Naruto in New World

by UzumakiStyle

Two years after the great war, Naruto is on a mission to find out if the threat of the Otsutsuki still persists.

4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

---

Marineford, an island made of stone and steel, home to the headquarters of Navy and thousands of marines of all ranks, from powerful admirals to a common seaman recruit serving under them, it was one of safest places in the whole world. Situated almost at the center of the world, at any given time thousands of marine officers were stationed on the island. It was a symbol of peace and center of power of the forces of good.

But in the coming week, for a day at least if experts were to be believed, that was going to change, this place was going to be the battlefield for an all out war between the whole might of marines and the great pirate Whitebeard, whom many refered to as the King of the seas, strongest man in the world, greatest pirate of this era, etc among many other titles. Whenever that moment came, this island would no longer be 'one of the safest places in the world' but rather 'one of the deadliest places' to be at. And both sides were preparing accordingly, no one knew what Whitebeard was up to but anybody who was somebody in the Marines had started gathering on the island in response to the summons from headquarters. The civilians of the island were being evacuated to a safe place for the time being, extra cannons were already installed around the marineford bay as a security measure. The general public of the world however, had no idea of the impending war which would probably change the world in some significant way, no matter which side won. Newspapers announcing the capture of 'Fire Fist' Ace along with time and date of his execution would be distributed very soon.

This was the second day of preparations, three large marine ships were taking civilian residents of the island, mainly families of marine officers, away to a safe location, the evacuation was supposed to be completed that very evening by the order of Fleet Admiral Sengoku. Petty officers and seaman recruits were tasked with overseeing the process, each one had a pad in their hands and were keeping track of everyone that was leaving or arriving at the bay. It was a mundane and thankless job but someone had to do it.

"Okay, that was the last of it, ship number three is ready." Mike, one of the petty officer said as he checked the list in his hands. His partner for the day waved a green flag for the crew on board and the ship began to move.

"How many does that make it now?"

"We aren't even halfway done yet!" Mike said as he took a seat on a nearby bench in the mostly empty plaza, there was some time until the next ship was ready to be boarded with civilians.

"Man I wish I could go with one of those ships!" Bill sat beside his friend.

"Go ahead, you'll be court-martialed, have fun living life on the run then." Mike replied, not even looking at him.

"Do you always have to shit on my dreams?" Bill whined.

"Delusions don't count as dreams my friend."

"Whatever," Bill said as he leaned back on the bench and closed his eyes to catch a quick nap on the job. Just as he closed his eyes, Mike shook him so hard he almost fell off the bench. "Ahh you don't let me whine, you don't let nap, you're a crappy friend!"

"Stup up and look," he pointed at the bay, "Is that guy seriously coming here rowing a life boat?"

Bill followed the direction of the finger and spotted a small lifeboat with a blond guy rowing it towards the plaza. He shrugged and closed his eyes once again, "Who cares? Maybe he was in a ship wreck or something."

"Can't you do your job seriously for once?! I hope Whitebeard gets you first when the battle starts," Mike muttered the latter part under his breath and picked up his binoculars to look closer at the lifeboat, the guy didn't seem like he was through anything like a ship wreck, his black shirt looked pristine and the orange pants didn't have even a drop of water on them to suggest some unfortunate accident at the sea. But that did raise a question in the dutiful marine's mind, Why was that guy coming to Marineford? Was he a resident here? He'd been doing this job for half a decade now and he'd never seen that guy on island before. Was he a marine? Mike decided to ask him directly. It'd be really bad if the blond guy were with the enemy and he just let him walk on the island on his watch. Mike simply got up and walked near the place where the blond was tying up his lifeboat.

"Hey, you there!" Mike spoke in a loud and what he hoped was intimidating tone, "Who are you? State your name and what business you have here."

Naruto finished tying up the boat and turned to face the marine, "Hi," he said with a cheery smile, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meet you!" Naruto extended his hand.

"Yeah, nice name. What business do you have here?" Mike said, accepting the brief handshake.

Naruto lowered his hand, "I came to join the Marines!" he grinned.

The marine simply laughed when he heard that, "Trust me kid, you don't wanna be here."

Naruto just looked at him with blank expression, "And why is that?"

"Oh that's right, the news hasn't reached the papers yet."

"What news?" Naruto was confused. That seemed to happen to him a lot in this world.

"The Navy is going to war with Whitebeard pirates! Trust me kid, you don't wanna be anywhere near here when Whitebeard shows up."

"Whitebeard?! One of the Emperors? But why would the Navy go to war with him now? And why would he come here?"

"You ask too many questions, you know that?!" the marine noticed a frown on Naruto's face, "If you are really that desperate to join us then come back after the war, if the Navy survives. The HQ doesn't have time to even register you right now, they are busy preparing for war."

"Thanks, I'll keep it in mind. Can I stay here for a little bit? My arms are sore from rowing that boat."

"Yeah, sure. Rest up, but get as far away from this place as soon as possible." Mike said as he noted down his name on a piece of paper.

"Thanks!" Naruto said as he walked towards the town. No way he was just go gonna go without achieving...something! Besides, he still had that letter from that Vice Admiral, he should be able to at least walk in without causing any alarm bells to ring.

Naruto walked along the main street of the town towards the huge building that had the kanji for 'Marine' on it, he was pretty certain that was the headquarters building, considering it was the largest building he could see and practically dwarfed every other structure on the island. It had huge walls that seperated it from the rest of the town and didn't leave much visible from the outsides. The floors at top that were visible had large glass pane windows on them.

The streets were very thinly populated, he'd seen a large ship leave as he coming towards island he didn't think of it much then but now he realised that it was probably an evacuation vessel.

"What do you think?" he said in his mind as he walked past the closed doors of various houses.

"This is good, they're going to war so they won't have many people guarding their records. We can sneak in and sneak out."

"I doubt it. If they are even slightly competent they'll have some other arrangement. Maybe traps in the room or something."

Kurama thought about what he said for a few seconds, "Now that you pointed it out, do you think they moved their archives to a safe location on one of those ships?"

Naruto stopped in his tracks. That was indeed a possibility, and Naruto had not thought about that. If this island was going to be a battlefield then it made sense for the Navy to move their valuable belongings somewhere else. Naruto's response upon coming to that realisation was simple and elegant,"Shit!" he cursed and resumed walking, "That will make things a lot difficult." he put his hands in his pocket, "But even then we can check out the other clues until we find new ones, it's not like we hoped to find some ancient scroll with all the information we need tied with a neat little ribbon, we always knew this mission was going to be a pain in the butt! We'll have to be patient with this."

"This is just the beginning, there's fishman island and Adam tree next. " Kurama reminded him of their potential leads.

"And then every other place that dates back more than a thousand years!" Naruto said what Kurama had left unsaid. He let out a sigh.

By now he was pretty deep in the town and at the end of the street he could see the large iron gate decorated with a seagull. There were two guards on either side of the gate with a gun in their hands. They looked relaxed but straightened up once they saw him coming. Naruto saw them tense up but he kept walking. Once he was close enough the guy on the right held out his arm in an attempt to stop him from moving any further.

"Hold it, only authorised personnel can enter the archives building." he said the words in a monotone voice.

Naruto stopped, "Hi, can you tell me who do I have to talk to about joining the Marines?" he made some pointless conversation with the men. He knew the Fleet Admiral was probably in the big ass building he saw earlier and not in this relatively small, achieves building as the guard had said. But still, achieves were very useful for him too, Naruto decided to check them out as he was there already but it didn't look like they were going to let him pass through the front gate.

"This is the archives, you wanna find the administrative building two blocks from here." The guard replied robotically, "That big building over there!"

Naruto looked at the pointed direction, "Thanks for the help!" he smiled and left the guards to their job.

He made sure they saw him leave and turned around the corner. He went around the back and made it to the roof in a couple of easy jumps. There weren't many people in the building, he sensed a few that he assumed were either guards or keepers of the archive.

Naruto opened the only door on the roof that led to the stairwell, it wasn't locked or anything. He moved quickly and stealthily and came across a door of top floor, he sensed someone approaching from the opposite side of the closed door. Naruto jumped and clung to the ceiling with his feet, standing upside down he once again made himself invisible. A moment later, an old man in navy uniform and large spectacles came out of the room, he had a bunch of files in his hands. The old man closed the door behind him and locked it before he left, whistling a merry tune as he went downstairs. Naruto jumped down, quiet as a cat and dropped his cloaking jutsu. From the files the old man had in his hands, there was high chance that this room was the one he was looking for. Making wonderful use of his magnet release, he made some sand out of chakra and poured it inside the keyhole. The sand filled every pore inside the lock and solidified itself, Naruto turned the makeshift sand key and heard a telltale 'click' of the lock opening.

Before going in though, he stopped for a moment, 'what if there are video surveillance snails keeping watch?!' he wondered to himself. He didn't want to get caught on video tape while snooping in a Marine facility, that would make a very bad impression. Luckily, he had a perfect solution to this problem, Naruto made a ram seal and transformed into the guy he met at the plaza earlier that day. Satisfied with his look, Naruto walked in like he owned the place. There were huge shelves that spanned the length of the large room and almost reached the ceiling, all stacked to the brim with files. Naruto approached the first shelf. It said 'Paradise' in big bold letters. He randomly picked out a file and started to read. It was about some pirate named 'Magician' Basil Hawkins from North Blue, the file had claimed him to be a part of the 'Worst Generation' with a bounty of 249 million berries. Naruto took out his notebook and made a note of this guy, his devil fruit, his crimes, crew and the like. After that he picked another file, one by one he went through all of Paradise section, making note of people he deemed especially dangerous. Oddly, there were only profiles of pirates here and no mission reports at all. That was a bit disappointing.

One by one, he went through the East Blue, West Blue, South Blue, and North Blue sections. And now he was finally on the New World section. This was a little different, here it was further divided into four sections, they were titled as 'Whitebeard' Edward Newgate, 'Red Haired' Shanks, 'Big Mom' Charlotte Linlin and Kaido, 'King of the Beasts. Naruto picked Whitebeard's section first- the file had labelled him as 'the strongest man in the world' and the pirate that's closest to the One Piece. He had a very large crew apparently, as it was evident from the sixteen divisions of it, each one led by a fearsome commander. Naruto made note of all sixteen of these guys, from Marco the Phoenix and 'Fire Fist' Ace to Izo of the sixteenth division.

Next came Red Haired pirates led by Shanks. He was the newest to the club, being named an emperor only four years ago. File had warned him pretty heavily about them. Apparently the captain, while being the youngest of the four emperors, was one of the strongest men alive. The crew had a special mention as being the most balanced crew of all. It boasted officers such as Benn Beckman, Lucky Reux, Yasopp, Bonk Punch, Howling Gab, Hongo, Building Snake and Limejuice, each one a fearsome pirate in their own right! Each one a monster!

After that was Big Mom, she had a massive crew as well and from what Naruto could gather after skimming through the file, all the officers were her family! That too, her children! Fucking 'Big Mom' indeed!!! She had 85 children! Who has that many children??!! How's that even possible??!! Naruto scratched his head for a minute but then dropped it. Probably better for his sanity if he just noted down her crew. So he did, from her four sweet commanders Katakuri, Smoothie, Cracker and Snack to various officers. Fucking everyone and everything was named after food!

Naruto moved on to Kaido as soon as he was done, this guy was named 'Strongest creature on the land, sea and air'. The most powerful being in the world backed by a fearsome crew. He had three All Stars, King the Wildfire, Queen the Plague and Jack the Draught. His commanders and various officers were all named after some sort card game or another. 'Must be a gambler', Naruto thought.

With that crew he had finished his work in the archives and decided to go meet the Fleet Admiral at last. He had until four in the afternoon till he was supposed to be back on the archipelago; after Desire had told him there was one more shop that operated once every month, one of his clones went to find out more about it. The auction was going to start at four that day, he thought about burning down that slave shop before any sort of auction could even take place but he knew they'd just set up shop somewhere else, he had to know exactly who was behind it to get rid of it once and for all. People around there unsurprisingly didn't know who owned it, just that a man named Disco ran it for someone very powerful. Sadly he couldn't find Disco anywhere last night so he had to wait until today to get some answers. And while he waited, Naruto figured he'd do something productive.

---

Meanwhile Top Floor- Marineford HQ, Fleet Admiral Sengoku's Office

"Close that damn book, will ya?! Who cares if there's another magma user!" Garp said for the third time that day. Ever since Kuma came back with the report from the Thriller Bark, Sengoku had been constantly trying to find out what devil fruit had the ability of magma other than Akainu's fruit. Since he was yet find anything, it was adding on the stress he already had. On top of that, not only did Kuma fail to eliminate the Straw Hats like he was asked to do but brought back a worrying news instead!

"Be serious for once, Garp. This is a big deal, we haven't even heard rumours of someone with that power other than Akainu. What if this is someone like that Blackbeard?" Sengoku knew very well how destructive Sakazuki's devil fruit was, a power like that in the hands of someone completely unknown worried him.

"You mean amassing power under the radar and looking for an opportunity to strike?" Garp said as he opened the packet of rice crackers that was sitting on Sengoku's desk. "Rice cracker?" he offered.

Sengoku didn't even acknowledge the offer of snack and kept reading the encyclopedia. "Whoever this guy was, he helped the Straw Hats, it's safe to assume he's not with us. On top of that, after seeing him in action Kuma became wary enough to decide against fighting him."

"Or he just didn't just want to risk his neck for us," Garp added with a shrug.

"Could be," Sengoku said. "I hope whoever this is remains under the radar, but that'd be me being too optimistic, chances are he's already put a Jolly Roger on his ship and tormenting innocent civilians somewhere on the grand line as we speak!" the fleet admiral greet his teeth.

"Another lawless scumbag on the sea." Garp chuckled dryly. "Even in death Roger managed to pull one over us! If it weren't for his last words, so many young men wouldn't turn to piracy!"

"Your grandson is also becoming a pain in the ass, Garp. His first mate injured Moria to the point where he won't be able to fight in the war with his full strength, Moria only barely got away alive." Sengoku said, not taking his eyes away from the book in his hands.

"Did you really expect a pirate to be reliable?!" Garp asked rhetorically as he ate away his friend's snacks. Their mutual dislike of pirates, even warlords wasn't a secret, after a lifetime of fighting them both Garp and Sengoku simply didn't trust pirates. But for the time being the seven warlords were the necessary evil.

"It doesn't make sense!" Sengoku slammed the book shut in frustration, "No two devil fruits are the same, no one else should have the power of magma other than Akainu!"

"Maybe you're overthinking it. It could be something simple that you overlooked, aren't there a bunch of heat based fruits? Maybe it's one of them." Garp felt pity for his friend who was already under a lot of stress and tried to be helpful for once.

"Maybe." Sengoku agreed absently, "Urgh I can't waste my time on ghosts, I have a war to prepare for." Sengoku got up from his chair and paced around his office.

---

With Naruto

Naruto had made his way to the right building this time. He had created a shadow clone and transformed it as a walking cane. He twirled the cane with his fingers as he walked. This building had a gigantic gate guarded by another pair of marines. They both had a gun each on their shoulders as they stood guard. When both made typical inquiry question when they stopped him but led him inside once he showed them the letter from Jonathan. From the outside you wouldn't know it but the HQ was a very beautiful building, it had gardens and flowers and small man made streams with lotuses in it. There were flowers planted everywhere, filling the atmosphere with pleasant aroma.

The guard led him to the ground floor, this was filled with small offices that probably belonged to the captains and the like, people were hurrying from one desk to another carrying papers and stuff. He even spotted some just hanging and taking break from work.

"This way," the guard said as he led him to an elevator at the far end of the room.

Naruto catched up to the guard, "Um...before we go in that, I have to use the men's room!"

"Can't you wait?"

"Not if you want me to pee my pants in front of the fleet admiral!!" the guard just pinched the bridge of his nose.

"That way, to the left!" he pointed out.

"Thanks!" Naruto said as he practically run for it. Once he had some privacy, the cane transformed back into another identical version of himself. The clone already knew what to do. It entered the sage mode in the blink of an eye and put his hands in the tiger seal.

"Sage art: Transparency jutsu!" it said and vanished from the sight. It was one of his most useful jutsus. It was already hard enough to detect someone invisible, add sage mode to that and not even the greatest sensors in the world could sense him coming. Only exceptions being other people who had access to sage mode themselves, and he doubted there were any in this world that were capable of using nature energy. Leaving the clone to do its job, Naruto went back.

The clone on the other hand walked down the hallways of the ground floor, carefully avoiding bumping into someone or knocking something over. It made it's way to the staircase they had spotted earlier. The staircase went downstairs, so definitely the basement. Every official building had a basement and like most of them it was probably full of classified documents and mission reports and such. If they hadn't moved them yet, this is where he'd find the information. He didn't think they'd just keep the documents out in the open.

Meanwhile the real Naruto had reached the office of the highest ranking marine. He was standing outside the door with the guard that led him there. The man knocked on the door loudly and they both waited for the response from inside. Minutes passed as the guard and Naruto stood outside the door patiently waiting for it to open. Frankly, Naruto was getting kinda bored standing there doing nothing, at least his clones would get to read something interesting. After what seemed like days of waiting, finally they heard a 'come in'. The guard opened the door and walked inside, Naruto following a step behind.

The marine saluted his superior, "Sir, this man says he has a message for you from Vice Admiral Jonathan of G-8!"

"Hm? Why didn't he just call me, instead of sending a messenger?" the puffy haired guy with braided goaty and round glasses said from his chair behind the impressive desk, looking at Naruto.

Naruto just smiled, "I'm not a messanger, sir! I'm here to join the navy!" he said as he handed over the letter to the fleet admiral.

"Join the navy? Why do you have to waste my time to do that??! You could have joined at any base!"

"Um...it's a bit of special circumstances. You should read the letter." Naruto said, not deterred by the annoyance seeping from the man's words.

So the fleet admiral read the letter, his annoyance reducing with each passing moment as he took in the contents. Meanwhile Naruto's attention fell upon the another man in the room, he had gray hair and gray beard with a scar near his left eye. Just like the fleet admiral this old man was also ripped.

"Hm...so you want to become an officer of the navy right away huh??" the fleet admiral said as he finished reading the letter.

"Bwahahahaha!!!! Kids these days have no patience!!" the gray haired dude laughed out.

"Hehe I guess!" Naruto scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.

"So kid, what post do you want?" the gray haired dude asked while the fleet admiral watched on.

"I guess an admiral will be awesome!!" Naruto said in all honesty, making the old dude laugh until tears former in his eyes. Sengoku smiled a little too. His bold words had made forget his stress for a moment.

"Oh Sengoku, make him am admiral just for the heck of it!!! I want to see what happens!!" Garp said when he finally controlled his laugh.

"As interesting as that may sound, we already have three admirals." the fleet admiral spoke up, having schooled his amusement. "Asking something like that, either you're delusional or you are really powerful. Considering you only fought one pirate so far I'm leaning towards the first option." he said, folding his hand on the table.

"I can prove it!" the blond said with utmost confidence. "Just give me a chance, you know. I'll prove I'm definitely strong enough to be one of the strongest marines!"

Garp's free laugh turned into a menacing grin, "Sengoku, let me handle his evaluation! If he passes, I'll tell you where he belongs!"

Sengoku pretended to think about it, truth was he needed every capable fighter he could find for the coming war. And chances were it still wouldn't be enough against Whitebeard. Even if this young man wasn't as strong as an admiral, if he could take out even one of Whitebeard's commanders, It'd be worth it to induct him into the navy. "Very well. Garp, I'll leave it to you!"

Vice Admiral Garp pushed himself out of his chair, "Finally something to do! My head was beginning to hurt watching you, Sengoku! Bwahaha!! Come on, Kid! Let's see what you've got!"

Meanwhile with Naruto's Shadow clone-

Getting down the stairs wasn't a hard task at all, with barely anyone in his way Naruto managed to get to the basement door without even alerting a fly. But this was where things got a bit more complicated, there were four people inside. And the lock on the door was electronic one. Why did they have to put a an electronic lock??! Would have been much easier if he could just pore sand in the lock and be done with it! But even if that was an option, a door opening on it's own would definitely alert the people inside. So that was out. That left only one option.

The clone sank into the floor using 'Hidden Mole jutsu' and came out on the other side of the door, all while being invisible to the naked eye. Once he was inside and could see what was in the basement, the clone's face morphed into a frown. Not that anyone could see it. The basement wasn't what he'd expected at all, not one bit. He'd expected it to be a room full of super secret and highly classified document that he could skim through and get some clues about various places of this world. Places that would have higher chance of hiding some important information that could be useful to him.

But instead this basement was full of monitors and control panels full of colorful buttons. The men he'd sensed earlier all had their eyes glued to the screen, keeping watch over the bay and the city. Infiltration was a success but the mission was a failure. A dead end. Looked like he'd have to pursue the leads he already had first, the Fishman island. But before that, he'd have to deal with that auction house first.

The clone was about to dismiss itself, but with his sage mode already active he sensed the original moving away from the HQ and towards the shore with some other person. The chakra signature told him it was the guy from the fleet admirals office. Did the original get himself tangled up in some selection process of some kind? Were they suspicious of him? Whatever the reason, getting held wasn't good. The afternoon had already started to wane and the auction would start any minute. If the original was busy at the moment, then the clone would have to do the job.

With the Original Naruto-

"So kid, where are you from??" the vice admiral asked him as they were headed for the special training ground the vice admiral used for shaping up the new recruits.

"Who? Me?? Well...that's... I'm sorta like a hermit really! You could say I don't really have a home?" Naruto replied. He knew he can't give some bullshit answer, the old man looked like he'd been all over the world. If he said something like he was from south blue or something he would never be able to answer the follow up questions that were sure to come. So he decided to be as vague as possible with his answers.

"That's not what I asked, smartass!" Well, Naruto never thought that answer would let him off the hook. The navy people were bound to ask at least some general information about him. Time to bullshit his way through.

"Well, I'll tell you where I'm from but you'll have to promise me you'll keep it a secret." Naruto said with complete seriousness.

"Yeah, sure!" Garp replied while picking his ear with his pinky finger.

Naruto knew not to be fooled by his nonchalant attitude however. He knew the old man would be able to tell right away if he said something suspicious. "I'm from a hidden island in the calm belt." that got the old dude's attention.

"Hidden island?"

"Yeah! We are kinda isolated people you know, we don't like to interact with the outsiders."

"Then why are you here?" Looked like the veteran marine bought it.

"Like I said, I'm a hermit! I want to travel the whole world and see all of it's beauty!" well it wasn't a lie. He really did want to travel this whole world. Even if it was out of necessity.

"Why join the navy then? If all you wanted was to travel? Do you think being a marine is easy? Is our job a joke to you?" Garp asked, putting the blonde under the intense gaze of his experienced eyes.

"No, no, nothing like that I swear! It's just, I'm the first person that has left my home to come here and even though it hasn't been very long, I have seen and heard enough about pirates to last me a lifetime, you know. And I thought if I'm to spend the rest of my life on these seas infested with criminals, I might as well do my part to help out."

Garp nodded, seemed like the answer satisfied him at least.

"So, can I ask you something?" Naruto asked the older man. Without even waiting for a response Naruto continued, "Why are you people letting me join so easily? Is it because of the war I heard about?" he asked directly.

Garp smiled but Naruto could tell right away that something was bothering the old man. His ability to sense negative emotions worked even if he had no intention to know other people's feelings. "You answered your own question, brat! Whitebeard's not just any other pirate, I'm sure you've heard of him." Naruto nodded. "It'll take the full might of the navy to take him on and we still might fall short. If you'd come under any other circumstances, Sengoku would have thrown you outta the window hahahaha!"

"I guess that makes sense!" By now they had reached the beach were a bunch of guys were in the middle of their training already. Some were running laps, some were sparring, some were practicing their Kenjutsu. Naruto took in his surroundings. "So, how's this gonna work?" he asked with his hands in his pocket.

"The usual drill!" Garp grinned, "I'm gonna beat the crap outta you to see how high you rank!" He loosened his tie and removed his coat.

"That's my kinda exam!" Naruto cracked his knuckles, an eager grin on his face as well. "Rules?"

"Come at with all you got, brat! Just don't go crying back to your hidden home afterwards you got that??"

"Yes sir!"

---

Sabaody Archipelago-

With Naruto Clone-

With the original busy, the clone had decided to get back to the archipelago on his own. Not that it'd make much of a difference but it would have been better if the original was available. Well, thank the heavens for the most useful jutsu ever created. It was close to 4 O'clock when Naruto clone arrived on grove 61 in the district populated almost entirely by the Marines, he could even see the outline of marine base of grove 66 in the distance. He had to hurry if he wanted to make it to grove 1 before the auction was over and everyone went home before he even reached the place, he didn't know how long the slave auctions lasted. He didn't mean to be late, he just lost track of time looking up various marine official and checking out bounty posters of pirates in the archives, there wasn't much besides the basic info on pirates there, no mission reports, not any information on any places of note. But the bounty posters of the Emperors did have a brief information about the territories they held. He was going to have to travel this whole world, that meant he'd eventually have to pass through the territories of these Emperors. If they turned out to be hostile, then it'd be useful to be prepared. In his mind he saw a chibi Kakashi reading Icha-Icha Tactics in one hand and one finger of the free hand held up, 'Shinobi rule no. 8- a shinobi must always be prepared'. He chuckled at his own imagination.

Naruto clone was running at high speeds towards grove 1, having already transformed his look for this particular occasion. What he was planning on doing there would definitely make people notice him, so he had to hide his identity for the time being, he didn't want to be in hot water with the Marines, neither did he want unnecessary attention of pirates or anyone else; so he changed his look, he transformed himself into copy of his sensei from his ANBU days, he looked like he was wearing black pants, black sleeveless shirt and a silver-grey flak jacket, a white porcelain mask in the likeness of a dog with red markings around the eyes, two horizontal curved lines on each cheek and a red line smiling in the place of his mouth and a long black hooded robe over his clothes. The transformation jutsu was just an improvisation, he had the real ANBU gear with the original. His sensei insisted he take it with him, just in case, and Naruto was glad that he did. With things going like they were, he was definitely going to need it at some point. It was Kakashi's own gear, from his ANBU days. When Naruto had asked why he was receiving it, Kakashi only smiled, not that Naruto could see, and said, "I have a hunch that it'll be useful!" Kakashi's hunch was correct, 'Like always!' Naruto said to himself with a smile.

He made good time as he arrived in front of a relatively large building in grove 1 that said 'HUMAN'. Just outside the building, by the stairs, sat a huge man that towered over him even as he was sitting. He had a cruel looking face, his forehead had fire-like tattoos on it and a scar above his right eye. His clothes, Naruto could only describe as rags, and he had a collar around his neck that had a chain attached to it.

The huge man observed him silently as Naruto approached him. "Are you a slave?" Naruto asked once he stood in front of the man. He even changed his voice to that of a perfect copy of Kakashi's voice.

The man tugged his chain, making it rattle, "What do you think?" he asked back instead of simply answering.

'That was a stupid question, Uzumaki!' Naruto berated himself in his mind but kept a cool attitude outside. His new look made him look intimidating and cool, he wasn't going to ruin that by acting stupid! Without saying anything, he reached out to the ground with his chakra, what small dirt was there on the roots of the mangrove, he turned it into sand. The newly formed sand rose up at his command and filled the small hole in the collar around the man's neck. A moment later, the collar and the chain fell to the ground. The man checked around his neck with his hand like he wasn't sure of what just happened. If he was happy, his face didn't show it, he just maintained the same frowning look he had earlier.

"What's your name?" Naruto asked.

"Jean Bart." the man replied.

"You look quite strong, Jean Bart." Naruto said. "I need a little help."

"You took the collar off of me, I'll do anything for you." Jean Bart said in his rough voice as he stood up straight. Naruto had to tilt his head upwards to look at him now.

Naruto's shadow clone created two more shadow clones, "Go with them around the building and stand by the back door, I'll be there after the auction is over. Try not to stand out." Jean Bart nodded and did as he was asked.

Naruto climbed the stairs of the auction house and walked in through the door. Looked like he wasn't the only recent arrival, two people in white suits, skirts and a bubble on their head were walking to the front rows of the seats, escorted by bowing men in pink clothes and frilly collars. They had a dog with them too, the dog also had a bubble around it's head.

Just then his attention went to a man to his right who was chuckling to himself. He had flaming red hair, pale skin, goggles on his forehead, he had a long black feathered coat draped on his shoulder, it had three golden spikes on each shoulder. Naruto recognised him instantly as Eustass Kid from the south blue, a man worth 315 million berry. Kid was leaning against a pillar flanked by three other men. One had long light blue hair and stitches on his mouth and chin. The tallest of the group wore a long headdress and a Jolly Roger on his chest, he had a bored almost lazy look on his face. The third one had vertically blue and white striped helmet with lots of holes, he had long blond hair that reached his lower back and some sort of arm guards on both his hands. Naruto knew him as well, that was 'Murder Machine' Killer, first mate of Kid pirates. Kid and his first mate, both were notorious for their body count, so much so that even Naruto had heard of their cruelty and he had just arrived in this world. Naruto thought about grabbing them by scuff of their necks and handing them over to the Marines, but the navy had a base not too far from there, they could do their job themselves, he thought. Plus what he heard next from the red haired man surprised him.

"Celestial dragons...! Slaves...human shops..." he heard Kid say, "Compared to the mighty and their 'pure hearts', the world's villains seem much more humane..." Kid let out a dark chuckle. "Scum rule the world and give birth to more scum. Don't they know that? We may mean to do harm, but we're sorta cute by comparison, aren't we Killer?"

"Definitely!" Killer agreed with his captain.

They must have felt his gaze on them, because both Kid and Killer turned their heads to look at him. So far Naruto had been standing so quiet, no one would have known he was there if they hadn't turned his way. Naruto met their gaze and Kid grinned at him. Naruto didn't say anything to them and just took a seat in the last row, just a few feet away from the Kid pirates. What he heard from Kid had definitely gotten his attention, for a man that killed for fun to call himself 'cute by comparison', he didn't know what to think of that. 'What do these celestial dragons really do?' Naruto thought to himself. From what he heard the celestial dragons weren't exactly benevolent rulers, they seemed greedy and arrogant but he didn't know they were this bad. 'Scum rule the world and give birth to more scum,' these words kept ringing in his head. The way Kid said that, Naruto couldn't let it go even if he wanted to. When he heard those things about the celestial dragons when he first arrived, Naruto thought of them as typical kings whose money and title had made them arrogant, but now he had began to think that maybe there was something more to it, much more.

Naruto's attention was drawn towards the stage when multicolored lights began to shine and a man who was dressed like a clown came on the stage with a mic in his hands. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience! The monthly human grand auction will now begin!!" The man yelled in the mic, "The auctioneer is of course this man! The walking super bazaar, Mr. Disco!"

Naruto watched closely as a man in long purple coat, silver hair, a pink hat and star-shaped goggles came on the stage. 'So that's Disco!' Naruto watched silently as people were sold like animals one by one. He half wanted to just go up there and beat the shit out of everyone, but he remained in his seat for the time being. He had already covered all exits, not a single person would leave that auction house as a slave, he'd make sure of it. Even in this world, slavery was frowned upon everywhere, except on Sabaody, here slavery was practiced openly, without fear of any repercussions whatsoever. Once he got rid of whoever that was pulling strings of Disco, it'll be over, at least he hoped it would be over, and he could go back to wandering this world without having it weighing on his consciousness. If he had left it as it was, he definitely wouldn't have been able to sleep at night.

A dancer named Pasia of South blue was to be auctioned next. That was when the door to the auction house was opened and Naruto's attention was drawn to the familiar chakra signatures that entered the auction house, 'What are they doing here?!' Naruto was surprised to see the see Straw Hats at a place like this, 'Are they here to buy people too? Was I wrong to think there were nice people?' Naruto wondered. He saw Nami, Chopper, Sanji and Franky, they had a weird looking guy with bandage on his forehead and a starfish wearing a hat with them but their captain and Zoro were nowhere to be seen. The arrived Straw Hats stood only a few feet away from him.

Just a few minutes later, the door of the auction house opened once again, this time a fat man in a white suit and a bubble helmet walked in, he had a chain in his hand that was connected to the collars of two young ladies in rather revealing dancer's clothes and net half masks from the nose down, they were followed by a man in dark suit and goggles and two guards in metal armours. 'Another celestial dragon!' Naruto watched the fat man walk to the front and take a seat beside the other celestial dragons. 'I'll deal with them in a little while,' he said to himself.

Naruto once again turned his attention back on the stage, people were getting sold one by one, a pirate captain that was about to be sold committed suicide on the stage by biting his own tongue. They hastily pulled the curtains after that and tried to play it off as a nosebleed.

"Ladies and gentleman, the product I'm about to introduce will make you forget this trouble in no time!!" Disco said in the mic, "It's our greatest star attraction!!" Just then, all the lights were dimmed and a silhouette appeared on the curtains behind Disco. "Behold this silhouette!! I know many of you have desired one of these! I won't say anymore, see for yourself!!"

When he saw the silhouette, Naruto was very glad that he had a mask on his face, otherwise people would have seen his slacked jaw. 'Holy crap that's a mermaid!!' In the tank, there was a green haired girl in a t-shirt that was fish from waist down, with pink scales and evrything. He'd found out a little about fishman island and knew there were mermaids living at the bottom of the ocean but this was the first time he was seeing one. Even though he knew they existed, seeing one for real was something else. He'd only heard about them in legends back home and in stories when he came here. He wasn't the only one awed by the mermaid, as soon as the silhouette appeared, the entire hall began to murmur excitedly. From the corner of his eyes, Naruto saw the Straw Hats tense up. Like they were afraid or nervous.

As soon as the mermaid was revealed, the fat man Naruto saw earlier stood up in his seat, "I BID 500 MILLION!! FIVE HUNDRED MILLION BERRIES!!!" the man yelled excitedly. The auction hall was abruptly silenced with that. 'You won't get even a hair of that mermaid if I have anything to say about it!" Naruto said in his mind. A few moments of silence passed over the hall when nobody even made a peep.

"Time's up!! Today's star attraction Camie the mermaid goes to the world noble saint Charlos for 500 million berries!" Disco announced. No one else even attempted to bid against such a high amount.

Naruto heard Kid chuckle, "That's how the world works. What a farce. Let's go!" Kid said.

Before he could move and grab the door though, it was blasted off it's hinges by something crashing in it at very high speed. That something turned out to be a screaming Luffy riding a fish alongside Zoro and some other guy, Naruto didn't know who the third one was.

"Couldn't you land a little better?" Luffy yelled at the man as soon as he got out of the wreckage.

"No! It's a flying fish! You said to dive in!!" the other man yelled back.

They had caused a ruckus and drawn everybody's attention, the hall began to murmur once again. Luffy saw the mermaid and smiled wide, "Camie, I was looking for you! I'm so glad I found you!!" Luffy made to run towards the stage but the weird looking guy that Naruto saw earlier come with Nami and the others tried to hold him back.

"No, stop Straw hat Luffy! What are you going to do?" the guy was saying.

"I'm gonna save Camie!!" Luffy tried to break free of the hold.

'So they are here to save that mermaid! Thanks for proving me right Straw Hat!' Naruto smiled behind the porcelain mask.

In their struggle, Luffy dragged the guy who was holding onto him tightly to the front with him and finally managed to get free. When Luffy ran for the stage, the guy that was trying to hold him slipped and revealed four more arms. They looked like arms of a octopus to Naruto. 'He must be from the fishman island too,' Naruto guessed.

As soon as people saw those extra octopus like hands, they began to freak out, some ladies started to scream while the men tried to get away from the octopus guy.

"A fishman how disgusting!!" someone shrieked.

"Why is a fish-man on land?!"

"Yuck! Why is he that colour?! Why does he have so many arms?!" one of the ladies there scrunched up her nose.

"I'm scared! I'm scared of their existence! Don't get any closer!!" another one cried.

"Go back to the sea, monster!" a random man yelled.

Naruto watched as the poor octopus guy tried to shirk away from everyone's gazes, his heart went out for the guy. Nobody deserved to be treated like a monster just for being different. The yelling and screaming was stopped momentarily with the sound of a gun shot. The stupid looking fat guy had a gun out and the octopus man was bleeding on the ground. The fat man dancing around the wounded guy.

"Hachi!!" he heard Nami yell from the sides, the straw hats had a look of horror on their faces, Nami had her hands to her mouth, Sanji seemed like he had forgotten there was a lit cigarette in his mouth. On the stage, the mermaid was beating away at the tank she was in, trying to somehow get free from there.

"Mwa ha ha ha I killed him! I killed the fish-man!" He started dancing on the spot like a overgrown child. Instead of feeling sympathy for a dying man, the people threw some more insulting comments his way, even going so far as to thanking the fat man for shooting him. Naruto decided he'd seen enough, he got up from his seat and began to walk down the stairs. At the same time, he saw Luffy coming up the stairs with murder in his eyes. Naruto slowed his pace to see what he would do, if he really had the guts to stand up to the celestial dragon for his friend, afterall crossing them was as good as summoning an admiral of the navy. After a brief conversation with the downed octopus man, Luffy did not disappoint him and proceeded towards the celestial dragon. The octopus man and the starfish were yelling at Luffy to stop, if he heard them he gave no sign of obliging. The celestial dragons tried to shoot Luffy as well but before he could move his finger to pull the trigger, Luffy's fist connected with his face and the celestial dragon was thrown across the auction hall and into the wall behind the last row.

Luffy turned to his friends and grinned apologetically, "Sorry guys, now that I punched him, a navy admiral will be here with battleships!"

Zoro who had almost drawn his own Shusui, sheathed it back, "Because you beat him first, I didn't get the chance to slice him."

Nami ran towards the downed Hachi to check up on him. Sanji just smiled and lit up a cigarette.

"We basically have no choice now!" Franky pointed out the obvious.

"I think the keys to Camie's collar are somewhere in the back. You go get it, I'll tend to Hachi's wounds." Chopper said as he too made towards Hachi.

"Charlos/ Brother Charlos!!" Naruto heard the two celestial dragons yell from their seats near the stage. "How dare you lowly commoners touch my son!"

"He made the celestial dragons mad! Run!" The people began to scream and tried to get out of the auction hall as quick as they could. It was chaos in the hall, people were running around trying to get to the closest exit.

The older celestial dragon pulled out his gun. "We're descended from the creators of this world! You'll see what happens when you mess with us!" He pulled his gun, but before he even knew what happened Sanji ran over to him and kicked it out of his hands.

"The brat has guts," Naruto heard Kurama say in his mind.

'Told you they were nice people!' Naruto smiled. He felt intense gaze on him, he turned his attention a few rows to the left, there he saw Trafalgar Law sitting with his crew seemingly enjoying himself if his grin was anything to go by. There was a polar bear in orange track suit with him and two other guys in white tracksuits and hats, one of the hats said 'Penguin'. Naruto changed his course and instead of going to the front, he went towards the the celestial dragon that was knocked out cold by Luffy. Naruto put a hand in his right pocket of his cloak and took out a small dark blue-green coloured toad with cream coloured legs and underbelly. The toad jumped from his hand and landed on the floor.

"Revert to your original size," Naruto told the toad. In an instant the small toad became fifteen feet tall and towered above everyone else present nearby. That was when he got the memories of one his clones, the two shadow clones had freed all the slaves that were in the cells and all that had been auctioned had their collars removed as well. The remaining shadow clone and Jean Bart were escorting the freed people to a nearby port with the help of another giant named Stansen. There was an old man with Stansen who declined the offer to come with the shadow clone and decided to stay back instead. He gave off the vibe of a hardened warrior, even though he tried to portray himself as an old man, he had multiple battle scars and was always on guard, Naruto noticed that almost instantly. The shadow clone let the old man be, thinking he could protect himself.

Naruto finished processing all the information he got and returned his attention once again to the task at hand. Four people in heavy metal armours ran towards him with spears in hands. "Stay away from saint Charlos!" one of them yelled.

Just as they got within ten feet of him, his toad swatted them away with a powerful swing of his tongue. The guards were sent flying away, knocked out cold. The noise drew attention of everyone that remained in the hall. "Take him with us," Naruto said to the toad. The giant toad wrapped its tongue around the unconscious celestial dragons and, in full view of everyone present there, swallowed him whole.

Naruto heard Eustass Kid's loud laughter among audible gasps. The straw hats were busy fighting off the guards, Zoro had already cut open the tank the mermaid was in. In the middle of the chaos another flying fish came crashing through the side of the wall. This time it was Robin, Brook and Usopp. Robin glided down with the help of wings made of hands, Brook was able to land gently because he was so light, but Usopp landed butt first on the older celestial dragon, driving him into the ground. Naruto almost laughed out at the comical scene. But sobered up when he saw the girl celestial dragon and Disco walk towards the mermaid, the girl had a gun in her hand.

Naruto jumped on the head of his summons, "Let's go save the mermaid," he said. The toad obeyed and crossed the auction in a single jump to land on the stage, near the mermaid's tank. The toad wrapped it's tongue around the girl and held her place.

"Waaahhh!!! How dare you inferior creatures touch a god?!! I'm the descendant of the creators of the world! Unhand me at once you filthy frog!!" she yelled at him and tried to break free of the tongue.

"A god huh? Interesting, we'll have to talk more. But first," Naruto turned his eyes to Disco who gulped and backed away. Naruto hopped down from the toad, "Disco, mind answering a simple question for me?"

"O-Of course," Disco said with a shaky voice.

Naruto walked closer and put a hand on Disco's shoulder, who was startled by the sudden movement, "Good man. Tell me, who owns this shop?"

"Mr. Doflamingo!" Disco said at once. In his eyes, the guy in the black cloak and white mask was insane, he had no problem lifting a hand on even a celestial dragon, just like the Straw Hats, he didn't want to see what he would to someone like him.

"The warlord?" Naruto tilted his head.

"Y-Yes. There's his Jolly Roger, see!!" Disco pointed out a crossed out smiley on the wall behind the stage.

'I had no idea that was a Jolly Roger, don't they usually have a skull and bones?' Naruto said in his mind. "Thank you! One more thing, from this day on, this slave shop will be closed forever."

"But Mr. Doflamingo will be angry with me if I close down this shop!" Disco tried to protest but a small dose of killing intent his way made him shut his mouth.

"Like I said, this shop will be closed forever. If not, I'll kill everyone involved here, starting with you!"

"Mr. Doflamingo will not accept that lying down!" the man tried to low-key threaten Naruto.

"Then that'll be the last mistake of his life. Pass along my message." Disco nodded. "One more thing," Naruto said. Before Disco could say 'what' Naruto punched him in the face hard enough to break his jaw.

"Unhand me at once you filth!" the girl screamed once again.

"You shout too much." Naruto said in an even tone. "Take her with us as well." he said and the toad swallowed her as well.

With that done his toad shrunk to the size small enough to fit in his pocket. Naruto then turned his attention towards the mermaid's tank which was sliced open by Zoro a few seconds ago. When she saw him coming towards her, the mermaid got scared and tried to get as far away from him in the tank as possible.

Just then, the wall behind the stage was blasted open and he felt some powerful chakra radiated in a wave for a brief second. Many people that were fighting in the hall fainted because of the wave of chakra. From the hole in the wall, the old man his shadow clone met earlier in the cells walked in.

"My, there's absolute chaos in here!" the old man said with a grin and took a swig from his flask. "Sorry boys, you're just pirates here for the show. But seeing how you withstood that, you're all quite strong!" the old man said looking at Law and Kid pirates. "Hello again, I thought you'd left?!" the old man said to Naruto.

"I had some business to take care of." he answered. Naruto turned to the mermaid, she was still frightened of him it seemed, his appearance didn't help the matter either, the dark cloak and grinning dog mask made him look scary to normal people. He put up his hands to show her that he meant no harm. The old man and everyone else was looking at him curiously. "I can take the collar off of you!" he said and extended an arm. After a couple of seconds of hesitation, Camie took the offered hand. Naruto pulled her out of the tank, supporting her with his one arm, seeing as she had no legs to stand on. He quickly formed some sand with his chakra and filled the keyhole of the collar. A moment later, the collar dropped to the ground with a clank. Before she could say anything, Naruto lifted the mermaid in his hands and body flickered over to the Straw Hats.

"Thanks mister!" Luffy said with a grin.

"No problem," Naruto replied in even tone, "They're your friends right?" he asked Camie. He got a brief nod from her as confirmation. "Then I'll leave you with them." He said as he put the mermaid on a seat by his right hand. Seeing as he had done what he was there to do, Naruto decided to leave. "Do you guys need any help getting away?" Naruto asked looking at Robin. She was pretty important for his mission, it would be very unfortunate if something were to happen to her. He didn't know if there was anyone else that could help him in this world.

"Nah, we can handle ourselves! We are not gonna get captured!" Luffy said as he adjusted his hat. Robin just raised a delicate eyebrow as he seemed to ask her specifically, like he wanted something from her. She became immediately on guard. Naruto nodded but still decided to remain around just in case. There was an admiral coming after all.

Just as they thought everything had quieted down for a second, they heard some marines speaking in a loudspeaker, "RELEASE THE ROSWALD FAMILY RIGHT NOW!!" the man was saying and everyone looked at Naruto, who gave no outward sign of even hearing that. "THE ADMIRAL WILL ARRIVE SOON SO WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY!! WE WON'T BE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENS, ROOKIES!!" the man with the loudspeaker finished his announcement.

Kid was the first one to respond, "It was entertaining, I got no complaints!" Kid grinned as he began to walk towards the exit, "But I don't wanna deal with an admiral! The longer we wait, the more marines will get here. I'll go first, I'll save you guys!" he said as he waved over his shoulder.

Both Law and Luffy's heads snapped in the direction of Eustass Kid when he said that. Without saying a word they both followed Kid out, apparently eager to prove that they didn't need anyone's help in dealing with the marines outside.

"They're so childish," Nami shook her head. She knew Luffy would do something like that, but it didn't mean she was happy about it. Franky lifted Camie and the old man was supporting the fishman Hachi, who was still in pain.

Zoro had the opposite look on the situation than Nami, "Let's follow them outside, We'll bust right through their lines!" he said with a smile.

"All right," Sanji looked eager as well. Robin and Brook were right behind them.

Before they went out, Rayleigh stopped them for a moment, "Let's meet at grove 13 if we get seperated." he said as he supported Hachi with one arm.

"Sure!" Zoro was the first one answer. Getting deadpan looks from his fellow Straw Hats.

"You definitely will not get there if we get seperated!" Usopp was the one to put words what everyone was thinking.

Once outside, Zoro, Sanji, Chopper and Usopp formed a perimeter around Rayleigh and Franky who were carrying Camie and Hachi respectively. Robin was a little behind acting as support. She was using her ability to trip and immobilise the marines while the others fought more directly. Naruto was behind the group, keeping a close eye on them. Usopp used various trick shots with his unusual slingshot, Nami had an interesting weapon that caught his eye, she shot a lighting bolt from it at the marines but the rod didn't use any chakra, just some complex mechanism to create lighting clouds. It didn't take long for the combined effort of the Straw Hats, Trafalgar Law and Eustass Kid to clear the blockade. They immediately went their own ways after that, Straw Hats following Rayleigh to grove 13. Naruto decided to go back to the hotel room and interview his hostages.

In the midst of the chaos, no one saw him drop the transformation jutsu. Naruto's clone was back to it's original look. With marines running after pirates and pirates running away scared because of the imminent arrival of the admiral, Naruto managed to merge with the crowd and ran towards the hotel district. He acted as normal as he could, careful not to run very fast and acting scared, he managed to fool the oncoming horde of marines and pass right through them.

As foolproof as his exit strategy was it had one drawback, it took him a while to be back at his hotel. Who knew running at civilian speeds was such a chore! Things were a bit quiet back at the hotel district, with few pirates trying to blend in with common tourist to hide from the frantic marines. Naruto easily made it back to his room without much trouble. He pulled the toad from his pocket and put it on the table. He was about to command it to expand so he could enter it's stomach and talk to his hostages, that when he noticed a huge chakra signature near the straw hats. Could it be the admiral? If it was, then theh were in some serious trouble. Not to mention, it'd be really bad if something were to happen to Robin.

---

With Straw Hats, sometime later at Grove 12

"We can't go together! Split up!" Luffy yelled as ge was hit with shockwave of Kuma's laser attack. Robin had called him Kuma, but they had no idea who or what that thing even was. It was tough like steel, even had steel body but his skin still bled blood. Franky had said that it was a cyborg, a human modified with the help of machines and made to look like an exact copy of kuma for whatever reason. Sanji had read 'PX-4' written on the defeated cyborg, he had guessed that there were at least four copies of these things. Whatever they were, it had taken everything they had to defeat just one, and even before they could take a breather after their victory another one exactly like the one they defeated had arrived, and not alone this time.

There was a large man accompanying this 'Kuma', he looked like a sumo wrestler, carried a huge axe and his outfit consisted of only an apron like red shirt with three tomoes on the stomach and a large red and white rope tied around his waist, that's it. He also had a scar running from his left eye to the corner of his mouth. He had introduced himself as Sentomaru earlier by mistake.

The Straw Hats were spent, everyone was hurt, they were tired and there was an admiral on the mangrove. If they stuck together, everyone would get captured. Thus it fell to the captain, Luffy to make sure that everyone made out of there safely. So he had decided to split up and go into hiding for the time being. When he had a found a moment, he got Zoro and Sanji together, "The three of us should go separately." Luffy told them, if Kuma and Sentomaru happened to chase either of their groups, Sanji and Zoro would be able keep their friends safe, Luffy thought. They both agreed.

"Are you going to be all right?" Sanji asked Zoro, getting an irritated 'shut up' from the green haired swordsman.

Naturally Sanji went with Nami, "Nami!! I'll protect you even if it kills me!!" he said half dancing, half running with hearts in his eyes.

"Great, thanks! Let's go!" Nami said, she was used to Sanji's flirting by now.

"If you're willing to risk your life, be the decoy for all of us!" Franky had tagged along with them.

"Ladies only, idiot! You're on your own, underwear-man!" Sanji said with a mocking face. The group of Sanji, Nami and Franky was headed in the direction of amusement park.

Zoro had picked up Usopp on his back so they could get away quickly, "Zoro, protect me as hard as you can! Pleease!" Usopp practically begged the first mate of Straw Hats.

"Rest assured I'll cover for you!" Brook had decided to go with Zoro. The group of Usopp, Zoro and Brook was running towards the tourist district.

"Let's go! We'll go that way!" Luffy said to Robin and Chopper as he pointed towards the shipyards district. He had no idea what was in that direction, but as long as it was away from the navy guys and his friends were safe, that's all that mattered to him.

"Everyone, we'll meet in three days at Sunny!!" Luffy yelled at the top of his lungs so his friends could hear him.

"Special attack- super smoke star!!" Usopp created a large smokescreen to cover their retreat.

They must gotten only twenty steps away when Luffy heard another explosion from Kuma's laser, the sound came from the direction of Sanji's group, "He went over there! Are they going to be okay?" Luffy wondered out loud.

"You should worry about yourself!" Sentomaru said as he blocked Luffy's path.

Without any second thoughts, Luffy threw a 'gum gum gatling' his way. But the man was able to predict him precisely and Luffy received a powerful blow from Sentomaru. He hadn't even touched Luffy, but was still able to damage him despite his rubber body. Another open palm strike from Sentomaru sent Luffy crashing through a nearby wall. His blunt attacks were hurting him but Luffy had no time to wonder about the reason behind it, he saw a large explosion in the direction Zoro had went in. Zoro was strong but the explosion still made him worry about his safety.

"You're late! You finally made it over, old man Kizaru!" Sentomaru looked pretty annoyed at the latest arrival on the scene.

"Kizaru?!", as soon as she heard the name, Robin's eyes became as wide as dinner plates. It seemed like only yesterday when they had met Aokiji and escaped a certain death. It was too soon to encounter another monster like Aokiji. If it was up to her, Robin would have prefered to go all her life without meeting another admiral. "Watch out! That man is a Navy admiral!" she shouted the warning for her crew.

"...It's already too late!" admiral Kizaru said in a lazy tone as he stood towering over Zoro, who was lying face down near his feet. A small but powerful lazer beam had cut through his belly like hot knife through butter.

Zoro was injured to the point where he could no longer move from his spot. He could just lie down and cough some blood. There was no way he could get out of the way to avoid the next hit, Kizaru knew that from just a look at him. "Zoro the pirate hunter, with a bounty of 120 million, it took just one hit to knock you out. You must be very tired! It's okay, you can rest now!" Kizaru drawled and lifted his shining leg to crush Zoro.

"Zoro!!" Luffy yelled in worry, he knew he wouldn't get there in time to save Zoro, so he was left helpless and could only watch as his friend was about to get seriously hurt right in front of his eyes. "Zoro's in trouble!!!"

Nami had covered her mouth with her hands, she knew how badly hurt they all were, another beam attack from that range would definitely kill Zoro. Tears had already gathered in her eyes. Brook and Usopp were attacking the admiral but all of their attack went right though the man, Kizaru wasn't even paying them attention as he readied his attack and stomped down on the barely conscious Zoro. Before his leg could make contact though, a black blur picked up the pirate hunter and moved him to safety. Since there was no target, Kizaru cancelled his attack.

The Straw Hats were left utterly surprised as many of them didn't even see what had happened to Zoro. Only Luffy, Robin and Sanji were able to somewhat track the movement of the guy in black cloak who had picked up Zoro and moved him out of harm's way. It took a moment for them recognise the identity of the cloaked person as the guy they had met just earlier that day.

Nearby, Naruto had helped Zoro sit up against a wall. The guy was beaten up thoroughly, it was a miracle that he was still conscious. Naruto quickly pulled out a brown pill from his pocket, "Hey pirate hunter, open up!" he said.

Zoro was not going to be cooperative, Naruto realised, so he forced the pill in Zoro mouth and made him swallow. A couple of seconds later, a revitalized glint appeared in Zoro's eyes and he stood up from his seated position, "What did you feed me?! I feel like I can fight an army by myself!"

"A soldier pill. Eating one gives you the energy to fight for three days straight. You're high on adrenaline but your body is still injured, I can't do anything about that right now." Naruto told Zoro, "Take your crew and get out of here! Leave the admiral to me." Naruto had been watching Kizaru through the corner of his eye the whole time, the admiral had made no move attack him, he was just watching Naruto with amusement in his eyes.

'He doesn't show any concern about us showing up here, either he's as careless as he looks, or he's so powerful that he doesn't even register us as a threat!' Naruto heard Kurama's deep voice in his mind.

'It's the later.' Naruto replied with a little frown, 'He has that look in his eyes.'

"Does that mean we're going to let loose a litttle for once?" Kurama grinned.

'Maybe a little.'I'm still just a clone, you know.' Naruto replied.

"So you're the one that took those two celestial dragons as hostages." Kizaru said as he fixed his glasses, report said that a man in black cloak and white mask was the kidnapper, and he fit the description perfectly. "Sentomaru has been looking all over for you."

"Guilty. Don't worry though, I haven't killed those two yet. You're free to try and take them back." Kizaru wasn't making his move yet, and stalling for time could only be good for him, as it would make escape of Straw Hats easier. Zoro had picked up Usopp once again and was rallying the rest of the crew in hasty retreat. Too bad, Kizaru had no intention of letting them get away, he just pointed his index finger in their direction and shot a powerful beam. Fortunately, Naruto had sensed Kizaru build chakra in his index finger and before the admiral could lift the finger and shoot the beam, Naruto's whole body was covered in Kurama's golden chakra with black line connecting spiral markings on his chest and between his shoulder blades. His eyes were already golden with cross shaped pupils, before he even got here.

In his new form, Naruto was able to move between the laser attack and the Straw Hats, he extended his gloved right hand and formed a giant rasengan to block the attack. The sound of explosion behind them made the fleeing Straw Hats stop in their tracks to look behind them.

"Leave it to him, go go go go!!!" Luffy yelled, his friends didn't need to be told twice.

Back with Kizaru, when the explosion cleared, he was more amused than surprised, "Oooh not a scratch on you eh?! That's scary!" Kizaru drawled, his tone of speaking and actual words contradicted each other. "Tell me, have you ever been hit at the speed of light?" Kizaru asked before seemingly vanishing from the sight. He aimed his light speed kick at left side of Naruto's face from behind. But, to his surprise, Naruto ducked at the last moment to avoid the blow.

"No." Naruto cheekily replied to the admiral's earlier question. He body flickered away to get some distance. "And I never will if you attack like that!"

"Don't get cocky just because you managed to dodge a single hit!" Kizaru grinned and formed a big sword made out of light. "As an admiral of the navy, it is my duty to protect celestial dragons, I'm gonna have to bring you in."

"Feel free to try!" Naruto said as he gathered some chakra in the palm of his hand. A moment later the sound of a thousand birds chirping filled the air as he formed the chidori. But he didn't stop there, he changed the shape of the lightning into a long a sharp blade akin to a real sword. Normally he'd have fought with his fists but he was just a shadow clone, taking damage was not an option. So he'd have to use ranged attacks for this one.

Naruto took up his position between the admiral and the direction straw hats went in. Kizaru dashed towards him with speed only Naruto could follow, and aimed a slash a Naruto's neck, intending to take his head off in one shot. Naruto infused his lightning sword with massive amount of nature energy and blocked the attack. He was surprised when the sword made of light actually stopped. Since it was made of light, Naruto had expected it to get past his guard and was fully prepared to get out of the way if that happened. But that was not necessary as the sword appeared to be a solid construct. Naruto pulled back and swung his sword at Kizaru's midsection, which was blocked almost lazily by the admiral. The two of them each took a step back and charged each other once again. Kizaru would only go for his head while Naruto would attempt to get his legs or body. This went on for a full minute with neither one managing to hit their opponent. The two were just blurs for the onlookers the whole time.

"I should have known it wouldn't be that easy to hit an admiral!" Naruto said out loud when he pulled away to get some distance.

"Holding your own against me for an entire minute, you should be proud of yourself, whoever you are!" Kizaru had a curious glint in his eyes as he adjusted his glasses. "You're by far the fastest man I've fought." Kizaru praised but seemed to be annoyed by that fact. What he said was true, Naruto was the fastest guy he had gone up against so far in his long and illustrious career as a marine. Everyone that fought Kizaru had to have very good observation haki or they wouldn't even last a few seconds against him, but Naruto was keeping up with his speed without using any kind of haki that he could sense. Kizaru was used to being the fastest and he could feel his opponent was holding back, well so was he but he was an admiral of the navy; for some random nobody to match him for speed was a big deal, he guessed that the masked guy would be as fast as him if they both went all out. Kizaru could only imagine what this guy could do if he was trained in haki. "Alas, that won't be enough."

Naruto agreed, only being fast won't be enough to win against the admiral, he'd have to dig in his bag of tricks. 'Alright, if he wants to play serious, then let's get serious!' Naruto created two shadow clones, all three of them had different stances as they got ready for another round with the admiral.

"Oooh you can make copies of yourself eh?! Scary!" the admiral said mockingly, showing no concern even if two identical clones of Naruto would fight besides the original now. Kizaru waited for him to attack, the original headed straight for the target with a fairly straightforward attack, the clones, however, leaped through the air in the shape of a crescent moon, their speed so great that it left after images, both landing behind Kizaru in his blind spot.

'Hidden Leaf style: Crescent Moon Dance!', the original Naruto brought down his sword vertically at Kizaru's head, one shadow clone aimed at the nape from behind while the other attacked the back, all three attacks landed at the same time. Kizaru blocked the frontal attack but even if he had sensed the attacks from behind, he could block only one at a time. The lightning blade combined with nature energy around the sword blasted Kizaru's head off, with the second clone cutting clean through the midsection. Naruto jumped back and watched the headless body of the admiral stand there as if nothing happened to it at all. 'Did I kill him?!' Naruto thought. As fast as the admiral was, Naruto expected Kizaru to move out of the way before his clones could trap him and even then he didn't expect the admiral to go down that easy. A couple of seconds later, light glimmered where Kizaru's head was supposed to be and reformed the head. Even the midsection joined itself together without any problem.

'Okay what the hell was that! How can he regenerate like that?!' Naruto thought to himself in half surprise and half awe. "Okay I gotta ask, how are you not dead?!" Naruto asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Did you really think an ordinary attack like that could kill me?!" Kizaru tilted his head, "I'm a logia, rookie. I ate the glint-glint fruit and became a light-human! You can't win against me!"

"You shouldn't have told me that!" Naruto said confidently, the admiral just shrugged. He sounded confident but inside he was racking his brain to find out some way to defeat a guy made of light. 'You got anything?' he asked Kurama when he couldn't think of anything.

Before Kurama could answer, Naruto had to get out of the way of a horizontal slash from the light sword. Kizaru didn't let up as he followed up with back to back attacks, Naruto dodged some of them, some he blocked with his own sword. Kizaru's aimed another horizontal slash at his neck, when Naruto blocked it with his lightning blade, Kizaru's foot shone bright yellow for a moment and he let fly his light speed kick at Naruto's head. If Naruto tried to move, the blocked sword would break his guard and take his head off, and if he stayed as he was, Kizaru's kick would do the same. He had to get out of the way somehow.

Naruto channeled some chakra at his feet, since he wasn't on normal ground he couldn't use 'Hidden Mole Jutsu', he had to improvise. 'Okay it's now or never,' he channeled wood release for the first time in his life and sank down in the root of Yarukiman mangrove.

"We can't hit him with normal attacks."

'Wow, that's all you got?!'

"Shut up and listen, we can't hit him, that means our only option left now is to seal him. Keep him busy for as long as you can, I'll contact the Tanuki." Kurama clapped his hands together to focus.

'I get it! Leave it to me!' as soon as Naruto finished that sentence inside his mind, he had to get out of the way of a rain of laser attacks. He had been moving around in the root, hoping to get the jump on Kizaru but the admiral somehow knew exactly where he was. The root was shredded by that attack, Naruto had to go into the trunk of the tree to avoid the onslaught. That was when Naruto heard Shukaku in his mind scape.

"Hey Uzumaki, the fox says you need my cursed markings to seal light, the hell did you get yourself into that new world."

'It's a long story, the guy I'm fighting can turn his body into light to avoid damage. So I need your help, there's no one better than you at sealing!' Naruto praised the one tailed Shukaku. The tailed beast had a bit of an ego, a few sweet words praising his ability could get him agree to help a lot quicker. He said that to flatter the tailed beast but it was true, although Naruto was good sealing jutsu, he wasn't that good yet and he would need a seal that could adjust itself to trap the fluctuating light. Thus the need for Shukaku.

"What? Aren't you the strongest shinobi in history?! Can't you do anything by yourself?! Just because old man six paths gave you powers doesn't mean you can boss me around you brat!"

'I'm not bossing you around buddy, I'm requesting your help. I'll owe you one.'

Shukaku thought about it for a moment before agreeing, having Naruto in his debt would be very useful. Plus he could ask for Ninetails' weakness. "Deal. I'll help you this time."

'Thanks Shukaku!'

Outside, Kizaru's right foot lit up with bright yellow light before he fired a powerful beam at the tree. Naruto had sensed Kizaru gather large amount of energy and got out of the trunk just in time. Kizaru's beam hit the mark, destroying the trunk easily in one shot. The tree, having lost its support, toppled over in the direction of navy men who had formed a perimeter around the two fighters. The navy men panicked and hurried to get away from the falling tree to avoid getting crushed.

Naruto watched the scene with anger in his eyes, "The hell are you doing?!! You wanna kill your own men?!!" Naruto snapped at the admiral. The lack of concern from the admiral about the lives of his own men rubbed him the wrong way. It went against everything he believed in, against how he was raised. Of it was pirates killing each other he could understand, but the supposedly good guys acting this way wasn't acceptable.

"I guess I got a little carried away!" Kizaru drawled out. "Besides, no one got hurt, did they?"

Naruto gritted his teeth. "Alright, let's try this again!"

Naruto created two more clones and all three of them vanished in golden blurs, they coordinated the same maneuver as the 'Crescent moon dance', with the original leading from the front while the clones attacked from Kizaru's blind spots simultaneously. Once again Kizaru blocked the frontal attack but he didn't let his guard down, he didn't think his opponent would use the same attack twice if it didn't work the first time. But then again, unless that guy learnt haki in the last two minutes, there was nothing the masked guy could do actually harm him. If he sensed haki, he'd get out of the way, Kizaru thought.

Naruto repeated his Crescent moon dance with same effect as before. Kizaru's head was blasted by nature energy and midsection was sliced open. A moment later, Kizaru had started to reform with light, same as before. But this time, Naruto formed a swirling ball of sand in his hand with cursed seal markings on the shell.

'Magnet Style: Rasengan!'

The instant Kizaru reformed, Naruto slammed the attack right in his gut, grinding away and forcing Kizaru to turn that part of his body into light. For a moment, nothing happened, Kizaru thinking of it as another powerful but futile attack. But before he could get any smartass comment out of his mouth, the markings on the shell started to spread on his body and the admiral felt like he was frozen in place. He tried to change his whole body into light and escape but the cursed markings would change their size and shape accordingly to not let that light get away.

"Relax admiral, you won't be going anywhere for the next few minutes." Naruto had both of his arms firmly placed on the admiral so they could be in direct contact with the cursed markings.

"You still can't kill me you know!" Kizaru struggled to get the words out. The attack didn't use haki but was still able be keep a logia user in one place with powerful binding, even after experiencing it, it was hard for him to believe. He was definitely going to warn the fleet admiral about this guy.

"I'm not trying to kill you," Naruto said with a shrug of his shoulders, "I was only buying some time in case you didn't notice."

Ironically, it was at that moment that Naruto sensed the Straw Hats fly away from the archipelago at very high speeds. And he knew for sure that none of the crew had the ability fly at all. In fact no one he had seen so far had the ability to fly at such high speeds, the closest thing he could remember was the that guy on Thriller Bark after his encounter with the giant Oars. His eyes widened when he came to the realisation. 'Shit!!!' The admiral had taken all his focus and he couldn't get the straw hats to safety in time. He just hoped they were alive. The admiral was still struggling away, there was no point in keeping his immobilised anymore. The clone dismissed itself, making the cursed markings disappear with him.

---

Thank you for reading!

I apologize for any grammar and spelling mistakes in the chapter, I tried to write as accurately as possible but I'm sure some have slipped my notice. This chapter was a lot harder to get down than it would seem, a lot of the times I hit a roadblock and couldn't get the next paragraph out. But I finally finished the chapter and already started a new one. Naruto will go to Marijoa next.

P.S.- I'll explain in next chapter why nature energy can hit a logia but can't damage it. Thanks!

Have a nice day!