I don't own Naruto or One Piece. Honestly I tried, but they wouldn't go for it, and you know why!?...Well mainly because I cannot afford the rights, damn you all to hell!
"Talk" Talking.
'Think' Thinking.
After escaping from Loguetown we stopped in a town called...actually I cannot remember what it was called. Hmm...well whatever. Bashura went and got us a Log Pose so we wouldn't get lost...anymore than we were at the time. Gin and Kotetsu got us some ammunition for the ship, Carmen got us a lot of food that wasn't spam. And I delivered a letter to my darling little sister who was more than likely crying her head off that I was waaaay over two weeks late, if I ever got a chance I would send her a letter to let her know how close I was to getting home. My first letter was...censored, no need for her to know that I killed Arlong's crew, Captain Nezumi and most of his crew, Captain Stark and most of his crew, and pretty much recruiting two wanted men tied to so many murders.
After delivering that letter I was attacked by Smoker, that sumbitch caught me, but by some miracle I managed to trick him into a good old fist fight. I have to admit Smoker could throw a wicked right hook, but I managed to beat him...for now, ugh my jaw still throbs when I think about it. But after escaping and learning that Gin and Kotetsu had their own fights we went into this sort of...well I was made Captain of the ship. I know right? Me as the Captain to them, it was laughable, I tried to have Gin take the reigns but he became the First Mate. So I reluctantly took the position, I mean it couldn't be that hard right?
A few days later we found ourselves on Cactus Island, the last island before we sail into the Grand Line. We docked there after getting the warmest welcome imaginable we were lead to the bar where we met with the Straw Hat Pirates...yea believe it or not we ran into those idiots again. To my even greater surprise Carmen knew their perverted chef, and as I later learned Luffy was the first person to beat Don Krieg, and apparently their chef saved his life. I know I cannot believe it either, but Gin swears upon his life that it was true. Ahem, but I guess I'm getting off track again, well while my crew was mingling with the others; Carmen hitting Sanji over the head with her fan while Gin laughed at him, Bashura apparently gained a dislike of Usopp for being a liar, and Kotetsu and Zoro were drinking and bonding over their love of swordsmanship (And Kotetsu apologizing over a ruckus he caused in Logue Town when Magara made another appearance, not my story to tell).
I was enjoying the food and drink, but then I was interrupted by Nami and Luffy. Lets say it didn't go well. Nami thought I was enslaving Gin and the others (Ha! Yea right!), I know where she is coming form...all right not really, I was never enslaved, but I do understand how deep the wounds of memory are, God knows I have my fair share of them when Queen Otohime was shot in front of me, I still have nightmares about it.
...And I got offtrack again. Um, anyways I defended myself and regaled exactly how I met them all, from Kotetsu to Carmen. I was honest about it, Luffy however got offended that I killed Kuro saying it was unnecessary. If you heard anything about the man that was not from my journal, I can tell you that is bullshit! After he got his ass whooped he would go back to the Gecko Islands and kill everyone, they left that place defenseless, and if I didn't come along everyone would have been massacred. Killing him was justifiable, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. The same goes for Don Krieg, well no one bitched about that, but Nami tried to strong arm me into sharing the bounty with her. Fat chance of that happening, I left to smoke.
I am not going to lie, smoking is a bad habit, I honestly shouldn't have picked it up but besides saying I was under a lot of stress, I was unused to everything that wasn't Fishman Island, and I was...I was weak. I swore that I would quit it sooner than later. But if it wasn't for smoking I wouldn't have seen her. She saw me, and I chased her through the town, chased her up a building, and then literally pulled her down through the roof. From there we kinda crashed through I think two floors of that house (I hit my head a few times so I lost track) until we landed onto of a bed where she straddled me.
Yea it was awkward, especially when that familiar blue hair and brown eyes that haunted my own dreams for many years since the last Reverie (but not the reasons you would expect) were looking into mine. In that bed was Nefeltari Vivi, the only daughter of King Nefeltari Cobra, and the Princess of Alabasta.
My life spiraled out of control from that moment on. Even now I don't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that it happened.
Montblanc Cricket was not impressed. When Naruto and Kujaku visited him, he figured they were desperate for money if they were looking for "Black" Jack Lee's treasure, but looking at their ship he realized that they were beyond help, it was literally a floating piece of junk. "Hey! Is anyone on this scrapheap!?"
"Who are you calling our ship a scrapheap!?" Came a cry from above, and Cricket craned his neck to see a sandy-haired blonde in a crimson coat yelling at him from the crows nest. "Are you Cricket?"
"I am, your idiot Captain told me to come by today. Well here I am! Where is he?"
"Eating breakfast, get your ass up here so I can eat!"
Cricket could actually hear his stomach growling from the crows nest, that was honestly impressive. He made his way onto the ship, being careful to not trip over the mismatched boards, the creaking made him a little nervous that he was going to fall through the deck. But he followed the kid who looked no older than eighteen down into the ship.
It was darker than he would have thought due to it being early morning, the ship was even being powered by lamp oil. "How old is this ship?"
"No idea, that's why you're here to help us find "Black" Jack Lee's treasure." Kotetsu dully said.
"Kid, that treasure might not even exist."
"We got a map." Kotetsu brought him to a well lit room powered by electricity, further confusing the deep sea diver by how strange the ship was and met a unique set of people eating what looked like a feast at the table.
"Oi, Uzumaki he's here." Kotetsu said before taking his place at the table, Bashura and Goldenweek made room for him.
"Thanks Kotetsu I can see that." Naruto dully said before scarfing down four links of sausage. Getting to his feet he greeted the older man. "Want something to eat? Carmen's cooking is to die for."
"I'm fine kid, I only want to see the map and determine if your quest is worth the trip of not." Cricket gruffly replied. "So which one of you has this map?"
"Bashura does." Gin slowly pointed at their large navigator, wincing from the bandage on his head. "Ow, Shizune any chance I can get some ice on this?"
"Have you learned your lesson in defiling the fridge?" Shizune calmly asked.
"I promise to never put my bounties in the freezer again."
"Good. Second refrigerator or not, I'll have Carmen beat you with her frying pan again."
Cricket turned towards the wall and saw a cast iron frying pan with two large dents in the bottom of it, he lightly shivered, feeling a headache coming along and he wasn't the one who was hit by it. Then the large one, the very large savage-looking member of the crew stood up and reached into a satchel at his waist and produced a folded up piece of paper.
Taking the map, Cricket opened it and scanned the paper. The older man said nothing, he felt how old the paper was, saw that the ink was faded with age. He studied the names of the islands, the nautical miles. He then frowned, heavily.
"Well?" Vivi nervously asked.
Looking towards the girl dressed in that strange outfit, Cricket grunted and set the map on the top of the table. "If this is a fake, it's a really good one. I'm not a fan of this, but my gut is telling me to take a look at it." Before there could be any cheering or sighs of relief, Cricket popped their bubbles before they even formed. "But before we go, I am going to get paid no matter what. If my time is wasted, I want reimbursement for it."
"Reimbursement!? You greedy son of a-"
"That is fair." Vivi cut Naruto off before he could say anything insulting and blow their chances of fixing the ship. Ignoring the stink-eye he was giving her the disguised Princess of Alabasta continued. "We understand that this comes with risk, but this is a risk we need to take. You know this, so can we just be civil and pay the man for his expertise?"
"Argh, I hate it when she uses good logic on us." Gin complained.
"Honestly, how did any of you survive before we came along?" Carmen dryly asked.
"They would probably be dead ten days within the Grand Line." Shizune replied.
"All right ladies, insulting your men aside I have to ask, who is going to come with me?" Cricket politely asked.
"If it's okay with you, I would like to stay here." Kotetsu lightly raised his hand. "I ate a devil fruit, and the thought of going under water terrifies the hell out of me."
"I must also decline." Bashura seconded. "We still have three more days before the log pose resets, I must be here for that to happen."
"I'm going to stay behind too." Goldenweek lazily drawled. "Going treasure hunting sounds just too bothersome."
"Then that means I will have to stay and be the babysitter for you three." Shizune irritably said. "Because somehow, if you are left unsupervised you will burn the entire island into the ocean."
"Then that means I'm going to have to go, if I'm going to spend thirty million goddamn beli I am going to want to see results." Gin irritably growled out.
"Well as Captain of this ship I'll go along with them." Naruto rubbed his fingernails on his jacket. "Unlike you I can breathe underwater, I can probably find more."
"Then I'm going too. I have never done something like this before, it could be fun." Vivi piped up.
Carmen gently pursed her lips, her pink eyes shimmered with uncertainty before she finally managed to conjure up her thoughts. "I'm going to go too, and no one is going to stop me."
"Are you sure Carmen?" Naruto questioned her. "We could run into something that even I can't handle." He soon received looks of disbelief, Gin, Kotetsu, Carmen and Bashura began laughing. "Hey, what the hell are you all laughing at?"
"Something you cannot handle? When we went through the Calm Belt you pushed us the entire way." Kotetsu stated.
"And punched out sea kings that got too close." Bashura seconded.
"You also faced Smoker in a regular bout of fisticuffs and beat him. Lets not forget about the Arlong Pirates." Gin added.
"And lets not forget about what you did in Alabasta, between stopping a civil war and punching out Crocodile you're tougher than you realize." Carmen finished for the boys.
"This shrimp did all of that? Preposterous." Cricket scoffed before moving to leave the room. "Listen, those that are coming be by my place within the next hour with the money in hand. If you aren't there I will consider our deal null and void."
"We will be there Cricket, you just do your job and we will do ours." Naruto irritably growled in response.
"Hey, have any of you guys seen Carue? Normally he isn't late for breakfast." Vivi worryingly asked.
"Oh no. If he's messing with the black powder again I'm going to shoot him." Gin palmed his face. It honestly wouldn't have been the first time he had to chase off that stupid duck from his armory.
(Two Hours Later)
"Did we have to leave Carue back on the ship?" Vivi glumly asked.
"None of us could find him before we left. He'll be fine, Shizune will make sure that he doesn't get eaten or in trouble." Naruto replied, truthfully he was glad that duck wasn't coming with them, he would have been a huge hindrance in one way or another.
"Still..."
The four volunteers managed to make it to Cricket's home with a few minutes to spare, it was there they met...two of the weirdest people on the Grand Line so far.
"Salvage King" Masira was a human with short spiky brown hair with ape-like features, he had huge arms with some kind of piercings around his wrists, and wore an orange-yellow jumpsuit that had his name on the front of it along with a monkey face, with a dark brown long-sleeved shirt, green sash, and some sort of odd chain belt along with headphones and goggles. Oddly enough he had some sort of tail.
Masira owned a ship called the Victory Hunter, a galleon classed ship who's figurehead was a monkey striking two cymbals. Masira's ship also had rows of palm trees going along the sides of his ship and two banana-shaped poles serving as pulleys for the monkey statue. Also on the sails was Masira's Jolly Rodger: a monkey's head with two bananas.
"Sonar King" Shoujou was also a large man who looked like an orangutan with long green hair that went the entire length of his body height. He wore a black button up shirt that was far too small for his body showing off his hairy torso, a green captain's coat with his arms in the sleeves, and a green captain's hat with his personal jolly roger on the front. He also wore a belt that has the kanji for "Forest" engraved upon it red pants and black shoes.
His own ship was also a galleon class type called the Utan Sonar with its main feature that seemed to be the giant trees that served as masts. In addition, the sides of the ship had many doors with ladders that lead to the water. The vessel also had one large paddle, on either side of the ship, and was quite confusing to look at.
"Ugh did we have to actually board this monstrosity?" Gin complained as he gestured at the Utan Sonar's deck. "I don't like these monkey people in wetsuits, it's creepy how much they lookalike."
"I think those are humans who look like monkeys in wetsuits." Vivi helpfully replied.
"I dunno, they still look pretty creepy." Naruto had to agree with Gin. "I mean...what are they for exactly?"
"What are they for? You foolish fools! You obviously don't know talent when you see it!" Both Naruto and Gin barely managed to suppress a groan when Shoujou walked towards them. "My Utan Divers are the most fearless men this side of the Grand Line, they dive into the deepest depths using my ship to find and salvage every shipwreck we come across. They endure sea kings and other predators to find anything of value, they are the bravest men I have ever seen!"
"I bet they are, after all it does take guts to dive into the ocean." Carmen dryly replied.
Shoujou only laughed in response, apparently he didn't see that she was placating him. Naruto and Gin didn't know if they should feel sorry for the green-haired moron, or for the crew he managed. "Thank you miss, I'm glad someone appreciates my crew's talent!"
Ignoring the multiple face palmings, Vivi smiled behind her veil and approached the giant man. "Excuse me Mr. Shoujou, but I'm curious about how your ship works. Is it the same as using a metal detector?"
Shoujou only laughed in response, it was obnoxious and Gin had to resist the urge to shoot him. "I'm glad you asked Kujaku, not to brag or anything but I developed a little something I like to call Search Sonar watch and observe." The monkey-looking man pulled a microphone from...somewhere, honestly everyone blinked and it was just in his hand. He then opened his mouth and yelled loudly into it.
Besides it making their eardrums bleed, the ship they were on rocked violently and caused a hole to form in the ship.
"Gahh! Captain what the hell are you doing!?" Cried one of the Utan Divers.
"You put another hole in the damn ship! Now we have to stop and repair it before we take on water!" Cried another.
"Shoujou you idiot!" Masira bellowed. The other brother leaped from his ship and landed on the deck of the Utan Sonar. His added weight and momentum caused the ship to rock violently, causing many men to scream out in terror. "You put another hole in your damn ship, we're going to be delayed for an hour!"
"Shut up Masira, it was an accident, after all if a pretty woman asks something, you're supposed to do it!"
"Pretty woman? She's covered from head to toe in cloth, for all you know she's fugly!"
"Waaa! I did not think of that!" Shoujou screamed in horror. The large orangutan man placed his meaty hands on the side of his funny face, resembling a certain famous painting.
They both of them were then unceremoniously punched in the back of the head and left craters on the deck of the ship by an irate Naruto. "Don't you two have any manners? Calling a woman ugly when she ain't is a quick way to get you asses beat!"
"Ow...okay." Shoujou whimpered out.
"Mercy...mercy." Masira pitifully begged.
"Only if you apologize to Kujaku." Naruto's blue eyes flashed red several times as he cracked his knuckles. "Do it and I promise to give you mercy."
"We're sorry Kujaku!" Shoujou squeaked out.
"Please forgive us!" Masira seconded.
Vivi's face turned scarlet underneath her mask, she wasn't offended by what Masira said about her, but apparently Naruto was. She was flattered, very flattered. "You're forgiven, Captain can you ease up on them now?"
"I will for now, I'm not going to let some devil fruit assholes treat a member of my crew like that." It honestly surprised him how defensive he was towards the people he was traveling with. Months ago he would have let that comment go without raising a fuss, but now he couldn't.
"Devil fruit assholes? What do you mean by that!?" Shoujou loudly demanded.
"Well don't the both of you have some sort of monkey devil fruit?" Carmen asked, pointing at the both of them with a limp finger. "I mean that would explain why you guys look like...well monkeys."
"We aren't monkey's we are human!" Shoujou angrily shouted.
"Then why the hell do you look like that?" Gin hotly demanded.
"It's not our fault, blame our DNA!"
"Gin, please don't insult the people willing to take us to our destination." Vivi pleaded the First Mate. "We need to work together, not stand divided."
"Especially since we might encounter the monsters again." Masira said, his face suddenly became pale, and a horrified look spread over it.
"What are you talking about. The entire ocean is filled with them, what makes you so terrified of these ones?" Naruto demanded.
"You don't understand. I was with the Straw Hat Pirates a few days ago before they blasted off to Sky Island." Masira ignored the looks of disbelief regarding an island in the sky. "We just escaped from a giant sea turtle that devoured a ship that fell from the sky," Again he ignored the looks disbelief of what he was saying. "But then we saw these giant shadows, they were taller than even the biggest recorded giant in history, they were one-hundred stores tall! Armed with weapons larger than a mountain, and cloaked in shadows. I tell you I have never been so scared in my life."
Shoujou's eyes turned blank and he fainted with foam welling from his mouth, apparently fainting from shock. Both Vivi and Carmen held each other in fright, shivering in terror. Even Gin's eyes took on a haunted look and moved his hands to his guns as if trying to comfort himself with the cool metal.
"Sounds like fun. I've never fought someone that large." Naruto tried to put on a tough act, but they could tell that he was absolutely terrified if the sweat pouring down his face was any indication.
(Three Days Later)
For the entire time the four members of the Ocean Sword Pirates were traveling with the Saruyama Alliance. It was...interesting, Masira and Shoujou were a bunch of morons, but they were entertaining enough to make the time pass quickly with tales of their salvages, and how they managed to get their bounties; which irritated Gin to no end about how low his own bounty was. Naruto had to stop him from shooting them more than once during the entire trip.
Cricket mostly stayed by himself and smoked.
But finally they arrived in the spot where the map lead them. The ocean was a calm blue, there were scattered clouds in the sky, the sun was shining brightly, a perfect day for scavenging.
"All right, now it's my time to shine! Utan Divers, prepare yourselves!" Shoujou demanded his crew.
Almost like clockwork the Utan Divers attached some strange cables to the top of their heads. They then jumped into the ocean and spread out in a wide circle that became the distance of a mile. Shoujou them brought him mouth to the microphone and screamed into it. Thankfully the ship didn't explode with another hole that threatened to sink it.
Seconds later the orangutan-looking man's face took on a shocked look. "Cricket! Masira! Get over here!"
That honestly surprised the four members of the Ocean Sword Pirates to hear a frantic look in the man's voice. The Victory Hunter was resting next to the Utan Sonar so it didn't take long for both Cricket and Masira to jump over the edge of their ship and onto Shoujou's.
"Dammit what's got your panties in a bunch?" Cricket sourly asked.
"Did you find something already?" Masira was the opposite, he was more excited out of the two.
"Not something, somethings." Shoujou was happier than a fat kid in a candy store. He was practically vibrating with excitement.
"What do you mean by that, did you find "Black" Jack Lee's ship?" Naruto demanded.
"Oh no! No, no, no, no! We didn't find his ship, but we found ships...as in plural. My divers are reporting multiple ships, they lost count past fifty. This is a ship graveyard!" The green-haired monkey man exclaimed.
"Which means trouble, if there are more than fifty ships then that means something is down there that got them there in the first place." Cricket was the fist to pop Shoujou's excited bubble. "Well kid we got you this far, we'll pull The Ivory Web from the bottom if you find it."
"We can do the grunt work just fine, just don't forget our deal." Naruto said.
"Um, I hate to be the barer of bad news, but how exactly are we going to search the bottom of the ocean?" Carmen piped up. "Unlike Naruto, we cannot breathe underwater."
Cricket only smirked before snapping his fingers. A few members of Masira's crew joined them while carrying diving suits. "I got three spare diving suits for the three of you land breathers. You're going to have to equip lightly though." He said looking at Gin's rocket launcher and all his other weapons. "For obvious reasons, one tear and you'll drown."
Gin only growled and took the suit from one of the divers. "These aren't going to fit with our clothes on."
"Well I hope you packed some bathing suits then." Cricket said with a grin.
This time it was both Gin and Naruto that had to hold Carmen back from bludgeoning him to death with her fan for sparing that small detail. Vivi however was glad that her face mask was hiding her face to hide the fact how mortified she was.
Within the hour the three humans stripped out of their clothing, in privacy to squeeze into their diving suits. They were made out of thick grey material, but easy enough to move in, steel boots allowed them to walk on the ocean floor, gloves that allowed them to grasp items easily, and of course a large metal helmet that allowed them to see outwards with lighting on the top of their heads and an air hose attached to the top of it.
Gin was the first to dive down into the water, his tonfa's attached to his hips thanks to a belt. Carmen went next, her giant war fan strapped to her back with a thick cord, and finally Vivi went next with her peacock slashers wrapped around her waist. Naruto was the last to dive down because he was getting the layout from the Utan Divers.
The bottom of the sea became darker with each second they descended until they reached the bottom.
"Holy shit. Are you guys seeing what I'm seeing?" Gin asked over the radio built into his helmet.
"If you're seeing a lot of busted ships, then yes." Vivi replied.
In front of the four was a literal graveyard of ships, from Frigates to Man o' War ships and even submarines. The wrecks ranged from thirty years old to possibly a few months ago, all of them sustained damage with large holes in them, giant gouges, or torn in half. It was visually haunting to look at.
"Proceed with caution, we don't need any fatalities." They heard Cricket's voice speak into their ears. "Naruto if you see something out of the ordinary, do us all a favor and punch it into submission."
"Yea, yea. I'll handle it." Naruto said into his own waterproof headset. "All right everyone I want us to stick into groups of two, Gin you go with Carmen. Kujaku you're with me, I want us to search three ships each, if you find something give Cricket a ring."
"I'll send down a net after you brats start searching. Now get going." Cricket growled at them.
Giving them man the finger from his position, the blonde went to the right with Vivi, Gin went to the left with Carmen.
Naruto was the first to arrive at the first shipwreck, a frigate with its name worn away by time. The sails were in tatters, hauntingly flowing from the current of the ocean, it had its entire bottom gouged out. Whatever did it sank it fast.
"What sort of creature could do such a thing?" Vivi breathlessly asked.
"It could be almost anything. Definitely a Type C or D creature. It could have been a giant squid, a sea king or perhaps a large goldfish...or maybe something else." As a fishman Naruto had seen and heard of many creatures, friendly and savage, hell his father hunted many of them for his job. But he didn't know what this creature was, and he hated not knowing anything. "Come on, lets go."
Lightly frowning Vivi followed after him, she had to take exaggerated steps in order to walk while Naruto got to swim into the wreck. He did wait for her on the deck of the ship patiently before they headed inside. It was dark inside the ship, Naruto didn't have a problem seeing, but Vivi had to turn on the headlamps for her helmet. The first thing she saw was a hallway with various rooms attached to it.
Naruto forced the first door open, its rusty hinges breaking away from the power of his shoulder bashing against the wood. The blonde lightly recoiled when a grinning skeleton looked back at him before it crumbled backwards. It was joined by four others that were laying on overturned cots.
"It looks like this used to hold crew members." Naruto said before making his way inside the room. Everything was a mess, but he managed to spot a chest and made his way towards it.
"It's pretty sad when you think about it." Vivi said as she looked at the scene. "They didn't have any time to abandon ship and drowned."
"It's a bad way to go, but that's not going to happen to you. I promise." Naruto opened up the chest and was greeted with what looked like personal belongings. He picked up a picture that showed a man and a woman carrying what looked like a newborn baby in the woman's arms. The blonde frowned and closed the chest with the picture in it.
"I still don't like this. I feel like we're grave robbing." The Princess said.
"They're dead, we can't do anything for them now. We will only take what's valuable like...gold bars, tobacco or whatever we can salvage." The blonde fishman then took her hand in his and lead her down the hallway. "But of course we're after Lee's treasure."
"Do you think this is Lee's ship?"
"Not even close, this barely looks five years old. The wood isn't rotten." Naruto stomped on the floorboards and didn't fall through. "Lets try to find some sort of evidence about what happened here."
"All right, maybe we can find what sort of creature did this."
On Gin and Carmen's end, they were on their first ship, a busted up schooner that was crashed upon a brig. Their names has been lost to time, as were any markings that revealed where they came from. Gin looked at the wrecked vessels with an impassive look on his face. "So, which ship should we search first. The one on the top or the one on the bottom?"
"Gin can't you take two seconds to think 'Wow, people actually died here. Maybe I should be a little more respectful.'?" Carmen sourly asked.
"They're dead, what do they need all the stuff in there for other than to rust away." Gin replied before taking several steps forward towards the shipwrecks, he went to the bottom one first.
"Honestly Gin, where is your heart?"
"I have no heart. That's why I am as mean as they come." Gin replied before taking one of his tonfa's out and creating an entrance to the bottom of the ship, sending chunks of wood flying away. "That's why I am called the "Man-Demon" for a reason."
"You know what I think? I think you're just trying to cover up how much of a softy you are on the inside."
"Don't spew that crap towards me, I know what I am. And as long as I am still breathing I will continue to be the guy who trains you all into the ground and kill all who stand in our way. If need be I will give up my life if it comes to it." As he said this, Gin made his way through the halls, looking through the rooms like some sort of bloodhound. He looked at a door of a ship that was shut and went to open it, instead a ten foot gray shark crashed through it and tried to take a bite out of the First Mate. He managed to barely begin his tonfa up to have the shark chomp on it instead of his arm.
As Gin looked into its black eyes, seeing nothing but primal instinct to devour him, all he could do was curse at the fact he did not have a knife on hand to stab into its gills. However his train of thought died there when a giant club smashed down on the sharks' head and he heard the dull crunching of cartilage.
He looked to the side to see Carmen wielding her giant war fan braining the creature. "And to think you were giving me an odd look about having this thing."
Shoving the creature off his weapon and kicking it away, Gin sourly cleared his throat. "I still don't see the use of your fan other than it being a club...but thanks."
"Just wait until I can modify this thing, it'll be superior to your tonfas or guns."
"Right, and I'll give you all a week off from training. Lets go, we need to search these quarters before night falls. And trust me I do not want to be down here in the dark, especially if there is something that can sink all these ships somewhere down here."
"I'm sure Naruto can handle it."
Back with Naruto and Vivi, the blonde himself was sitting on top of a gigantic crab who so rudely burst from one of the ships to attack them. It turned out to be no match for the fishman who was now sitting on top of its hard shell. "Looks like Carmen is gonna cook up some crab tonight."
"I'm more surprised that it came at us, I thought crabs moved sideways." Vivi said.
"Apparently not this one." Getting off the creature Naruto made his way towards the galleon class ship the crab burst out of. "So, yay or nay in going to what used to be a crab home?"
"If it has something in it, we should take a look."
"If you insist." Naruto walked through the giant opening and was greeted by rows and rows of suits of armor. "Hey Cricket, I think I found something interesting."
"Yea, and what is that kid?"
"A ship full of armor, I just killed a giant crab that came out of this galleon class ship and minus a couple knocked to the side, and in shambles I swear we got twenty rows of them on this area of the ship."
"Hmm...does this ship have a name?"
"It's called the Adversary does it ring any bells?" Vivi asked over her radio.
"Yea I heard of it, it was some sort of warship built in Water 7 by the Marines after Gold Roger was executed. Apparently they were after Lee's treasure under the orders of the World Government, guess we know what officially happened to them."
"Let me guess unofficially they went rogue." Naruto said before he manipulated the water to flow into the intact suits of armor and literally had them march out into an awaiting new that was nearby. "All right cricket, I managed to get twenty suits of armor into that net of yours. Send down another, I think this ship has a lot more goodies for us."
"On it kid, give me fifteen minutes. You go and get whatever might valuable."
Vivi followed Naruto into the ship, being careful to not crush anything underfoot. The two of them managed to make their way from the "armor room" to the kitchen. Or what used to be the kitchen. Carmen would openly weep if she saw how deteriorated it was. "Aw man, what a waste."
"We couldn't use any of this stuff anyways, if we used...whatever that is." Vivi pointed at what she suspected was a gigantic mixing bowl with an automatic mixer above it. "We would blow all the fuses in the ship, and probably start a fire."
Even though they were deep under the ocean, Naruto couldn't help but sweatdrop in response to that. "Well good thing that the motors are fried and rusted out then."
The both of them retreated from the kitchen and made their way to the Captain's cabin. It was surprisingly bare, a single bed, a safe and chest, and a desk resided in the room.
"Huh, is it just me, or is there a lack of bodies here?" Naruto remarked with a curious glance around the room. He went over to the desk and pulled out the drawers, finding nothing but paper and ink.
"Perhaps they managed to make it out okay?" Vivi asked.
"Maybe, but who knows?" The blonde said before grabbing the chest and safe, lifting them up like they were a sack of potatoes. "Lets get back outside, the sun is about to set and you still need to properly submerge otherwise you'll get decompression sickness. Gin, Carmen if you can hear me I suggest you do the same."
"Give us a few more minutes Captain, I think we found something interesting." Gin said.
At their second ship, one that looked to have sank since Lee's treasure went missing was a Man o' War baring the name Sea Cutlass, the bow was nowhere to be found, but the stern was in front of them made the ship look like something snapped it in half. The single mast was snapped in half and laying on the deck, but Gin saw something curious. The flag was still partially intact revealing red sea-serpent design on what looked to be a green flag.
"Gin, isn't that the same design you wear on your jacket?" Carmen asked.
"And my bandanna." Gin replied, a frown marring his features as he looked at the flag and then moved towards the ship. Without a word he entered the ship and carefully began to search the ship.
"Gin what are you thinking, do you think this has any connection to you? I mean it could be a coincidence." Carmen said after a while. In her hand was an old broken pit that showed a hero fighting off some sort of lion, at least that's what she could make of it.
"Carmen, when I was eight years old I woke up in a lifeboat with a grisly wound on my head, no memory of my childhood except for my name and that symbol etched in a handkerchief in my pocket." Taking one of the tonfas from his belt, he smashed down the door that lead into the Captain's chambers.
The room looked preserved, like time didn't touch it after twenty years. The glass stained windows in the back were blown out, and some thing were a mess, but they didn't have to worry about falling through the floor anytime soon. There was a large bed, a chest that was literally sticking in the wall, and a desk with a skeleton slumping over it in a tattered red Captain's coat.
Gin made his way over towards the dead man and looked at him, nothing about him made a memory flash in his mind, it was all a giant blank. "Carmen, lets get that chest and get out of here."
"You think there is something important in there?"
"Hell if I know, but it'll be something to look at."
(The Victory Hunter – Thirty Minutes Later)
Unlike Naruto who could quickly go in and out of the ocean without any ill effects due to his species, Gin, Carmen and Vivi had to patiently wait to to ascent from the sea. But when they got onto the ship they were greeted by a ton of stuff on the deck of the ship, including a giant crab that was being hosted, and chopped up by the crew of the Utan Sonar. Naruto was dressed in his usual ware, the others were still in their diving suits with their helmets off; Vivi thankfully still wore the strip of cloth that covered her lower face.
"So Cricket, what exactly is all this crap?" Naruto asked as he picked up a helmet from one of the suits of armor. "More importantly, is this stuff even worth anything?"
"If the armor was over a hundred years old it could be worth something, but this crap is barely even thirty, and a good lot are in bad condition to boot. But I could possibly get a thousand beli per suit of armor if we scrap em'. This however..." Cricket went to the safe Naruto found and tapped on it. "This is interesting. I'm going to need use some finesse to get this open nice and easy-like."
"I got it." Naruto didn't waste any time by forming a Water Sickle on his right forearm. "This'll cut it right in half."
"You damn idiot keep that away from the safe!" Masira screeched, it honestly sounded like a monkey protecting his territory, and about to throw his feces at the offender.
"Cricket is gonna resell the safe once he cracks it, don't you know nothing!?" Shoujou said.
"Not about salvaging that's for damn sure." Gin remarked.
"Eat my ass Gin." Naruto sourly replied before dismissing his technique.
"Shut up and let me work dammit, I can't hear shit with your yapping." Cricket irritably growled out. Lighting up a cigarette he moved his ear to the door of the safe and slowly began to turn the mechanical dial, hearing the clicking of the combination. "All right, now all I have to do is find the right combination and..." After a few more minutes passed the door to the safe opened up and a literal safe full of water flowed out onto the deck.
"Well what's in there?" Vivi asked.
"We got some wet papers, I doubt we'll get anything out of them." Cricket said before pulling out a stack of soaked papers and tossing them onto a deck with a wet splat. "Got some currency, that might be good if we carefully dry it out. And a journal, this might be interesting, Masira take this downstairs to the preservation room, we might be able to get something off of it."
"On it boss." Masira plucked the journal out of Cricket's hand and bounded off towards the basement.
While Cricket was messing around with the safe, Gin not so subtly broke open the chest that he found in the ship that had his sea-serpent design on their flag with his foot. After flipping the entire thing forward the contents spilled out to reveal a bunch of rotten clothing and a pair of curved daggers with silver grips that had the same sea-serpent head with rubies for eyes. "Dibs on the knives, you try to take em I'll throw you all overboard with cannonballs strapped to your feet."
"Jeez Gin, take it easy there killer." Naruto exclaimed.
"Naruto, trust me where we were it was kind of a big deal." Carmen said taking Gin's side, and she never took his side on anything.
"Fine whatever, keep the damn things." Cricket wasn't going to fight over some stupid knives, they were worth more to Gin than him anyways. He then cracked open the second chest with relative ease, but more of the same thing plopped out, rotting clothes and another journal. "Got another journal here, Shoujou take it down with Masira. And kid, how many ships were down there?"
"Honestly, I lost count over a hundred, there are far too many down there and we got some sort of sea monster that took them all out." Naruto replied.
"Here's the plan then, radio your crew and tell them you're going to be longer than expected. I'm also assigning shifts for everyone to lookout for this...thing that created this graveyard."
"Very well, everyone change back into your usual clothing, we're done for the night." Naruto ordered his three crew members.
(The Nautilus - Meanwhile)
"What do you mean you cannot find Goldenweek?" Shizune hissed in unrestrained anger.
"Well it's just that, we cannot find her. When we went out to get those supplies you asked for, Bashura and I went into the shop for no more than five minutes. Goldenweek was behind us, and when we went to the checkout counter she was gone." Kotetsu tiredly exclaimed.
"We searched the entire store and asked around." Bashura seconded. "The last person who saw her was Terry the bar owner, he said she was reading a newspaper while walking down the street on the eastern end of town."
"And did you search that area?" The doctor demanded.
"Of course we did, Bashura even went into his cat form to try and sniff her out."
"An impossible thing to do by the way, the entire town smells like blood and the bathroom Gin ruined."
"First we lost Carue, now we lost Goldenweek. Ugh Naruto is never going to let us hear the end of this."
"Calm down, listen Uzumaki isn't going to return with the others for a week. We got plenty of time to find the both of them before-" The sound of a den den mushi caused the sandy-haired teen to jump in surprise. "Gah! Where the hell did that come from?"
"The radio room Kotetsu." Bashura said.
"We have a radio room?"
"It's more of a closet." Shizune said before making her way over to the 'radio room'. It was more of a closet like she said, a linen closet to be exact that they put the den den mushi's inside because they had no other place for them. The black-haired woman looked at the den den mushi that was given to them from Vista, Namur, Ace, Vivi's father and...an unknown one that looked like a raccoon. Then there was a plain-looking one that was ringing. Lightly frowning she picked it up and pressed the receiver. "Hello?"
"Hey Shizune this is Naruto."
"Oh, hey, Captain. How's the search going?" Shizune asked, she honestly liked to think she did a good job keeping the nervousness out of her voice.
"We found the area. Problem is we got hundreds of ships down there, even if we split up into teams it'll take us months, even with the Utan Divers helping us out."
"Oh please don't tell me we have to stay here for months."
"No way, we might be here for a little bit longer, maybe two weeks. I promised to keep you informed. How are things on your end, did Kotetsu slaughter someone who disrespected his swords or something?"
"I heard that you fucker!"
"No, they have been surprisingly well behaved...except for that bar fight two days ago, the other guys started it though."
"Hmm...that sounds about right. Well I'll check in once a day, or someone will unless I'm indisposed."
"Just be safe, I won't be there to patch you up if you get into a fight with something you can't handle."
"I can handle anything thrown at me. The sea is my domain, you just keep everyone else in line." Naruto then hung up, leaving Shizune to mentally curse her luck, but was also thankful for it as well. Now she had time to find Carue and Goldenweek. Honestly how much trouble could a little girl and a duck get up to?
(Six Days Later)
"The Titani...huh the last letter seems to have faded away." Naruto said as both he and Vivi looked at the latest ship they looted, or at least the bow of it, the stern seemed to have been three miles apart from each other.
"This ship is different from the others, it honestly looks like a cruise liner." Vivi said looking at the once gorgeous ship. It honestly broke her heart seeing the grand staircase in disrepair, and so many rooms were absolutely ruined. "This place is beginning to bum me out Naruto, there's just too much death and sadness here. We've searched over a hundred ships with the help of the Utan Divers, but there are still over a thousand left and absolutely no sign of a cave."
"Or anything that did all of this. So far we have encountered giant crabs, a dozen sharks and at least one giant eel that burst out of a old ship to try and eat you."
Vivi shivered within her suit just thinking about it, the eel with its long green body launched at her, its black eyes looking at her like she was his next meal, and its sharp jagged teeth came close to impaling her body. If it wasn't for Naruto punching it she would have been one of the seas many victims.
Carmen made dinner out of later that night. It was delicious.
Naruto set down the last safe they managed to find with the others, this one being number fifty of the day. It honestly astounded him how long it took to find valuables in these wrecked ships, this was their first one of the day and they only had a few hours of light left. "Cricket, I think I found the last safe, it's ready to be brought to the surface like the others."
"Good job kid, the Utan Divers also brought up over five dozen more items from their respective wrecks."
"Seems like this is a good day."
"It got even better. A few minutes ago Masira brought me one of the journals you guys found."
"You got our attention, what does it say?" Vivi asked.
"After going through the touchy feely nonsense about how much this person missed his family we got to the last few pages." Cricket cleared his throat and began to read the passage. "Day fifty, we've been looking for Lee's treasure for two days now. Joey keeps telling us that the boys haven't been able to find the entrance to this so-called hideout, there are so many ships down here that it's staggering. Ross keeps telling me that he sees red eyes following them down there, I personally think that he's acting like a little bitch."
"Red eyes? Now you got my attention. Is there anything more?" Naruto asked.
"Uh yea, day fifty-seven. We've been here for almost a week and the crew is starting to act strange. Ross is refusing to go back down into the ocean, Joey said he started to see the red eyes too...and honestly I am beginning to believe them. I went down today and I swore I saw them, they were attached to something...big, bigger than any sea creature I ever saw in my life. I can hear it below our ship, watching us...it's coming I just know it."
"Is there anything else?"
"Afraid not, there is nothing after the last page. I think this creature took out their ship later that night. Be careful you two."
After the transmission ended both Naruto and Vivi looked at the insurmountable wrecks in front of them. "Black" Jack Lee died a year before Gold Roger did, and in those twenty-five years something caused all this massive loss of life. Other than shipwrecks the sea floor was uneven with more fissures than he could count, undersea mountains and other things that had not seen the light of day until they arrived.
"Uh, Naruto I couldn't help but overhear Cricket. How long was that crew here?" Gin radioed in.
"Seven days." Naruto replied.
"And how long have we been here?"
"Seven days...oh shit."
"Yea, on unrelated news I think Carmen and I found something. Get your asses over here now, we might need that fancy water trick."
"First of all it's Fishman Jujitsu you philistine, and second what did you find?"
"Well I'm not expert in pirate hideouts, but I think I found an entrance. We're by some giant submarine, you can't miss it."
Naruto and Vivi did not waste their time in heading towards Gin's position, the both of them passed by several ships that were being looted by the Utan Divers. Well looted was being a little too harsh, they were in reality carefully documenting what they found, checking the names of the wrecks and cross referencing them from any and all data logs Cricket had on hand. They may not have looked it, but the members of the Saruyama Alliance were took their salvaging jobs seriously.
The both of them finally arrived to where the remains of a giant submarine rested on the edge of a cliff. The metal was rusted from many years under the ocean, glass cracked, and many items and what looked like the remains of bodies once rested. Naruto approached Gin who was staring over the edge of the cliff.
"What did you find Gin?" Naruto questioned his first mate.
"All right, so here I was looking at this contraption and overhearing your conversation with Cricket when I spotted something out of the corner of my eye."
"And that is?"
"Bubbles."
"Bubbles...seriously?" Naruto deadpanned.
"Kid, we're liked five-thousand feet under the sea, all we have seen are sharks, crabs and one eel that cane make bubbles. But as far as I know there is nothing that lives even further below." Gin peered over the cliff again and saw the never ending blackness. "My gut is telling me that something is down there, and I don't think these suits are capable for going down any further."
"They aren't." Cricket chirped over the intercom. "These suits are designed to five-thousand feet, any more of them and you'll crumple like a tin can. I'll have to clean your innards out of the mask when I pull you up."
"Gee thanks for the mental image." Carmen shivered in disgust, and Naruto couldn't blame her, he could stand such pressures but that was due to his species. He honestly kept forgetting that humans were more fragile than they looked, and some of them were pretty damn hard to kill.
"That's why you're not going down there. But Naruto can, listen try to see if you can find anything. For all we know The Ivory Web could be down there."
"Roger that, I'm going down there for fifteen minutes. Tops, if I don't find anything I'll return for hopefully more light." Naruto ended the conversation and moved to jump off the edge.
"Be careful Naruto, you don't know what's down there." Vivi cautioned him.
"Relax, the sea is my domain. No one can beat me down here." Naruto was so glad Jinbe was not around, his teacher would pummel him for sounding so arrogant. He then swan dived off the cliff and into the blackness below.
The first thing Naruto noticed that the temperature drastically dropped, it was freezing, and he never felt the cold back on Fishman Island. He also found that he could barely see the hand in front of his face, let alone anything in front of him. It also didn't help that something felt...off about this place.
Swallowing the lump building up in his throat, the blonde continued to swim downwards until he finally hit the bottom. The sand felt like sludge under his sandals, it was blacker than midnight, if it wasn't for his electroreception abilities he would have been completely blind.
There was a hiss-cracking sound that nearly made Naruto tear the communication device off. "Zumak...anything...over?"
"I don't know who's talking, but I can barely hear you." Naruto answered back, but he only got the annoying sound of static. "This place is far too dark to see anything clearly. I'm heading up."
Before the fishman could even move he was blinded by something, a blood red light and the sounds of metallic screeching ringing in his ears. His eyes adjusted quickly and to his horror he was staring in the face of what looked like a metallic lobster that was as large as a sea king with red eyes glaring at him.
"Guys...I think I found what sank all these ships."
"Say what? Uzumaki come in. What did you find!?"
"Gin, what's going on. What happened to Naruto?" Vivi demanded.
"I don't know Kujaku. All I heard was something about him finding something." The First Mate replied in confusion. Frowning he spoke into his headset again. "Uzumaki come in, what the hell is going on down there?"
A blast of cold water erupted from where he was standing by the cliff face, he saw Naruto pass by him, followed by a gigantic metal lobster. "Oh, so that's what he found."
"Naruto what in the world is that thing!?" Carmen screamed over her headset.
"Big. Fucking. Machine! Cricket be on alert we awoke a nasty son of a bitch and it is pissed!"
The machine's red eyes glowed ominously, with a terrible noise of metal grinding on metal it opened its mouth to reveal a cannon. It soon charged up a brilliant orange-white light before firing it at the blonde.
Naruto heard the hissing of water as if a great amount of heat was evaporating it. He ducked under the beam, feeling the scorching heat singe his back and watching as it melted through one of the natural rock pillars, turning two halves into molten slag as they both separated from each other and crashed onto the sea floor, spilling up tons of sand that blocked his vision.
The thing swung at the blonde with one of its pincers, Naruto barely managed to swim upwards as it sliced through one of the ships like it was nothing more than wet paper. He made a mental note to stay clear of this thing, and now realized what sunk all these ships in the first place. "Cricket if you got cannons I'm coming in hot on the right side!"
"Right side, kid what exactly is going one here!?" Cricket demanded.
Naruto did not answer, instead he formed the water around him and shot upwards like a bullet. He emerged from the water with a spray of salt water that drenched the crew of the Victory Hunter. The machine followed after him in hot pursuit.
For his credit, Cricket only gaped for a few seconds before he ordered the men of the Victory Hunter to fire all cannons on the starboard side of the ship. A good lot of the cannon balls hit the metallic creature, but they didn't make a dent, in fact they practically pinged off the thing like baseballs hitting a brick wall. The machine opened its mouth to create another orange-white light before firing it at the sky born fishman.
Knowing the beam would melt the flesh from his bones, Naruto turned towards the beam and took a deep breath, and opened his mouth to let out a powerful jet of water. His Exploding Water Shock Wave technique hit the beam head-on. A cloud of hot steam erupted from the impact, forcing Naruto to propel himself further upwards to escaped from blistering hot steam.
However gravity won this fight. The machine creature began falling towards the ocean again, its screeching metallic voice hissing in protest as the laser moved from Naruto's area and sliced through the back of the Utan Sonar.
Naruto also fell towards the sea. However he rotated his entire body forward, building up extreme speed and momentum until he slammed into the side of the metallic monster with both of his heels, roaring, "Double Spiral Axe Kick!"
The creature roared and its side groaned in protest from the harsh kick that put a dent in it, but nothing more than a minor hindrance. The two of them slammed into the ocean with tremendous force that created a fifty foot geyser that caused the members of the Saruyama Alliance to scream out in terror as waves larger than their ships rocked the galleon-sized crafts and swept them away, many men of the Utan Sonar were desperately trying to keep her afloat.
Back under the sea Naruto drove the mechanical beast harshly into the bottom of the sea, it let out a loud crash as it turned the ship that was crushed under it to splinters and create a giant cloud of sand. It looked like the creature was done and over with, but the thing suddenly lashed out and struck the blonde, sending him flying backwards and through several more ships and stone bedrock until he came to a resting against the Titani.
"Ugh, what the hell is that thing?" Naruto grunted out in displeasure.
"I don't know kid, but the Utan Sonar is taking on water. We're going to retreat towards that tropical island we saw on the way here." Cricket said.
"Wait what about Kujaku, Carmen and Gin. Aren't they attached to your stupid ship!?" The tiger shark fishman raged, barely dodging another laser blast that caused him to lose his sandals.
"Kid...their lines snapped. They're gone."
In that instant Naruto felt his stomach leap into his chest. They were so far underwater that the crushing pressure would be a mercy, otherwise they would drown. Panic ran through him at the thought of that happening, and then the rage bubbled through his body. He felt the change then, his muscles growing and tightening, the ocean called to him making him feel as they were one entity. He then turned to face this metallic monstrosity and snarled at the abomination that entered on his turf.
Water swirled and solidified around his fists, however unlike the Megalodon heads these ones formed into a hammerhead shark with a white underbelly, sharp teeth, and a dark blue top half. His eyes flashing a bright red Naruto charged the creature, howling. "Devouring Twin Shark Fist: Hammerhead!"
Swinging the two hammerheads like he was wielding duel sledgehammers, Naruto impacted the mechanical lobster with such violent force that its metallic voice screeched as if it was in pain. Chunks of metal actually flew from the point of impact, causing the beast the fly away. It wasn't enough to destroy it, not nearly enough, but Naruto only needed the brief respite to find the members of his crew.
He honestly didn't know how, but something in his head sensed where they were. The three of them were a couple of miles away from the edge of the cliff, all three were face down in the sand unmoving.
"None of you are going to die on me." Naruto spoke to them through his headset. The first person he grabbed was Carmen and he shouldered her on his right side. "Carmen, you need to melt some butter and bust out the bibs. I want this lobster on a silver platter by the time I am done with him."
Gin was the second person he picked up, and shouldered him on his left side. "Gin, you hard-headed son of a bitch. You survived worse than this, I still need you to direct these jackasses."
And finally he carried Vivi in the bridal carry. Naruto held her close against his chest and murmured quietly. "And you, I could never look your father in the eye again if you died down here."
The mechanical lobster as Naruto came to call it let out a metallic shriek of pure fury. He did not know if machines could even feel emotions, but he was always one to push the boundaries of logic. As much as he wanted to fight the damn thing he had another priority. Closing his eyes Naruto focused on trying to find something, anything to get them out of this mess.
There was some sort of pinging in his brain. Naruto could not describe it, he thought it was instinct, or something more, but he did something that even he considered to be crazy. He swam towards the edge of the cliff and dived down into the darkness. The blonde had to rely on the constant pinging in his brain to guide him, yes it pissed him off, but his instincts screamed at him to trust it.
So he did. He trusted it even as he felt the change of the flow in the water as the mechanical lobster followed after him. He was nearing another wall and he felt his crew growing weaker, but in the darkness he slipped through this cavern that was no more than a faint outline. The mechanical lobster crashed into it, screeching and charging its cannon one last time.
Naruto dived downwards, the orange-white beam missing him by several feet as it melted through the stones. He dived further downwards and then barely managed to take a sharp turn in what he figured was a kitchen sink sort of curve before blasting upwards. He knew that he was risking decompression sickness with the three he was forcing he hold on his body thanks to his water manipulation, but drowning versus coughing for a little while, it was an easy choice.
Naruto blasted through the water and hit dry land. The process of gathering the three and getting here took less than a minute, but it felt like it was much longer. Damn that mechanical lobster, it screwed everything up and nearly killed three members of his crew, he was going to turn it into scrap metal.
But first he had to focus on the three people lying on the ground. Upon tearing their diving helmets off Naruto found that they were unconscious, pale, water must have gone into their lungs. Naruto did not hesitate to do something that would have made Hody Jones die of a heart attack.
The first person Naruto resuscitated was Vivi. His lips touched hers for the first time and he breathed fresh air into her lungs, and then he pushed on her chest three times solidly making her body jerk and repeated. It took only two tries before her brown eyes opened, sat up and coughed out a mouthful of water.
"Naruto...what...what happened?" The Princess asked after she got her breathing under control.
"Shit hit the fan, I'll inform you in a minute." Naruto then went to Carmen and breathed precious life saving air into her lungs. Huh, her lips tasted spicy unlike Vivi's who were sweet. After pushing on her chest their pink-haired chef came back to life, and unceremoniously vomited water from her lungs.
"What the...where are we?" Carmen managed to open her eyes and saw Naruto lip locking with Gin, causing her hair to comically stand on end in surprise. "Vivi...why is our Captain kissing Gin?"
"Mouth to mouth resuscitation, we almost drowned." Vivi breathlessly answered before touching her fingers to her lips. Huh, what a strange sensation.
It took longer with Gin, and Naruto had to literally punch him in the guts before he got a reaction out of the First Mate, and that was him bolting upwards and projectile vomiting food and water out of him. There honestly was no way to look good after nearly drowning, everyone looked pathetic.
"Gah! Uzumaki if I wanted someone to save my life I would have said something!" Gin said, spitting the last of what used to be his lunch to the side.
"I know Gin, but you were taking too long." Naruto dully said before looking towards the dark tunnel. "Well we cannot go back the way we came, that mechanical lobster is probably still trying to get at us."
"Not to mention our suits are completely ruined." Vivi looked down at her diving suit, seeing the various tears, especially around the neck area where the helmets were ripped off. "Naruto how did you find this place?"
"A irritating pinging in my head." The blonde promptly said, drawing strange looks from them. "I don't understand it either, but we got nowhere else to go but forward."
Gin lowly growled and rotated his right arm, he checked to make sure he had his tonfas on his waist, and his daggers on his boots. He also saw that both Vivi and Carmen had their respective Peacock Slashers and war fan. He was satisfied now. "You heard the guy, we're trapped and the only way to go is forward."
Carmen heavily sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I should have stayed on the ship."
(With Cricket)
Sadly Carmen was the lucky one. After the Saruyama Alliance barely managed to make it to the tropical island. They had to beach the Utan Sonar so they could begin fixing her when they were attacked.
They came out of nowhere and overpowered them in short order. Masira went down first when he was struck in the head by a cannon ball, Shoujou's legs were riddled with bullets, and Cricket himself was beaten senseless by a pair of fists that moved faster than he could see. No one was killed, severely wounded and tied up, but not dead.
Capone Bege stood in front of them with his associates standing next to him. The Captain of the Fire Tank Pirates looked over their prisoners with disinterest. "Which one of you is the leader of this bunch?"
Spitting to the side, Cricket raised his head. "That would be me...listen we-" He was harshly backhanded by Gotti, splitting his lip open.
"You do not tell the Don to listen to you, you will answer his questions or I will put some cement shoes on your boys and force you to watch as I throw them into the sea." The assassin of the Fire Tank Pirates gave Cricket a devilish sneer. "It won't be the first time I did it either."
"Easy there Gotti, I think this punk gets the message." Bege said before removing the cigar from his mouth. "Listen here Cricket. We know about "Black" Jack Lee's treasure being somewhere on this island. We also have been watching as you and that fishman dive under water like a bunch of rubes."
Bege pulled out a map from his jacket and shoved it into Cricket's face. It resembled Naruto's to a great extent, only this one had a great red X on the island instead of in the ocean. "Now, you are going to lead me and half my crew to this location. We're going to take all the treasure, and you get to keep your life. Trust me Montblanc Cricket, if you lie to me like that ancestor of yours did in that storybook you will wish you were never born."
(Omake: Goldenweek and Carue's bonding moments)
While Shizune was freaking out about the disappearance of Goldenweek and Carue, the young girl and giant duck were hundreds of miles away from Mock Town.
How did this come to be? Well Goldenweek found Carue being prepared by a chef of a weak pirate crew and used her Color Traps on them to make them obedient to her wishes.
Why did she do this? Well...
"Do I really need to explain this to you again?" Goldenweek dully asked the super spot-billed duck.
"Quack!" Carue replied.
"All right." Setting down her cup of tea Goldenweek explained her plan for the seventh time that day. She then pulled out the newspaper she found and showed it to Carue once again. "Crocodile and the rest of the Baroque Works members that are still alive are being sent to Impel Down. I doubt you ever heard of it, but it's been described as a super prison that tortures the prisoners based on their bounties. I don't want that to happen."
"Quack!"
"I know you don't like it, they nearly did destroy your home for Operation Utopia. But not all of them are like Crocodile. Miss Merry Christmas was always nice to me, and Miss Valentine made the best chocolates."
"Quack!"
"I'm returning the favor." Goldenweek looked down at her teacup, her dull eyes gaining a sad look to them. "I was in a bad way before they found me. If it wasn't for them I would not be here, I owe them at least one chance to escape and my dept will be repaid."
"Quack!" Carue protested.
"If Captain Shark-teeth finds out, I will accept the consequences...though I must admit I have grown fond of them."
Carue took pity on the poor girl and lightly patted the top of her head with his wing. He did not understand a word that came out of her mouth that wasn't water or food, but she seemed sad so he comforted her the best a giant duck could. At least she didn't yell at him for trying to eat the delicious black stuff the scary man seemed to hoard. Yelled at by the angry shark man. Looked at with a hungry gaze by the cat person. Or smell of blood like the crazy person. The paining one was all right in his books, right on par with the food lady, the doctor lady and his Mistress.
Unfortunately for Goldenweek she had to explain her plan three more times before they spotted the Marine prison transport ship that held the remaining Baroque Works members
Armageddon: Hello my patient fans, no your eyes do not deceive you this is indeed an update...that is out later than I thought it would be. I apologize for that, but as you all know life happens. I have to choose between doing important things that are vital to surviving versus this that I do in my spare time. I'm on a bit of a roll now so it won't take too long for the next chapter to come out.
Well I honestly got nothing else to say, but I left a lot of Easter eggs in this chapter for you all to find. Lets see if you can find them all, so read and review.