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CHAPTER 47
While Luffy, Sakura, Sanji, and Usopp managed to resume their voyage through Upper Yard without further struggle against the creatures hiding in the milky road or priests hiding in the forests, there was a heavy tension and unspoken concerns about overcoming their trial. They would have more to share with their crewmates once they were together again.
Sakura warned Usopp not to wince away for the third time as she tended to his injuries, after having dealt with Sanji's and Luffy's. Both had somehow sustained some internal damage. Bruising across Luffy's back deep enough to mottle even his rubber-resilient skin. Sanji had collected a few good bruises himself despite his own durability, which made him confident enough to go toe to toe with Zoro.
"Sakura, my sweet, haven't you tended to your injuries yet?" Sanji rubbed her knuckles where he feared her skin would be marred, but there was no sign to show for all the effort she had put into fighting for her friends. In fact, it always seemed that she was the one coming out of most of their scuffles uninjured or with the least amount of damage.
"I'm fine, Sanji," Sakura assured, reclaiming her hand. She used chakra to harden her body and soften the blows, but the impact had hit her and rattled her bones, just not the same.
"That monster strength of yours is something else, Sakura," said Usopp, "I bet you could take out a sea king if you hit it hard enough. How'd you get the drop on that priest guy? It looked like he was reading you guys like a book."
"He called it a mantra. Have you ever heard about that sort of ability?" But the boys shook their heads. This was their first time encountering anyone with that sort of power. Sakura held her chin, "Then I think it might be something indigenous, perhaps to the people of the sky?"
"Maybe," Sanji said, "But you sure handled him quickly, Sakura-chan, you were so amazing!"
"It's nothing like that. I just learned from a friend that it doesn't matter how strong someone might appear; you can always find a weakness. Even their dependency on their own strength can turn against them."
"Who taught you that?"
Sakura smiled at Usopp's question, "A hyperactive knucklehead, who never knew when to call it quits and loved ramen way too much."
Naruto had shown time and time again how he managed to overcome his opponents, every one who outclassed him on paper, who should've emerged at the top because they could fly while he could only crawl, were all bested by his sheer determination to never submit to circumstances and always look for a way to win regardless of how far he had to go. That determination he had showed Sakura and all his other admirers that you will always have the chance to change a situation as long as you are breathing.
Luffy's lip quivered as he thought about the dish, "Mm-mm, ramen."
"If you said meat, I'd think you were talking about Luffy," Usopp poked.
She chortled, feeling her hair bounce, "I think Luffy would've gotten along with him."
"Who?"
"My friend, were you even listening?"
"Ah, yeah,"
"Liar," She stretched his cheek and watched it snap back.
The landscape had opened wide again into a clearing, with new paths making along the Milky Way heading back into the forest, but Sakura knew they were practically on one side of a double-edged sword. The open space allowed them to see anything coming their way, but it also left them exposed to anything or anyone hunting. And the view wasn't pleasing, decorating the grassy fields with skulls on sticks.
"SKULL!?" Usopp nearly jumped out of the boat, his face blue.
The wind shifted around them. Sakura, Luffy, and Sanji were back on guard. From out of the clearing, they appeared. More of the Guerrillas, some wearing masks, the leader, a tall man with fierce eyes and obvious authority, took the center of the pack, ordering the first strike.
One of them fired a ball, holding a large bazooka, but Luffy was able to deflect the attack. Inflating himself to bounce off the projectile and redirect it, letting the explosion take place far away from their boat.
The four figures didn't seem deterred by Luffy's apparent Devil Fruit ability, even claiming it to be a Paramecia type.
"What's your problem? You want to fight?" Luffy demanded fiercely.
"We don't have time for this." Sakura might have hissed while getting into a fighting stance.
The man looked down at them, "So you are the citizens of the blue seas that caused the racket in Skypiea. If you don't want to die, go back to the blue sea. If you try to do anything weird on this sundial, I'll treat you like Eneru and eliminate you too!"
While Luffy continued to roar at them, Sakura wondered if she had heard that right. So apparently, these people were against the god of this country?
'The raiders are the enemies of god?'
After that, they took off, heading into the forest. They glided on the milky road path with their sled-like shoes and vanished into the thicket before the crew's boat was halfway close. Sakura slumped back down, throwing her hands over the side.
"That went better than expected."
"How so!?" Usopp's liver was quivering.
"They could've kept trying to destroy our boat, cut off our path, delay us from getting to the altar, where our friends may be sacrificed and fighting for their lives."
"I think you're spending too much time with Robin." Usopp deadpanned.
"One thing's for sure, they're God Eneru's enemy, but are they our enemy too?" Sanji stared at the sky, taking out his cigarette.
Sakura started cracking her neck, a habit to release tension and stress. Somehow, that had doubled over the time she spent with her new friends. "They didn't take too kindly to us the last time. Something tells me we shouldn't waste any more time getting out of this place."
"I agree, it's not the paradise I thought it was." Usopp sighed.
Sakura exhaled slowly and let her shoulders drop a fraction. Just a fraction.
..
..
..
After a few more hours travelling through the forest, with little incident perhaps in thanks to accumulated luck and exceedingly continued strings of unfortunate events. They came into another clearing under the canopy, and at the center of it, rising up in stacked tiers like a staircase, was the altar. And at the top of it, listing slightly to one side, her mast lay out flat across her deck was the Going Merry. They saw their ship before they spotted their crew mates.
It had only been a few hours, but it looked like that had been enough to singe the ship and tear it up pretty badly. Leaving it in no condition to sail without further repairs.
"Hey guys!" Luffy jumped, nearly capsizing all of them. His voice carried through and caught the attention of everyone, from the deck, peering Robin, Zoro, Chopper, and Nami.
..
..
"Oh, Chopper, what happened to you?" Sakura brushed her fingers across the bandages, noticing his fur had a slight burn smell to it. The reindeer recapped what happened after they were dropped off on the altar. The lobster wasn't anything more than a taxi, meant to deliver them to this place. Nami, Zoro, and Robin went to scout the area, and that's when Chopper was attacked.
This person had tried to burn down the ship, which was why Chopper was sharing some wounds with her, but he called on the sky knight for help.
The altercation became worse before it got better.
Her hands were already glowing soft green at his bandages, especially the burned parts.
The Going Merry wore her injuries plainly, burn marks along her hull and the mast, which lay across the deck, detached and unusable till they fixed her again.
"So you three left Chopper to guard the ship?" Sakura pointed her hands on her hips, her eyebrows practically sewn together, "That was irresponsible!"
Nami held up her hands, "We weren't even gone that long! And how were we supposed to know someone would attack the ship?"
"Look around!" Sakura gestured, arms wide as if the answer was right there. "You were brought to an altar to incur God's wrath. That's a straightforward expectation of an attack. At the very least, I thought a seasoned fighter would have known to be more cautious."
Sakura didn't have to say it for most of them to know who she was jabbing that invisible finger at. Zoro's eyebrow twitched, and he gritted his teeth. "What the heck are you blaming me for? Things like this happen, you don't get to just point fingers when you weren't here."
"Right, and apparently neither were you." Sakura knocked on what was left of the mast.
Chopper tugged on her, "Sakura, can you take a look at the Sky Knight? He's injured too."
She turned away, still feeling Zoro's heavy glare hitting the back of her head like he was trying to hammer something into her. "Sure, did you give him treatment?"
"Yes,"
..
..
..
Sakura gnawed on her lip like she intended to eat it, to the point where Luffy offered her some of his sky shark that was roasting over a fresh fire. The crew relocated to the other side of the clearing, across the waters from the Merry, where they set up camp, and brought Gan Fall and his peagasus. They didn't feel like the ship could handle their occupancy at the moment, and they weren't too fond of being stuck on the altar. Even being on a ship without feeling the seas sway felt unnatural, and Luffy really wanted to go camping, apparently.
They told each other of their experiences after they split up. While Sakura, Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp were facing off against priests and trials, their friends were making some discoveries of their own.
They had explored this island, finally coming to the conclusion that it was unusual due to the fact that this place was actually from the blue sea. Robin explained that Nami had found the ruins first, the ruins of what looked like a house, or rather half of a building that matched the cardboard cutout that Cricket had masked his own place.
It had come from that.
Like two pieces of a puzzle that had finally fallen into place for them. They were sitting on the very island that held the city of gold.
"What about that mantra thing?" asked Zoro
"I only know that priest used to predict our moves," Sanj explained.
Sakura leaned against the tree root, "It's more than that. It seems he was able to sense what our intentions were. Not like reading our mind, but instincts. How we were going to move before we even did it, but not before we thought about it." Sakura held her chin. When she thought about it now, it seemed something akin to the sharingan and perhaps Naruto's sage mode. If that was the case, they were in a heap of big trouble. "The other priests probably know how to use it too,"
"Oh, that's just great," Usopp slumped, writing on the chalkboard he brought out to help everyone keep track of their information.
"How do you beat them then?" asked Nami.
"You find a way to stop them from predicting your moves, mantra seems to be a technique, so if you can throw off an opponent's concentration or attack on a scale they can't avoid, you should be able to manage."
Nami, Robin, Zoro, and Chopper explained what had happened on their end as well. Their biggest turn of events was discovering that this whole island, Upper Yard, had actually been a part of the Blue Sea, a part of Jaya, and that it had been thrown into the sky by the knock-up stream, a huge one. They realized this after finding ruins that looked identical to Cricket's home. Meaning the city of gold was on this island.
Despite the clear signs that they should cut their losses and ditch the sky for the sea at the first chance they got, with the internal conflict happening, a good supply of enemies, and their criminal status along with divine judgment waiting to fall upon them, there was an air of excitement as Luffy stood up and cried.
"Yosh! We'll go and find the gold!" He declared with the confidence of a true pirate.
Hey, love
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-Kunoichi amongst Heroes chapter (104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109)
-Kunoichi amongst Pirates chapter (48, 49, 50)
-Crossroads of Fate chapter (39, 40, 41, 42)
-Through the Looking Glass chapter (54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59)
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- Kunoichi amongst Benders (Avatar x Naruto crossover) (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-Kunoichi amongst Heroes WHAT IF SPIN OFF: Dorms and Exams
-SPECIAL HALLOWEEN CHAPTER: Shinigami amongst Shinobi