A few weeks had flown by and Itachi had already moved islands thrice and was about to do so again. Was already doing so, in fact. He had gotten a feel for how people generally acted around these parts and considered himself ready to move closer to an area with a stronger Marine presence.

Baterilla.

That was his destination. Rumours were running wild of the recent spike of Marine activity there. All kinds of assumptions were made, really. A famous pirate was found hiding there, the pirate king had acted weird there, the people there were actually zebras in disguise.

Nobody was quite sure just what had caught the attention of the Marines exactly, so Itachi would just have to find out himself.

Which was why he was currently working as hired help on a merchant's vessel. With the heightened attention of the Marines on the place, it wasn't a good idea for him to pop out of nowhere, no matter how good his skills in Illusions. He may or may not have done a bad job on purpose so he'd be kicked off the crew once the captain found a chance to get rid of him.

On another note, Kuromu was extra enthusiastic ever since she had tasted that sea king meat. Apparently, it hadn't even lasted an hour past the time she had unsealed it. Once she had run out, she had been quite distraught. She was now demanding he hunt another one soon every chance she got.

The glutton.

They were closing in on the harbour and the captain was starting to shout instructions, pulling him out of his thoughts.

He 'clumsily' tripped as he scurried around to follow his orders, 'accidentally' tearing the newly lowered sails in the process.

That seemed to have been the last straw.

With a curse that had even Itachi taken aback, the captain told him to simply stand in the corner, not to move and not to BREAK ANYTHING ELSE, OR I SWEAR TO GOD-.

Unseen, Itachi smirked.

"And stay off mah ship!", the furious captain shouted at him one last time as he threw his 'pay' in his face.

Speak about dramatic. And attention-grabbing. Not that he minded in this case. The few Marines that had watched the scene and were not so subtly laughing at him were just what he needed, really. The more witnesses the better.

'Distraught', Itachi sighed, collected his belongings from where they had fallen on the floor during the verbal smackdown, and aimlessly wandered into town.

If he subsequently slipped away and left a shadow clone in his place as he passed through a small alley, nobody noticed.

The clumsy sailor persona he had established would serve 2 purposes. 1) An alibi and a way to vanish completely in case he was caught snooping with a different appearance. 2) A non-suspicious persona to get talking to the natives, establish a base and gather information the Marines may not yet have gotten ahold of due to the fear of the population.

While his first clone busied itself by further establishing his persona and presence, Itachi himself made a few more of them, who all promptly concealed themselves in inconspicuous locations and started observing the Marines and their ships. If he could overhear their conversations to find out what they were looking for, that'd be best. If not, he'd have to sneak onboard and snoop for documents or put one of the higher-ranking ones under an Illusion to find out.

Itachi leaned more towards sneaking inside or a combination of the above. That way he'd gain an initial impression of the inner workings of their ships, a general layout should he need it in the future and an understanding of any unexpected security measures he could reference later.

He himself would explore and memorize the town and nearby surroundings.

By the end of the day, all Itachi had found out was that the Marines were looking for and investigating any pregnant women in the area. It made the town nervous and defensive, which meant it was the talk of town and easy to overhear. Nobody knew the reason why and 3 of those women had already vanished. Everyone knew who had taken them, even if they officially knew nothing.

The strained atmosphere had also made it harder for his persona to be accepted. People eyed him with distrust and sometimes even stopped their conversations when he passed by.

The Marines' mode of operation was truly foolish, from Itachi's point of view. Creating that kind of atmosphere would just lead to a defensive attitude. They'd find it harder to get the information they wanted and would antagonize the population in the process.

Then again, from what Mihawk knew they and their superior government never did care overly about the happiness of their subjects so this shouldn't have exasperated him as much as it had.

When night finally fell, the ninja created a clone whose task was to infiltrate the vessel. From the movements of the Marines during the day he had pinpointed that their leading officer was located in the furthest ship from the shore. Thus, that was the logical destination.

From what he knew, technology here was not as advanced as to include automated security systems except for traps. Thus the main things he had to watch for were those alongside patrols and, most worryingly were Den Den Mushis. Apparently, not only could they be used to transmit voice and sound, but Mihawk had also known about special ones that were used for surveillance and image transmission purposes. Itachi had no idea if Illusions worked properly on the animals.

There was no way for him to completely ensure none of the special little snails saw him, their sizes and possible locations too many to possibly evade.

Thus, he had decided to 'borrow' a spare uniform from an unfortunate Marine he had ambushed and conceal the clone's appearance behind the clothing as much as possible. That also meant upholding the Genjutsu over its features would be easier for the clone since it didn't need to conceal any clothing.

The most important part of impersonation was confidence. It had to move like it knew where it was going, what it was doing and most of all, being relaxed and showing with body language that it was sure it wasn't doing anything it shouldn't be.

At the same time, the Itachi clone minimized its presence and cast his fangirl deflection jutsu one more time. Yes, he had actually named it that.

All the clone really had to do to find the office of the commanding officer was inconspicuously follow another Marine on their way to report.

Purposefully not walking too fast along the jetty towards its target, it sighed loudly to catch the attention of the Marine walking in front of it before putting up a defeated, tired expression.

"Found another one?", it started hitting up a conversation as they walked.

"Yea, it's incredible just how many of them managed to get knocked up in that time period, aint it?"

"Indeed…"

The clone and its new companion walked out of earshot.

Honestly, Itachi would have preferred not to use a clone for the infiltration. Yet it minimized the risks involved since the clone didn't have to worry about getting out. It could simply dispel once it was done, maybe use going to the loo as an excuse to vanish.

Instead, Itachi hauled the unfortunate unconscious Marine up over his shoulder and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. The next morning the poor guy would wake up with the worst hangover of his life, naked in a ditch outside a local bar with no memories of most of the previous day to be sharply reprimanded by his superior.

His work done, Itachi switched back into the clothes worn by his alibi persona and went to seek out the 'public' clone to take its place.

It was walking around the local market currently, asking around for a job and getting some groceries with his meager pay from his days on the merchant ship.

Itachi promptly used another of the basic ninja techniques, the Body Replacement, to switch places with the clone and promptly dispelled it.

A familiar rush of memories assaulted his mind. He quickly sorted through the memories of his clone. It had managed to secure a cheap inn room for a few days and had paid upfront, where it had spent a few hours 'resting' before heading outside, where Itachi had encountered it.

During the few seconds it had taken to sort through the memories, Itachi had stared 'unsurely' at the owner of the next stall as if contemplating if he should speak to the man.

He shook his head, seemingly dismissing the idea before pausing and 'changing his mind'.

"Sir? Hello, nice to meet you."

"Hello, lad. What'll it be?"

"Oh, uhm, 500g of this meat here, please.", Itachi randomly pointed at the cheapest one.

"Sure thing. It's a bit tough so you'll need to keep that in mind when preparing it, yea?"

"Thank you", he shyly answered, before fidgeting in embarrassment. "Uhm, you see, sir, I was just kind of… fired, so uhm I was wondering… wouldyouhappentoknowanywhereIcouldfindsomeworkplease?"

Yea, this kind of persona wasn't the best idea he ever had… it fit though, and if he was 'shy' he could get away with not speaking much.

The stall owner blinked owlishly before breaking out in boisterous laughter.

"Aaaah, I heard there was a bit of a scene at the port earlier, so that was you, was it?"

Itachi blushed brightly and quickly hid his head in his hands, groaning loudly.

That just made the old man guffaw louder. Nice. His shoulders had relaxed, and he didn't seem to be wary of the stranger in front of him anymore. Success! Even if the act was embarrassing.

"Sorry, lad, I haven't had a good laugh like that in a while."

"Uh, no… it's alright", he assured the man, "… It was kind of funny, huh… in a pathetic way", Itachi muttered self-deprecatingly, barely loud enough for the old owner to hear.

The amusement that had been written all over his face now made way for a little pity, before changing to a thoughtful expression as he over Itachi critically.

"You know, as a reward for making this old man laugh, how about I make you a deal."

Itachi perked up visibly.

"You see, after my sister's death, my niece has been living all alone in that house of hers. I can hardly find the time to visit and she's starting to isolate herself there. I'm starting to worry. I've been meaning to go out looking for someone to help her out around the house and garden. It's not much and I can't pay well, but I can provide room and board, even if she doesn't. You can even work full-time someplace else, the work that needs doing won't take much out of your day."

Itachi was bewildered. This old man would trust a random stranger alone with his niece who had been isolating herself at home… He allowed the expression to show on his face.

The old man nodded as if to confirm his decision once more before throwing a sharp gaze Itachi's way.

"I can tell you're not a bad lad, your face is too honest. I trust my own judgment. Plus, don't think I won't check in on you!"

Itachi's kips twitched and he sheepishly scratched his cheek.

"I'm that obvious, huh", he said.

"Just a little. But that's why I even considered offering, lad. Plus, all the folks around these parts already have jobs and like I said, I can't offer much pay."

So, he was low-key being taken advantage of. Yet, with how upfront the man was being about it Itachi couldn't bring himself to mind.

"Then, I'll agree. This already helps me out a lot. Thank you!"

"Don't sweat it, lad. Now, how about you help me out at the stand for the next hour or so? It'll get dark soon, then I can close up and show you to her place, yea?"

"Of course, that sounds great. Uhm, what would you like me to do?"

"Let's see, how about changing the …"

Thus, for the next hour, Itachi was 'taught' about the different kinds of meats, customer service, and how to haggle. He pretended not to be very successful at the last two, also sprinkling in the odd stumble or clumsy moment. He couldn't bring himself to actually damage anything though.

He also learned a bit about the man himself. Apparently, he was a butcher, widowed 3 years ago, no children or grandchildren still around. He had opened a shop with his wife but couldn't maintain it by himself and was now supporting himself through the stall alone. He had a good reputation; his good word alone was enough to make the locals' wariness concerning Itachi disappear completely.

This man… had truly been a lucky find.

The old man stretched as they finished packing up for the day.

"Nice. Now, help me carry this home and we can be on our way.", he instructed.

Itachi nodded his agreement and easily lifted the boxes in question over his shoulders. Even during his short stint as a sailor, he'd had to carry a lot heavier items around the whole ship.

"Hoo? You're quite strong even if you don't look it, eh?"

"Eh? Well, I was a sailor, you know…", Itachi trailed off.

"Hahaha, well that's true. Despite the fact you're a bit clumsy, you work hard, lad. I don't think I'll regret asking you for help."

The man's house wasn't too far away from the market. They managed to reach it in 15 minutes.

"Just put it down in here, I'll put it away properly later."

Silently, Itachi did so.

"Oh, right, I completely forgot. My name's Ross, lad. What's yours?"

"Oh god, I'm so sorry. How impolite of me.", Itachi stammered, flustered. "I'm Coma"

"Well then, Coma, let's go meet my niece, eh?"

"Yes!", he said enthusiastically.

Maybe he would have to talk more than he'd wanted after all.

Ross led him out of the house and soon out of the town itself, chatting at him all the way. Apparently, his niece wasn't simply the in-her-house-and-not-leaving-much kind of isolated, but the really isolated kind of isolated. As in not even living inside or coming into town isolated. The 22-year-old was, according to the complaints of the old man, studying yet another branch of medicine and had cited those studies as her reason for wanting peace and quiet while she slaved over the material.

Huh. Definitely not a stupid woman then.

Itachi was getting kind of curious now.

They had long since left the town behind and had nearly reached a small forested area when the man took a left and led them down a small, inconspicuous path towards the ocean. And there it was, surrounded by palm trees and hugged between the sides of a cliff. The small 2-story house looked picturesque and peaceful. It was painted a light orange, bright and cheerful but not obnoxious in the same style of architecture as the other houses of the town, yet the atmosphere it gave off was very different. Homey and bright, despite the encroaching darkness.

Itachi stopped and widened his eyes in awe.

"It's beautiful", he whispered. Yea, this persona was getting old more and more quickly.

Ross just grinned and gestured him to continue. The two walked up to the front door and, without knocking, the old man went in. Itachi, unsure and uncomfortable, awkwardly waited by the door instead.

"Oy, Rouge? You there?", he heard Ross call on the inside, quickly followed by the opening of a door and a woman's reply.

"Uncle, is that you? Is something wrong?"

"Rouge! There you are! Does something have to be wrong for me to come see my favourite niece?"

A huffed laugh was the answer.

"Of course not, I just figured since you rarely disturb me when I study something was probably up."

The old man grumbled something unintelligible, apparently offended.

"Actually, I did come here for a reason today. You know how I said I'd look for someone to help you out around here if you needed it since I can't come over a lot…"

"Uncle, don't tell me… I thought I said that I was going to be alright?"

"Yes, well, I worry…"

He could hear her sigh at that.

"I know, uncle. Thank you., I appreciate the thought. I really will be fine on my own though."

"But Rouge, I already brought him here, can't you at least meet the guy? He is seriously shy, I'm sure he won't disturb your studying."

"You brought him here!?"

Yea, he'd be shocked at that as well. He hadn't known she didn't even want the help. A great start, that was.

He positioned himself in a way as if he was admiring the view, totally lost in thought.

Any second now…

Yup, there it was, the door opened and Ross stepped out, followed by a tall woman. Itachi acted like he didn't notice and chose to observe her out of the corner of his eyes instead. She was slightly taller than himself but not by much. Her long wavy hair gently hugged her slender figure. She was wearing a white summer dress and had a red exotic flower tucked behind her left ear.

Her bangs were parted in the middle and framed her kind but strong reddish-brown eyes that were surrounded by freckles. Her expression was complicated when she observed him.

"Oy, Coma"

Itachi pretended to jump in surprise and quickly turned towards the older man, right hand placed over his chest in a gesture as if to calm his racing heart.

"Easy there, lad.", Ross couldn't keep the amusement out of his voice.

"Coma, meet my niece, Rouge. Rouge, this is the lad I told you about, Coma."

"H-hello", Itachi greeted awkwardly, waving shyly.

"Good evening. I'm Portgas D Rouge, it's very nice to meet you, Coma."

Author's Note:

Here we go... Now you know just where in the timeline we are! So much potential~