A/N: First off! Yay! Time to celebrate... this story has reached 800 reviews... it's an accomplishment for me. Also it's the 2nd to last chapter with the Drum Island Arc... but remember next arc is the Chidori Scroll Arc... a brand new original arc. Here's the chapter, and enjoy.

Chapter 63: Chopper's Choice

Tsunade had started treating Dalton's injuries, but was currently taking a break getting something. Nami on the other hand was staring at her friend, Sakura while Vivi went on unnoticed beside her.

"You're a traitor you know that." Said Nami glaring at Sakura.

"If memory serves your more of a traitor than I am…" said Sakura sticking her tongue out.

"I just had to say that…" thought Nami with a sweat drop.

That's when Tsunade began to ask Dalton some questions.

"So do you know where the key to the weapon's store room is?" asked Tsunade.

"You want the key to the weapons store room? What do you want with the weapons, you're a Kage." Said Dalton.

"I want to sell the weapons on the black market for gambling money." Said Tsunade sarcastically.

There was a silence in the room.

"So are you being sarcastic or…" said Dalton.

"Of course I'm being sarcastic!" yelled Tsunade, "I have something planned… but I won't say what it is…"

"I see…" said Dalton with a sweat drop, "Wapol keeps it on his person, if it's still true then it went flying with him."

"Oh man I didn't think I would have to resort of that…" sighed Tsunade.

"I have a deal to make." Said Nami, "How about you waver the fee for our crew and also let me leave early."

"About the fee, no way… for once someone lost to me…" said Tsunade, "But about leaving, was planning to give Sakura some books, including ways to treat you so you can leave soon."

"Really?" asked Nami.

"Thank you." Said Sakura.

"But about the fee…" said Nami taking out the key she stole from Wapol.

"Where did you get that?" asked Tsunade.

"I stole it." Said Nami sticking her tongue out.

"Figure you'd do that." Said Sakura with a sweat drop.

Tsunade took the key and nodded, "Fine then…" said Tsunade who then sighed, "Why does things like this keep happening?" she thought.

Tsunade cleared her throat and made some sort of clone, "I want you to follow my clone." Said Tsunade to the town's people while giving her clone the key, "I have to show Sakura something."

The two groups left the room… Tsunade began to give some medical books, she pointed to the one that would help her treat Nami.

"Okay thank you." Said Sakura.

"Wait I have another book to give you." Said Tsunade who took out a smaller book than the medical books, "I wrote this myself, it's my fighting style… just not the clones either."

"What do you mean?" asked Sakura.

Tsunade punched a nearby wall, causing large cracks and including a rock falling out of the wall, she then picked up the rock and crushed it with her bare hand.

"You have super strength too." Said Sakura.

"It's a very rare genetic condition, I have only met a few who has ever had this condition, including you Sakura. The condition effects the muscles, while the muscles show very little growth, yet they're strength is something that someone their size should not have." Said Tsunade.

"Oh wow…" said Sakura, "That's my strength al right… now I know what causes it." She said with a sigh.

"I take it that your strength had giving problems in the past?" asked Tsunade.

"I'd rather not talk about it." Said Sakura.

There was a silence which Tsunade broke by taking out Naruto's autograph book, "By the way he must have misplaced it… I'm sure he'll look for it later."

"Wait did you?" asked Sakura.

Tsunade merely smiled… then walked away, "I hope we meet again Sakura." Said Tsunade.

Sakura smiled and nodded and went back to the room where the patients were resting, she found that Shizune had gotten a coat for Nami and was saying her good byes along with Tonton.

"Thanks Shizune." Said Nami.

"It's no problem, I know you gave Luffy your coat." Said Shizune.

"Yeah…" said Nami with an evil laugh.

"There's something I need to tell you." Sighed Shizune.

"What?" asked Vivi.

"You see… Tsunade is planning on giving Nar …" said Shizune but before she could finish her sentence, one of the town's people came in sad "Shizune, Tsunade want your help."

"Okay…" sighed Shizune, "Sorry…"

Shizune left with the room with a sigh.

"I wonder what that was about." Said Sakura.

"I don't know." Said Nami.

Outside the castle, Luffy, Sasuke, Zoro, Kiba, Akamaru, Ino, Sanji (who's back fine according Tsunade) and Hinata were sitting out of the castle… well sort of Usopp, Kiba and Hinata were building a snow man while Luffy yelled for Chopper.

"Reindeer join my crew!" yelled Luffy.

"Still you stop it!" yelled Ino, "He doesn't want to join."

Luffy ignore her of course.

"Hey… I just realized, has anyone seen the Dobe?" asked Sasuke.

"He said that he had something to do… he didn't say." Said Hinata.

"Oh that makes sense." Said Sasuke with a sweat drop.

Meanwhile on the roof of the castle Chopper was breathing heavily, "I ran a lot…" he sighed.

He was looking up at the full moon.

"Hey!" came a voice.

Chopper jumped and turned around saw Naruto grinning.

"You're here to get me to join the crew aren't you?" asked Chopper.

"While I would love it you joined the crew! What you did was so awesome!" said Naruto sitting down, "That's not why I came."

"Why did you come?" asked Copper glaring at Naruto.

"I know how it feels to be an outcast." Said Naruto.

"Really… but your human." Said Chopper.

"Tell it to the seal." Said Naruto lifting up his shirt revealing his seal.

"What is that?" asked Chopper.

Naruto put his shirt back down, "A seal, shortly after I was born, the 4th Hokage sealed the Kyubi no Yoko in me. Because of that everyone thought I was a monster." Said Naruto.

"They did?" asked Chopper staring at Naruto, he knew right away Naruto wasn't lying.

"I know how you feel… everyone hating you, even though you did nothing wrong." Said Naruto, "Always calling me demon, monster and that I should be killed. It makes me feel extremely if someone even calls me a human… once I hugged an enemy because he did that…"

"Is that true?" asked Chopper laughing.

"Yeah…" said Naruto with a laugh.

"So… why are you part of that crew then?" asked Chopper.

"Because, there were people who treated me like me… including my older brother Luffy." Said Naruto pointing down at his brother who was still yelling, "Because of him and a few other people… they cared for me… they didn't treat me like some demon… and since then I gained many more friends who care for me."

Chopper looked down at Luffy and thought, "So… he doesn't care about things like that."

"Well I have to go! It was nice talk to you." Said Naruto getting up.

Chopper nodded and watched Naruto leave, and decided to follow him form a small distance…

Naruto got to where the others were.

"So where have you been? You're the only that can get Luffy to stop this!" said Ino.

"I was talking to someone about something." Said Naruto.

"Was it bugging Tsunade for an autograph?" asked Sasuke with a smirk.

"No!" yelled Naruto.

That's when Chopper showed up.

"Hey Reindeer!" yelled Luffy, "Come on, let's be pirates together."

"It's impossible!" said Chopper, "

"It's not impossible, it's fun!" said Luffy.

"He doesn't get it." Said Usopp with a sweat drop.

"I'm grateful to all of you… but…" said Chopper who began to cry.

That's when Sakura, Nami and Vivi left the castle and saw what was going on.

"Chopper…" whispered Sakura.

"But I'm a reindeer! I have antlers and hooves and a blue nose!" yelled Chopper.

Sakura and Nami remembered Tsunade's words about his heart…

"Of course I want to be a pirate! But I'm not human! I'm a monster! Sure Naruto has a demon inside him, but that's different, he's still human!" cried Chopper.

Everyone looked at Naruto and realized where he had went.

"I can never be part of you group! But I wanted to thank you!" cried Chopper, "Thank you for asking me, but I'm going to stay here. But please come back here when you feel like it."

There as a silence which was broken by Luffy yelling "Just shut up and join the crew!"

Chopper began to cry even more, "Yeah!" he yelled.

Not too long later everyone was waiting outside, it was agreed that Chopper would say good-bye to Tsunade and Shizune alone.

"So once when comes back we're really going then?" asked Usopp.

"Yes, we're going to go down the mountain and set sail for Alabasta." Said Nami, "That makes you happy Vivi, right?"

"It sure does." Said Vivi with a nod.

"Okay, so who's going to check the ropeway?" asked Sasuke.

"I'll do it." Said Usopp, "Hey Luffy, Naruto want to come?"

"Sure." Said Luffy.

"I haven't gotten a chance to see it." Said Naruto.

"I really don't want to know we didn't know it was there sooner." Said Kyubi.

"What made you that?" thought Naruto.

"I just felt I needed to say something." Said Kyubi.

Naruto sweat dropped and shrugged…

Meanwhile in the castle Tsunade was checking up on Dalton, when Chopper came into the room.

"Tsunade I have to tell you something." Said Chopper.

"Chopper everyone needs your help, you need to go down stairs." Said Tsunade.

"Wait, listen, I'm going to become a pirate!" said Chopper.

Tsunade stared at Chopper, "Is that so." Said Tsunade coldly.

"Yeah." Said Chopper with a nod.

Tsunade turned around and didn't look at Chopper, "Fine then go!"

"What?" asked Chopper.

"It's a good thing you're not my only assistant. Just leave already! Just leave!" yelled Tsunade.

"But!" said Chopper.

"You're a fool just like Dr. Hiriluk! A fool! Just leave already… I don't want you around anymore." Said Tsunade.

Chopper sighed and began to leave when he was stopped.

"Wait!" said Tsunade.

"What?" asked Chopper.

"Take your sleigh, I have no use for it anymore." Said Tsunade.

Chopper sighed and left… as he was leaving he saw Shizune.

"Chopper!" she said, "You're leaving, aren't you?"

Chopper nodded, "You knew?"

"I had my feelings." Said Shizune.

"Tsunade doesn't want me around anymore." Said Chopper.

"That's not true." Said Shizune, "You know how Tsunade is, she doesn't like expressing her feelings."

Chopper sighed… "So is she going to miss me?" he asked.

"Of course she'll miss you, and I'll miss you too." Said Shizune.

Chopper blushed slightly and nodded, "Thank you…" said Chopper.

That's when Tonton showed up and oinked.

"I'll miss you too Tonton." Said Chopper who began to run away, "Bye Shizune, Tonton!"

Chopper went to where his sleigh was being kept, transformed into his full reindeer form and attached himself to it. He ran to where the other members of the crew were just when Luffy Naruto and Usopp chem. up from the Rope Way entrance.

"Hop in!" said Chopper.

"Are you sure, that seems pretty small." Said Ino.

"And how are we going to get off the mountain in that sleigh?" asked Sanji.

And so Chopper showed them how… by running on the ropeway's rope… when they landed… there were a few reactions.

"Again, again! Do it again!" cheered Luffy and Naruto.

"Hey we need to set sail!" yelled Nami.

Back at the mountain top Tsunade was looking adown form it… trying her best not to cry.

"Are you okay Tsunade?" asked Shizune joining her while holding Tonton.

"I'm fine…" said Tsunade, "It's just been a while since... I cared for anyone like that."

"I know…" said Shizune, "However, he's following his dream."

"So saying goodbye like that…" said Dalton joining them.

Tsunade turned around and glaring at Dalton, "What are you doing out of bed." She said.

Dalton sweat dropped.

"Don't ask Tsunade about that… it's very touchy on the subject of goodbyes." Whispered Shizune with Tonton nodding.

"I see…" said Dalton.

Tsunade waked to an area where everyone was ready with canons that was pointed up into the air, "Okay is everyone ready?" asked Tsunade.

"Right!" said the town's people.

All of them shot the canons into the air, thought the island everyone began to get scared… thinking it was canon fire, but they were wrong. The canon had special cannonballs that instead mixed a very special red powder that mixed with snow would create something magical.

Down with the Straw Hats, they saw the thing that happened… the canons created a large pink cloud that made it look like a giant cherry tree that was blossoming… they left Chopper alone with his thoughts.

So that certain people will be happy and others who didn't' want to see the full flashback, it is time to give a condensed version of Chopper's tale, there was once a quack named Dr. Hiriluk who found Chopper injured in the forest. The two became close like father and son. For a year Chopper helped him in an experiment to make cherry blossoms grow and learned medicine from him, Dr. Hiriluk also taught Chopper about pirates. However a year after he found Chopper he kicked out Chopper and made him run away. As it turned out Dr. Hiriluk was dying and didn't want Chopper to see it, he made Tsunade who was an acutance of his to take care of Chopper and teach how to become a doctor and one use his now compacted experiment to make the Cherry Blossoms fall. Chopper heard about that he was dying and decided to find a rare mushroom that he heard about from of Wapol's men. He found the mushroom and gave it to Dr. Hiriluk… but it turned out to be poisonous and he would soon die from the poisonous mushroom. That's also when Dr. Hiriluk heard that Wapol's doctors were sick and needed help. But it was a trap… Wapol's men were going to kill him When Chopper heard about this he ran to Wapol's castle. Chopper ran to the castle where Dr. Hiriluk took his own life so that he would have to die from Chopper's mushroom. After getting to a rather short fight with Dalton, he went back down and asked Tsunade to teach how to bounce a doctor.

And so Chopper joined a pirate crew and saw the cherry blossoms fall in the winter island, this was the hippest day of his life.

Next Time: They finally leave the island, where Chopper reveals some more of his talents. Sakura also makes a big announcement, what is it? Also Chopper learns to fit in with the crew... and it's not exactly the best way to do so, because of that they have to go to the next island to get supplies. However before they could get there a strange woman tells them to stay and isn't leaving with out a fight. What will happen find out next time!