Making choices or making decisions necessarily meant making someone suffer, yourself or others. Apparently finding a compromise was not possible. However Kisame would never have believed that he would fail on both sides at the same time. He had chosen not to let the snow fall in August, thinking that if the people around him were truly happy, he himself would be happy as a result.

Sarana had left Kiba's New Year's party by taking a taxi with Kabuto. Kisame had desperately tried to pull her aside to try to clear up that unfortunate misunderstanding of her, but she had always found a way to sneak out of her both from his gaze and from the occasions he tried to create to talk to her calmly. The girl, however, was able to hide her emotions to the point that no one noticed the real reason that she had pushed her to leave the house in Kabuto's company. Naruto watched them leave with a smirk as he nodded in Kisame's direction who felt his chest fill with a boundless pit. Kabuto hugged the girl with a satisfied grin. Tayuya had remained to observe the scene hidden in the semi-darkness at the top of the stairs, Kisame could see her disconsolate eyes that occasionally shone casually struck by the lack of light. Perhaps the remaining people had noticed the change that had occurred both in him and in Tayuya, however no one mentioned it probably attributing it to tiredness also because the time they had spent on that damned landing had been so limited as not to have aroused no one suspects. It had been a relief for Kisame when finally, around dawn, everyone had left and Kiba and Naruto had taken him home.

"Great party, Kiba, thank you so much for everything" Naruto, in the passenger seat, didn't need to shout to counter the roar of the stereo which this time was off, he just yawned openly.

"He really wanted us, every now and then pulling the plug can do nothing but good. Did you have fun, Kisame?" Kiba's eyes looked at him from the rearview mirror a little inquisitively.

There had been a before and after Sarana and this, even if not said openly, had been captured by the minds of others as a sort of subliminal message.

"A lot, I'm just tired. I hadn't been late for a long time and I had missed training a bit" Kisame lied, forcing a smile.

"We'll take care of getting you back in shape" the blond who was in front had turned to look at him smiling.

Kisame had felt a little relieved when Naruto had asked him to swap numbers. He still didn't realize why but he knew that in those turquoise irises some key was hidden for solving most of his problems, it would be enough to look for them.

Clarify with Sarana, however, remained his first objective for the moment. He had tried to write her some messages, she had always replied to everyone now appearing much colder, she no longer sent smilies all the time. Since she always read everything, Kisame tried to explain to her using these means that what the previous evening had been just a misunderstanding, an accident as he had literally defined it when explaining the scene.

It doesn't matter, Kisame, I understood that. You don't have to justify yourself to anyone, least of all to me.

Those words, it doesn't matter, Kisame had always perceived them as the inexorable end of something.

He decided to let the unfortunate fact settle and talk about it once school started again so he could look her in the eye. In the meantime he had started going out with Naruto and Kiba more and more often, maybe he wasn't doing the right thing, he was probably abandoning the tracks he had started to go a little too much to try to reach a new life, but their company, above all that of the blond, had the power to make him forget all those difficulties that he perceived as insurmountable being alone. They waited for him to finish his shift at the pizzeria before moving on, for Kisame having so much concern from someone represented a completely new thing. They had been very normal evenings, a cinema, a pub, a simple walk talking and joking, but for Kisame it always seemed like something extraordinary and surprising, as if it had been done for the first time at that moment. It seemed that behind Naruto's blue eyes there was a parallel world yet to be fully discovered.

The long-awaited confrontation with Sarana took place but unfortunately the biggest disappointment that Kisame had arose from her total indifference. She nodded and smiled without baring her teeth, like Sasori, while he gave her all the explanations of what was her truth. She didn't get upset, okay, she replied, I understand. Then again that smile full of melancholy. Any reaction would have been better than all of this, even a slap or nasty words yelled in her face, but nothing. Kisame had spent endless hours wondering if after that evening Sarana by chance had deepened her relationship with Kabuto only to then come to find out that they barely spoke to each other.
All right, it was just something dictated by the pain of the moment, in the end he too was a collateral victim. All still because of me.

The idea that Kisame had was to make others suffer whatever he decided to do.

I hope the same thing doesn't happen with Kiba and Naruto, I care too much about their friendship, they always manage to lift me from the darkest abyss even if unknowingly.

However his fear of ruining everything had started to hold him back a bit, he had the constant impression of walking on a layer of eggshells.

Kisame, I need to talk to you. Do you mind if we meet alone for a coffee? Naruto.

Kisame had just retrieved his cell phone from the gym locker room after an intense training session when this message sent him completely into a panic. He was pretty sure he'd managed to ruin his relationship with them too. Unfortunately he would have had to wait until the following day to go to that appointment and this ended up preventing him from sleeping. He had been thinking about the words to say to Naruto all night more or less preparing himself even for the worst, that is to be alone again.

It was a mistake, I didn't want to. It probably would have ended very differently if Deidara hadn't suddenly closed the door, if I hadn't let Tayuya's strange ideas drag me along, if Sarana hadn't climbed the stairs at that very moment…

He couldn't get out of this endless loop of thoughts that inexorably dragged him lower and lower. He walked towards the appointment with his friend with heavy legs, as held by a giant chewing gum in which he sank at every step. He was on his way to that street that he had seen a lot in recent times, it had been the scene of his change so rapid that he himself still had difficulty realizing it.

Kisame saw Naruto coming towards him from afar. His unmistakable blond hair seemed to light up that road, his self-confident walk, his hands buried in the pockets of his dark brown suede coat.

Brown suits him well, it's a warm color and goes very well with the gold of the hair.

Kisame attached himself to these details to distract himself and not think about his heart which meanwhile gave him the impression of having stopped.

Naruto smiled, that expression had always had the power to calm Kisame even if he was in the worst situations, his legs stopped shaking even if his anguish remained. Naruto greeted him placing a hand on his shoulder, Kisame was sure he was sweaty and pale at that moment. He let himself be guided by the blond as if he were an automaton, he felt light-headed so he barely registered the noises and images of what was around him.

An intense stench of smoke made him come back to reality, Naruto had led him to a scruffy bar located in a small side street of the main street. One of those where you expect to see old men playing cards, wooden clogs on the walls and billiard tables, all things that were actually in there.

The blond ordered two coffees without asking his friend if he wanted something different before sitting down at a circular wooden table with a chessboard set in the centre.

If Naruto hadn't broken the ice with his usual very direct and decisive character, they probably would have remained sitting there for days looking at each other without saying anything: "Kisame, as you surely have understood, both Kiba and I care so much about your friendship and that's why that we have noticed something is wrong. Precisely because I am your friend I want you to know that you can talk to me about any problem. I don't guarantee its resolution, I don't know how to perform miracles yet, but maybe I could give you some advice."

Naruto smiled, Kisame lost in his reassuring turquoise eyes as he felt his facial muscles finally relax.

He will be an excellent mayor, the makings of a leader and empathy are his innate characteristics.

There were so many things that Kisame wanted to tell him. He decided to start with the most recent one, that is with the equivocal success at Kiba's party with Sarana.

"Kisame, let me tell you exactly how I think" Naruto had leaned back in his chair while the serious expression that had taken on his face made Kisame clearly understand his full availability "I think Deidara has closed exactly the door at the right time, that you were right to give in to Tayuya's extravagance and that Sarana couldn't have chosen a better circumstance to climb those stairs. What I'm trying to make you understand is that denying one's way of being to please others is the most wrong thing we can do towards ourselves. Sadly, I've seen a lot of people lose their lives chasing these misconceptions and letting those around them influence them. You have to express your personality and not rape it, do you want to spend the rest of your life in an unhappiness destined to become more and more black?"

Kisame didn't believe his ears, the boy in front of him had practically read his soul. Everything had the contours of a beautiful dream.

"You see Naruto, however I must confess that I, wanting to insist on following certain paths, ended up collecting the worst disasters of my life. Maybe that's why Obito and Madara disappeared like that."

Kisame lowered his eyes starting to tell Naruto the truth about the last night she had seen them, Obito's reaction and the relationship between him and Madara that seemed to have finally settled down. He felt a hand gently grasped as he continued to stare at the floor.

"Thanks for telling me, Kisame. Stop wearing yourself out because you have no responsibility. Unfortunately Obito is a person full of problems, we were also aware of it before you, he cannot accept himself as a result it is difficult for him to trust others and find someone who loves him, for this he ends up being extremely possessive I'm sorry that it went like this just needs time but I am sure that he will be able to send his life in the right direction. At that moment you were on the right track and you were wrong to leave her because of this inconvenience."

Kisame finally raised his eyes feeling himself dissolve in a sincere smile. Naruto's, however, was amplified by taking a mischievous note.

"Do you know what Kiba and I were thinking a few days ago? After all, we are close to graduation, we could organize a beautiful party all together if you like, as soon as you emerge victorious with that sheet in your hand, I would like you to join us."

Kisame felt over the moon, Naruto had always understood everything about him, from day one. He always understood everything about everyone, his innate empathy seemed to read directly into the soul. Kisame marveled at how perfect the game of billiards he had with him had been in that place so sloppy and full of smoke, he understood that that watered-down beer had seemed so good because it wasn't the place that counted but the people around you and the right harmony you had with yourself.

Kisame had decided to take a break, from feelings more than anything else. It was a rather long pause which she hadn't calculated the end of at all. Friendship with Naruto and Kiba relieved him of the brief relationship he had with Sarana as she freed him from thoughts, albeit more intense, of Madara.

Actually I always think about both of them, and I feel sorry for both of them.

He observed the bracelets that he always wore thinking about them. His busy days helped him further not to brood, now that the final exam was approaching he had also intensified his study hours. Naruto's smile made everything so easy that Kisame had the impression of going through those months as if he were slipping comfortably into a stream of warm water. Seeing Sarana's sad face every day in class, wondering what had become of Obito and Madara, all things that normally would have hurt him like nothing less than a knife, slipped on him leaving him unscathed thanks to Naruto. The outings that he made with them were very quiet in that period, the two friends fully respected his work, sporting and study commitments.

Kisame wasn't very accustomed to receiving so much attention from others, his loneliness was so ingrained in him as to make him believe that this was the normal world. The relationship with the family passed almost serene as he had never been.
"Kisame, but that girl doesn't text you so much anymore, did you break up?" his mother's question, asked so point-blank, made him stop his fork in mid-air while they were having lunch, any day.

"No, mum, it's just that now I'm concentrating a lot on studying, the exam is near. We took a while, how to say… on a break. She was very understanding about this."

The father nodded with a slight smile as the woman stood up to kiss him on the head.

All in all it had been an easy time even though he was aware that it would soon have to end.

Perhaps moving to another city to continue my studies will allow me to be freer, I will no longer see the faces of Sarana and Kabuto, those I have disappointed.

Kisame didn't feel like calling himself a coward for this thought, she had suffered so much in recent times that now she couldn't even take on other people's problems.

Gradually the climate became hotter and hotter, Kisame smiled at the spring that that year was a rebirth for him too. Madara and Obito hadn't shown up again by gradually appeasing their thoughts even in Kiba and Naruto.

The days of the exam Kisame would never have imagined them like that, he was totally calm and it almost made him smile to see the nervousness of his classmates.

Sasori, are you also graduating today?

It didn't seem real to him when he left that yellow building for the last time, many things had changed since he had set foot there for the first time with the only dream of impressing his institute representative. He didn't say goodbye to anyone, the really important people in his life weren't within those walls, he already knew they were outside waiting for him, Naruto had sent him a message warning him that he and Kiba had already emerged unscathed from the exam.

Kisame, since Kiba didn't shine much let's avoid commenting on the grades and let's go have a good time right away!

The sun filled Kisame's eyes as he descended the stairs, dazzling him for a few seconds.

"Kisame, so how did it go?" Naruto's cheerful, ringing voice.

He didn't know what to say, mostly finding himself in front of the chestnut. He just showed him and Kiba the paper she was holding, he had graduated with honors. The other two embraced his while jumping.

"Congratulations to us, we have to celebrate big" The sun lit up Naruto's eyes and hair but there would have been no need, he had the light inside "Clear all the commitments you have, we have organized a beautiful party for Saturday, is a surprise."

Those two surprised him more and more, no one had ever prepared a surprise party for him, to tell the truth he had never even received someone's congratulations.

His parents took him to dinner in a luxurious sushi restaurant, while he looked at their faces filled with pride, Kisame's mind was crossed by other questions.

Is it my academic achievement that makes you so proud or the fact that you think my life is going a certain way?

He caught himself thinking how this didn't matter that much to him, Naruto could make mountains look like pebbles and Kisame knew she could count on him now.

Needless to say, he had been waiting for that Saturday with trepidation, he had no idea where they were going to celebrate Kiba and Naruto so he had decided to dress elegantly without exaggerating. He wore a yellow shirt that stood out very well on his tanned skin without however overshadowing it, on the contrary, it enhanced it. He wore a rather dull black leather vest over hia which he combined with boots and trousers of the same fabric. He decided to leave his opal quartz out in plain sight, thanking it inwardly for having granted him so many changes. As he arranged his hair in front of the mirror, his gaze fell on the bracelets on his wrists. He sighed thinking of the people who had given them to him, one had abandoned him, he had done the same thing with the other.

The worst thing in the world is to delude people, I'll have to treasure this teaching to never be wrong again.

Kiba had come to pick him up again in his electric blue Peugeot 208, the volume on the stereo, although once again loud, was not sky-high like on New Year's Eve and it didn't send out thumping disco music but much softer than a a genre that would have been suitable as a background for an aperitif bar. This time Naruto sat in the passenger seat and it was he who turned in his direction with cheeks slightly flushed.

"You will see what an evening, Kisame, you will never forget it for the rest of your life, it is our moment and rightly so."

He thinks I'm worth something.

The busy streets of the city center were teeming with life. Kisame realized that he had never been there, he was looking, from time to time, for answers on Naruto's face, peering through the rear view mirror, always seeing his satisfied and positive smile.

Besides the cars, the street was also invaded by people on foot. The building that stood out in front of them could have looked like a simple house if it hadn't been for the Tsuki no Me writing hanging on the facade illuminated by red neon. However, everything remained immersed in a very familiar setting, terracotta pots full of colorful cornflowers were used as a sort of traffic divider in the row.

Approaching the entrance of the building, consisting of a heavy and antiquated wooden door, Kisame began to feel the muffled bass of the music coming from inside. Many of the boys who stood in line were dressed and made up picturesquely. Spacey silver suits that looked like fancy astronaut suits out of some old sci-fi movie. The girls with skin sprinkled with glitter and hair held together with metallic hairspray.

"Naruto, you didn't tell me there was a dress code." Kisame commented feeling suddenly out of place.

The blond turned towards him smiling and placing a hand on his powerful shoulder: "Kisame, the problem never exists when you are yourself. What are clothes but the mildest form of expression of what we are not?"

It was true, Kisame had to admit that when a person feels out of place he always does it only within himself. Those on the outside never perceive these tremendous battles.

In most cases they don't even have a reason to exist. From today my new life begins, the one in which I will stop hurting myself with my hands.

A smile curved the full lips of Kisame who now felt extremely relieved.

Once past the old wooden door, the atmosphere changed completely. The interior of the room had completely black walls with a drawing of a galaxy that branched out throughout the room. Stars and planets moved slowly inside a transparent glass cavity giving the impression of being real and of emanating their own light. Since the floor was also made that way, one really had the impression of floating in space accompanied by extreme bliss.

The effect was so realistic that Kisame had the sensation of stopping breathing.

Of course, there is no air in space.

Naruto and Kiba had turned smiling towards Kisame who had remained behind bewildered, the dark purple of the neon was reflected in their eyes making them similar to aliens. Even the tables were of that color, contributing to making the atmosphere of a magical galaxy.

On the track, although he was full of boys around their age, Kisame didn't see anyone from his school.

I was not on good terms with practically anyone. Thank you Naruto for understanding this too.

While the three friends sat down at one of the purple tables to make the first cheerful toast to their new life which began by uncorking a bottle of prosecco, Kisame wondered absently why Kiba and Naruto hadn't organized one of their evenings based on they used to talk to since he had met them, years before, in Obito's house. Yet that Susanoo they always mentioned seemed to be the funniest place in the world. However, he decided to keep the doubt to himself, if they had taken this decision to celebrate their diploma there must have been more than valid reasons.

This evening is too perfect to be ruined by stupid doubts.

After the third toast and the second bottle had just started, Kiba got up a little shaky from the table to launch himself onto the track. Also cheered by the wine, Kisame noticed how he seemed to float in space as he writhed to be noticed by a blonde all permanent and space blue makeup to the beat of thumping house music.

"Kiba is bisexual and I've always believed that, for this, he's very lucky" Naruto explained turning the goblet between his fingertips "He is able to appreciate all people without any limit, you don't know what I would give to try this wonderful experience."

"How about if we now try the experience of a cocktail at the counter instead?"

"Kisame, you are amazing."

The two boys set off laughing in the direction of the bar marked by green neon lights where a silver-skinned bartender served drinks.

"Nice idea, Kisame, we needed a little sweet" Naruto smiled sipping his Sex on the Beach.

They turned back towards the track, framing Kiba who was now making a handsome dark hair do a pirouette. Kisame immediately understood what Naruto was explaining to him earlier.

Once they finished their drinks, as if some very pleasant invisible threads were tying them up, Kisame and Naruto turned to look into each other's eyes. Kisame had imagined them bright and blue, those threads, very beautiful and irresistible like Naruto's eyes were. Two pieces of the ocean that always had the solution for everything.

Kisame felt the desire to dive into it, it didn't matter if he had to jump off a very high cliff, the impact would still have been wonderful.

He took a step forward, but the rapid breathing the rapid breathing forced him to stop.

With Madara I let myself be carried away by passion without brakes, doing everything wrong. You are too precious to screw everything up without thinking. You're teaching me how to live, you're the same age as me but the experience of an already mature man. I feel that thanks to you I'm grabbing that life I've always dreamed of, if I fell back into the well you're lifting me from I wouldn't be able to re-emerge a second time.

Kisame's ice blue eyes, until a few seconds before shiny and dilated, narrowed in a smile that was reflected on Naruto's pink face.

I can't risk it, I wouldn't do it.

Perhaps Kisame would have wanted something really sensational to happen on his graduation day, but then he ended up realizing that that evening was already like that. He had those friends he had never had, an invitation to a party, faces of people who smiled as they saw him arrive. Naruto, then, was the most amazing thing of all.

Isn't it the things that seem obvious that are the most beautiful? I will never again make the mistake of considering something trivial.