I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
Sailing
Ryuu swam under water for a few more feet before giving Isobu control. Isobu began to use chakra to change the water he inhaled into oxygen instantly and looked around. They had reached the port earlier that day, only to be told the crew for the tiny, one-mast sailing ship they had been given refused to set sail due to a monster that attacked anything that tried. So, Ryuu and Isobu had agreed to deal with it. After swimming out to sea for a ways, they finally spotted the supposed monster. It was a marlin with a literal sword for a nose. Isobu grunted in effort, transforming Ryuu into a smaller version of Isobu, though with considerably difficulty. He also was only about three times Ryuu's height, rather than his normal monstrous size. The fish spun and shot toward him, only for Isobu to catch the sword.
"Calm down!" Isobu said. "I'm here to try and ask what's wrong!"
"Look at his forehead," Ryuu said.
Isobu's eye swung around to the fish's forehead, spotting a fuma shuriken stabbed into it, the wound around the blade looking red and infected. "Yep. That'd make me pretty angry two. Here goes."
Isobu flipped forward and shrunk back down into Ryuu's normal body before catching himself on the fish's head, pulling the blade free and letting it fall before beginning to heal the wound. After a few minutes, he finished and the fish swam to the surface and over to shore as Isobu gave Ryuu back control and began to sleep. Ryuu climbed back onto shore and turned back to the fish.
"It had a fuma shuriken in its head," Ryuu said. "It's better now."
"Why hasn't it gone home?" Yamato asked.
"He will when he's ready," Ryuu said, patting the fish on the side. "You behave yourself, yeah?"
The fish flicked its side fin and splashed him and Ryuu chuckled.
"Alright," Ryuu said. "Let's get going."
The others all nodded and headed into town, gathering the crew for their ship before setting sail. Once they were out to sea, the marlin jumped off to their left three times before bursting into smoke on the third jump. Fu smiled, wrapping her arms around Ryuu.
"You did good," Fu smiled.
"Isobu did all the work," Ryuu said.
Fu smiled. "Well, then let's go to our room and put you to work."
"You haven't seen the inside of this ship yet have you?" Ryuu asked.
"No, why?" Fu frowned.
Ryuu led her under the deck and she instantly shrieked indignantly. Uther than the deck, there was a small room for the Shinobi to sit with a small square table and three benches, a storage room for food, and the bunk room where there was a hammock for everyone. That was it. Any bathroom calls had to be made over the side of the ship.
"Yamato!" Fu all but shrieked, storming over to him, Ryuu following with a knowing smirk on his face. "You're fixing this!"
"There's nothing I can do," Yamato said. "This is the ship Lady Tsunade rented, so there's nothing I can do."
"YOU CAN MAKE US A BETTER ONE!" Fu shrieked. "Fix this!"
Yamato grimaced. "Fu-"
"You are making a ship where I can have sex with Ryuu and go to the bathroom to pee, poop, or puke in privacy!" Fu shrieked, her voice so high and furious that Yamato actually flinched.
"U-Uh...o-of course, Fu," Yamato said. "I-I'll get right on it!"
He sprinted to the deck to make a new ship and everyone else followed. When they arrived, they found that the ship was only slightly bigger physically, but below deck had a bathroom, a bedroom for the crew, then one for Ryuu and Fu, then one for everyone else, since Fu was the only one who, being pregnant and having morning sickness, would actually need the privacy of their own room, as the other girls all agreed they could change in the bathroom. Ryuu and Naruto used their clones to transfer their supplies between ships, then helped the crew get the ship going before Fu lit the one they'd left behind on fire as they left. Then, once everyone was sure Fu had calmed down, they all took their things to whatever room they were staying in while Ryuu took Fu down to their room to tend to her needs in order to calm her down.
Ryuu stared at the ghost ship as it drifted slowly out of the fog. When Yamato had been telling the story of the ghost ship, Ryuu had known he was joking. And yet, here he was, watching one matching Yamato's description to the letter sailing slowly toward them.
"Let's go an investigate," Yamato said.
Ryuu nodded. "Aoba, please stay here with Fu."
"I don't need a bodyguard," Fu said.
"It's so he can come and get me if you start throwing up," Ryuu said.
Fu sighed and nodded and Ryuu turned, leaping to the ghost ship and landing silently on the deck, looking around in silence. Deserted. The others cast a net across, which Ryuu secured with a kunai, allowing them all to climb across quietly. He ignored them discussing Maritime Law saying they had to investigate all lost ships. He was more interested in Yomo. Yomo was flying around the crow-filled masts, talking to the crows filling them, only for them to caw back at him that they needed to flee, and that the ship was a bad place.
"Something's wrong here," Ryuu said, his Sharingan scanning around the ship again.
Yamato glanced up at Yomo before understanding filled him and he nodded, drawing a kunai, Naruto drawing one of his own and forming a Vacuum Blade on it. They spread out over the ship, and after a few minutes, Naruto called out for them, all of them rushing to him, finding him with a young boy dressed as a sailor who was swabbing the deck. While he was, dozens of Naruto clones were cleaning the rest of the ship for him, helping him with his chores. However, when Ryuu found them, he stared at the boy.
"Where's the rest of the crew?" Ryuu asked.
The boy's eyes saddened. "The crew's all gone."
"So, did something happen?" Yamato asked.
"Yeah, that's right," the boy said. "Deep beneath the ocean's surface lurks something that's even more terrifying than any ghost ship." He stopped, looking around as the ship listed more than normal. "It's come back!"
"What has?" Naruto asked.
"The monster!" the boy said. "The legendary creature! The skeleton crab!"
"Crab?" Naruto asked.
"This isn't just some ordinary crab!" the boy said. "It's huge! The size of an island! It's shell is hard as a rock! And if you're caught between its pincers, it's over! It can squish anything!"
The ship began to rise and list again and Ryuu sighed walking to the back of the ship, watching as something quickly began to surface.
"The barnacles attached to its shell can swallow a person whole!" the boy was saying. "The captain and the rest of the crew, that monster killed all of them!"
"We'll kill it," Ryuu promised as the others quickly joined him.
Suddenly, the crab breached the surface, climbing onto the ship. It wasn't the size of an island, but it was the size of a small ship. It opened its gaping mouth and shrieked, a dozen tentacles reaching out of the top of its shell, stretching toward them all, only for a flood of bubbles to drift past, popping against them and burning them where they touched. The crab shrieked in pain, and the barnacles lining its shell stretched out to their full lengths, each as long as a human and big enough around to swallow a human, true to the boy's word. The crab clambered onto the boat, reaching for Ryuu with its claw, only for him to appear off to the other side when its claw snapped closed. He shook his head, sighing.
"It's too slow," Ryuu sighed. "No challenge."
"It's huge!" Yamato said.
"Yeah, but that's all it is," Ryuu said. "You should know better than most. The larger and harder the defense, the less force need to be applied-"
"To a single point!" Yamato gasped. "You're right!"
"I've got this!" Naruto shouted, leaping into the air with a Rasengan. "Rasengan!"
The jutsu exploded, but when it cleared, there was no damage.
"Not enough force Naruto," Ryuu said.
Just then, one of the crab's feelers swung down at Ryuu, only for him to again appear off to the side. The crab shrieked in annoyance and swung the feeler around at him again, then swung a claw down at him, each time missing Ryuu.
"Naruto, the inside of his body is soft," Ryuu said, holding out his right arm. "Go."
Massive roots exploded out of his arm, flooding outward and wrapping around the crab, holding it in the air before two of them pried its jaws open. Naruto sprinted along the roots to the crab and dove into its mouth with a Rasengan, the explosion hurling him back out of the crab's mouth a second later. He flipped, landing on the ship and watching as the crab sand into the water.
"Is it dead?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah," Ryuu nodded as the fog around them began to fade.
"We did it, Hishaku!" Naruto grinned. "We avenged your crew!"
"Thank you, Naruto," the boy smiled. "I know I'll always feel some regret, because I couldn't fight with the others back then, but now, since you've avenged all of my shipmates, the heaviness in my heart is gone."
"Aw, come on!" Naruto smiled. "I was only able to take down that crab because of your desire to avenge your shipmates. I'd say, you and I are shipmates now after going through that."
"That's for sure," Hishaku said, suddenly transparent, voice sounding like it was coming from far away.
Naruto's mouth fell open, but Ryuu nodded knowingly. He'd thought so. If Hishaku had been on the ship, there was no way he'd survived.
"It's time to say goodbye, Naruto," Hishaku said, then faded.
"Hishaku?" Naruto asked. "Hey, where'd you go?"
Just then, the ship's horn blew and Naruto stared up at it for a moment. Ryuu set a hand on Naruto's shoulder.
"Time to go, Naruto," Ryuu said. "They're at peace now, but they can't move on while we're here."
Naruto nodded and they all returned to their own ship just in time for the entire crew to appear on the back of the other ship's deck, all of them transparent.
"Naruto!" Hishaku called out. "Thanks! Take care!"
"Goodbye!" the crew shouted. "Have a safe journey!"
"Bye!" Naruto called back. "Same to you!"
The crew all smiled and faded, followed by the entire ship, and Naruto's eyes widened.
Then, Naruto screamed. "The ghost ship!"
The others all laughed, Hinata covering her mouth to muffle her own giggle, before they all headed below deck to get out of the crew's way so that the crew could get them going again.
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