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Flotsam

Prologue

The sun was setting over the edge of the world. A young boy stood on a box and looked over the edge of the ship as both hands gripped tightly on the wooden frame between him and the vast rolling waves. The waves crashed violently upon the side of the ship; particles of saltwater bit as his cheeks, but he couldn't bear to close his eyes. He was afraid should he close them, even for a second, the waters below him would swallow the sun forever. The sky was shrouded in grey, like the clouds and the sea were fighting to see which could first claim the sun. He watched with fervent eyes as he placed his bet that the new, mysterious competitor of raging turquoise would surely claim victory.

"CHEERS!" Shouted a voice behind him, and finally he managed to tear his eyes away to turn to the celebration taking place on the deck of the ship. Dozens of adults scattered the floor around him, and suddenly he felt familiar hands lift him off the box he stood on and placed him back to the deck of the ship.

"Eh, little brother, you know you're not supposed to be up there. You might fall overboard, and I'm not going in after you."

"Sorry," the boy muttered in response. His brother reached out and poked him hard on the forehead, grabbing his hand and leading him towards the center of the crowd. The young boy turned around to see the sun slowly getting enveloped by the clouds, now seeming much darker than they had only seconds before. His inner frustration at the weakness of the ocean was interrupted by his brother's calming voice.

"Father is going to be making his toast to the couple soon."

At just four years old, the young boy didn't quite understand the fuss made about weddings, and especially not why the entire family must spend almost five days on the open ocean to get there. He had never set foot outside of the family estate, but now found himself on a crowded ship filled with family he only met at the most special of occasions. Spotting his mother, he ran over to her side and clung to her leg, burying his face in her dark burgundy dress.

"Ah, Sasuke, my precious little Prince," his mother cheerily spoke as she rested one hand down on her son's hair, the other carefully holding a glass of red wine. "I caught him looking over the edge of the ship, Mother." His older brother tattled beside him, but his mother only laughed.

"It's fine, Itachi. It's only fair he get to see the ocean a little before the trip is over."

It had been four days already, most of which were spent in the cabins below the deck. While he would never admit it, most of his decision to stay hidden was fear of falling overboard or being eaten by a much-too-large fish. But when he saw the sun being swallowed by the ocean, he couldn't help but feel drawn to the violent depths. Much too young to understand what to fear, he gazed back at the sunset to see the last sliver of the sun growing weaker. The lanterns on the boat were being lit, and his father called out to everyone in preparation for the toast.

"It has been a long journey, and tomorrow we will reap the benefits as we bear witness to the marriage of not only two individuals, but two clans. It has been many years since we step foot in their land, nonetheless as welcomed guests." His father's voice boomed above the rest of the crowd, but the politics didn't interest the young boy. He knew nothing of the great power his family held, and even less how it would one day become his responsibility to help run the land promised to him and his older brother. As his father continued to speak of the luck and fortune that has blessed them after years of fighting, Sasuke's eyes became fixed on the sails above him.

The winds had picked up since he saw the sun losing its light, and he swore that if it blew any harder, the ship would lift off of the water. He let go of his grip on his mother's dress, walking over to the center mast and placed his small fingers over the wood. The lantern above him flickered precariously, almost like the darkness was whispering for him to come closer. It was at that moment that a large wave smacked against the side of the ship, sending little Sasuke down onto the ground, and many others reaching for something to hold. He rubbed his side and tried to stand, only to be knocked over once more by a second wave.

Whispers broke out amongst the crowds as his father paused the toast. The creaks of the ship filled the air, and Sasuke reached out for his mother's hand as she offered to help him up.

"It's just the wind, Sasuke, the wind can't hurt you," his mother's soft voice reassured the frightened young boy, but his brother only chuckled.

"Don't lie to him!"

"Hush now, Itachi." She scolded, and her youngest gazed up at her coal colored eyes, which reflected the flickering light and something else the young boy couldn't quite place.

Suddenly, the lanterns above them went out. The wind whipped around their faces with such intensity, Sasuke swore that his skin would be ripped off. The ground beneath them began to shift as only a few lanterns could withhold their flame. The next thing he heard was pure panic, his father's voice commanding people to positions on the ship as others simply tried to hold their footing.

"Take your brother, Itachi, go stay by the rescue boat. Stay away from the side of the ship." His mother quickly commanded, pushing her sons towards the man preparing the small vessel.

"Mother!" Sasuke yelled out, turning back and straining his eyes in the darkness to see his mother's faint image fade to blackness. The boat rocked once more, the waves now large enough to splash water on the ground beneath him. The last thing he felt was the ground disappearing beneath him as his brother's hand lost its grip. He tumbled down the length of the ship and with a loud thud suddenly, it was silent.

A young mermaid clutched tightly to a bag of assorted shells as if her life depended on it. She swam quickly around the corner of a reef, waiting patiently for her friend to come racing by. As the moments passed, she heard no sign of her friend and peeked her head around the corner only to look directly into her large turquoise eyes, her face now adorning an ear-to-ear grin.

"Gotcha, Sakura!" Her friend loudly shouted, grabbing the bag from the other girl's death grip.

"Well that's not fair! You didn't fall for my trick!" Sakura huffed, twirling her now empty hands through her hair.

"I'm the one who taught you the trick, of course I'm not gonna fall for it!"

"Whatever. You can keep those stupid shells, I don't want them anyway."

"Good, cause I was gonna!"

Sakura stuck her tongue out at the blonde, turning to swim past her as they exited the reef. Sisters of the pod, Sakura and Ino had been with each other since they were born, and in the past four years they did nearly everything together. From learning to swim to learning the basic magic all mermaids were given, they did everything together. However, Sakura often found that she didn't have the same interests as the other girls, even her closest sister.'That's because you're special' her mother would say, wearing a look that could only be described as adoration tainted with regret. Sakura didn't understand the hurt in her mother's eyes, but she didn't dare ask, fearful of the answer her mother would give her. So Sakura tried to be like the other girls, brushing her hair, taking her singing lessons, and always staying with the pod… Well, almost always.

"Hey, Sakura, it's starting to get dark, we should head back." Ino chimed, but Sakura was too busy looking up at the surface of the water above the reef. It wouldn't be too long until she could no longer return to the reef, which was protected only for those small enough to maneuver safely.

"You go on without me," she muttered, never taking her eyes off the twinkling barrier between water and air. Her friend looked back, noticing the yearning look plastered on her friend's faced, and Ino couldn't help but roll her eyes. She wasn't going to be late again just because Sakura was taking her sweet time.

"Fine, I'll talk to you back at home. I'm not gonna lie for you, you know!" She yelled as she sped off into the distance; home really wasn't that far away, just off the drop off a couple miles out. Once Ino was out of sight, Sakura pushed herself up to the surface, carefully poking her head up into the waves. It was getting darker much more quickly tonight than other nights, and when she spotted the grey cover over the usually blue sky, she wondered if it were the culprit of taking away her adventuring time. She glared at the greedy clouds, following them on their steady path to cover the setting sun. It was at that moment that Sakura saw it; a large vessel several miles out, sails billowing a soot colored aura.

Fire.

Sakura had never before seen fire so close. She treaded the water as her mother's voice boomed in her head.

'Humans are not to be trusted, Sakura.'

'If you see a ship, always swim as fast as you can.'

Swim Sakura did, straight towards the fiery ship.

The ship quickly grew darker, and among the panic Sasuke's mother could barely see the step in front of her. At this moment, she cursed the traditions that kept her in a dress so difficult to maneuver in. She cursed under her breath as the boat violently shifted under her feet. Instead of feeling the harsh wood beneath her, she felt two strong arms catch her. She looked up at her husband, smiling gratefully before her expression changed to pure horror.

There he was: her baby, laying with his eyes closed. She scrambled out of her husband's hold and crawled over to the Prince, scooping him up just as she heard glass shattering around her. The only thing that lit the area around her was the burning ember that engulfed any hint of dry wood. She held tighter to the little boy, glancing back at where her husband stood only to watch as the mast began to crack. She closed her eyes, shielding her smallest one from the pieces of ember floating in the air. Her eyes stung with the smoke, and her skin burned from the heat surrounding her. She locked eyes with her husband, who stepped forward only to have their connection severed by the quick shifting of the sail.

"Mikoto!" A strained voice yelled over the sound of the cracking wood and roaring fire. Mikoto held one hand tightly to the unconscious boy in her arms, the other tightly against the staircase beside her. She heard her name once more, straining to hear her husband's voice more clearly.

"Watch out, Mikoto… Get out… the cabin… gunpowder…!"

It wasn't until she finally registered the words that her husband had shouted that she quickly spun around, all senses absorbed by a loud bang in the storage room behind her. She closed her eyes, wrapping her arms tight as she could around the toddler.

When she opened her eyes, she had to debate to herself whether or not the landscape before her could be Hell. She looked down quickly at the boy in her arms, and her heart stopped when she saw the thick red coating on his crisp white shirt.

She choked back a sob, unable to lift her eyes from the site of her last child coated in the red iron liquid. Everything around her was painted in a red-orange hue, the floor beneath her uneven and she didn't even notice the lack of noise beside the roaring fire. She tried to lift her child up, only to be met with a burning deep in the pit of her stomach. She felt her hair whip down in front of her face, and her feet lifted off on the floor beneath her.

But she didn't fall. She looked past the boy to see a jagged piece of the ship, pressing through her abdomen and into the leftover piece of the mast behind her. Her last thought was one of thanks, that her child was unconscious and would not watch his mother die. He would not even feel the water fill his lungs. She tried to cry out for her husband in the waters, but she saw nothing below her in the blackened water. The raging of the fire around her was the last thing she heard, and as her body gave way the boy slipped from her grasp, tumbling to the waters below.

From afar, the ship seemed so small, but as Sakura grew closer, she could see fragments and cargo from the ship floating in the water. Most of the pieces were broken down, but she could tell that the majority of the cargo was much larger than herself. She could see figures moving at an alarmingly slow rate in the waters ahead, but her eyes stayed on the source of light above.

As Sakura raced towards the raging inferno, the temperature of the water quickly raised, and as she pulled herself to the surface, her eyes grew wide. The ship was almost completely on its side, and on the side furthest from her she saw a woman trapped against the mast. The dark burgundy color of her dress seemed to seep onto the young boy she was holding. Sakura stared, horrified at the image before her. Surrounding her was nothing but broken and charred pieces of the ship. She could hear screams, but her eyes were frozen on the woman on the mast. Her dark eyes reflected the flames, and held tightly in her arms was a young boy, covered in red. She watched in disbelief as the woman's eyes began to close, and the boy toppled down the deck and plunged into the waters before Sakura.

Quickly, she dove into the water, looking around at the suspended and sinking cargo. That's when she saw it, the slow moving figures she spotted were people. They were not swimming; they were sinking. Tears welled up in Sakura's eyes, and her heart beat against her chest so harshly as she spotted the boy sinking deeper into the waters. She grabbed him around the waist, tugging him along with her. Her mind was racing; she was only four, barely yet a mermaid. How could she help him? She looked down at his face, covered in black soot and the water around him was tainted crimson. In a panic, she brought him back to the surface, longing for the assistance of someone, anyone.

There was no one left.

She put her ear on the boy's face, listening for some kind of hope that the boy could help her. She felt something warm against her cheek, and quickly she realized that he was still breathing. Breathing, she thought. That is what humans do. She let him go, just for a second, and closed her eyes as she held her hands together. There was only one thing she knew how to do, the only thing she could think that might help him. With her heart racing and her mind focused on nothing other than the little boy's face, she blew as hard as she could.

She opened her eyes, seeing a bubble surround the boy's head, and for a moment just sat in thankful self-admiration that her magic hadn't failed her. She wrapped her arms around the boy, feeling the warmth of him fill her with the motivation needed to begin to swim. Slowly, she made her way back to the reef her and her friend had been playing in moments earlier. She kept her eyes set on the direction of the reef, glancing up at the boy every few moments to see that the bubble was still safely surrounding him. She dare not look back.

The trip seemed five times longer with the added weight of the boy, but when she arrived at the reef, Sakura swam closer to the shore than she ever had before. Crawling with her hands through the sand, she pushed the boy as far as she could with her tail still touching the water. She reached out and popped the bubble around his face, and she inched forward out of the water to look more closely at him.

His hair was a shade she had never before seen in the pod, and she hesitantly reached out to brush a piece from his face. Looking at him, really looking at him, for the first time, Sakura was overcome with a sense of sympathy for the boy. Was that woman his mother? How will he get back? She stopped, realizing that there was no one to go back to. Sakura pressed her face against his chest, which reeked of metals and earth. Suddenly, his chest moved, and the boy turned and coughed up a small bit of saltwater. Her eyes opened wide and she shot up, looking to his face to see his eyes blink open. She smiled as she reached out and brushed his hair out of his face, and she whispered to him, "It's all going to be okay."

His eyes were worn, and his lids heavy. He stared up at her for only a brief moment, his eyes like blackened pebbles. He began to close his eyes again, and Sakura ran her tiny fingers through his black hair, trying to recall the things her mother did whenever she felt ill. Softly, she began to sing to him as he lay on the beach, too exhausted to move. He opened his eyes once more, catching sight of the girl with soft, coral pink hair and eyes greener than the forest; he could hear her singing. He lay on the beach with her until he slowly drifted back to sleep, and as he lay listening to her song, he almost believed that things might be okay again.

A few moments passed as Sakura sat, softly singing to him and taking in the image that lay before her. She was so terrified for him, and at that moment she longed for her mother to be here. She wanted to be able to tell her mother about the boy, but knew that if she did, he would be sent to the depths. Her voice broke as her song became more somber, and tears fell from her face as she lay across the boy.

That was when she heard it, the whipping of sails. The voices of men. She turned around to be faced with a large ship scraping against the reef; and adorned on the sails she saw a strange symbol, and her heart began to sink.

Those weren't the voices of men.

These were the voices of pirates.

In a frenzied moment, young Sakura looked back at the boy who lay sleeping on the beach. She knew she couldn't carry him with her through the reef, not quickly enough to get away. She turned back to the pirates, who were growing closer to the beach only about a mile away. She grabbed the boys face in her hands, taking one last look at his face as she made her decision. She knew that she couldn't keep him safe. She knew that the pirates would kill her if she stayed. She convinced herself that even a pirate couldn't leave him like this, and so she leaned over and laid a chaste kiss on his cheek.

She held her breath as she then left his side, diving back into the reef.

She swam through the corals as quickly as she could; heart thumping as the ship above her shaded any light from the surface. All she could hear was the blood pumping in her ears, and all she could feel was the aching of her body. She screamed as she felt something wrap around her body, only for it to be muffled by a puckered tentacle. She looked down to see that a couple of octopi had taken hold of her, shifting the color of them to match the sand as it slowly inched across the bottom of the ocean. It was at that moment that Sakura realized how long it had been since returning home, knowing well that her mother had probably seen the pirate ship arriving and assumed the worst. For now, Sakura was thankful for her mother's overprotective nature, and slowly crawled along the sand with her mother's octopi until they were a safe distance away.

"What were you THINKING?" Tsunade's voice boomed through the waters, holding the small mermaid with one hand.

Sakura turned her head away, biting her bottom lip to stop from crying. Ino was treading behind their mother with the rest of the pod, watching with wide eyes as she raised her voice. Tsunade had a temper, sure, but unleashing that temper on Sakura was unheard of. She got away with whatever she wanted, but this time it seemed she went too far.

"They were going to kill you, Sakura! How many times have I warned you about them? Do you want to be killed, Sakura?" Her words were heavy, and Sakura couldn't help but hang her head, trying to absorb the words her mother was saying with such conviction. Sakura knew that she was supposed to listen to her mother, but she couldn't find a way to make herself feel bad about her decision. As she closed her eyes, she saw the face of the woman who was holding the boy.

She thought of what that woman would say to her now. Would she have thanked Sakura? But even more importantly, what is going to happen to him now; were the pirates a mercy or a punishment?

She continued to take the lashing of her mother, obviously preoccupied of thoughts of the little boy. When she began to cry, at first it was quiet, and eventually she was wailing as she swam forward into her mother's chest, clinging to the clamshells covering her chest. The guilt suddenly washed over Tsunade as she realized how cruel she was being to the small mermaid, not understanding that the reason behind the tears had nothing to do with the conversation.

She sighed, holding the tiny figure close as she slowly stroked the pink tresses floating around her youngest.

"It's all going to be okay." Her mother cooed, and Sakura's mind shot back to when she had promised the same words to the boy laying on the beach. The boy with eyes of the blackest pebbles and the smell of a world she'd never understand.

"SHIT!" The silver-haired man yelled, holding onto the wheel with all of his strength.

"This wind is gonna kill us!" Shouted one of the men behind him, but the captain just chuckled. "Scared of the breeze?" He retorted, like the profanity had not just flown from his mouth with the same sentiment. He cursed once more as he heard the bottom of the ship scrape harshly against the reef below.

"Smooth landing, Cap!" He heard behind him, but the man just sighed.

"Kakashi!" A small, shrill voice yelled out. The silver haired man shifted his gaze down to the small, blonde boy hoisting himself up on the edge of the ship, pointing wildly in the direction of the beach.

"Oi, Naruto, get down before you fall." Kakashi managed to drone, but Naruto only became more determined.

"There's another kid, Kakashi!" He shouted, then running over to grab a rope ladder as Kakashi tried to spot the said child in the mist. He heard Naruto slip and fall on the slick deck of the ship, and before he could look down to make sure the clumsy child was fine, he spotted black hair against the white sands. But that wasn't what caught his attention most, rather, a flashing of bright pink in a small splash in the water. Could it be…? He silently wondered, shaking his head as he realized that Naruto was currently being held back on the ship by some of the other men, trying to prevent the child from going overboard.

"Patience, Naruto." Kakashi reassured the boy, "If he's not already dead, then he can wait until we dock."

Notes: Hey everyone!

So I've wanted to write this piece of a really long time, but unfortunately I've been stuck in a rut for several years. This is the first time I'm writing anything in years and I'm so excited to be back at it. For the record, this is the only chapter where the two characters will be this young, and there will be two main time jumps. I'm super excited to see if anyone is still just as obsessed with this pairing as I am. I've been stuck reading fanfiction ever since I fell back into my Naruto craze… Anyway, let me know any suggestions/OOC (it's been awhile and I hope you enjoy reading this half as much as I love getting to write again!