A/N: I am back with another chapter. Thank you to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed. Good news! I finally got a beta reader, so chapters should be coming out much more often. His pen name is shinxshinx1595. Big thanks to him. I was alerted that there was some confusion on what Luffy's dragon is. Dragon is the other name for a blunderbuss. I thought I said that in the first chapter but maybe it wasn't clear.

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. Duh.

"Hey Luffy?"

"Yea."

"How did you do that bullet storm thing from before? Those bullets were moving pretty fast."

"Oh that? I have strong fingers." Luffy could almost feel the face palm Zoro did.

"What about that thing where you inflated your body?"

"Oh, I'm a rubber man. I ate the Gum Gum fruit."

Zoro just sighed at the information. What type of crazy captain was he following. Before now, he didn't even know devil fruits were real.

A strong gust of wind went by, taking Luffy's hat with it. Without even thinking he stretched an arm out and snatched it back before it blew away.

"Phew! That was close," he said placing the hat on his head. "Oi, Zoro, are you feeling a bit peckish?"

Luffy wasn't personally hungry, but then again he didn't exactly get hungry very often. But he did love to eat though. It was one if his greatest passions.

"I'm a bit hungry, you got something to eat?"

"I'm sorry my friend, it appears we ran out yesterday. I have a fishing rod if you want try catching something. We could take turns."

"You're the boss," replied Zoro picking up the rod.

After a few minutes nothing had been caught. Without anything else to do, Luffy struck up the ancient art of conversation.

"Sooo," Luffy began awkwardly, "when did you begin your journey?"

"I left a few years ago in search of a certain man and never found my way back home."

"Jeez dude, I'll never take directions from you ever again. I mean could you really could not just ask where the island was located. Shishishi! Shishishi!"

A grumpy scowl appeared on Zoro's face. He turned back towards the sea, looking pretty angry.

"Hey, look at that Zoro, a bird," announced Luffy, trying to change the subject.

"Yea, so what?"

"Well, for sailors, birds usually signify an island is nearby. We are currently out of food so let's follow it. If it leads us to an island with a town then we get to buy some food. Grab an ore and get rowing."

This was good enough for Zoro, so he started rowing and catching up with the avian. Dang, that bird was quick though.

"Hey Zoro, I pretty sure there are some people in front of us." In front of the boat were three people dressed like clowns in the process of drowning.

"Help us, please!"

Why now of all times?

"Ok, just get in while were moving!" The three oddly dressed guys clambered into boat like their life depended on it. Most likely because it did. After getting on, the trio gasped for air trying to catch their breath. After they recovered from the near death experience and were in no immediate peril, their sights got set on the two owners of the boat.

"You idiots almost killed us!"

Talk about ungrateful. Didn't bother Luffy much though, he was more interested in why they looked like clowns. In fact they remind him of a certain pirate he saw in the wanted posters.

"We are pirates under captain Buggy, now this boat is ours punk."

That was it! Buggy the Clown was a devil fruit eater. Paramecia to be sure, although he wasn't positive which one it was. It could be a passive like his, Buggy was probably know as "Buggy the Immortal" for a reason. Most likely it wouldn't be a destructive one like say Whitebeard for instance. So deep in thought, Luffy nearly didn't notice the swords being pointed at him.

"Hey now, someone might get hurt," voiced Luffy as he drew his dragon.

He grabbed the blade of the first one and shot the guy in the shoulder, making the clown release his grip on the hilt. Luffy then throw the sword like a throwing knife, impaling the second in the stomach. He then pulled a kumai knife from his belt and began twirling it between his figures.

"Oi, clown face. Get rowing."

Not only did the buggy pirate get rowing, he did so faster than Zoro. Heck, the guys arms were moving faster than the eyes could follow.

"Your friends will live by the way."

"Ye-y-yes sir! Thank you sir!"

Zoro gave Luffy a sideways look. He was a bit surprised that the rubber man could go from 0 to 120 in one second.

"Hey Zoro, check it out! There is the island."

"Finally I can get some booze."

After a few more minutes the boat pulled up against docks, finally at their destination, Buggy's crew member finally collapsed in a heap from exhaustion.

"They'll be fine, let's go Zoro."

"Should you leave your stuff in there with them. I mean they are pirates."

"You're right. Let's drag them into town and dump them somewhere. Or I guess we could take them to the clown himself."

"Eh? What clown?"

"Pirate Buggy the Clown. His ship was docked over there."

"Gotcha."

Zoro held two of the guys over his shoulders and Luffy had one under his arms. The town was eerily silent, almost felt like ghost lived there instead of people. There was something comfortable about the atmosphere for Luffy. Zoro couldn't care less. Cannon fire broke the serene silence, it followed by an even louder noise.

"Aaahhhh! Somebody help me," a girlish voice shrieked out.

Didn't really help the already spooky mood. Luffy cut Zoro a glance before running off in the direction of the scream. Zoro followed right behind him until the swordsman took a wrong turn into an alley way. Luffy wouldn't have time to worry about Zoro right now, that guy would be fine. Right now someone might need his help. Who knows, that person might even be his next crew mate.

Stretching out his observation haki, Luffy targeted the point of distress and ran towards it.

Nami POV

She couldn't believe that they had actually caught her. These guys weren't even henchmen, they were just common goons, cannon fodder, but they still caught her. Nami had been dogging them for a while, and would have escaped to if it wasn't for a chard, blackened bird falling out the sky right in front of her path. Before the thief veteran could recovered from the mini heart attack, the goons had already caught up and tackled her to the hard pavement. The pirates grubby hands were all over her body, tying up her hands and feet, and feeling up places they shouldn't. This was probably only a taste of what they would do. Of course Nami was confident that she would be able to escape eventually, but by the way these guys were leering at her body, who knows what they would do before then. She had to make a getaway now.

"Hey Lou, I think we should take her into one of these abandon houses first before we go back to boss. Might not get another chance like this."

"Hmm, that is good thinking. Let's do it. Oh, I mean lets do her. Hehehe."

Well this was it. She had to fight now or never. As soon as she started struggling against her bonds, Nami heard a loud crack and started to see stars. This was followed by intense pain in the back of her skull. It was clear there was no getting out of this.

"Now, now, that's no way to treat a lady."

Nami wasn't entirely sure what occurred after that because her vision was blurry. All she heard was terrified screams and shouts of mercy. That all began to fade though as everything grew dark. She could no longer feel the ground beneath her, cotton lined the inside of her mouth, the world spun at high speeds. Darkness consumed everything.

When Nami woke up, she had a splitting headache. Weakly, she lifted her hand to rub the sore spot. That's when it hit her, she was no longer tied up. Those idiot pirates must have untied her when they got to their base. Fools would not even know what hit them. As she got up, Nami noticed that this was not the pirates base but the inside of a cozy home. Looking around further, she noticed a man sitting in the dinning table eating a sandwich. That was also when he noticed her.

"You got hit on the head pretty hard, probably should rest more."

"What happened to those three guys from earlier?"

"They are currently face down in the street."

That meant this guy must have taken them out. He looked kinda badass, so it seemed possible. An idea began to form.

Hmm, this could be a lucky break for me. If I can persuade this to partner up, I'll be rocking the Grand Line.

"Hey what's your name."

"Monkey D. Luffy."

"Do you want to team up Luffy? I'm a thief who steals from pirates, and a class A navigator. We could split all the earnings."

"What's your name?"

"Nami."

"Well, Nami, my dream is to become the pirate king, so that partnership most likely wouldn't work. You could join my crew though, we need a navigator."

"Heck no! I hate pirates, they are the scum of the earth. Forget it. The only things I love are money and tangerines, you're not either of them."

"Why do you love money?"

"Wha? I need 100,000,000 berries to buy an island." That question had taken Nami by surprise. Why was she even still talking to this guy? Oh yeah, he saved her life.

"I am headed to the Grand Line Nami. There is lots of treasure to be found in that sea, heck there is a lot of treasure in this sea if you know where to look. If you team up with me you can have all the money we make until you're able to buy your island. I'm pretty strong so you won't have to sneak around anymore like you have been. What do you say?"

Nami weighed her options. On one hand, this guy did have a pretty epic way about himself and seemed pretty strong. On the other hand, he might be the type to come after her if she crossed him. But he did say all of the treasure they found was hers if she stayed. What could be the harm if it would help her fulfill her goal faster?

"Deal." Nami stuck out a hand to confirm the verbal contract.

A wide grin appeared on Luffy's face. "Deal." He sealed the agreement with a shake.

After a few moments of silence, Luffy got up from the table and stretched.

"Well, I'm going to introduce you to your new crew mate. As soon as I find him."

With that Luffy whooshed out the door of the house, Nami following close behind. There was no way she was going to caught three feet away from this guy. No doubt Buggy had sent more pirates after the others never came back.

"I'm pretty sure Zoro is somewhere over here," voiced Luffy after a few minutes of walking. He looked around like he expected something to happen any second. Low and behold a green haired guy walked from around a corner.

"Hey Zoro, I'm over here."

"Eh? Oh hey Luffy, I've been looking everywhere for you. Those guys I was carrying started waking up so ditched them. They probably alerted Buggy that we are here."

"Don't sweat it Zoro, I dropped off my guy a while back with some of his friends."

Nami realized he must be talking about the guys he beat up in the alleyway. To bad she missed that.

"Yea, some weirdo on a unicyclist challenged me to a dual. It didn't take very long."

"So you got attacked by a sword wielding unicyclist. That sucks."

"He wasn't even a challenge," sulked Zoro. It was like he was sad the man was easy to beat.

Nami looked the swordsman up and down until something struck her. He had three swords and his name was Zoro. Does this guy really have Zoro the pirate hunter on his crew? He might just live up to the hype.

"Hey Nami, you want Buggy's treasure before we leave right?"

"Hm? Oh yeah, of course I do."

"Sweet, let's go then. Wait, we're coming up on another one."

Sure enough around the next bend, their was a weird looking guy riding a lion thing. The guy was currently terrorizing a dog for what looked like no reason what so ever. Damn pirates. Nami blinked. When her eyes opened, the weird guy was on the ground with a kumai knife sticking out his chest. The lion was currently being thrown by Luffy into the sky.

"Hey, are you a new crew member or something," asked Zoro.

"Hm? Ya, I'm the new navigator." Luffy then came walking back, wiping blood from his knife on his pants.

"Nami, go rob Buggy blind while I distract him."

A smile came to the girls face. "Can do!" Nami ran off to get to the clowns stock pile, while Luffy walked towards the now anxious Buggy pirates.

Luffy and Zoro were currently walking to where Buggy was but it turned out Buggy came to them.

"So you think you can flashily take out my crew one by one and get away with it?" The rest of the Buggy pirates behind him started cheering and hyping up their captain.

"Of course not Buggy," explained Luffy, "they were like that when we ran in to them."

"Oh well it's ok then... wait! I wasn't born yesterday punk I know it was you who did it."

"Well I guess you got me Buggy. Don't worry, your subordinates will live."

"Oh, well thank you for being so courteous to my sub... wait! Screw you kid! I'll kill you flashily right now! Bara Bara Ho!"

Buggy's forearm shot out towards Luffy while holding a knife. Luffy was able to doge pretty easily but was taken a bit off guard when the hand moved directions. Although he was unharmed, his straw hat was nicked by the knife.

Zoro, with swords drawn, looked at Luffy concern. The teen had a look of deep contemplation on his face. He wasn't even on this planet anymore from the looks of it.

Meanwhile, Buggy had shot out his other forearm at the boy. It didn't even look like Luffy noticed, much less cared.

'What the heck happened,' thought Zoro.

Flashback

Luffy was hanging from the shackles, still not use to feeling so weak all the time. It like constantly drowning in sea water, but unlike that it you never die from it. The child still wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

"Luffy, I have a surprise for you."

Oh god. When the doctor had a surprise it was usually a new poison or update about how no one was looking for him anymore. Luffy never let it get to him.

"I bet you missed this haven't you."

The sadist took out the beloved straw hat and began tossing it from hand to hand. Then slowly started to rip the treasured item.

"Nooooo! Please, I'll do anything you want! Just not the hat!" Luffy continued to plead with no avail. The doctor on the other hand was laughing his head off.

"Do you feel it Luffy? The sight of your well loved hat being destroyed in front of your very eyes gets your blood boiling! This is what it feels like to live!"

Luffy was now frantically tearing at his bonds, coming close to ripping an arm out of socket. His screaming was shredding the fabric of the boys lungs apart, but even as blood came out the sides of his mouth he didn't stop.

"Look at you Luffy! Even with sea stone all around you, the bonds can barely hold you! This is life!" And with that he ripped the straw hat in half.

Lost it wasn't even the right term. Luffy might as well plummeted into madness. A blow to the head brought him back to the present.

"That's right, cry it all out. Pain makes you stronger. Remember this feeling." The grey haired man slowly walked to the door.

"Oh, and one more thing, this isn't your real hat. I've said it before Luffy, I love you like a caring father." With that the doctor walked out the room.

End of flash back

Luffys hand shot out and grabbed Buggy's arm with such force he almost crushed the limb.

"Don't touch my hat clown."

"Hat? Eh, that hat looks like the one Shanks would wear all the time."

This was news to Luffy. "You knew Shanks? He is the one who gave me this hat. It is a very dear treasure of mine. Do you know him?"

"I hate that bastard, he ruined my life." Buggy then told the story of him and Shanks.

"Sounds like he saved your life to me."

"I don't care what it sounds like to you! Separate!"

Buggy's hand detached from the forearm Luffy was holding. The knife in the seemingly autonomous hand grazed by Luffy's face as the teen moved his head at the last second.

"Chi wo Hau Bara Bara Ho!" Two disembodied hands grabbed Luffy's ankles, effectively immobilizing him. Buggy stomped the ground causing knifes to come out the bottom of his shoes then began spinning his lower body at high speeds.

"Bara Bara Senbei!" Buggy throw his lower half at Luffy with the intent to cut him in half. The straw hat decided this circus act had gone on long enough. He stuck out his hand and caught the foot before the blade could come near. Then, applying more force, Luffy broke Buggy's ankle.

"Aaaaggg!" The chop chop man fell to the ground, quivering in pain as the raven haired teen went higher and broke the lower part of the leg. To disoriented from the agony, Buggy failed to call back his other leg before they to were broken.

Luffy looked down and grabbed the hands around his ankles, then systematically began braking each finger. It would have better if Luffy had shown some emotion, even laughed, but Luffy stayed absolutely stone faced.

"You know Buggy, I wouldn't be doing this if you hadn't touched my hat. Apologize and I won't break the other hand."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please don't break my hand," cried Buggy, his make up running everywhere. It had been a long time since someone had hurt him this bad.

"Well, since you said please, I guess I can end your suffering." Luffy dropped the hands and legs before turning in the direction of Nami's hiding spot. "Oi, Nami get over here with that loot, were leaving now."

"Aye captain," she shouted nervously, running over to Luffy with the big bags of gold.

As Nami ran to Luffy she noticed that Buggy had passed out from shock. A mental note was made to never cross straw hat teenager.

"Hey Zoro, why didn't you join in? You totally left me hanging."

"You seemed to have it under control. Plus I wanted to see you fight."

"Hmm, good enough for me." Luffy noticed Nami was struggling to carry the bags of treasure. Zoro, do you have no manners? Give our new crew mate a hand with the treasure."

Luffy and Zoro each took a bag and began walking to the docks. Nami followed close behind in case there was still any pirates lurking around. Looking at Luffy, she noticed he looked kinda crestfallen.

"What's wrong Luffy," enquired Nami.

"I'm still pretty bummed about my hat is all. Nothing to concern yourself with."

"I can fix it later if you want." At this Luffy perked up a little.

"Really? Thanks Nami," Luffy said giving a trademark grin. The trio walked the rest of the way in silence until they got to the boats. After a bit of figuring, they tied Luffy and Nami's boat together. They then pushed off from the island and made it into open waters. It was quite for a time until Zoro asked a question to Luffy.

"Hey captain, why does Nami have all the gold in her boat." Hearing this made the orange haired girl in question perk up and made Luffy put down his book.

"It's because Nami gets to have all of the treasure we collect until we she has enough to buy an island. Before you ask, I have no idea why she needs this particular island."

The expression Zoro was giving clearly showed he did not in anyway agree to this. Luffy gave a knowing look.

"If your worried about you and me Zoro, I can assure you I have enough money to hold us down for food and basic needs."

"Really," Zoro said incredulously, "how much do you have." The swordsman was in for a shock.

"170,000,000 berries."

First, a silence fell over the three. But then...

"EEEEEHHHHHH?!

Zoro's eye brows flew into the atmosphere. Nami jaw had broken through her boats floor boards, eyes the size of bowling balls slowly turned into giant berry signs.

"Yep, just like Nami I also have to buy a certain thing. Unlike Nami, I have enough money to buy it already."

"If I may ask captain, where did you get all that money." Zoro asked the question Nami was screaming inside her brain. A shadow appeared across Luffy's face when the question was asked. Looking down he gave an answer. This did not go unnoticed.

"I don't feel like talking about it. The place isn't even there anymore so it's not important." Luffy kept his head facing downward, staring holes into the wooden planks.

With the conversation over, Zoro went to sleep and Nami began to re-count her money. When she finally did turn in for the night, she noticed that her captain was still awake, staring into the sky.

A/N: So it looks like Luffy is rich. I wonder if anyone can guess what Luffy is going to buy or where the money came from? But will all that money be to much of a temptation for Nami? Will Nami begin to think that Luffy can beat Arlong? Keep reading to find out. Plus major changes from the cannon next chapter so watch out.