Say not a word in death's favor.
Itachi was not only keenly aware that Kisame was walking on eggshells around him, but he was starting to get frustrated by it as well.
"I just think," the other man said as they ate a simple meal of rice and pickles at an inn, "you should've tried to stop her."
Itachi chewed slowly, taking the time to swallow before even lifting his gaze to his partner. Their failure to deliver Sakura to Pein was met with explosive reproach, but they had simply reminded him—in as respectful a way as possible—that the Akatsuki had need of their skills. Itachi knew, for all of his quiet spying, that the puppetmaster behind the Pein he and his comrades had known was in actuality a sickly man, his body devastated with each extraction of a Tailed Beast. A person like that needed as much voluntary help as he could manage.
Their punishment (well, mostly Itachi's punishment) was to be saddled with the collection of Pein's original charge, the Six-Tailed Beast. Coupled with the Nine-Tails and with the added burden of Kisame's Four-Tailed Beast seemingly nowhere to be found, the few weeks since Sakura's defection had been long.
But Kisame was not upset about that, Itachi had come to understand.
"She can do as she pleases."
"It's got you in a foul mood, though." When Itachi shrugged, Kisame clicked his tongue. "And it's hardly romantic to just let her run off like that. You were happy with her. You can't fool me."
"My happiness doesn't matter to me," he said matter-of-factly. It could never be admitted aloud that his partner was right about such a thing, but he shouldn't be surprised. Kisame had always been observant, and annoyingly so. "I'm surprised to hear it matters to you."
"Don't mistake me." His tone was far too casual for such a thinly veiled threat. "If I ever had to, I'd fight you with everything I had—even if the odds are stacked against me. You're different than my other comrades, though."
"Am I," he said quietly, not necessarily asking for clarification but rather repeating it to his own ears, weighing the sentiment.
"It's no secret," Kisame said, waving his hand lightly, "that I appreciate our intolerance for each other's crasser behaviors. And for all you boss me around, it's good for me to have someone to fuss over for once. Before little Sakura-san appeared, I was the one nagging at you to take your medicine and to pull up your cloak in the rain."
Itachi gave a small smile, his first in days, at the memories. His and Kisame's very first conversation had been strained and laced with aggression, but he was right—neither man would put up with the other's bullshit, to put it in the blunt words Kisame was too polite to use too casually. And indeed he often would check with him if he'd taken whatever medicinal pills they'd bought, stolen, or otherwise procured in their travels together the last few years, or glanced back as they trudged through a storm to ensure Itachi was keeping up.
"So forgive me, Itachi-san, but I do wonder if you made the right call." He returned to his bowlful of food, letting the two of them eat together in silence before he spoke once more. "How didn't she know such a thing, though?"
Itachi hummed at that, feigning ignorance despite voicing the exact answer. "The Leaf must have spared no expense in covering up my direct involvement with the massacre."
He seemed to accept that, and they finished their meal quietly. When Kisame plopped down onto his futon, he stretched with a groan. "Damn," he said, folding his arms behind his head as he lie flat on the bed's surface, "that Two-Tails extraction left me drained. Get some sleep, Itachi-san, before we have to endure another year of camping in search of the next three."
It was another few days on the road in this way, but Kisame thankfully had let up about the topic of Sakura. They poured all of their focus into finding any of the three hosts, and it was only another week before they stumbled upon the Four-Tailed Beast.
"Stay here," Kisame commanded, heaving Samehada over his shoulder. "I'll handle him on my own. You'll be plenty busy whenever we run into your two hosts, after all."
Itachi watched the battle for a moment, mostly by monitoring the chakra signatures for how bad his eyes had become. The match-up was an unfortunate one for the Jinchuuriki, whose fire-styles were easily countered by Kisame's affinity for water. But then he felt a curious thing, and he retreated into the thick forest cover and away from the wild chakra of the fight to focus in on it, readying for a fight of his own.
When he recognized it to be Sakura's chakra signature quickly approaching, he felt his stomach flip in an uncharacteristic display of anxiety.
There were two unknown signatures trailing her, and he turned in their direction, curious if perhaps she was being followed or chased. All manner of things flew through his mind then: was she seeking him out for his help? He would fight for her, he knew. Had she brought people here to kill him? Whoever they were, they did not seem particularly powerful—not compared to her, and not that he would worry even if they were.
She came into view a good distance away, through the trees. He had to squint to make out her form, but those chakra reserves and the delicate control were hers, unmistakably. It was plain to anyone that her stance was full of agitation, her shoulders rigid. But surely she'd come here aware that she would run into him? Only one of her two companions—one of them carrying a large sword—readied for a fight alongside her.
"Let us pass," she called. Everything about her from her aura to her body language to a certain air about her voice was completely different from when last he saw her, and he was suspicious at once of what may have happened to her in their weeks apart. "I won't let you all kill another host!"
So she had somehow tracked them down and was here for the Four-Tails—interesting. One of her new comrades must have been a sensory type, for them to come straight here from so far out. If she was still carrying out her plan to save the hosts, then...
"You know the length of the ritual," he said, keeping his words void of any emotion at all. "You have that much time to arrive at the base and save him, as you did the One-Tails."
She shifted slightly, her two companions eyeing each other from their places at her flanks. That she didn't act immediately was exceedingly curious, and he pressed at that with not much kindness.
"Oh?" He smirked, putting on his best show to make it as sinister as possible. "You have something more important to handle, I can see."
"It's not that!"
"The Two-Tails' host is already dead." He watched as she bristled to hear it. "And the Three-Tails will be extracted alongside Kisame's current opponent, though it has no Jinchuuriki. A perfect coincidence, isn't it? You will not need to choose."
"Shut up," she said. "We went a whole year with no activity, but you're telling me you've found three more in the couple weeks since I've been gone?"
"Indeed I am." He kept his voice stoic, but deep inside he felt a painful tug that she hadn't the chance to help another of the host bodies. How he'd wanted to witness her success in the face of so much strife!
"You're lying," she spat.
"Sakura," whispered the other girl. With great effort he strained his eyes to make out her features—thick glasses and bright red hair, even in the stormcloud-covered afternoon. She tugged at Sakura's elbow in a familiar way, nervously in search of an emotional anchor. "This guy's chakra—quit pissing him off!"
"I have no intention of fighting any of you three," he explained, her whispering not quiet enough for his expert ears. "My eyes will make quick work of you if they need to, and by the time you wake, Kisame and I will be gone with the Four-Tails. You're free to follow, of course."
"Shut up!" Sakura yelled again, bringing her fists up to dig into the sides of her head. Her frustration was close to reaching its breaking point, he knew. Whatever it was she'd been on her way to accomplish, it was clearly something she believed in to her core. There was simply no other reason that she would need to deliberate so hard between it and her desire to save the Beasts' hosts. He ached to see her there after the way they'd parted, and knowing she was as torn up as ever...
It could not be helped; in the blink of an eye he closed the gap between them, feeling her straighten and her teammates flinch back, startled as he cocked his head and leaned in to whisper into Sakura's ear.
"What is it you're planning?"
The feel of her body was hypnotic against him, her muscled shoulders pressing into his chest and one of her hipbones sharp against his stomach. Her breath caught in her throat, and from the corner of his eye he saw as she shut her own, swallowing down whatever it was she was feeling. Behind them the sounds of the battle grew chaotic, the Beast likely unleashed as Kisame stripped the host of his own chakra. She gave a false start; with him so close, he knew she wouldn't dare move, and despite their present company he found his hands taking hold of her arms.
"You—fucking asshole!" the other girl shouted, the sound of it so close that it reverberated in his skull. She gave him a rough shove, poking her index finger against his chest. "I don't give a shit how scary you are! I may not be a fighter, but if you hurt Sakura I'll make your life a living hell!"
"Oi, Karin!" the boy whispered harshly, the massive sword in his hands much too awkward as he leveled it at Itachi. It must have been newly acquired, its heft not yet quite memorized in his hands. "Don't think I'll step in to protect you against someone you're actively antagonizing!"
Itachi took a step back, fighting an amused smirk. From the intel he and Pein had gathered on Orochimaru, he knew these two must have been lab rats—that Sakura had gone and rallied what seemed to be the polar opposites of he and Kisame almost made him laugh out loud. It was good, though—a relief—to see her surrounded by people who cared in their own unique ways.
Still, though, no matter how he felt about Sakura or her goal, he could not afford a battle with Pein or any of the Six Paths when he knew the time was nigh. Sasuke's sannin mentor had been struck down mere days ago, and if all went according to plan, his brother would be on the hunt for him to demand answers soon enough. He could not risk being tied up in Akatsuki discipline when that day finally arrived and he could meet his end by those hands that hated him so.
"Kisame is making quick work of the Jinchuuriki," he said, his composure returned for all of his dark thoughts. For good measure, he activated his Sharingan in warning. "We will make for the headquarters immediately. Three days—be there, or do not be. It is of no importance to me."
So close to her, he could see that look of betrayal and hurt and utter determination on Sakura's face as she twisted it into a scowl. The white-haired boy sucked his teeth, but just as he bucked towards Itachi, she held out her arm.
"You'll die," she said bluntly; he shot a glare at her for saying such a thing, but it did not bother her. "And I still need you both. Let's go."
Her two friends stood there dumbly even as she turned and took a few steps on the grassy forest floor. When still they did not follow—unsure of her decisions, perhaps?—she stopped. In the sharpest tone Itachi had ever heard fall from her lips, she spat, "Now."
Then the three of them ran off as quickly as they'd arrived. Rain had been falling for some time, but so engrossed in the encounter was Itachi that he only just now realized it. There was that familiar sting in his lungs, rising up through his throat and aching each breath he took.
It was good timing, then, to have a flare-up. The next few days he would need to plan carefully, to take just enough medicine to keep an explosive coughing fit at bay during the extractions, but not enough medicine to keep him alive for much longer after that. If Sasuke had been training as expected, though, his abilities were sure to give Itachi a hard enough time with his illness taken into account.
But even as he had these thoughts, he pulled his black cloak tighter around his body, sinking his face into the high collar for warmth. Though he had nothing now but Kisame's fragile alliance and Sakura's complete hatred, he clung to the two of them in a way he knew he should not. It was simply a shame that none of it was enough to keep alive that Will of Fire, nor his will to live.