Disclaimer: Kishi: I still own Naruto! And there's no SasuKishi shipping in my Shounen-ai! T-T
Rei: I understand your agony…
Naruto: How can a Yaoi bitch know that? You love making guys fuck each oth—
*Rei punches Naruto Sakura-style while Kishi sighs*
Warnings: Rei: This is Rated M! But there's no sex!
Naruto: Then this shouldn't be rated M. *recovers from the punch*
Rei: Well, I have mild erotica, swearing and some violence and gore. Your mouth is a well-enough proof for swearing!
Besides, you are born, Naruto. We all know they did it!
Naruto: Fuck you, Rei Haruno! Get laid tte ba yo!
…
Summary: It's supposed to be a rumor… but things happen when he finds out it's true! And he's not the only one to suffer! Tribute for MinaKushi, FugaMiko if you squint.
…
He sits atop the biggest rock in the rim of the beach, waiting for the girl with a tail to come and sing for him.
He stares at the dark starless sky and wishes for her immediate arrival.
He has his pencil and paper with him, trying to record her exact image with his drawing hand.
Minutes later, red threads rise from the dark waters and ripples start forming at the surface.
He smiles and stands up from his seat, witnessing yet another wonderful coming of the girl.
But something has gone amiss… she comes to the shore beneath him with something…
Something that used to move on its own…
He crouches and calls from the rock and she lifts her face… her angelic face tainted with madness and aggression.
She pulls herself up and her tail becomes legs… her milky complexion glows as if light itself.
He clutches his hands against the rock and watches her climb to reach him…
She arrives and sits beside him… her red hair eventually covering her bare skin.
He asks… "Is he…"
"Yes, he's dead… and who knows? You might be next."
…
Tears of a Mermaid
Rei Haruno –Sakura no Imooto
Part 1
…
He jerks in his seat and looks around, latterly recognizing the van that they are riding towards a rumored resort.
Konoha West Beach is known for its rumor… about mermaids. Yes, the half-woman half-fish mythical creature.
And because of it, mysterious and scary people shroud the beaches but the rumor hasn't been proven.
It all started with a song and a single sighting of a big fish tail flipping at the waters…
It is too big for a fish… yet enough for an average-sized woman.
After that, the rumor flourished and latterly becomes known throughout the city.
And aside from that, KWB is also known for the breath-taking sceneries… which they are after.
He sighs and looks around, "Aren't we there yet?"
"Nope, Namikaze." The driver says as he peeks at the rearview mirror… showing him a picture of the sleeping students.
Everyone else but the two is asleep and to think about it, he just woke up…
"It's taking us too long…" He sighs and then the driver chuckles… "Joking. Wake everyone up, we're here."
He looks outside and sees the clear waters beyond the resort. He gapes his mouth open and then he yells, "GUYS, WE'RE HERE!"
Everyone growls as each wakes up from the slumber. The driver chuckles and horns, "Konoha West Beach! We have arrived!"
…
Tears of a Mermaid
…
Now that everything's set, the students of the Fine Arts are on their beach attire and will be enjoying the place for the first hours in Konoha West Beach.
They are here for a school project and everyone has to pass their own masterpiece… at the end of their four days and three nights stay.
Most of them decide to wait for sunset since it's just minutes away and some decides to wait for the next day…
Namikaze Minato, one of the students, is in his beach attire (white T-shirt and green board shorts) and is just walking around the beach… looking for a perfect spot to record.
His cerulean eyes are flinging around, trying to find a point of interest… but nothing has come in the first five minutes.
He then flings to his classmates, guys ogling at the bikini women and the girls… looking at him?
He flings back to his front and recalls the very peculiar dream… 'If I'm correct, that girl is a mermaid…'
He reaches for his pocket and fishes for a piece of folded paper.
He gets it and opens it for him to see again… the sketch of the mermaid he did a while ago.
"Her hair is red and… she's beautiful…" He stares at the sketch longer… until a drop of blood drips at the paper's edge.
He then shoots his hands away… and latterly, the free hand rubs the blood off his nose, 'And to think she's naked.'
He shakes his head and continues walking to the rocky shores near the boundaries of the beach… where there are a lot of people crowding.
He wonders and hides the paper back in his pocket and asks around, "What's going on?"
"They're setting up things to catch evidence regarding the mermaid." A man answers and he rakes his hand at his head, "And it's been three days since they started doing that."
"Three days? Wow." Minato admires the persistence and crosses his arms over his chest while trying to see something with all those heads, "They've got anything?"
"Nothing." The brunet smirks, "As if they will fall for that."
"Huh?" The blond wonders at the statement and the brunet squirms through the crowd. Minato scratches his head and follows suit.
He arrives at a closer distance and sees the brunet talking to a brown-haired glassed man who's setting up cameras with tree camouflages.
They seem to be arguing and after more time, the brunet walks away as the other continues working at those cameras.
Minato then notices the big rock far away and he looks at the setting sun… and it's time to draw.
…
Tears of a Mermaid
…
He reaches the top with all his drawing stuff and huffs in fatigue… it's hard to ascend such steep and high rock.
He sits at the edge and observes the beautiful scenery. He takes a picture first and he starts sketching right away…
Until his hand feels a different type of thread as he reaches for another pencil at the platform he's sitting at. He looks and picks up… a red thread caught in the nearly invisible crack of the rock.
He examines it and it reminds him of the mermaid. He puts the sketching things aside and looks down at the shore beneath the rock.
He decides to go down despite the difficulty… resulting to a hard stupid fall, making his butt sore.
He rubs his sorry ass and looks around the place some more… and something strange is in there.
He picks up some more red threads and some broken nails at the place.
"Hmmmm…" A woman's voice makes Minato shriek and fling to the waters… the horizon becomes darker… and he isn't supposed to stay there longer.
But he gulps and peers at the waters before him. He finds some more sand beneath the swallow water and decides to wade further… until he gets to a swimming depth.
He swims some more and looks back at the big rock… just to dive deeper… investigating the mermaid thing by himself.
He swims deeper… looking around the dark waters with his poor eyesight.
Then something big moves nearby and Minato stays alert on his spot. He then sees something swimming around… its dark hair-like body part brushing against his back sometimes.
He hurriedly gets ashore and grasps for breath, body still submerged in the water.
He pulls himself up… and then hands begin pulling him down. He struggles to get free but the hands are like aided by seaweeds.
He gets pulled down and he starts struggling to free himself. He grasps at the hands and weed-like things… only to find the owner of the hands…
A woman.
A naked woman…
His eyes widen and the woman smiles sweetly at him… her hands holding his shoulders and nears a little.
Her onyx eyes starts charming him and she starts swimming around him as she runs her hands and raven hair around his body.
The blond blushes but then he sees something different and worth panicking…
The woman…
Has a fish tail.
She's THE mermaid and he has to get away from her before she drags him down… and eats him alive.
He then swims away but the mermaid is way faster in swimming and she gets a hold on his waist and trying to just let him drown considering the distance of the surface.
Minato struggles to get her strong yet thin arms off of him… trying to get away from death.
His lungs begin to weaken… his mouth releases the air he clings to. Everything feels slow and painful… Minato suspends his arms as if reaching the surface…
His eyes begin to close…
He shouldn't have tried to investigate…
Eternal darkness conquers him… the mermaid pulling him into the depths of the ocean.
…
Tears of a Mermaid
…
He is lying at the lap of a woman… red thread-like fibers are covering his face but a delicate hand removes them, providing a sight to his eyes.
He breathes fast, his chest inflating-deflating rapidly from fatigue, grasping for air… and cold.
He feels like cold water has been left to dry out in his clothes and skin.
His breath seems to get normal but the heart's palpitation remains the same…
His eyes are slowly opening and the first thing he sees are tinges of red scattered around… cream, black and pink thrown into the picture as well.
The soft hand presses itself at his eye area and a peculiar voice resounds in his head…
"You're safe now. You don't have to be scared… Minato."
He closes his eyes and it seems like his lashes brush against the hand, producing a tickling feeling to the owner…
The other hand starts to stroke at his blonde locks as the first one gets placed above his chest, feeling the beat of his once weakened heart…
When your dreams waver and when your sight goes blur
She starts singing and he can't help it but to get lulled by her lullaby… deep into slumber…
Look straight at the seas of blue and I'll be there for you
I will console a poor soul and I will sing to you
Listen to my voice and let me take you, too
When your dreams waver and when your sight… goes blur…
…
Tears of a Mermaid
…
"Oi, Namikaze?" The driver a while ago shakes Minato a little and he groans in respond.
Minato looks around and his cerulean eyes meet with a dozen looming ones he hardly recognizes.
"Gaaah!" He yelps as the looming heads suddenly earns his annoyance and surprise.
His classmates get back and one clasps her hands together, "I'm glad, Namikaze-kun is doing good! We thought you won't ever wake up!"
"We're just about to give you 'Snow White's medicine' when your fingers begin twitching." Another one says with rather a pouty expression.
Minato sits up and a hand holds his head, conquering the giddiness he's suffering from.
"Someone found you by the beach just this morning." The driver says and complains, "Where were you, you asshole? We thought you were taken by the mermaid!"
Minato twitches and recalls the events that dusk and the dream-like event where he has heard the song…
And the voice that has never left his mind…
"You're safe now. You don't have to be scared… Minato."
The gentlest and the kindest he has ever heard… and oddly, he feels like he has heard the voice somewhere…
"OI! PANTY-MONGER!" The driver claps his hands inches away from Minato's nose because he has pulled back and he gasps softly for that.
And the guy also earns the not-so-famous trust-me-I-can-kill-you Namikaze glare.
"Oh, you're already awake." He smirks and continues with what he has been saying, "Minato, they will be holding a meeting at the function later."
"I just wanted to rest." Minato sighs and then the first girl says, "Namikaze, it's already morning."
He twitches and stares at her with great disbelief and the driver makes the alarm clock kiss Minato's nose, the blond crossing his eyes to see the time…
8:00 AM…
'Fuck, that's past breakfast…'
…
Tears of a Mermaid
…
Stubborn with not going to the meeting about the mermaid sightings, Minato is walking around the shores again… expounding on the events that happened.
He has been so sure that the mermaid has pulled him down successfully and the fact that he is still alive puzzles the blond.
Did someone save him? Did someone get rid of the mermaid and save him? Yes, there is a guy that found him at the beach…
Is that the man who did? Or it's somebody else?
Or something else?
He seems to be overly deeply lost in thought… until two fingers poke against his forehead.
He twitches and sees a guy in a dark blue work shirt and dark pants, yet in slippers, before him… the one he talked to yesterday to be exact.
"A somewhat good-looking man with short dark hair and dark eyes found you a while ago."
He points at him but his hand is much lowered from his face, "Aren't you the…"
"The guy you talked to yesterday, the guy who found you and the one you're about to bump… yes, it is me." The guy speaks, recalling his fingers as Minato does.
"Uhh, sorry." He says and then the man continues gazing at the waters. Minato does the same and the guy starts, "They have recorded the mermaid's song last night."
Minato flings back to the man and he closes his eyes as he smirk, "But that's all that they've got. Nothing more…"
"You sound so against with what they are doing." Minato grins and looks at the clear beach… no surfers, swimmers, boats… nothing… just the plain beautiful waters.
"You don't even know what they are up to."
The blond's grin falls in an instant but he manages not to get pissed off, "What do they want to do anyway?"
"They want tears." Minato raises a brow and he looks at the man shortly before the stranger looks at him, "Tears from a mermaid… it'll cost more than a thousand pounds of pure gold."
Minato is dumbfounded… and then he asks, "Why don't they just give them some tears if they do exist?"
"Tch. What a big idiot." The guy sighs and Minato glares at him.
The guy answers, "Acquiring tears from a mermaid could mean both influential power and immortality. A single tear can defy science and death. What more if one has a mermaid for himself?"
The man grabs a little stone from the ground and throws it at the waters, "Tears are like elixirs. They only have their effect when they stay fresh. Exposure to anything else than air makes them disappear."
"So…" Minato looks back at the waters, "They need to capture a mermaid to effectively preserve tears, huh."
"Believe me, you wouldn't want him to get one." The brunet is about to walk away when something comes at Minato's sight.
Minato widens his eyes and then flinches as he sees something weird at the water. He points as if going hysterical, "L-Look!"
The two then see a moving dark portion rising from beneath the water and towards a direction.
The man then drags him to the side and they hide by a rock. The dark portion at the water passes them by and goes to a remarkable place…
The big rock where Minato sat last sunset…
"Let's go!" Minato abruptly stands up but the man pulls him down, enough for him to lose balance. He glares at the man looking around, "I can't afford to get seen by those cameras."
"Why?" The blond asks and the brunet says, "I can't let them see me… or them."
"Them?" Minato says and the brunet runs off to a direction. But Minato can't run off to where he is headed.
A feeling of something is watching him comes to him, chills get sent to his very spine…
He looks around and walks towards the shoreline and stares at the water… light getting eaten by darkness at its depth.
The familiar presence starts to conquer him… and he just decides to run back the resort house.
"That's right, Minato. Stay away…"
…
Tears of a Mermaid
…
The second day passes by and Minato is in their room, finishing the supposed masterpiece.
His things are magically returned to his room and he can care less about it… nothing gone missing or whatsoever anyway.
His sketch of the mermaid has been destroyed by water that time and he wants to draw another one…
But he can't clearly remember it unlike before.
Minato sighs and polishes the painting, the sunset painting from the view of the big rock.
It feels hollow and lifeless, dull and uninteresting…
To another person's perception, it can be beautiful. But to Minato… it is…
Ugly. Plain butt-ugly.
He can't help but to sigh at his own creation… one ugly creation.
But he decides to finish it anyway.
"My hands want the mermaid." He says… not the tears… the mermaid… the red-haired mermaid.
The beautiful red-haired mermaid and perhaps the owner of the voice that he yearns to hear once more.
Wants her to sing some more… loves to listen to some more…
Minato suspends his hands near the painting, the tip of the brush merely touching the canvass.
He thinks about the red-haired mermaid, the most beautiful creature he has ever seen.
The mane, the curves, the elegance, the flawlessness, the complexion…
The face.
He lets his mouth gape as he daydreams of her… the driver slowly pushing a pencil inside his mouth.
He stirs and abruptly takes the pencil off as the driver stifles some laughter.
"Namikaze!" The driver taps his shoulder as the blond glares at the stupid, oh so stupid, brunet.
"You space out once in a while and it's not healthy, man!"
"Your ways are not healthy either, Inuzuka." He then starts to fix his things as if setting the painting aside for now.
Inuzuka looks at the painting as says with a serious voice, "Where's the elegance, man? You sure you feel alright?"
"I don't." He stands from his seat and leaves the room… knowing the guy will cover the painting later.
…
Tears of a Mermaid
…
'Look straight at the seas of blue and I will be there for you.' That's what the song has said and that's exactly what Minato would want to test.
He is standing at the big rock that second sunset and he wants to see the mermaid.
Once again, it feels different and yet he stays still.
A certain voice makes him stir. "You're here again?" He looks to see the same man again and he asks, "You hang out in this place?"
"Favorite spot." He smirks and sits down near the edge and Minato follows suit. The man looks straight at the sea, "What makes you go here?"
"I'm just waiting for something." The blond answers and the two seem to enjoy the silence and tranquility of the place.
The sun starts setting and Minato stirs a little, "I don't feel comfortable…"
"Move 'cause I'm not going."
"Tch." Minato twists his lips and leans his arms behind him as support, "When is she going to show herself?"
"The mermaid?" The man smirks and Minato looks at him. He continues to speak as if considering him trustworthy, "They seldom show up when people keep their eyes at the beach."
"They?" Minato echoes and he says despite the question, "Just keep on waiting and they will show up."
"Are there… two mermaids?" Minato asks and the brunet hasn't bothered to answer. Minato just keeps his eyes on the waters and waits for the coming.
…
Tears of a Mermaid
…
Minato is softly snoring as he lays down the rock platform and darkness has eaten everything in his sight.
The dim moon won't give any light and the starless night sky is not helping either.
The brunet is nowhere to be found and the blond is so much oblivious of this wrong picture.
Then something of milky complexion reaches for the edge, her fingers trying to feel if something could have been there other else than the blond man.
She successfully gets up and looks at Minato's tranquil face for a moment… only to place something beside him.
A head.
A head detached from the body and its veins are pumping blood out the part, blood pooling beneath it and closely to Minato's.
Minato sniffs as his sense of smell detects the pungent odor of blood near him… near enough for him to actually know it's blood.
He abruptly stands up and covers his mouth with a hand as he sees the head before him.
But no…
It's not the head of the brunet man he is with earlier. Someone else's…
He then sees the creature by the edge of the rock. Her hair is hanging shortly after covering her breasts and its raven color shines against the dull darkness of the night sky.
She smiles at Minato and shifts backwards to drop off the rock. Minato tries to follow her with his gaze but only a flip of her tail bids him farewell.
He frowns at the sea and then to the head…
'What's… happening in here?'
…
Tears of a Mermaid
…
Minato gets back and Inuzuka welcomes him as if worried to death, "Oh, man! Good you're still here!"
"W-What's wrong?" Minato asks and then everyone has told him about… the video the experts have that in which they have seen a woman in a dark blue shirt…
Dragging a headless body behind her at the shore earlier.
The brown-haired man with glasses then announces, "This is something unusual! But we cannot say she is the mermaid we have been looking for!"
"Why don't we catch her?" One suggests and lots have agreed. The students somehow say 'yes' but Minato can't decide for now.
"Man, we have to hunt that mermaid down!" Inuzuka shakes Minato, excitement in his tone, "We're going to be rich if we lay our hands on that FIRST!"
"Don't be silly, Inuzuka." Minato answers, knowing that the man with glasses is the one who will benefit the most.
"Well, at least, we get to see the mermaid!" Another classmate says and a girl sighs, "Tou just wanted to see a naked woman."
"Shut up, suckers." The man retorts and Minato looks at the man with glasses… wondering where the brunet yesterday could be.
He flings around, not seeing a familiar brunet amongst the crowd. He scratches his head and sighs…
"Let the mermaid hunt begin…"
…
End of Part 1
…
I just decided to cut the supposed to be one-shot…
Yeah review for suggestions and other comments…
Thank you for reading…