Title: In Too Deep
1. Prologue
Part One
Dedicated to...My mum who shall never see this, Corvin for inspiring me with Cindersand, and all the NejiGaa fanatics in the world.
Disclaimer: ...I don't own it --
"You know, Gaara, most people expect the bride's brother to be present at the wedding rehearsal." It was a slender, young blonde merboy - who looked no older than sixteen - that had spoken. His brow was furrowed with concern and frustration, his mouth forming an almost pout, his big aqua eyes narrowed.
A scoff could be heard from the redheaded merboy - presumably the one called Gaara - swimming further in front, causing the blonde's lips to jut out.
"Gaara! Did you hear what I just said? You better not be ignoring me!" The companion of the blonde stopped moving and looked at his friend with a semi-annoyed expression that was more exasperated before laughing softly, a thin finger poking his friend's chest.
"You should listen to yourself, Naruto! You sound like Iruka-sensei, or worse, Sakura! Hahaha!" Gaara laughed, a soft laugh that could hardly be heard but did not fall deaf on Naruto's ears. Naruto huffed indignantly as he crossed his arms across his chest for being compared to his mother-hen of a guardian, and his girl best friend Sakura, who could nag like a grandmother if she saw fit to do so.
Gaara placed a hand on his mouth to stop his laughing fit and irritating Naruto further and smiled, or rather smirked, it was often quite hard to tell with Gaara.
"It's fine, Naruto. The Princess doesn't even want to marry the creepy merman the King chose for her. Do you remember how long it took for Iruka-sensei and Baki-san to coax her out of her shell three days prior to the rehearsal?"
Naruto frowned at how Gaara chose to refer to his family. Ever since Gaara was a young merboy and his beloved mother - one of the more lowly concubines - had passed away, he had refused to ever call his sister, brother or father anything else except for their respective titles. Although Naruto had managed to make Gaara more social, he was still a rather introverted boy and declined to acknowledge any of the aristocrats as his family.
It was true though, about the Princess not wanting to marry her forced fiance, a member of the shark tribe over in the Mist side of the ocean. In terms of looks, Kisame and the Princess weren't on the same level at all.
Mermaids, especially those of royal bloodlines, were known for possessing unusual beauty, but were beautiful and attractive none the less. The same however couldn't really be said for those of the shark clan. Temari, the Princess, was of course, rather upset by the news and had locked herself up in her shell, the equivalent of a bedroom to a merperson, refusing to come out until the King had called off the marriage.
But then, being the Princess, she had a responsibility to her family and reluctantly agreed to come out. Naruto couldn't imagine how Temar-The Princess was feeling today. Maybe, just maybe, the Lord Kisame guy she was supposed to marry would somehow manage to charm her? He doubted it, flattery was often a turn-off rather than a turn-on for the sea princess. Naruto shrugged it off and looked at Gaara, who remained as passive as ever.
"So...anyway, mind telling me what we're skipping out on the Hoshigaki-Sabaku wedding rehearsal for?" This earned a rather surprised reaction from the redhead.
"I didn't tell you?"
"...No."
"...I see." With that, the redhead continued on his way to wherever he was headed, making Naruto rather upset.
"Oi, tell me where we're going, Gaara!!!"
Upon not receiving any type of response, Naruto resorted to pulling on the end of Gaara's fishtail, an action that annoyed the royal rebel to no end. With a swift grab at the translucent ends of the tail, Naruto pulled sharply, making the young merboy yelp and pull back in pain.
"Argh!!!! What do you want, Naruto???!!!" Gaara snapped at his friend who seemed happy that he finally got him to speak.
"Tell me where we're going!"
"GAH! Fine, we're going up to the surface." Gaara said, Naruto releasing his tail.
"Oh, I se- WAIT A MINUTE!!! We're not allowed to go up to the surface!!! Have you forgotten how much Iruka-sensei stresses on that during survival lessons! Quote, Merpeople are strictly, STRICTLY forbidden from ever going up to the surface lest they risk being caught by humans, who are ALL grey-haired perverted old men who readabout people fornicating all day long, unquote!" Naruto recited from memory, his index finger held out to the sky - or in this case, surface - in a teacher-like stance, much like the one Iruka used when teaching.
"I'm sure Iruka-sensei will be very proud that you listened to his lectures so well. If you're done freaking out, can we go now?"
"You still plan on going? Gaara! Iruka-sensei is the only one who has ever gone to the surface before, and even then that was on the King's orders, and if he says there are grey-haired perverted old men who read about people fornicating all day long, there ARE grey-haired perverted old men who read about people fornicating all day long up there."
(A/N: Not hard to guess who the grey-haired pervert is, is it?)
Gaara stared blankly at his friend's face, blinking nonchalantly.
"So?"
Naruto blanched.
"So?!!! Have you forgotten everything Iruka-sensei taught us? Humans are horrible! They eat fish! They take our sea's produce! They might catch us and put us in those things they call ' Zeus'!"
Gaara raised an invisible eyebrow.
"...Oh! You mean zoos."
"Ugh! Whatever, I mean, we shouldn't go up there! Look, let's just go back to the Princess' wedding rehearsal before the King notices we're both missing and order for both of us to be beheaded."
Gaara shook his head.
"I am definitely not going to choose to go through the torture of having to sit through something as tedious as that. I'm going up to the surface, no matter what you say about zoos and perverted old geezers."
With that, the redhead swam upwards towards his destination, leaving the blonde sputtering in his wake.
"Gaara!!! Come back here!!!"
ON LAND, in a Carriage Konoha-bound
"Ah-choo!!!!"
Sasuke looked up from his book to raise an eyebrow at his guardian and mentor, Kakashi, who had been sneezing incessantly for the last five minutes almost continuously.
"Careful, Kakashi, someone must be talking about you." Sasuke said with a smirk before going back to his book. Kakashi sniffed.
AT SEA, in the Royal Palace
As the oldest daughter of the Sea's ruler, it was Temari's duty to settle down with someone of high caliber and who was easily favoured by her father. After all, a woman could not be queen, even if she was the oldest child, so all she could give her father was grandchildren. More heirs to the throne.
She looked at her husband-to-be.
She really didn't want to marry him. Kisame was a good shark-man, he was. He was kind and gentlemanly, and had a caring side to him as well. He was also reputedly known to be one of the most skilled swordsmen in the sea. Temari had no good reason to not marry him, but she still didn't want to. It wasn't that she was shallow, but Kisame was not her idea of a Prince Charming at all.
What was her idea of a Prince Charming?
Okay, maybe he'd be...no...something like...that's not right...
Okay, so she had no clue as to what fit the Prince Charming mold to her.
She had never really thought about it before. After all, she spent most of her time practicing combat, one of the few things she enjoyed learning more than anything else. She sighed inwardly.
'I really don't want to get married...'
She looked around the rather dull rehearsal of the wedding reception. Kankurou was seated at the far end of the long spread of food - fish food that was deemed edible by the merpeople, of course - laid in front of her family and Kisame's family.
She was seated uncomfortably in between Kisame and her prospective mother-in-law. The idea of calling the she-shark by that title made her shudder. Kankurou didn't seemed to be enjoying himself, choosing to prop his head atop his hand as he picked at his food, sighing from time to time. And Gaara...
She looked around her.
She looked around her again.
Then another time.
No shock of red hair in sight.
No powerful glare emitting from pale green eyes.
No fangirls or fanboys lining up to glomp the apparently adorable youngest prince.
Her brother, Gaara, was not present.
Oh crap.
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A/N: Okay, this is the first half of the Prologue, and the second part - which is currently in the works - will be devoted entirely to Neji and I've decided that I won't publish the second part until I get at least 8 reviews.
1. This is a parody of the Little Mermaid but I'm not just going to let things go as fast that it'll last 1 hour and 10 minutes or so on animation...So expect it to go slowly at first.
2. I do not plan to get Temari and Kisame married. So if you'd like, you can give me a few suggestions as to who I pair Temari with, I'm open to yuri but I have a general idea of who I'm going to pair her up with in the end.
3. THERE WILL BE NO BASHING OF FEMALE CHARACTERS LIKE SAKURA OR TENTEN IN THIS STORY. I actually like them and I dislike it when they're bashed in yaoi fics, so don't expect anything like it. '
4. Should I pair Kakashi and Iruka together or not? From this part of the story, you can tell they have had a past before.
The only pairing I'm sure of is NejiGaara and I plan to focus mainly on them. So, give me suggestions of other pairings too. Like I said, I'm open to yaoi, yuri and het.
So Thanks for Reading and...
REVIEW or I shall eat you! Or let Kisame's family on you.