The sun was shining, the birds were singing, a few clouds floated lazily by.
All in all, a person could say it was a beautiful day.

“...Damn.”

Okay, maybe not all people.  But Kisame wasn’t exactly a person--he was a ninja, fer Pete’s sake--and this wasn’t exactly his perfect day.

Would yours be if you were dragged out of your perfectly nice and comfortable bed by one irrational Uchiha and told in that sickeningly creepy monotone voice of his that he was running out of nail polish and as such you were to go to the nearest available town to get some more.  Nail polish!  And if he was only just running out, then why the heck did it fall on Kisame to go do Itachi’s errands at three in the fucking morning?!?

Yeah, thought not.

As it was, Kisame was in far too deep a mental fuming session to notice the fact that the little glass bottles were rattling away far too hard inside the tiny handle-less  plastic shopping bag he’d been given to carry them in by a wry-looking store clerk.  

Grunting, Kisame almost tripped over a rock in the road, before righting himself with one loud clank of glass against glass in the little plastic shopping bag on his hip and tromping on.

Yup.

Definitely too immersed in his own little world.

I betch ‘cha he’d like to say that even though he was so into his broody little self right then, it was his keen and super-mad ninja skillz that allowed him to sense the presence of the girl leaning against one of the tall oaks he passed.

That’s what he’d like to say, anyways.  Truth be told, he’d already gone a few feet past the female before he’d even noticed she was there.  And that was only because of her light giggle she emitted and the soft scent of flowers he’d picked up on once he noticed the giggle.

Casually stopping and leaning against the tree nearest him--and consequently nearest to the girl--he tilted his head in her direction and smirked.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise.”  Indeed it was, Kisame thought while eyeing the girl--no, definitely woman--swiftly.  Her dark hair was pinned back by a light pink lotus flower, matching the cheery disposition of her pale peach kimono--no, what were those things called?  This looked like it had been a kimono at one point in time, before being cut off and sewn to make a new hem halfway up her thighs--she grinned at him, briefly drawing his gaze away from his study of her and the black patterns and swirls trailing along her clothes.

Her front was left loose, hanging open to expose what would have been crème colored skin on her chest, except for the red skin-tight dress she wore underneath.  All in all, he would have expected her to be some sort of geisha or lord’s wife with the subtle elegance she carried herself with.  However, ne noticed with a wry grin, that seemed to be one of the farthest things from her mind by the way she looked at him in return.

A smile quirked at the corners of her mouth as she studied him surreptitiously, a light breeze tickling the lotus flower she’d thoughtfully placed behind her ear.

They stood there, the silence daring either of them to be the first to talk.  Kisame was pretty sure he wouldn’t be the one to crack under the pressure first.  Yup, he'd be the winner.  No matter what happened he would stay silent the longest.

“What, don’t you talk?”  He finally asked with a half-frustrated sigh, raising an eyebrow at her and shifting his weight to one foot.  He knew that he would have only not noticed the woman on one of two conditions.  The first would seem the most obvious, that she was of absolutely no threat to him at all.  The second, however, was that she was a very skilled ninja, enough so to mask her presence from him till he was almost completely past her.

(A/N:  Well, the third option is that she’s skilled as a ninja but wasn’t masking herself completely, just enough to look civilian….and he just didn’t notice her.  But we’ll give Kisame the benefit of the doubt, no?  Or at least, we’ll make him think he’s got it when we just really know Chosha.)

“Yes, in fact I do believe I talk rather well, don’t you think?”  She grinned at him, seemingly at ease while something set him on edge.  This girl...she just wasn’t quite right.  He couldn’t put his finger on it, but.....

“Sure, but what’s a pretty little lady like you doing out in the middle of nowhere?”  She seemed to ponder this herself for a minute.

“Oh, wandering I guess.  I hear when a big, strong man like yourself gets the wanderlust, it gets pretty terrible.  Have you ever had anything like it?”  Oh, she was so mocking him!  His hand twitched for his sword.  But no, he would not use it against her.....yet.

“Why, yes, as a matter of fact.  Though I do believe it’s called--battle lust!” He thrust out with the flat of his hand in an arc, striking it against the tree where the female had just been.  Ah, he knew it.  No ordinary female could wear a kimono like she did.  You had to be either a cross-dresser and extremely confident in yourself, or crazy to some extent and degree; perfect for a skilled ninja.

“Ooh!  Sounds fun, mind if I try some?”  Chosha wasn’t exactly sure why she’d stopped by that tree to wait for this guy after she’d seen a few glimpses of him at that old town--buying purple nailpolish of all things--especially when she knew he was a member of Akatsuki, and therefore a possible threat.

“No, go right ahead.  Though I think it’s rather dangerous for someone like you.”  Giving her a large and menacing grin, the missing nin disappeared from her line of sight, only her honed reflexes giving her time to jump out of the way towards a kunai slash aimed at her neck.

Chosha had time to barely register the fact that he wasn’t using his sword--yet--did that mean he thought he could go easy on her?

Well, fine.

Time for this girl to stop playing.

One word, two, and then a third to make him know for certain how caught he was, and she landed in the branches of a fairly thick and squat old oak.

"What now, Kisa-me?"  She grinned, "You may be a missing nin of Akatsuki but that doesn't mean you'll beat me that easily."  Her eyes widened as they settled on the clone caught in her trap.

Uh-oh.

Jumping out of the way yet again, Chosha sighed in frustration and wondered briefly how exactly the blue-skinned ninja had managed to not get caught and instead switch himself with a clone.  Meanwhile, Kisame was hiding behind a tree and letting his clone have at her while he tried to figure out what the heck had just about nabbed him.  If it weren't for his samedha soaking up the power it had been throwing at him and his quick reflexes, he'd still be caught in that trap.

Spying his sword, Chosha immediately came up with a theory that was both immediate and not very well thought-out.

Which of course means that it would work.  Just so long as she seperated it from its master.  And they said fighting was an easy job at the academy.

"Hey, how about we put some humor into this situation?"  She called out as she sliced neatly through the clone.

"How about no?"  Turning a backflip mid-air, Chosha planted her feet on Kisame's big blue chest and pushed him backwards as he appeared behind her.  Panting a little as she landed, she blew a strand of hair out of her face.

"Well, that's too bad." She stated, before rushing in. "I'm pretty sure you would love my punch-line!"

A hand closed around her fist, and Kisame was startled to see her grin.  Leaning closer quickly she whispered in his ear.

'You need to practice your steps a little more before you think about being my partner again.  K?'  And the forest stilled.  The only thing moving besides his Samedha working furiously to chew up all the strange binding energy that enveloped him was the whispering of the wind.

...............................................................

"Kisame, what are you doing?"  Ah, had he ever been so happy to hear Itachi's voice in his life?

Well, yeah.  He wasn't happy at all to see the black-haired uchiha--not that there were any other colors for an uchiha--cross his line of vision.

He'd been sitting there leaning up against the same tree as that woman had been, before they'd just had that ridiculous spat.  What's worse is the fact that she could have killed him because of his carelessness, and she just teased him about dancing with her and dissapeared.

WTF?  Dancing?  She had to be using a metaphor or something, because there was absolutely no way that Kisame danced.  Besides, he thought shrugging, it's not like they'd ever see each other again.  Right?

"Being bored waiting for your sorry ass to show up, Uchiha."  Okay, maybe insulting Itachi wasn't such a good idea, even if he still felt like lashing out at something, the red-eyed warning glare was definately enough to get him to steer clear of aggravating his partner any more today.  After all, he didn't really feel like getting Mangekyou-ed right now.

"We've got work to do.  Come on."  Turning, Itachi started back towards the hideout.

"Who do we have to kill now?"  Kisame asked boredly.  Itachi's lips quirked briefly in an almost smirk, as he tossed his blue comrade a thick manilla folder that was the target's dossier.  Kisame caught it without even blinking at the color.

Really, what other color were you expecting?  Red?  Even the Akatsuki knows when not to mess with the natural way of things.  And filing was definately one of those not-to-be-messed with.

"Not kill, capture and subdue.  A rogue ninja from Konoha, who is not considered a missing nin.  Oroachimaru wishes to make use of her powers, and so we must get to her first."  He paused slightly, as if contemplating whether or not the next bit of information he had was necessary, before adding it anyways.  "Her name is Chosha."

........................................

Biting her lip slightly, the dark-haired ninja glanced through the racks, trying to make a decision as quickly as possible.  She'd been invited to a pompus party--er, ball, that the firelord was having that friday because she'd somehow accidentally managed to get one of his lesser lords interested in her.  

How he'd noticed her in the streets of the market and how the messenger had found her, she really didn't wanna know.  But as it was, she was too busy trying to find a good dress and some new lipstick within the next two days to really have the chance to think about it.

A wry grin licked her lips as she found a potential dress, her thoughts flickering back to her parting words to the dark-haired man she'd left standing in the middle of the woods and the irony of them.  She'd known Kisame on the spot from her time spent researching all the different ninjas Konoha was after, though she doubted he had recognized her.  After all, she was one of Konoha's secrets.  And information like her was just too hard to come by to be given willy-nilly to even the members of Akatsuki unless there was a mission involving her.  And as they'd not come after her yet, she doubted anyone but maybe their leader--stupid information hoarder that he was--knew a thing about her.

It was really too bad she wouldn't be getting to dance with the shark-man on the battlefield or on an actual dance floor anytime soon.