Tryst in Wave

Author's note: I'm sorry for the long delay, but I was halfway done when my computer died and I lost everything. Back everything up! Now to the reviews.

Lanie12777: There really isn't enough of either of these two out there and that's why my other two stories both deal with them. This concludes the shameless self-promotion part of the authors note.

Lady Laran: Thanks for pointing out the spelling error and I can't take credit for pairing them up that idea came from a friend.

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Konohamaru did one last check of his equipment before looking over at his friend and asking, “Are you ready?”

Udon slipped on his pack as he nodded and said, “Let's go.”

The two fourteen-year-olds made their way to the door, leaving behind some of their stuff. The two rooms had been rented for the duration of the mission. This was fine with Konohamaru, because they gave them access to a shower on their downtime. Bathing could easily become a luxury on missions. A few months ago, Moegi had fallen into a swamp during a mission and not even Udon had wanted to be within ten feet of her for the next several days. So having access to a shower was going to be great.

Stepping into the hallway, his smile faltered for a second as he saw Moegi leaning against her door ready to go. He had not seen her since she had left him alone with Inari and although he would admit to having a good time. That only meant she had gone from his kill on sight to partially forgiven list.

With little more than a nod to acknowledge her presence, he started down the hallway when she suggestively said, “How did your date go?”

Ignoring the question, Konohamaru addressed Udon. “Why is your girlfriend so suddenly interested in my love life?”

Konohamaru couldn't see his friend, but he could tell that Udon had shrugged either because he didn't know or didn't want to get involved. Moegi responded by stepping in front of him, blocking his path. “Okay Konohamaru, I'm sorry for being so pushy. I'll drop it, if you answer two questions.”

Their eyes met and he sighed in defeat, “Fine.”

“First, are you attracted to Inari?”

The young Sarutobi resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. It wasn't like Moegi and he had ever compared guys before. “Inari is good-looking and he seems like a nice guy.”

“Then why don't you ask him out?”

“Because,” he stretched out the word, annoyed, “It's not that simple. Just because I like a guy doesn't mean I can just ask them out. I'm not even sure how acceptable it would be in this country to do that and since we're going to be working with him, I don't want that trouble.”

The orange haired kunoichi smiled at that and said, “Okay I won't say another word to you about it.” With that she turned and headed down the steps with a bounce.

Konohamaru turned to Udon and asked a little worried, “Is she planning something?”

His friend sniffed, “I think she's just teasing you.”

“Maybe,” Konohamaru said before pushing the issue to the side and going after her.

The streets were empty and were only occasionally lit by streetlights. They retraced the path that they took yesterday and when they arrived at the National Guard building they noticed a single man standing under a lamppost. He seemed to be in a uniform and leaning on a Naginata much like Inari had the other day.

He noticed their approach and raised a hand in greeting. In the light they could see that he was either in his late teens or early twenties as he smiled broadly and said, “My name is Kisho and I guess I'll be your guide.”

The team from Konoha introduced themselves and after a moment of small talk they headed off. Secretly, Konohamaru was happy that Inari had not greeted them. He was still embarrassed about how distracted he had been at their first meeting. Granted, the teen was good-looking, but not overly so.

In a few minutes, they left the town behind and entered the woods. Their guide must've been familiar with the terrain because he never hesitated, even in the poor light of a predawn morning. Kisho kept up a string of questions, asking them what it was like to be a ninja or how many missions they had been on. Konohamaru was happy to answer and only occasionally fudged the answer. His team may have forty-five missions under their belt, but about fifteen of those were D-rank and even a couple of their C-ranked missions had been cakewalks.

In a surprisingly short time they arrived at their destination. The bay itself was a crescent shape. There was a sandbank on one side, extending into the bay at the mouth. This made the entrance to the bay only about forty feet. Currently, there were a dozen people standing on the sandbank with two boats in the water and several other floating things he couldn't recognize.

Kisho led them over to the group by walking around the bay and it wasn't until they were almost on top of the group that Konohamaru noticed Inari. His back was turned to him apparently talking to the man in the boat, but he was in a similar uniform to Kisho’s. However, unlike when he had seen Kisho, Inari's uniform made blood divert from his brain.

The uniform itself was a light blue with the crest of the Wave Country on the back. The sleeves were short and the pants were loose but bunched up under the rope that functioned as a belt. They were currently showing off Inari's calf muscles. On top of his head was a soft cap and even with his back turned, he assumed that Inari had the cheek guards like the others. His footwear was standard, but overall he thought the package was rather nice looking.

With an effort, he pulled his mind away from his perverted thoughts just in time as Inari turned and smiled at them. He waved them over saying, “Come take a look at this.”

They approached and Konohamaru glanced at the objects in the water which he now saw had a heavy chain running through them. “What's that for?”

Inari grinned and with evident pride explained, “Well, it was an idea I had a couple of weeks ago when I first heard about this operation. You see the way the pearl divers work is they have one mother ship which is sort of like home base for their little rowboats. The mother ship is big and slow. So to protect it, I figured we could seal off the entire bay.”

“Won't that trap it though?” Moegi asked.

The young lieutenant shrugged, “Yes, but if anyone attacks they'll have to bring boats with them and they'll have to be fast enough to overtake the mother ship anyway. However, if the bay is sealed off, the boat is protected.”

“Like putting it in a castle,” Udon commented.

Inari nodded pointing to the floating objects and explained, “Once the ship is inside the bay, we will float these buoys across the mouth. The chain is already anchored on this side and we're going to anchor it over there,” he pointed across the water to a rocky outcrop directly opposite of them. “Once it's anchored there the chain will float just inches under the surface and should stop any large boat from penetrating the bay. If they try to ram one of the buoys thinking it's a weak point, well.” His grin widened, “You may not be able to see it now, but each one of those buoys have a metal spike just under the surface of the water. If they're hit at speed, they will penetrate the boat’s haul.”

Konohamaru had been picturing the scenarios as Inari described each defensive measure, but then his mind conjured up a possibility that may not have been considered. “What if they use small boats? I've heard of boats that only have a few inches of draft.”

Inari nodded, but it was with the satisfaction of someone who had been anticipating a question. “Well, the part of the chain that's in the water has a small and thin shaft of metal between every link. If a boat tries to go over the top, there bottom will be ripped out.”

“That's pretty clever. Did you think it up yourself?” Konohamaru asked him.

The other teen deflated a little. “Not really. Laying a chain across the water to stop boats is a pretty old tactic. I just modified it.”

Konohamaru suddenly felt the urge to say something positive, but Udon moved the conversation forward before he could make a fool out of himself. “How are you doing the patrols?”

“I'm going to station someone over there,” Inari gestured over his shoulder to the rocky outcrop where he intended to anchor the chain. “I think it's the best spot to keep an eye on the sea. Other than that I was just going to have two-man patrols walk along the shores of either side of the bay. I'm not sure how the other lieutenants will do it though.”

“Ship on the horizon!” one of the other men called out and that was the end of their conversation.

Suddenly everyone was doing something except for the ninjas from Konoha. They dropped back to get out of the way and just watched. The dot on the horizon quickly expanded into a twenty foot boat. Konohamaru wasn't sure what he was expecting, but the boat was little different than a fishing trawler and that was slightly disappointing. It slowly made its way into the bay before dropping anchor. Then Inari and the rest of the National Guard sprung into action, quickly and efficiently they spread the chain across the mouth of the bay. From their point of view the operation seemed to go off without a hitch.

“You know Inari is pretty clever. The way he built it the chain will rise and fall with the tide,” Udon commented.

“Yeah, so if anyone attacks they'll need to attack by land to disconnect the chain and by sea to get to the boat. Well, unless they're a ninja,” Moegi added.

“Maybe we should get to work now too,” Konohamaru said turning to face his team. “What shifts do you want?”

“I've been thinking about that,” Moegi said glancing over at her boyfriend. “If the two of us, Udon and me, play a little with our shifts, we should have some time that overlaps.”

Konohamaru shrugged, not really caring, “As long as there's always one of you two here, I guess it doesn't really matter. I'll take the first shift, you two set up the tent.”

It took about an hour for the site to calm down. Eventually there were only five National Guard members on the site. That included Inari who seemed to have the same shift as he did. He kind of wished that wasn't the case, but there wasn't anything he could really do about it now. However, since Inari had given himself the position on the rocks, it was easy enough to avoid him.

As always, the former honorable grandson quickly became bored with guard duty. The woods itself were an old growth forest and there was very little underbrush that might conceal someone's approach. For a while, he entertained himself with coming up with plans of how he would attack, but there were only so many options. They would have to get to the boat to get the pearls and that was not going to be an easy task.

For a while, he watched the pearl divers, which was kind of interesting. They worked from three small rowboats and would disappear under the surface for minutes at a time. Once, he even concentrated chakra and walked on the water, looking down at the divers as they worked and that gave him an idea. What if they attack from underwater? It was a standard infiltration tactic, but it was something he hadn't considered.

Fortunately, Udon was still awake, fresh from the eight hours of sleep he just had and the three of them had an impromptu meeting over lunch. That led to a meeting with the captain of the boat. Apparently, they intended to work twenty-four hours a day and he assured them that the boat would be well lit during the night. After that, Udon used a Jutsu to fall asleep and Moegi went to brief Inari on the possible threat.

At this point, Konohamaru decided that boredom was to be his biggest enemy for today and the foreseeable future. If they kept all the Blood Pearls on board the boat then no one would probably bother trying to attack for two to three weeks. At least that's what he would do. Eventually he struck up a conversation with Kisho who was apparently Inari’s second-in-command. Talking to him was interesting enough that he didn't notice that Inari and Moegi’s conversation had gone on much longer than necessary.

His shift ended when the new squad of National Guard members came to relieve Inari’s squad. The relief team had a few younger members and one was even pretty close to Inari’s age. As one squad replaced the other, Moegi walked up to him and said, “All right, you are relieved.”

With a yawn he replied, “Have fun.”

As he turned to walk away she called to his back, “Let Udon sleep. I'll wake him up in four hours.”

Konohamaru did the math in his head and smiled. If Udon was up for the first four hours of Moegi’s downtime and the last four hours of her shift that meant they could spend eight hours a day together. Of course, they wouldn't do that, but it was a neat trick. “Just remember only one of you can leave the site at once.”

“Thanks fearless leader we know the rules.”

Moegi’s tone made him smile and he waved goodbye without looking. Technically, he was on his down time and could leave the site, but with Udon sleeping he thought he should stick around for a while. It wasn't like there was much he could do in town anyway and he did have a book to read. Konohamaru normally didn't like reading, but the book had been written by a great ninja and the main character's name was Naruto which was kind of funny to him at least.

Konohamaru settled himself by a tree and as it was still early in the afternoon there was enough light to read by. He had only read a few pages when a shadow blocked his light and he looked up a little annoyed, but then surprised said, “Inari?

“Hi,” the teen said with a nervous smile. He shifted his weight nervously and said, “Um. I was talking to your friend and,” Inari trailed off and looked down at his feet.

Fear gripped Konohamaru, but he was too scared to demand that the other teen finish his sentence.

“Would you like to go out on a date?” Inari blurted out. “I mean, it's okay if you don't, but it might be nice. I don't know about you but I had a nice time yesterday and it would be like that only, you know, different.”

The young Sarutobi was stunned and it took him a minute to register what had just been asked of him. “You want to go out with me?” He felt his cheeks warm which just embarrassed him further. “Um, ok. Sure, why not.” Tension visibly left Inari’s body as Konohamaru continued, “Maybe we should go to that restaurant we went to yesterday. Why don't we meet there in about four hours?”

“That would be great. I need to change anyways,” Inari responded. Then he hesitated and said sheepishly, “Can we keep this subtle? Nobody really knows that you know.”

“Sure,” Konohamaru responded.

“Then I'll see you there?”

“Yeah, in four hours.”

“Yeah.”

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Akihiko had once been a ninja of Takigakure. He had been one of the Waterfalls village's best ninja and eventually that is what drove him away from the village. He had risen fast. He had achieved the rank of Jonin at fifteen. For ten years at that rank he had taken on mission after mission. Eventually though, he had become frustrated. There was no chance he would ever become the village's leader so he had already reached his peak rank. That in itself would have been tolerable, but the mission pay.

The village took about eighty percent of the ryo for each mission he went on. It started to grate on his nerves. Why was he risking his life day after day for other people and barely being compensated for it? He couldn't answer that question and had even attempted to quit taking on so many missions, but Takigakure was small. When he started to go weeks between missions, the villagers noticed. Eventually he was called to meet with the village's leader and he explained his frustrations to him.

The old man had listened and nodded in all the right spots, but told him that's how it was. It wasn't until then, that he realized how much he had been contributing to the coffers of the village. The old man had told him how proud he should be for helping the village so much and no, he would not be receiving one more ryo than he already was. It didn't matter how hard he worked or how dangerous the missions were, his pay wouldn't change.

Well, if that was how it was going to be then fine. Akihiko accepted the next high ranked mission he was assigned and simply never came back. To be honest he wasn't sure if he was listed as a missing-nin or just KIA and frankly he didn't care. For ten years he had become a true mercenary. Selling his services to anyone who would hire him, he hadn't even bothered to change his name. Assassinations or guard duty, he didn't really care. In reality, the work had changed little, but the pay had. He had amassed a small fortune, and after this mission, he could easily retire at the age of thirty-five.

The mission was basically theft, but his employer insisted on bringing in some of his own people. Akihiko would admit that might not be a bad thing. They may just be thugs, but he would need help operating the boat and it would be easier to hide in the confusion. Of course, he still had to do the groundwork and that's why he was in a little bar in Wave Country waiting for an individual to show up. Almost on cue, the man he had been waiting for entered the bar and looked around before spotting him.

The man made his way to the back of the room and took a seat in the booth with Akihiko. Knowing they wouldn't be over heard and not one for preamble he leaned forward and said, “Tell me Kisho, what's security like on the site?”