Kuta here again with a new Multiverse chapter! Got some inspiration and here we are. I'm not gonna say much about anything happening in this chapter cause I want it to be a surprise.
Sorry about not getting chapters out more quickly, but it's been slow going and I can't force these things. Death and Lightning: A Guardian's Rise (DaL:AGR) Is pounding on the inside of my head with ideas, so that should have a new chapter fairly soon.
Kuta out!
Disclaimer: I don't own the intellectual property contained herein and make no money from any of it.
Chapter Two
Naruto exited the dimensional rift after a shorter time than it had taken Buu to get to his. The realm he had traveled to must have been cosmically close to his own. But he'd still had time to gather the natural energy from that void, energy that had taken root in his system of it's own accord and developed into a source of energy that his body could now produce on it's own.
He was standing on a great cliff of red-ish stone that rose high above the sea and extended beyond conventional sight. He turned to view the land that he had appeared in, and was confronted with vast rolling hills and sweeping meadows. In the far distance he could make out the form of a city with a large palatial structure dominating it. He figured it was probably a major city at the least, if not the capital of the country he was in, whichever one that happened to be.
He rose into the air and leisurely floated through the air towards the city, enjoying the view and serenity along the way, and got there within ten minutes. That was longer than Naruto had thought it would take, which gives one an impression of how large the city truly was. As it were, Naruto was walking up to one of the city's enormous gates, which put to shame those he'd seen in the Elemental Nations, though some of the ones he remembered Buu encountering- and subsequently destroying- were bigger if perhaps less ornate.
A guard attempted to stop him as he walked through the gate, then two more began to help the first. As he saw yet more guards coming towards him, Naruto sighed and released his energy (a term he thought up while traveling in the dimensional void for the various... Well, energy types, that he had control over. All the various chakra types had swirled together in vortex of chaotic energy that he could tell he still had a decent-ish level of control over, and the ki from the saiyajin universe, and now the void plane wavelength (as he decided to call it due to it acting like a wave as it pulsed through his body)) in a burst of killing intent. The guards close enough to see him dropped unconscious in an instant, and Naruto felt the urge to kick something that was solid enough to survive the experience. Unfortunately he had no such obje... Well, a wall was an object, yes?
Several guards made reports later that day of an unusual tremor moving along a large section of wall, putting the higher ups on guard for Whitebeard. And there was a barely noticeable foot-sized hole in the south-east gate's right side.
Naruto had no idea of this though, he merely intended to find some sort of knowledge depository, like a library. Or a computer if they had something similar to the... Internet? From the saiyajin's universe which he could learn the relevant information from. Namely, who was in charge, who held the real power, what powers existed in this world and if this world was even worth his time at all.
He pulled an attractive brunette aside for a moment and stared at her for a second before asking his question. "Where is the closest library? I have a bit of research I need to do." The terrified woman trembled for several long moments while Naruto grew more impatient, before slamming his tail into the ground and cratering it in a circle forty feet around them, and ten feet deep. "Speak. Now."
The woman stuttered out the location of a militarily controlled library in the midst of the palace. Naruto thanked her and levitated himself out of the hole and back to the ground before proceeding to the library. He was stopped part of the way there, however, by a short... Man? Onion? Individual, who had a number of guards around him who Naruto supposed were there to intimidate others.
"What sort of low-born trash is this thing? And why isn't it bowing before the mighty Saint Goelimo as it should?" Goelimo inquired of his guards in an intrigued and vaguely irritated sort of tone. They merely shrugged having never seen anything even remotely similar to Naruto before and moved to attempt to force him to bow- he warned them of the foolishness of such an action by smashing one into a building with his tail. "Hmm..." The man then looked at Naruto from various angles and declared in his petulant, grimy voice. "It must be some sort of fishman. I want it! This fishman is now my property!" Naruto twitched.
"Property?" Naruto questioned, ire having been rising since the man had stopped him. "You think to make me a slave?" He asked incredulously. The bastard just nodded happily. "And this is allowed? This mewling, slimy little ball of lard is allowed to enslave another person? And yet you still call him a saint?" All around him merely nodded and tried not to look at him. "For far less of an insult have I ended men far stronger than you worm." Naruto said as he began to leak killing intent and Goelimo grew angry and started to wave his weapon- Naruto recognized it as a gun, a primitive one more suited to his world's technology than the technological marvels Buu had witnessed in his home universe- around and spout more ridiculous nonsense about him being insolent and what have you.
"I wont kill you though, scum such as yourself is unworthy of my direct involvement in their death." He continued unabated, not even acknowledging the man's- apparently a World Noble whatever that was- words, or even that he had spoken. "I will merely... Destroy you. Tsukuyomi."
Naruto engaged the power he'd been most curious about since acquiring it with some small regret for doing this, it wasn't so much that he felt the man deserved less, it was merely that he disliked the thought of using a technique that had driven Sasuke to his revenge and forced Kakashi to fall into a coma. He disliked the technique, but the only real genjutsu abilities he had were from the Sharingan and the lesser techniques didn't have the same mental damage/physical brain damage carry-over.
The Tenryuubito- Naruto now knew everything the World Noble had known through interrogating him inside the world of Tsukuyomi, he had the energy reserves to extend the technique as long as he needed and the mental capacity to withstand the sudden knowledge influx- screamed in agony after a brief moment of eye contact and fell prostrate to the ground. His guards all called out to contact an admiral, but Naruto had already knocked out everyone in the immediate vicinity.
This new world... It was filthy. Disgusting. It needed cleansing. He didn't want to be the guy going around and fixing the multiverse's problems, but this world in particular was abhorrent.
And it had powers he found interesting. Devil Fruits, Haki, the Marine's Rokushiki, Fishman Karate, seastone... He wanted to see these things himself. To learn how they worked and maybe incorporate them into his repertoire of combat techniques when it came to Haki and the Rokushiki. He'd learn Fishman Karate so he could teach any hand to hand experts he picked up into his crew.
The easiest would be Fishman Karate, as he apparently looked like one, then Haki. After that he'd have to play it by ear... But he could try to infiltrate CP9 at the same time and see how that worked. Buu clones were so very useful. As he plotted, Naruto went trough the memories of the guards Goelimo had brought with him for any new information using the technique Nagato had used to find out where he had gone during his sage training. And found a Devil Fruit user.
Zoan, the Lizard Lizard no Mi, Model: Salamander, which didn't avoid the issue of water but did allow her to coat herself with a liquid that was water proof so long as she regularly drank her own poisonous excretions.
Tearing her explosive collar off and throwing it so quickly that it didn't explode until it was outside Majiejois was a simple matter for Naruto. Now he just needed a ship whose crew he could hypnotize into being his servants and getting him to Fishman Island so he could train in Fishman Karate. Hey, he'd never claimed to be a saint himself. He was a bit of a hypocrite.
The year in this world is 1504 and it would soon know the taste of freedom at the hands of the Devil of Revolution.
17 Years Later: Lime Town on Fruit Forest Island* in the East Blue
For the past fourteen years, ever since finishing his mastering of the art of Fishman Karate, Naruto had been his real appearance with his Henge technique so that any humans he met while learning Haki and the CP9's Rokushiki wouldn't freak out and mistake him for a fishman or a demon. He had also been training a very, very large crew over the last ten or so years, most of which were only a little bit above the strength level of an average captain i the marines from how he remembered them. There were a few who he had trained into S-class combatants that he felt were on the of or above the level of a Marine Admiral.
Naruto had bayed a temporary farewell to the crew he'd been training for around ten years- telling them to meet up with him in Loguetown to resupply and get armed with real weapons rather than the, admittedly crappy, ones he could manufacture with his transformative powers- about three weeks ago. He'd told them the truth when he'd said he was going to look for a few weak lackeys to fill out the crews needs as deck swabbers and errand boys. He was just going to train them up to a mildly acceptable level first. He only had space for two more on the life-ship that was part of the mini-fleet he contained within the real, and island sized, ship.
Having the lackeys serving dual purposes, being competent guards while they were away from their ship as well as being errand boys, would be nice- especially if they left someone strong behind to deal with any actually powerful opponents. Naruto grinned as he spotted a couple of likely looking guys stumbling drunkenly out of the nearby bar. He'd likely have to use a little finesse, but as drunk as they were he'd have no trouble making none of what was about to happen seem unlikely to them.
As they were about to stumble passed him, Naruto used his power to create a moderate and blunt wind to push them into him, staining his clothes. "Ugh!" He exclaimed as the bottle they carried spilled over his seemingly expensive clothes- really just parts of his body shaped and behaving like cloth. "My new outfit! This cost me nearly ten-thousand Beri!"The two, land locked sailors from the looks of them- and the smell (which wasn't strong enough for them to have been at sea recently) as well as their lack of any money in the pouches they kept for such on their belts- immediately fell prostrate and began to beg forgiveness from the man who seemed- to them- to be either a Fishman of some sort, or one of the Devil Fruit users of legend.
Naruto smirked. "Well, I am a few hands short for my next voyage, a couple of deck swabbers, or maybe just general errand boys, wouldn't be unappreciated... You work on my vessel as far as Loguetown and we'll call it square, though be warned that there'll be a number of stops." They seemed reluctant, so Naruto gave them a fairly sly sidelong look. "Or I could just take the cost out of your hides?" He'd gotten good at projecting a persona of casual cruelty to get what he wanted out the weak of will. Kurama had had something useful to offer to their union after all.
The two paled before nodding vigorously and he began to walk back to his ship- with them trailing morosely behind him- docked in the nearby more or less ghost town of Orange Village. Ghost town aside from those ridiculous Clown Pirates captained by that incompetent man named Buggy. Naruto despaired if that was all it took to be strong in the East Blue.
"So, names?" He asked after a moment.
"Jackson Bilmont" Replied the taller of the two after a moment in a somber tone. He dressed in a simple green shirt and brown trouser combination. His face was long and he had a small scar on his chin that looked like a waning crescent moon. He bore a large dagger, almost a short sword, on his left side that looked to be a kukri/trench knife crossbreed and his pastel-ish navy blue hair shadowed his brown eyes. "'M good at knots, so riggin' and tyin' down the cannons and such is what you're like to use me for if ya' wanna get the best outta me."
Naruto liked his forthright manner, maybe he'd train him up to adequacy. He'd make a good counter balance to Kirkland's upbeat energy and if he was even marginally skilled with that dagger he could be turned into a good nakama and not just a guard dog on the ship when the real fighters left. Though he'd likely still be left on the ship with the guard dogs when the rest left, but he'd be trusted to beat any Logia, Zoan or Haki users who dared invade Naruto's territory. If Naruto could churn him out into a legitimate fighter, which he was sure he could.
The other gave a surly nod and grunted out a meager introduction that left Naruto distinctly unimpressed, and he didn't even bother to listen or commit any of it to memory. This was when Jackson made a noise and started talking.
"Mmm? Did you hear that, er, Captain?" He seemed hesitant to use the term but did so readily anyway. Naruto approved. "Sounded like canon fire... But from this far off? The only canon we could hear from this distance would be Buggy the Clown's." He just kept impressing. That kind of situational awareness while drunk? The man was a god-send.
"Mmhmm, very true Jackson. Right then, my name's Majin Naruto. I'm your new captain and since Buggy seems to have attempted to blow something up and my ship is docked in that port, we've got to go investigate!" As he stopped talking the other grew yet paler and Jackson seemed to have resigned himself to doing something he felt was too dangerous for him to handle.
As they began to run towards the town, Naruto heard the sound of canon fire again, and the sounds of fighting. He knew the lackeys he'd gathered were too disciplined to leave the ship to fight, which meant that someone else had made port in Orange Town and was picking a fight that might end up damaging his ship. He motioned for them to slow once they heard the sounds of fighting getting closer and walked towards it casually.
They came upon the scene of a boy in a red vest stretching his arms and corkscrewing a massive lion into the ground and then taking out the man who was with it.
"Oh, so there's someone in this world with powers like that huh?" Naruto asked with a chuckle. "Well, I'm taking that lion... You!" He exclaimed, pointing to the smaller one whose name he didn't care to remember. "Go to the ship, it's the triple masted blue galley with no Jolly Roger, and bring back a few of the crew, the pass phrase for identification is 'And the wind swept forth to quell the tides of injustice.' Bring back... Eight of the crew to take this lion back to the ship with." Jackson and the other both sweat dropped and the man rushed off to do his crazy new captain's bidding. "And we're going to stay here and guard my new... Pet? It might be intelligent so it may become a crew member, oh and I have the perfect Devil Fruit for it. And for you Jackson." Naruto added.
Jackson looked at him as if he were crazy and asked. "You're going to give me, a man you've only just met, a power like a Devil Fruit? What if I try to kill you with it?"
Naruto just chuckled. "You could try. You wouldn't succeed and we'd just have double up on your combat training as a disciplinary measure."
Jackson sweat dropped.
As they waited, a fairly muscular man with a ridiculous haircut that reminded Naruto of a bear woke up and attempted to attack them. Naruto was less than amused and launched him through the window of a nearby house, through the walls on the other side and eventually out of town and into a tree which finally stopped his momentum.
When his crew got there to pick up his new pet, and the sounds of moderately distant fighting had started to die down a bit, Naruto got up and went back to the ship with them. As they neared the ship Naruto heard a rumbling kind of sound and felt a pair of presences that were clearly strong enough to be on his crew- and almost strong enough to begin to count as one of his weaker nakama- rushing towards him. He then took note of the pair of small dinghies with an oddly familiar woman untying them up at the harbor near his ship. Which had a large dent in it.
His ship had probably taken a hit from that canon Jackson had mentioned. He had the men clear away from the main road so that the two who had taken care of the man who had damaged his ship could pass unhindered. The boy who'd netted him the lion and a swordsman with three blades... Well, the only man in the East Blue who was worth anything and known for a three-sword style was Roranoa Zoro. The boy looked like he might be related to Garp, what with their eerily similar goofy smiles. They'd probably end up bringing together a powerful crew, if left alone. He then continued towards his ship.
Once aboard, Naruto instructed the men to take the new deckhand to the empty storage room he used to train new recruits and have someone begin his training. He then turned to Jackson and the lion- whose name he'd only just barely heard was Richie and was now awake and fairly confused- and smiled with his arms spread wide wide. "So, you two are the newest additions to the real crew I've been putting together, not the guys who're just barely at the level where they can be useful against real Marines in a fight, but the ones I can call Nakama. As such, the two of you are getting a choice. I can train you in your fighting abilities as they are right now and which ever Haki you have, or in Haki and a Devil Fruit power." The lion was cowed by his presence and merely nodded.
Jackson, lacking an animals gut instinct about those who are more powerful, cleared his throat and made a query. "What Fruit do you offer and what is this... Haki?"
"Ah, good questions, Jackson, Richie pay attention." The large cat nodded. "Haki is the power of the spirit within all living things and is dependent upon the willpower of a given individual. There are three types; the Color of Observation which allows for sensing the presence of an enemy and the prediction of enemy attacks and thus allow you to dodge attacks that you might otherwise not see coming or be fast enough to dodge, the Color of Armaments which is more varied in that it can be used as armor against attacks, as a weapon of pure force, as an augmentation to physical attacks made with weapons, or as an augment to the force of attacks made with your body. And the third type of Haki, one which cannot be trained into a person but must be with them from birth, the Color of the Conquering King, which allows one to overpower the wills of others and render them unconscious without touching them." The two nodded dumbly, having never thought something like that could exist. "Further, one may have any combination of the three, and they can be used to break through the defenses of Devil Fruit users, if they have any, much like seastone renders their power inert."
Jackson raised a hand. "And the Fruits? Which do you offer?" He asked when Naruto indicated that he was allowed to speak.
"Well, I have two right now, a Paramecia class Fruit whose power I don't know, and a Zoan class fruit which I believe to be an offshoot of the Cat Cat Fruit. I've been told that the other Fruits taste horrible, so.. Yeah." Naruto answered. "Jackson, I'm going to give you the Paramecia because it'll be easier to tell what it does if we can talk it over. Richie, you are going to get the Zoan because I think it could affect you in a different way and the experiment seems intriguing. I guarantee that it will do you no harm." They nodded again, more firmly, and Naruto grinned before he gave one final tidbit of knowledge. "With a strong enough Color of Armaments you can keep physical matter from touching you, including water or seastone, thereby foregoing the weaknesses of of the Devil Fruits"
They exchanged a look, though Jackson clearly felt intimidated by the large predacious cat and a bit out of sorts what with it having some sort of intelligence that allowed it to participate, before they looked back at Naruto and... Well Jackson spoke, Richie just nodded along. "We'll take the path of the Devil Fruit and Haki."
Naruto's grin widened and he held up a pair of Fruits he'd obtained... Somehow... From... Somewhere, and gave one to each of them. Jackson's looked like a large apple, though blue, with a pig's tail stem and a shining silver inlay in the pattern of spirals decorating it. He took a bite, and immediately knew that this Fruit did indeed taste as bad as the others were purported to. He almost gagged.
Richie sniffed at his Fruit, it was an oblong shaped lime green thing with darker green polka-dots and a long lightly curved stem and a bit of forest green leafage sprouting from the base of the stem. He chomped it down in one bite after he'd determined that it wasn't going to kill him. It was equally nasty to taste.
The effect was instantaneous in both of them after they'd swallowed, but Richie was the only one to look different. The first noticeable difference was his size, he'd grown to nearly twice his original size. The next was his teeth. His lower incisors were somewhat smaller, and his uppers had grown past his lower jaw. He'd gained a light striping to his fur and he'd put on more muscle just about everywhere, making him seem stockier and more intimidating. He'd also grown a third pair of legs and shoulder blades near his forepaws and his ribcage was a little longer and more sturdily built. And a pair of eagle's wings between his two sets of forelegs.
Naruto made a sound of interest. "Hmm... A Mythical Zoan type, huh? Cat Cat Fruit, Model: Winged Six-Legged Smilodon it seems?"
The beast tilted his head and opened his mouth, to reveal a mouth full of fire which shot out and enveloped Naruto completely. Richie closed his mouth quickly and sniffed at the fiery pillar still burning and Jackson gasped and began the process of praying for the man he'd all to quickly become sure was going to lead him to greatness. Naruto however had replaced himself at the last moment with a bit of firewood from a ways away across the deck.
He chuckled, bringing their attention to him. "Very well, breathing fire is a good special property in my view. Alright Richie, I want you to do a bit of experimentation to see if you can change back." The chimeric beast nodded and trotted off to the other side of the ship to do so. Naruto turned to Jackson and observed him. "Well, no physical ques to give us a clue as to your powers..." He thought for a moment before snapping his fingers and giving an exclamation of delight. "I'm going to attack you, it's going to seem real, and I'm going to force your body to use your new power through instinct." Jackson paled. Again.
Cocoyashi Village, Conomi Islands, East Blue, Six Weeks Later
Naruto smiled as he and his crew sailed into port on the small archipelago that housed one of his favorite tangerine groves, happy that he could finally drop his henge since this village and his entire crew knew not to fear him in his true form. He hadn't been here in years, just after those two girls Belle-mere had adopted had gotten used to him. Made him a little nostalgic that they likely wouldn't remember him.
He looked around at the village and did something of a double take, going over everything in one sweep as he usually did, but then going back over it when several key differences were noticed. The adults were few in number. The children were sullen. The air seemed to weigh upon him in depression. His favorite little hellion, Nami, was calling out something- and crying- as she stabbed her shoulder repeatedly, a shoulder bearing a tattoo of a pirate's jolly roger. One that indicated fishman origins.
Things were not right here. And because this place was one he personally felt a connection to, one he'd been planning to declare his territory once he became known as a Yonko, he was going to fix that.
He stepped off the crow's nest and onto the air and floated there and called out to his two newest nakama. "Jackson, hold down the fort. Richie, with me."
Jackson called out his assent and Richie flew up to join him. He shot off to the center of town, where he'd distantly seen Nami, Richie close behind. He touched down just as she called out for help and the kid in the straw hat from Orange Town set his hat down on her head. The kid yelled out obnoxiously, and Naruto smacked him in the head.
"Oi, brat. Shut up for a second and then tell me who drove the little hellion to this so I can kill him." Naruto said, voice irritated.
The kid looked up and him, immediately gained a look of awe, and jumped up pointing at him. "Whoooa! So cool! What are you, like a Devil Fruit user? Did you eat some super awesome Fruit that made you a lizard man? Ooh, ooh! Join my pirate crew, you can be our ship's... Well, I'll think of something, but you definitely have to join my crew!" Naruto was a touch surprised that the kid could get that all out in one breath.
He still declined. "Absolutely not. I'm not a pirate, I'm a revolutionary. And you're too weak to be giving me orders at any rate. Now," And he laced his words with a slight amount of his Conquering King's Haki and let loose. "Tell me who did this to her."
A boy with curly black hair and a ridiculously long nose called out immediately that a man named Arlong had done it. Nami had been screaming that name in a depressive rage. So Naruto, as the man who had tried his best to be there for her when she was only a toddler, would destroy him. "He's mine, if you want to come along and take care of his shitty lackeys, then that's fine by me. Just don't die." He knelt in front of the girl and lifted her face up to look at him with a finger. "You may not remember me hellion, but I was a friend of Belle-mere's. I came here to see you and little Noji-chan one last time before I headed off to destroy the world Government, but now that I know you've been terrorized by this prick Arlong, Naru-ojisan is going to go and make him die for you, kay?"
She jolted when she saw his face, and again when he referred to himself as ojisan. He turned and felt out the third largest power on the island. The first being his by a truly enormous stretch, and the second being Richie's. It was the kid's... The forth then... There, off to the south west. He rose into the air and calmly took off at a moderate walking pace for the others to follow, should they wish.
The approach to Arlong Park was fairly short, a fact Naruto was grateful for. He cleared the people who were waiting at the gate just by his presence- they muttered about his familiarity, though the only ones who seemed to truly recognize him were Nojiko, Genzo and the Doctor whose name he couldn't remember- and came across the two men guarding the gates as he floated towards them. He stopped in front of the gates and glared at the two and they shakily moved aside. He then proceeded cut a hole out of the gate with his eye lasers. Honestly, the part of him that came from Namikaze Naruto always made him grin when he used this power. 'Take that Tousan, I did get an eye laser technique.' He proceeded to float through the gate and land.
"Arlong." He said, voice firm and unyielding. "You made a girl that I helped to raise cry, and commit physical violence upon herself in an attempt to remove your jolly roger." He relinquished his iron hold upon his Haki and used it's Color of Armament to knock all the people in between him and the fishman in the gaudy chair, who was obviously the leader, out of the way. "For this, I will kill you. Slowly. With my bare hands."
Arlong looked at him with beady little eyes and a grimace of annoyance. "And who are you supposed to be?" He said with a level of arrogance in his voice. "Some puny human who ate a Devil Fruit and thinks he can stand up to the might of a fishman?" He laughed derisively and continued with a smirk. "Your arrogance is insulting, but I'll humor you." He motioned for the fishmen who stood behind him, including his three strongest by Naruto's senses, to intervene against him. "If you can make it passed these comrades of mine then I will deal with you personally."
The inter-dimensional being gave them a once over and then turned his head to the kid and his nakama. The guy in the suit went for the he one who looked to be a practitioner of Fishman Karate, the swordsman went for the one with eight arms and the kid went for Arlong, though Naruto caught him and redirected him towards the one with enormous lips while the long nosed kid took pot shots at the rest of the fishmen.
After that Naruto's tail flicked irritably as he stalked towards the fishman leader. "You seem to be under the impression that you're in control here, you gutless maggot. You aren't, and now you're going to die like the dog you are." He shot back, punching the huge fishman in the chest once he got close enough and launching the man through his chair and the wall behind it into the building.
When he didn't come back out after a moment, Naruto thought that he would have to go in and get the shark-like individual himself. He was moderately happy when the man smashed the wall down with a long serrated sword that was vaguely reminiscent of the guys' own nose, if only because he wouldn't have to waste time chasing after him. Arlong took what he saw as an opportunity when Naruto turned his head to check on the others to slash down at his face. Naruto caught the sword between in index and middle fingers before breaking it and stabbing the end into his enemy's thigh, without looking away from the others. This was when a large cow monster appeared in response to the octopus man's calling.
"Richie," Naruto called, getting the beast to sit up straight. "Take the cow out." He left them to it and returned his full attention to Arlong, who was stumbling back on a bum thigh- and now falling on to his ass. Naruto cracked his knuckles and advanced on the man, before beginning to smash his skull in as slowly as he was able, which took a total of fifteen punches.
He then stood up and dusted off his hands, in a remarkably better mood for having done something productive. He then looked over at the others to see them still embroiled in their own fights, save the kid in the red vest, who'd finished his pretty quickly from the looks of his opponent. The others were still fighting and Naruto was done with it. He raised a hand to the building behind him and built up an energy blast. As it hit the building, the entire place was vaporized in an instant, along with a fair portion of the unoccupied land behind it, before the angle he'd fired it at took it into the air and bathed the area for miles around in a dark, yet somehow pastel-ish, pink-purple light. They stopped their fights.
"The prick is dead." Naruto stated without preamble. "I will personally annihilate anyone who causes grief to the people of this island again with extreme prejudice. This is the only warning you'll get from me, the Devil of Revolution, Majin Naruto." The fishmen backed down. The marine captain who was walking up to them now, however, did not.
"Okay, hold it right there!" He began, and Naruto, annoyed by the man's voice, decked him in the face. He didn't survive the experience. The other marines almost fled, before Nami cornered them and roped them into rebuilding... Gosa had been destroyed? Weird. She also made them give her back the nearly hundred million beri that they'd apparently stolen from her.
"Well, that's my job done." Naruto said with a yawn and then turning to Nami. "Well, you little Hellion, I've gotta get out of here. I need to get on with destroying the World Government and the Tenryuubito. See ya next time we happen to cross paths. Richie, you can bring the bones you can carry with you, come on, we've done what we can and this place can't afford to resupply us at the moment, let's go." The large feline got up with the leg bones of the cow in his mouth and trotted off after his captain. "Oh, and Nojiko," Naruto added as he passed her. "Try to keep this place in one piece alright?" He then continued on, without waiting for an answer.
They all stared after him, the enigmatic being who had breezed into their lives one day and taken care of all their problems, before leaving just as abruptly. Some of them asked Nojiko and Nami who he was. They just smiled and said that they didn't know, aside from his name, Majin Naruto, and that he'd called himself the Devil of Revolution when he'd first introduced himself to Belle-mere years ago. And the two men who'd been guarding the gate took off after him to beg him to let them join his crew.
An Unknown Amount of Time Later, Mariejois
The marines who'd survived the events at Arlong Park took news of those events back to their superiors, including his plans to destroy them. It earned Naruto a bounty in the sextuple digits, one of the highest starting bounties in recorded history at 178,500,000 beri, and the epitaph he'd chosen for himself. Luffy was given a token bounty of 15,000,000 beri for his loose association with Naruto and his own fairly adept fighting ability. Nami was given a bounty of 3,000,000 beri for having a closer association to Naruto but little real battle capabilities. The others were deemed to not merit a bounty.
Loguetown, Polester Islands, Two Months Later
As they pulled into the port next to one of the seven other life-ships that he kept in his island sized ship that was anchored near Reverse Mountain according to his energy sensing abilities, Naruto gave a grin to Richie, Jackson, Johnny and Yosaku- the latter two having impressed him with their stalwart and earnest desire to be as strong as Zoro, the man whose coat-tails they'd been riding on for so long. He'd taken them on initially to allow a pair of the older errand boys to get off ship since he could tell they didn't want to work on the ship any more, but they had grown on him after a day or so when they'd managed to draw his attention away from the back eighth of Jackson's Armament Haki training. It had been amusing, watching them struggle through the basics that he put errand boy guard dogs through, but they did it so fast that Naruto was sure they were predisposed towards swordsmanship- but hadn't had the training needed to bring out their latent potential. The most he taught the guard dogs was top notch Observation Haki some light Armament Haki and some fairly decent swordsmanship, but it still should have taken them a couple of weeks to get through, not four days.
So he'd brought them under his wing and gave them a each a different type of sword and gave them some advice.
Flashback.
Naruto grinned as he walked towards the two newbies, Johnny and Yosaku as he remembered, and presented the one in sunglasses a large two handed blade long as he was tall while giving his friend a pair of cutlasses."You two amuse me." He said starting off. "So what I'm gonna do is train the pair of you in swordsmanship and the two Haki that you can feasibly use." He then pointed at Johnny. "You're a bigger guy, you're naturally tougher and physically more powerful. I'm gonna train you in a Heavy Sword style and when we get to Loguetown I'll get you a better quality sword than that thing and then beef that up with one of my special abilities."
Yosaku raised a hand, Naruto turned to him and began speaking. "You are gonna get a Two Sword style involving lots of quick spins and hard kicks, because you're a bit smaller and more agile by nature. When we get to Loguetown I'll get you a daisho set that I'm gonna buff up in a somewhat similar way." The head-geared man nodded and Naruto continued. "Now then, you were given a basic run down of how Observation Haki works when you went through the basic training the other men have gone through. You activate your soul and use it's innate sixth sense to keep track of your surroundings and the presences of others. It also gets a read on a persons intentions which allows for the accurate prediction of actions, particularly attacks. Now,"
And here he grinned somewhat evilly. "Armament Haki is whole different kettle of fish. For Armament Haki, you've got to manifest a physical representation of your soul. Because of this, some people have unique types of Armament Haki, like instead of an invisible armor, they manifest say... A third limb that technically isn't there but is still capable of interacting with the real world." The two nodded. "As for a Devil Fruit, I'm sorry to say, but I don't have any more of them. Well, I suppose that just means I'll have to work you beyond human capability." They began to sweat. He tossed them each a pair of wrist and ankle bands. "Here, put those on, they've got resistance seals on them, meaning that they'll make it seem like you're moving through thick mud. They're self adjusting up to the point where once you take them off you'll move at roughly 322 kilometers per hour. Make sure to practice without them every few days to make sure you can keep up with your new speed."
They went slack jawed. And that was how Naruto's entertainment for the day began.
Flashback End.
They grinned back and Naruto was assured that they would be fine. They had a good grasp over their Haki, Jackson most of all- surprisingly- and they were all on a relatively even level of strength. Jackson and Richie had the advantage of not being hampered by resistance seals and also had the advantage of Devil Fruit powers, but they were less skilled with just their own bodies and weapons, though Jackson was getting really good with incorporating his Devil Fruit ability into his fighting style, which relied on using the range most didn't know he had. Still, with the seals off, Yosaku and Johnny tied with Jackson and Richie more often than not.
They stepped off the ship, and were immediately surrounded by Marines. One had a pair of cigars in his mouth- and a number more of them strapped to his coat- and a jutte... Made of seastone near the tip from the looks of things. He was likely the captain.
"Heh, 'The Demon of Revolution' here in my territory? This is a lucky break." The smoker said causing Naruto to lift an eyebrow.
"Well, your delusions aside," He started off after giving the chain smoker some time to continue. "I'm here to take out the military base, the shrine to Gol D. Rogers death, kick you all off the island and buy some equipment for my men. If you annoy me too much, I'll have to destroy you along with the base." The captain scoffed and moved to use his jutte. Naruto allowed it and gave a subtle motion to his crew to let it happen as well.
Smoker's POV:
He'd come across a lot of cocky pirate bastards in his day, but to Smoker- the captain of the Loguetown Marine base- this one was easily the most audacious. He thought that just because he had some Zoan class Devil Fruit that made him look scary that everyone would fold before him like a deck of cards. It was insulting. So he went for his Nanashaku Jitte, and the moron motioned for his men to stand down, so sure of his superiority, so sure that nothing and no one could beat him.
Smoker would disabuse him of that notion soon enough. He whipped out his jitte and rushed forward with his White Launcher in one motion. It connected solidly, as he'd had hoped. What came as a surprise though was that the man didn't move a millimeter and seemed utterly unaffected by the seastone on his jitte's tip.
Regular POV:
After the man's tap with a glorified billy club, Naruto stared at the man. And that was all he did. He stared at the man as he attempted several more attacks and even when they splashed some sea water on him. Then he back handed the man using a light amount- for him- of Armament Haki to make sure that the Logia user remembered the fight before tossing him and his crew into what he assumed was their boat and sending them off with a light kick. They'd probably stop before they crashed into anything.
He then motioned for Johnny and Yosaku to follow him and gave the rest of the crew their orders, including that Richie was to guard the ship. He sensed Kirkland off by the section of town where most of the ship related shopping was done, including the weapons dealer from what he remembered. Yarila was with her and Delpo was close by. Acdar was on the life-ship.
He called out. "Acdar, I know you know I'm here, start heading back to the ship. The girls and me will swing by in a bit with the supplies. He heard a distant 'Aye, captain' from his ships doctor and knew the man was handing out orders to the other life-ship. Naruto then led Johnny and Yosaku towards the shopping area by Kirkland and the others and told Jackson that if he still wanted to be part of the crew he was to return to the life-ship by 0900 tomorrow.
As they approached the shop where he was going to get Yosaku and Johnny their weapons, he heard a woman exclaiming about her glasses. They reached the place where the shout had originated soon after and bore witness to Roranoa Zoro and a woman in glasses in front of a different sword shop. Naruto shrugged and continued on to his destination.
Walking into Devil's Armory always made Naruto a touch nostalgic. He'd helped a down on his luck man during his first trip to Loguetown- gave him a few hundred beri to start up his business- after he'd done some recruiting in the South Blue and when asked for a name he'd replied with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek reference to his moniker, and upon his next visit nearly a year later he'd come across the man again, who'd repaid him for apparently helping him start up his life again after a crippling financial blow by making him part owner of a business named in honor of him. It was actually nice to be able to stock up on weapons for a quarter the regular price, so long as he didn't clear out their inventory doing so.
He also had the privilege of being allowed to give any member of his real crew high quality weapons from a private inventory of the really good stuff that Idon got his hands on. Like Kirkland's armored gloves or Metrice's weighted chain- which had a really nasty spiked bit for the weight on one end and a huge spear head on the other. Today he walked in and gave a shout.
"Oi, Idon, I'm back, got a pair of new crew members here for some swords, I'm gonna go check the reserve okay?" He heard a confirmation from the back of the store as the current cashier gave him an odd look. Naruto then went to the door leading to the upstairs area where they kept the reserve stock, and the records of the reserve stock. Not that such a thing was really necessary what with each weapon being labelled.
Upon entering the room, Naruto's eye was instantly drawn to the room's center piece. It made him grin like nobody's business. It was almost the exact thing to go with Johnny, hell if Naruto didn't know better he'd say it was actually Zabuza's old blade, the Kubikiribōchō. It was a similar shape, not as curved near the top though that wasn't much of problem. It did curve, though not as sharply, on the bladed side but it also had a complimentary curve on the other side that made it narrower at the tip and was vaguely reminiscent of a hook sword only on a zanbatou. This curve was bladed but the rest of that side wasn't. It had a number of indentations in it along the center of the blade, like it had once had jewels imbedded in it, though there weren't any nicks from said jewels being scraped out.
The plaque below it read "Gutting Sword Silmick, Grade: O Wazamono."
Naruto spun on his heel after a couple of steps and pointed at it. "Johnny." He said. The man looked at it incredulously and then back to him. "I'm part owner and half of the value of the stuff in here is mine to do with as I wish, three of that thing is about a fifth of the worth in this room, go on take it." The sword was honestly the only one in the room of greater quality then Ryo Wazamono that was of the proper size for the Heavy Sword style he'd been learning anyway.
Yosaku took a little bit longer to peg. There were a number of sets, but they were either too low of a grade or not the right type of blade for his style, too bulky as it were. Eventually though Naruto found what he was looking for, in two separate places. The first was the larger sword, by about three and a half shaku. It was just barely within the size range for the longer sword and was an Ō Wazamono. It's name was Akuyama Ten no Kaji ~yu, or Evil Mountain, Orchard of Heaven, and was said to be impossible to lift to one who was unworthy of wielding it. Yosaku felt like it was just the right weight, and further, he said it seemed like it was eager to prove itself.
Naruto approved.
The other half of the set, a bit larger than a wakizashi's shaku limit, but still within the correct size range when paired with the Akuyama Ten no Kaji ~yu. It was a Saijō Ō Wazamono by the name of Mukigen Kizoku- or, Indefinite Nobility- without any known special abilities, but known to have played a significant role in several battles.
Now to return to the ship and wait for the others. He snatched a higher quality version of Jackson's blade on the way out, he had a feeling he'd need it. It had no name, it wasn't a sword so it wasn't graded like the blades of Johnny and Yosaku, but the craftsmanship was superb and the material expensive. Naruto wondered at the coincidence of the knife's placement though. It unnerved him.
End~
*Fruit Forest Island is the name I came up with for the Island on which the crew first encounters Buggy, because punniness is next to Godliness and the show and the manga both leave the name of that Island blank. To my knowledge anyway.
Right then, this happened. I thought about how Naruto's personality is now. He is from a world where a madman was trying to take over the world. He beats him, then goes to a world where there is a privileged elite who can disregard the law, do whatever the fuck they want and everyone calls them goddamn saints despite their repulsive behavior. He's disgusted, he seems to have traded one fucked up shit-stain of a planet for a worse one. At least his planet didn't pretend everything was hunky dory as everything went to hell. So, he learns what he needs to about the world he's in, by ripping it out of people's head's, that would be Buu and Kurama's influence on the merger there. He's impulsive now, or at least more so and with fewer moral hang ups.
Then, he spends a few years training in both Fishman Karate and Rokushiki and learning more about Haki and how to use it. Lets say five years out of the twenty or so that he's there before he goes into Orange Town. And by then he's figured out that the damn world probably won't do anything but revert to the way things were before he came after he leaves unless he sets up some kind of power check system, and the world isn't likely to listen to one man who just up and killed every last Tenryuubito and Marine. So his only option in that course is to set up a revolutionary force and take over the world, before setting up a system that will hopefully last a good few centuries and then just leave because god-damnit he was done with trying to make the world fucking perfect!
His thought process. So yeah.
Anyway, he gathers up some people for another five years, then spends a rough ten years getting them all trained up in some remote corner of the weakest sea in Haki, Rokushiki, if they have a Devil Fruit power then they get trained in that, Fishman Karate if they want to learn it and a little chakra for water walking and wall/tree walking cause those are damn useful. And yes, everyone in every universe will be CAPABLE of learning chakra, as- in this fic- it actually literally is the basis of all life in literally all of existence. Ki from DBZ is a different energy that only being who have some DNA from that universe or one of it's parallel's can utilize.
Each of his real nakama aside from the four he picked up here have strength on the level of an admiral. The four he picked up this chapter have strength on the level of a lower level vice admiral atm and will steadily rise in strength until they are at a similar level. Now is the point at which the real story begins in the OP universe. Naruto will... well, that's gonna be a surprise.
Now, for Johnny and Yosaku's blades. Johnny got a sword that has a weird shape and that's really all it is, aside from being one of the highest quality swords in the world. It will be upgraded, though I won't say how.
Yosaku, he has a sword that is impossible to pick up if you aren't deemed worthy of wielding it, and has an additional ability as well. And a blade of literally the highest possible grade, and that has no special abilities which will get an upgrade.
Anyway, till next time, Kuta-out!