River Avulsion

Kisame stares, rather dully, at the kunoichi chained and dumped into one of the prison cells.

“Get going” a voice somewhere behind him says, clipped and rough, and Kisame has a vague sense that he should heed the order but it’s rather hard to focus on the words with the ache pounding in his head and the sheer confusion at the situation.

(He was dying. He died. There were shadows, green and brown and black. The clouds hovered, water around his face, a sharp glint of his summons—)

“What’re you doing? I said your shift’s done, Hoshigaki”

There’s a nudge on his back. A relatively harsh one that Kisame would normally pay some mind to, but pain exploding from all over his body and suddenly disappearing is a different kind of reeling so Kisame just glances over his shoulder, nods once, and leaves.

.

Kisame stares at his own reflection on the water before deciding that he has to go get a real mirror and take a good, real good look on his face.

He has never bothered to look at himself for so long before, so this must be a record.

“Huh” a voice bubbles out from next to him. Kisame’s fingers twitch at the faint, vague sense of recognition hitting him on the face as he looks down to see someone materializing out of a puddle on the ground, pale face and limbs greeting him, “Did someone actually say something mean enough for you to look like that?”

Kisame blinks at the bluish white hair, the striking grey eyes, and the easy grin.

If his own appearance didn’t make it obvious, this person alive and kicking surely does.

“Mangetsu” Kisame calls the name, and it’s not so much a greeting as it’s a test, and when Mangetsu tilts his head in the way that Kisame was—is—so familiar with, he knows he should probably start swinging his sword or leap away and dissociate.

“So, what’s your bet?”

Kisame blinks again at the question, “My what?”

“Your bet” Mangetsu looks at him in thinly-veiled amusement, as if aware of Kisame’s confusion and deciding that it’s funny, “The guys are making bets on the new Turtle Shell. Some say it’ll do its job and decimate Konoha, others think it’ll die before that no thanks to the half-assed job the seal team made” the Hozuki takes a seat on the damp ground, “though Kushimaru is weirdly headstrong that it’ll kill itself.”

Kisame tries very hard to take in all the words. When the information finally sinks in, there are bursts of old, crinkled knowledge shooting forward in his mind, tumbling around, jostling his brain about the time, the mission, the Three-Tails and the Mizukage—

Kisame stands up abruptly. He looks at Mangetsu, “I’ll bet she dies”

And he says that because he knows. Remembers. That mission; the stupid, reckless tactic the Fourth Mizukage had made. And it had failed. It had failed and the Sanbi had died and they had to wait for years but apparently that was the purpose and it was a success and the Mizukage was—

Kisame grits his teeth, leaps away in a sunshin, and hopes, for the first time, that he will lose the bet.

.

Kisame is not really made to think.

He can memorize, sure. Names and faces and directions. Hand seals and signs and mission parameters. He is decent at problem-solving—from long before all his problems can be solved with a single slash of his sword—and he can decide calls and rely on his own battle IQ most of the time.

He is not one to think of long-term objectives, though. Nor to look at the bigger picture.

That was one of the problems, he thinks. When he thought that killing his fellow Kiri shinobi was him being loyal to his village. When he followed orders and fought and fought and fought, only to be stabbed in the back by the one he put a blind faith in.

When it came to the future, it appears, Kisame never seemed make the right calls.

(Even his death—the one thing he can never regret—was not a sure thing that it could help with the Moon Eye plan. Not when everyone Kisame had ever given half a shit about were dead and the organization itself was—)

The point is, Kisame doesn’t plan. Doesn’t think far ahead, doesn’t make the big decisions.

So the reason why, of all people in the Elemental Nations, he is the one being thrown back in time is beyond him.

It’s beyond him so much that he decides to try to imagine Itachi. Small, gloomy Itachi with the wisdom larger than life, and it makes Kisame feel a little like a loon, but being crazy and doing the right things is still better than being crazy and doing the wrong things.

“Everything happens for a reason” is all the imagined-Itachi in his mind says before it disappears in a flurry of black feathers, and Kisame wants to grab himself on the shoulders and shake, before he realizes that that actually does sound like something the cryptic Uchiha would say.

So. Everything happens for a reason.

…Is there actually a reason for Kisame being here, though? What’s the evidence it’s not just his life flashing before his eyes? A genjutsu? A very weird dream?

Except, Kisame is absolutely, really very sure that he was dead, and he has done all the things he knows how to do to escape a mind trick of any kind.

And he is still there. More than 10 years younger, the sword strapped on his back so light he might as well not have been carrying anything.

And there is a ghost of Itachi’s words, playing in his mind in a loop, everything happens for a reason.

.

Kisame would like to think he knows how his brain works, but apparently shock and confusion lead to people making weird decisions, and now he is standing in front of rusting metal bars, hand fiddling with a ring of keys with a couple guards unconscious on the ground next to his feet.

He gets inside the cell and crouches in front of the girl slumped on one corner, her eyes closed and brows furrowed.

Yep. Doesn’t ring any bells.

It has—had?—been years, so the details slip by him, but Kisame remembers the end of this one. She died halfway to Konoha, he believes, bringing the Three Tails with her. It would take a couple years before the chakra monster materialized back and a bit more before Kiri could take hold of it again.

(Then again, it took a relatively short time, and now Kisame knows why. The Mizukage was controlled by Madara, and Madara had the sharingan. And really, Kisame of all people would know what the hell the red, cheat-sheet of swirly eyes could do)

Without much thought, Kisame slings the girl over his shoulder and gets out of the place.

༄ ༄ ༄

Rin wakes up from blood-curdling screams, melting limbs, and bloody eyes to…

…To what, exactly, she isn’t sure.

She would like to blame it on the remnants of the genjutsu, or the ringing, stabbing pain in her head, or even the tight, boiling seal on her abdomen that’s making her body tremble all over, but she can’t make heads or tails of what she is seeing.

For one, she isn’t where she believes she was last at. It’s a room alright, nine square meters or so, but it’s definitely not a cell. The walls are made of brick and stones, and there is a door on a wall adjacent to her. There’s also light, dim and square and coming from somewhere, and from a quick, brave glance to her right, she can see an opening of some sort on the walls, so high it almost reaches the ceiling, giving the room a nice circulation.

Rin might not be an expert but she knows prisons aren’t supposed to have windows of any kind.

And Rin isn’t in chains. The manacles that bit and scraped at her skin are now gone, replaced with plain ropes that bind her arms. If she so wills, she can stand up and jump and run, and it’s certainly an easier matter with the ropes.

What prevents her from doing so though, is the next weird thing.

There is a man pacing in front of her, tall and… blue? muttering to himself with a pinched face. Right when Rin is trying to connect that face with a name—surely she can remember someone with those features—the guy turns to look at her. Rin holds her breath and sits up straighter.

Maybe she should have just stayed still and kept closing her eyes—

“Hey” the guy calls, and Rin fights back a flinch as he approaches her.

“Can you talk to the Sanbi?”

Rin… just stares, “I’m sorry?”

“The Sanbi,” the guy repeats, a line of impatience wedging in his voice but tone carefully low, “Big guy, turtle shell. Can you talk to him?”

“…No”

“No?” the guy scrunches his face, “Huh. I thought Utakata said something about voices…”

There is actually a voice just behind a mountain in her mind, sprouting dark and hateful and dangerous things, demanding blood. But Rin has been using all of her will power to ignore it so the guy can’t make her stop now.

“Oh, well, doesn't matter” the guy stands up, and there is a slightest of fear trickling in Rin’s mind that her answer is not the one he wants, and that he will do something about it—

Rin lets out yelp as she is hoisted up.

“Sorry about this Konoha-san, but you’re coming with me”

Rin doesn’t accept the apology. She tries to keep calm instead, willing her heartbeat to stop hammering at the thought of another genjutsu, or maybe a real torture this time, the one she has been warned for after that accident with Ibiki. Dull weapons, plucking nails, well-placed shallow slits. Or maybe water-boarding just to get with the theme of water country—

“—see, Kisame! What’re you—huh? Hey, wai—!”

Rin sees as the blue guy—the very one carrying her around like a sack of vegetables—slashes at… at another Kiri nin..? before promptly hiding the body in an alley and continuing on his way.

“…What are you doing?” Rin finds herself ask as they (well, him, with her brought along) run and leap away, keeping to the quiet, less crowded places, the guy looking over his shoulder every few minutes.

The guy chuckles “Wish I knew” and takes one huge leap. Rin sees the cylindrical buildings of the village disappearing as grey, spindly trees and bush fill her vision.

.

They keep running. The ground gets muddier—the guy’s sandals making low splatting sounds with every step—and the mist gets thicker. Rin can barely see past three maters around her—nevermind she is getting even more dizzy with the blood going to her head from how she is hanging on the Kiri nin’s shoulder—but it looks like the guy can see ahead just fine.

Rin tries the rope around her hands. It has gotten a little loose now, with how she has been subtly fiddling with it. She is sure she can completely let herself out of the bind when she finally finds the opportunity to.

…An opportunity that she is starting to fear would never come.

It’s not just that Rin thinks the guy overpowers her by miles, or that she is in foreign land with essentially no possible way to navigate herself around.

It’s that there have been whispers, hissing and barking loud in her ears, the shadows of slimy green and striking red dancing in her vision. When it gets too loud—her head ringing like sheets of metal against downpour—she peeks a glance at the Kiri nin only to see not a single sign of discomfort.

So, it’s a her thing. Not that she is too surprised, since apparently there is three-tailed chakra abomination residing inside her belly now.

(Rin knows she would have to process that sometime, ideally in the near future, but her ribs ache and her vision is blurry and the knot in her stomach is threatening to climb all the way up her throat and go out her mouth.)

Taking deep breaths, Rin wills the after-images of the horrible genjutsu to go away along with the muddy path, and focuses.

They are still inside the border of Mist, she thinks, and it would take much more time to reach the edge of the Water Country. There is no way to know exactly at which spot she was brought to, but if she has to take a wild guess, it will take at the very least four days to reach the end of the island.

“—e out, girl—"

Which, now that she thinks about it, begs the question if they are actually going out of the country. Maybe they aren’t. Maybe the Kiri nin is bringing her to a sacred, sacrificial place somewhere—

“—ill help. Just let me out of this cag—”

—because really, ‘wish I knew’ is such a weird answer. Was he just told to get her without knowing what will be done to her? Are they going to meet a final boss of a higher standing? She has heard of the bloodline purges and the small civil wars on the smaller islands of the Land of Water, but are there actually split forces in Kiri? Can she use that to—

“—st lET ME OUT—”

“Please shut up”

“…What?”

Rin closes her eyes. Great. Now the voice won’t keep quiet because she has shown that she can actually hear it. Not to mention—

“Did you say something?” the Kiri nin asks, slowing his pace, the noise of the mud and wind quieting down.

“...No” Rin says and doesn't elaborate further. The Kiri nin grunts a not quite a word, and Rin is expecting the pace to kick back up but it slows down instead, and not long they completely stop at… nowhere.

She is finally put back down on her own feet, and Rin relishes the feeling of her blood circulating right again while trying not to be obvious in her attempt at looking for the opportunity to run.

The Kiri nin rummages through his pouch, grabbing all his ammunitions and putting them on the ground one by one, muttering to himself all the while as if he hasn’t done any stock checking before going out of the house.

It’s… a chance, Rin thinks. Maybe she can make a run for it. Her right ankle doesn’t feel quite right—shooting pains up her leg when she puts some weight on it—but Rin can push through. She might still die anyway even if she just keeps still as this man’s hostage, as the wound on her right side is still bleeding and the haphazard seal of chakra-blocking is still carved along her wrists, so maybe she should take her chances—

“Right, okay” the man finally says as he dumps all the things back into the pouch, nodding to himself. And now that Rin can see more closely, he really is… blue. Like, blue blue. Kiri shinobi are known for their pale, sometimes almost translucent skin, or chalk gray complexion. There are ones who maintain a hint of red, but how can someone be so blue without being dead?

“Here” the man says as he puts a fist in front of Rin. She steps back in reflex, only to stare at the… at the white rolls of bandage… handed to her?

“Um” is all Rin manages to say. The guy blinks before apparently realizing what is wrong.

And he cuts Rin’s ties. Just like that. And he somehow looks unbothered while everything looks even more wrong to Rin.

“You can do it yourself, right?” he asks, throwing the rolls—along with a small bottle of something—at her and proceeding to put off his vest—which alarms Rin until she realizes what he is doing—to take attendance of his hidden weapons next. He stays close to her—which is standard procedure for keeping a hostage, really—but maintains a considerate distance, his back not quite to her but not completely facing away either.

Rin takes a moment to go through the bewilderment before she starts bandaging herself lest the guy change his mind. And when she is done, she finally finds her voice along with her wits, “Where are you taking me?”

The guy is pat patting his vest and pants, like Rin has seen her father do to make sure he has the house keys and everything he needs, and then grabs his sword and straps it on his back.

“We’re going to Ame”

…Amegakure?

“Why?”

“Ah well” the guy scratches his cheek, and if Rin didn’t know better she would say he looks a little sheepish, “That’s the only place I’m fairly familiar with”

That… doesn’t really answer her question.

When she is about to shoot another query, however, there is a blinding, slashing light, and Rin stares wide-eyed as a mop of silver enters her vision.

༄ ༄ ༄

Kisame has been having a hard time adapting to his new—old?—young body. It’s still tall and muscly and all, but not quite as tall and muscly as he once had been—would be?—and there is a weird sense of imbalance every time he jumps a little too high or swings his limbs a little too far.

There is no moment he feels more imbalanced though, than when he realizes just who is standing in front of him, silver hair a little muted but eye so stunningly red amidst the fog.

It’s Hatake Kakashi. The Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan.

And he is so tiny.

Kisame would laugh. Hell, he lets out a breath of pure mirth as he dodges an attack aimed straight at his neck. But the bloodlust is so thick it might have condensed along the mist, and Kisame would like to keep his injuries to the minimum if he can help it.

(He had been wondering who the Konoha shinobi was—in the past—that was meant to be able to break into the prison and bring the jinchuuriki out. Nice to know it’s someone he knows.)

Before they can get into a full brawl, however, Kisame speaks.

“Kiri is planning on using her”

That halts the Hatake’s sword, and he glares at Kisame as if a dare to continue. Kisame does.

“The Sanbi in her, to be exact. Once you arrive at Konoha they’re going to release the seal, and there goes your village”

Not that it will actually happen. It didn’t happen in the past and Kisame will make sure it doesn’t now. And the girl will not die either, not on his watch, because that’s what Madara wants and Kisame has decided to hell with the guy now.

The challenge is to figure out how.

Everything happens for a reason.

But seriously, Itachi, Kisame doesn’t want to be the one that has to think.

“Why should I believe you” Hatake says, sword still aimed at Kisame, the girl safely hidden from sight behind him, “You could be just another cog in the wheel”

Well, yes, Kisame had been that his whole (previous?) life, but still.

“The girl knows it, too” Kisame decides to say, and he knows she does. Her current silence just confirms it, and the Hatake’s frown deepen, hands tightening around his sword.

“Kakashi” the girl eventually says, voice soft but unwavering, “He’s right. We should—”

“Not happening”

“But I would endanger Konoha! We should just—”

“I said, not happening,” The Hatake hisses, and Kisame sees a familiar rage boiling in a too-young face, “I promised, Rin.”

Kisame stares at those last words, trying to comprehend why that is the reason the guy wouldn’t kill a fellow shinobi. But the blade is still there and it’s coated in lightning and Kisame doesn’t feel like being electrocuted at the moment.

Before he can try to make the Konoha shinobi listen to what he has to say, the silver head straightens, just slightly, and his frown gets impossibly deeper.

“…We need to get going” Kisame hears him whisper, and huh. Now that Kisame tries, he can feel the distant chakra of fellow Kiri nin, slowly closing in to their very direction.

(And he had been relying on Samehada for the chakra sensing a little too much, hadn’t he? His back feels endlessly lighter now)

“Then let’s go” Kisame says, firm and loud, and sees the flabbergasted look the Hatake is levelling him with. It almost looks funny.

“You can try to beat me down first and then run away” Kisame says, trying and failing to hide a smile full of serrated teeth, “But I can assure you I won’t go down without a good fight, and they’re already close enough now.”

It’s a big gamble on Hatake’s part, Kisame knows. It’s either running with a headstart with an enemy ninja right next to him, or fight said ninja and the other dozen ninjas and possibly lose a chance to escape.

Hatake shoots him a dirty look.

“Don’t give me that” Kisame sheaths back his sword slowly, “Those guys are here to make sure you hurry and reach the Land of Fire. I didn’t call them here.”

Hatake doesn’t look convinced, but he does lower his sword and goes to grab the girl’s arm.

“Can you run, Rin?”

The girl nods. Kisame notes that the smell of blood is still thick on her but at least she isn’t actively bleeding anymore, and that the rotten, slimy chakra of the Three-Tails is currently still well-suppressed within her.

There’s a weird shine on her eyes, though. A sudden, lightning-quick look that disappears as Kisame tries to look closer, but it’s familiar.

(Familiar to a pair of onyx eyes, dark as the void under a cliff, and Kisame tries not to think too much about it.)

.

Kisame revise his plan (well, as much of a plan as it is, made in just ten minutes with an imagined figure of a friend) and decides that they should go to the Land of Fire instead of Ame.

For one, the Kiri pursuers won’t stop until they are sure the bijuu vessel has reached the border to Fire. For two, it’s closer, and three, his current companions look to be one nudge away from falling off the edge. Kisame takes pity and thinks that hopefully being in a green, lust forest with birds and the sun and whatnot above them is going to do their nerves some good.

Kisame should have known that their main problem is him, though, and he opens an eye and stops a silver sword on its path, his grip on the blade, blood dripping from his palm to the damp ground.

 “I thought handing you my sword was good enough” Kisame blandly states, not impressed at the attempt on his life.

When he proposed that they make camp when it was completely dark, Hatake had looked ready to fight him again. Kisame had sighed, taken off his strap of sword, and given it to the girl without a word. Hatake has seemed a little mellow since (as mellow as someone with a shining red eye can be, anyway), so Kisame has thought everything was fine. Clearly he has been wrong on that front.

“You said they’re there to make sure we hurry and reach Konoha” Hatake says, poison dripping his words, and hey that kind of accusation won’t fly for Kisame.

“I mean, if you want, we can just go to Ame” Kisame thinks of dark cloaks, red clouds, and neverending rain, “it’s way too damp and wet there, but I guess it smells better than Kiri”

“…What are you planning?”

And isn’t that the question of the year. Kisame isn’t planning anything at all. His mind is still weird and foggy and goddamn working on autopilot as he tries to make sense of… of this. Of everything. Of his death and his summons and the stupid green beast and Kiri and the Sanbi and Madara and Hatake’s tiny teenager body and—

A drink. Kisame is planning on looking for the strongest booze he can find.

“I want to keep the girl alive” he says instead, and sees the red eye go wider. Kisame sighs and stands up from his sitting position, looming over the boy.

“Look” he starts, as firm as he can make it to convince everyone there and himself, “Kiri wants to use the jinchuuriki to destroy Konoha. The seal sucks,” nevermind it took six- seven? Human sacrifice to do it because Kiri doesn’t do seals, “so they need you to reach the Leaf asap, and that’s what the pursuers are for.” Kisame pauses, lets that sink in, “So it’s best to do something about the seal before reaching Konoha, and that’s what I’m here for.”

Kisame doesn’t mention that he still doesn’t have a single shred of idea about what to do, but it’s better to let the Konoha nin know first that he is definitely not trying to kill them.

“If the pursuers don’t stop even after we cross the border, then we can do something about it” he adds as an afterthought.

“Why?”

Why? Well, Kisame has had his fair share of comrades’ blood on his hands, so he would like to avoid that now. And besides, said pursuers are no stronger than chuunin. Even tiny Hatake alone can go and deal with them himself.

…Except, that’s not exactly what Hatake is asking, is it?

Kisame… isn’t sure himself. He doesn’t even know why he is brought back, or how. He just is, and now he has to deal with it.

And he could, theoretically, just continue on living like he had in the past. Keep being a Kiri soldier. Take his time to figure things out and think of what he actually wants to do.

Except Itachi’s voice keeps ringing in his mind, telling him that there is a reason—whatever the hell it is—that he is there, that he is put in that time, that the prisoner is a Konoha shinobi like Itachi himself, and there is a continuous, nagging feeling deep in Kisame’s gut telling him that something, something has to be different.

(The puppet master’s death was a surprise. The zombie duo’s even more. The demo boy went out with a literal bang, and then Itachi quietly followed. Even the leader disappeared, along with their angel, and at some rare nights under the rainy sky Kisame fervently wished that things were—)

Things have to be different.

Kisame looks at the girl. She is there, looking at the two men with calm, fiery cold eyes, as if ready to move and jump into a fight any time. It’s a nice look, Kisame thinks. Better than the resigned, weirdly determined look she had yesterday when they talked about the seal—

“Well?”

Kisame blinks. Hatake is getting impatient, he thinks, and the Kiri nin scrambles to look for an acceptable reason.

…Would saying that he comes from the future work? Well, if Kisame were in the other shoes, he would think the other person was off their rocker. Hmm. But he does act because he knows the girl would die, and he has a feeling that she shouldn’t, but how to rephrase that—

…Wait.

The girl died. The Sanbi disappeared with her. But Kisame also remembers that the pursue platoon all died too. Murdered and dismembered so bad that most didn’t even make it back whole and—

And there is something wrong, there.

Kisame knows Hatake survived, and the guy seems hellbent to protect the girl. But the girl still died, and the pursuers all died too. So that means…

That means…?

??

Ah fuck, Kisame grabs at his head, I’m really not made for this, Itachi-san.

“Itachi? Itachi of the Uchiha? You know him?”

…Did Kisame just say that out loud?

Kisame just shrugs, seeing no point in lying now “Yeah, kinda” is the vague answer, “I would, at least.”

Hatake doesn’t seem satisfied with that—which, fair—so Kisame brings his hands up before the tiny guy can swing his sword again, “Look, I seriously don’t mean you guys any harm here, so you can—”

“And you expect us to just believe that??”

“Well you’ve got to take it, though if you really want then we can have a go right now—”

“So that’s your true colors. I—”

“Wait, Kakashi-kun”

Hatake halts in his stance. The girl puts a hand on his arm.

“I believe him”

And Kisame is surprised to hear that, so he can just imagine how the Hatake is feeling.

“You’re too kind for your own good, Rin. He is from the Bloody Mist. He—”

“He got me out of the prison”

Hatake finally looks at her, both eyes open wide.

“He got me out” the girl repeats slowly, “And he hasn’t touched me. He gave me bandages for my wounds” she looks to the side, and back at the silver head, “Before you came, he had been carrying me all the way”

It’s… a wide stretch, Kisame thinks. He got her out because he was panicking and obviously out of his mind, he gave her the bandage because the smell of her blood would make it easier for people to locate them, and him carrying her was just because she would be too slow to run on a bad leg.

But hey, hurray for Konoha naivety and softness and all.

Hatake still hasn’t lowered his sword, but he isn’t glaring murder at Kisame anymore. He is looking at the girl, in fact, one lone dark eye opened, “We still don’t know what his motives are, Rin”

“He said he is here to help with the seal” she says, and Kisame has almost forgotten about that but he is sure he didn’t say ‘help’.

“But why”

“Maybe he just… maybe he just doesn’t want anything to happen to Konoha. He said he knows Itachi-kun, right? Maybe not everyone in Kiri agrees with the plan with the Sanbi, and he’s—”

Kisame listens with half an ear after that, because everyone in Kiri does agree on the plan. They’re always out for blood, see, and a havoc in an enemy country seems like a great, mouth-watering feast that they would never pass up on.

But sure, the Konoha nin can think whatever they want as long as Kisame can tag along. They can even make theories on his nature. He doesn’t mind.

Though he would much prefer it if they didn’t, like, talk about him right in front of his face.

“—don’t even know what he is”

“He is just a person, Kakashi-kun—”

“He’s fucking blue!”

“His blood is still red!”

“He has gills, Rin”

“It might be a bloodline. You shouldn’t discriminate, Kakashi-kun”

“I’m just being cautious—”

“And it might just be, I don’t know, tattooes or something”

“He can rip flesh apart with his teeth”

“Well then don’t give him any reason to”

It’s another form of entertainment, Kisame thinks, the way these Konoha nin bicker. And he can watch this forever—preferably with roasted fish and alcohol in hand—except there is still the biggest can of worms they need to open and face.

“Does any of you know anything about seals?”

.

The three of them don’t, in fact, know anything about seals.

Oh the two Konohan know shit alright. Things like making paper bombs and storage seals and such, but even after Hatake inspects the chakra-blocking seal on the girl’s wrists, he confesses that he doesn’t know how to nullify it.

“It might be for the best” the girl says at the guilt lining the boy’s shoulders, “I think it’s helping keep the Sanbi at bay. And I can still use simple jutsu, it’ll be fine”

High claims, but Hatake seems calmer at that so Kisame holds his tongue.

“You sure you don’t know anything about it?” Hatake asks Kisame, and at the not-quite-a-glare, Kisame grins, “Kiri nin would rather carry around swords twice the size of normal people than buy a storage scroll”

That seems to drive a point because Hatake just grumbles under his breath.

“Do you know anyone who might help?” Kisame asks expectantly. He doesn’t know the affairs regarding seals on the other nations, but he sure thinks it would be better than Kiri.

At the silent side glance the two Konoha share with each other, it seems Kisame is correct.

༄ ༄ ༄

The next three days go by with them running and walking and catching some quick rest. Well, Kisame and the girl get some sporadic shut eye, but the Hatake probably hasn’t slept for more than two winks.

Their rations are running thin, too. Kisame goes through his pouches and pockets for the fourth time to try and find some more bars or soldier pills or something. He remembers he used to bring some dried meat too, just in case he loses his chance to get around the campfire.

(He never did get a chance, he remembers. Never let himself join the circle around the fire. And that had been his decision, he told himself, to not get any closer—)

Kisame flinches back as something suddenly appears in his vision. He looks up to see the arm attached to the Konoha girl.

“Here you go, Kisame-san”

Kisame has no idea when and where she caught his name, but he accepts what she hands out.

“My friend says it tastes horrible, but it should be fulfilling enough” she says as she crouches next to him, “I can have a bite first if you aren’t sure about it”

Kisame is not sure about it. He takes a huge bite.

“…Your friend is right” he says after a few munches. The thing tastes like shit. Or, well, like grass and leaves and soil mixed with salt and thrown haphazardly into honey. Terrible.

But it does make Kisame’s vision get clearer, so there’s that.

“I told you to save your rations, Rin” the tiny guy with silver mop of hair says as he comes from the line of trees to the clearing, hands full of woods and twigs and branches. A shadow clone puffs out of existence near them.

“I still have some more” the girl says with a smile and shoves another bar into Kisame’s hand without looking at him, “Oh, let me help with that, Kakashi-kun”

‘That’ turns out to be a rabbit the kid has gotten from somewhere.

Kisame stretches his limbs before leaning more on a tree bark and makes a mental note not to doze off today. They have never set up fire after dark—because that’s the basic of basics of being on the run—but they do make it here and there, mostly when the Konoha nin’s teeth are chattering from the cold (weak, the both of them, but then again Itachi used to hate the cold, too). But they have passed the border for half a day now and the two kids apparently feel safe enough to open fire in the evening.

Right as Kisame is about to reach the state of sleeping-but-not, Hatake dumps the woods right next to his feet. Kisame opens his eyes to see one dark eye looking down at him.

“..Uhh”

“Pull your own weight, Kiri”

And the kid turns around to walk away and… help the girl skin and maul the rabbit. Huh.

Kisame looks at the pile of woods, the kids, then back at the woods.

Absently, he starts to arrange the stack, putting the kindling under, and even sets a few stones in a circle around it. When he is done the two Konoha nin approach him, pieces of rabbit meat stuck on thin sticks, and Hatake does a few handseals and blows a small flame to the wood.

When the thing is stably burning, they put the meat over the fire, and Kisame sits bewildered as the girl takes a seat right in front of him and Hatake plops himself down on one side of the fire near his right.

That’s…

Huh.

“That one is almost burnt, Kisame-san”

Kisame blinks at the stick in front of him.

“Maybe he likes charcoal, Rin” Hatake says, sarcasm thick as he gulps down his share so fast Kisame can’t catch the face under the mask.

Gingerly, Kisame takes the stick and just… stares at it.

“Do you not like rabbit meat, Kisame-san? You can have some more ration bars, if you prefer that”

Hatake scoffs “Maybe he just wants to eat it raw”

“Be nice, Kakashi-kun”

“You’re nice enough for the three of us” Hatake grabs another stick, “And what, ‘Kisame-san’? Is that a real name? Do people introduce themselves to prisoners in Kiri?”

They don’t. Or do, probably, before delivering the finishing blow just to make things a little extra dramatic.

“It is Kisame” Kisame says before the two can get into another round of bickering, “Hoshigaki Kisame”

It’s not that Kisame didn’t expect it, but it still comes as a surprise when the girl nods, gaze fixed on him, “I’m Nohara Rin” and she elbows Hatake right at the ribs. The silver head coughs once before letting out a mutter “Hatake Kakashi”

Kisame takes a bite of the meat. Chews slowly. It tastes bland and a little too bitter at the edges.

“It’s good”

.

Turns out, the pursuers still continue to follow them even in Fire. Kisame takes one look at the sky, sighs, and unsheaths his sword.

“Go on ahead” he says to Hatake and Nohara, mentally counting the enemies. More than twenty… hmm. With Samehada, even dozens of people wouldn’t be much of a challenge, but Kisame is not even twenty now, with less muscle mass and even less chakra reserves, and stamina aside, he doubts he can actually last long enough to—

“And let you tell them what we have been up to? Your wish, Kiri”

Kisame raises a brow. From what he knows, they’ve just been busy running and trying to keep alive, so what is Hatake talking about?

The spitfire doesn’t take orders though, so Kisame lets the little guy flit around the battlefield, cutting down the Mist’s shinobi one after another, and Kisame is almost impressed by the sheer strength generated by a body so little.

And he has thought that things are strange. Weird in a way he can’t quite grasp, and it finally shows itself in a form of another platoon, porcelain masks adorning their faces, and it’s—

Kisame's grip tighten around his sword.

It’s the hunter nin division. Just what the hell are those guys doing here??

The pursue is supposed to be a phsycological trap, a way to get the Leaf shinobi to arrive at Konoha quicker, so there is no reason to bring the big guns. But there they are, all fully-equipped with the mask and the swords and even the jutsu calling the mist—

“Get back, Rin!”

Kisame dodges an attack and tries to look at the source of the voice.

There. Hatake is shielding Nohara, and damn those are a lot of shinobi coming their way. Kisame should help—

A wind past him. Blood dripping down his cheek.

Ah yeah, he has got another handful in here.

Kisame channels chakra to his sword, hoping it won’t break under the pressure, ducks down and swings.

Two men down. He needs to cut a path to the other two now. Battle formations are always more useful than fighting alone—

A shriek. Blood in the air. Kisame doesn’t give himself time to think as he slashes another person, trying not to mind the wide eyes they are giving him through the mask holes, and leaps.

There’s a sound of bird. Chirps. A thousand of them. They ring, through the forest, the mist, and it’s one of the clearest blue Kisame has seen.

Kisame sees as Hatake slices right through the battlefield, simultaneously cutting down half a dozen man or so, and when the jutsu dims down, he restarts it again, sweat dripping profusely from his forehead.

Alright. So the infamous Kakashi of the Sharingan is already here, even more than 10 years back. That’s nice to know, makes Kisame breath easier. Now, if they can just get a chance to escape before Hatake runs himself dry of chakra—

Unblinking eyes. Light steps. A leap down.

(Kisame remembers onyx eyes. Downturned lids. An aimless walk and a blank stare through the water)

That’s… that’s where Kisame remembers. Those eyes. Just like when Itachi stood breezely in front of an attack, letting it come close—too close—before he did something about it. As the man bid Kisame goodbye, him going to a battle with his little brother that ended with Kisame’s friend coming up a corpse. And that’s—

The girl’s eyes twinkle the same. Kisame feels a jolt in his chest, burning hot, rippling right through his hands and feet.

And he jumps.

༄ ༄ ༄

Rin knows, vaguely, what her fate is going to be.

She isn’t as fast as Minato-sensei, or as strong as Kakashi, or even as stubborn as Obito. Thinking about it rationally, she might be the one in their team to fall in battle first.

But then Obito goes, body half crushed under a boulder for his friends’ sake, and Rin—

Rin feels like a little of herself dies too.

But the fighting is still ongoing, and it’s her duty to see through to the end of this. Of the war that takes Obito’s life.

When she is taken by the Mist, Rin has resolved herself. She won’t sell out his village, won’t sacrifice Kakashi and Minato-sensei and the rest of her friends even for her own safety.

But then a whole beast is put into her—its chakra boiling like lava along her veins—and it’s not about trying to keep alive anymore.

Rin should die.

She should die. She knows. She understands. And after so many small memorials for those fallen in the line of duty, it doesn’t seem as scary anymore.

But there is… there is something, in her heart. Something that’s preventing her from cutting her wrist across the jagged stone of the cell, from biting her own tongue off. She can’t bring herself to do the deed and now even the new voice inside her head is getting louder and louder.

When she sees Kakashi, Rin thinks she finds an opportunity.

It’s… horrible, she knows. Plain mean, to put Kakashi in that kind of position. After his father, after Obito. But Rin doesn’t have another option.

(There is Kisame. A weird, nice person from the village of Bloody Mist that is supposed to be home for monsters. And Rin still doesn’t know why he is helping them, betraying his own village for this, but Rin is already eternally grateful and she can’t put the burden in his hands now)

“—ET ME OUT—”

Rin swallows.

“I’m sorry” she says, because enemies or not, she knows the monster will die with her too, “But I can’t let you do harm to Konoha”

And it feels easier, the jump to Kakashi’s path. Much so than trying to bite her own tongue, and Rin holds in a breath as she lands on the ground, Kakashi running full sprint toward her.

This is it, she thinks, and wills her eyes to keep open.

Right as she is bracing for the explosion of pain to come, a blur slides into her vision, blue vest on a similarly blue skin, and blood splurts on her face.

.

It’s one of those times when a second stretches into an eternity, rendering things stuck and kind of hazy, pieces of moments cut into a weird kind of stained glass on the walls.

Rin doesn’t blink as the person in front of her slumps to the ground.

Then slowly—very slowly—her eyes drift down, mind trying to work around the shattered gears in her mind, because—

Because she was supposed to die. She needs to die. For Konoha. For Kakashi and Minato-sensei. And—

“Kisame-san”

Rin’s voice sounds weird, even to her own ears. Too high and hoarse, almost a thrill. She crouches down in front of the Kiri nin and lays him down flat on the ground.

There are footsteps. Those have been around for quite some time, but Rin has just realized this now as all her senses flare right open. She turns her head around and up, looks into Kakashi’s eyes.

(He looks terrible. His hair is a dark gray from blood and dirt, and it’s drooping to one side from the rain. His clothes are a mess, as are the rest of his visible skin. But he is alive and there and Kisame might not survive and Rin owes them--)

“Kakashi-kun” Rin says, voice tight and breaking at the end, “Please”

Rin can see the faint, wispy breath of her teammate, and for a second she fears he is too in shock to move, but Kakashi is not Kakashi without his will power so he nods, pays a quick glance at Kisame, and lunges forward for the rest of the Mist shinobi.

Rin turns to see the wound, located just at the left hip, and gently grabs the hand that’s hovering helplessly over it.

“Let me see it, Kisame-san”

Kisame grunts and says something, too low and garbled to hear. Rin ignores it in favor of channeling healing chakra to the bleeding flesh. It’s hard, because the seals on her wrists are still there and trying to flow chakra from her core makes her feel like moving a house with ropes, but chakra control is one of the only things Rin excels at so she inhales deeply and lets her hands shine a minty green.

A blue hand grabs her own. Rin frowns.

“Please hold on for just a bit more, Kisame-san”

Kisame speaks some more, and this time Rin leans in closer, eyes still focused on knitting the wound.

“-ssaid, don’t fuckin die” he hisses, annoyance clear, “and you just went and—”

A cough. Several. Bloody and dripping red, and Kisame stops talking, thumping his head on the ground as he spits a mouthful of crimson.

Rin sets her mouth in a thin line and tries to work faster, “It’s alright” she says, recites, “It’s going to be alright” she is telling that to herself, she knows, but she needs it now. She can’t fail another person. Not after Obito, not when it’s for her, and—

Screams. Blood-curdling and end in an echo. Rin whips her head up, the medical jutsu stuttering.

And there, right in front of her, is a huge, huge tree, shooting up from the very ground, swirling in the rain and blood.