Author's note: Here's the last part! See, I didn't make you wait too long!

THE MAIN WARNINGS WILL BE GIVEN AT THE END TO AVOID SPOILERS.

Thanks to the following reviewers: 666snoopy; Weebio; kiralacus0518; Sasuke's-Rodeo; leighd1314; Nellana; ayezha27; Ellasauras; Guest; Richon; sgriffin730; bridgettehairston23; lateentry; solitare1

Warnings: Drama; character death; flashback; not a happy ending for Sakura at all

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.

I hope you'll like this last part!

Part 2

"What exactly is it that you want to show me?" Naruto asked curiously as she pushed the wheelchair down the path in the direction of the lake.

"The lake has a certain glow to it when the moon hits it in just the right way," Sakura fibbed easily, tightening her grip around the push handles when the ground grew uneven underneath the wheelchair. She spent a moment feeling impressed that Sasuke was able to make wheeling Naruto around appear so seamless. It definitely wasn't easy at all. "There's probably a scientific explanation for it, but honestly, it's just pretty to look at," she added with a giggle.

"A glow, really?" he asked surprised. "I didn't know that was possible. And you can see it from every spot?"

"No, only from a relatively high point," she replied. "I've tried to search for it in other places around the lake, but I wasn't able to catch it then. Think it has to do with the fact that the glow is mostly in the middle and only visible if you look down at it – which is why we need to go higher up. You mind? It's that hill right there." She pointed at the hill in question which was on the right side of the lake from their current position.

It wasn't particularly steep and wasn't covered all the way in grass, but people often used it to jump down into the lake from there. The top was just high enough above the water to make the jump worth it, though most people waited with using the hill as a diving board until it was the middle of the summer. The water was then warm enough that the transition from warm air to cooler water wasn't such a shock.

"No, as long as you don't mind pushing me up?" He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "The ground here is more uneven than I expected it to be, so I'm still having trouble using the chair on my own."

"It's fine, it was my idea anyways," she replied lightly and after struggling a bit she managed to turn the wheelchair just enough so that they could make their way towards the hill in question.

She thought she should be glad that Naruto wasn't built like Chouji, but damn, steering the wheelchair wasn't easy at all. How did Sasuke do this the whole day?

"I'm sorry by the way."

Naruto's unexpected apology had her hands nearly slipping from the push handles. "Sorry for what?"

"Sasuke and I should have come clean about our relationship sooner," he explained sheepishly, fiddling with the ends of his sleeves. "You shouldn't have found out like that, I'm sorry."

So you're only apologising for how I found out and not because you stole him, huh? she thought bitterly. Typical, why had she even expected anything else? Of course he wouldn't feel sorry about the fact that by stealing Sasuke he was stomping on her heart. Why would he? He was too selfish to feel genuine remorse probably.

"It's okay," she lied through her teeth. "If I had been in your place, I probably would want to keep it quiet too considering how popular Sasuke-kun is."

A sort of status quo had existed for several years now in their school: girls could ask out Sasuke as many times as they wanted, because frankly the chance of any of them succeeding had always been very low. Sasuke never got close to any girl and for a while everyone had wondered whether that was because he simply wasn't interested or because he just didn't want to be the cause of a brawl between the girls if he happened to pay more attention to one of them.

Throwing a dark look at the back of Naruto's head, Sakura guessed she now knew the reason why Sasuke had never shown any of the girls even the slightest bit of attention.

She had to brace herself against the uneven ground several times and use more force than expected, but eventually she managed to get the wheelchair all the way to the top of the hill. By the time she paused and took a moment to stretch her cramped fingers, her whole body felt uncomfortably warm and sweaty even with the cool breeze. But they had finally made it all the way to the top, which was exactly where she wanted to be.

"Oh wow, you've got a great view from here," Naruto said amazed, leaning slightly forwards. "I didn't think the view would be that amazing because the hill doesn't look that high from below."

"Hm, a lot of people are surprised the first time," she said vaguely. She grabbed the push handles again. "You see the glow?"

"Hm? No, I don't see anything." He leant even more forwards, tilting his head to the right. "Where do I need to look exactly?"

She smirked. "Right there," she replied lightly and pushed the wheelchair all the way to the edge.

"I still can't see it," he muttered, swivelling his head back and forth.

"You can't? It's right there, though." Bracing her foot against the ground, she put all her power into tipping over the wheelchair.

Naruto, who clearly hadn't been on guard at all, the complete idiot, shouted in shock, "NO, WAIT!"

Before he could grab onto the wheelchair, he fell out of it, toppling straight into the water with a large splash, sending droplets flying high into the air.

"That's what you get for stealing Sasuke-kun!" she called down coldly, pushing the wheelchair to the side. "How stupid can you be? Thinking I would forgive you that easily?"

Silence was the only thing answering her. Frowning, she put her hands on her knees and leant over the edge, staring down into the dark water. There were still big circles rippling the surface, but she couldn't see Naruto anywhere.

"Don't even try that bullshit!" she warned him annoyed. "I know you can swim, you idiot, I caught Sasuke-kun drying you off!"

The circles in the water grew smaller and smaller as the water acquired its calm state again. Her frown deepened and she pursed her lips, squinting as she studied the lake. No matter where she looked, she couldn't even see a hint of a hand or a foot, no out of place ripple in the water to indicate that Naruto was swimming in one particular direction. There was no way he could have already heaved himself out of the water. Even if he had somehow been fast enough, she should have heard the splashing noises.

That she hadn't …

"Don't fucking tell me you really don't know how to swim!" she hissed; anger and apprehension sending her flying down the hill. If that fucker actually ended up drowning … Who the fuck went on a lake trip if you really didn't know how to swim?

What had he been doing at the lake tonight then? Just sitting in the water until Sasuke had pulled him out? So stupid!

She kicked off her shoes and dove into the water; the sudden cold nearly making her gasp and inhale some of the water. The moon provided some light, but the water itself was utterly dark of course. With no real idea of what she could do, she hastily swam to the spot underneath the hill, looking around quickly?

"Naruto? Where are you, you idiot?" she hissed frustrated, kicking her legs back and forth to stay afloat.

Surely there was no way he had actually drowned? Nobody could drown that quickly, right? He hadn't even tried to swim when she had dumped him into the lake! Shouldn't he have tried to keep himself above the water level even if he had no idea how to swim? Or had he somehow hit his head on the way down? No, that couldn't be possible, could it?

Doubtfully she looked up at the hill, but couldn't immediately spot any protrusions that could have knocked out Naruto on his way down. So if he hadn't hit his head on the way down, then where –

Something moved in the water, not that far away from her.

"Fucker, making me get into the water for nothing!" she hissed furiously and quickly swam towards him. "You think this is funny, you fucker?"

She inhaled deeply before diving completely underneath the surface, keeping her eyes open, though she didn't have much hope of actually seeing –

Something glowed in front of her.

Something large and tall in the form of a … tail? A tail that was leisurely flicking back and forth and that was attached to –

When the being opened its mouth, two rows of unnaturally sharp teeth greeted Sakura, whose terrified scream left her in a stream of bubbles. Choking as water quickly slipped into her mouth, she desperately started to swim back to the surface, kicking her legs back and forth furiously.

Another scream transformed into a trail of bubbles when something sharp and hard closed around her ankle and pulled her down – right before dark droplets of blood passed by her. The burning pain in her ankle had Sakura kicking in panic, but a second pair of sharp talons grabbed her other ankle, shredding the skin there to pieces.

Before she could make another attempt at breaking free, black dots dancing in front of her eyes, the creature released her ankles – only to stab its talons straight into her sides, anchoring her into place. The instant blinding pain had her back jack-knifing in response, which only made the agony even worse when the talons ripped straight into her vulnerable organs.

Disorientated, mind too filled with pain, she reacted too late.

Teeth closed around the left side of her neck – and tore a huge chunk out of it.

She never got another chance to scream.

Inhaling the sharp, cool air had Naruto coughing harshly as he dragged himself back onto the land, pulling his soaked clothes out of the water with him. They fell onto the ground with a wet smack and he grimaced, clawing at the earth to pull himself completely out of the lake.

As he sat there, spitting out water, trying to shaking off the droplets clinging onto him, a rapid set of footsteps became audible. When he turned his head, it was to see Sasuke rushing over to him; worry etching his face.

The sight of him had Naruto brightening instantly and he held out his arms automatically, humming contentedly when Sasuke closed his own around him, pulling him completely away from the water.

"What the hell happened?" Sasuke's voice was harsh, but Naruto knew the anger in his voice wasn't aimed at him, so he had no qualms about letting the other boy manhandle him in order to get a better look at him.

"I fell into the water," Naruto sighed, wriggling his fingers.

"Are you hurt?" Sasuke demanded and pulled off his shirt, using that to start drying his lower body.

"I fell into the water," Naruto repeated non-puzzled. Why would he be hurt from falling into the water? That was just silly.

"I don't care, you could still have been hurt," Sasuke insisted, because he was just silly like that.

Mum had said that humans tended to worry a lot about the ones they cared, though, so Naruto decided that Sasuke was being a good silly.

"I wasn't," Naruto reassured him, giggling quietly when Sasuke's fingers brushed across his fins. They trembled underneath the feather like touch and Naruto caught the way Sasuke's eyes flashed with interest, making him preen.

He knew his orange and purple tail was pretty, because mum and dad had always told him so, but it was really nice to know that his mate liked his tail as well. The tail was, after all, one of the major ways in which merpeople attracted their mate.

The way mum had met dad had been like a fairy tale, she always insisted. A heavier than usual storm had seen mum stranded on an unknown beach. Before she had been able to push herself back into the ocean, a bad human had found her. He had wanted to hurt her, take her away for the humans to experiment on her, but before the bad human could have started dragging her away, dad had appeared.

"Like a real prince," Mum giggled as she brushed her fingers through Naruto's hair, telling his favourite story again. "He showed up, punched that human until he lost consciousness and then took me away to take care of me."

He had taken mum to the sea cottage he had been renting for that summer and had taken care of the superficial wounds she had sustained on her tail and in her face. He had done so with a red face, mum would say gleefully each time, because she hadn't been wearing anything to cover up her breasts and dad had got bashful because of that.

He had taken care to put her carefully in the tub, refreshing the water several times. Mum had never left after that.

She had learnt how to exchange her tail for human legs, had then proceeded to learn how to walk and talk and behave like any other regular female human. She and dad had got married both the human way and the mer-way three years after meeting each other, when mum had felt confident enough in her speech to be in front of other humans.

Another two years and Naruto had been born, proof of their love for each other.

While mum had taught him how to change his tail for legs when he had been very young, for years he had spent his life swimming around in the enclosed area dad had purchased years before his birth. He had seen no reason to learn how to walk when both his parents loved him just the way he was –

Until one summer's day he had caught sight of the most beautiful human boy he had ever seen. His black hair had shimmered blue in the sun and his eyes had looked like the onyx gem stone dad had bought for mum years ago.

The human boy had been visiting the ocean with his family, Naruto had overheard when he had dared to swim closer. He and his family had stayed there for three weeks, but it was on the seventh day of their holiday that Naruto had seen it happening.

The human boy had been swimming with his brother like he had done the days before, but when he had got out of the water and had dressed himself again, the necklace Naruto had seen him wearing before, had slipped out of the pocket of one of the clothes. It had fallen into the water, unbeknownst to the dark haired human, but Naruto had seen it. He had darted over to it the second he had thought the coast was clear and had snatched it out of the crevice of a rock. It had been made out of a simple black cord, bearing a small white and red coloured fan.

As Naruto had been admiring the pendant, the human boy had unexpectedly shown up again.

"Hey, that necklace is mi …"

Startled, Naruto dove deeper into the water, but it was too late. He saw dark eyes flickering towards the glittering orange and purple tail he was too late to hide, watched those same dark eyes widen a notch.

They stared in silence at each other; the human in shock, Naruto afraid, mad at himself for not having paid better attention to his surroundings. He knew how dangerous humans could be; mum and dad had warned him so many times! But he just had to swim close to this side of the beach; he just had to pick up the necklace instead of leaving it be and now he had been discovered.

"I need to stay out of the sun more," the human boy muttered nonsensically.

Naruto could only gape at him, confused. What did he mean with that? Why was he saying that? What did the sun have to do with all this? He thought he had mastered the human language pretty well, but he was flummoxed now, wondering what he was missing.

The boy slowly reached out with his hand, holding it with his palm up. "Can I have my necklace back? It fell out of my pocket apparently."

Completely bewildered by now, but growing fascinated nonetheless at the human's calm demeanour, Naruto cautiously swam a bit closer, just close enough to hand over the necklace without risking being grabbed. As soon as warm fingertips brushed against his, a shiver danced down his spine, making him wriggle his fins in reflex.

The human boy nodded and gave a small smile before slipping the necklace around his neck. "Thank you for finding this. I'll leave you be now."

Naruto could only stare in wonder at the human's retreating back.

oOo

He kept swimming closer and closer to the human boy after that. Even with his parents' warnings in the back of his mind, he felt helpless to the thrall he experienced when he could be near the human boy. Sasuke, he was called, and he was the same age as Naruto! He wasn't a merman himself, but in spite of being a regular human he was never bothered by Naruto's distinct lack of a full human body. He would talk to Naruto just as easily as he talked to his family and with each day that passed, making Naruto more and more confident in his own speaking, he found himself less and less inclined to stay away from Sasuke.

When Sasuke announced it was finally time to go back home, Naruto's decision was easily made.

He would learn how to walk and he would be with Sasuke. Nothing else mattered.

Walking still wasn't as easy as he thought it should be after a couple of years of training, but Sasuke was never bothered by the lack of leaps and bounds Naruto himself had expected to make. The wheelchair was the perfect excuse to stay away from water during class, because submersing himself into the water would instantly leave him with his tail. That was just another thing he was still trying to train: keeping the transformation under control even in water.

It was all worth it, though, when he looked at Sasuke and basked in his love.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked, still fussing with the shirt.

Already the scales were retreating, melting into skin and fins slowly made way for human toes instead.

"I was stupid," Naruto admitted, lowering his head as shame coloured his cheeks. He really should have been smarter; he guessed he didn't know everything about human social cues after all. "I thought Sakura was really serious about her apology and let her take me to the hill here. She said she had something pretty to show me."

Instantly Sasuke looked up, narrowing his eyes when he saw the wheelchair stranded on top of the hill. His jaw visibly clenched, only relaxing when Naruto reached out and touched his jaw with his fingers, cooing quietly.

"Where is she?" Sasuke asked clipped, switching to drying off Naruto's chest next.

Ripped to shreds, Naruto wanted to say but he remembered dad's warning just in time. Humans didn't like hearing such terms apparently, so instead he said, "Gone."

Sasuke stilled and this time he looked at the lake carefully. With how dark it was, though, and with his own human vision, which came with its own limits, he wouldn't be able to see the red stain slowly melting away in the water.

"Did you eat her?" Sasuke asked after a loaded pause and returned to drying Naruto off again.

Naruto twisted uncomfortably on the ground and grabbed a chunk of Sasuke's pyjama trousers. "Are you mad at me?" he asked in a small voice.

Obviously Sasuke knew what he really was, but would he abandon Naruto now that he knew just how dangerous he could be? It hadn't been his fault, though! If only she hadn't done that, he wouldn't have felt the need to react! She had come into his territory after challenging him, what should he have done?

"I'm not mad," Sasuke replied to his utter relief. "I just need to know: did you eat her?"

"No, was too full from dinner still," Naruto answered honestly. "Just took her a- just left her there."

"We'll need to pretend that she suddenly disappeared during the night," Sasuke muttered, running the damp cloth over Naruto's left arm, leaving a tingling sensation behind. "I'll grab the wheelchair and we'll get you back into your room before anyone else notices you're gone. Think you can call one of your friends to take her away completely? We don't want the police to find her in this lake; they'll know something is up then. I don't think the fish here are big enough to injure her to that extent, right?"

"They aren't," Naruto confirmed. At best they might have been able to nip her skin, but that would have been about it.

"All right, so while I go grab the chair and remove the trail of your wheels, you can call one of your friends. Is that okay?" Sasuke looked at him questioningly.

"I can do that!" Naruto said enthusiastically, happy to be able to help.

"All right, you'll be fine," Sasuke said reassuringly and with one last swipe across Naruto's shoulders, he tugged on the damp shirt again. "We'll just pretend she suddenly left and act like we're none the wiser. Everything will be okay."

"I'm glad you're my mate," Naruto sighed happily and when he leant forwards, he was gratified to meet Sasuke's mouth instantly, proving that Sasuke was indeed not disgusted by what he had done. He proved it even further when he cupped the back of Naruto's head possessively, kissing him back intently.

He knew he had made the right choice when he had sought out this boy again and again during that one summer!

Mum had found her Prince Charming – and so had Naruto. And he had no plans on ever letting his prince go, no matter what he would have to do.

After all, a merman's love went even deeper than the ocean itself.

The End

AN2: Additional warnings: Merman Naruto; darkish Naruto

How many of you did see this coming, huh? :D Now I'm off to bed, because goddamn, it's late here. Don't follow my example.

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in my future stories! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.