It Started With A Kiss (A Kisame Story)

Chapter 10.

Pein said nothing more after that, merely saying that Umi would no doubt be better soon, before turning and leaving the room, leaving Umi and Kisame alone.

For a moment there was silence, though it wasn’t awkward, as Kisame contemplated what to do—or say—now. Strangely he felt there was a lot of pressure on him all of a sudden. Protecting Umi was fine; he’d had to do the same on a lot of other missions when he’d been working for Kirigakure. But as for explaining and teaching her everything; making sure she got to know the world around her and generally that she was alright...it was a little different to what he’d experienced before. Not to mention with what people expected of him. Umi had said his name before she passed out, and after that moment in her room...all of the Akatsuki had seen that, asking questions and wanting to know what they had in common. They all expected him to suddenly know everything about her and automatically know just what to do—but it wasn’t like that. Sure; he’d admit he felt that deep connection there, and yes, he got on with Umi; she seemed really sweet.

But he didn’t truly know her as a person; they weren’t exactly best friends, having never met before now. The only reason she even knew him in the first place was because she’d seen him in a vision; not because they’d met in reality. What if Umi herself looked to him for answers, thinking he would know how to keep her human because she’d seen him in her dreams? Now taking care of her was his responsibility, and he had to live up to it—before he glanced over at Umi and realised just what he was thinking with a shake of his head. She wasn’t a child—it wasn’t like he wasbabysitting her. She was just unfamiliar with this world, and trying to find her way. He’d treat her like anyone else, and as such he shook off his thoughts, turning to her with a smile to suggest simply,

“Well considering there’s no point getting started today with you having only just woken up and everyone talking to you...how about an introduction to the rest of the Akatsuki here?”

The thoughts of all she would be doing from now on flashing back through her mind as Kisame spoke, Umi paused for a second before returning his smile and nodding vigorously, flinging off the covers to start standing up once more.

Only this time she made sure to be more careful.

Kisame came over to help her just like before, propping her up as she reached the door and left the room. But as they came up to the lounge, however, they both automatically shifted slightly. Umi didn’t want to seem useless, like she couldn’t even walk anywhere on her own; and Kisame knew how they would look at him if he went into the room with his arm wrapped around her. Yes, he got on with Umi; but he didn’t want them to start saying stuff like that. It would just make it worse for both of them. So they altered their positions until Kisame was merely stabilising Umi a little, helping her through the doorway and over to the nearest table so she could lean against it for support. It was only as she turned round that she realised the room was in silence, and glancing at Kisame, she whispered,

“Why are they all looking at me like that?”

Grinning at her question, but rolling his eyes at how the Akatsuki were all reacting, he took over for a moment to state to the room bluntly,

“Ok; this is Umi—though you do already know who she is. But she doesn’t know any of, so considering she’s going to be staying here...go introduce yourselves.”

With that, Kisame stepped slightly to the side, allowing everyone to come closer and say hi; which, after a moment’s pause, they did. Itachi approached first, but didn’t really introduce himself, merely asking how Umi was doing and about how she had agreed to join them, before he nodded in goodbye and passed on. Deidara was standing behind him, and continued glaring at Itachi's back to begin with, before shaking it off as Umi laughed at his response, coming over to introduce himself as Deidara. Kisame had told her that he was about nineteen, but as she looked him over he could easily pass for younger; he had that wide-eyed innocent look—though after what Kisame had said, it was clear that wasn’t the case in the slightest. Smiling in return to his introduction, Umi then began to answer the quick-fire questions he blurted out a second later, wondering what it was like to be a mermaid and how she knew Kisame. Though she answered them as best she could, however, Deidara didn’t get a chance to ask much more, as he was roughly pushed out the way as someone else came up to her, grumbling as he did so,

“Why don’t you just fuck off already, Deidara-chan? We’re all trying to get introduced here, so stop wasting our fucking time!”

Instantly Umi looked down to smother a laugh and a grin as she realised who it was: Hidan. All that ran through her head was Kisame's description—something that happened several times as the rest of the Akatsuki came and spoke to her. Though a lot of what Kisame had said was true—in a way—Umi couldn’t help but think they weren’t that bad, and if she was going to be staying in the organization with them, it wouldn’t be overly difficult to get along with them. So as she finally sat down, still moving her legs to help her get used to the whole idea of walking, she got into conversation with them all—finally answering the questions they all wanted to ask. Once again, Umi mentioned the basics, still needing to truly figure it all out in her own head before she started putting it all into practice. Instead she just enjoyed the way things were for the moment, knowing she could get going tomorrow and adapt to the world around her.

Glancing up as Kisame came over, asking if she wanted anything to eat, Umi nodded, telling him he could give her whatever he had to offer with a grin as she realised. Now she was human, she could have so much more variety—and would have so much more time to sample it. Sure, there might be stuff she didn’t like, but she was willing to try everything now she was up on shore. Chuckling quietly to herself, Umi shook her head, abruptly noticing how her excitement built every time she came into contact with the littlest thing to do with this world. But she couldn’t help it; though her dream had started out utterly the opposite to the way she had always wanted it, things were finally changing. Now she could see herself truly finding a life here, and as such her excitement came back with a vengeance, and it didn’t seem to be fading any time soon—even if her situation was still a little strange.

When it came down to it after, all, she was in a hideout of a group of some of the most powerful ninjas in the world—all of them missing-nins; joining their group after simply running into one of them—literally—only for them to offer her a position. But somehow, it didn’t matter. Although Umi could imagine some people out there would be condescending towards her choice of joining with a group of missing-nins, there was only so much she could do. The politics and squabbles of the world on land had been lost to Umi as she had grown up, only vaguely hearing of the war that had gone on, and even then hearing about it once a year—most of the information having come from scrolls she had read after it had occurred. She didn’t know anything about this place, and therefore the idea that they had all defected from their ninja villages—gone against what the rest stood for—it wasn’t as big a shock to Umi as it might be to everyone else. To her...they were merely people, and having offered her a job and a place to stay, she was willing to accept it. There was more to know, of course; something that was evident as Kisame brought out her food and placed it in front of her, prompting her to poke it with a chopstick and question as to what it was—but Umi was willing to learn about it all.

Laughing, Kisame obliged and revealed it was bakudan—considering Deidara had just made a load of it and there was still some left. He joined Umi at the table with his own food, talking and explaining several other dishes as he did so; pointing out she’d most likely come into contact with them another time. With that they merely talked, the others coming over to include themselves in the conversation as they found out more about Umi. But there were still several times when Umi found herself glancing up at Kisame, surprised at his actions. He had stood by her side when the Akatsuki had introduced themselves, supporting her mentally and encouraging her to continue. When everyone started talking to her, continuing on into the night; Kisame was the one to stand and tell them to stop; that Umi needed to sleep, before helping her up and leading her back to her room for the night. Thanking him as she settled down underneath the covers, she looked over at him one last time as he left the room, smiling as she realised: there was so much more she had to learn about this world...

But Kisame was going to be the one to tell it to her.

And somehow...that made it better.