Chapter 42: The Belly of the Beast
The D Brothers had just shot at a giant whale with a canon… not a good idea… They crashed into the whale but it wasn't as bad… the crash did knock the Sheep's head off.
"My special seat!" yelled Luffy.
"If you help your brother do anything with the whale I'm not going to teach you another trick for a very long time…" said Kyubi, "Especially that trick I promised you that I teach when we got here!"
"Damn it!" yelled Naruto.
"What?" asked Luffy.
"Kyubi said that if I help you with the whale then he won't teach me another trick." Said Naruto with a sweat drop.
"That's okay!" said Luffy.
Meanwhile the other guys… and Sakura and Akamaru (still in human form) were rowing as fast as they could…
"I don't think it noticed us!" said Kiba.
"That doesn't matter!" said Ino, "Just row as fast you can!"
As it went past the whale's eye, it didn't seem to notice it… that until Luffy used Gum Gum Pistol on the Eye.
"You idiot!" yelled everyone else.
"Come on!" said Luffy.
"Shut up!" yelled Kiba and Usopp kicking Luffy.
"See aren't you glad that you do anything…" said Kyubi.
"Yes…" thought Naruto with a sweat drop.
That's when the whale began to swallow them… though the chaos Luffy fell overboard.
"Luffy!" yelled Naruto.
And that's when they were swallowed up… however inside the whale… well…
"Can someone tell me what happened?" asked Kiba.
They weren't sure what was happening… they were sure that they were swallowed up by the whale… but it didn't seem that way… they were clearly outside.
"At least we're all right…" said Sakura.
"But Luffy's missing." Said Naruto.
"Don't worry…" said Hinata grabbing his hand, "You know Luffy… there's no way he'll give up."
Naruto blushed and nodded in agreement.
"Plus you know… I can sense he's still alive…" pointed out Kyubi making Naruto sweat drop.
"Hey there's an island!" said Ino, "With a house…"
That's when a Giant Squid came out of the water, however that when something to someone kill with several spears. Causing Nami and Usopp to get go on to the ground in fear.
"I really can't tell how we're related…" said Kiba with a sweat drop.
"There's something living in that house…" said Sasuke.
"I hope it's human." said Sanji.
That when something came out of the house.
"It's a flower!" said Naruto.
No it was a really old man that resembled a flower.
"He got that squid like it was nothing…" said Sasuke.
"Was he just fishing or was he trying to save us?" said Sanji.
The man and Sanji stared at each other… that's when the man did something unexpected… he began to silently read the newspaper.
"Aren't you going to say something!" yelled Sanji.
"Are you looking for a fight?" asked Sasuke.
The old man looked at them, "Forget it…" he said, "Someone's going to die."
"Who would that be?" asked Sakura.
"Me." Said the old man.
"That's it! I'm going to get him!" yelled Inner Sakura.
"Hey who are you and where are we?" asked Naruto.
"Isn't polite to give your name first before you start asking questions." Said the old man.
"Your right… sorry…" said Naruto.
"My name Crocus, I'm the keeper of the twin capes light house. I'm 71, a Gemini and my blood type is AB" said the old man named Crocus.
"That's it!" yelled Naruto going into half demon form.
"Naruto clam down!" said Hinata.
""You want to know where this is? You dare invade my personal resort and order me around like a bunch of big shots. Where do you think we are, a belly of a mouse." Said Crocus.
"So we were swallowed up…" said Usopp.
"Wait… that means…" said Kiba who began to laugh.
"What's so funny?" yelled Usopp.
"You… look… like… Pinocchio and you're swallowed by a whale!" laughed Kiba.
"You were swallowed too!" yelled Usopp.
"Yeah but I don't look like a wooden puppet boy…" said Kiba.
"The exit's over there." Said Crocus.
They saw a giant metal door seeming in the middle of the sky.
"Why is there a door in the sky?" asked Naruto.
"Look the sky is painted on…" said Hinata, "It's painted on the walls of the stomach."
"It's my hobby…" said Crocus.
"That old guy has too much time on his hands." said Kyubi.
"Let's just go to the exit…" said Zoro.
That's when everything began to shake.
"What's going on?" asked Sakura.
"There he goes…" said Crocus.
They noticed that the island that Crocus wasn't an island at all but a ship made out of metal.
"Wait…" said Usopp.
"This isn't water… it's stomach acid…" said Sakura, "If we stay in here too long the ship will dissolve…"
"This whale is ramming it's head into the red line…" said Crocus.
"What?" said everyone else.
"Did you see those scars on the whale?" asked Nami, "And there was something mournful about its cries…"
"So what are you saying…" said Kiba.
"This whale is suffering…" said Nami.
"I knew was an injured whale…" said Naruto.
"Well hurray for you… you were right for once…" muttered Kyubi.
"What's he doing?" asked Nami.
"It looks like he's going to kill the whale form the inside…" said Sakura.
"How horrible…" said Hinata.
"We have to get out of here… we'll lost the ship if we stay too long." said Zoro.
The ship headed towards the exit, that's when Crocus jumped into the stomach acid.
"Why did he jump in?" asked Usopp.
That when they noticed he just heading towards the exit.
"Oh so that's it…" said Naruto.
"Come on…" said Sakura, "We have to row our way out…"
As they headed towards the exit, smaller doors that were connected to the exit opened up and out came Luffy and two other strange people… they were unfortunately flying in the air and was going to land in the stomach acid.
"Luffy?" said Zoro with a sweat drop.
"Good you're okay!" said Luffy, "Now help me!"
"He's okay!" said Naruto.
"Unless he drowns or is dissolves…" said Kyubi as Luffy landed into the acidic ocean.
Naruto sweat dropped at that remark.
They saved Luffy and the other two people, once was a young man with red hair wearing an odd suit, a crown on his head and had strange tattoos on his face that resembled 9s while the other was a young woman with aqua blue hair put into a pony tail, both of them had bazookas for some reason.
That's also when the whale calmed down.
"It's calmed down…" said Nami.
"Who are you guys?" asked Luffy.
They seemed to be whispered to themselves about something.
"As Long as you live, you'll never harm Laboon!" yelled the man.
The two laughed… they grabbed their bazookas.
"That doesn't matter! We're already in his stomach…" said the woman.
"That won't stop us from blasting thought his insides!" said the man.
"Who is that old guy?" asked Luffy.
"You don't want to know…" said Naruto, "He gave us his personal add."
The shot their bazookas and Crocus took the blast.
"What's going on?" said Kiba.
"Is he trying to protect the whale?" asked Nami.
"You can't stop us!" laughed the woman.
"This whale is going to be food for out village!" said the man.
They were about to fire again when Luffy knocked the two out.
"They had it coming!" said Luffy.
After that it became very silent… no one knew what would happen next.
Next Time: The crew learns the tragic past of Laboon the whale. Meanwhile Naruto is taught another trick by Kyubi... will Naruto learn the attack or will it blow up in his face... literally? Also Ino has a familiar feelings about one of the two people who tired to kill Laboon... what is it? Who knows but all this and more next time!