Boulders

Bismuth

You all should say thanks to the person who added Boulders to an abandoned fanfiction reading list; it's very easy to get motivated to prove someone wrong.

Thanks for sticking with this!! Sorry about the shorter chapter, but I figured you guys would want something. Enjoy!!

Toph was, as it turned out, not very good at water walking.

"You suck!" Sasori shouted from the shore, loud enough that she could hear him even from where she'd meandered several feet downshore, sopping wet and absolutely pissed.

Toph tossed one of Kisame's oversized kunai at him, not bothering with a reply. She forced chakra down to the soles of her feet and stepped onto the surface of the water.

It felt all rubbery and wrong, as if she were attempting to stand atop a rice pudding. Worse still, she couldn't get any vibrations from the surface of the water, leaving her blind until she inevitably fell through, the strange buoyancy failing her.

Sasori laughed rudely from where he was still wasting time doing nothing.

"I hope you choke on a fishbone and die!" Toph yelled. She shook her arms off and tried again, swallowing down rage as the water seemed to tear apart under her weight.

Before Sasori had laid the tempting fishbate that was water-walking, Toph had been this close to chopping off both his arms. As things stood now, she was up to her shins in water, stripped down to her tank top and shorts, and absolutely soaked.

As Sasori made some annoying insult from the riverbank, Toph's fingers inched towards where USS usually rested. For now, though, the sword rested on the riverbank, swathed in her top.

"Don't you have more important things to be doing?" Toph retorted. "Like falling into a very deep hole and never coming out again?"

She got her feet under herself and wobbled a few steps like a baby liondeer. The water tension gave underneath her, but if she moved fast enough she didn't fall through.

Toph started jogging, then, when the water surged up under her heels like mud, she found herself running.

"Oi! Girl!" Sasori's voice rang out a lot further back than she remembered. Toph skidded to a stop, turning her head towards the noise, and the water gave way from under her feet.

Toph felt the water close over her head and went from logical thought processes to pure panic. She floundered a little, then a lot, trying to claw her way back to the surface. Her mouth had been half open when she fell, and now she was choking and drowning and couldn't breathe-

For a second she was back at the Serpent's Pass, floundering in both the water and the knowledge that she could die, would die, if her friends didn't shape up and stop their bickering to come rescue her.

But now it was her.

Just Toph.

Just Toph and an unalive boy who would never swim out to save her.

She gasped for air, but only found cold water.

A firm hand grabbed the back of her tank top and yanked her into the air.

Toph spluttered and gasped for air, fluid running out of her mouth and nose. Her eyes were stinging, heralding the appearance of tears.

Sasori heaved a sigh and shook her. Wet bangs smacked her in the face as her began towing her back to shore, still only holding her by her clothing. Toph reached out and grabbed his pant leg, anchoring herself more securely.