Thank you all to those of you who reviewed/favorite/alerted.

Respectively, Kishimoto owns his characters, as I own mine.

X

"Come in…team…co…come in team fatass…"

Sachi and Kentin stared blankly at one another, the transmitters in their ears buzzed in and out of life.

"Did he just…"

"I'm going to murder you!" snarled Sachi into her microphone. Faint laugher echoed over the transmission. Steam all but flew from Sachi's ears, of all things she could be called that was the one thing off limits.

"Don't blame me that it's huge…" came the garbled response over the radio.

"Say what you need to say. We're locked on a target!" interjected Kentin before things got really messy.

"We…lost contact…"

"Sounds like they'll be heading back to the rendezvous point-" Kentin was cut off as the radio gave out a halfhearted squeak and died.

"Or they're dead," finished Sachi, who was still fuming.

"There is no wa-"

A shark made of water cut them both off and completely demolished the tree they were hiding in. Sachi let out an angry yelp as she flipped backward to try to gain control of her momentum. Kentin wasn't as lucky, twisting he smacked hard against the neighboring tree and slid to the forest floor in an ungraceful lump. '…Oh god.'

"Sorry, did I interrupt something?" Sachi's head snapped towards the owner of the voice and just barely dodged yet another shark missile.

Sachi wasn't quite sure what she expected, but this sure wasn't it. Her eyes flicked between the Akatsuki and her fallen teammate quickly. When Kentin didn't get back up, or so much as twitch, she figured the worst was upon her. She was going to face an S-class ninja…alone.

'Shit. Shit. Shit.'

"Look here, I'm in a really bad mood, so lets end this fast," said Kisame as he clapped his hands together, preparing for another jutsu.

Sachi smirked beneath her sunglasses and gathered herself; there would be time to mourn when the job was done. 'I didn't think this fucker would be so…huge.' "You know, I'm in a pretty piss poor mood myself. And there is only one thing that's going to make me feel better."

The shark-like man gave a low chuckle, his chakra saturated the air, making it heavy and dense with moisture, "Oh and what might that be?"

Sachi spared one last look at her fallen comrade, and then straightened up, the small moth that had appeared early settled on her shoulder. Followed by another, and another…

"Watching them write me the check for your ass!"

With that she disappeared into a cloud of moths, fluttering in all different directions. Kisame grit his teeth. 'I hate genjutsu.'

The forest fell silent, dust floated in the spears of sunlight that came down through the thick foliage. Kisame kept his eyes peeled and pulled Samehada off of his back. He wasn't quite sure if this was going to be a long ranged fight or…

A small white moth brushed by his cheek, and he rolled out of the way to avoid the slim blade that reflected off the ground and sunk into a tree trunk. Exactly where his head had been. Snarling he flashed through katas and in seconds the trees around him in a twenty-five foot radius came crashing down. While that cleared him some visibility, it was still hard to maneuver with all the rocks underfoot not to mention the steady slope down they had been caught on.

"Come out, come out wherever you are!" he taunted. 'If nothing else…I fight a kunoichi with a nice ass.'

Sachi slid her katana out of its holster in one silent motion. Her heartbeat was thumping in her ears and sweat was gathering between her shoulder blades and under her breasts. But the reflection she saw looking back at her in her katana was one of glee, lips curled up at the edges in a impish way.

"Oi! Big boy!" She flipped herself up onto the stump she'd been hiding behind. "Looking for someone?"

In a typical Sachi-fashion she stuck out her tongue and whipped him off, almost biting her tongue off as he hastily retaliated. 'Damn is he fast at katas!' she thought as she narrowly avoided his water prison. Firing off another blade from her right arm she dodged backward as he sped up to her. Sword out and coming down rather quickly towards her face. 'Awe but I like my face…'

Springing back onto her hands she vaulted herself over him, summersaulting mid air and twisting to come down facing his back, she slashed at his now exposed back. Gasping in shock when it turned to water.

'SHIT!'

Sliding forward she just barely missed the massive swing of the great-sword, scuffing her knees as she slid on the uneven terrain.

'How did he get behind me…'

He didn't let her go far before he swung down again, this time all she could do to avoid it was to raise her katana. The weight of it smashed her against the ground, the exposed scales of the great blade shivering with anticipation to meet her flesh. She would have been lying if she said she wasn't a tad frightened by it.

"Sorry little moth, but I'm going to have to clip your wings," said the kiri-nin with a broad smile filled with sharp white teeth.

His smile faltered as the girl beneath his sword began to laugh.

"Guess again!" Raising her left leg out of the rubble an audible click resounded as out of the custom grieve as four blades shot out at the speed of light.

The weight of the great sword disappeared as Kisame was forced to dodge backwards out of the way. Looking back the girl who had been smashed into the rubble dissipated into moths once again.

"Hoshigaki Kisame, ex-ninja of Kirigakure, wanted on multiple accounts of manslaughter and well…you're in the Akatsuki, need I say more."

Sachi had disappeared once more into the darkening forest. Kisame gripped his sword even tighter, he was far from being exhausted, but his patience was wearing thin quickly.

"What is this? A court case?" he shouted into the twilight, "If you're going to accuse me isn't it polite to at least give your name?"

Dashing out of the way just in time to miss two more of her lightening fast blades he noticed something peculiar. All around him in the looming darkness small white moths began to flutter, just on the edge of the new made field he'd made earlier. It concerned him; they carried more chakra than just normal insects. So far the fight had been fairly even, the rough terrain had hindered him, but he had the stamina to keep going for another three hours. This little moth did not.

"My name is Aburame Sachi, Collector of Konohagakure," came her voice from the darkness. Twisting he brought up Samehada just in time to meet her attack from above. She'd come at him feet first, long blades sticking out from her heels. Upon meeting his blade she disappeared into a flock of moths.

'Goddamn bugs!'

"And I'll be taking you alive," she whispered in his ear as she flashed a particularly long blade that appeared from her gauntlet. Attached to it was a long piece of red fabric that quickly wrapped itself around his arm like a snake. With a quick flick of her wrist the blade wedged itself into the rocky ground, she fazed away, moths fluttering in her wake.

"A Collector? Been quite some time since I've fought one of yo-" his voice stopped abruptly and his eyes went immediately to his bound arm.

"Thrash all you want, no flies get out of my trap," hissed Sachi as she prepared another blade/ribbon combo.

Kisame looked down at his arm in disbelief; no matter what he did he couldn't pull it free, it felt like it was in a vice like grip. The harder he pulled, the tighter it got. Desperation swelled up in him and he swung Samehada to cut through the simple ribbon.

"Not so fast."

Another blade and ribbon twisted itself up around his sword-arm mid-air, dragging it to the ground as the blade sunk deep into the rocky earth. Samehada fell from his grip as his arms collapsed numb to his sides. Then, quickly another ribbon flicked itself around his torso, over his shoulder, down over his thigh, around his neck.

'What the fuck?!'

"Looks like I caught something in my web," whispered Sachi, appearing in front of the Akatsuki nin. Curling her hand into a fist she aimed right for his nose.

"This for Kentin."

Xxxxxxx

The missing nin hit the ground with a loud thump, a satisfying sound, and Sachi soaked it in for the millisecond before she retched all over the rocks at her feet. Her light lunch came up with such force she wasn't sure what had happened until it was over.

Falling to her knees she shook so violently her vision blurred.

'Oh my god…'

Monkey hadn't been lying when he said that Hoshigaki was out of her league. 'I'm not…his chakra…'

Staring wide-eyed at the red ribbons that held the ninja in question, who was for all intents and purposes was knocked out cold, she swallowed thickly. Shuddering she stood over him, taking in the scene.

"Shit, Kentin!"

Rushing over to the other ninja's side did little. His neck was bent at an angle that was far from fixing. Slowly she removed his hawk mask and closed his eyes. She closed her own and gave a small prayer, to whatever was listening.

Overhead the sun had finally set and the dark sky crackled to life, lightening streaking out across the inky black clouds. The soft pattering of rain in the distance grew closer.

'Goddamnit!'

xxxxxxx

It took her longer than she wanted to bury Kentin. It wasn't protocol, but she couldn't bare the thought of wild animals eating him. The thought was almost enough to make her puke again, that is if there was anything left for her to throw up.

She was soaked to the bone by the time she had the shark-nin properly bound up. Her chakra ribbons had come in handy; he didn't even notice the small black moths that had provided the sticking points on his clothes for the jutsu. He was too worried about he small white ones to notice them.

'Probably wouldn't have worked in the daylight,' she mused to herself as she picked up the hilt of his sword. Immediately dropping it when razor-sharp blades cut into her palms. "What the hell!"

The great sword let out a hiss and Sachi just about peed herself.

"Oh my god the sword is alive. It's alive!" she shrieked and took a few quick steps back.

Gathering her wits she quickly wrapped up her hand, then gingerly pulled the sword by the very tip of the grip back over to the knocked out ninja. Rolling him over onto his back she carefully strapped the sword to his back again (thankfully without any more outbursts).

Pleased with her work her satisfaction soon faded. Hoshigaki Kisame was one large sonofabitch. The sadness of loosing Kentin doubled now that she realized that not only did she have to deal with Hoshigaki by herself, she was going to have to drag him alone.

Sucking up her pride she lifted one of his huge arms over her shoulders and her legs almost giving out at the weight.

"Seriously, you are the heaviest sonofabitch I've ever captured," she mumbled as she rain came down harder.

Xxxxxxx

Kisame had only blacked out a few times in his life, half of the time was because of alcohol, and the other half was ill-fated whacks to the domepiece. This occasion happened to fall into the latter category.

However, in direct contrast to that latter category, none of those times had he ever woken up to a girl, in her underwear who looked like she had just come out of the ocean's spray.

"HOLY SHIT!" the girl yelped as she shoved her shirt back down over herself. "THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"

"I'm not the one stripping!" he shouted back as his eyes adjusted to the firelight and his head throbbed. 'Where the hell am I…?' He attempted to rub his sore head but his hand felt too large for his arms and he only ended up poking himself in his own eye with his thumb. "Sonofabitch."

"Well excuse me for trying to dry my own goddamn clothes!" snarled the orange haired girl. Rolling onto her back she slipped back on her shorts, of course not before flashing him a great view of her panties.

"Mm teal string bikini, nice," he commented dryly.

"I swear I'm going to gag you if one more thing comes out of your mouth!" she hissed as she furiously buckled up her shorts.

In the time it took her to zip up her shorts he found all of the sealing ribbon located around his person. She'd done a good job, arms, legs, hell even his neck, was tightly sealed. Even Samehada got a nice red bow.

On top of being wrapped up like a present he had a throbbing headache and his nose felt clogged. 'Probably with blood, this bitch hits like a bull.'

"Where the hell are we?" he said, peering around into the darkness that surrounded them. They were in a small cubical, was barely five foot by five from the looks of it. With one vent on the ceiling and another somewhere else, where he assumed they came through. 'Gods…my head.'

"A bunker in River Country," she snapped, her golden eyes piercing her.

"Can you not shout, I've got a killer headache," he hissed, this time his bound hands found the bridge of his nose. He sighed then with a resounding crack, set his nose back into place. He'd be lying if he didn't enjoy the shudder she gave at the sound.

"Yeah I'm not really that sorry about that," she said blatantly, "after all you did kill my comrade."

It did not go unnoticed to Kisame that she said 'comrade' instead of 'friend' which was strange considering she was a leaf shinobi and they tended to be the softest around.

"Well my apologizes, next time I'm being ambushed I'll make sure to be a bit more polite during my introduction," he snapped back. The two stared at each other in the flickering firelight.

"How did you know…" he began.

"That you were in River Country?" she finished with a toothy smile, "Call it woman's intuition."

Kisame rolled his eyes and tried to adjust himself, the sealing ribbons really were a drag. He felt fatigued and worst of all…

"So…if I gotta piss, you gonna hold it for me?"

Granted he said that mostly to see what she'd do as a reaction. He was not displeased.

"You know I knew you Akatsuki were scumbags…BUT YOU ARE A PIG!"

She continued to rant for a few more moments before she realized he was chuckling to himself.

"And just what is so funny?" she snapped, hands on her hips.

"Are you sure you're an Aburame? Because you're much more like an Uzumaki," he commented wryly.

He didn't expect her to narrow her eyes and give him an even dirtier look.

"You're lucky I'm just a Collector and not an interrogator, because I don't think I would be too kind to you."

"Well I'm just over here, bound in fear," he said raising up his tied up hands, feeling pretty good about his pun.

"You don't see me as a threat at all do you?" said Sachi; crossing her arms over her chest she gave him a cold look.

The large ninja before her gave a deep rumbling laugh, the kind you feel deep inside your gut. Sachi gave a small shiver at the magnitude, since waking up; his presence seemed to take up more space than his actual body. 'I need to be cautious…no matter what.'

"I've been in Akatsuki for years, a member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. No little moth, you're more of a small biting fly," he said with a wink. He rolled his shoulders and like a great tomcat full after a hunt, settled down for what appeared to be a nap.

"Come morning we're heading back to Konohagakure, where they will give me a large sum of money for you, and you will be interrogated and executed. In the scheme of things it doesn't really matter if you find me threatening," said Sachi as she gave him one last glare before she began rooting around in one of her packs.

"And if I refuse to walk?" he said, his eyes remaining closed, his posture relaxed.

"We won't be walking."

Kisame gave a snort, he wasn't sure if in general he found her annoying, or just whenever she opened her mouth. Either way he knew he had to rest, otherwise he was never going to figure out a way to break through the strange chakra bonds on him.

The crunch of a cracker, however, broke all of his plotting. Creaking an eye open he watched with sudden fascination as the kunoichi before him nibbled on rations. Before she could notice him watching he quickly shut his eyes, he figured that he could devour a whole stack of beef ribs, but why give her that knowledge.

"You hungry?"

Certain that she was going to just play a game of keep away with him he ignored her. 'If I don't talk maybe she won't.'

Kisame clearly didn't know Sachi Aburame at all.

"Here," came her sharp voice as the wrapper to the crackers settled over his bound hands. Eyes peered open and half of the packet of food sat gently on his relaxed fists. The kiri-nin's frightening features twisted up into one of puzzlement, while the moth-nin gave a small giggle.

Sachi reclined, stretching out her unimpressive height and settled in to rest through the night. 'If he want's to play the 'I don't give a shit about you' routine, so can I. She put her arms behind her head she fingered a small hidden blade and gave a large yawn.

"Why are you feeding you're captive?" he asked bluntly.

"I carried your ass once today, I have no intention of malnourishing you to the point of doing that again. I'm a Collector, not a sadist."

If Kisame hadn't already been thoroughly confused by the events of the day, he sure was now. Never in his life had he ever expected to be captured, well at least not by one person. Nor did he ever, in his wildest imagination, imagine he would be treated with even a scrap of dignity or respect once captured.

Kisame frankly didn't expect to be treated like a human being.

"You're a strange one," he mumbled as he sheepishly ate what was given to him.

"Strange in the 'intriguingly beautiful' way? Or the 'she might kill me and wear my skin' way?" Sachi asked dryly, feigning sleep.

"The latter," answered Kisame, trying not to lick the wrapper.

Sachi snorted, at least Hoshigaki Kisame wasn't the type to scream and cuss for hours, he had a sense of humor. At the very least, it would be an amusing mission.

Xxxxxxx

Sachi hated dreams, mostly because for her dreams were never good things. That is unless she ate enough cake that she passed out, which had happened on her twenty-third birthday after she had dumped her boyfriend of one and a half years. Those dreams had been seriously trippy.

The dream she had in the cramped bunker of the River Country was more of a memory than an actual dream. She was seven years old, in the Aburame private training grounds with her father.

"If you grip the end too tightly like this," he began with his demonstration, "Then your blade is more likely to move end over end. You need a much more even grip."

Sachi had almost mastered the art of kunai throwing, but she watched patiently as her father instructed. Gods only knew when it would happen again.

Morioki Aburame was not a happy man; Sachi couldn't remember the last time she heard him laugh. Perhaps that's why she was such a stand out amongst her clan, she just wanted to see her father smile.

"Now when you find your target, don't look at your knife. That's not what the goal is, the goal is the target," he continued in his soft voice. He always had a soft voice; never did he raise it above a normal speaking level. No matter what Sachi did, he was always soft and sad.

A large moth fluttered free in the field, meandering in flight it fluttered from flower stalk to stalk. Sachi had seen them before in books, had read the passage about them aloud to her younger cousin Shino who had begged her to show it to him. Lovely dark wings with yellow eyespots that glittered like gold in the sun, and like silver in the moon.

"Just focus on your target, think of nothing but, and throw."

The kunai moved at a blinding speed, catching the moth mid flutter, severing wing from body. Sachi watched with wide eyes as the creature fell pathetically to the ground. For a moment the awe surrounding her father broke and she rushed after the wounded creature.

"Why…why did you have to…" she stammered as she watched it wiggle in the tall grass. Its face was emotionless, but the way its furry little legs pitifully grasped at anything at all made her gut twist up.

"It is just a moth, Sachi," said her father patiently; "There are many dead and pinned in the study."

Sachi cupped the insect in her hands, staring down as it vibrated sadly in her palms. "But they're…complete. This one…it's broken now, it can't be pinned now, and it can't fly."

"Sometimes, bad things happen for no reason, things break that cannot be fixed."

Sachi Aburame hated her father.

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