A/N: Here is a new chapter. Hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. Duh.

Luffy and Zoro had been sparing for three hours. Each match ended with the captain victorious thus far, leaving Zoro very unsure of his skill set.

"Your getting better," spoke Luffy as he deflected another flurry of strikes. Spinning his sword quickly, Luffy was able to parry and thrust a elbow in Zoro's chest.

"Luffy, who taught you how to dual with swords," asked Zoro while he tried to catch is breath.

"Self taught. Although I did learn a lot from the Wando samurais."

Usopp, who had been messing with the cannon, turned around. "You know samurais?"

"Yep. Hey Usopp, what are you doing with the canon? You've have been messing with it for awhile."

"Hm? I was just seeing if it was fire ready."

"Is it?"

"Yea."

A big grin formed on Luffys face. "Then let's fire it!"

Luffy walked over to Usopp and the canon. After deciding to aim at a near by reef, he lit the fuse and covered his ears. A load boom was heard as the canon ball was lunched outward, missing the reef by a few feet.

Never missing a chance to one up someone, Usopp readjusted the aim and fired again. This time the canon ball hit dead on, destroying the reef.

"Nice shooting Usopp."

"Yep, thats me! Sharpshooter Usopp! Does this mean I get to be captain?"

"Nope."

"Fine then. But the first sign of you being cowardly I take the position."

"Its a deal," agreed Luffy, knowing full well that he would never back down from a challenge.

After the small brake to test the canon, Luffy went back to sparing with Zoro, Usopp began mixing some chemicals for his stars, and Nami kept reading in a lawn chair. In fact, she was reading one of Luffys books.

As Luffy parried another blow, he felt some killing intent coming from outside the ship. Scratch that, now it was climbing in the ship.

"Hey Zoro, there is someone climbing in the outside of the Going Merry. Do you want to take care it or me?"

"You do it, I'm going to get some water." Zoro walked inside to take a breather while Luffy walked to the edge of the ship.

As soon as Johnny popped his head up, he was pulled be the hair into the ship. After getting a punch to the face and kicked in the stomach, Luffy threw him against the mast and grabbed the man by the throat.

"What do you want buddy," asked the now pissed captain. How dare someone attack his ship without any reason what so ever.

"Y-yo-you tried to k-kill my f-f-friend."

"Is that so," asked Luffy, putting the squeeze on his lungs. A sadistic grin appeared on Luffys face. "I hope he's ok."

"You... Bastard."

"Drop him!"

Luffy turned to see Nami staring at him, eyes wide in fear. Feeling bad about scaring her, Luffy dropped the guy, letting him breath. It was at this time Zoro walked outside the ship to see if the intruder had been beaten senseless. What he didn't expect to see was a old friend.

"Johnny? What are you doing here? Where is Yosaku?"

Seeing that Zoro was friends with this guy, Luffy instantly felt bad about his actions. As Johnny started to explain what happened, Luffy felt even worst about what happened. He should have scanned the reef with observation haki.

After Johnny and Zoro got Yosaku from the boat, Luffy along side Nami began listening to the symptoms. They both came to the same conclusion.

"He has scurvy," said Nami and Luffy in unison.

"Usopp! Go get the limes from storage, called Luffy. The sniper went to storage and came back with a create of limes. Luffy and Usopp then began squeezing lime juice into Yosaku's mouth, while Nami explained the condition.

Apparently he wasn't to far gone because within seconds he was up and jumping around. Then Yosaku and Johnny explained they were bounty hunters that use to ride with Zoro. Not long after the introduction, Yosaku fell ill (literally) on the deck.

After getting Johnnys counter part to bed, everyone congested in the dinning area. Luffy took the liberty of making tea. It was really only meant to be for him, but he decided to be polite and make enough for everyone.

"This is what can happen without proper nutrition. Its a good thing we are already on our way to get a cook from the Baratie," told Nami, who had been slightly disturbed by the earlier display.

"Oi, Luffy, didn't you mention knowing a guy there already," inquired Zoro.

Luffy took a sip from the mug in his hands. "Ya, his name is Sanji. It wasn't until later I realized he was kinda famous around the East Blue for his cooking skill."

"Anything about him we should know," asked Usopp.

"Hmm, the thing I remember the most was that he was really good with the ladies. Like, no women could resist his charm. Shishishi, better watch out Nami."

Skeptical Nami was skeptical. She couldn't even remember ever liking someone, much less getting charmed. Her only focus was money at the moment.

"Psh, he wishes," retorted Nami.

"Shishishi, his food isn't to bad either. Heck, I stayed at that restaurant for five days straight just to keep eating. The guy is super awesome. To bad he never promised to join my crew."

Everyone at the table face palmed at that. Luffy had been talking like Sanji joining was a done deal. Should have known nothing was that simple. Johnny got in on the conversation at this point.

"Hey big bro, if you're going to the Baratie you should know Hawkeye was spotted around there."

Hearing this made Zoro tighten his grip on Wando and smile with anticipation. He could hardly believe that his dream was already this close to coming true.

Luffy on the other hand flinched, almost spilled his tea, and had a look of fear pass through his eyes. He knew when Zoro said that he wanted to be the greatest swordsman, it meant beating Hawkeye. Luffy just thought it would take until the new world to see the Warloard.

"Zoro if you see Hawkeye what will you do," asked Luffy.

"Kill him and take his title," replied Zoro with all the confidence in the world.

Luffy sighed. "I'm only going to say this once. If every pirate and marine in the East Blue went against Hawkeye right now, he would still win."

Zoro's smile faded out of existence. Replacing it was a mix of anger and skepticism.

Nami and Usopp looked at Luffy in terror. Nami couldn't even believe there were people alive who could wipe out a whole sea. Usopp thought this was a story more unbelievable than his own lies.

"Come on Luffy, there's no one that powerful. It's not even possible," persuade Usopp, trying to be the voice of reason.

"Your wrong. There are people even stronger than the worlds greatest swordsman; take WhiteBeard for example. He can cause earthquakes with his tremor devil fruit. Please trust me when I say there are monsters out there that appear to be gods. There is no pirate in the East Blue who can match a Grand Line veteran."

The table had gone completely silent, even breathing had stopped when Luffy was speaking. Once again, he had accidentally let of some haki.

Realizing that he had stood up during the rant, Luffy sat back down and did some breathing to calm down. After a mintue of silence, he spoke once again.

"I won't stop you from going after your dream Zoro, I won't even try, just trying to give you some prospective."

Feeling overwhelmed with the situation, Luffy walked out the dinning room and went to sit on Merrys head. The crew he left was in various stages of befuddlement. Johnny broke the tension with words of encouragement.

"Don't listen to that Big Bro. He just doesn't know how strong you are."

But Zoro did listen. Luffy was a smart guy (he read like three books a day) and he knew about a lot of things in the world. It still changed nothing though. If he saw Hawkeye and didn't face him, he wouldn't be able to look at the man in the mirror.

Nami walked out the the door of the dinning room to look for Luffy. She located him on the figurehead, sitting so still it was like he had become part of the ship. Walking silently towards the captain, she tried to make sure he wasn't asleep before trying to speak with him.

"What do you want Nami," asked Luffy tiredly, completely out of fucks to give.

"For one, how do you always know where people are. Even if you can't see or hear them, you seem to know where everything is at."

"Its an ability called observation haki that allows one to know their surrounding without seeing or hearing. If it is strong enough, you can feel the strength of someone or even how they are feeling. The easiest to locate and decipher are the ones closest to you. Using this ability also allows you to sense what move your opponent will do next. I actually use to fight blindfolded for awhile to increase my haki because my eyesight was damaged as a child."

That hadn't been what Nami was expecting at all. Now it was almost official Luffy could beat Arlong in a fight. Predicting moves? Was this guy even real?

"Ok then, can I ask how you got all your money? You never did give me a straight answer."

Luffy seemed to get even more tired when he heard the question. "I did a bad thing Nami. I'm still not sure if I regret it or not though."

That sure sounded ominous. Not really sure what to ask next, Nami's thoughts were cut short.

"I don't want Zoro to die. He is a dear friend, even if I have only know him about a month. If Hawkeye decides to kill him, I'm not sure I'll be able to do anything."

Luffy now had Nami's complete attention, every pause was like time stopped and waited for him to start again.

"Not being able to help your nakama; is there anything more terrible?"

To find someone this sincere was rare, yet here was Luffy. Always ready to help his friends and kick some ass. Never beating around the bush and always being honest. Nami could actually not believe it.

"Nami, do you still hate pirates?"

Wasn't expecting that. Luffy had defiantly changed her views on things. To bad pirates were not one of them. In her mine, the Straw Hat crew was just the exception to the rule.

"I still hate pirates. All pirates except the ones on this ship."

Even when it didn't seem possible, Luffy's face looked even move tired than before. His eyes were not even open anymore.

"Let me tell you a story Nami. When I was a young lad around the age 7, a group of pirates came to my island for a few months. Even though they could have easily plundered and stole whatever they wanted, the pirates never took anything without paying. Even when I accidentally ate their devil fruit, they were angry with me, not because it was worth millions of berries, but because I couldn't swim anymore."

That explained where Luffy got his pirate ideologies from. Nami, who had gotten tired of standing, climb onto the figurehead with Luffy and sat beside him.

"The captain of the crew," continued Luffy after Nami got settled, "Red Haired Shanks, gave up his arm to save me from a sea king."

Luffy took his hat off and let the moonlight illuminate his treasure. It almost appeared to glow with a heavenly light. A small smile appeared on Luffy's face at the next memory.

"When Shanks left, he gave me his most precious item. I promised to return it to him once I became a great pirate and had a crew even better than his, then become the Pirate King."

The reminiscing teen looked at the breathless girl beside him. Giving a cheeky grin, Luffy placed the hat on her head. A slight blush appeared on Nami's face in response to the gesture.

"So Nami, are you going to ask me to kill Arlong or not?"

Nami went from floating on clouds to being crushed by the weight of the world.

'How in the actual heck does he know about Arlong? Did I slip somewhere in conversation? Wait, maybe he used that haki stuff to read my mine? He didn't mention that though. Maybe it's just a guess.'

"Umm, what do you mean by that," asked a sweating Nami with her best everything-is-all-good smile.

Luffy put his head down and looked to the side. "I thought you would trust me more than that Nami." He sighed and looked up, though not once did his gaze land upon her.

"Guess you should probably be getting some rest, busy day tomorrow."

Nami nodded and was about to get up to leave until something snapped in her brain. This man had treated her like family, was never malicious (to her), and had the strength of a titan. He was basically god sent. If she was going to be honest, truly honest with herself, then it was obvious Arlong would lose to Luffy. To bad years of abuse isn't easily forgotten. Arlong had basically become a invincible pillar of evil in her heart.

"How do you know?" Asked Nami, voice quivering, arms spaghetti.

"I saw your tattoo the first day we met when you were pasted out. Durning the conversation you didn't mention Arlong's name at all, just that you needed 100,000,000 berries to buy an island. You also mentioned a pirate killed someone close to you. It took awhile, but I'm pretty sure I pieced the story together."

Nami, who was a wreak at this point, burrowed her face into Luffy's jacket and began crying, she wanted to trust him but just couldn't. Luffy put an arm around Nami awkwardly and patted her shoulder, trying (and failing) to comfort the distraught thief.

"It's ok. There, there. Captain is here now." Wow, he was really bad at this. Wait, now she was crawling into his lap to cry. This was a whole new problem of what to do with his arms now. Remembering a scene from one of the countless books he read, Luffy wrapped his arms around the girl and slowly rocked back and forth.

After about an hour of this, Luffy realized Nami had fallen asleep in his arms. Making sure he didn't wake sleeping beauty, Luffy rose from his seated position carrying Nami bridal style. Hoping off Merry's head, Luffy walked to the lower levels were the navigator slept and laid her on the bed, then after making sure she was tucked in properly, Luffy went back to the deck.

Starting his midnight training, the Mugiwara captain did 4000 push-ups, 3000 squats, and 2000 sit-ups. After that, he went through his swordsmanship technique, sparing with imaginary partners and enemies for two hours. To test his speed and observation haki, Luffy threw up one hundred bullets 30 feet in the air and tried to catch each one before they hit the deck. To end the training, he did 2000 push-ups with only his index fingers.

"It appears morning will be here soon," spoke Luffy, panting lightly from his pervious training. Deciding to make breakfast, he began walking towards the kitchen. Before cooking could begin, his observation caught on to a moderately close ship.

That's interesting. There aren't any strong auras on board so no point in attacking I guess. Most likely a civilian ship.

FULL BODY POV

Beautiful women in tow, lovely warm night, and in route to a five star restaurant. Life for Lieutenant was good. And capturing the righthand man of the Krieg Pirates ensured that a promotion would follow very soon. Yes, life was very good thought Fullbody as he looked over the railing of the Navy vessel

The woman who would be his date at the Baratie walked up beside him holding two mugs of coffee. She was wearing a blue silk night gown that went to her knees and blue bunny slippers to match. Snuggling up under Fullbody's arm, Moodie handed him one of the mugs.

"The night sure is lovely isn't it," cooed Moodie in Fullbody's ear. The man smiled and hugged her closer to his body.

"Yes it is doll. Yes it is."

The two stayed like that for a few minutes, siping the warm beverage and enjoying each other's company. That was until Moodie caught sight of a certain pirate ship 50 meters in the distance.

"Oh honey look, a dreadful pirate ship."

Fullbody, who was hoping to appear as the alpha male, decided to do a display of power. Yelling out some commands, the Lieutenant readied the men to fire upon the Merry.

"Don't worry baby, they'll be gone soon. Sink them!"

And with that order, during the first moments of dawn, Fullbody made the worst decision of his life.

Luffy POV

One moment Luffy was boiling some chowder, the next he was outside just in time to catch a cannonball that was flying at the ship. Very pissed that his morning was now ruined, the captain threw the ball 5x faster than the speed at which it had been shot, making direct contact with the enemy ship.

That one throw hit with the power of 10 cannonballs, completely destroying the haul, sleeping quarters, and half the deck.

"Second Gear!"

Steam rose from a now furious Luffy. The straw hat jump high into the sky and rocked off the air, soaring towards the Navy vessel at break neck speeds. He didn't even slow down his geppo, instead opting to close line the closest marines to decelerate.

The disoriented marines made easy targets for the enraged teen. His punches were quit literally as strong as two pistols, cracking and collapsing skulls with each hit. Ripping off limbs and beating the owners with them. Painting the whole ship red with blood.

Fullbody ran over to deal with him and was backhanded in the face with such force he flew over the deck and landed in the sea, back broken in three places, with a major concussion and skull fracture. His girlfriend screamed and ran to the lower compartments to hide, tripping and knocking herself unconscious in the process.

After 2 minutes Luffy realized that everyone one was either dead or about to be dead, what with the ship slowly sinking into the sea and all. Throwing out an arm, Luffy activate second gear again and used geppo to get back to the Merry.

Each member of the crew was on the deck when he touched down. Their eyes widened in horror when they noticed he was completely drenched in blood. Johnny and Yosaku fainted from the sight.

"Hey guys," said Luffy with a wide grin, "I'm going to take a shower. If your hungry the chowder should be ready by now." And like that he was gone.

Usopp looked at Zoro, then glanced at Nami. "Well, I'm done trying to be captain."

A/N: So looks like Nami might come around before they reach the Baratie. Zoro has a lot to think about too. Also Luffy can only use geppo when in second gear.

Next chapter: Sanji, Smoker, and Samurai