit of reading it, it appeared.
From behind his trademark dust mask, Kakuzu made a dubious noise. "I thought that was what Kisame wanted."
"Indeed. And I have no objections to his wishes." The red head replied curtly, still not having taken a bite of his meal. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied a blue head over the crowds, and in front of him he discerned Itachi. He paused and looked over at Deidara, who was sidling up to his newspaper reading friend and trying to get a look at the article. "Deidara. Go ask him to join us again."
"No."
"That's an order."
The blonde heaved a heavy sigh and exchanged weary glances with Sasori, whose attention had almost been regained from his reading material. They both knew full well that no one questioned the leader of Akatsuki, and thus he had no choice. So, with another sigh and a long, indulgent drink from his dirty glass of water, Deidara pulled himself off his seat and made towards Kisame and Itachi, who were just about visible seating themselves at a table as discreetly as a giant blue man and his extremely attractive companion could allow.
Eyeing Deidara's malcontent expression as he walked off, the red head offered a warning. "If I see you being anything less than courteous…" Nagato trailed off ominously.
The artist's reply was a terse wave of the hand, knowing he had no choice in the matter, and kept on walking.
Hidan merely sniggered as he watched the scene. "Bitch is whipped into shap—" He was promptly whacked by Kakuzu.
"Same goes for you."
Meanwhile on the other side of the lunch hall, Itachi repressed another sigh as once again he found himself sitting at his lunch table with a set of narrowed eyes boring into his back. Slightly uncomfortable, he dipped his spoon into the nondescript mush that he had been presented with (which Kisame assured him to be the normal Thursday meal), and turned his thoughts back to the cake. Naturally, this turned to thoughts of the man who gave him the cake and he quickly found himself sitting in anticipation of another visit. It had been a few days since Orochimaru had made himself known, surely meaning he was due another rendezvous, although perhaps that was just wishful thinking on Itachi's part.
When growing up, he had always been told to find his happy place in times of need, and overcoming the bowl of prison food, if it could be termed that, was certifiably a moment of great need. Therefore, he entertained his fantasy that today was the day for another visit, and whilst he did not show it, it certainly made him feel better.
Kisame offered him a sympathetic smile from opposite him, doubtless remembering his own first encounter with the Thursday Special. That smile, however, quickly dropped as his eyes focused on approaching figures behind Itachi.
The Uchiha didn't have to turn around to ascertain that they were probably the Akatsuki finally coming to pester him. Indeed, they had been somewhat lax on their attempts to harass him since their first encounter, much to Itachi's lack of surprise. They were just as lacking in actions to back up their words as he had first thought.
"Hey, Uchiha," Still not turning around, Itachi recognised that voice to be the blonde one. "Uchiha. Look, don't ignore me, you-"
"I heard you." He muttered in reply, half tempted to fling his gruel in the general direction of the approaching man, "I just don't particularly want to speak to you."
Kisame snickered into his mush and gave Itachi a semi concealed thumbs up.
Apparently this was not enough to deter the Akatsuki member as he clambered on to the bench next to Itachi and stared at him intently, as if trying to solve a particularly difficult piece of arithmetic. Itachi turned and stared back passively, and they sat there for a little while giving each other thoroughly unhappy looks before eventually Deidara spoke up.
"Did you really kill your family?"
"Yes."
The blonde looked surprised. "Huh. Cool. Why?"
"…Because I felt like it." Itachi replied, that having been the answer he had stuck to since his original confession. In retrospect, he mused, he certainly hadn't made his lawyer's job easy with what he had said in his previous trial.
Deidara nodded in what he believed to be a sagely understanding. "I totally get that. Families aren't cool, yeah."
The Uchiha raised an eyebrow and indicated that the other man should stop wasting his time, even if he was slightly confused as to what the point of this was.
"Yes. Uh," Deidara raised a hand to the back of his head in a resigned scratching motion, his expression an unpleasant mask which was doing a poor job of hiding his deep dislike of the situation, "think properly about joining us, yeah?" After a pregnant silence, he glared into Itachi's eyes, nodded, stood and marched off, quite intentionally stepping on a weedy looking inmate's foot as he went.
The silence stretched on even after he left, neither Kisame nor Itachi quite sure what to say or how to react. Instead they shrugged, the latter not quite visibly, and settled on heroically ploughing through their lunches, choosing to largely ignore whatever pathetic attempt at pestering that was meant to have been. While he had no right to look down on them, Itachi had absolutely no intention of frolicking about with the Akatsuki, finding the idea of criminals coming together to appear more threatening to other criminals absolutely childish. At least, that's what he assumed they were together for.
Eventually, the guard who Itachi recognised as little Naruto from a few days ago seemed to be coming their way, and the Uchiha did an internal jump for joy. This could only mean one thing, and that thing was civilised conversation with someone who wasn't Kisame. Agreeable though he found his fellow inmate, he was unused to spending so much time with a single person and so he longed to pass time with someone else.
With anticipation, he turned to his blue companion and offered him his bowl. "I don't need it, so…?"
Kisame thought about it and gave a sorrowful nod before relieving his companion of the death meal. "Thanks. It's kinda sad that I'm happily eating two bowls of this stuff."
Snorting, the Uchiha left the table in otherwise relative silence and was pleased to see that Naruto's face brightened considerably at how willingly he was coming along. He did admittedly quite like the boy. He was certainly fresher than the lumbering muscle fests that inhabited most of the jail.
"Um, Itachi-san, your visitor-"
"Certainly. Lead the way."
Having voiced his surprise turned pleasure at Itachi's acquiescence, Naruto headed off with the inmate behind him with notably bouncy steps. They didn't exchange any conversation as they were, after all, supposed to be mortal enemies as guard and inmate, so the lengthy walk to the meeting room was largely a quiet one.
During the time spent on the move, Itachi took a moment to wonder what would come up during the meeting. Doubtless his lawyer would want to actually get some information out of him and he would need to be careful there. Itachi's policy was only to let the other man know exactly what he needed to, keeping as much hidden as possible. Much as he suspected he would end up liking Orochimaru, he certainly wasn't the kind of person that could be trusted with anything even resembling important secrets.
Then again, this was no real problem to Itachi as he was by now very used to keeping everything to himself, having lacked someone to spill all his fears and secrets to since roughly the age of eight.
No, what he wanted was to have someone to talk idly with, someone who was not Kisame and someone who knew the full extent of his darkness and didn't really seem to care and his lawyer fit the bill perfectly. Could we actually… be friends? He allowed himself the question tentatively, yet for once, thoughts of self deprivation and punishment didn't surface.
In fact, dark thoughts of the massacre were largely absent in his mind, instead his only worry was that of the fate of his little brother. He dearly hoped that Orochimaru had done as requested and made sure he was safe out of Madara's clutches. Indeed, Itachi knew full well that Sasuke was not as strong as he made himself out to be and almost certainly needed protection.
Uncomfortably, a vision of his brother's face surfaced in memory of the night of the killings, tears unable to flow out of sheer shock. He shuddered, barely even able to process the self loathing he felt at doing that to the one person he really loved. If this little get out of jail scheme was successful, he knew full well the kind of life debt he would owe to his little brother, one he would gladly pay. That was, of course, provided Sasuke was still well…
Sasuke was probably safe, he thought sharply, and worrying would do no good in any event. Orochimaru would have seen to that. His lawyer, maybe almost friend would fix the situation. At least, that was the hope that Itachi was determined to cling on to, and cling he would.
He let his mind roam after that. Lost in his thoughts, he wandered along as though he was somewhere else entirely allowing highly self indulgent thoughts of befriending his lawyer, exposing Madara for his true villainy, reuniting with Sasuke and living out the rest of his days surrounded by friends and his descendants. That fantasy started with Orochimaru, and though he couldn't attain it, let alone the fact he did not deserve it, he could not help but be excited by the prospect.
Suddenly unimpressed by his nigh skittish excitement which was beginning to manifest itself on his face in the form of a slight smile, Itachi calmed himself down and put on his usual blank face. He continued in this manner until they reached the meeting room, and with a short breath outwards, he nodded and walked into the room with purpose and nearly smiled at the sight which he was met with.
More relaxed than he had been at their previous meeting a few days ago, Orochimaru was lounging around in his chair surrounded by piles of paper and various items pertaining to the case. He nevertheless wore a look of deep concentration to the point where a small crease was visible between his sculpted eyebrows, and dare Itachi say it, he almost looked like a cute little child with his thoughtful pout. Almost like Sasuke, a voice sounded from somewhere.
At the sound of the door opening the illusion was broken and the lawyer looked up to see his client step into the room. Orochimaru appeared silently thankful for a good reason to stop reading over his files. Repeated reading was a necessary evil, Itachi supposed.
"I would say that you look well," Orochimaru began with his standard amused smile, "but that would be a complete lie."
Itachi nodded in solemn understanding, trying not to show how happy he was at exchanging words with someone who wasn't his blue fanboy. "Sleeping in this place is difficult."
"Indeed, I remember."
The Uchiha wasn't particularly surprised to hear that his lawyer had spent time here before – he certainly had the impression from the previous meeting that he was far from a nice person. Of course, Itachi was by now very used to the idea that he was surrounded by degenerates and general scum. Unhappily he mused that he could probably slot himself into that category. "Do I get to know why you were sleeping here?" He almost teased, desperately trying to cling on to a businesslike tone.
Orochimaru paused to consider and offered a sneaky smirk. "I daresay you shall find out by the end of this whole mess." He allowed a lapse in conversation to sort his papers into appropriate piles, during which time Itachi sat down in his chair opposite and made himself comfortable.
Not wanting to waste time, he dived straight in with the matter that was really causing him grief. "So, did you do anything about my brother?"
"…Why, Itachi, the very moment I returned to my offices after our last meeting I set about stealing him away from Madara's dark clutches!"
Feeling that calling Orochimaru on his blatant lie (the pause somewhat gave it away) would be a tad rude, as, in all likelihood he probably had followed through on his promise albeit not quite as speedily as he made out, Itachi nodded. "How is he?"
"Settling in nicely. I am not certain as to whether he quite knows what my job is concerning you…" the lawyer began, trailing off as though offering control of the conversation to Itachi which he gladly took, being all too keen to direct his brother to safety.
"Tell him – you said he wanted to get me the death penalty, yes?" With a nod from the other man, he continued, "In that case, help him with that."
Orochimaru blinked. "I assure you, I have no intention of having you killed…" He sighed before going on and weighed things over in his mind before going on, "Frankly, I do not fancy putting any plan in concrete now, especially not such drastic ideas. I doubt you even know if you were being serious there."
The Uchiha looked to the side in a downcast fashion, also uncertain, "I would happily die if it was what Sasuke wanted. I deserve it, after all…"
A heavy silence weighed over the pair, during which Orochimaru regarded the younger man with a blank gaze which soon became a narrow eyed expression. "Oh, do stop your moping and likely misplaced self harassment." When Itachi didn't react, he huffed as though to say 'I am not adverse to throwing something at you'.
The Uchiha felt a little guilty there. He hadn't meant to give the impression of being self pitying. "
"We shall deal with… that when you have your acquittal." A heavy silence then weighed down over the pair, the talk of death not exactly brightening the mood in the already darkly furnished room.
Orochimaru clapped his hands together and Itachi could not help but noticed that his smile seemed more forced than it had been previously. Regardless, he was intent on moving the conversation past that and the inmate had no qualms with that. "Anyway, what I need from you today is significant and the sooner I know this the better. What exactly," he stabbed the air with a ring adorned finger to emphasize the point, "And I mean exactly happened the night of the massacre?"
"I killed everyone."
The lawyer's eyes narrowed, highly doubtful. "Really?"
"I don't know." Itachi replied lamely.
"… Well, you must know. Surely?" The lawyer looked a little confused here, "Or are you telling me you were not there at all?"
Itachi shook his head, feeling a tad useless at this moment in time, "No, I was there. I just don't remember a thing."
"Ah." Orochimaru raised his eyebrows as this sunk in. "That… that is not very helpful."
"Hn."
The two of them, both feeling that a cup of tea and some cake would alleviate the fact that today's meeting had been several notches short of satisfying thus far, they summoned Naruto in with his wheely cart. To his masked amusement, Itachi noticed that the boy had clearly been eating some of the snacks whilst he waited outside.
Whilst their tea was served, Orochimaru tried a slightly different method of approach. "So, what makes you think you killed them?"
"Well, it was my job. And, you know from the trial... I must have done it, no one else could have." Itachi nodded his thanks to Naruto who set his tea down before him. Hungry from his general neglect of his mush-lunch, he happily picked up his teacake and took a bite.
The lawyer made a noise of surprise. "The weapons presented as evidence were not forged?" At Itachi's headshake, he sighed, "Well, I suppose this was never going to be an easy case…"
"You can drop it, you know. I don't care." The Uchiha replied, fully understanding his companion's vexation.
"Your uncle does." Orochimaru pointed out, daintily picking up his teacup and waving Naruto out of the room with an entertainingly contrasting lazy motion. He lapsed into quiet, considering what he had been told, when suddenly a spark appeared in his eyes.
Itachi noticed this and motioned that he voice his thoughts.
"The fact that you remember nothing is telling in itself, you see," apparently, Orochimaru was smug about whatever he had thought up as his standard smirk had turned into an outright, what some might call crazy, grin, "for that begs the question as to why you remember nothing. Oh, certainly, it may just be a matter of trauma, however, my own personal investigations combined with my admittedly slightly excitable imagination are making me wonder..."
"… What?" Itachi was curious, yes, but it was not as though whatever his lawyer was thinking would really change anything: he was still a murderer regardless of whether he could remember it or not. "Wait, what personal investigations?"
Again, Orochimaru's smirk graced his face and he looked pleased with himself. "Oh, just a little sneaking and thievery. You wouldn't happen to know if your uncle was a keen gardener, would you?"
The meaning was lost to Itachi. "...No. Why exactly-"
"Well, we shall certainly find out exactly what I discovered before the trial. Give it some time to grow…" He trailed off, infinitely pleased that his potentially life risking, and slightly off the bat bout of larceny had become so relevant so quickly. It did almost seem too convenient to his paranoid mind, but at the same time Orochimaru had always been somewhat lucky with his narrow escapes and learning of important facts. He hoped that his finding the mystery seed would happily fit itself into both categories.
Sighing, the Uchiha leaned back in his seat. He had many questions for this man, and he doubted he'd get answers for most of them, but at that very moment in time he found it his deepest wish to do something frivolous. His life had been a torrent of misery for the past while, and he was at the point of really not wanting to do anything serious.
Apparently understanding what the motion meant, Orochimaru chuckled. "No time for tomfoolery, I am afraid." The corners of his mouth turned upwards, "though perhaps I shall bring a chess set along tomorrow?"
Itachi felt slightly silly at that moment, cursing his moment of weakness. However, the idea was welcome. "Yes, I would like that," He admitted, silently pleased by the indication that he would be visited the next day.
They spent the next few minutes engaged in idle conversation, neither of them apparently wishing to pay any attention to the many matters of business that still lay unresolved. Their general topic of conversation was, predictably, Itachi and how he was finding his current stint in jail. The Uchiha tried several times to find out something about his lawyer than extended beyond the fact he was pretty to look at, apparently liked his expensive clothes and accessories and was, well, a lawyer. These attempts ultimately were deflected masterfully.
"Oh, did you like my presents? I shall have you know I had to pull more than a few strings to get you permission for retention of goods." Orochimaru asked at one point, nibbling on his strawberry tart.
"The cake? Yes, thank you. Though, presents plural?"
The lawyer looked slightly troubled with a slight hint of 'someone is getting berated' beneath the surface, "Did you not get my other gifts?"
"Well, I haven't been in my cell since early this morning, so…" Itachi hoped that this would alleviate the other man's troubles. He had no particular desire to return a dark mood to their meeting.
Indeed, Orochimaru brightened considerably at this. "Ah, no wonder, then. You seem like the sort of person who would appreciate them."
Curious, Itachi raised an eyebrow. Part of him was slightly nervous at appearing better off than the other inmates. He did after all already have quite enough animosity directed at him in the form of the Akatsuki and the general populous who took an instant dislike to his good breeding and well spoken nature. Then again, he could hardly waste his lawyer's earnest efforts to be helpful. That was, if they were earnest.
He didn't really fancy asking Orochimaru exactly why he was spending so much time and effort on him. It could have been the mere fact that he was worried by Itachi's cold reception last time, but that seemed far too innocent. The Uchiha was, after all, well versed in dealing with utter wankers courtesy of his uncle and was as a result highly suspicious of all good deeds that came his way.
In any event, he was enjoying the pleasantries and thus was somewhat disappointed when Orochimaru returned to business, asking him completely out of the blue, "Exactly what planning went into the massacre and for what reason? "
Having expected this to come up eventually, Itachi nodded in what seemed to his lawyer to be an obliging manner. "Frankly, I don't know how much of what I know is the truth, but-"
"Oh, good. I do love a good spree of potentially false information."
Deciding not to pause and try and work out whether Orochimaru was serious there for his nigh constantly playful expression probably served as a mask as effective as his own, Itachi continued, "Basically, I'm sure you know that my family and the Senju family have never gotten on."
Orochimaru was pointedly silent, which he took to mean as a yes.
"And obviously, my uncle leads that opinion what with his past with the late Hashirama Senju."
"Worry not, I consider myself quite the expert on what transpired between those two," Orochimaru cut in, all traces of earlier joviality having faded and been replaced with a worryingly serious expression.
Itachi merely nodded, making a mental note to ask why that was at a later date, "As you know, my uncle is standing for Mayor later this year, and in opposition is Hashirama's own granddaughter, Tsunade-"
"Who I happen to have gone to school with."
"…Really?"
"No, that was a dreadfully funny, incredibly well timed and all round witty joke." Was the deadpan reply from the lawyer, who had regained some of his previous snarky disposition.
The Uchiha sighed, refusing to admit that he had asked a more than slightly silly question. Keen to move on from this, he went on with his tale, "Anyway, my uncle is desperate to win that election," the look on Orochimaru's face read 'tell me about it' in response to that, "so he thought that it would be a great time to finish off their family with one great bout of public humiliation."
Catching on to what was being led up to, the lawyer finished the tale by himself. "So he… had his family murdered, presumably so as to frame the Senju as a despicable act of campaign sabotage?"
"…Yes." Itachi replied, slowly. He was definitely not finding telling this tale easy, growing more and more distressed at the fact that he went along with the plan.
There was a slight silence. "You do know how silly that sounds, do you not?"
"I hadn't really considered it before. But yes, it is a bit…"
Orochimaru looked vaguely unimpressed and lightly fingered the rim of his teacup, "Farcical and several notches above over-the-top? Then again, knowing your uncle the way I do…"
"Yes, in what way is that exactly?" Itachi shot back, somewhat on edge after the talk of the massacre. He felt it was about time he learnt something about the man who was supposed to be helping him, yet so far had done little save for provide sarcastic comments at the least helpful moments possibly.
The man opposite him looked a little sour, fixing a pout-accompanied glare at the teacup, "Not your business." He muttered in response, and Itachi could almost swear he saw a slight blush on the other man's pale face, "There's more to it than that." He finally managed, referencing their previous conversation topic. "You're not telling me everything, there's no reason why you would want to kill your family in those reasons..."
Itachi, however, was too busy almost being happy at hearing the other man talk normally to really respond to this in any sensible way, and so he settled for picking up the remnants of his teacake in silence. He certainly didn't want to give too much away just yet.
They locked eyes for a good while, before Orochimaru settled for restarting conversation with a sniff as it seemed as often to be his job with the taciturn Uchiha, "I daresay I shall find out eventually, although you are certainly not helping me."
"Can we talk about something else?" Itachi replied quickly, hoping that his lawyer would understand that discussing the murder of his family over tea wasn't high on his list of priorities.
Apparently, the other man did, as he nodded and gave an indulgent smile. "What would you like to talk about, then?"
Nothing meaningful came to mind, much to Itachi's irritation, as almost everything he wanted to ask would doubtless lead back to unpleasant conversation. He ended up saying something a little juvenile. "What are your hobbies?"
This seemingly took his companion aback, as he rose his eyebrows as he considered his answer to this. "Creating… things. Though, I am a great fan of music, certainly… What about you, Itachi-kun? What are your hobbies?"
"I…" Itachi began, not having had the space to think about hobbies for a long time indeed, "It's not really a hobby, I don't know, but I like visiting traditional Eastern cafes." He replied honestly, for that was indeed a great passion of his. He had always found himself drawn to them, but that was not surprising given his family drew its roots from the east as an ancient clan of ninjas (and he had often entertained himself in his childhood with thoughts of his family as ninjas of all things), although they insisted it was a samurai clan as those were considered somewhat more honourable.
Orochimaru chuckled a little at this, "And here I was thinking I could perhaps bring your hobby to you. In that case, Itachi, once all this mess is over, I promise I shall take you to whatever café you so wish, be it the best, your favourite, or one on the other side of the world."
"Okay." He didn't know what to say – at all. "Yes. That'd be… good." And unreachable, for Itachi's thoughts flew back to the words they had exchanged earlier, and a deep murmur somewhere in the back of his mind echoed 'Not that I'll live that long."
His companion nodded and adopted a mischievous smile and, for the first that Itachi had seen, the smile reached his eyes. "Better than good. Almost enough to say alive for, I'd say."
The Uchiha didn't want to put too much faith in the words of a man who made a living helping murderers and thieves, but, and he cursed his own weakness for this, he so badly wanted to. He was alarmed to find that his heart rate had gone up – when did he get so … hopeful? "I would, too." He admitted, and smiled a rare smile.
In his pleasure, he failed to notice how unpleasantly Orochimaru's eyes glittered at his reaction as he smiled the smile of a man who had just had the world given to him on a plate.
A while later, a figure swept through the snow into an ornate carriage.
Orochimaru was almost sad to leave his client, having rather enjoyed their meeting. It had ended up stretching on for a good few hours as there had been a considerable amount to go over, not to mention there had been some angst-induced walls that had to be surmounted. Those would take time, he thought. Then again, the trial would not be for a while.
Of course, that was not at the forefront of his mind, he was far too busy being pleased with himself for how quickly he had managed to gain young Itachi's trust.
He paused. Perhaps trust was too strong a word, but he was certainly held in high regard by the boy despite the little titbits of his villainy that he let slide. It was necessary that his criminal dealings not come as a surprise later he had decided, as that would totally destroy and bond they had forged, and he needed that bond to later use it to take over the Uchiha corporation.
Naturally if that failed, he now had himself one Uchiha the younger tucked away at home, ready for back up use.
He smiled to himself for what had to be the twentieth time since leaving the meeting room and getting on his carriage. It was rare that such perfect plans had such delectable tools, after all.