Another purpose

Pt.3

Itachi had been looking all over for the inn that the Straw Hats were staying at, but the rain was coming down too hard. It was hard to hear and hard to see. As he passed by the Galley-La headquarters, he heard three gunshots pierce through the pouring rain.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

He skidded to stop on the rough tile and hopped down to a window ledge. It gave him a perfect view of Iceburg's unconscious form on the ground. The same masked man from before as well as Robin stood over him. The man raised his gun to shoot Iceburg again, but Itachi pushed off the ledge crashing through the window, throwing a shuriken at the man, forcing him to back off.

Robin gasped in shock at seeing Itachi while the masked man grunted in annoyance, "You again? I'll make sure you die this time."

Itachi didn't say anything, pulling out a kunai, the room he was in too small to pull out his sword, and dashed at the man. He slashed at the man's torso, but the man didn't even try to dodge. Instead, the man tensed his entire body.

"Iron Body."

Itachi's kunai was stopped instantly, unable to cut through the man's skin. Itachi, unperturbed, viciously punched the man in the stomach, instantly knocking the wind out of him, his raw strength enough to overpower the technique. He followed the short jab with an uppercut against the man's jaw. The hit shattered the mask the man was wearing. The man reeled back, the uppercut nearly knocking him out, but Itachi didn't stop there. He grabbed the man's throat and forced him to look him in the eyes where his Sharingan was wildly spinning.

Itachi was not nice, extracting every relevant piece of information from the man's head. Looks like CP9 was a real group, and he had already met with most of the members stationed at Water 7. When he finished, he dropped the unconscious Blueno to the ground. Hearing Robin's footsteps approaching him from behind, he turned to her, only for his head to snap to the right.

Robin had slapped him across the face, an incredibly angry and distraught look on her face, "Why do you have to butt into everything?! You're ruining everything that I'm trying to do here. I'm trying to save them!"

Itachi looked back at her. "You're only ruining yourself. They plan to dispose of you the second they get a hold of the Pluton blueprints."

"I know that!" She snapped at him. "I'm just so tired. My dream is so hard to attain. To learn the Void Century is just exhausting. I've been looking for 20 years now and I'm no closer to figuring it out than when I was eight years old. I've been on the run, hiding behind organization after organization just trying to live. I'm tired, Itachi. Tired of hiding. Tired of running. I just want to rest."

She wished to die. Her tone was resigned, yet her Voice told something else. Death wasn't what she wanted. Her Voice yearned for something else. Something similar, but Robin was unable to identify it for herself.

She wanted freedom.

"You don't want to die, Robin. You just want to be free."

Her breathing hitched, "And I can find it in death. If they take me, it'll take the pressure off of you guys."

"You'll be taken to Enies Lobby, Robin. It's close to us. Luffy would not hesitate to break down their doors to get you back."

"Then convince him not too! Convince him to leave me behind!" Robin's face was contorted into a pained look, tears threatening to drop from her eyes. This conversation was taxing on her. Whatever CP9 had threatened her with had her incredibly fearful.

Itachi took her hand into his and shook his head again, "That's just not who he is, Robin. He'll go to hell and back for you. So would the rest of the crew. You're our friend. Quite a bit more important to us than you think."

She started shaking her head in response, "I can't. I just can't. You have to let me go."

She slipped her hand out his grasp and started making her way to the now broken window, hands sprouting from the ground and grabbing the unconscious Blueno.

"Just forget about me."

She jumped out, Blueno's body following her. Itachi made no move to chase her.