Disclaimer: No own...Me sad...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"As captain, I hereby declare that you, Sanji, shall be the first to climb up the ladder," spoke a loudly whispered voice.

"What the hell are you talking about? Luffy is the captain. You're just the shitty shooter. It is not in your power to tell me what to do," said the hissed reply.

"But he's not here; therefore, his position falls onto the most capable person. Besides, would you rather make Nami climb it first?"

"Don't you dare bring fair Nami-san into this. Of course I would never even think of making such a magnificent creature as her climb into that filthy town all by herself."

"Will you two just shut up?" said the navigator from her hiding spot among the bushes, "We need to hurry up and get into the town before dawn or we will never restock our supplies. This bickering is getting us nowhere! Now one of you climb up that damn ladder!"

"Like you're helping at all," Usopp said under his breathe, thus receiving a well-aimed boot to the face.

"I'll do it Nami-san, just so I can replenish our supplies and prepare delicious yet unworthy food for your wonderful self." Usopp rolled his eyes at the love-cook's usual antics. However, he had no qualms about Sanji being the one to infiltrate the heavily fortressed city. Not that he was scared, mind you, but someone did need to stay behind to protect Nami…

He thought that it was foolish to even be anywhere near this town. Though there was no marine base, the inhabitants of this island seemed to hate pirates enough to make marine/pirate relations look rather good. In fact, as soon as they sailed within shooting distance of the island, a barrage of cannon balls soared their way. Had it not been for Luffy's rubber body to bounce the cannon balls back, the Going Merry would be currently resting on the sea floor.

Despite the fact that Usopp wanted to continue on to the next island (he was the only one who took the threat seriously), they were running dangerously short on vital supplies and the next island, according to Robin, was more than ten days away. Therefore, the decision was made to find a docking spot in a deserted harbor and sneak over the city's walls during the night to steal the needed supplies.

It was decided that himself, Nami, and Sanji would be the ones to actually sneak into the town. Luffy would cause unwanted attention, even in the dead of night, so Zoro had persuaded the rambunctious captain to accompany him on a hunt for meat thus distracting him from the temptation to join in on the infiltration. This left Robin and Chopper to stay behind and guard the Going Merry.

Usopp's train of thought was snapped back into the present by yet another boot to the face.

"Pay attention! I'm going to go now. Whatever you do, leave the ladder up so I can get back down." He started to creep forward and, as an afterthought, turned back around, "And no pranks this time or I'll personally skin your hide."

The sharpshooter gulped loudly at the threat as he remembered the last time they had to sneak into a city. Even though Zoro was responsible for orchestrating the elaborate sabotage of the love-cook's plans (as revenge for pushing Zoro overboard during one of his naps because the lazy swordsman was "in the way"), Usopp had the impression that Sanji unfairly blamed him as well. The only role he played in the scheme was to scream "pirate" hysterically. Sanji had never quite gotten over the fact that he had to run clear across town to escape the mass amount of marines on his tail.

He watched as Sanji quietly took the makeshift ladder and proceeded out of the tree line in which he was previously hidden to the wall of the city. After placing the ladder against the tall barrier, he quickly disappeared over the wall.

Nami breathed a sigh of relief. "It should be smooth sailing from here," she rearranged herself in a more comfortable position, "He should be back any ti—"

"Shhh," Usopp put a hand over her mouth. "Listen."

Though Nami swatted his hand away, Usopp was surprised to find Nami actually heeding his command; she never was one to respond to an interruption quietly.

The two pirates strained their ears towards the wall where sounds of a scuffling and grunts could be heard.

"What is that?" Nami whispered apprehensively.

"It sounds like someone's fighting," Usopp replied softly. "Should we should go up and see—"

He trailed off as he watched an unknown figure pull the ladder up and over the wall.

"That's not Sanji," and thinking of the peril his crewmate would be in if he was trapped within the walled fortress, he rushed forward to prevent Sanji's method of escape from disappearing.

He was halfway to the wall when a shot rang out accompanied by a muffled shout and a thump as if someone had fell off the wall. Though he could not see anything to determine if he was right, as if anything had hit the ground, it would be on the opposite side of the wall, he had a sinking feeling in his gut.

Sanji.

When he overcame his panic, he noticed that the ladder was gone and Nami had a hold on his arm and was dragging him back to the cover of the forest. He then noticed the dirt around his feet being disturbed as bullets intended for his body missed and thudded into the earth.

The next thing to register in his brain was Nami's shouting, "We've got to get out of here before we get shot."

"But—Sanji…"

"He'll be fine. He can take care of himself."

"How will he escape?" The city-folk were obviously aware of the pirate's raiding plans and thus well prepared to deal with them. They were likely to have any possible escape route well guarded.

"I dunno, but if we can get back to the ship alive, which requires you to actually run, we can form a plan with the rest of our crew."

Usopp realized that he was indeed moving only due to Nami's tugging. Running, at the moment, seemed like a very good plan. Hopefully, the one they would come up with to get into the city would make just as much sense.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sorry about the ending, but its really late and I wrote/edited it in one sitting; if ya find any spelling/grammar/plot/character errors, I'd be happy to hear. Hopefully, this fic made some amount of sense…