Chapter 218 - Battle on the High Seas 02

Another long chapter. Enjoy.

—-

Unknown location.

On the coast of an uninhabited island about 110 miles away from the Land of Sea was a large ship made of wood and metal. It was long with metal coatings on each side for protection and taller than most buildings in the world. The two main features of the ship were its flag that had a Red skull with spiky helmet and sword and the large long cannon attached on the front of the ship. The whole ship looked fearsome and would strike terror to any ordinary sailor coming across it. The flagship of the Gladiator Pirates - The Dark Amphibian.

There were half a dozen men scattered on the deck keeping an eye out during that night. On the bridge of the ship, a young navigator was half asleep as he sat at the control desk. As he was about to fall asleep his eyes caught a glimpse of three of the 4 yellow buttons that stopped blinking.

'What the?' It roused him from his sleep. He tapped the three small dead yellow bulbs and was confused. 'Did something go wrong or is it malfunctioning again… I better go call him.'

The man stood from his chair and made his way to the private quarters. He knocked on a certain door and after a few moments it opened. A middle aged man with long grey hair and a tattoo of a crow under the right eye appeared.

"What?" Came the question in an annoyed tone.

"I'm sorry for distributing you at this late hour sir, but there is something wrong with the transponders."

The man sighed hearing this and made his way to the bridge followed by the other. He checked the transponders and saw that three of them were not responsive and only one was active.

"Maki? I thought you were sleeping?" A voice came from outside.

The middle aged man now identified as Maki turned to the door. "Oh, it's you, Mazui."

"Captain!" The other young man stood in attention as the captain of the ship came.

The new arrival was a dark skinned man with a lean muscular body. He was wearing a dark blue shirt with black pants. He had the tattoo of speed on his right shoulder. Mazui - The rogue Jonin from the Hidden Cloud village. One of the two ninjas with the nickname lightning twins and captain of the newly formed Gladiator Pirates.

"What's going on?" Mazui asked as he came near them.

"3 of the transponders are unresponsive." Maki said as he looked at the unblinking lights. "But it could be some kind of mechanical error. This is new technology after all. Long range communication technology is rare and this is still in the early stages. So it could be some form of a glitch."

Mazui looked at the device and his eyes slightly narrowed. "When did they stop responding?" He asked the navigator.

The man nervously answered. "Um, They stopped sending signals one after another starting a few hours ago. Since it happened a few times before I didn't think much of it."

"Yes. But for 3 to become unresponsive in the span of several hours. That's very strange." Maki said.

"Oi. What are you all doing here in the middle of the night?"

Mazui turned to look at his brother. "Bozui. I thought you were sleeping."

"Nay. Couldn't sleep. So I was just walking around. So what's going on?" Bozui replied. He had almost identical facial features to his brother but his body was much bulkier and had bigger muscles than his brother. He had the tattoo 'power' on his left shoulder.

"3 of the transponders that are connected to the subordinate ships are down. And that too in the span of a few hours. It could be a coincidence or…" Mazui replied.

Bozui frowned at that. "Since the transponders are down we can't contact them, can we?"

"No." Maki replied.

"Maki. Aren't you a shipwright? You're the one who came up with this in the first place. Can't you fix it?" Bozui asked.

Maki looked at the controls and shook. "I don't think the problem is with us. I think the problem is with the other side."

Mazui sighed and picked up a device that resembled a small radio. "Since we can't contact the ones offline, we'll just call the one we can." He pressed a few buttons and waited several moments before the other side picked up.

"Akamine here." Came the reply.

"You took a while to pick up." Mazui said. His tone, neutral and giving no indication of his emotion.

"Apologies Captain Mazui. I came rushing as soon as I heard your call."

"Is everything alright there? Are there issues?"

"No sir. Everything's fine. We haven't come across any merchant ships so far, so the men are a little bored. Other than that, nothing." Came the reply from the other side.

Mazui nodded. "Very well. Carry on. Oh wait, before I forget, did you get the special spicy herbs from Demon island?"

"Yes sir. I have it with me."

Mazui was only quiet for a second after hearing that answer before he spoke again. "Good. I'll see you soon Akamine." He ended the call and a smirk formed on his face.

Bozui, who was standing next to his brother, also had a mad grin.

"Wait. Didn't you get the herbs from that Island like two weeks ago?" Maki asked.

Mazui turned to the shipwright. "I did. Whoever that was, was not Akamine. So they wouldn't have known that. I think it's no coincidence that the other transponders went dead."

"So someone's making a move against us huh. They probably took out the other three ships and kept this one." Bozui said as his hands clenched into a fist.

"Yes. Let's go see who has the balls to interfere in our turf. Ready the ship. And set a course for that vessel." Mazui gave the order and the nervous young navigator got to work.

The captain then turned to Maki. "Get Katsura. He's probably in his forge."

Maki nodded and left the bridge.

"Whoever attacked the three ships, they must have a large number. At least two or three teams. And they would have two or three Jonin and a couple of Chunin." Bozui deduced. The two brothers slowly walked outside and looked at the night sky.

"No matter who they are, we'll kill them and take the bounty on their heads." Mazui said with a dark tone.

Within moments a loud horn was heard and The Dark Amphibian was on the move.

—-

Kakashi placed the radio down and was silently staring at it. Daichi, who was standing near him, narrowed his eyes. "What's wrong sensei?"

Kakashi sighed and looked at his student. "I think they know."

The Genin was surprised to hear that. "Why do you think that?"

"It's just… a feeling. When I was gathering information from that last pirate, I learned a few things. The captain calls every couple days but never at this hour. And the way he asked the last question. The one about the spices…" Kakashi gave his explanation.

Daichi let out a long breath of air hearing that. "They called after three ships were destroyed. I think you might be right. And if that's the case they might be coming towards us or preparing for our ambush. In either case, what do we do?"

"Nothing changes. Based on what I learned, their warship is much faster than normal ships. So even if we change course to get to the Land of Sea we won't make it before they catch up to us. And there are no other islands nearby. We don't have time to do anything else but proceed as planned." The Jonin said and his student nodded.

They sailed for a couple hours before meeting up with the other Team. After Kakashi gave the reins of his ship to one of the people rescued who was a sailor, he and Daichi got to the other ship and met up with Team Guy.

"So they might be on to us huh?" Guy rubbed his chin as he thought about what Kakashi just told him. "You're right Kakashi. Our best move is to confront them head on. But we need to be careful. Do you know the enemy's strength?"

"The Lightning Twins. So that's two Jonins. Another unknown Chunin level ninja with some special abilities. There are nearly 35 crew members on that ship. But they're all bandits with above average civilian strength. So they're not a real threat. He also had memories of someone from the Mist village. Could be a Chunin level ninja. But I'm not sure. So we should be cautious." Kakashi replied.

Guy nodded and as they were about to disembark the ship, they saw the faint outline of a large ship coming towards them.

"It seems they reached us. That's sooner than I thought." Kakashi mumbled.

"Well my rival, no need to beat yourself up. Let's go to battle." The green spandex wearing Jonin said with a grin.

At that moment Daichi's eyes widened as he sensed a new presence. "Enemy on board!"

The Genin's shout put everyone on high alert. Daichi's chakra sense easily discerned where the enemy was at and he threw several shuriken towards the shadows in the top mast.

Thunk, thunk thunk.

The next second Daichi had a sword pierce through him from the back.

"DAICHI!" Lee screamed as he saw his friend get stabbed from behind and was about to rush over but Neji stopped him.

The next second the stabbed Daichi exploded into a large sphere of water and completely captured the enemy ninja.

The real Daichi emerged from the floor a few feet away. He had several strings connected to the water prison keeping it in place. "Water Prison jutsu. String variation."

Kakashi and Guy looked at the trapped ninja and saw that it was one of the Lightning Twins. They were about to walk over but stopped when Daichi raised his hand.

"That's a lightning clone. I'm pretty sure he's planning on blowing himself up once we're near." Daichi said as he looked at the ninja. 'To get past my senses and reach the ship like that… This guy has some exceptional stealth skills…'

The lightning clone just kept his eyes on Daichi. "You're pretty clever for a Genin. And you have some extremely sharp senses to find me. What's your name?" The missing nin asked.

"Daichi Hekima."

"Ohh… So you're the brat that found the identity of the Phantom thief and recovered the great treasure." The man then turned his head to look at Kakashi.

"You must be Kakashi Hatake. The Sharingan ninja. Haha… To think it would be you. You have a nice chunk of bounty on your head. And that Sharingan eye. We'll be able to recuperate our losses once we bring your head in."

Guy stepped forward and looked at the ninja with a grin. "It's not just Kakashi you'll be fighting. The mighty Green beast of the Leaf is also here."

The captured ninja just looked at the Jonin silently and then turned his attention to the rest of the people present. Guy slumped and had a dark expression on his face as he was seemingly ignored.

"Two Jonin and 4 Genin. And here we figured it would be a much larger formidable team. This will be a lot easier than we thought. Since you'll all be killed in a short while, you should probably know who I am. My name is Mazui. One of the Lightning Twins. And you made a big mistake attacking my ships." Mazui spoke.

"You're here to gather intel on us aren't you? But how will you be able to do that if you get destroyed here?" Kakashi was the one who asked that.

Mazui smiled and pointed to the small item connected to his head. "My crew already heard everything said here. Even if I'm destroyed they'll be ready."

"In that case, we shouldn't waste anymore time." Daichi spoke and with that he started compressing the water sphere.

With a grin Mazui's clone spoke. "Haha. Bold child. But you should know, if this ship or the other flees during our battle, we'll destroy it with everyone in it." The next moment the ninja turned into Lightning and the whole sphere lit up. The next second it exploded but no one was injured since they jumped back and got to safety.

"Sensei, we should meet them halfway. Make sure the battle is as far away from the ships as possible." Daichi said to his teacher.

Kakashi nodded and threw a kunai to the corner of his ship. He threw another to the deck of the other ship as well. 'I might have to use that jutsu today.'

"Alright team, Listen up. We're about to make contact with the enemy. So a slight change of plans. Kakashi and I will take the rogue ninjas from Cloud village. Daichi, you'll fight the next strongest opponent that appears. Lee, Neji, Tenten, your job is to get to that ship and completely destroy it. You'll have to battle the crew but from what I understand they aren't that strong. But be careful. There could be another enemy ninja from the Mist village. So be wary of water style jutsus."

"Yes sensei."

"Ishido, we're leaving. I want to say they're bluffing but, if they see you leave, then… There is a chance they will do as they just said." Guy didn't like the fact that these people were still held as hostages but he had no choice.

Ishido reluctantly nodded since he knew these pirates were ruthless.

The ninjas quickly jumped and landed on the ocean. The next second they ran straight for the warship coming their way. They saw two people jump from the other ship and made their way towards them.

One was Mazui and the other was Bozui. It wasn't long before the two teams met.

Daichi immediately used 'observe' on the two enemy ninjas.

[LV.94] [Mazui]

Age: 29

HP: 19700 CP: 21240

Affiliation: Gladiator pirates (Captain.)

[Mazui is the older brother of Bozui by 4 minutes. He is a former Jonin of the Hidden Cloud village. Due to greed and dissatisfaction with the village ruling he and his brother killed several wealthy people and fled with their money. He is a talented ninja who has partially copied the Raikage's Lightning Armor ninjutsu. Mazui is a speed type ninja and doesn't show any mercy to his enemies. The power of his Lightning ninjutsu was even acknowledged by the 4th Raikage. He is wearing a Rare Rank armor made by Katsura Sadoshi.

STR - 258

AGI - 301

INT - 52

The physical stats maybe subjected to change if chakra or technique is applied. ]

.

[LV.93] [Bozui]

Age: 29

HP: 22050 CP: 22721

Affiliation: Gladiator pirates (Wise captain)

[Bozui is the younger brother of Mazui. He is a former Jonin of the Hidden Cloud village. Due to greed and dissatisfaction with the village ruling he and his brother killed several wealthy people and fled with their money. With the help of his older brother he was able to copy the shield aspect of the Raikage's Lightning Armor ninjutsu. Bozui is a power type ninja. He loves and respects his older brother very much. He is wearing a Rare Rank armor made by Katsura Sadoshi.

STR - 299

AGI - 239

INT - 48

The physical stats maybe subjected to change if chakra or technique is applied. ]

Daichi was extremely cautious as he saw the information his system displayed. He looked over to his sensei and used 'observe' but still couldn't find anything. But when he used it on Guy he saw that the man was at Level 99. The information his observe skill showed was what he already knew about the man.

'Level 99 is the maximum I can see right now. And since Guy and Kakashi are almost equal in terms of combat capabilities then, Kakashi sensei's level must be only one or two higher.' Daichi concluded.

"Now what do we have here? Two Jonin who think they're invincible. Coming right to the lion's den." The condescending tone in Mazui's voice as he looked at the Leaf ninjas wasn't missed by anyone.

"Funny. That's exactly what I was thinking. You realize that even if you kill us, that just means more Leaf ninjas will come after you two right? And that's not mentioning who the Raikage will send when he finds out you're here. You two certainly know how to make enemies." Kakashi smirked and replied.

"That's only if he finds out. And were not afraid. We'll deal with anyone that gets in our way." Bozui spoke looking at Kakashi. He turned his gaze to Daichi. "I heard you're an excellent medic ninja. Why don't you switch sides and join us? You won't have to listen to pesky annoying orders from the village. You'll be free to do anything you want."

Daichi crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Really? That's your pitch? No offers of great wealth or powerful jutsu? Just 'I don't have to follow the rules of my village and just do whatever I want?'. First of all, I already do whatever I want! Second, I've had better offers come my way when I was a lot weaker."

Kakashi smirked after hearing that response from his student.

Bozui sighed but then a moment later a bloodthirsty grin formed on his face. "That's a shame. I wonder how your teacher Tsunade Senju would react when news of your death reaches her. I heard you're her apprentice."

When the Genins of Team Guy heard that statement they were shocked. 'He's a student of one of the Sannin?'

Tenten was the one who was most surprised. 'Lady Tsunade is his teacher? No way.'

Daichi didn't know or care for the thoughts his Genin teammates had at the moment. His attention was focused on the Jonin in front of him. "I didn't realize my reputation precedes me so much."

"The mission you completed certainly helped with that. And I like to keep an eye on up and coming promising talents. It's just sad that you threw my generous offer back in my face. I'll have to rip you to shreds for that disrespect." Bozui said and killing intent rose from him.

"You won't get that chance. Your opponents are us." Kakashi and Guy raised their chakra and the atmosphere quickly turned dangerous.

"Yes! Why don't you pick on someone of your own size like me." Guy said as got ready for battle.

Neji, Lee and Tenten were sweating as they sensed the malevolent intent and powerful chakra rising in the air. Daichi, who was close to them, raised his chakra and protected them from most of the effects. Guy saw Daichi's actions and gave the boy a grateful nod.

The Lightning Twins smirked at the Jonin's response. "So be it."

At that moment Daichi sensed another presence several meters under the water. Since his affinity with Water Nature was high he could sense the chakra forming below and even the small changes in water.

The next second the water a few feet in front of the Lightning Twins shot forward towards the leaf ninjas in a fast drilling motion. Mazui and Bozui quickly stepped forward and created Lightning from their palm and placed it on the drilling water aimed at the Leaf ninjas.

Before the two Leaf Jonin had to take evasive action, Daichi stepped forward as he went through seals. 'Water Style - Blockade waves'

A powerful large wave of water sprung up in front of the team and protected them from the Lightning water attack.

Daichi meditated and had his chakra fully restored before the battle. So he had no problems using high level jutsu and since water ninjutsu cost him the least chakra he was going to use every water jutsu in his arsenal.

Kakashi looked at the giant wave of water Daichi brought forth. 'The Blockade waves jutsu. A stronger variation of the water wall technique. But one that's most effective when used on a large body of water. Creates several waves that can defend against multiple attacks or single strong attacks. An almost perfect frontal defense jutsu when fighting on water terrain.'

"There's another enemy present 18 meters below. He doesn't appear to have any breathing equipment and his appearance is strange." Neji used his Byakugan and quickly found the person.

When Neji described the enemy, Daichi suddenly had a suspicion as to who it was and even as he was performing the jutsu his mind went through several scenarios and plans. 'This could be a great opportunity for me if I play it right.'

Seeing that their jutsu failed the Lightning Twins stopped wasting chakra and moments later the water jutsu also vanished. Seconds after the jutsu ended a half fish and half human type creature appeared.

"Kakashi sensei, I'll fight this guy. I can sense that he's strong. I'm going to get him away from here. If he has any collaboration Ninjutsu with those two Jonin it could be trouble for us." Daichi said to his teacher.

The silver haired Jonin agreed. He looked at the Genin's of Team Guy and spoke. "You three, head to their ship."

"Right!" Neji, Lee and Tenten began making their way to the warship while Daichi and the new opponent faced off.

Kakashi walked near his friend and spoke. "Guy, you remember what the bingo book had on these guys?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'll take Mazui since I'm better at fighting against speed type enemies and you can take his brother."

"Exactly what I was thinking my dear rival. Let's show them the power of our youthful spirits!"

The two Jonin and Genin dashed forward to their enemies.

—------------

Author's Note:

I wanted to complete at least half the battle in this chapter but it's already 3.6k words. So I decided to complete the whole thing in the next one. Maybe I should stop saying that.. I'll try my best to finish this arc quickly and get to canon.

Note: the Jonins can increase their stats by a good margin by using special techniques or using chakra.