Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (Big Sigh)

Bushido: Way of the Warrior

Summary: Kisame Hoshigaki was well on the road to infamy and he was not about to let some blonde shrimp derail his mission to enter the Villain's Hall of Fame. Oh well. Better men than him have tried.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chapter 1

"Any moment now…" Naruto muttered to himself, raising his head from behind the shrubbery with excruciating care, half expecting Miyabi to jump out from behind the dense foliage.

Naruto frowned, straining his ears for an inkling of those elusive footsteps. But the only sound that teased his senses was the monotonous orchestra of the surrounding forest. Some of those strange sounds the six year old recognized, some he didn't.

It was all fascinating in his bright cerulean eyes, right from the trees that stood so tall, with their dark leaves forming a natural lattice across the turquoise sky, to the strange small creatures that skirted past him sometimes. After all, he had never before set foot outside Konoha before.

'Still' Naruto thought to himself, watching the dust play elusively in the golden beams that filtered on to the forest floor. 'I wish Miyabi-chan would hurry'

Naruto tilted his head a little to the side; squinting his eyes to reaffirm his belief. He was sure that at this angle the rock looked a lot like a sleeping seal complete with a small nose and a pair of upturned flippers.

He scratched his head, frowning a little. He had been waiting for four hours. Miyabi-chan should have been here by now. She had promised.

The boy frowned, not liking the churning sensation at the pit of his stomach. It was almost as if he had eaten bad milk or too much of Houshi's cooking.

"Did I get the place right?"

It was, what many would call, a comfortable afternoon. The lengthning shadows heralded the arrival of dusk and a lazy breeze wafted through the great play ground soothing sweaty brows. It was mostly deserted except for the small group of children who were busy playing tag oblivious of the little boy that stood behind a wall watching them.

'Should I? …' The boy's eyes were wistful. 'No' He shook his head, thin shoulders wracked in a heavy sigh. 'They would not let me join them anyway.'

Then he looked up, all uncertainty gone from his posture, his eyebrows knitted together, the smiling mouth set in mulish lines. He would make them change their minds. Little fingers curled into fists. He would make them accept him!

"Hi!" He stepped out of the shadows grinning broadly. "I am Uzumaki Naruto" He announced with a flourish.

The play ground was suddenly as silent as a tomb. The group of children stood rooted to their spot, mouths gaping, wide eyes staring at the blonde boy, their game forgotten.

Naruto had noticed the awful silence, it made him feel uncomfortable … like he had done something bad.

"I …I..." He fumbled with the words, his fingers curled and uncurled. "I was wondering if I could play with you."

A soft murmur flirted through the playground like the gentle summer breeze before a tall girl stepped forward.

"No."

The monosyllable was uttered sharply and with a crushing clarity.

Naruto face fell when he heard the no from the tall brunette and something pricked at the corner of his cerulean eyes. Shoulders slumped he turned to go.

"You can't play with us here." Her voice called him back. "Because we are going to play somewhere else. So, do you want to come with us?"

Naruto nodded eagerly, not trusting his voice.

"Good." The tall girl smiled tightly ignoring the glances her friends were throwing at her. "I am Miyabi." She tilted her head a little to the side. "We are going to play hide and seek now. Come on."

The boy's face lit up, those bright blue eyes almost shone. "Really?" He could not trust his own good fortune.

"Of course silly." She smiled; a strange glitter in her brown eyes.

Naruto almost jumped up. "That's great! I love hide and seek." He was so happy that he missed the wink that Miyabi threw at her displeased friends.

"But…" Miyabi frowned. "Do you know that place in the western forest; right beside a huge …err... seal shaped rock. That's where we play our games."

"But that's outside of the village walls." Naruto squinted. "And Sarutobi-jiji said never to leave the village. He said there are animals… and bad men." He added hesitantly.

Miyabi towered over the smaller boy, curling a brown strand in her fingers.

"But that's where we play. And I never saw any bad men." She shrugged her shoulder. "If you don't wanna play then it's all right."

"No" Naruto almost screamed. "Where exactly is this place?"

A stray leaf settling on Naruto's nose drew him out of his reverie. He put up a hand and plucked the offending leaf off. He was fairly certain that Miyabi had asked him to come here and hide.

He stretched his hands, his body felt a little stiff from crouching all this time. He was also getting a little hungry. He rubbed his tummy, frowning a little.

A moist breath tickled the base of his neck. He jumped up, eyes wild, looking around. Something had changed. Mist poured into the air, like fine particles of smoke, curling up from the forest floor, tracing its wet foggy fingers across the fat boughs of the tall trees.

The forest had fallen oddly silent. The trees that had once appeared so indulgent now looked downright sinister to his eyes. Their gnarled branches looked like the faces of Naruto's nightmares grinning at him through the white shroud.

Panic flooded Naruto and he found himself running away from the smiling trees. The air had turned colder but sweat coated the boy's brow. He paused, finally resting his back across a tree trunk, his breath coming in small gasps.

He looked around, feeling hopelessly adrift in the misty ocean, his latent self preservation instincts kicking in.

Now that he was sure that he was hopelessly lost, he could concentrate on the one question that had been bothering him.

"Where did all this fog come from?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was with a feeling of bored detachment that he watched the play of light and shadow on the forest floor.

"It has been a while." Kisame's lips curved upwards, rows of jagged white teeth bared into one of his more charming smiles. "I thought that my village had forgotten about me."

Barely a leaf rustled in the canopy that surrounded him and the forest floor. Samehada's golden hilt hummed in his hand, suddenly eager.

He inhaled. There was nothing better than the scent of fear.

"What? Aren't you going answer me?"

He could see the mist curl up from the ground, slowly spreading like a white shroud over the land, eclipsing the trees and their dark leaves. Kisame's smile broadened.

"You are very rude." He could not stop the slight inflection of humor in his voice as he gazed into the familiar white masks. "And your technique is execrable."

For an infinitesimal second Time stood still, holding her breath as the swordsman and the masked ninjas stared at each other, the mist curling around their bodies like a wanton lover.

Muted light glinted on the edges of the thousand shurikens as they cut through the mist in a silent symphony of death. Kisame was carried off his feet as the jagged edges sliced through his flesh, teetering backwards before disappearing in a whiff of smoke.

"A replacement technique."

Long practice kept their voice emotionless, stilted eyes resting on the much mutilated tree trunk.

Their bodies were still taut like the string of a bow, unmoving as a statue, fine tuned senses searching for the barest trace of their prey in the chilling silence which hung over the glade.

"That's right, genius." The disembodied voice was sharply sarcastic.

Without warning the ground heaved, buckling like a living creature before erupting upwards in a flurry of dirt and stones. Kisame rose from the depths with the fluid grace of the predator he so resembled closing in on his hapless prey before they had a chance to react.

He landed gracefully on the ground, his cloak pooling around him in a black mass, carrying his trophy on Samehada's tip. With a casual movement he flicked the sword sending the lifeless body flying across the clearing.

"Back in my day, our teachers used to kill their students for such ungraceful footwork." Kisame chuckled; it was a most unpleasant sound. "Well I suppose it's never too late"

He lunged forward, trailing Samehada behind him.

The Hunters circled him patiently, biding their time like hungry wolves, waiting for that elusive opening, throwing that occasional kunai or shuriken to test his defenses.

"Oh." He teased. "So you have a plan now!"

He moved in a well synchronized, unpredictable way deflecting the shurikens with practiced ease. His feet traced circles on the green forest floor and Samehada twirled, swinging gracefully from his hands.

Suddenly the strange, mesmeric dance stopped and Kisame smiled. Rows of pointed teeth glinted cruelly in the muted sunlight. He was done playing cat and mouse.

He moved forward with frightening speed, his huge body blurring as he brought Samehada crashing down on one of his assailants. The sheer momentum of the heavy sword was so frightening that it smashed through the kunai that the ninja had put up for self defense, ripping through the his body like butter.

His partner rushed in to assist his ailing comrade. Kisame twirled, his foot colliding with the Hunter's gut sending the man flying across the clearing and into a tree, ripping bits of bark and wood, before sinking to the ground in a boneless heap.

The sole remaining Hunter stood alone. Kisame could almost taste the fear that rolled off him in waves.

"And then there was one."

"Monster!" The ninja screamed launching himself at Kisame, his kunai aimed at Kisame's heart.

"Monster?" He dodged the attack. "How unoriginal."

His left hand forked out striking the ninja's elbow breaking the bone with an audible crunch. The Kunai flew from his hands. Kisame grabbed the man by his neck and hoisted him above the ground. The ninja clawed at his hand and kicked fruitlessly in the air.

Kisame's eyes narrowed as his fingers tightened around his neck. The ninja's movements became more frantic, more desperate.

"And then there was none …" The bone snapped under his fingers and he let the body pass through his fingers like water, crumpling like sodden paper at his feet. "That wasn't so bad. Right Samehada?"

Samehada's hilt throbbed angrily in his hands, not quite agreeing with his master. It had hoped for a better challenge.

"Come out now! I know you are there." Kisame pointed Samehada at the bush to his left. "Don't make me come and get you" He said in a most sinister sing-song voice.

The bush parted revealing a little boy, of maybe six years or less. The boy was looking directly at him with defiant blue eyes; face puckered into what he no doubt considered to be a brave expression. Frankly he was pulling it off quite well if it weren't for the fact that his knees were knocking together.

"Oh?" Kisame non existent brows rose. "You're a kid?"

"Yeah." The kid shot back, face flushed. "And you are blue!" His voice quivered.

A vein twitched at the side of his head. "I know my skin color kid!" He favored the child with a smirk.

The little legs started shaking more rapidly.

But what surprised Kisame was that neither he nor Samehada had detected his presence. Yet now that the boy stood in front of him, he was radiating an unusually large chakra signature. Also that face was a dead ringer of a certain other ninja Kisame knew.

A rare frown graced Kisame's face. "Who are you?"

The boy made a valiant effort to look brave, blue eyes faced him. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto!" He announced, his voice ringing through the enclosure.

"Well Uzumaki Naruto, did no one ever tell you that spying on grown ups when they play is a bad thing?" Kisame smiled, hoisting Samehada on his shoulder.

"Didn't look like a game to me" Naruto said puffing up his cheeks, crossing his arms across his chest. "It looked like you broke them"

"That's how adults play! You wouldn't know anything about it since you are a kid." Kisame shot back, hiding the amused glint that had crept into his eyes. 'Break, that's a nice way of putting it. Very poetic and all.'

He stalked forward.

The kid scowled retreating backwards, holding up a hand, as if ordering him to stop. "Wait!"

Kisame paused, tilting his head he said softly, his expression not unlike that of a cat eyeing a rather unappetizing morsel. "Oh?"

"Are you one of those bad men Sarutobi-jiji told me about?"

'You watch me kill all those men and you reach that conclusion now!' Kisame ran a hand through his upright blue hair. "Yes I suppose you could say that, I am a bad man!"

"Are all bad men blue?"

"I don't know!" Kisame snapped. Why was he even having this conversation? "I know for a fact that there a lot of bad men who aren't blue"

"Oh." Naruto pondered. "I like blue."

'That's a first.' Kisame mentally snorted.

"I also like Ramen. Do you like ramen?"

"I guess I like it … especially miso ramen. But it's kind of hard to get where I live. Also I don't think the people I live with like …" Kisame skidded to a halt, mentally frowning.

He, Kisame Hoshigaki was having this kind of a conversation with a six year old!

He hoisted Samehada on his shoulders and strode over to the boy. The knocking of those legs had visibly reduced and Kisame now found himself the target of a small watery smile.

Surprisingly Kisame didn't find himself returning the child's smile. His angular face had gone very serious. Those who knew him would understand the havoc that expression heralded.

"Where do you live?"

"Konoha. Do you live there too?" The kid was staring at him with big round cerulean eyes full of questions and naive trust.

"No" He said flatly, as he brought Samehada crashing down.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kisame waited for the dust to settle, Samehada oddly silent in his hand.

Before the dust settled a soft voice asked, anger brimming in them "Are you trying to play with me? I don't like the breaking game."

The dust cleared floating away like a tattered brown curtain to reveal the boy standing a little further off from the carter that Samehada had dug.

He was frowning, face was a little cloaked in grime and his blonde hair even more messed up than before but other than that he was perfectly uninjured. Not even his clothes had been scratched.

Shock was all that registered in Kisame's mind. He stared disbelievingly at the boy, his mouth a little open. 'A little shrimp like that …' He looked at Samehada and then turned to gaze at the boy. 'Dodged Samehada?'

Was that even possible?

"Fish-sama" The kid shouted a little loudly this time. "What were you trying to do?" Little golden brows knitted together and cheeks puffed in anger making those tiny whisker like marks even more pronounced..

"I was trying to kill you" He responded still surprised. "I am bad man. Remember?"

"Then it's quite all right." The Kid smiled like that cleared everything up. "You can go ahead then"

What?

Kisame looked at the little child with amazement before his thin lips curved upwards in a nasty sneer. His blood shot eyes glittered cruelly.

"Oh?" He drawled.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

AN: This is my first fan fiction so any review, creative criticism is highly appreciated.

Keep Reading!