-Water-7-
-Upper Tier-
-Hinata and Franky-
There's a feeling familiar to anyone who's ever been taken in by a huckster or fraud. It comes at the very moment that you realize that you had been so distracted by whatever story you were pulled into that you ended up agreeing to something really quite unusual. Not that the cyborg walking next to Hinata seemed like a con-man, but she was uncomfortably aware that the only reason she had agreed to accompany him to meet the Straw-Hats was that she hadn't wanted to be caught in the middle of whatever embarrassing thing Sakura had been planning.
She looked beside her to the towering blue-haired man, a large wooden crate balanced on one shoulder as if it weighed nothing at all. If she hadn't known better, she might have thought the man had pulled her away from it on purpose, but he really had no reason to know what had been going on. Maybe she should ask him about all this?
"So… the Straw-Hats…" she asked. "Should I be worried about them? If they're dangerous we can get a different lodging for our stay here- we've got some money."
Franky raised his head to the sky and laughed hard. "Don't worry about it! You guys'll get along great. Trust me! Besides, I'm going there anyway, so you might as well meet 'em now."
There was a very large difference between meeting them alongside Sakura and the others and meeting them alone, but she struggled a bit with expressing that thought. Franky seemed very confident, but she didn't really know him either.
Why had he went off to meet the Straw-Hats again? Oh, right… He'd said he had a question to ask them about something he'd found on their 'old ship.'
"What's the question you need to ask them, if you don't mind me asking? What does the box have to do with it?"
"Oh, this?" asked Franky, thumping the huge box with his hand and then reaching inside to pull out an object. "Here, see for yourself."
With a negligent throw he lobbed what turned out to be a disembodied arm at her. She caught it, turning a surprised expression his way.
"...This is a ninja puppet's arm," she said. "Why would these pirates have a box of spare limbs?"
"Hey, beats me. That's my question. Thing is, the craftsmanship on that thing is stupendous. The mechanisms inside are out of this world, but I'm still not sure why they even have them. I'm hoping they'll let me take these things apart so I can see what's what. Might result in some nice surprises down the line, you dig?"
"Err... yes, I think I understand. I suppose you're into machinery, then?"
"Lady," he began, flashing her a grin as he thumped his metal chestplate, "Machinery is into me."
"Oh, right. Of course."
Together, the kunoichi and the cyborg proceeded onwards through the city, with Franky idly pointing out features that only a true native would know. She couldn't help but notice that people would often go to great lengths to get out of Franky's way, sometimes crossing the street far ahead of them, or ducking into a shop, or in one memorable moment screaming and jumping straight into a canal.
She didn't know what the fuss was about. He seemed like a nice person.
Eventually they arrived at their destination in the upper tier- an entire compound surrounding a large, almost palatial estate.
"This place looks important," she said, looking over the sprawling multi-story government building in front of them.
"That's 'cause this is the mayor's estate," said Franky.
"The mayor? Are we going to see him…?"
Franky chuckled. "You already saw him. He was the guy working on the ship down at Scrap Island."
She blinked uncertainly, recalling a purple-haired man of middle-age sweating in the afternoon sun. "...I thought you said he was the head of the shipwrights here?"
"Same damn guy," clarified Franky.
"…Why is the mayor building a ship for wanted pirates?"
"You know, that's a super interesting question," said Franky, but his voice was getting further away. She looked away from the front doors and saw him heading off down another path.
"Nope, not that way. We're going over here," he called, beckoning over his shoulder.
She followed.
Eventually the winding paths led them to the other side of the estate, where a white building stood all on its own. There were three men arguing in front of the doors—two who seemed to be guarding the building, and one man with shifty eyes who was trying to get past.
"Come on, don't deny it," insisted the shifty-eyed man who was dressed in a wide-brimmed hat and leather cloak, "It took a while for me to figure it out, but it's clear the Straw-Hats are hiding here! You sure you want a bunch of dangerous bounties like that hanging around right under your noses? Why don't you let me and my men take care of 'em for you and we'll both make out like bandits?"
"THERE'S NOBODY BY THOSE NAMES ON THE PREMISES!" screamed the massively-muscled grey-bearded guard. He was carrying a tremendous log that looked to be composed of most of a large tree over one shoulder. "WE'RE JUST HERE TO KEEP INNOCENT PEOPLE OUT OF THIS VERY DANGEROUS AREA!"
"Tilestone here is right," insisted the other guard, a sunglasses-wearing man who was only slightly less buff than his partner. "You should leave the area immediately. There's been a breakout of a terrible disease."
Saying this, the man smoothed down a stubborn and unruly chunk of his hair, but it failed to make a difference, the hair error popping up in a different spot a moment later.
"Oh yeah?" asked the bounty-hunter. "I ain't heard of nothing like that. What's the disease?"
"SUDDEN-ONSET SHORT-TERM MEMORY LOSS SYNDROME!"
"It's really been going around a lot recently," agreed the sunglasses-wearing guard, still attempting and failing to adjust his hair. "I'd say I'm surprised you haven't heard of it, but… well, with the symptoms being what they are…"
Interrupting the conversation, a loud crash alerted everyone to new arrivals as a reindeer burst out of a window around the side of the house, Luffy clinging desperately onto his back.
"Get offa me you asshole!" shouted the reindeer as he charged out into the yard, bucking furiously as he ran.
"Come on, Chopper! A reindeer ride's just the thing to cheer you up!" shouted Luffy as he was flailed wildly back and forth through the air.
"No it's not! You're just trying to cheer yourself up!"
With those words, Chopper disappeared around the side of the house, carrying his boisterous load with him as he went.
There was a small moment of quiet as everyone processed that, and then Tilestone raised his tremendous log and bashed the bounty-hunter in the back of the head. He fell to the ground like a wet sack of bricks.
"OH NO!" screamed Tilestone, "ANOTHER VICTIM OF SUDDEN-ONSET SHORT-TERM MEMORY LOSS SYNDROME!"
"Man, it's really spreading," said the man in sunglasses. "Might be more infectious than we thought. Better put him with the others."
Hinata watched this scene with the same sense of mild confusion that had become common for her since leaving her home. Thoughts such as 'What a loud person,' and 'Did that reindeer just talk?' passed through her mind, but what she settled on was...
"Wow, the Straw-Hats are kind of violent aren't they?"
"Huh?" asked Franky, as they continued their approach. "Nah, those guys aren't the Straw-Hats. They're the shipwrights up here. The Straw-Hats were those two guys that ran through just a second ago."
"...Two guys...?" she asked, wondering if she had missed someone.
Franky ignored it, instead calling out to the guards at the door.
"Hey guys! Got a visitor!"
The two shipwrights looked up in surprise, then the sunglasses-man nervously whispered something inaudible to his friend.
"YOU'RE RIGHT! IT'S FRANKY! WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THE MONEY I OWE HIM!"
In another moment, Franky and Hinata had reached the doors.
"Tilestone... Lulu..." Franky greeted them without even a nod. "You losers gonna get the door, or what? We've got a guest."
The two guards shared a glance.
"Alright, just be careful. They're kinda rambunctious today..." said Lulu, still fiddling with his hair.
Franky shrugged, but at this point Hinata had to interrupt. This was getting ridiculous. "I'm sorry, but I really should have asked this earlier. I honestly can't tell if these pirates are supposed to be safe or not. The way everyone's been talking about them makes them sound like wild beasts. What are we getting into here?"
The two guards shared another nervous look, but Franky just laughed. "Hey, yeah that's a super great way to put it. They're a bunch of crazy animals, alright! But, you know, the cuddly kind. Just don't corner 'em and you'll be A-Okay!"
From inside the house came a great deal of crashing and trampling noises.
"C-cuddly?" asked Hinata. "How could you describe a bunch of wanted pirates as cuddly?"
Abruptly she recalled her time with the Buggy Pirates' pet lion, but she quickly shook herself out of it. This and that were two entirely separate things.
The violent noises from inside suddenly increased in volume and urgency as they were joined by assorted screaming, and then the front doors blasted open, bowling over the two guards in an explosion of wood and bodies. Hinata had just a moment to register the reindeer and rider from earlier barrelling straight for her. Shouting in terror, the young man grabbed the doorframe to slow them down, and the reindeer scrabbled with all four hooves to avoid their collision course, but it was too late.
Not for her, of course. She leapt over the incoming freight-train with well-trained reflexes, allowing the reindeer and rider to pass harmlessly underneath.
It was just so terribly surprising when the young man's grip on the doorway lengthened and stretched, pulling the reindeer to a halt and then reversing the beast's direction with a rubbery twang. Caught in mid-air, Hinata's cry of surprise joined that of the the rider's as they were all shot like pellets in a sling back into the interior of the house. Luckily, before she could be crushed underneath a tumbling reindeer there was a musical *poik* noise, and the animal seemed to disappear.
They came to a skidding halt in a common area. Her head had struck the wooden floor, but not hard enough to hurt her. Beside her, the stretchy man had fared worse, his head somehow slamming so hard into the floor that he buried himself up to his neck in the floorboards.
Around her arose the admonishing yells that signified the displeasure of the rest of the Straw-Hats at the violent return of the rambunctious rider and his surprise extra passenger. Now she was inside potentially hostile territory, and she could only hope she didn't look like a bounty hunter. Her worries were interrupted when a child's voice came from very nearby.
"Umm, I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"
Gradually, she became aware of something very fuzzy on her chest. She looked down. There, resting atop her bosom and looking at her with a worried expression, was the most adorable creature she had ever seen. She couldn't help herself. She grabbed the little horned creature and snuggled him with all of her might.
"AHHH! GET HER OFF ME! NAMI! USOPP! ROBIN! HELP! MMPH! MMMMPH!"
His fuzzy struggles intensified until he exploded in size, throwing her arms wide as he was replaced by a much larger and muscular version of himself. He tossed a suspicious glare her way and then disappeared, leaving her where she lay.
Oh, dear. That was the reindeer from earlier, and it looked as though he really could talk.
Ignoring the frantic struggles of the stretchy man, she cast a look around her. She had landed in a common area of an extremely… wooden building. The walls, ceiling, furniture, and everything else was almost exclusively plain wood, and the entire area smelled like finished carpentry and sawdust. Contrasting this was the truly fantastic scent of a multi-course dinner in mid-preparation that was wafting from the kitchen.
Her gaze halted as she saw what she had been looking for. Sitting on a man nearby was a straw-hat with a red ribbon. The bounty posters for the Straw-Hats had been taken before she had had the chance to look at them, so she wasn't exactly sure which pirate was which, but she was sure of one thing. The owner of the straw hat was the captain of these pirates- a feared man who had earned a truly astronomical bounty.
Their tumble through the main room appeared to have knocked over the owner of the hat, disturbing him from his sleep. Slowly, the green-haired man sat back up, the straw hat falling unheeded from his lap, and there was nothing friendly in his expression at all.
This man had a menacing aura to match his fearsome bounty, and she was quick to identify the thick hand-calluses of a swordsman.
This man was a killer. Though she was still on the floor, she readied herself to move at a moment's notice.
Slowly, he fixed her with his gaze.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked.
She was spared the effort of responding when a hard bread-roll flew out of the kitchen and smacked the green-haired man in the back of the head. A moment later it was followed by a blond man in a dress-shirt with the sleeves rolled up, who jumped into the room screaming, "She's a Lady, that's who the hell she is, you ignorant mossball! We don't talk like that to Ladies in this house!"
The green-haired man turned too late to catch the incoming berserker before the blond man delivered a spinning kick that sent his victim flying out of the broken front doors. Then, the berserker smoothly transitioned from the kick into an acrobatic flip to land gracefully before her, hand outstretched.
"Mademoiselle, please, allow me to help you to your feet," he said, taking her hand in his with a gentle yet confident smile.
She blinked in surprise. These social changes were coming a bit too fast for her. Luckily, her combat senses were still in working order, and she dropped the chivalrous man's hand just before a thick piece of lumber speared inward from the open door, knocking the blond off his feet with a cry of pain and sending him flying further into the building.
That was when Franky found the opportunity to intervene. He approached from the door, clapping his heavy hands together.
"Alright, alright, stop horsing around you guys, you're freaking her out. That's not how you're supposed to do introductions, you crazy kids."
Seconds later a red-headed woman was at her side, reaching down to help her in place of her earlier would-be rescuer. Unnecessary, but the gesture was appreciated regardless. Hinata smiled and accepted the offer, pulling herself to her feet with the proffered hand.
"Sorry about that," the woman said. "That greeting was a little more crazy than normal."
Before Hinata could respond, the woman gasped in surprise. "Whoa! Your eyes! Wait, you wouldn't be a ninja, would you? Are you Sakura?"
"...Oh, yes, I am. A ninja, that is, but I'm not Sakura, I'm just a... a friend of Naruto's. My name is Hinata."
Introducing herself that way felt a bit odd, and she hurried to brush off her clothing. Beside her, the young man still buried in the floorboards continued grunting and struggling to escape. The red-headed woman looked down at this with a flash of annoyance.
"Well, I'm sorry to impose on a guest, but could you help me with this dumbass here? I don't want him to suffocate or something. I'm Nami, by the way."
Nami moved to grab the stuck young man by one leg, and after a moment Hinata went along with it, grabbing the other one.
"Alright, just pull until the floor gives way," said Nami.
"...Won't that hurt him?" she asked.
"Don't worry about it."
They pulled, and pulled, and kept pulling as his legs stretched out, forcing them to walk backwards as they worked. With a crack of wood, the stretchy man burst free of the floorboards, snapping back towards them with a force that would have bowled them both over if Hinata hadn't been ready for it. This was still a little closer to a presumably dangerous pirate than she wanted to be, so they dumped him to the floor in a heap.
He got to his feet completely unharmed by the traumatic head-injury, dusting himself off and turning to face them.
"Hahahah! Thanks a lot for the help there! I'm sorry Chopper ran into you like that!"
Without any further provocation, Nami punched him in the head. "Don't blame other people for your mistakes! Apologize to Hinata properly!"
This was apparently enough to faze him. He bowed before her, uttering a contrite, "I'm very sorry for whatever I did." Then he raised his head with a guileless expression and added, "I'm Luffy! I don't know who the hell you are!"
All of a sudden, the name 'Luffy' brought a flash of recollection to her mind. That was when he walked over to grab the straw-hat from its discarded position on the floor. He placed it firmly on his head and grinned, as if he had been bothered by its temporary loss.
Oh.
-Water-7-
-Top Tier-
-Sakura and Sasuke-
"Alright, so tell me about these pirates," Sakura asked, as she and her friend pushed their way through bustling streets. "Every pirate group I've seen on my way out here has been little more than a bunch of thugs trying and failing to work their way through a comedy routine. What's the difference here?"
"Maybe a little lighter on the thuggery…? They kind of have to be seen to be believed, I think," admitted Sasuke.
"I've seen a fair bit so far and I think at this point nothing would surprise me too much."
"Even still, I think it would be better to meet them rather than trying to put it into words..."
She frowned. "You know I'm kind of irritated with them, right? What's stopping this from turning into a fight if things go poorly?"
Sasuke just shook his head. "It won't come to that."
She sighed. She was trying to talk about anything other than her friend's planned self-exile from the village, but he was making it pretty hard. Sasuke could be pretty stubborn once his mind was set on something, but he also had a bad habit of lacking introspection. Despite this, he was very intelligent and once he decided to start thinking about a problem he could reason his way through it very well.
Therefore, when arguing with him about his decisions the key was to win the argument the first time around and not give him time to start coming up with post-hoc justifications. To this end, she would avoid the topic entirely until Naruto was with her so that she could bring overwhelming firepower against his rationalizations.
Still, it was hard to ignore the elephant in the room.
The two of them proceeded to the mayor's offices mostly in silence. She wasn't blind to the fact that the mayor of this bustling city seemed to owe a debt of some kind to the Straw-Hats, but it was really hard to say what that meant at the moment.
Following Sasuke through the estate, she knew they had found what they were looking for when she saw Franky repairing the front doors of a building at a rapid pace. When the cyborg saw them approach he gave them a tool-filled wave. Then, after a blur of motion and a cacophony of hammer strikes that were too fast to follow, the door stood fully repaired just in time for the cyborg to let them through.
This was it.
It was a noisy mess inside, and the first thing she noticed was Hinata at the center of it all. Several young men were bombarding her with questions, and one woman was presiding over the chaos as they sat on, under, and around the several wooden chairs and benches in the central meeting area. Despite the chaotic atmosphere, the blue-haired girl seemed to be enjoying herself, laughing as she tried to keep up with the increasingly unusual or confusing requests.
Sasuke pointed out various people that were involved in the conversation, though it was mostly unnecessary since she knew them from their bounties. Zoro and Robin were the only pieces of calm in the storm, given that Zoro was sleeping and Robin was off in the corner, reading quietly to herself. Despite Robin never having looked up to see them enter, she waved in their direction, and Sasuke waved back with a smile.
Before even a minute had passed, Sakura and Sasuke were approached by a blond man in a dress-shirt with rolled-up sleeves. The man was carrying a tray with a single drink on it. Sasuke gave the other man a Look, but it was completely ignored. The new arrival had eyes only for her.
"Mademoiselle. Would you do me the honor of requesting a drink?"
Sakura blinked in surprise. She didn't recognize him from the bounty posters, but this had to be one of the Straw-Hats. Did this notorious pirate seriously expect her to accept a drink from him?
"No, thank you," she said, coolly refusing the offer. "I just returned from dinner and I'm not interested in refreshments."
"Oh, but I could never leave a lady hanging in the lurch. I've already provided for everyone else here, even the shitty-" he flicked a glare Sasuke's way that was over so fast she wasn't even positive of what she had seen, "-men here. Surely I can get you something so that you aren't left out?"
"Hey," interrupted Sasuke. "I don't see anything for me."
"Oh, Sasuke, I didn't see you there," said the man, his earlier suave tone being replaced with a threatening growl. "Why don't you screw off and join the others? I'm sure they'll be doing impressions or something like that soon enough. Might as well get some use out of those damn copy eyeballs, huh?"
Beside her, Sasuke's irritated expression intensified, and this time the other man deigned to notice, flicking his gaze to meet Sasuke's for just a second as something incomprehensible but very male happened between them. She shook her head, not wanting any part of this.
"Whatever," she said. "If it will make you happy, surprise me."
The man smiled.
"It appears I already have! I took the liberty of making something especially for you the very instant I saw you arrive."
With that, he took the drink he was carrying in one hand, tossing away the tray and landing it smoothly on a nearby table. Stepping up, he ignored her irritated expression, gently but firmly pressing the beverage upon her and then disappearing with a slight bow.
She eyed the glass with suspicion. Frosty and green, it smelled of melons and mint.
She wasn't impressed. She hated charmers just as much as she disliked fruity drinks, so that was two strikes against him right there. Sasuke just shook his head in disgust.
"You might as well drink it and get it over with," he sighed. "It'll be good. I can't argue with that."
"Sasuke, I'm not going to drink something a pirate gave me."
"What, Sanji? He's harmless. Just try it, or he'll up the ante."
Despite wanting to get to the meat of this meeting as soon as possible, if there was one thing this ocean had taught her it was that some people out here were insane and needed to be humored. She took a sip. Then she took another.
Slowly, her eyes widened. It was a fruity explosion in her mouth, but damned if it wasn't delicious! More than that, it felt like her new favorite thing in the world.
So... did she like these kind of drinks after all...? He'd made this in under a minute from seeing her?
She spared a surprised glance in Sanji's direction. He wasn't watching her, but a single pink heart floated up over his head to disappear somewhere in the rafters. Sasuke surprised her by interrupting her thoughts.
"You don't really want to read too much into that. That's just how he is."
She nodded, and returned to observing the room. She was here to observe the Straw-Hats, not play around with them. She did, however, continue sipping at her drink.
Oh? Apparently story-time had resumed while she'd been distracted, and Hinata had been badgered into sharing something.
"So our village is looked over by this tremendous rock that's the size of a small mountain-"
"Is everyone there a ninja?!" interrupted Usopp.
"Umm, uhh, no, but a lot of us are... didn't you ask Naruto or Sasuke about that already?"
"Don't listen to them, Hinata," said Nami, nodding back to the girl to encourage her. "They just want to hear it again because they're basically five years old. Guys, let her finish the story."
"Err… Right. So, carved into the mountain are the four heads of the previous leaders of our village-"
"Ehh? That's awesome!" cried Luffy.
"-and each of them is supposed to be a reminder of our history, and how each of these powerful leaders fought to protect us. People take it really seriously."
"Ehhhhhh, that's boring," groaned Luffy.
Without further ado, Nami chopped him in the throat with the edge of her hand. Hinata might have been a little more bothered by this if it hadn't already happened twice in the last half-hour.
"Umm... So, one day I'm at a family function. I'm supposed to be paying attention, but instead I'm looking around the village to see what trouble Naruto's getting into. Eventually I see him and Sasuke on top of the rock, acting like they're up to something."
Sakura looked to her side, watching Sasuke smirk. Hinata was clearly too absorbed by being the focus of attention to realize they had arrived. Still, despite the constant interruptions she looked comfortable enough to continue the story.
"Quickly, before anyone notices what they're doing, they finish a couple preparations and then they set it all off. There's a big noise that gets everyone's attention and then huge piles of leaves started shooting out of the ears of the First Hokage. I started laughing, and my father noticed and got angry, but then everyone else saw it, too. The Second Hokage had his eyes painted over with these big round eyeballs that were half the size of his head so it looked like he's freaking out about something. Next, when everyone was finally watching, fire started blowing out of the nostrils of the Third. The last one, the Fourth, had this big stream of water drooling out from his mouth."
Trying in vain to suppress her laughter, she pushed on to continue the story.
"I don't know if you can picture it, but there were fifty very serious people sitting around in shock as fire shot out of the nose of our current ruler! Father tried to get us to ignore it, but I started looking around for the Hokage himself. I wanted to see what he thought of it, and he was standing on top of the Academy roof just laughing and laughing! It was the best part of my month, but I don't think Naruto and Sasuke even know I was watching."
Beside Sakura, Sasuke chuckled to himself, which didn't quite match up to the more raucous laughter coming from the center of the room. Then Franky stood up in front of everyone.
"Oh," he said, "Did it look a little something like this?"
Saying that, he leaned back with a deep breath, closed his mouth, and then two jets of flame spewed violently from his nostrils, soaring over everyone's heads. Screams of shock and cheers of approval met this performance.
"Sasuke!" shouted Luffy, "Can you do that, too?!"
Hinata looked behind her in surprise at the unexpected arrivals. Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"Hey, I was the one who made the fire in the first place, alright? I'll spit fire any day, but out of my nose? The technique doesn't have the same protections on it."
"Come on, Sasuke! You can do it! Are you a copy ninja or aren't you?!"
"I'm not the damn Copy-Ninja, alright?" protested Sasuke.
"That's not what your bounty poster says, buddy," said Sanji.
Off to the side, Sakura saw the beautiful dark-haired woman, Robin, look up from her book to join in the laughter. Then, Sasuke stepped away from the door, bringing himself closer to the circle as he leveled an accusing finger at Sanji.
"Hey, don't you start on bounties with me, Fat-lips. I'm not going to take that sitting down after seeing your poster."
"That's a low blow, man," growled the chef. "Hang-ups regarding the name aside, you got it way better than I did."
"What do they say? If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen?" asked Sasuke.
"Oh, copying my cooking lines now, are you? Sounds like copy ninja material to me, alright."
Sakura watched as the bickering continued, all thoughts of interrupting the pirate group on hold for the time being. She was quite willing to approach a dangerous pirate captain and ask him a few pointed questions, but she didn't really have any idea of what tactic to take when said captain was currently trying to practice blowing air out of his own ears. She had really been expecting something a bit more... confrontational, but instead it felt as though she had walked in on a birthday party.
As she was thinking this, there was a jumble of excited chattering among the crew, with Usopp rummaging in his bag of tricks. Quickly conferring with Hinata as to the order of the faces, they arranged themselves seated in a row.
First in line was Usopp, whose attempted stern expression looked more like he was struggling with constipation. With a popping noise, confetti shot out of two party poppers in his ears.
Second was Luffy, who had drawn huge googly eyes over his own while also stuffing chopsticks between his nose and lower lip in an entirely unauthorized addition to Hinata's story.
Third was Sasuke, who managed a carefully controlled jet of flame from his nose that lasted for at least three seconds before he had to rush for a glass of water.
Last, they propped Zoro up against a chair, letting the loudly snoring and somewhat drool-laden man complete the Straw-Hat rendition of Konoha's mountain.
Sakura watched this with amazement. Naruto wasn't even here right now and this was still happening. Her shock was nothing compared to Hinata's, who was laughing so hard that she started crying, her breath struggling to come as she held in her sides. Sakura hadn't seen the other girl so animated since the time she had stood up for Naruto.
This was what those two had been dealing with all this time? From the Straw-Hat's bounties and the terror their names seemed to invoke she'd been half-expecting to see an extremely watered-down version of Akatsuki or something, but no. These people were crazier than Buggy!
So... was that a good thing, or a bad thing?
She looked to Sasuke, who was trying not to draw attention to the fact that he was dunking his abused nose in a glass of water. That dumbass would be smelling his own singed nose-hairs for days.
But he looked happy. Genuinely happy, as if he had completely forgotten the worries that had brought him here in the first place. As she watched, something the others had done or said caused him to snort out a surprised bubble into the water glass.
Bringing him back home... might be a bit harder than she had thought.
As if sensing her thoughts, Sasuke returned to her position near the door, red-nosed and looking a bit embarrassed by the whole situation.
"Well, that was something," she said. "A bit crazier than usual?"
He looked a little thoughtful for a moment but answered, "No, not really. It's pretty much always like this when they aren't fighting for their lives. Sorry for leaving you alone, but, well… these are the Straw-Hats."
She looked back at him for a while, gaze steady, before she gave up.
"Alright, come here and let me take a look at that nose of yours."
-Water-7-
-Middle Tier-
-Naruto-
After the Talk, Naruto had disappeared into the city in a daze.
Water-7 was labyrinthian in its complexity, but the gondola-drivers made navigation a great deal simpler. Moving uncertainly through the streets, Naruto slumped into a nearby vehicle and asked the driver to just take him 'somewhere.' So he watched as they moved to the lock that would bring him to the middle tier of the city, not actually seeing anything go past him at all.
Inside him, confusion was rapidly mounting. Somehow, he'd actually managed to make a girl like him. How the hell had that happened? Goodness knows he hadn't tried. For that matter, it wasn't just any girl, either- she seemed pretty much perfect. Now she was here 'cause she had hunted him down, and what the hell was he supposed to do about that?
And then… there was the other problem. The one he really didn't want to think about.
It was too much. He needed stability. He needed predictability. He needed comfort. In short, he needed food.
Drawn by some unusual instinct, he meandered his way along the middle tier until he wandered into the nicest-smelling place around, clutching at the spending money he had acquired from when they had divided the remaining loot after paying for the Merry's replacement materials. The small-ish restaurant was set up so that outside there were tables and chairs for those who wished to take their time as a group, and a long counter on the inside for those just coming and going. Naruto slid up onto a counter stool a couple of seats down from the nearest patron, raising his hand to catch the attendant's attention. He slapped a wad of cash down on the counter.
"Hey. Gimme one of whatever you've got, will ya? Keep 'em coming, cause I'm beat."
His food arrived quickly, but it was so weird it caught him off guard. There was fish, but it wasn't his type of fish. There were sauces, but they weren't his type of sauces. There were vegetables, but they weren't his type of vegetables. Everything out here was weird, and it just seemed to be getting weirder and weirder as time went on.
He was still going to wolf it down, of course. Konoha hadn't raised him as a picky eater.
In fact, it had barely raised him at all.
He clapped his hands together and closed his eyes, preparing to say his thanks for the meal, when all of a sudden he was struck by a strange sense of déjà vu. Eventually, he discovered the cause. The last time he had been in this situation a month prior, Luffy had stolen his food and spit noodles in his face. Nervously, he looked to his right, where the only other person at the counter was sitting.
Nope, the guy was just an ordinary dude. No worries on that account. Well, maybe he was a little weird. The adult man had short black hair, colorful clothing, and thick sunglasses that fully obscured his eyes. It looked as though he had been there for a while, eating very slowly and vocally savoring every single bite of his meal
Still, Naruto sighed with relief. It was good to know that this meal, at least, was going to go normally.
As if sensing the attention, the other man turned to look at him.
"Oh!" the black-haired man exclaimed around a bite.
Naruto looked back at him. "What? You think you know me or something?"
"Errr… nope!" said the man before swallowing. "I-uhh… I guess you just reminded me of someone… That I met once?!" he finished with a rising inflection and a nervous laugh.
Oh great. A weirdo. Or a bounty hunter. Whatever.
"Cool," said Naruto without any enthusiasm at all.
"Yeah—yeah, I guess it is! It's nice to meet you. My name's To—Err… Tobington!"
"Huh, that's a strange name," muttered Naruto, "Can I just call you Tobi for short?"
"Sure!" said Tobi, "Yeah, people out here have really strange names, don't they?"
Naruto gave the man in the dark sunglasses an odd look. Now that he had a better view, it looked like the guy had been burned or something as a kid—the skin on the right side of his face was warped and twisted. Still couldn't see his eyes, though. Naruto took another bite of his meal as he spoke. "Wouldn' you shay... dat people-" he swallowed, "-that people out here have normal names, though? I mean, my name's Naruto, so wouldn't you think that's weird? What do you mean by 'out here,' anyway?"
"Oh! I'm from somewhere foreign."
"What's the place called?" asked Naruto.
"For…reign…ia. Foreignia."
Naruto shook his head. "Goddammit but it's really sad that I can't tell if you're bullshitting me or not. It's so damn weird out here.
"It's okay," said Tobi, "I'm sure you seem pretty weird to me too."
"Yeah, whatever, man. Wait, the name Tobi seems familiar… wasn't that on a bounty recently or something?"
"Uhh, maybe," admitted Tobi, improvising hurriedly, "-but Tobi is a really common name around these parts."
"I guess… not like I'd know, anyway," said Naruto, returning to despondency. "Anyway, I'm Naruto. Nice to meetcha."
"So... what's bothering you, Naruto?" asked Tobi, curiously.
"I'm not really in the mood to talk about it, man. Especially not with a stranger, sorry."
"But… I want to know? Why are you so depressed?"
Ugh, this was irritating.
"Ah man, I'm not depressed, I'm just… I'm just kind of worried, you know? That's it. It's fine, really."
"Ah…" started Tobi, his tone knowing and understanding, "I know how it is… constipation!"
"What?! No, it's not constipation, you weirdo. It's girl trouble!"
"Oh! Well that's a bit harder, isn't it?"
Naruto sighed. "Yeah, you're damn right it is."
"Well, Naruto, I guess I'm not quite as familiar with girls as I am with pooping, but I can try to help!"
"That's a really weird thing to say, dude."
"Bartender!" exclaimed Tobi, "Two ales! One each for me and the young man here!"
The man behind the counter- who wasn't a bartender- blinked once. "I'm sorry, sir- I can get one for you, but we have a store policy against serving alcoholic drinks to someone of his age…"
Like lightning, Tobi reached over the counter, grabbing the man by his collar. The host's shocked face was brought just inches away from Tobi's manic grin, his eyes glinting behind the sunglasses.
"Bartender!" shouted Tobi, directly into the man's face, "Four ales! Two each for me and the young man here!"
Gulping at the sudden escalation, the host hurried to do as he was asked.
-Twenty Minutes Later-
"So what I'm saying is," started Naruto, as he and Tobi sat- somewhat drunkenly- at an outside table in the early evening light, "It's not like I've been turned down or anything- far from it!"
"How far? Like ten million miles?" asked Tobi.
"Well… maybe not that far, but pretty far, I guess. She likes me!"
Tobi opened his mouth in a surprised grin. "Wow! That's pretty far!"
"So, like, what do I do about it, right? The hell do I know about keeping a girlfriend? She could be my first one! You're supposed to get to- you know- practice on people you barely like beforehand so you don't mess it up when you get to the real thing, right?"
"Mess it up how?" asked Tobi.
"I dunno, like, barfing on her dad's shirt or something."
"Or pooping on her lawn!"
A few passersby looked at them oddly.
"Wha-?" asked Naruto, blinking back at him in confusion. "Wha- poo- what?!"
"Oh, no, ignore me, sorry. I said I don't know a lot about girls."
"Okay… if you say so…" Naruto was dubious, but after a moment he returned to the earlier conversation thread. "But that's what I'm saying, right? I didn't get practice- I spent the last year hanging out with a dirty old man and some toads- how do I know what to do to stop her from hating me once she really gets to know me?"
"You didn't have anyone else to learn from?" asked Tobi.
"No… My mom and dad died when I was a baby, so-"
"Yeah, sorry about that by the way," Tobi apologized, looking somewhat uncomfortable.
"Wha-? What are you apologizing for? You didn't do it."
"Ahhh, yeah, right!" Tobi cleared his throat. "Well, anyway, you seem like a pretty likable guy, you know? Why don't you just try being yourself?"
Now, Naruto cast his gaze downward, muttering, "My other friend told me I wasn't allowed to be myself."
Tobi slapped both palms down on the table, leaning in with a fierce intensity. "That's horrible! You know what you should do? You should march right back to your friend and tell them, 'I'm going to be myself, and if you don't like it then I'll poop all over your lawn!'"
"Wha-? Pooping again?! But-"
"Anyway, that can't be everything there is to this, can it? You're not just worried about a girl, you're sad about something! Come on, you can tell me. What's going on?"
For a moment it looked like Naruto was going to continue his previous pooping-related protestations, but his earlier confusion melted away into nothing as his slightly drunken gaze went distant. Slowly, he became still.
"...I guess I'm just not having very good luck with people right now, huh… I think my best friend doesn't want to come back home."
"W-what?" asked Tobi. "Like, ever?"
"Yeah, 'like, ever,' man. I don't think he wants to come home at all, and the more I think about it the more I think he might've been trying to run away for the last month and the only reason he didn't do it was 'cause I kept getting in his face. I think he's trying to get away, and he wouldn't even tell me the truth... Or maybe he wanted to, but he certainly wasn't trying very hard."
Gritting his teeth, Naruto turned his head to the side, but it wasn't hard to see that his eyes were shining. Tobi was quick to respond.
"Oh no! I'm pretty sure friends are really important! You need those for things! Wait, he's still with you, right? So… it might be fine! How do you know that's what's going on if he hasn't said anything yet?"
Naruto shook his head. "No, man, that's just it. I know because he hasn't said anything about it. I mean, I know 'cause of what he hasn't said yet." He laughed bitterly, and it was followed by a little sniffle. "I bet he thinks he's being really subtle about it, too, but that's only 'cause he's a self-centered asshole who can't put himself in other peoples' shoes."
"You… you know because of what he hasn't said yet?" asked Tobi, brow furrowing in confusion above his sunglasses. "I don't get it."
"Yeah... we've been out here for a whole month and you know what he hasn't said yet? Not even once? 'Hey, Naruto, we need to think about sending a message back to the village,' or, 'Hey, Naruto, we can't stay out here forever, you know!' This is the longest mission we've EVER been on, and not only do we not seem to be near the end, but I'm kinda doubting we can even do it. I mean, I know I said I was gonna go and kill the leader of this Akatsuki thing-"
"Eheheh… ahah-heheh..." chuckled Tobi, nervously.
"-but if he's even stronger than all the others we've run into then I mean, come on! And the thing is, Sasuke would normally be the one telling me that! Instead he's always afraid of saying anything that would remind me of why we're not back at the village! It's really pissing me off!"
"...It sounds like you wanna… trust him, or something, right?" asked Tobi, uncertainty coloring his voice. "And… like… for some reason it bothers you that you feel you can't?
"Yeah, Tobi. I can't trust him. Maybe I haven't been trying to listen as hard as I could've, but he sure as hell coulda tried harder too. I dunno, maybe that makes me a shitty person."
"What?" interrupted Tobi before Naruto could go any further in that line of thought, "No! Listen, we're getting along just fine, right?"
Naruto chuckled. "Yeah, man. I guess we're friends, you know?"
All of a sudden, Tobi shot back in his chair, the legs scraping angrily against the stone cobbles. The noise was like nails on a blackboard in the otherwise peaceful evening.
"What?! No way! We couldn't be friends!" exclaimed Tobi, a look of sheer horror on his face.
"Well, geez, you don't need to be so mean about it..."
"Seriously! Friends are always hanging around in dark lairs and plotting to kill other people, not to mention each other! They don't sit around drinking and eating peacefully! A real friend would kill you as soon as look at you, only hanging together with you due to promises of both mutual gain for victory and retributive violence for failure! That's what you were talking about, right?"
Naruto boggled, trying to keep up in his inebriated state. "Man, I don't even know what you're talking about, dude, but that's not what friends are."
Now, Tobi's shock turned to smugness. "Oh, you naive kid. Trust me on this. I have a lot of friends. I think I know what a little thing called friendship looks like, alright?"
"No," insisted Naruto, "You're wrong. What you're describing is, like, enemies, or maybe some fancy word like 'conspirators' or something. Real friends sit around peacefully all the time."
"No! You're wrong!"
"Whatever. Ask anyone here and they'd say the same thing."
"...Wait, really?!" exclaimed Tobi. "Because I asked Danz- er- my friend Danny- if we were friends once, and he said 'of course' and then he laughed, but he's tried to kill me at least three times already! You're saying he was lying?!"
"Danny sounds like a dick," muttered Naruto. "You need to get some better friends."
Tobi paused to fiddle with his fingers.
"Well… maybe... I've already got one?"
Naruto grinned, his face lighting up, "Yeah, man. You got it!"
"Huh… wow… This is really illuminating to me. I thought it was weird how everybody else acted, but… wow."
Naruto sighed, leaning back in his seat, watching the sky as the sun began setting on the city. "Man, here I was talking about girl troubles and stuff and it sounds like you've got a way bigger problem to worry about. Makes me feel embarrassed…"
A moment passed, and Naruto gave a fierce nod, looking Tobi straight in the sunglasses. "Yeah! You know what? You're right! I can be myself and get the girl! I'm good with people now! I can figure it out! And I can figure out my friend, too!"
Tobi beamed, an expression filled with genuine delight and joy for his new friend's resolution.
"That's great, Naruto," said Tobi, ordering another drink with a terribly confusing two-handed gesture to the host that made him look like he was milking an invisible cow. "I'm cheering for you, man. Anyway, I'll be leaving the island for good tomorrow morning, so I just wanted to say that I'm glad I met you. In fact, we'll probably see each other again, and I'm really hoping that you'll hear about what we did before that. We've got something super big planned, and you can bet we'll be making the news in the next few days."
As the drink arrived, Tobi raised his glass to the young man. "You go out and seize life by the throat, alright? Tonight, I'm gonna enjoy myself and then I'm gonna start doing the same thing!"
Naruto grinned, waved goodbye, then darted away down the street.
At a table in the corner, a tremendous man with curly black hair and a broken grin watched Naruto leave as Tobi returned to deepening his inebriation. For a moment his gaze lingered on the departing young man, fingers twitching, but then he shook his head. Eyes set, he returned to watching over Tobi.
-Half an Hour Later-
Naruto leapt from rooftop to rooftop in the evening air. The breeze smelled of fish and salt, and the sun was setting on a long day, but his work was just beginning.
So now he had two people he needed to have a heart-to-heart with. Maybe someone else might have agonized or angsted over which was more important or which needed to be done first, but he'd made up his mind when he left Tobi. He was gonna do this Naruto-style, and that meant doing things the way they made sense to him at the time and damn getting worked up over whether it'd been the best way to do it or not. He wasn't gonna go back on his word, and that meant fixing all of this stuff was just a matter of time.
He arrived at their lodgings faster than he had expected.
Hinata and Sakura were sitting out front and guarding the doors when Naruto approached, and Hinata was quick to stand up in surprise. Sakura gave him a menacing glare, but he wasn't scared of her. Even if he wasn't planning to threaten to 'poop on her lawn,' he was still going to do this his way.
Eyes set, he stepped up to the blue-haired girl and grasped her hand. She looked back up at him in open-mouthed shock.
"Hey, let's go for a walk, okay?"
Blinking rapidly, she was quick to nod her agreement, though she didn't seem quite able to say anything in response. Behind her, Sakura looked like she wanted to say something, but she too stayed quiet.
Then they were off.
A minute later, and he was already certain of one thing: this was a really weird experience. Her hand was hot in his, and he couldn't quite bring himself to even look over at her. It had all seemed so easy a little bit ago. Minutes seemed to stretch into hours. They just walked side-by-side in the darkening evening until, eventually, her voice surprised him.
"Is it true that you spent half an hour with your tongue frozen to that golden Buddha in front of all those pilgrims?" she asked.
Naruto almost tripped over the flat ground.
"Uhh, you… you heard about that, huh? Heheh… Guessing... Sakura told you about that one. Not my proudest moment, but Sasuke wouldn't warm it up cause he didn't feel like blowing hot air on my tongue."
He paused as she took that in. Now he was having trouble looking at her for an entirely different reason. After a moment she continued.
"...So you transformed into a dog until Sakura could come back with hot water?"
Oh, geez. Suddenly he wasn't feeling too hot about his chances here.
"Uhh… In my defense, the dog idea worked out really well, you know?" he added, desperate for damage-control. "Animals go over really well at worship-sites, even if they… er… no matter what they're doing."
There was a moment of silence in the quiet night, and then she said, "Sakura told me people were bringing you dog treats."
Naruto gulped. He'd never actually been embarrassed about this before- In fact, he'd even told the story himself once or twice- but all of a sudden he really wished she'd stop talking about it.
"Well, heh, you know, it's like I said! People see a dog licking a holy thing and they think the dog's holy too! It was just, you know, impersonation practice!"
There was another pause, and then Hinata's voice broke into a giggle. "She also said that when she finally came back there was a little girl scratching behind your ears, and her parents were telling her to 'get away from the ugly mongrel.'"
He blinked in surprise and looked over at her. She was smiling brightly enough to raise the sun back over the horizon, and her hand squeezed his firmly. Apparently the story wasn't a deal-breaker after all. Though she wasn't looking directly at him, he grinned back down at her.
"Those old farts needed to get their eyes checked, 'cause I made for a damn beautiful mutt."
Just like that, the tension was gone.
Deciding to stop heading to his intended destination for a moment, he pulled them over to one of the many bridges that could see down into the city below. He needed to apologize for something, and if there was one thing that had stuck with him from what Sakura had said, it was that he could be better than Naruto.
"Was this where we were going?" she asked, interrupting his preparations.
"Uh, no, we're gonna go somewhere else, but I just wanted to say sorry."
"...Sorry?"
"Yeah, sorry for… you know… being kind of dumb about this. I never really noticed… you know, all that, and I can't help but feel like a total idiot loser about it all."
Hinata was quick to shake her head, but slower to actually say anything.
"I… no, it wasn't your responsibility to figure it out on your own," she said. "I was weak. I know that- I've always known I was being weak, but… well… I was afraid."
He laughed. "Yeah, well, I guess we were both just dumb, weren't we?" Tugging her hand, he beckoned her further into the city. "Come on, we gotta keep moving."
"Where... where are we going...?"
He turned a grin her way, and her step faltered. After she recovered, Naruto picked up the pace.
"We're going someplace with a good view!"
Reflexively, she looked behind them to the bridge they had just left. He supposed it made sense that she'd be confused. Standing there they had had a view of most of the city, but that just wasn't good enough. If he knew anything about dating- which he didn't- right now she'd be wondering if they were actually going someplace special or not.
They sped up until they were no longer walking, slowly beginning to run as they learned how to fall into each other's rhythm.
"We're going that way!" he said, pointing off and up into the distance. Gradually, understanding dawned on her face with a smile that replaced her earlier confusion. He gestured upward as they approached a waterside warehouse, and up they went, leaping to the roofs and continuing their journey in the approved Konoha tradition- jumping from high places. It didn't take long before they were moving in unison, and he looked over at the lovely girl his stupid bullshit had earned him the attention of.
Well, he might not know everything about dating or whatever, but he knew something special when he saw it.
If you looked at it a certain way, the city of Water-7 wasn't just crested by a fountain, it was a fountain. The entire city sloped downward from its peak as water flowed through its myriad canals, winding its way through the tiers of the city.
Naruto wasn't sure what other people would think if they were trying to come up with a special place to go on a date, but really there was only one option when he thought about it. He and Hinata climbed the immense three-tiered fountain, leaping across rushing water and running up white-brick walls. From the top-most tier spouted a unending torrential spray that would quite dampen the mood, so they solved the problem as true ninjas would.
They stood upside-down on the underside of the fountain, watching the rain fall across a city that spread out below them. The moon reflected off of endless waves out into the horizon, and the city was lit as if by ten thousand candles. Once they were there, Naruto turned with pride to see if the view had been well-received, but to his surprise he found that she wasn't looking at the city. She was looking at him and just smiling. He blinked with surprise, until it finally hit him.
"Oh, crap!" he cried out, surprising her with the sudden change in mood. "You've got those cool eyes that can see, like, everything anyway, right? This is probably really boring for you!"
Hinata opened her mouth, but he continued to apologize. This really had been a mistake. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I didn't think about the way you'd see it. If I'd been paying attention I would have taken us somewhere else, but-"
"No!" she insisted, shaking her head with surprising vehemence. "No! No that's not true! This is wonderful! I- I can't explain it, but it just is… I was just thinking that you're really good at this."
"W-what? I am?!" This was truly shocking. Literally nothing in his life had prepared him for this.
"Yes, I mean I hope I'm not putting too much pressure on you. I kind of feel like I'm not really prepared, but you've been so good at..." Her blush intensified. "Well, whatever this is."
He gulped. "W-well that's good! You too! I mean, uhh, dammit. That is, argh, we haven't even done what I wanted to come up here for!"
Her mouth dropped open in surprise as he pulled out a small pack he had been carrying and pulled out his objective. A brush and jar of ink.
"Here we go! I figured you never got to deface any national monuments when you were growing up, so now's the perfect time! We can write our names down or something!"
She looked, in a word, confused. Like he had just said the very last thing she had expected.
"Uhh, you okay?" he asked.
"Oh! Oh, yes I'm fine! For a moment I thought you were going to..." Whatever she had been about to say was completely abandoned as she violently shook her head to clear it.
"... Are you okay this time?" he asked, uncertainly.
"Yes! Yes! I'm fine! Just, uhh, writing our names- as in, together?"
"Sure!" he exclaimed, glad to be back on firmer ground, metaphorically speaking. Quickly he opened the jar of ink, only to have a great deal of it hit him in the face as the black liquid fell upwards towards him. He blinked in stunned surprise as she reacted too late to stop it, but it now covered his face in great splatters.
There was a moment frozen in time, and then they started laughing.
As it turned out, Naruto still had enough ink left to complete his dastardly plan, this time accounting for gravity. The two teens defaced the underside of the fountain with their names, written both in big messy strokes as well as some slightly more reserved ones. Until someone managed to get up this high to clean, the world would know that Hinata and Naruto had been here. It was while they were still flushed with accomplishment that a not insignificant section of the city below them went black, as if everyone there had turned off their lights at the same time. A moment later, a small rumbling reached them.
"Whoa, what the hell was that?" asked Naruto, peering down into the distance.
Hinata swiftly activated the Byakugan, scanning for the source of the disturbance.
"...Two people are fighting down there. Looks like the work of a Devil Fruit or something."
"Are the Straw-Hats involved?" asked Naruto. He didn't want to interrupt this, but if his friends were in trouble then it was a clear choice.
Hinata shook her head. "No… In fact…"
Slowly, bit-by-bit, the lights came back on.
"Was that it?" asked Naruto. "If it's just two pirates going at it then we can let them be for now."
Hinata looked a little unsure, but finally turned to smile at Naruto. "Yeah, I think so. At the very least they're not fighting any more."
There were no more disturbances for the two of them that night.
A/N: I'm not apologizing.