Title: Love Between Land and Sea

Rating: T – Language (yeah, that is about it)

Pairings: Sakura/Sasuke, Ino/Sasuke

Summary: (AU) Sakura, a mermaid, falls in love with Sasuke, a human. Sacrificing everything she knew to be with him was one thing, but getting him to accept her was another.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. And I do not own the story of the Little Mermaid. Thank-you.

Chapter III: His Savior

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Sakura continued staring up at the endless sky above her. The limitless white dots caught within the heavens above twinkled their light at her. It was the most amazing sight she had ever seen.

At least for a little while.

A loud boom caught both of their attention. Naruto and Sakura followed the sound with their eyes and saw large flashes of light within the air before they faded into darkness.

"Sakura-chan! A ship!" Naruto yelled excitingly, as he pointed the lit-up ship approaching them. As the two got closer, more booms were heard and more bright lights filled the sky.

To Sakura, the bright lights that were released after every explosion looked like closer versions of the dots in the sky.

"Naruto-kun, over there! An iceberg!" Sakura told Naruto as she began swimming towards it. "Come on!" she called back. "We can get a better view from there."

Naruto followed her obediently. This was not Naruto's first time to the surface; Jiraiya had brought him many times before. Only he was usually taken to the shore so his uncle could wait and watch for female two-leggers.

He watched, as he reached the ice, Sakura lunge out from the water onto a flat area of the berg. It reminded him of a dolphin jump. He followed suit and joined her in waiting for the ship to pass them. He was not entirely worried about being spotted by any two-leggers, the moon may have been out, but it was still pretty dark.

He moved his eyes to his right side and watched as Sakura was slowly being eaten at by anticipation. It was, after all, her first time to see a two-legged.

The ship finally came within range of their sight and Naruto could tell they were having some sort of party by the noise, the music, the lighting, and the number of two-leggers.

"Why do they cover themselves in such layers and colors?" Sakura questioned rhetorically.

Naruto did not know the answer either. It was common within Naruto and Sakura's culture to be nude. To them, there was no shame, and nothing to hide. But the two-leggers often wore colored garments over their entire frame. The only parts of their body that was nude was their faces and sometimes their hands.

Without warning, Naruto felt Sakura slap him on the arm.

"What was that for!" he yelped and his left hand grabbed for the place where she hit him.

"Naruto-kun! I-it's him!" she shrieked quietly to him while pointing up towards the deck of the ship.

"Who—" he started but he soon saw whom she was talking about. It was the marble sculpture; only this one was alive.

He was everything Sakura imagined him to be. 'His statue is definitely inferior to his true image,' she snorted. 'He's so handsome.'

Just then Naruto grabbed her hand and dove off the iceberg into the water.

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"Quite a party you are having, Uchiha-sama," came the darkened voice from behind Sasuke. He then noticed the younger man was not even paying attention to him, but looking out into the ocean. "May I ask what you are doing?"

"Oh, good evening, Hyuuga. I thought I saw something over there on the iceberg, but now I think it must've been my mind," Sasuke replied, turning away from the banister, and facing his advisor. "And yes, it is a grand party. Only fitting for my birthday, don't you think?"

The Hyuuga did not answer, merely just moved his white eyes over the dark water below.

"Well, I'm not being a very good host here, am I, Hyuuga?" Sasuke smirked as he walked back in the direction of all his guests, leaving the brunette alone.

Neji kept his eyes on the darkening clouds until he saw a white light streak from above. "Hn… a storm."

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"Naruto-kun! Why—" she began questioning.

"He saw us!" Naruto cut her off. "If I had given him another second to contemplate what he was seeing he probably would've gone to get a harpoon!"

Sakura ignored him and started swimming back to the surface.

"Sakura-chan!" he yelled up to her but she still did not look. "Ugh… God damn it!" He then followed her.

As soon as he broke surface, he was taken down by a giant wave. "Gah! What the hell?" he said as he struggled to stay atop of the water.

There was a shift change in the weather. Moments ago, it was calm and tranquil, now there was lightning ever few seconds and loud crashing thunder, not to mention destructive waves.

Naruto looked around for Sakura; she was nowhere to be found. The only thing he could see was the ship being assaulted by the vicious waves. And then the unthinkable happened.

The waves caused the large wooden ship to crash into one of the stray icebergs dotting the area; the ship began taking on water and sinking.

"Oh shit!" he yelled as he dove into the water to escape the falling debris from the collision. There was only one person who could have caused this dramatic change in the weather, and it was the same person whom Naruto blamed all the bad weather on; Orochimaru.

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Sakura watched as the ship disappeared into the water, leaving many objects floating around the area.

Sakura did not think about anyone other than Sasuke as she followed the ship further into the deep. She ignored all the two-leggers fighting for their lives and trying to break for the surface; she even witnessed some stop moving. But she stopped to help none. Sasuke needed her.

It was not long before she found him, but he was just like the others; unmoving, and she feared for the worst.

She grabbed his hands and put them around her neck, and held his legs at her sides with her arms. Without a second thought to help any others around him, she bet her tail as hard as she could against the water, and broke for the surface.

After they broke for the surface, she was relieved to hear Sasuke coughing water up. It meant he was alive. She set him against a floating plank until he was done coughing.

She saw him slightly open his obsidian eyes and rest them on her jade ones. She smiled.

"It's going to be alright, Sasuke-kun," she started. "I'll keep you safe."

She was not too sure if he heard her because he closed his eyes once more. She just smiled some more and pulled him on her back again. She began swimming for the nearest coast.

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The sky was turning orange by the time Sakura set Sasuke down on a sandy beach, safe from any more harm the ocean could offer.

She began talking to him, just hoping he could hear her. "My Sasuke-kun, I am glad I could get to you in time. I don't know what I would have done had I not. I think… I think I am in love with you," she whispered into his ear as she ran a hand through his matted, damp hair.

She moved her head away from his ear to look at his face from above. She watched as he slightly stirred, eyes twitching, but not waking up.

She smiled and giggled quietly. She bent down and kissed him on the forehead just as the sun's first rays hit them, bathing them in warmth. She moved her hand down to her tail and pulled one of the emerald scales off, wincing at the pain. She placed the small scale into Sasuke's shirt pocket.

She was just about to talk to him more, but the sound of bells ringing brought fear into her heart. 'What's that?' her mind screamed as she shook her head from one side to the other, looking around for any dangers.

She moved closer to the water when she saw about a dozen of female two-leggers coming into sight from the large building where the bells were ringing. All except one was wearing long black dresses, with cloths covering their hair; only their faces were visible.

Sakura did not have time to observe them more; they were getting closer. She looked longingly at the man sleeping on the beach before submerging herself into the water.

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The women noticed the young man sprawled out in the sand and ran to him. The one not wearing the black dress bent down and brought the man's head into her lap.

Sasuke woke up slightly due to the woman's long blonde hair tickling his face. 'She the one… who saved me…?' he mentally asked as he looked into her crystal blue eyes.

"Are you alright, sir?" she asked quietly, brushing her hair out of her face.

Before he could even sum up energy to answer her, Sasuke fell into another state of unconsciousness.

The woman just smiled and brushed his stray hair back and away from his face. "Send someone to town and notify the mayor about this boy. Hopefully the mayor will know what to do with him," she told one of the elder women as she stood up and watched the sun rise further into the sky.

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Author's Notes: A little late on how long I thought this was going to take me, but here it is! Phew, if it wasn't for Microsoft word, many words would be misspelled. Worst part is, every name I put in here comes up as not a word and with those damn squiggly red lines under it, so my Microsoft Word got a boost on it's vocabulary, 'cause every name I use, I add to the dictionary!

Anyway, like always, I hope you all like this chapter, and I will begin on the next chapter probably later tonight. Reviews are always loved.