hatredcurse

[hatredcurse]

Somewhat disappointed in her reluctance to answer, Nagato remains patient. It was a harmless query, not a demand, after all.

" My goal? Presently? " God pauses to allow the topic to settle, but his mind has already been made up," what I had intended to do since the beginning: bring prosperity to Amegakure. I wish to pull this country out of its curse of being a crossroad stomping ground for these neighboring countries. I wish to solve the issues of the poisoned air and hopefully bring agriculture into the area. "

That was to name a few. Practically immortal now, he had more than plenty time to deal with all branching possibilities.

"For-" Cutting herself off before she could finish her answer blindly. It didn't feel right to push forward so blindly.

She had followed for so long she almost forgot why they started in the first place. Who she followed first. Their friends' memory vandalised in their grief, that grief leading them down this path which led to pain.

And with Pein, she blurred what she had and what she lost together.

"Nagato..." A breath before meeting his gaze. "What is your goal?" What does he plan to do with his second chance. Konan has always served her friends, she'd die serving them. She simply needed to know who or what he served.

[hatredcurse]

Sasuke was inclined to agree. The Hyuuga have always been a secretive clan with elusive clan rites. For all that the Uchiha had banked in their archives, there was likely equal or more within Neji's family's.

Though, thankfully the explanation provided some insight to Sasuke about the lingering paranoia. I, too, understand what it means to be hunted, he thinks near sympathetically. " Far as rumors go, I haven't heard. Those with special eyes don't exactly garner my interest, " he said with some humor, if one could detect it.

Granting the Hyuuga peace of mind, he offers up an explanation of his own," my mission is concerned with another country. I happened to stop here for a short respite, that's all. " If he was so inclined to believe, there is no reason for this one to lie to him. " I am not so much in the business to headhunt former classmates: too personal and outside of my realm of concerns. "

After all, would the child of a famous political massacre truly want to be the same boot-licking dog that had took everything from him? No, not any self-respecting child.

Another curious tilt of the Uchiha's head, better look over Neji now than he was previously. " The only thing curious to me is how you remain. " Ah, he was asking questions, wasn't he.

Wordlessly, he gestures outwards with the implicit agreement he'll follow the other to wherever his destination was. All questions can be saved until then.

~X~——; “I suppose that shouldn’t come as a shock. It wasn’t like there had been anyone around to teach you about it. The other clans and the rest of the village wouldn’t have bothered to teach you. Not wanting to stick their noses in a place it didn’t belong.”

His words may have been of pour choice, and had he been living, he would have stated that much more delicately.

How ever, he wasn’t living and while it was mostly known what his clan did, it was only know if it was taught to you by your elders. Something Sasuke lacked as a teen.

Hearing the other didn’t want to bolster the ranks is their home village came as quite a surprise to Neji. Sure Sasuke hadn’t always been the most loyal, even going as far as denouncing their village when they had been kids. Neji just always supposed Sasuke bond to Naruto meant that there would be a bond to the village as well.

His next question also caught Neji off guard, he had simply assumed Sasuke would be here on the rumors about a Hyuga who bore the eyes of the Edo Tensi.

“I have heard rumors about me, about one from the Hyuga clan whose eyes are darkened by re-animation. I assumed those rumors had reached the village. I wouldn’t put it past my clan to have them send you out to collect me. To seal me and take me back.” His jaw clenched

“The elders of my clan would want to put the caged bird seal back upon me, making me into an ever better weapon for them to wield.” He could feel his teeth grinding together, anger boiling up with in him.

“So, if you are not here because of them, and have no reason to try and make me return, then there is no reason to fight.” He relaxed a bit, testing the waters to see if he was correct.

If Sasuke wasn’t here for him, and didn’t care what he was, Neji had half a mind to invite him to the hot springs he had been headed to. If there was someone else who held a distaste for their childhood home, Neji pondered if he could use Sasuke to gain access to a few certain family members.

“There’s a hot springs not to far from here I was headed to. Join me and you can ask what ever you want about what I am.” He assumed there would be questions. There were always questions.

[hatredcurse]

It was to be expected that his angel would struggle with this one question. Not to say she didn't have ambition of her own. Nagato could tell she threaded carefully over eggshells, calculating her responses to be both compliant and inoffensive.

He asked not of this from her, yet she did. Her loyalty was etched into the fiber of her being and this God could not be anymore grateful for it. However, worshipped he may still be, the world was changed— their priorities more so.

" Do good? By who? For who? " he asks, intrigued by how she might answer.

Nodding her head, she sits back on her heels to ease the discomfort on her knees. Pulling her hands back slowly to have them rest on her lap as she continues to watch the candles around them reflect in his eyes like starlight.

What she would like to do with her life?

The question being one she hadn't considered, her dream had once been Yahiko's... His flower she had dedicated so long to caring for that the thought of tending to her own felt unnecessary.

"I don't..." Pausing she can't help but silently plead for some type of answer. Not something recited back to him from earlier conversation, not something corrupted or ridiculous. A simple thought formed inside her mind was all she needed and yet it seemed almost impossible to do.

"I want to do good."

[hatredcurse]

cont. — @eguridasu

No words. There were no words that Nagato could possibly speak to safely navigate this situation he thrusted himself into. Voluntarily ( but he was starting to question even that ).

" People will get the wrong idea, " he chooses to say. The success of his answer incredibly low, but any amount of talking will work to distract him from the phantom sensation of lips over his neck.

Feeling over the table for his short glass, he grabs it at the angles of the fineware detail, polishing off whatever was left. Stupefy him to his humiliation one choice of poison at a time.

" As if we blend into a crowd, " he then contests, giving his best try at looking comfortable when a grabbing hand captures him at the hip, keeping him from drifting away.

" At least pretend like you aren't enjoying this so much. "

[hatredcurse]

" I would. And, I wouldn't stop at the tongue, " he replies without a single pause.

Minato hand is offered, palm up for Mikoto to take. It welcomes the touch over the rough skin of his own, weathered in by a hundred lightning spells.

" I'd carve a talisman into each one, make use of a useless man. "

@hatredcurse

❝ I will cut out the tongues of every man who has wronged you. ❞ — Minato

Her expression softens considerably at the words of her best friend. They meant a lot. She’s been wrong over and over again, and she didn’t entirely fight back. She didn’t have the heart to. But if Minato did, for her sake…

“Would you, honestly?” Mickey whispered as she reached for his hands to hold within hers.

[hatredcurse]

The hum of quantum shuttle engines flooded Sasuke's ears with a pleasant, constant noise. A tier above lobby ambience, just enough to provide coverage to keep him from unproductive thoughts.

Given that he had a form of reputation to maintain whenever he was not with his private retinue or within the privacy of his own estate, he chose to remain seated and undistracted from any personal technologies. This has, however, left him appearing guarded and standoffish, with an uninviting fold of arms over chest, one leg crossed over the other, and silent.

Aside from the guard bots, inhuman and forever banked near doorways and tight corners within public plazas, the only other company within this ship was more autonomous assistance. Mistakably human where the others were not. And, sadly, mistakably familiar.

Sasuke made no show of his discomfort near this one. The complaints are a few years outdated, to say the least, and he's doubtful this robot ( high grade and well-crafted as it might be ) would remember their unfortunate passing so long ago. Back when the politician was a prize to be plundered by rival organizations seeking the slightest advantage against contending stakeholders.

No effort was made to be friendly. There was no reason to. Not until it had spoken first and ruined the Uchiha's half-hearted plan of idiosyncratic isolation.

" That so? " was all he could bother to ask, unable to hide the tension in his brow, angling downward with a bothered wrinkle.

" It's nothing personal, " he smooths over hidden feelings," I have a long day ahead of me and I am rehearsing my speech. "

He hopes, pleads even, that would be enough to sate this bot's seemingly mild interest in examining him.

The shuttle from planet-side to station was silent. Sai was used to that. Even if the other humans had been conversational with it over the past several months, it felt familiar to return to focusing on the task of traveling and, even more so, the task of security. The lack of interest in a conversation from its Uchiha client provided opportunity for it to carefully study its newly-downloaded media on human behavioral analysis. That was, of course, until its most recent interactions with its client became relevant to the text it was still processing.

It seemed like everything humans did was with intention and, behind that intention, held meaning. Even when involuntary, actions still had explanations, internal causes. Rarely, if ever, was anything a pure dictation of another's directive. Although Sai had been pulled from Shimura Danzō's control, it was still as though its actions weren't its own. What to do about that, it had no idea.

It was worth taking control of itself, one of the other humans had told it. It supposed there would never be a better time to correct itself than to apply its newest intake of knowledge on the distant way the Uchiha had so far been reacting to its presence.

"I was just reading that social withdrawal is a common response to trauma and feeling wronged," it says aloud.

If it hadn't been looking at Sasuke in the seat beside it, perhaps it would've been easy to write the comment off as a misfire, as a crossed wire, or an improper analysis of its surroundings.

"I get the distinct impression that you feel that way around me."

⧐ starter for @hatredcurse

[hatredcurse]

Update: I will be out on vacation 8/2-8/12. I'm doubtful I will be on my blog at all for any reply, but mutuals are welcome to add me on Discord if they wish to talk/RP on there

[hatredcurse]

It took much to withhold the weary sigh when she repeated back the question. No, obviously not.

" You don't need to, " he insists, " I will— "

Another long look at her, checking for visual distortion. " Dinner is fine. "

Mikoto blinked. Thirteen? That was a young age to stop celebrating! But she wasn’t worried about that.

“You have no one like that?”

She frowned then cupped his face. “Let’s do something, baby. Just you and me. We can go out. I’ll buy you things.”

She’s really bad at celebrating.

[hatredcurse]

Poor thing.

Nagato had failed her, it seemeth. For his grandest angel weeps into his hands and he had done naught but whittle away at her heart in his heedless campaign for hate. Left alone with neither friend nor companion to share the misery with her.

A rueful smile tugs into the corners of his lips, allowing his mirth to appear over his countenance. Carefully, thumbs wipe what he could with what spilled from her eyes, mindful not to smudge the corners of her eyeshadow into an unsightly smear.

" Then, there is no need for this, " he says, pulling away for now to rest back on his throne. " We are in a new future now, no? Our destiny has branched us better paths. Let's take it in stride. "

" I cannot grant you the future you had wanted, but with adjustments, perhaps I can bring you close to what lives in your imagination, " he breathes out, allowing a purposeful pause to linger before asking, " unless you have a different vision for what you would like to do with your life? "

Closing her eyes, she soaks up his gentle touch as though it was a ray of sun. Affection as pure as this was so few and rare find, anyone else would take all for themselves, but her God was different. They cared for her, loved her and gave their lives for a world in which she lives.

And now, when he had returned to her once more, she had done nothing but think of her pain n grief. How could she possibly be so self-absorbed? How could she have allowed room for doubt to question his sanctuary in her heart?

"Of course I will." Her voice broken as she swallows back the pain. Sitting up on her knees, she will look into his eyes once more, focusing through the tears that threaten to spill.

She would do anything he asked of her, pay any price needed, and her sacrifices and offerings would forever dull in comparison of his own.

"I always will."

[hatredcurse]

The first gunfire of responses illuminated Sasuke on the situation — one that he is totally unaware of.

Despite the Uchiha and the Hyuuga existing as sister clans by treaty, all of such formalities were lost in the droves of lost life and generous bloodshed. Sasuke was only a spare, and later, an outcast by design that such pertinent information about Neji was unknown to him.

" I do not know, no, " he replies, " the happenings of your clan are withheld from me. "

Though, intuition beckons that he could likely source whatever information he wanted if he asked, but for what purpose would that serve him? Far as he was concerned, there was a female heir unfamiliar to him and he couldn't be any less interested in her, so as long as contract didn't call for it.

Sasuke senses he should recall colloquial knowledge here, yet sadly, his memory was poor if it was not with regards to his own warpath. Instead of making such shortcomings obvious, he listens intently with what the Hyuuga threatens him with.

He makes no show of his own power; he figures the God Eye can speak for itself far before his own looming threat of genetic Uchiha prowess blossoms in his spare onyx eye.

" I am not here for you. " Wind sweeps between them, carrying his hair from his gaze, allowing him a better look at the man before him under light, " and I have no interest in bolstering the ranks of the Leaf. "

The air galvanized between them, rising to potential at first spark of conflict. Sasuke remained stoic in his expression and neutral in stance.

" What do you think I am here for? " he decides to ask since tensions were thick and he finds himself baited by his own curiosity.

~X~——; “I could say the same for you. Yet we both know that place really isn’t home anymore now is it?” He tilted his head to one side, studying Sasuke carefully. If he was wrong. This could go south for him very fast.

“You speak like they would welcome me with open arms.” A small hum came from him, amused that Sasuke had chosen to speak over attacking. Seems the years had changed the man Neji once knew.

“You and I both know very well what my clan would do if they could get their hands on me. That place is no longer home. I don’t think it ever was.” There was an amusement to his voice. Stating again that the village he once resided in wasn’t his idea of home.

Sure he was once loyal, perhaps a part of him still was. He was sure he’d would do anything for a few select people on the village still if it was asked of him. The rest he could care less about. They could be attacked again and he wouldn’t bat an eye. After all what sort of village sits by and allows his clan to use a cage bird seal on him when he was a child. Using it for hours on end, for no other reason than the enjoyment it brought the one who was activating it.

It wasn’t some dark deep hidden secret after all. People knew what the marks meant, what they could do. They just pretended it was just for what the clan claimed, to protect the Byakugan and maintain the clan's social structure. To ensures the Byakugan is sealed upon the branch member's death, preventing its capture by enemies. Yet had that been the really truth, even the main branch would bear the seal, not just the branch.

Its only true purpose in Nejis mind was control. Sick and twisted control.

“If you make any attempt at trying to convince me to return, or make me return by force it won’t end well for you.” Sasuke was stronger, more skilled, Neji knew in a normal fight, he’d last a while but he wouldn’t win. Not with the advanced skills the other had acquired over the years. Yet Neji had something Sasuke didn’t, the inability to die, and endless chakra. That alone turned the tables in his favor. Or so he hoped. It was all still theoretical.

The last thing Neji wanted to do in this moment was fight. While he had a blood lust, something he still hadn’t looked into why, he also was looking forward to soaking in the hot springs he had discovered. Having to stop and fight would delay that, and possibly result in the distraction of the hot springs.

[hatredcurse]

" Put me in the same room as Itachi and a pillow in my hands, it will not lead to a good end. "

[hatredcurse]

There was a clear winner of the final battle. A calamitous win for the village's favored. Of all the training and refinement Sasuke endured his entire life, he always, always fell just short of his life-long rival. It was equal parts infuriating as it would be thrilling, if all the excitement of a battle well-fought didn't fade within the snap of one's fingers. Gone was the adrenal rush of finality and in was the consequences of his many transgressions against the Leaf.

He served his time in prison. He advocated himself against the court. Though, he knew that no matter how pitiful his situation was nor how it might explain ( and in a perfect world, excuse ) the actions of a scorned, abandoned child at the whims of powers greater than he— the Uchiha was guilty.

Incarceration was meant to teach him a lesson and in some ways, it did. Not the lessons he ought to learn, but he eventually wizened up to the world, how it turns, where it keeps its secrets. By the time he was freed from his punishment, endured all the torture bestowed on his pallor, abused flesh, there was neither second chance nor grace found on the other end. Where the light of a tunnel might reside, he merely only found the hazy overcast of a mid-Summer's dusk.

And, there waited no one.

Years went on. Time managed to heal the wounds raised on his back, his arms, his legs. The scarring of his mind remains disregarded to all but himself, plaguing his daily activities with unproductive thoughts and hallucinations. Whatever bothered him embedded into his routine and no longer impeded his freelance work. After all, being a weepy, agonized adult was not enough to pay for his meals and afford the haunted estate left over from his father.

Somewhere along the perimeter of countries, Sasuke was sectioned into a backwater village, passing through to his next destination.

The evasive feeling of someone carrying their stare a touch too long lingers on his shoulder, pulling the Uchiha from his investigations over his map towards a not-so-familiar face of what ought to be a ghost.

" ... " His head cants to one side, Rinnegan turning its rings into correction. Obvious on his face was an uncertainty of who stood before him, yet a recollection just short of identifying them.

" ... Hyuga, " he manages, if not from context clues alone. " You are far from home. "

For @hatredcurse ~X~——; The last thing Neji remembered was blood, lots and lots of blood, then darkness and freedom. Now he stood over a dead body, his hands covered in the blood of the man he had just killed. He had been awoken from his eternal slumber and was not a happy camper.

He had attacked and killed the man that had brought him back before the man had gotten the chance to place a talisman on him and gain control of Nejis movements. The man had been either a genius or an idiot. Neji was not sure what one yet. Had he done his job correctly, Neji would not be in control of himself and be nothing more than servant. Yet at the same time, the jutsu that was used to bring him back, it was different from what he had seen before. Perfected and twisted.

Looking down at the body Neji growled slightly giving it a kick before heading over to the nearby spring to wash the blood off.

"He had to go and die before I could find out just why he brought me back, or how long it’s been since I’ve been dead."

Looking down into the water Neji frowned at the color of his eyes, it was strange, seeing a darkness in the normally light-colored eyes. Shaking his head Neji got out the stream and decided to search the man’s body to see if he had anything useful on him. He had no clue how much had time had passed since he and that tree trunk had become one. Anything that man had would be better than nothing.

Finding a few scrolls on how to bring back Neji, Neji tucked them away, planning on hiding them so that once he had things figured out, he would read them later.

Neji decided that home was not a place he wanted to visit. To many risks. If the elders found out what he had become, what he was now capable of. He would never be free of that cage they had placed him in. He had earned his freedom, and he was determined to keep it, at any cost.

Deciding he would travel and gather information about how much time had passed, and just how the war had ended.  

Over the next few years Neji learned many things about what had happened, and had a chance to read, and destroy the scrolls. No other person should have to suffer the fate that was now instore for him, and no village should be able to wield such powerful jutsu. What had been done to him, it blackened his heart. The little trust and faith in humanity he had left was almost gone after reading them. If he still had his soul, he was sure it would have been dirtied from the thoughts and emotions he now held.

He found out Kakashi was the current Hokage of his home village, and that everyone was at peace currently, though he could only assume it would not last forever. Even though Neji was enjoying his freedom, not having to worry about his clan, or the threat of war, he did miss his friends and Hianta at some points. Though, it was not enough to cause him to want to return home to them. They had all moved on with their lives, and it was time he did the same. There was no need nor want to return to his life before. Not to those elders who would cage him again. Time slowly faded those desires to see those from his living life. He was sure they would hate the type of person he had become.

Despite being free, Neji still felt empty on the inside, hallow, as if a part of missing from him. It was more than his soul.

It had been just little over years since he had been brought back, and a total of 6 since he had been killed. Neji knew there had been whispers and rumors about his return, about a man matching his description traveling the land, learning, and watching the villages from afar. He did his best to stay more hidden from prying eyes, sticking to shadier parts of the villages when he ventured into town for odd jobs, wanting to keep busy. An eternity walking the earth can cause one to lose what little sanity they had left. So, odd jobs kept his mind busy, and still as quick as it once was. He did not want to lose that status of genius after all.

Though, who he had just come across was not someone he ever thought he had come across again. For now, curiosity got the better of him, he would not start a fight unless it was warranted.

"It's been a while."

[hatredcurse]

A disapproving noise leaves Itachi. Wrong answer.

" It's not just another day for me, " he rebukes. Falling in step to old ways, he flips his gaze up Sasuke, seeking eye contact before the chiding tone works its way into their conversation," you should cherish these minor celebrations. " Many conflicting implications suspend up in the air, but whether or not he'll be painted a hypocrite for it, he cares little.

" I've been well, " a reflexive hand touches over his own throat, short of where the phantom ache began along the nerves that started about midway on his cheek and crawled up into the sockets of his eyes. " Unproductive, mostly. "

Sasuke doesn't want Itachi to leave. While the gift is appreciated, which is why he wanted to examine every detail to see what thought was put into the gift, Sasuke treasures Itachi's presence more than any gift.

Itachi sinks into a cushion of the zaisu at Sasuke's side, and Sasuke's eyes follow him.

Giving a soft hum, Sasuke shakes his head. "I don't need to celebrate," he says, "it's just another day." He pauses then, resting a hand on Itachi's, asks, "How have you been."

[hatredcurse]

" Could be you, if you quit your job, " Obito replies freely and lazily, providing only stupid answers.

A hand strikes up, grabbing the hand jabbing into his tender woodsy side. No touchy—

" Hmm......................................... " He thinks on it, as it were some major ask requiring contemplative thought. Hold on, he might have it....

With an inquisitive noise and a full theatric display, he manages a smile, " wanna' ? " He flips a drinking gesture up with his hand and a tilt of his head.

@hatredcurse said:

Obito stretches out loooooong before he drapes his arms around Rin's shoulders, capturing her in their needy grip and reeling her in. " I'm boooored, " he loudly complains into her shoulder.

Rin doesn't even flinch when Obito decides to become an octopus on her, she just chuckles at his whining and brings up a hand to card through his hair, idly playing with the strands.

"I wish that were me," she says quietly. "Today was a nightmare, including a genin that ran into a bee hive on a D-Rank without knowing they were allergic to them"

After a moment, she humns, bringing her other hand to poke at his ribs with her finger. "What do you want to do?"

[hatredcurse]

Sasuke listened in on the domesticity of Sakura's home, noting how different it felt to witness someone outside the setting of work and war. Almost felt like a crime, as if he were intruding on someone's life, to catch them unprepared and outside the realm of their professional space.

Her surprise has him doubling down on the unintentionally strident stare into his former teammate. " Sakura, " he replies in some feeble attempt to return the greeting.

" Did I catch you at a bad time? " he asks, fighting the urge to look behind her and into her home.

@hatredcurse: In a respite between missions, Sasuke had found the time to darken the doorstep of an old teammate. Wanted ( or unwanted ) as he may be, he could not say. He rasps his knuckles against the wood frame, his hand falling away to his thigh in waiting.

The sound of plates and bowls clanking into a sink are audible enough from the outside of Sakura's small apartment. Tiny moments of silence pass until the door opens and reveals the pinkette. Eyebrows raise and beneath them are widened emerald eyes looking at the person before her. "Sasuke-kun!" The heightened pitch in her voice confirms her surprise. "Sasuke-kun," she repeats, her voice not much louder than a whisper, "Wh-what are you doing here?"

[hatredcurse]

God's eyes looked to his angel, its many rings softened at the edge under its ambient glow. There may have been a sympathetic look somewhere within, if only spared for his most favored.

Turning his hand over to receive her cheek, he brushes a thumb over its smooth porcelain surface, capturing her tears into his rough skin.

" It was necessary. " There was no real point in justifying himself now— for what could be said? In the many threads tangled into his knuckles, he will have to admit that cruel fate had placed them there, leaving the destiny of his life to a mechanism merely for him to control, rather than create.

" Don't weep, " he implores gently, learning forward, a loving clutch smoothing over the apple of her cheek with some semblance of comfort," you did not deserve it, I will admit, but I am here now, if you will have me or not. "

"No." She gasps, shaking her head slightly as she looks up into those familiar eyes.

Everytime she looks into them, she finds herself searching for that young boy she found all those years ago. Desperate for some reminder of times when hope still warmed her thoughts.

"You..." A tear slipping down her cheek has her rest her for head on the arm of his seat in shame. She can't bring herself to speak it aloud. He had left her, chose death even if just temporary, and took what was left of Yahiko with him. She had spent years finding scraps of comfort in ruin and remains, but for a dark time, she had nothing at all. ". . . You left me."

[hatredcurse]

Itama stewed in his hurt; a beaten dog with wounds licked over raw from pitiful attempts at chewing away the ache in the pink of its flesh. He speaks low with an inflection he could have only ever learned from the noble class of the Uchiha. Madara once more noticing his influences branching out into his most favored.

Self-satisfaction was thick in his veins. Draw out a map of Senju Itama and Madara, blind and bound, could still pinpoint where each and every calculated hook sunk into the man's soul. In a charitable mood, he might even tell you which hook tugs the hardest, stretching the entry points until they forwent their elasticity.

" Must I be more insistent? " he replies, seeking the permission to raise his intensity to a way that he wants the Senju might enjoy. Gloved hands tighten over the wrist it captured, the leather crunching under the stress, yet no pain to come of it. Only an urgency stemmed with possession.

In a way that pleased the Uchiha lord, his Senju returns the bid for connection— hand over chest, feeling into the crimson brocade layered over black silks. There might be a pulse there. There might be a semblance of humanity banked within, should he be unwise to seek it. However, the only movement found was the slight cant of Madara's head one way, postured to receive love over parted lips. An expectation that might not be met, yet the door remains wide open for reception.

" We've spoken on this, " he's whispering now, handling the delicate threshold of silence with more care than he did Itama," what is more damning to you? The secrecy of our union or your brothers' scorn for your poor choice in me? "

As if it were a grace, a service, granted by the Uchiha Lord, keeping their trysts under wraps. Though, every tedious action was an action deeply considered with fond intentions. Whether it was for the good of him, his Senju, or the reputations shared between tumultuous clans, he did want to avoid any unnecessary animosity on Itama's end. Incurring the scrutiny of brothers' most beloved was a death warrant in these times. One that this bleeding heart Uchiha did not want for him.

" I am," he won't refute his nature. The Uchiha nature, he might argue. A clan beholding a love so ardent, so chemically pure, it burns through anyone who might dare into its radius. Madara was no better, no softer, than he should be for someone whom unfamiliar with his bastion of sadistic adoration.

And, to prove that point, the grasp over wrist snaps forward; a hand clutching the width of his waist, the other seizing the opposite elbow that didn't carry the intruding hand pressed on Madara's chest.

" There exists not a world where I would want anything else, " this sycophant pours tenderness into the breaths between them, " you know I would choose you, again and again. There lives no doubt— not in me. "

He cuts the distance with a tithe of love over Itama's soft lips, ensnaring him in his trap. It does not linger, nor does it ever stop at one. Each stamp was an additional reminder to wane away these incessant concerns the Senju continues to have, for no other reason than Madara refuses to act proper whenever they weren't smothered in the darkness of hiding rooms.

" But, might I also remind you, " he purrs somewhere in his pursuit of the other, " my possession is reflected in thee, my songbird. "

         ITAMA DIDN'T TURN AT FIRST.

         Didn’t even breathe. Of course he said it like that. Madara always made it sound so simple. As if Itama hadn’t been ripping pieces of himself out, one by one, just to stay whole in his absence.

         The smoke curled around his lashes, thick with sandalwood, old sins, and that suffocating scent of Madara’s presence. It clung to his skin, branded him...every fucking time.

         The grip on his wrist wasn’t cruel, and it never was. That was the worst part. Madara knew how to hold him without hurting. But when he did move—gods, he moved like vengeance dressed in blue. Controlled only because if he let go, if he really let go, he’d say everything, and he would not survive it.

         His eyes met Madara’s. Nothing soft, only the kind of flame that remembered being water at one point, and resented the world for what it turned it into.

         “Won't I stay?” he echoed, voice low, velvety for a Senju. “That is how you ask me now? After everything? After you made me into a ghost in your court, after you fed me scraps of attention like a dog you were not sure you wanted to keep?”

         He watched Madara’s expression, but it was always the same. Impenetrable. Beautiful. Itama didn't know whether he hated it, or loved it, that he still wanted to trace it with his mouth. He stepped forward. Close. Closer. Until the scent of him clouded logic, until pain and desire were the same word spoken in different languages. He moved his eyes to to watch his palm press flat against Madara’s chest. Right over his heart.

         Beat for me. Just once. Just enough to pretend this is something real.

         “You ask me to stay like it is a favor,” he said, quieter now, words breathing against Madara’s lips. “But you only want me when the room is empty. When there’s no audience. No war. No brothers watching. No gods to witness what we are.”

         His thumb moved, slow and deliberate, brushing over fabric. A touch of affection that Itama allowed himself to indulge. 

         “You are not kind, Madara,” he whispered. “You are possessive. And every time I walk away, you pull me back just far enough to keep me burning. But...do you want me, Madara?” Itama asked, moving his eyes back from how his palm rested against the Uchiha's chest, to Madara's onyx eyes, soft without the reds of the sharingan. “Do you want us?” he finished his question, leaning just an inch closer to his...

         his...

         ...his...?