It Started With A Kiss (A Kisame Story)

Chapter 22.

“What if she’s already a mermaid, Itachi? What if she’s gone?” Kisame burst out afterwards, unsure whether to be frustrated or upset—but Itachi quickly stepped in, placing a hand on his shoulder to state firmly,

“You don’t know that, Kisame. We all know that this must be hard for her; she might have just gone for a walk. Getting yourself riled up won’t help—if she sees you like this it will only make what she’s feeling even worse.”

Nodding, Kisame rubbed his temples and took a deep breath, knowing he was getting way too obsessed with this. If he was going to figure anything out, he’d need to be calm—and ultimately that meant taking Itachi's advice. For the moment, he didn’t know where Umi was, and as such he took the nearest seat in the kitchen, thinking everything over. Maybe there was some simple answer to this that he was merely overlooking, and he was just panicky knowing that Umi was going to be turning back into a mermaid. As Kisame sat there, the others soon joined him, unsure what to say at first; they knew the whole situation, and had seen how close Kisame was to Umi. Considering all that was going on, it was going to be hard to know exactly what to say; but eventually Deidara felt the need to speak up, questioning,

“Did she say anything about it last night, un?”

“No; we just hung out last night—we didn’t really talk about it. But the one time that we did, she never gave any serious details about it. She never said what she would have to do,” Kisame shot back, glancing up before looking back down again, sighing at the way things had turned out.

As if things weren’t bad enough...

For all Kisame knew Umi was gone completely from his life by now. Sure, he hadn’t truly known what he would say to her when he saw her today, or how things were going to go from there—but at least he knew he would be able to see her one last time and hang out with her for just a little longer. But now everything had been turned upside down, Kisame sitting there with his hands on his head as the rest started to speak up, persevering in getting answers. Had she left a note; hinted at something the entire time they’d been friends? Had they agreed on anything before today or had she just said that she was going to leave? Kisame sat there listening, getting angrier and angrier by the second. He felt completely useless as it was, without everyone saying all these questions which he had no answers to—a fact he wasn’t pleased with. His frustration taking over, Kisame finally stood up and called a halt to everything, bursting out angrily,

“She never told me what would happen, okay? Umi didn’t say that she would have to go to the lake and stand in the water to turn her back to a mermaid or if it would happen automatically. There were no ‘directions’ to reveal what would happen to her. She could have simply disappeared into the lake in the early hours of the morning or walked out herself! But I don’t know. If Umi knew, she never told me. But I don’t think she did.”

Kisame sighed, sitting back down again heavily. What was he supposed to do now? Had Umi tried to run to escape her fate, or was she in the lake; a mermaid? There were tons of places round here she could have gone to be alone, anyway, if she had stayed in the area. Considering Kisame didn’t know how much time he had left, or if he even had any time left at all, he didn’t know where to turn or what in the hell he was supposed to do to make this better. All he could do was sit there and stare at the floor, wishing he had been able to do something.

He should have spent the night with her. Been with her when doubt she had been finding it incredibly hard to deal with everything at the moment. He couldn’t imagine how she must have felt waking up alone knowing she was about to lose everything—having no choice in the matter. Whatever possibility had occurred with Umi, it mustn’t have been easy. By disappearing automatically, she would have to deal with it all having gone and not even having had a chance to say goodbye to everyone. If she’d run, Umi would be feeling upset and desperate to find another way out of this. Even if she was just standing and thinking, it couldn’t be easy. All the thoughts that had passed through her mind before would only be doing the same thing now. She’d isolated herself from him once before; for Umi to have decided not to say goodbye wasn’t something Kisame would dismiss—he could understand if she had done so.

But what if that was it?

What if Umi hadn’t wanted to say goodbye because she felt it was too hard, and therefore she didn’t want to see him again? That she’d headed straight down to the lake, and either was already a mermaid or was waiting to transform back into one? Either way she could avoid Kisame, and she wouldn’t have to deal with watching him leave. He had always known saying goodbye would be hard, and maybe there had been a time when he had thought the same thing. If it was what Umi wanted, after all...wouldn’t it be best to respect her wishes? After having had all these people tell her what she would be doing as a human, would it be best if he finally honoured her own choices and allowed her to go off unhindered? Seeing her cry wouldn’t exactly be easy for Kisame, either, and if he made it worse for her, he’d never forgive himself. If he didn’t say goodbye, he could cherish the last moments they had spent together; talking, laughing and just hanging out, instead of trying to come up with words that could never truly convey what he felt.

“If she hadn’t turned into a mermaid...wouldn’t she have left a note; or said something by now?” Sasori abruptly cut in, and immediately he was told to shut up.

Kisame hadn’t said a word since, and had remained seated, staring down at the floor as he tried to figure out what to do. None of them knew how exactly they could comfort him or give him advice, and so they decided it would be best if Kisame came to his own conclusion; after all, a part of Kisame felt that Sasori was right. Surely there would have been a sign if Umi was just taking a walk or something to clear her head; but there was nothing, prompting Kisame to agree with Sasori's opinion. She had to be a mermaid by now...and Kisame had lost her.

Then suddenly something occurred to him.

He’d been thinking about it—worrying about it—a little while ago in his room, and he’d realised the truth. There had been a moment last night when Kisame's only thoughts was that he was going to lose Umi tomorrow—and he had convinced himself otherwise. He knew that he was never going to lose Umi; and so what if she had turned into a mermaid already? She would still be alive; still have that same personality that had drawn her to him in the first place. That connection between them was one he felt where he stood right now, and proved that regardless of whether Umi was human or a mermaid, Kisame would remain connected to her. He would always care about her, and he didn’t care what she was or where she lived. True, maybe not saying goodbye might be easier for some people...but he couldn’t say the same. Kisame wasn’t about to sit back and let Umi disappear off without speaking to her one last time. He didn’t want to lose the change to say goodbye to her, and as such clenched his fists. Sasori might be right...but it didn’t mean it was over. So standing up, Kisame still didn’t say anything, merely beginning to head out of the room and towards his own. Narrowing their eyes at what he was doing, Itachi eventually caught up with him as he picked up Samehada, asking quietly,

“What do you want to do, Kisame?”

“I’m going after her, Itachi. I don’t care whether she’s a mermaid or not; I have to say goodbye. I have to talk to her...and I don’t care if she’s already transformed or not.”