"Do you have the things you need, pup?" Kisame questioned. Sakura nodded, gripping the straps of her backpack. Papa said it was time to ree-low-kate for a few weeks, or stay in a different country for a little bit while Ame was getting 'sweeped' by some shinobi that weren't from there. She also heard from Leader-sama that it was customary because of Ame's 'suspicious' activity as of recently, and it had only been a matter of time until the other nations noticed.

So the Akatsuki would spread out and lay low until the 'suspicious'-ness tided over.

Or as her Papa said, it was going to be kinda like a vacation. She'd never been outside Amegakure before.

"We're gonna have to be real careful while we're out there," he said, tugging the hood over her head and picking her up. "Hunter-nin might be after me while we're out there and I might have to fight, but whatever happens, they can't know about you."

Sakura peeked over his shoulder as he began to move over the rooftops to the outer walls of the village. "They're gonna kill me?"

What did it mean if he would feel remorse at the death of the innocent?

"They might," Kisame admitted, the thought ugly and bitter on his tongue.  "You just gotta hope they're the ones that won't."

By the time they were in the thick forests, it was the dead of night. Humidity held hefty in the air with only Kisame's and Sakura's quiet words to fill the silence.

"Do you remember your cover story?" he asked. Before they'd left, he spent all of the night before crafting a reason for her being with him if she ever got caught, as much as it pained him to go through every inch of her life to rewrite him out of it. She nodded against his collarbone.

"My name's Sakura and I don't have a Mama," she recited. "Mama died when I was a baby and Papa was a merchant. He left a year ago and didn't come back. I don't know where he went. I live in Ame."

"Why were you with Hoshigaki Kisame?"

"He took me."

"Why?"

"A dis-trac-tion? I dunno why, but since I didn't have anyone he said no one would miss me," she said. She lifted her head and stared at her father's profile. "But that's not true, huh? You'd miss me if I was gone?"

What did it mean to be a "villain"?

It was an honest question filled with childish curiosity, but her words enough made his heart curl up in an unsightly way. He stopped on a low branch to take a moment to press a kiss to her forehead before setting off again.

What did it mean to take the fall for another?

"I'd miss you every single day, pup."

What did it mean to love someone?

::

Yamashiro Aoba specialized in intelligence and was assigned to the team that was to gather information on an S-Class missing-nin that had been spotted lurking around Fire Country and was heading towards the other side of the mainland continent. That missing-nin had also been said to have caused the deaths of a platoon of genjutsu users in Amegakure a year back—he was armed, dangerous, and wanted dead or alive.

Aoba thought it was a bad idea to tail with a renowned criminal like the one they were after, but he was a threat to both Konoha and the villages surrounding it and would be better off apprehended than have a chance to wreak the havoc he normally brought with him.

So he and his team settled in a small trading village where Hoshigaki had reportedly been headed and took their positions near an abandoned warehouse a block or two away from the only inn in town.

"I'm going to set explosives around the perimeter," one of Aoba's teammates informed, taking out a handful of tags as they stood under a tarp to shield themselves from the heavy rain. "If he really is coming this way, we should have a back up if he catches us."

"It won't work," commented another team member. "This is Hoshigaki Kisame we're talking about. One of the Seven Swordsmen. Monster of the Mist. The Tail-less Tailed Beast. You think bombs are going to stop him?"

"Just let him do it. It won't hurt to take precautions," Aoba sighed. Their team leader finally turned her head towards them after carefully scanning their surroundings.

"Hoshigaki shouldn't be expecting us," she said. "When we track him, we'll gauge the situation. If we're in over our heads, we're high tailing the hell out of here—Hokage-sama wants at least some info on our guy. We can't give it to him dead."

::

Four hours into taking refuge in the merchant stop-over, Kisame could feel something wrong in the pit of his stomach. It started out as a small coil of unease when he first arrived, but it slowly snowballed into a cyst of paranoia that screamed at him to leave. But he couldn't. If he carried on any further in this pelting rain that extended his whole journey here, then Sakura had every real chance of getting pneumonia or hypothermia due to her young age and weaker immune system.

He glanced over his shoulder and watched her happily slurp her soup for a moment before gazing back out the window.

This is why he never took her on missions. Threats against him were expected.

Hell, he was a threat.

What did it mean to surrender yourself to become a demon?

But those threats extended to her by default, and that was simply unacceptable.

An abandoned warehouse caught his eye from the edge of his window view, prompting him to fell for some of his chakra-suppressing seals he kept in his pouch to help in avoiding detection.

What did it mean to have never changed from who you once were?

"Pup?" he called softly. She looked up from her meal.

"Yeah, Papa?"

"Leave your things here and come with me," he murmured. "You're gonna have to hide for an hour or two."

Sakura tensed at the serious expression on his face and obeyed immediately, pushing herself away from the small table and hurrying over to his side. Her hair was up in a ponytail, just like he told her, in case she had to fight anyone.

"Your cover story's really important, okay? Don't forget it."

She nodded.

"Good... and pup?"

She looked up at him, wide-eyed and waiting, and Kisame couldn't help but spot the poorly hidden fear at the edges of her stare.

"Remember I'll always come back for you."

::

"He's on the move," the team leader announced. "Yamashiro, stay here and mind the traps. You two, come with me. We're going to make sure he doesn't get away! Corner him to the warehouse if any chance comes!"

The coms echoed at the order and Aoba ran to the other side of the small merchant village, slipping through a broken window of the warehouse as the rest of his team shot after the blur in the distance. He landed on the concrete flooring with a soft tap. The explosives should be covering all four walls and the dry crates littering the area should be enough to fuel the fire for a big enough blast despite the rain outside. If he could find some gasoline and cover the—

Shiff.

He paused and cast an eye through the darkened building. A rat? Those were common enough.

Shiff.

Knock.

Okay. So not a rat. Aoba silently crept through the hole-ridden boxes and wood and slats and shards of glass until he happened upon a stack of old junk in one of the far corners. Preparing himself for a trap—as an unprecedented trap in a bomb trap wasn't on his list of most favorable situations—he peered at the source of the noise and braced himself for the worst.

But what he saw could be classified as something just as bad.

The scared little girl in front of him tried to edge herself away the moment she spotted his black hair and glasses.

Aoba panicked.

"Wh-What are you doing here?!" he sputtered. "Are you-you lost or something—oh my—you're not supposed to be here, it's dangerous!"

The girl didn't reply, only backing up even further against the rough walls. Her voice was small and timid, inquiring and sad, as she quaked slightly under his shocked stare. "Are you gonna kill me?" 

His heart broke for her.

"No... No, of course no, I'd never..." he trailed off. A kid in a warehouse waiting for death? What were the chances? "What's your name?"

Her bottom lip wobbled. "Sakura."

"Sakura," Aoba repeated softly. He tried to take a step towards her, but she only tried to back up even more and he stopped to put his hands up in a sign of peace. "Sorry, sorry, I'll stay over here. Um, where are your parents?"

"Mama's dead. Papa hasn't come back in a long time," she answered quietly. "I live in Ame."

Amegakure was at least a week's journey from this part of Fire Country, and an even longer travel for civilians. Unless her father was some shinobi that he doubted existed in this village, he found it safe to deduce that her father was either dead or that she'd been abandoned.

A thought struck. Unless...

"Sakura, do you know who Hoshigaki Kisame is? A blue guy with a big sword?" he questioned. She shifted and sniffed, nodding minutely.

"He took me," she whispered. "A dis... distraction? He said 'cause I didn't have anyone, no one would miss-hic-me..."

Aoba started panicking again once she started crying. He was about to reach out and try to calm her down, her being an obvious victim in this horrible turn of events, but his com crackled to life as the barking orders of his team leader shot through his ear drums.

"Blow the whole-ksh-damn-ksh-Ya-ksh-iro!"

His hand flew to his neck to press the button of his communicator.

"The warehouse?!"

"Hoshi-ksh-headi-ksh-loca-ksh!"

"But—"

"NOW!"

Aoba scooped Sakura into his arms before diving out of the building as quick as he could and set off the chain of bombs in his wake. The girl's pink hair fluttered freely around her shoulders as she stared up at the bright orange flames of the place she was told not to leave until Papa got back. 

Papa.

"Papa said he was gonna come back for me," she whimpered, clinging onto the man's green vest. The fire was getting farther and farther away, and so was the village. "Papa said he was gonna come back..."

::

Kisame was a minute away from the warehouse when it exploded and sent him soaring back a good few meters. He coughed and wiped his face with the hand he hadn't bloodied and willed himself to look up at the mix of orange and ash that engulfed the whole building.

His hands flew into a flurry of hand signs and used the last third of his chakra to manifest a water dragon from the rain to use it to douse the fire in its entirety. Heaving his body up, he ran inside before the fire completely died down.

"Sakura!" he shouted. Kisame went to the center of the blackened building and looked around. "SAKURA!"

Then he went to the corner he left her in. It was all scorched to hell just like the rest of the place, and the junk he'd hidden her behind had collapsed into a pile of ember and dust. He desperately pushed all the pieces aside, throwing them behind and beside until he got to the bottom.

More ash. More dust. More embers.

No Sakura.

But in that pile of ash, dust, and embers was a single red ribbon singed at the ends and threadbare.

What did it mean to be alone again?

Kisame stepped out into the rain with the the ribbon in his white-knuckled grip, water seeping into his hair and pouring down his face.

"She'll never survive in this world," was what they told him. "Children aren't born in this circumstance to come out alive. She'll die on her own or someone will come and kill her because she's your daughter. You might as well say your goodbyes now."

He never believed them. But he hated to admit they were right.

Kisame took one last look at the warehouse behind him before drawing in a shuddering breath and walking back to the inn to gather their—his. Things.

He... He finally had the chance to be the father he always wanted, no matter how short lived, no matter how harshly he failed. 

He tried, but it wasn't enough.

Because what did it mean to raise a child when their father was a man that let the world leave her dead?