Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Naruto. Big surprise.

Part One. Zoro and Shikamaru.

As a rule of thumb, Roronoa Zoro avoided expressing curiosity in most things. There wasn't much of a point in getting worked up over every little issue, in his opinion; at least, not when there were naps to be had and weights to be lifted. It wasn't like he slept through the most important battles or anything. Just the ones without swords or any other real threat. The ones that Luffy and Sanji and (on rarer occasion) Usopp could handle without supervision. Boring ones. Simply put, if he slept through something, it wasn't worth participating in anyway.

So when he woke up to find that they'd not only pulled into port but acquired several new guests (the most immediately concerning of which seemingly under the impression that it was perfectly normal to horn in on a guy's crow's nest without permission), he decided that chopping said guests up would be overdoing it. Just a tad. Wasn't like just anybody could kick all of their asses off the ship. If this guy and his friends had done something to that effect then they deserved to have it anyway.

They could always find a way to steal another. That line of thought was enough to make him frown. Nami was rubbing off on him.

Something loud and bloody and horrendously orange sailed over his head, followed by an equally loud and bloody Luffy. The accompanying explosions weren't powerful enough to be of concern, either. Hell, Luffy'd probably walk out of that fight with a new nakama. God, he hoped not. Not someone so bright-colored. If the other various sounds of pain and fear and conspiracy were anything to go by, they'd be up by quite a few before dinner. Franky would be pissed about all that battle damage, once he was finished doing whatever it was he was doing.

Well if they were all fighting, did that mean that he was supposed to be fighting too?

Zoro cast a scrutinizing look towards the guy lying across from him and held back a snort. Didn't look all that impressive. Head shaped like a pineapple, weird clothes, dull expression- not much of anything. He hadn't even bothered looking back at the pirate- he just kept staring at the sky like he'd rather be anywhere else.

Time to take the initiative. "Who the hell're you?" Yeah, that would do it. Straight to the point. It never failed.

Pineapple-head looked at him, for all intents and purposes appearing half-asleep. Maybe even a little annoyed by the distraction. "Nara Shikamaru."

The swordsman grunted in acknowledgment. "Roronoa Zoro," he offered impartially, more out of courtesy than anything else. This guy would be gone in a few days, tops, likely as not. No real need to get to know him. Of course...he looked back over. "What are you doing in my crow's nest?"

"Watching clouds."

Alright. That wasn't too bad. "Hn."

Luffy and the orange thing made another pass over their post and the remnants of a large ball of fire flickered into the corners of his vision. Zoro shrugged it off; he'd seen more impressive.

After another minute or so, the kid sighed. "I think we're supposed to be engaging in some kind of epic battle right about now."

Well, damn. Zoro glanced over halfheartedly. "You a swordsman?"

"Nah."

"Plan on killing anyone in my crew?"

"Tch, too much effort."

"Be a waste of time then." And with that, they went back to their respective activities.

After a few minutes of silence, Shikamaru gestured upwards. "That cloud look like a dog to you?"

"Don't be stupid. It's a sword."

"Whatever."