None of you people need to hear any more details about our mostly boring rest of the road trip. To make a long story short, we all did make it to the edge of the Fire Country, and met up with a small canoe/motorboat where we all squished in and were off. Obviously to hopefully everyone, (Well, I can't speak for Naruto, cause…well… he's Naruto…) we were almost there. Unfortunately, Tazuna didn't tell us that without using the motor to power us along, it was taking forever for the rower to simply row us there. I was cramped, tired, hungry, and bored.

"Are we there yet?"

"…no, Araya."
"…How about now?"
"Araya, I said no."

"…It has officially been fifty minutes. Now?"
"OMG Araya, come on!" Naoki complained.

"We are near the bridge!" Tazuna finally sighed to shut us all up. Sure enough, coming through the clouds and mist surrounding us was a pretty humongous bridge.

It looked completely finished to me…Oh, wait, about two feet of the bridge was unfinished at the end. I swear, I could jump across it.

"You call that unfinished?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, we need to finish the last two-three feet, and paint a racing stripe on it. I was thinking pink."
"And you needed an escort for this?" asked Naoki.

"Everyone, shut up! We're close to the Land of Waves! We don't want Gato's spies to catch us." The rower reprimanded us. We fell silent.

"Gato?"
"The oppressive money-obsessed dude."

"Ohhh…"
The boat sped under the bridge as we came into the Land of Waves. Houses popped out of the mist on either side, and the rower pulled the boat over to a dock and let us off before starting up his motor and running off.

"Cheapskate! Why couldn't he start the motor when we reached the bridge!" I asked as we walked along the dock.

"God, Araya, you really don't listen! We might've been spotted by Gato!" cried Naoki.

"Well, then we wouldn't have to search for him and his minions and let them come to us! Have the big battle then, and get rid of them and off home we go! Simple as that."

Everyone looked at me in surprise.

"Araya, the goal is to PROTECT Tazuna, and to do that we want to avoid as many conflicts as possible." Kakashi impatiently explained to me. I rolled my eyes. Naoki walked closer to me and whispered, "Good plan!"
"Thank you! At least someone understands my logic!"
"Well, no. Actually, that's probably one of the only intelligent things you've said yet.."

I raised my arm to smack her upside the head, but Araya went and took control before I could do anything. My arm lowered to my side.

"Well, I've learned never to respect the opinions of certain blue-headed persons in this world." I casually replied. Naoki whiled on me.

"It's genetics, Dammit!"
"Suuure it is, you just keep saying that…"

Inside my head, I was like this.

"Araya, what did I say about telling me first!"
"There wasn't time! Violence is never the answer!"
"She fucking insulted my face!"
"Well, don't let it get to you!"
I cussed a bit more in my head at Araya, and only stopped after I had run out of the choice phrases I had. (Hey, I may cuss like a drunken sailor, but it doesn't mean that I say 'fuck' every other word. It doesn't have much finesse, you know?"
"Over there!" Naruto's voice rang into my head, and I looked just in time to see him chuck a shuriken into a bush. After fifteen seconds of waiting, nothing really happened. I took the initiative and pushed into the bush to fine…an almost comatose/shocked white rabbit.

"OMFG Naruto, it was just a bunny!" I yelled at hi, holding the bunny by it's ears.

"Araya! You'll hurt the poor thing!" Naoki yelled back, wrenching the rabbit from me and cuddling it. Naruto was whimpering about a thousand sorrys and wanted to give it an "I'm soooooooo sorry hug which Naoki promptly refused.

"You could have damaged it badly! You don't know the first thing about rabbits!" Naoki complained. (Wow, Naoki's concerned? Heh- Heh, just you wait about ten to fifteen chapters…)

"Hey, I know plenty about rabbits!" I retorted.

"Oh really? Then what is usually a rabbit's day/night schedule?"

"Eat, sleep, have sex, hop, sex, sleep, eat, sex, sex, eat, sex, sleep-"

"Ok, you had 'sex' in there five times! That isn't it!"
"Course it is! You've heard of the phrase 'multiply like rabbits'! It's gotta come from somewhere!"

While I was arguing the schematics of rabbits with Naoki, I noticed how…white the rabbit was. I'd only seen coats like that in pet stores. Wait a sec…white rabbit…in the wild….crap.

"Duck!" Kakashi-sensei cried, and we ducked fast, the bunny forgotten. A giant hunk of metal sailed right over our heads and chunked high into the trunk of a nearby tree. A taller man landed neatly onto the sword. We got off the ground and faced the newcomer in silence.

"…Well, that was a flashy entrance." I said.

"Araya…" Sasuke moaned.

"What? Just trying to lessen the tension.." I said. No one appreciates anything I do around here…

Anywho, this new guy was topless, which usually means hawt in my book, but his weird skin color and hair kinda turned me off. He wore bandages around the lower part of his face as a mask-like thing.

"I've come for the bridge-builder, Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye." The masked figure said, turning to face us. Now, I know about the Sharingan, enough to know that Kakashi-sensei wasn't Uchiha and therefore shouldn't have it. Of course, since it was turning into "Lets See How To Make Araya Wrong" day, when Kakashi lifted his headband, there, glowing red in his eye, was the Sharingan.

"Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist…Kids, assume the Manji battle formation around Tazuna!" Kakashi instructed us. We did so.

Demon of the Mist? Come on, if you're gonna have a nickname, at least use a reference to blood, death, or pain here!

Well, Anywho, Zabuza quickly transported to the water where he used a misting jutsu and disappeared. I focused my thoughts to the task ahead.

Note to self: It saves a lot of time to just kill the client beforehand.