Sand Siblings

Part 20

Gaara, though he seemed calm and composed outside, was fighting back a strong urge to die or puke or both whilst tightly holding onto his seat.
Forced day and night to be awake at sea... The only advantage was that he could wait until most of the people were asleep before doing things such as emptying his bladder (he secretly felt terrible for the only two women on board. He couldn't imagine how inconvenient it must be for them). He had almost forgotten how much he loathed being surrounded by water and sitting in a small rowboat in the middle of the ocean was definitely worse than being on a ship. For a second, he didn't think it could get any worse but, of course, it did.

"Oh, look! A shark!" gasped Baki, pointing at a dark silhouette cutting through the water. For citizens of Suna such animals were particularly a myth. Kankuro and Atsushi started following the fish with their eyes, incredibly fascinated at the sight.

Sharks... Gaara nearly cried. If he could have nightmares, his current situation would definitely be one of them. Vulnerable, no sand, surrounded by ocean, what he pictured to be a beast even more terrifying than Shukaku following them... He had never seen such a creature and had no intention of hanging around to meet it. A panicked glance to his sensei was enough to make the older man worried as well.

"Aw crap! Shark? We need to get out of here!" shouted Yuudai. He and Toshio started rowing frantically.
"Don't splash the oars! You'll just attract it even more!" snapped Reina. "I hear that sharks don't usually attack humans and, for all we know, this one might be harmless. Just row quickly but smoothly."
Everyone nodded.
"I'm confused though..." started Baki. "I read about sharks in a manual on marine life once -..."
"Why would you read a manual on marine life?" chuckled Reina, eying the man curiously.
"I-I simply wanted to expand my knowledge! Besides, it was rather interesting... So, as I was saying, it said that sharks are attracted to blood. Is someone bleeding? Kankuro, your wounds didn't reopen? Or maybe you threw your dirty bandages into the ocean? Did you?"

Whilst the adults started grilling her brother out, all Temari could do was slump lower into her seat, trying to hide her embarrassed face. She hadn't thought about the possibility of there being sharks in the water... Thankfully for all of them, though, and to Gaara's greatest relief, Reina had been right. The shark was harmless.

"Oh! The rest of the search party is still camping by the shore! HEY! We're back!" shouted Atsushi, standing up and waving his arms.
Toshio grabbed the chuunin by the shirt and tugged him down.
"Sit down! You're making the boat rock! Besides, for all we know, they might have had the order to execute us as traitors."
This made Atsushi shut up and stare at his feet.

Gaara was staring at the shore with a mixture of dread and longing, not wanting to see all of those people but really wanting to get to dry land.
"We have no choice, we can't stay out here forever. Let's just get to camp and we'll try explaining the situation to the captain. Besides, we've found the shipwreck, so we've completed the mission." sighed Yuudai. Everyone agreed that that was the only possible course of action that they could take at this moment, since they had run out of food and starving to death would not only be terrible for them but for the mission as well.

At first, they couldn't be spotted because they blended in with the few fishing boats sent out to sea by the nearby village but, once they got closer, one of the sensory type shinobi spotted them. They saw him jump to his feet and run into the captain's tent. The ninja on the rowboat held their breath as they kept rowing towards the shore, especially when their commander walked up to the shoreline accompanied by a few of his subordinates.

Eventually, the closer they got, the more people noticed them and stood by the ocean to wait for them.
"Does the boss seem pissed off?" muttered Atsushi. Reina squinted her eyes.
"He probably is." she replied.
"Oh, don't worry. It's not like they'll do anything with the Kazekage's three devil spawns on your side. They're too scared." chuckled Kankuro darkly. Though the adults were embarrassed to admit it, he was right. They didn't have the best reputation in Suna, even if Gaara was the only one who deserved it to some extent. He did kill quite a few civilians.