Chapter 6: Tales of a Navigator, a Thief and…a Witch?

XXXXXX – East Blue

Amongst the waters of the East Blue, a small boat was sailing along with the calm breeze. The breeze woke up a sleeping boy named Naruto Uzumaki. It had been a week since the four had left Koby. Naruto missed the other boy and his panic rants. But not all things were bad. He and Luffy he met Rorouna Zoro and Aburame Shino, both who had joined Luffy's crew. Like he had. Instantly, he looked for the other shinobi boy. Shino had taken it upon himself to teach Naruto the shinobi customs and ways, as well as educating him with the shinobi language and writing style, to which Naruto still couldn't get right.

'Funny, when I first met Luffy and he offered me a position, I turned him down. I had no intention of joining, now look at me. I'm part of a pirate crew with a rubberman, a guy who is a living hive and a sword obsessed bastard. My life has officially become crazy, like some Manga.' Naruto thought as he stretched.

"HEY DAMN RODENT!" Zoro called and storming towards Naruto.

Speak of the devil. "What the hell do you want, dead man!" Naruto yelled back. There was plenty of fury in Zoro's eyes. Naruto vaguely wondered what Zoro was pissed about now.

Shino stared at the pair. They were certainly lively this morning. He watched as Zoro hit Naruto on the head.

"Ouch! What was that for?!" Naruto asked as he rubbed his head.

"You're supposed to be the damned navigator! Where the hell are we?!" Zoro asked.

"I don't know. Listen navigating hard, ok!" Naruto cried as he held up a compass. "All I know is that we're going north!"

Zoro sighed and sat down. He looked at Luffy. "Don't you think it's strange that you can't navigate?

Luffy shook his head. "No. Drifting has worked pretty well for me."

Naruto added. "What about you, dead guy? They call you a demon in human form. And you're supposed to be the holy terror of the seas!"

"I don't recall ever calling myself those things." Zoro said dryly.

"But it is you reputation, is it not?" Shino asked. "Your name is known throughout all the seas. You must have gotten around somehow."

"I followed a pirate I was after out to sea." Zoro answered. "But I couldn't find my way back to my village. So I made the best of things. I went after the pirates in that area." He shrugged. "I had to earn money somehow…"

"So you got lost." All three stated.

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO PUT IT LIKE THAT, DAMNIT!" Zoro sat back. "Anyway, what kind of pirate doesn't know how to navigate his own ship? That's ridiculous."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. I agree with the sword guy."

"You have no room to talk, Naruto." Shino said. "Luffy is forgivable because he never learned how. You, on the other hand, learned but neglected your skills and relied on 'dumb luck.'"

Naruto gave a small smile. "Well, dumb luck worked well enough for me in the past."

Zoro sighed. "At this rate, we'll never get to the Grand Line if we have to rely on the rodent. (DIE!). We've got to recruit a real navigator as soon as possible."

Luffy cheered. "And we need a cook, a musician and a –"

"THOSE CAN WAIT!"

XXXXXXX – several hours later.

"Come on! Let me eat some meat! I'm hungry!" Luffy cried to Shino, who was in charge of supplies. "I want to eat meat!"

"Between your enormous appetite and that of Naruto's, we would run out of supplies within a week." Shino answered in a flat voice. "It is therefore unwise to allow you to consume anymore, especially when we are currently lost and have no idea when we will arrive at the next island."

Naruto quickly joined Luffy. "Come on, Shino! Just a little snack!"

"No."

Both Naruto and Luffy fell on their backsides, panting. "We're starving!" they both moaned, to which Shino did not reply.

"Hey, it's a bird." Naruto said, simply staring at it.

"It looks pretty big." Luffy replied. Suddenly he sat up and screamed. "LET'S EAT IT!"

Naruto gave Luffy a funny look. "Huh? How?"

"Leave it to me! I'll catch it!" Luffy claimed. Quickly he stretched his arms to the top of the mast and grabbed on, yelling "GUM-GUM…"

Zoro nodded. "So, you'll just fly up there, kill it and land back here? Sounds like a plan." He licked his lips. "I could use the snack as well."

"…ROCKET!" Luffy cried as he launched himself into the air. He quickly reached the bird and grabbed on to it.

"LUNCH!" Naruto cried happily

"Ok," Zoro said in approval. Both waited for Luffy to return to earth with their snack. A few seconds passed, then ten. Thirty. A minute. Two. That's when Zoro and Naruto realized what had happened and they both sweatdropped: Luffy hadn't caught the bird.

The bird caught Luffy.

"HELP!!!" the idiot captain of the newly formed Straw Hat pirates screamed. The mighty being who managed to recruit the feared pirate hunter and two shinobi into his crew. The man who lead the attack that had ended Morgan's reign of terror. The man who held an unwavering belief that he would become the next King of the Pirates…had lost to a bird. The God of Irony has struck again.

"YOU IDIOT!!!" Both Zoro and Naruto yelled, to which Luffy merely responded with another 'HELP!!!'. The bird then started moving into another direction, and was getting further away by the second. "Damn you!" Zoro swore. Quickly, he ran inside the cabin and brought out two oars. He tossed one to Naruto and yelled, "Row! Fast!"

The two started doing that, setting an impressive pace. Unfortunately, the bird was still going faster. Naruto took another look at it and then turn to Shino, who had not moved from his spot and was continuing to act like nothing had happened. "Shino!" Naruto roared as he continued to row. "Give us a hand here, or we'll going to lose him!" The bird and Luffy were nearly out of sight.

Shino looked at the blond boy for several moments and did nothing. He then got up and faced the sail. He raised his arms and called forth his bugs. The bugs flew out and begin flying in furious circle that resembled a miniature cyclone. Somehow, this bug cyclone managed to produce a fierce wind, which the sail caught and made the skiff go that much faster.

"Showoff," Naruto complained, but went back to rowing nonetheless. Between the three, their impressive speed reached to remarkable. With this new speed, they seemed to be catching up. However, fate threw yet another obstacle in their path.

Shino, who had been facing forward the whole time, saw it first and spoke up. "Well…this is inconvenient."

Before Naruto could ask what the 'Bug King' meant, he heard something.

"It's a ship! Hey wait! Ahoy!" someone screamed.

Naruto threw his head back around and looked at the source. Three men were wading in the ocean strait in their path. Naruto started scanning the horizon, but he didn't see another ship anywhere. "Hey, Zoro. We've got another problem!"

"WHAT IS IT NOW!?" asked a very frustrated Zoro. In response, Naruto pointed towards the three men. Zoro grunted. "Oh, great! Shipwreck survivors. We don't have time for this."

"Huh, but we can't just leave them," Naruto protested. The idea made his stomach turn.

"Indeed," Shino agreed. "Such an action would not be honorable."

"I wasn't suggesting that we do, but we can't stop either," Zoro replied. Raising his voice, he shouted, "We can't stop! Just grab on and climb in!"

The three men didn't hear him correctly and because of that they nearly missed the skiff as it came rushing by. Lucky for them, the three managed to grab on in time and if you consider how fast the skiff was going, they were incredibly lucky that they made it in times. All three were gasping hard in the stern section of the ship.

Zoro give them one quick look and said, "You made it, good."

After they pulled themselves aboard in the stern section of the skiff, all three yelled, "You would have left us to die! What kind of person are you?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nah. He wouldn't had left you…he's…uh…well he isn't nice…but he's…well, he's not that either…" Naruto paused and looked at the swordsman with worry on his face. "You wouldn't really have left them…would you?" Zoro's response was to hit Naruto's head with his oar.

That's when the three pulled out weapons and Naruto finally took a good look at them: all of them wore rough clothing and all had the same insignia: skull and crossbones with a clown's nose. They were pirates.

"Stop this ship! We're pirates with Buggy the Clown! And we're taking this ship!" the one in the middle stated.

"Huh?" the three Straw Hats asked. Five minutes later (after some beatings involving fists, the backs of the swords and bug bites), the three clown pirates took Naruto and Zoro's place at the oars. Unfortunately, the brief fight had caused the skiff to fall far behind. Luffy and the bird were no longer in sight.

"We're terribly sorry, Mr. Pirate Hunter Zoro and Mr. Ninjas, sirs! We didn't realize who you were." The pirates said at once.

"You idiots made us lose our friend." Zoro replied harshly. "Keep rowing, if there's any land nearby, he'll get there."

Naruto nodded. He reached for his picture and showed it the three pirates. "Have any of you seen this man?" Getting a no for an answer, he put the picture away and asked. "So what were you guys doing out in the middle of nowhere?"

At that, the pirates eagerly began telling their story. They told how they had found a young red-haired woman who had appeared to be adrift and how she managed to trick them, steal their boat and their treasure. She left them in her small boat right as a storm appeared and capsized the boat, leaving them to drown. At least, that's what would had happened if Naruto and the rest hadn't came zipping by.

"…and that's the whole sad story. It's just awful isn't it?"

Zoro looked thoughtful, "Amazing. She used the weather to her own advantage. She must really know the seas."

Shino nodded. "Indeed, she shows clear intelligence, not only on how to achieve her goals, but to use the weather to her own advantage." He paused. "However, while she would have the desired qualities for a navigator, it would appear that she practices deception and deceit as well as any well trained shinobi. Such a person should be treated with caution, especially if they are given the duty of guiding this ship when we have no way to verify if she isn't tricking us."

Naruto's opinion? "She sounds like a witch to me." Everyone turned to him. Naruto looked a little nervous, and then started ranting, "Oh, come on! What kind of normal person can predict the weather like that? She must have cast some spells to change the weather, or maybe she conjured up a humongous toad, threw it into the air and it affected the weather…maybe she's really some 400 year ugly old hag and she uses her potions to make herself appear young…or maybe…" Naruto continued his witch rant as Zoro and Shino turned their attention back to the three pirates.

"We think she'll make a great corpse!" one stated.

"What do we do about the treasure we lost?" another asked.

"If we return empty handed, Buggy will be furious!" the last one added.

"Who's this Buggy guy anyway?" Zoro asked.

Before the pirates could answer, Shino spoke up. "Buggy, as known as Buggy the Clown. A small time pirate ("WHO ARE YOU CALLING SMALL TIME!!!" the trio yelled) who is well known around these parts. He's known for his ferocity, especially when someone merely mentions his nose. He is a cannon happy pirate who enjoys blowing anything and everything up with his special, 'Buggy Balls'. The Navy's reports also includes that he has the power of the Devil Fruit…though his power is not known to me. His bounty is 15 million berries."

Naruto gave Shino a weird look. "He has the Devil Fruit like Luffy?" Shino nodded. "Then doesn't that mean that he can stretch just like Luffy can?"

This time, Zoro answered, "No, rodent. Luffy's Devil Fruit is only one kind: no two are the same. There are dozens, maybe even hundreds of different Devil Fruit's in the world, though they're incredibly rare. Before Luffy, I'd never even seen one of the fruits…let alone someone who had eaten the fruit before."

"Ok, you don't have to act all high and mighty about it, damn it!" Naruto complained. "How am I supposed to know all this complicated stuff anyway?" Naruto then noticed that the three had stopped rowing, to which he yelled, 'Back to rowing!'. The three pirates immediately set a notable pace. Unfortunately, even with this speed, they still did not catch up to Luffy nor did they catch sight of their captain. But they continued anyway. What else could they do, but try?

XXXXXXX – East Blue, Buggy's 'Island', top of the former City Hall.

"Now state your business. I warn you to trend carefully. One false move on your part and I will send you to Davy Jones's locker."

The speaker was sitting on a chair in a relaxed position, with one arm propping up his head and one leg swung over the chair's arm. He wore light blue pants, a red and orange striped shirt, with an orange 'captains coat' over that. He wore a typical buccaneer hat with two strands of blue hair pouring out from the top. On his face and forehead was a tattoo of the typical skull and crossbones, as well as a big red nose (though say that in his presence and you will find yourself a one-way express ticket to the afterlife) on his face. He was Buggy the Clown.

Surrounded by his crew, including Mohji and Cabaji, Buggy was granting an audience to three strangers who had arrived on the island approximately an hour ago, wishing for a meeting with the famed Clown pirate. Those three were currently standing in front of Buggy, and had an arrogance that said that we're-not-afraid-of-you.

The one on the right said. "Hey, Dosu? Is that big no –" he was cut off abruptly as the one he called Dosu wiped his right arm back and covered the speaker's mouth. The speaker wore a light brown shirt that had the shinobi symbol of death printed on them three times with gray pants with black spots on them. Around his neck was a small scarf of similar design. His hair spiked up in several places. He wore a hitai-ite with a sound note on it. Their master had told them much information on this pirate and especially made the point of telling them not to refer to Buggy's nose in any way, shape or form.

"Hold your tongue Zaku. We can't afford to jeopardize our mission." Dosu said. After receiving Zaku's reluctant nod, Dosu turned back to Buggy. "Please forgive my teammate for speaking out of turn, Buggy-sama."

"Do not address me in that manner!" Buggy shouted. "Keep your damned shinobi - " Buggy quickly turned to Mohji and asked 'what were those terms called again?' Mohji replied 'honorifics'. "- honorifics to yourselves!" Buggy continued. He sat up slightly straighter. "You will address me as Lord Buggy and nothing else. Am I clear!?"

The one on Dosu's left and the only female present, made a snort and was about to comment when Dosu's gaze got her. She wore an ugly green shirt, with the same style of pants of scraf. She had long dark hair that nearly reached her feet. She to wore a similar hitai-ite just like their other teammate. If not for her smug look and ugly clothes, many men her age would find her attractive. She too reluctantly nodded. "My apologies, Lord Buggy," Dosu said, hoping to regain some measure of control of the situation. "It will not happen again."

"See that it doesn't! Now, tell me what you three want and make it snappy!" Buggy roared, his patience was wearing thin and he was itching to use a Buggy Ball on these three.

Dosu nodded. He was dressed with what appeared to be a bush on his back with an ordinary gray shirt. His face was completely covered in bandages, save for his left eye. Like his two teammates, he too wore the same style of pants and scarf, as well as the hitai-ite. Calmly, he said, "Our master has heard tales of your remarkable reputation and exploits. As such, he humbly requests to make an alliance with you."

At that, Buggy threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, that's a good one! Your master wants to make an alliance with me? What, does he think that my good fortune will rub off on him and make him a more successful pirate?" He continued to chuckle. He then stopped and noticed none of his crew was laughing. His give them his 'Buggy glare' and they are started laughing (half heartily). He then went back to his laughing, louder than ever and the rest of the crew following suit.

After calming his teammates once again, Dosu allowed them to continue for several minutes before speaking up again. "It seems that I have…miss-implied our master's profession. We are not pirates…we are Sound Shinobi."

That stopped the laughter. Buggy looked at the three with new interest, specifically looking at their headbands this time. "Sound shinobi?" He asked in such a way that you could hear his disbelief. He turned back to Mohji. "Is there such a thing as a Sound Village?" he asked.

Mohji shook his head and recited all twenty-four shinobi villages that had existed prior to their destruction over twelve years ago. He then stated all the villages were either extinct, in hiding or it's people where scattered so far apart that they wouldn't even be considered a village any more. At the end of the explanations, Buggy grew angry. He turned back to his 'guests.' "You dare lie to me?"

"Never, Lord Buggy," Dosu replied smoothly. "Sound is not original village, this is true. Our master and founder is a former shinobi from one of the great five villages. He is more that adequate to do the job our creating and leading our new village and teaching new students the ninja arts."

"Then you won't mind a little test, would you?" Buggy snapped his fingers. One of his larger and stronger crewmen walked forward. Buggy raised a hand and then pointed to the trio. The crewman attacked, arms swinging. Instantly, the three Sound ninja reacted. Zaku moved first and raised his hands. Instantly wind from somewhere hit the pirate and threw him off balance. He managed to recover quickly, but Dosu came running up from behind and swung his right arm. The pirate managed to dodge the strike, but for some reason, he couldn't regain his balance. This allowed the girl, Kin, to come running up and throw several senbon at the pirate's vitals. The pirate was dead mere seconds later.

Dosu looked at the new corpse at the ground. "I hope that you don't mind that we killed him, but –"

Buggy burst out laughing again. "You think I care? Your techniques were most impressive. The life of one mere henchman is well worth the price to see that you are indeed ninja." Buggy calmed himself down and mentioned for the body to be taken away. Putting his hands together, he said. "You may continue."

Dosu bowed slightly. "Thank you, Lord Buggy. To continue, our master offers this alliance. The goal is to vanquish his enemies, and in doing so, we all remove all opposition from your own goals as well." He raised his left arm and produced a scroll. "This scroll will provide the exact details of what we hope to achieve."

A crewman walked up and took the scroll from Dosu and gave it to Buggy. The Clown Pirate Captain gave one quick look at it, then tossed it to Mohji in disgust. He then asked, "This…alliance…seems to benefit your village and master more than it does me. You better have more to offer than what you have said so far."

Dosu nodded. "Indeed we do. Should you accept our offer to from an alliance, you will receive many riches." Dosu reached inside his pocket and produced another scroll. "This is a token of our good faith and shows you that we will uphold the end of our deal, as well as what you can expect in the way of riches."

Dosu throw the scroll at Buggy, who managed to catch it. He opened it, expecting it to hold more mere promises and such. What he actually saw astounded him. "M-Mohji!" Buggy cried at his first mate. The said person immediately came and looked at the scroll. "Is this what I think this is?!" Buggy asked, hardly containing his excitement.

"Aye, Captain!" Mohji replied. "This is a map of the Grand Line!"

Buggy called forth another crewmember. "Take this to the navigator and have him prepare a course to the Grand Line immediately! Do not lose this map, or it the next thing you will lose is your head!"

The frightened crewmember nodded vigorously and left. Buggy then turned his attention to Dosu again. "Tell me, who is your master and who are these enemies that you wish to kill?"

Dosu told him. He was pleased. Negotiations were proceeding better than they had hoped for. Their master would be sure to reward them generously.

XXXXXXX – East Blue, Buggy's 'Island', Port

Naruto and the rest managed to bring the skiff in smoothly to the docks. Naruto jumped off and shouted, "Land! Oh, how I've missed you!"

The three clown pirates began tying up the skiff. "This is it, Master Zoro sir!" one said.

Before anyone could comment further, Naruto shouted. "I'm going to look around!" With that Naruto ran off in one direction, causing both Zoro and Shino to sweatdrop.

Zoro looked around the town. There wasn't a person in sight. "It looks like a ghost town."

"Well, you see sir…we've taken over the town."

"What'll we tell the captain? We're coming back empty handed!"

"We'll just have to tell the truth: it's all that girl's fault!"

Shino spoke up, "Where are the citizens?"

"They high tailed it out of here right as we were arriving. That was about a week ago," one pirate answered, "Not one of them is in the town."

Zoro put his head in his hand and sighed. He turned to Shino. "You go after that idiot rodent and keep him out of trouble. I'll go with these three idiots and talk with their captain. He might know where Luffy is."

"That might not be wise. You are known as a Pirate Hunter, despite that being your former occupation. The clown pirates most likely will hold hostile intentions towards you." Shino replied.

"You let me worry about that. Just find Naruto and met up with me there. Hopefully, by that time, I'll have found Luffy and then the four of us will find a navigator."

Shino was silent for a moment, then spoke up. "Very well." A single bug then flew from Shino's body and landed on Zoro's waist sash. "Let the insect remain there. It will allow me to find you after I have retrieved Naruto."

Zoro gave Shino an odd look. "It will allow you to find me anywhere?" After seeing Shino nod, Zoro asked, "Why the hell didn't you put one on Luffy before he went and tried to catch a bird?!"

"I did not accurately predict that Luffy would do such a thing, and that he would be caught by the bird and flown away from us." Shino answered in his dead level voice. "Otherwise, I would have done so."

Zoro sighed again. "Next time you see that idiot, make sure to stick one on him. I have a feeling it will save us a lot of headache in the future." Zoro started to walk away, but stopped and looked back at Shino again. "And while you're at it, stick one on that other idiot as well."

Shino nodded and rushed off after Naruto.

XXXXXXX – Buggy's 'Island', South End.

Naruto was eagerly looking through the town. He was desperately trying to find another soul in the town, but so far hadn't found a single one. "Where is everyone? It's no fun to be in a new town if there are no people in it!"

Naruto quickly jumped up to one of the taller buildings and scanned the horizon. No one in sight. Sighing, he sat down. 'Well, Iruka-sensei, I've finally found some of the other shinobi in the world. I now know why they are all scattered. With Luffy's, Shino's and even Zoro's help, I think I just might be able to find you and all the other shinobi and unite them just like you wanted. It doesn't sound easy, but I'll do it.' He gave himself a small smile. "Heh, I wonder what you would say if you knew that I had joined a pirate crew to do this? Would you be angry? Sad? Happy? I don't know.'

After collecting his thoughts, he stood up and started to continue his search. Leaping off the building, he turned the corner and ran right into Shino, thus causing him to fall down on his butt. "Ouch! Shino! Don't stand in the middle of the walkway!"

"Had you been paying even the slightest bit of attention to your surroundings, you would have noticed me long before you bumped into me." Shino replied calmly.

"How the hell was I supposed to find you!?" Naruto yelled. "I didn't even see you until you were right in front of me! You could have said something!"

"And you could have stayed at the boat a little longer and learned the situation of the village before you ran off," Shino countered. "Had you done so, you would have learned that this village has fallen to Buggy's pirates and all of its normal citizen's have fled." At this point, Naruto didn't answer immediately, so Shino offered his hand and helped the other boy to his feet. "I believe I told you back at Morgan's base, that 'As a shinobi, it would have been better for you to apply stealth and secrecy to achieve your goals.'"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and gave an embarrassing laugh. "Yeah, you did say something like that about something like that. Anyway, what should we now?"

"We should rendezvous with Zoro at…" Shino cut off abruptly and looked over his shoulder. The next thing Naruto knew, Shino put a hand over his mouth and pushed them both against a nearby wall. Naruto, naturally, struggled a little and tried to ask what Shino was doing. Shino simply held up a finger on his free hand and in a low whisper said, "Quiet. We are not alone."

At that Naruto stopped struggling and simply stood there with Shino. Neither young shinobi said anything for several minutes. Finally, at the end of a street, they saw a small figure running along. Fortunately, for the two, the figure wasn't even looking in their direction as it was running towards the center of town. Once it passed, Shino looked at Naruto and said in that same whisper. "Follow me, quietly." After receiving a nod, the two leaped up to the roof of the building. Leaping by the rooftops, they quickly gained on the figured. Shino and Naruto continued to follow the figure until it suddenly stopped and seemed to catch its breath. Shino gestured to Naruto to stop, and both quietly positioned themselves on the roof closest to the figure so they could get a closer look.

What they saw completely surprised Naruto. The figure wasn't some big, disgusting pirate. In fact, it was a she, specifically a young girl about their age. She had been carrying a large box of something, which is why she was resting. She was wearing this red outfit that split at her legs, showing that she also has wearing small gray shorts. In addition, she wore sandals of the same style as himself and Shino. What really got Naruto's attention was her hair. It was pink, long flowing pink hair that reached about halfway down her back. A bright red ribbon held her hair together. Now that Naruto had a full glimpse of her, his heart was pounding vigorously. 'OH YEAH! SCORE! WHAT A HOTTIE!'

Shino seemed indifferent to the girl. "Well, this is interesting. I would assume that she is one of the villagers, yet she apparently hasn't abandoned the village as the others have. We should continue to observe her closely and learn her intentions. Naruto," Shino turned to face the other boy only to discover that Naruto was no longer there. Two seconds later, Shino saw Naruto appear in front of the girl, saying, 'HI THERE! WHAT'S YOUR NAME?' The girl seemed startled and nearly dropped her box. Shino sighed in frustration. Naruto had just forgotten everything that Shino had said about 'stealth and secrecy' mere minutes ago.

The girl looked at Naruto for a moment. And then asked slowly, "Who are you? You don't look like one of Buggy's pirates." She continued to study Naruto for a moment then saw his headband. "You're a shinobi?"

"Yeah! Yeah! And a really good one too! Just ask my friend!" Naruto replied eagerly, hoping that would impress her. He then toward and looked towards Shino's hiding place. "Hey, Bug King, come on down!"

'Idiot,' Shino thought. Not only had he gone and exposed himself to an unknown person, but now he had gone and exposed Shino as well. 'I must refine my tutoring lessons. Teaching Naruto to be a shinobi is going to require a lot more diligence and patience than I originally thought.' Sighing again, Shino decided to go ahead and join them, seeing how Naruto had already exposed him. Quickly, he jumped down and landed toward Naruto.

As Shino joined them, Naruto started to say something again when Shino clamped his mouth shut again with his hand. "I thought I told you to apply stealth and secrecy?" For the first time since Shino had joined them, Naruto heard a little frustration in Shino's voice, as opposed to his neutral tone that he always used.

"Sorry! It won't happen again!" Naruto promised as Shino removed his hand.

"That remains to be seen."

At thismoment, the girl spoke up again. "You're both ninja?" She then looked at Shino. "Why did he call you 'Bug King?'"

At this Naruto eagerly started explaining again. "Well, you see, he – "Naruto was interrupted once again by Shino's hand.

"In addition to stealth and secrecy, a shinobi never reveals his secrets and other private information unless absolutely necessary." Oh yeah, there was definitely frustration in Shino's voice.

"Sorry again." Naruto mumbled through Shino's hand.

"And the proper term is insects. Not bugs. Understand?"

Naruto nodded.

The girl continued to look at them. "You two don't act like my father. And he is a ninja."

Even Shino seemed startled by this last piece of information, causing him to remove his hand. Once he did, Naruto instantly started talking again. "Your dad's a ninja! Is he from Konoha? Are you a ninja?" Oh yeah, things were looking up for Naruto more and more.

At that last question, the girl blushed and nodded. "Well, sort of. Dad's a Konoha chunin and has been training me a little."

'Alright! Cute girl is also one of the leaf ninja! Just like me and Shino! This is so cool! Hmm…I know! I'll say something cool in the shinobi language! Bug King said that talking in that language with your fellow shinobi is a great way to show respect to your fellows. I'll show Shino! Hmph! To hell with his stealth and secrecy!' Naruto paused in silence for a minute as he recalled Shino's lessons in the shinobi tongue. He then nodded to himself, turned to the pretty girl and quickly muttered a phrase.

The girl's response to that was to have her jaw drop and even Shino seemed to stop moving. Naruto quickly congratulated himself. 'Oh yeah! I rule! I'm cool! Naruto: two points! Shino: zero!! Now all that's left –'

"SHANNARO!" the girl cried. The next thing Naruto knew, her fist hit Naruto square in the face and sent him flying over five meters into the nearest building. Naruto's thoughts? 'Wow! What a punch! I think I'm in love!' Getting up, he rubbed his now sore face. He then turned to Shino, who had the girl in an arm lock. The girl was desperately struggling in his grasp. There was rage in her green eyes as she tried to reach Naruto like a wild animal that had cornered its prey. Outloud, he said. "What did I do?"

"It seems that my lessons with the shinobi language have also gone to waste," Shino said simply, as he continued to hold the girl, who had now started ranting, 'Let me at him!' over and over.

"All I said was 'Hello, good looking! What's your name? Do you want to go out with me?'"

Shino shook his head, though the girl seemed calm down at Naruto's statement. "What you said was, 'I am a twilight princess. I shall now bury my head in the ground and allow you to sniff my butt.'"

There was dead silence that followed the next few minutes. Finally Naruto spoke up, "Which word was 'butt!?' he demanded.

Shino turned to the girl. "My apologies for my friend's…misbehavior. However, he has reminded me that we have failed to properly introduce ourselves. My name is Aburame Shino." He then pointed to Naruto. "And he is Uzumaki Naruto." He turned back to the girl, "And you are?"

"Sakura. Sakura Haruno."

XXXXXXX – 'Buggy's Island', Northwest end

"What's that rope for?" Luffy asked.

"Oh, I always carry a rope." Nami replied innocently.

Luffy had just had an exciting hour. First the tasty bird had flown him away from his crew and they appeared over this island. A cannon shot rang out and hit the bird dead on, causing Luffy to come crashing down back to earth. Once there, he found himself in the middle between three men and a girl who called him boss. The men then attacked him and harmed his hat. Luffy quickly clobbered them and the girl, named Nami, suggested that they team up to rob pirates.

Nami had gone and told Luffy that she needed to get a hundred million berries and that she would head to the Grand Line and steal more treasure. Luffy asked her if she was a navigator and once she said yes, Luffy invited her to join his crew. She flat out refused, saying forget her offer to team up. She suddenly changed her mind and said she would join his crew if he went with her to talk to Buggy.

Luffy agreed and now they were on their way to talk to Buggy when Nami suddenly jumped him and tied him up with the rope.

End of Chapter 6

A/N: Just for clarification, I intentionally skipped Luffy's meeting with Nami and just provided a short summary. The reason is because without Naruto, or even Shino, nothing changes the meeting. Since it reminds the same as in canon, I saw no reason to go and write out the entire scene. The same is true with Buggy's scene where he kills a crewman for commenting on his nose and ordering his men to retrieve the map. You can expect me to either skip or just summarize future events that remain the same in canon. I doubt anyone will have a problem with this.

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or Naruto. They belong to their respective owners: Eiichiro Oda and Masashi Kishimoto.