3.37

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The Flower Princess was a small ship, with only a crew of ten manning it. Although I guess it isn't that small for this world, as the navy wasn't very well developed in this world.

Having people capable of walking on water mustn't have helped.

Standing behind the helm, Captain Sumichi raised her sword, screaming, "Half sail!"

Showing an impressive teamwork and experience, the men moved as one as they deployed one of the sails, getting us out of the harbor.

Looking at the cutlass she had raised, I asked, "You're not a pirate, are you?"

She laughed at that, showing me the blade as she said, "This was taken from one. You like it?"

I shrugged, tapping my own sword as I replied, "I'm more of a katana guy, but to each his own I guess. How long will it take us to reach Kiri?"

Sumichi gave me a side glance before saying, "Kiri itself should take around six hours. But you're sure you want to get to Kiri itself? Attacking Kiri from the sea is suicide. Instead, I could drop you off to a small village 20 kilometers North."

I shook my head, replying, "Go straight for Kiri, we won't be attacked. My people should be expecting us."

She didn't look too thrilled at the idea, but to her credit she said nothing. Whether it was out of bravery or foolishness, I could not tell.

Knowing absolutely nothing about sailing and ships, I quickly walked away from the helm, so as to not disturb the captain, and went to sit against the main mast, quickly diving deep into meditation as I blended in with the Force.

The sea felt very different from the mountains of the Land of Iron. Where I was once used to a calm Force, the world around me was savage now, with the wind picking up as we left the shore and got into the deep sea. The waves quickly started rising in size too, and the sky became clouded.

Yet I did not feel even a hint of fear from the ten presences around me, who instead felt excited in front of the almost storm-like weather.

Not that I could judge, as I was feeling quite the anticipation from my incoming fight with the Mizukage.

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It was two hours into our trip that I finally felt another presence in the sea, that wasn't a fish. A little over 4 kilometers from us was a ship, which wasn't really heading our way, but we should enter each other's sight soon.

And sure enough, when they were about a kilometer away from us, the guy up in the vigil shouted through the wind, "Pirates! Port side!"

I got up from my seat, and looked over. The pirates' ship was quickly turning our way, and they were going full sail.

They were far enough that we could barely see them with only our eyes, but that was enough for me. Holding out my hand towards it, I clutched mid air.

I felt Captain Sumichi's curious gaze at the seemingly strange gesture, but I did not let that perturb me as I commanded the Force.

Across the water, the pirates' ship, which had been coming at us full sail, suddenly stopped in place. I clenched my hand a little harder, and the ship started shaking.

Breathing out, I finally clenched my hand into a fist, and the ship suddenly collapsed onto itself.

The ship turned ghastly silent as the men looked at me with wide eyes. Looking up at Captain Sumichi, I said with a smirk, "I did tell you I could offer protection, didn't I?"

She paused for a moment, before bursting into laughter.

"Don't just stand there gawking you runts! Go full sail!"

The rest of the men quickly returned to their occupation. Shocking as it might have been, they weren't Shinobis, so they probably knew nothing about the limits of Ninjutsu. To them, I might as well be a Shinobi. A strong one, but that they should have already guessed since I was about to fight a Kage.

Sumichi did seem to know the difference though. Walking up to the stern, next to Sumichi, I asked, "Were you ever trained as a Shinobi?"

Not taking her eyes off the sea, she asked, "Why would you say that?"

Naturally I told her, "Because you knew this wasn't Ninjutsu. I could feel it."

"Feel it you say? You definitely are quite strange. But no, I wasn't trained. It was more of a chance encounter."

Raising an eyebrow, I leaned over the railing and remarked, "That sounds like an interesting story."

She shrugged, replying, "Not really. I was born with a condition. Hypersensitivity to Chakra. It makes me feel my Chakra at all times and generally is a pain. It did allow me to experiment as a kid, and one day I found a scroll for a ninja technique on a wreck. One thing led to another, and I ended up learning it."

Tilting my head, I asked, "Normal people don't feel their Chakra at all times?"

Sumichi snorted, "No, they don't. Chakra Hypersensitivity is a rare condition which can appear in multiple ways. For me it was hereditary."

"This sounds more like a boon than a condition."

She shook her head, revealing, "I turned up fine because my mom had the same condition and knew what to do to help me. Most of the time, without the proper supervision, kids end up losing their mind to it. It is quite unsettling to always feel it, and we often get second effects like increased senses, but every sense. Pain, heat, cold…"

I nodded, that did sound terrible, especially for someone who did not train to become a Shinobi or a Samurai.

It did raise a question, though.

"You said you learned some Ninjutsu and other Chakra uses. How come you are still scared of pirates then?"

She scoffed in response, "I don't like to fight, to start off. Besides, some pirates have learned to use Chakra, whether by finding scrolls like I did, or because they used to be Shinobis or something else. Don't forget that the Third Mizukage was once a pirate, no matter how much he tries to hide it."

I remained silent as I looked at her. She was quite the beautiful woman, and having her steer the ship and give out orders gave her a sort of aura. With the way her long raven hair flew in the wind, it made her look like she was born to steer a ship.

Not wanting to appear rude, I didn't look at her for too long as I walked back to the main mast, and resumed my meditation.

The remaining four hours passed quickly as we went through four more attacks, although calling them attacks might be a stretch since I sank them before they could even approach.

Kirigakure was even larger than Okamikawa, as the city expanded on a good part of the coast, flanked by two mountains. Multiple ships were anchored at the city's port, and despite the increased pirate activity, there were ships coming from all around the world here.

Many would underestimate Kirigakure and the Land of Water in general because they were one of the weakest among the Five Great Villages, along with Sunagakure, but they were still above the rest of the world, with maybe the exception of the Land of Iron.

And now, I was about to kill their leader. How exciting.