I don't own Naruto or One Piece, but I gotta say Oda is doing a good job with his current arc. Lets hope he stays in good health until...nah even after One Piece is finished. I sincerely don't want another High School of the Dead situation. Seriously, things were getting good and now we won't ever see the conclusion!
"Talk"
'Think'
Authors Note: To my fans, I promise you I am alive or as alive as this damn year is allowing it. Seriously, fuck 2020! We've had an epidemic, crippling forest fires, killer hornets, riots, wild animals getting into drugs (Seriously), Grant Imahara dying of a friggn' brain aneurism, locust swarms, and Brexit actually happening, Then there is my personal life went down the drain with the death of a laptop taking away all I had regarding my stories (one being literally one day away from being posted!), a scam that cost me damn near all my money, breakup, a mild case of Covid-19, and my job treating us like second class citizens.
Little to say I needed a hell of a mental break. Watched a lot of Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, played video games, watched movies and read other stories. But I like to think I'm back, and I'll start working on my other stories again since I got my groove back. Thanks for your patience and again fuck you 2020.
If you have never seen a serious fight between fishmen then you are missing out. Sure, I fought against Arlong and his crew, but only Kuroobi was the only one who actively practiced Fishman Karate, and even then he was easy to beat for me once I got down his rhythm. Bit Namur, God he was in a different class than Kuroobi. First off his use in Fishman Jujutsu revolved around saw-like blades that were sharp as hell. His strength was unreal, I actually got several bruises from when he landed a hit on me.
In the very beginning of the fight we were evenly matched with out usage in using Fishman Jujutsu. We soaked the entire beach front and downed several trees, the traded blows that would have broken bones on normal people. I threw my Thousand Tile Shatter Fist, he threw his Thousand Tile Punch. The kinetic energy literally tore apart the chunk of island we were on and it broke off into the sea. Yeah, you heard me we literally broke a chunk of island off into the sea, that's how dangerous our techniques are if we go all out.
After exchanging a few more techniques I used my Land Shark technique to dive into the ground. Now I bet you're thinking I did some some sort of ambush on him underground like I did with the Arlong Pirates. Well, you're sort of right. But I actually went into the sea and used the largest Water Fang Bullet to date to pummel the island. I did this for five minutes and devastated the island and went up there to see if I knocked him out or killed him. I honestly hoped it was the former though, I really would have felt bad if I accidentally killed Namur. I mean, shit happens in a fight, but I didn't mean to deliberately do anything like that during out fight.
That turned out to be a massive mistake. Namur pulled one of my moves and escaped the island, and as I learned later he used his trump card called Torrential Torrent. The bastard literally, and I mean literally destroyed the island we were on. The currents he created folded the island in half and I fell into the ocean, dizzy, disoriented, and I was hit by trees, rocks, and Namur also sucker punched me as the continued creating this giant whirlpool of his.
Between the water pressure that I have never experienced before, getting punched every thirty seconds, and hit by wood I came very close to blacking out. I had to draw deep into myself and activated Sea King Mode. The adrenaline rush I felt gave me a second wind, and after getting punched again I swam in the opposite direction and eventually canceled out the technique. After that we punched each other with what would be our signature moves and blew up the sea.
When we emerged I was the victor while Namur crashed onto one of the ships. I don't remember which because I was really fighting to stay conscious at the time, I barely remember being declared the winner before falling unconscious. I barely won that fight, I fully admit it, I barely won it by the skin of my broken teeth. It was an eye-opener that was for sure, I needed to get stronger, and trust me I worked hard to get there. After recovering Shizune joined our crew, and it was honestly one of the biggest reliefs of my life. A doctor is essential for a crew, just as much as a chef and a shipwright. Sure you got the Captain and First Mate, but if they can't cook, heal or fix the ship then they are basically useless...not that I would call myself or Gin useless of course.
The next day Shizune gave us some physical examinations...I'm not going to write what happened, I just didn't like it. On the plus side Gin woke up that day!
Departing from the Foxy Pirates was not filled with tearful goodbyes and frantic waving. The very minute Donovan, their new shipwright grabbed his possessions and boarded the Nautilus they sailed off. Gin was honestly glad when they lost sight of the ruined Sexy Foxy it meant that they were in the clear.
Their newest crew member was looking over his new home, a grin plastered on his face. Donovan rolled the three nails in his mouth as he looked over the patchwork wood, the sails, frayed ropes, and smelled the massive amount of tar used to plug any and all holes she had.
"Oh man, this ship needs some work!" Donovan exclaimed after looking at the ship over. It was a complete disaster! "How can you even live like this?" He said, still smiling.
"With great reluctance." Kotetsu said.
"It reeks to high heaven." Bashura seconded.
"The wood will give you splinters." Marianne continued.
"The water takes forever to heat up." Shizune listed the newest grievance on their ship.
"Electricity works in only one part of the ship." Carmen pouted.
"It's honestly a little cramped." Vivi said, Carue quacked afterward in agreement.
"It's falling apart, but it's our baby. Can you keep her afloat until we reach Water 7?" Gin asked.
"Water 7! You're going there?" Donovan exclaimed.
"Yeah, is that a problem?" The First Mate demanded.
"Heck no, that's where I was born and raised. I can give you all a tour while we get the ship completely fixed. Or a new one built!" Donovan laughed in glee. "Sorry, this is so awesome, a new awesome crew heading to my home? I'm totally pumped!"
Gin honestly couldn't help but look at their new shipwright in disbelief. The guy was just so chipper he still had a smile on his face, was energetic, hyper even. Rubbing the bridge of his nose the First Mate looked at the odd man.
"How in the hell did you join Foxy's crew of losers?" He then turned towards three certain members who forced him to accept his joining. "And why the hell did you vouch for him so badly?"
Marianne shrugged in response. "He was nice when we talked to him."
Shizune seconded their cabin girl. "He looks very dependable and enthusiastic about his work."
Carmen bluntly said her thoughts. "I liked him better than that shady-looking Sonieh or that skanky-looking Gina."
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa there!" Donovan loudly exclaimed. "There is no need to call them names. And they aren't that bad, in fact they're some of the best shipwrights outside of Water 7 that I would vouch for. So let's not stoop to name calling here." He then answered Gin's question.
"And to answer your question my crew lost me in a Davy Back Fight a year ago, that's pretty much it."
"And your crew?" Gin continued, his gaze unblinking.
"They left me, and the two others with Foxy. That's all, and we weren't even close to each other at all." Donovan was still smiling, it was eerie, but Gin couldn't see him lying.
"Well then, Donovan, as the First Mate let me be the first one to officially welcome you to the Ocean Sword Pirates." Gin opened his arms out in a welcoming gesture. "You're on your own to find a room on the ship, and making sure we don't sink."
"Excuse me, but where is your Captain, exactly?" Donovan asked.
An explosion of water erupted from the left side of the ship. By now everyone in the crew was used to the grand entrances by the tiger shark fishman and moved to the right side to prevent getting drenched. Donovan wasn't so lucky, he was soaked head to toe within seconds.
And there stood Uzumaki Naruto himself, slung over his shoulders was a giant tuna fish, their only source of food for now.
"Hey everyone, sorry I took so long but there were literally no good fish around here. Now this giant tuna should last us a day or two but…" He then looked at his crew and most importantly saw the wounds on them.
While Bashura and Carmen had a few bandages, Gin had gauze wrapped around his arms and part of his neck. Narrowing his blue eyes he tossed the giant tuna fish onto the deck. "What happened?"
"What do you mean what happened?" Kotetsu tried to change the subject. "Anyways what took you so long? We're all starving to death here!"
It didn't work.
"Something happened, I know you guys got into a fight, I want to know what happened."
Watching as Bashura, Gin and everyone else raised their hands, they pointed behind him. And turning around the blonde fishman saw Donovan's smiling soaked form. "Who the hell are you? I swear if someone else found that secret hatch again…"
"Bwahaha! I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm your newest crewmate. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Donovan, I am a shipwright, I ate a devil fruit and have a bounty of fifty million beli!" Donovan introduced himself.
"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Gin screamed in anger.
One hour, and an extremely restrained Gin later, the crew of the Ocean Sword Pirates were on the deck of the ships looking at their newest crew member. Naruto was regaled with the tale of them getting bullied into a Davy Back Fight against the Foxy Pirates, the amount of nonsense they went through with three games in order to get a member of their crew.
Naturally, he was irritated Foxy literally blew up his people in the first round, delighted, but oddly confused how they won the second round, and honestly shook his head hearing what Gin did to the Sexy Foxy.
Looking towards his First Mate, bound to the mast with thick rope, and gagged with Kotetsu's sweaty socks, the blonde pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Gin, as acting Captain what you did was irresponsible, but you brought back everyone alive, and even added in someone we desperately need. So...good job, everyone release him, we need to get the new guy situated."
"I actually got a tour of your ship. She's in rough shape but nothing a good lot of elbow grease and a lot of money can't fix." Donovan laughed. "Trust me, when we get to Water 7 we'll get her fixed up."
"Considering we went through a literal underwater hell to get our fortune, we better." Carmen said, watching as they untied Gin, and he spat Kotetsu's socks out of his mouth, fully knowing there would be retribution for that.
Naruto cleared his throat and looked at their newest crew member. Crossing his arms over his chest he looked the odd man from head to toe before asking an important question. "You said you ate a devil fruit, what exactly did you eat?"
Giving the blonde fishman a grin, Donovan lifted up his right arm and to the somewhat surprise of the Ocean Sword Pirates, his arm secreted a silvery-white color and saw-like blades appeared on the ends of them. Hell, it even began to move like a chainsaw with the same sound as one. "I ate the Metal-Metal Fruit!"
"So you can turn your body into any part of a weapon? That is a very neat devil fruit!" Vivi exclaimed.
"Oh no not at all! I have the ability to create large quantities of metal from my body and control it. I can't make a gun, bomb or any weapon like that, but if it's within the realm of my imagination and ability I can create it Bwahaha!" Donovan laughed in glee. "I can use it for fighting, but I mainly use it for shipwright purposes. If I can turn any part of my body into a tool I could get work done faster!"
Donovan's right arm then morphed back to normal, but seconds later his index finger turned into a snipping tool, the middle a saw, the ring finger a hammer, and the pinkie a screwdriver. "Don't get me wrong I do use my tools, but sometimes you just need a fast tool to finish your project."
"That looks a lot like Galdino's devil fruit." Marianne commented on the similarities of her former partner's devil fruit.
"I have absolutely no idea who that is." Donovan exclaimed before turning his body back to normal. "And I am not just a one trick pony, I don't just fight and repair ships, oh no I am also an inventor."
"An inventor?" Kotetsu skeptically asked.
"Does that mean you can make ovens and stuff?" Bashura asked in confusion.
"Bwahaha! I'm afraid not my friends, my inventions are more destructive in nature. Give me some materials and I can create some super awesome weapons! There is nothing I cannot make!" Donovan boldly declared.
Gin immediately grabbed their new crew mate by the shoulder and literally dragged him towards the stairs that lead down into the ship. "I'm starting to like you already, follow me Donovan I got some stuff for you to look at."
"Wait, Gin hold on a minute! I need to still give him a medical examination!" Shizune followed them with a surprised shout.
"So on a scale of one to ten, how screwed are we regarding this guy?" Naruto asked.
"I honestly think we are in good hands with Donovan." Vivi said with a smile. "An inventor and shipwright, not to mention another diverse devil fruit-user. This crew is just as interesting as Luffy's."
"Please don't say that." Naruto bemoaned in irritation. "I honestly don't want us being compared to Luffy."
"Why not?" Vivi's expression showed that she was completely offended by that remark. "I sailed with them for weeks. They're good people!"
"Easy there Vivi, what I think blondie meant was you shouldn't compare us to The Straw Hat Pirates." Kotetsu stepped between them with his hands raised in a surrendering manner. "Trust me, comparing us to them is like comparing night and day."
"That's not a good comparison. Your crews are some of the most decent people I have ever met in the Grand Line. You helped me in my time of need when I was nothing more than a total stranger." The blue-haired Princess said.
"Vivi...you know why we came to Alabasta even though we gave you a hard no." Naruto tried to protest their involvement in one of the biggest scandals the World Government had to deal with in years.
"That doesn't matter, you did more for me and my people than the World Government did, and that was only at the very last second where they took the lion's share of the credit."
"Crew mate Vivi, we are honored that you care so much for us, but knowing we helped is good enough." Bashura patted the Princess on her shoulder with his large, meaty right hand. "Plus, unlike "Straw Hat" Luffy, we didn't get any more trouble from the World Government by getting a higher bounty on our heads."
"Or a bounty at all." Carmen added in her two cents. Unfolding her giant fan she looked at the red flames she had Marianne paint on the metal to cover up the purple moons, and looked back to where Donovan went inside their ship.
"I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to have a price on my head. I don't even plan on getting a bounty if I can help it."
Marianne dully looked at the chef of their crew before pointing at her. "You ate a devil fruit in order to get stronger. Before the year is out you're going to have a bounty on your head."
Carmen's pink hair stood on end and she glared at the cabin girl. "It's true I did eat one to become stronger, but I'm not going to use it in order to get a bounty!"
"Hold it, hold it! I need to get some clarity here." Naruto's blue-eyed gaze turned towards their chef. "When I heard you used a devil fruit to turn yourself into an oil woman I was in complete disbelief. But seeing as you're never one to lie...I need to know how you got it, and what you can actually do with it."
Shrinking under the gaze of her Captain, Carmen turned her head to the side and started to fiddle with her fan.
"Cricket gave it to me before we left "Black" Jack Lee's hideout, he said I could do whatever I wanted with it. I wanted to become stronger, to get an edge in our upcoming confrontations-"
"Carmen we're not going to get into anymore fights." Naruto cut her off in protest. He then received dull looks from the members of his crew. "What?"
"You and I both know you don't believe that." Kotetsu said.
"Wherever we go, we're more than likely going to get into a fight." Bashura seconded.
"From what I heard, the East Blue, Loguetown, Cactus Island, Little Garden, Alabasta, the underground base, and recently Foxy." Marianne listed off every place their crew had a fight at to her knowledge. "Do you really think we aren't going to fight again?"
"You're a magnet for trouble Naruto, and that extends to all of us." Vivi flicked a strand of hair from her face, and gave him an odd look.
"This rests my case Captain." Carmen said, using what was just said to him as justification to eat her devil fruit. "As for what my devil fruit can do, well, I honestly don't know much about it yet. I can produce oil from my body to make me slippery, and create large puddles of it as well. I'm still experimenting with it."
Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Naruto honestly couldn't see any fault with their logic. This was the Grand Line, there were not only the Marines to contend with, but other pirate crews that wanted to steal their stuff. Capone Bege made that extremely clear.
"Alright, I get it. Carmen, once we get this fish cooked up I'll talk to Gin and we can create a new training schedule." He said, looking over towards the door where Gin disappeared into the bowels of their ship. "We're only a few days away from Water 7 with good weather. When we dock we'll get an estimate on either repairing or getting a new ship, turn in all this treasure and enjoy our new ship."
"Look on the bright side, at least we won't have to worry about sinking." Vivi happily said.
BOOM!
An earth shattering explosion rocked the entire ship, knocking everyone off their feet and hurling them onto the patchwork deck. Immediately, Naruto rose to his feet and immediately began searching for whoever attacked them. But there was nothing, no ships, no sudden storm, not even a giant animal.
"Sorry my bad!" Donovan's voice called out to them.
"My bad? What exactly did he mean when he said my bad?" Kotetsu demanded.
"How did he cause an explosion?" Marianne questioned.
"More like why did he cause the explosion? I'll go check." Bashura quickly bolted into the ship to check for any damage made to the hall.
Naruto looked over as Vivi, his right eyebrow twitching. "We don't have to worry about sinking, huh?"
Vivi, embarrassed at being called out, puffed her cheeks and turned her head away. She muttered something under her breath, no one really heard it, but Bashura could have sworn she said "Shut up.".
BOOM!
"Damn it Donovan!" Gin screamed after he regained his footing.
"Sorry! Won't happen again!"
"You said that two days ago! Quit blowing up our Goddamn ship!"
"I'm creating a masterpiece here!"
"You're creating a mess!"
"There they go again, what is this the third time?" Bashura questioned his Captain.
"I think it's the fourth time actually, it's only been four days since he joined our crew." Naruto irritably replied as he tried to concentrate on his Fishman Jujutsu training. It was not exactly going well with all the distractions either, between Donovan causing an explosion every few days to Gin's bitching, and every day he had to dive for some fish so they didn't starve to death
"I know I'm not cleaning it up." Marianne dilly said while sitting on Kotetsu's back while he did pushups. "It's too much of a bother."
"It will be too much of a bother when we make you clean it anyways." Naruto said before manipulating the water around him to create various species of fish and had them floating around his body.
"Aw...but I don't want to." Marianne groaned in displeasure.
"I hate to break it to you honey, but that's your role on the ship. What the Captain says, you got to do." Carmen said as she sat on Bashura's back, giant fan and all while he did his own set of pushups.
"Speaking of duties, Bashura how long will it take us to get to Water 7?" Naruto asked the Cat man of the crew.
"Another day if the weather holds up." The savage-looking man said before completing his final push up. When Carmen hopped off his back he literally stretched like a cat and loosened his joints. "A few hours ago I saw on our map an island we can stop at to get some supplies."
"Good, I'm getting tired of fishing for you guys. Some non-perishables should do us some good, Carmen, what can we get that has a long shelf life?"
"Oranges, pineapples, peaches, most vegetables, pasta products, crackers and dry meats are what I can name at the top of my head." Carmen instantly replied, it was actually kind of freaky that she could list that stuff off at a drop of a hat. "I'm going to go inside to make a list, Bashura how long will it take us to get to the other island?"
The tattooed man closed his eyes, breathed through his nose and rubbed his chin. "Thirty minutes, who will go into town I wonder?"
"I'm heading in that's for sure." Naruto immediately said. After everything that had happened he needed to send a letter to Shirahoshi to let her know he was still alive, and regale her with a censored version of what happened in Alabasta, Mock Town, and "Black" Jack Lee's undersea hideout. "Gin, Kotetsu, Bashura I need you to stay here to guard the ship. The rest of you can do what you want."
"I'll go ask Vivi and Shizune, we could make it a girl's day out. Marianne I already know your answer, but do you want to come with us?" Carmen asked the youngest member of their crew.
Marianne gave the pink-haired chef a dull look before pulling out a cracker from somewhere on her person and began to munch on it. "I'll stay here."
Yep, that was their typical cabin girl. Giving her a nod Carmen went inside the ship and immediately saw the difference. The first thing was the smell, it no longer smelled like a sewer. Donovan spent his first day removing the toilet Gin broke, drained the water, sealed the area off and with Marianne being forced to work cleaned up all the access with heavy duty chemicals. The second thing was the lighting issue, he jerry rigged a couple of lights from scraps he found all over the ship to create a better walkway from them to see in. And the final thing was he managed to patch up everything that they missed, no more sea water slowly leaking into the ship for them.
Carmen passed by the doctors office and peered in to see Shizune hard at work as usual. Donovan was given his physical, blood was drawn, and given a clean bill of health. She was doing something regarding a few vials of blood that made the chef raise a delicate pink eyebrow. "Hey there Shizune, what are you up to?"
"Oh hey Carmen." Shizune greeted her with a tired smile. "I'm working on finding out or crew's respective blood types."
"Blood types. Why is that important?"
"We have been lucky that none of us have lost a tremendous amount of blood. But that is not going to last forever, someday we're going to need to give someone a blood transfusion, and I'd rather be prepared that we have the right type otherwise receiving the wrong blood type can lead to a severe reaction that is potentially life threatening. The patient could show symptoms such as fever, hives, shortness of breath, chills, low blood pressure and pain are reactions that can range from mild to severe that are linked to blood transfusions." Shizune immediately went into doctor mode and explained what could go wrong if someone was given the wrong blood type, that made Carmen shiver. That just sounded horrible.
"Well, we're going to dock at an island soon. I was wondering if you want to join me for a shopping trip? We could try to get some more medical supplies like...um, plasma?" Cooking was what Carmen's profession was, and she was going to stick with it thank you very much!
"Oh! Sure, I do need to restock on bandages and gauze. I swear we go through that more than toilet paper."
"Perfect! I'm going to go and find Vivi, do you know where she might be?"
"I think I saw her talking to Donovan. I don't know what it was about though." Shizune tapped her chin in thought. "But it might have to be something regarding those who can't swim."
Carmen frowned, remembering that she could no longer do that, she was still working on how to incorporate her devil fruit into her fighting style, so far she could be real slippery and more agile if she took her sandals off, but that didn't give her enough of an edge if a fight got real serious. Thanking Shizune Carmen left to head where Donovan took refuge in the ship.
His room, or as he loved to all it his workshop was in the brig. It was the last room they could spare after rearranging all the treasure they had crammed in there. She remembered putting every crate, chest, and box into the cells, and moving everything else all over the ship. Gin gripped the entire time like the crabby man that he was, Naruto just found it good exercise for everyone to do, even if he had to grab Marianne by the back of her shirt every time she found a chance to escape doing real work.
The room contained a cot from one of the jail cells that Donovan slept on, the walls here filled with paper and blue prints, screws, tools, metal bits and other stuff Carmen could not identify were laid on various tables, or in designated areas that would lead to easy access if needed. And standing at what Carmen figured was the tinkering table was Donovan himself, Vivi and Carue looking at something that she couldn't identify.
"Ah, Carmen hello!" Donovan happily greeted her with a wide smile. Moving to the side he showed off his newest creation. "You're just in time for me to unveil my prototype."
"For what, exactly?" Carmen asked as she looked at the strange device. It was horseshoe shaped, covered in cloth, and honestly reminded her of a pool noodle.
"Ah, well I know that people who eat devil fruit lose their ability to swim. And if you guys fall into the sea it's game over if Carue can't get to you in time." Vivi looked over at her faithful super spot-billed duck looking at her dumbly before pecking at his right wing. "So I came to Donovan hoping he could make up something to keep you all safe."
"Aw, that's so sweet of you Vivi." Carmen exclaimed with a bright smile on her face. With Donovan joining their crew they let him in on Vivi's secret and why he should call her Kujaku in public, Naruto was about to stress about the amounts of hell that would be brought down on her kingdom if anything were to slip, but the odd man immediately agreed to keep his mouth shut and follow the rules. He promised his very life on it, and if he broke it they would be free to throw him into the ocean.
It was a little extreme, but it showed enough that he took the safety of his crew seriously.
"Now may I present the Portable Life Vest!" Showing off the strange object Donovan placed it on his neck under his bomber jacket. "This baby has built in sensors that will automatically inflate the polyethylene foam within it when you hit water. Don't worry about it going off on you when it rains, it senses the different pressure if you're on land or under the sea."
"Is that what was causing all the explosions?" Carmen asked.
"Bwahaha! Yeah, sorry about that, those sensors were finicky little things until I could get the bugs evened out." Donovan happily exclaimed.
"There was an explosion no more than fifteen minutes ago!"
"Oh that was from something different!" Donovan waved off her concerns, much to both her and Vivi's confusion. "Anyways this is the prototype, I plan on making it thinner so we can put it in the clothing of everyone who has a devil fruit."
"I see…" Carmen looked around the room and saw several books piled next to the wall, stacks of papers, journals, and...was that a keg of gunpowder? That honestly didn't bode well for their ship with Donovan constantly blowing something up.
"So what did you need, it sure wasn't to see my newest invention." Donovan asked.
"Oh! Sorry, I came to find Vivi. We're going to dock at an island in thirty or so minutes. I'm going with Shizune for us to buy some supplies and I was hoping she wanted to come with us."
"I would love to! It would do us all some good to relax a bit." Vivi happily exclaimed. "Oh, Donovan if we're going to buy some supplies is there anything you need?"
"Actually yes, but I plan on going to town myself in order to get what I need." Lightly cracking his knuckles Donovan grinned at both women. "Thank you for asking though."
"Alright, I'll inform Naruto. See you later." Carmen made her way towards the door before stopping. Turning back towards their shipwright she removed her giant fan from her back and brought it over to him. "Um, before I forget, and I know you got your hands full. But is there a chance you can work on something for me?"
"Your fan? Is something wrong with it?" Vivi asked.
"No! I just need it to be improved, listen Temari had these things called dials in her fan. Remember them?" Vivi's eyes widened and she nodded her head, she knew of her unique weapon. "Well I was thinking of doing the same thing, I got several dials in my bedroom and...well…"
"Ah! Say no more Carmen!" Taking the giant fan off her hands Donovan noted that while it had some weight on it, it was remarkably light and well made. Already a hundred ideas were rolling through his head on how to make the fan better, and maybe even add on a thing or two that would make his new crew mate a force to be reckoned with! "Show me what you want to do and I'll make you a scary little lady!"
Just as Bashura said The Ocean Sword Pirates found themselves in range of an island thirty minutes later. It was a decent size place, a sprawling town with a large port for numerous ships. Since they were so close to Water 7 it was a last stop for supplies or repairs before the professionals could take a look at their ships. Apparently it was called Little 7 for just that very reason.
Naruto and Donovan paired off to go and do their own thing in town while Carmen, Shizune, and Vivi with Carue went off to have their girls' day out. The blonde tiger shark fishman ordered Gin, Bashura, Kotetsu and Marianne to stay on the ship. They were least likely to cause a scene if they stayed put, which was something everyone agreed with.
After the girls parted from them Donovan stuck with his Captain until he made it to the post office where he split off to grab whatever terrifying stuff he needed to make his inventions. Naruto got his letter mailed off to Fishman Island and exited the place in order to have some time to himself.
He wandered the streets and looked at the various people. A happy elderly couple sitting on a park bench. A family of four buying ice cream. Kids laughing and chasing each other. A group of friends having lunch together outside a diner. As Naruto looked at all of them he felt a strange sense of calm in him.
The blonde knew that he had changed since leaving Fishman Island three months ago. Hody Jones always preached how bad humans were, that they were vile creatures who did nothing but kill and enslave their kind. And in a way he wasn't wrong. He lost his parents to slavers, Saint Mjosgard himself held his kind in disdain and tried to kill Queen Otohime. And then there was that human that killed Queen Otohime herself...he still couldn't forgive humanity itself for taking away everything he loved.
But at the same time humans weren't the worst kinds of people in the world. Arlong made that clear when he enslaved the Conomi Islands and murdered anyone who couldn't pay up. The Arlong Pirates made his kind look bad, and he could honestly say that he was glad that he killed them all. Hachichan was still an unknown though, and that did bug him at night.
But then there were the Marines and various Pirate crews. The Marines were corrupt, that was for sure. But Kotetsu insisted that there were good ones in there, it was just those who followed the code of Absolute Justice that fucked everything up. He explained that everyone had their own code in the Marines, but Absolute Justice spared absolutely no one who was considered evil. Civilians who accidentally served pirates, family members who were related to pirates, even acquaintances were killed by Marines because they were associated with "evil". It honestly made Naruto sick just thinking about it.
Then there were Pirates. Many were cruel, bloodthirsty, and honestly didn't give a damn who they hurt. They butchered islands for fun, enslaved those who could be sold for a profit, and stole from anyone they could. "Black" Jack Lee, "Sir" Crocodile, and "Gang" Capone Bege were prime examples of bad people who were pirates. But then there were people like Whitebeard who protected islands under their territory, and The Straw Hat Pirates who helped anyone without any sort of gain to be made besides doing what was right.
Then there was his motley crew. They were in the grey area, at least Naruto liked to think they were. Sure they saved Alabasta from Baroque Works, sure he liberated the Conomi Islands from the Arlong Pirates, and protected the Gecko Islands from the remaining Black Cat Pirates, but they killed a lot of people. They were far from having blood on their hands and did what was considered bad for the sake of doing good.
Or was he overthinking it all? Hell if Naruto knew, the value of morality was not exactly something he could claim to be a genius in. All he knew was that he was trying to do things his own way without Hody Jones or Otohime dictating his every single move.
"You seem to be in deep thought there, stranger." A male's voice broke Naruto out of his train of thought, and then he realized that he had wound up on the other side of the island and stood in the exact same spot for well over ten minutes.
He turned to apologize when he saw it was a man sitting on a crate outside of a store. He wore a yellow hoodie, with black sleeves that were rolled up to his elbows and black hood. The hoodie had a strange symbol printed on the front of the chest area in dark ink resembling a smiley face with protrusions in six directions. He was also wearing a northern-style fur hat that had a rim running all around it that was white in color, and had a black dot pattern along the rim and lower areas of the hat. He also wore a pair of jeans with odd dots on both the knee and ankle areas, similar to the ones on his hat, but darker in color, a pair of dark, pointed shoes, and He had a pair of small earrings on each ear.
Taking a closer look he saw the man was slim and relatively tall in height. He had faint shadows right under his grey eyes. He had short black hair, a majority of which was obscured by his hat, save for his sideburns and small goatee. He also had many tribal-style tattoos on his arms; on both of his hands were letters spelled as DEATH tattooed in black on each of the back of his fingers. He also has a black cross on the back of both of his hands, the same symbol on his hoodie were also on his forearms surrounded by what looked like gears. And finally resting next to him was a nodachi that has an oblong-shaped hilt trimmed with short white fur, a purple grip with two white rings around it and a yellow pommel, sheathed in a black scabbard decorated by white crosses from the opening to the bottom, and with a small piece of red rope tied near its opening.
And next to him was a wanted poster revealing the exact same smirking face he was looking at no more than five seconds ago.
Wanted Dead or Alive
"Surgeon of Death" Trafalgar Law
$200,000,000 Beli
Silently the tiger shark fishman turned his head towards the man who had a higher bounty than his entire crew combined, and that included whatever the hell Zala and her people were to him. The man seemed to be enjoying his look of confusion and suspicion.
"What's the matter blondie? It looks like you saw a ghost." Law placed his hands behind his head and leaned back further on the crate he was sitting on.
"I'm actually looking at the guy who has a lot of balls sitting next to his own wanted poster." Naruto said, observing the man. Despite having just met Law, Naruto automatically knew to be weary of him, he was much stronger than he looked.
"What are you going to do about it blondie?" Law raised a black eyebrow, smirking smugly. "Are you going to try and cash in on me?"
"Are you going to start a fight with me right here and now?" Naruto countered.
"That depends. Are you going to attack me?"
Naruto and Law stared at each other for a full minute, not exchanging words, neither backing down from what could be called the most intense staring contest in the Grand Line.
Finally Naruto broke the silence to answer the man. "You're a bit of an asshole, but that is not enough to attack you. It won't do us any good to fight right now."
Law chuckled lightly before standing to his full height, standing much taller with his six foot three height than his five foot ten frame. The taller bastard grabbed his nodachi and casually shouldered it. "You're much smarter than your wanted poster portrays you, Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto felt the hairs standing on the back of his neck when he said that. "You know of me?"
"Of course, I would be a fool to ignore the first fishman pirate since Fisher Tiger set sail." Law replied before he began to list off everything he knew about the blonde.
"You made your debut in killing the entirety of The Arlong Pirates. Shortly after you massacred Captain Nezumi and the entire Sixteenth Branch of the Marines, and a few days later you murdered Captain Stark and a majority of the Thirteenth Branch of the Marines. I even heard you beat up Captain Smoker and Don Krieg, not bad for a rookie."
"First off I didn't kill Nezumi's cabin boy, and I didn't murder anyone. Captain Stark attacked me when I was interrogating the swordsman of my crew when we first met, it was mostly self-defense." Naruto scowled before cracking his neck. "And for the record I didn't beat up Don Krieg. That was Gin, he broke his jaw I just delivered him."
"Feh, you're too honest Uzumaki."
"I rather be known for the stuff I did than the stuff I didn't."
Law only smirked in response to that. A pirate who had some integrity, that was something you didn't see every day. Hearing the sound of a door opening he looked to the side to see four members of his crew exiting the ship. "It seems our conversation is over. See you around Uzumaki."
"Which ship is yours? If we're going to meet again to inevitably fight I would like to know what to look out for." Naruto asked the retreating pirate Captain.
Turning his head, Law's smirking face caused the blonde's eyes to narrow. He gestured his thumb at his vessel. "That one, but I doubt you will ever see us coming."
Naruto saw exactly what Law was talking about, instead of a ship he saw a submarine. Instead of being terrified the blonde had a sense of excitement seeing such a vessel. He even gave his infamous shark-like smile to the retreating back of Trafalgar Law and his four crew members.
"That's going to be my new ship." Naruto confidently said.
(The Nautilus - One Day Later)
The very day The Ocean Sword Pirates left Little 7 Naruto suddenly upped their training regiment. With Gin's unusual methods of torture...I mean training every single member was trained into the ground. That included both Gin and Naruto himself, and it was obvious why the blonde was the Captain of the ship. He forced everyone to spar with or without their devil fruits, ran five-hundred laps around the entire ship, fifty suicides, two-hundred burpees, and that would be the end of their misery for the day.
"Well you're improving." Naruto dully said. Sweat was pouring from his brow, his muscles aching from the burn, he honestly found it exhilarating.
"Ugh, screw off Captain." Kotetsu groaned out in pain. Laying on the deck of the ship he was harshly panting with buckets of sweat falling from his battered torso.
"I think I taste blue...is blue a color?" Marianne asked from her position on the ship, hanging from the rails feeling nauseous and weak.
"That's because you accidentally ate some blue paint." A very scuffed up Gin irritably replied with the tapping of his foot. "You gotta be faster and not open your mouth when you move to splatter people with your techniques. As for you Bashura..." He looked over at their navigator who was on his hands and knees, miserably burping. "You need to lay off the milk, it sloshes around in your stomach and absolutely fucks you when you are in an active fight."
"Ugh, noted Gin..." Bashura replied with a somewhat green face before collapsing in a disgruntled heap. "Noted...I will never chug milk again."
"And Carmen..." Gin looked at the deck to find their pink-haired Chef absent. "Where the hell is Carmen?"
"I think she went to go throw up in the bathroom, dunno why though, throwing up over the side is much better." Naruto gestured towards the swinging door she went through. "I think Shizune went to check on her to make sure she didn't rupture anything."
"I see. Donovan, your stamina isn't bad, it could be better though." Gin pointed at their new shipwright resting in the shade of their mast. "And for God's sake take your jacket off when you train, I can only imagine how overheated you are."
"Bwahaha! I'm fine Gin, this doesn't bother me at all." The clearly exhausted man laughed with his wide smile.
"Fine my ass. The only one who is even still standing is Vivi." Gin looked over to the Princess of Alabasta, panting, sweating, and looking very roughed over. But she was smiling, and looking very pleased with herself. Carue, however, was completely unconscious.
"Yes, out of three devil fruit-users, a former Baroque Works Frontier Agent, a chef getting used to her own devil fruit, a giant duck, and a doctor with some surprising talents, she is the only one who hasn't made a damn fool of herself." Naruto replied before stepping away from the helm and making his way over to Vivi. "You have been proving to be better than I thought Vivi. If you're managing to survive Gin's hell training then I think it's time to advance your training."
"Advance? Are you sure?" Vivi asked in surprise.
"Yea, are you sure?" Gin skeptically asked. Now it may have been a few weeks since they left Alabasta and the rag-tag crew was beginning to shape up into something extraordinary, but after what he personally saw Naruto do he had some concerns about what his 'advancement' in training will be.
"I wouldn't have suggested it otherwise." Naruto said before standing before the smaller woman. With his arms crossed he looked her up and down, back and forth, he brought his face near hers to the point that her cheeks turned pink, and confusing the remaining members of the crew before he pulled back, grabbed her leg and rested the back of her foot on his shoulder.
Normally that would have caused a sort of strain on a normal person, but Vivi looked at him without flinching, even if her face did heat up twenty more degrees. Satisfied, Naruto nodded and removed her leg from his shoulder. "Well you got some flexible legs there, and I saw you running on hot desert stones in your bare feet, so here is my thought. We are going to get Donovan to fashion up some peacock slashers for your feet."
"My...feet?" Vivi uncertainty asked.
"Trust me, it's not as stupid as it sounds. Gin! Donovan!"
"I'm right here, what's going on?" The First Mate demanded.
"I'm here Captain!" Donavan practically appeared next to the blonde fishman.
"You two go and measure Vivi up, I want some peacock slashers made for her feet." Noticing Gin's deadpanned look, and Donovan's excited one, the blonde fishman sighed and explained it for his First Mate. "It's not as stupid as it sounds. Donovan I want this done yesterday, I know it's a rush job but-"
"Say no more Captain! I will have it done by tomorrow! Come on Vivi lets get you measured!" Donovan laughed before heading into the ship with a spring in his step.
"Come on Vivi, the sooner we get this done the better it will be." Gin politely patted the blue-haired Princess on the shoulder and followed after Donovan.
"Oh what have I gotten myself into?" Vivi sighed before looking over at Naruto one more time before following after Gin.
It wouldn't be until later that night Naruto would make his way to Donovan's workshop. The lights were still on, that was good enough for him. The blonde fishman tapped on the door to the room so he wouldn't interrupt anything.
"Who is it?" Donovan asked from the other side of the door.
"It's me Naruto, mind if I have a word?"
"Um...Captain, I don't feel comfortable with you coming in here, I don't want the surprise ruined."
"I don't want that either, just come to the door. I got something I need you to work on."
Apparently that was the magic word, because several seconds later Donovan opened the door but used his large bulk to obscure his room. "I'm listening, is this also a rush job?"
"Uh, I would like it done fast." In his arms were a familiar pair of golden gauntlets with diamonds embedded in them. "These belonged to Don Krieg. Gin kicked his ass and we stole them off him. They're too big for Gin himself, I'm hoping you can resize them."
Taking the gauntlets from his new Captain, Donovan looked them over and licked his lips. He fiddled with the insides and a nozzle erupted from the right gauntlet and tried, and thankfully failed to spew flames from it. On the left one what looked like a launcher emerged from it, but again nothing happened.
"Ah...interesting. I think I can work with these." Donovan practically vibrated in excitement. "This won't take me too long Captain, have a good night!" He then shut the door in his face.
Naruto stood in his place, blinking like an owl as his mind tried to process what exactly happened. "Huh, I didn't know they did that."
The next day the entirety of the crew were on the deck with varied expressions ranging from boredom, to confusion, and in Donovan's case excitement. Standing across from each other, both Vivi and Naruto squared off.
Naruto cracked his knuckles and popped his neck. "Ready?"
"I hope so." Vivi replied before Gin, who was the referee for the match shouted for them to begin.
Vivi immediately shot off her signature Peacock Slasher attack, the sharp bladed jewel shining in the light flying at Naruto's face at high speeds. The blonde of course easily stepped to the side before raising his right arm to block a flying kick, he opened his mouth revealing his rows of sharp teeth before a ball of highly pressured water erupted from it.
Vivi's eyes widened before she flipped off his arm, watching as the ball of water exploded in the air, drenching the deck. She then found it impossible to move with her sandals on without slipping, so she launched them at her Captain with two quick snap kicks.
Naruto easily slapped them to the side before he was forced to jump back when four, no make that eight familiar jeweled slashers flew at him, literally cutting the front of his vest as he jumped away. "Well then, let's see you dodge all this! Water Fang Bullet!"
The sides of the ship violently rocked when the highly compressed spinning water erupted from the ocean and began attacking Vivi from almost every angle. Naruto of course held back to prevent himself from destroying the ship, making the technique literally move like a giant mass of snakes. But Vivi ducked and dodged them all with such acrobatic grace that Carmen had to slap herself to see if she was hallucinating or not.
Naruto literally lost sight of her in the confusion. His technique was for killing or maiming multiple enemies at once, it was illogical for someone to dodge all of them. But that did not mean he was going to let up anytime soon.
"Peacock Talons!" Looking up and being blinded by the sun, Naruto only saw a black shape before a sharp pain erupted along his right forearm as three large bloody gashes took shape.
Vivi would have then hit the deck of the ship with the back of her heels, somersaulted to cut into his torso, and then landed on her hands to snap her legs out and rotate her entire body as a whirlwind of slashing pain, but when she saw Naruto bleeding she stopped dead in her tracks and her peacock slashers that she quickly put on her toes stuck her to the wood, preventing her from moving.
Tightly gripping his forearm, Naruto looked at the stunned Princess, ignoring the drops of blood running down his injured limb.
"Oh God I'm so sorry!" Vivi cried out, thankfully Donovan made her weapons easily detachable so she could get out of them. The blue-haired girl then ran over and began fussing with his arm, tearing off a part of the purple cloak she wore to act as a tourniquet.
"It's all right," Naruto lightly winced. Dear Poseidon that hurt. "It's just a scratch." He lied.
"Oh no it is not." Shizune was the second one on scene. She gave the fishman a very disapproving stare before grabbing both him and Vivi by the arms. "Lets go you two, those are going to need some stitches."
"But why am I going?" Vivi asked in confusion.
"So you don't worry about the Captain." The doctor replied with a determined face that barely held a wiry smile. "Gin, tell Marianne to clean up the blood trail okay?"
"Yes, ma'am." Gin looked to his side where Marianne was standing, but found her completely missing. Palming his face he looked at the rest of the people he had to deal with. "Don't just stand there. Find her!"
"Gah! Son of a bitch!" Naruto cursed when Shizune jabbed (in his opinion) the sterilized needle into his flesh. "Can't you be more gentle!?"
"Naruto, it's going to hurt no matter what." Shizune said before dipping the needle in rubbing alcohol once again. "You're lucky that they didn't hit bone, but they are still pretty deep." She proceeded to use her needle once more, enacting another string of curses from the blonde.
"I'm so sorry. I still can't believe I did that." Vivi was completely mortified. This wasn't the first time she hurt someone when fighting, but she never expected to hurt someone who not only saved her life, but allowed her to join his crew when he was fully in his right to kick her off at his earliest convenience.
"Training accidents happen all the time Vivi." Naruto assured the blue-haired Princess of Alabasta for the tenth time in the past couple minutes. Honestly, it was starting to grow annoying.
"But I…"
Naruto interrupted her by pointing out his right knuckles that were scarred over. "I got these by misjudging tiles when I first started learning how to fight. In my dojo we got people who get injured all the time. And I'm pretty sure Shizune has her hands full after Gin gets finished with us-OW!"
"Hold still Naruto." Shizune reprimanded her Captain.
"See what I mean?" The tiger shark fishman looked at the wounds inflicted on him. "Man, what did Donovan make your weapons out of?"
"Um, he told me that he shaped them out of sapphires." Vivi replied. "After doing some measurements, he sketched out some designs until he found one I was comfortable with, he then...well, found some sapphires in a crate and began shaping them."
"So we're down six sapphires?" Naruto frowned in thought. He honestly should have been more annoyed that Donovan destroyed six perfect sapphires, but at the same time Vivi's weapons were literally made out of precious gems. And he could attest that they were sharp as hell. "We're not telling Gin about this, agreed?"
Vivi couldn't help but giggle. "Agreed."
Even Shizune couldn't keep a small smile off her face. "I won't say a thing." She said before finishing off the last stitch needed to close the wound. "Now Naruto I want you to take it easy. Don't put any unneeded stress on your right limb." She said before wrapping the affected area in gauze.
"I understand, I'll just focus on my legs for the time being for any physical exercises." Lightly rubbing his right arm, and wincing from the sharp pain he looked towards the door when a somewhat familiar nagging feeling hit him. "Someone's coming."
"Someone is coming?" Shizune parroted. "Who?"
"Hey Uzumaki!" Kotetsu appeared at the doorway. Leaning against the frame he turned his head in the direction they were sailing. "We're just a mile out from Water 7, Gin told me to ask for any orders from ya."
"Yeah, get everyone to haul all our treasure to the top after we dock. I want this stuff turned into cash asap. After that we need to find a place to stay while our ship is worked on. Keep alert, and make sure no one steals anything. We worked far too hard for anything to get stolen now." Naruto ordered the lookout of the crew.
Kotetsu could only smirk a little bit. After three months they were only a few hours away from getting this floating junk heap fixed. "Aye, aye Captain."
Armageddon: Hello everyone I am still alive. Now you might be wondering where my Army is...well I have decided to retire them all for now, I've honestly can't think of any shenanigans regarding them at the moment. Going to prison so many times and fighting the zombie apocalypses and losing out to mercenary companies had drained my creative thought. So they're on a grand vacation while I'm here...oh well.
Now I guess you're wondering why I also didn't put the usual numbers in the text. Well, I honestly didn't feel like it at the moment this time. I mean as some of you probably already researched, Donovan was part of Foxy's crew, we got only his name, what he looks like, and that he was an excellent shipwright. The fact I gave him a devil fruit that was like Mr. 3's and was an inventor was planned by Agurra and I. As for the bounty? Well, he was born in Water 7 which is apart of the Grand Line of course, had a crew before and gained a fifty million beli bounty through reasons that I have not disclosed as of yet.
I also wanted to put in that is exactly what happens when you don't get the right blood type in you, the more you know right? So give blood when you can, who the hell knows when some bastard with AB blood might need it, or yourself if something unfortunately happens. Though I hope not, I sincerely hope not.
Also please for the love of God take Naruto's inner monologue with a grain of salt. When I first started out with this story it was meant to be a progress of him going from an angry young man to something better, being conflicted is something to be expected after all, and it gave me a reason to introduce Law who has become a favorite of mine lately.
And other than that I got nothing else. Just expect a lot more to happen come next chapter, thank you for your patience and be safe out there!