Naruto finished cleaning up his prank and was trying to get a taste of the soup Luffy was eating (He'd been offered his own plate but that wouldn't be fun, would it? Plus he didn't need it as a clone…) when Yosaku crashed onboard Baratie in a freaking panda shark, telling them where Nami was headed. Naruto was pretty sure that Boss knew Merry left Baratie by now, but there was no telling if they'd gotten to their destination just yet, not when it had taken a while for Yosaku to get back here.
By then it was only a matter of convincing Sanji to come with them. Because Luffy was a gentleman and wouldn't actually force anyone to join his crew. It turned out to be surprisingly easy, since after hearing Nami was heading towards danger and that they were leaving as soon as possible, he told them he'd come along. Because all of them had 'crazy dreams' too. Heh.
"LET'S MEET AGAIN ONE DAY, YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING BASTARDS!"
The goodbye was fast and tearful and full of insults, and Naruto could tell it was perfect for the cooks of Baratie.
xXXx
Nami stared defiantly at the quiet Arlong crew, still in the wake of her declaration. Nobody shifted, except for the looks being sent her way. Of disbelief, of anger, of neutral acceptance. Arlong himself had his eyes shadowed by the rim of his hat, a feat when the flap was turned up. Definitely didn't have the same effect as Luffy. The coolness factor just wasn't there, and Nami had spent too much time with Naruto lately to think like that.
"'Make good on your deal', you say?" Arlong said into the silence.
Shark teeth glinted as he smiled. A wide, deviously amused thing that never failed to make Nami feel like less than. She knew her place in this crew was that of a pet, a useful animal to be paraded around and made to work. Sure, she could come and go, but she was like a stray that had to always find its way back home, nice and quiet, or the owners would punish her by holding everyone else from her village hostage.
No more. She'd put an end to it. This was her last ray of hope. No marines or bounty hunters managed, and like she was going to send her friends against this monster knowing they would die.
"Yes. 100 million beri for Cocoyashi Village. I've gathered that amount now, and ask that you honor your promise," she said calmly, not backing down an inch.
Arlong took a moment to take that in. Then he stood from his throne, all muscle and tough scales and towering above her like she was miniscule. His smile wasn't a happy one, more like a grimace than anything. He gestured at Kuroobi, who nodded and walked away, before stepping up in front of her. She looked up at him fearlessly.
But her stomach was churning. This moment was one she'd been waiting for for a very, very long time.
"Shahahaha! And it only took you eight years! A deal is a deal, and I never break promises involving money," Arlong laughed, looking down his nose at her. "Where is this treasure so we can count it out?"
With faintly trembling hands that she willed not to shake uncontrollably, Nami took out the wooden slab from her shoulder bag, hand brushing against one kunai in reassurance. For both the clone and herself. Truthfully, she was glad Naruto insisted on coming along, even if the real one was out there helping the poor kid from Gosa Village. An escape for if the transaction didn't go as smoothly as hoped was a lifeline that kept her calmer than any mantra or breathing exercise could.
She heard some fishmen scoff. Probably insulted by the block of wood. She didn't blame them, Naruto was rather impossible to comprehend at times. And impressive. This also worked as an intimidation tactic. An ability none of them had, under Nami's control. One that could work as a bargaining chip or a bluff. A bluff to swallow one of them up and not let them out unless they followed through on the deal.
Honestly, she wished it could work like that. It would make the whole thing safer.
Nami placed the seal down and took one kunai out. She could almost feel the clone's reluctance as she cut a small line across her thumb. Then she spread the blood across the complex lines of ink and stepped back as smoke exploded out. Some yelps were heard here or there and she quickly stepped into the clearing smoke to grab the wooden slab away.
In its place was a sack bursting with beri and treasure. All her hard work, just sitting there. Waiting for its purpose. For Arlong to claim it and free her and her loved ones.
"Ooh what!? The slab has turned into treasure!" Hachi yelled, tentacles flapping about in shock.
Similar murmurs flew around here and there, some wondering if it would turn into wood again, but most saw the item in Nami's hand. Arlong's expression was greedy as he crouched down to inspect the bag.
"Chew, Kaneshiro, count it all," he ordered, grinning sharply at Nami. "That's an interesting item you've picked up."
Oh, she knew, even if it was more like an interesting ally. She said nothing though. There was nothing to say, only time to wait and prepare. She needed this to go her way.
"If this is everything, and I trust it is, we'll go to the village to announce the news," Arlong said, still grinning the same empty grin. "Congratulations, Nami."
She shivered. This was going well. It was exactly what she hoped for. Everyone would be safe now. Arlong would stay where he was and Cocoyashi would thrive after years of stricter than strict taxation. She was fine.
But why, then, did the whole transaction fill her with foreboding?
xXXx
Sanji plated three meals for four people on a small boat with no easy kitchen area and wondered why he joined this insanity again.
"You're sure you don't want food?" he asked the clone- clone- of Naruto.
It was the only clone aboard since the second one 'popped' to give more information to the 'original', however that worked. The clone swung his feet over the ocean where he was sitting atop the bowsprit, salivating at the prospect before shaking his head.
"Nah, save it for Boss! Aren't resources short out here?"
"Well, yes…" Sanji agreed and breathed out, absently watching the cigarette smoke drift away in the wind.
Now that he was thinking further, he wouldn't have restaurant resources for cooking anymore. Food would spoil easier, many devices could straight up be missing, and restocking wouldn't happen by just sending out shipping requests to towns and dealers they knew. Hmm. Tricky but not impossible. He was actually relishing the challenge of such a thing. Ideas swirled in his head.
Ah, yeah, this is why I left, he reminded himself, to experience a new adventure and find the All Blue.
He reminded himself of this fact harder as Luffy bounced to the bow of the boat and almost sent glasses and plates tumbling off the table. He caught them and found himself missing the steadiness of Baratie as waves bobbed the boat some more.
And for Lady Nami, he grumbled in his mind, immediately melting as he remembered his daydream of Nami being a mermaid.
Yosaku was being really insistent on Nami being connected to those earlier, of course. He steadfastly ignored Luffy's atrocious attempts at drawing a mermaid, ones that left Naruto curled up on the planks laughing his head off. Speaking of…
"Heey, Naruto-copy, do you poop?" his captain asked.
The clone stopped swinging his legs, face twisted into an odd expression that shifted to miffed pretty quickly.
"I don't need to and don't want to know," he said forcefully and pointed at Luffy with dramatic denial when it looked like he was about to ask again.
Yosaku and Sanji sat at a table and watched Luffy pout before trying to ask again, except Naruto launched himself at the straw hat boy and tried to block his mouth in any way he could. It was… amusing. He heard Yosaku sigh morosely next to him as the boat shifted again at their tussle.
Sanji had pity and decided to defuse the situation in a way he learned by observation of the crew that dragged him away from home.
"If Luffy's not eating then-"
With a flash the rubber man extracted himself from Naruto, who yelped and almost fell into the ocean, and sat by the table as though nothing happened. His hand immediately grabbed for his plate and the food, humming in absolute bliss at the taste.
It didn't stroke Sanji's ego. It didn't.
Naruto stared enviously from where he clung to the railing. He didn't break and ask Sanji to cook more, though. He was a little impressed. Only a little. Naruto was a tiny bugger and didn't deserve the credit.
Of course, then a giant sea monster chose to rise out of the water in front of them.
"Whoa," they all said, as though from one mouth.
Well, almost all of them. Yosaku was screaming bloody murder about sea monsters. It was getting shrill, so he put a pinky in his ear to block it out.
"That's a big cow fish," Naruto stated the obvious, except…
"No, I say that's a hippo," Sanji disagreed.
"Do you not see the spots!?"
"It's a cow that swims, isn't that a hippo?"
"No!? Hippos are gray!"
"Have you seen a hippo before?"
"No! I mean, they don't look like that!"
"Then how do you know-"
Yosaku fell on his knees between them, almost sobbing. "They don't care, 'course they don't care, we're gonna die 'cause of a hungry Grand Line monster, 'm sorry Johnny-"
A cannonball hit the sea hippo between the eyes. It yowled out a bellowing moooo and turned to glare at a… marine ship. A snort of hot air escaped its snout. The snout had a giant gold ring hanging out of it, which Sanji hated to admit lent more credence to Naruto's cow theory. Either way, a marine ship. If Sanji was to be a pirate now he'd have to think of those colors and symbols as the enemy, wouldn't he?
Well, he hadn't had fond feelings for them before either. Not a huge hardship.
"ARE YOU ALRIGHT, TRAVELERS?" someone abroad yelled. "DO NOT WORRY, FOR COMMODORE PUDDING PUDDING WILL SAVE YOU!"
…Seems like the marines didn't get the memo.
They proceeded to watch the sea cow dive for an attack, rocking the bigger ship enough to cause a big wave at them. Cannonballs glanced off of the thick hide. Someone fell overboard. Yosaku cheered them on, in a desperate way that said he didn't want to be the one fighting a giant sea hippo thank you very much.
"Loud," Naruto muttered. "We'd be fine without help too."
Oh, come on, Sanji didn't want to agree with the fake vixen brat so soon after an argument. Especially since the wave reached them and almost capsized their boat. The food was mostly saved thanks to their quick reflexes, but some of Luffy's portion flew into the waves.
"MY FOOD!"
The pure annoyance on Luffy's face sent small shivers down Sanji's spine. He wasn't sure if it was from anticipation or traces of fear, but either way he approved. Nobody wasted food on his watch like this. He rose with the straw hat boy he called captain and prepared to jump into the fray.
"Give it a rest!" he yelled, kicking the sea hippo in the chin just as Luffy's stretchy arm pulled the cow in his direction, coincidentally getting it away from body-slamming the marine ship to oblivion.
A bit of rough and tumble later the sea king co- hippo was bobbing up and down in the water, belly up. The marine infantry aboard their ship gaped and exclaimed things Sanji was too busy thinking to hear. In fact, he was thinking of the best person to kick in the head for giving them such a hard time and shooting this maybe hungry creature before trying to feed it.
Just as he found a disheveled and completely soaked marine in a coat and weird haircut, another marine ship pulled up. From there a man, Sanji swore he had whiskers for a mustache, started yelling at the other high-up officer Pudding Pudding. He gathered they were exchanging duties and that the lower ranking Captain whiskers was taking over the other branch's current mission. He was distracted from that by Luffy tapping his shoulder.
"Sanji, hey Sanji, can you cook this?"
'This' was the sea cow they were currently standing on. The creature groaned and Sanji heard a roar he just knew was a grumbling stomach from under their feet. He could feel the rumbling too. It gave him an idea.
"I could but… Should we see if we can bribe it to get us to Nami-swan faster?"
Luffy was all for it. Yosaku less so. Naruto just laughed and laughed and laughed as Sanji went to cook up their bribe. He shifted to whooping in joy when the idea worked and they started zooming towards Conomi Islands. Sanji couldn't deny the smug grin on his face at their looks, giving food pieces when the sea king went the right way and threatening to kick it for trying to buck them off.
Carrot and the stick tactics for the win here.
xXXx
Nami walked with purpose, ahead of Arlong and as small a group of fishmen as she'd been able to negotiate, towards her home with the most important news the village had ever heard since the past eight years. That they were finally free. Cocoyashi Village grew closer with every step, and soon enough she could see they'd been noticed. People ushered children and women away if they could be persuaded and the bravest ones who had grown spines of steel during Arlong's rule were gathering to welcome them.
Gen, her father in all but blood, stood proudly at the front. She caught a glimpse of Nojiko's familiar light blue hair running towards them in the distance, but her attention was firmly on everyone else she had given up her blood, freedom and tears for to save. It felt surreal, walking to them with the news she succeeded.
She still had to explain. She still had to tell them the truth of why she joined Arlong, but her village could finally be free.
Maybe she'd have time to hope and dream again. Maybe she'd finally draw maps for herself soon. But it was still too early to give those thoughts root, too early to count the privileges gained before the damages.
There was an official document, a pirate made one but an acknowledgement of the transaction still, rolled up in her hand.
The crowd was close enough now that she could see the confusion and well hidden fear in their glances and subtle shifting movements. Gen had an unreadable look beneath the rim of his hat. But she could remember his love for, even in these eight years he believed she betrayed them. She focused on him, most of all, to keep the flood of emotions swirling inside her at bay.
Arlong stepped beside her, mouth in a sharp smile he most likely didn't mean. "We have an announcement to make Cocoyashi!"
A webbed scaly hand swung to the side, gesturing to her, and Nami didn't flinch. She was too used to keeping her front spotless in front of these bloodthirsty pirates. Her thieving career left her with incredible poker skills.
"Our Nami here-" he drawled and oh how she wanted to show her distaste for those words. "-has made a deal with us. Lucky for you lot, she made good on her end today."
Murmurs spread through men and people at the windows turned to one another. To Nami's surprise there seemed to be… hope on more than a few faces. She shifted her attention to Gen again and realized the emotion lurking behind his stony look was pride. Her heart lurched. Did he- Did they-
"The deal was for the ownership of Cocoyashi Village. She could buy this muddy hole for a hundred million beris, and now she's done it! She's no longer a part of my crew!"
The hated hand she'd cried on when he made his deal with her pushed her forward to tell her home that they were free. With shaky legs and the steadiest hands she could make herself have she took the scrolled up paper and unfolded it for everyone to see. The handmade contract on cartography paper stated, with big letters, that Nami of Cocoyashi was now the owner of Cocoyashi Village, as acknowledged by Arlong Pirates for as long as their crew existed.
Those murmurs became hushed conversations and disbelieving laughs and-
"SHE DID IT!" a kid yelled from a doorway, running up to his father. "NAMI DID IT!"
More and more cheers and yells rocked the people, her people, and Nami felt overwhelmed as she walked away from her prisoners and towards them all, and all of them knew. She didn't know how, she didn't know when they figured it out, but all of them knew she'd worked for their freedom and supported her. Because Gen was crying and walking towards her and had his arms out for a hug and she felt like crying too and Nojiko-
Nojiko must have told them. Of course she would! And kept it secret because the pressure would have been immense- silly Nojiko, Nami already pressured herself enough for the entire village-
Where was she? Where was her sister? Was she watching?
Nami pulled away just enough to blink her tears away and she found the woman who got a tattoo just so Nami wouldn't feel ugly and defiled at the back of the crowd, smiling a bittersweet smile, and Nami smiled back with a bit more sunshine because while Bellemere was gone their village was now free! Two tears dropped down her face before her vision cleared enough to look for Naruto, without whom this wouldn't be possible. He didn't pop out immediately, but her eyes found another kid a few steps away from Nojiko.
The kid from Gosa Village. The one that couldn't pay their tribute and got turned upside down yesterday, whose survivors slipped into other villages or fled or… died. His father was dead because of Arlong, and he was glaring at the fishmen with the same hate she felt for the one who killed her mother, and her stomach rolled and squeezed.
He turned to look at her and the expression on his face… it shifted to something wounded. Grief and anger and desperate jealousy, a pleading look they knew wouldn't get either anything. Platitudes did nothing for someone she couldn't save, couldn't include in her last hopes and efforts.
Arlong rules at least nineteen other villages.
Guilt bubbled up, along with the helplessness she felt since the start of Arlong's invasion.
There's nothing I could do, she wanted to say. I couldn't risk anyone else.
But hadn't she risked many while struggling to gain any wealth and losing hope, trying to kill Arlong herself in increasingly hopeless ways while knowing he could retaliate on everyone she knew? Why couldn't she come up with a better plan? Why hadn't she risked more, looked for every alternative that might set them up for a successful overthrow of power?
Had she gotten stuck in her thinking when this one deal had been the only thing that seemed to leave tangible results in her hands? Arlong had probably planned it that way. Offered this ray of hope so she worked without complaint, wouldn't risk throwing the chance away for worse odds of success, wouldn't think of anything beyond the goal of setting her village free. He needed her work, so he had to motivate her.
It made her realize- They weren't out of turbulent waters yet.
She swept her eyes over the crowd once more, stopping at a head of blonde below shoulder-level. Naruto stared back at her, blue eyes pinched with determination. Something lurked behind there though, something she dreaded. The relief of the people around her suddenly felt… empty.
"ENOUGH!" Arlong roared, and this time… Nami flinched.
Everyone fell quiet. There was pressure in the air, a sinister presence. One she had become familiar with over the years.
It was the pressure felt when Arlong was truly angry.
She turned, dreading what she would see. There was a new fishman on scene, looking darkly satisfied and also angry… and beat up. There was a mean cut on his shoulder and soot covered his side. Like from an explosion. Arlong wasn't smiling anymore. She shivered. That was never, ever a good sign.
A picture formed in her mind and she knew what lurked behind Naruto's eyes now. Behind Nojiko's bittersweet smile.
Sorrow. Sorrow for her ruined plan. Regret for letting it happen.
"It has come to my attention…" Arlong started, paused to control his voice, and started again. "It has come to my attention that some present… have attacked the fishmen in my crew. This cannot stand… Nami. As the owner of Cocoyashi, I demand the reparations from you. Or your property suffers the consequenses."
And something in Nami snapped. Because she knew now, without a shadow of a doubt, that as long as Arlong was the ruler around these islands, her home would never truly be safe.
And some of it seemed to be Naruto's fault.
The rest was hers.
She should have seen this storm coming years ago.
xXXx
That moment when your clone is having the time of his life while you are worried about irreparably damaging a friendship.
One day short of a full year, I finally post a new chapter. But hey, at least I finally figured out how I want like over half this arc to go at least! So it shouldn't take a year to finish another one.
I'm really earning my Slow To Update tag.
If you're still here following this, I'm impressed by your tenacity, and thank you for your patience. These characters are still fun to write!