Chapter 1.
I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.
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Chapter 1: How it all began…
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Sakura swiftly jumped to the left to dodge the wave of kunai flying her way. She looked over her shoulder to see that her pursuers were still after her, they had been running for hours, Sakura and the twenty rogue ninja that were after the scroll she was carrying. She glared up at the sky where the full moon was shining down on her.
This was not how I imagined a simple c-rank mission. That was the only thought that went through her mind. Her chakra reserves were depleted, her whole body ached from running, she was thirsty and she was being followed by rogue ninja.
She still had a few more hours left until she reached Konoha, and she needed to rest. Her speed was already decreasing and fighting while she was this exhausted was not an option.
Turning around again she noticed a large lake in front of her, she ran on top of the water. The rather large rock formation in the middle of the lake gave her an idea. As soon as she reached it she jumped over it, once at the other side she looked back at the rocks and noticed a small cave. Quickly she climbed in the small cave and hid what little chakra signature she had left.
As the rogue ninja jumped over the rocks as well she began to count them. …16…17…18…19…20! That's all of them. The men ran at full speed over the waters surface, thinking that she was already running through the forest at the other side of the lake. Sakura sighed in relief and tried to get in a more comfortable position, resulting in her slipping on a smooth rock and sliding down into the cave.
She landed flat on her back and grumbled to herself. "Very smooth, Sakura." She sat up again and turned around, her jaw dropped. She expected to land in a dark and muddy cave, but she now noticed she was sitting on soft, gold coloured sand. In the middle of the cave was some sort of pool, surrounded by smooth black rocks, the crystal clear water seemed to be glowing and cast rippling reflections on the walls of the cave. She stood up, walked closer and took her gloves of. She used her hand to feel the water, it was nice. Not too cold and not too warm. She sat down at the edge of the pool, after taking her boots of she slid her sore feet in the water, letting out a contented sigh as she relaxed at the touch of the water and closed her eyes.
The glow of the water seemed to become stronger, and bubbles appeared in the once calm water. Opening her eyes and looking at the water Sakura felt her body move on its own and dive into the water.
What's going on!? The bubbles were fully surrounding her by now and it felt like invisible hands were pulling her underwater. She tried to fight back but soon enough she was pulled underwater. She felt how she sank deeper and deeper, and struggled to try and swim to the surface again. It seemed like her attempts to swim only made her sink even faster.
All of a sudden a searing pain shot through her right leg. Her first reaction was to open her eyes. To her amazement her vision was perfect although she was still underwater. She looked down at her leg and saw some blood in the water surrounding it. Then she noticed a large and very sharp crystal, embedded in the bottom of the pool, surrounded by sand.The crystal was glowing a beautiful blue colour. So that is why the pool was glowing. She looked around a little bit more and realised that the bottom of this pool and the crystal were surrounded by an underwater cave. There was a small tunnel that probably led to the lake.
Snapping out of her daze and finally realizing that she needed oxygen before it was too late. She started swimming back up. The pool seemed to be at least twenty meters deep and she swam as fast as she could, the lack of oxygen was already getting to her. Her vision was getting blurry and just when she thought she wouldn't make it she reached the surface. Coughing up some water took in a few deep and steadying breaths.
She quickly got out of the water before something else could happen. She looked at the cut on her right leg. It was quite deep and went from her ankle all the way to her knee. She gathered some healing chakra in her hand and placed it on top of her leg.
She pulled back immediately and bit back a scream as the pain only intensified and the wound didn't heal one bit. She looked confused but instead of trying again she grabbed some bandages from her medic-kit and wrapped them around her leg.
"Good thing those medic-kits are water proof." She murmured to herself.
Once she was done she pulled her boots and gloves back on. Standing up she winced a little at the pain in her leg. She shot one last glance at the strange pool before she climbed out of the cave, this time more careful for slippery rocks and began her journey back to Konoha.
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Sakura finally reached the village, it was already afternoon. She had decided not to run because she still was tired and her cut would start bleeding again if she wasn't careful. She had stopped trying to heal it with her chakra a few times; it only made the pain worse. She would try to find out if there was any information on strange glowing crystals in her books. She was limping a bit because of the wound, the guards didn't fail to notice that.
"Hey Sakura, you okay?"
Sakura looked at the worried faces of Izumo and Kotetsu. And answered them with a small smile.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"You look pretty tired for someone who just had a C-rank mission."
"Well I was ambushed by twenty rogue ninja. They kept running after me for hours before I was finally able to shake them of. So yes, I am tired." She answered rubbing the back of her head.
Izumo stood up and smiled at her. "I'll bring you to the hokage."
"You don't have t- Hey put me down!"
Izumo had already swept her of her feet and was holding her bridal style. He started running towards the hokage building, while arguing with Sakura.
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Tsunade looked at the five males in front of her. Uzumaki Naruto, Sai, Jiraiya, Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke.
"So Sasuke came back willingly and helped you to kill Orochimaru and those other sound ninja."
Naruto wore his trademark grin. "Hai!"
"And you are sure he's dead?"
Jiraiya looked at the hokage seriously. "Yes, his body was burned with a fire jutsu."
"I can walk Izumo, just put me down already!"
"Almost there!"
The door flew open to reveal a smiling Izumo carrying a fuming Sakura in his arms. Tsunade lifted a blond eyebrow.
"Care to explain why you are carrying my student, Izumo?"
"Sakura is injured so I helped her a little."
Sakura shot him another glare. "You can put me down now."
"What my arms not comfortable enough?"
She gave him another glare. Izumo sighed and put her back on her feet. "Ja." And he disappeared in a poof of smoke.
"Sakura-chan!!" Naruto engulfed her in a bear hug. Almost throwing her of balance again.
"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan look who's here!" He yelled happily while pointing his finger at the other men in the room. Sakura froze as soon as her eyes locked with Sasuke's.
"Sasuke…Sasuke!" She ran up to him, temporarily forgetting her injured leg and wrapped her arms around the Uchiha. It took a bit of time but he hesitantly wrapped his arms around her too. "Sakura…"
They both let go of each other and she smiled at him sweetly. "One more thing." Her hand shot up and slapped him across the face, leaving a red mark behind on his cheek. His eyes widened in surprise but then looked at her in a questioning way.
"That's for knocking me out cold and leaving me on that bench!"
Naruto fell to the ground in laughter. "Haha. Hey Teme, I –snort- told you she –chuckle- was over you!"
Tsunade looked at her student proudly, Sai's face was blank as usual and Jiraiya and Kakashi chuckled softly.
Tsunade spoke again. "Uchiha Sasuke, you returned to Konoha willingly. However as punishment for betraying us in the first place, you will not go on any solo or S-rank missions for two years."
Sasuke nodded in response.
"And you will be watched by anbu at night time and by your team in the daytime for eight months. Now go clean your apartment or you'll be staying with Naruto."
"No way I let Teme touch my ramen collection! Let's go, Teme!"
"Hn. Dobe."
"What did you say!"
Sakura smiled to herself. Just like the old days.
Tsunade turned her attention on Jiraiya, Kakashi and Sai. "You three, dismissed!"
After three poofs of smoke Tsunade and Sakura were the only ones left in the room. Sakura put the scroll on Tsunade's desk and looked her shishou in the eyes.
"You look exhausted, did something happen during the mission."
"I was ambushed by rogue ninja."
"Hmm, so that scroll was more important than I thought. What about the injury Izumo talked about, couldn't you heal it?"
Sakura looked at her injured leg and Tsunade followed her gaze. "It doesn't respond to healing chakra."
Tsunade frowned. "Show me."
Sakura took of her knee length boot and the bandages from her right leg. She sighed, the wound had opened again when she hugged Sasuke.
Tsunade stood up from the desk and kneeled beside her. Her hand glowed green and hovered over the wound. Sakura gritted her teeth together in pain and more blood seeped out of the wound. Tsunade removed her hand.
"Strange… -sigh- We'll have a look at it later. Go home for now."
"Hai."
Putting on some clean bandages and her boot she bowed respectively to Tsunade and left the office.
Tsunade sat down in her chair with a sigh. "Shizune! Get me some sake!"
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Sakura walked down the streets of Konoha with a smile on her face. She just couldn't care less about that strange cut on her leg. Team seven is finally together again.
She reached her apartment and immediately moved towards the kitchen. She grabbed a cup of instant ramen and boiled some water. She would do some grocery shopping tomorrow.
Sakura sat at the window sill to eat her ramen and watched the stars sparkle brilliantly in the early night sky. She smiled when she saw a falling star. I wish Sasuke is going to stay with us no matter what.
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Sakura sat in her bathtub, she always took a hot bath after a mission. Steam was filling the bathroom while she combed her wet pink locks with her fingers. She winced when her cut started stinging again. The pain in her leg turned into a burning feeling. She lifted up her leg and gasped when the cut gave of a white glow and healed itself.
She blinked and dropped her leg back underwater. It's…gone?
All of a sudden pain returned and spread itself through both her legs. All the way from her toes to her hips. It felt like thousands of needles punctured her skin over and over again. A strange tingling sensation went through the rest of her body as well but that was almost unnoticeable with the burning pain that was searing through her legs.
Her hands gripped the edges of the bathtub, her eyes were closed in an attempt to ignore the pain and she bit her under lip to prevent herself from screaming. The pain in her legs intensified, instead of needles it felt like she was being stabbed by knifes. When the pain reached to her bones she started trembling, her eyes shot open and a few tears leaked out of them.
She looked to the left to see her hand gripping the edge of the bathtub, a few drops of blood escaped from underneath her nails from the force. All of a sudden her hand turned into water! The pain disappeared and she let her jaw drop to look at her hand, it really had turned into water! And her arm too! She let her gaze fall to her torso. My whole body turned into water!
Her body took its solid form again. "What the hell was that…?" Sakura looked at her hand again. Her eyes widened a little. Her hand wasn't wrinkly from the water like it had been a few seconds ago and her nails seemed to be covered with light blue nail polish or something like that, all traces of blood were gone.
She looked at her legs but instantly covered her mouth with both hands to muffle her scream. She no longer had legs! She had an overgrown, turquoise, gleaming fin! She took a few deep breaths to recover from the scream and carefully moved her hand to touch her…fin. She pulled back instantly when her hand brushed over smooth scales. OMFG I really have a fin!
Finally recovered from the shock she leaned back against the bathtub and tried to move her fin a little. And it did, the fin was to big to fit in the bathtub, so it was dangling over the edge of the bathtub as she moved it from right to left and up and down. She took another deep breath, mentally preparing herself to look for more changes on her body.
She picked up the small mirror she had left on the edge of the bathtub and looked at her reflection. She almost wished she hadn't, her hair had grown to waist length and was wavy instead of straight. The usual pink locks had turned into a midnight black colour with some golden blond highlights. Her eyes were pupil less and the jade colour was replaced with stunning ultramarine.
She gaped at her reflection. Ooh Kami-sama, what's going on! She put the mirror away and pulled some of her hair, that was covering her naked chest, away and noticed that the battle scars on her stomach were gone. Her chest was still bare but she was glad to see that at least that part of her body still looked the same.
She sighed and looked back at her fin. "How do I get my legs back…"
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Sakura was tapping the bathtub with her fingers. She had been trying for hours to get her legs back. And she had tried almost everything she could come up with: she had tried with her chakra, meditation, she had let all the water out of the bathtub and towelled her whole body until there was not a drop of water left, she had even asked her tail to disappear!
She sighed and looked out of the small bathroom window. She watched as the sky began to change colour, soon enough the first rays of sunlight appeared. She immediately felt the tingling sensation run through her body again. Her whole body turned into water and a few seconds later it turned into her own body. She sighed in relief when she saw her hair was pink again and her fin replaced for her legs. But then she turned back to the window. The fin disappeared at sunrise.
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Sakura woke up at the sound of someone knocking on her door and yelling her name. She had gone to bed as soon as she got out of the bathtub. Glancing at the clock she noticed that it was one o'clock. Rubbing the sleepiness out of her eyes she walked to the door. "Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan open up!"
"Calm down Naruto."
Sakura opened the door and caught Naruto's fist in mid-air. The blond ceased his yelling and gave her a wide grin.
"Hey Sakura-chan. Can we come in."
She sighed. "Sure."
"You just came out of bed?" Sasuke observed dryly.
She knew she was still clad in a black shirt that was originally Naruto's and some red shorts that ended at her thighs. But right now she just couldn't care less. She nodded at Sasuke and waited until both boys were inside her apartment before she closed the door.
"Hey Sakura-chan, do you have anything to eat?"
"Only instant ramen and water. I have to go shopping today."
"Okay!" Naruto ran into the kitchen, no doubt she would be out of ramen in half an hour.
"Are you wearing Naruto's shirt?"
Sakura blinked at Sasuke, her cheeks turned slightly pink. "Uhhm, yeah. I borrowed it."
"Stole it!" Came a reply from the kitchen.
"Ooh be quiet you baka, just eat your ramen!"
"I will!"
She sighed once again and smiled at Sasuke.
"We have had a brother and sister relationship ever since he came back from his training with Jiraiya."
The stoic Uchiha nodded in understanding and they both walked to the kitchen. Two empty bowls of ramen were already located on the kitchen table and Naruto was already cooking himself some more. Sakura rolled her eyes at her team mate and walked to the fridge.
"You better clean that all up before you leave."
She grabbed a full two litre water bottle out of the fridge and began to drink. Once she began to drink she found that she couldn't stop. She absorbed the water like a sponge, enjoyed the simple mineral water like she would never taste it again.
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly and Naruto's jaw pretty much dropped to the floor as they watched the pink haired girl gulp down the full two litres of water all at once.
Sakura blinked when all the water was gone. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and then realized what she just did. Holy shit! She looked back at her team mates who were still watching her with awed expressions.
"Wow that was awesome Sakura-chan! I wish I could do that!"
"…"
Sakura looked back at her water bottle, she threw it in the bin. Although what she just did was weird, she felt completely refreshed from the water. Never knew water could taste that good…
"I'm just going to get changed."
She ran to her bedroom and closed the door behind her.
Naruto started to eat another cup of ramen. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the knucklehead and a ghost of a smile appeared on his handsome face. He had only just come back to Konoha but he already felt at home.
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Sakura came back to the kitchen clad in a black mini-skirt (something she almost never wore) and a simple white spaghetti strap shirt and her normal knee length boots.
Naruto had finished every single cup of instant ramen and was waiting for her at the door together with Sasuke. She grabbed her wallet and together the three walked out of her apartment.
Naruto sighed. "If Kakashi-sensei sees you wearing that he'll be following you all day to scare any male being away." He said indicating to her very short skirt.
"You and Kakashi are overprotective do you know that?"
Naruto grinned at her sheepishly.
"Sasuke-kuuun!!" The girlish shriek made the three young shinobi look up. Soon enough a certain blonde Yamanaka had her arms wrapped around the Uchiha prodigy's neck. "Hey Forehead-girl!"
Sakura grumbled her response. "Hey Ino-pig."
Two other people walked up to their group as well.
"Tch. Ino you're so troublesome."
"-munch munch-"
Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji. Naruto grinned at them. Sasuke finally managed to pry Ino of him and took a few steps away from the kunoichi. Sakura smiled before walking of.
"I got to do some shopping, ja ne."
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Sakura sat in her kitchen enjoying the sushi she had bought on her way home from the hospital. As soon as she came back from her grocery shopping a chuunin had knocked in her door saying that they needed her assistance at the hospital.
A group of severely injured anbu had come back from a mission. Two of them were in a critical condition and it took her a few hours with Shizune's help to repair the damage to their vital organs. On her way back home she had stopped at a sushi bar to get some take-away.
Putting the last piece of tuna in her mouth she chewed slowly while looking out of the window. She scratched her legs, they were itchy for some reason. She looked at the night sky while the itchy feeling turned into a more needle like sensation. Her eyes widened as she realized what was going to happen. I'm going to grow a tail again!
She looked around herself and began to ask herself what to do. She hadn't thought about what happened ever since Naruto and Sasuke knocked on her door. I need to tell someone…someone who I can trust. Tsunade-sama! Forgetting about her empty plate and all other things she ran out of her apartment and sped of to the hokage office.
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Tsunade looked up from her loathed paperwork as a panting Sakura ran through the door, throwing it shut behind her.
"Sakura? You shouldn't be running with that leg of yours!"
"Don't –pant- worry about that for the moment. –pant- I need your help shishou!"
"With what?"
Sakura fell to the ground and let out a small scream as the pain in her legs intensified. Her legs started to glow a pale gold colour. Tsunade jumped out of her chair and kneeled down next to Sakura.
"Sakura, what's going on?"
Sakura let out another pained whimper. Her body turned into water again. And a few seconds later into a body. Tsunade's eyes grew wide as she watched her student's transformation and thought she was hallucinating when she noticed Sakura's fin.
"Did I drink to much sake again?"
"No, this is real." Even Sakura's voice had changed, it sounded soft like velvet and angelic.
"Do you have any idea how this happened?"
"That cut on my leg. I got it from a crystal in a lake in the forest near Konoha. Yesterday, when I returned from my mission and I took a bath my cut healed itself and soon after that I… uhhm, grew a tail."
"More like became a mermaid…We need to keep this a secret. And I want you to take me to that lake, now."
Sakura looked at Tsunade like she had just grown a second head. "How do you want me to do that? I can't even walk."
"I'm going to carry you. You just give me directions."
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Sakura had truly no idea how they did it but they got out of the village unnoticed. She was getting uncomfortable, her skin felt very dry and her fin was itchy from the lack of water. Good thing they had almost reached their destination.
Her voice was croaky as she spoke. "Tsunade-sama, if we turn left now we'll only have a few hundred meters left."
Tsunade followed Sakura's directions and soon they arrived at the lake. Tsunade of course had noticed Sakura's dehydration and gently lowered her student into the water.
Sakura acted on instinct as she came in contact with the water. She used her fin and swam gracefully. She opened her eyes underwater, she could see everything. The fish that swam around, enjoying the water just as much as she was. The soft sand on the bottom of the lake and the occasional rocks as well as the underwater plants. A few small creatures came swimming her way, curious about the new creature that had come to their lake. As they came closer Sakura saw that they were turtles. Sweet water turtles! Kawaii! Sakura smiled at the small animals as they swam around her carefully. They weren't afraid of her, they accepted her as if she belonged here. And maybe she did, just a little. With those thoughts she took one last glance at the turtles and swam to the surface again.
As soon as she came up she noticed Tsunade sitting cross-legged on the grass. She swam back to her shishou and rested her arms on the grass, her tail flipped up from the water and patted its surface. Her black hair was still wavy although it was wet. She put her head on her folded arms and a serene smile made its way on her face. Tsunade chuckled.
"Five minutes underwater, impressive."
"Huh I was underwater that long?"
"Yep, you like your enjoying yourself."
Sakura's now ultramarine eyes looked up and frowned. "I'm supposed to enjoy this, I'm a fish after all."
"No, you're a mermaid."
Sakura averted her eyes to her fingers that were playing with the grass. "How am I supposed to do this…How can I go on missions when I grow a tail at night time? What will the villagers think when they find out?"
"They're not going to find out." Tsunade's voice was determined, Sakura lifted her gaze to look at her teacher. "The risks are too big, they could use you as a scientific experiment."
"Or sell me to a circus…"
"Or make sushi out of you."
Sakura's eyes went wide at Tsunade's comment. Tsunade laughed at the mermaid's expression.
"Don't worry, I'll let no one find out. If you want someone to know, think it through carefully, then tell them."
"So this stays our secret?"
Tsunade gave Sakura a sincere smile which Sakura returned.
"Arigato, shishou."
"No problem. Now I would like to see that pool you were talking about." Sakura turned her head so she was facing the rock formation in the middle of the lake.
"The entrance to the cave should be on the northern side of those rocks."
"Okay, will you be able to get in there?"
"There is an underwater entrance."
"Good. I'll see you there."
Tsunade got up and walked to rock formation at a steady speed while Sakura disappeared underwater.
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Sakura's head poked out of the water. Her speed underwater was even faster than she expected. She still was a little unexperienced with her uhhm…new body. She noticed her shishou stare at the pool with an awed expression.
"This place is beautiful."
"Hai." Sakura moved so she was sitting on one of the black rocks that surrounded the pool.
"Tsunade-sama. If I have to transform every night it might be a good idea if we put a genjutsu around this lake. So I can come here at night. In Konoha my chance of being discovered is still quite big."
"I was thinking that too. We'll put a genjutsu barrier around this lake as we leave."
Tsunade got a vial out of her pocket and filled it with water from the pool.
"I'm going to examine this along with a blood sample of yours, to see if anything is out of the ordinary. Is that crystal you were talking about still at the bottom of the pool?"
"Hai."
"All right. Can you look for any small fragments of it so I can examine that too?"
Sakura nodded, took a deep breath and once again disappeared underwater. She looked around at the crystal. It just stood there, glowing, solid and sharp. Sakura carefully searched the sand around it for any pieces that might have broken off. She noticed something glistening in the sand near the strange crystal. She carefully picked it up. It was a small glass bell with a sun kissed yellow bead in it and a black cord attached to it. Like a necklace.
Sakura swam up again with the bell. Tsunade looked at her expectantly.
"No fragments of the gem but I found this."
"A bell…? How did something like that get here?"
"I have no idea…"
"You should keep that Sakura."
"Why?"
"It proves that we're not the first ones that have been here."
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End of chapter one. Hope you liked it.
INNER ME: Please review! : )