The Mermaid Princess (sasusaku Story)

26. Secrets revealed

   The sun shone brightly, birds flew happily, and the gentle sounds of the waves were soothing.

  "Sasuke, start explaining." Naruto spoke in a serious tone.

  Ever since Sakura left Sasuke had not been himself. He spoke to no one and was always deep in thought. Naruto knew his friend could sometimes be cold and reserved but this was too much. He also knew that Sasuke was hiding something major from them. Mermaids, saving another mer-person? Naruto couldn't understand how Sasuke got entangled in all this and now he wanted answers from his friend.

  "Leave me alone." Sasuke turned to walk away but Naruto pulled him by the collar and looked him in the face. " If you do not start talking, I swear it I will punch you so hard you'd wish you never kept any secrets from me."

  Jugo saw Naruto's hostility towards Sasuke and wanted to do something but Suigetsu held him down.

  Sasuke being as stubborn as always just remained indifferent and glared at Naruto. This time Naruto did not hesitate and he punched Sasuke right in the face then let him go. Sasuke fell to the floor.

  Karin gasped in horror she was ready to march over to Naruto and give him a piece of her mind but Suigetsu was holding her back. "Let them settle this." He said.

  "I thought we were best friends? I thought we didn't keep secrets from each other? What makes this so different from everything that we've been through before? I'm always there for you and you're always there for me, so why are you acting like this?" Naruto pulled Sasuke up by his collar again. "Talk to me!"

  "I'm confused. I don't know what to do." Sasuke said weakly.

  Naruto's gaze softened. He had never seen his friend look so sad and vulnerable.

  "Make me understand Sasuke." 

Sasuke breathed slowly. By this time they were both seated on a nearby bench.

  "Do you remember the voice I told you about?"

  "Yeah."

  "It wasn't just my mind, it was real. The voice belonged to a fish."

  Naruto looked surprised but didn't say anything.

  "There were two of them. They told me about my mother, said she was a mermaid and that she used to be the queen until she was banished for coming to the surface. I thought I was crazy for talking to fishes but then granny said it was all true that my mom was indeed a mermaid and that when she got banished she came to live on the surface and had me. But she went back to the waters to try and reason with her people and she never came back.

   I learnt that she was still alive but was imprisoned and that now their new queen wants her executed. I thought I could arrange an exchange with Sakura but I was being naive the queen didn't even care about her daughter, and I said some very harsh things to her that must have hurt her feelings. Now both Sakura and my mom are in danger and will probably get killed because of my recklessness."

  Naruto wasted no time in hugging Sasuke. "Damnit you've been going through all this alone and you didn't even bother to tell me. Friends help each other right? We'll find a way to save them ok."

  Sasuke smiled at Naruto's reassurance. He was glad to have such a great friend.

  "So you're like half mermaid? Do you have any cool powers? This is so cool, my best friend is half mermaid half human!" Naruto went right back to his normal self.

***
   "Ok now that that's out of the way I guess we should reveal our secret too." Suigetsu said.

  "You guys have secrets too? Why am I the only one without a secret?"

 
  "You see Karin, Jugo and me are Mer-people. Lady Mikoto took us in when we were Young and had no where to go. When we heard that she had been banished and was no longer queen we decided to go to the surface too. And surprisingly our tails became feet. We had to learn to live like humans and care for each other."

  "Then why did you come with me?" Sasuke asked.

  "When I first saw you I knew there was something off about you and there was also the fact that you're a splitting image of Lady Mikoto. Plus I love a good adventure."

   "Wait a minute, so I'm the only human on this ship ⊙.☉"