Porcelain Doll [ON HIATUS]

Chapter 14-Stubborn

I twiddled my fingers as I sat outside of Leader-sama's office, keeping my body curled into a small ball, hugging my legs close to my body. It's been hours and they haven't finished interrogating the girl. Leader-sama wouldn't let me inside to join in, or even watch the process, because Danna decided to be a tattletale and talk about what a nuisance I was during the mission. I gritted my teeth as my brow furrowed subconsciously.

I heard the light whistling of a familiar blue man. My ears perked up as I stopped fiddling with my hands. "Kisame-san?" I asked.

"Hm? Oh, hey kiddo!" He gave me his famous toothy grin, allowing me to see his glistening sharp teeth.

"What's happening? And..." He rose an eyebrow. "Why are you sitting by Leader-sama's office?"

I puffed out my cheeks, a familiar action to me now, breathing out slowly in annoyance. "Leader-sama's interrogating our captive," I murmured, shrugging.

"But that doesn't explain why you're on the floor...?"

"I'm just really bored," I sighed, going back to playing with my fingers. Kisame-san was quiet for a good thirty seconds before he came up with an idea. He snapped his fingers, and the sudden noise made me snap out of my trance.

Never knew how interesting my fingers could be when I'm drowning in boredom.

"Wanna go train or something? It could be fun." My eyes must've lightened up with the joy I felt thinking about that idea.

But then I frowned. "Wait, that isn't fair. You're an S-Rank and I'm...well, I'm barely a genin. Or a chuunin. Everything was fuzzy from the exams..." I tapped my chin rhythmically, lost in thought.

"I won't use Samehada," he sang, knowing I hated when he used his chakra-stealing sword. "Hell yeah!" I jumped up immediately, grinning. "Hey, don't swear, Sasori doesn't like it when you do."

"When did you start caring what he thought?" I scoffed, shooting him a suspicious glance.

"I was joking!" Then he led me outside, rolling his eyes, and I followed behind, making sure to check my surroundings. He stopped in front of the base, focusing chakra to the soles of his feet to allow himself to stand on the water outside. I followed behind, stumbling and almost falling into the large puddles due to my lack of experience. The pouring rain made it even more difficult to focus.

When I caught him laughing at me, I pointed at him and growled, "Hey, I haven't practiced, okay?' He rose his hands in defense, although unable to wipe the grin off of his face. I continued to falter for a few more steps until getting the hang of it and confidently making it over to where he was. I looked up at the (much taller) man.

"What now?"

"We train." He was about to pull out the Samehada that wasn't there. "Remember, you promised you wouldn't use the big-ass sword?" He mumbled quietly, "Well, I didn't promise..." I glared at him. "Fine, we'll focus on something else!"

He feigned fear, widening his eyes and walking away. I snickered. My family was the best.

"Okay, so, what technique do you want to train me to use?"

"I just want you to practice your ninjutsu."

I groaned loudly. "But that's boring!"

"Shhh, you'll wake the villagers."

I scanned the village around me. "Isn't this unsafe? I mean, what if someone were to walk out of their house? What do we do, kill them?"

Kisame-san laughed. "It's 4am, most people aren't awake at this time. And we're not supposed to kill the villagers, we'll stir up too much trouble. Besides, if they caught us, we could cast a genjutsu on them. That is, if you know how to," he teased. I shot him a threatening look. "Hey, I'm great at genjutsu, shut your mouth!"

"Alright, if you say so. Do you want to practice one jutsu at a time, or just go straight into sparring?"

"I wanna spar. We don't use the same element, you can't teach me any earth style moves."

He grinned, and in a blur, his hands began to move. "Remember, you gotta take it easy on me!" I hissed, watching the speed of his movements.

"Sure."

But I was still wary of how much I should trust him. I jumped back a few steps, skidding clumsily on the surface of the giant puddle. It really wasn't a puddle, if you could even call it that. The constant rain had covered most parts of the village in a thin layer of water. I wiped raindrops from my face. All this rain would give him an advantage. I sighed.

I couldn't hear his attack name through the roaring of the storm, but all I knew was that I was suddenly knocked back by an enormous mass of water, causing me to be forced to the ground. Kisame rose an eyebrow, saying something like "That was quick."

I shot another murderous glare at him, managing to stand up unsteadily, spewing the rainwater from my mouth. "That's disgusting."

"Should've made sure to keep your mouth closed." I rolled my eyes and started my own jutsu, which he noticed immediately.

I used the earth beneath all of the water and turned it into a small fort-like barrier, then shot earthen spikes at Kisame-san. He, of course, had no trouble dodging them, and for several hours, we stayed outside in the rain, throwing attacks at each other.

Every time his water style collided with my earth style, my earth style would absorb his water, then turn to mud and fall to the ground. I got a face-full of water multiple times. He said he'd hold back, which he probably did, but his speed of jutsu forming was way too quick for me.

At some point, when I was almost completely depleted of chakra, I'd just run in circles around him. I looked stupid, obviously, but at least it took him more effort to hit me. In the end, I'd run out of energy, and all I could do at that moment was flop onto the ground and give up.

Kisame-san was amused. "Giving up already?"

"Pffft," I let out a pitiful sound. "No way-"

I tried to stand up, but my legs refused, and I collapsed back onto the ground. "Yes way," I muttered in defeat, rolling around like an idiot. "

You do know you're getting your clothes dirty, right?"

I shot up immediately, and raced back into the base. I absolutely hated getting dirt on my clothing, much less mud. I heard him laughing outside as he entered the base soon after. I ran into the closest available bathroom.

"You need a towel and a new set of clothing, Hitomi!" He called after me. I darted out of the bathroom, grabbed my things, then rushed back inside. I saw Kisame-san chuckling and shaking his head as he made his way to the room he and Itachi-san shared.

Once in the shower, I almost fell asleep.

Actually, I think I did. When I woke up, about twenty minutes later, I was practically drowning. Let's just say I was coughing up water for a very long time.

I exited the bathroom coughing and spluttering pitifully. When I spotted a couple of the guys trying hard to keep their laughter hidden, I punched them in the faces. It took a while because I was at least a head shorter than everybody else, but I managed. Let's see if they'll laugh after that.