Kisame and Itachi wandered deeper into the hideout

Kisame and Itachi wandered deeper into the hideout. They passed a few rooms that were important to know but most rooms belonged to the subordinates working under the actual members. During this walk, Kisame could not stop thinking about earlier. Itachi had stood up for him so strongly . . .

Giving up on searching for an answer, Kisame had to ask. "Why did you stand up for me?" They both stopped walking. Itachi turned to Kisame.

"That cam out of the blue . . . Anyways, I'll tell you why I did it," Itachi replied, "This organization is comprised of S-ranked criminals, as you know. These people most likely feel that they're on top of the world and they can do anything they want. To show that I'm not some person that they can use as a pawn or take advantage of sometime in the future, I stood up to them. That was the only chance that had presented itself to me so I used it. My plan wasn't to stick up for you. Besides, my words with spread through this hideout since it seems that gossip is everything around here." A person walked by talking about the fact that he heard that Pein was a robot. Point taken. Kisame nodded to all this. Now there was reason for doubt. Maybe I should just forget about that dream person . . . Kisame thought to himself. Maybe he should just try to see qualities unique to him, not those associated with the other guy. I sound gay thinking about finding good qualities about him . . . "Kisame, I'm parched, lets go get something to drink from the kitchen." Itachi stated. They both then made their way to the kitchen.

They both got something to drink and then wen tto go sit at one of the tables in the huge room leading off of the kitchen. As soon as they went to take a sip, Sasori and Orochimaru sat on the other side of their table. Why are they here? Itachi didin't seem to pay any attention to the men.

"Itachi, we seemed to get off on the wrong foot with this relationship." Orochimaru spoke first. He reached his hand over the table and set it on Itachi hand. Itachi's sharingan eyes darted up at him. Orochimaru's hand retreated.

"Exactly. Look, we have to tell you the truth and get this out of the way so we can be friends. We don't like Kisame at all. He's a monster that should go back to the ocean where he belongs with all of his shark friends. Obviously, the fact that we do not like Kisame bothers you so we are willing to make a . . . bet slash compromise." Sasori said. Sasori was really getting on Kisame's nerves. It was easy killing the other men that he killed before joining akatsuki and killing this guy would be easy as well. But still, he held in the urge for he did not have his samehada with him. He would be dead if I had it . . .

"What bet?" Itachi asked. Sasori smirked.

"We will have a simple fight. I win, everyone can say what they want about Kismae without you becoming a ticking time bomb. Plus, we get to tease you about being the little weak weasel you are." Sasori said. Itachi nodded; not to the insult but to the idea of fighting him. Kisame bit his toungue. This was unfair to him but he wouldn't say anything, it would probably ruin Itachi's plan. When did he start being concerned about Itachi's plans? Even he didn't know, but still, saying nothing would be the best thing in this situation. No need for them to find other things to insult him about. But still, if I had my sword everything would be better . . .

"Like you have to worry about that. But, if you really must know, everyone that has ever insulted the monster will not insult him anymore, instead we will try to become . . . friends . . . . with him."

Itachi yawned. "I have nothing better to do, I guess kicking your butt will at least give me some entertainment." Sasori gritted his teeth, got up and began heading out to the area of land behind the hideout. Itachi, Kisame, and everyone else followed behing him.

Everyone except the two sparring stood on the sidelines. Itachi and Sasori faced each other, ready to fight, waiting for the signal to go from Orochimaru. "Okay, not too much bloodshed. Sasori, don't cut Itachi's face," Orochimaru said admiringly while Itachi rolled his eyes, "ready? Set? Fight!"

They raced toward each other and began to fight, no weapons were used yet, it was all taijutsu. Sasori tried to punch him in the gut but Itachi grabbed his arm, turned, grabbed his other arm and tried to fling him up in the air. When he let go, Sasori flipped forward, landed fine, and quickly grabbed and threw a shuriken. itachi dodged it with ease. Sasori moved his pointer finger and Itachi crouched down. The shuriken flew over his head, almost cutting a few strands of hair. itachi tried to slide his foot into Sasori's foot to trip him but Sasori jumped and threw 3 kunais. Itachi rolled back and the kunai landed 5 inches away.

This constant fighting went on for half an hour until Itachi was tired of fighting him with the same techniques. Not once had he used any jutsus for it was easy for him to dodge Sasori's attacks. He distanced himself a bit from Sasori and used tsukuyomi on him. Continous torture going on for as long as he liked. Oh, how he loved that technique. It hit with a bad recoil but other than that, perfect.

Sasori fell to the ground unconcious. Itachi smirked, he had won. A gasp was let out by the crowd followed by many murmurs of "What just happened?" and "What did he do?" Orochimaru stepped out of the crowd and walked by Sasori. "Sasori . . . are you . . . alive?" Orochimaru asked, poking the body with his foot.

"He's alive, he's just unconcious. The damage done to his mind wasn't severe, I made sure of that. Don't worry, he'll be up in a while. It depends on the time he will spend unconcious." Itachi said, making his sharingan fade away. Slowly, everyone started to clear out, rturning to the hideout in silence. Only Itachi, Kisame, and the unconcious Sasori were left outside.

Kisame, after making sure everyone was gone, hugged Itachi. Itachi gave him a small smile. "Thank you Itachi." he thanked. Itachi pushed Kisame's arms off of him.

"I didn't do it for your sake. Don't think that I did." Itachi said, brushing dirt off of the bottom of his cloak. It had become dirty because of the fight. Kisame shrugged. I don't care if you didn't do it for my sake . . . it was the fact that you did it that counts. itachi turned around and asked, "does the back of my cloak have any dirt on it?"

"Yeah, here." kismae said, starting to brush the dirt away. Suddenly, Itachi let out a sound that sounded like a squeek. Then, Kisame realized what it was. Itachi had laughed. "You're . . . ticklish, aren't you?" Kisame asked, beaming. Itachi spun around quickly.

"No. Stay away." itachi said defensively. He was ticklish, Kisame could see through his lies. Kisame gave a convincing not and Itachi let his gaurd down. Big mistake.

Kisame started to tickle Itachi's sides and Itachi began to laugh more. "Ki-Kisame!! S-stop!!" itachi said, laughing. Kisame tickled him more making the Uchiha laugh even harder. Itachi slowly set his hands on Kisame's shoulders and tried to push him away. I didn't work.

Slowly, Sasori's eyes opened. He groaned quietly and then saw the two acting so friendly towards one another. He raised an eyebrow and tried to raise himslef up to stand but he couldn't; he was stuck there. Itachi and Kisame hadn't noticed the concious Sasori.

Ksiame let up on tickling Itachi but he kept his arms around Itachi's waist. Itachi smiled and then laughed, "Kisame, you're an ass."

"Sorry princess." Kisame said jokingly. Itachi lightly punched him in the shoulder.

"Shutup."

"So, your highness likes being called princess?" He teased.

"No! you're giving me a headache. I'd shutup of somebody's going to be fish food."

"Ooooh. I"m so scared." Kisame said with a hint of sarcasm. Itachi stood up on his tiptoes and tried to speak driectly into Kisame's ear but he could only get to his shoulder.

"You better be. Fish man."

Kisame began to laugh. "oh, you're a real joker, aren't you?" Itachi kicked Kisame slightly in the shin, not hard enough to leave a bruise. "very abusive as well."

"H-How . . .?" Sasori asked weakly. Itachi and Kisame looked over at him. "how can you two be so close . . . closer than any other partners . . . when you've only known each other for such a short time . . .?"

"The fact that maybe both of us needed a friend and . . . it doesn't take long for a friendship to develop. Besides, in this world, we only have ourselves but we need someone we can depend on to be there when you need them. If you're alone and in a bad situation, you could have your friend help you. If you have nobody, you'd be screwed." Sasori's eyes widened, he was surprised once again by Itachi's words.

Itachi and Kisame began to head back inside. Itachi left him with a few words, "Someday, you'll need somebody to be there and when that time comes, you better be ready with your pal by your side."

When they got back inside, Orochimaru approached the both of them. Nobody else was in the room. "Excellent job Itachi." Orochimaru complimented with a devilish grin.

"What do you want?" Itachi asked, sighing inwardly. This guy was beginning to get on his nerves, even Kisame noticed that. Once again, sword would come in handy. I'd have this snake skinned in no time . . . Kisame thought. He shook his head slightly, no matter how many times he wished it, his sword would not appear. But still, he could do so many things if he had his sword. Kisame thought of all the things he could do; all the people he could kill with out Pein seeing.

"I don't want anything . . . I just want to spend time with you and . . . er . . . Kisame." Orochimaru said, sounding repulsed by Kisame. Sword . . . Kisame thought, looking a bit distant. Itachi elbowed Kisame. Kisame snapped back to reality. He didn't know what was going on.

"Kisame and I are busy; we won't be able to spend any time with you." Itachi replied. Orochimaru but his arm around Itachi's shoulder.

"C'mon, sometimes you want to get away from him and you know it." Orochimaru said into Itachi's ear. Kisame looked at Itachi's face. He could tell that Itachi was pissed. He didn't seem to like people touching him nor did he seem to like people like Orochimaru. People that didn't know when to back off and stop trying to flirt with him.

Itachi pushed Orochimaru away violently. "Leave. me. alone." Itachi stated, glaring at Orochimaru with his sharingan. Orochimaru still didn't get the point. He tried to offer to do things with Itachi some more. Kisame knew the thoughts flying around in Itachi's mind and they all read: GO. AWAY. BEFORE. I. KICK. YOUR. ASS.

"Stop trying to hide your feelings, Itachi Uchiha." Orochimaru said, leaning his face closer to Itachi's. Kisame tried so hard not to laugh. Orochimaru was actually going to try to kiss Itachi. He is so dead. Itachi then did something unexpected. He looked away and muttered something.

"You're right . . . I can't hide my feelings any more . . ." He said. Orochimaru smirked and Kisame raised an eyebrow. And I wanted to see him get his face punched in. "I . . . love you Kisame." Orochimaru jumped away in horror.

"WHAT?!" Orochimaru and Kisame said in unison. Itachi hugged Kisame's arm and began to tug him away.

"C'mon, I want to do this somewhere romantic." Itachi said, pulling Kisame down a hallway, out of Orochimaru's view. Orochimaru stayed in the same shocked position for a few minutes before wanting to go throw up about it. Orochimaru thought, Him . . . with Kisame? YUCK!

Itachi had let go of Kisame's arm and sighed in relief. "Finally, he'll keep his paws off of me," Itachi then noticed that Kisame was still freaked out, "I didn't mean it. I lied to get him to back away. I don't like him and I certainly did not want him to do what he was about to do. I could've kicked or punched him but I was too angry and wanted to kill the man. Sorry Kisame for bringing you into the equation." Kisame sighed in relief. Itachi clung onto Kisame's arm again and said, "Let's go back to your room. I'm tired."

"Can't you go on your own?"

"Orochimaru wouldn't believe what I said if you didn't come too."

"You're a big pain, y'know." Kisame said, walking down the hallway with Itachi.

"Yeah but I'm your pain to put up with until I die. Get used to it." Itachi said, smirking. Kisame sighed with a smile on his face. Itachi . . . you can be weird sometimes. I'm guessing all friends are weird.