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Author's Note: On a ship, "fore" means "front" and "aft" means "back." I'm not trying to be condescending; I felt I had to define these for you readers because when it came to ships I had to go look up some of the terms myself. (Yamisui is a land-lubber.) Also, "Suiton" means "waterfall," used in context with Kakashi's technique for controlling powerful columns of water.

o o o RED BLOSSOM o o o

o o Chapter 5: Mizutou Arrival! Shinobi Under Cover! o o

oOo oOo oOo

The Water Country

The rains that followed the storm were by far the worst, drumming relentlessly against the deck of the ship. However, as its passengers neared their destination, the hard weather finally abated. The low clouds remained, but the air grew warmer and mist rolled in around the ship.

Kakashi was none too pleased.

"Can nothing be done for the visibility?" he pressed, joining several of the crewmen at the lanterns. "Can't the lights be suspended out over the water? I don't like not being able to see what I'm floating through."

The crewmen looked to their captain, who was standing beside Shikyo at the helm. Shikyo nodded and spoke quietly with the captain, gesturing toward the cliffs jutting darkly out of the sea ahead. Then the captain barked an order, and his men proceeded to remove the lantern-posts from their fastenings. These they turned sideways and re-fastened suspended over the water, hanging from their poles. In this fashion the water was illuminated for ten feet out from the ship in every direction.

"Not enough," Kakashi murmured, his frown remaining. "Sasuke!"

Sasuke hastened over. Naruto and Sakura followed a little ways behind, curious as to what Kakashi wanted. The three of them had appeared above deck as soon as land was sighted, filled with renewed hope that their heaving guts would soon be at peace.

"Sasuke, we're going to make an exception to my rule about keeping a low profile," Kakashi explained, nodding toward the fog-laden waters ahead. "When we pass by those rocks up ahead, I want you to lend us some light." Sasuke murmured assent, but his dark eyes slid sideways toward the crewmen standing nearby. "The crew knows what we are," Kakashi added in a low voice. "But more importantly, so do the ones in the water."

"WHAT?" Naruto exclaimed loudly. "In the WA. . ."

He was immediately silenced as Kakashi clapped a hand across his mouth.

"Idiot," Sasuke hissed. "If our enemies know we know they're there, we won't have the element of surprise."

Naruto and Sakura nodded grimly, and Kakashi released his hold, satisfied that there would be no more forthcoming noise.

"If for some reason we should be separated," he told them, "you all carry a map of the island. Go to Mizutou and we'll regroup there. We are all in danger here, but so is our contractor. Garyu-sama is lord of the Water Country. His protection is to be prioritized at all costs."

Naruto said nothing, but lowered his eyes a little. As sensible and just as it was, something about the order disagreed with him. But Kakashi knew best in a situation like this, and so he kept his silence.

"Sakura, you take starboard; Naruto, port," the Jounin instructed calmly. "I'll take aft."

Naruto blinked quizzically, raising one eyebrow. Sakura poked him in the arm.

"'Port' means 'left'," she whispered.

"Oh, right," Naruto agreed, as if he'd known all along.

Kakashi distributed the weapons he'd brought for them in his pack, and added one final warning: "Remember your training." There was no question as to what training Kakashi meant; the three Genin nodded grimly. Strapped across their backs, they now carried real katana.

"They're going to attack the ship?" Sasuke muttered dubiously. "Are they targeting the Water-Lord or us?"

The three comrades exchanged serious glances. If Kakashi's suspicions proved correct, they were about to face the Crimson Blossom Jutsu once again. . .and here there wasn't anywhere to run.

They departed for their posts. Kakashi conferred briefly with the captain, and the crew lowered the sails, taking up posts at the oars on either side of the ship. Shikyo had ordered them to take the ship into port as swiftly as possible, growing impatient with the lack of wind, but Kakashi was reluctant. He was more concerned with keeping all the members of his team alive at this point.

Shikyo, who was standing at the prow, suddenly turned and hastened to join Kakashi at the stern. Sasuke took his place, watching the Rain ninja hurry past with narrowed eyes. If Shikyo noticed the dark look, he chose not to acknowledge it.

"Kakashi-san!" he snapped, approaching the Leaf Jounin, who stood facing the fog-veiled waters behind them. "What is the meaning of this? We were to make port in Harbor Village, which lies but one mile in from here! Why has the ship changed course?"

"We're passing by the rocks instead of through them because we're rounding the coast instead of making port," Kakashi replied calmly, without turning around. "The original plan is useless now, for our enemies know we're here. We'll abandon stealth now and aim for speed." Ahead of him, he could see the faintest dark shadow, gliding through the water after the ship just beyond the range of the lantern-light.

Shikyo did not take this news gracefully.

"Rounding the. . .? Rounding the coast? Are you mad?"

"Possibly," Kakashi mused, rubbing his chin with the long fingers of one hand. "But if so, it's going to take a madman to see us through this course alive, so I suggest you remove your hand from my arm."

Shikyo hastily removed the hand he'd laid on the Jounin's shoulder. Kakashi's tone was light, but his words were a warning.

The ship veered southeast. Shikyo left Kakashi's side to join Sasuke at his post. Kakashi watched him with his peripheral vision, assessing the situation. As Shikyo retreated he'd surreptitiously pulled his mask down, uncovering his Sharingan eye. With it he could see that the Rain ninja was gathering chakra into the flesh of his hands. This could mean one of two things: he was preparing to defend the ship. . .or he was about to betray them.

Hidden in the shadows of the ship's railing, Kakashi's hands began forming a seal. The coming battle would decide whether Shikyo lived to see another sunrise.

On either side of the ship, the lanterns spontaneously snuffed out, one by one.

The mist-shrouded waters were plunged into darkness.

"I don't like this," Naruto muttered, squinting to see over the railing on his side. The mist rose up the side of the hull, chilling his face.

A hand shot out of the mist, caught him by the front of his jacket, and pulled him swiftly over the side.

Naruto plummeted downward into the water.

His descent was accelerated by the strong grip of the arm pulling him. The impact stung his face, but even so he'd had the presence of mind to take a breath as he fell, which was fortunate because his attacker seemed intent on pulling him deep beneath the surface. Naruto suppressed the very natural instinct to thrash. Instead, with some difficulty, he drew the katana from its sheath, which was still securely strapped to his back.

Experimentally, he slashed at the arm pulling him, only to find that his blade glanced harmlessly off some kind of hard-plated armor around the wrist. The pressure of the water around him was going to make it too difficult for him to slash hard enough to pierce the armor. Also, he now had a sword in his hand that he couldn't reinsert into its sheath because the water and the darkness wouldn't permit. . .which eliminated the option of forming seals for ninjutsu because only one hand was free.

Mind racing furiously, Naruto tried the next best thing he could think of: using the sheer strength reserved for Taijutsu, he took hold of his jacket with hand and teeth and tore it apart. The fabric was ripped asunder in one quick motion, sending clouds of bubbles up from his body. Now he had only two sleeves and the back half of a jacket, while his attacker had a fistful of shredded cloth.

Immediately, Naruto felt his body begin to rise toward the surface, finally putting some distance between them.

The sea was too dark for his vision to penetrate, and he hadn't the foggiest idea of what his attacker looked like. He had only a vague impression of a dark, slender shape rising after him, and of two arms reaching for him, as if to wrap him in an embrace. . .

Naruto gritted his teeth and slashed outward and downward with both hands, executing a move meant to deflect the grasping arms. His vision wavered. . .

. . .and then the Genjutsu melted away, revealing the truth of the situation.

His enemy was actually pressed close to him, wrapping the arms around him beneath the reach of the Taijutsu strike he'd just employed. There was a wan glow in the water now, originating from somewhere above the surface. In its light, he saw a flash of movement; a gleam of metal.

And then the sickle-like blades hidden in the enemy's wrist-armor emerged. He saw them too late in his peripheral vision; in one vicious movement his attacker curled both fists downward, stabbing twin scythes into Naruto's back.

The pain was immediate and intense; Naruto couldn't suppress a cry. With it, he expelled the last of his air supply in an effervescent cloud. Blood began to swirl outward from him, darkening the water and staining the glow from above.

He inhaled sharply and found himself choking on blood and salty water. Salt stung his eyes; his nose.

In response to the sudden wound, he could feel red chakra beginning to stir in his body. But mere chakra wasn't enough. The sickle-blades in his back were meant to act as hooks, rendering him unable to break free as the enemy pulled him down to drown.

Somehow, he had to break free. . .

Dimly, as he screwed his eyes shut against the pain, he remembered that he still held the katana in one hand. The enemy was pressed too tightly against him in front to make stabbing a good tactic. Thus it was, with the last coherent impulse in his oxygen-deprived brain, that Naruto crooked his elbow behind him and slashed upward.

The blow from the katana's razor-sharp edge caught the enemy's wrists from beneath, where the armor didn't extend to cover flesh.

In the confusion that followed, Naruto no longer cared what became of his attacker. His single priority was air. The instant the blow struck home he felt the blades in his back loosen their hold, and somehow he was finally able to thrash his way free of the enemy's grip.

His final rise to the surface seemed like an eternity. His boots and clothing weighed him down. He tore the remainder of the jacket from his back, and with it the blades fell away free. He didn't bother trying to retrieve them. They sank into the dark depths, along with the boots he'd just kicked off, while his head finally broke the surface. He drew in a gasp, shaking his head to clear the water from his eyes and nose.

The ship was now nearly fifty feet away.

Squinting at it as he treaded water and caught his breath, Naruto could make out the shapes of what looked like a whole host of men crowded onto the deck. All were locked in combat. He couldn't see clearly, but it looked like there were more people fighting than just his team. It was hard to tell; the lanterns were extinguished, and the only current illumination was provided by flashes of white light, which looked like either Sasuke or Kakashi using Chidori.

"Shit," he breathed. If either of them was using Chidori, things were getting serious.

Taking advantage of the red chakra circulating through him now, Naruto drew some of it down into his feet and rose to run along the surface toward the ship. His eyes were trained on the battle ahead; he never saw the shadow gliding swiftly after him beneath the water.

oOo oOo oOo

"Sasuke, don't use that jutsu again," Kakashi admonished. "At least, not until I give the order."

Gritting his teeth, Sasuke allowed the electricity in his palm to dispel, crackling as it vanished into thin air. There was something profoundly unpleasant about having to call back Chidori, akin to holding himself shut inside. The excitement of it brought crimson to his eyes; made him want to raze down every enemy standing in his way with lightning. But he knew Kakashi was right, and he wasn't stupid enough to disobey orders.

Not like Naruto.

Now that he thought of it. . .

"Where IS Naruto?" Sakura asked him. She had just managed to fight her way to her teammates' side. She looked shaken and very pale. In the gleam of his dying Chidori, Sasuke noticed that she carried her katana unsheathed, and that there was a good deal of blood slathered across the blade.

"How the hell should I know?" he snapped, forced to retreat several steps until he was back-to-back with Kakashi. A new opponent had just appeared in front of him, slashing at his face with what looked to be very long finger-blades stained with poison. "That moron can take care of himself!" He'd been wondering the same thing, however. He couldn't see Naruto anywhere on board.

Drawing his shuriken in a flash, Sasuke launched himself forward again, slicing low across the stomach of his opponent. Instead of a spurt of hot blood, he suddenly found himself drenched with salt water.

"Water clones," he muttered, spinning on one foot to regain his balance after the lunge. "But where's the real one?"

Another materialized beside him, having just scuttled spider-like over the side of the hull. However many there were in the water waiting to board after him, Sasuke had no idea. His Sharingan eyes couldn't pierce through fog.

"Forget the one using the Mizu Bunshin, Sasuke," Kakashi said sharply, even as he used his katana to slice another of the Bunshin in half. "I'll worry about that. Find Naruto."

Sasuke gritted his teeth, landing a punch to his own opponent's throat that sent the man sprawling onto the deck. Water splashed every which way as the Bunshin dispelled. Then, with the way suddenly cleared, he launched himself forward. All the while he was cursing Naruto in his head; his comrades and the one remaining lantern were all at the ship's fore-front, and Kakashi was sending him aft, into the fog rolling in with the darkness.

It was only a journey of thirty feet or so, but Sasuke soon found himself blinder than he had been during their run through the Fire Country's forests. . .and considerably more confused. He saw no sign of Naruto, but soon found himself confronted with an enemy no matter what direction he turned.

'Just how many of them ARE there?' he wondered, with deep misgivings. His sharp intuition told him that this was a confusion tactic, and a good one. The enemy was using a combination of Bunshin and fog to disorient the Leaf ninja. The ship was also beginning to rock back and forth, which made no sense because the waters through which they were sailing had been still moments before. He had no idea what this sudden choppiness meant, but he severely doubted it was a good thing.

There also seemed to be more shinobi fighting off the attackers than Sasuke remembered. At one point he could've sworn he was spared a blade in the gut by someone too tall and broad-shouldered to be either Shikyo or Naruto. The man wielding the blade disappeared into the fog with a grunt of pain as the stranger's fist met his head. Sasuke, however, didn't have time to dwell on the mystery of this. He had reached the stern bow of the ship, but he still couldn't see a damn thing. The sly caress of cold mist and sea-spray on his cheeks was beginning to annoy him.

Drawing chakra into his lungs, he formed a seal, heaved a great breath, and exhaled fire.

A brilliant helix of flame spiraled out over the water behind the ship, cutting through the gray-blue darkness and banishing the fog from its immediate vicinity. In the lee of this sudden illumination, he saw Naruto running barefoot toward the ship, splashing softly as he moved. He also noticed another, more curious thing: the water seemed to be naturally choppy. Somehow, the helmsman had steered the ship into a place where the ocean current was rougher. . .or the enemy had somehow maneuvered the ship for them. . . The latter seemed more likely, to the end of using the turbulent motion to disorient the Leaf ninja aboard.

However, this particular problem was more immediately eclipsed by what Sasuke saw behind Naruto. A dark shape moved beneath the water, gliding swift and silent after the oblivious Genin. Something that this figure carried with it as it moved was glowing an ominous, fiery red, despite the fact that it was underwater.

"SASUKE!" Naruto called loudly, running pell-mell for the stern.

"Run FASTER, you DUMB SHIT!" Sasuke shouted back at him.

And Naruto, being Naruto, actually slowed down to glance back over his shoulder.

"WHAT! WHAT! Is it a SHAR. . ."

At that instant, the very last flames from Sasuke's jutsu dispelled. A split second later, the explosion came.

oOo oOo oOo

"Kakashi-san!"

Kakashi, who had just managed to block an attack aimed for Sakura with one vicious swipe of his katana, looked up in time to see Shikyo appear beside him out of nowhere. At the sight of him stepping into the pool of light cast by the lone lantern, Kakashi's eyes narrowed.

Beneath them, the deck heaved abruptly.

Kakashi held his ground.

"Sakura," he called sharply. "We'll be abandoning ship shortly."

Sakura, who was standing at his back, stumbled to her feet. The impact had thrown her.

"Kakashi-sensei, what about the crew?" she asked, sounding confused. "They need us for. . ."

"The captain and his crew are Leaf shinobi," Kakashi answered shortly. "They don't need our protection."

Shikyo didn't register any sign of surprise or disapproval of this, but his face was grim. The ship lurched again, and the Rain ninja stumbled.

"We must abandon soon, Kakashi!" he urged, grabbing hold of the mast to regain his balance. "The ship will round the coast and be caught in the Hinan Current. Your men won't be able to turn it back."

"We're not leaving without all of our team," Kakashi said firmly. "Splitting up would be a bad idea. . . I've sent Sasuke to find Naruto."

From somewhere aft, there came a sudden explosion, so violent that the ship simultaneously surged forward and rolled sideways.

Kakashi was flung downward into the railing on the port side. Sakura, who was standing further starboard, was nearly swept clear off the deck by the momentum, but fortunately Shikyo reached out and caught hold of her arm before she could go flying. She hit the tilted deck hard, but quickly regained her wits. With her free hand she jammed the point of her katana into the wood, bracing herself so that some of the strain was taken off Shikyo's wrist. Below her, Kakashi clung to the railing, a bit stunned. Water washed upward over his shoulders, soaking his hair and plastering it to his forehead.

He blinked; the salt stung his eyes. Then he recovered his bearings, hauling himself back upright.

"What was that?" Sakura shouted down to him. Shikyo was pulling her up to his level so that she could take hold of the mast.

"A bomb," Kakashi deduced, squinting toward the opposite end of the ship. He hoped the bomb and Sasuke had nothing to do with each other. "Hold on; the ship will move again."

True to his word, the hull began to roll in the water, with a mighty groan. The groan was followed by a series of loud cracks, which told Kakashi that the rolling ship was dragging broken masts and sails with it as it lifted. He decided then that they would have to abandon immediately, because without a full set of sails the oarsmen wouldn't be able to gain enough speed to turn back from the Hinan Current. They had run out of time for hesitation.

As the ship rolled upright, Kakashi sprang up the slanted deck toward his two companions.

"Sakura! Go to the prow!" he ordered. "Mold chakra. We'll be running across the water."

From her silence, Kakashi could tell she was dying to ask what was going on, but to her credit she obeyed and headed fore. His Genin were stupid, but sometimes they listened.

He reached the mast and hooked an elbow around it to secure his balance. Then he formed a rather complicated seal, and suddenly there was a brown bird winging its way aft through the mist. Watching it, he told Shikyo, "We'll go now."

He noted shrewdly that the barrage of attacks miraculously seemed to have abated. The enemy was withdrawing, which could mean several things, the first being that their attackers did not want to follow them into the Hinan Current. That was perfectly understandable. Kakashi had ordered the crew to take this course on purpose; the Current was deadly swift, and the weather incredibly harsh on that side of the island. The second possibility was that the other Leaf shinobi aboard had defeated them. This didn't seem likely, given the urgent shouts Kakashi could hear from somewhere astern. He knew the voice of the captain, and the shouting sounded confused. The third option was that killing those aboard the ship had not been the true aim of the attack. This last seemed equally as likely, but it was also the most puzzling. From analyzing the attack strategy, Kakashi had noticed something odd.

However, this was not the time for analysis. A freezing wind was beginning to dispel the mist cloaking the ship.

They were rounding the coast.

oOo oOo oOo

One second he was plunged into darkness so absolute it felt like death. The next, he was wrapped in flame.

It burst upward from beneath him even as instinct compelled him to surge forward, away from it. Water and fire sprayed heavenward around him in a geyser, sending him blind and deaf and mute all at once. His shout of surprise was lost as his mouth filled with water.

The fire touched him. . .without actually touching him.

The demonic chakra within him saw to that.

Red chakra curled around him, forming a vortex of its own, catching the force of the bomb beneath him and dispersing it every which way in a rush of wind and shrapnel. He opened his mouth to shout again, realizing that Sasuke was standing on board the ship less than twenty feet away from him. He might be safe, but Sasuke would be hit. . .

The chakra curved sinuously around his body, warding off the decreasing shockwaves from the bomb. Naruto could've sworn he saw a flash of razor-sharp teeth, and the sly gaze of red eyes on him amid the maelstrom of fire and water. Sometimes he saw strange things, as if the demon were laughing at him.

"Stupid fox," he grumbled, lunging forward through the spray of sea-water.

Someone's hands shot through the fray, catching him by the arm and digging pale fingers into his skin.

Before Naruto could react, the hands gave a sharp tug, and he found himself stumbling forward into the clear air.

The grip relaxed and fell away, and he leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees and panting.

"Nice going, dip-shit," Sasuke snapped. "And don't stop to rest; we need to regroup with the others."

Naruto straightened, rubbing salt water out of his eyes. The mist around them was beginning to clear, and a cold wind was blowing toward them from the south.

"Right," he agreed, squinting. "But where ARE the others? I can't see a thing!"

Sasuke's irritated expression softened a bit, and he gazed about him in seeming confusion as well.

"I can't either," he finally admitted. "I had to jump clear of the ship to avoid being hit by the shockwaves from that explosion. But it's clearing away. If we stay put, we might be able to move soon without charging blindly into danger."

"Hey, Sasuke, this water's hard to stand on," Naruto observed, looking down at his feet. They were sinking a little each time the ocean waves rose and fell beneath them.

"I know," Sasuke replied distractedly. "The sea's rougher here, and because the water's flow changes direction so quickly it's hard to keep the chakra molded so that we stay afloat." But he was looking at something in the mist, not at his feet. A dark shape appeared to be winging its way toward them through the fog. "That's Kakashi's messenger," he told Naruto, pointing. "There."

Naruto, who was busy shifting his weight from side to side to stay atop the surface, looked up to see where Sasuke was pointing. The Uchiha boy's feet had sunk ankle-deep into the water, but he didn't seem to care. The bird finally emerged from the veil of mist and circled once overhead before turning to fly back the way it had come.

"We follow it," Sasuke decided.

He took off after it at a run, with Naruto following close behind.

oOo oOo oOo

Kakashi, Shikyo and Sakura jumped ship as the last of the mist cleared. As they landed atop the water, Kakashi pulled a flare from his pack, lit it, and sent it shooting straight up into the sky. The wind carried it slantwise to the northwest, so that it burned brilliantly for a long while before arcing downward into the sea. A freezing wind whipped sea-spray so hard against the three shinobi that it stung.

Sakura lifted one arm to shield her face from it, peering up at the ship. As she watched it began to wheel about, preparing to leave them behind. From the helm on deck, she could see the captain waving at them.

The signal appeared to be enough for Kakashi; he turned away toward the south.

"We'll make for the cliffs," he told them, sliding the mask back over his Sharingan eye to protect it from the wind. Then he began to run.

Sakura squinted past him as she followed to see where they were going. The cliffs lay not far to their left, across a field of choppy water that ultimately crashed violently against the base of the rock.

"You intend to scale the cliffs?" Shikyo asked grimly, keeping pace. "There are none pursuing us. . . We might reach the rocks and then make for the nearest pass instead?"

Kakashi shook his head.

"Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke and Naruto are coming!" Sakura informed him. She had to yell to be heard over the howling wind.

Kakashi glanced sharply to his left as he ran, frowning as he caught sight of the two Genin dashing headlong across the water. Not far behind them, two other figures shot out of the mist and into the unsheltered waters of the Water Country's Southern Sea.

"They're being pursued," Shikyo observed darkly. His pace began to slacken; he was falling behind with the apparent intention of going to their aid.

"Don't slow down," Kakashi ordered. The Jounin's feet, if anything, were moving faster across the water.

Sakura was having trouble keeping up with him; the ocean here was turbulent, swirling unpredictably and disrupting the flow of chakra pooling in her feet. She was beginning to wonder why on earth Kakashi had made the decision to bring them to this particular geographical location.

'He couldn't POSSIBLY have chosen a more difficult route,' she thought. She was alternately glancing back and forth between the four approaching them from the left and the dark cliffs rising ahead like walls, so high they disappeared into the clouds that blew over the low winds.

"Only two," Kakashi muttered, turning to look briefly at the group fast approaching them. This cryptic utterance was almost lost to the folds of his mask and the wind, but Sakura heard it. She had no idea what he meant; counting Naruto and Sasuke's pursuers there were four.

She stumbled, nearly tripping over a wave that rose in front of her like a trap. Kakashi caught her by the arm, giving her a sharp tug that practically sent her flying ahead of him.

"Climb," he told her, nodding toward the cliff face. "I'll see to Naruto and Sasuke."

Letting out a tense breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, Sakura put on a surge of speed, heading for the harsh waters where ocean met rock. Shikyo followed close behind.

oOo oOo oOo

The winds were howling so fiercely around the two Genin that they were forced to shield their eyes with their arms, and they couldn't hear the splashing of their pursuers' feet behind them. Sasuke was the first to realize that they were being chased when he saw Kakashi sprinting toward them across the choppy sea. The Jounin was forming a seal as he ran, and he wasn't looking at either of his students. Sasuke rubbernecked, just in time to see the splash made by the two figures as they disappeared under the water.

Kakashi's expression darkened. . .or at least his one visible eye went narrow and steel-cold.

"Sasuke. . .Naruto. . .get to the cliffs," he called sharply. "I'll deal with these."

Wasting no time, the pair put on speed and rushed past him, now with a definitive goal.

Meanwhile, Kakashi had finished forming the seal.

Two towering Suiton sprang out of the sea. One of them carried with it the dark figure of a shinobi. Moving his arm in a swift arcing motion, Kakashi pantomimed slapping something with his palm down. The Suiton arced overhead just as swiftly, turning downward, until at last it slammed the man inside it full force into the surface of the ocean. The impact was brutal and hard, snapping the man's neck and spine like matchsticks. Kakashi paid the body no heed as it sank.Sinking into a crouch, he pulled down his mask, baring his Sharingan eye to pierce the depths of any technique his remaining enemy might fling at him from beneath the water.

A moment passed; then another.

The wind howled around him, and the waves rose and fell dizzyingly beneath his feet.

But the other attacker never surfaced.

Purely out of instinct, Kakashi sensed that he was alone.

Swiftly, he spun about, squinting against the lashing sea-spray to see what had become of his comrades. Sakura and Shikyo were already starting up the cliff face. Sasuke and Naruto were close behind, nearly to the rock. Kakashi could see that their passage was difficult the closer to the cliff they came, for the waves there around the crags jutting out of the sea were the most violent.

He could see nothing beneath the dark, seething waters that stretched between his comrades and the place where he stood, but he didn't need to. He knew very well the path the enemy had taken.

'Let me get there in time,' Kakashi prayed silently.

He made for the cliffs, at a run so swift his body blurred.

Even as he moved, he could see it wasn't enough.

oOo oOo oOo

"Shit!" Naruto swore. "I keep falling over!"

This was the third wave he'd stumbled over as it rolled underneath him, flowing forward to slam against the rocks they were trying to reach. He could scarcely see for all the water in his eyes.

He was beginning to feel he didn't like the ocean much anymore.

"We have to get over it to reach the cliff," Sasuke insisted, throwing himself forward but getting pushed back as the waves receded. He half-sank into a crouch as one ankle slipped beneath the water.

'I can't make the jump from here to there,' he calculated, eyeing the cliff beyond the wave breach with a scowl. 'I've used too much chakra for Chidori and the run over the sea it took to get here. There HAS to be another way. . . But how? Naruto must be out of chakra, too. . .' He turned to his right.

Naruto was no longer there.

Sasuke straightened, eyes going wide in alarm.

"What the. . .?"

"Oi! Sasuke!"

He looked up, and his jaw dropped when he saw Naruto, clinging spider-like to the side of the cliff.

"Naruto?" he murmured. "How. . .?"

"Jump!" Naruto called, motioning for him to hurry. "We have to climb!"

"Keh," Sasuke scoffed, as if the jump he'd been considering impossible were actually a simple thing. He sank into a crouch, preparing to attempt it or die trying. The muscles in his legs tensed.

Clawed arms wrapped around his waist, catching him and pulling him back.

Sasuke plunged underwater. The claws, apparently attached to his enemy's hands as extensions of fingers, were serrated like the spines of sea urchins. Sasuke glanced down, squinting through the dark water, and saw that they were indeed spines like sea urchins'. . .growing out of a woman's hand. Greatly unnerved by this, Sasuke tried to reach for the katana he'd reinserted into the sheath across his back. It was then that he realized one of the spines was sticking through his sword-hand, pinning it to his thigh.

The cold water had numbed the initial pain, but now it came sharp and searing. He bit back a gasp, retaining enough presence of mind to know that his air supply would vanish with it if he did. Gritting his teeth, he took swift stock of the situation. If he moved his leg, the spine impaling him might sink further in and hit the femoral artery. If he moved his hand, the tendons might be damaged, and the hand might be rendered useless until a shinobi medic was acquired to fix it. . .which didn't seem likely if they were going to a city that hated shinobi.

His next plan of action was interrupted, however.

Above him, there came a hard impact on the water, and he felt his enemy's body flail beside him. The sea churned dark around him, too turbulent here for him to even be able to see his own blood. There came a sickening jolt, and the spine in his hand twisted. Expelling his air supply in a rush this time, he twisted his left arm back and drew his katana, no longer caring that the movement caused his impaled leg to move. He slashed quickly, but not quickly enough. The enemy's spine-blade retracted like a crab's leg, curling back into wherever it had emerged from. Sasuke's blade struck some kind of chitin-like armor that the woman wore strapped to her chest. Or maybe it was her chest; in the confusion Sasuke had no way of knowing. She let go of him, rising swiftly to the surface and springing above.

Sasuke followed her, intending to finish the job, but just as he broke the surface someone hauled him up roughly by the arms.

"Sasuke!" It was Naruto. There was no sign of the enemy.

"Let me GO!" Sasuke snapped, springing to his feet atop the turbulent water. He happened to glance up the cliff, and saw the path that his enemy had taken. "SAKURA!" he called. Then, wasting no time, he grasped Naruto's shoulders and used them to pull himself into a leap over the water. When he had reached the height of Naruto's head, he planted both feet on his comrade's back and catapulted off it as if Naruto were a springboard.

"OW!" came the indignant shout from below him, but he was already flying through the air.

He landed solidly against the side of the cliff, gathering chakra in his hands to ensure his balance. Yet his jump had not taken him as high as he'd wanted. Tilting his head back, he saw the shadowy figure of the enemy running swiftly up the cliff face as if it were horizontal ground, making straight for Sakura. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke gathered his feet between his body and the rock and sprang into a run as well.

Behind him he could hear Naruto shouting, and the sound of his comrade's footfalls rapidly approaching, but he elected to ignore this. Reaching quickly into his pack with his uninjured hand, he withdrew his shuriken and let fly.

The three-fanned blade went hurtling upward, wailing as it spun and the ocean winds skimmed over it. It was aimed for the back of the enemy's neck. At the speed Sasuke had thrown it, it could easily take off the head of a normal man.

Yet the woman, possessing a shinobi's intuition, and at the last instant lunged sideways, dodging it. To his horror, Sasuke saw that it was now hurling toward Sakura, who was climbing the cliff with her back to it. In a flash he'd produced a kunai from the pouch at his thigh. Unthinkingly, he'd reached with his injured hand. Blood was smeared across the palm, and in throwing he let loose of the knife far sooner than he'd intended. It fell far short of the mark, and did not stop the shuriken.

A flash of longer blade came hurtling downward from above them both, striking the shuriken and deflecting it. The two weapons clashed in a shower of sparks, and both went wheeling downward into the sea far below. Sakura turned at the sound to see what had happened.

"Sasuke-kun?" she called. She was holding on to the cliff face with both feet and one hand, but she looked as if she might come down to meet him.

"Keep climbing!" a voice ordered sharply from above her.

It was Shikyo, who had thrown his katana to deflect the shuriken. The Rain ninja's sharp blue eyes scanned the cliff below him, taking in the sight of Sasuke and Naruto charging headlong up it, with Kakashi gaining on them from behind. Sasuke noted the direction of his gaze as he ran, and noticed that at this altitude parts of the cliff face were obscured by the rising ocean mists. The enemy had disappeared, possibly using the cloud cover to conceal herself.

Naruto finally caught up with him and passed him by, making straight for Sakura.

"Hey! Are you all right?" he hollered.

"Keep going!"

Sasuke glanced downward, and saw that Kakashi had caught up with him as well.

"Run, Sasuke," the Jounin ordered grimly. "No one stops until we reach the top and clear the mist."

Kakashi carried his katana in hand, and his Sharingan eye flashed crimson. Sasuke knew that he was scanning the surrounding mist for signs of ninjutsu. His own Sharingan eyes saw nothing.

He charged after his comrades.

Their enemy, it seemed, had disappeared, and now Kakashi's sole concern was speed.

oOo oOo oOo

What had started as a dash up the cliff turned into a journey far more arduous. Naruto hadn't thought the mountains were all that high at first, but that was because the low-hanging clouds obscured a good deal of the slope so that he couldn't see the top from the bottom. Now he found himself moving up what seemed like an endless slope leading into the sky itself. Fog brushed past his face like cold hands.

The five of them were no longer able to run, for the previous battle and the difficult sprint across the tossing sea had drained them of quite a bit of chakra as well as physical energy. Instead they were moving uphill in a peculiar sort of crawl, arms and legs crooked toward the rock face as they scuttled up it. Naruto, who probably had the best stamina out of any of them, was faring quite well, but he was running on very little sleep, and he had missed two meals. His companions suffered from a combination of this and waning chakra. Their faces and limbs streamed with cold sweat.

"How much higher does the damn mountain GO?" Sakura finally asked. She was tired almost beyond the point of maintaining cyclic breathing, and was already beginning to pant as she climbed. She was also tired to the point where the Inner Sakura was starting to become the Outer Sakura.

Sasuke made no complaint about the ordeal, but from the narrow-eyed gaze he turned toward Kakashi Naruto could see he'd been thinking the same thing. Kakashi said nothing. He was bringing up the rear, and seemed more concerned with the surrounding fog than he was with his comrades' weariness. Shikyo, who was bringing up the front, glanced down at them over his shoulder. He had flung part of the blue mantle he wore about his neck and chin like a scarf to keep out the chill, and out of all of them he seemed the best acclimated to this sort of weather.

"We have just a little further to go," he told them. "I know this country. The Stone Walls. . .the southern cliffs. . .are miles high. They protect the island from the winds in the storm season." He cast a disapproving glance Kakashi's way. "Small ships don't dare round the coast because the Hinan Current draws them down to the glaciers in the south. They perish there if not rescued by larger freighters. Because of this there's no harbor on the southern coast, and no civilization until you breach the barrier of the mountains."

From the stern look in the Rain ninja's eye, it was obvious to all present what Shikyo thought of Kakashi's decision to round the coast. Having been impaled and nearly exploded, soaked to the skin and exhausted as he climbed the cliff through the freezing mist, Naruto was inclined to agree. If they'd stuck to the original plan, they could be sleeping in an inn of the northwestern harbor with full stomachs and dry clothes. But Kakashi, as always, seemed oblivious to their malcontent. In all fairness, Naruto figured the Jounin had some good reason for doing this. Namely, keeping them alive. So he bit back the complaints on his own lips and scaled the rock in silence.

"Sasuke, your hand. . ." Sakura had fallen back a little, and had just noticed the fact that Sasuke's hand was wrapped in one very blood-soaked strip of cloth, which he'd apparently torn from the bottom of the long-sleeved shirt he wore.

"My eye!" Naruto exclaimed from below. He squinted, rubbing at his left eye with his one free fist.

It seemed that Sasuke had another wound on his leg, which he had bound as well but the climbing had loosened the makeshift bandage so that blood ran in a thin line down his shin. It had just dripped onto Naruto's face as he followed Sasuke a bit too closely.

"Then don't follow below me, dumbass," Sasuke snapped. "Climb to one side. If we're attacked and someone above you falls. . ."

Naruto looked horrified.

"Then your ass is hitting my face!" he realized, aghast. He performed a hasty scuttling motion to the side.

"Sasuke, you're wounded?" Kakashi called from some ten feet below, finally sparing his team the attention he'd been previously devoting to scouting out enemies. "I can already see the top; the mist is clearing up there. Hold on a bit longer."

Sasuke, who now looked like he would "hold on" until the end of the world even if he bled to death, scowled and quickened his pace. He passed Sakura up, careful to keep the hand in question blocked from view with his body. Sakura watched him pass with a worried look, but didn't try to brave his displeasure by asking to help.

Naruto felt something cold touch his back, and let out a squawk. His comrades' attention, above and below, was instantly riveted upon him.

"Hush," Kakashi said sternly. Naruto relaxed, feeling stupid as he realized that the Jounin had merely laid a hand on the skin of his back. Kakashi's hands were freezing. It was then that Naruto realized just how much more his companions were affected by the chill than he was. If they all didn't find somewhere to warm up soon their extremities would go numb and that would make everything worse. But Kakashi didn't look like hypothermia was his most immediate concern. "I didn't realize you were wounded as well," the Jounin said quietly.

"I'm not," Naruto replied hastily, not about to be knocked down to Sasuke's level. He was so uniformly wet and cold that he'd scarcely noticed the two places in his shirt where the enemy's sickle-blades had torn through earlier. The skin on his back stretched tight as he climbed, making the twin wounds sting and burn, but the chakra of the Nine-Tails was doing its work. The long, cruel slashes had closed to the point where they only oozed a little blood now and then, to which he paid no more heed than the sweat dripping between his shoulder blades. Considering the fact that the wounds were healing nicely, Kakashi seemed unusually grim.

Naruto elected to quicken his climbing pace before the Jounin could elaborate on it. It was bad enough that he'd gotten a needle in the neck on the Aoite Road, started a fight at the inn, and gotten pulled overboard and separated from his team while rounding the coast. He figured it was time to stop calling attention to himself for a while before everyone started blaming him. Soon Naruto had passed Sakura up, drawing abreast of Sasuke. Sasuke pointedly avoided looking at him, which made Naruto a bit cross because he preferred a good sock in the face to the silent treatment. He was about to open his mouth to say something it probably wouldn't be wise to say when Shikyo's voice cut him off.

"Be silent, all of you. The enemy is there."

None of them could see Shikyo's face behind the cascade of damp blue hair clinging to the back of his neck, but it was plain that he was looking toward the top of the cliff, which they were now fast approaching. Kakashi, who still found himself flanking everyone, now gestured sharply toward the right.

"Everyone, form horizontal rank," he ordered sharply. "Gather chakra in your feet and run that way. We'll round the cliff southward. That will give us a direction of attack with the wind at our backs." His students nodded grimly, each of them knowing that this would only afford them a small advantage. Cold and hungry and exhausted though they were, they were about to fight for their lives yet again.

"Go," he bade them.

And they sprang into action.

Just as they did so, the bombs began to rain from above.

oOo oOo oOo

Konoha

(One Day Earlier)

Jiraiya listened to Morino Ibiki's story in full, and to Kakashi's, and when the tale was finished he sat in stunned silence. It was not what he had expected to hear. Yet in hearing it, his heart had lightened a bit as well, for now he understood.

"You seem relieved," Ibiki remarked, leaning back into his chair.

Jiraiya frowned a little, but then smiled faintly.

"I suppose I am," he admitted. "I see now why he chose to keep such a secret. And I see now why the Fourth allowed him to keep it."

Ibiki mirrored his smile; a wry and somewhat ungainly expression on so scarred a face.

"The Fourth made a lot of choices I will never understand," the Jounin remarked. "But of course it stands to reason that a wiser man than I became Hokage. . .and then gave it all up to die."

Jiraiya unclasped his folded hands.

"I find the Fourth's reasoning perfectly clear," he said, laughing softly. "He knew Hatake Kakashi best. And he had faith in the strength of both of them, knowing that Kakashi would never put his burdensome secret to use. It's no mystery to me."

The Sannin laid both palms flat on the table and rose to his feet.

"Well. I'm sorry to take up so much of your time. I go to speak with the Elders."

Ibiki nodded, and watched him go in silence.

oOo oOo oOo

The Water Country, Ten Miles South of Mizutou

They ran sideways through hell, covering their faces on the left side with out-flung arms and clothing alike. Fire exploded to their left, raining from the top of the cliff where the enemy launched its assault. Stone sprayed up at their feet, jolting their footing askance and making running difficult. The enemy was using their altitude advantage to the fullest. To their right, the howling winds of the Hinan Current lashed water hard against them. In one sense it was a godsend: it damped the flames from the bombs. In another, in quenching the flames it bred smoke, which stung their eyes and noses and disoriented them as they ran.

"We can't keep this up!" Shikyo shouted, unable to spare Kakashi a glance over his shoulder because he was too busy trying to keep his footing amid the flying debris. "We MUST cut upward NOW!"

"NO!" Kakashi shouted back. "NOT here! I won't risk it!"

"KAKASHI-SAN!" Shikyo snarled, lowering the arms shielding his face. "I will NOT allow you to jeopardize this mission any further! We climb NOW or we DIE!"

With that, the Rain ninja wheeled abruptly to the left and began a perilous dash straight up the slope. His teeth were gritted with the effort of sprinting up the rock face, but his fingers were already forming a seal in preparation to meet the enemy above. Rain gathered around him as he drew it with the ninjutsu he was working.

At the tail end of the group, Kakashi uttered a curse. His three students slowed up, gazing between Leaf and Rain Jounin in bewilderment, and also somewhat surprised because they'd rarely heard Kakashi swear. From the dark set of his brow, and from the way the clenching of his jaw was visible even beneath the mask, they could see that Kakashi was livid.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura called. It was an inquiry. It meant, "What do we do now?"

"Keep running," the Jounin told them curtly. "There's a pass between the cliffs up ahead. Take that route inland."

Sasuke nodded.

"I see it," he said.

Obediently, he and Naruto surged forward with renewed speed, making for the shadow in the rock face that they could barely see through the smoke and fog. Sakura hung back a little despite the danger in slowing down.

"You're going to follow him?" she asked, nodding toward the dark figure of Shikyo, sprinting up the cliff above them.

Kakashi nodded agreement.

"He's under our protection," he answered somberly, "even though he's acted rashly. He's charging the enemy head-on because he thinks it'll buy us time to escape. . .or because he's leading us into a trap."

Having said this, he veered away from Sakura, chasing after Shikyo. Sakura's mouth fell open a little.

'A trap?' she thought. 'Does he mean Shikyo's betrayed us?'

She wasn't given time to ponder this further, however, for at that instant several things happened at once. The cliff in front of her exploded, showering her with sharp fragments of rock. She flung up her arms in front of her face to shield it, dodging upward along the slope to avoid it. Thirty feet above her, Shikyo hurtled over the top and vanished from view. The streams of water that he'd been gathering as he ran surged over the top after him, and a split second later there came a tremendous explosion. Smoke billowed skyward. As he ran, Kakashi formed a seal at lightning speed, and lightning gathered in his palm. He scraped the crackling, twittering Chidori along the stone as he sprinted, generating friction to increase its magnitude. He left a long runnel behind him, etched into the mountain. If he was fortunate, and if his mistrust of Shikyo was unfounded, then he would be able to use the jutsu to kill several of the enemies lining the ridge before the molded chakra waned. If not. . .then Shikyo would be the first to die.

oOo oOo oOo

The other two members of Team Seven hadn't gone terribly far before one of them noticed something amiss.

"Hey, Sasuke, where's Sakura-chan?" Behind them, there came another explosion; one that set the mountain rumbling.

Despite their orders, both boys now skidded to a halt, turning upright and clinging to the rock face as they glanced behind them. They saw Kakashi just cleared the uppermost ridge, and disappeared from view. They saw smoke billowing somewhere beyond the ridge, with flashes of fire in illuminating its furrows to show that the battle wasn't finished. They saw smoke billowing from various places on the cliff-side, where the bombs had fallen.

What they couldn't see was Sakura.

"It's the clouds!" Naruto shouted, squinting against the blowing rain. "The wind is pushing them up to the cliffs!"

Sasuke's Sharingan eyes narrowed as he scanned the fog-obscured slope.

"It's not Genjutsu," he observed. "Those are real clouds. But. . .it may not be the wind doing this."

Naruto's eyes widened.

"Mist Ninja?" he guessed. "I remember Zabuza did something like. . ."

Sasuke grabbed him by the sleeve and started up the slope.

"No time for thinking," he said shortly. "We have to get to higher ground. Look; it's rising under us!" He pointed downward with his injured hand even as he dragged Naruto upward with him. The pale gray clouds were indeed rising up the cliff below them, rolling steadily toward them. "If we're caught in that, we may find ourselves ambushed."

The two boys dashed upward, fighting gravity. By this time their muscles were burning with exertion, and their feet ached fiercely. Their training had never required that they maintain chakra in their feet for this long, and even Naruto's near-inhuman stamina was faltering.

They were running upward, but they were also veering back toward the point where they'd separated from Kakashi, in the hopes of catching sight of their third teammate.

oOo oOo oOo

To Sakura, it was like going blind, deaf and mute all at once. Mist closed in around her like a wet blanket, graying out her vision and damping her hearing. She heard her own breath coming in choked gasps, but she couldn't bring herself to call for help.

'Stay calm,' she told herself, drawing the katana slowly from its holster across her back so that the noise wouldn't alert the enemy to her precise location. 'It's mist. I can't see them, but they can't see me, either. . .'

She could hear the sound of a woman's breathing somewhere nearby. She couldn't have pinpointed exactly how she knew it was a woman. There was just a certain lightness to the sound that told her instincts it was so. She knew whom it was, too.

'The woman with the spines, who pulled Sasuke under.'

The woman who had skittered crab-like up the slope like it was nothing, vanishing into the mist.

Carefully, Sakura drew the sword into a defensive position with her right hand, steadying herself against the cliff with her left. 'So long as I keep hold of the rock, I won't become disoriented. . .' For once she was eminently grateful that she was clinging to a vertical stone drop; gravity would also orient her as to which way to flee. And the fog would keep her from freaking out whenever she happened to look down.

The breathing came nearer. Sakura's eyes darted to and fro, frantically searching for some hint of a shadowed shape. There was nothing. Sakura held her breath.

'She'll have to clear the mist to attack me,' Sakura reasoned. 'Otherwise she's as blind as I am. But I can't run, or the movement will tell her where I am. . .'

There was no way out of this but to lie in wait, and to kill.

Killing was not easy even in the heat of battle. The blood spurt; the death rattle.

The horror.

But to kill while lying in wait was. . . Sakura let out a small, shaky, breath.

The shadow moving stealthily behind her whipped around, catching the sound. Dark blades cut through the fog, slashing cruelly. One caught Sakura in the side, but it was only a glancing blow. Sakura spun, lashing out with her own blade without letting go of the rock. She felt the edge strike something hard, peculiarly like chopping wet lumber.

Then she realized her mistake.

The woman's other hand clasped hold of her katana by the blade, heedless of its sharpness against her palm. She now knew exactly where Sakura was. And the mist was clearing.

But now Sakura knew exactly where her enemy was. Both the woman's hands were in plain view, engaged in slashing at her. Even as she became preoccupied in dodging these vicious attacks, Sakura realized that this meant the woman's only connection to the cliff face was through the chakra in her feet. Her feet. . .

The katana was wrenched from Sakura's grasp and flung downward.

Sakura let go of the cliff with her left hand and drew the other katana she carried. As one of the spines lengthened and extended from the woman's wrist , the woman stabbed downward with it, seeking to impale Sakura's head against the rock. Instead the saw-toothed edge grazed Sakura's right ear, ramming into the stone. And Sakura pistoned her body perpendicular to the cliff face, slicing low with the katana.

The scream that followed was one that Sakura would never forget. There are many such memories in a ninja's life that she will never be able to wipe clean from her slate. This was one of Sakura's first. It was a woman's scream; a young woman's. With it the horrid crack of bone, or chitin. Either way, the blow had struck home. The impact jarred Sakura's wrist painfully, but she didn't release the sword. Suddenly finding herself thrown off-balance with no purchase for her wounded feet, the enemy hung by the spine she had jammed into the stone. The mist cleared, and Sakura saw where hand clung to stone. With a breath very much like a sob, she brought her katana up to bear and clove downward.

The mist cleared. Gray eyes, human as her own, stared widely into hers, maddened with the inevitability of death. Then the face fell away, and somersaulting as it went. The hand fell after.

Her breath coming harsh and cold, Sakura turned and sprinted up the slope.

oOo oOo oOo

Kakashi was being forced steadily toward the edge of the cliff. He knew it simply by the grim purpose on his enemies' face. All but three dead, Shikyo nowhere in sight, and himself nearly out of chakra. This was not ideal.

Low on chakra, ninjutsu was hardly an option. Reaching swiftly into a pouch in his vest while his opponents caught their breath, he withdrew a soldier pill and swallowed it. He'd been saving the soldier pills solely for his team as a whole, but he was about to die and he would have to use his now.

Almost immediately upon swallowing it he felt his strength returning. It felt like fire surging through his veins. It would be enough, for one final Chidori. . .

Lightning gathered around his fist. He prepared to charge.

His enemies' attention was suddenly diverted by the person who'd just crested the ridge behind him.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cried in alarm.

One of the enemy chose to rush at her, forming a seal for what Kakashi vaguely recognized as a water-blade jutsu. Moving so fast his body blurred, he moved to intercept the attack.

The attack was a feint. The shinobi flung an exploding tag at him. At such close range, all he could do was back away just enough so that it would not touch him.

The blast completely unearthed him, sending him flying. Stunned, he was only dimly aware of Sakura bracing herself to intercept him; to break his fall. He wanted to shout a warning to her, a warning that he would hit her too hard. But it had happened too fast, and he struck her before the words reached his lips. The impact was bone-wrenching, and his vision filled with black stars.

Together they plummeted backward, over the edge.

oOo oOo oOo

When Naruto and Sasuke reached the top, they found only dead men, lying strewn about like someone's careless mess. Some of them were in pieces. Swallowing back nausea, Sasuke moved to the edge to peer over, searching for signs of others on the cliff face. He saw no one.

A hand clamped down firmly on Naruto's shoulder.

"We must go quickly," Shikyo informed them. His voice was harsh, and his blue eyes rimmed red from smoke.

Sasuke turned away from the edge.

"Kakashi," he said.

Shikyo turned away from them both, wearing a frown.

"I don't know. But remember his orders. We've been separated. We reconvene in the Water-Lord's city."

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged glances. Neither was keen on this. But they trusted Kakashi's orders, and so they followed Shikyo northward.

oOo oOo oOo

Two Hours Later

Sakura lay half-submerged in the wet sand with her face turned to the side. Her neck ached fiercely, but she had no strength to lift her head. Her eyes cracked open, crusted with salt. Kakashi lay beside her, unmoving.

'Dead?' she wondered, in dim despair. One of his arms was flung over hers; perhaps he'd managed to drag them both to shore? But what shore? And how long. . .? She remembered falling. . .

There were feet moving softly over the sand beside her. But they were on her left, and she could not turn her head to see. Thinking that it might be an enemy, she closed her eyes and held her breath.

Someone spoke, sounding as if he were looking down at them. A man's voice; unfamiliar.

"The Mist did this?"

Another voice; an older man's. Also unfamiliar.

"So it would seem. They suspect our aim, so they kill those we seek to use against them."

A sigh. Feet receding. Consciousness fading.

A drift of voice as she sank into darkness.

"A waste. But two still remain. The Uchiha and the other. After all, to ignite this war, we really only need one. . ."

oOo oOo oOo

Nine Hours Later; Ten Miles North of the Southern Coast

The city of stone was unlike anything they had ever seen before. The three weary travelers paused at its gates to rest a moment, waiting for the gatekeepers to grant permission. Each stone was veined with marble, and each peaked rooftop painted blue. Even in the wan morning light breaking over the cliffs behind them, they could see that the walls were white.

"Beautiful," Shikyo remarked gravely to his two silent companions. "The Jewel of the Sea."

With the grinding of massive cogs, the great gates swung open.

"Welcome to Mizutou," he murmured as they resumed walking, passing beneath arches of stone. "From here you are no longer shinobi. Remember that. If the Mist learn of your presence here, you risk war with them. For Konoha's sake, if not your own, see that you don't forget yourselves."

Behind them, the gates clanged shut.

End of Chapter 5

Yamisui: I think this one broke my brain. Ow. This stands as THE longest action sequence I've EVER written in one chapter. A personal best, or worst, however you look at it. Anyway, action sequences are HARD to write, let me tell you. Stay tuned for Chapter 6: "Down Every Dark Hall."