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Rise Of The Whirling Tides.

Chapter 4: The Prodigal Daughter Part I.

Tsunami had watched mournfully as her village, and all of Wave in all honesty, became a shell of its former self.

Many were homeless, food was scarce, even for those with a little money. The last few years had been hell for Nami no Kuni, a small country it may be, but it had once been prosperous.

In the beginning many wondered why the daimyō didn't step in, but it soon became clear. The Wave Daimyō had been killed along with his wife and only living relatives Gatō could find. His son, two grandchildren, and younger daughter. Wave Country was completely on its own.

A year ago, nearly three years after Gatō's tyranny began, her husband Kaiza, had been executed publicly and with him Waves hope had gone to. Her son had been especially affected.

Inari had not been old enough to remember his birth father, who'd died of an incurable illness, but he'd been attached to Kaiza, the only father he'd known.

She had been equally as devastated, but as an adult she handled it better. Her poor father simply took to drinking more over the years, especially after the death of her mother. Her mother had been one of the first casualties of Gatō's reign, and her father had simply never truly recovered.

Sighing, Tsunami placed the last dish onto the rack to dry, and dried her hands on a cloth. Her father had begun building a bridge connecting to Hi no Kuni, hoping to bring some hope back to Wave.

It was a great idea, but risky. Her father had firmly painted a metaphorical target on his back when the project began, and finally he'd opted to hire ninja from Konoha, which was a distance away.

He already had to travel there to order some more supplies and pay off the last order. Though he didn't mention it, Konoha had some of the best sake within a few days walk. Otherwise, she would have argued more that Uzushiogakure was closer.

They also had a shaky alliance (now that Wave's Daimyō was dead), and her father and Kaiza had been apart of reviving the lands of Uzu no Kuni – though they'd mostly worked with the team in the Village of Uzushio. They were on good terms with the Uzu Daimyō and Uzukage.

She'd never been there or met the Daimyō of Whirlpool, who also happened to be the Uzukage, but her father always chuckled and got an odd look on his face when she was mentioned. He spoke of her fondly though.

He'd said since he already had to go to Konoha, he'd just hire them, but Tsunami got the idea it was something else. Not anything to do with Uzushio's shinobi, from rumors they were currently few but powerful, and only gaining more recognition as time went on.

No, Tsunami already had an idea why her father decided on Konoha's services. Money was scarce and she had a feeling he was going to falsify the severity of the mission. She knew that could end badly, especially if Gatō hired ninja as well.

Her father didn't want to lie to the ruler of their remaining ally, as she probably didn't know just what was happening over the last four years.

Those years had been rough for Uzushio she was sure, since it was only recently they really got the recognition of being known, even if their name and symbol was not currently known. She was pretty sure Wave was one of the few places to know of Uzu no Kuni's revival.

"Inari," Tsunami began, looking over to where her son ate his lunch. "Pack a bag, and go to Daichi's house. I'll call his mother, and ask if you can stay there a few nights."

Inari blinked, confused and surprised by his mother's sudden words.

"What, but why?" he asked.

"I'm going to get some more help, just in case," she answered, not wanting to go into more detail, and ignoring when her son snorted cynically.

She would ask the Uzukage for help, and hope for the best. She had two days, give or take before her father returned from Konoha. Thankfully it wasn't that hard to get from Nami no Kuni to Uzu no Kuni.

A bridge had been built connecting them, though there was always guards at the end from what her father told her, and there were seals that seemed to know if the person had bad intentions for Uzushio and Uzu no Kuni itself.

The bridge was low profile though, and it was mostly those of Nami no Kuni that even knew the location of the bridge. It was hard to see from just looking out over the water because of the fog and a seal which made the mist and fog even thicker, covering the bridge well enough one had to nearly be sailing under it to see it.

Her father said it was a safety mechanism until Uzushiogakure went public, in order to stop those who had destroyed the original lands from trying again when they thought them the weakest.

Tsunami understood that, she hated to think what would happen if Gatō ever found the bridge and a way onto Uzu no Kuni. Than again, she doubted he'd try, there was a reason he chose countries without Shinobi villages.

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Uzushiogakure no Sato; 1 day later:

Nearly six years had passed since the deal she'd struck with the Fire Lord. Since Uzushio had been completed enough to inhabit and begin functioning again.

Though they had stayed as unknown as possible while still getting citizens and shinobi, they were now beginning to become more well known among the other villages.

The major five being the only ones who might still recall the Land of Whirlpools and Uzushiogakure. Though none who hadn't been there were sure where the lands were, and didn't know their name until they arrived – word of its whereabouts spread through former clients.

It surprised her just how ignorant the five great nations had stayed, though she felt that Fire Countries had something to do with the Daimyo covering details such as the lands name and the Ninja village which was on the rise.

Most citizens were from Water country, Wave or other islands around Uzu no Kuni – some much further away than others.

Most shinobi were refugees from Mizu no Kuni who didn't wish to fight in the resistance against Yagura or missing-nin who proved they could be loyal to Uzushio. Quite a few Uzumaki, both young and old came out of the woodwork, so to say.

Out of a once prestigious clan, as large as the clans of Hyūga or Uchiha, there were only a little over a dozen, not including her and the twins, left.

Other than one elderly Uzumaki all were of the branch family, distant or not so distant, cousins.

She was relieved that though they called it the branch family they weren't treated as slaves like the Hyūga did their branch family. It was simply a way to keep track of the more distant cousins, as it was more than common among clans to marry within the clan.

Though it was more common for them to marry from outside the clan, the Uzumaki were never picky. They usually married for love. Makimi Uzumaki was of the main family, a lone survivor and her second or third cousin, almost considered a branch member.

Makimi's grandchildren would be considered branch members, unless they married into the main family. As said, this was the reason the Uzumaki separated itself into main and branch families. It was generally easy to tell an Uzumaki from those married into the clan, the Uzumaki genes being dominant in most cases, ergo the red hair nearly all Uzumaki's shared. There were a few exceptions, like Menma and Mariko for example.

Some of the other clans in Uzushio now were the Hōzuki, Fūma, Homura, Aino, and Kurama. There were others of course, but some of the ones mentioned were similar to the major clans of Konoha; the Uchiha, Hyūga, Inuzuka, Aburame, Akimichi, Yamanaka, Nara etc.

The Hōzuki, Fūma and Kurama clans were lucky breaks, found by luck and nearly lost because of Orochimaru of the sannin. Back then she couldn't have beaten the sannin, despite Kage level chakra levels and as much training as she had, but she'd had nearly six years since she left Akasawa-dono after her training. A lot can change in a few years when it came to ninja.

When she found Suigetsu and Karin...well, she'd gotten lucky and not met up with Orochimaru, and Karin had been a Kusagakure Academy student when she'd visited the village for an Alliance and left with an Uzumaki. Apparently her father, if the only picture Karin had of her parents was anything to go by, was a survivor of the War of Uzushio.

Suigetsu had honestly found her, when she was traveling through Rice country. She'd been surprised because she thought she'd been careful, not drawing attention to herself.

It wasn't until she found the Fūma cousins that she nearly had to fight against the snake sannin.

Thankfully with a bunch of Kage Bunshin, covering her tracks, and traps which she'd always been quick and good with, she and the few remaining Fūma clan members had gotten out of Rice country. It really hadn't been easy, convincing them to trust her over Orochimaru.

All in all it had been a productive five an a half years. In this time Mito had not only grown more powerful, and confident in her abilities, but physically as well. She was considered very beautiful, just like her mother, though she knew she was attractive, she didn't hold her beauty in high maintenance like some women.

She greatly resembled her mother, but there were differences. Her face was a little more angular, not quite as round, but close enough to mistake as the same. Her eyes were not quite as wide as her mother's doe-like violet eyes.

Hers were a bright clear blue, like her father's. She was built like her mother, though her breast, while a c-cup, were a larger c-cup than her mothers, nearly a 'd'. She was 5'5, an inch taller, her skin a shade darker compared to the ivory of her mom.

Her hairstyle was probably the biggest give away, it was far from the pin-straight locks her mother possessed. It was thigh length, and while relatively straight it was on the spiky side, especially towards the top, more so as her hair framed her face, not restrained by anything.

Yet as a few spiky locks of hair feel into her face and right eye (which was still able to be seen somewhat and she could see well enough as well).

It was similar to a feminine, and longer, version of her grandfather Madara's hair, but less spiky. The only one to come close to having similar hair was Karin but her hair was also very different. About the same shade of red though, like most Uzumaki.

Mito was seventeen years old, Uzukage, and Daimyō of her own country. She was no longer a child. Over the years she couldn't help but wonder if her parents would have been proud of the decisions she'd made.

"Mito-sama, there is a woman here to see you," a shinobi in black, red and blue said, stepping from the shadows. The kunoichi wore a mask, with blue markings on the cheeks, and a spiral in the middle of the forehead.

She was an ANBU, but unlike the animal masks of Konoha these mask were simply porcelain mask, but the one distinct feature besides the marking on the cheeks – which resembled her whisker marks but thicker – and the Uzushio spiral, was the small sharp demon horns coming from the masks forehead on either side of the spiral.

The masks' colors varied between divisions, and shinobi ranking. Their codenames were decided based on them and their assigned ANBU captains. Sometimes it was animals, sometimes it wasn't.

"Thank you, Viper, you may send her in," Mito said, turning around in her chair from where she'd been observing Uzushio as the streets rushed around with life.

It had taken a lot of work, but she'd done it, she'd brought her mother's home back to life. Along the way, with hours of training and many sensei's, she'd become a true Kage of Uzushio, while sill balancing her siblings and being the daimyō of her own country.

She'd updated the defenses of the Village, helped bring an academy system back up and running. Most her shinobi were chūnin or jōnin, with only three current genin teams, and a new year of graduates, the first to truly graduate after at least three year in the academy, ready to be assigned a jōnin sensei.

It was true, many of her shinobi were once missing-nin. She was very careful of who she allowed into her shinobi forces. For one thing anyone with true hostel intentions against Uzushio an alert was sent through the master seal to the barrier around the village itself (all thanks to fūinjutsu).

In those rare cases the missing-nin would be thrown into the Maggots nest until her T&I division could take care of extracting information. After that they were either imprisoned again or killed for their bounties which went to Village fund or Uzu no Kuni itself. The only money she pocketed was mission pay on the missions she participated in or common salary wage of a Kage.

Not that it mattered, she was daimyō as well, and as such she funded Uzushiogakure and Uzu no Kuni itself, so the funds to keep Whirlpool going were technically her money, simply placed into accounts for the village and island itself.

"Uzumaki-sama?" a soft, polite, feminine voice said from behind her and Mito turned around.

The woman was probably an inch shorter than her, pale skin, pretty dark eyes and dark navy blue hair. She dressed like a common housewife or mother, and Mito couldn't help but wonder what such a woman could need.

She wasn't of Uzushio, so she had to wonder if she was from the other villages around Uzu no Kuni.

Tsunami herself stared at the woman before her, shocked. She dressed as only a shinobi would, and out of the corner of her eye she saw a white and dark orange hat with the symbol for Whirlpool on it.

There was also a modest golden crown in a design befitting of Uzu no Kuni's daimyō. It looked the least worn.

What shocked her most was her age. She couldn't be older than eighteen, if that. She now realized why her father had always found mentions of his old client, now daimyō and Uzukage amusing.

"You're surprised, by my age I take it?" the redhead questioned.

Tsunami nodded.

"Yes, I'm sorry. I just expected you to be a little older."

"No worries, I get that all the time," Mito told her. "Now, what can I do for you...Ms..."

"Tsunami, my name is Tsunami Inuzumi, my father was head of the crew which helped rebuild here seven or so years ago."

Mito's eyes widened in recognition, and she smiled.

"Of course, you're Tazuna's daughter, but I thought your surname..."

"Inuzumi is my married name, I decided to keep it in memory of Kaiza," Tsunami explained sadly.

"Kaiza, I was unaware he passed on," Mito stated, frowning slightly and clearly surprised.

Despite the years passed, Mitoko did remember Kaiza and Tazuna as they had been the ones she'd gone to in order to hire the ones who helped rebuild. At first, because of her age, they'd been skeptical, especially Tazuna who actually laughed.

Kaiza had listened though and realized she was honestly very serious about the whole ordeal. Tazuna had quickly realized she really was the heiress of Whirlpool and gladly agreed to help with construction.

Tsunami glanced down mournfully.

"Yes, Kaiza was killed a year ago. I don't know how much you hear on Uzu no Kuni about the other countries but Nami no Kuni isn't fairing so well. Gatō has taken over, those who get in his way...die."

Considering Wave country was one of their closest neighbors, Mito felt terrible about the fact she hadn't heard of Waves troubles. She had heard of Gatō briefly, but she hadn't realized what he was doing in Wave country.

To her defense, Uzushio had been busy lately with the Chūnin Exams approaching in July, and Mito was getting everything in order to enter their current genin teams, even if it was held by Konoha this year.

"Why hasn't the Daimyō of Wave done anything?" she asked. "Or come to us for help sooner?"

Tsunami sighed.

"The daimyō is dead, Wave is utterly alone. As for coming to Uzushio for help, we don't have the money to spare. My father, he is building a bridge, trying to bring about some hope in the people, but Gatō has threatened him. He'll be killed if he continues, but my father is stubborn. He recently went on a trip to Konoha, and I know he plans to hire ninja but not to help with that, even though they'll probably end up doing just that..." Tsunami wasn't sure she was explaining to well, but Mito understood.

"In other words, you believe he will lie about the details of the mission in order to get Konoha's help?" She sighed, shaking her head. "He's lucky it's Konoha, the chances of them killing him for giving fake information for a mission, and endangering everyone is significantly low. The worse they'll do, most likely, is up the price, or turn back. Still, lying to ninja is never a good idea."

Tsunami had paled over her words and Mito folded her hands in front of her, having returned to her chair seconds before.

"I see," she muttered. "I hadn't really thought about that. The only reason dad didn't come to Uzushio was we didn't have the money, and he didn't want to deceive you."

"That was honorable of him."

Tsunami nodded, looking at an expensive ring she wore and slowly slid it off her finger. Mito raised a questioning eyebrow as the ring, encrusted with rubies and diamonds, was laid on her desk.

"I plead with you, Uzumaki-sama, please, help my country," she begged. "I have no money, but that ring is worth a lot."

"It's significant to you?"

Tsunami nodded, and answered, "My wedding ring, from Kaiza."

Mito picked it up and inspected it before pressing a button on an object on her desk. Tsunami noted it looked similar to a phone only different.

"Haruka, send for team six, please."

Tsunami let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

"My team and I will handle this mission personally," Mito said, placing the ring back in Tsunami's hand with a smile. "We will speak about payment in the future, after Wave has gotten back up on it's feet again."

Tsunami almost teared up, but her shock at Mito's words caused a new wave of surprise.

"You're coming as well?" she asked. "Not that it isn't a relief, but what about your responsibilities here?"

Mito laughed. "I may be daimyō and Uzukage but I am still a shinobi, I can take missions occasionally. Though, I will use a Akuchi Bunshin (Evil Blood Clone) to leave behind, just in case." Mito said, smiling slightly at her favorite form of clone.

It was similar to the Shadow clone, only much more durable. The downside was it took quite a bit more chakra, and control.

It had taken her nearly a year to make a competent Akuchi Bunshin – which was named by a rather strange Uzumaki who had created it, as some from other shinobi villages thought their extravagant skills in fūinjutsu was the work of a deal with a demon.

Another difference between a Kage Bunshin, and an Akuchi Bunshin was that there was nearly no way of telling it wasn't real, since it didn't dispel after killed, unless the one who created the Akuchi Bunshin dispelled it themselves.

Like the Kage Bunshin it was placed down as a forbidden jutsu, mostly because only an Uzumaki could survive using it in most cases. There had been a few who had enough chakra to create one without being of the Uzumaki clan. Still, she was one of the very few who could use that certain clone jutsu currently.

It was only seconds later the door was practically kicked down by a boy with spiky blond hair, the front longer than the back, which was a few inches above shoulder length, the front being a inch or two past shoulder length. He was lightly tanned, with dark violet eyes, angular features, and an Uzushio Hitai-ate around his forehead.

He wore a dark crimson track jacket, unzipped, with a mesh armour shirt under it, and you could barely see bandages wrapped around his torso through it. He had on black pants, tapped down by crimson bandages, shinobi sandals (black), a pouch at his waist, and a holster on his leg.

On his back was a custom wakizashi, which was slightly longer than an average wakizashi.

Mito sighed at Menma's antics. Out of the two Menma acted the most like their mother in her youthful genin days – which she remembered her mother telling her stories of. Mito herself had always been a mix of her parents, she was simply unpredictable.

Beside the blond boy was his team.

A slightly shorter girl with nearly waist length orange hair, a bright yet slightly dark shade. She had similar, but more feminine features to the blonde boy. They had the same eye-shape, and color of dark violet.

The girl had slightly paler skin than her brother, but unlike Menma she'd inherited her mother's nose, and mouth, giving her a closer resemblance to Mito and their mother.

She wore a crimson shirt, with a white stripe from collar to the end – where it buttoned. It was wide collared, and the sleeves were loose and wide, giving plenty of room to hide a weapon up them, if she wanted to. She wore snug pants that were tapped down at the ankle and shinobi sandals (both of which were black).

A pouch rested on her waist, and a bigger one rested on her backside, a holster on her leg finished the look.

This was Mariko, the calmer twin, but just as mischievous at times. Beside her was a girl with long brown hair, a braid on one side and a hair-clip on the opposite. She was paler than the twins by quite a bit, but still looked healthy despite her weakness.

She had cinnamon eyes, and wore a purple and crimson battle kimono with one long sleeve, fishnet legging, black shorts under the kimono, and shinobi boots that came up to under her knees. Her hitai-ate, unlike Menma and Mariko, was around her waist at an angle, just below her obi.

The last was a boy with light colored hair, almost purple looking, a nearly feminine face, sharp teeth, and strange eyes. She'd found him in Rice country after he'd left Orochimaru who the boy was not fond of by any means. He seemed to have a fear of the rogue sannin to be honest, but also had a fetish for cutting things or enemies into pieces.

His hitai-ate was around his shoulders, similar to a sash or back sheath to a sword, the metal of the hitai-ate resting just over his heart.

"You called for us, sis?" Menma asked, plopping down in her currently empty chair and twirling.

Mito chuckled, not phased by the blatant disrespect. What was the point, she didn't like formalities, and her little brother knew it. Mariko on the other hand seemed to sigh in both annoyance and resignation. Like she knew her twin was a lost cause.

"We have a mission, a B-rank, the possibility of it going up is high." Mito motioned to Tsunami. "This is Tsunami, we'll escort her back to wave, survey the situation and take out Gatō and his men."

"So we'll get to cut someone up?"

"Suigetsu..." Mariko trailed of, words failing her as she sent a glare at the sharp toothed boy who merely grinned back.

Those two were like oil and water, literally in a sense. Still they were friends and could work together where it counted. Unlike in Konoha, Uzushiogakure had genin teams of four, usually two boys and two girls.

This was done for many reasons, to make it a little more even, and all teams had one who was or had potential to be a medic-nin. In Team Six's case that was Mariko (she had Hiroki, she supposed, to thank for that).

"You could put it that way," Mito said, hardly batting an eyelash at Suigetsu's eagerness to maim and or kill someone. As long as it was an enemy ninja on the receiving end she didn't care.

"When do we leave, Mito-sensei?" Yakumo asked, a little on the shy side as was just her personality, calm but with a shy side about her.

Still, Yakumo was one of the best genjutsu users Mito had the pleasure of meeting and training.

Yakumo's story was rather unique. She was one of the last of a small clan from Konoha. Her parents died in a fire, along with her aunt and two of her four cousins. Her two uncles were all she had left, besides two younger cousins, the children of her uncle Kaemon.

The once larger clan had nearly gone extinct during the Third Shinobi War; other than their branch family which still had a few more numbers than the main family when she was born. One day she heard her uncles talking to her sensei about sealing her abilities away.

If this happened she'd never be a ninja or a good clan head.

Her paternal uncle (Kaemon Kurama, her father's younger brother) didn't seem to like the news either and she was somewhat surprised when he came to her and told her to pack. Together, the last of the main family Kurama clan left that night.

They found their own way to Uzushio after hearing rumors in a small village on the borders of Water country about the rise of the village. Mito had been more than happy to welcome Yakumo, Kaemon, and Kaemon's children – Kameko and Kenta.

It didn't take her long before she learned of the Ido and the reason Konoha wanted to seal Yakumo's abilities. With the help of Makimi, Mito was able to seal Ido away without harming Yakumo in anyway, and she still had her abilities and could become a kunoichi.

Mito had been a sensei to Yakumo before Team Six formed, but not long before. They'd only been genin for a year now, give or take a few months.

"Tomorrow morning. I'll place Tsunami in a hotel for the night. Pack for about a month long mission. I don't expect it'll take that long, but better to be prepared than dead."

The four genin nodded.

"Awesome," Menma muttered, excitedly.

It was their first B-rank mission, a rarity among genin unless she felt they could handle it. Her system, while similar, was a little different from Konoha.

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Kakashi had plenty of regrets in life.

One such regret was failing to protect his sensei's children. He knew Mito the best out of the three legacies that Minato-sensei and Kushina had left behind, but he'd failed not only Mito, but the twins as well.

It had nearly been a decade since the disappearance of Mito, Menma and Mariko.

They'd searched for nearly three years, fiercely the first year, actively the second year. By the third year hope of finding them evaporated. Added to this the Fire Lord had been observing how things were in Konoha lately.

When Danzo's Root came to his attention he all but ordered the Sandaime to either imprison, execute, or set the old war hawk straight on how things were run in Konohagakure.

The Fire Lord may not be able to do much as far as Konoha was concerned, but he could do that much at least.

This allowed Hiruzen to gain back control which had leaked to the civilians, while cutting much of the power his advisers held. He'd also set some ground rules down for Danzo, and made Root a true hidden branch of ANBU.

Danzo was aware now that this was his last chance before he would be executed or arrested for treason.

Other than this Konoha hadn't truly changed, if one didn't take the way the sun seemed dimmer since the three Uzumaki's left. The sad thing was very few were aware of it. It disgusted him just how ungrateful people could be, but there was nothing he could do.

Just three months ago Kakashi had been given another genin team, and knowing it was most likely the year Menma and Mariko would have graduated, he couldn't help but wonder if one of them would have been on his team if they'd still been in Konoha.

Team Seven consisted of Sasuke Uchiha, one of the last of his clan, other than his mother, older brother and the true culprit of the ill fated Uchiha Massacre.

If it wasn't for Mikoto and later Sasuke's word it would still be assumed as the work of Itachi Uchiha.

Itachi, a child prodigy, much like Kakashi had been, and best friends with Mito and Shisui Uchiha. Shisui had been one of his closer cousins as well, and two years older than him and Mitoko, but had graduated the same year as Itachi. In all honesty Mito should have graduated with them, but there had been too many elements working against her that year.

No one really knew what caused Shisui to snap, but Mikoto had her own idea of what caused it. She'd mentioned Shisui had muttered one phrase when asked why by Fugaku; 'For her, it's all for her'. It made sense, Shisui had taken Mito's disappearance hard, harder than they'd thought apparently.

He'd done a lot of damage though. It was hard for him to believe he was Obito's younger brother, much younger. His parents had taken Obito's death hard, harder than Kakashi had originally thought they would given how Obito's life within in the clan was, and Kakashi was sure Shisui, a surprise addition, had been all that held them together.

Itachi was considered MIA, having no choice but to flee the village after Shisui framed him for the Massacre. Kakashi figured he might have tried to find Shisui to demand his own answers.

After the massacre Sasuke himself had been after revenge against his cousin, and Kakashi couldn't blame him, but the dark haired avenger took it to an obsessive level.

The next member was Sakura Haruno, an unfortunately pink haired fangirl of Sasuke's.

She came from a civilian family, but she had the potential to be a great ninja, but needed some serious help in that department. She had an obsession with one teammate, and took to hitting the other.

Other than her brains and basic academy skills, she was the weakest genin he'd come across, and that was saying something.

The genin exam was supposed to be the first step of weeding out those who wouldn't go far as shinobi from those who would. If she didn't clean her act up soon, he wasn't sure she'd see past her first real battle.

The last member was a former Root member, Sai. He hadn't been in the Root program for long, and hadn't been in the program for about a year now, he still had the emotional range of a brick most times. He'd learned to fake it well though.

"Eh, Tazuna-san, doesn't Wave have ninja of their own?" Sakura asked, drawing Kakashi from his thoughts and he looked away from his little orange book.

Momentarily he wondered if she shouldn't already know this from the Academy. Didn't they cover this in geography of the continents?

"Well, we didn't use to and it's not in Nami no Kuni, but we do have a hidden village close by," the man admitted, and Kakashi looked over at Tazuna in surprise.

He hadn't expected that and the man couldn't mean Kirigakure, they were currently in a civil war, and it was further away from Wave country than Konoha. The only village close to Wave at one time had been Uzushiogakure.

He and others had heard of a new village rising but not much was known, not even the villages name. Before recently they didn't wear hitai-ate in plain view and most that saw them were clients or their targets.

Could the rumors be of the same village Tazuna spoke of?

"If that's true, then why ask us?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, well I was already heading to Konoha and since I was already in the village..." the old man trailed off, almost nervous and Kakashi filed this away with the mans other strange behavior.

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Team Mito, Mito herself, and Tsunami all met at the village gates at seven sharp the next morning.

Tsunami took notice of a Gunbaiwith a long chain, which Mito had wrapped around her chest, what Tsunami didn't realize was the Gunbai's significance.

Mito had trained to wield many weapons, but her favorite was her grandfather's Gunbai. She had modified it slightly, the black chain now held seals which allowed her to lengthen or shorten the chain simply by channeling her chakra through the seals.

All of Team Six wore crimson hooded cloaks with a spiral clasp, but only the genin wore the hoods. Mitoko wore a face mask-hood like covering combo instead, only her eyes and the tails of her nine low pony-tails could be seen. She looked the image of a stereotypical ninja that civilians told their children stories about.

"Everyone ready?" Mito asked, and the four genin nodded. "Alright then, let's go."

In less than seventy-two hours everything would change.