Hiya all! I am a serious mermaid fan! Whee… *splashes puddle*

This will not be a rip off of Disney's The Little Mermaid and neither will it be Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid ('cause that one is too depressing *cries* D: ).

This will be my own story of our beloved Sakura as princess of the sea and how she will fight for the one she loves. I don't know where I'd take this story to, because the plot is still brewing at the back of my brain. Ideas are welcomed.

There will be lemon, because we all – or my followers – know, I cannot do without the sour fruit. So ya, the shoot of the lemon tree is sprouting from the top of my head.

This story is dedicated to the tsunami, earthquake and nuclear victims in Japan. My heart goes out to you all.

Naruto-verse is by Kishimoto Masashi.
Mature for intended lemon (no, not mermaid sex… a_a") in later chapters and language.

A Mermaid's Tale - Ninyou no Iwaku

Chapter 1: In Waters Deep

The ocean was a ubiquitous display of colours, like silken layers of the rainbow spreading over the vast under seascape, magnificent and breathtaking. The visible spectrum of corals, sea rocks, sponges, anemones in its entire multi-faceted architecture decorated the seafloor far and wide. Deep waters of the Elysian Sea were crystal clear with a tint of blue, much alike the sky, where instead of winged birds, there lived a thriving array of sea creatures and the most spectacular of all life forms, Mer-people.

A peal of feminine laughter split through the quiet waters, sending a large school of yellow tangs scurrying for cover among the abundant porous boulders. She swam as fast as her fin could propel her through the liquid to escape her pursuer, leaving a trail of frantically rising bubbles in her wake.

Sakura dodged behind a rock and suppressed a mirthful giggle as a blur of bright orange sped past her hiding place. Long rosette locks that reached the end of her lower back, swayed gracefully with way of the ocean's current and her tail, green, like the cluster of brilliant emeralds sparkling under the spotlight with scales that reflected an iridescent glow atop of their primary colour. The pearls that adorned the edges of her silver clamshell bra threaded around her back, holding it in place.

Peeking out gingerly to reveal her pair of jade eyes in matching hue as her tail, she spotted the clueless hunter pacing from left to right, scanning the area in search for his target. She suppressed another giggle and dived a little lower to grab a stone from the ground. With a swift motion, she catapulted said stone at the merman, hitting him square in the back of his blonde head. He screamed a pitch that could rival hers and sunk to the seabed like an anchor.

She doubled over, clutching her belly in a fit of laughter. He was always so funny… funny and amusing at the same time. How long she spent laughing was beyond her, but when it was long enough, she noticed that her best friend remained motionless on the sand. She panicked and rushed to his side.

"Naruto?" Her fingers hovered over his sprawled form, at a loss at what to do. She shook him by the shoulders, that didn't work. She pounded her fists on his abdomen, above his tattoo, that too didn't work. Then remembering what their self-defence master, Kakashi, taught them, she smiled, snapping her thumb and middle fingers in revelation. Swimming upwards to gain momentum, she positioned herself and with a strong flap of her fin, she raced towards the unconscious merman, shouting, "Shannaro!" Somersaulting when she was within range, she slammed her tail directly onto his face.

The slap was hard enough for its sound to reverberate menacingly around them, completely annulling his outburst of pain and caused all the anemones and tube worms to retract into themselves.

He buried his inflamed face in his palms and rolled in a disorderly fashion on the ocean floor, stirring up clouds of sediment in the process. When he finally stopped, he whined with invisible tears pooling at the side of his aquamarine eyes. "Ne, Sakura-chan... Why you gotta be so mean, dattebayo?"

Not bothering to reply or hide the wide grin on her lips, she reached a hand out to assist him up and hovered back a few strides to grant him space. His taut muscles shifted beneath his skin as he dusted the tiny particles off his apricot coloured tail, then as if he was some sort of dogfish, he shook his head wildly to loosen the residual specks from his blonde hair.

She squealed ducking as a splat of sand flew in her direction. "Naaa-ruuu-tooo!"

The merman blanched when she cracked her knuckles. "Sa-Sa-Sakura-channn… Don't be hasty now..."

She was always the better one in defence class, that's what they called it. However, in her case, they should have renamed it to 'offence class' or 'beat-your-sparring-partner-to-pulp class' or something along that line and no matter how hard he avoided it, Kakashi, that sadistic bastard of a sensei, would deliberately pair them up. Well, besides the fact that they were the only students the sliver haired merman had.

He quivered, raising his hands forward to shield himself before fleeing, shrieking like a little mergirl. She chuckled and gave chase.

Yes, they are close. Call it 'best of friends' if you might, but it was more than that. She was like a younger sister to him and he was the protective older brother, despite them being of the same age. Though, at times, it really seemed like the direct opposite. Naruto had been her playmate since ever her memory allowed; they grew up together, hung-out together, had their meals together and hell, even puked together.

He had lost his parents during the human war that ensued whilst they both were infants. It was unfortunate that a stray atomic bomb, deployed by the troops above waters, found its way into the oceans and detonated, annihilating the flourishing ocean and restructuring it into a barren undersea land of nothingness. It took at least five years for the Elysian seafloor to regain its former glory and the mer-people were not left unscarred as well.

The legendary mer-knight, Namikaze Minato, Naruto's father, sacrificed himself to save the queen, Sakura's mother on that fateful day in history. As an act of indebtedness and obligation, the queen took Naruto in as her own, granting him refuge in the confines of the palace. He and many others developed a seething hatred for all things human. No one could blame them.

Thus, due to the events that occurred, a decree was issued by the great and reputable matriarch of the sea-kingdom of Elysium - Queen Tsunade - that no merman or mermaid were to go beyond a hundred feet to the surface and whatever remnants of human debris discovered in the ocean realm were to be declared forthwith.

As the years went by, Naruto and Sakura grew fond of each other and a special bond of familiarity developed between the two. He personally looked to the queen, three years ago, on his fifteenth birthday to have the responsibility of 'Royal Guard' be bestowed upon himself for the reason that he may keep a watchful eye on his most valued friend, knowing that the youngest of the three princesses tends to be too curious for her own good.

Sakura kicked her fin a hard one and launched forward, reaching a hand out to grab the orange tail before her, succeeding with only a brush on the tip of his fin. The blonde eyed over his shoulder, chuckling at her failed attempt as he gained speed. She grinned, enjoying their little game of catfish and anchovies (cat and mouse). They unmindfully whizzed past recognizable structures of their surroundings, without concerning themselves of where they were heading.

Naruto back-flipped to face her while swimming and stuck his tongue out, tauntingly. Then making a sudden swerve to the left, he accidently crashed into a pile of hollow rocks and all he saw was black. It happened so quick, Sakura gasped in shock when he disappeared entirely from sight.

Following the echo of his fading shriek, she found herself at the entrance, or what has now become an entrance, of a cave made out of rubble. She peered into the darkness from the outside and called out to her friend. Receiving no response, she cautiously squeezed her way through the opening, allowing the encompassing shadows to paint over her milky skin inch by inch. With one of her senses impaired, she instinctively stretched her hands out in front of her body to navigate in the darkness and prevent any chance of colliding into possible obstacles.

She inwardly cursed her absentmindedness for bringing her emergency glow-scallop (torchlight) on all days but today. Her right palm came into contact with a cold surface and she groped it to ascertain her bearings. As she moved along the walls, the stone underneath her hand emanated a mysterious yet magnificent blue light that began rippling out, illuminating the whole cave and restoring her sight.

She gaped in awe as her head rotated from the left to the right, surveying the enclosure. The area was large enough to hold ten merpeople. Her eyes soon affixed themselves on the figure lying on the cave-floor.

"Naruto!" She knelt and shook the unconscious merman till he stirred.

He brought a hand to his forehead and groaned. "Sakura-chan... What happened? Where are we?"

"For a mer-guard you black-out a little too often, don't you think?" She teased. "Anyway, I'm not sure either." Her attention averted to the faint activity developing above her head and she raised her finger, pointing to the lucid inscriptions materializing on the ceiling. "Look..."

"What is that?" His voice was dressed with a queer enchanted lilt.

She shrugged. Moving up closer, she traced her fingertips over the engravings, intuitively reading aloud the glowing words.

"Hark ye, thou of waters deep, listen to age olds' decree.
Sacrifice thine internal light, for the soul a kiss unites.
On blissful dreams thou depart. Ne'er forget thy home, thy heart."

With shoulders slumping in confusion, he drawled. "What in the dark sea-abyss (hell) does tha…" He trailed off when the wall in front of them lighted up as well, but this time, instead of words, they were graphics.

They both approached quickly, pupils narrowing to make out the images of creatures much alike themselves, only with hideous tails that split down the middle into separate appendages. The blonde drifted back and hissed in repulse, "Humans!"

Humans… She, once again, touched the surface of the stone, feeling the uneven texture of the impressions on her skin. "Is this how they look like?"

She had never seen a human in all her life and neither has Naruto for that matter, but they have heard many stories of life above the ocean from the older generation of merfolks. Some, especially the merwomen, would tell of wonderful and romantic encounters with those beings; others would recount of how these creatures were power-hungry and destructive by nature. Sakura never really cared about the subject on a whole, but now, having seen the illustrations of these intriguing creatures sparked a newfound interest within her.

"They're freaks if you asked me!" Naruto snapped.

"I... I think they're beautiful…" She spoke in a trance. Her eyes lingered on the two figures - assuming one to be male and the other, female, from the anatomy of their upper bodies - that depicted blithe in every manner possible as the female followed after the male, their hands stretched to connect with each other while they frolicked in their own world, careless of troubles and worries.

Memorizing the way they ran, the curve of their hips and the slenderness yet sturdiness of their limbs, she began to wonder what it would actually be like to meet a real human. Would they be the hopeless romantic or the destructive warrior? Whatever the answer was she would probably never know. Her mother or the council would never approve of her, a princess, defying the Queen's dictum. Releasing an audible sigh, she pried her palm and eyes away from the stone.

The merman beside her was grumbling under his breath about his bad luck that he stumbled into his mess and that he was even more jinxed that this place were remnants of human-scum memories. She chuckled at his amusing babbles, breaking him out from his reverie. "What so funny-dattebayo?"

She could not hold back a snort no matter how hard she tried and folded her arms to her stomach. "Nothing. Nothing's funny, Naruto. Come on, we should leave before the sea gets dark."

The blonde nodded in affirmation and gripped onto her hand, leading the way out of the cavern. As he dragged her away from the opening, she glanced back, once, over her shoulder to take a last scrutinizing look, hoping that her memory would register its location, in the event that she intended to return. Though the reason why she would want to return eluded her - maybe it was because humans intrigued her or maybe, she wanted to know more about their race. Damn curiousity!

As the sun set and the moon rose to take its rightful place in the night sky above the glossy waters, the depths of the ocean, too, fell into darkness. However, unlike the land, the sea had its own natural sources of light, be it the light emitting fishes, anemones, corals or sponges, it served its purpose and provided the ocean with a magical and mystical aura.

Gliding smoothly past a school of glowing jellyfishes, the clamourous blonde was screaming his head off, declaring that the Queen's chief-counsel will have his head for not ensuring the princess return before curfew. Yes, she had a curfew. All the princesses had. But it wasn't like she actually abided by it, like some obedient, trained dogfish. She always exceeded pass it and felt pretty smug about the issue. Anyway, what could the counsels do? She was princess of Elysium whether they liked it or not. She smirked to herself at the thought; said smugness crawled its way onto her features.

Deciding to ruffle the merman's scales further, she stopped paddling and allowed him to haul her complete deadweight through the waters on his own, and that meant that they would require a longer duration to arrive at the castle. Twin aqua orbs flashed a warning to jades, only amplifying her boldness. She sniggered into her free palm and continued with her caper.

It was roughly fifteen human minutes later that they were able to behold the scattered lights radiating from the humble abodes in the mervillage from afar. Naruto persevered in dragging her as fast as his tail could carry them both, streaming through the gates and into the flourishing Mervillage of Azure, Capital of Elysium.

The streets were peaceful, all the sea-merchants having ceased business for the day and left for home to spend the night with their families, save for the occasional sounds of merbabies crying or dogfishes barking and catfishes mewing. The pebbles embedded in the limestone pavement, reflected the glow from the streetlamps, illuminating the undeviating path toward the heart of the town where the looming structure of the Royal Palace stood.

Advancing towards the giant arched doorway of the palace, the two lethargic mer-sentinels sat, musing, with heads leaning on their propped arms doing absolutely nothing, despite their duties being to stay vigilant for intruders and they were anything but vigilant. She had always wondered how these two slackers were even able to acquire the position of mer-sentinels to begin with. They shuffled, adjusting their own chest-plates and assumed their guard-like disposition in the sentry post as Naruto and herself approached.

"Okairinasai Sakura-hime-sama!" The two nitwits declared with pristine vigor, bowing to her and gave a casual tilt of the chin to the blonde.

"Tadaima. Izumo-san, Kotetsu-san, you guys should look livelier, mou… Don't let the council members see you slacking off. You both know what that would earn you, right?" Sakura wagged a pointed finger at the blenching mer-sentinels while a menacing smirk played on her lips. "Oh well… maybe Kaa-sama will learn of this and—."

"Waa! We are terribly sorry Hime-sama! We beg for your forgiveness." They knelt to the ground with a bead of transparent sweat each trailing down from the side of their temples.

Sakura made a complete somersault as she roared in playful merriment. "Guys, you know I'm just kidding. Get up." Her coral locks cascaded gradually down behind her shoulders as she settled in the upright position and extended her hands out to the kneeling mermen.

They warily accepted, one on each side and she lugged them off the floor with a wide grin. This happens every single day, without fail. The princess found excitement in teasing the two mermen till kingdom come and though everyone knew she was only joking, they played along to entertain their precious princess. She, unlike her sisters, was the bubbly one, such was her nature and the merpeople adored her.

With a tug on her arm, the blonde pulled her away as she struggled to wave goodbye, allowing the two mermen to return to their unending task of surveillance. He continued leading her through the lush sea-garden, ornamented with verdant seaweeds, long and short, in varied shades of green and even yellow where the giant clams ostentatiously exhibited their flawlessly ground pearls that exuded an opaque chatoyant sheen, into the inner sanctum.

If anyone were to visit the Palace for the first time, one would have spent hours and hours basking in the intricate artistry, learning to appreciate beauty that was ineffable. However, having seen the exquisitely decorated walls day in and day out, Sakura blatantly disregarded the craftsmanship.

"Let go, Naruto! I can swim on my own! I said, 'let go'!" She snatched her arm from his grasp abruptly and acted nonchalant about it, making her way pass him down the winding corridor.

He stood there gawking like an idiot with mouth agape, blue eyes wide in disbelief. "Tch… Mergirls…"

She proceeded towards her chambers, delighting in the cool flux caressing her face, gently brushing back her view-obstructive bangs. Turning the knob to her private room, she entered and closed the door quietly behind her. She sat herself before her dresser, gazing into the twin emerald orbs that stared back and release a sigh. Mechanically, her fingers threaded through her pink locks, smoothing out the ends as she recollected the extremely eventful day she or rather, they, had spent in the secret grotto. Humans… Magnificent creatures.

Her thoughts were wandering, conjuring images of how she would appear as one of them; with legs in place of her tail; to be able to run instead of swim. Being absorbed in her reverie, she unintentionally turned a deaf ear to the knocks that came from her door, not batting an eyelid even when the door swung open.

"Sakura…"

A/N: Oh man, I can't write poems even if my life depended on it! D: *cries* I do hope that you liked this first chapter.

Review, 'cause it makes me happy. Review, 'cause it inspires me. Review, so I can sleep peacefully at night. Review, 'cause you know how much I love you. ... LOVE! *picks loudspeaker* REVIEW IF YOU WANT LEMONS!