Icewater

Chapter 2: Watch Me

Disclaimer: No own, no sue. Yey. Carry on.

Merry Christmas, y'all.

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Sakura was woken up in her comfortably furnished bedroom by none other than her Father.

It took a moment for it to register.

"Dad!" she yelled, sitting up. "Get out!"

"Sakura, we must talk," replied Jiraiya, sitting down on the side of her bed. Sakura groaned and flopped back into her plush oyster bed. She was tired. She did not want to deal with this-

"It's about your behavior these past few days."

Sakura remained silent.

Go away, go away, she chanted in her head.

Fat chance of THAT, honey, replied her Inner.

Oh, so you woke up this morning? Sakura snapped at it.

Well, I couldn't exactly sleep through this, now could I?

Quit it, grumbled Sakura inwardly. Can't you tell I'm trying to FOCUS here?

You mean NOT focus.

"SAKURA."

She whipped her face up to glare at her Father.

"What?" she growled. Her Father scowled at her attitude; it was early and he did not want to deal with it.

"Where were you yesterday?"

Sakura refrained from rolling her eyes.

"Here," she replied innocently, gesturing around her room.

Jiraiya's eye twitched.

"Yesterday evening," he amended. Both Sakura and her Inner grimaced darkly.

This is not working out, she told her other half; Inner Sakura could only groan and bang on he head with he fists.

We are SO screwed!

"Sakura," said Jiraiya sharply, "My patience is waning. Answer me."

Sakura took a deep breath.

"I was swimming outside."

She steeled herself.

"WHAT?" screamed Jiraiya, his eyes growing wide. "Haruno Sakura, you know that is strictly forbidden! You are not allowed outside! Tell me, what on EARTH convinced you to DO such a thi-"

"Because you never let me!" snapped Sakura. Before Jiraiya could retaliate, Sakura handed the reigns to her Inner, letting go of her control. "Ever since Mom died, I have NEVER escaped these walls! Not to visit neighboring colonies, not to look at the gardens the villagers grow, not even to see the seas I will rule one day!" She flung herself from her bed, whirling around to face her Father, her pink hair whipping about her. "If I so much as SNEEZE near the walls of the castle, I'm taken back to this STUPID ROOM!" Sakura picked up a fragile coral decoration resting on her wall. "And I HATE IT!" She flung the piece to the opposite wall, where it smashed to bits.

"Sakura-"

"Ever since Mom died-"

"Sakura-"

"-You have never let me go back outside!"

"SAKURA!"

Jiraiya's scream came while Sakura gasped for breath from her tirade.

"Your Mother DIED outside these walls," screamed Jiraiya. "I will not lose both of you!"

Sakura's wild eyes softened.

"Daddy..." she said softly. For a moment, Jiraiya looked as if he might embrace her; for a moment, Sakura thought they could both cry together. But then Jiraiya's face closed her out, his emotions hidden behind his cold mask yet again.

"You will not leave this castle," said the King. "And if you ever disobey me again," he said, "I will retain you here by force and you will NEVER see the sunlight again, even streaming through the water!"

With that, Jiraiya wheeled around and swam away before he could see the startled expression on his daughter's face.

He was not there to see her scrunch her facial features up in anger, nor witness her eyes gain a rebellious glimmer.

"Watch me," she spat, and in a flash of pink and green, Sakura slid out of her window and swam up. She passed Naruto's room. She heard an exclamation from him and swam faster, angling herself to pass through the sharp coral barrier encompassing the castle. She heard the blonde yell her name, but did not stop; she swam straight through the barbed coral and then turned towards the Outwaters border she had come across the day before.

Fine, she thought angrily. If you won't show me the real world, then I'll go there myself!

Uhh, Earth to Sakura? said Inner Sakura. We're DEAD MEAT if we go out there!

Oh, quit complaining, Sakura scolded. You're always the rebellious one, she pointed out, so shouldn't you be enjoying this?

No, replied her Inner, Because our Dad is seriously PISSED at us right now! Seriously, Sakura, turn around! I've got this bad feeling...

Sakura shrugged the unnerving worry in the back of her mind off. It's nothing, she told her other self.

It's SOMETHING, Sakura, replied Inner Sakura quietly. You and I both recognize it. It's-

"I said shut UP!" Sakura yelled. She closed her eyes, slowing her pace, caught her breath, calmed her frustration, and opened her eyes. I said shut up, she thought to herself, in control once more. Now leave me alone, or make yourself useful and keep an eye out.

Fine, grumbled Inner Sakura resignedly. But don't say I didn't try.

Sakura refrained from shivering at the soft implications that came along with her Inner's words and tried to forget them. She looked around her, determined her location, and set out again.

The search party dad will send out won't think of crossing to the Outwaters until they've searched under every rock and shell of Oceanica, she told herself, seeing the border on the distance. By then, I'll be back.

Sakura heard the distinctive sighing sound of a water current above her and swam up to it. immediately, she was swept away, being led closer to the border at a faster pace than she could ever muster with her fin alone. She went even faster by adding her own motion, flapping her tail to swim quicker through the current. Time passed, and Sakura could almost relax in the warmth and constant movement of the water rushing around her. In what seemed like no time at all, the rocks of the border loomed, and Sakura angled herself. With a plop, she pushed herself out of the current, spiraling from the sudden difference in water speed around her; the still water took a moment of getting used to after riding a current. She hurried over to the wall. She swam up and over.

Endless amounts of sand and water met her eyes as she passed into the Outwaters.

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Sakura, look!

Sakura turned to the direction her Inner pointed to wearily. She had slowed drastically in her pace; the Outwaters were cold and empty, and Sakura had been wandering for hours now with no real purpose aside from NOT going home.

She gasped.

There, in the distance, lay something big.

Something old.

Something WOODEN.

Sakura hurried over, her tiredness forgotten.

What is it? asked Sakura as she neared it.

Oh, you know perfectly well what it is, Pinky.

Sakura finally noticed a long, wooden pole in the middle, along with a holey, moss-covered piece of cloth.

"A ship," she breathed. She swam up to the top, circling the lookout post before going back down to where the mast connected to a floor of some sort. Sakura tentatively touched her flipper to the wood and shivered; it was colder than coral, and much sturdier, she was sure. She giggled, and, taken by a childish whim, pretended to be a human, traversing the deck upright on her fin.

That is, until a sharp pain on the edge of her flipper made her yelp and curl up. She examined the edge of her fin to find a minuscule piece of wood stuck on her.

Haha, teased Inner Sakura as the outward Sakura winced while pulling it out, A splinter!

Sakura peered around, slightly deterred by the wood now.

I can't believe it, Sakura thought excitedly. It's just like Mother always described!

Yeah, replied her alter ego, with equal enthusiasm. Maybe there's treasure! Maybe it's a pirate ship!

Sakura explored, going below deck and into the cabins and storage rooms. She only stopped after coming across a floating pile of moss that looked suspiciously like a skeleton. She finally returned to the surface of the ship, longingly admiring the beauty of the wood; it was blackened and rotted in (many) places, and collapsed in at others, but she loved how sleek the dark wood looked despite it's obvious old age.

It must have been very elegant in its day.

It must have been SCARY in its day.

But the light from above her was telling Sakura that, once again, it was late noon, and her stomach was begging for food. Sakura reluctantly left the ship in it's lonely rest on the sand of the Outwaters, taking note of its location so she would know where it was. She swam back home, stopping only to eat a few seaweeberries off a seaweed bush near the coral gates of the castle.

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Sakura was prepared for the worst when she got home. She was feeling a little guilty, to be honest; and the worry from earlier had returned the closer she came to home.

Well, she told herself, bracing herself as she swam down, preparing to enter her room. Here goes.

A pair of hands grabbed her before she could continue her descent to her bedroom window.

Sakura would have screamed if she hadn't recognized Naruto's tanned arms.

"What do you...?" she began. Naruto grinned.

"Welcome back," he said. "I covered for ya."

Sakura gaped.

"WHY?" she asked.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, shrugging nervously.

"Ahh, well, you know," he said, stumbling with his words, "I really li-"

"What did you do?" she asked. Naruto blinked, then grinned.

"Oh, I told them we were on the roof. The guards believed me." Naruto's grin widened. "I'm broke, but I'm pretty sure they all 'saw' us up there." He wiggled a near-empty frog-shaped moss wallet in he face.

Sakura stared at him for a moment before bursting into laughter.

"Oh, Naruto, you're hilarious!" she giggled, momentarily holding herself up with her hand on his shoulder before giving up and flopping to the ground. Naruto chuckled a little too.

"And dinner's gonna be later," Naruto added. "There's some guest who arrived that your dad didn't want to bother us with."

Sakura stopped laughing.

"Who?" she asked. Her Dad rarely postponed meals for business, even important matters concerning Oceanica's present or future.

Naruto shook his head.

"Dunno," he replied. "But my Dad said he didn't like the vibe the dude gave off."

"Huh," was the only sound Sakura made. She was puzzled. Why would her Father...?

"So, hey, what were you doing out there?" asked Naruto. Sakura smiled at him, pushing the strange happening out of her head for now.

"Oh," she said, "I went to the Outwaters."

"WHAT?" yelled Naruto, eyes bulging. "And you left ME here?"

Sakura laughed.

"That's not all, though," she said. "I saw a-"

The door banged open. Jiraiya was panting.

"Naruto!" he yelled. "Leave!" His eyes met Sakura's.

She was confused. Why was he...?

Alarm bells rang in her head.

There had been a day once, when her Mother had said the same thing to her. They had been outside the castle walls, being chased by someone her Mother had once known.

The worried feeling she had fluctuated to pure terror.

"Sakura," Jiraiya said. "Swim. Go. NOW!"

Naruto protested, but Sakura stayed, stunned into silence.

"Daddy...?" she whispered.

He opened his mouth.

And suddenly a black rod pierced through him. The King's eyes widened, locked on to Sakura's horrified green ones. Blood gushed from the wound, sticky and dissipating into the surrounding water.

"Swim," he whispered back to her.

And then his eyes went blank.

Sakura screamed.

Naruto yanked her arm, and all she could do was follow, letting survival instincts take over.

"Long live Orochimaru!" yelled the voice of the orange-haired man who had run her Father through as she and Naruto swam full-speed through the barbed coral of the castle walls. Sakura felt a bramble slice across her arm; she flinched but payed it no other special attention.

Inner Sakura whispered something to her. Directions, something Sakura would not have been able to manage in her panic.

Naruto held her hand. She tightened her grip on his. Knowing she was not alone, that Naruto was here, calmed her enough to think rationally.

"Follow me," she said, leading the way.

The current was still there. They hopped into it, letting it slip them farther away from danger.

Sakura knew where she was going, where she was leading Naruto, where they would be safe for a while, where no one would look for them.

The shipwreck.

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AN: Review, darnit! I feel unloved! (lol) Hope you enjoyed!

What happened to Sakura's mother will be revealed next chapter, and the second part of the prophecy will begin! Happy holidays to all of you!