I do not own Naruto.

Not for the first time, Kisame Hoshigaki stared at the un-opened files in front of him.

Somewhere in the damp, darkness of the building, the steady dripping of water off stone sounded. A wet splashing sound, one he had come to understand was the natural background noise of Ame.

A month ago, if someone had told him he would be here, a turncloak in an organization of turn cloaks, he would have beaten them for the insult.

Now, Hoshigaki Kisame knew that life had a funny way of turning things around. Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined it would turn out like this.

He had never thought he would be turned against his own comrades, ordered to take them out for the safety of the village. Never dreamed his own teacher, his trusted sensei, would be a vile traitor, a treacherous, lying snake.

Twice now people close to him had betrayed him and their home. Twice now the disgusting, wretched things known as lies had ruined his life. He was so tired of lies.

He had been offered a way out, though. There was a way to get past these lies, to create a world of truth. The man offered to share it with him, his vision, and a chance to find the one he sought.

It was a dream, but it was one he was willing to work toward. An ultimate goal, something beyond what could be offered to him now. A world where there was no lies, no dishonesty, no treachery. There would be only truth, and with it, there could be trust. He wanted it with all his being, would do anything to not have to deal with liars.

Only, he thinks he would.

He breathes, and feels the weight of Ryuishi's charm around his neck like a chain tying him down. The gem lying against his skin is a promise, one he is unsure what to think about anymore. A world without lies meant a world without liars. It meant a world without her.

He looks at the files again, untouched since he stole them from the missions office as he fled.

For so long he had planned to find her, to ask her those questions, to force the truth from her. The more he thought about it though, the more he was unsure. Did she even know what the truth was? Was she even stable enough to recognize reality? Did she even know right from wrong?

Kisame wanted to find her, he did, he wanted to be there, to reclaim what had been broken, but the more he thinks about it, the more he thinks that it's impossible.

It has been too long, there's been so much that's happened. No matter what she said or did, no matter what would happen, he wouldn't be able to trust her. He wouldn't know if she was lying, and he isn't sure that she would even know she was doing it.

Kisame had years to think about it since her departure, years to examine when things had started, when she had begun to be so duplicitous. The answer he had found was not a comforting one.

From the first moment he had met her, from the very first conversation they had shared, that girl had been lying. She had told him she was to his face, had stated it loud and clear. Every move she made, every word she spoke, every touch and every strike, she was lying.

It was impossible for her not to, he thought, because there was too many parts of her for them all to be telling the truth. He saw her, saw the splits between them all, the personalities for everyone of them. They were not masks, not carefully created and molded for her use, no, each and every one of them was a piece of her. These were her faces, each one bearing a piece of herself to the world.

He thought she was probably taught it from the moment of her birth. Whores, by trade, were not honest people. They sold the most dangerous kind of lies, the types that had people ruining their lives to please strangers and making plans for women and men they did not know. Whores sold their bodies, yes, but whores sold something more. They sold the lie of love. They sold their company and affection to the highest bidder, acted out whole scenarios and lives for the right price. For enough money, a whore would give themselves up, give the attention their patrons craved, the fantasy life they desired. Ryuishi had known nothing but that life for a very long time.

Still, he wondered. What made her break? What pressure was so great that she could not bare it? Was it something like what the Mist had asked of him? Had she betrayed everything because she had first been betrayed?

His eyes slid over to the files again. He could find out, if he wanted.

Somehow though, it felt like a betrayal of trust. Like he was invading something private if he read through her history like a book. This was personal information, every important scene and life event documented in black and white, contained inside a non-assuming manila folder.

He thought of what she did, of his dreams of a world of truth. He thinks of that world, and how she has no place in it, how that makes something deep in his chest ache. He needs to know.

He reaches out and opens the pages.

A photograph of her registration picture almost makes him put them back down.

Kisame forces himself forward. He glances over the numbers, old statistics that mean almost nothing anymore. The ink glares out at him, stark black against grainy white. It was like time had been halted inside of the envelope. This is where she had been, how her strength was measured out, where she had stood. The numbers where a snapshot of who she was.

He reads further, and even by the first paragraph he is sick.

It is in jargon, all of it written in a sterile and non-personal way. As if it was a mission report instead of a life, but he can decipher it. Kisame understands.

'Object of interest confirmed to have eliminated adult male, twenty eight, while being detained by superior force at the age of four. Neutralization of said male occured when unwanted advances of a sexual nature toward object of interest without consent proceeded without outside intervention to stop. Autopsy reports confirmed cause of death to be loss of blood and asphyxiation from bite wounds on neck. Bite wounds are a confirmed match for dental records-'

He takes a deep breath, and wants to vomit. He never knew about this. She never said anything, not one word. The information never passed her lips.

Kisame is struck with the sudden urge to find the corpse of whatever sick human did this and kill them all over again. The words in front of him swim inside his head like a disease. He sees 'age four' ,'Unwanted advances of a sexual nature without consent', and 'without outside intervention' inside his head like snapshots from a bad dream.

The more he reads, the more disgusted he was. He learned about the plans they had for her, the original ones. How they wanted to turn her into a honeypot, ignoring her hand-to-hand capabilities and tactical knowledge and instead favoring her conventional 'previously displayed skill at adapting to social situations and stressful environments.'

He leans in closer, transfixed as he consumes her history.

'Object of interest was unwilling participant of event occurring on the day of Genin Graduation Exam 103, hereby referred to as 'The Massacre'. Object of interest showed obvious distress when entering facility, which was heightened when confronted with remains of previous classmates. Altercation between object of interest and recorded acquaintance, Momochi Zabuza, recorded on tape number 17629 in record hall-'

'-Nominated for graduation. Recommendation based on re-assessment of skills and compatibility with MZ in field training exercises-'

'-unstable emotional and mental state negatable. Elimination reliable if object of interest displays disloyal actions-'

He doesn't know how to feel. All of this, pages and pages of her personal life, and not once do the files ever call her by her name. Not like his do, not like Zabuza's do. It is always 'Object of interest' or her registration number. Has there always been this difference between them, this divide between the three? Is it because of the station of her birth, her lack of a teacher? He has no one to ask, but he suspects he isn't too far from the truth. From the moment she had been born, the moment she had become a kunoichi, the village has seen her as disposable. She was talked about in relation to her connections, how her ability complimented theirs, how she worked well inside the unit.

He reads for hours, every battle they fought, every mission they took. Every squad they outlived was listed, and then he finds it, the last known major event.

'Remains of object of interest's mother found among the debris of said object's residence in the akasen district. Further examination shows rubble and debris to be older than surrounding destruction by forty eight hours. Reports show death was the collateral damage of an altercation between two chunnin, names-'

He stops reading. He knew what happened next, what came after that.

His fist clenches tight around the papers, and he looks back through his memories. Each scene is a little darker, each of her jokes a little more bitter. She was little more than a baby, years younger than them both, but she had been struggling the whole time in silence like she was a woman grown.

Kisame was supposed to be the leader, he was supposed to know what his unit was going through. It was his job to help them, his right to assist them in times of need, but the more he thinks things over, the more he knows she was trying to do the same.

Ryuishi was a liar, through and through, there was little doubt about that. There was something she told him about liars though, somethings he should have remembered. Not even a liar can lie all the time.

He remembers her, standing in his room, crying and smiling. He remembers her little hands running over his face, memorizing his features.

'I love you,' she told him. She wasn't lying, not then.

It wasn't her place, it shouldn't have been her job to try and lead them. She shouldn't have tried to shoulder it on her own, but all she knew was lying and secrets. It was his job as her leader, and as her friend, to show her another way. To lead her down another path.

Kisame would find her, that he never doubted, but now he knew what to do when he did. He knew what they could be.

When he found her, he would show her the new way, teach her how to shed her liars skin and leave her old ways behind. Like he and the masked man would guide the world and remake it into one of truth, so too would he guide her.

The ache inside his chest finally eases.

AN:So, People wanted to see why Kisame did the thing. The thing he did is here, as for his reasons. It's important to see that Kisame equates honesty with trust as well, and also that he is almost frightening in his dedication to truth.

Thanks to my beta, aturnofthepage, who had to fix so many mistakes in this. Like, so many. Omg, there was all the mistakes.

Thanks to my readers, reviewers, favoiters and followers. You guys are seriously awesome.