Shinobi of the High Seas

Chapter 9: The Scenic Route

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I hereby challenge Oda and Kishimoto to a Taipei death match for the rights to their respective mangas. Don't duck me anymore! I'm coming for both of you, the gauntlet has been thrown!

Chapter 9: The Scenic Route

"Why are we not following my Eternal Pose to Alabasta?" Igaram asked angrily as Naruto did his best to keep the irritation off of his face, "We need to protect the princess!"

Naruto let out a sigh from his seat in the common room, "And I'm telling you that she'll be fine with the Strawhats. Besides, they're not getting there directly either, they have to do it the hard way and island hop. Aside from the fact that we can go straight there anytime we want our ship is faster than theirs."

Igaram didn't know what his point was, "Then why don't we go straight there?"

Naruto gave him an exasperated look, "Because I don't want to. I'll be damned if I'm just going to be waiting around for them to show up, and we have to go to where Noji-chan's Log Pose is telling us to go at some point eventually, so why not kill some time and get this island logged? We'll still beat them to Alabasta since we're still traveling in the same general direction."

The sound of doors slamming in the kitchen got Naruto's attention, forcing him to get up to see what the matter was. Naruto walked in to find Miss Valentine frowning as she checked through the cabinets, "Miss Valentine. What's the matter, are you alright?"

She looked at Naruto, pausing from her search through the kitchen, "Actually there's something wrong here. What the hell do you all eat on this ship? The majority of what I've found are canned rations, mostly of the meat variety, and instant food. Blech. The most edible thing I've found are a box of crackers that I'm certain are eaten in conjunction with the canned meat."

Naruto shrugged, "None of us can really cook, and my favorite food apparently doesn't exist anywhere otherwise this place would be full of it." He finished in a dark voice before lightening back up, "Do you really have that much of a problem with that?"

Miss Valentine placed her hands on her hips, "I do. How have you been living for so long off of this crap you have? And you have a woman on board as well? How has she been eating this the entire time? And she hasn't complained once about it?"

Naruto blinked, "She was the one that brought it onboard. Come to think of it, Noji-chan never eats with us, ever. But she does eat, I know she does, otherwise I would have noticed it and she would have been dead by now. I never really put much thought into it because as long as what I'm eating isn't ramen or anything equally as great I don't care about the things around me when I eat."

On cue, Nojiko walked into the room, "What's everyone doing in here?"

Miss Valentine walked up to her and looked her over, "You seem to be very well fed."

Naruto got a shiver down his back and backed away as Nojiko got a tick mark on her head, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Miss Valentine noticed the way her words could have been taken and laughed for a moment, "No, not like that. I mean, you don't seriously eat the stuff that I found in the cabinets do you?"

Nojiko scoffed, "Of course I don't. That stuff would kill me. The only ones that can stomach that crap are the blonde juggernaut here and the cast-iron stomach brothers asleep in their room. The only reason Soren never complained is because before this he was strapped to the front of the ship for almost a week. I'm sure any food he ended up getting in that situation was a welcome reprieve."

Naruto gave her a dry look, "I didn't buy this stuff Noji-chan you did. So what, pray tell, have you been eating all of this time, since all of the stuff in the cabinets apparently grosses you out."