I do not own Naruto or One Piece. If I did, well I would definitely be a better artist than I am right now.
"Talk"Talking
'Think' Thinking
"You have got to be kidding me." Naruto whispered to himself, his face twisted in horror and his right eye twitching.
Jinbe only gave his student a loud laugh while he watched the blond twitching as his mind digested what he told him. Five years after the incident with Wapol he watched his student grow by leaps and bounds. Sitting before him was not the eight year old boy with the power of a Sea King, but a fifteen year old young man that was highly respected within the Fishman Karate Dojo, and if he was being true to himself the son that he never had.
Leaning back as he continued to watch the blond wig out at a certain talk he took in the changes he went through. No longer was he the pipsqueak that constantly wore his karate gi that had the temper of a wolverine, but instead he was a tall teenager wearing an open blue vest that revealed his muscled torso, tan pants, and black open-toed sandals. But the only eye raiser was the gigantic anchor that was turned into a double-headed axe strapped to his back, and with the way the small ship was tilting it showed how heavy it was, and white training tape wrapped around his right fist and forearm.
"So that's how we are all born?" Naruto asked before placing his hand on his forehead in disbelief.
"That is correct Naruto-kun. In order for our species to continue on living a mermaid, or merman should they allow it can split their tails at an early age to reproduce, and for the giant species with practice they could shrink down to a normal size in order-"
"I get it!" The blond interrupted him with a red face. "Our kind has complicated mating procedures, I know that now! But what I don't get is why you're explaining the fish and the mermaids to me."
"Naruto-kun you're at that age where your body starts changing, soon you will start thinking about girls, and you will grow taller, and wake up with morning-"
"Boss!"
Laughing at his apprentice Jinbe leaned against the mast of the small ship before his face went from jovial, to serious in a split second, alerting the blond that whatever he was about to say was serious. "Me teaching you about reproduction aside, do you know why I pulled you out of class once again?"
"I honestly have no idea boss, the last time you brought me out it was to keep watch on some pirate activity around Summer Island, and I ended up having an anchor landing on my head because of it." Naruto replied as he patted the axe on his back.
Clearing his throat the whale shark fishman explained pointed out at the sea. "Because I'm on a mission to deal with a certain menace to the World Government."
"You mean assassinate." The blond clarified.
"Unfortunately, but I won't kill this man." Seeing his student raise an eyebrow Jinbe explained his soon to be future actions. "You see Naruto-kun this man has been an ally of Fishman Island for over twenty years, almost a decade after Kisame's heroic death another battalion of pirates descended upon Fishman Island. But this time it was a human who stopped them before they could even start, and during all of it he proclaimed the fishmen as his friends and claimed the island as one of his territories. In fact he shared a drink with Neptune and afterwards no pirate has ever attempted to attack our people ever again."
"Well whoever he is this man has done a piss poor job at using his name to protect my parents." Naruto retorted, only to receive an extremely hard punch to the top of his head. Letting out a yelp of pain he rubbed the forming knot before glaring at Jinbe, this wasn't the first time he got hit on the head for his language, or his lingering bitterness towards humans, but damn did it hurt!
"You better hold your tongue about the most powerful pirate since Gold Roger boy, he may be an old man but he can still kick your ass around the world faster than you can say Devil Fruit."
"Wait a freaking second, Boss you're telling me that we're going to see Whitebeard!" The tiger shark fishman bellowed in surprise.
"Looks like my lessons about the Three Great Powers have stuck with you even now." Jinbe smirked at him. "But you are correct, I was assigned to try and kill him because of my species, but I will not do that. Not after everything he has done for us."
"But why see him anyways? The man can visit the island anytime he wants to right?"
"Whitebeard hasn't been to the island in a long time, and truthfully I doubt that he will ever set foot on it again with his age catching up to him."
"Then how will we find the man?" Naruto asked. "There are thousands of miles that lead to nowhere, and the new world is highly volatile with unpredictable weather conditions and other things that just can't be explained."
"Just leave that to me Naruto-kun." Jinbe replied.
(Five days later)
Several days passed until Naruto finally saw the imposing ship anchored at an island that held the strongest man in the world. Unlike the Marine ships that he usually saw, this was a monster sized battleship with a blue whale figurehead. From what he saw, it held four gigantic masts on its deck and a row of fifteen cannons on each side that looked like they could sink a ship with one shot.
To his surprise the two fishmen were invited onto the battle ship, and immediately Naruto felt like he was suffocating. The sheer power that came from the crew members was horrifying, but after seeing Whitebeard just sitting on what looked like a gigantic chair with hooked up to numerous oxygen tubes, intravenous tubes and life support systems in his enormously muscular body, but despite that the suffocating aura he was giving off nearly made him faint. But Jinbe, who seemed unaffected, reached into his karakusa and pulled out a gigantic jug of what Naruto thought to be saki…high quality and expensive saki.
"Whitebeard, at long last we finally meet." Jinbe greeted the strongest man in the world.
"Jinbe "The Knight of the Sea"." Whitebeard's deep voice echoed in everyone's ears. "Never in my life did I think you would seek me out for a drink." As foreboding as his voice sounded the elderly man gave him a smile, "Come forward we have much to discuss."
Without a moment of hesitation the whale shark fishman gently nudged his student on the shoulder and stepped forward. The two sat down in front of the giant man and poured the alcoholic beverage into two gigantic saucers, the three sat in silence as the two opposing sides of the law clanked the saucers together and drank for several minutes.
"I suppose this isn't a friendly visit. More than likely you were sent here like a dog by your masters to take care of me because of your race." Whitebeard broke the silence with the blunt truth.
"You are correct." Jinbe calmly replied. "But as you can see I have no intention of going through with it, not after what you have done for my people."
"I'm glad you think that way, it would have crushed me to harm you in front of your pupil." Seeing Whitebeard's yellow eyes gaze upon him Naruto couldn't help but gulp as the Yonko seemed to size him up. Then after a few seconds he let out a hearty laugh, "The boy has fire in his eyes, you picked a good one Jinbe."
"I'm not all that great; I still got a lot to learn." Naruto nervously responded.
"Nonsense boy, what I see in you is something powerful. Otherwise you wouldn't have been able to lift that weapon of yours, mind if I see it for a second?" Nodding in response Naruto handed the pirate captain his giant axe so he could get a good look at it. With an expert view he weighed it with one hand and immediately deduced it to weigh around five tons, an impressive feat for a fishman his age. Settling his eyes on it he saw to his confusion that it was an admiralty anchor that was missing the arms at the end of the shackle, but underneath the stock were two razor sharp stainless steel pieces of metal that formed into axe heads. "Impressive, to turn a simple anchor into a weapon such as this. With a little more work I'm sure it would be a weapon for the ages."
"More work? What's wrong with it?" Naruto frowned as he took his weapon back.
"It just needs work." Whitebeard replied.
"Naruto-kun, Whitebeard and I need to discuss some important issues. I'll meet you back at the ship."
"Nonsense Jinbe let the lad see the ship. After all it's not every day someone sees the Moby Dick inside and out."
Twisting his face into a confused and disgruntled look Naruto nodded in response and left the two to do their business. And with nothing to do he followed Whitebeard's advice and looked around the ship, and he must say he was highly impressed with everything about it. Unlike some pirate ships he saw over the years when Jinbe dragged him along on a few of his assignments, they were filthy and some were barely staying afloat. The Moby Dick was well cleaned, and several shipwrights were obsessively looking over the walls and the floorboards sketching down the conditions and future improvements.
While he was idling through one of the many hallways the blond silently observed the crew members. For humans they were well behaved, granted several of them were horsing around, a couple were drinking and even a few were sparring against each other while others were cleaning the floors or the various weapons. But one man caught his eye…no not a man, a fishman.
Ducking into the nearest hallway Naruto peered his head out to observe the shark fishman, as evidenced by his shark-like teeth, but Naruto could not tell his species. He also had a scar or a mark in the shape of a lightning bolt on the left side of his face and fangs protruding from his lower jaw, similar to his boss. He was somewhat short and rotund in shape, and his hair was arranged in spikes pointing upwards. He had the number eight tattooed to the left of his neck, and wore a white t-shirt with sky blue sleeves with an orange colored star logo for the Criminal brand, an outrageous store that sold the most expensive clothing brand he ever saw in his life on his chest. He also wore standard grey pants held up by a belt, and was barefooted.
Naruto couldn't believe what he was seeing, a fishman of all people in a human pirate crew. Due to his previous experiences he figured that to be an impossibility, but his eyes were not deceiving him. And when the fishman turned his back on him to head off to who knows where the blond saw the shark fin protruding from his back. The blond followed him as discretely as possible, ducking behind corners, and blending in with a large group of pirates whenever he could.
After fifteen minutes the tiger shark fishman found his back pressed against the entrance to the cargo room where he saw the fishman enter. And to his immense shock Naruto saw him chatting it up with three men of various ages.
The first person he was leaning against a wall was a broad-chested muscular tan man around Jinbe's height with a curly black mustache and a dark blue top hat on top of his black curly hair with an earring in each ear. He was wearing a semi-open dark blue shirt with a white diamond stripe pattern near the top that revealed some of his hairy chest, as well as a cape that matches the color of his shirt and white gloves. He was also wearing light blue pants with a belt that held two sword sheaths that held two sabers with purple hilts.
The second was a teenager with wavy black hair and childish freckles sitting on a large crate. He wore an yellow open-front shirt, black boots, black knee-length shorts with an eyelet-studded orange belt, and a blue pouch belted around his left leg. Oddly enough he also wore a short second belt with a large red "A" on the silver buckle over his right hip, but left it unfastened and threaded the free end along the back of his shorts, and a dagger in a green sheath hung at his left hip. But the coolest thing he was wearing by far was a red beaded necklace and an orange hat with two blue smileys, one frowning and one smiling, and a string of red beads sitting above the rim. Two long orange side straps hung down sides of his hat and met at a large medallion of a bull's skull with orange tassels.
The third was a tall brown-haired man with a pompadour hairstyle, that went to a point at the back of his head, and a black goatee around his chin leaning against the crate. He also had a stitched scar running down his face, around his left eye. The man was also dressed in a white posh uniform, with calf-long pants, a black belt around his waist, a yellow scarf and black shoes.
The fourth and final person leaning against the other wall was a lean yet muscular, blond-haired man with a rather sleepy look and some stubble around his chin. He was wearing a simple open purple jacket and a light blue sash adorned with an elaborate golden-yellow belt around his waist. He had dark gray knee-long pants and black sandals, and on his left leg he was wearing what appears to be some sort of straw decoration. Looking closely Naruto saw that he had Whitebeard's second Jolly Roger that looked like a cross and crescent moon mustache symbol on it.
Almost immediately Naruto broke out into a cold sweat. Just like Whitebeard he felt the sheer power rolling off them, they were a dangerous bunch, and he felt that this would not be a good time to try and talk to them. So slowly, very slowly the blond backed away until he felt his back hit something solid. Feeling his sweat fall from his head he slowly turned before his eyes bugged out.
Behind him was an extremely tall, very muscular, broad-chested, heavily-armored and dark-skinned man. He had a long battle-hardened face with a perpetual scowl with black stripe-like patterns for a beard and hairstyle. His legs are relatively thin in comparison to his muscular arms. He also wore dark armor with red-bolted darl shoulder pads. On his chest he has a green cuirass, whose front and back portions are connected by metal straps that go over both his collarbones. Around his waist there was a big, elaborated golden belt, worn over what looked like a green skirt with golden decorations near the edge. He also wore what looked like studded, black and gold large-buckled shoes or boots and matching black studded pants.
"Well look who we have here." The giant man's gruff voice said as he grabbed him by his axe and lifted him into the air. "It looks like we got a rat boys!"
"There is no need to over exaggerate Jozu we all felt him coming from a mile away." The pompadour hair-styled man said in a jovial tone.
"Put the boy down and join us old friend, we were about to continue last week's topic." The swordsman continued before pulling out a mug from a nearby rack, reached over to a barrel of and turned the tap letting the alcoholic drink pour out into his mug.
"That one was stupid Vista." The man known as Jozu pointed out. "The only one who even pulled some sort of prank was Ace here, I find that type of stuff childish, Namur won't even comment about it and Marco only burned a house down by accident."
"Pfft is that all? I bet I could entertain you with all the crap I've done." Naruto spoke up. Why he did it, he honestly didn't know, but it probably had something to do with his prankster pride that was pretty infamous on Fishman Island.
"Oh really now?" This time it was the teenager named Ace who spoke up. "Now what kind of pranks have you ever done? Was it graffiti or pansing someone?"
A gigantic toothy smile soon came to the blonds face. "No, I single handedly defaced the Royal Knight's armor."
"I call bullshit!" Namur barked out, surprising the pirates within the room to look at the normally quiet fishman. "The Royal Knights have been trained to be on constant alert; there is no way a kid like you could even pull that off."
"Well then, pull up a crate I have a story to tell you all…provided gigantor doesn't kill me." Naruto replied with a twinge of nervousness.
A few hours later the six were found laughing like old friends who haven't seen each other in years. With some alcohol flowing through their systems the oldest members of Whitebeard's crew were quite literally falling over themselves, even the serious Jozu was cracking a few chuckles.
"Neon pink armor? That is hilarious man!" Ace bellowed out as tears of mirth fell from his eyes.
"I liked it when he put itching powder in their clothes." Thatch wiped a tear away from his right eye before drowning his mug of rum.
"While I'm not fond of sword vandalism I can't help but find the funny." Vista admitted, but kept his hands on the hilts of his swords just in case.
"I just can't believe the Royal Knights have gone soft after all these years." Namur said. "Before Whitebeard came along they would never let something like that happen. I mean if a child could do it, then an assassin could-"
"That's the point I was trying to make actually." Naruto interrupted him, "I owe them so much for taking me in, it's the least I could do weather they know about it or not."
"That's noble of you kid." Jozu said.
"But what I find interesting is that Jinbe of all people helped train you to become the young man you are today. I mean the man is considered a legend in some parts of the world." Marco commented.
"I'll say he and I fought for five straight days that ended in a tie." Ace offhandedly commented.
"You fought Boss Jinbe into a tie?" Naruto questioned the freckled teenager.
"Yes I did, he was one of the best opponents in my entire life."
"That's impossible, no disrespect Ace but I find it hard to believe that you could fight toe-to-toe with my mentor."
Feeling quite insulted Ace glared at the blond before jumping to his feet. "Is that so? Well little miss anchor carrier I doubt you have ever faced anyone of his caliber, let alone mine."
"Is that a challenge I hear freckle-face?" Naruto demanded.
"You bet your ass it is! I'm going to fight you, and show you that I ain't no liar."
"…what the fuck just happened?" Namur deadpanned as the two teenagers bolted out of the room.
(On the deck of the Moby Dice, three minutes later)
"What the hell is going on here?" Whitebeard demanded when he saw Ace and Naruto run by both Jinbe and himself, before leaping onto the sandbar of the island they were anchored at.
"It looks like a fight." One of the crew members remarked.
Jinbe however looked on with confusion when he saw his student stretch his legs out, and to his immense surprise the one and only Portgas D. Ace was there as well. "Whitebeard, what is the Captain of the Spade Pirates doing here?"
"Oh you didn't know? I fought him after a scuffle he had with another enemy, the boy put up quite a fight despite his weakened condition, but I defeated him in the end."
"And brought him on your ship?" The whale shark fishman questioned. "He was rumored to be after your head, was that really a wise idea?"
"Gurararara! The boy tried to kill a hundred times, but he's mellowed out in the last few months. Now I can happily say he's one of my sons." Whitebeard dismissed the fishman's worries with a wave of his powerful right hand. "Now let's cut the chatter, I'm eager to see the results of this fight."
(With Naruto and Ace on the deserted island)
"All right freckle-face I'll give you a chance to give up right now, there is no shame in that." Naruto boasted before cracking his neck.
"I was just about to say the same to you Blondie." Ace replied while he cracked his knuckles. "All right when the gun fires we start."
"…what gun? We just ran onto the beach." Naruto deadpanned.
Sweat-dropping Ace turned towards the Moby Dick and yelled. "Hey! Can one of you shoot a gun in a few seconds so we can start the fight!"
Almost immediately one of the crew members fired from his flintlock pistol and the fight officially began. Naruto was the first to bolt towards Ace at extreme speeds despite the gigantic anchor strapped to his back. Ace however saw that move coming a mile away and sidestepped the blond; the sound of metal clicking was his only warning before he found himself cut clean in half by one of the axe heads.
"Take that you…the shit?" Naruto's boasting was cut off when he saw his bifurcated opponent mend himself back together with flames. "Oh you son of a bitch! You're one of those damn devil fruit users!" he shouted at him before switching his axe into his left hand. The blond knew a little bit about devil fruits, that they made the people who ate them pretty damn powerful, and the only thing to beat them was with water, that was it.
"That's right Blondie; I ate the Flame-Flame Fruit. Good luck trying to hit me." Ace replied with a wide grin.
Reeling his right arm back Naruto gave him a shark-like grin. "Challenge accepted! Water Shot!" Thrusting his right arm forward he hurled a simple droplet of water at the fire-user.
"Heat Haze!" Ace fired back as he thrust his right arm out, shooting out a stream of fire from his palm of his hand.
The two attacks hit dead on, extinguishing each other into a small mist. Undeterred though, Naruto flexed his powerful leg muscles and flew right into the steam swinging his axe, just like before though it harmlessly passed through his opponent without harming him. "Come on Blondie, I already told you that you can't hit me with that thing!" Ace shouted at the tiger shark fishman.
"It was worth another shot freckle-face!" Naruto shot back. Looking at his axe he tossed it away where it landed on the sand with a loud crash and stretched his arms, "All right then I guess I'm going to have to try something new." With that said the tiger shark fishman bent his legs, jumped high into the air, and flew straight into the sand.
(On board the Moby Dick)
"Did your student just dive into the sand?" Whitebeard deadpanned.
"Yes…I wonder what is going through his head?" Jinbe scratched his bearded chin in confusion.
"Don't you know your own student's moves?" Namur asked as he neared the two of them with the other commanders in tow.
"I've only taught him the basics of water manipulation, extreme strength, endurance, and speed training and how to perfect several karate techniques he was having trouble with." The Knight of the Sea defended himself. "But recently he's been really secretive about them. So far there is only five that I know of, and that's when he reached level twenty in the dojo."
"So…this is really the first time you're seeing him in action." Marco questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"That is correct." Jinbe answered. "And I have faith that he'll exceed my expectations."
"Provided that he even lays a hand on Ace." Whitebeard commented when he saw the blond fishman leap out of the sand, and phase right through the former Captain of the Spade Pirates.
Hitting the ground once again Naruto bared his sharp teeth at the fire-user. He made it no secret that he thought lowly of devil fruit-users, and now he despised whatever kinda power Ace had that made him virtually immune to physical harm by conventional means. "Damn it all to hell." He muttered to himself.
"Come on Blondie is that all you've got? I thought a student of Jinbe would be more challenging!" Ace continued to taunt his opponent with that same damnable smile on his face.
"Shut up!" The blond roared. Tightening his leg muscles the tiger shark fishman sprang at the black-haired teenager, Naruto raised his right arm to clothesline Ace in the throat. And just like every physical attack he tried it just went right through him, however this time Ace pivoted on his right foot, and struck him straight in the back, lighting his vest, along with himself in a blaze.
Fortunately for Naruto the hit just sped up his momentum causing him to fly into the ocean, extinguishing the flames. Then everything was silent, dead silent, for several seconds no one dared to move. Then chaos erupted beneath the ocean, without any warning Naruto rose out of the water like an angry god of the sea. The water trailed off his tan skin to cool down the recent burns which resulted in the loss of his vest, and his blond hair mattered against his head, shielding his eyes.
But the rage was rolling off of him; everyone could see his already muscular frame increasing in size. Without a word Naruto raised his right arm and the sea obeyed spinning constantly in motion to the point where it was nothing but compactly pressured water spears. "Water Fang Bullet!" his voice whispered, as if a verbal command was given the sea water surged forward like attack dogs.
Immediately Ace went on the defensive, jumping away from the spirals of death that took massive chunks of wood from the palm trees. He jumped over one that tried to take him out at the knees, but to his shock it and several others changed their course of direction to impale him in midair. Fully knowing that he couldn't dodge them all at once he drew deep into himself, and exploded in a shower of flames. The two elements hit each other dead on creating a massive cloud of steam that covered the entire beach.
Naruto however wasn't done by a long shot, opening his mouth a powerful jet of water flew out at the shore. For the spectators they saw nothing but devastation as the technique dragged on for five straight minutes, leveling hundreds of trees and shattering boulders. When the adopted son of the Royal Family ended his water technique to catch his breath an enormous wall of fire flew through the thick mist forcing him to dive underneath the waves.
"What on God's green earth?" Whitebeard looked on in immense fascination, "Jinbe, that boy of yours…how is he doing that?"
"Naruto is…special." The Knight of the Sea replied, his voice betraying how baffled he was about this situation.
"No one is that special; it even takes prodigies decades to do what he did. How could a boy no older than fifteen perform such unique and deadly attacks?" Namur demanded.
"He trains." Jinbe solemnly responded. "Every day since he was eight years old he trained his heart out. From the many times I took him with me on my assignments he never stopped trying to improve himself. And his teachers have been reporting to me that he stays up to the brink of dawn practicing his techniques until he faints from exhaustion."
Vista was about to respond how unhealthy that was for one's body, but then a thick wall of fire that was as long as the beach itself erupted from the mist forcing Jinbe's student to dive under the water, and disappearing as steam blocked everything from sight.
"Those two are going to kill each other if this keeps up." Marco commented as the mist covered the entire ship.
"Not unless Ace ends this first." Whitebeard replied.
Unseen by the entire crew Naruto swam downwards until he hit the bottom. His hair flowing upwards to reveal his crimson eyes the fishman focused his energy, molding it around him like a spiraling sphere. With a growl that expelled a massive amount of bubbles from his mouth, the blond soared upwards onto the island still encased within the water.
Once he hit the beach the water surrounding him expelled in an outward motion, soaking the entire beach in sea water, no; not soaking it, flooding it. "Is that good enough for you freckle-face!" Naruto bellowed in response to Ace's earlier taunts.
His question was answered with a punch to the face that made him fly ten feet from where he was standing. Violently hitting the ground Naruto used the momentum to flip back onto his feet, "Son of a bitch." He spat out a mouthful of blood along with three of his teeth.
"I have to admit Blondie you surprised me." Ace emerged from the thick mist into the crimson-eyed teen's sight. He was missing his shirt, revealing a tattoo on his upper left bicep that spelled "ASCE" going vertically it with the "S" crossed out. But most importantly he soaked to the bone, nullifying his Devil Fruit powers. "But I'm afraid that all you've done was piss me off."
"I could say the same thing to you too." Naruto responded before cracking his knuckles. In response his opponent launched himself at him, punching out with his right fist. The tiger shark fishman caught it in a vice-like grip before throwing a punch with his only free hand, only for Ace to catch it his free hand leaving the two at a deadlock.
For a full minute the two were locked in a power struggle trying to overpower each other. Red eyes met black, and for that exact moment they saw everything that formed them into the men they were today, they both saw the hardships of their childhoods, the loss of someone close to them, and the hell they went through to get stronger.
The moment soon passed and Naruto reared his head back, head-butting Ace right in his nose. Hearing the crack of cartilage the blond beamed when he finally saw his opponent finally bleeding, but unlike a normal person who would hold his newly broken nose Ace reared his head back in retaliation, and smashed his forehead into the tiger shark fishman's nose, breaking it as well. Unlike Ace who shrugged it off Naruto kicked his square in the stomach, sending him out of his range of vision.
Cradling his bleeding nose in his right hand Naruto felt his knees shake and give out underneath him. His senses were going haywire, his hearing ringing, his eyes blurring into double vision. At times like this he cursed that he was one of the shark species, they didn't have many weaknesses except for their eyes, and sensitive noses. The blond shakily got to his feet to make a tactical retreat so he could recover long enough to get back into the fight.
Fate however had other plans in store. Bursting through the mist Ace reared his right fist back and slugged Naruto right in his cheek. Not letting up he plowed his left fist right into his stomach once, then a second time, a third time, and finally a fourth time before upper cutting the blond fishman right in the chin, causing his lower jaw to violently smash into his upper one, resulting in a loss of more teeth. The former Captain of the Spade Pirates brought his right fist back near his body, and threw a devastating blow the blond's chest, driving him back into the mist but not out of his range of sight.
Skidding through the wet, sloppy sand Naruto coughed in agony. Never in his life did he feel such pain, granted he managed to hurt his opponent, but he just turned around and damaged him two-fold. It was as infuriating as it was fun…yes for the first time in his entire life Naruto felt the thrill of battle, to stake his life in mortal combat.
"Hahaha oh God this is insane." He crackled to himself. "I can't stop here, I need to continue…I need more." Clenching his right fist to the point where his knuckles popped, Naruto started to rotate his shoulder, focusing his energy into his right fist. The mist began to disperse, swirling in almost a tornado-like fashion.
As the mist quickly started to disperse Ace narrowed his eyes as he saw his opponent gearing up for what looked like a powerful attack. But then a smirk came to his face as he felt his fire beginning to come back, forming his right hand into a fist he poured the power that came from the Devil Fruit into his hand, igniting it ablaze.
Without a word or hesitation the two dashed forward, raising their right fists up to attack.
"Whirlpool Breakthrough Fist!" Naruto roared before punching his arm forward.
"Fire Fist!" Ace shouted as his fire covered fist punched at his opponent.
The two attacks collided with such intensity that the ground underneath them simply disintegrated, the remaining trees tore away from the ground and caught fire, and the very sea itself evaporated in several places. The two opponents gritted their teeth when they felt their respective right fists cracking under the sheer intensity of their signature moves blinding the area in a white light, blinding the witnesses for the fight.
When the light cleared Ace was the only one left standing over the unconscious and defeated Uzumaki Naruto.
It would be a few hours later when Naruto opened his eyes. He didn't flinch or cry out in pain, mainly because his entire body was numb wit what he figured was morphine. Turning his head sideways the blond saw that he was in some sort of hospital room with a nurse checking over a chart clutched in her right hand.
She was a fairly tall, light-skinned woman with light brown eyes and straight blond hair that went to her waist with shoulder-length bangs framing both sides of her face tied off into two loose ponytails. She had a violet diamond tattoo squared on her forehead, something that Naruto found odd to see on a nurse. Attire wise she was wearing a pink nurses uniform that certainly didn't hide her bust from view, black stockings, and a pink nurses hat. "Oh I see you're awake." She greeted him with a bored voice.
"Yea, I guess I am." Naruto responded. Planting his hands in the mattress he pushed himself up into a sitting position, and looking downwards he noticed that his ribs were bandaged up. "Aw man, what's the damage nurse?"
"Four cracked ribs, some mild second degree burns on your back and shoulders, numerous bruises on your torso and cheek, and of course the loss of all but two of your teeth." The nurse replied, almost as if she rehearsed it beforehand. "Just take it easy for two weeks, regrow your teeth, and you will be fine. Take care brat." She continued before departing to tend to her captain.
"…Cool as a ice." The blue-eyed teen deadpanned before lying back down on his back. Staring up at the wooden ceiling he contemplated on the fight that…he lost. Huh, honestly he didn't know how to feel about that. Ever since he lost his family he only looked out for himself, and that involved a lot of fighting, he never lost a single fight, not until today. It was a sort of relief, but it was also something that made him extremely uneasy.
"Hey Blondie, are you awake?" A voice cut him cut him out of his thoughts. Turning his head again Naruto saw Ace, looking as messed up as he, only he had a crutch under his right arm standing at the door along with Jinbe. "Hey mind if we come and see ya?"
"I don't see why not."
"Even injured and defeated you still have that mouth on you." Jinbe remarked before he stood by the foot of his student's bed. "How are you holding up?"
"Like I got the living hell beat out of me." Naruto retorted. "God Ace, even without those damn powers of yours you're no push over."
"Haha well you were a relentless one." Ace scratched the back of his head and laughed sheepishly. "Seriously, I've seen a few fishmen fight before. But you are something different, I have never seen anyone stand on top of water before, or command it without touching it."
"I was also surprised Naruto-kun." Jinbe added his two cents. "I knew you were training hard, but to progress this far in such a short time is just astounding, you should be at least level thirty eight instead of level twenty-nine."
"Maybe you could hold a demonstration for the higher ups, you know show them that you've progressed onwards while you've been traveling with Jinbe." Ace added in his two cents. "You stood toe to toe with me so that has to count for something."
"We'll see what happens. But I won't be able to do anything strenuous for two weeks, freaking doctors' orders." Naruto narrowed his eyebrows, and immaturely pouted.
"Hahaha! I know what you mean." The raven-haired teen patted the pouting tiger shark fishman on his right shoulder. "The nurse told me that your back bruised my right foot. Tell me, how hard is that back of yours?"
"It wasn't my back per say. What you kicked, and set on fire was a gigantic magnet on the back of my vest. "
"A freaking magnet! Blondie, don't pull my leg."
"How else do you explain a gigantic anchor magically hanging on my back?" Naruto deadpanned. "The tailor painstakingly wove small, but powerful magnets into that vest…now it's gone-" before he could continue his rant, Jinbe thunked the blond on the head, adding another bruise to his injuries.
"Quit your bellyaching Naruto-kun." The Knight of the Sea berated his student. "It was an unfortunate accident, but it can be replaced. But now onto serious matters…what else have you been holding back from me you little sneak."
The loud gulping noise coming from Naruto's throat did little to diminish Ace's howling laughter.
After resting on the Moby Dick for the night the entire Whitebeard crew stood upon her deck to bid their visitors farewell. It honestly surprised Naruto that some of the most powerful men in the entire sea were bawling their eyes out seeing the two of them leave, but then again the person who beat the living hell out of him was a narcoleptic, so he guessed that there was no right to judge the others either.
When Jinbe and himself boarded their small ship the blond looked up to see Ace waving his right arm. They gave each other a nod of acknowledgement seeing a shark tooth strung over their necks; it didn't seem like much but those two teeth held a promise of each other to fight again one day.
And after a week of sailing the two fishmen arrived on the island and that was pretty much it. Jinbe took off to report his findings to Fleet Admiral Kong, and to drop off his student's weapon at the blacksmiths with a list of written instructions, while Naruto was literally forced to relax in the palace, he tried to escape several times and almost succeeded too if it wasn't for Iruka capturing him on Jinbe's request before leaving. While it completely blew that he had another week of recovery left, Naruto had to admit that it wasn't too bad, at least he finally got to see two of his adopted brothers several years after Otohime was assassinated.
Ryoboshi didn't look like he changed all that much, aside from being taller, thinner, and two rapiers that were held by his behind him. But despite those minor changes he was more upbeat and jovial than he remembered which caused him to feel a little better since being gloomy was not the way he wanted to see his second oldest brother. Manboshi also didn't change either, he was still the same size and shape, but he was carrying a sheathed longsword that looked awkward for his body type, but he looked capable of using it to his fullest extent.
"So Naruto is it true? Is it true that you met the infamous Whitebeard?" Manboshi demanded with a great amount of glee in his voice.
"Yes."
"Was he strong? Did you see him fight?"
"He felt strong, and no I didn't see him fight."
"Was his crew strong?"
"They are probably the best of the best."
Placing his hands over his brothers mouth Ryoboshi temporary shut his brother up for the time being. "Okay Manboshi I believe that's enough questions from you, now it's my turn so-la-si-do!" He finished his sentence in an odd musical tone that made the blond raise an eyebrow. "Did you fight someone?"
"What do you think?" Naruto pointed at his bandaged ribs.
"Oh, right. Who did you fight?"
"A human, by the name of Portgas D. Ace."
"Did you win?"
"No."
"No!" Manboshi bellowed out in surprise.
"Yes."
"So you did win?"
Palming his face Naruto shook his head, exactly wondering how thick-headed his brother was. "No Manboshi, I put up a good fight. But in the end I got my ass kicked."
Raising an eyebrow into his hairline Ryuboshi placed his right hand under his chin in thought. While he was silly, and acted goofy the second son of Neptune was far from stupid. The same could be said for Manboshi, but he was an airhead at times, and unlike him Ryuboshi could put two and two together almost instantly. "So you lost." He simply said.
Ignoring Manboshi's stunned look, Naruto simply nodded in response. He wasn't ashamed to admit a loss to a powerful enemy, especially when it showed him that while he was one if the strongest in the dojo, that didn't mean jack shit outside of the island where people were in a whole other league. "So how is Shirahoshi?"
"She's been doing well for the most part, Father, Manboshi and I have been visiting her as often as we can. But with Vander Decken still on the loose, we can't even allow her to leave the tower yet."
"What about Fukaboshi. Where has he been all these years?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You don't know? Brother Fukaboshi has been training in the art of Merman Combat." Manboshi answered his question with his ever increasing wide grin.
"Merman Combat? I'm sorry, but what the hell are you talking about?"
"Language little brother." Ryuboshi chided his adopted brother with a wagging finger, even though it only gave him a glare in return. "Naruto, Merman Combat is a fighting style used by us merfolk. It is used underwater and involves manipulating the water with their hands as if it were something tangible to use for long ranged attacks. It is in essence, the merfolk equivalent of Fishman Karate."
Before Naruto could even question where someone went to learn Merman Combat. Manboshi spoke up before he could, "So Naruto, Shirahoshi's twelfth birthday is coming up in a week. Are you going to see her this time?"
"I can't." He gritted out through his teeth. "Those bastard guards refuse to let me see her, not until I reach level forty in the dojo."
"That's preposterous! You're part of the family, and you should have-"
"I can't do shit!" Naruto barked at Ryuboshi. "I may be part of the family, but I'm not of royal blood, nor am I in line for the throne. But I'm fine with that, it may take a few more years, but I will see her one day." He finished with an almost unnoticeable sigh of sadness in his voice, before looking down at his lap.
Unknown to him his two adopted brothers moved their eyes sideways, and quickly nodded to each other.
Four days later Naruto found himself in sitting in a hard chair across Fuguki's desk in his office. Normally this was not a big deal, since he was always getting chewed out for being absent months at a time, despite having a written excuse from Jinbe himself. But the feeling in his gut was telling that he was in for a different reason.
Fuguki's glaring black eyes peered into his student's blue ones with a mixture of disinterest and a small amount of disgust. For in his webbed hands were pieces of paper, and written on them was a request from the two youngest sons of Neptune, and The Knight of the Sea. Both were put into a very well-written, if not sophisticated demand for him to promote Naruto up to level forty, fairly of course. Since, from the latter's accounts Naruto was more far along in his training than everyone thought he was, and the former was to help mend their family.
"Uzumaki." He began to get the blonds attention. "Here in my hands are three requests for you to be promoted to level forty. I for one think this is nothing more than rubbish!" And he demonstrated his ire by crushing the papers in his right hand, and tossed them into the trash. "These requests will be denied due to the lack of proper evidence is presented before me."
"If you lack proper evidence then I will give it." Naruto said to the puffer fish fishman. "I do see where you're coming from Fuguki-sensei, you hate special privileges. You want to see the people who come in here, sweat tears, blood, and mold themselves into something you would be proud of." His blue eyes glared into his black ones, but unlike the other times he did not flinch when he met his gaze. "Whatever decision you make today I will follow it without any complaint."
Minutes passed by without the two of them moving, much less breathing. They just stared at each other, almost peering into each others souls. What Naruto saw was a disciplined warrior, who fought against those who wished to harm him, and the bitterness that turned him into the person he was today. But for Fuguki he saw something that gave him pause, what he saw was a raging power stored within the blond's body, and desire, pure desire to protect those who were important to him. And for the first time, Fuguki felt a twinge of respect flow through his bitter body.
"All right Uzumaki, you have convinced me that you should get at least a chance. I want you to come back tomorrow at noon, and I want you to come into the main dojo. There you will have to complete three tests, pass all three and you will have your rank." The puffer fish fishman said.
"You won't regret this sensei." Naruto promised him.
Armageddon: Hey my faithful reviewers.
Pvt. Liquor: Where the hell were you! Last time it took only a few weeks, but it's been two months man. MONTHS!
Pvt. VFSNAKE: *bops the obviously drunk Private over the head, which only caused him to belch loudly* No more eggnog for you.
Sgt. Shadowtrayster: Hahaha! Good times.
Pvt. Leaf Ranger: So, what are you going to do next boss?
Armageddon: Well I'm going to give this fic a rest for now, seriously I need to update my other ones and stop being a...well I've been busy, but I have been procrastinating badly. Sorry about that folks.
Pvt. Gold: Eh, shit happens boss. The fans know you don't mean for it to happen.
Pvt. Superninja: Exactly, just chill boss, you're stressed enough as it is.
Armageddon: Yea, you guys are right.
Lt. RasenganFin/Lt. Doom/Pvt. DemonShifter: Well boss, got anything else to say? Oi! Stop copying me. Hey, I said stop copying me! *grows at each other and starts an animated fistfight, gigantic dust clouds and all, which pulls everyone else inside it*
Armageddon: *bursts out laughing, since we all had too much eggnog* Nothing really. Except Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa, and any other holiday you guys celebrate this time a year. Now if you'll excuse me I got to get into this action. *jumps into the gigantic animated dust cloud to join the fight*