"What do you think she's doing?" I heard Naruto ask in a whisper.

"Beats me" answered Sakura in the same tone, "she's been sat like that for twenty minutes."

I decided to ignore them, due to the fact that I was concentrating on silent prayer in my head. It was essential for me to pray twice a day for one hour. I had my legs crossed and tucked under, with my hands pressed together and my fingers spread apart. My eyes were firmly shut, so I could focus more on my prayer and not get distracted.

We were currently on a small fishing boat crossing into the land of Wave, Naruto was sat right at the head of the boat, Sakura and Tazuna were sat on the left whilst Kakashi, myself and Sasuke were sat on the right.

"Guys..." Kakashi spoke "she's praying, so leave her be."

"Praying?" Sakura whispered "about what?"

"You can ask her went she's done."

I then reopened my eyes to see both Naruto and Sakura really close to my face, making a wet drop from on the back of my head.

"Guys, it's impossible to focus with you this close to my face."

But still they watched me as if they were kids at a zoo. Letting out a frustrated sigh, I sat back into a more comfortable sitting position. I'm never going to get a prayer in at this rate, Haruo would have my neck if he were here!

"The mist is so thick..." commented Sakura "I can't see what's ahead."

Naruto turned back forward and glared ahead, as if he was trying to make out what was in front of him. But it was no use, I'm surprised we haven't crashed yet it was that thick.

"Er Tomoko?" I turned my head towards Sakura, "you er... never finished your explanation about your religion."

I blinked, was she actually interested? Or was she just asking to kill time? "Can I ask why you want to know?"

"I-I just... I guess I just wanna get to know ya! Is that a crime?"

I gave her a suspicious look, but I decided to tell her about it anyway, it's not like I'm going to be struck down by lightening. "Back in Yamakure, as I told you before, we base the countries welfare, military force and funding on our religion, which is the Will of Mitsuko, Goddess of Order."

"Goddess of Order?"

"Yes" I confirmed "we believe there are two forces, that drive and shape events, the two forces are known as Order and Chaos, each force has a god. Mitsuko is the Goddess of Order, she's... everything good and pure in the world."

Sakura nodded as she took the information in "And the other would be..."

I turned serious, "the other would be Yaso... God of corruption, war and destruction. He is Mitsuko's biggest foe and..." I hesitated, "the reason my mother was taken away from me."

Sakura gave a shocked look "what?"

"I've said too much already, I don't really like talking about my mother"

"Okay..." she said, "but can I just ask... why are there two forces? Wouldn't it be better if there was just Order?"

I shook my head "no, both forces need to be balanced for everything to run as normal."

"I..." she started "don't follow..."

I sighed, I was getting a little tired of explain this, but surprisingly someone beat me to it!

"Basically..." said Sasuke, "if there's more than the other, the world will begin to spiral out of control. If there is too much Order, everything would remain static, we need to chaos to evolve and learn. If there is too much Chaos, then there would be nothing but corruption and war, meaning humanity would slowly tear itself apart, therefore Order is needed to keep Chaos in check."

Everyone stared at Sasuke with a stunned expression, heck even I was speechless!

"Wow!" breathed Sakura "you're so knowledgeable and cool Sasuke-kun! It goes to show that you paid attention at the academy!"

"Hm, I didn't learn it at the academy" Sasuke shot at her.

"Huh... then where did you learn it?"

"You mean you don't know?" Naruto asked her.

She gave him a puzzled look and asked him what he was talking about, I already didn't like were this was going.

Naruto laughed and placed his arms behind his head, "Tomoko and Sasuke grew up together, even I knew that!"

Sakura looked like she'd just been shot, and by look on her fac,e I wouldn't be surprised if she was crying from the inside, saying that I had an advantage of taking away her Sasuke or something along them lines. I mean... it is Sakura after all.

"We should be at the bridge soon" stated the boat driver, "if we move along side of the bridge, we'll be at the Country of Wave." After a while, something large and tall began appearing through the fog. I had to squint my eyes at first, but as we got closer, the outline got clearer.

'Oh my god!' I thought gaping the enormous bridge in front of us.

"IT'S HUGE!" Naruto exclaimed, this made the boat driver snap at him to be quiet and explained that he was hiding in the mist, and why he was rowing and not using the engine.

"Naruto, if we get caught, we'll be in trouble..." I whispered to him.

Naruto immediately covered his mouth with his hands with a panicked expression, which made me chuckle slightly, Naruto always made me laugh.

"Tazuna-san..." spoke Kakashi, "Before the boat gets to the pier, there's something I need to ask you. The identity of the ones who are after you, and why they are after you... Or we can call this mission off when you get ashore."

Tazuna sighed, I had a feeling he knew this was coming, "it looks like I have to tell the real story..." he paused, "I mean, I would like for you to hear my story." He then cleared his throat "As you said, this mission is most likely out of your job description. An extremely terrible man is after my life."

"An extremely terrible man?" Kakashi repeated.

"Yes" Tazuna replied.

"Who is it?"

I saw Tazuna glare slightly "you have all at least heard of the name, Marine transportation billionaire Gatoh."

I blinked, that name did sound familiar...

"Haruo-Aaron!" I cheered running over to him and Kinosuke, but he didn't reply, it seemed him and the horse were watching something.

"Aaron?" I repeated as I stood next to him, Haruo gave me a quick glance but returned his gaze forward. I to looked forward, to see a short stocky man in a very smart suit. Either side of him were two samurai who looked like they were his body guards.

"Who is that Aaron?"

But Haruo didn't answer he just kept at firm gaze as the man was talking to one of the council elders, they greeted each other with a handshake and had some small chatter.

"I believe his name is Gatoh" Kinosuke answered, as he dug the ground with his hoof "a businessman of some sorts."

"Why is he here?" Haruo asked him.

The horse snorted "I don't pay any mind to politics, come on children, we should head home..."

For some reason, the flashback made my head throb. Surprised by the pain, my head suddenly felt heavy as I held it in my hand. I ignored the fact that Sasuke noticed and threw me a puzzled look, it was a good thing that he didn't question me at the moment.

"Gatoh?" Kakashi said surprised "The one from the Gatoh Company? He's one of the world's richest men!"

"Who's that? What?" piped Naruto.

"Yes" Tazuna confirmed, "he is the president of a marine transportation company on the outside. But underground, he uses gangs and ninjas to smuggle drugs and contraband goods. He also does nasty jobs like takeovers of other companies and countries".

He then explained that a year ago Gatoh, set his sights on the Country of Wave and used violence and wealth to take over the island's sea traffic and transportation. "On an island like the Country of Wave..." he continued, "controlling the sea means ruling over the wealth, politics and the people of this island. And the one thing Gatoh is afraid of, is the completion of the bridge that has been under construction for quite some time."

"I see" spoke Sakura "So you, as the one building the bridge, became an obstacle to him."

Sasuke looked at his feet "then those ninjas were sent by Gatoh."

"But I don't understand" said Kakashi "He's a dangerous man that uses ninjas, why did you hide that fact when you came to us?"

Tazuna looked down in shame, which made me realise...

"You couldn't afford anything above a C rank..." I stated softly "could you?"

Tazuna nodded "we are a very poor country, even the Feudal Lord does not have that much money. If you quit your mission after I land, I'll be killed for sure!" but he then threw a very fake, innocent smile, "but there's no need to blame yourselves... only my cute eight year old grandson will cry and cry and cry some more!"

I felt a wet drop on the side of my head, was he trying to guilt trip us?

"And! My daughter will just hold a grudge against Konoha ninja and live a lonely life, but it's not your fault" He concluded simply.

We all looked at each other and Kakashi scratched his head in frustration. "We can't just dump him sensei" I told him. "Remember... you said not helping a friend is worst than scum."

Kakashi sighed, "I guess it can't be helped. We will continue escorting you." I could tell Tazuna was doing some sort of silence cheer, because of the boasting look on his face.

Everything once again turned quiethoughts made me think back to my flashback. Tazuna said that underground Gatoh was a gangster, were the council aware of that at the time? That fact that they were communicating with him was as weird as it was since Mistuko rules out any kind of exchange of greed.

'It must have been for some new project plan or something...' I first thought. But, then I remembered, that the architecture of the city hadn't been touched in over a thousand years, it just didn't make sense to me...

"Tomoko?"

"Hm?" I hummed looking up at my sensei.

"Are you alright?" he asked "you seem distracted."

I gave him a reassuring smile, "no it's nothing, just reliving some memories".

As the boat arrived at its destination, I couldn't help but take in the scenery around me, even though the land of wave was small, it was very beautiful.

"This is as far as I can go" the boat driver told his friend "later."

Tazuna gave him a nod "sure, thanks a lot." The boat driver gave one final farewell, before sailing across the lake.

The bridge builder turned to face us,"Alright! Take me home safely!"

I felt wet drop on the side of my head, "just because we agreed to still protect you, doesn't mean you can boss us around…"

"ONWARD!"

My eye began twitching 'now you're pushing it….' I thought as we started walking.

As we walked, my thoughts went back to Gatoh again. I don't know why I remembered that moment, mainly because I don't remember much else. Don't ask me why, but the only thing I could remember was gold fields, gold fields and my family. My father was never in the picture, Haruo and my mother never talked about him and I was banned to ask anything about him. I never questioned it when I was younger, but the more I thought about him, the more I wondered… did he love me? Was he there when I was born? And why did he leave?

I think I'll question my brother about it after I'm done with this mission.

"THERE!"

"Huh?" but I was cut off by a kunai knife nearly hitting me, in my panic I only just managed to dodge it. Once I controlled my breathing, I noticed it was Naruto that threw it.

"NARUTO WHAT THE HELL?!"

"Oh… it was just a mouse" was all he said with a smug expression.

"Stop showing off!" Sakura barked "there was nothing there!"

"Please Naruto, don't use your throwing knives so abusively" Kakashi ordered, but he sounded a bit shaky, he still must have been getting over the shock.

"HEY YOU DAWF!" Tazuna bellowed "DON'T SCARE US!"

But Naruto ignored him and scouted the area "I see someone hiding over there!"

"Naruto…" I hissed.

"No he's over there!" he yelled pointing in the other direction. He then turned around and threw another Kunai knife, into the bushes.

"Alright that's it!" I snapped grabbing his ear, "you throw another knife and I'll have your head!"

"Ow! But I really did sense something!"

"Liar!" Sakura pointed storming over "Cut it out!"

Wow... For once me and Sakura agreed on something, is there a pig flying nearby?

"You nearly hit me god damn it!" I shouted and let go of him.

He mumbled sorry as Kakashi went into the bushes where he threw his knife. There it was stuck in a truck on a tree, but just below it was a petrified rabbit.

"Naruto!" Sakura screeched running over to it "Look what you've done!"

Naruto immediately ran to it aswell, and picked it up "I'm so sorry!" he told it as he hugged the poor thing, but the rabbit still seemed to be in a state of shock.

'Wait a minute…' I suddenly thought, getting a good look at it.

'Isn't that a snow rabbit?'

I looked over at Kakashi and noticed the stern expression on his face, he noticed it too. Snow rabbits only have white fur during the winter, the short days. I knew this because these had plenty of them up in the mountains, and due to it being so cold up there, they're fur was always white. Yet we are in the middle of spring? It didn't make sense, unless….

A gust of wind rushed around me, I could hear its whispers… someone was here!

"EVERYONE DUCK!" I shouted, everyone looked at me baffled for a second. But soon noticed a huge sword come flying through the air like a boomerang, and it was aiming for all their heads. Thankfully, everyone ducked in time and the sword stabbed itself in a tree. Soon enough, a tall man appeared standing on the handle with is back facing us.

Glancing over his shoulder I could see his steely eyes glaring at the bridge builder, like a predator he watched his every move. I couldn't tell what expression he had, because his whole face was bandaged up and his ninja forehead protector was placed at the side of his head, this guy meant business… and his business was Tazuna!