Chapter 8 - Escape

Fire Temple - Champion's Quarters

It had been several hours since Naruto and Asuma had spoken, with the grown man revealing that he was the son of Sarutobi-jiji. Naruto, despite the passage of time, was still shocked that the man that had made his stay here very uncomfortable, to say the least, was the son of his town's mayor.

His mind was processing a lot, including the fact that Asuma had essentially told him that Naruto being there meant that he failed to protect the king.

Whatever that meant.

He was pretty sure that it was long past midnight, with it probably closer to sunrise than midnight. Despite feeling somewhat tired, his mind was too busy to let him sleep. He had not had any time to think about his situation on his own. He did not know how much time had passed since he had originally been abducted, as he was constantly being knocked out cold.

He didn't know whether or not his mom was safe, if she was losing her mind over his disappearance (she probably was) or if she had caused a ruckus as she was forced to stay on the island due to her parole. He needed to get back to her ASAP.

Thinking of getting back inevitably led his thoughts to think about what he lost, or specifically who. Despite what she had done to him, he couldn't help but think about the girl that had essentially taken his heart and made it her own.

Despite her betrayal of him, he couldn't help but think of the girl and the terrible circumstances that had brought her to him. She was in a constant state of fear due to being wanted by the entire world. She was so used to betrayal that that was her first thought.

Let it be known that Uzumaki Naruto was smarter than people gave him credit for. After having had some time to process the events of their abduction, he could only come to one conclusion. Despite everything that happened between them, he was still madly in love with the Devil Child Nico Robin.

Whatever else he was going to think about was interrupted by footsteps that he could hear approaching his door. There seemed to be a steady movement with each step, as if the person taking each step was purposefully trying to avoid making any noise.

To Naruto, that meant one thing only: Someone was trying to assassinate him. Probably that Shibuki asshole because he killed his beloved champion.

Naruto stood up slowly and made his way to the door, standing behind it as he patiently waited for the person to try and enter the room.

The door handle slowly started turning, with it making a small creaking sound. Naruto felt his heart statt pounding really hard in his chest as he prepared to jump the person that was going to jump him.

the door was opened, slowly at first, with the person opening it pausing for a second, likely to check if he was sleeping in bed. With no sign of life in the room, the person quickly flung the door open and entered, and Naruto took that opportunity to pounce.

Moving quickly, Naruto pushed the door shut while moving forward, jumping at the person and strangling their neck with the restraints that were on his wrists.

The person was rather short, with Naruto finding it easy to latch onto them. There was a small yelp, with some choking sounds escaping the person's mouth, before Naruto heard a somewhat familiar voice say, "Room. Shambles."

Naruto didn't know what had happened. One moment, he was choking someone around his height and weight. The next thing he knew, he was holding onto a pillow, the same one he had been lying on just a few minutes prior.

"Huh?" Naruto said as coughing sounds drew his attention to his bed, where he finally saw who was sent to assassinate him.

"Traflagar?"

"It's Trafalgar, you idiot." the other boy said as he glared at Naruto while rubbing his neck.

"Oh, thought you could sneak up on me to kill me, asshole?" Naruto glared right back. He wasn't sure about what the other boy had done, but he had somehow escaped Naruto's clutches and left Naruto holding a pillow. He was clearly more dangerous than he let on. Naruto had to be very careful around him.

"What? No." Trafalgar said, looking afronted at the mere mention of him doing something like that.

"Then what are you doing sneaking into this room?" Naruto said through barred teeth, "Matter of fact, how did you get out of the cell that you were in?"

"First," Trafalgar said as he stopped rubbing his neck, "I didn't sneak in here to kill you. I'm looking for someone."

"Who?" Naruto asked with slightly less malice as Trafalgar took to relaxing on the bed a bit.

"A friend of mine." the dark-haired boy said, "I think he got captured by slavers or hunters. I came here to find him."

"Huh?" Naruto was visibly confused as he dropped the pillow he had been holding, "What do you mean you came here? Weren't you captured or sold to these assholes?"

"No." the other boy answered before a proud smirk found itself on his face, " I snuck in here."

"What made you think that these guys might have your friend?"

"Because I've hung out with some pretty shady people, and they've let slip about this place's existence. I figured, who better to kidnap a kung-fu polar bear than a bunch of guys that host death matches." Trafalgar answered almost nonchalantly.

Naruto heard what the other boy said, but one thing stuck out to him more than any other, "What do you mean kung-fu polar bear?

"Exactly that."

"But you said your frien- wait, don't tell me your friend is a kung-fu polar bear?"

"He is." Trafalgar said, getting off the bed and slowly walking to the door, "Good ol' Bepo."

"Wait, Trafalgar." Naruto said as the other boy walked past him, heading for the door out of the room.

"Yeah?" Trafalgar asked with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"How are you not like this?" Naruto said, shoving his restraints in the other boy's face.

Trafalgar smirked a little as he held out his right hand and said, "This is how. Room."

A small blue sphere was created from his right hand. The sphere expanded, covering the distance between both boys in relative ease, before it stopped once it covered a quarter of the room.

"Shambles."

Naruto was floored by what happened next. His hand cuffs were immediately gone, and they were instead replaced by the pillow he had been holding earlier. This was amazing.

The sphere disappeared soon after, leaving Naruto free of his retraints. The look of shock and amazement he had on his face made Law smirk as he said, "Yeah, I know."

The other boy turned around and then began to open the door when he said, "When I approached you earlier on in the cell, I wasn't trying to gauge whether or not you were strong. I wanted to ask if you'd seen Bepo."

"Well, I haven't seen him."

"Clearly." Trafalgar said, "This was the last room I had yet to look into in this whole place."

"... Meaning?" Naruto asked, staring at the other boy's back.

"Bepo ain't here. I'm leaving this place tonight. Wanna come with me?" Trafalgar's offer to Naruto was genuinely tempting to the other boy. Lord knows he did not want to be here, he had only been concious for a few hours in this place, and he had already been forced to fight to the death and thrown in a prison cell with other people in a similar predicament as him.

"Well?" Trafalgar asked him, "Unless you like being forced into death fights, and what will probably be slavery?"

"Fuck no."

"Then what's-"

"What about the other prisoners?"

"What about them?"

"Youre just going to leave them here when you have the power to free them all?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because we'll make a quiet getaway. The more people involved in this escape, the bigger the chances of being caught." Trafalgar stated matter of factly.

Naruto was quiet as he pondered the other boy's plans. Naruto desperately wanted to dispute the other boy's claims, but momma Kushina did not raise an idiot. He knew that Trafalgar was right. More escapees would lead to a bigger chance of them being caught, but despite this truth Naruto could not help himself when he said, "I wanna free the other prisoners."

"Why?" the dark haired boy was genuinely rustrated by his blonde counterpart.

"My mom raised me to think smart, Trafalgar, to make sure that I use my head a lot, especially in fights." Naruto stated, "But she also taught me right from wrong, and leaving the other prisoners would be wrong."

Now it was the other boy's turn to feel confused, "Right or wrong, it doesn't matter. You're free now, that's what matters. Now c'mon."

Naruto was somewhat quiet as he asked, "Why did you free me?"

"Because...", Trafalgar wanted to say that it was because he just felt like it, but somewhere deep inside him he knew the answer before he even said it, "Because it's the right thing to do. Damn it!"

He knew he had lost the argument to the other boy.

"I guess we know what we need to do then, Trafalgar." Naruto said as he walked past the black-haired devil fruit user. As they entered the corridor that would lead them back to the cell that the other prisoners were in, Naruto was momentarily stopped by the other boy's voice as he said, "Law."

"What?"

"Law." the devil fruit user said to the blonde boy, "Call me Law."

Naruto could not help the small smirk that found its way onto his face as he said, "Well, Law, let's stage a breakout."

Out in the open seas - Red Force

The Red Force, a ship that had recently begun making waves throughout the Grandline, was currently cutting through waves as it made its way through the North Blue. On board this somewhat brand new vessel was a Uzumaki Kushina, she was currently standing on the edge of the ship, not concerned at all about the possibility of maybe falling into the ocean below her. Her only concern right now was her son, who she was hoping beyond all hope that he was alright, wherever he was.

"You know, standing there won't make you reach our next destination quicker than everyone else." Her brother, Shanks, called out from behind her.

Kushina couldn't help the small smile that came from the joke as she turned to face her brother, "Yeah, well, a girl can try."

"Girl? You haven't been a girl in twenty years at least." Shanks teased.

That drew an annoyed tick from Kushina as she said, "Oi, you ain't too old to get an ass kicking from your sister, 'ttebane."

Shanks raised both of his hands in surrender while talking in a comically childish voice as he said, "Oh no, anything but that. I yield."

Kushina smirked triumphantly for a brief moment, before the look vanished from her face and was instead replaced by a much more somber one. Shanks, seeing this, walked towards his sister and placed both hands on her shoulders.

Kushina looked up at her younger brother as he had a warm smile on his face as he said, "Hey, I know you're worried about Naruto, but if he's even half the person that you are, then I'm sure he's fine, wherever he is."

Kushina, despite her dour mood, said, "He is literally half of me."

"Ha!" Shanks laughed, getting Kushina to smile as well, "I guess that's true. So that means he's okay then."

Kushina looked down as she said, "I guess so... it's just, I can't help but worry about him. Is he okay? Has he eaten anything? How much trouble did he attract?"

"Trouble? That's an oddly specific thing to worry about?"

"If you knew my son the way that I do, then you'd understand just how much of a trouble magnet he is."

"I don't know." Shanks said, rubbing his chin in faux thought, "He reminds me of someone."

SMACK!

"Oi." Shanks bellowed out after his sister had smacked him on his head for his comment.

"I told you you're not too old to get an ass kicking from me." Kushina said.

Shanks said nothing about the hit or her comment, instead he chose to say, "If he's as troublesome as you and I were as kids, then I'm sure he's strong enough to handle whatever is thrown his way."

And he meant it. He had served on the ship of the Pirate King at such a young age because despite his relative inexperience, his former captain saw a dogged determination in him. One that his own sister seemed to share.

"He is." Kushina said quietly, "Uzumaki and strong go hand in hand."

"Yeah, it does." Shanks said, before he added, "I'm glad my nephew took after us, and not that prancy, flaky father of his."

SMACK!

"Oi, don't speak about Minato like that." Kushina admonished her brother once again by smacking him on his head.

"What?" Shanks said as he decided to take a step or two away from his sister in an effort to curb her head smacks, "The guy was so frail-looking you'd have thought a simple gust of wind could take him out."

"And yet despite his frailty he kicked your ass." Kushina replied with a challenging smirk.

"I was younger." Shanks tried to defend, "He should try me now."

"Sure." Kushina said, "Whatever floats your boat."

Shanks didn't say much else, instead choosing to walk to the side of his ship. He decided to lean on the side of his ship while staring out at the ocean. He had a burning question that he wanted his sister to answer, and she was going to answer it whether she wanted to or not.

"Why didn't you contact me sooner?" Shanks asked.

"Whaddya mean?" Kushina asked as she pulled up alongside her brother, "I contacted you as soon as I put together that Naruto was missing."

"I don't mean this, nee-chan, I mean before all of this. When you got your parole, why didn't you contact me? I could've come and taken both you and Naruto away from that island. We probably wouldn't be in this predicament right now." Shanks said.

Kushina was silent for all of two seconds before she responded with, "That's true, we wouldn't be in this predicament. We'd probably be in another. We would've been in several. Or are you dumb enough to believe that a pirate ship is the best place to raise a child?"

Shanks didn't say anything after his sister's response. There was no need to. She was right. There was no way a pirate ship would be a good enough environment to raise a child. The short amount of supplies, lack of stores on the open ocean, it all pretty much meant that Kushina had no other choice but to raise Naruto on Konoha.

"I could've at least visited." Shanks said after some time.

"No, you wouldn't have." Kushina responded with a small shake of her head, "You were too busy putting together your crew." as she said this she pointed at the various men that littered the Red Force, doing different things.

"I...I guess you're right." Shanks said.

"I know I am." Kushina said proudly, before she added in a somewhat somber tone, "It's okay though. I had my fun out in the open waters, now it's your turn little brother."

Fire Temple

"We need to be careful." Naruto said as he and Law snuck around the Fire Temple. They were currently making their way to the holding cells where they kept the other prisoners. Law was leading them since he knew the layout of the entire building.

The dark-haired boy was as cool as a cucumber as he said, "And why is that?"

"Shibuki's guards... they're insanely strong. Stronger than me."

Law didn't say anything at first as they rounded a corner and saw the holding cells at the far end of the corridor that they were in. As they got closer to their destination, he said, "How would you know? Have you fought them?"

"No, but Asuma said -"

"-You're gonna take the word of someone that helps to enslave you as fact? Not question it at all?" Law interjected quickly as they were now just several feet away from the holding cells. This made Naruro pause mid-step for a second, Law's words making him think of how ridiculous he actually was for simply taking Asuma's words at face value.

Then the image of a floating fist as big as his torso entered his mind.

While Naruto was busy contemplating Law's words, said boy reached the cells first. He saw that all of the other prisoners were asleep, as he had left them a few minutes prior.

"Oi!" he said out loud, getting a few to wake up.

"Whuh..." was repeated by several prisoners as they groggily got up. Their slurry noise woke up some of the others that had not woken up when Law first shouted.

"Hey, its- how are you outside?" one of the prisoners pointed an accusatory finger at Law as he asked a question that some of the others also wanted answers to.

Before they could recieve their answer though, Naruto walked up and stood beside Law as he said, "That's not fucking important. What is important is do y'all want out of this shit hole?"

"Is water wet, kid? Of course we fucking want outta here!"

"Yeah!"

"Yes, please!"

These were but some of the answers that the other prisoners shouted as Naruto held up his hand and said, "We can get you out-"

Law cleared his throat at that statement.

"-I mean, he, he can get you out. But you have to follow our lead otherwise you'll die."

"Are you threatening us, kid?" a prisoner asked.

Naruto, realising how terribly worded his statement was, quickly said, "Wha- no, that's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

"The guards that run this place will kill us all in a heartbeat if they find us." Naruto corrected, "They're strong. Possibly stronger than me, so if you want out of this place- no, off this island then you better fucking listen to us or you're gonna end up in a shallow grave."

There was a quiet moment of contemplation, as the other prisoners discussed briefly whether or not to follow the lead of two boys who had probably not even hit puberty.

A decision was seemingly made for the other prisoners when one of the older men in the group, a burly man at that simple walked to the edge of the prison bars and said, "What do we have to do?"

Naruto smirked a little as he turned to Law and said, "Do the thing."

Law took out a bunch of stones from his pockets and threw them on the ground. Naruto watched in fascination as Law created a blue orb in his hand that slowly expanded until it covered the holding cell and the stones that were scattered outside the cells.

"Room. Shambles."

One moment the prisoners were tied to their retraints inside of the prisone cell, and the next they were outside the cell, standing in the exact same spots where the stones were just a second ago.

Looking at Law though, Naruto saw the boy hyperventilating slightly. Putting two and two together, Naruto surmised that Law's power used up lots of energy, especially when he moved around a lot of people.

The other prisoners couldn't believe it as they stood outside of the prison cell, sans restraints. A few murmurs went around, but they were quickly quietened by Law who said, "Shut up, all of you! Or you'll expose us."

Naruto, who was standing next to the dark haired boy, said, "I don't think you were loud enough."

Even though he had been teasing, Law's statement did draw the others into a complete silence.

"Okay," Naruto said as he started walking, leading the other prisoners away from their confinement, "Here's the deal. We're going to use a back exit. That'll lead us to the docks. There are lots of ships here, so we'll steal one and make our escape."

"How do you know this?"

Naruto pointed next to him at Law as he said, "This guy's been sneaking around this fucked up place since he got here while you all took dirt naps."

"This place doubles as a hotel for those that come to watch these messed up fights." Law took over from Naruto as they contintued their walk to freedom, "So the people dock their ships at the docks and sleep here. Now shush."

Naruto and Law quietly led the group through several corridors and different flights of stairs. They did not encounter a single guard on patrol as they quietly made their way out of the building.

This did not sit well with any of the escapees, with Law even noting that he would come across several guards every night that he would sneak around.

As they finally made it to the secret back exit that Law had mentioned to Naruto, the blonde boy got a sinking feeling in his stomach. Something felt very wrong. A feeling that was proven correct when he and his party opened the back door that leads out of the Fire Temple.

They had made it out into the open air, with Naruto seeing the moon for the first time in what felt like ages. Unfortunately he could not dwell on that thought because in front of him stood what appeared to be an entire battalion made up of a hundred plus men, with their pistols pointed at the escaping prisoners.

At the forefront of this small army stood Asuma and Chiriku, both of whom looked displeased to say the least.

Naruto's mind was racing a mile a minute as he tried to figure out what to do. There was no way in hell he would simply march back into holding cell, but at the same time he knew that there was no escaping his current predicament. No amount of Soru would save him from this.

"I told you we shouldn't have gone back for the others." Law said beside him.

"Shit." said one of the prisoners, echoing the sentiment that they all felt seeing so many weapons pointed in their general direction.

Shit indeed.

To be continued

Devil Fruit Encyclopedia

Name: Ope Ope no Mi (Op Op Fruit)

Class: Paramecia

Ability: This devil fruit allows the user to generate a spherical dome that allows them to have complete control of everything within it. This includes the position of certain things and people, thus allowing the user to swap people around with various objects, among other things that have yet to be discovered about the fruit.

Current User: Trafalgar Law

A/N: I dont know man, I'm on a roll with this story. I keep writing it over others because it just feels right doing so right now. I'm already done with the next chapter as well, just editing it out. Writing on a phone sucks. I miss my laptop.

Anway, I'm sure you all noticed the name change; and the reason for that is simply due to the fact that the original idea of telling a story of Naruto as one of the Shichibukai got lost in thought as this story came together the way that it has. I'm ten chapters in, and no Shichibukai action except for a flash-forward scene.

With that in mind, I decided on a name change. I promise we will get to that point in the story, but it seems like it won't be anytime soon.

That's all I had to say, till next time.

I'm out.