Chapter 2: The longer they worked on Kisame, the closer they came to getting him to open up to them. But the time they spent doing this was time they weren't tracking Itachi Uchiha down. Life went on for them all, forcing all of the genin to focus on more than just their revenge.

..~..~..

"It sounds like Zabuza doesn't like this Kisame guy."

Shikamaru frowned upon hearing Sasuke's comment. Then he murmured, "Zabuza doesn't like a lot of people. We're more likely to find a food Chouji won't eat than a person Momochi will like at this rate."

The other boy breathed out heavily at this, then shook his head. "Just one mention of Kisame, and the guy clammed up. Naruto's working on Haku, but I highly doubt he'll know anything if Momochi's so tight lipped about him."

They were attempting to gather more personal information on Kisame Hoshigaki before Ino snuck back into T&I to- Shikamaru shuddered at the thought- visit him.

Ino's plan to garner Kisame's trust was dangerous. In Shikamaru's eyes, it was even stupid, seeing how it was relying on the perceived empathy of a merciless killer. But... he had to concede, that if what Ino had told them about Hoshigaki was true, then it was the plan that was the most likely to work.

A good relationship wasn't something people thought was necessary for the sanity of a person. But for someone to remain mentally healthy- to an acceptable degree- they needed good relations. Healthy interactions with others was a cornerstone for someone's mental wellbeing. A person that lived under constant hostility was not a person that would be able to mentally thrive- even when they were blind to this fact.

The difficult part about this plan was deciding on exactly which path they would need to embark on to begin to form a good relationship with Kisame Hoshigaki. His files told them how violent and ruthless he was. But they didn't offer any information that would aid them in creating something akin to a friendship with him.

They had a good reason to believe that Zabuza may have known Kisame many years ago. And so they had sent Sasuke to ask him about it; all the while Naruto went to ask Haku anything he may have known. As was expected of the swordsman, Zabuza clamped up in silence as soon as he heard the name Kisame Hoshigaki. Naruto was still away, so they had yet to receive any news about Haku's own reactions.

"Even if Naruto brings anything back, that won't change the fact that we'll need to figure almost everything out ourselves." Shikamaru admitted after a few seconds spent in silence. "Whatever Haku might know will be miniscule compared to what Zabuza could have given us. And whatever he knows probably wouldn't have been enough to break through Hoshigaki's walls. If there's one thing I'm certain about this guy, it's that he's proud."

Sasuke frowned upon hearing this, but soon nodded. "It's a good thing we're all pretty smart, then."

Shikamaru couldn't help but feel slightly warmed by what Sasuke had just said. This guy... he'd been put through hell. And he still managed to find time to actually notice all of his friends. He was consumed by darkness because of what he had lived through, but he still allowed his friends' light to shine into him. Even though he wasn't the easiest person to get along with, Sasuke was still a good person.

Itachi Uchiha... he had committed a grave mistake by leaving Sasuke alive all those years ago. But he had committed a fatal one by attacking their Genma.

A knock on Shikamaru's door had them both rushing to hide any and all evidence of their plans to aid Ino in acquiring Kisame Hoshigaki's trust. They were able to stash all of their papers beneath his bed just in time for his mother to peek her head through the barely opened door.

"Shika, your father is looking for you." Yoshino Nara's face was mostly neutral- but her eyes were glinting in a way that Shikamaru didn't like. "Something about teaching you some more clan jutsu before you go off on your next mission."

She was onto them.

They would have to move their papers out of here before she was able to search his room and find out what they were doing while he was away.

The groan that left him was for both having to move to train some more with his father and having to move the information they had acquired on Kisame and Itachi to another house. "So troublesome."

His mother frowned and immediately began to harp at him about needing to get a better attitude if he wanted to get anywhere in life.

"So, the reason you want me to tell you about Itachi Uchiha is because he hurt some guy?" Kisame made out even as he munched on the fish-related treats Chouji had cooked up.

Ino frowned, immediately correcting, "Gen-Gen; Genma Shiranui; is not just some guy." she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "He's the nicest person to ever live."

The shark-nin let out a harsh bark of laughter upon hearing this, his eyes closing in mirth. Instead of continuing to eat, he placed the piece of sushi he was going to pop into his mouth back onto the table in front of him. And then he proceeded to pound at the table with his fist, falling into a fit of uncontrollable laughter that left a sour taste in the Yamanaka's mouth.

"That's hilarious!"

Ino rolled her eyes and puffed out in slight irritation at the traitor's guffaws. But she allowed him to laugh himself out- she wouldn't bother with trying to explain himself when he could barely hear her, after all.

Eventually, Kisame's laughter became very subtle scoffs of amusement. And when this happened, Ino asked, "Are you usually this immature? Or are you being particularly stupid because I'm a genin?"

Kisame's smirk attempted to be vicious- but, for some reason, Ino believed it succeeded much better at seeming amused than actually trying to convey a possible threat. "Give me a break. I haven't heard a joke that funny in at least a decade. Let a guy laugh."

"It wasn't a joke." the blonde stated plainly, readjusting her seat so she could cross her left leg over her right knee. "Genma Shiranui is the kind of guy that would give you his last bit of money if you needed it. He's selfless to a fault."

With a shake of his head, the hulking man grabbed the piece of sushi he had dropped before he had subjected Ino to an unnecessary round of raucous laughter. "No one's that selfless, guppy. Humanity's inherently selfish. If this guy seriously has given you his money, then it's all just a ploy to get your trust." he finished his statement with a sharp clasping of his teeth after he had thrown the piece of sushi within his mouth.

Oh.

Kisame was one of those people.

Ino blinked dumbly for a moment, allowing her thoughts to fully form.

This was an incredibly useful insight into Kisame's mind. He was a pessimistic man- but that pessimism was carefully hidden beneath layers of cynicism and snark. He didn't see how a person could be selflessly good. He didn't believe in the inherent kindness of someone. And that meant that he had undoubtedly been betrayed by someone he had possibly loved at some point before he had gone rogue.

"Well, I know most people suck." she relented, "But..."

Her words died down here. She wanted to tell Kisame about Zabuza and how Genma had managed to pull out the good in him. But Shikamaru had ruled that talking about the other Kiri-native would cause Kisame to freeze them out. Possibly, if he heard about the guy, he would even start to feel that Ino's reasons to talk to him went even further than just wanting to learn about Itachi- which they did, but the brute didn't need to know that.

Ino sighed. She knew Shika was right.

"But what?"

"Nothing." she sighed, "I guess that people just suck."

Closing her eyes, Ino breathed in deeply before puffing out all the air quickly.

How was she supposed to get through to this guy if he was such a downer?

"But, at least you're transparent about what you want."

Ino was absolutely surprised by Kisame starting the conversation back up. And when she looked up at the guy, it was to find him shrugging noncommittally. "I can respect that, guppy."

Respect that.

GUPPY.

Ino wanted to break out dancing.

Tenten had been tasked with housing Kisame's cloak after they had managed to steal it.

If Kiba had taken it, his family would immediately know what garment he had with him. The Inuzuka sense of smell was incredibly precise and acute; it could sniff out something that didn't belong in little to no time. And because he lived with professional trackers like his mother and sister, there was no way in the world that the cloak that clearly smelled of a dangerous adversary would not be found out.

And seeing how Sasuke lived in the Haruno home, where he still did not know all of the hiding places, he could not take the cloak. Even though Naruto would probably help him hide the thing, the risk was too great with Genma and Zabuza skulking around. Along with Sakura's parents and a constant traffic of people entering and leaving the house, that house would be a dangerous place to stash the stolen item.

So, really, the only one of them that could house the cloak after they had stolen it had been her. While her apartment was small, she had carved out a dozen different hiding areas throughout the years of inhabiting the space to be able to hide the garment from her parents. And while her father was a good ninja, he wasn't a tracker that could sniff out oddities like the Inuzuka. And her mother was just a civilian that loved to live too much to question too much. If she told her parents that she was hiding this cloak because inside she had rare weapons, they would not question her.

Sealed inside of an impermeable bag that Kiba had given her, Tenten had decided to leave it hidden within her room. She had a safe etched into her wall that was big enough to hide various small weapons. It was her toughest safe and only she knew about its location. It was hidden behind a covering that looked identical to her wall and blended in perfectly. And laid over that was a large wooden display for some of her decorative swords- in essence, someone would have to know what to look for to find the safe.

Supposedly, the bag they had left the cloak within was made specifically for tracking by Inuzuka clan scientists. From what she had been explained, it was supposed to seal out all contaminants and keep the inside fresh, so as to keep the scent of the person alive and untampered. In essence, this bag was supposed to facilitate a tracker's job in a way that other sealing bags weren't capable of.

Right now, Tenten was just about finished with her current task of returning her swords to their proper location. Strewn along her bedroom were sharpening and oiling tools- she had taken advantage of the fact that she had moved the swords out of the way to take care of them like they deserved. Even though her collection wasn't big by any means, it was cherished.

There was a knock on her door and the kunoichi smiled to herself as she called for whoever it was to open up, she was just about finished with her swords.

With the way they had left another cloak, dark and very similar to Kisame's own, within the proper spot in the Evidence Vault, no one would suspect foul play for a while. And even if they did, they would not be able to link any of the actual thieves to the crime that had been committed. They had all done everything within their power to leave no tracks behind.

Ino had said that, even though this was a high stake's case to be working on, Konohagakure probably would not send trackers out for Itachi so soon after they had managed to capture Kisame. Konoha, apparently, had a bad habit of resting on their laurels after a successful mission- mostly out of pride, but also out of caution. They were so worried about stepping on any tails that Konoha would wait during a grace period of a few weeks to follow up on big leads like this.

Of course, during that grace period they were going to be interrogating Kisame and trying to get him to talk about the organization he belonged to. But because they were so sure of their momentary victory and the infallibility of their technology, the Village tended to become complacent.

When her door opened up, she was elated to find Hashirama Senju smiling broadly at her. "Tenten! I have need of your assistance!"

This guy never had a justifiable reason to say such a thing. Sure, he was a great teacher and helped Guy-sensei out a lot when it came to teaching her and her two teammates. But whenever he announced that he needed her help, it usually turned out that he was bored and the assistance Tenten would be offering was simply distracting him from his boredom.

With a shake of her head, the kunoichi placed the final sword back in its place and crossed her arms over her chest. "Do you really need my help this time? Or are you just trying to find a way to avoid the monotony of your daily life?"

The tall man's eyes sparkled with mirth as he leveled, "Okay, no, I don't. But you're, technically, the only friend I have in this era that is not my own. You're stuck with me, child."

The younger of the two let out a small snort, then made her way towards the far corner of her room. Housed there was a small vault that had cost her quite the pretty penny, in which she kept the weapons she went into battle with. "Friendly spar, then?"

Her hand had been on its way to unlocking the vault when she heard the man's booming voice echo in her room with a loud, "No!"

She blinked momentarily, then turned back around. Hashirama still wore a proud smile, even though he had just said no to her favorite activity in the world. She loved sparring with this man so much that she considered it to be the second best thing to do on a boring day; second only to harassing Farmen man at his job.

"Then..." she pursed her lips slightly as she tried to read Hashirama. But the guy was good at maintaining his unique type of poker face. "What are we going to do?"

Most people's poker faces were completely neutral; devoid of identifiable emotions. With lips drawn tight and eyebrows narrowed ever so slightly, the norm for the ninja was to look serious and detached when they didn't want their emotions to be read. But Hashirama Senju's poker face was something from another world. With a bright smile, he was able to throw anyone off of his actual emotions. The way in which his eyes sparkled with perfectly practiced mirth would make anyone believe he was absolutely ecstatic to just be alive.

His poker face was so good, in fact, that it had taken her a few months of knowing the guy to notice that this was the look he resorted to when he didn't want his emotions to be read.

In many cases, it worked perfectly for the guy. Anybody that didn't know this was his poker face would think that he was just feeling happy. But by this point, Tenten knew better than to just take things at face value.

So... what was he hiding?

"Come on! It'll be a great surprise."

Oh, she really didn't like the sound of that.

~/~

Okay, so, the surprise hadn't been horrible.

First she had been forced to listen to Hashirama talk to her about earth style ninjutsu and its advantages on the field. Then she had been made to run some drills with that kind of jutsu- which she really wasn't dexterous at- until Hashirama had been content. And, finally, she had been wound up having to answer a bunch of questions about Neji and Rock Lee's own training schedules so they could coordinate a day in which Hashirama could get them all together.

And then she had been treated to enough dango to make her sick to her stomach.

Hashirama was a difficult man to understand sometimes. But he was incredibly simple at other times. And the dango had certainly been worth all of the hard work she had not enjoyed.

"They're attempting to break me through isolation. You're making that job incredibly difficult."

The few seconds after Kisame had told her this, Ino had not reacted. She had been too busy analyzing what had been said to try and react physically. But then she wasn't able to stop herself from smiling broadly over towards the shark-nin.

"Why're you smiling like that?"

"You like me."

Kisame scoffed with an obvious roll of his eyes.

"Say that again and I'll gut you like a-"

"Guppy?"

Kisame sneered.

Ino smiled.

After a few seconds spent in absolute silence, the Yamanaka relented, "You're not half bad yourself, Kisame."

It kind of sucked, though, that she wasn't lying when she said that. This was a jerk, no doubt. He barely had any good manners. He chose to insult her and her friends whenever she tried to convince him about their need to understand Itachi. His form of eating bordered on grotesque with how little he chewed. And he was so pigheaded on deflecting Ino's questions that she kind of hated him for how hard he had made this whole process. But he had grown on her.

He was still a monster. Ino had not lost sight of this. And he was still very much one of the main reasons as to why they had not yet been able to truly follow through with their plans of making Itachi pay. He was not the kind of man that deserved Genma Shiranui's magic in his life, after all. And Ino was aware of all this.

But she wasn't pigheaded enough to try and lie to herself about how spending time with this guy had slowly made her like him- to a degree. She'd leave that pigheadedness to the idiot that was still trying to convince her that he didn't like her to any degree. She could admit to herself that talking to him was fun; his way of seeing the world, while bleak, was completely novel to her. His determination was unlike anything she had ever witnessed before. And his intense loyalty for Itachi and the organization they worked for, while annoying and an obstruction, was something she could applaud.

"Whatever." he grunted after silence had stretched out between them for long enough. "Shouldn't you be running off at this point? You've been here for at least an hour."

But if there was one thing Ino was really starting to hate herself for noticing, it was how adorable it was that Kisame insisted on being seen as a grouchy and unconcerned individual, even when he very clearly cared.

This was the first time he had expressed concern about the amount of time she had spent with him. He knew more than well right now that she wasn't supposed to be in here and she risked getting into quite a large amount of trouble if she was caught by her superiors. But this certainly wasn't the first time he mentioned something or asked a question that let Ino know he truly was intrigued by her.

"I should get going, huh?" she remarked after spending a few seconds thinking about the best way to answer his statement. "Same time next week."

With a shove at the empty container in which she had brought today's meal, Kisame grunted, "I'll be here."

That was a shitty attempt at a joke.

Ino couldn't help but smile.

This guy really had grown on her.

Sakura was in charge of making sure that neither Genma nor Zabuza ruined all of the work done onto them by Konoha's medican ninja. A job which, in reality, was easier said than done.

"I told you I was fine, pinkie. Now if you don't want a knife shoved so far up your ass-" Zabuza's enraged growling didn't phase her at all. Just three weeks ago, she would have cowered away from him. But in only those three weeks, he had threatened her so many times that she now understood all those threats were completely baseless.

"You're still in danger of permanent nerve damage if you push yourself too much." she stated with an unimpressed frown on her lips. "If you end up paralyzed from the waist down because you refused to listen to me and calm down, I swear I'm going to shove that knife you threatened me with so far up your ass-"

Zabuza's eyes barely widened. But the amount they did move let Sakura know he certainly had not been expecting her to turn the tables on him in such a crass manner.

And, normally, she wouldn't have resorted to growling like Momochi did when he was annoyed. But she was tired and her nerves were so frayed over everything that had happened in the last few weeks that she really couldn't blame herself for having such a short fuse.

Moving Genma into her home had not been easy. She had ended up having to work a lot to make everything perfect for the best and only babysitter she had ever had in her life. And then making sure that everything was settled for Zabuza and Haku had been yet another large process to take care of... and as if that hadn't been enough, she now had to share a home with three boys, alongside her parents.

Before all of these changes had taken place, she had honestly believed that it would be incredibly fun to live in the same house as Naruto and Sasuke. And having Haku around would be great! He knew how to braid hair and was a calming presence for the other boys.

She had been young and naïve when she had thought like that. Now... now, she knew better than to think that living in a house with so many idiotic males would be anything close to enjoyable.

"Whoah, is everything alright in here?"

It was good that Genma came in to interrupt her threat. There was a chance Zabuza might spew out some childish insult back at her. And that really would have set her off.

With a final glare at Momochi, Sakura turned to look at Genma as he arrived at the door that led into the kitchen. "He doesn't want to take his medicine."

Without allowing a single heartbeat to pass in silence, the hulking mass of stupidity groaned, "I'm fine. And I have been for months."

To be a fully fledged jounin-level missing nin, Zabuza was a huge crybaby. He hated the taste of the medicine he had to take, and that was the only reason he would actually risk permanent nerve damage and not listen to Sakura.

Even though Sakura was at the end of her wits with many of the things the guys around her did, there was one saving grace. Even though Genma could be just as stupid as the rest of them, he also proved to have the most moments of logical thinking amongst all of them. So, when he scolded Zabuza for acting so childishly, Sakura thanked the heavens that at least he could understand the need for the Mist ninja to drink his damn medicine.

She... needed a vacation.

Making sure these two didn't harm themselves in any way was graying her hair, she was sure. She hadn't found any evidence to this hypothesis yet, but it was only a matter of time before she found her first gray hair.

"C'mon, Zabuza. It's just some medicine. And you risk some pretty bad damage to your body if you don't take it. Isn't it better to just swallow your pride and the medicine?"

Zabuza's glare turned deadly as he looked at Genma.

"It's not just some medicine."

Sakura could concede that the pill he had to take was unnaturally large and smelled rather foul. But that didn't mean that the crybaby could use such characteristics as a good reason to not drink the medicine that could keep his dumb ass healthy.

Genma's smile never faltered, taking Zabuza's mood in a smooth stride. "I'm stuck in a wheelchair if I want to head out of this house. And even in here, I've got to suck up using crutches. We've got to make some sacrifices to ensure our health, Momochi."

Sakura pursed her lips at the examples this man was giving, knowing full well that not one day ago she had needed to force him to sit down in the wheelchair when they went to the market to buy some groceries for her house.

These two were idiots... and they, unfortunately, really did set the bar for the amount of logic that was used by the rest of the people within her house.

After he wasted a few further seconds glaring at Genma, Zabuza scoffed at them and turned to look over at the dinner table. On it, rather close to the edge he was nearest to, was a glass of water. Beside this glass was a pill the size of the tip of Sakura's pinkie finger.

"Should've let me die if you were gonna torture me like this."

Sakura feigned not having heard the man as she looked back at Genma... and promptly became incensed once again.

"Where in the world are your crutches?!"

When she entered Kisame's interrogation room, it was with a heavy frown on her lips.

It was the first thing Kisame noted. It was also the first thing the shark-like man commented on.

"Did someone hurt your precious Shiranui again?" his tone was lilted in what was an attempt to be lighthearted. But there was the undeniable inflection of too much sarcasm that let Ino know this man was thinking about more than just making fun of her.

"Of course not. I wouldn't be here- I'd be hunting down the jerk that hurt that angel."

Kisame scoffed and shook his head, but he soon motioned to the shackles that kept him tied to the wall. Without saying anything, the kunoichi made her way towards him and began to unlock the harsh metal that kept him in place with the key they copied after swiping the original a few weeks ago.

Once he was free, Kisame stretched his body and shook off the tension he undoubtedly housed. Then he looked over at the bag slung over Ino's shoulder and quirked an eyebrow. It didn't take a mind reader to know that the man was expecting the food that was housed within.

Rolling her eyes, the blonde handed the bag over to the shark man. He offered one much too toothy smile at her- probably, such a sight would have scared any regular person; but it looked pretty amusing to Ino. And then he lumbered towards the table in the middle of the room, sat himself clear in the middle of the table, and reached into the bag for his food.

"So, if not that guy, what's got your skirt up in a twist?"

She crossed her arms over her chest and sighed before she answered him. "This is the fourth week I visit you and I haven't gotten any new information on Itachi Uchiha."

He didn't even seem to be bothered by her straightforward attack on him.

They were getting nowhere. At this rate, they would be better off just having Kiba run off to chase after Kisame's scent in the hopes he would be able to find anything that led him to Itachi.

"I told you I wasn't about to snitch." he rummaged through the bag for a bit before he pulled out the bento box Chouji had prepared. Then he blinked at the extra box left inside. "Trying to poison me?"

Ino smiled softly, "Wouldn't be hard, now would it?" she teased slightly, only to explain, "Some dessert that was left over from last night's dinner. My mom made some matcha mooncakes."

She moved so she could grab hold of the chair opposite Kisame, then dragged it back so she could sit down and look at the man even as he was seated in a completely inappropriate place.

When she finally managed to sit down, it was to find Kisame glaring at her through narrowed eyes.

The ice in his eyes actually caught her off guard. "What did I do wrong?"

He frowned. "Absolutely nothing."

Then he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. "Tell me about this Shiranui guy."

For a few seconds, Ino was absolutely taken aback by what she heard from him. But then she properly processed what he had said and struggled to not break out smiling.

She was breaking through this guy!

~..~..~

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