A/N: Yo! I'm back! And I ain't dead(thankfully. I mean, who else is there that makes such shitty stories like mine, eh?), and although I may be a few days late, in the spirit of the new years', lemme give you guys a sneak peek of what I ACTUALLY intended for our lovely little hero Naruto! (Note: each and every chapter will have one of these alternate characters until I eventually run out!)

Let's get started with Naruto, shall we? He's an easy one; being the main character, I had a whole alternate storyline that would've drastically changed how he as a character in this fic developed. So although I know you're not going to believe me, I had intended for Naruto to actually side with the marines!

No, I'm totally being serious! I planned for him to become an admiral after murdering Akainu during his battle of succession with Aokiji, and then take up his mantle as the "O-no Kitsune" or the "tailed fox". This would force Sengoku to stay as fleet-admiral, Aokiji to stay in the marines, and the world government even more cautious of the Wano country, since Naruto set it up as such to hoodwink them into thinking a ninja had assassinated Akainu while he was weak.

Eventually, after killing Big Mom and Blackbeard(took some sweet revenge for ambushing him at the start of the fic), Naruto sets his sights on Sengoku, fully intending to capitalise on his age and killing him in his sleep. However, just as he's about to do it, he's caught in the act as Sengoku wakes up. And surprise, he's not shocked that it was Naruto who had killed Akainu.

After a bit of conversation, Naruto explains how he got here: his previous life, his death at the hands of his protege, and how he met Ajax. Sengoku understands, and after a few last words, he tells Naruto to get it over with(by this point, Sengoku is already so old he is bedridden). However, oddly enough, Naruto begins to hesitate. He fights with himself, one side warring with the other. Was it right? Was it just for him to kill this man, the one who knew he had killed one of the World government's greatest assets and yet allowed him on board all the same?

Ultimately, Naruto's moral side wins, and he drops the dagger before hugging Sengoku. When asked why he didn't kill him, Naruto tells him he couldn't do it, and that he'll find another way. They do find another way, but that's where I'll wrap it up, since both fic's conclusions are largely the same, and giving one away would spoil the other.

Sorry folks, but that's about all the time we have for this Naruto! Let's get back to OUR Naruto, shall we? Sit back, relax and enjoy. Ajax… out!

Sanji was probably having the worst day ever.

Firstly, one of their crew members' has suddenly disappeared; no clues, no convenient footsteps, nothing but a book that's tangentially related to her. Hell, they didn't even know how long it's been since her sudden vanishing!

And secondly, Naruto looks like he's about to rip the ship apart just to find her! But what's even worse is that Luffy's probably going to help him… That's insane, right?! Just a friendly reminder, they were about 10,000 METRES under the sea. Not 100, not 1000, 10,000. And if you didn't know, there were four, count it, four people who cannot physically swim! And one of them wants to help destroy the only thing standing between him and what's almost certainly certain death!

Sometimes he's really not getting paid enough for this…

What?

He's not even getting paid?!

Well then, if they think they're gonna get free unpaid labour from this cook then they have another thing comi—

"Sanji!"

"Oh yeeees Nami-shwaaaaan~~?" Ah, that's why he's still here.

Turning to Nami, he catches a slight frown on her delicate face. Following her gaze, he wasn't surprised to find it trained onto Naruto's hunched figure, already slinking off in search of Robin.

"Would you please be a dear and follow Naruto? He doesn't need anyone taking care of him, but I don't want him accidentally tearing the ship's hull a new one," And no one doubted that he couldn't do it. This was the same person who had single-handedly sunk an island with his… whatever his abilities are.

So with a sigh and a heavy heart, Sanji nodded and began following the blond shinobi, catching up to him in a few minutes.

He found Naruto silently sleuthing around on the lowest floor, quiet as can be.

'Of course he'd come here first,' Sanji rolled his eyes as he placidly observed the other's movements, but soon enough, an odour more powerful than he could handle began wafting from somewhere in the room, 'Yuck, what is that smell?'

"Can you smell it?" He jumped a little as Naruto stepped out from his shadow.

"You could've warned me the next time you do that," Sanji complained, though he did answer the question, "I smell it alright; smells like rotten fish fermented in curdled milk. Eurgh, where is it coming from?"

There was a short period of silence after that. Naruto, now crouched down with his ear to the ground, looked like the cat that got the cream.

Sanji knew the look well, and figured their targets were already as good as found.

"Found them with that devil fruit radar o' yours?"

Naruto grinned, his whiskers distorting to fit the new creases of his face, "Yeah. Yeah I got 'em," He stood back up, before slowly lifting up his foot. At first, Sanji had no clue what he was planning to do, but the moment he saw the stance Naruto took, his eyes widened to the size of saucers.

This madman's going to blast a hole through the floor!

"Wait, Naruto! Sto—!" But it was too late. Before Sanji could prevent him from enacting the most egregious case of vandalism ever recorded on the Thousand Sunny, Naruto brought his foot down with a mighty bang!

Sanji felt the floor.

Then, he felt nothing.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

And he fell.

As a shinobi, Naruto was taught to know all methods of espionage and trickery, and all manner of information gathering and improvisation. They were essential to the craft, and although he couldn't say he did a stellar job of learning them all by heart(that honour goes to Teme), he could still recall most of them on short notice.

But this. Nothing taught back in his world could've prepared him for this.

"What… What is this?!" Naruto didn't need to turn around to know that that was Sanji, nor did he need to turn around to know that the man was probably referring to the wet mushy dirt(?) they were standing on.

"Swamp," Naruto replied, his eyes narrowing into slits as he studied his surroundings; his senses told him that a large quantity of natural energy was suddenly being let out at the bottom of the ship. Who would've known it was because of all… this?

'And this was all by one man?' It wasn't like anything he's ever seen before: a manmade swamp produced solely through the use of natural energy. Common sense dictates that that would be impossible, that it would overtax any sage unless it was him, and even then it would take him a massive amount of time!

And yet… here it is, a biome inside a ship, created in the span of what he could only assume to be a few days. For once in this strange world, Naruto couldn't help but feel worried. What if he was underestimating this place the entire time? What if he hasn't yet seen the upper limits of this world? What if—

No! This is no time to get scared now! Robin's life is on the line, and second-guessing yourself will get both you and her killed! Just do what you always do: win.

'...Well, there's no time like the present,' He thought, 'Time to get to the bottom of things,' and without so much as a moment's hesitation, he began wading through the knee-high sludge and muck that plagued the entirety of the bottom deck.

Sanji, seeing him go even deeper into the goo, frantically began to follow, all the while grumbling quietly, "Argh! I know that. But why's it here in the first place?!"

Eventually, the pair arrived at what they could only guess to be the ladder that one would normally take to get down. Of course, since they had entered via the floor, this ladder was useless for now.

"So, where do we go from here?" He heard Sanji say, and to be entirely honest, he wasn't sure either. For the bottom deck of a ship, it was surprisingly labyrinthian, not to mention how all but a few metres in front of them were obscured by pitch darkness, and unless he performed a fire-Jutsu(not that he would, with this being a wooden ship), it would have to stay that way.

"Hey Naruto! The mud… sludge thingy is starting to thicken up around here. Maybe there's something over there?" Naruto's gaze followed Sanji's finger over yonder, and sure enough, it was just like he described.

'Hm. Better than going in a random direction, I suppose,' He thought, and after a moment's contemplation, started walking.

Drip!

"..."

Drip!

"...Sniff… sniff sniff! Huff, I'm so booored!" Caribou moaned into his fist as he leaned into the back of his throne.

Today was a very strange day for Caribou: after getting out of that ridiculously cramped barrel(seriously, who could've known?), he was handed what he could only call a blessing from Gol D. Roger, the pirate king, himself.

"Ooh… Naruto…" Oh! There she goes again. What a naughty little mouth she has on her! He might need to check her vitals again just to be safe, can't have her waking up now, can we? Kehihihihihi…

On the way to her, he heard something truly interesting… "Naruto…please…save…me,"

"Kehihihihi… no one's saving you now, girlie. Your little friends are nothing but hacks and conmen. Might as well give up, you know, while you still can!" His sundering cackles echoed throughout the empty chamber, his raucous laughter a testament to his victory over the last remnants of Ohara— no, over the devil child Nico Robin!

"Euughh… What… Where is this? Naruto?" Ooh, speaking of the devil!

"Good morning, Devil child! It's soooo nice to see you awake and well. Did you have a good rest?" He spoke in a jaunty manner, his words elongated and hollow, like one would expect from a horror monster rather than a pirate. Though I suppose with the atrocities he's committed, there wouldn't be much — if any — difference.

Caribou's eyes glimmered as he watched her recoil away in shock, laughing fiendishly when she began to back away from him. His gaze followed her panicked movements with a sadistic glee befitting a man of his sort.

"You! I recognize you! What are you doing on our ship?!" Robin finally had her sensibilities about her and made to stand back up. But then, when has Caribou ever intended for her to fight back in the first place?

Gulu gulu! Carrying a swiftness faster than lightning, the sludge that had once laid placid on the floor rapidly climbed her legs. She screamed, quickly activating her devil fruit to try and get it off.

It didn't work.

No matter how fast she removed the sludge, its unending flow never ceased. Even doubling the number of limbs did nothing; soon, it was up to her hips, then her chest, and eventually her neck. It was only until she was so thoroughly bound as to make moving even an inch humanly impossible did Caribou finally see it fit to get closer.

Robin watched him cautiously, if only she could get this mud off, it'd be much easier to—

"Hurk?!" Robin let out a grunt as she felt a hand clamp her cheeks together. She looked on, half terrified and half angry as he bent down to her level, as if he was somehow lowering his status just to speak with her. It was infuriating.

But nothing could be more rage-inducing than what came out of his mouth next, "Correction: my ship. After I've killed you and your little friends, I'll be "borrowing" this magnificent vessel for the foreseeable future! Kehihihhihihi!" Caribou then continued, "But for now, my little lure, sleep."

And suddenly, everything went black for Nico Robin.

"Huff!" Caribou sighed, "That should put her out of it for about… oh well, it's not like she needs to be awake when I kill her, might as well give her that mercy,"

That task finished, Caribou went back to his original spot, but now with something new on his mind: Naruto.

'Naruto… Naruto Naruto Naruto… Now where have I heard that before…?' Caribou scratched his goatee as he contemplated the familiar-unfamiliar name. After a few minutes though, he gave up.

'Eh. Probably some no-name pirate she has the hots for. Boooring… '

It didn't take long for them to find their target:

Sitting on a large throne of his own making, with his chin on his arm and a smug smile etched onto his face, was "wet-haired" Caribou, or so Naruto's sources say. More importantly however, was the unconscious Robin laying beside him.

Naruto gritted his teeth; that bastard was going to pay.

Walking out of the shadows, Naruto and Sanji confronted Caribou. The man didn't seem surprised when he spotted them.

He stood up, lifting his arms into the air as if he was greeting them, "Kehihihihihihi… Why I'm so glad you could all ma— wait… where's the rest of your crew?"

Naruto spat angrily, "Don't need 'em; I can handle you myself,"

There was a pregnant pause in the air as Caribou's brain began computing what he'd just heard. That was, until he burst out laughing.

"Is that right? You're going to defeat me, the Wet-haired Caribou?!" Almost as quickly as his confusion turned to amusement, it just as quickly transformed into all-encompassing rage.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAA! I absolutely hate hate hate hate HATE you strawhats and your arrogance! Nothing makes my blood boil more than pieces of trash like you thinking you're sooo good! Like you're the king o' the world!" Caribou gesticulated wildly, "But lemme tell ya something you good-for-nothing clowns: you are FRAUDS. I mean, I beat this tits-for-brains loser without so much as a scratch! And you're telling me I should be scared o'—"

Bang! Before he could finish his monologue, Caribou was launched into the wall by Sanji, his left foot coated with a dark sheen of black, the signature sign of Busoshoku Haki.

"Yeah, well maybe you should be," He glared as he watched Caribou slowly rise from the dent in the wall, blood and mud oozing out of his stomach like an infected wound.

"Kaff! Kaff! Hooooo… You bastard! How dare you interrupt m— Ooh?!"

The world faded into nothingness for Caribou as he felt his stomach being ripped to shreds by what he could only describe as a thousand starving beasts, each centimetre of his midriff a tasty morsel for their hungry maws. However, with the last piece of strength he could muster, the last ounce of effort in his decaying body, Caribou looked up.

His eyes widened, and terror reigned.

"Y-Y-You?! I-I-I finally remember! Y-Y-You are the…"

Rip! Naruto didn't have time to listen to his drivel, and with one forceful motion, violently dislodged his arm out of Caribou's stomach.

"There's a special place in hell for anyone that hurts my crew. Too bad you've passed the entrance test with flying colours,"

"F-F-F-False… Sa…ge…"

Thud!