I stare across the dark impromptu campsite with onyx eyes, my body heavy and my stamina too drained to call upon my ocular powers. The blue fish-man stares back, illuminated by the amber flicker of the campfire, a bloody grin on his face and weeping wounds on his limbs.
We are both equally incapable of fighting, not that it would do me any good. I am roughly aware of who he is, a ninja swordsman of the Hidden Mist, and therefore a peer of Zabuza Momochi.
Utterly beyond me alone.
And yet through strange circumstances, here we sit, separated from our comrades, around the same fire and equally incapable.
"Still, what an interesting conversation partner to be stuck with," Kisame Hoshigaki drawled. "Sasuke Uchiha, Itachi's very own brother, the self-styled avenger."
"Shut up," I bark. "I'll kill you too, if you get in my way. You're his associate, so I'm sure I'd be doing the world a favor."
Yet I can barely lift a finger right now, much less a kunai.
The bastard only chuckles, though, as if it were a friendly barb.
"You might just be. Truly, if I put myself in everyone else's shoes, we are completely and utterly evil. I could hardly blame you for pointing your blade at me, not from where you're sitting."
I'd rather not rise up to the bait, but my exhaustion and curiosity get the better of me.
"You disagree," I observe.
That jagged grin becomes a smirk, and I regret opening my mouth.
As his gaze turns to the side, towards the moon, I understand that he really doesn't consider me a threat. But then he opens his mouth to speak, and I'm forced to listen.
"Hey, the Itachi you knew as a brother," he begins, and now more than ever I wish I wasn't stuck here with him. "Tell me, was every word dripping with lies? Did he mean every word?"
Is he mocking me? The resolution settles in my mind, I'll definitely kill him.
"The hell?" I manage to get out. "You're his partner aren't you? You should know he's a liar."
"That isn't what I asked," Hoshikagi countered immediately. "I didn't ask if he was a liar. I asked if he meant every word of his lies, if they were as honest as his truths."
The oddity of his question forced me to think about it, as much as the question itself.
If his lies were as honest as his truths...
I'm sorry, Sasuke.
And with the answer, I understand the question.
"Yeah, he did." I avert my eyes, but I can't escape the retort I already expect.
"Then your brother and my partner are truly the same person. What a cruel thing to know."
As I look back, he's still staring down the moon. He isn't smiling.
I think I can understand it. Though, I'm sure it's a different thing for him than for me. They're comrades, after all.
But for me, understanding means deepening, unrelenting hatred. That man is still, truly, my brother. Therefore, all the more reason to cut him down and restore my clan's honor.
"I'm going to kill him," I say, with utmost conviction.
Kisame Hoshigaki looks at me, dead in the eye and without a grin or smirk to be seen, and says "I believe you."
Before I can respond, a rushing of air fills the campsite, and a tall man with dark hair and, standing out to me, lacking the bloody-clouded coat that Kisame and Itachi share.
"Kisame, I've come to retrieve you," his dark voice booms outward, like he's used to projecting it.
"About time, 'my lord.' Not that I don't appreciate it, heh." Hoshigaki chuckles, and reaches his good hand—he had a good hand?—up to the man, who grasps his arm in turn.
Kisame looks back at the moon for a moment and mutters something with a grin, before he disappears, and the other man quickly follows suit.
What strange ninjutsu. Itachi's comrades will all wield just as alien powers, I'm sure, but even still, I'll cut down every last one of them if I have to. Believe it.
I turn my own gaze to the moon while waiting for my own comrades to come retrieve me, and try to put those last words of his out of my mind. I'm sure I won't know their meaning for a long time, if ever.
"I wonder, will it be your eye up there, casting out the lies? I'm excited to find out."