My clan stood in a line at the tail of the ship. I had been making the new SS tags for a while now. With my improved control, I had made the ideal versions I had in mind. The sheer amount of natural energy the SS wall holds made my mind numb. It took hours of violent suction for the tag to have its fill. Yet it will take more. The tag wasn't a release tag. I needed the SS to explode, too. So it was an overload trigger. On triggering. It will violently snatch natural energy from the surroundings to overload and explode.
It took around 100SS to make one tag. I made them as soon as the last one charged. I had 12 now. It took 12 hours for the tag to charge. Honestly, I wasn't sure how long each of them would take if we were not moving over the energy-rich sea. They were absolutely exhausting the parts of the sea we moved over.
"Are you certain that they are following us. No doubt about it?"
"Yes. We are not on any water routes. We are in uncharted waters now. No ship would come this way. Besides, they have been trying to catch up to us the whole week. It's just that the violent shakes that your tags keep making, that we have them in sight. I could have lost them a while ago otherwise."
Yeah, the tags sucked energy violently. Did you know that the sea was also a source of abundant natural energy? Forests and mountains weren't the only places. But I guess you could not spend years at sea sitting still. Especially as the waves rocked you.
"In that case, slow down."
"Slow down?"
"Yep, we are sinking that ship."
"You seem certain of victory."
"If we lose, just tell them we hijacked you. Your crew couldn't fight a dozen Shinobis now, could it?"
"Fine. You're the boss."
As the boat began slowing down, I saw movement on the enemy deck. I picked up a tag. It was way bigger than a tag or even a whole A4 sheet. The paper was several layers thick. It was more of a thick cloth than paper with all that Chakra. I rolled it up. It didn't need to be straight.
I had painted it red to give it a distinctive feel. In the end, it looked like a small red rod of around half a meter. I put in a small metal rod to support it and added a metal point on one side.
As the distance between the two ships lessened.
I began circulating Chakra through my arm. A small nudge from the Yami triggered the tag, and it began to violently suck in Energy. And then using my monstrous, evolved physique and Chakra-enhanced strength, I hurled it with as much power as I could, like a javelin.
Our ship sped up full force right as planned, and the Javelin shot towards our enemies. This time, we used jutsus to increase its speed; however, we could not. The air distorting around it as natural energy was violently ripped from the air and assimilated within.
In response, the enemy ship increased its speed too.
Not taking any chances. Weapons rose up from their ship, targeting the Javelin. Some hit and sent it down, tumbling into the ocean.
For a few moments, the world itself held its breath.
For a heartbeat, I thought it failed again. The enemy ship was still bearing down, its hull cutting white scars through the dark sea. I could even see the shimmer of their chakra lights on the deck.
Then the ocean inhaled.
The air thinned; the sea seemed to bow inward, as if the whole world was holding its breath—and then it all let go.
Light punched through the water from below, blinding and white. The explosion didn't roar; it hammered. The underwater shockwave hit first. Yeah, it travels faster, almost sending us all over the railing. But before we felt the aerial shockwave came. A wall of pressure hit us before the sound did, slamming my ribs, flinging us all back into the cabins. The shaking of the deck loose under my boots. The horizon cracked apart in a column of boiling water that clawed toward the clouds—an obsidian pillar rimmed in silver spray. For an instant, it looked like the ocean had been stabbed.
The water could not contain the explosion. I did not know how much, but our ship had sustained heavy damage. By the time the ocean calmed again. We had suffered casualties and had lost a few people overboard. And we had been kilometers away. With my evolved physique, I was a monster.
This thing had enough power to count as a minor bijudama. The mighty ocean was silent again. As if it hadn't just swallowed a ship mere seconds ago. There was not much debris.
It had been vaporised in the blast.
Instead of celebrations, I heard damage control shouts and prayers to God.
"S-Sir, if I may ask." Before, the captain had been wary. Now he was outright trembling.
He flinched as I faced him while getting up.
"You made a dozen of those things on this cruise, correct?"
"Yes, yes I did."
-----
Our return speed was slower. We were taking in water from the damage.
I had expected it to be an A rank or maybe even an S rank. This was a miniature bijudama level. It can no longer be considered a damn tag. I decided that it will have a name once I get back.
We had to take help from another ship when we reached back to international waters. At the port, I gave the captain, Umihebi, a promissory note along with all the Ryo I had brought along. I told him my name and asked about his schedule. I promised to send him the rest of the money along with a little bonus for his ship repairs the next time he made port. He did not argue at all.
We had spent too much time at sea. Now my priority was to get back as soon as possible.