Chapter 2: Honesty

Kisame stared at the bags he was supposed to carry and glared at the smaller shinobi sitting in a tree about eighteen feet above him.

“Why do I have to carry everything?”

The Uchiha blinked and looked down at him.

“You already carry that useless nodachi. Why not a few more bags?”

Kisame growled. “He is not useless and stop calling him ‘nodachi!” It’s Samehada, ass!”

He growled again when Itachi made no sign of hearing him, still staring at him with that blank look of his that implied the bastard knew something he didn’t and had no intentions of sharing it.

“Arrogant son of a…” Kisame mumbled as he hauled the packs over his shoulders, shifting Samehada so it wasn’t digging into his back too uncomfortably.

“And why do we have two bags of food?”

“One is full of fish and the other is my food.”

“Why can’t you eat fish?”

“I don’t eat meat.”

Kisame sighed. “Come on, everybody eats meat.”

Itachi didn’t respond, merely jumped down and landed beside him. He’d obviously deemed the conversation over and began walking down the path before them without looking back. Kisame wondered why he’d chosen the stiff Uchiha as a companion. Then again, it hadn’t been much of a decision. They just met that one night and when they woke up the next morning, it had been as if they’d known each other all time.

Except he knew absolutely nothing about the prick before him except his name.

Itachi turned and watched him hustle to catch up. Kisame watched him as his companion actually closed his eyes as he walked, as if he could see without them.

They walked for a few hours before Kisame got pissed and veered off the path, heading towards a nearby village to rest. Itachi watched him for a moment before he followed. He stopped just outside the village and sat down on a rocky outcrop to wait. In the meantime, he picked up his bag of food that he had so carefully retrieved from Kisame while the moody shark was preoccupied and pulled out an apple.

This village was far enough away from the Mist village to not know that he was a wanted criminal but it seemed the people were buzzing with another source of gossip. As much as Kisame wanted to see the reactions of the village to their Mizukage’s near assassination, he picked up a local paper to check out what was overshadowing his fame.

Itachi blinked over his apple as Kisame jogged towards him, waving a report over his head.

“Hey Itachi! It’s all over everywhere. Your clan got its ass beat. They’re all dead.”

Itachi blinked again, albeit much slower. Was he really serious?

“All right.”

Kisame blinked in surprise. “‘All right?’ That’s it? You’re not upset or depressed or anything?”

“Should I be?”

Kisame shrugged unenthusiastically. “Well, you could be depressed and I could say something encouraging like ‘It’s not your fault they died. It’s not like you killed them.”

Itachi blinked slowly, the tiniest upturn of his mouth just barely visible over the apple.

“Actually, it is like that.”

They stared at each other for several minutes, both with unreadable expressions on their faces until Kisame turned and sat down on the rock beside him. The silence went on for a while until Itachi finished his apple and tossed the core away.

A rabbit came out from under a shrub, picked up the core, and disappeared with it.

“Damn,” Kisame finally said.

Itachi didn’t react. Well, maybe he did, but Kisame couldn’t tell the minute differences in his facial expressions yet. To him, they all looked the same.

He suddenly felt very overwhelmed. He’d failed to assassinate the Mizukage and here this little kid had assassinated his entire clan. And he was an Uchiha. They were supposed to be something amazing.

“I’ll bet you don’t know as many Suiton jutsus as I do.”

Itachi turned his head slightly, viewing Kisame out of the corner of his eye.

“If it makes you feel better, I don’t know any.”

“Who says I need to be made to feel better?”

Itachi shrugged and looked away again. Kisame sighed.

“We’re going to have to be more honest with each other.”

Itachi sniffed at the concept then said with a perfectly straight face.

“I’ve kissed a guy before.”

“NOT THAT HONEST!”