Chapter eight-

General POV- next day at the campsite

"Come on everyone get up. We're having breakfast then packing up before we head to the harbour." Kakashi says loudly waking everyone but Naruto up. Everyone gets up looking groggy before Sakura and Nikita head for the nearest stream. Kakashi pokes his head into Naruto's tent to see him embracing his pillow.

"I said get up Naruto!" Kakashi says louder before Sakura having come back from the stream with Nikita grabs Naruto by his foot and drags him outside into said stream.

"Ah cold! Aw Sakura-Chan what did you do that for. Now I'm all wet." Naruto yells out before trudging out of the stream.

"Well maybe I wouldn't have to do that if you had just got up when Kakashi-Sensei said to!" Sakura answers before walking back to camp with a soaking wet Naruto following behind. Kakashi, Sasuke and Nikita are sitting around the remains of the fire from the previous night. After everyone has finished eating they pack up their camp, covering all traces that they where there. When all traces were removed they made their way through the thick forest to the harbour. Looking around team seven noticed that the harbour's condition is a lot better than when they visited last.

"It's unbelievable! It's changed so much since last time we where here." Sakura looks around at all the buildings that used to be old and decrepit have all been repaired. Looking up from his book Kakashi starts heading towards a specific deck of the harbour. Where a fisherman in his later thirties is standing in front of the ship.

"Well Sakura last time we were here Gatō held a monopoly over Wave so no one had money. Now that they have money they are repairing everything they couldn't before and returning wave back to what it should have always been. Anyway we are here." Kakashi Pulls out a scroll from his pocket and unseals some documents from with in the scroll.

"I presume your Takeo Murano." The fisherman nods and takes the documents. He proceeds to lead everyone onto the ship.

"I don't know why you want to go to the land of the dragons the border guards will probably force you to go back but it's none of my business so all aboard we're heading out. It will take roughly two days to get to the outskirts of the Land of dragons." Takeo Proceeds to pull the board back to the ship and unhook the rope from the harbour. The ship starts to move out with a small blip in the sky circling above it.

Day one on the ship

It's roughly noon when Naruto falls out of his bed with a thump. He gets up and after getting dressed he heads outside to here Sakura talking to Takeo.

"So have you been to the land of dragons before?" Sakura leans against the railing while Takeo's tying down some rope.

"I was chosen because I have but that was when I was thirteen. I was on a small fishing boat with my farther and brother we were hauling in our nets when one snagged on one of the rocks snapping it. We ended up loosing all of our fish as a result of that. It took us an hour but we managed to get our net free so that we could repair it when we got back. Unfortunately we hadn't been paying attention to the sky while we were getting our net free so we got caught in a storm that had come overhead of us." Takeo paused before moving to another rope that has to be tied. "We tried to race the storm home but it came over to quickly and our small boat started getting swept about. The strong winds broke our sail and all we could do was drift as the waves knocked us about. We were caught in that storm for a long time from what I was able to tell it had been about two or three days since the storm started. During the most violent wave we had seen I was swept over board. I was sure I was going to drown…." Takeo stopped for a little while and sat down to the side of the door to the cabins. As Sakura was about to speak Takeo continued.

"I was sure I was going to die but then I felt something grab me and bring me to the surface. It placed me back on the boat when I had the strength to move again I looked around to see it was some kind of dragon. It was like a snake but it had fins, gills and spines along its back. Then I heard a strange call there were more of them. They were gathering around out boat they stopped it from flipping it over. They saved us. After a while the storm passed and they guided us to a small island where we got of. I looked at them all to see the one that saved me again it was smaller than the others and it was an assortment of silver colours rather than a blues and greens. Now that we were on dry land they came onto the beach after us. I got a better look at them and the simplest way to describe it was that they looked like aquatic version of the eastern dragons we depict in legends. The silver one walked over to me and started nurseling me looking at my necklace.

It said 'safe now' I was shocked to say the least but then it said 'pretty necklace'. Judging by its voice it seemed to be a girl. I offered it my necklace as thanks for saving us. She accepted it. She had me tie it around her neck and her scales moved over the necklace until only the pendent showed on her chest. As I was about to move some people landed in front of us. They were ninja next thing I blacked out with all of us being on our boat back home it was still broken but we were home. There was a note telling us that we had ended up in the land of dragons and a passing border patrol had returned us home. However there was a necklace with it the dragon that I had given my necklace to had removed one of her scales so the pendent could show through and made it into a necklace for me." Takeo finishes and gets up. He takes the necklace he had been wearing off and showed it to Sakura. It had a silver pointed scale, which was attached to some rope seemingly made out of some strange sea plant. Sakura touches the scale and pulls her hand back.

"It feels like nothing I have ever felt before." The rest of team seven joins her with their client. Takeo walks under the deck and comes back with a glass bowl of water.

"You think that's amazing? This is a bowl of sea water and watch what happens when I put the scale in it." Takeo submerges the scale in the water and after a few seconds the scale turns completely clear. He pulls it out of the water and they see the scale as a distortion in the air dripping with water after about thirty seconds it turns back to silver.

"I have to get back to work but I can tell you guys one thing. While I was on that island I only saw fish in the sea other then that all of the animals were variants of dragons but then again I wasn't on the island that long nor was I focusing on the other animals." Takeo finishes and walks of and continues with the rest of this work on the ship.

"We have so got to ask Nikita about that it sounds so cool." Naruto starts jumping around and goes to find Nikita but Kakashi stops him.

"Naruto she's helping the Captain navigate their way to our destination you can ask her tomorrow since she should be done helping them." The rest of the day went peacefully with Kakashi helping the sailors were he could with the rest of his team either goofing around or helping the cooks with their dinner for the day.

Day Two on the ship

Most of the day was uneventful but later that day at sunset Nikita had finished helping the captain and was just leaning against the railings on the side of the ship. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke then join her.

"Hey Nikita can we ask you questions about the Land of dragons in general." Sakura leans with her back against the rail. Nikita moves and sites against the outer wall of the cabin.

"I have a feeling this would happen after what I heard Takeo tell you guys so sure as long as it's not about the village I will answer the best of my abilities." Naruto and Sakura sit in front of Nikita while Sasuke continues to lean against the rails.

"What sorts of animals live there? Takeo told me he sew dragons that were different to Syfurrem."

"Well that is true…you see the Land of dragons is a very unique place. Before I ended up in your village I had never seen dogs or cats before. There are no mammals other then humans in the Land of dragon. There are also no amphibians or birds. In the Land of dragons every single part of the ecosystem is filled with some kind of dragon while there are a lot of aquatic dragons there are still fish there." Nikita gets up and enters the cabins and comes back out with a note pad and pencil.

"Sorry about that its in case I can't answer one of your questions with words alone." Nikita draws a few pictures.

"For example there's a dragon that has a massive throat pouch which it uses to store the fish it collects. There are tiny dragons the size of your hand that flies around the trees. Some of these dragons have beaks or feathers. There are dragons that hunt in packs across fields of grass and so on. Next question?" Nikita takes the note pad back.

"What is the Land of dragons like itself?" Sasuke decided to add his two cents. Despite the fact that he looked disinterested he was actually very curious to find out more.

"Ah this is a toughie… Due to the nature of dragon and some of them having amazing abilities the Land of dragons have many different environments. Something about the dragons makes the currents around all the islands behave in different ways. As a result each island has it's own climate and environment even though it doesn't make sense. There is a; dessert island; ice island; planes islands; volcanic island; mountainous islands and forest islands. Now to explain a bit better when I say islands I mean types of that island. For example with the forest islands there is jungle, swamp, pine and other types. While there are plains on the other types of island the plains islands are islands that have salt flats, rock flats, grassland and just an island of ice. To be specific the plains islands are always flat with the occasional hill. Every single island is inhabited but you need to know where to look." Nikita taps the note pad a few times.

"I don't really know what else I can say with giving away anything else to do with the village. Anyway anything else?" They look thoughtful for a minuet but that Naruto gets an idea.

"Takeo mentioned border guards could you explain a bit about them?" Naruto rubs the back of his head. Nikita smiles.

"Well who you call border guards are actually called Jiaon's they are our sea equivalent to your anbu or border patrols. Their job is to patrol the seas around all of the islands to ensure no one is trying to sneak in and to make sure nothing illegal is happening. For example there used to be an illegal trade where people would hunt specifically for a rare colour variation of a wide dragon that they would catch and then sell or repeatedly harvest thing from it. It is an incredibly cruel trade, which is not tolerated. That dragon Takeo saw is one of those rare variations." Naruto looks at the floor for a while.

"What do you mean by 'Harvest'?" Sakura asks although fears the answer,

"Well they would catch the dragon and either keep it locked in a cage or pinned down. After that they would pull out things like teeth, scales and even claws they would always grow back the same colours so they would just keep doing it… it… it scars the dragon for life. As a result of this we are ordered to execute anyone found doing it no trial no second chances." Nikita looks to the sky and Syfurrem lands on the boat causing some panic but then everyone is quickly calmed down.

"Get Kakashi out here we're now in the Land of Dragons." Syfurrem walks over to Nikita and mentions for her to get on. Just then a silver dragon rises from the water with someone on its head and Takeo runs over.

"Yes it is Takeo long time no see and welcome to the land of Dragons." The dragon says and some other dragons with riders rise of the water.

"Unfortunately we have been given orders to only allow the ninja team with Nikita through, it is nice to see that you have recovered from that storm." The dragon rises out of the water more with her scales turning visible. The rest of her body is still invisible with a small blue stone imbedded in her chest.

"Now children get ready for the ride of your lifetimes." Syfurrem takes off when each member of team seven is pulled onto different dragons that continue in the direction the boat was going.