Naruto was up early. It was his turn to be lookout. It was an easy job with his clones. He was able to have eyes everywhere. Hence, he was the only one who didn't necessarily need a partner to watch both the front and the back of the ship.
Just because the job was easy didn't mean it couldn't be boring. Usually Naruto would come up with some pranks or think about fuuinjutsu and its mysteries that he was sure he'd known at some point. Other times he thought about home and tried to remember more. Sometimes he practiced his kata, the stances coming to him smoothly due to two years of practice. Or more, with his memories.
This time, he'd made a bunch of clones and had them throw themselves overboard. Because there had been one aspect of them he'd overlooked. He got their memories. That meant he could learn faster. And what better way to learn waterwalking than not being able to be anywhere else but water?
So he kicked back and played lookout while his clones splashed around the back of the ship. It sounded fun. He sighed and entertained himself by drawing out a seal he knew but didn't know the purpose of. Nami had given him a bunch of paper so he could. He'd argued the debt down to actually making some seals for her.
Somehow, that had worked. The orange haired woman was scary.
One of his clones whooped. Another yelped. A bunch of them cried out in frustration. Naruto was curious. One of them dispelled itself to paint a picture of one of them managing to stand, another falling over, and everyone trying to stand falling into the water with the resulting splash. The ninja rolled his eyes. Well. At least it was progress.
He was confident he'd get this down by tomorrow. Right now though, Luffy had woken up and was going to raid their kitchen if he didn't do something about it. That meant his shift was over.
The clones dispelled as he climbed down and he was assaulted by three hours of practice done over and over again.
That- That's not good.
He fell, but wasn't aware of falling from the sheer dizziness and exhaustion each clone had had. The blond smashed into something bouncy.
"Aw, not again! I need breakfast!" Luffy complained from under him, speaking into the wooden deck.
"You don't need everyone's breakfast," Naruto retorted absently, exhausted.
The person shaped rubber mass twisted under him. Naruto could feel the stare he was getting. He saw the grin out of the corner of his eyes.
Uh oh.
The captain pushed him off, making Naruto blink after him dizzily from the sitting position he landed in. Usually he'd bound after him but-
"LUFFY IS STEALING BREAKFAST!" he yelled from the bottom of his lungs.
There was a mad scramble from downstairs and Nami's exasperated yell of 'AGAIN!?' from somewhere in the direction of the bathroom. He knew she hid how early she woke up at times! Zoro rushed past him with his shirt halfway on and only one sword in hand. Usopp peeked a very sleepy face from the ladder leading on the deck.
Zoro's berating shouts were an answer of how well he'd succeeded in stopping the glutton. Which meant they'd have to have a smaller portion of food today. Ugh.
Well. Now he knew what not to do after letting clones practice strenuous activities for hours, at least.
xXXx
"We need someone in charge of food around here," Zoro muttered darkly around a piece of jerky. The only piece of jerky left.
Usopp hummed something close to an affirmative, rubbing his sleepy eyes while hugging a bread to his chest for safekeeping.
"Who's a person in charge of food anyway?" Naruto asked, grimacing at his half eaten toast.
Nami sipped her tea, elegant, not at all fooling the people who had seen her tie their Captain's hands into knots just three minutes ago. "A cook."
"Yeah! We need a musician!" Luffy piped in from where he was slowly wiggling his fingers free from the tangled mess they'd turned into during his attempts to get free.
Everyone paused to give him an incredulous stare.
They doubted anyone would ever understand the rubber man fully.
xXXx
"Light the cannon, fire away! Light the cannon, fire away!"
Luffy and Naruto chanted together while hopping in place behind a disgruntled and tired Usopp who had found them doing terrible horrible things to the poor piece of weaponry. He was pretty sure he knew what he was doing better than the two idiots behind him. Check the amount of gunpowder, have the thing loaded with something not a watermelon, good heavens- then adjust the trajectory and light the wick and-
Kaboom!
The cannonball soared and hit it's target perfectly, Usopp's ears ringing from both the noise and startlement induced adrenaline rush. What the- he'd done that? Half asleep?
No matter how he blinked, the rock remained destroyed.
"WHOOO! You hit it!" Naruto cheered.
"I did? I mean, of course I hit it! Why, there's nothing that I, the masterclass sniper Usopp, cannot hit!"
"Alright!" Luffy laughed in delight. "I've decided! Usopp is our sniper!"
He was? He blinked again, as though to reaffirm this distant feeling of reality he was suddenly plunged into. Usopp had the same position as his father had on the Red-Haired Shanks' crew. A smile bloomed on his lips.
"Yeah! All hail Usopp the sharpshooter!" he cheered for himself, actually feeling it this time.
Naruto, though, was squinting at the water near the destroyed piece of land. His nose was scrunched up and… did it twitch? Was he some sort of animal?
"Hey, is that a boat?" he asked.
Usopp immediately whirled to look, seeing the unmistakable form of a boat paddling towards the ship with ferocity. It was coming from the rock. His sharp eyes spied a sword at the stranger's hip. He went pale.
"...I shot the rock and someone was there."
Naruto and Luffy stared at him blankly before also looking at the rowing swordsman approaching them.
"I wasn't here," Naruto suddenly declared and disappeared in a puff of smoke. A clone.
"Traitor!" Usopp yelled. "Luffy, quick, we need to convince him we weren't the ones to shoot at him!"
Luffy frantically started waving at the man. "OOOOI! WE TOTALLY SHOT THE ROCK YOU WERE ON! BUT YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT!"
And Usopp felt he'd be justified if he just gave up right then and there and died of his I'm-surrounded-by-terrible-betrayals disease.
xXXx
Turns out Zoro knew the guy they shot at, Naruto noted bemusedly. He watched the newcomer gape at their green haired swordsman as Zoro acknowledged him as 'Johnny'.
"Since when are you on a pirate ship? Did they kidnap you!? Wait, that makes no sense-!"
Zoro cut his rambling with a furrowed brow and a question. "Where's Yosaku?"
Naruto felt his stomach drop as he watched Johnny's expression fall. That promised nothing good. And nothing good there was. Yosaku was sick.
They'd shot at a sick man.
He felt it prudent to apologize. Usopp and Luffy did too, bowing and telling him sorry. Nami came by and took a moment to examine the man before ordering Luffy and Usopp to get limes from their storage. The two immediately went to get them and then squeezed the liquid into Yosaku's mouth.
"Man, Nami sure is smart!" Luffy said. "Like a doctor!"
Usopp nodded along, stuffing a whole lemon into the man's mouth. Naruto wasn't sure that's what Nami had had in mind. She was staring at them with an expression full of emotion Naruto couldn't quite identify. Annoyance? Extreme not-surprised surprise?
"It's scurvy! How have you all been sailing so far without knowing such basic things!? You could die of it too!" she yelled.
It was probably intense exasperation. In the form of an explosion. Also…
"...It's curvy?" Naruto muttered to himself.
He squinted at the prone man on the floor, not seeing anything too curvy about him. Perhaps it was the almost bald head? Had his hair been curly and then fallen off and that's why he was sick? That made as much sense as anything. Perhaps his hair had had this 'Vitamin C' cure too.
His eyes caught on the forehead protector. Was he a ninja? There was no symbol on it. And the rest of him didn't look like a ninja. Not that Naruto did either at the moment.
He touched his bare forehead, intensely missing the familiar weight of his own hitai-ate. The leaf mark that made him a shinobi of Konoha, declaring him a protector of his home.
The man, Yosaku, sat up suddenly and startled him out of his darkening mood.
"Partner!" Johnny cheered and the two started dancing around cheerfully.
"There's no way you're better just yet!" Nami snapped.
Naruto thought she was right. True to form, Yosaku collapsed again after the two introduced themselves as bounty hunters. With dramatic gestures. For a second Naruto thought he would see a sunset and crashing waves behind them, but shook the weird thought off.
"Hey, hey. Nami. Would a cook help with this nutrition stuff, or is it a job for a doctor?" the kid asked their navigator.
Nami looked down at him, momentarily taken aback. "I guess it could be both. Any ship needs both either way, but a chef would be more useful for actually edible nutrition."
Johnny looked up from supporting Yosaku. "Did you say you need a chef?"
And that's how they set course for Baratie, the floating restaurant, next.
xXXx
It was a giant fish. The whole restaurant was a giant fish ship. It was also oddly stable on the waters. No gentle rise and fall, just… stillness. It could be that the waters were just calm but Naruto had been on the Merry and back on Baratie enough times to notice the difference.
They'd gotten stuck. Of course. Why wouldn't they? Luffy was an idiot.
And also a chore boy. An idiot chore boy. In a restaurant that would definitely do well without their captain breaking plates and cleaning supplies. Why the owner allowed it all was a mystery. But well… the owner was weird. He had one leg, long braided mustaches, and the tallest hat Naruto had ever seen. Also an attitude like a pirate.
Naruto had seen him berate Swirly Chef for being a womanizer often enough to know he could fight. With his legs. Mainly with his legs. It was kinda cool. The Mustachef and Swirly Chef clearly had a long standing student and teacher relationship. Their fighting styles were so similar. It was like watching a flaring, argument-filled Lee and Gai-sensei moment.
Even if Swirly wasn't at all like a mini clone of Mustachef when the old dude wasn't around.
The first time they met he'd just kicked a marine out of their restaurant for lying to a woman and not knowing wines if the rumors Naruto gleaned from Nami later were to be believed. The ninja only started paying attention when he came to their table after and started giving Nami discounts and everything. Because Nami was a lady. Naruto had been disappointed to not find any ramen on the menu. It had been ages since he got ramen.
And he wasn't afraid to cheat a little to get it.
He still remembered the horrified eyes of Usopp and Zoro's incredulous face when she fluttered her eyelashes and pouted her pink lips at the cook. The young woman he'd turned into had his whisker marks, long twin ponytails, and an elegant orange white dress with a rather large v-neck.
"Aww, how unfair! Only Nami-chan is getting special treatment!"
With that simple line he got Swirly's attention, affection, and most importantly, a special dish. Nami played along beautifully. He didn't really know why, except the gleam in her eye hinted to saving some beris. He didn't care about Usopp being scandalized, he got his miso pork ramen!
The downside was that transformations drop as soon as concentration fades. And Naruto's concentration was definitely compromised when his cheeks were stuffed with delicious noodles and Nami hit him for a stupid comment. He inhaled everything, exhaled happily, and got promptly picked up by the scruff of his neck and yelled at when Swirly tried to figure out what happened to the beauty.
It was worth it. Even when he got kicked out. And Swirly kept giving him a stink eye the days after.
Swily's name was actually Sanji but Naruto didn't care… until Luffy told him he was going to be their cook, and why. Naruto could respect someone who went out of their way to ensure nobody starved.
Ugh. He was bored. Reminiscing didn't take the edge off for long. He'd already pranked Luffy's bunk bed. And the supply closet. Usopp was fishing and Zoro lifted heavy stuff for training. Nami… Naruto wasn't actually sure what she was doing but he'd get bonked if he interrupted. Johnny and Yosaku had 'important planning, Little Bro Naruto, go away, shoo'. Boooring.
A door opened. The scent of cigarettes entered his nose. He looked down from his perch on one of the two lower crow's nests of the Baratie. It was Swirly- er, Sanji. Naruto watched him walk to the railing and take a deep drag of smoke, releasing the breath slowly. The ninja slid himself off the crow's nest railing and dropped down. He was still slightly surprised that someone so good at fighting didn't react to the soft landing.
Ninjas probably had different expectations for noticing sneak attacks. From what he'd seen, ambushes and assassinations weren't as popular here.
At least it meant that surprising people was easier.
He tapped the cook's shoulder. Sanji glanced over and frowned when he saw nothing. Naruto had relocated himself on the railing at the opposite shoulder.
"Yo."
Sanji turned and was nearly nose to nose with Naruto. The stifled yelp as he flinched backwards made Naruto grin. Then he caught a stronger whiff of cigarette smoke and wrinkled his nose.
"That stinks. Why do you smoke so much?"
The cook stared at him, something unreadable in his eyes. He unceremoniously blew more smoke at Naruto's face.
"Agh- HEY!"
"Heh. I don't expect you to understand. Scram, kid."
"No!"
"I said scram. You're interrupting my break time."
"When else am I supposed to talk to you, huh? Work time!?"
"How about never! Your idiot captain does it enough!"
That was true. Luffy was persistent when you didn't say yes to joining the first time. Naruto went quiet for a moment but didn't leave. He wasn't about to give up a perfectly good time to figure out the cook. And spite was a powerful motivator.
"...Why'd you feed the pirate who didn't pay?" he asked.
Sanji looked like he wanted nothing more than to shove him off and forget it. But he didn't. Instead he slowly took another drag of the cigarette and answered.
"Nobody should know the pain of starving."
Naruto stared at him, feeling respect stirring in his chest. It was one thing to be told and another to find out for himself. And the firmness of Sanji's words made him think he knew what he was talking about.
It reminded him of the times he'd run out of money for food and had to go hungry, back before he knew he could go to Ichiraku Ramen for a meal with only promises to pay back later when he was the Hokage and everyone would acknowledge him.
"You're right," he said after a while of musing. "It's awful to go hungry, nobody should know that."
Sanji shifted out of the corner of his eye, seeming to feel… something? Surprise, maybe.
"You talk like you know that," he said.
Definitely some form of surprise, and some curiosity. Naruto smiled, melancholic, staring out at the wide, wide ocean.
"A bit. When I was a kid nobody liked me and didn't wanna sell me stuff, like food. Well, until I ran into a ramen shop that didn't mind I was… well, me, and gave me stuff when I was hungry and couldn't get food elsewhere," he grinned. "That's why ramen's my favorite food, ya know! It's the best!"
The cook only hummed in answer, glancing at him from the corner of his eye. He didn't try to get him to go away anymore so that was nice.
"...You are a kid, brat."
Nevermind, Naruto didn't like this guy anymore. He huffed, scowling.
"Oi! I'm a teenager!"
"How old?"
He opened his mouth, then closed it. "Uh…"
Sanji let out a laugh. "Cat got your tongue, fake vixen?"
"Shut up! Just because I dunno my age doesn't mean I'm a kid!"
"Uh-huh, sure, kiddo."
"I'm at least sixteen, dattebayo!"
"Whoa, at least make it believable, shorty."
Naruto fumed, cursing whatever thing had de-aged him when he got flown here. Ugh. Sanji's smug grin was too much. He bared his teeth in a faux smile and made a seal. The cook's eyes widened, suddenly apprehensive. Good.
With a poof of chakra smoke there was an orange dressed young woman with a mischievous expression as she studied Sanji's frozen, unsure pose, eyes that took in her form with both hunger and dread. The cook tried to say something sharp but stopped himself with an urk sound.
Naruko giggled, reaching a finger out to tip Sanji's chin up a little.
"Look who's tongue-tied now! Or did the vixen take it?"
"Sh- Shut it, that's cheating!" Sanji got out with visible effort, not sure at all how to handle someone who looked like a grown woman but was actually a young boy.
The woman laughed and her form wavered, proofing back into Naruto who found the whole thing hilarious. Sanji wasn't at all reserved about taking his frustrations on him when he didn't look like a woman and shoved him off the railing into the ocean. Naruto accepted the payback gracefully and let himself plunge into salt water, getting back to the surface still chuckling.
He quickly got himself on his feet and ran up the side of the Baratie to shake himself like a wet dog, getting some revenge on Sanji while at it.
Sanji, who was staring at him like he'd never seen him before, and seeming to wish he didn't just see what happened.
"I'm hallucinating," he said, looking down at his spent cigarette and chucking the remains away. "Gotta get back to work. Stay out of trouble, brat."
"No promises!" Naruto said cheerfully, still dripping wet.
Sanji shook his head as he headed inside, only pausing at the door.
"Oh. If you want ramen again I'll make it."
The ninja stared at him, gobsmacked, before grinning brightly, starry eyed. "You're my new favorite person!"
"You have to pay this time!"
And the door slammed shut.
All in all, Naruto was very pleased with how that had gone.
xXXx
SO I GOT THE CHAPTER DONE!
Finally.
I finally figured out a way to write Sanji! At least a little. It took super long to get that far. But I got there! Phew! Now the two blondes know each other. Yasss!
We've been waiting for this.
...Honestly, I wanted to write more of this arc before posting but figured it's been way too long to go without a chapter.
I hope you liked it! See ya in the next one and the comment section!