Escape from Haai Terrritory – Chapter 1: Left for Dead

Summary: Itachi is a police officer aboard the intergalactic police force's Cuvier Ship #35. In a raid against the alien shark-like species known as the Haai, Itachi gets left behind, assumed to have died. Now he's stuck in enemy territory and must find a way to get to safety. Surprisingly, he finds a friend in a defector among their own species - a Haai known as Kisame.
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Warning: None in this chapter but there will be yaoi/slash in the future.

Pairings: Kisame x Itachi, Yahiko x Konan, Sasuke x Naruto, Nagato x Kimimaro

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"We're approaching the premises." Sasuke Uchiha said, his mic amplifying his voice through the Cuvier as he mapped out the position of every starfighter. "What are your orders, Admiral?"

Admiral Fugaku Uchiha stood at the top of the bridge, eyeing the large hologram of the area before them. "Check that everyone is in position, if so begin attack immediately. We need the element of surprise."

"Crow checking in, all systems go." Itachi Uchiha called through his mic from his starfigher.

"Flicker checking in, all systems go." Shisui Uchiha called through his own mic from the Starfighter.

One by one, every fighter pilot aboard the Cuvier Intergalactic Police Starcruiser called in. After the last one did, Fugaku gave his order. "Go!"

The gates opened and eight starfighters exited the large starcruiser and zoomed into dark space – ahead of them was a large blue planet with a noticeable hub – that was their destination. In addition to the eight starfighters, four shuttles carrying ground units in heavy mechanized suits with weapons were heading to the destination.

Itachi maneuvered his own fighter through space, leading the assault. He aimed his missiles towards the hub and called through the mic.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

"Ready."

"GO."

Eight fighters simultaneously attacked the hub, unleashing a barrage of missiles. There was a response immediately as the alien species within finally noticed they were under attack. The missiles continued their assault but soon the alien species was retaliating. They shot back towards the fighters who were truly serving as a distraction for the shuttles to land on the planet.

Itachi piloted his fighter to the right side to avoid a missile in his direction and – BAM! His fighter flew out of control, jolting Itachi as he struggled to regain control of his pilot – but it was a lost cause. Automatic safety measures kicked in and his fighter was on fire and being rapidly pulled in by the gravitational force of the blue planet.

Just my luck.

A moment later Itachi's fighter crash landed on the planet – if not for the fact that there was so much water, or some liquid resembling water, he would have taken significantly more damage. Nonetheless, Itachi couldn't risk that this watery substance had the same properties as water, if his fighter was on fire in an unknown liquid common sense said get the hell out of the liquid.

Itachi popped the hood of his fighter and swam into the water, heading for the only land there was – close to the Hub that was under attack. If he was lucky, the mechanized infantry would find him. If he wasn't… Well… Itachi was in Haai territory.

The Haai were a shark-like alien species that had a tendency towards war and fighting. Although their main governing planet was not at war with any species, they had many smaller groups – or pirates rather, who would attack any ship on sight for its supplies and parts or whatever else it is that they desire. About half of the Haai population consisted of criminals and rogues to the species itself, making it difficult to declare war on them when permission to kill them on sight already existed – they were hunted by all species for their crimes. Basically, they were a menace to the Intergalactic Alliance, but they were too strong – strong enough that the Alliance didn't have the power to destroy them on their own, which is saying something.

Itachi had a bad feeling that he wasn't going to survive this. As he approached land, Itachi noticed a small cave which he hastily swam into. It was very well hidden and if he hadn't been coming from that exact angle there was a good chance he would've missed it entirely.

The water level in the cave was fairly low – Itachi could stand up and walk. His pilot suit was heavy from being drenched in water, yet Itachi decided it would be better to keep it on.

Pressing some buttons on the side of his helmet, Itachi attempted to reach the mothership. No response.

Itachi sighed, walking deeper into the cave. He couldn't draw too much attention to himself to let the others know where he was, he would just end up calling the Haai towards him. That meant the best chance for survival was to wait it out until he heard the signal from the infantry that the hub was taken and the Haai destroyed.

"Well, well… What's a human like you doing in a place like this?" A deep raspy voice asked.

Itachi froze and peered into the darkness next to him. It was a Haai.

"I…"

"You're the fighter that was shot down."

"Yes." Itachi had no weapon on him. His weapon was the fighter itself. Itachi's hand to hand combat abilities weren't that bad, but would he stand a chance against a Haai?

"It was lucky you managed to find this cave, no one else has ever done it."

"You did."

"Yes but this is my cave. I saw you crash outside and swim over."

Damn. He'd noticed me that long ago?

"What are you going to do to me?"

"Nothing. I'm actually intrigued as to why you aren't making your way to the hub where the infantry can find you."

"That would be a death wish."

"So is staying here."

"Are you threatening me?"

The Haai stepped closer into the light and laughed, a deep throaty laugh. Itachi could make out his features now – he was not a typical Haai. Yes, he had the same shark-like characteristics like the clammy blue fish skin, the deep ridged gills, piercing golden fish eyes and sharp pointed vampire teeth which existed to draw blood. However, he appeared more… human? He had less sharky characteristics, for example his face didn't come forward out of his body in a curvature and he didn't have a fin on his back. In addition, he had hair. Haai do not have hair. This one did – he had dark navy blue hair that was pulled up.

"I'm not threatening you, simply stating the obvious."

"Are you half human?" Itachi asked curiously, his concern for safety masked by his interest. If curiosity really did kill the cat, Itachi would be dead due to his thirst for knowledge. If it wasn't part of the family business and his parents hadn't pressured him into it, he would never have joined the Intergalactic Police Force or become a pilot – he would've done something in research, probably physics.

The Haai looked offended. "Human? Like you? As if! I'm 100% Haai."

"But you have hair."

The Haai gave Itachi a strange look. "You don't know much about Haai, do you?"

"I'd like to." Itachi acknowledged.

"So you can use it to kill us all?"

"I hadn't thought of that." Itachi said, surprise lighting his features. "Though I suppose war would be the inevitable result if the Alliance learned of any weakness among the Haai. Your species is not favorable Intergalactically."

"You speak so formally."

"We aren't friends."

"That's not something you want to remind the one who could kill you."

"I could kill you too."

The sharkman made a noise of disbelief with a smirk. "With what? Your fighter was blown into the water."

"You don't know what weapons I possess."

"I do, you have none."

"How would you know?"

"I can smell it. Your human weapons have a distinct smell."

Itachi was intrigued. "You can smell weapons? That's amazing."

"You're quite the weasel getting this information out of me. I should kill you."

"If you're going to kill me anyway…" Itachi trailed off. "How about answering some questions first?"

The sharkman stared. "What?"

"I mean… I want to know… I'm always curious. If I have to die, I'd rather die after satisfying just a little bit more of my curiosity." Itachi resigned himself. He couldn't win this battle, not without weapons when his allies were busy fighting their own battle. Outside a loud explosion was heard.

"I've heard humans are too curious for their own good."

"I suppose you heard right." Itachi got closer to the shark man so he could analyze his facial features better. He's actually not that bad looking…Heh… At least I can say I died by the hands of one sexy shark, not a bad way to go.

"You aren't afraid of me."

"Is that so surprising?"

"It's because you don't know who you're talking to."

"Why don't you enlighten me?"

"The name's Hoshigaki Kisame." The man proclaimed as if Itachi should recognize it. No bells were rung.

"What a nice name." Itachi commented, hoping it was sufficient.

The sharkman burst out into laughter once more, surprising Itachi. "Alright kid, I'll answer your questions."

"I'm 26."

"And I'm 73."

Itachi's eyes widened. "You don't look it. By human standards you look like you're perhaps 30."

"Haai live to be an average of 300 years." Kisame commented. "73 years would mean I'm basically only a young adult by my species standards. Besides, a human year is a different measurement from a Haai year."

"Good point, what's the conversion?"

"I already converted. I'm 73 years by human measurement."

"Oh. What's the conversion anyway?"

"4.55:1, Haai: Human."

"What did you mean earlier when you said I don't know anything about Haai?"

"There are different types of Haai. The ones you are most acquainted with are the kind that live primarily in the water. I am the kind that lives primarily in land. The two don't mix well."

"That's the only difference?"

"Aside from culture and such, yes. In the land we reign supreme, in the water, they do. We avoid each other."

"Why should I know you?"

"You shouldn't, you're a human."

"Fair enough."

And so the two conversed on Haai, the attack of the hub and other things for the next few hours. Somewhere in the middle, Itachi had taken his helmet off. As it got dark, Itachi sighed. It was more or less time to go.

"This was fun, Kisame." Itachi said with a genuine smile. "Please make it quick."

"Make what quick?"

"You're going to kill me."

"Why?"

"Well I…" Itachi's mind blanked for a moment. "Didn't you say you were going to do that?"

"I never said I was going to kill you. I just said I should kill you. There's a difference."

"Then why'd you answer my questions? What if I went and gave this information to the Intergalactic Alliance?"

"I don't think you could use any of it against us."

"Good point…" Although it was all interesting information, none of it could really be used against the Haai.

"Besides, I wouldn't care even if you did kill them all… I have no interest in them."

"You don't?" Itachi asked, tilting his head to the side in surprise.

"They are traitors to me… I have no loyalty towards the Haai. I'm on the run myself."

"So we're both kind of screwed here." Itachi offered.

"Pretty much."

"Well…" Itachi said, his mind whirring with possibilities. "Why don't we team up and get the hell out of here?"

Kisame observed Itachi for a while. "And go where?"

"You said you always wanted to command your own spaceship right?"

"Yeah."

"Get a spaceship. We will get out of here, get a spaceship for you, and get me back home."

"How the hell are we going to get a spaceship?"

"We can think about that after we get out of here. We'll both be killed if we're found right?"

"Fair enough but in case you haven't noticed we need a ship to get out."

"I did notice. Let's wait for the assault on the hub to finish before we raid the place for supplies, a computer and possibly a small ship. We need a map as well. If we play our cards right we can get everything we need."

"… Alright."

Itachi beamed and held out his hand, "to an alliance?"

Kisame raised an eyebrow and watched Itachi. "Is that some kind of weird human tradition?"

"Yes, we shake hands when we greet or make an alliance or something."

"I'll break your arm if we try to shake hands."

Itachi pulled his arm back. "On second thought…"

Kisame laughed. "This will be fun."

-.-.-

"I hate this." Nagato seethed as he counted the packages inside the crate, whipping his face around for a moment to get his deep red bangs out of his eyes.

"Just a little bit longer." Yahiko said, his long slender fingers closing shut the crates. "We'll get out of here."

"Why not go now? We can find a way to survive. We survived before and we can do it again. We don't need these bastards." Konan said, a hint of anger in her voice.

Yahiko sighed. "If only it were that easy… Let's just read what we can in our spare time so we can get a job on a starship. I want us all to have a more stable life."

Nagato and Konan nodded. Yahiko was their leader – they would follow him to the depths of hell.

-.-.-

"Admiral, there is no sign of Crow and the mechanized infantry have been killed. Mission is a failure." Sasuke said bitterly, holding back tears. His brother. His Brother. It took every ounce of his being to not go down to the engineering deck, take a starfighter and go searching for his brother himself. It would be a suicide mission, sure, but what else could he do? He felt hopeless.

Fugaku Uchiha sighed, his eyes closed momentarily. He had to think about the wellbeing of everyone. "Prepare the FTL drives and call the starfighters back to the gate." The Haai were more prepared than had been first anticipated. Did this mean they were expecting trouble? The likely death of his son left Fugaku feeling sickened, yet he refused to show that emotion. He was the Admiral and had to remain calm.

Sasuke let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. I'll kill you. I'll every last one of you Haai bastards. But first… I'll come back and search for my brother myself. I will find him.

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