Akatsuki-fic that has been floating around in my head for a while. Kisame and OC, very AU.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, except from my own character, even if I wished I owned Kisame.
Plot: A 'fish-girl' is taken away by a stranger, and then, years later, is recruited by a familiar face. But she has changed from the weak, submissive girl she used to be.
I will try to update a lot, but apologies if I don't. ;c
"Fish-girl, Fish-girl!" The taunting words of children were always the harshest words to bear. Stones rained down in the water like unearthly hail, pelting the small figure. She cried out as one impacted on her arm, leaving a bruise that seemed to fade and heal in a fast forwarded motion. Another stone sliced through the skin of her shoulder, and the water that she was in shifted, moving around the slice and smoothing it away into pure, clean, unmarked skin.
Frantically, she shoved at this water, but to no avail; the voice had returned to her head, sounding like water slipping between pines and crashing down in a waterfall. It was both small and magnificent; both multi-dimensional and yet somehow so solid and fixed and simply one. "We will crush them one day."
The girl hugged herself – tears would have fallen if they could have, but her eyes were not made to permit such things to happen. Beneath the water, a solitary ripple was all it took to warn of darker things beneath. There was a reason to her name after all.
When the daily abuse had finished, and the children from her village had found their way back to a kindly gesture from a parent, or congratulations on making the 'fish-girl' feel more unwelcome, she dragged herself from the water, sprawling on her back on one of the banks, eyes closed as she let the liquid seep from her, taking her 'other' form back to the water. It could stay there for all she cared. It was as unwelcome to her as she was unwelcome to the village.
Eventually however, she had to return, to her aunt and her grandfather, to kindly words from the latter and abuse from the former. Being connected to the 'fish-girl', even in such a trivial way, meant that her aunt would often come home pursued by cruel words that hung in the air for most of the evening and she held this against her niece.
It was her grandfather who understood – he had previously held the form that 'fish-girl' held, and, being an elder in the small village, he was imbued with enough authority to prevent outright attacks on the house. Or at least, he had been, until a poisoned dagger had found its way into his gut.
Now it was more a waiting game than anything else.
Fish-girl entered the house slowly, already alert to any movement that would hint towards her aunt being awake, or any children who would have insisted they would have come to pay their respects to her grandfather, only to slip an exploding tag into her bed for a joke.
Once they had learnt that she was unable to be harmed truly, it was amusing to injure her repeatedly. Just like burning a colony of ants, except with ants you could run out. As long as she was fairly close to a water source, she would heal and heal.
Creaking floorboards above her head alerted her to the presence of another, and she darted across the hall into the area that served as a kitchen, only to be confronted with the presence of her aunt, and another, a stranger, in strange garb that hid their identity.
"Sit down, Mizuko." Ah, how refreshing to hear her name, something other than the endless nickname she was tormented with. Obediently, she walked silently across the room, dropping down at the table across from her aunt, who was regarding her with a look of great contempt.
Keeping her head down, she attempted to peek sideways from beneath her lashes, to try to figure out who this stranger was, before her aunt cleared her throat, almost appearing uncertain. The boldness she forced into her tone was exactly that, forced, and it gave away the fear. Mizuko could almost smell it radiating from her.
"This… man, has come to take you away to receive training, in regards to your… defect." A sudden motion in Mizuko's belly, almost like the uncoiling of a sea serpent, alerted her to the awakening presence and interest of the beast within her, and she swallowed hard, forcing her jaw tightly closed. The beast could make itself most inconvenient sometimes, and although it spoke kindly to her, soothing her, a wrong word that the beast would cause would earn Mizuko a beating.
Her aunt was growing impatient; it became clear to Mizuko that this contract would not only enter Mizuko into harsh 'training' but also release her from her aunt's care. If care was a correct word to use. "Has the beast within you stolen you tongue, as well as your manners, insolent child?"
The girl quickly shook her head. "No Ma'am. I appreciate this opportunity, for I am not worthy to receive this." Her aunt leant back, a grim smile on her face as she lit a cigarette, clutching it between yellowed talons. In this darkened room, it provided Mizuko simply enough illumination to distinguish the contours of her aunt's face, eyes sharp and hooded, nose beaked.
"Fetch your things. This training will hopefully not see such a rude child brought into this house again, after all I have done for you." Biting her tongue was all Mizuko could do to prevent words from spilling past her lips like overflowing water, and she bowed her head respectfully, even though the pipes in the house seemed to let out a synchronized groan, as if they could not carry their watery burden. The smile on her aunts lips flickered and the stranger cocked its head.
With a last bow, Mizuko excused herself, slipping away from the table in the movement of a shadow, hurrying upstairs to the small room she owned. It was not much of a room; a table and chair in the corner, along with a wooden bed with a lumpy mattress, but it was home. She had the statuettes of the seven swordsmen, not to mention her own blade, Raindrop. Her grandfather had said it was a family heirloom, and she had always treated it and respected it as such. On one wall, a poster of a dolphin skimming the waves was peeling from its tack, and on the other, the rickety window looked as if it would fall out its setting.
Reaching under the bed, she hoisted out the smallest of cases, packing her meagre clothes, along with her sword, and on second thought, tucking the statuettes of the seven swordsmen of the mist into the bag as well. When she returned downstairs, the figure was waiting by the door, and for the first time, she anticipated the immense height of this figure.
"Mizuko," her aunt had come to the door of the kitchen, an almost smug smile on her face. "Your grandfather passed away earlier today. Turns out he had breathing… complications. These grounds belong to me, and you are no longer welcome here… 'fish-girl'." Mizuko sucked in a breath, biting the inside of a cheek. If she focused on the pain, then she was untouchable. It became a barrier for her. "Your inheritance is there." Mizuko's aunt motioned to a necklace that had been crudely thrown to the floor.
She bent, picking it up, examining the coral and shell before fastening it around her own neck and turning back to her aunt. "I would wish to thank my aunt for her hospitality." She bowed deeply, and then turned, slipping into the night, and to her future.
But that was when she was eleven.
End of first chapter. Any questions/reviews/concrit much welcome.
Katya c;