"They caught Ace" informed a just recovered Tatch. Marco, for his part, was being held by both Jozu and Vista so he didn´t fly away to search his boyfriend. He and Ace have been in a relationship for about some months and he was suffering a lot, thinking that he might lose his flame. Spirit and Raven were stoic in a corner, preparing mentally for the fight. Nearly all of their lives were spent in trying to combine their ninja skill with their jutsus, only succeeding recently.
"I can´t cover every tree with Haki!" yelled Spirit, exhausted after a hard training. Raven shook his head, he not needing to cover his own techniques with haki. Fire and illusion were just that, it was impossible to reinforce them.
"But we need to get stronger… to save Ace-san. I don´t want him to follow the same path as Kingsley-san" said the young man, crossing his arms. "How about a deal?"
"What kind of deal?" asked wearily his friend. A naughty smile graced the other´s face. They have been dating for a few months too and those kinds of things were serious. It could be humiliating like wearing a dress in the bedroom (the pictures Raven took that day were discovered by a crew´s member, ending in the biggest fiasco on his live) or something good for him (having revenge tying up the other to the bed and having hard sex was delicious).
"If you pierced ten Marines stronger than captain level then I will put on that schoolgirl uniform you liked in the last island"
"The one that barely covers your tights? Deal!"
"But if you lost, then the one wearing it is going to be you"
"Hey, no fair! Pink is not my color!"
"And mine is"
"It fits you more than me…"
-Time skip to Shirohige´s appearance in the War-
"Why did you let them come, again, Pop´s? They are too young" said Vista, giving the two teens a look. The captain shook his head, between all his sons they were the ones that most than likely were going to survive the war, being veterans and all. But that doesn´t mean he was going to let them get head first into the battle! Spirit will be his healing back up and Raven his eye on the battlefield.
"Let them be, remember who they are" answered the old male. Both of the teens have stern and calculating looks, as if they were deciding the strategy to use against the Marines. He shivered, not wanting to share their fate, specially if it was in his raven haired son´s hands. He could be quite… cruel with his illusions.
"Are they going to keep up with us? Because we don´t know if war in their country is like wa here" said Haruta.
"War is war, wherever we are…"
-Already in the war-
At the first opportunity, Spirit jumped into the fray and used his technique to create a forest in the middle of Marineford, causing a lot of marines to go into panic. Akainu and Aokiji worked in destroying it, but it wasn´t that easy when it was covered with haki and attacking their soldiers. While this was happening Raven followed with his eyes the path of Ace´s baby brother, admiring the kid. He was sacrificing everything for his big brother… to not lose him.
"I wish… Izuna was a little bit more like him… that he had helped me when I need him the most" he felt tears forming and blinked to get rid of them. He then looked at Akainu and saw the horrible man talking to Squard. When did he moved? Well, it wasn´t important. He moved silently to where they were, hearing the lies the red dog just told his brother. "That´s just a bunch of bullshit and the idiot that believe you is dumber than a half drowned rodent"
"It´s the truth… Uchiha Raven" talked to him the Admiral, making the mistake of looking at him in the eyes when the Mangekyo Sharingan was activated. He felt in the genjutsu, but the teen decided to wait until it was activated.
"Where did you heard that name?" he asked to distract the man. His friend was in the battlefield, pushing Marines away with his roots and healing others, including Ace´s little brother in the place of Ivankov. Good, his techniques didn´t require the sacrifice of live years.
"In the same place where I heard about Senju Spirit… well, just from your families. Why did you leave, anyway? Was the live as mercenaries not enough for you? Or maybe…"
"Stop" warned the former Uchiha.
"So that´s it! You were banished from your clans! I´ve heard there a few histories about banished ninja… what did you do? Killed your brother? Killed your father? Or…"
"Let me tell you, you sorry excuse of a man, a history about banished ninja" he said, getting up. "Once upon a time there were two little boys from enemy clans that met each other at a riverbank. They both suffered great loses at war between clans, but made friends and tried to comfort each other, dreaming about bringing peace to their people… and for that they were banished"
"I see… well, die!" the man attacked, but his enemy´s body was not covered in some kind of esqueleton, that was covered with haki too. "What… the hell is that?"
"One of the techniques of the Mangekyo Sharingan, Susanoo" he smiled in a wicked way. They entered into battle, the former Uchiha distracting the Admiral from going after his brothers… but he couldn´t get out of Squard´s head the idea of being betrayed by his father. In the middle of the war he managed to injury the old captain.
"Spirit, get to Pops! Now!" screamed him, still trapped in the battle with Akainu. The former Senju jumped near the old man and begin healing him, having sealed the wound in minutes.
"Squard, you are an idiot if you believe in anything that man said" talked the brunette and decided to stay. After all he had already took out the majority of the Vice Admirals and his friend was enough to keep Akainu in his place. After some time Pops was injured again, now by the red dog that escaped his friend when he was getting tired. The wood master managed to scared him away then worked on healing the wound while Squard desperately tried to take the ship away from there. In the middle of the retire, Ace stopped thanks to Akainu´s big mouth.
"Take that back!" Raven face palmed, how could the commander be that stupid. He waited the right moment and activated the genjutsu when he was about to kill the hot headed pirate, putting himself between the lava fist and the D, Susanoo activated. The lava made contact with the ribs of the technique, but didn´t have a negative effect on him. And while Akainu was trapped in an illusion where he was burned over and over again, he grabbed Luffy and started running. "Come, idiot!"
"Don´t yell at me" and they were gone.
-Later on the ship-
"I heard… what you told Akainu, about the boys and the riverbank" said Squardo to Raven after his friend finished healing the injuries of the old man. Thank god he was near when Teach attacked too or they would be mourning their father right now. "Was that true?"
"Sadly" answered the teen, looking sad. "It´s ironic, don´t you think? War is something bad, it kills people, and we were punished for wanting to stop it"
"More than ironic is horrible, what kind of father banished his own child?"
"Mine did"
"Mine too"
"But…" Squard now has the attention of all the present pirates. They have never tried to really find out the past of their little brothers, knowing that they were raised to be war peons.
"Just listen to me, shinobi like us are raised to be soldiers, having to go to war as soon as age six. Many if not all die young, their family members full of rage against the clan that killed them. It´s an all against all war"
"That´s sad" said Haruta
"Is the reality of the Elemental Nations" added Spirit. "And those who dream with bringing peace ended up just like us, being drove out of their homes and hunted for the rest of their lives. Specially if you belong to strong clans like the Senju and the Uchiha, that can pay a good price or give you an advantage forming an alliance. As you see, we have to leave the continent if we wanted to stay alive"
"But… couldn´t they just understand you wanted the best?" asked Ace, that had an unconscious Luffy in his arms. He didn´t want to let his little brother go after all the hell the idiot went through to free him. "Besides, it´s your family! They couldn´t just kick you out"
"Well, they did and it was no big deal for them" Spirit sat next to Ace and looked at Luffy with a smile. "He reminds me of one of my little brothers"
"Shhh, don´t talk about that. Missing ninja lose their names, affiliations and everything" said Raven.
"It´s okay" contradicted him the Second commander. "His name is Luffy and I practically raised him… I couldn´t help but wonder where did I screwed up and erased all his common sense, but then again he never had it in the first place"
"At least he isn´t some stuck up brat" commented the brunette. They laughed and enjoyed their victory. It was good to be alive.
-Some time later-
Spirit was lost, wondered how he managed to end up in Sabaody after being sent on a mission to the first part of the Grand Line. He, searching for a dendenmushi, entered to the first building he saw, it being a slave selling business. The man on the stage was announcing the next product when his worries were forgot, replaced for something even worst. There, in the stage, was Tokka still in her Senju armor.
"Tokka!" he yelled, the girl startled. She looked up only to see her long lost cousin forming some hand seals and yelling his technique´s name. then the building was crushed by the trees.
"Tokka, what´s happening?!" asked another Senju warrior that was being sold.
"Hashirama…" she mumbled, even if she knew it was prohibited to call a banished ninja by his name. The brunette walked up to them and formed a key with his Mokuton, taking off the explosive collar. "What are you doing here? Weren´t you dead?"
"I´ve been in this place for over a week after I got lost and no, me and my friend found another family" he answered. "But I never forgot you or… well, it doesn´t matter. How did you end here?"
"Haven´t you heard? This country is trying to take over the Elemental Nations, they have been sending their fleet after the clans, wanting to eliminate the shinobi first. Some warriors like us were captured and…"
"Sold like slaves…" growled Spirit. "I´m sorry, Tokka, I can take you home. My new family have a ship that can take you back. Oh, and if you want to call me something, call me Spirit, that´s how they call me"
"If you think…" begin another Senju, but was stopped by the woman.
"We don´t have another option" stated her and motioned the others to follow. "Lead the way"
"With pleasure"
-In the Moby Dick-
Finally the ship collected them. The shinobi warriors kept themselves away from the crew, that observed them curiously… all of them except Tokka, that was friendly with the pirates, even to the point of thank them for taking care of her idiot cousin.
"He has never being the brightest bulb, but has the biggest hearth" she said to the commanders. "Peace was a dream most of us think impossible, specially with the tensions and hate between clans, but… I want to believe in his dream too. Bad that uncle Butsuma banished him before we could see it."
"Butsuma?"
"His father" she signaled the brunette, that was near the former Uchiha. Raven wasn´t happy to see the others, considering that they were Senju. And their course didn´t make him any happier either. "He… is very traditional, sadly"
"And what about them? You are cousins too, no?"
"We prefer not to associate with traitorous scum or an Uchiha rat" answered one of the men, the others nodding. The girl just shook her head. "Tokka, I hope you are prepared for the consequences of this."
"Oh, shush, I won´t care if uncle Butsuma banishes me, then I wouldn´t need to fight anymore. I don´t mind being a kunoichi, but this is ridiculous, keep fighting with other clans while on war with the World Government. And Tajima-sama isn´t any better."
"What?!" asked the two shinobi turned pirates.
"My father… is really doing that? I thought he has more common sense"
"More than Butsuma Senju? Nah, Tajima Uchiha has a self important ego even bigger, so he couldn´t see straight"
"Oh, Rikkudo Sennin, at this rate this will get… never mind" interrupted himself Spirit.
"He misses you" said Tokka, smiling. "Tobi-chan missed you, even if he didn´t say it. And Izuna-chan has been so miserable after you were there no more. I can tell by the face he made at battle."
"I…"
"Who are Tobi and Izuna?" asked Ace, but he received no answer. The rest of the trip to the Elemental Nations was the same. After reaching their destiny Tokka said goodbye with a hug to her new friends and, smiling to her cousin for a last time, she ran away to met the other Senju.
"Let´s go, they mustn't see us"
-After some weeks-
"This has no end… retire!" yelled Tobirama in the middle of the battle, making a Suiton to allow his family to leave with the injured. Finally he left too, hurt because of an attack from a captain with a strange power. "What can we do?" their numbers were at their lowest in history, the World Government was winning.
"We can always ask Hashirama and Madara for their help"
"One, don´t mention them, it´s forbidden, and two, they are dead"
"No, I found Hashi-niisan in the country this enemies came from and he could actually been of help. He apparently fought them before"
"I…"
"Tobirama, you don´t hate your brother and are probably the only one he would listen. We need his help or will be dead by the end of the month. Please, swallow your pride and love for the rules for once and ask for his help… and Izuna´s, because Madara will only listen to him and we need the two of them"
"Let me think about it" little did he know that someone was listening to them. He went to the beach and was looking at the sea when another shinobi appeared from behind. "So you were there"
"Yeah… and she is right… for once" he looked at the sea too and signaled a boat. "Ready?"
"More than before in my live"