Reading Guide

"Hello" Talking

'Hello' Thinking

(Twenty Minutes Later) Time

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Naruto.

"Why did you let him go?" Homura raged. "The Byakugan is a valuable doujutsu of Konoha, not some bargaining chip!"

They were all sitting in a dark room deep in the ANBU Headquarters for the monthly ninja assembly. It was open to all ninja Jonnin and above, but they were not required to attend either. The room was circular and had three levels. The common Jonin sat on the highest level, more important shinobi sat on the second level down and the bottom level was for shinobi that wanted to address the entire gathering. Sarutobi had managed to put off bringing up the issue of Neji this long, but now it was unavoidable.

"It was that or war," Sarutobi argued.

"So let there be war! It's not like Kumo could defeat us! This would actually have been a perfect chance to demonstrate our power, you know as well as I do that winning a war against another Hidden Village increases our income. Clients who would have gone to them instead come to us."

"Has Sarutobi told you that Neji bears the Caged Bird seal?" Hiashi asked.

"He does?" Koharu interjected. "Then activate it!"

Sarutobi sighed. "This is why I hadn't brought it up," he explained to Hiashi.

"I see," the white eyed ninja apologized.

"He's just a child," Kakashi piped up. "You shouldn't be so harsh." Around the room ninja nodded in agreement, the views of Homura and Koharu were hardly the popular ones.

"Danzo, don't you agree?" Homura pressed. Danzo opened his eyes slowly.

"No," he said shocking everyone in the room. "The child with the green armband is dangerous, and yet he is no more than six years of age at most. Konoha would do well not to have an enemy of that caliber, especially not when there is still so much time for him to grow. Killing Neji would most likely upset him, and avoiding that would be best. And Haishi?"

"Yes?"

"You can set the Caged Bird seal from a distance, can you not? Activate it so that if someone tries to remove his eyes it destroys them. It will protect Konoha's Byukugan without going and making unneeded enemies."

Sarutobi smiled. Although he would have preferred Danzo's support if it came from the old war hawk's heart, his aid was still appreciated.

"Soooo. . ." a voice drawled. "Now that you're done with that, I have an issue I'd like to put on the table."

In the center of the circular room on the bottom level the air shimmered. One moment the space was empty, the second it was occupied by the small yet intimidating form of Yagura.

immediately every shinobi in the room was on their feet, weapons drawn. "What are you doing here," Sarutobi asked, "This could be grounds for a war."

"Perhaps," Yagura mused whimsically. "But. . . if this is grounds for a war, then what do you call having one of your shinobi try to assassinate me?" It was the story Yagura had decided on: the Uchiha had tried and failed to assassinate him. There was no way he was letting it get out that he had been controlled.

"What are you talking about?" Homura asked quietly, something like this was serious.

"Well, I was minding my own business when who but an Uchiha should barge into my office," he said and around the room the eyes of the Uchiha present widened, "And try to kill me. He wore an orange mask, but his Sharringan was unmistakable. And, considering how much you seem to value your doujutsu I highly doubt it was a borrowed eye."

Sarutobi turned to Fugaku questioningly. The other ninja sighed before elaborating. "What he says is most likely true. I have had contact with one such ninja, but he is of no current affiliation with the Uchiha clan. As of about a week ago we severed all ties with him."

Yagura smiled. "I see." 'So one week ago something happened to make them ever their ties with him, that's hard to believe. Then again, one week ago was exactly when I was released from the genjutsu so perhaps that has some merit to it.'

"Well, in that case I have no quarrel with you, but try to keep better hold of your shinobi in the future. He was obviously a shinobi, which means he was of Konoha at one point. Now then, I have other matters to attend to."

His part said, Yagura shimmered before disappearing, causing the other shinobi in the room to relax. "So that was the legendary Gijutsu, Chōetsu Mōshon," one ninja commented.

The others nodded, several shell-shocked that a Kage had been able to waltz right into Konoha and into ANBU HQ without setting off any alarms. The again, Yagura did oversee all the stealth training in Kiri and his nickname was Seishin, literally meaning spirit and referring to just how hard he was to detect when he didn't want to be found.

(One Week Later)

Gaara stood proudly before his now finished library. He had already put all of his books onto the shelves, but there were infinitely more shelves left. 'Seems we need to go get some books,' he mused. 'I could really use some on Earth Jutsu, and some Wind Jutsu wouldn't hurt either.'

He didn't even realize he was completely zoned out until Neji tapped his shoulder. "Um. . . Gaara? It's time for dinner."

It was a tradition of theirs, to all eat dinner together. The would all sit at a gigantic table in the middle of the main cavern, and it looked ridiculous. That table could seat a twenty and yet it was just the three of them. The again, maybe one day it would be filled. Still, that was not the matter at hand. No, the current issue was that Gaara had completed his library right after lunch. 'Wow I was zoned out.'

Following Neji they sat down with Zoro and proceeded to eat some cooked meat. It was nothing fancy, but it would do. "So Zoro," Gaara started after a lull in the conversation (that was mostly between him and Neji, outside of training Zoro didn't talk much). "Mind if we get some Earth jutsu books?" the redhead asked innocently.

Zoro stopped eating and looked up, even though he couldn't see anything. "What do you mean, 'get?' You're not talking about. . ."

"Oh come one, it'll be fun," Gaara argued.

"You're not at that level yet."

"But you're way above it, you'll compensate."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Neji interjected, completely lost.

"It's something he wants to do," Zoro explained. "He wants Earth and Wind Jutsu scrolls and other things to fill the library, so this was his proposed method of doing so."

"What method?" Neji asked, now curious.

"Ransacking Iwa." Zoro began eating while Gaara kept rambling on about how it would be fine. Neji sat in silence as his jaw continued to drop lower and lower.

"YOU CAN'T JUST DO THAT!" he eventually exploded.

"Why not?" Gaara asked.

"BECAUSE IWA IS AN ENTIRE VILLAGE!"

"So?" Gaara asked, seeming to not understand the argument. Neji took several deep breaths to calm himself down.

"Come on now," Gaara said. "There's one thing that you need to know since you'll be staying with it: we don't care. The only thing we care about is each other, and you and whoever else becomes part of our family. Everything else, it doesn't matter. It's either replaceable or worth nothing to us in the first place. As long as we're together we'll be fine."

"Alright," Neji agreed. "But three people can't take on a shinobi village."

"Probably right," Gaara agreed. "But we don't have three people, we have two. Two people and two demons. I think we actually have a pretty good shot at it."

Neji looked at him as he did the math. The demon was probably Zoro, leaving the two humans to be himself and Gaara. 'But wait,' he thought, 'Who's the second demon?'

(At the same time)

A figure in Iwa rolled over and moaned. 'I hate this place, so freaking dull. Why am I even here? I should just leave, I'd be better off on my own.'

'Yeah,' the figure though as it sat up, 'I will leave, but not quietly. Oh no, I'm going out with a blast, in a blaze of fire. It'll take some time to set up, but I can do it. A month, that's how long it'll take. Then. . .'

"I'll be free of this damn place, un."

(A/N: Ten guess as to who that was. Hopefully you don't need more than one. Well, anyways, this chapter was fun. Somebody PMed me about it being unrealistic for Konoha to simply let a doujutsu go, and that spawned the first part of this chapter. Neji's Caged Bird seal was always in my plans, but I didn't intend to introduce it in this manner. Hopfully it all makes sense and seems realistic. In other news, you'll soon be seeing just what Zoro can do in a fight. See you all next time!)