It Started With A Kiss (A Kisame Story)

Chapter 11.

Kisame couldn’t stop a smile flaring up on his face as he got ready the next morning.

He’d thought this mission was going to be boring and tedious—but now he was looking forward to it.

Grabbing his cloak, he left his room and headed off down the corridor at a leisurely pace, only halting as he came up to Umi's door. A lot had been happening to her body lately; the change from mermaid to human; running away from the hideout when she had woken up...even going through the Sharingan put a strain on your mind. There had been the moments where she’d been unconscious to recover, and then sleeping last night, but Kisame couldn’t help but wonder if he should give her a little more time; wait an hour or so longer before he went to wake her up and start her day. Contemplating it as his hand hovered over the door, Kisame eventually decided to check up on her first. If she seemed in a completely deep sleep, then he’d leave her a little longer—and if not, well, he’d get started for the day.

Opening the door silently, he slipped in through the gap in the door and closed it as quietly as possible, turning round to the bed to see how Umi was doing—only to find she wasn’t there. Blinking in surprise, Kisame scanned the room quickly, frowning in confusion as he merely saw a foot sticking out at the front of the bed. Walking over, he peered round to see Umi at the foot of the bed, doing the full splits. Unable to stop a grin from appearing on his face, he cleared his throat softly, causing Umi to look up and smile as she saw him there. She’d woken up relatively early—whether through excitement or because her body had just recovered, she didn’t know. But then the excitement had kicked in, and she felt she couldn’t just sit there and wait for Kisame to turn up—but she didn’t want to barge into his room and shake him awake either; especially as she couldn’t even walk properly. But that had given her an idea, and as such she had spent her time exercising her legs to get used to them, stating triumphantly as she looked over at Kisame,

“Hey, Kisa! Cool, huh? I didn’t know people could this!”

Laughing out loud at her awe at the idea of people being able to do the splits, Kisame pointed out it must just be an advantage of having legs; only for her to jump up and start doing various flips across the room, Kisame merely standing and watching in amazement, smiling all over again as she came to a halt in front of him, breathing in amazement,

“Having legs is so awesome!”

“For a lot of people, they’d say having a tail is awesome—but you only think of the advantages when you want something,” Kisame simply shot back, crossing his arms, to which Umi nodded in agreement—before questioning brightly,

“So; are we gonna get started, Kisame no danna?”

And with a grin and a nod, Kisame replied simply,

“We are.”

First, naturally, he took Umi to get some breakfast, having another conversation about food when they did so. The others greeted them casually as they got up themselves, but soon, as both Umi and Kisame finished their meals, they passed on, Kisame deciding to take her for a walk while he spoke. He taught her the basics first; the main things that she would definitely need to know now that she was on land. He showed her a map of the world and the names of all the ninja villages, giving a short history of the times and who led each village. From there he went on to where they were now; helping Umi finally gather a sense of direction. Suddenly it all unravelled in her head, being able to understand just where she was in the world and where she would need to go to get to the village or the lake. Finally she was starting to understand, and so prompted Kisame to continue. He went over tactics; formations and strategies for fighting that Umi might need to use at some point, and the kinds of weapons that were available to fight with.

Though Umi knew how to use her abilities, having had them innately programmed into her, she still didn’t know all there was to know about the ninja arts; and so Kisame set up a makeshift training area, giving her some targets to practice throwing kunai and shuriken at. It wasn’t a surprise to see her excel so quickly at it, however—considering she knew how to manipulate all the elements and give herself heightened speed, strength and endurance, using shuriken and kunai would be no problem. But it wasn’t that that caught Kisame's eye; it was the way she was so amazed that she could do it; at the general weapons and the way they worked in the first place. Every time she tried something new a smile flashed up on her face, and Kisame couldn’t help but return it every single time. But as she had finished, Kisame stating he was sure she’d mastered it by now, Umi came back over to him, noticing something she hadn’t taken much notice of before; and unsure how Kisame would react, Umi began casually,

“But what about that? You carry it around on your back all the time; is that a weapon?”

Blinking in surprise at how he had forgotten Samehada, Kisame quickly unsheathed it and held it out for her to see. Telling her she could touch it when she hesitated, Umi ran her hands over it, silent in awe as she realised it could absorb chakra, and almost had a mind of its own. It was amazing, and Kisame clearly valued it. So they fell into conversation about it, talking about the kind of fights he’d been in and the kind of things she might need to think about if she got into battle. But sooner or later it was forgotten; their conversations becoming just general; finding out more about each other and chatting casually. As they got something to eat for lunch and went back to talk some more it was only half-hearted, Kisame telling Umi things that weren’t exactly necessary, but that she wanted to know about—until eventually they headed back to the hideout, done for the day. Umi went back to her a room for a break before getting something to eat a little later, thanking Kisame profusely as he said goodbye for the moment, before turning to her room and closing the door.

Sighing as she thought about what a great day she’d been having, Umi jumped up onto the bed and lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling. Kisame had been so nice to her; he’d complimented her on how well she had learnt to use her legs in such a short space of time, and how quickly she’d learnt to use the shuriken and kunai. Never once had he acted like it was a chore to be teaching her all that stuff; he had made it fun for the both of them. He’d allowed her to look at and touch Samehada when it was clear it was his most prized possession, and then when they’d just been talking...he’d found it easy to make her laugh.  Talking with him just wasn’t hard, and even though she’d merely crawled out of a lake and he’d had no choice but to keep an eye on her, he never made her feel awkward—she felt she could just relax in her company and be herself. If it was how things were going to be when she fully joined them, then she’d be happy for the rest of her life.

If only she just knew what would keep her human.

But suddenly something occurred to Umi, and she froze in her thoughts, have never truly considered it before. She knew it was to do with Kisame; and therefore she’d always stated she was going to be really nice to him; to keep him close so she could figure things out. So she’d purposefully been nice to him, regardless of what he’d said. But today hadn’t been like that. Umi had forgotten completely about her plans as she went about with Kisame—as he taught her all that stuff. All that was in her mind was hanging out with him and talking—though to be honest, it seemed to be having the same effect. Umi was beginning to realise that there was no point being purposefully nice to him to keep him close—because it would only work out the same way. Kisame was so genuinely nice and sweet to her, that by acting naturally and normally in response, they became friends without even trying to do so.

Kisame knew the feeling.

It had been when he’d come into his room, throwing his cloak to the side for the minute and sitting down on his bed as he considered what to make Umi for dinner; what she would like. The rational side to his brain had then woken up, making him realise just what that seemed like from the outside world—a lot of guys didn’t even do that for their girlfriends; and yet he was doing it for Umi. True, he could sit there and blame it on the job Pein had assigned him; that he had to keep an eye on Umi and help her adapt to the world...but it felt more natural than that. He didn’t need to receive any hints as to how to treat her or what to do. Getting on with her was automatic; she was just so sweet and friendly.  

Suddenly keeping Umi human seemed a lot more personal than it had before.