-Two Days Earlier-

-Day 1 on Water-7-

Despite the need for a long rest, almost the very first thing that the crew had done upon arriving at Water-7 was related to business. A pirate crew couldn't stay in one place forever, even if they were still grieving their loss. Though the time it took for a Log Pose to set on Water-7 was seven days, they had managed to buy a replacement that was already pre-set. This time it wouldn't be their Log Pose that held them here.

They needed a ship finished right away, and Franky was insistent that they needed special materials first.

Franky had spent nearly a decade thinking up the kind of ship he would build if he had the chance, and in order to build his perfect creation he would need the best wood around. Treasure wood from the Treasure Tree, Adam. Resistant to flame, small-arms fire, and cannons alike, this legendary material was almost entirely controlled by the World Government.

"But here's the deal," said Franky, "There's way too much money to be made on the Black Market for this stuff, so you can always find a way if you're willing to pay the price."

Franky was confident he could get them what they needed inside their budget. Nami was even more confident she could get it done for less. Usopp was feeling less and less confident about the whole business, but was determined to accompany them anyway. Usopp was wearing his black tengu mask to hide his identity while Nami had donned fashionable sunglasses, new clothes, and a different hairstyle. Franky, however, didn't actually have a bounty that anyone would recognize him under so he looked just as flamboyant as ever. The three pirates got on the train, and then the hellish conductor blew the whistle, setting them off into the blue ocean to reach a new island that Franky guaranteed them would have what they were looking for.

So it was that Naruto and Sasuke saw three of the Straw-Hats off at the Blue Station, watching as the train finished disgorging its new arrivals and took on the departing passengers. After the train had set off, Naruto started looking around the platform, restlessly pacing. "What the hell were we even here for, anyway?"

Sasuke paused, a little uncertain of where to go with this conversation. "Well, I said I needed to talk to you, and then you decided to rush after those three to see them off at the station."

"Oh, right…" Naruto frowned for a moment, then regained his composure, a shit-eating grin crawling onto his face. "Hey man, if you wanna complain about our bounties again then you can do it somewhere else, you know?"

Sasuke's eye twitched, and he bit back a curse. This whole bounty situation had been a fiasco in every way, made worse by the fact that Naruto had somehow attracted more attention than he had.

How the hell that had happened, he wasn't sure. Naruto hadn't even done anything.

Regardless, Naruto had been absolutely insufferable for the last few hours. Unfortunately, it didn't change the fact that he needed to talk to his friend about leaving the village.

The arriving passengers were still thick in this area, making it a bit difficult to have a conversation. In fact, there was one big guy hanging around in a deeply-hooded cloak who seemed to be casting nervous glances their way, so it was probably best to get out of here. From now on they would need to be wary of bounty-hunters.

"Alright, have it your way," said Sasuke. "Let's go somewhere else."

They left, Naruto leading them in a direction that smelled of spices and roasting food, ducking into an alley to break notice. Once they were out the other side both of them glanced around without seeing anything suspicious, so they proceeded onwards.

"So," Sasuke said, once they had moved on, "Naruto, we need-"

"Hey, hold up a minute," Naruto interrupted, dashing into a nearby store that was selling festival memorabilia.

Sasuke sighed. It was like he was trying to avoid this or something. Whatever- Naruto being difficult wasn't anything unusual. He'd stay outside the store for now. Stepping over to a bench, Sasuke sat down to consider a different question. What was that chakra he had felt during the fight with Rob Lucci?

He rubbed his neck, uncomfortably aware he had almost lost his head back there.

Really, there weren't many options when it came to the unfamiliar chakra inside him. It had to be Itachi, but it hadn't been the Tsukuyomi. So, what had it been?

Actually, he had an idea right away. Maybe it was a fairly large leap of logic, but this was something he had suspected ever since he had spoken to Itachi a month ago. No one had ever found Itachi's other eye, and Sasuke could infer from the warnings he had given when they had met in the Tsukuyomi that Itachi had owned one more eye from his old friend, Shisui.

So where were the two missing eyes? Itachi had been evasive when asked, claiming that when his chakra shade had been created he hadn't yet decided what to do with them, but that had sounded suspicious even then. No, there was only one answer. The missing eyes were inside him somehow, and Itachi hadn't wanted him to know about it.

Sasuke suppressed a shudder at the thought. If people had known that he had three Mangekyou Sharingan inside of him as a child, then there was no doubt he would have been kidnapped, killed, and dissected long ago, protection of the village or not. Not destroying them had been a huge risk.

The logical answer, therefore, was that Itachi intended for the eyes to be used somehow, and it followed that he had implanted similar triggers to the ones that had already been activated.

But if that was truly what this was, then why hadn't his brother just told him what those rules were, or better yet just shown him how to access the eyes on his own? Did Itachi trust his younger brother so little that he was unwilling to give Sasuke that control even after three days of getting to know him as an adult? What, was Itachi afraid Sasuke would try to mind-control the Hokage or something?

Well, he could figure this out on his own with the information he had. Itachi had two other eyes. The Amaterasu burned its targets alive with an unending black flame, which was something that made him a little nervous, but it still sounded useful. Meanwhile, the Kotoamatsukami could be used for a more-or-less one-time-only perfect mind-control based on a given command.

Honestly, they both had their problems. Even his own fire Ninjutsu were more meant for area denial or wounding, often being survivable with medical attention, but the Amaterasu seemed like a very absolute sort of weapon. It might be useful against Akatsuki, but most opponents were best dealt with nonlethally. He couldn't imagine the hell that his life would have become if his only option had been killing every opponent with black hellfire. As for the Kotoamatsukami, it was best used on someone politically powerful, and he wasn't ever planning to return to Konoha, which meant it had been more or less useless in his life so far.

If what he had felt during Rob Lucci's attack was really a trap laid by Itachi, then that meant it was almost certainly Amaterasu, not the Kotoamatsukami. The eye would have emerged... somehow... and burned the man to death if Luffy hadn't interrupted. Whether it would have happened in time to save Sasuke's life was another question entirely.

So what were the commonalities? So far he'd seen Itachi's power trigger four separate times. First, when he gained access to the eye by looking at his own fully-developed Sharingan in the mirror. Second, when he suffered from a breakdown while trying to torture Danzou inside the Tsukuyomi. Third, when he desperately wanted help while suppressing the Kyuubi. Fourth, when he had fought Lucci.

Looking back, it seemed as though these events were triggered by either things that he saw, emotions that he was feeling, or both. It was also clear that none of them had been set to activate before Sasuke had awoken the Tsukuyomi, which made some sense. Even a probable death by failing to use the Mangekyou was preferable to the certain death he'd have experienced if the truth of his eyes had been revealed as a child.

If Itachi had truly set these traps ahead of time, they had to be things he could have predicted, so he had stayed loose in his guesses. Sticking more to general threats or situations rather than specifics. He probably hadn't guessed that Sasuke would need to suppress a demon, but might have set it to help when Sasuke was desperate to control the eye. Similarly, it seemed as though the triggers couldn't recognize Sasuke's own knowledge, or subtleties such as 'Danzou as a respected Konoha leader' vs. 'Danzou as a missing-nin,' or else surely the Amaterasu would have activated when he came face-to-face with his family's murderer nearly a month ago. As far as Itachi knew, Danzou might have remained a powerful figure in Konoha, so he couldn't risk having Sasuke burn the man alive.

Okay, so that meant that the Amaterasu had probably been set to activate whenever he saw an opponent and he was sure that he was going to die.

That seemed straightforward enough. It also seemed like a fairly obvious order in retrospect.

Sasuke frowned. Something else was very clear from this, too. Whatever this was, there hadn't been a trigger set to save his best friend from death, or else he would have set that damn Admiral on fire when he had thought Naruto was dying.

Dammit, Itachi. While in hindsight he would be worse off now if he had killed the Admiral, things might not always turn out so nicely. He'd have to find a way to control the eye directly, rather than waiting for the moment when he was sure he was going to...

All of a sudden, Sasuke's eyes opened wide, a sharp intake of breath bringing in the seaside air. Wait... if it would only activate when he thought he was going to die, then would the trigger work at all if he thought that the Amaterasu would save him from death...?

Dammit, Itachi!

Bending over to put his head in his hands, Sasuke grimaced, well aware that he may have just screwed himself over with his well-intentioned reasoning.

Ugh. This was useless. He wasn't a child any more. He'd have to find a way to make the Amaterasu his own. Maybe he could ask Itachi about it next time they met...?

For that matter, what about the Kotoamatsukami? It was almost certainly too slow to use in combat, but it also hadn't been used on the Hokage, or Danzou, or anyone else important that Itachi would have known about, so it probably wasn't set for anything at all. Maybe it was too important to waste on an unknown guess. After all, how could Sasuke give the target an order if he wasn't even aware he had the eye in the first place?

Or maybe he was overthinking this. Maybe the eye wasn't with him at all. Itachi might have found something else to do with it before the night of the massacre.

"Hey! Doofus!"

Sasuke looked up. Naruto was standing over him wearing a grey wig, a dark bandana that covered the lower half of his face, and his forehead protector draped negligently over one eye. He was doing a very poor impression of their team leader, Kakashi.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. I tripped and fell down the stairs because I don't have any depth perception."

Broken out of his earlier thoughts, Sasuke snorted. Not at the joke, but because Naruto thought it was worth doing.

"Naruto, you look like a tool."

"Heh, yeah I guess you're right," he replied, pulling down the mouth-covering. "But all the talk about bounties just got me thinking about disguises. You know, since my bounty is just so amazingly high and all."

"We won't need disguises. We can just transform any time someone spots us, dumbass."

Naruto ignored him, pulling off the wig as well. "No, you know what? This should really be your disguise anyway. I'd hate for people to think I'm copying the copy of the copy ninja, you know?"

Sasuke winced at the thought then tried to avoid glaring at his friend, who he knew was smirking like an asshole. He wouldn't say anything. He wouldn't give him that satisfaction. The two of them resumed their walk on into the city.

It was another minute before they saw the cloaked man from the train station following them again, and he wasn't doing a very good job at it. The two young men exchanged a glance, before Naruto nodded.

"Heh, I got this," muttered Naruto.

Sasuke watched as his friend ducked into an alley for a moment, a clone appearing and swinging back into place at Sasuke's side a moment later. The pursuer would probably have noticed only a jump to the side to check out something interesting. Then, the clone turned back down the street as if he had forgotten something, rushing past the hooded figure as he went.

The instant the hooded figure turned to face the clone, Sasuke disappeared, joining Naruto in hiding. Just then, the cloak bulged and rippled, a mane of light-pink hair stabbing through the cloth all over to pierce the clone in several places. As the clone exploded in a cloud of smoke, the man screamed in rage.

"A thousand curses be upon you, you villainous cur! Come out and face me or I will tear this place to pieces! Yoyoi!" shouted the now-recognizable voice of Kumadori.

Beside Sasuke, Naruto put his hands to his face, pulling his features downwards in misery as the familiar yodeling voice washed over him. Sasuke just looked confused.

"Wait, Naruto, isn't that one of the CP9 members? The one you lied about beating?"

"You tricked me! You took advantage of my pure spirit, and now I shall make sure that you are punished for your deceit!"

Slowly, the blond ninja recovered, taking a deep breath and turning to face Sasuke again. "Hey, Usopp and I beat him fair and square, alright? We convinced him to trap himself in an hours-long kabuki play. Luckily my clones figured out how to make some ear-plugs pretty early on."

Sasuke stared back, dumbfounded. "What? Wait, that's what happened?! I was fighting for my life, and Robin's life, and all the while you were playing pranks?! That's… Shit, how the hell does that even work? He's an assassin! I don't care how weird those guys were- no way is he going to just forget what he was doing!"

"Hey, my arm was broken, alright? I could have beaten him, but this way was so much better. And you're just jealous you couldn't do the same thing!" Naruto smirked. "Face it. The old you would've thought of it. You've lost your touch."

"What?" hissed Sasuke. "Bullshit, you don't get to say that kind of thing to me and expect me to take it sitting down. I think you're lying."

"No way!"

"Alright, so prove it," said Sasuke, grinning at his friend. "Beat him either way. If you can't trick him, then at least kick the crap out of him."

Nodding, Naruto stood up, and then he paused before stepping out into the street.

"No, you know what? The way I beat this guy was awesome, and no one can tell me otherwise. I'm gonna do it again."

As the assassin stalked forward through the streets, glaring left and right as he did so, people were backing away from him in fear. Now was the time to attack, before anyone got hurt.

"Alright," grinned Naruto. "So, this guy is the stupidest person I've ever met. Watch and learn."

Naruto clapped both hands together. "Alright, Granny Shima... You're up!"

[NINPO: KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU]

[SUMMONING TECHNIQUE]

There was an explosion of smoke in the street before the assassin, but the kabuki-man was not impressed, turning his head to face the sudden arrival with a critical eye.

"Ah, young one… Fool me once! AH! SHAME on you! But now- I won't be fooled- Oh?"

As the familiar percussive noises of kabuki musical accompaniment rose to fill the air, the smoke parted to reveal an older man with long, wild, white hair. He wore a grey pair of pants, grey coat, and a red overcoat, smiling through the smoke in a classic kabuki mie pose, both hands held out in front of him.

Sasuke watched with approval at the detail that had gone into replicating Naruto's master, Jiraiya. The transformation on that clone looked just like the real thing. Naruto might not be as skilled of an impersonator as he was, but the numbskull could really pull through if he practiced. Still, it was odd... That was the kind of transformation that might temporarily phase a ninja who knew of Jiraiya's fearsome reputation, but it was a strange choice out here. For that matter, where was the toad? The dark haired ninja looked around, not seeing any hint of one.

"Naruto, where's the toad?" he whispered.

Naruto just blinked, his expression completely blank. "Uhhh… I, umm… I thought I summoned her..."

Bypassing his friend's stumbling confusion, Sasuke turned on the Sharingan, scanning the area. No toad, but…

That was interesting… the Sharingan couldn't tell the difference between a Kage Bunshin and the real body, but it could easily pick out when a clone was transformed into something else. No matter what, its chakra system still looked like Naruto's.

The Jiraiya in front of them didn't look like a Naruto transformation. It looked like the real thing.

Sasuke and Naruto gasped in shock, their eyes widening in sudden realization. A moment later, as the smoke cleared completely, Kumadori did the same thing.

"CONDORIANO?! YOU'RE CURED?!" he screamed. "What about your crippling syphilis?!"

The rising percussion stopped dead and Jiraiya froze in place, interrupted in the middle of his dramatic entrance. Somewhat stunned, the man dropped his mie pose and looked behind him, seeing Naruto and Sasuke huddling around the corner. Sasuke looked vaguely concerned, but Naruto was absolutely terrified.

Then, Jiraiya took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

"Naruto," he said, his voice as serious as the grave.

"Y-yeah?" asked Naruto.

"I can't bring myself to look. Are there girls watching?"

"Yeah… yeah, man, there are girls watching," responded Naruto, equally serious. Despite himself, Sasuke gulped. He didn't know that much about Jiraiya, but he knew enough.

Now, Kumadori assumed a pose to match the one that his counterpart had just dropped. "Ah! Condoriano! Truly we are brothers in arms! I too am always watched over by the holy womanly spirit, as my Deeear Mother protects me from Heaven!"

The Toad Sage took another deep breath, then let it out.

"Naruto."

"...Yeah...?"

"This is your fault, isn't it?"

"Y-yes… Yes, it is... sir."

"Who is this man?"

"Condoriano, are you saying that you do not recognize me?! Kumadori?! I, who have trained on the mountain and become a Sage?! I am a Lion, AH! A LION who has mastered the Six Techniques! We are kindred spirits! I know that you too were merely a victim of their deceit, but even so you inspired me to return to my true calling! But first, ah, FIRST I must punish this vagabond who deceived me! He and the long-nosed one must pay for their sins!"

The Toad Sage took another deep breath, then let it out.

"Naruto."

"...Yes?"

"Will anyone miss this man if he disappears?"

"No, no they won't," assured Naruto, shaking his head. "And he's actually pretty tough."

Kumadori sensed the attack coming far too late to stop it. He felt the murderous intent wash over him as if he were standing in front of a crashing wave, and he hurried to reinforce his Tekkai. When the blow came, though, it struck like a bolt of lightning. Jiraiya arrived with a spinning kick that smashed through Kumadori's defenses, knocking the breath from his body and sending him flying off above the rooftops in a wild spin.

Off in the distance, down city streets that sloped to the water, his body could barely be seen skipping like a stone across the waves. He bounced five times before finally coming to a burbling rest.

All around them, people scattered, eager to forget everything they had just seen and get as far away as possible. Jiraiya turned to the two young men, reserving a dark glower for Naruto.

"Boy," he said, his anger like a wreath of lightning around him. "You've got a lot of explaining to do."

Jiraiya, as it turned out, had actually not cared the slightest bit about disciplining Naruto and Sasuke for leaving the village. Public accusations of syphilis, however, were an entirely different story, and he quickly pulled Naruto aside to talk to him about the delicate social expectations he had for his pupil. For example, how terribly embarrassing it would be for a kid his age to have his intestines ripped out in front of his peers. Despite his complete and total lack of involvement, Sasuke was pulled into it too.

"Sasuke," lectured the sage, glaring at him with a stern eye. "I know better than to expect you to stop this dumbass apprentice of mine, but what about Sakura? Didn't she make it out here yet?"

"No, not yet. It actually takes a while to get anywhere on this ocean. There are all these time delays built in to navigation here."

"For that matter," started Naruto, "How did you get here? I know I can't summon you normally."

"I hijacked the summon with Granny Shima's approval and assistance. She had an awful lot to say about what you've been getting up to out here. She told me that when she showed up the last time, you and three other men were playing monkey-see-monkey-do with a big Kabuki man in- oh, that was the guy I just kicked the crap out of, huh?"

Sasuke raised his eyebrows, but Naruto just nodded uncomfortably.

"And he hunted you down again? Well, my pupil, as archenemies go you could do a lot better than that clown."

"He's not my archenemy!" protested Naruto.

"Well, no, not any more," agreed Jiraiya.

Naruto sputtered angrily, and Sasuke decided to come to the rescue.

"So… I suppose you're here for a report on the situation with Akatsuki…?"

"Oh, all that can come later," responded Jiraiya, turning to watch as a pretty lady strolled down the street. "...I need to start by getting my own look at this place."

"Wait, later?!" shouted Naruto, suddenly regaining his vigor, "You're gonna be staying here for a while?! But, even if you messed with the summons, I'm still the one providing the chakra! Do you have any idea how much it takes to keep a summon running for even an hour?!"

Jiraiya chuckled, spinning to glare down at his student as the well-proportioned woman walked out of sight. "Oh, cry me a river, cupcake. You're the last person I want to hear complaining about chakra levels. Think of it as training! For that matter, think of the good of the village! Besides, I'm going to be here for much longer than an hour..."

Naruto's hand shot out like an arrow to point accusingly at the old master. "Bullshit! You're not thinking about training or the village at all! You just wanna find the brothels, you old pervert!"

Jiraiya laughed, clearly enjoying himself. "It's all research, boy! One way or another, it'll be research!"

"Oh, yeah?! What if I just cancel the summon, huh? Looks to me like I've got all the power here, you pervy old man."

"Oh, sure, sure… you could do that," admitted the sage, "but I don't think you'll like what happens the next time I see you." Once again his tone became deathly serious as his eyes grew cold and murderous. "Certainly not after the way you dragged my reputation through the mud…"

Naruto worked his jaw back and forth, clearly struggling with the decision. Eventually, Jiraiya walked up and clapped a hand on his pupil's shoulder.

"Don't worry, it's not like you'll be getting nothing out of it. You never finished your training, and that's a job I'm not going to leave half-done. You're going to make some time for this, and Sasuke, you're going to watch and copy it all so you can make sure he learned it properly later."

Sasuke blinked. "You're… going to just let me watch?" That was strange. Even though it didn't take any extra effort for the teacher, it was very strange for a high-ranking Shinobi to let an Uchiha watch them for the purpose of learning techniques, especially with the clan's disgraced status. He had pushed his luck from time-to-time, but Kakashi had been the only one to openly allow that kind of information exchange. It wasn't likely he'd learn any Ninjutsu from this, what with Naruto not sharing any of his elemental affinities, but he could learn a lot just by watching the way different masters moved.

Jiraiya just shrugged. "It's not like you won't get most of this stuff from Naruto anyway."

That seemed reasonable enough, but then the sage added, "Besides, it looks like you might need it out here..."

As Sasuke pondered that odd addition, Naruto piped up. "Hey! So, I've been meaning to ask. Whenever I was talking to the toads, they said you had some super-secret technique that you use when you need to go crazy on someone, but they wouldn't tell me any more about it. I don't need more of the basics, I wanna learn whatever that is."

"... Sage Mode?" Jiraiya asked, taken aback by his pupil's question. He paused to think about that for a moment, a displeased frown on his face. "...Naruto, I hate to tell you this, but nearly one in four people who've tried to learn it end up dead, just from the training alone."

"Yeah, but those guys were probably chumps! I've got the whole prophecy thing, right? That means I'm not gonna just die from something unimportant like that, you know?"

"I don't think it works that way…" mused the older man. "But it is true you might be more suited for learning it than most… What's the big hurry, though? It's not like the world's about to end right now."

"The big hurry is I've run into a whole bunch of super-powered lunatics out here and I'm probably gonna run into more! Look, come on, I'm sure I can handle it, alright? Gimme a shot!"

Jiraiya growled and scratched his head, deep in thought for a moment as he paced left and right. Finally, he said, "Alright, but I have two conditions. First, you need to impress me with the results of what you've learned so far. Second, we're gonna take this slow. No shortcuts. Either way, any pupil wishing to learn about Sage chakra must start the training back at Mount Myoboku, so gimme a couple days to get things ready. You can learn the basics there and then practice elsewhere later, but I need a promise from you."

"Alright! What is it?"

"Until you're experienced with it, you could kill yourself by losing control for even a second, so you need a partner who can sense the chakra to break you out of it. Sasuke, will you be available to help?"

"I…" Sasuke paused, uncertain. He might not even be around Naruto at all after leaving this island, but…

"Yes, I'll help with whatever's needed. I don't really know what I'll be doing to help, but…"

"Don't worry about that," assured Jiraiya. "I'll handle that angle. I just need to know that someone's making sure this bonehead NEVER practices with absorbing natural energy without supervision.

So it was that with little fanfare Jiraiya resumed Naruto's training. Though Jiraiya would only be present for short periods here and there, Naruto had until the ship was completed and ready to go, which meant covering as much information as possible in a short period of time and relying on Naruto's self-motivated learning style in his teacher's absence.

Jiraiya's first period of evaluation was ending as of the third day on Water-7 when Sakura and Hinata arrived.

-Day 3 on Water-7-

-Present-

When Sakura had finally finished her embrace, Team-7's shared greetings became a bit more reserved. Naruto and Sasuke's enthusiasm had been slightly dampened by the death threat they had just received.

The toads that had been watching over Naruto quickly realized that training was over, disappearing in clouds of smoke. Franky deposited the tools and materials near the ship's hulk and brought Blueno's unconscious body over to his partner, Iceburg. As mayor of the city, Iceburg could not condone violently dealing with the traitorous assassin, but as head of the Galley-La shipwrights and former guardian of Pluton's blueprints he simply requested that the man never be found by the authorities.

Eventually, Hinata tentatively abandoned her distant observation to approach the three other ninjas who were getting caught up with each other.

Sakura hurried to introduce her, deciding that she'd wait until Naruto screwed up once to intervene in the meeting. She could at least give him a chance.

"Alright, you two. I'm pretty sure you already know her, but this is Hinata. She was kind enough to help me get out here safely, so I'm helping her in return."

Naruto gave an awkward and confused sort of wave and greeting. Sasuke was far more natural, but he raised a questioning eyebrow towards Sakura afterward. Nodding back, Sakura flicked her eyes in Naruto's direction. Sasuke returned the nod with a smirk. The exchange went right over Naruto's head.

"Uh, so, why the hell are you here, anyway?" asked Naruto, seeming genuinely curious.

Sakura instantly excused herself and pulled Hinata aside by the arm.

"Hinata," began Sakura, "I'm so sorry, but I need to talk to these two alone for a bit. I especially need to make sure Naruto doesn't do anything else to disgrace himself. Are you going to be okay?"

"Yes, I'll be fine. I'll just... take a look around." After a pause, she added in a desperate whisper, "Please don't make a fuss over me..."

"No promises," said Sakura, patting her shoulder and then turning back to the guys.

"Actually," interrupted Franky, who had been listening nearby, "I've got an idea. I need to talk to the Straw-Hats about something I found on their old ship. Why don't you come with me and I'll show you where they're all staying?"

Hinata blinked uncertainty, looking around to be sure the cyborg was talking to her. "Umm... I'm not really... I don't really know them..."

"Nah, don't sweat the small stuff, lady. You're gonna be sticking around for at least a little while, right? You'll be staying up with the rest of them then, so you might as well meet those goofballs now and get it over with. Just wanna make a small detour to the Franky house to drop this guy off."

As Hinata looked back to Sakura, the pink-haired girl shrugged. With one last glimpse back towards Naruto, Hinata accepted Franky's offer, and the two of them headed off.

Naruto watched them go a little uncertainly.

"So, uh, like I asked… what's she doing here?"

Letting out a resolute breath, Sakura stepped up to him. She placed both hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes, her face filled with a burning determination. "Naruto. I want you to listen to me. I want you to pay attention for just one moment and listen to me as if your life depended on it. Are you listening to me?"

Shocked and confused, Naruto nodded along.

"Good. This is very, very important. Hinata did me a huge favor by coming along with me, and I've come to realize that she's a truly wonderful girl who doesn't deserve to put up with your shit. That said, this is what we're dealing with, so I'm taking some control here." She kept staring into his eyes, searching for some measure of understanding before she continued. "I advised Hinata that she should just be herself, because she's fine the way she is. I know that normally I would be advising you to also 'just be yourself,' but I'm not going to do that. We both know what a terrible mistake that would be, don't we? Instead, I'm asking you to stop being yourself for just a little bit, alright? Stop being Naruto. At the very least when it comes to your normal oblivious, thoughtless shenanigans, be better than Naruto. Do you understand me?"

For one glorious moment she thought he was going to nod his head in meek agreement, but alas, it was not to be. His earlier confusion turned into out-and-out bewilderment.

"Wha-What are you talking about? Is this about why you brought her along? You make it sound like I'm gonna bite her head off or something, but I'm not, okay?! If she hates me so much that you just want me to stay away from her, then fine, I get the message!"

Naruto flinched as Sakura's expression went as cold as ice. She wasn't even watching his face any more; she was just looking through him, as if he didn't even matter. Her gaze was starkly alienating, reducing him to the level of an insect, or some other utterly inconsequential life-form. Contrasting this was her iron grip on his shoulders, which slowly intensified until he felt his bones start to creak.

Sasuke walked up behind her and placed his hand on her back, breaking the spell. "Now, Sakura," he said, "I need you to let Naruto go for a moment. I have something very important to talk to him about."

Still staring through the blond young man, Sakura released her grip. Sasuke stepped forward and carefully turned Naruto around, placing one arm around his shoulder as they walked away from the scene of narrowly-avoided murder. When he spoke, his voice was careful and condescending, as if speaking down to a young child.

"Now, Naruto. You're getting to be a big boy now. Do you remember the day we left Konoha? That was a long time ago, wasn't it? Almost a month ago now, wow… Remember how you saw Hinata? You had certain... feelings? On that day, I told you I'd tell you all about this when you were older, and I guess that day is today. I think it's time we finally had The Talk."

Flamboozled, Naruto staggered along beside his best friend in a daze.

Their conversation was extremely illuminating.

-Water-7-

-Early Evening-

Later, after Naruto had wandered off into the city in a daze to contemplate his fortune, Sakura and Sasuke found themselves sitting across from each other in a dive restaurant, and they could only shake their heads in exasperation.

"I can't believe he hung out with that foul old man for a year and yet he didn't even figure out she was all over him!" she exclaimed.

"I know! I said the same thing!" exclaimed Sasuke, openly laughing at the absurdity of it all. "It's like his fatal blind-spot or something. I really can't explain it, considering how easily he notices it in everyone else."

Sakura blinked. She hadn't seen him in a while, so maybe it was her imagination, but Sasuke seemed very animated all of a sudden. Over the last couple years of missions he'd started to become a little more moody and reserved than he'd been when they first met, but this seemed like a huge change in the opposite direction.

He'd come out here to hunt his family's killer, right? Why did he seem so… happy? Maybe that wasn't a good question to ask right out of the blue, though.

"So, okay," she said, "I really want to be done with talking about his antics for now, but I have to ask. What the hell did you two do to earn what looks like a sky-high bounty? What did Naruto in particular do?"

She had really intended to be a bit more angry when she asked this question, but the general atmosphere was making that difficult. Her smile widened a bit as Sasuke's expression suddenly soured.

"I mean, I know what I did, but as far as I can tell, Naruto didn't really do much of anything," he said. "He just threw a whole bunch of clones around and made everything more confusing than it should have been."

There was always something satisfying to her about seeing his feathers get ruffled.

"Okay, so what did you do then? Because what it sounds like to me is that you joined a pirate crew the same way I did, but you two got way too involved."

"Heh…" chuckled Sasuke, looking suspiciously wistful. "Yeah, maybe. You wouldn't believe these people… the Straw-Hats. I've never met anyone like them. Naruto fits right in, of course, but I…" he shook his head. "Anyway, the long and short of it is that while we were tailing Akatsuki we ran into a real powerhouse out here and got captured by the government. They wanted Naruto and me because we had intel on Akatsuki. At the same time, one of my new friends, Robin, turned herself in to save all of us from getting killed by a big group of assassins. That part's kind of a long story, but in the end we ended up kicking everyone's asses, blowing up a city, and destroying most of a Marine prison convoy."

Sakura blinked. Sasuke didn't seem to notice anything odd about what he'd said, but that had really gone downhill fast.

What if this place was rubbing off on him? Hell, what if it was rubbing off on her?

Sasuke continued. "So then I stole a bunch of good new techniques and ended up dueling a Marine Commodore who was half-mouse in front of his own battleship."

"Wait, wait, wait…" Okay, where to start? "You blew up a city?!"

"Ehhh… kind of. It was mostly an accident."

"An accident?!"

"Yeah, the island it was on was a deathtrap waiting to happen. The captain of the Straw-Hats, Luffy, he ended up drilling a leopard-man straight into the bedrock, and then it all went crashing into the ocean."

As Sakura struggled to tell how much of that was true, Sasuke hurried to elaborate.

"Oh, but don't worry too much about it. They were all assholes there anyway."

"You... Oh, hell, you're not kidding, are you? The captain did that? He's the one with the crazy bounty, right? God, what is up with these people?"

Suddenly, Sasuke's eyes widened, looking straight at her. "You should meet them."

"Alright, hold on," she interrupted, slowly massaging her forehead. "Sasuke, you might be laboring under a misconception here. I'm not planning on making friends out here, especially not with pirates. I'm here to make sure both of you get home safely."

Sasuke fidgeted for a moment, but said nothing.

"Look," she continued, "I know this thing with your family is important to you. I've never doubted that. But you know how this is supposed to go- we get a team, gather intel on the target, and attack when he's weak. But this time you just run off without any preparation? It looks like you just did this by accident. Honestly, you're acting like a rookie here. Why didn't you ask us for help hunting Danzou down when he was back around home rather than waiting until he had left out into the ocean?"

"Sakura, he's an S-rank Missing-Nin. I was supposed to just make both of you go after him?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "It might have taken a while to find him, but you would have had my help, Naruto's help, and even Kakashi's help, no problem!"

Sasuke looked stunned, like he'd just been slapped in the face.

"But you know this is the worst time for it. He's just going to keep getting further and further away out here, and I know that you know you can't catch him like this. You can't just keep pushing forward and throwing yourself against all of Akatsuki until you're dead. Come on, Sasuke, tell me what you're thinking here."

"I…" he paused, seeming suspiciously nervous all of a sudden. "I… have something I need to tell you and Naruto about. It's something I've been putting off for a long time."

She sat back. The way he was speaking sounded as though he was preparing to share something very personal. It was not a tone she was used to hearing from him. "Okay... That sounds serious. What do you need to say? I'm here, and I can help you."

"I'd rather wait until I can talk to you and Naruto together, actually," he said, averting his eyes for a moment.

Ahh… Now things began to make some sense. How long had he been delaying whatever this was? She pointed angrily across the table at him.

"Oh, no you don't. I may not be able to drag you back on my own, but I can at least make sure you stop procrastinating. If you haven't talked to your best buddy about it yet then it's clear you're just going to keep finding reasons to put it off."

"I don't think you realize how busy we've been recently..."

"Don't pull that crap with me. I saw you training alone with him just an hour ago. Somehow I doubt you're even trying."

His slight wince told her she was exactly correct, so she continued. "I'm here now, so I want you to tell me about it now. Keeping you two honest appears to be all I'm good for after all."

He sighed, working his jaw for a moment before he appeared to come to a conclusion.

"Sakura… I won't be coming back," he said, his voice steady as he reached the point of no return. "When I went out to sea I was intending to leave forever. It was my brother's last wish, and the only way I can see to avoid my death in the future."

Her mouth dropped open, all the air leaving her chest in a moment.

Sasuke raised his eyes to meet hers with a sad expression.

"I'm sorry, but it's something I've been thinking about for years."

She stared back, then tried to find her words, her brow furrowing and her lips mouthing the start of several different sentences. She had taken off her gloves for the meal and now her training-toughened hands clenched and unclenched in front of her.

"Sasuke… you…"

She stopped. He'd been thinking about this for years? If that had been his brother's last wish, then that would have been before he had met... any of them, really. From the very moment that Team-7 had been formed, he had already been planning to leave them? He'd been lying to them this whole time? He hadn't even asked them for help?

No. No, that wasn't right. That didn't fit with what she'd seen. He wasn't that good of an actor, and there was no way he had been set on this path for all their time together. There was still a chance to figure this out.

"Alright," she said, still not quite able to process it, "I'm angry, and I don't really understand."

"I… don't blame you," he said.

"Well… you're right about one thing," she said, taking a steadying breath. "We're going to wait to continue this until we find Naruto, because I'm not going to have this argument without his help."

"I don't think we'll be able to find him right now... not without Hinata's eyes at least. We kind of let him wander off."

"That's fine," said Sakura, stilling holding back her anger. "I can be patient. In the meantime, there's something else you need to do for me."

"...Yeah?"

She looked at him, her eyes sharp. "You're going to show me the people who are trying to take you away from us. I want to meet the Straw-Hats, and I want to meet them now."

A/N: So much to cover after all those action arcs.

No, I'm not setting up a bunch of Deus ex Machina with the eyes. Not everything that Sasuke guessed was correct. That said, any rules on the triggers set would match his guesses pretty closely. They'd be based only on things he can see (including chakra), emotions he's feeling, and they'd have to be very simple. They'd also have to be predictable by Itachi at the moment of his death, and not likely to accidentally trigger in a poor situation (like burning Danzou alive at Academy graduation, for example).

Finally, Itachi has already confirmed he can't step in for an extended period of time like he did before.