Chapter 5

"H-hey R-Rebecca." Naruto spoke nervously

The girl in question turned around and looked at him, she had a very angry look on her face as she got up from her seat at the gazebo. She then turned her body to face Naruto and began to walk over to him.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT AFTER ALL THIS TIME YOU JUST SHOW UP AND SAY HEY REBECCA!" She took a step towards him, "AFTER WHAT WE HAD BACK IN SABAODY!" She continued as she took another step

She then took a final step and was the right in front of Naruto and siad, "What do you have to say for yourself!"

Naruto remained silent for a moment but then he pulled her into an embrace shocking her. She then looked up to face him to see that Naruto himself was a little upset, "Rebecca I know that I have no excuse for not trying to contact you, but I'm sorry. I thought of you everyday since you left and I'm begging you that you forgive me." He asked her

Tears began to form at the corners of Rebecca's eyes as she buried her head into Naruto's chest, "I can never stay mad at you. Ever since the day we met I knew you'd be the one for me Naruto." Rebecca told him as Naruto rubbed the back of his head

"I can still remember that day."

Flashback. . .

Naruto currently was back on Sabaody walking around in the market looking for some new cool things that may help him train or may aid him on his up coming pirate journey into the New World. You see Rayleigh had given him some time to himself to enjoy himself in the archipelago saying that his training shouldn't be all about working his body to the limit. Things went on normally as they do until people started to flock into one direction,

"Quickly this way the Princess' of Dressrosa is coming!" A man spoke to his friends

"Yeah let's go see them mom!" Said a young girl to her mother

"I heard Viola's gorgeous." A woman said to her husband

"You can say that again." Another man exclaimed with a blush

Naruto raised a brow at all the commotion, 'The princess of Dressrosa? On this side of the Grandline? She must be here to negotiate some sort of trade agreement or something. Whatever who cares about some princess anyways.' Naruto thought as he walked off in the other direction

Naruto started to whistle to himself as he walked down a street completely devoid of people. He was on his way to head back to Rayleigh's house when he turned a corner and bumped right into a hooded figure. Both Naruto and the hooded figure fell over from the resulting collision, the cloaked person falling on top of Naruto.

"I-I'm sorry sir! I-I wasn't watching where I was going!" The figure spoke to Naruto

Naruto immediately recognized that the voice was feminine, so he got up moving the woman over and offered her a hand, which the hooded woman nervously took.

"May I ask your name miss?" Naruto asked in a gentleman type attitude

"R-Rebecca! I-I mean Rebecca, the princess of Dressrosa." She told him as she removed the hood of her cloak revealing the pink-haired beauty who had a deep blush on her face

Naruto offered a comforting smile, "Well may I ask why the princess of Dressrosa is all the way on this side of the Sabaody market and not with her train? Would it perhaps mean that you are lost?"

The princess puffed her cheeks, "I am not lost! I merely wandered off away from my train to have a little time away from being princess is all. Besides my aunt is here, she can handle that stuff."

"Aha I see I see. So you're an irresponsible princess." Naruto said

"I AM NOT!" Rebecca yelled

This sudden outburst caused the nearby Marines to find the two at the street corner. Looking around him, Naruto saw Marines coming at him from all directions causing him to sigh.

"Is that Water-man Naruto!?"

"It is him! Let's get him!"

"He captured the princess!"

Naruto was getting ready to get away when he heard a faint voice, "Take me with you." Rebecca said

The Water-man then looked back at Rebecca who had told him to take her with him. His first thought was absolutely not under no circumstance would she be able to accompany him, she was probably just like all the other nobles, and by god how he hated nobles. They were always about looking good in front of people and wearing flashy things. But then again, she willingly left that part of her trip to Sabaody behind to seek adventure.

Naruto then smirked as he adjusted his hat, "So adventure is what you want eh."

The young man then picked up Rebecca bridal style and ran off into the distance with her. Naruto managed to outmaneuver several Marines and ditch a few others before he arrived in an area that had no Government presence what-so-ever. Dropping her off he then started to walk away.

"W-wait Naruto! Where are you going?" She spoke

Naruto looked over his shoulder, "What do you mean, where am I going. I'm going back to my friends house and I'm going to take a nap."

Rebecca continued, "But what about me?"

Naruto laughed to himself, "I don't know, go explore, go for a swim, skip a pebble for all I care. All I know is that I'm out."

The young woman frowned at this, "B-but I was hoping that I-I could spend some time with y-you."

The man then turned right around and started to walk towards Rebecca before she was right in front of him, "And why me huh? I bet you could go anywhere on this island and people would throw themselves at you if you asked to spend time with them. So why me?"

She then swallowed, "Because you're different from the rest."

Naruto's brow went up as he lowered his head so that it was at the same level as hers, "And how am I different exactly?"

Almost like a switch turned she started to get a little red as she saw him so close to her, "I-it's hard to put into words, b-but you just are."

The Devil-Fruit user then let out a sigh, "So be it, c'mon Rebecca it's getting late we might as well start a fire." The pink-haired girl then smiled as she ran off behind her new companion.

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An hour later. . .

Both Naruto and Rebecca had set up a fire and sat at either side of it and started to tell each other stories about themselves wether it be of the good times they've both had or the bad times. Naruto led it off by telling Rebecca about the time his younger brother Ace had broken his mother's favorite vase and tried to hid away for the rest of his life only to come out 20 minutes later because he was hungry and wanted dinner. Rebecca also shared the times she had around the kingdom of Dressrosa, pulling practical jokes on the guards and unfortunate people to cross her path. These stories continued until Naruto said something that wasn't a story, "Hey Rebecca if I may ask why are you and your aunt here in Sabaody?"

Rebecca's previous smile then turned into a frown, "You promise not to speak a word of this to anyone."

Naruto was a little taken back by the girls request, "What do you mean Rebecca I hardly think that someone would really care for the reason tha-"

"DO YOU PROMISE!" She yelled

Naruto just held his hands up, "Ok ok I promise."

Rebecca then sighed and started to speak, "It all started a while ago when a man and his crew came to our city. . ."

Rebecca then went on to tell Naruto how Doflamingo had her mother killed in cold blood and how he now manipulated her grandfather into commanding his armies into doing what the pirate wanted. She then continued to speak about how Rebecca and her aunt had been sent off to go make alliances in Sabaody so that they might have someone come back with them to Dressrosa and defeat Doflamingo.

"I see." Was all Naruto managed to get out of his mouth

Rebecca shed a few tears, "He only keeps us around so that when the time comes he can show his true colours as the leader of Dressrosa and kill the royal family."

Naruto then got up off his seat at the under side of the fire and walked over to Rebecca. The woman looked up at him with her swollen eyes, red from crying. Naruto, without warning, fell on to both of his knees and pulled Rebecca close to him. She was shocked at first but then began to push herself into his chest more and more after each passing second. In his arms, she thought, the world didn't seem so bad and things seemed to be a lot better.

Naruto then pushed himself back a little bit and looked her right in the eye before speaking, "I promise Rebecca. I promise that I'll return to Dressrosa and take down Doflamingo, once and for all."

Flashback End. . .

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"And I still promise Rebecca." Naruto spoke in a serious tone of voice

She then shed a tear of happiness, "Thank you."

"Uhhh promise what?" Reeve asked

Kiji just folded his arms and closed his eyes, "Who knows."

After hearing Reeve's question Naruto turned around to face him, "I promised that I'd take down Doflamingo once and for all. He's caused the people of Dressrosa to live in fear when people started to realize it was him pulling the strings. That man has also sold away and tortured multiple others."

"I'm in." Lucy said immediately

"This man Doflamingo sent hunters after me, who's to say he won't do the same to another, another who may not be as lucky as me." Lucy continued

Kiji just nodded along with Lucy and Naruto, agreeing that this man couldn't be allowed to be doing what he was doing and they needed to put a stop to it.

"Ok, if you guys are determined to take down Doflamingo I'll take you to find the revolutionists. They can help you navigate through Dressrosa with more ease and give you more of a fighting chance against Doflamingo's forces." Rebecca stated

"No." Naruto spoke again in the same tone of voice

"WHAAAAAAT!" Each of them tuned

Naruto just cleaned his ear, "You heard me, we're doing this alone. Doflamingo would most likely find out if we sided with the revolutionists, and if he found out then all would be lost. We wouldn't be able to get anywhere near him let alone kill the bastard."

"I see." Kiji spoke to the group

Lucy just looked at him with wide eyes, "What do you mean you see, even if there is a chance Doflamingo finds out we should still attempt to get more people on our side to fight him!?"

Kiji just shook his head, "No, I've seen everyone on this crew fight and each of us can hold our own in our own right, even young Reeve is a pretty formidable kid." Reeve just smiled at Kiji's compliment towards him. "And if Doflamingo found out about our plan to kill him then he would most likely underestimate us, giving us the tactical advantage over him and his underlings." Kiji continued

Lucy just sighed at the two men, "Ok ok we go at him ourselves."

"If this is your decision then I cannot change it. However, I do plead you to let a friend of my grandfather to help you take down the tyrant." Rebecca spoke out to the Whirlpool Pirates

"And who might this person be?"

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At A Local Tavern. . .

"Uh Naruto, are you sure this place is safe?" Lucy spoke out to her captain from her hidden spot behind his shoulder

Naruto began to walk through the tavern, having people give his crew the occasional glance," Don't worry Lucy, I doubt anything bad will happen to any of us."

Right on as he said those words a bullet was shot right where Naruto was about to take his next step into the bar. After the bullet was fired Kiji clenched his fist, Reeve pulled out a pistol, and Lucy took her place at her captain's side and got into an attack stance. They all looked in front of them as a man stood up, "What're y'all doing in this here tavern might I ask? I ain't seen any of you's around here before."

Spectators started to clear out of the tavern, knowing very well what the man who stood up was capable of, and not wanting to get in the way of what was about to go down between the newcomers and the man they have grown to fear.

Naruto unfazed by the shot taken at his foot looked up to face the man, "I'm here looking for a man named Russ. I got some business with him." The captain of the whirlpool pirates spoke in a calm demeanor

The man just smiled and giggled a little, "That Russ feller would be none other than myself! Now what can I do ya for?"

Looking over Russ the crew saw that he was a fairly tall and slim man who wore a black trench coat, along with a dark brown pointed hat. The man also had a belt that held two revolving pistols at either side of him, something that wasn't very common among the population. He also had numerous odd looking rounds (bullets) secured all along the outside of his belt. Looking up at his face the crew noticed that the man had a mustard blond mustache, but probably the most noticeable feature about the man was his right eye. His eye wasn't natural at all, it was for lack of better words robotic. The eye was metallic in colour, all except the very middle which was red.

"And might I ask why you fellers want to see meh?" Russ asked raised the brow over his none cyborganic eye

Kiji then spoke up, "The topic we want to speak to you about is something that must be discussed in secret, not among unwanted ears."

Russ then looked around to see that most if not all the people had left the tavern, he then saw a few people in the back and told them to leave. The man then shut the blinds and pulled up a chair, "So what do you fellers need me for?"

Naruto then saw a chair in front of him and sat down, "You see Russ, my crew and I are planning to take down the tyrant of Dressrosa, Doflamingo. . ."

SLAM

Russ had slammed his hand down upon the table after hearing Doflamingo's name, "Doflamingo! That bastard!"

"I trust that your not a fan." Naruto spoke to the enraged man

Russ exhaled in an attempt to calm himself down, "Yes, that bastard took everything away from meh. My neice, Caroline was staying with meh until the time for her to go off on er own. She hated the way Doflamingo treated the folk of Dressrosa and decided to speak out against em. It was because of er brave heart that Doflamingo killed er, to show everyone that for anyone who went against em would die."

Naruto put up his hand and outstretched it to Russ, "I'm sorry for your loss Russ, I wish I could've done something about it."

"Don't be. It was my fault she ain't here with us today. Maybe if I tried to talk er out of it she. . . she. . ." A lone tear escaped his robot eye

The older man then wiped his eyes and looked back at the crew, "I wanna kill that bastard! I don't care how ya do it or where it's dun but I want in!"

Naruto smiled a little, "Don't worry we'll take him down for everyone in Dressrosa who's suffered, including Caroline."

"I never got ur name by the way." Russ spoke out

The younger man made a huge grin, "Names Portgas D. Naruto or, as they call me now days, Water-man Naruto! And the people behind me are the Whirlpool Pirates, Lucy, Kiji and Reeve!"

Russ made a big smile himself, "Alrighty then what's ur plan then, mister Water-man?"