The Pirate King's Journey

AUTHORS NOTES: So this is going to be an ongoing fic, it's my first ever one-piece fanfic that I've ever written. It was inspired the Animaniac Dude's The Will of D which hasn't been updated for months now, so I decided that I wanted to make my own story involving an alternate story line. I will try my best to update this fic regularly (weekly or bi-weekly, if not then definitely monthly) and hope you all enjoy this fic.

Summary: What if instead of the Gomu Gomu no Mi, Luffy at the Mizu Mizu no Mi, (which allows him to turn his body into and control water) learned to control Haki at a young age, and knows fine swordsmanship. Join Monkey D. Luffy on his journey to becoming the King of the Pirates.

DISCLAIMER: Eiichiro Oda owns One Piece and not me, I am simply writing a fan fiction of my own version of One Piece, all rights go to him.

Prologue

"Wow what a great story Shanks! Take me on your next adventure I want to be a pirate too!" exclaimed the little raven-haired boy.

"Hahaha, you're still a kid Luffy besides you're probably not strong enough."

"I am strong, my punches are like pistols!" yelled the little Luffy while punching the air.

"Then, put your money where your mouth is Luffy, punch me as hard as you can in my face, if you manage to move me from my spot I will think about bringing you on my next adventure." said Shanks while showing Luffy his cheek.

"Alright here goes" Luffy wound up his fist and concentrated all his energy into his fist subconsciously and hit Shanks with all he got, resulting in Shanks flying through the wall and onto the street. Shanks' crew jaw-dropped and stared at Luffy awe struck.

Shanks and his crew realised what Luffy had done, Luffy managed to use haki, this left the red-haired-pirates speechless. The best reaction of all was Luffy's face. He was horror struck and kept switching glances between his fist and the hole in the wall which was caused by him. The only words he could muster out were

"Whoa." Shanks got up after recovering from the surprise attack and walked to Luffy. Shanks walked up to Luffy and just casually sat down beside him. Before he got back to eating he just casually asked this,

"Nice punch, where'd you learn to do that?" Still shocked, Luffy finally gained his composure and answered Shanks with a rather surprising answer.

"I d-don't know, I-I think I just focused my e-energy and emotions into my fist and just p-punched you." said Luffy with a stuttering voice. Shanks immediately realised that what Luffy had used was the Busoshoku Haki.

Shanks was about to say something but was cut-off by the bar doors slamming open, revealing a group of men in rags.

"So these are the group of pirates I've been hearing about in town, they look like nothing but a bunch of pansies." said the apparent leader of the group of men.

"What can I get for you today?" Makino asked not seeming to be intimidated by the men.

"We are bandits, we didn't come here to trash your bar all we want are about 10 barrels of sake… please."

"Well, I'm sorry but it looks like me and my crew have drunk this bar dry, I still have this bottle of rum that hasn't been opened if you would like it." said Shanks while offering the bottle to the bandit.

The bandit looked at Shanks with a dirty look. He was not very pleased to hear that this group of 'low-life' pirates had taken the sake that they wanted. The bandit reached for the bottle that Shanks offered him, and instead of taking it he smashed it which spilled all over Shanks and the floor.

"I am a wanted man worth 8-million Beli don't take me lightly."

Shanks' emotion was covered by his eyes. A few seconds had gone by and by this time everyone was waiting for his reaction. After a few seconds which felt like hours, Shanks replied, "Well look what you've done… now the floor is wet. Sorry about that Makino."

Luffy was clearly upset and was shaking angrily at his friend being mistreated. Trying not to blurt anything out he was clenching his teeth and just giving the meanest stare he could to the bandit, which was oddly cute coming from the little boy.

The bandit drew his sword and slashed at the counter, shattering plates and sending Shanks to the floor. At this point Luffy was about to snap and attack the bandit with every fibre of his being but was unable to as the bandit already left. Luffy was now focused on the red-haired captain lying on the ground with his straw hat covering his eyes. Just when Luffy was about to say something Shanks snickered and then the whole bar burst into a laughing fit.

Luffy's mind just snapped and yelled at the crew. Luffy was unaware of the power he had just released and looked up to the crew, some were on the ground unconscious and the others were sweating violently. However, most of the crew seemed unfazed. The mood became all tense, however completely oblivious to what he did, Luffy continued yelling at the crew.

"That is so uncool! No matter how many there are you shouldn't be afraid of them and fight back! Otherwise you can't call yourselves pirates!"

"Luffy… he just spilt some booze on me, it's nothing to get worked up over"

"But more importantly, do you realise what you just did?"

Luffy looked around the room and noticed the unconscious and sweaty bodies around the bar. He was in complete shock after hearing that he had done that.

"Luffy that was the Haoshoku Haki, only one in a million people are said to have that power."

"Woah, Suge!"

"Hahaha, but your still a kid so you won't know how to control that power, and it's not like you could if you were an adult anyways!" said Shanks jokingly to Luffy.

"Shut up!" Luffy punched Shanks again with the same force as the last punch.

While Shanks was still distracted, Luffy eyed a small box with an odd looking fruit in it, being as hungry as he was, he didn't care that it tasted bitter and downed the whole fruit. While Shanks was getting up he caught Luffy swallowing the fruit in the corner of his eye and rushed over there immediately.

"Luffy spit that out right now!" Shanks swung his hand to Luffy's back in order to force it out of him but it hit water instead. After he gained his composure, Shanks quickly realised what power that fruit had. Luffy was as confused as Shanks and was equally scared.

"Luffy, you just ate the Mizu Mizu no Mi! It's also known as one of the Devil Fruits. You can now control water and your body can turn into water at will! However, I am not sure if you have lost your ability to swim, since your body is made of water to begin with."

"Suge, this just means I became stronger, shihihihi"

"Baka, you still haven't learned to control your power yet, for all you know you could be weaker now!"

"What! SHIT!"

"YOU IDIOT!"

THE NEXT DAY

Makino is running around town trying to find the mayor. Luffy had gotten into a fight with the bandits from yesterday because he was defending Shanks' honour. The bandits had insulted Shanks when he wasn't even there to defend himself, so Luffy stood up for him and told the bandits to take back what they said.

"Mayor, come quick!"

-With Luffy-

"Bastard, I'll show you not to make fun of Shanks!" Luffy exclaimed while having a foot pressed onto his face.

"Oh, and how are you going do that kid, you can barely defend yourself, let alone kick my ass."

"Shut up, my punches are stronger than a pistol, I can kick your ass any day"

"Oh, really… tell you what kid I'll let you have on free punch" the bandit leader was showing his cheek to Luffy while releasing the weight from his foot to free Luffy.

"Great, your going to regret ever fighting me!"

"Yeah okay like I'd regret fighting y-" but he was cut off by a Haki infused punch from Luffy and was sent flying back a couple dozen feet.

After he recovered from the punch he walked up to Luffy and gave him a death glare. Luffy turned stiff realising the situation he was in, he was thinking the same thing over and over again. I am going to die. The bandit got closer and closer and all Luffy could think of was his own weakness. How Luffy could not even defend his friend's honour, how he couldn't even beat one of them, he could only think of how he had failed. But when the bandit was about to strike Luffy with his sword he was blocked by Shanks' sabre and a glare that could stop a weak heart.

"No one hurts my friends and gets away with it!"

The moment Shanks uttered those words, Ben Beckman clobbered all the bandits and left the leader for his captain. However, this was to be a mistake. The moment Ben stopped his assault; the bandit leader grabbed Luffy and threw a smoke bomb down and escaped.

"… Crap! He took Luffy! What are we going to do!" Shanks exclaimed, seeming utterly surprised.

With Higuma (A/N, that's the leaders name by the way)

"Hehehe stupid kid, lets see how you like becoming a sea king snack. Your pirate friends wont be able to find us so you wont get saved."

"Let me go you stupid smelly bandit"

As Higuma dropped Luffy a sea king the size of a ship appeared. Higuma gave out a terrifying scream before being eaten by the monster. However, the most surprising event was that Luffy was standing on the water. This was the result of his new Devil Fruit power. He had complete control over water which meant he didn't face the handicap of other devil users. On top of that Luffy could control the sea and use all its power if he mastered his abilities to such an extent.

Luffy was zoned out, staring at the water beneath him. He then remembered the huge sea king, it was now staring at him with hungry eyes. Luffy was extremely scared and freaked out. He unconsciously used his devil fruit powers, making the water beneath the sea king to hit it in the face at extreme speed caused the sea king to be knocked back, dazing it for about a minute. This gave Luffy enough time to run back to shore where he last saw Shanks.

-With Shanks-

"Okay half of you guys go to check the south and east side of town, the other half come with me and we'll check the north, west and the harbour." Shanks was giving orders on Luffy's search and rescue.

"Hey boss what is that thing coming across the water." said Lucky Roo while pointing out to see.

"Huh… that looks like a boy… wait a minute… that's Luffy! He's running on the water!"

Shanks just looked at the boy with wide eyes. He had been surprised so many times the past few days that he would believe if someone told him they built a device that can do math for them (a computer). This boy had amazed him. After staring at Luffy for several seconds he saw a dark shadowy figure right behind Luffy getting bigger and bigger. He then quickly realised it was a sea king trying to make a snack out of his little friend.

Immediately Shanks drew his sword and went to strike down the sea king. In a motion that was unnoticeable by the eye he cut the sea kings mouth. The sea king fainted from shock and the fact that Shanks also realised a wave of Haoshoku haki which made the sea king flee in terror like a crying newborn before being knocked out.

"I almost thought I'd lost you there. You're really something Luffy, doing things most people couldn't even hope of doing."

Luffy was crying hysterically while in Shanks' embrace and was extremely glad to be alive and well.

-Later that Evening-

Shanks and his crew were getting ready to leave, stocking up on supplies, food and water for their return trip to the grand line. Luffy was saying his last goodbyes to his friends.

"Hey Shanks, I've decided not to ask to come on adventures with you anymore. I'm going to make my own crew and go out to sea myself!" exclaimed the little boy with a happy expression.

Shanks stuck his tongue out and jokingly said, "Like I'd take you anyways, you're still too weak and still a kid."

Luffy was now angry and just yelled, "I'll become stronger than you! I'll find my own crew that's better than yours! And I'll find the greatest treasure in the world and become Pirate King!"

"Oh… Then I guess you'll need this to help you" Shanks said while putting his most treasured straw hat onto Luffy's head.

Luffy was now crying under the shadow of the straw hat. He didn't want Shanks to go, he was one of the only friends he had and there would always be a void in his heart until they reunited.

"Well… I've been thinking about this for quite a while now… If you are going to become the pirate king, I guess you will need special training and who a better guy to train you than your old pal Shanks! Hehehe."

Luffy was speechless. He was so overjoyed with happiness that he jumped up and hugged Shanks without a second thought. He cried tears of joy into his chest and was excited about this special training. He was totally ready for what Shanks had in store for him.

"I'll stay in Fuusha village for 10 years and train you, however, I will only teach you how to control your haki and swordsmanship, after all every king needs to know how to handle a sword. But as for your devil fruit power, you will need to learn to control it yourself since I have no idea how to control devil fruit powers since I have none. Got that Luffy?"

"Uh-huh!" Luffy exclaimed.

Luffy was overjoyed that his friend was staying for another 10 years. But also, he was happy that he was going to get stronger and be one step closer to his ultimate dream, becoming the Pirate King! He knew this was the start of something big.

END OF PROLOGUE

AUTHORS NOTES: Shanks didn't lose his arm? Madness. I decided to keep his arm in the fic mainly because I didn't like him losing his arm in the first place. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and be sure to read chapter 1 which was released with this. Also, if you the time, please review this because I would like all the feedback I can get so I can improve and make the story more enjoyable for you guys. :)