this is a long chapter!
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It was nearing midnight by the time that Naruto reached Sasuke's apartment. He had been calling both Sasuke and Sakura, since she always stayed the weekends, trying to make sure they were awake and at the residence when he arrived but unfortunately there was no answer.
Naruto was a wreck. He was scared and confused, worried about Hinata. The blond buzzed the apartment repeatedly so he could be let in. He waited for them to answer while relentlessly pressing the buzzer.
"What the-" a sleepy sounding Sakura answered. "Who is it?"
"It's Naruto," he answered and heard Sakura groan. "Please let me in, I need to talk to Sasuke."
Sakura didn't respond but he heard the door unlock and walked in. He didn't bother to wait for the elevator but jogged up to the fifth story of the building. Naruto groaned as he approached their floor and jogged to the end of the hallway to their door. He knocked a couple times before Sakura opened the door.
"Hey," she greeted. "What's up?"
"Is Sasuke awake? I need to talk to him," he said as he toed off his sneakers at the door. "Sorry for just dropping by."
Sakura fastened her robe a little tighter and yawned before shaking her head. "It's fine, Sasuke got back late from the lab so he's still showering." she sat down on the couch. "what's this about?"
Naruto looked at her for a moment before something clicked. Hinata had kept her relation with Sakura private but maybe it wasn't Sakura she was friends with. Maybe it was Sasuke..
His blue eyes narrowed before he ran a hand through his hair. "You know something," Naruto said. "Sakura, you know something."
"What?" She tilted her head while tying her hair up. "Know what?"
The blond took a step towards her, pieces falling together in his head. "You know that Hinata is different, don't you?" He said in an accusatory tone. "You know because..."
The door to the bedroom opened and out emerged Sasuke still toweling his hair off. "Hey, wha—"
"You know Hinata is different because Sasuke is different."
Silence engulfed the room and Sasuke's motion ceased. He draped the towel over his shoulders and took a few steps towards the blond.
"What'd you say, Uzumaki?" Sasuke asked lowly.
Naruto gulped. He didn't know what he was getting into. He knew that Hinata was gone and she gave directions to talk to Sasuke. Naruto was going to do just that in order to help her.
"Hinata was taken," he muttered before regaining his confidence. Sasuke's eyes widened but he didn't say anything. "Hinata was taken and she said you have to explain now. I don't know what that means but she's different and now that I think about it," he took a breath. "You're different too."
Sasuke just stared for a second then let out a sigh. He turned to face his girlfriend and she was sitting with her knees pulled to her chest, emerald eyes widened in shock.
The Uchiha motioned for Naruto to take a seat on the lounge chair while he took his spot next to Sakura. There was another few seconds of tension filled silence while Sasuke tried to arrange his thoughts.
"Who took Hinata?" He asked after a few minutes.
Naruto sat up while trying to remember what they looked like. "Two guys, they were only wearing shorts. They both had long hair, one with brown the other with black. And the brown haired one had eyes like Hinata." He rushed out, nervous and hoping that Hinata wasn't wrong about Sasuke being able to help.
Sasuke hummed. "Most likely Neji and Itachi then," he said to Sakura. "I don't know why they—"
"Who are they?" Naruto asked, distressed. "Please, tell me what's going on."
Sasuke looked down at his feet. "You can't freak out or something. Just decide if you want to deal with it or not." He said lowly.
Sakura rubbed his arm and looked at Naruto. "I made a choice three years ago, Naruto," she said. "It's a lot to take in but if you want to help Hinata, if you want to be in her life, you need to decide if you're all in."
Naruto thought about what they said for a few moments. This was his out. He could decline and leave Hinata to Sasuke and stay in the gray area, the unknown. He could just say hi to her when he saw her and let Sasuke and Sakura deal with it. With finding her mystery man.
Wait.
"Sasuke," the blond hung his head while speaking lowly. "Are you the person she's looking for?"
"Yes."
Naruto's head snapped up and his eyes locked with Sasuke's cold ones. He just admitted it so calmly..
"That's why you ran out that day? When I—" he scoffed lightly. "When I thought I introduced you guys."
He nodded. "Sakura didn't know who she was then."
"Then why don't you explain all of this? I need to look for Hinata, she probably doesn't even know—"
"Naruto," Sasuke interjected. "You wouldn't be able to find her."
Naruto scoffed again before he stood up and began to walk to the door. "Whatever, you can keep your secrets but don't doubt me. Don't start—"
"Naruto, please listen!" Sakura yelled as she ran after him and grabbed his sleeve. "Listen before you make assumptions."
The blond stood close to the door and just turned around to look at Sasuke. He wouldn't make eye contact with him. "I'm listening."
Sasuke was overwhelmed. When he chose to leave it was because he wanted freedom to find love and happiness but decided he would return within the year if he didn't.
But then Sakura happened. Her brash attitude and airy laugh in the hallways of the high school he attended. Naruto liked her, he knew that he did but he had never met someone like her. So he asked her out a few months later and was shocked when she accepted shyly. A year later he revealed his true identity and his true form to her and was once again shocked by her acceptance.
Now Hinata had come to find him, more accurately was sent to find him. He knew his fate in the ocean but he decided his future would be on the land. His future was Sakura.
"Naruto," Sasuke said lowly, almost threatening. "Are you sure you want to be in her life?"
He didn't need to even think about the question anymore. "Yes."
There was a moment of silence before Sasuke sighed.
"I left my home five years ago," he started. "My and Hinata's home. We grew up together and our families..." he gulped and looked around awkwardly. "Our village really, wanted us to, um, get married once Hinata was fully mature."
Naruto frowned at this. "Mature? Like when she was eighteen?"
"Well no, more like..." he looked at Sakura for reassurance. She nodded and he turned to finally look Naruto in the eyes. "Once she came into her powers. Her birthright once she turns twenty-one."
The room went silent. So quiet you could almost hear the cogs in Naruto's brain turning as he processed this new piece of information.
"Powers..? What do you mean by powers?" He asked harshly and sat back down on the lounge chair, his interest clearly piqued.
"Uh, we're not from here."
"Hinata said she was from the coast."
"That's what we're supposed to say."
"What?" He cocked his head to the side. "What the hell do you mean?"
Sasuke groaned and held his head in his hands. Sakura rubbed comforting circles on his back. "Hinata really left this up to me just because she didn't check in enough, I'm-" he cut himself off before revealing too much before he properly explained to Naruto. "Okay, don't freak out or laugh or be an idiot, alright?" He looked at the blonde sternly.
Naruto scoffed. "I'm a little offended but continue."
"We're from the ocean," he blurted out before he could regret it. "you wouldn't be able to find Hinata if you looked for her because she's in the ocean and the portal is only able to be used by people like us."
The Uzumaki blinked and raised his eyebrows. From the ocean? He couldn't help but let out a bit laughter at this. "That's ridiculous, Sasuke," he chuckled out. "Be serious, I'm worried about her."
Sasuke just stared at him and crossed his arms over his chest. He just sighed and closed his eyes. The silence around Naruto's laughter was deafening until he realised that no one else joined him.
"You're serious," he gulped. "So what you're like a mermaid or something?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes but let out a sigh of relief when it looked like Naruto wasn't running for the hills.
"Merman, thanks, but yes. We're merpeople and our colony lives in the East Sea." He breathed out, stress rising and lowering all at the same time.
If Naruto reacted badly he would have to use his own magic on him and he didn't really want to do that. Using magic on a human, with negative intentions like erasing memory, really took a toll on the human. They could get sick from the use of ancient magic that humans weren't exposed to for years.
Naruto got up and began to pace across the small living area. It made sense because Hinata was just so incredibly different from anyone he'd ever met. Of course she would be a mythical creature because girls like her... well they didn't exist.
But it didn't make sense because merpeople? How was that even real?
"I need you to explain everything," he looked at Sasuke while taking a seat. "I need it all to make sense."
The black haired man nodded. "Okay," Sasuke sighed. "What do you wanna know?"
☁️⛅🌤️
"So you left home when you were supposed to be with Hinata, ended up meeting Sakura-chan, then five years later they sent Hinata to find you simply because she speaks Japanese?"
"Yeah," Sasuke yawned and scratched his head. "That's what she told me when we took her more clothes."
"And since the diner," Naruto continued. "You've been talking to her about me and her staying here but now her cousin and your brother took her back to the ocean because she didn't check in. But because they saw," he took a breath and remembered the almost feeling of her lips. Her breath mingling with his.
"Because of me they might not let her come back? Because it's either you or some other guy she met."
Sasuke took in the last couple words, his mind reeling with tiredness. "Uh-huh, yeah. Not to be mean or anything but yeah." He yawned again. "Can we just do the rest of this tomorrow?"
"No!" Naruto shouted. "I don't know if she's safe or hurting and the only one that go through your stupid mermaid portal is you and you won't do it!"
The tension was high in the room. Naruto was worried about Hinata, he was unable to push aside his feelings anymore. He felt useless right now.
Sasuke raised his head from where he had thrown it back on the sofa. Sakura had gone to bed around 12:45am and now it was nearing 1:30am. The Uchiha explained that if he went back before Hinata's birthday he would be forced to marry her.
"Watch it," he said lowly. "If Hinata is unwed when she comes into her powers many people might come after her and her family. It's just weird in the ocean and I don't have the energy to explain all of that.
"I obviously care about Hinata, she was my best friend growing up and the only one who accepted that I wanted to learn and explore. But Neji and Itachi would never hurt her; no one in our colony would. If she's smart she won't say a word about you and she'll be back in a couple days."
He pulled Naruto down to sit on the sofa next to him and pulled a book out from thin air, magic and all. Sasuke handed it to Naruto.
"What's this?" He asked.
"Merpeople have photos too," Sasuke yawned again. "I'm going to bed and you're staying here because it's too late for you to go back to the dorms."
He stood up and stretched before turning the lights out and turning on a lamp next to the couch. Naruto just stared at the album, scared to open it and see the truth.
"It's not much, maybe like fifteen photos from when we were teenagers. I've censored the photos though, perv."
"Censored?" Naruto laughed when he remembered Hinata's sudden stripping the first time he brought her clothes.
Sasuke let out a chuckle. "We live au natural in the sea," he said, winking. "Nothing to hide."
The blond paled and became slightly jealous at the admission.
"You've seen her—"
"The pictures are censored."
And with that he went into his bedroom and left Naruto alone. He looked over the album, it looked old and fragile. He took a breath before opening the book to the first page of photos and let out a gasp.
It was Sasuke. Sasuke with a fish tail. His hair was all floaty and he had a long navy blue tail with red at the tips of the fins. There was another girl in the picture who looked like Hinata but had brown hair and who was visibly much younger than Sasuke.
Naruto flipped the page and once again was shocked. This was undoubtedly Hinata.
She was sideways, swimming, and she was looking at the camera with a big smile. Sasuke was also with her, swimming above her and waving at the camera.
Hinata was stunning.
There was sharpie over her chest which made Naruto snort. Her hair looked bluer in the ocean and her eyes were literally glowing. But her tail.
It was white around her hips but then faded to a deep lavender the closer it got to her fins. It was weird to see her like this, felt like he was invading her privacy in a sense.
But she was stunning.
He flipped through the other photos before realizing an hour flew by and he needed to rest. Naruto texted Gaara about rescheduling their study session and laid down on the couch.
He was going to find her.
personally, i love suskys character.
this is 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼 peak susky
it's a lot of dialogue this chapter but i really thought about naruto's reaction and his process and let's be real, he wuvs hina and he been knew she was different so i figured he would have a good reaction to the news! it's a little all over the place but i am attached to this chapter
it's 1:25am!
see u next chapter!
:) stay healthy everyone