Blanket Disclaimer:

Naruto, and the characters therein, are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way affiliated with Kishimoto, or VIZ Productions.

.: Kisame POV :.

Its hard to for me to believe that the small, delicate boy had killed so many in only a night, his small frame and fragile features hid something dark and dangerous that drew me in like a moth to the flame. Problem was I wasn't sure which of us would end up burned.

--

Watching Itachi sleep I pondered the question he had asked me after I had returned to our room, he'd already been tucked into bed at that time and had been staring blankly at the ceiling.

"Kisame-san, can a weapon have friends?"

I hadn't been able to answer him other than with a non-comitial grunt and a curt 'I don't know, kid'. He'd nodded, taking my answer at face value and gone to sleep without another word, leaving me in silence, with his question bouncing around my head.

'What did you mean kid? Can a sword have a friend, no, but it can be someone's best friend. Or do you think yourself as a weapon, and wonder if you can have friends, is that what you meant?' I thought and suddenly the silence was cut by a small whimper and my eyes darted to the young man who normally slept so soundlessly I often wondered if he was dead.

His face contorted in pain, as tears leaked down his temples, his mouth parted, small trapped animal sounds falling from his lips as he jerked and shifted in his sleep. Standing slowly as I tried to make out the source of his distress I soon found myself sitting on the boys bed, watching his quiet struggle with the demons inside his own mind.

"Kaa-san!" he sobbed tossing his head in distress his tears falling faster, and as pain weighed heavily upon my heart I realised that my questioning must have brought up now suppressed memories. Memories that hurt him in ways he didn't want to think about.

Reaching out I cupped the side of his face a gently as I could watching for any sign of discomfort or that my touch was unwanted, instead he turned his face into my hand, the small, long fingered one that lay by his head now clutching my thick wrist.

"I'm so sorry, Kaa-san, Sasuke," he whispered "I only did as I was told!" he sobbed as his nails gripped my wrist, the blunt tips digging in, leaving indents but not sharp enough to pierce my thick skin.

"Itachi, oi, kid, wake up," I said deciding that I'd had enough of his dream-talk, it hurt me to think he'd been told to take out his family, though he could have been dreaming about something else. Getting no reaction, using my other hand I shook him slightly and this time he shot up with a gasping sob, tears still leaking down his face.

"kid, you're okay," I said keeping both my hands where they were, even after his hand had fallen away from my wrist, his wild, dark eyes so full of pain and fear as he trembled.

"Ki-Kisame-san?" he asked and I gave a small smile, hiding my sharp fangs from him before I spoke again, "Yeah, I'm right here, calm down," I whispered and he nodded taking in several deep-gasping breaths.

After a moment I removed my hands and he seemed shocked at the sudden loss of physical contact, lost and bereft in this darkened room. Reaching up I wiped away the remains of his tears and spoke softly, "What were you dreaming about kid? What where you told to do?"

Gasping he stared at me, his face covered in child like shock before looking away, mumbling in a true show of his age, "I can't tell, it's a secret."

"Well you seemed pretty upset about what you were told to do, maybe if you told someone, talked to someone about it they could help you?" I said, knowing that I sounded way out of character, but I do have a brain contrary to popular opinion and though I often acted like a unclothe murderer, I was raised to be more refined than that.

"Promise not to tell anyone?" he asked quietly and I nodded with a small smile and he looked around, dark eyes narrowed as he took in the quiet room before pulling back the sheets that covered him and crawling into my lap.

To say I was a surprised by this would be the understatement of the year, but I let him curl up on my lap, put his head on my shoulder his face pressed into my throat and one hand on the opposite one. Not caring that my chest was bare, and that he was pressed tightly into me.

"My father was planing something bad, and I told the Hokage-sama, I've seen war, I never liked it. I was ordered to remove the problem and…I did," he whispered and pity welled up from deep within me. He'd just told me he'd been ordered to wipe out his clan, that he hadn't chosen to remove them, or to use them as a means to test his power. He had been honour bound to kill them all, and this revelation left me with one question, "Did he say you could leave someone behind?"

"No…but I…I co…couldn't m…make myself kill Sasuke," he whispered as something wet leaked out onto my shoulder and I sighed wrapping both arms around the teen, who obviously had never had a childhood.

"Itachi…weapons can friends, many friends," I whispered in his ear as I rocked him slightly, my eyes staring, unseeing across the room.

.: Time Jump 7 months:.

.:Kisame POV:.

Night had fallen swiftly on the first night of our current mission, along with the torrential rain that always seemed to flood the Rain Country and we had taken refuge in an old inn. The food was hot and plentiful, though as always Itachi only ate enough to stop his hunger and not satisfy his stomach, the drinks were warm and sweet, Itachi seemingly addicted while I chocked most of mine down. And the room was small and dark, save for the light that flashed through the curtains as lightening danced across the clouds.

The beds were small, slightly smaller than a single but comfortable, the pillows soft, sheets clean and the lot nice and warm as I drifted off into slumber, the sounds of Itachi's restless sleep and the hush of rain and the clap of thunder the music of the night.

It didn't feel like all that long before I woke to the feel of a small, hot body pressed tightly to my own, the silken strands of Itachi's long, unbound hair caught in the stubble along my wide jaw. The fact that he was also sleeping in my bed didn't shock or bother me any, it was something that happen more often than not, now any way. He was also talking in his sleep again, as he did often, his young face smoothed out, the lines of stress gone as he muttered, "Stop it." Though unlike the first time I'd heard him talking, his voice was full of amusement.

One of the odd things I'd learnt about Itachi since his induction and our subsequent partnership; was that he showed far more emotion in his sleep than he did awake, along with the fact that the teen had a penchant for sweets. "Kisame-sama, stop!" he giggled squirming against me, the movement causing his lithe form that had gained nearly an inch or two over the last few months to move atop of my own and I sighed enjoying the now familiar weight of the Uchiha prodigy.

His amused talking all stoped when a harsh crack flooded the room and his small body froze, a whimper crawling out of his throat, blunt nails clawed at my skin as he tried to crawl into my very body in his sleep. It was another of the little quirks I'd learnt he had, he was highly susceptible to change in his sleep, the smallest sounds or touches could produce anything from a contented murmur to shrieks of terror. They could cause him to shy away from me or to try and bury close, as he was now, they could make him pliant and soft or rigid and hard, tense in his sleep but rarely did they wake him.

He only woke when he sensed danger, or his dreams had gotten too harsh, to scary for him to reside in and he'd wake in tears, sobs racking his lithe form. Shifting I wrapped my arms around him and waited until he settled to drift off into sleep, not caring if the inn owner caught us in this almost lover like embrace.

Morning came all too soon, the sun hitting the backs of my eyelids and pulling me back to the land of the living and the now heavy weight of Uchiha Itachi, who had curled up in his sleep, his enter form on top of my wide chest. "Ita," I whispered in a gravelly, morning voice shaking his shoulder slightly trying to wake him and getting a disgruntled grunt for my efforts, the now fourteen year old's grip of the hairs at the back of my neck tightening.

"Oi, Kid, wake up!" I snapped unable to hold my temper, gaining little more than a mew of protest and a bleary eyed glare before the little shit buried his face back under my jaw, pressing his smooth forehead to his throat. Traitorous, thin, steel over velvet arms surrounded my neck making it impossible to remove Itachi without hurting him. And though normally this would make me hurt the person doing it, then again normally I would have killed who ever had made it into my bed, lovers excluded unless they did this, Itachi was one of the few people who I couldn't hurt without feeling bad about it.

"Itachi, move!"

"…" Finally moving off of me, he glared with sharp black eyes that soon would go crimson, though the glare was not all that effective thanks to the small pout he was sporting.

"Don't give me that look kid, mission take precedence over any and all other activities," I told him roughing his silky hair that even now, after a night of restless sleep with as smooth and not free as it had been yesterday after he'd taken a brush to it. "…" standing he swept past me and slammed the far bathroom door closed with a decisive bang that told me he was highly irritated and annoyed but that was normal for Itachi after a rough nights sleep.

OMG its been ages since I last updated this, sooo sorry for the wait but school and family and yeah you know, anywho, hope you all enjoyed it!