The day Kisame joined the Akatsuki he came to accept the fact that he will be a team by himself. He had no trouble understanding the difficulty people had working with him, on the contrary, he had faced that his whole life. He had been a one-man-team all his life too.

During Kisame's second year with the Akatsuki, Leader had accepted a new member to the organization; a child with clothes that were supposed to be for the higher ranking shinobi of the Leaf, with Gray overalls drenched with blood and an expression of death. Uchiha Itachi, his new partner. At first Kisame refused the idea of a partner, nevertheless a child in his early teens. But Itachi kept to himself, only answering Kisame's prying questions with utmost respect, which the Blue skinned man later understood to be a persistent quality in the uchiha that did not always mean the boy was weak. It was just the way he was raised.

Kisame started to take a liking to the boy for the first year they had spent together. The Uchiha treated him as a partner and not a monster. He had not once complained about being paired with an odd person like Kisame, which was what the Samihada wielder always liked about him. In the third year they spent together, Kisame had uncovered the dark secrets of the Uchiha's life, including the reason for his recruitment with the Akatsuki. Kisame also came to terms with the undeniable fact that Itachi, the 15-year-old adolescent, was much stronger than him.

Kisame had many fears concerning the Uchiha that he did not dare disclose.

First was the chance that the Uchiha would leave him. Second, that the Uchiha would not want to be his friend anymore and the third most awful awaking nightmare was the Uchiha dying in front of his eyes.

Itachi had an incurable disease, a curse really. A heart condition that occasionally rendered him bed-ridden for days on end and sometimes made him fall during battles. Kisame would never forget the night the Uchiha wished him a well sleep only for him to wake up in the morning to find the Uchiha blue-lipped and breathless. Dead. Kisame had pushed on his chest and screamed for the medic nin of the Akatsuki, Kakuzu to get in the room.

They had managed to get the pale teen's heart to beat again. Kisame had never slept a wink since that night, and he had become an insomniac.

That was one of the times Kisame felt his life end. The other time was when the Uchiha collapsed and lost his vision, only for it to return a month later much weaker. The sight of the young Uchiha tracing the walls with his fingertips to find his way made his heart ache.

The rain did nothing to conceal the tears sliding down the blue cheeks when Itachi decided to let his burden flow through him for the last time. He was standing in front of his brother, Sasuke, urging him to end his misery. And Kisame saw all of it, but he did nothing. For Itachi asked not to. Kisame watched as the oblivious younger Uchiha fought with all his mind, unknowing of his brother's near blindness, or the way Itachi checked twice before he hit him, to make sure he didn't hit too hard.

…

At the end Sasuke trudged away with his injuries and Itachi lay on the muddy ground dead once again.

…

But this time Kisame couldn't bring him back. Wouldn't. because that is what Itachi wanted.