Sherby: Welcome back, one and all! This is Chapter Four of Another, and I'm eating cinder toffee. Woot!
It's 12.38 and I'm in work for 5 o clock. I'll see what I can do for you guys. When you've read this, you know what to do...click the little review button and make my day!
(Special shout out to Death-Angel-Hikari, possibly my most loyal reader since the beginning days and such a clever girlie!)
Okay, on with the show. Enjoy!
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Chapter 4: Seafare
"You know the rules. You must not stray from the mission objective. No alternative motives are permitted. The target is of the utmost importance. The safe return of the target is the mission. Any crossovers with Mission Akatsuki should be purely coincidental, and Team Leader Kakashi will decide whether to follow up these crossovers with further intervention. Your primary target is the Uchiha. Sasuke, do you have any idea of the Uchiha's whereabouts? Or information on the actual target"
"Vaguely. The target is female, and should be a little older than I am. As for her whereabouts; east of the Sound country, there are three small islands surrounded by open ocean. One is more vastly populated than the others. When Orochimaru asked Kabuto for the whereabouts of the Uchiha, he said it could be any one of those three islands. My guess would be the most populated one."
"Why is that?"
"She's an Uchiha. She knows her clan was murdered. She would naturally want to disguise herself and blend in with as big a crowd as she can; in case anyone realises she's still alive and hunts her down."
"So she's already in hiding. This will prove a huge obstacle for you."
"I agree. But with Itachi after her...surely the safest place for her is here, with people who can protect her. The islands to the east of Sound have no Ninja. They are independent. She has no protection there. She needs to come home."
"Alright. Team Seven. You move out at daybreak tomorrow. Details of travel have already been discussed. Team Leader, Kakashi, do you have any questions?"
"None, Tsunade."
"Then this briefing is over. Mission Uchiha begins tomorrow. Team Seven...may Luck walk beside you at all times, and carry you when you cannot walk any further."
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Nine days of relentless travel had brought them to a choppy, angry sea-front. Winter bit hardest in the waters of the ocean and Naruto marveled at its sheer power as it bombed the rocks below. Team Seven was at the very edge of the Fire Country now, and would soon cross into unfamiliar territory.
Naruto, his blond hair powdered with fine spray from the wrath ocean below them, turned to Kakashi.
"We're going across this, Kakashi-Sensei?"
Kakashi chuckled at the disbelief in the young man's voice. "We are, Naruto."
It was Sakura's turn to express her disbelief. "But Kakashi-Sensei, the sea is too rough for us to swim, plus the first island here is at least eight miles out! Not to mention Sasuke not being able to swim in his condition!"
Sasuke looked annoyed, and he slipped down from his horse. He'd been running a little of the way with the rest of his team, attempting to build the strength back into his limbs, but knew he could not afford to overexert himself. Most of the time he had traveled on the black stallion Tsunade had lent to him, whose powerful legs and glossy mane had not suffered from the tiring journey so far, despite not only carrying Sasuke but mission supplies and weaponry on its back. It grunted as Sasuke landed on the ground.
"Don't hold back on my account," he said quietly to Kakashi, the spray visible in his jet hair. "I can swim if I have to." His cloak covered his bandages. He didn't want to slow down the mission.
"There's too much at stake this time..."
Kakashi shook his head, eyes glinting in the dull afternoon light. The scent of salt was strong in the air.
"There are trees here, strong ones, that have grown to endure the harsh ocean winds. They should be strong enough for us to make a decent raft."
After one more glance at the grey waters slopping about nearby, Kakashi set the team their orders. Sasuke, with his exceptional handling of the Shuriken blades, was to cut down a sufficient number of trees. Naruto, deploying his noisy pack of clones, was to retrieve the wood for the raft after it had been cut down. Sakura was ideal for the job of putting the raft together, as her Chakra manipulation skills were superb and she could easily mold together the wood for the base of the raft. As an extra measure of security, one of Naruto's clones cut numerous lengths of rope and Sakura lashed them about the raft, tying them tightly. Sasuke burned the ends together with a well-controlled dragon flame jutsu, and the three of them worked hard to carve four rowing oars to move them along in the event of the wind dying down. A spare cloak was used for a sail, and finally the mast was attached to the base of the raft.
"And you, Kakashi?"
Looking up from the pages of his book, Kakashi found himself facing his three students, each red in the face from the hard work and wind tugging at their skin.
"What are you going to do to help out?" Sakura smiled sweetly. Naruto grinned as Kakashi slowly put away his book.
"Surely you don't expect to ride on the raft we made without putting in a little effort?" Naruto's grin expanded. Kakashi looked a little sheepish.
"That was another teamwork task for you. You...have all done extremely well. Congratulate yourselves."
His team looked unimpressed at his quick excuse, and he stood. "Now, now, I gave the orders..."
"We understand, Kakashi-Sensei," "Of course, you sitting there and us working was to test our teamwork skills," "How kind of you, Kakashi."
Two heavy rowing oars were dropped in front of him. Sakura continued to smile in that sickly-sweet manner, and Sasuke and Naruto chuckled to themselves.
"You row for the first hour, Kakashi-Sensei."
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It was rougher than they all expected. Even for Kakashi's strong, built arms, rowing was difficult. The wind blew in an unfavourable direction, and Nature seemed to be all against them reaching their destination; the first island in the waves. As Kakashi rowed with a sweating brow, Sakura and Naruto drilled Sasuke for any other information they could bleed from him.
He had little more to offer than what he had overheard. Ashamed to admit that his shock and excitement at the time may have blurred the specifics a little, Sasuke fended off their questions with short, curt answers. He was more concerned with what was to come.
"What do I say to her? Will she even want to come back? Does she know I'm alive?"
His eyes were distracted as they struggled through the waves, which swept at them like the angry paws of a tiger, throwing them from one direction to the other. Salt came to rest on all of their lips, and they wrinkled their noses in disgust whenever they got a taste.
Of course, Tsunade's horse had to be left behind; the raft was not big enough. The supplies were now stuffed into their backpacks and added extra weight to each of them. As a light rain fell, their high spirits from earlier days were drowned in the grey depths beneath them.
After an hour, Naruto offered to take over the rowing; the three younger team members felt he had redeemed himself. Naruto rowed emphatically; his determination and youthful attitude returning for a while. Silence eventually descended upon those sailing, any words they might have offered each other dulled by the monotone grey falling from the sky and glaring from the deep. Dullness was everywhere, and it exhausted them.
As the hours slipped by, and Kakashi studied the map thoughtfully, compass in hand, night began to close in around them once more. Their cloaks offered little protection from the vile wind that chapped their salty lips and turned their skin a nasty grey shade to match the pallet of the weather.
"If only it were summer," mourned Sakura desolately as she watched the frothing white head of a wave surge up beside the raft, and then submerge itself in sinister motion, trailing them like a shark on the scent. "The sky would be blue, the birds would be out, and we'd all be happier. This is awful."
Naruto, resting now while Sasuke rowed (a little slower than the rest but determined to play his part), pondered over the water beneath them as it grew blacker and blacker, reflecting the blanket of darkness falling over them as night drew itself up in a stately manner. The rain fell harder, flew at them hidden in the wind.
"These waters are hardly documented," said Kakashi suddenly, his voice hard to hear over the slosh of the base and the hiss of the rain, "We should be very careful."
"I wish we could see a little more," Naruto thought to himself, aware of a cold licking on his hand as a wave splashed its edge over his skin.
"Kakashi, how will we even know if we're traveling in the right direction?" Sakura asked plaintively, conversation a little less awkward now as Kakashi had broken the silence. Kakashi held up the compass.
"I can follow the map well enough with this, but in the dark, things are much more difficult."
Sasuke glanced at him, and only then did he realise how dark it had actually grown. The light from a dull moon bounced from the water and reflected upon Kakashi's pale skin as writhing streaks of silver. He looked tired; as tired as Sasuke had ever seen him.
"Naruto."
Naruto turned from staring at the water, his own face covered in eerie streaks of light.
"Take over these oars."
Naruto frowned "He could at least say please!" but took the oars from Sasuke nonetheless, his hands tired and arms aching. Sasuke moved across the raft to Kakashi, noticing the waves starting to pick up severely around them. The rain stung his eyes.
"Kakashi," he shouted over the howl of the elements, "How far away are we?"
Kakashi looked up from the sodden map, his grey hair flopping down and clinging to his face. "I'd say half a mile. I don't know if we'll make it tonight with this storm."
Sasuke shook his head. "We'll make it."
Naruto thrust the oars into the water angrily. "I've already done my turn! It should be Sasuke rowing, not me!"
His mind whirring with a shaky plan of action, Sasuke moved to the back of the raft, where Sakura sat, drowned in spray and rain, the pink of her hair turned a deep, dark shade in saturation. Her clothes clung to her body and water ran from her face. She looked miserable.
"What is it, Sasuke?" she asked, her teeth chattering as she hugged herself with her drenched cloak.
He didn't answer her question, but took both of her hands, slippery and cold, and thrust them into the angry water behind the raft. The initial thrill of him actually holding a part of her body died off in an instant as the chilling water graced the skin on her fingers, and she squealed.
"Sasuke, what are you doing?"
He frowned, hair leaking salt water down his face. His eyes were squinted to shut out the rain.
"Sakura, listen to me. On our team, you were always best at Chakra manipulation. This should be easy for you. Focus your Chakra into your hands, as though you're healing the water."
She looked confused, and her green eyes displayed her discontent. "I don't see how this can he-"
"No, Sakura, he's right." Kakashi had been watching with interest as Sasuke's makeshift plan had unfolded. "Just try it."
Sakura licked her lips, and tasted salt. She didn't like this at all. The wind cut at her body, raced up her legs and arms and plastered her hair to her face. The darkness frightened her, and the storm unnerved her.
"Anything to get out of here faster...whatever it takes..."
Glancing back at Sasuke, she nodded, and closed her eyes. When she opened them, they displayed the same beautiful green glow that Naruto had seen in Tsunade's eyes as she'd healed Sasuke in Konoha. The glow crept down her arms lightly, reflected in the black waters beneath, and collected at her finely kept fingertips. Within twenty seconds a stunning ball of beautiful, feminine Chakra had formed in her hands, and Sasuke smiled. It was working.
As the energy in Sakura's hands churned, the water at the back of the raft frothed and choked. Sakura realised what was happening, and laughed.
"You...you made me into a motor for the raft?"
Kakashi placed a hand on her shoulder. "Keep it up, Sakura. You're now a propeller!"
Pleased with herself for being so useful, Sakura turned back to where Sasuke's face had been so close to her own.
"He's just so clever!" she thought to herself, lapsing back into a moment of her younger days of infatuation. She started, however, when she noticed that the handsome face of the man beside her had disappeared.
"Sasuke?"
He'd moved to the mast now, and had pulled himself to his feet, using the pole as his support and balance as the raft swung from left to right sporadically with the waves, which crashed now. The wind screeched about their ears.
"Naruto, keep rowing!" Kakashi yelled as Naruto felt the increase in speed due to the improvised propeller at the back of the raft. Nodding, Naruto thrust the oars in deeper, assisting Sakura as she concentrated her energy. Kakashi watched Sasuke wrap his arms about the mast and look straight ahead.
"Sasuke! Sit down! It's dangerous to stand in these conditions!"
His smooth voice, still surprisingly calm even when he shouted, was hardly audible over the clash of wind and rain and wave. Kakashi could see that a bandage had loosed itself and hung from Sasuke's sleeve, whipping about in the wind like a flag on display. Waves leaped up at them from all around, dancing demons.
After a moment, Sasuke turned back to Kakashi. Through the knots of grey hair stuck to his face, Kakashi could see the fierce red glow of the Sharingan in the black of the night sky swamping them. It lit up Sasuke's features, and his eyes looked like a deep, deep fire.
"He should be resting, not using Sharingan!"
Before Kakashi could protest, Sasuke spoke, having to shout over the waves.
"We need to move left! The storm has blown us off course!"
Kakashi smiled. Sasuke was reading the Chakra levels that the island they were heading for would naturally emit. Anywhere with human activity would reek of it when doused in the red sight of the Sharingan.
"That boy's eyes work better than a compass!" Kakashi chuckled. He edged closer to Naruto.
"We need to move left, Naruto! Adjust your rowing!"
Eyes wide at the machine created about them in the space of a minute, Naruto quickly maneuvered the raft into a new angle of direction. Sakura continued to pump Chakra into her hands, and Sasuke read the map of the scenery before him on the black waters. Before he felt entirely useless again, Kakashi joined Sakura at the back of the raft and channeled his own massive Chakra into the waves. The raft surged forward, almost knocking Sasuke off balance.
"Take it easy!" he yelled, glaring at Kakashi with scarlet eyes, rainwater dripping down his face and reflecting the red glow. Kakashi grinned sheepishly. The raft battled through the waves like a powerboat. Naruto continued to row, angling the boat according to Sasuke's directions.
"How far, Sasuke?" Naruto asked, rain pounding his face and slipping into his open mouth. He wrinkled his nose.
"Not long; maybe another five minutes." Sasuke spoke from above Naruto. "We need to be careful; there may be rocks around the edge of the island that could destroy the raft."
He squinted forward into the night, the rain dancing in tiny, organised lines for a moment before being blown into disarray by the air gussets. His cloak flew about him.
Naruto continued to row, his arms throbbing but the thought of dry land a comforting one. He watched Sakura, whose arms were iridescent jade in the ink around them. She disappeared from his vision for a moment as some rain slipped into his eyes, and he cleared them quickly.
She didn't return to his field of vision, and Naruto blinked hard. "What..." He rubbed his eyes with a clenched, wet fist.
"Shit!"
He heard Kakashi yell, and footsteps as Sasuke sprung to the back of the raft. As his eyes cleared, he could see Sasuke kneeling next to Kakashi, both of them lit by the glow of Sasuke's eyes, frantically peering into the choppy jaws of the ocean.
"What?" Naruto dropped the oars and scrambled over the edge of the raft. "Where's Sakura!"
"She just seemed to slip over the edge and go down!" Kakashi's voice did not sound so smooth. Sasuke could see his own reflection in the waves, but nothing more; the green glow of Sakura's arms was nowhere to be seen. He glanced at Kakashi, who was making hand signs.
"What...?" Kakashi plunged his hands into the water and it leaped at his sleeves hungrily.
"Water Dragon Bullet!"
A massive track of water erupted from his fingertips and shot straight down into the depths. It disappeared from sight a moment later, leaving a bubbly comet trail. Naruto looked at his teacher.
"What was the point in that?"
Before Kakashi answered, the water below them was lit with a fluorescent yellow beam, piercing the night of the water and bringing an early dawn to the creatures on the ocean floor.
"I placed a flare at the head of the water bullet," Kakashi responded quietly, eyes down. Sasuke watched the waters fiercely, red orbs scanning rapidly.
Naruto saw her even without the use of Sharingan. The light of Kakashi's flare told them all they needed to see. Her pink hair was wild and floating about her face, her arms pulled tightly in front of her as she was dragged down, down into dark. A stiff tentacle wrapped around her slim wrists and tugged her slim form southbound, through an intimidating maze of seaweed that skipped in the firelight of the flare. The owner of the tentacle could just be seen; a squid the size of a house, jaws like a guillotine, eyes like sparking coal. Sakura writhed in its grip. The guillotine chopped menacingly.
"Sakura!" Naruto couldn't stop his body moving into action. He leaped into the waves before Kakashi or Sasuke could protest, and could soon be seen shrinking into the shimmering light beneath the raft. It glowed with the ripple of the wind, and the water looked as though it breathed with a life of its own. The nature of the situation made the beauty of the light unimportant to the two left on the raft.
"Idiot," muttered Sasuke, "He still hasn't learned to think."
As Naruto sank out of sight, Kakashi prepared to dive in.
"Stay here, Sasuke. You need to rest. You're not fully healed."
"What?" Sasuke couldn't keep the surprise out of his voice as the Sharingan faded from his eyes. "Kakashi, I---"
A dreadful roaring interrupted him. Sasuke turned to the front of the raft in just enough time to see a huge, puckered tentacle flying toward them, dripping water like saliva. It hurled itself into the raft, which splintered fearfully under the power of the attack. Sasuke caught sight of Kakashi before he himself was thrown up into the air, and then slammed down into the icy waters.
It spun him around. For a moment his black hair covered his vision. The salt water stung whatever wounds Sasuke had remaining, and the water knifed into him viciously. Bitterly cold. He kicked, his legs still strong enough to allow him to swim, and pushed for the surface, battling against the angry, spiteful waves that yanked him down again. The water tossed.
"Breathe, quickly! Breathe. Kick, breathe!"
His head broke the surface quickly, and he coughed up the salty liquid that had forced its way into his lungs. His was blind for the moment as his hair clung like a barnacle to his face, and, after being swamped by another wave, he desperately forced it out of the way with frantic hands. He rubbed the salt water out of his wet eyes. His teeth chattered. The rain slammed his face. Water snaked around his ankles with a growl.
He found himself face to face with two, angry, sparking coal eyes, and before he could protest, was swept by the mocking, malicious waves towards those terrifying guillotine jaws, spiked like a razor edge. He heard himself cry out as he squeezed his eyes shut and basic, terrified instinct took over his hands.
The guillotine chopped.
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Sherby: And...I think that shall do for now! What a lovely cliff hanger for you all! I shall try and write more as soon as possible, but I have a very busy week ahead of me! Hopefully I should be able to update before I go away next Monday. We shall see!
Well, hope you liked it! Review me please!
This is Sherby, over and out! Datte Bayo! Oh, and I finished at 16.21, yay!