Blossom amoung the monsters

Butterfly wings

It was a calm day in Astera, the sun was shining, the wind blowing, and one of the Akatsuki was sitting leisurely in the canteen.

.....

WAIT.

Sakura spit out her drink, coughing as she turned to a blue man with gills and a toothy grin, already staring back at her. A deep chill ran down her spine, as she grabbed her katana to fight but Kisame just held his hands in surrender.

"Easy pinky, I'm not on the job," Sakura still was tense, sure he didn't have his uniform on, but that really didn't mean anything to her.

"Why are you here." She questioned, but this time the cat chef answered.

"He's a regular, a registered monster hunter actually," her jaw dropped, she did a double take from the cat to Kisame, before coughing.

She soon fixed herself and made her expression neutral, sheathing her long sword and standing up, she turned to leave but not before looking over to Kisame.

"Sorry, but that doesn't mean you're off the hook yet." This day couldn't get any worse for Sakura, she decided to get as far away as possible, and go to the separate headquarters by the Coral Highlands.

Oh boy how wrong she was.

She was standing in front of the third fleet master, Kisame beside her with another toothy grin, and Handler was admiring from afar.

"I need you both to come with me, we are moving the boat to the Coral Highlands and need hunters in case something goes south." The elf woman explained, blowing smoke through her pipe as she lazily looked at them.

This was no ordinary ship, this was a flying ship, with balloons made with Paloamu hide and helium air to hold it up.

Sakura wasn't going to have fun with this, Kisame of all people, a wanted S-rank criminal, apart of the same group that wanted to murder her friends and family. Was her partner. She sighed.

Kisame saw this and also wasn't having much fun, despite smiling, he didn't want this at all, he'd rather be paired with someone like Itachi, she's more like Deidara or Sasori.

"Alright, let's go." The third fleet master spoke, she got up from her chair and started over to the balcony door, Sakura and Kisame both followed as Handler went to the upper floor to get a better view.

The outside was a site to behold however, Sakura leaned on the railing and looked over the Coral Highlands from above, it did indeed look like a reef with no water, the snowflakes falling from the clouds, despite the temperature, Sakura wore basic Hunter uniform clothing.

The boat suddenly shook, a screech heard through the skies, as the wind picked up, Sakura knew what it was, Kisame on the other hand looked surprised as a Legiana flew around the boat, Sakura put her feet on the balcony railing.

And leapt onto the flying wyvern's back, drawing her long sword she drove it into the spine of the Legiana. Kisame was surprised at her calculated and quick thinking, soon he too leapt off the balcony and onto the plummeting wyvern.

"What's the plan pinky?" Kisame questioned as he landed, Sakura didn't spare a glance, as she stood up from her crouching position, her hand on her sword handle, swung her leg up, then slammed it down onto the Legiana.

The wyvern staggered, its wings folding inward as it free fell towards a giant mountain. Kisame braced for an impact that never came, Sakura grabbed the male and jumped off the monster before it crashed.