Chapter 106: Goodbye
The Thousand Sunny
Sanji pressed a hand to his forehead, wincing as Chopper's small hooves worked a bandage across his ribs. The battlefield—brief as it had been—had left its marks.
"So basically," he muttered, "Itachi flew all the way to that island for nothing."
"I'm really sorry!" Usopp's voice crackled through the Den Den Mushi, genuinely mortified. "Robin and I completely forgot we were supposed to cover Law's escape! It just... slipped our minds!"
Slipped our minds. Sanji resisted the urge to say something cutting. Barely.
Robin's calm voice replaced Usopp's flustered apologies. "Sanji. You should wait for Itachi where you are. Let him return to the ship first."
"Of course, Robin-chwan. Don't worry about a thing."
Sanji waved his hand dismissively, the picture of cool composure.
Then his brain caught up with his ears.
Wait.
Robin-chwan asked me to do something.
ROBIN-CHWAN ASKED ME TO DO SOMETHING—
"OHHHHH! ROBIN-CHWAN'S REQUEST~!"
His visible eye transformed into a swirling heart, his entire body swaying like a lovesick dancer. "I will absolutely, positively fulfill Robin-chwan's wishes! I'll wait right here for Itachi's return! No matter how long it takes! Days! Weeks! I'll become one with this very spot if that's what Robin-chwan desires~!"
"SANJI! STOP MOVING!" Chopper's hoof slammed against the deck. "I'm trying to treat your wounds, you idiot!"
From the other Den Den Mushi—the one in Kin'emon's possession—Luffy's voice cut through the chaos.
"Ah, so Itachi came back to the ship earlier? Then Tra-guy's the only one missing now?"
Nami's expression tightened with worry. "That's right. Law stayed behind to lure Doflamingo away from the Sunny."
It had been his plan from the start. Sacrifice himself as bait. Draw the predator's attention while the prey escaped.
"Everyone," Nami continued, her navigator's mind already assembling the pieces, "according to Law's original strategy, we were supposed to sail directly to the next island after securing Caesar."
"But now..."
The information had come together piece by piece, fragment by fragment, until a complete picture of Dressrosa's darkness had emerged from the scattered reports.
The SMILE Factory. Still operational. Still pumping artificial Devil Fruits into Kaido's waiting hands.
Doflamingo's conspiracy. The false resignation. The trap that had been waiting for them from the moment they set foot in this country.
The Tontatta Tribe and the remnants of the Riku Royal Family. Desperate. Determined. Ready to rise against the Donquixote Family, to free their enslaved kin, to drive the usurpers from their homeland once and for all.
"And my companion!" Kin'emon's voice burst through the speaker. "Kanjuurou is still missing! I haven't found him yet!"
"And Rebecca!" Luffy added, his voice rising with conviction. "And all those gladiators locked up in the arena! We can't just leave them!"
He paused, then added with absolute seriousness:
"Rebecca's really nice. She bought me three lunch boxes. I can't ignore someone who gave me food."
Nami pressed her palm to her forehead. "I understand. I understand completely."
She took a breath, centering herself.
"Alright. Here's what we'll do. Once Itachi returns to the ship, we'll turn around and head for Dressrosa. We'll deal with everything together."
"Oh!" Chopper's ears perked up. "But what about Law? Who's going to find him?"
A beat of silence.
"Yeah, that's right." Usopp's voice came through, uncertain. "Who is going after Trafalgar?"
"And what about Doflamingo—"
Luffy's question cut off mid-sentence.
The Corrida Colosseum — Exterior
A shadow fell across the ground.
Zoro's hand moved to his swords before his brain even registered the threat. Kin'emon's head snapped upward, his clogs scraping against the stone.
"WHAT IS—?!"
CRASH.
The shadow hit the ground at their feet with the weight of dead meat and broken bone.
Kin'emon leaped backward, his wooden sandals clattering. Zoro didn't move. His single eye was already fixed on the crumpled form, cataloging every wound, every bruise, every evidence of the violence that had been done to this body.
Trafalgar Law lay in a spreading pool of his own blood.
His coat was shredded. His skin was a canvas of lacerations and contusions. One arm bent at an angle that spoke of deliberate, methodical breaking. His eyes were closed. His chest rose and fell in shallow, uneven breaths.
Unconscious. Barely alive.
"TRA-GUY!"
Luffy's hands clamped around the iron bars of the arena's cage window. He heaved, muscles straining, veins standing out along his arms. The bars didn't budge. The cage—designed to hold gladiators far stronger than ordinary men—held firm.
"Who did this to you?!"
"HEY! TRA-GUY! WAKE UP!"
A second shadow fell across the ground.
Luffy's head snapped up.
The flamingo coat descended like a pink death shroud. Triangular sunglasses glinted in the harsh sunlight. And beneath them, spread wide in manic glee, was the smile of a predator who had already won.
Luffy's teeth ground together.
"DOFLAMINGO!!"
"Fuffuffuffuffuffu."
Doflamingo's tongue traced across his lips—slow, deliberate, savoring.
"Straw Hat boy." His voice dripped with contemptuous amusement. "You're here too. How convenient."
His gaze swept across the scene below—Law's broken body, Luffy trapped behind iron bars, Zoro's hand on his sword hilt, Kin'emon's frozen stance.
A hunt reaching its perfect conclusion.
From the corner of his eye, Zoro tracked movement in the distance. The Marines they had spotted earlier were closing in, drawn by the chaos like sharks to blood.
Green Bit — Underground Passage
The tunnel stretched ahead, lit by bioluminescent fungi that the Tontatta had cultivated over generations. Itachi moved through the passage with the silent efficiency of a shadow, his footsteps making no sound on the packed earth.
"Well! Since you came all this way looking for Usolando and Robinlando, I'll guide you properly!" Lan Lan scampered ahead, her tiny form weaving between roots and stones with practiced ease.
"I need to find them quickly."
Itachi's voice was calm, but urgency thrummed beneath the surface. Every minute he spent here was a minute Law might not have.
Kaka kept pace beside him, eyes shining with undisguised admiration.
"Itachilando's speed is incredible! Even faster than our Dongdong Tower clan's best runners and weavers!"
In all his years, Kaka had never seen a human move through their island's forest with such precision—never crushing a single plant, never disturbing a single cultivated bed. It was as if the forest itself parted to let him pass.
Itachi didn't acknowledge the compliment. Instead, he asked:
"Earlier, you mentioned plants you cultivated. The trees on this island... you grew them?"
"OH!"
Both Tontatta brightened instantly, their tiny faces glowing with pride.
"THAT is the pride of our Dongdong Tower clan!" they declared in perfect unison.
"In this entire world, there is no race that cultivates plants better than us!"
"Our clan is the absolute best at nurturing plants and helping them grow strong!"
"Is that so."
Itachi's thoughts drifted to the Spirit of the Tree World—the ancient power now rooted within his own body. The ability to accelerate growth, to shape living wood, to draw strength from the earth itself.
They share this gift.
"That's right, Itachilando!" Kaka puffed out his tiny chest, clearly warming to his subject. "Did you know? Even the same type of tree needs completely different cultivation methods depending on where it grows! The soil, the water, the light, the other plants around it—everything matters! For example, the Ironbark Oak requires—"
Itachi tried to interrupt.
"—and when cultivating in coastal regions, you must account for salt exposure, which means—"
He tried again.
"—but the real secret is in the root symbiosis, because—"
Itachi gave up.
The lecture continued uninterrupted as they wound deeper into the tunnel network. Kaka expounded on soil composition, water retention, pruning techniques, seasonal adjustments, companion planting strategies, and at least seven different methods for encouraging flowering in stubborn species.
Itachi absorbed approximately sixty percent of it. Which, given the circumstances, he considered an achievement.
Finally—finally—the tunnel opened into a vast underground chamber.
The secret base of the Tontatta Tribe. The Flying Fox Passage.
"Hey! There's a human!"
Dozens of tiny figures froze, their hands reaching for weapons.
"It's okay! It's okay!" Lan Lan waved her arms frantically. "This is Usolando's friend! He's a good person!"
Kaka nodded vigorously. "Yes! He's Itachilando! A companion of the great Usolando!"
The transformation was immediate and absolute.
"USOLANDO'S FRIEND?!"
"WELCOME! WELCOME!"
"Please, come in! Make yourself comfortable!"
"Have you eaten? You must try our tribe's special delicacies!"
Within seconds, Itachi found himself surrounded by a swarm of smiling Tontatta, all chattering at once, all offering food and drink and enthusiastic hospitality. Tiny plates piled with miniature delicacies were pressed toward him. Someone had already begun brewing tea in a thimble-sized pot.
Itachi accepted it all with the patient grace of a man who had once infiltrated organizations for years at a time. He smiled when appropriate. He nodded at the right moments. He even sampled one of the tiny pastries.
And all the while, his mind was racing.
They went through here. Usopp and Robin came this way.
They're already in Dressrosa.
I've been searching an empty island while they—
"—and that's when Captain Leo led the Dongdong Tower Battle Squad through the passage!" Lan Lan finished her explanation, beaming with pride. "They're going to attack the flower field and free everyone from the SMILE Factory!"
"So." Itachi's voice was very, very calm. "Usopp and Robin have already gone to Dressrosa. Through this tunnel. Hours ago."
"Yes!" Kaka made two tiny fists, punching the air with fierce determination. "Usolando and Robinlando are leading our warriors into battle! They'll show those Donquixote villains what true heroes look like!"
A thousand responses flickered through Itachi's mind.
I could have used Tsukuyomi from the start. I could have extracted everything I needed to know in an instant. I spent all this time listening to a lecture on plant cultivation while my crewmates—
He exhaled slowly.
"I understand."
Without another word, he leaped into the air.
His hands moved through seals—fluid, precise, economical. The Wood Black Crow materialized beneath him in a swirl of dark timber and kindling flame.
"Itachilando!" Lan Lan's voice rose in panic. "What are you doing?! Where are you going?!"
Itachi mounted the crow and looked down at the assembled Tontatta—Lan Lan's wide, worried eyes, Kaka's confused expression, the dozens of tiny faces that had welcomed him as a friend simply because he knew Usolando's name.
"Goodbye."
The crow's wings spread wide. Black fire erupted along their edges.
And Itachi Uchiha shot into the sky, leaving behind a scattering of embers and two very bewildered little people standing amid their untouched platters of miniature delicacies.
The wind of his passage ruffled Lan Lan's hair.
"...Goodbye?" she repeated, blinking.
Kaka stared at the fading speck of black fire. "He didn't even try the fermented mushroom paste..."
Behind them, the other Tontatta exchanged uncertain glances, their carefully prepared welcome feast growing cold in the underground chamber's gentle glow.
The Skies Above Green Bit
Itachi urged the crow faster, pushing chakra through the construct's wooden frame. The sea blurred beneath him, whitecaps reduced to streaks of foam.
Usopp and Robin are in Dressrosa.
Law is missing.
And I've wasted precious time.
His Sharingan tracked the distant silhouette of the Thousand Sunny, still anchored where he had left it. Sanji would have kept the crew safe. Nami would have a plan. Luffy would be...
Well. Luffy would be Luffy.
But something cold had settled in Itachi's chest. A premonition. An instinct honed by years of reading situations before they fully unfolded.
Something has already gone wrong.
He pushed the crow harder, black flames streaming behind him like a banner of war.
Dressrosa awaited.
And somewhere in its shadows, Doflamingo was smiling.
End of Chapter
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