Another purpose

Devil Fruits

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…'

A

ll 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."

The ma had a big smile on his face. "It'll be me."