A/N: Just the other day I relived my most favourite of Disney movies when I was a kid: The Little Mermaid. I had been planning for awhile to write a Naruto spinoff of The Little Mermaid for awhile...basically since I started writing these fairy tale oneshots. This one is SasuSaku. Hope you enjoy it!
I originally intended for it to be a oneshot actually. But then it turned into a 20,000 word monster and I turned it into a fourshot because I can't see many people reading 20,000 words in one shot...haha...get it? One shot? I loves me puns!
Wow. So I really hope you enjoy it!
Summary: When Sakura, a mermaid, falls in love with Sasuke, a human, and her mother is the Queen of the Sea who despises humans with a passion, you know things are going to go well. Spinoff of the Disney movie The Little Mermaid.
The Little Cherry Blossom
"Okay Tenten, what's up?" Sakura asked when Tenten finally stopped swimming in probably the most isolated area in Atlantica, the land of mermaids.
Tenten floated down onto a rock and sat on it. Sakura followed suit and floated down beside her.
"Okay...so..." Tenten was absentmindedly flipping her fins and twiddling her thumbs. "You know how mom is telling me to find a merman and get married?"
Sakura nodded. Tenten was reaching the age of eighteen now, and normally princesses were engaged at the age of sixteen. She had met many princes from various areas of Atlantica, even some from the Pacific Ocean, but of course, she was picky-choosey with the whole idea (Sakura wondered who wouldn't be) and so, didn't fall for a single one. Then again, who was she to talk? Sakura was sixteen and she wasn't engaged yet either.
"Don't tell me..." Sakura stared at her sister. "You've found someone."
The blush that coated Tenten's cheeks gave it all away.
"Who is it?" Sakura asked, a grin on her face.
"Um...The thing is..."
Sakura frowned.
"He's...He's not a prince..."
"Really?" Sakura raised her eyebrows. "Who is he then?"
"ss nmgi." Tenten mumbled, bowing her head as if waiting for some kind of explosion.
"What?"
"I said it's..." Tenten hesitated. "It's...Neji..."
"WHAT?"
Tenten flinched.
"Out of all the guys you could've picked, it has to be Neji?" Sakura cried. "Damn right he's not a prince! He's a servant Tenten! If mum found out..."
"Don't you think I've already thought of that?" Tenten stated. "I'm afraid, Sakura! That's why I came to you!"
Sakura sighed. Tenten was right. She was her sister, for crying out loud. She should be supportive of her. But even so...Neji? Why Neji?
"I'm sorry." Sakura sighed. "Just...answer me this...Why Neji?"
Tenten looked away. "It's hard to explain...He's..." Tenten sighed. "He's supported me on more than one occasion... Not just because he's a servant either."
"I wish I understood, but I don't." Sakura sighed. "I'm just saying. I've seen some of the princes who came in to court you, and most of them are actually way better looking than Neji."
"Yeah but none of them have his heart." Tenten muttered.
"Excuse me?" Sakura frowned.
"Oh Sakura, you've never spoken to him have you?"
"I so have!"
"Not like I have." Tenten propped her chin up on her hand. "Neji's so kind, and so gentle. He cares, Sakura. He's the only one who respects who I really am."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"No of course you don't." Tenten muttered. "You won't get it, and neither will mum."
Sakura sighed. Tenten had told her one of her biggest secrets. Sakura didn't even trust her with her biggest secret. The fact was, she had a huge fascination with humans and everything about them. She wanted to know how they lived on land without fins.
"Tenten, do you really love Neji?" Sakura asked.
Tenten thought about it for a moment. "Yes. I do."
"Does he like you?"
Tenten shrugged. "I think he might."
Silence ensued between the two sisters.
"Sakura?"
"Yeah?"
"Say that he does...and we...hook up...what would you do?"
Sakura thought about that. "You're my sister, Tenten. If you feel that you love him, then I'll support you all the way."
Tenten glanced at Sakura. "And if mum finds out and is angry?"
Sakura couldn't answer to that. Chances are Queen Tsunade would be upset. Very upset. She of all people wanted Tenten married to a prince, because Tenten was the oldest, and whomever she married would become King when Tsunade retired. There was no way Tsunade would allow Tenten to marry Neji.
"I wouldn't know, Tenten." Sakura sighed.
.oOo.
When Sakura arrived back at the palace, she couldn't help but look towards Neji when she spotted him in the halls. His ultra long hair was mostly unheard of for mermen, but nobody ever complained. They mostly just ignored him.
Neji was relatively an outcast in Atlantica. Nobody else had pearl white eyes like him. In fact, most regarded it as creepy. Even Sakura couldn't look at them. If she did, she would get lost, trying to find what part of his eye she should focus on. At first she thought it was some kind of eye infection, but when it didn't go away at all, she thought he was blind. Sakura knew that he wasn't though. Nobody had better eyesight than him.
Even so, this time around, Sakura couldn't help but look a little more critically at Neji, just to figure out just why Tenten liked him. She had a good memory, so she only had to sweep over him with her eyes and he was pretty much implanted in her mind. He had a long face with a sharp chin and high cheekbones. His nose was relatively straight, and most of his features might be seen as perfect, but then his eyes through you for a loop and made you wonder what the heck was up with this guy and pretty much all of that so called 'perfection' was wiped out. The scales on his tail was an iridescent silver that usually glinted blue when in shadow, but turned silver in bright light.
Yes, Neji was an odd one. But she still didn't get why Tenten liked him. She shook her head, ridding herself of the thoughts. It didn't matter. It wouldn't matter. At least not until something got serious...or something like that.
Sakura swam through the thick curtain of seaweed that separated her bedroom from the rest of the castle. The ocean was getting dark now, and though the merpeople could see fairly well in the dark ocean, they would rather not be swimming around in black water.
Sakura flopped down onto her clamshell bed and closed her eyes. She would need all the rest she could get if she was going to see the shipyard tomorrow with Naruto.
.oOo.
Sasuke sighed irritably from the deck of his ship. Itachi had a really bad habit of disappearing just when he needed him. He wished he didn't have to rely on his older brother as much as he did, but sometimes Sasuke need a bit of a helping hand from him.
Sasuke was reaching his seventeenth birthday. Everyone was insisting that he be married soon, but he was picky with women. He was constantly searching for 'the one', that one girl he could live with for the rest of his life.
"Damn it, Itachi, where the bloody hell are you?" Sasuke muttered bitterly. As if he didn't already know. Itachi was a swimmer. He was probably swimming right now, staying in sight of the boat. Heck, he could be left behind really easily if he strayed too far, but that didn't stop Itachi. He was a bit of a doofus in Sasuke's opinion. I mean come on, he believes in merpeople. Half human, half fish. Right. As freaking if.
But oh no, Itachi doesn't think it's so farfetched. In fact, he believes he's seen one for crying out loud.
That's the whole reason he's so obsessed with swimming. He wants to catch sight of these fish-men again. According to him, every one in five swims he sees at least one.
Or maybe he's swimming so much because he hopes that if he swims enough, he'll become one of them.
Sasuke scoffed. Stupid idiot brother. He was so good at what he did now that he could hold his breath for up to three minutes, and dive down to at least twenty meters and come back up without getting the bends. How the hell he did that, Sasuke didn't know.
Sasuke leaned over the side of the ship, searching for his brother. It was getting late, and if he didn't come back soon, well he'd probably never find his way back.
As if on cue, Itachi's head surfaced a few feet away from the ship. He swam forward expertly and latched onto the ladder at the side before hauling himself out of the drink.
"Where the hell have you been?" Sasuke asked when Itachi pulled himself back on board.
"Swimming," Itachi stated.
"You've been gone for awhile." Sasuke pointed out.
Itachi shrugged. "I saw some merpeople and I managed to watch them for a little bit."
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
Itachi pulled the goggles he built himself with glass and various other things so he could see underwater off his forehead and headed towards the door that lead below deck.
"I don't expect you to believe me, Sasuke. I know what I saw."
"Itachi, you need to cut this obsession of yours."
"I'm not obsessed." Itachi stated. "I'm curious."
"Whatever." He was obsessed. Sasuke already knew that. He collected freaking seashells for crying out loud. Sasuke shook his head, wondering what he did to deserve a moron for a brother.
"Tell you what, Sasuke." Itachi looked in his direction, squeezing the water out of his hair that would surely dry, causing his hair to become encrusted with salt. "You stop this obsession of finding 'the one'. Seriously, it's getting you nowhere."
"Don't be such a hypocrite." Sasuke barked.
"I'm not. I was telling you to stop being such a hypocrite." Itachi flipped his ponytail behind him.
"I don't know what the heck is with you and freaking mermaids, but that's getting you nowhere too!"
"Merpeople, Sasuke." Itachi sighed, turning towards the door again and retreating to his room.
Sasuke scoffed and shook his head. He didn't care what Itachi was up to. He was merely on his own quest: to find the one he loved.
.oOo.
"Sakura, it's creepy here." Naruto stated for the umpteenth time that day. His orange scales glinted gold in the faint light as he swam with Sakura through the shipyard. There were so many sunken ships in this general area, Sakura wondered what had happened to them.
She swam through a jagged hole and into the belly of the ship. She hadn't looked in this one yet.
"S-Sakura, it's really creepy." Naruto stuttered, his blue eyes wide and staring fearfully at the wreckage around them.
"Wow!" Sakura gasped. She picked up what looked like a shiny, flat and hard piece of kelp with four prongs on top. She didn't know what it was, but she did know that she didn't have anything like it in her collection.
"What the heck is that?" Naruto asked. "It looks like a spear we use to spear fish, only tiny." Naruto was a hunter, so he hunted down fish for the merpeople to eat. He was one of many hunters among the merpeople, and he was one of the best.
"Really?" Sakura asked, rotating the object this way and that. "But I guess it needs a name too, huh?"
Naruto shrugged. "Let's just call it...a Dinglehopper."
Sakura giggled. "A Dinglehopper it is." She stuffed it into her bag and continued to explore the general area.
Naruto's curiosity got the better of him and he swam into an adjoining room.
"GAAHHH SAKURA!" Naruto whipped back into the room in a flash of orange and crashed into Sakura, sending both of them spinning through the water.
"Naruto, relax, everything is fine." Sakura stated.
"There's...There's stuff in there, Sakura..." Naruto trembled violently, still holding onto Sakura with an iron grip.
Sakura pushed Naruto away and swam to what Naruto was talking about. Looking in the room, even she got a little uneasy.
"Do you know what those are for?" Naruto whispered hoarsely.
Sakura swam into the room and took a look around. Sure, there were many various sharp objects all over the place in there, but it wasn't that scary. Except for the giant hook. That, was freaking scary. She did not want to know what that was used for.
"Can we get out of here, please?" Naruto gasped.
Sakura sighed and obliged, swimming back to Naruto's side. The two swam out of the jagged hole again, and Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.
"No matter how many times we do it, it never ceases to freak me out." Naruto whispered. "Tsunade would kill me if she knew I was letting you go."
Sakura stopped, her eyes squinting at something off in the distance. She could faintly see a dark shape that looked a little like coral, but couldn't possibly be coral.
"Sometimes I wonder, Sakura, why the heck are you so fascinated by humans? HEY!" Naruto whipped after Sakura's green tail. "Sakura! Where the heck are you going?"
Sakura didn't stop. It was a weird thing. As she got closer, the light from the surface was blocked out by something. Something big.
"Whoa..." Naruto whispered, staring at the massive thing in front of them. It was oddly shaped in a way that was nearly indescribable for the two merpeople.
Sploosh
The sound came from above, causing Naruto and Sakura to look up. A trail of bubbles extended downwards, following a dark figure who was shooting downwards at just about the same speed as a merperson would swim.
Except this one appeared to have legs.
"WHOA!" Naruto cried and whipped away faster than Sakura could blink. Sakura could only stare. It was a human, yes it was. Whoever the human was, it was watching her.
"S-Sakura...Come on..." Naruto whispered.
Sakura continued to stare at the human. She lost count of the seconds. But then, the human released a stream of bubbles from its mouth and began to swim for the surface. That's right! Humans need air!
Naruto took this as his chance to grab Sakura and whisk her away from the area. Sakura allowed Naruto to drag her away. One thing she already knew, was that she was going to go back there when nobody was looking.
.oOo.
Sasuke shot Itachi a look when he climbed back onto the deck.
"Admit it: You saw that swathe of orange." Itachi stated, squeezing the water out of his hair.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Yeah, maybe he did see orange down there. Just faintly. Normally, water drains the colour out of anything that's red, pink, orange or yellow and pretty much turns it grey. But yes, he did see the orange.
"So I'm guessing that was one of your 'mermaids'." Sasuke scoffed.
"Yes. It was." Itachi stated. "He took off pretty fast though. The girl who was with him didn't take off so quickly, but as soon as I left, she was gone as well."
"Whoa, wait, you can tell the difference between males and females now?"
"It's not that hard, Sasuke. The merpeople look just like us, except instead of legs, they have fins."
"Which is why I don't believe in them." Sasuke turned around and walked away. As he walked, he heard a distant rumble of thunder. He hoped the storm would miss them. Today was his birthday, and no storm would ruin it.
.oOo.
Sakura glanced around, searching for anyone who could be following her. She couldn't see anyone, so she swam in the direction she remembered the strange object to be. She smiled when she found it. Looking up, a massive oyster shaped object blocked out the light from above. It made an ominous creaking sound as it shifted around in the waves.
Unable to stop herself, Sakura swam up towards the thing until her head popped from the water. She coughed a few times as the air met her lungs, but she found out really fast that she could breathe it. It made her slightly dizzy, but she could manage.
Sakura grabbed a piece of the great oyster, and somehow managed to pull herself out of the water. She climbed and climbed, grinning to herself as she got closer to the top. Her body was heavy now that it was out of the water, but her curiosity was getting the better of her. Her heart was pounding and pumping adrenaline that fuelled the excitement flooding her mind.
When she pulled herself all the way up, she hooked her tail around the ropes and sat down, gazing across the top of the oyster. A celebration seemed to be going on. Humans were dancing across the top, smiling and laughing while music played in the background.
One human in particular caught her eye. His black hair was wild and unkempt, as if it had been whipped around in the wind for too long. He was grinning from ear to ear as he danced along with many other humans.
Then something clicked in her mind. This was a ship. Like the ones that were sunken, only this one was floating.
"Sasuke, let's take a break."
The black haired human nodded and followed another human towards the side of the ship. Sakura gasped and skittered out of view, propping herself up on the side as best as she could and out of sight.
"So. Seventeen now, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Sasuke, are you ever going to give up on looking for that so called 'the one'?"
"Are you ever going to give up your quest for mermaids?"
Mermaids... Sakura whispered softly to herself.
There was a chuckle. "Sasuke, if you saw one, you would never stop looking for them."
"So you know how I feel then."
"Sasuke..."
"Itachi, I'm not going to marry some woman I don't love!" Sakura heard a creak and looked up carefully. She could see his face so clearly. He was so incredibly handsome. His hair blew around his face, and his skin looked flawless and smooth. She longed to reach up and touch it, and to have him focus his eyes on her and unleash that smile she saw him wearing as he danced across the ship. Her heart pounded as she realized all he had to do was look down, and he would see her.
She almost wished he would.
"I'm just not." He murmured. His voice was so gentle on her ears.
"You can't keep looking forever, Sasuke."
"She's out there somewhere, Itachi." He disappeared, turning towards an unseen figure. "I've just got to find her."
"And what will you do? How will you know?"
The boy went silent. "I'll just know."
A loud rumble tore through the air just as water fell from the sky in little droplets. Sakura looked up, unsure of what was going on.
Next thing she knew, the boat pitched sideways, flinging her from her spot on the side of the ship. She yelped and hung on tight as the wind whipped up. Her hands slid from the side of the ship and she flew backwards into the water, almost painfully. She inhaled water, causing her to choke temporarily before she adjusted back to breathing water.
The currents were whipping up, making it tough to swim in any direction. She suddenly found herself on the surface, coughing up the water all over again. When she looked up at the ship, she gasped in surprise.
The whole thing was lit up in a bright orange colour, and she could feel the heat from it. Humans leapt from the ship into tiny boats, but one person she was looking for was the handsome man.
Luckily, she didn't have to look for long. She saw a wave slam into the ship, capsizing it. Without really thinking, she dove beneath the waves and swam quickly and furiously. There he was. He was sinking. Fast.
Sakura grabbed onto him and dragged him to the surface so he could breathe. She heard him gasp and she breathed a sigh of relief as she continued to swim. She knew where the shore was. He needed to get there.
She swam harder and faster than she ever had before. It felt like hours, but it was really a few minutes until she arrived on shore. Sakura dragged the boy onto the sand just as the sun broke through the clouds, bathing them in sunlight.
Sakura gasped. He was so beautiful. She slid his hand down his cheek and sang softly to his unconscious form.
A few seconds later, his eyes fluttered open. Sakura's heart soared as his dark eyes pierced hers. He was beautiful. That's all she could think at that moment.
"Y-You..." He whispered. His hand reached up and caressed her cheek. Her skin tingled beneath fingers in the most delightful way.
"SASUKE!"
Both of their heads turned towards the sound. Sakura twisted in a way that would've been impossible for humans and leapt back into the waves, sad that she had to go so soon. She pulled herself onto a nearby rock to survey the scene from afar.
"Sasuke, are you okay?" A man hoisted him to his feet.
"Itachi...A girl..." He whispered. "Rescued me...She was singing in the most beautiful voice..."
"Right, you probably just hit your head a little too hard." The man stated. "Come on."
"Itachi, I'm serious. She was really there."
"Right, and where is she now?"
He didn't have an answer to that. "She was an angel..." he finally whispered. "She must've protected me..."
"Right, says the kid who doesn't even believe in merpeople."
The rest of their conversation was lost to Sakura. "Someday I'll be," She sang. "Part of your world."
.oOo.
Tsunade frowned at this news.
"Tenten, is what you're saying true?"
"I saw it, mother." Tenten whispered. Her voice quivered. She felt like she was betraying her sister, but...but what she had seen...
"Very well. You may go."
Tenten swam away quickly.
"Did you tell her?" Neji asked outside of the door.
Tenten nodded.
"You did the right thing. It's dangerous for us to associate with humans."
"Thank you, Neji."
"You're welcome."