A transparent dragon made out of water let out a loud roar at the three shinobi standing side by side on a mini plateau fifty feet above it.
The three stared down impassively even as they each had an arm outstretched to the sky, a massive swirling, humming, shrieking, grinding mass of chakra shaped into a spinning ball of death resting on their hands with four 'blades' spinning along its core while diamond shaped chunks of stone orbited around a core of sparking lightning.
As one, the trio intoned "Combo Synch Style: Rasentriad!"
The trio threw the six foot tall jutsu and there was suddenly no more dragon, the water jutsu consumed as the Rasengan variant rapidly expanded to thirty feet wide.
The rock and dirt under the dragon was completely shredded leaving a perfectly smooth crater even as arcs of electricity trailed along the ground for a few seconds.
As the wind finally lessened back to the normal levels for the local area, Sasuke Uchiha turned off his Sharingan and said "Remind me never to piss you three off."
There was more than one snort of amusement from the rest of the group which contained the aforementioned Sasuke, Kakashi, and Sarutobi (the one responsible for the 'target' of the jutsu). The two Sharingan users were there to record what actually happened at jutsu detonation.
As Kakashi pulled his forehead protector over his implanted Sharingan, he said "It's certainly a scary technique. And you say that's a 'low setting' for it?"
"That was the smallest we could get it and still maintain stability." Naruto said with a nod.
"Thankfully Naruto can provide the heavy lifting in regards to chakra cost for the bigger versions otherwise we'd be cleaning out our emergency chakra battery seals." Heza said with a frown.
Sarutobi gave her a reassuring smile and said "No worries, Chunnin Tano, you and Chunnin Hirzen are still young yet. As you grow older your chakra stores will grow until they can handle such demands. I have seen Jiraiya make a rasengan twenty feet wide and then use multiple A and S rank Jutsu immediately after and I believe that you should be able to match those chakra levels once you enter your latter twenties."
Heza nodded at that before all of them glanced to the side as a shunshin deposited an ANBU near their group. The figure bowed to the former Hokage before offering him a scroll.
Sarutobi accepted the scroll and as the ANBU departed opened it up. A moment later, an eyebrow raised before he glanced towards Team Maelstrom and said "Jounnin Uzumaki, I know you had two more days requested for Jutsu Experimentation but are you and your team amenable for a convoy escort mission with me?"
"I assume by the fact you're being given the mission we would be escorting another Royal's entourage Sir?" Naruto checked. Sarutobi Hiruzen may be on the mission roster again, but since he hadn't taken another team of gennin he was typically sent on diplomatic missions involving countries' higher ups.
Wasn't hard to make a leap of logic that Royals were involved.
Sarutobi nodded and said "The Crescent Moon Kingdom's Prince Michiru and his son Hikaru."
"Oh, that mission." Heza said with a frown. Sarutobi looked amused as everyone else looked at her in confusion and she sighed as she explained "Scuttlebutt's saying the Prince's spoiled materialistic attitude has run off not only his original escorts from his kingdom's forces but also no less than fifteen separate teams during his world tour, and his son's just as spoiled."
Matto gave Sarutobi an incredulous look and gestured at Naruto as he asked "And you want him in close proximity to them sir? Do you want the client to be pranked twelve ways to Sunday?"
Sarutobi chuckled and said "As tempting as I'm sure that will be to watch, I believe having an instant army on call outweighs any potential chaos. Also, I shall remain the Prince's contact with our team while the three of you focus as perimeter defense. Chunnin Tano, if your summons are willing, I would appreciate you serving in an over watch position while Chunnin Hirzen and Jounin Uzumaki remain on the ground with the convoy split between them while Jounin Uzumaki's clones provide a first line of defense."
"Yes sir." The three said with a nod of acknowledgement to the senior Jounin.
Time Skip: Rendezvous With Caravan
Four eagles flew through the air over a rocky desert. Underneath no less than fifty horse drawn wagons trundled their way across the hard but relatively smooth terrain, throwing up small dust clouds as they went.
"All of that for two members of royalty?" Matto called gesturing down at the convoy below them.
"Heza did say His Majesty is materialistic." Naruto called back as he observed the convoy below him with a small frown, working out how many clones he would need for a proper security force for such a large convoy.
"That's a lot of souvenirs then." Matto said with a frown gesturing in the direction of the island of Crescent Moon Kingdom, or more specifically, the ocean seperating it from the main land as he continued "They'll need a pretty big ship to get all of that home if they're bringing the carts, the horses, and their drivers with them."
"I am certain the Prince has the details well in hand Chunnin Hirzen." Sarutobi called before he made a downwards gesture and continued "For now, let us present ourselves to our employee."
"Please land about thirty feet in front of the first wagon Kazeon." Heza requested her current mount and the eagle nodded before it circled, the other three eagles following its lead as it moved back over the head of the convoy before diving.
Within a minute, the four eagles were back winging in order to briefly hover directly above the ground before they set their feet on the ground and folded their wings.
Apparently, random shinobi showing up had happened often enough that the convoy leader was now jaded enough that all their entrance warranted to him was a raised eyebrow.
He had his two horses keep walking until they were five feet from them before he pulled on their reins bringing them to a stop. Idly crossing his arms, he asked them "You our protection?"
"We are indeed." Sarutobi said with a nod.
The man scoffed and said "The last group lasted six days. Try to stick with us longer a'ight?"
Sarutobi gave him a wry grin and said "Don't worry, after dealing with him since he was four, I have a long fuse."
Naruto put on an exaggerated pout when Sarutobi pointed at him while Heza and Matto both snickered.
The caravan leader though merely drawled out a "Riiight" before he jerked his thumb over his shoulder and said "The Prince's Carriage is the fourth one behind mine. Go have a talk with him then we can get going again."
"Of course." Sarutobi said genially before he gestured for Matto and Naruto to join him. Heza was the slightest bit busy unsealing large steaks for her eagles, three each. (It had been a long journey, even for them. Thankfully, Heza had a good relationship with the butcher she used and was able to buy in bulk for a slight discount.)
Prince Michiru turned out to be a decently tall man with a, somewhat chubby body shape. He needed to move sideways to get out of his carriage and it still took a bit of shifting to do so. He was dressed in tan pants with a blue over shirt that a long blue and white triangle sash with a crescent moon on each end was draped over. He had two necklaces, one made out of red beads while the other held five rectangular pendants of pastel colors. Both his eyes and hair were brown and over them was a brownish red cap.
He also immediately checked every box on the 'Reasons to prank this person until they cry' checklist Naruto had mentally composed over the years. The black haired and spectacled son of the Prince quickly joined his father on that front after he tried to shoot a toy arrow at Naruto when he was asking the Prince which carriages held the REALLY expensive stuff and so needed a clone assigned to ride along inside henged as a package on the off chance bandits managed to reach them to raid, never mind actually steal the carriage itself. And the kid had the nerve to be upset when Naruto had shredded the arrow with a mini wind storm jutsu when it came within ten feet of him. If you were going to fire a bow and arrow at a shinobi, pointed arrow or not, you had better expect that arrow to be destroyed before reaching its target because any shinobi who allowed an arrow fired from any bow but one of those thousand pound draw Land of Iron war bows deserved to get hit. As far as Naruto was concerned, the less he interacted with the pair the better. He quite frankly pitied the retired Hokage who would be riding along with them in their carriage as the last line of defense.
Thankfully for his sanity, the convoy was soon on its way again, Heza's mount once more in the air (with a clone transformed as a bracelet to serve com duty and a genjutsu to keep anyone from actually seeing it) while the other three eagles had returned to their summoning realm, Matto was stationed on the front carriage next to the driver while Naruto sat on the back ledge of the rear carriage facing in that direction, the 'decoy luggage' clones were in place, and there was a clone walking beside each carriage in staggered lines so that one clone was on the right of the convoy and the next was on the left serving the dual purposes of protection and radio duty. Anyone trying to sneak up on this group would have to do so from below. But given that Sarutobi was old enough to have been Hokage twice, the Chunnin and Jounnin currently under his command were pretty sure he'd be able to sense their chakra before they could strike.
Roughly four hours into the trip, the convoy came into sight of a large cliff face that their route would go past the bottom of. Its side was angled out enough that someone could actually run down it if they were sure of foot enough making it a good ambush point. And wouldn't you know it, a bunch of bandits had decided to take a crack at the convoy, even though it was CLEARLY guarded by enough bodies for every cart. Maybe they thought the shadow clones were 'regular' illusion clones being used as a bluff?
Either way, the 'attack' didn't last long. Heza's eagle 'technically' got the first kill, dive bombing a big guy with a war hammer and zoom climbing back up to the sky with the screaming bandit in its talons before dropping him from five hundred feet. Of course, it was only technically because by the time the unfortunate bandit landed, Matto had taken out five bandits of his own with quickly thrown lightning dagger jutsu, Naruto's clones had used mini wind dragons to take out everyone in their assigned firing angles, and the original Naruto unsealed his toad and fox blades, extending the toad blade while projecting a wind blade from the fox blade to pierce the throats of the last two from where he was still sitting down on the back ledge of the rear carriage.
"Well, that was easy." Matto said, sitting back down next to the lead carriage driver, having stood up to throw one of his jutsu over the man's head.
"Hey, as far as we drivers are concerned, easy for you guys is good for us." The man said with a grin, though his eyes remained pointedly on the path ahead of him not looking at any of the bodies the convoy was steadily leaving behind it.
The original Naruto created more shadow clones which stayed behind, one of them with a sealing scroll and a vial of blood that the original unsealed in order to use for summoning. (He kept several cheap plastic vials with blood sealed in one of his summoning scrolls for that exact purpose.) The clones would go over the bodies then bring in one of the tracker summons to see if they could determine where the bandits kept their base and secure any valuables/rescue any hostages held for ransom while dealing with any that had been left behind to guard said valuables and hostages.
When the Convoy stopped for the night, the last of the shadow clones that had been left behind slipped into the Main tent and walked over to where Sarutobi was enjoying a cup of tea with his MRE having denied having a plate of the luxurious food the two members of Royalty were having when a servant offered it. (They were good enough for his forces in the field, they were good enough for him.) The clone handed the scroll to Sarutobi, gave his report, and then dispelled himself.
Outside by the team's fire where Naruto was boiling water for a cup of instant Ramen, Naruto sent 'Fox Actual to all teams, status check.'
'Fox Alpha, all clear.'
'Fox Beta, nothing but a scorpion enjoying a meal.'
'Fox Charlie, nothing to report.'
'Fox Delta, no human presences out here.'
'Fox Echo, we've got a group of nomads traveling north northwest, don't seem to be trouble but we may have visitors later on.'
'Toad Charlie, pretty sure I know where those nomads are going Fox Echo, about twenty miles out there's a large group of tents. They've got the usual guards posted but the people in the camp do not appear to be preparing for any action.'
'Toad Alpha, nothing in our sector.'
'Toad Beta, we found a series of wells, talked with the locals hanging around, nice people, not too keen on sharing water with strangers though.'
'Toad Delta, just some old guy staring up at the stars out here.'
'Toad Echo, nothing to report.'
Naruto nodded to himself and glanced over at where his teammates were prepping their own MREs and said "There's a group of nomads twenty miles out but they don't seem interested in us."
"Just as well, I doubt their leader would appreciate the Prince's attitude if he came to meet with the visitors." Matto said with a flat look at the largest tent of the convoy.
"As much as I want to say that you should show the Prince some respect, you're probably right." Heza said with a sigh as she stirred a little bit of water into her dried mashed potato flakes. The pair had told her about how meeting the two members of royalty had gone and Heza shared the opinion of her two male teammates that the pair obviously fell on the 'bad kind of royalty' side of things. Kozuki Kazhanna had really spoiled the three by being the first royal they had met on a mission.
A little while after the three had had their meal, music began playing as some of the carriage drivers pulled out various instruments that were easy to transport. There were a couple of classical guitars, a harmonica, a fiddle, and a small drum. After leaving a clone to tend to the fire, the three shinobi drifted over to where the musicians were and Naruto unsealed a flute to join in.
And so the first day of Team Maelstrom's latest mission ended. Hopefully the rest of the mission would go as smoothly...Yeah right, all three knew they weren't so lucky.
Time Skip: The Next Day, Early Morning
The sky was still grey with pre-dawn light as Heza drew the string of her long bow jutsu back to her cheek. Sighting down the shaft of her diamond tipped arrow, she took in a steady breath then released. The arrow shot down range and hit the first of ten target rock slabs a mile away Heza had raised earlier, joining the three arrows already sticking out of it.
As Heza pulled her next arrow out of the ground, a young voice asked "What are you shooting at?"
Not glancing at Hikaru, Heza nocked the arrow and said "I used an Earth Jutsu to make a line of targets to practice with." A moment later, the arrow was loosed and hit the second target.
"I don't see anything." Hikaru said, squinting down range.
Heza absently unsealed a viewing glass and handed it over before pulling out a third arrow. As she drew then fired, she heard Hikaru gasp and he said "Wow, how far away are those?"
"One mile." Heza stated, pulling a fourth arrow from the ground. As she knocked it, she continued "Isn't it a little early for you to be up? It's barely past five twenty."
"Dad snores." Hikaru said simply and Heza made an 'ah' gesture with her mouth before releasing the arrow.
Pulling a fifth arrow, she asked "How about you, been practicing archery for long?"
Hikaru idly fingered the kid sized recurve bow that was clipped to his side as he said "We saw an archery contest three months ago. I gave the amateur contest a try. It wasn't really that hard so I had dad buy me the best bow they had in my size."
Heza hummed as she released then drew her sixth arrow as she asked "What's the draw weight?"
"Twenty pounds. It took a while to get used to drawing at full draw but once I learned the proper way to pull back it got a lot easier." Hikaru stated. He then frowned and said "Unfortunately, all I've got are the sucker tipped arrows. Apparently I'm too young for them to sell properly tipped arrows to, even if I am Royalty."
Heza hummed again as she released. Instead of immediately drawing her seventh arrow though, she lowered her bow and stomped a foot on the ground, sending chakra through it and making a target slab rise up ten feet in front of Hikaru. Gesturing at it, she asked "Want to see how well your arrow sticks to that?"
Hikaru shrugged and unclipped his bow, pulling an arrow from the quiver on his back and drawing before a moment later loosing the arrow. When the arrow stayed attached to the rock, Heza put her bow tip on the ground and leaned it against her torso before she carefully ran through the hand signs for the target raising jutsu, needing the better focus due to the placement and the distance she wanted. When she finished, she stomped her foot on the ground a second time and a line of targets appeared ten yards away (the max effective range for a recurve bow with a twenty pound draw weight), set so that way Hikaru wouldn't be shooting his arrows down the same line of fire as her.
Hikaru gave her a (very) slight nod of thanks before he retrieved his arrow then moved to where he could properly fire at his row of targets. With her charge seen to for the moment, Heza picked up her long bow again and pulled the next arrow out of the ground and sighted down range.
And so the pair spent the next hour in silence, only the sound of their bowstrings being pulled back then released filling the air.
Time Skip: A Week Later
The rocky desert had given way to grassy hills and small sections of forest. As they reached the outskirts of a town, Naruto's sensitive ears picked up carnival music and he glanced up into the air as he sent 'Fox Actual to CAP, I'm hearing circus music, do you see a fair or a circus nearby?'
A few moments later, CAP (Combat Air Patrol) sent back 'Heza sees it, it's about a mile outside of town to the north east. It's only got one main tent with a second smaller one behind it for storage and seems to be a relatively small operation as far as circuses go but they've got a lot of animal cages.'
'How much you want to bet we'll be stopping there when the prince learns about it?' The clone walking next to the twelfth carriage (unoriginally named C12) asked flatly.
'No Bet.' all of the other clones sent over the radio.
Naruto snorted in agreement and sent 'Well, there's no point in bringing the convoy through the town if we're going there. C5, please inform the Old Man and the Prince about the circus and ask if His Highness would like to adjust course.'
'Right.' C5 sent back before he reached up to tap on the carriage. Sarutobi slid open the window next to him and quickly spoke with the clone. Sitting on the back ledge of the carriage, Hikaru looked up from his handheld game system in clear interest at the words 'animal circus'. Michiru was equally interested and a moment later, the convoy changed course at the next intersection in order to go around the town rather than through it.
The convoy had actually arrived on the last day of the circus' time at the town so while the tent was big enough to hold around three hundred people in its stands at full capacity, not counting the members of the convoy there were only about thirty or so townspeople in said stands. That said, for such a 'small' operation, the circus had really pulled out all the stops when it came to training their animals and the circus performers themselves.
There was a large elephant with tusks as long as its trunk that easily stood up on its back feet while holding a woman on its trunk as it turned in a full circle on said back legs, four rhinos (not the easiest to train to even sit on command) doing a circuit in formation, a man was spinning four plates on thin two foot long sticks with chipmunks running along the plates, four white bears walking along the top of large balls, zebras jumping through a hoop, kangaroos that were actually boxing with boxing gloves on their hands (and not a single kick in the whole 'fight'), a giraffe that caught a clown when he back flipped onto a trampoline and was consequently bounced up into the air in front of it, and then came the finale.
The lights cut out with spotlights shining down onto the small circular stage in the middle of the small ring and the ringmaster quickly ran out to it and called out "And now what you all have been waiting for! The one, and only, Chamu, the sabretooth tiger!"
As drums played and smaller multicolored spotlights began moving all over the tent, Naruto and Matto both blinked from where Team Maelstrom was watching from the back of the stand the two Royals were seated at in the front and said as one "Where'd they find one of those?"
They didn't get an answer before the smaller lights cut out in favor of the three bigger ones that were now shining on a thick half circle platform thirty feet in the air where a large white sabretooth tiger wearing a pink bandanna around its neck and a brown vest stood. The drums stopped and the tiger let out a growl followed with a loud roar.
Prince Michiru actually startled back in surprise, sending some of the popcorn he was eating out of its bucket. Hikaru though was completely star struck. Sarutobi's lips ticked up a little as he saw the boy's expression out of the corner of his eye even as he kept some of his attention on said tiger and the rest on ensuring none of the rest of the audience was a threat to his charges.
Chamu took a massive leap to a lower platform on the other side of the curtained entrance to the ring (a jump of at least fifty feet), then down onto the stage in the middle of the ring.
As he did so, the ringmaster came up on his right side and called out "As rare as he is dangerous! The only one of his kind in captivity!"
"Somehow I doubt that." Heza said softly to her male teammates. After all, if one sabretooth tiger was able to be caught, then the chances of others having been caught became significantly higher.
"And here's Chamu's friend and partner, Kiki!" The ringmaster announced as a monkey with a bow on its tail, pink vest and top hat, and a yellow bandana came swinging in to land on Chamu's head.
As the audience applauded, the ringmaster declared "And now Chamu and Kiki have a very special treat for you!"
That treat turned out to be the two animals knocking a large ball back and forth between them, Kiki on a tall platform and the pair using a different body part for each strike. Chamu finished off that act by leaping through a set of five rings that were on fire, letting out another roar as he went back to the stage.
A moment later, Kiki reappeared, landing on his bigger friend's head with an apple which he took a bite out of before throwing it up in the air. The apple was consequently shot through with an arrow sending it to impact the wall. The archer gave a bow to the audience from next to the ringmaster as Kiki clapped his hands.
"If you thought that was hard, watch this!" The ring master declared as Kiki began spinning a second apple on his finger. As Chamu stood up on his rear legs and began swaying, the man continued "If he's off by a fraction of an inch, its goodbye Kiki! Alright, we need absolute silence everyone!"
A drum roll started and Kiki lowered the apple so that way it was 'beside' his head in the archer's line of fire, moving it up and around to the other side then back, and all the while, Chamu was moving side to side as well.
Before the Archer could take the shot though, the apple was shot off the top of Kiki's finger by a much blunter arrow. (The monkey looking rather alarmed at that) The drum roll abruptly cut off, everyone was silent for a few moments, and then the ringmaster spun a nearby spotlight at where the arrow had come from, revealing Hikaru standing up with bow arm held out and drawing arm in post firing position.
"Easy shot." The prince said as he lowered his arms.
Heza dropped her face into a hand and muttered to herself "Come on kid, learn when it's appropriate to show off."
With the experience of a showman, the Ringmaster quickly recovered and said "Bravo! Good eye there Sonny!" He gave a short round of clapping before he looked back at Chamu and Kiki and said "However, let's see you handle this!"
Snapping his fingers had Chamu and Kiki (Who somehow had a third apple in his hands) move to attention and Kiki began spinning the apple on his finger as Chamu leapt off of the stage and began running in circles. As the large sabretooth ran around, the Ringmaster said "Go ahead, try it now! And if you hit it, you win a prize!"
Hikaru aimed forward as the tiger ran multiple circles, going for pure timing rather than tracking the tiger as it ran. Five circles later, he released and Kiki once more watched in surprise as the apple was knocked off his finger.
"W-wow." The Ringmaster said in amazement. The crowd all started applauding as Michiru congratulated his son.
A moment later, Hikaru glanced back and up at Heza. Heza idly tilted her head in congratulations and Hikaru grinned in pleasure. As he turned to watch the Ringmaster approach him, Matto leaned over to his girlfriend and asked "So be honest here, how good was that really?"
Heza gave a slight so-so gesture with her right hand and said "Well, the apple was closer than the targets I've been giving him every morning, and he waited for quite a few passes before he fired, but it was constantly moving from one side to another. Add the fact that he's only been shooting for a few months and I'd say pretty good."
She then frowned as she heard the Ringmaster congratulating Hikaru only for him to brag about doing harder shots and said "His attitude on the other hand could use a serious adjustment."
"We've been saying that since the first day of the mission." Naruto said, Matto nodding as he added "You're just lucky that he's been more interested in shooting at the targets you give him then talking with you, brat's got absolutely no social respect for anyone but himself and others equal or above his social standing."
The kid showed he had no sense for other people's property either when he declared he wanted Chamu for his prize. When the Ringmaster sputtered and tried to explain why they couldn't give away their prize attraction, the bespectacled archer got his father to buy it, the Prince deciding he'd buy the entire circus. (Naruto didn't know whether to be impressed at how rich Prince Michiru was to spend a Billion with a 'B' to 'hire' the entire circus or exasperated that he spent said amount just because his son asked him for Chamu).
The circus began packing up that very evening. Naruto had offered the use of his shadow clones to speed up the process, but the ring master was firm that only trained people should handle the animals. He did accept a twelve man squad of clones to help with folding the tents though.
There was a bit of excitement when Hikaru had the bright idea of feeding Chamu an apple from where he and Kiki were lounging on a crate with an entire bucket of the fruit. The Sabretooth may have been well trained to perform in front of them but the big guy apparently didn't actually like strangers getting close to it. Thankfully, Heza had been in the area at the time and had replaced herself with the kid using the substitution jutsu, smoothly diverting Chamu's path away from her with a hand pushed against his front left shoulder. A focused blast of Killer Intent from her right as Chamu landed had the feline immediately sink to its belly in a display of submission.
Idly scratching Chamu's scruff earning a slight flinch from the big cat as she walked past, Heza moved to kneel down to Hikaru's level and said "No more playing with the animals without one of their trainers alright? Most animals need to get used to a person before they'll allow them near. Even dogs usually want to sniff a person before they allow themselves to be petted."
Hikaru nodded shakily before he asked "How'd you get him to lay down like that?"
"Killer Intent. It's not something you can pick up with just an hour or two of practice. Instead, I suggest you find Chamu's trainer and have him aid you in dealing with the big guy." Heza stated. When Hikaru nodded again, she ruffled his hair (Smirking at his protest) then went to speak with Sarutobi for a moment, gracefully accepting Prince Michiru's thanks for saving his son.
Time Skip: Five Days Later
C5 cocked his head as CAP sent him a report. A moment later, he tapped on the open window frame of the carriage and when Sarutobi leaned out reported "Heza's Summon has spotted the port sir, but there's no sign of any ship bearing the Crescent Moon flag. However, there is a Land of Fire Naval Ship docked at port, a cruiser going by the size."
Sarutobi hummed to himself and said "Hopefully the Royal Yacht has simply been delayed by a storm. Still, it is good to know that our escort made it."
C5 blinked and said "I was not aware we were receiving naval support sir." After all, Naruto had already displayed that he could be just as effective on the open sea as on land during their mission to the Land of Snow, now renamed Land of Spring. And Heza and Matto had tricks they could use as well, not to mention what Sarutobi could bring to the table.
"I called in a favor with the Daimyo a week ago to borrow the services of one of his vessels. Pirate activity has been on the rise in an area that we will have to pass through on the way to the Crescent Moon Kingdom." Sarutobi explained.
C5 looked startled as he asked "The Daimyo owed you a favor Sir?!"
Sarutobi smirked and said "He wasn't the Daimyo when he gained that debt. Going by the letter he sent back to me I gathered he was rather glad to finally have me call it in for such a 'minor matter'."
"I see..." C5 said a little uncertainly and a moment later he asked "And if you don't mind me asking what the favor to him was Sir?"
"Oh, I think I'll keep that story to myself." Sarutobi said with a wink as he pulled his head back into the carriage.
'Great, now that's going to bug me all day, and the Boss for weeks when he gets the memory.' C5 groused mentally to himself before he projected outwards 'C5 to Fox Actual, CAP, and C1, be advised, there is a LFNS Vessel docked at port that is to join us at sea. The Old Man apparently pulled a string or two in order to give us an escort.'
'Roger C5.' Naruto sent back.
'Matto Acknowledges.' C1 sent back.
'Heza Acknowledges.' CAP sent right after C1.
Sure enough, when they reached the dock the dock master explained how a large storm out at sea had greatly delayed the vessel. (Somehow the engine had been knocked out of action. LUCKILY, the ship had a pair of sailing masts so it wasn't stranded out at sea.) However, the sailing veteran had managed to acquire the services of a cargo ship which was two hours out. It would take an additional three hours to unload its cargo and refuel but after that they could head out. The Prince was surprisingly chill about the delay, claiming that there was an important call to make in the area anyway.
Said important call turned out to be to visit Hikaru's mother, a woman by the name of Amayo. The reason why she was here rather than in the Crescent Moon kingdom was because she had divorced the Prince three years ago due to his attitude. (She would have taken Hikaru with her when she left as well but had apparently signed a marriage agreement stating that she would not have custody of any children) Sarutobi took Heza (with CAP serving as their radio) for the visit. The boys (including most of the clones, yes, even the decoy clones that had been hidden in the carriages this whole time) remained at the dock. This is because they had a job to do that the male members of Team Maelstrom were uniquely suited for.
The cruiser currently docked in the port was the LFNS Adel Plain, named after a battle that took place in said plain back when the Leaf Village was still having its literal foundations built. It was captained by a no nonsense, by the book man named LeMay. She was six hundred and ten feet in length with a sixty six foot three inch beam, and a top speed of 32.5 knots. She had four of the same torpedoes the Infinity had been equipped with but her other armaments were a bit more 'dated'. But though she didn't have a single seal powered MAC gun, her thirty a broadside cannons still packed a powerful punch. She could easily wreck any ship her size or below that she crossed the t of and her bow chasers were just as effective.
And right now, her outer hull was being given new markings by sixty four clones working on a single sealing project while Matto was in the bridge placing the seal's control next to the Captain's Station and Naruto made (and super charged) the battery seal that was connected to the many solar converter seals on the various roofs of the cruiser that would be powering said seal project. But unlike what the pair had done with the LFNS Infinity, this wasn't a seal operated cloaking system. Instead of hiding the ship's presence from sight, it would instead change what people saw when looking at the vessel. When the cargo vessel carrying the Prince and all of his (and his son's) purchased things left the port, the cruiser was going to look like a similar vessel that traveled five miles ahead of the cargo ship. In short, rather than being a deterrent that couldn't actually cover all angles of approach, Adel Plain was going to be its own bait.
The Captain watched the pair of teenaged males work on his bridge with an amused tilt to his lips as he said "We've been on plenty of pirate hunting cruises before, but this is the first time we'll be waiting for them to come to us instead of us looking for them." Giving the wall next to him a fond pat, he added "She's a fine fighter of the seas, but she ain't exactly attractive to those cowards."
Matto snickered and said "Don't worry sir, we'll get those bastards to come out and play. Though I don't think they'll appreciate us changing the rules of the game on them."
That got laughter from most of the present bridge crew and one of them called out "Those sorry louts cheat all the time, I say this is just fair play!"
"Here, here!" most of the other seamen cheered.
Captain LeMay shook his head with a chuckle and idly rubbed at his light brown beard. He was more than willing to go after pirates anytime the navy got a lead on them, but he would willingly admit tracking down their ships at sea or in their hidden anchorages was tedious. It would be nice to have the pirates come to them instead for once.
Time Skip: That Evening
It was about half an hour before sunset. The cargo ship (named the Wandering Seal) had arrived, off loaded its previous cargo, and had just finished loading its new cargo. Storage seals had been used in order for the inanimate objects to be stored in a way that would allow all of the circus animals and the horses of the caravan to have enough space during the trip. Each carriage had been sealed into a storage scroll which was labeled by number with a list of objects in it written on the inside of the scroll next to the storage seal. That scroll was then deposited into a larger storage scroll and placed within the hold of the cargo ship. The food was stored in another scroll kept in the kitchen of the ship, and would be unsealed as needed.
Only the royal carriage was left unsealed, and Naruto and Matto had GREAT fun turning it into a floatable bunker with their seals. If they had to be evacuated from the Wandering Seal then the two Royals would be VERY safe in it, able to last for a good two weeks off of the emergency rations sealed away, signal any ships that were in the area with a flashing seal that was set in each side of the carriage, and just because Naruto was feeling cheeky at the time, play a round of shogi with each other while they waited for rescue. In consideration for the fact that neither Royal was trained in using chakra, on top of the seals being hooked to a solar converter seal on the roof, the seals had a mental command component written into them.
But currently, said carriage was secured to the deck, the animals were all settled, and Hikaru was scowling in his cabin after Heza had flatly told him that no, she wouldn't be leaving the Leaf Shinobi Corps to be his vassal (Along with explaining just how incredibly RUDE it was for a Foreigner to ask for such a thing of a shinobi, member of Royalty or not.) Naruto's clones gave one last look over all of the Adel Plain's newly emplaced seals before most of them sealed themselves into a single clone who would be remaining in the bridge to maintain contact with the Wandering Seal. (Which would let them save their chakra and still be available to help defend Adel Plain without forcing the newly dubbed Escort 1 to spend his own chakra making more.) Said clone had had his own chakra topped off by the original and said original had just shaken Captain LeMay's hand before wind boosting himself off of Adel Plain.
Landing on Wandering Seal's bow, the original Naruto gave a sharp whistle towards the cargo ship's own bridge and made a spinning gesture with right pointer finger overhead. The captain nodded from the bridge and began barking orders over the ship's PA and the crew quickly unmoored the large ship and got to work leaving the port. On the opposite side of the dock, Adel Plain's seamen did the same and soon the two large vessels were clear of their moorings and making for the open sea.
Adel Plain remained off of Wandering Seal's port side until they left visual range of the port. Once out of sight of anyone who could potentially send word to unwanted ears (Not that they actually THOUGHT there was, but better safe than sorry) Adel Plain accelerated, pulling ahead of its charge to take the lead five miles ahead. As it did so, the naval vessel shimmered for a few seconds. When the shimmering ended, there was a second cargo ship in its place, appearing to be completely unarmed. Naruto and Matto both nodded in satisfaction at a job well done when they saw this before they went to get themselves a well-deserved meal.
Little did they know that they would have more than the expected pirates to deal with in the near future.
END