A/N: So, this was going planned to go up last week but I lost track of time. It also reminded me how hard Usopp is to write.
Thanks for all the faves and follows.
Lucky Guard: Thank you. I hope you like this one too.
ilovecartoonsgirl: Thank you. Yeah, I think after everything she's putting up with at that point she can be forgiven for exploding once or twice.
sharingankakashi007: Yeah, all round it would have been a frustrating situation, especially if you aren't sure what exactly is going on and nobody was explaining anything. Nami now has baseline frustration levels that she wouldn't know how to deal with the world without. Thanks.
Queen Lily Tiger Ellyessa: Thanks. Very much poor Nami.
Black' Victor Cachat: The Pudding situation is fascinating, I'm still trying to wrap my head around what happened there with everyone involved. The Robin situation did kind of bothered me for a while given all we know of Nami's backstory, I just hope I did the complicated situation justice. The Mocktown incident has always been one of those times that I think shows the core of the crew, Bellamy was a bully, like anyone else they had really gone against, but instead they knew they would win too easily and decided not to fight.
Ravenclaw Slytherin: Thank you. Here you go.


Usopp was a little worried, Luffy was running late getting back and they needed to leave soon if they wanted to get to the spot that would take them to sky island.

In fact, he was still a little confused as to why he had gone alone in the first place.

Sure, he realised that Luffy had gone to get the old man's gold back, but the tension that had been present when he left had been unmistakeable. Usopp knew he was missing something, but he couldn't figure out what and he had a feeling if he asked he wasn't going to get an answer.

Luffy, Zoro and Nami had been acting weird since they got back from asking for information in the port. Zoro and Luffy covered in blood and bruises, unworried about their state while Nami had been untouched but furious. It had been so bad that Chopper had abandoned ship rather than face her, a bad idea for a devil fruit user whose original form wasn't made for ocean swimming in the first place. (Ussop preferred to remember that he had jumped in to save the reindeer, rather than that he had to escape the navigator).

After Nami had stormed off after yelling at the two of them, without even giving details, Usopp had just figured it was just another one of those things that the three of them didn't feel the need to talk about with anyone else. (Like how the three of them met. Like how they ended up on his island in a boat flying Buggy the Clown's flag.) So, he was just going to let it be, like he had everything else.

Especially after Nami had calmed down. (No need to accidently set her off again by bringing it up.)

Then, they got back with the bird they needed for their trip to find the old man and the monkeys badly injured, their skip wrecked and the gold gone.

Even under the ruckus of worry that overtook the area at the discovery, Usopp had heard Zoro call out to Luffy. Not loud, Zoro rarely had to be when he used that tone. Anyone who had been with the crew for more than one island, or incident learnt quick to hear that under any level of sound. The swordsman wasn't a big talker most of the time, but when he was serious, that was usually when everyone needed to pay attention.

All Zoro had done after getting everyone's attention was point to a symbol that had been painted on a tree and asked if their Captain wanted any help. Nami hadn't been happy at the sight, even less so that Luffy was going alone but hadn't said much other than threatening him with what would happen if he was late back.

They hadn't explained what was so significant about the symbol, but Usopp can guess given the reaction. And the fragments of the conversation between Zoro and Nami he had overheard afterwards.

The owners of the symbol had been the ones responsible for the state they had come back to the ship with earlier. Nami thought that Zoro should have gone with Luffy, Zoro thought that the fight would be too easy if he did.

About fights, Usopp was more likely to take Zoro's analysis as fact than Nami's, even when it seemed that it seemed not to make any sense. But Luffy was now almost an hour late and he was starting to worry that maybe Zoro had been wrong. (He'd only seen Zoro be wrong about a fight once, but that fight had nearly killed the swordsman, the scar across his chest a constant reminder of that to all who had seen that battle.)

But then again, Luffy's sense of direction wasn't that much better than Zoro's, at least according to Nami who spent time trying to insure he didn't go anywhere on an island alone. (But maybe that was to stop him from getting them all into dangerous situations, or eating away all their money.)

Or maybe he forgot to take into account the weight of the gold he had gone to collect. (Ussop ignored the fact that he knew Luffy could carry the same amount of weight as Zoro without slowing him down.)

Luffy was their Captain and the one of the best fighters in the crew, but he was a bit of an idiot. (Usopp really, really hoped that Zoro wasn't wrong.)


P.S: A friendly reminder that while favs and follows remind me that there are still people waiting to read more, reviews throw my motivation back in my direction. This chapter is proof of this.