Grown from the same strong root,

Nurtured, protected and cared,

Life moves on, and the truth is not pleasant,

Life takes them to opposite directions,

Siblings do not always remain together,

They have to follow different paths,

Just like the branches of a tree,

They spread out in different directions,

To grow, develop and rise,

But in their connected hearts,

The attachment and affection remains,

Love grows each day, to remain forever.

-Chitrangada Sharan

The next day was filled with surprises. They woke up to find Garp sleeping there with them, sprawled out on the wooden floor, a giant sleep-bubble shrinking and growing from his nose. Sabo couldn't control his curiosity, and popped the bubble, which caused the man to stir in his sleep, and begin to wake up. The children backed up towards the bark of the tree the house was built on, and watched the man blink once, twice, thrice, and fully wake up.

He scratched his beard, then his eyes, then rubbed his mouth. He roughly combed through his hair, and then took a good look of where he was. His eyes landed on the four children for a brief second, before his gaze moved onto the scenery, and then back on them again.

"Morning." He said.

"Good morning." Natsuki replied.

"What a wonderful day it is."

"Truly, it is." Utter silence followed, and the three boys tried to sneak away, as they knew Natsuki was safe from the old man's wrath.

"Where do you think you're going?" He said with a smile which seemed a hundred times more deadly than a bear's glare.

He then stood up, accidentally breaking the roof of the house.

"Fix it properly!" Natsuki's voice rang as the vice admiral hammered on a piece of wood to the broken ceiling a few minutes later.

"Yes ma'am." Garp knew her mother well. He did not want to mess with her, and he somehow knew that keeping this girl from getting angry was to do as she wished.

An hour later, the roof was done, with splinters in the man's hands, and spare wood in the boy's hands, as they pretended to be ninja. Though every time they made a move, Natsuki would unconsciously fix their posture, saying how if they were truly a ninja, their hands would be far more down the 'katana', and whenever they landed from a jump, they should be silent.

Garp watched the boys spar, and also saw how this girl seemed to know what was wrong every time, even though her back was faced against them.

"Natsuki, have you begun training with haki?"

"Only a little bit. I can only really 'see' if they're close enough, like how I can see their movements. I can only detect things barely if they're faraway." She admitted.

"Would you like me to teach you?"

"Yes! Yes please! I promised my father that I would get stronger!" She jumped onto his lap with excitement, but quickly got off, her face on fire. "Sorry."

"Alright! Your training begins now!"

They were next seen in an open area of the forest, Natsuki sitting in the centre, her legs crossed in a zazen-position. She had a blind-fold on, and behind her was Garp with one of the 'katana's the boys were using earlier.

He swung it at her head, and she dodged, though he continued to attack quickly, and as it wore her out, her movements began to dull.

When the wooden stick brushed her cheek slightly, leaving a pink trail, Garp stopped, and then used his armament haki to solidify the stick until it had a dark black shine to it. He tried hitting her, and when she dodged, Garp lost his balance slightly, and the stick struck the ground, fissures racing the ground.

The boys looked at the training with wide eyes. It looked so cool!!

"Jii-chan! Train us too!"

"Call me Ojii-chan!!" He yelled back and hit Luffy's head. Ace and Sabo dismissed it, until they remembered how this old man was able to hurt Luffy yesterday. As they had thought, Luffy lay there unconscious, another large bump on his head. Slightly larger than the one from the day before, as Garp had used a stick covered with the same haki.

"You will only get training after you prove to me that you can use some of the haki! Also, I won't teach you until you call me Ojii-chan!" he said stubbornly. Ace made a face and carried Luffy to a nearby tree, determined to get some training.

Another hour later, Natsuki was black and blue. She was happy though. She was worried that Garp might be soft on her because she was a girl, but it turned out that he knew she didn't like being treated tenderly when she knew the results would become power and strength.

"Rest for today Natsuki. We'll continue after dinner." He said, and only then did Natsuki realise it was night time, and also how she was incredibly hungry.

She tried using some of her haki, and found that her brother's were at the treehouse. That's how Garp found us! she thought, and walked with the man back to the three boys who had a fire going, with two giant boars skewered above it. The smell itself was a meal.

"Natsu! You're covered in bruises!"

"Are you okay!?"

"I'm hungry!" They said in the order of Ace, Sabo and Luffy. Though I'm sure you could've guessed the last one.

"I'm fine boys. Just slightly tired. Is the meat done!?" She exclaimed, just as her stomach growled, even louder than Luffy's, who's stomach was growling even before Natsuki and Garp arrived.

They all laughed and began to eat. They argued to who got the certain parts, and of course, Natsuki won, though secretly she gave some to Luffy, who got all the scruffy parts after losing with rock paper scissors. Garp smiled at them as he took a big mouthful of the other boar which he took all for himself.

Two days later, it was Luffy's birthday.

Natsuki stole some of Garp's secret wine stash, taking the best sake and sat down in a circle.

"Today, we become siblings. When we become pirates, we might not be on the same ship together..." Natsuki started.

"But the four of us will always be siblings." Luffy said with a bright smile.

"No matter where we are or what we do, this bond will never be broken!" Sabo included.

"Starting today! We're siblings!" Ace said finally. They clinked their cups, and drank the contents, and both Natsuki and Garp ignored each other, well aware of the presence of one another, but not mentioning it in hopes of the moment to last just a bit more.

~o0o~

So for another year, there was peace. Garp had to leave a week after Luffy's birthday, though he prepared a training schedule for each of them, presenting Luffy's as a late birthday present.

Some of the training involved staying by themselves in a jungle for a month, or a hole for a month, or tying themselves to balloons, setting themselves up into the sky. Though they ignored those ones.

The four of them trained for that year to its fullest. Natsuki further polishing her skills with her revolvers, though none of the boys seemed to like fighting with anything else other than their fists, though Sabo trained slightly with his pipe.

Natsuki also took up some sword fighting, though she never understood its methods, until it was her own birthday, and a package was delivered from her father. A thin long package labelled as dangerous and fragile arrived at Makino's place, which she delivered happily to Natsuki when she came to the bar to celebrate her birthday.

She opened the package to find a thin katana. Its sheath was lacquered with red and black, glistening in the light. It was a unique shape; the sheath. It was rather round at the end, rather than it being rectangular, which happened with most sheathes for katanas. She then unwound the string which tied the hilt to the sheath and took out the blade.

So that's why. She thought to herself. The blade was a sleek silver, though there was one thing about it which differed from most katanas.

It was a double-edged blade.

She scolded herself for not thinking of the possibility sooner. The sheath was rounded, showing that it had to protect the inside more carefully than most katana's, or else the blade would dull incredibly easily. It also had a hilt which was shorter than most katanas, which was because to control a katana, if it were only one side with a blade, you would get more power with a hilt. Though with a double-edged blade, you needed to be more flexible with the blade. Any extra weight would weigh the whole katana and your movement down. She read the small letter with the katana, to find that it used to be her mother's katana, and it's name was Kusanagi no Tsurugi.

She then went outside, and swung it, just for fun, when the tree she was practicing by, a meter away, was cut in half.

She looked at the blade, then at the tree, and back at the blade again. She then laughed at the irony. A double-edged katana, literally was, a double-edged blade. It had its negative qualities and its positive ones. She then looked at the string which bound the katana to the sheath and tied the blade to the sheath strongly.

She would never take the blade out again, until absolutely necessary.

The next year though, Sabo's father, an aristocrat found out about Sabo, and paid a pirate to get him back.

"Give Sabo back!" Luffy yelled, "Blue-Jam!"

"Give him back? What nonsense is this? Sabo is my son! We parents gave life to our children! It's their duty to do whatever we tell them to! How dare you incite him to leave home!?"

Luffy and Ace were growling, struggling against the arms of adults who were holding them in the air. At least if they were on the ground, they could've done some damage! Luffy cried for his powerlessness, Ace hitting himself mentally for letting them catch them by surprise.

"Are you after my money, you trash!" The noble continued to yell.

"What!? That's what you think we're a-" The man holding Ace smashed the boy's head to the ground, shutting him up.

"Hey you! Pirate! Be careful when you hit that guttersnipe! You nearly got his filthy trash mountain blood on me! I have to disinfect it immediately!"

Sabo, still struggling against the hold of the pirate, yelled at his father. "Stop it! Nobody made me do anything! I left home by my free will!"

"You be quiet! Take care of the rest pirate." He barked.

"Now now, what do we have here? Blue-Jam, I thought I told you to lay off my family." A new voice said. Blue-jam and his pirates slowly turned around to find a girl around thirteen, with blood-red hair and night-sky blue eyes. She was smiling at the men, but any sane man could feel the blood-lust from her. Though apparently Sabo's father wasn't sane, because he shouted at her.

"Who are you!? My, you look rather beautiful! You would be the perfect partner for my son!" He insisted.

"As much as I love Sabo, he's my brother. Not my fiancé, so would you kindly give him back please?" She asked as nicely as possible.

"No no. Not this piece of trash, my other son. Stelly." Sabo's face only grew darker by the second. The same could be said for the rest. Unbeknownst to the pirates, Natsuki was slowly using her conqueror's haki to take out the pirates one by one.

The one holding Luffy dropped, and Luffy ran to Natsuki. The one holding Ace also collapsed, and the final pirate, Blue-Jam collapsed, setting Sabo free.

The four siblings stood next to each other, letting the nobleman figure out by himself, what had just happened.

"Pirates! Capture them!" He shrieked, but when no one listened to his command, he turned around, only to find that he was by himself. "What have you done!? You witch!"

"Oh nothing, dear future father in law, if you survive." She yelled sarcastically. Though when she tried to attack with Kusanagi, Sabo stopped her.

"Natsu. I'll go back. I'll convince him to let me go. After all, it seems like I'm no longer his son anyway. Should be easy enough." He said with a slightly forced smile. He hugged each one of them strongly.

"I'll see you guys soon alright?" He said, before walking towards his father, back to a house, where he used to live.