The sail creeked in the late hours of the evening, giving an eery feeling that disturbed Naruto who stood at the helm. They had been out to sea for about three days now, trying to get around to Konoha's eastern coast because the Mist shinobi were at their backs.

Naruto yawned and leaned on the helm. The boat had slowed to a crawl because of the lack of wind, and the rocking boat made him sleepy. They were lucky that the Mist shinobi kept the boat well stocked with food, especially since they took off so fast without thinking about these kinds of necessities.

Below the deck were the sleeping quarters, but feeling that Sakura and Itachi needed their privacy to patch things up, everyone else let them sleep there alone.

On the bed nearest the hatch, Sakura threaded her fingers through Itachi's as she lay with her eyes closed. Itachi, feeling that she wasn't close enough, pulled his hand away and instead wrapped it around her waist to pull her in close to rub his cheek against hers, then gave her a tiny kiss on the lips.

Sakura smiled in happiness. At last they both had an answer to their future, and it was that they would never be parted again.

"Stay here and rest," said Itachi. "I have to take over for Naruto."

Sakura suddenly clutched Itachi as if she were a leech.

"Mmmmm, not yet," moaned Sakura, throwing her leg over him.

Itachi brought his lips to hers and began to kiss her until her grip softened. Slowly, Itachi slipped away and stood up to put on his coat.

"Cheater..." said Sakura, peeking her eyes open at him.

"Hmph."

Itachi came up on deck and walked over to the helm.

"Yay...." said Naruto sleepily.

Itachi walked over to the helm and replaced Naruto. Looking out to sea, Itachi seemed uneasy. Mustering his strength, he spoke to Naruto.

"Arigatou, Naruto.... for your blessing," said Itachi.

Naruto stopped and was startled. It was the first time that Itachi had been so kind in words to him. Although his words were different however, it seemed that Itachi was uncomfortable speaking that way, as he did not look Naruto in the eye.

"Just take care of Sakura-chan, and I won't unleash the Kyuubi on you," joked Naruto. ".....Hmm? What is that?"

Itachi looked to the back of the boat where Naruto was looking. Out in the distance, he could see for a brief moment what looked like a ship.

"Kisame," said Itachi.

Kisame awoke with a start and yawned to come and see what Itachi wanted.

"What?" said Kisame, blinking the sleep from his eyes.

"We've got company," said Itachi pointing out to where he last saw the boat.

"Mmm? Alright, I'll check..."

Kisame made a clone which dove off the side of the boat. The sound of the splash awoke the rest of the crew.

"What's going on?" asked Kakashi as he came to their side.

"There's a boat about a mile off, though I'm not sure who it is..." said Itachi, staring out to sea.

"Well, if we can't see it now, then we'll have to just wait until we do," said Kakashi, checking along the horizon at all sides. "Ino, go and wake Sakura."

"Hai," said Ino as she walked downstairs.

"Sakura..." said Ino, stepping carefully down the stairs and into the dark. "Sakura, there's a ship in range. We're not sure who it is but you'd better wake up."

A movement in the dark told Ino where Sakura was, but as she approached her, something didn't feel right.

"Did you hear that?" asked Ino to Sakura.

"Mmm. It sounded like a crack."

"You'd better get up," said Ino, feeling more and more unsteady.

Sakura pulled the blanket off and grabbed Ino's hand to get up. However, just as she got on her two feet, they heard another big crack.

Suddenly the area of the hull right where Sakura was sleeping burst and the water came flooding in so fast that they didn't have time to react. The girls wrapped their arms around eachother to protect themselves from being injured and getting lost. Up on deck, the others heard the crack and felt the boat begin to sink.

"Sakura! Ino!" shouted Naruto as he ran to the hatch but it was too late, the water was now flooding out onto the deck.

"Kisame!" shouted Itachi, to which Kisame immediately dove off the side of the boat to look for them.

As he went under he found the side with the hole in the ship's hull. However, looking into the ship, he couldn't see anything, but suddenly he caught the smell of something in his gills: blood.

Turning around, Kisame saw a shinobi swimming away fast with Sakura, but she had a breathing device on her. Kisame didn't see Ino, but soon he found that she was directly below him, and being held down by two other shinobi who were trying to drown her. Kisame saw her kicking at the shinobi who held her, but soon her movements died and she passed out.

Seeing as Sakura was not in immediate danger, Kisame dove down and bit the neck of one of them quicker than he could react. Kicking the other one, Kisame ripped off his breathing mask and put it on Ino, but she wasn't taking it in.

Shit, thought Kisame, swimming with Ino as quick as he could back to the surface. Once he surfaced, he immediately began trying to rescucitate her. Ino coughed, and fell limp in his arms. He at least got her to breath again. Making hand signals, he made another clone to chase after Sakura.

"Where's Sakura!?!" shouted Naruto as Kisame climbed aboard with Ino under one of his arms.

"They're taking her to their ship, I've got a clone chasing her scent. She's bleeding," said Kisame.

Suddenly on all sides of the slowly sinking ship, shinobi burst forth and began their attack.

Throwing Ino over his shoulder, Kisame grabbed his sword and tore the flesh of one of them as they came down. Itachi's speed allowed him to take out three with kunai before they even touched the ground. Naruto and Kakashi were busy handling two each, but it seemed that more shinobi just kept coming.

"They're trying to keep us from following!" shouted Kakashi.

"Which way did they take her!?!" Itachi shouted to Kisame.

"East! Though I don't think you can find them!! They may have switched directions beneath the surface!"

Naruto grabbed one of the shinobi and threw him into one that Kisame was holding off. Itachi sent a giant fireball straight towards three more shinobi who had just jumped out of the water. The giant fireball lit the sky and illuminated their battle that seemed to have an endless supply of attackers.

When the Mist shinobi felt that they could no longer continue, they tried to retreat, but were killed off by Itachi and Kisame who would not let them escape. When the battle was over, everyone found that the boat was no longer sinking, but it could no longer be sailed as well. Walking over to the eastern side of the ship, they stared out over the ocean and waited for the clone to return to the ship.

About fifteen minutes passed and there was no sign of anything. Soon however, Kisame spoke.

"He's gone..." said Kisame, who sat with Ino in his lap. "They got him."

"Do you know where they are?" asked Kakashi.

"No, but I know where they're going. They'll be taking her back to Kirigakure, for sure. "

Naruto cringed. He didn't like the thought of that.

"Isn't that the village where Zabuza was from? The one that has you kill your comrade as part of training?" asked Naruto to Kakashi.

"Yes, but not since Zabuza..." said Kisame, sighing. "My home village: where the blood meets the sand more often than the rain. Let's hope we find her before she has that kid of yours, Itachi."

"What should we do now," said Naruto. "The boat's broken."

Kisame looked out to sea. After years of living in Kirigakure, he had become well acquainted with reading the weather.

"I'd say we can make a run for it," said Kisame. "We should be at most four miles from the southern peninsula of Tea Country. From there we can cross land and try to pick up a ship on the eastern coast. If we hurry, we might be able to cut them off before they reach Water Country. They'll probably want to take the swiftest route, so we can expect them to run between Fire Country and the islands skirting the other side. We'll have to be quick because I can't guarantee what will happen once she meets the Mizukage."

"We'll have to be more careful now," said Kakashi. "Now that Sakura is in the hands of a village other than Konoha, the other villages who are after her will be more apt to obtain her before she's within another's borders. If the other villages invade Kirigakure, it could launch a full scale war. We need to act fast in case they switch hands too."

Grabbing whatever they could carry, the team got ready to ditch the ship.

"Ano, Kisame," said Kakashi. "What about Ino?"

"It's ok, I can carry her," said Kisame, nonchalantly.

Kakashi gave him a suspicious look as Kisame held her with one arm as he put his sword on his back. Cradling her, Kisame grinned to Itachi.

"Let's go," said Itachi to the others.

With that, the team set off into the darkness, following the direction of the stars towards land.