An undeniable pressure was applied to his neck and the prodigy's eyes widened a fraction. He was used to Madara's cruelties, used to his games and tortures and yet he found something very off about his behavior now. It would appear that he had struck a nerve as unintentional as it had been and at that moment he did not know if it were a good or a bad thing. It was probably bad.
The smallest of flinches was given as the pressure increased and Itachi knew that his skin would likely bruise if the elder Uchiha kept things up. At the rate they were going he would be lucky to escape only with a bruised neck.
"Sometimes…" He paused, the hysterical edge to his voice coming back again. "I wonder if I had been better off slaughtering your pathetic excuse of a sibling in front of you. It makes me wonder how quick you would have cracked or broken to my will if I did." His words were laced with a type of malice that was to the very heart of him.
His heart paused in his chest for a moment, fluttering softly as the blood pumped through his veins just beneath Madara's fingers. Those words were without a doubt meant to hurt, meant to pour salt into the wound and pull apart the stitches holding his mangled heart together. The man knew where to hit him where it hurt most and he silently cursed him for it, the prodigy closing his eyes briefly and taking in several slow and calming breaths. It would not do to lose his composure now, not in a position like this when he would so easily lose everything that he'd worked so hard for.
Viciously the nails of the elder male sunk into the flesh of his hipbone, the action causing a soft hiss to leave his lips. Itachi was no stranger to pain but he could tell by the tone of Madara's voice and the roughness of his actions that he was starting to spiral down into those dark depths that he'd always teetered upon. If he lost control completely it would spell his end and even if he was certain he could put up some form of resistance he knew that it would only be a matter of time before he was crushed.
"You never lost him. You may have made him hate you, loathe you and even detest you. But you and I both know, beneath that your brother, still in his heart cares. That you couldn't twist him to your fullest because the second, he learns the truth of what really happened that night, he'll become the one thing you hated." The words a rage-driven and almost hateful.
"I.." he struggled for breath as the fingers about his throat began to choke him, leaving him coughing and squirming although he dared not lift his hands to stop it. Doing so would only provoke the man further and that was the last thing he wanted. "I would not hate him if he went down that dark path just as I do not hate you even after everything that you've done."
He gasped out the words as he felt Madara's nails scratch along his neck, etching angry red lines in their wake. All the while he continued hoping that his words would reach his master's ears and somehow touch upon the humanity that he felt was buried deep down somewhere inside of him. The thought was laughable, but as with so many other things in life he had to believe that in the heart of every man, even the most vile, that good still lay beneath the murky surface.
"Hating is pointless when all it does is cause you more pain than the object of your despise. And do you not bear enough pain?"