-Bite-

Hinata rolled out of bed slowly, taking in the emptiness of her room, the silence all around her, relishing the feeling. It was nice to be able to sleep in some days, something she hadn't been able to do in the compound unless she was ailing. Independence had its perks sometimes.

She tied her long, ebony, hair into a pony tail, brushing the bangs out of her eyes before walking over to the closet, ditching her nightshirt in favor of a pair of black pants and a mesh shirt, not bothering with a bra this morning. She found propriety slipping from between her fingers every now and again and savored the feeling of rebellion. The next article of clothing was her jounin vest. (You didn't honestly think our lovely princess would walk out of her room exposed did you?)

Two strong hands stopped her half way through zipping up the vest, catching her hand within and pulling it back down, opening the vest slowly to expose her lush curves. She couldn't help but gasp as his hands went to her shoulders, pushing the offending garment off and onto the floor. She didn't know if she'd ever get used to his intrusions, he was always so quiet.

He grabbed her pony tail and pulled her head back against his shoulder, running his tongue along the column of her neck. She closed her eyes and suppressed a shudder as she felt his teeth scrape over her jugular, she could hear her heart pounding within her ears from the adrenaline rush his presence always seemed to elicit. He ran his free hand from her shoulder, over her collar bone, to her breast, giving it a rough squeeze, causing her to moan in both pain and pleasure. His other hand abandoned her hair and went to occupy her right breast, pinching and rolling the peak between his fingers.

Hinata felt a blush creep up her cheeks as his hands left her breasts, trailing down her sides until they reached the waistband of her pants. By now she had bite marks all over her neck and her breasts were pert and tender from his fondling. She remembered a time when this type of interaction with a male wouldn't have happened even in her dreams. But he had taught her many things in the time they'd spent together, and being confident with her body was one of them, even if she couldn't help but blush each time he undressed her.

It was strange how gentle he was with her. He was a fierce warrior who made even the stoutest heart weary with a glance. He was ruthless in battle and made no pause when he had to kill a man. She tried to emulate his bloodlust, to make herself a better warrior... Yet sometimes she faltered, her compassionate disposition would never completely abandon her, now matter how dire the circumstances. It was then he had to come in and set things right, she couldn't count the times he'd saved her life in battle. And she was the only exception. For others, incompetence meant death, even with another team mate. But for her, he'd always step in and make the killing blow when she could not. She wondered if it was because she was the only medic they had and was under special orders to protect her. With Lady Tsunade no longer taking on students, medical nin of her class were few and far between.

She remembered the first mission they'd gone on together…

It was supposed to be a quick hit, but they'd been surrounded, her blood limit picked up on that quickly enough. The fight had been gruesome and quick, he took care of most of the offending ninja, she went after the target. She chased him down, tackling him to the ground and slicing his throat, but not deep enough to bleed him out. She stared down at the man beneath her in shock and horror, watching him gasp for air only to inhale his own blood. Eventually he would drown in it. Hinata stared down at the blood on her hands, never before had she killed a man, wounded yes, countless times, but never flat out murdered.

She didn't see the ninja coming at her with a katana until it was almost too late. She turned at the last second only to see her partner come up and decapitate him, his blood spurting out from the stump of his neck, coating her skin in its sticky warmth. Her partner loomed over her, fury blatant in his stare, "What are you doing?"

She closed her eyes, "I've never killed a man before…"

"Well there's a first time for everything." He said without compassion, taking his sword and plunging it into the man's heart, ending his suffering gasps and gurgling once and for all, "Hearing them die is worse than actually doing the deed. Takes longer and is usually messy."

She didn't know what to say to that…She never did when he gave her those lectures, and every time was generally the same. She had to wonder if he even realized he was doing it any more.

Slowly he undid the button, then the zipper, taking his time to peel the fly open and slide his hand down, over her underwear, to explore what lay beneath. Hinata became unsteady on her feet so he spun her around and pinned her against the wall, taking a moment to pull her pants off and toss them to the ground he join her vest.

"Kisame." She voice escaped in a breathy sigh.

He was shirtless and smelled like aftershave, his hair still damp from the shower he must have taken recently. His pants were slung low on his hips and his cocky smirk was enough to send her reeling. She looked up into his eyes, overwhelmed by his size in comparison to how slight she was.

"Were you going to leave without me?" He asked, closing the distance between them, holding her chest-to-chest against the wall.

"I thought you were sleeping," She said without pause or stutter, "The mission will be quick, I thought I'd be back before nightfall."

"But we're partners, we are supposed to do these missions together."

Hinata looked off to the side as his hand continued to explore through the fabric covering her most sacred place, a deeper blush creeping up over her cheeks, "It's just an infiltration, steal the scroll and get out, I don't think it would have caused that much trouble for me to have gone on my own."

"We go in pairs on missions for security reasons Hinata, not because of difficulty, as a ninja you should know this. What if you ran into something…unfavorable, would you have been able to deal the final blow?" His voice was cruel, "I think you would have frozen on the spot, and just stared down at the blood on your hands while the enemy got up and killed you where you stood in a guilty stupor."

Hinata glared and opened her mouth to argue in her defense, but he silenced her with a passionate kiss, his tongue sliding into her mouth, his hands finding her breasts again. Hinata bit his tongue and tried to push him away. If there was one thing she'd took to heart from all of his tirades about her weakness and how she could better herself as an assassin, it was not to let people talk down to her, and he was no exception. Having lived with the Akatsuki for as long as she had, very few people intimidated her. But he was stronger than her and growled at her for the bite, "That wasn't very nice." He said, his voice a low grumble.

He pinched her breasts, hard, making her wince in pain, "I was only trying to protect you." He said quietly, almost mocking her.

"I can be independent you know." She said defiantly, still trying to push him away.

"I have yet to see you kill a man, and therefore, you are far from independent."

Holding both of her wrists in one of his hands he took a kunai out of his weapons pouch and cut her mesh shirt up the middle without so much as scratching her body. She had only her underwear on now, the rest of her body completely exposed to him. So that was it, Hinata thought, he wasn't going to walk away from this.

"What, tired of Itachi?" She joked, "Am I the only one whose fun to pester now?"

"One of the few."

She didn't know where the confidence she got around him came from, but it was a deliciously foreign feeling. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into hot kiss, wrapping her legs around his waist. She didn't know what she was to him, a booty call? A burden? A friend? Something more? She wasn't sure and it was something she only pondered late at night, when sleep was a cruel stranger. She enjoyed the strange companionship they shared, she learned so much from him, how to be confident, independent, to stand up for herself. In turn he wasn't very open with her, but he was more patient around her than with the other members of the Akatsuki, answering her questions about the world, and sometimes showing her a genuine smile (Well considering it was Kisame, smirk would probably be a better term for the expression.). But he was a hardened criminal, so times like that were few and far between. Still, she couldn't help put smile at the fact that she may have been the only one who got to see him like that, at ease, probably because she was one of the people who wasn't strong enough to kill him.

He turned and walked over to the bed, laying Hinata down and pulling away from her mouth, trailing kisses down her jaw to her breasts, taking his time with each one, an apology for the bruises his rough pinches had caused. He went back and fourth between the right and the left, giving each one a tender, open-mouthed kiss before running his tongue around the nipple and then finally taking them into his mouth, feeling the peaks harden with each stroke of his tongue. Hinata wrapped her fingers in his navy hair, holding him close, breath coming out at an accelerated rate. He bit down gently on the swell of each mound, leaving love bites all over her generous breasts. She moaned quietly as his tongue made lazy circles around the reddened, swollen peaks, blowing across them and watching them harden even more.

His hand slipped under her panties, fingers sinking deep inside of her, making her squeak and squirm in pleasure and surprise. She reached down and grabbed his erection through his pants, making him growl against her lips, "Careful Hinata," he warned with a smirk, "You don't know what you're getting yourself into."

Abruptly she released him, Kisame almost cursed at the lack of contact, "You're right, I'm too dependent." She said with a smirk.

Kisame was just about to rip off her underwear and wipe that smirk off of her face when a knock sounded at the door.

"Hinata, you were to see Pain in the audience hall ten minutes ago."

Her eyes bugged out of her head, how had so much time gone by?

"I'll be down in just a moment!" She called back, wriggling out from underneath Kisame and putting her clothes back on in a rush, fixing her hair and making sure everything was orderly.

"You've made me late." She scolded the shark-man sitting on her bed, "Are you even coming along?"

"I said I was going to didn't I?"

Of course he was coming along, he still had a problem that was bigger and more painful than ever and it wouldn't be fixed until he took a bite out of her, so he'd take what he could get and decided that simple infiltration was going to end sooner than Hinata anticipated, because by nightfall, he had every intention of being back here, with Hinata underneath him, and no interruptions.