Sasori walked down the streets of Amegakure with his hand clasped around a much tinier one. One year old Sakura trotted alongside him happily, not at all minding the dreary demeano that the village seemed to emanate. Fat drops of rain hit their cloaks mercilessly, but they were used to it. Everyone was used to it. As they passed by the market place, Sakura tugged on his hand and pointed to a stall.
"Apple!" she exclaimed. Sasori looked at the glistening green apples before looking back down at the girl.
"Do you want an apple?"
Her head bobbed up and down, shaking her pink strands of hair.
"Apple!"
He paid for an apple and let her munch on it for the rest of their walk.
"Where go?" she asked after finishing her apple ten minutes later.
"A store. I need more wood to create my puppets."
"Dollies?"
His eye twitched.
"Puppets. Dolls and puppets are different, Sakura. Dolls are what little girls play with. Puppets are what I use to kill people." he explained. The members of Akatsuki didn't feel the need to sugarcoat or censor their words, much to Kisame's displeasure. They, of course, didn't kill or torture in front of her, but the conversations they had around her had very few limits.
"Kill? Like poson?"
"Poison." corrected Sasori, "And yes. I kill them with my puppets too."
She nodded, a bright smile on her face. Once they reached the store, Sasori instructed her to wait right outside with a small wooden puppet. Sakura gladly accepted it and hugged it close. It wasn't the greatest thing she'd ever gotten, nor the prettiest, but it was given to her by Sasori-san and she would cherish it. She named it Hiruko-kun.
After about two minutes of waiting, she was sitting cross-legged on the ground- utterly bored. There was an overhang where she was sitting to shelter her from the harsh rain, but she didn't understand why she couldn't go into the store with him. It was surely much warmer and drier in there.
At that moment, a miraculously dry cat sauntered up to her with one black eye and one red eye.
"Kitty!" she cooed, "Kitty! Kitty!"
The cat purred and rubbed against her outstretched hands. Sakura giggled and ran her fingers through the cat's luscious fur. The cat jumped onto her lap and brushed it's face against her cheek.
When Sasori exited the store, Sakura bounded up to him with a wide-spread grin across her face.
"Sas'ri-san! Sas'ri-san!"
The red head looked down at her.
What is it?" he asked. They stepped back into the rain and went on their way back to the apartment complex.
"Pretty kitty say somefin' I dunno."
"Oh? And what did the pretty kitty say?" Sasori inquired, playing along with her train of thought.
"Be careful."
He paused and looked down at Sakura's chubby, smiling face. Without a doubt, the supposed cat she met up with while he was at the store was a summons or a transformation. Who, though, would approach a defenseless little girl...? Sasori's eyes darted around the area, looking around for a cat. He spotted such a feline laying languidly on the branch on one of Amegakure's sparse amount of trees. The cat's gaze met Sasori's instantly and lingered before it disappeared in the leaves of the trees.
"... I see." Sasori murmured. He was involved now, and Kisame could only hope that his daughter won't have any part of the Akatsuki's future plans.
"Home now, Sas'ri-san? See Papa?" she asked. He nodded.
"Let's go home."
They walked back through the rain, Sakura clutching Hiruko-kun to her chest.
At three years old, Sakura was rather bright for her age. She was constantly asking questions, not that anyone minded. She was a curious child who wanted to figure out the world around her. Luckily enough, her nature of wanting to learn more had made her the perfect candidate to study under her father's teachings of his shinobi style. When Kisame was free from missions, he'd take his daughter a mile or two away from Amegakure to the Ame-Kusa border to train. The land there was smooth and the sky was clear.
Sakura loved the sun because it felt wonderful on her alabaster skin as she seldom felt it's heat back in the village.
"Okay, baby girl. What do you think makes a great shinobi?"
Sakura cocked her head to the side. She onced asked around about what the others did to become so strong and notable. Orochimaru-san was a sannin, Sasori-san was a puppetmaster, Kakuzu-san has five hearts and four monsters, Konan-san was the paper angel, her daddy was one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist, and Pein-sama was the leader of the village.
"Control." she answered finally.
"Could you... explain that?" he questioned, not sure if he heard correctly.
"Control." Sakura repeated, "Even if you have lots n' lotsa power, you don't needta have it if you don't know how ta' use it."
Kisame was surprised at his daughter's words. his lips curled up into a proud grin as he tousled her hair affectionately.
"Wise words, shortstack. Now let's see... have you worked with chakra before?"
He really doubted that she did. He gave specific instructions to the others not to train her until-
"Yup!"
-Well, now someone was going to die.
Sakura set her favorite toy Hiruko in an upright position on the ground. Kisame watched with unmasked awe as she attached chakra strings to the wooden puppet and made him do a small dance. Chakra control. Sasori had... taught her refined chakra control. He turned his head to the nearby lake and brought her over to the bank.
"I'm sure Sasori mentioned something about condensing chakra into your fingertips and keeping a steady flow, right?"
She nodded.
"Try doing the same thing again, but concentrate your chakra into your feet and walk onto the water. Don't worry if you don't get it right the first time, baby girl. You're just starting out."
Sakura put Hiruko-kun atop a rock before staring down at the lake with a determined glare. She already knew how to swim, so it wouldn't be a problem to break right through the water's surface. She took a shaky step forward and ultimately plunged into the freezing liquid.
"Cold!" she squeaked. She tried as best as she could to scurry out with her father's bellowing laughter echoing through her ears. Once she was out of the water, she turned to him with the cutest scowl he had ever seen.
"Papa! 'S not funny!"
"S-Sorry sweetheart." he coughed, pushing down his laughter, "Go ahead and try again. I won't laugh if you fall again. I swear."
It took three more trial's through Kisame's poorly concealed chuckles before she finally got it. Kisame unrolled the fluffy towel he brought with him and wrapped it tightly around his daughter's shivering form.
"You ready to go home? You can take a hot shower and spend the rest of the day with Konan-san."
She bobbed her head cheerily and walked hand in hand with Kisame back to Amegakure. As they left the clearing, a black cat jumped down from a tree and stared after them with deep interest.
