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From the looks of the Fire symbol on the back of her reddish-orange tank, which was knotted at the hem to reveal her washboard abdomen, the girl had come a long way from home. Regardless of the country emblem, he would have doubted she was a local, since her energetic nature made her stick out from the rest of the chill island-goers. He watched her leap into the air, spiking the ball with a ferocity that belied her cheery exterior. The downward kick sent the multicolored-orb straight past an opposing player and into the ground like a meteor. Kisame saw her land on the top of the net like it was a tightrope, supporting her balance with one arm. Her teammates cheered as she bounded off, back-flipping onto the sand. The score was 8-0.
"Hey, it's not fair that you have that circus-freak on your side, Nori!" barked the ginger, hazel-eyed girl who had missed the ball. Hmm, thought Kisame, perhaps they were not so chill after all.
The one called Nori, a haughty dirty-blonde and the team captain, just waved a dismissive hand in her direction. "Don't be such a sore loser, Reika. It's not my fault your team sucks."
Reika clenched her fists, lowering into a ready position, muttering, "We haven't lost yet, bitch."
Tenten pitied their poor sportsmanship. She thought it was a such a shame for friends to trash-talk each other over a bit of fun competition. Kisame, on the other hand, was thoroughly entertained.
"By the way, stupid," Nori said. "she's not from the circus. She's a ninja from the Hidden Leaf here on super important business. You should show a little more courtesy!"
"Like I care. If her business is so important, she should go tend to it instead of playing volleyball!" derided Reiko, serving the ball. The game resumed, with Tenten's team securing point after point, except for one that she let the other side have out of nicety. It wasn't like her to go easy on anyone, but she did sort of have an unfair advantage. In the stands, Kisame observed her fierce but elegant style of play. She had a rare quality about her: a simple, healthy, and impartial love for battle. Granted, a game of volleyball wasn't a battle, but he could tell the dexterity she used to execute a smooth set or pass was the same kind she used to perform a jutsu. Compared to what he'd been exposed to, or what he could do himself, he was sure the resulting jutsu would be no more impressive than a cute party trick, but it would certainly be executed with textbook perfection.
"We won! We won!" Nori exulted, jumping up and chest-bumping their spirited MVP while the other team bemoaned their loss. "Awesome job...um, what's your name again?"
Their star athlete dusted some sand off a tawny shoulder and grinned as her fellow victors crowded around her. "It's Tenten."
"Well Tenten, you have to be the most amazing volleyball player I've ever seen!" said Nori.
She modestly clasped her hands behind her back. "D'aww, I guess I'm okay."
"You've got sand on your bikini," a petite raven-haired girl pointed out.
Turning her head to try to look down at her backside, Tenten inquired, "Really?"
"Don't worry, I'll get it for you!" The girl leaned over and brushed off her taut, round right-cheek.
"Thank you!" chirped Tenten.
"Got most of it—just shake off the rest."
She wriggled her hips and adjusted her bikini bottom, stretching it slightly and letting it go. It clung back on with a delectable slap.
"All gone?"
"Yep!" said the girl, giving a thumbs-up.
"Hey, we're all going to go into town for a drink to celebrate," said Nori. "Wanna come?"
Pausing, Tenten mulled over the offer. The captain and her friends seemed really nice, and the match had been enjoyable, but now that it was over she was plagued with a lingering guilt. Ino was likely still holed up in their room, and it would feel weird going to have drinks with a bunch of random girls she had just met. She wasn't really into drinking with people she didn't know well, no matter how friendly they were.
"Um, I'm kind of tired," she replied. "You girls are great, but I think I'm going to head back and take a shower."
Shrugging, Nori merely said "suit yourself" before they all began walking away, waving their goodbyes. Tenten walked over to the lowest rung of bleachers, where her knapsack had been resting on the end. She was in the middle of digging through the bag for her sandals when a low drawl addressed her—"Nice game."
Her eyes flitted upwards into a smirking blue visage of high-cheekbones and a mouthful of appallingly jagged teeth. Visibly unfazed by the man's appearance, she formed the tiniest smile and nodded her thanks.
"I can see that you're pretty athletic," he remarked. "Wanna learn how to surf?"
Features unreceptive, she shook her head primly and said "I don't think so."
"Why not?" he asked. "Think you'll drown?"
Tenten gave him a steely glare. "No, I'm just not interested."
He laughed lightly. "Fine then. You probably don't have the balance for it anyway."
That made her drop her sandal back to the bottom of the bag, almost scoffing. He was joking, right?
"You just watched me dominate that other team," she said, despite herself. "and you have the gall to call me unbalanced?"
"Balancing on a surfboard is waaay harder than all that prancing you just did."
Prancing?
She fastened the knapsack closed and tossed a russet braid over her shoulder. "Probably not."
"Why don't you find out then?" he tempted. "I'll give you your first lesson free of charge."
Tenten assessed his physique. He was tall and muscular…downright beefy, actually. His biceps looked huge in the dark blue sleeveless kinagashi top he wore, tied loosely at the waist with a sash, the neckline a deep V which showed off the chiseled dell between his firm pectorals. She chewed on the inside of her lip. Hadn't she just been about to return to her sunburnt friend? There was no way she was going go splash around with this bizarrely handsome stranger, was there?
"Don't be scared," he said. "I'll start you out on a kiddie board."
She scowled. "You don't need to baby me. I'm not scared."
There was a way indeed, and he had just used it. Tenten couldn't let him get away with mocking her like that—she needed to take him down a peg. Not doing so would, like, go against the laws of feminism, Ino! Arguing with the imaginary version of her friend in her mind (while unbeknownst to her, the real one was snoring loudly in Tenten's now disheveled bunk back at the hotel), Tenten slowly crossed her arms and renewed her resolve.
"Prove it then," Kisame said, enjoying picking at her tough-girl pride.
"You're on."
She slung her knapsack over her shoulder and stomped away in determination. Kisame wondered where she was going in such zeal, since he hadn't told her where he was stationed. Catching up to her with a few long strides, he wondered if he should fib and tell her she still had sand on her bikini. Deciding against it, he chose a different subject matter.
"Guess you can't walk away from a challenge," he remarked.
"Hmph," she said, turning her nose. "I just like proving arrogant macho-guys wrong."
"You think I'm macho?" he teased. "I haven't even tried to flex for you yet."
"Don't bother," she said, trying not to envision the gesture. "I've seen kangaroos with bigger guns."
He chuckled. "I think you're my favorite student so far."
Kisame led her to his umbrella. Tenten saw four waxed surfboards standing tall in the dunes next to it, the largest of them was wrapped in bandages and looked, very briefly, like it was breathing. With little deliberation, she zeroed in on a salmon-colored one.
"I want that one," she said.
"Sure you don't want to try out a foam fish board instead?" he asked.
"I'm sure," she said, tossing her bag and taking off her shirt to join it on the ground. Kisame didn't bother trying to explain to Tenten that the proper thing to do was match the most suitable board to a beginner according to their size and weight; he just let her grab the pinkish fiberglass one out of the sand. Luckily, it was one of the glow-in-the-dark boards adequate for night surfing. Whipping around with it hanging under her arm, she stared at him expectantly. He admired Tenten in her sporty crimson halter top before saying, "An eager pupil, I see."
They began slowly, first on the ground. Aligning herself straight down the middle of the board, he had her practice paddling. It felt ridiculous, but they thankfully didn't spend too much time on it and soon she was practicing "popping off" on a wave, or learning to rapidly stand up on the board. She saw that, surprisingly, he seemed to be putting a genuine, professional effort into teaching her, even at the very basics. He wasn't too handsy. In fact, his touch on her was minimal, and his verbal directions were clear and many: "Keep your knees bent. Extend and loosen your arms. Make sure your feet are planted on the board. Lean your torso forward to lower your center of gravity." It was so sharp and clinical, and he hadn't called her "sweetie" once.
Finally, they entered the warm water, and by then she had cooled off a little mentally. She was genuinely looking forward to riding a wave, and not just to show him she could do it easily. However, she tensed when she felt his large, rough palm on the small of her back.
"Easy, tiger," he said. "let's stay in flat water for now so you can practice negotiating the ocean."
Without knowing it, she had been moving a bit too far out in all her anxiousness. Tenten pouted when he pulled her back with his strong arms, and she was weightless as she glided towards his emanating heat. He instructed her to get onto the board, and she followed his order, laying on it so that the front tip dunked below the water.
"You're too far forward," he said. "you don't want to be too forward, or you'll nosedive—"
He gripped the deck from underneath and pushed it down slightly, making her reflexively pull her chin up as most of the board submerged. "—like this."
A grip on her calf made her heart race, but she maintained her composure as she leveled herself out again.
"Align the middle of your chest with the stringer—that's the line going down the center of the board," he said. She did as he was told, feeling him squeeze her harder to make sure she didn't slip. His overprotective behavior irked her. Did he think she was going to drown in shallow water?
"First test of balance," said Kisame, letting go abruptly. She immediately began tipping to her right. Hastily, she corrected her alignment so that she didn't fall. Throwing him a triumphant glance, she asked, "Are we done with the easy stuff? I wanna rip."
"Patience, trainee," he said playfully. "we need to go over something very integral before that." She felt his hold once more, this time on her upper back.
"Hurry up, this is getting boring," she said, trying to act blasé.
"Seriously, this is something people get wrong because they don't spend enough time trying to do it properly," he said. "it's paddling."
"Ugh."
"Okay, cup your hands," commanded Kisame. "you want to use big, long strokes. Don't go too deep…"
She winded her arms, going too fast at first before he gently but firmly guided her into a more gradual pace. Tenten initially thought it to be patronizing, but one look his way showed her that he was very concentrated on her getting this right.
"Yes," he commented, sounding pleased. "as your arm passes through, you want to make sure the water only goes up to your elbows. Make sure your chest is slightly raised and pointed out, and your feet are together, making everything nice and tight through the core. Good, just like that."
Fortunately for her, he couldn't see how flushed she was during twilight.
"You…sound like you've been giving lessons for a while," she muttered, inwardly cursing her uncertain tone. It wasn't typical of her at all.
"Yeah, it's a nice side job."
"What's your main job?"
"Nothing too interesting, trust me," he said. "are you ready to rip?"
"Born ready, sensei." She gave him a cheeky wink. Raising an eyebrow, he thrust her forward and let go.
"Paddle away," he said. "and try to catch the incoming white water."
The ocean was more demanding than Tenten had expected. Riding the waves after they had broken into foam was trickier on a nearly full moon, when they crashed more violently and produced larger, more chaotic amounts of spume. She hid her struggle with the elements well, and after three tries, she had gotten the hang of the low-level move. Kisame watched approvingly, though he had anticipated her to take to the exercise with a natural talent. She was a ninja, after all, not some awkward and clumsy lump of a boy. Momentarily, he wondered if the teenager had successfully managed to woo the object of his affections with his personality alone. Unlikely, but Kisame liked to think that his seldom-given advice paid off; then a languid, entrancing stretch from Tenten dispelled any idle thoughts. She held her upper arm as it elongated towards the stars, pushing her chest forward as she yawned and straddled her board.
"Mmm, I could do this in my sleep," she called to him. "bring on the next challenge, sensei."
The way she purred the title out this time was more flirtatious than the first. He bore his teeth in a wily grin.
"All right then," he said. "See that monster heading towards us?"
Tenten turned to gaze at the colossal wave in question rolling closer. Was he really suggesting that she go for that behemoth when she hadn't even mastered a simple crumbly wave yet? No responsible instructor would encourage a civilian to do something so dangerous. He had to have been egging her to use some ninja flair to assist her in pulling off the feat. Well, she thought, there wasn't any way she was backing down from that. Tenten looked back at Kisame with an expression void of any fear.
"Yeah?"
"Think you can make it your bitch?"
Oh, hell yes. Flipping a braid again, she said "Watch me."
Laying back down onto the deck, she paddled away confidently. Kisame watched her svelte form buoy along the rowdier waters. There was no way an ordinary beginner could tame a wave like that, but she was not ordinary. He was all for posing dares to boisterous, headstrong Leaf ninja-types like her because he knew their pride would never permit them to say no, no matter how crazy or life-threatening the situation. Kisame wanted to see what this girl was made of—he wasn't here to host granny surf camp and the difficulty of the lesson was at his complete and total jurisdiction. It's not like he was a licensed instructor anyway, and she had told him that she didn't need any babying. Besides, if anything really bad happened, he could just swoop in and rescue her without breaking a sweat.
The already giant wave soon met a twin, and their crests and troughs aligned. Their combined energy created an even larger, more frighteningly powerful wave. Faaantastic, thought Tenten. She took a deep breath as she rode in tune with the rhythm of the water, taking a deep breath before popping up and concentrating her chakra into her feet. She remembered Gai-sensei and all the grueling acrobatics training she had endured under him. Tenten was the most limber of her team, she had the best balance, the best poise, and was even the best swimmer. She had sealed an entire ocean into a scroll before, so how hard could this be? Her stomach fluttered as she began to soar along the hollow. It was exhilarating, almost weirdly like actual flying, but different? She had never really felt this sort of rush. She was doing it!
From afar, Kisame's smile widened as he shook his head.