It was a bright day on the oceans of the East Blue, with the sun's waves hammering down on anyone who wasn't covered by shade. While this hot weather would be considered by many to be pleasant and refreshing, there were two pirates who thought otherwise. As Luffy and Zoro rowed their canoe while trying not to die of exposure (if hunger and thirst didn't get them first), both of them lamented their lack of food, water, but especially directions.
"I'm starving!", Luffy yelled up into the sky, which only caused his equally famished companion to groan, until a question popped into his mind.
"Say, Luffy".
"Hmm?".
"Don't you think it's strange that you can't navigate?".
"Nah, drifting has worked pretty well for me. What about you? You're supposed to be the terror of the seas!".
"I don't recall ever calling myself that. I followed a pirate that I was after out to sea, but I couldn't find the way back to my village. I still had to earn money somehow, so I made the best of things and began going after pirates in the area."
"Hmph! So you got lost?".
"You don't have to put it like that! Anyway, what kind of pirate doesn't know how to navigate a ship, it's ridiculous! At this rate, we'll never make it to the Grand Line. We've got to recruit a navigator as soon as possible".
"And we need a cook, and a musician, and a-"
"THOSE THINGS CAN WAIT!".
After this last outburst from Zoro, the two pirates flopped onto their backs and simultaneously groaned "I'm starving!", as the heat and hunger only seemed to get worse as time went by.
Suddenly, their attention was caught by a large flying object in the sky. Looking closer at it, the two pirates could see a rather small pair of wings (and what seemed to be some sort of pink hair), but they quickly turned their attention to the massive bag of fish that this flying creature was carrying.
"Look at all that fish, Zoro!", Luffy happily exclaimed, "Let's get some!".
"And how are we going to do that?".
"Easy!", Luffy boasted with a cheerful grin on his face as he gripped onto the sidebars of their rowboat's mast. "GUM GUM ROCKET!", he shouted as he launched himself at the bag of fish. Zoro put a hand on his forehead, trying to get a better look at how Luffy was doing. Suddenly, he saw that the creature was trying to shake Luffy off of the bag by shaking it back and forth. As Zoro kept watching, he saw that this creature was actually just some sort of flying cat carrying a pink-haired young man!
Unfortunately for Luffy and Zoro, said pink-haired young man had seemingly told the flying cat to hold onto the huge bag of fish (despite the bag dwarfing the flying cat in size), while the pink-haired guy crawled down the net to where Luffy was and began shouting at him to get off.
"HEY YOU! GET OFFA MY FISH!", the teenager shouted as his free hand was now a clenched fist. Luffy, who'd already stuffed one of the fish into his mouth, looked at Natsu, thought it over for a second, and gave a muffled response (which was probably something like "nah"), before resuming his consumption of the fish.
"THAT DOES IT!", the now seriously pissed pink-haired guy said, before winding up his clenched fist with a punch most certainly aimed at Luffy's head. However, Luffy and Zoro were both stunned when the fist suddenly burst into flames. Of course, Luffy's facial emotion went from awe to unpleasant realization shortly before the fist connected with him (it helped that the pink-haired guy loudly shouted "FIRE DRAGON IRON FIST" as he threw the punch), sending him flying towards the ocean surface as Zoro furiously rowed towards where he was before he could fall in and drown (all the while muttering about how much of a fool Luffy was).
Fortunately, one of Luffy's hands managed to hang onto the net, allowing Luffy to stop his fall just before he could hit the water. He then yanked himself back up to the net of fish with the velocity of a rocket, before aiming his head at the redhead's gut. Once his head collided with his opponent's stomach, the latter spit out some bile and was forced to let go of the raft, causing him to fall towards the ocean.
The flying blue cat cried out "NATSU!" in shock as his companion plunged towards the sea, with the pink-haired young man apparently unable to react due to having the wind knocked out of him. Fortunately, the lad apparently called "Natsu" happened to fall just as Zoro had caught up to where Luffy and the flying cat were, resulting in the pink-haired guy falling onto the ship with a loud "DUM!". Even though this caused the ship to rock a bit, it was miraculously unscathed otherwise.
Zoro, on the other hand, was both confused and caught off guard by the impact of someone falling onto the ship, which gave Natsu enough time to recover and get back on his feet. Immediately recognizing Zoro as another person trying to steal their haul, he wound up his fist and set it aflame again, with Zoro getting out his swords and preparing to defend himself in response.
However, before they could fight, Luffy interrupted by yelling down to the pink-haired guy: "Come on! All we want is some food. I mean, we're starving out here! Can't you and your flying cat save some for us?".
Natsu stopped, thought it over in his head for a few seconds, and then shrugged as he dropped his fist, the fire instantly vanishing from his hand.
"Well, I guess it wouldn't be right to leave a bunch of random guys to starve to death. Alright then. Hey Happy, come on down! Let's share our fish with these guys!".
The blue cat with wings (who was apparently called Happy) gave Natsu an uncertain look. "Are you sure, Natsu? These guys are pirates! How do you know they won't try and kill you once they've gotten some fish?".
"Nah, these guys won't do that. I can smell that they're good people. Besides, if they do, I can just beat the snot out of them! Now bring that fish down so we can chow down!".
"Aye, sir!", the cat happily exclaimed as it flew down towards Luffy's ship, with Luffy himself developing a large grin on his face as he clung onto the net of fish. Once they reached the boat, Happy tied the net of fish to the boat's side, before tossing some fish to the three guys, taking a fish for himself, and sitting on Natsu's shoulder. All 3 of the guys (along with Happy) happily cheered, before digging into the fish that was in front of them, all previous thoughts of conflict having been replaced by the need to feed.
The four of them quickly devoured fish after fish, and as they were eating, their moods all gradually improved, until Luffy patted his now-full belly and cheerfully exclaimed: "Ah, that hit the spot! Thanks for the fish, pink-hair!".
"No problem! And the name's Natsu, Natsu Dragneel!".
"Well, my name's Luffy, and this is my first mate Zoro. We're called the Straw Hat Pirates, and someday I'm gonna become the king of the pirates!", Luffy loudly declared before loudly laughing, after which he quickly resumed eating his fish. Natsu and Happy, taken somewhat aback by this declaration, both looked at Zoro, who simply shrugged and resumed eating his fish. The 2 of them then looked at each other, shrugged, and also resumed eating.
"So Natsu", Luffy said after a few minutes, "how come you can use fire? Did you eat the Fire Devil Fruit?".
"The Devil what?". "Devil Fruit. It's how I got my powers. I ate the Rubber-Rubber Fruit, which allows me to stretch my body parts as much as I want". As he finished saying this, he grabbed the left size of his mouth and pulled it until it stretched his grinning mouth wide open, chuckling as he did so. Natsu and Happy watched him the whole time, both of them being simultaneously impressed and weirded out by this strange power as they both said "Woah".
After Luffy's minor display of his rubber body, Natsu then turned to Zoro and asked: "So what's your Devil Fruit, then?".
"Me? I don't have one. All I need are my swords.", the green-haired Swordsman bluntly responded before quickly returning to his meal. This impressed the rather childish minds of Natsu and Happy, as the 2 of them did think that swordsmen were incredibly cool. Natsu even then began to happily imagine himself with 2 flaming swords chopping up bad guys while calling himself the "Dragon Swordsman".
That was, until Luffy's voice snapped him out of his daydream and back to reality.
"If you don't have a Devil Fruit, then what kinda power do you have?".
Natsu grinned. "I'm a fire wizard, and I got my powers from training with Igneel, the Fire Dragon King!", he proudly boasted, followed by Happy jumping up and cheerfully exclaiming "Aye, Sir!" like a sort of wingman.
Luffy's eyes widened with a childish gleam so bright that they almost sparkled. "You were trained by a Dragon? That is so cool!", he shouted as Natsu chuckled with pride.
Zoro, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow at Natsu's statement, before going back to his meal. He was genuinely impressed (and secretly imagining himself fighting a dragon in a 1-on-1, but he didn't want to show it.
"Hey Natsu", Luffy soon said in a somewhat more serious tone, "Do you think you can help us find land? Zoro and I have been stranded for days now, and we're out of food and water".
Natsu briefly thought it over. "Well, you guys don't seem like bad guys, which is weird because you're pirates, so I guess that's ok". "Great!", Luffy cheered as he and Zoro grabbed some oars and began to row. "Which way to shore?".
"That way", Natsu replied as he and Happy pointed northward, before Natsu himself grabbed some oars and began to row alongside them. As they rowed, Zoro asked: "Wait a sec. Why can't your weird cat just carry us there?".
"Are you kidding me?", the cat replied in an exhausted tone, "My arms are tired from having to hold that giant fish net with Luffy and Natsu fighting on it. Besides, even if I weren't tired I couldn't carry all 3 of you, and more than one trip from this distance with your guys' weight is too tiring for me. Besides, I'm stuffed from all this yummy fish!".
Zoro groaned at the cat's answer, but Natsu just chuckled and said "You take a good rest, Happy. The three of us can make it there in no time if we try hard enough". Luffy grinned at this positive and friendly response, liking this guy more with every passing second.
They rowed the boat together for a few minutes, until an idea popped up in Luffy's head.
"Hey, Natsu!". "Yeah?".
"What's your dream?".
"My what?".
"You know, what's your biggest dream, the most important thing you want to do in your life?".
Natsu pondered this for a good minute or so.
"Well, I think my main dream is to go on the world's biggest adventure!".
Luffy grinned at this response, realizing that he'd found a truly kindred spirit.
"Cool! Then how about you and your cat join my crew?".
The others stopped rowing and turned towards him, staring while comedically blinking at his proposal. Luffy turned his head and saw all three of them just looking at him and simply replied:
"What? He's got cool fire powers, and his flying cat could really come in handy with stuff like finding islands and food! Besides, you did say you wanted to go on a big adventure! Whaddya say, Natsu?".
Natsu stopped rowing and put a hand on his chin, seemingly thinking it over in his head. After a few minutes of him doing this, Luffy was about to ask what his decision was before Happy raised a paw and said: "Just give him a bit. Thinking about anything other than food or fighting requires a lot of mental energy for him".
"Well what do you think about joining us, Happy?".
"I'll just do whatever Natsu does. He's the one that raised me, and my best friend, so we do everything together. You guys seem pretty alright, though".
Just then, Natsu finally came to a decision. With a big smile, Natsu cheerfully announced: "Alright! I'll join your crew, Luffy!". Happy, who was always happy whenever Natsu was, simply jumped up and shouted "Aye, sir!".
Luffy laughed as Zoro simply put a hand on his face.
"But before I join you, I just need to check with Gramps to see if that's okay. At least I won't have to deal with that blockhead Gray anymore".
Before Luffy or Zoro could ask who Gray was, a narrow bridge of ice was quickly extending towards the Straw Hats' ship, and was quickly noticed by Zoro.
"Looks like we got company.", he noted as he got ready to swap his oars for his swords at the drop of a hat. Luffy also noted the ice closing in on their ship, but was more confused than anything, since the weather was great and the temperature was still as hot as it always was.
Natsu and Happy didn't seem to take the ice seriously, with the former groaning as he said: "Oh great, now the blockhead's here". True enough, Luffy and Zoro could soon see a young man wearing no shirt running towards them on the ice. Once he got to the boat, he stopped running and (after taking a second to catch his breath), dryly remarked:
"There you guys are. Of course you two would get lost since flame-brain over here's in charge".
"What the hell did you say?!". "You heard me! Only you could've screwed up something as simple as catching some fish!".
"It's not my fault! After we got the fish these guys began trying to steal some of it, but after they told me that they were starving and hadn't eaten in days, I decided to let them have some of the fish".
Being a bit less tense after hearing that Natsu had helped two people who were starving, Gray looked at the people in question and saw the one with a straw hat waving to him while the one with swords and green hair just gave him a dull, uncaring look.
Gray sighed.
"Whatever. But I'm not going to back you up when you have to explain to Gramps why you came home empty-handed. And who are you guys, anyways?".
"Well my name's Luffy, and this is my first mate, Zoro!".
Gray saw that the green-haired guy who (as Luffy had indicated) was named "Zoro" was giving him a look that was mostly just dull and uncaring, in contrast to his partner's cheerful and excited expression.
"Hey", Luffy said in order to get Gray's attention, "How did you freeze this lake?".
"Huh? I just used my Ice-Make-", Gray tried to respond until a sudden change in Natsu's expression caught his attention (as well as the attention of the others). His face was now serious and his eyes were narrow as they stared off into the distance, as if he had sensed something in the distance. He suddenly snapped his head to his right, and pointed straight in that direction as he said in a serious tone:
"I heard someone screaming from that direction. Come on, Happy".
Happy nodded and grabbed Natsu's back, but before they could fly off, Luffy shouted: "Wait!", causing them to halt and look at him.
"Happy, do you think you can bring me along, too?".
Happy and Natsu looked at each other, before looking back at Luffy.
"I guess I can, but don't complain if it's a rough landing. Natsu, hold on to him while I'm flying".
"You got it!", Natsu cheerfully exclaimed as he grabbed the back of a smiling Luffy's shirt. And with that, Happy flew off near the directions of the scream that Natsu heard, with Luffy grinning as Natsu held on to his shirt. This was already turning out to be really fun, and he'd just met Natsu!
As they flew off, Zoro and Gray briefly looked at each other, before Gray simply sighed and said "Follow me", before making a road of ice in the same direction that Happy had flown with Natsu and Luffy. He motioned for Zoro to follow him, and then ran in the same direction that Happy had flown. Zoro took a second and processed all of what had just happened in the past minute, before running after him with a "I'm just done with today" expression clear on his face.
As Happy was carrying Natsu and Luffy towards the source of the cry Natsu had heard, Luffy turned toward Natsu and asked: "So Natsu, where are you and that other guy from?".
"Oh, we just live on a nearby island with our Gramp-wait a minute, I see something!".
Luffy looked in the same direction Natsu was, but although he could see an island, it was too far away for him to make out anything on it.
"I can't see anything on the island from here."
"Don't worry, I got it. I can see some guys chasing someone near the dock".
"Wait, how can you see that far?".
"Oh, I've had really good senses for as long as I can remember. I can see and hear things from a mile away".
"Cool!".
"Thanks! Alright Happy, bring us in closer to the dock. We're going to hit the ground running!".
"You got it, Natsu!".
As they got close to the island, Happy began to gradually dip his flight pattern somewhat downward as Natsu had asked, allowing him to pick up some speed and let the two pirates get a clearer view of the dock. They were soon close enough that Luffy could also see a girl running from three thugs who were all wielding knives and/or revolvers.
Natsu tightened his grip on the back of Luffy's shirt, before looking up at Happy and saying "Alright Happy, we're going in!".
With an enthusiastic "Aye, sir!", Happy then let go of the pink-haired Pyromancer, letting both him and Luffy dive toward the girl and her three pursuers at rapid speeds. As they got closer to the group (who was too busy with their chase to look up), Natsu and Luffy looked at each other and nodded, before Natsu let go of Luffy and the 2 of them each wound up a fist. Seconds later, the three goons and the girl stopped their running as they heard two very loud battle cries above them:
"Gomu-Gomu no…"
"Fire Dragon's…"
Looking up, the four of them were shocked to see two young men diving at them with each of them having their right fist wounded back. The goons' faces quickly turned into a mixture of absolute shock and dread at the impending walloping that they were about to get.
"Pistol!"
"Iron Fist!"
BAM!
With just one combined blow, Luffy and Natsu knocked the three guys chasing Nami flat on their asses and out cold. They were all badly injured, but nothing that'd kill or cripple them.
The orange-haired girl who had been running from those men could only look in shock at her apparent saviors who'd fallen from the sky. Eventually managed to pull up her dropped jaw, she asked them:
"Wh-who the hell are you guys?"
They turned around to face her, and the black-haired lad with a straw hat on his head smiled before cheerfully replying: "Hey there! My name's Luffy!".
—
…Aaaaand it's finally done!
Sorry for how long this took, but college and writing block have both been my banes.
While it may seem short, I wanted this chapter to stand out as the "point of divergence" from the canon timeline, as to show how a minor difference in an early chapter can (and most definitely will) have massive ramifications on Luffy's story.
But trust me when I say that I do have a lot planned for this grand crossover. As I mentioned in the previous "chapter", a lot of the crossover elements/characters from other franchises won't appear until much later on, but I already have plans for them.
Anyways, thank you all so much for following (despite my lack of updates), and have an awesome day!