Shark Bait.
Prologue.
Stupid fish, swimming around completely oblivious to the hooks stuck through the pieces of bread they were going for… Itachi chuckled evilly when he plucked one of the fish off the hook just when the fishermen started reeling it in. He didn't usually eat fish, partially being one himself, but he was hungry damnit and these little ones were bite-size so it didn't bother him too much. The boat above him started to wobble, indicating a struggle of sorts, and he dove behind a large rock in the shallow water just before a fat man in green fishing trousers and boots sewn to them fell into the water. Luckily the water was a bit mirky so he had time to pull his long black tail to himself before he was noticed.
"Hmm, time to move to deeper water…" He mumbled to himself before swimming off in the opposite direction. He quickly forgot about the fishermen as he sped towards the deep, swimming along the sandy bottom near the coast. He loved this, the patterns the sun made on the grey seabed, the way his shadow changed over every dent and ridge. He spread his arms, easily gliding on the flexible fins that connected the length of his arms to his torso. The black scales of his fins and tail made a beautiful contrast to his ivory skin, and it allowed him to be very hard to notice, should he lie still on the sand.
He tilted his head up to drink in the last of the magically twisting rays of sun before diving into the steep drop in the ocean floor. Suddenly all the lights were gone and he was engulfed in black nothingness, and still he loved it. Pressing his arms to his sides and sweeping out powerfully with his tail he shot down through the water. Small fish lit up around him, trying to catch even smaller prey, they danced around him and formed a wonderful blur of lights. The steep bottom flattened out horizontally a bit, and he'd reached the lowest point of the coral reefs he'd been swimming over for a while. Immediately countless little fishes in all the colors of the rainbow swam to him and started cleaning his fins and tail, he didn't mind giving them their daily meal. Besides, it left him squeaky clean!
The little sun that came through here was fading, indicating that night was falling. He'd have to find a place to sleep before the carnivorous hunters came out. He could handle most, of course, being of a higher intelligence and all, but there were some not even he could handle. And he didn't want to risk anything, even though his kingdom was close by, he was under no illusion that they would help him, should he have a shark on his tail. Exile was exile. He didn't exist to them anymore. The first weeks had been agony, he'd always had a perfectly easy life; food, shelter, anything he wanted or needed would be provided for him. He couldn't take care of himself if his life depended on it. Well, eventually he learned who was friend and who was foe… and who was food.
And ever since then he'd been following the same routine, swimming around in the shallow waters looking for fishermen who would provide him with food. So what if they didn't catch anything that way, humans shouldn't meddle with the sea anyway. And he knew they did, every year him and his little brother would swim out to the nearest whale breeding gulfs and listen to them sing for hours. But the last few years there were fewer and fewer whales and it was the human's fault, no other species had so little respect for any life form lower than them. Though the fishermen were usually incredibly stupid, he wondered how the race survived… some must be smarter that the fish-cursing idiots.
And then, when he'd eaten all he needed and pissed them off greatly he would ride the waves at the coast. Sometimes a surfer would see him but he wasn't worried, he was faster than their boats ever would be, and no one would believe them anyway. Today he hadn't had time though, he woke too late now that he'd finally found a comfy place to sleep. And after that he would just swim idly, looking for anything interesting, and then go to sleep. He'd found a hidden spot between two gigantic coral trees, it was closed off at all sides except one and he used a large tentacle of a dead tree to close of the hole once he was in. A lot of the little fishes caught on when the predators couldn't get through, so he never slept alone.
Slowly and gently he made his way through the 9ft pillar corals, making sure not to get stung by the poisonous kinds, and worked his way down the path he accidentally made the first time he swam through. Back then he'd been so awestruck he didn't look out and didn't know how vulnerable the branches were. When he reached the opening of his hiding place he stopped in his tracks… something was obscuring the entrance. It looked a bit like a cross between coral and a rock; he placed his hand on it, it was squishy. Damn, a chameleon octopus, that was the third time this week. He gently pulled the camouflaged hunter to the side, even though it was about half his size, those tentacles could be dangerous. The highly intelligent being and him had formed some sort of a truce so he wasn't really worried.
And surely, as soon as he was inside a surge of fish followed him; sadly, most got snared by smaller predators that came out early. The octopus ensnared a backwards swimming puffing nautilus and swam away. He'd been following the nautilus when he was bored for a while now, and was a bit sad that it had to serve as food for his only other acquaintance. Itachi'd always been fascinated by octopi and squids, he knew all there was to know about them and spend hours and hours telling his brother the most fantastic tales. That was what bothered him most about his exile; he would never see his little brother again. The kid was only twelve and he'd practically raised him since he was six years old and the little squirm was born, god knows he needed him; his parents were too busy ruling their little golden kingdom to ever pay any attention to him.
He pulled the 'door' to his hideout closed and lay down to try and sleep. Maybe he could sneak in sometime, he still had to keep his promise of taking the kid to see the vampire squid from hell and the whales would be returning soon. Or maybe he could go with the whales, see where they went all year, maybe he could learn to sing like that too someday…
When sleep finally took him he dreamt of deep sea songs sung by the red horror that hid in the depth of his subconscious and he dreamt of Sasuke, he always dreamt of his little brother.