I couldn’t help but smirk as one of many ships fell out of formation, apparently sick of its bombards being deflected or stored in floating panes of water. The warship sailed towards us, leading by example as four others peeled away from the bulk in reckless abandon.

It was about time they realized the only thing they could possibly do to stop our charge towards Umehebi was use their own ships to block the way and not in a conventional manner.

“Brace for impact!” I yelled at the top of my lungs as the first warship rammed itself into our starboard side.

My shinobi didn’t so much as flinch or even stagger, every last one of them sensible enough to stick their feet onto the deck with chakra. Only two [Water Shields] gave out as the intense impact erupted the jutsu.

“Mika, Ogino!” I barked out at the two Chuunin hastily putting handseals together to reform the shield, “Sink them!”

Their eyes widened as they shared a look and quickly retrieved the prepared paper bomb tied kunai and launched it at the fools trying to punch a hole in our hull. A moment later the second warship rammed into our left as the first was blown up by a continuous barrage of paper bombs.

Zabuza’s shield falter out of existence and he too began hastily attempting to bring it back up until I yelled, “Zabuza! Slaughter them all!”

He seemed relieved at the order and spared not another second before leaping overboard onto the enemy warship, his wakizashi glint as water splashed everywhere.

I trusted him well enough to handle an entire warship on his own, after all, it’d be a waste to use the Demon of the Mist as a mere shield. I scanned the sea and found the two others that followed the lead of the first mad and now rapidly sinking ship had halted their advance.

“Keep it up! The enemy cowers at our strength! Row, row, row!” There were still about eighteen warships left in the rear and they were close enough for some long range attacks in my opinion so I gave the order, “Cannons loose!”

There were two sets of four Chuunin that I’d personally drilled to deactivate and man the cannons once I’d given that order. And they’d been waiting all this time for it.

A chorus of ear deafening explosions ripped from our ship, cannons plinked through the unsuspecting starboard of the enemy klicks away— they’d surely believed turtling up and charging was our only offense but I wasn’t above playing their game either.

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They hastily returned fire even though it meant their soaring cannons would simply be caught in walls of water and likely used against them. Again I felt myself smirk, I was enjoying this far too much.

“Why do you waste time here? Can you not destroy them all?” Isobu’s voice suddenly echoed in my subconscious. His presence was ever constant but we mostly spoke during training and even then I was the conversationalist.

“I could but it is not my place.”

“I do not understand. It is not your place to destroy your enemies?”

I would laugh out loud if I weren’t at battle with everyone around me intense, “I suppose you wouldn’t. There are somethings humans, shinobi, do that would seem like a waste of time and effort but there’s sense to each, I promise. But as far as this battle goes, I’ve limited myself to taking a single direct action against the enemy in front of me.”

“They would make a good test of progress for your cloak.”

My eyes bulged at the thought and this time I allowed myself to snicker, “Nothing as direct as that either, Isobu, besides that would be overkill for these fodder. No, I have already prepared something, we’ll head there together in a moment, you’ll see.”

I felt his presence recede into me as the Tailed Beast practiced patience and I shook my head. I looked up where Ao was stood at our sails, “Let’s finish this quickly, Ao!”

He nodded and weaved hand seals until a dragon roared out of the sea, skirting along the waters as a savage predator, it snaked its way until it speared straight through the hulls of the two ships that stalled their advance.

I nodded, “Cannons loose!”

***

I sat with my legs crossed atop the sea. Far ahead of my was the remains of the warship Zabuza had invaded to deliver a slaughter, the Demon himself stood at my right-side with his obvious rival Mangetsu at my left.

The Kaizoku sea had slowly transformed into a graveyard as the sunny day drew to twilight. The enemy stood strong, amazingly, but with five ships left and their port about to be boarded by an army of honour hungry Samurai, I doubted they had much morale left to fight.

Which is exactly why they’ll serve fine as my first offering. Requiem for Whirlpool, huh.

The scroll splayed out in front of me was a gift as old as my position in office was. A gift from my favourite Uncle and councillor and the time had finally come to use it.

It was a large and bulky thing but how couldn’t it be? It was a working, unsigned summoning contract for an animal that needed to be at open water. The Kaizoki sea was as open as I could get and so I breathed in deep and sliced my thumb with a senbon.

Mangetsu and Zabuza watched as I signed my name onto the bottom right corner where the symbols spiralled. I poked all five of my fingers still my palm was smeared in blood and then pasted it at the left corner. It was a simple process and all I had left to do was fuel it all with chakra.

I looked over my shoulder at my apprentice and his rival and smiled, “You two know what to do if I don’t come back in three hours’ time.”

“Yes, Master, we’ll be right here.”

Zabuza merely nodded, his entirety bathed in the blood of an entire warship.

Again, I took a breath as I pressed chakra into the contract seal, “Kuchiyose no Jutsu!”