The Devil's Angel

Summary: Madara drowns himself in a bar. Implied MadaIta and ItaSasu/SasuIta.

"Have you ever heard of the story?

"Of the little boy

"Who shot down an angel

"Into hands of the devil…"

The bar is small, but it is warm and provides shelter for victims of the pouring rain. Small candle flames light each table. The rest of the room is shrouded in darkness, except for the stage.

Upon it, a suspicious woman is singing to the hum of the instruments. A common gypsy lady, dark skinned with pitch-black wavy hair, blending perfectly into the rest of the dim restaurant. She sings not like a bird, but whispers like a ghost. A taunting ghost.

I catch her deceitful smirk, the smiling eyes. Eyes that look down into the darkness and single you out. They are teasing eyes, ones that have an all-knowing look in them.

Those should be my eyes. But not today.

I sit alone, in the corner, where shadows consume my presence. This place is eerie, yet delightful. The aroma is heavy and weighs you down. Men with burdens come here often, I think, chuckling. How ironic.

The alcohol is concentrated, yet neither its taste nor odor can penetrate me. My mind is oblivious to its existence, letting the liquid burn me from within.

Even now, as I replay my conversation with the clueless descendant in my mind, I find my hands balled into fists. Fists that will likely smash through someone's skull, if I do not manage my anger.

Foolish boy. Foolish little boy. He always has been a blind, hard-headed fool. My conscience drifts over to the gypsy lady. Her singing is as fluid and mystical as the heavy air. How fitting, this song she sings.

"An innocent little human boy

"Decided to play with his new little toy

"Shot an arrow, so high did it fly

"Right into an angel up in the sky

"Pierced the angel's pure heart

"And heaven did it depart

"Falling…

"Falling…"

I sneer. Yes, quite fitting indeed. Sasuke, the stupid and blind human boy. The look on his face when I told him said it all. He is an arrogant boy who still has no idea of the world. He is single-minded, never able to grasp what he is doing. Just like the rest of the disgraceful clan.

He was unaware. Never saw through the illusions everyone cast around him. Unknowingly, he made his goal to kill his older brother, the one who cared the most for him.

Itachi tried to hide it, and he had done exceptionally well at keeping his secret. He fooled everyone. The clan, the village, the most elite criminals. But not me. I was the one person that tore down each and every one of his masks. I was the one that saw him weak. Defenseless. Eyes filled with anguish and agony, yet not granted the privilege of having tears. Nothing to relieve his pain.

You probably can't imagine how hard it was for him.

I should feel special, in a sick way. Being the only one to see him silently weeping. Kill me, he asked. No, begged. He was denied that too, just like he was denied tears.

He was completely exposed once. Only once, a moment of weakness he displayed in front of me after he massacred his kin.

The man who cried tears of blood as he smothered his emotions and killed his brethren.

Yet, he wished to die not because of that. Not for spilling his family's blood. Not for his exile and condemnent. Not for the shaking trauma that forced to submit himself and lean into my arms for support.

He wished to die after causing tears roll down his brother's cheeks.

He took it all on himself. No one can blame him for the sacrifice he made.

"Little boy, you pulled him down

"From the sky to the ground

"Did you know little boy?

"Little boy, you torn out its wings

"So only for you will it sing…

"Little boy, it fell in love with you

"Despite how you broke it

"It still gave you its heart."

I could never understand the inner workings of Itachi. Granted, I was able to pry into his mind and see what was inside. I knew him better than anyone. Yet, when each piece of his life was laid in front of me in black and white, I still was not able to comprehend. Maybe because I didn't understand his weakness. Love.

The word alone was a cryptic message, one I could never decode. I acknowledge the existence of love and its power. I know how to use it to my benefit, how it affects people. But love itself, that emotion, that state, that mentality, I do not understand.

… a peaceful man that hated conflict. He loved the village, not wrapped up in clan difference. The elders used that to their advantage.

Itachi was not blind. He could see manipulation. And there could be no puppeteers when he knew how to control the strings. I had a difficult time subduing him myself. Always in a deadly game for control and the upper hand. Such a dangerous dance made for us and us alone. A dance of the intellect, the powerful. He was perfect. Anyone else would have been a bore.

So why were his actions so irritably irrational.

It was part of his duty, and Itachi fulfilled it. Except for one mistake…

He couldn't kill you, Sasuke.

Why did he love his clan, letting them use him as a tool, when he had the power to make it the other way around? Why did he love the village that betrayed him and shunned him? When they branded him, turned his life into a living nightmare, then discarded him when he was too shattered. Why did he love his little brother? When he had done nothing for him.

He was worried about you.

Why was he worried for Sasuke? Sasuke was a child. He saw him as an older brother. He wanted to play. That was it. He didn't care if Itachi was exhausted. He didn't know that in the room next to his, Itachi was muffling his screams so he wouldn't wake his little brother up. Sasuke didn't go bother to walk up and get a closer look at the nightmares that plagued Itachi's mind. Sasuke just wanted a person to play with, to be entertained by.

Meanwhile, I was the one who watched the boy at night, admiring his beauty as he struggled in eternal pools of darkness. I was the one curious, the one who wanted to know what he was thinking of, dreaming of, wishing of. And what he was haunted and despaired by.

I was the one who knew, and I was the one who cared. Not Sasuke. That was why I when I learned of Itachi's dreams, I became the one to strangle him in the dark. Break him. Itachi's wishes and fears were not about me. They were only about his brother. His happiness came from Sasuke's smiles. His suffering came from Sasuke's tears. His fears were not of me hurting him, but of me hurting his precious little brother.

Always thinking of you.

Yes, Sasuke. He was always thinking of you. Only thinking of you and you alone.

I did not exist.

"A playful devil watched from below

"A wonderful curse he bestowed

'To make the angel his own toy

"For him alone to enjoy

"The beautiful angel he had in chains

"And watched it die crying in pain

"Sinking…

"Sinking…"

Even when he was in my clutches, he still did not belong to me. In my organization, under my commands, my will. His very life was in my hands, yet I could not have him. He signed his soul to me, but his mind, his heart, were stolen away from me by the little brat.

I could not have them. They were out of my reach because he gave them up to his brother. And how did the fool treat the heart that I would kill countless for? He took all the love Itachi gave him and threw it away.

He planted hatred in its place instead. He ignored the silent pleads from his older brother's heart. The ones that cried for his little brother to not believe him. Begging for him to see that everything was all an act. He still cared, he never left him, he never stopped watching him. Pleading for him to open his eyes.

And what did the boy do? He believed Itachi's lies instead. He believed that his words were more real than his thoughts. His illusions were more real than his love.

But Itachi did not care. He did not care if his heart was crushed. He accepted the child's foolish hatred. It became his twisted form of what love was. No one loved Itachi, only hated him. So the more they loathed him, the more he was loved.

He fueled Sasuke's hatred. If his little brother did not hate him anymore, he would be empty. Void of both love and hate. He did not want to be forgotten by his little brother. In a way, that was his one selfish desire, for his little brother to not forget him.

He wanted to die a criminal, a traitor. Accepting dishonor in payment for honor… and hatred in payment for love…

Perhaps it would be fun to see what would happen if Sasuke did forget and stopped chasing him. I wonder what Itachi would become. Maybe a crumbled shell. If he were only a shell, maybe I could feed new hatred into him. To hate me. Yes, forget your little brother and despise me. Hate was a strong emotion, and I wanted his emotions for myself. But no, he was indifferent towards me.

Even when I hit him, driving him into the ground until he was a motionless corpse. But that did little; he was used to physical pain. Even when I taunted him, using the harshest words. He acted as if he could not hear, hiding the mental wounds. Even when I stole whatever innocence he had left. When I crushed his lips with mine and devoured him hungrily. Taking him and marking him so everyone would know he was mine.

Yet, he would not hate me. He would show no emotion to me. He would not fight back, only submit. Like a doll. A broken living doll.

I became obsessive. I repeatedly tried and failed to obtain him. That was how it was for a long time, until I learned another way around it.

I took Itachi's love for his brother and used it to my advantage. I decided to threaten him, blackmail him. I dwelled in his fear and absorbed the horror in his eyes when I said I would pursue his brother.

Stay away from him. It was the first time his red eyes spun at me. To my pleasure, I got his anger. His disgust. And his helplessness. What I wanted, I got, and he knew that. I almost laughed when he finally turned his attention to me and begged to take him instead. In exchange for his body, I would stay away from his brother's. Anything to keep my hands away from Sasuke. Anything to keep him untainted.

His brother was the key to his emotions, and I realized it was all I needed. I made the child my new target.

I did go after him, just not in the way I made Itachi think. I tracked Sasuke personally, trying to unlock the secret. To discover why he was so precious. Only to find that there was nothing special, which enraged me more. To ordinary people, the boy was a genius. To me, he was so disdainfully mediocre.

For him, your life weighed more than the village.

Not just that. This stupid child's life weighed more than Itachi's own welfare. This single insignificant life was more treasured by him than anything else.

Why? He was not deserving of Itachi. I was.

I now have the little kid, the fool, in my hands. Everyone believes his potential will surpass his older brother's, and that I crave his power.

No, I am nothing like that imbecile Orochimaru. I see absolutely no use in the boy. He will never reach his older brother's level, never surpass him. I scoff at those who think otherwise. Itachi at thirteen was twice as powerful as this boy is now. It is pathetic to see the boy rely on back-doors and pitiful schemes to gain power.

Itachi was an angel. He was beautiful. Graceful. Intelligent. Deadly. Perfect. Ever so perfectly flawed. Someone worthy of collecting and having.

On the other hand, the boy is so human. They were playing in different leagues, and that's all he ever will attain. The powers of a human. As if he could imitate Itachi.

"Did you know playful devil?

"Playful devil, it did it of its will

"To protect the little boy, it bid farewell

"Playful devil, it was never yours

"It used you to save the boy from condemnation

"From God, for shooting down an angel."

But you are ALIVE. I mentally screamed, while trying to calmly tell the same thing to the fool.

While my angel died, the brat lived. The boy who stole his heart from me is alive. And now he stole his life from me as well. Sasuke lived, while Itachi died.

Kill me, Itachi had begged. I should have. At least then, his life would be taken by my hands. But I was selfish and wanted to keep him. Keep him alive and make him walk this living hell of a life with me. Now I am walking it alone again, while he is finally freed. I should have killed him when he asked me. I knew he would never be mine, no matter how hard I tried. No matter how much I forced it. He is simply not mine. He is Sasuke's.

Sasuke can be mine. He is under my control now. But what good does it do me when the one I want is dead.

Itachi could have lived like me. He could have taken the cursed eyes and forever be with me. He could have stopped the suffering. Cured his disease. Be alive. But no. No. NO. He had to die, to be killed. He wanted make his little brother witness his death, to let the brat be crowned a hero.

As if I would grant that wish of his. I took Sasuke away. I told him the truth. I made it so that he would never return. My arms were tightly folded the entire encounter, to restrain myself from killing the fool myself.

Fool.

Murderer.

Thief.

He killed my angel. He killed my beautiful angel. Mine.

"Little boy, the angel died for you

"Playful devil, the boy killed for you

"Beautiful angel, the devil will burn the world for you"

Shut up! SHUT UP!

The whispers are clawing at my insanity. Without a second thought, I knock down the candle at my table, my hand at the neck of the gypsy. She looks shocked, but then her lips curl into a sly smile. The two of us are alone in our world, separated from the mob of panic. The instruments stop, yet I still hear the tune. The entire room is frantic, yet the only noise I hear is her singing.

Stop singing. Why will you not stop singing? My eyes are dangerous, black swimming in pools of crimson. They hiss for bloodshed, and I gladly comply.

Flames spread rapidly, engulfing the place. Explosions and flickers of fire grow more dangerous as they consume the liquor. Screams fill my ears, yet I am impervious to it all. I just keep my grip on the lady's neck. The ghost. I strangle her, so much I snap her neck right off, and her blood splatters over my entire body.

The head rolls to the floor, yet she refuses to stop singing. The lips still move, humming its tune on the lone, severed head. She refuses to stop singing.

"Now you know the story

"Of the little boy

"Who shot down an angel

"Right into the hands of the devil…"

The bar is no more. The screams fall into unheard ears. Nothing but ashes left.

My sanity is back in place after seeing the pitiful place mutate into nothing but black smoke submerged by pouring rain. My face regains its composure, back to into my mask, the playful and deceiving eyes in place. The signature smirk on my lips. The fearful and commanding aura back in place.

Just watch, Itachi. I look at the weeping sky and cannot help but grin. I will pull you back down from heaven. I will force you out. I will burn everything you love. I will destroy your little brother. I will destroy Konoha. I will destroy everyone and everything.

And when you return to earth to save them, I will succeed in making you mine. All mine. All mine…

"Watch the world burn in his wrath…

"Watch the world burn in his wrath…"