The waves rolled lazily against one another with seagulls and porpoises skimming along its border that met the grey-blue sky

The waves rolled lazily against one another with seagulls and porpoises skimming along its border that met the grey-blue sky. It was a day after a great rain and fog had drifted above the waves. From the midst of the fog came a great ship crashing through the waves.

"I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue, "chorused the sailors on the ship as they hauled the vast net containing the captured fish, "And it's hey to the starboard, heave ho." A few sailors on the foremast pulled on the ropes to cast the main sail. "Look out, lad, a mermaid be waitin' for you. In mysterious fathoms below!" they sang as the sail moved over the bowspirit with the carving of a raccoon dog with its fangs bared on it. A handsome young man of eighteen gazed excitedly out at the sea, his raven-black bangs blowing wildly in front of his pale face with his friend's dog, Akamaru, at his side.

"Isn't this great? The salty air of the sea, the wind caressing your face? This is an amazing day to be at sea!" exclaimed he. The white and tan dog barked happily beside him. An old man with black hair and white eyes coughed over the side of the boat and into the sea. His face was a flushed green as he exaggerated,

" Oh, yes...a wonderful day." he quickly turned to the side of the boat again and sicked. A man the same age as the one with the dog picked up a crate with great ease in one strong arm and said,

"A fine strong wind and a following sea. King Jiraiya must be happy." he said. His painted red triangles on his cheeks proved immune to the salty water that slopped onto the deck every now and then. The black-haired man looked over to him. His black eyes twinkling with curiosity.

"Kiba, who's King Jiraiya?" he asked. Another young man with yellow hair and horizontal stripes on his cheek came by carry a small net of fish.

"You're kidding!" he yelled with a kiddish scratchy voice, regardless that Kiba and the other man were only a few feet away, "He's the ruler of the merpeople, tabeyo! Thought every good sailor knew about him!" Kiba pushed the yellow-haired man as soon as the wave hit the boat, causing the loud man to fall over; the pink salmon fell from the net and began its waterless adventure.

"Jeez, Naruto. You shouldn't yell in people's ears." mumbled Kiba, he continued his way across the deck with the crate. The old man began walking over and rolled his white eyes.

"Merpeople." he muttered in disgust. "Sasuke," addressed Hyuuga Hiashi, "pay no attention to that nautical nonsense." Naruto scrambled around the floor of the deck and finally caught the fish. He picked himself off the slimy wet floor and yelled once again with the fish in his hands,

"But it isn't nonsense, it's the truth! I'm telling you, down in the depths of the ocean, they liive! Tabeyo!" The slimy pink fish slipped from his hands, smacked him in the face and slipped off the boat and into the big blue. The rest of the crew continued the chorus,

"Heave, ho. Heave, ho. In mysterious fathoms below." The fish sighed with relief and swam away. Human-like fish creatures and fish gathered towards the golden castle of shining coral where you could hear instruments in chorus tuning. They filed into a concert hall within and a fanfare ensued.

"Ahem, his royal highness. King Jiraiya!" announced a seahorse with an abnormally low voice. An old merman with long white hair put into a low-set pony-tail with a single red stripe running from the corners of both his eyes to behind his bangs. Jiraiya sat in a grand, gleaming shell being pulled by two porpoises. He entered dramatically to a crowd of loud cheering. "And presenting the head of conductors, the ever-popular, bushy-browed, Rock Lee!" A green turtle with a red stripe across his handsomely polished shell, orange legs, and thick black eyebrows swung into the room with a mild cheering as he stood in a pink conch-shell with two fish pulling him. The elderly merman pulled up beside the crab and smiled,

"I'm really looking forward to this performance, Lee." The green turtle beamed.

"Oh, your majesty, this will be the finest concert I've ever conducted. Your daughters—they will the most spectacular and beautiful mermaids in all !"

"Yes! And especially my little Sakura-chan! My beautiful, beautiful, young Sakura-chan." said the giddy old merman. The fish pulling Rock Lee's shell swam suddenly swerved and turned the shell upside down, making Lee scramble along its edge for balance. He clawed his way back to the seat.

"Yes, she has the most beautiful singing voice," Lee added. He turned away from his Majesty and muttered, "If only she'd show up for rehearsals every once and a while..." The turtle was towed away toward the marble podium. The light around the concert hall was blocked out by a thick, slide-able wall of shells sewn together, pulled by a few whales. He jumped gracefully from the pulled shell and alighted onto the marble podium. He looked over the tall stand with his bulging black eyes and coughed dramatically. He pulled out a thin, long, and glamorously creamy-white shell and tapped it on the stand: he began to direct the orchestra. The bubbles that were the curtains pulled apart to reveal a dark stage. Six young merwomen swept the stage, smiling.

"Ah, we're the daughters of Jiraiya." they sang as their colorful tails swam about the stage, beautiful giant sea shells began to appear on the coral stage. "Great father who's named us well."

The spoken-of old man grinned and raised his fists and cheered for them as if they were at a seahorse racing tournament. The girls looked at him annoyed. "Tayuya!" sang a short-red haired woman with a scarlet tail and shell-top.

"Hinata!" chorused the woman with short black hair, grey-white eyes, a cream coloured-shell bra and a dark-blue tail.

"Tenten, ahhh!" a mermaid with brown eyes, black-brown hair in pig-tailed buns, a lavender top, and a black tail sang.

"Anko ahh...!" yelled a young woman with short dark-purple hair in a wild pony-tail. She had an orange tail and black shell bra.

"Shizune, laaaaa!" a woman with short and manageable black hair with a black and white shell top and grey tail burst out of the quiet demure.

"Matsuri!" a bubbly girl with dorkily cut brown hair. The girl had on a rather bland blue tail and a boring blue top. The other mermaids frowned at her at the girl's lack of rhyming.

At each mention of their names the crowd burst into cheers and fireworks of colourful and strained seaweed streaming through the air like confetti.

In chorus they sang, "And then there is the youngest in her musical debut. Our seventh little sister we're presenting her to you! To sing a song Rock Lee wrote, her voice will strike you down with awe!" They swam gracefully to a giant cherry-pink closed shell surrounded by bubbles and pearls of all sort of colours.

"She's our sister Sa—, Shizune and Anko formed the hiragana 'sa',

"Ku," Tenten formed 'ku'. "Ra!" Hinata and Tayuya formed 'ra'.

"Sakuraaaaaaaaaaaa—!" Matsuri bellowed like a mix between a jazz and opera singer, as she did this, Matsuri was given the task of pressing the lever to open up the large shell but to their dismay the spoken-of girl was not there! The pieces of their audience whooped and cheered, thinking that it was all just an act. King Jiraiya fumed and his face grew from his usual peachy-yellow, to sunburn-pink, to red.

The old man thundered angrily as if there were any other way to thunder, "SAKURA!"