-Two Weeks Later-

A tremendous ship bulled its way through the waves, and Haruno Sakura stood at its prow. A News Coo had just delivered the recent updates, and she was the first to intercept the delivery, the rest of the crew having long since learned the foolishness of trying to fight her for it. The news was for a nearby island known as 'Water-7' and it was filled with recent events from the island, both important and… less so.

Some place called Enies Lobby had fallen into the ocean, which sounded pretty bad. There had been a break-in at the Water-7 Naval History Museum's exhibit on Gold Roger, which was only amusing to her in that it was supposedly relevant to her current shipmates. Some big-shot in the service of some pirate named 'Whitebeard' had been spotted around Water-7, and this was apparently cause for concern. Finally, a World Noble was taking a sightseeing tour of the nearby islands, but was not expected to arrive at Water-7 at any time in the near future.

Oddly enough, this last piece of news seemed to be written with more worry and warning than the news of a potentially dangerous pirate being in the area. People must not be fond of the nobility here.

Lots of news, but up until now she had had little luck finding the information she was looking for.

This time, however, she got lucky.

Trembling, she gripped the newly-arrived bounty papers in her gloved hands, feeling a wistful rage pass through her like a summer rainstorm. Breathing deep, that was the key. Breathe in… Breathe out…

WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE

"Copy Ninja" Uchiha Sasuke: B100,000,000

WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE

"One Man Army" Uzumaki Naruto: B200,000,000

How long had it been, thought Sakura. Three WEEKS?! She had always joked that she was the only person keeping those two from doing something so horrible that the village would finally have them killed, but this was ridiculous.

In Sasuke's portrait he looked grim and listless, his tired face set against a featureless grey background that might have been a prison wall. Naruto, however, had been caught out in the open, looking over his shoulder in an all-out sprint, his face still covered with the remnants of red and white grease-paint. Was that seriously the best picture they could get of him? Why did he always manage to have that damn stuff on his face whenever someone wanted to take his picture?! And the names!

"Copy Ninja?!" she grit out. "Who the hell does that arrogant prick think he is?!"

Cursing, Sakura wrung her fingers, barely restraining herself from tearing their bounty posters up into little pieces. As she did so, she uncovered another leaflet inserted with the recent bounties.

"The Straw-Hat Pirates," she read, "recently escaped Marine custody and were last seen in the vicinity of Water-7."

'Well,' thought Sakura, 'Sorry, all you potential bounty hunters... If you want their heads you'll have to beat me there first.'

Her thoughts were interrupted by a shrill voice from behind her.

"What did you just say about the 'Straw-Hat Pirates?!'"

She winced. The blue-haired man's voice sounded like a hoarse screech even when he thought he was speaking conversationally. Slowly, Sakura turned around, not even bothering to remove the irritation on her face which made the man who was approaching her cringe back slightly.

"Why, Captain Buggy," she said, her voice deceptively pleasant, "I was just thinking I needed to speak to you. The new bounty postings arrived, and it looks like I finally found what I was looking for."

The gaudily-dressed clown looked at her nervously, his nose wrinkling underneath the round red ball that covered it. "Found what you were looking for, huh? Wait, lemme see those other postings."

Now smiling, Sakura handed the rest of them over, keeping the two for her friends. As the man leafed through the papers in his hands, he made grunts and squeaks of anger and indignation, his face twitching about as he did so. "THREE-HUNDRED-AND-FIFTY-MILLION BELI?! THAT'S OUTRAGEOUS! What did he even do?! Steal the moon?!"

Against her better judgement, Sakura had to ask. "Who are you talking about?"

Buggy continued shuffling rapidly through the papers, seeming not to have heard her. "They have a reindeer too?! Still making fun of my nose, are you?! SCREW YOU, RUDOLPH!"

"HEY!" shouted Sakura, slamming her shoe into the deck with a force that cracked the wood. "What do you know about the Straw-Hat Pirates?"

Buggy started, surprised by her sudden demand. "Wha- I- It's none of your damned business how they kicked me in the crotch, stuffed me in a ball, and blasted me off to an unknown island, so keep your nose to yourself, lady!"

If something that Buggy had said bothered him, he didn't show it. Sakura shook her head, growing more and more depressed at the state of sanity and reason outside her homeland.

"Well," she said, crossing her arms across her chest, "It just so happens that I'm looking for the Straw-Hats, too. Do you know of a place called Water-7?"

"Water-7?" asked Buggy, anger suddenly dropping from his face. "Huh… that brings me back… Yeah, I spent a while there waiting on a new ship. They're a bunch of shipbuilders, and Roger needed the very best. Anyone who knows anything about the Grand Line buys an Eternal Pose for there just in case, and I bet we're getting pretty close already. Why?"

Sakura held up the paper insert in front of her. "According to this, the Straw-Hats were last seen near Water-7. I want to go there."

Buggy suddenly looked nervous. "Lady, I really don't feel like running into the Straw-Hats right now—" he stopped himself when he saw Sakura's brow furrow, "Uh- that is- look, I've seen a lot of bounties, and I can tell you that the very first thing a guy's gonna do when his bounty gets jacked up to the clouds is disappear, alright? They're not gonna be anywhere near Water-7 any more."

Sakura's glare turned cold. Buggy hastened to continue damage control.

"Besides! The only reason someone'd go to Water-7 is if they needed their ship to be fixed! Ever since we signed you and your friend on as help, we've been breezing through the Grand Line, no problem." He gave the bulwark a hearty slap. "See? Ship-shape! No problems here! We even managed to make off with some pieces of that golden bell we heard about on Jaya, which means we're loaded! So, how about it? Stay on as crewmembers and I'll give you both a raise!"

The temperature dropped further.

"...Two raises?" he asked, holding up a pair of fingers.

Sakura closed her eyes. "You know why we're out here, and you know what our terms were…"

Suddenly, Buggy seemed to find some confidence. "Despite what you may think, lady, the Grand Line will chew up and spit out anyone who isn't familiar with it. I practically grew up here, so like it or not you're stuck with us, and as captain of the Big Top I say there's no way we're going to Water-7!"

Slowly, Sakura turned on her heel and walked away, gazing around at the carnival-themed ship they were sailing on. "That's a shame, Buggy. A damn shame. This ship of yours is so very… unique… and it would be so terrible if anything happened to it." As she spoke, she walked down a nearby ramp, step after step, from the upper decks of the tremendous vessel. "A ship's just a bunch of wood, after all. You've got a lion on-board, and people who breathe fire… It's really incredible you haven't suffered serious damages already. Oops."

At the final word, she brought her foot down heavily on the thick oaken timbers. With a terrible cracking and splintering, a chunk of the deck- bulwark included- tore from the side of the ship to topple into the waves on the starboard side.

Buggy's jaw dropped, and his eyeballs bugged out as he started stammering in shock. Sakura just stood at the edge of the devastation, surveying her work.

"Ah, sorry about that. I suppose I just tripped." With that, she turned back towards Buggy and gave him a beatific smile. "Guess we need to go to Water-7 to get this fixed, huh?"

Buggy screamed in rage. "You BITCH!" he shouted, storming past her to the below-deck entrances. "You're not going to get away with this! You think you're so smart—you think you've got everything covered, but there's one thing you didn't think of!" Reaching the deckside door to the main animal pens, he grasped the handle and threw it wide open, "-and that's what my crew is going to think about this!"

Inside, Mohji the beast-tamer and his trained lion Richie were sitting with Hinata. Richie was lying down with his belly exposed to Hinata's attention as Mohji watched with a big smile on his face.

"Wow," exclaimed the blue-haired girl, "He really likes his tummy-rubs, doesn't he? Don't you, Richie!"

Richie made a whining growl, stretching out even further on the floor as Mohji spoke up for him. "I think he likes you, too. He doesn't let just anyone touch his belly. It says really good things about you when an animal likes you, you know? Cause, like, they know... you know?" he added meaningfully.

Buggy's mouth remained open, his face frozen in an expression of irate indignation, but he said nothing. He could just feel Sakura's presence looming behind him. Still, it wasn't Sakura who spoke next. A voice surprised him from the shadows just inside the doorway.

"Captain Buggy," said Kabaji, his most trusted staff-member, "Just what was that disturbance just now?"

Buggy collected himself. Kabaji would listen to him, surely. "Our new doctor, Sakura, tore off a chunk of the ship and is demanding that we go to Water-7, that's what."

Kabaji leaned forward from his lounging position against the wall and glanced toward the doorway where Sakura was standing like a small, female fortress. "How presumptuous of her. I haven't yet had to engage her in combat, but I'd be more than happy to teach her to mind her manners…"

As Sakura adjusted her stance, Hinata spoke up. "You found them?" she asked, and Sakura nodded in response. Smiling, Hinata stood up and turned to Kabaji. He met her white, focused stare with difficulty. "Oh, mister Kabaji, please? It's alright, isn't it? We're both so desperate to see our friends, and I'm sure she just got excited…?"

Blushing, Kabaji stammered out an uncomfortable response. "Th-th-that's perfectly understandable! I'm sure I'd-uh- I'd do something like that myself in her situation!"

Stepping just the slightest bit closer, Hinata looked up at the taller man as Sakura closed her eyes and stifled a snort of laughter.

"So... so it's alright?" asked the blue-haired girl.

"O-of course!" he replied.

Sometimes, Buggy wondered what he had done to deserve his life.

Sometimes, he feared that the answer was 'everything'.

-One Day Later-

-Water-7-

-Middle Tier-

The parting with the Buggy Pirates had been… tearful, though for many different reasons. Although they had repairs to make, it appeared that Captain Buggy wasn't very eager to hang around an island that was soon going to be infested with bounty-hunters.

The two young kunoichi, however, had no such concerns. They had no bounties, and they wandered through the beautiful city underneath overcast skies, gradually finding their way to the middle tier of the fountain-shaped island. Finally they no longer had to deal with a circus-themed crew lurking all around them, which meant the two of them could talk freely.

"I swear I don't understand you sometimes," said Sakura, though she was grinning as she said it. "I mean, you're barely able to talk around Naruto, but that? That was shameless flirting if I've ever seen it."

Hinata blushed, the color easily reaching her pale cheeks that had gained some scattered freckles from the constant exposure to the ship-board sun. Early on in their trip, Hinata had demurred every time the topic of Naruto was brought up, but consistent pressure over the last couple of weeks had left the girl unable to even feign denial any longer.

"Well… when would you really have seen me except when you were with Naruto…?" asked Hinata. "I'm not exactly comfortable with it, but Kiba and Shino aren't really…"

"They never seemed very sociable, right. So, what, this is your teacher's influence?"

"Kurenai… she's amazing," said Hinata, dropping her eyes to the cobblestones as they crossed another of Water-7's numerous white bridges. "She's everything I'd want to be, and she really pushed me to learn to be better at the… social side of things. Even if I'm not too good at it."

Hinata paused for a moment as they continued to walk through the busy city streets, giving Sakura a chance to respond. "I don't know, that looked like a good job to me."

"Thank you. But… if Naruto and Sasuke are really such… boys, like you were saying, don't you have to cover that side of things as well? You're really pretty, so I thought…"

All of a sudden, Sakura choked on nothing, then pretended to clear her throat instead. Images of Naruto transforming into a busty blonde came unbidden to her mind. A surprisingly large number of the people they needed information from were men, so he was often the one distracting, luring, or just plain seducing their targets to aid the mission. Until this very moment she'd never once felt like his sexy shenanigans were something that she had even needed to compete with, but... Surely it wasn't her fault, right? Surely no one could compete with Naruto's shamelessness, right?

"I- uh- I do handle a lot of the talking, it's true, but…" Sakura chuckled nervously. "I guess our team never really worked all that hard on that angle. Still," she said, raising a gloved fist that she clenched in front of her, "that's only one strength a woman can bring to the team, right?"

Hinata smiled, and it seemed to brighten up the overcast day. "Right!"

Despite her ambivalent feelings on the matter, this lifted her spirits as well. It was a good mood to be in at the start of their search. "Alright, we barely know what we're looking for here, so I'm thinking we check the first taverns we see."

Hinata nodded. "Let me find one." Forming a hand seal and focusing for a second, the veins around her eyes stood out as she activated her Byakugan. She could now see a fair bit of the island in a complete sphere around her, lit up in shades of grey and white, with a burning array of chakra from the thousands of people around her. She took a few seconds to sort out what she was seeing.

"You don't happen to see Naruto or Sasuke, do you?" asked Sakura.

Hinata shook her head. "Honestly, I'm not sure I'd be able to make them out like this. This city is really dense. There are just too many people in a small area, which makes it especially hard to make out a single person. Naruto has a powerful chakra system, which makes him easy to see, so I might be able to make out with him if he were around, but I don't- what's so funny?"

Sakura had stopped to lean against a railing, chest heaving with laughter.

"Wha-What is it? What's wrong? Sakura, are you okay?"

After a moment the pink-haired girl recovered from her fit of amusement, straightening back and avoiding eye-contact. "No- no, I'm fine. I'm fine, Hinata, don't worry. Just- just glad I brought you along, that's all." She stood up, still chuckling. "Come on, we've got to keep moving. Take us to the first tavern you found, alright?"

Hinata looked dubious, but she complied, dispelling the Byakugan and leading the two of them across a number of bridges and startling a number of gondola-riders as they darted over the surface of the water from time to time. Eventually they arrived at a well-kept establishment that seemed very much like the kind of place that respectable people went when they wanted to unwind.

-Water-7-

-Blueno's Bar-

Blueno stood behind his bar, seemingly bored by the slow day. In reality, he was growing terribly nervous. It was increasingly apparent to him that with Rob Lucci out of action and Spandam dead, no one had any clear idea what CP9's current objective should be. Everyone was being expected to act on their own initiative, and this was a cause of some particular concern for him given that he was the only person on their roster with both freedom to act and a still-functional cover.

If he waited to act then he would retain his cover for when a new leader was decided. That said, if he waited then he would also lose his only chance to capture Cutty Flam or Nico Robin.

Blueno was uncomfortably certain that his action or inaction would decide both his fate and that of CP9's remaining members.

Two young women covered by traveler's cloaks stepped into his bar on that slow and dreary day, and Blueno gave them an appraising eye as they approached. He could tell people that were coming in for information a mile away. Still, his persona as bar-owner was accommodating and a bit of a pushover, so he always made sure to act accordingly.

"Meeeeh," he bleated, "I don't know that I feel comfortable serving two young ladies. It's safe here, but you're a bit too young for this place, I think."

The pink-haired one reached beside her, grabbing a pint of the local brew from the sturdy dockworker sitting there and against his half-hearted objections, proceeded to down the entire mug in just a few seconds before slamming it back down and tossing a few coins across the way to replace the drink. Blueno watched this with an inward surprise that, for once, matched the well-practiced look of shock he put on his face.

"Alright then, I can take a hint," he said, looking between the two of them. The blue-haired one looked a bit embarrassed at her friend's lack of delicacy, which was interesting. Her eyes were white and featureless, suggesting that she might be blind. "You're looking for something. What can I do for you?"

"Well, that makes things quicker," said the lead girl. She slapped two bounty posters onto the table.

Ah, so that's what this was about.

"We're looking for these two," she said, eyes locked on his.

Blueno held eye-contact for a moment, then let it drop. "Getting involved with criminals?" he asked, "Somehow I don't think you two pretty flowers are bounty hunter material..."

"The truth might surprise you," she responded, her smile fixing in place slightly as she did so. "Answer the question, or you'll find out a little more than you're bargaining for."

Blueno took a step backward, feigning fear. It was easy to pretend to humble yourself when you knew that you were the strongest person on the entire island, possibly barring a few of the Straw-Hats.

Now, the blue-haired girl interrupted, "Please, sir," she said, "We're very experienced with this sort of thing, and if we can learn what we're looking for here then we can avoid hunting in any seedier places. It'd be a great help to us."

The old good-cop, bad-cop routine, huh? It can be pretty effective, but it wasn't going to work on a government secret agent. Blueno pretended to think that over, then glanced down to the bounty sheets. Then he took another glance, eyes widening slightly. It was the two ninjas that had been part of Straw-Hat's entourage.

"So you do know them," stated the pink-haired one.

"Meeeh, no, I'm just surprised to see you hunting such a large bounty. You think the Straw-Hats are still here? Why are you going after just these two?"

"Because I think I can kick their asses," she said, crossing her arms underneath her cloak, "Have you seen them or not?"

Blueno thought about this for a moment. The Straw-Hats were currently laying low in housing provided by the mayor, Iceburg, in thanks for their actions on Water-7. He knew this for certain, given that he'd been spying on them for the last couple of days.

"No, I'm afraid I haven't heard anything about these two," he said. After a moderate pause, during which the two girls looked to each other, Blueno amended his statement. "Actually, I did hear something about two kids wreaking havoc down in the lower ring near the junkyard. That area was hit hard by Aqua Laguna. Heard they were doing some crazy stuff down there, maybe Devil Fruits involved."

"When did you hear this, and how can we get there?" asked the blue-haired girl.

"Meeeh, just this morning, and I can give you directions if you really insist."

Before long, Blueno had given the ladies directions to one of the more isolated parts of the island. Once they had left, he turned to a hulking man who was covered with tattoos and scars sitting at one of the nearby tables. "Suzie! Could you keep an eye on the bar for half an hour? Some business came up!"

The unfortunately-named Suzie gave him a thumbs-up then downed his current glass in a huge gulp. Suzie could handle things. He'd take a couple of free drinks for himself, but he'd keep others away. Nobody who knew what was good for them messed with Suzie.

With that, Blueno stepped into the back, grabbing a thick coat and a full-faced mask from one of his secret stockpiles. Concealing himself, he stepped up in front of an open area. When he spoke, his voice was deep and confident.

[DOOR-DOOR: AIR-DOOR]

A door opened in the air itself, and he stepped inside. Now that he was ensconced inside his own personal dimension, he stepped out of the building and began to jog to his destination. Passing vague outlines of the city and its purple around him as if they were smoke figurines, he had a completely uninterrupted trip to his destination.

Those two weren't just hunting another bounty, he was sure of it. They were related to the Straw-Hats somehow, and he would take that information from them, one way or another.

It wasn't until he had gotten half-way to his destination that he began to grow puzzled. Assuming the two girls hadn't deviated from the directions he had given, he should have caught up to them by now. By following them and silently observing he had hoped to get a read on their motives. His was one of the best spying tools in CP9's arsenal, after all. Inside this personal dimension he was completely invisible to his target.

Nevertheless, he didn't catch up to the two until the point he had given them directions for. Somehow they had matched or exceeded his speed.

Silently, he approached, stalking around the two of them as he watched them look around the nearly abandoned warehouse lot. They seemed ready for combat, but they were naive indeed if they had believed they would find the two bounties at the very place he had suggested they start looking.

The two were talking to each other, but he couldn't make out the words. The one downside to this technique was that he couldn't make out speech, and his visual fidelity was too low to read lips. Other than viewing them, he couldn't interact with the real world at all.

Oh? That was odd. The blue-haired girl had done something unusual to her eyes. He made another tentative circle around her before coming up to her face and then backing off. The girl simply stayed with her stance at the ready in the pose of a martial artist's. Her eyes remained focused on nothing at all, with no reaction to his approach other than to continue talking to her friend.

Satisfied, he slipped into a nearby warehouse and prepared to begin eavesdropping. Opening a door in the air, he stepped down into the real world. He closed the door without a sound and then the wall in front of him exploded as the pink-haired girl burst through the wall with a shower of debris and the sound of tearing metal. Shocked, he engaged his Tekkai, freezing in place as he became as hard as iron, and then the girl struck him in the chest with a gloved fist. To his surprise, he was sent hurtling backward through the opposite wall, feeling a sting where she had hit him.

Climbing out of a pile of masonry, he swiped his massive arm to clear the dust from the air around him. She had disappeared. Frowning, he opened another door and quickly stepped inside, just barely avoiding a devastating heel-strike from above that shattered the concrete below him.

Alright, he was safe again. Time to consider his options.

These two had detected him the instant he had left his personal dimension, so clearly they were more experienced than they had appeared. The element of surprise had been lost, but he still had some things he wanted to try.

Striding off through a series of walls, he walked back out into the open area until he was at least a hundred feet from the two. Then, he opened a door and called out to them, his deep voice obscured by his full-face bear mask.

"Good afternoon," he said, "I suppose you're wondering-"

"Take off the damn mask, barkeep! We know it's you!" the pink-haired girl called back in return, walking out from behind the warehouse she had nearly destroyed. "You're the first and only place we visited."

"Hmm… What strange fortune," he murmured, then removed the mask. "You can call me Blueno."

"Sakura and Hinata. I don't suppose you're here to show us to our destination."

"Correct. I have nothing else to add except to say that when you decide you are willing to tell me everything you know about the Straw-Hats, I will let you live."

He was lying, of course. Letting them live would just be foolish at this point. Still, that said, he opened another door and stepped inside. As he did so, there was an explosion just outside his door, and a blast of hot air rushed past him through the closing hinge.

It was apparently dangerous to use his abilities in front of these two.

Once again, the world was enveloped in a muffled silence. Swimming down below the ground, he lurked underneath Sakura and prepared to open a pit-trap underneath her feet. At the last second she jumped away, and the door attack was evaded. Landing lightly to the side, Sakura slammed her fist into the earth, creating a crater that did absolutely no damage to him as he closed the door.

Still, Blueno was stunned. That couldn't possibly be a reaction to his appearance, or else she'd be one of the most alert people alive. Did that mean they had some way to watch him inside his door dimension? That made the technique almost entirely useless!

He turned to watch the other combatant who had stayed mostly out of the fight so far. It had to be her doing this. Hinata, the girl he had thought was blind, was watching him carefully, likely relaying information about his position.

Still inside his air door, he retreated until he was a block away from them, separated by several buildings. Stepping out into the real world again, he took a runner's sprinting position. Let's see how she deals with an attack that's too fast to see.

[SORU] - [GEPPOU] – [SHIGAN]

Kicking off of the ground a dozen times in an instant, he flew across the sky and then kicked off of the air itself, landing directly behind Hinata. A single piercing strike with an extended finger drilled into her shoulder. The girl opened her mouth in shock from the pain, then disappeared to be replaced by a large sandbag that was leaking rapidly from the brutal attack.

What-?

Sakura was there an instant later, readying another one of her destructive punches, but Blueno declined to be hit.

[KAMI-E]

Moving like paper in the wind, Blueno evaded her strike by whipping his torso to the side.

"ORA-ORA-ORA-ORA-ORA-ORA!" She roared, striking over and over with increasing speed as he continued to dodge. Barely noticed in the storm of attacks, she kicked the ground, the motion somehow sending a spire of stone erupting from underneath to slam straight into his crotch.

[TEKKAI]

He took the below-the-belt hit with a wince, then retaliated.

[SHIGAN]

He shot another deadly finger-strike at the over-extended young lady. The attack moved like lightning, but Sakura moved faster, catching his finger in one gloved fist.

"Nice try, barkeep, but I've seen that trick enough times from my teacher," she said, then she moved to break his finger with a twist of her powerful wrist. Blueno immobilized his entire hand, his finger becoming harder than a steel rod just in time for him to feel an unpleasant wrenching sensation. He'd feel a sprain from this later, he was sure.

One foot rose in a kick, slashing the entire area in front of him with a blade of force, and Sakura was forced to let go, somersaulting backward before she landed lightly thirty feet from him.

Momentarily separated, Blueno considered his opponents. These must be more of those 'ninjas,' and it looks as though they're just as tricky as his information suggested. Still, though the fight was much tougher than he had expected, he knew they'd run out of tricks soon enough. Then, his depth of experience in dealing with shocking new abilities would rapidly turn the tide against these much younger warriors.

Blueno scanned the area with flicks of his eyes, but he still couldn't see the other girl, Hinata.

"You're pretty tough," said Sakura, giving him an appraising eye, "But somehow I don't think you're that sturdy naturally."

Blueno kept scanning the area, looking for anything out of place. "I have trained in the Six Techniques. My specialty is in Tekkai, the superhuman art of muscle control to harden my skin and body to supernatural levels."

"Oh, really?" asked Sakura, and then she glanced over his shoulder, her eyes flickering to the side for just the time it took to blink.

He knew he shouldn't, but he spun around anyway. It was a feint- no one was behind him. Sensing the girl's incoming attack, he immediately kicked off the ground to jump directly away from melee range.

[SORU - TEKKAI]

He hit the wall behind him at high speeds, trusting in his invincibility as he smashed through the stones into a different warehouse. Landing on his feet, he skidded backwards, twisting to face his earlier opponent.

Sakura hadn't followed him. She was standing at his previous location, feet firmly planted on the ground with her arms crossed as she stared at him through the Blueno-shaped hole in the wall.

Before he had even finished skidding backwards, Hinata landed as lightly as a feather from the ceiling beams behind him. He was ready for it, turning his twisting momentum into a devastating kick that cleaved the air before him. Hinata, however, ducked underneath the blow and assumed a martial-artist's stance.

[HAKKE: SAN-JUU-NI-SHOU]

[EIGHT TRIGRAMS: THIRTY-TWO PALMS]

She advanced like a breeze, striking him in the chest with two outstretched fingertips. Reflexively, he blocked the attack.

[TEKKAI]

The attacks multiplied in speed and ferocity, striking his iron body with just enough force to halt his slide backwards. Still, even when the final sixteen attacks landed, it was like being pushed by an angry child.

Her pathetic combination strike finished and Blueno smirked, ready to counterattack.

Then he collapsed, all of his muscles seeming to turn to limp rubber.

Startled, he found he could barely breathe, a deep pain suffusing his entire body. He was as weak as a newborn. What had she done to him?

"Who… are… you…?" he ground out.

As Hinata watched over him, Sakura entered his field of vision to kneel down beside him.

"Oh, you don't need to know that," she said, now smiling. "Nighty-night, cowboy."

Sakura placed one glowing hand on his horned head, and then everything went black as he fell unconscious.

Sakura was finally washing her hands of this entire affair when Hinata turned to look in another direction, a sense of urgency in her stance.

"Someone was watching us during the fight," she said, having been aware of everything going on in the streets around them at all times.

Sure enough, their mystery observer approached from the shadows of a nearby street, clapping his hands together with an oddly heavy sound.

"Man, I tell ya," said the nasal-voiced man walking their way, "That was the best thing I've seen all week, and trust me, I've had a SUPER week. The hardest part was not joining in to clobber him."

The voice belonged to a very large man with blue-hair, a colorful shirt that was hanging open, and a tiny pair of underpants. He was carrying a load of lumber on one shoulder balanced with various boxes of carpentry tools and materials. As Sakura watched the man's casual approach, Hinata leaned over and whispered to her.

"He's no ordinary person. He's filled with metal."

Sakura nodded, and then tilted her head to the unconscious figure beside her. "So, you know this guy?"

"Know him? Nah." The man stepped forward until he was standing across from them, but his eyes were fixed only on their fallen assailant. "In fact, the more I look at him, the more I realize he's a complete stranger to me. I mean, I sure as hell don't know any scumbags who would lie in wait for years-" he kicked the bartender in the side, "-and pretend like everyone in town was their best friend-" he kicked him again, "-all the while just waiting for the chance to jump out of the shadows and betray everyone he knew." He walked around to the side and then planted his foot firmly in the other man's crotch before turning to face the girls once more. With one hand he raised his sunglasses- completely unnecessary in the dark- and said, "If I was friends with some loser like that my reputation would super go straight down the toilet, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I think I get you," said Sakura. "So no-one needs to know if this guy goes missing, then?"

"Oh, no way," said Franky, picking up the massive man with one weirdly-shaped arm and hefting him over his unoccupied shoulder, "This fellow looks so tired that I bet he needs a looong break. In fact, even though he's a complete stranger to me, I'm feeling so goddamn generous this week that I think I'm gonna bring him down to meet the guys. Maybe we'll give him a nice vacation or something where no one will ever find him again, huh?"

As Franky started walking back toward the empty streets, Sakura and Hinata shared a glance and then followed along.

"So, what brings two young ladies like yourselves here to so utterly destroy one of the biggest badasses on the island?" he asked, tromping along down towards the sea-line, a load of wood on one shoulder and Blueno on the other.

"We're looking for the Straw-Hat Pirates," said Sakura, watching him carefully.

There was a momentary hitch in Franky's step, but his voice remained its usual bombastic self. "Oh? That's pretty amusing. I happen to know a few things about them. What are your names, by the way?"

"I'm Sakura, and this is Hinata."

"Oh, Sakura, huh? That's perfect. They said you might be showing up sometime soon."

"Oh, really? So they're expecting me, are they? Perfect."

The three of them proceeded to Scrap Island at a reasonable pace. Though Sakura offered to help carry either the cyborg's wooden burden or the traitorous assailant, he accepted no aid.

Eventually, they arrived at the shell of a great ship under construction that was about half-completed. Though it was still too early to tell much about what the final result would turn out to be, it was being worked over by a middle-aged man with purple hair along with a number of Naruto's clones.

Below, on the rocks by the sea, Naruto and Sasuke were sparring in an odd open-handed fighting-style, being looked over by a few assorted toads.

"Hey, guys!" shouted Franky to get everyone's attention, but Sakura was already running straight for them.

As the two boys turned to see their missing teammate, their eyes widened in shock. By the time she was halfway there, Sasuke had activated his Sharingan, and Naruto screamed in fear, forming a seal to summon a barrage of clones.

Then, Sakura was among them, colliding with the boys in a hug that brought them all to the ground.

"Ah! Holy crap!" shouted Naruto.

"Uhh, Sakura," began Sasuke, "You're kind of… crushing… my ribs!"

"You assholes!" she got out, voice wavering and muffled as she spoke into the ground underneath them. "Seriously, what the hell was that? You just leave without me and don't even say anything?! What's wrong with you?!"

Over her head, Naruto and Sasuke exchanged an awkward, guilty glance.

"Listen, Sakura," started Sasuke, "It was my idea. I… uh… I found Danzou and then I just... "

"He means we're sorry!" yelled Naruto. "It was both our ideas. We just thought it was really important we go out here, you know? I'm sorry!"

"We're sorry," agreed Sasuke. "It was wrong, and we'd do it differently next time."

"You boneheads… Don't ever do that again."

A moment passed and the two boys reached an uncertain hand around her shoulders, finally completing the embrace.

Several seconds later, Naruto chuckled from the nervous release. "Heheh… so, I guess this means you're not going to beat the crap out of us?"

"Dammit, Naruto, don't ruin the moment. It's been more than a year. For now, just be glad to see me, alright...?"

Both boys breathed a sigh of relief as the crushing grip slowly abated.

Then she added, "Revenge will come when you least expect it."