Chapter 2

Naruto woke up a day later, she felt Kurama was wrapped around her and opened her eyes to see him with four tails curling himself around her like a pillow.

"Morning Kurama." She said in a soft voice stirring him from his sleep.

A red eye opened and stared at her, "Morning kit."

She was going to reply when the door the infirmary opened to show Marco and Haruta enter the space and freeze at the sight of the giant fox in the room.

Naruto quickly sat up, "Don't worry he's a friend, without him Ace wouldn't have been here."

Both Commander nodded and slowly relaxed their bodies.

"I hope you are feeling better, do want some breakfast? Shanks said to make you some miso ramen yoi." Marco then felt himself being pulled by the blonde to where the scent of food and noise from their cafeteria.

Behind them was Kurama walking in his two tail form now, amused by his Kit's reaction to her favorite food.

"Shanks must really want what you promised him, I assume yoi." Marco said seeing the girl extremely happy with some words.

"Yup, considering that kid has been asking me for years whenever I visit and there literally is nothing like it and I don't blame him, but I love to tease the kid. It's one of my favorite pass times." She said with a small smile, before digging into her bowl of ramen.

"You call him a kid but he looks much older than you yoi?" Marco saw that most of the crew was listening as she spoke.

"Well, I'm much older than I look but until Ace wakes up, I won't say a thing other than my name. What I say will be the same thing I did with Roger's crew and with Whitebeard and a select few." Naruto's eyes turned cold and looked to everyone's eyes.

Marco felt the power she radiated and decided that Akagami was right about not wanting her to be their enemy and nodded.

"Uzumaki Naruto, at your service, please take care of me." She said with a small bow.

"Of course, it's a pleasure to have you on board yoi." Macro said with a small bow back for formalities.

"Ah!" she exclaimed catching their attention again, "Kurama introduce yourself." A small glare was directed to the orange fox with two tails on the seat next to her.

The fox gave her a small glare before turning to the crew and opened his mouth shocking everyone there, "Kurama, you should be honored to have the grea- WACK - Ow! Kit what was that for!?"

"Properly, Kurama or I won't let you go hunting again for the next two weeks." She said with a dark glint and a sweet voice.

"Tch, fine." He turned the shocked humans and gave a small bow, "My name is Kurama, thank you for taking care of me and my kit. Please excuse our intrusion."

Kurama got up and sent a silent message to Naruto as to where he will be and left the room.

She rubbed the back of head, "Sorry about him, he doesn't like humans much."

"Ah it's okay yoi." Marco said, but a questioned remained on their minds.

"No, we are not Devil Fruit users either." Naruto said cutting through their thoughts.

"Did you use-" one of the crew was cut off.

"No, I didn't use any Haki on you guys it's written all over your faces." She said.

Naruto sighed and sensed Ace's chakra stirring. "Marco let's go, he's waking up and will be in extreme pain, Kurama is already there."

They got up and began to head out of the cafeteria when she stopped and turned back to them, "Whatever you may hear right now ignore it, if you disturb me while I'm treating him you could kill him."

With that she hurried out of the room with Marco following closely behind her with wide eyes.

"No it wasn't true what I just said but it will keep them out long enough so I can finish healing him, then the only thing he will be worrying is feeling like he's being poked by thousands of needles for the next week." She said not turning back to see him.

She entered the room to see the pained look on Ace's face. Looking to Kurama who prepared she activated the chakra cloak and entered sage mode.

Marco was standing in the entrance of the door to see Naruto be covered in the same thing she was in the other day during the war to heal Ace.

"Well get in here and close the door already." An annoyed voice came from Naruto.

She turned back to Ace and focus on him, she gently coaxed him out of sleep, "Ace this is the second part of the healing that I told you before that would be extremely painful, you'll be sore for a while too, are you ready?"

Ace woke up to darkness and pain everywhere, he couldn't move a single muscle without feeling like he was being burned from the inside out. He heard the same voice as before pulling him more out of the darkness. Opening his eyes he saw a blurry figure of white fire. He felt something on his chest before his world exploded in the worst pain he could ever imagine.

His screams filled the entire room and could be heard throughout the ship. Many flinched wanting nothing more than to go and stop whatever is causing their brother pain, but the warning that she had left them with no choice.

Inside the room Marco was watching the entire processes, when she placed her hands on his chest, Ace was wrapped in the red cloak again but this time it was starting to look like what she was in. That was when he saw her do the same thing she had done the same thing she had done yesterday, she leaned forward and kissed him.

That was when the two were enveloped in a bright light making Marco shield his eyes from it. When the light died down, Ace was no longer with the red cloak but with his flames surrounding them and Naruto was no longer in the cloak either.

Both of them didn't realize that the process was done, they still had their lips pressed together. A cough from behind them made them pulled apart.

Naruto had a small blush on her face and Ace was giving Marco an annoyed glare.

Clearing her throat, she looked back down to where Ace was and gave him a small smile, "Well how do you feel?"

Ace groaned, "My body feels like its needles are just poking me for fun." He couldn't move, any movement would make pain shoot through him.

"Well that's to be expected, since Kurama's chakra is poison to a human's body." She said absently.

"What! You mean to tell me that whatever you did to Ace was poisoning him yoi?!" Marco said alarmed.

"Yes, but that is why I'm here, I purify his chakra to make it do less damage to him, think of it like this. If Kurama gave him his chakra to Ace while he was dying, Ace would have healed at an extreme rate and died from the corrosive energy that was given to him or had him in a permanent coma." At that both Marco and Ace gave her incredulous looks.

"Now since I was basically born with his chakra, my body has adjusted to it and purifies it making it less corrosive and less lethal to use on humans, that's why he can't move his body right now without feel a million needles are piercing through him. Understand." She gave both of them a meaningful looks.

They nodded their heads now understanding a bit, "What's chakra yoi?" Marco said.

She had said it several times over the past couple of days that he had met her and wanted to know since he had never heard of it.

"Chakra is the physical and spiritual manifestation of a person's energy, it's kind of like my version of Haki. That's the short version of it, and for other reasons I will not explain further." She said in a voice making them understand not to go further on the topic.

"Okay yoi." Marco accepted it, for now. 'If pops, trusted her it must have been for a good reason-yoi.'

"Ace get some rest trust me you won't be able to move for at least a week without feeling pain, sleep helps a lot." She said in a voice that showed experience.

"Can't I have some pain killers to make some of the pain go away?" He complained.

"No, trust me when I say this any other medication other than that IV bag that you are hooked up will cause your body to reject it and increase the pain you are in." With that Ace deflated and Naruto thought he looked like a kicked puppy, it was adorable.

She snapped out her thoughts when she remember she had placed a marker on Ace's little brother, he was in terrible shape when she had last saw him on the battlefield. And from what she had heard he received another injury from Akainu and Jinbe did too. 'Damn now I have more people worry about.'

A hand on her shoulder made her snap out of her thoughts to see Marco giving her a questioning look.

"Are you alright yoi?" She could hear the concern in the lazy voice.

"Yeah I just have to check on some people right now, they had gotten away okay for the most part but since those two are brothers," she pointed to Ace behind her, "I want to make sure him and Jinbe are okay." She looked over to see Kurama getting ready for a nap on Ace's stomach and Ace looking at her with a surprised expression.

"Wait if you're going to see my brother, take me with you please." Ace said trying to get up and failing.

Naruto pushed him back down and wacked him over the head, putting her hands on her hips, "Are you an idiot!?" She gave him an ice cold glare making him flinch.

"I just healed you and I told you, you wouldn't be able to move for a while. You're going to stay right here and rest. Kurama here will make sure you will too." She saw Kurama lift his head and give her a deadpanned stare.

"You will watch him because I'm going to be letting you go out in that form with no complaints from me for a week and we'll visit your favorite place." Kurama visibly brightened at the deal, nodded and went back to sleep.

Turning back to Ace, "If you dare get up you be in here longer and I'll make sure the healing process is painful." The sadistic glint in her eyes made Ace feel a chill go down back and break out in sweat, he nodded making her turn around to Marco.

"Well Captain Marco, tell him Ed-kun lasts words and I will be back in a couple of days, if Shanks comes tell him I'm visiting his brat." She walked out of the room not waiting for a reply and made her way up to the deck.

Ignoring the stares from the rest of the crew she took out a tri-prong kunai and stuck it into the wood floor in front of her. Making the hand signs, she closed her eyes and searched out for the marker she put on Luffy.

'Ah, there he is.' Opening her eyes she was gone in a yellow flash, surprising everyone there.

With the Heart Pirates

It had been 4 days since the war, and 4 days since he had save Mugiwara from dying. They were settled on a small coast that bloke them off from the rest of Amazon Lily.

Law was heading back outside from the room, after changing his fellow supernova's bandages when something from the corner of his eyes caught his attention.

Activating his Devil Fruit and prepared to slice the 'offender' when he saw it was the blonde woman from the war that appeared. He saw that her hands were raised in a way saying that she meant no harm.

"Don't worry I just came to check on his younger brother and Jinbe." Her voice was clear, he lowered his sword and deactivated his Devil Fruit.

"I assume that since you said 'his younger brother,' Fire Fist is alive-ya?" Law said, he was curious how he had survived a wound like that.

"Yes he's alive, in a lot of pain but alive." She looked down to see who had come to see. He was bandaged up and had been hooked up to several different machines.

"How bad are his injuries?" She asked him.

"He has a burn on his chest that will most likely scar, suffering from severe exhaustion, and minor wounds all around his body-ya." He answered in a neutral tone.

She nodded and looked to him, "Great where is Jinbe then, outside I presume?"

He nodded and motioned her to follow him.

Outside Hancock and several of Kuja warriors were delivering food to Jinbe and the other crewmates of the Heart Pirates.

"Has my beloved Luffy woken up yet?" Boa said in a worried voice. Jinbe looked like he was about to reply when a voice coming from the submarine/ship cut him off

"No he hasn't and with the shape he's in now, I would say he won't wake up for another week or two." All of them turned to see Law walking out of the ship with a blonde woman.

"Who are you? And how did you find where we were?" Boa said, she didn't recognize the woman, and felt jealous that the woman had seen her beloved when she had yet to see him.

"Calm down Boa Hancock," the woman held her hands up, making Law feel like déjà vu, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, I just came to check on Jinbe and Ace's little brother Luffy to see how they were doing."

Jinbe finally had recognized her, as the blonde that was going to save Ace and had knocked Luffy out to get him out of there.

"Naruto-san is Ace-kun okay?" Jinbe said with some hope, the news had no word whether he was alive or not but it did say that Whitebeard was dead.

"Of course!" she exclaimed a bit offended that some people doubt her, "I used a bit too much of my energy but just fine. He woke up earlier today, I think since he is a devil fruit user he will be up and about in 3 or 4 days." She said knowing that she had forgotten that part when she was telling him that he would be feeling like that for a week or so.

"How is that possible, we saw him impaled by a fist of magma?" Jinbe said not really believing that someone could recover that fast from a wound of that magnitude.

Law was intrigued now, he was looking at Naruto with a new light of respect. Normally anyone would of died from that but she had managed to do the impossible to heal him and not only that but make it so he would be okay with only a week or so of rest.

"Well I'm a bit special, lets' stick with that for now, but anyways I came to check on your wound since you are awake I can ask permission to help speed up the healing process so to say." Naruto was no walking over to him and stopped in front of him.

"If I may?" She asked pointing to the bandaged shoulder.

Jinbe looked at her, he sensed the power she had and saw no ill intent in her eyes. He nodded and uncovered the shoulder with some difficulty.

Law came closer to see what she would do, while the rest of the pirates were quiet at what was happening.

Naruto ignored the attention she was getting and began to undo the bandages, once she was done she examined the hole. It would scar, she couldn't give him the same treatment she did with Ace because anyone else would die but since Ace was made of fire and was compatible to Kurama's chakra it was possible.

Over the centuries she worked on her chakra control now she had it almost perfect, she studied medical ninjustus so she could help when she could. Lifting her hands she performed some hand signs and activated the jutsu making a green light come from her hands.

Holding it up to the wound she concentrated on knitting the muscles back together and get new cells born. She thought that he was lucky since nothing major was hit and it was only fat so it would be easy to heal. Jinbe watched as the wound was being healed, it itched though, and he assumed it was a side effect from what she was doing.

Everyone watched in awe as the wound was slowly getting smaller, before leaving a pink scar in its place. Law was amazed, he would ask if she could teach him how to do that later, unless it was a devil fruit.

She pulled her hand back and the green glow slowly died away. "There that should do it, take it easy for a while since you will still feel a phantom pain from it."

She looked to the side and saw the man earlier inspect the wound. She smirked, he looked just like Sakura when she was learning a new healing technique. "By the way I didn't catch your name earlier, although you seem familiar, and judging from the pirate flag you must be from the newer generation."

Law looked back at her, "Traflagar Law, captain of the Heart Pirates Naruto-ya."

"A pleasure, I'm sorry I didn't recognize the Surgeon of Death. I've only recently paid attention to the new generation." A small smile graced her face.

She turned to Boa "Hey is the old bat still alive, I think I would like to say hello to her, it's been almost 35 years since I last saw her."

"I'm still waiting for her to die, but yes she still lives." Boa said, she had recognized her name from some the tales that the old woman had told her about, though she did not believe them until now.

"Margret here will escort you when you wish." She said pointing to the short blonde hair girl next to her.

"Thank you, I would like to go now if I can." She looked to Margret who nodded.

Back on Moby Dick

Ace hadn't fallen asleep, he was still thinking of what Marco had said that Pops was dead and told him to tell him that it wasn't his fault and that he still loved him no matter what he thought.

"Quiet human, go back to sleep." Ace snapped out of his thoughts, he stared at the fox now.

"Y-you can talk." He stuttered out.

Kurama lifted his head to look at him, "Yes I can, what you've never seen a talking fox before?"

Ace shook his head, making Kurama sigh, "Well now you have, now shut up and go back to sleep. Naruto will be back in about a day to check on you."

Ace thought back to the blonde that saved him, he didn't know why but felt his face heat up a bit at the thought of her. He was never good around women unless they were his nakama or Dadan.

Kurama opened his eyes to look at the kid, he saw the small blush appear on his face and smirked, maybe it was time for his kit to find a companion. He'll play matchmaker later, first he had to get this kid to rest.

"Kurama, right?" Ace looked to the fox lift his head.

"Yes." Was the simple reply he got.

"Have you ever lost someone and blamed yourself for it?" Ace thought that the question was stupid and thought that he was asking a fox of all things.

"Ah, never-." Ace was cut off by Kurama.

"To answer that question I would have to say no, I have lost someone but I have never blamed myself for his death." Kurama was now sitting up on Ace's stomach. "But if you really want an answer I suggest you talk to Naruto, she is much more experienced than you think and she has lost almost everyone that she has known." Guilt built up in his eyes knowing that his kit was like this because of him.

"How?" Ace blurted out without thinking, he was about to tell the fox not to answer but he did.

"She has been alive for a long time, not as long as me of course, but a few centuries. She has been through war and came out on top, but at a great price. She had to watch as those around her sacrifice themselves for her, she has watched her friends grow while she stayed the same. Over time it's repeated itself but she has not lost herself." Kurama was sure that he would get an earful when she gets back but she has been alone a bit too long, she hadn't let anyone else in beside Roger and Rayleigh. It was time for her to let others in.

Ace was quiet thinking about what the fox said, and wondered what it would be like to be her. He shivered at the loneliness she must have felt. Ace wanted to get to know her more though, and maybe the fox was right; he would talk to her when he had the chance and when he could move.

GGGGGRRRROOOOOOWWWWWLLLLL.

Ace blushed at the sound of his stomach, Kurama just stared at the idiot before he began to laugh. He liked the kid and if he was anything like Roger he would be able to keep up with his kit.

"Well I was just about to ask if you wanted some food but I guess your stomach answered that for you." Haruta had just entered the room to check on Ace since it had been hours since the blonde had disappeared and Marco was busy and said that the fox was watching Ace. It was almost lunch time and she went to see if he would want food.

"Haruta make him stop laughing it's not funny and now that I think of it I haven't had a decent meal in forever. I'm starving but I can't move. Haruutttaaa, stop laughing it's not funny." Ace was getting redder by the minute with the two laughing at him.

"Yes it is just wait here while I get you some lunch, Kurama I assume you want something to eat too. We didn't really know what you wanted so we made you some steaks and I think that the cooks made some rabbits too." Haruta and Ace saw a red blur disappear from the room.

Ace was jealous that the fox could get his food like that. Haruta was surprised that the fox could move that fast but chuckled, she turned back to her brother and said, "I'll be right back with your food."

OMAKE

Shanks was staring out to the ocean with a serious look in his eyes, he had been there for 2 hours now and most of the crew hadn't seen their captain act this serious in a long time, it scared them.

Benn came up to his captain, "What's wrong, your scaring most of your crew with your seriousness and the preparations for the funeral are almost done."

Shanks turned to his first mate, with his bang shadowing his expression, Benn looked curious as to what was troubling his captain, until his captain turned to him with a waterfall of tears coming from his eyes and the happiness from him radiated around him making most want to cover their eyes.

"Benn I finally get to go drinking with the Toads and Naruto for 3 days, surround by the best sake in the world." Shanks was so happy, while the rest of his crew sweat dropped from their captain's actions.

Benn sighed and hit him over the head making Shanks face plant to the floor.

"Benn what was that for?" Shanks had a hurt expression on his face.

"For being an idiot." Benn turned around left his captain.

"Hey I'm not an idiot." Shanks pouted before he turned back in a daze thinking about the sake he was promised.

Somewhere Else

Naruto felt she was forgetting something as she followed Margret.

"Is something wrong?" The question snapped Naruto out of her thoughts. She gave the girl a smile and shook her head, if it was important she would remember it later.