Short chapter. There are about two or three chapters left before this story is finished. I haven't started writing them so...it's whatever my fingers make of it. : )

Heartless

“Sasuke! Help me move these branches to the bonfire will you?” Kakashi asked as he fumbled around with a pile of rather large logs. Konoha decided to have a bonfire with the debris to celebrate the fact that absolutely no one was injured…except for the poor animals that is. Sasuke took a few logs out of Kakashi’s arms and proceeded to follow the silver-haired man to a truck where they dumped the logs into the back. Sasuke looked at a clock on a tower nearby. It was about to be eight at night. Sasuke went to help with one more load for the bonfire before calling it a night.

“I’m so tired,” the young Uchiha said to himself as he walked home. Hopefully Itachi was back from that church. When Sasuke got home he was astonished as he looked about the family room. Salt, black chalk, his mirror from his bedroom, a bunch of bibles…a dead goat. “What is all this?”

“The way I’m going to destroy that Chaos demon,” Itachi stated monotone. Sasuke nodded slowly before laying down on the couch. He was sweaty and needed a shower, but had no strength to get up after falling down. “Can you by any chance drain this goat of its blood? I’m trying to practice sketching these symbols and it’s a lot harder than I thought.” Sasuke cringed at the dead goat, but he picked it up and brought it into the kitchen.

“You know I thought coming home today would have gone more on the lines of, “Hi Itachi I’m home!” “Oh you are that’s great how was your day?” “Just fine, I’m tired though.” “Oh well let’s rest on the couch together!” Sasuke stated sarcastically to himself. He took out a butcher knife and hesitated. Was he actually going to chop this things head off? “Itachi! How do I drain it?”

“Chop its head off and turn it upside down!”

“Ew.” Sasuke wrinkled up his nose as he stared down at the dead goat. “You definitely owe me…big time.” Sasuke brought down the knife on the goat’s head before clogging the drain and turning the goat upside down in the sink. He looked at the goat’s head. Now what does he do with this? “Itachi…what do I do with the goat’s head?”

“Throw it outside.”

“Oh sure…so some child can be scarred for life after seeing a decomposing goat head!”

“You’re cute when you’re angry,” Itachi stated. Sasuke forgot about his anger and blushed cutely at his lover. He went outside and decided to burry the goat’s head behind the apartment building. People looked at him questioningly but he didn’t think anything of it. He brushed his dirty hands off on his pants and smiled at his handiwork. At least no child would have to see the goat head, unless he dug it up.

“I’m finished. And I’m taking a shower now,” Sasuke announced closing the door to the apartment.

“I’ll take one with you.” Itachi stood up and looked at Sasuke. His face was void of anything…emotion…thought…he was like a robot or something. Sasuke shook his thoughts from his mind and led his brother to the bathroom. As soon as the young Uchiha shut the door the stronger one was pushing him against the wall and kissing him passionately.

“Itachi!” Sasuke gasped. Itachi’s fingers snaked up his younger brother’s chest where they found soft nipples. Itachi fingered the young Uchiha’s nipples until they became hardened. He discarded Sasuke’s shirt and began sucking on the little Uchiha’s neck. Sasuke groaned as he was picked up and wrapped his legs around his brother. They looked at each other for a moment. Suddenly Sasuke was dropped to the floor and left in confusion. He blinked a few times before noticing what had happened. He was filthy and needed a shower, but the way Itachi acted wasn’t normal. Sasuke walked into the bedroom and saw Itachi lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling. “Itachi?” The older Uchiha looked over at Sasuke. There came an unwanted silence. Sasuke wanted Itachi to speak but it seemed like that wasn’t going to happen. “Itachi…what’s wrong? Why did you-”

“Lust.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t like to lust. I can’t feel true love for you anymore…so I give into lust…hoping to find some kind of love there. I’m lying to myself and I don’t want to anymore.” Sasuke’s heart broke. Itachi meant no harm but the words stung. “I can’t feel true love for you anymore” They were said over and over in Sasuke’s mind until he felt tears form at the sides of his eyes.

“When can we get your heart back? I want you to love me again.”

“When the Priest is ready. He has to find a book in the church’s “vast” library on how to perform this certain exorcism.” Sasuke nodded. He wanted to climb into bed with Itachi but the fact that grime was clinging to his body made him change his mind. He didn’t want to dirty his sheets.

“Come take a shower with me. We don’t need to do anything. I just want you near me.” Itachi nodded and stood from the bed. They undressed themselves before stepping under the hot water. The water flowed in tiny waterfalls over their bodies. Sasuke wanted to be closer…he grabbed Itachi and held onto his shoulder blades. Itachi wrapped his arms protectively around the young Uchiha.

“Forgive me, Sasuke,” Itachi stated. Sasuke placed his pointer finger over Itachi’s mouth to shush him.

“I love you,” Sasuke said as he gently kissed Itachi’s soft lips. Itachi smiled. It was a real smile…teeth included. Sasuke’s heart warmed. He pulled Itachi closer to him and held him until they felt the water growing cold. “You can get out now if you’d like. I still need to wash my hair.” Itachi nodded and did as he was told.

“Yes?” Itachi answered while drying his hair.

“The priest is ready whenever you are!” Deidara announced proudly.

“Ok. I want Sasuke to be there. How about the tomorrow? There’s a bonfire tonight and I want to spend it with Sasuke.” Deidara nodded before turning to leave the apartment. He was glad that his friend was somewhat happy but there was something else that was bothering him. He’d been with the priest all day and found out a few things that Itachi didn’t know was going to happen when he did get his heart back.

“No. He will only remember up to when you all tied him down. He’ll most likely be upset with you all if you can’t come up with a lie to say why you tied him there. He will have no memory of the Chaos demon or his time with Sasuke. You can easily say Itachi challenged you to a contest to see who could tie the other down and say you knocked him out and won.”

“He won’t remember being with Sasuke?”

“No.”

“This is going to hurt Sasuke a lot un,” Deidara stated sullenly.

“I’m sorry, but it’s the only way. Itachi will have his life and heart back and the Chaos demon will be gone. It’s a small sacrifice.”

“When you were talking about sacrifices, you weren’t just talking about the goat were you?”

“No.”

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