1 Whispering of destiny

He knew it from the very first bite. 'Uck!' Something was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong. Not only did this strangely shaped fruit taste strange, but the effects of it were even stranger. No sooner had he swallowed the first morsels of his meal, then the sweet nectar of his mid-afternoon snack turned to ash in his mouth. For some reason, he decided to swallow; despite the sudden surge of dread that swelled upward from his stomach. It was a costly mistake. No sooner had he taken that first, fateful bite, than a strange, prickling sensation trickle up his spine. Then came the burning. "Hot!" He yelped, for his body was suddenly incomparably so. Flames swept outward from his lips, scouring the ground black beneath him. He couldn't breathe. He felt a deep hollow enormity swelling upwards from his throat; because in the next instant, his fingers morphed into flames. No, not just his fingers. The blaze was spreading, and already he was growing numb to the searing intensity of the inferno that swirled around him.

"What....

..the...

His wrist.

...hell...

His arm!

.....is this!"

In his desperation, in his overwhelming desire to quench the flames that spread from his body and consumed him, the boy didn't hesitate. Although the water beneath him had begun to boil

his legs were only partially submerged in the shallows

he didn't even consider the repercussions of hurtling himself into the water's embrace. Jetting himself from the riverbank that had become his favorite fishing spot, he all but flung himself into the lake, frantic to cool himself down.

Finding a strange fruit in the river and thoughtlessly wolfing it down; now this.

A quick swim, for all his dislike of water, an easy escape from the heat

This too, proved to be a costly mistake.

By the time he realized his error, it was too late. The current took him, dashing his suddenly rigid body against something hard. A pained gasp escaped him and too late, he lost the breath he'd been holding. His head crashed against another rock. Then another.

And yet another still.

'What the hell...

Blackness.

"You owe me, gaki."

Someone-or something-wrested him from the water.

They –whomever they were– lowered him gently to the ground. The boy lay on his back, just breathing. It was still dark, but high overhead, he made out a branch. Stretching beyond the canopy, the harsh rays of afternoon sunlight gently slapped him across the face. After the black waters, it felt like stepping into a universe of light. Someone was standing over him, speaking to him; because he recognized the words "ass" and "idiot" correlated with one another

"Oi!" A man's voice growled out. "You alive, whiskers?"

"Na-Naruto." He gasped out, before a boot could nudge his whiskered cheek. "My name's...

Naruto, not whiskers." If he peered closely, he could just make out an orange hat; because the man standing over him had the kind of face that suggested he didn't take bullshit from anyone. Wait a second. He was bare chested, too. Why did that voice sound so familiar? Still struggling to blink away the swamp water from his eyes, the blond struggled to regain his vision.

"Who...the hell are you?"

But there was nothing.

"You ate a devil's fruit."

The bleary voice announced suddenly. "Didn't you,

kid?"

The boot nudged him again; less gently this time. The boy known as Naruto whined aloud and in protest, the seventeen year old adolescent pushing off against the muddied foot war in an attempt to regain his balance. He failed miserably. His strength promptly left him; deserting as he flopped onto his stomach.

"I feel sick."

An amused chortle echoed overhead.

"That's because you ate the

Mera Mera no mi."

"Whuzzat?" The boy mumbled into the dirt. He rolled over. Struggling into a sitting position, he instead found himself forced onto his back for a second time. As impossible as it seemed, he still couldn't quite make out the man's face. Whomever this fellow was, he was well muscled, Save for his hat and black heavy shorts, he wore preciously little in the way of attire, making him all the more suspicious in the eyes of our waterlogged youth.

"Tell me kid, how're you feeling?"

"H-Hot." Naruto conceeded at last, scrubbing at his eyes with the back of a hand. "I feel

No heat.

His entire body was warm. Not even the blazing sun bothered him now. He had surpassed it. He sat up, wondering at it, even as the water turned to steam against his back and shoulders. His orange shorts, once wet and damp, were no longer so. In fact, they were perfectly dry. Save for a thin cloud of steam leaking from the remains of his once pristine blue tee, he was relatively intact.

"I feel...good." He acquiesced at last, warily accepting a hand from the stranger when it was offered. "I feel...really good."

He felt warm with energy. Something bright and full of fervor danced beneath his skin. It coursed through his veins and made his entire body tingle with…

elation.

POWER,

the like of which he'd never felt before, misted from his body. A stray droplet rolled from his wet bangs to his nose, slinking to the ground as steam while the rest of its brethren began to fall around them.

It suddenly occurred to him that he knew this man.

"Oi, ossan," Naruto began, "You never told me your

"I hate to drop something like this on you, but I'm going to ask you for a favor." His as of yet unnamed rescuer declared suddenly. He reached down, tousling the boy's bangs mirthfully. "You see, my little brother's always sticking himself into all kinds of trouble." Despite the fact that he stood against and amongst the rain, he too exuded a strange, otherworldly mist about himself, much like the blond.

"You're

He laughed; it was a deep, throaty sound

"Keep an eye on Luffy, for me, neh?"

With that, he pushed up his hat with a finger and exposed his face. Lightning crackled through the sky overhead, exposing the shadowed visage that lurked beneath a peculiar orange hat. Manifesting amidst the steam whilst the raindrops plinked off his exposed and tattooed back, the man smiled, even as Naruto's gobsmacked expression widened in comical fashion for a moment.

"Oi, ossan!"" He cried out in dismay, both against himself and the thunder "You're

But when the lightning next flashed; when next he turned to thank him, to condemn him, his savior was gone. All that remained was a charred piece of earth where the man had last stood; leaving the blond alone with the accursed power of his flames. Naruto paused, glancing at his own smoldering digits, now eerily aware of the power contained within them; the power of heat and flame.

Naruto's mouth worked wordlessly; he curled his fingers into a fist, forced himself to exhale. He was trembling. Trembling! He'd been this close to death, only to be snatched away by the very man he'd so deeply admired as a child. Looking back, he still felt like one, having just been in the presence of the beyond; of an event that defied the very laws of reality and time itself. "That was...Only six words remained of the man's voice.

"I'm counting on you, Uzumaki D. Naruto." Somewhere up in Heaven, Portugas D. Ace leaned back on a cloud...

and smiled. Next time: Two years later!

The beginning of a journey!

Of A crew! Of destiny!