Running, running blindly north through the forest towards the sounds of battle. He dashes through trees and brush attempting, usually unsuccessfully, to avoid the numerous sticker bushes that seem to grow in this particular part of the forest. "Aaah! Gimme a break! I should've worn long pants!" the red-head complains, shins and feet feeling like pin-cushions. His grey pants have their legs gathered up just below either knee, and while good for working on the deck of a ship they don't exactly help him in the forest. He breaks free of a very annoying string of sticker bushes, and finally runs right out of the forest, finding himself at the north shore.
With pirates at their backs and man wearing the strangest gauntlets he's ever seen at their front, Luffy and Zoro are definitely sandwiched. "Luffy! Zoro!" bellows Haru, earning his attention.
"Haru! I was wondering when you were gonna show up!" calls Luffy, grinning and laughing. "I guess you got turned around, too?" The red-head glares at the swordsman, who has Usopp slung over one shoulder. "Aah, whatever. You're here now!" The man with the strange bladed gauntlets glances briefly over his shoulder at the red-head before looking back down the slope at Luffy.
"Another member of your crew playing pirate?" he asks Luffy.
"Huh? Aah, he's my First Mate."
"Luffy! Now that Red is here I'm gonna take Usopp and go after Jango!" Zoro tells him. Luffy nods firmly in response, and as the two begin to pass the man he stops them, holding a bladed hand out in their path.
"Who said that you could go anywhere?" Kuro asks them.
"That would be us!" Luffy's fist streaks past, forcing Kuro to dodge which allows them to dash off into the forest. "And one more!" Luffy streaks towards the man who dodges a second time leaving the straw-hatted pirate to skid to an uneasy stop. "Ooooh! Crap!" Kuro is behind him in an instant, clawed gauntlets raised to deal a killing blow.
"Down, Luffy!" demands Haru, watching with amusement as his long-time friend ducks, stands on his hands and launches his feet towards the man.
"Gum-Gum Spear!" Kuro dodges the unique attack, appearing some distance away. "Crap. He dodged again."
"Before we continue, I have to ask why you're getting involved," Kuro questions them. "You're outsiders. Why get involved in the fate of a simple village?"
"Cause there is someone in this village we won't let die," Luffy tells him plainly.
"That's it? Are you really alright with that being the reason you all die?"
"When you put it that way… yeah. But we're not gonna be the ones who die here, Kuro." The pirate Captain starts to rush towards him only to be stopped when Haru blind-sides him, smashing his knee into the man's jaw and knocking him to the ground for only a moment before he bounds to his feet. It was a hit hard enough to rattle the teeth, and make his mind go blank for a brief moment but he shakes it off… somewhat. His thoughts are fuzzy, and his vision swims.
"Don't forget about me, eh, Mr. Captain?" taunts Haru, grinning at the man.
"That's an annoying fighting style you have there," growls Kuro, briefly placing a palm against one side of his head.
"Thank you very much. My father taught it to me." Kuro just barely notices Luffy's attack coming, and dodges his fist. He surprises them both by landing on his stretched arm, and sprinting towards him to kick him in the jaw. "Luffy!"
"Aah! He cut my mouth," complains Luffy, rubbing his cheek while "Captain" Kuro's crew cheers him on in the background. To say that he is upset with them would be an understatement as he immediately calls for them to cease their cheering, clearly stating to them that the whole point of carrying out his plan is to be rid of the name of "Captain Kuro".
"These past three years… all of this planning… it was all to ensure my success!" Kuro announces aloud. "Money, and peace of mind… I will have it! Do you understand? I cannot allow this plan of three years to fail! I will not allow it to fail! I refuse to allow my plan to be disrupted by a group of brats playing pirate!" He charges Luffy the next second, claws raised to deal a killing blow. Luffy surprises him by stretching back, picking up a boulder towards them and using it to block his attack.
"Heh, you're not fit to be a Pirate if having a name scares you!" taunts Luffy before he snaps the claws off of one gauntlet with ease and then smashes the rock into the man, tossing him back several feet. It doesn't seem to bother his crew that he's lying spread-eagle in the middle of the slope as they start cheering him on again regardless… only to be called to silence one more.
"Shut up… I'll come to kill all of you in just a minute," Kuro tells them, slowly raising himself up. Regardless of his words they still can't seem to wrap their heads around what is going on, believing that he isn't being serious about what he's said.
"You guys still don't get it," calls Luffy, earning their collective attention. "He never intended to let any of you continue breathing after his plan was finished. It's 'peace of mind', after all. Massacre the village, kill Kaya, lay the whole thing at the feet of the Black Cat pirates who he's slain afterwards. With the Navy assured of the destruction of the Black Cat pirates he could just fade back into obscurity once again with Kaya's fortune and not a care in the world."
"My, that's surprisingly perceptive of someone like you… but that's exactly right! I need to make sure that the world continues to think that Captain Kuro is dead, and to do that I'm going to make sure that not even a single person survives! These pawns should just do as I tell them to and die!" To say that they were upset would be an understatement.
"That's actually kinda sad," mutters Haru, scratching the back of his neck slowly. "Even if you were to command hundreds, or thousands of men… you'd still lose to Usopp."
"What?! In what way am I inferior to a kid playing pirate?!" He disappears from sight again, except this time Luffy and Haru track his movements, the two of them having now grown accustomed to it.
"Well, obviously it's gotta be..." The man appears behind Luffy, who straightens his arm out and then spins. "... character." He back-hands the man in the cheek and throws him into the wall of the slope hard enough to create a small cloud of dust. "You don't know what a true pirate is." The Black Cat pirates were amazed that the two had seen through his Pussy Foot Maneuver.
"A true pirate? Huh. Well, then, allow me to show you the true face of a pirate… the face of terror!" He slowly began to sway, back and forth, left to right in a way not at all unsimiliar to Haru's dodging. The pirates on the beach began to panic, calling for him not to "do it"... whatever that meant. Without warning, he disappears from their sight and the world around them is suddenly little more than claw marks and cries of pain.
"What the?!" It becomes clear to the two of them that he's just blindly dashing around, cutting anything he encounters at random without any cause for concern or consideration.
"Luffy, back to back!" demands Haru, and the two press their backs together watching the destruction. "His own crew… bastard!" A number of thin cuts opens on Haru's biceps a second later, then one Luffy's leg and another on his arm.
"Stop… stop it! Just what in the hell are you doing to your own crew?!" The man continues to dash around, slashing at anything and everything without concern.
"Where is he, where is he...?" Luffy grunts and arches to the opposite side. How can they catch something that's moving faster than they can see? They need to do something, anything to slow his movements! His attacks are getting closer, more accurate. It won't be long before he's cut even them to pieces. "How can we...?" The man appears in front of them as simply as he had disappeared. A look of absolute confusion covers Kuro's face, and the man's eyes dark quickly to his ankle.
Haru quickly follows his point of view to find an arm rapidly disappearing into the ground. "There!" Haru tackles the man and ties him up. Luffy watches as the two strike the ground several feet away, and tumble to a slow stop with Haru lying on his back and Kuro facing the sky. The pirate Captain's arm that still has the blades is completely immobilized by Haru's arm-bar. "Now! Luffy!"
"Right!" Luffy lands on him in the full-mount moments later, pinning his free arm down and holding him down by the throat. "Heh! Just try your fancy foot work now!" With no other plan of attack Luffy grins from ear to ear and throws it head back towards the sky, his neck stretching as he does. " Gum-Gum… Bell !" The impact drives the man into the stoney earth, and knocks him out cold immediately.
"Th… They knocked him out?!" calls one of the pirates. "Just who are these two?" They stand, and with little effort Haru tosses the unconscious body of Kuro towards the Black Cat Pirates.
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy!" bellows Luffy. "The man who's gonna be King of the Pirates!"
"Name's Haru," calls Haru simply. "First Mate of our crew. Now take your Captain and get lost. You never come back again, and we'll kill the lot of you..."
And so, with the pirates beating feet in the opposite direction of the two they are left standing on the slope in silence… at least until Luffy collapsed right into Nami's arms. The girl lowers him to the ground gently with a "well done" whispered just loud enough to be heard by the two of them. Haru sits down beside his long time friend with a sigh. "I'd expect you to collapse after something like that," mutters Nami, sitting beside the two of them as well.
"Haru?" speaks Luffy. "I really hate those guys. They're wrong." The red head nods slowly in agreement, and picks up Luffy's straw hat from the ground. "Just using each other like that… that's not how friends are supposed to act. Shanks would never do something like that."
"Well, Dad is… special," concludes Haru, smiling a bit. "He's like you, Luffy. That's another reason I decided to follow you."
"... Haru?"
"Yeah, Luffy."
"I want to eat some meat!" Haru chuckles a bit and drops the hat on Luffy's chest.
"Soon. We gotta wait for everyone else." It was a bit later before Usopp and Zoro returned to them. Neither of them seemed to be any worse for wear, or rather in any worse condition then they were when they left the fight to begin with. Usopp was all smiles as he approached, happy that things had concluded on their end it seems.
"Thank you!" gushes Usopp. "If it wasn't for you guys then I never would have been able to protect the village!" He gazes off at the horizon. "And.. .you've all helped me to come to a decision as well. Thank you again for helping me out."
"... Can we go get something to eat now?"