A/N: Wow! Over three hundred hits, two more reviews, four favorite lists, and two alerts. This is going great. Keep up the reviews; they really help, if only in the area of my ego. The reason for the slightly longer wait was that I was in Daytona Beach Monday through Friday at church camp.
The Violent Tomboy: Awesome name; I love it. Could you please tell me how you came to call yourself that? Thanks for the review. Feel free to leave a longer one next time. Don't get me wrong; I need all the reviews I can get, but feel free to comment on anything, even if it has nothing to do with the story.
game2002: Congrats on having the longest review yet. If you mean "roots" as in keeping the characters in-character, then you don't have anything to worry about. I will be writing this story as long as someone reads it; the power is in your hands. Don't worry, Chopper and Robin are still with the boat; they'll show up later, although I don't know when. Thanks for the great review; as I said before, feel free to offer any suggestions.
Please R&R
Chapter 3 - Luffy the Pie Merchant
(Slightly earlier)
SMASH
Before Hinata had time to wonder why Naruto was on top of her (again), she saw something crash into the space she had been standing in just a moment before. As the dust cleared, she noticed a young man lying in the ground without any markings describing his native village. Hinata realized that Naruto was still on top of her. Deeply blushing, she questioned, "N-naruto-kun?"
Realizing his position, Naruto blushed as well, quickly getting up and walking over to the young adult to hide his blush and check if he was alive. Kicking the still figure, he called down, "Hey you! Who are you and where'd you come from?"
"Are you okay, sir?" Hinata added, still blushing. 'Naruto-kun is blushing too; maybe he's starting to return my feelings.
Springing to his feet, startling the young ninjas, the man yelled, "I'm Luffy, and I'm a Pi…" Luffy caught himself before he disobeyed Nami's warning concerning their identies.
"A pie?" Naruto asked, confused.
"A pie uh.. Merchant! I'm a pie merchant!"
"This is Hyuuga Hinata, and I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I'm going to be hokage!
"What's hokage?" Luffy asked.
"What's hokage! The hokage is the most powerful ninja and leader of the village!" Naruto responded, aghast that someone didn't know what hokage meant.
"Wow! I'm going to be king of the pi… merchants.
"Wow! Can we have some pies?" Naruto asked excitedly.
"Who has pies? I love pies! Especially cherry!" Luffy responded, equally excited.
"Uh… You do Luffy-sama." Hinata enlightened the man.
"Oh, yeah. I uh… dropped them! Now I will have no money to buy meat!" Luffy lied, but not about his lack of funds.
"Hey, why don't you join us for lunch? I know a great ramen stand conveniently located on the outskirts of the village." Naruto excitedly said.
"Can you put meat on it?" Luffy asked, caught up in Naruto's excitement.
"Yeah! Pork, Beef they have all kinds of meat!" Naruto exclaimed, already dragging Hinata by the hand in the direction of the conveniently located shop as Luffy quickly followed.
Hinata didn't mind a bit. She just loved the feeling of Naruto holding her hand, despite the fact that he might not even realize what he was doing. 'Wow! Naruto-kun is holding my hand! Can this day get any better?' Hinata blushed at the pictures her mind showed her describing how the day could improve.
Naruto, oblivious as always, stopped suddenly as he noticed Akamaru in his human form fly past the street corner that led to the conveniently located ramen stand.
"Hey! What's going on here!" Naruto exclaimed as he rushed forward to examine the scene, still dragging Hinata.
The three youth came upon a scene of chaos. Sasuke was fighting some sort of samurai holding a sword in each hand and another in his mouth, Kiba was having a tough time with a well-dressed blond man, and Sakura had fought to a standstill with a young red-haired woman.
"My friends are in trouble!" All three suddenly exclaimed.
Naruto had just performed his trademark Kage Bunshin when he saw an arm stretch past him and clobber Kiba into a wall. He spun around just in time to see the arm return to its owner, Luffy. "Hinata-chan, go help Kiba and Akamaru; I'll deal with these freaks. (Turning to Luffy) I don't know how you did that or who you really are, but I know you're no pie merchant!" Naruto yelled as he sent clones after the blond man and Luffy.
While the man seemed to be having some trouble connecting with his powerful kicks, Luffy quickly disposed of every clone facing him with a Gum Gum Gatling Gun.
'This guy's unlike any ninja I've ever seen. I'll have to watch his moves very carefully and avoid his stretch attacks.' Naruto thought as he made more clones.
Naruto jumped forward and landed a solid hit straight to Luffy's jaw. 'Got him' Naruto thought before noticing that Luffy's head only absorbed the blow like a giant rubber ball.
'Wha—' Naruto thought before a Gum Gum Pistol to his jaw sent him soaring into the wall next to Hinata, who was trying to revive Kiba. Before Hinata could check on him, Naruto was back up, ready to go again. 'It looks like physical attacks have no effect on him' Naruto thought as he started charging up a swirling blue ball in his hand. "Let's see how you handle this! Rasengan!" Naruto yelled as he shoved his hand at Luffy. Luffy quikly took Naruto's legs out with a Gum Gum Whip. When Naruto realized his opponent's counter, he released the rasengan early and therefore only blasted Luffy into a fancy Italian restaurant.
After waiting one minute for his opponent to reappear, Naruto entered the restaurant through the hole his opponent had recently made in order to discover the result of his attack.
A short distance away, Zoro and Sasuke were having a hard time gaining an advantage over their opponent. As Sasuke breathed fire out toward Zoro, Zoro countered by charging through it with his swords out in front of him, ready to cut down Sasuke. Just before Sasuke received three new scars across his chest, he blocked the attack with two kunai and jumped back. He realized just how that attack had come when he saw the upper half of the kunai drop to the ground behind Zoro. Sasuke realized that that he would have to use his ultimate attack. He clasped his left hand over his right wrist as he began gathering chakra. He charged Zoro, intent on ending this fight.
(Zoro's POV)
'The raven-haired young man is charging me with his hand out in front. Wha— his hand is glowing and making a strange noise.'
Chi chi chi chi chi chi chi.
'I don't think I want to get hit by this; I'll have to block it.'
(End POV)
The chidori collided with Zoro's three swords. The resulting explosion threw both contestants back, both sliding to a stop in the street some 50 feet away. Zoro tried to rise, but collapsed in a heap, finding his hip dislocated. Sasuke was too battered to even attempt rising again.
Shikamaru was just entering the village when he saw a long-nosed stranger run out of the village with a look of terror. Deciding to determine the cause of the young man's fright, Shikamaru calmly strolled in the direction the youth had just come from. Just as he turned a corner, he saw a huge explosion expel Sasuke and an man with three swords.
"How troublesome" He commented as he meandered back to the field to resume his cloud watching.
When he reached his destination, he noticed that the man who had rushed past him earlier was in his spot, gazing at the clouds with a far off look in his eyes. When the stranger finally noticed Shikamaru standing there, he greeted him.
"Hi I'm Captain Usopp. Who are you?"
"Shikamaru. You don't strike me as the captain type." He commented.
"I am too a captain. I'm captain of a giant vessel, with hundreds of crewmates serving under me." Usopp retorted, indignant.
"Okay, whatever you say"
Usopp started to tell him about all of his marvelous exploits as Shikamaru quickly tuned him out and watched the clouds."
A/N: Feel free to IM me if you can; my screen name is the same as my email address without the I would welcome any conversations with my readers.
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