Pirate AU
Chasingangels wanted Pirates...so we have Pirates! ...And fantasy, tbh...¯\_( Warning: Badassery, Women Being Awesome, Mikoto is Queen, Hana is Done™ and Kiharu is NOT human...
….
"Captain!" I turned, one hand holding my admiral's hat in place and the other pointing into the raging waves below my 'nest'. "Man in the water!"
My superior nodded in understanding, dark eyes flashing and silken hair flying as she turned and strode to Star-Board. Long legs, sheathed in thigh-high leather boots over black breeches, ate up the distance and the older woman was soon leaning over the railing.
"First Mate," She hollered back, "any sign of life? A ship?"
"None, ma'am!"
Mikoto the Dragon opened her spyglass with a sharp 'snap' and levelled it at the barrell a fair distance out. It was, as far as I could see, a single person, dressed in black and draped over a broken barrell. Strangely, there was no shipwreck or vessel on the horizon from where he could have originated.
"Hana!" the onyx-haired woman called, a smirk curling her lips when the tattooed Quartermaster barked out an affirmation, already readying her signal.
A splatter of blood rained down on the ocean, clearly heard by my keen ears, and an instant later the water exploded upwards.
"Hey, boys!" Hana beamed, always overjoyed to see The Triplets and the three, massive King Otters (sea creatures formed of an amalgamation of canine features and kraken bodies) howled in jubilation. I couldn't blame them. Those three hadn't seen their favourite human since she tracked Jiraiya, that old pervert, across two oceans. Ahh, the things Tsunade (the Legendary Sucker, who owe-d half the ocean money and had saved the other from death) had us do for the sake of her temper.
Then again, if any guy thought he could write shit porn based on his fantasies about me, I'd punch him so hard his ancestors would rattle. Like, at least make it good porn - But anyway!
My derailed thoughts had cost me and, by the time I'd tuned back into real life, Hana was guiding the Triplets as they lowered their prize onto the deck.
My 'little sister' and the other cabin girl, Pink-haired Sakura, ran over behind Akane-sama, a stretcher held between them. The Elder, the healer aboard, immediately began checking for signs of life, turning the man on his side and forcing huge lungfuls of salt water from between his blue lips. A shudder wracked the soaked frame and, abruptly, the young man was floundering and writhing on the worn planks.
Akane quickly soothed him, tracing seals with her bleeding fingers over his eyes and chest. They healed and that's all I knew. Elders were fickle beings and, as much as Akane loved her wife's granddaughter, I would never be privy to those secrets. Ino and Sakura, her aides, barely were.
"Kiharu," Mikoto called knowingly, crooking a finger to beckon me from the eagle's nest. I snapped back at the call, scaling down the mast and dropping beside the captain in a crouch.
I glanced back to the not-driftwood-man, noticing how he writhed when Akane cupped her palm over his empty eye sockets.
Oh, yeah. I scratched a long nail down my cheek. He was blind. And, judging from the blood that flowed from beneath his lashes and dripped from his jaw, it was a fairly recent occupation. N'ya.
"My lady," Akane glanced up, red eyes as crimson as the blood smeared on her remaining hand. "He is an Uchiha."
A blind Uchiha. Well, I never.
The captain froze for an instant, face pale as snow, before she dropped to her knees. The young man was scooped up and, uncaring of the blood smearing over Mikoto's loose white shirt, and cradled to her chest. Long fingers, one hand gloved in black leather and the other bare, trailed over his slack features.
"Akane...is this...Shisui?"
Oh. Shit.
oOOo
The Matriarch was an old vessel, once the ship of Mito the Great, who had taken a dryad as a husband and been gifted the ship as a wedding present. When she'd died, her niece Kushina had inherited the huge creation. However, Kushina was then chosen to host the Fire Demon Kurama, and like her Aunt before her, was landlocked for the rest of her days.
To a pirate, such a thing was unthinkable. But, from what I'd heard over the years, the redhead was happily absconded with a husband and bouncing baby brat.
Her best friend, one Uchiha Mikoto, was not so confined. And, so The Matriarch sailed again.
That had been years ago, a decade since I'd joined the crew, and I'd never once looking back. The Sun, the Sea - 'and A&E' my mind automatically finished.
Ahhhrgh. Reincarnation was a Bitch for those catchy phrases. And TV ads.
The dissociation was shit, too.
Speaking of…
"Kiharu," Hana smiled up at my reclined figure, limbs hanging lazily from the thick rope wrung I'd balanced myself on. "As First Mate, you should at least try and pay attention to what's going on."
"Hmm? And why is that?" I arched a brow, trailing a claw over the swirling black lines on my legs. "My duties are complete, shockingly enough."
"Well," the younger girl started, scaling the mast and leaning over me. Her satisfied smirk, that stretched the Summoning Marks on her tanned cheeks, had my eyes narrowing in suspicion. She was up to something. "If you were more aware, maybe you'd realise that Driftwood fancies the pants off of you."
"I am missing none of my lingerie," I pointed out reasonably.
Hana threw her hands up in the air as Ino and Sakura, eavesdroppers scrubbing the deck below, burst into a fit of giggles. I was absently amazed that they weren't bickering. Which they did all the time. For fun. "You're missing the point, Ki!"
Stretching my hands above my head, I decided the weather was too good not to sunbathe. "Which is?"
Rough fingers grabbed my chin and twisted my head to the side. Tolerantly, I slid my eyes open. "That the guy you saved keeps making a fool out of himself trying to impress you."
As if to accentuate her point, Shisui chose that moment to fall down the stairs, face turn towards us as he no doubt heard my voice.
Oh, for goodness sake, there was a reason the Uchiha were known for their eyes. They were fucking shit without them, for one.
"Huh," I chortled, twisting my jaw free and returning to my original position. "You don't have to tell me that. Just look at the dork!"
"It was funny at first but now it's annoying, Ki! I can't get any work done!" Hana whined, voice moving as she returned to the deck and stood below my reclined figure. For an eighteen year old, she sure was strict. Pah!
"That's hardly my fault-" I complained.
"Yes, it is," Hana interrupted impatiently. "Fix. It." the brunette emphasised, each word accompanied with a sharp jab to my spine. I was impressed she could reach.
Waving my hand, I dismissed her pleas. "Nah, no point...won't change a damn thing. Shi's always been like that, even when he did have eyes."
The deck was silent for approximately 0.8 seconds before three voices exploded.
"What?!"
oOOo
The port of Uzu (known as Uzushio or Uzushiogakure to the locals and regulars) blazed like a bonfire on the horizon.
The water was pitch black, so still it seemed like a shallow spill of ink as far as the eye could see. The sky was purpled and dark with huge constellations running like seams of diamond above us.
The rigging creaked and yawed as The Matriarch pitched over crests, the waves that signalled the the port's walls were close at hand. This land was famous, and named, for it's whirlpools but...a small few knew these waters well enough to avoid them entirely.
"Shadow Master, how long until we anchor?"
A dark form, vaguely humanoid, crawled up the nearest beam and leaned out of the woodwork, it's fingers legs and skull still appearing 'rooted' in. From here, it's head looked vaguely pineapple shaped...
"Shishou," a low, smooth voice responded. "I will drop the anchor in approximately half an hour. Will you be at port for long?"
Mikoto, hat missing and gloves off, ran her pale hands through her loose, tumbling hair. "No, Ensui. Just for the night...I have some business, a castaway to send on his way and so that the crew can see their families, have a bit of fun."
The shadow seemed to tilt its head and it's voice had turned inquisitive. "Shi? He's not staying?"
"Ah yes," the captain leaned back in her armchair and closed her eyes with an amused smile. "You and Kiharu were children together with him. And no, my nephew doesn't belong here."
"How can a shadow be a child?" Was that sarcasm? Touché. "He was wounded, no? And there was no shipwreck...has he told you?"
"He has spoken to Kiharu."
"That's a 'no', then."
oOOo
Yuri was waiting for us as soon as the plank was dropped, auburn-gold hair shining under the port lanterns. She had wrapped a large, red shawl around her shoulders and I had to smile at the gesture. Akane had woven that completely by hand, including making the yarn from some simple fleece and cotton we'd 'acquired' from a passing trade ship. It had taken her months, the voyage, and she'd only just finished it when we'd returned to Uzu.
But that had been years ago, when I was but a child, and Yuri-oba wore it faithfully.
Their love was a quiet one, filled with silent looks and the briefest touches of hands.
"Yuri," the Elder greeted, curling her arms around her wife's waist and pressing a soft kiss to the crows feet at the corner of her eye.
"Akane," my grandmother smiled back, her voice still as mesmerising as the day she first learnt her Song. And, even well over 60, the soft sound still garnered a few second glances as she hooked her arms through mine and Akane's, leading us into the town. The burdens of Sirens...my mother had had it too.
Without conscious thought, my fingers brushed the lavender gem that hung, encased in gleaming silver, from my left lobe. Ah, well...she was with me now.
"How about some supper?" the seamstress smiled at me, raising her voice over the din. The streets were roiling with life, bars open and scoundrels running the streets.
The houses were white, red tiled roofs, and set into terraces in the hills and surrounded in greenery. Vineyards striped the mountainsides, hydrangea bushes like leafy clouds billowed in between the houses, the street squares and corners. The petals were gradients of flushed pinks and periwinkle blues, mirroring the sky and sea at sunset and filling the whole town with their sweet scent.
As a Reborn, an Olde Soul, I likened it to Sorrento or the Cote D'Azure. Very seaside, mediterranean even.
But, a Pirate town was, well, filled with the renegades and so, when we heard pistols fired ahead, we just casually altered our route home to accommodate. Regardless, I was always glad for the huge twin axes strapped in an 'X' across my back. Hey, pacifist I may be but the sight alone was a fantastic deterrent.
And axes? I always had liked Gimli in The Lord of the Rings. Even five lives in it was still a great series. I mean, Peter Jackson had such attention to detail, the costumes alone-
"Kiharu," Yuri smiled, gesturing for me to enter the house instead of just mong out in the street.
The house was whitewashed with green shutters and terracotta tiled roofs, something of a cottage with a small stone fountain in the front garden and lemon trees in the back. As I stepped through the door, the scent of delicious food and home washed over me, so familiar I had to resist the urge to drop to the carpet and purr like a housecat. Pfft, that was something Papa would've done.
"Are you going out tonight, my darling?" Yuri asked, placing her steaming basket in the centre of the table. I wouldn't be staying long, just grabbing a bite, before I left on my own business and to give the two older women some time to themselves.
The meal was warming, little pork dumplings with miso and coconut buns, bean sprouts and edamame beans. Not only were veggies pretty scarce towards the end of a voyage (cats were carnivores for the most part, but I appreciated the change and freshness), but the food was so quintessentially home that I was scraping my plate clean in moments and licking my maws.
My aunt and the Elder were holding hands on the table as I ducked to press a kiss to Yuri's temple.
"Thanks for the wonderful meal but I best be off, have a lovely evening you two," I called, ducking out the backdoor and strapping my equipment back on.
I had a poker game to crash.