Akatsuki Fairy Tales: Story Two: The Little Mershark


Once upon a time there was a mershark who, though fearsome on the outside, inside had a very kind-hearted and loyal nature. His name was Kisame.

Kisame flicked his tail cheerfully, propelling himself faster through the crystal clear water; many colorful fish swam quickly out of his way as they saw him coming. He didn't pay them any attention. He wasn't hungry today and he'd already eaten. As a shark, Kisame was quite used to other fish avoiding him out of fear. At times it would wear on his nerves, but not today. Nothing could dampen Kisame's mood today.

He approached a lively wreckage site, surrounded by different varieties of fish enjoying their lives under the sea, frolicking about in the ocean currents. There was a giant hole where the old ship had hit a large coral on the ocean floor and Kisame swam inside, looking around impatiently. There were even more merfolks inside the sunken ship than outside, it was a bit like a bar, or a dingy club. There was a band in the corner made up of a few different fish and a few merpeople floated around in the middle of the room as if they were dancing.

Finally Kisame spotted just the creature he was looking for. He swam across the room and his best friend, Kakuzu, greeted him with a raised eyebrow. Kisame took a seat at the bar and looked back around, saying cheerfully,

"Hey, Kakuzu. I can't stay long."

"Why not?" the merman asked him unhappily, his stringy black hair flowing around his scarred face.

"Today is the second Saturday of month!" Kisame replied, smiling to reveal rows of sharp teeth that made his genuinely happy smile somewhat fearsome. Kakuzu rolled his piercing green eyes.

"How could I forget? Today is the day you go drool over that sailor on the land."

"He only comes to the dock once a month! I have to make sure I'm there on time so I don't miss anything."

"Miss any of what, exactly? Doesn't he just sit there and complain about his life?"

Kisame just laughed and ignored his friends teasing. Kakuzu would never understand.

Every month, Kisame went up to the surface and close to shore, hiding himself beneath a rickety old dock that no one ever used except for one young, and extremely beautiful (especially for a man) sailor. And once every month that sailor (whose name Kisame had learned over time was Itachi), would come to the dock and talk into the water about different things. Sometimes it would be his job, sometimes his family, but mostly he talked about his younger brother whom he seemed to find sometimes troubling, but mostly adorable and needing of protection.

"It's so cute, he's got a brother complex." Kisame had told Kakuzu one day after coming back from spying on his human crush.

"I fail to see how that's cute." Kakuzu had replied disdainfully. But Kisame would hear nothing against his lovely sailor boy. His whole month was only waiting for the day he could go to the dock to see him.

"I don't see why you don't just forget about that human and get some nice tail around here," Kakuzu eyed a very pretty mermaid who was spinning around on the dance floor seductively. "There's no shortage of hot mermaids, and its not like they would refuse you. You're a shark, they'd be too scared."

Kisame laughed a bit and shook his head.

"Don't let Hidan hear you saying that kinda stuff."

Kakuzu glared at him. "What's that supposed to mean? I'm not bound to that obnoxious idiot."

"Oh, really?" Kisame said sarcastically.

"Yeah," Kakuzu replied firmly. "He's just the only one who can handle my poison, that's all. I'm the same for him. It's not like we're engaged or anything..."

"Why would you suddenly say engaged...?" Kisame asked suspiciously. He hadn't even brought that up.

Kakuzu looked away, embarrassed. Kisame howled with laughter.

"No way! How'd he talk you into that one? I knew it, I knew it! You always say how annoying he is but deep down you love him!"

"At least he's one of my own species, Kisame," Kakuzu said, suddenly serious. Kisame's lively mood turned somewhat shadier as he stared impatiently at his best friend. "I mean it, Kisame. I'm just looking out for you. Give up on the sailor."

Kisame lowered his head then looked up towards the top of the room they were in. There was a large hole and he could see light from the sun diluted by the water pouring down into the wrecked ship.

"Sorry Kakuzu. I've gotta run. Tell Hidan congrats for me!"

As he swam away and out of the wrecked merpeople hang-out he heard Kakuzu call out behind him,

"Don't do anything stupid for this human, Kisame!"

With his mood slightly dampened by his best friend's disapproval, Kisame swam quickly through a familiar patch of seaweeds and across a huge crevice towards the shore. This route was very familiar to Kisame by now. He'd been coming to the shore for a long time, and to this particular dock for almost just as long.

He remembered the first time he had ever ventured to the shore. His mother had always warned him not to go, but when he became a young adult he grew rebellious, as well as curious. He knew that humans didn't like sharks, even feared them, so he made sure to be extra careful the closer he got to shallow water. Just as he was swimming underneath a rickety old dock, he smelled the most delicious thing he had ever smelt in his entire life. Hunger flooded his mind and drove him to swim quietly along the bottom of the dock, searching for the source. Dangling just over the front of the edge of the dock were two tiny feet. Kisame had licked his lips, determined to taste human for the first time, wondering why no other shark had ever told him it smelled so tasty- but then he was caught off-guard.

A sudden wave changed Kisame's angle, he was swept out from under the dock, around to the front. He quickly ducked his head under water to avoid being seen. When he looked up again, the child's feet were gone. Disappointment settled in his gut, thinking that the wave must have splashed water on the human and made him leave, but then he heard a beautiful sound.

A small child's laughter. He looked up at the dock again and saw a small, round face smiling down at the clear, blue ocean. Kisame was taken aback by the child's face. It was so angelic. Perfectly proportioned, a dainty mouth and nose, and big dark eyes with long eyelashes, and two strange lines, barely noticeable right under those deep eyes.

"Fishies!" the child had said happily, reaching a hand over the side of the dock.

"Oh, Itachi, don't lean over the side like that," a woman's voice called as she walked down the dock and picked the small boy up into her arms. "You might fall in. You don't want to be eaten by a shark now, do you?"

Kisame watched with a growing ache in his gut as she carried the small boy back down the dock, further and further away from the water that Kisame was forever to be trapped within.

From that moment on, Kisame knew he had no intention of eating that child, nor any other human for that matter. In fact, for a few days after that he didn't think he would ever eat again at all. The little human's face filled his mind. He knew he could never tell Kakuzu that he'd fallen for the child at such a young age. His friend would call him a pedophile when he already called him a humanphile for being in love with someone who was non-fish. He went back to the dock daily to check, in case that human family decided to come back.

It was three years before he ever saw them again, and he got a bit of a shock when he realized for the first time that the child he had seen was actually a boy. He'd believed Itachi to be a girl for three whole years, but upon seeing him again, a bit older and with longer hair (which, despite being longer, somehow made him more masculine), Kisame noticed instantly that he was male.

The boy he'd fallen in love with had changed a lot in just three years. His eyes were deeper than before, if it was possible, and lines beneath his eyes had lengthened. Luckily, he was still smiling, but now it was for a different reason besides just the waves and fish.

He was gently holding a tiny baby on his waist, standing at the end of the dock and speaking to the bundle of blankets tenderly. Kisame listened intently from below the dock. Every sound Itachi made went straight to his heart. The three years felt like nothing. He would wait as long as he needed to.

"Sasuke," Itachi said happily, looking out over the water. "This is the ocean. I know your going to love it, just like I do. I want to be a sailor someday, Sasuke, just like Dad. What do you think? Will you want to be one too?"

Kisame's cold heart melted at the look Itachi gave to the baby in his arms. It was so loving and pure.

"Itachi, don't stand so close to the edge with your brother. Come back here."

"Yes Mom!" He called and started walking carefully back to the shore, away from the water once more.

The next time Itachi came to the dock he was in his early teens, and Kisame knew that this time he was alone.

It had been so long since he'd last seen the love of his life, Kisame had to take in every image of Itachi he could. He swam circles around the edge of the dock, careful not to disturb the water too much so he was noticed.

Itachi had just sat with his feet dangling over the edge, still about a foot from touching the water, silent. He sat there for at least an hour before he spoke, but when he did it shocked Kisame so much he nearly caused a huge splash beneath the water.

"Sasuke's mad at me again."

Sinking a bit lower into the shallows, Kisame thought to himself, wasn't Sasuke the name of his brother?

Even though he believed no one was there, Itachi went on talking to the ocean- and Kisame listened.

"It's not my fault my school is far away and I never get to see him. He should be happy. I'm 15 now and home for good. Dad says it's time for me to start my training. I'm going to be a sailor like him."

There was something odd about his voice, but he didn't elaborate.

"I'm sure Sasuke will forgive me soon. He never stays mad at me long."

He sat on the edge of the sock for another ten minutes then got up and walked away. If Kisame hadn't been hooked before, he was now. There was something he just couldn't quite place about the allure of Itachi's voice, and his delicious smell that made Kisame loose his head every time he got close enough. It was as though his blood flowed through the air like it would through water. Kisame licked his lips and sunk back into the waves, diving deep, deep into the depths to try and clear his head of that smell, but nothing really worked. He knew he would go back.

Since then, Itachi had come to the dock once a month, on the second Saturday, and Kisame made sure he was always there waiting. Nothing put him in a better mood than listening to Itachi talk. Today was no different, except he was a bit late after meeting up with Kakuzu.

Itachi was already there. His legs, now long enough to dip his toes into the water, dangled over the front of the dock. Kisame had to slide beneath the water so he wasn't seen.

"Something weird is going on with Sasuke." Itachi murmured thoughtfully.

Kisame exhaled. He hadn't missed anything.

Itachi always began his fretful worrying over the antics of his (from Kisame's point of view) troublesome younger brother.

"He's been sneaking out at night and acting much more… moody. Even more than usual. Sometimes he gets this glazed look on his face like he isn't paying attention. I'm worried. I don't want to seem overprotective-"

Too late, thought Kisame with a silent chuckle.

"-but I think I should follow him one of these days. Just to make sure he isn't doing anything dangerous. He has reached that rebellious age, so I should make sure to be extra careful about how I go about talking to him. He gets fussy when I ask him too many questions. Sometimes I wonder what happened to my sweet little baby brother."

Itachi said the last line in humor, amused by the changes in his brother, not exasperated like Kisame thought he would be. It was one of the qualities Kisame most admired about Itachi: he was hopelessly loyal to his brother. Kisame was also very loyal to his friends, so he knew the true value of loyalty. Itachi was more devoted to Sasuke than anyone he had ever seen.

For the next hour Itachi went on about his schooling and his family. Kisame learned that Itachi was almost ready to graduate, and then he would start work on his father's sailboat.

"I haven't told anyone this," Itachi whispered softly into the ocean breeze, "but I'm not sure I want to work with Father. He's… the other sailors don't seem to trust him. I've heard them talking about him behind his back." He sighed and Kisame wished he could have had a different view. As nice as Itachi's legs looked from underneath the dock, he was sure the wind billowing through that long, dark hair was a sight to see.

"I'm going to come back tomorrow."

Kisame heart rate quickened suddenly. Who was Itachi talking to? Did he know Kisame was there, listening? He would have no reason to tell the ocean that he was coming back the next day.

"I don't know why I just said that…" Itachi then muttered, seemingly shaking his head and frowning thoughtfully. "Sometimes I get this strange feeling… as though someone is listening. I always feel better once I visit this place."

The planks of wood creaked above Kisame's head as Itachi began to walk back towards the shore. Kisame swam beneath the dock as Itachi walked above, staring up through the cracks in the wood; his tail made whirlpools in the crystal clear water. His heart was still beating hard and fast in his chest- and then Itachi stopped and turned back towards the water.

"I will come back tomorrow," he whispered. If Kisame hadn't been directly beneath he wouldn't have heard it over the crash of the waves against the shore. Itachi's sweet smell was wafting down from above and Kisame's eyes fluttered. The dark-haired sailor continued on towards the sand, leaving Kisame to swim as close as he could to shore, hiding carefully beneath the dock and wishing with every bit of his being that he could follow after Itachi, claim him, and finally uncover the source of that chokingly sweet fragrance that flowed off of him, waves upon waves.


And there you have it, chapter one. I'm starting chapter one now so hopefully it won't be a huge gap between chapters but…. No promises, like always…

KeikoPanda102