AN: This song is from Treasure Planet, often subtitled as "Jim's Theme."

Kuromushi and Komushi kept our group out of trouble for the next few days. More trouble, anyway.

While I wouldn't say the Kuja Pirate incident hadn't worked out in our favor, at least as far as determining relative infamy went, any more detours before hitting the Revolutionary rendezvous point and then Fishman Island would probably be a bad idea. With that concept firmly in place, we sailed onward and listened to the Marines flounder.

Kuromushi kept belting out more and more overheard transponder snail conversations, because it was a tiny troll. Since Naruto had taken it from a Marine initially, we had to assume that the Marines had more somewhere even if the nearest band of white hats didn't. Komushi's calls could be intercepted, as the black snail had proven from the first moment I met it, and thus we couldn't risk calling the Moby Dick once we knew the Marines could be listening. Not until Kuromushi couldn't hear anyone else.

So, despite the ego boost from the most recent wanted posters and the grudges we had, all of us turned tail and let Saiken tow us away from any potential fights.

It took a few hours for us to get far enough away that Kuromushi stopped being able to hear other snails, and then we could give people updates and check in on others. We found out that Gyūki and Yin Kurama had only caused superficial damage to the Red Force, which had gotten Kushina and B a thorough scolding by Shanks's first mate. We also discovered that no one among the Red Hair Pirates had actually realized those two were far more than merely New World-level pirates—or weirdos, really. Shanks had mercifully shut down the call before the discussion got too out of hand.

Once that was over, we considered the available expert opinions. Nami and Inazuma had the actual, physical job of navigation cornered, with Nami turning it into an art, but sometimes it helped to bother people who'd been on the seas for upwards of twenty years.

Like Marco.

"Given everything, it probably won't surprise you to hear that the Marines are in a panic now. They've been doing the same song and dance over here since we took the Moby underwater," Marco said, when we called him for some advice. "I'd still suggest trying to meet up with us, but it sounds like you may be getting the worst of it."

"Pops didn't have to flatten G-5, you know. Even if it was a pit," Ace said, still sounding a bit sheepish about the chain of events that had led to said flattening. "That got the Marines pretty riled up…"

"We did," Whitebeard's rumbling voice replied, correcting Ace with infinite patience,"and you know that."

"Yeah, well…" Ace shook himself, though I caught a brief flash of a smile on his face. "We're going with our backup plan, now."

"The Revolutionary route," Zoro said, while Kuromushi remained blissfully silent. Must not have had any other snails in range.

"It's not a route," Bon-Bon broke in. "It's more of a meeting point!"

Zoro automatically ducked away from being kicked in the head by Bon-Bon's pirouette, though I'd seen him block Sanji's iron-denting kicks before. Maybe it was a rivalry thing. "Fine, fine. The point is that we're putting our fates in the hands of people we don't know."

I wasn't so sure about that. My "there aren't really two different people named Sabo" idea still percolated in my head, but I didn't have quite enough data to be able to put my hypothesis forward. Asking for details about Ace and Luffy's dead brother—as Gaara had explained, briefly—would only upset everyone.

"We know Bon-Bon and Iva, though," Luffy said, as he sat next to the unnamed snail from which we were calling Marco. "And Naruto's one of them too, right? Friends of our friends are our friends, too! That's how that works."

"That's…not how that kind of thing works for most people," said Jozu's voice.

"It does for Luffy, though," Nami said. She sighed. "Almost too well. His luck is ridiculous."

I idly tossed that response into my pile of evidence for my musings on this "Sabo" character. I had all of two pieces of evidence that weren't just my supposition, which did not a conclusion make. Thus far, my scatterplot was still half-filled. But I was seeing a pattern anyway.

"Anyway, our new destination is within a day or two. We'll get there and call you again," Ace said finally.

Once the Whitebeards signed off—though Thatch managed to shout, "Eat your vegetables!" before the click—we all had to turn our attention back to our Tailed Beast friends.

"We'll go back to the surface at night," was all Saiken said to inquiries pointed his way. "That way we know it'll be safe!"

They had also been promoted to babysitters.

"I would prefer if we'd gotten a chance to kill something, but you're all boring anyway," Shukaku grumbled, but Gaara didn't seem bothered by the comment and neither did the Straw Hats.

So not all of them were babysitters.

I ended up not doing that much during the trip that Saiken and Isobu shortened from days to less than twelve hours. While I did finish Utakata's sewing project to the best of my meager abilities, I spent most of it making up for the absurd sleep debt I'd racked up over the last two weeks. While I wasn't normally on the level of a Nara, Luffy (sleep-eating), Zoro (sleep-training), or Ace (just sleeping at random), I needed a bit of time to recharge. Given the sleepless nights and days I'd had recently, my brain apparently decided that I owed it plus interest, and I cat-napped the travel period away.

And when I finally woke up for real, we were on the surface of the sea again, beneath a blanket of stars and a full moon that looked larger than it ever had in the glittering night sky. I was also under a literal blanket, and one that I'd last seen in Yugito's possession with distinct "do not touch" vibes radiating from her when I offered to wash it. From the sound of faint snoring and the gentle thrum of his chakra, Naruto had decided to join me after a very long, boring day.

Yugito sat next to me, but on the railing as opposed to bracing her back against it like I had. When she noticed I was awake, she slid down off the wood and slotted into place opposite Naruto.

"What do you think will happen when we go home?" Yugito asked, her voice hardly audible over the lapping waves.

I blinked at her, still a bit muddled by sleep. I sent my chakra through my body in a wave, snapping myself awake by force.

But I must have taken too long, because Yugito went on with, "I don't want to have to kill you."

Ah, right. That. I picked at the sleeve of my Whitebeard jacket, then heaved a heavy sigh. "I don't think I ever wanted to kill you. If something like—it wouldn't have been personal but it wouldn't have hurt."

Ensuring Yagura's death hadn't meant anything to me except that the threat to my friends was—temporarily—taken care of. It had just been business, and if I was feeling cynical, I would have admitted that the only thing I'd felt was relief that Yagura was finally out of my way. I'd had more important things to worry about at Sorayama than could-have-beens regarding a man who needed me dead.

"It will hurt now," Yugito murmured, lifting one hand to her lower lip. She pressed her hand over her mouth, then let out a muffled, "It will hurt so much." She closed her eyes, and I leaned against her a little as she said, "I-I have few friends back home. Children were always too afraid to get close to me when I was young, and adulthood has not been much better."

"And you don't want to lose the friends you have now," I whispered, my heart clenching painfully for Yugito's sake. I hadn't always been considerate of her, perhaps too caught up in my idea that Yugito was too hardcore to approach, and I regretted it now.

"No, I don't," Yugito replied, bowing her head. She drew her knees up toward her chest and rested her folded arms on top. "Kei, I don't want to go back to being alone. Without you, or Ace, or Utakata, or any of the others…" Yugito's breath hitched for just a second. "I don't want to think about it."

I…

I had more waiting for me back home. But that didn't mean I wanted to lose the people I'd met and been befriended by here on this wild ocean world. I was so afraid of people disappearing out of my life. At some point, it had stopped mattering which lifetime, which adventure, or which reality.

"It's not fair to Yugi," Naruto's voice piped up, and I looked down to find him looking up at us with a pensive expression. "Kei-sensei and Mom and me are all Konoha-nin, but you're from Kumo. Octopops would probably be cool if you wanted to visit or be nice to us if we visited you, and we could talk Dad into something, but what about the Raikage?"

Yugito grimaced. A wouldn't be amenable to a deal, would he? I seemed to recall that he and Ōnoki had needed the pressure of fighting Uchiha Madara—or a jerk who claimed to be him—before anything like an alliance could form between them and Konoha.

But all Yugito asked was, "You could forgive what has happened between our villages?"

"I don't know," Naruto said, frowning up at the night sky. "But things are never going to get any better if no one tries. Isn't that what the First Hokage believed? And we got the villages out of it."

And while the ninja system was deeply fucked up, the Clan Wars era had been indisputably worse. That was something.

"I dunno if any of us is the next Senju Hashirama. But no one is," Naruto continued, unknowingly echoing my long-lived doubts about anyone ever living up to Naruto's other legacy. "So we're gonna have to be us, and make things work out our way. We've got us, and we've got the people close to us, too. We're going to probably have to work harder than we've ever had to before, but I don't believe in goodbyes forever like that, Yugi." When Yugito met his eyes, he finished, "Just 'see you later.'"

"Even so," Yugito said, as she ruffled Naruto's blond hair with a gentle hand, "I would miss all of you."

"We'd miss you, too," I said, around the knot in my throat.

Yugito and I hadn't gotten along at first, of course, and we didn't even really get along now, but it was in that way that comrades-in-arms didn't have to all like each other to know we had each other's backs. And that was apparently more than Yugito could count on even with her own village. I'd been lucky to have people to fall back on everywhere I went. If the way Yugito felt was anything like the hellish year I'd spent informally, unofficially banished from Konoha, I could never begrudge her the unwillingness to abandon this new world. Especially when I was wrestling with something similar.

"There must be some way we can keep talking to the people we care about here," Naruto said, looking up at the stars above us. "Voice or no voice, we can find a happy ending for everyone."

"I think, for now, I would rather not have an ending at all," Yugito mumbled. Then she sighed, and her chakra settled down again to a low, invisible flame. "But that's enough about upsetting thoughts. After several days on this ship, I'm looking forward to being on land again. What about you?"

"I kinda am," Naruto replied, accepting the change of topic. "Ships wiggle too much. I mean, I'm not getting seasick or nothing, but I like land. It doesn't flip over on you."

"Ships generally don't either," I pointed out. Though I'd noticed the fact that other people tended to sway a bit until they got used to the rhythm of a ship's movements, I hadn't paid particular attention to the processes of gaining my own sea legs. I didn't have any trouble adjusting to unmoving land, either, which only now struck me as strange.

You are welcome.

That's you doing that?

I assume so.

Credit-stealing crab-turtle monster. Though I was at a loss to explain the discrepancy any other way, I wouldn't let him keep taking all of it.

"Uta told me he and Saiken flipped a ship over, so it clearly does happen," Naruto countered.

I bit down on a laugh. Okay, maybe Naruto didn't like ships that much. "How many ships do you think that happens to?"

"Oh, there will be more in the future," Yugito said lightly.

"Exactly!" Naruto fidgeted, then scooted closer to her. "Hey, Yugito? Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Yugito said, as though she'd never been as unapproachable as I remembered. Then again, it had been some time since then, hadn't it? We'd experienced a lot of things together, and though some of those experiences hadn't been pleasant, we… Well, we'd gotten along in some fashion.

I'd had friendships get off to worse starts.

"Can I do your hair?"

Yugito blinked owlishly.

"I'm not gonna pull any pranks," Naruto said, in case Yugito was worried. "It's just… My mom and my sister have really long hair, so they let me style it sometimes. And I haven't gotten to do that in a while, is all."

There was no way either of us could miss the undercurrent of homesickness in Naruto's voice.

Yugito reached behind her head and pulled out the single tie she'd been using since we found her on Banaro. She handed it over to Naruto without hesitation, saying, "Do whatever you like, Naruto."

"Then… I'm gonna make a braid. A nice one," Naruto said, while Yugito turned her back so he could get to work. As he carefully combed his fingers through her hair in search of an easy way to split it up, he said, "Y'know, Tatsumaki doesn't usually let me do braids, since they take more pulling."

"Is that so?" Yugito asked.

"Yeah. Takes longer, too, so sometimes even I can't stay still that long," Naruto went on, draping two thick locks over Yugito's shoulders to keep them out of the way for a second. "Your hair won't take as long as Mom's, though. If I do that by myself, it takes like an hour."

"This coming from the youngest user of the Shadow Clone technique on the continent?" I asked teasingly.

"Pff, that's cheating," Naruto scoffed, briefly sticking his tongue out at me. "Dad and Tatsumaki help me out, though."

I sat back and let their voices wash over me as the conversation went on. Though Naruto still had his mind on people who weren't here, and Yugito probably still didn't want to go back, it was nice to just sit and let the moment have its moment. And I didn't need to be a sensor to tell that Yugito was relaxing, too.

By the time anything disturbed us, Naruto was debating adding a flower to the end of Yugito's new braid—and being shot down—and even then, the interruption wasn't terribly unwelcome.

Gaara's raspy voice called out, "Land sighted."

Naruto let go of Yugito's hair and shot straight to his feet again, almost overbalancing as the Sunny swayed in a rogue wave. Likewise, Yugito sprang up toward the ship's observation deck as she decided that she needed to see what we were going to be tackling next.

I folded up the blanket Yugito had left behind and headed belowdecks to share the news with everyone else.

Our ships arrived together at the little unnamed rock that the Revolutionaries had selected for us. The Sunny, the Newkama Express, and the Lion's Den all anchored at the reef-docks Isobu had obligingly grown for them, which I had to smooth out to a granite floor-like finish until it stopped threatening to puncture people's feet. Not all of us headed for the shore that, even now, Shukaku was smashing into something a little less rocky and a lot sandier, but most of us did.

Naruto and Luffy took the lead, with Fū close behind them and Ace in fourth place. Shortly thereafter, the Straw Hats piled out of their ship with camping gear in tow, as did most of the Revolutionaries accompanying us. Eventually, the Cobalt Lioness Pirates followed suit, because this was apparently the sequel to the beach party from right after Impel Down.

Ivankov held back, though. I spotted him looking out to sea, his purple afro bobbing in the wind and Inazuma by his side as ever.

"I'm going to get us another Sea King," Utakata said, passing me as I tried to figure out what, exactly, Ivankov and Inazuma were looking for.

"I'm sure Luffy will appreciate it," I said absently.

"It's the only way to feed this mob at all," was Utakata's dry reply. And then he heaved himself over the side of the ship and took off out to sea on Saiken's head.

After a moment's thought, and the realization that Naruto had left four Shadow Clones on board each ship in addition to Isobu's tiny clone garrison, I went after them.

While Ace, Sanji, Zoro, and Luffy lit a massive bonfire on the beach—which Shukaku blocked from outside view with his massive sandy bulk—most of the rest of the group set up for dinner. Sanji was already kicking people into helping him on pain of…being kicked more, basically, as a gigantic splash sounded from out at sea and Saiken's bubbling laughter drifted back to us across the waves.

I picked my way to Isobu's spiky head, dodging the usual crowd of people doing too many different tasks at once. As I climbed up onto one of the spikes protruding from his lower jaw, I said, "Nice evening, isn't it?"

"The sea is more interesting," Isobu replied in a tiny whisper, at least for a being his size. "As soon as Yang Kurama comes back from exploring the island, he can have this spot."

I reached out and patted the tip of Isobu's stubby nose. "You're not gonna stick around to see the Revolutionaries?"

"I will see their ship as they arrive," Isobu said, twisting his head a little so he could see the open ocean with his single eye. "And if they tread lightly, I may let them pass."

"Overprotective, aren't you?" I muttered, but I understood the urge. We'd attracted a lot of unfriendly attention, and Isobu was one of the most capable of ending anyone who would dare do our group harm.

True to his word, Yang Kurama's arrival was heralded by Isobu abruptly pushing off the beach and into the sea again. While Isobu did stop to help Saiken haul his Sea King prize back to the island, Yang Kurama was the one to complete the task by hooking his massive white claws under the beast's gills.

"I want to try this," Yang Kurama said, while Sanji contemplated the exact way the overgrown fish would be cleaned.

"You do not need to eat any more than the rest of us do," Matatabi pointed out, holding up one paw before bringing it down on the Sea King's crocodile-like head. "Try being considerate of the humans' needs."

"Bah! I need something to be interesting around here if I can't kill anyone without hurting their little feelings," Yang Kurama growled. His huge red eyes narrowed, focusing on Sanji. "You, human. Cook for me and my siblings."

Sanji, to his credit, didn't blanch. No, he rolled up his sleeves and replied, "On my pride as a chef, I can't do any less. I'll give you and your siblings a gourmet meal."

I didn't ask where he was gonna get the spices for it or anything like that. I didn't think he knew. Still, Yang Kurama leaned back on his haunches with a self-satisfied smile on his giant mug, so I had to assume that was the correct response. Even though I wasn't sure Yang Kurama—or most of his siblings—had any functional organs beyond their stomachs. And this was coming from someone who had literally seen the giant fox cut in half from nose to tail before.

Matatabi tilted her head to one side, her triangular ears angled toward the bonfire that had been made by humans near her paws. Bringing one of her flaming paws down near Sanji to get his attention, she said, "Young man—Sanji, was it?—perhaps it would be more helpful if I make you a fire pit of some kind? Then we can cook much more food at once."

Sanji must have said something in the affirmative, because a clear space materialized around Matatabi as though by magic. She scratched out a deep gouge in the earth, while Luffy and the others piled more and more wood into the ground as it cleared out. Ace set the actual fire, just in case Matatabi's blue flame was too much, and Naruto and Gaara made certain the coals that resulted burned extremely hot with their Wind ninjutsu. Zoro and half a dozen different Revolutionaries were drafted into assisting Sanji, and Yugito followed along for the novelty of it.

Collaborative cooking, macro-scale.

Despite the general chaos of food preparation, the size of the main course and the customers, and everything else that could possibly go wrong with so much of Sanji's kitchen being in open air, the resident chef eventually gave the okay for dinner service to begin. Each interested Tailed Beast was served a massive, Sea King steak served rare on stone plates the size of helicopter landing pads (carved out by Zoro as a training exercise), while the human contingent got normal-sized plates that didn't hiss from leftover heat. More of Naruto's clones were on plate-distribution duty, and their unerring ability to pinpoint each other's position kept things organized.

But it was during the dinner rush that something odd happened.

I happened to pass by the shadow of Shukaku's tail, while rushing to save a plate when the clone that carried it popped unexpectedly. I automatically caught the flying tableware while Shukaku's sand shifted around us and passed it off to the nearest open hand, belonging to another Naruto clone.

And then Shukaku's tail lashed out, over all our heads, and scattered into a miniature sandstorm in time to catch two figures that would have otherwise put a pair of craters in our beach party. Instead, Shukaku's tail re-formed with both interlopers caught in his sand, then lowered them slowly to the ground while he brought his massive paws down on either side of them as a warning.

The party had gone very quiet. Prior to this point, none of the Tailed Beasts had moved at a speed greater than cold molasses for fear of causing a panic. They were alarmingly fast for their size when they chose to be, and Shukaku had just demonstrated that in spades.

Since when is Shukaku the bouncer?

I prefer to think of him as a "splatter." He hits harder.

How in the world do you get to make that reference? Any one of you could crush a human like an ant, as you already demonstrated this month.

You were not going to, Isobu said, sending me an impression of a shrug. He didn't have to be so smug about it. I saw the opportunity and took it.

While I argued with Isobu, the two intruders got to their feet.

One was a young woman with eyes about as wide as Lee's, with strawberry-blonde hair and a frilly-collared maroon jacket. She wore a skirt with thigh-high stockings and the wide-toed heels that were so common around here, and there was a discarded hat by her side I'd have described as a newsboy cap. She rubbed her nose as she got to her feet, though Shukaku's sand shifted ominously below them as a warning.

The other was Sabo.

I briefly considered punching him in the nose.

Naruto—five of him—got to them first. Bowling the Revolutionaries over, the lead Naruto said cheerfully, "Koala, Uncle Sabo! You made it!"

"I'm not that old!" said the blond, from under the pile of multiple twelve-year-olds. "Geez, Naruto, I'm a big brother at most."

"You know I only call you that because it pisses you off, right?" one of the Naruto clones said, while Koala pushed it off her knee and it poofed away.

Sabo opened his mouth, paused, and sighed. Sitting up despite the clones' weight, he grumbled, "I should have known."

Sabo and Koala were almost immediately mobbed by the Revolutionaries. Most of them had probably never met the actual chain of command of their organization past Ivankov, and from what I gathered Sabo had somehow managed to become the second-highest-ranked person in the entire Revolutionary Army aside from Dragon himself. By age twenty. If it hadn't been for the way his eyes kept searching the crowd for someone he couldn't find, I might have been convinced that he was just any other ranking officer in any military, catching up with the troops after a long mission.

Koala, meanwhile, was an assistant instructor in Fishman Karate and knew Jinbe from their past with the first incarnation of the Sun Pirates, which meant they greeted each other like old friends. Their conversation drew off a large portion of the crowd, including Ivankov and Inazuma once Sabo shook his head at them. Okay, so this was still a party of some kind. Sanji continued with the food, a bunch of people and pirates were getting totally shitfaced…

But I couldn't help but notice that neither Luffy nor Ace were in sight.

"It's like having another you around," Koala had once said, while Naruto made a mess of the Revolutionaries' training facilities months ago. "Or, you know, fifty of you from back before your voice cracked."

"You got that from Hack, didn't you?" Sabo had responded, wincing as he watched one of the clones explode. A kid who could copy himself hundreds of times over without feeling the strain, on top of his insane energy levels… While the Revolutionaries weren't exactly starved of manpower, this was just silly.

But something bothered him for the entire time he knew the little troublemaker and his titanic fox guardian. While Sabo bought Naruto clothes with Koala's help and taught him how to tie a cravat, there were little moments that would throw him for a loop when he stopped and paid attention. Details or mannerisms that jarred the blank spots in Sabo's memory, over and over again. Sometimes Naruto would tear into a dozen bowls of noodles like his body was some kind of machine, or utterly refuse to back down from fights that were better left alone. Others, he'd frown in his sleep and start reaching for something, only to find it gone when he woke up every time. Naruto rarely talked about where he came from, except to Yang Kurama, and Sabo didn't pry.

Sabo didn't think he'd be able to let Naruto reciprocate if he did ask. While Sabo had been as worried as Koala and Hack after realizing Naruto went off the rails and into the sea after the mission to find a black snail, a small part of him was relieved that the gaping hole in his history was finally allowed to rest. Sabo hated it, especially when they had no way of knowing if Naruto was alive or dead.

And then his identification number had reappeared on the same snail call as Ivankov's had.

Sabo had never elbowed an intelligence officer out of a chair before, but there was a first time for everything. He got enough information to confirm that everyone was alive and well, then directed the Revolutionaries among the Impel Down group to meet at a certain island just to make sure Kuma had someplace to aim.

Once the organization scramble was over, Sabo slumped back in his stolen chair. In one fell swoop, the Revolutionaries had gotten one of their greatest assets back in play and had a bunch of random pirates to thank for it. Or rather not-pirates—Naruto's supposedly nonexistent connections were scattered around the world and making friends with some of the most dangerous people on either side of the Grand Line.

Still, Sabo probably would have left the meet-up for Koala and Kuma to sort out, with or without a ship, if he hadn't gotten around to reviewing the accumulated newspapers two hours later.

"Sabo?" Koala's voice had asked, but it was like he heard her voice from underwater.

The newspaper crumpled between his gloved fingers, almost wrinkling the obituary pages. Then, slowly, they started to tremble.

"Our bond will never be broken!"

Ace, Luffy, did you get hurt in the fire? I'm worried about you guys, but I know you're all right. Unfortunately for you two, by the time you get this letter, I'll already be at sea…

Fire, fire—

Pirates are freer than anyone else in this world. We should become pirates one of these days! Then we can meet again somewhere out there.

—he was on fire; he had to put it out—

"I'll become a famous pirate! I'll show the world what I'm made of!"

Koala had been shaking him, trying to get him to come back to earth. "Sabo, what's wrong?"

He wasn't some random pirate, Sabo thought, as though in a fog. His heartbeat pounded in his ears, drowning out sound from any other source. Not just another bounty. He—

"We'll be brothers once we exchange sake cups!"

Ace was my brother!

Three comatose days later, and there was a hole in Sabo's memory precisely that wide. Everything else—the memories that he'd never thought he'd recover before—had slotted back into place as though they'd never been lost. And though Hack and Koala had been afraid he was going to leave—as though he wouldn't have made the Revolutionaries his life even with his memory intact—Sabo knew where he belonged.

But he had to know. If there was even a chance that Ace was still alive—and Sabo hoped beyond hope that the newspapers were lying—he had to know.

"Uncle Sabo?" Naruto's voice said, once Sabo got enough of his thoughts coherent enough to call. "What's up?"

Sabo plastered a smile onto his face, which made Hack wince at its sheer falseness. "Hey, Naruto. I just wanted to ask you something."

Naruto could lie, but why would he? Sabo hadn't known of his connection to Ace or Luffy until that thrice-damned newspaper article, and Naruto was mostly honest whenever he wasn't on a mission.

"Okay. What is it?"

"When the Impel Down breakout happened…" Sabo trailed off for a second, not sure how to ask the question. So, he danced around it. "Can you tell me why you decided to go in?"

"Oh, that's easy. Kei-sensei was gonna rescue Ace, and Luffy wanted the same thing, so we all went in together and turned Impel Down into a crater on the way out."

"I…see," Sabo said carefully, though internally grateful that his heart finally stopped trying to leap up his throat. "And it was a success?"

"Yeah. I can go find the guy right now if you need proof of life or something." Naruto's tone was utterly calm, as though all of this was normal for him."He's just eating his own weight in food again."

Sabo made a strangled noise, halfway between a laugh and a sob. Part of him wanted to break down again in sheer relief that his brother was alive, and the other half was busy being joyfully incredulous that Ace hadn't changed in the past ten years.

"You okay?" Naruto asked, shocking Sabo out of his internal dilemma. "I mean it, I can go get him."

"No, no, it's fine. I'm fine, Naruto," Sabo managed. He cleared his throat in an attempt to get his tone under control, then added, "I'll see you in a day or two, if you're at the right island."

"I'm not worried about that," Naruto replied, and the snail showed his grin. "Luffy says his crew has the best navigator in the world, and I believe it. We'll have a party and everything once we get there, so be sure to save some room for Sanji's cooking!"

Sabo agreed to the party invitation, roped Koala into the trip, and then marched off to find Kuma almost instantly. Their plans had changed.

And now, here he was.

At the party.

With Koala, and Naruto, and more than a hundred strangers and more giant monsters than he'd had an inkling existed.

After about ten minutes or so of everyone greeting the new arrivals, the party settled back down. Or wound back up, given the amount of alcohol once again making its rounds. Sabo wasn't interested, having other issues on his mind. Koala could party it up with Jinbe and catch up on old times.

"Well, that's weird," Naruto commented, folding his hands together behind his head. "Ace and Luffy took off. I figured at least one of them would stick around long enough to steal food."

Sabo reached down and gently ruffled Naruto's hair. "It's okay. I'll keep looking for them."

"You never did tell me why you called out of the blue," Naruto said suspiciously, pushing Sabo's hand away and eyeing him in his usual narrow-eyed way. "You don't just know 'em by reputation, do ya?"

Sabo couldn't force back a smile even if he tried, and so he didn't bother. "No. We grew up together on an island in East Blue." As Naruto's eyes widened, Sabo went on, "They're my brothers."

"Holy shit, really? That's amazing!" And though Sabo had never been able to put the pieces together before, he knew now why Naruto's mannerisms had been so familiar. His subconscious had recognized his brothers' smiles, though in a new face.

"It is," Sabo agreed. "And thank you for helping rescue Ace. I don't know how I can thank you."

"It wasn't my idea," Naruto said modestly. "And I didn't know Ace or Luffy before we got to Impel Down, not really. Kei-sensei did, though. And she probably knows where they are now."

Sabo eyed the hill behind the party, where random bursts of flame occasionally lit up the night sky. Unless Naruto's travel group had another person who could create that much fire on a whim, Ace was probably not in a mood to talk to anyone. And though Sabo's observation haki wasn't perfect, he didn't have to be in order to feel the rage and pain radiating off the false volcano like heat.

"Or at least she can probably get you closer without your napkin getting singed off," Naruto concluded, noticing the same problem Sabo had.

"It's a cravat, Naruto."

"It's a wearable napkin!" Naruto ducked behind Sabo's back and shoved him with both hands, making him stumble. "Kei-sensei's the one with the scar on her face over there. Go say hi!"

"Kei-sensei" turned out to be a woman with exactly the scar Naruto had mentioned, crossing diagonally over her face and a bored expression on it. Aside from it, she was pretty in an I-can-kill-you-twice-over-before-you-hit-the-ground way, with features generally seen more on people who escaped Kaido's Wano before the purges began. At the same time, the barest focus on his observation haki indicated that if she wasn't the most dangerous person on this island, it was a close-run thing.

Given what he's seen from Naruto on the occasions the boy trained out in the open, it made sense that his teacher would be a woman like her. She was no Dadan, that was for sure.

She raised one eyebrow, leaning back against Yang Kurama's knee as he approached. "Did you need something?"

Sabo placed his top hat back on his head, which had been dislodged by Naruto's greeting earlier and even now was still full of sand. Then he met her eyes and said, "I need you to help me reintroduce myself to my brothers."

It hadn't been his initial plan. That would have required him to have a plan in the first place—the closest Sabo got, while puzzling over how to meet his brothers all over again, was the vague notion that he'd need to avoid letting Luffy strangle him from careless, overwhelming joy. Ace was a tougher sell—much slower to trust, and hurt worse when that trust was betrayed—and Sabo still wondered if he ought to expect a hug or a punch in the face.

Kei blinked, her eyes widening just marginally as the only hint that she was at all surprised by his request. Then she pushed herself off Yang Kurama and beckoned for him to follow her as she left the party. "Okay. We can walk and talk."

That was easier than he'd expected. "Aren't you going to make sure I am who I say I am?"

"Naruto said you were Sabo," Kei responded, glancing back at him. "And he's a sharp kid. Good enough for me."

Sabo fell into step beside Kei as they trekked past the lounging Tailed Beasts, following the occasional burst of fire from up the hill. Ace, it seemed, was working out some issues, and the occasional thud of something hitting the island said that Luffy was helping.

Sabo and Kei exchanged one look before mutually deciding the direct route was a bad idea.

"So, tell me how Naruto met you Revolutionaries," Kei said into the silence, while they took the long way around.

Sabo blinked, wrong-footed. He'd expected a different question, if any, and stumbled for a bit. "Oh, uh… I kind of expected you to ask about the brother…thing."

"Because none of you look alike?" Kei shrugged. "That's not my business. However, Naruto is. When his parents aren't around, I'm responsible for his well-being. So…" Holy hell, her eyes glowed like an animal's? Since when? "Start talking."

Sabo suppressed a full-body flinch as his observation haki screeched a warning as shrill as any transponder snail. It was honestly embarrassing for any Revolutionary officer, especially for the Chief of Staff, but he couldn't help it. "Right, well, uh… It all started when we found him washed up on the shore next to our base. Really, we just assumed he fell off a ship, but practically the first thing he did was bounce up and introduce himself as soon as he woke up. Didn't slow down at all."

"Sounds like him," Kei said in a mild tone, which told him that she knew Naruto all too well. "And how long did it take for you to realize that he had a giant furry bodyguard?"

"It took about five minutes," Sabo replied, smiling at the memory. "He woke up and said, 'Hi, I'm Namikaze Naruto. This is Old Man Yang! Who are you?'"

If he was being honest, seeing Yang Kurama for the first time was one of the most terrifying experiences of Sabo's life at the time. He'd understood, intellectually, that Sea Kings got bigger and so did some turtles, but nothing of Yang Kurama's size was nearly as intelligent. Everyone except Dragon had been in a similar boat, though training kept them from screaming.

Since regaining his memories, Sabo had shoved that event down the list by two spots, replacing it with his first encounter with a Celestial Dragon and the last time he'd seen his brothers before now.

Yang Kurama, at least, was honest about what he was and what he intended, and made no apologies for either. It was just that every death threat he'd slapped the Revolutionaries with had turned out to be nothing but hot air. Naruto had told Sabo and Koala later that Yang Kurama didn't bluster if he was in the mood to kill.

If Yang Kurama felt like killing, the corpses would be mere shadows on a wall. If there was a wall. No talk, just death.

But to Sabo's surprise, Kei didn't seem interested in the sheer destruction that the Tailed Beasts could wreak if they were annoyed. Instead, she smacked a hand to her forehead and muttered something almost unintelligible, though the word "security" featured at least twice. None of it seemed to be directed at him, but Sabo waited until the quiet tirade was finished before he spoke again, like nothing had happened.

"I still don't know why he seemed to expect us to know who he was," Sabo said, shaking his head slightly, "but practically the first thing he did after that was demonstrate a bunch of crazy skills, get offered training by Hack, and accept."

The most unnerving part of those first few days was when Naruto crab-walked across the ceiling, just to scare people. He'd even worn his jacket backwards, his face hidden by its collar, to trick everyone into thinking he'd twisted his head all the way around.

It lasted until Kuma plucked him off the ceiling and sent him to go play outside.

Kei didn't seem at all surprised. "Did he test out of the classes or something?"

"Yeah," Sabo replied, while they walked around a boulder. Dragon had given Sabo a knowing look when Naruto had mobbed Hack into submission, proving that he was good enough to fight alongside his clones and not just from behind them. It had been a long time since the last person to basically skip that part of the Revolutionary curriculum. "Honestly, we probably wouldn't have let him go on a mission at all, but he insisted. And Yang insisted that he needed to stretch his legs, and here we are now. I almost had a heart attack when he didn't come back."

"And of course he didn't call," Kei muttered as the last of her protective anger faded. Visibly more relaxed, she went on in a calmer tone, "Naruto disappeared because he was joining our mission. I'm sorry if you worried."

"Ah, no harm done." Sabo scratched the back of his neck. "I've had a lot of shocks lately."

As always, putting the situation into words underplayed it, if anything.

And he still didn't know for sure how Ace and Luffy will react. He had an idea, of course, but it'd been ten years and a near-death experience or twenty since then. And that didn't even mention the amnesia complication he'd only recently dealt with…

"You're referring to the 'brother thing' you mentioned before?" Kei asked, while they rounded another curve in the artificial bay. Because there was no way that the Tailed Beasts had just happened on an island that could mostly hide them from view.

"Oh…that's the part that's a bit hard to believe," Sabo said. This was going to sound utterly cheesy, like something out of a terrible pirate novel. Thus, he braced himself for disbelief even as he said carefully, "Would you believe I had amnesia?"

"Sabo, I come from a place where the greatest enemies of humankind are putty people spawned by a giant tree, whose master plan is to hypnotize the whole world into submission," Kei replied in a perfect deadpan, while Sabo bit down on a laugh because the world was wild enough to have those and worse in spades. He'd even seen some of them. "If you say you had amnesia, I believe you."

"Oh, good. I just hope Ace and Luffy believe me," Sabo said, while another bout of melancholy tried to leap up and swallow him. In a low tone, he admitted, "I haven't seen them since I was ten. I didn't have any idea they even existed until a few days ago."

"Can I ask what caused your memories to come back?" Kei asked neutrally, not asking for permission at that point. That sort of question was sort of a formality.

They lapsed into silence for a few moments, climbing over ever more thoroughly scorched debris and overturned stones here and there. They were getting closer to the summit, and with it Sabo's reckoning. A tiny part of him was almost surprised he was admitting this much to a relative stranger, but the lack of cloying sympathy in Kei's voice was refreshing. Hack and Koala had both gone through a phase where they treated him like he was made of glass upon regaining his memories, which wasn't what he wanted.

Even so…

"I…" Sabo trailed off, all too aware of the lump in his throat. He tilted his head forward a little so Kei couldn't see most of his expression, averting his eyes for good measure even if he could only just see her feet. He coughed, then managed, "I should probably save that for Ace and Luffy, if it's all the same to you."

Well, the fire had died down. It was probably safe to approach for real, now.

Sabo and Kei hiked up to the top of a hill, where the fire had been originally. When they arrived there, the trees on the top of the hill had all been scorched on one side. Likewise, the rocks lay bare on the hilltop except for a fine layer of ash and charcoal, and some of the plant life sitting nearest the epicenter of the blast had been rendered into particles. Sabo could almost hear a Revolutionary file's contents playing in his head, like a snail call, recounting the damage Fire Fist Ace could do with a single use of his eponymous attack.

Ace sat in the center of the blast radius, sitting with his legs crossed one over another and his palms resting on the sides of his knees as though he was bracing himself. His head was bowed and his hat pulled low so neither Kei or Sabo could see his eyes. Flame flickered along his shoulders, but it seemed the light show was over.

Luffy sat next to him, bobbing slightly in place and keeping his eyes mostly on Ace. His hat was pushed back so it sat behind his neck, and he spotted Sabo and Kei before Ace did. "Hey, Hei. It's okay now."

Ace looked up, then, and Sabo immediately disagreed with Luffy's statement based on Ace's expression alone. Sabo had only seen Ace so sick at heart once before, and it was the last memory Sabo had of him prior to this point. The day Sabo abandoned his brothers in a gamble to save their lives from his fucking father. If Ace had been gifted with Kizaru's Devil Fruit instead of his Mera Mera no Mi powers, Sabo would have been struck dead and his ashes would be flaking away in the wind already. He wouldn't need to be in reach.

"Why the hell'd you bring him here?" Ace demanded, his voice seeming to crackle on the low end like a flame. His hands gripped his knees to keep himself under control.

Cold lead shot pooled in Sabo's stomach.

"He asked," Kei said, like she didn't know it would piss him off to hear that. Still, she was obviously ceding control of the conversation to Sabo instead, even before she prompted, "Sabo?"

"Even if he's got the same name, he's not our Sabo," Ace hissed, smoke coiling upward from his flames.

Shit.

"Ace," Luffy tried to interrupt, and Ace's fire didn't get anywhere near touching him. "Ace, but what if he is? What if Sabo—?"

Sabo's heart was in his throat, choking out any response before it could reach his voice. Luffy's pleading hurt worse than getting shot, even without armament haki, as his mind automatically flew back to the last time he'd heard his younger brother before this. Back to when Sabo had turned his back on them both. Back before he'd almost gotten himself killed twice over and gotten his memories blasted out of his head.

"He didn't, Luffy," Ace snapped, though Luffy refused to back down. Even so, Ace jerked his gaze away from Luffy back to Sabo. "Sabo would have come back. Our Sabo's dead."

"Not if I couldn't come back," Sabo replied, finally finding his voice. His fists clenched at his sides as hot tears muddled his vision and rolled down his cheeks. He vaguely felt Kei make a move in his direction before stopping herself, giving him enough breathing space to go on. Practically snarling as he swiped the tears away on his coat sleeve, he said, "Not if I lost everything I was when the Celestial Dragon shot my ship."

"What the hell does that mean?" Ace growled, getting slowly to his feet. With his hat finally settled back on his head, the flickering firelight revealed that Ace wasn't exactly dry-eyed, either.

Sabo stepped forward, away from Kei, and raised his voice to shout, "It means I had amnesia for the last ten years!"

"What's that?" Sabo heard Luffy ask, looking back and forth between his two arguing brothers. And still, his next thought was, "Is it something you eat?"

Just like before.

"It means he lost his memories," Kei explained to Luffy, while Ace and Sabo fell silent in the wake of his question. "He didn't remember you two until recently."

"Oh, bullshit." Ace's clenched fists were spitting orange sparks. "Sabo was our brother! There's no way he would have forgotten us, and you're just an imposter with the same fucking name." Ace's arms disappeared into plumes of flame even before he drew back his fist. "GO TO HELL!"

Sabo unhitched his pipe from his back. If Ace wasn't going to listen to reason, he'd settle this with a fucking fistfight if he had to. Half the time violence had been the only way to get anything through Ace's thick head back then, so why would it be any different now?

Kei ducked sideways, bringing up a veil of water to take the brunt of the attack when Ace once again turned himself into a towering inferno. With her out of the way, there was no one to interfere with this match. While Sabo's stomach still clenched at the thought of having to fight someone who was closer than any blood family he'd ever cared to name, his blood burned. Maybe a fight would settle more than just the debate.

Sabo took a fighting stance, his pipe in front of his face and rapidly turning black with armament haki, before he lost track of Kei entirely in the fire. She could handle herself, and Ace would never hurt Luffy. The rest was down to the fight, and Sabo's fingers automatically shifted into the Dragon's Claw as Ace cocked his flaming fist back.

"Did you even see the attack?" Sabo's voice rang out, as clear as it had been since before seeing his brothers again. His anger, grief, and misplaced hurt was unaffected by the heat or the glare. "Did you find my body? Did you even fucking look for me?!"

"There was nothing left to find!" Ace almost screamed back, and Sabo knew that tone. Denial. It hurt him too much to admit that something so fundamental to his life had all been based on a misunderstanding. A mistake. "Quit acting like you're him, you bastard!"

"I am him!" Sabo knew how to fight Logia Devil Fruit users, at least in theory. Observation haki helped him dodge and armament haki let him hit in a way that Ace would definitely feel in the morning. But dodging was dangerous when Ace had enough flames to just carpet the entire area in burning death.

So Sabo headed directly for him, using his pipe to take the brunt of the attack, before he swung right for Ace's shoulder. The sharp thud of a solid hit made Ace gasp in surprise, but it only lasted until the next burst of fire exploded outward from his body, driving Sabo off for the moment.

Sabo's next attack got two more grunts of pain, but the shock was over. Ace knew he was fighting a haki user, not just someone getting lucky because he was distracted.

"What took you so fucking long?!" Ace shouted, while the flames swirled around the hilltop and created a massive arena wall. He was finally in full view again, with both hands engulfed in fire and visibly rising welts on his shoulder and head.

"That wasn't my choice, you reckless jerk!" Sabo yelled back, and both his coat and his hat were smoking from the last round. His pipe almost glowed on the business end from the sheer heat. "I saw a newspaper with your fucking face on an obituary, and everything came back to me! What kind of brother are you to make me worry like that?!"

"How should I know?! I don't control what gets printed or what idiot thinks I'm dead!"

"Take better care of yourself!"

"I was in prison!"

"That's no excuse!"

"They stole my fucking boots, Sabo! My boots! You think I would give those up if I had a choice?!"

Distantly, Sabo felt Kei go still with confusion and Luffy glowing like the figurative sun.

A grin stretched across his face, even as Ace's fist—no longer aflame—grazed his chin. Luffy knew already, and Sabo felt it too.

They were winding down.

"See, Hei? They're working things out," Luffy's voice said as the flame wall quieted down to mere embers.

True to Luffy's statement, Ace and Sabo had more or less stopped fighting seriously. While the two of them were still trading blows heavy enough to send shockwaves across the hilltop, Ace's fire was limited to his Logia auto-parry and Sabo's pipe was only black along one side. Both of them were scuffed up and breathing heavily, but they were on their feet.

Both of them sank to their knees at the exact same time, well within each other's reach.

"So…" Sabo gasped, while his pipe rolled out of his grip. Ace had definitely gotten stronger since the last time they'd fought. "You finally…believe me?"

"I think I—hahhh—I think I already did," Ace panted, supporting his weight on his hands. "Just didn't want to admit it."

Sabo sat back, his hat toppling to the ash-coated ground. His blond hair stuck to his face from sweat and every scrap of exposed skin was smudged with grime. Despite that, he was grinning to match some of Luffy's best smiles, at least in the time that he could now remember. Ace's expression wasn't a perfect mirror, but he was almost always a little slower with positive emotions. Didn't want to scare them off.

It didn't last. "Y-you were always the slowest t-to trust anyone else with that k-kind of thing. Guess I can't blame y-you for being skeptical now, right?" As he spoke, his breathing hitched and he covered his eyes with one gloved hand. Tears nonetheless dripped right past any attempt to stop them, landing on his knees.

Across from him, Ace wasn't any better off. The first few tears hissed away into steam, but the rest dribbled down his face unhindered. Much like his brother, snot followed. "S-Sabo…"

Now, they might've been able to continue in this vein for some time. But then Luffy, who had been left out of the reunion thus far, shot forward like a rubber band and slammed into both of his brothers with a vengeance. While the three of them rolled across the hilltop and got tangled in Luffy's stretchy arms, Kei finally stopped maintaining some kind of water barrier now that there was no point.

Luffy was a loud, dramatic, screaming crier ("SABO'S ALIIIIIIIVE!"), and in short order the sound of muffled sobbing filled the still-crackling clearing. Sabo patted ineffectively at Luffy's face with his untied cravat acting as an improvised tissue, while Ace buried his face in Sabo's coat and swore furiously under his breath, and Luffy crushed all three of them together under his grip. With Luffy and Ace pinning him in place, there was no way he could have escaped, but Sabo couldn't think of anything he wanted less. The sound of his brothers' voices and their weight and their warmth was something he'd missed so badly he could hardly believe, now, that he'd forgotten how important they were.

"D-don't ever die, S-S-Sabo!" Luffy sobbed, his chin poking into Sabo's sternum. His entire face dribbled snot and tears and even drool, and Sabo's vision blurred even worse than before. "D-don't leave uh-us ag-g-gain!"

I promise, Sabo thought, as his tears dripped off the end of his nose and into Luffy's and Ace's hair. "I won't. I won't, not again."

"Fuckin' liar," Ace managed, but there was no bite to it. Sometimes, Ace argued just to be argumentative. All he did was squeeze Sabo's waist a little tighter than before.

Before Sabo had joined the Revolutionaries, he'd already been a liar. To his parents' faces, to Ace and Luffy about his origins, and now as a professional spy. But here and now, held in his brothers' arms and clinging to them in turn, there was nothing to hide.

None of them let go for a very, very long time.

"Luffy has another brother?!" was the Straw Hats' response to that little revelation when the three brothers arrived at breakfast the next morning. "Since when?"

"Oh, Ace, Sabo, and me all became sworn brothers over cups of sake!" Luffy said cheerfully, while his left arm was still looped around Sabo's rumpled coat. "And then Sabo died, but he's back now and we're all together again!"

"I didn't actually die," Sabo said, when it became obvious that no one believed Luffy's account of events. "I just lost my memory. I got it back a few days ago, so I had to come out here and make sure my brothers were all right."

"And we were, thanks to everyone here," Ace finished. He bowed as deeply as he could without falling over. "Thank you for taking care of us."

"It was our pleasure!"

With that somewhat flimsy explanation out of the way, certain parties came to the realization that between Luffy being the captain of the Straw Hats and Dragon's son, Ace's rank as the third-in-command of the Whitebeard Pirates, and Sabo being the Revolutionary Army's Chief of Staff, there was a ludicrous amount of power in a single set of brotherly bonds. Politically, anyway.

One of those parties was the Tailed Beast collective.

"This seems to be the kind of bizarre web of coincidence that ought to be impossible to construct even if it was deliberate," Isobu said, when Ace went to visit him after breakfast. Even if the big turtle hadn't been the one Ace knew the longest, he made the best nap spot and was actually willing to act as one, which made him Ace's favorite. "A conspiracy could not have done it better."

"Not everything is a result of enemy action, brother," Matatabi commented, though her voice was a little muffled by her flaming tails as she lounged in the sand.

"Oh, just relax and go with the flow," said Chōmei, who was on the ground for once. His only actual tail—a yellow whip that didn't match any of his wings—curled up and behind his head as Fū hung on for the ride. "It's nice when our side gets lucky for a change! Enjoy it."

Ace did his best to tune out the rest of their discussion from his spot in the crook of Isobu's armored arm. With his stomach full, he dozed in what sunlight made it through Isobu and Saiken's artificial fog, and tried not to think too hard on what would happen next. Though Ace would never admit it out loud, being this close to the biggest seafood combination he'd ever seen felt like one of the safest places on the sea short of the Moby Dick itself. When he sleepily felt Sabo and Luffy pile onto him, equally drowsy after devouring their portions of the huge breakfast, Ace just gave a contented sigh and fell fully asleep.

AN: Kei kinda vanishes from the chapter about halfway through with her mad ninja skillz. She's giving the ASL bros some space, and I think they deserve it. :D