Aligning the Stars

Council Chaos

Last Time:

The toad sage barely noticed the toad disappear in a puff of smoke, "The council will go for her the second she enters the village ... I won't let them lay a finger on her." He growled and ran full speed towards Konoha ...

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"Maybe we should have gone to get the ninjas." pondered Riki as she looked over the rail of a massive circular vessel that a set of tall 4 story buildings inn a circle with a platform wrapping around them like a deck and was floating on the water in the harbor. Jessica was holing Riki's collar to keep the smaller mage from falling in the water while Flopsy, Lily and Bruno were trying to keep Cassy from rolling over the edge as she slept.

Naruko smiled, "Don't worry, I sent my shadows to guide them ... and there they are! Hey guys!" The blonde waved as the ninjas came towards them with her shadows flitting around their feet. What made things better was that Sasuke, Sakura and Ino did not seem to be among them ...

Gaara felt his heart skip a beat as he saw Naruko wearing an orange tube top and perfectly fitting jeans with her long hair pulled back in a ponytail. "Naruko ... are you sure about this? We can find a way around this." He said as they all got on the floating platform.

"Yes, I can try to erase those idiots memories or beat them until they're vegetables." suggested Tsunade making everyone sweat drop at the bloodthirsty grin on her face.

"If only it were that easy ... oh where's your sensei, Naruko?" asked Shikamaru.

"He's in the East tower waiting for the snack bar to open." Naruko pointed to the red 4 story building on the east side of the ship.

"He's waiting for snacks? The ferry will be leaving soon right ... errr where is the ferry?" asked Hinata as he looked for a boat of some kind.

Jessica chuckled as she pulled Riki away from the rail, "I'm afraid you misunderstand, we're on the ferry."

"HOLY CRAP! ... This giant thing is a ferry? It's a small island with buildings!" yelped Kiba in shock as he looked at the water under the floating platform at the harbor of the village of Conjure. The Sunset Ferry was not what they expected ...

All the ninjas' jaws dropped in shock, "How does something this big move fast enough?" asked a stunned Tenten.

"Look in the water." said Naruko and she, Riki and Jessica burst out laughing at the looks of shock on the ninja's faces as they leaned over the rail.

Neji turned towards Naruko with a look of disbelief, "Is this entire structure being pulled by a giant manta ray?"

"Yep!" The blonde mage smiled and glanced at the giant white manta ray just under the surface of the water. The majestic creature was easily hundreds of feet long. "It's time to leave port."

Temari smirked, "Oh dear, it seems Sasuke and his goons won't make it." She snickered as the Sunset Ferry pulled away from the dock and into open water.

"They might." Shino muttered and pointed to a dock where they all saw Sasuke, Ino and Sakura running frantically after the ferry.

Tsunade twitched as her least favorite ninjas were quickly gaining on the ferry, "I order someone to trip them ... Dammit!" She clenched her teeth as the three idiots just barely managed to claw their way on board even though they were nearly smacked by the manta ray's wing.

Sasuke glared, "Why the hell did you all leave without me?"

"Us too! ... was that a manta ray that nearly hit us?!" screamed Sakura and Ino and they both looked over board at the creature as Sasuke pretended to be indifferent.