Pairing is KisaIta, and this is the very first one I have done of these two. Since it's obviously slash. There isn't a lot of them like this, so here I bring this oneshot I won't go and brag about, so enjoy it. :) Reviews appreciated, but if you don't like this pairing, then don't waste my time flaming me with the nastiest things you can say.

I don't remember what this episode is, or which season, from Shippuden, but if anyone can remember, it's the scene after Sasuke goes out to hunt for his brother and gets his team (I think, because it's been so long since I have seen it), and Kisame and Itachi are during a rainstorm. There's a moment where Itachi stands under the rain and it looks like he's really crying, Kisame notes. It moved me to tears, even though that's before we discovered the truth about him.

Naruto and its characters all belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

The Jinchuuriki had been delivered and extracted from its host, now dead and the body discarded. He and Kisame as well as the others were dismissed for the time being. Which meant he was free to carry on with the other matter at hand.

My brother is coming for me very soon.

Kisame knew this, and yet he stayed with him and didn't object. The shark ninja formerly from the village once known as Bloody Mist was the only companion he had left. He didn't have much time left, and he was tired of being alone. He had been on the run for the last half of his life. He was going to die soon...but there was one thing he'd wanted before he left the world and owed Sasuke his life in the best way possible for his otouto.

A storm was coming. They had to take shelter - and a cave was the most obvious for them. It was likely to last well into the night and dawn, at this time of the year.

It was getting colder, but the cloak provided more warmth than a civilian's garment, or his old Shinobi robes. But Kisame...those times we shared body heat when the fires would unexpectedly blow out. Just like Shisui and I used to. Just like Sasuke and me when we were children and had only each other.

The pair arrived in time for the pour to become powerful. The sheen was a thick silver outside the entrance, obscuring the scenery from view. By this time, Itachi Uchiha did the honors of taking the branches that Kisame Hoshigaki gathered for them while he in turn dropped the two fish from the river they had time for just as the clouds turned dark.

A small fireball of his hands was going in under a minute.

Itachi sat down, cross-legged before the fire, as he began to get to work on one of the salmon while his partner worked on the other. The bones were pulled out with care and then tossed into the fire as a substitute for wood, and the rest of the fish was grilled the way they both liked it. It took the Uchiha back to the time he made the great feast for Sasuke and himself while their parents were away, the pang in his heart coming forth. He hoped to distract himself by enjoying the peace and quiet with his partner whose sword rested behind him for the time being.

Halfway done, he felt his stomach churn and his lungs tighten. Another coughing fit was on the way. He held his breath, increasing the pressure and turned to hand the remainder to Kisame who had just about finished his, and observed him with some concern, his beady eyes narrowing as he watched the young man reach into his cloak to pull out his pill bottle. He unscrewed the lid and pulled one out, popping it into his mouth and swallowing it dry. The taste of his blood was salty and retching.

"It's getting worse," Kisame noted, not even asking. Itachi nodded and took his fish back to finish. His stomach settled down by the time he was finally done.

"Thank you, Kisame."

They spoke very little that night. They always had something to talk about, but to bring up his condition was something he wasn't keen on. Kisame was many things, but lies were one thing he hated. But he also respected that a man could have his own burdens to keep on his shoulders, and Itachi had one too many of them.

~o~

He was sitting on the dock, several meters from the seawater where shark fins protruded from the surface. A voice, smooth and snarky, spoke behind him, interrupting his moment of peace. "I'm teaming up with you, starting today. I'm Kisame Hoshigaki, formerly of the Hidden Mist and of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. So pleased to make your acquaintance."

He said nothing, only stared back, halfway to the water and the man who looked too much like a shark. "And you are Itachi Uchiha, formerly of the Hidden Leaf. I have heard the rumors: you slaughtered all of your fellow Uchiha clansmen." Why was this man speaking to him? He wanted to be left alone. If he wanted to try and be friendly, he would not fall for this. Without saying a word, Itachi turned his back to him and gazed out at the water once more.

"I think that we are alike, you and I," Kisame went on, not caring that he was being ignored. "That's the reason I wanted to be teamed with you in the Akatsuki. Killing your comrades is indescribable, a sensation. Wouldn't you agree, Itachi?"

"You talk too much," the Uchiha said finally, blandly. "You don't understand me...nor do you understand yourself. You're just a thug who got lost in the mist and ended up here. You can't even control where you are going...am I wrong?"

He was certain the other man listened to him - and it wasn't long before the long blade of his bandaged sword found its way to rest on his shoulder. There was no mistaking it to be jagged shark skin, and it would cut his flesh into ribbons and scrape the bone beneath. He was sure he got under the other man's skin, yet he continued to make conversation in order to hide it.

"Do you want to know something...interesting? Most sharks are oviparous; that means the eggs hatch inside the female's body before the young are born. However, the number of hatchlings differ from the amount that emerge from the mother's belly. That is the result of...cannibalism," he finished with a fiendish glee. And right before birth, the young eat each other away inside their mother's uterus. It was war beginning in the first minutes. This man was comparing slaughtering his own comrades as well as Itachi's clan to sharks devouring each other at birth, planting the seeds. But he had no idea how wrong he was, the differences between them. "So, starting today, you are an Akatsuki member as well as my companion...so be wary of me."

"The same to you," the Uchiha replied, his Sharingan flaring. He stood up just as the heavy blade was raised from his shoulder.

Kisame was perhaps enjoying this TOO much. "Let's be friends then - and hope we are not each other's final opponents."

"No one who dares to raise a hand against a comrade is worthy of an honorable death. Remember that," Itachi said harshly. "We are not as depraved and worthless as you think we are. We are not fish; we are human."

~o~

He added another ball of fire to keep the heat in check, but in case it went out during the night, there would be the extra safety precaution. Itachi was the first to stand and began to disrobe himself. Kisame remained where he was a moment longer just to watch the show. And he had to say he enjoyed the sight he was presented. Itachi's back faced him, but to take in the slim body with the perfect muscles was a treat far better than the fish.

For the longest time, he stirred for his partner, opened to any form of a coupling at any given time. His stamina had a will of its own, but he wasn't wildly uncontrollable like a real animal, nor was he that obsessed with the flesh as most men. Itachi Uchiha had then been a round-faced thirteen-year-old who massacred his entire clan in a single night - now, at twenty-one, he was a fine young man.

And he was going to die this way, still in his prime.

His little brother was still out there in the wings, but for all Kisame knew, the boy was probably dead now, but Itachi disagreed with him. "He's not dead," was all he said, ending the conversation.

The lines of the muscles of Itachi's back were illuminated by the flickering flames, descending downwards into a nicely rounded ass and firm thighs which were displayed for his hungry eyes. That long midnight hair remained in its tie, swaying when its owner turned around and regarded him stonily. "You intend to just stare at me all night?" Chuckling, Kisame rose and shrugged off his cloak and then the rest of his clothes so he was nude before Itachi now.

They had seen each other before; he could never get enough of seeing his younger partner this way. He remembered the first time he saw Itachi the way he was now. The lean but raised pectoral muscles tipped with dark pink nipples, his six-pack, and the jutting hips giving way into a V-shape hanging with a fine length of nine inches which was impressive for his stature. Itachi's limp member was crowned finely with a small patch of pubes. He did not seem to realize how much attention he was getting - or he chose to ignore it.

Kisame was powerfully built, with no real description needed, and his package was advanced compared to Itachi, not to boast. It rested against a mass of dark blue. He caught the Uchiha looking down there, but only for a moment. Itachi cleared his throat. "Let's go," he said simply, walking his way, his manhood swaying with each movement.

Itachi walking like that without shame was making him tread territory and take their partnership to the level he waited forever for. His brother might kill him, but there was one thing Kisame wanted the handsome young man to experience before he died. He is not going to die a virgin on me - and not without ME to give it to him.

As soon as they laid down, Itachi's back to him and close for the heat to ignite, Kisame drew his own cloak over their bodies, the Uchiha's beneath. This was his chance. His mouth found its way to the elegant column of a neck connected to his shoulder, placing a soft kiss there before taking the jugular muscle between his teeth, nibbling tenderly. Itachi sucked in a breath, his body stiffening. Kisame's hand moved, at the hip and then going over the rippled stomach, upwards to find his right nipple and pinch it. Now he drew a closed-mouth moan from the lovely man. He was a virgin who couldn't keep his icy exterior in place that much longer now.

But then: "K-Kisame, I don't think -" He quieted him with another pinch, this time on the other nipple. He then slid from behind Itachi and now hovered over him.

"Just for tonight, Itachi? I know you've always wanted this, but you wouldn't let your pride or your duties make room for this. You want this before you are gone, admit it." The silence given was the answer along with the nod. The shark man then leaned down and placed a kiss on Itachi's soft mouth. The Uchiha tasted sweeter than dumplings and green tea. He moved down to taste the dark red buds of flesh, eliciting more moans and choking exclamations from his partner - at the same time the fire started flickering when the wind howled in without warning.

He wasn't sure he wanted to do this in the dark - he wanted to see ALL of Itachi as he made him cry his name and rendered him so sore he would carry him all day tomorrow - and Itachi was thinking the same thing. He slid out from beneath the shark nin, crawling on all fours towards the fire spot, offering a delectable view of his rear end and a hint of his ball sac and pubic hair. Itachi sat on his knees then, his ankles pressing into the bottoms of his cheeks, and added a small fire ball to keep it going again for what they were about to do. But before he could turn around and rejoin, Kisame had another idea in mind. He gruffly ordered Itachi to stay where he was, and sliding closer behind, he then took the Uchiha by the hips and brought him his way, so Itachi was a safe distance from the fire and back on all fours.

Kisame had to prepare him properly, so settling on his own saliva was close enough that was available. His member slicked, he guided himself into Itachi's tight, hot entrance without trouble. The Uchiha uttered a surprising yelp at the intrusion, but it gave way to delicious groans with each shock of pleasure between their bodies. Kisame growled at the luxurious body which drew him in, Itachi stripped of his innocence once and for all. His body jerked forward every now and then, angled away from the fire so his face and hair weren't singed. Reaching around, Kisame caressed his left buttock and hip before reaching the soft crown of hairs modestly covering Itachi's pubis. He gave a gentle tug before finding the source of Itachi's pleasure, bringing them both to release after an eternity of passion.

The fire winked out when the pair was in deep slumber. But when dawn broke, the storm was still pouring, if having become milder in the wee hours of the morning. Kisame frowned when he saw Itachi wasn't with him beneath his cloak - before he saw his partner outside, fully dressed and just standing there, gazing up at the weeping heavens. Kisame redressed without a word. Standing in the rain meant wishing to cleanse away all impurities, even if those sins were too deep within to be washed away.

"Itachi...you'll catch your death," he chided, coming to stand at the entrance. He received no response. It was then that he could see the heavy streams trailing beneath his eyes. It made him look like he was...crying. Crying because the end is near.

Because of last night and everything they endured together in barely a decade, Kisame Hoshigaki wasn't sure how life would be for him without his partner.

I know the premises sound familiar to most of you: the partners in a cave during a storm, body heat, etc., and with Itachi's illness and all - but I couldn't help it. :$ I had fun and am happy with the results.

There won't be a sequel, so please do not ask me to continue.