Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.

Please Read: I am very sorry for my late update, and will try harder to update quicker in the future! I could not get in touch with my beta-reader, so I'll post this and hope my own poor attempts at grammar don't stop you from enjoying 'Absolute Confusion chapter 2.

Thoughts of characters

Edited: June 3, 2011

Chapter 02: Crossing Paths

"You're not going to tell him, Ace?" Makino asked staring down at the youth.

Ace shook his head. His face was serious but he wasn't looking at Makino, no he was looking off into the distance watching as Luffy's small form ran off.

He smiled suddenly, "Not now, but I'll tell him...when he's older. He doesn't need to be disappointed again."

Makino nodded. "I understand. I won't say anything either, it's your business...yours and Luffy's." She smiled softly, slightly communicating that the topic was closed." But what are you going to do while Shanks-san is here?"

Ace looked down and scratched the back of his head. The excuse he'd given Luffy earlier was a lie, as he had no errands to do, and the houses as well as the groceries were done.

So what was he going to do?

Finding Shanks was very easy, as the only ship entering the dock was Shanks' huge ship Armeria (1).But as Luffy ran closer to the pirate ship; he noticed several oddities about it. For one, the huge ship's head pole was still a bright red, unlike the faded brown one Luffy remembered fondly, and then there were the missing holes from the ship's sides.

Luffy blinked. 'Shanks' ship has finally been fixed...'

He let the thought trail off as the ship lowered its anchors, and docked, dropping the wooden bridge connecting the ship to the port. Luffy grinned brightly, and pushed the 'suddenness' of the ship's repair towards the back of his mind. He could think about that stuff later, but now Shanks was here.

"Shanks! Mr. First Mate! Lucky!" The named people turned and looked to Luffy smiling and waving. Calls came and yelled greetings in a jumbled mess, that Luffy didn't even try and figure out, but all the same the Straw hat pirate was happy to see, and hear them so happy.

"Well, if it isn't the anchor. What you up to, brat?" Shanks said standing up from his seat, on the captain's chair. The infamous red-haired pirate smiled brightly at Luffy, watching carefully as the future Straw Hat ran up the bridge and onto the ship. No one stopped the native boy from boarding and instead watched with obvious amusement as Luffy ran up to their captain.

Luffy smirked. "I've been looking for you! Makino said you'd arrived." He told them casually. Shanks raised an eyebrow at Luffy's words, something about how he said that sentence sounded off. "Where have you been, Shanks?"

Shanks smiled. "Oh, here and there… Saw a sea king, but that's it. What you doing here?" He motioned to where Luffy was currently standing.

"Making sure you don't get lost again Shanks!" Luffy proudly said taking Shanks' left hand and guiding him to Makino's Tavern. Luffy knew that if he let Shanks go by himself, he wouldn't get to Makino's till later and by then he'd be too drunk to stand.

Shanks laughed and ruffed Luffy's hair. "Sure, you are... I bet you just want to hear more about my adventures."

Luffy shook his head. "Nope."

Shanks raised an eyebrow." So you finally get tired of becoming a pirate?" His smile was a little sad, but kind. He had hoped Luffy would take after him...but whatever Luffy choose to do he'd support him.

"I'm not going be any pirate," Luffy said noticing that Shanks' and his crew were pay full attention to him. "I'm going be King of the Pirates."

Shanks laughed. "Yeah, right you can't even swim, you're an anchor."

"It doesn't matter if I'm an anchor I believe in my nakama (2)." Luffy said glaring hotly. Though Luffy wasn't really mad at Shanks, he knew his friend was just teasing. Shanks was just like that.

Shanks blinked and considered Luffy's words for a few seconds. 'Nakama? He has nakama?' Shanks smiled. Even if it was a bit farfetched Shanks believed Luffy, the anchor didn't lie; hell the red-haired captain doubted Luffy even knew what a lie was. Though Shanks was a bit curious about these nakama of Luffy's...

"Who are your nakama, Luffy?" Luffy looked up at Shanks. It was unusual for the older to call him by his name. Luffy smiled his toothy grin.

"A pirate hunter, a thief who hates pirates, a lying sharpshooter, a cook with a bad attitude, a wanted archaeologist, a living skeleton, an underworld ruling cyborg, a reindeer, and me." Luffy said not noticing that he described his crew instead of naming them. "Hey, there's Makino!"

The future pirate king sped off leaving the crew of the Armeria in his dust.

Ben glanced over at his captain. "A pirate hunter and a thief who hates pirates?"

Mr. First Mate shrugged. "Luffy also said something about a stone reader, a cook with a bad attitude, and some other strange people. What you think cap'n?"

Shanks blinked confused. "Hell if I know what the anchor meant." He said, laughing. "That kid's something else..."

Makino wiped down another table as she waited for Shanks and Luffy to make an appearance. She needed to give the Tavern a quick clean if she wanted to be prepared for the mess that always happened during the 'Great Voyage Toast' Shanks crew had. But regardless of the mess they made she always enjoyed their presence. They were good people, even with the job title of pirates-

"Makino!" An excited voice said running into the tavern.

It was none other than Luffy, and standing right behind him was the infamous Shanks and his crew.

"I see you've arrived on time." She said smiling a few of the men started laughing thinking of the last time they were late.

Luffy smiled his usual grin. "Yeah, I didn't let Shanks take any detours-or get lost!"

"Hey!" Shanks yelled.

The crew laughed, and Makino stepped away to get the pirate crew their usual drinks (beer), and food, while Shanks turned in his chair leaning back to hear a joke one of his crew was saying.

Luffy smiled at the interaction, before turning back to his plate, and finishing off his meal. His steak was as delicious as he remembered at and within seconds everything was gone-.

SMACK.

A small treasure case hit Luffy in the back of his head. White hot pain went though his head and he started rubbing his poor head, unaware of the devil fruit that had fallen onto his plate during the exchange.

"Eat your vegetables," Makino said entering the kitchen with another barrel of alcohol, if she had been paying proper attention she'd would have noticed the devil fruit, that wasn't just any vegetable on Luffy's plate…

Luffy pouted, but did as he was told and picked up the vegetable and swallowing it whole. The vegetable tasted a bit off, but besides that Luffy didn't pay any special attention to it. He finished off his milk, and was about to get Shanks' attention when startled yelling broke out.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S GONE?" He yelled thoroughly angry.

This is a nightmare…where could that devil fruit have gone… He thought looking around the tavern, hoping beyond hope that the devil fruit would just reappear on its own. He'd found the empty treasure chest on the floor but no devil fruit.

Shanks waited for something to happen, but nothing did and he was sorely disappointed, and more than slightly worried for the consequences of the person who took and, or ate the forbidden fruit.

SLAM!

The door of the tavern was slammed opened allowing entrance to the offenders, and a group of people entered looked like villains with their clothing stained with dirt and blood. The leader of the group was by far the ugliest of the group and carried an air of alcohol, appearing drunk and in a foul mood only looking for one thing and one thing only-alcohol.

Unfortunately, the Tavern was empty of the poison, and their mission was in vain as Makino told the group that she no longer had any alcohol, or brandy as she just sold the last of her batch to the people in front of her (conveniently leaving out that the so called people were in fact were pirates).

The drunken leader did not take the answer lightly and descended upon Shanks' and his group.

"We demand all the alcohols you have, now." The idiot said glaring at one of the Four Pirate Kings with a pathetic look, and an even worst threat.

The villains were mountain bandits, and called themselves 'The Scourge of the Mountains', but their attacks were weaker than any punch Nami through on her worst day. They were lower than scum in Luffy's mind and he severely disliked people like the ones in front of him.

Luffy's glare was very freighting and without realizing he was releasing a small amount of Haki (3) into the air. So far the amount was only enough to put pressure on the bandits but the idiots in all their glory simply brushed off the pressure as heat, and other less dangerous things, so the group of morons did not know how truly close they were to danger when the leader continued glaring at Shanks.

Shanks, a master of Haki took note of the Haki he felt but was unable to get a clear reading from where it was coming from and instead replied to the bandit. "Sorry about that, mate'." He said with a smirk, and he offered up an unopened bottle of liquor. "I'm feeling a little guilty about drinking up all the liquor-why don't you have this? It's unopened."

The bandit acted rashly and broke the bottle of liquor over Shanks head. A move that would forever haunt him...

Luffy's Haki increased and his hidden power burst forward sending a powerful wind shooting through the Tavern as Makino as well as Shanks group looked on in outrage, and concealed anger regarding the actions of the 'feared' mountain bandit. The minions of the Bandit leader immediately went unconscious as Luffy's power reared its wrath at the men. The bandit leader himself was pushed back a few feet, and was shaking slightly from the effort of staying conscious.

The burst of Haki lasted only half a second but the whole atmosphere changed in that moment as Shanks quickly tried to figure out who was the owner of the Haki that sent the mountain bandit to their knees. His task was made difficult as his few conscious crew members made nervous talk as they too recognize what happened. Everyone within the Tavern was confused, except for one (future) pirate who more than figured out was he had done, not that he regretted his actions.

Where did that Haki come from? Shanks thought after a minute of eliminating as many people as he thought possible from his list of potential Haki users. Only five people from his own crew could had the Haki he was searching for as everyone else fainted when he was anger (no doubt unable to stand his Haki, and Makino and Luffy were immediately thrown out as even at their angriest did nothing happen. But still, the captain of the Armeria felt like he was missing something.

Something very obvious...something he should have seen...

"Cap'n look at them run." Mr. First Mate said laughing at the pathetic sight of the leader dashing away with the few members, the 'Scourge of the Mountains' was able to wake up yet, the looks he was sending at Shanks crew was more enough to say his message.

The bandit wanted revenge.

"Those bandits were pathetic." One of Shanks crew remarked after a couple minutes. "Still what was that blast of wind earlier, it felt like Haki-?" The pirate was cut off in mid-sentence as another answered.

"That was Haki." Shanks said surveying the crew. "A control burst of Haki, as far as I can tell, and it's someone in this room." The Tavern went into silence shock at Shanks words. Makino blinked surprised written all over her face as she considered Shanks words, but she quickly school her face as she move away from the counter and to sink to wash dishes.

Could it be...? She wondered sparing a glace over at her smallest patron, before she smiled and shook her head, and pushing the possibility out of her mind. So what if Luffy had a scary look on his face when that burst of wind happened that didn't mean anything...right?

She erased the thought from her mind, and went back to the dishes. Still uncertainty lay in her mind, and she wondered...

"Shanks, you're okay, right?" Luffy said breaking through Makino and Shanks thoughts.

Both looked into the concerned eyes of Luffy, and Shanks shook himself off as best as he could and picked up his straw hat off the ground (it had been forgotten in the wake of the unexpected Haki). He smiled weakly at Luffy, and picked up his fork again. "Of course, I am, little anchor. Like a little bottle of Liquor is enough to keep me down." Or a burst of Haki, he thought to himself, never dropping his smile.

Mr. First Mate closely watched Luffy for the rest of evening...

(End of the Chapter)

1- The Armeria was the name I made up for Shanks' ship name, as I found no record of what his ship was actually called...

2- Somehow the word 'friends' just doesn't seem to convey the same amount of attention as 'nakama' does so the rest of the fanfiction I'm going to use this word. It's Japanese and can means a variety of things such as crewmates, friends and so on….

3- A slightly spoiler for later chapters; Haki is the shorten version of Houshou Haki or "King's Ambition" and putting your entire willpower into another person, very similar to the killing intent in Naruto expect that if the person is not strong in willpower or does not possess a decent amount of Haki themselves they faint.

A/N: Sorry about the long wait, my cousin made me (threaten me) to help her write her stories...

Next Chapter: Luffy vs. Mountain Bandits and Shanks suspicions...