DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ONE PIECE

Sabo brought his pipe upward, examining it. Seeing how the metal glinted under the sunlight, he beamed. "Woah, you're right, Hack. Now it looks brand new."

Beside him, a rather large fishman was propped against a boulder - a smug grin on his face. "I told you so. I am quite experienced in the matter of - "

"Oh, Koala! How did your training go?"

"I'M TALKING HERE!" Hack growled, seeing the younger boy had fixated his attention somewhere else. "Why is your attention span always so short? Geez."

Sabo laughed while waving for Koala to join them. "Stop getting so worked up from such little problems."

Hack squinted his eyes at the younger boy. "I would have let these kinds of matters pass, if just you haven't already commit the same mistake for over hundreds of ti -"

"WHAT! That's awesome, Koala! Show me your new fighting technique then!"

"STOP INTERRUPTING ME!" Hack roared, waving his arms in exasperation.

Koala looked at both of the boys in amusement. "Aaaw, I feel sorry for you Hack, being partnered up with this airhead for multiple occasions."

Again, Sabo replied with a mere laughter before getting up and fixed his hat. "I'm going training! Wanna join, Hack?"

Hack sighed. "Even if I do come along, you will just keep cutting me off and disrespecting me both as a friend and a soldier. For goodness sake, Sabo, if I had been a little less kinder and tolerant, I would have resigned as your partner. But since I have faith in you being able to change into a better person, yes, I will join and train with you."

The fishman turned around, satisfied with his short speech while expecting an apology from his mission partner - but was only met with Koala, who was laughing silently. "He already left you."


"Three hundred and one...three hundred and two...three hundred and -" Sabo stopped and dropped the boulder. He slumped against a tree trunk, trying to catch his breath.

"Dammit!" He cursed. "Not enough, not enough." The familiar sense of hopeless frustration began to envelope him, in his mind, visions of his brothers began to reappear. Ace, screaming for him to stay with them; Luffy, getting hurt and on the edge of tears - all because he wasn't strong enough to fight his father. "Not enough." Sabo clenched his bruised palm, gathered all his remaining strength, and once again propped the boulder onto his shoulder.

"Three hundred and three..three hundred and four...three -"

and the counting went on and on until the sky went dark.


A rustling was heard, and a shadow emerged from the bushes.

Sabo yelped in surprise, he scrambled for his pipe before turning around. His previously tense body relaxed at the sight. "Oh, Dragon-san."

The older man seemed to be as surprised as he was - though it certainly was hard to tell, Sabo sometimes wonder if his leader could put up a different expression other than a stern look.

"Oh, um...what are you doing here?" Sabo asked when the silence got too overbearing.

"I'm supposed to be the one asking." Dragon squinted his eyes at him.

"Oh, I'm training, if it's not so obvious already." Sabo attempted a grin to lighten the mood, but was only met with silence. Now that's awkward. A red flush creeped along the back of his neck.

Then the most miraculous thing happened - the revolutionary leader laughed. Sabo had seen his leader smirked, or even chuckled, but never an outright laugh. And for a second, Sabo could have sworn that he saw Luffy in this older man.

"Please do improve on your sarcasm skills, boy." Dragon smiled at him in amusement.

Sabo just stood there in amazement, he had made the person responsible for the biggest threat towards the World Government laugh, now that's an achievement. "Uh..y-yeah." He stuttered and laughed.

"Been training, huh? You sure look like a mess." Dragon looked at the younger man's torn up palm.

"Oh, it's nothing. It looks more painful than it actually is." Sabo said as he hid his palm.

Dragon sighed and ruffled his long mane hair. "It's late. Go back and rest now, Sabo."

"I'm not done training yet!" Sabo answered in a rather loud voice, and immediately felt ashamed of it. Idiot, is this how you talk with your leader? He mentally chastised himself.

The revolutionary stared at him steadily. "You really have no idea, don't you?"

"W-what?"

"You must have been too focused on your training." Dragon rubbed his eyes, suddenly looking tired. "Do you always train at this place?"

"No, Bunny Joe always complains if I train near the buildings area." Sabo huffed. "He says that I'm too noisy."

"Then do you know what place this is?"

"Um..a forest?" Sabo suggested.

"That's a deep answer." Dragon chuckled in exasperation. "Whatever. But I'm serious here, go back to your room, Sabo." without a word, he turned around and walked further into the bushes.

Sabo could only stood there in confusion, but again, curiosity got the best of him. Silently, he followed his leader's shadow through the forest. What is this place?


Sabo followed as silently as he could, carefully avoided stepping the branches and dried leaves - anything that will give him out. After a while, the older man stopped, and so did he.

A sigh was heard. "You're a curious boy."

Crap.

Sabo slowly walked out of the shadow, mentally preparing to be shouted at - or worse.

But Dragon wasn't even looking his way. Sabo wasn't sure if it was because everything seemed blurry in the dark, or because he was just simply too tired to think coherently - but his leader didn't look angry, neither did he look stern or exasperated, he just looked...sad.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to - "

Dragon stepped to the side, letting the path between Sabo and whatever was in front of him steer clear.

In the moonlight, a grave stood still.

Sabo stepped forward, and forward, and forward.

A name was carved along the front.

Sabo's eyes widened, the world seemed to have come to a halt.

MONKEY D. ROWAN

Monkey D. Luffy's, Garp-geezer's and Dragon-san's surname.

Sabo dropped his pipe.

A family member who passed away.


THAT'S ALL FOR CHAPTER 8!

Sorry if the end is so abrupt. I finished writing the chapter until this point quite a few months ago (I was absent for very long), but could never write more than this, but I hope that by posting only up until this part as chapter 8 - I will have an idea on how the story will go in ch.9.

I'm so so sorry for all of you who waited for this, but with real life going on (ugh) combined with laziness (yep) and writer's block, I really have to push myself to write even half a chapter. (it's 3 am right as I'm typing this)

So I really wanna thank manicherryblossom33 for constantly asking for updates, because I was only an inch away to dropping this fic ;_;

I really want to find the motivation to continue this fic full force, at least until it is complete!

So please review on what you guys think, because they really help in keeping me motivated!

ONCE AGAIN, THANK YOU FOR READING :)