Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I do however own a gallon of PCP. Now if you'll excuse me it's party night kemosabe, and the PCP? Well... Got a gallon right here.

Chapter 21: I'll Hold Them Back Myself

'A Shichibukai…' Naruto thought to himself as he absentmindedly manipulated the wires for Vivi's training while sitting in a meditative posture. He had been thinking on this ever since he had his little run in with Donquixiote Doflamingo and had been weighing the positives and negatives of accepting. The negatives; it could be a trap to sucker him into an ambush, Soren would be completely pissed and would probably leave the crew if he had to be associated with Doflamingo in any way, he didn't really want to listen to anyone tell him what to do about anything, and from what he had seen of the World Government thus far he didn't particularly want to side with them.

The positives; he wouldn't have to worry about Marines coming after his crew, he might be able to steer interest away from the Elemental Nations if he had some stroke with the higher-ups in the chain of command, he might be able to convince Soren that being closer in this way to Doflamingo would help him in the long run towards his ambition, and if he decided to leave what did he care? He was already a pirate with a monster of a bounty, what would they do, send Marines after him? They were doing that anyway.

"Penny for your thoughts Naruto?" Miss Valentine asked him, coming up to him with a smile, "You usually don't seem to be the type to think so hard about things."

Naruto looked up at the bright blonde woman before blinking in confusion, "What do you mean? What makes you think I'm wondering about something?"

Pointing towards Vivi in the midst of springing, jumping, and rolling through Naruto's rapidly shifting wires, Miss Valentine answered his question, "Because normally by now you would be all fired up to finish Vivi off in there. She's been going at the same pace for about five minutes, she's got to be exhausted in there."

Naruto looked and began paying attention to the ship's resident princess and was actually impressed. It had been over two weeks since Vivi had begun and she was showing marked improvement. Her reaction time and reflexes were utterly impeccable. With a grin, Naruto stopped his fingers movement and allowed the wire obstacle course to go slack, "That was great Vivi, it looks like I'm going to have to start using my dominant hand and start paying attention when we do this."

"You weren't even using your strong hand?" Vivi said in exasperation, "I thought I was almost done!"

Naruto grinned at her, "No, you've been doing great, but you're not done yet. You still have to learn to do this blindfolded! Then you're done. Or have you forgotten?"

'Blindfolded? Who does he think I am?' She wanted to say that, but then again she was the one who asked him to train her in the first place. He didn't want to do it, she more or less pestered him into it. Who was she to complain about it?

A nod came from the blonde captain, "But you're not that far along yet. We'll step it up next time around, for now you're done for the rest of the day. Go get something to eat." He looked up at Miss Valentine, "I think I heard you call for lunch didn't I?"

"Yeah, lunch is ready." Miss Valentine said, backing up Naruto's statement. Vivi went inside, leaving Naruto and Miss Valentine alone on the deck, "So are you going to tell me what's wrong with you today or do I need to start withholding meals from you until you cough it up?" She said playfully.

"Alright, there's no need for that." Naruto said, laughing slightly, "Actually you might be able to give me some feedback on this." That had firmly gotten her attention, "Doflamingo said something about inviting me to be a Shichibukai when we met. What do you think about that? I've been mulling it around in my head for weeks."

Miss Valentine's visage took on a thoughtful expression as she sat down next to him, "Well I guess I have to ask you why me? Why not ask someone else about this?"

Naruto sighed, "Because I already know what Soren would say, I know Nojiko is already biased against most things involving the World Government after that Nezumi guy that I killed, Johnny and Yosaku would go with me no matter what I did, Vivi's still supposed to be off of their radar, and Muret hasn't been around us long enough for me to actually value her opinion."

"And what about me? Where do I fit in with all of this, hmm?" Miss Valentine asked, eager to know what he thought about her.

Naruto looked at Miss Valentine and smiled, "On the other hand you've more or less earned your spot on the crew, the only bias towards them you have is that you just now got a decent bounty, and you actually worked under an actual Shichibukai before this, so if anyone had anything decent to say about it you would be the one."

"Aww…" Miss Valentine gave Naruto a kiss on the cheek, "Naruto values my opinion, how sweet." Wrapping her arms around him and thinking about his dilemma at the moment, she finally started giving him her view of it all, "Well if you want to keep a lower profile you'd be better off going as you are. The second you become a Shichibukai you're basically at the World Government's beck and call when it comes to certain things or else you'll lose your status and they'll get you back somehow."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Get me back? How in the hell are they going to get me back for anything if they can't even beat me?"

"They know where you're from." Miss Valentine said, scooting up close and nuzzling his cheek as she savored her Naruto-time, "That's why most pirates break all ties with their original homes most of the time when they leave to begin their journeys and take everything with them, because when you get famous that becomes a liability. There are exceptions of course, obvious exceptions like Jimbei of the Fishman Pirates, or Boa Hancock of the Kuja Pirates, but the entire reason they became Shichibukai in the first place was for their homes."

Naruto nodded in understanding, "I have no idea who either of those people are, but I'll take your word for it." He looked up in thought, "So I'd basically be their proxy soldier if I accept, but if I don't accept then they'll start targeting the Elemental Nations… I can't let that happen."

Miss Valentine let out a sigh as she continued to think, "Well… There is another thing that you can do if you're really that worried about it." She felt that she had his whole attention on her and she started to speak again, "But it's going to be a really out there circumstance. You're going to actually have to work, not just go about like you have been, travelling and surviving."

"What do I have to do?" Naruto asked determinedly.

Miss Valentine answered that with a question, "What do you know of the Yonkou?" She saw the blank look on his face, "Okay… They're one of the three great powers of the world, the others are the Marines and the Shichibukai. The thing about these people though, they're pirates. Not government sanctioned pirates like the Shichibukai, just pirates. The strongest pirates, period." She put up four fingers and started ticking them down, "'Red-Haired' Shanks, 'Big Mam' Charlotte Linlin, Kaido, and 'Whitebeard' Edward Newgate. The four most powerful pirates in the world and the ones that have made it the farthest along the Grand Line. They have the power to declare locations as their own or as their own protectorates. Mostly in the second half of the Grand Line."

"I'm not from the Grand Line." Naruto commented, "The Elemental Nations aren't on any part of it. It's just really far out of the way and treacherous. If they really feel the need to go there, I don't think that a little thing like that is going to stop them."

"You say all the time that there isn't any World Government influence over that place." Miss Valentine started again, "That's all that needs to be known. If you can prove that you're as strong and as influential as one of the Yonkou, maybe even take one of their places, then you can claim the Elemental Nations as your territory."

The thing about it is, the Elemental Nations pretty much did belong to him, he just didn't run the place. He could have, but he would have been ruling with fear, as a living weapon of mass destruction. It would have defeated the purpose of trying to bring peace if the only thing keeping things peaceful relations in the land was the threat of one man coming through and making you do it. Eventually that would have sparked another war, with him as the target once again.

However as he was, claiming the Elemental Nations publicly would do nothing since clearly he wasn't considered a power in the level of the Yonkou if they were sending people after him to recruit/kill him.

"Damn it…" Naruto suddenly exclaimed, surprising Miss Valentine, "You said I have to go far into the Grand Line and assert myself among these people right?" Miss Valentine nodded, "Well that basically means I'm going to be gunning for One Piece at this rate… or I might as well." He shrugged his shoulders, "If you're going to go for something you might as well go all the way."

Miss Valentine felt her heart start beating faster at what he was beginning to imply, "So you're going to be going for it? Trying to affirm yourself as the level of the Yonkou or beyond, on that of Gol D. Roger?"

Naruto gave her a wry smile, "I kind of have to don't I?"

Miss Valentine stood up and started pacing, "These pirates all have fleets… Fleets filled with ships with tons of powerful warriors on par with that of the Marines. Fleets full of pirates willing to fight for them. A veritable army of sorts. And you're going to fight them?"

"Is that the most straightforward way to prove it?" Naruto asked her, "I mean I could just bypass them and go straight to One Piece couldn't I?"

Miss Valentine shook her head, "No eventually you would have to go through their territory. They're not just going to let you beat them to One Piece, that's the entire reason they're there too. The reason they've spent the bulk of their lives out there. If you go through there you might as well be prepared for a fight, because no one is going to just let you pass.."

Naruto stood up as well and wrapped an arm around Miss Valentine's shoulder, "Well then I guess you're just going to have to get stronger, and I'm going to have to set up some counter-measures. How much weight can you lift with your powers?"

"1000 kilograms per limb." She said proudly, "I've got one hell of a punch on me now and I think I've come up with something cool that I can do as well."

Naruto smiled at her and hugged her with one arm, "You're going to wind up being stronger than me soon. Hell, you're going to be stronger than the strongest woman I've ever met. I'm excited for you."

"Thank you Naruto." She said, laughing slightly and blushing, "Um, if I'm doing well can I kiss you again?"

Naruto gave her an odd look before letting out a short chuckle, "Valentine-chan a kiss shouldn't be a prize, it should be a show of affection. If you want to kiss me you, go ahead and do it. You think I would get mad?" He said before planting a kiss onto her himself, feeling her quickly melt into the display of fondness and return it vigorously. She pouted slightly when he pulled away, "Don' t be afraid of anything Valentine-chan."

"I'm not afraid." She insisted when Naruto pressed a finger to her lips.

He frowned at her, "Yet. You will be, it's inevitable with our luck that we're going to run into some strange stuff, some scary stuff. Just remember, I would never make any of you do anything I wasn't sure you could do. I believe in all of you."

Miss Valentine smiled and kissed his finger, "We believe in you too. Now go get something to eat. I'm fairly certain that we're all out by now, but if we are I can make you something else captain."

"Hmm…" Naruto paced around in thought, "I think I'd rather have you!" He said, lunging for Miss Valentine before she jumped off of the railing and floated out of his reach on her umbrella, "Damn it!"

"Maybe soon Naruto." She taunted from where she floated up to in the crow's nest, "Just not today!"

XxX

(Three Days Later)

Soren sat outside on the deck of the ship as everyone else trained down in the designated training area, or as most would see it, the area around the mast. "We've got a beautiful day for this don't we?" He said with a grin, "How's it going doctor lady?"

Muret was busy taking the bandages off of his body, "Yeah, yeah sure you big idiot." She said before moving back to his front, "Okay, I'll take your cast off and then we're done and you can be as stupid as you want to be again. Won't that be fun?"

"A blast." The acid-spitting fighter said, eager to get back to being able to go around, doing what he wanted again, "This damn thing is itchy! Are you sure you didn't make it too tight?" A slap to the back of his head was the response, "Oi! Do you want me to make you the prettiest puddle in existence?"

"You're not going to do anything…" Muret said as she began cutting the cast off of his arm, "You guys are all bark and no bite. If you tried anything you would have two people trying to separate your head from your shoulders and one trying to put a bullet in your head."

Soren rolled his eyes, "Yes, yes because we all know who has the more valuable skill-set here."

"Well…" Muret commented glibly, "While you're pretty good at destroying things, I'm the only one here that can put the broken down pieces of all of you back together when you bite off more than you can chew."

"Yeah it's great." Johnny said as he and Yosaku walked up to them after finishing their spar, "Now that you're here Naruto-aniki lets me and Yosaku fight full-out a lot more… though I think he lets me cut him sometimes on purpose, because that big-ass sword he has should never let me get past his defense that easy."

Yosaku was holding his right forearm as blood was flowing from between his fingers, "Liar. Why can't you just admit that you're faster than me and be okay with that?"

Johnny lowered his sunglasses and looked at Yosaku in a contradictive manner, "Because you stuck your arm out for absolutely no reason other than just to take a hit. I should have cut it off to prove a point."

Yosaku waved him off, "I'm sure that Muret could put it back even if you did." He said brightly as he sidled up next to the petite doctor, "I have this cut on my arm, can you help me out? It's pretty deep."

"Because you made it deeper on purpose." Johnny chimed in, rather displeased with his partner.

"Shut up Johnny." Yosaku mumbled before turning his attention back to Muret, "So can you fix me up?"

Muret frowned and rolled her eyes as she finished taking Soren's cast off, "Yes Yosaku…" She said in an exasperated manner, "Just be careful. I could put a newly severed limb back, but you really don't want me to." She smirked cruelly, "You have to be awake for the entire procedure. I have to know if your arm is reattached to the nerves and all of that, and then there's the-."

"Okay, thank you!" Yosaku said, cutting her off and standing abruptly, "I'll just be inside until you're done with Soren, okay?" As he hurriedly scurried away, Muret let out a laugh at leading him on in such a way.

"We have to be awake for something like that?" Johnny said, not looking forward to anything even close to being that similar, "That… really sounds like it sucks. I will now take greater care to not get my arm cut off in the future."

Muret stood up from helping Soren and began walking away, "Oh calm down, you shouldn't be letting yourself loose limbs anyway, but I was just messing with him to get him to leave me alone. Maybe with that idea stuck in his head he'll stop letting you cut him and keep from hurting himself. I've wasted way too many supplies on him in just a few weeks. I don't really feel like buying more so soon or bothering Naruto-sama for anything."

"Naruto-sama?" Soren said disbelievingly as he flexed his arm out and smirked at her, "No one here calls him –sama. Nobody here respects that clown enough to call him that. Why are you scared of him and not me? I'm way more terrifying than him."

"Not really." Muret said dryly, "Naruto-sama scares me because I've never seen him angry. I can't even imagine what it would be like if he lost his temper. Have any of you really seen him upset before? What's it like?"

They both looked at Johnny who took on a pondering stance, "I've never really seen him angry. I've seen him wound up by Arlong before, but he was calm the entire time he was tearing him and his crew apart. I don't think I want to see Naruto-aniki in a foul mood."

Muret nodded, "And that's why I'm afraid of him." She said as she started walking towards the door to the ship to go assist Yosaku, "He always feels like there's some barely restrained power inside of him that if he let it go for even just a second it could suffocate me. You all are fighters so you probably don't feel it like I do, but it's definitely there. Weaker people can't stay in his presence for too long when he decides it's time for a fight, I'm sure of it. Sometimes when he's just walking around the ship and he passes me, I lock up, I can't help it."

Johnny frowned, "You shouldn't be afraid of Naruto-aniki like that. He wouldn't hurt you, he wouldn't really hurt any of us."

"I'll think about that…" She said before disappearing inside.

Johnny just watched her leave and scratched his head, "Why would she be afraid of him?"

"That's not the important question here." Soren said as he began stretching up and going through his martial art katas, "The important question here is why in the hell is she afraid of Uzumaki, but she isn't afraid of me?"

Johnny smirked and began walking away, "Maybe because for the last two weeks you've been pissing and moaning about how much your arm itched in your cast. Hearing you whine like a baby kind of takes away your intimidation points." He ducked an acid loogie aimed at his head, "Oi! If that had hit me I would have been pissed!"

"You would have been dead." Soren said with a smirk as he continued going through his motions, "I don't really think I would have cared too much if a dead guy was pissed off at me."

XxX

(A Few Days Later)

Naruto leaned on the steering wheel of the ship in a bored fashion, "Ugh… Noji-chan… give me an E.T.A. When are we supposed to be getting to this Water 7 place again? I'm starting to get bored again."

Nojiko was leaning on the railing nearby reading the most recent newspaper, "Then why don't you just train? I hear you talk about being bored all of the time but you never train."

"Okay first of all…" Naruto said in a lightly offended fashion, "Train what? I know how to do pretty much everything I ever wanted to learn how to do. I'm not going to get any faster, stronger, or anything like that. At this point it's just maintaining it. Second of all, I do train, I just don't do it around you guys. Everything I'm training is way too destructive for me to use on this ship, so I don't."

"When?" Nojiko asked, "You should never have time to train. You're always either training one of us, or all of us, or you're steering the ship, or you're sleeping."

"Clones don't sleep." Naruto said off-handedly, ignoring Nojiko's surprised face as he thought about what he had just said, "Actually that's not true, it depends on how I'm feeling when I make them. When I send them off and there's some kind of landmass nearby the lazy bastards will just sleep there from time to time. So I need to be wide awake and away from land when I make them."

Nojiko walked up to him and pinched his cheek, "Are you insane?" Naruto shook his head no, "Your clones can train in your place?" This time Naruto nodded, "I don't like that. That's not fair."

Naruto grinned at her, "I'm a ninja baby, a lot of the things I do aren't fair." He finished by giving her a peck on the lips, "Besides, when I'm not learning anything new they're really not that useful to use training en masse. They're meant to use to learn things far faster than I could by myself. So when I don't have anything to learn they really don't serve any purpose to train with. I have to keep coming up with stuff for them to try out for me. Like mixing chakra types… that's a really slow going process. I can't do it yet."

Nojiko ran a hand through her hair, "What are you, a god? Who can do these things?"

Naruto pointed his thumbs at himself, "Uzumaki Naruto can… I think. And I'm not God, even though that's what I had you screaming last night."

Nojiko fought the urge to pull a gun on him seeing as no matter how fast her quick-draw was, he was still always faster than her. She was never going to shoot him so she might as well have stopped trying at this juncture of their relationship. She was sure it wasn't all that healthy to be firing at her boyfriend at her leisure anyway, even if he never openly complained about it... it was unladylike.

"About your question." Nojiko said, getting back to the original topic at hand, "We should be there in a few hours. And remember-."

"I know…" Naruto whined in vexation, "No picking fights and no wanton destruction. Why are you pushing it so hard though? You're never really this stern about this kind of stuff. You just mention it in passing and then we disregard it and end up blowing something up anyway, and then I apologize later."

Nojiko shook her head and patted him on the cheek, "Not this time. We're too close to a huge Marine base for you to start acting up Naruto-kun. We really don't need or even want any kind of trouble here, it's not going to end well if you do. Can you please behave? A fight wouldn't work out at all."

Giving Nojiko a hug, he hastily agreed to calm her nerves, "Okay Noji-chan. I'll make sure everyone knows not to go around looking for trouble here. If it's too close to a base of Marines then fighting for the hell of it won't help anyone."

XxX

(Water 7 – Scrap Island)

Naruto hopped off of his docked ship and looked around, satisfied at his placement of the ship, "There. And you said I couldn't find anywhere to hide the ship. Who are you to doubt Uzumaki Naruto Vivi? I'm a jam-up guy."

"Fine." Vivi agreed as she was one of the last to descend from the boat, leaving only Naruto's clones and Carue as a source of security, "But remember, you still have to look for a shipwright to help fix the Natural Disaster. You really don't want it to be all beaten up in the middle of the ocean, even I know that."

Naruto waved it off, "Yeah, yeah Vivi I know… don't bite my head off princess. Geez, you aren't the den mother here, Noji-chan is."

"Hey!" Nojiko said with her hands on her hips, "I need help keeping all of you weirdoes in line, the more the merrier in that case as far as I'm concerned. Vivi can nag you all she wants to. I allow it. And if Muret proves to be even the slightest bit normal or stable compared to you, Johnny, Yosaku, Soren, and Miss Valentine then she can nag you too."

"Boo…" Naruto said lowly being seconded by the entirety of the aforementioned 'unstable' crew members, "You normal people with your well-balanced, logical thought processes. The world is shaped and molded by the insane and the unstable, because we have the lack of common sense to fall into line and deal with the world the way it is. Without people like us nothing would ever get done."

Vivi and Nojiko looked at each other strangely before the princess voiced their shared thought, "Um, I haven't seen you do anything other than fight, sleep, and eat."

"I am a man of action!" Naruto yelled loudly, "It's just that I need the action to find me first or I usually don't know what to do with all of my awesome… It will usually build and swell and then spontaneously explode in a cloud of victory and win."

Muret sighed, "Victory and win means the same thing Naruto-sama."

"Whatever!" He exclaimed in return, "Now how are we splitting up, because we're using the buddy system here?"

Muret blinked in confusion, "Buddy system? Why?"

Naruto crossed his arms and took on a wise stance, "Because in the best and worst situations teamwork can save lives."

Yosaku immediately jumped to Muret's side, "In that case I volunteer to protect Muret while we're here."

"Of course you do." Everyone else said in a deadpan tone. Naruto waved it off and proceeded with his issue of splitting the group up, "Fine whatever. Johnny, you're with Noji-chan. Soren, you're with Valentine-chan. Vivi, you're with me. Let's go."

Everyone shrugged, having no problems with who they were paired with, with the exception of Muret, and went off to head towards the main city of Water 7. Vivi walked up to Naruto's side and looked up at him with her curious eyes, "Why am I with you? I'm not complaining, but I just want to know."

"Two reasons." Naruto said as everyone split off and started going their own way, "One, in case anyone recognizes you while we're here. I'll be the one dealing with the heat in that case. Two, you were the one that insisted that we find a shipwright, that means you're coming with me when we find one… mostly because I have no idea where to start looking." He scratched his head with a frown.

Vivi gave him a reassuring smile, "I'm sure it can't be that hard to find one. Apparently shipwrights are supposed to be famous here. My father talked about something called the Galley-La Company and how they were supposed to be the best."

Naruto grinned at her and grabbed her small hand, "Well I know what we're looking for first!" He made a hand-seal and disappeared in a swirl of wind and leaves.

XxX

(With Yosaku and Muret)

The pair walked through the beautiful city, taking the sidewalk next to a canal. One had a significantly better mood currently than the other one, "So what do you want to do Muret?" Yosaku tried to say in his smoothest voice, "Is there anything that you want to partake in while we're here."

Muret let out a disgruntled sigh, "No, not really anything that I want to do. I have to stock up on more gauze and needles and thread for stitches because someone keeps letting himself get stabbed and cut up by the captain and the other swordsman with sunglasses so that he has an excuse to hang out in my office/room." He finished, glaring at Yosaku.

He backed away slightly before recomposing himself and trying again, "So… do you want to go for a ride on one of the Yagara Bulls?" Yosaku suggested, pointing towards the canal they were walking beside where in the water was a creature that resembled a horse with the tail of a fish that a small boat for two people sat atop of, "My treat."

"No…" She said, getting more and more disgruntled as the seconds dragged on, "I want to find a small supply store and get what I need. That's it. I don't want to go for a ride with you, I don't want to go to a restaurant or anything. I have a job I need to be prepared for. Naruto-sama has paid me a lot of money, in advance by the way, something no one's ever done, to ensure that I keep you all alive. I'm worried about that first."

"You're worried about me!" Yosaku said loudly with hearts in his eyes as he started running around to different people on the street exclaiming that Muret was worried about him.

She palmed her face, "No stupid! Get back over here and stop embarrassing me!" She said with tick marks beginning to form on her head, 'Why did I get paired with this lunatic? I'm going to kill him before the sun even goes down! Take a hint damn it!'

XxX

(With Johnny and Nojiko)

"We're going in here!" Nojiko yelled, pulling on Johnny's arm roughly trying to get him to go in the direction she desired.

Johnny was pulling back just as harshly, locking them in a stalemate of sorts, "No Nojiko-aneue we're going over here!" Another grunt of exertion that got him nowhere followed that statement, "I need a new badass sword! Yosaku got that huge thing Kubikiribouchou, I need something cool! Something that'll make fools crap their pants without me even doing anything!"

"No!" Nojiko shouted back at him as people passed by them, staring at the growing spectacle, "We're going in here damn it! The standard Marine issue ammunition isn't going to cut it for going any further on the Grand Line! I need hollow points for the pistols, I need full-metal jacket shells for the rifle, I need saboted slugs for the shotgun, not to mention a new shotgun altogether! Grapeshot isn't going to do a damn thing later on!"

"Excuse me." A man came up to the two of them and got them to pause in their tug of war, "The two shops are right next door to one another so why don't you just go into one and then the other, or split up and meet each other outside?"

Nojiko and Johnny stared at the man before looking at each other and back at him, "Stay out of this please." They both said at the same time before continuing their argument/test of strength.

"Come on Nojiko-aneue, it's my birthday soon!"

"How soon?"

"…3 months."

"Fine, I'll care in 3 months, now come on!"

"God! Why are you so strong? You're a girl!"

XxX

(With Soren and Miss Valentine)

"So where are we going?" Miss Valentine asked Soren cheerfully, seeing as how he was walking with some serious purpose in his stride, and anything like that should have been very interesting for her.

The look on Soren's face was one of complete seriousness, "To get very, very drunk and perhaps get very, very laid if all of the stars align correctly for yours truly." He looked over at the brightly smiling blonde woman, "Do you have any problems with this?"

"Nope, I'm good with it!" She said before laughing a bit, "And I will watch you get drunk and make an ass of yourself, and perhaps take pictures of the monster you end up straddling while other poor saps buy me drinks all night for being sexy!" She then tapped Soren on his head, "And then I will drag you back to the ship, drop you on the deck, and go inside to perhaps see if Naruto will have sex with me when I'm drunk."

Soren looked at the woman floating and circling around him, as she was now excited by the gameplan of the evening, "And what if Nojiko is in there with him when you show up like she is sometimes?"

Miss Valentine stopped with a blank look on her face before her smile came back full force and she started floating around Soren eagerly, "Yay! Threesome with Naruto and Nojiko!" And with that, every man within earshot flew backwards 10 meters, propelled by the blood gushing from their noses.

"Yes…" Soren said, smirking and holding his own nose lest he share the same fate as all of the others around him, "Hooray for threesomes."

XxX

(With Naruto and Vivi)

Naruto suddenly started looking around rapidly with an unexplainable feeling of excitement in his belly that brought a massive smile to his face for absolutely no reason whatsoever, "Something tells me to leave the door to my room unlocked tonight. Something wonderful will happen."

"What?" Vivi said in response to her captain's seemingly nonsensical rambling.

"Nevermind, we're here." Naruto said as they arrived at a massive door with the number 2 on it, "Now you tell these guys what we need done because I haven't the faintest idea about how to describe it."

Vivi gave him a sly smile, "Oh I know exactly how to word it Naruto. You guys have done obscene amounts of damage to the deck of your ship to the extent that sunlight actually peeks through when we're in the hold sometimes. The deck of your ship has more potholes than a gravel road. Take your pick for your favorite."

Naruto gave her a dry look as they walked into the shipyard, "Well then miss pretty, pretty princess… would you like to foot the bill with all of your lucid observations?"

"No I'm good." She said happily as she bounded alongside Naruto in an upbeat manner, "You torment me hours at a time with what you call training. The fact that I can get the better of you at times like this makes me feel better about it all."

A few chuckles escaped Naruto, "Well, well. Someone's getting a little too used to me if she thinks that it's okay to talk to the captain like that."

Vivi rolled her eyes as they continued to walk through the shipyard, "Everyone on the ship thinks it's okay to talk to the captain like that, because we aren't scared of the captain because we know the captain loves us." She pinched Naruto's whisker-marked cheek, "And we love the captain right back."

"Such a sweet little princess." Naruto said in return as they found themselves in the very middle of the shipyard, with multiple workers scrambling about around them, "Oi! Can we get some help around here? Anyone?"

"Aye!"

"Aye?" Naruto and Vivi both repeated in confusion, "What?"

"I said aye! I can help ye." A man that didn't top out over 4 feet in height came from around a corner into Naruto and Vivi's view. He was a middle-aged looking man with extremely tanned skin who had a huge grin on his face, bringing notice to a golden tooth in his mouth. He had a fuzzy black beard and mustache as well as a bald head. The man had baggy black pants with a blue sash… and no shirt. Which made the ridiculous amount of muscles on his frame that much more noticeable, "Hello there. My name is Stanley Bullford, one of the foremen of Dock 2."

"Genie." Vivi said quietly, almost in an excited fashion like a little girl. She had to fight down the urge to grab the small man and order him to give her three wishes.

"Holy shit." Was the eloquent summary from Naruto before he regained his composure, "Uh, hi there. I was wondering if there was anyone around here that could help us out. We'd like our ship to be repaired."

The man stroked his beard, "Ship repairs eh?" He started pacing around Naruto and Vivi, "So what are ye? Ye don't look like any kind o' Marine I've seen, not with a coat the likes o' that. Ye didn't come in here raising all sorts o' cain so that makes you either civilians or the most well-behaved pirates I ever seen."

Naruto's head drooped, "I promised I wouldn't make any trouble for no good reason. I'm usually a much better magnet for trouble. Honest."

Vivi's eye twitched at Naruto's downtrodden expression towards being civil, "Don't be proud of being a troublemaker Naruto."

"Pirates then." The man said stopping in front of Naruto and looking up directly into his eyes, "Ye have some terrifyin' eyes there behind them bright blues lad." He said almost gravely, "What kind of things must ya have seen?" Naruto and Vivi both gave him puzzled looks, "Alright, now where's this ship?" He said brightly, switching tones once more.

"Really? You'll help us out?" Vivi asked anxiously, excited that someone would actually fix the wrecked up deck that Naruto claimed as his own, "That's great! How much do we owe you sir?"

"Calm down lass…" The man said, "I still need ta' see the ship before I start chargin'. No sir either. I already gave ye my name, understand?" Vivi gave him a nod, "Great! Now let's see this ship o' yours!"

Naruto blinked at how easily it was to convince him, "That's it? It's that simple? Really?"

Vivi looked at the blonde captain who seemed to be stunned at the shipwright who so easily accepted to see their ship, "You say that like you were expecting something different. What did you think was going to happen?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Well I kind of figured that we would have to travel to some far away place and get something, or fight some strange enemy that's troubling these guys…" He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. You should hear some of the stories I have."

"Well not today ye won't." The diminutive foreman said, "It's enough that I haven't heard ye spouting about Dock 1 and how you wished you had been able to get the ship checked there. I'm plum tired of hearing about them I am. Supposed to be the best they are… feh."

Naruto gave the man a grin, "Who cares about what other people think. Listen, I'm the single most powerful warrior that ever came out of my village. Would you like to know what my rank was by the time that I left? I was a genin, the lowest level that a person could be in the system. I'm trying to say that it shouldn't matter what other people try to place you as, just as long as you know you have the talent."

Stanley looked at the prideful and honest smile on Narutos' face and began laughing, "Wahahaha! I like you lad! I think I made a good choice in helping ya' out with yer issue." He rubbed his hands together in anticipation, "So where's this ship o' yers?"

Vivi pulled a map of the city out, "Um, we're stationed at Scrap Island. Is that okay?"

Stanley let out a groan, "That's a very long walk lass… It'll take me at the very least three hours to get there."

"Three hours my ass!" Naruto exclaimed as he grabbed a hold of both Vivi and Stanley, "Say hello to one of the coolest things I know how to do, Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Jutsu)!" The three suddenly vanished in a flash of yellow, leaving behind no trace of their previous position.

XxX

(With Soren and Miss Valentine)

Sitting at the main bar, Soren took a long swig from the mug in his hand and sighed in contentment as Miss Valentine broke away from the pack of men she had previously surrounding her and made her way to his side, "So how are you feeling Soren?" She said with a slightly inebriated blush on her face.

The acid-spitting pirate looked over at her a smiled in an even tempered manner, "I'm good, I'm feeling very good. This is a relaxing place you know? Where are we again?"

"Blueno's Bar sir." A man cleaning glasses said from behind the bar, a tall man with a black beard and black hair resembling the horns of a bull, "You've asked that question four times in the last three hours alone."

"Have I?" Soren asked with a small smile on his face, "Sorry, post-concussion syndrome and all that. Anyway…" He slammed his mug lightly, "Go ahead and fill it up again! I've got nothing but time, I've got money, and I've got a need to lose full control of my motor skills so let's do this."

"Go Soren!" Miss Valentine said as she leaned against the bar right beside him.

He turned to look at her with an amused look on his face, "You are so lucky I'm here little miss 'I-can't-hold-my-liquor'. I thought you were supposed to be the responsible one tonight. What happened to that plan of action?"

Miss Valentine waved him off, "Who needs to have one of us be responsible? I'm fine, you're fine, I'm fine… I'm fine. We're all fine! So does it really matter?" She turned towards the others in attendance, "Who hasn't bought me a drink yet?" A series of hands went up around the bar.

Shaking his head, Soren turned back to the bartender, "And once again, against my better judgment and desire, I will be making sure she gets back to our ship without some strange guy in tow tonight." He let out a laugh, "If she wound up with anyone other than Uzumaki she would probably kill the poor sucker. You're a really good listener Mr…" He said, trying to feel out his name.

"Blueno." The bartender replied evenly, "I've told you this already, about four times." He passed Soren back a refilled mug.

"Right." Soren said slightly apologetically, "Sorry about that." He looked around, "This is a nice place though. Where are we again?" He asked pleasantly. Blueno sighed indignantly getting Soren to laugh a bit at that, "I'm just kidding. I know where we are." He pointed his thumb to the side, "That guy obviously doesn't though." He was pointing at a large muscular man in a white suit with grey hair and a grey beard who was out cold, fast asleep, "That guy's been out of it since we first got here. Is he that smashed?" Soren asked Blueno who shook his head, "Huh… he looks kind of familiar. Kind of like…" Soren's eyes widened horrifically and started slowly moving away from his seat, "Yeah, I'm going to go now. Later."

"It's so hard being so pretty." Miss Valentine confessed to the men around her before Soren grabbed her by her forearm and pulled her out of the bar, moving quickly, "Soren what the hell? I was just getting loose!"

He didn't turn back towards the bar they had just left as he continued running, "We did not want to be there… well I didn't want to be there."

"Why?" Miss Valentine asked as she lightened her own weight to make herself easier for him to drag, "And can you slow down? You're moving so spastically I think the alcohol is going to be coming back up at this pace."

Soren stopped and let her get her balance back, "I just saw Monkey D. Garp." He saw Miss Valentine's eyes widen, "Yeah, you'd better know who that is. If he saw me and recognized me he would kick. My. Ass. And drag my ass off to Impel Down never to be seen again. No thank you."

Miss Valentine hissed lowly as if it were some kind of secret, "What the fuck is 'Garp the Fist' doing here? Isn't he supposed to be the hero of the Marines?"

Soren and Miss Valentine began walking again, "We are really close to Enies Lobby, but still… Guys like that never come out in the open, except for Admiral Kizaru that one time. I would have expected Garp to be stuck at Marineford with the rest of the big-wigs. This really sucks."

"It should be okay though." Miss Valentine said, her stomach for the situation slowly improving, "It's not like we have a reason to draw attention or anything, right? All we have to do is lay low and everything should be fine. It's easy."

"Yeah sure…" Soren said, not really that convinced that things were going to go smoothly, "I mean I'm decent at staying out of sight, and I'm sure Uzumaki is too. And we're the most likely to cause trouble and blow something up, so if we stay out of trouble everything should be aces, right? I mean, it's not like anyone else is going to just show up and start something stupid that we're going to get sucked into in a few days time."

Miss Valentine nodded and thumped him lightly on the shoulder, "There you go. We'll be fine. We're not that unlucky."

XxX

(With Johnny and Nojiko)

Johnny walked back through town dejected as night had fallen over the city, "I can't believe we fought for so long both stores closed down." He turned his head towards Nojiko who was looking just as downtrodden as he was, "If you had just let me go into my shop I'd have been in and out in five minutes and then we could have gone into yours."

"Same right back at you…" Nojiko mumbled lowly, "We wasted the entire afternoon doing nothing. I made Naruto-kun convert all of that treasure to actual money in Mock Town for no reason… man that store looked so cool." She perked up when she saw two more members of their seafaring group, "Hey, it's Yosaku and Muret."

The two in question were still walking, Muret carrying a few bags of medical supplies, and Yosaku trying to get her to rely on him, either by letting him carry her stuff… or her herself. Muret then noticed Johnny and Nojiko walking towards them and could almost cry in relief, 'Thank the gods… I knew they wouldn't leave me in this purgatory forever.'

Nojiko walked up to the two of them with a smile, "Well how was your trip around town today?"

Muret gave Nojiko a deadpan face devoid of humor or goodwill, "Never again. Never leave me alone with him again. I don't care if I am afraid of Naruto-sama or not, I will bite, kick, scratch, or whatever if I'm ever paired with him again for anything."

Johnny meanwhile, spoke to his sword-toting counterpart, "So how was your day going around with Muret?"

Yosaku sighed wistfully with hearts in his eyes, "I'm sure she's thinking about me right now. I think we really hit it off today. It's only a matter of time."

Muret and Nojiko walked a short distance in front of the men as the female doctor sounded off again about her thoughts on the day, "I will sew his mouth shut if I'm ever left alone with him long enough to ask me out 83 times in a row again. And then if he learns to speak with his eyes… I might do it to those too."

"He's not that bad." Nojiko insisted, trying to get her to warm up to part of the crew.

"Yes he is." Muret asserted firmly, "Why are all of the men on the ship certifiably insane?"

Nojiko patted her on the back, "We're all a little bit off-kilter. I think it's Naruto-kun, hanging around him disproportionates you. Don't worry, soon enough you'll start to lose it yourself… and you won't know when. Someone else will have to bring up the point for you."

Muret rolled her eyes, "I'm sure he's not that bad." She said, referring to Naruto.

"Yes he is."This time it was Nojiko's turn to assert her point, "If you stay with us, you will develop a personality quirk of sorts just to deal with all of the things you're going to see and come into contact with."

Frowning, Muret slumped her shoulders in defeat, "I'm really not looking forward to that… but he's paying me so much money and I already agreed. I'm honor bound, yep, bound by what little honor I have."

"It's so beautiful out tonight Muret!" Yosaku suddenly exclaimed, "Would you like to take me up on that earlier offer for a ride on the Yagura Bulls?"

"On second thought…" Muret said, with her eyebrow twitching, "I don't think my personality quirk will kick in fast enough for me to deal with him without complicating simple procedures on him."

XxX

"Geez lad!" Stanley yelled out as he walked along the deck of the Natural Disaster, "What have ye been doin' to this ship? Do ye practice swinging a sledgehammer about or what?"

"Um, no?" Naruto said slightly embarrassed as Vivi smirked in the background, "Yeah, yeah Vivi… go ahead and get your laughs of correctness off of this."

Vivi shook her head as she sat off to the side, stroking Carue's head, "No, I think I'll save them for when my self-esteem starts feeling low." She stood up and walked over to the two men, "So Stanley-san, do you think you can help us out?"

"Aye." He said in return as he kept looking about the ship, "Is there anything that ye want done special?"

Naruto's face lit up and he placed a hand on Stanley's shoulder, "I'm so glad you asked that question. I have tons of ideas that I want to know if I can do or not." Stanley nodded and gestured for him to continue speaking, "Can I section off a spot at the back end of the ship as a training spot, 40 by 40? There's enough space."

The two walked back around that area and looked around before the shipwright nodded, "That can be done. But ye need some very sturdy, specific supplies that ye need custom ordered. Is money an object?"

"Nope!" Naruto chirped cheerfully, "I'm loaded! What do you need? What do you think the ship can use? Come on, give me some input! No one on this ship knows how to fix this thing or keep up with maintenance so this is golden for me!"

"Ye actually want my opinion?" Stanley asked, almost in disbelief, getting eager nods from both Naruto and Vivi. The man lowered his head before gleefully smiling at the two, "I'll need ta' look the ship over from head ta' toe to come up with things. Can I come back tomorrow Mr…" He said, trying to remember Naruto's name, "I'm sorry I don't think I caught yer name."

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto said, extending his hand until Vivi elbowed him in the side, "Oh… shit I forgot." He forgot that they really weren't supposed to be letting people know who they were while they were there.

Stanley nodded, not particularly registering Naruto's name as one of overt fame, "And the lass here?"

Vivi cut in before Naruto could potentially blow that cover as well, "My name is Naphitali Vera." She elbowed Naruto again when he gave her an odd look and distastefully tested the name in his mouth, "And of course you can come back tomorrow Stanley-san. We'll be right here."

"Naruto-kun we're back!" The attention of the three people standing on the deck was attracted to the return of Nojiko, Johnny, Yosaku, and Muret, "Who is this?" Nojiko asked once they caught sight of the short, burly strange man aboard their ship.

Naruto walked over to the others and gestured towards the person who had attracted the interest of the others, "This is Stanley, he's going to help us get our ship in order tomorrow morning."

Stanley started waking his way towards the ladder that would have him climb off of the ship, "Well I'll be taking my leave now. I'll be back bright an' early in tha' morning Mister Uzumaki. 'Till then farewell."

Nojiko watched the strange man leave in curiosity, "What an odd little man."

Naruto shook his head and started walking inside the ship, "Odd nothing, I think he's awesome! He's going to help me turn this ship into a floating slice of awesome!"

Chapter done. The OC is courtesy of 5-digit, he/she drove a very convincing sell home. Very convincing. It totally won me over in a rather quick fashion quite a while back. The Water 7 arc has begun, this is right before the Straw Hats show up by the way in case you needed the time table and didn't have it on your own. Blergh.

No real action in this chapter but you'll have to wait until next time for some fiery fireworks of the flaming variety. It's simple progression. I'm tired, and I need to get to the gym to train so I'll catch you all on the flipside. My knees hurt!

Kenchi out.