Hi, author here. I really like this AU so bare with me, will ya? Rated M for violence and bloody stuff even I felt freaked out writing. I'm no good with smut scenes yet. Yes, I can finally use my love for mermaids to do something productive! I wish this was a paying job tho, buses to beaches for inspiration trips aren't cheap. Enjoy Part 1! I do not own Naruto.

Johannich

Part 1: The Mermaid

Water is strange, isn't it? Or rather the ocean. It's big, much bigger than people think, and filled with creatures and things mortals couldn't ever think existed. It's dark too, because if the sky is bright and joyful then something has to be dark and scary, right? Mortals fear the sea, her home, because they can't live here – therefore, it's a creepy place to be. They don't know what they're missing, though. They don't know the feeling of letting the flow take you wherever it want to go, they won't ever experience the touch of dolphin skin, the sensation of swimming alongside a great blue whale, and they won't see some of the stunning things that only sea creatures could see. She used to think it was a sad thing, but maybe it's better that way – to keep the two worlds apart. Who knows what could happen? She wished she had.

A soft flow ripped through her hair as she sat at the sea bottom, fiddling with some water lilies. She's always found yellow an exotic colour, it's very few things down here as bright as these. Though, now she had to swim to the surface to get these, but it was worth the risk. No one could spot her in the darkness of night with hair like a shadow in the ever dark water anyway. She knew she shouldn't ever approach the surface; it was dangerous when you weren't an adult. But she was, in theory at least! She could take care of herself.

Yes, she's a mermaid – a human-fish hybrid, if you want. Her name is Hinata. She's the youngest of her generation, according to our rituals at least. She won't become an adult before she… well, before she eat. It had been strange for her; normally you get the adult body and the hunter instinct in a package, not separately. But that didn't seem to be the thing in her situation. She got the adult body, but the hunter instinct didn't come with it. In a way, that's a good thing. She feels sorry for mortals and she don't want to take a person's life at any costs. And they were people too - they had faces, they could communicate, and they had a society (a horrible one it seems, but oh well. It's their choice).

She braided parts of her front hair and tied the two braids together behind her head, illustrating a nightshade blue halo. She tucked the flowers into the braids and fastened them so that they wouldn't fall out when she swam, lightning up her head a bit. They are going to see the flowers anyway, she sighed.

'Speak of the devil,' she yelped silently as two of her friends, Sakura and Ino, swam up to her.

"Hey Hina, we're going hunting. You should come with us," Ino offered.

"Yeah," Sakura agreed sadly. "Maybe it'll trigger… you know." She gestured to her head.

Hinata sighed disappointedly. "You know I can't, and I don't want to watch a human massacre anyway."

Ino floated closer, taking in her whole body. She shook her head with a frown. "Okay, first of all; those are surface flowers, so you've already been there. Second; don't you see how skinny you are, Hinata? You can't live like this, you know. If you don't feast soon, you'll die from starvation!" Ino took Hinata's hands and looked into her eyes. "I don't care if you don't feel like it, you have to eat!"

Everything was true, she was skinny. Her rib cage was clearly visible under the thin skin, her collar bone was way too outstanding to be healthy, and her arms were like skeleton. Not to talk about her tail; the midnight dark blue scales had lost their gleam and smoothness; her fin looked shaggy and useless.

It was only so long a mermaid could go without feasting.

"I know, I know," the mermaid muttered. "But I can't go hunting if I don't feel the drag, you said so yourself before becoming an adult."

Ino backed up a bit. "Yes I did, but I felt the hunger right away and, to be honest, I don't remember what happened from there to after I finished my first meal. It's a blur, really."

Her hair floated down her shoulders. She shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry… but I can't."

Ino rolled her eyes and turned to leave. Sakura looked back at her. "Should we tell you father where you are?"

"Please don't. There's no need, I'll be back soon so he won't worry," Hinata smiled.

They nodded and bubbles welled up as they left with a marvellous speed. When mermaids are hungry, they're literally torpedoes after their prey. It made her curious to why mermen don't have to feast on humans, they just… live. And just like the mermaids don't talk about how they hunt humans, because 'you're supposed to find your own twist', mermen don't speak of how or what they do to survive. But it really seemed like they didn't do anything. It was a little unfair though, that the female spices had to go through more trouble to live normally, than the males had to.

She put the thoughts aside - there was no help in thinking about it. She got up from the coral she's been sitting on the past afternoon and was about to swim home when a thought hit her.

It's soon twilight, she thought. The surface world had this beautiful event every night if the clouds didn't cover the sky. The sea world looked pretty much the same at all times, but the sky changed throughout the day and it was amusing to watch, although she could never stay long enough to watch the whole day. 'I can make it up for a few minutes, father won't notice.'

Starved or not, she's always been fast. Hinata made her way up through the flows, dodging various sea grass and deep water fish. As she came closer to the world of the sun, warmer water hugged her body as a wide smile spread across her lips and her eyes gleamed. She was joined by some fish and, as she raced closer, a few dolphins. Ah, that's right. It's hunting time for them too. She ran her hand over smooth silk of the dolphin's back and it leaned into it as they kept going upward. It's unbelievable how much the mortals are missing out on. She didn't see these beautiful creatures that often – they didn't live as deep down as her. He made a joyful, repeated, pitched sound. The dolphin laughed with her. A dolphin's smile could easily fool mortals into believing they're always happy, but when you talk to them, play with them, live with them, you learn their body language. You learn to see beyond their facial expressions, and you get to actually see what they're telling you. It's a magical experience. They understand you too. Like right now, they sensed Hinata's uneasiness after the chat with her friends; they sensed her building anticipation for reaching the surface; her worries for coming back late. The dolphin nudged her hip and tilted his head back cheekily. The pale mermaid couldn't help but giggle at him.

The fish left her when she was about a hundred meters from the water surface. The dolphins yipped at her once in a farewell gesture and swam off to find their dinner for the evening. She slowed down and looked around carefully, waving away strands of hair. There was nowhere to hide here and she was exposed from all angles. If a mortal snuck up on her, she would be as good as trapped.

There was a chill in the water.

She shuddered. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, knowing you were alone in dangerous waters. There were some mortals who wanted to take the sea head on, thinking they were invincible. That kind of humans were the tastiest ones, her friends had told her. Lots of cockiness in their muscles, they stated.

Hinata froze on spot as she saw an unnatural moving in the water surface above her. The waves made way for something. It was big, much bigger than her, but not bigger than a blue whale. It was a thing, not an animal – it didn't breathe. Hesitantly, she swam a bit closer, the twilight long forgotten. It was made of… the brown material. Ah. It was a ship. She felt a little stupid, but she'd never seen a ship from underneath before. Actually, she'd never been close enough to get a good view of one ever.

She laid herself horizontal, studying it on a safe distance now that she got the chance. The ship passed above her slowly, having all the time in the world. Hinata knew that if they kept going in the direction, they'll meet her friends who were more than hungry at this hour. Hinata was lucky not to feel the hunger, seeing she'd never tasted the flesh of man, she only got skinnier without pain.

She irked closer, her hair floating all around her like a dark pillow, eyes lighted with curiosity.

Something dropped from the human ship and fell into the water right above her. The mermaid froze. Weapons? Waste? Poison? The bubbles cleared and she could see it was neither. This was an animal, clearly. Its limbs kicked and twisted in the unknown nature. It was small and without a doubt a land animal. It was reddish-orange, with such soft looking scales she wanted to touch it so badly, and a small nose she's never seemed like it. And it had… legs, was that the word? It panicked underwater, not able to breathe. And it couldn't swim.

Guilt twisted in her stomach and she launched forward without a second thought. There was no way she was going to watch this poor thing die. It was about 5 meter's underwater and kept sinking. Hinata drew closer and when it spotted her under it, it calmed down a bit. But how did it know she was a friend rather than an enemy? Couldn't it see she wasn't human? Or maybe it couldn't see underwater after all and just felt the present of a human heartbeat. Because that's the only mortal about her; her heart, way of thoughts, and most of her body from her waist and up. She reached out for it carefully and it winched a little when her cold hand touched its body. No. This wasn't scales. It was hair? All over its body?!

A splash was heard above her and the animal clang to her chest. This was louder and more massive than the first. Hinata quickly moved her eyes upward and gasped. This thing could definitely swim as it closed in on her. Scary. Unknown. New. Deadly. Fast. But she was faster. With one hand holding the strangled animal in place, she kicked off with her tail, picking up speed as she dodged the new thing still too covered with air bubbles for her to make out a texture. Her hand broke the surface first, close to the side of the ship and her fingers found hold on the hull. The soaked creature gasped for air and coughed a couple times. She kept close to the edge, making sure not to be spotted by the mortals aboard. She found a ledge low enough for her to place the animal on, and once it was on dry land, it started yipping loud enough to cause shouting from humans on the ship. That was her cue to leave. She petted the small thing once, earning body liquid from its mouth on her face, before sinking into her dark home again.

The mouth water with thicker and more sticky than usual water, it didn't wash of as she dived so she wiped it off with her hand. It felt weird. It wasn't something she usually needed to do. She turned to swim back down, determined it had been enough action for today, when she spotted it.

The thing.

No, not thing. A mortal.

It was a male, obviously. She had never seen a mortal so up close before, but she knew the difference between 'food' and the annoying females. This man had light hair, colour very much like the water lilies in her braids. He had eyes so blue it could put the sea to shame. Three lines were visible on each cheek. He wore normal mortal cloths, a white shirt and shorts where his two legs stuck out.

Yes, she had seen humans before, but he had obviously never seen a mermaid before.

He studied her with eyes of fear and awe at the same time. He didn't dare to approach her, which was good. She could tell from his body language how he had never dreamt of seeing something like her in his lifetime. Was it safe to be here? Trapped between a mortal and a human ship? But she didn't feel trapped – she felt rather admired. His lips parted and he whispered something, forgetting he couldn't breathe underwater either, but she heard it.

"…Mermaid?"

A chill went down her spine. Her tail flicked suddenly, sending her back first into the ship right behind her. It made a crashing sound. Pain spread across her body, making her heat beat faster. She pierced her nails into the boat keel, holding her in place. All of a sudden she got an overwhelming hunger and she could feel how much she's starving all this time, her stomach like an abandoned cave. She knew what was happening. 'FLESH.' Hinata's thoughts turned primitive as her vision turned red. 'HUMAN FLESH, I NEED IT – I'M STARVING! LET ME EAT, LET ME FEAST ON HIM – HE'S MINE!' She could feel the strength and speed that came along the hunger arousing her mind, shrinking the little sanity she had left that kept her in place and not launching for his neck.

Her sudden change of appearance startled him and he kept his distance, not daring to move at all. Didn't he need air?! He still had this amused look although the fear was dominant right now.

Her mind analysed every possible way to get close enough to taste the mortal's meat. She bit back her growl but gritted her teeth. She was about to break many norms as a mermaid, but she won't feast on him. He was a good mortal, she could tell. She narrowed her eyes at him with a bit more control. He noticed. "For goddess's sake, GET AWAY BEFORE I KILL YOU!" she sneered at him.

She didn't even know if they spoke the same language, but shock swept across his face before determination took its place. He nodded to her and made his way to the surface. The little part of her mind noticed how weird their way of swimming was.

Once out of sight, her vision started going back to normal. There was still a screeching hunger there she knew wouldn't disappear before she tasted the meat of mortal men. That's just the way it is. Her hunger is worse than most too, seeing she's been living like an adult without feasting for so long. She let herself relax a little, letting go finger for finger. She looked at her hands. Instead of nails there were solid hard claws made to tear human skin apart and dig into their muscles without a second thought needed. Her fin had grown razor sharp daggers of death and her scales where lightly standing out from her body which had probably made her look like a sea demon. She must have looked horrifying, towering over him like that, with bloody red eyes of hunger.

She shook her head. It was time to go home. And it was probably risky, but she slowly made her way around the keel and peeked up above the water. She just had to see if he was still alive. Her glance went up above her. He stood by the railing with a cloth over his shoulders, gazing at her home with this smug look on his face.

"Mermaids, Naruto?" Someone asked behind him and Hinata tensed. "Why so curious about them? What, did you see one?" he joked.

The human thought about it – weighing the pros and cons of sharing Hinata's existence with the crew member. "…No, of course not." He directed his eyes downward and before she could dive back down, their eyes met. She thought she knew all shades of blue there was, but apparently not. Her hunger welled up like the blush on her face, but it was less threatening. He studied her with such surprised interest. "They don't exist, right? Just another myth." He grinned widely at her, like they had their own secret. She wasn't sure whether to be offended that he wouldn't acknowledge her existence, or be relieved if he protected her, but she was happy with either.

He just looked at her for a while, holding her gaze. He was just as curious about her as she was about him, and it was… nice. Even though she starved for eating everything alive on that ship, the moment between them was nice. She felt a small smile form on her lips.

Hunger chewed on her insides. The mermaid winched down in pain and growled quietly. She couldn't stay here. It was too close, too dangerous, and the human close only made it worse to deal with. She pressed her palms against the edge and pushed herself away from the ship. With one hand gripping her stomach and vision being washed red, she glanced at Naruto one last time. Then she dived back under, head first, and kept swimming as fast as possible away from the ship, away from humans, away from that mortal, and back into the darkness of the sea where she belonged - without looking back. Her father. He could help her.

Her skinny stomach was screaming at her for food. Her throat went dry even though she's underwater. She hyperventilated as her head ached with every heavy heartbeat and her whole body hurt. She managed to reach the Merpeople's kingdom fast enough and raced for the castle. Everything aside from the castle entrance was a blur in red.

A castle guard spotted her on her way. "Good morning Prin-" he started but she had long past him. She buried her nails into her skull as she entered the throne room with alarming speed.

She met her parent's eyes. "Father!" she cried. He came to meet her. She accepted his open arms and hugged him tightly. She was shaking.

Her father, the king of the Merpeople, King Hiashi, frowned deeply at the sight of his frightened daughter. He had long dark brown hair, lavender eyes like Hinata's, a dark green tail, and a crown made of gold fitting his head perfectly.

Hinata took short, rapid breaths. Hiashi got more and more concerned with each one. But he had the world's best poker face. "What happened, Hinata? Are you alright?"

She pulled back for him to see her face. There's was no mistake. Her eyes were flaring red with bloodlust. "Father, please. I'm hungry – starving to death even. I don't know what to do."

He had notice how skinny she had become the past months, so there was no surprise she was hungry, she needed to feast for at least six months! "Stay here while I find someone to come with you to the surface."

Her bloody eyes darted from him to the entrance. "Can't you? Please, Father, I need you there with me," she pleaded him and her eyebrows furrowed sadly.

He tucked some of her hair behind her ear and noticed the pretty flowers braided into her hair. She never asked him for favours, so who was he to let her down now? "Of course," he smiled at her. He's been going through hell because of the many worries he had for her and how she couldn't hunt humans. It's not like he could teach her, even if he had been female – they had to find out for themselves how they wanted to hunt.

"How did this start? What triggered the hunger?" Hiashi asked her when they swam towards the sun world. She's been thinking about how to answer this – she had literally broken the biggest norm in the underwater world: she saved a human.

"I… was up by the surface to find these flowers," she pointed to her braids and her father's expression darkened faster than a flick of her tail. He was about to lecture her, but she beat him to it. "Yes, it was stupid and I should know better, but we don't have colours like this down where we live." She sighed softly.

Hiashi let it slide. She would be an adult within minutes and then she would be free to go wherever she wanted to go. "You have a point, but you know how dangerous the world up there is. Be careful, Hinata," he ordered his daughter with a stern look. "What happened next?"

She picked her words carefully. "…A human ship passed by on safe distance and I saw one of the humans walking on deck. I've never seen a human before, father. But I instantly got this uncontrollable hunger and a growing desire to feast on him. After that, the hunger haven't died down."

"Wait a minute," the King said. "You did not hunt him down?"

She looked bewildered and backed up. "… N-No. I was outnumbered. T-There were far too many humans for me to handle alone," she said as they reached their destination.

King Hiashi swallowed her explanation whole and didn't question it. It was time to hunt now. He had seen mermaids feast before and it hadn't been pleasant. Where the females found the sheer power and glory as they hunted, he didn't know. But what he did know was that they only hunted mortal men, and that they always got what they wanted. Every one had their own style of hunting. Some liked to lure their prey into the water with their beauty, some simply attacked the chosen one, and others preferred singing their victims into daze. Never the less, if they had a mortal in mind, they won't be able to resist their chasm. And they never left anyone to tell the tale, that's why they always attack in groups – so they could take out whole ships in one meal.

He wished he could tell his daughter this. He wished he could help her with something more than just being here. But he couldn't. Why? Because she had to figure it out on her own.

Hinata's hands twitched as they rested beside her scaled hips. She'd always wondered what it was like – to hunt down one specific human man and then proceed to eat him. Up until this afternoon, she didn't really want to feast on humans because they were people like her and had a family like her.

But it's different now, her mind sneered and the primitive instinct took over. Humans are food, that's how we survive. We feast on them, they feast on our cousins, we take care of our environment to breed our cousins – it all makes sense now. There's nothing to feel guilty about anymore. There's nothing to spare, no need to hold back.

She spotted a small dinghy to her far left and felt her fingers flick in anticipation. Hiashi floated back as the sight of his little girl sink terrifyingly slowly down into ocean without taking her wild ruby eyes off her prey, matching the surroundings perfectly.

Once under safe water, she lifted her tail and with one strong flick of her fin, she was off to go hunting. If there was other fish around her she didn't notice, the world seemed empty except for that dinghy. She didn't have to think about finding a flow to carry her faster forward, her body did it itself. As she drew closer she could physically feel the transformation. Her claws grew out of her fingertips, shiny daggers spiked out of her fin and scales widened out from her body, her human skin turned harder like iron and dark scales appeared at some places; making her look like the bloodiest demon of death ever to be seen on sea.

She was lucky her facial looks were the same, except for her eyes. If not, this trick wouldn't work. She snuck underneath the keel of the small one-man boat, claws scratching on the hull. She changed her expression from animalistic hungry to slightly innocent panic. She broke the surface a few meters away from the boat, loudly with gasping and small screams.

The man in the dinghy looked over and shouted, "Are you alright, miss?"

Hinata turned towards his voice and locked eyes with him, still acting panicked. She looked him with relief as she hobbled towards him. "Please, good sir, please help me! They cursed me!"

"What? How cursed?" he asked as he backed away from the railing – away from her.

She grabbed the hull and looked at him sadly, like she was about to cry blood. "T-They turned me into a-a… monster," she sobbed. "They took away my legs and gave me fish's tail! Oh please, won't you help me? Please help me back home to my family, they're waiting for me." She sniffed and looked down. "If not you, then no one will – please mister…"

She peeked up and saw it; she saw what she couldn't speak of to young mermaids. The man's grey eyes got an underlying green gleam, like she bewitched him. It was their control over mortal men. The hunger pierced through her like it chewed on her nerve system. Hinata held out her hand to the man, water running down the midnight blue scales like sickly slime. She smiled sweetly, but it was a wilderness behind it. "Please, my pray. Help me."

He only nodded in daze and reached for her pale hand. Once she had a grip of it, she dug her claws into the skin of his arm and pulled him down with her to where she had the upper hand. He didn't even flinch when he hit water. The mermaid's hands worked fast, like on instinct. She ripped his shirt off, placed her palms at his shoulder and head, arching the two body parts apart to make room for her mouth. She felt her teeth turn into thousands of sharp needles, like a sharks, just smaller. She sneered loudly as she sunk her teeth into the mortal's neck, ripping it off the body. Less meat in the head, brain doesn't satisfy. The starving princess ripped off an arm, the smell of blood in the water was arousing. When she finally tasted the human flesh she's been carving for, her head spun. It wasn't like anything she'd ever experienced before. The taste was metallic and salt, like rust on water damaged steel, but not unpleasant. It tasted right, and she finally understood why it was her nature to hunt humans.

This is what she was made to do.

She finished with the arm faster than expected. The leftovers were thrown to the sharks circling under her, respecting her place in the food chain. They must have smelled the blood. The libs were the easiest parts, they were only meat and blood, but she liked the rough ripping sound it made when she tore muscles off the skeleton with her bare teeth. Restless hands turned the body around. Yes, she was starving, but there was no way she would eat organs. Flesh, she thought. Human flesh. His back had scratches from her claws, but she didn't care. There wouldn't be skin there soon anyway. Needles sinking into the back and ripping loose a fling of skin and muscle, from shoulder to waist. She swallowed it greedy.

The hunger wasn't under control before the human back was no more than skeleton and nerves, with bits of meat here and there but she didn't care to clean it up. The feasting couldn't have taken more than five minutes max. But as the hunger left, so did the strength and inhuman power. She let the rests sink down to the sharks as she tiredly made her way back to where her father was waiting patiently.

He nodded in understanding before she could say something. She was tired, but she had done well. He offered to help her back home. She should rest while she still could – he had a feeling tomorrow wouldn't be pleasant for her.