Sailor hurried back — I have the story (9)
I believe the answer is:
narrative
'the story' is the definition.
('narrative' can be a synonym of 'story')
'sailor hurried back i have' is the wordplay.
'sailor' becomes 'tar' (slang term for a sailor).
'hurried' becomes 'ran' (running is a kind of hurrying).
'back' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'i have' becomes 'ive'.
'tar'+'ran'='tarran'
'tarran' written backwards gives 'narrat'.
'narrat'+'ive'='NARRATIVE'
(Other definitions for narrative that I've seen before include "Spoken account; story" , "relation" , "Account of connected events, a story" , "Report" , "Storyline" .)