Fish

Reiki was convinced that a few days of relaxing on the beach would help me feel better. I wasn't so sure that it would, but I wasn't complaining.

The day after the storm was absolutely gorgeous. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. The blue of the sky disappeared into the ocean on a cerulean horizon. I found myself drifting away from the shore on a paddleboard surrounded by the pristine color. The surface of the ocean was so still and clear as if it was made of glass, that is until my movements distorted the water.

The beach I choose to spend the day at was in a secluded cove that my little house overlooked from the shorter end of a cliff. Very few individuals knew of its location. It was one of the many secrets hidden from the tourists of Tomonoura. Now my stalker knew of it, though I'm sure he wasn't following me so closely simply to find a hidden tropical paradise. I figured that if I was going to wait for him to make a move, I might as well wait in the most relaxing place I could think of.

Sweat began to accumulate at my hairline, and eventually I had to slip into the water to escape from the sun's scorching rays. If I was sweating, that meant the temperature must have reached unfathomable heights. When other people say they're comfortable, I freeze. When other people say they're burning up, I'm comfortable. But today was just plain hot. Even the water was so warm it could've easily been mistaken for bath water.

When I came up for air, I noticed another presence in addition to the original spy. My eyes scanned the beach for them, but I still didn't see anyone. Taking a deep breath, I completely submerged myself into the ocean away from the world, and away from my stalker. Or, I guess I should say "stalkers" now that there were two of them. I used my chakra to blow a large bubble around my nose and mouth so that I could breathe. This jutsu wouldn't last very long, though. I had about five minutes of air in the bubble. Ten, if I breathed slowly.

The pretty light turquoise of the surface faded into a deeper shade towards the ocean floor that resembled the darker side of twilight, and a bed of sediment with dark patches of coral stretched bellow the surface as far as the eye could see. I would've loved nothing more than to swim and swim and swim. My legs propelled me over the reef and towards the open ocean. I thought to myself that it must be nice to be a manta ray. All they had to worry about was finding food and predators. There was none of this shinobi bullshit.

As I was daydreaming, a large shadow on the seafloor caught my eye. This shadow didn't come from my board. It moved too fast and it possessed a different shape. I let myself sink to the bottom of the sea and looked up. Hovering above me was a massive great white with a menacing look on its face. It had to be at least three times my own size. And this wasn't just any great white, either. It was a summoned animal. The spy had finally made his move. Unfortunately for them, they were in my territory.

The shark charged at me. If I had been anyone else, I probably would've been attacked and killed. However, this was one of those times when the Babakoto was actually quite useful. I discharged a dangerous amount of electricity into the water and made a break for the surface. Despite my pathetic amount of chakra, there was almost as much electrical energy in my head as chakra in a jinchuriki's body. It was especially dangerous in the water. The shock wasn't strong enough to cancel the jutsu, though it damaged the shark's nerves that were sensitive to electricity, causing it to swim around frantically in pain. It was enough to allow me to get to the surface and onto my board.

The damage I inflicted on the summon made it useless, but my opponent wasn't finished with me. A powerful current pulled the water away from the shore, dragging me along with it. This guy must've had a ridiculous amount of chakra to pull off this jutsu. All I could do was paddle.

It's like they didn't do their homework at all. To be fair, though, they never had the chance to actually see me fight on Kiawa to find out how I used my abilities. Catching the wave was a bit of a challenge, though. I wasn't used to riding such large waves on paddleboards.

Another shark breached the surface right in font of me. With the help of some chakra, I threw my board between the animal and my body to protect myself. That's when the shark snapped my board in half. I grabbed its snout and forced as much electricity into the animal as I could into one area. That last blast disrupted the jutsu, and I prepared for the impact into the huge wave.

I was able to fight my way out of the wave as it died down, but not without a few cuts and bruises from the reef below. Once I was out, I had to make sure to adjust my bathing suit before reaching the shallows. My skimpy bikini wasn't meant for such rough wipeouts. I was grateful that it was even on afterwards.

As I fought my way back to shore to face my opponents, the first thing I saw was an obnoxious red cloud pattern on two hideous black cloaks. I would've said something about them wearing those cloaks in the heat, but I was too pissed off.

The one I noticed first was a handsome young man about my age who had his black hair tied back in a loose ponytail. I couldn't see how long it was because of his cloak. Though, I could see that he was pretty pale, definitely not from around Kiawa or anywhere near the tropics. He also held an intense gaze in his strange red eyes. I was sure I had seen those eyes somewhere before. A memory of them popped in my head, but the cloak covered his mouth and nose, preventing me from studying his whole face. I could tell he was the one who had been spying on me the whole time. His calm demeanor matched his electrical pulse.

The other man was much taller than his younger companion, and his weird blue skin featured gills on his strong cheeks. His fearsome smile revealed sharp, triangular teeth, and he carried a massive sword on his back that was larger than me. Obviously he was the one responsible for the summoned shark that slaughtered my board. "You!" My crackling, feminine voice was hardly threatening. "You destroyed my board! Why the fuck would you do that?" My temper had not been this flared in years. It must've been the heat along with the fact that my board cost about ten thousand ryo.

"She sounds a lot like Hidan," he responded with a sharp tone to go with his teeth. "Don't you agree, Itachi?" That name forced a younger, preteen face to appear in my head that matched those red eyes. I was too concerned about my board to worry about him at the time.

"You didn't answer my question! Why did you destroy my board? That board that you snapped in half like a twig cost me ten thousand ryo!"

His answer made me even more furious, "We needed you out of the water so that we could talk to you."

"You broke my surfboard so that you could talk to me?" my voice raised even higher than it already was. "The fuck is wrong with you? That was completely unnecessary!"

"You won't be needing a surfboard for much longer, Indira," Itachi interrupted me.

My voice lowered and my tone became more snarky than angry when I finally acknowledged him. "Itachi," I called. "What's the matter? Can't talk to a girl by yourself so you had to get your fish to do it? Then again, you didn't talk much several years ago either."

"You know her, Itachi? You never mentioned that." His partner pretended to be surprised that he kept information from him.

Itachi didn't respond, and my temper was too flared to explain that I had met him in Konoha when I had to take the chunin exams. The infamous Uchiha already passed a few years before. I just happened to bump into him in the village. However, I basically forced a bet on him that if I passed the chunin exams my first time that he had to take me out to dinner. "Who cares? You owe me ten-thousand ryo for my goddamn board!" I violently pointed towards the ocean where two hunks of wood were gently floating along the surface.

"Don't patronize me about money, Kaikea-san. You're the one with a twenty-million bounty on your head." I narrowed my eyes at him. "Not to mention you've gained millions from illegal distribution of drugs, gambling, and scams on people who still have no idea they were even scammed. Why do you need that kind of money anyway?"

"Good clothes and alcohol aren't exactly cheap. I'm guessing neither of you are here for the bounty then, since you want to talk?"

"No, we aren't," Itachi answered my question to my relief. I acted tough, but I was truly a coward at heart, willing to risk a mission or teammate to save myself. I especially didn't want to have to fight either of the two spies. But, I couldn't let them know that. I had to give them the impression that I was fearless, or else they could easily kill me if they learned how weak I really was.

"In that case, can we go inside to discuss whatever it is you want from me? I'm burning up out here." Once my feet had dried, the sand felt more like fire than powder. As I talked, I also rang the water out of my waist-long hair over my feet to keep them from frying.