Luffy was not a great student. He wasn't even a good student. Well, in all honesty he was so bad that being called a student sometimes seemed like a technicality.

During class Luffy was even worse than Naruto. It seemed he spent class time only doing one of three things: Sleeping, joking with the other boys (the girls wouldn't put up with it), and picking his nose.

(He did one of these things far more than the other two. Which one he preferred remains an S-Ranked secret. )

It wasn't long before a classmate introduced Luffy to a new hobby. Luffy had never been a prankster before but he found it suited him like a custom made glove.

The two sat together at lunch a few days after Luffy started at the academy. Naruto was the first friend Luffy made in the academy and the two had hit it off pretty good right off the bat. The blonde had finally started to get Luffy really interested in the fine art of pranking.

"Oh, I get it. So a prank is something that doesn't hurt anyone but gets them really mad." Said Luffy to his soon to be accomplice with a contemplative look.

Young Naruto nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! And it's totally ok to do so don't feel guilty. As long as you don't get caught it's a total success, everyone laughs and it's fun to watch people freak out."

Luffy laughed rambunctiously at this. "Haha! Well we should get started. I really want to try it out now!" said Luffy, suddenly looking around at the other tables with a glint in his eyes and his hands making disturbing squeezing motions.

"Ugh, Luffy I like your enthusiasm but pranks need to be planned out and…"

However Luffy wasn't listening. He was just thinking about how to make people mad without hurting them. Luffy didn't have his memories but he remembered something that he thought was a good way to get girls mad.

"HEY SAKURA, INO, HINATA! ALL THREE OF YOU ARE REALLY REALLY FAT!" he yelled across the lunch area at the only three girls whose names he remembered.

The whole outside area became eerily quiet to the point you actually could hear crickets chirping. Then two girls slowly stood up red in the face with anger while a third red faced girl tried to hide under the table in embarrassment.

With an eerie series of jerky steps the two girls started to move towards his table, fists clenched and a frightening dark look in their eyes.

Luffy regarded them curiously before he turned to his friend Naruto. For some reason he couldn't explain Naruto had broken out in a torrent of sweat with a horrified look on his face. The boy looked ready to bolt but was too terrified to actually move a muscle.

"Luffy…" Sakura growled out in a low terrifying voice as Ino looked too consumed in rage to even utter a single syllable.

Luffy turned back to the girls after Sakura said his name, a blank look on his face. He looked around as everyone in the lunch area stared. Something didn't seem right.

"Hey Naruto," Luffy said turning to his friend, "this isn't working like you said it would. Didn't you say everyone would be laughing?"

Naruto shot a look of utter betrayal at his friend who just looked back at him obliviously. The blonde shrunk down on his chair as suddenly an oppressive dark aura seemed to be emanating from the girls and their eyes glowed an eerie white. And all their attention was now directed at him.

"Luffy, you idiot! Did you forget the part about not getting caught? That's the most important part!" Naruto hissed at his friend with a whine in his voice.

Luffy stuck his fist into his hand in realization, totally oblivious to the impending doom that was almost upon them now. "Of course! I get it now. Next time you give me an awesome idea like this I'll make sure to do it right Naruto-sensei" he said to the blonde with a casual smile.

"Naruto…" hissed Ino as the two girls had finally arrived at their table. Naruto was shaking from head to toe in fear as he held his arms in front of him in a supplicating position. "Luffy has no memories and probably has brain damage" the girl began with barely contained rage as the black aura behind the two girls seemed to consume everything in Naruto's field of vision "so you must be the one that told him to say those horrible things. It was you wasn't it? Admit it!" she said as she slowly cracked her knuckles with loud audible pops.

Naruto shook his head from side to side rapidly. "You… You got it all wrong…"

"NARUTO," said Sakura, her tongue turning forked like a snake's for no explainable reason while she pounded her fists together, "you would dare use the mentally challenged to do your dirty work? I'm disgusted in you. Let's see who looks fat after we get done beating on your face!"

"NOOOOOooooo-"

Naruto's cries went unanswered as two howling banshees descended on him and proceeded to pound him within an inch of his life. At first this made Luffy panicked and he tried to speak up for his friend.

"Hey, leave Naruto-sensei alone! He was about to teach me other cool stuff!"

For some reason his pleas only intensified the pounding the poor Uzumaki took at the hands of two very angry girls.

The rest of the class looked on in horror. Was Luffy some kind of genius, or was he really as stupid as he seemed?

00000

Luffy was an unmitigated failure when it came to the written and intellectual side of the ninja academy. His teachers found out that his test scores were so bad, the average turned out to be in the negative numbers. This greatly puzzled them as such a thing was mathematically impossible. If you get a zero on everything how can you possibly get a negative score? But every time they added up his scores inexplicably it came out as negative. Figuring it couldn't be worse than a zero the teachers went ahead and left it that way.

On the practical side of things however Luffy turned out to be a great student. Even if half his teachers couldn't say for sure if they boy actually knew how to read, so far his taijutsu and weapons training scores had been right near the top of the class. That was without him using his special "rubber" kekkei genkai. The boy had also quickly picked up the knack for molding chakra far faster than his classmates with the exception of Sakura.

The class had already learned how to perform the Bushin (Clone) and Henge (Transformation) techniques. Other than taking a frustratingly long time (for the teachers) to learn the hand seals Luffy could do those about as well as the rest of the class. Today they were going to learn how to do Kawarimi (substitution).

"Ok class," began Iruka while standing outside with his class, "now that you have all learned the hand signs that go for this technique, allow me to demonstrate how it is done."

Turning away from his class Iruka turned to face some blocks of wood. He slowly went through the hand signs before he disappeared in a puff of smoke. In his place one of the wooden blocks hung in the air for a second before falling. Iruka was smiling at some of the awed faces in his class as he stood in the exact spot where one of the blocks of wood had been.

"The technique only works on inanimate objects. It's a fantastic way to avoid attacks and trick your opponents. You can even use it to replace yourself with objects that are out of sight if you know where they are and can visualize them. So line up and give it a try one by one." said Iruka.

The students lined up and gave it a try. First up was Sasuke, who got it perfectly on the first try. The boy smirked as most of the girls cheered and declared love, some of the boys glared and Iruka congratulated him. He wasn't about to ruin the moment by telling them his family had taught him the technique already.

Next was Kiba. The block of wood moved about half way to him but the boy never moved from the spot. Kiba gave a frustrated growl as Iruka told him that was a good first try.

Shikamaru got it mostly right the first try, except there was a delay from when he finished the hand signs to when he switched with the block of wood. Iruka told him it was just a kink he would have to work out. Sakura got it perfectly the first try and beamed at the praise Iruka gave her.

When it was finally Luffy's turn they had run out of wooden blocks over by where Iruka was standing. Iruka just looked expectantly at the boy with the straw hat, expecting him to pick up one of the blocks and move it into position before trying the technique himself. Instead Iruka was surprised when the boy looked right at him and started going through the hand signs.

"Luffy, what are you-"

Iruka felt a light sensation of chakra before feeling himself being yanked in the direction of Luffy. A split second later he reappeared in a cloud of smoke, looking around confusedly. He was standing in the exact same spot Luffy had been. Half the class was looking at him with wide eyes. Half the class was looking at someone else.

"Hahaa! That's wasn't so hard Iruka! Some of this ninja stuff is really really awesome! Hahaha!" said the straw hat boy with a good natured laugh.

Iruka just stared at Luffy with incredulity as the boy stood in the exact same spot Iruka himself had been.

"Wha- Luffy! Didn't you listen to anything I said? I told you it wouldn't work on people! Why the heck did you even try it on me?" exclaimed a shocked Iruka.

"Well Ojisan, I guess it does work on people!" said Luffy as he crossed his arms with a self satisfied smile.

The rest of the students glared daggers at Iruka, thinking that he had been lying to them about the technique.

"What the hell Iruka-sensei! Are you trying to screw us over?" said Kiba as he pointed at him angrily.

"HA! I always knew you had kind of a dumb look to you sensei!" said Ino, while pointing at him with an 'I was right' air about her.

"You're just afraid of my awesome ninja skills so you're teaching us wrong on purpose, aren't you?" Said Naruto with a comically hurt look on his face.

Iruka's eyebrow twitched at his student's comments. "Now listen you…"

Over the next twenty minutes everyone tried to use the replacement technique on people. None of them were successful much to their disappointment. The only one who seemed to be able to pull that particular trick off was Luffy. There were more than a few mortified students as they realized the insults they had been hurling at their Sensei were completely wrong. There were a lot of detentions after school that day.

00000

Sasuke stood at the edge of the play yard as he looked at the oddity that was Monkey D. Luffy. By all appearances he was a loud mouth dumbass. His test scores were even worse than Narutos, which was not something Sasuke would have thought possible. Still there were a few things that made Sasuke think there might be more to the boy who always wore that ridiculous hat.

First was the little incident at lunch the other day with the girls. Luffy had invited a well deserved beating by insulting two of the most violent girls in class, yet somehow with a few words he got out unscathed and Naruto had ended up with so many lumps on his face he looked like a grape vine. If it was on purpose, then Luffy had to be very skilled in manipulation and subterfuge. Why would anyone do something as dumb as insult the girls like that if it wasn't part of some master plan? It was deeply suspicious.

Sasuke had heard a rumor that the only reason the boy had been allowed to start the ninja academy a week or so after it had already started was by direct order of the Hokage. Surely Luffy had to be some kind of genius to get the personal attention of the Hokage, right?

Even the name felt so fake. Monkey D. Luffy? Who had a surname like Monkey? It must be a codename that served as kind of a joke for whoever picked it. There was no way that name was real, it was just so dumb. How mysterious that such a young boy was given an alias and what could it mean?

Then there was the fact that he could do the replacement technique with people and not just objects. Sasuke had never even heard of anyone who could do that, and he asked around after the incident. Was this some kind of genius way of using the jutsu no one had thought of before? Or was it a special ability unique to the boy?

Finally there was what his father had told him the night before. Apparently there were rumors that a 'new student' at the academy had a new type of kekkei genkai. The only new student that fit the bill was Luffy. Was his last name Monkey a codename to hide his identity as the member of a famous clan?

His father had just started teaching him to look 'underneath the underneath'. And what Sasuke saw was that Luffy had to be a genius level shinobi from a famous foreign clan that had to use a fake name because it might attract the wrong sort of foreign attention. That's why he did so bad in school. It was all in order to keep a low profile. Sasuke smirked in a self satisfied way at his intelligence. He had figured this out all on his own. His brother would be so proud of him when he told him!

Armed with new insight Sasuke began to walk over to talk to Luffy. He could see the boy was sitting alone while vigorously picking his nose.

Engaging in socially inappropriate behaviors in order to encourage people to keep their distance. This must be part of his strategy to keep his identity a secret.

Sasuke walked up to him unperturbed,seeing the now obvious tactic for what it was. Sasuke said, "Hi, I don't think we've been properly introduced yet. My name is Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke." The raven haired boy threw his last name in there to see if he got any reaction from the straw hat boy.

The boy Luffy didn't seem to react to Sasuke's name, instead looking at him and blinked a few times. Then a big smile broke in his face. "Ohhh, nice to meet you Sasuke. I'm Luffy!" the boy said and extended his hand to shake enthusiastically. The same hand he had been using to pick his nose.

Sasuke looked at the hand skeptically for a moment. Even though there wasn't anything on his fingers that he could see it was still really gross. It was so nasty, who would do something like that? Then realization struck Sasuke.

Of course! I already suspected Luffy was a skilled manipulator. He's doing something really gross so I'll back away in disgust and leave him alone! Well I'm the brother of Uchiha Itachi. No way you're going to get rid of me that easily.

Gathering his courage to show he wouldn't be easily scared away, Sasuke shook his hand in a vigorous fashion. He felt something wet and sticky on his hand and it took at his willpower to keep a friendly expression on his face.

"Mind if I hang out with you for a bit?" asked Sasuke.

"No, go ahead" said Luffy with his trademark big smile.

Yes! I'm in. He's acknowledging I saw past his obvious tactic and now I have a chance to find out more. It's better to be direct and put him on the defensive.

"There are rumors all around that you have a kekkei genkai Luffy. Is that true? Would you mind showing me what it is?" asked Sasuke in a conspiratory tone.

Luffy looked at him blankly. "Cake genkai? Sorry I don't have any cake, and I've never tried genaki flavor." Then a thought struck Luffy, and he whipped his head towards Sasuke, mouth open and drool coming down his chin, "Do you have any cake Sasuke? Oh Pleease say you do. Meat cake is my favorite!"

Hmm trying to frustrate me by playing the part of the idiot. Well it's not going to work. Even if his acting is so good it's virtually indistinguishable from the real thing I see right through the deception. Where he gives it away is that it's too over the top. No one could possibly be that stupid.

"No Luffy. Kekkei genkai means you have some abilities no one else has. Is it true you can do some incredible things?" asked Sasuke, trying to butter Luffy up.

Luffy thought about it for a minute. The old man in the tower and that teacher guy had told him to keep what he could do to himself. But that seemed kinda silly to him, who cares if he can do that stuff?

"I'm a rubberman" Luffy finally told Sasuke with a smile.

Sasuke looked at him skeptically, thinking it was another devious deflection. "What do you mean? What's a rubberman?" he asked cautiously.

Luffy grabbed his cheeks and stretched them out as far as his arms would go. Sasuke's jaw comically hit the floor and his eyes few clean out of their sockets.

"See? I'm a rubberman! Hahahaha!" said Luffy with a huge grin on his face.

00000

A/N: I have to say I've tried writing FF's before and so far this has been the most fun to write. If you enjoy it please let me know. :D

So I'm not sure who I'm going to team Luffy up with yet. Maybe he should go on team 7 as a replacement for Naruto… that's my top candidate so far. Nothing is in stone yet though so we'll see.

Also I'm not sure how long this fic will be. If people like it it'd be fun to make it pretty epic. I'd like to bring more One Piece characters into it but I don't think it would be until much later.

:D Hope you liked it.