(A/N) Onward off this island and to the next one!
The last day of their stay on the island was mostly spent saying goodbye to the islanders and reassuring them they'd be at Uzushio within a month or two at the absolute most. And making sure they knew how to use the communication seal left with them so they could call for help if they needed it.
The traveling was pretty peaceful for a while, but really, Minato should've known better than to expect it to stay that way. He'd learned to circulate chakra in his lungs to not accumulate water in his lungs, learned to swim, even learned that the islands pretty much wanted to be stolen.
He wasn't prepared for the excitement that came as soon as Fukei loudly announced that there were pirates on the horizon. What was a pirate and why were they so excited?
Turning to Tadaaki and he got an equally confused look. So Tadaaki didn't know what a pirate was either. Hm. Kushina obviously knew, but she was already off and staring off the port bow, presumably looking for these pirates.
So Minato wandered off to find their best bet, Kushina's mom.
"Er, Mitoko, what's a pirate?" Minato asked politely.
She turned to him. "Hm? Oh do you not know? Alright. A pirate is someone who raids other ships on the ocean and steals all their stuff, sometimes knocking holes in their ship or outright sinking them."
"Ah. Why are you so excited to see them?"
"Because we'll either recruit them then drop them off at one of the islands to take care of it, or we'll slaughter them and take the loot to redistribute." Mitoko smiled, then turned her attention back to the wheel. Probably good, it was sort of important. "Either way, a good outcome for us."
"How often do you encounter pirates?" Minato asked tentatively.
"Uzushio as a whole encounters them several times a month," Mitoko replied promptly. "I've recruited four different fleets and slaughtered five others. It's usually pretty even as to how it goes."
"Either way we get their loot!" Kamiko said, cheerfully interrupting the conversation by dropping down from the sails. She shook her head and the bells in it chimed. "So we win either way."
"I just said that," Mitoko informed her calmly. "But yes. Pirates are rather like weak bandits. Occasionally they have missing-nin on board, but they will not contend much with a ship of shinobi. Whichever option happens, it will be quick."
"They're never really a threat!" Kamiko chirped. "And sometimes they have fun loot!"
"Pirates will raid any ship they come across. Or attempt to anyway," Mitoko said, a rather smug air about her. "They always find they're tangling with the wrong prey."
"They didn't catch prey they caught a predator waiting to kill them," Kamiko added, still smiling, which added a definite layer of creepiness to the whole thing.
Minato decided to just smile and nod, then sneak away to inform Tadaaki of this particular advancement.
Tadaaki noticed his reappearance immediately, both of them had gotten better at spatial awareness when they had the risk of Kushina appearing out of nowhere to drag them off if they weren't wary. He tilted his head curiously at Minato.
"Pirates are like bandits with boats," Minato explained. "You'll probably want to be downstairs when we meet them just in case.
Tadaaki made a vague agreement noise. Minato was slowly hearing him talk less and less and he kinda missed it.
"I think it'll be a bit before they get to us though," Minato added encouragingly.
"T-that's g-good," Tadaaki said, blinking almost tiredly at him.
"Have you been sleeping alright?" Minato asked cautiously.
Tadaaki shrugged, looking back out at the ocean. "Moving boat. H-happened last t-t-time too."
"Ah." Minato went with, staring out at the ocean too. He didn't see anything, but he probably wouldn't for a while.
"You two ready for this?" Mitose asked, smiling. "I assume you'll be below decks again Tadaaki? If it goes to that?"
Tadaaki nodded his agreement.
"Well, both of you make sure you get enough sleep, alright? It's important. Especially for still growing boys. And if you're lucky you'll be asleep, or at least able to fake it, during the...discussion."
Minato nodded dutifully.
Tadaaki tilted his head. "I-is it always d-d-d-" he stopped, looking frustrated.
"Death? No. Sometimes it is actually just a discussion and they sail with us until we put them somewhere. Sometimes it is a slaughter though. Sometimes it's both."
"I ho-hope it's n-not a s-slaughter," Tadaaki said quietly.
"I do too," Mitose told him, patting his shoulder.
(A/N) Onward! Okay so I calculated and there's about 4 more updates(I think) until November. If I cannot convince this fic to write faster and better than this I'll cut it short after two islands. If I can, it'll keep going to the planned four islands. Probably. Honestly we'll see.