Promises and Deities

by CharkaXDevilFruit

Zachary Sewell was about to start his first day at college... Then, he bumped into an old man. Thanks to a reality-bending deity, Zach found himself on some island in the South Blue with a retired Marine, chakra racing through his system, a Sea Prism Stone necklace, and some vague promises that might get him home. Not a crossover, but it is the One Piece Universe with some ninjas.

10. Chapter 10

A/N-The last chapter took me a while to post, and was actually almost twice what I usually post at almost 10k. I was wondering if I should use that as my new standard from now on. If you have any ideas or opinions, then feel free to comment, review, PM, or shout loudly at your screen! I appreciate all forms of communication. :)

LongPastMidnight- Wow, so many good suggestions for hidden weapons! I really want Zach to go ANBU all the time, but could you imagine how boring that would be?

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, Naruto, nor any of their characters. I do own any OC's I write.

Fighting Arlong

-x-

I was pretty proud of the way everything went with my master plan against Arlong. To summarize, I figured out where to poke the fishy looking people that seemed to be universally incapacitating, I stole some stuff, I insulted them, and I started a game of hide and seek. It was all going pretty great, in my opinion. At least until I heard loud crashes and explosions coming from behind me.

I jerked my head up in response to the noise, and stopped trying to light some more of my maps on fire. I turned my vision towards Arlong Park to see a dust cloud rising. I felt my brows furrow as I got a good look at Arlong's rampage. He was currently solving the epic game of hide and seek by eliminating the hiding aspect.

He was tearing down every tree in his path, and had his crew doing the same. I could see Hachi slicing down six trees at a time, Chew was rapidly spitting water out from his oddly shaped lips to mow down the trees, Kuroobi was actually punching them down, and the rest of the crew was just going wild.

I was rapidly coming to understand what the phrase 'flipping the board' meant in real life. I furiously thought out the situation, and scowled beneath my mask. "How am I supposed to play ANBU if you just act like a brute." I shook my head sadly. "Honestly, it's like you've never played ninja." I heard one of the two fish-men by my feet start to wake up, and kicked him in the head idly. I sighed a little as I saw his eyes roll back. "Now… what would a ninja do?" I leaned my head to the side as I watched them work through the forest in typical anime-brute fashion, while I worked on a plan. I straightened up in excitement as an idea hit me. "Better question is 'what would Naruto do?', and that's always an easy question. "Run at them, and beat up the bad guys."

I smiled contently under my mask as I made my way around their encirclement via some skilled ninja jumps and cover of the dust cloud. I soon found myself about as far from Arlong as possible, and set about looking for targets. I frowned in thought as the rampaging fish-men tore down more of the forest. "I should start soon…" I looked over my prospective targets, and found two groups of three that looked easy enough. I didn't see any of the three enforcers, nor were any of them clearing the trees faster than the average crew member. I nodded a little, and picked the group made up of white, blue, and yellow colored fish-men.

They were currently working their way past me, and I was close enough to smell them from my tree branch. They eventually got to taking down my tree, and I closed the distance by dropping on them like a pissed off Ezio. I went straight for the blue ones neck, and rammed some chakra into his nerve bundle. I felt him twitch involuntarily, and he lost the use of his left arm. I had to hastily drop back to avoid the right arm coming to crush my skull, and landed a few feet away from the three now thoroughly alerted combatants.

The blue one scowled, and tried to work his arm while the yellow and white charged. "It's the masked human! Squash him!" Yellow yelled as he swung an overly large hammer down at my head. I easily dodged the thing, but had to duck past white's katana that was trailing after my head in an angled swipe.

I looked at the two of them with light red eyes shining out of my mask to pull two knives from my sleeves. I quickly flung them at their feet to hinder movement, and while one stuck through the skin to impale him to the ground, the other sparked off. I blinked in surprise while white howled in pain, and yellow charged at me. I had to hastily dodge his hammer again, and got close enough to stick my hidden blade into the tendon I could see on his shoulder. I grimaced as I felt the iron like scales stop me for a moment, and ran chakra through the blade to lop off a hunk of muscle with it's increased cutting power.

Yellow howled in pain, and I had to dodge out of the way of blue smashing his fist at my back while rolling away. I felt a bruise on my back as I eyed the surprisingly resilient fish-men. "You guys are better than the others."

Blue glared at me, but let a smirk come over his face. "Well, we are the ship's guard for a reason." He gloated. I grimaced again as the three of them started to surround me. "Now, are you ready to surrender to Arlong, or do we get to have some fun?"

I growled at the trio. "I'll get back-" I cut myself off mid sentence to surprise the white one with a chakra jab to the elbow, and slipped behind him as he howled in pain at the dislocated joint. I had efficiently gotten out from being surrounded with a little misdirection. I saw blue and white leap at me from both sides of white to bombard my location, and, by some fortune of luck, I made it out of there with a forward roll out of imminent danger.

Unfortunately, the danger came back because I rolled towards a pissed off white. He proceeded to use his good arm to cut a deep gash on my upper arm. I had to hastily ninja jump up a tree to escape, and glare at them. "That hurts." I growled at the smirking white. I ripped my sleeve off to tie around the wound as the three repositioned themselves. I found it odd that they were mostly trying to surround me, and not attack. So, I played on a hunch, and scanned my surroundings. I noticeably flinched when I realized the sounds of destruction had stopped, and I turned my vision to find the 8 remaining crew members, Arlong, and his enforcers making their way towards me. I glared down at the three. "You're just stalling for time…"

Yellow glowered up at me. "Smart, human, but it's too late. Arlong will be in position. You might have taken out the weaklings, but you don't stand a chance against Arlong!" He proudly yelled up at me.

I snarled at him. "Idiot. I just need to run." I made to leap away.

Blue quickly kicked the tree out from underneath me, and I lost my platform as it fell down. I had to hastily roll away as yellow slammed his hammer into the ground by me, and I staggered along with the broken ground. White then leapt forward to keep me further off balance with his swordplay.

Somehow, they had gotten me to land in the middle of them, and now I had to defend on three sides. Which left escape practically impossible. It was hard enough to defend. It would have been impossible if I couldn't literally see out of the back of my head.

I did end up slicing more tendons as I took some hits in return. I finally managed to put my iron body technique to the test when yellow smacked me in the side with his hammer. I think white and blue were expecting me to be sent flying towards them, but I just ended up with a broken rib, and, thanks to chakra laced feet, I managed to stand on my spot.

Not-so-luckily, I ended up being surrounded by Arlong's crew thanks to blue, white, and yellow stalling me a few seconds later. I wound up bleeding and bruised, but not exhausted. Arlong was watching smugly from the sidelines as his men rushed forward to attack from all sides, but ended up stopping them as he exclaimed in surprise. "WAIT!" All of his men, and me, paused in surprise at his outburst. "Don't kill him!" He walked towards me. "Your arm. Show it to me clearly." He ordered me.

I scowled in annoyance. "Why would I do that?"

He scowled right back. "Because if you don't I'll kill you right away."

I felt the killing intent grow from him and his crew. I took a moment to think of where I was, and slowly wiped the blood away to show him the brand. That done, I turned it for him to see. "Happy?" I asked him. I took this time to take a quick look towards the ocean, and found a familiar sea cow racing towards land. "If that's Luffy on the boat, then Zoro, and Usopp should already be here."When I turned my attention back towards Arlong I saw him frozen in indecision. He looked to be between righteous fury and… fear? I blinked in confusion. "What could Arlong fear in the East Blue?"

Eventually, Arlong awoke from his daze to breathe deeply. He looked at me unhappily. "What does The Clergy want with me, and my crew?" He asked me with much more respect than he had previously shown, but still spoke that title like it was a curse.

I felt my eyes shift to blue as I thought everything over in my head. "The Clergy?! Who is that? They weren't in the manga or anime… He obviously recognized them from the brand. That means at least two things. There are more people with chakra in the world, and they formed an organization. The name also implies that they're a religion of sorts. So, they possibly know about Ozaron?" I kept my vision blue as I addressed Arlong. "You know of The Clergy?" I asked him with a tinge of doubt in my voice. Enough doubt to make him feel like he should prove himself.

He spat on the ground before speaking. "Yes. They're one of the reasons I left the Grand Line!" He growled at me before collecting himself. He began again in a more collected tone. "My mentor had certain dealings with your underlings. They left an… impression on me." He scowled at me again. "Now, answer me! What does your organization intend to do in my new empire?"

I felt my eyes darken as I proceeded to think things through. I needed a logical excuse to stall for some time, or get me out of the encirclement. I coughed slightly into my mask. "If you know my group then you know I can't say much…" I hedged.

He snorted loudly. "I know your group is secretive, but a secret won't let you walk out of here alive." He leered down at me. "I am!"

I felt a cold sweat go down my back at his stare, and used my enhanced thinking to it's max as I thought of a reply. "You know what The Clergy is… and yet you still want to coerce me for an answer?" I asked with as much dignity as I could muster. I was banking on the fear I had seen earlier, and I was also hoping this group is another example of how power corrupts, and are all pompous douches.

"If you were anything like the vessel before you, then I would choose another path...But you are nothing but a child in that man's shadow! Now, tell me what you're doing here, or I make sure you die in that shadow!" He growled murderously at me.

I felt cold sweat leak down my back as I tried to speak, and settled for gulping loudly. I saw him smirk proudly at the sound, and I felt some kind of switch in me flip. I saw his smug smile gloating at my current position, and felt adrenaline surge.

I felt my heartbeat quicken, and my chakra move in a way it hadn't done since I got it. I felt it sting. It started to run along my chakra pathways like a live wire as adrenaline kicked in, and I turned my blue eyes to greet Arlong's. I spoke in a deadly calm voice as my skin started to send out small sparks subconsciously. "If you really want to know what I'm doing, then look to the ocean. I'd like you to see the Marin battleship coming as backup to evacuate the residents of Conomi Islands." Arlong dropped me to the ground in annoyance at the sparks.

Arlong glanced over his shoulder. He pointed to his enforcers. "Go check it out." He called to them. He then turned his gaze back at me as he lowered me a little. "You came all this way to save a village of insignificant, puny humans?"

I glared right back at him. "Even if I said yes, you wouldn't believe me, right?"

He looked at me for a couple of seconds before grinning widely. "You know what? I actually believe someone of your mark would do something like this…" I felt some tension leave my back. Until he opened his jaw wide to bit into my shoulder, and drag his teeth along it to open up a lot of cuts. I numbly noted that his bite had also managed to fracture my shoulder blade.

I twisted my face in a mask of pain as I felt the weak sparks die out. "Too bad that doesn't excuse burning my maps." He sneered as he ripped away the bag of Nami's maps from my back, and tossed me to blue. Blue caught me with his good arm while Arlong addressed blue rather sternly while I grimaced at the pressure of his grip. I had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming as I felt my arm crack from the pressure. "Take care to make sure he stays alive. The Clergy tends to not take deaths too well… especially if he were the one to die." He smirked in an infuriating way again as he walked away. "Though, they do need to learn that this is MY empire."

I flinched a little when I felt white, blue, and yellow's sadistic gazes land on me. I just tried to ignore them as I gritted my teeth, and looked towards a certain ship that had crashed into the land. "Luffy, you guys need to hurry up… I can't take the big guys on. I can barely handle these little guys." I let out a muffled scream as yellow slammed a fist into my ribs, and blue held me down.

-Luffy's P.O.V.-

"Whoa! That was fun! Can we go again?!" I looked over to Sanji in expectation only to find him glaring at me. I pouted back at him, and turned to the woods around us. "Where do you think everyone is?"

Sanji dusted himself off, and walked over to me. "I don't know for sure." He looked around a bit before nudging me in the shoulder to point at where Nami, Usopp, Zoro, and Yosaku were coming out of the forest. "I found them." Sanji blinked in confusion before turning around. "Oh, Luffy. We lost Johnny."

I gasped in surprise before I let a laugh come out. "Oops!"

Suddenly, I felt a familiar fist punch my skull. I turned to pout at Nami about it. She just glared back at me. "Honestly… Now isn't the time to be messing around."

I vaguely heard Johnny walk up beside us a little sorely, but I was focused on how my crew was acting. They all seemed anxious. "What's wrong?" I looked around in confusion. "Where's Zach?"

Nami hesitated to speak, and Zoro took over for her. "He got here first, and knew we would have trouble with the fish-men in water. So, he lured them inland…"

Yosaku wiped the tears from his eyes to yell at us. "YEAH, AND NOW HE'S DEAD!"

I felt a pit in my stomach, and that's something that has never happened before. I Stretched my arms at Yosaku to pull him close. "WHAT?!"

I looked over to my crew in desperation, and saw sad looks. I felt the world sway, and noticed that Sanji had put a hand on my shoulder. He looked over everyone somberly. "I think you should explain." He spoke around his cigarette.

Nami seemed to have calmed enough to talk. "I saw him get Arlong and his men to chase him into the woods, and then they started tearing everything up to find him… Then, I heard fighting, and his..." She shuddered a little at the memory. "I heard screams… I think they were torturing him, and then it stopped." She clenched her fists in frustrations. "That's also when I saw Arlong's enforcers leave to handle the Marines."

I shook my head angrily. "So, you didn't see him die?!" I saw looks of doubt and pity, but no one disagreed. "Then, he could still be alive! We gotta go get him! He's our nakama!"

Nami seemed to feel better, and Usopp came out of his grief enough to look up. Zoro just seemed to get angrier, and Sanji put out his cigarette. I looked to them all, and asked Nami in my angry voice. "Where are they?"

She gritted her teeth, and turned to point to where a dust cloud was still hanging in the air. "They're all over there. The enforcers should be back anytime, and they'll head to Arlong Park." She raised her hands to put together her staff. "If they get there, then everything Zach worked for will be wasted. We need to cut them off. He had already taken out all but eight normal crew when they got him, but Arlong and his enforcers are still out there as well."

I clenched my jaw, and pressed my hat firmly on my head to ensure its safety. "Okay, let's go kick some ass, and save our nakama." I declared with a finality that no one was ready to argue against.

I took a step towards the forest, and I heard four people step right behind me. "Aye, Captain." They grunted out at my back.

-Zach's P.O.V.-

"Oof! ...I think you've made your point clear, blue" I whispered between spasms of pain out at the fish-man as he thoroughly repaid me for the pokes earlier. I winced as he slammed a scaled fist into my gut, and I felt blood in my mouth.

He scowled down at me. "My name isn't blue, you masked bastard!" He leaned down again to try, and rip my mask off again. I smirked a little as I flared my chakra to make it stay put, and, for some reason, I saw a minute trace of sparks running along it. "Dammit! It's still stuck like glue!" He slammed another fist into my stomach.

"What's going on here?" I heard a feminine voice call from of the dust cloud. I saw a vague outline of a very welcome sight walking towards me.

Blue straightened up to look at the outline in suspicion. Nami came fully into view, and he relaxed. "Oh, Nami! I thought you were one of his friends!" He turned back to look me over. "This guy is just getting repaid for ruining all of your hard work." He gestured down at my beaten and bloody form while Nami walked closer.

I saw Nami scowl down at me as well. "Well, you look awful." She accused me bluntly, and I shrugged with only a slight twinge of pain from my ribs/arm. She seemed to notice the twinge because her scowl got more pronounced. "I can't believe anyone would be this stupid!" She exclaimed at no one in particular while walking towards one of my guards.

I wheezed from behind my mask to laugh. "Haha, you're out of luck."

Blue walked forward to reach down, and pick me up by ropes on my hands. "Oh yeah? Why is that? We got you tied up, and you're already surrounded."

I grimaced as him pulling me up aggravated my broken ribs, and circulated my waning chakra to combat the blackness approaching my vision. "Two reasons." I coughed at him. He scowled in disgust at me before dropping me on the ground again. "One, I'm not alone." I laughed as he turned to see Nami smacking a fish-man over the temple, and I slid a knife out of my sleeve. "And two, I literally have hundreds of blades hidden on my body" I grinned as the ropes fell slack around me, and I threw two chakra enhanced blades at blue's head.

He tried to dodge, but one still ended up slicing the side of his neck, and he glared at me in outright horror, and anger. "What did you do…" He asked weakly of me. It took him a second or two after he saw his blood to grow angry, and ran full tilt at me. "I'll take you with me!" He yelled at me as he bled out.

I grimaced in pain, and rolled to the side as he barreled past, and threw more knives to add to his cuts. I saw the bloody trail he left in his wake, and had to hastily doge yellow hammer. Luckily, I saw a rubbery fist fly through the air. "GUM GUM PISTOL!" I heard Luffy yell as yellow's eyes roll back, and fall to the ground.

I didn't have much time to think about it though because blue had caught up to me, and I had to act. I ignored the broken ribs, the blood in my mouth, the various cuts and bruises, and poured my chakra into my fist as I rotated and compressed it. I leaned forward on wobbly legs to launch the attack straight at the oncoming blue's, and yelled. "Chakra Drill!" I watched with rapt attention as we both flew back, and blue's first shred into scale and muscle from the attacks effects. I felt the air rush out of my lungs as I landed on the ground, and saw Nami run over to catch me. I felt her place me on the ground to look over while there was incoherent talking in the background.

I think I would have passed out if Nami hadn't slapped my face. I bolted upright to yell at her, and winced in pain at my ribs. "What the-OW!" I yelled.

I looked around to see everyone with relieved looks on their faces. Nami then proceeded to slap me again. "Stupidest thing ever!" She yelled at me before smiling slightly. "I'm glad you're not dead."

I blinked in surprise before scowling. "Well, that was a lukewarm reception." I muttered at her.

Luffy laughed foolishly at that, and Nami smiled a little too. I didn't see anyone else around, and grabbed Luffy's arm. "You need to go fight Arlong! He's tough."

Luffy's smile faded a little. I saw him duck his head to hide his eyes behind his hat. "Did he do this to you, Zach?"

I flinched at his tone, and avoided eye contact. "No, he had his crew to teach me a lesson." I said quietly.

Luffy's jaw clenched before he put his hat on my head. "Hold this."

I blinked in surprise. "But… I need to fight." I protested weakly.

Luffy shook his head. "Not anymore. We'll handle the rest." He turned to Nami. "Can you take care of him?"

She looked conflicted. I saw her desire to fight war with concern over my well being. I felt touched. Eventually, she nodded. "Just kick his ass, Luffy." She said with clear tears going down to her clenched jaw.

Luffy nodded somberly, and latched onto a tree to launch himself at where he heard a fight in the distance. I heard him yell as he flew over there. "ARLONG! COME AND FIGHT ME!"

I numbly turned to see blue lying in a pool of blood without any signs of life, and felt a pit form in my stomach. I slumped back in exhaustion as every bruise twinged in pain. "I messed up, didn't I?"

Nami shook herself out of a daze to glare at me. She promptly took her fist, and slammed it into my head. "You think?" She growled at me.

I groaned at her as I rubbed my head. "You know, you could be a little more considerate. The only part of me that doesn't hurt is my face, and that's because of the mask…" I trailed off as I realized I wasn't wearing it anymore. "Where'd it go?" I looked around only to see it in Nami's hands.

She was looking over it curiously. "Why did you wear it?"

I shrugged painfully. "Felt right." I hummed in thought. "I… might have some new information about my powers to share later."

She jerked her gaze away from the mask to look at me in surprise. "Really? That's interesting."

I nodded sorely at her. "Yeah… but for now, we need to get to that fight. You know, In case they need us." I pointed towards the sounds of war, and politely slipped the mask out of her hand. "Might as well keep up the pretense." I grunted as I slipped it on.

Nami stood up to dust off her clothes, and then haul me up. I groaned at the movement, and she glared at me. "Oh, Shh. Quit being a baby."

I bit my tongue, and turned to lean on Nami. I gritted out some words between my grimaced lips. "I've been using chakra to keep going, but if I keep it up I won't be able to help in a fight." I patted her arm thankfully. "So, thanks for being my crutch, Nami"

She looked over at me with some worry in her eyes, but kept quiet as we headed towards what sounded to be an epic fight. We made our way to the battle ground unobstructed, and managed to see Zoro standing over a defeated Hachi while Sanji was putting his finishing touches on Kuroobi. I looked around for Usopp and Chew, but couldn't find them in the newly cleared battlefield. I quickly scanned the area with my vision to find that not only was the battleground the area Arlong's crew had torn up to find me, but it was also conspicuously void of Usopp and Chew. I glanced at Nami to get her attention as I whispered. "They shouldn't see us unless we head into the clearing." I saw her nod. "Also, I can't find Usopp. My vision can go for a little more than 2 miles in a single direction now, and I still can't find him…"

Nami stiffened a little at my words. "Is he okay?"

I shrugged fretfully at her question. "He is a lot stronger than before… I know he can outrun Chew at the very least, and he was starting to get the basics of Iron Body before we left Syrup Village."

Nami helped me to lean against a tree so she didn't have to hold me up. "What's Iron Body?"

I swore under my breath, and Nami flinched at my outburst. "Something I should have told you all about!" I yelled at myself in a whisper. I saw her confused look, and reined in my temper. "There are six powers that the Marines use to train their bodies to become weapons. I was taught how to train in one power, and I helped Usopp with it." I saw her paying attention to my words, and continued. "The one we train is called Iron Body. It is a defensive technique used to reduce damage to the body." I saw her skepticism. "If I was good at it, then even Arlong wouldn't be able to touch me."

She widened her eyes in surprise, and nodded absently before looking out to the fight. "What should we do?"

I grunted as I slumped to the ground. "We can only watch now. Luffy gets to fight arlong, and we hope Usopp is fine. Zoro and Sanji are finished…"

We both turned our gaze towards the two undamaged fighters staring each other down in the clearing. Zoro had tossed Hachi out of the way, and Sanji was kind enough to kick Kuroobi very far away. Together, they made their way towards our location. I nodded at them as they stood vigil in the fight about to go down.

-Luffy's P.O.V.-

That guy was just standing there looking me over, and every little thing he did seemed to piss me off. I could vaguely see Sanji and Zoro finish off their opponents, and I let a smirk come onto my face as I cracked my knuckles. "Now, it's time for me to kick your ass."

Arlong glowered right back me, and I saw him flex his muscles as he took a step forward. I decided to skip that nonsense, and stretched my fist right into his face. "GUM GUM PISTOL!" I shouted after impact.

I ran after him as I saw him slide backwards from the hit, and felt the recoil from the hit launch my fist backwards. I slid forward to whip a leg under him. "Gum Gum Whip!" I yelled as he jumped over it, and land in front of me. I barely had time to dodge when he slammed down on me with his arms. We quickly fell into a flurry of fists and kicks. I managed to take them through my rubber body, and he took them through his muscles. I scowled at him, and kept the assault up until he bit down onto my arm. I yanked it back, and was shocked to find it still stuck onto my arm. "You lost your teeth!" I couldn't help but blurt out.

I watched in fascination as he smiled at me, and new teeth grew in. "Another upside the more evolved species has over you puny humans. I can grow as many as I want, and they just keep getting stronger."

I flinched a little as I yanked the teeth out, and then smiled happily as a thought came to me.

-Zach's P.O.V.-

"Oh, no… I didn't think he would still do this!" I groaned out loud enough that the crew heard me.

Nami asked me curiously. "Do what?"

I pointed sadly. "Look at his teeth!"

Nami blinked in surprise. "Arlong? Yeah, his teeth can grow back. It's an advantage of his shark blood."

I shook my head fiercely. "Not him… Luffy!"

They all turned to look, and Zoro was the one to express what we all saw. "He… He's wearing them like dentures…"

I nodded sadly, and Sanji smothered his cigarette with more than a little angst. "And he's the captain we chose to follow?"

We let that hang in the air for a moment until we were brought out of the moment to here Usopp crashing into the clearing. We all glanced over in surprise to see Chew tied to his belt via a rope that he was running behind him. We all watched in confusion as the unconscious Chew was dragged over to our hiding spot, and an out of breath Usopp started to speak to me. "Zach…" He wheezed. "I can't… unlatch the grappling belt." He finished.

I blinked in surprise before looking at the thoroughly flabbergasted crew. I shrugged helplessly. "Zoro?" I inquired.

He shrugged right back at me, and drew his blade to simply cut the dead weight off, and Usopp turned to look in surprise at the frayed end of his rope. Thankfully he had the decency to look embarrassed, but it didn't last because we got to hear a loud explosion from Luffy bodily slamming Arlong into a rock. We watched in amazement as Arlong then crawled out of the rubble to glare daggers at Luffy.

Luffy's response was to crack his knuckles again. I heard Usopp gasp, and turn to us. "How do we even stop something like that?!"

I grimaced. "Well, we could drop a building like Arlong Park on him, but that's at least a mile that way." I spoke with concern clear in my voice.

Nami was biting her lip so bad I saw it start to bleed. Finally, she started to pick up her staff to walk out. Everyone else hurriedly stood to block her. She glared at all of us in frustration. "What are you doing?!" She yelled in annoyance. "We need to help him!"

Zoro took a step forward to look her in the eye, and shake his head. "Before we started, Luffy ordered us to leave him Arlong to fight." He smirked a little as he saw Luffy swing Arlong around by the nose, and slam him into the ground. "They're Captain's orders." He told her succinctly, and then we all nodded along.

Nami was the exclusion as she looked out to see Arlong move his teeth into his hands, and start cutting Luffy up. "But… we could help him!" She persisted.

I wheezed as I stood up, and she turned to look at the noise. I glared at her. "Nami, this is his fight. If you want to interfere, then I'll be the first to stand in your way."

I saw her eyes widen in surprise, and she started to walk forward. I grimaced as I flared my chakra, and endured to sprint in front of her. She looked at me with her patented frosty witch look. "Move, Zach." She ordered.

I glared right back with my jaw clenched. "I can't do that, Nami."

She kept staring me down for a couple of seconds, and I heard Usopp step beside me. Then, I heard Sanji and Zoro stand there as well. She looked at all of us in turn. "Why…?" She finally asked us weekly.

I smirked a little as I relaxed my posture. "It's because we have faith in Luffy. In our captain." I saw a chorus of nods from the others, and Nami even started to look a little easier with it.

While they turned back to watch the fight, I stopped the chakra numbing the pain, and slumped to the ground again. I felt the hat on my head slide down some, and I reached up to adjust it. "I know he can win." I prayed silently as I watched the fight enter it's last stages.

Luffy and Arlong were in the midst of their blows, and neither one was unblemished from the fight. Luffy was bloodied all over, but still ready to fight. Arlong looked to be bruised and battered, but was coming around as his eyes turned to that of a more Sea King-like appearance. I gasped in surprise, and smacked myself for forgetting this part. "He's going berserk! His speed and power will increase, and he'll ignore his injuries…"

Everyone visibly stiffened at my words, and recoiled in shock as Arlong leapt across the clearing to ram his nose into Luffy's chest. "Shark on Darts!" He yelled loudly.

Nami was gripping her staff so hard that I could hear it start to warp. Zoro was watching stoically beside Sanji, and Usopp was frozen as he saw Luffy's blood fly up. I tried to stand up, but found my chakra had mostly run out, and staggered back to the ground. I had been unconsciously burning it with all the adrenaline running through my system. "Dammit…" I muttered to myself.

We had all just barely begun to process the impaling of our captain, when Luffy yelled at the top of his lungs. "This is for hurting my Nakama!" Luffy pulled Arlong into an embrace as he wrapped a leg around a tree, and started to run in circles while holding a struggling Arlong in a death grip. "Gum Gum…" Luffy yelled out again as he completed another couple rotations. Finally he stopped running to rip Arlong out of his shoulder, and hold by the nose as he hopped up off of the ground, and was flung around and around the tree at insane speed. "Dervish!" Luffy blasted out with Arlong slamming bodily into everything around him in the wild spinning they were doing.

We all watched in amazement as Luffy ended it all with an overhead slam into the ground that left Arlong out cold, with a thoroughly mangled nose, just lying in a crater. Luffy was huffing and puffing as he stood over Arlong, and I barely saw him turn to smile a goofy smile over at us before my vision thoroughly faded, and I finally fell into blissful unconsciousness.

-Some Time Later-

I found myself tightly bandaged once again. I felt them over my eyes, my chest, my arms, and my legs. I honestly don't think I could move if I tried. Of course, that didn't stop me from trying. "Sunnuva!" I blurted out as I ended up rolling out of a hammock, and onto the ground. I flicked my vision on, and saw that I was actually on the Merry, and, as I went farther out, I also saw that we were not docked on Conomi Island.

Thankfully, my nakama came around to help my confusion. It was Usopp who came in first, and I took the chance to question him from where I was sprawled on the ground. "Where are we? How long was I out? Is everyone okay?"

Usopp hurried over to help me stand up, and then began to walk me outside. "We left Nami's town a couple of days ago, 5 days, and the only one worse than you was Zoro." He frowned a little. "Luffy should have been worse than you too, but we gave him some meat and he just got better somehow." He explained with more than a little amazement in his voice.

We limped out onto the deck together, and I was soon greeted by Luffy pulling me into a bear hug. "Whoa! Zach, you're okay? That's great!" He yelled in my ear as I tried to claw my way out of his grip. I finally made it out as everyone else made their appearances on the deck.

I scowled at Luffy in annoyance about his hug while trying to undo some of my bandages. Nami walked up from out of nowhere to slap my hands away. "Leave them alone! The doctor said to rest, and keep fresh bandages on."

I pouted at her. "But Nami~" I whined. "They're already healed!"

She scoffed. "Yeah right! It's not like you're like Luffy and Zoro." She promptly froze in amazement as I smacked the side of my chest, and didn't even flinch. She watched in awe as she did the same, and I only scowled at her hitting me. "But how?" She voiced out in amazement.

Sanji chose that moment to swoop in with no small amount of flair. "It's obviously because of the superior cooking I have been doing, my beautiful Nami!" He cried out in his normal fawning tone.

I scoffed a little too. "Sure. Let's go with what Teacher Sanji said."

Sanji flinched at the title, and seemed to recall some past misjustice from the look on his face. I blanched in fear and astonishment as turned slowly to look at me. "So, you're really healed?" I nodded uncertainly as I took off my mummy costume. "GOOD. Now, I need to kick your ass, wingman."

I flinched at his tone, and quickly tried to run, as I found the situation to be heading in an unpleasant direction, only to find Sanji kicking my foot out from under me. I ended up landing in a heap by the sleeping Zoro. "Help!" I cried out at my trusty first mate, but Zoro's only response was to continue snoring as he rolled over.

I barely had time to take in the blatant betrayal before I was kicked firmly in the rear strong enough to send me flying into the railing. I landed in yet another heap, and rolled over to see Sanji smirking proudly down at me. I pouted up at the lot of them. "I just woke up! Can't you be a little nicer?"

Luffy had a foolish grin on his face as he spoke at me like I was the idiot. "No? We're treating you like normal, Zach!"

"That's what worries me…" I grumbled at them before a smile stretched over my face, and Nami helped me stand. "So" I looked at Nami expectantly. "Anyone want to fill me in on what happened after I passed out?"

Nami let a smile cover her face as we walked to the kitchen with the crew. She made sure I was okay before sitting me down at the table, and sitting beside me. I saw Sanji whipping up lunch while everyone else started to tell me what happened. Usopp started it all off. "Well, after you took a nap." He started succinctly.

I cut in a little angrily. "I was unconscious."

He nodded absently. "Yeah, whatever. You were snoring." I felt a blush on my face. "We got Luffy out of there, and some Marines came by to try to arrest us with Arlong."

Nami spoke up proudly. "Yeah, but the villagers had heard the fighting, and came by to rescue us. I think they mainly came for me, but I got them to save you all as well."

I nodded interestedly. "So, by 'save' do you mean beat the Marines bloody, and walk away?" I saw her blush, and nodded to myself. "Then that means…" I jerked up to look at Luffy with a huge grin. "What was your bounty?!" I asked excitedly.

Luffy blinked in surprise before pulling something out from his pockets. "30 million Beri!" He exclaimed happily as he showed me. I saw Nami scowling at the antics, and I smirked a little.

I slapped him cheerfully on the back. "That's great! You're famous!" I exclaimed at him with a grin.

Nami had finally had it, and reached over to ram a fist into each of our skulls. "Not good! You're infamous!" She yelled at us.

I hastily scooted away to stick my tongue out at her, and Luffy did the same. "You're just jealous!" Luffy yelled.

I however was caught up in the fact that I could see a certain mask in the background of his bounty. "Oh! Guys! My Neko mask is in the picture! I'm famous too!" I looked around for it, but couldn't see it anywhere visible on the ship. I looked at them with more than a little disappointment. "Did you guys lose it?"

Usopp smiled proudly at my dissapointment. "Nope! I just made some improvements on it."

I looked at him more than a little warily. "Like what...:?"

He ignored my tone, and plowed right on. "I managed to reinforce it with Sea Prism stone!"

I blinked in surprise before I felt a tear slide down my cheek. I got over it quickly though because I had the perfect punching bag if I didn't like his answers. "Usopp… I can't touch that stuff… How can I wear it as a mask?" I asked him calmly. "Also, how is that even an improvement?"

He paused his self congratulations to cock his head in thought. "Huh… Didn't think about that." He shrugged it off. "Oh, well."

I lunged across the table, and was barely caught by Nami holding me back. "Easy, Zach! We can fix it!"

I glared over at Usopp. "He better!" I yelled at the thoroughly frightened sniper. "I can't even see through that stuff! It's useless in a mask!" I yelled at him as I settled back down.

I heard some impolite grumblings about my manners, and shot him a glare that shut him up. I looked at Nami with more questions. "So… Villagers saved us. Arlong is on his way to Impel Down. Luffy has a bounty. Anything else?" I asked curiously as I ticked them off on my fingers.

Nami shrugged in reply. "Nah, we had a Marine ship try to take Luffy in, and he handled them easy… That's about it." She glanced out the window to the clear sky. "We should make landfall at Logue Town in another day or so." She finished.

I looked over to see Luffy chuckling happily about something. I raised an eyebrow in query, and he pointed a finger gloatingly at me. "You missed another party!" He blurted out like it was the best punchline in the world, and fell into a fit of giggles.

I felt a wry grin on my face, and saw everyone else looking elsewhere a little guiltily. I coughed into my fist. "So… I was knocked out for five days… and you threw a party?" I asked with more than a little bitter laughter in my voice.

Sanji was conspicuously humming while he cooked, and Zoro had fallen asleep. Luffy was still giggling. Nami had even managed to move several seats away without me noticing. So, I locked onto Usopp. "So...Buddy! Pal. Old friend!" I leaned forward. "Wanna tell me why no one wakes me up for the good stuff, but I always get to be the first in line to take a beating?!" I smiled a little too cheerfully at him.

Usopp's gulped wasn't actually that loud, but the room had gotten quiet when everyone turned to look at me in shock. I blinked in confusion at the turn of event, and leaned back. "What's wrong?" I asked them all in confusion.

Zoro had even managed to wake up to quirk an eyebrow at me. "You're sparking." He told me bluntly.

I looked down at my hands to see a minute flash coming up every now and then, and firmly cut off my chakra flow. I nodded as the sparks disappeared. "Oh, yeah. I can do that now." I replied with just as much bluntness.

Nami, having had enough bluntness for the day, fairly screeched in my ears. "WHY ARE YOU SPARKING?!"

I flinched as Usopp chimed in. "HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT?"

I glared over at Luffy, who was about to yell, and stuffed one of the napkin bundles into his mouth. "Enough yelling!" I sweatdropped as I saw Luffy swallow the linen, and shook my head to rid myself of the memory. "I was going to bring it up. I already told Nami, anyway."

I got to then enjoy the sight of everyone glaring at a thoroughly flustered Nami. "N-No he didn't! I would remember this!" She defended hastily.

I smirked as she got all flustered at the looks she was getting, and let a chuckle escape. I then got to enjoy them all turning to me in realization, and Nami's glare. "Okay, so I didn't tell her the details, but I did say I found out some more about my powers!" I leaned forward in excitement as everyone looked on with interest. "Okay, Arlong captured me, and saw my brand." I pulled up my sleeve to show them. "He seemed to connect this mark with a group called The Clergy." I looked over everyone, and saw confusion on everyone's face except Sanji's. He had a look of pure shock that he soon trained into indifference. I noted it, and voiced my opinion. "So, it looks like Sanji is the only one who knows about them." I saw him stiffen, and look away as he kept cooking. "We'll get back to that… Anyway, he called me a vessel." A strong flinch from Sanji. "And he seemed to not want to kill me." I scratched my chin in thought. "It was also around then that my mark started acting up, and I felt like I had electricity running through me." I pinned sanji down with a questioning stare, and everyone else followed my gaze. "I don't care how you know any of this, and I won't tell your secrets, Sanji." Everyone had interested expressions again. They seemed to notice I had spoken in a similar tone back when Nami made a confession. "But, I think this is something we should talk about."

He stopped what he was doing, and turned the oven off as he took the seat furthest from me. He smothered his cigarette on the table, and looked at us all seriously. Finally, his gaze landed on me. "I don't want to tell that secret yet… And I didn't believe this whole god thing before, but now?" He pinned me with a glare. "I do believe we will need to have a talk later at the very least." He scratched his soul patch idly while he collected his thoughts.

"If everything you've said is true, then you'd do best to hide that mark." He started seriously. "I don't know much about The Clergy, but the stories I've been told put them on a level you don't usually see outside of the true heavyweights. The only reason they aren't a household name is because they don't hold land, wealth, or even have that many people. The only thing they have is power. They've been something of an enigma in the New World… I only hear two kinds of stories about them." He let that hang in the air as he collected his thoughts. "The first is them fighting for some just cause. The second is them killing en masse."

I digested his words as silence reigned. "So… we should probably get me a really good piece of cloth to hide it behind… huh?"

I got a flat stare from the rest, but Luffy seemed to brimming over with excitement. He pulled me into a sidelong hug as he exclaimed in glee. "Awesome! Look how cool my Nakama is! He has mystery sparks, AND he brought so many strong people for us to fight!" Luffy was positively beaming with excitement at the prospect.

I saw sweatdrops on everyone as we processed this fact, and turned to wallop Luffy as a group. "NOT A GOOD THING!" We yelled in a good 'ole fashioned team bonding exercise. Though Luffy just ended up grinning through the whole thing. You know, because he's made of freaking rubber.

I through my hands up in frustration. "It's useless to keep hitting him like this! He just smiles back at us!"

Nami patted my shoulder consolingly. "We all know that, but it helps us feel better. Like a giggling stress ball."

Zoro grunted in affirmation. "Yeah, it helps me get to sleep if i'm frustrated."

Usopp poked his nose right in the conversation too. "Yeah, I do it when I get bored."

Sanji's jaw was hanging open as he looked around the room. "So… all of you regularly hit your captain?"

A chorus of nodding was his reply. I, for one, was surprised too, but for a whole other reason. "You mean I could have been doing this more often?! I've been saving it for when I'm mad!" I whined out.

Sanji's response was to walk up to Luffy, and suddenly whip his leg out. He landed it on the back of his head, and Luffy just grinned as it stretched back in place. I heard Sanji snort in amusement. "It is a little fun." He remarked to us.

I felt my face start twitching at the sheer absurdity of this moment, and finally just let out a depressed sigh. "I give up." I groaned at them. "Goodbye sanity, Hello good times!"

Luffy chose that moment to speak up. "Yeah! Zach is right! We need to go have some good times!" He looked around at all of our dumbfounded looks to just smile even bigger. "Let's play tag!" He yelled as he ran outside. "I'm it!"

I watched numbly as he ran outside giggling. "How…Did he just... Does he even know how to play tag?!" I finally managed to ask.

It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop as we contemplated some of our more recent life choices. Finally, Sanji stood up, and turned the stove on to continue cooking. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm just going to pretend we stopped talking after Sparky explained his… well, sparks."

Thankfully, everyone else seemed just as interested in doing the same because we soon changed topics. Usopp had an important question for me. "So, do you know how to control those sparks?" He leaned forward in curiosity.

I held up my left hand, and tried channeling chakra into it, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. "No… It seemed to happen when I had adrenaline flowing, or when I got angry. Kind of like an instinctual response." I scratched my chin in thought. "It might be because I didn't exactly get my chakra the normal way… So, it's possible that my chakra isn't your garden variety, and is actually base Lightning." I felt my heart race at the prospect of not having to spend years in training to finally make a jutsu.

Zoro looked over in interest. "What do you mean by natural, and base? If there are more people like you, then we should know this stuff." He explained quietly.

I grunted in acknowledgment. "Well, the natural way is to be born with active chakra coils. I was given chakra when I got this mark." I gestured at my sleeve. "So, it is safe to assume that anyone with this mark has chakra… as for base, this is just my assumption, but I think my mark might have given me an instinctive predilection towards the Lightning affinity." I saw more confusion, and hastily explained. "Okay, as far as affinities are concerned, there are five. Lightning, Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind." I counted off on my fingers.

I quickly jerked my head up as the blood left my face, and everyone looked me over worriedly. Nami seemed to be the most concerned if you went by her tone as she spoke. "What's the matter, Zach?"

I tried to swallow, but found my mouth to be freakily dry. So, I just coughed a little. "It's just…" I clenched my fists in frustration. "Okay, the way I use chakra is to enhance my physical capabilities, right?" I saw some nods. "Well, that's only a small fraction of what it can do, and if those other people can do even a quarter of some of the stuff I have seen, then we are in serious trouble."

Sanji let a puff of smoke fill the room, and asked me in a somewhat uneasy tone. "Like what?"

I threw my arms up in frustration again. "Everything! Anything. Chakra can be used to make illusions, possess someone, grow a forest in the span of minutes, raise mountains, flood valleys, reanimate the dead. Heck, I don't even know what all it is capable of, but if someone could bring out it's full potential here, then…" I bit my lip. "Most of you don't know about the real powerhouses yet. So, I can't really make a good comparison… Just trust me when I say that chakra can be scary powerful stuff in the right hands."

Zoro looked me over skeptically in the silence that followed. Finally he asked what everyone was thinking in his own blunt way. "Then, why are you so weak?"

I felt my face heat up at the looks on everyone's faces. It looked like each and every one of them agreed with his sentiment, and I grimaced at it. "I don't know how. I didn't learn from a scary group, get a teacher, or even a manual. That damned RHD just took me from my home, and dropped me in the South Blue!" I blurted out at the lot of them.

Luffy had somehow managed to get back in the room because he walked over to me with a questioning gaze. "You never told us about that part, Zach. We just thought you were from Syrup, like Usopp." He pointed out for everyone.

I jerked my head back as I saw similar expressions on everyone's faces. They looked like they were ready for an interrogation. Even Usopp looked like he wanted answers. "Yeah, the whole time in Syrup, you never said anything about this 'RHD' stealing you from your home." He accused me quietly.

I blinked in confusion before making an apologetic face at them all. "Oh! Sorry." I said shyly to them all. I saw that that wasn't enough from his flat stare, and coughed into my fist awkwardly as Sanji put the food down on the table. "Okay… I guess I can tell another story, but, after this, someone else has to take over. I'll run out of good ones before too long." I demanded of them in return.

I saw Luffy bite his lip in thought while everyone else sweatdropped at his deliberations. Finally, he stuck his hand out for me to shake. "Deal! I have a good story about Grandpa losing me in the jungle!" He beamed at me.

It was my turn to sweatdrop at Luffy as we shook, and then we started to eat. I used that time to recount my deal with a bum, my abrupt landing on a beach (I left out the other world thing, but kept the deity part), I told them about Tyler (w/o the part of him being a Marine), and I finished with him giving me a rowboat in East Blue.

It was Zoro who spoke up first. He let out a low whistle. "So, you're either crazy, or just really unlucky…"

I shrugged in reply, and stuffed the last of my bread in my mouth to chew. Nami spoke up in question next. "So, you can't go home without finding the bum's family, and that necklace is your only clue?"

I nodded along to her questions while Usopp joined in. "And you dragged us into it because you magically knew about us?"

More nods. Sanji got his turn now. "And, you sailed through the Calm Belt, and the Grand Line?" He finished incredulously.

Even more nods from me. There was a serious moment as we looked over to Luffy. He was looking at me with that look. The one he gets every time he talks about his dream. He spoke up in a tone that only a D. could use. "Just remember, you're Nakama now. We're going to help you." Then, Luffy ended it all with a foolish grin, and leaned in to start talking. "Anyway! My story is even better!" We all looked over in disbelief, and he puffed his chest out proudly. "Yeah! Grandpa lost me in a jungle! And I found my way out! All by myself!" He finished with gusto.

There was a full minute of silence while Luffy looked around expectantly. Next thing we knew, Luffy was squirming on the floor as Nami and Usopp were fighting over who got to strangle him. "What is your problem!?" They yelled.

I turned a blind eye to their antics as I coughed lightly into my fist. "I don't accept that story. So, no more form me until you guys get one better than mine!" I grinned happily at the angry looks that got me, and waltzed out of the kitchen. I shut the door casually before ninja leaping up to the crow's nest with haste. I looked around to see if anyone was coming up after me, and sighed in relief when they didn't.

I dropped down to hug my knees, and tried to think everything over in my head. "Did I do the right thing? Should I have told them all about Ozaron, and that clergy group? I could be dragging them into some bad stuff. I mean, what if they die because they knew me…"

I shuddered at the thought. "Arlong called me a vessel, and made it seem like I was important to the Clergy from the way he made sure not to kill me… They're probably going to come after me at some point. Should I really bring them into this?" I turned my vision towards the horizon, and could see the vague outline of an island appear as if in answer to my musings. I sighed deeply in indecision. "Logue Town. The beginning and the End. Not exactly an auspicious omen." I whispered sadly.

I shook my head fiercely at my moment of weakness as the crew came out to tend the sails. I felt the indecision leave me as Luffy hopped onto the goat head, and grin towards the horizon. "Although… The Pirate King did start his journey there. It makes sense that the next Pirate King does as well… and that's a pretty damn good omen too." I clenched my fists as I stood up. "This is just getting started." I vowed. "I'm going to finish this trial, and I'll do it as a Straw Hat." I looked at my oddly charismatic leader. "I'll be damned if some chakra junkies are going to try to stop us." I felt the electricity in me stir to life with my proclamation.