Thanks for reading! I don't own any of Naruto! Please let me know if you enjoy!
—-
Preparations for the Kage family's travel were soon underway.
Asherah tried again to reassure Gaara that his accompaniment was not necessary.
His wife may have been the Siren Queen, but the Kazekage's word was still absolute.
Gaara stood by his original decision to attend.
However, Gaara's son was much too young and much too inquisitive to come along.
Young Katsuro was left in Temari's care while his family made the trip.
Once everything had been arranged, Asherah and Gaara left with Seraphina under the cover of darkness one night.
They wanted the fewest amount of people possible to know that Gaara was away.
The trio took no luggage because Asherah insisted they would be home the next day.
Gaara didn't see how that was possible, but he didn't argue.
While the village of Suna slept, Asherah brought Gaara and Seraphina to her room with the large pool in it.
Asherah clamped her hand over Gaara's mouth as the family climbed into her grotto of ocean water, channeled in directly from the Black Sea.
As they descended, the Kazekage was surprised to find that with his wife's hand covering his nose and mouth, he was able to breathe normally under the water.
Was that how Asherah had rescued him all those years ago?
Normally, Asherah would have taken her daughter on a long, languid journey through the deepest parts of the ocean, sharing with her its innermost secrets….
But Gaara's insistence on coming with them hastened their journey.
Unfortunately, because they were in a hurry to get Gaara home, Asherah had to find a way to speed up their trip.
Once they were under the water, the Siren Queen pulled her family to the side, into a rapidly flowing stream of ocean current.
The pressure pushed them into a path that let the Kage family ride along the strong channels in the suction tubes that piped water in and out of Asherah's pool room.
Gaara was both surprised and proud that Seraphina seemed to have no trouble keeping pace with her mother as they rocketed through the sea.
Maybe she really was more Siren than Shinobi.
Gaara shook that thought from his mind for now.
The tube would take them all the way to Skorgan, but Asherah cut off their ride long before then.
With a great effort, the Siren Queen managed to gather enough force to hurl them out of the forceful stream.
They were then ejected rather ungracefully into the ocean.
Asherah pulled a slightly dazed Gaara and Seraphina with her up to the surface.
As Gaara took a deep breath, he looked around.
The family floated idly in the middle of the silent black ocean, under the moonlight.
Asherah was still as she looked out over the surface of the water.
Gaara was confused.
"Mommy, are we lost?" Seraphina asked curiously.
"No, my darling." Asherah said slowly. "We're here."
Gaara blinked.
Here?
They were in the middle of the water…..
Nothing…
No land, no structures, just a desolate sea.
In the patch of ocean they had surfaced from, there wasn't even any coral.
No fish….
No signs of life.
"Take my hand." Asherah told her family, looking from Gaara to Seraphina.
Hesitatingly, her daughter and husband each did as they were told.
"No matter what happens, don't let go." Asherah told them both very seriously.
Seraphina looked at Gaara uneasily.
The little girl wasn't too sure about this and she wanted her father's reassurance.
Gaara put on his most stoic Kazekage face he could manage before his wife jumped up in the water with a huge splash and plunged…..
Down…..
Down…..
Down…...
Down!
Down more and more, faster and faster at inhuman speed, they passed the ocean floor, plowed through a deep undersea trench, until they were so far down, Gaara's chest ached for breath, and his skull threatened to explode from the tremendous underwater pressure.
The Kazekage glanced over at his daughter, who seemed to be faring better than he was at the moment.
Through the rush of salty bubbles, Gaara watched Seraphina's eyes widen in wonder as to how deep they could really go.
It didn't seem to be causing her the discomfort it caused her father.
When Gaara was sure either his lungs would collapse or his brains would be smashed, Asherah suddenly pulled up…..
Up…...
Up…
Up…
Up!
Up until they finally surfaced in a small, black cave with a greenish glow.
The descent and return had actually only been a moment but it felt like an eternity.
Gaara burst from the water gasping for breath, coughing and spluttering.
It had been a very unpleasant moment for him.
He felt his wife put a hand soothingly on his back, "Im sorry, draga mea. I know that was difficult for you, but there is no other way in or out." The Siren Queen cooed to him sympathetically.
Gaara panted as he looked over at his bride, then back at Seraphina, who, like her mother, was fine.
Neither Siren seemed bothered by the treacherous passage.
"Now what?" Gaara rasped.
"Now we go to the throne of Beauty. And we hope that she doesn't wake angry." Asherah said seriously.
Too seriously for Gaara's liking….
—
After the Kage family had climbed out of the water, Asherah led them as they carefully made their way down a long, wet passage.
Gaara and Seraphina both noticed it was intricately inlaid with gold.
The passage ended in a heavy, gilded door.
Asherah stopped just in front of it and clasped a hand over her chest, as if she suddenly had a pain.
It wasn't her heart that hurt, but the Heart of the Sea.
Beauty should be sleeping behind the door, but Asherah could feel something was off….
"What's the matter?" Gaara asked quickly.
Seraphina watched both of her parents, concerned.
"Something's wrong." Asherah gasped. "Beauty…...Beauty's already been awakened."
"By who?" Gaara asked.
Asherah didn't respond, she opened her mouth and sung a few mournful yet hauntingly beautiful notes.
Gaara shivered as the heavy door creaked loudly and slowly, very slowly, cracked open.
Asherah strode boldly in first, followed by Gaara, who held Seraphina's hand in his own.
All three mouths fell open.
Behind the door, there was a massive, black cave, where chilled water lapped around a stone runway in the middle of the room. Behind the stone runway, a wispy curtain of mist concealed a stone stairway. The walls of the cave glittered with black diamonds, their brilliance reflecting off the dark water.
Very eerie….
Gathered around the runway were several people, whom Gaara guessed were all sirens.
He recognized a couple of them.
Several he had not met.
Odessa, Asherah's mother, and Elocin, Asherah's cousin, bobbed in the water, along with a man and a few women Gaara had never seen before.
In the center of the stone runway, a mysterious creature stood, clothed in a damask, gossamer robe.
The black robe fanned around the floor in a perfect circle, hiding the figure of the creature and covering most of the creature's chest up to the neck.
The face of the creature was feminine, but the eyes were cold, piercing, and bright blue, the lips almost white.
The creature was completely bald, without eyelashes or eyebrows, and alabaster scales that resembled those of a fish covered every visible piece of skin on the face, neck, and hands.
Each finger ended in long white talons.
The creature had been talking with those that were already in the room.
About what, Gaara did not know, but the conversation stopped abruptly as soon as the Kage family arrived.
Everyone turned to look at the three newcomers, including the creature.
Though he did not show it behind his scowl, Gaara was horrified.
What was that thing?
Asherah was angry and frightened at the scene they had walked in on.
Her family was here, as keeper of the Heart of the Sea, why had she not been invited to this little party?
Seraphina clung timidly to her father, not knowing what to think.
Gaara clutched his daughter's hand tightly in response, as a silently affirmation he had spoken the truth when he vowed to her the night she was born that he would always protect her.
"What is that?" Gaara rasped to his wife as the creature scowled at the family and crossed its arms.
The fishlike scales around the eyes constricted as it narrowed its sapphire gaze in annoyance.
"That is Beauty." Asherah said breathlessly.
Gaara's wife fell to her knees, her palms down on the cold rock they stood on, a short distance from the pool in the room.
The Kazekage could tell his wife was close to tears.
However, Gaara couldn't tell if the tears were from anxiety or…..reverence.
And Asherah's emotion certainly didn't seem to appease the irritated thing on the runway.
The Kazekage met and returned the creature's glare.
Gaara wasn't a siren.
He wasn't going to bow to this thing.
"Asherah of Skorgan," the creature spoke.
It's voice seemed to ruminate off the cave walls, coming from one but sounding like many, similar to Asherah's voice when she sang, but magnified one hundred times.
Gaara felt the hair stand on the back of his neck.
That thing's voice was chilling to hear.
"Why have you come to me, uninvited?" The voice asked.
Asherah began to whisper in a choked voice from where she knelt. "Because I need your help. I have a child and I need you-"
"Why would I care about any child of yours?" The voice interrupted.
Asherah dared to raise her face from the stone.
Sapphire gaze met sapphire gaze.
"Because she's the first natural born siren in twenty-five years." Asherah replied proudly.
Gaara was surprised.
Was that true?
How were…...sirens created, then?
The creature's scowl turned into a look of amusement. "A siren at birth?"
"Yes." Asherah replied.
The voice's next response made Gaara's heart race in anxious fervor. He had never known real fear until he became a father and experienced the feeling that one of his children may be in danger.
He thought that was the worst feeling in the world, and that was the exact feeling he had as he heard what the creature said next.
Beauty or not, Gaara's fatherly instincts didn't want to let Seraphina anywhere near this thing, even as it moved its white lips and spoke…...
"Bring me the child."