"I'm going to apologize for what's about to happen now. I'm not the most… gentle of people." Kisame stated as he set a large bowl on Shiryoku's bedside table. He read over the instructions Konan had left on the bottle again before adding a few drops to the bowl. The water turned a murky white color as he swizzled a clean cloth in the medicine before wringing it out. He turned to face the young woman as she pulled the bandages from her face, revealing her heavily marred brows. The scarring's appearance hadn't changed any, but Kisame was surprised to see that her actual eyes had improved greatly. There wasn't nearly as much dried mucus built up around the rims of her eyelids, and the filmy membrane that had coated her eyeballs had reduced greatly. He could start to make out the dark outline of irises underneath the pellicle covering her eyes.
"This medicine seems to be working." Kisame mused as he moved the cloth across her lower eyelid.
"I wouldn't know." Shiryoku replied, her crooked smile working slowly across her face. Shiryoku hissed suddenly, recoiling from the cloth. She brought her hand to cover Kisame's hand. "You have to be a little gentler. Not all of my nerves are dead." She carefully moved his hand across her eye, showing him how much pressure to use. Once she took her hand away, Kisame tried to keep the pressure on her eyes steady.
"I was trying to think of how to train you…" Kisame offered. "But, I'm coming up blank. You said your brother taught you how to defend yourself. How? What did he do?"
"He beat the shit out of me until I got angry enough to fight back. Eventually I figured out I had to be faster than him."
"So, you have absolutely no formal training with anything? Chakra molding and control, taijutsu, nothing?"
"Formal? No. But, Eiji taught me how to mold chakra to add a bit of extra power to attacks, other than that, I know enough to protect myself."
"Alright." Kisame sighed, dropping the cloth into the wash basin before grabbing clean bandages. He was almost certain training her would be a lost cause. She had a lot of potential, he would happily admit that, but Kisame was not a miracle worker. "Nature manipulation will probably be the best place to go after we work on your chakra control. It will help teach you further chakra control, and eventually give you some offensive and defensive techniques that will distance you from an opponent."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning you don't have to wait for someone to attack you before you can make your move. You won't have to depend on purely defending yourself so much anymore."
"That would be handy." Shiryoku mused, moving her ponytail out of the way for Kisame to dress her head properly. He finished off the binding around her eyes, and stood from her bedside.
"Let's get started." Kisame stood, pulling the girl to her feet.
"Do it again." Kisame lazily said as he heard a light splash of water. He was sitting along the wall of the cave that housed his lake, unwrapping Samehada's scaled blades. Shiryoku stood ankle deep in the water. He had purposefully made her practice in the shallowest section of the lake. If she fell through the water in an area that was too deep, Shiryoku could easily loose her sense of direction which would force him to have to retrieve her. Kisame would rather watch her progress than actively participate in it. She heaved a heavy 'humph' before diligently turning around and walking out of the stagnant pool. As soon as she was out, she faced the water and focused intently on her mission.
The young woman was trying to figure out how to stand and walk on water. She understood the concept, she needed to pour a constant stream of chakra through her feet to keep her atop the water, but had to fluctuate the amount needed to keep up with the rippling of the water beneath her. Every time she would begin her task and build up her chakra, Samehada would quietly coo in Kisame's lap.
"What is that noise?" Shiryoku yelled, whipping herself around to face Kisame. He was slightly shocked by the sudden outburst from the girl, having never heard her speak above a murmur.
"It's my sword." He stated, looking down at Samehada.
"Like anyone would believe that. Don't think you can fool me just because I can't see what you're doing." Kisame had no clue where this attitude was coming from, but he actually liked this snarky side of her. He stood and walked over to Shiryoku, Samehada in hand.
"It has nothing to do with you being blind. Hold out your hand." Kisame ordered. If he could see her eyes, Kisame had the feeling she would be staring at him with an incredulous look. He could feel her raised eyebrow as it judged him from behind her bandages. "Just hold out your hand." Once she finally complied, Kisame gently set Samehada's handle in the girl's palm. As soon as her fingers were tightly clamped around the sword, Samehada wiggled enthusiastically, grumbling happily as it was held by the source of such wondrous chakra.
"What the hell!?" Shiryoku shrieked, throwing the sword from her grip. Kisame laughed as the sword wound itself around her feet, purring joyously. She tried to step away from the thing at her feet, but stumbled over the large object, falling backwards into the lake. Shiryoku landed hard, her fall only slightly broken by the shallow water.
"That is my sword, Samehada; one of the seven swords of Kirigakure." Kisame spoke once Shiryoku finally pushed herself out of the water. "Damn thing loves your chakra."
"Samehada?" Shiryoku asked in disbelief, looking up to her new mentor.
"Yes."
"My mother told me of the Seven Swords…" Shiryoku leaned onto her knees, reverently reaching out for Samehada. "She told me that Samehada is the greatest of them all." Kisame grinned broadly, bending down to set the sword back in her hands.
"Can't argue with that." The sword stopped moving in her palms, instead cooing quietly as it took in the taste of Shiryoku's chakra.
"Why does it like my chakra?" Shiryoku inquired, her free hand gently petting the sword. She was trying to get a feel for just how large it was. Kisame watched his sword shudder under the girl's gentle touch. Shiryoku recoiled when she accidentally cut herself on Samehada's scales. She brought the heel of her palm to her mouth, trying to suck away the small droplets of blood.
"You have a very unique chakra. Samehada and I can both sense it, but it seems no one else can pick up on the finer details of your signature. Samehada can feel it whenever you even mold chakra, but I can only when the blast wave from your Kekkei Genkai hits."
"Unique, how?"
"It, uh…" Kisame didn't want to admit that her explosive chakra had given him the best high in his life. Twice. How could he even begin to describe the mind numbing effects that her chakra had over him? "It tastes like Ahi tuna." He didn't exactly lie. After the last time he had felt her chakra, Kisame had a distinct taste of the fish in his mouth for a couple days.
"What?" Shiryoku giggled. He hesitated momentarily, listening to the sound of her giggle. He had heard her chuckle and laugh before, but this was different. Her giggle sounded like a lithely flute, folding his mouth into a slight smirk.
"Get back to training." Kisame ordered, ripping Samehada from Shiryoku's hands. He stalked to the back of the room as Shiryoku stood on the water's edge. Even before he was sitting down, Kisame heard the gently splash of her feet falling through the shallow water. He focused on caring for his sword, knowing that the girl would figure how to stand on the water eventually. Hours seemed to tick by as he inspected each of the scaled blades before beginning to re-wrap his most prized possession. Every now and again the periphery of his hearing was assaulted by the dull splash of Shiryoku falling through the water.
"Kisame…" Shiryoku's voice pulled him out of his trance. He looked up to see the young woman standing in the exact center of the lake, her arms triumphantly folded across her chest. The visible portion of her face was plastered with a giant, crooked grin.
"Come back." He said, holstering Samehada on his back as he walked to the water's edge.
"Now what?" Shiryoku asked, practically skipping across the surface of the water. Kisame had to admit, he was surprised by how quickly she had picked this ability up despite her lack of training.
"We're going to start by identifying what type of chakra you have. Once we do that, I can teach you how to utilize it. Hold on to this." Kisame commanded as soon as she reached the water's shore. He placed a piece of paper into her palm. Shiryoku pinched the paper between her fingers, trying to get a feel for it. There was an odd sort of roughness to it, unlike any paper she had felt before.
"What is it?"
"It's chakra paper. It will help us figure out what nature of chakra you have." Kisame purposefully neglected telling her that it would take years to perfect nature transformation techniques. "Release a little chakra into the paper." Shiryoku did as she was told, sending a small wave of her chakra into her hand. Instantly the paper became damp, soggily folding in on itself.
"Well, that's good." Kisame chortled.
"What is?"
"We have the same nature release. It'll make teaching you that much easier."
