Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, if I did Ace would not be dead.

A/N: This story takes place 2 years before the actual story. Luffy leaves at 15 instead of 17 so everything happens at 15 including the separation besides the battle of Marineford. Luffy will have two devil fruits in this!

Ch 2

Time seemed to pass as the sun had long passed it's decent beyond the sea. A figure whimpered in pain as he returned to consciousness.

'What happened?' He went to push himself up, but fell down. 'Why do I hurt so bad?!' He growled cutely as he tried again. This time he managed to get onto all fours and looked around. 'The cliff? Oh, yeah I ran here after…' He looked down sadly.

Ace had told him to go away or to get eaten by something. He interpreted that as Ace wanting him to die, which considering a couple months ago Ace had been trying to do. 'Why would I think that?' His brows frowned as he went to stand up. He fell back down onto all fours when he couldn't find his balance.

"What?" Luffy looked down at his hands and found that they were clawed and now had silver fur on them. Panicked he glanced behind him and found a long black tail with a silver tip and fox like hind legs. Around his tail floated two blue flames flickered calmly and beautifully. He looked back down and spotted a red orb floating in front of his neck. When he moved his head the orb would flow and adjust to where he moved.

Luffy smiled, "Cool." His tail wagged happily before stopping, "Wait I forgot, Ace and Sabo were talking about something earlier today before I came." He got up and started to walk into the forest, "Wonder what it was about?" He tripped over a root and sighed, "First I think I need to learn how to rewalk."

He spent most of his time trying to get use to his new limbs. Every time his tail moved just as he thought he got his balance, it would throw him back off. After landing on his side for the fourteenth time Luffy just laid there. "Ok, Maybe if I don't focus on walking and just do it, it might just work, like instinct." He got up and closed his eyes and took a deep breathe.

Shooting forward Luffy raced through the undergrowth of the forest jumping over roots and ducking under branches. He stopped on a hill panting with his tongue hanging out. "I did it!"

His excitement was cut short when he remembered something important, "Uh, how do I change back?" He looked at his tail and down to his hands. 'This is bad!' He whimpered and tears started to gather in his eyes, 'Don't cry, don't panic!' Luffy stood up and started to pace.

"Ok, so I ate a devil fruit that made me this way even though I should have died from eating another devil fruit, but I didn't." He nodded and turned around to continue to pace, "It made me smarter from how I now sound and can think a lot faster." Another turn, "My instincts and sense of smell are also heightened." Turn again, "So if I can figure out how to change it would be very easy to do later on." He stopped and tilted his head, "Or…" He looked at the two floating flames behind him. 'Maybe?'

Turning forward he relaxed his body. His tail moved slowly and the flames moved closer. Sure enough the flames sprang onto his fur and caught fire. The fire burned and grew changing the overall shape of the fire. When the fire disappeared a very human Luffy stood there looking down at his hands.

"Ok, so that worked." He flexed his hands and imagined his fox form. Seconds later the flames leapt to life and engulfed him. When they went away he was now the small fox kit he was seconds ago. He sat down in thought, 'So if I just imagine myself as either one I can change between the two?' His tail twitched and he nodded.

"Ace!" A voice called through the forest.

Luffy's ear twitched and he stood up tilting his head in the direction of the voice. 'Sabo?' Luffy didn't even think and ran toward the voice. He could hear fighting ahead of him, it didn't sound good.

When he got there his instinct said to stay hidden in the undergrowth. He watched as Ace was thrown by the large bear dropping his pipe on the ground. Sabo was trying to help, but the same thing happened to him. Luffy looked around and found Sabo's pipe eight feet away from him. The bear looked between the two boys before turning to Sabo. It growled loudly and stalked toward the downed blond who could just watch in fear.

Ace yelled at the bear and threw a rock at it to get it to focus on him instead. The bear didn't even bother to look at him as it was focused on its chosen prey. It raised itself up onto it's back legs and raised a paw. Sabo's eyes dilated in fear and terror as he watched the paw descended on him.

Luffy's eyes widened and he whimpered in fear, 'Sabo!' He watched as the paw of the bear raised to hit the blond and Ace running to try to get between the two. Luffy didn't know what came over him, but he charged in and clamped his jaws onto the bear's meaty leg, drawing a roar from the creature.

The bear roared in pain as it felt sharp teeth dig into it's leg. Turning it spotted a fox kit hanging off of it's leg, clawing and biting at it. Snorting it lowered itself and swatted at the annoyance. The kit let go and jumped back turning around. Tilting its head the bear looked at the kit before it got a face full of dirt from the kit kicking up dirt and flinging it with its back legs.

'Take that you stupid mammal!' Luffy glared at the bear before his eyes widened and he took off into the forest quickly, 'Shit!' He was not expecting the bear to glare just as scary as Ace when he was angered. The bear didn't hesitate to chase the fox who bit and insulted it.

The bear was fast, but it was large. The roots and low hanging branches made it hard to keep up with the small fox kit. It also didn't help that the dirt in its nose made it hard to track the other through scent alone. After chasing the fox kit and losing sight of it's original prey the bear decided to find easier prey to eat.

Luffy sat on a branch over the bear and watched as the bear left. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as he panted from the run. When he caught his breath he smiled a vulpine smile and happily trotted to the next branch. 'I hope Sabo is ok.' He looked around and lifted his head up to catch his brothers scents and trotted to them.

When he got there Ace was helping patch Sabo up. Luffy kept himself to the ground and watched the two other boys interact. Luffy sighed in relief seeing the two were for the most part unharmed. He was just about to leave when Sabo called him.

"Hey!" Sabo saw the flash of small silver paws, "It's ok, come on out." He moved to the bushes and held his hand out.

"Sabo!" Ace moved to pull the other away, "It could be dangerous!" He glared as the small fox came out of the bush. "It even looks strange." He mumbled as he took in what it looked like.

A black fox kit with silver tipped tail and silver socks. Strange silver swirls ran across its body making it look mysterious. Being so young the fox kit had stubby legs but they seemed to be lengthening already like it was a little over 4 weeks old. The flames floating around it's tail proved this was not a normal fox kit nor did the orb floating in front of its neck help matters any.

"Ace, he helped us." Sabo bent down and picked the kit up, "Let's keep him!" Sabo smiled and rubbed the kits head who purred.

"We can't keep it!" Ace looked at the other in shock, Luffy would be the one deciding to keep something like this not Sabo! "Get rid of it!"

Sighing Sabo put the kit down, "Sorry little guy." He saw the puppy eyes start as the kit's eyes widened and the ears pulled back. "Aw, Ace!" He pointed to the kit, "Look! He might not have a home!"

Ace looked at the kit before sighing, "Ok, we will find him tomorrow and give him some food. Then we can decide if we can keep him." He watched as the kit's ears perked up and tail wagged happily. It yipped and turned running into the forest once again. "Huh, So I guess he will find us later then." Ace bent down and picked up his pipe.

"Let's go Sabo!" He called over his shoulder and the blond followed him back to their tree house.

Luffy ran away from the other two quickly. He stopped when he was outside of Dadan's house. Changing back he ran into the building and to his room ignoring the calls from his and Ace's caretaker.

Luffy collapsed on the floor in exhaustion. He didn't know how long he was awake for, but he fell asleep right where he was. He would deal with the blood on his skin and clothe later in the morning.

Yoko Yoko no mi Yin: Zoan Mythical Devil fruit that allows user to become a nine tailed fox black

-One of two zoan fruits that were made from the separation of one zoan fruit. Originally eater had multi personality and ended up splitting themselves into two separate bodies.

Yoko Yoko no mi Yang: Zoan Mythical Devil fruit that allows the user to become a nine tailed fox white

-One of two zoan fruits that were made from the separation of one zoan fruit. Originally eater had multi personality and ended up splitting themselves into two separate bodies.