Itachi was long gone, and so was the Akatsuki. He'd just decided to carry out his original plan, leaving the boy and moving on with the other members. Though it wasn't as clean as killing Sasuke and pretending he didn't exist, at least he was on his own again. But now, he was really starting realize he had nothing to do. The fox was so boring. There was no reason to hunt him down. And Orochimaru? Out of the question. There was nothing to do. For the first few hours, it felt light and relieving to have his younger brother and their unsettling relationship out of his hair. But by now he was really noticing that without a so-called lover to angst about, he would only angst about not having the lover. Not that he was a lover, of course. He wasn't even a brother. There was no way he could think about it. Ugh.

Traveling wasn't Itachi's favorite thing to do, but it killed time. He let out a heavy sigh. There really was nothing to do.

"Kisame?"

"Eh?"

"What are we going to do?"

Kisame stopped.

"I'll go back with you if ya like."

Itachi blinked.

"Why do you say that?"

"You look like you don't want to be out here." Kisame shrugged. Itachi wasn't sure what to say to that.

"You," Kisame continued, "still like the boy. So go back."

Itachi growled.

"Face it. You like him, so let's go find him."

"The others won't come," Itachi glared.

"Stop making excuses. And don't lie. They would. They'd come if you wanted to go back. Now shut it and let's go."

"You know it's not that easy, and don't tell me to shut up." Itachi continued to glare at him. Kisame was unfazed, quite used to flaming looks from Itachi. He always seemed to be willing someone to die with his eyes. He had gotten so accustomed to these glares it was like they didn't exist. It was the norm, after all.

"So are we going back or not?" Kisame asked, watching his partner intently. There seemed to be something very interesting about Itachi today, though he couldn't put his finger on what it was. Maybe it was because he refused to admit what he thought about Sasuke. But no, that couldn't be it—he always did that. Maybe it was because he was particularly angsty today. Angsty. Heh. He liked that word. He loved getting to say it about Itachi.

"Why are you so disgustingly interested in making me go back to see my brother?"
"He needs you, Itachi," Kisame winked, flashing sharp white teeth for the millionth time in all the years Itachi had known him. The Uchiha rolled his eyes.

"Do you really think that will help persuade me to go back?"

"No, but it's fun to poke you about it." Kisame poked Itachi's shoulder. Red and black angry eyes narrowed warningly.

"Don't touch me."

"Heh heh." Kisame prodded the side of Itachi's head with one finger. Itachi glared, groaned, and resisted the impulse to twist Kisame's arm so far behind his back it would snap in half.

"I don't see why I put up with you," he sighed as he turned his back to the taller man. Kisame was still grinning, mostly because he got away with poking Itachi without getting hurt.

Though he was dancing dangerously close to the edge.

"Ita-sama," Kisame whined annoyingly, and Itachi closed his eyes, back to his partner, trying to keep his temper under control. He was naturally cold, calm, and collected, but putting up with an obnoxious shark man with blue skin was in no way on his list of "things to do." No pun intended.

"Why in the hell does everyone always call me that?" he glowered, his eyes, as usual, trying desperately hard to make swiss cheese out of Kisame. Kisame continued to stare, head cocked to one side, at Itachi.

"What is it?"

"Are we going?"

Itachi threw his hands up, giving in. It was beyond him how anyone could manage to put up with him. His family probably had cut the slits in his face, he thought as he glared at the gills on Kisame's cheekbones. He knew it wasn't true, but honestly, there was no way he knew anyone, or believed anyone existed, who could ever father a child as painfully annoying as Kisame without causing him serious physical injury. Oh god, Kisame as a kid? He didn't even want to think of how short his tolerance would be of a little blue monster terrorizing his house. He stalked off, thinking violent thoughts about what he would do to his partner if he got any farther under his skin.

"Soooo, Itachi, are we going?"

He acted like a three year old, he really did.

"Fine, fine, we're going. But keep in mind we're not going for Sasuke, we're going because you're so damn obnoxious."

Kisame winked.

As the older man flashed off to gather the rest of the Akatsuki, Itachi lay face-down in the grass, contemplating his life and everything about it. It was pretty complicated, wasn't it? He tugged a few strands of light green out of the ground and held them up to the light. There were a lot of questions he had, not about him or Sasuke or the Akatsuki or Naruto or Japan or anything or anyone else, for that matter. He had a lot of questions, like who actually made fire for the first time and if anyone lived on other planets or if there was another species of life somewhere with intelligence equal to or greater than that of a human or where the world initially came from. There were theories, of course there were theories. But that didn't mean anything. No one knew for sure, no one human. Or at least, no one anyone knew.

It was a troublesome life to live, here on earth. You loved and you hated and you wondered, and no one ever answered your questions. You could ask and ask and ask and you would never know who you really were or who anyone was, and you would never know how small you really were, and you would never know if there was anything out there worth living for. You would never know if it would be better to shoot yourself into space and live or die and no one would know. You would never know if you could actually live underwater. You would never know anything, never know anything important. All Itachi knew was that he could lie there in the grass and think and think, and nothing would happen.

Because nothing ever got better.