"Guh!"

Roger awoke with a start back in the futon and blankets he had been granted during his brief stay in the Uchiha Clan compound. Sunlight filtered through the windows along with morning birdsong. Honestly, it was somewhat worrying that he even remembered this place at all, given how very many far more exciting beds he had woken up in over the years. The room had all the personality and warmth of something that had been prepared for 'Guests,' with a capital 'G'.

So, he knew where he was. Still, after waking up in a confused daze some things were absolutely required by long-standing piratical tradition.

"Ugh…" he moaned, "My head… Where the hell am I...? Am I dead?"

Wait…

Wait.

Hold on.

"Wasn't I dead?" he muttered, brow furrowing as he prepared to deal with what could only be the aftermath of the weirdest bender he had ever survived. "I definitely remember being dead. It felt like years and years… I was really starting to get the hang of it, too…"

The only answer was the chirping of birds in the late morning light.

A dream?

He raised his head then immediately regretted it, dropping it back down to the bed with a pained thump. Apparently the mantra about his head hurting hadn't just been for laughs after all. It felt as though someone had stuck a knife in the back of his skull and just left it in there. God, last night must have been a hell of a party to give him a hangover this bad. And to make him... remember... being dead.

Remembering being up on that execution platform, thousands of people looking on as the spears descended-

Roger gasped, sitting bolt upright in bed for real this time. He looked around in shock, hands going to his chest where he had been stabbed. Nothing. Pulling up his shirt showed no scars that hadn't been there previously. A moment later he realized something else was missing.

No pulse.

He grinned. Well, that was a relief. It was good to know something was working the way it was supposed to.

Memories trickled back to him as his new brain resumed processing the muddled experiences he had had in the afterlife. Or... was this the afterlife, and those decades spent dead had just been a dying dream? It felt… kind of like the way it did when you woke up in the morning with the vague impression that a lot of time had passed, but you didn't really remember anything about your dreams.

"Wait, but if this is the afterlife... You're tellin' me that heaven is spending eternity with a bunch of those stuffy old eyeball ninja freaks? No way, I was good in life, I don't deserve that!"

He paused.

"Well, mostly good. At least sixty percent! Forty percent! Higher, if you leave out those parts on Pirate's Paradise!"

More silence.

"Why the hell am I talking to myself anyway," mumbled Roger.

He stood up uncertainly, a little unused to legs, and thought to dress himself. A quick check of the closets revealed the yukata provided for Guests, and he scowled in disappointment. Before he could complain, a copy of his old seagoing uniform appeared before his eyes, folded up on the shelves. He glared at it suspiciously.

"Huh… The whole afterlife thing is starting to sound a lot more likely."

He put on most of his uniform in silence, not bothering with the great red coat in this weather, then stopped as he looked at his captain's hat. It was red, flashy, and bigger than it had any right to be. His heart had never really been in that hat, but it had fit the image so damn well. The ladies loved it, too. Problem was, it was really 'Gold Roger's hat,' and after the execution he wasn't exactly 'Gold Roger' any more. No sooner had he thought this than the hat changed shape, becoming his battered old straw-hat in between blinks. He grinned. This had only ever been his hat. Just plain Roger's hat.

Well, actually…

Eh. Shanks probably wouldn't mind, considering the circumstances. He placed the hat on his head, and everything was right again.

"Alright," he said. "Time to find out why I'm so much less corpsey than I oughta be."

Roger roamed the streets for half an hour, poking his head in here and there. There didn't seem to be anything interesting happening at all, and the people responded more like people you'd talk to in a dream than anything else. All of this was definitely a problem, since it both cast doubts on the whole afterlife thing as well as leaving him alone with his thoughts.

"You know, the more I think of it, the worse this gets," he said, venting his frustrations to a nameless Uchiha ninja who was walking in a set pattern up and down the streets. "I had just about as awesome a death as it was possible to get, and if anyone sees me walking around like it's no big deal then that's all gonna be completely ruined!"

"I have a very important mission in the Land of Water," said the phantom ninja, still plodding his way through the streets. "I don't have time to talk!"

Roger ignored the man completely. He was just a man-shaped piece of scenery. "The old generation is supposed to pass on their will to the new generation and then step outta the picture. That's how it works! I mean, if I turn up alive again what the hell are people gonna think? I'll tell you what they're gonna think- they're gonna think I faked my death, took my treasure, and now there's nothing left for anyone to find!"

"My Sharingan will find those Mist shinobi wherever they lurk!"

"Shit, you're right," said Roger, pulling thoughtfully at his regal mustache. "Someone's probably found it already… I left enough clues, didn't I? Would it be weird if I hunted down whoever it was and congratulated them, or would we end up dueling with sabres atop the spars?"

"I don't have time to spar with you right now! I must complete my mission!"

"Yeah, probably the sabres…" mused Roger. "No, it really would be for the best if I stayed dead…"

"Death is lighter than a feather! Duty is heavier than a mountain!" The phantom ninja turned around and began walking in the opposite direction, returning to his earlier looped path, and Roger didn't follow him.

There was a flash of something in his mind; a strange compulsion that had been tapping urgently at his thoughts ever since he had awoken. He just couldn't put it into words. Lacking anything else to do, he returned to the clan elder's house only to find that something had changed. A black-haired teenager was sitting at the base of a cherry tree that looked as though it were a hundred years old or more. The boy was silent, arms wrapped around his knees as he stared inward, eyes contemplating the air directly in front his face, but it was clear he had recently been crying. Some things were just obvious.

The strange compulsion from earlier hit him like a ton of bricks straight to the soul, telling him that above all else this boy must be kept safe. Luckily, things seemed pretty well in hand, so he could afford to play things low-key for now. The voices of the earth murmured in his ear that this young man was a real person unlike all the other unconvincing fakes. The boy looked up, and Roger felt something else tickle at his mind. A sense of… recognition.

"...Itachi?" he asked, somewhat uncertainly.

The boy flinched as though he'd been struck, and something told Roger he'd gotten it wrong.

"No, I'm… not Itachi," said the teen, standing up slowly from his seat. Sighing, he looked up into Roger's eyes. "I don't suppose you remember any of what just happened, do you?"

Roger snorted. "The last thing I remember is getting stabbed to death."

"Fair enough…"

The kid looked like he wanted to explain a bit further, but Roger stopped him. "What's your name, son?"

"Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke." He paused. "Itachi was my brother."

"Was? Shit…"

"Yeah..."

"I thought you looked familiar. When'd it happen?"

"Several years ago," said Sasuke. "...and then again today, I guess."

A man who had seen less in his life might have expressed confusion at this paradoxical statement, but Roger took it at face value. "Sorry, kid. I doubt it got any easier the second time around." He paused, still feeling that strange protective urge that nagged at him to get involved. Not that it was all that worrisome. He was well-accustomed to listening to strange voices in his head.

"Hey," he said, waiting until the morose teenager met his eyes again. "Let's talk. You shouldn't be sober for this, and I need to know what's going on here. I know a place nearby that-"

Abruptly the landscape shifted, and they both appeared inside the restaurant he had been thinking of. They were, in fact, already seated at a table. Roger looked around and glared at Sasuke, who at least had the decency to look a little bit embarrassed.

"Er," began Sasuke. "Yeah, turns out I know the place."

"Uh-huh," said Roger. "So this IS your fault then?"

"Not... entirely? It's kind of a complicated story, but-"

"No, no explanations till you've got something in you," said Roger, giving a complicated gesture to a woman who looked like she worked there. The drinks came shortly thereafter.

"You know," said Sasuke, who had been pressured into a fair bit more booze than was probably good for him. "I wonder what sharing drinks with the Pirate King would do to my bounty if the government knew about it? How much is that worth on its own? Ten million? Twenty? A hundred?"

Roger laughed. "So I'm still a big deal almost twenty years later, huh? Shit, I don't know whether to laugh or cry! Nobody managed to surpass me in all this time?"

Sasuke drunkenly shook his head. "No, but everybody talks about it. Who's gonna become the next… you, you know?" His eyes glinted. "But I know the guy… the guy who's gonna be the next Pirate King. I know him."

This seemed to get Roger's interest. "Oh yeah? Who is he?"

"Straw-Hat Luffy," said Sasuke. "And he's an idiot."

"Straw-Hat Luffy?" asked Roger. "Why do they call him that?"

Sasuke blinked. "'Cause of his straw-hat, man."

"What, like this one?" asked Roger, sticking a thumb up to indicate his own favorite hat.

Sasuke blinked again, glaring suspiciously up at the hat in question. He squinted, giving it a thorough look. Finally, he shook his head. "Probably a coincidence."

Roger snorted and quaffed another mug before speaking. There was foam on his moustache. "Sure thing, kid. Look, I'll be honest. You really have to work on your alcohol tolerance if you wanna be a pirate."

"I don't even understand," said Sasuke, before taking another gulp, "-how this is even happening. We're not even really drinking here. It's all in my head. In my eye… Itachi's…" he paused, finishing with, "It's in our heads."

"Look... beer is really more of a state of mind than anything else." Roger shifted in place. "Alright, so how does your brother fit into all of this? I've already figured I'm not really alive, so level with me."

"He was… the kind of guy that was good at everything," said Sasuke, drooping slightly in his seat as he leapt awkwardly into the new subject. "Just good at everything. I mean, I'm older than he was when he died, but I'm not even half of…"

Roger nodded when the young man trailed off. "Yeah, I thought he'd be a real force to be reckoned with one day."

"I couldn't be like… like him," said Sasuke.

"No use tryin' to be like someone else," said Roger. "There's no freedom in that. Head straight for your dreams and you'll find what kind of person you really are soon enough."

Sasuke shook his head morosely. "No… you don't get it. I couldn't be like him. I know. I tried. He…"

The silence lengthened, and Roger focused in on that statement. "Kid… what did you do?"

"...I never really thought about what it must have been like to be him… I thought it was just about being strong… and determined… and, well… other things like that. I guess I only now realized I was trying to be like him in other ways, too…" Sasuke looked up, focusing on Roger's eyes. "He believed in you, you know? He said he thought about your offer every day."

Roger sighed. "Yeah. I knew I wouldn't ever be seeing that kid again, but… sometimes you just see a chance to light a fire in someone's heart and you can't resist taking it."

Sasuke frowned. "No, that's just it. His heart… that will of fire… he extinguished it."

Roger said nothing and so Sasuke continued, staring off into the distance without focusing on anything.

"He killed effortlessly. He tortured people with his own hands. He ignored his feelings for the sake of his duties, and even though he said he wished he could have tried to leave and find freedom he never actually did it. He never reached his breaking point. Never bothered him enough."

Everything around them had gone silent. The illusory villagers were still going about their business without making any noise.

"I guess some part of me thought I needed to do the same," admitted Sasuke. "Only I couldn't. I didn't have the stomach for killing. Couldn't manage torturing the one guy who really deserved it. Couldn't be dutiful. I abandoned my duties because I saw a chance to leave it all behind… Everything I know says that all that makes me weaker than Itachi, but..."

Sasuke looked back to Roger. "He left messages inside… well, inside the Sharingan, and he told me to try and find my way off the island to find you. He asked me to join your crew in his place."

Roger sighed. "I hate to tell you this, but that's-"

"Not going to happen," interrupted Sasuke. "Yeah, I know. But I didn't need it anyway. I had friends of my own already, and I didn't need to follow his plans. Except one of my enemies resurrected your mindless corpse and sent it after me, which is when… well, when Itachi made this happen."

Something flashed in Roger's eyes. "They did what to me?"

"Yeah, one of the guys we're dealing with is a real piece of work. He's resurrecting the dead and making them fight for him... You know, Rayleigh is with us right now, so we thought we'd have a pretty good shot at this whole saving the world thing, but then he runs into you and… well, you'd have killed me if it hadn't turned out Itachi planned for this."

Roger remained silent, and Sasuke snorted. "Typical of him, really. He plans things out so well that even when he's completely wrong in every single way it still works out for him."

"So, Itachi's responsible for... waking me up, huh?"

"He didn't mean to. That's the point. He thought…"

Roger frowned. "What did he do?"

"...He trapped you in here with me, and left a message for you where he… he asked you to take me into your crew. But you were dead and you couldn't even hear him, so he did something to rewrite your mind to force you to help me. Then he died for real. I can't believe it. You were his idol and he just…" Now his voice began to raise, something like anger bubbling up from the depths. "He didn't even know I'd be in trouble! He thought I was going to just meet you someday and maybe you'd have been... retired or something and he couldn't have that! He'd just change who you were until you were who he needed you to be!"

Sasuke's head drooped. "How can you do something like that?! He didn't trust me to talk to you myself, or find my own way, he just went straight to ripping your mind apart! Would he have done that to me if he didn't like the way I grew up?! Given me an order and made me into someone else?! Was that just another contingency programmed into me too?! I just can't…"

The silence was deafening. Roger said nothing.

"I don't think I can be like him," said Sasuke. "I don't think I can live like he did."

Roger's silence lengthened. Eventually Sasuke looked up. The man's eyes were hard, staring straight into his own. It took longer than it should have to recognize the anger burning inside them, and then his blood froze.

The world inside the eye shuddered and rippled as a wave of power crashed out from Roger's body. The drunken malaise that had hung over Sasuke's spirit burned away like a matchstick as the Pirate King's indomitable will overrode anything else in the illusion. The village scene melted away into featureless nothingness and Sasuke began fighting to keep himself conscious. At the edge of his awareness he felt the Tsukuyomi being slowly torn apart, and he focused every ounce of his being into containing the rampaging power.

"What are you doing?!" he grit out, but it was no use.

"I've heard enough!" roared the demi-god at the center of the vortex. "Chain me down?! Bind my will?! I've killed for far less than this!"

"Stop it!" exclaimed Sasuke. "I can't hold it together! If this illusion breaks, then-"

Abruptly, the overwhelming power ceased, and Sasuke collapsed to his knees in the now featureless void, feeling drained from the brief clash of wills. That had been ten times as powerful as what Rayleigh had done, and it was all the stranger since Roger shouldn't have been able to access his powers at all unless Sasuke allowed it. The Pirate King stood there nonetheless, human once more, glowering down at Sasuke with far less warmth than he had shown before.

"I'm going to be patient with you," declared Roger, "-because it's clear that you didn't mean for this to happen. But I am not a happy man. Two people have taken my freedom from me, and right now they're both beyond my reach."

Sasuke opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

"I can feel what your brother did to me," continued Roger, "-and I'm pretty sure I could break it if I were to push hard enough."

"The Kotoamatsukami is unbreakable-"

"Not my first rodeo, kid. Not the first time someone's tried to take over my mind, either. All the others who've tried are dead. Let me tell you that there is nothing in this world that pisses me off more than knowing I'm dancing on somebody else's strings. If your brother were still alive then I'd kill him myself, promise or no!"

Sasuke said nothing, eyes wide and heart pounding. He felt as though if he tried to control the Tsukuyomi it might deny him access.

"But this geas might be the only thing keeping me conscious," growled Roger. "Whoever brought me back from the dead is still out there, right?"

"Yes, and if we don't stop them then the world-"

"I don't give a damn about the world right now!" shouted Roger. "I'm not about to sacrifice my freedom just because there's another damn quest waiting for me! I'm dead! My time's done! But if I break what your brother did to me then I might just keep on mindlessly fighting Rayleigh..."

The blackness shifted form again, returning them to the inside of the restaurant that had just been vacated. None of the people that had once been present were visible. At some point Roger had begun standing, and now he strode from the room, forcing Sasuke to follow after him into the sunlight.

"Alright. Here's what we're gonna do, you and I," said Roger. "I refuse to compromise on this... but if you can show me that you've got what it takes to be part of my crew on your own, then I'll let this spell keep going just long enough to finish all of this. If I don't think you're worth it then I'm gonna tear this whole thing to pieces and take my damn chances with whatever's left. How long have we got in here?"

"A little less than three days," said Sasuke, determined to avoid being steamrolled in this conversation, "-then time resumes and Tobi, the boy you spared on our island, continues trying to steal the fruit of the Divine Tree."

"Buh-wha?!" exclaimed Roger, stumbling over his own feet as he tripped down into the street. He whirled in place, advancing like a storm on the doorway he had just exited. "What's this about that damn fruit?!"

"We're fighting out there right now because of the loose ends you left behind!" shouted Sasuke. "Madara's attendant, Tobi, gathered a gang of murderers and monsters, kidnapped a friend of ours, and snuck all the way up to the Divine Tree to make 'that damn fruit' ripen early! Then he's going to sacrifice his own life to bring Madara back from the grave! They're the ones that revived you, they're the ones who killed my family, and they're the ones who sent you to kill Rayleigh! Your very own first mate spent the last two decades preparing for this moment, and my friends and I were the only ones able to help him! That's why we're in this mess, so stop whining about being asked to clean up after yourself!"

Roger's eye twitched violently under his straw hat. The rogue twitch seemed to scurry across his face for several seconds as he ground his teeth and glared at Sasuke. The young man didn't back down, becoming one of the very few people to have ever stared down Gold Roger.

"Careful, kid," growled Roger, eyes like diamonds. "Don't you dare tell me to give up my freedom in the same breath as you lament your brother's choices. You want to know how a good man becomes like Itachi? It's because there's always something out there that seems important enough to betray your values for."

Sasuke flinched. The Pirate King spun back around and resumed stomping his way out into the street.

"Take us somewhere where there's more open ground," he ordered. Sasuke furrowed his brow but did as he was asked, teleporting them to a wooded training area he had often used during his younger years. If anyone had earned the right to order people around it was Gold Roger.

"Good," growled the man. In an eyeblink a pair of cutlasses and pistols appeared in his hands, and he tossed one set to Sasuke. The young man looked back uncertainly, caught off-guard once again.

"What the hell are you looking at me like that for?" asked Roger, readying his own weapons. "Start talking and get ready for a fight."

"Uhh," began Sasuke, taking both unfamiliar weapons in hand as he cast an uncertain glance towards his katana that had appeared beside a nearby building. "What and why?"

Roger rolled his eyes. "Why do you think? Look, kid. I don't dislike you. In any normal circumstances I would have been happy to meet you, but I'm not about to take this shit lying down. If we've got three days in here then I want you to tell me everything about you, your adventures, and everything that's going on out there. In the meantime I need to fight something, and because I hate wasting time you're going to get to work copying me. No, don't look at me like that, I know you have those stupid ninja eyes. Until I get free of this curse I might as well make sure you're able to defend yourself out there, so shut up and do like I do."

"...Copy you?! But we're inside the… will that even work in here?"

"Pah! I wasn't even in your village for more than a week or two and even I know your damn eyeballs do whatever the hell you want. By the end of these three days I want you copying my fighting style to the absolute limits that your body will allow, so man up already and show me what you got!"

Shortly afterwards he launched into combat and Sasuke learned first hand the true unyielding might of the Pirate King.

The day passed violently. Even though Roger was fighting with a fraction of his true strength the mustachioed madman often forgot to show mercy, relying on the Tsukuyomi's dream state to protect Sasuke from permanent harm and leaving the young ninja to absorb technique in the same way that a thirsty man drinks from a fire hose. In other words, it was messy, painful, and often humiliating. As it turned out, once he had gotten the hang of being more or less alive again Roger became far more raucous and gregarious than anyone Sasuke had ever met before, not to mention being stronger, faster, and far more skilled. It was difficult to keep up, and the young man could only take being on the rear foot for so long before he began to get prickly.

"Why the hell are you so set on making me use this damn pistol, anyway?" asked Sasuke, tracking Roger with a flick of his wrist and pulling the trigger. The deafening sound crashed out, but Roger somehow evaded the attack.

"What's wrong with guns?" queried Roger, sliding back in and resuming the thrust and parry of swordplay.

"They're just about the least appropriate weapon for a ninja in existence, that's what."

"Ba-hahah! Shows what some dumb ninjas know! Do you know how hard it is for a normal person to use the cursed things in melee combat? It's damn tough! But you see what everyone's doing before they even know they're doing it! I would have given somebody's right arm for those eyes of yours when I was alive! Just focus for a change!"

By way of example, Sasuke saw the tendons in Roger's hand shift towards the trigger just in time to dodge the incoming gunfire. This didn't really make Sasuke feel any less irritated.

"You know," said Sasuke. "Speaking of arms, when this illusion ends Rayleigh is going to literally rip your last arm off. He already got one, and now I'm sure he's gunning for the other."

Roger grinned, dodging a blade that Sasuke had been sure would hit. "Psh. Nothing I haven't dealt with before. He'll have to catch me first."

"Catch you?" said Sasuke, deflecting an attack with his pistol before resuming his offensive. "From the start of this illusion to the end of it one whole second will have passed out there. You're going to wake up without any arms."

"Man, what is it about waking up from a stupor with someone about to rip your arms off, anyway?" asked Roger, sounding as though he was expecting commiseration. "Doesn't that get old after a while?"

"Uh," said Sasuke. "I can't say I've really shared that experience."

Roger darted around his defenses and then Sasuke was dead again. Luckily, the pain was optional. He reappeared fully healed and only slightly disoriented a moment later. Roger flashed him a wild smile.

"You'll get there one of these days. You either die young or live long enough to get sick of people trying to tear off your limbs. Not that I'd have it any other way."

"If you say so."

"Don't think I haven't noticed you trying to turn things around on me," said Roger. "Not gonna work. You owe me another story! Something that'll make me laugh this time."

"Well," mused Sasuke, thinking through the list carefully. He sincerely doubted there were many people his age who could match his experiences. "Was a place named Enies Lobby around when you were at sea?"

Roger scowled. "I said 'make me laugh,' not 'piss me off!' Choose a different story."

"How about the time we blew the entire island up and sank it into the ocean?"

There was a moment of silence before Roger began chuckling, slowly increasing in ferocity until it had become a cackling roar. Sasuke took that as permission to begin the story.

The evening of the second day saw the two of them back at the bar. It was beginning to seem to Sasuke as though they were stuck in an infinite loop comprised entirely of fighting, eating, and carousing. There would have been women in that list as well, but when Roger had popped the question of 'wenches' Sasuke had flatly denied his request, especially given that this was largely being generated by his mind. He wasn't Naruto. There were limits to his dignity. All this refusal accomplished was tightening the beer-fight-eat loop to dangerously compact levels, since it seemed Roger was incapable of taking any downtime for any reason whatsoever. Sasuke thought that even Jiraiya would have had trouble keeping up. As it was he was being pushed to his limits, but found that it was impossible to escape the whirlwind that was the Pirate King. Luckily, at least, the mind-beer affected him less than it had before.

"So you guys are saving some kid named Ace, huh?" asked Roger, now that he had begun learning what was going on in the present. "Funny… I thought I might have left a kid behind myself before I died. Always thought I'd name him Ace, too. Gol D. Ace. Damn fine name." Roger took another drink.

"Sorry," said Sasuke. "Just another coincidence. He's Luffy's brother, son of Monkey D. Dragon and grandson of a guy named Garp."

Roger's drink was expelled in a violent blast that sprayed the entire rear wall of the restaurant, leaving only a Sasuke-shaped hole projected onto the wall like a shadow on a lit screen. Sasuke had seen Naruto do spit-takes before but never one that had lasted for seven full seconds. The Pirate King, it seemed, never did things in half measures. Sasuke winced, closed his eyes, and endured, waiting patiently for the alestorm to subside before invoking the Tsukuyomi's power to clean himself.

"Wonderful," he said. "That's just what I was missing in my life. What was all that about?"

"Uhhh, probably another coincidence," said Roger.

"Uh-huh."

"Wait, one of that stuffy Garp's grandsons is a guy who's planning to become the next Pirate King?! Are you serious?! That's hilarious!"

"Uh-huh," said Sasuke again, frowning as Roger changed the subject.

"Is this Ace kid as crazy as his brother?"

"I suppose. He's some bigshot with the Whitebeard Pirates. You're really not planning on telling me what's up with that reaction, are you?"

"No way in hell!" exclaimed Roger, taking another drink that leaked out around the edges of his satisfied grin. "Funny to think that old Whitebeard is still hanging around though. But enough about that. Tell me more about this Luffy guy. It sounds as though Rayleigh took quite a shine to him."

Sasuke nodded, chuckling as the atmosphere got to him. "Like I said, Luffy's a complete, pure, thoroughbred idiot, through and through. Dumbest guy I've ever met. Rayleigh said he reminded him a lot of you, actually."

"Ba-hahah! Yeah, that sounds about right!"

"Seriously, I wouldn't say he really acts all that much like you, but from time to time he gets this look in his eyes…" Sasuke shrugged. "He's kind of like the crew's engine, if only in how he relies on everybody else to steer and apply the brakes."

Roger took another drink before sticking a finger in his direction. "It's people like that that need good counsel. That includes me as well. I wouldn't have managed half of what I did without Rayleigh, I can tell you that."

"Heh, well we're doing our best without a Rayleigh of our own."

"Really?" asked Roger. "'cause from my perspective right here you remind me a lot of him, you know."

Sasuke paused for a moment before chuckling. "Well, I don't know about that. I'm not the first mate or anything. I'm just… you know, there."

"Who says you have to be the first mate? And whaddayou mean, 'you're just there?' Of course you're there. Where else would you be?"

To Roger's surprise, a sudden glumness returned to his partner's face. Sasuke waited for nearly ten seconds before looking back up.

"What would you do," began Sasuke, "-if you had to choose… between new friendship and freedom out on the ocean… or the place you called home and people who might as well have been family?"

The world seemed to intensify as Roger leaned forward, eyes hawk-like beneath his bushy eyebrows. "Is that even a choice at all?"

Sasuke exhaled softly. "Right. Of course. I shouldn't have even asked you that. You'd pick freedom every time."

Roger continued to stare for a moment, searching for something on Sasuke's face. Then, as swift as lightning, his fist lashed out and connected with the young man's jaw. Sasuke didn't see it coming in the slightest, and was lifted out of his chair to slam into the far wall. Though the pain he allowed himself in here was muted, he still groaned as he sat back up, propping himself up against the splintered wood as he adjusted his vision. Roger was there above him, smiling like a man who couldn't wait to share the good news.

"Freedom?" he chuckled. "You think freedom lies in a choice like that?! I don't need that shitty kind of freedom in my life!"

Then he knelt down.

"Listen to me, young one," said Roger, his voice strangely subdued and nothing at all like his earlier boisterous shouting, "Within true freedom there is no choice at all, for that so-called 'choice' is what binds you. When you become truly free you'll have the power to go wherever you want whenever you want, and you'll laugh that you ever thought you needed to choose between the two of 'em. You'll sail the ocean like a true pirate until you return home like a king, and woe befall any who would stop you."

As Sasuke watched, dumbstruck, the Pirate King extended his hand.

"After all, what the hell's the point of being a pirate if you can't have that kind of freedom, huh? A man like you should never need to settle for anything less than the real deal anyway, so get back up on your feet, stop your moping, and we'll make something of you yet."

Sasuke stared at the outstretched hand, the pain in his jaw replaced by the burning feeling in his chest. So this was what it felt like. To have a flame lit inside of you. This is what Itachi had felt. He had felt this warm hope and then he had extinguished it.

Sasuke's flame burned brighter, and he reached out to clasp the hand in his own.

On the last day, Sasuke woke up and found a note on the side table in his room. Surprisingly, it wasn't written by Roger. He picked it up and began to read.

Sasuke,

Sorry for dropping all this on you. I've said everything I needed to say already, except for this: The Kotoamatsukami is now yours, though it may not do you much good in its current state. I regret to say that when I sealed the eye inside of you I could not know what decisions you would make when you grew powerful enough to use it, and to use it even once at an improper juncture could prove fatal. All things considered, this was a fortunate outcome, despite Roger's initial reticence.

Sasuke snorted, but continued reading.

That eye can be recalled from your body at any time, though it will remain useless unless it is kept inside of you for perhaps another ten years. At that point you are free to use it as you wish. Personally, I hope you never require its aid again.

There is, perhaps, another way it could be of use to you, though you should never try to seek it out, for to do so would mean you had once again entered Danzou's domain. Nevertheless, there is the slight chance this knowledge could prove useful, so I will tell it to you. It is a little-known fact even among the Uchiha that a pair of Sharingan that come from the same owner are forever after linked in some ways that are difficult to classify even if they are separated from that owner. Danzou possesses the other half of the whole Kotoamatsukami, and he will not know about this link. Though I cannot possibly predict how the two eyes will interact, if you feel yours behaving strangely then keep Danzou in mind. He may have found you.

Remember that your eye is not dead- it merely rests.

Stay safe, and become the man you should be.

The note wasn't signed, but Sasuke smiled wryly to himself nonetheless. He couldn't help but feel as though Itachi was as right as it was possible to be while being wrong in every technical respect. He focused inwards for a moment and he realized he could in fact feel the Kotoamatsukami. It was there inside of him, and it made his skin crawl to think of it.

The Kotoamatsukami was monstrous.

Sasuke focused for a moment and the paper went up in flames, leaving behind only ash and memories. When he turned around, Roger was standing in the doorway.

"What's the good news?" he asked, but Sasuke merely shook his head.

"You know, Itachi sounded so certain about what he had to do to keep me safe, and yet this is the first time in my life I've been truly convinced that he was wrong. When I think about what he did... he just seems like a colossal idiot." He turned to fully face Roger. "It makes me wonder what else he was wrong about."

"Oh, lots and lots," said Roger, a conspiratorial smirk lifting the edge of his mouth. "That's the secret to living, after all. Everyone's absolutely wrong about everything in the entire world and there's nothing you can do about it except laugh." Then he turned and left the room. "Come on! We've got a lot to work on today."

The third day's training began in violence, as had all the others.

By some unspoken agreement Roger refused to say outright that Sasuke had shown himself worthy of the Pirate King's guardianship, and Sasuke never pressed him on the matter. Nevertheless, as the third day finally came to a close, they began to discuss the plans they would execute upon awakening, with Roger showing no signs of chafing at his requirement to protect his newest ward.

"I'm sorry to say this," said Sasuke, "-but if the two Hokages are allowed to run free then they'll kill us all. To keep me safe you're going to have to help Rayleigh. He can't fight this battle alone."

"Alone?" asked Roger. "And what will you and your friends be doing?"

Sasuke chuckled. "I've fought with you enough to be certain that we'd all die against any one of you fighting seriously. No, we'll just have to find some other way to busy ourselves."

Roger grinned. "Saving the goddamn world?"

Sasuke matched his huge grin with his own. "Hey, there's nothing better to do, right?"

"Well said!"

Sasuke turned to face the open sky. They had perhaps another half an hour remaining in the technique, but there was no better time to end it than now.

"Ready to find out how many limbs you've got left?"

"Sasuke, I've never been more ready in my life!"

Sasuke reached out with his chakra and tore the illusion to shreds. The village scene collapsed around them, gradually giving way to the stone and hallowed halls of the real world. Everything around them seemed to be frozen in time, locked away by the increased perception granted by the Tsukuyomi.

Then the world's time resumed its endless march and Rayleigh ripped Roger's other arm off.

"Bastard ape whoreson!" shouted the armless Roger, causing Rayleigh to recoil in surprise. "Rayleigh, did I or did I not specifically tell you that I hated people trying to tear my limbs off?!"

Sasuke yelled at the top of his lungs to gather everyone's attention. "Rayleigh! Roger's spell is broken! He's on our side now!"

"W-what?!" exclaimed Rayleigh, eyes wide and without comprehension. At Sasuke's side, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata and Chopper seemed similarly confused. This made sense. For all of them only a second would have passed from the moment that the resurrected Pirate King was prepared to kill them all. Roger, for his part, continued swearing like the king of all sailors and hopping about uselessly in the stunned silence.

Then the Second Hokage appeared behind Rayleigh's shocked figure like a deathly phantom. Roger kicked off the ground and slammed his head straight into the attacker's chest, sending the ninja flying off to the far wall at high speed. The corpse-man landed nimbly on his feet, standing sideways on the stones as he fixed Roger with a dispassionate yet almost curious gaze. The First paused similarly in his mad dash towards combat, peering quizzically at their former ally with something that might have been confusion.

Roger laughed, his arms regenerating from ash as the dark magic of the resurrection recreated his flesh. "Don't just stand there with your damn mouth open, Rayleigh! You look like an idiot! Old age finally robbed you of your wits?"

Rayleigh barely even seemed to register the death he had narrowly avoided at the Second's hands. He shut his hanging jaw, then opened it once more. "...Roger…?"

Sasuke took just a moment to smile at the old man's confusion before slapping Naruto on the back, grabbing one of Roger's discarded cutlasses and pistols from the stones, and resuming his run for the doorway. As he did he shouted to his friends. "Everyone! Roger and Rayleigh will hold the two Hokage at bay! We're going to double back and run along the outside wall! We're continuing on to the inner temple as planned!"

"W-what?!" exclaimed Naruto, totally lost from the sudden double-whiplash of nearly being killed by resurrected superhumans and then suddenly being told they were safe again. Still, he grabbed the whimpering Chopper once more and started running after Sasuke towards the doorway. "Wait, why is Gold Roger helping us all of a sudden?!"

"What did you do to him?" asked Hinata. "I saw something strange happen in his chakra system for a second!"

Sakura joined in. "What about the plan?! How can we fight those three without Rayleigh's help?!"

Sasuke considered this for a second. A slight motion caught his eye and he snatched a small pouch out of the air that Roger tossed his way. Opening it revealed an assortment of bullets, and he smiled to see them. He tied the pouch to his belt and spun the cutlass around his fingers, then he responded to all of his comrades' questions at once.

"The Sharingan!" he said.

Regretfully, this answer was entirely sufficient.

After the five younger members had left the room, only the four titans were left behind. The First and Second Hokage stared across at their opponents, still seeming confused by their third member's sudden change in allegiance as Roger recovered his lost weapons. Rayleigh remained stunned.

"You're bleeding," observed Roger, and Rayleigh looked down to a thin red trickle slowly coating his arm. He shook his head in dismissal.

"Roger, what the hell's going on here? Is that really you in there?"

Roger grinned. "Let's find out." Another wave of power emanated from his body, the same power that Rayleigh had seen push legions of enemies into unconsciousness. It was unmistakable.

"That's… I haven't felt that in twenty years..." said Rayleigh. "You… it is you...you look so young."

"You don't get to be surprised about that, you old coot. Where do you get off growing old on me anyway?"

"I was doing my damn job, you son of a bitch! Roger, is this… this can't be permanent, can it?"

Roger chuckled. "Young Sasuke filled me in on the details. We've been hanging out together for the last three days courtesy of that bullshit eye of his. Kids these days, huh?" He stepped up and slapped his former first mate on the shoulder. "One way or another though, I'm not sticking around after this fight. Giants like us… and like those corpses in front of us… should step out of the playground when our time is up. All I'm here to do is make sure these things don't get in the way of those kids trying to save the world."

The two legendary ninjas lowered their stances and placed their hands together, and Roger picked up and adjusted his great red hat. "Old friend, you and I have one last battle to fight. Just let me take the lead so you don't break a hip or something."

"Break a hip?! You-"

The two dead ninjas disappeared, and the fight resumed in fire.

A/N: I hope everyone is having a lovely time of it! It's been almost exactly a year since I started posting this and I'd like to thank everyone who has read this far! If you get the chance sometime and some part of this story really made you laugh then feel free to leave me a review. I'm grateful for you all.