Mizukage's Pokémon Ninja Scroll

Chapter 28 Sneak Attack

The sky was already beginning to lighten.

With their return to their home base imminent, most of the pirates on board relaxed a little.

There was no other way; the original plan for this voyage was to plunder a merchant ship, and the intelligence had already been gathered in advance.

Who would have thought that less than a day after setting sail, their captain seemed to have received some news and angrily ordered everyone to prepare to return to port.

Given the captain's long-standing tyranny, all the pirates obediently carried out their duties, and no one wanted to provoke him at this time.

Only now, as they were almost at shore, did the pirates become a little more unrestrained.

As the sailboat slowly entered the harbor, a pirate threw down a rope and shouted.

"Old York! The ships are all in port, why aren't they coming out?"

"Haha, this old guy is definitely slacking off again!"

"Old York probably didn't expect us to be back so soon."

The pirates on the ship laughed and joked as they lowered the planks, preparing to disembark.

However, when a middle-aged man with a large beard and wearing a tricorn hat walked out of the cabin with a gloomy expression, everyone obediently fell silent and shrank back like quails to make way.

"Captain, old York is probably slacking off again. I'll go get him right now!"

The pirate, who had been smiling just moments before, immediately and nimbly slid down the rope and ran towards the small wooden hut at the harbor.

At this moment, another younger, scarred man stepped out of the cabin, ignoring the cowering pirate beside him, and looked at the burly man standing on the ship's side, and spoke.

"Fish Demon, isn't the camp a little too quiet today?"

The bearded middle-aged man called Fish Demon didn't turn around, but just gave a light "humph" and said.

"It's probably because of those two, but you should still go and check on them. Otherwise, they'll gossip about you to the head of the family again."

The scarred man didn't say anything more after hearing this, and jumped directly from the boat onto the shore.

Just then, the small wooden house at the port slowly opened.

A disheveled old man walked out of the wooden house with anxious steps.

York, you...

Before the first pirate to disembark could even utter a rebuke, a man and a woman dressed as ninjas, wearing masks, emerged from the cabin behind Old York.

While all the pirates were still wondering what was going on, the scarred man strode forward.

"Lady Coral, Dove. Why are you here this time?"

The scarred man's voice weakened towards the end.

The two masked men seemed to ignore his words and continued to approach the pirate ship, led by old York.

The scarred man lowered his head slightly, somewhat embarrassed, and moved aside, but did not try to stop the other party.

However, the scarred man who bowed his head and stepped back did not notice that old York, who was approaching him and the ship, had a strange smile on his face.

Just then, a loud shout came from the pirate ship.

"Fish Tooth! Get out of the way!"

Just moments before, the scarred man named Fish Tooth had been lost in thought, head down. Upon hearing his captain's shout, he instinctively stepped back.

However, he was still a step too slow. The 'Old York' that had somehow gotten close to him suddenly accelerated forward.

"choke--"

All that could be seen was a flash of white light. Fish Tooth, who didn't have time to draw his weapon, could only quickly extend his arm to block the attack.

Blood splattered everywhere instantly, and Yuya's forearm was severed on the spot.

Despite the pain of his severed arm, Fish Tooth kicked Old York away, using the momentum to continue dodging backward.

However, the attack was not over yet.

The two masked ninjas had each pulled out several shuriken and hurled them at Fish Tooth.

Just when Yuya thought he was doomed, a strong gust of wind swept in, sending him flying several meters away and scattering all the shuriken flying towards him, allowing him to avoid the fatal blow.

Only then did Fish Tooth see that after being kicked away, 'Old York' landed with a 'pong' and burst out of a cloud of white smoke, then transformed into a bandaged boy without eyebrows.

It was Momochi Zabuza.

Only then did these ordinary pirates realize what had happened and immediately shouted out.

"Protect the first mate!"

All of this happened in the blink of an eye. Many pirates were still wondering who the two people behind Old York were when their first mate was attacked and injured.

All the pirates on the ship jumped off one after another, drew their weapons, and stood in front of their captain to protect him.

Captain Yuki, who had just saved his companion using Wind Release ninjutsu, also flashed in front of Yuya to stop his bleeding.

They saw the pirates opposite them, who were eyeing them menacingly.

Zabuza rubbed his kicked chest as he stood up and said coldly.

"At least a Chunin."

Zabuza didn't believe that an ordinary genin could dodge his sneak attack, and judging from the force of the opponent's subconscious counterattack, his taijutsu was obviously not weak either.

『pong~』x2

Two more plumes of smoke burst out, revealing Mei Terumi and Tachibana Kanagawa.

"Zabuza, your smile was way too obvious just now."

Tachibana Kanagawa didn't pity Zabuza for being kicked. If it weren't for that creepy smile he gave before the sneak attack, he wouldn't have been noticed and warned by the other person.

"If we had done as I said and attacked before they even reached the shore, none of this would have happened."

When Zabuza first discovered the pirate ship, he planned to use the Water Dragon Bullet Technique to sink it before it reached the shore.

However, Tachibana Kanakawa considered that if there were kidnapped civilians on the pirate ship, innocent people might be harmed.

That's why the three of them finally chose to transform and launch a sneak attack, which also allowed them to test the relationship between the two ninjas and the pirates.

Before making their move, the three of them never imagined that there would be a Chunin-level opponent among the pirates.

"And that man was only the first mate."

Hearing the shouts of the pirate henchmen, Mei Terumi spoke somewhat seriously to her two teammates.

Kanakawa Tachibana also glanced over there, at the fish-toothed man being protected in the middle by the pirates and the bearded captain who was bandaging him.

"Fortunately, we managed to cripple one of their combatants. Hopefully, that captain isn't a Jonin."

Seeing that Zabuza was no longer seriously injured, Mei Terumi was not going to give him another chance to continue bandaging him, and immediately gave the order.

"Tachibana, you handle the pirate henchmen. Zabuza, go and deal with that one-armed Chunin. I'll hold off their pirate captain."

As the acting captain, although she was also skilled at using wide-range ninjutsu to deal with the grunts, Mei Terumi took on the task of delaying the enemy's strongmen without hesitation.

She also believed that her two teammates would be able to quickly defeat the opponents and come to her aid.

"No need, I'll deal with that guy with you. We'll leave the small fry to Lanzi and Zabuza."

Tachibana Kanagawa quickly stopped Mei Terumi's impulsive decision. If she really was a Jonin, how could Mei Terumi possibly hold her back?

He didn't want the future Fifth Mizukage to fall here.

"Quack~o(｀-′o)" Lanzi immediately patted his chest and accepted the order.

Seeing this, Mei Terumi, who had already begun forming hand seals, didn't say anything more, but simply nodded slightly in agreement.

Zabuza, who had been unable to contain himself any longer, immediately drew his short sword from behind and charged at the pirates from the left and right with Lan Zai.

After completing the hand seals, Mei Terumi tilted her head back and took a deep breath.

"Water Release* Water Rush Wave!"

(End of this chapter)