Chapter 3- Sabaody Archipelago
The sun had hidden beyond the horizon and it's last few rays of the day painted the western sky in various shades of orange, pink and violet, the sea was relatively calm, gently rocking a certain ship with a demon's face. Cool sea breeze danced with the sails. Despite this pleasant atmosphere, Naruto was in the captain's cabin, leaned back in the chair, feet on the table besides various scrolls, a small diary on his chest and eyes closed.
It had just been couple of hours since he'd been able to relax in the last few days, the whole of last night and much of today was spent making sure that the ship remained afloat. Shadow clones were very useful and normally he'd leave them to the job while he took care of other matters or rested a little, but if there was any drawback to the almost flawless technique, if you could even call it a 'drawback', it was that you had to at least be aware of a clone in order to maintain it. Sleep makes you loose your mental connection to the clone, thus dispelling it. He didn't like using elemental clones very much. And so Naruto had to be awake for almost two days straight and battle the sea constantly without rest, in other words, the usual mission drill for a shinobi. He had encountered snake like currents, huge fish and massive sea kings practically back to back since he left the Florian triangle. It was difficult sailing the ship safely through those situations, on top of that he had to make sure the redhead didn't get thrown out of the bed due to the constant rocking of the ship.
The girl had woken up the next afternoon after the Florian triangle, Peach's treatment combined with him sharing some of his chakra with her at fixed intervals had worked wonders. The fever had vanished the next morning and the shared chakra had recovered the strength she lost. Now, six days later she was good as new.
The girl was hysterical when she first woke up. It was a reaction Naruto had expected since she had lost their whole crew. Naruto stayed by her side and let her wail and scream and cry until her tears dried up. Then he transferred some more of his chakra in her and let her sleep. She next woke up six hours later in much better condition. She was still in a bad state mentally but at least he was able to convince her to eat something, he had to take out his limited edition ramen for that since he had little skill in cooking, he could roast and fry meat and fish but he was far from a cook.
After that the girl had told him what happened to her, apparently she and her crew had gotten in a fight with Firetank pirates and got totally annihilated. Desire, as the girl had introduced herself, was a speed racer from east blue. She had come to grand line to buy some new weapons; her speed boats had taken them this far in the grand line in just two weeks, only to get their crew annihilated at the hands of Firetank pirates. That was basically all the information Naruto got out of her, she was still mourning so he let her be for the time being.
Even after two days of constantly working, Naruto could not afford to sleep soundly. He needed to be able to get up quickly if something happened, grand line was messed up like that, from sudden turbulent currents to sea kings, you could never tell when the next trouble would hit. Naruto, being the sensor that he was, could detect sea kings approaching and take a relatively safer route, which avoided a lot of pointless fighting on his part. He thanked Pervy sage again in his mind, among many other things, Jiraiya had taught him how to sleep light and be ready to fight at any moment. It was a pain when he was actually training, Jiraiya would wake him at random time in the night for a spar, and still expected him to be ready to move out at the crack of dawn. 'It's something every ninja should be able to do,' he'd say, not that Naruto ever complained, he was ready to do anything to get stronger. And it certainly paid off, he had learnt to take rests whenever he could afford between a mission. And it was really handy when on the unpredictable grand line. Like now, Naruto felt a particularly massive sea king about a mile below the sea level. He continued to rest, the beast wasn't coming up so he didn't need to get up. Desire was manning the helm to keep the ship on course, so he had no concern about that either.
Four more hours later, Naruto woke up having rested sufficiently. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stepped out of the cabin. Desire was still at the helm, she had her eyes on the horizon and her back to him. She was wearing one of his white T-shirt and red shorts with white hearts on them. She was roughly the same height as him so his clothes fit her pretty comfortably.
Naruto descended the stairs to arrive on the deck, "Hey, Desire!" he said. The girl looked over her shoulder at him, she seemed to be in much better condition now, she even had a small smile on her lips. In past six days she seemed to have had come to terms with the fact that her crew was dead and was coping relatively well. "Come inside, I'm making dinner!" he waved his hand.
"Who's gonna keep the ship on track then?!" she yelled back over her shoulder.
Naruto created a shadow clone, "Come on!" he said and headed for the kitchen, the clone went to take Desire's place. He filled a kettle with water and put it to boil while he took out two cups of ramen from the pantry. He heard the door open when Desire entered and took a chair at the dining table. Naruto put the cups on the table and poured the boiling water in them. Now came the part he hated the most- waiting three minutes for the ramen to be cooked.
"You know, I've seen them a lot in these last few days but they still amaze me!" Desire said as she pulled up a chair.
Naruto just chuckled, "You should have seen me when I first got that ability! I would find any excuse to use them!"
"Yeah, most devil fruit users are like that!"
Naruto didn't correct her, instead he put one cup in front of the lady. He decided now was the time to ask her the question that was bugging him for a while now, he had given her enough time to mourn and recover.
"Hey, Desire?" he said to get her attention.
"What is it?" Desire stopped playing with the chopsticks to look at him.
"Why were you buying weapons?" he asked. She told him she was a speed racer in east blue so it didn't really fit that she'd be this far in the grand line to buy weapons, why would a speed racer even need weapons?!
"I was doing it as a favor for my friend, he runs the mafia on our island," she told him.
"Mafia?! Are you a criminal?" the girl didn't seem like a bad person, he'd have never guessed she had connections with the mafia. Plus it was pretty bold of her to just tell him she was helping mafia. On the other hand, she might have some reason for doing what she did, so he decided to hear her out before coming to conclusion.
"Not yet!" she smiled at him. Which explained nothing and just confused him instead. Seeing as Naruto was waiting for her to continue, she did, "I mean, the navy didn't put a bounty on me or anything. I just do some delivery of weapons and stuff from time to time."
"What about the mafia?"
"Bartholomeo keeps out the pirates, for a price. The Navy doesn't have a base that far in east blue so we have to protect ourselves," she took the cup in her hands and started eating. Naruto did the same. After a couple of bites of eating in silence, Naruto continued the conversation.
"So you guys became criminals to stop criminals?!" there was a lot wrong in that logic, 'why did they have to call themselves mafia? They could have protected themselves without labeling themselves as criminals,' he thought.
Desire laughed a little in the middle of swallowing the noodles, "Because, my dear saviour, the pirates don't fear normal people defending themselves! You call yourself mafia, build some underground connections and the pirates stay the hell away from your home!"
"I guess that makes sense," Naruto said in a low tone. "Doesn't navy know of your situation? Wouldn't they help you if you explained your problem?!" he asked.
Desire chuckled, "Oh the navy knows of our situation alright! But they have their own profits to make, who do you think was selling the weapons? It was a navy commodore! A navy captain has deep connections with the mafia and pirates from our region as well, he reports to his superiors that everything is nice and quiet and takes bribes from practically every outlaw in the sector!"
"I guess there are a few bad apples in every organization," Naruto said as he finished his meal. Even in Konoha, not everyone was a good person he knew- a certain Danzo came to his mind. "What are you going to do next?" he asked.
"I was going to set out to the sea with my friend but that stupid Bartholomeo has become obsessed with the Straw Hats and doesn't want to come with me anymore so that's out," she huffed.
"You were gonna become pirate with your friend?!" Naruto raised an eyebrow at her.
"Yeah, we sort of promised that we'd find the One Piece together, but I guess a promise to a friend doesn't mean anything to that traitor!" she grit her teeth.
First thing Naruto realised, from the way she spoke that she was really angry at her friend; and second, One Piece must one hell of a treasure to get so many people to set to sea in search of it.
"So becoming a pirate is out then?" Naruto asked as he got up from the chair and headed to the deck, Desire followed him outside.
"I don't know where to go from here," she said honestly.
'Losing so many of your comrades would do that to you,' he thought in his mind and smiled apologetically at her.
Desire looked at him to see a smile full of understanding. She somehow felt comfortable around him, so much so that she even shared her dreams and ambitions with him, she even told him about her connections to the mafia! Normally she'd never do that, she realised. Sure, she owed him for saving her life but it was a bit out of character for her to open up to anyone, but this guy somehow seemed trustworthy, he gave off this aura that he was someone who would understand you. She wouldn't have minded being around someone like that. This was a pirate ship and he didn't seem to have a crew, if he asked, she'd join him, she decided.
"I'm going to marineford, you can come with me if you want," his voice brought her out of her thoughts.
"What?!" her eyes widened a little. "I thought you were a pirate!" she said in disbelief.
Naruto just laughed, "Ah the jolly roger on the sails is kinda misleading I suppose!" he said. "This ship belonged to a pirate named Urouge. He was captured by the marines and I got the ship!" he grinned.
Desire didn't particularly like the navy, her previous encounters with marine officers did not paint them in good light. She saw them as criminals with 'Justice' coats, that's it. But Naruto seemed like a good person, if he thought it was a worthy organisation to serve under, then it couldn't have been that bad, she'd to go to the Sabaody archipelago for her original mission anyway, she thought to herself. "I'll think about it," she said finally. Was she willing to follow him in joining the marines just because he saved her life, Desire wondered to herself. At this point even she didn't know what she'd do.
Naruto smiled his usual warm smile at her, "Why don't you go and rest, you've been at the helm for a while. I'll take it from here, we're near Sabaody anyway."
"It's a beautiful evening, I'd like to stay out here for a bit," she said looking at the horizon.
Naruto was standing on the demon's head when the ship entered a port of Sabaody, waiting eagerly to take a close look at the archipelago. Desire was at the helm again, stirring the ship to a good spot where they could anchor. She'd been there lot's of times, she had told him, so she knew her way around the archipelago. The sails of his ship were rolled up, Naruto relying on water release again, to avoid pointless confrontation with the marines, just in case they spotted the jolly roger on the sails.
As they got closer, Naruto got a clear view of the enormous trees, thanks to the many street lights that illuminated the trees, he had to look directly upwards at the night sky to see the top of the tree. The tree had part of their roots exposed above the sea level, the striped trunk and roots of the tree were covered in moss at various places. The root near which Desire stopped their ship was almost five times as wide as their ship. Naruto watched in awe as many bubbles seemingly came out of the roots and trunk of the tree, reflecting the light from the nearby lamps in hundreds of different shades. It was a really beautiful scene in front of his eyes but the only thought going through his mind was, 'this is not it!' Naruto was disappointed and relieved at the same time, it didn't even resemble anything like a chakra tree. He jumped down from the figurehead. Despite it's impressive size and cool bubbles, they were just bunch of ordinary trees, that much he could tell from just a glance.
There were a few people dressed in similar clothes to each other atop the root, as soon as their ship was anchored they approached and boarded the ship. Naruto didn't know what they were doing, Desire stood a step behind him and put a hand on his shoulder, "They work for a hotel here, this is Hotel district of Sabaody," she said in his ear.
Naruto nodded. The men stood on the deck smiling from ear to ear, "Good evening sir," the scrawny man in front with wimpy moustache said. "Do you need any assistance finding a place to stay for the night?" he asked.
"Yeah sure," Naruto replied. He wouldn't mind having a nice place to spend the night, to him it felt like ages since he slept on solid land. This was only his second time spending this long on the open sea.
"Excellent, please come with me! The men will take care of your ship, have no worry about that!" the man said.
Naruto didn't worry about the ship, it wasn't his to worry about. Besides, all of his stuff was safely stored in sealing scrolls. Naruto and Desire followed the man on the archipelago proper. The huge tree in the middle of the district read 'GR-72', in front it had a large building with 'Paradise hotel' written in neon lights and many other spherical rooms wrapped around it's trunk in a spiral. Besides that, most other buildings had spherical shape. There were many pillars with multiple metal wires connecting each of them which had more of those spherical rooms. The road they were walking on had a lot of junk food and ice cream stalls, some kids were riding bikes that were attached to bubbles, people were carrying the stuff they purchased in bubbles, everywhere he looked bubbles were being used in most unusual and creative way for day to day activities.
"People really like bubbles here, don't they?" he said out loud as he watched a few children trying to out speed each other on their bubble bikes.
"Why yes! The bubbles of Yarukimen mangrove are really useful!" the wimpy moustache man replied with his same smile. "Even buildings are made out of bubbles here!"
That surprised Naruto a bit, "Really?! I thought people here just really like spherical design for buildings!"
"No, it's just convenient! You take a bubble, coat it with some sturdy metal and viola..you have a room!!" The man explained.
"Sounds amazing," They had neared the tree by now. They passed the entrance gate and headed in the main building of the hotel. A pretty brunette receptionist greeted them with a warm smile.
"Welcome to hotel Paradise! How may I help you sir?" She said in a cheerful voice.
"Give us two of your best rooms for the night please," Naruto returned her smile.
"Of course," the receptionist handed him a pad. "Please, fill up your information while I get the keys," she said as she got up from her chair.
Naruto filled up the bare minimum amount of information on the form, he wrote his name, in place of his hometown he wrote the first island that popped in his head- Banaro island and that was it. He paid the cash and Gama-chan got significantly lighter. The same man that escorted them here led them up the stairs on the forth floor to their rooms. Naruto's room was right next to Desire's.
"You wanna go out to eat?" Desire asked just as she and Naruto were about to go in their own rooms.
Naruto put his chin on his index finger, "I did eat only one ramen cup," he thought out loud, he turned to look at her and smiled, "Why not, let me take a quick shower and we'll go out!" Naruto said and entered his room, completely oblivious to a blushing Desire at his off handed mention of 'going out'. Desire shook her head and entered her own room. 'He didn't mean it that way!'
The room was very luxurious, stacked with expensive looking furniture, weird paintings of random things and delicate decorations all over the place. There were magazines stacked in a neat pile on the table in the living room, the one on top read 'Grand Line Glamor' with a picture of a very hot blonde in a seductive pose. 'New material for sexy jutsu!!' Naruto cheered in his mind.
"You're never gonna grow out of that jutsu, are you?" he heard Kurama say in his mind.
"Hey! in my defence, it let me punch a goddess in the face!"
Kurama snorted, "Face it Naruto, you're just as big a pervert as your sensei! You just hide it better."
" I'm not...wait, are you talking about Kakashi sensei or Pervy sage?"
"Both." Kurama replied immediately.
"C'mon I'm not that bad!" Naruto defended himself in weak voice which only weaken his point.
"Really?! Then tell me, how old were you when you developed that jutsu?!"
"I...uh..w-well..I was...," Naruto trailed off.
"What was that?! I didn't hear you, and I'm in your psyche plane!"
"Fine! You made your point, you jerk!" Naruto pouted, which just made Kurama chuckle. Naruto had developed the sexy jutsu when he was eight after reading a lot of stolen adult magazines and watching a lot of kunoichi bathing in the waterfall where he used train alone nearby. Female form had a power over men, even his younger self realised that quickly. He was a kid, he did what fascinated him, and seeing as there was no one to tell him against it, he kept doing it.
After ending the conversation, Naruto removed his clothes and went straight in the bathroom. It took a while even for the pleasant hot water to remove the saltiness from his hair and skin. Just as he turned off the shower, he heard a knock on the door. 'It must be Desire,' he thought, it surprised him a little that she got ready this quickly. Naruto wrapped a towel around his waist and opened the door.
"Hey, Desire! What's up?!" Naruto grinned at the young lady. Water from the shower was still dripping from his body.
She took a moment to speak as her eyes took in his half naked form, "You forgot to give me some clothes, I'm not going out in this!" she pointed at herself. She was still wearing the white T-shirt and red shorts with white hearts.
"Oh sorry," Naruto scratched the back of his head with his right hand, "Come on in, I think I left the clothes in the bedroom." He said and stepped aside to let her in.
Desire's eyes didn't miss his right arm, she saw it was pale almost white, unlike the rest of his body. Naturally, curiosity got the better of her, "Hey Naruto," she said as she followed him inside.
"What is it?" Naruto replied as he fished the pocket of his clothes for the sealing scroll that had his clothes.
"What happened to your arm?" she asked in a low voice in case it was a sensitive subject.
"Oh this? It's a prosthetic arm," Naruto replied and unconsciously touched his right arm with his left.
"Prosthetic?!" Desire's voice couldn't hide her surprise. "But it looks so real!" she said and grabbed his right to take a closer look. Which made Naruto chuckle.
"It was made especially for me, trust me it's better than the original I lost!" The arm was made out of lord First's DNA, granny Tsunade had told him that he could 'theoretically' use Wood release with it, Naruto never tried it. He already had more Kekkai Genkai than anyone else in the shinobi world.
Naruto finally found the scroll among the many he had in his possession, he unsealed a pile of clothes that were mostly orange with some white and black here and there. Desire chose a white shirt with a Uzumaki spiral on the chest and black pants.
"I'll meet you downstairs in an hour," Naruto said to Desire who was still staring at his right arm.
His words brought her out of her thoughts, whatever they were, "Oh yeah of course," she said with a sheepish smile and left him alone. Naruto took some fresh bandages and wrapped them around his prosthetic arm, he chose a black shirt, black pants and an orange hoodie.
Naruto walked back in the living room and slumped down on the fluffy couch. He picked up that magazine from before and started reading it. Every page was filled with erotic photos of beautiful women, Naruto memorized them down to the last detail, no matter what anyone said, Sexy jutsu was handy in a pinch. 'I can pose like that, no big deal!' Naruto said to himself as he put down the magazine.
He still had some time before he was supposed to head out, he decided to summon Kosuke while he was waiting. It had been more than a week since he had last summoned the messenger toad, he bit his left thumb- Boar, dog, bird, monkey, ram after a puff of white smoke cleared, Kosuke was in front of him, grinning from ear to ear.
"Hey, Boss!" his summon greeted Naruto.
Naruto smiled at his little messenger toad, "Hey Kosuke, you're in a good mood!"
"Of course, I just ate Ma's special caterpillar rice balls!"
Naruto remembered Ma's special cooking like it was yesterday, he had to eat a shit tonne of high quality ramen to get the taste of bugs and caterpillar guts out of his mouth when he got back to Konoha. The most terrifying part about eating toad food wasn't that it was horrible, on the contrary, Naruto had started to like it. That's why it freaked him out, it was one thing to be a toad sage, it was another matter entirely to live like an actual toad.
"She didn't pack a bento box for me, did she?!" Naruto asked, half scared Kosuke might pull out a box full of centipede soup.
"No, no. She didn't get the chance, I left in a hurry when you called! So what's up?"
"Oh right, I called you to ask you about the last mission. How did it go?"
"I completed the mission successfully in no time boss!" Kosuke huffed out his chest, "Lord Sixth told me to tell you that the Crypto analysis division is trying their best to figure out the language and symbols but so far they didn't have any success,"
Their luck wasn't that great that Shiho and her team would be able to decipher the language within days, Naruto knew. "Thats fine. Anything noteworthy happen in the village?"
"No, it's been peaceful. Although lord Sixth said that the topic of your mission was brought up in the last five kage summit."
"Sensei had to inform them of my mission, it does concern all of the shinobi world." Naruto thought out loud. "Anything else?"
"No that's pretty much it, boss,"
"Alright. You can go home now, Kosuke. Say hi to everyone for me okay?" Naruto said to the crimson toad.
"You got it!" Kosuke saluted and vanished.
Desire walked in the bathroom and adjusted the temperature of water to her liking, she stripped her clothes and stepped under the pleasant hot water. To think that a week ago she had accepted, even welcomed death after taking some serious hits in that fateful battle. Desire had never thought she'd ever even open her eyes again, but fate had kept her alive for some reason. When she had awakened, she had wished she hadn't, death with her friends seemed a lot more preferable than being the only survivor. She mourned them but deep inside her heart she knew of the dangers of her profession, her friends knew that as well, they always knew death was possibility.
Having someone like Naruto beside you in that time certainly helped, he didn't tell her to let it go or get over it or anything like that, he'd let her grieve in peace. Only saying a few comforting words and assuring her that she was safe. He was an enigma to her. Desire knew that Naruto didn't know that much about the world, it was clear to her from just a few conversations with him. It was clear that this was the first time he had left his home island, wherever that was, on top of that he didn't seem to have a crew while sailing the grand line, she was surprised and scared for both of their sakes when she found that out, but Desire quickly realised that her fears were unfounded when he showed her his devil fruit ability. A man that can create copies of himself hardly needed a crew, she thought to herself.
Plus he had a good heart, anyone else in his position would have demanded something out of her, but aside from asking some basic information about her, he didn't ask for anything. People with good hearts didn't last long on the grand line, she came to a morbid realisation. She hoped that he was strong enough to atleast protect himself.
Desire hoped that she could help him at least in some way to repay her debt, but she had her own home to worry about for now. Besides, she could come and find him later, she would repay her debt by helping Naruto in whatever it was he was set out to do. She'd come back to find him later, she decided.
Desire was waiting for him at the reception area when he arrived, "I know a really good place, it's a little far from here but the food will be worth it." she said as she fell in beside him.
"Sounds good," Naruto said as they both came out of the hotel. It was around nine o'clock and both were hungry, still the scenery was beautiful enough to take their minds off of their hunger.
"So, you decided yet?" Naruto said out of the blue as they passed an ice cream stand.
"Decide what?" she didn't know what he was talking about.
"Where are you gonna go from here?" Naruto looked at her.
"Oh that! I'm not really sure I belong in the navy, plus I need to complete this delivery if my home is to be safe!" she said in a soft voice.
Naruto was a little disappointed but didn't show it, he would have liked if the girl quit the criminal life and adopted more legal means to fight her problem in her homeland but he wasn't there to change the world, he was there to make sure that this world(along with the shinobi world) remained untouched by the Otsutsuki in the future.
"Suit yourself!" Naruto shrugged. "Who am I to tell a lady what to do?"
"Wow! Such a gentleman!" she batted her eyes in an over the top manner, making Naruto laugh out. "All you lack is shining armor, sir!" she said as she bit her lower lip.
"It's my pleasure to be of service miss!" Naruto said with a little bow of his head and flourish of his hand. He wasn't very good at flirting. But still Desire smiled a little.
The two continued to joke and laugh all the way until they exited the grove 72, at the start of grove 73, Naruto spotted a rental bike shop.
"Say, Desire," he said to get her attention.
"Hm?" she replied absently as she was busy observing the people around them.
"How far is the restaurant?" Naruto asked.
"It's in the next district, in grove 24."
"So pretty far?" actually it wasn't far at all for Naruto, he was used to walking to different countries on foot, compared to that this distance was nothing.
"Um you can say that," Desire shrugged.
"Excellent! Let's get a rental bike then!" Naruto grabbed her hand and practically dragged her to the bike store. Bubble bikes looked fun, he very rarely had times to do things for fun these days. With all the missions and learning from Kakashi sensei about how to run the village, he didn't get much time off. And when he was free, his new fan girls would drag him to this shop and that restaurant and he was too much of a gentleman to say no to anyone. Besides he liked to hang out with a crowd. But now that he was in a completely different world, where no one knew him, it was like a vacation; as long as he kept working, he could even enjoy a little bit.
"Slow down will ya! You're gonna rip my arm off!" Desire yelled in his ear.
Naruto stopped in front of the store and let go of the lady, "Oops, sorry," he smiled sheepishly.
Desire just sighed. "It's okay. Let's just get the bike."
"Hey old man!" Naruto called out the elderly shop owner.
"Good evening! How may I help you," the old man had a wrinkled face and head full of gray hair.
"I need a bubble bike," Naruto grinned like a child, it was fun to do things just for fun.
The old man nodded and checked one of his shelves. After about a minute of looking at every bike, he brought out a medium sized two seater. "There, it should be perfect for you and your girlfriend!" the old man said as he grabbed nearby bubble that was easily six feet in diameter and attached it to the wooden bike.
"She's not my..." Naruto looked at Desire who had taken half a step away from him and was blushing furiously. Seeing that made Naruto laugh out loud, and earned a punch from Desire, "...she's not my girlfriend. Just give me the bike," he said, much to Desire's relief. "How much do I owe you?" he asked.
"Five hundred berry a day for rental and if you wanna buy one I'll give you a discount price of ten thousand berry!" the shopkeeper rubbed his hands together.
"Sure I'll-"
"Rental is fine," Desire cut him off. "Trust me, you don't wanna buy one of those."
Naruto was a little confused but then just shrugged, she was more familiar with the area than him and she must have had a reason to not let him buy that bike, "Rental it is then!" He took out five hundred berry from his pocket and gave it to the shopkeeper.
Naruto jumped on the bike first, "C'mon, let's go!"
Desire had an amused smile on her lips after watching his child like enthusiasm. She too climbed up and sat behind Naruto. The two floated along the street on their new ride.
They passed through grove after grove filled with mainly hotel buildings just like the one they'd rented until they arrived at grove seventy nine. To get to the next grove GR-25, they had to cross a wooden bridge that connected the both groves. When they were halfway through the bridge, Desire nudged Naruto to get his attention.
Naruto looked over his shoulder to see a very serious Desire, just looking at her he knew it must be something important, "What's the matter?"
"This next area is a lawless district where pirates, bounty hunters and human traffickers run wild. Be careful okay?" she said with a lot of concern in her voice. She didn't want to see him get in trouble.
"Lawless area? I thought Marineford was close by here?" With the headquarters of navy so close, it seemed a little far-fetched to Naruto that any part of this archipelago was lawless.
"Yeah, the navy doesn't come this deep in the island even though they have a base on the archipelago," she explained further.
"They have a base here? Why didn't you tell me before?! I would've gone there the moment we arrived!"
"I swear to god I thought you knew about that!" she said in total seriousness, "Besides, you can still go there tomorrow,"
Naruto thought about it for a second, "Yeah, I'll go there tomorrow." he said finally.
Grove 25 was a lot less populated, Naruto observed at a glance, there were no children that he could see and he could count the ladies on his fingers. Instead, there were a bunch of rough looking guys walking in groups, none troubled them however. Naruto pretended not to see them, he didn't want beat up anyone without a reason. The same situation was in grove 24, he even spotted some pirates from his bingo book there. But they minded their business and he let them be.
Desire pointed at the end of the street at a big three storied restaurant, it looked like a expensive place from just the look of it, "There, the fancy building by the Ice cream stand!"
Naruto's eyes followed her finger, 'how fancy could it be, it's in a lawless district!' Naruto wondered to himself. Naruto stopped the bike at the arched entrace of the restaurant and hopped down. Desire followed suit.
There was a guy in a suit with a writing pad in his hand at the reception area by the door. He greeted them both with a smile when they entered, "Welcome to the 'Roasted Sea King'!" he said in a cheerful voice.
"Hi, we need a table for two please," Naruto said.
"Of course, right away. Follow me, sir," and they did.
The man led them to the other side of room to a table near the window, it was obvious he was trying to seat them as far away from the rough crowd as possible. Naruto noticed Basil Hawkins and his henchman eating at the other side and also Captain Kid eating with his crew.
"A word of advice sir, please don't cross the pirates!" the man said in a warning voice as they both sat in their chairs. "For the last two days now, a lot of big name pirates are arriving at Sabaody."
"You got it," Naruto said with a smile.
"Now then, what can I get you?" the man said once again in his cheerful voice.
Desire and Naruto both accepted the menu from the man's hand and scanned through the pages, "I'll have the sea king steak with some potatoes,"
"Sea king steak for me as well!" Naruto said, he never ate it before and wanted to try it for once.
"What kind of vegetable would you prefer with your steak sir?" the man asked.
"Why would I want vegetables?!" Naruto replied in a genuinely confused tone with a frown on his face. He hated all vegetables, no way in hell he was going to order them in a restaurant willingly where he could get literally anything else. His sensei would feed him fresh vegetables once every few weeks or so with the bribe of extra training, those were the only times he suffered through the experience of eating vegetables. His tone of speaking almost made Desire spit out her water. A grown man frowning at the mention of vegetables 'That's so childish!' she thought to herself with a small chuckle.
The man went back with their orders leaving Naruto and Desire alone. Other than the pirates, there were a lot of people there in fancy clothes, mostly merchants who were either going to the New World and coming from there and rich people on vacation.
A waiter filled their glasses with fancy expensive wine and about twenty minutes later their food arrived.
"This is a fun place!" Naruto said as he took the first bite of the steak. Just then a loud laugh of the pirates at other end erupted. "You know, if you ignore the lovely pirates." he added.
Desire smiled, "If you think this is fun, wait till you see the amusement park." she said.
"There's an amusement park here?!" Naruto was clearly intrigued, although he tried to hide it as mere curiosity.
Desire nodded, "We can go there tomorrow if you want. You know, after I finish my business!"
"Yeah, the weapons thing! If I wrap up my business with the marines quickly, then I'll have plenty of time to explore these trees!"
"Sure, I can show you around later, but in the meantime watch out for the big three- pirates, bounty hunters and human traffickers and you'll be fine," Desire said as she sipped the wine.
"Okay I gotta ask, how many human traffickers are here?! This is second time you're warning me since we left the hotel." It wasn't like he wasn't familiar with that business, back in the elemental nations some scumbags would band together in a business to kidnap and sell human beings as slaves, it was a messed up place like that, but the instances of that happening were rare and few. He was a little worried that slavery might be legal in this world.
"A lot. They capture pirates, criminals and people from nations that aren't allied with the world government and sell them as slaves. But that's just what they say though, in reality they capture anyone they can, doesn't matter where you're from and if you're a criminal or not, and you can't plead for justice anywhere!"
Naruto's mind went blank for a second, "So slavery is legal?!" he asked, dreading the answer.
"Only on this island. And that too because the Celestial dragons are regular customers there," Desire said. "Legally, slavery was banned two hundred years ago."
Naruto made a face like he ate something disgusting. True, he didn't come here to change this world for the better or anything like that, but he wouldn't be Uzumaki Naruto if he let the innocents continue suffering knowing he could help them. He had decided what he'd be doing after dinner. Plus, everytime he heard about those celestial dragons, his perception of them had gotten worse and worse, and it wasn't that good to begin with.
Rest of the dinner was consumed in relative silence, Naruto led the way out of the restaurant in a hurry, Desire was a little confused with his sudden change in demeanor but didn't say anything.
Once they were outside, Naruto turned to face Desire, "Take me to the place where they sell people." He said in an eerily calm tone which Desire quickly picked up on. She nodded.
Desire led him to the grove number 22, a small building named 'Human Shop' was a little to the side, away from public eyes. Naruto walked in with Desire in tow, it was a relatively small circular building with about twenty small rooms on two floors seperated with each other by metal bars and blocked with a glass wall in front.
As soon as they entered, a short rat faced guy with a goatee in a skii hat and a t-shirt that said 'Sell' approached them, 'probably the owner of this slave shop', Naruto guessed.
"Welcome to my humble establishment good sir! How may I help you this fine evening?" The guy said in an over he top manner.
Naruto didn't even bother to reply the guy, instead he walked over to the nearest holding cell to his left. There was a dark haired young girl in it, probably in her early twenties, Naruto guessed. She was wearing very revealing clothes that left little to the imagination and the way she was trying to cover her exposed body with her arms and legs, Naruto guessed that she wasn't wearing them out of own free will.
"Her name's Charlie, she is a really good dancer and singer from east blue. Trust me, you won't be disappointed with her, she'll do anything and everything you ask her to do!" the man was standing a step behind him, rubbing his hands together. Naruto looked at the girl, her eyes were puffy and red like she cried a lot, and she looked to be on verge of tears again. Naruto grit his teeth in a barely controlled rage.
He moved on to the next cell, this had a scrawny looking blonde guy that was sitting with his head in his lap.
"He is Karl, a shipwright from south blue. Really hard worker, assign him any task and he'll do it. You'd be wise to purchase him!" The shopkeeper said with an obnoxious laugh.
Naruto stopped in front of each cell, the shopkeeper told him basic information about each of the to-be-slaves. There were four girls and four men, all from east blue, two from the south and eight pirates from the west blue. Desire was still at the entrace door, she was looking at him with a worried expression on her face.
After he was done checking each cell, Naruto was back in front of the guy's desk, he didn't even ask his name.
"Open them." He said.
"Good, I knew you'd have a good eye!" the shop owner said with a cheerful voice, oblivious of Naruto's barely controlled anger. "Which one?" he asked.
"All of them." Naruto replied plainly.
"...All? Sir?" the man asked in a confused tone.
"Don't make me repeat myself!" Naruto had an edge to his voice.
"A-Alright," the shopkeeper gulped and hurried to get the keys.
One by one, all the cells were opened and the people gathered in front of Naruto. He noticed they still had collars around their necks.
The shopkeeper brought a bill in front of him, "Total of eighteen products, each one worth five hundred thousand berry, since you're buying in bulk that's discount price, that'd be nine million berries in total!"
"Is this your shop? Or do you run it for somone else?" Naruto didn't even act like he heard what the man said.
The man puffed his chest at the question, "It's mine of course! My father used to run it before me, and his father before him. For generations we provide the finest of slaves for our customers!" the man said with a lot of pride.
'Scumbags to the core huh,' Naruto thought with disgust. It wasn't like it was first time he was seeing the practice of slavery, back home human trafficking was one of the major issues that plagued the elemental nations, people like Gato had made a fortune from kidnapping and selling people. Just because he was in a different world didn't mean he had left his values and personal morals behind. He was fine with putting criminals behind bars for their whole life or even execute them if no other option was possible but even criminals didn't deserve a collar around their neck, it was simply unthinkable even for the dark world of shinobi.
Naruto made no move to take the bill from his hands, "Remove their collars." he said. Everyone in front of him widened their eyes and looked at him in disbelief.
"E-excuse me, sir? I think I misheard you, I thought you said-"
"You didn't mishear me. I said, remove their collars," Naruto emphasized each word to get his point across.
"I-I don't think that's a good idea, sir. The collars keep them in line, you see if they attempt to run the collar explodes, same thing if you press this button!" the man took out a small remote control to show him. Naruto snatched it from his hands before he could even blink. The man's indignant 'hey' went unacknowledged.
"I said, remove their collars!" Naruto leaked his barely controlled bloodlust and focused it on the shopkeeper. The man was sweating and sputtering and scurried to compete his task , he stumbled and fell on his way to get the keys to the collar.
When he got back, Naruto snatched the keys from his hands. He began to unlock collar after collar, four of the men were really tall, easily nine to ten feet, they bent their knees to let him unlock their collars. The people were stunned, they didn't know what to make of their new 'owner'. They had thought that they would spend rest of their lives tied by a chain working for their 'masters'. Normally, if their collar was removed, first thing they'd done was run in any direction they could find, as long as it was away from their owners. But some stranger had willingly removed their collars, the act was enough to hold them in their spot to see what was going to happen. They simply didn't know what Naruto was going to do next.
"Now, we should complete the paym-" the shopkeeper was saying but Naruto cut him off.
"Now that I bought you all, your first task for me is, tell me what should I do with him?" Naruto clapped the shop owner on the shoulder and the man nearly jumped out of his skin.
The freed people (not that they were sure that they were freed) had gotten a hard look on their face after hearing the first part of his sentence, but it soften as they heard what he actually said. They were right, he wasn't some sadistic man to take their collars off to put them in something worse. But they didn't know his motives either, which made them a little wary of him.
"Kill him!" some of them yelled in unison. They were looking the man that had them locked up in a small cell with nothing but pure contempt and absolute loathing. The girls had tears in their eyes and the men actually stepped forward to do the job themselves.
Where he heard what Naruto said, the man stumbled and hurried towards a transponder that was on the semicircular desk by the entrance. Naruto made no move to stop him, if he got his partners in crimes to come here that would just save him the trouble of going after them by himself.
"You'll regret this! You'll regret messing with me, you hear me!! I have powerful allies, I'll have all of you back in chains once again, even you!" he pointed a finger at Naruto, "I'll make sure you spend the rest of your life as a slave!" he screamed as he dialled a number.
Naruto was a man of peace, he liked to see the good in people, he believed in second chances and believed that people could change. It didn't mean that he didn't know there were scumbags that the world would be better without. This particular person belonged to the latter category, not only was he in this business willingly, he seemed to be proud of it. You can bring the people who have lost their way back on the path of good but those who willingly choose to walk down the road of evil were beyond reason.
"Hey, Desire," Naruto called out to the girl that was watching the scene unfold from a little distance away from him.
"Yeah?" she answered and moved to stand closer to him.
"If I hand him over to the world government, would they punish him?" he asked her.
"Nope. When it comes to slavery on Sabaody, they become partially deaf. They'd just release him and charge you with obstruction of 'legal' business!" she a made a face as she said that.
Naruto sighed. "I wish it didn't come to this," he knew he had no other option. By now, the man had his back to him and was almost finished talking with whoever it was on the other end of the call. In one swift motion of his hand, Naruto threw a shuriken at the base of his skull. The weapon severed the connection of spine to the skull as it remained stuck. Quick and painless, the man was dead in seconds.
Most of the almost-slaves looked relieved and happy, the four girls hugged each other and started crying. The former pirates looked disappointed that they didn't get to kill the man themselves.
"Follow me," Naruto said as he walked towards the door, when the people were still at the same spot, he stopped, "Unless you'd rather stay here!" that got them moving.
Once outside, the blond one of the four girls took his bandaged hand in her's, "T-Thank you...I thought..." was all she could muster with her shaky voice until she broke down.
Watching her cry like that broke his heart, the only crime she might have committed was being in the wrong place, and she was about to pay for it with eternal servitude. Naruto did the first thing that came to his mind, he pulled her close and hugged her protectively, "It's okay, you're safe now," was all he said. The girl buried her face in his chest and began crying even louder. After a few minutes, her tears dried up and the fact that they were free once again was settled in their minds.
Once Naruto seperated himself from the crying girl, he walked closer and stood in front of the band of eight pirates, "You are pirates, aren't you?" he looked at the man that was closest to him.
"Yes, we were," Naruto just tilted his head in confusion prompting the man to continue, "We are done with piracy," the man said, Naruto sensed regret in his voice, not because of his ability to read negative emotions but because the man's face said so, "We did horrible things and hurt many people, for that god punished us, and we almost became slaves. But you saved us from that fate, we will never ever forget this miracle. We won't hurt anyone else ever again."
Naruto smiled at the man's answer, "That's good to hear, but you understand if I don't let you walk away?"
"What do you mean?" the pirate asked.
"I'll hand you over to the marines." he wanted to see if what the guy said really meant it. If he hesitated or tried to fight him, he'd know the guy had no intention of sticking to word. But the what he heard definitely surprised him.
The man he was talking to just chuckled humourlessly, "Compared to what we just avoided, prison sounds a lot better. Honestly I'd rather be locked away than be someone's slave." he said and his crew nodded to show their support.
Hearing that made Naruto smile, he turned towards the shop, if he left it like that, there was high chance someone else would take residence here and start the business all over again. Naruto quickly went through the hand signs and gathered some chakra in the back of his throat,
"Fire style: Dragon flame bullet"
Naruto watched as his favorite fire release jutsu turned the building to ash in front of his eyes.
Rest of them were watching the destruction with satisfaction in their eyes, "Follow me." he said as he gestured to get their attention, "Come on, let's take you somewhere safe," Naruto said as he led the way. All eighteen of them followed him without a word.
XXX
Naruto had gathered them in his room once they had arrived back at the hotel. The girls were sitting on the sofa with Desire, the men had pulled some chairs and the pirates sat on the ground with Naruto. Everyone was looking at Naruto to see what he would say to them. So far, he had asked to introduce themselves, the girls, Charlie, Lily, Sam and Amy were from Oykot kingdom in east blue, they were in a band together with four other boys their age. They had come to Sabaody to perform at the Sabao dome.
The two carpenters Karl and Bob were from the south and were headed to Water-7 in search of work before they were kidnapped.
The big guy Shawn, captain of Midnight pirates was from the west blue, him and his crew were captured as soon as they entered the grand line and brought here to sell.
"We can set sail tomorrow, I can take you back to east blue," Naruto said to the dancers, "We can drop the shipwrights on Water-7 as well."
The girls nodded. They were eager to go home after what they experienced, as would anyone.
"But you had an important job at Marineford, didn't you?!" Desire asked him with a raised eyebrow.
"Well yeah but Marineford isn't going anywhere. I can take a little detour, I think." Naruto said.
Desire just shook her head, he was proving to be one of the most selfless people she had ever met, not many people would go out of their way to help others. He had saved her life, in return at least she could his job easier for him. 'Someone so kind hearted doesn't belong on the grand line, let alone in the Marines,' she thought as she looked at him. "You don't have to do that." Naruto opened his mouth to say something but Desire cut him off. "I'm from the East blue, in case you forgot. And I'll be heading home tomorrow anyway, I can take them back." she said.
"You sure?"
"Yeah! I mean I can't sail the grand line on my own, this way we can help each other!"
"That makes sense!" Naruto smiled at her, "Thanks a lot! You can take my ship in that case." Desire nodded and slumped back in the comfy sofa. Naruto turned to Shawn and pirates, "Theres a base close by here, I'll hand you over to them. Don't cause any troubles in the future." Naruto said to the pirates.
"We swear, we won't do anything!" Shawn said.
"That's great!" Naruto smiled and created a clone, "He'll escort you there!" The pirates didn't look to happy but followed the clone out anyway. He had memorized their chakra, if they attempted to run they wouldn't get far.
Once the pirates were out, the band of eight artists followed suit and went to the rooms Naruto had rented for them. And now only Desire and he remained.
"You know, if you act too generous people will take advantage of you," Desire said with a smile.
"You call it generosity, I call it common courtesy. If there's someone who needs help and you have the power to help them, it's only natural that you should help them." he said, still sitting on the floor.
"Ah so wise! I feel like I'm talking to some old man," she teased him.
Naruto chuckled, "You didn't say you disagree, did you?"
Desire shook her head, "No, I didn't."
A couple of seconds of comfortable silence lingered until Naruto broke it, "Are there anymore shops like that around here?" Naruto got up from the floor to sit on the other side of sofa. If there were, then his night wasn't over yet.
"There is one other in grove 1, but it operates only once a month," she told him.
"Once a month?"
"Yeah, rest of the times it's closed," Desire said as she got up, "I hear a lot of big names visit that auction house, kings and queens and rich folk from all over go there apparently." she stifled a yawn. She looked at Naruto to see his normally pretty face scrunched up in what appeared to be deep thinking. "A word of advise, don't try to burn down that one, it's backed up by someone very powerful I hear."
Naruto snapped his head up, "Yeah, thanks for the warning. I'll keep that in mind." he smiled a little.
"I'll see you around if you stay out of trouble by the time I come back here." Desire left him alone in the living room as she headed for the door.
"Nice meeting you," Naruto waved her goodbye with his trademark grin.
"We'll meet again sometime, Goodnight Naruto." Desire said as she exited the room.
"What are you gonna do?" Kurama said when they were alone once again.
'What we usually do in a situation like this Kurama,' Naruto replied.
Thank you for reading! Have a nice day!