An endless expanse of thick, grayish-white fog blanketed this sea.
An old wooden boat, showing its age, was cutting through the eerily calm water at a leisurely pace, heading deeper into the mist.
The boat swayed gently with the waves, making a rhythmic 'creak-creak' sound, which, along with the 'splash' of the silent boatman sculling at the stern, became the only noise in this silent world wrapped in dense fog.
The air was so humid it felt like it could be wrung out. The cold moisture clung to skin and clothes, bringing a sticky discomfort.
The sky was completely obscured. Everything was shrouded in a hazy, colorless, and directionless grayish-white.
"S-such thick fog..." Naruto sat at the bow, hands gripping the gunwale, half his body leaning out. His large blue eyes strained to see anything in the mist, but beyond the churning gray, nothing was visible.
"I can't see a thing! This fog is way too thick! Are we really heading for the other side? We won't get lost, will we?"
His voice sounded somewhat muffled in the thick fog, carrying curiosity about the unknown environment and a hint of unease.
The boatman sculling and Tazuna, squatting in the middle of the boat, both had grimmer expressions than usual.
They didn't respond to Naruto's words, just kept their faces taut, their gazes vigilantly sweeping the surrounding thick fog, as if something terrifying might rush out from behind that wall of mist at any moment.
Tazuna even instinctively shrank his neck, clutching an empty sake bottle tightly in his hand.
"We should... almost see the bridge soon," Tazuna said, his voice dry, more like he was psyching himself up than informing.
The boatman nodded, looking into the misty sea, and said quietly, "Yeah, almost there. Seeing the bridge's outline means we're going the right way. Follow the bridge piers, and we'll reach the shore quickly. This fog... is a regular visitor to the Land of Waves, and the best cover."
He said that last sentence very softly, with a complex meaning.
Just then, Hinata, sitting beside Menma with her Byakugan active, suddenly raised her hand and pointed into the thick fog to their right front.
"Over there... is that it?" Hinata's voice was soft. "A... unfinished bridge? Lots of exposed steel reinforcement."
Everyone looked in the direction she pointed.
At first, only vast mist was visible.
But as the boat slowly moved forward, a few minutes later, a huge, silent shadow began to vaguely emerge from the depths of the fog.
It was a bridge.
Or rather, the ruins and unfinished shell of a bridge.
Thick, rust-stained steel reinforcement bars, like the bones of a giant beast, pierced the mist, reaching towards unknown heights.
Some concrete-filled piers stood thickly and abruptly in the sea water, their surfaces covered in dark green moss and seaweed, clearly aged.
The abruptly ending bridge deck looked as if an invisible giant hand had brutally snapped it off, leaving only uneven, saw-toothed edges pointing into the void.
The entire structure carried an aura of tragic desolation, silently spanning the misty sea like the forgotten remains of a giant from a bygone era.
"Wow!" Naruto suddenly popped up from the bow, pointing at the increasingly clear giant shadow, his voice changing pitch with excitement: "A-a huge bridge! Menma-nii! Look! Look! So tall! So long!"
His exclamation was particularly loud in the silent, misty sea.
"Quiet, idiot!" Tazuna scolded in a low voice, his face tense with anxiety.
The boatman added urgently, "Don't be so loud! It'll be trouble if we alert the Matsuo Group's patrol boats!"
Naruto shrank his neck at the scolding and stuck out his tongue, but his eyes remained fixed on the bridge in the mist.
Menma stepped forward, standing beside Naruto, squinting as he carefully observed.
His gaze swept over the rusted steel bars, the mottled concrete, the fractured sections.
He knew the construction on this bridge had definitely stopped for more than just a year or two.
The marks of time and the erosion of the sea had left deep imprints on this unfinished body.
"So this is... the bridge the Land of Waves exhausted itself to build?" Menma asked.
'A project of this scale would be no small undertaking even in the Land of Stars. For a poor country like the Land of Waves, how many years would it take to build?'
Tazuna gazed at that silent skeleton of steel and concrete in the mist, his expression becoming incredibly complex.
There was pride, heartache, and more than anything, a deep sense of powerlessness and anger.
"Yeah..." He sighed, his voice filled with fatigue. "The Land of Waves is a poor place. Little land, not much food to grow. For generations, our greatest hope has been this sea. But the entire country's trade is heavily affected by the weather, and we're at the mercy of those big merchants."
Tazuna reached out a hand, as if wanting to touch that bridge in the mist. "This bridge... has been the dream of our people in the Land of Waves for generations. With it, we can directly connect to the continent, to the Land of Fire! No longer restricted by storms and fog, trade would become ten times, a hundred times easier!"
"The fish we catch, our goods, could be shipped out faster... the things we need could be brought in more smoothly. This bridge is our 'Bridge of Hope' to escape poverty and control our own destiny!"
His tone became excited, but then quickly fell, turning bitter.
"To build this bridge, the whole country tightened their belts, putting in every cent we could spare. The men worked on the construction site, the women did more handiwork at home to supplement the income, even the children knew to save a bite of food... Finally, the foundations were laid, the piers stood up, it seemed like hope was about to become reality..."
Tazuna clenched his fists, his whole body trembling.
"Then the Matsuo Group came." His voice squeezed through gritted teeth. "When they first arrived, they talked a better game than they sang. Said things like 'helping the Land of Waves develop', 'building a better future together', even promised to invest and help us finish the bridge quickly. At the time, even the Daimyo and those nobles were moved, giving them many concessions..."
"But after they monopolized the Land of Waves' foreign trade by various means, controlled the fishing industry, and drove out all the small merchants... they changed their tune!" Tazuna's eyes were bloodshot.
"They sent their thugs to harass the construction site, intimidate the workers, steal building materials... doing everything possible to obstruct the bridge's construction! Because they never wanted this bridge to be completed! If the bridge connects, their monopoly advantage disappears! They want us to depend on their ships forever, to have us by the throats!"
"What about your Daimyo and nobles then?" Naruto interjected angrily. "Do they just let the Matsuo Group do whatever they want? Aren't they the rulers of the Land of Waves? Why don't they drive those bad guys out?"
Tazuna looked at Naruto, his eyes filled with sorrow and mockery.
"Drive them out? Kid, you're oversimplifying things." He shook his head.
"Matsuo... isn't just some ordinary merchant. I've looked into it. Behind him, there might be shadows of big shots from the Land of Water."
Naruto and Hinata might not fully grasp the implications, only feeling angrier.
But Kakashi and Menma's eyes both narrowed slightly simultaneously.
'Nobles from the Land of Water...'
'A small Land of Waves, an unfinished bridge, and behind it all were undercurrents involving the powers of two great nations?'
They knew the Matsuo Group was likely just a proxy on the surface, a pawn in the game between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water over this strategic chokepoint, a tentacle born of the union between capital and political power.
The Land of Waves, this small island nation sandwiched between two great powers with a special geographical location, had unfortunately become a chessboard for the great powers' struggle.
And this bridge, embodying the nation's hopes, naturally became the focal point of their covert conflicts.
If the bridge were completed, the Land of Waves would gain a degree of autonomy and development potential, might lean towards the Land of Fire, and could even become a bridgehead for the Land of Fire's sphere of influence extending eastward.
This was something the Land of Water did not want to see.
Maintaining the Land of Waves' poverty, dependence, and isolation best served certain people's interests.
Kakashi's copy of Icha Icha Paradise had closed at some point.
He looked at the tragic silhouette of the bridge in the mist, a flicker of sudden understanding in his visible right eye.
As an Elite Jonin who had experienced the Third Great Ninja War, combined with the Land of Waves' geography, he instantly understood the logic behind it.
Menma's mind was even clearer.
The essence of capital is the pursuit of profit and expansion, and when capital colludes with political power, its greed and destructiveness are amplified infinitely.
The tragedy of the Land of Waves was but a small microcosm in this turbulent Ninja World.
"There it is." The boatman's low voice broke the silence.
Ahead in the thick fog, the outline of a much lower but structurally complete arched stone bridge gradually became clear.
It spanned a narrow waterway, its style ancient, looking quite old.
"Pass under this old bridge's arch, and behind it is [Mirror Lake]. My village is by the lake," Tazuna explained, a hint of relief finally in his voice at being back in familiar territory, though his vigilance hadn't completely disappeared.
The small boat slowly sailed into the dim arch beneath the stone bridge.
The light suddenly dimmed, only a swaying lantern at the bow casting a dim yellow glow, illuminating a small patch of rippling water ahead and the damp, mottled stone walls.
The air was thick with a fishy smell and the odor of rotting aquatic plants.
After a brief moment of darkness and enclosed feeling, the boat emerged from the other end of the arch.
The view opened up before them.
The fog seemed slightly thinner here, at least allowing them to see a hundred meters ahead.
They had sailed into a relatively wide, calm inner lake, its surface like a mirror.
The lake water was a deep, dark green, reflecting the grayish-white sky and the shadowy surroundings.
Large groves of mangroves grew in the lake, their twisted roots extending above the water, branches intertwining to form a quiet, slightly mysterious aquatic forest.
And on the lake's edge, built along the water, was a dense cluster of low, dilapidated wooden houses.
Most roofs were thatched with straw of varying shades or old wooden planks, many caved in or damaged.
The walls were mottled, revealing the original wood color or patches of mud.
Planks served as pathways between the houses. Near the shore, there were narrow, muddy trails. Tattered fishing nets, like giant gray spiderwebs, hung from bamboo poles or tree branches, swaying gently in the breeze.
The entire village was eerily silent, hardly a person in sight. Only the occasional extremely faint, dim yellow light seeping through cracks in a wooden house proved that people still lived here.
Poor, dilapidated, oppressive.
That was the first impression of this fishing village, and a microcosm of the entire Land of Waves' current state.
The boatman skillfully steered the small boat towards a more concealed, simple little dock.
The bottom of the boat scraped lightly against the lake's mud bottom and stopped.
"I can only take you this far," The boatman said, his voice lowered, eyes vigilantly scanning the lake and the distant village.
"The Matsuo Group's people occasionally patrol the lake. You be careful."
"Thank you, brother," Tazuna said earnestly, nodding his thanks. He took a few crumpled banknotes from his pocket and stuffed them into the boatman's hand.
"It's not much, but take it."
The boatman didn't refuse, silently taking the money, then signaled for them to disembark quickly.
Everyone jumped off the boat one by one, stepping onto the slippery wooden dock, which creaked ominously under their feet.
Kakashi was the last off, nodding slightly to the boatman.
The boatman said no more, pushed off lightly from the shore with his pole, and the small boat silently turned, gliding back into the fog-covered lake's center, soon disappearing as if it had never been there.
"Let's go, to my house first," Tazuna said quietly, pulling his thin clothes tighter around him. He led the way along the muddy lakeside path towards the village's interior.
His back seemed somewhat hunched in the mist, but his steps carried the urgency and heaviness of someone returning home.
Naruto looked around curiously at the dilapidated wooden houses and hanging fishing nets. His earlier excitement had faded, replaced by confusion and a vague unease.
Hinata stayed close to Menma, her Byakugan's field of vision sweeping over the silent village. The whole village felt like a sick person to her, lifeless and devoid of vitality.
Kakashi tucked Icha Icha Paradise back into his ninja tool pouch, his hands in his pockets. He walked seemingly casually, but his visible right eye was unobtrusively observing every detail of the environment.
Footprints in the mud, inconspicuous marks on the corners of houses, lingering smells in the air...
Menma walked in the middle-rear of the group, his gaze calmly sweeping over this forgotten corner.
Shortly after they left, three ripples spread gently across the calm lake surface.
Three figures wearing animal masks, as light as water birds, stepped onto the water. They were Yugao, Young Sasuke, and Sai.
They watched the direction Team 7 had disappeared from afar, then vigilantly scanned the silent fishing village and lake.
Yugao made a simple hand gesture. The three nodded to each other, melded back into their surroundings, and followed at a distance, staying within the shadows of the lakeside trees.