A / N : new chapter yay! So hopefully you guys are liking this! Please review if you are enjoying the story!

Luffy watched with a grin as Zoro cut the two bombs that flew in their direction. Nami, on the other hand, could not follow Zoro's speed with her eyes, and she squeezed them shut; expecting the worst.

"Nice, Zoro," Luffy said with a cheeky tone. He was starting to be able to sense auras with his Observation Haki again, although it was still quite weak.

"Who are you?" Nami asked, still recovering from her near-death experience. She looked at the two men in front of her. The taller one had green hair and his face was sharp and frightening, although, she would never admit that out loud.

"This is Zoro," Luffy said coolly before their attention was turned towards the laughing clown. Buggy stood a few feet away from the three of them, his cold and harsh laugh ruptured through the thick air. Clearly, he found something amusing.

"I'll just have to kill all three of you then," Buggy stated without remorse as he held his hand out, ordering his men to attack. Close to a hundred men appeared from inside the darkness of the room, and more dropped in from the roof - they all began charging towards Luffy and Zoro, intent on killing them. Zoro glanced at Luffy, who only shook his head - his Conquerors Haki hadn't returned yet, which meant they would have to beat all of these grunts by hand. Besides, his Conquerors Haki would probably end up knocking Buggy out too - and where's the fun in that? Luffy watched Nami back up from the corner of his eye, and when he was sure she would be safe he launched his fists into the incoming attackers.

"Gomu-Gomu No Gattling Gun!"

His attacks easily defeated a third of their enemies, and he knew Zoro's would be doing the same. So he moved towards Buggy, remembering how evil the man used to be before he became a downright pussy. He watched as Buggy seemed a little caught off guard by his strength, but the clown quickly recovered and launched some mini-bombs in Luffy's direction. The Straw-Hat captain easily evaded them and landed a punch to the side of Buggy's cheek. He was about to go all-out when he remembered Nami was watching. He didn't want to scare her with his overpowering strength, and so the teen decided he would go easy on his fighting for the time being - let Buggy perhaps land a few hits on him, as well as his other enemies, just until he got to know Nami a bit better and she started to trust them again. Otherwise, she might think they are bigger freaks than she did the first time she met them.

As he pondered these things, he let Buggy slit his chest with a small dagger. It didn't really hurt, but it made him flinch. He dodged another blow from the same dagger and used his leg to sock Buggy in the face. The clown fell backwards, his face contorting in a red-hot rage as he realized he was being embarrassed in front of his men - but then again, most of them had been knocked unconscious by now. Luffy checked behind him once more, making sure that Nami was still safe, which she was - watching in awe as Zoro and himself were easily defeating both their opponents.

"Who are you?" Buggy growled as he wiped the blood off of his ugly face.

Luffy evaded another couple of mini-bombs and he sped in front of Buggy, reaching his arm behind before letting it swing back and knock Buggy directly in his red nose.

"I'm Monkey. D. Luffy," Luffy spoke with confidence as the clown flew back a couple meters before crashing into the wall behind him and crumpling to the ground. "The man who will become the Pirate King."

After waiting for a moment to be sure that the clown was defeated, Luffy turned to watch Zoro slice Cabaji's stomach, the long-haired man fell to the ground with blood seeping through his shirt. He swung around again to watch Nami's shocked face, she couldn't believe these two men had so easily defeated Buggy The Clown and his crew members. She took another look at the teen who had named himself 'Luffy.' The boy was thin and quite short but he had a strange aura around him; something scary and strong. His friend, Zoro, was taller and more muscular but seemed like he was a bit dumb from the short conversations that she overheard.

"Good work, Zoro," Luffy spoke calmly with a grin. "Now it's time to get out of here."

Zoro sheathed his swords and reached behind to take his bandanna off. The two men moved towards the exit of the ship, and Nami's mind went into overdrive. The two of them were obviously crazy-strong, and if she wanted to make it to the next few islands without any trouble it would be handy to have them on her side. Thinking quickly, she stood up and raced over.

"Hey you two," she commented loudly. "I have a proposition for you two. If you let me join your crew, I'll be your navigator and make sure you two get to the next islands safe."

Luffy reached behind and pulled his hat, resting it on top of his head. "Welcome to the crew, Nami," he stated without even looking towards Zoro, who pulled him away.

"Luffy stop being so strange, we at least need to pretend we're thinking this over," he spoke; saying something smart for once. They stood there for a moment, pretending to talk with each other before they turned back around to face their new orange-haired navigator.

"Deal," Luffy said with more confidence. Nami smiled and sighed in relief, these two were a sure-fire way for her to get what she needed. The two of them began walking out of the ship and Nami was close in pursuit.

"How long until the next island?" Luffy asked, swinging in front of Nami and grinning widely. He was super happy to have his navigator back, and this time he will not lose her.

"Probably a day," Nami replied with a quick look down to her Log Pose. Luffy was looking forward to the next island, seeing Usopp again was going to be really fun; and they would get to see Merry again too after all this row-boat was getting a bit cramped.

"Luffy we gotta talk," Zoro said from across the boat.

The raven-haired teen nodded at Nami and scooted over towards his first mate.

"Has your strength returned yet?" he asked in a low voice so that Nami would not hear. "It's taking longer than I expected."

"Not yet," the captain responded. "It is returning slowly though. Maybe it's for the best too, after all, we don't want to freak anyone out with our strength. Plus, there weren't any enemies we ran into in East Blue that I would need my full strength for."

Zoro nodded, his captain was right. The worst enemies they fought he didn't even need to use all three swords for, probably. Although he was concerned about the shitty cook - though he would never admit it. What was he doing? He wouldn't tell anyone, right?

Usopp stood at the edge of his island, looking out at the sea. His father was out there somewhere… and one day he would see him again - one day soon. There was something about the sea, it was just so big and wide and endless - as if it was calling him to sail.

"Captain!"

Usopp turned to see his crew members as they panted in front of him.

"Pirates!"

"Pirates are here, captain!"

Usopp's mouth dropped and he stood up in a rush - almost falling over his own feet. "What? Are you serious?" he yelled. "Positions everyone!" He continued, his voice turning into one with gusto and confidence. The three boys next to him stumbled around as they rushed to lead their captain to the North Shore, where they had seen the small row boat of pirates.