"Hm, that looks pretty bad..."
Gazing out across the nearby waters, Kakashi's expression hardened once more. Though the silver-haired Jōnin's tone and demeanor still carried their trademark languidness, the feeling was more akin to a warrior's studied calm during a lull in battle.
A wooden vessel sat at an ugly, lopsided angle on the water's surface—tilted in a way that was clearly anything but normal. It looked as though something had punched clean through the hull from below and pinned it in place.
Even at this distance, a shinobi's enhanced eyesight could make out the dorsal fins of numerous sharks converging on the stricken ship from every direction.
"Something's off. If I remember correctly, we passed through those exact waters on our way here. Our ship was fine at the time—so why now?"
As an elite jōnin, Kakashi's vigilance was never truly off-duty. Setting aside the total blind spot he had when it came to his own teammates, the silver-haired Jōnin was no wide-eyed fool incapable of spotting when something didn't add up.
"I remember too. And... there have been constant reports of ships striking reefs lately. Everyone's been saying it's divine punishment for all the evil Gatō's done. But looking at it now, the truth is probably far less simple."
Hinata's white eyes flickered briefly. She picked up Kakashi's thread with practiced nonchalance—after all, she knew perfectly well what was going on. Kakuzu and the others had been steadily completing the hidden reef chain, and judging by the sharks' activity, Kisame had been putting in the hours too. The Land of Waves had well and truly become an island prison surrounded by water.
"We'll need to wait for word from Tazuna-san and the others before we know for certain. In the meantime, don't go wandering outside. I have a bad feeling."
Kakashi's brow furrowed. A genuine unease gnawed at his nerves—the last time he'd felt this particular brand of foreboding had been a very long time ago.
When the sun had barely dipped below the horizon, a grim-faced Tazuna returned to the house. One look at his expression told the story: whatever news he was bringing was not good.
"What happened? Something bad? Has there been any conclusion about the ships running aground so frequently?"
Kakashi cut straight to the point. He needed information to confirm his suspicions.
"Ah... I was just about to tell you. This country... it seems like reefs have been appearing on the seabed all around us. Constantly, and from nowhere..."
Choosing his words carefully, Tazuna spoke with a strain in his voice that betrayed both embarrassment and disbelief at his own report.
"Huh? Reefs growing out of the ocean floor? What, are they planting turnips down there?"
Naruto's wide eyes were pure bafflement. The concept had a distinctly fairytale quality for someone like him.
"I know it sounds absurd, but... this is the conclusion everyone's reached after days of observation."
Tazuna set down his teacup with trembling hands. What they'd confirmed wasn't merely incredible—it was frightening.
"The fact is, reefs have been appearing out of nowhere on the seabed all around the Land of Waves. This afternoon, someone tried to take a boat out. The reefs drove them right back. They said the formations are like a belt—encircling the entire country..."
"We may already be unable to leave."
"What? That ship went down too?!"
Gatō's voice cracked into a shrill, duck-like screech. This past week had felt like a freefall from heaven straight into the abyss.
The merchant tycoon who had once held the Land of Waves firmly in his grip now found himself contending not only with a stubborn old bridge builder named Tazuna, but with the nightmarish phenomenon of sea routes being sealed off by reefs that seemingly appeared of their own accord.
And when he factored in those demonic killings that still made his skin crawl, the man who had once coveted the Land of Waves now wanted nothing more than to flee it.
"No mistake, Zabuza-san. I'm not sure who's behind this, but I did a covert circuit of the waters today. The entire perimeter of the Land of Waves is now completely sealed by reefs."
Haku's voice carried an undercurrent of agitation. The sensation of being trapped like a caged rat was, for any shinobi, the worst possible scenario.
"Anyone capable of ringing an entire country with reefs has to be a Kage-level Earth Release user at minimum. And yet we haven't caught so much as a whisper of their presence... They clearly don't want anyone stumbling onto their plan."
Zabuza likewise felt a nameless threat pressing in. As a jōnin, he was well aware of just how terrifying Kage-level shinobi could be. Translated into the world of missing-nin, only those with Kage-class power earned the S-rank designation—and an S-rank missing-nin's most succinct descriptor was this: capable of single-handedly annihilating a small nation.
"What are you two muttering about?! Can't you find whoever's doing this and eliminate them? This Land of Waves is mine!"
Gatō hobbled up to Zabuza on his cane, practically foaming at the mouth in desperation. At this point he had no options left, and could only pin his hopes on this former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
"You should count yourself lucky. If that old man Tazuna hadn't been building that bridge, you might never have gotten off this island. So here's the question—do you still want me to kill the old man? Or would you rather change the mission to something more practical? Say, escorting your pathetic self out of this country?"
Zabuza regarded the quivering merchant with open contempt. As a missing-nin, his options were limited to begin with. After the failed assassination of the Mizukage, he and Haku had fled Kirigakure with nowhere to call home. Kirigakure's Hunter-nin were notoriously ruthless—even someone of Zabuza's caliber preferred to avoid crossing paths with them more than strictly necessary.
This was one of the reasons missing-nin couldn't simply pillage at will. Any significant disturbance drew the attention of other shinobi, who could then trace the chaos back to its source.
Zabuza could certainly have split Gatō in half on a whim, but before the reefs appeared, the Land of Waves' sea lanes had been wide open. Kill Gatō today, and Kirigakure's Hunter-nin might come calling tomorrow. Lying low and quietly taking contract work was by far the safest strategy for concealing his identity.
After all, a missing-nin's head was worth money. Indiscriminate slaughter and looting only attracted attention, and if someone got angry enough to slap an even larger bounty on your head along with a fresh assassination commission, that was decidedly not a good time.
Unless you'd reached Kage or above-Kage level—someone like Orochimaru, who could single-handedly raze a small country—you couldn't afford to act with impunity. And even then, there was no guarantee of safety. Not when someone like Kakuzu existed: a hell-tier bounty hunter whose entire vocation revolved around collecting the heads of high-value targets.
"Damn it!! Is there no other way?! This is the country I worked so hard to take!!"
Every ounce of fat on Gatō's body quivered with anguish—a display that gave visceral, literal meaning to the expression "it hurts like cutting my own flesh." As a villain with enemies everywhere, he knew perfectly well what would happen the moment he left the safety of his stronghold: retaliation and hostile takeovers, as far as the eye could see.
"Unless you'd rather sit here like a rat and wait to be eaten, I'm out."
Even Zabuza, for all his professional discipline, recognized that self-preservation had to come first. He was confident enough to face Kakashi again, but throw an unknown Kage-level Earth Release user into the mix, and the math changed entirely.
The two of them could batter each other into mutual exhaustion while the unknown third party waltzed in to reap the spoils. With a hostile force of unknown intent lurking in the shadows, engaging an enemy head-on was the one thing every shinobi feared most.
"Damn it! Even if I agree—if the entire sea is blocked, how are we supposed to escape?!"
Weighing his fortune against his life, Gatō ultimately chose the latter. He was a human swindler, not a goblin one—and at the end of the day, survival still outranked profit.
"That's not a problem. Which is exactly why I said you should be grateful Tazuna built that bridge. If we can't take the sea, we go by land—across the bridge."
Even as he said this, Zabuza's fingers tightened almost imperceptibly. If the people operating behind the scenes truly intended to sever the Land of Waves' maritime access, there was no way they'd overlook the bridge as the last remaining exit. It was textbook pest control: seal every hole with smoke, then set a cage at the only tunnel left. Even knowing full well that the final route led into a trap, there was simply no alternative.
And in the trees beyond, a black crow perched on a branch, its gaze fixed on the house where Zabuza sat. Its eyes were nothing like an ordinary crow's—they were a vivid, blood-like red.
"Earth Release: Stone Pillar Prison Technique!"
At Kakuzu's low command, chakra crystallized through his hand signs into solid rock, rising slowly from the ocean floor to halt roughly a meter below the waterline. Its tip had been deliberately sculpted into a sharp, blade-like edge—more than sufficient to tear open the hull of any vessel that passed over it.
"Ahh~ looks like it's basically done, huh~"
Standing nearby, Hidan rolled his neck with exaggerated boredom. "So this was the last sea lane, right?"
"No~ there's still the waterway beneath the bridge. And it seems they've already noticed our handiwork."
Kisame surveyed the surrounding waters, then bit his thumb and flashed through a rapid sequence of signs. "Summoning! Reef Sharks!"
Several pale, gray-white reef sharks materialized with a burst of smoke, then dove swiftly into the zones Kisame designated. Bound by the summoning contract, these sharks would treat the surrounding area as their territory, hunting freely in the waters. The ocean provided no shortage of prey, so sustenance wasn't a concern.
If there was a downside, it was that these waters were now decidedly inhospitable to human activity. Any fisherman hoping to work here could forget about it—unless he fancied becoming fish food himself.
"The remaining problem, however, is that the one called Zabuza—the Swordsman of the Mist—appears to be planning an escape from the Land of Waves. Along with his employer. Across the bridge."
Sitting on a nearby reef, Itachi opened his eyes and spoke in his characteristically flat tone, relaying the intelligence he'd gathered. Zabuza had no means of surveilling the Akatsuki—but that didn't mean the Akatsuki couldn't surveil him. Since Gatō and Zabuza were effectively the "arc bosses" of this Land of Waves operation, the organization had naturally been monitoring their movements with care.
"Hah? Well, that's a pain in the ass, isn't it? Suigintou said to leave those guys for her. Honestly, I say we just chop 'em and be done with it."
Hidan waved a dismissive hand. Kakuzu raised his head slightly. "Fine... we'll defer to her approach. But if she can't keep up, we'll take care of those two on her behalf."
"After all, whether it's the head of one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist or the merchant called Gatō—both are extremely valuable commodities. No matter what..."
"They will not be leaving this cage the Akatsuki has built. Alive."