Guardian of the Sea

Chapter 4

The poll is still up. Foxfire is winning!

The next day, Naruto is seen on the decks, looking out onto the blue. He found out he had put in way to much chakra in his last attack. Still he was glad he beat that guy, no one messed with his friends…ever. After that, Kyuubi had informed him that thanks to using his chakra after Naruto's own was drained, the blond's chakra reserve tripled and it will happen each time that happens. After all, Naruto was going to the Guardian of the Sea and would need an ungodly amount of chakra to pull it off.

Nojiko smiled as she and Genzo walked up to the boy. "So, today is the day, huh?"

"Yep." Naruto replied sadly until he looked at the woman to see that she had a backpack on. "Going somewhere?"

Nojiko smiled as Genzo slapped his face. "I am leaving with you. Someone has to take care of you out on sea, or do you want to travel by yourself?"

Naruto's face cracked into a true smile. "Yeah, I would like that, but what about those awesome oranges of yours?"

"They are tangerines and the villagers will take care of them." Nojiko said. "And there is another reason I am going with you. I think we will run into my sister out there."

"Nami? She is the girl who is with the Straw Hat crew, right?" A nod. "Whelp! Sounds good to me!"

Genzo smiled. These two made quite the pair and he was sure that this brother and sister relationship they had would be something more in the future, no matter the age difference. He then blinked and asked, "So…where is your ship?"

"Oh that." Naruto said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. I kind of forgot that I built it in the middle of the Ship Graveyard. So, my clones are talking care of that."

The two looked at him with deadpanned expressions before Genzo slapped his face again. Of course, he should not be surprised with this kid. "So that is what those explosions were about."

"Heh, yep!" Naruto cheered as his ship came up to the pier with his clone shouting that they had arrived before dispelling. He blinked and said, "Wow, they really did a number on that place to get out."

"Wow! It is big and looks like it could go fast!" Nojiko said in wonder, but was confused about the toad head on the front.

Biting back a 'That's what she said' joke, he turned to Genzo and smiled. "Thanks again old man."

Genzo smirked before pulling in the blond with an arm around him. "I am going to tell you the same thing I told that straw hat kid. Don't hurt her or I will kill you."

Naruto blinked in confusion. "I am not going to hurt her. Why would I do that?"

Genzo laughed. This kid was good, but stupid like Luffy. "You'll know in time."

"Ok." Naruto shrugged before he grabbed hold of Nojiko's arm. "Come on! Adventure is waiting and so is the last of my family!"

"Wha-? Holy Crap!" Nojiko started and then screamed because they jumped high into the air and landed on the ship. She rounded on the blond and shouted, "Warn me next time!"

"Ok!" Naruto cheered as he created a small crew of Shadow Clone to get the boat going.

"Hey, Naruto, any clue where we are going?" Nojiko asked as she walked around.

"Nope! But I guess I will tour the East Blue for a bit before we head into the Grand Line."

Sighing as she held the bridge of her nose. "Ok fine, but I will be your navigator so we don't get lost."

"Thanks!" Naruto smiled. "Man, if you weren't here, I would be lost." He paused before snapping his fingers. "Oh right, they wanted me to summon them when we left. Summoning Jutsu!" The blond called out as two small toads appeared. "Kichi, Tatsu! We are on our way!"

"YAY! Now we can have fun!"

Nojiko shook her head. Naruto was very hard to figure out and it was giving her a headache. As she was going to downstairs she heard the toads cheer loudly.

"CANDY! CANDY!"

"WHAT! I don't have candy on me right now, just normal food! What is with you two and candy!"

Nojiko groaned to herself. "Oh this is going to be a long journey."

XXX

"Naruto, why did we pass that large restaurant that was literally floating on the water." asked Gamakichi.

"Eh, we can go to that place on the way back to the Grand Line. Besides, I am sure we are not missing anything important." Naruto replied.

On one of the docks of the floating restaurant, a young girl with strange rectangle purple markings on her face and a leaf head band, stood there. She was about fifteen and looked completely lost. "Just where am I and how am I even alive?" She asked no one in particular while holding an odd fruit. Sighing, she decided to go into the restaurant to get information.

XXX

"So bored." whined a bored Naruto as he draped himself over the edge of the ship, looking like his failed normal clones.

Nojiko's eyebrow twitched, this was the tenth time he said that today, and it was barely lunch time! "Why don't you train?" She asked sweetly from her position on a lawn chair.

Not picking up on the danger of that tone, Naruto replied with a comeback. "Well, I could increase the weight on these gravity seals on my body, but the jutsu I use are to destructive to use on this thing."

"Ok, what about those toads or that weird chakra hand power of yours?" ask Nojiko.

Naruto laughed nervously. "Well, other than Kichi and Tatsu, most of the other toads are big and heavy. You obviously don't like it when the three of us argue by the way you shot at us."

"Well, you guys would not stop arguing and Kichi was very rude." Nojiko said annoyed.

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Then I doubt you would want to meet Ma and Pa Toad. They argue a lot and they are old and senile."

At this, Nojiko could not help but laugh. "Oh man, you have some of the weirdest friends!" She paused for a moment. "Wait, I am your friend so that makes me weird too."

"Yep!" chirped Naruto.

"You weren't supposed to agree!" Nojiko cried before she calmed down. "Now what about that chakra hands."

Blue hands made of chakra rose up from the ground and tickled Nojiko's sides, making the girl helpless as she couldn't help but laugh. "Eh…I can use these in my Taijutsu and again, it can get destructive, but simple things like this is fun!" laughed Naruto before he turned his head and saw an island coming up and let his chakra hands disappear.

Once Nojiko recovered, she didn't know whether to bash his head in or be glad that an island was up. She would admit that what he did was fun and a good time killer but it was still embarrassing since she was still ticklish. She was just glad the idiot it was not a pervert. Shaking her head and checking the map, she said, "Seems this is place is called Gecko Island, home of Syrup Village."

"Cool! Let's check it out!" Cheered Naruto as the ship stopped at the bottom of a hill that looked like it was the site of a battle at one point. They hopped down and begun walking toward the village. Well that was until they went deeper into the forest and wooden puppets with flags popped out.

"Surrender Pirates!" sounds a child's voice. "There are 2 of you and 3000 thousand of us! You will not harm out village."

Naruto blinked stupidly before he gained a twitching eye. He crossed his arms and said, 'Wow you're a worse liar that Kakashi-sensei. I can sense the chakra of only three of you, but if you wanna fight, then let's get wild! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" That jutsu filled up the path behind him and Nojiko, the latter of the two sighing before taking out a gun.

Silence was what they met before three little kids burst out of the bushes and threw themselves on the ground. "We surrender!"

They looked up to see that Naruto was glaring at them menacingly for about a minute, making them sweat under his gaze. "Ok!" Naruto chirped with a big smile, utterly confusing the kids with his sudden mood change as all the clones disappeared.

"Huh. You are not going to hurt us and then raid the village?" A boy with green hair, a green shirt with a silly looking skull and crossbones on it, blue shorts with a lighter blue sash and black shoes asked.

The two observed the other two kids that wanted to protect their village. One was a glasses wearing kid with a yellow shirt, a blue vest and brown shorts while the other had purple hair that covered his eyes, a black hoodie, and orange shorts. They were an odd group alright.

Nojiko smiled and kneeled down and asked, "What makes you think we were going to hurt you?"

"Well," the purple haired kid began, "We saw your odd ship and thought you were pirates that were going to raid out village."

"Aw don't worry. We might be considered pirates but we just stopped here to check the place out. I was bored and wanted to see that place." Naruto said, "By the way. My name is Uzumaki D. Naruto and don't ask what the 'D' stands for because I have no clue. So, what are your name's?"

This guy is kind of like that Luffy guy. The boys thought before getting into an odd formation. "Carrot!" the purple haired boy stated. "Onion!" The glasses wearing boy said. "Pepper!" announced the purple hair boy. "And we are the Usopp Pirates!" they cheered.

"Cool!" Naruto smiled. These little kids reminded him of the Konohamaru and his gang. He would have said more if his stomach did not just rumble loudly. Scratching the back of his head, he asked, "You guys would not happen to have a restaurant here, would you?"

Nojiko couldn't help but laugh at her blond shipmate, but her stomach growled as well. "I second that I guess."

Laughing, the kids lead the way into town.

XXX

In the mansion of the small village, Merry, a strange looking man with curly white hair with curled goat horns in it and a black suit, walked into the room of his employer.

"Oh Miss Kaya! How are you to day?"

"I am great Merry." said the carefree girl. She smiled at her butler and asked. "Any new news on Usopp and his friends?"

"I am afraid not." Merry smiled sadly before it grew. "Oh I got word from one of the kids that hung around with him that there are two pirates on the island and they seem to be like Luffy's crew."

"Oh? Let's go meet them!" The happy girl suggested before running off, laughing.

"Of course miss!" laughed Merry.

XXX

"Oh this food is so good!" stated Naruto as he crowed down.

"I agree, but do we have enough money for this?" Nojiko asked.

"Oh yeah! I got plenty of money!" Naruto said, waving her off. "I went to this exchange place back in Cocoyashi and exchanged all the money my parents left me. Apparently, the money from back home is in the system and now I am rich! So…I got plenty of money!"

Nojiko smiled. "Good. And as soon as we get to a larger island, we are going shopping."

Shrugging, Naruto replied, "Fine with me." Poor idiot did not know what he was in for.

Suddenly the door to the diner they were in burst open and in came a young girl. Nojiko noticed that she had long blond hair, with a yellow striped shirt over an orangish dress and red boots. The girl looked directly at them since she knew they were not from around there. "Hello! Are you two pirates?"

Sweat dropping, Nojiko answered since Naruto's face was stuffed with food. "I wouldn't call us that, but the Marines would. I am Nojiko and the lug head stuffing his face over there is Naruto."

"Nice to meet you! I am Kaya. I live in the mansion on the hill."

"Nice, but you don't seem like a rich girl." Naruto said. "I mean, you are not stuck up like most of the rich people I have met." He paused as he put a hand to his chin. "Of course, Princess Koyuki was the exception." That got a questioning glance from Nojiko.

"Well, I guess I am like that princess." Kaya said happily.

"Cool with me." smile Naruto.

"You are so easy to please Naruto." Nojiko said with a smile.

"Hey, I am a simple person." Naruto said with a shrug. I figured that. Nojiko thought with a smile.

"Hey Kaya!" Onion chirped in. "You should see this guy's ship!"

"Yeah, it looks like he put it together using different ships." Pepper said.

"Yeah and the giant toad head is a bit weird." Carrot put his input.

"Oh it is not that bad." Nojiko said, waving off the comments as she sweat dropped at her blond captain, who was in the corner of the room, with his hand on the wall and his head down and a storm cloud over him while he kept muttering about doing his best.

"I am sure it is wonderful and I am sure Merry would not mind help in fixing it up." Kaya replied

"Really?" Naruto said, in front of the girl with stars in his eyes, scaring Nojiko a bit with his sudden mode change. "You would do that for us, I mean you barely know us."

"Oh I don't mind. Something tells me you are like Luffy and his crew." Kaya said with a smile.

"You know Luffy and his friends?" asked a shocked Nojiko.

"Yes, they saved my life from my other butler, Captian Kuro, who wanted to kill me and keep all my money."

"Wow." Nojiko said. "Uh, was an orange haired girl with them at the time?"

"Yes. Nami I think her name was."

"Great! I am her sister." The blue hair woman stated.

"That is wonderful!" Kaya cheered. "So I assume you are hoping to run into her?" getting a nod, she continued. "That is great and if you do meet up, say hi to Usopp for me."

"Sure thing." smiled Naruto. "But if you are going to be helping us with our ship, we have to repay you somehow, so sit and eat with us, my treat!"

"Are you sure?" Kaya asked

"Of course. Trust me, Naruto won't take no for an answer." Nojiko said with chuckle.

"Yeah! Let's make it a party!" Naruto announced, getting cheers from the three kids and an enthusiastic 'Yes!' from Merry.

XXX

Two days later, we find the group on the hill where they docked their boat. Merry must have had help because the ship looked better than the beat up patch work ship that Naruto created.

Merry had smoothed out the sides where Naruto had patched together parts of the ship. It was then painted red like Gamakichi with the edges a yellow color like Gamatatsu. The toad head was more refined and it had half of Kichi's face and the other half was Tatsu's. On the large mast was a picture of their new jolly roger. A large skull with the Konoha symbol embedded into the forehead, with the crossbones made out of clouds and lightning coming out and striking the mouth of the skull. Their flag was about the same.

"From what you told me of your battle with the pirate named Oolong and a bit of your past, I was able to come up with a good Jolly Roger for you. I have a feeling people will be calling your crew the Storm Pirates." Merry said with a smile.

Naruto put on a true smile. "Thanks Merry. I really appreciate you and Kaya helping us."

"Oh it is no problem Mr. Uzumaki." Merry said, though he wondered why Naruto acted like this. The boy was overly grateful and too nice. He did ask Nojiko about the boy, but she said he didn't say much about his past other than being the container to the fabled Kyuubi.

"Wow, this looks why better than before." smirked Nojiko before turning to see that Naruto had a gloom cloud over his head. "Oh but you did a good job with what little skill you had in making ships, Naruto."

The blond's mood shifted again as he smiled brightly at the girl. "Thanks Nojiko-chan! Well we better go but I think Kichi and Tatsu should see this. Summon Jutsu!" The two toads appeared in front of the blond, waving in good nature.

"I will never get used to something like that." Merry said.

"Well, I think they are cute!" Kaya said, coming up behind the butler.

"Aw thanks pretty lady." Tatsu said, "Do you have any candy?"

Kaya smile sweetly before she produced a small bag of candy. "Now share you two."

"Well that was nice." Nojiko said.

"Yep," replied Naruto. "Hey you two. The reason I summoned you two was to see the new state of the ship."

The two toads leaned in and looked past the blond to see how different the ship had become. "Wow boss, it looks awesome!" Kichi said with a smile.

"Yep." Naruto said as he then turned to Kaya and Merry. "You know, you are welcome come join us."

Kaya gained a shocked look before she smiled and said, "I am sorry, but my place is here and the kids have their own dreams."

Naruto laughed, "Well, it was worth the try." He turned to Nojiko and asked, "Are you ready to go?"

"Yep, so where are we heading now?"

"Well, since we came out this far, we might as well head to the Grand Line. I figured my family would not be out here, but there. And I wanna check out that Floating Restaurant."

Laughing, Nojiko shook her head. "Well I should have expected that." She jumped high into the boat with Naruto smiling broadly at her with a small blush.

"I am glad I taught her how to jump to the boat without me helping her." Naruto replied before he caught himself looking at her ass and some of her panties. NO! Bad Naruto! BAD! Turning back to Kaya and Merry, he smiled and said, "Again, thanks for everything."

"Oh it is no problem." Kaya said, waving him off before he did a backflip jump onto ship. "Just remember to say hi to Usopp for me!"

"Will do!" Naruto shouted as the ship pulled away.

XXX

Naruto sighed as he manned the wheel of the ship. "How did I get stuck doing this?" He asked himself. Oh that's right. Nojiko was feeling tired, so she told him to keep the boat in a straight line until they got to the restaurant.

That had been a few hours ago, and he had finally noticed that his ship was now faster than before now that it was more aerodynamic.

Anyway, the pure boredom of watching endless sea was getting to him and he felt his eyes drooping until they closed. But that was just for a few seconds because suddenly, they made a crash stop. Blinking in confusion, the blond walked to the front of the ship to see an oddly shaped island in front of him. "Ok…that was not there before."

"Ugh, what is going on now?" Nojiko asked from the back of the ship, where she came out from below. "I swear, I leave you alone for a few hours and this happens." She said when she noticed the island.

Sweating under her gaze, Naruto made up an excuse….which was in fact true. "Um, this place just appeared out of nowhere. I didn't have time to stop correctly or move around it."

Nojiko eyed him for a few second before sighing and turning around to get her maps from inside the ship. "HOLY CRAP!" She shouted a few minutes later, making Naruto rush to her to see what was wrong, but it seemed she was heading to him and they crashed.

"Ow…" Naruto said as he held his head and picked himself off the floor. Helping his blue haired crewmate up, he asked, 'So what was that about?"

"We are on Bat Island!" She shouted.

"So." Naruto said, not understanding the problem.

"This is an island that only appears every few centuries and the World Government has it out for this place." Nojiko frantically said.

"Ok, why?" Naruto said as he jumped onto the island, making the girl jump after him.

"Well, apparently, there someone that is really old on this island that can tell people about the past and the fabled Void Century and they don't want that."

"Huh? Well that is stupid." Naruto commented, "Must be something sketchy." Naruto mused.

"Right, so they come here every time this place appears and they try and get rid of that person. Now we need to get off this island!" Nojiko cried, trying to get her captain back on the ship.

"It is a bit late for that." A voice said from on the far end of the small bat shaped island. They saw a person on a small old looking house. She had platinum blond hair, blue eyes, a strange looking yellow police uniform that they had never seen before that was short sleeved, and it looked likeit barely held in her breasts. Though, the sleeves were different as one was gray and the other was red. The uniform ended in at her thighs in a skirt like way. She had white gloves on her hands and thigh high whitish boots. To top off the weird looking rifle that was way taller than her and she was holding it up like it was nothing!

"The marines are coming here, pirates, so you better choose a side." The girl said.

That is when they saw the marine ships on the horizon and there could be at least fifty or more of them. Nojiko scream in horror while Naruto blinked at them in confusion before his eyes grew dangerous. It was not her fault that this woman has lived for so long, so thees guys should just leave her alone. She is not doing anything to them! "Fine, I am on your side Miss. I am Naruto D. Uzumaki by the way."

The girl on the roof had wide eyes at the mention of the 'D' intital but shook it off. Obviously this kid did not know the meaning of it and it seemed he seemed to sympathize with her on some level. "Victoria Seras. Are you ready to kick some ass Naruto?"

"Hell yeah!" Naruto cheered.

"Oh you two are nuts!" Nojiko cried.

"Relax Nojiko-chan, I wouldn't let anything happen to you and besides, you have water jutsu on your side." Naruto promised. The blue haired woman seemed to calm down just a little bit, but was still nervous.

Seras saw this and figured that the boy must have a calming affect about him because she had calmed down a bit as well. She cut her eyes to the ships that were coming their way. "Let's do this!"

XXX

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