Alright folks, here we are again. This chapter came out a lot quicker than the last one, I know, but don't get used to it, it's always a gamble as to how long these take.
Afraid there's not much for me to say up front here, other than thanks for all the reviews and watches (more watches than reviews, but oh well)!
As usual, Sasuke and Sasori in this chapter were written by me, while all others (Itachi...Itachi...and Itachi) were written by my sweet lovely.
Enjoy!
prodigium : (Latin) prodigy, portent / monster, unnatural thing.
The sun was reaching the peak of its journey across the sky as Sasori returned, Hiruko in tow, to the area in which he had left Itachi. There wasn't a sound coming from the puppet he normally wore as a shield, but he knew that what resided inside of it was simply cowering with the knowledge of what was to become of it.
He was unsurprised to find that the Uchiha was nowhere in sight, considering the man would have been a fool not to hide himself well, but he was surprised, however, to see a cloaked figure approaching from the opposite direction.
He stood, watching and waiting, until he managed to catch a glimpse of red eyes beneath the figure's hood. Despite the fact that believing his eyes would mean that there was a vampire standing directly before him in direct sunlight, he knew better than to underestimate his previous partner. He knew quite well how ingenuitive the snake could be, and he could only assume that the cloak the brat wore was a product of that ingenuity.
"Isn't it supposed to be the spawn that seeks its master, rather than the other way around?" he questioned, letting the corners of his lips turn upward as he silently withdrew a scroll from the folds of his cloak.
Sasuke stopped finally as Sasori's word's reached him, snapping him out of the dangerous daze he'd been in from the nearly unbearable heat and his focus on finding Itachi.
Leveling his gaze on the other shinobi, he sneered, inadvertently bearing his fangs. He recognized the man from the stories Orochimaru had told while intoxicated, the shaggy shock of red hair, apathetic eyes and face that looked no older than his fitting the description of his sire's old partner perfectly. The young Uchiha wasn't fool enough to ignore the sannin's tales of the organization that his brother was part of, and he'd heard quite a bit about the formidable skills that came along with the title "Akasuna no Sasori".
He hadn't expected to find Itachi without finding at least one of his associates, though he'd hoped it would have been a night encounter where he would have the advantage. As it stood, there was already the danger of sun exposure to worry about, along with his current level of fatigue.
Not bothering to answer the puppet master's question, he reached out with his mind, recalculating Itachi's position and moving suddenly in that direction. If he could avoid the fight at any cost, he would.
So, that's where he is... Sasori mused, letting the scroll he'd withdrawn fall open. "Unfortunately for you, I can't let you reach him," he murmured.
Sasori's words were nearly lost to the Uchiha's ears, but the pop of a summoning was not. He pivoted suddenly, pushing off from the ground just as a poison laced blade swept through the air where he'd just been running, and another flew over his head as he ducked, almost grazing the hood of the cloak. There was no time to focus on Itachi as Sasori's attacks kept coming, and while the poison was no threat to his life, the paralysis it would cause would be.
As he dodged a volley of kunai, he formed a series of hand seals beneath the cloak, letting loose a return volley of fireballs and gaining a sense of satisfaction from the look on Sasori's face as one of his puppets went up in flames.
Though he had countless more in reserve, even the loss of one puppet was enough to flare up a spark of irritation in Sasori's eyes. "You'll take that one's place, Uchiha!" he threatened, eyes narrowed.
Sasuke snorted in disgust at the idea, releasing a cluster of smoke bombs and preparing another fire jutsu even as he cursed the sun and how badly it limited his repertoire.
"I'd drive a stake through my own heart before I let something like that happen!" he responded, using his Sharingan to discern Sasori's chakra strings through the smoke and letting the fire fly again.
In the cool darkness of the cave, Itachi awoke with a start, instantly annoyed that he'd passed out from exhaustion. He glanced at the faint line of sunlight near the opening, guessing that it was somewhere around noon. Yet, he heard the sounds of a fight outside, and as he pushed himself to a crouch, he recognized the now-familiar tug/presence of his younger brother, only a scant fourty yards away and closing. Moving silently to the mouth of the cave and keeping himself well in shadow, he untied his hitai-ate and rubbed the cave grime from it, dangling it closer to the opening. The thought of trying to hide from something as simple as sunlight was annoying and ridiculous, but he had a rather good idea what Sasori had meant that morning.
The metal band turned and waved, giving him a partial view of the fight outside. He saw a large wooden figure, moving clumsily, then ports on its face opened and threw blades. He couldn't see what the target was, but knew it was likely Sasuke. So, Sasori had returned after all. He moved the hitai-ate, spotting the large black shape of Hiruko. Excellent. He guessed that Sasori had returned to take him back to headquarters, for which he was grateful; he rather resented being forced to sit in a dank, tiny cave all day.
Sasuke cursed as a kunai grazed the bottom of his cloak, just inches from tearing a chunk off big enough to expose his feet to the sun. It was already dangerous enough the way he was moving around, and he had no interest in bursting into flames when he was this close to his goal.
He caught the glint of light off of Itachi's hitai-ate before he even sensed his brother was awake (though he blamed his lack of focus on the fact that he was warding off an insane puppet master bent on making him a part of his "collection"), throwing his own kunai back at the oncoming needles to deflect them. He was running out of options, and he knew it, even as the distance to his brother was closing fast. All he could do was pick up speed, dodging Sasori's attacks as best he could.
Just a little farther... He could feel how close Itachi was, the sense of it starting to steal his focus more and more. It was just a matter of a yard or two...
A gust of air, the feel of shifting fabric, and a sudden, excruciating pain in his right side had him stumbling and falling forward (toward a dark place, toward refuge, toward something familiar, a distant scream reaching his ears that he had the inkling must have been his). Instinct and pain left him in a near fetal position, and he rolled as he hit the rocks he'd been aiming for, falling through the cave opening.
Itachi had roughly two seconds to react to Sasuke suddenly, and quite literally, falling on top of him. The skin on his arm was smoldering and smoking, and the stench of it made him recoil in disgust, but there was nowhere to go to get away from it, as the younger Uchiha landed on him and sent them both rolling farther back into the cave. Before they'd even stopped moving, Itachi had shoved himself away from Sasuke, flattening himself against the wall and trying to get around and away, even as something within him struggled to go to the wounded vampire.
He got within three feet of the cave mouth before remembering the sun, and realizing he was now trapped with his brother, who was probably still bent on killing him, and was responsible for his current aversion to the sun. He also did not know Sasori's current position, or how far he had to run to reach Hiruko, or if sunlight even penetrated cloth, though judging from the massive burns on Sasuke's arm, it probably did. This was quite possibly the worst situation to be in, short of an Anbu unit ambushing the three criminals while in this mess.
Sasuke's entire body was shaking, from the slowly dulling pain and presumably the shock that came with it, and he cradled his arm to his chest in much the same way an animal would (though weren't even humans animals?). His vision was blurry at best, but he lifted his head once the endorphines started kicking in to try and discern where he was. He'd felt something (someone) break his fall, but push him away soon after, and he fought to focus his vision on the dark figure standing at the opposite end of the cave.
It only took a moment, however, before he realized just who that figure was, and he levelled his gaze (bright with the Sharingan but still glassed over with pain) on Itachi's face.
There was something itching at the back of his mind, and a long-forgotten memory resurfaced, both welcome and unwelcome at the same time.
"When a vampire is injured, Sasuke," Orochimaru hissed, too close to his ear as he pressed the blade deeper into his pet's shoulder before tearing it out, "blood will speed the regeneration process."
It was a cruel lesson, Sasuke remembered, but the memory of how avidly he'd torn into the flesh offered by his sire was something he would rather have not surfaced.
As his brother's eyes met his, instinct acted without him, tightening the invisble rope that bound them and pulling as hard as he could. His throat was suddenly too dry, and the hunger raged in his stomach and in his mind.
Give it to me... Your blood belongs to me, give it to me!
Itachi wanted to run, wanted to scold Sasuke for his foolish demands, wanted to abandon the boy to his wounds, but found himself unable to do anything. He struggled against the pull of the tie, even as he felt the sharp rocks of the cave floor digging into his knees. His arm rose, resting against Sasuke's lips, yet even as his skin was torn and pierced by his younger brother's sharp fangs, he couldn't get away. He closed his eyes, trying to break the spell, but Sasuke's hold was too great. Knowing that Sasuke could read his thoughts, he tried to clear his mind, to focus on a faint drip of water and the distant clacking of wooden joints as Sasori approached the cave, but one thought kept surfacing: Is this what it feels like to be helpless?
Sasuke felt nothing, nothing but the sensation of blood in his mouth and down his throat. It had been days since he'd fed, having passed up the opportunity to feast on the search party that Orochimaru had sent after him, and his last meal had been from these very veins. He realized abruptly, even as he was unable to release his hold on Itachi, that no blood he'd ever tasted was as intoxicating as this; he'd been unconsciously holding off for the chance to get at it again.
Even as he finally managed to break away from his brother's arm, his body acted on its own accord, tongue catching what still leaked from the holes his fangs had made. Drowning in the heady scent of shared blood and the power he had over it, he took hold of the front of Itachi's cloak, tugging the other vampire closer until he could feel cool breath against his bloodstained lips.
When the elder's eyes snapped open, his breath caught in his throat (suddenly feeling dry again) at how vivid they were this close.
The sudden sound of Itachi's name being called out snapped him out of his trance, and he froze abruptly, unable to move away or break his hold on his brother even as he heard movement outside.
"Itachi," he heard the irritation in Sasori's voice. "Is that brat still alive?" He heard a swish of fabric, followed shortly by the faint tap of sandals on stone, and his grip on Itachi's cloak tightened.
"I can take care of that for you," the puppet master offered, even as his fingers moved, Hiruko's tail snaking through the cave entrance and piercing Sasuke's left shoulder hard enough to shove him back against the dank rock.
The spell was broken, or perhaps it only changed; Itachi could move, and he dropped his arm limply to his side, but something else pinned him in place, as certainly as Hiruko's tail pinned Sasuke, and he stared blankly at the younger Uchiha, watching the blood well up from the deep wound in his sire's shoulder. Before, when hunting, he had been cold and calculating, unmoved by the sight or smell of blood until that moment of capture when he'd sink his fangs into trembling flesh, but now... Sasori's voice faded and echoed, the drip of water vanished, and all he heard was Sasuke's pained groans, the smell of blood overpowering his senses.
It was just like before, he would reflect later. Just as when he'd first awoken from his fever and attacked Kisame. He remembered nothing of moving, of pulling the blades from Sasuke's shoulder and burying his face in mangled skin and muscle, the power in Sasuke's blood filling him with a demented euphoria. He didn't even notice for several seconds after Sasori had pulled him away, a kunai glinting wickedly as he raised it before Sasuke, and despite the blood-haze clouding his mind, Itachi spoke. "Don't kill him. Not yet."
Sasori paused at the sound of Itachi's voice, amber eyes narrowing marginally at how bold the man was being after he'd just set upon his own brother's wound like... He wasn't sure he wanted to liken it to anything, really, but he'd seen blood lust, and what he'd seen just then was more than simple blood lust. The elder Uchiha probably hadn't noticed the way the younger's eyelids fluttered and his head tilted back, might not have heard the way a pained groan became something closer to one of pleasure, but Sasori had.
He was sure Itachi had seen the look on Sasuke's face before he'd shown up, as close as the two were to each other, but he wondered if the man had actually realized what that look was, or if the younger even realized he'd been giving it.
"Why not, Uchiha?" he responded flatly, quite sure that neither of them realized just what the blood between them was doing. "I would be doing you a favor."
"Not yet. I have other plans for him." Itachi replied, pushing himself away. He felt dazed, and couldn't stop himself from swaying. Sasori was annoyed, but when wasn't he? He didn't really know or care what he was annoyed about. He turned away from Sasuke, wiping his face with the back of his sleeve. "He can be useful to us. We should take him prisoner. I have some questions for him, and I intend to study him to learn more about my current state." He explained, once it was clear to him that Sasuke was in no state to understand him, or protest if he did.
"If it's a vampire you need to study, I have numerous test subjects left to me by Orochimaru that you can observe and interrogate to your own ends," Sasori replied, noting the way the man before him had swayed and how his eyes were still somewhat clouded. "If you have questions for him, then interrogate him when he comes out of the poison, it should circulate out in a matter of hours for a vampire. If that is all, I will return later tonight to dispose of him for you."
"He is my prisoner. I am taking him back with me. He is a perfect test subject for me." Itachi repeated, his vision clearing as he looked at Sasori. "Do not question my plans, Sasori. He is my younger brother, and I shall do with him as I see fit. Unless your test subjects happen to have the Sharingan, in addition to this curse."
With a frown, he sat against the wall, closing his eyes. "Go. Bring more poison when you return. I will need to sedate him."
Irritated, Sasori frowned, but knew better than to cross the boy too much. Itachi's mind was still clouded, even if he didn't notice it, he was sure, and his excuses were shaky at best. He turned, silently, and climbed out of the cave, turning only once he was safely out of reach for the vampire.
"Surely someone such as yourself can control a wounded boy, Uchiha, even without wasting my poisons. If he is your prisoner, then deal with him yourself."
With an angry flick of his wrist, he had Hiruko eject the vampire sitting fearfully inside, taking its place in his usual shell and letting the creature's screams as it burned be a testament to his irritation as he left toward headquarters once again.
They wouldn't understand. None of them seem to. I may have to move on, especially in light of current circumstances. Itachi seated himself against the wall, resting one arm on his leg and watching Sasuke twitch and mumble incoherently. Already, so many times, things had gotten in his way, and he was sick of it. But it didn't matter. Sasori's pissy mood really didn't matter either way, in the long run, though he would probably try to use his influence with Leader to cause trouble.
He looked at Sasuke again, frowning. Once again, the boy couldn't just follow the path laid out for him. No, he had to stray to other things, do what he was not supposed to, unconsciously unraveling all of Itachi's plans. It wasn't as though they were terribly static, though, and really, this curse would only make things more interesting, despite Itachi's certainty that he would never become used to consuming blood.
Itachi was so lost in his thoughts, that he didn't even notice when he fell asleep.
invenio : (Latin) to come upon, find, discover
Alright! We managed to get this chapter out rather quickly, yes, but the next chapter may take a little more time. I'll see what I can do about a preview, however! So, like it, love it, hate it? Anything you see wrong with it? Let us know, because nothing makes our day like reviews in the inbox!