So this was originally meant to be a oneshot for one of my best reviewers: JenKonoha who wanted a KisaTenTen story since there aren't enough good ones. And well, what do you know, I always choose to support the most cracked of pairings --

but in my effort to make it a 'good' oneshot, I went a little overboard, and this story is no longer a oneshot.

I Remember You...

Chapter 1

Kisame felt old.

With a soft sigh, he watched the sun set as he took a moment of silence for his impeccably silent comrade's death. This was it. There would be no more waiting around patiently for Itachi to be ready to leave. There would be nobody around to answer his stupid questions. He knew he shouldn't have left him alone, but he wasn't one to question the older Uchiha heir.

Now he would be doing everything solo. No more partner. He was sure that Pein would be able to find him another partner, but Kisame was sure that nobody would be able to replace his diseased companion.

Why? Because Kisame knew something about himself and he knew something about Itachi. He knew that, while he himself wasn't the brightest and even-tempered of shinobi, Itachi was always patient, calm, and collected with him. Kisame was positive that he would never meet someone like that again.

With a short, rusty laugh, he tossed a pebble into the darkening horizon.

"Well, Itachi…it was great knowing you, but I was pretty damn sure that I'd be going first."

Deftly, he grabbed Samehada from the rocks next to him as he got to his feet and left to begin his first solo mission.

--

TenTen leaned back against a tree and exhaled in relief. She really couldn't go on any longer. She just had to stop for the night. She had only enough chakra for a handful of emergency jutsus. Shutting her eyes, she heightened her senses for anyone or anything else in the vicinity. She couldn't sense anyone, and all she could hear was the gentle murmer of a nearby stream.

Slowly, she got up and made her way towards the stream to set up camp. A faint, fatigued smile played across her lips as she swung her pack to the ground and crouched down to touch the water. The summer night was warm, but the water definitely wasn't. Crouching down, she dipped her hands in and scooped some up to her parched lips. Once she had had enough, she splashed her face to get rid of the day's sweat and dirt.

She let out a sigh of contentment and as the water ran down her face. She didn't bother opening her eyes until all of it was gone. Unfortunately, when she did, he entire world changed.

She saw a pair of blue shinobi feet. She didn't have to look any further to simply feel a blade aimed at her head. She wasn't a weapons mistress for nothing.

Tenten started sweating on the outside and whimpering like a scared child on the inside. She slowly lifted her head up to meet the shinobi's face. She had to crane her neck even more when she realized that he was a lot taller then your average man. She found his head, or where it was supposed to be at least, since it was only a dark blur surrounded by a menacing white light as he stood in front of the moon.

I don't want to die! I don't want to die! I'm too young to die! Tenten involuntarily whispered this mantra in her head. Her face was flushed from the humidity and her eyes were as wide as saucers because of her fear. She was sure that her eyes were watering from looking at the dark figure in front of the moon so intensely for so long. In retrospect, she must have looked rather cherubic and cute, but this was a life and death situation, she thought, those were the thoughts furthest from her mind at the moment.

Then she heard a gruff sigh and the blade (or was it blades? She couldn't tell in the lighting) was moved away from it's position above her head.

"This is the first time that I've seen too much death in my life. You're lucky I'm not in the mood today, kid." Words used by many experienced shinobi resounded around her. The calloused voice overpowering her rapid pulse in her ears.

Tenten's last breath was frozen in her lungs. She gave the briefest of nods and slowly backed away towards her belongings. She couldn't believe it. For one thing, the shinobi had just let her go and for another, she was so drained from this stupid mission that she didn't even get the adrenaline rush people normally get during life and death situations like this. How disappointing that her own body was beginning to malfunction. She had to get away from here. She had to get away NOW. She had some sort of cruel luck to run into an unknown (probably missing) nin who just happened to not be in the mood to kill. If she came across another nin in her weak state, he or she would likely not let he go as easily.

"What are you doing? Get back here."

Tenten paused. Her foot was still half-way in the air as she was about to step over some brush. She squeezed her eyes tight and cursed her twisted fate. Moving stiffly, she put her foot back down and turned around to face the unknown shinobi. She found him to be seated under one of the nearby trees, backed against the trunk. She couldn't tell for sure but either he was traveling with very large objects or he was spread very languidly under there.

And that's when it hit her. Obviously, kunoichi in her situation were never allowed to leave freely. Their captors always asked for other favors. As she inched her way towards the man, her body trembled and it took all of her willpower to keep the tremor out of her voice as she tried to reason,

"Why do I need to stay? I don't know who you are, I won't tell anyone you were here."

"I didn't say that you could leave, kid. Only that I wouldn't kill you." His voice sounded worn out but he was firm in what he said, "just sit down somewhere so I can see you."

Tenten breathed a sigh of relief as she dragged her pack to a tree a couple meters away from the shinobi. She flopped down with a huff and stretched her legs out in front of her as she leaned her head back against the tree. She was absolutely dead tired. All she wanted to do was go to sleep. But she couldn't knowing that there was an enemy shinobi nearby. She groaned and rubbed her head as she watched a few scattered stars twinkle between the branches above.

There was simply no way she could fall asleep.

Tenten yawned and immediately clamped her hand over her mouth and shook her head to keep sleep at bay. She cast a glance at the Akatsuki, expecting him to be watching her, but to her surprise, he was dong no such thing. In fact, she was sure that he was absently…petting? The giant object that lay across his lap. She peered closer, but from the distance, couldn't see his face obscured under the shadows. His posture didn't seem to look very threatening any more. She relaxed a little.

Tenten yawned again but this time it was greater then before. She stretched her jaw to it's capacity, and a small noise unconsciously came from the back of her throat. Her eyes widened at her very un-ladylike noise that caused Kisame to look up mildly curious, but she was too tired to feel mortified of herself as she immediately began repeating a new mantra in her head.

I'm not going to fall asleep. I'm not going to fall asleep. I'm not going to fall asleep. Not when there's an enemy shinobi present. I can't fall asleep.

She felt the bark on the tree mildly bite into her back as she let more and more of her weight fall onto the trunk. The slight pain did nothing to keep her eyes from drooping. Her sheer exhaustion was beginning to take over her willpower to stay awake.

I'm not going to fall asleep said a small corner of her mind that was still conscious and alert and very angry as she promptly fell asleep with her head tilted back, mouth slightly open, and a hand clutching a kunai lying limp across her lap.

The corner of Kisame's mouth quirked up in a morose smirk. He had known the entire time that the kunoichi had no chakra left whatsoever, but he had to commend her for at least trying to stay awake. He had no idea why he'd made her stay since he hadn't killed her. He wasn't one to take captives, since it was usually Itachi that did that, Itachi consequently did all the thinking in their partnership as well. Kisame racked his brain for all he knew about taking captives. He didn't even know how to treat them besides giving them his usual scary grins along with threats of castration. But those usually went for the ones that the Leader wanted alive for one purpose or another. This time, it wasn't the Leader telling him to take a captive. This time, it was just Kisame, not in the mood to kill and not thinking about the consequences of not following that rule of thumb.

Kisame grimaced. What to do about the kunoichi now? He couldn't possibly let her go since she'd seen him around here. She would probably run to the nearest village and tell its wonderful hunter nins that he was out and about. And it just so happened that the closest village was that of Stone and he'd already had a rather annoying run-in with them a week ago.

And he couldn't possibly drag her around with him until he went back to headquarters. Leader would be just a little affronted that Kisame had randomly picked up a kunoichi and brought her back for no reason or purpose to serve. Besides….she would slow him down. Well…he supposed the only choice he had left was to kill her, but that would have to wait until morning because slitting her throat at night just wasn't his style.

PLEASE REVIEW!! I don't know if there are many KisaTenTen readers out there, so the ones that do come across this, I'd like to know what you think.