All right everyone this is my first fanfic. Ive decided to give Luffy a different fruit, add some new characters and change the storyline a bit. This story picks up on one of Luffy's excursions into a dangerous place courtesy of Garp. For Luffy im going to try and keep a similar personality to the canon but it might change a little here and there, still haven't decided. Im exchanging the treasured straw hat for something to be decided. Luffy will be able to use Haki, although he will be far from mastering any of the 3 forms. He will excel in the color of armament, have a small grasp of the color of observation but be completely unable to use the color of the conquerer until later in the story. Im also thinking of giving him some of the rokushiki fighting styles although i don't want to make him completely invincible so i haven't decided yet. Anyway with out further ado, here you go.

I do not own One Piece. That belongs to Oda

Late Night Stroll Through a Deadly Jungle

It was nighttime in the jungle. Rain clouds had appeared in the dark sky and sent a light shower into the dense canopy of trees. The surrounding area only lit be splashes of moonlight that managed to find holes through the abundant foliage. The darkness caused by the amount of trees was no problem for the animal life found in the jungle; species that have adapted to the darkness with heightened sense of small, keen hearing and superior eyesight. In short the jungle was no place for a young boy, which is exactly where Monkey D. Luffy had woken to find himself.

Stretching his arms and letting out a yawn, Luffy stood up and rubbed his eyes sleepily, looking around. Wearing his favorite shirt (the one with the anchor on it) and a pair of blue shorts, he turned and came face to face with a spider monkey that had ventured to the forest floor and now hung upside down looking curiously at this animal it had never seen before. Upon seeing the spider monkey Luffy blinked furiously and rubbed his eyes again. Opening them slowly he came face to face with the spider monkey again. A few seconds passed before Luffy's eyes widened and he let out a scream causing the spider monkey to screech in fear. Swiping a paw at this unknown scary animal and just missing, it retreated higher into the trees. Stopping once it felt it was a safe distance from the screaming animal, the spider monkey continued to observe with curiosity.

Luffy, continuing to scream, took off running through the forest. After a short distance he tripped over a root that was sticking out of the ground and was sent sprawling into a nearby tree.

"ow, ow, ow." Luffy said aloud

"Who's there?" Said a voice from behind Luffy.

Luffy, surprised, turned in the direction of the voice. Seeing a tree where he thought the voice had come from, he knocked on the tree saying,

"Did you just talk to me tree?"

"I said who's there?" came the voice again.

Now Luffy was extremely curious. Knocking on the tree once again but this time getting no response, he turned away from it scratching his head.

"What kind of place did grandpa Garp send me this time? Crazy screeching monkey's and talking trees." Luffy said out loud

"What are you taking about?" said the tree again except this time a boy was standing next to the tree and clearly the owner of the voice.

"Ahhh," yelped Luffy in surprise upon noticing the boy. "Who are you?"

"Well not a tree for one, but my name is Fitz Ladhawk." Answered the boy.

He was about the same height as Luffy, wearing a short sleeve red button up shirt and a pair of black pants. He had dirty blonde hair and an air of intelligence that far exceeded his age.

"And who might you be?" Fitz asked as he adjusted his glasses.

"My name's Luffy." Luffy said with a big grin on his face.

"What are you doing out in the jungle?" Asked Luffy

"That's what I should be asking you." Said Fitz, amused by this boy.

Luffy tilted his head to one side apparently confused by what Fitz was saying.

"I live in a village just over there." Said Fitz pointing in the direction of a clearing and sure enough a village.

Luffy followed Fitz's finger and when he saw the village his eyes widened and his mouth opened, his chin almost hitting the floor.

"WHAT? HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT?" Luffy asked in complete confusion.

Seeing the village Luffy began to think of everything that came with a village:

Houses

Meat

Village people

Meat

Beginning to drool he turned to Fitz saying,

"I'm starving. Is there any meat in your village?"

"Hhahaah," laughed Fitz. "Of course there is meat." He said as he started walking in the direction of his village.

"Why don't you come to my house and have a bite to eat."

Of course Luffy was all for the idea of eating something so he followed close behind Fitz.

"You should probably stay the night too. You'll probably get eaten if you sleep out here." Said Fitz nonchalantly, pretending not to notice Luffy looking all around for potential predators.

((Flash Forward))

After eating their fill Luffy and Fitz went exploring on the outskirts of the village.

"You know Luffy, the villagers here are always talking about the legend of this jungle," Fitz said, "It's said that there are fruits in this jungle that grant the eater a certain power. Nobody knows for certain where the fruit is or what the power is but they whisper about it giving the person who consumes it the ability to control and become air. What do you think?"

"Sugei!" Yelled Luffy with stars in his eyes, "we should go look for it."

"We can try," said Fitz, "but I doubt we will find anything."

So Fitz and Luffy made their way through the forest. They had been walking for about an hour when they stopped to rest near a river. Sitting on the massive roots of one of the trees, Luffy noticed something strange. A tail seemingly belonging to no one, was swishing back and forth by the root Luffy and Fitz were sitting on. Thinking back to the spider monkey that had scared him and then apparently not thinking at all Luffy stomped on the tail and in response came a deafening roar.

Luffy turned to Fitz and screamed.

"RUUUUUUUN!"

So they took off through the forest, somehow keeping ahead of whatever ferocious cat Luffy had pissed off, they stuck close to the river. Ducking and bobbing and weaving through the tress and various obstacles of the forest, they managed to stay ahead of the deadly feline until they came to a cliff where the river turned into a waterfall. They could hear the roaring of water hitting water, as the waterfall slammed into the lake below. Fitz was the first to arrive at the cliff stopping just short of falling but he didn't have much time to think, as Luffy was right behind him. He was looking back trying to find the thing they were running from when he ran right into Fitz, sending them both careening over the edge of the cliff and splashing into the lake. Pulling themselves to shore and breathing heavily, Luffy noticed a pathway that went behind the waterfall.

Following the pathway, Luffy and Fitz came to find a cave just inside the waterfall. There were holes in the roof of the cave, allowing moonlight to illuminate the room.

In the center of the cave there was a tree with one fruit on it.

"Ahh!" Fitz exclaimed, "This must be it. The legendary air fruit."

The fruit hanging loosely from the tree was pear shaped and a dark green color with white swirls on it.

"Luffy I'm going to eat it. I've always wondered what it would be like to fly."

"That's ok," Luffy said, "Ill just eat this fruit I found on the ground over here. I mean it looks ok and I'm hungry."

Held in Luffy's hand was a cream-colored apple shaped fruit with white swirls on it.

Fitz, not bothering to look over at Luffy, had plucked the pear shaped fruit off the tree and eaten the whole thing in one bite. Luffy, watching Fitz, shrugged his shoulders and did the same.

"Ack, 'cough' 'cough'. That is one fowl tasting fruit." Protested Fitz.

"Argh 'cough'. Mine tasted awful too." Said Luffy. "But somehow I feel really light."

Fitz turned to look at Luffy and his eyes almost popped out of his head.

"Luffy that might be because YOU'RE FLOATING," yelled Fitz "And what happened to your feet?"

Luffy looked down to see that his feet were no longer there.

"AHHHH! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FEET…AND WHY AM I FLOATING. AHHH! MAKE IT STOP." Screamed a panicked Luffy

No sooner had he thought the words and his feet reappeared as he fell back to the ground.

"Wooah," stated Luffy, "That was weird."

Fitz looking troubled pulled out a devil fruit guidebook and flipped through it hurriedly.

"Luffy, what color was the fruit you just ate?" He asked

"I don't know. I think it was creamy colored and had these white swirls on it, but it tasted terrible."

Fitz's face went pale.

"You ate the air fruit." He stated plainly.

"Hmm well I guess that does explain why I was floating just a second ago." Luffy said

Fitz went through the whole encyclopedia back to front.

"I can't find the one I ate anywhere in here." Said a panicked Fitz

"Maybe it hasn't been discovered yet." Offered Luffy

And with that the Luffy and Fitz left and tried to find their way back to the village.

((Flash Forward))

Luffy and Fitz arrived back at the village to find Garp waiting.

"You ready to go Luffy?" asked Garp, with a grin on his face.

"Yea grandpa but can we take Fitz with us?" asked Luffy hopefully. "He's my friend."

"Well it's up to Fitz's parent's." replied Garp.

"Actually my parents aren't here. I'm staying with friends of my parents. They went off into the world searching for something a couple months ago and haven't come back since but I would really like to come with you guys."

"Well how about that. I don't see any reason why you can't." stated Garp, grinning even wider.

"Sugei! Now we can both become pirates together" Yelled Luffy only to get a smack on the back of his head from Garp.

"What did I tell you about that pirate talk. You will be a marine and nothing else." Said Garp, a frown on his face now.

Fitz smiled thinking to himself.

"This could be fun."

((END CHAPTER))

Ok finished with the first chapter. Phew that was a lot easier to write than i thought it would be. Anyways please review. I'll probably release a couple more chapters soon to get the ball rolling but soon ill be implementing a chapter release for every 5-10 reviews or something like that but we shall see.

seeya