Thank you Dar'ska for the review and suggestion. That df idea sounds interesting. And thank you for reading both my previous story and this version. Appreciate the support.

Of course the hommie Sudhush gets the s/o too. Thanks for the df idea and suggestion.

The Storm

*4 Years Later*

It had been five years since Luffy had entered the lives of the Whitebeard Pirates. In the eyes of the caretakers, those five years had gone fast. They remembered Luffy being just a small, fragile, innocent, laughing and always smiling, and surprisingly quiet baby.

Not anymore.

Soon after Luffy had learned to talk in sentences and was able to run, Luffy had changed from a quiet kid to a person that would never stay still or never be quiet for a long period of time. When Luffy would be spending time with Marco while he was doing his paperwork, Luffy couldn't just sit there and do nothing. So either he sat down peacefully and talked to the first division commander. Which mind you, the stuff he talked about wasn't annoying and actually caught Marco off guard. Luffy would ask questions about certain islands and the people Marco had met in these islands and would ask small things about how the ship is and will there be enough supplies for this trip. If he wasn't talking to the man, Luffy would be reading out loud small books or he would be coloring or playing with toys.

Whenever Mika was with Luffy, she would be his teacher. He taught him how to read and is teaching him how to write. She didn't want Luffy to be illiterate so she took it upon herself to teach Luffy these things. She had to force Luffy early on to read and write when all he wanted to do was play but once she picked out small books that Luffy would be interested in reading, that had seemed to work on the child. And ever since then, Luffy enjoyed reading, which was surprising. She and Namur also taught Luffy how to swim. And surprisingly he was quite good at it. For his young age. And for how much they taught him. They both felt proud.

Thatch, well Thatch didn't want Luffy near the kitchen ever since Luffy had completely changed his diet to solid foods. If Luffy was in the kitchen during cooking time, food would get stolen. And eaten. Not just like a small handful or enough for a light snack. Nope. Luffy ate meals. So Thatch had enough of that and spent time with Luffy in a different way. Pranking others. Luffy was small, light and quiet so he could reach places where Thatch couldn't. Together the two of them had pranked most of the crew by now.

When Luffy was in the care of his uncle, Luffy would ask his uncle for stories of his adventures. He did ask the others about their adventures, but as time went on, Luffy realized that the best storytellers were Pops and Jones. Jones was happy to tell Luffy about his adventures. Of course, he wouldn't tell the innocent five year old about the dark stuff that he had done, but he told him about the adventures he had while he was a member of the Roger Pirates. Luffy would always ask about his previous crew and Jones would happily reply.

However, the four of them would be needed for bath day. They made Luffy bathe often because well surprisingly, the Whitebeard pirates were big on cleanliness, which was something odd for pirates. But it kept them away from getting sick and keep the ship not smelling bad. But for Luffy, each caretaker had a job. Thatch was in the water with Luffy, Marco was outside the tub with a towel and Jones was by the door with clothes. Mika was standing outside with a towel in her hands. And by then everyone knew what that meant. When Thatch was done, both Marco and Jones would have to be very fast or else Luffy would just run out the door naked where Mika would be waiting. No one knew why he did that, Luffy just did it. And plus he was only 5 years old and everyone knew he hated staying in one spot for long.

When Luffy spent time with Whitebeard, that was when Luffy would ask Whitebeard about his adventures and his fights he had with other strong pirates. Whenever the crew would walk by Pops, the scene that they would see was precious to them. On one hand they see their Oyaji, in his lap there would be a 5 year old child listening to his father's stories. In the lap of the 5 year old, there would be a black cat with blue eyes sleeping and on the floor there would be a white Labrador that would be at Whitebeard's side all the time. The cat's was eventually named Tiger Lord because he heard the story of how his uncle tamed a really big and dangerous lion. The Labrador was named Stefan through a suggestion from one of the division commanders.

By this time, at the tender age of 5, Whitebeard had suggested that it may be time to start training Luffy how to fight. The caretakers had all agreed but they needed to do it slowly. He was only 5 years old, but he was an odd child. He was surprisingly strong for a 5 year old. And his development was actually going faster than normal. It was probably him having the D. bloodline. And it had something to do with his genetics considering his father and grandfather were Monkey D. Garp and Dragon while his mother and her side of the family were highly skilled assassins.

So Luffy knew how to jump, catch and throw. He already was taught how to swim. So he was pretty fit and had enough physical activity. But training him how to fight is necessary. Especially for a pirate. So what they decided was that Luffy would not use any weapons until he perfected fundamentals and Jones thought it is a good idea to teach him boxing. And they had the wo perfect teachers for him. The first was Diamond Jozu, the third division commander. The second was Kingdew, the 11th division commander.

The two of them thought that training Luffy would be hard and impossible but once they started and gave him the motivation of "You're going to be as strong as Oyaji" Luffy was ready to learn and willing to listen. Of course for the first month or so he wasn't much good but he was learning and slowly progressing. Which was exactly what the two had wanted.

All was going well for the Whitebeard pirates. Things were peaceful yet chaotic on the ship due to Luffy, but everything was alright. Luffy got along well with everyone on the Moby Dick.

However, today was a slightly different day. Thatch had been gone on a island mission with Jones and some of the fourth division and the second division. Marco was really busy with paperwork during the night, he ended up falling asleep. Mika was busy with a few patients, including Whitebeard who got hit with his once a year fever that lasted longer than usual so even he was sleeping.

Luffy being bored, he decided to go to the figurehead and sit there with Tiger Lord and Stefan. The Whale figurehead on the ship was really large so Luffy knew it was safe for him as he had been there many times before, and he did know how to swim so he was fine. And plus he the two pets with him.

Thatch and Jones were sent on a mission to go check out an island that was supposed to be under attack. When the group had arrived to the island, the were already too late. It appeared that a group of pirates had already gone through and destroyed the town. Houses were burnt and there were dead bodies on the ground. Jones had froze for a moment, remembering the things he had done in his previous life. Quickly shaking his head, he wanted to go find the people who did this.

Teach asked if there was anything important on this island and Thatch replied with "There's an unknown devil fruit here… But no one knows what it is or where it is. I'm assuming these people already took it considering how bad the town is."

"I don't think so." replied the man with an odd smile on his face "If we find it, can we keep it?"

"Sure I guess." Thatch replied. He wanted to turn to Jones but he noticed that Jones wasn't with the group anymore. "Shit… Okay everyone spread out and find Jones. If you find him, you'll find whoever did this. If it's a large number and you see Jones surrounded, make a smoke signal and we shall come towards you. After you make the signal, either help him out or keep the fire going. Depending on the situation." and with that the group had spread out and went their own ways, trying to find their crewmate and whoever did this.

Jones had found the aura of the person. Leaving the group, he had teleported to the area where the aura was coming from and when he got there, he noticed a young man, in his early teens. And with him a small girl, who looked around the same age as the boy. He couldn't really tell. But something was off. The boy sat by the girl who appeared to be sleeping, but the boy had a look of anger in his eyes. There was also sadness. The boy looked angry at the dead bodies that were lying on the ground. And near that area, there was a burnt Whitebeard flag.

Jones decided to confront this young man. And when he got there, the boy held out his sword. Jones raised an eyebrow and wondered where he got such a sword from. That was a rare beauty of a sword and only 12 of those grade quality sword were made. The boy however, was looking at Jones threateningly while Jones had a calm and collected look on his face. He knew what was going to happen next so he decided to wait until the angry kid eventually lashed out an attack.

A burnt down flag of the Whitebeard pirates meant one thing. And that one thing was blood spilling everywhere on the ground. Dead bodies were piled, as two men looked at each other across a small field that was covered with dead, headless bodies. One filled with rage and anger. The other with a smirk. The man with rage in his eyes went to attack the man who was smiling but even with his rage, his movements were much faster than before. No normal person would be able to keep up. And as the angry man had brought down his sword for a strike, it was blocked "Hmm you made me unsheathe my sword… Not bad for a demon."

The young boy who had attacked Jones was shocked. Not a single person had been able to block his attack. Except for the pirates who had rampaged his island just recently. But knowing that he got beaten up badly by those same pirates and nearly killed the sister he was trying to protect, he got even angrier and more careless. However, even though the kid was being careless, he was still a good swordsman. Jones still had a smile on his face because he was happy to see a good young swordsman with a great amount potential if trained. He wasn't trying when he was blocking the attacks but then he started to try just slightly. It would have been disrespectful for him not to try against a decent swordsman who tried to kill him.

Now that Jones was on the offensive, the boy couldn't keep up. Jones was moving too quick with his attacks but the kid was doing good to block and each time he would attack, it was easily parried by Jones. They young boy was being overwhelmed and losing this fight until Jones had eventually gotten the kid to fall and had the tip of his sword at his neck. He looked at the boy and looked at the girl who was sleeping earlier but now had an arrow aimed towards him. Jones had sheathed his sword and smiled again.

"Look here guys, if I was trying to kill the two of you, I would have already done so ages ago… But what happened here?"

The girl replied "What's it to you? How can we trust you?"

"Fair point." and he holds out his hand to help the boy get up "I'm genuinely impressed you were able to make me unsheathe my sword kid. You have good potential."

The boy remained silent. "Anyways, I'm here on behalf of Whitebeard. This was one of our islands and it seemed that someone came through here and messed this whole place over. Do you know who did it?"

"Some weird pirate group. They claimed they were the 'Blackbeard Pirates'. There was this really big and muscular guy. He could destroy buildings with just his punch. There was this weird pale guy with a cane. Another guy who was on a horse and a guy who carried a rifle and had this thing on his eye." said the girl

"I've never heard of them… Anyways, you two are the only ones left alive on this island, and this is no place for the two of you considering the two of you are heavily injured. So you guys are coming with me."

The boy took his sword out once again "Where to?"

"Well to meet Whitebeard of course. He'd love to have the two of you apart of his family. He can give you a home and can offer you and your sister protection. Neither of you will probably ever be harmed again and you can live a free life."

"Free life? Why do all pirates think they can live free lives with no rules?!" said the girl

"There's a difference between pirates and criminals. Regardless of what you are, you still go against the rules of the World Government. But criminals are people who don't give a shit about anyone or anything. They will harm or kill anyone that gets in their way because they call themselves pirates. Good pirates, like Whitebeard and many others, they care for the people. They rarely give a shit about themselves and don't get angry at things that happen to them. But say if someone were to kill or harm on of the crewmates, then that is when they decide to do something. They have morals and act things out through thinking about it, through consultation. Nothing is done by impulse. Well most of the time."

"But anyways… That's not in your interest. Right now, the two of you are badly injured and hurt and you guys look like you haven't eaten in days. I'm still taking you to the ship to recover. After that you can decide on what you want to do."

The brother was still hesitant to agree until the sister had passed out. The second he saw her body slowly start to fall, he ran towards her and caught her. He looked at Jones silently and started walking towards the shore.

As the two were walking in silence, he had eventually managed to make it to the shore. He saw Teach waiting there and he said "Oi Teach, where'd the rest go?"

"They went their own directions once you disappeared. They were all looking for you."

"Oh. Well I suppose we wait now. I'll make a smoke signal.. While I grab some wood, if you have any water, mind giving some to this kid over here and his sister." and just as he said that the boy had passed out too. "Young ones… Always staying unnecessarily strong for no reason."

"At one point we were like that too. Zeehahahha!"

"That we were Marshall. That we were." Jones said as he started a signal.

A couple of hours later, Luffy saw a ship nearing by and he was about to go get Marco but then his uncle appeared before him. Picking up Luffy, he said "Now why are you here alone?" and before Luffy answered, Stefan barked pretty loudly and Jones was like "Oh nevermind. I won't tell anyone."

"Anyways Luffy I have a job for you. Punch Thatch when he gets on board. Can you do that?" Luffy smiled and nodded. Jones placed the boy down and both went on deck. He found Mika and told her that she had a new patient coming her way. He told her that she was a teen that survived the island but passed out during their whole journey back.

Mika got a hospital bed ready as the ship had neared by. Once everyone got on board, Luffy ran towards Thatch who was holding a devil fruit in his hands and punched him right in the ribs. It wasn't a strong punch, but it was a punch afterall so it did hurt. "JONES YOU FUCKING SHITHEAD I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Mika looked at Thatch and asked him why a punch from a 5 year old boy hurt and Thatch said nothing. She walked right up to Thatch and touched the area where Luffy had punched Thatch.

Her eyes widened and she raised an eyebrow "How?"

"How what?"

"How the fuck did you manage to bruise your ribs?"

"Oh that… I got punched while fighting and then Luffy just hit me."

"He's lying Mika. He saw that devil fruit on a tree and said 'I'm gonna be rich in a week. Fuck you guys.' and climbed the tree and as he got the fruit, he fell." said Jones who had popped up out of nowhere but there was a boy with him who looked to be in his teens.

"Fuck you Jones."

"Only telling the truth bud."

"Well it's only bruised so you'll be fine. Ice it and take painkillers." says Mika

"Well no shit Mika. I was gonna do that regardless."

"And just who are YOU giving attitude to?" Mika had her hand ready to mess up Thatch's hair.

Thatch ran to the infirmary and said "I'll get those painkillers now." She said hello to Luffy, picked him up and placed a kiss on his cheek and then went to the infirmary to check on her new patient.

They young teen was looking at Luffy, surprised to see a young child on board. Deciding to not ask any questions, Jones took the young man to Whitebeard's room where Marco was already there.

The four of them were in the room for about an hour or more and they found out that the boy's name was Sakata. The girl he was with was his sister whose name was Reyna. They were twins fraternal twins which had explained the silver hair on Sakata and the light brown hair on Reyna. Sakata had opened up to Whitebeard about their past since he trusted them. He told the group that he and his sister were abandoned by their parents when they were just six years old and they had been living like that for 12 years until the island got taken by these 'Blackbeard Pirates'.

Whitebeard offered them a home, but Sakata had declined only because he wanted to talk to his sister about it as well. He didn't want to do anything she wouldn't want. Whitebeard respected that and so did the other two that were with him. Once they left Whitebeard's room, Marco saw Thatch scolding Luffy for punching him and Marco walked up to Luffy and said "Good job yoi. Now let's go training with Jozu and Kingdew." and he picked up the five year old and then left.

Sakata saw this and was surprised. This was a fearsome pirate group that was known around the world. Yet here they are. Having a five year old kid on the ship. He wondered if this was someone on this ship was the mother and father. Which made sense. This was a large pirate group so clearly there may have been some relationships.

He didn't think of it too much so he walked around the ship. He had noticed two of the guys that were on the boat with him were talking about something. It probably had something to do with the devil fruit because he saw the man with the pompadour hair tossing the fruit up and down and the other man was oddly looking at the fruit. Not paying attention, he kept walking.

He walked to the training area where he saw a lot of people training. There were many things going on and Sakata fit right in. He always wanted to get stronger to protect his sister and for the time being while she was recovering, this was a good time to get in shape.

However, he was stopped. A man with a very long moustache and twin blades had stopped him. "Excuse me, may I ask where you got such a rare sword?"

Sakata looked at his sword "My piece of shit father gave it to me before he abandoned me and my sister."

"Mind if I see the sword?" he asked. Sakata unsheathed the sword and handed it to the man. The man held the katana with one hand, and with the other he ran his finger through the blade.

"There's only 12 swords made from this quality. It would be an honor to have a duel with you." says the man

"I'm not that good." he said, knowing that he wouldn't be any match to the man standing in front of him.

"He's lying Vista." said Jones who again appeared out of nowhere. "This kid made me unsheathe my sword." Vista raised an eyebrow and looked at both Jones and Sakata.

"I mean no disrespect here, but if you can keep up with Davy over there, I'm pretty sure you can keep up with me as well. So why not have a short duel."

Sakata looked at the man and then turned to Jones. He rubbed his hands together and cracked his neck. He took the sword from Vista and agreed to this duel.

He didn't expect everyone to stop training when he agreed. The people made a circle and cleared out anything that was going to be in the area they were fighting in. All the division commanders were there, Whitebeard was there. Luffy was there with Tiger Lord and Stefan.

Vista took out his two swords and said "As the 5th division commander of the Whitebeard pirates, I, Flower-Blade Vista, would like to have a duel. Do you accept this challenge?"

Sakata closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He kept them close for a few seconds and opened his eyes when he had exhaled. "And I, Sakata, accept this challenge." unsheathing his sword.

Whitebeard yelled out begin and the duel started. Sakata charged at Vista and the other man blocked the attack with relative ease. He attacked a few more times but each attack was stronger than the last, so Vista had to actually start trying. He quickly understood that Sakata was trying to measure him out. So when Sakata went for another attack, this time, Vista had parried the sword and went on the offensive. Sakata was blocking his attacks pretty well and also exchanged blows by parrying and attacking. But right now his main focus was defending. Vista was a lot quicker than he was so it was hard to fully keep up but he could tell that the older man was still holding back. Just like Jones had early on, until he actually decided to try at one point.

This fight was going on for about 10 minutes of pure swordsmanship. The match wasn't exactly even because it looked like the winner was going to be Vista, but this kid wasn't too bad. He was trying to keep up with the older and much more experienced swordsman. At one point however, Sakata did notice a very small thing in Vista's stance though. Every time Vista would attack Sakata's leg with his left hand, his next attack would be an overhead attack with his right hand. But he saw a small opening in that time. He kept waiting until Vista had aimed for the leg again, but this time he let himself get hit but he was able to bring his bring his sword right near Vista's neck but that was quickly blocked by the sword in his left hand and with his right, Vista brought his sword right up to Sakata's heart.

The boy looked at the sword and looked at Vista and took a step back. He sheathed his sword and bowed to the man, who bowed back and started congratulating the boy. Everyone knew Vista was going to win but there was not a single cheer for the 5th division commander. Everyone was clapping and cheering for Sakata who was able to stand up to Vista for that long. Not many people have been able to do that. Sakata felt proud of himself.

The circle slowly started to clear out and everyone was doing their own things again until the only two people standing in front of Sakata was Jones and Luffy. Luffy was impressed at his skills and said "You're awesome! I want to be as strong as you one day." and Sakata smiled at the young child. The child's eyes were large in awe and his smile was as bright as the sun.

"You did good kid." said Jones

"Thanks."

"If i were to tell you I can help you become the next World's Greatest Swordsman, you'd tell me to go fuck off because that's not what your aimed towards. But if I tell you I can help you to get stronger to protect your sister, would you consider it?"

"Well you are right about one thing. I don't care for this Greatest Swordsman title. I just did what I had to do to protect her."

"So why don't I train you. I can help you become a better swordsman and make you much stronger than you really are. You have potential kid. Now I'm not gonna say you are going to change the world with your strength because again you don't care for it. But for the safety of your sister and to keep you alive to be able to continue protecting your sister, I can help you achieve that much."

This was not a hard choice for the 18 year old. Sakata looked at Jones. "So when do we start?"

Night time was odd. Dinner went well but then it started to rain pretty badly during the night. Luffy was already in his room with Stefan and Tiger Lord. He had went to bed early because he spent an extra two hours training with Kingdew so all he wanted to do was eat and go sleep. But as the storm was going on, he woke up and so did the two pets. Luffy woke up yelling Thatch with a cold sweat and tears in his eyes. He ran out of his room and the two animals followed.

The roaring thunder was loud. So loud that it made Sakata wake up. He wasn't used to storms in the island he and his sister were in. For some reason, he wanted to go see the rain and this storm. He always heard stories that lightning was a beautiful thing to look at if you are quick enough to see the large bolts light up the sky, so he decided to go out. Even though he knew he would be safe, for some reason, he took his sword with him. As he was walking, he had noticed the small kid, Luffy, running out in the heavy rain with just a t-shirt and a pair of shorts on. He knew the kid would get sick so he ran after him.

Jones was on watch and walking around freely on deck. He loved the rain. Spending two years on an island where it rained quite a lot for a whole season, he found that rain was comforting to him. The sparks of lightning and the sounds of thunder had always seemed to calm him down. The cold wet feeling of the rain on his skin made him relax. However tonight, he wasn't at peace. He was uneasy. He didn't know why. He made his way to the training area and that was when he widened his eyes and ran towards a certain area.

Thatch was finally in bed. He just came back from a mission, just happened to hurt his rib which wasn't as painful because his tolerance was high but it did bother him and he was tired and sore. He had a devil fruit in front of him and said "You are going to make me a rich man… I just hope you aren't some dangerous thing."

Just as he closed the light to his room, he heard a very loud knock. He wondered who it would have been at this time and he hoped it wasn't anything serious so he quickly opened the door and saw Teach with a murderous smile on his face. Thatch was about to say something but then Teach had punched his rib area but it was more than a punch. He also got stabbed by something.

"Sorry commander… But that devil fruit is mine." as he raised a knife to kill his crewmate.

Luffy made it all the way to Thatch's room only to find the fourth division commander covered in blood. He stood still and didn't know what to do. He couldn't move, he couldn't open his mouth. However, he did hear the newcomer on the ship take out his sword and attack Teach as he came out of the room with a devil fruit in his hand and a 3 clawed weapon that was tied to his wrist. In the other hand was a knife that was covered in Thatch's blood.

Sakata was just about to land an attack until Teach dropped the devil fruit, made a fist and punched Sakata, but since that hand had those three blades standing out, they went right into the teens chest and he instantly fell. Picking up the devil fruit, he looked at Luffy with a murderous smile and said "If you scream, I'll kill you to."

Luffy looked at the man that was standing in front of him. He looked like he was about to scream but he didn't. His voice wasn't working. He was just frozen. "And you're not going to tell anyone either…" and he brought the knife up to Luffy to threaten the five year old child. But then he felt a body lounge towards him.

Jones had tackled Teach down. Dropping the devil fruit in his hand. However, the knife he had, he threw at Luffy. The boy couldn't move because he was still in shock and there was now a knife right underneath his eye.

Jones had completely lost it. He was going to kill Teach whether he liked it or not. That man was dying tonight. However, he didn't want his nephew to look at the brutal execution that was about to take place. Jones looked at Luffy and said "LUFFY GO WAKE UP MARCO! NOW!" and that's when Luffy shook himself out of his frozen state and ran to Marco.

As the young child was running he yelled out "MARCO" as loud as he could and then it happened. A very strong wave of Conquerors Haki had been unleashed by the boy.

Jones was completely fine, but he saw Teach who was on his knee due to that. Good. The more pain, the better thought the sadistic man as he was looking at his next victim.

Catching his breath and standing up tall Teach said "Would you want to kill me? Or do you want to save your friends?"

Jones stopped. Everything in his body made him want to kill Teach but then he knew that he had a chance to save Thatch and Sakata. Punching a hole in Thatch's door he said "Fuck you Teach. Just know I'll be the one to kill you." and he turned around to help his nakama.

Marco was in bed sleeping peacefully until he felt the wave of Haki in his sleep. He quickly woke up to hear his door being knocked and Marco got out of bed and opened the door. He saw Luffy standing out with a dagger right under his eye and the boy looked very pale and was struggling to keep consciousness. He wondered just what the hell had happened before Luffy had passed out.

Marco thought of nothing except of getting Luffy to the infirmary. As he was making his way, he say Jones running towards the infirmary but he was holding Thatch in one arm and Sakata in the other. He really wanted to know what the hell had happened.

"MIKAAAAAAAAA!" yelled out Jones as the Whitebeard pirates, including Pops himself, were all awake and out on deck trying to see what the commotion was about until they saw 3 bodies. Two in the arms of Jones and one in the arms of Marco.

The door to the infirmary had just opened by the time Marco had arrived with Luffy and when Jones arrived with Thatch and Sakata. The two of them placed the three down carefully in the beds that were prepared as quick as they could. Mika had her eyes widened at the fact that two people that she cared for were now currently fighting to live. She blinked and shook her head and became all professional. She kicked out the two men that carried the near dead bodies and closed the door.

Jones closed his eyes as the rain had stopped. Instinctively, his Zoan devil fruit powers activated and he yelled out "FUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKK!" at the top of his lungs. Everyone could hear the anger in his voice. Hell, he could barely contain his bloodlust. He had a hand at the hilt of his sword and unsheathed it. He was going to kill tonight. This was the final limit to his control. Someone was going to die by the end of this.

And that's all for today folks. I hope you guys enjoyed.

Alright so Luffy will not be staying on the ship. He shall leave to become his own Captain at the end of this story.

Okay so here's my take on Blackbeard. He was in touch with a few friends (the people we saw on the Jaya arc on One Piece) and told them to find the dark-dark fruit. They found it and destroyed the island then they left. He was always the bad guy.