Chapter 32: As We Sail

Arc – Captured rain Genin Part 12

On the north beach, Aburame Shibi appears. On his right is Muta (first born of Gen) and on his left was Gen (younger twin of Shibi). The moonlight is shining prominently on all three. Several animals around them are hiding in the bushes, shaking in fear.

Subtext: The Aburame have arrived.

XXXXXXX – East Blue, Nickel Island, Marine Base

Nickel Island was a small, well-developed island in the East Blue, with an abundance of natural resources, specifically its coal mines and a large refinery. The one main problem with the island was that it sat on part of a volcano fault line, so earthquakes and similar natural disasters were all too frequent. Due to this and the island being targeted by pirates for its aforementioned materials, life was quite hazardous. Especially for those that worked in the mines.

The Navy had established the base both as a deterrent against the outlaws and as a rapid first aid response to the miners, in exchange for a reasonable cut on the resources.

In the office of the ranking Captain (a man known to frequent the mines and even work a few shifts), a small bug crawled through the cracks. This one small creature was flanked by several more of its brethren.

Seconds later, more and more insects appeared from various cracks, holes, and even the window. They crawled around like a well-organized army unit, searching and scouting the room. About a dozen of them skittered to the surveillance telesnail and emitted a small odor that would block communications.

Once that was done, the remainder of the insects opened their wings and flew towards the center of the room, converging on one another in a roughly humanoid form. A small puffing sound was heard and the bugs scattered, revealing a young Aburame woman.

Barely twenty, she was dressed like most of her clan. A heavy coat, thick brown pants, standard shinobi sandals and black sunglasses over her face. Unlike most others, however, she had her hood down, revealing her brown hair that she kept in a small ponytail.

She was Aburame Kokuei. Shino's oldest sister and first born of Shibi, the heir of the clan.

With a wave of her hand, the kikaichu dispersed once more about the office. Working in groups, they began crawling all over the place, collectively opening drawers and cabinets and pulling out files, holding them in mid-air as Kokuei read them. The current page was a sighting report that the Revolutionary Commander Ivankou had been spotted in the area. She dismissed it with a wave of her hand and started reading the next one. No evidence of her would be left behind.

Even though she was the first born of their father, she was not the clan heir. Aburame tradition declared that the heir would be the first son. It was supposed to be symbolic; since the Kikaichu were headed by the Queen, a female, it was felt that the Aburame should be headed by a male. Showing equality between their symbiotic relationship: that not one species or gender was more important than the other.

That's not to say the female Aburame were second class in their own clan (though they originally started out as such). Key positions, such as the Captain of the Family Guard and the Head of their personal Intelligence Operations, were specifically set aside for the women of the clan.

And when the time came, Kokuei would become that Head. But for now, she was just an Operative.

Shino, as the only son among Shibi's four children, was thus selected to be the future clan head by default. But given that the current head, their grandfather, was ninety and still kicking, they believed it would still be awhile before Shibi became Head, let alone Shino. Their father had three brothers himself, one of them a twin. Should anything happen to both him and Shino, the status would fall to Gen, their father's twin and his first born son.

But for now, all she was doing was looking for information on her brother. She wasn't sure if father knew – Kokuei was sure he suspected if nothing else – but Kokuei knew why Shino was so motivated to go and look for the scattered survivors of a village he had never been a part of, so she was personally invested in this task.

She also knew that Shino was probably glad to be away from Tatakau, Shino's senior sibling and her junior, as their sister still blamed Shino for what happened that night…

Kokuei shook her head and went about her task. So far, nothing regarding these new 'Sound Shinobi', or anyone else forming these pirate alliances that Shino had stumbled upon. Nothing about this 'Itachi' or 'Iruka' Shino had promised his crewmates they would look for. As the insects flew over the next report, her skin went cold. Forgetting about precaution, she grabbed the paper from her allies and read it again in a hurry.

"Dear Kami… it can't be…" She hurried over to the drawer the paper had come out of and began rummaging through it herself. She pulled out several more papers, confirming that person was in the area.

And close to where Shino was reported to be going next!

She had to warn him! That's when several bugs came to her ear, buzzing. Kokuei whipped her head around, looking at the surveillance telesnail and she realized it was emitting a low hum.

An alarm.

She had tripped something. Whether it was her rush, a miscalculation, or something else, she did not know. The Marines would be here soon. She glanced back at the files.

"… if I am captured, so be it," she said to herself, completely throwing caution out the window and grabbing as many files as she could. She gave them to the kikaichu, a large group of them flying away with the information just as the door burst open.

Rifles pointed directly at her chest, Aburame Kokuei merely held up her hands and surrendered. She had accomplished her mission both as a shinobi and as an Aburame. What happened next didn't matter.

XXXXXXX – East Blue

On Sanji's small craft, the Straw Hats, along with Yosaku, were heading in the direction that Nami had taken the Going Merry. Smoke rose from the single cabin, indicating that Sanji was preparing a meal for the six individuals on the boat. At one side of the boat, Sasuke and Choji were arm wrestling on the railing. Veins appeared in their necks as they pushed as hard as they were able, sweat falling like waterfalls from their efforts. Yosaku was studying a map with a compass, constantly nodding to himself as if he needed reassurance on where they were going.

As for Naruto and Luffy, the two spent the first portion of the trip talking about their feats in their respective fights, both egging each other on for details, praising each other's handiwork and ranting about how much of a bastard Krieg was. When Luffy came to asking Naruto about the final portion of his fight with Haku, the young blond rubbed his head awkwardly and admitted he lost consciousness and had no idea what had happened or how Haku had been defeated. He thought about mentioning that weird voice in his head, but decided not to. He was probably dreaming about it or something.

So they went and asked Sasuke. The question shocked the Uchiha so much that Choji instantly took advantage by shifting more into his lion form and brought his arm crashing down, throwing the boy overboard.

Three seconds later, the boat was in danger of being burnt to a crisp due to Sasuke's fire attacks aimed at the fat boy. The fact that Sasuke had also called Choji "fatass" during his attempts didn't help matters.

Once the murder attempts from both young Leaf Ninja were defused, Luffy and Naruto repeated their question (a lot more carefully this time). In response, Sasuke looked at them both, a quick glance to Naruto and said one sentence.

"I have no idea."

Disappointed, they left him alone. Luffy went about chatting with Yosaku about the Grand Line, while Naruto sat down. He flinched slightly, then realized he just sat on the scroll Zabuza had given him.

It was all written in that shinobi language, nearly making Naruto go red in the face.

So he asked Sasuke to help him. The boy raised an eyebrow, then proceeded to look over Naruto's shoulder. No doubt curious himself, Choji soon joined them. Between the three of them, they worked it out.

The first thing the scroll mentioned was the Mist's way of life in contrast to the Will of Fire that Zabuza had mentioned. Mist had 'The Way of Blood', the ideology that the more blood you took, the more of a shinobi you became. Mist didn't believe in painting pretty colors and decorating them with soft words; they preferred dead-on reality. Kill or be killed. Take out the enemy before they could kill you. That killing was what being a shinobi was about and if you expected yourself and your allies to survive, you'd better be a pro at it.

That's how the "Graduation Ceremony" came about, as well as similar events. For example, when a Mist Shinobi was promoted from a Genin to a Chunin, it wasn't deemed valid unless the applicant had at least one confirmed kill on their record. They also learned that through the Mist Academy, death was emphasized the hardest on the students, making it crystal clear from day one what was expected and any that were deemed 'unable to cope' were kicked out long before the Graduation Ceremony, filling mandatory roles as blacksmiths, messengers, and other supportive work.

According to Zabuza's notes, Mist had been founded by the First Mizukage because the man held a lingering grudge against more notable and successful clans, such as the Senju of the Forest (whoever they were, none of the three had a clue) and wanted to model a village his way to show them up. It was the Second Mizukage that started the emphasis on killing for their village as he was an old veteran of many conflicts throughout the entire world, with more than one scar on his soul from it.

The Third Mizukage was where things got out of control with the Bloodline Families, when several members revolted during the Third Shinobi War and nearly torn Kirigakure apart as a result. The Third Mizukage, a man with a short fuse and seemingly a thing to collect vendettas, deemed any and all Bloodline clans as 'Enemies of the State', going as far as to claim that killing them off would strengthen Mist as a result and officially forming the 'Way of Blood' as a result. A highly specialized group called the "Seven Shinobi Swordsman of the Mist" was formed as the Third Mizukage's direct subordinates to oversee the extermination. Apparently, Zabuza hadn't been the original member, instead becoming the successor later on.

The Third had been killed by several Kekkei Genkai Shinobi fifteen years later. His protégé, Yagura, took up the Fourth Mizukage mantle and the three were shocked to learn it was a boy about their age, as Yagura didn't age beyond that of a fourteen year old, even though he was technically twenty seven!

However, his reign lasted only two short years before the attacks came to the villages and decimated them. What happened to Yagura and the rest of his Village, Zabuza did not know. The most ironic thing was that Zabuza attempted to perform a coup d'etat on Yagura just days before the attacks started. His attempt failed and Zabuza had fled the villages with Haku, the Demon Brothers and a few other followers he managed to gain, just missing the destruction that would come in the following days. Throughout their travels they had encountered more than their fair share of trouble and took losses until it was just the four of them.

As to why Zabuza attempted a coup at all, the only response was a self-drawing of Zabuza flipping them off.

The scroll ended with the means to contact him, though all it was was some strange seal pattern written down, with some instructions that didn't make any sense to them. Resolving to ask Shino and the others if they understood it, they put it away just as Sanji called out 'Lunch time!'

XXXXXXX – Inside the ship cabin

Overall, Sanji didn't mind his new crewmates. Compared to the bunch at Baratie, they were manageable and easier to work with. At least, this lot of them. He didn't know about the others that were with Nami from earlier. But even as he worked on the meal, there was one thing that kept bugging him.

The Kyubi had been at Baratie.

In some way, shape or form, it had been there. He had heard rumors over the years: The government killed it, the Ninja killed it, Gold Roger returned from the dead and killed it, and so on. All the rumors agreed that it was dead, though Sanji always had his doubts. He figured if anyone really had killed the demon, they would have put up a giant throw rug of the fox demon and showed it off to the world. And there were no giant throw rugs of the Kyubi.

Regardless of that, he was positive that that was the Kyubi's power he and everyone had felt. And it had been from the area that the boys had been fighting… one of whom was now dead, and the others were present on this ship.

And Naruto had been the one left standing, pummeling that ice kid in a way that made even Zeff nervous.

Was it not a coincidence after all that the boy was dressed in orange despite being called a ninja? And those marks on his face did resemble whiskers. Even when he grinned, he closed his eyes and seemed… foxlike.

It was hard to imagine this little hyperactive loudmouth was the Kyubi. Or was it possession by the fox? Or was it just some elaborate deception, all just an act by the demon? Those fox demons were supposed to be masters of deception. Or was it illusions? Or maybe it was mind screwing?

Well, it was something! It wasn't impossible that this Uzumaki Naruto was the Kyubi. And he was going to find out right now! He chuckled evilly at his plan as he took out a small bottle and tipped its contents into the boy's food. He could see it all now!

On the boat, Chibi Sanji walked out, carrying a tray of the food to the others, a Chibi Sasuke with an eternal storm cloud of gloom over his head, a Chibi Choji in full cat form giving himself a bath, a Chibi Luffy with his head three times its normal size with a stupid grin on his face. The Chibi Yosaku was half his size, studying a map like a timid mouse. And the Chibi Naruto was blazing on fire, roaring out loud.

Chibi Sanji pulled out a small bottle labeled, with a Skull Mark, 'REAL HOT! DO NOT USE! EVER!' to the food. Setting the food on the table, the Chibi Naruto jumped on all fours and started eating like an animal. Suddenly it bolted upright, its eyes watering as it roared in anger, dropping the act and becoming the full Kyubi!

The fox roared in anger, causing the other Chibi's to shake in fear and huddle together. Sanji kicked it right in the face. It cried in pain like a little baby, then started bowing to the blond chef, holding up a picket sign: I SURRENDER!

Chibi Sanji kicked it again, sending the Kyubi flying through the air until it hit the sun in the sky, and plummeted down to the earth. The other Chibis started praising Sanji, while Nami and many women flocked to him, all shouting his name with glee as Sanji laughed victoriously, the sun itself holding victory flags to honor him!

Okay, maybe not quite like that. But the hot sauce would make the Kyubi react in anger, exposing itself. And this far out in the ocean, it would be in trouble. The Sea Kings weren't that far away and the Navy were sure to take notice of the event. The only problem he and the others would have would be getting away from the demon, but between the five of them and the sauce, he was sure they could get away.

Everyone gathered around the makeshift table, as Sanji handed out the plates for everyone. Everyone, including Naruto, took them and began eating, making Sanji chuckle mentally.

The boy began stuffing his face for about two seconds before coming to a complete stop. His entire face went bright red as steam began blowing out of his ears. He began yelling, and running around like a maniac, arms flapping around everywhere.

Sanji just blinked. Huh?

Luffy and the others began laughing as Naruto continued running around searching for water until he ran over Luffy like he was a bug, kicking his own lunch out to sea.

"WAH! MY LUNCH!" Luffy reared back his hand, angry as a bull. "NARUTO! GUM GUM PISTOL!"

At the same instant Luffy punched, Naruto shifted directions and Luffy hit Sasuke right in the face, sending him overboard a second time. Choji pointed to the Uchiha boy and laughed harder than before, nearly choking as tears ran down through his face.

That's when a large volume of water came flying right at Choji. The Akimichi screamed and darted away, but forgot his food which became thoroughly drenched as Sasuke got back on the boat, dripping wet once more.

"WAH! MY LUNCH!" Choji hollered, echoing Luffy's statement as he went full Lion form. "MEAT THE BEAST!"

Lion Choji leaped forward, trying to get the Uchiha… who just sidestepped him as Choji plowed into Yosaku. The bounty hunter hit the deck hard, knocking him senseless. "But Mommy… I don't want to go to school today…"

"WATER! WATER! WATER!" Naruto smacked into Sasuke, sending him crashing into Luffy.

"BRING IT ON!" Luffy punched again, Sasuke ducked and hit Choji right in the face.

"I'LL ROAST YOU TO HELL!" Sasuke fireballed Luffy, missed and hit Choji's tail.

"I'M ON FIRE!" Choji yelled, half in panic and half in fear. "BASTARD!"

He tackled Sasuke, but ended up hitting Naruto, who rolled into Luffy, who rolled back into Sasuke and all four began beating the crap out of each other with flames blowing out, lion hairs flying, punches everywhere and flapping arms.

"… I want to stay home and bake cookies with you…!"

Sanji just stared completely dumbfounded, hoping they wouldn't sink. Maybe he was wrong after all…

XXXXXXX – Fifteen minutes later…

Somehow, someway, the group managed to settle things and not destroy the ship in the process. Attempting to eat once again, they spread themselves out eating their own lunch.

"You guys are all taking this far too lightly!" Yosaku said, still nursing his face as everyone ate. "None of you have any idea what the Grand Line is like! Even Brother Zoro would be intimidated if he knew!"

"What's it matter?" Naruto asked, carefully eating his next bite, three glasses of water next to him. "Unless you're saying Nami's fled all the way to the Grand Line, why do we care?"

"Because of who Nami is heading towards! You all have to understand what we're sailing into!" Yosaku cried.

"Fine, fine," Sasuke mumbled, rolling his eyes.

Yosaku held up a finger. "Now listen up, there's a BIG reason why the Grand Line is called the Pirate's Graveyard."

"Don't be so dense!" Gaimon protested. "If it was that easy, they wouldn't call the Grand Line a Pirate's Graveyard!"

Naruto recalled Gaimon saying something similar. "Alright… and what's the reason?"

Yosaku's single finger was joined by two others. "Because of the Three Great Powers that rule there! The Royal Shichibukai, Marine Headquarters and the Four Emperors!"

"Who, what, when?" Choji asked confused as Luffy continued stuffing his face.

"The Shichibukai. It means Seven Warlords of the Sea. It's actually a shinobi word that they used on this group and the Government has since taken it and made it their own. They're a group of seven pirates that work for the Government."

"Pirates working for the Government?" Sanji repeated.

"That's right," Yosaku confirmed. "Rumor has it that they were formed twenty years ago after the Great Pirate Age had started, as a means to deal with all the new pirate groups emerging from Gold Roger's proclamation, though others say it was in response to a breakout from Impel Down itself. In exchange for working for the Government, all of their past offenses are pardoned and they only have to follow a certain set of rules.

"First, they aren't allowed to attack anyone affiliated with the World Government. They are to focus primarily on pirates. The second is that they are to give a tenth of their loot to the Government. And finally, they are obligated to fight on the World Government's behalf when the call comes."

Yosaku took out a piece of paper and drew a circle on it, labeling it 'Warlords'. He then drew a second circle intersecting the first one. "The second of these Powers is Marine HQ! The main base of operations for the entire Navy Organization! The best and elite Marines are stationed there and we aren't talking little grunts like Fullbody! It's home to the Fleet Admiral, who heads the entire Navy! The Admirals, said to be the World Government's Greatest Military Powers, are also there! Never mind the numerous Vice Admirals, Rear Admirals and countless other lesser ranked officers!"

"We faced a Marine Captain already," Naruto stated as he recalled Morgan. "We took him down pretty easily."

"Rank is subjective to territory! Remember, Mihawk called the East Blue the weakest of the four Seas, and for good reason! Statistics-wise, it has the least amount of pirates and weakest of them, with the majority only averaging about three million in bounties! A Captain for this area would be next to nothing for a Captain in the West, then North, then South Blue and finally the Grand Line itself! Hell, a Captain from the East Blue wouldn't even compare to a Grand Line Captain! To put it in your terms, it would be like a Jonin from a village going to another one and discovering he was only as powerful as a genin!"

"And finally," this time, Yosaku drew a third circle that intersected the first two. Surprisingly, he divided this third circle into quarters. "These are the Four Emperors. What the Shinobi call the Yonkou. And they're the top contenders for the next King of the Pirates! The ones most likely to do it!"

"Say what?" Luffy cried out in horror. "The next King is going to be – "

"All he means," Sanji cut him off. "Is that they're the ones currently at it."

"The Four Emperors are crazy powerful! The most powerful groups of pirates on the planet! They're called 'Emperors' because they dominate the second half of the Grand Line, called the New World. It takes the full combined might of Marine Headquarters and the Warlords of the Sea to keep them contained, and that's just barely! All the more so when you consider the fact that the Emperors are fighting each other as well as the Marines and Warlords! They are THAT strong!

"These are the Three Great Powers that make the Grand Line a Pirate's Graveyard in this Era of Piracy these past twenty two years ever since Gold Roger was executed! The Warlords, Marine HQ and the Emperors! An extremely fragile balance of power between the groups that keeps this World from being torn apart."

"You're not making sense. You just got through saying that these groups are pounding the heck out of each other. How is that keeping the world from being torn apart?" Sasuke asked.

Yosaku pointed to his diagram, and starting putting dots in each quarter of the Emperor Circle. "Because it's not only the Emperors that are in the New World. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of other pirate groups roaming there. Some of them are only a shade weaker than the Emperors themselves. Each Emperor has a large amount of territory and many of the smaller pirate groups have allied with each of them. They're essentially nations.

"Right now, the Three Powers are at a large stalemate. Not one is able to get an upper hand on either of the others. But if something were to happen, even the single loss of a Warlord or death of just one Emperor, that balance is going to be broken. EVERYTHING will go to hell as the numerous pirate groups, no longer held in check, will start going berserk! They'll fight for a former Emperor's territory, raid areas no longer protected by high ranking Marines or watched by a Warlord! Not just in the New World, but in all the Seas!" Yosaku's gaze darkened a bit. "All the more so with all the wild cards in play."

"Wild cards?" Choji asked. "You mean like criminal organizations that aren't pirates or a League of Nations outside of the World Government?"

"Some," Yosaku agreed. "Right now, the Revolutionaries are considered the main wild card due to their actions in the South Blue. But for the longest time, the biggest wild card was the Shinobi Villages!"

"Why them?" Naruto inquired. "I've heard that both the World Government and Pirates considered them enemies. How would they play into this?"

"Because they're enemies of both. They'd have the potential to eliminate any of the Great Powers," Sanji pointed out, looking back at the Bounty Hunter. "That more or less it?"

"That's the general idea," Yosaku replied. Going back to his diagram, he drew a series of small Xs underneath the circles, then added an arrow from the Xs to each circle. "There were two dozen shinobi villages, divided into Main Villages and Minor Villages. From what I hear, a Main Village would host about a thousand shinobi and a Minor Village would host about five hundred. That's five thousand shinobi from the Main Villages themselves, and adding in the Minor Villages, that's another 9500, coming to 14,500. Throw in the odd groups and clans not associated with the Villages and that's nearly fifteen thousand highly skilled combatants! It's said that the Kages could rival the Admirals and Emperors themselves. Such a force could tip the balance of power in any group's favor! But they were too powerful for any of the Great Powers to take advantage of… until twelve years ago, when they were destroyed."

Naruto frowned. "What are you saying, exactly?"

"The villages are gone, but the shinobi aren't. At least, not all of them," Yosaku stated, looking at the three Leaf Ninja in front of him. "If you take into account initial losses, the fact the survivors have scattered, had children, and maybe even recruited new members, it's believed there are about ten thousand shinobi in this world… and it's a race to collect the survivors. The World Government has decreed that any shinobi may join the Government without persecution or penalty and have been actively recruiting as many as they can throughout the years!"

"Are you serious!" Naruto yelled, his reaction mirrored in the faces of Sasuke and Choji. "They throw propaganda about us wanting world domination and they expect us to crawl to them and fight?"

"You'd be surprised how tempting a warm place to live without looking over your shoulder can be in contrast to constantly being hunted and worrying where your next meal comes from. Many of your brethren don't consider it that bad of a deal when compared to the alternatives." Yosaku held up his left hand, spreading out all his fingers. "According to the reports, it's believed that if the World Government can recruit five thousand of those shinobi, they'll have enough power to tip the balance in their favor and take on the Yonkou, and any rampaging pirate horde in its wake." Yosaku closed his fist and leaned back. "But of course, the Emperors are well aware of this and at least one of them has been grabbing every Shinobi he can in response.

"So we got a lot of big guys beating up other big guys and want more big guys to beat up the other big guys!" Luffy summed up, as he continued stuff his mouth. "FHI PO BE KAIR?"

"Swallow your food, Captain," Sasuke said mockingly.

Luffy did as he was told. "Why do we care? What's this have to do with where Nami's going?"

Yosaku shook his head and reached into his coat once more. "I'll show you why you should care." He pulled out an old Wanted Poster of Mihawk, holding it for all of them to see. "Remember him? He's one of the Shichibukai!"

"WHOA!" Luffy shouted, voicing everyone's opinion at once. "THERE ARE SIX MORE JUST LIKE HIM?"

"Better believe it. Memorize them," Yosaku said, pulling out six more Wanted Posters as the Straw Hats all gazed at their faces, names and former bounties. "Dracule Mihawk. Crocodile. Donquixote Doflamingo. Bartholomew Kuma. Gecko Moria. Jimbei. Boa Hancock. Each one of them is tough and can kill you five times over before you can blink!"

He singled out Jimbei's poster. "This one is what concerns us and Nami. The Captain of the Fish-Man Pirates!"

"Fish-Man Island in the Grand Line is famous, isn't it? I've heard there are many beautiful mermaids there," Sanji announced wistfully with an amorous grin, soon caught up in his own daydreams.

"You mean like this?" Luffy asked, taking out his own paper and drawing an ugly fish on it, causing Naruto, Sanji and Choji to all laugh at it.

"Stay serious, you idiots!" Yosaku yelled. "What's important to know is that when Jimbei became one of the Warlords, several of his comrades that had been jailed were pardoned and set free into the Seas! And we're headed for one of them: Arlong Park! Arlong's a nasty creature and has become a holy terror in the East Blue Sea! That's where Sister Nami has headed! Arlong makes Don Krieg look like a pussycat!"

"But what makes you so sure that's where Nami's going? You came back halfway, right? Nami could have gone any other direction," Naruto pointed out.

"For one thing, the size of Arlong's territory. This close to it, it's almost impossible to avoid it completely. For another thing, right before she took the ship, she was staring very intently at one of the poster's. It was Arlong's! It can't be a coincidence, there's some connection between the two!"

"Maybe Nami's going to try and steal his treasure?" Naruto speculated. "That Thieving Witch would try something like that."

"My guess is that she went there, knowing we'd follow and start a fight between us and Arlong's crew," Sasuke spoke up as he leaned back, crossing a leg over. "And in the chaos, take all the treasure while we kill each other off."

"Women," Choji smirked, earning him a snap kick from Sanji that slammed the boy's head into the deck.

"How about this one?" Luffy asked. He had redrawn his first fish standing up straight. And just as ugly.

"That's just a standing up version of your other one," Sanji deadpanned. Following back into his daydream, he wondered if Nami was really a mermaid! Made sense to him as to why she'd go to a Fish-Man.

Seeing the look on Sanji's face, Naruto couldn't resist as he transformed himself to a full-blown version of the ugly fish Luffy had drawn, except with short orange hair on top as Luffy held a paper over, with one word written on it: NAMI.

"YOU TWO ARE DEAD!"

Naruto dropped the transformation as he and Luffy dashed off before Sanji could kick them, laughing and giving each other a high five.

Yosaku shook his head as the Chef took off after the two jokers, while the other two engaged in another arm wrestling contest. They would arrive at Arlong Park in three days. He just hoped that was enough time for them to figure out what they were going to do!

XXXXXXX – Three Days later, Konomi Archipelago, Outskirts of Arlong Park

Nami guided the Going Merry up to the vacant dock, just a short walk from Arlong Park. She was now dressed in a green cami with dark green dots, black shorts and open toed sandals. At the dock, three fish-men greeted her waving merrily as they helped pull the ship up.

"You got a good haul?" one of them called as she jumped down to the dock.

"You know it," Nami replied. In a lower voice she added, "Got a stowaway on the ship. Shinobi. Deal with him."

The three fish-men nodded in understanding, seemingly continuing to work. Once the ship was secure, the four of them started walking towards Arlong Park, then in a swift motion, the three of them turned around and jumped right on to the ship proper.

They landed right as Shino started to emerge from his hiding place. "Got you, human trash!"

Shino's only response was to send out a horde of his bugs. They formed a menacing wall right in from of him protectively, obscuring the Aburame from sight as they swarm prepared to attack.

The fish-men reacted instantly. One took a deep breath, slammed his stomach with his fist and blew out a hard gust of breath at the horde. The insects went tumbling all over, trying to stay upright as the other two dove into the water, and launched a large amount of water that converged on the bugs from both sides, drenching them completely.

The insects fell to the deck in a heap, leaving a startled Shino. "This is… inconvenient."

"GET HIM!" the fish-men roared together as they leaped forward, grabbing the young boy… only for him to burst into another collection of insects.

"WHAT THE HELL!"

"IT'S A TRICK!"

"WHERE'D HE GO!"

The three pirate fish-men took off into the forest, looking for the shinobi as Nami watched, an all-knowing smirk on her face before she headed to her destination.

XXXXXXX – Forest

"A tactical retreat is often wise," Shino said to himself as he ran through the forest. He had used the Kikai to create a wall to shield him from the fish-men's eyes. In that instant, he created a Mushi Bunshin in his place, allowing him to retreat backwards under cover into the forest.

He got only a few feet further when several projectiles came his way. Skidding to a stop, he manage to avoid them as several new figures appeared. Several on the ground, a few standing in the trees.

Shinobi.

"So she was correct," Shino said, taking a careful stance as he surveyed his surroundings. He had stumbled into the Shinobi Territory of this island. "You are the – "

He never got the next word out as one of them dropped behind him, and with a simple hit, Shino lost all consciousness.

End of Chapter 32

Next chapter is done! Apologies for the wait, but I'm on the home stretch of one of my other stories and you can say I'm quite eager to work on that one and get it done! Truthfully, I'd still be working on it, but I wanted to give some time to Quest here.

With that said, not a good day for the Aburame, is it? Who are the Shinobi here, why are they in the open, what did Kokuei discover, and what will happen? Well I'm not telling! You'll just have to read the next chapter when it comes! ^_^

Speaking of Aburame, it seems that canon shifts back and forth on Shino's daddy's name. Sometimes going by "Shibi" and other times going by "Gen". Not entirely sure as to why, but whatever. So to get around that, I just gave the guy a twin and called him Gen. Problem solved!

I'm also aware that One Piece canon now has official spellings on a lot of names. Jinbe for Jimbei for example, but I'm going with what I have because I've known them longer and just used to them that way.

Lot of backstory and plot covered here. Nice change from all the action we've had up until now, wouldn't you say? It's fair to mention that several of these plans and explanations have been in my mind since the beginning of the story, so things aren't going to be the same in canon (the Naruto side especially) here, so be careful on assumptions because ANYTHING may turn out differently. No disrespect to either franchise, I just like to give my own twists on things and since I don't know either Kishimoto or Oda's plans, just gotta settle on my own.

As for the World Government wanting to recruit Shinobi, do look back at this passage from Chapter 5:

Current count of the rebels: four. One DF User Pirate, the Pirate Hunter-turned-Pirate, a spineless boy and a young shinobi. Morgan knew that the World Government and Navy Headquarters would want him to recruit any shinobi they could, but as they saying went 'dead men tell no tales'. What the higher ups didn't know, wouldn't come back to bite him in the rear.

So, yes, this plot element has been mentioned before and relevant to the story at large. Different characters hear different things and it'll often take several perspectives to get a complete story. Something to keep in mind as we go about this.

Kokuei – dark shadow

Tatakau – fight

Mushi Hansou no Jutsu (Insect Transport Technique): is a Ninjutsu technique utilized by the Aburame clan. Allows the Aburame to teleport with the assistance of the Kikaichu. The Kikai will converge on both the beginning and destination points into a mass equal to the Aburame user and submerge the user. Kikai used must all have adequate amount of chakra, be it from the Aburame user or another source. Has a range of fifty meters. Cannot carry passengers. B-ranked Ninjutsu. Original Technique

Mushi Bunshin no Jutsu (Insect Clone Technique): is a Ninjutsu technique utilized by the Aburame clan of Leaf village. Using the destruction bugs living in their body, the clan host uses the bugs to form a Bunshin copy of themself to trick their opponent. Once damaged by an attack, the technique ends and the clone disperses back into the bugs which formed it. Canon Technique.

Nami's Ultimate Idiot Competition – Luffy: 49, Naruto: 58. Currently on hold due to Nami's departure.

May the Kage Bunshin and Gomu Gomu no Bazooka be with you!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or Naruto. They belong to their respective owners: Eiichiro Oda and Masashi Kishimoto. Big thanks to Paintball Gamer for beta-reading this!