Few things first:
- I want to thank anyone who has left me a review. You have no idea how happy that made me. The same for every person who Favorited or is following me. I LOVE it!
- Still not a quick writer. Sorry for falling of the map this December. But I really had no time, working in a restaurant in December could kill you (although I kinda loved every minute of it).
- I Don't own Naruto or One piece, they belong to Kishimoto and Oda. (if I did own them, Asuma, Jiraiya and Ace would still be alive, also Jimbei would already have joined, cause he is awesome!).
- The story is set two years after the war in Naruto and after defeating Kaidou in One Piece. Some characters may seem different, that's because I have trouble to really nail them down. That is also a reason why I did a time skip. I want to thank everyone who has favorited and is following this story. I get happy every time a new person decided they wanted to follow me. So again, thank you.
- Again special thanks and honor goes to RisingNight for betareading this chapter, Making it superduper absolutely better and cooler.
- I have a warning, there are three added OC's in this story. They are almost impossible to distinguish because I lacked inspiration when it came to naming them. I am really thankful that I use the Naruto and One Piece characters. It would have been a disaster otherwise, you'll understand when you see it.
- And please leave reviews. For one they really make me happy and I actually like to know what you think.
Reading Guide
"Gaki" Biju talking
'Gaki' Biju thinking
"Hello" Person talking
'Hello' Person thinking
"Gaara stared up at the half full moon" Flashback
-Elemental Countries - Place
(30 Minutes Before) Time
Chapter 4
- Jihiro's home -
"I'm bored!" Luffy whined.
"Well, you could help Franky fix the ship," Chopper offered.
"Better not," Franky interjected, "Luffy doesn't have the SUPER skills I have. He couldn't tell a hammer from a drill to save his life."
"You may accompany Zoro Sanji and myself to Kumo," Robin offered.
"Why're you going to Kumo again?" Luffy asks.
"I want to learn more about the history of this 'island,' or at least do more field research while we're here anyway. I can always take books with me when we leave," Robin answered.
"Are you going to leave soon?" Suki asked, with a slight glint of hope.
"We'll leave when we can and when we know how," Luffy responded.
"Will we ever see you again?" Isamu asked sadly.
"You will, but only after I've achieved my dream, then I'll take a journey back. I'll visit all of my friends, and your one of my friends, right Isamu?" Luffy asked with a big grin. Isamu nodded happily, sporting a grin that could rival Luffy's own.
"Yosha, let's go," Luffy exclaimed.
The small group had walked through the door when they heard a small voice calling out. "While you're still here, can I come with you?" Isamu asked.
"Sure!" Luffy answered.
The group with the small addition walked further until they vanished from the sight of those staying behind. Everyone went back to what they were doing at that point. After a couple of minutes of peace, Suki started looking around frantically. "Has anyone seen Isamu?"
Total silence followed until Usopp dared to answer her question. "Suki, Isamu went with Luffy's group to Kumo. You don't have to worry though, they'll keep him safe," Usopp reassured her.
"Safe with those guys? The only one that looks intimidating is that green haired swordsman and he sleeps more than he is awake," Suki yelled back.
"That's because you haven't seen Luffy when he's mad. He is our captain for a reason. Once he defeated 50,000 people in a fraction of a second and after that he started fighting for real," Usopp said, but unlike usual his statement contained no fabrications.
Suki looked Usopp in the eye and shook her head. "You mistake me for someone more gullible, Usopp-san."
"Suki-chan, for once Usopp's telling the absolute truth," Nami defended her exaggeration prone comrade.
Suki's mouth fell open, she couldn't believe that the happy-go-lucky guy was so powerful. Jihiro couldn't help but laugh at her completely astonished face.
- Outside of Kumo -
"I kinda miss travelling through trees, that made things more interesting. You never know what you have until you lose it, now there's nothing but rocks and dirt," Naruto complained.
"It could be worse," Shikamaru noted. "It could be sand, that's more troublesome than this." He looked at Temari as he said it, and then proceeded to pray that she never told Gaara about it. He couldn't help trying to get a reaction out of her, it was a habit by this point. 'Although she's troublesome when she's angry, she also looks hot when she is. Wait, did I just think that? Thing's will be getting more troublesome really soon. . .' Before he could continue Shikamaru's train of thought was interrupted and he decided it was probably for the better.
"You two stop complaing, we're on a mission. We know that Sayuri said she was being followed so we need to stay alert be and prepared for anything," Sakura warned.
The group fell silent after that. All of a sudden Kiba spoke up, "I'm getting about five individual human smells, coming that direction, and they're near." As he said this, Kiba proceeded to point dead ahead.
"How come I didn't see them? I should have noticed them with my Byakugan," Hinata said, disappointed in herself.
"I don't know," Kiba responded.
"I don't know either, but we won't learn anything by standing here. We should hide and gather some intel before revealing ourselves. On my sign, and on my sign only, we engage. Understand NARUTO?" Shikamaru said, putting stress on the last word.
Naruto didn't know exactly what he meant by that, but that didn't matter. Hinata looked kind of broken up about the fact that she didn't see the enemy, and that was what he was focusing on.
"Naruto?!" Shikamaru repeated.
"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto responded.
"Disperse!"
It was more difficult to hide since there weren't any trees, and so most of the ninja choose to henge into rocks. Naruto decided to hide behind one of the larger rock henges, the one in question having been created by Sasuke. It was silent for a while until they heard voices drifting on the wind.
"Oy, you think we can get a lot of meat, Sanji?" The guy with the strawhat asked.
"If we get there in time. Tell the brat to hurry up. We need to be back to the ship soon, I don't think his grandmother liked the fact that we took her grandson with us without her permission," the blond guy with the cigarette answered.
'Taking the kid without permission, that's odd,' Naruto mused. 'It doesn't seem like the kid belongs to anyone of the group there.'
"Isn't it dangerous for pirates like you to just visit and walk through Kumo?" Isamu asked curiously.
"Baka!" Zoro roared. "Don't say that we're pirates that loudly. That'll only cause unnecessary problems, got that gaki?" the green haired man asked.
"Yes sir," The boy said, a little scared and intimidated at that point.
'How dare they scare a boy like that, these guys aren't any better than those guys who took Sayuri's sister. Is that what they meant about taking him without permission? If I hear one more suspicious thing I'm going in,' Naruto decided.
"Luffy-san, we do need to be careful in Kumo. We don't want any ninja investigating us or any fights," Robin reminded her captain.
"It's not really what I want to do, but they won't be able to hold us back, especially me. I am going to be Pirate King, remember, shishishi?" Luffy laughed.
'That laugh's the final straw!' Naruto thought.
"How dare you!" he roared. 'Since I suprised them, I have a small amount of time to evaluate them beforehand. I don't sense any chakra from them. I can sense the boy's chakra, but he doesn't have enough to matter. But still, there's no need for me to go all out on them.'
"So you finally decided to show yourself, huh?" The boy with the straw hat asked with a smile.
"What?!" Naruto responded, surprised. 'Okay so they did notice me, maybe the others have been noticed as well.'
"Well, I'm the who's going to make you pay for what you did to Sayuri-chan and her sister!" Naruto shouted.
"To who and who?" The swordsman asked.
"I think you made a mistake, we don't know a Sayuri and therefore we don't know her sister either," The woman said.
"So, you're not pirates? Is that what you are trying to say?!" Naruto scoffed.
"No! we're pirates alright! I'm going to become Pirat..."
The strawhat captain stopped midsentence because Naruto was trying to punch his lights out. "Oy, that isn't nice, I wasn't even finished talking," The straw hat complained while jumping and dodging Naruto's punches.
The rest of the straw hat group didn't even move, which was weird. They all looked totally unfazed by what was happening.
"Yes and it isn't nice of your friends to stay in hiding when they can say hello either," Zoro said, itching for as fight as he drew his sword. Within a second Sasuke was in front of him.
"You meant me right?" Sasuke smirked.
"Well, this could be fun," Zoro smirked back as their blades clashed.
"Isamu, stay close to Robin-chan. I can't leave this to the captain and shitty swordsman alone," Sanji said as he went to help out Zoro, when he barely managed to dodge a kick to the head. "It is most unyouthful to interrupt a duel, but what can you expect from a pirate?" Lee asked the blond as he tried to kick him once more.
Meanwhile Isamu was standing next to Robin. When he heard a voice behind them. "Hello, come here. Don't be afraid, we don't want to hurt you. We aren't like these pirates," Sakura said in the most enticing voice she could.
"Why are you hurting my friends!" Isamu shouted.
"Friends? Didn't they kidnap you from your family?" Hinata asked hesitantly.
"No, we were just going to Kumo to get supplies and then go back to my home. I wanted to have some time with my friends before they have to leave, so I tagged along," Isamu said with tears in his eyes and a quiver on his lips. He turned to Robin, who gently put her hands on his shoulder.
"We're not the pirates you seem to think we are, kunoichi-san," Robin said.
"Oh... crap," Ino said. They all turned to the men who were still fighting each other. Neither of them was actually able to hit the other, but that didn't seem to stop them from trying. It looked like they had been training together forever, since all of the moves and parries were perfectly balanced out.
"H-how do we stop them?" Hinata asked.
"Yeah, I doubt they'll listen to reason," Temari agreed.
"Maybe I should join in?" Kiba proposed.
"How will that help!" Ino shouted as she punched him in the head.
"I'll handle our guy, can you stop yours by yourself? Or do you need our help?" Sakura asked Robin.
"I can handle mine, thank you, kunoichi-san," Robin said while she smirked. "BAKA, stop!" Sakura yelled. Sasuke and Lee stopped and Zoro and Sanji turned to see what had stopped them. "The biggest baka didn't stop one bit," Sakura sighed.
"Cinco fleur: Grab!" Arms and hands appeared out of nowhere on Naruto and Luffy. They held them locked physically, and it worked perfectly. All of the girls were thinking the same thing, 'I hope she can teach me that technique.'
"Robin!" Luffy whined, "Why did you make us stop?" Robin smiled at her captains antics.
"Yeah!" Naruto wined. "I was just about to go Kyuubi-mode on his ass."
"Naruto-kun," Hinata said. "These aren't the same pirates as we thought."
"What do you mean, there's more of this kind of scum?" Naruto responded, bewildered.
"That's it, you're going to get it now, blondie!" Zoro yelled. He went to punch Naruto but was stopped by Lee, who almost got hit by a kick from Sanji, but Sanji had to dodge the kunai that Sasuke had thrown at him. For a second the guys dissolved into a big brawl, you couldn't see who was fighting who. Just as Kiba was about to jump in, something in the air was off. Akamaru noticed it too.
"There are three more people coming this way," Kiba announced.
"Well, we just have to be prepared then, it's not like we can't handle three people. Hinata, check their chakra levels," Shikamaru said.
"Hai! Byakugan... I don't see anything, are you sure there are people there, Kiba-kun?"
"Yes, about 300 feet in that direction." He pointed in a slightly south-westerly direction.
"This is a road that many merchants use, maybe you're smelling old scents," Sayuri offered.
- About 300 feet in that direction -
"I can't believe you idiots lost track of her." A guy with short dark brown hair and angry black eyes said. He thought he was different from his idiot brothers, but they were triplets and all basically the same. The two things that stood out about them were the colour of their shirts and the moods that their eyes portrayed.
"It's as much your fault as it is our, Kanji," The one with the blue shirt responded in an annoyed yet bored voice.
"Brothers, this is an opportunity!" The third one spoke in a happy tone. "We can enhance our tracking skills, and that can only help us later."
"It's already been a week and we have nothing to report to Blackbeard-sama. He'll be so pissed at you, Kanji. You're our leader after all," The bored one said, but now he sounded slightly relieved, probably at the thought of his brother taking the blame.
"Shut your ugly mug, Kenji!" Kanji said.
"I've got the same 'mug' as you, Kanji-nii," Kenji retorted.
"I also got an ugly mug!" Kinji said smiling all the while.
"Whatever," Kenji sighed. "According to the merchants we... 'met' earlier, we're close to a ninja village. That's probably where the girl was going," Kenji summarized.
"Genius as always, Kenji," Kinji said with a proud look. "But why did you say 'met' in such a weird tone?"
'Because I killed them, just in case they talked,' Kanji thought. 'Really when Kenji and me were told by mom to take care of Kinji, she should have warned us again that he's so freaking innocent. He's happy, innocent and naive all the fucking TIME!' He shared a knowing look with Kenji.
"That we said hello to them, Kinji. What else could I have meant by that?"
"Oh well, I'm sure that we'll find the girl soon. Maybe she's even around the next corner," Kinji said, eager to make his brothers happier.
When they did end up going around the next corner, they were completely unprepared for what they saw. The first thing they noticed was some guys brawling like their lives depended on it. Off to the side stood a couple of people, each either an annoyed look on their face or an amused one. There some drop dead gorgeous women there as well, and they didn't go unnoticed.
'One even looks familiar... The Girlie!' Kanji and Kenji thought. Kanji looked at Kenji next to him and motioned to hide while they still could. That was when they heard Kinji yelling.
"I want to join in!"
The two brothers were too shocked to do anything. Fortunately for their little brother, the brawlers stopped. Unfortunately, now the triplets were the center of attention. The triplets took in all of the group they were facing.
"Mugiwara no Luffy!" Kanji said, shocked.
"Oh crap," Kenji whispered.
"They know you?!" Naruto asked.
"Of course, everyone on the Grand Line knows who our captain is," Sanji replied.
"Grand line?" Sasuke said. "Where's that, it isn't in the Elemental nations."
"That's because the Elemental Nations are in the Grand Line, the most dangerous sea on the earth. It's called the New World," Robin said.
Since almost everyone was paying attention to this conversation, the triplets were trying to sneak away quietly, but unfortunately for them, they were unlucky.
"Oy, what are you guys doing here?" Luffy asked.
"Straw Hat Luffy! It is a pleasure to meet you but we were just walking around, doing nothing," Kanji answered, sweat pouring down his face.
"But Kanji-nii-san, We were gathering information about that girl," Kinji said pointing at Sayuri. "Otherwise Blackbeard-sama would be angry at..." he stopped mid-sentence feeling an enormous killer intent coming from the big group in front of them.
"You're in Blackbeard's crew?!" Luffy said in a angry voice with a dark look in his eyes.
"You took Sayuri's little sister?!" Naruto said equally angry.
"No no no no, not us personally," Kanji said, getting worried. He and his brothers had a total bounty of 90 million Beri, nowhere near that of Strawhat Luffy.
"W-we are just f-following orders," Kenji said with a sudden stutter in his voice.
"You're following HIS orders," Luffy growled. He and Naruto were slowly and menacingly walking towards the triplets. Kenji and Kanji shoved Kinji behind them while Kinji was trying to help his brothers.
"Naruto, Straw hat Luffy, don't kill them yet, we need information from them," Shikamaru reminded the two.
The last thing the triplets saw were multiple fists hitting them before everything went black.
Naruto and Luffy were slowly calming down from their respective outbursts. They turned to each other, gave their own trademarked big grins and shook each others hands.
'He may not be half bad, for a pirate,' Naruto thought. "Uzumaki Naruto, Future Hokage." Naruto extended his hand to Luffy.
'He's pretty strong,' Luffy thought. "Monkey D. Luffy, Future Pirate King," Luffy said as he shook Naruto's hand.
Meanwhile the group was watching them, as each of them thought the same thing: 'They're so alike.'
"Anyway, do you guys have a doctor in your crew? Not that they deserve one," Shikamaru said, adding the last part as an afterthought.
"But Shikamaru, we have 3 medic-nin in our group," Sakura said while Ino and Hinata nodded.
"That's right Sakura, but since they don't chakra in their bodies you can't do much to help them recover."
"We have a doctor but he's about thirty minutes from here, shinobi-san," Robin said.
"Call me Shikamaru, and in that case we'll go with you."
"Nice to meet you Shikamaru-san, I am Nico Robin, but you can call me Robin," Robin said with that smile of hers.
A string of other introduction followed. After they were done, they all made way back to Jihiro's house.
"Robin-san," Hinata began, "Weren't you going to Kumo? Aren't we interrupting any plans you had?"
"Yes," she answered bluntly. "But since this involves Blackbeard I doubt Luffy wants to stay out of this. Of course, I want to learn more about you and your culture, but I can ask you just as easily."
"Do you have some questions already?" Hinata asked.
"You are a ninja, right? How long have you been one?" Robin asked, stating off with the obvious question.
"Hai, I'm a ninja and we are trained from infancy in a ninja academy. I graduated when I was twelve just like the rest of this group and I'm currently eighteen years old."
Robin nodded at this. "Are you being treated differently because you're a woman in a men's business?" Robin asked seriously.
Hinata was quite shocked by such a serious question. Robin certainly didn't beat around the bush when it came to important issues, no, she preferred to ask them straight up. "Well, there is a danger of becoming one of two stereotyped kunoichi." All of women present started to join two in the conversation, the topic relating to all of them for the obvious reason.
"You can become known as a tough and dangerous person, hardly human in her choices; who doesn't care who she kills. That was my first impression of Temari-san," Hinata said while looking at Temari. "You can also become known as a fangirl, who doesn't do much in her team except dragging it down with her." Hinata looked Robin in the eyes so she wouldn't have to look at Sakura or Ino. "But you have to prove you are neither and that happens with time. Don't you have the same problem as a female pirate?" Hinata asked, curious.
"I never wanted to become a pirate. Ever since I was young I wanted to learn about the true history, the void century. The truth is written on big stone tablets called poneglyphs, and I am one of only a few alive who can read them." That got almost everyone's attention, excluding Sayuri and Temari. 'I need to remember that,' Shikamaru thought to himself.
The sudden attention didn't escape Robin either, but she continued her story. "I never had any friends before I met these guys a couple of years ago. I did have one before them, but he died protecting me when I was eight years old," Robin continues. She was kind of surprised how open she was being to the stranger with the pale but kind eyes.
"That sounds even worse than what happened to Naruto," Hinata mused. She looked towards her love, he was busy talking with Luffy. They seemed to be in the midst of a very heated discussion.
"Ramen is the BEST food there is," Naruto suddenly shouted loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Only because it's meat-flavored. Meat is tastiest kind of food," Luffy retorted.
Just when Naruto was about to say that Luffy was dead wrong, Sanji interviened.
"Luffy? Why don't you taste some of his ramen and he can try some of your meat?"
"Yooosha! In that case we'll have an eating competition," Naruto announced, sounding thoroughly pleased with the idea.
"Alright! First one there gets a head start!" Luffy yells, equally enticed by the thought.
"I am ready for a youthful speed competition," Lee said, fire ignighting inside his eyes.
"Gomu Gomu no Rocket!" Luffy yelled as he launched himself forward.
"Chakra mode." Naruto smirked and disappeared in a flash or orange light.
"Gate Six, the Gate of Joy, KAI!" Lee exclaimed as he raced after them.
The whole group simply stood there and sweatdropped as their companions became dots on the horizon.
"I never thought there could be two of them... troublesome," Shikamaru thought.