Chapter 3

Rayleigh had trained Naruto extensively in haki, showing him the ins and outs of all 3 types which Naruto possessed. Since the now young man was a sponge when it came to obtaining knowledge he had no problem learning and applying his new abilities. But probably the biggest change in Naruto's skill set was his Devil-Fruit abilities. Naruto had managed to apply his fruit's abilities in new, more unique ways. He was now able to control the temperature of his water making it hot enough to turn into steam or cold enough to turn to ice. The only drawback to the ice and steam transformations was that he couldn't fully use it to its full potential like Admiral Aokiji can with his ice.

Naruto himself had changed quite a bit over his time training with Rayleigh. Naruto had grown to the height of 6'4, his reddish hair had grown to meet his upper back, and it was just as spiky as ever. Naruto had also decided to get a light blue dress shirt but rolled up the sleeves and left the top few buttons undone, showing off his muscles.

The two men had already said goodbye to one another and Naruto was just in the main square of Sabaody to make sure that he had everything he needed to continue on his journey. While walking through the town he noticed that a lot of bounties had been hung up around in many places.

'Well it is the halfway point between the New World and Paradise, makes sense to hang all these up. It'd help keep people aware of who to avoid.' He thought as he scanned over the wanted signs

He continue looking through finding names like Edward Newgate, and Red-Haired Shanks. Eventually his eyes landed on his own bounty.

Wanted

Alive Only

Portgas D. Naruto

Aka Water-man Naruto

534,000,000 beri

Naruto sweat dropped at the number. Sure it was high but this was insane.

'I guess that's what you get for killing a Celestial Dragon and taking down a Marine Captain. Someone must've made a mistake on the first one.' The young man shrugged to himself thinking about a particular dumb author who thought 50 million was a good bounty for killing a Celestial Dragon.

He continued to graze over the various wanted posters until he found one in particular that stood out among the rest. The wanted poster had a picture of a man grinning wildly while his hair covered his eyes. To most this was a man to fear and one that every pirate alike looked up to, but for Naruto it was a lot different. The man on the wanted poster was Naruto's father Gol D. Roger. His bounty couldn't actually be seen because the bottom of the poster had been torn and weathered and the young man couldn't make out the number of beri he was wanted for. Probably the biggest thing that stood out on the poster was the giant X through it. The Marines did this when that pirate had been captured or in his fathers case, executed.

Naruto made a fist and slammed it against the stone wall, creating a few cracks in it. He hated the constant remainder that his father was gone, gone forever. By no means did the boy hate Roger, it was quite the opposite. Rayleigh had told Naruto of all the adventures that he and his father had had on the Oro Jackson, the good, the bad, and even when the Roger Pirates had found the legendary One Piece. The stories only made Naruto adore his father even more, he fought for his freedom and earned the respect of those around him, something that Naruto wanted to do too.

The young man was interrupted from his thoughts when he overheard some commotion coming from the other side of the main square.

Spotting a group of people ahead, Naruto pulled his hat down enough to cover his eyes and enough of his face so no one could recognize him and ran into the crowd and made his way to the front of the crowd to get a clear view of what was going on. Pushing through people he finally came to the front to see a group of Marines standing behind who appeared to be their captain. The captain in question had his saber stuck into a man who was on his knees. Naruto didn't recognize the man but noticed behind him there was a boy who didn't look any older than 13 who had a shocked expression on his face and looked like he had been beaten. The boy had a plain red shirt on and wore beige shorts with sandals on his feet. The boy also had short brown hair, that was ruffled probably do the beating he got. The man however, had jet black hair and a mustache on his face. He also wore an overcoat with black pants and some work shoes.

"Alright brat, there goes your pirate friend and now it's time that for you meet up with him at the gates of hell." The Marine captain spoke

The boy still had a look of pure shock on his face not moving a muscle, kept his eyes on his now dead captain.

The Marine then lunged at the boy with his sword extended but then the unexpected happened for the poor Marine because his sword that he loosely had in his hand was hit away by a staff. Being caught off balance the Marine Captain stumbled backwards until he landed on his ass near his squad. His sword however flew up in the air and spun frenetically until it sunk into the ground beside him.

Each of the lower leveled Marines drew their weapons and took aim at the new arrival.

Naruto stood in front of the defenseless boy with his staff drawn glaring at the men who call themselves the keepers of justice.

"Who do you think you are trying to kill a defenseless boy you stupid Marine." Naruto said to the squad

The crowd after seeing the arrival of Naruto started to murmur and some spoke out, "Hey that's Water-man Naruto!"

"Yeah the guy who killed a Celestial Dragon."

"I heard that he has one of the most powerful devil fruits."

"Wow he's sooooo cool!"

"And hot!"

"He's also the World Government's most wanted criminals." The Captain spoke

"I'm sure that capturing you will guarantee me a promotion, or better yet a giant beri reward." The Marine continued

Naruto only grinned at the man, "That's if you can catch me. And the chances of that happening I must say must be pretty slim."

The Marine Captain rose back up to his feet, dusted himself off, picked up his saber and pointed it upwards.

"MEN!" He yelled in a commanding tone

All of the other Marines ran forward and took aim at the so called Water-man and awaited their next command.

"FIRE!" The Captain yelled pointing his sword at Naruto and the boy

Naruto quickly put his staff on his back, took a knee in front of the boy and made water come out of his arm to form some sort of shield and within a second he used his abilities to freeze the water on his arm to make some sort of ice shield.

THUD

THUD

THUD

The bullets hit Naruto's shield most just deflecting off but a few dug into the ice.

Turning around to face the boy he noticed that the boy was still under tremendous stress and was likely to stay in this state for awhile longer. Looking above the boys shoulder he noticed that there were more Marines coming the direction opposite of the previous gunfire.

'Shit' Naruto thought gritting his teeth

'I can't stay here, I'm a sitting duck, I can't turn into water there attacks will go through me but hit the kid. I guess I'll live to fight another day.' He continued saying to himself

Without warning Naruto broke his arm away from the ice, grabbed the boy placing him over his shoulder, and started running the way he came in and hoped that he could get away from the Marines without this kid getting shot or stabbed. The two separate groups met where Naruto originally was and then started to once again chase the young man and boy.

"All Marines on Sabaody we have spotted Portgas D. Naruto, aka Water-man Naruto at the main square, we need reinforcements. NOW!" The Marine Captain spoke into a transponder snail

Currently Naruto was weaving and dodging Marines that stood between him and the shoreline and trying to talk the kid into telling him where his ship is.

"C'mon kid this is important. I need to know where your ship is docked so we can get off this island." He said dodging another sword strike from a Marine

The boy remained unresponsive, choosing to just look at the ground and ponder on what just happened. Naruto however, formed a giant water fist and flung it at the 3 Marines in front of him, knocking each one of them out.

Naruto getting fed up with the kid raised his voice a little at him, "Listen kid, I don't know who that man was who died in the square or if you two are pirates or not. But you can't keep thinking about that right now. We need to focus on getting out of here. So I'll ask again, where is your ship?"

"I-i-it's on do-ock 6" The boy shakily responded

"That's all I needed to know. Hold on." Naruto said as the boy gripped a little harder around the man's neck

Naruto pulled his staff over from atop his shoulder and dug it into the ground ahead of him. He used this to vault himself and the boy high enough for Naruto to spread both of his legs outwards, kicking 2 Marines with a tonne of force. Both of the Marines were hit with so much force that when they hit the ground they created small craters beneath Naruto finished off the 2 Marines he, all in one motion, pulled his staff from the ground and continued his course to dock 6 where the boys ship was waiting for them. He had decided to go a little off course through a mangrove so he'd be able to avoid some of the Marine's standing in his way.

"Hey kid what's your name by the way?" Naruto asked from over his shoulder

The kid remained silent for a moment before responding, "My name i-is Reeve."

"That's a cool name." Naruto spoke not looking back

A little silence passed before Reeve spoke up, "W-what's your name sir?"

Smiling that Naruto's little plan to get Reeve to talk worked he responded to the boy's question, "Well Reeve you don't need to call me sir for starters, it's a little to formal for my liking. But as for my name it's Naruto, Portgas D. Naruto, but a lot of people have been calling me Water-man Naruto."

"That explains the water you were able to use as a weapon." Reeve spoke recalling when Naruto shot the water fist

"Yeah, it's my Devil-Fruit ability. But enough about me, who was the man you were with in the town square." Naruto asked Reeve

This question brought Reeve a few tears over his recently deceased friend, but he spoke up none the less, "The man that you saw was named Yuki, he was a friend of mine that I met a-a few month ago. Yuki dreamed of sailing the 6 seas and h-he didn't care i-if he would be branded a pirate b-by the World Government, he would still follo-ow through with his dream. Today was the d-day where he was finally g-going to make that dream a r-reali-ity. But then I made a mistake and bumped into the M-marine Captain on the streets. He overreacted and called me n-names and hit me around a bit, and before I knew it Yuki stepped in to help me."

Reeve then started to openly cry before he continued, "Yuki tried to defend me from the Marines and give me a chance to escape. But t-they gunned him down before he could. He said he was fine with them ta-aking his life but he told them to let me g-go. It was then that the C-captain of the Marine squad told h-him that he wou-uld spare my life for his. It was then Yuki told me something I'd never f-forget."

Naruto's curiosity got the best of him and he asked, "What did he tell you?"

"He told me to . . . live free." Yuki said

Once hearing Reeve's words Naruto immediately stopped in his tracks with his eyes wide. Those two words echoed in his head.

Live Free

A lone tear formed at the corner of Naruto's eye and before long it made its way down his face and fell off his chin hitting the ground. The tear sounded as if an explosion went off when it hit the ground.

Reeve saw the tear fall and was quick to speak up, "What's wrong Naruto?"

"N-nothing at all Yuki." He looked up towards the sky, "Those words were the last I ever heard from my father, they just remind me of when I lost him."

"I'm sorry Naruto I didn't mean to bring up bad memories." Reeve told him as he looked down trying to avoid eye contact with Naruto

"Don't be Reeve, those words are a constant reminder to me about my dream. To live free, to be without the shackles of the World Government, to be a true pirate." Naruto explained to Reeve with his eyes not looking away from the sky

Reeve grew a smile on his face as he listened to Naruto's little speech on freedom.

"Alright Reeve let's get out of here." Naruto said as he continued with Reeve on his back to run towards dock 6

___________________________________________

Dock 6 a few moments later. . .

"Alright Reeve which one is yours?" Naruto asked as the two boys looked at all the ships at the dock

"That one over there Naruto!" The young boy spoke enthusiastically as he pointed towards the one at the end of the dock

Naruto sweat dropped as he looked at the ship, "I'm lost for words."

The ship in question wasn't necessarily a bad ship but it did lack one big quality, it was really small. The ship was about half the size of a normal ship you'd find in the East Blue and didn't look like it would be able to survive the second half on the Grandline.

Reeve got off of Naruto's back and ran up onto the ship, "So what do you think of Yuki's ship, isn't it amazing!"

Naruto just rubbed the back of his head, "That doesn't begin to describe it."

"So what's the plan?" Reeve asked Naruto

"Well I'm thinking that we take this thing down to fish-man island and from there we go to Dressrosa. I got a friend there that might be able to get us a new ship to help us take on our final foe." Naruto responded to Reeve

"And who might that final foe be?" Reeve asked with a raised brow

"Big Mom." Naruto told him with a straight face

"BIG MOM!" Reeve yelled

"Yes what of it?" Naruto told him

"WHAT OF IT!? SHE'S A YONKO! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU GOING AFTER HER OF ALL PEOPLE!?" Reeve asked/yelled at him

"I'm taking her down because of how she is. She has no regard for human life and constantly kills those below her for candy of all things, and I owe it to a few people to do so." Naruto responded to Reeve

"Oh, if I were you I would want to take her down too." Reeve said and Naruto just smiled

The two made their way onto the vessel and started to go through the necessary preparations to be able to go down to fish-man. The ship was looking pretty sturdy and ready to go until a cannon shot was fired right over top of the deck. Looking around Naruto spotted the Marines from earlier at the beach side shooting at them, but not doing a very good job. Lead was flying everywhere, some of it missing the ship entirely and some hitting he wood and digging itself into it. Naruto grabbed Reeve and sheltered him from the flying wood splinters and bullets inside the room located on the deck and put himself on top of the boy to shelter him. After a few seconds the shots ceased and a voice was heard.

"PORTGAS D. NARUTO COME OUT AND SURRENDER YOURSELF, I THE GREAT MARINE CAPTAIN FONGO HAVE CAUGHT YOU!"

Naruto moved off of Reeve and stood upwards, "It's that god damn Marine Captain from earlier."

Reeve stood up immediately after hearing this and spoke to Naruto, "Let me take him down Naruto! I have to do this for Yuki! Please!"

"No." Naruto responded plainly

"Well I'm not taking no for an answer!" He began to walk towards the door but then something stopped him

Naruto had grabbed a hold of his hand and was currently preventing him from taking another step forward. Reeve looked up at the young mans face and noticed that he didn't have any emotion at all on his face.

"No, you're still hurting a bit from your encounter with this man earlier, and if you walk out those doors you'll be gunned down immediately." Naruto explained to him

"So are you suggesting that you go out instead?!" Reeve countered

"Yes." Naruto flatly responded

Reeve grew a tic mark, "SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT YOU'LL JUST WALK OUT THOSE DOORS AND NOT GET SHOT!"

Naruto grinned as he put his hat further on his head, "Oh I'll get shot! I just won't hit!" He told him not breaking his grin

Reeve stumbled back a bit and looked at the older boy in a confused way. Naruto just kept his smirk up and said, "Let's just say my Devil-Fruit doesn't just let me manipulate water."

Naruto walked towards the door and swung it open with his foot. Within seconds tens of bullets were shot at him at high speeds, most of them hitting their marks. To Reeve all he could see was a barrage of pellets hitting his new friend, but when they hit water splashed out of the spot that they made contact with Naruto. Eventually the time came where the Marines ran out of things to shoot at the boy and assumed that they had beaten him.

"HA HA HA I THE GREAT FONGO HAVE DONE IT! I'VE BEATEN WATER-MAN NARUTO!"

"Nice try there Fongo but I think you guys might have to go to target practice or something cause you didn't hit me once." Naruto said putting his leg up onto the figurehead of the vessel and looking down at the Marines

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Fongo yelled

Fongo then pulled out his own pistol and aimed it at the boys head, "You should be dead bastard!"

BANG

The shot hit Naruto right in the head, but Naruto only stumbled back a little before resuming his spot looking over the Marines as they watched the spot where the bullet hit slowly close.

"Where do you think the name Water-man Naruto comes from dumb-ass." Naruto said to Fongo

Fongo was lost for words as he looked at Naruto with his jaw hanging.

"Alright let's rap this up." Naruto said waving his hand at the Marines

Suddenly a huge wave crashed onto the beach where the Marines were washing them all away further up shore. The wave itself was not enough to kill anyone, it was just summoned to get the Marines off of Reeve and Naruto's back.

Reeve walked out onto the deck where Naruto was standing, he looked over the side of the ship and saw the wave retreating back into the water with all the Marines gone and out of sight.

"So that takes care of one of our problems but how are we going to get down to fish-man island?" Reeve questioned

"I got a plan." Naruto said smirking

________________________________________

A few minutes later. . .

"Alright Reeve you ready!?" Naruto yelled up to the ship

Reeve checked the wheel, "Yep all good up here, are you sure this will work!?"

Naruto was in the water behind the ship at the moment about ready to put his plan in action, "We're about to find out, aren't we!"

"I guess!" Reeve yelled back to Naruto, a little nervous if this plan will work or not

"Alright here we go!" Naruto yelled

The ship started to descend into the water along with both Naruto and Reeve. But the odd thing was once the ship fully descended there was an air bubble around the main deck of the vessel. Naruto had used his devil fruit abilities to manipulate the water around the ship so that none of it came in and so that it left an air bubble for Reeve to breath from.

Immediately after the ship sank Naruto made it so water was getting shot out of his feet. This worked as a means of propulsion to push them deeper and deeper down into fish-man island.

__________________________________________

About a day later. . .

"That wasn't so bad now was it." Reeve said with a confident smirk

Naruto however had white eyes and was collapsed on the stone port the the two used to park their vessel and spoke, "Speak for yourself, all you did was steer the thing. Not use all the energy you had to get us down here."

"He he" Reeve laughed at Naruto's antics

The older boy then got himself on his feet once again, dusted himself off, and then got a good look of the city before him. It was an entire society located underneath the water, which was very cool to Naruto. The two boys started to walk towards the city and looked around to see mermaids and fish-man alike swimming around, and doing their basic chores and errands. It was a lovely sight to see, all the people or rather fish people looked very happy with there way of life. The two saw a tavern and walked over to check it out and see what it'd be like. They were about to walk in the tavern when a rather tall, muscular fish-man ran right in front of them at a high speed. Both Naruto and Reeve looked at the fish-man run off and cut a corner onto the next street.

"Catch him! Catch him I say! He stole from my store!" A clerk yelled as he tried to chase the fish-man down the street

The clerk eventually caught up with Naruto and Reeve and took a second to catch his breath, "Please good sir, find that man and get my goods back from him, I'll reward you! I promise!"

"Don't worry, don't worry. My friend and I will get him for you." Naruto said in a nonchalant tone

"Oh thank you sir." The fish-man store owner told Naruto

"C'mon Reeve, we got a thieve to catch." The older boy said as he started to run off in the direction of the thieve

Reeve just sighed, "Here we go." Reeve then chased after Naruto

It didn't take long for Naruto and Reeve to spot the thieve ahead of them trying to maneuver around various objects in his way. At this point he didn't seem to realize that the two human boys were chasing after him. Soon Naruto got within a few meters of the fish-man and this is when the fish-man looked over his shoulder to spot the two chasing him and he attempted to run even faster.

"Dang this guy's pretty quick for a guy his size." Naruto stated

The fish-man then grabbed a piece of fence to the side of him ripping it right out of the ground threw it back at Naruto and Reeve. The two saw it and Naruto managed to slide under it while Reeve just jumped off to the side and then got back up to continue the chase. Suddenly the fish-man cut down an alley, which the two boys promptly followed. Once they made the turn they noticed that the fish-man had stopped running and was standing in front of an injured child mermaid. The fish-man then approached her and took the bag that he stole and pulled out some bandages and wrapped up her cut arm.

"Ok that wound should heal just fine if you keep some of these bandages on it." the fish-man explained as he handed her the rest of the bandages

The girl smiled, "Thank you so much Kiji!" She said as she gave him a hug and used her personal air bubble to leave

Naruto was shocked to say the least, he just thought that this fish-man, now named Kiji, was a common thief with no morals or guidelines, be he was wrong. Kiji stood back up and looked at the two boys, "I assume that the two of you are here to take me back to the clerk I stole the medical supplies from?" Kiji asked the two

"No." Naruto said flatly

"Why?" Kiji questioned

"Yeah, why wouldn't we?" Reeve questioned along with Kiji

Naruto folded his arms over his chest, "Because Kiji here has a good reason to have done what he did."

"You're right, I did. You see fish-man island is far from perfect. We have been suffering from lack of trade and economic sustainability. Many people, like myself, are homeless and don't have enough money to live." Kiji explained

"So you think of others before yourself, I see." Naruto said as he raised his hand to his chin and started to think

"Kiji why don't you join my crew." Naruto asked Kiji

"W-what why would you want me on your crew?" Kiji asked Naruto

Naruto smiled at the fish-man, "I've seen enough of you, you've shown me your strength, speed, endurance and you've shown me that you are honest and a caring person. And I have no doubt in my mind that I would be able to trust you."

"But we just met and I don't even know your name yet." Kiji said in disbelief

Naruto walked over to the fish-man, he easily was a foot taller than Naruto, but that didn't stop him from pulling an arm over his shoulder and putting his other arm over Reeve's, "I don't really care if us three haven't known each other for longer than a week but I just got a feeling in my gut that you Reeve, you Kiji, and me Naruto will be a trio that the world that will have to watch out for. So what do you guys say?!"

"I'm with you Captain Naruto!" Reeve yelled as he smiled at the two

The two then turned their heads towards Kiji. He was extremely silent and by his facial expression it looked to be that he was thinking of Naruto's offer.

"I. . .I'm with you too. . .Captain Naruto!" He said

Naruto then grinned at the fish-man and raised his hand upwards, "Today marks the formation of Whirlpool Pirates, the group of pirates that won't be held down by any form of monarch or government, this marks the day of our freedom!"