Sea Story
海の物語
Chapter One: Beach Music
"Here she comes…"
"Don't make eye contact…"
"Mommy!"
His head jerked up at the muffled commotion from the people in the streets outside his store. So it was her again.
"She'll curse you soon as look at you, don't get too close…"
He sighed to himself, glimpsing only a flash of that infamous hair before it vanished into the crowded marketplace a few buildings down from where he was sitting. Whenever she was around, everyone always got all superstitious…
"There she goes, the little demon. Why we let her stay, I'll never know…"
His neck cracked from stiffness as he yawned, stretching before getting up from the rickety chair outside the only building he had to his name.
"She's no less of a demon that your own mothers," he scoffed to the gossiping women, disappearing indoors before he could catch their mutters of his insolence.
Konoha. Nothing more than a sleepy little fishing village, its inhabitants consisting of fishers, traders and the occasional musician or monk. Owning one of two fishhook shops, Uchiha Sasuke worked alone and had few good friends. People in Konoha had basic control of elemental magic, or "Chakra," as some called it, giving most of them a small power over a substance. Sasuke's power over fire was inherited from his father, allowing him to follow in the glorious family business of smithing hooks for fisher's lines. It was a simple job that paid well, though the quiet boy sometimes dreamed of other things.
"Sasuke! Hey, Sasuke!"
He put down the twisted piece of metal he had been holding, raising an eyebrow as his best friend of seventeen years tramped through his doorway, sopping wet and grinning like the lovable moron he was.
"You'll never guess what happened!" chirped the blond in his high-pitched squeak. Sasuke was not the only one who wondered when the gods would be merciful and let the poor boy's voice crack after five years of puberty.
"Shikamaru caught another kappa?" he murmured detachedly, returning to his malformed blob of iron. Konoha had been visited by the occasional sea monster, all fishing towns had, but an old, cucumber-addicted turtle-monkey had lost is novelty the first eight times one washed up on their shores.
"Nah," Naruto shook his blond head, dispelling drops of saltwater. "It's Kakashi."
" Kakashi? What about him?" asked Sasuke, referring to the ever-masked man that had first taught little Naruto how to cast nets. The boy had been orphaned from the start, his mother dying in childbirth and his father while helping fight off a vicious sea serpent. Kakashi was the only one who had bothered to look after the boy, teaching him to fish so he wouldn't starve. One could almost say the silver-haired man had adopted the spunky blonde as his own.
"He just broke the record!"
This time Sasuke was interested. "The mussel record?"
"The very one! Completely shattered it! Someone even said he might have doubled the last number!"
Sasuke closed his eyes. That old guy was always full of surprises. First he called lightning down from the sky during storms, and now this.
"Wanna go see?"
"Can't," he answered.
"Oh, that's right," the blond boy chuckled, the whisker-like marks on his cheeks stretching as he grinned. "You're going to go see your girlfriend."
"Dobe, for the millionth time, she isn't my girlfriend."
"But you like her."
"If I did, wouldn't I have offered to let her move in with me?"
Naruto sulked, unable to defy that logic. "But you still like her."
"As an acquaintance, yes. I do."
"Man, teme! You're colder than an iceberg, you know that?"
He merely smirked. Stupid Naruto. All was right in the world.
Uchiha Sasuke worked alone. As clichéd as it sounded, he took no help from anyone else, and made his own niche in their salty little village. And as much as he hated it, people were inclined to pity him, all alone for so long in his life. It wasn't his fault his older brother had gone ballistic at the age of thirteen, stabbing their parents to death before a grisly hanging suicide. The other townspeople worried about him, but he was just fine on his own.
Even so, he couldn't ignore the whisperings of the old housewives as he stepped briskly down the stony path leading to the beach, in the direction of a small, run-down shed perched on a rocky hill not too far from the frothy water.
"Look at that, there he goes again…taking things to that witch-girl…"
"She'll be spiriting him away and drowning him, mark my words."
He merely rolled his eyes and continued on his way.
The girl in question was the one most of the town made up wild rumors about, from her being a devil come to sink the village in a watery grave to the ghost of a drowned child risen to seek vengeance. All were complete nonsense.
Having arrived at the rickety shed, he reached up and rapped four times on the wormy wood of the door. A few scuffling noises later, it opened inwardly.
A single, moss-green eye peered out at him, squinting before the door was opened further to reveal a smiling girl's face.
"Sasuke," she exclaimed happily, "Please, don't stay out there, come in."
He nodded, ducking to stoop under the low door before standing up again inside the shed. Contrary to the outside appearance, the inside was quite clean and rather cozy. A bundle of straw in one corner with some blankets draped across it served as a simple bed, while a table and chair sat at the other end, several papers and a reed pen in an ink bottle sitting atop the rough tabletop.
"Writing again, Sakura?" he asked, glancing at the papers. She nodded in response, resting a hand on the sheets.
"I got a whole chapter done last night," she said in her upbeat tone. "If you like…I could read it to you."
"Some other time?" he offered, "I have things to do tonight."
"Ok…" she murmured, obviously disappointed. One of the few people in the village able to read and write, she had always delighted with reading her unfinished book aloud to him. The plot consisted of a young couple torn apart by a war between their neighboring islands, and all the hardships they went through to finally be together.
"Here, I brought this to show you."
She looked up at him, being a head shorter, as he fumbled around in the pocket of his black pants before retrieving something small and made of dull metal.
"Oh, Sasuke," she whispered, her eyes shining, "It's perfect!"
He smirked proudly, "I knew you'd think so. It's the best clutch I've ever made. Got it done just this morning."
"It's beautiful," she said, smiling as he twisted the spiked piece of metal in his fingers. "You're amazing, Sasuke. Are you going to keep it?"
"Nah," he shook his head of raven-colored spikes. "Asuma ordered a whole batch this afternoon, it'd be better used in his hands than sitting on a shelf."
"I…I guess so…" she agreed, "But it's still great, Sasuke. Good job."
He set the pebble-sized hook down on the table, turning back as she twisted a lock of her famous pastel-pink hair around her finger, her cheeks a faint shade of red. Though they were the best of friends, he tended to make her blush even if they had known each other since she moved into this little shack. She always dismissed it as his being pretty, to which he always scowled and muttered that pretty was for girls.
"Are you coming to the festival?" he asked casually. "It's next weekend, after all."
"I…I don't know…" she murmured, closing her jade-colored eyes. "I don't think so…I mean, I'll just…"
"You should come," he stated bluntly. "Who cares what anybody else says?"
Her face went redder as she nodded. "I'll do my best…"
"I'll look forward to seeing you," he said, turning back around to the little shed exit. "Sorry, but I need to go close up shop."
"Oh…ok…" she said, returning his wave as the door closed. "Bye-bye, Sasuke…"
The sun was setting as he stepped back outside, the orange and pink light casting a rosy hue on the graying rows of buildings that formed his home. He glanced toward the town's only pier, toward the little building sitting just within the town's boundaries where his best friend was probably stuffing his face with dinner…
Wandering through the emptying streets, he glanced back at the sun, that great ball of fire in the sky looking about to sink into the ocean below it, before reaching for his keys.
Locking the door behind him, he turned around to face the interior of what had once been his father's store for the town's fishers. Shelves upon shelves of lures, bait and metal fishhooks lined the walls, a pile of unwrapped lines for rods sitting complacently on the only chair behind the store's desk.
The best way to make money is to find out what people want, and give it to them.
"Heh," he mumbled to himself, trudging toward the stairs in the back that led up to the attic. "You always were quite the salesman, Dad…"
Only able to afford keeping one building on his single income, he lived in the shop's attic amongst old crates and creaking wood. No cobwebs or dustballs at all, because Uchiha Sasuke liked his cleanliness.
He exhaled loudly, collapsing onto his bed, made of cow hides sewn together and stuffed with bird feathers. His father had purchased it when his brother had been born, as the first male heir he deserved everything…
Sighing, he told himself there'd be time for rest later, the sun was almost down. He dragged himself back up, reaching for a crate of leather bags and a nearby bottom shelf at the same time. Asuma had ordered twenty-five of his deep-sea clutches…he and his team of apprentices were probably going crab fishing…
His fingers, roughened from years of blowing fire over the tips, plucked each individual fishhook from the shelf and dropped it in the leather drawstring bag, ready to be picked up and delivered first thing tomorrow.
His fingers paused in midair.
Twenty…four?
All of a sudden, he remembered the little piece of metal he had taken to show…
He cursed out loud, heaving himself to his feet. There was no time to light a fire now, he'd have to go get it from Sakura's shed. She wouldn't mind, she was a night owl. Probably up writing her book by candlelight right now…
Careful to lock the front door of the little shop, he hustled quickly through the empty streets, the light from many candles indoors illuminating the cobblestones with a dim, flickering glow.
Oh please oh please oh please be there… he mumbled to himself in his mind. He rarely spoke his thoughts out loud, adding to his reserved nature.
"Pssst," he whispered once he reached the little shed. "Sakura. Are you awake?"
No answer. And no light glimmered between the cracks in the wood, meaning she was probably asleep. He tapped four times on the door, to let her know it was him. "Sakura?"
He flinched as the door swung open of its own accord, its hinges squeaking loudly. Luckily, the light from the stars overhead shone into the gloom, shining off a single polished edge of dull, gray iron.
Without a sound, he swiftly reached in and swiped the fishhook, sighing in relief.
"Goodnight, Sakura," he whispered into the darkened corner where she would be sleeping, before carefully closing the door again.
He smiled to himself as he carefully made his way back up toward the wind-battered village. Now he could go back home and get some well-deserved sleep…
Sploosh.
He stopped walking, turning around in confusion at the sound of a rather large splash. The ocean remained as dark as ever under the night sky. He shrugged to himself and was going to turn back around and go home, when…
A head bobbed up several meters out from the dock, where the jumping into the ocean had obviously taken place. It was a human head, and he'd be crazy not to miss that flowing, coral-colored hair.
…Sakura?
He watched in puzzlement as the girl's head nodded along with the waves, swimming further out from the pier without so much as a sound.
What's she doing out here…? Well, it IS summer…and the water's pretty warm…she's just taking a swim, that's all.
He watched as she took that momentary bounce upwards to inhale, before plunging headfirst into the dark water, her feet kicking in the air before following the rest of her below the surface.
She's not a bad swimmer, he thought, trying to place where she'd emerge again.
The seconds ticked by. His heart began to pump in his chest when two minutes stretched into five. Then six, then seven…
"Sakura?" he allowed himself to whisper, his mouth going dry as he walked, then ran towards the beach. "Sakura?!"
What happened next stopped him in his sandy tracks. His mouth hung open as his feet slid to a stop on the yellowish beach.
In a burst of foam and glistening droplets of seawater, she broke the water's surface, almost performing a full backwards flip before splashing back into the blackened waves.
He rubbed his eyes, blinking several times. Maybe he should have gone home, now he was seeing things…There was no way…
She appeared again, completely oblivious to his presence as she tossed her shimmering hair, somersaulting in the air like a dolphin before reentering the rippling water.
This time he held his index fingers against his temples, he was definitely seeing things. Maybe those mushrooms he had eaten earlier weren't so safe after all…Stupid fungus, making him imagine his best female friend as a…as a fish-thing…
When the music began, he knew something was wrong with him. He had never heard anything quite like it before. Its basic sound was definitely a woman singing, but there were other sounds mixed in as well. Sounds that evoked feelings of basking under the boiling sun just below the surface of the water, speeding along the ocean floor in pursuit of an evasive prey, and most of all…
The lulling sound reached a crescendo, singing of the unfettered freedom of the wild blue sea itself. He swayed dizzily where he stood, almost falling down to the sandy ground as the hypnotic music overtook his senses.
Pretty…
She reappeared, this hallucination of Sakura. She glided backwards in the water, chanting her captivating melody to the rhythm of her strokes. Even when her pink hair slipped below the waves again, he could still hear it. Going home wasn't such a big deal, he thought to himself as he half-fell onto the loose sand. He could stay here and listen to her all night. Her beautiful, enthralling tunes of the ocean…
He snapped out of it when the sweet crooning was abruptly cut off. He shook his head as he stood up, slightly humiliated that he had been sitting there with a moronic grin for who knows how long.
A piercing scream rent the calm of the night air. That was no hallucination. That was the Sakura's voice he knew.
"Help, somebody! I'm stuck!" she cried, her head dipping up and down considerably far out in the water. As he dropped his coat and shoes in a heap on the sand, he winced, realizing her location. She was right where the automatic fish traps had been placed. Could she be caught in one?
Her choking coughs echoed loudly as she splashed violently, making him certain she was caught as he took a running start into the cool seawater. Those traps were cleverly designed, with rock weights that would sink to ensure the prey was trapped on the ocean floor. This was not good.
"Sakura!" he called out, meeting her gaze as her jade eyes, wide with fright, glanced towards him. "Sakura, hang on! I'll get you out!"
"Sas-!" she tried to call back, before being forced underwater by the thick netting of the trap. The murky water already splashing at his chin, he took a second-long breath before ducking his head under the frothy surface.
The salt stung his eyes and it was almost too dark to see, but he could follow her helpless voice unusually clearly…
The moment something big and dark came within reach, he grabbed at it and grasped a part of the net prison. The weights were already sinking them fast, and he couldn't hold his breath forever.
Immediately he began pulling at the ropes, reassured when her tiny hands clutched firmly onto his wrists to let him know she was still there. He involuntarily coughed, seawater instantly filling his mouth as precious bubbles rose back up to the surface.
"Sasuke!" her voice begged as she tugged at his hands, "Sasuke, go back up!"
Not caring if she could see him or not, he shook his head adamantly, though his grip on the rope was weakening as his lungs screamed for air.
Just… he coughed again, releasing even more bubbles. One more…
"Sasuke!" her voice screamed frantically as his hand movements turned sluggish and unresponsive. "Sasuke!"
With a final heave, he yanked part of the rope from the central knot, the exertion causing him to float backwards. The rope easily unraveled, though he was too close to passing out to notice.
Everything was so quiet…and what little light he had seemed to be vanishing…
He managed to open his eyes one last time, another trickle of bubbles escaping from his lips.
A slender, female hand was reaching out to him. Unable to make out the face behind it, he gazed at its oddly webbed fingers. How strange…
His eyes closed, and he succumbed to the darkness.
Yes, I'm redoing the whole darn thing. As for all you people who read it before, I'm sorry for putting "not enough reviews" as an excuse, that was kind of lame. I couldn't get around to doing anything for this due to personal and family reasons, not just procrastination, not to mention I wasn't happy with it as a whole. So! Enjoy the remake.
As for all you wonderful people who reviewed the first time around, to do so again would bring mountains of happiness to this not-updating-on-time loser author. Though, due to school and work, I can't promise a regular update schedule, but I promise to try and get something out as quick as possible.
Thank you all for readingggg~~ *bow*
