Corsair and Shinobi

Couldn't this day get any better? Those were the thoughts of a frustrated Edward James Kenway, a young twenty-two year old Welsh privateer. He was tall and athletically built thanks to his life as a sailor, with a tanned complexion, blond hair and a few scars on his face.

At the age of 19 he had joined the British Royal Navy, but was discharged because of poor pay and mistreatment. He joined as a privateer with his comrade Benjamin Hornigold, to make a quick buck and get rich again with his beloved wife Caroline Scott.

Although it could be said that the shot backfired on him as the war was over within a year of his departure. Since he had not earned a single penny to return to Bristol, he decided that the life of piracy was a good idea.

He had been aboard a brig nicknamed the Jacobite for a couple of years.

The night before at Cape Buenavista, its captain gave the order to attack a British Navy frigate and the schooners escorting it, but to make matters worse, a storm from hell broke out.

The Jacobite resisted the beginning of the battle by sinking the schooners, however, when they managed to sink HMS Intrigue, a man climbed aboard, killed the captain and blew up the ship's gunpowder reserve sending it to the bottom of the sea.

When he reached the beach he tried to ally himself with the man who killed his captain to get out of the cape. They crossed words and now he was chasing him through the jungle, everything was going well until the damned scoundrel shot him.

After several minutes of pursuit he managed to catch him in an area free of trees; the man seemed tired of fleeing so he unsheathed a saber and Edward unsheathed his sabers ready for the fight. All this happened without both opponents noticing the shadow that was watching them.

Minutes before...

Naruto had found the human energy signatures and transported himself near the location with the leaf shunsin; he began to run through the trees for several minutes until he stopped on a high branch. He watched for several minutes looking for the human energy signatures and until he located both men in hot pursuit clearly hostile; he heard the hoarse shouts of the pursued clearly angry, but did not understand the language.

Naruto let out a heavy sigh and placed one of his hands on the side of his head, he asked himself, why did his missions always get complicated? From his first mission in the land of the waves, which was a simple C rank, that became an A rank when they ran into one of the 7 Swordsmen of the Mist or all the times he crossed his missions with renegade S-class shinobi, such as, for example: Itachi Uchiha and his fish-faced partner, if he remembered correctly his name was Kisame Hoshigaki. And on the other hand his multiple skirmishes against the psychopathic Sannin Orochimaru along with his hateful and treacherous four-eyed henchman Kabuto Yakusi, he thought with a growl as he remembered those two; but he calmed down and continued thinking about his luck in missions and in life. O yes, his missions were never easy... even his D-rank missions were a disaster.

Naruto did not believe in fate. He made his own way. But he did believe in luck and he possessed very bad luck in everything except gambling. At least the universe compensated him. He remembered, chuckling, how he had been dragged by the woman he saw as his mother figure to every casino and gambling house in the land of fire to empty his accounts. Once they had pulled off their big scam they were banned from all the casinos in the land of fire. Not content with this, Naruto continued to win with his good luck in the casinos of the elemental nations during his training trip with his godfather until he was rejected from all of them.

His memory grew sadder as he remembered Tsunade Senju. Their first meeting and confrontation, and the first bet he had beaten her. He brought his hand to his neck, took the necklace of the first repaired Hokague and closed it in his hand over the green jewel sobbing silently. Memories of his friends and loved ones came to his mind. She dedicated a moment to her suffering and then came back to the present with a loud bang.

He hid among the leaves of the tree he was in and quickly searched with his eyes for the origin of the explosion. He could quickly distinguish that one of the individuals had thrown the object that caused the explosion, while running in another direction through the poles and branches of the trees; on the other hand, the other individual shot out the same way to catch him. Naruto quickly began to follow them through the upper branches of the trees while thinking whether to intervene or not.

Present tense

After a long time of pursuit, Edward stopped and unsheathed his sabers because his opponent after reaching a small river bed that flowed into the nearby waterfall; he stopped and unsheathed his saber for a fight.

They both looked at each other analytically in order to uncover their enemy's next moves, they started circling each other like two wolves ready to pounce on each other to prove who was the best.

Edward was thinking his situation over quickly, when the man he had been chasing stopped so abruptly he thought he would lunge at him in fury and that would give him a chance to defeat him easily but his enemy had done just the opposite. He examined his opponent and saw that he was wounded or at least he thought so as he saw his hand clutching his side. This would be his strategy, he would give a vertical cut with his long sword and when his enemy blocked his attack, he would thrust his other sword into his enemy's abdomen ending his life. So he put his plan into action... but it didn't work... he had been tricked! After trying to thrust his second saber into the man's abdomen, he heard a metallic noise and then felt a cut on his left hand that made him drop the saber.

Edward stepped back to avoid the stab with the hidden blade and blocked the enemy cut with his saber; he spun around quickly and swung his saber to cut his enemy, but the enemy had stepped back and was looking at him with a smirk. Edward clenched his hand into a bleeding fist to reduce the pain of the cut and heard the hoarse voice of his opponent.

-You might have helped me get to Havana, might have made you rich, but you pirate scum are all the same, you believe in nothing but the gold in your pocket and the rum in your belly; and so now you are a dead man," said the man with arrogance and mockery, pointing his cutlass at Edward.

- HA! - Edward laughed unfunnily

- Do you think a simple cut on my hand can kill me? That trick won't work twice on me, besides, why would I ally myself with you, huh, so you could stab me in the back the moment I got to Havana? No thanks. You're the only one who's going to die today," answered Edward, giving him a mocking smile and pointing his saber at him.

The atmosphere was tense for a few moments, both looked at each other with restrained fury and then both gave two powerful battle cries and charged at the other and the jungle was silent until two metallic sounds were heard clashing with two metallic objects.

Edward and the man were surprised. Their attacks were being blocked by two strange-looking weapons; but it was not the shape of the weapons that had stunned them but the man wielding them, but a voice brought them both out of their stupefaction.

- YO!" said Naruto smiling while blocking the attacks.

Naruto pushed the attacks of both older men back, pushing them away from him and standing in their way.

Naruto was analyzing both people, seeing if they made any moves.

The first person was on his right, he was a tall man over 30 years old, he was of white tes and had a goatee shaped beard, he noticed that he was dressed in a blue dyed coat; his trained eyes could see that this clothing was intended to allow freedom of movement in the arms and legs as well as being a clearly stealthy and easy to lose sight of attire. Even from his position he could see eight potential spots where weapons could be concealed.

The man to his left was much younger, he looked to be in his late 20's, he was light tanned with tattoos on his arms, his hair was blond and messy and he kept a scruffy beard. He was dressed in a simple leather vest and unkempt cream white pants.

After analyzing them, he decided to break the tense silence.

- (Hello! Why don't we lower our weapons, datebayo!)- Naruto spoke sympathetically in his own tongue and with a wave lowered his weapons, but did not holster them.

This surprised both people who did the same without holstering their weapons.

- (I am Naruto Uzumaki)- said the blond pointing to himself and giving a big smile.

Edward looked at him in disbelief and surprise as the stranger had communicated through a language similar to the dialects of Asia... after analyzing it he realized that it was not a man who had stopped them but a boy of about 18 years old. When he saw the boy's face, he quickly thought he was Caucasian because of his height and spiky blond hair and blue eyes; he quickly deduced that he was a cabin boy of one of the British ships that sank, but he dismissed the idea when he noticed how he was dressed, he had a red coat and underneath a Japanese style body armor along with what looked like a katana if he remembered correctly, Edward was not stupid he knew how to recognize things and enemies when he was close, but something told him that the boy was not what he seemed.

-Edward Kenway," said the Welshman, bowing his head slightly in greeting, receiving a nod from the blond.

Naruto turned to look at the other older man waiting for him to speak.

-James Walter," said the man with the same gesture as Edward, expecting to receive a nod from the young man. But he frowned at him and gave him a confused look.

This made James Walter tense, because he had been discovered!

His real name was Duncan Walpole ex-master Assassin, he did not know how but this boy had discovered him; he began to think quickly, was it possible that Ab Tabai hired someone to prevent him from arriving in Havana? Was he an initiate of the assassins and his mission was to hunt him down? Was he a Templar sent by Torres because he had been delayed in his arrival in Havana? The more he thought, the more irritated he became and the more he lost his patience, then he broke the silence and spoke in what little Japanese he knew.

- (Hey brat! You came after me? Torres sent you?! Or was it Tabai! )- Duncan practically shouted his questions in pent-up anger at the possibility of having been betrayed by the Templars.

Naruto noticed the man's nerves, and tried to calm the situation, but to no avail.

- (You've come to kill me, haven't you?!) Duncan shouted angrily and began to approach the boy.

- (I don't know what you're talking about, I don't know anyone named Torres!)- Naruto shouted back. His patience for the man's aggressive attitude and his conveyed emotions of anger, fear and misunderstanding were making him nervous.

When Duncan was within striking distance he prepared to attack the unsuspecting blond...or so he thought.

Naruto noticed how the supposed James had approached him ready to pounce on him. He was already prepared to activate the rinegan and enter the mind of the man who was going to attack him.

- (You lie! And it will be the last time you do it)- Duncan shouted and then spoke calmly, extending his arm and activating his hidden blade to kill the young blond...

But his attack had been stopped by the young blond who was grabbing his wrist with an iron force and he even felt the bone of his wrist fracture; he looked down to see the eyes of the blond, when he saw the eyes, he froze and felt something that he had not felt for a long time...terror, absolute terror because he saw how the blue eyes of the young blond changed to purple eyes with ringed patterns that stared at him without any expression. Then he felt something enter his head and he lost consciousness.

Naruto had sensed the killing intent from the older man, so he prepared himself. He felt the sage mode alert him to the attack at his side so moving quickly he grabbed his attacker's wrist and crushed it under an iron grip; he shifted his eyes to the rinegan and entered his attacker's mind for two reasons. One to look for the verbal and grammatical construction of the language they were using before which he discovered was called English together he obtained the same construction of other languages, which were: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, Latin, Greek and some native dialects of an area called Caribbean, on the other hand, he found some languages very similar to his own these were Chinese and Japanese so he decided to learn them; and two to get information.

After a while of getting the information out of his enemy's mind he discovered how different this new world was from his own, as this world had several continents instead of a supercontinent.

He also discovered that there were two factions that had been fighting and growing from the shadows one were the ancients better known as the Templars and the other were the Assassins. Both had their ideals and goals, but they were always related to something called the First Civilization. Naruto decided to continue researching and filing information from the man's mind to review later.

He discovered that this man had betrayed his order and would join the other side by giving them information about a place called the observatory and a crystal cube to store a small amount of blood of someone called "Sage" whatever that meant. In itself the betrayal didn't surprise him as it was common for renegade ninja to join other villages in exchange for protection or for selfish reasons; but what made Naruto furious was that this scumbag of a person was going to sell out his comrades. He decided that would be all the information he would get from him. It came out of the man's mind causing him to come back to consciousness.

Edward didn't know what was going on, first their fight was stopped by the younger boy, when he realized that the man would try to kill the young blond he shouted to alert him, but he had already moved and immobilized the wrist of the attacker and now 2 minutes had passed in which neither had moved or said a word, they were just standing there watching each other.

Then a frightened, gravelly voice drew his attention

- What on earth?" asked Duncan, confused and recovering.

- You are the same demo...ugh! - he never finished his sentence as a fist slammed into his stomach making him spit blood from the force of the impact. Duncan fell to his knees clutching his stomach in pain and gasping for air as he heard the young blond's voice.

-You're a scumbag Duncan Walpole, selling out your friends and comrades to curry favor with someone. You disgust me," said the blond, letting out a growl and then kicked him and sent him crashing into a nearby tree.

-So they sent you after me, did they? - Duncan asked as he clutched the area of the kick and spat out the blood that was pooling in his mouth.

Duncan heard a high-pitched, mocking laugh.

-No, no, no," Naruto said, shaking his head.

- No one sent me after you...I saw what you are," said Naruto as his eyes turned cold. -You are a filthy traitor who sold out his comrades and for that you will be judged," said Naruto as he approached him.

Duncan laughed and smirked.

-Then judge me and kill me for my crimes, I am not afraid of death," she said angrily and spat at him, causing the saliva to fall at the blond's feet.

Naruto just gave him a sly, slightly wicked smile.

- Who said anything about killing you? I'm going to hand you over to your comrades when I see them, they will be the ones to judge you for your treason- Naruto spoke while disarming the assassin and removing his tunic leaving him in pants and a shirt.

He only received a grunt in response and the man was knocked unconscious by the powerful blows. Naruto took out a prisoner transport scroll, spread it on the ground and placed the unconscious Duncan on top of the scroll. He executed a sequence of seals and touched the scroll causing the body to be sealed with a cloud of smoke.

Edward was now somewhat impressed by the boy's strange abilities, anyone would have run away screaming at the blond's strange sorcery, but he possessed a sixth sense with which he was able to instinctively sense how people and objects related to him.

This boy had put a man twice his age in check with just a couple of blows.

Then he heard his name being called, but he was so deep in thought that he didn't see something flying towards his face, suddenly his vision dimmed; he quickly removed the object that had crashed into his face and turned to look at the blond who was looking away and whistling innocently. He let out a small grunt of annoyance and turned to look at the object in his hands and was surprised to see the robe of the man he had been chasing. He turned to look at the young blond and he nodded at him, without further ado Edward put the robe on.

-Greetings Edward Kenway or should I say Duncan Walpole," Naruto said with a sly smile that made Kurama proud and raised his hand to be shaken.

Edward didn't get the message for the moment, he quickly analyzed why she had called him Duncan Walpole? And his eyes widened with astonishment, he gave her a smile worthy of a fox and shook her hand.

- Tell me what you have in mind little fox and what do I get in return? - Edward spoke in a loud voice full of amusement and curiosity about his blond companion's plan, completely ignoring the previous demonstration of skills.

-But first I would like to know what you did back there," Edward said in a serious tone.

Naruto realized that what he did was surely not common, he let out a sigh and spoke.

-First I would like to get out of this place, and then I will tell you my plan and what happened a moment ago," Naruto spoke rubbing his head with one hand as a sign of being embarrassed for having been caught.

Edward stared at him, he was going to get answers, but now was not the time to harass anyone, least of all someone who looked in perfect fighting condition. Sighing he put away his sword. -Whatever you say, my friend, -.

Naruto stretched and throned his back, "That's fine with me.

They walked to the edge of the riverbed that ended in a waterfall, the pair of blondes could see a modest boat.

-That looks like our way off this island, boy-Edward said to his new companion, before diving off the cliff into a body of water below the waterfall.

Unperturbed by his new friend's flashy exit, Naruto jumped into a tall tree growing right next to the pool where his friend had recently gone and dove in. He then ran around the side of said tree to stand by the pool as his friend surfaced.

- How did you get here so fast if you didn't dive in? -Edward asked in confusion.

-Ninja. Naruto replied with a big slutty grin on his face as if answering everything.

Edward thought to himself that he would either get answers for his pride as a Welshman or bow to the King of England and beg for mercy.

As they made their way to the edge of the small lake, they could hear voices and then a loud pop. With a glance between the two blondes, each fled to hide in different directions, Edward in an area of heavy bushes, Naruto in a tree with plenty of foliage and they began to listen to the men's conversation.

The men in red uniforms intended to rob the burly guy's boat, even though it was also clear that he had done nothing wrong; they even intended to hang him. A glance between the two and it was decided that they would help the boat owner by eliminating the men who intended to execute him, then they would exchange that service for a passage out of this place.

While Edward took care of his targets. Naruto used a pair of shurikens to take out a pair of troops not far from his tree and instead of alerting anyone of their disappearance, he formed a pair of clones that transformed among the guards, while hiding the bodies in some nearby bushes.

Naruto had retreated to another tree, his transformed clones continuing with the guard patrols. His patrolling clones were walking past the cornered sailors when one of the moored sailors ran off

- Stop that man! - commanded the leader of the red-clad men, his hat clearly more elegant, indicating his importance, if Naruto had learned anything it was that the cooler you looked, the more important you were.

Some of the red-clad troops extended wooden and metal poles, aiming at the running man. Naruto and Edward took advantage of this distraction. Edward led another guard into his bush, his clones killed the guards and Naruto quickly eliminated the leader with a kunai.

Naruto's clones disappeared in wisps of smoke, leaving only the burly guy, his sailors, Edward and Naruto on the beach.

-Please don't hurt me," the man said in terror.

Naruto quickly analyzed him, he was dressed in an open leather coat and some thin green clothes. The man was stocky, a little less than Choji one of his best friends, he looked to be close to 30, he was blond haired and contrary to his own hair or Edward's, it was combed and groomed.

Naruto helped the burly man and his men.

-Quiet, my friend. Who were those men? And why did they try to steal your boat? - asked the blond as he unmoored the burly men.

-I'm afraid they were compatriots and members of the British Royal Navy," said the man with embarrassment. - They demanded that I hand over control of my ship and my possessions to them, but of course I refused," he said with regret at the behavior of the authorities.

That made Naruto look up and speak in disbelief as a tick formed on his forehead from controlled rage.

- You mean to tell me that your compatriots who were an authority behaved like mere bandits? - Naruto said unconsciously releasing a bit of murderous intent that made everyone tense up, but Chomei warned him of the situation and quickly calmed down by withdrawing the pressure on everyone present.

-Well, it's a good thing we saved them from those traitors," said the Welshman, emphasizing the word "traitors" and helping the merchant.

-Ah, then I owe you thanks, kind sirs, unfortunately I have no coins to share at this time. My ship is loaded with merchandise, though unfortunately my helmsman has been executed. The burly man offered with sadness at the death of one of his comrades.

Naruto made some hand signals and made a dirt joust to create a grave then placed the helmsman's lifeless body and covered it with dirt, placed a rock and asked for the helmsman's name.

The crew members screamed at the blond's demonstration of wizardry and began muttering under their breath so as not to be overheard.

- We must catch him and burn him," said some with revulsion.

- That boy is the devil himself! - replied others in fear

- What is wrong with you? You just saved us and gave our captain a burial, don't be ungrateful- others reprimanded their companions.

The murmuring continued until the crewmen decided to stop talking and mumbling so as not to provoke the blond's anger.

After a moment of silence Edward spoke to divert the blond's attention, he knew how dangerous people could be with regard to sorcery.

-I know how to pilot a ship," he said, breaking the silence.

-Great! If you will accompany me to Havana, I will pay you with the proceeds of my shipment.

-Yes, that will be enough, what do you say, Naruto, will Havana do well by you? - asked Edward.

-Any place is fine as long as there are people," Naruto answered with a tired sigh. He saw how some of the crew looked at him suspiciously, ignored him or gave him small thanks, but what they all had in common was that look of fear.

-Then it is decided, you will accompany me to Havana and you will be rewarded," the burly man said, picking up a box of merchandise and carrying it to a nearby boat.

- You know at first I thought you were both pirates the way you handled those men, so fast and smooth like you had done a thousand times before-. The cheerful man said without noticing the uncomfortable look of the Welshman and the confused look of the blond.

Pirates, I've been told I have a good roguish look, but I've never been mistaken for royal rouge before. Edward lied easily slipping into a friendly manner with the man.

-By the way, my name is Edward and this boy is Naruto, my traveling companion lately." Edward said pointing to himself and then to Naruto.

-Stede Bonnet, merchant by trade. - Stede said cheerfully and shook their hands. He was deeply grateful to have been rescued by these kind people, he was even surprised that the young blond man took the time to give his helmsman a burial.

With introductions made, the group set about moving the goods the soldiers had unloaded back to the ship and preparing to set sail.