Ikigai (A Naruto One Piece Crossover)

35

When Luffy wanted to create his own pirate crew, despite his obvious stupidity, knew the large responsibility of handling and leading multiple people. He learnt it from his grandfather who is a vice admiral of the marines; from Dadan, leader of the mountain bandits; from Ace, his older brother, ranted about it every time their conversation swerved to their plans of piracy and would hit him when he insisted on doing whatever he wanted without acknowledging his crews' opinion (he still does that often by the way); from his town's mayor saying nearly the same as his brother and drilled in his small stretchable head the importance of considering his people's well-being, sometimes over himself; Makino taught him about caring for his friends and being considerate of their feelings; then Shanks... He learned a lot from the man, so much that he can't list them one by one since it will take a lot of time. The emperor wasn't always direct about his lessons, but learned a lot from his stories and also from the man's crew.  Although a kid back then, he observed how the red-haired pirate interacted with his men and the people from his hometown, actually copying a few of his mannerisms.

So... Luffy was pretty much prepared to be a captain.

Does he barge in without much initial plan? Yes.

And does he also ignore the said plan if there is one? Absolutely.

Well, it's not like he does it every time, right?

...

But hey, he has his own perks and although he still has much to learn.

Point proven as he gathered his crew one by one.

Each of the members had their own problems and he did so helped them solve it before they officially came aboard his ship. Zoro was imprisoned willingly and nearly got executed, so Luffy got him out and gave his swords back. An evil pirate who disguised himself as Usopp's close friend's butler planned to overtake their village by killing the aforementioned friend, so Luffy helped them foil the evil man's plan and saved the village.  The restaurant of Sanji's father figure was attacked, so Luffy helped them fend the enemy off. Nami's town was terrorized by the Fishmen pirates led by Arlong for years and the poor girl was forced to work for the same man who killed her adoptive mother, then Luffy beat up Arlong and freed her town. Chopper's unnamed kingdom was once again planned to be disturbed by their former king who cannot be considered a leader when he monopolized the doctors and left his people once they were under atttack, hence, Luffy also beat the man up and took the reindeer with him to see the world.

About Meg, he wanted her in his crew because of her ability to store food in a scroll and he thought it was cool. Also, he sensed that she was very powerful but not in a scary sense. She was extremely kind, and he felt that. He knew that when he sensed it in her, he couldn't let her go. He didn't know that she was well-known prior to meeting her, but he knew that her name shall be known all over the world. Thus, making him want her more. He didn't know that she needed someone by her side by then, but he absolutely wanted her beside him.

He agreed to gamble and left it to fate, wishing to the stars every night that the dark-haired woman will be brought back to him, that their paths cross once again. And it did.

Meg set up conditions upon joining his crew and Luffy accepted. She kept secrets and he didn't mind for she never lied, atleast to him.

Luffy can't explain why, but he trusted the ninja wholeheartedly. It was as if he knew she would never betray him. The feeling was odd since he barely knew the woman, well every member of his crew was once a stranger, but still. Albeit confused, he decided to trust his gut feeling.

And Meg didn't disappoint, proving him again and again she can be trusted. The other crewmembers didn't understand his decision of letting an international criminal and trained assassin in the ship, but they came to respect it and her.