Author's Notes: Hmm…Here's my favourite pairing, KisaNaru! I like the idea, but I actually don't like this fic all that much. I feel like something may be missing…some special atmosphere…but do read it anyway! Ahaha...eh...

But anyways, this is a prologue to a longer story I'm working on, involving also someone else… Oh yes, shocking love triangle drama! Let us fight over the shark! X)

Disclaimer: The whole wide Narutoverse and its great characters belong to Kishimoto Masashi-sama.

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Predatory Nature

Kisame sat in a table in his hotel room for the night. And of course it was also the room of his 16-year-old partner in crime. Bored, the blue-skinned man scratched the table with a dark blue-coated nail. Times like these made him wonder why he ever had joined the Akatsuki.

Here he was, in the same room with a gorgeous young male, and he couldn't even watch him sleep. And to think he had been so pleased to have landed Itachi as his partner. The boy was obviously gay, but as it turned out, also quite psychotic. Kisame hadn't wanted to risk his life by making suggestions.

Itachi didn't miss much, though. Amazingly fast for a person rather incapable to empathy he had picked up that his sharky partner had interests for him.

They hadn't talked about it, though, not until Kisame almost unintentionally made that joke to try and find out if he really couldn't have anything with the young Uchiha. After that day, Kisame hadn't let himself get drunk again. Not even slightly.

Still, he could have been a little more polite with his refusal. So bluntly he had just abandoned the make-believe joke and announced in his cold monotone that he would never consider a relationship with a fish. Damn brat. That wasn't proper.

After that Kisame hadn't even risked watching him the few times they had ended up sleeping in the same room or camp. And the most infuriating thing was he probably couldn't even teach the kid some manners, not with his Uchiha Bloodline Limit. And it would of course be nicer if the other guy liked it too…

Kisame rested his chin on his hand and glanced at the wall clock. Two hours till Itachi's watch. He was sleeping now to recover from severe chakra depletion caused by excessive use of his Sharingan. The day had not been good to Kisame, either. A couple of the last days hadn't been good. In the last few days he had been scratched in the cheek, kicked in the face, and publicly ordered around by Itachi, not to mention the weird visit to a frog's digestion system. And every single opponent they had fought still lived. And they hadn't gotten the Kyuubi kid. They had fled from that old pervert, the two of them, mostly because Itachi had decided he had used his Sharingan too much already.

Kisame bet it was actually his little brother. Itachi hadn't wanted to kill the old pervert because then he would have had to kill his brother, too. Kisame couldn't possibly fathom why the boy would want to spare that annoying, ill-mannered little wimp. He could have easily finished his "foolish brother" with one blow, but hadn't. Again, apparently. It was aggravating to find out that the Uchiha prodigy had concealed this much. Kisame had known about his clan's massacre, but it seemed there were still at least three Sharingan users alive – and soon they'd probably come across the fourth, some aunt or whatever the mental Uchiha had decided to let live!

Sighing quietly, the big man determined that next he needed to find someone with a tad sunnier disposition. Travelling around with the cold-blooded former Leaf was starting to frustrate him…in more ways than one.

On that note, his thoughts unexpectedly turned to the Kyuubi kid. That loud, naïve, blonde little brat. That kid had actually just stepped out from his hotel room, just like that, when a suspicious stranger told him to. He wasn't much of a ninja although his demon chakra had been pretty impressive. Then again, he was only 12 years old. But then again, so had Kisame, Itachi and many other ninja been when they had already killed several times. Peaceful times apparently raised weak ninja.

It was kind of cute, though. He had just stood there gawking like a little hamster or something, with his messy blonde hair and whisker marks. And whose idea had it been to dress the kid in orange? But he was an orphan, wasn't he? So it was probably himself. No style at all, poor thing.

Kisame caught himself smiling his sharp-teethed grin. Hm. He stopped thinking for a while and went through that last thought pattern again, coming to a surprising conclusion.

Thinking about the little twelve-year-old demon vessel made him feel all warm and fuzzy and something else.

This was new.

The shark-like Akatsuki had long since accepted that he wasn't what you might call perfectly healthy, in a psychological sort of way. He was drooling over a 16-year-old boy, wasn't he? Uchiha Itachi really didn't count as a child, though, and most certainly not as helpless. Uzumaki Naruto, on the other hand…sweet, innocent and twelve years old. This was a whole new level.

Kisame was quite surprised that he found himself coveting a little boy. Clearly a child. That was really sick, wasn't it? It almost made him feel bad, too. Besides, he had always thought pedophiles to be cowards. What was the point…with a small child? But he couldn't deny it.

If that Naruto had been here, he'd have probably at least kissed him. Maybe pet him some. Hmm. How weird that something like this had just…occurred. Maybe it was just because of Itachi and the frustrations he caused, and it would pass?

He wasn't really believing it. Based on his experience, things like these didn't tend to pop up and fade away, but came to stay. So, now he was gay, a bloodthirsty killer and a pedophile? The room was very silent and Kisame heard someone walking past in the corridor. He pinched the bridge of his nose. This was getting sort of depressing…

----

After the failed Kyuubi retrieval mission Kisame had been feeling kind of down. He had decided to get a vacation to have some alone time from his fellow Akatsuki members. Especially Itachi had started to get on his nerves. Unfortunately he hadn't been able to leave until doing assignments with his sulky partner for another month or so.

In the end, the vacation hadn't done much to improve his mood. He had spent the first half of his free week travelling around, but then he had settled in a sizeable town for the rest of the time. Right now he was walking on a narrow street in the more suspicious part of the town.

He wasn't even looking for a fight, it just so happened that all the town's gay bars were here. Having concluded to try and find some relief to his frustrations, as that might help his mood, he had spent the best part of the night in one of them.

Because he was an S-class wanted criminal and rather easy to recognise to boot he had resulted in a transformation technique. He hadn't changed very much, just the gills, eyes and other obvious traits. He had also abandoned his black and red Akatsuki coat and the scratched Mist forehead protector. Even his trusty weapon Samehada had stayed behind in the hotel room.

So now he looked completely normal. Well, unusually tall, but normal. Getting company in the bar hadn't been that hard at all. A pretty boy he had bought a drink to had even called him handsome. That might have gotten somewhere, but suddenly Kisame had just felt too annoyed to stay any longer. He never liked using a transformation, and getting company like that had started to feel even worse. Like cheating. In a weird way Kisame was proud of all his shark-like characteristics, and giving in to the society of "normal" people by hiding that…that wasn't him. If they couldn't stomach his unique features, it was their problem. He was he, and that was the way he had always been and would always be to his dying day.

And besides, it would have been troublesome if the transformation had been released while with the boy, as it well might have if everything had went according to his plans. Kisame didn't feel like going through trouble like that this night.

Striding in the dark streets, still not rid of his bad mood, his thoughts again turned to the Kyuubi kid. Before he could snuff it out, a thought floated across his mind: "He probably was the kind of person who wouldn't mind honesty…who would understand him and like him as who he was…though providing that he somehow liked him, first…"

Growling, Kisame pulled his now dark grey hair. He should stop thinking about such useless thoughts. Rubbing his head hard he picked up his pace. He would just go back to his room and sleep. Maybe have a bottle or two of sake before that, now that the Uchiha brat wasn't here to bother him…

Suddenly he stopped in his tracks and blinked. Now he was hearing things? He could have sworn to have heard the little blonde's voice…

And there it was again. Kisame looked at a dimly lit side street starting left some distance from where he was. He wasn't an S-class ninja for nothing, so he shouldn't be that wrong…there couldn't be two kids in this world with such a loud, annoying voice, could there?

After a brief moment of hesitation, Kisame quickly but silently disappeared to the direction of the voice.

He stopped on a shadowy rooftop overlooking a miserable little dead-end alley littered with large boxes and barrels. In silent awe he stared at the boy whose voice he had recognised. Speak of the devil.

Neither Uzumaki Naruto or the three men blocking the alley's exit noticed the shark Akatsuki. The blonde looked as stupid as ever, hiding his worry behind a silly angry expression. Kisame could easily see that the three men were hostile towards Naruto, standing so that he couldn't run from the alley and close enough to catch him if he tried to escape to the rooftops. Judging from their postures all three were ninja. The two situated next to the walls even had standard shuriken holsters, but none of them wore forehead protectors.

Naruto's high voice rang in the alley. He was telling the men to get lost and that he was not going to pay the Ero-Sennin's bills. Kisame weighed the threesome and estimated that the kid should be able to handle them, especially if he had received some further training from his "pervert hermit".

He was more occupied with deciding what to do himself. Here was the Kyuubi vessel on a silver platter, by some incredible stroke of luck in the same town as he and currently separated from his lecherous protector. If he had been with that Jiraiya, Kisame maybe wouldn't have considered attacking without the help of his partner, but like this… Bringing in the ninth Jinchuuriki alone would be a nice retort to the snobby Uchiha… Not to mention…having Naruto all for himself before that.

The situation in the alley suddenly escalated in to a fight after the third man, the one standing in the middle, finished asking about Jiraiya and trying to intimidate Naruto by telling him about his allegedly famous achievements as a former Stone nin. The kid had flung one insult too many and now faced the man's two friends scissor-attacking him.

He held his ground nicely, creating about five shadow clones, avoiding a few kunai, then sending nin number one headfirst to the wall with a nifty throw and tackling the other one with two clones. Kisame was still trying to decide which way to act when he observed Naruto mess up. He was concentrating too much on finishing the tackled nin number two and didn't notice the third man speeding at him from a dead angle. He had used an ordinary clone to trick Naruto about his position.

Kisame's body acted on its own and the third nin found himself pinned to a wall with a large hand on his throat and another one holding his fist and the tento in it high above his head. His eyes widened, looking up to the looming attacker. He stared into a pair of steady, unblinking eyes that regarded him like something small and skittery. Like prey.

He screamed undignifiedly loud as his fingers broke around the knife's handle. He tried to struggle free but the huge man was leaning on him and effectively stopped him from moving. A panic seemed to be coming over him as he watched the expression change on his assailant's face. A twisted, unfriendly smile.

Too fast for the former Stone to react his hand was brought down with such force and in an angle that caused his shoulder to crack and come out of its socket. He didn't have time for more than start the scream as the same hand that had shattered his arm pressed to his forehead and for a moment he felt intense pressure.

--

Naruto heard a sickening crack and a nasty wet sound from behind him. He had noticed he had received unexpected help but he had had to keep his attention on his conscious opponent. Three of his shadow clones now held the man down and the real Naruto could turn his eyes to his surprise ally.

The twelve-year-old Leaf Genin felt his mouth go dry as he saw a large, red splatter on the wall behind the tallest man he remembered ever having seen. The man had helped him but he had never seen him before and didn't know anything about him….or did he…

The hair in the back of Naruto's neck bristled. The man felt dangerous…and pretty good evidence to back that up was that he had apparently squished the boss thug like a bug. Quite literally. Naruto's blue eyes trailed to the corpse lying in the ground.

The boy quickly closed his eyes and got up, rubbing the back of his head. He made his lips smile his usual fake smile. He was rather good at that. In the background, his clones had knocked the nin number two unconscious.

"H-heh…Umm…thanks for the help…" he said as cheerily as he could. The brutally killed thug was really, really creepy, but as a ninja he shouldn't…be troubled with it…

The man had remained his back at Naruto, apparently taking in his handiwork, but now he slowly turned his head and looked at Naruto. He seemed sort of surprised. Naruto spotted a speck of blood on his cheek.

For a moment they just stared at each other and the big man didn't blink even once. Creepy, creepy, creepy… Naruto thought he looked somehow familiar, but he couldn't place the face anywhere. He thought he might have seen a black overalls outfit like the man had somewhere, too. He didn't look very old, 30 tops. He had a short black and blue jacket.

"Uhmm…" Naruto uttered. It looked like the man was expecting something. "You're a ninja too, right? Are you undercover or something since you don't have a forehead protector?" He was nervous, but he had no reason not to try and talk with this possible new ally.

--

Kisame stared at Naruto. He was still leaning on the wall where he had popped the miserable little ninja's head. The brat…didn't recognise him. A crooked smile tugged at his lips. How he hated not being remembered like that. It was oddly disappointing…

But it would make catching the kid easier, not that Kisame needed it to be. If he had almost been skewered by that now-headless ninja, he was still a ridiculously easy catch.

Kisame turned around all the way now. For some reason he positioned himself so that his body still covered Naruto's view of the most of the gory mess behind him.

"Look, it's okay if you don't wanna answer, I understand, but you could say something…it's not like I couldn't have handled that myself eventually, so you don't need to despise me that much…" Naruto said with a sulky pout, but Kisame guessed he was nervous.

"Okay, I get it…maybe you don't wanna introduce yourself before I do it first. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage of Hidden Leaf Village!" the blonde bragged with a broad grin. In the end, he still didn't seem to have any sense of self preservation.

"Hmm…for a Hokage, I don't think you read the situation too well."

"Meh, so maybe I didn't notice him immediately, but that guy wouldn't have gotten me that good…" Naruto said, annoyed.

Kisame almost blurted out "that's not what I really meant". Sure, the kid was dense, but that sort of made him cute. And those whisker marks… Now that he paid attention to them, they looked like scars…he wondered how deep they were. "So, where's this "pervert hermit" you discussed about?" he asked, keeping his voice level.

"Oh, him! He left me alone again to get a hotel room and just disappeared, but he didn't even leave me any money to get it with! I know he's around here somewhere…in the….um, in the…" The kid had waved his arms around expressively while talking but now he just blushed a bit.

Geez…Kisame was amazed he didn't notice him staring at him. Or the way he stared. But now he knew that pervert Jiraiya wasn't going to show up to come to Naruto's aid…

--

While the two discussed the second ninja, the one Naruto had tackled and also knocked unconscious, came to. His eyes hit the mauled body of his boss and he panicked. He managed to pull out a hidden kunai and stab one of the shadow clones holding him down, making it disappear in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto didn't react fast enough and with just him the man would have escaped, but now, even though he had shook off the two remaining clones, he wasn't quick enough to avoid Kisame.

Not wasting any time to complex techniques wit this miserable ninja Kisame simply grabbed the back of the fleeing man's tunic and pulled him back while twisting him around and brought his other hand to his jaw. His neck made a loud snap when cracking like a twig.

A lifeless corpse folded to the ground as Kisame let go of its clothes. Naruto swallowed hard as he watched the head loll from side to side. He had witnessed death and killing before, just …not like this, not after that one time with Gaara…

Naruto looked up to the man, now very close to him. He finally realized he truly was in a dark back alley in the nasty part of the town with an unknown, extremely strong ninja who had just brutally snuffed out two other ninja. He felt a chill go over him as the corners of the stranger's mouth ever so slightly turned up…

--

Kisame saw this was a good time to act. The little Kyuubi kid was here, ready to be plucked like a ripe apple, just for him. They could screw the fact he was Itachi's decided target, and they could screw the three year plan. Even the leader would probably back him up with this one…

And if he wanted to do something with him before turning him in, what would they have to say on it? It wouldn't affect the demon. And Kisame estimated the benefits to be greater than the possible punishment. And there probably wasn't going to be any. So, why not?

Kisame could feel his familiar smile creeping to his face. It had been famous in Hidden Mist. Hoshigaki Kisame's insane smile.

Naruto looked up to him with his big, blue eyes wide open. The ruffled blonde hair, pointing this way and that. His little mouth slightly open. Kisame could see a bit down the odd, white collar of his blue and orange coat, his neck and collar bones. Ah, yes.

Why the hell not?

--

Naruto was lying alone in the dark room. He was roused from his restless sleep as someone opened the door quietly. He pretended to be asleep but opened his left eye a bit to peek at the person coming in. In the darkness he just barely discerned a tall figure approaching him.

Naruto jumped up and flicked the light on, screaming: "Where the hell have you been, Ero-Sennin! And how the hell did you find me and how the hell did you get in?"

"Aahh, be quiet, you! It's late, you'll wake up everyone in the hotel…" the white-haired man shushed him. His cheeks were red from sake and spending time with the girls of the red light district.

"Like you care! Spill it out, you pervert geezer!" Naruto stomped the bed.

"Geez…you're not that hard to find and I have my ways with locks, so shut up now! I think I'm getting a headache…"

"Serves you right! You left me with no money!"

Jiraiya sobered up a little. "…Then how did you get a room?"

"Ah, I met this weird ninja with no forehead protector and after he had helped me with some of your creditors, he lent me the money." Naruto looked sort of silly, pouting and arms crossed. "He was really, really tall! Even taller than you, Ero-Sennin. He didn't tell me his name although I asked and…"

"What? Naruto, where did you meet him? And you haven't seen him before? What was he like? …You know, you're much, much too naïve…trusting a stranger like that… Who knows, he might have been an Akatsuki member for all you know!" Jiraiya seemed quite serious now, getting past his night in the brothels.

"Pshaw, yeah right! They go around in those stupid cloaks and hats. And they're on a three-year break, too, right? And anyways, if he had been an Akatsuki or something I wouldn't be here, would I?"

Naruto slumped down on the bed as Jiraiya sat on his own, shaking his head. The blonde Genin frowned and put his finger to his lips. He looked back on the situation and it had indeed been odd in a way. The man had been all spooky first and looked at him in a disconcerting way, but then he had gotten this sort of desperate look on his face and just offered to lend the money. Naruto had no idea what had been going on with him, but he had decided that the mystery ninja was a nice person. The Genin sighed and fell to his back on the bed, putting his hands behind his head. He looked at the ceiling and listened as Jiraiya settled for sleep.

"Maa, it's too bad really that he didn't even tell me his name or anything…how am I supposed to ever pay him back?"

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Author's Notes: Well, see, there wasn't anything nasty…it was all cute and fluffy. (Corpses! XD Cute and fluffy corpses!) I think I just couldn't write Kisame as such a bad guy. Shota is…quite fine by me, as long as they don't really rape a 12-or-something-year old child. That would be a bit too much even for me…

But anyways…hope you don't mind the weirdness of it all and if someone actually reads this, do leave a comment or I won't believe it happened:D

And I invented a whole new adverb for me. sweatdrop I just had to say that thing in a certain way… It's in there somewhere.

And it seems I'm Uchiha-bashing again… Sorry if you don't like it but I just can't resist the urge. X)