AN: Of the Straw Hats who Luffy meets in the East Blue, who is your favorite?

After walking through the portal Luffy found himself waking up in Makino's Bar. Much to his surprise he could sense people were looking at him. Shank's crew may be a bunch pirates but they have spent enough time with Luffy to get to know and worry about him. Luffy knew he would have to come with an excuse believable or not to get out of this situation.

With everyone looking at him he lifted his head off the counter, opened his mouth and said "Looks like I fell asleep"

With a resounding "No shit" from the whole crew

Makino shot the red haired captain a dirty look as if telling him to watch his language around a child.

Luffy didn't seem to care either way. He turned his head to the right and saw the box that contained his current/ past devil fruit 'man, this is going to be annoying' Luffy thought to himself.

Before Luffy could get in a word to his idol, the mountain bandits walked into the bar. Luffy really wanted to hit them for what they were about to do to Shanks. But he held back not really having any idea of whether or not his strength made the journey with him some 13 years back as his mind had. So he allowed the scene to play itself out.

"We are bandits, we're not here to destroy this bar"

"We need 10 barrels of sake." Higuma said

"We don't have any more sake available" Makino said in an apologetic tone

Shanks held up a bottle of sake for the bandit apologizing and asking if he would like this. The bandit just swung at the bottle and smashed it all over Shanks and the floor. Shanks went to pick up the pieces of broken glass on the floor. While Makino went to help, the bandit drew his sword and slashed a section of the bar. As soon as the bandits left Shanks broke out laughing followed by the rest of his crew. Only to be halted by a yelling Luffy.

'I understand why Shanks just laughed it off but he was still should have just beaten the guy up.' He thought to himself before speaking

"Why did you let them do that to you?"

"It's not really a big problem; it is just some spilt sake, nothing to get angry over."

Okay with that Luffy turned his attention to the box to the right of him while Shanks was talking with Makino. He sat down grabbed the devil fruit and took a rather large bite out of it. Shanks turned his attention to Luffy who was eating something. Shanks got up and yelled at the boy asking if he was eating the fruit in the box. Before Luffy knew what was going on he was upside down with his face on the floor.

'This feels right even if it is still real weird' Luffy thought.

Shanks then told him about the repercussions of eating the strange fruit even though Luffy knew exactly what he was getting himself into.

Later after Shanks and his crew left the bar and the bandits were now occupying the seats. Luffy ran his mouth off angering the bandits. Higuma took the kid outside and were going to deal with him as Makino and the Mayor showed up apologizing for what Luffy had said. The bandits didn't let him go and before they knew it Shanks and crew were standing behind the upset duo.

"I was wondering why no one was at the bar so we followed the noise to see what was going on"

Shanks walked around Makino and the mayor as Higuma was talking.

"If you come any closer, I'll blow your head off, coward."

The next thing Luffy heard was a bandit putting a pistol to Shanks's head and cocking the gun.

"He said not to come any closer or you'll get your head blown off." A nameless bandit said

The next words out of Shanks's mouth would stay with him for the rest of his life.

"Risk your life on it"

"What?"

"With that pistol, you will risk your life."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"This isn't a child's game"

Luffy loved hearing those words even though he was kind of in a predicament as his powers were still untested. Barely any time had passed before the sound of gun could be heard as the bandit who was holding his gun to Shank's head was shot dead by Lucky Roo. The next words out of Shank's mouth just made him respect the red haired pirate even more.

"I can have food or drinks spilled on me, or even be spit at and I'll laugh about it. However if for any reason you hurt a friend of mine… I won't forgive you!"

With those words Higuma ordered his men to attack Shanks and crew. But Benn Beckman the first mate of the Red Haired Pirated dispatched of the small fry in no time at all. This made Higuma nervous as he disappeared behind a smokescreen. Luffy noticed how an important time in his and Shank's lives was about to occur. The next thing he knew he was being held by his shirt over the edge of the boat the bandit then threw him into the water.

'The next few moments were going to be precious if I want to prevent Shanks from losing his arm.' Luffy thought as he was snapped back to reality thanks to the water around him and the King of the Coast coming out of the water and swallowing the foolish mountain bandit whole. The sea king who had just swallowed the bandit turned its attention to a struggling Luffy. The sea king began swimming towards Luffy. Luffy then sensed shanks holding onto him. At this point he knew he was going to be okay. So he put everything he had into a localized blast of his Haoshoku no Haki intimidating the large beast and sending it off swimming in another direction. Luffy had done it he prevented Shanks from losing his left arm to the beast. Shanks was surprised to say the least at this development as he sensed the might of this small boy. Shanks knew that only a select few were able to use the ability the young boy had just displayed.

"Luffy do you know what you just did?"

Feigning ignorance Luffy just played it off as if nothing happened even though he knew exactly what he had done.

"No, what did I do?" Luffy looked at him confused, even though he knew exactly what he had done.

"Ah, nevermind." 'If he is not aware of it yet there is no reason to push him for something he doesn't understand.' Shanks thought to himself

While Shanks was talking Luffy wondered how this would change Shanks future. When he saw Shanks again in his future he was able to beat him but only just so. He knew that doing this would give Shanks the upper hand in the future, and making their battle even more difficult. But he none the less would be ready when the time came. He had 13 years or so to train.

Shanks swam back to shore with Luffy. Neither person said a word but they didn't have to their expressions showed everything they were thinking. When they made it back to shore Makino, the mayor and Shanks crew greeted them. Shanks left Luffy with Makino as he went to talk with Yasopp, Benn & Lucky Roo.

"Something interesting happened while we were in the water" Shanks said

Benn was the first to speak up and ask what happened.

"Alright captain we give, what happened in the water."

"You may not believe me but Luffy used the Haoshoku no Haki and scared off a sea king. I am not sure if he knew what he was doing, But when I was swimming back to shore I could just tell that Luffy was real happy for some reason."

The three men looked at their captain with puzzled looks on their faces, as if trying to find out if he was kidding about what had happened. Seeing this reaction Shanks had no choice but to respond.

"I'm serious, Luffy used that Haki and sent the damn beast swimming away, terrified."

"I think he really might be destined for great things one day."

The three men continued to look at their captain, still not sure how to respond.

"Alright captain I believe you." His first mate responded.

"I guess we will just have to wait and see what Luffy does with his life in the future, for now we should get ready to leave. We have a long journey ahead of us."

"Man, hearing what you said captain and seeing Luffy makes me want to see my son again." Said Yasopp

"But I know being a pirate is dangerous even as well renowned as we are. I made a decision and I am going to stick to it." Said Yasopp

"Who knows, maybe if Luffy becomes a pirate maybe he will meet your son and convince him to join his crew, you have talked about him enough." Said Lucky Roo

"Shut up Lucky Roo, I don't talk about him that much." Yasopp responded kind of red

"Oh yes you do" The three men said

"Only while you are drunk which let's face it is kind of often." Shanks continued

"Ah, whatever. Don't we have to get ready to leave" Yasopp retorted

With that the four men started walking toward their ship where they would spend one more night before they left the next morning for their long voyage back to the New World.

The next morning Shanks's crew was loading up their ship with stuff they bought from the town. While they were doing this Luffy and Shanks were talking.

"You leaving?"

"Yeah, we have used this island as our base for about a year now. It's about time we got back to the sea."

"Will you miss us?'

"Yeah, but I am not going to ask to go with you anymore."

"I've decided I am going to become a pirate myself."

Shanks stuck his tongue out at Luffy before responding. "I wasn't going to take you with us either way."

"Like you could become a pirate."

Annoyed Luffy responded "I will"

"I'll gather my own crew that'll be strong enough to beat yours and find the world's greatest treasure."

"No matter what, I will become the King of the Pirates." Luffy yelled

"Oh, you are going to beat us…"

"Then, I'll let you take care of this hat."

Shanks took his straw hat off of his head and placed it on Luffy's.

"It's very important to me."

"Take good care of it"

Shanks and crew all on board, they began sailing away from Fuusha Village. The villagers were waving goodbye to Shanks and crew. The crew was waving back to the villagers who let them stay on the island for the better part of a year. Shanks thought to himself 'Someday, return it to me as a great pirate. It's a promise Luffy.'

Luffy looked up with tears in his eyes and watched as Shanks and crew sailed away. Soon the Red Haired Pirates were out of sight and the villagers returned to their daily lives. The only one who remained at the port was Luffy. He still had tears in his eyes, but they were for a different reason this time. He was thinking about his future and of all the adventures he was going to have with his friends. He was also very excited to see his to be infamous straw hat less tattered than it had been in his time. Although he did feel a little strange not seeing all the repair work Nami had done to the hat in his time. She did put a lot of care into repairing the hat for her idiot captain. Luffy made a vow to himself that he would try to take better care of the hat in the future. Finished thinking about what was to come, Luffy put the hat on his head and covered his eyes as he was known to do. While standing there with his hat covering his eyes a shadow appeared next to Luffy. It was an older version of himself with his red cardigan, yellow sash, blue shorts and his infamous hat in the same position. He raised his hat from his eyes and the shadow disappeared. Luffy turned to walk around and as he was walking back into the village he froze in horror. He had just remembered that his grandfather was going to be coming back to the island soon to take him up and live with Dadan and her group of mountain bandits. However there was reason to be hopeful as he was going to see his brother again.