After much argument back and forth between the three, Sasuke agreed to their suggestion to go and eat. To him, it didn’t matter if he was hungry or not. The mission came first in all situations. But, when it became two versus one, he no longer had a choice in the matter. That was how it came to this. Them sitting in a random restaurant with discourage expressions. They had unfortunately picked a place that was popular among rookie pirates stopping by this island. And, table manners weren’t that important to most pirates. The three ninjas couldn’t focus on their food when food from the table over kept flying everywhere.
“I hate this! Can we go?” Sasuke sat with his face down. His anger was visible on his face and in his voice.
“Yeah, my appetite is gone anyway. Such a shame to waste all of this food.” Naruto said dejectedly. Most of the food on the table didn’t even look good anymore after witnessing how those pirate animals devoured it all.
“Can I kill her first?” Sasuke asked, referring to the pirate in the building with the most disgusting eating habit.
“She does have a bounty. Bonny something. I think she’s pretty famous. But, we are to stay out of sight, so no, you can’t kill her.” Itachi said quietly. Despite his quiet whisper, he underestimated the ears of a rookie. A man with exceedingly long arms sat in the corner of the room, and his ears perched up at Itachi’s words. Being the only one solely focused on the ninjas, he expertly caught the content of their conversation despite hearing only some of the words.
“We’re gonna follow them. Something interesting is bound to happen around them.” He whispered to his comrades and continued observing in silence.
“Boys, we’re leaving,” Itachi said and stood up. He glanced around the room, put down some money on the table and left with the boys in tow.
Outside the building, things had come down despite this being a heavy pirate-infested area of Sabaody. Speculations could be made as for why, but that didn’t matter at this moment in time. Itachi wasn’t stupid or weak, nor was the two boys. They felt that long arm’s man’s stares from the moment they entered the restaurant. Itachi wanted to leave because staying further would only entice the man’s interest. Clearly they had left too late because they had a following. Itachi was a master in many things, one of those happened to be tracking. It took him about one second to identify their tail and their location.
“Boys, a fight is about to start. Be ready!” He pulled out a shuriken and threw it towards one of the nearby rooftops. His movements were so quick and smooth that the man didn’t react in time and got pierced through the head because of the impressive power behind that throw. After the body hit the ground, several men landed some distance away from them, one of them being the long-armed man from the restaurant. The street was practically empty except some teenagers sitting by some wall some distance away not really paying attention to this confrontation. Fights were too common here, so even kids like them didn’t care unless it involved powerful pirates or marines.
“You killed my man!” Said the long-armed captain of this little pirate group. Itachi recognized him from his bounty poster. This was one of the many rookie pirates currently gathered at this island. The Gotei had eyes on all of them, and all of these up and coming pirates were now on this island together.
“You shouldn’t have followed us. Now you have to die so we can continue our mission.” His voice was monotone. Sasuke immediately recognized this version of his brother. This was the attitude Itachi used whenever he was dealing with Akatsuki. Cold, detached and merciless. From just the sound of his brother’s voice, he knew this rookie pirate was already dead. So, all he could do was help make sure this went smoothly.
“Is that so? I just want to talk!” Said the long-armed rookie. He showed a playful exterior, but behind that fascad lied a tiger in waiting to strike.
“Unfortunately, that’s no longer possible.” Itachi took a step forward, his eyes glowed bright red and it became hard to breath for everyone, including Sasuke and Naruto.
{Listen to the sound of my voice} His tone was mesmerising, no longer cold, but something you would use to seduce another person. His voice was perfection to the ears and it immediately put the entire group into a trance.
{Scratchmen Apoo. I want you to get down on your knees. All of you, do the same.” Itachi’s words held weight beyond a world noble’s. Though the effects were the same. They went down without a word of resistance. Naruto and Sasuke weren’t spared either, they went down on their knees, but Itachi ignored that.
Itachi quickly threw shurikens to kill all of them except Apoo. As blood was soaked into the earth, he drew his sword. “This is a little more dramatic than wanted, but then again. Master Alucard does have a flair for the dramatic.” Itachi drove the sword through Apoo’s heart and watched as his body hit the ground.
“Naruto, Sasuke, wake up” Itachi gave a slap to both their faces and the boys woke up from the trance.
“What just happened, and why is my memory foggy?” Sasuke asked while holding his head.
“Yeah, that, but also, why do I have this massive headache?!” Naruto was down on his knees rubbing his forehead with his fingers. The boys looked up and saw the dead bodies and then turned their gazes to Itachi.
“One of the benefits of what I have now become. Though it is tricky to learn, and I haven’t mastered it yet so that’s why you two were caught in the illusion as well. Sorry about that, I’ll master it eventually.”
“That’s a dangerous illusion,” Naruto said and backed off a little.
“Is it like the Sharingan?”
“Almost. I am invading people’s bodies by combining magic with my manifested intent and then use that through my voice to control people. The problem is the range of it, and that I am not yet that accurate with my targets.”
“Wow, you’re even more invincible than the last time we saw you.” Naruto’s laugh was strained, but his fear of Itachi was dying down again.
“People with strong wills can easily resist it. At least mine. Master Alucard successfully mesmerised Garp the Hero a few years ago. I can’t do that, Garp would break it immediately and kill me on the spot.” Itachi said it with a slight chuckled.
“Well, he is as strong or slightly below Lubbock, I would expect that of him.” Sasuke had admiration for the strong and powerful, and Garp was definitely one person he wanted to fight someday.
“I just hope Alucard or any other commander doesn’t kill him before I have a chance to fight him.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that. Garp is Luffy’s grandpa, and dad likes Luffy, right. So, Garp will most likely be spared or something.” Naruto said.
“What he said!” Itachi pointed at Naruto with a cheeky smile.
“Hope so, Garp is the closest I can come to the commanders right now.” Sasuke clenched his fist and breathe out.
“So, what now?”
“We go find our target, let’s leave these guys. Nothing can be traced back to us anyway.” Sasuke answered Naruto that had asked.
“Firstly, Sasuke, there were some teenagers that saw us. Their hiding in the building over there. Go take care of them so nothing here leads back to us. After that, we can leave.” Sasuke nodded and disappeared from his spot.
“Are we killing innocents now?” Naruto wasn’t as ignorant or naive as he used to be. He knew sacrifice and necessity in war. But, that didn’t mean he liked any of it. He would do whatever it takes to protect the mission and his loved ones.
“We have always done what is necessary to do. And, for your information. There are more ways to silencing someone other than killing them, for future reference.” Itachi smiled and put a hand on Naruto’s shoulder.
“Whatever you say!” Naruto said and showed a slight smile.
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End
