A/N okay, so I've got a whole bunch of things to apologize for on this chapter. First of all, I'm sorry I didn't get this chapter out as fast as I usually do. But you see I have a reason for that. This huge wind storm hit Oahu (where I live) and knocked out our power, and consequencely our internet. I was mostly stuck at my dads tiny apartment during this and didn't havemy computer either. SO I was totally held back from up loading this sooner. (Then again the wind storm did cancel school for a day. Ohgreat it started pouring again as I'm typing this.)

Second thing to apologize for is the bad grammer andspellingin this chapter. Its cause I couldn't get it on microsoft office to do all the spell checking and grammer checking blah blah blah. I read over it a couple of times, but I'msure there are things that I missed. So i apologize in advance.

Disclaimer: I do not own naruto or its charactors blah blah blah, you get the gist.

On with the story.

The silence after Kisame's confession felt thick and long. I struggled with the confusion, as well as the pain that I felt for the anguish in Kisame's voice. I didn't understand what he didn't want me to see, or why is was so horrible to him. But the hurt in his voice hurt my heart.

"K-Kisame," I murmured. I was torn between going to him, or staying back. I took an uncertain step towards him. It was small, but I was testing to see if he would push my back or step away. Unfortunately, I was met with only silence. I took another slightly bigger step, but that one was a definite mistake.

I felt my toe catch on the leg of what must be a chair. I yelped as I pitched forward violently. I squeezed my eyes shut as I neared the unforgiving floor, but before I could hit it, I felt strong arms catch my around the waist and pulled my back up. I gasped in surprise as I was righted.

"Careful there, Hinata," Kisame chided. I faced upward, towards his voice. I blushed in embarrassment at my clumsiness. I felt small and sheltered so close to him. "You probably shouldn't be walked around without someone."

"Or we can just get her a cane, yeah," Deidara suggested, with a mocking under tow in his voice. I wrinkled my nose at the thought of walking around with a cane like a handy capped person. I was handy capped, but I was also a kunoichi, and I had my Hyuuga pride. Yes, even though I was not as blatant with it as the other Hyuugas, I still had it.

"I-I'll be f-fine," I insisted softly. I felt, with the most infinitesimal pang of regret, Kisame's arm unwrap from around me. I spread my feet to shoulder length to get a nice steady and firm stance. "I j-just n-need to g-get used t-to it."

"Whatever you want, Hinata, yeah," Deidara replied, teasingly doubtful. I scowled slightly, more to myself than to him. Deidara's voice was scalding as he spoke to Kisame. I winced at the harshness. "So Kisame, how did you like being bested by a weak little mist ninja, yeah?"

"Shut up, Deidara," Kisame snapped back indignantly. I giggled ever so slightly at their bickering. But I quickly stopped myself. I didn't want to offend them, and I hoped they hadn't heard me. I don't think they did because Kisame continued. "I had to fight a lot than you. You only got our leftovers."

There must have been a lot of ninja if Deidara had only gotten "leftovers." I could only hear what was going on outside, but it had sounded to me like Deidara had been single handedly fighting a lot of them. Deidara must be strong. So must the other Akatsuki. I was pretty sure there had only been four at this particular lair. They all must have had to fight a whole bunch.

I suddenly gasped. I turned towards Kisame with concerned anger. He should not be out of bed in the condition he was in. What did he think he was doing. My medic instincts were on red alert. Medics could be very angry when their patient did something damaging. And very scary when they were angry.

"Y-you should n-not b-be out of b-bed," I gasped, my hands clenching into small fists at my side. I turned my head up at him, my blind eyes blazing. "Y-you're going t-to m-make it w-worse. G-go b-back. I'll b-be there in a s-second."

"Come now, Kisame," Deidara rebuked him mischievously. "You should know better, yeah. You're lucky Hinata was here to save you, or you wouldn't be here now, yeah. Unless of course, there are benefits that come with your ugly appearance," Deidara hinted nastily. I bit my lip; my uncertainty was gnawing at my insides; it was currently being usurped by my frustration with Deidara. He was going to goad Kisame into doing something that would make his injury worse, and I didn't have enough chakra to heal it if it took a turn for the worse.

Just as I had thought before, I knew there was more to Deidara than his nice outer shell. He could be cruel and spiteful just as Akatsuki members were supposed to be. I would have to tread cautiously around him. I could not trust him, I was sure.

My new revelations were only of Deidara though. There was still something about Kisame that remained inscrutable.

"Deidara," Kisame growled menacingly. There was a silence and I was sure that the two of them were shooting death glares at each other. I chewed on my lip and shifted worriedly and uncomfortably. "Fine Hinata," Kisame finally said quietly, and bitterly. "I'll leave, when you get back….there is something you might want to…note."

"Well, bye then, yeah." I heard Deidara call after him. It was exactly how he yelled after us when I had first met him. When I had banged into him around the corner. It seemed that this was a regular occurrence. I didn't like it.

With that, I heard Kisame's cloak rustle as he left. I turned towards Deidara. "C-can you t-the f-food, p-please," I whispered. That last little argument had made me a bit angry. I wasn't really in the mood for pleasantries. Plus I was a little mad at Deidara for being mean to Kisame. No doubt he was still sore from Kisame ordering him to stay back with me.

"Of course, yeah," Deidara obliged. Deidara's cloak rustled, and cabinets opened and closed, as did the fridge, as he got the food. He took my hands and put the bag in them. "There you go, yeah. You can tend to that Kisame, of yours now." I didn't miss the malicious edge to his voice as he spoke that last sentence. I barley wrinkled my nose, but other wise chose to ignore that comment.

I thanked him and slipped back out the door. Once again I made painfully slow progress down the hallway. My mind was occupied as I walked, so that only resulted in more stubbed toes.

I was filled with curiosity with what Kisame wanted to show me. My mind ran through the possibilities of what it could concern. Would be more about the poison? Why they wanted the scroll maybe. I knew that those were the more important questions, but what I really wanted to know was more about him. I wanted to know what he looked like, or his past. I was just very intrigued with him.

Finally I made it to the door and I stepped in. If I remembered correctly, the bed was straight ahead. So I walked determinedly that way. Sure enough, I bumped gently into the bed. I grinned proudly to myself as I carefully crawled onto the bed.

Kisame was quiet through out this. All I could hear was his comforting and level breathing. I offered the bag towards him. He took it, and I heard the plastic crackling as he opened it. I fidgeted slightly as I waited for him to say something. His breathes were soothing, but they were no relief for the curiosity burning inside of me.

Finally, after much anticipation, he spoke.

"You can sense chakra signatures, can't you," he asked. I was caught off guard, as I quirked an eyebrow at him. None the less though, I nodded, cautiously. Of course I could, all ninja could, but yet I had not used it here.

I had never really been very good with sensing the chakra signatures. After all, I had the byakugan, and I could always use that for that kind of thing. I suppose because it was never really on my mind that I didn't try to do that. Of course, they were probably masking their chakra, but it would have been worth a try.

"Have you sensed mine," he asked, guardedly. I shifted impatiently as I waited to learn what he was getting at. But I answered his questions.

"N-no," I replied honestly, and a little sheepishly. It was a bit embarrassing to admit my pathetic mistake. I looked down, blushing a little bit. "I d-didn't really t-think to use t-that."

There was another silence. To me it felt tense, as I waited anxiously for him to continue. It was utter silence. If it weren't for the bed I was sitting on and the fabric between my fingers I would have been complete nothingness to me. Kisame was holding his breath, and I was sure that he was debating with himself about whether or not to continue.

"Do it now then," Kisame ordered quietly, but intensely. My brow wrinkled as I frowned. I wasn't really sure where this was going, and why it seemed to important to him. But if he wanted me to do it, I would do it. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I focused hard.

What met my application literally knocked me off the bed. I hit the ground with a gasp and a thud. Through the haze of shock and surprise I scrambled to get farther away from the terror that sat on the bed not five feet away. I curled up trembling in the corner, away from the man on the bed.

When I had sensed his chakra, it had been immense. It was as though he were a cup overflowing with water. I remembered a time when I had seen Naruto draw upon the nine-tailed fox demon for chakra. I had been more than a little terrified of the massive quantity of the power. Kisame's rivaled that, and he was just sitting there. For the first time since coming here, I was terrified of him.

"Hinata, please," Kisame said impatiently. His voice held a pleading under tone, but in my pitifully scared state, I didn't recognize it. I suddenly felt his hand on my elbow. The touch sent tingles through out my body. I screamed and twisted away.

I felt Kisame withdraw, possibly with a hurt expression. I crawled a little away, and found the couch. I pulled myself on to it, curled up into a ball, and leaned against the arm. I drew in a trembling breath. I could still sense the huge chakra signature but I had successfully calmed down.

It wasn't quite like the nine-tailed fox's. That one had been overflowing chaotic and malevolent. When I focused more on Kisame, I realized that it wasn't overflowing at all. It was all successfully contained inside of him. And it wasn't chaotic, it was perfectly under control, and it wasn't evil either. It was the same chakra as any one else. There was just a lot more of it. All it really did was make Kisame seem very large, and just enforced a fact that I already knew: that Kisame was a powerful shinobi.

"W-w….why," I asked. There were lots of questions that I wanted to ask. I wanted to know what he was. I wanted to know if all of the Akatsuki had chakra like that. I wanted to know so much. But I settled with just asking why he had wanted me to see that. Did he want me to be terrified of him?

"Why what?" Kisame's voice betrayed easily his confusion, but even a little relief. I had stopped shuddering, and I wasn't terrified any more. I think he was glad that I wasn't screaming anymore. The pure shock of all that chakra had just thrown me off.

"W-why d-did you w-want t-to show m-me that," I clarified. I cursed my stuttering. It made me sound weak and insignificant. How could he take me seriously when I spoke as though I wasn't even serious with myself. I already had a low enough self-esteem. My speech impediment made it all that much worse.

"I figured you must be curious about me," Kisame replied easily. There was some doubt laced into his words, but I didn't know how that fit in. I didn't know what he was doubtful of. "You are, aren't you?"

"O-of c-course."

"And I don't want you to have to see me." The doubt in Kisame's voice had gotten stronger. There was self conscious uncertainty too. Also a little sadness. It was just a shadow of the pain that he had spoken with in the kitchen, but it was still there. It still made me sad. It made me want to wrap my arms around him and tell him that there was nothing wrong with him. Not that I knew.

Of course I was too shy to do something like that. One other reason stopped my though. His chakra was still there. Though I knew it couldn't hurt me, and there was nothing really that it did unless he applied it to something, it still made me shy away. So I stopped focusing in the presence of people's chakra. I knew that was something most ninja did subconsciously: sensing other presences. That was why it was pathetic that I had to focus at all. But then again, I wasn't most ninja.

"So I figured there had to be something that you could know about me," Kisame continued. He was much less intimidating now that I wasn't aware of his gi-normous chakra amount. I refocused my attention back on him and what he was saying. "It really isn't much, but perhaps it gave you something to associate with me."

I understood where he was coming from, I really did. But though I could associate him with his chakra signature, I had better luck with his voice. I found that voice are just as, of not more, personalized than faces.

"I u-understand."

There was a silence. I found it to be oddly companionable, and comforting. After all, he had gotten that little glitch smoothed over, and now I could just sit here in relative silence. I sighed contentedly and settled into the couch.

I heard the bed creak as Kisame sat back down on it. I listened to his movements the same way someone might watch them. I liked sensing his presence (not his chakra). As Sakura would say it: it gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. I giggled a little at the thought of my spunky friend, so unlike myself. But even as I laughed to myself, a wave of sadness hit. What if I never saw Sakura again, or Naruto. I gulped against the lump forming in my throat.

But before my grief really set in, and before my tears started forming, I heard Kisame digging around in his bag of food. The noise pulled my out of my reveries, and I once again focused on Kisame.

It was amazing. If I paid really close attention to what I heard, and was careful that nothing slipped by me, I could paraphrase what he was doing. It was by no means an exact picture of what he was doing. But I got a good general idea.

"Are you hungry," Kisame asked suddenly. I jerked my head back up with a little "oh." I had been paying such close attention to his movements that I wasn't ready for his speech. I also found that I couldn't focus on both his movements and his voice at the same time. Maybe with more practice….

"Y-yes, I a-am," I replied. I hadn't really realized how hungry I was until just then. My stomach rumbled as though to enforce this. I licked my lips eagerly in anticipation of the food.

"Come over here than," Kisame demanded. I obediently, and carefully slipped off of the couch and inched towards the bed. If I remembered correctly, than the bed was just forward and little to the left. So I ever so carefully went in a diagonal towards the bed. I used Kisame's calming breathes to guide me.

With a thrill of success, I felt my fingertips brush fabric. My fingers curled around it delicately as I edged onto the bed. I gasped and frowned as I felt the bed begin to tremble. I bit my lip in confusion as I fisted the cloth in my hands tightly so that I wouldn't fall off. What was happening. The answer to my question came in a slightly familiar rumbling sound coming from Kisame.

He was laughing. My mouth parted in puzzlement and my eyebrows went down in indignation. Was he laughing at me?

"W-what are y-you l-laughing a-at," I inquired softly. I tilted my face upward towards his face. I wished I could see his expression.

"You," Kisame replied easily. I frowned and made an offended little huff. But I was surprised to find that his voice was only about a foot away. I could even feel his body heat. I hastily scrambled a little farther away. Trying to regain a bit of my personal space.

But as soon as I backed up, I felt the bed disappear from beneath my hand. I gasped as I pitched over the side of the bed. Suddenly a felt two large arms snag me around my waist and tug back up onto the bed. I banged into Kisame's hard chest as he pulled me back. I heard his quiet grunt of pain as I crashed into his injury. My heart was beating a little faster than usual. I attributed it to the sudden lurch when I had nearly fallen off the bed.

But there was this little voice in the back of my head that mentioned that maybe it was because I was pressed closer to a man than I had ever been in my life, and that I was sitting on his lap; his arms were even still securely wrapped around me. A deep blush crept it's way up my neck and I turned my face away.

"Careful there, you're going to kill yourself at this rate," Kisame chided in a patronizingly amused tone of voice. I gulped as my cheeks gained just the slightest more bit of color. Kisame laughed again. He obviously found my embarrassment humorous.

"T-thank y-you," was all I managed to get out of my mouth. My gratitude was met with silence. I squirmed around on his lap as he stayed so silent. I was confused as to what I had done wrong. I was debating about whether to say something more, and risk making it worse. Or just staying silent, and hope that there was something he was going to say and that it would be bad.

"Why do you do that," he asked suddenly. He seemed curious and contemplative. I frowned in perplexity up at his voice.

"W-what d-do I d-do," I asked a little self consciously. I chewed on my bottom lip and squirmed around. Why was doing things wrong?

"That," Kisame pressed with a bit of impatience. I was completely and thoroughly mystified, and a little hurt. My lips trembled and my eyebrows went down. "Why do you stutter so much. Are you really that uncomfortable around me?"

There it was again, I mentally noted. That undertow in his voice. I couldn't understand it at all. But I couldn't decipher it well either, because I couldn't hear it. It was just some sort of emotion buried deep under the gruff layers of his voice. I was used to being able to understand people. And Kisame was so enigmatic to me, that it was infuriating.

But all those thoughts were only registered with a split second. My attention was on his words. He was asking about my stuttering. I knew people wondered about that, especially strangers. But no one had ever asked me about it. I suppose they thought it was rude. That was true, it was rude. But I wasn't easily offended by that kind of stuff. I was glad that they didn't ask it though, because I didn't have an answer. Luckily though, my hurt disappeared as he asked a familiar query.

"Ano…." I opened my mouth to reply, but nothing came out. I really didn't know why I stuttered. So I answered the second question. "It's n-not that I-I'm u-uncomfortable a-around y-you. I h-have always s-stuttered….."

That last bit had been a lie though, and I think he knew it. I had stopped stuttering when I was thirteen. I had picked it back up one month ago. But if I were to tell him all that, then I would have to explain a lot to him. And I didn't want to bore him with the tragic story of my life. I didn't really like talking about it anyway.

"Have a pear," Kisame said suddenly, after a small period of silence. I felt his large hand grab mine and place the succulent fruit on my palm. I licked my lips hungrily and bit into it. I didn't even bother to examine it. I heard Kisame chuckle, but I didn't feel affronted.

We ate in almost companionable silence, but I wasn't near that thick. I may be relatively comfortable around Kisame, but was in no way relaxed. He was still an Akatsuki, and I knew that Akatsuki members were evil. I was in mortal danger as I just sat there. I knew Itachi was not very far, and it didn't seem very smart to assume that he was the only bad one here.

And it wasn't just with distrust and suspicion that I regarded Kisame. I was scared of him. It wasn't terror. I was just on edge and honestly scared of him and what he could do. I was completely at his mercy. I was completely at the mercy of every person in this building.

I felt Kisame shift his position, and froze. It wasn't that Kisame had done anything hostile. His movement was completely innocent, and probably subconscious, but it brought to light something for me that I had forgotten.

I was still situated rather comfortably on his lap. My legs hung off the side of his legs, and one of his arms was still draped loosely around my waist. I felt another dark blush as it hit me. I was sitting on a mans lap! I had never been in such an intimate position with a man. The odd thing was how easily it was done.

It felt right just sitting so contentedly on his lap. It felt so normal, just nibbling my fruit in the pleasant silence. My blush faded so that I was sure it was nearly nonexistent. I sighed, and finished off my fruit, no longer really minding the situation. I actually liked it, it was relaxing, and for some reason, I couldn't 'see' Kisame as the evil Akatsuki member while I was sitting there.

"You should probably get cleaned up," I told Kisame after I had licked all the remaining juices from my fingers. The words drifted out from my mouth easily in my relaxed state.

"Hinata," Kisame growled gruffly, his voice filled with mock offense. "Are you saying that I stink?"

"Oh." I was taken aback. I obviously couldn't take a joke well. I shook my head. "N-no. B-but you m-must h-have b-blood on you…."

At the same time, I was thinking of the irony of his sentence. I most certainly did not think that he stunk. I liked his smell. It was a musky scent that I had never smelled before. Probably because I had never been in such close proximity to a man. It seemed that I nearly always was with Kisame. Either way though, I liked it.

"Yeah," Kisame replied to my trailed off sentence. He continued with a cruelly satisfied air. "Not much of it's mine though. I took almost half of those mist ninja down with me." I shivered a little at his definite pride in the slaughtering of other ninjas. But then, all the Shinobi that I knew took pride in that.

"B-by the w-way," I mumbled a little self consciously. I tugged the hem of the over large shirt down a bit. It only went down to my finger tips, so it made me feel a little immodest. Maybe a lot immodest. I was still an innocent virgin after all.

My throat tightened suddenly. I was still a virgin, but I my first kiss had been stolen from me. Itachi had stolen my first kiss. I struggled a little to breath at that depressing thought, but finally managed to swallow the lump in my throat. There was no time to dwell on that. It was already done.

"Eh? Hinata, what did you want," Kisame tugged my out of my discouraging thoughts. I blinked my eyes a couple of times to make sure there were no tears and then tilted my head to face him.

"I w-was just w-wondering, if y-you h-had g-gotten a-any clothes f-from Itachi that I c-could b-borrow," I asked. I wasn't very comfortable in just Kisame's shirt. Plus it didn't even smell like Kisame any more. It reeked of his blood, and my sweat. That wasn't a very nice combination.

"Of course," Kisame replied, a little louder than necessary. He must have just remembered. I started as his big hands wrapped around my small waist, but he just picked me up a little and moved me to sit beside him. I felt the mattress move a bit and I fell on my side clumsily. I hadn't been ready for the sudden movements.

I heard Kisame's heavy foot falls as he walked over to the right side of the bed. There was a scraping sound as he must have pulled out a drawer. "Here you go," Kisame told me. Suddenly a wad of cloth hit me square in the face. I yelped as I pulled it down. Kisame was laughing again. Kisame laughed a lot, I noted. It didn't matter, I liked that sound. "Forgot that you couldn't see it coming," Kisame defended himself sheepishly. Usually I felt like someone had hit me in the gut when they referred to my blindness. But that wasn't how Kisame meant it. In fact, it was sort of comical; I giggled a little.

"You can change in here," Kisame offered as he strode to where I was pretty sure the bathroom was. "I promise I won't peak." He stepped into the bathroom, but before the door closed, I heard him mutter as an after thought. "Not that you would know if I did."

I was blushing insanely by the time the door had closed. I hoped that Kisame wasn't a pervert and that he wouldn't do that. I had no reason to believe him to be a pervert (then again, I had no reason to believe that he wasn't.) After all though, he had never touched me like that, even while I was sitting on his lap.

Besides, did I have any other choice. I figured not. So I set about examining the clothes he had thrown at me. They were considerably smaller than the ones he had given me before. And they didn't smell the same.

They smelled like Itachi. I cringed as the scent brought back the feeling of groping hands. I shook my head, to clear those thoughts and wriggled into the clothes. I growled in frustration as it became rather difficult, but I managed to get them on properly.

Despite the smell of the clothes (which I had to admit really didn't smell that bad, it just didn't smell like Kisame) I was much more comfortable now. I was also more than a little tired. A petite yawn proved this. There was a short debate about whether or not to find my way to the couch or to just get comfortable on the very bed I was sitting on.

Eventually, the bed won out. I curled up under the covers and heaved a content sigh. The bed was very warm, especially where Kisame had been just a minute ago. And the scent, as I have already said, was wonderful. I smiled and burrowed deeper into the covers.

In due course, the sound of the shower lulled me to sleep.

A/N so there was the sixth chapter. I hope you guys liked it. And I thank you guys so much for all your wonderful reviews. I loved them all. So please please please continue to do so. I'll see you guys next time. until then, bye bye.