The team

Kisame had never in his life complained about anything. When you received an order of any kind, you had to accept it without question. Personal feelings had to be left at home in order to prevent them from interfering with the tasks at hand.

He hadn't protested when, as a partner, he had touched that boy who was so cold and detached that he was able to not utter a word for whole days. He knew his torment, everyone knew it by now. No one, better than Kisame, could be aware of what pain one feels when killing a comrade; he himself had been forced to do so much for this he had full respect for Itachi's silence. Although with a positive and talkative temperament, Kisame let Itachi's moments of despair slip on him without interfering, it was normal, they formed a team and the shark man had been educated from an early age to have this spirit.

It was almost impossible for everyone to understand what was going on in the darkness of Itachi's head, only Kisame seemed to have the gift of capturing those thoughts on the fly without the dark-haired needing to use words. The eyes were enough, the infinite and penetrating darkness of that gaze seemed to cry out. He hadn't protested even that day, Kisame, returning from the second unsuccessful attempt to capture Naruto. After using his deadly Tsukuyomi on Kakashi, Itachi looked exhausted. Kisame had glanced sideways at his pale face beaded with sweat, he could feel him breathing laboriously behind him, so he tried to slow down his pace as much as possible. Everything was normal: they were a team and the partner never gave up.

His sensitive hearing caught Itachi taking a slight detour, though when he managed to be silent he could never escape his sharklike senses. Kisame turned around just in time to see the dark haired stagger towards the trunk of a tree, lean on it with his left hand and rid his stomach of what little he had managed to swallow that day. After the first violent retch, Itachi fell to his knees. Kisame approached him, supported him wrapping his chest with one arm while holding his head high with the other hand. He had never touched Itachi, never even touched by mistake, no problem: they were a team and he certainly couldn't risk him collapsing unconscious in his own vomit. Kisame realized that his companion had also expelled blood dirtying the front of his cloak, he was burning with fever and the shark man was trying to measure his immense strength to avoid hurting him. Itachi had such difficulty breathing that he seemed on the verge of suffocation, he sat down on the ground with his back on Kisame's chest relying completely on his hands.

The intense fear felt by the shark man fused with something new. That unexpected and close contact, the immense trust Itachi placed in him in that vulnerable situation, shook his blue skin and thick with shivers. Maybe that was the sign that his heart hadn't died the day he had to eliminate his comrades, all those years ago. The team spirit did not allow him to abandon Itachi to his fate, he picked him up by lifting him in his arms. As he scrambled to his feet he noticed that the dark haired was much lighter than his Samehada broadsword, a wretched, shaking bundle. As he walked to a nearby stream of fresh water, every jolt of that body he had pressed to his chest ignited a glow in Kisame. Lights, which allowed him to pierce the thick darkness of his soul put under anesthesia so as not to suffer. Or to avoid having to collide with the nothing felt by Itachi towards him. Now Kisame saw clearly all the times he had admired the pale and sleepy face of the dark haired, the long lowered eyelashes that stood out against his white skin. He remembered his eyes softened by sleep when, waking in the morning, he asked him why he hadn't called him to take his watch; Itachi asked this while letting out a small yawn that made Kisame jump. He remembered how his refined senses had begun to perceive a change in the smell on Itachi's skin and breath, how his silver eyes had seen him countless times rummaging under the hood to look for the mysterious pills he had been swallowing for some time now . The new light that descended into his soul made him realize how many times he had fallen in love with Itachi, so illegally beautiful but so terribly cold. But they were a team, he had to accept his company even if in the dark's heart there was always that girl who had to die under his hands.

Kisame laid Itachi on the bank of the stream freeing him of his cloak and forehead protector. The shark man's mighty hands had no trouble tearing off a shred of the cloth belt that wrapped around his waist, he plunged it into the cold water to dab Itachi's face. He rubbed it on his neck, on every inch of skin that he had exposed, cleaned his caked mouth of everything. Itachi's breathing had become a little more regular even though he still didn't open his eyes in the grip of a fever.

Evening was coming and Kisame, certain that his companion would have been cold with only the short-sleeved uniform covering him, lifted him up again in his arms to carry him where both would have faced the difficult night that awaited them. The shark man sat leaning against the trunk of a tree with Samehada on the ground to his right and Itachi on his lap, he opened his large cloak to wrap us both inside. Itachi, though unconscious, had instinctively curled up on Kisame's body.

"Sasuke..." the dark-haired murmured in a moan.

"Don't worry, he's fine. You didn't realize it but today I saw him, he and Naruto are very good friends and they never lose sight of each other" lied the shark man stroking Itachi's burning forehead.

"Kisame..."

"Yes?"

"Since I met you, you have been everything to me. Thank you for filling my loneliness and easing my pain. I know you've seen everything I've always tried to hide from you, even if it doesn't matter to you, I love you."

Kisame felt his big heart stop, his silver eyes wide. He gently embraced that trembling body."

"Itachi, I've always loved you but I didn't know you felt the same for me, I thought you didn't care about me. And I didn't know that you too were convinced that you weren't loved by me."

Tomorrow Itachi probably wouldn't remember anything, maybe it was just the fever talking. Itachi had little time to live, Kisame knew that. But now that he had known what was missing, he promised himself that he would do everything to make the few days that remained to his partner as serene as possible. No problem: they were a team... in life.