Leaving the two tied up with their own chains, Lincoln, his sisters, Team 7, and Tazuna continued on their way toward Wave. Luan wrapped a bandage around Naruto's hand, noticing that it was already healing. She pretended not to see it happening as she didn't want her cover blown. It was some hours later that we find them sitting in a boat with thick fog around them. Naruto was upfront sniffing the air, Sasuke and Sakura were sitting next to Luna and Luan with Sakura staring at them. Lincoln was snoozing in the back while Kakashi was sitting next to Tazuna. A man wearing a hat like Tazuna's was directing the boat as Luna looked down at Sakura and said: "What? Never seen a developed woman before?" as Sakura blushed

"N-no i-it's just that-"

"Bah, don't worry about it, you're still developing yourself! Nothing to be jealous of," Luan said as she rubbed Sakura's head

"H-huh," Sakura muttered before Naruto saw the bridge

"WHOA! IT'S HUGE!" Naruto screamed, waking Lincoln up

"Be quiet! I told you no noise! Why do you think we're traveling like this, huh? Cutting off the engine and rowing, moving through the dense fog, so they don't see us!" said the boatman as Naruto covered his mouth

"Aww man, *yawn* and I was having such a nice dream too... *sigh* I can never enjoy myself anymore," Lincoln said as he stretched

"Look what you did, Naruto-baka! Why can't you be more like Sasuke-kun?" Sakura said in an angered tone

"Jeeze, sorry," Naruto said

"Aside from that, mister Tazuna?" Kakashi said as the old man looked at him with a grunt

"Yes?"

"Before we reach the peer I want to ask you something," Kakashi continued to say as Tazuna was silent "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," he stated as Tazuna gave another audible grunt. Everyone was looking at him with questionable faces as they wanted answers "Yeah, come on, stop leaving us in the fog, haha! But seriously, why are you secretive?" Luan said as Luna and Lincoln rubbed the bridge of their noses

"Luan-san, I'm the one asking the questions, but yes; why are you keeping us in the dark?" Kakashi said as Tazuna sighed

"I have no choice but to tell you," he said "no, I want you to know the truth. As you said, this is beyond the limits of the given mission. The one who seeks my life is a very short man who casts a long and deadly shadow,"

"A deadly shadow?" Kakashi asked

"What are you talking about, old man?" Luna asked as Kakashi coughed into his hand

"Excuse me, but who is this man?" Kakashi said

"You know him, or I'm at least sure you've heard his name before. He's one of the wealthiest men in the world, the shipping tycoon: Gato," Tazuna said as Kakashi sweatdropped while Lincoln, Luna, and Luan looked at each other. They nodded as they continued to listen

"Gato? As in Gato Transport?" Kakashi asked as Tazuna nodded "He's a business leader, everyone knows him,"

"Who? Who? What? What?" Naruto asked as Luan chopped his head

"I swear there must be an echo in this fog or foxy here has a speech impediment," Luan said as Naruto shivered again

"As I was saying, Gato is a very powerful tycoon from a famous company, that's true. But if you look deeper beneath that, you'd see that he's a drug runner with the same attitude he uses to overthrow his competition with gangs and ninja," Tazuna stated

"Man sounds like this dude needs to go down," Luna said as Tazuna agreed

"That much is true, but we've tried and failed. It was one year ago when Gato set his sights on the Land of Waves, he used his wealth and power to control our trade and shipping. Anyone that stood in his way simply disappeared," Tazuna explained

"Something tells me that they didn't just go missing," Lincoln said as he leaned his head over the boat

"Careful bro, you might fall in," Luna said

"Don't worry about me, as you were saying?" Lincoln replied as Tazuna continued his story

"Yes, now as an island nation a man who controls the sea controls everything. Money, government, our lives! But if there's one thing he fears, it's the bridge; when it's complete it'll join us to the mainland and everything Gato has accomplished will be for nothing, letting us be free once more," the old man said as he looked up at the bridge "I am the bridge builder,"

"So that's it? Since you're in charge of the bridge, you're standing in this gangsters way," Sakura said

"That means those guys we fought in the forest, they were working for Gato," Sasuke said as he looked at his teammates

"I don't understand, if you knew he was dangerous, knew he would send ninja to kill you, why did you hide that from us?" Kakashi said with some anger in his voice

"Because the Land of Waves... is a small unprofitable nation, even our nobles have little money," Tazuna answered as Kakashi stared at him "the people who are working on this bridge are common folk like me who can't pay for a B or A ranked mission, it's too expensive. If you end the mission when you drop me off, there'll be no bridge,"

"Hmm, sounds like you need some help, gramps," Lincoln said as he looked at the water

"Yes, it's true, we need help. But if you do decide to leave I can't blame ya, I'll be killed before I even reach home," Tazuna replied "but don't feel too bad about that, of course, my sweet little grandson will be upset and cry 'Granddad! I want my granddad!'," as Naruto and Sakura gave a sorrowful look "oh and my daughter will ban the ninja of the Hidden Leaf, denouncing and blaming you for abandoning her father and living her life in sorrow," he continued to speak as Naruto and Sakura groaned nervously. Kakashi scratched his headband as he said: "Well, I guess we have no other choice, we'll have to keep guarding you,"

"Oh, I'm very grateful," Tazuna said as he mentally said 'I win!'. It was about 10 minutes later when the boatman said: "We're almost there, Tazuna, we're most fortunate that no one noticed us this far,"

"Nice going," Taznua complemented as the boat went through a tunnel. When the reached the end, they were greeted with sunshine and blue water. Naruto took a deep breath as they stepped off the boat and stretched "Thank-you for taking such a risk," Taznua thanked the boatman

"Just be careful," he replied as he left. When the man was out of ear-shot, Tazuna looked at the group and said "Alright, take me to my home, and I mean get me there in one piece,"

"Alright, you heard the drunk, let's get this over with," Lincoln said

"Hmph, impatient brat, what are they even doing coming to Wave?" Tazuna mumbled below his breath as they set off again on their journey. They continued their way through the small town and made it into a forest. Naruto ran up ahead of the group as he suddenly threw a kunai in a random direction "Over there!" he said as Lincoln looked in a different direction "Over there!" Naruto repeated as he threw another kunai into a bush

"That's enough, Naruto!" Sakura said as she punched him in the back of the head

"W-why did you do that? Someone's following us, I mean it!" Naruto pleaded as he held his head

"Yeah right! Quit lying and acting like a dumb kid," Sakura scolded Naruto

"*Sigh* This really brings me back," Lincoln whispered as he remembered when he used to argue with his 'other' sisters

"What was that?' Tazuna asked

"Oh, nothing, just some old memories," Lincoln waved off as Kakashi looked behind the bush and found a scared white rabbit. Sakura came up behind him and said: "NARUTO! LOOK WHAT YOU DID!"

"GAH! A RABBIT?" Naruto said as he rushed to the rabbit and pulled it close to him "I'm sorry little rabbit, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Naruto repeated

"All this fuss over a rodent?" Taznua said

'That's a snow rabbit,but the color is off. They only have white fur during the winter when there's little sunlight,' Lincoln thought as he looked around. At this moment and time, Kakashi, Luna, and Luan were having the same thoughts 'This rabbit was raised indoors away from the light, which means a replacement jutsu," Kakashi thought as he looked at a tree 'so there's already here,'. Kakashi stood there on high alert as Lincoln and his sisters were doing the same. Then the sound of something huge caught their ears as Kakashi shouted: "LOOK OUT!" and a giant sword came flying at them. Tazuna and Team 7 hit the deck as Lincoln, Luna, and Luan jumped onto the trees, out of the blade's path. The blade then embedded itself into a tree as someone jumped on the handle. The person was a tall and noticeably muscular woman with light grayish skin, short spiky black hair, dark brown eyes, and small eyebrows. She was wearing bandages like a mask over the bottom half of her face. She wore a forehead protector sideways on her head with a Kiri symbol but had a line through it. She had bandages around her chest, covering her B-cup breasts and a belt around her neck. She also had baggy blue pants with a striped pattern and matching wrist-warmers extending up to her elbows and leg-warmers. The person glared behind her as Kakashi caught her gaze. Lincoln was standing on a tree to her right while Luna and Luan were on her left. Kakashi calmly walked toward the person as he said: "Well, well, if it isn't Zabu Momochi, rogue ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist," as Naruto started to run forward, but Kakashi stuck his arm out to stop him "you're in the way," he said as Lincoln appeared behind Naruto

"Let the adults handle this," he said as Luna and luan came down, with Luna cracking her knuckles

"But why?!" Naruto asked

"She's not like the other ninja, she's in a whole other league. If she's our opponent, then I'll need this," Kakashi said as he raised his hand to his forehead protector

"Kakashi of the Sharingan eye, did I get that right?" Zabu asked as she cracked her neck. Sasuke looked at Kakashi with surprise as he didn't know of this "It's too bad, huh? But you'll have to hand over the geezer," Zabu said as she turned her head to face them

"Now quick, Manji formation!" Kakashi ordered "Protect the bridge builder and stay out of this fight! I thought you teamwork and now's the time to use it" he said as he lifted up his forehead protector to reveal the Sharingan

'My, my, so I guess the rumors were true about Kakashi having the Uchiha's prized Sharingan, to think I would be able to see it with my own eyes,' Lincoln thought as he grew a small smile on his face 'if he's pulling all the stops out then I guess this chick's a big deal... too bad, she actually looks pretty cute'

"Sharingan, Sharingan, can someone please tell me what's the big deal?" Naruto asked

"Sharingan... a rare power that resides in the eyes, able to copy genjutsu, taijutsu, and ninjutsu with ease. However, there's more to it than that," Sasuke explained

"You got it right, brat, just by looking at you, you look surprised to see that he has it. Also just by looking at you, I can tell you're from the now near extinct clan of the Uchiha," Zabu stated as she turned around to face them

"How do you know that?!" Sasuke demanded

"You look like him, you wouldn't happen to be related to Itachi, would you?" Zabu asked as Sasuke threw a kunai, of which she caught "A bit testy, are we?" she commented as mist started to roll in. She looked at Kakashi as she threw the kunai at his feet "Keep a tighter leash of your students, but if you must know, in the assassination unit when I was in ANBU in Kiri, we had something called a Bingo Book, which included your brother, Itachi," Zabu explained as the mist started to get thicker "but it also included you, Jonin. We had a standing order to eliminate you on sight. Hehe, to think I would kill the one who has been said to copy over 1000 justu: Kakashi, the copy Ninja," Zabu said as she stared down Kakashi

"Wow! That's so cool!" Naruto said with excitement

"Hmph, still happy-go-lucky even when faced with certain death... I'm going to miss ya kid!" Lincoln said with a smile

"W-wait, what?" Naruto replied as Sakura dragged him over to protect Tazuna. Zabu crouched down on her sword as she said "So I'm going to have to kill you to get to the old man, eh? So be it," as she grabbed her handle and kicked the tree. She vanished as she reappeared on the water with her arms up and mist swirling around her 'So the mythical Hidden Mist Jutsu? Glad I paid attention when Orochi-pedo was drilling jutsu into our heads,' Luna thought

"Hidden Mist Jutsu!" Zabu said as she vanished into mist

[hope you enjoyed the chapter and sorry it took so long to make]