Tap. Tap tap. The fish darted in thier glass prison. "Hey. Cut that out, it's not nice." She smiled at the whimisical expression on Kisame's face as he looked up and blushed, like a naughty child caught red handed.
They had reached earth country with no incident and arrived in the middle of a celebration. It was the 50th aniversery of the local lord's marriage. Everywhere there were stands of aromatic foods, small fire-crackers and toys, colorful masks and beautiful dresses. At Kisame's insistance Hinata had worn the kimono he had bought for her, her now waist length hair blending perfectly with the dark bamboo silouets streaching up her back. Kisame's eyes narrowed as he stood and shot her a wicked grin. He turned to the shop keep. "Kisame..." she started, warning in her voice, but the mist nin ignored her. "I'll take these two." He said, indicating two exceptionaly beautiful fish. "A good choice sir." The attendent quipped, a large profetional grin platered on his face. The tightness around his eyes betrayed him though, fear.
He scooped the two fish into a bag and handed them to Kisame, a slight tremmor in his fingers. Kisame ignored it. He turned to Hinata, grinning like an idiot and holding the bag at eye level for inspection. She sighed, "What are we going to do with those?" She asked, smiling hopelessly. "Dinner?" he joked. Hinata sighed and poked at the bag. The fish stared back at her dispationately, little mouthes opening and closing. The larger of the two was silver with two fluffy grey pom-poms growing just above its mouth, the second was white and black with protruding silver eyes.
"Uh!" A tiny voice squeeked and she looked down. A boy stood there, no older than two perhaps, large blue eyes focused intently on the bag, one tiny hand grasping up while the other curled in the cloth of Kisame's robe. Kisame laughed and bent down bringing the bag to the boy's level. The child squealed in glee and pressed his face to the bag, giggling as the fish thrashed in a futile attempt to escape. A lock of flaxen blond hair peeked out from under the colorful mask he had pushed up on his head. Hinata smiled at Kisame; he was telling the boy to be nice to the fish...wasn't he the one tapping on the glass a second ago?
"Sasuke?" the voice of a paniced mother cut through the crowd. "Sasuke!"
A beautiful young woman with soft brown hair and large blue eyes pushed through the crowd. "Sasuke?" she called looking this way and that, obviously distressed. The boy at their feet perked up. "Mah-mah?" he stuttered in his high pitched voice, starting to cry. It was as if he had only just noticed she had been missing. "Sasuke?" the note of desperation keening at the sound of her child's voice, "Mah-mah!" Sasuke bawled Clinging ever tighter to Kisame's leg. "Uh...um...miss?" Hinata flagged down the panicky mother. It was a tearful reunion, punctuated by many "Don't you ever do that again!"s and "Thank you so much for finding him!"s
"Sasuke? Ki-ki?" A man wearing a red mask with bulging eyes and white tusks pushed through the crowd behind her "Ki-ki, did you find him?" The weeping mother nodded furiously, unable to respond. "Hey, kiddo!" The father scolded, "Don't do that to me! You scared your mother and me to death, I mean it." Hinata stilled. That voice, that pattern of speaking...but no, it couldn't be. He looked up and bright blue eyes suinted through the slit in the mask, she was sure he was smiling. "Thanks a lot! I owe you big, really!" Kisame stood up, "It was nothing!" He flashed a big grin, "Hey," he said, "You can have these, ok kid? We don't really have much time for them anyway." He presented the little boy with the bag of fish (who were extreamly unhappy about this turn of events) and the boy nodded, sniffling. "Fiith." he muttered, showing the bag to his mom. She laughed shakily, "Yeah. Fish." She bowed slightly to them, "Thank you again, so much." she smiled one last time and turned to go. As the family disapeared through the crowd Hinata was un-surprised to see that father and son both sported matching crowns of unruly blonde locks.
"You're not upset are you?" Kisame questioned, noticing the tightness in Hinata's expression, "About the fish? I mean, it's like you said, we won't have much time for them and that kid's gonna be real happy with them...Hinata?" She was starting to shake all over. "Kisame." it was barely a whisper, because that was all she could muster, "Kisame? I think...I think that was Naruto." His eyes widened in shock and he turned, with her, to watch the milling crowd as the festival wore on into the night.
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so so sorry about the lapse! I haven't been in a writing mode, and I've been a bit ill, but that's really no excuse. I'll make it up with art or something. Promise!
-cp
