Enthralled, a naruto fanfic

A/N: I don't own Naruto. I would like to thank Hakusgirl Katsuko for proof reading this and my sister Essie for going through it with her fine tooth comb.

Ino had been crawling through the thick undergrowth of the forest for the past two hours. She had nettle stings on her palms, brambles in her hair and she was pretty sure she had crawled through some poison oak just a few moments ago.

Lady Tsunade had sent her to a dense forest five miles south of Konoha to search for a rare medical herb that only grew in that area. What the Hokage had failed to mention was that she would break all her nails, rip her clothes and tangle her hair so badly it would take a month of Sundays to get them all out. Ino didn't think this day could get much worse.

He could hear whoever it was moving around in the undergrowth off to the left of him and his partner's current location. He could tell by the way the bushes moved that it was a young, petite woman.

His mouth twisted into a sneer; a leaf ninja he was sure, mainly because the young woman's lilting voice carried well and he could hear her complaints about the mission her 'Hokage' had sent her on. She sounded quite upset.

He watched as she changed directions and started moving towards his present position. She was unaware of his presence. Crossing his arms, he waited for the kunoichi's arrival.

Yup, she was now positive it had been poison oak she had crawled through. Her whole body itched horribly and she was breaking out in a terrible looking rash. She decided to head out of the maze of bushes she was in so she could find the calamine lotion in her pack and stop the itching. Ino crawled as quickly as she could, the uncomfortable itching making it hard for her to focus enough to keep searching for the herb.

Ino stopped crawling and a gasp escaped her mouth as she suddenly burst forth from the thicket and saw the illusive herb she had been searching for all day. Ino's hand stopped short of picking the plant when she noticed a pair of sandals on either side of it.

'Why are there sandals here?' Ino thought as she stared at the sight before her.

He watched as the young woman before him stared back and forth between his feet. Her hand had paused in its effort to pick some weed that he just happened to be standing over. His grin grew in steady increments as her eyes slowly made their way up his body from his feet.

The heat of the day had encouraged him to remove his cloak and now he was wearing only a pair of pants and a black fishnet shirt. The kunoichi's eyes stopped short at his chest and seemed riveted to the spot at the sight of his blue skin, or maybe it was the scars. When she finally came to terms with what she saw her eyes reached his face and a slight shudder of fear ran through her small frame when she realized who he was.

Ino's gaze traveled from his feet to his legs and stopped suddenly at the expanse of blue her eyes met when they came to his chest. An alarm bell went off in the back of her head. 'Who do I know with blue skin?' Her eyes continued up to his face where instant recognition of the man before her caused Ino to force down an overwhelming urge to run that was so strong it caused her whole body to shudder.

Ino gulped down her anxiety and looked him straight in the eyes. She slowly stood to her feet, the herb that was merely inches away from her the furthest thing from her mind.

"You're tall." Her neck craned up to take in the features of his face.

The grin on Kisame's face fell as he gazed at the girl before him in confusion. That wasn't the response he had been expecting. People usually responded to Kisame in one of two ways: one, with out-right terror and running away or two, by trying to kill him. This was the first time anyone had just stood before him and stared in curiosity. "That is rather apparent isn't it?" Kisame responded with slight irritation; he didn't like to be gawked at.

"I like your skin." Ino's brain had come to a screeching halt upon seeing the blue skinned man standing before her. If she was a cat, Ino would be dead a hundred times over. Good thing she wasn't.

Her hand began to twitch at her side with the irresistible urge to reach out and touch his skin. Thoughts like; 'I wonder what his skin feels like?' and 'Is his skin cold?' kicked her brain back into gear. This fascination with him could not possibly be healthy for her. She compulsively reached a hand out, only to stop herself mere millimeters away from his waist.

Kisame looked intently at the wide eyed girl standing before him with her hand almost touching him.

"You want to touch me?" Kisame's question was almost awe-filled. No one touched him willingly, after all he was a monster, a freak, and in every way undesirable. The thought of someone touching him in an unforced manner almost sent him running, almost. Kisame ran from no man, and definitely not from a too-curious-for-her-own-good girl.

All Ino could do was nod her head in response. Her hand slowly ghosted up his body, so close she could feel the heat of his skin on her palm. Her fingers twitched against her will, coming in contact with his skin through the netting of his shirt. Her eyes widened in wonder at the scars that marred his chest.

Her touch had taken Kisame off guard and he could not stop the sharp intake of breath that showed his surprise. Kisame was like a man caught in a trance, unable to shake himself free from the strange sensation of her fingers playing up his chest. When her fingers grazed his chin he jerked away from her touch as if it burned and growled at her, his lips curling back in warning. Still he did not try to stop her inquisitive touching as seconds later he let her fingers run across his chin without pulling away.

All of Ino's common sense told her to run when a low growl escaped his lips as her fingers made contact with his chin. For a few moments Ino was frozen in place, her eyes unable to pull away from the mouthful of dangerous looking teeth that he had just unwittingly shown her. Her fascination deepened.

"Are your teeth sharp?" She asked in utter amazement.

Kisame had to pull himself out of the stupor her touch seemed to put him in. When his brain finally processed her question he grinned. "Very."

He watched as a blush crept up her face and he almost jumped out of his skin when her other hand came to rest on his chest. His features set in a look of confusion as he wondered what she was about to do. He tensed and slipped a kunai from his weapons pouch into the palm of his hand, just in case.

Ino couldn't believe her bravado; or maybe it was actually stupidity, as she traced a path across his chin and leaned into him, resting her other hand against his chest, so she could run her fingers across the gills on his cheek and over his ear. Her fingers refused to be denied the feel of his hair as they raked through it. She gasped at the softness of it and immersed herself in the feel of the velvety strands sliding through her fingers.

The sound of someone clearing his throat broke the enchantment over him. Looking over his shoulder, Kisame saw Itachi staring at him questioningly. Before he knew it the girl threw a smoke bomb and disappeared.

"What was that all about?" Itachi asked as he approached the still dazed Kisame.

"I have no idea." Kisame said as he gathered his wits about him and prepared to continue on his mission with Itachi.

When Ino spotted Itachi, she threw a smoke bomb, dove to the ground to grab the herb, and then made a run for it. She had nearly fallen off of the tree branch she had jumped to; she was so thrown off balance by her own behavior. As she ran through the forest she checked over her shoulder every so often for signs of pursuit; luckily there were none. She made it back to Konoha in near record time and berated herself severely for her inconceivably insane actions.

Sakura nearly fainted when the bedraggled Ino made her way into the Hokage's office to affirm a completed mission and alert her to the two Akatsuki in the area. All thoughts of her appearance and great discomfort had been knocked clean from her mind by her encounter. Ino blushed profusely as she thought about making blue her new favorite color.

Hope you enjoyed. Reviews are love and I need all the love I can get. :)