Waiting Game

Chapter 5

The stinging in my ankle on got worse as time passed. The paranoia in everyone raised, as we were all already shaken up by the Hidden Mist Chunin attack. Kakashi had left them tied to a tree way back, and knocked them out, so they should be out for a while. He said two hours at the least, but since they were trained for relentless attack...

Perhaps they'll only be out for one. Even less, maybe, but it doesn't matter. Since they were still so close to Konoha, it was only a matter of time before a traveling merchant, a Shinobi, or even one of their allies would find them.

I didn't like how probable the last one was, for obvious reasons.

"-an!" A faded voice called out to me. That confused me, what were they saying? "-chan! Onee-chan!"

Oh, it was just Sakura calling me. I hadn't even noticed that I stopped in the middle of the road, thinking to myself.

"You awake yet?" she asked. I slowly nodded. "Good. We're getting on a boat." I nodded again, this time in acknowledgement. A man on a motor boat arrived at the beach, where a small and crudely hidden dock was, and we all boarded the vessel.

The owner of the boat pulled out an oar from the bottom of it, and began rowing. I realized that we were traveling like this to stay quiet, so that we wouldn't alert any enemies until we arrived at the island of the Land or Waves.

It was smart, I suppose, but wouldn't do much to hinder enemy Shinobi.

There was mist clouding the view of anything further than a meter(yard) away from the boat. It was unsettling, the fact that there was complete silence other than the dipping of an oar into the water and then the quiet splash of made when the oar emerged. The only other sounds was the breathing that varied from each person in gentleness. Kakashi's and Sakura's were the softest, Sasuke's was more sharp, and Naruto's was just... breathing. It wasn't concealed unlike the others'.

Mine was ragged, no matter how much I tried to quiet it.

I closed my eyes; I was feeling awfully sleepy, and my thoughts weren't going by as fast as they should have.

'It must be the lack of sleep... I haven't slept well ever since Kakashi-sensei's bell test...' I twitched. 'It doesn't feel right, though... maybe it's just my paranoia... no. Paranoia doesn't make you feel less sleepy....? Now even my thoughts don't sound right.... what was I just thinking about?'

I didn't like this. I didn't like this at all.

"Onee-chan," Sakura's soft voice called. I sluggishly looked over to her, inwardly cursing my inability to stay sharp. 'What is wrong with me?' "Are you okay?"

I opened my mouth, but no noise came out, so I settled on shrugging. 'This can't just be lack of sleep. Oh, that's what I was thinking about earlier!'

"Alright," she said, her hushed voice sounding concerned before looking around. "Wow, this fog is so thick that you can't see anything!" After another few moments in almost-silence, the man rowing the boat finally spoke.

"The bridge isn't far now. Our destination is up ahead; the Land of Waves."

Slowly, the beginnings of a bridge that towered over our small boat emerged from the mist. Naruto's mouth widened and he inhaled, but I lunged forwards clumsily and held a hand over his mouth.

"Shh..." I could only sound out.

"Hush, boy! Why do you think we're travelling like this?! To be quiet!" the boat-man ground out, keeping his voice quiet even as he scolded Naruto. Since we were all already noisy anyway, Kakashi also spoke up.

"Mr. Tazuna," he began, his voice tense. "Before we reach the pier, I want to ask you something. The men who are after you. I need to know why. If you don't tell us, I'm afraid we'll have to end this mission when we drop you ashore."