Endo let out a roar, adequately relaying his thirst for violence. The swordsman rushed past the tunnel formed between the mass of roaming pirates, all of whom appeared confused about the behavior of one of the VIPs that Mana brought aboard as per her deal with the crew. Before Endo's stiffened thorn sword could rend the flesh of Captain Flint's exposed back, the Pirate Lord turned and drew his saber. A bubbling blue chakra coating formed around the blade, absorbing the blow with a refreshing splash upon the collision of the blades.

"What the heck is this about, boy?" Captain Flint wondered. His body still wore the streaks of bandaging from the wounds accumulated in his deathmatch with Mana in Getsugakure, and the crew's horrific adventure on Polybius Island. Despite not being at full strength, the Pirate Lord didn't appear to lose any sweat in blocking his opponent's suddenly drawn blade.

"You're a pirate. You may just be a top dog pirate!" Endo grumbled with a rich smile on his face as he pressed his whole body against his thorny blade, puncturing through his own skin just to get some extra force behind the shove but the Pirate Lord didn't budge. "Aren't you the least bit curious about whether the blade of a samurai or the blade of a pirate is stronger?"

"I would be if I met a real samurai. God Killer told me you were a dropout. Whether your master dismissed you or you walked out on your own, you're no samurai," Captain Flint lightly shoved his blade, forcing Endo to slide back across the deck with a wobbly stance. Somehow, the apprentice samurai maintained his balance. "If we were to clash, we wouldn't know which warrior class is superior, because you're just a rookie samurai and I'm a top pirate. We're hardly a match."

"You're pretty damn good at talking shit, pirate scum. Let's see how good you are at backing it up. I'm warning you, if I end up killing you, I'll be cashing in the bounty on your head!" Endo reared his teeth.

"Endo! Stand down this instance! We're on this man's ship, for Pete's sake!" Shige-H yelled out in frustration, rubbing her tired temples. Traveling on the Flintory beat out the old fishing boat they sailed on before by a nautical mile.

"Don't worry, Captain Flint promotes freedom of expression on his ship. He won't be holding this against any of us," Mana waved it off, limping to find a place to rest her rear at. Lately, she's spent so much time on the deck that she's been building up a tan and it was getting to where it didn't feel too healthy. Plus, if Endo ended up getting humbled, Mana wanted to have a good seat to see it from.

"Who's this God Killer you're yapping about?" Endo let out an aggressive growl before disappearing alongside his opponent. Flocks of sparks split from separate locations all across the ship's main deck and various sections of the vessel. As one could have found out from dull yet invisible thuds of feet across the masts, the two used every inch and corner of the ship's grounds to duke it out between each other.

"It's the titles that a pirate earns that grant him their bounty. It becomes an inseparable part of their name and follows them all the way to the gallows. Your comrade's got only one title, Mana "God Killer" Nakotsumi," Flint reared his smile before gracefully swinging his blade up and breaking through Endo's block. Thrown off-balance, the Stars' resident swordsman flipped over and smacked into the deck with enough force to bounce half the distance back up.

Grumbling and drooling with blood from the corners of his mouth, Endo writhed back for some distance before stumbling back to his feet and putting his thorny blade up in front of him to protect himself in case the Pirate Lord came at him. "So, she really has joined up with your bunch that she's been taking up your silly, pretentious titles?" he snarled.

"A pirate has no say in their titles. It's not up to a coward to say what people should call him," Flint placed his saber over on his shoulder. With his free hand, the Pirate Lord made a finger gun and pointed it at Endo. Jets of water rose from the ocean and whirled around the Pirate Lord's finger. "Water Blunderbuss!" Captain Flint yelled out before compressing bits and pieces of the surging water mass into baseball-sized spheres and shooting them off at Endo.

The swordsman moved his sword to block the jutsu, but while he deflected the first few, the rest of the water shots overpowered him and decked him in the gut and shoulder. The first impact curled the young man up before the rest of them jerked him back at the beat of their drums and the final one hit him square in the forehead, sending Endo down on his back. The pirates cheered for their captain, deciding to settle down over pints of grog while they watched the two sluggers go at it.

Seeing the captain's precision and skill with a sword and controlling the very ocean around him to aid him with his techniques made Mana feel grateful that she fought him on land and found answers that prevented the use of his impeccable swordplay. She may have gotten herself in a tight pinch if Captain Flint was as confident about his seaman's feet and remotely as precise with his shots back then.

"You're a gutsy kid, punk. I like guts," Captain Flint cheered for the ninja who returned to his feet and reduced his thorny sword to a dried-out rubbery husk whip he wrapped over his waist. "Some of your moves are interesting, how about we practice some other time?"

"So… Konoha's Sorceress killed a god? Do tell… I can't wait to never stop teasing her about it. With all that insufferable self-righteousness, to think that she'd end up taking a life and one of something that usually can't be killed. It's simply hilarious! My only regret is not having been there to see it," Asuka asked a pirate nearest to her while observing Endo's violent practicing session with the Pirate Lord.

"Sorry to disappoint you, hun, but God Killer didn't kill the Inshirrinbu herself. She used the Four-Tails to do it. We can talk ethics all we like, call it murder by someone else's hand, but it doesn't appear that God Killer is losing much sleep over it so it would be a toothless jab if you were to try," Renlan replied without turning to look at the blond Allied Ninja.

"The Inshirrinbu? But isn't that the Water Temple deity?" Asuka gasped with her façade of apathy and suaveness shattering in a single blow. She didn't expect the casualty of Mana's awe-inspiring feat to be ringing so close to her home.

"I've no clue what excuses zealots use to justify themselves," Renlan shrugged. "All I know is that it was no power of prayer and mantras that attack us on Polybius Island. It was very horrific and very real and Mana finished it off for good, somehow."

"It's astounding!" Asuka chuckled to herself. "If you'd have asked a Water Temple monk, they'd have told you that Inshirrinbu is invincible and immortal. To think that the woman I've settled on one day killing would go out and do something absolutely outrageous like that. I wonder if the Water Temple monks lost the use of their powers when their precious tentacle overlord bit the dust…"

"Who knows? Who knows if that horror is a god or a demon? All that matters is that enough people believed in it as they would have believed in gods and nothing we threw at it did anything. I'm not sure how God Killer pulled it off. One moment she seemed entranced and leaking black ink from her eyes, frothing it and choking with it pouring from her mouth, the next–the beast had a solid shape and it laid waste to all of us… Up until the Four-Tails put it to rest," Renlan sighed, recalling the horrifying time on Polybius Island.

"The Four-Tails? I wonder how Mana slithered her way out of facing the beast's wrath. From what I've gathered, the beast doesn't seem to like the fact that Sorceress held him imprisoned," Asuka pondered to herself.

"We sailed out pretty quick after the fight concluded, but the Four-Tails laid atop of the fallen god's idol sprawled out on the pier. It must not have been in the best condition to pursue its retribution," Renlan crossed her arms, following the wild sword fight dancing all across the ship with her eyes. "I don't think that God Killer had even the faintest clue this would happen. I think… I think she made the pact with the Tailed Beast, fully knowing that it might crush her when this was all over. No one can see this many steps ahead and know that the Tailed Beast and the Inshirrinbu would finish each other off. That's what would make her a perfect pirate–a wild, adventurous spirit."

"Wild? Adventurous? You must not have known Konoha's Sorceress for that long. It was a sense of adventure that made her gamble with her life. It's that disgusting self-righteousness I spoke of earlier. She simply has to be the hero, to save everyone. And not even in the fun way. She's not exercising or showing off her power as the powerful may do. She's constantly beating herself over the opinions and troubles of the weak…" Asuka sighed, turning her attention from Endo and the Pirate Lord flexing each other's skills to Mana sitting and watching their collision with a troubled look in her eyes as if she was being embarrassed for the behavior of her fellow Stars in front of her new pirate friends.

Mana walked through the old wooden door leading to the crew decks and into the room where Damisan had spread his stuff all over the floor and the room. Not having to share his room with anybody made the puppeteer not have to worry about tidiness and just keep his deck in a way he'd have kept a garage. All of his mechanical parts laid scattered around the deck floor and everywhere but his bed. There wasn't even a place for the candles, that got put out and laid down somewhere on the floor, replaced by handmade lamps.

"Saruja-san told me you wanted to see me," Mana spoke up with a restrained tone of voice, embarrassed to have stepped inside someone else's personal space and interrupted their pastime on what may have been just a prank.

"Mana! Great, I need some specifications. I've been working on a prosthetic for your leg on our way here, but I couldn't finish it because I didn't know the specifications. We've worked together for a while, so I had a vague clue, but I didn't complete the piece until I can get the exact measurements. I didn't know how high the cut was and how much of your leg you were missing," Damisan rushed through words, opening up a scroll to unseal a large metal case inside of which laid a prosthetic very much like those that Damisan himself used to wear.

"That's…" Mana looked down at her lowly peg leg, feeling tears crawling up in her eyes. It's been a while since someone was this uncompromisingly nice to her while expecting nothing in return. This was especially jarring after Mana made such a fool out of herself by freaking out about Damisan's looks back in the day.

"I know that style is really important to you as an entertainer. From what I recall, you wear mainly black and white on stage, so I've built the frame and individual pieces out of marbium alloy with black tungsten plates for additional outer protection. I can do a rundown on its functions, right now it doesn't have much, but we can upgrade it in time. My initial goal was to restore as much of your mobility and dignity as possible. If you want a more down-to-earth, realistic look, I can wrap it in artificial skin grafts in a few hours and make it look lifeli…" Damisan just wouldn't stop talking.

Mana stepped up and pressed herself against his chest, confusing the puppeteer. He just let the magician press to him for a little while, it was only when he felt something wet touching his chest that he gently nudged Mana off of him to look down at her.

"Are you crying? I can scrap this and rebuild the whole thing. It's no problem if you don't like it. I've got plenty of practice making my own…" Damisan kept on talking. "You've helped me out so much, set me on a straight path that prevented so many needless deaths, and helped me understand what's truly important. Just please let me help you."

"It's wonderful, thanks…" Mana dragged the sleeve of her coat over her teary face and snotty nose. "I'm sorry… I guess… I guess I just grew too attached to this stump…"

"This thing?" Damisan glanced at the stumpy peg leg. "I'd burn this thing in the furnace if it was worth the hassle. You deserve something way better, but the conditions for building this weren't the best. I'm glad you liked it. Please tell me your impressions and help me improve it as much as I can. Right now it has compartments with these lights…"

Damisan leaned down and opened up a few lids to reveal lights shaped like the "Seal" kanji around Mana's prosthetic leg while he was tinkering with the final adjustments according to Mana's measurements. "These work the same way that a paper tag seal would, except, obviously, it's a more durable sealing surface than a paper tag. You can use it as a storage seal, chakra reserve seal, jet boots, and you can even self-destruct the prosthetic if you get cornered but you'll need to augment the rest of your body to avoid injury. The prosthetic will still be attached to you before blowing up, after all. Most of the stuff I could do with my prosthetics, you'll be able to do with this."

"I didn't deserve this," Mana looked at the gift that Damisan was finishing his touches on.

"Nonsense. For everything you've helped me figure out and all the times you had my back out there, I'd have cultivated a new leg for you if I knew how and sewn it to every severed vessel and nerve you've got. For now, this will have to do," Damisan nodded to himself a few times as an expression of satisfaction with his work. "I'd like for you to stay until I can wrap this up in case I need some more measurements, also, I want you to get this as soon as possible."

"You never told me about your revenge quest. It seems to me like it didn't go very well…" Mana inquired, with hesitance apparent in her tone.

"It might take a while to tell the entire tale. Wind Country was a slaughterhouse. So many people died for nothing but that's what it took for a stubborn idiot like me to finally understand what is truly important," Damisan sighed, closing his eyes and moving away from the work he was doing for an instance before promptly returning to sliding the pieces in place and readjusting the prosthetics according to the measurements of Mana's exposed whole limb placed on his bed and within reach.

"I've been under the impression that we've got the whole night until we reach the continental shores," Mana muttered, feeling the warmth of her breath brushing against her own lips as they refused to part enough for the breath to come off effortlessly. Damisan's fingers slowly tapped up her leg, measuring it once again for a sliding adjustment, but… Damisan adjusted nothing. His hand stayed stuck halfway up Mana's thigh.

"I guess we do…" he said.

"I've always said that your back is wasted bending backward according to orders and responsibilities, lassie," Flint patted Mana's shoulder one last time as the magician walked down the extended bridge down to the shore. "As a pirate, free to do whatever the heck you want, you could truly make a splash in the world scene."

A handful of pirates carried a tall chest stacked with gold ryo, decorative weapons, and jewelry and slammed it down before the confused leader of the Stars. "What is this supposed to be?" Shige-H turned around and scanned the pirates that brought the booty before her feet for an answer.

"God Killer came aboard with a caravan and loads of fancy stuff from Getsugakure. We've sold it for what it's worth 'cause we didn't think you'd need it. This is a bit more than what it's worth but it also has the coins we found stacked inside it as well as the worth of those nice horses pulling it," boatswain Goodface showed his face to the departing Allied Ninja and to Mana one last time, abandoning the ridiculous stilts and TV configuration.

"You've sold my entire business off?" Mana squinted.

"Hey, you're being handsomely compensated for it here…" chief engineer Marat grumbled, rearing his teeth and stepping up on his toes to look taller than Mana since the two were of somewhat even height. "Plus, it's not like you would've rolled around in a caravan to your fancy landlubber ninja missions. This is much more valuable, you know."

"I'm afraid he's right, Mana. The Supreme Leader will be ecstatic when she sees this. I don't think she'll even remember that you ever deserted in the first place. The organization's strapped for ryo, now more than ever," Shige-H said, turning to Mana.

"That is, of course, if you will hand this booty to the Allied Ninja willingly…" Endo added. "You could and should just keep it to yourself."

"I've recently come to realize the value that money has for people struggling for it. I believe that, given my irresponsibility with money, it'll be in far better hands with the Allied Ninja," Mana shrugged.

"Irresponsibility? You were the one to stack the chest this high…" Damisan squinted at the magician, who now stood on her own two legs as firmly as back when she still had hers. With the baggy pirate cargo trousers that Mana wore, it was impossible to tell that she was wearing a hi-tech prosthetic puppetry limb at all. Even if Mana was yet to learn to control it properly since she had to devote one of her fingers to puppeteer the prosthetic herself. This would be her beginner's guide to ninja puppetry, though it would peak at learning how to puppeteer half of a limb.

"Until we meet again, Captain Flint," Mana nodded her farewells to the crew she was leaving behind. Even if she had a rocky start with the bunch, she's grown to tolerate them around her like a ragtag group one is forced to spend their days alongside, leaving no better alternative than to let them grow on you. "Goodbye, everyone…!"

"Take care, lassie!" Goodface waved his hand high in the air, seeing the Allied Ninja step off the bridge and begin walking off toward the mountainous ridges of the Lightning Country's western shores.

"We'll make sure to spread the legend of Mana "God Killer" Nakotsumi across the seas so you won't have to worry about any pirate trouble in the future!" Renlan yelled out making Mana tuck her head in embarrassment as the Allied Ninja walked off into the dried-out mountainous wasteland leading up to their home base.

Mana couldn't wait for things to go back to normal after all that chaos. The Stars had such a stacked schedule of missions to catch up to!