-Sabaody Archipelago-
-Early Evening-
Perhaps the very best unintended benefit of the carnival strategy that Naruto had devised was the masks. Sure, any wanted man or woman could put on a colorful mask and hide their identity, but right now they had a legitimate reason to do so. The assortment of jolly, sun-themed masks were right now associated with the image of their carnival, which let them move around the island with impunity. Not that it helped when Luffy would take his off from time to time, but the Sabaody Archipelago would never be an iron-clad stronghold of law, no matter how many Marines were moving through the area.
The team that had decided to venture into the unknown had eventually boiled down to Luffy, Robin, Sasuke, Sakura, Usopp, and Hatchan. Then Brook had decided to come along with them. He didn't have a mask, but that was alright; he didn't have a face, either.
Eventually they would move into the inland groves where law was almost nonexistent and they could take off their masks, but for now they had stopped in a shopping district, some taking advantage of the public bathrooms in the area while they waited for various errands to be completed. Sasuke, surprisingly, was taking the longest to return from the shops, so the rest of them talked to pass the time.
"So. Who is this Rayleigh guy, anyway?" asked Usopp. "That's the guy we're going to see, right?"
"Rayleigh?" asked Hachi. "Oh, he's the best coating mechanic on the island! Nobody knows the tricks he does. He just doesn't do a lot of work, that's all."
"But he'll help us?" asked Luffy.
"Oh, yeah, he and I go way back. Besides, he'll love you guys."
"What is 'coating' anyway?" asked Sakura. "I'm still not certain about how anything is supposed to get a ship ten kilometers or whatever down into the ocean."
"Nyuu! That's what's so cool about this. You see those bubbles up there? Take a shot at one of them."
Hatchan pointed to a large, floating bubble that was very similar to many others they had seen since their arrival on the island. Shrugging his shoulders, Usopp lined up a shot and let a pellet loose. The pellet hit the bubble and deformed it, passing through the outer layer after it struck but then becoming stuck on the inside. Still intact, the bubble resumed its ascent, ignoring its new payload as it did so.
"That's a lot tougher than a normal bubble," remarked Sasuke, surprising Usopp from almost directly behind him.
"Agh! Geez! What the hell?" exclaimed the sniper. "Where were you anyway?"
"Shopping. See this?" Looking quite satisfied, Sasuke reached into a pouch and pulled out a small chunk of a bluish-green rock. "Seastone."
"Whoa, what?" asked Usopp, as the others looked on with curiosity. "You can just buy that stuff?"
"Apparently. Pretty expensive too, but I can't imagine a more worthwhile purchase. I might have to get your help working this into a weapon later, Usopp. Before we leave here though… Luffy, catch."
Saying this, Sasuke tossed the tiny chunk of rock up into the air where Luffy was squirming his way into one of the floating bubbles they had seen earlier. Seeing the incoming object, Luffy snatched it out of the air and immediately slumped deeper into his bubble.
"Uugggghh… So tired… Wanna eat something…" he moaned, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.
Usopp glared between the two of them as all the others laughed. "First off, Luffy, you just finished eating most of a sea-king, so you're not getting any more food. Second, what the hell, Sasuke?"
Sasuke smirked. "Had to know if I got ripped off or not. Sorry, Luffy. You can let go now."
"Can't… too tired… Meat..."
"Luffy, I'm telling you, you'll stop being tired when you let go of that rock."
"Uuuuugh… Gimme some meat..."
"Hmmm, it seems you've broken our captain," remarked Brook.
Sasuke sighed, and together they worked to extricate their captain from the floating bubble before he drifted out of range. This was, surprisingly, much harder than it sounded.
"Okay, what the hell is that bubble stuff made out of?" asked Usopp, once they had returned Luffy to the ground and the party had resumed the walk to their destination.
"Sap," explained the octopus. "It's the sap of these big trees that makes the bubbles. They float upwards just because that's what they do when they're out in the air, but they're really tough."
"So how long do these things last?"
"Oh, pretty much forever, except you can't take them outta this area. The bubbles can go anywhere covered by this root system, but if they float above the island they'll go pop right away. Not even Rayleigh could fix that… Or, at least, I think so? Anyway, a coating mechanic wraps your entire ship in a bubble, and it'll let you ride the currents all the way down to Fish-Man Island. That's how that works!"
"I've been meaning to ask about that," said Sasuke. "It sounds like there's air down there or something? We're not going to be stuck in the ship the whole time are we?"
"Oh yeah, there's air alright," agreed Hatchan, stretching his arms wide open. "There's an air bubble big enough to fit an entire island inside it! Just 'cause we're merfolk doesn't mean we don't like living out in the open air too."
"Wait, where did the bubble come from?" asked Usopp, which turned out to be the first of a long stream of questions. The party talked for some time about merfolk and how they lived until they began nearing their destination. As they made their way inland the number of wild outlaws lurking about seemed to increase exponentially, even resulting in several ambushes that were beaten back without trouble.
The building they were looking for turned out to be a bar. Set almost conspicuously apart from any other signs of habitation whatsoever, there was also no foot traffic in the area to attract customers. To Sasuke's eyes it seemed like an almost painfully obvious front for something illegal, and the large sign that proclaimed its name to be the "Ripoff Saloon" didn't do anything to assuage these doubts.
"And yet, that's where we're going," remarked Usopp. "No matter what we do, life always finds a way to kick us straight in the brain."
"This does seem extremely suspicious," said Robin, though she appeared to be enjoying herself.
"I think it looks rather classy!" exclaimed Brook.
"Do you think they sell actual ripoffs there?" asked Luffy.
"Give me a break," moaned Sakura.
"Why are we even going to a bar to get the ship coated, anyway?" asked Sasuke.
"Nyuu… don't worry about it. That's just where the coating mechanic and his special lady friend live. They don't really need the money, but they just kind of ended up running a bar. These things happen."
"If you say so…"
Though the bar was nicely set at the top of one of the grassy tree-roots that formed the center of Grove 13, the building itself was built with stone and almost overgrown with rampant greenery. Despite the crew's concerns, Hachi assured them that Rayleigh and Shakuyaku were wonderful people, and could do no wrong.
When they stepped inside the door, a beautiful dark-haired woman of unknown age was standing in the center of a heap of brawny thugs, each one bleeding and beaten. The largest of the thugs was moaning in pain, quietly agreeing to pay whatever the woman wanted, up to and including his kidneys. The woman looked up in mild interest at the arriving customers, her cigarette tilting slightly upwards as she appraised them.
"Welcome, everyone. I'll be with you in a minute," she said, sounding almost bored to be abusing a man three times her size.
Then surprise finally registered on her face. A wide smile broke through her boredom as the cigarette and thug both fell heedlessly to the ground. Luckily, the thug put out the cigarette with his face before any damage could be done to the floor.
"Oh… oh? Hatchan?!" the woman exclaimed, rushing over to meet him. "Incredible! It's been almost ten years since we saw you here! I can't believe you're in the area! Please, take a seat, all of you. I'm just finishing up extorting an unreasonable amount of money from these suckers, and I'll be with you in a second!"
The Straw-Hats watched with various degrees of concern, but Hachi just grinned and nodded.
"Take your time," he said.
The riff-raff had been violently expelled from the premises before Shakuyaku, aka 'Shakky' finally sat down with them, crossing her legs in her leopard-printed pants as she helped them all get comfortable. Luffy and Brook immediately started rummaging through the refrigerator, but she didn't seem to mind at all.
"So… Hachi," she said, taking a long drag on her cigarette. "You finally quit being a pirate, hmm? I'm glad. I don't think that life was cut out for you."
"Nyuu, well, I'm certainly having a lot more fun since I stopped," agreed the octopus-man. "It also kept me away from home. I'm glad to be done with it."
"I'll bet. Quitting the pirate business was the best thing I've ever done with my life," she said, smirking. "Did wonders for my skin, too."
"Huh? You were... a pirate... lady?" asked Luffy, in between mouthfuls of whatever he could pull from the fridge.
"That's right, little Monkey. Just like all of you."
"Eh? You know about us?"
"Of course I do. You all are one of the most notorious groups of up-and-comers around, and I'd be remiss if I hadn't heard of you."
She turned a lazy eye towards Sakura, who was sitting next to Sasuke while looking like she didn't really belong, and Brook, who was carefully eating a bowl of beans with a pair of chopsticks, one at a time. "Well… I didn't know about all of you. I certainly think I would have remembered hearing about a walking and talking skeleton…."
Brook took no notice of this. Luffy, however, had found her topic of discussion interesting and had turned to face the proprietress.
"I read in the papers about that Enies Lobby incident, by the way." she asked. "How much of that is true?"
"UGH. I don't wanna talk about it. Total pain in the ass," said Luffy, before biting off another slab of seemingly raw ham.
"Oh, not the boasting type, hmm?" she said as Usopp and Sasuke rolled their eyes. "You've even got the same name as that Marine hero, Garp…?"
"Yeah! He's my grandpa!"
She laughed. "I knew it. Garp's tried to hunt me down before, you know."
"Why?"
"Shakky used to be a pirate," interjected Hachi.
"That's right," said Shakky. "Though it's been more than forty years since I was at sea."
"Lady, how old are you, anyway?" asked Luffy, abandoning good grace and manners entirely as he accidentally stuffed a ham bone straight up his nose.
"Oh, that's not important. Anyway, I just love cheering on Rookies like you all. Reminds me of the bad old days. That reminds me, I suppose you all are getting involved with this big Rookie meeting being held tomorrow, aren't you?"
"How did you hear about that?" asked Sasuke.
"Oh, don't insult me," she said, though her smile took the bite from the words. "As if there's anything on this island I don't hear about. It's good that you're all meeting up. The Marines wouldn't want to start a fight with random pirates right now of all times, but they've got to look strong, and they'll lash out if some big-name Rookies start poking their heads out. Besides, I wouldn't be surprised if the bounties on the island are higher now than they've been in a decade. Especially with you and Akatsuki here."
"People are talking about Akatsuki, then?" asked Sakura, but Shakky just shook her head.
"No. No one's seen them yet, but they left Water-7 before you, didn't they? They'll be here... No doubt about it. Anyone smart pays close attention to the movements of the big bounties. And they all… come… here… no matter what."
"What do you mean," asked Usopp. "Wait, we know about Law and-and Akatsuki, but… how many more are there?"
"Oh, quite a few. There were seven different routes you could have taken into the Grand Line, you know. Each one had its own perils, but they all end here, at the wall. Hundreds of young pirates enter the Grand Line, only to be eaten alive by the ocean. Only the most incredible make it this far, and it just so happens several very high-bounty Rookies arrived here at the same time. Not counting Akatsuki, you happen to be the highest bounty Rookie on the island, little Monkey. Congratulations, even though it's only by a little bit."
Luffy was unmoved by this statement, simply staring blankly in her direction. Usopp, however, looked bewildered.
"Oh, hell! Luffy, I just realized something! It's going to be just you and Zoro in that meeting tomorrow, isn't it?! I didn't even think about it until just now, but who the hell is going to keep you two from pissing off everyone in the room?! Is it too late to tell everyone Sasuke's the first-mate?"
Sasuke snorted, but Luffy glared in Usopp's direction.
"Zoro's the Swordsman. That means he's the first-mate. Don't be dumb, Usopp."
"Yeah, see, this is the kind of thinking that worries me," moaned Usopp.
"We didn't come here to talk about other Pirates anyway," said Luffy. "We're trying to get to Fish-Man Island."
Shakky smiled. "Of course you are. I suppose Hachi here brought you to us to get Rayleigh's help, hmm?"
"Nyuu! That's right! You guessed right!"
"I'm sorry to say he's not here right now," she said, uncrossing and re-crossing her legs.
"Oh no!" exclaimed Hachi. "That's no good!"
"Sorry Hachi and Monkey. I got word that Rayleigh was back on the Archipelago a couple of weeks ago, but he hasn't stopped by yet." She shrugged. "He could always be off frequenting the bars or shacking up with women here and there. It's not that unusual for a former pirate."
This seemed to present a problem. They could always find another coating mechanic, but working with someone who understood the delicate situation a pirate found themselves in on the island had been ideal. Luffy, however, didn't seem deterred by her warning.
"So if we wait around for a bit then he'll show up?" he asked, completely ignoring the general thrust of the conversation.
"Hmmm? Well, I suppose he might, but you also might be waiting a while. He hasn't been back for six months, you know."
"EH?! Six months?! So it could be… hours until he comes back?!"
Shakky raised an eyebrow in the same manner one might respond to a light jest during tea-time, but when she realized Luffy wasn't kidding her cigarette drooped slightly in her fingers. "Well, I suppose. For that matter, it could be months until he comes back."
"Nyuu, ah geez," moaned Hatchan. "I'm sorry guys… I was sure he'd be able to help us!"
"Well, at least you tried," said Usopp, leaning back against the door to the outside. "Guess we'll have to find someone less talented. I'm not a fan of waiting around in this Marine-infested place for a month or two."
The door burst violently open, casting Usopp to the floor in a single motion. He hit the ground with a squawk of pain, and the newcomer stepped in from the dark. Every eye in the room turned to him.
"Shakky!" exclaimed the grey-haired old man. "I'm back! Stop extorting the riff-raff for one damn second, and let's celebrate!"
Then he paused, his eye catching the straw-hat that adorned Luffy's head. His eyes widened in surprise.
Shakky was the first to recover, her lidded gaze topping a smile of mischievous satisfaction. "Rayleigh. Perfect timing. You've got guests," she said.
Even after six months away from home, when Rayleigh arrived he immediately sat down to speak with them all, not even bothering to drop off anything so mundane as luggage or any other sorts of belongings. All he carried with him was the rather run-down shirt, pants, and white hooded cloak that he was wearing at that moment. Despite all of that, the change in atmosphere from the old man's arrival was instantaneous. Though he had stepped through the door like a pauper, his aura filled the air like a king. It was hard for the visitors to keep their eyes off of him.
"Straw-Hat Luffy, huh?" mused Rayleigh, idly running a finger across the condensation on the cool drink Shakky had provided them all. "Figures you'd show up now. I've been looking forward to meeting you, you know?"
"You know me, old man?" asked Luffy.
"Yeah, you could say that. I've been keeping an eye on you after what I heard from Shanks."
"Shanks?!" exclaimed Luffy. "You know Shanks too?!"
"Well, I should hope so. I was his boss for quite a few years after all."
"You were Shanks' boss?!" exclaimed Luffy again, before pausing as he processed what he had said. "Wait, what?"
Rayleigh snorted, tossing back the rest of his drink in one go before he brought it back down to the table and looked back to Luffy.
"The name's Rayleigh. Silvers Rayleigh. Nice to meet you, young Luffy. I was first-mate on Roger's crew."
Around the room, every one of the visitors except Brook and Robin looked shocked by the revelation, but Luffy's surprise was like an explosion. His face contorted and his bones stretched in a way that only a rubber-man could replicate as he screamed.
"WHAAAT?! YOU WERE ON BOARD WITH THE PIRATE KING?!"
"Yeah, I was. Hachi, didn't you tell them that?"
"Nyuu, I didn't really see the point. They just wanted a coating done, after all."
"Holy crap!" exclaimed Usopp. "He's a real legend! I've heard your names all over the history books!"
"G-Gold Roger…?" asked Sasuke, looking deeply disturbed by this revelation.
"What the hell is someone like him doing as a mechanic?" asked Sakura.
"Are you all really telling me you didn't know it was him?" asked Robin.
As the others dealt differently with the surprise (or lack of it) of finding themselves face-to-face with a legend, Brook simply continued shoveling bar food into his face, though no one had offered him any in the first place.
"Mmm, come to think of it," Brook mused, "I do seem to recall a Rookie by the name of Roger making some waves back then. Didn't think too much of him at the time..."
Usopp was on his feet in an instant as he realized the situation he was in.
"Well, then, Mister Rayleigh!" exclaimed Usopp. "If you're right here then I'm not gonna waste this chance! The greatest treasure in the world, One Piece! Is it true that it's really on the final island in-"
"USOOOOOOOOPP!"
Luffy's scream visibly shook the building, and was probably audible all across the local grove area. Before anyone could react he was standing atop the bar counter, shouting down at their ship's sniper.
"We are NOT asking him where the treasure's hidden! We're not even gonna ask him if there is a treasure or not! If you ask him one single question about that treasure then I'll quit being a pirate right here, right now! I'm not gonna waste my time on some boring adventure like that!"
His words echoed around the room. The silence was simply too deafening to interrupt, and Usopp looked like he'd just been shot. Finally, he managed to stammer a reply.
"I- I mean- I- I know. I know, you're right, I just… it just slipped out. I don't want to know that either! You got that, old man?! You'd better keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for me!"
Rayleigh was laughing now, his eyes glinting like jewels.
"Well, young Luffy. You think you can follow in our footsteps do you? The Grand Line is just going to keep stretching on into the distance. Like a rainbow, it may seem like it has no end, and it will do anything to elude your grasp. It surpasses everyone's wildest imaginations! The world itself may become your enemy. Can you truly conquer this ultimate ocean?!"
Luffy grinned. "I don't wanna conquer anything," he said, no longer shouting. "I just think that the Pirate King is the man with the most freedom in the entire ocean."
"Hmm… is that right…?" smirked Rayleigh.
"I think you might have just convinced me to root for you, you little Monkey," said Shakky, pouring another glass for Rayleigh.
"Well…" began Rayleigh, taking a drink before leaving the cup in place to cover his smile. "I suppose it's a bit late to begin the coating process tonight. Where is your ship, anyway?"
"Grove 41," said Sasuke.
"Oh, you're the 'carnival ship' that just came in, then? Clever."
"Well, I don't know about that," said Sasuke. "But I have a question to ask you that's unrelated to all of that. It's about a certain island near Jaya."
Rayleigh's expression grew distant for a moment, and his eyes flickered over Sasuke's face. He stared silently at the young Uchiha with an expression that grew more and more concerned as the seconds lengthened.
"…What?" asked Sasuke, distinctly uncomfortable.
"…That isn't you, is it? Little Itachi?"
Sasuke's heart dropped out from under him at the mention of his brother's name. He stared back at the older man barely comprehending what he had just heard.
"No… no, you're not him, are you...? But you're definitely one of those Uchiha folk... So, the rumors about the island are true, then? Someone finally broke you all out of that prison?"
"Itachi… was my brother," said Sasuke, intending to say more but not succeeding.
"'Was?'" asked Rayleigh, slumping backwards slightly as he took off his glasses and massaged his forehead. "Ah, hell. That's a damn shame. He was a good kid. I met a lot of people going around the world like we did, but he was one of those kids that just sort of stood out, you know? Even as little more than a toddler... I always wondered if I'd ever see him again…"
The rest of the Straw-Hats watched with concern as this exchange went on. This was a side of Gold Roger's crew that never made it into the stories.
Sasuke nodded. "Yeah, that was him alright. He died saving the lives of me and a number of people in my village… I don't... really…"
"Shit… Yeah, I get it, kid. What's your name, anyway?"
"Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke. He talked about Roger, you know? Itachi knew he was going to be killed, so he told me to come out here and meet the man that had inspired him. Was it... true that you asked him to join your crew?"
Rayleigh took a deep, deep breath, and for a moment he looked even older than his age suggested, bending over and resting his head in both hands. He didn't say anything for a while. Eventually, he straightened and stood from his seat, speaking to Sasuke without any of the breezy levity he had shown before.
"Well, that's both true and not true at the same time. And… I think you deserve to know a bit more than I might have otherwise said. Come on into the back and I'll get us something real to drink and tell you what I know. The rest of you are welcome to come along, but… well, let's just say that 'Gold Roger' might not look the same way afterwards."
Several of the others looked to Sasuke, who nodded his approval. Luffy, however, turned away.
"Sorry, old man… I don't need to know that," said Luffy. Then he walked straight out the door.
Rayleigh snorted, seeming strangely pleased by this refusal. Then Hachi raised his arms as well, adding, "Sorry Rayleigh! I'm really hungry and I don't care about all that talk. I'm gonna stay out here."
Shaking his head, Rayleigh moved the discussion into a deeper room of the bar. The others followed after him.
-Ten Minutes Later-
"Yeah, Luffy really reminds me of Roger, alright," remarked Rayleigh, as several of the guests finished their drinks. "Sasuke, you could do a lot worse with your life than signing on with a kid like that. Assuming that's what you're doing, that is."
"That's what I'm trying to figure out right now," admitted Sasuke, uncomfortably aware of Sakura's eyes on him. "There are a lot of problems waiting for me at home, but I'd be giving up a lot coming out here, too. My brother's last wish was… well, for me to join up with all of you if I could, but…"
"But we don't really exist anymore," nodded Rayleigh. "Just a bunch of old ghosts haunting the ocean longer than we had any right to hang around. Well, I really wish we had a place for you, but the Jolly Roger Pirates disbanded even before Roger was taken."
"...Before Roger was taken?" asked Robin.
"Yeah… well, I'll get to that in a bit," he said cryptically avoiding the question.
"Pardon me, but why did you come to our island in the first place?" asked Sakura. "I've been trying to figure that out ever since I heard about this whole thing."
"Mmm… that's the really important question for this discussion, isn't it. Well… You see, Roger was on a quest to uncover the True History of the world, and to do that he just kept following those damn stones of his. One day he turns to me and says that there's an island out in the middle of Paradise that no one from the outside world has ever seen before, and we were going to go straight there."
"I'm sorry, but I must know," interrupted Robin. "How did Roger reach the sealed island of the ninjas in the first place? For that matter, how did he know how to decipher the Poneglyphs? I found his insignia on a Poneglyph from an island in the sky. Was he related to the scholars of Ohara?"
She seemed to have more questions, but stopped herself there. Rayleigh sighed.
"Ah, well… The answer's the same to all of your questions, but it's not a good one, really. Roger heard… well, let's call them voices. They let him… understand things about the world, even if it made him seem a little odd from time to time. According to him, he just looked at the stones and knew what they said, and that's all there was to it. That's how he knew where to find your island, too. He just… listened."
Robin didn't look pleased by this entirely unhelpful explanation, and Rayleigh could tell.
"But then you did uncover the Rio Poneglyphs?" she asked. "You discovered the truth of the Void Century?"
The old man chuckled.
"Well… yes, we did. We know the whole truth. Or, at least, we think we do…"
Robin's breath froze in her chest as Rayleigh's silence lengthened.
"But… young lady… don't get worked up about it. You all… should just keep on going forward. Just take your steps one at a time. I'd say that we and the people of Ohara... may have been a bit hasty."
Rayleigh laughed, and for the first time his tone was deeply bitter. He spoke as if thinking of vicious wounds that had never healed.
"Yes… too hasty indeed. Even if I were to tell you all about the truth right here… well, as you are now, you wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it. No… there have been plenty of times in the last two decades that I regret being born too early to make a real difference. You and your friends, however, may yet have some part to play in seeing the true history of the world reach its final conclusion… But to do that you must follow the same path and feel the same pains that we felt, each step of the way. Perhaps… perhaps you would even arrive at a different conclusion than we arrived at."
When he laughed again his joviality seemed to return in an instant.
"Well, here's hoping, anyway. Whatever, that's just my opinion. The only thing I really care about is that this information is not released until the proper time, but I suppose you of all people would understand the importance of that. If you truly want to hear the truth... then just say the words. I'll tell you everything I know."
Robin closed her eyes, and her breathing slowly steadied. When she opened them again, her composure seemed once again intact.
"No," she said. "That is alright. I understand the importance of proper context. I will continue my journey."
Rayleigh nodded.
"I think that's for the best. But please… do continue to follow that truth. The time may come when you are all that stands in the way of that terrible history…"
No one said a word. Most of the crew were looking at Rayleigh with terribly odd expressions, which could be quite unusual indeed given the presence of a skeleton who had been eating bar food silently in the corner. Eventually, the old man laughed.
"Anyway, returning to the earlier topic, that's how we arrived on your island, Sasuke. There was the small matter of the horrible weather shielding the place, but we managed to get a friend of ours to help out with that."
"I see," said Sasuke. "So, Roger pointed you in the right direction and you followed his words to find this tablet."
"That's right. So, we arrived and started looking around. Roger led us to Konoha straight away. It wasn't long before we found out that this place was filled with a bunch of badasses, so we played it off like we were visitors. Then Roger just so happened to run into a guy who just so happened to need a favor done, and then before I knew it we just so happened to be staying as honored guests at the Uchiha Clan compound. That's just how things were around Roger. No rhyme or reason, just blundering straight into fortune and misery in equal measure while the rest of us tried to tread water."
"That really does sound like Luffy," muttered Usopp.
"Yeah… if life were a play, Roger was the only one who had a copy of the script, but he rarely bothered to read it very closely. You see, we were looking for a Poneglyph," continued Rayleigh, "-and wouldn't you know it but when Roger started asking about creepy stone tablets that no one could read, your father got very upset, Sasuke. Turns out your family owns a few of those yourselves. There was a war brewing, you see, and us poking around didn't seem so innocent to them all of a sudden. Things nearly got violent, and we never did see that tablet, but we did learn it wasn't the Poneglyph, and we did get some clues to find the real one."
Robin turned to Sasuke with a puzzled expression.
"Your family has a connection to such things? Why didn't you mention that?"
"It wasn't really the same thing," said Sasuke. "I can read our tablets with the Sharingan, but it didn't look anything like what you were describing. It's just history and information about our family, and honestly it's not very pretty. I suppose I could take a look at the next Poneglyph we find, but-"
"No, that's alright. If you could read the Poneglyph and someone learned of that fact then things would get very bad for you." Then she smiled, her eyes lidded. "Still, a trip to show me your family home one day might be appreciated."
He nodded awkwardly before looking back to Rayleigh who was glancing between them with an appraising eye. Rayleigh grinned and shook his head.
"Well, we also met a young lad who hid from us every time we entered your father's house. I think he was only three years old or so, but he had as much distrust in him as an old man. I still remember what Roger said at the time. 'Rayleigh, when's the last time someone straight out of diapers tried to give us the third degree?!'"
Sasuke smiled. "Yeah. He was always too old for his own good. It makes catching up to him hard to manage."
"Well, some people you just can't catch up to, no matter what you do," commiserated Rayleigh. "Anyway, long story short, the precocious little tyke had cornered us at a Konoha restaurant, and Roger… well, he told some stories… and he made some promises. Promises he knew he couldn't keep."
"Couldn't keep?" asked Sakura, who had been hanging on every word.
"Yeah… well, I have no doubt that Roger felt like he was telling the truth when he invited your brother to join us one day… but he knew why it couldn't happen. You see, one of the big secrets of this world is that Roger didn't get captured by the Marines. He gave himself up."
"W-what?!" exclaimed Usopp. "He turned himself in?! Why?"
Rayleigh threw back another drink. It didn't seem to be affecting him at all.
"He had a disease," stated Rayleigh. "You see, Roger always lived his life with style, flair, and filled with a burning flame that set a spark to everyone around him. He knew he didn't have much time left in the world, and he wanted to go out with a bang, so he turned himself in. The Marines just weren't expecting him to say… well…"
My Fortune? If you truly wish it you can have it! Search it out! I left all of it in that place!
Rayleigh's eyes were shining in the dimly-lit room. No one had stopped to switch on the lights, lest they interrupt the story.
"In the last moments of his life he turned his fading flames into a wildfire that enveloped the world! I've never laughed more than on that day! I've never cried more than on that day! I've never drank more than on that day… He was our captain and he was a truly magnificent man!"
He let out a great heave of breath, tears pooling at the corners of his eyes.
"That's… just who he was. He took the fire in his heart and he gave it to those around him. That's what he did to me. That's what he did to the world on the day of his death. And… it looks as though… that's what he did to your brother, too. And now you've come here, to me, asking after Roger in his place…! Has that fire passed on to you as well? The will of flame that changes you forever?"
Sasuke was transfixed. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open. Beside him, Sakura watched her normally-composed friend as if she'd never seen him before.
"...What did you say?" asked Sasuke. "The 'Will of Flame?'"
"Oh… pay no attention to that," said Rayleigh, shaking his head to clear it. "Just prone to florid prose in my old age. I'm sorry. Of course you've probably barely heard anything personal about Roger at all."
The old man stood up as if, after all the secrets he had shared, this had been the one that had made him too uncomfortable to go on.
"Well, it's getting late, don't you think? I'll start on the coating job tomorrow morning."
"Excuse me, sir," interrupted Robin. "There's one more thing I should mention before we go."
"Yes?"
"It's about a group from the Elemental Kingdoms that arrived on this island recently. Led by a man named Tobi, they are known as Akatsuki. It appears as though they too read the contents of the Poneglyph on that island, and they set sail barely days after its unsealing."
From the moment Rayleigh had entered the building, his mood had affected everything around him. When he was sad or happy it sloshed out from him in great waves that might have settled in the nooks and crannies of the wooden bar. Now he froze in place, and the room froze with him.
"...Tobi, you say?" he asked, sounding as if he recognized the name. "You say he's here, right now, on this island?"
The others looked on uncertainly.
"Yes," said Sakura. "They've probably been here for a couple of days -Fist Ace was hunting them down for some reason. For that matter, when Ace learned we were coming here to see you he decided to run off somewhere else instead. Any idea why that happened?"
Rayleigh shook his head. "That's for him to talk about, not me. But about Akatsuki… How certain are you that they read that stone?"
"They told us directly that they had read it," replied Robin. "For that matter, they seemed completely aware that their island would be opening up to the outside. They were well prepared, and it sounds like they were the only ones. Would that stone have had information regarding the seal that could be used to break it?"
"Yes…" admitted Rayleigh. "Though I believe you would have had to be quite powerful in their special magic to use it… Apparently the tablet read more like a message written for two specific people, too, though I don't know who those two would be. We also had to pass through a number of trials to test our characters before we reached the cavern. Wisdom, discernment, courage, meaning of friendship, and all that… You know… the basics."
Usopp grinned. "While that sounds pretty awesome, somehow I don't think Akatsuki passed those trials. Those psychos must have cheated."
"Interesting," mused Rayleigh. "And… this lot are ninjas, are they? Strong?"
Sakura nodded. "They're a group of five or six of some of the most powerful ninjas out there. The Bingo Book lists them as S-class, and that usually refers to those who can stand at the highest levels of combat. There are no higher classifications."
He sighed, taking off his glasses once more and massaging his forehead.
"Miss Robin. What did they say about the Poneglyphs? Or their objectives?"
"They found one more Poneglyph on an island in the sky, though it's difficult to say whether they went looking for it or simply happened to stumble upon it. About three weeks ago they asked me to join their number, saying that my knowledge might be useful to their goals, whatever they were. Their… willingness to kill me when I refused seems to suggest my participation is not necessary, however. I don't know any more than that."
He turned away, pausing for a moment before lifting his head, standing up, and beginning the task of closing up for the night.
"Alright. That's certainly good to know. Well, now it has definitely been a long day. Don't be terribly surprised if I'm late tomorrow, but I hadn't planned on charging for a friend of Hachi's anyway. If you've got a bit of time to spare then I'll still have it done for you faster than anyone else here."
Before long they were escorted out into the night. There was almost no traffic in this area, so the island felt terribly silent in the dim glow of the yellow tree-mounted lights.
"Well he was sure desperate to get us out of there in a hurry," said Sakura.
No one responded. There was a lot to take in, after all, and no one spoke again until Usopp broke the silence.
"Hey, guys… if... Luffy was hearing voices, we'd have found that out by now, right?"
Sasuke winced, but he didn't get a chance to respond.
"If…" began Robin. Then she stopped. For someone who only ever spoke when she had a sentence already lined up, this was sufficiently odd behavior to make Usopp and Sasuke glance her way in concern. There was a long pause before she continued.
"If someone could produce a method to make the mangrove sap bubbles last for a significant length of time outside of the archipelago… that would be a rather valuable discovery, would it not?"
"Oh yeah," agreed Hatchan. "No doubt about it. But it isn't possible. If they're going to be used on other islands they'll have to last for a really long time to get there, and I heard even Doctor Vegapunk tried and failed to make that work."
She nodded, her face pulled down by a concern that bordered on anxious worry.
Sasuke found her unspoken concern contagious. "What's wrong? What does that have to do with what we talked about?"
Robin, however, seemed not to have heard him, simply continuing with her thoughts. "What if… you were only trying to make the bubbles last for, say… an hour or so? What could you do with that?"
Hatchan looked at her with the deep and unfathomable confusion that only an octopus-man can muster. "Nyuuuuu? Not… not much? Why? Why? Is this important? Should I be running?"
"If those bubbles lasted for an hour outside the grove," continued Sasuke, seeking to head off Hatchan's dead-end before it happened, "Then they would… what? They'd fly upwards for about an hour?"
Looking up at one of the ever-present bubbles that reflected the glowing lights, Sakura added her opinion. "They move pretty slowly, but aren't affected as much as they should be by the wind… Didn't you say the World Government capital was up above here?"
Hatchan shook his head. "No, not quite. We're close, but it's actually a fair ways north."
"But it still looks like it might get you up that far," mused Sakura. "Especially with updrafts from the mountain. Why are you asking, Robin?"
Robin blinked, shaking off her thoughts. "He had a workshop underneath the building, and I'm afraid I poked around inside it while we were talking. Inside were numerous chemicals and journals that seemed to be detailing methods to do exactly what I was talking about… I simply can't figure out why he'd be focused on such a thing."
"Wh-what?" asked Sakura. "How did you even… oh, you did something with your magic hands, didn't you."
"You were sneaking around while we were talking to Gold Roger's first-mate?" asked Sasuke. "Huh. I think you'd have fit in quite well in Konoha. That's pretty gutsy, even for a ninja."
"Thank you… I think…" she murmured, quite distracted. "I simply can't think of a reason for this. Getting people up to the top of the Red Line in secret…"
"Is he planning some attack on the capital?" asked Usopp. "Revolutionary sentiments, maybe?"
She blanched, glancing around to ensure no one was listening. The night was dead. "No. Or, rather, that wouldn't be a good plan. To attack the capital you would need a tremendous army, and this… isn't the way to get them up there…"
"Speaking of hiding things," asked Sasuke, "Why do you think he was so bothered about Akatsuki finding the Poneglyph on our island? It sounds as though he's afraid they found something."
The others looked somewhat surprised by this revelation, but Robin nodded along in frustrated agreement.
"Yes," she said. "I noticed that as well. I feel very certain that the Poneglyph on your homeland is crucially important somehow, and he was panicking at the thought that another group had discovered it... This would be so much easier if I knew what was on that stone…"
Usopp shivered, looking for all the world as though someone had not only just walked over his grave, but salted the earth as well. "Well, I for one want to get the hell off this island right now," he said. "If Akatsuki's about to freak out any moment and start doing something that makes a big-shot like Rayleigh get scared then that makes me want to be far, far away!"
"Excuse me?" asked Robin, peering curiously in his direction. "Why do you think it's going to happen now? Akatsuki has only read two of the stones. What are the odds the stones led them to come to this island in particular?"
Sasuke winced again, and Usopp's finger speared out with a vengeful fury. "THERE! That's the kind of thing you DON'T SAY! Listen! I realize none of you have such a finely-tuned sense of impending doom as I do, but trust me. I can feel it in the wind. This island is doomed, and we've got to get the hell away from here, pronto!"
The very moment that Usopp's crazed monologue finished, Naruto landed nearby, his face hardened with barely-controlled rage as he stood from the ground and turned to his gathered friends. Sakura and Sasuke looked to their teammate in concern.
"I just met with Tobi, the goddamn leader of Akatsuki," growled Naruto. "He might be doing something really, really important tomorrow, but I can't figure out what it is."
Usopp crowed in celebration of his Pyrrhic victory.
"AH-HAH! CALLED IT!"
…
-Later-
-Grove 8-
Fire-Fist Ace didn't sneak around places. He never ran, and he never hid. That was why he walked boldly through the grove without any sign of concern. He wasn't an idiot, though. He was paying very careful attention. Though it was the middle of the night, he'd finally gotten a lead and it was too interesting to ignore.
He'd been sitting at a bar when something had made his spine tingle. He'd looked behind him but saw only a large man's figure stepping out of sight of the doorway.
"Was someone looking in the door just now?" he asked of the bartender.
The man nodded. A little prodding got him to describe the man as huge, obese, and possessing a black, scraggly beard. He'd poked his head in and then turned away.
Ace threw something that vaguely resembled money onto the counter and was off. The bartender watched him go without daring to speak up.
He tailed the guy for minutes before he got a good look. It wasn't hard to follow a man who was more than ten feet tall. Who would have thought it? Marshall D. Teach, alive and well. Though, honestly, the guy didn't look all that good. Still just as fat as ever, but his skin had an unhealthy grey pallor to it that was bad enough that people were shying away from him even in the dim streets.
Well, the guy didn't need to be healthy. He just needed to be dead. Looks like the rumors of his assassination weren't all that true after all.
Eventually, Teach realized he was in trouble and began to run to the abandoned lumber yard on Grove 8. This wasn't a problem. If Teach wanted to bring him into an ambush, that was perfectly fine with Ace. He'd just fight all of them at the same time. Ace moved into the center of the yards, past endless piles of useless, twisted wood. There, at the center of an open area, stood Teach. He was wreathed in darkness, but, then, that wasn't exactly surprising. He'd murdered a comrade to steal that Devil Fruit, and now he would finally pay the price.
Concentrating, Ace snapped his fingers, and the tops of several wooden posts sprang into flame. The circle of carefully-controlled lights cast a ring of shadows around both of them. Ace grinned, then was surprised to note that the darkness surrounding Teach's slumped figure was just ordinary shadow.
"Well… Teach. It's been a while, huh?" he asked. "What's going on here?"
There was no response.
"Got nothing to say to me? Where are your friends?" Ace turned in a circle, shouting. "You can come out now!"
There was only the sound of wind and insects in the night.
"Huh… funny, I expected a lot more bravado after what you did." Face set, Ace wound back his fist, lowering his stance.
"Kind of a disappointment, actually."
[HIKEN]
[FIRE FIST]
The night filled with light as his arm became a flamethrower, splashing hellfire all across Teach's location. The large man writhed and twisted as he burned, but made no cries of pain. Ace could feel when his fire had incinerated a fatal amount of flesh, and slowly the flames died down.
The light of the hellfire winked out entirely, and then a charred monster leapt forward through the darkness. Ace jumped back, covering the ground with flames, but Teach's body charged through them without hesitation. He leapt onto Ace just before his legs disintegrated to ash, his hands clawing fruitlessly for flesh but finding nothing as Ace transformed his body.
"What the hell's going on here?!" shouted Ace, reforming his body atop a pillar of fire. "How the hell did-"
He stopped, wide-eyed. Teach's flesh was reforming before his eyes, seeming to coalesce out of ash and dust. Now that he was closer he could see the man's dead, grey skin and black eyes. The walking corpse stood up without acknowledging the pain, and then the trap flickered into place.
Abruptly, a few of the flames at the edge of his range left his control. Ace flew away from the earth-bound corpse on a burning vortex to survey the field. Four walls and a ceiling of flickering indigo energy had crashed into being around the battlefield, trapping him and his opponent inside.
Not that that thing masquerading as Teach mattered right now. Whatever it was clearly didn't have Devil Fruit powers, which meant it was land-bound. Question was… who was ballsy enough to try and trap him inside a box? Flames washed out from his hands but dispersed harmlessly as they broke against the crackling shield.
Below, Teach continued to burn and regenerate without complaint.
"Alright, assholes, what's the problem here?" yelled Ace, "Is this Akatsuki? If you wanna talk, at least buy me a meal. This is just pissing me off."
There was no response. Ace was uncomfortably aware that one of his unadvertised weaknesses was enclosed spaces. Burn enough of the air and the oxygen would run out. At that point he'd have to remain transformed if he wanted to survive. No one was attacking though, unless you counted Teach's focused stare from below.
"Alright, fine. Have it your way," he growled. Then he dove.
[KAGUTSUCHI]
[SHINING FORCE]
Ace raised his personal temperature to its limits and hit the ground like a hammer, ignoring Teach's frantic attempts to attack him as he burrowed into the dirt. Wood and earth disintegrated beneath him as he sought a way underneath the field, and that's when his unknown jailers decided to make themselves known.
[SUITON: DAI BAKUSUI SHOUHA]
[WATER RELEASE: GREAT EXPLODING WATER COLLIDING WAVE]
Water crashed across the earth from a space at the opposite corner of the field. It looked as though the ocean was reclaiming the earth itself, washing outwards in a torrential wave and spreading lumber all around the yard. Rather than letting himself be drowned, Ace burst back up into the sky. Teach's newly-healed body was staring up at him calmly as the water rose rapidly above its chest, and Ace could finally see the source of the unending water. Akatsuki's Fish-Man, Kisame, was already half-submerged, grinned up at him with pointed teeth and beady eyes.
Asshole. Shit, that really was a lot of water. His fires might be hot, but superheated air didn't have a lot of capacity to store heat. He'd have to attack quickly.
Spinning in place, he gathered his flames.
[ENKAI]
[FLAME COMMANDMENT]
In seconds the night was alive with wild shadows as the light of the flames became like a sun in his hand, reflections dancing off of the rising water. Flying forward, he skimmed the surface of the waves until he could soar straight above his opponent.
[HIBASHIRA]
[FLAME PILLAR]
The sun in his hand struck beneath him like the hammer of a vengeful god, but a waterspout rose to meet it. The rising waterfall was obliterated by the attack, but when the steam cleared the Fish-Man was nowhere to be seen.
Shit… that should have pierced through all that water and then some. Something was wrong with this water. The shield was already half full and the waves were still rising. Ace swept his eyes across the battlefield until he saw what he was looking for above him. The captured steam was escaping through a small vent in the shimmering ceiling, only visible because of the vapor condensing in the cool outside air. He soared upward, obscuring his passage in a wide plume of fire. At the last moment, Kisame's head broke through the surface of the water, watching him intently.
It was barely large enough for him to fit through it, but Ace burst through the small hole at speed. He was ready for a second part to the ambush, and he wasn't disappointed. Another robed figure appeared as if he had melted out of nothing, but Ace was already exploding. The scorching fire was absorbed as if it had been less than nothing, and Ace was pulled close by an unknown force.
When the Akatsuki leader grabbed him, his body refused to become insubstantial. Ace's eyes widened in shock.
"Listen," Tobi said quietly. "I need you to get back in there."
Then Tobi pushed, and Ace shot back down into the hole like a falling star. He slammed into the surface of the water with an acceleration far faster than gravity, sending up gouts of steam as the water disappeared beneath him, but it wasn't enough. The water crashed over him and his strength faded with it.
The last thing he saw before darkness claimed him was Teach's body watching him with dead eyes from underneath the man-made ocean.
Then he fell unconscious.
Kisame retrieved the young Devil-Fruit user while keeping him imprisoned up to his neck in a floating pool of water. The shield crashed down, releasing a tidal wave across the grove. Orochimaru arrived shortly afterward to induce full unconsciousness and stabilize their captive. A set of captured seastone bindings finished the job.
Then, hearing the incoming commotion of the Marines, Akatsuki melted into the night.
They reconvened on board their ship, hidden in plain sight by the twin virtues of both not actually being recognizable as a pirate ship and not flying a Jolly Roger. Tobi took the opportunity to address his conspirators on this momentous occasion.
"Gentlemen!" shouted Tobi, stretching the definition of the term to its limits. "We stand now on the verge of greatness! Phase Four can finally begin!"
He paused for a moment as the gathered murderers glared at him. There were a number of muffled groaning noises from deeper inside the ship, but no one paid them any attention. They'd been used to hearing them for days now.
"That's right, isn't it?" asked Tobi. "We aren't missing anything now, right?"
"Correct," said Orochimaru, though he didn't look very happy about something. "I've verified the fire-user's chakra levels. Alongside the lightning fruit there should be more than enough power to fuel the ripening of the Divine Fruit, even assuming the worst."
"Make sure you don't lose this one," growled Kakuzu. "We've beaten four Logia Fruit users but only ended up with two in the end. Don't think I'm happy about giving up my new heart for this."
The snake-man's eyes narrowed. "I know that. He will remain in the seastone restraints. Keep him safe and there will be no problems."
Tobi smiled, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
"Well, then it's finally happening. Everyone knows what they need to do now, right?"
No one even bothered nodding. They had discussed the plan in detail for weeks. Danzou, Kakuzu, Kisame, Hidan, and Orochimaru stared back, but no one could deny the tense energy in the room. Even Tobi saw it clearly.
"Alright!" he exclaimed. "You all know where you need to go. You've all got a lot of ground to cover before tomorrow, but I know you can do it! Just make sure to hurry so you can be back here for the grand finale, because I want to see each and every one of you here. Oh, except you, Orochimaru. I know you'll be too busy to play around."
Orochimaru chuckled as the moaning from below them intensified. "Of course. That's why I prepared my special presents, after all."
"And don't think I don't appreciate it! Esteemed members of Akatsuki, the fourth and final part of our plan begins NOW!"
Sadistic smiles spread across the room. Tobi grinned.
"Let's give this island a day that they'll never forget!"
-END OF PART THREE-