Author's Note:
Yuzuki476: Thanks for all the reviews, I appreciate them a lot! Only things I really have to answer I think are that I upload every Friday or Saturday, so you can expect then for the latest issue! And as for why Itachi won't tell the truth to Kisame, he doesn't feel he can trust him with an answer that goes against everything Kisame has been led to believe about him until this point. Although we may finally see that shell begin to crack.
XXX
Kisame Hoshigake
When he had first claimed Samehada as his own after killing Fugaki, they had had a rivalry similar to what you could see between two species of predators living in the same environment. Sometimes, the living blade would act on its own and kill without Kisame using it, and sometimes Kisame would forcefully restrain it to prevent Samehada from going bezerk. This relationship, believe it or not, went on for nearly a full year.
Three days before he had ultimately abandoned Kirigakure, and coincidentally the last time he had been to Hoshikage Village before today, he had asked the Hoshigake Elders for their advice on the matter. In his mind, this would be his last chance to settle his affairs and get whatever answers he needed before becoming his own man.
Bruma had been the youngest member then, a strapping man for being in his 60s with an aptitude for the clan's history.
"Have you heard the Tale of Kirisiki the Ostracized?"
"No," he replied, having long forgotten the clan history he no longer felt kinship for. "What does it do with this situation?"
"Kirisiki was the third wielder of Samehada," Bruma explained, a soft candlelight washing them both in his home. "He was the strongest warrior in the Land of Water, save for the Second Mizukage himself. But he longed to be the Mizukage himself, and so he challenged the kage many times. But every time he did, the Mizukage's knowledge and skill was simply too great for Kirisiki."
Kisame rubbed the back of his head, already bored. "Mhm."
Bruma looked at him closely, but still continued. "So Kirisiki decided that if he could not beat the Mizukage with his own skill, he would use Samehada for that goal instead. He trained atrocious amounts of times with the blade to the point his comrades feared he was beginning to lose himself in his training. Strange sounds would come from the woods, and many times he would return to the village with bite marks from the sword, for it was growing angry with him for so much work with little payout. You know what Samehada needs to feed."
"Chakra. Lots of it."
"Precisely. Kirisiki was far from being a bad man, I think, but he became so intent on his personal goal he forgot to treat Samehada for what it actually is: a living thing. And though even today we do not understand the blade all the way, it is safe to say it has its own level of intelligence, emotions, and desires."
There was a brief silence between them, and Kisame found himself intrigued by the story. "What became of Kiriski? He sounds like he would have been an important figure in our clan's history, yet we have no monument for him."
Bruma smiled and held up a aging finger. "Note his name: 'Kirisiki the Ostracized.' We no longer acknowledge him here; his name has been wiped from our history, save for legends like the one I am telling you now."
"Why?"
The elder's eyes twinkled. "You'll be happy to know the end will also answer your original question; no serious guesswork needed. Kirisiki's training continued as normal- if you can call such extreme lengths normal- but after having disappeared for over five days into the woods, his friends went to look for him. They discovered that Kirisiki was dead; in his place was a monster. Samehada, stricken with hunger and an untrustworthy relationship, had forcibly bonded with him and used his body as a vessel."
"Bonded? A... vessel?"
"What made Kirisiki Kirisiki was gone," Bruma explained, tapping his temple. "The sword is on a different sentience from us, remember. Desperation makes a formidable weapon for primal beings. It overtook his mind and turned him into a creature of destruction. Ironically, only the Second Mizukage was able to destroy the husk and seperate man from sword, but the effort left him with a mortal wound that killed him three months later." Bruma rubbed his chin. "Perhaps this is the crime he was struck off the records for? But it hardly seems fair, seeing as he was no longer Kirisiki."
"What would you say he was, then?"
Bruma frowned and looked the younger Hoshigake in the eyes. "What you are dangerously close to becoming, Kisame."
"A monster."
XXX
"RAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
The lake sloshed precariously at their touch, waves many feet high launching from the simple swipe. The Pain doppleganger seemingly took the blow, but it had moved so fast that in their jagged vision the blow seemingly went through it-
Projectiles hit the water like massive drops of rain around them, and one actually hit them in the small of their elongated back. It exploded with enough force to make the shore quake, but it sent them stumbling forward only a step before they had recovered. Their eye tracked the sky furiously for the source and found the bald-headed man as a dot against the clouds. They raised their right arm towards it and the lake responded, the water taking the shape of a swirling typhoon that reached hundreds of meters high to snatch the man out of the sky-
He was gone in a puff of smoke, and again their eyes tracked around for any sign of movement, any indication of the prey-
Where did I go? Where did this all take me?
The water all around them erupted into a curtain, shielding their vision entirely from their surroundings. The eyes flicked around for any dark shape, anything, anything-
Five fists clutching sharp metal rods rose out of the water beneath their scaly feet to stab them in their hip, back, stomach, chest, and neck. Their chakra bubbled like a kettle on the stove and they roared again, but they were physically lowering them to their knees, purple-rimmed eyes trained unflinchingly on them.
Need chakra, need to tear them apart!
"WRAAAAAAAGH!"
Twisting their body around violently, they forced the Pains to relinquish their hold on the bars, lest they get thrown into their own water curtain. They landed daintily on their feet around them, instead holding their fingers into a hand sign. The rods, still deeply imbedded in their flesh, echoed with what felt like murky poison entering their bloodstream and making their whole body tremble. They raised their left hand-
Sharks dove out of the water with the grace of dolphins, each one trying to take one of the Pains in their mouth. Three succeeded, with the other two being able to stick new rods through the skulls of their would-be captors and vanishing behind the water curtain.
Take out stick! Take out! Pull!
All five rods were pulled painfully out of them and disappeared beneath the waters, but they already felt better. Between them both, they always able to heal fast in their own rights. As they were now-
What are we now? What am I?
Tear them apart!
Huh?
"Kisame, enough of this insanity!" They whirled around the source of the voice. The water curtain was still obscuring their vision, so they clapped their overgrown hands together. The scales on the left hand grew slightly as they exerted chakra, but it was mostly an afterthought as the water curtains came down, showing the two orange-haired morsels standing on the water. Their faces were blank, but the tone they used matched something they remembered to be "empathetic."
"Can you even hear us in there?"
I can.
"RAAAAAAAGH!"
But I don't want to.
They dashed across the water, splitting the surface behind them into a dazzle of drops. The intended target simply stepped to the side, even as the force of the swipe rippled their black and red coat like a thunderstorm. The other Pain jostled back for distance, but the movement attracted their hungry eyes and they leaped for it instead, both hands outstretched for the throat-
Too late, they remembered this was the one with invisible powers. An outstretched palm repulsed them like they were a squid making propulsion, knocking their brain around in the skull. Stars appeared in their cracked lens, but they landed on their misshapen feet well enough. They snarled and gnashed their teeth in anger, deciding which one of the two to go for next.
"You have none of your usual aptitude for skill," the original speaker said duly. "I confess I didn't see something like this happening to you when I came out here. I had hoped you would see reason and remember your purpose. That you would rejoin us!"
"RRRRGHH..."
"But I see that you're as foolish as Itachi. If you wish to die a monster, then I will oblige you."
Die a monster? I've always been living as one. That statement makes no sense.
It's just more lies.
"I will make it a fitting warrior's end." The first Pain outstretched their hand, and the Kisame/Samehada hybrid flung their hands up sporadically. Water rose with each movement, growing taller and taller to mask their movement. The other Pain watched them, obliquely standing as Kisame closed in on the other-
As if they were being sucked through a whirlpool, they were abruptly dragged off their feet and through their own water screen. Spitting drops from between their mangled teeth, they looked to where they were being drawn in confusion-
Their face smacked painfully into the palm of the other, obscuring their vision entirely. They shrieked and clawed at the wrist and arm. Blood was drawn, but the other did not react except to squeeze tighter. The piercings in the flesh pressed painfully against their scales and they shrieked again, yet the grip did not relinquish.
Sounds from around them stilled them; the deathly gasps of sharks and gentle steps of feet upon the water surface.
Fight! Rip them, tear them, kill them! Fight! Chakra, need chakra!
What good will it do anymore. Let's just let it end.
They thought they could hear something calling out to them, but their ears were sloughed with water and terror had gripped them with primordial strength. They resumed tearing at the flesh of the arm holding them, and to their surprise they were released. Immediately they were released, and they greedily lapped their tongue before springing forward-
Something cold on our back-
"Summoning Jutsu!"
XXX
He spent the next three days after hearing Bruma's story debating himself. By this time he had become an ANBU Captain, but it was a position he hardly cared for. His superiors did not really seem to understand him; they'd given him the rank in hopes of pacifying him from killing their own people on missions, but they just didn't get it.
No one could be trusted. Everything they said were lies. No one could be trusted.
Sometimes, it felt like it was just him and Samehada against the world.
On the final day, the day he decided to leave everything behind, he entered his parents home without knocking. He had not been inside for eleven years and four months. As he crossed the threshold, he was not even sure why he had stopped coming. Children eventually outgrew their family, but he did not think one simply cut off all ties. Perhaps he would change things- although he was not sure why he should.
Papa was sitting on a creaking wooden chair, Mama cutting food in the kitchen. They looked up at him as he entered uninvited (was a child ever uninvited from their parents home) and gave looks of indifference.
"So. You came back."
"I have, yes." He looked about uncomfortably. What should he say. "I... I wanted to see you."
"Hmph. That's a first. You haven't willingly come home ever since your graduation exam."
"But I did come home for some years after. This... this is home, isn't it?"
Papa sighed and looked out the window, hand tapping upon the armrest of his chair. "Son, what do you want from us? We've not talked for ages. Now you suddenly want to come see us? You must be here for a reason."
"I... I have none. I just felt... I should come here for some reason."
Mama stopped cutting food on the counter, her hold on the knife noticeably tight. "Oh... that's sweet, Kisame. But now is a bad time. Perhaps... later...?" Her eyes trekked to her husband, then back to the food before her. She did not start cutting again.
Kisame looked between his two parents, unsure of what he was witnessing. "I... do you have my koto?" he asked suddenly.
There was a tentative silence, and he was sure they must have not heard so he said louder again: "My koto?"
"Your what?" Papa barked, suddenly standing up. He was much shorter than Kisame now, his blueish skin significantly paled. His already tiny eyes had dilated further, and he shuffled to stand between Mama and him. "Your damned what? What are you here for?"
"My... my koto?"
Papa gulped. "Threw it out. Ages ago. Firewood."
"Why?" he asked calmly, although he suddenly did not feel calm.
"Don't know! That's your reason for coming, isn't it? So just go!" Sweat beaded Papa's forehead as he inched closer to Mama, shielding her from some unknown, invisible force. Kisame approached one footstep at a time, feeling Kisame wriggle impatiently on his back. He put a hand to its handle to force it calm-
"NOOOO!" Mama shrieked, holding the knife before her. "Not your parents, Kisame! Please! Please!"
"Wha-"
"Damn you, boy," Papa half-whispered, half-choked. "Your own family, now, is it? The Blood Mist knows no boundaries, does it? Or maybe it's just you now that doesn't. I've heard all sorts of things about you now. Kinsmen-killer, betrayer even-"
"Kisame, my baby, please!"
"-should have known you would come for us sooner or later."
And finally he understood, and he was so joyful that he understood the miscommunication he gave a barking laugh that made his parents tense up ever further. "No, no! I'm not here to kill you! I just came to see... I wanted to... I..."
The terrified expressions on their faces, the knife in Mama's hand, the protective shield Papa put around her, and the words they had just uttered finally dawned on him.
His hand was still on Samehada, trying to calm it. Would it be wrong to just give them what they expected of a murderous son?
Without a word, he turned his back to them and left. They weren't thinking straight, he told himself. No family thought such things of their children. It was just because he had been so distant for so long they thought strangely of him. If he came back tomorrow, they would-
He passed by the back of the house on his way back to his camp in the woods. The ashes of a recent fire were there, perhaps three-days old; the day he'd come back to the village. But there was a chunk of wood that was mostly intact, that the flames had refused to touch in some bizarre act of mercy. He approached it, disbelieving, borderline laughing to himself at the idiosyncrasies he was being offered now-
Half of a child's koto poked out of the rubble. He never returned to Hoshigake Village.
Until a few days ago.
XXX
Some thin line of conscience tied together the worn memory to reality, and they felt themselves rising off the water's surface where they had fallen. Pain strummed throughout their back, as if every scale and bone had been sliced with hundreds of tiny swords. Blood spat out of their lungs like a waterspout as they unsteadily got to their feet, unable to stand even upright.
"I did not think that would kill you," a female voice said, and they groggily turned towards it. They were very close behind them, and one look at her small, pale hands reminded them of what had just happened.
"Rraaagh..." Blood came up again, and they doubled over. Something was definitely broken somewhere-
I've been broken all along. What a stupid assessment.
-and they were having trouble seeing when their vision was already so broken-up. Standing was still proving difficult, and the clumsiness of their feet and offset weight of their mutated arms were now hitting with the bloodlust no longer carrying them forward.
Need to kill! Need to heal! Heal! Kill!
We need to just die already. There's nothing left.
There were six Pains now; the newcomer had strands of long hair over their front along with the same set of purple eyes. "I have a warrior's death in mind for you, my old comrade," he said. "When you were with us, you served well. I will not forget that, even now. I think in your demented state, you will have no objection of entering hell. I think you may have even wanted such a thing most your life."
There was never such a thing to believe in. There's nothing to believe in when the world is going to just lie to you over and over. One day, you'll realize that, too. Everyone will, just as I did. There's nothing to believe in.
The new Pain clapped their hands together, and from the water and enormous figure emerged. Its mask was a colorful assortment of color, but the eyes were noticeably enormous replicas of the others. They looked down at the Kisame/Samehada hybrid menacingly, and in those stark eyes they saw death.
Rods shot from the hands of the other Pains and embedded him in place with their constricting chakra, but they no longer carried. Even as the Samehada half strained venomously like a caged tiger, their other half had reached a final state of mind, resolute in nature.
At last.
"Pain."
A seventh figure entered the scene, blue-haired with long white wings that fluttered. She landed next to the original Pain in their left-periphery, and the other looked surprised. They whispered between themselves, growing agitated, and the deflated hybrid wondered what it could be holding up the end. He had never made any of his victims wait in such a fashion before-
"We were instructed to do differently, Konan."
"And can't you see this is the moment we have been waiting for, to act differently? You said it yourself that one say we would not need him anymore... this could be it! Why should we follow through! He wants to do it!"
"He put you under a genjutsu," Pain snarled, looking at something behind them, but the Kisame-half was too tired to look around at it.
The blue-haired one (Konan? Konan, yeah...) shook her head furiously. "It is what I think, geniuelly. Madara... Madara won't always have our best intentions at heart. Many times over, this has been the case even before now. Why is now any different? Why are we eliminating his greatest obstruction for him?"
"I am his greatest obstruction, Konan. I am a God."
"Then think as a God should- wisely."
There was a silence between them that grew sticky and tiresome. The Samehada-half lashed out and roared, taking a threatening step forward towards one of the Pains, but they simply watched them blankly. The original Pain looked at them, too, over Konan's shoulder.
"Nagato... please. I think... he would have wanted him to try."
Still they stared, and her tone took on a more curt tone. "And if not for that reason, then at the very least one of them will die. At best, they'll kill each other. There would be no better fate for deserters."
The original Pain sighed, and the newest one clapped their hands together. The giant being disappeared like a mirage, leaving the hybrid staggering in confusion. The other Pains similarly backed off, regrouping towards Konan. "I will pass judgement this way instead, then," the original said flatly. Their eyes were still looking at something behind the hybrid. "I don't know what to expect from this. But I believe you know what to expect should we ever meet again."
"I do," a familiar, quiet voice said with surprising proximity to them. "I appreciate your generosity on this."
"I've agreed to it only because either outcome benefits me," Pain commented. "Although I will admit it... whatever you said to Konan to impact her in this way intrigues me. Perhaps there is more to you than you ever let on, Itachi."
Itachi.
Kill! Need chakra, bad! Tear stick out, heal, kill!
No. Now, we listen.
They turned around at last towards Itachi, standing there in the remains of his Akatsuki cloak. He was looking at them without his red eyes, simply observing them with a sort of sadness. "Perhaps," was all he said to the other, and behind the hybrid he heard the many sounds of others taking flight.
Listen...
"Kisame... if you're in there..."
Wait...
"I need to tell you the truth. No more lies."
Their eyes snapped open, and they lunged forward, monstrous hand splaying open.
NOW we tear them apart.