Kishimoto owns Naruto.
Opening theme: Seishun Kyōsōkyoku(5th opening of Naruto)
Chapter 6: Team Death
And so the S.S. Kingfish sailed merrily on its way…
"Nuts on the high seas!"
…though not without complaint from certain swabbies.
"I shoulda stayed ashore," Oda groaned from the ropes he was tightening. "Unemployment's better than this!"
"Hey, what's your problem?" Naruto asked, walking over to the sailor. "You've been complaining ever since we left port! What's wrong?"
Oda gave the container a mean look, captain or not. "What's wrong is that I'm the only swabbie who knows how t'run a ship! It feels like I'm doin' all the work!"
"Hey, we're doing our part," Naruto protested, "'Specially me!" Naruto pointed to where some clones were swabbing the deck. "Besides, you should be thanking me!"
"For what, cap'n?" Oda asked, confused.
"On any other ship, you'd be just another deckhand," Naruto explained, "But here, you're not just the deckhand, you're the consultant, the navigator, and the helmsman! That's like having four jobs in one!"
Oda thought about that. Then he said, "In that case, I want the pay a'four men."
"What!?"
Up near the helm, Kawazaki watched the argument with mild amusement.
"Um, Mr. Kawazaki?" A dainty voice said.
Looking up, Kawazaki saw Hinata with a cup in her hands.
"I, I brought you some tea," She said.
Kawazaki took the cup and sipped the drink. "Mm. Thank you, Ms. Hyuuga."
Hinata looked down at Naruto and Oda. "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing serious," Kawazaki explained. "Naruto's trying to convince Mr. Oda there to do the jobs of four people for the pay of one. I'll give him credit if he succeeds."
Meanwhile, Lee was busy doing push-ups. Just because he was at sea did not mean he should slack off from his exercises!
"993…994…995…" Lee grunted. It wasn't easy doing push-ups on a surface that was constantly swaying, but felt he was getting used to it.
THUNK!
Lee paused. What was that sound? It sounded like someone moving around the inside of the ship. But who?
Naruto and Oda were talking(Arguing).
Hinata and Mr. Kawazaki were having tea near the helm.
Shikamaru was…sleeping.
And Sakura was-
"Why stop, Lee?" Sakura asked out of the blue.
Lee lost his balance and fell over. "Sa…Sakura! What have you been doing?"
"I just sent a message to Lady Tsunade by carrier pigeon," Sakura explained, pointing over her shoulder. "She should know what's going on right now."
"Hmm," Lee stood up and looked at her. "Were you just inside?"
"No, I was just about to go inside," Sakura said, "Why?"
Lee took on a determined expression. "Cover me," Was all he said. Without another word, he marched into the cabin. There was the sounds of a scuffle, and Lee's voice floated out.
"Look who I found…"
Lee walked out, pulling Inari out!
Sakura blanched. "Inari!"
"Huh?" Naruto turned away from his negotiations to see what all the fuss was about. "What's going on- Inari!?"
Pretty soon, everyone was gathered around the Wave boy.
"What are you doing here, Inari?" Sakura asked.
"I wanted to come," Inari said sullenly.
"But it's too dangerous," Sakura said, "This isn't an ordinary trip we're taking. We're going somewhere with monsters. It's too much for someone your age."
"I don't care!" Inari shot back angrily, "I'm coming!"
Sakura sighed. "Mr. Oda, could you turn us around? We're taking Inari back to his family."
"Wait." Naruto said. He had remained silent the entire time. Storm clouds were gathering above in the meantime.
"Inari," Naruto said, "Why do think you need to come?"
"Because…" Inari began, "Because I wanted to help you find your mom! You saved my mom!"
Naruto didn't say anything.
Inari continued. "When you told us how much you wanted to meet your mom, I knew I had to help… After all, aren't we Nakama?!"
Naruto stared. Then he smiled. "Okay, welcome aboard."
"Naruto!" Sakura cried.
"Naruto," Shikamaru said calmly, "This mission is dangerous enough. Do you think it's really a good idea to let someone with no combat experience tag along?" He nodded toward's Oda. "Even Oda here's probably been through a scrap or two… Is it really okay?"
Naruto gave his trademark smirk. "Sure! You guys just haven't seen what Inari could do. Besides, none of my teammates die when I'm around!"
Hinata gazed at Naruto lovingly as Sakura and Shikamaru sighed.
Naruto…You're so amazing…
DATTEBAYO
Later on, the skies had darkened and the winds had picked up. Oda had taken the helm and was doing his best to keep the Kingfish level. And then it started to rain.
"Man, where'd this storm come from?!" Naruto cried in frustration, "It was clear a minute ago!"
"We can only hope it doesn't get any worse," Lee gasped, trying to keep his balance. The ship was swaying more than usual, and unlike his teammates, he did not have the chakra-molding abilities to hold himself to the deck.
Shikamaru then noticed something. "Hey, Hinata! Can you use your Byakugan to check out what's behind us?"
"Let me see," Hinata said, and activated her Kekkai Genkai. With it she was able to see…
"It's a ship!" She cried.
Before anyone could react to that, the Kingfish suddenly shook- like an invisible force grabbed the boat, stopping it in its tracks. The force of it had thrown everyone from their posts.
"Nuts on the high seas!" Oda cried, struggling to get up, "What hit us?!"
The Kingfish began to shudder, as if it was being pulled against the wind. Hinata saw with her Byakugan a string of chakra, like the kind the Sand Ninja used in their puppet techniques.
But that chakra looks so thick…!
"Hey! Uzumaki Naruto!"
The ship(Though it was more like a raft) Hinata saw was now in plain sight, and on it were the four people Naruto saw in the Land of Waves. Blind The Buddha was at the back, steering the rudder. Fuji and Kageo were standing at the front of the ship. Daku the peddler had his arm reaching out and his hand opened wide as if to grab something.
Hinata gasped. The chakra strings are coming from him!
Fuji sneered, and pointed at Naruto. "We've been looking all over for you, fox-face! There're some guys who wanna see you, so come with us!"
"It's that guy from The Turtle," Sakura said, "But what does he want?"
Inari had a flash of realization. "Bro! It's that bell guy we saw!"
"Yeah, and I think I saw that masked guy," Naruto said, trying to figure out the situation.
Are those guys working for Akatsuki?!
"Now, c'mon!" Fuji yelled again, "We haven't got all day! A certain organization wants to talk to you about the death of their founder, so let's hurry it up!"
Naruto tried to calm himself down. What was this bad feeling he had…? "I'm too busy to mess around with you guys or anyone else! So beat it!" he yelled.
"So it's like that, huh?" Fuji muttered, "Ah, well, works either way…"
Without another word, Fuji took a flying leap off his ship, and onto the Kingfish's deck. (The force of his landing caused the boat to shake even more!) Before Naruto could react, he felt a inhumanly strong punch strike his stomach, and he went sailing into the cabin with a crash.
"Nuts on the high seas!" Oda yelled, "What's going on?! Cap'n? Cap'n!?"
"You keep the ship steady, Mr. Oda," Kawazaki said, hopping down, "I'm going to see what I can do!"
On the deck, Fuji adjusted his neck. "Aww, I over did it. Now I'm gonna hafta go inside to get him," Fuji began to move forward and then froze. "Huh?"
Shikamaru grinned. The Shadow Possession Technique had succeeded. "Now, Lee!"
"Right!" Lee leapt at Fuji, swinging his leg around in a roundhouse kick. "Leaf Hurricane!"
Fuji looked shocked for a moment, then smirked. A mere moment away from Lee's kick connecting did he suddenly bring up his arm, blocking it. Lee fell to the deck, clutching his leg, while Shikamaru fell clutching his arm. Fuji appeared unaffected.
"M-my leg…!" Lee groaned in agony.
Shikamaru tried to make out what had happened, regardless of how much pain he was in, mentally and physically.
That lummox overpowered my technique to the point that I became his victim...! And to take Lee's kick without feeling a thing…is he even human?!
Fuji looked down at them and smiled a devil's smile. "You two wanna mix it up, huh?"
Meanwhile, Sakura had jumped from the Kignfish onto Fuji's boat. If I can just sink their ship, She thought, We'll only have that big guy to worry about! Raising her fist, she began to concentrate all of her chakra into the blow. One punch ought to do it…
Before Sakura could follow through, however, Blind leapt from its post and swung its cane down at her. Sakura jumped aside, just avoiding the blow- and then her arms went limp.
What the-? What happened?! She thought in a panic.
"It seems you fell to Blind's special technique," A soft voice said behind her.
Whirling around, Sakura saw Kageo standing behind her, looking as innocent as a newborn.
How did he get there without my noticing it!? Sakura couldn't figure it out. Even in the storm, she should have heard one of those bells…
Meanwhile, Hinata had positioned herself so that she was in striking range of the chakra thread coming out from Daku.
"I hope this works…" Hinata said. And it should. The Gentle Fist fighting style used chakra, so breaking the chakra thread was going to be easy, wasn't it? However, when Hinata swung her hand down, she couldn't cut through the thread! She tried again, and again, with no more success than before.
What?! It won't break? How? In desperation, Hinata looked at Daku. It's that old peddler…I need to do something about him…
Back on deck, Inari watched in horror as both Shikamaru and Lee fell before Fuji.
"Wha…What do I do?" Inari asked himself in a panic.
"Now, for Naruto." Fuji began to walk towards the cabin when Kawazaki hopped in front of him.
"Hello." Kawazaki said.
Fuji blinked in surprise. "A talking frog."
Kawazaki didn't say anything else. Instead, he maneuvered his pipe so that the end the smoke comes out of was pointing at Fuji. Then, he blew into it as hard as he can. With the sound of a steam whistle, a blast of steam shot out of the pipe, directly into Fuji's face!
"Argh!" Fuji cried, slapping a hand over his eyes, stepping back. Then the cabin swung open and Naruto charged out, a Rasengan in hand.
"Take this!" Naruto yelled, slamming the sphere into Fuji's chest. Fuji went flying, spinning into the mast of his ship, causing it to break in two from the force. At the same time, two clones of Naruto leapt up and pull Sakura off and onto the Kingfish. The mast falling distracted Daku from his hold on the Kingfish, which was more than enough for Hinata to snap the chakra string apart with her Gentle Fist. As if it was released from a slingshot, the Kingfish sprang forward, bouncing across the water so much that by the time it stopped, Team Death was well out of sight.
"Who were those people?" Kawazaki asked, bewildered.
DATTEBAYO
"There's no way we can catch up with him now," Kageo said simply. "Not with the mast like this."
Daku sighed, coughed, then wheezed. "I shouldn't have lost control so easily, I'm sorry."
Fuji waved. "Forget it. We'll get him next time."
"But if he's going to Kaiju Island, there won't be a next time," Blind said, "We can't collect on a head we didn't kill ourselves, and nobody comes back from that place alive."
"Naw, he won't die," Fuji said, smirking, "That kid has too much spirit for that. I almost feel sorry for those monsters…"
DATTEBAYO
Nakama means comrade, someone closer than a friend. I think.