ii.
Chapter Three: Raven Eyes, Oceans
"The two most important days in your life, are the day you are born; and the day you find out why"-Mark Twain
The kunai Nanami found quickly, she was very grateful for. She made another unrefined swipe across the greenwood branch to shed it of it's outer layer. It was a good branch, not too stiff with age, but not too soft like a sapling. Greenwood had a lot of useable properties.
She had thought maybe she could use the ration bars as fish bait once she'd peeled the outer foil off of one. It turned out though that it was a bit too dry and crumbly. Even with the malleable brush vine she'd dug up to secure it with. So she stuffed them into her kimono held in place by an obi that was becoming too small. The blanket she had tied around her shoulders like a mock cape so that she could have her hands free. It was probably the nicest blanket she'd seen in this life, thick and soft with no frayed edges.
That Konoha-nin had been so kind to her, but she didn't regret her refusal to go with him.
She was better off on her own. (Even if the gaping maw of loneliness consumed more of her day by day)
Nanami squeaked when she made a pass with the kunai too close to her little fingertips. She dropped the stick and stuck the clumsy digits in her mouth. They tasted like bitter grass and copper.
Not for the first time, she lamented the memory of a graceful body. This one was young, swathed in baby fat with stubby arms and legs. (It felt right, but was it?) It made simple things that required some small amount of dexterity immensely difficult.
Other things though she had to admit were much easier now. Her center of gravity was lower, her muscle memory seemed to absorb things like a sponge. It made relearning her way around climbing trees and unconsciously avoiding obstacles at a run much easier. There were even some advantages she had here that she never had in her past life.
Chakra.
She could only do the most simple of things with it consciously- she distantly remembered a few of the control exercises described in the show and in the books, and she tried them out during the light of the moon with a modicum of success. She could stick leaves to her body with ease, and after some practice she could cling to trees through the output in her hands and feet- she found she could also exert extra force through her limbs, adding strength she wouldn't normally have. All of this came easily for Nanami, as if she'd always known how to do it, if only she were to try. (Other things though, didn't seem to come at all.)
But chakra's true use came with her extreme awareness of it. Sometimes it felt like she was treading through a bog with how thick it could be in the air. It wasn't just the air though, it was everything. Everything glowed with chakra, animals left trails of it behind them as they weaved through the more settled chakra of trees, even the rivers and the earth beneath her feet had a subtle, soft kind of life to it.
The more she practiced using chakra, the easier it was to do things with. (The easier it was to see)
Ambient chakra of lesser creatures, especially, she found relatively easy to direct or make suggestions to. All she had to do was reach out a tendril of her own chakra and nudge along theirs. She thought maybe her intentions were carried through the strange blue energy, because no matter how she pushed at a deer or a rabbit if she wanted them to go left, they went left. If she wanted them to feel passive, they would relax, and if she wanted them to feel aggressive she only need to direct them towards their target with the thought in mind.
She sat for a few long moments, the morning light warming the back of her neck, before curling her short light brown hair behind her ears, and moving on with her day. (she had cut her hair herself)
She stood, reaching for her make-shift spear, and looped her branch vine through a hole on one end and securing the other to her wrist.
It wouldn't do her much good if it floated off down the river, she'd have to start all over again.
So she crouched her tiny form at the edge of the river and waited for the telltale flash of silver scales, weapon arm bent and childish muscles coiled. She reached out with a tendril of chakra from her center, and brushed it along the chakra of the aquatic animals she sought.
She pulled one away from the mass that was too far for her to reach, making light suggestions to it until it came within the range of her weapon. Then she struck.
Life went on like this for a long while for the wild child. Eight turns of the moon, maybe more. She lost count. (And wasn't it nice that she could still count?) She made her home amongst the roots and branches of the trees that lived alongside her. She never left river country, because the abundance of water and the thick foliage and animal life was plentiful.
At least, for now.
Nanami continued to work with her chakra, attempting at things she saw in the show with little to no success. (she still didn't really understand, how does one make fire from nothing? How do you make the earth rise beneath your feet? She failed utterly in these attempts.) She found it was sort of like an extra limb she'd just discovered. Or as if her eyes were capable of seeing ultraviolet now after only seeing the regular spectrum of color for a lifetime.
She used it to ferrow out rabbits from their homes, (finding them was easy now) and follow the best deer trails to find edible berries. It was pretty useful actually. The more she followed the wispy blue trails of chakra, the better she got at detecting it- the farther away she would become aware of it's existence; until her awareness began to encompass a vast amount of the forest she called home.
Mostly though, she used it to avoid people.
Because human chakra was much larger than a rabbit or a birds, (it also behaved very differently) and skirting around humanity became second nature once she realized she could feel them coming.
She didn't meet any more shinobi for a long time. (she didn't meet anyone at all)
In the glow of the moon light, she would hum soft things with her lips closed that her mother had shown her. (To stave away the gaping maw of loneliness that waited patiently to eat her alive, always just at her back, always waiting, waiting)
She lost a lot of words in this time, a leap backwards from the small amount of progress she'd made as a child in Wave.
She couldn't really say she was sorry though. She had English, (not that she ever spoke aloud, but she thought in English interestingly enough) and she communicated with her surroundings through chakra use. She liked the deer best, they were the most receptive to her touch.
In any case, there were no plans to leave this place any time soon. There was still more to discover, rivers she had yet to cross, berries and nuts she hadn't tried yet. (She told herself this was why, and buried the sharp edge of the lie within herself- because in this world there was the fear.)
The first time she felt it, she was busy plucking long feathers from some kind of white bird. She didn't know its name, but she liked to call them water walkers from the way they would trudge through the shallows of river banks looking for crawfish and perch.
They looked sort of like cranes only smaller.
Regardless, she wanted the long wing feathers for something to braid into her hair. The sleek black crow feathers she adorned now were getting worn, and she hadn't been able to catch anymore of the elusive and much more intelligent birds.
Plus she liked the way they tasted with wild mushrooms.
She had a good five perfectly shaped white feathers in her grip when the sense hit her hard enough to make her drop the fowl carcass.
She squeezed the quills in her fist, eyes wide in surprise.
It was the ocean. Rolling deep and calm in its unfathomable depths. It's edges lapped at hers, grazing, touching, smoothing across her skin in a way that was so achingly familiar. She felt a pang of grief for a moment, the hurt of longing and desire, and before she realized what she was doing, her little childs body had sprung up and she was running with light confident feet through the underbrush.
It was far, the vastness of the chakra was hard to miss even from the distance she had been at. She leapt over a shallow creek, toes gliding across moss laden rocks and soon she found herself in an area she usually avoided.
It was a road. (humans, not safe)
She flung herself across it, trampling down the lancing fear at the sight of humanities touch in the forest. Still, she ran. Hands and feet primed with chakra grasping and flinging like a wild beast.
Because it was the ocean, someone bore it within them and she needed it. (She was so lost, always searching for that something) It drove her forward, legs burning her hair whipping behind her trailing leather cords and crow feathers.
She always felt like she could fly when she ran like this. Nanami, the wild monster born from deep waters who made her home amongst the roots and creatures that were all claws and teeth. Nanami, the little girl who could never remember if she was a little girl or a woman grown.
She was getting closer.
She flew parallel with the trodden road, far enough to be out of sight but close enough to follow its blazing path.
She pushed off a high root, the ball of her small foot arching away with the use of her own chakra that was so much like the chakra she trailed after daily. She flung her arms in front of her, small hands landing flat and firm against the trunk of a barren tree, she used the momentum to fling herself to the left and she skidded to a halt back on the road she loathed to be near.
And there they were.
Just ahead, walking along as if they owned the dirt beneath their feet and the leafy boughs above their heads. (maybe they did, who was she to argue? She only borrowed from this place.)
She panted heavily from her run. She bent forward, hands resting on the ground between her knees as she gulped in much needed air.
The ocean swelled before her hinting at the dangers beneath. There were sharp teeth inside she knew, ready to rend asunder if she made one wrong move. (she didn't care anymore.)
"Wuh-wait, pleh...please" She panted stumbling over unfamiliar words that felt ugly on her lips. Her voice was a bit too high in her childish lit, and the words heavy with Wave country inflection.
The two before her stopped, and turned around to face her. Black cloaks with bloody red clouds swirling at their feet.
Her attention was captivated by the larger man. He was the ocean before her, blending seamlessly with the almost identical ocean that belonged to the sword strapped on his back.
His silver eyes alighted on her form, she couldn't see the lower half of his face because of the high collar of his cloak and her low vantage point, but she got the sense that he was grinning indulgently as he waited.
Kisame a distant memory informed her.
He tipped his head slightly to his much shorter companion. "Anata no yūjin?" He asked the other man.
His voice was just as deep as the sea inside him.
"No." the shorter man replied, in an accent that matched the Hyuuga she had met so long ago. A leaf-nin then.
Itachi she knew. His eyes narrowed as if he could hear her thoughts, and she hesitated, body language twitching away from him fearfully.
Could his eyes read her thoughts? She didn't think so. They didn't spin with red, they were only the deep black of… unsettling, but normal eyes.
"I-" Nanami stuttered, afraid of the man who felt of a raven's gaze. Sharp and intelligent.
Her eyes swept away from him, and settled to the ocean beside him. Her confidence returned a little, because this… he was…
He was the deep waters she loved.
Her lips parted looking for the right words- words she didn't know in their language. Her little fingers clutched around the long white feathers.
She bowed her head forward to him, "I don't- I don't speak well" She apologized. She stared at the ground beneath her for a moment before she slowly, purposefully rose to catch his silver eyes with hers.
His brows had risen. "Nandeshou?" He sounded impatient, the waters of his chakra cresting at the edges in annoyance.
Nanami reached forward and gently placed her hard earned first full of prizes on the ground between them. She took a step back from them, hands and feet like a quadruped. (All fours was her advantage, more chakra points to push away with, the faster she could leave with) Her heart pounded, it was all she could do to focus over the roaring of blood in her ears.
She didn't know the words she wanted, and it made her want to cry with frustration. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, but she keep her gaze solidly on the feathers she'd laid at his feet.
It was the only gift she had to give.
"For… to give…" She stumbled, and she did look up at him then, hoping that maybe he would understand even though she sounded stupid. She bit her cheek in frustration.
His eyes traveled from the feathers to her, she thought maybe he looked humored. Itachi at his side watched her with sharp knowing eyes that bloomed with mirth despite his slack, empty features. Raven Eyes she dubbed him in her mind. (She wasn't supposed to know his name, after all.)
"Gift, to water-" She paused, was that right? She wasn't sure if the word 'gift' was one she knew.
"For shark beneath water." She corrected, nodding to herself in satisfaction. She watched him for his reaction, attempted to blink away the moisture in her eyes. She hoped the words were close enough.
The fabric of his cloak shifted and he crouched slowly, she tensed slightly before forcing herself to relax, she caught her bottom lip between her teeth instead.
He was the ocean. If he wanted to take her life again, she felt it was his right. (She was broken, she realized. So very broken.)
His sleeve lifted, a large hand coming out to lightly pluck a feather from the ground between calloused fingers.
"Why?" He asked her, his silver eyes boring with some emotion she didn't understand.
She reached deep for the right answer, for the right words she just didn't fucking know god damn it-
"Nazenah-" She stopped. That definitely wasn't right. She bit her lip again to stop the sound of frustration from escaping.
"Naze…" She tried again, eyes sliding away in shame.
"Nazenara." Because. Raven Eye's supplied. She looked up at him mustering all the gratefulness into her eyes that she could possibly hope to convey. His head tipped to her in acknowledgement, as if to say, 'your welcome.'
She looked back over to Kisame, who was waiting patiently at her eye level- sortof, even crouched she still had to look up to meet his eyes. She was so small, and he was… not.
"Because of love." She said, resisting the urge to shrug helplessly.
Kisame reared back as if she'd struck him, and for a moment she shrank back, had she said the wrong thing?
He chuckled, a deep sound full of delight and good humor. Nanami smiled (relieved) up at him as he rose, feather still held between index and thumb.
"Thank you." He laughed, turning away with his companion and the two began to walk away.
He took his prize with him.
It was then she knew, that for her, this was the man who hung the moon in the sky. The man who made the sun rise in the mornings and sleep in the evenings. The man who crested the oceans tide and lulled the world to sleep with a roar that was also a hush.
Hoshigaki Kisame.