Author's Note: Hey, finally decided to start a new story. This time I have no idea how long it will be, hoping that it will be the longest story I've written ever. Anyway I hope you enjoy it, it's another one of those ideas that came into my head. If I stole any ideas from someone else, from the deepest depths of my heart I apologize. The typical "I don't own Naruto characters" applies here.
Of Sharks and Caramel
First Dreams
The full moon shone imperiously over a small village dulled and muddled by the darkness of night. A black cloud passed overhead hiding the moon and cloaking everything in complete darkness. As the cloud continued its travel the moon was slowly revealed. The once silver moon had turned an ominous blood orange. The moon's newly revealed rays crept upon its surroundings.
As this new shade engulfed the village, it suddenly erupted with activity. In a flash, flames enveloped the entire scene, the sounds of screams and crying drowned out all other sounds. A smell of wood smoke, sea air, and the metallic tang of blood was overwhelming.
An overall sense of panic could be felt, with an undertone of malicious glee, the feeling increased as the scene further resembled the depths of hell. As suddenly as the madness started, it went dark, and silence reigned. Even the darkness began to fade; the only thing left to be seen was the soft glow of a pair of caramel colored orbs.
xXxXxXxXx
Kisame rolled onto his back, stretched his long arms over his head and yawned. He lay still for a minute with his eyes closed thinking about his dream. This was the third night that he had dreamed of the small burning village and it always ended the same: a pair of caramel eyes glowing through the fading darkness.
The ninja let out a soft sigh and slightly shook his head. There was no use in dwelling upon a dream; he had better things to do with his time. He stretched once more, letting the rising sun soak heat into his joints before getting up and heading to the river to wash the sleep from his face.
The blue-skinned ninja then turned to face camp. In the copse of trees it was sheltered under, Kisame noticed that his partner, Itachi, had woken up as well. He smirked and walked back to prepare his things to leave. He swung Samehada to its spot on his back, rolling his shoulders to adjust its position. Finally, he retrieved an energy bar from his pack and munched on it while waiting patiently for his teammate.
A few minutes later, the stoic Uchiha was prepared to leave with his pack on his back and burlap bag in his hand. He tossed the bag to Kisame, who caught it with ease, and told him, "Leader-sama is expecting us soon. He has another mission for us."
He waited half a breath and then said, "Kakazu is also waiting to collect the reward from the daimyo assignation."
Kisame chuckled as he shook the bag, "Guess we better get moving then before the old miser loses his head too, eh?"
"Hn," was the Uchiha's only reply before he jumped into the trees to head back to base. A moment later a still chuckling Kisame followed, the dream of last night completely forgotten as he headed back towards base.
xXxXxXxXx
It was early evening when the duo got back to base. Kisame loudly shut the door to further announce their presence to the others and walked with Itachi to the meeting room. Samehada twitched on Kisame's back as it sensed the other members' familiar chakra. Kisame patted the bandaged blade good naturedly as he walked through the door.
The room was like any typical conference room. The large room was painted black with a few dark sconces along the walls to light it. A long mahogany table filled up the middle of the room and was lined up with enough chairs to seat all the members of the organization. The room was dark and elegant, like any respectable crime organization should.
Kisame tossed the burlap bag so it slid across the table to stop neatly in front of Kakazu. The stitched ninja nodded appreciatively and Kisame took his seat. At the head of the table, Pein waited for everyone to settle before he addressed them.
"It seems you all have succeeded in your missions. Good. It's encouraging to know that my minions are not total imbeciles."
He turned to Hidan, "Although I still have my doubts about you."
"You fuc..mmph!" Hidan started to shout before Kakazu silenced him by wrapping one of his strings around his head covering his mouth. Kakazu gave Pein an exasperated look as the Jashinist finally calmed down.
Pein smirked and continued asking for each team to further report about how their missions went. Everything went without a hitch it seemed except for a few instances where Kakazu or Deidara attempted to kill their partners, but that was relatively normal.
"Well as much as I missed you all, you have new missions," said Pein sarcastically as he motioned to Konan and she started passing down each member's new assignment file.
"Yay! Tobi gets another mission with Deidara-senpai!" Tobi giggled and tried to hug the now face-palming bomber.
"Get off me you masked freak, un!"
As the bomber struggled to get Tobi under control Kisame opened and read his file.
He and Itachi were going to the farthest end of the Land of Rivers. There was a small village there by the sea that was rumored to have a scroll that contained valuable information about some of the hidden villages. It was approximately two days travel from the base and seemed to be an easy enough mission. The file claimed the small village was only inhabited by civilians. If that was true, Kisame wondered why both he and Itachi needed to be there. He thought about asking Pein about it, but thought better of it. The man had his reasons and if he thought that they both needed to work this mission then that meant he needed to be more cautious of the seemingly harmless village. For now the blue ninja's only explanation was that Pein wanted to make sure Itachi's brother didn't somehow interfere. Even though the younger Uchiha was still busy with Orochimaru, that boy still had a knack for sticking his nose where it didn't belong.
Itachi glanced from across the table to Kisame. He replied with a nod knowing the expressionless ninja was thinking along the same lines.
Pein looked around the table at his menagerie of criminals, "I expect you all to be gone by morning. If there are no questions, you are dismissed." He paused for a moment before getting up. He glanced at Konan and left through the nearest door and Konan followed shortly after.
The rest of the Akatsuki parted ways to go about their business. Kisame stood by the door he came in through and looked at his partner who was still seated.
The shark ninja grinned, "Leader-sama seemed to be in a good mood. I knew he'd loosen up a bit when Konan finally got his hands on him."
"Hn," Itachi got up and passed Kisame, heading for what he guessed was to his room.
Kisame called after him, "Hey since it doesn't seem like a rushed mission, maybe we could hit a hot spring on the way there huh?" 'I know you could sure use a piece of ass' he thought to himself with a smirk.
Silence was his only answer, so he took that as a positive sign and headed down the other hallway. He stopped at the end and proceeded up the stairs. As he climbed up the stairs he remembered the first day he moved into the base. The building was a maze of hallways and doors, all of which looked alike. He admired the way it would trap anyone foolish enough to try to break in, but once he was shown to his room he had no idea how to find his way to anywhere else. It got to the point that even his laid back nature became frustrated, and he finally just summoned a couple of his sharks to scout the place for him. He knew the place like the back of his hand now.
He opened the door to enter his room and felt his shoulders relax a bit. He shrugged Samehada off his broad shoulders and set it against his bedside table. Kisame then shed himself of his Akatsuki cloak and tossed it on the bed. He began walking to his bathroom, ridding himself of his other clothes on the way there.
The man stood in front of the mirror and stared at his appearance as he ruffled his hair. Kisame grinned his signature sharky grin. A range of emotions ran through him. He liked his appearance but knew all too well how other people perceived it. He was a tall muscular guy in his late twenties, what any woman would swoon over. Although his blue tinged skin, razor sharp teeth, and eyes of a predator made his looks more…exotic. It took a special kind of woman, or a well paid one, to not be frightened by his appearance and he sometimes though Itachi's looks didn't help his luck with the ladies either. Sighing, he ran his hand through his navy blue locks once more before stepping into the shower.
The running water eased his mind, water always calmed him down. It didn't matter if it was fresh or saltwater, cold or hot. He even loved rain, it wasn't quite the same but the pitter-patter it made as it came in contact with the earth could set him at ease. The idea that he would be heading towards the ocean tomorrow on a mission lightened his heart all the more.
Kisame took his time, letting his body enjoy the warmth and letting his mind wander. He closed his eyes and thought back to his dream from that morning. He had recurring dreams before but that was over a span of months, not in a row like these. He'd also experienced nightmares when he was younger, but that was a post-traumatic thing.
This was different. He didn't recognize the village and he didn't understand why he would see eyes before he woke. The only thing about the dream that he did understand was the red haze. It was the same haze he got when he was in a fit of bloodlust. Occasionally it would start just like his dream, the color starting from whatever he was looking at and creeping to the rest of his surroundings. When it filled his entire vision, he sometimes went on a murder spree that he couldn't remember afterwards.
Fortunately that hadn't happened in years. The first time he had the dream, he had to check with Itachi to make sure he hadn't done anything he shouldn't have. The Uchiha had assured him that he hadn't moved since he fell asleep, but Kisame did get a strange look in return for his questioning.
Kisame turned off the shower and grabbed a towel from the shelf. While drying himself off he had to wonder if these dreams actually meant anything. What it could mean he had no idea. His eyes narrowed and he shook his head. He valued the truth, and the truth came from facts not conjectured from dreams.
With that in mind he got dressed, leaving the cloak behind, and went down to the kitchen in search of a tall glass of sake.
