-Grove 46-
If Moria had been conscious enough to register surprise then he certainly would have done so when a company of well-organized Marines poured into the area and began cutting down his bodyguards. Unlike the many others that had been sent his way, these soldiers weren't even trying to hinder his progress, which was an unusual shift in tactics.
However, he was no longer capable of that kind of thought. Reduced to a mindless killing machine faithfully executing his orders to cause as much havoc as possible, he finished regenerating his wounds and then stomped out of the area, hell-bent on continuing his rampage away from pursuit. He dashed down a nearby street, turned the corner onto a main road, and then stopped, staring blankly at the iron bars of a barricade that hadn't been there when he had passed this way just a few minutes earlier. Behind him, three figures stepped out of an alleyway. Three Marines. One strikingly beautiful woman in a plum-colored dress-suit, the white coat of a Marine officer draped across her shoulders, and two subordinates in standard uniform. One of the men gazed out at the monster from behind rose-tinted, heart-shaped sunglasses. The other sneered as he pounded both fists together, each strike making a clanging noise.
Silently, Moria observed this ambush and called his zombies to his side. There were several nearby who had been gathering victims, and soon they would be swarming in from every direction.
When Moria declined to speak, the female officer took the initiative.
"So, this is what a former Shichibukai is reduced to, hmm?" said the woman with long pink hair and a steely gaze. "Hina's quite disappointed."
Two zombies lunged from a second story window, barely able to restrain their gleeful cries as they fell upon her. Much to their surprise, they passed right through her body, hitting the ground with heavy thuds as their torsos were suddenly bound fast with iron restraints.
"Ugh, so clingy. Hina's creeped out," said the woman, tossing her hair back as she stepped over the bound minions.
"I-It's Captain Hina! The Black Cage!" shouted one of the two zombies. "Don't get near her, Lord- mmph!"
Hina interrupted his speech by kicking the zombie in the teeth. Instead of doing any damage, her foot passed right through him. When it was through, his mouth had been covered in a thick iron plate that was studded with rivets.
"Quiet," admonished Captain Hina. "Know your place, henchman."
More zombies began pouring into the street, and Hina's company of soldiers were falling back towards their Captain, trying to maintain a wall between them. With a wide-lipped grin, one of Hina's two associates stepped to the fore to help contain the situation.
"Oh, you guys wanna get freaky, huh?" shouted the man, adjusting his tinted heart-shaped spectacles. There was a blur, and a golden disc on a chain appeared in his hand. He dropped the disc, letting it hang down in front of his face like a pendulum. It swung left and then right; back and then forth, and despite themselves many of the zombies turned to watch. "See here? Watch my patented hypnosis in action! On the count of three, every damn one of you will fall asleep! ONE… TWO… JANGO!"
At least half of the zombie crowd immediately keeled over on the spot, helpless against the unbeatable mental onslaught of the man's mystical powers. Unfortunately, the Marine hypnotist followed suit a moment later, collapsing in a drowsy heap on the ground just as easily as the rest. More of the zombies rushed in to kill the vulnerable man, but the Marine with the iron knuckles stepped up to the plate.
"Dumbass!" shouted the man as he smashed several incoming zombies out of the way. "You looked at your own damn ring again, moron! You're making us look bad in front of Captain Hina!"
The Marine Captain seemed largely unaffected by this exchange, staring unblinkingly at the emotionless Moria towering over her. Moria had already been a large man even by the standards of people who could trace their ancestry back to a Giant in the last thousand years, but his corpse-like pallor and wicked grin were made to stand out all the more by the many shadows he had absorbed during his rampage. His muscles bulged, his veins throbbed against his skin, and his hairs stood on end. He was a nightmare given form.
Without warning, the former Shichibukai moved, his shears lashing out like a dragon's fangs, and Hina moved in to meet them.
[ORI-ORI NO MI: SAFETY LOCK]
The blades passed through her body without cutting her, coming out the other side wrapped in bands that both sealed them shut and dulled the tip. Hina scoffed.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to run with scissors?" she asked, spinning in place as she performed a roundhouse kick that wrapped an iron ring around his wrist. Then the melee began for real.
Fighting proved fierce. Though Moria seemed to be engaging her without any of the cunning he would normally have displayed, he still seemed reluctant to touch her body directly and potentially end up ensnared. She pushed forward to get inside his range, occasionally adorning his long limbs with rings and hoops of iron restraints that only served to weigh him down. He, meanwhile, used his locked shears like a club, slamming them into the ground with a force that even she dodged away from. The shears grew more and more thickly wrapped with each one of her attacks until finally he brought the weapon down one last time and could not raise it up again. That was when Hina landed on top of the now-useless pair of shears.
"Hina wins," she declared, leaping forward for the final blow. She didn't quite make it.
Moria grasped the woman's shadow with an outstretched hand, peeling it off of the ground and stretching it back away from her. The woman jerked backwards in the air as if physically impeded and then Moria had her restrained by her shadow itself. With a sharp tug, he ripped it from her body.
The pink-haired woman jerked in shock as a scream started and then stopped in her throat. Then she smirked with satisfaction as the metallic sound of chains drawing taut reached her ears. Moria's eyes widened slightly to see a fan of ephemeral chains linking her shadow back to her physical form, the first sign of anything approaching emotion he had shown so far.
[ORI-ORI NO MI: SHADOW LOCK]
"Sorry Moria…" she said, struggling to speak through what looked like intense pain, "-but once something... belongs to Hina... she never... lets it go!"
Growling with exertion, she pushed her Devil Fruit to its limit, slowly reeling the chains back towards her body, link by link. Finally, she screamed and the ghostly chains snapped her shadow back into its rightful position. Moria stumbled forward, off-balance, and Hina shook off her sudden exhaustion to dash in for the decisive blow. Dropping to the ground, she slid like a runner approaching home plate and passed straight through both of his legs. The clang of the iron restraining bar that locked the limbs together was a death knell for the Shichibukai.
After that, the rest was simply a formality. Though the man was too large for her to fully body-bind in a single attack, she kept striking the increasingly bound man, adding on weight until he literally couldn't move. Finally, Hina, panting from the exertion, stood over the tremendous bulk of the monster-man, looking at him in disgust.
"You made that way too easy, pirate trash… Hina doesn't know who's got a hold over you, Moria, but next time don't even try fighting if you're not going to give it your all."
Moria said nothing, looking emotionlessly up at her with red eyes that glinted underneath the layers of chains and bars that bound him.
In the background, one of her subordinates squealed with admiration.
"You beat him!" shouted Lieutenant Fullbody, dispatching one of the last zombies with barely a glance. "Incredible! Taking down a former Shichibukai without help! I bet you'll get a promotion for this, and you don't deserve anything less, my beautiful, amazing-"
"Silence," snapped Hina, staring down at the creature bound at her feet and placing one foot on the side of his massive head. "Hina wasn't kidding when she said this was too easy. Isn't that right, Moria? Your decision to come here now was foolish, your tactics in our fight were so uninspired they made her want to fall asleep, and to top it off you didn't even try to retreat. So spit it out, scum. What were you really doing here?"
Again, there was no response. Moria gave no indication he had even heard her, simply gazing blankly ahead and struggling against his bonds. Hina started grinding her heel into his temple.
"Attacking the Nobility… rampaging across the Archipelago… We both know you're not getting out of this alive, but tell us who put you up to this and maybe you'll get some measure of revenge. If not, well… what with that regeneration of yours keeping you from dying maybe her superiors will decide to stick you in a seawater tank and forget about you for a year or two, hmm?"
No response. Hina sighed.
"Very well," she said. "Hina's disappointed, but it is what it is." She turned to her subordinates. "You two. Fetch the seastone cuffs and- What?!"
She turned just in time to see a swarm of transparent white ghosts descend on her Marines in an ectoplasmic wave. Whoever it touched collapsed into depressed, useless wretches. Hina leapt backwards, dodging out of the way of the wave and backing hurriedly away from Moria as it swallowed him whole. Then a wave of brutal explosions wracked the pale man's body, shattering bars and chains alike.
Moria's subordinate had attacked her own master? No, something was definitely off here… But surely such fierce explosions would prove fatal even for him...
There in the distance stood Moria's right-hand woman, the unbeatable ghost-user, Perona. Her colorful striped outfit did nothing to liven her grey-skinned and red-eyed appearance. Slowly, the ghosts began to return to her side, spinning around her in perfect synchronization as she watched from afar. She was just as lifeless and silent as Moria had been.
Then, Moria stood up once more, wobbling slightly as his knees rebuilt themselves before her eyes.
Hina smirked, wiping a bit of sweat from her brow.
"Well… Hina's in quite a pickle, isn't she…?"
-Grove 78-
-Ace Team-
Having just overcome the presumably extremely deadly threat posed by Duval and his Flying Fish Riders, Luffy, Sanji, and Sakura advanced onwards towards Grove 79. Sanji and Sakura were quite fast runners, but even they had to push themselves to keep up with Luffy as he kept stretching ahead to latch onto obstacles, buildings, and tree branches that were hundreds of feet away.
They could clearly tell when they had reached the boundary to Grove 79. An immense gilded bridge linked it to the nearby Grove, and across it stood a tall and sturdy wall studded with defensive features. It was obviously a fortress designed to keep out any unwanted individuals. It was also deeply and terribly aflame, and completely worthless now that a huge hole had been blasted in the gate it was protecting. In the distance, smoke rose in billowing clouds from a grove that seemed to be largely aflame.
"I hate to ask this," started Sakura, "-but even if this Ace is a fake, is this considered to be a... reasonable level of destruction for him? Could the real Ace manage this kind of a rampage?"
"Don't ask me," said Sanji. "I knew he was a big deal, but I never had to see him fight for real. He's got one of those Logia fruits though, so I don't think this is out of the question. I'm more surprised one of those shitty Akatsuki fellows managed to make this happen."
They proceeded across the bridge unaccosted. It seemed as though any fighting had moved inwards. It wasn't long, however, before they met their first challenge.
"Looters," growled Sanji, watching the various flavors of thugs dart in and out of the opulent buildings. "Not that the Celestial Dragons don't deserve this kind of treatment, but we really don't have time to get slowed down now."
Sure enough, the cry went up from several lookouts and then the fight was on. The fight was off nearly as quickly. A swarm of villains charged into the three of them and melted like snow tossed on a bonfire. Sakura tried to avoid breaking bones, but only because it felt kind of dirty to outclass your opponents by this much. Shortly afterwards, someone finally recognized the rubber-man who was a living, breathing explosion of fists and feet.
"I-it's 'Straw-Hat Luffy!'" shouted the nameless thug. "-and some other people who happen to be with him!"
Sanji growled and launched himself forward, kicking the man in the face with a force that shot him backwards into the marble siding of a nearby luxury-goods store. Moaning, the thug shook himself off and limped off down the next side-street, screaming for salvation from the heavens.
He didn't find it. The thug turned the corner and ran straight into a massive white trunk that turned out to be someone's leg, breaking his nose on impact when the leg turned out to be as hard as steel. The thug looked up in surprise, and then up some more. Finally his eyes widened in horror. The burly owner of the steel leg had to be nearly thirty feet tall, clutching a tremendous and sturdily-bound Bible to his chest with one hand.
"If you were to take a trip…" said the enormous, bear-like man, his voice surprisingly soft and unassuming. "-where would you like to end up?"
The looter screamed in terror, grabbing two pistols from his belt and firing both of them. The shots rang out through the street, but they rebounded harmlessly from the man's metal body. Silently, the giant man swiped his paw-like hand down in front of him, and the looter disappeared with a popping noise. A moment later there was no trace that the thug had ever been there at all.
Though the Straw-Hats hadn't seen this confrontation, they did notice it when the massive man turned the corner, barely having been hidden behind the multi-storied buildings. A thirty-foot-tall man tends to warp the landscape for those unused to seeing them, and for a moment the nearby shops and richly-appointed houses seemed to look strangely unreal.
"Whoa," said Sakura. "That is officially the largest man I have ever seen, not counting Chouji on a rampage." She glanced in Sanji's direction, but the cook was staring in open-mouthed surprise. "Okay, that doesn't look good. Who is this guy? Should I be worried?"
"It's him… one of the Shichibukai," said Sanji, trying to remember what he knew about the man. "'Something something' Kuma, I think."
"Shichibukai?!" shouted Luffy, dispatching the last of the looters. "Come on, guys, let's go!"
"Run?" asked Sakura.
"Run," nodded Sanji, and both of them charged after Luffy as he took a different route through the streets towards the source of the devastation.
"I'm afraid I cannot let you pass," remarked Kuma as he placed his Bible reverently on a nearby roof, calmly regarding the Straw-Hats as they left him behind.
"Ignore him!" shouted Luffy. "He's not in the way! We're going straight for the fake Ace!"
This might have seemed like a reasonable plan until Kuma disappeared with a popping noise, reappearing several hundred feet in front of them without appearing to have moved. Stance lowered, he pushed outward with one palm.
[NIKYU-NIKYU NO MI: PAD CANNON]
Though Sakura was entirely unfamiliar with whatever he was using as the source of his powers, she recognized an attack when she saw one.
"Get down!" she shouted, clapping her hands together.
[DOTON: DORYU HEKI]
[EARTH RELEASE: MUD RAMPART]
A wide array of stone clawed its way from the cobblestones beneath her feet, forming a thick, curved wall that shielded them from view. Though she lacked the chakra reserves to make it very tall, forming a wall this thick this quickly was astounding for a Chuunin-ranked ninja.
It barely mattered.
The wave of force from Kuma's palm hit the wall like a tumbling mountain, and it held only long enough for Luffy and Sanji to throw themselves to the ground. Then, in a hail of dust and pebbles, the top half of the wall disintegrated, allowing the attack to continue onwards into the distance.
Sakura glanced upwards to see that a hole had been torn in her wall that was shaped like a cartoon paw-print. She looked back into the distance to see the same hole blasted through several buildings.
Luffy was up on his feet an instant later. He stamped his feet and began glowing, his skin reddening and steaming as he grit his teeth. Then he disappeared.
[GEAR SECOND: GOMU-GOMU NO JET RIFLE]
Kuma raised his other hand, blocking Luffy's hypersonic fist and letting them get a look at the man's palm for the first time. With a *POOT* noise, Luffy's fist slid harmlessly from the raised pads of a palm that would have looked more appropriate on a dog, or some other manner of beast. Then Luffy was sent flying backwards from some unknown force.
Sanji and Sakura had not been idle, closing the distance behind Luffy's assault. Sakura used the distraction to her fullest ability. She punched the ground and distributed a short burst of her chakra, transforming a small portion of the stones of the street into a cloud of dust. Not to be outdone, Sanji lunged in through the smoke and Sakura followed after him. There was a moment of impaired visibility and then she was through the cloud. Sanji struck the man's leg like a divine blacksmith's hammer, heating and denting the metal that lay beneath the skin. Seeing his wince of pain, Sakura followed his attack with everything she had, darting under the man's grasping hand and slamming her fist into the same spot that Sanji had struck.
Chakra exploded from her hand, let loose in a single violent pulse that shredded the damaged steel and blew a hole in his armored leg. Beneath Kuma's steel shell, the glint of glistening machinery was now exposed.
Kuma reeled, nearly falling backwards, and that was when Luffy exploded back through the dust. Both hands stretched back behind him, he screamed and attacked.
[GOMU-GOMU NO JET BAZOOKA]
Right before Luffy's double-palmed strike connected, Kuma disappeared. Sakura barely caught a blur of movement and spun to face behind her. She was too late. There was a confusing moment of pressure and speed, and then she was caught. Kuma lifted her into the air with one hand, his steel grip giving her no illusions that she could pry herself loose.
Wriggling in the man's grip, she caught sight of Sanji in the man's other hand, similarly trapped.
"Shit," cursed Sanji, twisting in place and delivering the occasional kick to the cyborg's side, lacking the leverage to do any harm. "What the hell, man. Just playing around, huh?! What the hell's a pirate even doing defending the Nobility's property? You some kind of pet dog or something?"
"Straw-Hat," said Kuma, completely ignoring Sanji's insult and instead focusing on the wary figure of Luffy who was standing barely out of his long reach. "The World Government... has ordered me to weaken your crew. As you can see, I am now in the position to do so. You now have a choice to make. Their lives, or yours. These two have no bounty that they would be recognized under, but I would kill them anyway if it fulfilled my orders. I would then hunt down the rest of your crew until I could justify that the mission was complete. Your death, however, would satisfy the government's wishes with no further quarrel."
Sakura continued twisting in the man's grip, finally managing to grasp his metal wrist in her hand. The thin layer of artificial skin that covered his arm felt odd beneath her fingers, but it was nothing compared to what she felt when her hand began glowing with the faint chakra of medical analysis techniques.
There was no flesh at all beneath his skin—the limb was entirely mechanical—but there was something like a nerve wrapped deep inside layers of machinery. Master Tsunade had taught her how to disrupt a target's nervous system with a touch, and if this bundle of fibers was what was controlling his hand then she might be able to manage an escape.
Given how easily they'd been captured the first time, she'd need a hell of a distraction to get away with it for more than a moment though.
Luffy continued glaring in the warlord's direction, but Kuma remained impassive as ever.
"Well?" asked Kuma, painfully tightening his grip. "Your answer?"
The pressure of his soft yet unyielding paws increased, and Sakura found herself struggling to breathe. It didn't really matter, though. If Kuma really wanted her dead, it seemed as though his Devil Fruit could crush her at a moment's notice.
Wait… now that Sakura thought about the situation a little more, something was very odd about this standoff. By grabbing both her and Sanji together, Kuma had occupied both of his hands, which appeared to be his both his primary offense and defense. If Luffy attacked right now, the giant would have to drop one of them to defend himself. That meant that since she could get herself free, then all she had to do was make sure that Kuma dropped Sanji instead of her before Luffy decided to attack.
"Alright," said Luffy, interrupting her thoughts. "I'll do it. If my life's the cost to save them, then so be it."
Wait, what?
"Dammit Luffy! Don't even think about it!" shouted Sanji. "This guy's a Shichibukai! Don't you dare forget Crocodile! If this guy's even one thousandth the crook that that croc-bastard was then there's no way he's gonna let us go once you're dead!"
Twisting her head around, Sakura managed to get a look at Luffy's distant figure. She'd known him only for a short time, but it was clear that he wasn't the kind of person who managed subtlety or deceit very well. Everything in his stance suggested he was determined and ready to surrender.
She blinked hard.
Shit. Sasuke had been right about him after all, hadn't he? That was both unfortunate and reassuring at the same time.
Alright then. New plan. She had to get Luffy to attack with everything he had instead of surrendering AND get Kuma to drop Sanji instead of her. She added her voice to Sanji's.
"No! Luffy! Don't give up! We can still win this! I've marked him with my chakra! Just let me touch the ground and I'll hit him with my… my super-move!"
As soon as the words left her mouth she felt like cringing. Damn. She'd never been very good at lying. Hopefully the fact that nobody out here had any damn clue how ninjas really worked would help sell the lie.
Sanji gave her a weird sort of look, but Luffy immediately took her at her word. Without any hesitation his surrender was turned on its head as he leapt into the air, eyes locked on the pirate warlord. Inhaling a super-sized breath, he bit into his thumb and blew, expanding his fist to the size of a house.
[GEAR THIRD: GOMU-GOMU NO GIGANT PISTOL]
Moments later, Sakura's entire view became filled with an immense fist. She was so shocked by the display that she nearly lost her focus.
Not quite, though. She was a professional.
She felt it happening as if it were in slow motion. Kuma dropped Sanji and raised his hand, palm forward, and Sakura took her chance. With a finely-tuned pulse of chakra she briefly interrupted the signal that was controlling Kuma's hand, which immediately went slack. Let loose, she fell to the ground just an instant after Sanji did, and she was already forming hand seals as she landed.
[DOTON: SEKIHA JINYOU]
[EARTH RELEASE: STONE SHATTER BATTLE ARRAY]
Throughout the entire battle, Kuma had maintained a solid stance, never leaving contact with the ground except for whatever he had used to travel across the distances in a blink of an eye. Now, as two spires of rock shot up underneath the soles of his feet, that stability worked against him. Kuma was thrown off-balance, falling backwards with only one working hand.
That's when Sanji sprung off the ground with both hands and delivered a double-footed kick directly to the Shichibukai's crotch. With a horrible ringing noise, the nearly thirty-foot-tall cyborg toppled backwards.
Luffy struck with full force, and Kuma couldn't manage to block.
The air exploded with the sound of the two colossal objects colliding and Kuma actually went tumbling head over heels backwards across the ground, slamming into a nearby building that seemed to take the hit even worse than he had. Even still that massive strike didn't appear to have done anything other than cave in the chest of his steel body.
Sakura was more than a little shocked. She specialized in brute-strength melee attacks and that kind of hit was beyond her. Was that what Luffy had done to blow up an island? What the hell was that thing?
"Alright!" shouted Sanji, interrupting her thoughts. "Let's get out of here before this bastard gets up!"
"Come on!" yelled Sakura, pointing down a nearby alley. "This is the best place to lose him! Wait, where's Luffy?!"
As if in answer, something landed on her head with a cute plopping noise and she immediately swiped at it with her hand, coming away with a very tiny version of Luffy. Even his clothes had shrunk to match him, becoming toddler-sized for no real reason that she could see.
She stared open-mouthed and wide-eyed at Luffy, and Luffy stared back accusingly.
"Hey!" squeaked the tiny captain. "I wanted to see the super-move! Were you lying about that? You were! It's not right to lie, you know!"
She screamed, and Sanji came to the rescue, scooping her up quite against her will and dashing off down the nearby alley as Luffy flew up into the air.
"No time for jokes, shenanigans, or otherwise!" he yelled. "Let's get moving!"
Sakura jabbed him in the side and escaped from his bridal carry with an acrobatic twist. She hit the ground running, but her affronted glare was somewhat spoiled when tiny-Luffy landed on her head again.
"Agh! Get off me!" she shouted, trying in vain to dislodge her passenger without pulling her own hair out. When Sanji tried to help her she shooed him away.
"I can't help it!" said Luffy. "I get like this every time I try to use Gear Third. I don't know why it happens yet!"
Sakura moaned. "Devil Fruits are so damn dumb! Just, ugh, keep an eye out, alright? Is that guy following us?!"
"Uhh, no! He's still down on the ground."
She spared a glance backward. Sure enough, Kuma was very slowly rising to his feet, but he didn't appear to be in any particular hurry about it.
"Hah! Serves that jerk right!" exclaimed Sanji. "We must have hit him harder than we thought! If I didn't know better I'd think he was letting us go!"
"Y-yeah…" muttered Sakura. "You would think that, wouldn't you…"
She considered the matter for just a moment longer before shaking her head, causing Luffy to wobble precariously from his perch. Never mind. She had more important things to focus on right now. For now, they had escaped.
Later, after the Straw-Hats had left, Kuma finished dusting himself off, very carefully retrieving the Bible he had dropped at the beginning of the fight. In the corner of his vision a message from command and control was flashing for his attention, warning him that Fire-Fist Ace was beginning his assault on an occupied noblewoman's residence. He ignored it for just a little while longer.
"Dragon… I think your son has grown up well," mused the man. "He's found capable underlings as well."
Kuma considered the matter for a moment longer, and then decided. He'd give them another five minutes' head start.
"Alright!" shouted Luffy from his perch on Sakura's head. "Full speed ahead! You might wanna put your arms down though! You'll run easier if you pump them instead of just holding them back behind you like that!"
Sakura steadfastly ignored the little man clutching her hair as he urged her onwards through the smoke and flames towards the increasing sounds of gunfire. Honestly, she had thought that she had become inured to most everything out here, but there were limits to her dignity. Those limits were, apparently, being sorely tested by serving as personal mount to a tiny rubber-man who refused to see how stupid he was.
"Here, I'll show you! Hup!" exclaimed Luffy, hopping off her head and expanding to full size as he hit the ground running. "See? Up and down, like this!"
Luffy moved his arms up and down in an exaggerated fashion as Sakura continued to run in the traditional Konoha style, arms held back behind her so she could freely access her weapons.
"Hey, you're not watching me! Look, just move them like this! Watch me! Hey! Come on!"
Sakura turned in his direction as he continued flapping his arms up and down at her. If Luffy noticed the hate dripping from her eyes then he didn't show it.
"Can't do it, huh? Ah well, don't worry. You'll figure it out eventually," consoled Luffy as a vein popped in her forehead. "Naruto and Sasuke figured it out too, but I had to tell them how to do it right a lot of times before they got it. I guess ninjas can't be good at everything, huh. It's okay if you can't do it right now."
Sakura could feel her teeth grinding themselves into dust.
"Goddammit Luffy, stop bothering her," growled Sanji. "We're almost there, so what's the plan?"
"Plan? I'm gonna run in there and beat up the fake Ace, then I'm gonna make him tell me where the real one is."
"Wha—Luffy, listen to the noises! It sounds like a damn war up ahead, and that means the Marines are there already. What if there are too many of them to fight off?"
Luffy didn't seem impressed by the man's reasoning.
"Sanji, if they're tough enough to be a problem then they woulda already beat the guy up. They aren't, which is why I have to do it," he stated, reducing the problem to its most straightforward components.
"Luffy, some of us aren't immune to bullets here!"
"It's okay. Sakura's a doctor, right?"
"Hey, wait, what?!" exclaimed Sakura. "Hold on, if you think—"
Her words were interrupted when a section of the road behind them exploded, leaving behind a tremendous paw-imprint. Kuma, it seemed, had decided to follow them and was even now visible far in the distance, occasionally teleporting ahead.
"Shit!" cursed Sanji. "Change of plans! We gotta get out of here!"
"No way!" shouted Luffy. "I've got a better plan! All I gotta do is beat up this fake Ace really fast and make him tell us where the real one is!"
"That's the same plan you had before except with the words 'really fast' stuck in it!"
"Come on! He's right there!"
Sure enough, through the smoke and devastation they could finally see the figures of Marines desperately firing rifles at a roiling cloud of flames. Completely obscured from the bullet barrage by smoke and fire, The source of the hellstorm was advancing unchecked on a mansion that stood behind a palatial garden.
Finally they caught a glimpse of what they were looking for. The burning winds twisted through the area, revealing the black-haired figure of Ace towering over two helpless Nobles that were quivering and gibbering with fear. Ace smiled, and if there had been any doubt in Luffy's mind that this was a fake then it was dispelled in an instant as the cruel grin stole over his brother's face.
"Oh no," moaned Sanji. "If he kills those guys then we're all toast, right?"
"STOP IT!" shouted Luffy, dashing ahead through the scattered Marines and guardsmen. "IF YOU WANNA FIGHT, THEN FIGHT ME!"
Ace's vicious smile flicked towards Luffy for just a moment, lacking even the slightest glimmer of recognition. The acknowledgement was gone as quickly as it had started, and the impostor raised two burning hands in front of him.
He clapped his palms together and a wave of incineration washed over the defenseless Nobles.
Sanji's cigarette dropped out of his mouth. He and Sakura stopped running, staying behind as Luffy charged onward. All across the battlefield, people's breath seemed to escape them.
There was a crackling explosion and the gathered smoke was pulled inwards and then upward, forming itself into a rising tornado of black ash. The temperature dropped and where the Nobility had been before now stood a crystalline dome, glistening with reflected light. Inside the dome the confused Nobles could be seen quaking with relief.
Then a tall figure dressed in blue and white stepped out of the surface of the ice, exhaling a puff of fine crystalline dust as he straightened up to his full lanky height.
"Oh, my… guess I cut that one a bit close, didn't I…?" remarked Admiral Aokiji.
Sanji's eyes went wide. "Oh, fuck this! Luffy, get out of there!"
"Who is that man?" asked Sakura, struggling to see through the remnants of the smoke.
"That's the Admiral that took us to pieces like it wasn't even a challenge about a month ago. He's an ice-man, and none of us stand a goddamn chance right now!"
Admiral Aokiji turned to survey the scene, taking in the dancing flames, the location of the Marine soldiers, and the confidently-grinning Ace in a single glance. Finally, his eyes stopped on Luffy, where they lingered for just a moment.
"You, Straw-Hat," he intoned, before turning to face Ace and carefully considering the burning pirate. "-are very lucky that I have more important things to worry about right now…"
Luffy, much to his comrades' dismay, continued advancing into the flames, scattering Marine grunts like a child dancing through fallen leaves.
"Screw you! I'm not leaving till this guy tells me where Ace is!" shouted Luffy.
Aokiji sighed and shook his head. He raised one long arm and snapped his fingers. The noise rang out even through the din, crackling outward in the company of a wave of cold that clawed all the way to Sanji and Sakura's position. For nearly five hundred feet around the Admiral, all flames went out as if he had flicked a switch. There was a massive gust of air from the sudden pressure change, clearing some of the smoke from around the combat zone and revealing three enormous figures advancing from the coast.
Slowly entering the battleground were three identical copies of the Shichibukai that had chased them here. They turned their heads to view the newly-visible combatants, eyes locking on to Luffy and Ace with cold, mechanical precision. Sakura tossed a confused glance backward to the tiny, yet still-approaching, figure of Bartholomew Kuma. Yep. Still there. What the hell?
Even Luffy reacted to this, halting his headlong sprint as his eyes widened in surprise. Then the three massive invaders opened their mouths, a shining light sparkling inside each one's cavernous maw as a screeching keen rose in pitch.
Sanji screamed. "LUFFY! RUN!"
The whining screech reached its climax as three impossibly bright beams of light shot from their mouths, and then Luffy's position exploded. The beams dug deep trenches through the ground as the air screamed in protest. All across the battlefield everyone dove to the ground for cover, and when the light dimmed Luffy was nowhere to be seen. Sanji raked his gaze frantically across the area where his captain had just been standing, but Sakura looked elsewhere. She caught a glimpse of what she was searching for as a gigantic furry behind disappeared up into a cloud of smoke, gaining height rapidly.
Sakura grabbed Sanji's shoulder and yanked him to the side just as a rough voice called out from above.
"Come on!" shouted Sakura, and then she whipped him around, flinging him up into the air. He yelped in surprise and was caught by a burly man riding a flying fish who zipped in through the smoke and vanished a moment later. Sakura watched the sky carefully and then jumped up as well, grabbing onto another of the flying fish as they swooped down and away.
Then they were above the smoke and ascending into the trees, sliding back into formation around Duval's flying bison. Three lasers pierced the clouds from below and the Flying Fish Riders scattered to avoid the beams that clawed across the sky, tossing Sanji and Luffy back and forth on the flying mounts as they struggled awkwardly to get into their seats.. Moments later the blind laser barrage ceased and the riders returned to their formation, dashing away across the treetops. For the moment, it seemed, they were safe. Sakura called out to Duval when things had returned to normal.
"Thanks for the rescue!" shouted Sakura. "Why'd you come back for us, anyway?"
"...Why?" asked Duval, his voice seeming more smooth and cheerful than before. "Why would I come back for you?!"
"Yeah, why did you come after us," yelled Sanji. "I thought I said I didn't wanna see that ugly mug ever again!"
"Oh, but you did! And the best part is, I didn't wanna see it ever again either! And now I don't have to! I'd never pass up an opportunity to help my wonderful, beautiful, incredible saviours who did so much for me! Never forget that as long as I live, I, Duval, will be your grateful and handsome ally!"
Duval turned his gaze on Sakura, fixing her with a reasonable facsimile of a winning smile, his freshly-combed blond hair whipping back and forth in the wind. Seeing her surprised expression, he winked.
She shouted in surprise, recoiling from the horrifying facial catastrophe. It looked very much like he was having a severe stroke. His facial distress was worsened when Luffy began pounding his fists into the man's head.
"Hey! Hey!" called Luffy. "I think Ace is way up in the sky! Can these fish take us up there? We're in a hurry!"
"Ow! What?! What do you mean, up in the sky?' This is as high as the trees go! The only thing above us is the Red Line, but I'm handsomely afraid that our flying fish can't go higher than this! My bison, Motobaro here, can climb the mountain, but even she would take many breaks along the way. No good for a hurry."
"Never mind that," said Sanji. "We need to get back to the ship before we go after Ace! Can you lot get us to Grove 42?"
Duval turned back, leaned forward, and kicked his bison into overdrive.
"Good sir Black Leg, the only question that matters now is 'how fast can we get you there?'"
Back below the smoke, the three Pacifista androids swept their lasers through the sky and then began stomping after the flying fishermen when they failed to land a blow. Aokiji called them back moments later.
"Leave them," he said. "Right now, Fire-Fist Ace is the number one priority. Reassign your targeting data, and spread out to contain him."
Beeping and chittering, the androids turned and began to follow the Admiral's orders. Aokiji had kept his eyes on the burning pirate the entire time.
"Well now… Fire-Fist… What a surprise," said Aokiji, almost managing to sound civil as he glared across at Ace. "You've been obligingly quiet while we worked that mess out… That is really you there, isn't it? Not some impostor or something? I only ask because of how cataclysmically foolish this act is."
"Don't know why you'd think otherwise at this point," grinned Ace, raising a hand wreathed in flame. "I'm the real deal alright. I don't suppose I can convince you to step aside and let me toast those blue-blood pieces of scum, huh?"
Aokiji narrowed his eyes.
"Not gonna happen, huh?" asked Ace, glancing behind the Admiral to eye the two Nobles cowering by the fountain. "Well, that's alright. I guess you lot got lucky and your knight in shining armor arrived in time. Congratulations. But it's not always going to go that way. Keep your eyes peeled, because I'll be back. Next time... you might not see me coming."
Something in Ace's stance made the Admiral react. Aokiji stamped his foot on the ground just as Ace exploded into flame.
"You're not getting away from me, boy!" shouted Aokiji.
[ICE PRISON]
A dome of thick ice snapped into place around the bursting firestorm, trapping Ace's flame-form inside it. Silently, the Admiral readied himself for the pirate's breakout attempt, but none came. Just seconds after the flames had begun to burn they died out, leaving nothing at all inside the dome.
There was an awkward and off-balance moment of silence. It was like trying to bash down a door only to have someone open it for you right before you connected. Aokiji frowned and looked closer. Absolutely nothing and no one was inside. Extending the senses of his Haki didn't help either. Ace's life force had completely disappeared, despite all of the fire being trapped inside the dome with nowhere to go.
He glanced over to the three Pacifista androids that were watching over the battlefield. They didn't look like they had seen anything either. Puzzled, the Admiral walked over to the dome and stepped inside, passing through the ice as if it were an ephemeral curtain.
Nothing was left inside but an odd burning smell. There wasn't any oxygen left in here either. With a thought, he dispelled the ice prison and turned to the Pacifistas.
"Split up and find Fire-Fist," he commanded. "He's too flashy to have disappeared completely."
The androids beeped in acknowledgement and began to spread out. Aokiji simply stood in place, carefully scrutinizing the area. This wasn't right. Something was odd about that smell, and it tugged at something else in his memories. Scanning the ground, he barely even processed the screeching insults of the two Celestial Dragons he had saved who were now berating him for letting Fire-Fist escape.
He found a clue of sorts a moment later. Reaching down to the ground he grabbed a pinch of ash, grinding it thoughtfully between his fingertips.
Hmmmm...
Ah.
Now he remembered what that smell had been. Charred flesh. He looked carefully at the thin layer of ash that coated the ground.
So how does a flame-user escape from a solid ice prison without melting through? Well… they don't escape at all… do they?
As he stared at bits of the ash and finely-charred bone in his hand he felt vaguely as though another piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.
-Elsewhere-
Tobi felt a distinct sense of satisfaction as he traveled through the earth. Something about his body's nature seemed to allow him to merge with anything that had an affinity for wood with barely a thought, and travelling inside the ground was often far faster even than running. There was just something truly relaxing about melding with the dirt, rocks, and tree roots and just taking a leisurely trip up a mountainside.
It was a good way to distract himself from his upcoming task.
He'd been traveling for nearly an hour now, occasionally popping up out of the side of the cliff to see where he was. The last time he had looked he had been above the clouds. Now, however, he didn't need to check at all. His borrowed nerves were coming alive with energy as he approached his destination, and the Divine Tree's roots sang with euphoric energy as he passed its lowest tendrils.
It was tempting, somehow, to merge with them. He knew he was capable of it. The Tree was something like a perfect, idealized form of wood- a thing that all other plants were simply imitating. Lord Madara had explained once, very long ago, that his body had been built to work with wood. Supposedly he was a clone of some big-shot and he had a natural affinity to the energy of all living things, which Tobi thought was pretty darn cool. Nevertheless, he resisted the allure of oblivion and dodged the web of perfect tree roots that anchored the tree to this immense mountain. Even if it did work, it would probably be really distracting, and being distracted was one thing he definitely couldn't afford right now.
There was a sharp pang of worry as he realized that he wouldn't be able to come back to try anything after this. He'd be dead, after all.
Tobi returned his focus to his travel through comforting stone. At the end of the day he had already made up his mind. There was one task that he wanted to accomplish above all else, and that was the revival of Lord Madara. Madara would do such wonderful things with the Fruit of the Divine Tree.
And that was it, really. Most people never got to accomplish their greatest dreams in life. They had to settle instead. Tobi wasn't going to settle. He was so close to winning this. He just had one last task ahead of him.
Eventually he emerged from the rock at the northern face of the mountain shelter that housed the Divine Tree. In the distance he could see the Tree itself, growing out of the monstrous mountain range with the perfect, artful precision of a masterfully-tended bonsai. Around its trunk and in its branches was nestled a weathered and ancient structure that housed its guardians.
This was actually one of the farthest places from the tree itself, being the mountainside platform that visitors from Mariejois arrived at through hidden tunnels, but the only other path to the temple that housed the Divine Fruit was by climbing the trunk of the Divine Tree itself, and… well… he'd really rather not touch the Tree. Tobi actually wasn't sure what would happen to him if he tried, so he avoided it like a recovering dessert-addict forcing himself to not pass through the village bake sale on his way to business.
Exactly like that, actually, since Tobi had been in that situation more times than he'd care to remember. Having a tongue was an awesome but dangerous responsibility.
He stepped out onto the temple of stone and wood built upon the clouds and advanced onward. It was time. There was no turning back now.
Grasping his fate in his hands, Tobi set off across the Bridge of Soaring Clouds at a walk, his padded shoes echoing slightly on the stones. The bridge was perfectly straight, and it allowed the monks that guarded this place to fire arrows from the numerous fallback points along its treacherous length. No one was doing that right now, though, and Tobi took the chance to look out at the utterly terrifying emptiness over the bridge's railing. Fall off here and you'd be plummeting for so long it would get boring.
Well, until you hit the ocean, of course.
Everyone out here built things so large, didn't they? Was it just to show off, or what? This bridge itself must have been a half a mile long. How did they even do that without earth jutsu?
Thinking curiously about the work involved, Tobi continued onward.
Finally, he arrived at the Outer Temple, where the monks that guarded this place defended the mighty bronze gates. Here, the monks would send out their sturdiest members to fight as others rained bombs and arrows and exotic poisons down on the invaders from murder ports above. Tobi was pleased to see that the doors were already open, so he stepped inside.
Inside the hall it was quite dark, as the room possessed no windows or artificial sources of light. This was when a normal person would be at their most vulnerable, adjusting from the light of the cloudless sun to the depths of pitched shadow in a single instant. Tobi wasn't actually aware of that particular weakness of human eyesight, since he had never possessed eyes that were built that way. He simply noted that no one was present and moved on.
Then, passing into window-lit interior hallways that were so old that grooves had been worn in the stone by shuffling footsteps, Tobi stepped through an archway into the Stone Garden of Roaring Tranquility. Inside were the first people he had seen so far. Two of them were meditating, sitting upon flat rocks as a third watched over them.
Tobi smiled, and the third nodded to him as he approached.
"Everything went well?" asked Tobi.
Kisame smiled, indicating the still figures of Hidan and Kakuzu with a sweep of his hand. "You'll have to ask them. I got finished early."
"Ran into trouble?"
"Someone made me angry. I had to prove a point."
"Oh, well as long as you're happy," said Tobi. "Where's old man Danzou?"
Kisame shrugged. "He finished his work slightly after I did. Said he wanted to check on Orochimaru, so he left us to it."
"Did these monk guys give you any trouble? I know there was at least one of them left alive when I went back to the surface..." asked Tobi, looking around the tranquil garden. Looking more closely, it was possible to see several telltale bloodstains among the gravel and sand.
"Heh… no, no real trouble, though a few of them knew some pretty archaic forms of ninjutsu. Kind of surprising, actually. The old geezer's still lurking about in the Inner Sanctum, but he's trapped inside some room that we couldn't break down. I wouldn't worry about it. Orochimaru has him covered."
Tobi chuckled. "Wouldn't wanna be that guy. But, hey, as long as he can't contact anyone it's fine."
"Everything went fine on your end?" asked Kisame.
"Yeah. Better than I had expected, actually. I'm kind of impressed with us. Way to go, team! No one down there is going to have any reason to expect that we're up here."
Kisame's beady eyes glinted. "None at all?"
Tobi smiled. "Not that I'm aware of. All I did was go down there, rile up all the pirates and then leave."
He moved over to the two meditating men on the rocks, examining them closely.
"Wow. Kakuzu really burned up his double's chakra reserves. I mean, I know I only implanted like a fifth of your chakra in them, but he must have been on fire down there."
He paused, waiting expectantly for a couple seconds. Just as he was about to open his mouth, Kisame interrupted. "Yes, Tobi. On fire. I get the joke."
"Oh, okay," said Tobi, as he reached out to touch Kakuzu's tanned skin. "Just checking."
Kakuzu's hand shot up, grabbing Tobi's wrist just before it made contact.
"Don't touch me, Tobi," growled the man. "We've been over this already."
"Geez, somebody's grumpy," muttered Tobi, gingerly extricating his arm from Kakuzu's grip. "I was just gonna dispel the jutsu."
"Unnecessary, as you can see. But if you were going to take my soul then now would be the time to do it, so as I've told you five times already… don't touch me."
"Alright, alright. Sheesh. Did everything go well?"
Kakuzu nodded. "The attack on the Nobility pulled Admiral Aokiji away from the capital, as well as a legion of mechanical enforcers. I incinerated my false body and left no evidence behind. They'll be down there looking for our little human sacrifice for quite a while, I think."
Kisame added his own information as well. "The criminal element is in an uproar, attacking anyone suspicious in the inner groves. As for up here, the only line of communication out has been cut. If what you told us is true then no one will suspect a thing until it's far too late."
"Even if they do come to realize what's happening here," said Kakuzu, "-climbing the mountain will take far longer than it took to descend it, even for Government operatives. It took us most of the night, after all. Anyone that left the capital will surely be completely irrelevant in any encounter here."
"Wonderful!" exclaimed Tobi. "And yes, it's true alright. According to the monks' memories, it will be at least another day until they expect a routine check-in. We're free and clear!"
"It still seems foolish to have only one line of contact out of here," noted Kakuzu, eyes narrowing. "You're absolutely certain you haven't missed anything?"
"Absolutely positively!"
That was, in fact, the best part of this plan. The World Government knew that it was impossible to pluck the Divine Fruit from the tree until it was ripe, which meant that even if some rogue pirate warlord were to have invaded the Temple and killed all of its defenders, they still would be stuck here for a few decades until it was ready. Long before then the Government would have noted the lack of routine check-ins, assembled a task force, and obliterated the invaders with extreme prejudice. The Tree was, in a way, it's own security detail, and until the time was right none of the Nobility trusted each other enough to allow their rivals to maintain a private guard force at the Temple itself. Until then, the best defense of the secret was total and complete information control.
Of course, that assumed that no one had the Knowledge of the Sage, the Rinnegan, and sufficient stealth to make it up here undetected.
The greatest danger in their plan had always been the possibility that the Celestial Dragons were aware of this potential flaw in security, but it seemed as though they weren't even aware that it was possible to accelerate the Fruit's ripening at all.
Which, of course, made some sense. If they had known that little factoid then someone in the last millennium would have moved heaven and earth to find the Elemental Kingdoms and recruit someone capable of reproducing that process.
Tobi walked over to the last member of their distraction force.
"Hidan," Tobi called out. "Wake up. Everything went well? It's time to finish the job."
"Shut up," grumbled Hidan. "Almost done with these shitheads…"
"We don't want to give them too much info. I'm gonna cancel the jutsu, alright?"
"Five more minutes…"
"Oh, just kick him out of there," said Kakuzu. "He'll be at it all day if you let him."
Shrugging, Tobi brought both hands together to form a seal.
[SHOTEN NO JUTSU: KAI]
[IMPERSONATION TECHNIQUE: RELEASE]
Hidan fell forward, catching himself just before he hit the floor.
"What the hell, man…" he moaned, fighting off a bit of nausea from the sudden loss of connection. "After all that fighting my body's just gonna fall over dead like a pussy? Screw you."
"Uhh, he told me to do it," said Tobi, deflecting by pointing to Kakuzu.
"Typical," grunted Kakuzu. "And this is the man we trusted to get us this far. It's amazing we made it here with so few casualties."
"Thanks, I think," said Tobi, as Kisame began walking away. "Hey, where are you going?"
"Taking a walk," said Kisame. "Waiting around at this point wouldn't suit me. I'll be at the bridge until it's time."
"Oh, okay. Do you mind if I come with you?" asked Tobi, though he wasn't entirely sure why.
"I'd rather be alone, Tobi. Besides, you have work to do. Go check up on Orochimaru."
"Oh… right. But… hey, Kisame?"
This time something made the merman pause, looking over his shoulder with one eye. "Mmm?"
"So… we made it all the way here… What do you think? Was it worth it to you?"
"Yes," responded Kisame.
"That was quick. Just 'yes?' No doubts?"
"No doubts," said Kisame. "I've done far worse for far less. This is better."
"Better… than what?"
"Just… better."
Then Kisame left for good, disappearing through the gates as the soft pad of his shoes faded away into the distance.
Tobi smiled to himself. Kisame always knew how to put things in perspective. Though, honestly it felt a little weird to ask him about his thoughts when Tobi was just planning to betray them all and give the Fruit to Madara, but, well… it is what it is.
"Tobi…" interrupted Kakuzu, who was staring at him so intently that Tobi felt like he might catch fire. "I'll ask you one last time. You're not thinking of trying to betray us, are you?"
Tobi turned around, thankful again for the mask he wore. Kakuzu continued speaking.
"I don't care how powerful you are. You're no match for the other five of us together. You should already know this, but if you're thinking of trying to take the Fruit for yourself then know that you will fail. We will unite and destroy you. Even still, I would rather not risk it. Far too many equitable business deals are ruined by excessive greed."
Hidan snorted. "Yeah, like you're one to talk, you money-grubbing heathen."
"Don't worry," said Tobi. "I'm not going to take the Fruit for myself."
Kakuzu watched him carefully.
"Good… Then we'll all end up happy at the end of this." He turned away. "We'll keep watch here. You can return to your business. Find Danzou. I trust that old snake less far than I can throw him."
"I think… Orochimaru's the snake, right?"
"I stand by what I said."
Tobi shrugged, nodded and then left in the other direction, footprints disturbing the delicately tended sand and gravel.
Meandering his way through the stone gardens took some time, but he soon made it to the cool and softly lit Hall of Reflection. Pools of water sat here and there, some tranquil and some set in artfully flowing tiered ponds, circulated by some unseen mechanism. Some of the pools were stained a bit red. Whoops.
Moving through the hall he passed three stone coffins that sat in three small pools of water. Funny. Last he had heard there were only supposed to be two of those things. He'd have to ask Orochimaru what had changed.
Later, he passed by the Pagoda of Eight Spirits, casting eerie shadows in the candlelight as he walked. Finally, he moved into the Inner Sanctum.
And there it was. The Divine Fruit, resting at the lowest point of the thickest branch. The Tree itself was far too large for even this tremendous room to house anything more than a portion of its trunk and a few of its branches, but the most important part was carefully enshrined here.
At the base of the branch that held the Fruit, the black form of Enel's Heart of Lightning was wrapped up next to the unconscious figure of Fire-Fist Ace.
Orochimaru and Danzou were examining the pair intently, but both turned when he entered.
"Tobi," said Danzou, acknowledging his presence.
"Hey," greeted Tobi. "So… how's it going?"
"Everything is working perfectly," said Orochimaru. "The Tree is re-absorbing the natural demonic chakra just as expected."
"We have enough, right?" asked Tobi. "Only, I saw one of the Jinchuuriki down below, and though I definitely want to keep him alive I'm sure I could convince him to spare a little bit of chakra if I asked."
Orochimaru visibly bit back a sigh and gave Tobi an odd look. "We already went over this. The Tailed Beasts are far too corrupted by their mingling with human chakra. Regardless, it doesn't matter. Our estimates were more conservative than needed, and we will have more than enough power from these two."
"So, we're good, then?"
The man nodded. "I estimate it will be only four more hours until the Fruit is ready to come free."
"Wow." smiled Tobi, staring enraptured at the glowing pod that protected the Divine Fruit. "So everything's going according to plan, then? Incredible. I kind of expected that something ridiculous would go wrong."
"That's why we planned so extensively," said Danzou. "I can definitely say that the ridiculous was far more common than we expected out here on the ocean, but we made it through. This wouldn't have been possible without your ability to take our opponents' memories."
"Oh, well, I'm, uhhh, happy to be of service!" exclaimed Tobi, inwardly adjusting his opinion of Danzou upward a bit. "I'm proud of everyone's efforts. Even Hidan!"
"Yes…" said Danzou. "The point is, don't let your guard down, but so far there's no indication we need to switch to a backup plan. We've done well."
"You're right," grinned Tobi. "I'm just being paranoid. I mean, now that we've come this far what could go wrong, huh?"
There was silence for a moment.
"I suppose I shouldn't have jinxed it," said Tobi.
Orochimaru chuckled. "We've no need for such superstitions…"
Tobi smiled and returned to gazing at the Divine Fruit before something tickled his memory.
"I feel like I wanted to ask you something, Orochimaru, but I can't remember what it was."
"Tell me if you remember, Tobi," said Orochimaru, sounding completely uninterested as he returned to his work, carefully readjusting the flow of chakra between the sacrifices and the Tree.
Oh well. Yeah, he was just being a big worry-wart.
Nothing could go wrong now.
-Rayleigh Group-
-Grove 14-
Law, Robin, and Sasuke were just a couple groves away from their destination when the hunt for Silvers Rayleigh was interrupted by a beam of brilliant crimson light that swept across the next grove over. Even from this distance the strange light was bright enough to be eye-watering, and they only had time to blink before the area touched by the beam erupted into a cloud of fire and splinters. They had heard fighting from that direction as they passed by, but this was something completely different.
Sasuke quickly darted up the nearest tree, alighting on a branch that Law and Robin's speeder had taken cover behind. Currently hidden from sight, the three of them gazed off into the distance and took stock.
A shadow moved through the clouds of smoke, and a black-haired man was briefly visible, scanning the area with oddly mechanical motions before retreating back into the haze. To seem so large from this distance the man might have been almost thirty feet tall.
"What is that thing…?" asked Robin.
"It's pretty far away, but a giant like that is unmistakable," said Law, staring off into the distance as he rested his hands on the bubble-speeder's handlebars. "Bartholomew Kuma, member of the Shichibukai. Though, what he's doing firing beams of energy I'm not exactly sure…"
"Whatever it is," said Sasuke, staring at the monster in the distance with sharp red eyes, "-it's not human. It doesn't have a chakra signature, and its skin is completely artificial. I think it's meant to hide joints and other machinery. It's a puppet, or something like it."
"Wha-?" Law turned an eye in Sasuke's direction. "How are you seeing this? We're almost a couple miles away right now."
"Don't worry about it. Anyway, is this Kuma person a machine?"
"No," said Law, furrowing his brow as he filed the evasion away for future reference. "Not that I'm aware of."
"Then either this Kuma guy has always been a convincing fake or this thing isn't really him," said Sasuke. "I still don't want to mess with anything that can do something like that."
"I don't think it's alone," interrupted Robin. "There were a number of people talking about Bartholomew Kuma when I was listening in across the groves earlier. I didn't know what to think of it at the time, but a series of machines that mimic his form makes some sense."
"I knew you weren't telling us something," said Sasuke, looking at her with exasperation. "You really need to work on not hiding important information."
Robin smiled beatifically at Sasuke until he seemed to grow a bit uncomfortable.
"A series of powerful machine soldiers…" mused Law, ignoring his companions. "Then it's true… Captain Drake was talking about secret projects, battleship technology, and private armies… I certainly didn't disbelieve him, but… to think it was all referring to the same thing."
"The Government is here in force, then?" asked Sasuke. "Alright. Let's go ahead carefully. Robin, since these things don't have chakra signatures I'm going to need your help keeping an extra pair of eyes out."
She smiled back at him. "Anything you want from me, Sasuke."
The young ninja sent a somewhat confused glance backwards before leaping off the branches and disappearing into the distance. Law quickly revved up the speeder and brought them higher, hoping to obscure their passage among the thicker foliage. A moment passed as he found a safe path through the branches.
"You're a pretty dangerous woman, aren't you?" asked Law, not turning around to look at her.
"Hmm? Whatever could you mean by that?"
"I've seen your bounty. You're a lot older than that kid."
"Oh, how rude," she said, though if she was actually offended then it didn't show on her face. "Twenty-eight is hardly old."
"You know what I mean."
"I do."
Law sighed. "Never mind. I'm not interested enough to play games. You obviously have your reasons and I'll leave you to them."
There were basically two kinds of silences that could have been appropriate at that point. The first was the silence of a fisherman, leaving the lure in the water as he waited for something to take the bite. The second was the silence of a man who had legitimately lost interest in the situation. Robin evaluated the situation and then guessed incorrectly.
"It's not what you're thinking," said Robin, breaking the silence on her own. "This isn't romance. I admit that I always loved to tease men like him, but…"
"No, please," said Law, sounding intensely bored. "I honestly don't care anymore."
"He's… lost," said Robin, continuing as if she hadn't even heard her driver's protest. "When Sasuke came on this journey he abandoned everyone he ever loved, and found himself surprised when they simply refused to be abandoned. I should know, I suppose. It happened to me, too."
"...I'm not getting out of this, am I?" mumbled Law.
"Of course, whereas my path was set from the moment the Straw-Hats saved my life, he now has his own choice to make."
Law sighed, staring ahead at their tree-top flightpath with a resigned expression. "Uh-huh," he said.
"Should he leave for good and search for a greater horizon out here on the ocean, or should he decide that he was wrong to leave and return to a home that never truly accepted him?"
"I'm sensing some bias there," remarked Law, threading them through a close set of branches.
Robin shrugged. "Probably. Before joining the Straw-Hats I had long since grown numb to the experience of leaving friends behind. But, you see, he's become more and more serious as the time has come to make that choice. He's lost some of the humor he had before. Whereas being saved by my… new friends had lightened my heart, he seems to have been burdened by it. It would be easier if Naruto and Miss Sakura were less dedicated to their teammate, but... clearly they are not interested in staying out here with us. Regardless, Sasuke is one of my precious friends, and I'd rather he stayed with us in the long run, but I'd also rather he stayed happy, so… I've had to 'up my game,' so-to-speak."
Law rolled his eyes, barely even knowing what she was talking about. "…By shamelessly flirting with him almost every moment since leaving the summit?"
"I… admit that the more 'friendly' side of my social skills may need a bit of work, yes… In that aspect I'm younger than I should be, I suppose."
"Yeah, I've noticed. I also, as I've said, don't care about this shit right now."
"-But every time I poke at him he drops his guard for a moment… I don't think he's noticed it happening, but it's like having a reset button for a brooding teenager." She giggled at the thought. "He loses just a bit of that seriousness for a while."
Law groaned. "Oh, god... I really shouldn't have to put up with this. Are you always this talkative?"
"-And I think that's worth it. It's just one way that I can help him find his path. Ulterior motive or not." For a moment Robin seemed to actually focus on Law. "I must say, it's nice to be able to talk about this with someone."
He shook his head. "Great. Glad to be of service. Anyway, now that that's over forever, we're getting close to the destination. Keep an eye out, please."
"Though, I also admit that I'm quite capable of long-term planning, and that looking ahead to the man he'll be several years from now he—"
"Alright, fine!" interrupted Law, eye twitching as he continued staring ahead. "I don't want to hear it! Focus on the task at hand, please."
"Oh… yes, of course."
They flew onwards, descending towards a single ramshackle building sitting alone in the distance.
-Grove 6-
-Shakky's Ripoff Saloon-
"There it is," said Sasuke, ducking behind somewhat to point out the location of Shakky's Ripoff Saloon to the others. They had soon parked their vehicle and stepped inside.
Shakuyaku was waiting for them when they arrived.
"Welcome," she said. "We were expecting you, though I'm definitely surprised to see Mister Trafalgar Law here. Come on in. Rayleigh's in the back."
Sasuke stepped into the same back room they had been in when Rayleigh had spoken with them, but no one was inside.
"No, not in there," said Shakuyaku, glancing at Robin with an indecipherable look. "In his workshop. Your friend knows the way, I believe."
For once, Robin looked slightly embarrassed.
"Don't worry about snooping around, honey," said the bartender. "We've all got more important things than that to worry about right now."
With Robin's guidance the three of them found the trap door that hid Rayleigh's workshop and stepped inside. This was a place that one of the most powerful people in the world had tried to keep secret, and he was now extending an invitation to them during a moment of crisis. What would he tell them? Could he help them? They were prepared for anything. They should have prepared harder.
Inside, Silvers Rayleigh was waist deep in the innards of a rusted mini-bus set on top of a large resin bubble that glowed with strange rainbow hues. Cursing quietly to himself, the man fiddled and pulled at various pieces of the engine block, causing the entire vehicle to shudder in its straps like a restrained beast. Most vicious beasts, however, weren't painted in faded canary yellow and didn't have the still-visible outlines of where the words 'HELLO TOURS!' had long since been removed from the side.
Law turned an eye in the direction of his two travelling companions as if to ask, 'Is this really the guy we're looking for?' but the others were quick to nod.
"Don't just stand there," said Rayleigh, voice muffled from the inside of the vehicle, "Someone get over here and hold this light for me."
Sasuke moved, but Robin preempted him as an elegant arm sprouted from the underside of the hood, grabbing the man's flashlight and angling it down into the innards of the vehicle. Rayleigh actually straightened up somewhat, giving the phantom limb an odd sort of look before shrugging, adjusting her aim slightly, and returning to work. Before long he was giving further orders, asking for tools that Robin quickly provided without ceasing her slow exploration of the workshop.
"Are you Silvers Rayleigh?" asked Law, clearly growing impatient. "We have a—"
The silver-haired man's head popped out of the vehicle for just long enough to cast a withering glare in the pirate captain's direction before returning to work.
"Hold your horses for a minute," he said. "I do know what's going on, but talking to you all and fixing this thing up are both important enough that I can't split my attention."
Though he was clearly unaccustomed to taking orders, Law shut up and folded his arms with a scowl. It was, in fact, five minutes later before Rayleigh straightened up, back creaking, and pressed a button inside the vehicle. A moment later the dilapidated junker coughed and sputtered to life. The three observers expressed disbelief in their own fashions. Even those who were unfamiliar with automotive vehicles knew necromancy when they saw it. Rayleigh, however, smiled and turned to them.
"Sorry for the wait. I'm glad you could make it here, though I didn't expect a visit from the captain of the Heart Pirates as well. Still, that's even better. Your being here really raises the chances of success. Are the others outside?"
This provoked some confusion.
"Sorry, what are you talking about?" asked Sasuke. "It's just us three here. We're here to try and figure out what Akatsuki is doing out there. I assume you've heard about the state of things—"
Rayleigh waved a dismissive hand, shaking his head. "No, no, I know all about that. Luffy went after that Ace impostor, didn't he? No matter. We'll have to go pick them up, but that shouldn't be a problem."
"I think that all of us are perhaps confused about something," said Robin, peering curiously in his direction. "Just what, exactly, do you think we're doing here?"
Rayleigh snorted, stepping back around to the driver's seat of the puttering vehicle and slipping inside. Once the door was closed, he rolled down the window and leaned his head out.
"Well, it sounds to me like you don't know what's what yet, but I certainly know why you're here. You all are going to help me save the world, that's what."
If anything, this just made the three of them more perplexed, and Rayleigh laughed at their confusion.
"Look, don't worry about it! Miss Robin, do you remember all that stuff I said about discovering the truth for yourself and keeping an open mind as you travel through the world to see it without preconceptions?"
"…Yes… I believe I agreed not to pry too deeply into your knowledge…?"
Rayleigh grinned widely, far too pleased with himself considering the dire nature of the current situation.
"Well, I think that was an admirable choice. Yes, a fine choice indeed. But take that choice and throw it right in the damn garbage, because there's absolutely no time left for any of that shit now. We're riding the edge of hell, so forget everything I said about secrets and patience. All of you youngsters are the only help I'm going to get on such short notice so get in the van and I'll tell you everything I can guess about what Akatsuki's doing, the National Treasure of Mariejois, and our one and only chance to stop the end of the world as we know it."
Law's jaw dropped wide open.
"The National Treasure of Mariejois?! Are you shitting me, old man?!"
Rayleigh's eyes glinted.
"Like I said. Get in the van and find out. We're going on a goddamn adventure."
A/N: Finally things are clearing up with regards to my work and our move.
Poor Law. He tries to be professional, but no matter what it is he signs up for with the Straw-Hats, he always gets caught in their hijinx field. This is a constant in the One Piece universe. He really belongs in a different series.
Also, for those who may be unfamiliar with One Piece, at this point in the story they ran into a cyborg Bartholomew Kuma and a legion of androids that were modeled after him. Only the one carrying the bible is the real deal with the Devil Fruit, and the others are just extremely advanced war-machines. Similarly, though the Pacifista are loyal creations of the Government, Kuma is of much more questionable loyalty, which would be why he witnessed Akatsuki's involvement with Moria and said nothing to anyone in the Government.
Things were getting bad, but it looks like there's no need to worry now. Now that Rayleigh's with them everything's going to be A-OK. Right, guys and girls?
This is going to be easy.