A Ninja's Creed.

Chapter 1 – Displaced.

He didn't know where he was his eyes hurt too much to open, he could hear shouting and fighting, but couldn't make out any of the words. The last thing he remembered was fighting Madara Uchiha, every time he thought he had the upper hand Madara would pull some new and never before seen power or trick and he would be struggling again.

He remembered Madara using his unholy eyes to combine the bijuu into the juubi, even taking Kuruma from his very stomach. Naruto had had to change target to the juubi and leave the shinobi alliance to distract Madara while he dealt with it. By the time he had used the sage arts to absorb the monster the demon in human form, Madara, had already decimated and killed all of the alliance's strongest ninjas, several of his friends included.

He hadn't known it but he had played the part Madara had expected him to in absorbing the juubi, Madara now had vessel with the power of the juubi he was capable of exerting his control over with the Sharingan. He hadn't counted on just how stubborn Naruto was though, his original plan had been to use his already broken tool Obito, who would have been unable to resist his mind control, that plan had been ruined by Naruto but his ever evolving plan had simply swapped one tool for another.

Attempting to exert control over someone with chakra, who is in tune with their own and that of the environment around them is like trying to use a toothpick to change the direction of the flow of a river. In attempting to control Naruto Madara had had to change his eyes from Rinnegan to his eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

With Naruto advancing on him at speeds utterly untraceable with normal eyes, even for ninja eyes, he only had one chance to ensnare him. When he realised it wasn't working it was already too late Naruto was already mid strike, but he wasn't going to allow some snot nosed brat with no concept of just how powerful he was to get away with killing him, his final vengeance was to trap his killer inside another dimension altogether with his Kamui.

As Naruto raised his kunai up and pierced the soft underside of Madara's face ending perhaps the greatest ninja's life with the most basic of ninja tool he was sucked into unending blackness.

How he had escaped and where he was now was something Naruto didn't know. He couldn't feel the juubi anymore and his own chakra was replenishing slowly, he had never felt this exhausted in his entire life.

The shouting became clearer as his head stopped hurting so much.

"Keep your distance." Shouted a rough voice, followed by a sharp bang, shocking Naruto upright and his eyes open.

Looking around he could see two men one warmly dressed in dark multi-layered flowing leather, that his trained eyes could see were meant to allow for freedom of movement in the arms and legs. Rather than using solid sections of material it used vertical strips in layers to provide both minor protection for slashes and versatility in concealment, even from his position he could see eight potential spots weapons could be hidden.

The other man was dressed in very basic rags barely covering his body; the rough course linin was frayed and worn. It wasn't dyed and unlike the other man's clothes seemed to be made for cheapness as opposed to comfort.

While the first man had no visible weapons now he had thrown the device he had used to create the bang away, the second was clearly armed. Two swords hung from his belt, one long the other shorter, like his clothes Naruto could tell they were poorly made and barely cared for, a lifetime of scavenging weapons had left him able to tell this at a glance.

Naruto stood up to follow them and immediately wished he didn't as a wave of nausea hit him. Putting his hand to his head to quell the pounding it felt sticky, pulling it away he could see it was covered in blood. Obviously he had hit his head on something when he landed, but he had had worse and that wasn't going to stop him following these two.

A short distance away they came to a stop in a large clearing, the well-dressed man appeared to have given up on running away. Either they hadn't noticed him following them, and he hadn't been exactly stealthy about it, or they simply didn't care. By the time he had a decent vantage point they were already engaged in combat.

It was over quickly Naruto judged from his movements that the well-dressed man was already heavily injured as he was favouring his left side despite clearly being right handed from the way he held himself. He made a mistake of lunging at the rough blonde haired man, over extending himself and agitating his injury, something his opponent capitalised on, brutally countering him pushing him far beyond his balance making him fall.

"It didn't have to be this way mate; we could have gotten off this island together if you hadn't shot at me." The rough blonde said. The man spat at him in return.

"You pirate scum are all the same, no belief in anything more than the gold in your pocket and the rum in your belly, I hope you die a painful death." The floored man said.

"So be it mate." The blonde said stabbing his long sword through the man's eye without any further ceremony.

Naruto approached as the blonde was going through the other man's possessions, searching his still warm corpse for anything useful. He coughed to make his presence known, so as not to startle the man, his combat had been, for a ninja utterly slow, but Naruto had no weapons on him and had learned from his master that first impressions can mean a lot, even if they aren't true, perhaps especially if they aren't true.

Looking up from the letter he was currently reading the blonde stranger held up his short sword, pointing at the new arrival.

"Where'd you come from mate?" he asked stowing the letter in his belt and readying his long sword in case the newcomer was hostile.

Deciding discretion was advised and that as Jiraiya had taught him, information is power, he lied.

"I don't know, I think I hit my head." Naruto lied, showing the man his bloodied hand and craning his head to show the bloody patch of hair.

"You all right there mate; your eyes seem a little odd?" The man said lowering his long sword but keeping his offhand weapon ready, though not rose.

"What do you mean, are they bloodshot or something?" Naruto asked having no idea what the man meant, his eyes though they had hurt to open originally now felt fine.

"They are kinda grey and ripply, I dunno how to describe it mate, here look." He said raising the broad side of his sword so Naruto could use it as a mirror.

Steadying the blade with his hands Naruto could see his eyes reflected back at him, the same eyes he had seen on the Juubi, Nagato, Obito and Madara the Rinnegan. Shocked but alert enough to know that it obviously want a good idea to have them on display judging by the man's reaction he focused on the chakra draw he hadn't noticed before and ended it, opening his now blue eyes.

"Err; probably best you pretend you didn't see that, dattebayo." Naruto said, completely failing at his earlier attempt at leaving the stranger with no information about him.

"Whatever you say mate, what'd say we find a way off this island, Edward." The man introduced himself, offering his now empty hand having put his swords away.

"Naruto, nice to meet you" Naruto said taking the man's hand and giving it a shake.

Naruto watch as the man stripped his fallen enemy, taking his clothes, with only mild incredulity; he had done the same in the past while on an infiltration mission for Jiraiya. Though when he saw Edward discard the mounted wrist blade he took them for himself feeling exposed without at least some weapon.

Walking to the edge of the nearby cliff at the edge of the clearing the pair of blondes could see a modest ship.

"That looks like our way off this island mate." Edward said to his new companion, before diving off the cliff into a pool below.

Unperturbed by his new friend's showy exit Naruto leapt to a tall tree growing from just beside the pool his recently departed friend and dived into. He then ran down the side of said tree so that he was by the poolside as his friend rose to the surface.

"How'd you get down so fast if you didn't dive?" Edward asked confused.

"ninja." Naruto answered with a huge grin on his face as if it answered everything, perhaps it did.

Making their way to the edge of the pool they could hear voices, presumably from whoever owned the anchored ship by the bay. With a glance between the two blondes they each fled to hide in different directions, Edward in a heavy shrub bed area, Naruto up a tree with heavy foliage.

It was clear from the start of the conversation the pair overheard that the men in red uniforms intended to steal the portly fellow's ship, despite it also being clear he had done nothing wrong; they even intended to hang him. Another glance between the two and it was decided they would help the ship's owner by taking out the troops intent on his execution, then barter that service for passage off this island, much was said between the two without the need for words.

Edward struck first, pulling a nearby guard into his shrub, killing him in the process. While Edward rifled through his kills possessions, Naruto put his newly acquired blades to use taking out a pair of troops not far from his tree. Rather than alert anyone to their disappearance he formed a pair of clones and henged them into the guards, while he hid the bodies in the dense foliage of the island.

Edward moved to a new hiding spot, slowly sneaking up on an outlying guard, Naruto had retreated up another tree, his henged clones continuing the guard's patrols. His patrolling clones were passing by the corralled sailors when one made a brake for it.

"Stop that man, shoot him." The leader of the red dressed men shouted, his hat clearly fancier, indicating his importance, if Naruto had learned anything it was the cooler the had the more important you are.

A few of the red dressed troops kneeled down, readying their wood and metal sticks, aiming at the running man. Naruto and Edward took advantage of this distraction Edward pulling another guard into his shrub, Naruto and his clones killing the now kneeling guards leaving only the leader alive, sparing the sailors.

Naruto's clones disappeared in wisps of smoke, leaving only the portly fellow, his sailors, Edward and Naruto on the beach.

"Please don't hurt me." The man said.

"Now why would we do that mate we just saved you from these turncoats?" Edward said, with a look to Naruto that said to play along.

"Ah then thanks are owed kind sirs, unfortunately I've no coin to share at the moment. My ship is heavy with cargo, if you'll accompany me to Havana I can pay you once I sell my goods." The portly man offered.

"Aye that'll about do it, what do ya say Naruto, Havana good for you?" Edward asked.

"Anywhere fine so long as there is people, there." Naruto responded.

"Then it's settled, you will accompany me to Havana and be rewarded. You know at first I thought you both pirates the way you handled those men, so quick and smooth like you'd done it a thousand times before." The cheery man said never noticing the uncomfortable looks on the two men as they set about untying his sailors.

"Pirates, I've been told I have roguish good looks, but I've not been mistaken for actual rouge before." Edward lied easily slipping into a friendly manner with the man.

"Names Edward by the way and this hear is Naruto, traveling companion of mine of late." Edward said indicating himself then Naruto.

"Stede Bonnet, merchant by trade." Stede said.

Introductions out of the way the group set about moving the goods the soldiers had unloaded back onto the ship. The captain having been killed first as an example Edward seized the opportunity to make himself one and took charge once they reached the ship.

The four day journey from what was apparently called Cape Bonavista according to Stede was plenty of time for Edward and Naruto to get to know each other. Though they kept it quiet from Stede, the man seemed quiet naive even by Naruto's standards; Naruto shared the truth of how he ended up on the island. When it became clear that the elemental nations didn't elicit any kind of recognition from Edward Naruto concluded that Madara's Kamui had permanently separated him from his friends as a final revenge.

Edward however had had a hard time getting over the concept of assassins that also paint fences, Naruto's explanation that you couldn't expect there to be enough combat missions to keep a city full of ninja busy all the time seemed lacking. His explanation of chakra seemed more like magic to him than anything else but at least it explained the extra people Naruto had conjured up on the island.

Though he was indeed naïve both Naruto and Edward had gotten on well with Stede, his friendly nature made him easy to get along with.

A.N. the juubi's chakra and hence itself was consumed in the process of transferring Naruto to his new dimension so we won't be seeing it again.. Probably. Madara is dead I skipped over the way things happened because it's not important to the story I want to tell.