This is the edited version of chapter 1 and it's all thanks to my beta. Thank you beta!☺

Sakura is a Mermaid!

Once, in a sea kingdom deep under the Pacific Ocean, there was a princess who was both rich and kind. She was (mostly) soft-spoken, and her forehead was (charmingly) wide. Her hair was a soft (bubblegum) pink, and her name was Sakura.

Now, no one quite understands why her father, the Ocean King Kakashi named his (adopted) daughter after a tree from the surface, but then the king had always been a little… off.

"Sakura, you have to marry Prince Naruto. He comes around here so often that I'm thinking of just letting him move in to make travel arrangements easier." Kakashi told his daughter.

"But I don't like Prince Naruto! Why do I have to marry him and not… someone else?" Asked Princess Sakura, remembering the last time she saw the blonde prince. His nose was pressed against her window and he was waving to get her attention. Then he got caught by her loyal gardener and was dragged away by his tail. She gave the gardener an extended vacation for that.

"Because he's a prince and you are a princess, adopted or otherwise." The King answered with a grin. It was hidden, however, by the beekeeper's hat and netting he wore. Sakura sighed with exasperation. Her (adopted) father was so weird.

"Besides, that's just the way we do things around here. Princes and princesses marrying and living together happily ever after and all that." Kakashi motioned with one hand, gesturing to all of the royal portraits that hung on the walls of the hallway around them. Some of the older ones had, unfortunately, been painted with watercolour paints, and so there were only large blobs of suspended colour.

"You never got married." Sakura grumbled to herself. "You old idiot! Who would ever want to marry you anyway! Che!" Inner Sakura screamed inside of the demurely pouting (adopted) princess.

"Yes, but I'm the King. I don't have to get married, because I have you to take the throne once I kick the bucket!" Kakashi said with a grin, patting his (adopted) daughter on the head. "Speaking of getting old, don't forget that my birthday is coming up in a few days. I hope you got me a nice present!" Sakura batted the beekeeping gloves away and growled.

"You never take me seriously! Well fine! I'll marry your stupid prince, and I hope he chokes on the wedding cake!" She screamed, turning and swimming as fast as she could, her tears indiscernible from the sea water around her.

Kakashi sighed, ruffling the beekeeper's netting, and scratched the back of his head. "Women are so sensitive." He lamented, turning and heading to the gardens for the annual Underwater Beekeeping competition.

♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣

"Hinata what do I do? I don't like Prince Naruto, and Ino is going after Sasuke-kun… How can I choose between my duty and what my heart feels?" Sakura asked Hinata, chewing on the little chocolate squares that Hinata kept in her room for such emergencies.

"I think that you need to stop crying a-and make up your mind!" Hinata answered in a rare bout of firmness and conviction, and then blushed when she realized what she'd just said, "Oh I'm so sorry Sakura-san! I didn't mean to be so cruel!"

Sakura stared at Hinata as her best friend poked her index fingers together. The short, dark-haired siren was deadly when she sang, as was the rest of her family, but the rest of the time she was as meek as seaweed.

"Well, it doesn't matter. You don't even care... You just don't want to listen to me whine…" Sakura said bitterly, slowly swimming to the doorway. Pushing the carefully cultivated seaweed grown at the bottom of the doorway to act as a door aside, Sakura headed towards the nearest window.

"Sakura-san wait! I-I'm sorry! P-please don't be angry." Hinata called out, hoping that Sakura wouldn't just yell at her and shun her for the rest of her life. It was so hard for Hinata to make friends, and Sakura was so dear to her…

Sakura paused and looked back over her shoulder. "I'm not mad, Hinata, and I don't mean to bother you with all my problems, it's just that I'm so… tired. I'm tired of all this marriage talk; I'm tired of having to fight against it. I'm almost ready to give up." Sakura said sadly, leaning against the wall. Hinata hesitantly reached out to the pink haired mermaid.

"But then, I think of Sasuke-kun, and I imagine what he would say if I gave up on anything, and… and I just can't! I won't let myself give up on Sasuke-kun, because then I wouldn't be worth anything in his eyes. I don't want… him to think less of me. I don't want to be weak." Sakura slumped down against the wall; tears floating around her head again as she looked up into the siren's white eyes. "Can you understand that Hinata?"

There was a long, frozen moment while Hinata looked Sakura over carefully. She saw the bags under her eyes from worried, sleepless nights. Hinata saw the thinness of her arms and the lack of lustre on Sakura's silvery-pale scales. Hinata looked in Sakura's eyes, and saw a fear which she understood very well. The fear of letting someone down. Of never being good enough.

"Yes, Sakura-san, I can understand that." Hinata said quietly.

Sakura sighed and pushed herself up to float in the middle of the hallway again. "Let's go somewhere. I don't want to just sit around getting fat anymore," Sakura summoned up a smile, pushing the dark feelings down, ignoring them for the present. "Let's go do something!"

Hinata smiled shyly. "O-okay."

♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣

Hinata's webbed fingers and fin-like feet were nothing compared to Sakura's powerful tail and body, designed for speed and aerodynamics in the water. So, after an hour of swimming around aimlessly talking about nothing, Hinata needed to sit down and rest.

The two girls knew of a cave nearby where lots of young children would play when they were little, with tons of twisting, winding passages but plenty of open areas for play as well. Sakura and Hinata made their way inside, watching a few kids playing under the watchful eyes of their parents.

"Oh, Sakura-san!" Hinata gasped, pointing discretely over to the little stone outcrop they'd been heading towards. "Look, it's Sasuke-san."

Sakura froze for an instant, uncertain and a little afraid. Sasuke was sitting, silvery tail waving idly in the current, his dark eyes focused on nothing as he brooded. The pale skin that almost all mer-people had from living so far underwater and away from the sun was very handsome on him, contrasting nicely against his short dark hair.

Sakura dithered for a moment, and Hinata (who was having more 'firm moments' than usual today) pushed the pink-haired princess towards him.

Sakura panicked, but then realized that she'd look like an idiot if she just turned tail and swam now that he'd probably seen her. Plucking up her courage, Sakura casually swam over and perched on the outcrop next to Sasuke. She was careful to leave enough space so that if Sasuke didn't want to talk to her, he could ignore her, but close enough to show that she'd like to talk to him.

Sakura dithered again for a moment, fiddling with her hands in her lap for a moment, before screwing up the last dregs of her courage.

"So, uh, Sauske-kun…" Sakura said, trying to sound relaxed and natural.

"Just tell me what you want, Princess Sakura. I have someplace to go, so hurry up." He said in his usual monotonous voice. "Please." He tacked on as an afterthought.

"Well, I'd like to invite you to the King's birthday ball." Sakura said in a hurry, making it up as she went along and not trying to sound like a childish little girl, "I mean, go with me… as my date… to the ball… if you wanted…"

"No. I already have to go with someone else." Sauske said, heartlessly shooting her down. "Sorry." He offered her coldly, already getting up to leave.

"Oh, okay. Well I hope you have a good time with whoever you're going with." Sakura said, trying very hard not to lose her cool while Inner Sakura shouted; "When I find out who that girl is I'm going to tear her limb from limb!"

Sasuke shrugged, uncaring, and slowly left the playground-cave. Sakura slumped, exhausted and too emotionally drained to even try to ask who Sasuke was going with. Hinata hesitantly came over and sat next to Sakura, letting the poor princess cry on her shoulder when Sakura finally let herself break down.