It was little over a few hours after he fell asleep that the mountain cats appeared. Startled as he sounded, Itachi had to have been asleep as well. Whatever brought them here, the pair was in danger. And the predators were between him and Samehada, so Kisame was on his own for this.
How did they avoid the traps?! That should have either stopped them or warned us at least! One of the cats charged him with its claws extended and he quickly sealed a water-bomb jutsu to retaliate. The second cougar did the same, but Kisame refrained from using any more chakra. Pushing it any farther would be akin to suicide. Instead, he threw a series of shuriken. The animal was so quick the weapon missed its target. There was no way it should be that fast! No. That's not it. Kisame was the one who was slowing down.
When the lion came close enough, he grabbed its foreleg and threw it to the ground, pinning it so it couldn't move. He was about to kill it with a kunai when the third mountain cat lashed a series of claws at him, forcing Kisame to jump away before he could finish the job. He stood panting, stamina nearly depleted. At this rate….
The two cougars lunged at him at the same time and Kisame did his best to evade. A low feline growl bellowed behind him. Another one?! He glanced back. It was massive! The others looked like nothing but kittens next to it!
Before he could move out of the way it snarled and hit him with a powerful lightning-fast blow, sending him crashing into the boulder behind him and causing it to crush under the impact.
Kisame slumped to the ground and gagged when he felt his broken ribs. "Ugh!" Damn it all! If he hadn't used so much chakra in the Land of Snow, and if he hadn't been so stupid to drop his guard at the last second, he wouldn't be in this fix.
Itachi's eyes landed on him and shouted in alarm. "Kisame!" His expression wasn't any different from before, but it was obvious he couldn't last much longer on his own. Kisame wanted to tell him to run, but he couldn't find the strength to lift his voice let alone move. The pain was too great to ignore.
His partner, whether he got the message or not, took off. The lions instantly roared and started after him, leaving Kisame in the clearing. At least Itachi had a chance to get away unlike him. There was no reason for both of them to not get back to the base.
Twigs and branches snapped as the chase went on. After a while Kisame couldn't hear it anymore, and he slipped into the darkness of his mind.