Now thoroughly exhausted by their ordeal, Kurama relaxed his control of the chakra moving through Naruto's body. Only the link between Naruto and Sasuke remained intact, and although it was currently silent, it was also entirely benign without a link to the Divine Tree. Lacking any better ideas on what to do, Naruto mentally congratulated the demon on a job well done. Really, all of them had done their best, and now their fates were out of their hands.

Naruto, Sakura and Luffy stood alone at the edge of the Red Line. Far above them, the leaves of the Divine Tree provided the only illumination in the night sky to outshine the moon and stars, casting shifting, hazy shadows across the snow-speckled rocky landscape. Far below them, partially hidden by a bed of clouds, the light of the Sabaody Archipelago burned like a distant bonfire. The wind tore across the mountain now that they were no longer at all shielded by the tree's boughs, but none of them were yet feeling the cold.

The first hint they had that something was happening came in the form of a root snaking across the ground. It approached hesitantly, as if shy, but when it finally arrived, the root's tip expanded, shifting and shaking like a swelling earthworm. Finally, when it had reached the size of a large man, it reared up, and Tobi simply stepped out of its surface. He looked much as he had when he had entered, adorned in a slightly tattered and beaten set of Akatsuki's robes, but without his driftwood mask. He held the Divine Fruit in one hand. His expressive face looked… well, sheepish.

"Yeah, I know," he said, thoroughly chastised before anyone had said a single word. "Naruto… I'm so sorry. About everything. I think you already figured this out, but I'm kind of an idiot sometimes."

Naruto smiled, even though it was painful. "Yeah, I noticed. But, it's okay, you know? So am I."

Despite everything, after all that time spent in close mental proximity to Tobi's worries it was difficult to feel anything but relief that he was still alive. Anger might wash back in later like the tides, but for now… Tobi looked like he was going to be alright.

Beside Naruto, Luffy had collapsed face-first into the cold ground again, his arms still outstretched. Sakura looked stunned by the collapse of the group's heart-link, but continued to watch Tobi with some wariness.

He held out the Divine Fruit. "I guess you can have this. It… still feels wrong, giving it away, but… You're really not going to take it for yourself?"

Naruto shook his head as he gently took the glowing pomegranate from Tobi's outstretched hands, then began prying open a small shining hole in the aurulent skin.

"Nope," he said. "I do need nine of these seeds, but they're not for us. They have to go to fix Kurama and the other Tailed Beasts. Kinda sucks what that old lady whatshername, Kagu-something, did to them a thousand years ago. Come to think of it, I don't know if you even heard that story or not, but… well, it doesn't really matter. They're going to a good cause, and the rest is going into the ocean like it was supposed to."

After a moment, he held before him nine glistening jewels, each one shining like the sunset through a dewdrop, more brilliant crimson than the richest ruby. He gazed at them for a second, then slipped them into a compartment in one of his pockets.

"Pretty," said Tobi.

"Yeah."

"I was thinking, you know," said Tobi. "I'm looking forward to seeing the world and everything, but… I'm just really tired right now. And everyone's really angry with me, too."

"Feel like you need to lay low for awhile?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah. Or take a really big nap. I was trying to think of a place to go, but…" He paused, then looked around, seeming to change the subject. "You know, it's not all that bad, being a tree?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Is… is that so?"

Luffy lifted his head slightly off the rocks. "Seems pretty relaxing, if you ask me."

"I didn't really get to try it out properly," continued Tobi. "What with everyone shooting at me and everything. I also have the weirdest feeling that something's waiting for me out there… Far off to the West… Maybe I'll go and take a walk for a while… or maybe I'll take that nap first."

"Sounds like a plan to me," said Sakura, smiling. "Things are still a little dangerous here, though. You wouldn't be able to help us get down to the ocean before you go, would you?"

Tobi nodded enthusiastically. His exhausted smile was brilliant as he cast a look around at them. "Oh, sure, that sounds like something I can probably do. Just let me get back in the big ol' tree there and…"

He stopped. "Um… Thanks. Thanks to all of you, and especially you, Naruto. You might not see me for awhile, but I'm gonna try to be a better person. And someday? When I do? I hope I get to see you again."

"Man, as crazy as this world is? Probably will."

"Tell all the others thanks too… I, uh… I know where I'd be if it weren't for them."

Giving them one last look, Tobi trotted back to the extended root and simply walked into it as if he were slipping into a vertical wall of water. The Divine Tree shuddered once more, then began moving. The tree spun slightly, and then the assorted roots lifted it up off the ground and carried it slowly to the West, more or less ignoring the continued impacts from his gathered opponents as they made one last attempt to stop him.

Naruto, Sakura, and Luffy watched him go with mixed feelings.

"So… he's still in control of the Divine Tree," noted Sakura. "Which means it's going to be another thousand years before anyone can tell if we really screwed the pooch or not, won't it?"

"Yep," said Naruto, looking off into the distance.

"Also, that idiot totally forgot about helping us down, and he's just leaving us behind, isn't he?"

"Shit, he really is… Goddammit, I'm tired of running around today."

"No big deal," said Luffy, sitting up and stretching his arms as if he were going for a long-armed grapple. "I can just— Oh, ow, nope." He fell back down to the ground.

So it was that the three wounded fighters watched the tree disappear with quite a bit more annoyance than they had before.

Something was tickling at the corners of his mind. The link that connected him to Sasuke was slowly stabilizing, and Sasuke was pounding on the figurative door with a message. It was almost impossible to make out the details, but it came along with a few emotions: shock and worry mixed with… relief. Something big had happened, but things were… okay somehow.

"Hey, I think I'm getting something from Sasuke," said Naruto, focusing intently. "I think they're alright?"

Sakura looked to the sky and closed her eyes. "I could not be happier to hear that. They haven't happened to have figured a way off this mountain, have they?"

"Uhh… maybe?" he said. "Gimme a few minutes and I'll figure it out. In the meantime, we've got something else we need to do first." He turned, and then started walking to the edge of the Red Line, glowing golden fruit in hand. He gave the Divine Fruit one last look.

"Man, so much trouble over such a little thing. As for this dumb fruit, I think it needs to take a bath for the next thousand years." Pulling his arm back, he summoned wind to his aid and readied to hurl the Divine Fruit far off into the dark clouds below him, which is the moment when calamity struck. The only warning he had was a prickling of the hairs on the back of his neck, and he spun around to see none other than Orochimaru diving out of the rocks behind him as if he had been shot from a ballista. There was no time to dodge the incoming snake-man, only make an attempt to throw the fruit.

The man arrived so fast he couldn't even blink. A single one of the Sannin's arms smashed through Naruto's defenses as if they were barely there at all, slamming his guard aside with the crackle of fracturing bone. Orochimaru pivoted inward, chopping at Naruto's wrist with a sharp-edged hand and knocking the Divine Fruit from Naruto's grip. Sakura was already charging in as support, but with his other arm the snake-man swung his straight-edged blade through the air; a wicked scythe of magical metal that hummed as she just barely pulled back far enough to get a cut across the throat. She staggered backwards, rapidly activating techniques to purge the wound of any poisons, then seal it as quickly as possible.

Orochimaru spun, snatching the Fruit from the air in the same motion he used to shoulder-slam Naruto, stunned from pain, out of the way, then whipped a bouquet of snakes from his sleeve in Sakura's direction. When Luffy finally stood up and bulled his way into the melee, Orochimaru stomped the ground, turning the rocks beneath his feet to mud, having learned his lesson about using poison against the strange rubber-human.

The difference between a mostly uninjured member of Akatsuki at top form and three deeply-wounded and exhausted Straw-Hats was profound. In less than five seconds he had disabled all of them and recovered the Fruit. He just barely allowed himself the cruelest of smiles at their predicament when Gold Roger struck him like a falling star from the heavens.

Roger hit the man with what looked like all the momentum from falling from a thousand feet through the air, slamming him into the mountainside and shooting away, sliding a hundred feet as he ground Orochimaru's body against the sharp rocks. Laughing, shouting his vengeance to the sky against the man who had enslaved him, he reached down and grabbed the stunned ninja by his face, spun in a wild circle, and flung him off in the direction of a large contingent of incoming soldiers. With a satisfied roar of laughter, Roger immediately chased after the fleeing, ground-up body as it disappeared into the distance.

Stumbling from the sudden change in fortune, the three young men and woman watched Roger leave in wordless shock. Sakura dealt with the few snakes as Luffy pulled himself free of the mud. That had been over even more quickly than it had begun.

Finally, Luffy reached out a hand and silently caught the Divine Fruit, which had been launched straight up into the air when Roger impacted his foe. Luffy blinked once, twice, and then walked over to Naruto.

"Here, this one's yours," he said.

"Uh, yeah… right," said Naruto, gingerly taking the fruit with his good hand.

Luffy looked up at a whooshing sound and snatched another spinning object out of the air. All three of them stared at Orochimaru's sword, held by its hilt in his hand.

"Oh… but, I'm keeping this one. It's for a friend."

Gold Roger sprinted at maximum speed after the flying body of Orochimaru, and such was the force of his kicks along the ground that he actually gained distance against the arcing body he had hurled. Laughter echoed through the night, and for a moment it looked like he was going to catch up to his improvised shot-put, except that his eyes darted to one side and he stopped dead in his tracks, pirouetting with the grace of a ballet dancer and snapping his foot out into a groove in the rocks like a soccer-player kicking a ball into the air. There was nothing there, until there was. Though the first Orochimaru continued to fly through the air unimpeded, a second Orochimaru, just as bloody as the first, emerged from the stone as if he had been mined from the very rocks themselves by Roger's foot. With a hiss of pain, the old, wounded ninja spun into the air.

"Hah! Bugger me with a boathook if I fall for that one again!" he shouted, grabbing the man by both arms. There was a flash of Conqueror's Haki that exploded from Roger's soul and momentarily stunned the wily shinobi, then undead muscles heaved and flesh tore, limbs separating from torso. Orochimaru fell, armless, barely keeping to his knees as he hit the ground.

From each of the stumps of the two severed limbs in Roger's hands, a vicious, white-scaled snake emerged in a flurry of motion. They stabbed out with singular purpose, latching onto Roger's neck with wicked fangs and pumping him full of venom.

The reanimated corpse raised an eyebrow, ignoring the venomous creatures. "Poison on a dead man? I'm not even going to dignify that with a response."

Orochimaru chuckled, the sound wet and pained. "No mere poison, that. It was made to face the First. It can erode even your will. Your time back on this world is measured in but seconds…"

Roger shrugged his shoulders. Both snakes froze, and then fell to the ground.

"Now, you couldn't know this," he said. "But I was already thinking I'd be done in… oh, say, fifteen good seconds anyway. I just try and make a point of finishing what I started. Speaking of…"

He darted forward, and Orochimaru moved at the same moment, juking to the side as a cloud of smoke belched from his opened mouth. Roger listened briefly to the hum of his Haki, then pulled his pistol, whipped it to the side, and shot Orochimaru through the leg. Roger strode over to see the snake-man steaming, literally, waves of some strange vapor rolling out of his wounds and off of his increasingly scaly skin, but he approached without concern.

"Now, where were we? Oh, I remember." Reaching down, he grabbed the ninja by his head, lifted him off the ground, and chucked him off into the distance one last time. Then, with a hoot of laughter, he kicked off the ground, chasing after his prey.

—Saint Roswald—

All things considered, Saint Roswald had been lucky. Not but a few days earlier, he had been notified of the demise of his dear son, Charlos, supposedly at the hands of the Warlord Gekko Moria, which was, of course, a tragedy. But that was then, and this was now. So many things had changed in the interim. For example, the capitol of the world, Mariejois, had been attacked by a group of ninja emigrates from the sealed kingdoms. A fringe theory that had placed Akatsuki at the scene of his son's murder was therefore elevated from lunacy to likelihood. The Nobility had largely recalled themselves to the capitol city pending a resolution to the violence down below, and therefore had been largely decapitated in the attack, which also made it clear that this was no less than a declaration of war, and his son's death had been merely the opening shot.

Just how much of the chaff had been cleared away in this attack? Four in five? Nine in ten? Certainly, his own relative importance had skyrocketed.

But, of course, all this was secondary to the true reason he considered himself a lucky man: The treasure of Mariejois, the Divine Tree, had been awakened forty years earlier than expected, and he, Saint Roswald, had been out of the city in a sanctified park when it had happened, burying a ceremonial golden statue of his son in place of the true remains.

This was, without a doubt, his chance. Roswald was not by any means a young man, and despite the best medical care available to him he had never believed he would live to see the day when the Divine Fruit came of age. If it could be recovered now, and recovered by him, well… He allowed a smile to play beneath his sculpted mustache… This really would be the best of all worlds available to him.

A collection of slaves, bodyguards, and assassins had been attending him personally during the funeral ceremony, and they had transitioned smoothly to escorting him directly to the last known location of the Divine Tree. It hadn't been hard to find. One of the sages that had been trained from birth in the mystic arts had even been able to point him unerringly to the location of the Divine Fruit itself, which appeared to have fallen to the ground. So they ignored the flying, leaping robots sent from the Capitol. They ignored the Admiral, who was doubtless doing his pitiful best to contain the threat. None of it would matter once he had the fruit. They would arrive in mere minutes.

It was the hissing and screaming that drew his notice first. Up here above the clouds, he did not even bother with the protective bubble and bottled air he used on the ground, and the noise from the environment reached his ears without impediment.

Yes, it was the hissing, the screaming… and the ribald laughter. The perimeter of his entourage was lit with a cascade of lanterns and powerful technological abilities, but one of his bodyguards flicked a golden coin into the air in an exercise of her Devil Fruit's powers. The coin reached the apex of its trajectory, then froze in place, transforming into a brightly shining light that hung suspended above them. This let them see the incoming threat clearly.

Roswald and all of his guards froze in horror as Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, crested a rock shelf to appear surfing into their midst upon the bloody remains of an armless corpse that was currently birthing a horrific snake-like monstrosity. It looked for all the world as though a three-hundred pound snake was currently trying to emerge intact from a one-hundred-twenty pound set of remains, and Roger was riding the wriggling, bleeding horror onto the scene for all he was worth.

He landed right in the middle of their formation with a terrifying, squishy thump, and the creature beneath him screamed in a heart-stopping sound that was many voices at once, none of them belonging to a man, nor woman, nor snake. The creature was expanding rapidly in size, a problem which was settled when Roger whipped out a sword, stabbed down with a final, sharp motion, bisecting the twisted, malevolent heart in one strike. The beast twitched and fell silent, but not before showering them in a rain of orange blood.

Roger, for his part, looked entirely pleased with himself.

The Celestial Dragon watched, dumbstruck. Dreamily, he raised a hand to his face, a finger coming away dripping with blood that stung like acid. The Nobleman's private guard assembled to put themselves in between him and the threat, though they too looked almost too shocked to believe what was happening.

Roger, finally, mercilessly, turned to face them. His mouth curled up into the grin that had launched a thousand ships. Then, he spoke.

"Nobody will ever believe you," he said.

The nobleguard sprang into motion, but it was too late. The Pirate King's flesh turned to ash before them, burning and falling away in clumps of burnt earth and grave dust. In a single second he was gone as if he never had been.

—Kuzan-

Admiral Aokiji, or Kuzan, watched as the Divine Tree retreated West, down the mountainside. A number of the Pacifista were still engaged on its branches, though he himself was no longer in pursuit. He had received different orders straight from the highest-ranking official arriving on the scene. So, following those orders, he left behind Tobi, who had destroyed Mariejois. He left behind Silvers Rayleigh, and Firefist Ace. He even ignored Gold Roger, who had disappeared just a little while earlier. Apparently his new priority superceded all such 'lesser' matters.

He arrived at the outer limits of the Divine Tree just in time to see Uzumaki Naruto wind up his throwing arm and fling a glowing, golden object straight out into the empty sky. The fruit was propelled away by the very winds themselves, and it flew quite some distance before plummeting, a flickering lantern cast away into the night. Straw-Hat Luffy had collapsed to the ground, seeming barely able to support himself, while a third young lady, perhaps a ninja, aided him.

He landed right in the middle of the three outlaws, becoming one with the ice and snow itself. The fingers of his power reached out from the mountain, freezing the three of them to the rocks by their feet. Exhausted, wounded, and distracted, they never stood a chance.

"Mr. Uzumaki," he acknowledged, fixing the one he knew to be most dangerous with a glare. "A pleasure. I am aware you can escape from this if you so choose, but I wouldn't recommend trying. I've got your measure now."

He gave special attention to the young lady, who looked like she was absolutely ready to try something. Given that Luffy's capabilities were also known to him, and he was wounded to boot, the real surprises would come from her. She didn't try anything, however. She just gave Naruto a meaningful look, and he looked back. They didn't seem worried. They looked, if anything, like they were biding their time. A tricky sort of problem. He had been apprised of Naruto's escape from the locked cell he had been placed in last month, as well as how he had immediately returned to aid his friends in a breakout. Carefully, he formed a thin needle of ice and walked to all three in turn, pricking them on their exposed skin.

"Sorry about this," he said, examining each of their wounds as they bled. "Clones. Fool me twice, shame on me… Well, you know how it is."

A contingent of Nobility arrived just moments later; the lead bodyguard loping into view was a woman who had taken the form of an anteater, her long snout pointed in the direction of the rogue pirates. As a veteran of a thousand Devil Fruit battles, if he had to guess, the tongue could be used to ensnare and restrain any targets, though it was unnecessary in this case with their feet frozen. Two of the flying Pacifista had arrived to flank them. He debated kneeling, but decided against it.

The Celestial Dragon at the center of the group flicked an imperious hand. "PX Units," he began. "You are hereby ordered to retrieve the golden object that this peon flung over the edge. Return it to me. Kill anyone who interferes. Go."

The android weapons trilled their acknowledgment and then disappeared over the edge in a blast of fire. The Straw-Hats watched in consternation, still unable to move.

Next, the nobleman, Saint Roswald, turned to him. "Admiral. Greatest of the Marines and you still cannot resist disappointing us. We shall discuss the matters related to your failure here, as well as your unauthorized trespass, at a later time. Though, of course, if you were to retrieve the fruit then we shall be far more interested in discussing matters of leniency. Now, go."

Admiral Aokiji turned without another word, sprinting to the edge of the cliff with ease and diving off the side. As he did so, he examined the young ninja, Naruto, who had fought him with such ferocity just a few short weeks ago. The boy met his eyes for the briefest instant as they passed. He looked worried, though not, Kuzan thought, as though he had lost. Was this merely a youth's arrogance, or…

Oh, so that's how it was.

Kuzan disappeared over the edge without voicing his thoughts, consumed in cold calculation.

—Naruto, Luffy, and Sakura—

Naruto watched with mounting unease as the World Government soldiers fanned out and surrounded their positions. He did his best to assess the threats leveled against them, but didn't like their odds. It came down to three individuals. One stood to the left, robed and stuck in a permanent hunch, as if caught in the middle of a deep, deep bow that never ended. His hands were clasped together, as if in prayer. The second stood to the right; a woman who had taken the form of a human-anteater hybrid. She watched them with hard eyes. The third was yet another woman dressed in motley colors and fabrics who stood at the Dragon's side. She seemed bored with the entire affair, idly rolling a golden coin between her fingers in an endless loop. Each of them seemed more or less unconcerned with the current state of things, but stayed ready to move no matter where they stepped.

Given Luffy and Sakura's wounds, their collective exhaustion, and chakra levels, there really wasn't much point to running from or fighting against these people. Best case scenario was that they broke free carrying Luffy, and ran long enough for one of the Pacifista or other flying beasts to come after them. Worst case they died. Still, he was making a point of standing very, very still. Perhaps the trickle of Sage Chakra he could absorb during this standoff would be worth a damn, perhaps not.

In reality, his safest bet was an echo of an earlier plan: summon a bunch of clones to distract the thugs until he could perform a reverse summoning, hide out on Mount Myoboku until the ruckus died down, then try to rescue Sakura and Luffy when he returned. He wasn't feeling very good about their chances of success there, but it was the only real plan he had that didn't involve accepting their capture, torture, and presumed enslavement or execution.

Well, actually, there might have been one more way out. It's just that the link with Sasuke was still so nonspecific that he didn't really know anything about it other than that 'help' was supposedly coming soon. What form that would take was… unknown.

Still, he had shared that info with the others after the fight. Who knew what would happen?

The Celestial Dragon turned to them. The man was rotund, but adorned in the finest fabrics and wearing a set of tinted glasses even during the nighttime. This was, perhaps, less arduous than it might have appeared, given the sheer amount of light sources illuminating their position. There was nothing in his calm features that suggested leniency, only that he had simply not bothered to deal with them yet. Now, it seemed, that oversight was at an end.

"As for you… criminals," said the man. "As pleased, personally, as I am with the outcome of this little escapade of yours, you should not expect any of that pleasant feeling to reflect upon yourselves. Be thankful only that we have questions for you. You will be taken back with us for transportation to my… Summer estate, whereupon—"

Whatever would have come next was interrupted. A shockwave struck, the land shaking from the mighty impact of yet another of the Pacifista landing on the ground behind Naruto. Naruto turned, ready to defend himself, and saw little more than an immense black wall of metal, styled as a clothed bear of a man. The thing looked down upon him with an unreadable expression.

The Celestial Dragon frowned and waved a dismissive hand. "Yes, yes, there was no need for yet another of you. If you have spare time to interrupt our sentencing, then you have time to chase after the fruit. Go, and follow your fellows." When the creature started moving forward instead, the man's frown intensified. "Go, I said."

To Naruto's confusion and relief, the robot spoke, and his voice was more melodic than he had expected. Almost… soothing.

"And if you were to take a vacation, where would you choose to go?" it asked.

"Huh?" asked Luffy.

As the Celestial Dragon began shouting annoyed orders to his guard, the mighty creature bent down slightly, still towering over them all. Yet there was clearly a smile growing upon his face. Now that he was this close, there was something completely different between this Pacifista and the others they had fought; many details on its body were imperfect, yet intricate, as if they were somehow realer, or at least modeled upon reality. It was night and day compared to the others.

"I asked, 'where you would choose to take a trip, if you could?'" began the bear-like man. "You've accomplished quite a lot today. You and your friends deserve a good vacation. Although… Honestly, I think I have the perfect spot in mind already."

"Shit, man," said Naruto. "Anywhere that isn't here sounds great to me."

The guards took firing positions, and the sounds of high-powered rifles resounded through the night. The left and right guards advanced, and Bartholomew Kuma pushed, an explosion of air and rock forcing the assaulting forces backward. With a swipe of one hand, Luffy vanished with a 'pop.' Another palm-strike from Kuma, and a cannon of distorted space rushed toward the Noble, obliterating several guards and scraping away the rocks as it passed. The bodyguard dressed in motley colors twitched a hand without a word, and the nearly-invisible attack shrunk to the thickness of a pencil and was redirected into a pouch at her side, where it disappeared.

Undeterred, Kuma leaned down and swiped his palm again. Sakura was gone.

"NO!" screamed the Celestial Dragon. "KILL HIM! KILL HIM NOW!"

The motley bodyguard flickered her fingers in a complicated display of legerdemain, exposing a coin held between them that hadn't been there before. The coin flashed once and transformed into a jet of highly-pressurized acid. Kuma twisted to avoid the attack, and the spray gouged through the armor on his left side with ease. Many of the guard raised their gear to protect against the backsplash, receiving splattering burns for their troubles, and though the woman seemed not to care for their fates, the cloud of reflected acid disappeared into her pouch as if it were a vacuum cleaner before it could splash upon her superior.

Kuma reeled, though it did not stop him. He gave Naruto one last sombre look before his hand moved. The palm struck Naruto's body, and then the world was a blur.

They were gone.

—Kuzan—

Kuzan dove. More than dove, because he had quite a large lead to make up for, and gravity waited for no man. The Divine Fruit fell through the air far below him, just now passing through the cloud cover. It evaded, as well, dodging and weaving in a way that could not be explained by air currents. It sought the ocean. Perhaps a thousand feet behind/above it, the three remaining Pacifista units were in freefall, using their rockets to propel them to terminal velocity and maneuver after the evasive target. The fruit curved through the air to the North like a spinning ball, drawing the androids into an unusual course as they followed.

First Kuzan jumped off the air, propelling himself straight down faster than gravity would have pulled him. Then he reshaped the contours of his body, becoming one with the ice and reducing his wind resistance. He continued to propel himself downward, slowly catching up to the fruit and the mechanical automatons pursuing it. When he broke through the clouds, he began scanning the area desperately. He took in the Pacifista units. He saw the golden fruit they pursued. He looked further, elsewhere, searching for something he did not see. It took him almost a solid thirty seconds, the air currents buffeting his eyes, but finally he saw what he was looking for.

He pushed himself faster.

It was a another twenty seconds of falling before the Pacifista units reached the Divine Fruit. It dodged wildly, evading, fleeing, escaping their hands like a living thing, which, of course, Kuzan knew that it was. The androids fumbled with the tricky target, not properly calibrated for fine dexterity, but although it took them awhile there were three of them, and they were terribly fast. Eventually, one reached out and clasped it between its metallic fingers.

The Divine Fruit erupted in a puff of smoke, revealing the smirking orange and black figure of one of 'One-Man-Army' Uzumaki Naruto's clones. The boy shouted something taunting that Kuzan was far too far away to hear, and then the Pacifista squeezed its fist, crushing the new target into smoke between its fingers. Then the robotic creations paused, stabilizing their altitude without a word, totally lost without a new directive.

Kuzan ignored them. He was already passing them by, nearly half a mile to the South. Naruto had led them on quite the merry chase indeed, which is why his eyes were set on the tiny golden dot still far, far below him: the real Divine Fruit that Naruto had tossed over the edge almost a full minute before the Nobility had arrived on the scene. Kuzan pushed himself further, accelerating past his enhanced terminal velocity with powerful kicks using the technique of Geppou. The fruit had almost reached the ocean now, but to his eyes Naruto had underestimated an Admiral for the second time. It might yet still be recoverable before it sank beneath the waves.

The winds whipped past his ears, and he could not help but recall Gold Roger's words. Every excess and abuse the Celestial Dragons had visited upon the world for the last millennium had been for one purpose: to obtain this fruit and gain the powers of a god. Kuzan had seen the look in that nobleman's eye and seen the truth of it.

Giving it to them was absolutely out of the question.

And so, despite his urgency, he found himself slowing in his pursuit. The dark waters were growing close now, and the fruit even closer. He could make it, he was sure, but what, exactly, was the point?

Then a dark thought clawed its way into being. Should he take the fruit for himself?

The ocean was so close now, the golden light of the fruit reflecting off its surface. His choice had to be made now, or not at all.

He decided.

The Divine Fruit struck the surface of the ocean five miles off the perimeter of the Sabaody Archipelago, and the ocean swelled to meet it like an old friend. It disappeared beneath the surface of the waters without even a splash. The rising ocean tides surged in a great wave that spread across the surroundings, and eventually the waters rose over the roots of the Sabaody's Yarukiman Mangroves, though their stilted growth meant the only disturbance was the lowing and growling of the Yarukinai Sloths as they crawled up to the surface and made their displeasure known to the residents.

Otherwise, there was silence for a time.

The first sign of change came with from the ocean's waters. The archipelago's inhabitants looked out and saw a bright and brilliant aurora, though not one that shone in the sky. The light fanned and waved through the ocean itself, visible in twisted rivers all the way out to the horizon. The ocean breeze sang, actually sang, in rising tones, until it reached a high crescendo.

Then, where the fruit had fallen, the surface of the water exploded. Great tendrils, waves, and beams of light erupted, twirling and entwining around each other, some clashing, merging, being absorbed, and others disappearing into the sky itself, free from the violence below. Images, shapes, colors formed, wavered, and fought for supremacy above and below the waters, with more and more strands of power breaking free and streaking away, leaving their marks upon the sky until the entire horizon shone nearly as bright as daylight. The energies of the fruit painted the sky in a burning, twisting rainbow, and the people of the Sabaody, from the richest of nobility to the lowest urchin, watched mesmerized.

The world had seen nothing like it for a thousand years.

Far off in the distance, Kuzan knelt upon a floating iceberg, carefully assembling his favorite bicycle out of the modular parts he kept stored in his vest. A pipe extended here, fitted in there, screwed in over there… It was meditative. Something he had thoroughly practiced over the years. Finally, he lifted his long legs over the contraption, spared a thoughtful look off into the fiery, seven-colored sky, then set off.

The chaos of the coming years might be a terrible thing, but he knew people who could be trusted to help stay the course.

So, upon the ocean waters, the long-limbed man pedaled his bicycle, leaving his duty behind him. Silhouetted against the burning sky, the great trees of the Sabaody stood sentinel, drinking in the ocean's aurora without a care for his deliberations. And far, far off to the West, outspeeding even the ships sent from the Naval bases in the New World, Tobi strode through the waters, heading for a distant land that called to him like none other. A place that felt, both to his tired body and to his wooden roots, like home.

Raftel.

A/N: Thanks so much for coming this far with me, everyone. I shall take this bit of story and carry it with me all the way to the end of the epilogues.