Chapter 208

Somewhere on Sabaody, Luffy was walking around confused. He had successfully escaped the Marines so all that was left for him was to find his crew. The problem was that he didn't know where they were, and he couldn't recall where Rayleigh's house was located. So, that resulted in him walking around aimlessly looking for any trace of his crew.

"Monkey D Luffy. Are you perhaps lost?" Itachi appeared behind Luffy with his hands behind his back. He had observed Luffy for hours and he had finally had enough of sitting around.

"Who are you?"

"Itachi Uchiha. I can take you to your crew. That is if you choose to trust me." Itachi's tone was not as cold as it usually was. Luffy's personality had that strange effect on people. It made then open up and be more inviting than they usually would be.

"Sure, are you certain you know where they are?" Luffy was sceptical, but there's nothing he wouldn't do for his crew.

"Of course. Just follow me!" Itachi said and started walking. Luffy followed him without questioning his motives. To say Luffy was a little naive in these things would be an understatement.

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"Are we not gonna address the elephant in the room?" Sanji sat by the bar inside Rayleigh's house. His eyes scanned the crowd, especially Sasuke that was lying on the bed next to Hachi.

"There's no elephant here! Nor is there something we need to address." Naruto said while drinking the juice Rayleigh's wife poured him.

"I don't agree with that! Your identity, the strange devil fruit you are wielding. And, the fact that your father keeps sending people after us. Do you wanna tell me what's going on?" Only him, Zoro, Naruto and the owners of the house were awake. Even Robin had gone to sleep.

"It's not like that, you know. Dad does see your potential, but that's not why he protects you." Naruto drank the last of his juice and continued. "He was asked to protect Luffy when you guys entered Grand Line." Zoro and Sanji got a mighty shock from that.

"Do you mean someone told him to do this? Who could tell your father to do anything?"

"It's not like that either. Luffy's brother, Ace, he's the one who asked dad to do it. It was a request he made to dad because he knew you guys would have trouble when you entered this sea. You should know, dad only agreed to help you out in Paradise. When you enter the New World, he won't send people to rescue you, even if you were on the verge of death." Naruto said stoically.

"What a nice fellow," Zoro grunted. Naruto spun his glass playfully with one of his hands, "It's the New World. In that sea, you take care of your own, you don't go around helping other pirates because that's how you get yourself killed."

"Fair enough!" Sanji said and lit another cig.

The door to the house opened up and in walked Luffy with a bright smile on his face. "ZORO SANJI!" He ran in and breathed out in relief. "I finally found you guys!"

"Quiet! People are sleeping." Sanji said and looked lovingly over at Robin and Nami. Rayleigh smiled and glanced at Luffy. "Welcome, Straw hat Luffy. How was your journey?"

"I had some nice guy show me the way here. I don't know where he is though," Luffy looked around but didn't see Itachi so he put stopped worrying about it. "How's everyone doing?" He saw everyone asleep, and Hachi sleeping beside some guy he didn't know.

"Who's that?" Luffy then saw Naruto, "Who are you?" He questioned nonchalantly.

"Friends of Robin, nice to meet ya, Luffy!" Naruto said and gave him the thumbs up.

"You got any meat?" Luffy ignored Naruto and walked right up to the bar where Rayleigh and his wife, Shakky.

"That we do, you got any money?" Shakky answered.

"No!" Luffy looked down sadly, then up again, "Can I have some anyway?" He was on the verge of using puppy eyes.

"Sure, why not! Have at it." Shakk pointed at the fridge and Luffy went nuts with it. He started devouring the food at ludicrous speed.

"Naruto, where are we?" A voice came from the bed and Sasuke sat up in his bed with some slight struggle. He looked around and saw everyone, including Naruto looking at him.

"Rayleigh's house, you good?"

"Yeah, we should leave, our mission is done!" Sasuke stood up like nothing was wrong. He put on the shirt that someone had taken off him for some reason.

"You should still rest! If Kizaru comes back, or god forbid, Bradley shows up, you need your rest." Shakky said to Sasuke. Even though Rayleigh could help out with Kizaru if it came to life and death. If Bradley showed up. That would be a different matter entirely. Bradley was someone legends like Rayleigh would hesitate to fight, no matter how strong he was, Bradley was surely stronger.

"Don't worry about that. And, don't worry about us. Just forget us, we were never here!" Sasuke said similar to a depressed teenager. His tone was miserable and he didn't look any one of them in the eyes.

"Kids are so hasty these days, there's not always a need to rush everything."

"Come one, Naruto. We are leaving!" Sasuke had already disappeared from the door when his last words left his mouth. Naruto stood up, bowed and said, "Thanks for having us, I doubt we'll see each other again. So, when she wakes up, tell Robin to come and visit sometime, dad misses her." He got a nod from Zoro and that became his cue to leave the house.

"Only fourteen years old. That is hard to believe, even for me." Rayleigh chuckled and drank some of his whiskey. His mind wandered and however much he wanted to, he couldn't predict what Amell would do next. Even after meeting him, that question didn't become easier to answer.

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End