Chapter 9
Suna wani to chisana niwa
Having arrived back at the base in Alabasta, Naruto and Robin entered the giant casino, Rain Dinners. The building had been their base ever since Crocodile started to stay in Alabasta on a longer basis.
After the man became this country's 'hero', he decided to publicly live somewhere slightly more open. But since he was the kind of guy who wouldn't even think to live in anything even similar to a normal house. Personally Naruto thought that if the man acted anymore vane than he already did… well let's just say he'd be hard pressed to keep his snide remarks to himself.
So Crocodile had a casino built in the middle of a small city in Alabasta. It was thanks to the casino that the city had flourished and more people had come to see Crocodile as their hero. 'Without even knowing what the guy is planning.' Naruto thought absently.
Naruto and Robin were escorted through the casino to the entrance of one of the VIP rooms and they followed the man through the hallway until they reached a door at the end. The door had a golden name plate with Crocodile written on it. Their escort opened the door after knocking on it politely and announced that 'sir Crocodile', as they called him, had visitors. After the man got a short reply he waved them in and closed the door behind them.
Naruto and Robin stood atop the staircase patiently waiting for a signal to tell them otherwise. Really Naruto did always find it a bit bothersome to have to act subservient. Doing so is pretty much considered a requirement when one participates in something called an alliance. Especially when your party isn't exactly what one would call the more 'powerful' one.
Naruto took a moment to inspect the room. As usual the room was luxuriously decorated and quite spacious as well. Comically enough the walls were made of alabaster stone. They were decorated across with jewels, portraits and chandeliers.
At the heart of the room a very long rectangle table had been placed. A table fit for kings was probably what Crocodile would say. Not that Naruto really cared. Of course the man in particular was sitting at the head of that same table at that very moment.
"Soo, Miss All Sunday and her fox are visiting me, I feel honored!" The man chuckled in a highly sarcastic matter of fact tone. Now usually Naruto would lash out verbally at being compared to an animal and being called something similar to a lap dog! But when they compared him to the right animal without knowing about his 'condition' he didn't mind it as much. It actually made the situation slightly humorous in his eyes. Besides he knew Robin didn't see him as such. As such he acted as was required of him, well mostly.
"Mister Crocodile, I have returned from my mission." He bowed deeply despite his disgust at having to do so, he swallowed his pride though and did anything necessary for them to survive. Crocodile barely acknowledged him as he ordered. "Report!" Naruto nodded, "Mister 12 has been captured by the marines and revealed nothing, I observed as the billions tried to kill him to assure a free spot in the ranks. They didn't succeed, the marines took him out of range for further interrogation." Before he could continue Crocodile took a puff on his cigarette and asked a question. "You did put an end to that right?" It was more of a threat, that he'd better have done so, nonetheless Naruto answered it. "Yes sir."
Crocodile turned to Robin, "Miss All Sunday, it will almost be time for mission Utopia to be put into action so I suggest you get prepared." She nodded and turned to leave before the man continued. "I have another announcement." She turned back to look at the smoking man once more while Naruto continued to look as he'd been doing before. "A week ago I sent a mission for Mister 3 to complete, but he has failed to report and broke one of our rules." 'while on a mission always keep contact within the span of a week or risk being assassinated to keep the chances of secrets being exposed minimized! That idiot!' Naruto thought.
He didn't particularly like Mister 3, what he had seen of the guy was pure arrogance. But he still didn't like the prospect of death all that much either, especially if he was going to be the one delivering it.
"As such he is to be observed and if the situation requests so will be assassinated. I will be having one of the unluckies; Mister Black go. You are to go to Little Garden where he was last seen by one of the other unluckies and observe. You are to inquire him about his mission and take actions appropriate for it. Any other situations are your call." Naruto had to smile slightly at this. The man's orders pretty much left him the freedom to act as he pleased. Though it quickly receded to a frown as he realized something else. "What about Miss All Sunday?"
Crocodile let his loud laugh harmonize through the room until it receded into chuckles. "Yes, I had thought you would be worried about your owner." He said with a belittling edge to his voice. "I'm sure you'd rather be there to guard her but she is needed here from Mission Utopia. I suggest you finish up quickly and return here in time for your part of the plan. Whatever you are going to do makes sure you return here within two weeks. I will allow no contact but if you do not return within that time you know the consequences!" He let it hang for a bit before continuing, "so I don't suggest doing so, now I am busy the both of you are dismissed."
Naruto and Robin left the room quickly and walked out of the casino in small steps, neither of them really pleased at having to be separated again. They had hardly been apart in their years together, with the exceptions of a couple of days during several missions that had been given by some of their previous bosses. But never for quite this long, these particular amounts of time had only appeared since they made an alliance with Crocodile.
"So Ro, I guess we'll be splitting up for a while." Naruto said quite calmly and smiled reassuringly. But he knew she had noticed it wasn't his usual happy smile. "Naruto don't worry, we've both managed to get this far and you have to admit it wasn't only you doing the work." Robin grinned cheekily at her partner in crime. He nodded and sighed before giving he a real smile and giving her a small nudge. What she said was true, Robin had saved him several times from dangerous situations before. She had really learned how to use her powers and if the need arises her charms helped. Though he would never let her go too far with the latter.
"Yeah I know, so I guess I'll be seeing you in a maximum of two weeks." He gave her a short hug and another serious smile. She smiled back at him and nodded, "yeah Naruto, I'll see you soon and then we'll be one step closer to our dream." This time it was his turn to nod before he turned away and left.
After a couple of hours walking Naruto finally reached the edge of Alabasta facing the sea. After making sure nobody was watching him he jumped onto the water leaving for the island called Little Garden.
It was hours of running later that Naruto had finally had enough; he didn't really mind running all that much but when it was for hours on end with no sign of an island? It just started piss him off really. He checked his eternal pose for Little Garden and saw it was still pointing in the direction had been running all this time. He stared in the same direction for a few moments thinking of ways to make this more interesting.
Suddenly he had an idea! Well not too sudden, he had been thinking about it after all. He sat down for a moment and grabbed into his pouch getting out a bandana scarf. Together with the eternal pose he threw it in the air before quickly transforming into his elegant fox half. After having fully changed his form he caught the bandana and pose with his mouth. He wiggled his head through the bandana until it was properly in placed around his neck then he shoved the pose into it.
As a fox he hadn't changed all that much but as his human half grew his fox half also seemed to do so. He was much bigger than a normal fox, he reached about the size of a wolf. Other than his size only one thing had changed over the years and that was his tail or rather tails. He used to only have one like a normal fox but over the years they had increased to three tails. After the first extra one appeared he had freaked out but when the third had come both Robin and him thought it had to do with him growing either older or stronger. The last twenty years had allowed for quite some experience in the field to be gained.
Because his clothes and most of his luggage mysteriously disappear when he is a fox he learned quickly that to avoid losing the stuff he needed when transforming they had to not be touching him while doing so. Since he was on the ocean right now the sky was pretty the only place he could put it, if only temporarily.
The bandana itself was red in color and slightly checkered with a square line that went along the sides of the entire scarf. The line was a lighter shade of red, in the same shade as the line was a small nine-tailed fox engraved on the corner. The nine-tailed fox was positioned exactly so it was seen on the corner of the bandana as Naruto wore it slightly to the side of his neck.
'This should make my journey a bit more interesting!' He thought, the world always seemed more interesting to watch when he saw it through a fox's eyes. His senses were enhanced and people always seemed to think less of a fox. It made observations and such easier and quite a bit funnier to do.
And so he continued his journey onwards to little garden.
After running for another couple of hours, much to his displeasure, he finally reached an island. He checked the eternal pose and saw it was pointing towards the island. 'I guess that's finally Little Garden then!' He ran to the beach and jumped onto the sand. Without a care in the world he lay down and stretched out in the sun. There was hardly a reason not to enjoy the moment after all. He stretched his paws in front of him, laying there for a moment enjoying the sun and the smell of the forest.
After a couple of minutes enjoying his surroundings he heard a loud sound in the distance. Immediately he stood up and took an alert position, but soon realized the sound came from faraway. 'What kind of thing makes that kind of a sound?!' He though slightly bewildered though mostly excited.
He ran towards the forest and in one jump reached a high tree branch, he jumped from tree branch to tree branch picking up in speed as he moved. He was making sure he didn't miss anything on the way. "Gegyagyagyagya!" He heard in the distance and he froze up, his mind blanked for a moment and he slipped of the tree branch he'd landed on. Landing quite harshly on the ground he actually ignored the entire accident and stood up immediately.
That laugh sounded oddly familiar to a certain giants laugh!
He ran in between the trees no longer paying any attention to anything else around him, he sped through them and came to a clearing in less than a couple of seconds. He stopped at the clearing because in front of him was a giant sitting there eating a... A small piece of meat? 'Why the hell is Luffy eating the giant chunk of meat while the giant is eating a piece of meat the size of his fingertip?!' Naruto thought incredulously as he watched Luffy sitting next to the giant. 'Oh yeah. They'd chosen the route to Little Garden, I'd forgotten that little fact.' He watched Vivi and Luffy sit next to the giant.
"GEGYAGYAGYAGYA, your pirate lunchbox is also very good, though a bit small!" The giant laughed, 'so that's why their portions are switched.' Naruto continued watching the giant and Luffy talking and pretty much started rolling around in laughter when Luffy told the giant that if he hadn't liked the lunchbox he would have kicked his ass. Seriously who'd threaten a giant about meat!
Of course this didn't go unnoticed as Vivi turned around and saw him but he was too busy laughing to notice. After a couple of minutes of listening to the two telling each other ridiculous things Naruto finally calmed down but it was a bit late when he felt himself being pulled into an embrace.
"Aaah, how cute! But what's a fox doing here, I don't think there were any in the prehistoric." Although Naruto didn't show it on the outside he was panicking on the inside, touch was something he had associated with danger over the years. Really only Robin ever touched him and that wasn't usually more than a hug on occasions. "And look he has three tails!" at that Naruto froze, he had long learned that anyone who knew what a fox with more tails than one meant was trouble. Naruto was a nine-tailed fox, he'd learned that from jiji in his old village after he'd told him who his mother was, in the beginning he didn't really know the difference. He only had one tail so was the difference? But after the tails started to increase he realized he was also getting stronger. He was also pretty sure that his fox side had something to do with the poneglyphs so he'd learned over the years that anyone who knew what kind of fox he was spelled trouble.
The fact that the fox froze hadn't gone unnoticed by Vivi. Before she could say anything else though Naruto disappeared in smoke and he appeared a couple of meter away from her in a defensive position. In his place was wooden log.
Naruto had learned several jutsu's over the years, most of them were from memory or just based on ideas he'd had. He'd also remembered a lot from the books professor clover had shown him and he made it a point to learn those too.
Vivi stood up calmly and looked him in the eye, she made a slight move forward but stopped as she saw that he growled a bit. Instead of moving closer she got into a squat position and put her hand in front of her showing she meant no harm. Naruto watched for a bit as she sat there patiently, after a while he figured she meant no harm. She had looked surprised about his multiple tails. He slowly moved closer to her hand until he ended up nuzzling it slightly with his nose. She let out a small squeal and slowly started petting him, soon he was enjoying it and sat down next to her as she was petting his head and scratching his ears.
He shouldn't really be letting he pet him though. He did have a job to do after all. It shouldn't matter to him that her scratching under his ears just felt exquisite.
As Vivi was scratching him under the ears he felt her touch his bandana and she stopped. He looked up and saw she was curious about the bandana, he opened his mouth to explain but realized he was still a fox and couldn't talk. He stood up and motioned to Vivi that he wasn't going to go, she seemed surprised. He figured it was probably that a fox was communicating with her. He walked around the clearing a bit until he saw a patch of sand, he chirped to her and motioned with his head for her to come. She walked over and he sat down once more, she followed his lead though curious as to why.
He moved one of his tails in front of him and began to draw words on the sand, she seemed to understand what he was trying to do but was to perplexed a fox could write to react as he continued writing. "The scarf was a present from a friend long ago." Was the message he'd left in the sand. She nodded, "why did you tell me this?" He sweat dropped slightly and turned to the sand moving his tails, "because you looked curious about it." She blushed a bit about being caught in the act.
"Thanks, I was indeed curious. Why don't you join us for lunch? I'm sure Luffy-san and Dorry-san won't mind." He looked at her surprised, what kind of person would invite a fox to lunch? "I'm a fox?!" He wrote in the sand. She smiled at the comment. "Who cares? Dorry-san is a giant! And I would like to pet you more…" She said adding the last part softly, he still heard it though. He contemplated her point for a while before nodded not minding the last bit, staying by their side might also make it easier for him to move around the island. He was in no way being persuaded by the prospect of being scratched under his ears. Nope, he was an adult and knew when to act like one…
Vivi stood and walked towards Luffy and Dorry, she shortly motioned for him to followed and continued walking. He sighed for a bit and also stood up, why ignore an offer when it gets you a free lunch?
"Hey Vivi, where were y..., what's with that fox. Vivi we already have meat you know?" Naruto sweat-dropped and took a couple of steps back, he'd rather not end up as the lunch not that they could catch him but still...
"Luffy-san! He is not for you to eat! He is..." She paused for a bit before turning to him. "What is your name?" He chuckled a bit and moved his tail to write before he paused, should he give them his real name? Well It didn't really matter, nobody besides Robin knew the difference between his code names and his real name. He wrote down his real name. "My name is Naruto."
"That's quite a strange name for a fox." He glared at her for a bit before relenting and once more moving his tails. "Yeah, but it means maelstrom and not fishcake!" And at that she started laughing.
"That's soooooo cooooooooool!" He heard as he was pounded into a hug by Luffy, he kept his instincts to run at bay and tried to shake him off... In vain. "You can write!" He yelled in Naruto's ears, he was held for a couple of seconds as Luffy continued to spout off rubbish, finally Naruto had enough and performed a substitution, leaving a piece of wood in his place. He reappeared a couple of meters away and walked to stand by Vivi, the one he deemed to be the safer of the two. He thought he saw recognition in the eyes of the giant but it disappeared as soon as it had appeared so he didn't know for sure.
The sparkle in Luffy's eyes had increased and he started to chase Naruto around telling him how awesome that trick was and asking him to explain, without even giving him the time to actually do so. He could see a tick mark grow on Vivi's head and as soon as it had started the quarrel died and she made them both sit down again with a lump on their heads. 'Why me too?' He thought.
They started eating and Naruto had gotten a bit of meat from Vivi who in turn had gotten it from Luffy. While they were eating she suddenly asked a question. "Dorry-san why are you living alone on this island?" The giant looked up and started laughing again.
"Well, actually I'm not living alone. There is another giant on this island, but you see we come from a village called Elbaf." At this Naruto raised his eyebrows, it was the village Saul had talked about. "At our village we have a certain law. If a quarrel breaks out and we cannot settle it ourselves, then we beseech our god Elbaf for his judgement. Elbaf is just and bestows protection on those who are right. He'll ensure the survival of the righteous." He said.
Naruto could see where this was heading. 'No wonder Saul didn't want to be compared to those from Elbaf, he who seeks peace and they who seek battle and fight for pride.' He thought before he turned his attention back to the giant.
"So this island has been the battle ground between us to settle our argument but ...it's been a hundred years and we can't seem to settle it." Dorry continued laughing.
"You've been living for a hundred years?!" Luffy screamed and Naruto had to shield his ears.
"We live three times longer than your puny one." Dorry said while snickering at the outburst. That was when Vivi decided to cut in.
"But even if you live longer, how could you want to continue fighting that long, what kind of reason is there?" She said distraught and not understanding. But before the giant could continue or explain the volcano on the island exploded and he stood up.
"Looks like it's time. I'm not sure when we decided it, but we decided that whenever the volcano exploded we would fight." He got ready to leave and fight but Vivi shouted once more in a bit of a panic.
"What... You two can't possibly hate each other so much that you would want to continue trying to kill each other for a hundred years! Just what exactly was the caus.." But before she could continue Naruto pulled on her ponytail with one of his tails. She glared at him but saw the serious expression, if she could even tell that on a fox, and backed off anyway.
Luffy nodded to Naruto but kept watching the giant as he walked towards his battle. "It's not about that anymore," Vivi wanted to ask what he meant but Dorry cut in. "It's about pride now." He picked up his sword and shield and ran towards the other giant who was also taking position and charging. "and we forgot the reason AGES AGO." He yelled as they clashed. Shockwaves were sent their way from the force of their collision.
Luffy and Vivi where staring at the giants fighting before Luffy fell over backwards onto the ground muttering. "They're huge" While Naruto snickered at his actions.
They continued watching as the giants fought. Naruto noticed that they were constantly aiming for each other's vital areas. 'If even one of those hits hit they're down for the count'.
Dorry tried to hit the other giant with the tip of his sword as he swung it down at him, but he jumped up and the sword missed. The other giant came down with axe and hit Dorry on the head, who had had been left defenseless with his sword in the ground, it didn't have much of an effect though as he was wearing a helmet. Both of them kept exchanging hits barely missing each other until finally the both of them swung their shields in a last attempt and were both hit in the face. They collapsed and everybody who was watching held their breath wanting to know what would happen.
Suddenly they started laughing, "GABABABA, Hey Dorry I got some good rum from guests!" The other giant said. "Excellent! I haven't had rum for so long, pour me some will ya! GEGYAYAYAHA!" Nearly everyone sweat dropped at the display of affection the two had after having tried to kill each other. After the other giant gave Dorry a couple of barrels of rum they both turned around and went back to their respective places on the island.
Naruto was laying on the ground while barely listening to the pirates and the giants talking again, he heard something about the log pose taking up a year to get used to the island's field but he wasn't interested. Building up a bit of his chakra to the surface of his skin, he made it as dense as he could and shot it out onto the island. Over the years he had gotten much better at chakra control, but who wouldn't when it's nearly one of the only things he could practice, the books he had read on Ohara where on different ways of chakra control and chakra manipulation. But because of his huge chakra reserves he couldn't try the latter until a couple of years ago after a long time of practice on chakra control. He'd used his imagination for several other techniques and jutsu like the substitution but it could only get him so far. He'd managed to figure out quite a lot of them though and had different ways to make up for what he couldn't do just yet.
He felt a lot of presences on the island so he had thinned out his chakra to respond to only those who had more chakra than the amount they need to live off. While outside of the elemental nations it's rare to meet anyone who has enough chakra to even stand on water, a lot of pirates and marines have a bit more than the average civilian. Still it would be damn right impossible for most of them to become ninja without starting very early in life.
He felt the other giant with two other companions, it looked like they were talking so they were probably the guests he was talking about in their fight. There were two other presences walking about the island, he could feel they were Zoro and the curly browed guy, it looked like they were each fighting against something but he couldn't really tell against what. The next presence was someone he recognized. 'What are Mister 5 and Miss Valentine doing on this island?' He felt them walking on the other side of the island, they had probably just arrived. The last presence was that of Mister 3 and his partner Miss Golden Week.
'Bingo' He thought but before he could do anything something exploded, he reacted instantly and took a position ready to fight if needed. Quickly he saw they weren't being attacked, the barrel of rum the giant had been drinking had exploded.
"Dorry-san!" "Mr. giant" Luffy and Vivi yelled. Carue was running circles around them in panic. Naruto had a bad feeling about this so he went to stand next to Vivi.
"WHAT HAPPENED, why did the rum explode! Wasn't this rum from our ship." Luffy said slightly panicked while he was standing on the giant for some reason. "It exploded from inside his stomach, do you think that the other giant ..." But before she could finish her sentence Luffy snapped though not entirely at her. "Do you think two warriors who have been fighting for a hundred years would stoop that low?!" Vivi nodded having to agree with that. "Then who could have..." She trailed of as the giant behind them stood up. He looked down at them with a dark look on his face.
"It's you little runts." He coughed a little, "Broggy is a proud warrior of Elbaf and there's nobody but you who could have done it." He had another coughing fit, blood poured out of his mouth with this one. He grabbed his weapon and glared at the Strawhat captain.
Vivi was trying to run away and tried to tell Luffy to do the same but before she could Naruto bit her shoe to keep her from moving. Vivi looked down and saw him stopping her. "Naruto-san?! What are you doing we have to get away from here!" Naruto let go and shook his head and with one of his tails pointed to Luffy. Vivi looked and saw Luffy warming up his limps for a fight. "Luffy-san you can't possibly think of fighting a giant. That's reckless! The size difference is too big!"
Luffy put down his hat and passed it to Vivi. "Hold on to that for me!" Before turning back to the giant and stretching his knuckles, "Sorry ossan, but I'm going to have to shut you up for a bit!"
"Listen to me Dorry-san, we know nothing of that explosive rum. But you should stop fighting your wounds are going to get worse!" Vivi yelled, trying to reason the giant into stopping. But the words fell on deaf ears and both Luffy and the giant continued watching each other for an opening. Naruto took position to help temporarily take out the giant if needed. It was something he could do for Vivi. As a form of pay back for scratching his ears and sharing her lunch. Naruto liked to think that he returned every debt he owed as long as he could afford to do so. The only exception being if it involved Robin's safety.
Dorry was the first to attack, he swung down his sword with so much strength the air that parted pushed away everything around them. Luffy managed to dodge it just barely, even with the wind helping him. The ground where the sword ended up was fissured and ground flew around the clearing from just the force of the swing. The giant's body couldn't handle the pressure and he started to cough up more blood, Luffy took this chance and charged onto the sword running up towards the giant.
Naruto saw where this was heading and he started powering up a smaller version of his bijuu-dama, which was a small sphere of chakra so tightly compressed it had a very explosive effect. It was something he thought of when Robin had given him his bandana scarf. He'd eventually figured out how to do it from the chakra manipulation but somehow it was something he seemed to know almost instinctively so it didn't take him long to learn. The attack just seemed to come naturally, even if he had only thought of it in recent years.
All three of his tails moved in front of his snout with the tips pointed at each other forming a triangle without actually touching. In between the tails a small black and red ball of energy started to form, slowly getting bigger. Naruto was making sure to keep the power minimal as the power of his bijuu-dama could be very dangerous.
Vivi was watching the giant and Luffy fight but soon noticed something next to her and she saw the fox powering up some kind of move. Perplexed by seeing the fox do another thing that shouldn't be possible for a fox, she hadn't thought of asking what he was actually doing. 'I really have to get used to the grand line.' She thought absently while watching both sides.
Luffy was still running up in the sword getting ready to punch the giant in the face, but the giant saw what he was trying to do and raised the other hand with the shield getting ready to pound Luffy before he could hit him. Luffy tried to be quick and hit him anyway but he was a bit too slow and the shield was already swung towards his face.
Getting ready to be hit by the shield Luffy prepared himself but before anything happened a big blast of black energy shot past his head hitting the shield. It exploded and pushed it out of the way. The giant was left defenseless by this attack and Luffy took the chance hitting the giant in the face with his gomu gomu no pistol attack.
The giant was on his way falling but managed to keep standing shocking everyone there slightly. "He is a person who has gained powers of the evil fruit, I underestimated you." Dorry said muttering the first part mostly to himself before coughing up blood as he collapsed.
Luffy was panting a lot and sat down trying to gather his breath. "Luffy-san are you alright?" Vivi said as she moved closer to Luffy with Naruto behind her.
"How is the giant?" He asked still sitting on the ground. "He is alright; I don't think he would have calmed down unless you did that." Luffy absently nodded.
"I am very upset about this." The captain suddenly said out of nowhere, Naruto nodded slightly getting what he meant. "As Mr. Giant said the other giant can't have made the rum explode and I know my friends wouldn't do that, there must be someone else on this island!" Luffy said frowning. He seemed to think about something for a bit.
Though as soon as he went quiet he realized something else and turned back to his goofy self. "Ne ne Vivi, what was that cool beam just now!" He said already on his feet bouncing up and down with sparkles in his eyes. Both Vivi and Naruto sweat dropped at the change of mood.
"Well actually I don't know Luffy-san." She said as she turned to Naruto. "Would you mind telling us Naruto-kun?" He blinked at the honorifics but nodded.
He moved to a piece of sand before he stopped, he had a great idea. He retreated back to where he was standing and closed his eyes to concentrate. "Naruto-kun don't you need that sand to write?" Vivi asked confused as to what he was doing.
Naruto opened his eyes, they were normally blue colored but when he was a fox they turned an amazing fire like red, which were almost always glowing slightly. On one of his tails a small fire started to burn and he moved it in various ways slowly leaving a pattern in the places he passed. Seconds after characters and words started to appear, after he was done he kept his chakra concentrated to make sure it didn't disappear. He moved next to Vivi to look at his work and nodded satisfied.
"I am a fox yokai meaning I have certain powers. That beam like attack was just some of my energy concentrated together to shoot as a projectile." The message said. Vivi looked at him slightly shocked before noticing something. "By the way you wrote it, it's like... that wasn't anything worth noticing."
Naruto nodded and moved in front of the both of them, he once more wrote in the air using one of his tails. Huh maybe he'll be able to use this method without moving his tails? "A bit, I have a lot of energy so this wasn't all that big and other than that I have some other moves I made up. I won't tell though!" He put his snout childishly into the air with an arrogant grin to make the last bit slightly more final.
Before Vivi could say anything else about that Luffy decided to enter the conversation... Yelling. "Cooooooooool, a beam, you've got a beam! Do you want to join my crew?" He said out of nowhere. Naruto who was taken of guard was once more forced into a hug. Not able to get his bearings he did what he always did and substituted himself for a log. Luffy who was suddenly hugging a log was even more impressed and kept chasing him yelling at him to become his nakama.
Naruto suddenly felt as if he had become prey and was surprised at the feeling, he ran to Vivi and hid behind her. 'Shit, I'm acting like a small child who's scared of something, but that captain is really weird.' He continued to keep up his guard as he watched Luffy making his way towards him with his hands in the air making creepy movements.
"Luffy-san I think you have to calm down, because you're scaring him." Luffy stopped for a bit before continuing to yell at him to join his crew, he stopped attacking him though. 'He's not scaring me!' Naruto thought indignantly but as the sparkles increased in Luffy's eyes he started to doubt it. 'okay maybe a little' he thought with a sweat drop.
He moved out of the spot behind Vivi and just decided to ignore him. But before Luffy could take the chance to hug the fox again the volcano behind them exploded once more and seconds after that the giant tried to get up to fight. They all saw what this meant and turned back to the giant who was now trying to pick himself up.
"Dorry-san please stop, you're hurt. You should take a rest otherwise you'll die!" Vivi yelled at the giant who was trying to stand up.
"I am the warrior Dorry, at least…" He coughed up even more blood before continuing. "I have to fight in the honor of Elbaf." He said as the blood streamed down his mouth.
Luffy tried to stop the giant once more but before he could even move Dorry had put a giant carcass of some kind of dinosaur on top of him making sure he couldn't move. Naruto who no longer had any intention of stopping the giant sat down having paid back his debt, it was a fight for pride and not something he would interfere in. While Vivi was watching with slight panic in her eyes.
The giant stood with his sword pointed down at Luffy. "I can't stop, we have been fighting for a hundred years and are still fighting. If we begin it, we can't escape from it or it will mean we stop being warriors. If that happened, I will no longer be myself."
"If the warrior god of Elbaf had decided for it to be this way then let it be." The giant continued.
But Luffy wasn't listening to what the giant was saying. "BUT IT ISN'T FAIR! someone else was involved in this fight!" But the giant kept walking towards the battle.
"Shut up, you who were born ten or twenty years ago, you know nothing of the highest honor of Elbaf!" that was when Luffy snapped. "SO IF YOUR GOD TOLD YOU TO DIE, YOU WOULD?" But his yelling fell on deaf ears.
Naruto turned away from the scene, he wrote something next to Vivi to let her know where he went. She was really nice and Naruto didn't really fancy the thought of her dying later, hell he didn't like the thought of any of those pirates dying later. They were all very interesting and compared to baroque works they were actually really decent people. This was still his job though for now and Robin would always be his priority. He left the clearing and prepared himself to complete his mission.
