Paradoxically, although he was still immersed in extreme solitude, the summer after eighth grade was the best of his life for Kisame. He had always loved new beginnings, changes, especially if these occurred following a difficult moment. Getting into high school sure was, and very radical too. His passion for renovations had prompted him, one evening walking through a market, to buy an opal quartz. It was a summer day about a year ago, a very warm and calm evening, the buzz of people and the scent of incense was very relaxing as he walked among the stalls. He had always loved this type of markets, often there were unexpected curiosities, antiques or very special objects, unobtainable books and clothes worthy of the best boutiques at bargain prices. However, that evening he was unusually attracted by a stall selling stones. The minerals were divided, according to the type, into different square containers, all of which had been worked in such a way as to have a rounded shape, so as to be easily used as a pendant. Amethysts, turquoises, black onyxes, sunstones, one more beautiful than the other. Above each of them were listed their real or supposed powers. Among all, Kisame's attention was particularly captured by a milky white stone. He approached the container where there were several grabbing one to turn it between his fingers almost enchanted. He noticed after a few seconds that the surface of the stone was extremely smooth, while the mineral, apparently opaque, was actually semi-transparent, the light that passed through it, in fact, gave it reddish reflections.
"That is an opaline quartz" the voice of the lady who was at the stall almost made him jump "its power is to promote change."
Kisame smiled it seemed that the woman with the long brown hair had read his deepest thoughts about him. The boy bought the stone without hesitation, the lady imprisoned it inside a silver metal spiral which she then placed on a black rubber cord, she herself tied it around Kisame's neck.
"To get rid of all the negative things you want to get rid of and want to change, you have to rinse it every day under cold running water from the tap," she told him again as she greeted him.
The summer after eighth grade he had decided to enjoy it even though he was alone. In addition to the usual sports that he did all year round, he had also started a wind surfing course to enjoy the sea that he loved so much. He was quite good and learned quickly, he literally smiled flying over the waves taking the splashes on his face, looking at him from a distance was impressive, he managed to make several meters without ever touching the surface of the water. As he approached the beginning of the new school year, he did not experience it with the discouragement of previous years, but with a heart full of hope. He had chosen classical high school to please his parents.
"Your unrestrained passion for sport takes precious time away from studying, Kisame" his father had admonished him while smoking a cigar without taking his eyes off the newspaper "Choose at least one school that is serious."
Indulging them doesn't cost me anything, at least they'll avoid tormenting me, so after graduating I still decided to graduate in motor sciences.
He always tried to please everyone in order to live in peace and quiet, the three years of middle school he had just left behind had literally been hell. At times he wondered how Sasori was doing, the facility he had been in for a year and a half kept him completely isolated from the world, he couldn't even receive phone calls, even to talk to his family he had to respect strict schedules.
Well, in the end, he was more unlucky than me! He thought about Kisame the night before falling asleep exhausted from sport and with the skin parched by the sun.
The only thing that actually worried him was the possibility of meeting homophobic people in the new school, he decided that he would wait to get to know them well before revealing everything about himself.
I trust that now the boys are older, in any case I will only open up to those who will prove to me that they are a serious person.
On the first day of high school Kisame arrived at the school with a smile, he had taken care of his appearance down to the smallest detail, he had started to dye his hair, naturally black, with the midnight blue color which ended up becoming his hallmark for the whole the life. He was able to make his own this color, he loved it having discovered that that shade looked like a natural reflection of his hair.
After all, there are those who have blue reflections seriously.
He had put on a red shirt with three-quarter sleeves, leaving it unbuttoned near his neck so that the beginning of his well-developed pecs was evident. Although he always had the opaline quartz eternally hung around his neck, he had decided to keep it well hidden under the fabric, now he was creating problems for even the smallest things.
It's not that maybe, a guy wearing a pendant…
The bullying and marginalization he had suffered had ended up marking him deeply. He had put on black jeans that managed to be simple and elegant at the same time. He had been one of the first to enter the class. The desks were arranged in groups of two, he sat hopefully in the first row, right under the blackboard, occupying the innermost seat as if he were saying: the outer one is free, whoever wants to sit can sit.
He kept his big hands crossed with his elbows resting on the smooth green surface of the counter, he forced himself to maintain a composed and calm position despite his heart racing.
I don't want to spend five years alone in the stall, no, it would be too much, this time I would die.
A girl with long brown hair who had taken a seat about halfway across the room smiled at him from time to time fluttering her eyelashes, Kisame decided to definitively detach her gaze when she decided to wink at him.
"I can?" a voice distracted him from all these thoughts that swirled in his head making him almost jump.
A boy who looked like a classic nerd was asking him if he could sit next to him on the counter. Skinny, round and giant glasses, his silver colored hair was forced into a messy ponytail with tousled tufts that escaped in every direction, as if he hadn't combed his hair for at least a week. The white shirt with blue checks buttoned very tight up to the top and tucked into the waistband of the light gray trousers, on the feet moccasins of the same color which showed the white socks. He didn't have a backpack to put books in, but a large brown leather satchel with a handle.
Damn he dresses like my grandfather, the only thing I don't understand is why he dyes his hair this strange color and then doesn't take the slightest care of it. I don't know if we'll get along, this guy sure doesn't like sports. However I can't be picky now, I wouldn't want to be alone again, I have to force myself to be more tolerant of people.
"Of course you can" Kisame's full lips stretched into a smile.
"Nice, Kabuto," he said calmly after sitting down. Kisame couldn't help but notice that his pants, since they were precisely the exact length of the leg, ended up uncovering several centimeters of his socks, without however exposing his skin.
And of course, all calculated to the centimetre!
Kisame presented himself in turn shaking the hand that the other had extended finding it, as well as white, cold, flaccid and sweaty.
"You're a sporty type from what I see" Kabuto commented looking at him "Do your friends all do something, are they team activities?"
I don't have any friends.
"No, in reality they are all individual sports" Kisame had the impression of walking on eggshells. As he spoke, he weighed each word carefully so as not to risk ending up discriminated against again because of some wrong or undervalued term, the continuous tension made his palms sweat.
"Do you like video games?" Kabuto asked, confirming his nerd nature.
"To be honest, I can't stand still for a long time in front of the PC, I prefer to move around, it helps to release tension" Kisame regretted a bit having contradicted him immediately after a few minutes who had met, but that was a subject on which he really had nothing to say even pretending.
"I understand" Kabuto replied with an asymmetrical smile that Kisame didn't like at all even though he didn't understand the reason "I also have other interests, robotics for example, I would like my future to focus on this"
Come on Kisame make an effort, in the end this could be quite an interesting topic.
"I'm so intrigued! Have you already built something or are you just studying?"
"Actually my passion is cyborgs" Kabuto's black eyes lit up behind the big lenses "I built a perfectly functional one, if you want to see it live you can come to my house. If you like, you will have to do it in the next few days, unfortunately cyborgs, by their nature, have a limited life span."
"Yes, great, even tomorrow if you can" Kisame didn't have the faintest idea of what a cyborg was, he imagined it was a particular type of robot, however he couldn't understand why he had this sort of deadline.
"Perfect, in the meantime we can exchange numbers."
They barely had time to do so before the first teacher entered the classroom. That day was actually a bit peculiar, the professors followed one another making introductions and making an effort to memorize the faces and names of the new students. There was a lot of chaos in the class, everyone laughing, talking and making a lot of noise. Kisame was a little intimidated by this, being unaccustomed to relating to others because of the loneliness that he had always been part of his life, he didn't quite know how to fit into that hubbub.
Let's hope things calm down a bit in the next few days.
Kabuto tried to strike up conversations with the others, but Kisame, despite not hearing the words because of the infernal noise, still caught the annoyed and bewildered expressions of his interlocutors. Just before the break, while he was hoping that the brown-haired girl had forgotten about him, that banality happened that changed the next years of Kisame's life.
"Guys, now you will meet your school representative, he is visiting all the classes" announced the Latin teacher who was in the classroom at the time.
Since no one paid attention, due to the confusion, neither to the teacher's words nor to the newcomer, Kisame noticed him when he was already almost at the side of the desk. He jumped seeing him from behind as he walked slowly but confidently, he absentmindedly touched Kabuto's desk as he proceeded towards the professor who had announced it. Kisame had reached the intense and decisive scent of him. He was tall, with a cascade of jet-black hair that brushed his butt. Kisame literally gasped, he had never seen anyone have so many. He had climbed them in what appeared to be a gentle mullet, with nothing as extreme as the cut at his origins in the 1980s predicted. He probably cut them that way to handle them better, given the amount.
Damn it must be at least five kilos of stuff!
Kisame wondered if the perfume he had smelled didn't actually come from some product he used to treat that extraordinary mane. Interminable seconds passed before he decided to turn around, Kisame swallowed with a dry mouth and his heart pounding, aware that his ice-blue eyes were wide open and that Kabuto was looking at him sideways. Maybe he was falling back into the mistakes that had made him isolate during middle school, but at that moment he just couldn't compose himself and pretend nothing happened, he felt like he was captured by a powerful magnet.
I'm sorry, Kabuto, but I can't move right now, I feel like high voltage is going through me.
Finally the school representative turned to those undisciplined students from before. Kisame felt his jaw slip from the control of his brain as he leaned back in his chair for support. He had never seen such a beautiful face. That's where the magnet that held him was, in those eyes as black as night, sharp but nonetheless managed to maintain a calm and serene expression, the right one was semi-covered by a long tuft of hair, the lower eyelids slightly swollen made it even more attractive. His white skin, but beautiful and not unpleasant like Kabuto's.
Strange, yet the color is more or less the same.
The oval of the very fine face, the perfect nose, the full but not exaggerated lips. Kisame ran his gaze over the robust and solid body, although not as muscular as his. He wore a collared ultramarine vest, his hands propped on the waistband of his dark jeans in patient waiting for the rude class to shut up a bit to let him speak. Kisame felt dizzy as if he were drunk. The Latin teacher called them back raising her voice and slamming the dictionary on the desk, finally the class turned down the volume and noticed the institutional representative and his polite and kind smile.
"My name is Madara Uchiha, I attend Fifth C and I am your school representative" he had started bluntly, tilting his head slightly to the right to move the tuft from his eyes, his voice was deep and calm.
He must be very smart to get this role.
Kisame was so enraptured that he was only able to memorize fragments of the rest of the speech, he only recorded that in a week there would be an assembly during which everyone was free to make their proposals and freely express their opinions.
Damn, I'll have to find something sensible to say!
Subconsciously he had already decided that he could not miss. However, Madara didn't stay long as he was making the rounds of the entire school, he took his leave after about ten minutes winking at the class. Although Kisame was aware that the gesture wasn't aimed exclusively at him, indeed, he wasn't even sure Madara had noticed it, he felt the heat invade his as if he had just swallowed a very strong liquor. From that day on he suddenly felt changed as if the Kisame that existed before had disappeared leaving room for a completely new person to whom he still had to get used to.
Madara probably doesn't even know of my existence, it is very unlikely that he will notice and remember me at the assembly given the amount of people he will have to listen to, but I already can't help but think of him.
The next day Kisame had decided to accept Kabuto's invitation after school, he hoped at least to distract himself a little and to find his old self again, the one that had always existed before seeing Madara. After the end of the lessons he immediately went to his classmate's house.
"You know, I live alone" Kabuto explained to him while they were traveling on the bus "My parents have this studio apartment that had been empty for years, I initially only used it as a laboratory, but then I really moved there permanently."
They got off the bus, Kabuto guided his friend in a narrow and smelly alley usually frequented by a colony of stray cats, discomfort began to make its way inside.
"Come over here" the nerd opened a chipped and creaking door.
As soon as Kabuto turned on the light, Kisame realized he was inside a small cube with plasterboard walls, the other must have caught his surprise, in fact he specified: "This is only the entrance, you can leave the your backpack."
Kabuto opened a second wooden door that led into a larger room, Kisame, as a first sensation, was hit by the smell of old and worn carpet, he couldn't quite understand where it came from since the floor was made up of white tiles with very small brown spots. He had his answer after a few seconds, just long enough to get his clear eyes used to the dim light of that small room. It was the two green sofas and the black and white striped carpet at their feet that gave off that smell. It was old and worn things.
I believe very well that the parents can't find anyone willing to rent this room.
Next to the sofa on the right there was a large metal desk full of junk of all kinds, it was probably where Kabuto did his experiments but Kisame didn't understand anything in all these piled up pieces, buried there in the middle was also a desktop PC whose cables were going to get confused with the rest of that chaos. On the wall next to the door through which they had come, there was a small kitchen rendered unusable by the amount of dirty crockery and pans that were on top of it, without calculating the charred food on the stove that had been sitting there for who knows how long. Kisame again had the unpleasant feeling that he had done something wrong.
Is it possible that no one can satisfy you? Perhaps you are a little too demanding, what do you expect from people?
"For lunch we can order something, do you prefer a pizza or sandwiches?"
I believe it, it wouldn't be possible to prepare anything here, but I certainly can't eat the crap he's used to.
"Would a roast chicken be possible if I'm not asking too much?"
"Excellent idea, Kisame, I never think about this, I call the rotisserie."
"Why don't you open the window a bit, it's dark in here and it's day outside" Kisame ventured after the other had finished the phone call. He had the impression that the people who entered his life were one stranger than the other.
Kabuto smiled pleased: "Now I'll show you the reason immediately."
He walked over to the cluttered desk lighting what appeared to be a large lamp after pointing it towards the center of the room. However, nothing seemed to happen.
"Come and sit here, we must have a little patience and wait for it to warm up" Kabuto had noticed his friend's bewildered expression as he headed to the sofa on the right. After about a minute the lamp emitted a very powerful flash of white light. Kabuto's smile had widened despite still nothing happening. Kisame's lips were slightly parted in an increasingly bewildered expression. A second huge flash of white light, something moved under the other sofa facing them, a soft noise a small shadow moving, then stopped again. Third flash, finally that little thing decided to show itself, it was nothing more than a small black disk that moved thanks to three wheels. At the fourth flash Kisame noticed that he was swaying from side to side, he made a few centimeters at a time guided by the light, in the front part he had a small glass through which he probably could see.
"Damn, but what is it?" Kisame's lips had finally curled into a smile.
"A cyborg, the difference with a normal robot is that he is not totally mechanical but he also has living parts fused with the machine."
Kisame felt he didn't quite understand that speech as the little creature advanced towards them waiting for the light every time.
"His brain is real, I got it from an eel, it manages to survive because it is immersed in a refrigerated solution, the only problem is that the batteries don't last forever."
The smile disappeared from Kisame's face, he felt the imaginary perception of a foreign body in his throat, he hadn't felt that sensation for years, it happened to him as a child when he felt disgust for something. His uneasiness grew with each new advance of the robot in their direction.
Kabuto felt authorized to continue his explanations: "It's attracted to the light because it behaves like a real eel, it's in this way that they orient themselves on the seabed, if you've noticed it moves swaying as if it were swimming..."
The explanation was abruptly interrupted by the jerk Kisame made to stand up after that thing involuntarily grazed his shoe.
He's a monster, I can't believe it, Kabuto can create monsters! And I'm sure he'd be able to do that with something bigger, a person's brain as well?
"May we know what the hell is wrong with you, Kisame?" the gloomy look Kabuto assumed had the only effect of accentuating his friend's agitation.
"Um.. nothing, I realized I'm late for training at the gym, I have to go see you tomorrow."
"Come on, wait…" Kabuto's voice was drowned out by the abruptly closing door.
Kisame, having retrieved his backpack, had come running out of that dilapidated studio flat and, still running without ever slowing down, had reached his house. The upheaval was mixed with something new that he felt flowing in his blood, something that finally made him think positive and even smile for no reason. One of those new beginnings that he loved so much, a spark, no, a fire that was now giving him a new and inexhaustible energy and that allowed him to run without feeling tired, as if he could go on forever.
To hell with you and your monsters, Kabuto, I don't have to stick to the first one I find, now I have an alternative, his name is Madara. I'm free to choose, I have a duty to fight for what I really want and not settle for crumbs just so I'm not alone.