In a campsite close to one of the small port towns selling ship related services and whatever else port towns profited from and did Meiko and Shimo were sword-fighting. The two were seriously going at it even if neither of the two was particularly angry at the other or wanted to kill their partner. The fight had nothing hinging on it, it was a playful spar that happened to grow into something more intense but just as contained and within the bounds of common sense.
Mana was calmly eating by the side and looking at the incomprehensible mess of flashes and blurs she wasn’t even able to comprehend. She knew how these sort of fights took place, hundreds of hits and blocks connected before she could even see a single red and green blur from Meiko or a damper green and silver blur that her old time Yuki teammate left over from his movements. Even those flashes were afterimages, mirages of sorts, reacting to them was to react to the sound of your own cut open flesh. May as well not even react at all…
At this point the magician had gotten used to not being able to make out much of anything when her teammates really went at it. Before they used to restrain themselves, maybe the wound of Mana’s disability was still fresh and they thought that she suffered greatly seeing by just how far she got left behind. It was true, even at the peak of her physical chakra augmentations that would’ve slowly broken her body even more than it already was when used the magician would only barely be able to keep up to the sloppiest of her friends’ attacks.
Here and now the two went balls out, they didn’t aim at where the other was not blocking, the two purposefully tried to train each other by giving the other some time to defend themselves and develop their own style. They were training like two comrades in arms should have “ beneficially to one another and honoring the sparring opponent. The downside was that with the other blocking each and every blow the sounds were abhorrent. The clangs and thuds conjoined together as another one started before the first sound could properly kick off making a terribly loud cacophony of steel and thuds that sounded like they were splitting the Earth in two.
“They’re not really restraining themselves…” Mana noted to Kouta who was just sipping tea and observing the spectacle. Without a doubt the medical ninja could see it all, he wouldn’t have been half as entertained by it all if he couldn’t.
“Why would they be?” the medical ninja wondered distracting his eyes to look back at the magician who looked at him while she spoke to the young man.
“I don’t know… They used to do it…” Mana blushed looking to the side, she didn’t want to talk about how uncomfortable this whole difference in strength made her feel still.
“Yeah, because you were really stressed about being a civilian again. Now you’re much better at dealing with it, right?” Kouta asked casually walking up to Mana and sitting by her, gently he wrapped one of his hands around her back.
“Sure…” she dismissed the topic without explaining that being better at hiding something was not the same as being better at dealing with it.
With a wild howl of the passing wind currents the fight stopped with Meiko falling on her butt scratching her forehead. Shimo’s arms and exposed thighs were twitching and blood red “ he must’ve been pushing his body to the limit if his muscles were that tense just from the workout and not from being hit. His clothes were torn and cut open in many places “ despite his speed Meiko must’ve had plenty of close marks on him that cut his kimono and trousers open but didn’t quite tag the boy’s skin.
“Wow, you’re really damn fast…” Meiko shrieked out in surprise and followed it with a playful laughter. “You hit me like four times before I even raised my hand to hit you”
Shimo closed his eyes and stroke his twitching and tensed up muscles. “Yeah, well… If you hit me with at least one of your blows I’d have been out for the count. You going for my feet was particularly nasty… Feet heal funny”
“You’ve got chicken feet, they’re small and slippy so I wouldn’t have stomped on them in a million years, I figured I’d go for it since there was no chance on landing a hit there” Meiko smiled playfully wiping sweat off her face. “Your technique is just really amazing, we should do this more often!” she shrieked out in excitement before picking herself off the grass and rushing off to the small lake on the other side of the campsite to wash herself behind the bushes. Meiko had little shame in her own nudity but after one or two really close calls she at the very least bothered to not bathe in plain sight.
“I have to say she’s right, I haven’t seen sword wielding skills this smooth in a while…” Kouta also commended his friend. “You’re on a higher level altogether. The Chuunin Exams should be smooth sailing for you”
“I’ve had tough teachers…” Shimo answered falling down onto the grass and stretching his overworked body out.
“I thought you said your teacher was careless and lost his arm to a vengeful courtesan?” Mana smiled teasing the young man.
“Every swordsman I clashed with on this mission was a teacher of their own. Every movement they made, every block they used to protect against me taught me a thing or two. Your training in handseals also helped, I’ve never had wrist movements this fluid…” Shimo replied, “Still, I don’t want to underestimate Hachiro-sensei’s lessons. He was a competent swordsman on his own feet and a pretty amazing man, his philosophy lessons were also quite remarkable and his charisma was second to none”
Shimo and Mana looked at each other before the two turned to the side avoiding each other’s gaze.
“Obviously he’s a poor replacement for Tanshu-sensei, then again, no one’s good enough to fit those shoes…” the young Yuki concluded.
*****
After a short while the four finally reached a port town that seemed somewhat functional and had ships actually leaving. The team had made a mistake of finding a port town that was directly leading ships into Tako’s Reach and, as they were informed, only accepted ships and hosted and sold shipment that arrived without sending anything away. At least this port town had ships actually leaving which was one step closer to successfully departing into the great unknown of the largest source of water on the planet.
The four wandered through a couple of normal looking port houses, not too shabby nor too sophisticated, looking for departing ships that went into Tako’s Reach. Despite the place being a relatively large region of the ocean, apparently not a single captain risked departing, even with the motivation of the Audra shards that the four still had with them. Confiscating as much as they did from the Katabami mines really did turn out a good decision in the end, the shards were really pricy and helped numerous money problems where the four would’ve had to resort to more ninja-appropriate methods under other circumstances. Still, the bag served them jack-squat.
After a while the team decided that maybe checking out normal looking places was the problem, after all, a less selective captain may just have been crazy enough to depart to Tako’s Reach but just as the four showed any captain the map and the exact coordinates everyone turned them down. It was almost like all the meanest looking marines feared a little piracy, most of the seamen in the port town looked like they could’ve handled themselves in a fight.
“We should just steal a ship ourselves at this point…” Kouta complained.
“Yeah, that’s what piracy basically is… Plus we don’t have the manpower to handle a ship, we may have the physical strength but we’d need the numbers as well. Shadow Clones would only get us through one or two chores but we couldn’t keep it up whole day and night” Shimo exclaimed annoyed by the lack of success.
“Plus we’d need supplies and food, ships present at the port wouldn’t be loaded with that stuff unless they’re about to set sail…” Meiko naturally complained about food.
Just as the team was discussing their further chain of actions a ship docked into the nearest docks and a bunch of overgrown and brutish-looking men began rushing out from the marine vehicle like lambs from the slaughterhouse. Mana managed to notice the crimson, still fresh in some occasions, streaks over the backs of the sailors. Then some of them looked like they hadn’t eaten a thing for days, some of them had virtually no teeth and still spat out blood from time to time onto the planks that kept the small port town afloat.
“What happened to them?” Mana wondered.
“Why do you think sailors turn to pirates?” a middle sized man asked the young girl having crept up to her from behind. He was above average aged and about average build, wore pretty nice looking clothes but they looked pretty old and raggedy, torn in some places.
“Because they’re dicks?” Meiko answered the question for the magician, basically representing the girl’s point of view quite decently.
“No, because being a sailor or a marine hunter-nin is the worst career choice ever. No food or career opportunities, tough manual labor with little to no reward and a thousand lashes as the supervisor’s gratitude. At least a pirate can live and die with some dignity, as much as a common criminal can have of it, anyways…” the man replied honoring the two young ladies with a seaman’s laugh, the stench of beer and smoked fish escaped his mouth with every breath. That was still not talking of the general smell of salt and quince all around the place as well as the humidity of every breath.
“Okay… Like before I wasn’t sure but at this point I have to ask, by any chance, are you, sir, yourself a pirate?” Kouta inquired attempting to be as polite as possible as to not reject a potential sailing buddy who could help them sail to the middle of Tako’s Reach.
“Yeah, you do seem a little “piratey” to me” Shimo seconded this question.
The man laughed out again and gestured in a rather very feminine for his incredibly masculine look kind of way. “Like me?! A pirate?! Why I’d never, I mean I talk to pirates and serve them fish and beer when they dock and don’t talk about their special status all the time because if they did I’d have to refuse service. I’ve served as a cabin-boy on a pirate ship during my childhood years and read plenty ‘o books about pirates but I myself cannot in any way affiliate to the noble yet devious pirate order…”
“Okay… So do you have any idea how we could get to the center of Tako’s Reach?” Meiko wondered feeling completely content with the answer.
“I absolutely doubt that any sailor coming from this side of the ocean would voyage through the Tako’s Reach, not that deep inside, anyways. The threat of getting tossed overboard with one’s ship and payment for the voyage kindly confiscated by pirates is a little bit of a deal-breaker for any sailor” the man replied appearing in a chatting mood whereas most port town inhabitants seemed most untrusting of the strangers with headbands asking questions and wanting to venture into the most dangerous centers of the most pirate infested waters.
“I don’t get it… Aren’t those sailors like really tough? Aren’t at least some of them capable fighters or trained in chakra manipulation at some point?” Mana stressed out, she was visibly getting annoyed over the lack of progress in this small port town that all obstacles were aside and only claiming the Box was needed of them.
“Most sailors from Kirigakure are outright ninja on a mission to serve a certain number of years as sailors aiding the village economy, most of our own know how to throw a good ole flimflam themselves. Still, the only pirates worth a mettle are all ninja without exception “ ninja sailors that were sick of being treated like lowlife trash and decided to rather go rogue in the seas than serve some fancy pretty boys onboard. You shouldn’t treat a pirate any differently you treat a rogue ninja, missy” the pub server replied smiling with his greenish yellow teeth.
“Pirates that are ninja too?” Kouta whistled out crossing his hands behind his head, evidently the medical ninja still wasn’t taking the threat too seriously.
“Yeah, ninja-pirates!” the server concluded before apologizing and informing the crew that his break was over and he had hungry seamen to bring beer and smoked fish with quince filling to serve. “If you guys want to get to Tako’s Reach your only chance would be to find a pirate ship and ask them but them pirate kind aren’t too welcome here. They’re bad rep and common folk just beat the shit out of those they aren’t scared of to fight, that’s just how tough a pirate’s life is “ lowlifes don’t make it too far” just like that the middle sized beardo disappeared in a nearby pub from whence he came.
Meiko looked at the team with wet puppy eyes.
Shimo drove his open palm down on her head shoving her puppy eyes down. “No” he uttered.
“We’re not becoming ninja-pirates ourselves, Meiko, we can’t cause that much trouble to Lady Fifth on a simple C-Rank mission…” Mana replied stroking her tired eyes with her fingers.
A loud boom made the team instantly turn their attention towards a nearby pub, the very same one where the server that spoke to them before entered. A bunch of twenty something aged ruffians got tossed out and a whole bunch of local chaff began gathering in a circle and rolling up their sleeves. Such was never a good sign.
“You fucking pirate trash! You dare sit and drink in our little port town!? You only bring trouble and local attention, we’ve already got Konohagakure ninja scooping around looking for ways to get to Tako’s Reach!” the lot began quarreling with the pirates and simple early signs of a big fight were beginning to form.
“How can you live with yourselves!?” one of the younglings suspected of piracy yelled out, a vagabond-like dressed fellow, one someone would suspect being just that “ a bum rather than a serious and scary ninja-pirate. “Seamen and marines both live like dogs, abused by Feudal Lord hired supervisor scumbags who don’t know a thing or two about the seas! I didn’t graduate the Kirigakure Academy for this!” he began shouting at the group.
One of the larger men picked up one of many decorative cannonballs laying around in a pile, they were at least four times the size of an actual thing and began riddling their pitiful wooden ship until it was nothing but busted planks and sawdust floating on the salty sea. Despite the hulking size of the cannonballs the man tossed them faster than an actual cannon would’ve fired them so the flimsy wooden construction stood no chance and got grinded to dust after the first pair of man sized balls of steel crashed into its sides.
“If these men are afraid of the ninja-pirates, I get the butterflies myself…” Kouta admitted.
Mana stepped onwards but Shimo’s hand on her shoulder stopped her.
“We have to stop this, these men can’t be trusted to deliver fair justice” Mana mumbled out.
“And what? Didn’t you hear it? These guys admitted being pirates, this place has no court or tribunals nor can these pirates be delivered to the nearest ninja village. They’re ninja-pirates, they’ll slip out of any binds the first chance they get. You also don’t know their story, they may be heinous criminals. Even if they’re not “ piracy is a heinous crime in of itself…” Shimo replied.
There the two were at it again. Conflicting at where Mana wanted to intervene and Shimo just wanted the nature to run its own course. Suddenly Mana saw the beehive situation again. The whole thing with killer wasps slaughtering the whole beehive with Mana having to decide if she was to interfere and spit at the natural order.
The locals began beating the young pirate group up. Luckily enough they didn’t kill them, if they tried Mana would’ve stepped in even if it meant compromising her mission, the group just beat the snot out of them and tossed the guys into the water. A minute or two later a bunch of sailors came up and picked the pirates up bringing them into their own ship.
“This isn’t right! Being confined to poor working conditions in the seas was what these young men and women ran from, now their grandkids are gonna slave it on that ship with menial labor. They’re not tried, they don’t face any Tribunal, they’ll just work until someone thinks they’ve had enough. I’ve seen enough to know how long that’ll be…” Mana lowered her head, her whole body was shaking but she didn’t interfere. Had she done so her whole team would’ve been labeled as pirate apologists and would’ve never left the harbor. Then again, they may not have known what these young men and women have already done as pirates, they had plenty of pride in their lawlessness too, but the way they were treated wasn’t how a human deserved to be treated like. It wasn’t like normal sailors got treated much better either.
“The world isn’t right. That’s what you’re fighting against, isn’t it?” Shimo asked with a slightly softer tone understanding how torn his friend felt inside.
“Apparently, not anymore…” Mana replied shutting deep inside of herself and making it abundantly clear that she was in no mood to talk anymore. She and Shimo hadn’t even moved past the events that transpired in Takigakure yet and now there were new things stacking on top of that.
A loud shriek alerted the team of ninja, a tall man with long curly black hair and a worn out brown hat was literally chewing on his own hand, the only one he had. The man’s eyes flared red for a moment and after pulling his hand out of his own mouth he reached for one of his coat’s pockets before being calmed down by the fish vendor.
“Calm down, sir, this isn’t a dolphin, I mean it barely looks like a tuna, how did you even make that conclusion?” the fish lady looked pretty confused but the coat wearing gentleman calmed down after her explanation, somewhat at least…
“I just… Can’t be too careful, you know? I mean didn’t you read about what they’re doing with those dolphins and those chakra laser cannon thingies in Archipelago!? It’s scary! And how they’re placing explosive seals on wild gorilla training them to be suicide bombers… That man looks awfully like a gorilla, I’m not paranoid, I’m just saying…” the man buying fish from the lady complained without an end in sight.
“Aww shit…” Shimo covered his own face but apparently not fast enough as in his shaking fearful twitch the man turned his eyes to the side and noticed Shimo looking at him.
“You thief!” the long coat wearing man shouted out, “You liar and thief!” he screamed his lungs out again lunging at Shimo at incredible speed and maneuvering right past the confused passing by townspeople.
Shimo leaned to the side frantically avoiding the man’s endless strikes delivered with a single hand. For a guy who only had one arm the curly blackhead was incredibly fast, his single hand kept Shimo completely overwhelmed and unable to deliver a single counterattack.
“You lied to me and stole my sword!” the overcoat wearing weirdo declared after getting off Shimo’s back for just a moment so both of them could breathe.
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