It took about a month before Sasuke actually managed to find me after seeing me through the falcon, I told him to come and challenge me in what had been the secret hideout of the Uchiha, now he finally had the same eyes as me and the moment had come, just as I had predicted. I had chosen that place because I could not tolerate any intervention or intrusion by third parties, not even yours. Regardless of the fact that it was a matter between him and me alone, the fact that I had made my younger brother hate me on purpose made me feel even more like a monster despite everything that was already abominable in my past. I had to admit that I ended up destroying his childhood and part of his youth, and constantly justifying myself by telling myself that I couldn't have done anything differently didn't help to make me feel any less dishonorable. In truth I feared that my heart might give out even before starting the actual fight, just by reading all the harm that I had inflicted on his face, in that case I could only hope that, thanks to the absence of witnesses, it would have happened anyway the news spread that he had killed the traitor alone with his own hands, thus becoming a hero. To tell the truth, the one who most risked making my heart explode prematurely was you. You cried continuously all the two days before my battle, you did nothing but hold me on your knees holding me in hugs that could last for hours, your tears wet my uniform, you kissed me with that wet face, it was a heartbreak, I no longer knew how to console you. I let you do it, you always enjoyed all my understanding, even if I often didn't show it to you, I let you vent your suffering, you had the right. I felt like crying too, after all it was because of me that you were feeling so bad now, you had met me by pure chance, and out of my weakness I had allowed you to become attached to the one who would have made you suffer so much. I felt terribly guilty, I always ended up ruining the lives of anyone who came into contact with me, however I kept this heartbreak to myself, you already had yours and that was enough, I didn't allow any tears to fall from my eyes. You sobbed saying that the memory of his flame is not enough for water to fly, but it must always have it close to you. I tried to answer that you no longer needed any help and that I had full faith in you because, now that you had learned to fly, you could do it even without me or with that small part of my heart that would remain inside yours for the whole life, all you had to do was just trust yourself; I told you by smiling and caressing your face, I was working hard to be strong once again as I had always known how to do, keeping all the negativity, anguish and pain tied to the bottom of my stomach so that you wouldn't see them coming out. from my gaze. Maybe you didn't realize it but in the last month, since the day the sky turned red, you had visibly lost weight, your cheeks had become hollow, although you were naturally muscular, your ribs had started to emerge on your chest, but the thing that hurt me most of all was realizing that the silver in your eyes had faded a little. I tried in every way to cheer you up, for the first time in my life, I tried to talk and smile as much as possible, as you can see, you too had changed me. I consoled myself by thinking that in a few hours no one would suffer anymore because of me, time would end up easing your pain while the desire to fly would remain with you forever. I had decided not to make the separation even more painful than it had to be, so on the morning of the clash, at the first light of dawn, while you were still immersed in that sleep that you had managed to conquer with so much effort, crying and rocking me again, I decided to get up, put on the cloak that you had always hated so much on me, and walk in silence towards the site of the battle. Everything had already been said, saying more heartbreaking words wouldn't have changed things. I could have done without your intervention to block Sasuke's team from showing up in full force, the result still wouldn't have changed. I was about to take a dirt path among the trees when I found you standing straight in front of me, I won't deny that I was infinitely surprised by your speed and by how silent you had been, most likely you had never fallen asleep but were just pretending while you observed all my movements. I managed not to flinch and hide my surprise, simply stopping my steps very calmly.
You, on the other hand, appeared agitated, you called me reckless, reminding me that I was too sick to face a battle, you concluded by stating that if I hadn't stopped of my own free will, you would have done so by force. I didn't move one iota, I took a step forward to show you my intention to go through with it. You threw your Ravenous Sharks at me as if I were your worst enemy, I disintegrated them by throwing a handful of explosive kunai at them without moving my body, a quick flick of the wrist was enough, but, from the water that fell on of us like a giant fountain, many more came to life. I couldn't understand, would you rather kill me yourself than let me fight Sasuke? Or were you hoping that you were the one who would lose your life? I could never have killed you, not even by mistake or if you had asked me to for some very valid reason. You were shouting at me that I would never be able to avoid that cluster of water sharks, at least not in the state I was in, but instead I did, I disappeared from your sight faster than light leaving you dumbfounded. I saw your worried look as you looked around disorientedly looking for me, you were certainly afraid of having hit me and hurting me. The same was true for me, that's why when you hit me with Samehada, after I reappeared a short distance away, I cashed in by blocking only with a small kunai, your sword was a few centimeters from my face but neither you nor she were being serious in that moment. You laughed, saying that Samehada was also happy to finally have the chance to battle me, a curiosity you both had from the beginning. Your weapon freed some of its purple scales from the bandages, scratching my face slightly, it barely touched me, it didn't even draw blood, but you withdrew it immediately while I twirled away with a somersault. It was all a feint, I had never seen a purely demonstrative fight like that, maybe you were trying to waste my time so I wouldn't get to the Uchiha base, maybe it was a desperate attempt to prolong my life, as long as we remained there, showing off our moves one after the other, you would have seen me still alive. I felt my eyes become teary at this thought but I couldn't let myself, you certainly didn't need me to start crying at that moment. I looked at you in surprise while you took a long break, perhaps surprised by the fact that, on that occasion, I was no longer as expressionless as usual. Maybe five seconds passed, an infinity for two like us, before you decided to hurl your enormous Bullet Shark at me, I rested by blowing my Supreme Fireball at it, causing exactly what I had predicted: a giant cloud of steam, the mist immediately enveloped us. It was true that you moved more easily in the fog being surrounded by your element, but at the same time my Sharingan would not have encountered any problems even though my vision was now so precarious. Or maybe my intention had simply been to make you understand that you had to decide to fly like your great water shark had done, once you had overcome the fear of taking off, you would realize how free and happy you could still feel.
Please fly, do it for me, it doesn't matter what happens to me, all the flames, sooner or later, are destined to go out, like my fireball did when it met your shark, but the water lasts for it always changes shape, changes state, but it remains, it has been present on earth since its birth and no one can destroy it.
With that move I wanted to explain all this to you, if I had said it in words I'm sure I would have fallen to my knees with my face in my hands sobbing. I came up behind you, pointing my kunai at your throat, but you dissolved the aquatic copy with which you had anticipated me by pointing Samehaha at my neck. We lowered our weapons, our hands fell disconsolately to our sides, while my eyes went black again.
Kisame held Itachi tightly to himself, kissed his hair, he couldn't help but enjoy the fact that it was loose: "I understood it, you know, scoundrel? Your eyes have always shouted everything, even in that moment when their glow had started to fade, I never doubted your love, not even for a moment, not even when you acted tough, your efforts to be strong for me until the end. The last ones were proof of your immense altruism that you maintained until the end, without ever asking for anything in return. Don't ever be ashamed of being a hero again, you were one for me too."
Itachi looked at him, raising his white face and smiling: "I have never been ashamed of anything with you, you were the only one capable of making me feel truly at ease and who never judged me or envied me, I don't dare imagine how much you suffered for my loss, if I was detached it was because, mistakenly, I thought I would make you suffer a little less if you weren't so attached, but it was impossible since I, for one, have always loved you. In the end I gave in."
To Kisame he smiled sincerely happy: "In that fight neither of us were serious, especially you, if you had used your special eyes you would have left me collapsed on the ground in a second to suffer the most atrocious tortures, while you, perhaps, would have you walked away calmly and whistling, I have never managed to avoid looking into your eyes, they are so beautiful it would be a crime"
Itachi felt like laughing, especially thinking back to the image of himself walking away whistling: "Actually yes, in that case you would have had to settle for just looking at my feet"
"Well, they're beautiful too, I would have felt satisfied anyway."
They both laughed as Itachi playfully ruffled his partner's crew cut.
After showing off some of our best moves, which had gotten us out of trouble plenty of times, we stood looking into each other's eyes, hot and panting. I don't know how much passed, it was one of those cases where you completely lose track of time. I was woken up by your voice, you were regretting having drained too much of my energy, taking away all hope in the fight against Sasuke. Your eyes became clear again as you asked me for forgiveness for that charade, you threw Samehada on the ground as you knelt with your head in your hands, exactly the image that had formed in my head about myself moments before. I grabbed your shoulders making you stand up gently, I guided your hands to remove them from your face while I dried your tears. Any words would have been superfluous at that moment, I smiled at you. Contrary to what you might think, I was really serene, going towards your own death, when you are aware of its inevitability, you experience it as a sort of liberation. It was your pain in that moment that hurt me. I took your arm, explaining that your only mistake, if it could be defined as such, was that of binding yourself to someone like me. We walked slowly, you knew exactly where we were headed but you were still with me, by my side until the end. I still held your arm and looked at you, I had turned my back on you too much but now I wanted to fill my blurred eyes with you. You started talking about seemingly senseless and unconnected things, perhaps to take the heaviness of that last day away from you, but it was our last chance to be together, I was sure that this was why you were trying to be more natural. possible. You told me about your childhood, you told me that because of your shark-like features you were the victim of bullying from your classmates until the age of thirteen. Even back then your body was much bigger and stronger than that of others, but your infinite goodness and honesty had always prevented you from taking it out on those who were weaker and smaller than you. You simply ignored those who offended you, which is why, you explained to me that day, my silences had always put you in such a crisis, you were terrified of the possibility of having offended me in some way. For the first time you went into detail about the unhappiest day of your life, the one in which you had to make the decision to eliminate your companions. There was a girl in that team, you said, she liked you and she did everything to get your attention. You were young then, not even twenty years old, the bullying you had suffered a few years earlier still affected you, which is why you were detached from the rest of the group to the point that you avoided eating so as not to join them, you who when you are hungry become like this unmanageable! You were terrified of rejection both from the girl and from the rest of the team. Your stories were of a disarming sweetness and spontaneity, so much so that at times I even closed my eyes to enjoy them better. You stopped to recount even small details about us, minutiae that would have escaped the attention of most people, like the fact that you always hated the dark blue nail polish you were forced to use for Akatsuki, but you avoided telling me because you knew how. I found that color adorable on you, it matched your skin perfectly. You were aware of the fact that my necklace was a gift from Sasuke, but that day you confessed to me that you had always wondered why my brother had given me something that looked like three bolts, for my elegant neck you would have chosen something finer, you even asked me if Sasuke had built it by hand using parts from a disassembled engine. You made me laugh so hard that I had to stop, you looked at me, your face seemed to light up, that was probably the first time you saw such a reaction on me. You jumped from one topic to another almost without noticing, happy that I no longer reproached you for talking too much but, on the contrary, I felt an immense joy now to hear you fill my silence. You told me about the training you received as a child when they understood that you were gifted at memorizing and decoding numbers and codes, they trained you to become a spy without you initially being aware of it, yes, contrary to what I had always thought, you could also be infinitely patient waiting whole days. However, you had always hated spies so your career inevitably took another path, you became a swordsman, the most skilled of all in your village despite you not yet having Samehada's help, you considered yourself to have been the best owner that she had ever had.
I listened to you with immense pleasure, my soul was calm, I looked intensely at your face absorbing the smallest details so I could take them with me, I felt I could never have enough. We arrived near the Uchiha hideout without even realizing it. We suddenly fell silent as we crossed that deserted neighborhood with its ruined buildings, it was I who made it so. The hands responsible for this began to shake a little even though they didn't loosen their grip on your arm. The viaduct we were traveling along, deprived of maintenance for years, had collapsed and suddenly stopped, we stopped on that edge, taking the last step in unison. Below us the absolute green, treetops as far as the eye could see, an emerald sea that filled our gazes, the place I was headed to was there, in the background, half submerged by vegetation. An outside observer would surely have thought that we were enjoying the view while savoring the wind that blew through our hair.