A/N: I'm so sorry guys! Time flew by and I was so busy with life that I found no time to sit and write this out! So, here is the long, long overdue chapter 6. I'm still trying to tie things together, so please be patient! Thank you!
Disclaimer: Naruto, or any of the characters that appear here, are not mine. They're property of Masashi Kishimoto. I do own these awesome Bleach keychains though!
Warning: This story is SasuNaru shounen ai which means that Sasuke and Naruto are romantically involved with each other. Don't like it? Can't help you there…sorry.
Deep Blue Sunshine
Chapter Six: Brilliant Radiance
Rarely would one see the prince in a daze.
Princes never strayed off task. Doing so meant laziness and weakness, especially in front of others. Princes had to be strong, upheld and concentrated rulers. Sasuke's mind could have well been the sharpest and most focused in the country.
Alas, here he sat, watching the noon rays reflect off the lake surface and fill the small clearing with warmth. Stray dandelion seeds drifted around the banks of the small lake, searching for their place o grow-to live. Birds sung their high pitched songs in chorus to the smaller creatures on the forest bed. The rabbit that made his home here nibbled cautiously on clover. Nothing really competed for his attention here, and, he thought, that's the way it should continue.
Sasuke was not a prince here, nor will he ever be.
The mernman's eyes slowly opened, blinked, and in a fit of panic, shot up from the shallow water. His eyes filled with alarm and he opened his mouth to let out a yelp.
"Oh dear sweet poiseidon I'm gonna shrivel up and die like that dried squid humans eat! AAAHH-…uh?"
He looked at himself in the calming reflection of the water and blinked a few times.
"Oh…I guess not..."
The sight of it bubbled up something inside him, warm and light. It easily passed through his mental walls and facades, and soon enough, he covered his mouth and muffled the small laughter that escaped. It felt good, amazaing even, to laugh like this!
And he stopped short…Naruto made him laugh. Not even human! Augh, if Naruto knew he made Sasuke laugh, of all people, he would be doomed.
"…I'm glad you stopped laughing." Naruto dryly remarked, glaring at the black haired one. If only the merman didn't look so pitiful with his hair sopping wet like that, he'd have a decent glare. Sasuke uncovered his mouth and smirked.
"Only until you do something equally as ridiculous, of course."
Naruto rolled his eyes and slapped his tail against the stones.
"Yeah, whatever. Are you going to go over your lesson today?"
At this Naruto edged a little closer to the bank, trying to feign indifference. Sasuke crossed his arms.
"You fell asleep during my lessons. I don't feel like repeating them again."
He could have if he wanted to. Since he was "sleeping" at the castle, no one would dare bother him. He could spend all day with Naruto. It was just more fun to torture the merman this way.
Naruto let out a frustrated growl and if he could, he would have crossed his arms.
"Fine, I'll start my lessons then. But this means you owe me double next time, got that, you bastard?"
At this, Naruto pulled himself towards shore, giving Sasuke the perfect and nondistorted view of his body. He looked earthreal, with soft tanned skin trailing down and morphing into silver scales. It amazed Sasuke-he'd never seen anything like it before.
"Okay, so in the sea, we have a government, just like humans. A kingdom." Naruto began, gazing at the forest. "It's pretty vast. Probably covers the whole ocean until it hits the southern and northern borders."
"I take it that you have feifdoms too, if it's that vast." Sasuke replied. Naruto tilted his head as their eyes met.
"Feifdoms? Well, if that's what you call the Sirens in your kingdom, sure. They help rule over the smaller parts of the kingdom and report to the king."
Naruto shifted his position so that he could face Sasuke more.
"Anyway, merfolk are pretty knowledgable, and sociable too. We like to know what's going on around us. Sometimes it gets us into trouble, but usually we can correct our mistakes before it's too late."
Naruto grinned, but something didn't feel quite right about it. Sasuke changed the subject.
"So does that mean the fairy-tale of that mermaid falling in love with a human is true?"
Blue eyes widened a fraction and his tail twitched.
"Humans know that story? Huh, never thought that would make it here…" Naruto chuckled as he strached random lines in the silt. "Yeah. That's a true story known from a long, long time ago. Actually, there's an artifact that's said to turn merfolk into humans. My, err...friend has it."
A sheepish chuckle escaped Naruto's lips as Sasuke eyed him curiously.
"Yeah, anyway, what's it like in your kingdom?"
Naruto's questions were what kept him studying book after book, night after night. If he didn't have an answer (at least a plausible one), it would definitely look suspicious. The last issue he needed was to be revealed as a prince.
Naruto didn't need to know. He didn't need to know and Sasuke wanted to make sure he remained clueless of the fact. Not that it took much.
"It's…" He started, then paused. "…rough. We have to work hard for our food and shelter, and pay the taxes. Some people can handle it. Others…not so well. There's a rather unpleasant gap between the rich and the poor."
"Which one are you then? Is your family really wealthy?"
"My family is dead." He barked without thinking. Nobody ever mentioned his family, not in front of him. Of course stupid naruto wouldn't know anything.
"Oh…"
….That was it? No "My prince, you are sure to avenge your fallen members" or "I'm devastated to hear of your loss". Not even "sorry to hear that", or anything? Just "Oh"?
Naruto was staring at him, silent and unmoving. He wore a frown on his face, not like the others, but something deeper than just a "sorry".
"What?" Sasuke muttered tentatively. Naruto shook his head furiously, spraying small droplets everywhere.
"Nothing. Er, let's go ahead with the next part of my lesson! This kingdom stuff is boring!"
Sasuke was going to reply that they'd even barley scratched the surface of oceanic government, but the blond had already turned and dove back underwater. A few moments had passed and Naruto sprang up from the surface again, looking triumphant. He eagerly streamed back to his "sitting" place, gripping a long tendril of seaweed in his fist.
Sasuke rose an eyebrow.
"You're going to teach me about algae…?"
Naruto smirked and slapped the slimy pant onto the rocks resolutely. He looked as if he won the lottery.
"This," He gazed at the green blade in something akin to admiration, "is what merpeople almost live on."
Somehow, the raven haired boy wasn't quite impressed.
"Wow," He replied monotonously, "that's brilliant. I never would have thought."
"I know! It's awesome isn't it? A whole race can survive on just one plant!" Apparently, Naruto had not caught the sarcasm. Then again, Naruto never seemed to pick up on any sarcasm at all.
"Are you going to explain, or are we just going to stare at it all day and hope it does tricks?"
The merman gave him a half-hearted glare and picked up the seaweed, dragging it around in the water.
"It's our main and most abundant resource available. It's easy to grow, easy to find, and easily accesible. We use it to make beds, nets, heck, we even eat it. There's nothing we can't do with it!"
And to that, with a few more swirls around the water, Naruto picked the tendril up and slurped it down in one gulp. Sasuke grimaced at the event.
"Do you wanna try any?" Naruto curious eyes shimmered with hidden excitement and he frowned.
"No."
"Aww, come on. Humans eat seaweed too, don't they?" The merman whined, looking slightly dissapointed.
"They do," Sasuke assured, "But not fresh like that, nor in large quantities. That's disugusting."
"It is not. I bet you're just scared to eat it, that's all." A wicked grin appeared across the blond's face. "I never thought you'd be so scared to eat a helpless plant, Sasuke. What's it gonna do, attack you?"
"Tch, I bet you're more scared of the food I'd give you, idiot. I can eat that seaweed no problem." And suddenly Sasuke matched Naruto's devilish grin with his own.
"Why don't you prove it then?" Naruto challenged, smirk growing wider. "If you can eat the longest piece of seaweed I can find, I'll eat whatever you give me. Deal?"
"You're on. You won't even be able to swallow the food I give you." And he was pretty confident about that. The merman scoffed and turned back to the lake.
Only a few moments later, Naruto had surfaced, grinning manically at the rather long and compltely non-scrumptious string of seaweed.
"You have to eat it all." Naruto leered, handing it over to his companion. The merman looked on excitedly as Sasuke took it reluctantly.
Oh, if only the castle saw this.
Little by little. Sasuke bunched the slick tendril in his mouth and chewed. He could taste every bit the of salty, slimy bitter plant as the crushed bits and juices flowed down his throat. Slowly, the plant disappeared into Sasuke's stomach, as he fought to keep his usualy stoic mask on his face.
"Finished," He smirked after he took the last gulp, silently basking in Naruto's disappointed expression. The merman quickly scowled and his tail bashed against the rocks.
"Fine, fine, gimme the damn food already."
Grinning maliciously, he sauntered back to Hellfire, who was sifting through a patch of grass disintrestedly. He sorted through a pouch hooked onto the saddle, taking out a large, rough piece of jerky. He tore a little off and stuffed it into his mouth, ridding himself of the horrid taste of seaweed before returning to Naruto.
"Here." He held out the jerky in his hands. Naruto leaned over and ripped it from his hands using his teeth. A look of dislpleasure flitted across his face as he gnawled on the tough piece of meat. Naruto ended up shifting his postiion so he could use his arm to hold himself up while trying to rip a smaller bite off with his other hand.
"What is this stuff?" He growled through the gnawling, finally managing to tear a smaller piece off.
"Don't eat and talk at the same time." He scolded mildly, waiting for Naruto to swallow and start another piece. He held back a smirk as Naruto started tearing another chunk off.
"It's dried whale." He said casually. Naruto's chewing screeched to a halt and he paled considerably. He looked at Sasuke, completely agahst.
"You fed me whale…." It took a few horrifying seconds before Naruto exploded into a frenzy of hysteria.
"OH MY GOD YOU FED ME WHALE!" He screamed before flinging the rest of the jerky away. His tail slammed against the hard rocks and Sasuke watched amusedly how the ripples of the impact made large waves in the lake. Naruto rambled on.
"That's like EATING a COUSIN! I'm a cannibal, oh dear Posiedon, forgive me! Oh my god I just ate whale and I'm going to die a horrible death, I know it. I can't believe I just ate whale—"
At this point Sasuke had his amusement for the time being and smirked.
"I lied. It's really deer."
Naruto paused in mid sentence and looked at him a fraction before the words sunk in.
Interesting, the look he received was his first time seeing Naruto truly pissed.
'Oh, you fucking bastard." Naruto growled dangerously, and Sasuke couldn't help but smirk.
"Looks like I win. You didn't eat the whole thing. Who's the scaredy cat now?"
"Oh yeah?" Naruto uttered roughly, "Take this!"
Again, though much, much harder, his tail lifted and crashed against the rocks, making a much deeper vibration than it should have been. In an instant, the lake acted as if someone tipped a glass of water; the vibration pushed backwards and then backlashed to their part of the shore, creating a huge tidal wave. It towered over both of them and crashed down.
Naruto gleamed like the Cheshire cat at Sasuke's completely pitiful and drenched form. Sasuke glared him promises of many painful things to come.
"I'm going to kill you." He coughed and dammit, he had that awful seaweed in his mouth again! He spit it out and leered at the smug, blond, infuriating merman.
"Go ahead and try, you stupid bastard."
Without any further encouragement, Sasuke unhooked his sword and lunged at the merman with all his might. He connected and the two tumbled and flipped into the lake. Naruto narrowly dodged a punch to his face and slammed his tail down again to make a smaller tidal wave. The water disracted Sasuke enough to headbutt the other boy and flip over, so his belly lie flat on the lake floor. This way he could crawl into to deeper water and gain an advantage—
No such luck, as soon as he started for the deeper waters, Sasuke clamped down his tail with his elbow painfully against the rocks and slammed down hard at the hollow of his back in retaliation. He howled and swung his fist back wildly, catching the back of Sasuke's head. The human grunted and released, and tried again to capture his tail. He created another wave just in time and flipped over again to face Sasuke. Naruto reached to grab his shoulders and push him to the side, but it was the wrong move.
Sasuke clasped his hands with Naruto's and forced them a little above Naruto's head. He felt Naruto move his tail again and he quickly hooked his legs around the scale-armored body, trapping the merman's squirming form against his own.
"You're not using that fucking move again," he growled quietly at Naruto's glaring face. The merman ceased his movements and concentrated on their glaring contest. They stayed that way for a while, refusing to back down.
God, Naruto was such a pathetic idiot. He practically wasted half of his pond water, got him soaked, nearly gave him a fucking concussion, and he thought a staring contest was in session? Him and his stupid whisker marks and his fucking golden hair, and his crazy damned fucking eyes that weren't supposed to be that color, goddammit! Are merfolk suppposed to make the water shine like that? Stupid Naruto made no sense at all.
And suddenly Sasuke realized all-too-well what position they were in.
"Tch, whatever." He muttered and slowly detached himself from the merman. He drug himself back to shore and began to wring out the water in his shirt.
The first thing he was going to do when he got home was take a bath.
"Fine," The merman crawled stiffly to the edge of the bank, "We'll call it a draw. But next time you do that I'll definitely beat your scrawny human ass."
Naruto rubbed his back gingerly and muttered something about whales before settling on watching Sasuke dry himself off in vain.
It was later in the night when Sasuke returned to his royal chambers, still damp from his excursions. Hellfire had been a pain to ride back to the stables, as the stallion did not take to someone sopping wet clinging to his back. It was even more of a hassle ot climb back into his room using the balcony, and by the time he reached his wardrobe, he promised Naruto a very painful death indeed.
Stripping down from his wet clothes and donning his bath robe, he called one of the maids to draw a bath for him. Either she didn't notice or was smart enough not to say anything about his clumped strands of hair. Either way, Sasuke was not in the mood to be concerned with it, and waited as patiently as he could while the maid filled the tub with warm water.
He merely waved the maid off and entered his wram and cozy bathroom. The cream tiled floor changed shades as the candles flickered around. He shed his robe and sank into the tub with a sigh.
Kakashi barged into the room.
"Yes?" He glared detestfully at the older man, adding him to the list of people he'd like to kill. Kakashi merely rose his hand.
"I've come to reinform you of your highness's meeting with Prince Iruka tomorrow at noon. Don't make any plans." He said cheerfully. Sasuke's glare darkened.
'And you couldn't tell me this in the morning?" The prince asked coldly.
"Because I might forget while I'm guarding Iruka." Kakashi returned as if it were a natural answer. Sasuke rose an eyebrow.
"…is there anything else?"
"No." The silver haired man bowed, "Although I smelt something peculiarly like kelp in your sleeping chambers. You might want a maid to check around." And without further provocation, Kakashi left the bathroom.
Sasuke, however, clambered out of the comfortable tub and reluctantly reguritated seaweed into his wash basin.