Chapter 8- Orange Town! Meeting Nami!

As Luffy and Zoro sat in the small boat they had 'stolen' from the marines, slowly sailing straight in the direction of wherever, Zoro heard a peculiar rumbling.. His hand was instantly on his katana, while Luffy watched the swordsman, amused at his level of alertness even on the 'weakest' sea. The rumbling came again, and Zoro focused on where it was coming from... Luffy's stomach.

"What?" Luffy protested, "I'm hungry!" Zoro relaxed again, the mystery solved, as he returned to his 'meditative state' and began snoring. Luffy glanced at him cynically.

"Oi, I'm meditating!" Zoro said. Luffy smirked disparagingly.

"Oh, I never knew you were meant to snore during meditation. All this time, I've been doing it wrong!"

Zoro grunted but the taunting didn't stop him from relaxing back into the boat.

"Ne, Zoro." The swordsman glanced up to where the rubberman was deep in thought.

"My next entrance. Should I go for style, or stealth?" Luffy asked. The marimo also pondered for a second, eventually deciding.

"Style at the moment. You're not well known enough to not want to gain more infamy. Why do you ask?

Luffy, however, did not answer him. He did yell one thing:

"Gum Gum ROCKET!" The straw-hatted pirate disappeared into the air, and Zoro heard a faint "WHOOOO!" as the Rubber Idiot dodged the angry beak of a very large bird, and mounted it like it was a horse. "Giddyup, now, birdie!

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Back in Shells Town

"Sir, we've found Captain Morgan! He's tied up over here." The commanding marine in the 'support group' looked over.

"Was there a note like the den-den mushi said?" The nameless mook who had informed the lieutenant of Morgan's whereabouts nodded and handed him a piece of paper, scribbled on in the handwriting of a child

"This guy was being mean to the civilians and he was going to execute my first mate, so I took him down a peg! Speaking of any pegs, his jaw might be missing a few. His son shot me in the head, so I pegged him one too! Silly Peggar!
If anyone abuses privileges, they should have to peg for forgiveness.
Signed,
Monkey D. Luffy (Not really that into pegs)"

The marine finished reading the note and all present groaned in relief as the terrible puns stopped. Another marine ran up and handed him another piece of paper.

"Sir, we took the statement of the civilians and local marines and it seems that Captain Morgan has been seriously abusing his power as base commander. There is a girl who is seriously injured from a marine being forced to throw her over a wall, and countless people have been executed on a whim! He also spent the island's citizen welfare budget on building a huge statue of himself, that's the lumps of rock that are everywhere. Apparently the pirate who left the note smashed it."
The marine lieutenant looked amused.

"Are you sure it's a pirate? He's acting more and more like a marine."

A pink-haired recruit spoke up. "If I may, sir, he rescued me from slavery on a pirate ship and brought me to this island to train as a marine! It was very clear he was a pirate though."
The lieutenant glared at the recruit for breaking protocol but nodded in response to his contribution.

"We'll be taking Morgan away now. He has earned some time in a military prison, and Helmeppo will be taken into care by the marine base. Enjoy your time in control of the base, Commander Ripper. Make it count."

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Luffy gasped as his birdy-ride was targeted by a cannon, and he quickly swung around the bird's neck, using his momentum to swing the bird out of the way and put him in the position where he could reach the incoming cannonball, which he kicked down into the pavement way below him. He grinned as he saw the 3 men chasing Nami stumble to a halt just before the cannonball smashed into the ground just in front of them.

He calmly dropped to the ground in the wake of the confusion. He noted that Nami had disappeared without taking the chance to drop him in it this time. He assumed that she had thought the cannonball was an accident, and not the herald of the Strawhat. As the smoke from the cannonball cleared, the three men saw a dark silhouette. It was in a crouch with its hand on the ground. The straw hat upon its head put its face in shadow but underneath it the men could see two orange-red glowing points of light just where the eyes should be. As the figure slowly raised itself to the same height as the men, a terrifyingly powerful aura burning into their souls, they baulked and ran back to their captain, screaming like babies who had just seen a demon. Which, of course, they thought they had. Nami prepared to scream as the dark figure turned around to face where she was hiding. But as the smoke cleared, she saw a young man with his finger and thumb underneath his eyes. The man clicked his fingers and the fire that danced malevolently at their tips, just next to his eyes went out like a light, leaving two perfectly normal eyes that glinted with harmless mischief and crinkled as he smiled gently at Nami.

"Don't worry, they're gone." Luffy remembered the first time he'd tried that trick. He'd learnt at Fishman island that combining Gear Second with Haki caused fire, but he'd never used it in that small of an area, until he'd thought of an awesome prank to do to Shanks. It was similar to what he'd just done, but instead of using the smoke from an explosive cannonball, he'd merely hid in the shade of the jungle. Needless to say it had procured the desired reaction from the calm but surprisingly easily startled Captain, just as it had from the men he'd just scarred forever, and especially Nami. Everything Luffy was trying to do here required the utmost precision, as he tried to acquire the trust of Nami without seeming manipulative. He'd scared her with the 'demon' persona and then shown he was harmless, which should mean her relief would cause her to trust him more.

"Anyway, hi! I'm Luffy. Good to meet you, Nami."

The orange-haired pirate thief gasped and stepped back. Her eyes widened and she asked Luffy the question he knew would come.

"How do you know my name? And how dd you do the fire trick back there? Is that some kind of Devil Fruit?" Luffy laughed at Nami's instant assumption. There was a reason she was one of the smartest people to ever be born in East Blue. Luffy knew. He'd done his research.
"That's correct, at least indirectly. It's a result of my Devil Fruit that I can do that, but the Fruit I ate is the Gum Gum Fruit, which turned my body to rubber," Luffy explained, grabbing a pole near Nami with his stretching powers and snapping his body near her.

"Let's have a civilised conversation instead of shouting where Buggy can hear us, eh?" Nami nodded, appreciating the logic of the admittedly charming of course didn't know it took years of classes in being charismatic with Makino to get him to the point where he could willingly 'switch on' his natural charisma.
"Tell you what, come in here, I'll treat you" Luffy nodded gratefully.

"I've just flown over here on a giant bird, I could do with a sit down I suppose. Is this your house?" Nami shook her head.

"The owner was sadly killed by Buggy. Which gets me back to the main question, how do you know my name?" Luffy nodded, glad she'd got back to his most convincing argument.

"I've got sources. See, currently I've been searching for you. You have some information that I'd like to know." Luffy caught a glimpse of Zoro through the open door in the corner of his eye, and waved his hand indicating for him to leave.

"What information?" Nami questioned, wondering what she could possibly have that would interest this powerful stranger.

"I'm currently planning an attack on a pirate from the Grand Line, currently a class C pirate by my ranking, who goes by the name of Arlong." Nami's reaction, as Luffy had known it would be, was one of abject shock and terror. Nobody could take down Arlong, she thought. The only thing she could do was buy her village back from him. But this guy talked about it as a daily chore. Who was this guy?

"Are you some kind of bounty hunter?" Nami asked the stranger, knowing that if she handled this wrong he'd get himself killed. And as strange as it was, she didn't want that.

"Actually, no. I'm a pirate." Luffy replied, but continued talking soothingly, making sure Nami didn't register that fact separately to the rest of what he had to say. "However, I think of myself as class A, unlike the pirates you must be used to."

Frowning, Nami asked, "You said you ranked Arlong as a class C. What are the 'class' things?"

Luffy nodded and explained. "The system is how I rank people on how they care for their friends and others. It goes from Class A- caring about everyone, especially nakama, to Class D- expecting your crew to die for you and using them as tools. Arlong is C- he cares about his crew but no-one else. He's taken over whole villages, especially the home of someone I want to join my crew, and I'm going to hunt him down."

Nami, who had been nodding along to his ideas, slowly realising that her view of pirates was a very narrow one indeed, snapped her eyes open when he mentioned joining him. She felt attracted to the idea, but she didn't want to leave her village in the lurch.

"Sorry, Strawhat, I've got other commitments. Maybe another time? I have to warn you not to try and fight Arlong. I nearly have enough money to buy back my village, and I couldn't handle it if it was interrupted. He'd find a way to say it didn't count as me paying if you helped." Nami was saddened by the idea of turning down this man, but she didn't even know his name. Not that she wanted to, that would make it harder to force him to leave.

"A temporary alliance it is, then. You become my navigator for a while, in return I'll help you with Red-nose-" Somewhere in the town a certain clown pirate felt the urge to kill someone, "-and Arlong if he double-crosses you. By the way, good to meet you. The name's Monkey D. Luffy, Future Pirate King." Luffy seemed so confident and self-assured that Nami began to question her early doubts. The man seemed to be able to read her mind, especially since he came up with a plan that erased them straight away. As Nami began to smile with hope for the first time in years, Luffy grinned too. "Yosh! I've got a plan. You tie me up, take me to Buggy, pretend to join his crew, and then I'll break his face."

Frowning, Nami wondered what the purpose of the first three points was, but she was quickly informed by the strange pirate that it would be "so much more awesome." Luffy quickly informed her how to tie him up so he could easily escape. "Hope I can still do it, I'm a little ropey. Basically, put this knot here, and put my hand on the bit that sticks out. Now I can do this," Luffy jerked his wrist to the right, and the ropes fell clean off.

Nami whistled, impressed. As she picked up the ropes and began to tie Luffy's hands as he had shown him, she prepared herself to fully trust this random stranger. "Do you actually want me on your crew? You'd better not be stringing me along."

"I can't. You've got the ropes!" Luffy grinned. "Don't worry Nami, I need a navigator and there's nobody better than you to do it."

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As Nami roughy shoved a tied-up Luffy to his knees in front of Buggy the Clown, she smirked.

"The thief? What are you doing back here? Do you want to die?"

Nami grinned and gestured at Luffy.

"My boss and I had a... falling out. I decided to join you instead. Here's your map back." Nami handed the map of the Grand Line to the clown and Buggy grinned as his men placed Luffy in a cage that seemed to be unbreakable. The clown grinned and started a party. Luffy grinned at how much the clown pirate was similar but different to his mentor.

"Oi, Buggy!" Luffy called out to get the attention of the clown in order to distract him from the green-haired swordsman sneaking up behind him. Buggy turned and scowled at Nami's captain.

"What do you want, reject boss?" The clown laughed and hi-fived Nami at his 'incredible' insulting skills. Luffy nodded at her questioning glance. He whispered to the orange-haired thief,

"Don't worry, I don't think he knows. If we watch where we tread, in a second I'll get loose and we can make a start- No… wait"

It was at this moment that Buggy the Clown interrupted them furiously.

"WHOSE NOSE IS RED AND JUICY LIKE A TOMATO?"

To infuriate Buggy even further, Luffy elaborated on the red-nose joke, with his own little ditty.

"Chopper the blue-nosed reindeer,
Had a nose so very blue,
Oh well, it isn't too bad,
'Cos red would suck much more, it's true!"

Before Buggy could even get angry, Luffy continued with the next round of his 'annoy-Buggy' material.

"You remind me of the guy who gave me this hat. His name was Shanks and he trained me for 10 years. Do you know him? See, he mentioned a red-nosed idiot clown who thought he was flashy." Luffy grinned and Buggy, infuriated, ordered his men to fire a Buggy Ball at the town, to demonstrate his power. Then, he asked Nami to do the honours of shooting her newly-acquired captain with the same ammunition. Strangely, he had not thought of how close Luffy's cage was to his base when he tried to blow it up. Either way, Zoro to the rescue! The marimo sliced up Buggy into salami, and was promptly stabbed, like an idiot, in the back.

"What a chump" Buggy cackled horribly. "Never lower your guard."

"What the HELL red nose?! You should be decorating a pizza by now. What with the tomato nose and the thinly sliceable body, anyhow. Come over here, and I'll crush you into purée!" While Zoro lay on the floor bleeding to death, Luffy muttered the name of his next technique.

"Kami-e." Suddenly, he was standing outside of the cage, terrifying everyone who watched. Luffy reached out, grabbed Buggy by the neck and told him:

"You shot at the bird I was riding to the town. That bird was fun, and I was having fun. Now I'm not. However, I'm glad you brought me back to earth. You like it flashy do you?" The rubber pirate tossed Buggy into the air. He pulled out a small knife, and forced the clown to separate his body by slashing him with it. Luffy threw the parts he'd caught hold of to Nami who was ready with the ropes Luffy had been wearing until very recently. She bundled up the spare parts of Buggy and Luffy leaped up into the air to take care of the rest of it. The rubber pirate grappled with the clown in midair before ending up on top and slamming Buggy to the floor, so hard that he bounced high enough to be caught by Luffy's Gum Gum Bazooka as the Strawhat returned to the ground, and what remained of Buggy was blasted off into the distance.

"CURSE YOU STRAW HAT BASTARD! I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!" The rednose screamed as he disappeared into the sky.

A/N: According to Luffy's letter, he's quite the peggy Sue. I need to write the next chapter quickly because I might not be here on Sunday- and then until the next week. If there's wifi at the place I'm going to then I will try to get atleast 1 chapter out next week but sadly I can't guarantee anything. Since I'm staying at some posh school there is a good chance that will be blocked. Either way, production is going to slow down dramatically next week, but I may be able to get a chapter out every day the week after next week depending on whether I work my beta to death or not (We all love ya, bluhbluh). There will be a lot more chapterwise that week.

Johnny Spectre: Your idea works on so many levels that you cannot imagine :D Hope you don't mind but I'm stealing it :P. Luffy paid attention to what Garp did because he knew it would help him more this time around. The time difference thing coming into effect with Rika. Probable more drastic events in the future.

Mr Indigo: Is that a reprimand? A statement? An instruction? Hopefully you like what I put in this chapter from our conversation earlier. I only want to hint it because I don't really want them it in the story :P

Ash: Spoilers are so funny when you know the story and they don't :P. Obviously I don't know most of the story; I have a basic list of ideas, but the 'main storyline' hardly exists. I basically write hints to what it could be, and then work out what it is judging by those hints :P

Dark :Thanks for the review, I like puns too (as you may be able to tell)

Mojtaba13: Sorry I'm not awesome enought :( I answered the Shanks thing in the AN for an earlier chapter. What is on Raftel hasn't been revealed yet, and the World Tree is just an idea I had for part of Raftel. It would be incredibly powerful, as you can see with [REDACTED] in the recent arcs. And they're just zoans. It hasn't been revealed yet, so I get free reign (or rein, never knew which one of those it was, and they both make sense).

Until whenever I next post. (HOPEFULLY SOON *CROSSES FINGERS*