Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece.

A/N: Sorry for this being late Beta hasn't talked to me since Jan due to being super busy In real life and with what's going on I hope that's still the case.

Remember to vote in the poll if you haven't!

Beta: Memodo Shiki.

Chapter XXIII.

Last Time.

"Netto Taia! (Heat Wheel!)" Don rolls toward Naruto who jumped out of the way. Don went through a block of air and went high in the air before diving at Naruto. "Atsu Atsu Heddo!(Hot Hot Head!)" Don then delivers a super-heated headbutt to Naruto.

As he got close, Naruto spun around on his left foot then connected his right heel to Don's face. "Supin kikku! (Spin Kick!)" Don was sent to the ice and through it creating a divide in the ice and into lava that started coming up from their fight.

Don came out of the lave only to get hit with a large Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere) As Naruto landed on a cooled piece of the lava from Nami throwing some of her Kūru Bōrus (Cool Balls) down and sent flying away "Odamma Rasengan! (Big Ball Spiraling Sphere!)"

Naruto ran up to see the others minus Franky ran to the Sunny with their flag as Luffy ran after from the other side of the ice. They ignored Luffy until getting to the Sunny where they threw Usopp who held the flag to the mast where he hit it and tied it on before falling. Suddenly, the ice broke up revealing an underwater volcano that was erupting before they got away.

As did the Accino family on the other side minus Campacino who got into a fight with Puzzle and his crew.

Now.

Going Sunny.

Naruto stretched as he walked out onto the deck. He's wearing black cargo pants and a red shirt with his pouch on his right thigh, and blade in its pouch on his lower back.

He heard yelling before looking down to see Usopp, Luffy, and Chopper playing on the swing on the tree that's on the deck with Luffy wearing a yellow vest and red shorts.

He looked to see Robin watering the flowers in the garden at the mast wearing a short purple garnet dress with lace embroidered edges, stockings reaching up to her thighs held up by suspenders and black high-heeled boots with two lines of buttons on the front.

He then felt Gina hug him from behind as he felt her breasts against his back before looking over his shoulder and saw her wearing faded jeans with tears in the knees, black shoes, and a dark red tank top.

"Hey."

"Hey," Naruto replied before hearing Nami yelling at Franky as he was working in the Dock System before an angry Nami walked out from the door leading down.

She has her hair in a ponytail, wearing a white sleeveless and backless shirt with red and yellow trim around the collar, tied around her neck, red short shorts with an orange belt, and brown heeled boots with white socks.

She crossed her arms under her ample bust muttering how Franky messed with her waver from Skypiea. They then walked to the lounge and looked at the fish while waiting on the others. Naruto sat on the couch as Nami and Gina sat beside him on each side before they saw Usopp jump down in the tank with diving gear to get some of the octopi they had. Robin walked in as Nami saw Sanji brought down three drinks for them.

"(Sigh.) He really thinks with his lower head sometimes." Naruto sighed as Sanji didn't make one for him or the other guys as Robin walked in, stopped in front of him, and bent to give him a kiss.

"Could say the same for you after last night." She said before standing, taking her drink and sat on the couch as well.

Usopp suddenly was attacked by the octopi before Robin crossed her arms in an 'X' to help him before black ink covered the water. Nami yelled to the others having Luffy attack the water, inadvertently hitting Usopp before pulling him out.

"Hey! Something is floating in the ocean!" They heard Zoro yell over the speaker from the crow's nest.

They walked out with Franky wearing a yellow shirt with purple trident-like symbols on the sides and a large one on the back. And Sanji who's wearing a blue shirt and a light blue tie with his suit.

Naruto walked to the railing, unsealed his rifle, and took the scope off to look to see a barrel floating in the ocean with a small mast with writing on it. "Let's see… Treasure-!" He stopped as Luffy stretched his arm over and brought the barrel over after hearing the word treasure. "(Sigh.) Impatient."

Usopp, Chopper, and Luffy danced before Nami looked to them. "It says treasure offers. It's probably full of food and booze. It's an old practice called Barrel Drifting of where sailors send out offerings for safe voyages."

"So we got sea trash," Usopp said crouching as Zoro grinned wanting to get the alcohol inside.

Nami explained that if they said a prayer before they can get the stuff out with Robin adding that if they add something new as well and sent it adrift again, they'll get good luck. Luffy said a prayer before starting to open the barrel. Naruto then walked over as Luffy got the rope off the lid. "Hey, Luffy, maybe I should check it-!"

Naruto stopped as when he got beside Luffy, the top blew off with a red firework forcing Naruto on his back when flames hit his face.

PREET, CRACK, BOOM!

Robin started to sweat a little as she explained that it could have been another ship's trap to alert them to attack a ship. While searching for any enemy ships, Nami notices changes in the atmosphere and senses a storm coming. She urges everyone to get in position to fight it as they only have five minutes to do so. "2 o'clock, straight ahead!"

Naruto jumped to the wheel as the others went to the mast as the sky darkened and rain started pouring down.

CRACK!

"How are we doing?!" Naruto yelled as the others pulled the sails up

"Good over here!"

"The ship's gonna overturn if we don't do something!"

"Naruto, Channel 0!"

Doing so, Naruto pulled the paddles to help navigate the storm as they tied the sails up. They continued paddling until the storm died down, only for the clouds t remain as fog covered the ocean.

"We must be in that sea Kokoro warned us about," Gina said as Luffy, and Franky scared Usopp about the sea from the stories about it.

Naruto, blinked as Chopper hid backward behind him before looking down. And saw a small smiling ghost behind him. "WHAT THE HELL?"

"What?"

"Why did you scream?"

"What's wrong?"

"I just saw a freaking ghost behind Chopper!"

"AAH!/AAH!" That got both Usopp and Chopper scream as the others stared.

"Sure you weren't seeing things?" Zoro asked Naruto who turned to him.

"Oh yeah, that's out of the realm of possibility but fruit that gives people, animals and objects supernatural powers aren't. It could have been a Devil Fruit user or..." Naruto trailed off seeing a broken-down ship float by them, larger than the Sunny before they heard singing.

"IT'S A GHOST SHIP!/IT'S A GHOST SHIP!/IT'S A GHOST SHIP!/IT'S A GHOST SHIP!/IT'S A GHOST SHIP!/IT'S A GHOST SHIP!/IT'S A GHOST SHIP!/IT'S A GHOST SHIP!"

Nami, Gina, Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, Franky, Sanji, and Zoro yelled out as they looked at the ship before seeing something on the railing. "A skeleton!" Gina yelled as they saw an extremely tall skeleton dressed in formal attire complete with top hat and cane.

He's standing at 8'8½" in height. He also has black hair styled in an afro. He's wearing a black coat, top hat, and trousers, while the inner linings of his coat is a yellow-orange. The cravat that is tied in between his coat and around his neck is blue. The outer covering of his cane which he carries is purple. Also, his clothes were somewhat tattered, possibly due to dying a long time ago.

Naruto noticed his mouth moving to the singing and then picked up a chipped teacup and took a sip from it making Naruto's eyes widened.

"WHAT THE FU-"

Later, since Luffy, Franky, Sanji, and Robin wanted to go on, Zoro stopped so they could draw sticks to see who would go on so the others could protect their new ship.

"I'll go either way," Naruto said raising his hand as they sailed beside the ship.

"Then two will go… We gotta keep a tight leash on him." Zoro said holding popsicle sticks in his hand while pointing at Luffy.

Nami and Sanji drew the short straws to go before they jumped down onto a lifeboat and started climbing on the netting of the ghost ship, "You sure you don't wanna go in front?" Nami asked Naruto who was under her last in position.

"Yeah, I'm liking the view." He replied staring at her ass.

They then made it to the deck and saw the skeleton. "AAH!" Nami screamed before hiding behind Naruto as the skeleton tipped his hat to them.

"Good afternoon! Yohohoho! Thank you all for stopping by. You must excuse me for not greeting you properly. I was quite surprised, it's been so many years you see… That I've spent all alone. I'm so used to ghost ships that humans frightened me."

"We frightened you?" Naruto asked raising an eyebrow before the skeleton nodded before he noticed Nami.

"I'm all eyes for ladies like you… Or I would be if skeletons had any eyes! Yo-ho-ho-ho!" He dusted himself off, shined his shoes, and walked over to her as she held onto Naruto for dear life. "Could you perhaps, show me your panties?"

"NO WAY IN HELL!" Nami, fear forgotten, kicked the skeleton upside his head, creating a bump.

"… That took balls to ask." Naruto said as the skeleton looked to him.

"But I don't have any balls."

"Do skeletons poop?" Luffy asked as Naruto and Sanji turned to him.

"Really? That's your first question?"

"Hai, (Yes,) I do," Brook answered as he got up and picked his cane and cup back up.

"Will you join our crew?!" Luffy yelled getting the others to stop asking questions.

"Hai, (Yes,) I will certainly," Brook replied taking a sip from his cup

"(Sigh) I quit," Naruto said walking back to the Sunny followed by the others.

"Yohohohoho! it's such a pleasure to meet you! Hello, good day to you all. As of today, I will be joining you on this ship as your newest crew member. Once dead and all bones, my name is Brook and I do hope we can get along." Brook introduced himself holding his hat up in greeting

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WHAT THE HECK IS THIS THING?!" Everyone minus Robin asked as Usopp held a gold cross up with Chopper following with a silver one.

"Yohohohohoho! Oh my, what a tough crowd you are!" Brook exclaimed before walking to the other women of the crew. "Oh my goodness... Such lovely young women. Perhaps you two would like to show me your panties?"

Nami threw her boot at him before Usopp ran up, now wearing a purple cape and a wide brim purple hat with a necklace of garlic to ward off evil creatures. As well as other superstitious objects to ward off evil.

He then tried to ward off Brook who gained a scared look as he looked for what Usopp was trying to ward off. Zoro then turned to Luffy, Nami, Naruto, and Sanji. "What is this thing and why is it on our ship?!"

"That's our new crew member, isn't he funny?" Luffy asked with a grin.

"Who cares?! He's not joining our crew!" Zoro exclaimed as he turned to the others. "This is exactly why I wanted you to go with him! What in the hell happened? Were you picking your noses while he brought a skeleton back to the ship?!"

Brook laughed before walking up to the group. "Let's go inside, you can treat me to dinner!"

"YOU DON'T GET TO DECIDE THAT!"

They did go inside where Sanji got the octopi foods ready as everyone sat at the table, or the counter at the kitchen. After dinner, Brook told the crew he was a Devil Fruit user of Yomi Yomi no Mi (Revive Revive Fruit.) Brook told them he had died once, years past and the Yomi Yomi no Mi (Revive Revive Fruit.) grants its user the ability to be resurrected.

He explains that he was once a pirate, like them and he was aboard the ship they found him on. He went on telling them his crew came to the Sea of Devils but were defeated by a stronger pirate crew, killing his crewmates and himself. However, after death, his soul returned from the underworld. His soul was unable to find his body on time due to the fog that makes that part of the sea difficult to navigate.

It took one year for his soul to find his body and by then, he had decomposed to bones. Zoro asked how Brook still has his hair, and Brook responded saying he has tough roots.

"So are you a human, or a ghost?" Usopp asked Brook who screamed.

"No, I'm scared of ghosts!"

On hearing that, Nami brought out a mirror to show Brook how he looked which scared him further. "No-no-no-no!"

"What's wrong, afraid of how you look?" Usopp asked as he and Chopper walked to the skeleton and looked to the mirror. "AAH!"

And had both scream as Brook had no reflection. "He's a vampire!" The Crew got ready to attack except Luffy, who just thought Brook was awesome. "Look, he has no shadow!" Usopp yelled again before Brook sat down.

He went on to explain about him being a skeleton and having no shadow are unrelated. He told them he cannot live or see the sunlight because his shadow is stolen.

"What would happen if you saw the sun?"

"I would turn into ash," Brook replied crossing his legs.

He then told them of an incident he witnessed when a person who had no shadow comes in contact with sunlight that turned to dust after going crazy. Brook, after telling his story was delighted. He told the crew of how he had just aimlessly traveled this sea lonely and scared and waiting to die.

Brook, at that point, refused Luffy's offer to join his crew, saying if he left the covers of the fog, it would be a matter of time before he disintegrates. He told them he would wait until he gets his shadow back.

"What? Well, we can help?" Luffy said as Brook shook his head.

"Arigato, (Thank you,) you truly are a kind person. No, I've only just met you and cannot ask you to try and do something impossible.

After failing to convince Brook to let them help, Brook pulled out a small case and pulled a violin out of it to play them a song. "AAH!" Only to scream as he saw the ghost Naruto saw earlier.

Everyone else screamed seeing it before the Sunny shook having Brook run out. Everyone followed to see a wooden mouth shaped gate closed in front of them. "Seems this is the backside of the gate," Brook said before running. "To the back!"

They ran and then saw an island with dead trees, foggy and a castle on it. "Did you find a floating barrel perhaps?" Brook asked Luffy.

Luffy nodded at that before Brook told them it was a trap and their ship has been targeted after that incident. "Why is there an island here?"

"It's a ghost island that wanders these seas. They call it… Thriller Bark."

"Hey, that's strange. The Log Pose isn't reacting to the island at all." Nami said looking at her Log Pose as Brook turned to her.

"No, it wouldn't… Because this island originally came all the way from the West Blue."

"West Blue?"

Brook then walked past them, and inside to pick up his cane, thanking them again for bringing him to the person who stole his shadow.

He then jumped off and started to run on the water, being light enough to stay afloat. Nami then suggests they follow his advice and sail away as fast as they can but Luffy's large grin he has the others realize he wants to go on the island. Chopper worries about the ghost they saw earlier but Zoro replied he saw it fly towards the island.

Robin then points out to the rest of the crew what probably happened earlier when the boat shook. The "mouth-like" gate probably enclosed them in a fence wall that runs all around the island.

"Brook may have thought the gate was open or it would be easy to open. But if whoever this island belongs too wants to capture other ships, I'd doubt they have the gate unlocked." Naruto said as Franky nodded.

"And since this is a moving island, that means we're still in the ocean, we can't set anchor anyways." He said as Luffy walked in the kitchen.

He then walked out with a net and a small cage tied over his shoulder to catch the ghost. "I want to get that ghost as a pet!"

"That could just be someone using their Devil Fruit Luffy," Naruto said as Gina was wrapped around his waist with a death grip.

"Sanji, can you make me lunch?" Luffy asked as Robin held up a bag of lunches as she and Franky intended to go as well.

"Alright! Now, listen up!" Franky said getting their attention. "Obviously, we're going to use a smaller boat to get close to the shore. The Soldier Dock System has something pretty damn super for that. I've been keeping this one a surprise. It's on Channel 2!"

"What's that?"

"Good question. This system has six channels, two of them are Zero, then there's One, Two, Three, and Four. Naturally, each Dock has its own set of capabilities."

"We know the 0's are the paddles. And we've already seen 1 and 3. What's 2?" Nami asked the shipwright.

"Yeah, didn't you tell use, Dock 2 and 4 are empty?" Usopp asked as he, Chopper and Nami followed Franky to the Dock System.

"I just told you that so you wouldn't go snooping and be surprised."

A few minutes went by before they heard cheering and ran to the railing.

"Is that…?"

On the water, Usopp, Chopper, and Nami rode on a small four-person boat with a steam engine and paddle wheels. Its figurehead design is based on the Going Merry's sheep figurehead with the number '2' on front.

"I call it Mini Merry II," Franky said coming up. "It's for shopping so we wouldn't need to dock if we need to hide."

Everybody is thrilled and excited and Luffy is dying to try it too.

"Is that all the Systems?" Gina asked as Franky grinned and nodded.

"Yep, Channel 0: The Support Paddle. Channel 1: The White Rocking Horse I. Channel 3: The Shark Submerge III. And then… Channel 2: The Mini Merry II. For now, those are all of the Sunny's Docking Systems. If you think of the Sunny as our Mother Ship. Then these guys are her soldiers."

As the people still on the boat are talking, Nami is heard screaming in the distance. "NAMI!" Naruto and Sanji run to the side of the boat but nobody can see anything in the fog.

Suddenly the anchor is dropped without anyone visibly dropping it. "What the hell?" Naruto said looking around as Franky notes the gears sound much more worn out than they should be on a brand new boat. "Guys, we're not alone."

"How can you tell?" Franky asked as Zoro reached for his swords.

"One of my abilities is feeling emotions, I'm feeling an extra person on the Sunny," Naruto replied pulling his staff and twirled it.

A trapdoor on the lawn deck abruptly opens and everybody jumped at that. Luffy's face starts stretching and one of Zoro's katanas is taken out of its scabbard and thrown in the air at Luffy who is on the floor after his face was stretched back. Franky jumps in and kicks Luffy out of the way before he gets injured as Naruto caught the blade and tossed it to Zoro who now held it.

"You guys see footprints?" Naruto asked looking around. "If the person has a fruit that hides their body, they should still leave footprints."

Sanji tried to jump and help Nami, only to be grabbed by the ankle and thrown back on the ship. Naruto heard Robin before looking to see she was being held with three hands on her body pressing something away. Naruto glared before tossing his staff in the air, grabbed it, and threw it, hitting whatever was in front of her and had a man's body imprint hit the grass.

Naruto then picked the body up created a Rasengan. (Spiraling Sphere) hit the man sent him flying away and saw a cloud of dust pop up on the island. Waves started to pick up having them scramble to pull the anchor back up.

On the island, Nami, Chopper, and Usopp have fallen down a very deep ditch that is located between the actual island and the sea. She explains they were having too much fun with the Mini-Merry and probably bumped into the embankment that she did not see because of the fog and got thrown into the ditch.

Chopper and Usopp are upset and scared that they are on the ghost island as the bottom of the ditch is full of skulls and bones. They then debate whether it would be wiser to wait on the bank above instead and started walking to find a way out.

Suddenly a three-headed dog appears in the dark.

"AAH! Cerberus!"

The Cerberus is a zombie dog with three heads, two of them dog heads and the other, a fox. The dog parts had blue fur while the fox's side had yellow fur. It also has three yellow-tails, and the dog parts had yellow hair on the top of their heads and backs and one of the tails had white fur on the tip. Its body is covered in sutures and scars with 82 written on its right side.

Cerberus also has a red collar with spikes and had a bandage covering its neck, along with the left eye of the fox's head, three of the legs, and the upper and lower torso.

The three Straw Hats then started running for their lives with the dog giving chase.

"Wait… Is one of the heads a fox?"

That got Cerberus to stop as the fox head gained a depressed aura before all of them howled and continued to chase them. They then came to the stairs and ran up them. Usopp shot a smoke bomb and had the dog get turned around in the foggy forest as they hid in the trees.

They debated on what to do before hearing a voice.

"Quite the quandary, isn't it?"

They looked to see a man hanging upside down. He has a bat-like body with a black cape that looks like wings on his arms. He has sharp fangs and claws, a long stitched nose, pointed ears, and his eyes seem to have strange tattoos encircling them. Above his right eye is number 21.

He's carrying a very large long-necked bottle of what appeared to be for liquor on his back.

"AAH! Who are you?"

"Where are my manners? My name's Hildon. Oh and speaking of bad manners, I was spying on you." Hildon said grinning. "That dog seemed to really scare you."

He explains that, as nighttime is falling, the forest is indeed going to become dangerous for them and maybe they should ride the carriage that pulled with him back to a Doctor Hogback's mansion.

"Doctor Hogback?!" Chopper reacts with shock to hearing Doctor Hogback's name.

They take up Hildon's offer in accompanying them to the mansion while they traverse through the forest via carriage. Inside the carriage, they discuss the strange creatures in the forest with Hildon just telling the three that it is dangerous at night and that the mansion is the best place to wait for the rest of the crew.

"We're gonna meet Dr. Hogback too, right?" Chopper excitedly asks getting the others to stare at him.

He explains to them who Hogback is, telling them that he is a renowned surgical genius who suddenly disappeared without a trace. Nami then looked out the window and screamed when she saw a lion with a man's face, scaring Usopp and Chopper as well.

"What's wrong Nami?" Usopp asks before she told about the lion she saw outside. he didn't believe her so they looked out the window again only to find many strange creatures, but after blinking the creatures were gone, prompting them to become more scared.

"AAH!/AAH!/AAH!"

Nami and Usopp want the carriage to stop and go back but Hildon explains that what they saw were possibly just illusions made by the fog. Chopper is saddened by their decision to go back, but Usopp managed to convince him.

"Alright, I'll go and tell the driver to turn around," Hildon said and got out as the carriage stopped.

After a few minutes of waiting, Usopp decides to check on Hildon and find out what's taking so long, only to see that there was no one there and that they are in the middle of a large graveyard.

"There's nobody here! Not even the horses are here! They left us!"

"Are you kidding me?!"

"Please tell me he just left to go pee!"

They yelled for Hildon before hands popped out of the ground at the tombstones and followed by zombies. "AAH!/AAH!/AAH! Z-Z-Z-ZOMBIES?!" They screamed as the zombies walked to them.

One zombie then grabbed Usopp and dragged him out, while other zombies turn over the carriage, forcing Nami and Chopper out. Nami heard Usopp scream and saw him getting bitten by zombies.

"Usopp!" As Nami tries to get to Usopp, she is grabbed by a zombie that suddenly popped up from underneath her, causing her to fall on her knees and tried to bite her while a platoon of zombies surrounds her. "No, get away from me, damn it!"

"Somebody help me!"

"Hebī Pointo! (Heavy Point!)" Chopper run towards Usopp in his Hebī Pointo, (Heavy Point,) helps Usopp and knocks the head of a zombie, but is shocked when the zombie put his head back.

Nami screams for help, and Usopp fired his Kaen Boshi (Exploding Star) to start a fire, startling the zombies making them let go of Nami. They used this to run away from the zombies, going towards the closer mansion for Safety. Usopp explains that zombies move slowly, making running impossible, which got the zombies mad and run after them at a fast pace, shocking the three.

However, the zombies soon run out of stamina giving the three pirates a chance to escape. They continued before coming to a gate. Going in, they walked up to the mansion and saw a light come on at a door revealing a well. Suddenly, the rope pulled up and had a woman come up holding a stack of plates.

She is tall and slim, with short, straight cut blonde hair. She has various stitches across her body and pale blue skin. Her eyes appear flat and dull. Her left leg has a web pattern across the inside of her thigh and the number 400 tattooed on her calf. She's wearing a short black evening gown and black high-heeled boots, with a red-orange fur boa wrapped around her neck.

"Welcome."

"AAH!/AAH!/AAH!"

The woman then started throwing the plates counting them as they hit Usopp. "Why are you only attacking me?!"

"Why you ask? Because you alone are not allowed to enter." She then pointed to Chopper and Nami. "You two are just fine though." She finished before throwing more plates at Usopp.

"Stop it, that's enough!"

A man then opened the door and looked at the woman.

He has a round torso, very thin arms and legs, and a somewhat long nose resembles a beak or knife, and he has notably sharp and long canine teeth and ears. His face has a scar in the shape of a semi-circle that goes above his eyes and connects both corners of his mouth, which is grinning widely, and black slicked-back hair.

On the left side of his neck is a black tattoo consisting of two slashes connected to two swirls lying side-by-side on his shoulder. He's wearing a fishnet vest, purple leather pants, a thick black tie, and a pair of purple gloves, which cover his long, claw-like fingers. He also has a white surgical mask under his chin, a pair of very small black gold-rimmed sunglasses, a violet feathery cape that is black on the inside, and a pair of purple high-heeled boots.

"We can make an exception just this once, can't we Cindry? You must excuse her, she was once engaged to a wealthy man whom she tested his love for her by breaking his most valuable plates, causing him to abandon her, thus making her negative. She's now my servant with a boundless plate grudge." He said before looking to the three.

"And as you all may have surmised. I'm the long-missing world-famous surgeon Doctor Hogback! Genius in the eyes of many!" Hogback finished before Cindry hit Usopp with another plate.

Cindry invited the three inside and locks the door, leaving Hogback outside. Later, In the dining room, Hogback asks why they came into his mansion. Chopper explains he wanted to talk to Hogback while Nami and Usopp explained that they were chased by zombies. Hogback is surprised to see them escape the zombies and tells them that he had no idea what they are and says that they are the reason why he is living here to study them.

Chopper, amazed by Hogback, roots for him and asked for his autograph, which Hogback willingly give. "Could I see your lab?"

"No one looks in my lab!" Hogback angrily stated scaring Chopper who apologized.

Afterward, Cindry came back, serving them flans without plates. "Oh, come on Cindry, the least you could do is use plates!"

"I wish every last plate on Earth was gone." Cindry darkly said as Hogback laughed nervously.

"Fosfosfosfos… Well, this was bound to happen. Rest assured, I'm adamant about keeping the tablecloth clean." Hogback said before he, Chopper, and Usopp started to slurp the flan.

"You can at least use a spoon!"

Cindry explains to the three that the bath is ready for them to get clean.

"Oh, have you seen a walking skeleton run by here?" Usopp asked Hogback who started to sweat before nervously speaking.

"N-No."

Later, the three then walked the dark hall to the bath by candlelight that Nami was holding.

"Nami, why can't you do this by yourself?" Usopp asked looking around.

"Usopp is right. I could be picking Dr. Hogback's brain right now."

"Yeah, yeah. Just shut up and keep walking." Nami replied not wanting to be alone in the mansion while she took a bath. 'I wish Naruto was here.'

Once getting to the bathroom, Nami walked in, stripped down and started showering and humming while the others sat at the glass door outside. Chopper sighed as he wanted to look at Hogback's lab while Usopp yells at Nami about taking a bath now.

"When night falls, then we'll leave and get the others!" She bit back over her shoulder as water sprayed down her body before walking to a full bathtub and got in.

She then says that there are abnormal presences in the mansion as well, scaring the two. She states that she also suspects that Dr. Hogback was lying when he said that he does not have a relationship with the zombies. She heard a growl and voice, thinking it was Usopp or Chopper. Suddenly, invisible hands grab her arms and pin her on the wall.

"What the hell?!"

"You're even prettier than the ones on the ship." She heard a man's voice speak before her mouth was covered. "You'll be my bride."

Usopp and Chopper burst through the door, panicked when Nami tells them that someone else is in the bathroom with them. With quick thinking, Nami kicks her unknown assaulter in the groin, freeing her from restraint. Chopper uses his sense of smell to check if he is still there. "Yeah, there is another person in here!"

The window opened up as Usopp attacks the invisible man, though he escapes. Nami, startled and briefly traumatized from the attack, wraps a towel around her naked body to cover herself. "Are you OK Nami?" Usopp asked Nami.

"Whoever that was... He heard our plan."

Going Sunny.

The rest of the crew tries to steer the ship but the helm is stuck because of the current causing it to run into a gigantic spiderweb. "Oh, son of a bitch, really?!" Naruto asked getting up from the sudden stop.

"This is defiantly a trap," Zoro said looking at the dock they're now at and saw the Mini Merry II beside them as well.

"Yeah, I think so as well," Gina replied tying her pouch of tools on her thigh.

The others all had backpacks on while Franky had a bandoleer as well and jumped on the docks. "Look, we can handle anything here, but at the very least we need to get the others!" Naruto said as Zoro joined them.

On their way to the forest, they went into the ditch and came across Cerberus.

"Yum!"

"Check it out everyone it's Cerberus."

"Aww, I think it's kinda cute."

"Are they a threat? Cuz I'm feeling kinda super!"

"I guess we gotta fight him huh?"

Luffy runs over and tried to tame it but all three heads bite him, making him punch them, thus, taming it. The crew continues their search for the three with the dog questioning why there's a fox head making it depressed until Naruto scratched its ear. "Don't listen to them, buddy." He then looked forward and saw a talking tree and unicorn drinking sake.

"Did I drink something? Because what the hell is that?" He asked before Luffy and Franky ran to them intend on capturing them for the crew. "Nope, Brook was one thing but no way in hell are those two coming along with us!"

Outside the mansion, Hogback and the invisible man. "Absalom... Where you peaking in on that woman?!"

"I am on the hunt for a bride," Absalom said before becoming visible again.

Absalom is a richly dressed man who's wearing an ankle-length coat that has a high collar and is cut like a parapet along the bottom, a white button-down shirt with two stylized crosses on it, basic blue slacks tucked into his boots, a white belt with a chain, and basic black boots with crisscrossing straps on the front of them.

He's also wearing a round white hat with a blue mark and has the muzzle of a lion stitched to his face, as well as blond hair.

"I hate to burst your bubble, but you shouldn't go marrying the Golden Goose."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Absalom asked as the ghost from the Sunny floated down.

"We have eight guests with bounties on their heads including that woman." The ghost spoke in a females voice. "Her captain is worth 300 million Berries and another is worth 378 million."

"If their bounties are that high, they must be tough," Absalom said as Hogback turned to him.

"We have to go all out on this one. And that means no chasing skirts. We'll be having a busy night tonight."

Inside the mansion, Usopp argues with Nami in the hallway about the invisible man in the bathroom.

Nami's now wearing a pink, long-sleeved sweater with a white collar, a pleated brown mini-skirt, and brown high-heeled boots.

"They don't exist Nami!"

"Then who the hell grabbed me back there?!"

Usopp then went on about how zombies and other abnormal phenomenons that occurred were not real, except for Brook because of his devil fruit. "Everything else is impossible, right Chopper? Come on, back me up!"

"If you're looking at this from a medical point of view, then you're correct… There should be an explanation for all this stuff. Then again, if Dr. Hogback's work on the island is important enough he would give up his life… Maybe the natural order of things has turned upside down on this island."

Nami tries to tell Chopper that he trusts Hogback too much, but Chopper defends him and asks the two proof that Hogback has a connection to those zombies. Nami argues that it is obvious, even calling Hogback the "King of Zombies". Usopp stops the two from arguing further, and Chopper went ahead to talk to Hogback to clear things out, with Usopp and Nami following.

And missed the eyes of the portraits following them. They arrive in the dining room but it is pitch black, and that no one was there. Suddenly, the light went on, and they saw Hildon hanging upside down.

"Dr. Hogback and Cindry have already gone to bed," Hildon said to them before Usopp got mad for leaving them in the middle of the graveyard. "I'm sorry for doing that. Out of nowhere I really had to go to the bathroom." He said before flying to a hallway to take them to a bedroom.

Nami and Usopp refused to believe his excuses, saying that they plan to leave; Chopper is reluctant, saying that he wants to talk to Hogback one more time.

"Looks like you bungled it Hildon."

They heard a voice belonging to a woman before looking to see it came from inside a portrait as her mouth was moving whole berating Hildon, shocking the three pirates. The woman came out of the portrait, shocking them further, and grabs Chopper. "You're so cute I could swallow you whole right now!"

The other zombies attack them, with one taxidermy zombie pig got up and threw a sword at Usopp hitting a bearskin rug. "It is not the painting you have to worry about but I, the captain of the zombies!"

The Bear-skin rug zombie attacks Usopp, thinking that Usopp was the one who stabbed him and throws him, making him hang on the chandelier. Overwhelmed, Usopp threw a candle at the zombie, setting it on fire. "Eat this!"

The other zombies try to attack him, but Usopp retaliates by throwing all the candles at them, giving the three a chance to escape. "Nami, Chopper. Open the door!"

They ran to the door, only to find that the door is locked, trapping them inside the mansion while the zombies start to recover, wanting to get revenge on them. The three ran away and was pushed into a fire escape that turned around and into a hallway. They ran from more zombies, screaming down the hall. They then ran into a bedroom that was full of pictures of a smiling Cindry with tan skin.

Nami then sees a large book and reads it aloud with it being about Cindry's past of being an actress of how she died on the stage scaring Usopp and Chopper.

"T-T-That can't be real! She's outside, she was serving us!"

"If that article is true… She must have come back from the dead! There's no other answer! What if all those zombies we saw, they were people and animals who died and were brought back to life?!" Chopper asked hooves on his face.

Usopp trips over what looks like a large treasure chest and went to open it. "AAH!"

Only for it to really be a jack-in-the-box with a large zombie in it. All of them then bolt out of the room and ran down the hall. Another zombie then walked down the hall. "Ryuma?" One painting asked as Ryuma came into the light.

Ryuma has white hair tied in a top knot, several bandages covering part of his skull face, which has no eyes and no nose and is wearing a samurai gi with intricate designs. He's also wearing geta sandals, as well as a blue stomach band with a swirling design. Ryuma's mouth is partially covered by a blue scarf he's wearing, and he has a katana strapped to his right hip.

Its hand-guard has flower-like edges. It also has no accessories on the hilt, being wrapped with black silk. The Kashira, tsuba and kojiri end cap are golden, and the sheath is black, decorated with dark red circles split into even thirds.

"It seems some lost lambs have wandered into the mansion." Ryuma said as he continued to walk towards where the Crew ran off in.

"You're just in time!"

"But never fear… I shall herd them up... Yohohoho!" Ryuma finished laughing like Brook.

In the forest with the others, they continued walking in the woods with Cerberus with Sanji yelling at Luffy on not inviting anyone else to join the crew. Robin spoke up scratching the head she was by about the injuries, stitches, and numbers tattooed on the dog and other creatures they've seen and figures they're working together.

Suddenly, the ghost flew to them getting Luffy to scream out as two more joined it.

"Oh, hell no!" Gina yelled hiding behind Naruto.

Luffy tried to catch it, only for it to phase through him, Zoro and Franky having them gained an extremely depressed aura and how they're not fit to live.

"Shit." Naruto cursed as one ghost flew to him, only to reel back as Kurama's cloak covered him.

They then left and after a few minutes, the others got back up, depression gone and continued on their way through the forest before coming to a graveyard. Suddenly, a zombie came out of the ground, only for Luffy to walk over, and push him back in before he, as well as others, jumped out of the ground.

Everyone then started to attack before ending with a team attack on the group of zombies. "10 Oku Beru Jakkupotto! (One Billion Berry Jackpot!)"

Back inside the mansion, the Crew heard Hogback laughing before seeing a cracked door and peeked inside. And saw him operating on a dead man with Cindry. "Behold Cindry, the work of a genius!"

Cindry just dryly hoped the machine would blow up before wishing every plate would break and dropped noodle soup on the table from a bag. The others did wonder if Cindry really did die and looked at the large body with the number 741 on an armband on his left bicep.

"Yohohoho!"

They turned to see Ryuma and gained a scared look. "Good evening… What's the matter? If you're going to stare, you might as well go inside."

"That wasn't Brook, was it?" Chopper asked, thinking the laugh was from Brook at first before Ryuma laughed again.

"Yohohohohoho!"

To Be Continued.

A/N: Thanks for reading and let me know of any mistakes.

Beta: Memodo Shiki.

OK, this was a little long partly due to looking up reviews/thoughts on this arc, it's also not anyone's favorite. At least the ones I came across. But like me that could be just them thinking every arc up to a certain one after Ennis Lobby to be meh so I decided on doing a longer chapter. Now I don't think I'll do long Ch's after this due to me kinda going back and forth on if Naruto should fight someone, fight an O.C, or just help when needed.

As I believe (And correct me if I'm wrong.) for the CANON arcs for this story I just had Naruto step aside, take someone's second fight, an example would be in my first story I had Naruto fight Blueno instead of Luffy, and of course take Luffy's fights in the movies, fillers, and possibly for any future OVAs.

Remember to vote in the poll if you haven't!

Nothing else to say.

Talk To You Later,

Lone Wolf Out.