A/N: Chapter six! First off, I want to thank all the wonderful people who reviewed and put my story on their favorite list, as well as me as a favorite author. I've never had a story be this popular! Sorry this chapter's a little short. Anyway, I'm doing my best to keep Tsume from becoming a Mary-sue. I know someone told me that she wasn't, but I used to write them a lot, and I'm a bit paranoid about accidentaly writing one again. Well, enough of that, IKU ZE!
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Without another word, Kisame lashed out to his left with a powerful kick that sent one of the ninja clean across the stream where he landed in an unconscious heap. Then Kisame rounded on the other ninja, giving him a toothy grin. Tsume could see the man was shaking. She couldn't hold back a brief feeling of satisfaction as Kisame broke his jaw with a powerful punch. But Tsume didn't dare look at the leader of the ninja that Kisame had disposed of first. Tsume knew that Kisame had broken his neck, and Tsume had seen enough in her life to know that the man's head would be hanging at an unnatural angle, and that it was best not to look.
Scratching the back of his neck, Kisame sighed. "Well that was disappointing," he said glumly. "I was hopin' for a better workout than that." (A/N: yeah, it only took one paragraph.) Tsume smiled despite herself, and Kisame noticed. "See, onna?" he said, grinning over at Tsume. "I told you that I'd hear ya."
Slowly, Tsume rose up, keeping Kisame's heavy cloak wrapped about her. She smiled again, and then ran forward to press her face against Kisame's chest, her entire body suddenly shaking. She wanted to wrap her arms around him, but she needed them to hold up the cloak. After a moment, she felt Kisame's arms slide around her in a comforting embrace. She felt hot tears sting the corners of her eyes, but she refused to cry. One of Kisame's hands rose to rest atop Tsume's head, running gently through her hair as he had learned that she liked. At the calming, comforting touch, Tsume felt her tears abate, the shaking lessen. She looked up into Kisame's eyes and nodded her thanks, adding the best smile that she could manage to better get her point across. Kisame understood, and bent down to heft Tsume up in his arms.
"I'll get you back to the camp," Kisame said as he walked towards the water. Holding Tsume against him with just the strength of his arms, Kisame put his now freed hands together in an odd sort of sign. Tsume saw Kisame close his eyes in concentration, and saw the slightest of breezes blow about his feet. And then, without any hesitation whatsoever, Kisame walked off of the bank and onto the water. Tsume gasped and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting to be submerged yet again. But she never was. Tsume opened her eyes and gasped again. Kisame was walking easily across the water's surface, calm and cool as if he were walking along a dirt road. Tsume jerked her head up to look into Kisame's eyes, her own screaming every question that she could think of relating to Kisame's recent feat of defying physics. In response, Kisame only chuckled. "I'm a ninja, remember?" he reminded her with a grin. "It's just concentrating chakra in your feet and continuously releasing a small, steady, set amount. I'll teach you that later, but you need to learn to climb trees without hands first." Kisame laughed outright when Tsume's eyes went as wide as dinner plates.
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"Is Tsume-chan okay?!" Tobi exclaimed as Kisame and Tsume came back into camp, the shark-nin with one arm around a frightened-looking Tsume. Tobi ran quickly over to Tsume, fussing over her and bobbing all around both her and Kisame. "What happened, Kisame-senpai?! Is Tsume-chan hurt?! What happened?!"
A sandal flew through the air and hit Tobi on the head, knocking him flat on his face. "Shut up, Tobi, un," Deidara said from where he was lounging beneath a tree. "She just fell in the river, un."
"Actually," Kisame said, "she was caught in a basic ninja trap and almost raped by three idiot weaklings. One of 'em is dead, and the other two'll be unconscious for a few days."
Everyone blinked at Kisame, at least, they would have if Itachi hadn't had is eyes closed in meditation, and Tobi's face was completely hidden by his odd orange mask. Then, completely recovered from his head's encounter with the sandal, Tobi shot to his feet and rushed over to Tsume. He threw his arms around her, effectively pulling her from Kisame's hold as he held her against his own chest.
"Tsume-chan!" he wailed. "I'm so sorry, Tsume-chan! It's all my fault! If I hadn't suggested a bath then none of this wouldn't happened! Tobi is not a good boy! Bad Tobi!"
Tsume prayed herself back enough from Tobi to look into his face. She shook her head fervently, trying to get what she was thinking across to the distraught shinobi. "No, Tobi-sama!" she thought. "It's not your fault! I'm the one who let myself get caught! And," Tsume's face fell, "I'm the one who gave up . . ."
Tobi saw Tsume's change in expression and began again, this time shaking Tsume by the shoulders. "No, Tsume-chan!" he cried. "Don't be sad! No one will let it happen to you again! Deidara-senpai, Itachi-senpai, Kisame-senpai, and I will all teach you how to be a ninja so that this never happens again, okay?! Okay, Tsume-chan?!"
"Fine!" Tsume mentally groaned. "Just as long as you stop shaking me! I really don't feel so good, Tobi-sama . . ." Kisame noted that Tsume was beginning to look a bit green in the face, and stepped in to pry her out of Tobi's well-intentioned grip. Tsume took a deep breath and gave Kisame a look of thanks. She pulled Kisame's cloak tighter about her, and looked to her newly washed clothes that hung over his arm. Kisame had already dried them using some kind of jutsu, and Tsume was very grateful. Kisame handed the garments to her, and motioned for her to change over where he had slept with Tsume in his arms.
Understanding Kisame direction, Tsume nodded politely to him before moving off. Kneeling down, she buttoned the cloak up around her, and disappeared inside with her clothes. She pulled them on quickly with little difficulty, and quickly emerged. Undoing Kisame's cloak, she folded it over her arm, and walked back over to where he was conversing with Deidara and Tobi. Itachi was still sitting alone with his eyes closed.
"Ah, thanks, Tsume," Kisame said, taking the cloak from Tsume and laying it beside him. He looked at Tsume in consideration for a moment before pulling her onto his lap, grinning at her sound of surprise.
Tobi's voice was smiling beneath his mask. "Tsume-chan is a good girl!" he declared with a nod.
"Well, onna," Kisame said, "we'll be starting your training today." Tsume pricked up her ears at that. Kisame continued. "We'll just start with the basics. If we're attacked, which is quite likely, the attackers will try to surprise us and attempt to remain unseen." Kisame drew something from his cloak; Tsume recognized it as a kunai knife. "They could be throwing these as well as shuriken. You'll be taught how to throw them as well as how to block with them. How good is your sense of hearing?" Kisame asked.
Tsume suddenly found her notebook and pencil in her lap. Opting not to ask how it had gotten there, she opened to a new page and picked up her pencil. "Quite good, actually," she wrote. "I learned to pay attention to sounds since I couldn't say something if, for example, a cart was coming at me fast, and the driver didn't see me. I learned to listen so that I could avoid those kinds of things."
"Good," Kisame said, "then things should go well. Up we get, onna." Tsume scrambled from Kisame's lap and got hurriedly to her feet as Kisame and Tobi rose up as well. Kisame took the kunai by the bladed tip between his first and middle finger. "This is how you hold the kunai. Or, at least how I hold it. Some people do it differently. But anyway." Kisame shifted his feet, and Tsume took careful not of his stance. "Be sure to keep your knees bent; ready to spring back." Tsume nodded, eyes taking note of every detail. "Bend your arm back towards your chest, keep your fingers straight, and then extend your arm out." Kisame did the last step slowly, and kept hold of the kunai. "I'll show you how it works in real time." Kisame shifted back to the original stance. And then, with exceptional speed, he sent the kunai winging away from him to be embedded in the knot on the trunk of a tree several meters away. Tsume quickly shifted her eyes from the kunai back to Kisame, in time to see him leap back several times. Straightening back up, Kisame looked to Tsume. "You catch all that, onna?"
Tsume nodded smartly. Tobi came up and touched her on the shoulder. Tsume had been so focused on watching Kisame, that she whirled around and instinctively lashed out. Tobi easily caught her hand, and Tsume blushed in embarrassment, using her free hand to scratch the back of her head.
"Tsume-chan has very good reflexes!" Tobi said, releasing Tsume's hand. "Here." Tobi then handed Tsume a kunai he seemed to have procured from thin air. "Now Tsume-chan can practice!"
Tsume smiled, and bowed her head in thanks before taking the kunai by the handle. Moving back from Tobi, she tested the kunai in her grip. It was light, but Tsume doubted that it was fragile. Setting her jaw in determination, Tsume took a firmer grip on the kunai. She lifted her head, eyes quickly settling on a tree about four yards away from where she stood. Calling up her memory, Tsume took up the stance that Kisame had shown her. Taking the kunai in the same hold, Tsume eyed her target, bringing the kunai back. Taking a deep breath, Tsume quickly extended her arm out, letting the kunai fly away from her.
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A/N: Yay, I made it! And, oh, noes, it's a cliffhanger! Waaaaaaaaa! Please don't kill me! I gotta wife an kids! . . . . well, er, not really, but you get it.