"Secondly, I don't know why I appeared here."
"Moreover, this samurai is fine; he was only affected by a small illusion from me, and the effect has already been removed."
"Samurai!"
"An illusion?"
Chopper and Usopp shouted in shock.
Zoro had already recovered; he raised his sword, staring at Itachi with a grim expression.
"I don't know what just happened. I suddenly found myself in a different place." said Zoro, focusing intently to make sure he wouldn't be caught by Itachi again.
"If you're not our enemy, then where are you from? Why are you on our ship?" asked Luffy, putting his hands behind his head, his face filled with confusion.
Itachi thought for a moment; his memory was still stuck at the time of the Edo Tensei's conclusion.
"I am from the Akatsuki," he said.
Itachi did not state outright that he was from Konoha.
"Akatsuki?"
Before the Straw Hat crew could ask more questions, Itachi asked, "Where is this? And who are you?"
Upon hearing this, Luffy said, "Ah, I'm Monkey D. Luffy."
"I'm the man who will become the Pirate King."
"This is our ship, and these are my companions, Zoro, Nami…"
Before he could finish, Nami, angry, smacked Luffy, leaving a huge lump on his head.
"Don't introduce yourself so casually!"
Then she pointed at Itachi.
"You're on our ship now, so shouldn't we be the ones asking you first?"
"Soga soga, Nami's right." Usopp stood shoulder to shoulder with her.
Itachi looked at Nami and asked, "In that case, are you the captain of this ship?"
"No, I'm the captain." Luffy, with a huge bump still on his head, raised his hand.
Nami gave Luffy another smack, causing a second lump to appear. "Don't talk at a time like this!"
She turned back to Itachi: "Are you a pirate? A Marine? Or a member of the Revolutionary Army?"
Itachi grew more puzzled when he heard her; the three terms she mentioned were things he had never heard before.
"None of the above." Itachi shook his head.
"I still want to ask—where exactly is this place?"
"Ah, this is the Sabaody Archipelago. Maybe we're underwater right now; though I don't know how many meters deep."
"Anyway, we're heading to Fish-Man Island. Do you want to come with us?"
The moment Luffy finished speaking, all he could see was Nami's fiery rage, burning higher than the ship's sails.
"How chaotic." Itachi couldn't help but sigh.
At that moment, Itachi suddenly noticed a ship rapidly approaching from the corner of his eye.
He realized his eyesight seemed to have returned to how it was before he ever used the Mangekyō Sharingan; even deep under the sea, he could see clearly.
"There's a ship approaching." Itachi warned the Straw Hats.
Before they could respond, the oncoming ship suddenly accelerated and rammed violently into the Sunny.
Clang!!
The ship shook, and the Straw Hats staggered, but Itachi stood firmly on the secondary mast, staring at the colliding vessel.
"What's happening?" Luffy quickly leapt to the deck.
"Judging from this, it might be an enemy attack," said Itachi.
"This is bad; there's already a stranger on board, and now an enemy attack!" Zoro drew the Sandai Kitetsu from its sheath and joined the others on deck.
"Turn the rudder! Quickly, turn the rudder!" Franky shouted, worried about damage to the bubble coating.
Sanji quickly jumped to the helm, put all his strength into it, and steered, making the Sunny swiftly veer aside.
But the people on the opposing ship shouted: "Go, Mohmoo!"
Mohmoo, at the front of the enemy ship, activated its strength upon hearing this, forcefully dragging the ship to ram into the Sunny again.
"What is that thing?"
Itachi pointed to the enemy ship's bow, where he saw a monster with the body of a fish and the head of a cow, bound to the prow and pulling the vessel into collision.
"Could it be a summoned beast?" Itachi wondered.
Nami looked in the direction Itachi pointed, only to discover that it was Mohmoo strapped to the enemy's bow!
"Wait, Mohmoo?" Nami suddenly recalled Arlong's pirates, who had entrenched themselves in Cocoyasi Village.
At that moment, Chopper shouted: "Oh no! The bubble will burst!"
The two ships' bubbles were pressing against each other. But instead of popping, the bubbles merged!
"Well done, Mohmoo!" On the enemy ship, one of the new generation Supernovas, Caribou the "Wet-Haired," with a bounty of 210 million berries, laughed excitedly.
"Are they going to board us?" Brook asked in panic.
"What's happening? Why are they attacking us?" Luffy frowned.
Zoro looked at the other ship, then at Itachi, gritting his teeth. "This situation is really annoying!"
"Hey, Luffy, and you, curly-browed cook, get ready for battle!" Zoro took his stance.
"Who are you calling moss-head?!" Sanji glared at him.
On the enemy ship, Caribou's younger brother, Coribou, wielding a huge shovel, shouted, "Big bro, the bubbles have merged!"
"Perfect! Boys, charge!!" Caribou raised both arms, let out a high-pitched scream, and was the first to leap onto the Sunny's deck.
"Confirmed—it's an enemy attack." Itachi cast a glance at Caribou, then leapt down from the secondary mast.
"Hey, that samurai, and the man in the straw hat." Itachi called to Zoro and Luffy.
"First of all, let's be clear: I am not here to be your enemy."
"The current problem is that this ship is in crisis, and I'm also on board. So, let's deal with this attack first, and then we can sort out your origins and mine."
Luffy, without hesitation, laughed: "Alright, Crybaby Man!"
Zoro, however, continued watching Itachi cautiously, saying nothing.
While defending against Caribou, he still kept his guard up against Itachi.
Then Luffy turned his gaze to Caribou: "That guy looks like someone I saw back in Sabaody!"
When Caribou saw the Straw Hats gathering, he shouted excitedly, "I didn't expect to reach them so smoothly!"
"Boys, take the Straw Hats' heads and attack!"
But just as he shouted in excitement, Mohmoo, the sea cow dragging Caribou's ship, suddenly recognized Nami as the very Nami from Arlong's crew!
Mohmoo glanced at the others nervously, and after confirming, it trembled in terror, tears streaming down its face.
It spun around and fled, dragging the enemy ship away with it!
Caribou was still screaming with excitement, but quickly realized his subordinates hadn't followed.
"Boys, fire away and slaughter the Straw Hats!!"
But as he shouted, Caribou turned his head—only to be stunned that the ship behind him had vanished!
His eyes widened instantly!
And suddenly, he saw another man on the deck who wasn't part of the Straw Hats.
"How utterly strange."
Itachi had thought only the people on the Sunny were strange, but he hadn't expected the enemy ship to be just as bizarre.
"What kind of country is this? Where are the ninja arts?"
Before Caribou could process who Itachi was, their eyes met, and suddenly Itachi's pupils spun into blood-red patterns!
Genjutsu: Tsukuyomi!
Caribou's body trembled, and in an instant he found himself bound to a gray cross. Massive iron spikes had pierced his body, blood slowly dripping from his wounds.
"I'm… aren't I a Logia fruit user? How can this attack even touch me?"
"No, where am I?!"
The pain and blood were so real that Caribou couldn't comprehend it.
In reality, only a moment had passed before Caribou collapsed to the ground.
This left the Straw Hats even more bewildered.
"What is that guy trying to do?"
"Why did he just collapse all of a sudden?"
"What exactly did he come here for?!" Chopper, already confused, became even more perplexed.
But Zoro immediately shifted his gaze toward Itachi.
"I think this is that man's ability again." He unconsciously tightened his grip on his sword.
He had seen Caribou fall the instant he made eye contact with Itachi.
It was exactly the same as what happened when Itachi attacked earlier!