Chapter 7

It had been a few days since the Whirlpool Pirates had set out to sea with their new, high-tech, ship and everyone had just been getting used to the new rooms and different functions the ship had. However, Lucy was more focused on getting used to Russ than anything else. The 2 crew-members had both started a sort of rivalry between one another to constantly prove who was superior.

Eventually the ship that they named The Great Wave had to come up for air and awaiting the crew was a welcomed surprise.

Hanging out on the ship's deck that came out when above water, Naruto saw a bird fly over him and drop 5 sheets of paper, all of which he caught. The Water-man quickly scanned them over and with a smile closed the hatch and ran back into the sub with exciting news.

"GUYS GUYS GUESS WHAT!" Naruto yelled making his way to the mess hall of the ship

Lucy sighed seeing her captain excited like a schoolgirl, "What is it! I'm busy!"

Naruto got right in her face with stars in his eyes, "It's our new bounties! Aren't you excited!"

Lucy remained calm and responded, "Well I've never really had a bounty before. Why don't you hand me mine so I can see how much a threat the World Government deems me."

Naruto set all 5 bounties down on the table as the other 3 crew-members walked in and everyone one was surprised to say the least.

WANTED

DEAD OR ALIVE

KING SHARK KIJI

323,000,000 beli

The wanted poster showed a picture of Kiji smiling, flashing his shark-like teeth. Kiji himself crossed his arms, closed his eyes and smiled at the news. He was very happy to hear that he was considered to be a force to be messed with and not a burden to his captain or his crew.

WANTED

DEAD OR ALIVE

DEADEYE RUSS

291,000,000 beli

The wanted poster showed Russ holding 2 revolvers at either side of his head, looking a bit off the camera. Russ too showed a look of great pride in his new bounty, even though he was not the one to put an end to Doflamingo's reign like he would've wanted he still proved his worth as a crew-member.

WANTED

DEAD OR ALIVE

HUNTER LUCY

165,000,000 beli

The wanted poster showed a picture of Lucy midway transformed into her bird form. However, Lucy herself did show some jealousy at first seeing that her bounty was lower then the others but it did bring a smile to her face that with her new bounty she wouldn't be attacked by any poachers or anyone seeking to capture her for her abilities.

WANTED

DEAD OR ALIVE

KID REEVE

43,000,000 beli

The wanted poster showed Reeve holding a pistol, aiming it at one of Doflamingo's guards with one of his eyes closed. Reeve himself was deflated by his amount. He thought that his bounty being much lower then everyone else's made him more of a burden to everyone.

Naruto then began to chuckle a little bit, "Reeve I know what you're thinking and don't be a fool. Just because your bounty is the lowest doesn't mean that you're any less valuable. Heck, I've heard of grown men who don't even scrape the 10 million mark and you're 43 million! Keep your head up high kid!"

Reeve smiled before speaking, "Hey Naruto. What about your bounty?"

"Oh yea I almost forgot!" He responded as he flipped the last piece of paper

WANTED

ALIVE ONLY

PORTGAS D. NARUTO

AKA WATER-MAN NARUTO

938,000,000 beli

The other 4 members of the crew went wide eyed at the number. "H-how on earth did you get a high number like that!?" Russ questioned

Naruto laughed, "Well you see I killed a Celestial Dragon."

"WHAAAAAAAT!" The group chorused

The Water-man rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, "Yeah he came to my home when I was younger and killed my younger brother with his ship. So I avenged my little brother by killing the World Noble scum."

Everyone kept silent, noticing Naruto's anger towards the World Nobles. The silence was finally broken when Kiji spoke up, "Guys the sonar says that there's 2 ships in front of us engaged in combat."

"Captain, what should we do?" Kiji continued

Naruto thought for a moment before coming to a conclusion, "Bring this ship up to air again. I want to see this skirmish myself."

"Roger!" Responded Kiji

"Russ go to the control room and man the ship's weapons. I want to have our finger on the trigger when we confront these people." Naruto commanded

Russ smiled, "Roger!" And ran off to his station

"Lucy! Once we hit the surface I want you to fly high enough over so you can see what is going on, but avoid any direct contact and report back." Naruto continued

"Aye!" She said, excited for what is to come

"And Reeve!"

Reeve stood up straight, "Y-yes Captain Naruto!"

"Go fetch me my staff! We're going to have a little fun!" He smiled

Reeve ran off, "Yes sir!"

"Wait sir." Reeve began

Naruto looked back at his youngest crew-member, "Yes Reeve."

"When I was helping with loading the ship I never say a staff of any kind be loaded onto the ship." Reeve finished

Naruto froze, "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!"

"I-impossible that means I left it-" An image of the night Rebecca and himself spent together flashed through his mind and a faint blush appeared on his face

Naruto fell onto both knees and his head had fallen against the floor of the ship, a storm cloud began to brew above the Water-man's head as he now came to the full realization that he had lost his staff in Dressrosa.

"Captain we have lots of weapons! Can I interest you in another?!" Reeve spoke, trying to cheer up Naruto

However then man just remained face down when he responded, "No it wouldn't be the same."

Just then Kiji's voice could be heard over the ship's intercom, "Attention everyone! We've reached the surface and will be making contact in one minute!"

Naruto put his thoughts on his staff into his back pocket for now as he made his way up to the top of The Great Wave to see the skirmish with his own 2 eyes. To his surprise he saw that it was a Navy ship battling it out with a pirate ship. Upon inspecting the battle with his telescope he caught glimpses of pirates being cut down furiously by the Marine's without any remorse.

Just as Naruto pocketed his telescope he saw that Lucy had landed beside him for her report. "Captain, the Marine ship is holding a number of pirate prisoners. The other ship seems to just be a random crew who were just unfortunate enough to cross the path of the Marine vessel." Lucy concluded

"And who might be the captain of this Marine ship Lucy?" Asked Naruto

Lucy sighed, "It's Vice Admiral Mozambia."

Though Naruto hadn't directly seen the or met the man before, he had heard that he was your steriotypical Marine. A Marine who stood for "absolute justice" which meant that no one be able to live outside of the World Government's rule or law.

"Alright Lucy. Thank you for the news and prepare to board the ship." The Water-man spoke as he started to get ready himself

"Roger!" She responded turning into a bird and flying, again, towards the Marine vessel

Eventually Kiji pulled up the ship along the other that was of the Marine's, he and Russ then got out of their own stations and jumped aboard the boat along with the others.

The Whirlpool Pirates were faced with a ending battle with many dead pirates along with many Marine casualties. Naruto had kept his crew close and then ordered that they go inside the Marine ship and look for anything of value.

"And if you come across any Marine's or hostile pirates do not kill them. You can injure, just don't kill. Got it?" Naruto explained to his crew

They all chorused, "Aye!" and went to go loot the ship

Naruto himself had walked along the Marine vessel and had saw that fires were blazing along with soldiers tending to one another, each one of them to busy to concern themselves with his presence. Eventually Naruto saw the Vice Admiral , he was fighting a woman with lime-green hair who wore a back pack that what looked to be like fighting with her against the Vice-Admiral. Before the Water-man could confront the Vice-Admiral, the woman was punched straight in the gut and sent back into barrels, shattering the wood. The Vice-Admiral was about to go and finish her off before Naruto stepped in.

"Don't you think it's a little unmanly to be going around beating down on women?" Naruto said

He continued with sacrasm, "It would be something I would expect from trash like a pirate but not a great Vice-Admiral like you."

"W-what are you doing here Water-man Naruto?!" Mozambia yelled/asked in a sort of panic

Naruto held his fist to his chin in a thinking sort of pose, "That's a good question! What am I doing here? I can't really say that I know."

"Enough fooling around pirate scum! I will enact the same justice on you that I unleashed upon these pirates! Now prepare to recieve absolute justice!" An impatient Mozambia yelled as he ran at Naruto

Naruto chuckled, "Well aren't we easy to anger."

Mozambia swung wildly at Naruto, desperately trying to land a blow with his haki coated fists. However, Naruto used his observation haki flawlessly. The Water-man was able to see every motion the Vice-Admiral tried to make against him. He also went as far as to predict the Vice-Admiral's next attack. Mozambia still kept throwing many punches and kicks at the young pirate but nothing was able to hit him. However, as Naruto side-stepped another one of Mozambia's blows his foot caught some loose rope on the deck and made him stumble. The Water-man was able to immediately catch himself but it did allow Mozambia the opening he had needed. The Vice-Admiral threw a punch as fast as he could which caught the Water-man right on the jaw. Naruto only staggered back a few steps before rubbing his jaw.

He then spat out a little bit of blood onto the deck before grinning, "You got one hell of a right hook Vice Admiral-" Naruto then without warning coated his fist in haki and at what appeared to be light speed, struck Vice Admiral Mozambia in the face. "But mine is better!" He finished

The Vice Admiral skipped across the deck of the Marine ship and was engraved into a wall, knocked out. After that whole ordeal Naruto looked back at his ship to see that his crew had made it off of the Marine vessel with what he presumed to be some kind of loot. He too was about to run off until he noticed that the lime-haired girl who had been hit into the barrels minutes ago wasn't getting up and the pirate ship in which she landed on was on the cusp of breaking into being destroyed by the combined fire, explosions, and the holes in the hull taking on water.

'Crap.' Naruto thought to himself as he ran back into the blaze that was now the pirate ship.

Almost immediately after he ran out of the fire holding the lime-haired girl and once again boarded his ship, sailing off onto their original course.

__________________________________________

A few days later. . .

The Whirlpool Pirates had been sailing for a few more days and the lime-haired girl who Naruto had saved had finally woken up and was currently laying in the bed provided by her. Upon seeing her wake up, Naruto took it upon himself to go and question her and get an answer as to what had happened between her group of pirates and the Marines.

"So I see you've finally woken up." Naruto simply said as he handed the lime-haired girl a glass of water

She hesitantly took it from him and drank it quickly due to not drinking any fluids for a few days. A moment after she had drunk the water her eyes went wide and she tried to spit it out.

Naruto then immediately moved beside her in distress, "A-are you chocking are something!? Is everything all right!?"

"No! The water you gave me could've been poison!" She accused him

"P-poison. . ." Naruto spoke softly before laughing uncontrollably

"L-look at you! Now you're flaunting your victory over me!" She accused again

Naruto looked up, calming down his laugh, "Why would I poison you?"

"I-I-I don't know your reasons!" She yelled

Naruto waved his hands in front of himself in defence, "Well I didn't do anything like that. I'm actually here to ask you on what had happened between you and the Vice-Admiral."

"Wait! Is he still here!? Is he still attacking us!?" She panicked

Naruto sighed, "No no no he's not here. I defeated him and the Marine's began to retreat. And who's we?"

"W-wait you defeated the Vice-Admiral!?" She asked as her jaw dropped

Naruto just shrugged, "Yeah who cares now answer my question, who's we?"

"R-right, myself and my crew, the Steel Pirates, were tracking down that particular Marine vessel to retrieve our captured crew-members." She answered

"I see I see. I never got your name by the way, what is it?" He asked with a raised brow

"My name is Rose." She told him

Naruto crossed his arms, "And tell me Rose who was the captain of your ship?"

She looked at the ground, "His name was Morty, Steel legs Morty. The man had multiple pieces of steel welded to his body, hence the name the Steel Pirates."

Naruto was intrigued, "And what happened to your captain? I saw no such man when I had boarded the vessel with my crew and fought the Vice-Admiral."

Rose looked at Naruto this time, "The bastard sunk into the ocean after being thrown off the side of our ship. He fought the Vice-Admiral right before I had to and he died trying."

"You don't seem very sad of his passing, why is that?" Naruto continued to question

"Because he wasn't a good captain. He was powerful in his own right but he saw each member of his crew as an asset of getting him the One Piece. He didn't see any of us as friends or as family, just tools to be used." She told him

"If he thought like that then why risk going onto the Marine ship?" The Water-man spoke

Rose explained, "Once he found out who was captured he said that they were 'too important' to be left for dead. He simply went after them because he knew that there would be a better chance he's find the One Piece."

"Then why not leave him?" He question yet again

She clinched her teeth, "Because we have no where to go."

"I see." Was all Naruto said

She looked him in the eye once again, "I got a question for you this time. Did any of my crew survive the fight with the Marines?"

Naruto brought his hand to his chin, "You were the only person recovered from your ship."

She started to deflate a bit before Naruto continued, "However, we did manage to rescue 2 others that were chained on the Marine ship. One man named Gem and the other also a man named Yuri."

She smiled as she started to celebrate, "Both of those guys were on my crew! Thank you so much for rescuing them!"

Naruto chuckled, "It's no issue. We can go see them now if you'd like."

She nodded.

__________________________________________

Atop the ship. . .

The Whirlpool Pirates along with the 3 others currently staying on the ship were gathered together and Naruto had privately debriefed his crew of what he had learned from Rose just before everyone met up.

"So you guys don't have a place to go?" Questioned Lucy

Gem just sat back with his arms behind his head and responded, "Nope. We got no where or any idea of where to go."

Upon further inspection Gem was a tall, African American man with dreadlocks, he wore a green trench coat with a blue scarf tucked into it. The man also wore sunglasses which completely covered anyone from seeing his eyes. The person next to him, Yuri, wore a red tang-top with black shorts and had a buzz cut. Yuri was also extremely tall and muscular, much like Kiji was. And finally Rose was dressed in her normal outfit as well. She wore a mechanics blue jumpsuit with the top half of it let loose to hang. Instead of the jumpsuit covering her top half, there was a white, tighter fitting, shirt. She also had adorned welders goggles around her forehead.

"Well this here crew is on our way to Zou if you'd like us to drop you's off there." Russ stated

Gem responded, "Perhaps."

"What about you big fella?" Russ spoke to Yuri

Seeing Russ trying to speak with Yuri caused Rose to speak up, "Don't mind talking to Yuri. He doesn't speak."

Yuri then nodded his head with a smile on his face. While Russ just took a step back and sat back down and continued to polish his pistol. The whole deck remained silent until Reeve spoke up, "Captain, why don't these people come along on our journey with us? They seem like nice people."

Gem made a confused look and was about to protest until Rose beat him to speaking. She said, "I agree too."

Gem stood up in protest and Yuri raised a brow at his crew-member. "I don't know if you two fail to realize this or not but these people have shown us each more more compassion and kindness in the past couple days then our old captain and crew had for months. I don't know about you Gem and Yuri but I'm willing to stick by this man on his journey."

Naruto smiled as he swung his arm around Rose's neck and exclaimed, "Well welcome to the crew then Rose! You're a member of the Whirlpool Pirates now!"

"And what about you two?" Kiji asked looking at the other two

Yuri stood up and bowed to Naruto and his crew before scooping the captain up in a bear hug and nodding his head yes.

"Well that makes two. What about you Gem? Care to turn the world upside down with us?" Naruto spoke as he freed himself from Yuri's vice grip and offered Gem a hand with a smile.

Looking at his hand and the opportunity in front of himself Gem couldn't help but smile and he took the hand of his new captain.

Naruto smiled as he spoke, "So that's three, and would you look at that."

Everyone looked over the railing of the deck to see a giant elephant with loads of greenery all over it. Clouds circled around the giant beast as if it were its own continent.

"We've arrived at Zou!"