I own not either Naruto nor One Piece though I wish I do... Oh well have fun reading the story while I mope in the corner!

My warning is still in effect.

Snake Sisters

Chapter 7: Encounter in Josu!

Market place, Josu

"Stupid Sasuke," Naruto mumbled with squinted eyes as he more or less navigated his way through the crowds of Josu's streets. So far making amends of any kind had backfired to say the least, and he was more than certain that calling those three ridiculous in their grudge against him wasn't going to help him at all. He wasn't stupid! He suddenly came to a halt with a twitching brow as he suddenly reflected on his past. "Ok, I'm not that stupid!" he quietly amended before resuming his advance with a scowl and a pout in one expression. "Hot sauce sucks anyway…" he grumbled once more as he unwittingly passed Kakashi as he resumed his reading.

"I'm not going to ask," the jonin mumbled as he turned the page.

"Now what to do..." Naruto uttered as he came to a stop in a relatively secluded corner of the marketplace. There were numerous stands and shops clustered here, perhaps he could buy something to get them to cool off? He heard that worked, didn't see how though...

Of course with things as they stood chances were that may be the only route he could take at this point unless he was willing to be tossed out a window... again. With a groan Naruto dug into his pocket to fish out Gama-chan, a somewhat emancipated Gama-chan that had yet to recover from his time with Jiraiya. "Greedy jerk," the blond grumbled as he checked his current amount of cash...

A few ryo amounting to roughly five hundred or so if he was to guess from the uncounted coins much to Naruto's jaw dropping shock. "DAMN IT PERVY SAGE!"

XVX

Twinkling Cafe

"Did you hear something?" Both sisters looked to Marigold yet said nothing more than a "no" as they returned to their meals in the cafe they found refuge in from a essentially uncouth blond. It was not a shelter from a brooding stalker however much to Hancock's annoyance and her sister's near ignorance. What he was exactly to their eldest sister they didn't know though they knew this: While the blond bonehead known as Naruto was a near constant grief to them as of late, and the man who used his headband as an eye patch of sorts was simply unlikable, it was he who held Hancock's disdain.

As to the why they couldn't place a finger on it, not yet at least.

With finesse they finished what they had and left, thankfully not followed by Sasuke who contented himself with watching them, Hancock specifically, go out the door and simply disappeared into the streets along with the crowds.

"So what do you think we should do now?" Sandersonia all but sighed as she looked to the side to find something, anything to help stave off the monotony brought on by their stop... to think that not having the bonehead around actually made things boring. How life was so interesting to ponder about at times.

"I don't know, I don't see-" Marigold started...

"Marigold?" Both sister turned to their sister to find her missing. The crowds were moving about as if nothing had happened at all, like their sister wasn't there at all...

"What the-" Sandersonia started as well only to be silenced as well. As with Marigold, Hancock turned to find her sister gone without a trace noticed either by her or cared for by the... seemingly ignorant passersby? While she couldn't care less of what the male half of the species cared for, those around her as a whole actually seemed unable to perceive her and her panicked plight. It was almost as if...

Jerking her gaze to the roofs in worry she quickly spotted the smirking cause of the bizarre situation at hand, a man in what looked to be a custom blend of shinobi gear of a high priced value and a clear bubble-like helmet had his hands frozen in a hand seal. A genjutsu style of a seal.

A gloved hand armed with a rag clamped shut around Hancock's mouth long before the thought of screaming could reach her, not that it would've made a difference to an enchanted 'audience' by passing the two as if they were just a combined obstacle that simply barred passage. In its own twisted way however Hancock received her answer as to what caused her sisters' disappearance.

XVX

Market Place

The collective bead of sweat on the stand owner's head threatened to drop with each passing second that ensued between him and a blond that glared at him as he slumped over the stand's and... 'rested' his chin against the wood as it were. To his relief the standoff of an overall short haggle war between him and the child came to a close when the blond sneered in anger, slammed the apparent remainder of his money on the table, and left with the only item he could afford: One enlarged dud of a snake egg...

"Sucker," he snickered as he counted the money as soon as he snatched it from its resting place.

Meanwhile with Naruto, all he could do was sullenly stare at the egg that took the last vestiges of his once proper fortune, for a genin at least, to purchase in what was already deemed a ludicrous bid to patch up the strained relationship between him and the sisters...

The fact that all he could afford out of every form of shop he had happened across, he could only buy a snake egg that didn't hatch did not help matters to say the least.

With a resigned sigh he leapt onto the roof of a nearby warehouse and leisurely strolled across it as he scrutinized the egg for any at all ideas as to how to make this proverbial olive branch more appealing to them. He could wrap it in tinfoil as a decoration... on second thought no, that was outright lame even by lame's standards. Buff shine? Do eggs even shine to begin with for that matter? Not worth the effort if that was the case. Doodle it with a marker? Another lame idea now that he thought about it. It's not like a marker could bring color to this lug of an egg like paint-...

"That's it!" Not as grandiose as painting the Hokage Monument but it was a start! Now to find some buckets of paint and-

Creak!

XVX

During which, Warehouse

In the respective order of their abduction the sisters awoke to their surroundings as dazed and confused as the situation warranted. Again they found themselves behind bars, iron bars no less, in what appeared to be a musty warehouse that only seen more recent use as of late. Their kidnappers, just the two apparently, were in plain view making no effort to hide themselves as they gathered around a table much too ornate for its surroundings and talked to themselves on what to do regarding their latest "catch." Oh how it brought a snarl to the lips of the sisters and a heavy set glare at the ones at the table, as for Hancock however it was different as she noticed a small detail before her sisters. There, proudly emblazoned on the shoulders of their uniforms was what looked to be a large black circle with a following of detached triangles, three on top to form a claw while one was the direct opposite of the middle one, to decorate the symbol.

The Hoof of the Flying Dragon, the personal symbol of those who called themselves the Celestial Dragons... Utter bastards each and every one of them since their inception to even the minds of those who are living breathing saints in the eyes of the world and their enemies. The only real thing they have going for them was money pure and simple to support their lifestyles and give them an iota of power in the world.

With a smug grin that made them all the more despicable to the sisters, one of the goons got up from the table and strolled toward them in an undeniably condescending manner as if he was 'gracing' their lives with his presence...

Creak!

Crash! "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

WHAM!

Four sets of jaws dropped as one orange clad blond clutching a giant snake egg for dear life came crashing through the roof and utterly crushed the hapless Celestial in his haphazard landing. "Stupid roof," Naruto groaned as he struggled to get up with his cargo in tow, carefully inspecting the egg in the process to ensure it wasn't harmed since making his way across the roof while unaware of the downed man beneath him.

Maybe if he was lucky no one would pin this on him.

"Bonehead?!" So much for that plan, maybe they would take a snake egg as compensation? Then again that would shoot his already shaky at best plans to absolute-... Wait. Twisting his head back, he came to gawk upon finding the Boa sisters in a cage just as stunned as he was upon him, and likewise they, were to suddenly learn of the other's presence.

For a good long moment no one so much as breathed. Silence however, much like rules at one point or another, is meant to be broken. "What are you guys doing in a cage?" It took all of Hancock's, Marigold's, and Sandersonia's sheer strength through willpower not to plant their faces along the wrought iron floor of their cell in equally matching dumbfounded shock of his need to question the situation as oppose to react to it.

"You insolent wretch! How dare you tread your filthy common feet upon the likes of royalty!"

"Huh?" Once more Naruto jerked his head to look upon a completely livid man in what appeared to be shinobi gear, fancy looking one at that. "Who are you and what are you talking about?"

Teeth gnashed in a vehement display of fury as the Celestial armed himself with a kunai of a glisteningly high quality that prompted Naruto into doing the same though slowed by the awkwardness of the egg in his now one armed clutch. "I will show you your place you vulgar peasant!" he shouted, letting the kunai loose as he done so. Naruto steeled himself for what was to come, his face scrunched up in anticipation of combat as it usually was, only to fall slightly when the kunai came nowhere near where he was. It struck a crate and bounced off but that was it. The Celestial across from him scowled as he armed himself with another kunai and threw it. Once more it missed as the knife bounced off the floor this time as oppose to striking its intended target.

"Huh... are you even trying?" Naruto asked in disbelief much to the sisters' growing amusement of the situation as the Celestial across from them grew ever more red-faced in anger and embarrassment as he threw more and more kunai at the blond with no success by any margin. The crates themselves would most likely be laughing at him at this point as the most damage they received, if any, was a tiny nick or a dent at worse.

"Shut up!" the Celestial barked with a heavy vein throbbing on his forehead. Once more he drew a kunai and held it aloft as if to wield it as thw weapon it was originally meant to be as opposed to a projectile, yet even Naruto could tell the way he held it told the world he had no real experience of actually using the weapon as such. "I'm not going to let some plebian try to steal our rightful property!"

"What are you talking about? I'm not trying to steal anything!"

"Ha!" No, no, no, no, no! While she had no faith in men in general she had at least some faith that he would willingly rescue them as the situation stood, but that trust went only so far as his ignorance in the matter lorded over everything else! She dove for the bars and put forth her body into slamming them to distract him, Naruto or that bastard if not both, long enough into forgetting each other for but a moment to somehow derail what the Celestial had to say. Her attack on the bars however were but a muted cough to the crystal clear iteration of what she nor her sisters could not tolerate to hear any more.

"Don't play dumb with me you commoner! I know you came to steal our slaves!"

A/N: For the record I'm only using the Hoof as their emblem (of sorts) namely because I cannot find (or at least ignorant of) any at all crests or likewise symbols of the Celestial Dragons to represent them outside the Hoof.

Monkeybandit2, making off with your attention! No refunds.