Chimera, Chapter 6: Killer
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
In the months after the Kaguya clan massacre, Mei became very busy. So busy, in fact, that she saw very little of her friends, and when she did, it was as if things were changing faster than she could keep up with.
Mangetsu threw himself into his training when he wasn't home taking care of Suigetsu. It got to the point where he would bring Suigetsu along, unable to find a babysitter willing to put up with the devilish infant most days. Suigetsu was delighted for his 'Manshu Time'. He'd traded in his pacifier for a curved kunai. Mei was horrified one day when she arrived at Mangetsu's house only to find Suigetsu bleeding from both hands as he slashed a kunai against a tree trunk in the front yard. But Mangetsu told her to leave the boy alone, he had to learn somehow, and pain was the best way to learn what not to do.
"He's just a child," Mei argued.
"Children have to learn to defend themselves more than anyone," Mangetsu said. "This is the Bloody Mist. You know it as well as I do."
Mei bit her tongue. She did know, just as she knew no one would be there to protect Suigetsu or Haku or any of the other children in this village when disaster struck, as it had done when death claimed Mangetsu's parents. Here, it was every man, woman, and child for themselves, kill or be killed. The ones who did not learn that lesson early did not live to see their wisdom teeth grow in. Mei knew this.
But she took the kunai from Suigetsu, anyway, and brought him inside to wash his hands and bandage them. He complained the whole time about wanting to go back outside and play with Manshu, but Mei told him to be patient.
"No!" Suigetsu shouted. "I wanna fight! Fight like Manshu!"
"Oh, really? You want to fight? You can't even pronounce your brother's name right," Mei said as she secured the bandage around Suigetsu's small hand.
He glared up at her like he knew exactly what she was doing and guess what, boss lady, he was not happy about it. "I fight," he said stubbornly. "Manshu and Kissme and Myuree fight. I fight!"
Mei sighed, wishing she could take pleasure in his inane nicknames for her friends. But when a three-year-old confesses to you his dreams of maiming and bludgeoning in the footsteps of monsters masquerading as men, laughter is not easy to indulge. Mei ruffled Suigetsu's short white hair.
"Show me some sharp teeth, then we'll talk," she said.
He tried to bite her finger, but Mei yanked it away just in time and scooped him up to take him back outside. Mangetsu was still at it with Hiramekarei, and he landed hard in the grass just as Mei stepped outside. The earth split and chunks of dirt and grass went flying under the force of his demonic sword. Suigetsu squirmed out of Mei's arms and landed with a wet plop on the ground. He scrambled to his little feet and waddled as fast as he could to Mangetsu's side.
"Don't you have a mission to get to?" Mangetsu said, handing Suigetsu a spare kunai now that Mei had taken the other one. Suigetsu squealed, delighted, and began slashing the air with the little weapon, trying his very best to emulate Mangetsu's fluid technique.
"I'm not allowed to visit my friend before I leave for two weeks?" Mei said.
Mangetsu leaned against Hiramekarei and averted his gaze. "That's not what I meant."
She approached him slowly. "I'm worried about you," she said softly so Suigetsu wouldn't overhear. "We all are. You haven't said a word about what happened."
Mangetsu ran his fingers roughly through his sweat-damp white hair. "There's nothing to say. They're gone, and I'm still here with Suigetsu. This is the new normal."
Mei had nothing to say to that. Her throat clenched and she ached to reassure him, to tell him it was okay to be sad, to be the kid he still was, they both were in so many ways. But not in the ways that mattered growing up in the Bloody Mist. Mei knew this, too.
She touched her fingers lightly to his shoulder. "Nobody said the new normal had to be every man for himself."
Mangetsu's eyes widened in surprise at her words, an echo of a lifetime past. He removed her hand from his shoulder, holding it in his gently, just for a small moment. "Yeah," he said.
He broke the contact, and Mei smiled. Suigetsu face-planted in the grass all of a sudden and dropped his kunai. "Oh shit," he muttered, tearing up.
Mei did laugh this time. "You can thank Ameyuri for his potty mouth when he grows up."
Mangetsu scooped Suigetsu up and rocked him a bit to stay the tears before they could fall. "I'll be sure to do that."
They parted ways, but Mei lingered a moment at the street corner to watch the brothers. Suigetsu was tugging on Mangetsu's long bangs, and Mangetsu liquefied his hair as a joke. Suigetsu thought it was the funniest thing and laughed, and Mangetsu smiled a little. Mei bit back a smile of her own and left them to their family time. It must be nice, she thought, to have someone who loved you unconditionally. Someone who looked up to you and relied on you with no ulterior motive. She supposed Mangetsu needed that more than anyone now after the devastating loss of his parents. This was the new normal.
Mei headed swiftly to the edge of the village to the designated meeting spot. She'd only meant to stop at Mangetsu's place for a short visit since she had not seen him in nearly two weeks, and now she was running a bit late. Clad in her grey Jōnin flak vest, arm and leg guards, and sensible blue shinobi gi, she was ready for the journey ahead.
Kisame was waiting for her when she got to the city limits. He matched her in attire, like they were two hired mercs off to watch over some rich lordling, which was not too far off from the truth. Except for the part where they were going to kill the rich lordling on Yagura's orders. The lordling, who was no lordling at all, but rather the kingpin of the largest civilian crime syndicate in Water Country, was funneling exorbitant sums of money through a sprawling drug trade operation, which normally would not bother anybody if it wasn't money already promised to the Mizukage's coffers. No one avoided taxes in Water Country and lived to tell about it for long.
This was the mission Mei and Kisame had been working on for the past few months in the wake of Mangetsu's parents' deaths. As it turned out, what should have been a routine bait and kill job had dragged on and on due to the kingpin's connections and considerable wealth. Which meant he could buy the best protection on the continent. Unusually cautious and paranoid and with his pick of the cream of the crop of missing nin, the kingpin, one Kazuo Taoka, was untouchable. Mei knew this because she and Kisame had spent many weeks learning his habits and proclivities from afar while carefully penetrating his organization from the ground up.
He never let anyone he did not trust implicitly within more than fifteen feet of him at any time. The exception to this rule was the handful of his most trusted 'little brothers', as he called them. They were his second-in-commands, both civilian and shinobi, and anybody who wanted to deal with Taoka had to deal with them first. Even girls hardly got near him without a full body search and careful supervision by a trusted little brother. Taoka had no modesty, and he did not suffer it in his women, either. Unlike many rich and powerful men in this world, Taoka mistrusted a woman as much as he mistrusted a man. Perhaps more. Hence, the dilemma.
When Yagura's chief Hunter, Ao, briefed Mei and Kisame on the mission, Kisame's first question was why they could not simply kill everyone in the compound once they located Taoka.
"Because we want Taoka gone, not his organization," Ao explained. "Lord Yagura wishes to send a message."
Yeah, a message condoning violence and rape and murder so long as you pay the tithe.
Mei was not sure what to think about Ao. He was lauded as a strong shinobi in Mist and in the other great ninja villages. At some point in his lucrative career, he'd even managed to harvest a Byakugan eye from an enemy Leaf shinobi and have it transplanted into himself. Now, he was at the top of Konoha's kill-on-sight list, a feat not many managed under the Fourth Hokage's hand-holding policies.
Minato Namikaze was known far and wide as Konoha's Yellow Flash, one of the most powerful shinobi alive today and a war hero several times over, but he led a war-weary Konoha ready to let go of old grudges and past wrongs for a chance at peace. Even so, Ao occupied a coveted spot on Konoha's most wanted list, and he was still here doing what he did best. A strong and daring shinobi if there ever was one, but there was something mysterious about him, a caution born of experience and years in a job with a higher mortality rate than professional heli-skiing or bomb-making. He was the kind of guy whose true sympathies were never apparent until it was too late to do anything about them. He could not be trusted.
"Then what do you suggest?" Mei asked.
Ao looked between the two young Jōnin before him like he could not wait to be out of this meeting. "Whatever you want. As long as Taoka is taken care of quietly with minimal damage to his business, that's all that matters."
Kisame just chuckled, and that was the end of it. That conversation had been months ago, and in between Mei's excursions with Kisame to learn everything they could about Taoka, she took shorter missions closer to home for the money. She had every intention of saving every penny she could. Her father had total control of the Terumī fortune, and while Mei could tolerate sharing a roof with him, she could not abide not having a way out if she needed one.
Now, Mei and Kisame walked side by side out of Mist in silence. They passed by the larger clan compounds, once lavish manses now abandoned and forgotten along with the families that had once lived in them. Like Mei's own clan, most of the shinobi clans that had owned these homes had been culled down to the last and most promising member once Yagura assumed the mantle of Mizukage. There was no need to feed twenty mouths when one could accomplish the same ends alone.
"I like it here," Kisame said. "It's peaceful."
They passed by a particularly large compound. The roof of the northernmost room was caved in and rotted, and moss and weeds had begun to encroach on the wrap-around porch, peeking through the floorboards like trapped fingers. Mei rubbed her hands together for warmth.
"It's not peaceful, it's dead," she said.
Kisame spared her a glance, those mirthful grey eyes lingering on her profile like he found her opinion amusing. "Death is peace. And besides, this place doesn't belong to anyone anymore. Now it's just a reflection of what you want it to be."
Mei thought about that as they leisurely made their way west. "I guess. But I don't think we belong here."
He was silent for a moment. "No, I guess I don't."
Mei dropped the subject as Kisame seemed to retreat into himself, lost in thought. She wondered where he went, what it must be like for him. She had never known anyone quite like him. No one else in the village looked like him, and aside from the little he'd told her, she had no idea where he'd come from or why. He had a dream of becoming one of the Seven Legendary Swordsmen, a dream he trained and bled for every day since she'd met him even though he'd been passed over. He still worked toward his goal, even now, and she knew it would pay off one day. His time would come, as she'd told him so long ago.
But there was something tragic about Kisame, something buried deep that no matter how much confidence she had in herself or in him, he would never show her. Something he kept hidden in a place like this where only the dead could understand, something very lonely and very sad.
"We're all monsters," he'd told her that day so many years ago.
But monsters are not the sharp teeth and blue skin and terrible power people can see and taste and feel for themselves. The truly monstrous is what remains unseen, the thing buried deep. It is dangerous because it is among us, one of us, a friend or a lover or a parent or a child seen in just the wrong light, not quite right, hiding in plain sight until it is too late to escape. It is familiar, and we do not want to escape it.
What was Kisame hiding, she wondered as they made their way through this graveyard that did not look like a graveyard. What did he think she was hiding when he'd called her a monster?
Mei was not altruistic, at least no more than the next person in Mist. She looked out for herself, and she learned to look out for the people she cared about as she grew older, as much as they would let her. But like Mangetsu had reminded her, in the Bloody Mist it was every woman for herself. At the end of the day, she was only as good as she was standing on her own two feet. But with Kisame, she had always felt a strange desire to know more, to care more. Maybe it was because he had no one else. Everyone had someone. Mei had her friends and even her father, who could have kicked her to the curb whenever he wanted to, but instead he raised her, educated her, prepared her in the only way he knew how for this mad world where little girls were born to suffer, bleed, and die. Who did Kisame have?
They passed their journey in relative silence, though it was not an uncomfortable one. They had made this trip many times together now, and words were not necessary. Over the past few months, Kisame and Mei and learned all that they could about Taoka and how best to corner him. They had settled on doing the opposite of what Ao envisioned. Instead of infiltrating Taoka's inner circle with force or persuasion or lies, they got menial jobs working for him. Posing as mercenary shinobi, they began their mission at the bottom of the barrel facilitating drug runs, acting as bodyguards to Taoka's accountants, and even shuttling his women between safe houses. It was not until the third month that they had even heard Taoka's voice, and that was only via radio conference. The man was cautious to a fault, constantly changing locations and never associating directly with anyone he did not trust with his life.
But Taoka was not their direct target. The only ones who could get close to Taoka were his little brothers, the trusted circle. To get Taoka, they needed to compromise one of the little brothers, and they'd been working on a target for all these months. Shinobu Tsukasa was an up and coming member of Taoka's syndicate, having originally made a name for himself as a sword for hire. While no shinobi, Tsukasa hailed from the Land of Iron and had trained with the samurai from a young age. He relocated to Water Country on the run after murdering a prominent crime boss visiting from the Land of Lightning with a katana. The samurai pursued him and his small circle of followers out of the Land of Iron and far to the east, until Tsukasa disappeared in Water Country. Yagura had no tolerance for extradition or other such nonsense that would deprive the Bloody Mist of its due retribution, and so the samurai abandoned their chase, confident that Tsukasa could never return to the Land of Iron. After falling back into his old habits, Tsukasa found work as a sword for hire in a small branch of Taoka's syndicate, working his way up until one day, he was finally invited to Taoka's inner circle after so many years of loyalty.
It was through Tsukasa that Kisame and Mei planned to reach Taoka, and in this last leg of the mission, they planned to do just that. Having proven themselves as efficient and trustworthy mercs, Tsukasa had staffed them on security for a very exclusive party at the end of the coming two weeks. Taoka would be in attendance to meet with his various lieutenants, Tsukasa included. The end was in sight, finally.
Kisame and Mei had purchased a log cabin as their base of operations well outside of Tsukasa's network. The cabin was remotely located on the moors outside of Nago, a small town that doubled as one of Taoka's main bases. It was here that Tsukasa oversaw his share of Taoka's drug trafficking operations, and it was here that Taoka would visit in person next week for the party.
Mei and Kisame spent their nights over the two weeks overseeing Tsukasa's operations, as usual. They guarded drug labs where civilians mixed chemicals and packed product, then accompanied the product to a drop site, ensured payment, and returned with the payment to a secured location. It was simple work, but discreet. Tsukasa was a smart man and never used the same drop spots twice, and he rotated out his workers regularly to discourage camaraderie.
It was dull work, but necessary in order to keep their eyes on the prize. Tsukasa was in charge of ensuring that everything went smoothly at the upcoming party, and that meant security needed to be tight but seamless. Having established a reputation for discretion and reliability within Tsukasa's branch of the syndicate, Mei and Kisame's many months of preparation paid off when Tsukasa personally selected them to be a part of the security detail at the party.
Tonight was the night, and Mei was nervous. She had a big part to play, and if she fucked up, it would be the end of both Kisame and her. Nothing short of perfection would suffice tonight. Mei examined her reflection in the dingy mirror in the small bathroom of their room in an inn in the heart of Nago, one of Tsukasa's establishments largely patronized by his employees. She could barely see all of her face, let alone her hair. But she studied her painted lips, puckered just so, the shadowy makeup around her eyes, the smooth lines of her cheekbones angled in such a way that she knew would draw eyes.
"Beauty is a fact, not an opinion," Pakura had told her that day in the pub in Mist.
Mei stared at her reflection and knew the words to be truth. Half of the game was confidence, anyway, and she had that in spades. Perhaps to her detriment, as Ameyuri liked to remind her. But she would rather be arrogant and ready to face her demons head-on than diffident and too scared even to leave her room. Modesty never accomplished anything. So she smoothed the skirt of her simple but elegant blue dress and exited the bathroom, ready to confront whatever demons awaited tonight.
Kisame was dressed in a black suit that fit him like a glove and clung to all the right places. He was a tall man, broad-shouldered and lean and cut like a diamond. Mei stopped to admire him openly while he had his back to her, curious at how different he looked without his nodachi hanging at his hip and the blood of his enemies staining his arm guards. He heard her heels clicking on the linoleum floor and spared her a glance that lingered just a little too long. She noticed.
"Well?" she asked.
He opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated as he looked her up and down. Her blue dress was long and cut to the thigh for ease of movement more than for appeal, but from the way he watched her, Mei figured it was two birds, one stone. Her long sleeves tapered over her fingers like water, disarming—surely no kunoichi would wear something so hindering. Her auburn hair was long and loose and tousled, more smoke and mirrors to disarm and distract.
Kisame nodded and went back to fiddling with his cufflinks. "Blue's a good color for you, kid."
Mei's sky-high confidence suffered a tiny hiccup, and anger took its place as she balled her fists and glared at his back. "I'm not a kid, Kisame. Least of all tonight."
He grunted. "Yeah, yeah, let's just get this over with. If I gotta listen to Tsukasa's story about how he offed that Cloud kingpin forever ago one more time, I'll cut out his tongue and shove it up his ass where it belongs."
Mei had the sudden urge to punch him. No reason, really, she just thought she'd feel better. But that would be childish, which was not the point she wanted to make. Instead, she walked to his side and took his wrist from him. He was having trouble securing the last cufflink, and she carefully pinned it in place. Kisame said nothing as she ran her thumb over the simple silver button, but he did not pull his hand away. Mei traced the back of his hand with her long fingers. His skin was blue-grey, like the onset of frostbite before it killed the cells and turned the skin black, the moment just before death, perfectly preserved. It wasn't scaly or rough except for the various scars that riddled his fingers and palms from his Academy days learning the art of the sword. His nails were neatly trimmed, perhaps a little too short, but carefully groomed. And he was cool to the touch, or perhaps it was the heat in her hands summoned by ire and inexperience that contrasted so starkly with his collected calm, she could not be sure. But she didn't care in those few seconds when he didn't pull away and she held him gently, like that day on the beach when they'd watched that fisherman brave the riptides and knock on a god's door.
Kisame pulled away then and fisted his hand like she'd burned him. "...Anyway, we need to go. The sooner we get this over with, the better."
He showed her his back as he outfitted himself with several curved kunai and a knife in his boot, among other nasty surprises. Mei carried no weapons on her person; her role did not call for them. She wondered what Ganryū would think of her going in without so much as a kunai on her person.
"Arm yourself because no one else here will save you."
I'm plenty armed, she thought as she caught her reflection in the dingy bathroom mirror, remembering his wise warning to her from so long ago.
"Let's go," Kisame said, holding the door for her.
Mei marched across the room and headed outside. She'd spent weeks learning how to walk in these ridiculous shoes and complained the entire time to Ameyuri. Who wore such godawful contraptions on their feet? Didn't people know it was uncomfortable and impractical to walk on one's tiptoes and a thin stick under the heel?
"Pain is the price of beauty," Ameyuri had said. "Seems kinda fitting, I guess."
Mei had agreed. A beautiful woman was a dangerous woman, but power came with a price. Mei could pay that price a thousand times over, she was sure of it every day she spent walking around the room in these tiny torture devices. Arrogant, remember? But with Kisame there to watch her back, she was willing to put all her eggs in one basket.
Together, Mei and Kisame made the short trek to the compound where Tsukasa's party was being held. It had once belonged to a lord of some kind, but he'd been driven out years ago. Nago now existed to labor for Taoka's syndicate and nothing else. Tonight, the compound had been transformed into a lavish party room complete with a dance floor, a private outdoor courtyard decorated with paper lanterns, and numerous back rooms for business and for pleasure. Mei and Kisame would mingle with the guests but keep an eye out for any hints of a disturbance. Tsukasa had been very clear: he wanted Taoka to feel at home, and at home you were safe. The security tonight would be invisible, watchful. And that would be Tsukasa's biggest mistake.
Kisame and Mei entered together, indistinguishable from the other guests save for Kisame's strange coloring. She looped her arm delicately around his and felt him stiffen, but he did not try to pull away in front of others. The effect was instantaneous, just as she'd hoped it would be. Alone, Mei was confident that she was as eye-catching as any other woman here, most of them shipped over in bulk from the larger cities around the country to decorate the room much like the flower arrangements and art on the walls. But walking in with Kisame, the severe contrast made her sparkle. She could feel the eyes on her, and she practically vibrated under all the attention, the power. This was power.
Mei caught sight of Tsukasa talking in hushed tones with some guests. The room was well-lit and tastefully decorated, not too loud. Like most of the men in attendance, he wore a dark suit and had cleaned up crisply. More than twice Mei's age, Tsukasa was nevertheless an attractive man with rich black hair, a goatee, and intense eyes as sharp as his sword, which was sheathed at his hip. The older man he was speaking with caught a glimpse of Mei and stopped to look, disrupting the conversation. Mei's heart raced as she saw her window of opportunity. She pulled Kisame in close and angled up for a quick kiss on the cheek, chaste and soft.
He caught her eye and said under his breath, "Are you finished?"
She smiled like he'd said something sensual and ran her fingers along his lapel. "Just don't keep me waiting too long."
They parted, and as long as everything went according to plan, she would not see him again until their mission was complete. Mei grabbed a champagne flute from a passing server and tapped the delicate glass with a nail as she meandered through the crowd to a lone table near the southern edge of the room. It had a wide view of the room, and she sipped her champagne while she discreetly looked around.
The eyes were still on her, here and there, men both young and old, handsome and ugly, intrigued and longing and lecherous. But Mei did not smile or make eye contact. No one approached. Perhaps they sensed the truth about her. Perhaps they saw her pretty face for the mask it was.
Cowards, she thought.
But for a kunoichi on the hunt, hubris is always a virtue. Get enough greedy people together in a room, and she was bound to get lucky. As it turned out, she got lucky with the older man Tsukasa had been speaking with. He approached her like one might approach an exotic caged animal—fascinated and enamored of something strangely gorgeous, but fearless in the presence of the cage that divided them. In this case, the party was the cage between them. Unfortunately for this old man, Mei was not one to stay docile in any cage.
"Hello," he said, setting his whiskey tumbler on the table next to Mei's champagne. "I couldn't help but notice you'd been abandoned."
He had a hooked nose, sharp like a bird of prey's, and a prominent chin. His grey hair was neatly oiled and combed, and the black suit he wore looked right at home on his wiry frame, like he'd been born to wear it. Tranquil blue eyes watched her carefully, unhurried, but they lingered and missed the invisible hooks sinking into him the closer he got.
Here we go.
Mei let go of her glass and continued to scan the room, not even sparing the man a glance. "You've got that backwards," she said.
He seemed to find her reply amusing. "I can't blame you. A woman such as yourself has no business associating with a creature such as that."
Mei smiled easily and bit her tongue to keep herself from laughing at him. He had no idea. She grabbed her champagne flute. "Excuse me, I must get back to work."
She tried to leave, but he blocked her path, as she suspected he would. Swirling his half-empty glass, he actually looked a little wounded by her dismissal. Oh, this man was good. "Work? I can't imagine a world where a beauty like you would ever have to work for anything."
"Expand your imagination, Noboru. This one works for me."
Tsukasa himself joined them at Mei's small standing table and smiled like he had a secret. He finished off his scotch and set the empty glass on the table. He slipped his hands in the pockets of his pants, and Mei noted the slight bulge in his jacket. A knife, no doubt, but she pushed the thought from her mind and smiled politely. Tsukasa's intense eyes followed her every movement.
"Sir," she said.
"Works for you?" Noboru said, clearly surprised. "Doing what?"
"Security," Mei said. "I like to watch."
Tsukasa rubbed his chin, thinking, as Noboru frowned deeply.
"Is that so?" Noboru asked.
"Mei is shinobi," Tsukasa explained. "I hired her and her partner a few months ago after a...demonstration."
Mei took a sip of her champagne and licked her lips. "And here we are."
"Shinobi?" Noboru looked slightly uncomfortable now. His previous interest had evaporated completely as he did his best not to look at Mei at all. "Ah, how interesting. You don't see many female shinobi for hire."
Mei traded her empty champagne glass for Noboru's half-drunk whisky and ran a finger along the rim. "A shame, really. We're good at what we do."
Tsukasa was not Taoka. He did not maintain a distance with people, for the most part, confident in his own abilities as a swordsman and his intelligence. But his weakness would become Taoka's weakness if Mei played her cards right.
"Noboru, excuse us," Tsukasa said. He did not even give an explanation or an excuse, and his tone brooked no room for argument.
Noboru frowned deeply and abandoned his whiskey as he retreated. Ran, Mei liked to think. Run while you can, little man. The monsters are coming.
Alone with Tsukasa, Mei waited for him to reveal what he wanted. He flagged down a server and procured a fresh scotch for himself and another champagne for Mei. She refused it.
"I'm happy to keep up appearances, but you're not paying me to drink," she said.
"No," he allowed, "but I am paying you to watch."
She smiled. "Anything in particular?"
He took a sip of his drink and took her in. It was fast and cursory, and there was something seedy about it. You can't rush a good thing. But Mei pretended to fluff her hair to hide the unpleasant shiver up her spine at his scrutiny.
"Yes," he said, gesturing for her walk ahead of him. "Me."
Mei had to work to keep her calm. Her heart was pounding as she walked ahead of Tsukasa. This was it, and if she fucked it up, she could kiss the mission goodbye. So she held her head high and tried to remember everything she'd learned from Pakura and her years of watching other women in her free time. Bar maids and whores and mothers with children and the pictures in magazines. All women, all the same, divided only by perception.
"You're a spider," Pakura had told her.
Spiders are patient. So Mei tried to be patient, to, and concentrated on her gait. Did she look too young? She was young, barely a woman in some circles, though she wore the mask well. Did he believe her? He wouldn't if she didn't believe herself. Mei had always been very confident, and she quashed those child's doubts before they could take root.
Tsukasa led her toward the back rooms, where she knew the real party was happening. The room he unlocked for her had the same yellow-gold wallpaper and mood lighting. Smoke gathered around a table lamp where a big man, a security guard Mei recognized as a lifer, stood watching the connecting door to the enclosed courtyard in the center of the compound. Mei calculated his height, maybe five-eight or five-nine, one-ninety or two hundred pounds easily. A big man, but if she took out his legs first, he'd fall just as hard as the next. These thoughts passed through her head in the blink of an eye, pure instinct, and she had to force herself to remember Tsukasa, the mission.
"Before we go any further," Tsukasa said, setting down his drink and adjusting his belt like a fucking pimp. "I'll need to search you. You understand, of course."
Mei did her best to smile. "Of course. But I'm shinobi. I don't carry weapons when my fists are all I need."
"Shinobi?" the guard said, nervous. "Boss says no shinobi, sir."
"I'm the boss in this town," Tsukasa said, growing impatient. "You answer to me, not Taoka."
The guard at the door swallowed nervously and stared at his feet, cowed. "Yessir," he mumbled.
"Now, about that search," Tsukasa said.
Mei stood very still as he approached and put his hands on her. He smelled like scotch and expensive cologne, and his hands were a little sweaty as he ran them up and down her sides, over her breasts, down her thighs, around her butt, even in her hair. Mei clenched her jaw so hard she thought it might shatter, but she forced herself to stay still even as he took his time. His hands traced every part of her, memorizing her, mapping her, and she wanted nothing more than to give him her special death kiss.
But spiders do not struggle or burn. They wait. The price of beauty is pain. No matter the cost, she can pay it. All the pain in the world cannot stop her.
Tsukasa let his hands come to rest at her hips, fingers digging in like he had plans to settle there, and Mei looked up at him, those intensely dark eyes that could probably spot a lie a mile away. But in her, all he saw was the beauty, the softness, the silk. She took a step towards him until her chest brushed lightly against his.
"I suspect your many...talents...are wasted on duty with the thugs my people hire. I could use a strong woman watching my back. No one ever expects a woman." He twirled some of her hair in his fingers. "Do this right," he whispered, leaning towards her, "and you can do more than just watch."
His fingers dug into her hips and held her against him like she was a sword in need of firm handling. Mei forced herself not to tremble at the feel of him against her thigh. A familiar heat burned in her throat, but she swallowed it down.
"I'd like that," she said, keeping her voice low to stop it from cracking.
"After you," Tsukasa said, releasing her finally.
Mei obeyed and walked past the door guard, who eyed her like she was some kind of disease. She ignored him, more interested in what lay beyond. The courtyard was decorated with paper lanterns along the walls of the compound. A small garden with a large leafy tree stood proudly in the center surrounded by flowers and covered in creeping ivy. A koi pond bubbled in the southeastern corner. Patrons in suits talked amongst themselves, while girls in brightly colored dresses and gaudy jewels hung off their arms and held their drinks. Security lined the courtyard, but these guards did not mingle with the guests or attempt to blend in. Mei counted several possible shinobi among them from their attire and weaponry, along with hired civilian muscle.
Taoka's personal guard, she thought to herself.
Sure enough, Taoka himself sat on a bench under the great tree with two of his little brothers, whom Mei recognized from the mission report Ao had given Kisame and her months ago. A stunning woman in a red cocktail dress that matched her hair sat with her heels kicked off and her legs on Taoka's lap. One of his little brothers stood just behind her with a hand in his pocket, a silent threat. If she or anyone else so much as breathed the wrong way around Taoka, he would slice them from navel to nose. The woman was too busy enjoying her drink to worry about threatening the life of her benefactor, though.
Tsukasa led Mei with a hand on the small of her back toward Taoka, but they stayed a good twenty feet away by the perimeter guard. When they approached, one of the guards, a shinobi with a dark mask and hood that hid most of his features, moved to meet them.
"This is as far as you go," Tsukasa said. "Wait for me here, I'll just be a moment."
Mei watched him go, and the shinobi guard he'd left her with eyed her up and down but said nothing. She dared not move to give him any reason to suspect her and did as she was told. Taoka greeted Tsukasa and stood up. Tsukasa bowed deeply and asked if the party was to his liking, was there anything he could do, and any time Taoka wanted to discuss business, he need only say the word. Taoka was an older man with the look of a vulture about him. Shrewd and calculating, he exuded an air of quiet superiority that suffered no fools. Even from a distance, Mei could see a little of why he had become so successful and expanded his illicit underground empire further than any of his predecessors before him.
From the south, the first trickles of night mist began rolling in. It was chilly this time of year at the tail end of winter, and mists in the early mornings or late at night were commonplace in Water Country. But Mei knew that there was nothing natural about this mist. Mangetsu had been right. Teaching others the Hiding in Mist technique had been one of his better ideas. Somewhere far off at the headwaters of this haze, she new Kisame lay in wait. All Mei had to do was hold out until the mists did their job.
Taoka suddenly decided his woman's presence was not required for the rest of his conversation with Tsukasa and roughly shoved her legs off his lap. She yelped in surprise, but quickly shut up when the little brother looming over her grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her away from the bench. When she was a healthy fifteen feet or so clear, he released her and sent her stumbling. Mei watched it all in silence, wondering how this woman, not much older perhaps than Mei herself, had gotten mixed up with dangerous men like these who saw her as nothing more than a commodity, pretty to look at and remorselessly discarded when no longer required. She caught Mei looking and downed the rest of her drink before tossing the glass on the ground to shatter.
"What're you looking at?" she slurred, her pretty eyes dilated and glazed from the effects of alcohol and whatever else was coursing through her bloodstream.
She approached, and Mei said nothing, not wanting to draw attention to herself. The mists had reached her by then and drenched her ankles. The level was slowly rising. When the woman got within a couple feet, Mei fixed her with a glare and a silent warning. The woman stopped.
"Hm?" She blinked at Mei as if to see her better. "Oh." She smiled, and Mei noticed that her lipstick was a little smeared.
"Go away," Mei said, trying to keep her voice down. She could feel the shinobi guard's eyes on her back.
"I don't take orders from whores," the woman snapped.
"I'm not a whore," Mei said before she could stop herself.
The woman seemed to consider this a moment. "Yeah, you are. Everyone's a whore for something." She rubbed her arms for warmth and glared back at Taoka deep in conversation with Tsukasa. "We all need our fix."
The shinobi watching Mei like a hawk shifted behind her, and she had an idea.
"You should sit down," Mei said, taking the woman's arm.
"Hey, don't touch me!" the woman protested.
But she was no match for Mei's strength and sobriety, and Mei manhandled her back toward the koi pond, where there were stone benches overlooking the water. The woman's complaining drew Taoka's and Tsukasa's attention, and Mei could feel their eyes on her. But no one moved to intercept her, and Mei dragged the woman around the courtyard. As they went, Mei made a note of the guards stationed at the perimeter, counting about twenty in total that she could see. At least half were shinobi. When she stole a glance back to where she'd come from, the hooded shinobi was no longer there. She dared not look behind her, knowing he was following from the shadows and would not take his eyes off her. The mists were up to her knees now. Mei forced the woman to sit on one of the empty stone benches and sat down next to her. The woman had begun to cry and sniffle.
"I don't want to sit here," she said.
"You seem like you're used to doing a lot of things you don't want to do," Mei said. "Tell me your name."
"I don't have to tell you anything."
Mei cast about discreetly, making a note of the hooded shinobi now stationed to the east of her position several yards away. He was conversing with another perimeter guard, and she didn't have to hear him to know he was probably telling the guy to keep an eye on her. Mei was not a usual face in this inner circle. The others were looking around at the mist rolling in, and one man with a sword strapped to his back broke from formation and approached the garden where Taoka sat, perhaps to suggest they relocate. Apparently, Taoka agreed because soon he and Tsukasa were walking together around the large tree in the middle of the courtyard, and Mei watched them out of the corner of her eye. Taoka was looking right at her while Tsukasa spoke. Her heartbeat sped up suddenly. If Tsukasa had revealed that she was a shinobi he'd hired, Taoka probably would not like that. The way he was looking at her as they slowly approached made her skin crawl. Mei grabbed the woman's hand and squeezed it tight.
"No, you don't, but I suggest you start putting on a better show if you want to get out of this alive."
The woman stared at her in confusion. "What? You're hurting me."
Mei squeezed harder and leaned close as if to dry the woman's tears, but in reality she observed the shifting guards behind them on the other side of the koi pond. "Whatever you hear, don't move from this spot."
The woman was shaking, sobered by the sudden change in the atmosphere as she picked up on Mei's killing intent so close. Her dark eyes went wide and her lower lip quivered in fear, understanding something on a visceral level about the woman next to her, something Tsukasa had not seen. Perhaps it was the drugs or Taoka's earlier rejection, but either way something stilled the woman and she nodded, tight-lipped.
"Rika," the woman said. "M-My name."
The fog began rising off the koi pond and rolling across the courtyard, feeding the miasma. The mist rose rapidly as Taoka and Tsukasa approached, flanked by three more of Taoka's little brothers who dispersed the other guests toward the compound to make way. The mist was up to their chests by now.
"Gag now, Rika," Mei ordered, forcing the woman to double over on the bench below the level of the haze.
Rika complied, shaking with fear, and let her tears fall freely. It was convincing, Mei would give her that. Mei patted her back as if to reassure and, ducked below the mist, opened her mouth to spit out another wave of mist to mingle with the rest, only this one was laced with her own chakra. Taoka and Tsukasa stopped several yards away, and Taoka said something to one of his little brothers as the mist rose above their heads. Mei tapped Rika's back and rose.
"Stay," she said softly.
Rika stayed hunched over and hid her face in her hands. The guests began complaining about the mist as it hid them from sight and soaked them through their party clothes. Mei slipped out of her high heels and abandoned them by the bench. Silent as death, she slipped through the mists like a snake and counted the bodies buffeted by her chakra haze. They were converging in groups of two, and she could hear the sounds of steel scraping against leather as swords were drawn. Someone barked an order to herd everyone inside. It was the hooded shinobi who had been watching Mei before.
She crept toward him, crouched, and parted the mists at the last minute just as she was upon him. He tried to yell and made a grab at her face, but she caught his wrist and twisted until it broke. She opened her mouth and released a blast of acidic mist directly into his open mouth, a kiss of death, and watched as his knees gave out with a strangled croak. Her poison worked fast, melting the skin off his face and his eyeballs in their sockets, rotting his tongue and gums as it snaked down his throat to blenderize his stomach. Mei gently lowered him to the ground, wary at the sounds he'd made, and forced her shaking hands to move fast. She pilfered a lone curved kunai from his vest and wielded it backhand as she rose off of him and sidled back into the mists.
It wasn't long before someone came looking, another guard, this one a civilian on steroids more than twice her size. Mei didn't give him more time than it took to swear in shock at the sight of his comrade literally stewing in his own juices on the ground. She leaped onto his back and slid her stolen kunai across his throat. His blood was hot as it splashed her fingers and the tapering sleeve of her dress. The mists swirled around Mei as she rose over the guard's corpse like a reaper here to collect her souls owed. Not far, she heard Rika whimpering and doing her best to stay as still and silent as possible.
Mei moved, and it was not long before she began to hear shouts. Someone had found one of the bodies she'd left in her wake and called for everyone to stay together, get inside, there was an assassin in their midst. Mei did not slow as she meandered through the mists and came upon another shinobi guard. This one had a sword and saw her at the last minute, but he was fast and forced her to parry with her kunai. The clang of metal on metal drew shouts, and Mei knew she had to deal with this guy fast. He slashed with his blade and caught her in the thigh, ripping her dress and her flesh and spilling blood. Mei caught the blade with her kunai and shoved her weight into it as she performed a few hand seals with her free hand. He was inches from her face as she leveraged her weight against him and took her acid at point-blank range. Boiling chakra covered his face and chest like a second skin, siphoning his strength and sending him stumbling backwards as he tried to wipe the stuff from his face. His fingers melted to the bone the moment they made contact with the acidic steam. He was dead before he hit the ground.
Mei wiped her lips and ignored the pain in her thigh as survival instinct kicked in. The paper lanterns cast eerie white deadlights through the fog, doorways to another dimension where beasts reigned over men. Footsteps were approaching. She came face to face with one of the women, who was stumbling around blind trying to get to safety. She screamed as soon as she saw Mei standing over the smoking remains of her latest victim. Panic took hold, and Mei manipulated the mists to hide her from sight as she retreated. The woman was hysterical as she sobbed and shrieked at the charred remains of the shinobi Mei had boiled to death.
Unfortunately, her shouting drew others, and before Mei knew what was happening, her body moved to avoid a deadly downward sword thrust. Her thigh screamed in pain as she rolled and landed on all fours like a feral animal, teeth bared at her attacker. Tsukasa, who had drawn his katana, looked down at her in shock. His surprise quickly morphed to fury, and he brandished his katana at her. Two shinobi guards flanked him, also armed.
"You," Tsukasa spat. "How dare you betray me. I accepted you!"
"You violated me," Mei said, getting to her feet. "I'm here to return the favor."
"Bitch!" Tsukasa slashed with his katana, and he was damn fast.
Mei had spent years training with Ganryū, and she had come a long way with a blade, but she was no swordsman herself. With the other two shinobi helping him out, three against one was no walk in the park. Mei retreated as quickly as she could and spat out a stream of molten lava at the earth. The bright magma glowed and evaporated the mists surrounding it, and one of the shinobi guards accompanying Tsukasa swore.
"What the fuck is that?!"
Tsukasa stared at Mei like she'd grown scales and transformed into a demon. It was the last sight she saw of him as the mists converged once more and swallowed her from sight. She backed up, trying to stay silent and regroup. The target was Taoka, not Tsukasa.
She felt the new chakra signature sneaking up on her through the mist, and she whirled with her kunai. A dark figure materialized in the haze, an eidolon born of mist and shadow risen from some dark terrible hell, silent. Mei held her breath, her throat burning with the effects of her boiling chakra, but the figure took a shape she recognized and loomed over her. Mei opened her mouth, but he silenced her with a finger on her lips. His thumb wiped cooled lava from her bottom lip as he pulled her close, and she was transported back years into the past on a dreary morning when he'd had her back for the first time. His nodachi was balanced expertly in his free hand and dripping blood. He'd been busy.
"Mei!" Tsukasa shouted. "My men are everywhere! You can't escape!"
Mei fisted her bloody hand in Kisame's white button-down shirt, leaving a messy handprint in the fabric. He dropped his hand to her waist and silently maneuvered her behind him. Remembering herself, Mei tugged on his shirt again and held up three fingers. He nodded and stalked forward, blade first.
It happened fast. Mei shifted the mists as she searched for Tsukasa and his goons, and Kisame moved beside her like a wraith, so quiet for someone so large and scary looking. Mei found the first shinobi guard and was on him so fast he didn't know what hit him. She sank her kunai into the base of his skull and dragged, severing the brainstem, while she held him close like a lover might. His gasp of terror alerted Tsukasa and his other guard, and they came charging through the mist. Mei removed her kunai just as Tsukasa slashed with his katana, fueled by rage, but Kisame flickered in front of her like an apparition and caught his sword easily. Tsukasa gaped, but soon remembered himself.
"Motherfucker," he spat. "You planned this!"
Kisame bared his sharp teeth in a grin and expertly deflected Tsukasa's sword. The other shinobi guard with Tsukasa tried to intervene, but Mei flew through hand seals and redirected the mist. It swirled around him and dropped to dangerously acidic levels. He convulsed as the fog ate away at his skin, dissolving it down to the bloody muscles and tendons beneath. Screaming, he tried to rub his arms and face and neck to rid himself of the poisonous gas, but it was in the very air around him. He breathed it in in his fright and began to foam at the mouth. Mei watched from behind her final hand seal, teeth clenched, while Kisame fended off Tsukasa.
"You have no idea who you're dealing with!" Tsukasa said as he parried Kisame's slashes shockingly well for a civilian. He was fast, and he managed to cut Kisame's bicep through his white shirt, drawing blood and inflating his confidence.
"That's my line," Kisame said just as he performed a swift swallow cut, two lightning-fast slashes that sliced Tsukasa's belly open and spilled his entrails.
Tsukasa never even saw Kisame coming. He gagged and fell to his knees, dropping his katana and clutching at his tattered middle bleeding out on the dewy grass. He blinked up at Kisame and Mei towering over him, but his words escaped him. Against a Legendary Swordsman, a chosen one raised on the razor's edge of a blade, he never stood a chance. Tsukasa slumped and fell to his side in the grass, his blood black and glossy under the diffuse lantern light through the mist. Kisame did not bother cleaning his blade. And that was how Taoka found them. He and five other men all armed to the teeth.
"Who are you?" he asked as his men surrounded him and prepared to fight.
"The party crashers," Kisame said, grinning. "We're here to collect our party favor."
"You can't be mercenaries. No one pays better than I do," Taoka continued like he hadn't heard Kisame. "...So you must be Mist nin."
"Yagura sends his regards," Mei said, brandishing her bloody kunai.
"I'll be sure to send him mine. Kill them."
The shinobi protecting Taoka lunged, and one of them let loose a devastating column of fire that evaporated the mist in its path. Kisame reacted quickly and channeled his chakra into a single hand seal. The remaining mist in the courtyard rushed to do his bidding and combined into a cataclysmic wave of water that swept over the enemy shinobi and doused the fire in one gulp. One managed to jump to safety and fired off a lightning bolt directly at Kisame, which he attempted to block with his nodachi. But the thunder was potent, and it jumped from the water to his blade and the arm holding it, electrocuting him where he stood.
"Kisame!" Mei shouted, already running to intervene.
But incredibly, Kisame remained on his feet and lunged at the last shinobi in his way. The guy was so taken aback by Kisame's inhuman resilience that he was too slow to defend properly and suffered a downward cut that sliced his left arm off at the shoulder. Howling, he fell to the ground, and Kisame twisted his sword around and brought it down through the enemy's heart, silencing him. Sparks jumped over Kisame's arms and drew angry welts upon his skin, but he seemed above the pain as he twisted his nodachi deeper into the shinobi's convulsing body.
Taoka had fallen to his rear and was trying his best to get away, but Mei caught up to him and cornered him at the great tree in the middle of the courtyard. Without the mists for cover anymore, the movement inside of security guards regrouping and heading for them was hard to ignore. They needed to end this fast. Kisame joined her on heavy feet, all but oblivious to the pain he must surely be in. His nodachi dripped fresh blood on the grass as he loomed over Taoka.
"Monster," Taoka spat, the shrewd business persona gone and replaced now with a regular man, no braver or better than any other, reduced to the sum of his meaty parts.
Kisame gripped his sword tighter and advanced, but Mei was faster this time. She crouched down in front of Taoka and took his chin in her bloody hand, forcing him to look at her. Even bloodied and soaking wet, she was a sight to behold. She could see it in his eyes, that flicker of relief, the hope that she would show him mercy like the angel she appeared to be. She leaned close, her painted nails digging into the stubble of his cheeks, and smiled in the way that made most men's toes curl.
"He's not the monster," she whispered, dragging her kunai lightly up his chest, teasing. "I am."
Before Taoka could react, she dragged the kunai across his throat savagely, opening his windpipe and the engorged carotid artery that kept him going. His blood splattered over her chest and middle and sprayed her face. Taoka's expression was stretched in a silent scream as those dead eyes watched her, saw her for the first time.
Mei dug her kunai in deeper, cutting and soiling her beautiful dress further as she sawed through muscle and bone until Taoka's head popped off. She rose and held it up by the hair. Only then did she notice Kisame still standing there, staring at her with a glint in his eyes she'd never seen before. There was a darkness there, a kind of controlled madness that clawed to come out, and he was only holding it back by a thread. Mei shivered, and her breath caught in her throat.
Shouts and footsteps closed in on them, and all of a sudden Kisame snapped out of whatever trance he'd been in and sheathed his sword. "Time to go," he said, turning and taking off at full sprint.
Mei did not need to be told twice. She took off after him, light on her bare feet. Rika had not moved from her spot on the bench, though now she was curled up in the fetal position and too frightened even to sob. Her eyes followed Mei as she ran, dragging Taoka's head along with her. Mei barely felt the ache in her thigh were one of the enemy shinobi had cut her open as she ran, her only thought on making it out of here with Kisame in one piece, their mission complete. Taoka's hair was slick with blood between her fingers, and his clammy cheek slapped against her thigh as she ran. All those months spent waiting, biding their time, all until this night when finally, they would be in Taoka's vicinity, close enough to strike, and Mei had his head to prove it.
Her feet were numb on the night grass, and she cut her soles on sharp pebbles in the dirt, but she never slowed, her eyes on Kisame's back as he led her to safety. The shouts behind them grew fainter as Tsukasa's and Taoka's bodies were discovered, the truth of what had transpired sinking in. No, they would not have many pursuers tonight, if any. Whoever—whatever had done this to all those men was not worth the effort.
Mei ran, and she had never felt so alive in her life. The wind lifted her like a bird in flight, filled her hair, chilled her flushed cheeks, dried the blood spatter down her front. And maybe it was the madness of the Bloody Mist, branded to her soul like Yagura had branded her in that genjutsu so many years ago. Maybe they were all a little mad to have endured, to have survived, to live among monsters and still remember how to smile. Mei smiled now, exhilarated and powerful and proud. Oh, the look in his eyes when he saw what she truly was! What she could become the longer she stayed...
They ran for miles back to the little cabin in the middle of nowhere that nobody knew existed. When Kisame finally slowed down, Mei could not believe they had already arrived. She could not feel her injuries, her exhaustion. There was only the rush, and she was not ready for it to end. The young and the beautiful and the powerful are never ready for it to end.
The cabin was dark when Kisame opened the door and went inside. He didn't bother with the lights. The moon was bright in the sky and the stars were brighter, and they bathed the one-room cabin in a pearlescent haze not unlike the mists he'd conjured earlier this night to give her cover. His shirt was soiled with the blood of the enemy, and she could make out her red handprint in his collar when he'd come to her in the shadows.
Mei still held Taoka's severed head. The blood dripping slowly from the neck was the only sound in the still cabin as she stood there, still vibrating with heady adrenaline. Kisame drew his nodachi, caked with Tsukasa's blood, and set it on the small kitchen table. The sight of it made Mei's stomach flutter as she remembered how he'd driven it through Tsukasa's middle, effortless and beautiful. A true master among men.
Kisame was looking at her like he had under the tree when she'd sawed off Taoka's head, and for the life of her she couldn't breathe right. She was sure she would float away on the night breeze, light as a moonbeam, with the way he was looking at her. She knew that look. Not because she'd seen it before, no, never quite like this, never this powerful, but because her soul understood it on a visceral level, something beyond instinct and feeling that resonated in the deepest part of her. She had drawn something out of him, somehow, something he'd kept secret and slumbering until this night. No one had ever seen him like this before, she knew it instinctively.
Mei dropped Taoka's head on the floor, and it rolled onto its side. "How's that for a kid?" she said.
Like hypnosis or black magic, her voice broke the spell, and suddenly he was moving, shifting, rather. The moonlight bent to allow him passage as he closed the distance between them and scooped her up. Mei barely had time to catch her breath before his mouth was on hers in the meanest, most brutal kiss she would ever receive in her life. It was earth-moving, stormy and full-body, like he was trying to devour not just her body, but the part of her that she kept secret and slumbering, too.
He lifted her by the thighs, his scarred fingers disturbing her wound and sending an electric jolt of pain up her spine. But she hardly cared and wrapped her legs around his waist as she tugged open his shirtfront, ripping buttons from their seams and sending his silver cufflinks clattering to the floor. His sharp teeth cut her lip in their hurry, and she gasped, but it only fueled whatever frenzy had awakened within him. Mei pulled herself higher upon him and dug her fingers into his short blue hair, tugging hard enough to hurt, and he dragged those grinning lips down her neck, uncaring that some of Taoka's blood had seeped through her dress and dried on her skin. If anything, it only made him more zealous.
"Kisame," she whispered like it was the hardest thing in the world to produce any coherent sound at all. Through the haze of him, she spotted the narrow double bed in the corner of the room.
But he did not take her there. Instead he shoved her against the wall with enough force to knock the wind out of her and tore at the long slitted skirt of her dress. Out of breath and barely able to move between the wall and him, she dug her painted nails into his shoulders and focused on feeling, skin on skin, the light of the moon on his bare back criss-crossed with old lash scars from the Academy days, the mist on their skin mingled with sweat and the blood of their enemies.
He was fast, and soon there was nothing between them as he pulled her down on top of him. Mei laid her head back against the wall and tried to see the moon through the window, but there were only stars in her eyes as he found his brutal rhythm with her. He moved a hand to her hip to keep her in place right where he wanted her, and she thought of Tsukasa's fingers bruising her in the same place. She opened her mouth to laugh, laugh because he was dead, the filthy gremlin, but all she could do was cry out as Kisame pulled her under again, again, again, and she held on and wondered if this was what it was like to die.
Kill me again, she desperately wanted to say.
But he heard her, those thoughts that accidentally escaped her bloody lips in the heat of passion, and he shook beneath her, driven mad at the sound of her voice. Like a siren, a creature of myth and legend feared by any who hear them sing, young or old. A beautiful monster, and he could not get enough of her. She raked her nails over the scars on his back, past the electric burns on his arms, and held on for the end, the merciless storm waves that wrecked and destroyed her, both of them, and he buried his face in her hair, surrounded by her.
They stayed like that, crushed together against the wall and each other, for a few long languid moments, remembering how to breathe. Slowly, his grip on her loosened and she moved her hands to his face, laced her fingers through his damp hair. He had his eyes closed as he tried to catch his breath. Slowly, so she wouldn't surprise him, Mei ran her thumbs over the dark tattoos on his temples. They were slightly ridged, as though they had been carved into his skin rather than merely inked. Kisame opened his eyes and found her there, quiet and smiling a little. The blood on her lip glistened in the moonlight and drew his gaze.
"Kisame," she said softly, unsure where to go from here. He was warm within her, and she missed his bruising hands already.
He did not speak, but he lifted his face and caught her in another kiss, this one slow and simmering as he ran his tongue over her split lip. Mei shuddered against him, and he shifted to separate them. He lowered her to the floor, tiptoes first, and slowly broke the kiss. The rush was gone, the power along with it, the spell a distant memory. But he was still here watching her from the shadows, and for the second time that night she saw something she'd never seen before. It was quiet, smoldering, powerful in a different way, but the power wasn't hers this time.
Kisame touched his thumb to her lower lip, which was no longer bleeding. Tender, not like he regretted it, but like he wanted to treasure it before it was gone. He was always so tender when he touched the source of her power, reverent. So different than when he'd first kissed her, looking to die. "We should go," he said, his voice hoarse and hushed. "They'll come looking for this place soon enough."
Mei nodded. "Okay."
He kept her there just a moment longer, lingering, and finally pulled away and adjusted his pants. Mei didn't bother with her dress, stripping out of it entirely and heading for the small bathroom to blast the shower for a few seconds. Taoka's blood and hers swirled down the small drain, but in the darkness she could not see it. She was out, dried, and changed into her standard Jōnin gear in under five minutes. She tied a simple tourniquet around her thigh to keep it from splitting open again on the run, nothing fancy. Kisame had bagged Taoka's head and gathered the few things they had brought with them into light knapsacks. When Mei was done with the bathroom, he quickly followed her example and rinsed the blood from his skin in the shower for a few seconds. The cuts in his shoulders she'd made bled a little through his fresh Jōnin shirt when he changed. Silent, they grabbed their things and the bag with Taoka's head, and they were running over the moon-bathed moors toward home.
The lonely cabin shrank on the horizon behind them into darkness as they melted into the morning mists, taking their secrets with them.
I think I'm a hundred years overdue for a Why I Ship KisaMei meta post or something, although this chapter pretty much covers it...
Continuing my gradual return to Naruto stuff, I'll be continuing this fic and posting new updates on a regular (but probably not particularly fast) basis. This story is huge and one of the ones I always wished I could see finished because this is Mei's story, and she is just beyond words amazing to me. So I'm going to do my best.
If you're still reading this after all these years, thank you so much for sticking around! Seriously, I love you guys. And welcome if you've just picked this up. I have this story planned through the end of the fourth war, so there is a lot of material to cover. Reviews and such keep me motivated, so please feel free to leave one on your way out! I so love hearing from you lovely readers.
