Not a word was spoken for two days. Nothing. Besides the stray sneeze or cough, neither shinobi crossed words. Sakura insisted in using basic mission hand signs to tell him. Move. Fast. No. and probably some Konoha dirty hand signs Kisame couldn't recognize. It was fine at first; he was used to silence. Itachi wasn't the most chipper guy in the world. However, after a couple of days, Kisame couldn't handle it anymore. At least Itachi was peacefully quiet. The pink-haired kunoichi's silence was more of a broody, sucky, go-fuck-yourself, passive aggressive silence that made him antsy.

They were stopping once more to rest. Not like Kisame needed it. With his chakra size, he could reach Iwa by the time Sakura was done finger combing her hair (she really needed to stop that habit). For such a strong girl, she sure wasn't fast. Which was surprising. He would've told her how shitty her endurance was, until he realized that breaking a two day silence with unrequired criticism probably wasn't the best idea. He was better than that.

Sakura was looking around for a dry spot. Fat chance. In Ame, keeping anything dry other than your butthole was a blessing. Kisame would know. Not that he minded, he quite enjoyed the moisture. It made his skin look great. She finally decided to plop wherever, opening her mouth before quickly shutting it. She was a whiner. Of course she would be. It was impressive how much effort she placed into not talking. But it wore her out. She was nearing her breaking point, he could tell.

Kisame himself felt on edge because of sleep deprivation. He hadn't slept in two days, a little drawback from having hostages. Truly, sleep wasn't a necessity, just something that kept you out of insanity. He learned that in Kiri. Now, he could go days without sleep, even though it did tamper his grasp on reality. He preferred that over the medic's deep sleep. Kami, the first night she collapsed, she slept so profoundly Kisame wondered what the hell they taught genin in Konoha. Not like it was his business. It only made him note down another weakness in her growing list of weaknesses. Amongst them, mosquitos and hair knots.

"Knock, knock."

Silence.

"What did the missing-nin say to his partner when walking into the bar?"

He sighed and propped his elbow on his knee, giving her a good hard stare. "How long are you going to keep this up?" Nothing. Now she was just challenging him. Kisame liked a good challenge. That's what made him a better killer every day.

She flashed him a hand sign he didn't recognize. It looked slightly dirty. "Hey, hey, calm down. We just met, kitten. I don't mean to offend you, but you wouldn't even know how to handle a guy like me." Her face of disgust and absolute confusion made him choke back a laugh. "Look, I can't understand half the things you're trying to signal. Have you ever heard of something called talking? It's effective. Has been for many centuries."

Sakura was seething in silence.

"Look. One way or another you're going to talk. There's no way you can continue waving your hands around expecting me to understand Konoha secret codes. You flatter me with the intention, really, but I don't have that kind of patience." His face suddenly turned deathly serious. So serious, he could see Sakura's back straighten out. "Trust me, I could easily skip the paycheck over this petty scroll. So, I'll ask you one final question and you better answer."

Now he had her full undivided attention.

"Good. Now, tell me…"

He grinned at her.

"Do you think this robe clashes with my hair color?"

Sakura was developing a migraine. Was he tricking her? Was he trying to get information out of her using strange, deluded questions to lower her guard? She couldn't understand the missing-nin. He tried to initiate the cheesiest joke she could think of. A joke not even Naruto would say. After that, he scolded her and resumed with the most serious demeanor she had yet to witness from the shark-man. Kami, the mood swings were making her head swim.

But…. But his last question. Was he even serious? Because the robes were a serious concern. Something that made her question the seriousness of his organization. Seriously. She hated that Akatsuki robe. It made his hair two hundred percent more obvious. Thinking about it, Sakura wondered why the Akatsuki chose to wear such notorious robes. It really did kill the whole ninja stealth ideal.

Sakura licked her dry lips.

"Yes. It looks awful."

Silence.

"Really? All those opportunities and you fall for the fashion question? What a stereotype, kitten. I expected more from you."

You stinking piece of rotten tuna, she felt her inner voice shriek. Sakura lied down and turned her back to him. She could hear him laughing, the bastard. He acted as if this was a casual day at work. It wasn't. He was holding hostage the Hokage's apprentice. At least he could pretend to take this seriously. She needed to find a way to contact Konoha and tell them of her predicament. Hostage of a shark man dressed in Akatsuki robes, over. She could already imagine the chaos it would ensue in the Hokage Tower- which made her feel kind of bad. She was actually receiving some a-plus treatment. No missing limbs so far. In fact, she felt that Kisame was escorting her to Iwa, not forcefully dragging her. He didn't even try to interrogate her.

She couldn't hold it in any longer. She had to ask him the one thing that was torturing her mind. Taking a deep breath, Sakura rolled over and realized the man had been observing her the whole time. Creepy. "I have one question."

"Oh?" That piqued his interest. "The princess speaks."

"Are you going to kill me?"

Kisame tsk'ed at her but stayed silent for a moment. "What a mood killer. It depends really. Are you going to give me a reason to kill you?" He was serious now. Not pretend serious like before, but actually serious. His face was wiped from the playful banter she had experienced so far. It made her feel queasy. "You're valuable. For the moment. Remember that."

Now Sakura was concerned. Was that a yes? No? Fucking bastard, why couldn't he just tell her. He was enjoying this far too much. She didn't want a specific date for her death. That would mentally cripple her, but at least – she didn't know – some warning to see if she should at least wing an escape? She was torn between trying and having an almost ninety percent rate of failure, or seeking assistance once they neared Iwa.

"As long as I get that scroll and cash in the bounty, you're safe. The moment you try to fuck around with me, I'll have to consider amputation." His grin was sharp, like his words. "I usually don't treat prisoners so well, kitten. But you're pretty hot for a konoha-nin."

Sakura's face grew red. She didn't know whether she was blushing from rage or embarrassment. "I am the Hokage's apprentice. Your organization would be hunted down if anything happened to me." She felt her heart accelerate at the idea. Naruto would come after her, of course he would. He basically dedicated his career to chasing missing-nin.

Kisame's grin fell off his face. He stared at the medic-nin for a long moment before swallowing back a sigh. She really did think she was special. "Tough shit, kid. In our profession, no one is worth starting a war over unless they have couple of tails on them." Her mouth twisted into a savage scowl and Kisame could see the anger burning inside of her.

"Konoha is different. All ninja matter- we're not just tools!" Her voice cracked as she tried to stop herself from yelling at him. "Just because your shitty country didn't care about you doesn't mean mine doesn't." She calmly tried to reassure herself. Tsunade would care. Kakashi would care. Of course they would. They had to.

"Hn." Kisame reached into his pouch and pulled out a scroll. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, kitten. Trust me, you and I are nothing but cannon fodder for those countries you love and hate. They are no different." Sakura was about to oppose, but remained silent. What would he know? He was basically raised to mindlessly kill with no respect to any ninja honor. He was a mercenary with no morals. She was different. Her friends were different.

Kisame knew better than to keep pushing. It wasn't his responsibility to dismantle her reality. Most ninjas, himself included, were raised and trained with one goal in mind: to serve. He had faced many foes that refused to see the truth – his quest for honesty drove him to join Akatsuki, the only organization that believed in transparency. Konoha was no different. He had partaken in sufficient missions to know a couple of dirty secrets that would make Sakura defect from her village.

Sakura flinched when Kisame walked up to her and tied up her hands and ankles together, rendering her immobile. "Try not to snore so much this time."

Sakura blushed. "I do not-"

Her mouth clamped shut when she felt his thumb on her face. She could smell the iron on his hands.

"You look like shit."

She spat on his robe.

"Feisty. It's a wonder Konoha still has a hold on you." He grinned and walked back to his spot, plopping down and taking out some food from his pack. Sakura's stomach involuntarily growled. "Here's some life wisdom: don't bite the hand that feeds you, or spit on their atrociously colored clothes." He tipped the dried fish her way before chomping off the head.

Sakura dreamt about fish, treason and mud cakes.

-

Hello lovelies, here's the fourth chapter of Kitten Adventure. It's more a filler to flesh out character interaction. I am slowly getting rid of inner-Sakura, as you may have noticed. I don't enjoy writing Inner, she is a reflection of Sakura's immaturity. The story has changed considering I started writing it years ago. My sense of humor is different now.

Please let me know what you think, I love constructive criticism and observations.