Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece

A Friend in Need

Nami stood over the pool in Arlong's park that led to the ocean as she looked at it. She just killed her friend, and she was watching his body get carried away by the tides of the sea. She felt sadness, bitterness, dejection, and hopelessness, but at least her plan to save her island was still safe. She turned around only to see Arlong laughing.

"Did you see his face when Nami killed him. he fully believed that she was his friend, but he doesn't know her as I do; she was a natural cold-blooded killer that put some of you to shame." The fishman complimented her which made the girl's stomach swirl in disgust. Years of working under him haven't helped to quell her hatred for him, it only made it grow even further than it already was.

The girl flashed a smile toward the fishman, but then Kuroobi came, "Here I thought you were going to betray us. It seems that you proved me wrong and for that, I apologize." The fishman extended his hand, "And today, you proved that you're truly a member of the Arlong pirates; that you're one of us."

The girl glared at him smacking his hand away, "Me, one of you people? Don't make me laugh. Both you and I know that I only joined your crew for one reason, and one reason only, and once it is done it will be the last you see me here, so don't go lumping just together." She looked away, "I only joined to buy my village, and tomorrow once I hand over the money, it's bye, bye Nami." No one seemed to notice how Arlong's eyebrows twitched when the girl said that.

The blue fishman was right now feeling everything slipping out of his control; he still needed Nami, and her miraculous achievement will set him back for years, but for now, he had a plan; he only needed to find where the money was being hidden.

It was as if the heavens heard Arlong's plea, and decided to entertain him for a bit. Kuroobi looked at the orange-haired girl crossing his arms, "You know there's something that always bothered me about you; it's why someone, who only lives to hoard money, would you want to buy some tiny little village in the middle of nowhere."

Nami looked at him raising an eyebrow as he pulled out something from his clothes. The girl's eyes went wide as she looked at the item the fishman held, "That was till I found this." He smirked, "It seems you've been hiding a lot from us, and here I thought you trusted us at least with your money."

The paper that Kuroobi was holding was an old map of the Comoni Islands that Nami lived in with an X mark on a certain area. While for some that may seem like a treasure mark, for Nami it signified where she was hiding all the treasure she gathered over the years. This will cause her a huge problem if anyone went looking there; all her hard work would be for nothing.

Kuroobi chuckled holding the map, "It seems that you found a treasure, and decided to keep him for yourself." The fishman pointed to the X on the map, "This map is old, but it's a treasure map that directly points to Cocoyashi village."

Nami gritted her teeth as Arlong's men around her began to dance in happiness at the prospect of having a treasure, while Arlong himself stared at it as Kuroobi asked Nami, "What's wrong, why are you so flustered right now, don't tell me you forgot to tell us?"

Arlong surprisingly said, "Hey Kuroobi, stop jerking around; it's Nami's map so hand it over to her."

Nami quickly snatched the map from the manta ray's hand yelling at him, "Don't you dare touch it, or even think to go into my room again because I'm sure it didn't magically land in your hand." She then gave a very cold glare, "Listen here, I'm done with your nagging about me not being loyal. And for the record, I don't care if you trust me or not. I'm only here to fulfill my end of the bargain, and then I'm out," she looked at Arlong, "so I trust you won't pull out since we came very close to fulfilling our deal."

Arlong snickered as he said, "Well of course Nami, I'm a man of my word, and I won't back out now especially, since we've come so close to fulfilling it."

Nami nodded her head flipping Kuroobi off as she walked away from the park, "Something to be expected from you Arlong. You're truly a reasonable person." She turned to Kuroobi, "Try to be like him more." She then left the park taking the knife with her as blood was still dripping from it

Kuroobi looked at her muttering, "What an unpleasant woman…"

However, outside the park in the forest, someone was running as tears were streaming down his face, "I can't believe that she played like for suckers over some cheap sob story." Johnny was running as fast as he can after he witnessed how easily Nami killed Usopp, "That witch." The man stopped to catch his breath as heard began to hear screaming.

Off the shore of Comoni islands, Luffy's ship was now being driven by the sea cow that Sanji managed to tame or beat to submission. The beast had four huge lumps over its head as it drove the ship closer to the islands. It was only a few minutes when Arlong park began to appear on the horizon.

Luffy quickly began to tap on the sea-cow's head telling it to head there, but suddenly the huge fish began to steer away from the park, as Luffy yelled, "Hey, you're going the wrong way. Take to the building with the huge fish nose."

Robin stroked her chin, "It seems that it's afraid of going there with us, so it chose to steer from the original course." She then saw something yelling, "Brace for impact."

The boys looked and saw the shore coming close as the fish drove closer at they began to yell, meanwhile, Luffy made a protective cocoon around Robin to shield her.

Momoo slammed into the shore causing the ship to go flying, and to be heard around the entire island chain as people wondered what was the source of the noise. The beast was dragged into unconsciousness as it drifted back to its cave underwater.

With Luffy, he looked and saw the ship flying, "Whoa, this is awesome. We should try this more often. It's cool." This caused yells of distress by Zoro and Sanji who disagreed with him as they hung onto the railings for dear life.

Suddenly the boat began to lose altitude as Zoro looked and screamed at the top of his lungs, "we're going to crash into the forest. Get ready." The boat then slammed inside the forest as it began to weave through trees like a knife through butter.

Suddenly, all occupants of the boat heard someone screaming. Zoro looked and his eyes almost popped out from his head, "Johnny" and true to the swordsman's statement, Johnny was slammed into the front of the boat as it ran through the forest, till it finally stopped and crashed into a hill.

Once the smoke settled, Luffy was somehow sitting on a rock with Robin in his lap, Zoro was headfirst buried inside the hill, Sanji was sprawled down on the top of the hill, while Johnny was buried under the wreckage with only his legs popping out.

Luffy began to laugh loudly, "That was so much fun. Man, I wish we can do it another time." He turned to his lover, "What do you think, my flower?"

Robin blushed at the nickname, but giggled a little, "Well for once, I was thrilled, but next can I also see the view because I didn't get to enjoy it inside the cocoon you put me in." Luffy rubbed the back of his neck as he laughed awkwardly.

Johnny jumped from his place, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU MORONS, I ALMOST DIED AND YOU WANT A REPEAT OF THAT EXPERIENCE IN HELL. ARE YOU INSANE, OR IS THIS NORMAL TO YOU?"

The couple looked at him, "Normal." The unified response made him crotch in a corner as he cried silently asking himself why he ended up with a band of sociopaths.

Zoro got out from his grave saying, "You get used to it. Believe me when I say that they did crazier things and that when they were just children. I'm scared of the day they decide to actually do crazy stuff."

Johnny nodded his head, as Sanji groaned from his spot. You would think it was from his pain, but it was from Robin and Luffy sitting together. The poor man's heart just couldn't take it, so he decided to change the subject, "Hey Johnny, where's the other part of your brain? And where's Usopp? I don't see them around here."

Johnny bit into his hand as he thought about Usopp, as Luffy said, "Let's go find them. We need to go and help Nami."

Johnny then said, "That won't be necessary. Nami doesn't need our help, and Usopp…" the man clenched his fist in anger, "…I know where he is."

Luffy smiled, "Ok great, where is he?"

Johnny pointed to the open sea as he yelled, "He's in there. That witch Nami killed him." this shocked everyone Nami killed Usopp. It was impossible. She was their friend. She wouldn't do that. she wouldn't betray them like that.

Johnny was launched away from where he was standing by a punch from Luffy who yelled at him, "Say it again. I dare you to say it again, so I can kick your ass." The boy refused to believe that Nami would do such a thing given that in the past few days, she acted like she truly belonged to the crew.

Robin grabbed her boyfriend, "Luffy, please calm down. I know that you're frustrated, but we can't just jump to conclusions like this." Just like Luffy, Robin didn't believe that Nami actually killed Usopp, so there must be something else here.

Luffy bit his tongue as he said, "Well, it's his fault for spewing crap like this." Then yelled at the top of his lungs, "I know there's no way in hell that Nami will harm any of her friends or crewmates. She isn't like that."

They all heard the sounds of footsteps approaching them, "Did I hear someone say that we're crewmates?" Nami asked as she held a bloodied knife and bandaged hand while putting her other hand on her hip glaring at the crew.

Luffy blinked, "What are talking about Nami? We're your friends. We came to help you put with your business just like you asked us to." He took a step forward only for him to be whacked by the girl's staff and get thrown away.

She looked at him as she laughed, "Crewmates? Friends? Did you honestly believe any of that? one small sob story and your feelings are all over the place. I've seen toddlers who took me a harder time to trick." She looked at Robin, "Why don't you take this morn, and lecture about how pirates stab each other in the back? He should've known this by now, or was he too comfortable sleeping that he forgot to get a reality check."

Robin frowned at the girl's words, but said, "Are you sure that you mean any of your words because you seem to be not too confident of yourself?" she then added the fatal blow, "And besides didn't you say you don't kill anyone? And why is your hand bandaged?"

Nami felt her confidence waver a little, but she smirked, "If you don't believe me, here's this blade, it has the blood of your friend on it. It was so easy to kill him. he was really an idiot. Trying to fight Arlong." She then threw the knife at Luffy's feet who grabbed it and gave it to Robin who eyed it carefully.

Sanji then popped from behind them as he waved his hands, "Nami-swan, do you remember me? your prince charming has come to save you from the grasp of the evil fishmen." He then smiled, "Come with me, so we can sail the sea together as lovers."

The cook was then pushed aside by the hilt of Zoro's blade who yelled at him, "Are you even thinking about what's happening here? Your stupid lovesick puppy act is making things much more complicated, so why don't you shut up for ten seconds?"

The cook sneered at him, "I don't see you trying to make the situation any better, so how about you let me persuade her to come here through the power of love? You know what they say love is a hurricane." This caused a sweat-drop to appear on Zoro's head as he never heard such a thing wondering if the cook made it on the spot.

Johnny yelled, "See, I told you that she's nothing, but an evil witch who cares about no one but herself, and would do anything to get money, even if it meant joining forces with Arlong and killing her own friends."

He pointed his sword at her, "She's evil till the core, and she used a lame story to fool us all. I saw her with my own eyes kill Usopp, and leave him to die."

Nami crossed her hands, "SO what? I do what I need to do to survive. It's really nothing personal." She then scratched the back of her head, "Look here, Usopp kinda blubbered before he died that Zoro was his best friend, and now Arlong is interested in both him and Luffy, so as a gesture of gratitude, I will let you take the ship and go away."

Zoro shrugged saying, "I don't care if he took interest in me or not. I only have one question." He glared at her before asking, "Where is Usopp now?"

The girl tapped her chin, "I think right now he should be in the clam belt if the winds are right, but you know he could also be in the belly of some fish that was hungry." She shrugged, "Anyway not my problem anymore at this point."

The swordsman frowned as he took out his sword and was about to attack her only to be stopped by a disembodied hand. He looked at Robin who shook her head. The man calmed down as he trusted the girl's judgment, but that left him with another problem.

From nowhere someone tried to kick him. he looked and saw Sanji glaring at him, "So you also hit women, swordsman. What a horrible treat to have inside a man."

Zoro snarled at him for the attack. Someone like Sanji was his worst enemy on earth. He was rude and annoying acting like a moron twenty-four seven. He looked at him, "What the heck was that for?"

"You tried to attack a lady, and I've sworn to protect them." The two then went into a shouting match forgetting the situation they were in.

Nami gave them an unamused look, "Listen here you fools, if you feel like fighting then do it somewhere else. My island already has enough trouble as it is. We don't need more problems knocking on our doors." She crossed her arms, "So do you still trust me now, or did you get the real reason why I was with you All for the money."

She looked Luffy straight in the eye, "if you want your ship, have it, but take your crew of rug rats away from here to go find the one piece or whatever you want to do with your life."

Luffy simply stared as he then fell to the ground causing Johnny to look at him concerned, "I want to sleep. Wake me up when it's necessary."

Confusion ran supreme as none understood why Luffy wanted to sleep all of a sudden. Nami smirked, "Ok then you can stay but at your own risk. The last time Arlong took interest in someone; he ripped them into pieces." She turned to walk away as she waved her hand saying, "See you in the afterlife."

Johnny looked at Luffy wondering why was still there, but he sat down hoping that Yosaku would come here, so he can go with him away from here given that Arlong now wanted to see them.

Back in Cocoyashi village, Usopp was walking down the streets. He wore an expression of worry and nervousness on his face as he walked forward remembering what happened at Arlong park. He silently muttered to himself, "Nami really did the ultimate sacrifice for me. if she was caught, her efforts to buy her village would have been for nothing."

He remembered when Nami killed him so to speak; in reality, the girl pretended to stab while she actually stabbed her own hand. She told the boy that this was the only way for him to live and escape the park and when she whispered that she will give the crew a secret message to meet at her house.

His eyes grew wide as he thought about what would happen if they didn't get the message, and they decided to go to Arlong park for retribution. The boy began to run quickly to make it to the crew hoping that he was not too late.

Back with the crew, Sanji was leaning against a tree, "Do you think the Nami-swan actually killed Usopp?" he looked at Zoro waiting for an answer ignoring the look he got from Johnny who felt dejected that no one except Zoro believed him.

Zoro smiled, "Well, I really don't know, but I think maybe she got angry when I called her a witch so she decided to end the moron's life."

Sanji looked at him with anger, as he jumped ready to kick him yelling, "Nami isn't a witch, you muscle-headed brute."

The swordsman was just as fast as he readied his sword to attack, but something then happened.

Both Sanji's kick and the hilt of Zoro's sword hit something or rather someone. Both looked in absolute bewilderment as Usopp who had his face get destroyed by both of their attacks left both men wondering if he was killed for real this time as Johnny asked, "Is he still alive?"

Back in Nami's house, the girl sat waiting patiently. She was looking at the clock every minute or so. She was tapping her fingers against the table in front of her looking at the map she had considering where she will hide it now. She yelled in frustration, "Where are they? They should be here by now. My message was clear as day."

She then threw a glass cup beside her to the wall causing it to shatter as Nojiko walked into the house, "Can I understand why are you using all of this aggression against the house? I'm sure that you almost destroyed everything by now."

Nami blushed a little as she sat down, "Nothing really, I'm just nervous. You know tomorrow's the big day. We can finally put this chapter of our lives beyond us for good, and I can end this never-ending nightmare."

Nojiko smiled, "You're waiting for your friends, aren't you?" To Nojiko, her little sister was easy to read as a book given that they lived most of their lives together, and she's the one the accompanied her sister through her pain-filled journey. "You're still not sure if you want to join them after you finish your mission."

Nami shook her head, "I want to, but I'm afraid Arlong would retaliate by attacking the village and taking it under his control once again when I'm gone from here."

Nojiko smiled, "Well, I'm sure your friends would freak out if they ever heard about this, and would come to attack Arlong to destroy him." Nojiko joked, but Nami smiled knowing that this was something up Luffy's alley.

The orange-haired girl then put down her head against the table as she allowed sleep to take her away. Nojiko smiled putting a small blanket on her, "Well, let's go bring those friends of yours."

Back with Luffy, the boy sat in horror as he looked at Usopp, "Usopp what happened to you? Did Nami do this? I can't believe it?" this caused Johnny in the background to fall face down as he began to mutter gibberish.

In the back, Sanji smiled awkwardly, "Well no, not really. This was my doing with the moss-headed idiot over here." He pointed at himself and Zoro.

The swordsman then replied, "Don't you mean that this is your doing, half-decent cook?"

Robin stood between them, "It's not the time to play the blame game. What matters is that Usopp is fine and doing well…" she looked at him, "…well as someone can be after he got hit in the face by two forces of nature."

Usopp coughed as he sat up, "Well, that was an unpleasant experience. I thought that I really died for a moment there." The boy began to rub his face to soothe his pain, but he felt like he was hit by a huge boulder.

He looked to his side only to see Sanji, "Hey there Usopp, do you remember me? I'm Sanji from the Baratie. I'm a member of the crew now." Usopp gave him a deadpan look before saying, "Yeah, I had a better introduction with your foot though." The man rubbed his head as he backed away.

"my head hurts," Usopp said as he massaged his head.

Luffy asked, "Him? Usopp, why are you alive? Johnny told us that Nami killed you, but I didn't believe it. How did you escape from Arlong?" Robin sat near the boy as she was still examining the knife Nami gave them after wiping it from blood.

The boy sighed, "Nami really saved my hide. She stabbed her hand with the knife faking her blood as my own, so I can escape through the ocean." He looked down at the ground, "She really risked everything for me. I thought that she might die if one of the fishmen decided to take a closer look at my corpse."

Luffy began to cheer, "I knew it. Nami will never betray. She's still our friend." The boy began to cheer, but Johnny began to slip away as a huge wave of guilt hit him.

the long-nosed boy then turned his head toward Robin, "Nami said that she left a message for us to find, but I don't know how." Robin merely stared at the knife as she knew that Nami brought it with her for a reason, but couldn't find anything on it.

Robin frowned, "I know the clue is here, but I just can't find it." She hated when she couldn't find what she needed to find. She was a descendant of a whole lineage of archeologists, and yet she can't find a single clue; she felt a little disappointed in herself right now.

"Don't beat yourself too much about it." They all heard a voice come from behind them. They looked only to see Nojiko.

Nojiko came, and took the knife looking at it from all sides till her eye caught something; on the bottom of the handle of the knife was a very small word craved. It spelled 'Home'. the older girl sweat-dropped as she thought no one would remotely be able to find the clue, but she then began to laugh loudly before calming down.

"Ahh man, sometimes my sister is impossible," Nojiko said, before ushering the group to follow her.

Luffy asked her, "Where are we going?"

The girl tilted her head, "We're going to see Nami. She said that she needed to talk to all of you in the face, so I came here to bring you to her."

Back with Johnny, the man was running as he felt like a complete tool, "Big sis Nami, I should have never doubted you." He felt like a horrible human being. He jumped to conclusions and threw accusations at a person who was trying to help them. He ran hoping to find a way to redeem himself.

He then bumped into someone. He looked up only to see Yosaku. The green-haired man then said, "Man, where were you? I was afraid that some of the fishman managed to catch you."

Johnny then said, "Forget about that. I did something really horrible…" the man began to tell him what happened from the apparent death of Usopp to Nami telling them to leave to Usopp's arrival to how Nami saved Usopp's life by stabbing her hand. "…I feel like a complete monster."

Yosaku sighed, "Well, you did do something stupid, but I can't blame you given the circumstances." To Yousaku, Johnny wasn't to be blamed. The situation was already as tense as it can get with the fishmen after Usopp, so no one would have thought twice about this.

Johnny then stood up yelling, "But I'm going to make it right. I'm going to defeat Arlong for Big sis Nami." The man yelled making his friend think that he was officially insane. Yosaku looked at him and saw that there was determination in his eyes causing him to smile a little.

The green-haired man grabbed his hand saying, "Alright, let's do this thing. I'll help you." The two then went straight to Arlong park to put an end to his rule not knowing of the extreme beating that was waiting for them.

Back in Cocoyashi village's docks, a marine ship landed in it as Nezumi who took bribes for Arlong came and walked on the docks as he said, "Alright people, we have one job to do here, so let's do it right." This caused a lot of people to look at him with worried expressions.

The marine captain walked up to Genzo, and said, "Hey you," Genzo looked at him, "Can you help me go to a house of a fugitive that I need to search? I heard some rumors and I want to make sure if they are true or not."

Genzo swallowed heavily as he asked as calmly as possible, "And do tell; what is the name of this fugitive."

The man laughed like a mouse, "I think her name is Nami. Yeah, that's right; her name is Nami. She is suspected of being a thief, so we have to search her property to make sure that nothing wrong is going around here."

Genzo looked at him with anger, "You bastard, Arlong has been torturing us for years, and you didn't bat an eyelash; no, you worked with him, and now you care about justice."

The marine captain didn't care as he said, "Never mind, I'll find it myself." He walked away with his men following as he said, "It's hard to find good help these days."

Back in Nami's house, the crew arrived at her house. Usopp first went in, "Hey Nami, thank you for…" the boy was shut off by Nami pounding her fist into his head as she yelled, "What were you thinking? If I didn't find a way to fake your death, you would've ended up dead."

The boy looked down as he said, "I'm sorry. I just didn't want to see that old man Genzo die. I just wanted to help him." the boy looked away as he realized how close he came to destroying Nami's hard work.

The girl looked at him before sighing, "Alright, you're forgiven, but you must know that you now own me about…" she thought about it for a moment, "10 million bellis" the girl smirked under her breath as the boy paled and fell backward as he began to stutter. Nami looked at him, "And thank you for helping him."

The girl looked at Robin, "And here I thought that you would have found my clue immediately." She shook her head dismissively, "I guess I overestimated your own abilities."

The black-haired girl slumped into depression in the corner of the room as she began to draw circles on the ground saying, "Everyone makes mistakes once, in a while, I'm not fault-proof." This caused Nami to sweat-drop.

She went to the crouched girl as she patted her back, "Don't worry Robin, I swear I was just kidding a little bit. I didn't mean it. Really."

Nojiko just stayed at the side of the room as she looked at her sister's friends and she had to admit that they were a bunch of colorful characters. They seemed fun to be around.

Luffy then asked, "So why did you want to invite us here, Nami?"

The girl smiled at him, "I just wanted to thank you all for making my dream come true. For my entire life, I dedicated it to salvaging enough money to buy my home village back, but you all came along and gave me what I need." She then bowed down saying, "And for that I thank you."

A blush appeared on Luffy's face as he waved his hand saying, "Come on, you're embarrassing me now. I didn't do anything really. I just wanted to help my friend out." he paused for a moment before he asked her in an excited tone, "So does that mean you're coming with us tomorrow after you pay them the money?"

The girl flattered for a moment not knowing how to tell him that she wasn't sure if she wanted to go, but a knock on the door of their house broke her attention. she panicked as she thought that this was one of Arlong's men, so she said, "Guys, I need to go out of the backdoor. If these are Arlong's men, we're going to have trouble." The crew nodded as they sneakily left the house.

The orange-haired navigator went to the door and opened it only to be greeted by the marine rat as she called him who asked her, "Is this Nami's house?"

Nami sneered at him. she hated him so much. He was a plight on the island. He was one of Arlong's lackeys or partners so to speak. He took bribe money from the fishman in order to turn a blind eye to all of his crimes. She was sure that if he reported Arlong; the fishman would've been sent packing years ago. The girl took a deep breath, "Yeah, that's my house? What is it for you?"

The man laughed a little as he said walking forward, "Please step away from the door." He pushed her aside and continued speaking, "You're being suspected of theft, and we came here to confirm if those rumors are true or not."

Before he can even walk a step further, Nami stopped him dead in his tracks as she said, "You can't search my house. I'm a member of the Arlong pirates, and he'll have your head if he hears about this." The girl knew that the marine will cower in fear once the fishman's name was mentioned, but he didn't. The man began to laugh his trademark laugh and looked at his men who stood waiting for his orders.

He looked at Nami, "I never heard of this, and Arlong never mentioned you, so I assume that you're only bluffing to save your hide." He looked at his men and ordered them, "Search the house and don't leave a place unturned till we find the stolen goods."

The men saluted him as they entered the house, and began searching through it destroying everything in their path. Nezumi looked at the girl smiling, "You should be lucky that we found out that most of your stolen goods are from pirates, or else you would be facing some serious trouble young lady."

Nami was in shock. How could have this happened? She was only one day away from her goal. She had it right in front of her eyes only for it to be taken brutally and evilly right in front of her eyes. What kind of evil deity was governing the skies up there was the only thought she had at the moment.

She looked at the corrupt marine and yelled in anger, "How can you be so evil? Arlong has been terrorizing the island for years. He killed countless people. He ruined many people's lives, and yet you turn a blind eye, and now you're here because of some stolen loot."

The marine laughed, "I have no idea what are you talking about. Arlong is an honest businessman. I have seen no such signs from him. you shouldn't go throwing accusations left and right like that, young girl."

The marine's men then came as one came upfront and said, "Sir, we searched the house. We found no sign of the stolen goods." The men then stood waiting for orders. Nami mentally breathed a sigh of relief as she was the only one that knew where the money was hidden, but her relief was short-lived.

Nezumi began to stroke his chin as he eyed the garden, "Go and search in that garden. I'm sure that they might be there. I mean where else would 10 million bellis worth of stolen good be buried."

The men then brought out shovels, and went into the garden, as Nami stood there shocked for one reason. She looked at Nezumi as she asked herself why he knew that there are 10 million gold hidden in the garden. She was the only person that knew the amount in addition to her was Arlong.

Luffy's voice then made its way into her mind. She remembered when he asked her what will she do if Arlong betrayed her, and found a way to take the money away to force her to start from scratch. The girl shook her head; Arlong was a businessman. He loved money; he wouldn't betray her, would he?

She was cut out of her musings when she heard her sister say, "Hey stop that. you're ruining the orchid. You're ruining everything."

Suddenly the men who were digging stopped as they hit something. They all moved away from the area as they saw a huge treasure chest. The chest itself was full to the brim with money, golden items, and gems of all kinds. Nezumi then came to his men, "Well?"

"Sir, it's ten million as you said." The man said, "We'll get it to the ship immediately." The girl looked at Nezumi and asked one thing, "How?"

Nezumi played innocent as he asked, "Excuse me?" the girl growled, "How did you know that there were 10 million bellis in there? I'm the only person who knows the amount. Tell me, how did you find out?"

The man smiled as he said, "Lucky guess." He then snickered.

Nezumi's men then began to lift the chest to take it to the ship.

Nami felt herself reach a breaking point as she brought out a knife she had and pointed it toward Nezumi yelling, "You won't be taking this money anywhere."

One of the marines lifted his rifle, "Put the knife down, or you'll be dealt with accordingly." the girl didn't hear him as she rushed toward Nezumi and the marine began to squeeze the trigger of his rifle. Suddenly, Nami felt something fall on her as the sound of a bullet echoed.

She looked at her sister who was now on her and bleeding, "Nojiko, are you alright?"

The blue-haired girl moaned in pain as she said, "Yeah, but it really hurts." She looked around and saw that the marines have already left. The sound of the bullet attracted the villagers who came to their house with Genzo leading the charge, "What happened here?" he asked in terror as he saw that Nojiko was bleeding.

Nami then stood up and told Genzo, "Please take care of her."

The girl then ran toward Arlong park as Nojiko was taken to the doctor. She had one thought on her mind and it was Arlong.

Back with Luffy, he heard what happened with Nami, and sighed. He looked at the villagers taken her sister to the doctor to heal her, and said, "I really hoped that something like this wouldn't happen."

Robin then came and sat beside him, "It can't be helped now. We all knew that this was going to happen eventually, so what do we do now?"

"Nothing" Luffy replied. "Nothing ?!" Robin asked astounded. "Right nothing."

Robin frowned at the logic till Zoro spoke, "He's right. Right now, Nami will go to confront him, and he will manipulate her into restarting the deal once again. I hate this, but we need her to ask us for help, or she won't look us in the eye if we interfere." Robin nodded at the logic, but she felt that it was a little wrong to see their friend suffer and sit aside.

In Arlong park, the fishman was sitting laughing as Nezumi told him that the mission he sent him on was a success. He was joined by other fishmen, but suddenly the door was launched off its hinges as Nami walked in holding a knife.

She looked at him with unbridled rage as she yelled, "Arlong, how dare you? How dare betray our deal? I thought you said that you're a man of your word. How dare you back out of our deal?" she held a knife and directed it toward him as he laughed.

He then stood up and said, "What are you talking about, Nami my dear? When did I betray our deal? I have no idea what are you talking about?"

The girl lunged at him as he dodged her, "Don't play dumb with me. The only person who knew about the amount that I owed you besides me was you. You're the one who told the marines where they were."

The girl tried to lunge again, but Arlong grabbed her head, "Really now, the marines came and took your money? Pity! Oh well, I guess that you have to start all over again." He then tightened his grip on her head asking, "And I ask you again; when did I betray you, Nami? Are you sure that I'm the one who told the marines? What is your proof?"

The girl's eyes began to fill with tears, "See, you aren't sure, so that means that I never betrayed you and that you're throwing accusations at me. I'm truly sad that the marines took your money, but that means I never received it so the deal is still on which means you are still obliged to draw maps for me, so how about instead of throwing accusations, you start drawing maps, or go gathering money once again?"

He then threw the girl aside who ran out of there crying as she felt her life slowly escape her body given the huge betrayal she just experienced.

Back in the village, the people were all gathered with Genzo in the front as he looked at them. Each one of them had a weapon as they had one goal in mind; fight Arlong.

Genzo then yelled, "People, today we have one goal in mind." He saw people's determination, "For years, we tolled under Arlong's rule. He used us in the most horrible of ways and forced us to buy our own lives, but no crime of his was as huge as what he did for Nami. He forced a small girl to go and risk her life to gather enough money to honor a deal he made with her." he then clenched his fist, "only for him to go back on his deal, and betray her. So, going this moment forward, we won't stand for this and for what he did."

The people began to yell as they lifted their weapons, but stopped when they heard, "Hey, guys what are you doing?"

They all looked at Nami who was standing with a knife in her hand. She looked at them and said, "Please go back, I know this looks bad, but I can always start again. I know it's hard, but this time I have friends around, so I can do it much faster so please go back."

Genzo walked up to her, "Nami, we're sorry that we left you alone to carry this weight all these years, and we didn't help you in any way, but this ends today." The girl looked in shock because this meant he knew why she joined Arlong.

The girl stuttered, "You k-know…" the man nodded his head along with the entire village.

"We never did anything because we never wanted to disturb your efforts, but now since he dared and betrayed you. There's no more reason for us to stand ideal, and not do anything." He didn't flinch when the girl lifted her knife and waved it in front of them.

"I won't allow you to go. even if I had to stab you all, I will stop you." Her eyes began to tear up, "Because if you go, you all die."

Genzo approached her as he took the knife away and threw it, "We know" the man looked at the other villagers and said, "Today, we either earn our freedom or die trying."

The villagers then went away and left Nami to collapse to the ground as she practically saw her entire village walk off to their deaths. She looked at her shoulder and saw the Arlong mark. She grabbed the knife as she yelled, "Arlong" and stabbed the mark over and over again.

She was stopped as someone held her hand. She looked behind her to see Luffy looking down on the ground with his hat shadowing his face. She yelled at him, "What are you doing here? Are you here to mock me after you warned me about his betrayal?"

The boy remained silent as Nami continued to vent her anger on him, "Leave this place. You don't understand in the slightest was is happening around here, so leave." The girl began to throw sand at him telling him repeatedly to leave before he said quietly, "You're right. I don't understand what's going around here."

Seeing that she reached her breaking point, the girl looked at him and pleaded, "Luffy please help me."

The boy replied by putting his hat on her head, and yelling to the sky, "Of COURSE, I WILL."

He walked toward his crew who were waiting for him in the village, and said, "Let's go." everyone replied, "Yes captain." And with that, they began their march toward Arlong park.

Back in the park, the villagers were denied access to it by both Johnny and Yosaku who after they had their butts handed to them decided to wait for the crew to come and finish the job, so when they saw the villagers, they decided to stop them from committing suicide.

One of the villagers then yelled at the pair, "What are you doing step aside so we can take out the fishmen inside."

"Yeah, we came here to fight for our freedom."

"Yeah, move aside."

Johnny looked at them, "Wait a little bit, and help will come. It's only a matter of minutes." The villagers looked in confusion. What help was he talking about? Was he meaning the marines? The marines that were in charge of their island were corrupt, and the one that came earlier was killed.

Yosaku added, "If they can't defeat him, no one can." He looked over them, and said, "Here, they come." All the villagers turned and saw 5 individuals walking up to them. One was a boy wearing a straw hat, a girl with black hair, a green-haired man with one white sword tied to his waist, a blond-haired man, and the final one was a long-nosed boy.

No one knew who they are except Nojiko who wondered if they were actually planning to take out Arlong.

Luffy walked to the gate and kicked the door open entering the park only to see shocked expressions. He looked around and said, "Who's Arlong?"

The fishman who was sitting on the chair boosted, "That would be me, and to what..." he was cut off as Luffy passed everyone punching him in the face and sending him into a wall in the back of the park.

Luffy then said, "That's for making Nami cry," he then cracked his knuckles as the other members of his crew joined him, "I'm here to put an end to your rule."

Author's notes:

Hey guys, and welcome to a new chapter of my fanfic. In this chapter, we saw what truly happened to Usopp, the crew's arrival, Arlong's betrayal of Nami, and finally the crew's raid on Arlong park. The next chapter will most likely focus on the fights between Usopp and Chew, Sanji and Kuroobi, and finally Zoro and Hachi in addition to some other details. And something else I apologize for the delay, but I was really busy, so I hope to go on forward I will update regularly without long stops.

As always please take care of yourselves, tell me what you think of the chapter in a comment, and inform us what is the arc you're most excited for.

And finally, I hope you all enjoy reading my work and see you next time with a brand new chapter.