A Different Kind of Messenger
By Silver Dragonfly
Shanks blinked. The square-pupil eyes blinked back at him.
He blinked again. The orange frog-like creature continued to stare at him, blinking a moment later.
"Hey, Benn!" Shanks called out from where he lay on his side, his head propped up on his hand, a bottle of rum resting beside him. In the distance the sounds of the rest of the crew getting into the full swing of an impromptu party on their current resident island could be heard.
"Yes, Captain?" the voice of his first mate answered back from across the small clearing.
"Am I drunk?"
"You are always drunk, Captain." his first mate responded dryly.
Shanks frowned and continued to stare at the frog. It really was a strange frog, big for one. Its' head would come up past his knees at least if he was standing.
"Am I awake?" he asked his first mate.
"You had better be. I do not wish to be who you dream about." Benn replied, half his reply muttered lowly.
"Why is this frog thing staring at me, then?" Shanks mused.
"You are the one they call Red-haired Shanks?" a voice suddenly spoke.
"Hey, Benn?"
"Yes, Captain?" his first mate answered once more with years of practiced tolerance.
"We ever met a talking frog before?" Shanks asked.
"I am a messenger toad from the toad clan of Mount Myouboku, not a frog!" the voice responded.
"Oh, a messenger toad!" Shanks exclaimed his eyes lighting up as he shifted to a sitting position, "Never heard of them."
His first mate walked up behind him, a cigarette perched between his lips, rifle in hand. "Messenger toad?"
The toad glared at them. He'd had no respect ever since he'd crossed over into this realm. It was as if no one in this world had ever seen a member of the summoning clans before. "If you could swipe a bit of blood on this mark here please, I will verify your identity."
Shanks studied the scroll-like object the toad offered forward, and the ink-like markings surrounding the white band around its middle. He shrugged, then nicked his thumb on one of the various sharp surfaces and dabbed it on the inked marking. His brows arched as his blood was absorbed by the paper and the ink marks began to glow.
"Identity verified. Uzumaki Shanks found and message scroll delivered." the toad stated, relief in his tone.
The scroll continued to glow and a poof of smoke filled the space above. "Yosh! You found him then, Gamatsukai!" A cheerful voice called out of the smoke.
Shanks blinked in surprise. "Oi Benn, you sure I'm not drunk?"
"You are drunk, Captain, but no you are not imagining this." Benn replied a small frown on his lips.
A young blonde man appeared from the fading smoke, a huge grin on his face. Almost immediately Shanks was reminded of the boy he'd left back in East Blue, but then focused on the new arrival. Benneath blonde hair, bright blue eyes stared out and two sets of whisker-like scars framed the nose and mouth.
"Pleasure to meet you!" The young man greeted, "Boss sent me to get the first meeting taken care of and set up a method of travel for him to come himself."
Benn frowned.
Shanks lips twitched into a lazy smirk, was this some new rookie's trick? "And just who is this Boss?" He asked.
"Uzumaki Naruto! You are Uzumaki Shanks, right?" Without waiting for an answer the blonde turned back to the toad, "Oi, Tsukai, you did get the blood sample right?"
Benn didn't like the sound of that. He moved forward, the business end of his rifle at the blonde man's temple in an instant. "Explain yourself, kid."
"Watch where you are pointing that thing old man!" the blonde kid responded frowning and lifting a hand to push the weapon away from his head.
"Let the kid sit down and have a drink, Benn. I'm curious to hear what he has to say." Shanks offered with a lazy wave of his hand.
The blonde boy grinned and moved forward to sit next to the redhead his face all a grin, and then his nose twitched. "Oi… you look like you could give Ero-sennin and Ba-chan a run for their money with all that." He stated as he observed all the empty bottles.
Shanks laughed. "So what makes you think my name is Uzumaki Shanks, kid?"
The blonde blinked at him in confusion. "It's not?"
"Don't tell me you have never heard of the Red-haired pirates?" Shanks scoffed.
The blonde boy's eye sparkled, "You're a pirate! That's so cool!"
Shanks blinked and the guffawed. "You really do remind me of Luffy."
The blonde blinked confused. "Who's Luffy?"
Shanks waved a hand dismissively. "Another time, you haven't answered my question yet, kid."
"Your blood was absorbed by the scroll on the seal that Gamatsukai brought, right?" he asked.
Shanks shrugged and nodded.
"That seal was a blood seal. It would not have activated if your blood had not met necessary requirements, specifically a blood relation to the seal creator."
"So you're telling me because my blood was absorbed that makes me an Uzumaki?"
"That and the red hair," The toad mumbled.
"Yeah. It's the same color as Mom's." The blonde boy chimed in.
"Same color as Mom's…" Shanks replied not sure he liked where this was going. "How old is your boss, kid?"
"We have a name you know." The kid responded irritably and frowned.
"We?" Benn asked, as he leaned up against a tree just behind Shanks where he could keep an eye on the blonde.
"Yeah. Boss and me." The kid answered.
"You share the same name with your boss?"
At this the blonde looked puzzled, "You've never seen a Bunshin before? I mean I know the Kage Bunshin are kind of rare… but still!"
"Bunshin? You're a clone?"
"Yeah! But a solid one!"
"So the boss you have been talking about?"
"Is the original me."
"And your name then would be?"
"Uzumaki Naruto!"
At that moment there was a shout and holler from somewhere just outside of the clearing and an empty bottle came flying through the clearing to collide with the blonde boy's face. Everyone blinked and then there was a poof of smoke and the clone vanished.
"Why'd you have to go and do that!" The Toad moaned. "Naruto's going to make me bring back another one now, I just know it."
Shanks blinked at the empty space where the blonde boy had sat and then turned to the toad. Before he could ask any further questions, the toad also vanished in a poof of a smoke.
Shanks frowned. "Think there was some bad stuff in this batch, Benn." He commented looking down at his bottle before lifting it to his lips to take a drink.
Benn snorted but made no further comment.
Thank you for reading!
One Piece and all its characters © Eiichiro Oda
Naruto and all its characters © Masashi Kishimoto
Special Thanks to my beta readers (and sounding boards): Blue Melodie, Inazuma Pocky, & Aria Ino.
I have been toying around with the idea of Shanks being a "Lost Uzumaki" for some time now, which in turn led to this little short story. I do not personally have any plans of continuing the story from here, but I would love to read it if someone else chooses to. On that note, I have spent some time working out the facts behind the concept of Shanks being Kushina's younger brother (and that it would be feasible and even likely for Naruto and Luffy to be the same age). So if anyone would like to work something out, please send me a PM and share your ideas! I enjoy the brainstorming side of crossovers very much, and while I do not plan to write this one in full myself (I have another large story project already in progress), I would love to see this one done.
Thanks again!
Edit Note: [04/06/2014] Corrected spelling of Benn Beckmen's name from "Ben" to "Benn"