CHAPTER 3.

Sick Joke

Months later

" Tell me that wasn't your best, you worthless bakolio!"

Luffy saw red at the ancient Greek insult that accused him of being a baby that needed it's mothers milk. Pushing himself from the ground where he'd been beaten in to, he glared at Benn. He got into fighting stance, despite the protest of his body, and readied himself for the next brutal assault.

Without warning the first mate closed the distance between them and sent out a barrage of punches. Narrowly dodging them all, Luffy delivered a kick into the mans chin. Without missing a beat he infused haki into his fist and punched Benn into the solar plexus. But damn the pirate, he used armament haki to protect himself from the attack.

Leaving himself too open, Benn up'd his game and started raining down punches on the boy. Fast, furious and lethal as all hell, Benn rendered Luffy's body useless. The young haki users arms were so numb and battered from the earlier blows that he couldn't defend himself. When the punches stopped coming he was kicked away landing face first in the sand.

" Your to predictable. Surprise me boy. Get up or i'll throw you into the ocean!" And he would to. Luffy knew from personal experience. Once again pushing himself of the sand. He tried going on the offensive this time. It proved worthless when Benn pinned him down with a single move so fast, even with observation haki he hadn't realized the man had gone into a motion until he was tasting sand.

Thank whatever higher power for his healing abilities or he would died long ago from this fucked up training slash one sided beat down. Benn yawned as if he woke up from a nap, which irked Luffy. Lately the boy has been growing sick and tired of his training. Sick of getting his ass thrown into the dirt and becoming concussed so often that he couldn't sleep because of the ringing in his ears.

It made him wonder if Shanks wasn't just nurturing his ego when he would say that Luffy was stronger then most in the east blue. How could he be strong when he couldn't do the 'simplest' of task right? Maybe it was some sort of conspiracy? Why not? People always seemed to enjoy messing with him.

Slowly and steadily Luffy's mood darkened. He grew more disillusioned with the passing of each day, growing to hate his training and himself more and more. Loathing the training because he felt it was getting him no where. Loathing himself because he felt as weak in the days before meeting the pirates. Time had been more simple back then. He was disliked amongst the villages population, lived alone, and his accursed birth mark would bring pain to him most days, but at least he got use to the workings of his life.

He lost the optimism he first held for the training. The little joys he gained seeped from his life, and went halfheartedly about his book studies. Taking no interest from what he read, or the stories he was told by some of the crew members. After returning from a two week voyage, Shanks was happy to see his little friend. Only he didn't. When returning to Foosha village all he saw was a boy who had fallen back into a depression.

Shanks tried to get Luffy to talk about it, but the boy rebuffed all advances made by him and Makino. It shouldn't have came as a surprise, with Luffy's independent nature and all.

Shanks desperately wanted to see the boy smile again. He would have done anything. But he was helpless. You can't keep a shark in coy pond Shanks. It was a saying his deceased captain use to tell the Yonko. It was times like this he wished for his captains advice.

In just a month the pirate would set sail and leave the village permanently. Perhaps then it would be time to get Luffy away from here. But then that would result in Garp declaring war on them, and the Red haired pirates didn't really need that at this point in time. Shanks still had to keep an eye out for Kaido.

" Shanks can I ask you something?" The captain put down his fork and swallowed the steak he was chewing.

" Whats up?"

" How come you never had a problem with me being the grandson of a Marine? Don't you hate Marine's"

Luffy watched the mans expressions become serious, something that rarely happened. " You have to understand Luffy. Not all pirates are like us. If it wasn't for the marines, piracy would be at an all time high. There would be no order and many innocent would be hurt in the crossfire. Marines keep certain order within the world. Not all marines are corrupt.

"Take you grandfather for example. During the pirate kings age, Garp kept a lot of bad people from hurting others." Luffy had no idea. Why hadn't he asked the old man before? Oh, yeah. The asshole kept throwing him into the woods, as a demented method of training him.

" I see. . ."

" What brought this up? Is this your way of telling me your going to become a Marine?"

" Hell no!" The Yonko snickered when Makino scolded Luffy for his use of bad words.

The bar went silent when the front doors were kicked of their hinges. A tall man with a goatee and scar above his eye came in with a bunch of other men wearing turbans. The pirates starred at the group of men. Why weren't they doing anything? Luffy briefly wondered. Looking at Shanks from the corner of his eye he saw the captain went back to eating his food.

" Sorry for the interruption," the goatee man who was most likely the leader, said in a mocking tone. " So these are pirates? They look like idiots." Luffy growled lowly. He was about to beat the man head in when he felt Benn's hand on his shoulder. Looking at his sensei in disbelief, the first mate just shook his head.

The leader walked to the bar with an ego that scream superiority complex like a church bell. Makino, ever the polite hostess spoke up with that welcoming look that irked Luffy at times. " Welcome," she greeted. Like always at random times, Luffy's birth mark began to burn.

" We are bandits. We're not here to destroy your bar." His men snickered and chuckled behind him. Luffy shivered when he noticed a few of them looking at him. " We need ten barrels of sake."

" I'm sorry, but were out of sake at the moment."

" How strange. The pirates are drinking something. . . Is it water?"

Everything after that it took Luffy all restraining strength to not haki up when words were exchange and the man ended up drenching Shanks in alcohol, breaking more bottles with his sword and pushing the red haired male onto the floor. Rage ripped at the boy to the point he couldn't even feel his birth mark burning. But a look from Benn told him not to act on it. The first mate motioned for him to stand behind him. Luffy grudgingly did as he was told.

" Later cowards," the bandit leader said before he left. Makino rushed to Shanks.

" Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere captain?

" I'm fine. No problem." Shanks snickered afterwards, then everybody began to laugh.

" They really got you captain!" Yelled Yasopp.

" How shameful," teased Lucky Roo.

Luffy stared at the laughing pirates dumbfounded. Were they all on something? Had the alcohol finally killed what remaining brain cells they had left? Their captain was humiliated for gods sake! Pushed over by someone way weaker than him, and yet. . .

Shanks just laughed.

He didn't care what some bandit thought of him, he didn't even knocked the bastards teeth out for splashing him with sake. Shanks had been the bigger person and chose not to be baited. Despite all his power, he wasn't quick to use it to enforce it on others. The captain was truly amazing. The respect Luffy held for him grew ten times.

Before he even realized it, he was laughing along side with the others. He didn't even notice Shanks looking at him from the corner of his eye. A look of pride in the eyes of the man he secretly thought of as his father.

As the day progress and the moon switched places with the sun in the sky, and it was time for a bath. When you hung out with pirates that drank everyday, you begin to reek of the beverages.

" Makino, can I get a towel." Luffy told the bartender. Shanks yawned.

" That time of the day already? I thought the sun was still up," said the Yonko.

" Seriously Shanks, you should ease up off the liqueur, its ruining your sense of time telling." Shanks took the towel from Makino's hands and threw it at the young laughing haki user.

" Your not funny brat," The captain yelled out as he left the bar. Luffy went deep into the forest to the small pond he discovered months ago he used for baths. It was a nice little spot that none of the animals ever visited except for the occasional bug. It was the one time of day he let his guard down to relax.

That would prove to be a horrible mistake that would stalk him for the rest of his life.

Washing out his red and black hair, Luffy paused when he heard the rustling of bushes. " Well look what we have here." The bandits from earlier had walked from the bushes, wicked dark smiles plastered onto their faces. They all surrounded him holding swords in their hands.

Oh no. This reminded Luffy of that time. Rushing out of the pond, he ignored the fact that he was naked, and let his haki begin to flow throughout his body.

" Look its the little fish who hangs with pirates!"

" Look at him. So cute," said one bandit.

" Cute. Nah, he looks edible."

" Where are your pussy pirates?"

"I think he's scared!

" Can we have fun with him boss?"

" I want first dibs!"

Higuma smiled. " Sure, why not. But as boss I get first dibs-" the fuckers sentence was cut short when Luffy punched him hard in the face. The snapping of his nose was like twig. The man cried out clutching his broken nose. Using Soru, Luffy went to the nearest bandit and kicked him upside his head. The hit sent him flying to the nearest tree.

" Get him!" Higuma ordered. They all rushed the boy. Luffy smirked and started to beat them down one by one. Quickly disarming them, and hit them with non lethal moves. When he was done with the last one, he turned his sights to the standing bandit leader. The bastard backed up in fear. Luffy was about to go at him when his birth mark shot a wave of explosive agony that made him fall to the ground.

No! No! No! He mentally cried. This couldn't be happening. This shit could not be happening!

The wounded bandits looked on in confusion, but after a minute they began smiling. Picking themselves of the ground they stepped in front of the boys prone form. Panic hit Luffy like a body shot, which escalated into horror when he body became unresponsive. He could move not even a finger. Nor could he scream.

" Whats wrong little fish? Can't move for some reason?" Mocked Higuma. His eyes looking hungrily at Luffy's naked unresponsive body. Knowing fully well what that looked entailed, in his head he was screaming.

The sound of pants dropping were like explosive in the boys heads. Squeezing his eyes shut, Luffy prayed to every deity he read about to take mercy on him and save him from what was about to happen.

As a safety measure Higuma pinned him face down on the ground with his arms twisted behind his back. Luffy cringed when the bandit used his other hand to pull violently on his hair, and used a knee to wedge Luffy's thighs apart.

Higuma pressed his naked body against the boy's, the other bandits leering at him with their cruel laughter ringing in his ears. He almost vomited when the bastard licked his ear. " We're going to have a lot of fun with you boy. Don't worry, as pretty as you are, we'll show you what it means to be around real men."

Luffy screamed without making a sound.

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