Rei had never seen a foreign Shinobi before.
"For real?" Koichi jumped up, energy obvious renewed. "Where? What's the plan?"
"First things first." Niko Sensei stood and looked to Rei. "Hold out your hand."
Rei's suspicious instincts wouldn't let her. "Why?"
Kisame got to his feet as well, towering over them all. He extended his hand to Rei from across the coffee table. "We haven't officially met. My name is Kisame Hoshigaki, of Clan Hoshigaki, and newest member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist."
Well, that was redundant. Rei just stared at him, and he didn't blink. He didn't flinch. He just kept standing there with his hand outstretched to her while everyone else watched.
Koichi finally reached out and met Kisame's hand. "Hey, I'm Ko—" Then he froze, his mouth wide open, and yanked his hand away after a few seconds. "Man, why didn't you warn me?" He whirled on Rei. "He does what you do. He sucked a bunch of my chakra out." He sat down hard and let his head fall into his hands, limbs almost jellylike.
Rei's world narrowed to a pinprick in that moment that consisted of nothing but Kisame's face. She got to her feet and opened her mouth, willing the right words to come out. "How can you do that? Is it—"
"I've been able to do it for a few years." He flexed his fingers before his face. "And with Samehada, it's got a much more powerful draw." He held his hand out to her again, inviting. "What do you think? Care to see who's stronger?"
Rei continued to stare at the hand in front of her, several times larger than her own. What would happen when she touched him? Was he maybe a relative of hers? How could he just come by this power as an adult?
He interrupted her mental roller coaster with an offer. "I'll tell you what. If you best me, if you are able to take my chakra, then…" He looked around the room in an obvious show of consideration. "Then you can have that one."
The sword he indicated had a narrow blade about three feet in length and a plain leather-wrapped hilt. It was set on a small wooden bracket between two ceremonial katana with sashes dangling from their guards. "We call that one 'The Bastard,'" Mangetsu said with a small chuckle. "It's been there longer than any of us have been part of the Seven, and no one seems to know where it came from."
"It's yours." Kisame looked down at his own hand, still outstretched, pointedly. "If you're stronger. Your sensei seems to think you are."
Niko Sensei just looked at her impassively.
With Koichi by her side and her sensei looking on, Rei instantaneously lowered her mental barriers and reached out to let her hand make contact with Kisame's palm.
There was a burst of color behind her eyes. Blue, purple, deep red. His chakra was cool, rich, and thicker than anything she'd ever felt. And it was strong. It was pulling on her, like it had reached into her soul with long-fingered hands and taken hold.
So this is what other people felt when she touched them.
Her mind tried to keep up with what was happening inside her body. While Kisame's chakra had taken root and was trying to take control, her own was fighting back of its own accord. Her lungs were squeezing painfully at the foreign intrusion, making it difficult to draw a breath, and all of the muscles in her arms and legs had gone stiff. She felt her fingers tighten around Kisame's hand.
Her chakra needed no direction from her, not like when she had placed Utakata's Seal. This time, it worked all on its own. It pried at the hand on her core, peeling back the fingers and flinging them away. Suddenly she could breathe again, and she could feel Kisame's chakra retreating to his own body. But before it could, her chakra latched onto it and drew it back, devouring it.
Rei's eyes were open, so while her mind's eye watched the chakra battle within her body, her physical eyes watched Kisame's face. At first, he was self-assured, calm, bland-faced. But the moment her chakra had taken control, his eyes had widened and his mouth had opened. It appeared that he was trying to speak, but no words escaped his mouth. In fact, his face seemed to grow thinner and more pale as she watched.
And she was feeling more vigorous, more lively with each moment. For the first time, she was intentionally drawing power into her body to strengthen herself, and it was working. It was working very well. Her chakra system was thriving, pulling every bit of energy it could grasp into it, and she savored the myriad of different colors, flavors, and textures.
Suddenly, she could understand why Headmaster Iwa had chosen to save her. Kisame Hoshigaki of the Seven Ninja Swordsman was about to fall to his knees before her, drained of his life force.
Dead.
With a quick inhalation, she slammed her barriers back into place, releasing Kisame's chakra and his hand.
The world seemed to start moving again, and Rei collapsed to her knees, not because she couldn't stand, but because she had been the only one remaining on her feet.
When she'd erected her barriers again, Kisame, Mangetsu, Niko Sensei, and Koichi had all fallen, desperately drawing air into starved lungs, and all were an unhealthy shade of off-white. Mangetsu and Niko Sensei both had their hands on their throats, like they'd been strangled, Kisame was on his hands and knees, and Koichi was sprawled on his back, arms and legs at all angles, eyes closed.
If she could expel all the energy she'd taken… could she?
"Koichi," she breathed, kneeling by his side, suddenly terrified to touch him. Her hands trembled over his arm as she checked three times that her barriers were still up and flawless. "Koichi, are you alright?" She shook his shoulder gently.
His eyelids flickered faintly and he gasped in a shallow breath. His chest rose and fell steadily, if weakly, and Rei pressed her hands down onto his chest, like she was about to perform CPR. Her heart was still racing. When she looked inward and found her store of chakra, she grasped it with her newly inhaled breath and exhaled, sending it into her fingertips. But it wouldn't exit her hands. She inhaled and exhaled again, focusing intently on pushing her chakra from her hands.
Kohana had taught her this. She could do it. She'd done it for Utakata, and she'd do it for Koichi.
She was just starting to exhale a third time when Koichi forced a rattling breath through his lips and coughed harshly once, twice, three times, then worked to sit up. Rei pulled her hands back to her chest, not about to touch anyone else.
Mangetsu was the first to get his breath back. "Rei…" He coughed and braced his arm on the nearest couch, hauling himself up onto it. His face was regaining its color a little more with each second. "Wow."
"You could have killed us." Niko Sensei was pushing himself back to his feet, but he kept his hand on the table for support. "I knew you could."
Rei snapped her eyes shut and hugged her legs to her chest, burying her face in her knees. She would not cry. She would not. She'd almost killed her best friend, her sensei, and two of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. She would not break down. She focused only on breathing deeply and turning her mind into a blank canvas.
There was no telling how much time had passed before Niko Sensei set his hand on her shoulder. "Rei." She didn't look up. "Rei, you weren't touching us, and you took our chakra. Then you stopped. Do you know how incredible that is? How important that is going to be?"
Kisame pushed himself off of his knees and sat back, leaning on a couch, sweat coating his face. In spite of his heaving chest, he grinned again. "Go get your sword, girl. I'll teach you to use it myself."