A/N: Hey, hey, what up all! I know it's been awile, but a promise is a promise, dang it. sexi-sei requested a one-shot of me, and I'm finally able to deliver. Now, I'm not a big fan of this couple, so it was kind of hard to write. It is set in canon universe during the time lapse, right before the beginning of Shippuden. Please read and review, as I know it's an odd pairing, and I would really like to know if I did the characters any justice.

And, no, I am not Misashi Kishimoto moonlighting as The Rabid Bunny, so I do not own these characters. The shack and creek are mine, though...well, I had to claim something, dang it!


Things had definitely turned out very badly this time.

The problem, though, was that he had no idea how things had gotten so bad.

It had been a simple enough mission. While Itachi was off doing a little research about his family's legacy, Kisame had been given the simple direction of checking out the Leaf Village's defences. Soon enough, he and Itachi would be visiting the village in order to confiscate the Nine-tailed demon and it's vessel, so a little bit of easy recon should have been kid's work. He'd thought of it as a little mini vacation between missions; something that he could take his time with. Yeah, right.

While traveling along the border of Mist and Fire, he had come across a very random band of misfit ronin. Normally, he would not have thought twice about side-stepping a fellow shinobi who claimed no loyalty to his or her homeland. He had his own reasons for breaking his vows to serve, as, he assumed, did all other rogues. However, this idiotic trio must have been fresh from falling out with their village, because they immediately recognized him. Blue skin, white eyes, and gills are a dead giveaway every time. Thus, this merry band of morons felt the need to assert their newfound venture into bingo book hall of fame by taking out one of the top ranked ronin ever.

Child's play.


All had gone well, and he had taken down the three before they'd even had the chance to draw their weapons. Kisame hadn't even had to pull Samehada from its position on his back. Easy.

Until that little bitch used her last breath to shoot him in the ankle with a poisoned needle. Fucking med-nins and their shady tricks.

And now, Hoshigaki Kisame, one of the last remaining of the Legendary Seven Swordsmen of the Mist was going to waste away in an out of the way hunk of vegetation on the edge of nowhere between his least favorite two countries. Itachi would be wrapped up in his research for another couple of days, so he had no hope of anyone finding him any time soon.

The indignity of being such a great scourge to the five great nations and finding himself in such dire circumstances was unbearable. If he had the strength to heft his sword, he'd take his own life. But even that had been stripped away from him. Hopefully that ugly little kunoichi would be burning in some for of hell right at that moment. Kami knew Kisame would be joining her soon enough.

It was just as he was losing his last bit of consciousness that he felt a light pressure flutter across his brow, then push against his throat. His breathing was labored, and his vision, which was already black around the edges, was dimming alarmingly. Suddenly his body shifted into the air, and he felt completely weightless.

Perhaps this was what it was like to die, and perhaps hell wasn't so bad was all he could think as the haziness over his eyes blurred pink before blacking out fully.

Haruno Sakura was on full medic alert as she felt the body slung over her shoulder go limp. She had to get him to some form of shelter before she lost him completely, which reminded her of a small broken down shack that she had passed on her trip through the day before. Surely that would provide enough of a roof so that she could assess the stranger and find out what ailed him.

Besides his size, of course. Boy, was he huge. She'd grown up knowing men of all statures and girths, but this guy was enormous! He was by far taller than Kakashi, and was way broader that any Akimichi that she'd ever seen. And the fact that she was five foot three and weighed in at 110 pounds wet, made her predicament almost comical. She could only imagine how she looked trying to carry this behemoth down the road. His weight was nothing, as she had utilized her chakra control and enhanced the strength in her shoulders, spine, and legs. The problem was that he was so tall that, being slung over her shoulder, both his head and feet nearly dragged the ground on either side of her. She had to get to that shack asap!

The man's stillness was so complete that she could no longer feel his shallow breaths on the backs of her legs, so she forced a little more chakra into her muscles and ran as nimbly as she could toward what she hoped would be suitable shelter.

Ah-ha! She paused only long enough to take a deep breath through her exhausted lungs and peered through her sweat-soaked bangs at the lumpy silhouette of her goal. The shack was only a few hundred yards ahead of her, and, even from her current location, she could tell that it was just a bit more ramshackled than she had remembered. Her patient lay limply across her shoulder, and her muscles and joints burned with over-exertion. And, the sky had taken an ominous dark gray coloration that whispered of a potential downpour. Time to get to shelter.

It only took a few more moments for Sakura to jog her way along the path to the little building, but it felt like it took hours. Her legs and arms were beginning to imitate jelly, and her lungs felt as if they were going to explode. Not to mention that the man whom she was carrying had stopped breathing altogether.

She rushed inside of the building just as the storm broke and fat raindrops began pouring from the sky. Thankfully the thunder and lightning still seemed some distance way. Pulling the man from his perch across her shoulder, the medic lowered him to the floor with as few bumps to the head as possible. She would have to forgo the usual perimeter check and trap-laying in order to perform emergency first aid.

While unslinging her pack from its place at the small of her back, the girl glanced around the one-roomed building in order to quiet her inner shinobi which was ranting that it was unsafe to stay here without at least getting the lay of the land first. She took in the truly abandoned look of the place: mostly caved in ceiling, the rotted holes in the floor throughout, and the missing door and windows. Then, she squinted out each open door and window in order to ascertain as many attack points as she could in just a cursory glance. Even in this little house, she was too wide open, but she would just have to make do.

Now to try to save this stranger's life.

She unzipped her pack and pulled out various medical necessities while giving the patient his own cursory glance. She took in the pale blue skin that had a cold clammy feel, the tiny lines of what must have been gills just under his jaw line. This man's coloration and unnatural stature was triggering alarm bells all over her mind, and inner Sakura was screaming at her to run away. But, the girl hesitated.

She was a medic. It was her job to save lives, then ask questions. So, the girl swept aside her misgivings for a later time and began to lightly skim her hands over his body in order to get a feel for his injuries. Even as she skimmed over the stranger with a layer of healing chakra as a buffer between her fingers and his skin, Sakura could tell that he had the strength of a shinobi. She wondered if he was friend of foe.

The medic flicked a glance to his forehead, and she froze. He was wearing a Mist headband, and across it was the mark of the ronin. This realization made her chakra falter. Was he an enemy? Well, she had already started the exam, so now she couldn't stop. So, she continued to check for internal injuries while skimming across him with her eyes to search out external problems.

There, his chest rose and fell! Even if it was too shallow a breath, at least he was breathing. She wouldn't have to administer CPR.

The medic took just another moment to continue searching for what had hurt this man while searching his face for visual reactions to her probing. His eyes flickered open, and he looked up at her for a fleeting moment before they rolled closed and he passed out again. What she had seen had shocked the girl into complete confusion. He'd had pupils, but the irises were pure white.

She pulled her hands back, having assessed that he'd been dosed with a very basic poison that was made from the venom of the puffer fish, and looked the man up and down. He was an enigma. His size, blue skin, and white eyes conjured up the visualization of a great white shark, and Sakura felt herslef shiver before she turned to her supplies to build an antidote. She wondered, bemused, if he had pointy teeth too.

The ocean was beautiful, and he'd always hoped to find his way there after death. But, this place...this was not what he had hoped for.

It was darker than even the deepest part of the ocean. No hint of the sun filtered through the murky depths. There was no shimmering underwater life, no feeling of being cleansed of his sins. It felt as if he were standing in the dankest part of a muddy river, the water heavily polluted by some unknown toxin.

Suddenly, he saw the slightest glimmer of what must have been light. Wait, there was another one. They were tiny, slits of orange light that seemed to flicker. After a few minutes of watching these slivers flit across his vision, he reached out to touch one. Reached out to find their source. What he found shocked him into complete clarity. The crescents of light had been the reflection of a fire on wooden walls. His eyes had pulled themselves open enough for him to realize that he was inside somewhere lying very near to a warming fire.

What he had felt when he had reached out was soft and smooth. That texture had been accompanied with a startled gasp, and pause in movement. His fuzz-covered brain could comprehend that much, but he could not quite register what he should do with the appendage that he was holding.

All he coud think was that he wasn't dead after all. And then everything went black again.

Sakura sat in her half-crouched position for another few moments, waiting to see if the man had fallen back to sleep. Once his breathing evened out again, she relinquished her arm from his steelly grip. She winced as she rubbed her wrist, thinking that it was sure to bruise from the force of his hold. His speed and strength even in this weakened state pointed to the fact that he was definitely a ninja, as if she'd had any doubts.

All of her inner alerts were screaming for her to leave the stranger be. She should leave him in this place and return to her village. But there was just something about him that compelled her to stay and help. When he had opened his eyes and looked around before passing back out, she had gotten another glimpse at his pale eyes. They weren't the very pale violet of a Hyuga's eyes, no these were startingly white, as if they were designed to filter light out of the darkest places of the world. Also, as she had been administering the antidote to the poison, she had noticed the tiny slash marks that marred both of his cheeks. At first, she had thought them cuts from his fight. Further inspection proved that hey were, in fact, small gill-like structures. She had found herself wondering if they work.

Overall, curiosity was what caused Haruno Sakura to continue to look after this stranger. She wanted to know why he appeared to be built for life in the ocean, and she wanted to know more about his body and abilites. You know, on a professional basis.

The next time Kisame came to, he was coherent enough to realize that he was not alone in the room.

It was very early in the morning, and the fire that had been burning was smoldering in its pit. There was soft movement just to his right, and he could detect high level chakra that was at rest. Had he been captured? Was his guard actually stupid enough to fall asleep while watching him? He opened his eyes more fully and took stock of the room in which he was being held. A wide sweep of his field of vision showed that he was in a tiny cabin with a severely damaged roof and large debri from nearby trees strewn across the floor.

He attempted to move his body in order to use his speed to turn the tables on his snoozing captor. It was then that he realized that his guard was smarter that he had thought. Upon trying to move his limbs, he found that he could not so much as wiggle a finger or a toe. He experimented with a deep breath, and knew that his breathing was not hindered, nor did he have difficulty when he motioned his head from side to side. It merely seemd that his extremities were halted.

"You have very little motor function, and the paralysis gets worst the farther it is from your heart. So, you can breath easily, but you can't run away." There was a soft tinkling chuckle to her voice, as if she was highly amused at his predicament. "Whoever hit you meant for you to be fully aware as your body shut down around itself." He heard her turn away muttering softly about why she hadn't thought of something similar herself.

Kisame found himself perplexed by the voice. There was no malice, only soft amusement and genuine curiosity. It was very odd, and definitely not the voice of a would-be captor. As if understanding his thoughts, she turned back toward him, continuing.

"I found you passed out cold on the path not too far from here, and I couldn't just leave you lying there at the mercy of random ronin and forest creatures...so, here we are." She swept one hand around the room while using the other to dab at his forehead with a damp cloth. "Now, if you hang tight for a minute, I need to examine your reaction to the poison antidote I've given you." Then, realizing what she had just said, she let out a nasty snicker.

Kisame couldn't help rolling his eyes at her humor. The girl was a complete idiot.

She was young, probably no older than sixteen, but her hands on his body, as she checked his vitals, were sure. He watched the frown of concentration form across her forehead and noticed the headband that held the fringe out of her eyes.

This little jokester was a Konoha shinobi.

Realizing that he was at the mercy of a possible enemy ninja, Kisame pooled all of his obersvational skills and began watching her closely. She had shoulder-length pink hair, which she kept swiping at with a hand as it fell out of its restraint and lighted across her forehead. Her eyes were a deep green color, and they sparkled with a look of determination that he knew was only evident in the people from the Land of Fire. She chewed on her bottom lip as she held her fingers to his neck, feeling his hearbeat, and her nose scrunched as she she listened to his breathing.

There was no doubt that the girl was a medic, but she couldn't have been much more than a fledgling chunin. Perhaps she was out on her first solo mission with her new rank?

"Well, it looks like you're recovering pretty quickly. Too guickly, to tell you the truth. That antidote should take nearly a week to touch every fiber of your body in order to fight the poison, but you'll be healed within another day." She looked at him with calculating thoughtfulness. Something about this ninja seemed very familiar; it seemed that she should recognize both his appearance and his high amount of chakra. "Your massive chakra level must be what's causing..." The girl halted in her assessment when she noticed a nearly imperceptible movement at the end of his right arm.

The young girl let out a startled yelp before skidding across the room while pulling a kunai from her hip pouch. She took up a defensive stance, and eyed Kisame's hand warily.

He chuckled wickedly before turning amused eyes in her direction. Sakura couldn't help the shiver of awareness that wracked thorugh her body at that moment. What was she thinking? Even if she did have the foolish resolve to heal him instead of heading directly home and reporting his appearance this close to the village, the girl knew that she needed to be on guard at every moment while in his presence.

As far as Kisame was concerned, the young woman who had been tending his injuries had suddenly changed positions in his scheme of things. Upon first waking, he had been aware of the slight pull on her chakra as a result of being in close proximity of Samehada, and he had wondered how long it would take the medic to realize that it was his sword that was draining her of her energy. Now, as he watched her as she watched him warily, the swordsman found himself curious as to why a creature so young and innocent looking seemed to familiar to him. He couldn't help feeling that he knew this girl, and he was beginning to feel the lure of an unsolved mystery.

Sakura watched the man's hands for several minutes trying to guage how much mobility he truly had. After what felt like an eternity, she lowered the arm holding the kunai ready to plunge into his heart, and swept her gaze across his body from head to toe. Then, she met his eyes.

"I won't trust you to tell me the truth about your ability to use your limbs." His lips twitched as if he were trying not to laugh at her. Her eyes narrowed as she went from defensive stance to one of anger. Her body squared up with legs shoulder width apart, as she placed her hands on her hips. The kunai was still clutched menacingly in her right hand as she tilted it enough to place her fist on her hip. "But I will warn you. I am a shinobi of the leaf village, and I will kill you if you fuck with me."

Kisame felt his smirk growing wider, as his facial features were the only part of his body that he wanted her to think he had control over. Actually, she hadn't been very far off woth her accusation, since he could move both wrists and his right foot by now. Still, that little spark of anger was amusing, and he found himself thinking of other ways to rile her up so that her eyes sparked again.

Plus, she was pretty cute when she was pissed.

Suddenly, Kisame felt a menacing pressure flit through the air, and he glanced over at Samehada as the sword visibly pulsed from the introduction of new chakra. He looked over at the source of the flared chakra with a carefully neutral face.

Sakura was pissed at the ronin, and she had decided to use her own energy to prove how serious she was. Well, that and she was dying to run an experiment on that sword.

"You're one of the Seven Swrodsmen of the Mist, right?" Kisame just barely kept his surprise hidden, and only watched her carefully. The girl shrugged and continued as she reeled her excess chakra back into her body. The effect was instantaneous, the room darkened and the sword now standing against the wall was merely just a sword. "I recognized you as one of the swordsmen because of the Mist headband as well as the giant sword. Plus, the shark teeth match the last one of your kind that I met. Do you have all those teeth?"

Kisame found himself swallowing as he nodded ever so slightly. This girl wasn't put of by his strangeness, instead she seemed even more curious.

"The last guy didn't have blue skin though. And his sword didn't absorb chakra." She sat watching the sword for long moment, question after question building in her mind. This guy was an enigma, and she wanted very much to learn more about him. "Is that why you have so much chakra, because you've built up a tolerance to the sword?"

Kisame knew that he shouldn't tell this girl anything about himself. She was an enemy afterall. But, he had never met anyone who really was interested in what made him into the creature that he had become. It was both encouraging and firghtening. What if he told her about his circumstances, and she decided that he was too much of a devil to continue to heal. He would be stuck in this place until his body healed on its own, at the mercy of anyone or anything who found him. He glanced across at Samehada as if the sword could answer his questions.

Sakura, taking his hesitation as a negative response, cleared her throat and began packing her supplies into their rightful place. "I understand that you don't want to tell me anything. I am an enemy shinobi, but," she paused and turned questioning eyes back on him as she tilted her head to the side, "I've never met a Mist ninja wearing that particular coat before. That red cloud is very interesting."

The design on his clothing as well as the man himself had triggered a faint recollection that niggled in the back of the medic's mind. She just couldn't remember why she should know who this man was, and her subtle questioning just wasn't enough. Well, at the rate he was healing, she would have probably another day with him. Perhaps she could find out more the next day.

After she finished an inventory on her supplies, she decided it was time to eat. That little chakra burst to feed the hungry sword had sapped more energy than she would like to admit. She then laid out the few rations she had left. Carefully, she divided what was left and figured how much she would need for her trip back to Konoha. That left very little for her to share with her patient. She pulled open the packets of what was supposed to pass as some sort of soup, then she glanced up at her compaion, thinking deep medic-type thoughts. She had thought that he would have gone back to sleep, but he had apparently been watching her intently for some while. She tried not to show how disconcerting it was to be the sole focus of those sharp predatory eyes, but she couldn't conceal the shiver that traveled through her body.

Kisame had been watching the girl closely. He knew she had been prying for information, as any good little ninja should, but he couldn't help but feel unsettled by her desire to know about him. And that little stunt with feeding Samehada was dangerous, if not intriguing. Most people never vountarily fed the sword, it usually just stole the chakra of its victims. Or, it fed from Kisame's own reserves. Safe to say, his interest was piqued.

Now, he watched as the little pink-haired kunoichi dug some of the soup out of one ration packet and added to the second. She then held the fuller pouch up for him to see. He must have had his question written on his face, as she flushed a pretty shade of pink before answering.

"You still have much recovering to do, and you need to eat more than I do." Then her blush deepened and spread from her face to her ears. "That and you're so big, that you must have a big appetite, anyway." Kisame let out an startled chuckle at her discomfiture. The poor girl's words just begged for him to retaliate in some way, and he couldn't help himself.

He pinned the woman with another predatory look and said, "It seems to me that you've been more than capable of handling my size."

The girl spluttered as she choked on her soup. "What," was her indgnat screech. Her previous embarrassment all but forgotten.

Kisame nodded toward the door of the shack. "You did drag my half-dead carcass into this place."

Sakura's cheeks flushed even brighter. "Actually, I carried you," she mumbled into her food. Another half-stifled laugh from the devil across the room.

"As I thought, you are completely capable of handling my size." Sakura felt even more heat flood her face at the man's spoken inuendo. Who was this guy, and how dare he speak to the Hokage's apprentice in such a way? But, for some reason, Sakura couldn't muster up her usual anger, instead she ducked her face into her food pouch and ate silently.

It took Kisame another day before he was fully capable of movement. It took until the day after that for Sakura to realize that she was being played.

And that did not make her happy.

"You bastard! Here I am wasting time that I could be spending in actual service to my village, and you can move!" She glared at him irately as she quickly pulled her clothing back into place. Her frustration was answered with a deep snicker.

"It's not my fault that you underestimated my chakra strength and how long it would take me to heal. You're the medic...Aren't you supposed to figure these things out?" His tone was mocking as he pinned her with his own stare. His eyes swept across her body, taking in the damp hair and slightly askew clothing. "This'll teach you to let your guard down for even as long as it takes to wash up, huh?" His voice notched into a dark rumble as he continued to watch the girl try to compose herself.

He was right, of course. She had seen him move his hands and wrists, but not his elbows. And she had seen him bend his knees but not put pressure on his ankles and feet. Her medic's mind should have lit onto the fact that his regaining of movement was inconsistent, but she had been convinced that he would take another few days to be back to normal. Apparently, he had been faking from the first day. And that pissed her off even more.

What was worse was that she had actually thought he'd be gentleman enough to stay asleep while she tried to bathe herself in the very early morning. Big mistake. She had made her way to the stream that ran near the little shack, taking in the fact that the place had once been a mill of some sort. Little was left of the large wheel that had been used to power the equipment, but the basic skeleton was still visible. Sakura had removed her boots and stuck a toe in to get feel of the burbling water. It was cold, and that was just the type of refreshment she had needed.

The past day had been difficult on her young-ish sensibilities. The man with whom she was charged was an enigma, and the puzzle was beyond confusing. Her brain had begun to muddle, and she had often felt like her mind was short-cicruiting. On the one hand, she was obscenely fascinated with his biology. The fact that Kisame had such strong shark-like features was interesting, and his symbiosis with his sword was unheard of. But then, there was his mouth. He would treat her with the respect due another ninja, but then he would ruin it by sliding in multiple inuendos.

And then there was the way that he watched her.

Like a predator stalking its prey.

And her body had begun to respond to both his threat and sexuality. And boy was there sexuality. While allowing herself a moment to unzip her top and remove her breast-bindings so that she could use them to remove the there-day build-up of sweat and grime on her body, Sakura decided to think on why she had suddenly found herself attracted to the swordsman. She had initially found the attraction odd, but, in all honesty, it wasn't. Here they were, two people who could potentially kill one another, forced together in a tense situation. It had only been a matter of time before their dynamic would break down to either violence or sex. As a medic, she had seen both happen to even the most experienced shinobi. That was why she'd hoped that he would heal soon so that she could leave this rotten cottage. Before she found herself offering her viriginity to her enemy, or getting herself killed because she couldn't watche her smart mouth.

A snap of a twig, and the pink-haired girl had found herself whirling around while reaching for her kuai pouch...which she had just removed in order to begin to pull off her shorts so that she could clean other parts of herself.


Kisame had known that it would only be a matter of time before his little medic made her way to the brook for a bath. He had felt the water's proximity, though it was fresh water and not the salt of the ocean. It would give him strength, but not as much as sea water would. If he got what he wanted, very shortly they'd be fighting or fucking, and he needed whatever strength he could get.

He'd spent the last evening watching her as she moved about their little hovel. She would check his vitals, his bandages, then she would move to the little window of the shack to watch into the shadows for several long moments. Then, she'd move to the door and do the same. Eventually, the girl would come back to her resting place at the opposite side of the fire. Once there, she would sit for a little while watching the flames dance and listening to the wilderness around them. Once the circle was complete, she would repeat.

Sometimes, while she worked diligently at doctoring his wounds, or as she moved about the cabin, Sakura would frown deeply and mutter to herself. These ramblings were difficult to make out, and they usually dealt with formulae for some medical ninjutsu or other. Sometimes, she would just hum tuneessly. The first time this happened, Kisame had felt himself react sharply.

She had been retying a bandage to his left shoulder when he had heard the sweet sound of her humming softy under her breath. It had been such a pure and genuine sound that he had flinched hard causing the girl to look up at him with worry marring her brow. He felt his body stiffen at the sight of her startled green eyes and had rolled his face away from hers.

"Hoshigake-san, are you alright?" There was true concern there. But he knew that would change if he told her what her what her gentle touch and soft voice had done to his body.

"It's nothing. I just felt pain in my arm for a second. It's gone now."

She had taken another long look at his arm and shoulder, and had started humming again. His body had begun to quake as she prodded at his flesh, asking if this or that hurt. Apparently, the hum was done unconsciously, because she would speak to him then slide right back into it. And the more he heard it, the more it transformed from the quiet tuneless vocalization to a purring invitation. The girl was wreaking havoc on his mind and body. And she didn't even know it.

Finally, the medic had fallen asleep, and Kisame had been able to sit up in order to work his creaking joints. His muscles were aching from days of nonuse, and his bones needed the reinforcing feel of the ocean. He would have to travel to the sea before meeting up with Itachi to ensure that he was to full capability when they started their next mission. And he needed to get his bearings against the onslaught of this naive little kunoichi. The girl had this sort of innocent charm that oozed from every fiber of her being, and there was no way it could be an act. No tricks that a seasoned lady shinobi would work in gaining information; not an ounce of deception filtered into her aura. She was so young that he doubted that she'd even had a chance to go through the seduction classes that most kunoichi were required to attend. This girl was pure and sweet, and his predatory nature had begun to twitch with the need to spoil her.

He hadn't been able to tell at first where this burning need had come from. He had merely been watching her, trying to guage her actions and abilities by analyzing her movements, when a sudden thirst for her had overwhelmed him. Kisame had thought at first that it was the drain to his chakra, and that it may be something that rest and close contact with Samehada would cure. But, throughout the evening, as the girl had plied her tender mercies on him, he had felt that thirst turn into full on desire. And that desire had grown to a thrumming need as she further tended him.

After a quick dip in the creek that was flowing beside their shelter, he had returned to his bed refreshed and still burning. At least Haruno hadn't woken upon his return, or he may have just died that night.

The poor girl slept fitfully all night, and he wondered what plagued that she couldn't rest easily.

Sakura had woken at the light rays of dawn in terrible need of a bath. Her dreams the night before had been restless and full of large skillful hands finding every dark place on her body. As she finally brought herself to full wakefulness, Sakura could feel the watchful gaze of her charge. Upon opening her eyes, however, she saw that he was still resting peacefully. After checking his vitals and that he was in fact comfortable, the girl made her way outside to meander toward the creek. Her body was hot and aching, and she really did need a bath.

As the girl worked herself out of her clothing, foolishly allowing her concentration to wander, she was startled by the sound of a predator making his way toward her. She had instinctively reached for her weapon, but realized, too late, that it was two feet away from her on the ground with the rest of her gear.

"Shit," was all she said before releasing her clothing and moving into a defensive crouch.

Kisame merely eyed the lines of skin that were visible thanks to the awkward positioning of her half-undone clothing. His gaze skimmed down her body to the pile of weapons and breast bindings that littered the ground.

"Not good for a chunin to be caught with her pants down." He crossed his arms over his chest in an attempt to keep from lunging at her. He still hadn't decided if he wanted to kill her or kiss her.

The girl's face lit up in an angry flush. "My pants aren't down!" Kisame's cool eyes wandered her body once again.

"Yet." Sakura stood bolt straight, ready to begin a rant that would peel any normal man's skin from his bones when she felt his shadow loom over her form. She glared up into the hulking form of the man who, merely a second before, had been standing ten feet from her.

"I don't fear you." Her eyes glinted, as she spoke softly.

"I know," he said, looking at her with that predatorial look that had originally set her on edge, "but I mean to change that." Kisame's voice trailed to an intimate, almost burring whisper. Sakura felt her mouth dry out, and she swallowed hard trying to keep her mind clear. She could not let this man get to her.

Before Sakura had a chance to make a move, whether toward or away from the shark-man, he took that option away by stepping even closer into her personal space and gripping her shoulders with a bruising hold. Kisame then picked Sakura up to where he could look her in the eye. Her feet dangled from the ground by at least two feet, but the girl never noticed. Those endless white eyes had her full attention.

She didn't realize when he continued to walk into the water of the creek, nor did she notice the swift cold water when he carried her to the dead center of the brook and submerged her entire body. All the pink-haired girl felt was her own sharp intake of breath when his bare chest pressed against hers. At that moment, every sensation went into overdrive, and the world that had become muted and slow, flared to life in an intense wash of color.

The heat of Kisame's skin burned through the cold water, and Sakura felt her own body come to life. She was caught between fighting to get free and running away screeching to the heavens or screaming to the world that she wanted more.

The strangle sigh that escaped her urged the man into action. Before the girl could even move to assist, he had releived her of what clothing had remained from her exursion into bathing. It took him even less time to divest himself of his own clothing. Then, the world slowed down again.

Sakura could feel everything. The rushing of the water around her, the pulsing in her own body, the restraint in Kisame's muscles, the movement of the clouds above, a fish swimming past them. She could also feel the infusion of strength from the water into the shark-man's muscles as he gathered strength from his surroundings. She touched a finger to the blue skin that streched across a rib just below one of his pecs and could feel the building of his chakra. The water was rebuilding him molecularly, and what she hadn't been able to do for him in the past few days, these few minutes in the water had been able to finish. She firmly pressed her hand to the center of his chest and opened the chakra receptors in her palm.

Kisam'e eyes widened when he felt Sakura's chakra flare to her hand, and it took him a moment to see that she wasn't gathering energy to push him off of her. She was using medical ninjutsu to follow the buildup of energy in his own body. As he watched, her eyes began to sparkle mischeviously as she slid her hand from his chest across his shouder to cup the back of his neck. Kisame found himself watching the girl's face warily as her reaction to their position changed. Suddenly, she was the predator and he was the prey.

"Just what do you intend to do to me, Hoshigake-san?" A girl so young should not sound so seductive, but this suddenly oozed desire. Somehow, a change in his own body had caused her to want him. Desperately.

He wasn't about to disappoint.

There was no foreplay, no teasing kisses or seductive touches. He wasn't out to woo, nor she to conquer.

It was raw and urgent and needed.

At the sound of Sakura's purred challenge, Kisame adjusted her hips and thrust into her in one move, causing the girl to go crossed-eyed from the sheer force of his body becoming a part of hers. Sakura bit off a wail as her body tightened all at once at the pleasure and abruptness, and Kisame cursed as he found her hot and ready for him. The two only took a moment to consider what they were doing before they both moved. Sakura met each thrust with a quick snap of her hips as they both fought to set the pace of their coupling. Both wanted fast and hard as Sakura spread her knees wider to take him in deeper, and Kisame pushed in with almost bone-breaking force receding and pushing back in even harder than before.

The medic ran her hands along the man's shoulders and across his torso as he used one hand to lever himself and the other to fist into her wet hair. It seemed that he had an affinity for the pinkness that he couldn't seem to keep away from. She didn't mind; her pink hair had always made her feel odd around her hometown, and since she was developing an affinity of her own.

It was Kisame's chakra. As it built from the addition of the water from the creek, his chakra had manifested into an aura of the deepest crystal blue. The color of the deepest part of the ocean, and one very close to the dark stripes that adorned his arms, back and legs. It was both calming and arousing a once. Serene and inticing. Much like she thought the man might be when he wasn't out doing the things that ronin do.

At this moment Sakura was reveling in the beautiful light of the man's aura that was only getting stronger the longer he was in contact with water. And, as she skimmed her hands along his shoulders and back, the medic looked up at the man who had captivated her so.

His eyes were closed as if he were exerting no effort in their lovemaking; it was almost as if her were content lying with her in the water like this. That look of contentment flickered for the briefest moment when she spread her knees wider allowing him in deeper, but it soon returned once he had reestablished his rhythm. It was that almost soft look of happiness on this predator's face that pushed Sakura over an edge that she hadn't even been aware that she had neared.

Kisame felt the girl's body tense, and he opened his eyes to see comicly round eyes roll then close as she found her release. Sakura's back arched, brushing her breasts against his chest, and that friction caused her whole body to convulse as she dug her nails into the flesh of his arms. The keen that the girl let loose as she came was enough to bring any man to the brink of destruction.

A few well placed pumps and Kisame found himself following his pink-haired girl into oblivion.

Later that morning, while Sakura had made her way back down to the creek to fill their canteens, Kisame pondered his predicament.

He had just bedded an enemy shinobi and had neither gotten information nor death out of her. Perhaps he was still injured and hadn't had the energy.

No, that wasn't right because once the two had come out of the hazy aftermath that followed sex, Sakura had insisted on examining him to see if any wounds had reopened. She had then diagnosed him fit and hale, and had stated that she would be leaving within the next few hours. She had said that she had been gone from her village for too long and feared having tracking ninja set on her. Having been subject to that, himself, Kisame could not blame her in the least.

So, as the girl had moved about repacking her gear, he could not help but watch her closely. There was that soft humming again, a sound that nearly made him drag her back to him for another round. But, she had been so nonchalant about the first time that he wondered if she would react positively to another. And that was the problem. A sixteen year old chunin should not be so careless about losing her virginity. She should be clingy and distraught and upset. She should be disgusted that it was with him. But then, he thought that she had been so ready for him that perhaps she wasn't so inexperienced as he had thought.

There had also been that change in her demeanor as she took stock in his chakra reserve. She had gone from slightly confused to drenched with want in as long as it took for her to read his energy levels. What had done that? And the worst thing was that the girl had barely spoken to him afterward. She merely went on humming casually as if she'd done this everyday. Perhaps she did.

He felt his eyes narrow at the prospect of this little enigma using her body in such a way. Sakura felt his intense scrutiny and looked up asking "what?"

Kisame shook his head and silently berated himself for being such a girl. It wasn't as if he hadn't ever had one-night stands before. But this little kunoichi had him vexed.

Sakura watched Kisame's emotions swirl across his face, smirking at the thought that he probably didn't realize how easily readable he was. She decided to take pity on him.

"Would you have rather we fought, instead?" It was said sweetly and softly and jarred the man completely out of his thoughts. He looked at her, the humor in her eyes, and realized that she had known the situation just as well as he had. He couldn't help but laugh.

It took several moments for Kisame to stop the deep-throated laughs that boomed across their little valley, but soon he righted himself in order to say goodbye.

Sakura was nearly to the gates of Konoha when she realized that Hoshigake Kisame had last been seen in the presence of Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's older brother.

Kisame had just met up with Itachi and was being briefed on their next mission when he remembered that Haruno Sakura was the kunoichi assigned to the younger Uchiha's genin team.

"FUCK." A high-pitched shriek and a deep, gravelly bellow startled birds from their perches throughout the entire forest.