Chapter 105: Lan Lan and Kaka Green Bit — Uninhabited Island, Southeast Coast
The Wood Black Crow carved circles through the sky above Green Bit's dense canopy, its black flames trailing smoke that dissolved into the sea breeze. Itachi's Sharingan swept the terrain below—every shadow, every clearing, every possible hiding place—and found nothing.
No Robin. No Usopp. No trace of either of them.
He had watched Fujitora's warship depart for Dressrosa minutes ago. The Admiral and his Marines were already gone, leaving behind only the scarred battlefield and whatever secrets the island still held.
Itachi's gaze drifted toward the Green Bit Bridge—the long span that connected this uninhabited island to Dressrosa's shores. Even from this altitude, the evidence was unmistakable. Slashing wounds carved deep into stone. The distinctive spatial distortions left by Law's Room techniques. And everywhere, threading through the destruction like spider silk, the razor-fine cuts of Doflamingo's string-based attacks.
The bridge was empty now.
Law had said he would return after securing Caesar on the Thousand Sunny. He had promised to come back.
"Something's already happened to him."
Itachi's jaw tightened. The conclusion was inescapable.
He urged the Black Fire Crow faster, diving low over the treetops. If Robin and Usopp were still on this island, he would find them. His Sharingan could pierce any concealment, see through any—
Nothing.
No chakra signatures. No movement. No signs of human presence at all.
"Did they leave before I arrived?"
The possibility made sense. If Robin and Usopp had escaped on their own, that would explain their absence. And if they had been captured, Law would have known—the hostage exchange had been his operation, his responsibility. Doflamingo would have used captives as leverage, would have announced his prizes to the world.
No. They had left willingly. Somehow.
Itachi banked the crow into another sweeping turn—
And stopped.
Below, half-hidden in the underbrush, a cluster of tiny figures crouched among the roots of an ancient tree. The same creatures he had sensed during his battle with Fujitora. The same wide, terrified eyes that had watched the destruction from the forest's depths.
The Tontatta Tribe.
Itachi angled the crow downward, descending toward the little humans in a controlled dive.
The reaction was immediate.
"AAAAAAH! THE BIG BIRD MONSTER IS COMING!"
"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
"IT'S GOING TO EAT US!"
The tiny figures scattered in every direction, their high-pitched screams piercing the forest quiet. Itachi's Sharingan tracked their movements effortlessly—five, six, seven of them, bolting through the underbrush with surprising speed.
He focused on one. A small figure diving into a hollow beneath a fallen branch, trying to disappear into the wood itself.
Itachi's hands moved through a single seal.
The Spirit of the Tree World answered.
The branch twisted, grew, extended—gentle but inexorable, wrapping around the tiny creature and lifting it from its hiding place. The Tontatta squirmed and thrashed, but the living wood held firm, carrying it upward until Itachi could reach down and cup the little being in his palm.
What happened next caught him completely off guard.
"LET GO OF ME! HUMAN MONSTER! STAY AWAY! HELP! HEEEEELP!"
The tiny figure—no taller than his thumb—wrenched and twisted with impossible strength. Muscles like steel cables strained against his grip. For one absurd moment, Itachi felt his fingers actually being pried apart.
What kind of species is this?
"Stop struggling." He kept his voice calm, even. "I am not your enemy."
The Tontatta kept thrashing. "LIAR! MONSTER! HELP MEEEE!"
Itachi's eyes shifted. The three tomoe of his standard Sharingan bled into something more complex—the pinwheel pattern of his Mangekyō.
Tsukuyomi. Just enough to—
"Hey!"
The Tontatta went completely still.
Itachi blinked.
"Are you... are you saying you're not a bad person?" The tiny creature peered up at him with enormous, glistening eyes. "So... that means you're a good person?"
Itachi stared.
"...Yes. I am a good person. Please stop struggling."
"OH! Wonderful!"
The Tontatta clapped its tiny hands together, its face breaking into a radiant smile. Every trace of fear had vanished, replaced by pure, undiluted relief.
"That's such good news! You're a good person!"
Then its expression clouded, and it pressed a miniature finger to its chin in thought.
"But wait... if you're a good person..." Its eyes widened with dawning horror. "Then the one you were fighting earlier... the one who made all those explosions and craters and scary gravity things..."
"That was a bad person."
"OOOOOH!" The Tontatta nodded vigorously, its entire worldview apparently realigned by this single piece of information. "I see! That explains everything!"
Itachi raised an eyebrow. The speed with which this creature had accepted his word—had pivoted from mortal terror to cheerful agreement—was genuinely staggering.
They trust this easily?
"Since you were observing from the forest during the battle," he said, pressing his advantage, "you must have seen others on this island. A man with a long nose. A woman with dark hair."
The Tontatta's face scrunched in concentration.
"Long nose... long nose..."
Then its entire body lit up like a festival lantern.
"USOLANDO!!!"
Itachi's composure cracked. Just slightly.
"...Usolando?"
"Yes, yes! Usolando!" The tiny creature bounced in his palm, barely containing its excitement. "You mean Usolando, right?! The great hero with the magnificent long nose!"
Itachi processed this.
"And... was there a woman with him?"
"ROBINLANDO!" the Tontatta shrieked joyfully. "Beautiful Robinlando! She was with Usolando! They were together!"
Usolando. Robinlando.
Itachi felt a cold sweat forming at his temple. Of all the ways he had imagined making contact with this island's inhabitants, this had not been among them.
"Yes." He forced the words out. "Those two."
The Tontatta gasped, its tiny hands flying to its cheeks.
"Then... then you must be...!"
"I am their companion."
"COMPANION!!!"
The Tontatta looked ready to explode from sheer happiness. It bounced up and down in his palm, its face flushing red as a ripe apple.
"Hi! Hello! My name is Lan Lan!" It pressed both hands to its chest in an earnest introduction. "What's your name?"
"Itachi."
"OOOOOH!" Lan Lan's eyes sparkled. "Then you must be... ITACHILANDO!!!"
Itachi exhaled slowly through his nose.
"...You may call me that for now."
For now.
He refocused. "Lan Lan. You know where Usolando and Robinlando went. Tell me where they are."
Lan Lan blinked up at him with wide, innocent eyes.
"Usopp? Robin?"
The names clearly meant nothing to her.
Itachi stared.
"Who are you talking about, Itachilando?"
A full three seconds of silence passed.
"...Do you know where Usolando and Robinlando went?"
"OH! Usolando and Robinlando!" Lan Lan's face brightened again, as if the question had only just been asked. "Yes, yes! They went with the Dongdong Tower Battle Squad—that's the elite warrior team of our Dongdong Tower clan—and Captain Leo! They all went to the secret base in Dressrosa together!"
"Secret base?"
"Yes!" Lan Lan's lower lip trembled, and she rubbed at her eyes with tiny fists. "Captain Leo said I'm too young! He said I'm not qualified to join the Dongdong Tower Battle Squad on such an important mission! So he left me behind! It's not fair!"
Tears welled up in her enormous eyes.
"Don't cry." Itachi gently patted her head with one fingertip. The gesture felt strange—he wasn't accustomed to comforting anyone, let alone a creature the size of his thumb. "You can tell me where this secret base is. I'll take you there."
Lan Lan's tears vanished instantly.
"Really?! You mean it, Itachilando?!"
"Yes."
"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" She bounced excitedly. "Okay, so first you need to go to—"
"VILLAIN!"
The shout came from behind.
Itachi was already moving, twisting aside as a tiny blur shot past his ear. The kick—had it connected—would have struck with force entirely disproportionate to its size.
The attacker sailed past him and slammed into a tree trunk instead.
CRACK.
The trunk—thick as a man's torso—shattered at the point of impact.
Itachi's eyes widened fractionally.
This strength...
The tiny figure rebounded from the broken tree and landed on a branch, shaking its foot with a grimace. Then it looked at the damage it had caused—and promptly burst into tears.
"AAAAAAH! I BROKE THE TREE! THE TREE WE WORKED SO HARD TO CULTIVATE! IT'S RUINED! I'M SO SAAAAAD!"
The creature collapsed to its knees, weeping with genuine, soul-deep anguish.
Itachi reached out and caught it mid-sob.
"HEY! Let me go, you villain! I'm too sad to fight right now! This is the worst day ever!"
"Kaka! Kaka, stop!" Lan Lan waved her arms from Itachi's other palm. "He's not a villain!"
"YES HE IS!" Kaka—for that was apparently his name—wailed even louder. "He destroyed all those plants earlier! During the big fight! I saw him! He's a villain! A VILLAIN! And now I broke a tree too! I'm so sad!"
Tears streamed down his tiny face.
"I'm not a villain," Itachi said.
"Liar! I don't believe you! I'm very smart, you know! I'm not easy to fool like Lan Lan! WAAAAAAH! I'm so sad!"
"Kaka, no!" Lan Lan protested. "He really isn't a villain!"
"Is too!"
"Is not!"
"IS TOO!"
"IS NOT!"
Itachi stood between them, holding one tiny person in each hand, listening to them argue over his moral character while his crewmates were missing and Doflamingo was doing gods-knew-what to Law.
He closed his eyes for a moment.
Then he spoke.
"Stop crying."
Kaka's wails hitched.
"I am not a villain." Itachi's voice was calm, measured, utterly certain. "I am... Usolando's companion. I am a friend of Usolando and Robinlando."
Kaka's tears stopped as if a switch had been flipped.
"You... you're Usolando's friend?"
"That's right. I am... Itachilando."
The transformation was instantaneous.
"OOOOOOH! USOLANDO'S FRIEND!" Kaka's face split into a beaming smile, all traces of grief and suspicion evaporating like morning dew. "Why didn't you say so earlier! I'm so sorry! I completely misunderstood! If you're Usolando's companion, then we're all good friends!"
He laughed—a bright, genuine, utterly guileless sound.
Itachi stared at him.
Stared at both of them—Lan Lan beaming up at him, Kaka now chattering happily about how wonderful it was to meet another friend of the great Usolando.
They believed me. Just like that.
They went from trying to kill me to calling me a friend in the space of a single sentence.
A cold sweat formed on the back of his neck.
What kind of creatures exist in this world... that trust so completely, so instantly, without a shred of suspicion or caution?
It went against everything he knew. Every lesson the shinobi world had carved into his bones. Trust was earned through blood and time and shared suffering. It was not given. It was not offered freely to strangers who appeared from the sky wreathed in black flames.
And yet here they were. Two tiny beings who had decided, on the basis of a name alone, that he was worthy of their friendship.
It was...
Itachi wasn't sure what it was.
But somewhere beneath his carefully maintained composure, something softened. Just slightly.
"Kaka," he said. "Lan Lan. I need to find my companions. Will you help me?"
"OF COURSE!" they shouted in unison.
"Anything for a friend of Usolando!" Kaka declared.
"Yes, yes!" Lan Lan agreed. "We'll take you to the secret base! It's beneath Dressrosa, in the underground harbor! The Tontatta Tribe has secret passages all through the island!"
"Lead the way."
Itachi formed a quick seal, and the Wood Black Crow expanded, its back broadening to accommodate his two tiny passengers. Lan Lan and Kaka scrambled aboard with delighted squeals, patting the living wood beneath them.
"So cool! Itachilando has a bird made of trees!"
"It's warm! And it smells like forest!"
Itachi mounted the crow and rose into the sky.
"Which direction?"
"That way!" Two tiny arms pointed unerringly toward Dressrosa's distant silhouette. "Toward the big flower field! That's where the entrance is!"
The crow banked and surged forward, black flames trailing behind as Green Bit fell away beneath them.
Somewhere ahead, Dressrosa waited.
And somewhere within it, Doflamingo held Law in his grip.
End of Chapter
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