A/N: Feels fitting to post this since *SPOILERS* just died in the anime.
SliferMK2 -my esteemed cowriter- and I worked hard on this, wrote it a few months ago, and held it in reserve until now.
...I reeeaaallly fell behind when it came to One Piece, thankfully he's there to keep me updated.
Then some cheeky bugger -you know who you are- mentioned this idea to me, and in turn, I mentioned to my co-writer.
This was the result.
As ever, we're sticking with the tried and true "Embers" Rule for this story. If folks don't like it...well, it won't be continued. Most likely, it'll be deleted. So speak up! Make yourself heard! Your voice matters! That's no joke! I have very little time to write these days, so feedback plays a large part in this. Daily updates ensure that I'm constantly busy working on one project or another. I cannot afford to stop and write something that folks don't like; if only because I feel that would a cold disservice to those of who who have stuck with me for so long.
So here we go. The fate of this story depends on you, the reader. Your feedback determines the fate of this tale, and many others.
As ever, I own no quotes, references, themes, or memes. Not a wit or a one! They're tributes to legends far greater than I.
I'm just a humble author trying to make his way in this wild world, one word at a time.
Time and feedback will determine if this remains a story. Simple as that.
In other words...its up to YOU, the reader. Do let me know~!
""What is a monster?
We use the term so often that in many ways it's lost its meaning, or rather it has so many meanings that it's hard to nail down what one is on the simplest level.
Some think of them as unnatural things that hail from festering, rotting places. Others think of grim spectres from some bone-dry gothic tale, or even an axe-wielding murder terrorizing children. But those are types of monsters, not what a monster is.
At their core, Monsters are that which evoke horror, and horror is the violation of that which is 'normal'.
How could I ever hate a child for wanting to be more than 'normal'?"
~?
Father of Monsters
Charlotte Linlin considered herself a fine woman.
Abnormal perhaps, but there wasn't a pirate on the four blues or the Grand Line that could look at her and not feel a modicum of appreciation for her uniquely stunning visage.
At the age of twenty she stood at a positively monstrous twelve feet in height with an hourglass figure that turned many heads at a glance. Her face held a sultry beauty to it, large orange eyes were accented with long delicate eyelashes, a pointed nose and large pouting lips painted a sumptuous red that stood out prominently from her creamy skin. Linlin's long pink hair tumbled down to the small of her back in a waterfall of rose-coloured tresses, gathered under a wide brimmed black fedora that sported a white band and pink polka dots.
Needless to say, she was one refined young woman. Well, as refined as a pirate with a bounty 1,643,000,000 berri could be.
Linlin wore a white short sleeve blouse worn open, exposing her polka dot bra clad cleavage; her lower body was enveloped in an underbust corset and tight fitting shorts made of a dark pink leather. Her long and well toned legs were clad in matching thigh high heeled boots made of a shiny maroon leather that accentuated her already extreme height. Lastly a white captain's coat with pink cuffs and gold epaulettes hung from her shoulders like a cape, a large heart on the back.
Despite her positively pretty appearance, Linlin's face was set into a deep scowl as she appraised the island through the telescope held in her hands. Fishcake Island was, like many of the islands located in the large archipelago surrounding her home base on Wholecake island, in the process of being terraformed to her needs. She traced the hills and forests that ringed the island using the telescope and noticed that the progress in transforming it from humdrum terrafirma to a more culinary appearance had come to a grinding halt for one reason or another. It was for this reason that had drawn her out to this outlying island in her territory when she had much more important things on her mind and the primary contributor to her foul mood.
Collapsing the telescope before roughly pushing it into the hands of a chess soldier, Linlin stalked down the spiraling staircase of the Tarte Ship with a mean look on her face, paying no mind to the soldiers and homies that did their best to stay out of Big Mom's way.
'Big Mom huh?' Linlin thought, her scowl softening a modicum as she mentally tested out the title that so many had taken to calling her as of late. She hardly thought that having five children by the age of 20 was something to evoke great fear but it was a fair bit more flattering than 'Country Destroyer Linlin'. 'I'm more in the business of building countries right now,' she mused as she made her way out onto the deck to oversee the final approach to Fishcake Island.
It had been fourteen years since her friends and Mother Caramel had vanished and Linlin had been left alone, too young to understand just why she was despised and terrified those who saw her. Fourteen years since she had conceived of the nation of Totto and committed to seeing it come to fruition by any means necessary. Sadly for Linlin, nation building was a long and time consuming process that required money, labour and above all time. It was why small hiccups like this drove her up the wall so.
Yesterday she had been standing in the centre of Sweet Town watching the scores of workers, homies and hired contractors put the finishing touches on Wholecake Chateau, the towering cake themed stronghold that would serve as the seat of power for her and all races would look to as a sign of utopia. She should have felt happy that the work to build her dream nation was starting to bear fruit. And indeed she had, she had cracked a wonderful smile and sat down to have tea with those many thousand that had slowly but surely emigrated to Totto Land after hearing of the promise of a better life.
However, about twenty minutes into tea, pleasantries and sumptuous food, Streusen had whispered a rather ominous report into her ear. While Wholecake was mostly finished, Totto Land contained thirty six islands, each of which was needed to be terraformed to her tastes and made livable. This process required constant work and there were a squad of approximately two hundred Homies working away at each island at all times. According to Streusen, none of the homies or workers on Fishcake Island had checked in for the past 5 days. While initially she had simply assumed it was a breakdown in communications, none of the Homies from adjacent that her first and now ex husband had ordered go investigate had returned. This left Big Mom with a sour realisation. There was something unwanted in her territory and it was too strong for her subordinates to remove.
Setting out in a Tarte ship at dawn the following day, it had taken Linlin a gruelling five hours to sail the distance between Wholecake Island and Fishcake Island, by which time she was in a foul mood to end all foul moods. As the Tarte slowly pulled into the small port of the fishing oriented island, Linlin had wasted no time in disembarking, using her inhuman strength to jump the intervening two hundred metres between the ship and land with her personal Homies floating after her.
A cursory investigation of the settlement revealed nothing but a ghost town filled with nothing but the smashed remnants of what must have been three hundred Homies in total, all bearing slightly different wounds upon their empty cartoonish faces. Some had been smashed, others diced into pieces while others had been burnt to a crisp or rendered to splinters by hook or by crook.
"Who could have done this, mama?" Zeus drawled in an unsure voice, the horse sized cloud looking more like a sentient ball of cotton than a concentration of water vapour.
"Someone who's gonna get a piece of my mind, Zeus." Linlin replied, scanning the horizon for anything out of the ordinary, she slowly let her observation Haki come to life and was pleased when she sensed a single lifeform at the centre of the island. "There you are. Zeus, Prometheus, come!" the pinkette barked, drawing startled noises of assent from her two personal homies.
She did not rush as she made her way inland, her heeled boots crunching gravel underfoot, following the central river that snaked from the port all the way to the centre of the island where the lone lifeform on this island dwelled. Half an hour later, Linlin caught a scent on the air and sniffed softly, recognising the scent of wood smoke and omega three rich oil running freely. She snorted in wry amusement, "Looks like our little vandal has decided to help himself to some of our fish without asking, if I wasn't going to punish them before then I certainly am now."
Prometheus and Zeus giggled in harmony, whizzing around Linlin's head as they discussed what they were going to do to this intruder. "Maybe you can throw him in the lake and I'll boil him alive, Mama!" Prometheus suggested, the cartoonish miniature sun practically bouncing up and down on non-existent feet.
Zeus nodded enthusiastically before his mouth formed into a small 'O' of realisation, "Oh oh oh, how about we do that but every time their heart stops I jump start it? That way we get to make it last longer!"
Linlin's bloodthirsty grin told the pair of elemental homies that their suggestions were pleasing to her. They preened at knowing what ideas would get their mama in a good mood, it was only right, after all they were her personal Homies, formed from fragments of her soul.
She shook her head with a small smile, "Much as I like the idea, boys, I at least want to get some answers from whoever it is, after all it's not every day an interloper can cut down three hundred homies. Plus, I think they are waiting for us." Linlin explained. She assumed that she was expected, after all she had made no effort to hide her presence yet she could sense through her Observation Haki that the interloper had made no move to run. So either they knew she was coming and waiting for her or they lacked Observation Haki themselves, which opened up a whole other realm of questions.
Following the scent, the statuesque woman eventually made it to the large circular lake in the centre of the island and slowly approached the distant campfire on the other side and once she was within shouting distance she made herself known.
"Who the hell are you?"
Sat beside a small campfire with two spits roasting fish over it was a young man with spiky blonde hair and bright blue eyes. The thin whisker marks that lined his face briefly made her consider that he might have Mink ancestry but she quickly discarded that idea. He had a light tan and was of average height, which is to say a full six feet shorter than Linlin, but there were two things that stood out to the young superhuman. The first was just how young he was, he couldn't have been more than two or three years younger than her which while not entirely out of the ordinary clashed with the way he was sitting cooking his fish. The second was that he was dressed in rags; torn black pants and a scorched two tone orange and black jacket was worn over a bear chest and black sandals that were barely holding themselves together.
The blonde looked up at her slowly, raising a blonde eyebrow at her massive height while turning over the fish on the end of a spit. "Me? I'm Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto." he answered glibly, confusion swimming in his eyes as he regarded Linlin.
Linlin bristled at the nonchalant response, didn't he know who he was speaking to. "Do you mind telling me what the hell you are doing on my island eating my fish?" she inquired, getting a slight look of embarrassment from the blonde.
"You're island?" Naruto questioned in turn, taking in the gold epaulettes on her captain's coat, realisation dawned on him that it was a sign of leadership. He winced when Linlin gave a sharp nod, "Ah, sorry, I sort of washed in a few days ago and well I needed to catch a bit of rest. I thought I'd camp out here for a few days until I was back in good shape, the food is really good by the way." he tacked on with a chuckle, hoping to alleviate the literal stormcloud hovering in front of the sun.
Naruto blinked.
He thought he had been imagining things when he had first seen the cartoonish forms of Zeus and Prometheus floating on either side of Linlin's head but low and behold they were not dispelled by a blink of the eye. Orange pigment briefly appeared around each of Naruto's eyes before he made a murmur of intrigue as he regarded the pair of homies. "Huh… that's a neat trick, Big Lady." he uttered.
Zeus and Prometheus stilled for a moment, something about Naruto's presence giving them pause. Linlin ignored it, crossing her arms under her bust. "I see, and how does that factor into you scrapping three hundred of my homies down in town?" She questioned, watching Naruto stiffen slightly, "Seems your vandalism slipped your mind in favour of poaching my fish and squatting on my land."
"Oh… those creepy cartoon people were yours huh?" he asked, Big Mom answering with a glacial nod, "Crrrraaaapppp. Look I'm sorry but they attacked me first, as for squatting on your land? How was I supposed to know, there's no sign or anything." Naruto looked at his two roast fish spits before sighing. Slowly he got to his feet and dusted himself down while meeting Linlin's piercing stare, he noted that her eyes were a wonderful shade of orange.
"I'd offer to pay for the fish, but I don't have anything to pay. As for squatting, well tonight was gonna be my last night before going on my way, nothing wrong with starting a little early I guess." Naruto said, kicking some dirt into the campfire to sluff it before turning to leave. "Sorry for the inconvenience, Big Lady, I'll be on my way."
Naruto moved past Linlin, passing through the large shadow she cast and began to walk towards the edge of the lake from which the river would take him back to the port, fully intending on leaving the island behind.
The bark of a pistol stopped him in his tracks, a small chunk of ground to the right of his foot erupting into a small poof of dirt and grit.
Naruto slowly looked over his shoulder, seeing Linlin levelling the smoking barrel of a flintlock pistol at the ground that had just been shot.
"And where do you think you're going, Whiskers?" Linlin asked, internally taken aback and a little affronted that this little blonde pissant didn't seem to realise the danger he was in.
Naruto slowly turned on his heel to face Linlin fully, there was a readiness to his stance that set off alarm bells at the back of her head but she ignored them as the blonde replied. "I was leaving, Big Lady."
Pink eyebrows knit together in frustration and Linlin gave a menacing smirk, "It's Big Mom, and you aren't going anywhere, Whiskers. You don't just break into someone's island, destroy all of its workers, squat for a few days and leave without a slap on the wrist. There is punishment to be had."
Naruto stayed standing there as Linlin slowly crossed the distance between them, stowing her flintlock safely in its holster on her tailbone. Now face to face with the blonde with her back to the lake, Naruto was really treated to just how tall Linlin was, even at six feet tall he barely came up to her crotch.
Naruto flexed his fingers a few times as the statuesque woman loomed over him, he would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the view but his mind was on much more practical matters.
"And what might that be?" he asked, his eyes cooling until they were chips of blue ice.
Big Mom grinned, twirling a lock of her long pink hands between her fingers before she spoke in an overly sugary voice, "We're going to play a game, a deal really, to decide what you're going to do to make up for your crimes."
"Couldn't you just put up a flag or something so this doesn't happen to anyone else?" Naruto said in jest only for Big Mom to continue to grin at him, her twin homies peaking ominous over each shoulder.
She pouted for a moment, her dark red lipstick forming a perfect cupid's bow, "Maybe afterwards, but I still need to make you pay for what you did, Whiskers. Now…" Linlin called upon the power of the Soru Soru no Mi and let her contract be spoken, "Life or Pet?"
Naruto' eyes went wide as a pale magenta aura surrounded him, outlining his entire body and worming its way into his soul. Linlin tilted her head to the side and began to explain, "You must be at least somewhat entertaining if you could smash three hundred homies, and those whiskers are awfully cute, so here is the deal. I have a fondness for rare specimens, you agree to be my plaything for… hmm…" she thumbed her chin in thought, "let's say ten, no, fifteen years and I'll consider your crimes paid for. Or, I take four times that out of your remaining lifespan. So…Life or Pet?"
Linlin expected a range of reactions, from confused demands of wanting to know what was going on to blubbering bartering for a reduced sentence or even sad denial despite the fear that crept from the existential dread of feeling your soul move entailed.
What she got was a searing and righteous fury that burned those blue eyes slitted and red. The last thing Charlotte Linlin saw before everything went to hell was the magenta light of her Soul Pocus guttering like a candle in the wind. "Clench your teeth!" was his only warning, chambering a fist.
Then there was pain.
Naruto's fist slammed into Linlin's jaw in a blur of motion, a sub-audible wump was heard before reality caught up with what had occurred. Linlin's eyes bugged out, entire body going briefly limp as the impact of the vicious uppercut lifted her off the ground. Then with a shockwave of pressure she was launched spinning across the lake in a thunderclap of sound, a kilometre of distance covered in an instant.
Grimacing deeply, Naruto dropped back down to the floor as Linlin collided with the distant treeline, carving a trench of destruction through the forest as she went on unslowed from the herculean punch that had shot her like a ball loosed from cannon.
"Bit of a violent reaction there," Kurama rumbled at the back of Naruto's mind, the plumes of debris in the distance finally beginning to settle down.
Naruto snorted in reply, "You felt it as much as I did, Kurama, she took hold of my soul and the last few people who tried to do that were intending to rip you out of me."
Kurama harrumphed in agreement before his eyes narrowed, "You know that didn't take her down, if anything it feels like you just made angrier."
Naruto's sarcastic response was cut off when instinct roared at him to move and loathed was he to not listen to his instincts in a strange new world.
"Ikoku Sovereignty!"
No sooner did Naruto hear those words than a crescent of magenta energy burst out of the far treeline and streaked towards where he had just been standing a moment ago. It scythed into the ground like a hot knife through butter, carving a long line deep into the ground as it moved, smashing into what had been his campsite a few minutes before and kept going to demolish hundreds of metres worth of forest behind.
"Just wind pressure?" Naruto realised, he looked across the lake and saw the tall figure of Big Mom stomping from the trench his punch had put her in, the smoking length of a cutlass clutched in her hand. Her face was set in an angry scowl and her clothes were a little scuffed but apart from a small red welt on her chin she was otherwise unscathed.
"You damn brat! Now you've done it, they're gonna be finding pieces of you scattered across the island for years by the time I'm through with you!" Linlin pointed the end of her sword across the lake, her voice echoing off the woods that ringed the water.
Naruto squinted in confusion, "Eh? Brat? Lady, you're like only two years older than me, there is no way in hell I'm a brat."
Linlin's teeth ground together loudly at his blatant disrespect, "Gnnhhh, age's got nothing to do with it! You've got all the manners of a three year old throwing a tantrum when he's been caught red handed."
"Oh bite me ya crazy bint, try putting up a sign next time and maybe it won't happen again!" Naruto shouted in response, thoroughly annoyed at Linlin's words.
Squaring her shoulders, the tall pinkett's fists tightened until her knucks shone white through the skin, the handle of her cutlass giving an ominous creak in strain. This guy had an attitude it seemed, it wasn't the first time that Big Mom had dealt with a man running his mouth and she was always open to dealing out retribution. But, this felt strangely personal, and thus dictated her response. "Zeus, Prometheus."
"Yes, Mama!" the twin elemental Homies answered in unison, positively vibrating at the prospect of a good scrap.
Unfortunately Linlin's words would disappoint them. "You two hang back, I'm going to beat some manners into this guy with my bare hands," she exclaimed with palpable excitement, lightly bending her knees and dropping into a ready stance, the flat of her cutlass resting on her shoulder. Both homies gave a disappointed 'awwwww' before dropping back.
Naruto tensed, feeling Linlin's intent wash over the surrounding area in a miasma of vermillion waves lapping against his senses. He watched her closely, taking in every aspect of the delicate minutiae that might herald oncoming movement. The dilation of the eyes, the flaring of the nortals or twitch of muscle that meant an attack was coming. Then, she came, surging forth in a lightning fast leap that cratered the ground where she had been standing and soared across the lake as if in flight, set to bring down her cutlass in an overhead slash that would have split a normal man in two.
But Naruto was no normal man.
Kicking off the ground to meet his statuesque opponent, Naruto made a grab for the descending sword and locked onto Linlin's wrists before crashing both his feet into her unprotected chest in a drop kick. Linlin gave a small grunt of annoyance while Naruto's eyes widened in surprise, 'It's like kicking a slab of solid iron!' he thought, feeling reverberations rumble through his legs unpleasantly. Making a snap decision, Naruto twisted his body, throwing his weight backwards while bracing his feet against Linlin's sternum and leaverd her sword wielding arms with the yor of his body.
Big Mom's gave a frustrated yelp when Naruto flipped her and with a twist sent her careening into the forest once again, great oaks and pine trees snapping like twigs as she crashed through them. Swearing, Big Mom attempted to right herself amid her flight only for Naruto to blur in front of her, still in motion with fist reared back. Jumping off a nearby broken tree stump that the superhuman had just felled, Naruto lashed out with a vicious straight punch to her sternum, propelling Linlin backwards yet again. He bounded from tree to tree with inhuman grace, changing direction like a whirling dervish and continuing to hammer away at her, his targets varied but always consistently aimed for centre mass.
Linlin was knocked in all directions like a pinball, Naruto's constant flood of strike propelling them across the island in a single continuous performance of violence accompanied by the soundtracks of shockwaves and shattered trees. He bounded off the ground after his latest hammer blow to the solar plexus sent Linlin into a boulder that splintered on contact, finding himself above her with the intent of drilling a viscous hook to her thigh. However, Linlin's sword struck out in a blistering arc towards him, sending another of those lilac coloured flying slashes at the blonde.
Acting fast, the Uzumaki twisted his body under the arc of the sword, his left foot whipping up and catching Big Mom in the cheek, though this time he was not able to escape totally unscathed. Gritting her teeth as the tip of Naruto's foot ground into her jaw, Lilin made another swipe at him with her cutlass, the ring covered fingers of her sword wielding hand landing a glancing blow to the temple. Both of them were sent spinning away from one another, spiralling through the underbrush of the forest and creating a new clearing in the process.
Springing up quickly, Naruto touched his hand to his temple and winced, there was definitely gonna be a bruise there tomorrow. He watched Linlin pull herself to her feet and stretch, her great height towering over the ocean of fallen trees that their conflict had created. Concerningly, aside from numerous red welts across her chest and face from where he had landed his hits she seemed no worse for wear. 'Ah well, not the first time we've dealt with a tough nut to crack. If at first you don't succeed…' His hands flashed into a familiar cross shaped hand sign, 'Try, try again.'
A large cloud of smoke poofed into existence on either side of Naruto, pulling away to reveal a two dozen clones arrayed around him.
"Eh?" Big Mom grunted in confusion, raising an eyebrow at the sudden appearance of so many duplicates of the troublesome Uzumaki. "You are a Devil Fruit user then eh? That explains a few things," Lilin said, cracking her neck and taking up a wide stance, "Come on then, show me what you got, Whiskers, I'll beat you into the dust all the same.
"What the hell is a Devil Fruit?"
"..." Big Mom blinked owlishly at the genuine confusion in the blonde's voice, surely he couldn't be that dense. "What backwater hole did you crawl out of to ruin my day?" she asked rhetorically before rushing at the blonde and his duplicates once again, confident that her Haki would see her through anything these obvious illusions could do to throw her off her game.
So it was with great surprise that her Observation warned her that what she thought were illusions were planning to attack her. "Hrk!?"
Too late. Half of the clones grabbed one of their fellows and easily tossed them in a fastball special to meet Big Mom, human missiles streaking towards her with an intense speed. Linlin swung her sword in a flurry of horizontal and diagonal slashes that caught the vast number of the multitude up in a hail of death, dispelling them with their characteristic pop and a poof of smoke that served to obscure her vision for a beat.
Sadly for her, a lone clone had slipped past in the hail of smoke and now bore down on her back with a Rasengan in each hand, driving them home into her back. "AAAAAAAGhhhhhhhhh!" Linlin cried out in pain as the pair of spiralling chakra spheres tore holes in her captain's coat, grinding against her back in opposite spinning directions before detonating, ploughing her straight into the ground with enough force to bounce back five feet into the air.
The onslaught did not cease as the dozen remaining clones sprinted at Linlin from all sides, each one landing their own chakra enhanced punch or kick to her body one at a time with such frequency that she could not settle, bounced in the air between the assault of so many attackers like a common volleyball. She felt strong hands take hold of her ankles as the first clone that had hit her landed and began to spin the calamitous woman around by her ankles, a terrible gust being kicked up by the motion until they were surrounded in a small but potent tornado of dust and debris.
Feeling dizzy but no less angry at how a country bumpkin was manhandling her, Linlin managed to wrestle her ankle free and kick the clone in the neck with enough force to break it, its head lolling at an odd angle for a fraccion of an instant before popping into smoke that was torn away by her personal tornado. "God damn it you little shit, I'll break all your bones for this!" she screamed as the storm of dust tossed her free like a kite in the wind.
The real Naruto set upon her almost too quickly to react, burying a chakra enhanced fist deeply into Linlin's gut, knocking the wind from her lungs. The warning of her observation had forced Linlin to guard her stomach in armament, now glistening a metallic black, but it only served to take the edge off of the chakra enhanced punch. Fighting down the urge to vomit as she doubled over in mid air, Linlin crossed her armament clad arms in front of her chest in the hopes of weathering the rain of follow ups that carried her further and further into the air. Naruto finished the sequence with a flip kick that collided with Lilin's jaw with a wet crunch and a sour pop.
Linlin grunted in pain but did not let Naruto continue to lavish his assault upon her, digging her heels into the ground and skidding to a stop some fifty feet away. Naruto's hits were different that they were before, stronger and faster to the point that even when guarding herself with Haki, Linlin's bones still rattled unpleasantly. She fixed Naruto with a venomous glare in her orange eyes before channelling Armament into her extremities. Before the blonde's eyes he saw the tall woman's arms and legs flash before becoming covered in the shiny black vulcanised sheen of hardening haki, crawling up the surface of her cutlass and turning it a dark purple. Linlin seethed, "To think I have to exert myself against a backwater fool who doesn't even know he has a Devil Fruit."
Naruto on the other hand, assessed the situation with a keen eye, his mind going a mile a minute. "You're the one who picked a fight, big pink, its not my fault if you can't keep up!" Naruto shouted in provocation, sending Linlin into a rage that had them clash yet again. They were dragged into a continuous cycle of martial brutality that slowly but surely reduced the forest that covered most of the island to a dust cloud of splinters that could be seen for miles around. Far be it from Naruto to be bemoan people for punching above their weight but Linlin proved to be a troublesome opponent.
Despite her incredible size, being by far and aways the tallest woman he had ever seen, Linlin had an astonishing level of agility and swiftness, and her confoundingly tough body when paired with the reinforcement of armament haki meant that she could endure a mind numbing amount of force without seemingly any visible damage save for the odd expletive or pained yelp. Still, Naruto had always been good at thinking on his feet and turning the opponents' advantages against them and this was no different. His blows became targeted, punches and kicks aimed at Linlin's elbows and kneecaps in the hopes of grinding away at her until something gave and she was no longer able to move with the speed that she did.
He ploughed Rasengans into her hands hoping to break her fingers, had clones detonate in front of her eyes to blind her long enough for others to kick out her shins and sent an endless tide of stamps down upon her thighs with the hope of breaking her femurs. He was not always successful, more than once he took a blow to the head that made stars burst before his eyes or savage knees to the stomach that had him gasping for breath but what was clear by the time their dance of fists kicks and steel came to lul again was they were both attrition fighters.
Panting slightly despite the persistent ache in her arms, legs and chest, Linlin managed a violent grin, spitting out a small globule of blood. How long had it been since she had got into a fight that lasted this long? She could count on one hand the number of other pirates and marines that could actually manage to muscle through her defences to make her hurt. It was not as if she enjoyed the feeling of being hurt, she was no masochist by any measure but it was a nice change of pace to be able to cut loose. "You got some skill, Whiskers, shame I gotta kill you."
A bead of sweat ran down the back of Naruto's head. "That is not how you compliment someone, you crazy woman!"
"Mamamamamamamamamama!" Linlin cackled, tossing aside her now thoroughly ruined sword and cracking her armament clad knuckles, uncaring for the blonde's words. "What can I say, I'm a refined woman who can appreciate the irony of having to kill what I enjoy. I hope you survive, but if you don't its no skin off my back. Now…COME AT ME!" she yelled, her eyes wild and full of passion. Kicking off the ground, she zoomed towards Naruto with her right arm pulled back, faint traces of black lightning jumping from her fingers.
Naruto watched the keening pirate coming towards him as if in slow motion, letting out a small sigh of exasperation before balling his right hand into a fist. Golden fire burst into life around his right fist and he punched, meeting the much taller Linlin's fist with a cataclysmic bang. The world darkened around the pair as their fists ground against one another, black and golden lightning sparking from the point of contact and a tempestus storm roaring away from the epicentre of the clash, shattering and uprooting the remaining trees on the island. The ground began the crater beneath their feet as a column of chakra and haki slowly took form in the air above them.
Linlin's orange eyes slowly began to widen in disbelief as Naruto held her back at ground zero, his arm steady and his eyes slitted gold. No matter how hard she tried to physically overpower him she could not get that flaming golden arm to so much as move an inch backwards…actually, the opposite was true. He was pushing her back! Battle cry carrying over the wind, Big Mom mustered her armament and conqueror's haki into the clash and slowed Naruto's advance but could not stop it.
"Mama!" the shrill voices of Zeus and Prometheus called over the din, "Mama, you have to stop, the Island can't take much more of this!"
"Huh?" Linlin looked over her shoulder at the two cartoonish homies looking at her with abject terror etched into their simple faces, looking around the blasted heath of a battlefield with wide eyes. Following their gaze, Linlin took in the black sky and the lights lancing through it. Unlike a clash between two conqueror's haki users, her and Naruto's clash had an entirely different knock on effect on the environment. Instead of splitting the sky, it roiled like an inverted volcanic eruption, a plume of tar black cloud roiling down from on high towards the island with bolts of gold and purple lightning slashed down and left large craters with each explosive strike.
How… how was he doing this? What manner of man was this that continued to push her back as the very world itself convulsed at the monstrosity of their clash… she had to win, if only so she could ask him why. "Zeus, Prometheus, to me!"
Giving a loud affirmative, the pair of Homies suddenly changed, going from caricatures sprung from a child's mind to very real and quite scary appearances. Zeus grew larger and darker until he was a bonafide thundercloud crackling with arcs of heliotropic lightning, his easygoing smile morphing to a sinister grin. Prometheus, on the other hand, ignited becoming a globe of dark orange and yellow with the yawning spectre of a face at it heart, jagged toothed and glowing red eyes looking at Big Mom. They flew towards her, pushing against the wall of ever present air pressure that the clash produced and slowly made it through to touch Linlin's outstretched hand.
Prometheus's fire went up Linlin's shoulders and into her hair, setting it ablaze and having it float behind her in a halo of monstrous fire topped by her resilient polka dot fedora. Zeus snaked across her shoulders like a flowing liquid and ran up her arm before settling around her wrist like a bracelet. With a renewed roar of effort, Linlin willed the duo to join the effort, lightning and fire coiling around her fist, finally bringing Naruto's glowing fist to a stop. The heat around them began to slowly rise as the storm above grew stronger still, tearing swaths of Fishcake Island from the land and tossing them out to sea as if they weighed nothing.
Naruto narrowed his eyes dangerously, their pupils now bar shaped like a toad. He could sense it now, the whine in nature from the island as their struggle slowly but surely made the world come undone. The ground beneath their feet shook terribly while the distant lake where all this had begun slowly boiled away from the omnipresent heat that roared from Linlin's new corona of light and fire. 'She's strong, but we've fought stronger, eh Kurama?' he asked his partner, maintaining eye contact with the woman's orange orbs. 'You know, when she's not sneering and is actually enjoying herself she has a really pretty smile, ya know?'
Kurama scoffed at the sentient, leave it to his partner to see the silver linings in someone currently trying to kill him.
As Linlin watched, Naruto's entire body was immersed in that same golden fire and light, and in that moment, feeling the fragments of her soul and manifestation of her will grind against the auric brilliance of Naruto's power, Charlotte Linlin grasped for a brief moment the totality of the soul she was locked in combat against and was stunned. It was not big, nor was it huge, no those were too small a series of words to define the size of Naruto's soul arrayed against her. It was titanic, gargantuan, gigantic, bigger than all the souls on Totto land combined…
"It's… monstrous…" she breathed before in a single soundless tide of brilliant gold power she was overpowered and sent into blissful unconsciousness.
Streusen bit his lip for what must have been the thousandth time in the last five hours. When he had taken Linlin aside yesterday and told her about the communications breakdown from Fishcake Island he had tried to caution a measured response of making their way to the errant island in force with a series of Tartes to cut off any potential escape of whatever interloper had trespassed into their land. Alas, Linlin had never been one for patience when it came to sating her desires and had jumped on a lone Tarte ship at first light when most of Wholecake had still been asleep. He hadn't found out about her bold journey until a maid had come to his quarters and roused him from his sleep, quickly springing into action and mustering five Tarte's full to the brim with Chess Piece Homies and set out to follow.
But much as he wished it, he could not expedite the journey across Totto land, he was not like Linlin who could simply fly on her two Homies, he was beholden to the winds and tide.
'Damn it, Linlin, you're getting too hard to control,' the short pirate thought, cutting a slice from the Tarte's deck and using his devil fruit to turn it into a genuine piece of cake that he greedily stuffed into his mouth. Now in his early 40s, the diminutive co-founder of Totto land showed signs of his age, his once curly black hair was streaked with grey and sported a pronounced mole on his large nose. Deep lines marred is forehead that spoke of many years of dealing with stress caused by the walking calamity that had been his one time ward and partner.
Initially it had seemed so simple, after witnessing that monstrous young girl do that atrocity nearly fifteen years ago he had a simple goal in mind. Guide the unbridled force of nature that she represented towards the goal that he had harboured, creation of a land where he and those like minded could call home without persecution for their nature. And for a long time he had got just that, travelling with the girl and guiding her on the path to piracy with the knowledge that so long as he kept her fed and happy that the ideal 'pirates paradise' would be born.
'But as she grew up, she got smart, smart enough to realise that there was nothing stopping her from doing what she wanted because she truly is a monster.' Streusen stuffed another piece of cake into his mouth, licking the frosting from his fingers and barking an order to the crows nest. The Pawn responded that Fishcake Island was now in view drawing a sigh of relief from the pirate, the waiting had been killing him.
"Papa-rin?" a small childlike voice spoke from behind him, causing Streusen to look over his shoulder. "Mama close?"
He cracked a small half smile, "Yes, Perospero, your Mama's close, we'll be seeing her soon."
The precocious two year old's eyes lit up with happiness at Streusen's words, sticking his long tongue out and giggling merrily to himself before sauntering over to his siblings on unsteady feet. The sight was enough to make Streusen puff up his chest in fatherly pride, almost, but the sight of the burbling Compote and gently resting triplets made his mood darken. Oh, Pereosperro was his, he had been keenly aware of the beautiful young woman that Linlin had grown into and when she had turned eighteen, curious to explore her wants and needs as a woman he had been on hand to… enjoy the fruits of his labours.
That had been the last time he had any semblance of real control over Linlin, the two lovers she had taken after him a sure sign that while he was an honoured advisor he was not the leader of this fledgeling nation, and in many ways the sight of the younger four of Linlin's progeny filled him with bile. Not that he'd ever say this out loud.
His caustic reverie was interrupted when the door to the cabin burst open, a Knight maked chess soldier snapping a sharp salute before speaking in a panicked voice. "Sir Streusen, you have to come up on deck, now!" the piece said, trying not to fumble his words, his face was drawn and panicked, making Streusen frown.
Nodding briskly, the short pirate trotted quickly through the corridor and small flight of stairs between his cabin and the deck, his short legs carrying him as fast as they could. The Knight opened the door to the deck for him, letting him briskly walk out onto the midship, "Right, what's the situation, have you spotted Linlin? Her Tarte?" he asked the assembled crew and soldiers. No one answered him, instead looking over the frosted railings ringing the cake themed ship, mouths agape and eyes bugged.
Streusen poked one of the crewmates in the leg in the hopes of getting his attention but they remained slack jawed and unresponsive, eyes welded to the horizon. "What the hell is everybody looking a-" Streusen stopped, struck dumb by the sight visable from the bow.
Fishcake Island had been devastated, what had once been a half terraformed island in the process of being turned from an alpine island into a fish themed stronghold through the combined power of his and Linlin's Devil Fruits was barren and dead. The once lush forests and rolling hills had been scoured clean, rended down to greyish bedrock and glassy surfaces kissed by superheated energy. Kilometre wide gashes and parabolic craters hundreds of feet deep pitted the island like the battle scars on some ancient beast from a picture book. Most alarmingly of all was the centre of the island had been hollowed out by some cataclysmic explosion that even now sparked with random discharges of lightning.
A thousand thoughts passed through the pirate come cook at a mile a minute, attacking his waking mind as a swarm of hornets. What had happened here? A battle? But against who, and if Linlin had been involved where was she? Slightly more concerningly, who could possibly have pushed Linlin to the point where this was the end result?
He took a deep breath before beginning to bark orders to the crews of the five Tartes. "Helmsman, take us in with two Tartes, break out a search party while the two remaining Tartes circle the island, try and find Linlin's ship. Move!" he yelled, startling the crews of the five ships into action. Dozens of crew and homies manned rigging and made preparations to make landfall on the island and search for the missing Queen of Totto. Advanced teams were already embarking on rowboats bound for the cracked and scorched beach with search teams and first aid kits strapped about their person while the Tartes got as close to the island as they could without beaching.
They worked as a well oiled machine, genuine worry for their leader and in many cases creator spurring them into action, soon enough they were swarming across the island as fast as their legs could carry them. Those with Observation Haki sorted themselves into orienteering parties, coordinated the searches via transponder snails, and relayed all the information to Streusen from a simple operations base formed from the shattered remnants of the port town. He listened to reports of glassed prairies and hills shaved away to a near mirror smoothness by some ungodly wind while those without Devil Fruits dredged the scant remaining waters on the island for the pink haired superhuman, turning up nothing.
For two hours this continued unabated and all that time a quiet dread began to grow in the middle aged pirate. He had seen Linlin wreak havoc like this before but never had he walked in on the aftermath and found it so… horrifying. He had seen her do something utterly disgusting at the age of six and it had done little more than make him chuckle, but there was something deeply unsettling about this. 'She can't be dead, if she had died then surely the Homies would have conked out too…' he reasoned, sweat beading down his brow that he dabbed at with his chief's apron. He couldn't be sure of that, after all the circumstances of how the Soru Soru no Mi had passed to Linlin was in of itself atypical, but it was something else that set all of Streusen's hackles rising. 'If Linlin is dead or gone… does that mean I have to take over?'
While he didn't like that Linlin was more independent than him, the greying pirate had to admit that it was her power, beauty and personality that kept Totto Land running, and without her he was but an ageing pirate with a twisted sense for humor and appreciation for food. 'I… I still have the children! If they are monsters like their mother then perhaps this could work,' he thought, nearly jumping out of his skin when the Transponder Snail bleated a euphoric discovery.
"We found her! Mama's in the remnants of her Tarte on the North side of the Island!" The snail communed, causing Streusen to get moving instantly.
Ordering all teams to make their way to the north shore, the chef hopped back onto the lead Tarte and engaged its paddles, making full speed out of the port and around the island to where the other two Tarte's had discovered the smashed remnants of Linlin's own. It had been beached and smashed against the rocks with some force and had seemingly lost all hands if the crumpled remnants of Homies buried in the walls was anything to go by, but Linlin herself was very much there and more importantly still alive.
Linlin was splayed out on the deck unconscious, her back propped up against the main superstructure of the Tarte, looking like she had been thrown face first into a blender. She was covered in cuts and bruises that while not deep was completely new for most of the troops that had never seen their leader ever bleed. Her blouse had been torn to shreds, just a few white threads hanging over the sides of her underbust corset while her coat was missing.
Checking her pulse and placing his hand in front of her nose, Streusen confirmed that she was still breathing and quickly set about bringing her around. He barged past a Rook carrying a first aid kit who skidded back while the first member of the crew drew his short cutlass and sliced a large chunk of the torn sails from the snapped mast. "Start a fire!" he ordered, the troops mustering to do as ordered while Streusen let the power of his Devil Fruit permeate the bundle of canvas. Before their eyes, the troops watched as a dark pink light enveloped the scraps of sail and began to shift, it darkened, fainting a shift of dark red and pink colours as its texture departed from cloth to a recognisable meat.
Once done, Streusen secured the newly created slices of Chirizo on the end of his sword and held them above the fire that the troops had created. Soon enough, the meat began to sizzle and cook, amber coloured juices and oils emerging from the spice rich pork derivative that popped when they dropped into the flames. The scent of cooking food filled the nostrils of all present, drawing growles from their stomachs as they salivated.
Linlin's nose twitched, scenting the air like a haunting hound before she began to stir, roused by the heavenly scent of the fragranced meat slowly roasting to perfection. She groaned in her sleep and began to open her eyes blearily, the glare of the sun instantly forcing her to screw them back shut.
Then the pain hit her, a fresh grown tearing itself from her lungs as she sat up and braced herself against her knees. "Uhhhhhhhhh," her mind was fogged with pain and hunger, baying her to find somewhere warm and dark to sleep off the aches and pains that thundered through her body. Confusion prickled at her half awake mind, not understanding the reason for the pain, the memory of the last few hours was a fog of aching bones, howling winds and shining gold-
Her orange eyes snapped open, memory burning itself to the front of her mind like a hot poker pressed against her forehead. Shooting up, Linlin looked around feverishly at the assembled crew who all instinctively took several steps back in fear, her towering form a head taller than even the tallest of the King soldiers. Breathing deeply, she slowly recognised each of their faces and settled on Streusen looking up at her with guarded worry, sword bearing food slowly dipping into the fire.
Wordlessly, she stomped towards the cook before dropping to the floor and crossing her legs, she plucked the proportionally small sword from his ands and began to gnaw at the chunks of roasted Chorizo. Linlin was ravenous, taking little time to chew the rich meat and tossing the small cutlass back at Streusen when she had licked it clean.
"Linlin… what the hell happened here?" Streusen asked candidly, gesturing with both arms at the remnants of Fishcake Island, he was about to ask more questions when he heard Linlin's stomach give another loud growl and thought better of it. He pointed at the assembled crew with the tip of his sword, "Everyone grab as much food and drink from the pantries of all the ships as you can and bring it here. Now!"
The pieces snapped fearful salutes before scarpering off in the direction of the other ships, tearing open containers of rations, sweets and preserved meats and brining it back to their leader who continued to satiate her hunger. The greying middle aged pirate watched on nodding to himself, it would prove difficult getting answers out of Linlin when she was hungry, she was likely to eat them alive if her hunger pang got bad enough.
Linlin gulped down canteens of sweet teas and sugary milkshakes, slaking a thirst that had built up over her forced rest, and while she took the edge off the pain she came to think about what had brought her here. She had never, ever, received a thrashing so extreme as the one given to her by the whisker marked warrior, it went beyond simple physical injury which even now made her bones quake and rattle in phantom pain. No it was the spiritual pain, the feeling that she had rallied the vitality of her soul against Naruto and with a single thought he had smashed through it like a comet falling to earth. It was utterly new, a violation and brutality delivered with such callous yet sincere intent that… that…
"I want to see him again…" she whispered, setting down the small wedding cake she had been about to toss in her mouth and using the back of her wrist to wipe her face.
"Eh, who, Linlin?" Struesen asked in confusion, running over the number of people that could possibly render Big Mom into unconsciousness. "Was it Garp? Zephyr? Sengoku or that brat Newgate?" He asked, feeling fear stab at his heart at the prospect of those monsters being loose in Totto land, were the bound for Wholecake even now to uproot their work while the fleet was away!?
"No, it was someone else, a blonde with whiskers on his cheeks. One with weird powers." Linlin remarked with a frown before looking up into the now clear sky, a far cry from the tarry maelstrom that their battle had turned it into, "We're going to hunt him down as soon as we get back to Wholecake."
"What!? No we can't do that, we have to see what we can salvage from this mess and fortify our borders! After that we have more pressing things to worry about." Struesen yelped, waving his hands in a show of complaint. "Plus, there's that invitation from Hachinose to worry about-"
"Are you giving me orders, Struesen?" Linlin ground out, looking down at the diminutive pirate imperiously, her narrowing dangerously, but his words did serve to remind her of part of the reason she had initially been so annoyed to have to come out to Fishcake. Several weeks ago an invitation had arrived from the so called pirates paradise island of Hachinose sent by one Rocks D. Xebec. It was a simple proclamation, an invitation to the strongest pirates of the New World to join under one banner in the hopes of achieving all they had ever wanted. While Linlin may have thought of Rocks as a good for nothing snake she couldn't deny his strength and had been intending to venture to Hachinose after the completion of Wholecake Chateau to further her own interests.
But now thoughts of getting her own back on the spiky haird blonde was at the forefront of her mind, an itch that needed to be scratched. "We set out to find that whisker faced vagabond as soon as we can, and you Struecen," she fixed a baleful glare on her 'first mate', "If you think for even a moment that you can order me around like a child anymore, I'll make my displeasure known." she uttered, vitriol all but wafting from her mouth.
He opened his mouth to try and argue his point but felt the scorching gaze of Linlin's orange eyes boring down on him. He loward his head in defeat, conceding the point, "Yes, Linlin. But where do we even start looking for him? Totto Land is a big place and he could be anywhere."
Linlin hummed in thought, templing her fingers until she caught a glimpse of something poking from underneath the heavy rings on her right hand. Gently she pinched the object between forefinger and thumb and drew it out from under the ring to inspect it, her face breaking into a wide predatory grin, "I have my ways, mamamamama!" she giggled, letting the single thread of spiky golden hair glint in the afternoon sun.
A/N: Well, young Naruto, you have yourself a ravenous and curvaceous young Big Mom on your tail! Whatever will you do? A and what does a Big Mom need but a Father of Monsters? Oh how the sprogs and tikes shall flow!
To clarify, this is a Pure!Naruto who found himself stranded in the realm of One Piece. Dwell on that for a minute.
He can hardly save everyone, or be everywhere at once, but he can certainly help many.
For future reference, Naruto's arrival is 46 years before Luffy left Dawn Island so the landscape of the world is by far and a ways different from what we know today. There is also a level of time that's going to have to pass before more important characters start to show up like a Heavenly Demon or Devil Child. Nico Robin's at least eleven years YOUNGER than Doffy. At this point she hasn't even been born, nor has most of the main cast.
As for me making Struecen Perorspero's father? I think it's a pretty decent hypothesis, given that Struecen has been in Big Mom's life since she was six, and his big tongue resembles him. The cook's personality is also a little more sinister than in canon given that Linlin has grown a little more independent.
As ever, the Embers rule remains. If folks don't like this story...well, that'll make me sad, and I'll not continue it. So by all means, speak up! Every bit of feedback matters here! Truly, it does! That's no joke! I really don't have much time to write these days and feedback is the wind beneath my wings. Silence is a lead weight that just drags me down.
As ever, reviews/feedback keep me writing them. Without them, I lose all hope, creativity and imagination.
So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...Would You Kindly!
SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!
PLOT DETAILS AHOY!
YE BE WARNED!
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"Ha! You're strong, Whiskers!" Much to his chagrin, the young woman clawed her way upright again, shrugging off the sting of the Rasenshurkien. "I think I just fell in love!"
A bead of sweat ran down his brow. "Who the hell're you?!"
She grinned. "Linlin! Now fight me!
"Kill them!"
"Enough."
He couldn't see the man through the blindfold. But he could hear his voice.
He listened to every bit of what followed and how it morphed into pained screams of terror.
"It's alright, now." a hand came down on the back of his head, "I'm here."
This was strength. This was power.
This was a Monster.
"Teach me!"
"Doflamingo, was it...?"
There was so much anger in this boy. He could feel it. Sense it.
Did he really want to leave him alone? Let him go down a dark path...?
Still, that attitude of his would need some work.
"Please...?"
The toddler's rows of needlelike teeth twisted into an oddly cute smile and pointed at the blonde. "Papa!"
Naruto clutched at his heart, violently suppressing the urge to coo at the child.
STAY TUNED! R&R! =D