Thank you all to those of you who reviewed/favorite/alerted! I am very pleased that you are finding this story entertaining as well as interesting.

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

X

"Oi, I thought you said we weren't walking?"

Sachi's back hurt, her mouth had a funny taste, and after dreaming about her father she was in what one may refer to as a "poor mood." So listening to a certain ex-Kiri-nin complain was low on her list.

"Shut up," she hissed, pushing him forward down the overgrown trail.

"No need to push, I can walk," Kisame grumbled. He on the other hand had slept heavily. He blamed it on the chakra ribbons that constantly siphoned chakra from him. He slept like a baby because he had the chakra capacity of one.

They came upon the clearing from the fight the previous day. Kisame quickly noticed the pile of rocks over where he'd killed the girl's teammate. 'Wonder if she's still sore about that.'

The girl in question didn't even look at him; instead she found a rather clear patch of pine needles and performed a summoning ritual. When the smoke cleared Kisame was only half surprised when a huge moth emerged. It fluttered its huge wings, they had the color and pattern of tree bark and if it wasn't so huge it could have easily disappeared within the foliage.

"Sachi-chan!" said the creature in a high-pitched, musical voice.

"It's good to see you too Chiriga-san," said the girl, her voice seemed hollow, and had none of the spunk it had previously.

The moth fluttered its wings again, dust seemed to fall from them, upon closer inspection it was many, many more tiny moths. Very similar to the ones he'd seen her use the day before.

"Ohhhh," said the moth, "There is so much death here Sachi, what is going on?"

"Mission as usual Chiriga. Can you tell me about the moths I planted on my teammates? One is dead, I was with him, but I don't know about the other three," asked Sachi as she ran a hand through the thick ruffle on the moth's head. Kisame wasn't really sure how the moth was speaking, he couldn't see a mouth…

"Hmmm… they are dead too," replied the moth as she wiggled her furry antennas and shook her wings again, "I do not have a good feeling Sachi-chan…"

"Me either," whispered the girl, leaning low she looked into the great bulbous eyes of the insect, "I need you to at least get us close to the border. This is a top secret mission, high risk."

The moth buzzed its wings and its large furry antennae swept the air in front of her.

"He's going to be very heavy…" squeaked the moth. Kisame winked at the pair.

"We don't have to go fast, just steady," said Sachi. Turning she put her hands on her hips and scowled.

"I can't imagine that little ball of fluff actually being able to carry us both," said Kisame, who planted his feet.

"She can, and will, now get on," snapped Sachi.

"Oh no, bugs freak me out."

Sachi looked about ready to pop a blood vessel, she unsheathed her kantana and placed it very deliberately at his throat. "Listen here. You get on the moth. I get on in front of you. We leave."

'This woman is a terror,' thought Kisame, "Fine, fine. But if we start rapidly declining in altitude you're hitting the ground before me."

Sachi snorted and directed him to his position on the large furry back of the moth. He didn't like the way it quivered beneath him but kept his mouth shut. The konoha-nin jumped on in front of him, legs circling the thick moth body.

Without warning the moth bounce up and into the air, it's wings fluttering rapidly as it moved up over the trees. Much to Sachi's chagrin she slid backwards into Kisame, who snickered and clutched the back of her armor.

"What the hell are you doing?" she hissed through the wind at him.

Kisame couldn't help himself, leaning down in close to her ear he retorted, "Just holding on. If you untied my hands I'd hold onto your hips, I'm sure I could get a nice grip. Then you wouldn't have had to slide back into me."

Sachi growled under her breath and tried to scoot away from him unsuccessfully. She heard him bark in laughter and press himself up against her back, knuckles pressed firmly into her lower back, he all but smoked for how warm his body was. Sachi hated that it felt kind of good on her sore back.

An hour and a half into the flight the moth had to rest, nodding its furry head it poofed away. Wordlessly Sachi made a perimeter and tried her best to ignore the large missing-nin who for all intents and purposes, was treating this like a vacation. It was hard to watch him be so nonchalant knowing that her entire team was dead.

"Maybe before we get to Konoha we can stop at those hot springs, you know the ones beside that big waterfall. I forget the name, but I hear they're pretty nice, even have couple pools you can rent out for honeymoons."

'His chatter is relentless,' thought Sachi as she groaned aloud. "Fucking honeymoons. What the hell do you think this is?"

"I think it's a nice trip by air, that is if we could stay in it for more than two hours," retorted Kisame who was munching down on some of the rations Sachi ordered him to eat. Not that she really needed to order him, he was starving.

The girl in question was having a day that was going from bad to worse. 'First that horrid dream of my father…and now…'

She couldn't help but grimace at the thought of her almost wedding, and it's almost honeymoon.

"What has your panties in a twist, you were all smiles and daggers yesterday. Has my presence really been such a raincloud?" asked Kisame when she didn't respond to his teasing. If there was one thing that Kisame was able to count on, it was his ability to easy piss her off, which was kind of cute in a potentially dangerous sort of way.

Sachi ran a hand back through her bangs, tousling them around her headband. "I had a shitty dream last night. I have a shitty capture and now you had to bring up shitty memories about shitty relationships!"

"Hey now," began Kisame who waved his tied hands at her, "I think I've been more than accommodating. I got on that fuzzy deathtrap, been nothing but civil and even let you feel me up while we rode! How am I supposed to know you have such shitty…stuff."

"I did not feel you up!" snapped Sachi as she furiously threw the rations wrapper at him.

"Well something got up," he said with a wink. Sachi folded her arms over her chest and looked away, face flushed and angry. Kisame's laughter rung off of the surrounding trees.

"Well we've got time to kill," he said after some time, "What's with you and the hatred of the word honeymoon? I thought girls liked that kind of stuff."

"I'm not a girl," snapped Sachi who refused to look at him, "I happen to be a full grown woman, and my distaste for domesticity has nothing to do with you."

"Ah so it's marriage, not sex you're afraid of," responded Kisame as he settled back against his chosen rock.

"Ha! I'm not afraid of it, I just don't want it," Sachi said, squeezing her eyes shut she wished over and over he'd just shut up.

"Sounds like someone was burned and is twice shy," said Kisame slyly.

Sachi leapt to her feet, brandishing her katana again, "Look! You're a freaking missing-nin from Kirigakure, I am not discussing my past relationships with you!"

"Oh I'm getting to like it when you pull a sword on me," purred Kisame, "it means you want me to do something."

"Hell yes I want you to do something! That something is; shut up!" shouted Sachi. A few birds took off from their roosts and tweeted their discomfort.

Kisame just chuckled and winked at her again. "If I shut up how will my partner find us? Granted you're making enough noise to attract an army but…"

'Shit!' thought Sachi, 'He's been using me! Way to go Sachi!'

Without another word she summoned another moth, did a quick quiet introduction and ordered him onto it.

"Again with this? We would go a lot faster if we just walked," he groaned as he saddled up.

"Shut up, I thought you liked my ass against you," she hissed.

"Ah there's the sass. I knew this was going to be fun," said Kisame as the pair took off again.

"You didn't know shit," snarled Sachi who was doing her best to monitor their surroundings from the sky.

Xxxxxxxxx

As much as Kisame disliked being in the air, it wasn't so bad being smashed together on the back of an overgrown insect. It was almost like they liked each other. Granted Kisame had a certain liking to certain parts of Sachi, but overall he didn't find himself getting too attached.

"Why can't we have a fire," he whined.

"You know damn well why. One more word about it and a nice piece of cloth is going to find a snug home deep inside your face-hole," snapped Sachi who huddled down into the small stone outcropping, the only shelter she could find.

"Which piece of cloth, it's dark, I want to imagine what it looks like and where it's coming from. Perhaps it's a piece of intimate cloth. Maybe I won't mind it in my mouth," Kisame purred in her ear.

Sachi elbowed him in the gut, which made him cough a little.

"You're pretty rough, is that why you don't marry?" asked Kisame, catching only the glint of moonlight off of her forehead protector as she turned to insult him back.

"Can…can you give that a rest," she said quietly, "it's getting old."

Now Kisame was faced with a real dilemma. Up until this point all of his teasing had bounced off what he liked to think of as her armor-of-sass, which had entertained him quite a bit on this journey. It had almost completely distracted him from his attempts of escape. However, now he was suddenly tossed a bone that wasn't as juicy as the others.

"I like it better when you snap at me," he said in a huff, "Women."

"Don't you 'women' me! It's you men that are the problem! Strutting your stuff acting like you got it all figured out when it's nothing but a sham!"

"Well excuse you, but I don't advertise anything I don't got. Not my fault that the sissy-konoha men are so soft!" he snorted.

Sachi gripped the front of his cloak, pulling him roughly towards her. In the dim light he could still make out the whites of her eyes and the reflection of the moon. 'She's got…really clear eyes.'

"Would you shut up? I'm not talking about this with you; you're not talking about this to me. Got it? Go to sleep," she hissed, releasing him and turning way.

Kisame was silent for a few ticks.

"Aren't you cold? You don't have a cloak or a fire. River country is cold at night."

"I swear to the gods…" she muttered softly to herself as she curled tighter.

xxxxxx

This routine continued for two more days before Kisame flat out refused to get up in the morning without some serious death threats. Not that Sachi could blame him, they were making crappy time and patience was wearing thin. Along with her chakra ribbons, day-by-day she could feel his intense chakra building itself back up. It wouldn't be long until he found his way out of them.

'I need to find Konoha,' she thought to herself as she swatted a yet another biting fly.

"Seriously, just kill me. Or let me go so I can kill you, this is tedious," complained Kisame. The excitement had worn off a day ago. Now he was tired, hungry and really wanted to be out of his dirty clothes.

"I swear we're almost there," she muttered to him. They were ambling along a small rocky creek.

'Where the hell is Itachi? Is he deaf as well as blind?' Kisame thought for the billionth time that day. It was quite clear that this kunoichi was lost, but the Uchiha… 'He's probably lost too; he has the directional capabilities of a blind elderly woman in a round room.' Kisame was coming to terms that he might have to chew his way out of his constrains.

'I bet they taste like mothballs,' he thought grimly.

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