The docks were wet with fresh rain from the ocean, and the 3 Mist ninja wasted no time leaping over the wire fence and sidling up to one of the many large crates littered around the expansive docks. Peering round the corner revealed a large concrete clearing well lit by a large spot light, and even at this late hour, there were still workers milling around, loading cargo for the usual busy day waiting to emerge over the horizon.

"Now what? How do we know where they are?" Said Hatsu, crouching and spinning a shuriken irritantly on one finger.
Kaphin turned away from the clearing and pointed to a small lit up hut along the line of crates surrounding the clearing about 200 feet away, "They're either still on this island, or they've already taken a ship."

"What's that hut for?" Asked Shin.

"That's the main office, that'll have the records of all the ships coming and going," Kaphin ajusted his forehead protector and looked at the others, "I'm betting the Leaf nin didn't stop to sign out before they left, so we just have to look for any ships that are missing." Shin smiled admiringly.

"Ok then!" Exclaimed Hatsu as he holstered his shuriken, "let's go"

They flitted from shadows to shadows behind the crates, they may have been in their own country, but as far as the Leaf nin were concerned, they had got away and were no longer being chased. The Mist 3 had to make sure that they retained that element of surprise and couldn't risk anyone spreading the word that they were around.

Kaphin glanced into the open doorway at the back of the hut and saw the dock security guard sitting reading a newspaper, Shin was opposite the hut in the shadows keeping a lookout, she nodded to Kaphin who forwarded that to Hatsu who was standing on the other side of the door. Hatsu slid without a single sound into the hut, and in one swift movement with the side of his hand he hit the guard on the back of the neck. As he slumped over into unconsciousness Kaphin walked in. "This it?" Hatsu was holding out a bright red important looking folder with lots of odd bits of paper and notes in it. Kaphin took it and started flicking through the pages, "That's exactly it." He quickly identified that not only was there a boat missing, but the dock workers were kind enough to report and record it as soon as they found out."According to this, they're only half an hour ahead of us."

"Perfect, if we're going to do this, then let's grab a boat and get to the country of Fire!" Kaphin smiled, Hatsu's determination was his strong and weak point, but when he directed that determination towards a good cause, it really lifted the pace of the team.

Hatsu broke from his determined stance and looked down at the folder in Kaphin's hands, Kaphin heard it too, a quiet hissing that silently came out of nowhere. Kaphin snapped the folder closed so that the back was facing up, and in an instant his pupils dilated, his heart stopped and the world paused for breath.Hatsu looked up and opened his mouth, "Explosion note!" Before you could blink he was out of the door, and in a split second Kaphin realised that the door was too far for him now. Faster than his brain could keep up with him he threw the folder into the corner of the hut, put one foot on the desk and launched himself through the window. The thin glass easily broke as he threw his full weight and all the momentum he could muster at the window, now it felt almost like slow motion as he was falling with the broken glass all around him to the ground, but half way down everything caught up as he heard the thundering sound of the an explosion sending all the other panes of glass ripping over his head, immediately after that the flames burst out illuminating all of the docks in a bright orange glare for one fleeting moment before everything was pitched into perfect darkness.

Kaphin was lying on his front with his head to the side, at first he couldn't see anything, but as his eyes ajusted to the darkness he could make out a figure running towards him. Then, just over the ringing in his ears he could hear the crunching of the broken glass under their shoes. Shin dropped to her knees and grabbed Kaphin, "Are you ok! Oh my god!"

"Wh, what?" Kaphin pushed himself to his feet and his senses snapped back, "Ahh, I'm fine, just a little concussed."

"Leaf ninja were a little more cautious than we expected." Said Hatsu, Kaphin hadn't noticed him standing behind him, he had his hand on his kunai and was looking around, wary of an attack.

"You need to rest." Started Shin as she put her hand gently on his shoulder. He shurugged it off.

"Come on, let's find a boat."

They quickly found a small sail boat, Kaphin jumped on and staggered a little as the boat rocked in the water. He told himself it was the darkness that tricked him making the boat look heavier, but really he just still hadn't totally recovered from the blast. He sat down at the front of the boat and cut the mooring with his kunai, he wasn't in the mood for such annoyances. Hatsu jumped in at the back and took hold of the rudder, and Shin jumped into the middle and let down the sail, she looked like she was doing, which was good enough, as long as they could get there everything else was good enough. Kaphin looked over at Hatsu as he finished untying the moorings and pushed off. The boat rocked gently in the calm waters as they drifted out, the cool breese and soft lapping of water against the side of the boat relaxed him a little. 'I sure hope there aren't any explosive notes underneath this boat.' He thought to himself, and only then did he realise that there was a security guard in that hut.

He drifted off to sleep as the boat silently pushed through the fog and the docks disappeared into the haze.

End of chapter 2.