As if to confirm his words, the initial surprise wore off, and the crew began to run around the ship in a businesslike manner, unfurling all the sails — obviously, the captain had decided to try to escape rather than fight, which was quite logical for a trader — and laying out various weapons within easy reach.
They had several bows and even crossbows, which I had only seen before in the regular forces of the aristocracy — bandits mostly preferred to use slings and darts for long-range combat. A bow was already a status symbol among those who had risen from the peasantry, costing quite a bit of money.
The three shinobi in the team were islands of calm against this backdrop, simply waiting for events to unfold. Our pursuers came from the islands of the Water Country, appearing to the right and slightly behind our ship, trying to cut across our course.
Iero had already changed direction slightly to avoid this, and a light breeze blowing in the right direction allowed us to immediately increase our speed by setting all sails. The pirate ships immediately stopped growing in size, and a tedious wait began as the distance between us neither decreased nor increased, remaining roughly the same. This could have continued for a long time if nothing had changed.
Our enemies realized this too, because three hours after the chase began, several dots separated from the ships, which at first I could barely make out even with my Sharingan activated, and began to rapidly increase in size.
The five ninja who had ended up on the pirate boats quickly caught up with us, despite the fairly decent waves. When they were at the very edge of my senses, it became clear that there were not five, but six people, just unlike their comrades, one of the two jonin was moving deep under the water, perfectly hiding from view.
I frowned — that was too many chakra users for pirates, who usually had one or two on board, but never a coordinated trio of jonin and a couple of chunin. Of course, I felt that they were significantly inferior to Yero's guards in terms of reserves, but there were simply more enemies. It seemed to me that the old man's ship had been expected here and preparations had been made accordingly.
The guards did not wait for their pursuers to get close to the ship and, obeying the captain's orders, jumped overboard and rushed towards their enemies, raising a spray of water.
I didn't stand idly by either, leaping over the railing in a single bound — shinobi can use their techniques underwater, so letting anyone get close enough to the ship would be a very bad idea, especially considering that I was only a quarter of the way there — and forming hand seals in midair.
"Suiton: Goshokuzame (Water Release: Five Hungry Sharks)!"
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