Chapter 6: Setting Off or Something Else?

Once again he was off.

It had been two weeks since the festival and two weeks since his night with Keoni. He almost blushed thinking about it but was able to control it. Things had been a little awkward between the two of them afterward, blushing whenever they touched or looked into each other's eyes

He was by the dock on the far side of the island, close to Makani's forge. Konoha was bobbing up and down in the water, waiting to leave.

Halina, Kalei, Lulu, Makani, and Keoni were the only ones by the dock. Just like when he left the Whitebeard pirates, he wanted it to be a quiet affair.

Makani had given him a large sack of money a few days before, money that had come from the selling of his swords, as well as a few jars of blood for coating purposes.

Kalei and Halina had given him a large amount of drawing and painting supplies, including a very large amount of the island's special Pokian ink. They had only winked when they had given him the massive jars of the stuff, so he just accepted it without any fuss and sealed them within his art supplies notebook.

It was Keoni that had suggested he switch from scrolls to notebooks, she had seen him starting to pull out scrolls and drawing seals on them to prepare to pack up all his belongings.

"Isn't that inefficient?" she asked watching him draw seals on the scrolls piled around him.

"Hmm?" Itachi didn't look up, but the question was still there.

"I mean why do you seal everything in scrolls? You use so many. Wouldn't it be better if you sealed them into something more organized? I don't know. I feel like you would have a better time if you just sealed all your stuff inside a sketchbook. Easier to access and much better organized in my opinion." She rolled back onto his bed, grabbing and hugging his pillow. It smelled nice.

"I honestly never thought of it like that. Scrolls are definitely what I am more used to, and they are much better in a fight, but for packing and storage purposes? A sketchbook sounds much better. Same amount of paper but far more compact." He stood up, scooping all of the loose scrolls up from the floor and placing them on his desk.

Making for the door, he said, "I'll back in a bit. Going to ask Kalei if he has any extra-large sketchbooks.

She only grunted in response, repositioning herself better on his bed.

Itachi left knowing for a fact that she would be asleep by the time he got back.

She had been and he took the opportunity to draw on her face. He had only added some stars across her cheeks to complement her moon. He thought about doing something more amusing but thought against it. The stars looked cute enough, almost like freckles.

It had taken her two hours to figure out what he had done, but his remark that she looked quite cute quickly stopped any retaliation. She just blushed and looked away mumbling insults under her breath.

She stood in front of him now, looking as beautiful as ever, but fidgeting around, trying to distract herself from the inevitable final goodbye. Everyone else had already said their goodbyes beforehand, so Keoni was the only one that followed him onto the little dock.

"Keoni," she stopped fidgeting and met his gaze. "It's time for me to go."

Her hand dipped into her pocket. "I have a gift for you."

Pulling her hand out, she showed him. It was a few simple pieces, obviously forged by her. A necklace and a pair of earrings. The necklace had the sun as the pendant, and looking closer, he could see the design of his Eternal Mangekyo etched into its surface. He had shown it to her one day and she had commented that it kind of looked like a sun or a flower. The earrings were in the design of a crescent moon, the same as Keoni's mark. He wasn't one for earrings, but she had convinced (forced more like) him to get his ears pierced.

"Yeah, I used to have this straw hat with a bell on it. I honestly liked it a lot. Made a nice ringing sound whenever I walked."

He was in his forge braiding the ito on the handle of a katana he had just finished making.

"Get your ears pierced."

Keoni was cleaning the place, sweeping the ground with a broom.

"What?"

"Get your ears pierced. Put tiny bells on your ears. Easy solution."

"How do you go straight to piercings from a hat? What if I want to wear my straw hat."

"Hats are stupid. You would look stupid in one."

"I think that hats can be quite nice."

"Yeah. Small ones. I know for a fact that you're thinking of one of those big ones."

He was.

"See? No response. I was right. Get your ears pierced."

"No. I am not. I like my ears as they are."

They had bickered over it for days before Keoni had gotten fed up, grabbed his ear, and pulled him to her house to pierce them herself.

He let her do as she pleased as he honestly didn't care whether or not his ears were pierced. He had just argued with her to annoy her. Bicker for the sake of bickering. The faces she made were quite amusing as she got more and more frustrated.

After she had finished, she had offered him a pair of studs to put in, to which he had accepted. He had already healed the piercing but felt it would be good practice to at least wear something before he moved onto heavier things.

For the two weeks that he wore the studs, he learned glassblowing, so that he could make a pair of glass bell earrings for himself. Putting them in and walking around created a wave of nostalgia to wash over him, reminding him of the time he and Kisame had spent together. He missed the Hidden Mist shinobi, even if he was incredibly bloodthirsty.

When Keoni had come over, she had fawned all over them saying how cute they were before dragging him to her home so that she could "make him pretty". She ended up just putting every single earring she had on him, before laughing her ass off. He just sat there and let her have her fun, although some of them had been rather weird. She had pulled out a weird pair of radish looking ones, he had only quirked an eyebrow at her. She had laughed and said something about wizards and the moon.

"Just something to remind you of me. Sun to my moon and all that jazz. Think of them as a promise. To come back to me."

She held out the earrings. He grabbed them and put them in his ears.

She then motioned for him to lean down, holding out the necklace. Obliging her, Itachi leaned over and allowed her to fasten the necklace around his neck. When she finished, she pulled him into a tight hug.

"I'm going to miss you, you stupid bastard," she whispered into his ear. "I'll write to you as much as I can and send the stupidest shit I find."

He gave her a slight grin.

He had given her a scroll, which she could use to send him letters, small objects, and other miscellaneous items. They would be sent to and stored inside one of his notebooks. It was his most recent sealing project and he was incredibly proud of it.

"Don't get hurt. Come back soon." She smiled and stepped back.

Realizing that this was it, he stepped onto his boat and untied. Letting the current take him out, he turned around to look at Keoni one last time.

He smiled.

"Goodbye Keoni."

A strong wind swept by, accelerating him out to sea and away from the lovely, wonderful island of Artopoki.

Hi Itachi!

Did you see the full moon last night? It was so pretty! And so big! I heard some people talking about it, something about it being called a "harvest" moon. How cool! Imagine if you could harvest the moon. Would it regrow? Would there be one every season? Would it look different every time it came back? Would it even come back? Wait, I already asked that. Oh well, things to think about I guess.

Oh! Someone really important is coming to Artopoki! One of the warlords! The Snake Princess herself, Boa Hancock! I'm so excited! She's coming to get her portrait done. The council is thinking of having Halina do it since she is the most senior illustrator on the island right now. Maui is out on a trip right now, so she's technically the best illustrator available. I hear she's bringing her sisters with her. Hopefully, I'll get to coat their blades.

Oh! Oh! And another thing. A merchant came by the other day, a makeup merchant to be specific. He had this really nice red lipstick. I got it cause it reminds me of your Sharingan! I added a little sample at the bottom of this letter for you.

How are you doing? Tell me about your day. I don't care if it's boring. I want to see your pretty handwriting!

Keoni

And there at the bottom of the letter was a nice imprint of her lips. The lipstick really did match the color of his Sharingan.

Opening his sketchbook, he unsealed a wooden box and opened it. Inside were all the letters that Keoni had sent him thus far, well over a hundred. She had sent him at least one letter every day, but generally sent closer to two or three. Some of them were just scraps of paper with a corny joke written on it.

He placed the most recent letter in the box and then resealed it into his sketchbook.

He didn't reply to every letter, but he did send a letter back to her at least every three days. He would send more if he happened to find something interesting. Unbeknownst to him, she also kept a little box with all of his letters in it, each and every single one solidifying her feelings for him more and more.

He did appreciate her sending one every day though. It was something to look forward to, especially on rather boring days. The energy that she put into her letter was quite infectious if he had anything to say about it, and very easily improved his day.

Something interesting had happened recently, a huge shadow in the sky and a pair of scavenging monkeys. He wrote a rather lengthy letter, first describing those two things and then moved on to describe his latest art piece: a Sea King nest he had passed when crossing the Calm Belt. He had tried to listen to their voices, but the most he had understood was a desire to eat. They had tried to eat him, but a brief flair of killing intent deterred them instantly. The image of them gazing hungrily at him was a fantastic idea to paint though. He wrote about his want to forge a sword. He hadn't forged anything larger than a small knife in three months and he didn't want to get out of practice, although he spent an hour every day listening to a few swords that he had packed. When he had first told her that, he expected her to tease him in the next letter, but she had just been supportive and cheered him on. It had warmed his heart seeing those words from her.

Finishing up the letter, about four pages in length, he opened his sketchbook to the teleportation seal, placed the papers on top, and activated the seal. With a small pop, the letter disappeared, no doubt neatly resting on top of Keoni's dresser. He was, of course, also unknowing of the squeal of delight Keoni made whenever she saw a new letter.

He stepped out of the cabin, a crow flying down from the top of his mast, relaying any interesting information that it had seen. There was a ship to his port and a little bit south. Turning to take a look at it, he was greeted with a rather interesting sight. The ship looked like a chicken? The figurehead looked like a lamb, but the red crown on its head very closely resembled that of a chicken. It even had large wings on its hull and tail on its bow. He wouldn't judge though. Seeing the jolly roger flying from its mast, he understood that they were pirates, and from his own experience, some liked to follow a theme.

Although… taking a closer look at the flag as well as the jolly roger on the mainsail, it seemed to have a straw hat on the head of the skull. He was expecting something more..poultry-like.

He then noticed the frantic waving of the people on deck. Were they waving to him? Or was something else causing them to panic?

"He can't hear us! Oh no, he's going to die. The Knock-Up Stream is going to smash his boat into tiny little pieces and he's going to drown!"

Usopp was panicking. Having the best eyes on the crew, he had seen the tiny little boat before any of the others and had called it out to the rest of the crew. Nami had asked him what direction it was heading in and he offhandedly said around the same direction as them and getting closer.

The look of horror on Nami's face told him that something was very wrong with that statement and was about to get on his knees and beg for forgiveness when Nami viciously shook his shoulders.

"We have to tell them to turn back! We're heading towards a whirlpool! If they get any closer, they won't be able to escape the whirlpool at all! They'll die! Quick, get Zoro and Luffy and try to get their attention. Whatever it takes, I don't want someone dying when we could've warned them!"

They had been waving and yelling for ten minutes, but the boat showed no sign of changing course.

A choked sob came from behind him. Turning around, he saw Nami crying.

"Oh my god. It's too late. They're caught in the current. They can't escape."

He had never seen Nami so concerned over a random stranger, "I've never seen you like this Nami. Are you okay?"

She punched him in the head, "OF COURSE I'M NOT! That's a regular person on that boat! Look at their flag! It's not a Jolly Roger or a marine flag. It's just a plain flag of some civilians. I couldn't care less about what happens to other pirates or the marines, but a regular person doesn't deserve to die like this!"

Luffy and Zoro had both stopped yelling and waving to listen to Nami.

"I could rocket myself over to them."

"I could swim over to them."

Nami smacked them even harder over the head.

"NO YOU IDIOTS! THEN YOU'LL BE CAUGHT IN THE CURRENT TOO!"

Both nursing the goose eggs on their heads, they mumbled out a "Yes, ma'am."

She turned away and walked back to the helm, carefully positioning herself so she couldn't see the small ship.

"I can't watch this."

The people had stopped yelling and waving.

"Guess it wasn't for me then. Glad they resolved their issues."

Looking to his starboard side, he could make out a hint of land.

An island. He needed some more freshwater, so he grabbed the rudder stock and pushed it to turn starboard.

Only… the rudder didn't budge. Pushing a little harder, he heard the wood groan, but the boat didn't shift course. He let up knowing that pushing any harder would result in a broken stock and he didn't want that.

"Oh my. Seems I've been caught in a current."

The only thing he could do was furl his sails and let the current take him where it pleased.

If Itachi had known that he was close to the island of Jaya, he would've known that he was caught up in the legendary Knock Up Stream by it, but since he hadn't landed on the island and had no way of knowing, he sat and rode it out. If he had known that he was heading towards the Knock Up Stream, he would've immediately gotten out of the boat, sealed it into his sketchbook and water walked to land.

A lot of ifs but this was the path ordained by Fate so not much can be done to deter that.

Itachi finally realized the danger he was in when his boat quickly picked up speed. Lashing the rudder in place, he walked to the bow and looked ahead of him. He could pick out the rim of a massive whirlpool.

Cursing, Itachi began securing as many things to the deck as he could, before rushing into the cabin and sealing any loose items into a sketchbook, then sealed that sketchbook into his largest sketchbook which he then sealed into a massive scroll. The scroll was what he would use to seal the boat in. His only chance of surviving was riding his boat close to the rim of the whirlpool, before jumping out, sealing his boat and then water walking.

Looking back at the other ship, he saw that they weren't changing course either. Were they caught as well? Or where they purposefully riding towards the whirlpool? Looking over their chicken-like decorations, he noted that the wings were quite large. As if the boat was trying to...achieve...flight.

Shit.

Itachi realized there was only one answer.

Knock Up Stream.

There was no escaping from it now that he was caught in its clutches.

He had to change his plan. He would have to ride his boat into the whirlpool, and right before the stream shot out, seal his boat. He would have to ride along the stream using only chakra, the force of it would be too much for his small boat. Unsealing his sketchbooks, he pulled out an umbrella. He could reinforce it with chakra and use it as a makeshift sail, the air currents that ran parallel to the stream would help push him up the Knock Up Stream faster.

He resealed everything back into the large scroll. With only the scroll and the umbrella by his side, he waited, watching as the whirlpool got even closer.

"Nami! The tiny boat is almost at the edge of the whirlpool! I see only one guy. He's sitting at the bow with an umbrella and a large scroll? He seems-"

"USOPP SHUT UP!" The stress from learning of Luffy and Zoro's new bounties as well as the fate of the tiny boat was really starting to wear Nami down. She really wished the best for the lone man, but she had to worry about keeping her own crew safe first.

"Zoro! Sanji! Furl the sails and secure the boom!

She had a whirlpool to navigate.

He could see the violent churning of the water. He was so close to the rim, his boat moving too fast to stop now.

No going back.

He tipped over the edge.

His ship instantly accelerated, the raging waters pulling his boat around at an incredible speed.

He anchored himself to the deck with chakra, eyes staring intently at the center of the vortex, watching for the telltale signs of the impending explosion.

He heard voices behind him. Probably the other boat passing the threshold as well.

The roar of the water was loud in his ears. The boat vibrating so hard that his vision was shaking. He was so close to the center it was starting to make him sweat.

"Come on. Come on. A bubble or a bulge. Just give it to me. That's all I need."

Itachi's entire attention was focused on that one spot.

Waiting.

He got closer.

Waiting.

He would get utterly obliterated if he went down.

Waiting.

Death was breathing down his neck right now.

Waiting.

He thought of his promise to Keoni.

Waitin-

THERE.

He saw it. A bulge and a bubble.

Instantly, Itachi leaped off the boat, umbrella clamped in his mouth, scroll unraveled. In a puff of smoke, Konoha was sealed safely inside the scroll. Slinging the scroll across his back, Itachi landed on the water, the bulge already much, much larger than when he had first seen it. Opening the umbrella, he reinforced it with chakra and pointed it straight up.

Not a moment later, the entire sea HEAVED and he was riding the Knock Up Stream into the sky.

"I believe this leads to the sky island Skypiea? I remember Whitebeard saying something about it."

"Oh my god! He jumped out of his boat! Is he insane?! Wait! His boat's gone too! OH my god! He's dead. He's dead and we're next!"

Nami had tuned out Usopp's useless sobbing and was focused completely on the bulge that had popped out of the whirlpool. Not a second later, the bulge exploded into a massive pillar of water, instantly sweeping the Going Merry up with it.

"YAHOOO! WE'RE FLYING!" Luffy cheered. "Huuuh? Hey guys! I see something ahead! It looks like an umbrella!"

Everyone looked ahead and sure enough, ahead of them was the man from the boat, holding on to an umbrella, essentially skating up the side of the Knock Up Stream.

Seeing the man use the umbrella, created a sudden realization with Nami.

"Zoro! Sanji! Quick! Unfurl the sails! This is exactly like navigating on a normal sea!"

Zoro and Sanji instantly complied.

The second the sail filled with the wind, the Going Merry instantly gained more speed and pushed the ship back into the water.

With newfound confidence, they chased after the mysterious man, up the Knock Up Stream.

To Sky Island they all went.

"Now things will get interesting. Do be sure to play nice Itachi-kun."

A real shame that we lost a few readers cause of the last chapter. Oh well, their loss. I've got this story planned out all the way to Marineford so stick with it and it'll be so worth it.

Also I realized that I could've definitely made the fireworks scene much better for a more slowburn kinda thing. Have Keoni fail to confess, or just write out their thoughts yadda yadda wow he/she looks so pretty or some shit like that, so forgive me regarding that. This is my first time writing any sort of romance so what should be subtly romantic might not actually be subtle at all.

Oh well, we live and learn. As always, leave a review!

Thanks, Z