God, I am one hell of a shitty author. You guys who put up with me are too good for me. I've been somewhat busy, but also kinda struggling with the story. Originally, I was intending to make each chapter around 8k words, but I read something online that changed my view on my writing quota, so as of now, I'll post chapters that I believe adequately move the story forward without too much junk in the middle.

So I'll probably update more frequently (hopefully once a month and then down to at least once every two weeks, but we'll see how that goes)

I didn't have this chapter proofread, so there might be a couple grammatical errors here or there, but hopefully they are minuscule mistakes that you'll barely notice.

Read on! ~ Z

Chapter 3: East Blue Origins- Part 2

Naruto

Naruto bolted forward and grabbed her foot with his tail, but ended up ripping her slipper off. His mad dash only served in accelerating her fall.

Her head hit the third step with a sickening crunch, a bloody mark left imprinted on it.

He was so close to her.

Her arm snapped, bone tearing through flesh, on the fifth.

He lunged out, changing form, arms outstretched, fingers just out of reach.

Her right leg was about to slam against the wall and the eighth step.

Sending a burst of wind chakra out his feet, he accelerated towards her, grabbing her out of the air, but was a second too late to save her right leg from shattering.

The moment he had touched her though, he had flooded her body with his chakra in an attempt to fortify her body and prevent anymore injuries. Despite all his experience, he didn't know how bad the injuries truly were until he could examine them, and even then he didn't know if he could save her.

Naruto attempted to stop himself on the tenth step by sticking his feet to it, but the whetstone Kuina had thrown into the air smashed into his face, sending him careening down the rest of the steps, body curled protectively around Kuina's already battered form.

They tumbled down to the bottom of the steps, where Naruto smacked the back of his head against the concrete floor.

Hot pain lanced through his skull, vision blurring.

He could feel hot blood streaming down the left side of his face from a deep laceration made from the whetstone on his forehead. It was blinding his left eye, darkness creeping up along the edges of the vision in his right.

He pushed through it. His drive to save Kuina greater than what his body wanted.

Sitting up, body screaming in protest, he gently laid Kuina on her back to check her injuries with mechanical precision.

Severe head trauma, most likely a concussion too. Cervical herniation in the C6 and C7 discs. Compound, open fracture of the radius and ulna of her right arm with a comminuted fracture in the ulna, bone fragments scattered throughout the muscle tissue and skin. Right leg dislocated. Stable fracture within the femur. Cracked tibia and an oblique fracture within the fibula. Multiple, small lacerations and contusions along the torso and across the arms and legs.

Without wasting a single moment, Naruto used much of his chakra to stabilize and reduce the swelling within her brain and to contain as much of the inner core of the cervical discs from leaking out. He used the rest to heal the bones in her leg and arm with cleaner fractures and major lacerations and contusions along her body. Almost immediately as he began healing Kuina, white-hot pain lanced through his mind.

He ignored it, gritting his teeth.

He could hear loud footsteps thundering overhead heading towards the basement door, but he paid them no heed, Kuina his only focus.

He used a jutsu to place her right arm and right leg in a stasis of sorts that would protect them any further harm.

Footsteps were pounding down the steps, the soft whisper of steel rubbing against leather could be heard.

Realizing that whoever was coming down the steps would most likely chop his head off when they saw him hunching over Kuina's comatose form, Naruto began to fix as much as he could in the little time he had. He couldn't do anything about her head injuries due to the complexity of the human brain, but he tried his best with the more severe trauma. He used his chakra with surgical precision to pull as many bone fragments back in place as he could. The pain in his mind only became stronger, more thunderous, like someone was repeatedly drilling large holes through his head, but he ignored it with extreme difficulty. At the same time, he was blocking up and strengthening the injured discs in her neck, which was all he could do, leaving them to heal on their own.

He leaned back, the pain inside his head steadily increasing without pause.

All of a sudden, a sharp burning sensation spread from within his chest. Looking down, he saw that a blade stained with his blood had sprouted from it.

Shit, I let my guard down. Didn't realize that the footsteps had reached the bottom of the steps.

Knowing he couldn't do anymore for Kuina, he slammed his palm against the blade, snapping it at the point where it exited his person. Then leaning forward, he let the rest of the blade slide out of his back, while he sweeped his left leg around, catching his attacker behind the knees sending them sprawling on the ground. His head began to feel like sledgehammers were slamming into them, the pain bringing him to his knees, hands on his temples. Immediately, another sword wedged itself into his shoulder. Blocking out the intense pain for a second, Naruto kicked up with his right leg, his heel catching his second attacker under the chin, knocking them out immediately. He stood up only to stumble and fall back to the ground. He stood back up using pure willpower to hold off the unrelenting pain in his head when he saw the dojo's master, Kuina's father, standing at the base of the steps, a naked sword held loosely in his hand.

Naruto looked him in the eye, "She has potential."

He teleported away leaving the man with his own thoughts.

Naruto arrived at an uninhabited island he had passed many months earlier, collapsing to the ground struggling to stay conscious, the excruciating pain the only thing he could think about.

What is this? What is going on? I don't understand.

He felt something wrapping around his chakra pathways and obstructing many of his tenketsu, but he barely registered what exactly was happening due to the tortuous and thunderous pounding within his head.

The pain became too much for him, but before he could embrace the sweet darkness, he heard a voice whisper in his head:

This is your punishment.

He slipped into the darkness.

Naruto shot up into an upright position, gasping for breath. His throat was extremely parched, and his entire body ached with pain, sore from his thrashing and convulsing. He made to get up, but he ended up collapsing back to the ground, his body too weak to move. He rolled onto his back, staring up at the sky. He duly noted that he had been unconscious for more than twelve hours, the morning sun replaced by the stars and the moon.

He did the only thing he could do.

He slept.

Shanks

They had been traveling for a couple days now, their spirits battered and dulled from the harsh winds of the North Blue and a rather nasty hurricane. They had been blown far off of their original course taking almost a week to get back on track.

Now, their spirits were a lot better with spirits warming their bellies and addling their minds. Ben was at the helm and Yasopp was in the nest, while the rest of the crew partied. Shanks was learning on the port railing, looking out to sea thinking about Luffy.

"Captain!" Ben called out, interrupting Shanks' musings, "We're passing by an uncharted island. Do you want to stop and replenish our water supply?"

"Why not," he replied, "It wouldn't hurt to stop for the night. I could definitely do with some solid land. The North Blue was far rougher this time around than normal. To be honest, I think it'll do the crew a lot of good."

Ben nodded affirmatively before turning and bellowing, "PREPARE TO LAND!"

The deck exploded into a flurry of activity. Men were stowing away loose gear and other items. Others were hoisting up the sails and securing them to their respective yards. Two were preparing the anchor to be dropped. The rest went about their regular routines.

It took them a matter of minutes to reach the sandy shore of the small island. Much of the crew were already relaxing on the beach, napping under the shade of the trees or basking in the warmth of the sand. The rest were busy exploring the dingy, little island for fresh water sources.

While others were working, Shanks, being the lazy captain he was, had decided to relax under a nice tree he had found. His thoughts turned back to Luffy again. They had to leave the little monkey again when a friend had called, asking for some help. As they left, he had spotted Garp's ship off in the horizon and he knew that the old man would put Luffy through another week of his "training".

Normally Luffy was back on Foosha Island before he got back, so he was looking forward to talking with him and swapping stories about their most recent "adventures".

Once again, someone interrupted his musings, "Cap'n, we found somebody sleepin' on the otha side of tha island. He seems pretty outta it. Wouldn' wake up for nothin'. We didn' know what to do so we brought him to ya instead!"

Shanks facepalmed.

"You can't just kidnap a person because he won't wake up guys!"

Exasperated he looked up at his crew members. There were three of them. The middle one was well built, with broad shoulders, thick, corded arms and a very respectable height. The other two were similarly built, but leaner and more lithe. The one in the middle, Cadsin, was carrying the man they had found slung across his shoulders.

"Well, he's here now so we might as well take a look at him. Cadsin, put him on the ground."

Cadsin obeyed immediately and dropped the man on the ground (more like threw him to the ground).

"Cadsin!" Shanks cried in a panic, "You can't treat strangers like that! What if you had hurt him?!"

Shanks dropped to his knees to check that the stranger hadn't sustained any serious injuries and sighed with relief when he saw that the man didn't seem to injured at all. That showed that he was at least somewhat strong (Ah yes, I can be thrown to the ground and not be hurt. I must be strong.)

He sat back on his heels and just observed the man. He was quite old looking - correction - he looked positively ancient. His creased skin was scarred and weather worn. His body was well built for a man of his age. Plenty of muscle, yet not a disgusting amount. Scars marred his skin.

A war veteran possibly? Shanks mused, absently tracing the crevices.

Abruptly, he stood up, dusting the sand off his pants, addressing Cadsin, " I want you to take this geezer to the infirmary. Ben told me that this island is uninhabited, so he's probably stranded."

Cadsin nodded, picking the prone man up and walking in the direction of the Red Force.

Shanks then rounded on the other two, "I want you two to go back to where you found him and see if you can found anything that might belong to him. Report back to the ship in an hour."

They responded with a curt nod and a "Cap'n" before heading off.

Shanks settled back down on the ground and decided to take a nap.

Naruto

He woke up to the gentle rocking of a ship, looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling, in an unfamiliar bed.

He also noticed that he wasn't tied down or restrained in any manner whatsoever.

All in all… it wasn't too bad.

He decided that whoever had brought him aboard was extremely confident in their strength or actually wanted to help him. Perhaps it was both. Either way, his questions weren't going to be answered laying around.

He kicked the covers off of himself and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, sitting upright.

From what he could see, the room was the infirmary. There were two more beds next to the one he was occupying. Across from him was a desk with an assortment of plants, vials with some sort of substance in them and a variety of pill-filled jars.

He stood up and walked out, quietly closing the door behind him.

Time to explore! he thought to himself.

He ambled along the hallways aimlessly. So far, he had found the kitchen along with the mess, the captain's quarters, a set of stairs that led to the cargo hold and a room filled with beds (probably sleeping quarters for the crew). One room had a mirror in it, which he had stood in front of contemplating what exactly the old face staring back at him meant.

He shrugged his shoulders and left the room. It was problem for later.

Eventually, he found a large set of stairs that led to a closed door. Light was filtering through the little porthole and he could hear the small lapping of waves against the ship. Not hearing any voices, he pushed the door open to a bright, sunny day and an empty deck. As he walked out some more, he realized that shp he was on was docked at an island.

Curiosity overtook him and he walked down the gangplank onto the small pier. He strolled into the small village keen on finding someone to tell him where he was.

Aha! There was an old man headed his way. A man who could most definitely answer a few of his questions.

He waved to get his attention, "Excuse my kind sir, could you tell where exactly I am along with today's date?"

The old man looked up with a smile, "Why of course my dear friend! You are in Foosha Village on Dawn Island. Today is Monday the 16th."

" Thanks. I...um… I actually have another question if you don't mind," he stated sheepishly, rubbing his head.

The old man laughed, "Hoho, I don't mind. Fire away!"

Naruto pointed to the Red Force, "Uhhh… who's ship is that?"

A surprised look crossed the elder's face, but it turned into one of understanding, "You probably haven't heard of him, living in the East Blue and all, but that is the ship of Red-Haired Shanks, captain of the Red Hair pirates. They are really famous pirates, Red Hair is actually one of the four Yonko, so he and his crew are immensely strong! So strong in fact that I hea-"

Naruto tuned out the old man, instead thinking about this Shanks character. He had heard of him before during his travels. A man of great power that was rivaled by few if the rumors were true. He had yet to meet the man, or any of the Yonko for that matter.

"-and he's such a bad influence on Luffy! Making him want to become a pirate of all things!" the old man finished his rant.

"Where can I find this Shanks person?" Naruto quickly asked, "I would like to thank him for rescuing me from a deserted island,"

"Ah, he should be at Partys Bar at the moment with his crew. Just continue down this street," he pointed to where he had come from, "And you should see it on the right."

"Thank you very much. I didn't say it before, but my name is Naruto," Naruto said, extending his hand out.

The old man shook it, "Mine is Wood Slap, mayor of this village. It was nice meeting you Naruto"

They parted ways, Wood Slap going to whatever destination he had in mind and Naruto down the street to find the bar that Shanks was partying in.

It didn't take him long to find the bar, mainly because he heard it before he saw it.

They sure know how to party, he thought to himself. The raucous laughter and shouting could be heard more than 200 meters away from the bar itself. The noise only got louder as he got closer, horrible singing becoming the most prominenet. He cringed in pain, the strident sounds pounding against his eardrums.

He somehow made it to the doors without bleeding out of his ears. He touched his ears, his fingers coming away slightly stained red.

Scratch that. It was either really bad, or it was just him. Probably just him.

He wiped the blood out of his ear before stomping into the bar extremely vexed.

"ALRIGHT! Which one of you bastards is doing the horrible singing? I'm gonna rip you a new one!" he shouted vehemently.

Every single one of the pirates pointed to a drunk redhead at the bar, still singing extremely off key, a young black haired child right next to him singing just as loudly and possibly even worst than the redhead.

He marched over to them, grabbed their heads and smacked a rubber skull against a normal one.

(Yeah. You can imagine how that turned out.)

Shanks' head pressed into the child's slightly. Realizing that the her hadn't hurt them, Naruto let go of both of their heads, fuming a little bit.

A well known property of rubber is its elasticity, or in other words, its ability to return to its original shape.

The child is rubber.

The child's head is round.

Shanks's head was pushed into said round head, deforming the shape.

Naruto had let go of their heads…

.

.

.

.

*SMACK*

~Outside the Bar~

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH! My head!"

Birds took off in fright.

Villagers passing by looked at the bar in curiosity.

~Back Inside~

Shanks was on the ground his head in his heads, his crew laughing at his moaning form.

"SHUT IT YOU BASTARDS!" and angry redhead shouted from the floor, face red from beer… or maybe embarrassment. (definitely embarrassment.)

Across from Shanks, the black haired child, was rolling around on the ground also laughing at Shanks, seemingly unaffected by the fall. Shanks just curled up into a ball, tears of shame spilling out of his eyes, "Not you too Luffy…"

"Ah, so the child's name is Luffy," Naruto thought as he sat down at the bar. " May I have some water?" he asked the rather attractive bartender, "Also, I would like a bowl of ramen, please if that isn't too much."

She looked at him with a confused look on her face, "Ra...men? What's that?"

Naruto slammed his head against the countertop, tears falling from his eyes.

"No where."

He smacked his head against the counter again.

"I haven't found my precious ramen."

He continued bashing his head against the bar muttering incoherently about ramen. Everyone just looked at him like he was crazy.

The bartender just placed a glass of water in front of the old man before turning and scolding the black haired child for laughing at Shanks.

"Luffy! Stop laughing and go help Shanks!" she admonished.

The black haired child, Luffy, stumbled over to Shanks trying his best to hold in his giggling.

He tripped over his feet and fell on top of Shanks, causing a ripple of laughter to sweep through the room, even Naruto let out a quiet chuckle.

After everyone had finished laughing and returned to their original conversations, Shanks stood up, hoisting Luffy onto his seat, before plopping down beside Naruto.

"The name's Shanks. Proud captain of the Red Hair pirates."

"It's nice to finally meet you Shanks. I'm Naruto."

As always, favorite and follow if you liked this and don't be afraid to PM me with question and suggestions (although they might not be used)

Thanks, Z