Chapter 1- To Prove Them Wrong: Hoshigaki Kisame's Story

A/N: Sorry it took so long for me to finish Chapter 1, but for some reason it wasn't working out as I wanted it to, and ended up taking much longer to do then I had originally planned. But thankfully it's quite a bit longer then the Introduction. –smiles sheepishly- I can't make any promises, but hopefully I'll be able to finish the next chapter quicker.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything… except a certain sword-wielding kunoichi that you'll meet soon enough ;)

It was several bottles of sake later that Kisame's tongue was finally loose enough to tell his tale. After one final long swallow of sake, the murderer leaned forward, his loose posture indicating that he was intoxicated to a degree.

"The first thing you need to understand about Mist ninja is that they are just like any other ninja from any other village." Kisame began, stating the fact in a rather final tone that often would cause most people not to question the statement; but of course, Kakuzu was not most people.

"Hey Fish-face, you can't just make a statement like that and not back it u-"

"If you would shut UP for one second and let me tell the story you'll get you explanation!" Kisame growled back menacingly. Kakuzu muttered angrily under his breath, but Kisame paid him no heed and continued on with his tale.

"As I was saying, Mist ninja are primarily like any other ninja nation; alongside ninja was have normal citizen in our town, and people are just as kind, and as cruel as anywhere else."

"So how did you get here sempai?" Tobi inquired, "How did you end up a member of the Akatsuki?"

The room was quiet for a few minutes as Kisame rubbed his chin thoughtfully as thinking of his answer before starting to tell his tale.

"When I was born," he began, "I've been told that the nurse delivering me screamed. I suppose she had never seen any child like me before in her career, so her reaction was completely understandable I suppose. You see, I was born as you see me now: blue skin, the edges of sharp teeth already poking out of my gums, gills, shark eyes and all. I wasn't a normal child by any standards, and she didn't have a clue as to what to do. Of course, none of them recovered from the shock truly; they were disgusted by me, and just a little scared, and my father refused to acknowledge me as his child. As for my mother… she died giving birth to me, and she never saw me, and for that, I am thankful. It was because of that that I was able to disillusion myself in my childhood into thinking maybe, just maybe, my mother wouldn't have been frightened of me like everyone else was."

"My father—whom to this day I do not know—left me to live in the Mist village's small orphan inch where I spent the first 10 years of my life."

"Hey, wait," Hidan interrupted, "If you didn't know your dad, then… where did you get your last name? Where in the world did 'Hoshigaki' come from?"

Kisame looked mildly irritated and shook his head before looking vaguely embarrassed. "Well, it came about in a rather…er… unpleasant encounter involving a great deal of fish, a perverted old man, and a persimmon fruit…I'd rather not talk about it."

Everyone in the room gave him an odd look, but Kisame simply cleared his throat and continued with his tale. "It wasn't easy being an orphan," he began, "but in a ninja village, it rarely is. And for me, it was especially difficult due to my… unusual appearance." Kisame chucked bitterly and took a long swig from a new bottle of sake. "I suppose that's what made me tough though, and it made me who I am today. As soon as I was big and strong enough, I stood up to anyone who dared to try and mess with me, and soon it was time for registration into the Ninja Academy. I applied at once, giddy at a chance to get away from the orphan inch, and for a chance to prove myself. I only wanted to become a ninja, nothing else. I didn't anticipate wanting anything more then the name; I didn't want the glory, or the bonds, or any of that at the time… just the name 'ninja' was enough. Of course, like many things do, it all changed with a girl…"

"Oh, so little ol' Kisame's got himself a girlfriend back home?" Hidan teased, "I never would have guessed."

"Shut it Hidan, it wasn't anything like that." Kisame told him gruffly, "She was… an interesting girl who was the same as I was. You see, we were both orphans that had just managed to miss each other back at the orphan inch; it was a big place, so it was understandable. The first time I met her was at the Academy: we were the only two orphaned potential genins that had managed to get into the ninja academy that year. I remember that day well even now… The first time she saw me, she punched me right in the face; Hard. She always did have a good left hook…"

"She'd been training, and had been so engrossed that she hadn't heard me approach, and had punched me by accident. Of course, she was hardly apologetic about the whole ordeal. She simply told me that I 'needed to watch where I was going'. She was unlike any other girl I'd ever met before. Later on I often told her she was more of a boy then a girl… any time I said that however, I usually ended up with a few more bruises. And her appearance was just as odd as her behavior; she had short black hair at a time where all the girls wore it long, and a tanned complexion that highlighted the most chilling pair of gray eyes I think I've ever seen. But getting back to the point, she was someone who influenced my life more then I can ever probably imagine. One thing we shared in common was that she too had been abandoned by her family at the orphan inch, but for different reasons. I found out why for the first time after school one day when I waved my hand in front of her and she didn't respond. I remember I mouthed several rude things and obscenities to her, and how she didn't blink once; she never clenched her fists, or got angry, but just simply asked what it was that I wanted from her.

She had been born blind, and they believed that she would never be fine ninja, like her mother, nor that she would be of any use as a blacksmith like her father; that's why she went to the Academy: To prove them wrong."

"We didn't quite get along at first, probably because we were both so similar and didn't want to admit it. We were cold, cruel people who had grown up without parents, friends or love, and we didn't think we needed anyone more then ourselves. But as you get older, such silly childish believes are washed away, and we realized things that we've needed all along. At some time in the Academy the two of us realized our own yearnings for the company of others… and we were afraid, and oh so bitter. That was when we became… cohorts of sorts. It was after our teacher told her that with her blindness, she'd never be a proper ninja, despite how well I knew she was doing, and how good of a fighter she was. I told her then that I believed in her, and it was then that I think we realized that we would need someone other then ourselves. That we needed a comrade to help us if we fell, and so, we swore an oath to each other that day: an oath to have each other's backs, because no one else would. It was that day that she told me her name. To the class, she was 'girl' or 'the blind one', and the teachers always called her 'miss'."

"So who's this mystery girl?" Kakuzu interrupted, "get on with it already!"

Kisame smirked. "Her name was Samehada."

"Like your sword?" Deidara asked incredulously.

"If you would stop interrupting me you wouldn't need to ask questions!" Kisame grumbled, "Now, as I was saying…the two of us became companions of sort, so when we both finally passed the Genin exams and became part of the same team, we were thrilled. We weren't even really fazed that we had had to kill one of our classmates to pass either; each and ever one of our classmates had hated us anyway. Our third teammate—a boy named Sato Haru—was less then thrilled to be teamed up with the academy freaks, and I'm afraid to say he never really overcame his prejudice. Also, our Sensei automatically made assumptions about us and never got to know us well, basically disabling us all from ever working well as a team. But that was o.k. with Samehada and I; we didn't trust anyone other then each other anyway. So we let our Sensei concentrate on training Haru, while the two of us trained together under the cover of night in secret. It was during one of those nightly training sessions that Samehada revealed to me of her secret project: a sword, but not just any sword; a great sword that would become her ultimate weapon."

"And so we wove our wonderful little world of secrets and masks, and plays that we put on whenever others were around. It was almost a game for us at first before our missions truly became serious. We pretended to be weaker then we were so that when the time came, we would reveal our power and prove to everyone how wrong they had been about us. So I practiced my precision and killing techniques, and Samehada continued her secret blacksmithing of a weapon she hoped would be the greatest ever made."

"At first however, all her effects were meaningless. Her arms were always covered completely in bandages, hiding the accidental wounds she had received while working with red-hot iron, anvils, furnaces, and other such dangerous equipment blacksmiths used. There was a period of time I admit where I almost told her to give up, but even if I had spoken my mind at the time, I don't think she would have stopped anyway. She wanted so badly to prove everyone wrong, even though she said she didn't care what people thought of her. I… sympathized with her to a degree, and so I let her continue."

"Summer turned to Fall, and Fall to Winter, and Winter to Spring, and so 2 years passed, and we grew as ninjas. We developed our skills, and finally when the two of us became—reluctant on the village council's part—Chuunin, Samehada finally constructed the weapon she had dreamed of ever night since she had only been a child at the orphan inch. It was a great sword, and as it had been her family's tradition, she gave it a name and called it 'Isonade', and began to train with it. It was the perfect sword for her, because she had weaved her own chakra into it so that it became her eyes; it guided her hand, and it always lead her, letting her hand follow… And though it was a good sword, she wanted something that was even more powerful, and so she began working on it; a sword that she would put so much of her chakra, blood, and sweat, and tears and time into that it felt like she and the sword were one. It became an all consuming activity to her; whenever she wasn't on a mission, she was working on that sword that was so important to her… a sword that had become so important to her that she had forgotten me, her one, and only comrade in a world that didn't believe in her. Even though she denied it vehemently, I knew she was doing it all to prove them wrong; to prove that she was worth something, and that she could do anything that they thought she couldn't. And though I understood, I felt angry, and as if she had forgotten our promise. I thought that she had turned her back on me, as if we had never made an oath to each other to never do just that."

"When the sword was complete, it was colossal, and unnamed as of yet when she brought it on a C-ranked body-guard mission… it was supposed to have been an easy mission: escort the daughter of some guy back to her home. It was a pity we didn't know that there were some ninjas out to kidnap the girl for ransom, or we would have made them pay more money to be escorts… It was that day that I first saw that sword in action. I was amazing the way it moved; it always knew where she wanted to move, because it flowed so fully with her chakra that she and it were almost one being. She swung it with such expertise that me, and even Haru—who had always been skeptical of us, and who had hated us—believed that the enemy didn't stand a chance. The sword was amazing and it sapped up chakra from enemies, making it a very formidable weapon indeed. But they kept coming, and in the end, they defeated Samehada and retreated when Haru went to attack them. At the time, Haru was hardly injured and ran to get help and left me, injured and bleeding with a dying Samehada. My wounds weren't too detrimental; they would heal, but Samehada… I knew it was hopeless the moment I saw the extent of the damage she had taken. They had been brutal to her, and looking back and remembering all the blood on her, I'm not sure how she even managed to stay alive those last few minutes to utter her last words to me.

"'Kisame', she had whispered, her voice garbled and chocked by her own blood, 'Kisame… I'm going to die aren't I?'"

"I didn't lie to her; I simply told her 'Yeah, probably.' She laughed bitterly at that."

"'I guess that's the fate of ninja.' She told me, 'to die young, and without accomplishing their dreams.' And so I asked her what her dream was, and she had predictably replied, 'To prove them wrong… to make them see how wrong they were to treat us like outcasts, and to prove how powerful we were…but we never did prove it did we?' she asked, 'We never proved to them that we were more then their eyes can see.' I remember she looked me straight in the face then, and grabbed me, looking into my eyes as if she were looking at me, and seeing me, though I knew she could not. 'Make another oath to me Kisame!' she told me fiercely, blood dripping down her chin, and her face growing paler, and paler, 'Promise me two last things Kisame.' I told her that I'd promise her anything in her last moments, and so I heard her requests. 'Promise… that you'll show them all what we're made of, and make them sorry for thinking of us as insignificant rats, and…' she paused to cough for a moment before making her final request, 'Promise me that you'll take up this sword, and honor it. Promise me to wield it well, and to name it for me.' I told her 'I Promise', and then she smiled a smile truer then I had ever seen on her face before and said 'Good… now look out for yourself buddy… and watch where you're going o.k.? You never know when some blind girl might punch you by accident because you weren't paying any attention to where you were going.'"

Kisame laughed bitterly, "Weird last words for a weird women I suppose… Well, at least she died with a smile on her face…" Kisame shook his head and his face grew serious suddenly, "When Haru got back, the medic nin healed my wounds and left, not bothering to help me with Samehada's body. Haru was at least kind enough to walk with me back to town, but that was all he did before disappearing and leaving me with her body. He didn't even offer money for a funeral; no one did, and I couldn't pay for it, so I cremated her, and let her ashes fly free; I think she would have liked that better then a burial anyway… and I almost went back to life, but something was fishy about the way she had died, and how not even the village council was willing to give her a proper honorable burial… there was something strange about how the enemies we had fought attacked only Samehada and I, and how Haru had gotten away unscathed, and it was strange how well they combated our best moves… in short, I suspected conspiracy, and no one even bothered to hide the fact that Samehada's death was no accident. The only accident was that I didn't die too. We were troublemakers at best, sometimes freaks, and at the worst, village outcasts that were unwanted. And so it was then that I decided to follow through with the first promise I made to Samehada; I went to prove the village wrong, and to show them just exactly how wrong they were about me and Samehada, and I showed them our power."

"I murdered them all; all 10 seated members of the council and countless others that had blocked my path there, and out of the village as I ran from the gates as an S-Class criminal, and I was only able to do so with that nameless sword. When I wielded it… I felt as if she were there, guiding my hand as her sword the Isonade had once guided her… and so, it was then, as I took my flight from the village to find somewhere safe, that I whispered to the sword its name: Samehada."

"So after that, the Akatsuki heard of the all people you had massacred with your own hands, and offered you a place, and asylum with them?" Deidre asked. Kisame merely shook his head in confirmation.

"Yeah, that's pretty much all there is to the story." He confirmed, beginning to take a last swig of sake before glancing down and seeing that it was empty. "Ahhh… I'm out; I think I'll just go get another case. If you'll excuse me…" Kisame stood, and shouldered his gigantic sword and left the room.

"Bring enough for all of us!" Hidan called after him before turning back to the group. Once the shark-like man had left he chuckled and nudged Kakuzu. "What a story eh? I wonder if it's true…"

"B-But Hidan-sensei, why would Kisame-sempai lie?" Tobi asked curiously.

"Dunno, but we all got our secrets kid… whatever. It's just a little… to sentimental for my taste, and I never thought of Kisame as a 'sentimental' kind of guy, so I find his story a little hard to believe…my own story isn't sentimental and gushy at all!"

"Oh yeah Hidan? What's your story then?" Kakuzu leered, "It's probably pretty lame."

"Heck no!" Hidan exclaimed, "It's probably better then the story of how YOU got to be here!"

"Want to make that a bet?" Kakuzu asked raising an eyebrow.

"You're on!"

Kisame stood lazily on the cliff outside the Akatsuki's headquarters staring into the sunset shoulder the sword, his mind not on the sake he had planned to get at all.

"The sunset's beautiful, eh Samehada?" he chuckled, "But you never did get to see it, did you? We used to watch it together, even though really all we were doing was talking together in a time when the sun happened to be setting… It was during a sunset that we made that promise, remember?" He shook his head and faced the wind, and leaned against his sword as he stared out over the cliff. "You never did forget that promise you made, eh Samehada." He whispered, "Even now… you still have my back."

A/N: Well… I'm not entirely sure what the response to this chapter will be. It's a bit more… sentimental then I originally had planned, but I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. Next up will be the story of how Hidan came to join the Akatsuki…

Terms You Might Care To Know:

1- 'Hoshigaki' is a dried persimmon, hence the mentions of the fruit being involved in the tale of how he got his last name.

2- 'Isonade' in Japanese mythology was legendary dark blue shark attrachted to blood with a subordinate fish named 'Samehada'. This is why Samehada's sword Isonade guides her hand, or leads her.

Pyrofreeze