Chapter 7
Maybe Itachi would believe he was suffering from some sort of midlife crisis, or a nervous breakdown given all that was going on.
Revealing any type of weakness as a missing-nin was risky, even in the presence of someone who was supposed to be his partner (or, in the case of those working for Akatsuki, especially in the presence of their oftentimes bloodthirsty partners).
Taking a stray orphan back with him wasn't in the nature he exuded to those around him. To others, he was the aforementioned bloodthirsty partner that wasn't to be trusted. What reason could he possibly possess to save a random child that meant absolutely nothing to him? Well, besides being a creep with unsavoury intentions, anyway.
"The manipulation must run deep," mused Itachi from his seat across the room, barely even sparing them a glance from his scroll when Kisame returned with the child floppy and damn near lifeless over his shoulder. "For you to be revealing such a blatant display of humanity is unheard of."
Without a doubt.
The captain remained unconscious on the sofa, filling his chest with an unsettling relief that felt foreign to him. Part of Kisame had anticipated Itachi acting against her once his bond with Uchiha Shisui was revealed – if it was as he hinted at and he really did have a part to play in Shisui's eventual downfall, then it was only to be expected. An eye for an eye may make the world blind, but it sure as hell made them feel better serving out justice on their own damn terms. Kisame couldn't even say that he would hold it against the kid if he acted upon that rage that he'd briefly witnessed surging to life within him, for it had to be immense and unbearable for such a stoic shinobi to reveal his anguish after months of refusing to give even a glimpse at how he was feeling.
So far into their partnership, Uchiha Itachi was a tough nut to crack. Seemingly unfeeling to all that went on around him, as the months passed, he appeared more viable for carrying out the heinous act of slaughtering his entire clan in a single night. No amount of pushing and goading got to the boy – not even a damn hairline fracture in that composure of his. Hence Kisame's suspicions of Itachi being a psychopath.
Maybe that wasn't the case?
Whatever he was, in that moment, Itachi was composed and seemingly calm once more as he sat in front of the window to read his scroll. Their cabin didn't possess the greatest of lighting and with the layers of thick dust it had obtained in the absence of occupants, it appeared dingy and unsettling, almost – none of them were really comforting, so it wasn't unusual for the Uchiha to choose a seat by the largest window to easily read whatever maintained his attention for the entirety of their partnership. It was always the same scroll he read and it never seemed to carry much information, but to try and squeeze any information out of him was an impossible task.
Kisame spared a quick assessing glance of the room before deciding to place the child over his shoulder on the armchair not far from Itachi. With the ANBU captain occupying the sofa with her impressive height, there really wasn't anywhere else to put him down. Fortunately for the kid's case, he was small enough to subconsciously curl in on himself on the armchair, his tremor brief but telling.
He was a pitiful creature. With his unruly dark hair and overall battered appearance, it wasn't all that difficult to note that he was living rough. Although it wasn't unusual coming across orphans, it didn't make it easier to stomach the helplessness of them.
A sigh brought Kisame out of his musings in time to witness Itachi rising to his feet and grabbing the cloak that was hanging over the back of the chair. His wordless approach prompted Kisame to take a step back, bemused by the monotonous manner Itachi draped the cloak signifying them to be the international criminals that they were over the slumbering boy.
Then, he glanced to him with carefully guarded eyes that surprised him, asking, "Now, what? Are you planning to fill this cabin with captives?"
"How cruel of you to assume I would be so monstrous," he chuckled without humour. He wasn't really in the mood to joke around or play his game of relentlessly attempting to rile Itachi up. "The kid isn't a captive."
The following hum wasn't reassured but Itachi offered no other response. His gaze returned first to the trembling, exhausted boy, then to the ANBU captain they had yet to dispatch of.
No. He couldn't kill her. There was no telling what Uchiha Shisui's genjutsu had in store for him once he made that final, irreversible move or how it would affect him in the long run. He had to carefully plan his next steps if he wanted to come out on top.
"Tell me more about it."
Itachi didn't look his way. "The genjutsu?"
"Aa."
It was only after a moment of careful consideration that Itachi fixed the cloak more securely around the young boy, eyes lingering for a moment on his haggard features and mussed dark hair before he pulled away. Another first, Kisame believed. Itachi showed zero compassion for others no matter who they may have been, always keeping his emotions well-checked to the extent Kisame was certain he felt nothing. He wondered what else their unusual day would have in store for them.
"There isn't much to say," he responded insipidly and straightened up to meet his eye, exhaling shortly. "This is evidently the work of Shisui's ultimate genjutsu – Kotoamatsukami. There are no hopes in breaking it without that specific sharingan."
The only times that damned, annoying sharingan possessed individual powers was when the user evolved it, in a sense. At least, that was what he understood from what Madara told him. Of course, villages educated their shinobi to know of the legendary dōjutsu in their world, but information was limited to outsiders and so they worked on stories of those who'd survived going up against the users or hypotheticals entirely.
"Making this a lost cause," he muttered. The change in countenance had Itachi watching him closely and he heaved a sigh while setting Samehada to one side. It was difficult getting a feel of the guy and Kisame disliked guessing another's intentions or figuring out what they were waiting for. His silent watching prompted Kisame to say, "Look, kid. I'm not going to start spouting insincere apologies for the death of your friend, even if my actions did play a part in it. Not even if it somehow reversed the genjutsu."
Silence. More careful consideration. Then, "He was never the same after her death."
"Itachi-san," he warned lowly. "There's no use in trying the guilt trip. It won't work."
But he pushed further with that vacant expression of his, appearing unfeeling but then contradicting that poker face with his words. "Even in the rawest moment of her death, Shisui didn't wish death upon you."
"Oh, he did," Kisame argued with a chuckle and moved to help himself to the seat Itachi once occupied, leaving the young boy standing between their two freeloaders. He kicked back comfortably and rested his folding hands across his stomach. "Apparently death was too quick, however."
Itachi sighed at that. "Hence the genjutsu that forces you to forget your lover."
Kisame wondered if it was said genjutsu's influence that kept him from feeling as angry as he knew he should be. Frustration continued to prickle at him and left him agitated, but it never went further than that. He never felt overly annoyed. Somehow, in his mind, it all felt like nothing more than a fly he couldn't stop from buzzing right in his ear.
He pretended not to notice Itachi's gaze as he looked in the captain's direction, trying to find something more than mere familiarity as he took in her pitiful form, but there was nothing. She was familiar but mostly unknown to him. Like someone he'd passed in the streets back in Kirigakure and never thought twice about afterwards. A perfect stranger.
"Lovers," he snorted.
After a moment, Itachi came to sit opposite him at the small, round table. "That amuses you."
It wasn't a question, but he gestured over to her with a tip of his chin, muttering with a huff, "Look at her. A woman who looks like that with a man like me?"
Being the respectful boy that he was, Itachi didn't look over at her. Didn't even show a flash of interest and left Kisame despairing for the poor kid. How old was he? Fourteen, perhaps? What had he seen to be so detached from everything around him (if he wasn't a psychopath)?
Shock had him considering the young Uchiha for several moments. That was perhaps the first time he'd ever experienced pity when it came to his partner. Not even when Kisame was remarking the differences between the mass murderer and the boy he was partnered up with did he pity him. What did it matter to him if Itachi didn't feel any connections? If he'd seen some messed up shit that left him in that unfeeling state?
"What made you do it?" he questioned for the first time, unable to hold back the curiosity any longer.
There was no need to question what he was being asked. It was evident in the guards that shot up around Itachi that he knew exactly what he wanted to know, and it had Kisame's interest piquing once more.
It was a waste when the kid felt so indifferent to everyone. Women lapped up that mysterious shit.
"They were holding me back," came his bland response.
Don't give me that weak response, Kisame wanted to laugh. "From?"
"Reaching my potential."
Bullshit, he thought with a smirk that had Itachi's eyes threatening to narrow. The ever so slight twitch was a dead giveaway and had the smirk widening.
"Back to your issue," the boy said, amusing Kisame further. "What do you plan to do now, Kisame-san?"
The usually unshakable bloodlust was subdued by rationality, leaving him with the burden of the morality that rarely bothered him. Ever since taking the life of Fuguki, he never allowed it to rear its unwanted head, for what was the point? After all the lives he snuffed out for the sake of protecting such a corrupt village, such a broken world, what was the point of suddenly being moral?
But killing her in the heat of the moment was too easy and posed a considerable risk of backlash of some form.
"Killing her could jeopardise the mission somewhere down the line," he rationalised. "There's no telling what is in store for me if I do or how it would affect Akatsuki."
Their goal was to capture the nine tailed beasts for what was essentially world domination. Although he had to admit that saying it in such a way made Kisame feel like a villain from an old novel who was twirling his moustache and cackling evilly at his own actions, that was the plan stripped bare. They wanted to abolish the shinobi system, the hidden villages, and establish their own order. Their own rules and system. They would be the change the world needed to move forward.
He would not jeopardise that.
"And the child?"
The child… Simply an act of impulsivity. A moment of weakness after having his head fried between Uchiha Shisui's damned genjutsu and his own monstrous actions throughout his lifetime.
"Will be on his way once he's rested." Sending him a sharp and toothy grin, he added, "You worry too much for a child, Itachi-san. You should try to lighten up." The following unconcerned stare proved Kisame's point, in his mind, and he heaved a sigh at the overly serious nature of his partner. "There's no harm in letting him have one night of rest without having to watch his own back."
Any missing-nin could understand his actions when considering the exhaustive measures of keeping their shoulders well-checked. From hunter-nin breathing down their necks to shinobi from other villages they'd happened to clash with before deserting – the life of a missing-nin was not for the weak. And, in a way, neither was the life of an orphan who had nowhere to call home. Half of the orphans living rough rarely made it to puberty, never mind reaching his ripe age.
He wasn't one to take pity on them and he certainly didn't coddle them. But Kisame wasn't against giving them a firm push in the right direction to help them along or find their way. Their world was all about survival of the fittest, so why not give them a fighting chance?
"When we first met, you likened yourself to fish," recalled Itachi, astounding Kisame with a brief ghost of a smirk. "However, I would say this is awfully human of you."
"I suppose that's true," he remarked.
It seemed his original labelling of the boy may have been wrong, after all. Today alone had proven there was more to him than being Clan Killer Uchiha Itachi and it brought their short conversation to an almost comfortable halt, their silence contemplative. Kisame had to admit that it was the first time in a while that he hadn't minded the presence of another.
"Say you do manage to reverse Shisui's manipulation," came his quiet utterance a short while later, and he noted the scroll had made a reappearance – or had it ever been put away in the first place? Kisame was surprised to find he was unsure whereas usually he made it a point to know every detail going on around him. "What would be your next move?"
He snorted at the question he knew wasn't serious. "You and I both know there is no use in focusing on the hypotheticals."
"Humour me."
Or was it serious? Had he read Itachi's character wrong entirely? Unnerved but refusing to show as much, Kisame made a point of slouching further in his seat and exhaled sharply. "I have a habit of butchering the people around me, kid. Trust me here. There's no use in thinking about what ifs."
Like before, the only response Itachi offered was a thoughtful hum. His gaze drifted to the orphan sleeping somewhat peacefully on the armchair, the air around him guarded but with a tinge of what Kisame strongly suspected to be melancholy. Prompted by his own intrigue, he too looked to the child and his brow furrowed in thought as he took in the sight of him.
"I suppose he must look around the age of your brother."
Silence.
"Remarkably the only one you left alive… or so I heard," Kisame pushed that little bit further. He grinned wickedly when Itachi finally looked back to him, his features stony. "What a scary expression, Itachi-san."
His standing was entirely abrupt, but it wasn't gentle either and Itachi stared down at him stoically. "Ensure your decision – whatever it may be – doesn't impact our end goal, Kisame-san."
The grin widened and it was what pushed the Uchiha into leaving. But amongst the chaos of their day, what really captivated his attention was the same scroll being clenched tightly inside of his grasp.
Such a strange boy, he thought to himself.
Weirdly enough, Kisame found he was beginning to like that about him.
A/N – This story makes me sweat with nerves. I really hope I'm not doing too badly with Kisame. I usually don't pay much attention to his character so I spent an age reading up on him and even reading a couple of fics he stars in, but I have to admit I'm struggling a little haha.
