Please vote on the pairing! This takes place roughly 3 years before canon.
Naruto awoke to feeling a cold sensation on his forehead and looked over to see a woman with black hair and eyes with a cigarette in her mouth. She turned around and began heading away from him, that is until she felt someone grab her wrist. She turned around to see the young man that Rayleigh had asked her to look after awake. They stared at each other for a few minutes before Naruto broke the silence.
"So where am I?" he asked sitting up and feeling a draft on his chest. He looked down to see that he wasn't wearing a shirt. A sudden thought occurred to him and he checked under the covers and sighed in relief that he still had pants on.
"You're at my bar on Sabaody Archipelago in the Grand Line. How ya feelin'?" she asked taking a puff of her death stick.
"I'm feelin a little sore, but I should be good to go. Thanks for helping me."He said scratching the back of his head and giving a foxy grin. That all stopped when he realized something. "Hey, how long have I been out and who are you?"
"I'm Shakky. You've been out for about two days. And I'm not the one you should thank, you should thank my husband. He's the one that found you drifting on a raft. What the hell were you doing on a raft in the middle of the ocean? Are you really that stupid?" She asked raising an eyebrow.
"Hey! It's not my fault I was on a raft, that's just how she sent me here." Naruto said indignantly.
"Sent you here?"
"Yea, Kami-sama sent me here to rid this time of corruption because there's supposed to be some kinda change happening and all the corruption is making it harder, so she gave me these awesome gifts and… Hey where's my sword and scroll?" Naruto asked just realizing he didn't see them.
"They're over there." She said pointing to a corner. Naruto looked over and sure enough his sword and scroll were there.
"Phew. Thought I had lost them. Hey Shakky, you know anyone who's good with umm, what was it called…uhh huko? Hika? Haki? Yea, Haki! You know anyone who would be willing to teach me?" Naruto said with a serious look on his face.
"Hmm, I may know-"she didn't get to finish as someone barged into the room causing the occupants to look over at the door. Naruto saw an old man with long graying hair, a beard, round glasses and a scar over his right eye dressed in an orange shirt and camo shorts and sandals and a white overcoat. "Oh, hey Rayleigh. The kid woke up." She said jerking a thumb at Naruto.
"I heard you're lookin for someone to teach you Haki." He said looking at Naruto.
"Yeah, I am. Oh and how to use a sword. I'm Naruto by the way. Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto said, finally introducing himself. "Thanks for helping me."
"Silvers Rayleigh. Nice to meet you kid. Where ya from?"
"Says Kami sent him here." Shakky said from behind him as she left the room.
"Hmm, that so?"
"You bet old man." Naruto grinned. Rayleigh just stared at him for a few seconds before laughing.
"HAHAHA… I guess I am getting a bit old huh? Just don't say that to Shakky, she's not exactly nice to people that call her old."
"Heh, you don't need to worry about me. I've been hit by my grandma and she can level giant boulders with her bare hands. I'm sure I'll be fine. So can you really teach me how to use this Haki stuff?" Naruto asked skeptically.
"Sure can kid. But first a little lesson on Haki, seeing as you don't seem to know much about it. There are three types of Haki. The first is Kenbunshoku Haki, or the Color of Observation. It allows you to sense others and, in a way, predict their moves, making it easier to evade attacks. The second is Busoshoku Haki, or the Color of Armaments. It allows you to create an invisible armor around yourself and use it as a weapon. It's especially useful against Logia type Devil Fruit users."
"Oo! Oo! I ate one of those."
"Really? Which one?" Rayleigh asked with curiosity in his voice.
"Uhhh…oh right. I ate the Air-Air Fruit. I don't know how to use it yet, but from what Kami-sama told me I should be able to uhh control the air around me and umm the temperature and the direction and it's sharpness."
"well that sound like it could be one dangerous power you have their kid." At this Naruto just grinned. "But back to the lesson. The last type, one that only one person in a million has; the Haoshoku Haki, or the Color of the Conquering King. It allows you to overpower another's will, and knock them unconscious. It cannot be learned, you must be born with it."
"That sounds really cool. When can we start?" Naruto asked, giddy at the prospect of learning how to do this, when a loud grumbling sound permeated the room. "Heh, sorry to ask, but you got any food?"
"HAHAHA! I was wondering when you were going to ask for food. Lunch should be almost done, so we can eat as soon as you put a shirt on. We can start training in a week. I should have all the preparations ready by then. Come on." Rayleigh then threw Naruto his shirt and vest and Naruto quickly put them on.
During lunch Naruto would ask questions about the world and Rayleigh and Shakky would answer them to the best of their abilities. Like how the world was controlled by three main factions; The Marines/World Government, Shichibukai and the Yonkou. All the way up to the World Nobles, the ones whose ancestors created the World Government. They even told him about how they were in the Great Age of Pirates. Naruto also learned a few things about the two of them during their discussion like how Shakky liked to tease when she said that treatment, boarding, and food would cost him 500,000 Beli, to which he spluttered that he didn't have any money. Only to be told by Rayleigh that she was joking. And that Rayleigh liked to drink as much as Tsunade, without the violent temper that went with it. Eventually though they were done eating and Naruto had been thinking about something since Shakky mentioned it. He still didn't have any money and it would be a problem in the future, luckily he had a plan.
"Hey, you guys wouldn't happen to have a few extra Beli lying around would you?" He asked as he helped Shakky with the dishes.
"What for?" Shakky asked.
"Well, you mentioned money and I still don't have any. The only thing I can think to do is, as my grandma would say, "my ungodly luck at gambling" and bankrupt a few casinos on the island like I did when I was little."
"Yeah right kid. Even I can't do that with my Kenbunshoku Haki, I've tried a lot." Rayleigh said with a snort.
"Well if it doesn't work out I'll work here to pay off what I barrowed. How's that sound?"
"Well, fine. But if you're seriously going to do this I wanna watch." Rayleigh said as he made a "follow me" gesture and walked out the door. With a quick "good-bye" to Shakky, Naruto followed.
An hour walk later the pair found themselves walking into Grove 73, well known for its high end hotels and casinos. They made their way to the Bright Bubble Hotel and Casino, one of the more wealthy casinos.
As they entered Naruto looked around in awe at all of the lights and sounds. He was amazed at the sheer size of the gambling area. Back home there was usually only one type of gambling at a gambling house, but here they had it all. Han and Chou, Poker, Slots, Craps, Roulette and others that Naruto had no idea what they were. Seeing all of this and the amount of money he knew he was going to win put a grin on his face that would put even the most heinous villain to shame. He was brought out of his memories/thoughts by Rayleigh.
"Alright kid, I've got 50,000 Beli. Lets pick a game."
"Poker, that's my favorite." With that they went over to one of the Poker tables, sat down and waited to be dealt in on the next round. There were three other people there, not including the dealer. One woman and two men. The woman had black hair in a tight bun, green eyes, and was wearing a nice yellow sundress. The first man had blonde hair, oddly yellow eyes, and wore a t-shirt and shorts. The second man had on a business suit and had brown hair and eyes and wore half-moon glasses. The dealer was a woman who had on black slacks, a white button down shirt with a black button down vest over it. She had long green hair in a pony tail and blue eyes. Soon the hand was over and the man in the business suit won.
"Alright, we have a new player. Do you know how to play sir?" Naruto nodded. " Okay then, let's begin. The ante is 1000 Beli." Naruto nodded and put it in with the others. The dealer then dealt the hands. Naruto looked at his cards and saw a King of Hearts, Ace of Diamonds, King of Spades, Two of Clubs, and a Jack of clubs. He put in another 5000 Beli and watched as the others put their money in as well, the total was already approaching 60,000 Beli. He put down the ace, two, and jack and got three new cards. A King, and two Aces. And then raised 10,000. The first man folded as well as the woman, the second man just bet 30,000 more with a smirk on his face. Naruto just called. When the dealer asked to see the hands the man showed that he had a Flush, 6-10 in Clubs, and then reached for the pile of coins before the dealer stopped him and pointed to Naruto's Full House. Naruto had just won 100,000 Beli.
About six rounds later Naruto was up nearly 600,000 Beli and was getting kinda bored with his current opponents, which he told Rayleigh of, and they moved to another table , where the ante was 50,000 Beli.
After spending almost three hours in the casino Naruto had made his way to the, what was considered, the VIP table with about 3.5 million Beli, and the ante was 500,000 Beli. The table was filled with the kind of people that Naruto didn't like to be around, i.e. they were all rich, arrogant, snobs.
"Hmm, it seems that this young man would like to join us. Unfortunately we do not have any room." One of the men said. Naruto looked at the table and saw four open seats.
"Really? If that's so you need to check your eyes 'cause you're going blind. There's four open seats right there." Naruto said cheekily as he sat in one of the empty seats and Rayleigh chuckled quietly at his joke.
Two hours later Naruto was in a heated match, he and the other two players, one man and one woman, were going all in. The pot total right now was close to 250 million Beli. Naruto had to admit these two were good. He couldn't read their faces very easily, especially the woman's. Rayleigh was right behind him and was starting to get a little worried as he hadn't come across this much money in one go since he was a pirate.
"All right, show'em." The dealer said as the last card was given out. The woman went first and showed that she had four of a kind, Queen high. Naruto went next and showed he had a straight flush from 7-Jack. Then the last man smirked as he laid down his hand showing a Royal straight flush. Naruto just looked down in slight disappointment before he watched the man scrape the chips together. As he did though Naruto saw a glint from metal in his left sleeve. He thought it odd since he knew the man had a watch on his right wrist. He contemplated on what to do. He knew there was a chance that it was just a bracelet, but then again he didn't know any men who wore shiny bracelets so he took a chance and grabbed the man's arm and felt something that wasn't a bracelet under his sleeve.
"Hey what the hell do you think you're doing you commoner? Get your filthy hands off of me." He said trying to yank his hand away from the blonde.
"You cheated. You've got some kind of device strapped to your wrist." Naruto said as he tugged the man's sleeve down revealing a device that had several high cards attached to it.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to give the money to the blonde and leave peacefully before I call security." The dealer said.
"No! This is my money. I'm a noble and I deserve it more than this commoner." The man said as he took off running with as much money as he could carry.
"(Sigh) you don't need to call security Mr. Dealer." Naruto said as he grabbed the rest of the poker chips.
"Sir, do you not want your money? He's getting away with nearly 10 million Beli." The dealer, as well as the others were looking confused.
"Nah, he only got away with maybe 10,000 if that." The dealer only looked more confused at that. "When I was little I often pick pocketed from the rich people in my home town, I'm surprised I can still do it so well. I haven't done that in almost 8 years."
"Sir I'm going to have to ask you to leave." The dealer said. With that Naruto left with Rayleigh right behind him.
Over the next week Naruto continued to learn about the different parts of the world, as well as read the scroll with sword techniques. He would have practiced them but he knew he didn't have the slightest idea on how to swing a katana properly. He also spent some time exploring the island and he even went to the amusement park. At the end of the week he and Rayleigh grabbed a dingy and set sail to an uninhabited island.
For the next two and a half years Naruto did nothing but train. It was at this time that Rayleigh learned that Naruto was not a very good learner when it came to lectures and usually had to be shown how to do something once or twice and then do it himself several times before he started to understand how to do it. And from there it only took him a few weeks, maybe two or three months to fully grasp something that had taken Rayleigh nearly a year to learn and several more to completely master.
Naruto had started training in his Devil Fruit ability first, seeing as that would be his main fighting force. He spent nearly a year practicing his powers; from different attacks to reforming himself. His most basic attacks were recreations of the win ninjutsu that he knew. When they had gone back to the Sabaody one time, like they did every few months, to visit Shakky and get certain supplies, i.e. toilet paper, reading material for when they weren't training, and for Rayleigh to satisfy certain…needs; Shakky had given Naruto an idea on how to form lightning based attacks. She had told him that, since he was an Air Man, he should have control over the atoms in the air and that if he learned to take the positively charged atoms and the negatively charged atoms and bring them together on a molecular level he may be able to create lightning. Once they returned to the island Naruto took this to heart and returned to his training, intensifying it and pushing himself to new limits. Within a month he was able to get a spark, within three he could make small amounts of electricity and within six months he was creating lightning.
His abilities with his lightning weren't the only thing that improved either. His power with the air itself improved in leaps and bounds. In a month he could make small gusts, in five he could make strong gusts of hot and cold air and make cut with the wind alone. In just seven months, if he pushed himself, he could make a hurricane. (His training was divided in two parts morning wind and air/afternoon lightning.) That was only in the first year.
The next year his time was spent split between learning how to use a sword and learning Haki. Just like before with his Devil Fruit training, he spent the mornings practicing how to use his sword and in the afternoon he practiced Haki. Within that year he had astonished Rayleigh with his rate of learning. The kid was a natural with a sword and Haki, even more so than Shanks. Naruto learned the 13 stances of the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu, and Rayleigh had to admit it was one dangerous style. The kid had learned and mastered Haki in almost eight months.
For the third and final year Naruto and Rayleigh had continuous spars to make sure he had everything down. At the end of the tenth month Rayleigh said that Naruto was done and swam back to the Sabaody leaving the boat with Naruto. A few days later Naruto had enough food to last him a week or so and shoved off, ready to face the Grand Line. But his first stop was the home sea of the great Pirate King.