Chapter 4

Luffy and his crew were enjoying a peaceful day outside. It was sunny and bright out, everyone was lounging around. It was nearly peaceful.

Rikyu sighed happily, enjoying the peace and quiet for once. No Marines were in sight, there wasn't a gang of pirates after their tail, and they were heading off to Sabody at a pretty decent pace, and they had managed to escape very recently from an island full of wonder and horror. He still was a little worried about what had happened to Disarray… Konton… whoever he was, as all they had to go on was what the captain had said: that he disappeared. It wasn't as if they could go back and check the island either, since it was completely gone now. He just hoped they wouldn't have to see him again as he looked up at the bright and sunny sky.

It soon began to change, at quite a rapid pace too, making Luffy, who was also looking up at the sky, very confused.

"Hey Nami, why did it suddenly turn dark?" Luffy turned to the navigator, Nami, since he knew she knew a lot about weather stuff.

Rikyu now was slightly nervous as well as confused, as he was still not quite used to rapid shifts in the weather on the Grand Line. This one seemed far worse than usual though.

"Nami, did you ever check the Log Pose to see if we were headed in the right direction?" Rikyu asked, sounding slightly worried.

"Of course I did! What makes you-" Nami was ticked off about the crew's lack of faith in her abilities, only to be stopped as she paled while looking at the Log Pose and yelled, "Oh crap! We need to get this ship out of here before-"

A strong gale of wind blew away her words as it started to rain heavily on the ship, with thunder and lightning going off around the ship as well.

"Oy! Why'd we sail into a thunderstorm? That's not really SUPER." Franky yelled up from underneath the deck.

Rikyu was up in a shot alongside Luffy, looking around worriedly at the storm even more. It was then that he saw something that changed his mind about one fact. "Um, that's not a thunderstorm..."

Usopp looked out and panicked, causing Chopper to do the same as well. In front of the ship, coming from seemingly out of nowhere and sucking the crew in with no way out was a... "HURRICANE!" The hurricane then sent them high skyward, very much like the time they rode the Knock-Up Stream to Sky Island. This caused Usopp, Nami and Chopper all to remember that horrid time that was getting to Sky Island and make them cling onto the nearest and tallest object. Zoro seemed to have awoken and was yelling in confusion, clinging to the crow's nest as Sanji came barrelling out of the kitchen, only to then grab onto the main mast. Robin and Rikyu's actions were to cling to the side of the boat, while poor Brooke was planted down by three people clinging to him.

The surrounding area of Ame

Team 7 investigations

Team 7 had arrived close to Ame. It was obvious this place was busy and the fact that it was so busy and yet had little friction with the Akatsuki was a bad sign all around.

The issue was that in the evening before they had almost been found by an Arm or possibly an Akatsuki nin. Whoever it had been had put some serious effort into keeping their chakra low and level- a skill not many actually possessed. It had made them all wary and fully ready to spring into action if needed.

Naruto scowled as they perched in various trees and ledges. "So many sightings, and yet so little action taken. Something's up." his whiskered face was serious and calculating.

The elder jounin didn't like it either. "Right. The more I see from this place the less I like it. We need to be very careful. More so than usual."

"I don't like it either. Three way split?" The wood specialist asked with a small frown.

Kakashi gave it serious thought. Yes they'd cover more ground, but his gut was telling him no. There was something seriously not right with this place. If they split in two though….it still wasn't a good feeling but it was better than a three way split. "No. Half and half. Yamoto, Sai and Sakura you three will go east."

Sakura nodded and slipped on her gloves, doing a quick check to make sure everything was in place.

Sai shrugged. He understood the reasoning behind the split up.

Yamoto also nodded. "Send a clone to check up say-every hour?"

"Absolutely." the sharingan user ordered. "Let's go."

Two three nin groups split away from one another, each in another direction.

Naruto followed Kakashi, keeping to the jounins' left. He kept his senses fully extended, the nine-tails even putting effort into it. He may have hated imprisonment, but it was infinitely preferable to what the Akatsuki had in store for his being.

Masika kept to her captain's right, focusing on what the air was telling her. Most people shinobi and civilian alike didn't know this, but people left chakra trails. Each signature was as unique as a person's scent and carried in many different ways. The air around this place was positively laden with residual chakra, and it made the silent nin nervous to find so much of it heavy and oppressive. Truthfully, she could actually see the wispy remnants of the stronger chakra. It wasn't a skill anyone outside of Sai or Ibiki knew about. Electric blue eyes flashed as she kept pace with her teammates. She'd mention it to Kakashi. Maybe.

Kakashi was on full alert as they went. He was almost certain Ame was stalling on their end of this very rocky alliance, and that Ame and the fearsome group of S-Class criminals were in cahoots somehow. His gut was telling him that much for certain. What he was less certain about was if this mission was going to escalate. He seriously wondered if Ame was going to engage in all our war. It might very well end up that way considering how...charming...they were. Right now though, information was power and power led to victory.

Meanwhile Yamato, Sai and Sakura went a different way. It was a bit nerve wracking to be honest, to be investigating something that had the potential to blow up in all of their faces.

Sakura most certainly did not like the face that Ame was clearly gearing up for something big; all the signs said as much. It was also clear that the Shinobi of Ame were keeping its civilians very firmly in the dark about what was actually going on.

That never boded well for anything.

Sai simply hoped that war wasn't the end result. Much as he had been trained, brutally and efficiently, he did not like the idea of pitting his Village against another of equal caliber. For that end, he'd do everything in his power to see to the safety of his Village.

Yamato also had the niggling worry, but also the thought process of his elder jounin. Akatsuki was subtle and often moved in the shadows, far more than most shinobi did. He had the suspicions that there was some serious power backing the mysterious organization, but to what end, he couldn't fathom.

Hence recon.

The wood jutsu specialist also had the thought that Ame wasn't actually going to follow through with the treaty. It seemed like a stall to the ANBU Captain. That only served to keep her extra alert.

One never knew what could happen.

Myself and Devontis have both been extreemly busy as of late, so we thank you for your patience!

We will try to update as we can, but work comes first, unfortunatly. Devontis has had issues thst needed to be resolved with college, and that took quite a bit of time and my work schedual is...odd.

Once again, Thank You for your understanding!

We own nothing of One Piece or Naruto-though we'd like to...

Ah, Masika and Rikyu are simly there, not unduly important, but there nevertheless.

If any readers have questions, feel free to ask!