Teach had been reluctant to share the book, but eventually showed it to Itachi.
The book was old and quite worn but in decent condition still. He could faintly make out a title on the cover: Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. The pages were yellowed with age and riddled with stains. Setting it down on the table, he opened it. At the top of the page was a drawing of a navy blue apple with swirls that almost looked like paws, beside it a name: Bear Bear Fruit: Model Grizzly Bear. He skimmed over the rest of the page.
' …gives the user immense durability… massive increase in base strength and agility…'
'…rumored to have a monstrous berserker 4th transformation… reportedly took the efforts of 3 Vice-Admirals to kill the user in this state and even then…'
'…last known state of the fruit is the above-drawn image..'
Itachi flipped to the next page. This one didn't have a picture, but it did have a name: String String Fruit.
"Ah, this would be Doflamingo's fruit I believe. Quite a tricky fruit to deal with if I remember correctly."
'…stronger than steel…puppet-like qualities…incredibly difficult to deal with…strings can be invisible…'
All things Itachi remembered when the man had so graciously invaded their ship. His ease of stopping Jozu, Izo, and Thatch had quelled any violence against him allowing him to speak to Whitebeard unimpeded. Something about staying away from Dressrosa.
He turned to the next page and the next and the next and the next. Truly it was an interesting read. Sadly, not many of the fruits had images or drawings. He quite enjoyed looking at their cute little swirls and vibrant colors. He especially liked the Gum-Gum Fruit and the Darkness Darkness Fruit, their blue and purple coloring reminding him of Sasuke. One thing he had noticed about the Darkness Darkness Fruit was that the page's edges were incredibly worn, more so than any other page in the book. Itachi concluded that this was the fruit that Teach was looking for, a purple cluster of swirly grapes.
Turning to Teach, he asked, "How do you know if the descriptions of the Devil Fruit are accurate in this book?"
"Zehahahaha. That book right there is the accumulation of hundreds of years of research and referencing. A unique trait of devil fruits is that once its user dies, the power is reborn into a similar or same fruit. For example, Ace ate an apple-like fruit for his devil fruit. Once he dies, that power will be reborn into a random apple somewhere in the world. This has allowed scientists to accurately track many of the fruits in the world and throughout history. That is why, if you know what a specific fruit will look like and what fruit it hides in, you can almost guarantee identifying it. The best example I know of is the Ope Ope Fruit. It actually transforms the shape of the fruit it inhibits into the shape of a heart making it a very unique fruit. Ace's fruit is also similar from how he described it; the swirls on the skin resembled flames."
"I see. That's incredibly interesting, I would love to find a book on a more in-depth study of the history of Devil Fruits. It sounds very intriguing. Perchance has the Darkness Darkness Fruit caught your interest, Teach?" Itachi flipped the book to the relevant page.
Itachi felt the big man stiffen on the bench next to him before he laughed again.
"Zehahaha! Nothing escapes those eyes of yours. I could say that you could rival Hawkeyes Mihawk for best eyesight!"
Itachi only smiled at the statement.
Teach continued, "Yes. I am looking for that fruit. Over 20 years ago, I read that book and my heart has been set on finding that fruit. I either find it or I'll die trying."
"A good goal and a good dream to attain. The crew's power would increase with a power like that. It might be enough to shoot Whitebeard to the title of King," Itachi got up and patted Teach's shoulder, "I wish you the best of luck my friend."
Watching Itachi leave the mess hall, Blackbeard chuckled under his breath, "Zehahaha. It is truly strong enough to catapult someone to the top, but it won't be Whitebeard."
"It'll be me."
The time had come.
Itachi had finally made up his mind.
It was time to leave.
He wasn't going to make a big spectacle of it either. He had asked Whitebeard in private and the man had only chuckled and gave Itachi his blessing.
"I'm sad to see you go Itachi, but I won't hold you back either. I can't deny that a restless soul is not a happy one, so go out there and find your way. You are a commander, even if it's unofficial, use my name if you must, although I have a feeling you won't need to at all. I know you aren't one for massive spectacles so I'll have the commanders see you off. You are my son whether you acknowledge it or not, so… take care."
Itachi just bowed and gave him a trademark smile, only this one was filled with genuine happiness.
"Thanks for everything. Really." He turned on his heel and walked out.
It was night and the deck was quite. The commanders were gathered around the port side railing, close to Itachi's favorite spot. A small boat had been lowered to the water, waiting for its passenger to arrive. Itachi walked up to the railing, patting backs and shaking hands as he passed. He had a large scroll strapped to his back, carrying a large quantity of food, water, and other necessities inside it.
Marco, Thatch, Izo, and Ace stood next to the railing, waiting silently. He nodded to Marco, accepted a solid clap to the shoulders from Thatch, and bowed to Izo. He stopped in front of Ace, who had tilted his hat so that it barely covered his face. Itachi could tell that he was barely holding back tears.
He placed his hand on top of the hat, gently taking it off before pressing his forehead against Ace's, forcing Ace to look into his eyes. The tears were there, threatening to fall.
"I never took you for a crybaby Ace, especially after all of the stories you told me of your cute little brother. I remember quite vividly how often you called him a crybaby."
Ace gave a weak chuckle shaking his head lightly.
"Now is not the time to cry. You said it yourself more than a year ago. That to live you have to explore. I have to find my purpose, my reason to live. Sadly, I can't do that here no matter how nice it would be if I stayed. I enjoyed my time with the Whitebeard Pirates and I am forever grateful for Whitebeard letting me join his family. But… my place is not here. I've truly come to enjoy your presence. You're like a little brother to me, and I wouldn't trade our time together for anything in the world, just like my time with Sasuke. It's time for me to go out and find myself just like you did when you were 17."
Itachi smiled, pulled Ace into a hug, and pressed a kiss against his temple.
Turning away, he hopped up onto the rail and turned around to look at the comman-
No.
His friends.
"I'll make you guys proud."
With one last smile, he stepped back and dropped to the vessel waiting down below.
Itachi stared lazily at the calm blue sky, sailing along in the West Blue in his trusty ship, which he had so affectionately named Konoha.
It had been almost a year since Itachi had left the safety of the Whitebeard Pirates.
Life on his own had been good. He traveled far and wide taking in the beauty of the world. He had taken on any sort of job he could, trying anything and everything that caught his interest.
It was refreshing. To be able to choose whatever he wanted, or whatever he found interesting.
He had worked at a few restaurants, waiting, bussing, and cooking. He worked the bar at a couple of bars and taverns. Tried his hand at some casinos, working as a dealer or as security, his sharp eyes allowing him to apprehend any cheaters or pinpoint any sort of disturbance. He helped harvest fruits on one farm and vegetables at another. He learned from and aided an elderly carpenter at his shop. The list could go on with all the odd jobs that he had done.
He flitted between jobs every few weeks, some he would only keep for a few days. During his travels, he had attended quite a few festivals and opened a stall. The stall's purpose would vary quite often. Sometimes he made food, other times he made candy art or drew drawings of passing festival-goers.
Drawing was rapidly becoming his favorite hobby. It was incredibly relaxing and just such a wonderful thing to do. He had given it a try when he had gotten bored on his boat and drawn a simple Sharingan. He hadn't drawn just the design, but instead, had drawn the entire eye. For his first attempt, it had come out decently well, so he just began drawing in earnest all the unique Sharingan he could remember: Sasuke's, Shisui's, Kakashi's, Madara's and his own.
He branched out from there.
He drew Naruto's and Kabuto's Sage Mode eyes, Nagato's Rinnegan, and Orochimaru's snake-like ones.
He had attempted to draw the Hyuga's Byakugen, but it was quite difficult given they were just pure white. He had ended up drawing the face of Neji Hyuga. Once again, he had surprised himself with the quality of the drawing. He attributed it to the Sharingan's ability for picking out even the most minute details and his own impressive hand-eye coordination. With enough time and practice, he could definitely draw even better images. He contemplated the possible use of other mediums as well.
It had been a decent thought. Something to try when he could find a real artist to learn under.
Sadly, up until now, he had yet to find an artist who was willing to take him under and teach him how to draw with more than some colored pencils. He had recently picked up using charcoal, which was quite fun, but he tended to smudge too much or not enough, leaving a mess of disproportionate lines. Still, he was learning and that was all that mattered to him. Learning through trial and error was just fine with him. He had plenty of time and he was in no rush.
In his free time, he would just draw whatever came to his mind or caught his eye. Most of the time, if he was on the sea, he could draw any sea life that he happened to see in the water or ships that passed by. Ships were especially fun as many of them were quite unique. He loved to draw them as they passed by or when he spotted them sailing in the distance. What he really liked to do was to then draw the ship in various scenarios: riding a massive wave in the middle of the storm, sailing up a river in some tropical island, fighting another ship (if it was a pirate ship, he would have it fight a marine ship). He had heard of how Dracule Mihawk, the greatest swordsman in the world, could chop a ship in half with a single swing of his blade, so of course, he drew that too. He had yet to meet the legendary swordsman, but he had heard about the uniqueness of his eyes and their sharp, piercing glare. How he had the vision of a hawk and it made him wonder, with a world as grand and unique as this one, was there someone with better vision than his Sharingan?
Oh, how he itched to see them.
To draw those famous eyes.
To test their prowess against his.
Then his boat hit something with a solid THUD.
A burst of killing intent instantly had him up on his feet and looking into the eyes of the enemy.
The golden,
Piercing,
Hawk-like,
Eyes of one Dracule "Hawk-eye" Mihawk. An incredible amount of annoyance and disdain behind them and directed completely at him.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear.
A flash of black steel.
Itachi lunged.
"Whoops. My bad."