Welcome! This fic is a special gift for Sasu, who wanted more content for Cherry Blossoms and Metal Arms. The first three chapters of this fic are a prequel, and the final three take place between the Wano rescue and the finale.
A note about this chapter: When I wrote CB&MA, Bonney's backstory hadn't been revealed, so the fic was retroactively canon-divergent with regards to her age. This fic continues that canon-divergence, so Bonney's a little older here than she is in canon.
Sakura, sailing the open seas under the harsh sun, wondered if she would ever feel happy again. Her two best friends were dead. They had died right in front of her, and no matter how hard she had tried, she hadn't been able to bring them back.
Was it her fault? If she was better at medicine, could she have done something more? Would a more advanced healer have been able to save them in their final seconds? Could any healing ability revive the dead?
She slumped in her sailboat, allowing her hand to trail along in the water. Maybe a Sea King would come along and eat her. She was scrawny from lack of food and weak from lack of water, but surely she had to taste good to something out there. If not a Sea King, maybe a whale.
A sharp bump jolted her out of her stupor. Without even realizing it, without even trying to, she had reached an island, her boat grounding itself on the coastal shelf. It looked to be a small island, with a town on its shore and no sign of pirates or the navy.
Sakura groaned. No Sea King today, then. She crawled out of her boat and stood, ambling down the beach without bothering to pull the boat ashore or furl the sails. Making her way into town, the residents milled about around her, casting her odd looks now and then. With her ninja outfit, she surely stood out.
A sign down the street told her where the bar was. She made a beeline for it, dragging her feet, and pushed the door open, finding few customers inside the brightly-lit room. She sat down at the counter, barely looking at the bartender, and mumbled, "Water."
"Sure," the man said amicably, reaching for a clean glass. He filled it up and handed it to her, and she drank it, her stomach protesting against the sudden influx of liquid. "How old are you, sweetie?"
Sakura looked up at him and narrowed her eyes. "Too young for you, creep."
He held up his hands. "Sorry, sorry, that's not—you just look a little young to be in here."
"I'm not having alcohol. What's the problem?"
"I guess there is none. Are you new around here, girl?"
"Yeah. I'm just passing by."
"Not a pirate, are you?"
She shrugged. "What's it to you?"
"Well, are you planning to attack this place?"
"Of course not."
"Good, good." The bartender picked up a rag and began polishing a glass. "Our king and protector is away at the moment, looking for someone to help out his little girl. Be a shame if we got attacked now."
Sakura tilted her head. The water had already done plenty to lift her mood. "You know that if I was planning to attack, I could've just lied."
"You seemed honest. Anyway, you seem a little lost."
"Maybe. What's this place called?"
"Sorbet Kingdom, but that's not what I meant." The bartender gave her a searching look and took her glass, refilling it with more water, and handed her a bread bun. "If you need guidance, there's a church down the road. It's close to the one with the boarded-up windows."
"Boarded-up?" Sakura said, curious.
"Don't go to that one, that's where—well, it's not used as a church anymore." The bartender coughed. "Spirituality may do you good."
"I'll think about it." Sakura drank down her second glass, chowed down the bread, and pushed it back at him. "How much?"
"It's on the house. You have a good day now."
Sakura left the bar and went down the road away from the beach side. Within minutes, she spotted the church the bartender had spoken of, its walls all glistening stone and door all polished wood. Peering inside a window, she spotted some people praying at the pews.
She turned her head and looked across the grass at another building a ways away. She walked towards it, the grass growing more and more unkempt with every step. Soon she was in front of it, and she knew instantly that it was the other building. It was also a church, just like the bartender had said, and its windows were indeed boarded-up, and its walls and door dilapidated but opaque. Despite the shabby state of the building, and that the bartender had said it was abandoned, Sakura's ears twitched when she heard voices from inside.
She approached the door and swung it open.
"Hello—?"
A sharp pain made her stumble back and fall on her behind. Rubbing the new lump on her head, she glared at the short old woman with long pink hair (slightly darker than Sakura's) who had struck her with her cane, and was glaring at her in turn.
"You people just can't listen!" the old woman ranted, slamming her cane on the ground with every beat. "I keep telling you youngsters to stay away from this place! This child is sick and doesn't need your tormenting! You—" She stopped suddenly and leaned in, peering at Sakura. "Oh, my. You're not from around here."
"Obviously not!" Sakura retorted, standing up. "I just wanted a look inside!"
"Who's there?" someone else said, peeking around the corner. Sakura blinked. It was another old woman, almost identical to the first one except for the blue marks under her right eye. "Whoa! Who's this? Auntie Conney?"
"No idea," the old woman, Conney, grumbled. "Another nosy person."
"Come inside!" the other old woman exclaimed, beckoning. Sakura stuck her tongue out at Conney and went inside, shutting the door behind her.
"Sorry about Auntie Conney," the old woman said, tottering around Sakura and peering at her in excitement. "She's real damn protective of me."
"Aren't you the same age?" Sakura blurted out. "I mean, with you calling her Auntie . . ."
"Oh, right." The second old woman stepped back and, before Sakura's eyes, transformed. She shot up in height and narrowed in width until she was standing eye-to-eye with Sakura, grinning. She now appeared to be the same age as her, though the blue marks under her eye remained.
"Whoa!" Sakura exclaimed. "What kind of illusion technique is that?!"
"Illusion huh? This is my Devil Fruit, obviously! I can change my age to whatever I want!"
"Oh, yeah." Having grown up around ninjutsu on a sheltered island, Sakura was prone to forgetting about Devil Fruits altogether. "Cool! How old are you actually?"
"I'm twelve." The girl scratched at the marks under her eye, and from the sound Sakura realized they were actually more like stones. "And my name's Bonney! Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Sakura. I'm a ninja."
"Whoa, no way! Show me some stuff!"
"Bonney, dear, you shouldn't be talking to strangers," Conney chided, whacking Sakura's calves with her walking stick.
"And this is Auntie Conney. Don't mind her."
Conney huffed and toddled away.
"Do you live here?" Sakura asked.
"Uh-huh." Bonney went to a pew and sat down, and Sakura followed her, sitting next to her. "I'm sick. If I go out in the sun too much, I'll die. My daddy's out there somewhere looking for a cure."
"Oh, wow." Sakura touched under her own eye. "Is that what that stuff is?"
"Yeah." Bonney grinned, rubbing the stones. "Daddy says they're my jewelry. Aren't they pretty?"
"Do . . . do they hurt?"
"Only if I go in the sun, usually. They just kinda itch sometimes."
"Can—" Sakura tensed. "Can I help? I know a little bit about healing."
"Really?!" Bonney bounced where she sat and turned around to face Sakura properly. "Try it!"
Sakura took a deep breath, putting the images of her friends out of her mind. She held her hands over Bonney's eye, cautiously, and they glowed with healing light. She concentrated, willing her energy into her hands, praying for a miracle.
But when she took her hands away, the blue stones were still there. Her heart sank.
"Sorry," she whispered.
"For what?" Bonney said.
"I couldn't cure you."
"Of course not!" Bonney grinned. "It's a super rare disease. There's no cure! Or at least not now, but my daddy'll be back soon with one. He just has to find a really good doctor." She rubbed her face. "'Sides, they don't itch at all anymore."
"Really?" Sakura said, perking up.
"Yeah! Thanks!" Bonney leaned in, her eyes shining. "Can you show me other cool ninja stuff?"
Sakura found solace in Bonney's loneliness, and over time she lost track of how many days she spent on that island, spending time with her, laughing like she used to. Bonney wasn't much younger than she was, but she felt like the two of them could be twins.
A letter arrived one day, from Bonney's father no less, announcing his abrupt return to the island. It seemed he had found a potential cure for Bonney's disease. As Bonney jumped for joy and snatched the letter from Conney, wanting to read it herself, an epiphany struck Sakura: She was no longer needed there. She had first come there for herself, to help her out of her funk, but she had stayed for Bonney and her own troubles. And now those troubles would be over.
Their farewell was tearful yet cheerful, as Sakura and Bonney promised they would see each other again one day, when Sakura was a great ninja and Bonney was cured for good.