Notes at the bottom

*Edited 05/28/2021 for consistency

Between the Devil and the Deep
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Chapter Two
Parallel

Sasuke wasn't one for pageantry, so he was more than relieved when he and his Uncle could step back behind the velvet curtains and into the cool stone and quiet of the castle.

"Go," Madara gave him a small, fond smile. "You have been hard at work in the service of your country. Rest, for she will surely have need of you again soon."

Sasuke accepted the dismissal with a polite bow, and soon the perfunctory rap of his boots against the stone was the only sound in the long, winding hallways leading to his quarters. He had been told that the castle had once been a livelier place, but he could not speak to the truth of the statement. Those memories were vague and few, and belonged to a world and life no longer his own.

For the Uchiha all life began and ended with the Sea.

Therefore, the morning Sasuke was found alive and sustained on the threads of miracles, he was, by his clan's traditions, reborn as a Son of the Sea. The rest of his clan defended their homewaters until their last breath. There was no trace of their ships, and no bodies found, proof - if the old legends were to be believed - that they had all been returned intact to the eternal embrace of the Goddess and the Sea to sail the mists and the clouds until the end of days.

As an Uchiha, he was not permitted to mourn such an honor.

But he was encouraged to remember.

Perhaps this was why his Uncle never brought up Sasuke's coming-home ritual, although he had to know about it. The King was a shrewd and observant man with eyes that saw all; nothing escaped his notice.

Then again, Sasuke wasn't trying to hide anything.

He exchanged his uniform for his riding clothes, gathered his pack and called for his horse.

The tension in his spine did not begin to uncoil until he arrived at the ruins of the old castle. There had been a great war – long before anyone now living could remember – and the castle had been destroyed. His was a seafaring people, and it was decided to relocate the castle from the defensible position to one that could defend the harbor, and allow the community to grow.

There was an eerie sort of beauty in the remnants of the once-powerful fortress overlooking the craggy shoreline and the subtly dangerous waters. Even his people that some speculated were descended from the Sea would not dare to attempt a landing in these waters.

The castle had been long abandoned by her people, and did not invite others to explore.

He suspected he was one of the only people in the kingdom that visited the legendary – and purportedly haunted – grounds. He knew every inch of the old place, and left his horse to graze on the thick, coarse grass while he picked his way down the narrow pathway toward the shore and the thin strip of rocky beach below. Water crashed on the rocks, and the spray misted his skin, but he continued, sure-footed, and single-minded, until the slick rock gave way to gravel and sand.

It was here Sasuke had been found all of those years ago, shipwrecked and half-drowned. To this day, he had no idea how he had managed to wash ashore here of all places, much less alive, and at low tide when there was sufficient land upon which to be found. He had heard the rumors that the ghosts of the ancestors had saved him, and that is why he had been returned in the shadow of the old castle.

Others speculated that it had been a kindness of the sea, as the inhabitants of the island had long left gifts and offerings in the coves and caves that cropped up along the shoreline.

He paused, allowing his eyes to adjust from the glare of bright sun to the dimness of the cave.

The water that broke on the rocks outside swirled and drifted more calmly here. They continued deeper into darkness; the walls of the cave eroded smooth by time, any navigable pathway having long been swallowed by the sea.

It was here that Sasuke knelt, and reached into the satchel at his side. He murmured a prayer long ago learned by rote as he released a handful of petals to swirl and scatter on the water; a traditional offering gathered from the Queen's private garden where the lavender and moonflowers and larkspur were always in bloom. He gently placed the small, hand-carved boat on the scattering of blooms, it's tiny cargo of a bundle of wildflowers and a flat of parchment safely tucked inside.

The oldspeak of the land had more edges than his native tongue, but the farewell he bade the little boat was less jagged than the cries of war and triumph his ancestors were known to hurl at the skies while slicing through the sea. The dialects of love and prayer were older than those of war, and were tinged with the lilt of the sea.

"I bid you to sail to the Beloved, and carry my thanks, until the day I may pledge my troth with a life spent in her service."

Older than the word 'Goddess' – perhaps as old as the word 'Sea,' - 'Beloved' in the oldspeak was what his people had called the kindlier spirit of the waters whom they honored as sister and mother and friend. The word had no true gender, and it had but two uses in their language: to refer to the one to whom they pledged their life, or to the Sea. For his people, there was no greater loyalty possible.

To Sasuke, that loyalty was unwavering, and it belonged solely to the Sea.

"My thanks for another successful venture and a safe return," his soft words resonated with the timbre of black velvet and steel. "There are rumors of pirates in our waters. May we continue to be in your favor, My Lady."

He watched the boat dance and swirl and slip into the darkness, just as the others had before it. When it disappeared, he pressed his fist over his heart and bowed deeply. By the next crash of the waves he was gone, leaving nothing but the echo of his prayer.

A strange mix of relief and regret had always accompanied Hinata whenever they arrived back in their home waters.

Relief, because it meant Sasuke was safe, and not subject to the whims or dangers of the sea.

Regret, because on the open water, she could better watch over him, and be closer. She even felt needed.

But for her, the true affirmation that he had made it home – that he was safe – was when he paid his visit to the Goddess.

She lingered in the dark of the depth of the cave, tucked behind a jutting angle of stone. His voice reached her as something warm and resonant and familiar - her heart quickening in that strange way it did each time he came into her space, or she into his.

She allowed herself a moment to thank the Sea for its kindness for once again returning him to his shores.

Ever since that night when she'd delivered him to the shore, she had followed his ship through rough seas and battle and calm skies and warm winds.

She didn't know why, she did, but she did.

Perhaps it was because her earliest lucid memory was of him as unconscious and gravely injured.

The same night her whole clan vanished.

Perhaps it was because in rescuing him, he was the closest thing she had to family – the last touchstone to a world she could almost remember.

She had no idea about the circumstances that had left them both alone. She had a few vague memories from childhood – her young sister, her serious but loyal cousin, several children that liked to play in the water and share their treasures (especially a laughing blond boy with bright blue eyes) – but it was all a blur, really.

His rescue was really the first thing she could fully remember.

At some point in his childhood, he must have heard the legends of the old beliefs – of the goddess that protected their waters, and of the offerings left for her in the hidden caverns of the shoreline. Perhaps he even had a vague memory of Hinata herself, for despite assurances he'd been found alone, she had heard him insisting that a girl had been with him when washed ashore.

Maybe that was why he returned again and again, each time leaving small offerings to the one he called 'Beloved' in the oldspeak of Land-Walkers, and 'My Lady' in their modern tongue. Over the years, the rough-hewn boats of a young boy became more elegant, and the offerings more selective. He always included a note, as if speaking his entreaties might somehow jeopardize their being heard.

She wondered if he sensed this used to be a sacred space – that this particular cave had once stood at the mouth of a small, still cove, and the waters allowed passage. The waters were too high now, and the shrine had been moved long ago, but the small boats always managed to slip beyond the jut of rock to drift into the once sacred space, still protected by magic too ancient to alter with something as nominal as time.

"Hello, little friend," she picked up the latest offering with the utmost care. "Let's get you where you need to go."

She left the scattered flowers to honor the old ones, and wrapped the boat in a thin film of shimmering magic that would protect it on their short journey to the shrine.

To her home.

She'd she found the shrine completely on accident. It hadn't been long after she'd rescued Sasuke, and she'd been trying to outrun something. She'd never quite been sure what it was that chased her on the night of the full moon, but was fairly certain she'd never been more frightened. When she'd hidden in the kelp and rock formations, she'd had no idea she'd entered into a series of underwater tunnels, nor that she'd surface in a sacred space so ancient that there were depictions of the Goddess protecting the kingdom from harm with three all-seeing eyes – an image borrowed from the most ancient lore of her people, long forgotten by the Land Walkers.

Over time she made her home in the small shrine, taking up residence in what would have been the simple living area of the shrine guardian. She faithfully delivered each of Sasuke's offerings to the Goddess, and would briefly transform to place the offerings in the niches of the cavern walls, carved long ago by the Land Walkers that would have come to pay their respects.

The Shrine itself was well hidden deep in cavern within an outcropping of rock. Several openings in the high ceiling tracked the phases of the moon and sun, and helped her to mark the time as it passed.

The Sun had completed twelve full cycles since she had come to these waters.

Twelve years since she had been home.

"But you're not home either, really, are you?" she asked the latest of the small boats joining the fleet on the cavern walls, carefully removing the folded square of parchment. Per the ancient traditions, anything written to the Goddess had to be read by the shrine guardian, and added to their prayers until the following full moon, then they were to be burned and the prayers released to the air, and the ashes thrown in the sea.

She opened the folded paper, a gentle smile pulling at her mouth at the bold, precise handwriting, so familiar to her now.

'Silver Birch from our Northlands. The locals called the flower a bog star, I am told it is called the Grass-of-Parnassus. There were reports of two more villages being ransacked, and razed. No survivors have been found. I fear for my people, My Lady. My crew will follow me unto their death, but I pray that is not the course I set. May the lives of the innocent be spared.'

She brushed tentative fingers over the delicate, pressed flower. His offerings always came with a pressed flower or some memento of his travels.

She tapped the seeds from the dried flower into her palm and padded over to the small, enchanted plot of land that greedily accepted and birthed any seed planted there, as long as the offerings were made in good faith. It was a testament to Sasuke that his flowers never failed to take root and bloom.

Hinata knelt and tended to the flowers, tucking her legs beneath her.

This was the only place Hinata felt comfortable on human legs.

She had tried it once or twice in the early days, thinking to try and find Sasuke (before she'd found he'd been taken to the king), but it always came with a terrible sense of foreboding.

The lands here lapped at her footfall greedily, and she felt strange energy lacing up her ankles, trying to keep her in place. It made her more awkward than she was naturally, and it was never long before the soldiers came.

They'd ride on horseback and scan the crowds, and head to the waters, and she'd nearly been caught several times.

Here, though, in the grace of the shrine, she walked freely and without that strangling foreboding she found on land.

"It is uncomfortable," her cousin had urged her. "But you have to practice."

She had no context for that memory, but she clung to the advice like a lifeline. She practiced her transformation at least twice daily when she was in the shrine, and once every month on the far-flung outcroppings of rock where no ships dared sail. It had been harder while following Sasuke in the Northern Waters, but she'd managed once or twice to find somewhere to keep her practice, like on the cluster of rocks far from Sasuke's ship, where the only thing breathing air for miles was a playful seal. It was never a comfortable exercise, but she persisted.

"I always keep my word," she said quietly, although there was no one there to hear, but it was something she was so certain was part of her being – part who she had been before when she had people to love and protect and make proud – that she held on to it as tightly as she could.

And true to her word, she tended the garden, and practiced walking on human legs, and watched over Sasuke.

Because somewhere along the line, that had become a promise, too.

And she always kept her word.

Neji scanned his surroundings, his keen senses even sharper than usual from his foray into the icy waters of the North. He was still following the enemy ship as ordered, but his progress had slowed.

He had a problem with a seal.

It was a strangely curious animal, and kept trying to get near the human's ship. He'd warned it off, knowing that sailors in this climate might find her to be a tempting meal, but she'd stubbornly returned several more times. He'd known seals to be playful, or even curious, but this one was different. He swore she was examining the ship.

Then, this morning, she circled him twice, stared him in the eyes, and swam away.

The entire event baffled him.

He had to remember to report it to the Captain.

He surfaced a short distance away and studied the skies. The mission was going to plan so far – he only needed to wait for the signal.

His jaw tightened and anger flared in his chest at the thought of the cargo aboard the larger of the two ships (still intact as of an hour ago), but he reminded himself to remain calm as he took up his position. It would only be a little while, and then –

Something slammed into him, hard.

Reflexively, he activated his blood limit, confused when he only found calm waters, and a very agitated seal. She circled and shoved him, surprisingly strong despite her moderate size.

"What is wrong?" he asked, confused as to whether he should be concerned or irritated, and settling for a hybrid of the two.

The seal circled him again and swam a short way away, looping circles before looking at him.

"You want me to follow you?" he quirked an eyebrow.

The seal shot back and circled him once more, shoving him forward before darting away.

Now irritated and curious, Neji followed, frowning as the seal picked up speed.

He tried to reach out to the animal's mind, but whether it was the creature's agitation, or some other interference, he could only pick up hints of thoughts.

"Hurry. Danger coming. Away from the ships."

He stopped suddenly.

"I'm part of the danger to those ships - " he flicked his tail in irritation when he realized how far he was from his target "- and I need to get back to it."

He'd no sooner turned to swim back, when the seal shoved one thought into his mind.

"Dive!"

He never knew how or why, but he complied without question, immediately going as deep as he could as fast as he could. Before he could even pause to wonder what he was doing, an explosion radiated from the ship and rocked the waters. The compressional wave of sound shook the water about him, but the distance and depth preserved him from any harm.

Neji frowned.

Kakashi had said nothing about blowing up any of the ships. He immediately activated his Byakugan, and breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw no familiar life signatures floating with the debris, or sinking toward the ocean floor.

"I've got to get back and help. Thanks for the…"

The seal was gone. Using his bloodlimit, he saw her racing toward another ship – probably disoriented and frightened from the blast.

Biting off a curse he took off after her, more than slightly surprised when he didn't immediately overtake her.

"Wait!" he called out, closing the gap between them even as she ducked around the boat.

He circled the boat twice – but there was no sign of the seal. He examined the hull – the boat wasn't marked as an enemy vessel, and there was no sign of the seal on board. In fact, it looked like there might be only one person on board, and their signature was unfamiliar but not a threat.

Having no time to waste looking for an impertinent sea creature, Neji returned to his post.

When he surfaced, the Captain was waiting, standing near the bow of his own ship.

"I was unaware we changed the plan," Neji called up to him.

"We didn't."

"We didn't?" he repeated with no little incredulity. "But if we didn't attack, who did?"

"That is what we need to find out – quickly, too. The main explosion was on the sister ship – the one not carrying the cargo. Scan the main ship – tell me what you see."

"Impossible," he whispered, scanning the entire ship, using his Byakugan. "The cargo… it's gone."

"Gone? What do you mean, gone?"

"That's just it," he frowned. "No trace of it anywhere – and it was all accounted for when I scanned not long ago."

The Captain's posture remained unchanged, except for the tightening in his jaw.

"Then we need to hurry."

They searched all night through the wreckage and debris, but every search returned the same results as the one before it: there was no trace of the cargo, and precious few survivors.

At dawn they sank the remaining ship, and left no survivors.

"There was another ship," Neji told the Captain. "Could it have taken the cargo?"

They searched the waters, but there was no trace of the ship he'd found chasing after the seal. As dawn filtered into the sky a call came down from the crow's nest.

"Captain! On that small island – due east!"

Neji turned his eyes to the island, his jaw dropping in disbelief.

No less than thirty children – bedraggled, dirty, and with cut chains, lied sleeping on the beach – far enough away from the water as to not be in harm's way – close enough to the beach to be spotted easily.

"Is it them?"

"Yes," Neji confirmed, releasing his technique. "I recognize each of the life signatures."

The crew embarked upon the land, and the captain stood, studying the sleeping children.

One woke up and stared up at him, immediately beginning to back away in fear.

"It's alright," the Captain held up his hands soothingly. "You're safe now."

"Where is she," the boy looked around. "The one who helped us – did she escape?"

"I'm sure she is fine," the Captain said gently. "Do you remember anything about her?"

He looked up, his eyes flashed quickly, and his jaw slackened. He shook his head.

"No… no I don't," he replied, surprised.

It was the same response from each of the children – no one could remember how they had been rescued or how they ended up on the beach.

"Load them up," the Captain instructed his crew. "We'll have plenty of time to worry about other things once we've gotten them to safety. Aoba –" he called to the man nearest the helm. "Plot our course back to our home waters. There is nothing more for us in the North."

Neji waited until the others began to carry out his orders before quietly asking:

"Then there's been no word?"

The Captain shook his head.

"No one on board has seen any of your kind – Finfolk they call them in these parts," he looked over his shoulder. "Given the bounty on finding one, they would've heard if your cousin had been found."

Neji inclined his chin. "I suppose that is good news, of a sort."

"We'll find her, Neji. And we'll find her first."

"Aye, Kakashi."

"Captain will do," he gave a wry smile behind his mask, casting his good eye over the children boarding his ship. "No need for rumors to start. Keep a weather eye around for anything unusual. I'll do the same," he tapped his covered eye.

"Aye, Captain." Neji bowed his head and returned to the water, where he would serve as the lead scout for their voyage home.

"Soon, Cousin," he promised as they sailed away from the rising sun. "We will find you soon."

The old fisherman poured the tea shakily, and offered a more-gum-than-tooth smile.

"Sorry it isn't anything as fancy as you're probably used to," he apologized. "But it will warm you up."

"No, thank you," the guard accepted the cup, gratefully. "My comrade and I are grateful."

"Yeah, thanks," the second one happily took the offered cup. "Izumo and I are just thankful that we don't have to return to the barracks naked."

"Kotetsu," Izumo hissed.

"What?" he shrugged. "It's true."

"I can't believe that someone would steal your uniforms," the old man shook his head. "What is this world coming to?"

"Probably just kids and a prank," Izumo said placatingly.

"Yeah, probably kids that knocked us out and stole our clothes," Kotetsu muttered into his mug. "Because that makes sense…"

"Well, either way," the old man held up his hands in surrender. "I am glad that you survived the ordeal. And I know those clothes aren't modern, but they were my son's. They should at least get you home."

Izumo set down his empty cup of tea and stood. "We sincerely thank you for your help, but we must be getting back to the barracks to give our report."

"Yeah," Kotetsu stood, reluctantly. "Can't wait."

As the two friends bickered their way into the sunset, the old man's eyes took on a roguish glint. He was soon sailing away, grinning to himself while the unfortunate soldiers' uniforms dried deep in the hull of his ship.

Notes

*Mention of 'Larkspur' is a nod to a story of the same title by NewRageInc on FFN and Tumblr. Go read it! (SasuHina)

*The idea of a 'Goddess' in this story is less of an organized religion approach, and more of respecting the spirit and the power of the sea, embodied as a being. At this point in the AU's timeline, it is an old belief honored with traditions, rather than a true practiced belief system. There are no temples or churches or clergy; just occasional offerings and small shrines.

*Magic does exist in this AU

*Merfolk can change to walk on land, but cannot go far from the ocean without reviving in water.

*There are some "Little Mermaid" undertones in this story, but it is not a retelling of that work, original or otherwise.

While this story is set in a fictitious country, the geography is based very loosely on the British Isles. Sasuke's latest journey took him to the equivalent of the Shetland Islands, while Neji and the others found the children near Na h-Eileanan an Iar. The ruins of the ancient castle are based on Tintagel, and the place Sasuke visits is a take on Merlin's Cave. It has been quite some times since I was at Land's End, and Plymouth, and Tintagel, but the feel of those places stuck with me, and bled into this story. Go to Google Earth and check out Tintagel - it is really quite stunning. (and So. Many. STEPS.)

Any guesses on who the old man is?

- GL