Kisame's Partner
Summary: The ANBU of the Mist actually dare and capture Kisame's partner ... Kisame feels extremely sorry for them.
It happened on a very bad day, six months into Kisame's new partnership with one Uchiha Itachi within the organization named Akatsuki. It was after a particularly difficult mission that had left them both exhausted, Itachi-san especially so since he had to overuse his eyes again in order to save them from a very deadly combined fire attack from twenty jonin level shinobi. No matter how strong or hot their fire was, Itachi's Amaterasu was all consuming and hotter than even the Sun itself. But it left the younger ninja with a severe headache, his eyes aching and blurry to the point of almost blindness for hours, depleted of chakra and with sore muscles.
Kisame knew this, of course, and sighed while asking Itachi-san - since he didn't dare try to order him to do anything, not to mention it felt ... wrong like nothing else did - to remain in the cave he found them for the night while he went to hunt them down something to eat. Itachi-san must have been especially tired this time around because he fell asleep before Kisame even left the cave. He had paused, looked at his young partner and on a whim took off his cloak and wrapped the resting genius snuggly in it. Itachi had just cutely cuddled into the added warmth and Kisame wasn't able to restrain a pleased grin or the warmth that filled him when he realized he had somehow managed to help Itachi-san feel even the slightest bit better. Usually his partner never let him fret over him, probably something to do with either his past as an ANBU captain who needed to look strong in front of his troop, especially an ANBU of the age from 11 through 13, or it had to do with the fact Kisame was almost a decade older than him and he didn't want to be perceived as weak. To be able to care for him, and especially when he really was so vulnerable ...
Well, it was one of Kisame's guilty pleasures in life. Just being around the Uchiha made the world all the more bearable to him. Hoshigaki Kisame was not stupid. He knew he had fallen in love with his younger companion but he wasn't all that surprised that he had. Itachi was just that easy to love. He was smart - a genius - loyal, wise, strong, compassionate, gentle, self-aware, humble, caring, patient and so much more, not to mention he was the most beautiful thing Kisame had ever seen in his life. Being around him has made him a better person, despite them both still being criminals. Kisame felt that only Itachi-san could understand him and his past, Itachi was his first friend, probably the only person in the world who never had and never would make fun of his shark like appearance. As far as Kisame was concerned, Itachi was his heaven sent guardian angel of death with a katana and he was very, very precious to him.
So Kisame feels he's justified to the panic he is filled with when he feels the Mizu Bunshin he left behind to guard Itachi being destroyed. He forgets about the hunt and instead runs at top speed towards the cave he had picked out, hoping against all hope to just make it in time! But he doesn't. When he enters the cave, his partner was gone. He only had to cling on to the hope that Itachi will be able to free himself and that he was still alive. Now, Itachi-san was a fucking genius and in any other situation, the young teen would already be on his way back. But he was exhausted and Kisame feared the treatment of whoever took the Uchiha might make his condition worse.
But he had to first worry about finding his partner so he searched through and around the cave. The way of concealing one's chakra to even the faintest trail was not left for the energy, the cleanup duty they did of the place and the puddle of water told Kisame all he needed to know. Kirigakure shinobi had taken his partner! That left him worrying even more and all the angrier. He knew just how merciless his fellow Mist ninja could be, they all received the same initial training, after all. And Itachi-san was in no state to be handled by them now. He was still too weakened from their last fight.
Cursing under his breath, Kisame took off into the surrounding forest, trying to locate the genius' chakra signature. He could always find Itachi because his chakra signature was like no other he had ever sensed. No, he wasn't particularly powerful in terms of chakra reserves and no, he didn't have any strange chakra mutations from seals or whatever. The Uchiha's chakra was special because it was so refined, like a perfectly cut diamond. It was a beacon of clarity in the sea of murky chakra signatures and it allowed Kisame to always find his partner. And it was because of his partner's perfect chakra control. This allowed Kisame to follow a subtle trail that the Mist ninja weren't even aware they had left behind. After all, they hadn't sensed Itachi's chakra wasn't nearly as masked as they had hoped. Only Kisame could tell Itachi was nearby based only on reading chakra signatures. It reassured him that Itachi was still alive after missions like the one today, when he was sleeping. The chakra radiating off of Itachi would mute itself when he fell asleep during missions and even in the safe houses the Akatsuki used for safety precaution reasons, almost undetectable for anyone who didn't know what to look for. Only Kisame knew what to look for as it was meant to be a reassurance for his restless mind. Itachi just looked so fragile ... Knowing his partner was safe and feeling it made a world of a difference so Itachi started teaching Kisame how to detect him. He now always allowed the minimal amount of his chakra to ooze out when he fell asleep and it was this habit that allowed Kisame to find him.
He stared in disbelief at the stupidity of his fellow Mist ninja when he finally located them, several miles away from the cave they had taken Itachi from. Really, he knew not all ninja were nearly as smart or as perceptive as his partner was, nor were they as good as maybe Kisame was at adapting to strange situations that shouldn't be possible to happen (Hidan's head still mouthing off after Deidara blew he to pieces, Kakuzu surviving four stabs to the heart, Itachi killing people with a single look, his sword being a self aware, sentient being, just to name a few), but he will never understand stupidity of this level. The stupidity he was witnessing was just painful to look at. Not even Orochimaru would have the guts to do this, as he wasn't that idiotic or arrogant (not anymore). Or suicidal. It was just plain dumb.
The ninja that had took Itachi while he was gone were indeed Kirigakure's shinobi and ANBU, no less. But Kisame had to wonder how they had managed to get that rank if they were stupid enough not to blindfold Itachi-san or to tie him up with chakra restraints. Not that the second would be much use. Itachi had perfect chakra control and could without a doubt escape from them. Kisame had seen him do it before with no difficulty. Another mistake with holding the Uchiha as they were that they placed him so he was facing them, very dangerous in an ordinary shinobi, deadly with an Uchiha with the Mangekyo Sharingan and Amaterasu at Itachi's disposal. That's not even mentioning that they haven't searched him well enough. Kisame could clearly see the pile of weapons they had found on Itachi, shuriken, kunai, some wire, senbon, scrolls, soldier pills and other such things one would find on a shinobi at any time. But Kisame knew Itachi probably still had a lot more weapons on him. The pile was too small. Besides, they didn't seem to have found his katana. Poor bastards. And the final mistake they could have possibly made that would determine their doomed fate if things stayed as they were ... well, they obviously figured out that Itachi-san was important to Kisame and they wanted to get to the shark by no doubt torturing his partner, but to do that in Itachi's current state would be equal to executing him so they had made that one final mistake.
They had actually had someone heal the genius and were trying to wake him up, no doubt wanting to hear his pain when they started beating him.
Kisame felt sorry for them. They might be here for his head and had dared kidnap his partner, but Kisame wouldn't wish his partner's anger on anyone.
What to do, what to do?
He might be Akatsuki now and Itachi's partner, but that did not mean some part of him didn't still love his home village. There were times when he still cringed upon killing a Kiri ninja. Itachi never mentioned it or made fun of him for it - despite it being hypocritical of Kisame to act like so when he usually criticized Itachi's many ways of preventing too much death to Konoha's ninja when they crossed paths with them - but he did usually insist on staying in little villages and towns after such missions. Once there, he would subtly allow Kisame to not-so-subtly fuss over him in order to distract him from his thoughts of Kiri blood on his hands and on his sword. Kisame hadn't even noticed it happening until they had a joint mission with Hidan and Kakuzu and the Jashinist crudely declared they were disgusting in their mutual fretting. Had it not been for Kakuzu, perhaps Hidan wouldn't have survived the mission at all, despite him being an immortal. Not when Itachi-san's eyes changed to the Mangekyo Sharingan, ready to use Amaterasu on him for ruining the only way he had of keeping his partner's mind off of those killings. Kisame had been touched and had returned the gesture by buying Itachi dango whenever they ran into a Konoha ANBU platoon.
Kisame sighed as he put the Samehada back to his back. He knew what he'd do the second he saw his partner. He could easily leave these idiots to face a pissed off Itachi but that would just leave the Uchiha exhausted all over again and his eyes hurting even more. Kisame would rather like to avoid that, thanks. So he stepped out of his hiding and into the sight of the Mist ANBU, who immediately moved to attack him but Kisame shook his head.
"I'm not here to fight you." He declared, getting frowns in return from the few ANBU who wore no mask over their faces. The others exchanged looks and a couple moved closer over to where Itachi seemed to be stirring. Shit, he better get this over with before all hell breaks loose.
"Are you here to save your partner, then?" The one he presumed is the leader questioned, drawing a sword and placing it under the Uchiha's lolling head, the tip almost nicking the delicate skin. Kisame fought back a growl. "It is unlike you to choose such a weak partner, Fish Boy, although he's very pretty. Very fuckable indeed."
Recognition had Kisame snarling at the mere thought of this person being so close to the genius and the comment he had just made. "Keiki Kujira."
The man took off his mask with a nasty grin on his face, teeth as sharp as a Swordsman of the Mist would have them. He had aspired to take the Samehada. He had failed spectacularly and not only because Kisame had killed the last wielder of said sword. Not only was he inferior to Kisame in swordsmanship skills but the Samehada seemed to be absolutely disgusted by him. "Yo, Kisame. Long time no see."
"Not nearly long enough." The blue man glared at him, moving to take his sword and just finish him then and there, but Kujira tutted.
"Ah ah ah! Not unless you want me to kill this weakling." Kisame stilled his hands again but the glower on his face said enough about his desire to kill this man. "So you are here to protect him!" Kujira crowed delightedly, grinning from ear to ear at having found such a weakness in the shark. He was a tall man, about as tall as Kisame but not quite. A half an inch shorter, maybe a bit more. He had oily, slicked back brown hair and purple eyes. His skin was about three shades darker than Itachi's and unlike the raven's, it was littered with scars. He had one big, ugly scar on his right cheek, going from his cheek bone to his jaw, compliments a la Kisame during one of their sparring sessions. He had always made fun of Kisame when they were children, always saying he was better than the shark and that Kisame was ugly and would never find friends and the such. Well, too bad for him that Kisame had found a friend and Kujira was just so unlucky as to have captured said friend. "This is just too precious. Hoshigaki Kisame dying to protect his weakling partner."
Kisame couldn't hold back a snort at this. "You think I'm here to protect him? You're out of your mind."
Kujira paused at this, uncertain what to make of the declaration. "Then why are you here, if not to save him?" He had assumed that the boy was important to Kisame, having found the boy wrapped securely up in a cloak far too big to be his own. And the Mizu Bunshin had fought him and his men with a ferocity of a wolf protecting its mate. This just didn't add up.
"I'm actually here to save you lot from him. Itachi-san is not fun when he has a headache or is mad." The Akatsuki shuddered, recalling what had happened the last time either of those things occurred. Suffice to say, no one in the Akatsuki dared mess with Itachi. No one. They would rather their minds stayed intact.
Kujira barked out a laugh, completely oblivious to a few of his men that had went rigid upon hearing their captive's name. Kujira seems to have brushed off any stories of the Uchiha Massacre aside and ignored them or simply didn't believe a little whelp could do what the stories said, but some of the people working under him were not so oblivious. Kujira's laughter grated at Kisame's nerves and he grit his teeth.
"Have you become so soft that you fear a boy?" He jeered. "You respect a cute little Konoha child and you believe he can defeat us? Defeat me! Ha!" He got progressively louder with each sentence.
A fine dark eyebrow twitched.
"You've grown delusional, Kisame." Kujira sneered. "You put this little slut's of yours," Kisame growled and his hands twitched, but the other man just pressed the tip of his sword a little harder against Itachi's neck, nicking the flesh and a small stream of warm, red blood slid down that pale column. "Safety before your own, before your mission." There was disgust in his words, a sort of disgust Kisame used to think on his actions with after he lunged into danger to assure Itachi's safety the first few weeks of their partnership before he grew fond of the young teen. "You're weak. Weaker than he is!" He shouted, pointing to where his sword was pointed. Kisame flicked his eyes towards the sword and fought with his face so he would not show any sort of reaction, surprise, anticipation, delight or otherwise. "You two are so pathetic t-"
"Kiri nin-san," a voice breathed in Kujira's ear, young but deep and velvety smooth, dark but gentle, refined like the best wine. Sinful. Addicting. Dangerous. "I would appreciate it if you would not refer to me or my partner so." A bloodied kunai nipped the flesh of the brunet's throat while a dangerously gleaming katana, also soiled in blood, pinned Kujira's own sword to wards the ground. Kujira stood stock still and the rest of his squad started quaking in fear as red eyes with spinning three comas stared at them with a deadly glint. "I can assure you. Neither of us is weak."
"So the little bitch awakens." Kujira, despite his fear - just how had the boy escaped, killed his guards and snuck up on him unnoticed? - sneered, moving his head to look over his shoulder. Whatever further comment he would have made died on his lips when he registered the deadly, infamous Sharingan eyes staring at him. Cold sweat started gathering on his forehead. He had no time to move, to make a comment or to even think before those red eyes narrowed dangerously and the tomoe shifted, growing longer and changing shape until the eye looked like a shuriken like windmill with three blades. "Wha-"
"Tsukuyomi." Kujira started screaming not a second later, living through a hundred days of torture in the span of a mere two seconds. Itachi released his grip on the bigger, older man and the body hit the floor, Kujira's brain dead long before his skull shattered at the impact with the rock just in front of him. Itachi didn't spare him a glance and looked around at the other ninja, who were now almost cowering before the little 'weakling' they had mocked and jeered at. Itachi may be young, a child still, and far too pretty for his own good had he not been so powerful, but he was the perfect shinobi. Kisame has yet to see someone fight on par to Itachi's skills. From what he heard, not even Orochimaru could manage that. And these men knew it. The Clan Killer stood before them and they were smart enough to wish to avoid a battle against the prodigy of the famous and infamous Uchiha Clan. "Leave."
There was a moment of hesitation. That was to be expected. They were Kirigakure's black operations group, their second elite, their ANBU. They were only second to the Seven Swordsman of the mist in skill and power, or so it should be. To run from a child when they had never run before ... It was unheard of.
But Itachi lacked patience when his head was hurting and he was tired, not to mention how utterly pissed he was about the things Kujira, now a cooling corpse, had said. His snapped order of "NOW!" was instantly followed as the first flickers of black flames appeared and soon enough, Kisame and Itachi were all alone. The Uchiha turned on his partner, an annoyed expression on his face. "I'm not fun, now, am I?" Kisame gulped, realizing that Itachi had heard everything that had been said. "You wouldn't save or protect me?" The Uchiha moved gracefully towards him and Kisame began to sweat.
"It's not like that, Itachi-san!" He assured, bringing his hands up in front of himself in surrender. "Of course I'd save and protect you, it's just that you don't usually need me too since you're so strong! And that's exactly why it's no fun to anger you, especially if you have a headache! You get a bit grumpy when you are angry and I usually only manage to annoy you further, even though that's not my intention and you have this really scary scowl of you face! I'm sorry if I disrespected you in any way, Itachi-san, but please don't make sushi out of me or brain mush out of my brains. I just worry about you sometimes and you usually brush me off so I worry even more and I have to figure out what's bothering you on my own since I know you won't tell me because you think you'd burden me but I actually really like taking care of you and- Itachi-san?!"
During his rambling, Kisame had not noticed Itachi make his way all the way to him and only realized the Uchiha was invading his personal bubble when Itachi looped his arms around his thick neck, fond exasperation and hints of both amusement and annoyance in his eyes. "Shut up, Kisame." Before the blue man could react, Itachi silenced him with a chaste kiss on the lips. The soft texture of the younger's lips against his own had the last of Kisame's restraints snapping and Itachi will deny it to his grave that he had squeaked when the older male suddenly scooped him up and pressed him against the nearest tree so he can properly debauch his young partner. Not that he was complaining. He was already Kisame's partner professionally, so why not in every other sense, too?
After that day, there were new rumors spreading left and right about Uchiha Itachi. Rumors of his strength and his otherworldly appearance. They differed so much that there was no longer an accurate description of him going around except in the ANBU's Bingo Book. The only trait of recognition that stayed the same was that he had blood red eyes and that he was accompanied by a tall, blue skinned man.
Itachi found it quite amusing that he was getting more and more commonly known simply as Kisame's partner.
OWARI