"I can't believe you managed to get the Suna council to hand over Gaia for a three year trial period," said Itachi in disbelief.
"Actually that was easy. The real trick was getting Temari as part of the deal," said Gale smugly.
Suna was wary of their Jinchuriki. Even after Gale had gotten through to her that there were other ways to get their attention (I/E pranks) they were still afraid of her.
They were happy to get rid of Gaia for a few years in exchange for a portion of her cut of the treasure.
Temari, however, was a whole other kettle of fish. Gale had to be extra convincing to rope her into the package too, and in exchange a quarter of both their cuts would go to Suna as well as Temari learning how to use haki and possibly train anyone else who could awaken the ability.
After seeing Gale bitch-slap one of the sand worms in the desert using only her armament haki active, they were quite eager to get the edge on Konoha.
Which meant they now had an extra fan to keep the ship moving in any weather.
"So when do we set sail on our own?" asked Temari. This wasn't how she was expecting her next few years to go, but she had a feeling it was going to be infinitely more interesting than doing missions and reports.
"About that... Dad said that since we have some rookie crew members, we have to wait a year before he's going to let us have the ship. The last thing we need are shinobi who don't know the main sail from the top sail," said Gale.
"So where do we sleep?"
"Girls bunk with me in the upper deck...dad had to have an extra room made last time we went to a shipyard so that the girls could have a place of their own away from all the testosterone-laden guys. And don't worry about any Jiraiya-level perverts, they've learned to fear the wrath of the girls and avoid the bath area when they know it's occupied."
"There's a bathing area?"
"More like a small pool that is filled with animal-friendly soaps. You have to use fire seals or fire style jutsu to warm the water up, but nothing feels better after a storm like a hot bath."
"Where do I sign up again?"
Hot baths, freedom from perverts and the chance to bond with her sister? Why would she pass up something like that?
Sasuke took one look at the ship and grimaced.
"Great...more females, and I bet they're all overpowered, hormonal..."
"Were you saying something dear brother?" asked Gale sweetly from behind him.
Sasuke started to sweat. Gale was never sweet, not unless someone was asking for a beat down. His brother, the traitor, snickered. He was on his own.
"Um... nothing?"
"That's what I thought."
"Remember rule one about females," said Mihawk.
"They're insane?" quipped Kimimaro.
"That's rule three," said Sasuke automatically.
Sasuke and Kimimaro had hit puberty during their training with Mihawk, to his annoyance. So he had been forced to explain how the genders worked to them in between sparring as well as how women got pregnant to begin with in the most blunt fashion. Fortunately they were somewhat aware of how that worked, living on a ship full of pirates and having to help Benn drag them out of brothels more than once.
Really, why the hell had he agreed to take these two as apprentices when they were thirteen for three years when most boys started noticing girls at that age?
Then he remembered. It was a combination of Gale, her father blackmailing him, and boredom.
Damn those Uzumaki. They drove you to drink!
"Exactly how many females did you take on Shanks?"
"Let's see...there's Tsunade, Shizune, Haku, Gale, Karin, Hinata, Yakumo, Gaia and Temari. So nine?"
"Nine females, most of them teenagers, on a ship full of bored men? Are you an idiot?"
"They'll be on the ship a couple of months before Gale goes out to prove she can handle inheriting mine when I retire," said Shanks.
Mihawk did a quick calculation. Shanks was cutting his daughter loose at almost seventeen? With several teenaged boys no less?
"So are you going to turn the male crew members into eunuchs or what?"
"Don't need to. Gale's going on a long run around the Elemental islands for a while before she takes them on the Grand Line. A few hits from her and the boys will keep it in their pants or else."
Gale had seen what allowing personal relationships could do to a ship's crew when she visited some of the other pirate captains. She saw the wisdom of her father's method, which was if you wanted to get some, wait till port when you hit the brothels. Otherwise you had to stay on the island with your significant other, or they had to be able to handle dealing with idiots. It was why Yasopp had to leave his son behind.
Besides, the only new male on the ship was Kiba, and if he couldn't handle being around a mostly female crew he was going to be sent back to Konoha.
Six months later...
Gale was eager to set sail. Shanks had the ship she was used to unloaded at the last dock on Lightning Island, and he had warned her that they might ship off before she had a chance to say goodbye.
They had to survive for two years on their own before Gale could be officially labeled as Shanks' heir to the ship according to pirate standards.
They were going to do one tour of the Elemental Islands (with Fire as the last stop in case they had to off-load anyone like Kiba) before Gale set them on a course for the Grand Line. She had a full set of permanent log poses, courtesy of Shanks.
One of which would lead her straight back to Red Force. If she ever needed to find her father that is.
"So where's our flag?" asked Sasuke. He was perfectly at ease with Gale, mostly because they saw each other as brother and sister.
"We're going to get supplies to make one. Good thing Benn showed me how to sew properly," said Gale.
Part of her duties when she was little was learning how to mend sails, including the part where it displayed her father's symbol. She knew how to make a brand new flag from all the times she had to repair the larger sail when it got ripped, or worse when the flag itself was damaged by a storm.
No real pirate targeted the flag of another pirate crew unless they wanted to completely destroy them. It was an unspoken rule among the pirates, along with not insulting the Jolly Roger.
The flag was sacred to the pirates. About as sacred as the Sage was to shinobi.
So when it came to making a brand new flag, a true pirate took it very, very seriously indeed.
"So this is Kumo. Neat," said Gale.
This would be the last time she saw her father for a long while, so Gale and Shanks made an entire three days of it. Though they did almost get run out after Shanks accidentally found out about a certain mission to kidnap his daughter for breeding purposes. Apparently Kumo once tried to kidnap her mother, and Shanks hadn't been aware of that fact.
So he felt completely justified in stealing a few high-class lightning scrolls among others, mostly because he knew Sasuke happened to be a lightning element with a decent control over fire.
Gale hugged her father and watched him leave with a measure of sadness.
"Um Gale, I don't want to alarm you but why are there a large number of pissed off Cloud shinobi heading in our direction?" asked Sasuke carefully.
"Dad might have gone klepto on some scrolls. Apparently they once tried to kidnap mom and use her as a baby-making machine and she never thought to inform him of it."
"Smart move."
"Alright gang, let's cast off! We're already prepped and ready to go!" said Gale.
Haku, Kimimaro, Sasuke, Temari and Gaia all prepared to cast off while Hinata, Karin, Yakumo, and Kiba made sure that everything was fine below. Gale was the undisputed captain of the ship and Gaia was her first mate, mostly out of seniority. If neither of them were available, Sasuke took command, followed by Haku and Temari. Gale felt a clear line of command in case of emergencies came in handy.
Seeing that the Kumo nin had definitely seen Hinata and Sasuke, and likely knew they had bloodlines valuable to the village, Gale looked at Temari.
"Fans out, ropes secure! We're doing a tactical retreat!" said Gale.
The more rookie members quickly tied themselves off. Sasuke, Kimimaro, Haku and Gaia didn't bother. They were used to the sudden surges in speed on the ships. Chakra certainly didn't help keep your balance much when Gale and Temari sent the ship flying through the water.
There was a reason why Shanks had taken extra care to reinforce the masts and body of the ship. Gale could get a little rough when she boosted the sails. Having them made of reinforced fabric with mesh had been a no brainer really.
By the time the Cloud shinobi managed to get a ship, they were in the distance and it was too late to follow them. Gale cackled at the looks on the rookie's faces.
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You take entirely too much pleasure in making us skip on the waves," said Gaia flatly.
"Agreed," said Sasuke without hesitation.
"Oh come on, the looks on their faces when they realized that we weren't heavy enough not to skip was hilarious!" said Gale pouting.
Sasuke and Gaia turned to look at the rookies who had never been with Gale on a solo run before when she had permission to boost the speed. They then looked at Gale and started laughing with her.
"What the hell man?!" shouted Kiba. Akamaru whimpered from inside the navigation room where Gaia slept.
"Jinchuriki plus a major wind affinity and a fan that can handle channeling the chakra, plus reinforced seals and help? Equals skipping," said Gale shrugging.
"I have to admit, your reactions to the fact that the ship skipped like a rock on a pond was hilarious," said Temari smirking. They had to do that again, it was fun! Then again she and Gale had been standing on Gaia's sand platform while they boosted the speed. Sasuke hadn't bothered to anchor himself at all...he and Kimimaro had simply clung to the netting that lead up to the crow's nest like monkeys.
Long experience had taught them that the netting was a hell of a lot less painful than anything solid when Gale got the ship to skip on the waves. Kiba had fallen on his ass so many times it was funny.
"So let me get this straight. You'll pay us to use our ship to get to Snow Island and we get to be in the movie?" said Gale.
The director had been ecstatic when he heard that there was a genuine pirate vessel in the area, and had been surprised at how young the crew was.
Normally he wouldn't be asking, but the ship he had chartered for the shoot and trip had been hit badly by Kiri rejects and had to be put on dry-dock repairs for several months. Gale's ship was just barely the right size for the entire cast and crew, and she could take it with her and avoid docking fees.
Besides, she was bored and this sounded like fun. But as any good captain would do, she ran it by the crew first.
The girls only needed to hear that it was for the Princess Fuin movies and they were all for it. Sasuke, Kimimaro and Kiba could care less. Though they were a bit annoyed they had to help reseal most of the supplies below deck for in order for there to be enough room.
The main actress, Yukie, was given Gale's personal cabin mostly because she preferred sleeping in the crow's nest anyway.
What she wasn't expecting was the shinobi escort. From Fire island no less.
"Okay, let's talk fees," said Gale after she ran it by the crew.
Gale kept the price fair but still high enough that she could get a decent cut for acting as the courier to another island.
Depending on how it went, she might get paid to ferry them to another island later.
Kakashi was surprised to run into Naruko Uzumaki of all people when he was supposed to be returning the missing heir of the previous Snow Island's daimyo.
His team was less than happy finding out that Kiba and Hinata would be getting a cut from their mission payment because they were acting members of the ship's crew.
Sakura was particularly vocal about how irritated she was about it. And unfortunately for Kakashi, she had her eyes on one of the pirates...a sword specialist by the name of Sasuke.
Closer inspection revealed him to be the lone survivor of the Uchiha massacre, under a new name. Uzumaki Sasuke had no interest in the pinkette, and he was very clear that there would be no 'relations' while he was a member of the pirate crew.
Gale had adopted Shanks' policy. No intercourse on the ship, only at port. They didn't need a pregnant woman losing a child because of a bad wave or hit from a fight, let alone the havoc it would cause because of a bad relationship.
Besides, this Sakura Haruno so wasn't his type.
So Kakashi kept to the sides, watching how the pirate crew interacted.
Gaia, Temari, Haku, Sasuke, Kimimaro and Gale all acted with perfect ease on the ship. In fact he had caught Gale more than once practically flying via ropes from one side to the other just because she could. She had nearly given the director a heart attack, though Kakashi was surprised it had been done entirely without chakra keeping her aloft.
About a week in, Gale damn near woke the entire ship with an alarm about an iceberg that had appeared without warning.
She had been on the last watch before morning, and she had sharp eyes. There wasn't a giant chunk of ice earlier that night, and the water was too warm this time of year for one this big.
Haku took the first step on the ground, and she was quick to warn them.
"Chakra-made. I don't think we should linger very long."
"But this scene is perfect!" said the director.
"If you want an iceberg to film on, I'll make you one later. I for one don't want to deal with any shinobi on a simple transport run," said Haku flatly.
She could manage an iceberg in this cold climate and with Gale's help. She just didn't like flouting her hyoton abilities.
"You can make icebergs," said Kakashi in disbelief.
"Hyoton bloodline, plus Gale happens to have a decent mix of wind and water chakra affinities to do most of the heavy lifting. She just prefers wind most of the time."
Gale made a point to sail around the iceberg, with Haku, Kimimaro and Hinata using water jutsu to get the waves high enough to avoid any ice underwater.
The shinobi were less than happy when they found out how close they were to a fight.