11: Changes

[Rockinmuffin]

Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto but I do own a jacket just like Naruto’s. And an Akatsuki cloak! ^___^ Thank you eBay.

I don’t really like this chapter; too much action and drama for my tastes. This is a big transition chapter where a lot of things start to happen. Two years have passed since the last chapter, so Kisame and Takei are fifteen and you’re fourteen. To take in account the changes that growing teenagers go through, the story has now gone up a rating and is PG13. Hooray!

Also, things go by really fast in this chapter since a lot is happening. A plot is sort of being created. And stuff. So yeah… Just read the chapter and enjoy it. xD Lol.

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Kisame awoke with a start, his breathing heavy, his skin drenched with sweat, and his pajama pants feeling uncomfortably tight. He took a moment to calm himself. He had one of those dreams again.

Kisame had come to accept these dreams as a part of growing up. It was normal for teenage boys to have pleasant (though sometimes irritating) dreams about an experience with a woman from time to time. And even so, Kisame’s dreams never went any farther than a soft hand on his chest and warm lips on his neck before he would wake up, fortunately. …Unfortunately.

Kisame sighed as he stood, knowing that his problem wouldn’t go away on its own. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he took slow, deliberate steps towards the bathroom.

He frowned as he faced the bathroom door. He understood why a boy his age would have dreams about girls.

But he didn’t understand why most of his dreams were about you.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

“Taki-kun, are you okay?”

Kisame watched as you poked at Takei’s shoulders lightly, trying to get the boy’s attention. Even Kisame could admit that the boy was acting oddly. Well, more so than usual. He was quieter, more distant… Heck, he hadn’t even drawn a single one of his dirty pictures yet.

Takei ignored your prodding, too lost in his own thoughts to pay you any mind. He kept his attention focused on a particular tree in front of him, green eyes gazed over with a worried look.

You poked him on his cheek and still received no response. “Kisa-kun,” you whined as you pulled and stretched Takei’s left cheek, “I think Taki-kun is broken!”

“Sorry _____-chan” Takei murmured, his voice slightly muffled and distorted due to your current tugging at his cheek. “I’m just a little worried about my younger sister. She’s taking her genin exam today. I helped her to train as much as I could, but if it wasn’t enough…” His eyes glazed over again, his head tilting downward, causing his darkened bangs to shadow over his eyes.

Your own eyes softened at the look of worry on Takei’s face. “With a brother like you to help her train, I’m sure your sister will do just fine” you said with a bright smile, giving Takei a comforting pat on the shoulder.

He looked up at you, the corners of his lips twitching upward into a small smile. “Thank you, _____-chan. You’re right. I should stop worrying so much. My sister will be fine” he replied, his smile widening. “And when she gets back from the academy I can introduce her to you and Kisame and we can all go out and celebrate her becoming a ninja together.”

Kisame rolled his eyes. He wanted to gag at the picture perfect Kodak moment between you and Takei. Kisame wasn’t exactly sure why, but as of late he would get upset when you and Takei touched each other, talked to each other, sometimes he’d even get upset if you two would stand too close to each other (in Kisame’s opinion at least).

Kisame decided not to allow his mind to dwell on these thoughts too much. He didn’t want to come to any conclusions he wasn’t yet ready to accept.

Kisame was relieved when Yoshizaki-sensei arrived. The intense training you all received was able to effectively distract his mind.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

“That’s odd” you thought aloud as you stared at the academy building. “There usually aren’t any armed guards outside the academy, are there?”

Yoshizaki’s browns furrowed. “You three stay here. I’ll go see what’s going on” he told you, a small, forced smile on his face as he walked away with a small wave of his hand.

“I wonder what’s going on” you voiced out loud, staring curiously at the front of the building where your sensei was speaking with the guards. “Do you think the ninja academy is tightening up on security or something?”

Kisame crossed his arms and shook his head. The Mizukage didn’t tend to issue guards within Kiri’s boundaries; there wasn’t really much need for it. The village was poor and there were few things of any value within Kiri anyway. For there to be guards, outside the ninja academy of all places, something must be wrong.

Something bad must’ve happened.

That, and the scent of blood was thick in the air. Kisame chose to keep this information to himself; he didn’t want to startle you or Takei, especially if the blood was just from some other students’ training.

Yoshizaki soon returned; his eyes were distressed and his face was pale. “You three should go out and do some more training on your own. I have important jounin business to attend to. Maybe I’ll meet up with you guys later” he said, forcing a smile on his face as he dismissed you, Kisame, and Takei.

You frowned. “But, Yoshizaki-sensei, why are there guards in front of the academy? Did they tell you?”

“…” He paused for a moment, giving himself time to take in a deep breath. He let it out with a sigh, the fake smile slowly melting away from his face to reveal a sadder, more concerned expression. “Just… go train. Or you can take the rest of the day off if you want. I have work to do.”

The three of you stared on in confusion and concern as your sensei left you.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

“I wonder what they told Yoshizaki-sensei” you muttered as you walked down the village streets, kicking a stray can in front of you over towards Takei who dodged it. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look that upset. He even let us skip out on training. I think… I think something really bad must’ve happened…”

Kisame had a bad feeling too. Even as the three of you walked down the streets of Kiri he could still smell the scent of blood. It was weaker than before, but it still seemed to be nearby, as if it were following him. But that was impossible, unless…

Kisame froze for a moment, but quickly started up again. It would look too suspicious if he stopped. You and Takei hadn’t noticed it. Good. He didn’t need you two to draw attention towards it.

“Takei, _____...” he whispered in a low voice. You and Takei turned towards Kisame, the both of you staring at your blue teammate curiously. “When I count to three, I want you two to follow me into the forest, alright? One…”

“Kisa-kun, what are you talking about?” you asked with raised eyebrows.

“Two…”

“Kisame…?”

“…Three!”

You and Takei had little choice but to dart after him into the forest, going as fast as you could to keep up with him. What could’ve possibly gotten into him? Kisame wasn’t one to do pointless things so there must’ve been a reason for his actions.

Kisame looked over his shoulder, making sure that you and Takei were following him. He let out a brief sigh of relief when he realized you were and directed his attention back in front of him, just barely dodging a low-hanging tree branch.

“Kisa-kun” you whined, your breath coming out in pants as you tried to keep up with the taller boy’s long strides. If only you could have Kisame’s stamina; it was incredible. Even Takei was having trouble keeping up. “Slow down!” you shouted, stumbling on a pebble but you managed to keep yourself upright and continued moving. You kept your eyes on the ground for any more stones, but realized what a foolish idea it was when you bumped into a hard form.

And it wasn’t Kisame.

You screamed.

Kisame’s blood froze in his veins. The scent of blood, both fresh and stale, was strong in the air and he was almost too afraid to turn around, but he forced himself to do so anyway.

When he saw you on the ground, your eyes wide and full of terror, he knew what he had to do.

With a battle dry, Kisame raised his Samehada over his head, preparing to strike down your assailant, but was blocked by an equally large sword. Kisame growled; he didn’t like the look in the boy’s eyes. His eyes were full of bloodlust and madness, slightly shadowed and obscured by dark, messy bangs of hair hanging sloppily in his face. His skin was dark and clammy and covered in splotches of dirt and blood.

Kisame focused all his strength into pushing the sword closer to the boy. It was difficult; the boy was almost as strong as himself even though he had to be a few years younger. Just a little closer and his sword could drain away his chakra…

Three of Takei’s kunai impaled the boy’s back; Kisame grunted as he was splashed in the face with, not blood (it was too cold to be blood), but water instead. A water clone. The kunai fell to the forest floor uselessly, a string of colorful curses flowing out of Kisame’s mouth as his beady eyes scanned his surroundings, searching for the boy.

Kisame spotted him standing confidently on a tree branch, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared down at your team, eyes full of a crazed light. The boy chuckled, the sound deep and throaty despite his young age. He raised his lips in a manic grin, revealing teeth as sharp-looking as Kisame’s. “I’m glad I followed you three; you’re fun.” He jumped from the branch, landing gracefully at your side. “Much more fun than the academy students. They didn’t last half as long as you.”

All three of you stared at him, the same question on all your minds.

Takei was the one to voice these thoughts aloud. “…What do you mean by that? What have you done?”

The boy’s grin widened, his teeth shining dangerously with a light sheen of spittle. “I was surprised how easy it was; do they teach nothing in that academy of yours? It was like shooting fish in a barrel, though it was still entertaining to watch them bleed, to hear them scream…”

You gasped, staring at the boy in disbelief and horror. You barely gathered enough courage to speak. “You didn’t…” your voice trailed off in a breathy whisper.

He chuckled again in response. “I had fun killing them.”

And now it all made sense. The guards outside the academy building, the forlorn expression on Yoshizaki’s face, the scent of blood heavy in the air. This boy, this single, young boy who didn’t even have a ninja headband of his own, murdered the entire class of graduating academy students. This boy single-handedly took out a room gull of genin level ninjas.

Kisame growled. There was no way he would let this brat get away with attacking his team with the intent to kill. That kid wouldn’t be grinning once Kisame was done with him. He might be able to take out a bunch of academy students, but Kisame doubted the boy had ever fought face-to-face with a monster before.

“…Bastard.” You turned towards Takei,(Kisame would’ve turned too but he kept his eyes on the enemy), surprised by the normally quiet boy’s outburst. His head was lowered to the ground, causing his dark bangs to shadow over his face. A wet trail ran down his cheek; was he crying? Your suspicions were confirmed when he looked up, brilliantly green eyes full of anger and tears as he stared up at the boy. “You murdering bastard!” he shouted, suddenly lunging for the boy. “You killed my sister!”

The boy barely dodged the fist aimed for his jawbone.

“Is that how you get your kicks?” Takei continued, sending a barrage of punches at the boy, each one blocked just in time. “Killing people? Killing children?! Do you think ending someone’s life is all fun and games?!” All Takei received in response was a smirk. “I’ll never forgive you for what you’ve done!”

The boy chuckled again. You hated the sound; it was so dark and unnatural that it didn’t belong to a child. “Touchy, touchy… The life of a ninja is a tough one. By ending the life of your sister now I did her a favor by letting her die without any suffering. …Unless she’s one of the ones I killed slowly and painfully once I grew bored.” The boy licked dry lips as he dodged another one of Takei’s punches. “You’ll have to identify the body so I can tell you… If you can identify the body, that is.”

This time, the boy wasn’t able to dodge the swift kick aimed for his stomach.

The boy panted, trying to regain the breath that was knocked out of him, but it didn’t stop him from letting out a breathy laughter. His gaze locked with Takei, his lips raised and breathing shaky. “So are you going to try and kill me now?” he questioned with an amused expression. “Are you going to try to avenge your sister?”

Takei wasted no time lunging for the boy, kunai in hand, but his attack was blocked.

And not by the boy.

“Yoshizaki-sensei…” you drawled in shock, your eyes focused on the blonde-haired man. His gaze was locked with Takei’s, both of them staring intently at one another, Yoshizaki’s kunai blocking Takei’s, preventing him from ending the murderous boy’s life.

Kisame was also staring intently at Yoshizaki. It seemed Yoshizaki had a habit for appearing unexpectedly and without being detected. Still, even Kisame couldn’t fathom why his sensei was defending the life of a boy who had murdered all the older genin students. He imagined that the punishment for such an offense would be death anyway, so what did it matter if he died now or later? Perhaps the mizukage wanted to put the boy on trial. Kisame highly doubted that, but it was still a possibility.

Eventually Takei backed down, albeit reluctantly, and Yoshizaki turned to the boy. “Momochi Zabuza” he stated more than questioned, his voice serious and business-like, a tone of voice neither you nor the rest of your team heard very often. The boy, Zabuza, nodded slowly in confirmation. “You single-handedly murdered the entire graduating class of academy students. Because you have proved your strength and worth, even though you weren’t even a student at the academy, the mizukage has decided that you shall be awarded the rank of genin and complete missions for Kirigakure.”

“B-but Yoshizaki-sensei, he killed all those children! Children from our village…” Your lips were set in a frown, your fists clenched to your sides, shaking. “How can the mizukage let him get away with this? How can the mizukage reward him for killing his own comrades?!”

Yoshizaki didn’t respond, his eyes focused on Zabuza as he seemingly ignored your words.

“How can you allow him to get away with something like that when you have the power to stop him…?” you whispered, your eyes slowly filling with tears.

Yoshizaki turned back to you, his blue eyes usually full of amusement now filled with exhaustion and sadness. “A part of becoming a ninja of the village means that you sometimes have to do things you don’t want to.”

And with that he left, Zabuza trailing after him.

There wasn’t much that you, Kisame, or Takei could do but just watch them walk away. There he was, the boy that murdered children, the boy that murdered family, the boy that murdered the village’s future, and all you could do was watch him walk away.

Sometimes, you thought to yourself, being a ninja just wasn’t worth it.