A/N: You have all been so good to me! Please enjoy this next chapter, I meant to post it this morning but I was out of town.
Naruto had been right that morning; every trace of the storm was gone and all the skies had to offer was azure brilliance.
I stood in front of Temari's booth with a look on my face that was supposed to be welcoming. My sister and her husband had recognized the potential the day brought and did not hesitate to leave me in charge of her booth while they stole off for a romantic evening.
I wonder when I became accustomed to the relationship the newlyweds shared.
Peddling fish, I recalled how my sister met what she referred to as her other half. It was a strange tale that most scowled at but still many claimed worth hearing.
I don't know if you've yet comprehended the extent of my brother-in-law's intellect but when he was only fourteen years old he was already a freshman in college. This is where he met my sister who was a senior at the time.
As lazy as the genius was and always had been, he put a good amount of effort into my sister.
You can imagine how she took it at first, blowing off his advances as nothing more than a child crush.
She never thought she'd hear from the boy again after she graduated a year later but she was obviously wrong. He visited her at the house, I still remember hearing the doorbell ring, something that rarely happened in what could only be described as our manor.
I'd peek out from behind a curtain, short and scrawny for my age, Shikamaru wasn't much better off. Every time he came around he held a single flower in his hand, never a bouquet and the flower was always different. My father didn't like it one bit but never really felt any threat from the young boy, though each time Temari took the flower her expression changed.
The first time it had been awkward.
The next there was a small smile…
Then a blush...
A peck on the cheek…
As hard as it is to believe, the boy came around until he turned into a man. I never spoke to him but he never failed to greet me when we passed each other in the urban streets. He was a good person and even my father, who at that point was in his deathbed, could see that.
He and Temari never dated yet no one was surprised when he showed up at the door at the age of nineteen on one knee with a small diamond ring in hand.
She said yes when he told her he'd been searching for the perfect one since the day he met her.
Our father never went to the wedding, not because he was physically or medically unable to. No one said anything but sometimes you can tell that Temari and Kankuro both think he regretted never chasing Shikamaru off the lawn.
One week after the small ceremony (that was lovely in its own way) the bitter man stopped breathing.
I can't recall if any of us had shed a tear.
It was difficult to believe that not more than a handful of months had passed since those days.
"I'll take these two please."
The soft voice was that of Ino, long locks pulled up into a high ponytail at the back of her head. At her side stood Tenten, a slightly older girl with two absurdly tight brown buns. Both girls I'd known a greater portion of my life, much like Sakura, though I found them far less appealing as company than the now pinkette.
I wrapped the fish with care, just as Temari had always instructed me. I do, however, wish I hadn't overheard the two women's conversation.
"Hinata's gone missing you hear?" The blonde whispered loudly, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I think she ran off with that cousin of hers. You know the one, he always came around and they always seemed so close. Had a thing you know?"
Tenten rolled her eyes. "Like Hinata would have the guts to do something so scandalous. My concern is what if she's missin', you know, like gone." Ino shrugged and took the brown paper bag I offered her.
"Thanks sweet'um." To which I nodded.
They left in a mixture of giggles and worry, the disappearance of the girl with night-blue hair, news and yet no news at all. I recalled her, just like the others she'd lived in Konoha for years. Her father owned some franchise that spread so far out no one really knew what it was anymore.
She was always so quiet, no one would really bat an eye if she were missing; almost sad when you can't even leave a footprint in the society you'd lived in your whole life.
When we were young, her hair was shorter than her ears… very unusual for the vain little girls of the area with their pink ballet slippers and dreams of fame.
Yet here they still are as nameless as the day they were born.
Last time I saw the now young woman, her hair was long and full as if she too had someone worth impressing.
I just stood there and sold fish until most would be home in bed.
Dinner could have been heated up leftovers I suppose, with Temari and Shikamaru unlikely to be home before morning I was left to fend for myself.
I wasn't even going to try to find out where Kankurou had sauntered off to.
I found myself back at The Leaf, worn little menu in my hand. Karin was as high-strung as ever and instead of Sakura waiting the tables, Ino stood in her place. It was almost midnight and I guess I should be grateful they were still open, heating up a bowl of soup for me to try to finish.
Like Sakura, Ino had a look in her eyes that seemed to know I wouldn't get very far on it.
It tasted like something others might enjoy.
Once upon a time, I sat in a counselor's office because one of my teachers noticed I never ate my lunch. It was greasy and unappealing but apparently people notice if you never even attempt to buy it. I found out later that first came a phone call home, wondering if I needed financial assistance so I could have what they called a balanced hot meal. I also found out that my father told the school rather blatantly that I wasn't his problem, if I wasn't eating it was because I didn't feel like eating.
I think sometimes when people don't eat, it scares people. Me, no one paid enough attention to be scared, just to fuss.
After those meetings I would make the effort to buy my lunch and crush it up with a fork so it appeared I had been eating.
A complete waste of time.
A third through the bowl and I no longer felt a desire to eat; the feat may not sound all too impressive yet five years ago I wouldn't have even touched it.
It was raining the night Temari begged me to eat, her eyes swollen and leaking tears like she actually had something to worry about.
That night I ate half a grilled cheese sandwich, she only seemed to cry more when I'd finished.
One thing that every quaint eatery had in common with every quaint shop was a bell strung up at the door. It became a common background noise, meaning nothing to me while I drained the last of the broth from my bowl, leaving behind chunks of vegetables and chicken. This time when it rang I looked up, maybe because the sound jarred me out of reliving my horrible middle school years or maybe God was in need of a laugh.
Either way, in through that door came what I first recognized as a black fedora. Beneath it was even more black hair, making the satin white face it surrounded almost painful in contrast. He was not older than me but his eyes held no youth as they scanned the diner.
Behind him was what could have been a right doppelganger, the only difference being an extra foot of height and long hair pulled back at the nape of his neck. For some reason I thought back to every poorly advertised romance novel I'd ever seen my classmates burying their faces in and it left my stomach uneasy.
They were two sore thumbs in our homely town and I could say with confidence that I'd never seen anything quite like them before.
The taller one's eyes were red now that I think about it though I never let my stare linger.
I was prodding the chicken at the bottom of my bowl in distaste, trying to ignore the short raven approaching Ino with a piece of paper in hand, his lips moving in a practiced manner.
She shook her head slowly, a smile in perfect place.
He was the exact type of guy a girl dreamed of sweeping her off her feet.
I just kept eating and trying to make Temari proud.
"Excuse me sir."
Polite, cut like the finest Edam is the only way to describe that voice.
"Have you seen this fellow?"
And there was a picture of Naruto.
It was unmistakable; despite being taken from a very candid angle I knew for certain it was him. He was shirtless and chest deep in what could only be the ocean, hands up and clutching at a wooden pier.
Did the man hear my breath hitch?
"Sorry, can't say that I have."
I don't know why I couldn't look him in his coal black eyes.
He nodded, just staring down at my broth-less bowl of soup as if he had something to say about it. If he did he kept it to himself, tipping the front of his fedora and mentioning that he'd be around… as if to imply if I were to find the guy in the picture, it would be wise to find him and let him know.
I couldn't shake the memory of Sasori mentioning mermaid hunters to me, that there was good money to be made in the distribution of their parts.
Another side of me that was far colder in perspective recalled how sometimes, it was just plain personal.
A coffee was placed in front of me, one I hadn't ordered.
"Well he was a looker, wasn't he?" Ino laughed, the hot mug a courtesy I hadn't deserved. "Didn't much like those eyes, too cold." As if to exaggerate her point she shook her shoulders and let out a squeak. "I don't know why he's looking for that boy but if I do see him…" Two fingers went up to her mouth as she pretended to zip it shut. "I think I'll be keeping that to myself."
In this tight-knit community, people protected each other like some twisted definition of a family.
I nodded in agreement and took a tenuous sip.
As much as I detested this place I certainly felt less malice for it than any other town I'd ever been unfortunate enough to live in.
I may not be particular for Ino but sometimes she too, reminded me how humans are supposed to act towards each other.
Her eyes were like the mug in my hands… warm.
()()()()()
"How did you meet this mermaid of yours?"
Jiraiya laughed heartily as he polished an old iron anchor. Another sleepless night had passed, one where I strangely strained my ears for the sound of singing in the distance.
All was silent save for Kankuro's habitual noises.
"Sea devil, boy, mermaids are for children's movies and horny castaways."
"Hmn."
In the past several hours I had transferred an outlandish number of boxes to and from a loading truck, the sun relentless on my now bare shoulders.
I had shed the dingy brown tank top sometime in the later morning when beads of sweat began to collect at my collar.
I may have looked the part; on board (unwillingly), out of breath and sweaty. Give me a tan and a beer; you could call me an outright sailor. I wonder if my father was laughing in that horrible way he once had, seeing his reclusive bastard roaming about in broad daylight.
Genuinely surprised his skin didn't burst into flames.
"It was in the eye of a hurricane…" He began, grin broad and stance broader. "One they say flooded every coast in the south. I had just come from waves a hundred feet tall; finally convinced I'd caught myself a break." I could tell by the inclination in his tone that his troubles had just begun.
"I had to check the sides of my boat, make sure everythin's runnin' tip top. So I look over the ledge and lo and behold, clung to the side like a barnacle was this mass of hair." Hands in the air like a wild man, I knew if he'd been facing me those eyes would be crazed. "But there was unmistakably a hand. Like the fool I am, I reached over and dragged it up, mess and all."
"Now boy, just imagine my surprise when attached to those hands was arms, reaching up to pull away long tendrils of hair. It all happened so fast, before a word got out of my mouth there was a face." As if I hadn't the slightest clue what a face was he gestured to his own with an open palm. "White like pus, gold eyes like the devil himself." I wondered if he remembered that I already knew what the bloke looked like.
"He took a quick fancy to me; I never even saw the tail until I managed to pry his mouth off mine." I tried to imagine it, a creature like any Japanese horror film with a fish tail and a mouth latching onto the perverts own. I inwardly blanched.
"Never stopped chasin' me since, to this day he pokes his head out of the water and whistles at me when I'm not lookin', makin' everyone think I'm crazy." Jiraiya rolled his eyes and went back to polishing. "I know what happened that day and I know I've seen him ever since. It's too late once you've met 'em, you'll never forget their name."
"What is his name?"
I asked nonchalantly, unaware of the stress the old man got from saying that name.
"Orochimaru."
Although there was absolutely no rational connection between the two names, I couldn't stop inwardly comparing the man's disdain to the name that had been floating around my mind recently.
They really were nothing alike…
I forced my mind back to my temporary boss.
"No one blames you for not forgetting."
Sentiment had never been something I understood but by the relaxing of his shoulders I was sure that was what he'd needed to hear.
I wondered how I'd managed to grow fond of that batty fisherman.
Walking home that evening was just as rickety as any other. Lately I'd been thinking of the past, of how overly fond my uncle had been of my mother, the one that loved me despite the doctors telling her she would not survive my birth.
Both he and my father had begged her to terminate me.
I guess somewhere in the bottom of her heart she had to give me the opportunity to walk these docks, to clean them and complain about them and pull mysterious strangers out from the sea.
Or maybe she thought I would become some brilliant scientist who cured the incurable, discovered the undiscovered, or imagined the unimaginable…
Was disappointment heavy in her stomach?
"Gaara!"
Had there been any in mine, it vanished at the call.
Naruto's voice had become inadvertently easy to recognize, its horrid gruffness brimming with unnecessary attitude… a voice that couldn't belong to anyone else.
I never even got a reply out before he was burying his hand into my arm, looking over his shoulder with an expression of great concern. I couldn't not notice those two white teeth worrying away at his lower lip, the way it quivered as if cold.
"I want to go in here!" He announced loudly, dragging me (still shirtless I might add) right into Tackle and Things. A chiming bell, a curt hello that froze midair as Tsunade looked me over twice for good measure.
"Hun, we don't have a sign to say otherwise but I assumed most people would figure they'd need a shirt to be in here." I wanted that amused expression of hers gone just like I wanted Naruto's skin to keep touching me.
I got neither, he just let go and hurried further down the aisle with me following (against my better judgment).
When Naruto found a display that was taller than him, the blonde made haste in settling himself behind it, reaching out to pull me right along. I'd never been so close to another person, pressed together he held a finger up to his mouth to silence me though I hadn't spoken a word since he appeared.
I wasn't an idiot, we were obviously hiding.
Peeking through a slit in the cardboard, the door chimed once more and in walked the two men wearing fedoras, looking as business orientated and foreign as ever.
Sometime during this episode I had shielded what I could of the blonde's body with my own, his warm face resting almost soundly against my shoulder.
If that man hadn't been there I might have enjoyed it.
"Excuse me Ma'am."
Out came that little photo, Tsunade taking it when he clearly only wished for her to look. He asked about him, about Naruto, as if he'd asked a thousand times; like Ino, Tsunade shook her head and sent him on his way.
I never heard the bell that signaled his departure; maybe that was because I caught a waft of the sweet smell of the ocean that clung to Naruto like a silk sheet. I'd never enjoyed it so much before, did he notice me inhaling like I'd never known air in my life?
"I was wondering why you'd be in such a hurry you'd forget 'alf your clothes, you boys need to try to stay out of trouble." Tsunade's voice rang out, the odd young man and I separating slowly to reveal ourselves. "Shame, seemed like a nice couple, sold 'em both those Fedoras a few days ago, gave them a great price."
Naruto was already smiling like he always did. "That damned Sasuke, I wish he'd give me at least a few weeks to enjoy myself before he comes barging in and hunting me down." I swallowed at his terminology though tried to remind myself it was just that.
Terminology.
"I just feel bad for his brother, always getting his ass dragged around by that sod." The blonde brushed his hair free from his face, taking a moment to openly stare at my exposed chest.
"They were asking about you, at the diner the other night." I admitted, finally accepting the fact that I had somehow turned into a prying person.
"Just send him on his way; I have no business with that boy." He crossed his arms, looking away with a hint of pink dusting those cheeks.
We were walking the aisles quietly after that, picking up odds and ends and commenting (well, he had) on the more unusual pieces. It was a silence I was more than comfortable in yet each time it dragged on too long the man would burst into rambles.
It was no secret that he couldn't keep his mouth shut for extended periods of time.
"I've never seen anything over the rocks before."
My statement must have caught him off guard because he dropped a rubber ball with what appeared to be a tooth mark in it.
"Oh yeah, I'm staying just past those rocks." I already knew that much, tell me more I willed. "I don't live there obviously, I'm a traveler, always have been."
Now that was news though it explained a great deal of his sudden appearance.
Part of me felt a twinge of pain that it foreshadowed a just-as-swift departure.
"I suppose what I am really asking…" I started, locking his gaze in a way that slowed my breath. "Why haven't I ever seen any houses past there? Where exactly are you staying?" And it was out in the open, something that had been bothering me like a shard of glass in my foot.
As difficult as it was for me to socialize myself enough to even ask, Naruto did nothing but laugh in response; that same laugh that sent goose-flesh across my arms and the back of my neck.
It was hardly fair.
Never did an answer come; he only waved around an old book that looked like it'd been fished right from the bottom of the ocean before running off to pay the lady.
I came to an uncertain realization that I'd pried just a bit too far and returned to scanning the shelves, hoping for what it's worth that I hadn't made the blonde uncomfortable in any way.
There were many things on my mind while browsing those pointless shelves. Often it was the slight curiosity of where such unusual and arbitrary items came from in the first place, others it was how the blonde had managed to get into an argument with Tsunade about the world not accepting sand dollars as currency, why call them dollars to begin with then?
There was also the now named fedora man, Sasuke, not to mention my ever growing suspicion that if mermaids did in fact, exist, the blonde was surely one of them.
As crazy as it all sounded he brought the accusations upon himself.
Sand dollars… really?
Eventually I came to the realization that there was no nick-knack for me today and I would have to leave empty handed.
I was and was not surprised at the same time that Naruto was still by the counter, waiting for me to finish up.
"Twenty-five, I won't take a penny less!"
Tsunade bellowed, hand slamming down in a way that intimidated most. Not Naruto, he only furled his lip a bit more and stood on his toes to gain leverage as he shouted back. "That is an unfair price! This is a dock in case you haven't noticed. Who in their right mind would need a saddle!? Fifteen tops!"
Was he bargaining for the saddle?
I blinked a couple of times to try to sort out the scene before me.
Naruto walked out of that store with a saddle in hand, purchased for a measly eighteen bucks. Probably one of the greatest deals anyone had ever gotten on such a piece, sparkling with its many rhinestones.
How had life become so odd practically overnight?
"Are you coming?"
I was sure that he already knew I would.
And so I did.
Scrambling over the rocks was not difficult, nor was it the simplest of tasks. I simply took each step he did, found each foothold and crevice, at some point the ascent becoming more of an outright climb than a trudge. I wonder if any had seen us scamper away, the blonde lugging what couldn't be less than twenty-five pounds of saddle over his shoulder.
"Almost there Gaara!" He announced with the expression of a pirate who just found the island where treasure was said to have been buried.
It was almost like we were out adventuring together and I was a bit more than okay with that.
Slightly out of breath, hands shaky… I actually enjoyed it.
Finally the top of the rocks was upon us and as I looked down at the other side I saw no houses, no apartments or buildings of any sort.
What I saw was far more stunning.
Like a half moon the rocks curved around a circle of water that was so blue and so clear I could see the shadows of the schools of fish lurking within it.
It looked like something of a paradise, the light beating down just right as if it were the only spot in the world that truly ever knew sun.
It was not the grey waters of the beaches I often walked with my siblings as a child, it was not the muggy air of those docks not one hundred yards behind us.
In that moment I understood that peace did exist and maybe, just maybe, I experienced it.
Never had I seen water so perfectly still.
Naruto was down in a flash, descending with ease as if he'd done it hundreds of times, who knew he just may have. I was behind him at a much slower pace, careful with my footing.
What I couldn't see from the top of the rocks was a boat.
Or once a long long time ago, it had been a boat.
Now it was just the ghost of one, rotten in many places and half submersed into the sea.
Once a sailor must have loved the old thing, now it lay forgotten, bobbing about in paradise and tied to a stone bursting from the sand, taller than I could reach.
The blonde then continued to catch me off guard by making a leap from where he stood onto the rotten thing. Three feet was not a very long jump but his landing let out a creak in the worn wood and I was almost certain he'd be underwater in a matter of moments.
"Come on, I want to show you inside." He bellowed, waving like a manic and hopping in excitement.
"Please don't hop on that thing." I managed, saying a prayer and taking a leap.
Beneath my feet the planks cried out but held strong, something I was incredibly grateful for.
I had no intentions of being in the ocean again anytime soon.
"Gaaraaaaa." He whined, lower lip jutted out slightly. "inside." I shuttered, ducking through the busted out doorway.
If he was a mermaid I think that all he'd need to do is show that face and I'd follow him into the sea.
The realization was terrifying.
Below deck were two floors but half of the upper one was missing so you could jump down to the lower if you wanted, probably shouldn't though because it was flooded out, a gaping hole on the underside.
On that first floor (well, half of a floor) was an old travel bag and a pile of blankets that looked to be collected over the years.
I felt instantly staggered when I realized it.
Naruto was sleeping here.
Beside the blankets was a tall stack of wooden planks, carefully put together like a puzzle. The blonde (while whistling cheerfully) placed the saddle on top, jumping up and sitting on it sideways.
"See? Instant chair!"
"You've got to be fucking joking."
Was that my voice? It had to be, I was the only other one there. When had I started speaking without having to make myself?
"What? I think it's a badass chair." He shifted a bit, as if that would somehow convince me he was comfortable.
"You're staying here, in a rotten boat in the middle of fucking paradise."
He raised an eyebrow, glancing about. "Well it's not that awful and this cove isn't exactly paradise but to each his own right?"
"It's a rotten boat." I repeated, as if it would eventually get through his thick skull if I said it enough times.
"I've slept in worse. The upper level is dry and I got all those awesome blankets from the thrift just off the docks."
Burying my face in my hand I chastised myself for letting him drag me here. Ignorance is bliss after all and I wasn't sure I'd ever be okay again knowing he was sleeping just one badly timed roll away from a watery grave.
Or maybe mermaids just couldn't stand being away from water for long periods of time.
"I've been through every major city from the south up, slept in alleys, in old hotels, bus stations."
He listed these things as if a part of him were proud of his resilience.
Either way I could not help but be miffed; somewhere amongst the creaking floor and the occasional sway of the ocean I knew such a place had to be dreadfully lonely.
"Why are you here?" I finally asked, catching him midsentence of some unimaginable place with friendly hookers.
"I just said it's really not that bad, I stay dry."
"No… Why did you choose to stay in this place? Not this boat but in Konoha. It sounds to me like you're used to traveling the much more glamorous of our country. Why Konoha?"
I had to know the answer, just like I had to know where he was staying or why Sasuke was following him.
He was the first person I ever had to know anything about.
"I like the company."
At the time the meaning behind those words had gone over my head.
Let me tell you something about that boat. Although eerie at first glance it was impossible to ignore the hominess Naruto swept it up in, the way he curled up on the floorboards and patted beside him for me to sit down.
I obliged, breath hitching at the way he shuffled closer.
We spent a good deal of time watching the water, him mentioning how the occasional fish swam up through the hole in the underside of the boat and me listening.
Soon enough there were several, silver and beautiful in the crystal blue.
It was like a pond, perfect and pretty the way it glittered beneath the sun that broke through several gaps in the roofing.
Even the ocean couldn't look menacing in that moment.
They scrambled around like flies in an overturned cup, back and forth, tails sparkling like stars in a muggy night.
There, yet not something that made your day any better.
"Pretty, aren't they?" He hummed, dipping a gentle hand in the water; the fish not phased the slightest at his presence. They only began to circle, finally forming some sort of unity amongst the bedlam. He calmed them; each knuckle-brush against the creatures seemed well-practiced and almost habitual.
Like they knew that he belonged.
I wondered at that time what it must feel like to belong somewhere.
"Something like that." I murmured, watching the dance with mild fascination.
He laughed, boisterous and ongoing like many laughs I dislike.
Not his, his was fine as it shook the wood beneath us.
"Does anything amaze you?" He managed, biting out words between each bout of chuckles. I thought on the question, likely rhetorical yet it bothered me. Was there anything that could genuinely stun me? Maybe the way people believed in fairytales about half human half fish creatures roaming about.
A fish gave what could only be a sort of kiss to those exposed knuckles; it was breath taking.
Or maybe it was just how they were able to create a community that focused on each other more so than themselves.
I think it was safe to assume that the way his ocean blue eyes lit up amazed me.
"Some things do."
If he ever got tired of my short and curt answers he never mentioned it, nor did he say anything when he reached out to take one of my hands in an unrelenting grip.
"This will."
Like any suicide he plunged my hand into the water, frigid yet welcoming as it swallowed up to my wrist. In an instant the fish scattered, looking as confused and alert as a fish could.
Let me mention that us sitting there, hands in the water while his never released mine, that was a moment that began to mean something to me.
I think I knew right away too, maybe that's why my chest clenched.
Finally after what felt like an eternity of nothing but the sound of our heaving, they came back. Slowly at first, interested but not excited… and then one touched me, slid its slender body across my palm.
It felt like a pearl.
Moving like it wanted to be caressed, like something more than what Kankuro swept up in his nets and gutted without a second thought.
If I could feel bad for the bastards I would.
The beasts were cold and smooth yet very much alive.
Nothing like they felt when we sold them at the booth.
"So, Gaara." The way he said it reminded me of someone trying to force a conversation.
My lips twitched, he just couldn't let the silence grow too heavy and I somehow had become okay with it.
"Why the uhh… eyebrows?" I'd never seen him bashful or anything of the like; Naruto was just someone who seemed to speak exactly what he thought exactly when he thought it.
It was comical how now he chose to be his idea of polite.
It probably isn't something I've mentioned, I never spend too much time in the mirror focusing on the traits I don't care about having.
Things like my lack of eyebrows or large kanji tattoo covering half my forehead and a portion of my eye, well, they were just something I had.
Not worth mentioning.
"I was six years old." I began, realizing this would take a far greater amount of words than I was used to offering. "Someone dear to me, or that I thought of as dear to me…" I never felt sadness before, just a wave of things I never understood, but the way he focused on me, hands lax in the waves, I felt…
Solemn.
"Someone took their life." Eyes widened, as I expected they would. "I didn't handle it well, at least as far as my sister remembers." To be honest there was a year gap in which I can't recall a thing… just the shadow beneath the door swaying back and forth…
"So I freaked I guess, plucked each hair out… eyelashes too."
A breeze filtered through the boat, sending his hair into turmoil, something akin to the look in his gaze.
"After a while it just stopped growing back."
I never meant to make him anything; not angry or desperate or above all devastated, he just seemed to become so too quickly to register.
I hadn't realized until his grip on my hand became unbearably tight.
"That was… unexpected." He tried to sound nonchalant, his grinding teeth fooling no one.
"Like many things I guess." I whispered.
Then I saw a fish unlike the others, something slicker with an unrealistic confidence.
One glittering fin dead center its back.
That's when my hand was abruptly yanked free, splashing the frosty liquid every which way.
"You don't want to touch those." Naruto warned, nose wrinkling at the sight of the fish that sent the others drifting away. "Their called Hardheads, that spine on their back…" He pointed to the fin I had momentarily admired. "Get stung by one of those and you'd rather be dead."
I watched it for a while, memorizing each feature carefully for future reference.
"There are too many dangerous things in the water." I whispered, looking up at the light that streamed through the roof cracks. Naruto only laughed at me like he seemed to love to, leaving me shaken inside.
"That's the fun part."