A/N – Oh boy, a new ZoLu adventure fic, because adventures are the best kind of stories. Rated M, for future chapters. I also plan on updating weekly.

As a side note, all characters have their pre-timeskip ages, but most have their post-timeskip appearances. The characters who look post-timeskip are: Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper and Robin. The reason no one else changes is because they look more normal/human/I don't have a good justification for their post-timeskip selves. Sorry if this is confusing, but it also doesn't have a large effect on the story.

Now, without further ado, let's begin.

Ancient Secrets

Chapter 1

Luffy lived a quiet, happy life, in the quiet, happy village of Fushia. He was cared for and loved by everybody in the village, though he was the only boy his age (currently 17 years) around. Makino, the barmaid, had a child who was one year old, but Luffy couldn't have fun playing with him. Instead, he was coddled by the adult villagers and his mother, while his Grandfather (who did love him, dearly) taught him how to be tough by tossing him into the nearby forest to survive, or tying so many balloons to him that he flew away. The treatment gave him a strong survival instinct, and he learned how to survive by throwing punches, but he still had very little world experience.

On one normal evening, Luffy was preparing dinner for his mother and grandfather. He wasn't very good at it, but his mother insisted that he learn, and had been teaching him how to make various dishes for a while now. His grandfather, Garp, refused to eat anything Luffy created unless it was proven to be completely edible and wouldn't destroy his taste buds, so making his dinner was a true test for Luffy, he supposed.

The pot on the stove which contained rice started to boil, which Luffy decided was a good sign and turned down the heat a little to calm the sputtering lid. His mother, at that point, decided to come into the kitchen to watch his progress.

"Mm, that smells good!" She commented with a smile. Luffy turned his thousand watt grin in her direction at the praise. It had taken him so long to get as far as he did and his mother knew that, which was why she liked to encourage and compliment him whenever she had the chance.

"I want to eat it now, but it's not ready!" He said, only able to maintain the following pout for a second before the smile managed to take over his face again. His mother walked over and ruffled his hair.

"Soon you will, and it'll all be worth it, right?" She asked. Luffy nodded, beaming.

All too suddenly, there was a rumbling noise followed by a crash from the front of the house.

"What the—?!" His mother yelled and ran out into the hallway to see what was going on. Luffy stuck his head through the kitchen door to watch. Splinters of wood which used to be their door were strewn across the carpet as though it had been battered in. In the doorway, in place of where the door used to stand was a man. He looked evil, Luffy decided, with greased back hair and a scar running across his face from ear to ear. In his mouth was a cigar, and he was wrapped up in a fur coat. Just looking at this man gave Luffy the chills. Whoever he was, why ever he was there, it was going to be bad.

"Ah, just the man I wanted to see," The man said in a slimy voice, eyes falling over to Luffy. Luffy stood his ground, narrowing his eyes at the man, even as his hands trembled and his fingernails dug painfully into the doorframe he was leaning around.

"Who- Who are you?!" He demanded. His mother turned horrified eyes towards Luffy and backed up towards him, so he was hidden from view by her back.

"Me? I am a man from a company you may have heard of…"

"Baroque Works…" Breathed his mother, shaking her head slowly in horror. There was a roar from further inside the house as his grandfather charged through from the garden, brandishing an iron club.

"CROCODILE!" He screamed, "Get away from this place! You have no right to be here." The man looked over Garp and smirked, raising a hand which Luffy realised wasn't a hand, but a hook, which must have been placed there after he lost his real appendage. The hook and the club clashed as the two grappled with their strength. Luffy jumped in alarm, and his mother took him by the hand and ran down the hallway. Luffy stumbled after her, managing to force out one of the many questions running through his head.

"What's going on?"

"Luffy, listen to me. That man is the head of Baroque Works," His mother explained hastily, "And he's after the ancient weapons. You see that locket around your neck?"

Locket? Luffy had to wonder for a moment, before remembering that yes, he wore a locket, and had for so long that he'd gotten used to its presence and forgotten it was there. He nodded in response and his mother hurriedly continued.

"It's the key to the ancient weapon, Poseidon. He's after it, but you must keep it, it's important. Do you understand?" Luffy nodded. He didn't understand, but he got the basic gist of it. But what were they going to do about it? "You need to take that locket, and run. As far as you can. Don't get caught, I love you, your grandfather loves you, now go!" And with that, she gave him a kiss on the forehead, and ran back to where Luffy could hear fighting and yelling.

He had to get out of there, but he had to go to his room first. Charging up the stairs as quickly as he could, tripping and stumbling slightly on his way, Luffy skidded into his room, where his precious straw hat sat hooked on one of his bed posts. Grabbing it, and then his china piggy bank which was full of his pocket money, Luffy leapt of the window and landed hard on the ground with his knees bent.

He stood up straight after a few seconds and looked around wildly, before running in the direction of the forest. It was either that way, or towards the sea, and Luffy didn't have a boat, nor did he know how to sail one.

Forest was clearly the answer.

As he ran, he spotted a man following a dirt road, who had green hair. It looked vaguely familiar (which said something, because not many people had such green hair as his). Skidding to a stop, Luffy caught the man's attention.

"It's you! Roronoa!" He pointed. The man looked around and blinked at him.

"You're that kid."

"Yeah! Hey, listen, there are these people after me! They were just at my home and now I have to escape!" He explained in a panic. He wasn't sure why he was stopping to tell the man, Roronoa, but he did, and the man nodded and pointed.

"Go that way, there's a village that way," He directed. Luffy nodded, and was about to keep moving, when there was a loud explosion behind him, back where his house was. Luffy froze then looked around. His house was up in flames, and debris was falling across the surrounding area. There was a clang, as nearby, the pot he'd been using to cook the rice in landed, charred around the outside, and dented from the impact. Luffy stared at the fireball of disaster, unable to wrap his mind around it.

Grandpa had been in there… Mother had been in there… Everything came to a stand-still as Luffy's brain seemed to stop understanding anything around him.

Roronoa, thinking fast, grabbed his wrist. Luffy could vaguely hear him saying something about the people still coming after him, but it was distant, like it didn't matter. He was pulled away from the sight of the flames, and towards the dark, cool forest, as Roronoa pulled on him and his legs complied, taking them further and further away from the destruction.

They went around the edge of the forest until they reached a field, where there was a rusty old barn. Roronoa shoved Luffy into the barn and closed the door with difficulty, because of the rusted hinges. Once it was shut, Luffy was placed in an old stable and covered with piles of hay, which Roronoa quickly and quietly explained was in order to hide him in case they looked in here. Then he proceeded to climb up the wooden ladder to the higher level, and crouched there to watch the door.

Through the small gaps between the old, crumbling planks of wood, they could see the sun slowly setting over the horizon until everything was almost pitch black, illuminated only by what light the moon and the stars could provide, and which trickled in through the ceiling. Luffy found the hay covering him scratched his arms and legs uncomfortably, and the ground beneath him was cold, hard dirt.

The cold felt like it was seeping through the back of his shirt and tangling in his hair, while the hay contained the heat of his body and sent it back at him, and it felt like a battle to warm up his body. Luffy still clutched his hat in one hand, and his piggy bank in another, and he realised that those, along with the clothes he wore and the locket hanging around his neck, were the only things he had left of his home.

Was his grandfather still alive? Did his mother make it out? Perhaps they had been shielded by the explosion somehow? He could only wonder, and hope that maybe one day he'd know the answer. One day, he wouldn't be chased by this Crocodile guy of Baroque Works, and he could come back to Fushia village to see everyone again. Or maybe he'd never be able to come back, and his mother and grandfather were both dead. This thought plagued his mind, and Luffy found tears welling up, choking him. What had happened? Why did it have to happen?

Finally, he let out a quiet sob, but quickly supressed it, recognising the fact that they had to be silent or they might be found, but it was so hard. Tears leaked from his eyes in fat drops and trailed down his cheeks to splash onto the ground. It was all too much to take in, and slowly, because of that, Luffy found himself shutting his eyes and drifting to sleep, letting his brain shut down for the night.

Morning eventually rolled around, and Luffy woke up to the sun filtering in and blazing down on his face from where it had begun to rise. Distantly, a farmer's cockerel crowed, alerting those who weren't already up that it was time to go about doing the morning chores. Luffy blinked up at his unfamiliar surroundings, but it only took a second for everything to come back to him, the weight of the situation slamming him in the chest.

"You up?"

Luffy looked up at the voice. Yes, he remembered that the man peering down at him had helped him get away when people continued to pursue him. Luffy tried to sit up, still rather tired, and pushed the hay to the side, to get rid of the weight.

"'M up," Luffy confirmed with a yawn. Roronoa jumped down, landing heavily, before looking over Luffy and offering a hand to help him stand up, which Luffy gratefully accepted. He gave Roronoa a quick glance over before pausing, eyes widening in realisation.

"Your eye!" Luffy pointed. "Last time we met, you had both of your eyes!"

"Hmph, took you a while to notice," Roronoa snorted and rubbed a hand over the scar sealing his eye shut. Luffy wondered what had happened, but didn't pry. There were more important matters at hand. Suddenly, it hit Luffy how much responsibility had been placed on his shoulders in a few short hours. He was keeping an entire organisation from getting their hands on an ancient weapon…and destroying the world? Or conquering it? That was a bit too big of a task.

"Yeah, well… Anyway, my name is Monkey D. Luffy!" Luffy introduced as he was taught, holding out a hand. Roronoa looked at it and grinned.

"Roronoa Zoro." They clasped their hands together in a handshake before Zoro sat on a wooden stool and looked at Luffy seriously. "Okay, now tell me about the situation. What happened? What are you going to do?"

"My mother told me…told me Baroque Works is after me for the key to the secret weapon Poseidon. I don't know really what that means, but I need to get to my brother, Ace." He explained awkwardly. After all, Ace might be his only living relative left…

"So what you're telling me is that actually, you don't know very much at all, you just have to get to your brother?" Zoro confirmed. Luffy nodded, chewing the inside of his lip. Zoro frowned slightly. "So?" He gestured, "Where is your brother? How are you going to find him?"

"Right now, I know he's based North…He mentioned it a while back in a letter." He and Ace didn't correspond much, but when they did, Luffy treasured every letter he received, and put much thought into every letter he sent. Ace had said that sending letters with information was dangerous, so he worried about being too specific then having his post read, but he took a gamble so that Luffy knew where to find him in case anything came up. Luffy wondered, just briefly, if Ace knew that the Baroque Thing was going to happen. But how could he? Still, all that mattered was getting there.

"North, huh? I was just headed in that direction myself. I'll go with you, for a little ways. I doubt you can protect yourself against those guys," Zoro smirked. Luffy puffed out his cheeks indignantly at the implication that he was weak, but he forced himself to get over it.

"You will?! Thanks! And thank you for getting me out of there yesterday. I still can barely believe what happened…" Just thinking about it brought a lump to his throat. The idea that his mother and grandfather were dead was too much for his brain to handle right now, and would always be a concept he couldn't completely comprehend, but for now, it was important to focus on other things.

"Righ then!" Luffy said loudly, "All I have on me are my clothes I'm wearing, and this." He picked up his piggy bank, which he'd left on the floor, and presented it to Zoro. It was one of those piggy banks which didn't have an opening other than the slot at the top for putting money in, so in all his time collecting, he'd never taken money out of it.

"Oh? How much have you got?" Zoro asked. Luffy shrugged.

"I'm not sure. I've never counted because I couldn't get the money out again, and I haven't been keeping track. I'd need to break it to get to the money…" But he was hesitant. After all, all his possessions were most likely charred to unrecognisable lumps, and this was one of the last things from his home which he had. Destroying it… He didn't want to do that. The china pig smiled up at him, rosy cheeks and delicate eyes sparkling with a perfect finish.

His mother had bought it for him when he was four and his father had said that he wanted to teach Luffy about money. It hadn't taught him anything except that when he got lots of money, that was where he should put it. Luffy didn't feel right breaking something his mother and father had given him.

Zoro eyed him before sighing. "You need the money more than the sentimental value, right?" He asked, correctly guessing Luffy's tentativeness. Luffy hesitantly nodded, chewing on his lip. Zoro sighed again (it wasn't a habit of his, but it might just become one if he kept hanging around the kid) before taking it from Luffy's hands. The boy made a noise in the back of his throat and Zoro waved him away before drawing one of the swords on his hip.

Sitting down and concentrating, instead of simply smashing the pig to get to the contents, his sword pierced her belly cleanly, and started sawing in a jagged circle, which ended up looking more like a wonky hexagon. Luffy watched, wide-eyed.

"My pig…" He said softly. Zoro snorted and turned it upright, letting the section he'd cut fall into his hand, followed by a cascade of coins and notes (and a few buttons, which Luffy had put in there when he was little for reasons he couldn't remember) which fell to the ground noisily. Handing the gutted pig back to the beaming boy, he scooped up what had fallen out. He counted everything out and was surprised at how much it came to.

"Hey, you got a whole three hundred and nineteen thousand Beli from that pig," He said, looking up, but was startled to see that the boy was beaming at him with the widest smile he'd ever seen.

"Zoro! You saved my pig! The only thing I have left which my mother gave me…" He trailed off, still grinning like an idiot, but at the same time, looking like he was going to cry.

"Yeah yeah, I'm a saint. Anyway, do you have somewhere to put all this money?" He asked, holding out the fistfuls of cash. Luffy shook his head slowly. The pockets he had in his shorts were shallow and wouldn't fit that much money, and he didn't have the foresight to bring a bag with him. It was just what he could grab with his hands and escape as quickly as possible.

"Fine, I'll put it in my pouch," Zoro sighed. He had a few spare, anyway. Grabbing a pouch he had gained off a man who challenged him to a fight and lost, which had once contained food, Zoro tipped the money into it and closed it up, tying it to the boy's belt loop while he was still distracted holding the pig. "Okay, so we have money. Now, we need food. There's a farmer just past this abandoned field who grows crops. We'll steal some food from there." Well, Zoro wasn't sure if it was abandoned, but it looked like it was just growing grass. Unless farmers did grow grass as well? He wasn't sure.

"Steal?" Luffy looked up at him with wide round eyes. "We can't do that, we're not allowed to," He protested. Zoro gave him a disbelieving look.

"How else are we going to feed ourselves? We can't go back to the village because those guys who're after you are probably still there, and we can't go forward without feeding ourselves." To prove his point, Luffy's stomach chose that moment to rumble in protest of its emptiness. Luffy remembered how he'd missed dinner last night because he hadn't finished making it.

"…I guess so," He said resignedly. Zoro nodded before gesturing to the entrance of the barn.

"Shall we?"

"Yeah," Luffy nodded and went over to the door, wrenching it open and wiping the rust which came off on his hand onto his shorts, grimacing. "It's lucky they didn't find this thing, or else they might have blown it up as well."

"No, I don't think so," Zoro countered, looking thoughtful. Luffy glanced at him in question, so he elaborated, "They're after the key, right? That means that if you have the key, they want you, but they don't necessarily want you dead… They wouldn't want to blow you up and ruin their chance to get their hands on whatever this key is." Luffy's hand unconsciously went to clutch his chest where the locket rested and nodded. He didn't know what was in the locket, and he didn't know how it was the key to some secret weapon, or even why he had it, but it was important, that was for sure.

"I get it. So they can hurt me, but not kill me." With that, he grinned and walked out, looking at the sun which had gotten higher in the sky during their discussion. Zoro followed, thinking vaguely of how strange a person Luffy was.

They trekked across the field, glancing around to make sure no one was watching them while they were exposed so out in the open, before they reached the farm Zoro had mentioned. There were crops growing here and there, and Zoro wasn't going to be fussy with what they ate. There didn't seem to be any fruit that he could see, though.

There were cabbage patches, what looked like carrots growing, and wheat. There were bound to be other crops, but they couldn't risk being seen by the farmer. Speaking of which, the man was right in the next field over, trundling down it in a tractor which was leaving streaks behind so that seeds could be planted with ease. If the tractor reached the end and turned around, they'd be in plain sight of him.

"Okay Luffy," Zoro said, pulling the boy behind the house the farmer must live in, "Stay here. Once his tractor comes back this way and turns around again, I'll grab us some food." Luffy nodded eagerly, ready to have something to fill his stomach. Zoro had to be wary of other possible occupants of the farm seeing him, but so far, no one seemed to be about.

Leaning around, he watched the tractor trundle back towards them, much too slow in Zoro's opinion. Beside him, Luffy was getting twitchy and edgy; no doubt he was fussy when he was hungry, which would be a pain for Zoro if they can't get their hands on enough food during their journey. Zoro was used to going hungry for a little while. A little endurance training here and there, same as forcing himself not to sleep, helped improve him in situations where he needs to be at the top of his game without food or sleep. Possibly, situations which were going to arise during their journey.

Once the tractor had turned around again, Zoro had no problem yanking a handful of carrots out of the soil, and found a pump for water which he used to clean the dirt off them. At least carrots were healthy food, even if they weren't exactly suitable for breakfast. Zoro was sure he'd heard a rooster this morning, it was probably owned by the farm, but he couldn't risk finding and killing it… With a sigh, he brought the carrots round to where Luffy had obediently stayed put, brandishing a couple at him.

Luffy stared at them before accepting them demurely, munching on the end of one and looking very unhappy. Zoro raised an eyebrow at him. Luffy pouted right back and mumbled, "It's not like meat. I like meat. I don't want this."

"Yeah?" Zoro responded huffily, "Well I couldn't get any meat, so it's either that or I leave you behind to get your own damn food."

Luffy shook his head hastily and stuffed the carrot in his mouth. "No, don't do that!" He said through his mouthful, shaking his head. "I like hanging around with you, Zoro, you know a lot of stuff."

"You've barely 'hung out' with me at all so far," Zoro pointed out. It was true, though Zoro felt like he'd spent a lot of time with the other while Luffy was sleeping. Zoro did catch a few winks here and there but mostly he'd been looking over the kid and watching out for pursuers. Still, Luffy nodded eagerly. Zoro rolled his eyes and muttered, "Whatever" before jerking his head in the direction of the forest and started towards it, Luffy following on his heels rather like a puppy.

"One more thing, Luffy," Zoro spoke up. "I was wondering, where exactly is your brother up North? And how come he's all the way up there anyway, while you're down here in the South East?" At least, he thought it was the South East. It was definitely East, at any rate. Probably.

Luffy thought about it, scratching his neck. "I can't remember the name of the island he's on… But I do remember kind of where it is. But he's up there because he's part of Whitebeard's fleet!" Luffy explained excitedly. Zoro faltered in his step and stared at Luffy in disbelief.

"So…" He finally got out, "He's a pirate?" To which Luffy nodded happily. "And he's with the Whitebeards?" Another cheerful nod in response, "Whitebeard, as in, the most powerful man in the world? That kind of Whitebeard?"

"Yup!" Luffy confirmed, beaming and finishing off his second carrot (for someone who claimed that he didn't like them, he was doing a good job of polishing them off).

"…Huh." Zoro wasn't sure of what to make of this situation. He watched as Luffy took the lead, following the dirt path into the forest and humming a random tune between bites of his last carrot and looking completely at ease in the soft morning sun, and pausing every now and then to shake dirt out from between his toes and sandals.

So Zoro, it seemed, was going to be going towards the strongest pirate in the world, and not only that, but he was going to, apparently, walk right into the strongest pirate in the world's fleet. That was certainly something they didn't do every day. Well, he supposed that was why they called it an adventure.

And what an adventure this was going to be.

TBC