The attack came under cover of mist.
After an early night's rest at the inn, Naruto and the others had risen before the sun, and gotten on board one of the very first boats to Wave country – a small but sturdy wooden fishing boat, manned by a self-professed freelance poet wearing a woven straw hat.
The fog grew steadily thicker as they approached the small island country, and the only sound Naruto could hear was the rhythmic sloshing of the oar as it sliced through the water's surface, made opaque by the reflection of the overcast mist. The conversation, which had been scant to begin with, had all but died down in the face of the grey morning.
Rai had fallen asleep again, and even as Naruto watched, a trickle of drool silently made its way down the side of his face.
It was just as well that Rai had been sitting next to Toru, for just as Naruto reached out to shake the other boy awake, a pair of pale, slimy hands shot out from outside the boat and seized the merchant by the shoulders.
A look of shock and then fear flashing in quick succession across her face, she mutely toppled backwards, breaking the surface of the water with a loud splash. While Mayu and Sai jumped to their feet (with a yelp, the boatman ducked behind them), Naruto managed to lean across Rai in time to grab her ankle with his already outstretched hand. Before he could lose his grip or be pulled over himself, he dug his elbow into Rai's chest, and planting his feet against the wall of the boat, he pulled back, feeling the strain in his arms immediately.
As Rai choked and wheezed back into consciousness below him, two more dark shadows suddenly burst out of the water from the other side of the boat, and from their hands split off a multitude of smaller shadows that flew straight toward them. Mayu and Sai, with a kunai in each hand, hovered protectively in wait.
"Rai!" Naruto shouted out, as the piercing sound of metal striking metal resounded across the water's surface. His eyes immediately focusing, Rai reached upwards with a grunting sound and wrapped his arms around the merchant's kicking legs. Sticking his head in between, Rai leaned forward, gritting his teeth. Letting go of Toru's legs, Naruto quickly made the necessary combination of signs with his freed hands, noting with some anxiety that with the merchant's head underwater, her struggling had started to weaken. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow clone technique)!"
In a burst of white cloud, two clones appeared by his side, and they both immediately dove into the water. As they did so, Naruto rejoined Rai's efforts and grabbing Toru around the torso, he pulled back. After a few seconds, with his clones keeping the underwater assailant busy, the opposing pull on the other end suddenly gave way, and as they fell backwards, the merchant's head resurfaced with a wet gasp. Her body tumbling back onto the boat, she hunched over on all fours immediately, shaking and coughing out water.
Meanwhile, Sai had pulled out a scroll, and with a flourish of his brush, a pair of white and black drawings that Naruto quickly identified as bats had burst out of the page. They disappeared into the fog, in which he could already hear the sound of bluebirds' twittering, and shortly afterwards, the storm of shuriken came to a halt.
"Fūton: Kyōfū (Wind Release: Gale)!"
A strong wind swept into existence, sweeping away the fog surrounding the boat – and revealing nothing but a recently disturbed surface. As if in response, Naruto's two clones popped their heads above the water, and as he dispelled them and gained their memories, he let out a sigh.
"They got away," he told the others, though it was mainly for the merchant's benefit. Mayu's bluebirds had already returned and were perched on her shoulders, pecking lightly at her nape.
"They were ninja weren't they?" Rai said, his eyes narrowing. "What village were they from?"
"They weren't wearing any identifiable markers," said Mayu, as she petted a bird with her finger. With a whisper, they swirled back into hairclips that returned to her hair.
Naruto crossed his arms. "They were mercenaries...But it's strange. They were a cut above the ones that've attacked us befo – "
He broke off at the sound of strangled coughing; Naruto turned to see Toru on all fours again. Water and bile were dripping from her mouth.
"Toru-san! Are you alright?" asked Mayu, rushing over to the woman's side.
"I'm fine," said Toru weakly, her face still pale. Naruto noticed that near her collarbone was a sizable hand-shaped bruise that was already growing purple.
Naruto turned toward the boatman. "How far are we from our destination?"
"I'm fine, I said," Toru insisted, even as she bent over the side of the boat, making a gagging sound.
"We're not that far from port," the boatman offered helplessly. "So long as we aren't attacked again, we should see land in two hours."
"She's a civilian – a head wound like that needs to be looked at immediately," said Mayu, shaking her head. Naruto's gaze shot back to Toru, and he immediately spotted the blood on her scalp. Hesitantly, he opened his mouth –
Rai stood up. "I can carry her and run the rest of the way. I was the least useful in that fight. Might as well show my worth now."
"Aha – so you do have some sense of self-awareness," said Sai, with an indulging smile. "Your development isn't as regressive as I feared...but still, futile. Your carrying her would jostle her skull and make it even worse."
"You got a better idea then?" Rai demanded, but Sai had already pulled out his scroll once more. Dipping a brush in ink, his hand blurred across the page, and a large black and white bird was soon unfurling its wings before them. Sai clambered onto its back, and Rai and Naruto carefully picked up the merchant – who was now too weak to protest – and laid her behind him. Sai quickly drew something on his scroll, and this time, a long snake burst into existence, which he used like a rope to fasten Toru into position behind him.
"Please don't get killed on the way back, now," said Sai, as the bird rose into the air. "There'd be too much paperwork to do by myself."
...
Just before they reached shore, a black and white fish popped its head out of the water, and when Naruto opened an empty scroll, it turned into black calligraphy that seeped into the page.
"They're at the house of an acquaintance," Naruto read off the message. "There'll be someone waiting for us nearby the bridge."
"A bridge?" Rai repeated skeptically. "What's an itty bitty little place like that need a bridge for?"
"It isn't a complete bridge," the boatman said, pausing his rowing to adjust his straw hat. "Tazuna is building a bridge to connect Wave country to Fire country."
"That'd put you out of a job, wouldn't it?" said Rai, in a rare moment of astuteness.
The boatman shrugged. "This is only one of my many jobs. If there was a bridge to connect our country to Fire country, our economy would improve, and other opportunities would open up."
"...and Gatō wouldn't like that, would he?" Naruto said. The boatman shook his head.
"Gatō? Like the shipping magnate?" Rai said incredulously.
"Then were the ones who attacked us earlier Gatō's men?" Mayu asked in a hushed voice.
"It's not impossible. But why would he specifically target a common merchant with barely anything in her hands?" Naruto looked down at Toru's knapsack, which had been left behind. As a B-rank mission, he'd expected some tussles along the way of course, but that recent attack had been different. It had been planned ahead of time, and the fact that they had been able to attack and slip away so easily showed that they weren't ordinary mercenaries. But as he had voiced aloud, the question was – why would they target their client? Was Toru somehow involved with the bridge?
When he realized that no one had answered his question yet, Naruto looked up and saw immediately what had silenced everyone.
From the thick fog which had been obstructing much of their view, a gigantic uncompleted bridge had suddenly emerged. It towered above them as their boat quietly slipped between its legs; coming down from far above, Naruto could hear the distant sounds of hammering and clanging.
When Naruto and the others finally stepped on dock, they immediately spotted Sai, who was seated along the water's edge, drawing something in a small notebook. They waved goodbye to the boatman, who tipped his hat in farewell before rowing away.
"That took awhile," said Sai, closing the notebook shut and climbing to his feet. "I was beginning to wonder whether I should be ordering extra coffins." When Mayu's face paled and her mouth opened, he smiled. "Just kidding. The merchant is doing fine. She just needs some rest."
With that, they began to follow Sai along a dusty but well-trodden path that led away from the bridge.
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