Me: Hi…So….. its… uh…me…

Inner Me: You are acting even lamer than usual…. Are you, by any chance… nervous?

Me: Uh.. yeah…?

Inner Me: *at a loss for words because I have never been nervous*

Me: (reasons) If I screw up this one, thousands of Naruto and One Piece fans will be coming after me.

Inner Me: You have a point. But its no use fretting over it now. Just get over it.

Disclaimer: Naruto and One Piece are not owned by me. It is owned by the two geniuses of the millennium.

Warnings: THIS IS A CROSSOVER! AND CRACK! I WILL TRY MYBEST BUT PLEASE DON'T SCREW ME IF I SCREW THIS UP! Okay I need to calm down.

And yeah, this is team 7 back when Sasuke was still with them and the Strawhats before the timeskip.

Sasuke leaned against the railing of the bridge they were currently standing on with his arms crossed over his chest. Some would think he was a wax statue for he had not moved an inch during the last hour and his face was schooled into a stoic blank expression that hardly ever slipped out of place.

Beside him Sakura was putting up a calm front but judging from the occasional cracking noise that came from the railing under her hands and the occasional vein that popped up on her temple, she was as aggravated as a certain wild, ramen-maniac.

Said usuratonkachi was prancing along the length of the bridge, back and forth, back and forth, muttering under his breath about stupid late bastards who had the nerve to boss them around when he himself was never on time, till the raven had had enough and told him to stay put. Which, of course, had the exactly opposite effect and resulted with the eternal rivals glaring daggers at each other, faces mere inches away. Before Sakura could warn them by mentioning a certain event, a cool voice cut in.

"Ah… things are always lively with you guys. It makes me feel young as well."

Naruto, breaking eye contact with Sasuke, whipped his head around at the same time as Sakura to see his sensei, with a copy of the newest edition of Icha Icha Paradise in one hand and the other raised up as a greeting, his only visible eye curved up as the only indication of the smile that was definitely underneath that mask.

"Yo!"

Immediately, with baffling synchronization, two fingers jutted out at him with an allegation – "You're late!"

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and said in a somewhat apologetic tone, "Sorry, I'm afraid that I got lost-"

He was cut off by two similar cries of "You liar!"

Kakashi sighed. If only they would show this much teamwork while on missions… He cast a glance at Sasuke who had effectively hidden his mild amusement under an almost perfect mask. Little did Kakashi know that his habit of getting lost on the path of life would be compared to that of a certain marimo in another universe.

"Cut the crap and tell us about the mission already, Kakashi." Sasuke piped in. Always the curious one. He didn't even have it in himself to be annoyed by the lack of the honorific. Suddenly, he turned serious and Naruto and Sakura, upon noticing this, sobered up a bit.

"Before I tell you about the mission, I must tell you something more important. Akatsuki-" his gaze flickered between Naruto and Sasuke "- is on the move again. Therefore we must exercise extreme caution while going on missions outside the village."

Naruto scrunched up his nose at Kakashi's choice of words. If the looks of understanding on the other two's faces were anything to go by, they had all realized exactly who was being referred to here. Uchiha Itachi. Sasuke almost sneered in disgust. The very thought of the man made bile rise up his throat.

Kakashi then cleared his throat and continued, "As for the mission, we have to look after-" one pointed look from Sakura had him reforming his sentence "babysit one of those well behaved shitty rich brats." Sasuke snorted and wondered exactly what kind of brat they were talking about here. And just like that, peace was reinforced by Hatake Kakashi, the king of porn after Jiraiya.

When they set out of the village, the sun was halfway towards the west and the forest was peaceful save for the soft crunch of leaves under their feet. Even the animals seemed to have resigned to their respective homes. The day was pleasant to say the least. And since it was so joyful and calm and perfectly perfect, Kakashi was pretty damn sure that pretty soon, hell was gonna break loose. So other than the slight alarm and unhesitating ferocity in his stance, there was only a weary feeling when Itachi 'poofed' in front of them.

Naruto had been leading them, pumping his fists in the air at his imaginary opponent and so when this imaginary opponent suddenly turned into a very much solid Itachi who had really appeared out of the blue, Naruto let a out a very, very unmanly shriek as he jumped ten feet up in the air. Itachi regarded him with mild interest because the feat that he had just accomplished was quite remarkable, even for a ninja.

Behind Kakashi Sakura stood frozen and Sasuke made choking noises that were uncannily similar to that of a dying hyena.

"THE FUCK?! What the hell are you doing here Itachi?!" Naruto shrieked-accused looking at Itachi.

"My apologies, ninjas of Konoha, but I am neither authorized nor willing to tell you anything about my intentions." That was all they heard from Itachi before they saw the cool black of his eyes turn into the devilish blood red of the mangekyou sharingan.

And then they were spiraling down into deep oblivion.

It was dark.

And Sakura had a feeling that they were drifting on the sea. Strange, because they were near the outskirts of the forest that surrounded Konoha and any sea would be miles away. For some reason, the gentle rocking motion annoyed her.

"Na, Zoro, who are these people?" A finger jabbed into her side and her annoyance grew.

A thunk of a person being hit over the head. Followed by a whine and a cry of don't disturb a lady's beauty sleep, rubber idiot!

Sakura cracked open an eye to find a man with his blond hair hiding his left eye. Breaking all rules of biology, his only visible eye turned into a heart and his lips puckered out probably in an attempt to kiss her. Sakura being the calm and mature girl that she is did the only thing thinkable thing at the moment – punched the dude into oblivion and scooted away till her back hit a wall.

She assesed her surroundings. A grassy deck (what kind of ship had a grassy deck? Apparently, this one), a vast stretch of water as far as she could see and Naruto and Sasuke out cold and sprawled on the other side of the deck. They were dripping wet as we- WHERE THE HECK WAS KAKASHI-SENSEI?

As if reading her mind, she heard Kakashi's voice from a corner. "Ah, Sakura, you're awake. Glad to see you unharmed."

Sakura blinked owlishly. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but another boy beat him to it.

"Oi Luffy! Check this guy out! He has whisker marks on his face!"

She saw a boy wearing a straw hat dash, freakin dash, towards the guy with a long nose who was leaning over Naruto.

She started panicking. Who were these people? Why was Sensei acting so normally? Why were they here in the first place?

Oooooohh... Cliff hanger... heh... not...

I have written so much about Naruto in this chappie 'cuz the last episode of the anime just aired and it has been a real long time since I last did anything Naruto-related.

So whaddya think? Great? Not so good? Bad? Bad enough that you wanna come over and permanently shut me up?

Well, whatever you think of it, please be kind enough to review!