Devil is Live: Weasel Gambit

By TwinEnigma

Warnings for chapter: hints at SasuNaruSaku of dubious consent, language, violence, hinted spoilers

Sasuke grimaced, wincing as he shifted to stir the dying embers of the campfire with a kunai. The wounds from his battle with the blond member of Akatsuki were still raw and, despite the serviceable field dressings that his new team had provided and the healing powers he'd gained from Orochimaru, it would be some time before he would be fully healed and ready to give battle his all once more.

He should have realized that crazy bomber had something up his sleeves as a last resort. It had taken a considerable effort to escape the final blast and it had been a close call, at that – far too close for his comfort. His chakra would take time to regenerate to optimum fighting levels and his body had taken a fairly extensive beating. To make matters more complicated, Karin had discovered they were actively being pursued by a large number of ninja – most likely Leaf, given her description of the chakra signs – and they'd been forced to vacate the hotel where they'd been staying prematurely, only to encounter a shadow clone of Itachi. Then, an encounter with a shadow clone of Naruto merely confirmed what they had already suspected - they were on the right trail but were also being tracked by his former teammates from Leaf.

He scowled, jabbing the kunai into one of the smoldering logs. He did not want to be forced into a fight with the Leaf, not now, not so close to his goal. With his old teammates among the ones tracking him, he knew they wouldn't back off, even if they had to drag him back to Konoha beaten and bloody.

Suigetsu let out a particularly loud snore, drawing a cursory glance from the dark-haired avenger. The annoying swordsman had not been awakened by the noise and a quick scan of the other members of Team Hebi revealed that they, too, remained soundly asleep. He'd allow them a few more minutes of rest and then they would have to move on, quickly.

Sasuke turned his attention back to the fire and once more immersed himself in thought. Idly, he traced the familiar stylized swirl of the Leaf in the ashes with the tip of his kunai. How much had changed since he'd left? He did not – no, could not know, not really. Scowling, he dragged the blade in a straight line through the symbol. Until he killed Itachi, there could be no going back for him. If they wanted to take their chances and interfere, so be it. He'd given Juugo, Karin and Suigetsu their instructions.

The embers crackled suddenly, flames greedily leaping back to life with unnatural speed. Sasuke's eyes, already alight with the Sharingan, narrowed slightly and, slowly, he placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. Even as exhausted as he was, the avenger was still capable of incapacitating an enemy with ease.

A long-haired man swathed in strange, elaborate clothes slowly rose from the depths of the fire, a wicked grin painting the angular face with a feral edge. The strange man stepped forward and out of the fire, the flames harmlessly flicking away from his trailing coat and fair hair. Sasuke's eyes were drawn immediately to the man's face, which bore a series of defined symmetrical red markings on the forehead and cheekbones: they resembled markings of a clan, but none that the Konoha native could recognize.

"You are Sasuke Uchiha," the man stated without preamble.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes but did not reply. It was not necessary to confirm or deny his identity – his Sharingan eyes spoke for him. Still, he kept his hand on his sword, ready to eliminate the intruder if he turned out to be a threat.

"I am the demon Farbauti and I have come to do business with you, Sasuke Uchiha," the man continued, having taken the silence as confirmation. "You are being presented with a unique opportunity."

Sasuke stared at the man in disbelief: this man, Farbauti or whoever he really happened to be, was either bragging or deluded. After all, the long-departed Zabuza had also called himself a demon and neither he nor his ruthless prodigy Haku could claim to be anything more than human in the end. Or, perhaps, this man was a jinchuuriki like Naruto and had been driven to believe that he was the monster that he contained.

The avenger again narrowed his eyes at the supposed 'demon.' "Shouldn't a demon be worried about the Akatsuki?"

"Ha! Those pitiful mortals? Don't be foolish, boy," the man laughed, clearly confident. "A demon of my caliber is beyond their ability to touch."

Strangely, Juugo, Suigetsu and Karin remained soundly asleep. Perhaps they were under a genjutsu... but, unlike them, he could handle it: he was an Uchiha and there was no genjutsu that could bind him. His hate would crush even the strongest illusion to make way for his reality. So, for now, he'd play it cool and when the right opportunity presented itself, he'd make his move.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "And what sort of demon are you?"

"I am Farbauti, demon first class, unlimited," the man said, circling the fire slowly. "I can grant you your fondest wish, I can make you powerful beyond your wildest dreams – everything you've ever wanted can be yours, Sasuke Uchiha. I can give you everything. It's all within my power."

The avenger watched, calculating his next move. "Oh, really..."

"I have more power than you can dream of, human," the man boasted, swinging his arm out in a broad sweep. "All you need to do is say the word!"

"I already know a demon," Sasuke said, rather matter-of-factly. "The Kyuubi no Kitsune – perhaps you've heard of him?"

Farbauti's face twisted into an ugly scowl. "Fool boy, as if the beast sealed in that weak mortal's belly could ever be truly called a demon! It hardly qualifies as an animal to begin with and its pathetic little host will be torn to pieces when it's ripped from that fragile mortal shell. I am Farbauti, the Warring Giant of Nidheg! You shall not class me with such lowly beasts, client or not."

Sasuke suppressed the twinge of surprise at the venom contained in the strange man's words at being put in the same class as the greatest of the tailed beasts. He truly believed himself superior to a creature that could level mountains with a flick of a single tail! Resisting the urge to smirk at the sheer arrogance of the declaration, Sasuke dryly prodded, "So, you truly aren't afraid of meeting the same fate?"

"Don't be stupid, human," Farbauti snapped, clearly irritated. "A demon like me fears nothing so foolish."

Sasuke snorted and scoffed, "I wish Naruto was a demon like you – maybe it'd make my goal easier with him off of my back!"

The red markings on the strange man's face suddenly began to glow an eerie red as his face broke into a malevolent, sharp-toothed grin. "Wish granted, boy."

Red-tinted light then exploded from the man's head and into the sky with such force that the man's head was thrown backwards. The earth began to rumble as a violent cyclone of wind rose around the man, flinging the slumbering members of Team Hebi violently aside and jarring them into consciousness.

Sasuke, stunned, braced himself against the harsh wind and stared at the strange spectacle. He had the strangest feeling in his gut that he'd just done something incredibly stupid, but he brushed it off, instead focusing on the effects of the stranger's technique.

Red lightning ripped across the blackened sky and slammed down into the forest, but Farbauti did not appear to notice, his eyes blankly staring at the sky as his body began to pull away from the ground. The red lightning struck again and a harsh roar of pain shot through the night, followed by a second, more feminine wail of agony.

The avenger's heart suddenly clenched with an emotion thought banished – he knew those voices! "No!" he breathed. Something was wrong!

A sickly reddish-orange light began to filter through the trees in the direction of the pained howls, growing steadily brighter.

"Shit! What the fuck's going on, Sasuke?" Suigetsu shouted, forcing his way out of the bushes where he'd landed, sword drawn. "Who the fuck is that guy?"

Sasuke did not answer, already starting to run in the direction of the growing light.

"Ouch..." Karin muttered as she stood up, shaking her head to clear it, just in time to see Sasuke bolt past her, into the forest. "Wait, Sasuke-kun!" she called out, alarmed. "That chakra...!"

He ignored her, plunging headlong through the underbrush like a man possessed. The Leaf camp could not have been far. Those screams were too close. His lips twitched into a slight smirk despite the situation – at least he didn't have that far to run. Pouring chakra into his legs for an extra burst of speed, the avenger sped through the trees and, with a single leap to close the final distance, descended into a scene from hell.

Naruto was kneeling in the center of an inferno of fiery chakra, his face contorted in pain as the chakra tore from his body and fed the whirling maelstrom surrounding him. Something was slowly pulling out of the blond teen's back, blurring in and out of sight in the intensity of the conflagration. Blazing red alien symbols covered the ground around him, spreading out into a complicated pattern that was completely unlike any seal he had ever seen before in both size and sheer complexity.

Though barely visible through the inferno, Sasuke could make out his former jonin sensei on the opposite side of the campsite with Sakura and the Root assassin that had attempted to recapture him in the now-ruined Grass base. Kakashi had his back turned, intent on trying to get a response from the seemingly insensate form of Sakura. The Root assassin had drawn his short sword and his attention remained fixed on the form of the blond ninja, ready to come to the defense of his teammates.

Nearby, one of the Leaf ninja lay prone on the ground, in what seemed to be the throes of a violent seizure as a long-haired girl, white with fear, desperately tried to tend to him with shaking hands. Insects littered the ground around them, charred and smoking from the caustic chakra. A large, white dog with brown ears stood over them, barking and howling, torn between the instinct to flee from danger and it's training to stay and protect its team. The dog's master, a vaguely familiar Inuzuka by the clan markings, seemed similarly torn, alternating between growling to assure the large canine and standing ready to strike at the potential threat ahead of them with his kunai. The jonin that he'd seen when he'd last encountered Naruto was with them, hands locked in a seal as he fed chakra into a barrier of wood that did not seem like it could hold out for much longer.

Naruto let out another agonizing wail and curled in on himself, his cries trailing off into pained whimpers. The chakra pouring off of him blazed brightly and lashed skywards in deadly arcs. Moving in maddening eddies and growing brighter still, it was becoming impossible to follow with the Sharingan and Sasuke could feel his eyes beginning to water from the strain.

The rest of team Hebi, cursing loudly, landed behind the avenger and, finally, he forced himself to look away from the burning whirlwind, briefly noting he had caught the attention of the Inuzuka's team. Too late to worry about that now – there were more important things to worry about. That chakra needed to be suppressed!

"What's going on?" Juugo demanded. The cursed enzymes were dancing on his skin, wavering back and forth as though hesitant to choose between fight and flight.

Truthfully, Sasuke didn't understand what the hell was going on any more than his teammates, but it was clear to him that the stranger he'd thought was mad was capable of jutsu that could explosively disrupt the chakra of jinchuuriki and had to be stopped – preferably permanently. "There's no time," he said. "We have to stop it before it gets worse..."

Loud, clear laughter coming from above cut off his next words and Farbauti appeared, sitting in mid-air with one leg propped up on the other and wearing an expression of sadistic glee.

"...the fuck?" Suigetsu managed. His eyes narrowed in recognition: "Hey! It's that fucker from the campsite!"

Sasuke glared daggers at the floating man and stalked forward. "Farbauti! Explain yourself!"

"Why, Sasuke-kun, you're getting exactly what you wished for!" The strangely-dressed man leered. "All that's left is to negotiate payment."

Sasuke frowned and drew his right hand into a fist at his side, ready to summon the lightning chakra to his fingertips. "Stop the jutsu, now."

"Jutsu?" Farbauti echoed, incredulously. The self-proclaimed demon's face contorted in fury, and, suddenly, he was right in front of the avenger with a hand closed around his throat, his eyes and markings blazing with red flame. "You insult me for the last time, human!"

Sasuke had all of a half-second to be horrified that he'd had the Sharingan active and hadn't seen the man move at all before he found himself being slammed bodily against the trunk of a tree with enough force that the air was knocked from his lungs and he could feel several ribs crack. Momentarily stunned, he dropped to his hands and knees, landing right in the center of a white seal of alien symbols. His eyes widened, immediately recognizing it as a trap, and he tried to shove himself away before it activated. It was too late – ropes of white chakra burst forth from the seal, binding and dragging his arms and legs back down to the ground.

Farbauti materialized in front of him with a haughty grin on his lips and again, the avenger failed to be able to see the movement.

Sasuke did not, however, miss the arc of Zabuza's sword descending towards the unprotected back of the demon.

"Let him go, you fucker!" Suigetsu shouted.

In the instant before the sword could connect, the demon appeared behind the swordsman and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "This matter doesn't concern you, Aqualad. Why don't you, Beast Boy and Starfire over there take a nap while I have a word with the Boy Wonder?" he sneered, as the teen began to struggle. Then, as if the teen weighed little more than a stick, the demon pitched him directly at Juugo and Karin with enough force to knock them straight into the Inuzuka's team. A series of vulgar curses erupted as the two teams became tangled in each other's limbs and struggled to extricate themselves from each other.

"Now, where were we, Sasuke Uchiha?" Farbauti asked, turning his attention back to the bound avenger with a cruel smirk on his lips.

Sasuke glared up at him, mouth drawn in a thin line. Just who the hell was this guy? There was no way he should be able to do any of what he'd just done and still not be seen in the Sharingan. It was like he wasn't even really there! Straining hard, the teen pumped more chakra into his eyes until, finally, he saw the man – no, thing standing before him.

Farbauti was a burning furnace of unquenched red chakra, condensed into a small, seething ball near what should have been his stomach. His body was a skin, stretched tight around it, but ultimately it was like something too big had been squeezed to fit into something much too small for it. The markings on his face were sending off small bursts of red chakra in pulses that seemed to have a pattern, but none of the red chakra appeared to be moving otherwise and, additionally, his chakra coils were completely absent. No creature ever looked like that, living or dead.

"What the hell are you?" the avenger managed, deactivating the Sharingan.

The demon pursed his lips contemplatively and then smiled. "I told you, boy. I am Farbauti, demon first-class unlimited, known as the Warring Giant of Nidheg. And you, Sasuke Uchiha, are my client in the granting of one wish, which you have yet to pay for."

"One wish," Sasuke echoed, uncomprehendingly, "That I have to pay for?"

The demon swept his arm back to indicate the whirlwind of chakra that surrounded the pained form of Naruto and leered, "Yes! I can't finish granting your wish until you give the proper payment!"

"But... I didn't," the avenger started and then abruptly trailed off as realization dawned on him. The damning words echoed in his head with deafening clarity: I wish Naruto was a demon like you – maybe it'd make my goal easier with him off of my back! His stomach gave an unwelcome lurch and, clenching his fists, he spat back, "You can't count that! I wasn't being serious!"

"Too late! The words are binding," Farbauti hissed, stalking closer. "There is no taking them back!"

Sasuke shook his head in disbelief. "This is insane... What the hell do you want from me?"

"I want payment equal to what you owe," the demon said plainly, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. He stooped, leaning in until his face was hardly a hand's breadth from Sasuke's, and continued, "And you owe a fair bit, dear boy. You have wished for your former best friend to become one of my own brethren and it shall cost you dearly."

The nearby maelstrom of chakra writhed suddenly and Naruto cried out in agony once more. Faintly visible through the waves of burning chakra, a shadowy form was starting to take shape next to the blond teen and, with each passing moment, it became more solid.

Farbauti straightened up and boomed, "The balance between Asgard and Nidheg must be maintained! So, choose now – whom shall you sacrifice, Sasuke Uchiha?"

A terrible silence settled on the clearing as Hebi and the Inuzuka's team ceased struggling, their attention now fixed solely on the demon and his bound client. Kakashi and the Root assassin seemed to have heard as well, as both peered through the inferno separating their team from the others.

"Come now, boy," Farbauti sneered. "Surely, it can't be that difficult! Who is it that you hold equal to Uzumaki Naruto in your heart?"

Sasuke shook his head numbly. It had been three years since he'd walled off the majority of his feelings and the detached himself from the memories of his teammates. They were an obstacle to his goal and he'd vowed to eliminate all obstacles from his path, even if it meant becoming a void of bottomless hate. He would not – could not remember whom, if any, he had been close to. He had used them until they were no longer useful and then left, simple as that.

Impatient, the demon momentarily disappeared and, when he reappeared a half second later, he roughly shoved the familiar forms of Kakashi and a still-unconscious Sakura to the ground in front of the avenger. "Who will it be?" the demon demanded. "Your former teacher or your former teammate? Of all these monkeys, I know they are two you held closest next to that boy. And be quick about it, boy – the girl won't last much longer with those wounds."

Sakura lay still, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Her chest and arms were covered in ugly, severe chakra burns – she would need treatment, and soon, if she ever desired to continue as a shinobi. That is, provided she did not succumb to shock and die before help could be found.

Kakashi could have escaped: he was completely unhindered by the lurking demon and uninjured. Instead, he looked at Sasuke with his unconcealed eye, resignation and apologies written openly on his masked face, almost as though he were saying, "I'm sorry that things turned out like this, that I failed you so badly." And then, the exposed eye slid shut, leaving only the even rise and fall of the jonin's chest as proof of life.

For a few moments, the avenger's world seemed to slide to a halt, the heavy thud of his heartbeat pounding in his ears like thunder. Fragments of a thousand memories and dreams, etched in the eternal depths of the Sharingan, flickered through his mind like a broken cinema as they rose unbidden to the surface. A sunny smile and a thumbs up framed in orange and blue, green eyes narrowed in concentration at a scroll of pressure points, the irritating familiarity of that knowing masked smile... His head dropped as his eyes began to water and burn. The smile was contorted into a pained grimace and the orange and blue were now burning in a sea of red, the green eyes were closed and might never reopen, and the mask revealed nothing but the sense of surrender and loss.

He'd really screwed up this time, he knew that much, and it wasn't something he could just fix with his brains and jutsu and be done with it. No, it'd gone beyond undoing. He'd made a real mess of things in his arrogance and he would get only one chance to lessen the damage, to try and do the right thing for once. He owed them that much, if only this one time.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke felt his lips began to mold words, almost as if by their own volition. "Forgive me. I choose Sakura."

Farbauti's markings glowed with sinister light as the chakra inferno behind him seemed to explode, nearly blinding him from the intensity.

Then, the world faded to white and he was left adrift in a sea of shattered glimpses and impressions. Adrenaline surging, red clouds on black – he's here! Lightning crackled around his body and then he was somewhere else, someone else and it was all wrong, like a bad nightmare. Naruto's eyes regarded him with mischief as he whispered seductively in Sakura's ear, his lips brushing the comma-shaped purple markings on her cheek. Sharp teeth grazed his shoulder and pink strands wafted across his vision. There were hands everywhere, rough caresses, and his nails dug deep into pale skin. He was floating, burning up in a hazy sea of something he couldn't quite place, but it was hot and crowded and comfortable and he felt like he was finally home. Then, it went cold and something important was missing, and, oh by the gods, he was afraid...

Sasuke pitched forward and vomited.

"Do you remember now, Uchiha Sasuke?" Naruto – no, Kyuubi asked, dragging out the syllables of his name in a sing-song fashion.

The avenger didn't answer, his breaths coming in ragged gasps. Slowly, he began to pull himself back up as his breathing evened out. Finally, he managed, "I remember now. I didn't have a choice. Sakura was going to die."

"Death would have been preferable to this!" Sakura spat, clenching her hands into fists. Her shoulders shook and she bowed her head, pink locks shadowing her eyes. "You have no idea what a lonely existence you've cursed us to. You have no idea how much it hurts to be ripped from everything and then denied the only one who could understand that loss."

Sasuke glared at her and bitterly countered, "Oh, I think I understand that feeling only too well. My clan was murdered, remember?"

Sakura's fist slammed through the wall, the plaster cracking further. "Shut up!" she ground out. "It's not the same. Each moment for us in that place is an eternity here! We must stand by and watch our friends grow old and die again and again in the endless wheel of samsara, while we are forever barred from interfering! We mourn them still when their great-grandchildren's bones have turned to dust! And worse, we are forbidden from seeing each other! You – you are a mortal and you will never know the torture of eternity alone!"

Sasuke stared at her with wide eyes, unable to find words to form a response. How long had it really been since his accidental wish anyway? What had become of his true reality?

"Do you know how many times we've watched you die since you cursed us, Sasuke?" Kyuubi asked, no longer smirking. He leaned down and trailed his fingers across the avenger's pale cheek in a strange, almost tender, gesture that sent his target's thoughts scattering to the winds. "You've grown old, withered from illness, slaughtered in combat and died countless other such deaths. And yet, it was no coincidence that the body you now inhabit shared your name and form."

Sasuke shuddered at the contact, resisting the urge to shy away from the hand of the blond man-turned-demon. It was a sick parody of affection that turned his stomach in knots and he sternly reminded himself that this was not his former teammate anymore.

"You and he are the same," Kyuubi said, drawing back. "You share a parallel path of existence, even with all this time and space separating you. All we had to do was give him a nudge in the right direction and he wished you here, without being any the wiser. The whole time he had no idea that he was playing right into our hands."

There was a pregnant silence as those words sunk into Sasuke's head, each one like a leaden weight bearing down on his heart. It seemed like an eternity before he was able to once again find his voice. "Why? Why do you need me and not him?"

"You each have a code within your consciousness that is keyed to the reality you call home," Sakura said, rather plainly. "His is useless to us, but yours – yours will allow us to finally go back home."

The avenger clenched his uninjured hand into a fist and shook his head. "You... what will you do if I don't give it to you?"

Sakura's face hardened. "You do not have a choice."

"And what happens to the other me, in my body?" Sasuke asked, grimacing. He had a feeling he already knew the answer, but he had to know.

"Who the fuck cares?" said Kyuubi, earning a glare from the young Uchiha. He snorted, rolled his eyes and added, "He'll most likely be killed by your brother when he rips out the clueless little brat's eyes to fix his own."

The avenger cursed inwardly, clenching his teeth in anger and frustration. It could not end this way! He'd come so far and he'd been so close! And now, because of some stupid wish he hadn't even meant to make, he was going to lose everything! It wasn't fair!

"I will not allow that to happen."

Sasuke froze – he knew that voice! It was impossible to forget the one who left him alone to take care of himself in Hannō with that perverted idiot of an old man after the fire. The avenger shook his head, reeling. That memory didn't belong to him! It belonged to this body, to the other him, and almost instinctively he knew that this was just the tip of the iceberg. The longer he stayed in this body, the more he'd lose himself in the memories of this other version of himself.

Itachi stood behind Sakura with Kisame's knife to her throat, his face a wall of barely concealed rage. "Give me back my brother... now."

It had been easy to move once the shock wore off, Itachi noted, much akin to the one or two times he'd been unfortunate enough to be on the business end of a taser. The tricky part had been finding and getting to Kisame's knife without anyone noticing he was no longer incapacitated. As it turned out, the two freaks and his possessed brother were so completely wrapped up in each other that he may as well have been invisible. Still, he wasn't so foolish as to take chances, not with his brother, his partner and his own lives on the line.

He took his time, all the while listening to them speak with each other, and learned several important facts. One: the other Sasuke possessing his brother had somehow saved Sakura's life and inadvertently fucked both her and Kyuubi over royally. Two: they were really pissed off about that. Three: both had probably been really close to the other Sasuke in their world – scratch that. Given the way Kyuubi had run his hand along Sasuke's face and the hungry looks Sakura was giving the two of them, he wouldn't have been surprised if the three of them had turned out to be bedroom buddies. Four: Itachi hated confusing spiritual jargon and, last but not least, if he didn't do something, his real brother would die, trapped in the other's body.

"I will not allow that to happen," he said finally, pressing the knife lightly against the pink haired woman's throat and twisting one of her arms behind her back. "Give me back my brother... now."

Kyuubi scowled and Itachi could see the sudden tenseness in the woman's neck. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sasuke shaking his head, as though to clear it.

"I'm afraid I can do very little about that," Sakura said carefully. "He made his wish and must suffer the consequences."

"Fuck consequences!" Itachi spat, pressing the blade against her throat – not enough pressure yet to draw blood, but enough to prove he meant business. "I want my brother back!"

Sakura, wisely, remained silent, while Kyuubi scoffed, "He is your brother, fool. Haven't you been paying attention?"

"That is not my brother," Itachi ground out, glaring at the blond. His knife hand, however, refused to waver. "I don't know who he is and I don't care what you want from him – I want my brother back, now."

"That's simply not possible," the blond demon said, rather matter-of-factly. "He made his wish."

"Which you two tampered with," Itachi snarled, eyes narrowing slightly. There was something odd about this. If they had the other Sasuke, the one that had the one thing they needed to get home, why were they still here? Why hadn't they just taken whatever it was and left? He wasn't stupid, not by a long shot, and he'd been considered something of a genius before he'd dropped out of school for good. Something here reeked and it was a long shot, but there was a chance he'd find out if he just took the risk.

Kyuubi shrugged. "Guilty as charged, but it changes nothing. We can influence all we want, but ultimately the words belonged to him alone."

"And, yet, you still can't get home, can you?" Itachi asked, pressing down a little more on the knife.

The sudden angry scowl on the blond demon's face and the hitch in the pink-haired woman's breathing told him he was right.

"Why are you doing this, big brother?" Sasuke asked. He sounded so confused, so utterly lost... Right now, by the gods, he could swear it really was his real brother and not some imposter possessing him and it was so hard not to let go and shove his hostage away from him, but if he did, they were both screwed.

...No, not an imposter, he decided – a version of his brother from another world, another time, who had a brother named Itachi that wanted to tear his eyes out. Still, it was eerie how hard it was to tell it wasn't his brother and he was forced to wonder just how much this other world was like this one. Would the other Itachi have become a criminal, a gangster just like him just to protect their kid brother?

"Why?" Sasuke repeated.

Itachi ground his teeth and spat, "You have to ask? You're my brother, you idiot! I'm supposed to protect your fool ass!"

Sasuke looked as though he'd been struck.

"Even if you're from some stupid parallel universe or something, you're still the same stubborn brat at heart," Itachi said evenly. "And, no matter what, I will always protect you."

Kyuubi laughed then, clapping his hands slowly in a mocking manner. "Such a touching speech, Itachi-san. I think I might vomit."

"Shut up, demon," the older Uchiha hissed, adding a little more pressure to the knife. "I'm not in the mood for shit from you. I want answers."

Sakura's breath hitched again and she made a gesture to the blond demon with her free hand. His face immediately fell, but he nodded, relaxing visibly, and she lowered her hand.

There was a very awkward silence in which no one moved or spoke and then, finally, Kyuubi shifted, sighed and said, "Ask away, Itachi-san."

Itachi hesitated a moment - with these two freaks words had some sort of twisted life of their own and he couldn't afford a misstep. "What is preventing you from using his code?"

Seemingly just as curious, Sasuke's head turned to regard the blond demon.

"We have no frame of reference," Kyuubi admitted, frowning. "Without a frame of reference, we have no idea if we have the right code."

Itachi narrowed his eyes. If that was true, then – "If I allow you to compare my code to his, will you return my brother and the other Sasuke to their rightful bodies?"

"What!" Sasuke shouted, his head whipping back around.

The older Uchiha ignored him, eyes locked on the blond demon, waiting for the response. It was a big gamble, but Itachi had always had good luck with probability...

Kyuubi's eyes closed as he appeared to think it over and, finally, he smiled. "I think it's perfectly feasible. What do you say, Uchiha Itachi? Do we have a deal?"

"Don't do it!" Sasuke had a strange look on his face, one that bordered somewhere between horror and recognition. "It's a trick, you idiot!"

"Even so, it's a chance I have to take," Itachi said, quietly. He lowered his eyes and sighed, releasing the pink haired woman from his grasp. "I accept, Kyuubi."

Sakura moved aside, briefly connecting eyes with the blond demon as he approached the elder Uchiha.

Kyuubi stopped barely a foot in front of him and examined his face for a moment before suddenly closing the distance between the two of them and firmly pressing his lips onto Itachi's in an impromptu kiss.

Eyes widening in shock, Itachi tried to shove away, but found a clawed hand at his waist and a second at his collarbone pinning him. An unpleasant burning sensation accompanied the kiss and his limbs began to feel like jelly as something vitally important to everything he was began to vanish. Then, that important thing was gone and the demon drew back, tugging him forward. He released Itachi, letting him fall in a heap on the ground, practically in a completely shocked Sasuke's lap.

"What did you do to him?" Sasuke demanded.

Itachi groaned – he felt sick, as if he had the flu, and nothing seemed to want to work right.

Kyuubi smiled cruelly. "Why, Sasuke, it was the same thing we did to you a few days ago."

Sasuke's entire body went rigid, spots of color appearing high on his cheeks.

"Let's go home, Naruto," Sakura said, pressing close to the demon's side. "I don't want to stay here any longer."

The demon cupped her cheek in his hand affectionately. "Yes, let's go home, Sakura. It's been too long."

"Wait!" Sasuke shouted. "What about us? What about your deal?"

Kyuubi sneered, "Fools! I only agreed that it was feasible to make the exchange, not that I'd actually do it!"

"Bastard," the younger Uchiha hissed, "You bastard."

The demon laughed at that and pulled the pink haired woman into a fierce kiss as the two vanished from the apartment.

Itachi moaned, inched forward and slumped next to Sasuke. His gamble had failed... he'd failed his brother – both versions of them. "I'm sorry, Sasuke," he mumbled. "I couldn't protect you."

Sasuke stared at him and then looked away.

An eternity seemed to pass in silence, the only sound their breathing.

"Big brother?" Sasuke's voice sounded younger, more childish.

"Yes?"

"Can I have your eyes?"

Itachi closed his eyes weakly and smiled. "Sure thing, little brother."

AN: And that's it for Weasel Gambit.

I know the flashback was super long and got a bit weird towards the end, but oh lord it was fun writing the pompous ass that is a completely cocksure Sasuke and then having the Farbauti character to kick him down a peg. If you're thinking Farbauti is overpowered, he's a demon first class unlimited - that's a pretty high level in Oh My Goddess standards - and he's actually toning down his abilities so as not to get in trouble according to that series's rules.
- Farbauti's name, incidentally, comes from Norse mythology and I derived his title from there as well. It fits with the general theme of the world of Oh My Goddess.
- Sasuke doesn't recognize Team 8 because it's been three years and they've changed a lot.
- I don't think it's out of character for him to break down at Kakashi closing his eye (you don't close your eye at an enemy ever, unless you want to die) - Sasuke is seeing someone he knows does not give up easily essentially open himself for a lethal blow. Kakashi accepts he's loosing all three members of former team 7 in one way and it's a harsh blow for him.
- Samsara - cycle of rebirth, reincarnation, etc. And with the way I've written it, there can be multiple reincarnations of a person in existence, in separate times and spaces. Sasuke is one of these parallel reincarnations. It is the reason Kyuubi was able to pick up his wish contract and Sasuke is able to actually start picking up memories from his other's body.
- Hannō - a city in Saitama Prefecture Japan. Itachi left Sasuke there with Kakashi. WAY TO GO, ITACHI.
- Bedroom Buddies Kyuubi (Naruto), Sakura and Sasuke? Read the end of the flashback at the beginning a little closer. Itachi has it sorta right.
- Protective Itachi - hurhur, read newest chapter of manga. I saw it coming. IT'S ALL FOR YOU, DAMIEN - I mean Sasuke...
- I hint pretty strongly thoughout that Naruto and Sakura are never out of control of the situation, even when Itachi takes Sakura hostage. They wanted him to try and make a deal with the devil. They planned this whole thing out.
- Pairings - NaruSasuSaku, NaruSaku; mild ItaNaru, NaruSasu. There, I've got threesomes, het and yaoi. Imagine if I actually included the smut, you naughty pervs.
- CAN I HAS EYES NAO? - I knew from the start I wanted the Alternate Universe Itachi to offer up his eyes. Impossible powerups and hax on Original Universe Sasuke's part? Blame Alternate Itachi.

Hum, the way I structured the Devil is Live series, you can choose to just read one part of it or the whole thing. There's one more story in it and that's the story that wraps up all the loose ends. I'm probably going to call it Devil is Live: Samsara, so keep a look out for it. It'll be certainly more action oriented, less mindfuck.