AN: The song for this chapter is "Closer" by Joe Inoue, which is one of the Naruto openings. Probably the fourth one for Part II?

Later that night, after a shower on the Thousand Sunny, I ended up having to fall back on a tank top and shorts that I didn't remember acquiring, since everything else was either in need of a wash or a patch job given the events of the past week. Given that my hair was already a complete disaster on the best of days, I flattened my bangs back with a borrowed bandanna. I wasn't sure if I had completed my transformation into a beach-combing tourist, but it was too dark for sunglasses. Nonetheless, I headed up to the deck of the Sunny to see what was going on.

The only break in the sand wall on the island was from where the bulk of the Sea King—which was about as wide as Shukaku's tail—still dangled into the ocean. Its front end was busy being turned into barbecue.

I walked across the improvised cove's waters and made it to shore without losing a sandal. Go me.

"Come on, Cook-bro! How long is it gonna take for the next serving?" Franky called out.

At the same time, Sanji shouted something indecipherable and probably quite rude at the ranks of the prison escapees. But he wouldn't let anyone go hungry. Even if he had to work all damned night to make sure everyone got enough.

I snuck past the ranks of the various former Newkama residents, almost skating over the sand with the faintest application of my chakra. I didn't know them, but I took a certain level of comfort in the idea that they weren't my problem. Ivankov would take them with him when he took his battleship to their destination, and none of them aside from him were strong enough to present an obvious threat to the individuals I cared about.

Speaking of, many of them had gathered a fair distance from the scramble for the next big Sea King steak, likely because they'd gotten first dibs. I slunk over to them, curious.

"Luffy, get your own!" Naruto snapped, defending his plate by sticking his foot directly in the Straw Hats' captain's face. He didn't put that much into it, or else Luffy would have probably been stretching more to get past the impediment.

"Sanji's not done cooking the next one yet!" Luffy argued, not giving up.

"I don't care!" Naruto shouted back. "Gaara, here—"

And then Naruto threw himself at his pirate counterpart, deciding that the fight outweighed the food for the time being. While the two of them scrabbled around in the sand, with Luffy snaking around direct hits and tangling both of them in knots, Gaara looked down at the plate and idly deflected the sand sent flying by the fight.

"Get him, Captain!" Fū cheered, zooming above the fight on Chōmei's orange wings with a look of utter glee on her face. "Dinner's at stake!"

"Dinner—ow!—is a steak!" Naruto shouted, while Luffy gave his war cry of, "MEAT!"

Ace sat back and snickered, which was about all he could manage with his ribs bandaged the way they were. Both of his arms were curled around his middle, but he couldn't stop laughing.

Gaara took a bite of Naruto's dinner while he waited.

"Cheating a little, aren't you?" I asked Gaara, making him jump.

"Keisuke!"

"Kei!"

"Hei!"

"Kei-sensei!"

I raised a hand, smiling at their reactions and various nicknames. "Yo."

"It was just getting good!" Fū complained as she touched down again, since now Naruto and Luffy were just trapped in knot form.

"By all means, you can keep wrestling," I said sitting down to Ace's left, while Naruto and Luffy started complaining about that little problem. "Don't mind me."

Naruto, taking this as permission, chose that moment to bite Luffy's hand.

"OW!" And they were off again.

"I think he just wanted a fight," Gaara said, as the two of them kept roughhousing across the beach. He slowly tilted his head to one side, replaying what he'd just said, and added, "Both of them."

"I think so, too," Fū said with a grin, flaring her wings again and nearly knocking Ace's hat off. "I'll go be their referee!"

"Naruto didn't do all that much while we were in Impel Down," I recalled, then shrugged. "If Luffy can wear him out, good for him."

Fū took off, giggling, and Gaara slowly shifted the sand underneath him until he was careening off after the brawling pair without moving a muscle. Somehow, he picked out Usopp along the way, and they started the first round of bets among the various pirates.

Ace struggled to get his breathing back under control, alternately wincing or fighting down the urge to keep laughing as his brother's antics continued unabated. Or indeed, encouraged by Naruto's hyperactivity. Eventually he just gave up, wheezing, and let himself flop back onto the sand. "Dammit, that hurt, but seeing anyone trying to keep up with Luffy—" He snickered again, then winced. "Ow."

"Succeeding," I corrected, while the betting pool started to finally incorporate money. "Not trying. Succeeding."

"That may be an understatement," Jinbe said, as he walked up to us with his own plate of Sea King steak. Ace and I automatically scooted over to make room for him, though without displacing the kids' (and Luffy's) things.

It is. In the distance, Isobu's physical form rumbled, and most of Ivankov's group paused warily until he stopped. One particularly flinchy member got shouted at by Sanji, because he was holding up the line.

"Isobu agrees," I said, when Jinbe also shot my turtle friend a cautious look. "He's just not saying so out loud."

"Interesting," Jinbe said neutrally, and started to work on his fishman-sized portion. Which was still, of course, far smaller than a Luffy-sized portion.

"Hey, Kei, did you change your hair or something?" Ace leaned over about as far as he could and peered at me before I could answer by pointing at the bandanna. "Wait, since when have you had that huge tattoo?"

Changing my clothes comprised the main difference. Still, I lifted my left arm, drawing it in front of me and turning it over slowly. "This?" At his nod, I let my arm drop. "Since I was seventeen. You've just never seen the whole thing."

Ace blinked. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," I confirmed.

Ace made a noncommittal noise, then continued looking at the design. By weight, I probably had more ink in my skin than he did. "And you've got… Oh, I get it. That's Isobu." He twisted, and so did I, so he could see my left shoulder better. "And the bird?"

"Tsuruya," I replied, lifting my hand to cover her image. Aside from Naruto, I hadn't seen anyone truly from home in months, and while I liked being able to call on Isobu in his true form just fine, I missed the single steadiest person in my life more than a bit. "She's a friend."

"Is she really that big?" Ace asked, changing the topic just slightly as we went back to sitting like normal people.

Oh man. I found myself smiling even as I said, "Thankfully, no. Tsuruya is maybe about as tall as Ivankov. She can't fly with more than about three hundred pounds on her back, even with a flight saddle."

"That's it?" Ace jerked a thumb over his shoulder, indicating the massive Sea King skull that had already been stripped for soup stock. "Because some of the seagulls around here would've made mincemeat out of the big guy way before we got around to it."

Sanji was only moderately terrifying in combat—relatively speaking—but cooking was another matter, and he'd gotten just about anyone capable of holding the correct end of a knife to help. I got the strange impression that Ivankov was very impressed at having his authority usurped, even for a moment.

"Well, Tsuruya isn't a seagull," was all I could say to that. "Much less a Grand Line one. This place throws all the normal rules out the window."

Though to be perfectly honest, I didn't know if we were in the Grand Line. For all I knew, Isobu had carried the two ships on his artificial currents until we were in the South Blue or something, leaving direct Marine interference as far behind as we could.

"Perhaps from your perspective," Jinbe put in, reminding us that he was there. He'd neatly eaten the entire serving in the time we'd been talking, and set his plate aside.

"Weren't you born on Fishman Island, Jinbe?" Ace asked, while I snatched up the plate and piled it on top of the leaning tower Ace had made of his set.

Come to think of it, I didn't know much of anything about Jinbe. Just that he was a Warlord and a fishman, and I didn't have great records with either group on the lone encounters before him. If Ace hadn't asked me to free Jinbe specifically, I wouldn't have spared him a thought before leaving him to die in Level Six with the rest of the prisoners.

I wondered if it was even worth beating myself up over that when I still didn't care much about the people who had died in Impel Down.

Maybe I just needed to get over myself. No one else seemed to give a fuck.

"I was, though the exact way the Grand Line's usual hostility to life manifests is a little different there," Jinbe replied, while I stewed in pointless moral quandaries.

I sighed inwardly. Ah, well. Another topic…

I would like to know what we plan to do next. Preferably before Kokuō needs to find a way to reach us and lecture me on anonymity. I got the impression that it had happened more than once, just from Isobu's tone.

"Jinbe, you said earlier that the World Government was gonna end up in a war with Captain Whitebeard. Given that they had a set execution date and everything, they probably were going to set up a killing field on their turf, where it would be hardest for any pirate crew to stage a rescue." At Jinbe's slow, thoughtful nod, I went on, "But we just turned Impel Down into a crater, freed Ace, and escaped the admirals. That plan isn't going to work. What do you think will happen now?"

"For a start?" Jinbe's mouth naturally turned down at the corners, but I nonetheless got the impression he was frowning on purpose. "Without the threat of imprisonment in Impel Down, pirate raids on most of this half of the Grand Line will be more frequent. The New World should remain…somewhat stable. Inasmuch as it ever was. Between the Four Emperors, Marine influence was never so strong there."

And of course, the loss of face would make the remaining Marines more aggressive. I bit the inside of my lip, thinking. "How likely is the World Government to admit that anything happened at Impel Down? We have all the escapees with us, and we're still in hiding. They could easily claim that there was just a leak or something."

"They could," Ace said, resting his head on both hands. "But I bet they won't. The World Government always chooses the worst option for anyone who isn't them."

"Or the worst option for everyone," Jinbe put in. "Fighting Whitebeard will destroy more lives than the World Government or the Marines could ever save. The Marines are complicit enough in slavery that no one would trust them to take over protection of Fishman Island if Whitebeard fell." Jinbe shook his head slowly, then turned his head to meet my eyes. "It would be like going back to the days before he claimed the island, if not worse. So, thank you for preventing it."

I stared blankly back at him. "I…I wasn't really thinking that far ahead."

"Neither was Luffy," Ace said, and he had a point. Even if it was something of a low bar to clear. I also wasn't sure if I was supposed to be offended by that comparison or not. "Luffy never thinks ahead."

I grumbled wordlessly, then figured out which grievance I wanted to address. "I should know better. All I did as a precaution was tell the Whitebeards Impel Down was our target. Not to mention how I didn't check in with Kushina before we attacked…"

"You won't need to worry about that," Jinbe said, "because I'm fairly certain the woman you just mentioned is a part of the Red Hair Pirates, correct?"

Oh no. "What did she do?"

Jinbe and Ace looked at each other for a second, and I felt my hopes die a slow, miserable death.

"Shanks was drunk when Naruto called, but I'm still pretty sure they broke something important," was all Ace said on the topic.

My imagination would have to fill in the rest until either Shanks recovered from whatever bender he was on, or until I was willing to talk to the woman whose son I'd allowed to enter Impel Down. I was not looking forward to that. The fact that Naruto had called his mother and probably told her everything while I was unavailable to defend myself was also not a good thing.

Welp. "At least I have a couple of days until Kushina kills me."

"Over a snail call?" Ace asked, grinning.

I dropped my head into my hands, moaning, "No, in person, because Kushina is terrifying enough to hop the Red Line, and her son is currently busy fighting your brother." I paused, looking up. "Wait, did you already know that?"

"That Luffy is fighting Naruto? Hard to miss that," Ace teased. So, yes, he'd already gotten the message.

"Shut up." If he'd been wearing his hat and not nursing scalp injuries, I would have yanked it down over his eyes. As such, I just huffed at him irritably.

"Depending on how many Marines are coherent after the display at Impel Down," Jinbe said mildly in the face of our inability to stick to a topic, "there may also be a number of new wanted posters and bounties over the next few days." His gaze focused on Naruto and Luffy, who had stopped wrestling and were both tearing into a new steak Sanji had provided for them. One or both of them might've been kicked in the head first. "The World Government isn't shy about introducing bounties for anyone and anything associated with pirate crews. But I'm sure you already knew that."

"Gaara's got one, and he's twelve," I muttered unhappily. "Fū can't be older than fourteen. Naruto… If his outlaw debut is what happened at Impel Down, then yeah, I can see the World Government being assholes about it. Even if I was the one running that circus."

"It doesn't just apply to active criminals," Jinbe said. He folded his webbed hands into his long kimono sleeves, like a particularly patient teacher. "You might be too young to remember, but at the start of the Great Pirate Era we live in now, the World Government organized thousands of Marines across the world into a massive hunt for the Pirate King's child."

A chill crept up my spine. "Ah."

Beside me, Ace had gone very still. Worryingly so, and he didn't snap out of it until I leaned forward to try and see his expression. "Sorry, thought I was gonna fall asleep again," he said, with a smile so fake it belonged on a dead-eyed doll.

I didn't believe it for a second. Still, I let him make his excuses. "Okay." To Jinbe, I said, "I didn't hear about anything like that. What happened?"

"Disappearances, child killings… Even living on Fishman Island, we heard of it." Jinbe shook his head. "To the World Government, being blood kin to a notorious pirate is worse than being one. Even the Emperors did not see the same level of persecution after they were established. Then again, perhaps the World Government wanted to focus on an easier target than grown pirates."

"I…see." I could feel my chakra starting to pull on Isobu's again, and clamped down on the urge to find the nearest Marine base and start throwing buildings around. Drawing in a deep breath, I exhaled slowly to soothe my overworked temper. "Well, that's one more reason to gut an admiral and use him as Sea King bait. As if I needed more."

Ace chuckled weakly. "We don't exactly need more Sea King meat…"

He knew damn well that wasn't what I meant.

But I let him get away with it once again. He'd either tell me what was eating him eventually, or he wouldn't. I wasn't interested in pushing.

Getting to my feet and brushing sand from the seat of my pants, I said, "I'm gonna go talk to Utakata. Do you need me to get anything for either of you on the way back?"

I had a feeling Utakata's discussion with me would be…short.

"I'm fine," Ace said, a bit too quickly.

"Go on," Jinbe said with a wave of his hand.

I nodded and trotted off.

I found Utakata sitting at his own separate campfire, his back against Saiken's flank as the giant slug loomed like a protective parent. He prodded at the fire with a long, fire-blackened piece of driftwood, his head resting on his hand. At some point, he'd ended up in a borrowed set of clothes, which resembled the outfit we'd sort of found him in. Given the kimono he'd worn consistently, from one lifetime or another, there was probably a reason for it.

His orange eyes caught the light as I approached, but he didn't say anything hostile as I sat down next to him.

"Utakata?" I began, somewhat hesitant. "Is there something wrong?"

He shifted so, if I wanted to, I could reach out and touch him. But other than that, all he did was withdraw the stick he'd been using to prod the fire and put it to work as a giant pencil instead.

"If you want, I can just listen. Say whatever you want," I suggested, feeling more and more like an interloper the longer he went without responding.

Utakata glanced at me with his visible eye, then pushed his blindfold-like bangs away from the left side of his face. With both eyes visible, for once it didn't look like he was holding something back. If it wasn't a trick of the firelight, I could almost say he looked…wilted.

Utakata was a little older than Hayate, but I'd never given a second thought to his safety past the point where I'd repaired his seal. In all likelihood, Utakata outdid me in terms of sheer power. Out here, I had so many different people to worry about and so few allies to reliably call on—human ones, anyway—that I hadn't been looking out for him. I'd just assumed that he could handle himself, because I didn't have time to manage too many crises at once.

Before, Utakata had seemed bloodthirsty. He said he wanted to kill Akainu, and Saiken had made that wish quite clear on his end. But I remembered his comment about how a fight would be "therapeutic" in Impel Down, and the amount of time he had toyed with Magellan.

Utakata had never struck me as a sadist.

Something had hurt him deeper than any burn.

"Did someone make the clothes you were wearing before?" Utakata asked, rather than what I'd expected. "The ones Yugito has now."

"Yes," I said automatically, then wondered why that had been the first question out of his mouth. "Uh, Izo is his name. I, uh, I've been sorta maintaining the clothes we have here with us. Sort of."

I could stitch, at least. Kakashi would have done a better job, but I was the one among my semi-consistent traveling cohort who had any knack for a needle and thread (or most domestic chores) and thus it fell to me. Despite that skill, I hadn't been able to save Utakata's things.

Utakata nodded slowly, but his gaze had shifted off to some distant, unmoving point well past my head. Then he just sighed. "I was…" He frowned, seemingly at his own hesitation, then forced himself to continue. "Before you found me. Before Saiken pulled me out of that…place. I was in a bad way."

"You were." I didn't know Utakata, but there was no way I'd have let him die without giving my best shot to save him. Which, really, said quite a lot about the dissonance between how I viewed Utakata and how I viewed most other people here.

Being a better person was always a work in progress.

"Did you ever wonder why?" he asked, meeting my eyes for just a split second. His chakra had turned into a roiling cauldron, boiling unchecked just below a slowly trembling lid.

"I did, but—" How to phrase this? "A lot of people around here have secrets." Ace, me, Yugito, Naruto… Hell, I could throw a rock and probably hit a skeleton in someone's closet (that wasn't Brook). There were enough of them around. "I assumed if you didn't tell me, I didn't need to know."

"It's more that we didn't—" Saiken cut himself, shaking his huge head slowly. As I watched, he started to wring his hands together. "It's been hard. And I didn't want to say anything without Uta here and ready to talk, you know?"

I reached back and rested a hand against Saiken's side, though only long enough to realize he was still slimy no matter how nice he was being. I yanked my hand back, saying only, "You're a good friend, Saiken."

Saiken's eyestalks bobbed as he gave a pleased little hum, but only for a short time. Soon, they steadied and focused on Utakata again. While I leaned subtly away from them to avoid being slimed, Saiken lowered his head until his equivalent of a muzzle seemed to rest against the back of Utakata's head.

It looked absolutely ridiculous given the relative sizes of the people involved, but Utakata didn't seem to take much notice.

"Are you ready now, Uta? Kei is my little bro's partner. She'll be nice," Saiken whispered in the quietest voice I had ever heard from a Tailed Beast. I didn't imagine he could hear himself speak, but both of us could. And yet, as he did so, his eyes swiveled to figuratively pin me to the beachhead as a warning.

Utakata nodded miserably. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he eventually said, "I wasn't traveling alone."

Oh, I thought, as I replayed the last few days in my head.

Oh no.

Utakata's fist clenched over his heart. "Because of that bastard…" He took a deep breath, then flung the stick he'd been holding into the fire. In a tone that was held level by sheer force of will, he growled, "I don't know what those pirates did before they found me. But they didn't deserve that."

Utakata had been grieving.

And I'd been too busy to notice.

"They were the first people here who accepted Saiken and me together," Utakata said, staring into the fire. "Rosema even called him cute."

"I am cute," Saiken protested, bumping against Utakata's back. After a moment's thought, Saiken shifted his weight so he could rest his chin against the sand at Utakata's back. With his eyestalks still swiveling, he said, "But Rosie and her girls didn't even scream when they saw me for the first time. It's been a long time since we had to worry about that, since Mei already knows and loves us, but strangers… Rosie was special. The Crimson Carnations were all special."

"So I'd—if I could get…" Utakata growled in frustration at his own inability to verbalize his thoughts, his knuckles going white as he clenched his fists. "I need to fight Akainu. If we find him."

"Then why did you ask about my clothes earlier?" I asked him, as softly as I could manage while trying to make sure he didn't forget what had brought us to this point.

"I… I want him to know who's coming to kill him. To tell him that they weren't just targets he could destroy when he felt like it, just for being there," Utakata replied, meeting my eyes. His glowed with faint red light, entirely independent of the campfire. "So I wanted to know if you knew how to sew."

"I'll do my best," I promised immediately. My gaze was drawn once again to the sand doodle Utakata had made, and I wondered if it was his attempt to draw that unnamed pirate crew's flag. "It's the least I could do."

"Thank you," Utakata murmured. "I'll show you the design they had at some point."

I nodded, though he didn't seem to be in the mood to lift his head and look at me. Maybe… "Utakata, Saiken, could you tell me about them?" I got two sets of unreadable looks, and went on as gently as I could, "If they looked out for you, then they must have been good people. They deserve to be remembered."

"I… I think they'd like that," Utakata whispered. "Later."

We sat in comfortable silence until the party died down hours later. It was what Utakata needed.

Traveling in daylight hadn't been a problem since my initial attempts to traverse this wild and wacky sea, with just Isobu for company. Now that there were multiple ships and something like a hundred people to keep track of in some way, shape, or form, sailing in daylight set my teeth on edge. Even if most of the people running around with me now hadn't been pirates, hungover, or both on any given day, I wouldn't have been fully comfortable with the situation. We were exposed, my paranoia insisted, even if we sailed with multiple Tailed Beasts acting as massive, grumpy escorts just below the waves.

But at least I'd gotten all my clothes washed and didn't have to deal with booty shorts anymore. And after a few false starts, I wasn't worried about anyone getting into island-destroying fights.

Mostly.

"Have you finished the design yet?" Saiken asked, twisting one eyestalk to look at Utakata riding on his head, while the other one was pointed in my direction. He bobbed alongside the Thousand Sunny while Isobu swam on ahead, still creating his favorite artificial current to sweep us along in his wake.

At least we knew broadly where we were. Nami and the Newkama navigator—Inazuma, to my surprise—picked out our location as somewhere in the South Blue. Given that getting back onto the Grand Line was far easier than it would be in other circumstances, doing so appeared to be the plan. The Whitebeards were going to stay around Fishman Island for a while to meet up with whomever was heading that way, and Ivankov insisted that he could complete his various Revolutionary tasks on or off the world's wildest ocean. At the same time, no one quite knew what to do other than to batten down the figurative hatches and make a break for it. We knew there had to be pursuers, because Kuromushi had picked up Marine activity in many different spots, but it was honestly more to our advantage than theirs if we were confronted in the open ocean, no matter which sea.

But that entire issue was a task for people who understood how to navigate, with or without Isobu's ability to read currents like an animal. I didn't have either knack and just waited until the part where everyone agreed that they couldn't manage without the Tailed Beasts.

Then it became my problem.

In the meantime, I had more important things to do.

Since my talk with him, Utakata had managed to tell me a few more short stories about the former Crimson Carnation Pirates. They hadn't been a particularly powerful crew, but the captain had been both an artist and a former merchant with an eye for spotting opportunity. Scarletti Rosema had led them well until her crew smacked into the Long Knife Pirates, who were going for the same treasure and were not interested in sharing.

Utakata had gone to confront that crew with Saiken, effortlessly destroying them. But while they were occupied, the Marines had opened fire on the Crimson Carnations simply because they were closer.

He was still having trouble fully conveying everything that had happened, but I got the idea. I just kept encouraging him to focus on the good parts. And on recreating the Crimson Carnations' flag so I could help him stitch it onto his clothes.

"It's okay, Saiken! Just let him focus for a while!" I called down to the giant slug over the sound of wind, waves, and people lying around with splitting headaches.

Proportionately, most of that last sound came from the nameless battleship rather than the Thousand Sunny, because Zoro insisted that he didn't get hangovers. I still wasn't sure I believed him.

I leaned on the Sunny's railing and waited, because that couldn't be the end of the topic.

"Uta…" Saiken trailed off unhappily, with only the top of his head and his eyes sticking out of the water.

"Not now," Utakata said, loud enough for me to hear it despite the distance. "I'll have it eventually."

"Hey, can I try?" Naruto asked from my elbow.

I looked down, at this silly kid whose blue eyes were dark with something approaching understanding. I didn't know what he'd said or done alongside Utakata over the past week, but clearly he had more insight than my overtaxed brain could offer. Naruto's greatest superpower, much like Luffy's, was this bizarre and occasionally terrifying ability to make friends in the unlikeliest of places. I…didn't share it. I had too much history weighing on me.

I ruffled his hair gently, while he continued to make puppy-dog eyes. "I won't stop you. But be nice, Naruto."

He hugged me around my waist, then hopped up onto the railing and leapt easily to Saiken's head. With both of the giant slug's eyes reorienting to face the new interloper, Naruto trekked across the slimy expanse and sat down squarely to Utakata's right.

Utakata started speaking quietly with him, but likely only because Naruto insisted. The kid also had decent art skills, so he'd be able to help with the design if Utakata wanted him to. If not, he made a decent hot water bottle. I could see Naruto making emphatic hand gestures to Utakata, apparently referring to a bubble wand if the motions were consistent.

It was nice to see people getting along. There wasn't enough of that back home.

Just this morning, I'd seen Ace and Franky conspiring to design a new version of Striker, for all that Ace wasn't a shipwright and Franky had never seen the little watercraft before. I didn't think either shortcoming would be a problem in producing whatever new hilariously over-engineered monster the two were coming up with. Whatever happened, though, I didn't need to worry about breaking up a massive multi-national brawl.

"Man overb—well, bird overboard!" shouted someone, breaking me out of my musings.

Luffy stretched an arm out into the waves alongside the Sunny from the lion figurehead. A very loud squawking noise punctuated the appearance of a hat-wearing seagull, which Luffy dropped onto the lawn in the middle of the deck.

"It's been a while since the last News Coo," Nami commented, immediately heading over to it. "Hey there. Has it been a rough trip?"

The News Coo squawked at her, looking at the crew and the Sunny, and then snapped to attention despite saltwater dripping down its wings. "Caw!"

"It's a hundred beri per paper," Nami reminded the creature, frowning like she expected it to argue with her. "And not one beri more."

The bird appeared to consider the argument, then looked at the company we kept. Revolutionaries, Tailed Beasts, Straw Hats… It slumped a bit. "Caw…"

"Oh, oh, are there any wanted posters?" Luffy asked, hopping down from the figurehead. "Are there?"

The seagull produced the relevant paper for Nami's perusal, and everyone froze for a very awkward second.

I read the front page of the bundle from the back, when Nami tore the delivery open to read the details, with the usual mess of wanted posters falling out unheeded and settling on the deck. Most of the newspapers did, too, as she realized that there was a bit of a backlog.

BURNOUT: FIRE FIST ACE ARRESTED.

That one was only a few days old, but it still didn't speak well of the poor News Coo's health.

"Have you had to carry a week's worth of this stuff?" I asked the bird.

"Caw…" And without pay. I vaguely remembered someone saying that News Coos didn't have infinite range, but I didn't remember where the service area stopped. Poor birds.

I sat down next to it, folding the next discarded paper (DUEL ON BANARO ISLAND; 100s DEAD) so it could be stored for use as kindling. I was half-afraid of what the World Government had written about the Banaro incident, though I knew I'd done my best to keep people safe. "That's rough. I'll make sure you get a tip."

"Caw!"

There was a small stack of bounty posters lying in a heap on the deck. One of them depicted a rather bizarre facial composite sketch that looked almost like Sanji's old one, if his hair was longer and black. However, the orange iris in the visible eye? That was all Utakata. He didn't have a bounty as such; instead, the poster said "reward for information" and not much else. The World Government probably didn't want to admit that out of the entire group to attack Impel Down, they'd only got a clear look at one of our human members. And even that was pushing it.

I set the poster gently aside so he could look at it and the utter lack of a numerical bounty later. Ultimately, I was more interested in some of the other papers that dealt with more recent events. The editors of public newspapers could choose their font sizes and pictures, of course, but I had never seen someone decide to use font so large that the title alone dominated the front page.

WORLD-SHAKER: TSUNAMI DEVASTATES PARADISE.

My blood ran cold. Isobu?

Water must go somewhere when violently displaced. Isobu tilted his head to one side, or at least gave me the impression of doing so as he thought. That said, I have personal experience with waves as well as underwater earthquakes. While a Tailed Beast Bomb is devastating, the effect of launching one underwater is far less pronounced than full tectonic shifts, and we attacked primarily from the surface. Only the closest islands would be truly harmed.

…Why is that?

You may have noticed that Impel Down was vaporized. How much water is displaced when a massive quantity of the affected volume is converted to steam by heat and force?

Isobu, I'm not a physicist. I just make explosives as stand-ins for demolition charges and hand grenades. What happened?

Tectonic activity displaces water without converting it to another form of matter. The Tailed Beast Bomb expends energy differently. One of Isobu's tails curled into a shape not unlike a question mark. The nearest islands may have experienced some unpleasantness, but I could expect to see no more than two- to five-meter-high waves for anything past Marineford. Sabaody experienced two, per Shukaku's testimony.

With that worry…somewhat quelled, I went back to checking over the newspaper headlines. Because what else could I do?

Something more important came up.

"A…war?" Nami read aloud.

So much for Jinbe's hopes. I sighed aloud, then held out my hand. "Nami, can I see that?"

Nami practically hurled the paper at me, and I opened it on the lawn, scanning the details that the World Government deemed appropriate to release for public consumption.

The newspaper was one of the single greatest pieces of fiction I'd seen since arriving in One Piece. Aside from the World Government playing the victim angle to the hilt when it came to declaring the Impel Down raid an "unprovoked" attack, there was no mention of the fact that our attack had been a success. The World Government was pretending not to know why anyone would be anywhere near the damned place, phrases like "sources say" and "persons unknown" made repeat appearances, and of course the prison was still there. Just, uh, no one should go and look. There were a few mentions of empty casket funerals and notorious prisoners being justly disposed of, but the real headline was reserved for the declaration of war that Nami had mentioned.

OPEN WAR: WHITEBEARDS ATTACK G-5 MARINE BASE.

Well, since Whitebeard had clearly been spotted in the New World, there was no way the Impel Down mini-tsunami could be blamed on him. Cold comfort, though.

The article went on to discuss the damage done by the old man earthquaking the hell out of the island the base had been on, though I knew he was precise enough to only flatten the base itself. There was something about Marco the Phoenix doing some damage or other, but none of that seemed to compare to the panic over Whitebeard himself acting on offense. Something, something, "campaign of terror" and other fun buzzwords.

Lies and slander, per usual.

Shaking my head slightly, I made a mental note to ask what about G-5 made it a good target for getting turned into a pancake. Aside from being a Marine base in the New World (which was in the freaking article), I didn't know anything about it. Then I went back to the Impel Down article and checked for names.

Oh. "Hey, Ace? This says you're dead," I said aloud, sort of confused. Sure, the editor of the newspaper had chosen a much more bombastic way to say it, but there it was.

Yes, Ace had been reported captured, but using unilateral statements like that without the body in hand or a head on a pike almost invited the universe to prove otherwise. That was why those kinds of morbid public displays had been invented. Still didn't see much point in the theater of it all, but working off shinobi logic clearly didn't help me predict the World Government's actions.

But for the most part, I was just relieved we'd called the Whitebeards within a few hours of escaping Impel Down. Letting them think that the mission to rescue Ace had failed that badly would have been unspeakably cruel.

"And I'm sure you can tell the rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated," was Ace's completely blithe response. "I should send them a postcard from San Faldo."

Because of course it was. It wasn't like he'd almost been disappeared and then gotten his head cut off in Marineford or something. The World Government hadn't given us nearly its best shot because they figured that Impel Down and its expanded garrison would have been enough.

Now that they knew the prison had proved inadequate, what would happen?

Likely more and more pathetic attempts to counter us. They lash out blindly in the dark, Isobu scoffed regardless of my thoughts on the matter, and I felt his chakra surge on ahead of our little mini-fleet as he decided to take out his annoyance on the local wildlife. We have both been cheated of a decent fight by their ignorance.

I suppose that's what happens when we don't play by their rules. They're too busy scrambling to react effectively. I turned a page idly, frowning. But they at least seem to know what happens when people target Whitebeards.

And to think, they have no evidence that we are, in fact, working together, Isobu remarked, as though he hadn't been a major part of why the Marines were clueless. A coincidence?

They're hoping it's not, because it reduces the number of enemies. Probably. I bit my lip for a second. "We still have things to do in Paradise before we meet up with Captain Whitebeard. I can see a few problems coming up soon."

"We already have a rendezvous point, so the rest is simple. Not easy, maybe, but simple," Ace piped up, looking over my shoulder and reading the headlines. He shrugged and said, "The Marines' staging area has to be Marineford, so we're gonna avoid it." As I folded the paper, he added, "Some of our subordinate crews are on this side of the Red Line, so we can use them to monitor Marine activity if we have to. And we are basically outgunning everyone within a thousand miles to start with."

"That's something," was my flat response. I still didn't like the situation, but at this point there was nothing I could do about what actions the Whitebeards would take. Ah, well. I held out the stack of bounty posters, for the Straw Hats alone, and Luffy snatched them up immediately. "Have fun with those."

Luffy grinned so widely that he almost managed to pull off a capital D shape. I still wasn't sure if that was down to his rubber abilities or what. "I'm gonna hang these in our room!" And then he was gone.

"Luffy, I want to see mine first!" Sanji shouted, taking off after him.

Ace sat down next to me as the Straw Hats fussed, probably not cautious enough about their new, inflated bounties. "Did you get one?"

I handed the last poster to him. "Nope. Utakata did."

Ace, to his credit, held in his laughter for about four seconds after seeing it.

"It's less ugly than Sanji's," I said mildly, while Ace cackled. Good thing his ribs had mostly knit back together. "And the World Government probably doesn't want to admit that a bunch of total nobodies turned Impel Down upside-down. Monster accompaniment or not."

"Ahaha… Nah, they wouldn't," Ace gasped, wiping away a tear. "Honestly, I'm half-amazed they even admitted Impel Down was attacked. Usually they just ignore things that could make 'em look bad."

"If we hadn't deliberately left hundreds of witnesses, they might have." Which brought up another concern. "Speaking of witnesses, actually, what's going to happen to Luffy's crew now that he's punched out a Celestial Dragon in public and escaped retribution? The World Government might not have the troops to respond now, but they will eventually. And those fights aren't ones the Straw Hats are ready for."

Ace gave a thoughtful little hum, leaning back on the lawn. "They have potential."

"They still haven't reached it yet," I reminded him, frowning. "Especially not Gaara and Fū. They're not even done growing."

The Straw Hats needed a safe space to train. While I probably could have made mincemeat of Impel Down on my own, the kids weren't there yet. Even if I wasn't the strongest of the jinchūriki, Isobu and I coordinated better than any other pair. Having Isobu rip an access hole in the walls wasn't beyond me, nor was simply tearing through the inmates and guards. I would just have lived with killing that many people, because being on my own didn't make a mission impossible. Just messy.

They weren't on that level at all.

"Pops would know a place," Ace said, because my doubts probably showed on my face. "The Grand Line is pretty rough, but there's always a place to hide and work on things like that, if you know where to look."

"Do you think Luffy would accept that kind of offer from the guy you wanna make the Pirate King?" I asked.

"Maybe, maybe not." Ace picked at his bandages, frowning. "And hell, I need to train. Freaky Devil Fruit or no, I still should've been able to knock Teach's head in. Or dodge all his stupid attacks." Ace rolled his eyes skyward. "Guess that's what I get for not working on haki."

"I still barely know what haki even is," I admitted. But I could probably teach basic taijutsu skills. Gai had given me that much, and my life had refined it. Still, could these people even use it? "And I'm not sure the Straw Hats know either. That should be where we start."

"'We?'" Ace repeated, his eyes widening.

"At this point, there's not much point denying it, is there?" I asked, then shook my head in something akin to exasperation. "When the war comes, I'm going to stand with the Whitebeard Pirates. I—"

Ace cut me off. I was used to that, but not to the particular way he decided to express his feelings. Much like Naruto, Obito, and Kushina before him, Ace snatched me up in a bear hug. The main difference was that Ace was disproportionately strong for his size and could use it. He proceeded to lift me into the air and spin me around. I knew better than to fight it—having learned that lesson as a child when dealing with Kushina—and let myself go limp.

"Hah!" Ace crowed victoriously, "Welcome to the crew, sister!"

That word made my insides clench unpleasantly as Hayate's face flashed across my mind's eye. I still—I still had people back home waiting for me. People whose futures I hadn't secured to the best of my abilities. People who I cared about as much as they did about me.

And I'd caved.

Dammit.

"Ace—"

Ace set me down, still grinning almost exactly like his brother would. I had to hold out my arms to keep my balance, and then he caught my shoulder and saved me the trouble. "Thatch is going to explode. And Izo—oh man—"

"I haven't joined yet, Ace," I tried to say, but it didn't appear to matter.

"You said 'yet,'" Ace pointed out, unperturbed.

So I had. Still… "I'm not joining a division. No way in hell."

"I can't really see you as a part of one. Isobu either," Ace admitted, after a brief pause. "Subordinate captain?"

Maybe. We'd still have to see what would happen in the coming war. If there was enough pushing against me joining the Whitebeards, I would do what I had to. I wasn't looking forward to fighting in two wars in one lifetime, but I was a soldier. It was what I'd trained for.

"That might work," I said at last, meeting Ace's grin with a weak smile of my own. "Or at least we'll make the alliance formal."

Ace rocketed off, probably going to spread the news, and I retreated to the railing once again. I needed someone to talk to who wouldn't be quite so pro-pirate, and there were few options here. When I passed a thousand-beri bill to the News Coo, I had a few seconds to myself to contemplate my choices as it flew off.

I threw myself over the railing and ran across the waves to Isobu's back.

Your mind is in turmoil, Isobu said as I darted up and across his shell, toward his head.

He could call it that. My hands didn't shake as I climbed down onto Isobu's crown of spikes, but it was a near thing. With the sea spray whipping across us both, I lowered myself onto my stomach and wrapped one arm around one of his spikes. I'm…I'm not sure what I'm doing. Not anymore.

Isobu made a reassuring noise, which sent a dozen waves through the water around us in defiance of the current. Tell me a little of what you are thinking. We will work through it.

And I did.

"—so be good for Kei and the Whitebeard Pirates, Naruto! We'll see you soon, okay?" Kushina's voice concluded, while Komushi grinned.

"Okay, Mom!" Naruto said. "And thanks for not killing Kei-sensei for the whole Impel Down thing."

"She wouldn't let anything happen to you. And I'm sure you wouldn't let something so interesting happen without you, either," Kushina's voice grumbled good-naturedly. More sincerely, she said, "Take care of each other."

"Look alive, little guy, for when Uncle B stops by!"

"Sure thing, Octopops!" Naruto replied, beaming. "Bye, Mom!"

Naruto and I said our goodbyes, and then we hung up the receiver.

"I'm gonna go see if Usopp needs any help with the exploding ammo, if he's awake," Naruto said, hopping off the chair. "We're still training later, right?"

"Right," I said, and Naruto bolted. Once he was gone, I tapped my finger gently against Komushi's dial, trying to decide if I wanted to call the Whitebeards or not. While Ace had of course broken the news to his crewmates the other day, I hadn't spoken to them directly. Maybe I ought to, if I was planning on fully committing myself to their side of the war.

But they already knew I would.

I patted Komushi on the head and walked away.

The Straw Hats' library wasn't the biggest ship-board one I'd seen, but only because the Moby Dick was so much larger than the Thousand Sunny. Either way, it was a convenient spot to keep all the transponder snails we'd picked up. Without Kuromushi's unfriendly mug chasing the larger snails around, we could even keep them in one area without worrying that they'd kill each other. I'd also finally gotten the Straw Hats' snail numbers from Franky, so we could call them even from another sea when we finally went our separate ways.

I had to imagine that Ace appreciated that bonus nearly as much as I did. We both had people to keep track of on this proud little ship.

Over the past two days, everyone had decided who was splitting up and going where. The Revolutionaries planned to head to Momoiro, wherever that was, to reestablish the kingdom that Ivankov had been forced to abandon upon being sent to Impel Down. Once they had that sorted out, they'd likely reestablish their ties to Dragon's main group and figure out where he wanted them. If there was anything to be said for the man's mysterious operating procedure, it was that it kept his faction well out of the spotlight. Mr. 3 and Bon-Bon were going with them, though Luffy had looked like his pet turtle had died at the latter's announcement (despite the little detail that our groups weren't going to diverge for a few days yet).

Hmph.

Only a turn of phrase, Isobu.

Buggy the Clown, despite his fifteen million beri bounty and lack of an established power base, had lucked into yet another ridiculous coincidence. His crew had apparently been searching for him and had been in the process of debating whether to chase him into Impel Down when the news of the attack hit. His circus-themed menagerie had been overjoyed to have their captain back and, though he still obviously disliked Luffy and everyone remotely associated with him, we parted company on almost amiable terms. I still didn't like him, but wished him well solely because it was the done thing.

The cultists—groupies—were going to be sticking with us in spite of entreaties from the Buggy Pirates. Yugito didn't want them sticking around because their pirate-y instincts kicked in harder the more time they spent at sea, but wasn't making any headway with persuasion. While we had the undying loyalty of the newly-dubbed Cobalt Lioness Pirates, most of them were basically glorified cannon fodder. If they were going to form the basis of a fleet, their best bet was to look to the Straw Hats or the Whitebeards, because we had no use for them. A pity, then, that thus far they wouldn't leave.

That was Yugito's problem now.

I climbed down from the library and headed back to the deck, while Utakata looked out to sea with a spyglass against his right eye.

I had a design for him, at least. It was just a work in progress with a lot of hitches (and stitches), because Utakata was kind of a control freak. Not that I blamed him for it.

Still, now that Utakata had admitted what his problem was, he was less standoffish with the Straw Hats. While he wasn't going to be a willing participant in group hugs with Luffy or anything, he had been roped into a few of their silly arguments and even felt up to creating a bubble light show for them. With Yugito and Ace's affinity for all things that burned, the results were fascinating even in daylight.

But Akainu's continued existence still preyed on his mind.

Saiken was working on him. Sort of.

"This plan's awful, lonely, and has too much lava in it," Saiken had complained, about one harebrained scheme or another.

"I'm not arguing with you about this," was Utakata's snappish response at the time.

I did say "sort of."

Yugito had required no persuasion, from Matatabi or anyone else. She was going to meet up with Killer B one way or another, she said. Since Naruto was going to see his mother again whether I had to punch a mountain in half to get there or not, we were her best bet and actually wanted her to come along just as much as she wanted to make the trip. To that end, she was snoozing on the top spar of the Sunny's main mast like a leopard in the Serengeti and not worrying about the rest of what bothered us.

If we make it out of this sea without running into at least one of the admirals, I will be surprised, Isobu put in. And disappointed.

Same here, minus the disappointment part. But I'm sure Utakata and Saiken would agree with you. I crossed the deck without interacting with Utakata. He needed a bit of space.

Instead of bothering Utakata, I headed to the other side of the deck and sat on the railing, next to where Jinbe appeared to be meditating in the early morning light.

I honestly wished I could relax that much, even at whatever-in-the-morning, but I'd been up and about in order to call the Red Force when I was nearly certain the crew would be sober. I'd…underestimated them, somewhat. Shanks hadn't been sober a single time I'd spoken to him prior to that point, so why start? If he'd been going dry while visiting the Whitebeards, I'd missed it.

But that dreaded snail call was over, so I could try and enjoy the morning I was going to have to face anyway. Hopefully, Sanji had a pot of coffee going. Maybe I'd be able to offer Jinbe some, too.

Jinbe, who'd told me the other day that his position as a Warlord was a thing of the past thanks to the Impel Down jailbreak, was accompanying us to the Moby Dick. I wasn't sure how the World Government would even know he'd followed us out, what with Impel Down resembling a sinkhole more than anything now, but he was thinking ahead for the sake of his crew. I hadn't even known that Jinbe's tattoo was a symbol of that crew until he told me—and about Fisher Tiger's legacy.

Personally, given what happened, I was still amazed that Jinbe could look at humans without any sign of hesitation or disgust. And I was human.

I wonder if we will be required to get those mustache tattoos if we are considered members of the Whitebeard Pirates now, Isobu remarked, while I was brooding. My shell would blunt every device they could hope to use.

I shrugged, though Isobu couldn't see the gesture. I crossed my legs on top of the strange cannonball-repelling wood that made up the railing, bracing my elbows against my knees and looking out to sea. I think I have enough ink on me for one lifetime. Everything else is functional.

I would argue that, in fact, the image depicting Tsuruya and me is not functional. The seals underneath it are, however.

Oh, hush, I grumbled despite the heat rising to my ears. I'm still not getting close to another set of needles until I have to. Wearing the oversized Whitebeard-symbol-bearing coat would have to do for now.

There would always be a part of me that held back from more permanent measures, with or without my dislike of needles.

Fū chose to make her debut then, flouncing out of the door that mostly led to the kitchen. In the boys' section, I could feel Gaara moving around, likely rousing his crewmates. Given the thin line of smoke emerging from the little chimney, breakfast was imminent, and thus Sanji probably wasn't among the night owls Gaara pestered.

"Ah, what a nice day!" Fū sighed in contentment. As she started doing morning stretches, she said cheerfully, "I wonder what adventure we'll have today?"

"One would hope for a single quiet day," Jinbe murmured without opening his eyes.

"Quiet is boring!" Luffy's voice rang out, from one of the windows leading to the cabin proper.

Nothing is quiet with these humans around.

High overhead, I was almost sure I heard Chōmei's huge wings buzz at a higher pitch. They sounded like a distant airplane.

Isobu muffled a noise that might've been laughter if he was on the surface, but all I heard was the sound of water lashing harmlessly at our ships. Still, his amusement trickled through our link.

What did he say?

Ah, nothing important.

Uh-huh. Still, it was too early to argue like Saiken and Utakata did. That was probably why Saiken was traveling solely underwater now, towing Matatabi and Yang Kurama along in giant bubbles. The other two were probably offering him terrible advice, too.

But I didn't have much more time to worry about that.

"Ship sighted on our starboard side," Utakata called, snapping the spyglass down to portable size again.

Yugito snapped awake, dropping from the rigging to the deck without a whisper of sound. "Marines?"

"No." Utakata tossed his head, ruffling his long bangs. He said, "Pirates, of course. They should be within shouting distance in a few hours, if the wind holds."

"Oh, oh, I'll go check and see if it's someone friendly!" Fū suggested, shifting her weight from foot to foot eagerly. Sooner or later, she'd break out her wings and it'd be too late to stop her. "It'll be a snap!"

"The captain should be able to decide that," said Gaara, appearing from behind Fū like an extra shadow.

"You're no fun."

"You're too careless."

Well, wasn't this just precious? It was like having a little Yugito and Ace arguing in front of us without the originals needing to raise their voices.

"We should wait until after breakfast," Jinbe suggested, having gotten to his feet and joined the rest of us at the railing. He looked down at all of us, then said, "I can keep watch."

"We'll bring you breakfast," Fū volunteered, then quickly disappeared into the ship.

I leaned on the railing, weight mainly on my elbows. I hated waiting games.

After breakfast, there was still time to burn. Thus, while waiting for the pirates to show up, I visited the Revolutionaries on their ship. Naruto came along, of course, because they were his friends and to check on Kuromushi. Luffy bounced over to Iva's ship to play with Bon-Bon, and Fū and Gaara followed to keep everyone out of trouble. Ace also accompanied us because, as he was nominally a guest of the Straw Hat Pirates, he had nothing better to do other than observe their general operating procedure. Sanji wouldn't even let him wash dishes, and Chopper enforced the ban on unnecessary roughness with sedative-filled syringes.

"Iva," Naruto said, while Kuromushi dug its little teeth into his sleeve, "can you get into contact with any of the other Revolutionaries from here?"

"With the snails we liberated from the Impel Down garrison, anything is possible!" Ivankov declared, as dramatic as ever. While I didn't know what he'd been like before his stint in prison, I got the impression that Impel Down had failed to dampen Ivankov's spirits one bit. He'd practically started a second revolution inside of a supermax, for fuck's sake.

"Okay," Naruto said as he crossed his arms. "But I need to check in because I'm a week late on the mission they gave me. And I don't know for sure, but I'm probably not gonna be able to do any more." On this last point, Naruto looked back at me with his puppy-dog expression going full force.

"Do you want your mother to kill me?" I asked, incredulous. "She let me get away with letting you into Impel Down, but I don't think she'll be that forgiving next time."

"I handled that mission just fine! I just beat up a bunch of jerks with my Shadow Clones," Naruto protested. "I wasn't even that hard."

"And?" I pressed, while Fū gave Naruto a congratulatory slap on the back.

"And—get off!—and I might've had to, uh, follow them for like two days," Naruto said, a bit sheepishly, though he elbowed Fū away. "And memorize their patrol patterns and their faces. And steal ink for the explosives I had to make to distract them?"

Well, at least someone had been having an easier time making bombs than I'd had with seals in general.

"I thought you said it was easy?" Fū complained. "I take back the congratulations."

"It wasn't like I don't know how to do that stuff," Naruto pointed out defensively. "It just took a while and I had to plan, like everyone keeps telling me. But I handled them just fine."

"I think the way you actually approached the problem was a good one," Gaara put in. When the other two young jinchūriki looked at him, away from their impending argument, he just said, "He was thinking like a shinobi. It worked."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "That it did." Suppressing the urge to swear in front of impressionable ears and minds, I just muttered, "Make your call, Naruto. I wanna hear what this 'Uncle Sabo' of yours has to say."

Then I'd figure out if I needed to break his legs. And his boss's legs.

Ivankov may have snickered, but when I looked at him to confirm my suspicions, he was all business.

...Okay, so maybe I wouldn't break anyone's legs. Ivankov had been helpful in what capacity he could offer us, and Naruto had done well enough as a Revolutionary despite the lack of guaranteed support from anyone but Yang Kurama. Maybe Kushina wouldn't freak out when she found out just how much trouble we kept getting into, because I kept doing all the fussing for her.

While we waited for one of the stolen snails to connect to wherever the hell the Revolutionaries had set up shop, I happened to look away from the impending conference call and take stock of everyone else. Gaara and Fū were still both arguing in hushed tones, though she put more effort into it, while Inazuma was as stoic as a statue. I wasn't quite sure when he'd gotten here, but he was so omnipresent that maybe it would have been better to ask when he wasn't by Ivankov's side. The other Revolutionaries might or might not have joined up with Ivankov while they lived in Newkama Land, but they seemed interested in learning more about their new (old?) boss.

Ace and Luffy, however, looked like the wind had gone out of their sails. I remembered seeing the sudden shuttering of Ace's emotions whenever I brought up something that dug into old wounds I hadn't known about, but it was the first time anything had brought Luffy's spirits low. I had never been one to press people for details if it didn't seem like they wanted to talk, but any memory capable of affecting them both so deeply had to be an old, shared pain.

"…Luffy?" Gaara asked, in a voice so quiet that I wasn't sure the others could hear it.

Luffy, of course, snapped back to normal with only that much prompting. "It's all right, Gaara. I was just remembering Sabo. This Rebellion guy just has the same name."

Gaara nodded slowly. "I understand. I'll tell Sanji to keep the sake safe."

I met Ace's eyes over Luffy's shoulder, and he shook his head just slightly with his jaw clenched. I wouldn't ask, then.

"Identification, please," said a young woman's voice.

Ivankov and Naruto both rattled off a string of numbers each, and then Ivankov added, "If you don't have a white transponder snail connected…"

"We do, Emporio Ivankov." There was a pause. Then, "EMPORIO IVANKOV?!"

"Hey, I'm here too!" Naruto interrupted, shoving his way closer to the snail.

"And this number—Namikaze Naruto?! Hang on a moment, ple—HEY!"

The transponder snail's expression shifted from that of a shocked secretary—or so I assumed—to copying someone else entirely. A smudge of sorts appeared over the snail's left eyestalk, darkening it, and its eyes widened. "Naruto, you finally checked in! Where the hell were you?!"

"Hi, Uncle Sabo!" Naruto said, grinning like a particularly clever prank had gone off without a hitch.

"I'm not that old!" the Revolutionary on the other end snapped, before catching himself. "Wait, no—Naruto, what happened on that last mission? You were supposed to come back almost a week and a half ago."

"I didn't get to tell you this, but I found some of my family," Naruto replied, bouncing in place. "Kei-sensei was already gonna go bust a guy out of Impel Down, so I remembered what I heard about the Revolutionaries stuck down there and decided to try contacting them since I didn't have your number."

"I… That is nowhere near what we asked, Naruto," Sabo said, as a thud resounded from the other end of the call. Sounded like we weren't just capable of aggravating Whitebeard Pirates. Our ability to drive other people past the point of frustration was universal! "Are you safe right—wait, what am I saying? Ivankov, what happened down there?"

"Mmmfufufu, your smallest agent did his work well," Ivankov replied, while Naruto preened and I debated testing his taijutsu skills later. "After participating in the Impel Down break-in, Naruto-boy delivered the black transponder snail to me. I'll be returning with it shortly."

"...I have so many questions." Sabo heaved a put-upon sigh, then said, "Ivankov, I'll call back in five minutes and give you a set of coordinates. Meet us there."

"Of course, Sabo-boy," Ivankov responded.

"I outgrew that nickname when I was seventeen," the supposedly mature adult griped, and then hung up with a click.

"Rude," Ivankov commented, shaking his head.

"How long were you in prison?" Fū asked, breaking the spell over us all that had lingered after the call ended.

"Oh, five years or so. Nothing so terrible," Ivankov said, shrugging.

"Did you shank someone?" Fū clapped her hands together, grinning. "Tell me!"

That seemed to be the cue for the rest of us to leave. Gaara created a sand slide back over to the Sunny, though only Naruto and Luffy rode it. Ace and I just hopped back over to the other ship, like nautical parkour was a thing we did every day.

Probably counted as an everyday occurrence by now.

Nonetheless, the memory of Sabo—Ace and Luffy's Sabo—hung over the group like a shroud. Neither Gaara and I had known him, but the brothers needed a bit of time to recover. I didn't know if Ace and Luffy had had a falling out with him, or if he'd been forced to move away, or died, but it didn't appear that they thought the Revolutionary was the same person.

But I wasn't sure. One Piece was an idealistic series, or at least that was my best guess from what scraps I could remember. It was in the shōnen genre, like the series named after Naruto. How likely was it that two characters—people—could share a name when the owner was important to Luffy's life?

Still, while Ace and Luffy disappeared into the Sunny with Gaara, I kept my thoughts to myself.

"Naruto?" I asked quietly, as the pirate ship in the distance continued its slow approach. "Could you please show me what Sabo looks like?"

"Eh? Sure, Kei-sensei," Naruto said, and poofed into a different shape entirely.

I scrutinized the appearance of the man I assumed had been the one we'd just been talking to. Or rather, the person Naruto had been talking to. I hadn't felt it necessary to level threats, and Luffy and Ace had both been abnormally quiet.

Sabo, per Naruto's transformation, was a blond young man with a burn scar over his left eye that ran backward toward his ear. He had a black top hat with goggles strapped over it, in a style matching the pair on Naruto's head apart from the blue lenses. Black overcoat, leather gloves, knee-high boots… The main thing that caught my attention was his cravat. While the one Naruto wore occasionally was just glaringly out of place, it seemed to suit Sabo. Maybe it was just the style wherever he'd come from.

Then Utakata's voice asked, "Who the hell is that supposed to be?"

"A guy we just talked to on the snail," Naruto replied, shrugging as he poofed back to normal in a cloud of smoke. "We're probably gonna meet him in a bit if we stay with Iva and the others."

But, as though to prove Utakata wrong, Ivankov reported a few minutes later that they were sticking with him. Utakata might've rolled his eyes, but he didn't mind and neither did anyone else.

"Guess that solves that," Naruto said, grinning.

Utakata made a neutral noise, looking out to sea again at the sloooowly approaching pirate ship. "Fair enough. But that's for later. Ask someone if they know any red pirate ships."

"Shit."

Naruto whirled on the spot at the same time Utakata and I just turned, and all three of us pinned Zoro to the Sunny's deck with our stares.

Utakata spoke up first. "Here, take this and tell us what that is."

"Is it an enemy ship?" Naruto demanded, bounding up onto the railing just as Zoro brought the spyglass to his right eye.

"Close enough," Zoro said grimly, after he'd peered through it for a few seconds. "If we're not careful, this could get rough That's the Kuja Pirates' flag."

"Kuja…" Naruto blinked. "Are they supposed to be some big-name pirates? I feel like I've heard that name before…"

"Their captain's one of the Seven Warlords," Zoro said, handing the spyglass to Utakata again. "Boa Hancock, the Pirate Empress."

"Is that anything like the Pirate King?" Naruto asked.

"...No." Zoro blinked, as though the question had genuinely never occurred to him. Still, he had to have built up immunity to Luffy distracting him with tangents—or being distracted by them—because he continued a few seconds later. "But that's not the point. The Kuja Pirates don't leave survivors."

"We didn't leave any survivors when we ran into our last Warlord," Utakata pointed out in a dry voice. "Jinbe doesn't count."

"Two out of three kills is a decent ratio, since the last is our ally," Yugito's voice said from above us. She'd gotten back into the rigging at some point and was once again stretched out along the main spar. "But three out of four is better. If we keep going at this rate, we may end up clearing the World Government roster of Warlords entirely."

I waved my hand irritably. "Not the point, people. Zoro, you know more about the Kuja Pirates than we do. What could we be up against?"

Zoro shook his head slowly. "I've heard that ships hit by the Kuja Pirates just end up drifting out of their territory, with statues strewn across the deck. No one wants to get too close anymore." He paused to think it over, then added, "They call the three lead Kuja Pirates…the Gorgon sisters, I think."

…Great. Fucking petrification powers, I thought as I slapped a hand to my face and let out a frustrated hiss. No one gets a moniker referencing Medusa without them. Still, now we need to deal with it.

Or we could, Isobu reminded me, and Chōmei's wings buzzed even louder, far above our heads.

Impel Down apparently didn't get the message across. We need to change tactics.

"Kei-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"I'm willing to bet my bottom beri that we're up against someone who can turn other people to stone," I muttered.

Yugito blinked. "You sound very sure of that."

"Call it a hunch." Not like I could explain Greek mythology quickly enough to make it make sense. Then, "Get everyone up. We need to decide what to do, and if it's worth sending a strike team like with the Blackbeards."

In short order, we all got to work. We would not be sitting ducks.

We were more like sea mines.

AN: And sea mines do terrible things to ships.

Hello, everyone. Since we're officially out of buffer chapters now, I decided to upload this chapter a bit sooner than normal to give myself more time until next Friday's upload. We'll see what happens then!

(Incidentally, the Red Hair Pirates went on a "rampage" in the New World, where newspaper coverage is spotty. Some reports travel slower than others.)