Just to let you know, even though I'm not sure on the pairing just yet… it will only be a single pairing – meaning no harem. I am open to suggestion about who that one person could be however.

Chapter 2: Freedom at last

Fisher Tiger continued to look down at the boy that had saved his life in complete and utter shock. He had never met a being so honour bound that he would sacrifice himself for a person he didn't know just because he gave him a glimpse of freedom. Sure a lot of the fish men slaves had helped him after he had rescued them, but that was done as a group and only showed courage and not true honour… to think he is human.

This boy in front of him who he knew did not even have a name, he was something special. He would not let him die; he would save the life of this human even if he died in doing so. It was all he could do for the boy who had saved his life.

Seeing that the Marines were all still shocked at the events that took place, Tiger quickly made haste in picking the boy up before running away as fast as he could towards the east exit. The Marines re-gathered themselves quickly however, and began firing on the escaping pirate. It was not to be however as Tiger managed to push himself harder now that he had someone else's life to protect. He flew along at a pace someone in his condition should have no hope of achieving, as he made his way to the eastern exit.

Smiling to himself as he made it to the shoreline as he noticed his ship waiting for him just a little way out. Soon he would re-join his crew, the Sunny Pirates. Turning over onto his back, Tiger clutched the dying boy to his chest as he propelled himself towards his ship at a pace no human could ever hope to achieve. Finally arriving at his ship he was greeted by the cheering of his crew, however that cheering soon morphed into confused looks that Tiger paid no mind to.

No, he was looking for one person in particular on his ship. That person was known as Aladdin and was the doctor of his crew. Standing at a tall height the goats beard brotula merman was muscular and broad in his appearance. He had slanted thin eyes, dark hair tied back into a ponytail and a full beard of the same colour. His long tail is light-brown in the upper part, but gets darker near the fins, where spots start to appear, eventually becoming a plain dark colour.

Wearing a long, open dark vest with the crews jolly roger on the back while carrying round a trident as a weapon of choice he has the Sun Pirates' tattoo on the left side of his stomach that covered his previous slave mark.

This was the only man that Tiger could trust the boy's life to as he made his way over to him. Placing the boy in the doctor's hands he made his intentions clear.

"Save the boy" Those three words shocked his crew as they couldn't believe that he was ordering the crews doctor to save a human.

"But what about your own injuries Tiger?" the doctor asked his captain in an attempt to speak some sense into him. Tiger just grunted in response however as he replied

"They can wait, now save the boy" before he turned away from the crew and headed towards his quarters while telling his crew to set sail with haste.

Next morning

The boy awoke with bleary eyes as he tried to remember what had happened to him before he had lost consciousness. It hit him like a tonne of bricks as he suddenly remembered his body moving on its own as he charged in front of the fish man who had freed him in order for him to save the man from a bullet.

Hearing a giggling sound from above, his head immediately shot up, only to come clashing back down in a sea of pain. Noting that the giggling from before had become a pained groan instead the boy quickly opened his eyes to see what had happened.

When he did, he quickly took notice of the room he was in as it seemed to sway and move about. It was easily the best looking room the boy had ever seen as it expanded out over twice the width his cell had done. Instead of steel bars and stone walls, the blond was able to identify the material of use to be wood. What surprised the boy the most however was how his arse felt.

So soft was the surface he was laying on that he did not know a way to describe it. It was almost like he was lying on top of one of the fatter slaves and for some reason that slave's stomach had become significantly flatter. Not knowing what to do, the boy just decided to lie back down and snuggle up to the soft 'thing' underneath him.

This was until he heard the giggling start up again along with a much deeper laugh that accompanied it. Allowing an annoyed snarl to cover his face, the boy looked up to see one of the strangest sights he had seen to date.

Sitting on a chair was the very same fish man that he had saved… Fisher Tiger and in front of him was a girl that he had never seen before. They were both laughing at him together… a fish man and human laughing together was something he had never before seen.

After a while however it began to piss the boy off as his face scrunched up into one of frustration as he took their laughing as mocking him and quickly set out to change that.

"SHUT UP" this only worked to make the pair laugh harder though as his face was slowly becoming an increasing shade of red. Before the situation could escalate any more however the door was opened as Aladdin entered the room to check up on his patient. The laughing abruptly stopped as the faces of the two jokers quickly entered a mock seriousness as they each failed in their attempt to keep themselves from laughing.

Chuckling at his captain's behaviour the doctor of the Sunny Pirates made his way over to the irate boy who he could see was struggling to remain calm.

"Hello boy, I am a doctor and the one who healed you from your injury… I am just going to do a quick check up on how you are doing; after all you have been out cold for the last couple of days." He got a confused look in return before the boy asked him a question that surprised the doctor.

"…What's a doctor?" Aladdin looked over at Tiger briefly but quickly turned back to the boy once he received a nod and answered the boy although a little uneasily.

"A doctor is someone who cares for the injured" The boy nodded in understanding before he sat up properly and asked a question that made the doctor even more uncomfortable.

"And what is this thing I'm sitting on?" A worried look spread across the doctors face as he told the boy that it was called a bed before he asked the kid for his name, age, and where he was from… surely he would at least know that.

"Don't know" replied the boy as the doctor became exasperated a bit at the response from the boy.

"Do you have a wish of any kind?" Tiger spoke up for the first time. The boy just allowed a huge grin to cross his face as he stated that he wished to be free while also adding in that he wanted to be as strong as Tiger.

The doctor and Tiger laughed and told the boy that he was already free. It took a few seconds for that to fully process in the child's mind as he tried to comprehend what it truly meant. He was free, he had accomplished his one true desire in life… and now he didn't fully know what to do about it. Should he yell and scream in joy or should he smile a genuine smile for a change.

He decided to go for the later but noticed that it was still a forced smile. This was something that the rest of the occupants of the room noticed as well except for the girl who was patiently listening to what was going on. Tiger and Aladdin both looked at each other confused before simultaneously asking the boy what was wrong much to both of their annoyance.

The boy looked at the two fish men in surprise for a moment before he scrunched up his face and said

"I'm trying to smile for real… but it's not working"

Immediately the two fish men were on guard as they took that in but before they could think of anything to say in response the girl giggled loudly and shouted

"That's because you can't force yourself to smile silly" Now it was the boys turn to be on guard as he replied with an uneasy voice.

"Of course you can, I do it all the time" Seeing where this was going the two fish men quickly made to brake the argument before it started as the doctor took the girl out of the room as Tiger remained to talk to the boy. Moments of silence passed by before Tiger asked

"Do you want a name?" The boy thought about this for a while before he decided it would probably be easier to identify himself by a specific name and so nodded his head once to the fish man who made his best 'thinker' impression while trying to think of a name for the boy.

After a while of thinking, Tiger eventually began just rattling off names to the boy.

"Yama, Tom, Hack, Baka, Pisaro." However every name that Tiger suggested received a shake of the head.

"You are as stubborn as a maelstrom… haha that's it, Naruto, we'll call you Naruto." The boy seemed to seriously think about the name and how it sounded for a while before he nodded his head in acceptance with a small smile managing to find its way onto his lips while Tiger grinned.

Tiger then stood up and told the newly named Naruto that he should introduce him to the rest of the crew. So the boy followed him out of the room and toward the main deck of the ship where everyone appeared to be waiting.

Once Tiger was sure he had everyone's attention he introduced Naruto to them all as the human boy who had saved his life. While most of the fish men remained sceptical of such an announcement, after a firm grunt from Tiger the fish men all slowly walked over to introduce themselves to appease their captain.

Leading the pack was a fish man by the name of Jinbe who was followed by the likes of Arlong, Hatchan, Chew, Kuroobi along with many other fish men who were apart of Tigers crew. After that was all done with, Naruto was told to go sit over by the girl who introduced herself as Koala and mentioned about how she was given to the Sunny Pirates in order for her to get home.

Tiger quickly got everyone's attention again as he went on to explain what would be happening next.

"First thing we are going to do is drop Koala off at her home village of Foolshout island. It will take a full three months to reach it with the dial we were given but I made a promise and I shall not brake it." This one statement caused a smile to appear on Koala's face while the majority of the Sunny Pirates groaned in annoyance at what they all thought was a waste of their time. Arlong was at the centre of this brewing annoyance and distaste as he made his opinion known to all that would listen.

"Why are we wasting our time with these puman's when we could be destroying those pathetic marines and taking their place?" His question was quickly answered by Tiger however.

"Because I made a promise, and if I was to go back on that promise then I would be just as bad as those puman's you hate so much." Arlong however just grunted in response before jumping into the water in disgust. Tiger just sighed to himself before walking over to the two human's that would be in their company for at least three months.

"So do you two have any hobbies at all?" Tiger asked and when he received nods from the two former slaves he sighed in relief until Koala told him that hers was cleaning, while Naruto told him that his was building. He promptly sweat dropped along with Aladdin who had been listening in.

"Since you two will be staying with us for a while is there anything you would like to learn?" He received two nods which he smiled at before listening in to what they had to say.

Koala told him that she wished to learn how to defend herself, general knowledge, and to navigate.

Naruto told him the same except that instead of learning how to navigate, he wished to know how to build things which Tiger took as him wanting to learn the art of a shipwright.

"Hmmm… very well, over the next three months I shall teach you both the basics of fish man karate while Aladdin teaches you basic knowledge. As for navigation, I will teach you Koala as I was once an adventurer and so I picked it up myself. Naruto shall be taught the art of a shipwright by Kaneshiro who is this crew's shipwright."

Kaneshiro was a Goldfish fish man, with light pink skin, and two big blue fins on the side of his head. He has kanji tattooed on both his chest and forehead that stand for gold. A sun mark on his left arm signified him as a member of the Sun Pirates. He sports an orange, open shirt, with black circles on it, and white pants with a light purple sash.

Said man was now making his way over to the group with a dispassionate glance towards the 'pumans' as he was called over by Tiger. Stopping at the edge of the group Kaneshiro was informed of his task of teaching the male boy the basics of his craft. Annoyed at the extra work, Kaneshiro grunted before he told the boy to meet with him every day straight after lunch for a couple hours of teaching.

Once Kaneshiro had walked off, Tiger gave his best attempt at a reassuring smile towards Naruto after receiving the reluctant tone from one of his crew members. Still, his crew would come around he was sure.

And so the training began the next day as Naruto and Koala would wake up early and do general chores around the boat at dawn before grabbing only what they needed for breakfast out of habit. They would then head out to the main deck where they were taught the basics of fish man karate by Tiger with the occasional input of Jinbe and some of the other fish men who had taken an interest.

Fish man karate is a martial art that the children were told was practiced by skilled members of the fish men race but should be able to be learnt by humans as well. While deadly enough on land, fish man karate has a number of devastating underwater moves designed to be suitable with the fish men strength and speed.

Therefore the two children would not be able to advance past the basics until they had increased their individual strength and speed to a suitable level.

Mobility underwater would be the children's greatest obstacle when learning fish man karate if they wished to be able to do any of the underwater techniques. Most fish men used their personal adaptions (Such as teeth, horns, or fins) that would be out of reach once again but Tiger had told them that if they wanted it enough that anything was possible.

Fish man karate was measured in levels as the average fish man in the Sun Pirates crew was roughly level 20 at the style while the stronger warriors such as Arlong was roughly level 40, Jinbe was roughly at level 55, and Tiger was somewhere around level 70. Koala pronounce that she would one day become a teacher of fish man karate which would require her to reach at least level 40 which would be a serious accomplishment for a human.

After training the two children would wash themselves in the sea before climbing back aboard and drying themselves off in the sun. A quick lunch sufficed the two as they made sure to clean up after everyone before the two split ways as Koala went to Tiger's quarters to learn navigation, while Naruto went to find Kaneshiro.

Koala was learning much in the way the world behaves in terms of weather and direction as she was taught by Tiger how to navigate the Grand Line. A difficult task if there ever was one but Koala was up for the challenge as she continued to show an interest in the trade.

Naruto was being taught the make-up of the Sun Pirates ship as Kaneshiro taught the boy the basics of how to go about building a boat. Slowly but surely, Naruto was growing on the shipwright of the Sun Pirates as the fish man even found himself enjoying teaching Naruto of his craft. This was especially so because Naruto seemed to take everything in like a sponge.

The two would then join back up again after a quick dinner and clean up for a couple hours with Aladdin to assess their general knowledge or lack thereof in Naruto's case before going to bed.

Much like Kaneshiro, the whole crew found they were becoming more and more appreciative of the human's presence on their ship. Even Arlong could not say they weren't useful… or at least amusing to watch and noted that they barely took up any food or water and were fine with it.

It wasn't until two months into their trip towards Koala's home town that something even remotely interesting happened as the Sun Pirates found themselves under the attack of Rear Admiral Kadar of G-2. When asked to return the slaves, Tiger simply told the man that he had no proof that anyone on his ship was a slave while hiding Naruto and Koala deep within the ship.

The fight was not a long one however as Tiger defeated the Rear Admiral with one swift kick as the rest of his crew made mincemeat out of the rest of the marines. Celebrating their victory with the alcohol they had found on the Marines ship. Even Naruto got drunk off his face in an attempt to impress, much to the amusement of Koala and the crew.

After that incident however, Tiger became aware of the fact that Koala and Naruto could still be proved as slaves due to their branded marks. To solve this problem, Tiger held another meeting where he directly brought this topic up with his crew and asked if they believed it would be a good idea to cover the slave marks with their own.

Most of the crew agreed with this mentality and soon it was decided that the two children were to be branded as members of the Sun Pirates rather than Slave of the 'world nobles'. Koala would be first as she prepared herself for the pain that was sure to come as the brand was aimed at her upper back where her slave mark had been placed.

After the deed was done, Aladdin looked her over and treated her wound so that nothing bad would happen.

Next was Naruto but instead of showing Tiger his chest where his slave mark was, he turned around so that his back was to the fish man. When asked why he had done this he told the fish men that he wished to keep the mark as a reminder to himself to always be thankful for his freedom and that there was always others out there going through what he had in the past.

The fish men took this in stride with smirks on their faces as the acknowledged the kid's strength and will to do what was right. Tiger then branded Naruto with the mark of the Sun Pirates at the top half of his back.

After all that was done, a secondary celebration was had in honour of the first humans to wear the Sun Pirates mark. This time, Naruto decided not to make a fool of himself and instead headed to bed early along with Koala in order to give the fish men their privacy.

A month later and the crew was closing in on Koala's home island and everyone was feeling sad that she would be leaving but knew her family missed her as well. Over the course of the three months the two children had advanced faster than anyone could have anticipated.

Koala's fish man karate had jumped from level 1 up to a lower level 5 while out of water and level 2 within. It would certainly be a struggle for her to upgrade her underwater techniques due to being a human but she would not let that crush her dream of being a teacher of the art. Her general knowledge was back up to scratch in most areas which she was proud of as well. However it was her advancement in navigation that truly showed the most improvement as Tiger was even allowing her to navigate the final week of their journey due to his confidence.

Naruto had improved much as well however as his fish man karate had jumped from level 1 to level 7 on land while managing level 3 underwater. His general knowledge came slowly but surely as he was beginning to understand most things while the occasional bit of trivia would get passed him. His shipwright ability had improved much as well as Kaneshiro was proud of his first apprentice who now knew everything there was to know about the Sun Pirate's boat. He had recently been learning the more physical aspects of being a shipwright as he began putting his knowledge into practice and was so far doing quite well for himself.

Still all things have to come to an end and it seems that it would be the end of Koala's time aboard the Sun Pirates ship.

Little did the Pirates know that wouldn't be the only thing ending on the shores of Foolshout Island.

Chapter end

Hope you enjoyed the second chapter

Happy to answer any questions or queries so remember to…

R&R