"I know where you've been going," Ino tells her and Sakura stiffens.
"And?" She asks, raising her eyebrows.
Ino bares her teeth and swims up close to her, eyes glinting. "He is human!"
"He is kind," Sakura defends herself and whirls with a swish of her tail, her back to her friend as she pouts. "The ocean loves him almost as much as he loves the ocean."
"Loves the ocean? Or loves you?" Ino says scornfully and Sakura turns back to face her, her arms crossed and her tail flicking in agitation.
"Both," she answers without hesitation, no lie souring her words. Tobirama had loved the water since he was a babe. Sakura came second.
xxx
Sakura peeks her head above the water and holds her breath. She watches the striking man flip through his book of the day, his white hair covering his eyes.
She ducks back underneath the water and swims towards the edge of the little cliff thing where the man is perched on, the only reason why he's dry in the cave, humming happily to herself. It's high tide, so it's perfect for Sakura to swim around, her whole body submerged. When it's low tide, it reaches to just above what the two-leggers call knees, if she recalls correctly.
She pops out of the water in front of him with a splash and a happy thrill.
"Hello, Sakura," Tobirama says calmly, looking up briefly from his book to give her a small, pleased smile. Sakura pouts.
"Tobi," she sings happily as she makes her way towards him, smooth even as her tail makes a little splash. "I was trying to surprise you."
Tobirama's lips twitch as he restrains his grin. He slips his book into his bag and then moves it back, more secure against the walls. "I felt you hiding beneath the water."
"I was waiting for you." Sakura eyes him impatiently, tossing her pink hair back over her shoulder. As always, Tobirama's eyes drop momentarily to her bare chest before he looks back up at her face. She smiles mischievously. She doesn't understand the fascination of human men with her breasts, but that does not mean she isn't above using it.
"Come," Sakura croons, backing up a bit. Her eyes are light and playful, happiness singing in her veins. "Swim with me," she demands. She restrains the Command in her voice and only waits. She wants Tobirama to come to her of his own free will.
Tobirama hums. He stands, stripping off his shirt, and then dives in.
Sakura laughs, and laughs, and laughs. She is happy.
xxx
"I'll be going away for a while," Tobirama tells her as he floats on his back. His eyes are closed. He doesn't see how the waves kiss his cheeks, how the water wraps lovingly around his legs and his arms. He never does, Sakura suspects. But she knows that he must feel the ocean's open adoration of him.
"Where?" Sakura asks, playing with his hair. It's getting long. Not as long as his brother, who Sakura's only seen a few times. Not as long as the mermen or the mermaids, or the other sirens in the sea. But long for him.
"Another town. They have some books I'm interested in."
Sakura pouts at that. "Horse?" She asks, just to make sure, and lets out a forlorn sigh when Tobirama confirms it. If he traveled by his boat, at least Sakura could follow. At least she knew then that he'd be as safe as he could be. Nothing would touch him that the ocean didn't want to.
Tobirama opens his red eyes and then looks at her fondly. "I'll bring you back something shiny."
"If you're hurt," Sakura starts, but Tobirama continues for her, voice appeasing.
"If I'm hurt, get to the sea."
"Don't forget," Sakura chides, and presses a wet kiss to his cheek. One with the ocean's favor would never die in the ocean. That was the truth.
xxx
A drop of blood drips into the waters of their little cave and Sakura perks up. She is miles away deep below, but she could be halfway across the world and the oceans would still tell her whenever and wherever Tobirama had called.
Ino sighs but doesn't say anything, doesn't make a move to stop her, and so Sakura chases after his calling of blood. Anticipation and joy sing in her veins and Sakura cannot stop the song that thrills out of her.
She would never use her singing to entrap him, but sometimes she just can't help but sing, and sing, and sing with all the love in her chest.
She breaks the surface, already smiling, and then rears back when she realizes Tobirama isn't alone. She bares her teeth, but then the long-haired man smiles at her and waves, his smell of earth and trees so different from Tobirama's, yet the undercurrent declares them brothers.
"Hashirama," Sakura says in surprise.
Tobirama gives her another of his small smiles, and a part of Sakura thrills at the sight, her heart aching at how much she wants to burst into song.
"Brother needed help in carrying your gifts," Hashirama says apologetically. Sakura likes him well enough, even if he is one of the earth's favored ones. He even has a lovely forest nymph of his own.
"Gifts?" Sakura repeats, and they look at each other, and then step aside to reveal a chest teeming with beautiful, shiny necklaces and bracelets, a splendid rainbow of crystals and stones. The silver surface of a mirror glints back at her and Sakura bites back a gasp. But no, the true gift, her eyes lock onto it, is a set of shiny glass on a common shaft.
Music is in her soul, and in heart, and the sirens have always loved the music of the two-leggers.
Tobirama sees what she's staring at, and smiles. He takes it gingerly and then instead of just diving into the water as he is wont to do, he takes the long way down. He presents it to her once he's reached her. "It's a crystallophone. It sounds like a violin, but it's meant to be used with water."
Sakura's smile widens.
"A wonderful gift," she declares, and then darts in to press a quick kiss.
It's even more wonderful when she brings it back to the underwater city and Ino sees the jewelry that now adorned her neck and wrists.
xxx
Tobirama is many things. A fighter, a pirate, a doctor, a scholar.
But. Above all, he is the ocean's, and he is Sakura's.
Tobirama had informed her that he had to leave once more, and Sakura had thought nothing of it other than to press a kiss to the red on his cheeks and on his chin goodbye. She reminded him to get to the water when he was hurt, and he either didn't listen or he wasn't able to.
She thinks it's just a call at first, as the first drop of his blood hits the ocean and comes to her. But then another drop comes. And another, and another, until Sakura starts to panic.
Sakura swims towards the path of blood the ocean had made for her, she cuts through the water, leaving streams behind her tail. Her blood sings viciously in her veins, her fangs lengthening to their full length, her claws sharpening. She is furious.
The water is churning, just as furious as her, and it is only because of the ocean that Sakura is moving as fast as she is. It's pushing her along, the water practically propels her towards where she knows Tobirama is.
Nothing in the Seven Seas can separate Sakura from Tobirama now.
She tastes his blood before she smells him, before she sees him.
His blood has dripped into the waters, the red fading, a call in itself to the predator in her that Sakura has kept caged in his presence.
She bursts out of the water, snarling and hissing, her green eyes wild and inhuman, fingernails sharp enough to cut and slice whoever harmed him.
She sees him. His eyes are red, just like her Tobi, but they are the eyes of a demon in human form, evil eyes, and his hair is as black as the night sky. Sakura is not afraid.
The magic in her heart urges Sakura to sing, to entrap the man in front of her, and weave a song of death. It is what he deserves, the just price of harming an ocean's beloved-her beloved, but the water tugs her back.
Her eyes drop to Tobirama, splayed out on the dock. He is barely breathing, and red is pouring steadily out of the lethal wound on his chest. His hand laid lifeless just over the edge, so close to the water. Not close enough to bring him to her, to heal him, but the blood that drips down his fingertips into the ocean was enough to call her, enough for the ocean to bring her to him instead.
She bares her teeth at the demon-man.
"You will pay," she seethes. "Any time you come near the ocean, you will know fear. If you take even one step into our waters, you will know its deepest, darkest depths, and you will know pain a thousand fold of what you had done to what is ours."
She doesn't wait for his response. She takes Tobirama into her arms and brings him with her back into the sea.
xxx
"Please," Sakura begs, her nails digging into the cloth of Tobirama's shirts, her eyes blurry with tears as her voice shakes and trembles. "Save him."
The sea witch tilts her head, her long flowing white hair floating eerily in the water. "There is a price," she intones, "his life, for something else of worth to him."
Sakura looks at him, at his closed eyes, his parted lips, the red tattooed on his face. She swallows. The ocean had done her best, but Sakura was too late. He had already lost too much blood. She was desperate enough now to come to the sea witch.
"He cannot give you anything-not right now, not of his choice." She closes her eyes and then opens them to meet the white pupils of Kaguya, a thrill of determination and desperation singing in her veins. "I'll pay his price."
Kaguya drifts towards her, her strange eyes piercing into Sakura's own, almost as if she was looking into Sakura's soul itself. Sakura stays firm, her tail flicking nervously even as she grasps Tobirama tighter towards her.
"Foolish girl," Kaguya says quietly and reaches out to press a thumb to Sakura's forehead, her fingers oddly gentle on her hair. And then-
The sea witch's eyes turn into slits, her grip tightening on Sakura's hair as she yanks it, forcing Sakura's face up.
"The price is still the same."
There's a bright light, and then Sakura knows nothing.
xxx
Every day, Tobirama comes by a little cave. It's secluded and tucked into the far edges of the beaches of their home. He spends his afternoons there, basking in the peaceful silence, a reprieve from the demands of the people in the town. His only company is the soft rush of waves on rocks, and the books and the research that he brings.
Sometimes he closes his eyes and just listens. Sometimes, he thinks he can hear a mournful song in the distance, just barely over the sound of the ocean.
Sometimes his chest aches, but Tobirama figures that maybe it's the wound that still lingers there, scarred over, proof of his miraculous healing.
He does not know why he keeps coming to the little cave. Nothing is ever waiting for him.