As promised, Gale and Haku tag-teamed to make a sizable iceberg for the film. It was bigger than the one they had nearly crashed into!

Gale and Haku were taking turns on who kept the ice from melting while the rest of the pirate crew did their best to help out. It was during her turn that Gale finally figured out a name for their crew.

"I've got it... the Crimson Kitsune," she said to her group who were huddled next to the fire for warmth.

"Crimson Kitsune?" said Sasuke.

Gale gave him a look. She pointed at her hair for clarification.

"Ah. Because the captain is the Crimson Typhoon and you carry the Kyuubi no Yoko, I get it," said Sasuke.

"Wait, what? You have the demon fox inside you?!" said Kiba wide-eyed. Hinata wasn't that surprised, as Gale had told her earlier.

Gale rolled her eyes.

"The Kyubi isn't a mindless beast. He's more like a lazy perverted fox who likes to sleep most of the time. If you're lucky he'll grace us with his presence," said Gale. Then she cocked her head, as if hearing something.

"I take it he's awake and heard that comment?" asked Sasuke. He was familiar with the fox, who wasn't that big a fan of his ancestor Madara for making him fight Hashirama in the Valley of the End. He still complained of splinters!

"He wants to see what the big fuss is all about with the movie. He did agree to keep himself small so he wouldn't accidentally tip this thing," said Gale.

Since it wasn't a true iceberg, the thing was rather flat on the bottom. Adding too much weight one side or the other could cause it to tip.

Hence why they were trying to stay on the opposite side of the 'iceberg' from the film crew to avoid such a problem. Some of that equipment was heavy.

Gale could feel something shift, and suddenly there was a great big red fox with nine long tails behind her. He yawned widely.

"Thank the Sage your idiot grandfather tweaked the seal so I could get out of it," yawned Kurama.

Shanks, when he had seen the seal, had decided it would be amusing to let the fox roam his ship. That had been nearly ten years ago when Gale was six and bored. And in return Kurama became her permanent playmate in between islands.

Gaia could let Shukaku out as well, after Shanks had tweaked her seal.

If they picked up any other jinchuriki, Gale would offer up the same option for them too. Kinda like having a pet that you could carry anywhere in her opinion.

"That's the Kyuubi?" said Kiba incredulous.

The fox leveled a look at the Inuzuka, and Akamaru whimpered before he dove behind his partner.

"I'm bigger than the damn ship, you little ingrate. Shanks once had me stand at full size and I was bigger than the Red Force," said Kurama irritably.

"True. That was back when I was what, eight or nine?"

"A few months after we took on the new brats," said Kurama yawning.

"Who's watching the... what the hell?!" said Sakura, coming across the giant fox leaning against Gale.

"Banshee, Kyuubi. Kyuubi, your next snack if she never figures out that sound carries on water," said Gale. She disliked Sakura because of her harpy voice, and Haku had to keep a strict eye on the migraine relief items on the ship.

"You can't have your pet fox eat my team members," said Kakashi, walking up. His eyes doubled in size.

"What... how?"

"Dad tweaked the seal so he could leave it for small periods of time. Full sized he's as big as Dad's ship," said Gale.

"Why is there a giant fox here?" asked Sakura.

"Kyu is bored, so I let him out. Hey, I wonder if the director would be interested in adding a real live demon into his film?"

"Bet it would sell like hotcakes in Konoha," snorted Sasuke. Kiba snickered at the idea of shock in the village. It would definitely rile up the council, who kept proclaiming the Kyuubi was the epitome of all evil.

"A real live demon? In our movie?" said the director dumbly. Honestly, he had never thought to include the tailed beasts into his plot line, and a good movie had an ever changing one.

He even knew that his cast wouldn't be harmed in any way. The shinobi would love this!

"And we'll insure he doesn't accidentally tip this thing over," said Gale.

"Quick question. Does he understand what we're saying?" asked Yukie.

"Better than some of you monkeys," answered the fox dryly.

"Don't mind fuzzy. So long as you appear properly cowed by him later he'll put up with almost anything. He might even shrink a little to act as your demon companion later if you want, so long as we bribe him properly," said Gale with a chirp.

Seeing the speculative look on the director's face, Gaia suddenly spoke up.

"The great and annoying tanuki wants in if that happens. He's bored," said Gaia.

"Shu-kun wants in?" said Gale.

"Shu-kun?" asked Kakashi.

"You remember Shu-kun. I bitch slapped him during the invasion and he accidentally stepped on that cat," said Gale with a smile.

"That reminds me... this is for Gaia-chan," said Kakashi. Kakashi was the most likely to run into her since they were going to be on the sea, so the Hokage wanted him to deliver it.

"What's this?"

"Read it and find out," said Kakashi eye-smiling.

Gaia took out the scroll and stared.

"Is this for real?"

"Absolutely. It was put together by almost every single shinobi in the village," said Kakashi. Including himself.

"What is it?" asked Gale. Gaia handed over the letter, and the girl nearly bust a gut laughing her ass off.

It was a thank you letter and a check for the assassination of public menace number one, Tora, the Fire Daimyo's Wife's cat. Paid for by the shinobi of Konoha when they found out Gaia was the one who did it. And the pay was A-rank.

"They gave you that much for killing a cat?" said Sasuke.

"Not just any cat. Shukaku accidentally stepped on Tora while we were arguing during the invasion," said Gale.

"Wait a damn minute. You killed Tora the Demon?!" said Sasuke looking at Gaia.

Everyone who lived in Konoha knew about Tora. He was a known menace to Genin! Itachi used to tell him horror stories of a demonic feline that liked to claw the special eyes out of Uchiha when they were assigned the mission.

Sasuke had nightmares about the thing. And he had only seen it once.

"Who is Tora the Demon?" asked Yukie.

"Long story short there is a cat that newly minted genin and some unlucky chunin had to capture every time it got out, and it had claws from hell. It belonged to the Fire Daimyo's wife, so we had to do the mission even though we hate that thing. The Hokage made it a D-rank because anyone over genin refused to take it for such little pay and more than a few actually planned on how to kill it in their free time. Everyone hated that cat."

"Gaia's demon, the One-tailed Tanuki, accidentally crushed it during a recent invasion. This was just their way of thanking her for killing it," said Gale giggling.

"All that for one cat?" said Yukie, looking at the check.

Kakashi put her under the illusion of a basic Tora mission. Yukie shivered.

"I stand corrected. That is one evil cat."

"It would be higher, but the invasion and all..."

"It's plenty... plus I don't have to share this with the village later," said Gaia laughing.

"That's right... the contract only covered treasure, not mission payments," said Gale grinning.

"What contract?" demanded Sakura. She did not like Gale one bit.

"We don't bother to steal shinobi from the villages. We take them out under contract. That way they get to explore the world and the village can't bitch about it later. The only exceptions are those who have the training, but not the headband like me an' Sasuke."

"How can you have the training but not the headband?" asked Ino, Sakura's best friend.

"Itachi," said Sasuke.

"Dad is from Uzushio, so he taught me the basics from Whirlpool. And Sasuke learned from Itachi. So we're shinobi trained, pirate raised."

"Never heard that one before," admitted Kakashi. His experience with pirates came primarily from Kiri.

"Itachi?" asked Sakura.

"Our big brother. Dad more or less adopted them into the family when he realized neither of them wanted to resurrect their original clan, so they went into a new one instead."

They were sitting on chairs while Kurama and Shukaku (shrunk down to avoid capsizing the ice area) got to be in the movie as 'companions'. Needless to say the two were going to ham it up a bit and brag about this for centuries to their six brothers and lone sister (Nibi). Fortunately the two demons stayed near the back of the island, giving them all the weight they needed to counterbalance the thing without tipping it. And when they had to leave, they would go back into the seals until they were far enough away and the waves died down from the girl's breaking the iceberg. Then they would be in most scenes, possibly having an epic 'death' scene if need be.

If things went well, the director was all for calling them back for another movie. The best part was that they just had to slide and extra tip for Gale and Gaia for letting them use their bijuu instead of paying the demons for their parts.

The four Snow ninjas were less than amused running into a melting giant chunk of ice on the way back to port. And it was clearly made by chakra. The lone kunoichi on the group was less than happy to note it was easily twice the size of the one they had created five days ago.

"Swords, Kunai, Shuriken!"

This was repeated five times before one of them was declared the winner.

Gale had discovered two islands in that it was easier to send someone ashore beforehand to work out docking details. But since Kurama and Shukaku were going to be in the movie, Gale was mostly sending someone ahead to forewarn them of a large group coming in.

Port masters tended to think better with a warning of large groups. Fortunately she didn't have to pay any docking fees, because once they were done unloading she was going to seal the entire thing in a series of scrolls that she would carry with her. No muss, no fuss, and it promised a quick escape on the first sea access they found.

Haku was the one who got sent to the island before anyone else to inform the harbor master about their arriving ship and to secure a temporary spot until Gale sealed it off. She had enough to get the spot and bribe the harbor master if need be.

She would wait on shore until the ship came in.

Gale slowly brought in the ship, and Temari was there to insure no stray winds tried to crash them into the others already in port. As the pirates ran around the ship insuring everything was secured for when Gale sealed the ship itself (it was how Shanks had kept it in good repair until Gale was old enough to handle sailing on her own for a few years) the passengers all tried to stay out of their way.

They had to go through this song and dance while Gale and Haku made that iceberg too. What they didn't know was that they had been taped by the video crew the entire time.

Once the ship was settled for the most part, the various crews got to work. Thanks to seals (Gale sold them to the director for a nice fee, all in gold) the work was done a lot faster than if they had to haul all that equipment ashore.

Gale loved fuinjutsu. It made things so much easier. And when you were on the sea with nothing better to do, it gave you a lot of time to perfect the art.

Shanks always got a good laugh at how Buggy, one of his old crew mates from Roger's ship, used to curse him openly because his hobby happened to make him a better fighter and more popular with the crew when it came to storage.

There were a few reasons why everyone on Shanks' crew learned the art.

One, it was a harmless hobby that had multiple benefits. Two, it kept him in touch with his roots and kept the older seals alive. Three, it killed time between islands and kept the crew from getting too restless watching new seals explode in the faces of the others. And finally, because he simply liked fuinjutsu.

All those who traveled with Gale learned the art as well, mostly because it was a great way to spend the boring hours of doing nothing.

"Ship's cleared off and all passengers are on shore captain," said Sasuke.

Gale grinned as the crew waited for the show.

"Uzumaki Fuin: Seal of the Deep!"

A great air pocket spread over the ship itself, turning it into something akin to a ship in a bottle. That shrunk in on itself until it was small enough to fit a basic storage scroll that Gale put into her pocket for safe keeping. That pocket was made to be indestructible from anything short of a buster call.

"What... how?" said Kakashi dumbfounded.

"Fuinjutsu Master. Everyone who's been around the Red Haired Pirates for more than a year learns how to make seals during our spare time. And I was raised on it. In short I'm better than that pervert Jiraiya is," said Gale shrugging.

"You're kidding! Why would pirates learn something as complicated or boring as seals?" said Sakura.

Shinobi rarely learned more than how to make exploding notes or storage seals. It was considered a dead art.

"Unlike shinobi, we don't do missions so we have a lot of free time between islands. Fuinjutsu is something anyone can learn and the odd exploding seal that goes off in your face tends to liven up the time on the sea. I don't get why more shinobi don't learn the art since it's so useful to have around," said Gale flatly.