Title: Love Between Land and Sea
Rating: T – Language (yeah, that is about it)
Pairings: Sakura/Sasuke, Ino/Sasuke
Summary: (AU) Sakura, a mermaid, falls in love with Sasuke, a human. Sacrificing everything she knew to be with him was one thing, but getting him to accept her was another. Would she also be able to overcome the ultimatum placed on her by Orochimaru, or face the consequences of failure?
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. And I do not own the story of the Little Mermaid. Thank-you.
Chapter I – Silence Before the Storm
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"We definitely hit the jackpot, Sakura-chan," a loud and rather obnoxious voice sounded. The features of the one who spoke greatly matched his voice. It was as if someone else possessed that very voice, it would seem wrong. "Those two-legged on the surface are probably kicking themselves for loosing such a grand ship," he laughed noisily, swishing his blue scale covered tail through the water, as if trying to mock someone. The female whom received his comments giggled light-heartedly.
Unlike him, who had spiked blonde hair, his female companion, Sakura, sported short pink hair. Though her sisters, and many other females, kept their hair long, it seemed Sakura was the only one who liked it short.
"Let's check inside it, Naruto-kun. Maybe we'll find more two-legged artifacts!" Sakura responded excitedly.
Naruto nodded excessively. He then took off through one of the broken windows of the ship. "Don't fall behind, Sakura-chan!" he called back.
Her emerald eyes narrowed and her smile fell off her face. "Come back here, you idiot!" she yelled as she jetted, catching up with him as fast as her fin would take her. "I'll only hit you five times this time. Promise!"
Sakura's last statement only provided with Naruto another reason to swim faster. Before he knew it, his panic led him to a wrong turn and a dead end, but what he saw in the dead end room widened his eyes. Even when Sakura caught up with him, he kept his eyes glued to the site in front of him
"Finally! I hope you've enjoyed your—" she stopped in middle sentence when she, too, saw what had Naruto ensnared.
It was a life size marble statue carved to perfection. It was of a two-legged.
Obvious to the two, the two-legged depicted was male and had to be wealthy to have had the money to pay for the expert craftsmanship done on this marble.
Sakura could not take her eyes off him. His eyes were blank and face emotionless. Even though she knew she had no reason, she blushed under the gaze she felt from it. Deep inside her mind she pictured the model for the statue. Tall, beautifully groomed hair, deep voice, peachy skin, relaxed face and warm eyes. It was then that she felt a feeling inside her that she never felt before; one she could not place.
"Uchiha."
Sakura broke out of the trance. "What?"
Naruto shook his head and swam closer to the statue. "Uchiha," he repeated, pointing down to an engraved plate. "Uchiha, Sasuke."
"Sasuke…" Sakura let the name slip off her tongue. 'Sasuke…Sasuke…Sasuke,' she played the name countless times through her mind, feeling more and more of that emotion she could not place each time she thought it.
"Wonder what this was for?" Naruto once again broke Sakura from her reverie again with his voice.
"Hm?" Sakura looked over to what Naruto had been holding. As he handed the object over to her, she inspected it more closely. It was some sort of clothing, she was sure. The brown color of it was not very flattering and she could not figure out what the purpose of the string was that zigzagged through the holes in it. The object had an opening at the top and then curved almost into the shape of a horn. Then it hit her.
"A hat, or crown perhaps," she stated obviously, a boastful tone was evident in her voice. To emphasize her point more, she placed the object on her head.
"I don't know, are you sure that's what it is?" Naruto asked skeptically.
Sakura shrugged. "What else could it be?"
The blonde could only nod in agreement. "There's nothing else here, let's check the deck, maybe something floated up there?" Before she could answer, Naruto was already out of the room.
Before she followed, she went up to the statue and placed a small kiss on his cold marble cheek. "Good-bye." And with that, she too, left the room.
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"Naruto-kun?" Sakura called out when she reached the deck. At first, she did not spot him. "Naru—"
A violent current of water crashed against her body, sending her with it until she lost confusion and began fighting against it. It was then she heard the voice of the one whom she was looking for.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted as he was also fighting a losing battle against the ocean currents just to get to her. "It's probably the Sea Witch's doing. That damn bastard," he growled as he grabbed onto Sakura's hand. "C'mon, we'd better get back before Orochimaru makes it any worse."
Sakura silently agreed as they both started swishing their tails in sync, now moving stronger against the opposing surge.
As Sakura could have predicted, as the tried getting home, the tide only seemed to become stronger. If it was violent down here, it had to be worse tenfold up on the surface and that meant another ship to adventure for the morning, Sakura decided.
It was now dark and Sakura was getting the feeling that they would never get home. She wondered if Naruto knew even where he was going. But she shook her head of the thought. To her, Naruto was very dense, but he could not be that dense. Could he?
"Ahh…" Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.
That was when Sakura saw it; the large white spike that rose from the ocean palace. "Good work, Naruto-kun," she said sadly while she mentally chided herself for ever doubting Naruto.
After Naruto escorted her to the palace gates Sakura turned around to face him. "Naruto-kun," she started. Now she knew she had his attention when she watched his blue eyes meet with her green ones. "I wanted to thank you for accompanying me here, and for coming with me to the sunken ship," she told him gently.
"Don't worry about it, Sakura. We're friends. You don't have to thank me for my actions," Naruto responded while smiling.
"Of course," Sakura reasoned. "I'll see you tomorrow; when the tides have calmed down, okay?"
The blue-finned boy nodded before he disappeared into the darkness of the water around them.
Sighing, she sneaked through gates and continued through the palace corridors. She could not afford to be caught coming in at this time of night with such conditions outside. When she finally reached the room she shared with her sisters, she snickered; she made it to her room without being caught which meant no trouble for her.
She slowly pushed against the door with her hands and body to close it. "Now I can rest," she said to herself silently. Before she could turn around, a voice sounded.
"My, my, my… and just where have you been, Sakura?"
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Author's Note: I know, I know. Very boring. Believe me, if I could have made this chapter more interesting, I would have. I am horrible with introduction chapters like this. Anyway, this is my first fic, but by all means review what you really think of it. Flames and constructed criticism is welcomed. So please review. I hope to get the next chapter underway soon.
