Chapter 96: Family of Three

Ryo jumped into the boat and walked into the cabin where were the people he had percieved.

When he arrived to the hatch, Ryo didn't enter directly because he heard screaming in the cabin: "You all listen to me! If you want to live, hurry up and tell where the money is hidden!"

Ryo smiled, and all he worried about now was finding a way to get the owner of the ship to go all the way to the Wave Country with his team.

Before jumping in, Ryo sensed eight people on board. Four were rowing and taking the helm, and four in the cabin. Now it seemed like one of the four in the cabin was a pirate.

An ordinary pirate should not be difficult to deal with for seven people, not to mention that four of the seven were engaged in manual labor. With this, Ryo guessed that this pirate could be a Ninja.

At this thought, Ryo didn't hesitate and entered the Ice-Lightning Chakra Mode. At the moment when the cabin's door was open, he blinked right next to the pirate, laying an ice scalpel upon his neck.

The cold sensation got the pirate in cold sweat, and speed he had just witnessed was incomparable to anything else he had ever seen or even heard of.

Facing such a strong opponent, he had only one way: "Kind… K Kind… sir! Please forgive me! I have an 80-year-old mother, and a three-year-old child! Killing me means killing my entire family!"

Ryo was bummed out by this response. Yes, it was such a cliché line, but what made it worse was that the pirate in question actually looked younger than 20 years old!

Just as Ryo was about to respond, someone had already spoken first: "Liar! You don't even look like you're 20 years old! 80-year-old mother, 3-year-old child, when did you get all that?!"

"Shut up Kotori! Sir, this child is still young and ignorant, please don't be mad!" The woman heard her child talking and immediately yelled.

Ryo was too busy paying attention to that stupid pirate, so he didn't take the time to explain what he was doing to this family of three. They were all still afraid of him.

Ryo turned back and wanted to tell them that he was not malicious. However, he was too stunned to talk when he saw them: Two out of the three had hair that was exactly the same as Kushina's.

The woman's hair was black, while the man and the little girl's hair were red. The older ones looked like they were in their 20s, and the little girl was only 4 or 5 years old.

Looking at the little girl, Ryo could almost see Kushina in her. Initially, Ryo just wanted to get a sailboat. But now, it seems that these people must be protected, as they might be relatives of his Sensei.

Seeing that 2 of the people on board should be from the Uzumaki clan, Ryo started doubting the identity of the pirate.

"Who are you? Who sent you to kill the people on board?"

"K…Kind sir, forgive me! I just had no money, so I attacked this boat!"

Ryo wasn't buying that. It would be such an odd coincidence for a mere pirate to land on an Uzumaki boat.

Ryo didn't continue to interrogate him; he simply stunned him and invaded his memories.

From his memories, he found out his real purpose

This so called "Pirate" was Chunin from the mist village. He and other Shinobi were assigned to intercept ships traveling to and from the Wave country, to prevent them from sneaking Konoha's Ninjas in.

And this Mist Chunin was greedy, taking the opportunity of this task to disguise himself as a pirate to make some cash. He did not find out the identity of this family, he just thought that this sailboat was the right size for him to rob.

Learning this, Ryo was relieved. Most interceptions shouldn't be a lot of trouble for him to handle if they ever accrued.

Ryo left his mind and opened his eyes to look at this family of three.

The woman seemed like a civilian, with no sign of Shinobi level Chakra. However, the red-haired man was different. Ryo felt a huge amount of Chakra out of him.

Ryo didn't want to make this take too long, just saying directly to him: "Hey! You're from the Uzumaki clan, no?"

The man blinked, and then jumped to protect the woman and child with his body, keeping a firm eye on Ryo."

"Fear not! I'm not malicious! My name is Ryo Yamanaka, one of Konoha's Ninjas!" The man's face stayed full of hostility, so Ryo went and took out his forehead protector from his pocket.

Seeing that, the man became less defensive.

Since the forehead protector wasn't enough to get him to loosen his guard completely, Ryo cut straight to the chase saying: "I don't know if you know Kushina Uzumaki. I'm a disciple of her."

Hearing Kushina's name, the man's eyes lit up and he finally said: "A disciple of Kushina you say? Do you have any proof?"

Ryo smiled and showed the lot the various Uzumaki seals he learned from her.

Seeing that, the man confirmed Ryo's identity and was completely relieved.

"My name is Shinshiro, this is my wife Kano, and my daughter Kotori." The man introduced his family to Ryo.

"Hello!" Ryo and the other two greeted each other. The girl wasn't afraid at all. During all that conversation, she was looking at Ryo with a curious eye.

"Hey, Onii-san, you know Kushina oba san?" The little girl asked Ryo.

"Sorry, this kid is not sensible. But I also would like to know about how Kushina is doing." Said Shinshiro.

"I don't what's the relationship between Shinshiro san and my teacher?" The young girl's words made Ryo speculate the relationship between them. Still, Out of Caution, he asked one more question.

"Kushina is my cousin, my uncle's daughter. She was received by Konoha back when she was 7, and I've never seen her ever since. Kotori heard from me that she had a relative, an aunt, named Kushina." Shinshiro explained.

Ryo nodded, and told the family everything he knew that wasn't classified.

"Haha, I never thought that with all the years that had passed, Kushina would still have that character. That's the same as her when she was a child!" Said Shinshiro, laughing.

After chatting for a while, Ryo remembered why he came to this ship:"Shinshiro san, in fact, I came to your boat to ask for help!"

"Today, you've helped me a lot! Ask me whatever you want!"

"You didn't need my help, I just moved unnecessarily." Ryo shook his head helplessly. Shinshiro's massive Chakra stores were a dozen times more than necessary to crush that mist Ninja.

"But still, I do need this favor. Would you please help me with my team to get to the Wave Country?"

"Absolutely, no problem! We were just going there." Shinshiro agreed really quickly.

With his agreement, Ryo left and returned with Maan Uchiha, Ming Hyuga and the rest of his team, and they immediately left off to the Wave country.