Strolling Around Town.

In a small cafe along the main street at an outside table Yang, Ruby and myself were seated.

Before us on the wire mesh table were three cups filled with parfaits, one was filled with strawberry and a cookie on top another was filled with a banana pudding with marshmallows and the last filled with a soda called Ol' King Cold.

As I sipped on my soda the girls were digging into the parfait that was actually matching to their hair colors, sorta funny to me as I watched them dig in zealously. They were quite cute.

"Alright Yang, Ruby. We are here for business, so we gotta go and find the blacksmith that is currently in charge of my Dad's/Qrow's scythe that was sent in for repairs. Qrow is fully capable of repairing it himself but as Taiyang said he was sent out on a job by Signal Academy to fetch a few students who went missing. So he had to take his spare scythe with him on the Job while his scythe was sent her for maintenance." I explained the situation to the girls, though it was only a summary of what Taiyang had told me before we set off.

"Mm, makes sense. Ruby had been using your scythe for the past week of training instead of Uncle Qrow's spare. And now we get to come into town and grab it for when he gets back to the Academy or the house!" Yang easily accepted the reason for us coming here and knew we won't be long. 'It is sorta strange how smart children are in this world...'

"Yep, I can't wait for Uncle Qrow to make it back home! Training with a scythe is so cool! Eeek!" Ruby was flailing her arms as she is almost finished with her treat and thinking of her Uncle's scythe.

"Heh heh. Well the catch here is that the two of you are responsible for this task, I'am here to just watch over you and make sure that neither of you get hurt. That is why for the duration of our stay in the port town you will be accompanied by my clone while I go and check out the place." I explained to the both of them that this was their job… They didn't take it so kindly.

"What?! That isn't fair! You always get to do what you want!"

Seems they only want to goof off while in town, sorry but I have my own agenda. That agenda of mine is that I want to goof off.

"Yeah, I do. But that is because out of the three of us, I'm not only the strongest but the most responsible. Besides, the two of you can take on a few younger Grimm. Exploring a town so as to complete an errand is easier than eating the parfait I just bought the both of you." Of course I wouldn't just say I was goofing off, so I made some excuses and used the fact that the both of them were mature enough to handle this errand themselves.

""Geh!""

"Fine, but remember Bro, make sure you remember to meet up with us before dinner though!" Yang seemed to want to make sure that I won't be leaving them alone the whole time as well, so she agreed after all this time.

"You got it Yang. I'll see the two of you later."

Making several hand seals with both hands, I say out "Shadow Clone Jutsu" and *Poof* a cloud appeared and disappeared as quick as it came. Out from where the smoke was, now stood a copy of myself.

It was a simple Shadow Clone that will act as their guard and I will stay connected with it through telepathy while I traverse.

Allowing my voice into the head of the clone I said "Alright Clone, you are in charge of these two for the next several hours. Don't go and piss them off as they'll tell Taiyang that I skipped out on helping them." After hearing this I saw him give a small nod while glancing in my direction.

"Alright you two, here is the paper that states the information on the shop it also acts as the median to let the smith know we own the weapon and here is the money bag that holds the amount of money that is owed for the scythe if he says it is more let my clone do the talking."

"Okay, see you Bro!" Yang waved me off.

Ruby seeing this also chirped in "Bye, Big Brother!"

"Yeah, see you girls later." I said as I waved behind my back while walking away.

…

Making my way through town I walk for only a few minute down the main street, I look around the shops and observe the prices of the goods that people are being sold on makeshift stands that are just cloths on the ground with items on top.

Walking about I manage to spot a little something that caught my eye as I had no idea why it was here in the first place, walking over to the makeshift stand I took a good look at the person running it and found a simple old man. Or at least that is what it seemed…

Kneeling down before the mat I stretched out my hand slowly and gently, almost afraid that I would bring harm upon the item I had spotted. It was a weirdly shaped pear fruit, it was white in color and had markings run up and down it as if it were some item of religion. It was a devil fruit, the Ito Ito no mi or String String Fruit.

Before I can grab the pear, a hand had fallen on mine; it was wrinkly and old.

The old man looked at me closely and I stared back at him "How much?" I asked.

Lifting up his fingers I saw him lift all five on one hand… "5 Lien?" He shook his head, I asked again "50 Lien?" He shook his head again "500 Lien?" He shook his head once more…

"Sigh~ I'll make you a deal old man…" He seemed interested, I reached for my back pouch and grabbed a blade…

Holding the blade in my hand the old man had a fcae that seemed to be growing in anger,

Ignoring the look on the face of the old man I turned and I threw it… to which I then teleported to the three pronged blade I threw well over a hundred meters away. I had used the Flying Thunder God Seal to move this quickly.

Then I walked back and said "I will offer up my services of a single favor and on top of that I will also give you 10,000 Lien, this should help you in anytime of need. All you need to do is call for me and I'll be at your service one time only, and you get enough money to buy enough food for yourself for the next few months." With a smile on my face I gave a very generous offer but it didn't stop there "I will also offer you this" removing from my inventory yet I act as if it came from my back pouch was a transceiver type device.

Hand it over to the old man his eyes were rather confused at the last offer and so I explained to him "This transceiver is a similar type of beacon device used at the hunter academy Beacon where you can call for a one time supply of items or gear. With this you can call for a vehicle, weapons, supplies or troops, though at the moment I have no free troops to send out and that will have to wait a few years until any are available."

The eyes of the old man began to shine as he heard my offer, but alas he got a bit greedy, he lifted up both hands and thrusted all ten fingers twice. When I saw this display I couldn't help but frown at the sight and therefore I decided to show him I meant business and that alone even if I was a little generous, closing my eyes I can see that the old man was wondering if I would accept his demand but when my eyes reopened they were a bloody red rather than the eyes of a normal human as my Sharingan activated.

With the Sharingan I could see that the old man's look was truly that of a fake and behind the facade I saw a cute little girl that had pink and brown hair with eyes that matched to boot, it was Neo.

But I already knew this, I just wanted an excuse to say I saw through her.

As Neo saw my eyes she was slightly startled and it showed on her face, though it seems she hasn't noticed that I can see through this facade of hers. This made my time spent her much more entertaining as I decided my next course of action.

Leaning down and close to the man's ear I whispered silently "Little girl, I suggest you take my offer before I take this fruit from under that nose of yours. Because that Illusion is far from being able to stop my eyes which can see through all illusion."

Surprised her eyes widened greatly and she backed up a little, catching her wrist I myself made a small illusion to make it seem as if we were merely speaking together.

Neo was surprised I can see through Illusion but I decided to continue "My offer still stands young lass, with this you can have any single favor completed without question, any sort of supply you would need and will also receive a fine paycheck for this fruit that is useless in your hands and yet of great use to me. Do not let this chance go or I'll take the fruit by any means necessary." Near the end my tone turned a little dark and threatening and the results showed up on Neo's face as she felt an innate fear to me.

She decided to give in, I handed over the three pronged kunai, transceiver and the ten thousand Lien plus an extra thousand on top of that. I didn't want to really steal form her because she was such a cute little thing, besides with this I will to really feel bad at all for taking the Ito Ito no mi.

Sure maybe I did feel a little bad for taking a devil fruit but later on I can make it up to her by helping her in the most dire of circumstances. After telling Neo that all she needed to do was inject Aura into the blade and throw it into the ground I will be teleported to her, no matter where she is.

I'm just that awesome!

Of course I told her that even if she didn't have an emergency or favor in need of getting completed she can drag me over once or twice a month for a chat… She never really said anything but through the scroll I gifted her free of charge she told me that she'll do that.

I'm just relieved that at the end of our meeting I didn't make her hate me and even thank me, turns out a white fruit that had weird symbols on it was insanely hard to sell in the market place!

THough because of this she wondered what use I had for the weird fruit I just said it was a secret as I let her pout and just shrugged her off.

After I explained everything to her and we chatted for an hours I took my leave, I have no idea when she began to work with Roman but that could be now or sometime soon for all I know. Not really much is known about the origin of Neo after all.

And I still have six years before I know for a fact she is working with him.

…

Taking a look through each of the other spots I have decided that most are not really worth looking though in the least as most are selling either fake, ruined or useless items. But they do have a cheap price, with the exception of the few con-artist that have taken up shop.

I've also noticed that some people are being quite secretive with their movements, I guess they might be of some criminal or dark organizations. Best for me not to get to involved unless necessary.

But that thought immediately flew out the window as I caught a certain sight out of the corner of my eye.

A group of people surrounding a single person.

"Isn't that…?" I quickly made my way over.