Chapter 4

As Naruto stepped onto the deck of the small ship, Luffy took the opportunity to look around a bit. There was a plain wooden deck, a small, orange painted cabin, and a mast.

He was bored already.

Luffy watched as Naruto approached the single door to the cabin. He was somewhat confused when Naruto sliced his palm a little, then cupped it, making the blood pool in his open hand.

Then it glowed a soft blue.

Luffy had always wondered at the glow that Naruto sometimes used. He'd never asked though, he was afraid that he would sound stupid.

He didn't want Naruto to think he was stupid.

We watched a the blue glow became brighter. He'd seen the glow in three colours, and wondered if he had more. He'd seen blue, when he opened doors, or those weird paper cylinders. He'd seen red once or twice when he was angry, when innocents were hurt.

Luffy had only seen the violet glow once. He never wanted to see it again.

As Luffy was contemplating this, Naruto smeared the glowing blood on the door-handle. A few of the weird squiggly lines, like the ones on Narutos forearms, appeared, glowed white for a second, then vanished.

Naruto opened the door, as if he hadn't just bled all over the handle.

''Well, come in, come in.'' He said, holding the door open.

As Luffy entered the cabin, he took it in. It didn't look much like a place a man spent all his time. It looked more like a work-room. But that didn't make sense, so Luffy stuffed it to the back of his mind, and focused on memorizing what the space looked like.

Small kitchenette under a window, a small, perfectly made bunk bed on the opposite wall, an open trap door with a ladder, going into the hold, and a small bathroom, visible through a second door by the ladder.

There were a few more of those weird paper cylinders, and a few odd bits and bobs, like black knifes, and knife-stars. Writing tools and letters. Newspaper-clippings and what looked to be sewing equipment.

He was so keen on taking in all the details of the space, he didn't notice Naruto walk up to one of the small stacks of paper-cylinders, he must remember to ask what they were called, and smear a bit of blood on it, making it glow the same blue then open.

It had the same weird lines on too.

He spread it on the floor, the walked over to Luffy, lifted him up and placed him onto one side of the lines, then knelt on the opposite side. He gathered more of the blue glow in his hands and slammed them down onto the center of the lines.

In a flash of blinding light, both of the vanished.

It was remarkably quickly that the Straw-hats decided on their questions, of course, by then Zoro had, yet again, fallen asleep.

Nami hit him over the head.

''Hm? Oh, you guys got yer heads in order now?'' he asked, yawning. He looked at them, waiting for the questions.

''Ok, we all have our questions, so I'll go first.'' Nami said, taking instant control of the situation. ''Well, my question is; How did you two idiots meet someone as amazing as the Nine-Tailed Fox?''

''Hm, how we met Naruto? Well, we actually met him only a little before we met you. The first island we came to before the whole Buggy mess. You see, he had recently set up a cabin in the mountain, which I found while exploring the terrain,''

''You mean you got lost Marimo-head.''

''shut up ero-cook, as I was saying, I was exploring the terrain and I came upon this cabin in the mountains, not too far from town. And, seeing how tired I was, he invited me in for tea.

Eventually Luffy managed to find us, in that way he always does, you know.'' All the straw-hats nodded knowingly, except for Brook, who did not have enough experience with Luffy's rescue operations.

''Right, so Luffy burst in there, and, seeing us all calm and drinking tea, asked if he had any meat. Now, you know any sane person would have been shocked, or disgusted by Luffys eating habits, but Naruto wasn't.

He asked if we had anywhere to stay, and when we said we didn't, offered us a place to stay for the week.

And that, is how we met Naruto.'' He finished, with en exasperated sigh. It was clear that he was withholding details, but the straw-hats knew that if he wasn't saying something, they shouldn't push it.

''So, whats next?''

''Well, I would like to know how he can walk on water.'' Choppers shy voice broke in.

Zoro took on a thoughtful look, ''Well, I don't really know how he does that. I asked him once, he just looked at me for a bit, and told me it was a secret from his home country, and that I couldn't do it anyway.'' Zoro looked a bit miffed at the fact that he had been rejected but seemed to understand why he couldn't learn the secret.

''Oh...ok then.'' Chopper looked a little sad that he couldn't figure out the secret, but he recovered quickly.

''Hmmmm....I have a question now. What was with that lunch? Ramen I can understand but onigiri and tomatoes with it? And what was that odd thing he had, poky? Pooky? Pocky? Thats it pocky, looked like a chocolate biscuit thing. It was an odd combo.'' Sanji looked at Zoro for explanation.

''Ah, well, apparently it has something to do with his old lovers. Apparently it's like some sort of tribute or something. I don't know the whole story, so I'm not sure, but he has a habit of requesting it whenever he appears for lunch.''

''Oh! Me next, me next!'' Usopp waived his arms frantically, trying to get the already captivated attention of his crew. ''How did his boat just appear like that? I mean, I was on watch, and there was nothing. Nothing, for miles. And yet he suddenly appears on deck and his boat is suddenly there.''

Everyone looked at Usopp curiously then, for they had not known that the boat appeared suddenly as well.

Zoro scratched the back of his head, taking on a somewhat sheepish look. ''Well, I don't really know. Though I'm guessing it has something to do with why he can walk on water.''

''Well, I have a question of my own then,'' Brook said, taking a sip of his tea.'' why was our dear captain acting so oddly around Naruto-san?''

Here Zoro grinned, setting everyone on edge. ''Oh, that. You see, darling little Luffy-kun, happens to have quite the crush on Naruto.''

Everyone blinked at this new information. Then unanimously decided that they really didn't want to know, and continued with their questions.

When they re-appeared, they were in a cave.

It was a beautiful place, with smooth walls and floors, the light playing on the different minerals embedded everywhere.

There was no furniture, but there were scrolls everywhere. Each rolled up, neatly in stacks, and each with a place written on it. There were several maps hanging on the walls, and spread over the floor.

Naruto did not look twice at any of this as he walked to an almost unnoticeable doorway on one wall, beaconing Luffy to follow him on the way.

And follow him Luffy did.

He was silent as he followed the blond through what seemed to be a corridor, occasionally glancing into the rooms they passed.

There was a forge, and blacksmithing equipment in one of the rooms.

Another seemed an odd kind of office, with scrolls, ink, brushes and sketches spread haphazardly.

One room just confused him, for it was like a vast hall, large enough to fit the Sunny-go several times over, with grooves and scratches and rubble everywhere.

The room next to it was a hot-spring, with several plants growing evenly, basking in the sun from a sky-light.

There were a few rooms that seemed to be closed, with large slabs of stone hiding the doorways. They too had the odd squiggly lines on the. But these ones seemed more complex then the ones he had seen till now.

He gave up on peeking into the rooms after the eighth one. He merely focused on Narutos back in front of him, willing his eyes not to slide lower then the shoulders.

He barely realized that that they were going upwards until they stood at a trapdoor, Naruto put a foot on the first step and climbed to the door, whisking it open and vanishing into the light.

Luffy just stood there for a moment, till he heard Narutos voice shouting at him.

"Come up would'ya, or are ya gonna stand there and gawk all day, Lu-chan?"

Luffy hurriedly made his way up the ladder, half falling and tumbling, until he made his way into what looked to be a basement.

Cluttered with numerous unmentionables and boxes, Naruto looked at home at once.

"AHA!!!" came the victorious shout from one of the piles. Naruto emerged holding two fishing poles in one hand, and a box of what looked to be fishing equipment in the other.

He roughly made his way twords the staircase on one wall, mumbling about evil socks and actually getting around to cleaning up.

Luffy took it as his cue to follow.

They emerged into a cozy one floor house, that Luffy distinctly remembered as the one Naruto lived in on Kian.