The Kirigakure ninja keeping watch on the deck of the ship looked up at the sky. It had been a day since the ship set out from the port in the Land of Water toward the Land of Lightning. After they slipped through the white fog, they had been blessed with good weather, but abruptly, black clouds started gathering above them. The wind blew against her cheeks, and the calm face of the ocean began to change.
“A storm might be coming.” The watch ninja took a step to go and report to the people inside. But she felt eyes on her somehow. Unconsciously, she turned in that direction and saw a small boat in the ocean, in the breaks between the waves. “A fishing boat?”
Aboard the vessel were several people dressed like fishermen in straw raincoats and woven amigasa hats. But there were many islands of all sizes in this area, and more than a few of their residents made their living fishing. There was no need to be particularly concerned. Or so she thought, but the boat was gradually heading toward them.
“Hey! You’re going to hit us!” she called out a warning, but the boat didn’t show any signs of stopping. “Hey!” The watch ninja leaned over from the ship, grabbed her forehead protector with the Kirigakure crest on it, and held it up. Perhaps there came through in this a boast that they were ninja of Kirigakure, an unconscious arrogance that fishermen like them couldn’t do anything about it.
One of the people in the boat stood up. Woven hat deep over their eyes. Fingers grasping the edge, slowly lifting it. The hidden chin, the mouth, the nose were revealed, and then …
The instant she saw the eyes, the watch ninja fell down.
“H-hey! What’s wrong?!” The eyes of the other ninja on deck grew wide at their comrade suddenly dropping to the deck after calling out a warning to the small boat ahead of them. But before any of them could race over to her side, they sensed an abnormal aura.
“Wh-who’s there?!”
The mysterious person, face covered by the woven hat, landed soundlessly, alone, on the deck of the ship. From the way they carried themselves, there was no doubt they were a ninja.
Hearing the commotion, the squad leader came running up. “Seize them!”
The ninja of Kirigakure began to weave signs to capture and eliminate the intruder. They were on the water; given the number of Water Style users in Kirigakure, they should have had the upper hand.
However, the intruder calmly lifted the edge of the hat again.
“Wha—!!”
Young ninja with promising futures, veteran shinobi who had lived through the time known as the Village of the Bloody Mist and survived the Fourth Great Ninja War, all of them crumpled on the spot, unable to do anything against this lone ninja opponent.
“They’re late.”
The ninja of Kumogakure grumbled, waiting in the drizzling rain to greet the ninja of Kirigakure at the port in the Land of Lightning. The scheduled arrival time was long past, and no message had come to say the ship would be late.
“The Lord Raikage’s going to lose it if they’re too late.”
Their straightforward, short-tempered Raikage. If they kept him waiting too long, he would erupt in anger; he might very well bring the lightning of his name down on them.
“Maybe the weather’s not working with them. There’s nowhere out on the ocean to get out of the rain, after all.”
“But they could at least send a messenger hawk from the ship, right? It’d make it easier for us to report to up high too, if they’d send a little note saying they’re late.”
“That’s true, but …”
The wind brushed against the cheeks of the increasingly wetter Kumogakure ninja. After considering again the possibility that their arrival could be even further delayed, they decided to send a messenger to Kumogakure.
“Hey, wait. Is that it there?”
A ship had finally appeared on the horizon.
“So they finally show up, huh?”
The ship bore the mark of Kirigakure; it was clearly the one they were waiting for.
“It’s kind of really quiet, huh?”
There was no one on the deck; they couldn’t see any Kirigakure ninja. Perhaps they had gone into the cabin to avoid the rain.
As the ship approached, the wind and rain grew more intense. Almost as if bringing something sinister.
“Welcome to the Land of Lightning!” the Kumogakure representative called out, as the ship reached the shore.
There was no response from inside. Thinking this suspicious, the Kumogakure ninja looked at each other.
“Welcome!” she shouted again, her voice tense.
Finally, someone appeared from within the ship. A ninja wearing a woven hat. This ninja glanced down at the representative who had called out to welcome the ship.
“… Oh …” The representative swayed, and then collapsed on the rain-slick port.
“Wh-what’s wrong?!”
The Kumogakure ninja were bewildered by this sudden event.
The ninja in the hat jumped down from the ship and tossed the hat away, revealing what had been hidden beneath it.
“Th-those eyes?!”
Crimson eyes glowing eerily in the rain. Not one of the Kumogakure ninja escaped being caught in their gaze.
“Crap, ocular jutsu …”
Merely upon seeing that red glow, the ninja of Kumogakure lost all their strength and fell to the ground.
“That was wonderful.” Red Eyes’ comrades leaped down from the ship after watching the scene play out.
“Put them in the ship,” Red Eyes instructed, and the other ninja nodded.
The Kirigakure ninja were already inside the ship, flat on their backs, not moving so much as a muscle.
While the others hauled the Kumogakure shinobi up, Red Eyes picked up the woven hat and put it back on. The weather grew increasingly rough, and the black clouds, stirred up by the wind, twisted like a giant snake.
“We got them all!” one ninja shouted, and Red Eyes leapt up back onto the ship.
A bolt of lightning raced across a sky rumbling with thunder.
“We’ll dye it all red.”
I will not allow this peace.