Hoshigaki

As One Should Know

"Do you have the things you need, pup?" Kisame questioned. Sakura nodded, gripping the straps of her backpack. Papa said it was time to ree-low-kate for a few weeks, or stay in a different country for a little bit while Ame was getting 'sweeped' by some shinobi that weren't from there. She also heard from Leader-sama that it was customary because of Ame's 'suspicious' activity as of recently, and it had only been a matter of time until the other nations noticed.

So the Akatsuki would spread out and lay low until the 'suspicious'-ness tided over.

Or as her Papa said, it was going to be kinda like a vacation. She'd never been outside Amegakure before.

"We're gonna have to be real careful while we're out there," he said, tugging the hood over her head and picking her up. "Hunter-nin might be after me while we're out there and I might have to fight, but whatever happens, they can't know about you."

Sakura peeked over his shoulder as he began to move over the rooftops to the outer walls of the village. "They're gonna kill me?"

What did it mean if he would feel remorse at the death of the innocent?

"They might," Kisame admitted, the thought ugly and bitter on his tongue.  "You just gotta hope they're the ones that won't."

By the time they were in the thick forests, it was the dead of night. Humidity held hefty in the air with only Kisame's and Sakura's quiet words to fill the silence.

"Do you remember your cover story?" he asked. Before they'd left, he spent all of the night before crafting a reason for her being with him if she ever got caught, as much as it pained him to go through every inch of her life to rewrite him out of it. She nodded against his collarbone.

"My name's Sakura and I don't have a Mama," she recited. "Mama died when I was a baby and Papa was a merchant. He left a year ago and didn't come back. I don't know where he went. I live in Ame."

"Why were you with Hoshigaki Kisame?"

"He took me."

"Why?"

"A dis-trac-tion? I dunno why, but since I didn't have anyone he said no one would miss me," she said. She lifted her head and stared at her father's profile. "But that's not true, huh? You'd miss me if I was gone?"

What did it mean to be a "villain"?

It was an honest question filled with childish curiosity, but her words enough made his heart curl up in an unsightly way. He stopped on a low branch to take a moment to press a kiss to her forehead before setting off again.

What did it mean to take the fall for another?

"I'd miss you every single day, pup."

What did it mean to love someone?

::

Yamashiro Aoba specialized in intelligence and was assigned to the team that was to gather information on an S-Class missing-nin that had been spotted lurking around Fire Country and was heading towards the other side of the mainland continent. That missing-nin had also been said to have caused the deaths of a platoon of genjutsu users in Amegakure a year back—he was armed, dangerous, and wanted dead or alive.

Aoba thought it was a bad idea to tail with a renowned criminal like the one they were after, but he was a threat to both Konoha and the villages surrounding it and would be better off apprehended than have a chance to wreak the havoc he normally brought with him.