To Walk the Path of Freedom
Just as Roger predicted, Monkey D. Garp had come the next morning to investigate the home following the Old Pirate's departure. The veteran Marine found nothing there of his old adversary except for a woman, a child and a baby. He saw no threat in any of them but had recognized the woman as someone he had seen with Roger near the end of his time with the Roger Pirates. Both Rouge and Garp exchanged words privately, without the added ears of the rest of the Marines aboard Garp's ship and the two brothers. The man explained to Rouge that Roger had handed himself into the Government, undenounced to him she already knew. Garp continued to mention also that in trade for his capture that Rouge, Naruto, and Ace be sparred from facing any justice for his sins and that they be allowed to go. In an act that surprised no one, the World Government had elected to ignore this barter which in turn caused Garp to take it upon himself to look after his old adversary's family himself.
"Well what of each of the men on your ship? Without a doubt you will be court-martialed for your actions to help us." Rouge asked the Old Marine as he grinned. "No! Each man, woman, and child on that ship has been hand picked by me and no one else has any say to who I bring on my ship! I trust each person with my life- uh. . . almost every person on that ship with my life, and I can promise you won't be found out by the Government!" Proudly explained Garp as he kept up with grin
The lady sighed as she weighed her options. One one hand there was go with the Marines to a new destination to be safe from the World Government but risk exposure, or stay here and figure out how to slip out of the South Blue with her children on her lonesome. "Okay, I accept. My children and I will come with you." Rouge answered Garp as the ladder began to grin. "However, you must promise me to do everything in your power to keep my children safe and out of the World Government's gaze." She finished to which Garp nodded to
Both then reentered the front area of the house where Naruto stood holding Ace and a few Marines as well. "Sir! Orders?" Asked one of the Marines, saluting to Garp as he exited the home. "Hmm, well we'll be leaving now and heading back to Foosha Village in the Goa Kingdom! These three want to travel and see new parts of the World so we'll be taking them with us there!" Garp commanded his crew, lying to the Marines at the fact that these were not travelers but the family of Gol D. Roger looking for refuge
"Yes sir!" Sounded off the Marines standing in the front yard as they retreated back to the ship to relay the crew of their departure
Naruto looked to his mother in a disapproving way. "Mom why are we going with these people! They took Dad away from us and now you want us to go too!?" Naruto spoke in a harsh whisper which was met by a loving stroke on his face from his mother. "Sweetheart, we need to leave the South Blue. There are much worse things the Government can send then Marines, and Captain Garp has agreed to help us relocate. He's a friend of your Father's. . .in a way." She explained but the explanation was still met by some resistance from Naruto, who was still understandably getting over the departure of his father
"C'mon brat! You're holding us up! Get on board!" Garp yelled out to the boy who gritted his teeth at the man, and then he looked back at his mother. "It's not permanent Naruto. Just stay out of his way and before you know it he'll be out of your hair." Rouge explained as her son deflated and began walking to the ship with her
They followed Garp onto a row boat and sat down on the front end of it and faced the Marines that began to row. Within a few minutes the family of three drifted in the water up to a gigantic Marine vessel that looked like it could hold hundreds of soldiers. 'Wow!' Naruto voiced in his head, not wanting to give the Marines the satisfaction of hearing they have a cool ship
Within a few seconds, the group disembarked from the smaller row boat and got onto the giant Marine vessel. Naruto looked around the ship from his mother's side and saw that the ship was very well kept and clean. He also noticed that many Marines were running around the ship doing various tasks in order to keep the ship operating. "Keep up! Your rooms are this way!" Garp told the three of them as they followed him
As they walked across the deck towards the door that lead into the ship a girl with pink hair approached the group and spoke out to them. "Hina wants to know who the new people are." Asked the girl who looked no older then 9 years old. "Manners brat!" Garp scolded which caused the girl to lightly blush before retrying her previous question. "Sorry, Hina would like to ask who the new people on deck are, sir!" She said, amplifying the word "sir" as a means of respect to Vice Admiral Garp
Garp grinned, "These people here are travelers looking to explore new regions and we'll be taking them with us to the Goa Kingdom! No further questions!" Finished Garp as Hina straightened out at his loud voice. The group walked by the saluting Hina as the girl and Naruto locked eyes, before long she sharply turned her head away from him, making a "tch" in the process. Of course this didn't go down well with Naruto as he frowned at her before sticking his tough out childishly at her. Perhaps a fight would have started but Naruto kept walking away from the girl and inside the ship with his mother in front of him.
After navigating down a few wooden corridors, the group arrived at the entrance to a room that looked no different then the rest of the ship. "You'll all be staying here during the journey! And while you're here feel free to wander the halls unless I say otherwise!" He turned to Naruto. "I'm looking at you kid!" Finished Garp before closing the door behind him, leaving the family of three in the room alone
After the door was closed Rouge walked to the corner of the room to put Ace down in the cradle that was generously provided by the Marines and began to crack open some leftover baby formula to feed her youngest son. Naruto on the other hand walked over to the opposite side of the room where there was a bed laid out for him. He rested his staff that he had been carrying all this time against the wall and threw his body onto the bed like laundry. He looked over at his Mom in his prone position atop his bed. "Hey Mom! What do you think was wrong with that girl on the deck?" Asked the curious boy as Rouge looked over in his direction
"Nothing sweetie, she looks very young so that would mean she's an apprentice of some kind and is still learning the fundamentals of being a Marine. At least that's what I can assume from the short encounter we had with her." Finished the mother of two. "Well I don't like her! She's stuck up!" The young boy vented while his mother chuckled and continued to feed little Ace. "Well we are going to be on this ship for awhile, why not make friends with her?" Asked Rouge which caused Naruto to gag. "Ew! I'd rather get eaten by a Sea-King than be friends with her!" Proclaimed Naruto with a loud voice before he began to sulk
Noticing that the changes were taking a toll on her son she voiced to him, "Sweetie, why don't you go take a look around the ship and see if you can find anything to do for a bit. I just need to tidy up our room and make it a little more like a home." She spoke in an effort to get her son distracted from the incident with Roger. The boy got up from his bed before carrying himself to the door. "Okay Mom, I'll be back soon." He responded before walking out of the room and into the hall
He looked to his left and saw an empty wooden hallway before looking to his right and spotting the same thing. Naruto sighed as he walked to his right, "I hope there's something to do on this ship that's fun." Naruto strutted around the ship for a few minutes, running into the occasional Marine walking off to do some sort of task. The boy was unable to talk to any of them as Garp had run a tight ship which allowed very little free time if any at all. He kept walking until the boy spied something that he may actually be interested in doing. At the end of the maze of wooden hallways was an indoor training room that had a blue padded floor along with white painted walls made of stone with the Marine logo painted on all four sides in blue.
Grinning at the sight, Naruto ran into the room before he slid the think wooden door shut for some privacy. Almost immediately Naruto began stretching out his muscles before grabbing his staff and practicing strikes on the air in front of him. He still struggled to use the staff as it was still new to him as each strike he made looked like it needed to be worked on. Before long, Naruto attempted more daring moves with the staff which presented the same outcome as the previous day which was him accidently clipping his shin and falling over. Naruto hit the mat with a thud before he leaned back into a prone position and slamming his hand on the ground. 'Dammit! At this rate I'll never get as strong as Dad! But I need to keep working and putting in the effort none the less!' He thought to himself as he got up off the ground
"Hina thinks you better put that thing away before you hurt yourself!" Spoke a feminine voice that Naruto had not heard too long ago. Turning to face the girl, he saw that she had changed her outfit from the traditional Marine uniform to a simple navy blue t-shirt and white shorts that came down to her knees. She was also holding a bag which she set down near the door along with her shoes. "Thanks for your opinion but I don't care! I'm going to learn how to use my staff and there's nothing you can do about that!" Replied Naruto but Hina remained cool
She walked up next to him so that they were standing across from each other. Even though Hina was older than Naruto by 3 years, both children were the same height. However, she still looked down on him in the figurative sense, considering herself better. "Hina thinks you should leave! This place is only for Marines with strength to train. And Hina can see that you are neither." She explained to him as Naruto began to fume a little. "Oh yeah! I bet I could beat a stuck up Marine like you any day!" Proclaimed the young boy. She scoffed in response, "Hina doesn't think so."
He snickered, "Well then fight me! And we'll see who's the stronger one!" Challenged Naruto as Hina looked at him before sighing. "Hina doesn't want to waste her time on a brat like you but if that's what it takes to get you to leave Hina will do it." She finished before standing on the mat with her arms crossed
Naruto placed his staff against the wall before walking back to stand across from Hina and getting into a fighting stance, which to Naruto was just putting his fists up. "Ready?" Asked the boy. Without any verbal confirmation, Hina just nodded as the fight had begun with Naruto making the first move.
The boy ran at Hina and extended his arm at her but she easily swatted away his fist, deflecting it to the blue mat below. She then turned sharply with her elbow and hit the boy right in the forehead, clotheslining him and knocking him to the floor. She then walked over to Naruto who was still holding his head in pain and placed her foot on his chest. "Hina told you it would be easy." She said as Naruto blinked a few times as he pushed up her foot and rolled out. "I'm not going down that soon!" Naruto replied as Hina took this as an opportunity to start attacking rather than defending.
Naruto looked on as the girl ran towards him and spun around, delivering a roundhouse kick to the stomach which the boy managed to catch with his arms. He did not have time to say anything as Hina moved to quick with a follow up strike with her fist which managed to connect with Naruto's nose which knocked his head back, causing him to release Hina's leg. Seeing an opening, Hina dropped down to the floor and swept Naruto's leg causing him to fall over once again on his back. The boy grunted in pain as some blood trickled down from his lip which had been split from the last hit. "Is that enough sparring for one day?" Hina asked him in a teasing tone
"You wish!" Came a quick response as Naruto was back on his feet. "Face it, you're weak. Hina knows it and everyone else on the ship knows it, except you apparently." She told him
The boy ignored her and approached her again but Hina was the first to strike, throwing a punch towards his chest that the boy avoided before quickly avoiding a follow up kick from the girl by backing up. However, Naruto was in an open stance which allowed the more experienced Hina to take advantage of the opening by delivering a follow up punch to his gut which caused the boy to fall over and clutch his stomach. "Hina declares thus fight over! Submit!" She demanded of him which caused a chuckle to come in response
"You wish!" He spoke with a weak voice, setting off the girl who cocked back her hand to deliver a final punch to his defenseless backside. She shot her hand down at the back of his head but at that moment Naruto felt something. It seemed like a sixth sense was screaming at him to move a certain way and within a blink of an eye his body obeyed the sense. He was quick to move his head to the right, dodging the fist and then in one movement, grabbed the girl's wrist and pulled her overtop of himself. Hina hit the padded ground in an audible thud as Naruto then moved quickly to put his weight on her, keeping her restrained from moving. After seeing this happen, a seemingly unknown spectator walked into the training room which caught the attention of both of the children. Seeing the figure and recognizing him, Hina pushed Naruto off of her and stood and saluted while Naruto still laid on the ground narrowing his his at the figure. "At ease Hina! That was quite the spar you two had there! Hina go to the North Training Pad to practice! I need to talk to the brat alone!" The figure finished saying
Hina saluted again. "Of course Bice Admiral Garp!" She yelled out before running off with her things
The only remaining people in the room were Naruto and Garp as the boy clutched his stomach as he pulled himself off of the ground. "What do you want?" Asked the boy to the man who grew a tic mark. "That's no way to talk to your elders you brat!" He yelled, planting a fist on the top of the boy's head. "OWWWW! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR YOU OLD GEEZER!" Naruto yelled back to Garp clutching his head. "I saw what you did back there kid! I'm impressed you know a technique like that at your age!" Garp changed the subject which mad Naruto confused as to what he was talking about. "What the hell are you talking about geezer! I didn't do any special technique! I just fought her with my bare hands!" Naruto explained as Garp thought this over for a quick second before turning around and walking towards the boy's staff
He picked it up in his hand before tossing it to Naruto who caught it but almost dropped it. "Why are you giving me this?" Asked the boy as Garp turned to him with a smile. "This time I'll be your opponent! Hold that staff tight and dodge if you can!" He spoke before launching a fist at Naruto. Of course the attack Garp used would hurt if it connected but it was no where near powerful enough to cause any serious injury. Moreover, the man was using vey straight lined attacks in hopes of giving the boy more of a chance to get out of the way. Determining the direction of the attack, Naruto managed to jump back out of the way from it and brought up his staff in defense. 'Good, this kid can dodge a simple punch! But let's see what happens if I put a little spin on it!' The man voiced to himself, not taking his eyes off of Naruto's as he was hoping to see something happen
Cocking back his fist again, Garp launched himself at the young boy. Naruto went wide-eyed before quickly ducking and avoiding the second punch and watched as the old Marine soared right over him and into the wall. Instead of what Naruto expected being that Garp would stop himself before coming any closer to the wall was overwritten when the man just punched straight through it. The boy gaped looking at the old man. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!? YOU COULD'VE KILLED ME!" Yelled Naruto as Garp laughed. "I may have over did it a little!" He laughed which Naruto sweat dropped at. "All the more reason for you to dodge!" Garp finished before resuming his lesson with Naruto who kept running around the training room for his life as Garp mercilessly tried to hit him
Of course this continued for a few hours with Garp temporarily seeing what he wished to see only a handful of times. What the veteran Marine was looking for was the boy's eyes to flash a bold red colour. The reason why the change in eye colour was so important was because it would confirm that Naruto had been involuntarily been using observation haki. Presently, Garp was looking down on Naruto who was sprawled out on the ground panting from the exercise Garp had put him through. He cracked his neck, "Are you ready for part two brat!?" Garp asked harshly at the child who just remained on the ground panting
He grinned, "Guess not. Well then I might as well take you back to your mom!" Voiced the old man as he picked up Naruto under his arm and began to walk him through the ship to his room.
A few turns through the wooden corridors led the two to a room that looked all too familiar as Garp opened the door without knocking. He took a step in and saw Rouge reading a novel as she sat by Ace. He didn't acknowledge them but instead tossed Naruto from underneath his arm to onto his bed and turned and walked out. "Tomorrow morning we'll continue training! Don't be late!" He spoke before the door was shut and the Vice Admiral walked away
Immediately after watching the scene, the mother ran over to her child and cradled his head in her arms. "Naruto! Are you okay!?" She began to panic before the boy waved his hand. "I'm. . .I'm f-fine Mom. Just really really tired from training. . ." Naruto dozed off just after explaining himself and Rouge just sighed. 'Taking training way to seriously, burning yourself out and worrying your loved ones. You're just like your father Naruto.' Spoke Rouge to herself with a smile looking down on her son
The next morning. . .
Walking back into the training room, Naruto looked forth to see that Garp was standing there with his arms crossed and with the same trademark grin on his face which Naruto thought looked too much like his Father's. Standing with him was a girl whom Naruto had grown to dread over his short stay on the Marine vessel. "What the hell is she doing here!?" Yelled out Naruto as Hina puffed her cheeks and looked away from him sharply. "The kid is here because she's a new recruit that needs tutelage in the ways of justice from an amazing Marine like me! End of story! You know brat! Maybe with a little training you could become a Marine and make something of yourself!" Garp told Naruto who scoffed at his words
"A Marine!? Yeah right! I'd rather eat my own foot then buy into that crap!" The child countered which brought Hina to speak. "Hina thinks that having him in our ranks would be a waste." Naruto chuckled at her words and responded, "Don't forget that I was the one who won our fight yesterday, or have you forgotten already?" He asked her with a grin and she elected to ignore him
Before any more banter could be exchanged, Garp decided to put an end to it. "That's enough foolin' around! Until we reach Dawn Island and the Goa Kingdom, you two will be training under me every day! So I suggest you both shape up cause the first exercise is dodge!" Finished the man with a crack of his knuckles as the two children gulped, fearing what the Vice Admiral would do
This would go on for a couple weeks as Garp would put both children under intense training to do what he would explain as, "Shaping the two into tough Marines!". Of course Naruto would always deny becoming a Marine which more times than not would result in an argument between the two, a sight Hina would chuckle at from time to time. With time, Hina began to open up to Naruto though only a little bit. She looked at him more as a rival now rather than the parasite she thought he was when they first met. Likewise, Naruto began to respect Hina as a rival as well and even was contempt with Garp. He used to loath the man because he took him away from his home and that he was his Father's one time enemy, but now he felt more of a connection to the man and saw him as someone who filled the void that was left by his father.
During the period of training, Hina had also managed to get her hands on a Devil-Fruit that spawned in the ship's pantry. Everyone thought the appearance of the Devil-Fruit was because of its previous owner dying nearby. The girl did not take long to learn that the fruit was the one and only Ori Ori no mi which produced iron bars after she swiped her limbs through an object. While Hina adored her new power and wished to use it as a means to catch Pirates, Naruto hated it. He was originally jealous of the ability but quickly got over it, but what really made him mad about it was the fact Hina would swipe her arm through him every chance she got to tie him up, something that Garp allowed as he saw it as a training exercise.
"Dammit Hina! I was trying to do my workout and now I can't move my arms!" Naruto yelled, rolling around on the deck in front of the girl. She made a victorious smile, "Hina thinks that next time you should be more aware of your surroundings and use more techniques that Garp taught you."
Other Marines on the deck chuckled at the children's antics. "Looks like she's got him again!" Spoke one Marine to another. "I can defiantly see those two getting together some day!" Another voiced out. "Oi Naruto! Need a hand!" A Marine asked as the others around on the deck laughed
The boy gritted his teeth, "Shut up you guys! Just you wait! I'm going to become a Pirate and challenge each and every one of you to a fight and kick the crap out of all of you!". The Marines continued to chuckle at his antics. "A Pirate eh? That'll be the day-" Spoke the same Marine before another threw his hand over his mouth and shut him up. "Yeah! I'll be a super strong Pirate! I'm not going to become some dumb Marine and be a lap dog!" Finished Naruto before a foot came down on his back and rolled him over to his other side
"What was that about becoming a Pirate?" Came the menacing voice from one Monkey D. Garp. Looking up at the man, Naruto paled before the iron binding surrounding him vanished and he looked at Hina. "You'll need it." She said as his attention drifted back over to Garp who just cracked his knuckles
The boy shot himself through Garp's legs and began running to the interior of the ship as a voice boomed behind him. "Like hell someone who I trained is going to become a lousy Pirate! You're going to grow up to become a Marine just like me! Cause if you don't you can bet your ass I'll catch you myself!" Yelled the man at the running Naruto who turned around to face him. "You'll have to catch me first old man!" Naruto teased as he continued to run inside all the while sticking out his tongue and pulling down his eyelid
"Damn brat! Come back here and take your beating like a man!" Came another angry yell, courtesy of Garp but Naruto kept running which forced the older man to follow him into the ship.
Naruto ran through the corridors of the ship, avoiding other Marines walking around dong their tasks by sliding under them or being shifty and running around them. Meanwhile, Garp did not care as much as Naruto and just walked down the hallways behind him, pushing and knocking away the people that got in his way. The boy took a few twists and turns to see if he could get the veteran Marine off of his trail but it was no use, Garp kept pursuing. 'Damn it geezer! I can't keep running away, I need to hide!' The young boy concluded as he spotted a door at the end of the hall
He ran up to the door and was relived to find that the door was unlocked. Quickly, Naruto flung open the door before quickly shutting it again when he was inside of the room. Looking around it didn't take long to notice that this wasn't any normal Marine's quarters or storage room, and it was in fact the very person's room he was trying to get away from. "Great." A deflated Naruto uttered. "Well I'm going to get in trouble either way so might as well take a look around." He continued to speak to himself
Looking around the room, Naruto did not notice anything too off colour. He located a desk that was positioned at the very back end of the room, in front of a window and walked over to it and plopped himself down in the chair. Taking a few spins in the swivel chair he then stopped himself and looked at the contents on the desk. "Huh, I wonder who that is. Looks like a family portrait." Spoke Naruto as he looked at a picture with a much younger looking Garp with a boy with black hair and a small smile. He then spied a Den Den Mushi on the desk but elected to leave it alone as he hadn't been taught how to tune one quite yet. There was also an assortment of papers and documents on the desk and the boy dug through them but stopped when he spotted a newspaper on the floor next to the desk. He bent over and picked it up as he saw a picture of his Father on the front page.
With Garp. . .
"That brat never knows when to shut his yap! I swear if he makes another comment about being a Pirate I'll have to step up his training!" Grumbled the old man as he tracked the boy down to the hallway where his quarters were located. "I wonder." He spoke again, walking to the doorway to his room
He listened in and could here some faint noise, which he grinned at. "Gotcha now brat!" He exclaimed, cocking back a fist to break down the door. He was about to punch the door open before he heard a sniffle and stopped immediately. The old man had a puzzled look on his face before he did something out of character and opened the door softly, peering in to see what was happening. As the door opened he was greeted with the image of Naruto sitting on the opened window with his feet dangling out of the window, crying. After seeing the boy like this, Garp had an idea as to why he might be feeling this way and elected to drop his initial anger and walked over to Naruto.
As he walked Garp saw the paper he received from that morning laying on the floor, crumpled up. He bent over and flattened it out before reading the writing once again.
BREAKING NEWS
After an intense few years of tracking, the Pirate King Gol D. Roger had finally been apprehended by the noble Marines and trialed
for his crimes. Vice Admiral Garp had been responsible for the Pirate's capture and it had been rumored that a battle of epic proportion
had taken place to decide the outcome. Hundreds of people gathered in Loguetown today to watch as the most famous Pirate to ever live had
been put to death. Before being executed, the Pirate King had one last thing to say, "You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything together in one place!
Now you just have to find it!"
With that declaration from the late Pirate King, a new golden age of piracy had been brought forth and thousands of people have taken to the sea
in search of the legendary treasure, One Piece. However, to combat the growing number of Pirates, the Marines have begun to expand their
own fighting force and have started the construction of new bases in all four seas along with the Grandline. With that, more countries have elected
to join the World Government as they look for security from the growing number of Pirates. . .
There was more written but Garp elected to stop reading and looked back at Naruto's form. "I hate them!" Exclaimed the boy in an angry tone, still not looking at Garp. "The World Government! The Marines! I hate them all!" He yelled out again. "Why?" Asked Garp simply which caused Naruto to turn himself around. "Why!? Because they took my father away from me! If they just left us alone I would still have a dad! He wasn't a bad man! He protected us from you all my life and now he's gone!" The boy yelled out with tears flowing freely down his cheeks
"My brother will grow up never knowing him! My mom stays awake at night crying because he can't be with us anymore! He was my hero and you took him away from us! But I don't see you complaining! After all, you got all the credit so what do you care!" He finished before turning back around and holding his knees close to his body. Garp sighed while he remained standing. "In all my years on the seas and in all my time as a Marine I had never met anyone quite like your Dad. I was his enemy up until the end and I wanted nothing more than to throw him in the deepest, darkest cell at Impel Down. But he thought differently. Roger considered me to be one of his best friends even though I was his enemy. In time I came to respect that man, and he became the only Pirate I could never hate, no matter how hard I tried. Deep down I didn't want to see him go either kid. And I didn't take credit for catching him, no one could catch your Dad." Finished the older man which drew Naruto's eyes over to him
What happened next shocked Garp as Naruto had gotten up and walked over to the man and hugged him. He looked down at the boy and could only see his dark-red hair but smiled none the less. Garp's mind immediately concluded that even despite that the boy in front of him was Roger's son he did indeed care for him in a paternal sense. The old Marine felt for the past couple of weeks that both Naruto and his brother had begun to open him up more. He chuckled in his mind, 'Even in death Roger, you and your family don't stop surprising me.' He said solemnly
After an extended hug, Naruto pulled away and looked up at Garp with red eyes from tears. "I'm not very g-good at this but u-uh. . .um thank you." He began to speak. "Thank you for taking care of us for these past couple of weeks, as much as I hate the Marines. . .you and your crew a-are pretty cool. . ." He spoke in a low voice at the end before yelling again, "But don't go thinking I want to become a Marine cause I don't!"
Garp hollered out loudly before ruffling the boy's hair. "Don't mention it brat! And I wouldn't expect you too! But a few more training sessions and you should come around to my way of thinking!" Naruto scoffed at the man's words. "Yeah right geezer!" He laughed, an action which Garp mirrored. "I'm telling you right now! Someday I'm going to be the person with the most freedom in all the seas!" Those words from Naruto echoed across the ship
Weeks later. . .
"Alright let's go! I'm not getting any younger waiting for you kid!" Garp yelled out to Naruto who was still in the process of saying his goodbyes to the people he and his family had been sailing with for the past month. "See ya guys!" He waved. "I hate Marines, but I like you guys!" Was the last thing he said before walking to the other side of the deck to where the boat that would take them aboard was
Before he could make it over there he was stopped by his training partner Hina. "Hina wishes you good luck on your journey and a reminder to stay safe." She told him as the boy smiled. "It was nice having someone else to talk to on this ship that was around my age! I hope you become a great Marine Hina!" He voiced to her which caused a little blush. "D-don't think that Hina will grant you mercy when you become a Pirate!" She told him sternly and the boy laughed as he walked away. "I wouldn't count on it! But good luck catching me!"
Finally he arrived on the boat with his mother, brother and Garp. "Did you finish all your goodbyes sweetheart?" She asked him and he gave a nod with a smile. Garp grinned and lowered them down to the water level and they started sailing. The group looked back at the Marine ship and saw that everyone aboard was waving at them which prompted Naruto to grin and waved back with both hands. "Enough of that brat! We're almost at the shore!" Garp scolded which caused Rouge to glare at him a little by the way she spoke to her son
Within a few seconds the boat pulled up parallel to the dock and all four of them disembarked from the vessel and walked into the town. "It's kind of a dump don't you think?" Naruto asked out loud to the group. Garp responded to him, "I grew up here!" He snapped back as the boy kept looking around. "Huh, still looks like a dump though." He finished before Garp fumed a little bit more
"Still with the Marines I see!" Came a voice from outside one of the wooden houses. Each person present turned to look at the source of voice and found a small man with a bucket hat and glasses. "Yeah I am! Er. . .uhh-" Garp began but was interrupted by the man. "Woopslap! My name is Woopslap! You'd know that if you came by more than once every 10 years!" Woopslap complained to the Marine Vice Admiral. "So, what business do the Marines have here and how can I help?" The mayor of the town asked Garp who grinned
He chuckled, "Well! I'm going to be dropping these three here off to live in the village!" He explained as the mayor looked over the new arrivals with precision. Rouge looked at the small man with a warm smile and Ace giggled as well. His eyes then wandered over the oldest of the two siblings and Naruto responded by giving him a wave. Woopslap then looked back at Garp and sighed, "They look fine, they can stay." He finished before Rouge responded. "Thank you so much Mayor Woopslap! My family and I are very thankful for your hospitality!" She finished with a slight bow and Woopslap smiled and nodded approvingly
"I would just like to formally welcome each of you to Foosha Village and I hope you all enjoy your stay!" He welcomed the new arrivals as a girl no older than Hina with dark green hair, brown eyes, and a yellow bandana walked over to the man. "I'm sorry to interrupt mayor, but do you need any berries? I was just about to go pick some and thought I should ask." She explained to him which got a smile from Woopslap
He shook his head, "No Makino, I do not need anything! However, I would like you to meet some new faces who will be living in the village with us for the foreseeable future!" Woopslap told the girl and she smiled. "Makino this is Rouge, and her children Ace and Naruto!" He told her as the girl bowed to the group. "It's so nice to meet you all and hope you enjoy your stay in our village! I just work over there at the Party's Bar and hope to see you all again very soon! Oh, and if I may, your dress looks lovely Lady Rouge!" She voiced before walking back to go berry picking
Rouge smiled, "She was nice!"
They all then said goodbye to Woopslap as Garp then began to lead the group up Mount Colubo to meet one more group of people. The journey up the mountain only took a few minutes as the mountain itself was not very treacherous in the slightest. After some time they arrived at a wooden house in the mountain's forest that had a watchtower going out the top of it. "Why did you bring us to this place Garp? Is this where we will be staying?" Rouge asked politely to which Garp nodded
"Yeah I personally know the suckers who live here and they'll be happy to have ya!" He expressed to the Portgas family and then turned back to face the door before knocking it down, surprising the people inside. Looking inside, everyone at the entrance could see a small collection of people fighting on the ground for what appeared to be food. "G-GARP!" Yelled each and every person in the house as they quickly got themselves off the floor
Garp yelled out, "Dadan! Front and center!" Before long a woman ran up to the man and straightened out. "Y-yes Garp sir!?" She voiced to the Marine. Dadan was a rather tall and overweight middle aged woman with long, orange, curly hair and a big, masculine face. "These people here will be staying with you until further notice! Understand!" He told them to which Dadan began to hesitate. "B-but-" She began but was cut off by Garp once again. "Is there a problem with that?" He asked in an intimidating way
"N-n-no sir!" She corrected herself. "Good! Well then I'll be off! Sengoku wouldn't be too happy if I denied orders for much longer! Make sure they're all taken care of Dadan cause I'll be back to check on them!" Garp finished as he turned and began to walk back down the mountain to the Marine vessel. The lady took a big sigh of relief as she refocused on the new arrivals on the doorstep of her home. "Alright! So it looks like we got some fresh meat! If it were my decision I'd throw ya out but my hands are kinda tied on this one!" Dadan began to explain
"We got a few rules in here that you need to follow! Rule one-" She was cut off as Naruto accidently knocked over a vase whilst looking at it. "Oops." He spoke before walking off, leaving the mess on the floor. "HEY YOU BRAT! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING BREAKING ALL OUR STUFF!" She yelled in Naruto's direction before the boy looked right back at her. "My bad." Came a response that caused Dadan to face fault. "Boss!" Came the voices of Dogra and Magra as they ran to the side of Dadan. Magra has what appears to be a wattle on his chin, and a comb on his bald head and has a mustache with sideburns, and big eyelashes whilst Dogra had a short height. He seemed to always have a rather annoyed look on his face to go with it.
Rouge chuckled at the antics of the bandits, "We'll just make ourselves at home with the three rooms down this hall!" She spoke as a response came from all the bandits at the same time. "Yeah go right ahead!" They all chorused, while laying on the floor, each one of them unknown of what was to come
Alright so that's another chapter finished! And I would just like to explain that I'll try to go into as much detail as possible concerning events that had not happened canonically in One Piece. What I mean by this is that I'll thoroughly explain the interactions between Naruto and his future crew and others but will not really go into things such as lesser events like training and stuff. The reason is because I don't have a lot of time just with other commitments and and school and I'd rather use the time I have on building up my original characters and character relationships then focusing on that other stuff. Plus I'd feel like I'd be robbing you readers of a good chapter if I made the whole thing about training. Anyway! the next chapter will be the last regarding backstory and the first to start Naruto's journey! Oh and before I go I would like to discuss pairings. As it stands right now I had decided to defiantly do a Hiyori x Naruto pairing with maybe some Hina mixed in there I don't know yet. I know in Portgas D. Naruto I did like a giant harem but the thing is it started to get boring really quickly and it didn't seem to make sense how like every girl fell for him and I found it stupid.
But I would like to thank everyone for viewing the chapter and I can't wait to hear back from all of you in reviews!
Till next time!
Qwert out!