I made some edits to previous chapters recently so you should read those again before you proceed with this one. This chapter is a bit shorter than the rest, sorry about that. I was stuck on this a long time and I had to move the last two paragraphs to the next chapter because they changed the theme of this chapter completely. I hope you'll enjoy this one too. Thank you for your kind words on the previous chapters.
"Okay, when do you think they are gonna stop??" asked a pink haired young man to his friend as they watched their mentor and a stranger brawling it out at the beach. It had been a while since they'd arrived here to inform the vice admiral of the mayhem at Sabaody. And since Luffy was again in the middle of it, Coby was sure Garp would want to hear about it.
"I seriously don't know!" replied his friend and partner, a blond haired young man named Helmeppo. The sounds of fists clashing were reverberating through the air like booms of thunder. Both young marines had never seen their master go at it like this before, and to think they thought Garp was being hard on them when they sparred!!
"Looks like it is about to conclude." Bogard, Garp's right hand man said from Coby's right. And sure enough, Vice admiral and mysterious blond stranger stopped punching the shit out of each other.
"Amazing! I never thought there was someone could go toe to toe with the hero of the marines!!" even after the match concluded, Coby still couldn't take his eyes off of the two of them. And what was even more astonishing, the vice admiral was the one that looked more tired, his breathing was heavier than the blond strangers. And stranger still looked like he could go for a few more rounds. Both men were grinning like they just had the time of their lives!
Bogard was the one who began walking towards the pair, Coby and Helmeppo dutifully following. When they were close enough they could hear their conversion clearly.
"You're certainly strong!" They heard the vice admiral praise his opponent. "For a brat that is!"
"You're not bad yourself, for an old man!" came the cheeky reply. And both men laughed loudly. That was when they finally paid attention to the newly arrived trio.
"Coby, Helmeppo!"
"Yes, sir!" both young marines stood at the attention amd saluted their superior as if a switch was flipped.
"Meet our new recruit! Um...What was your name again??!" the old man scartchd his beard trying to remember his name.
Far from taking it to heart that his name was already forgotten, Naruto beamed at the young men, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Nice to meet you!"
"Hello/Hi!" Coby and Helmeppo greeted him.
Naruto turned to face his examiner again, "So, does that mean I pass??"
"Yeah, We could use a fighter like you." Garp said in complete seriousness. "You could even become an admiral in the future if you were trained to use Haki!" In complete honesty, Garp was still trying to comprehend how someone so young managed to match him fist for fist without using a shred of haki. Granted the hero of the marines was far from going all out, he just used basic armament haki, not even conquerors. But still it was quite amazing to say the least. All throughout the match both men equally matched, although there was a point where the blond became distracted all of a sudden, his attention going towards the sea. It almost cost him a few broken teeth and shattered ribs but he managed to get his act together in time. Maybe a little more experience and he'd learn to focus better.
"What's Haki??" the blond asked.
"Bwahahahaha!!!" the vice admiral laughed again. "I'll teach you later!" To think this young man had no idea what haki was.
"Alright, thanks! So what position do I get?" From his words earlier, admiral was out but maybe Vice admiral wouldn't be so bad.
"Hm...well I think you'd make a great vice admiral but you should wet your feet first! Haki is required for you to become vice admiral. You can get Rear admiral for now!" Well it was better than nothing, he'd take what he could get.
"Alright I'll take it!" The blond smile from ear to ear.
Meanwhile Coby and Helmeppo were watching the scene unfold infront of their eyes with their jaws open. Someone was made a rear admiral right in front of their eyes!
"Well, now that's outta the way!" Garp stretched both his arms above his head and let out a yawn. "Let's go eat, I'm extra hungry tonight!"
Indeed, it was night by now. The sun had already sunk behind the horizen. They were fighting for so long, they'd lost track of time.
"Ah thank you for the offer but I have to go back to my hotel! All my stuff is in my room!" It had been a while since his clone had dispelled, leaving him the memories of everything that happened on the archipelago. Those two celestial dragons were still in the stomach of his toad, he really wanted to talk to them as soon as possible.
"Shame, the chefs of HQ make really delicious meat!"
"Maybe some other time!"
"Just make sure to report to me tomorrow at eight in the morning so we can officially register you!"
"Yes, sir!" Naruto mimicked the salute of navy guys he'd seen earlier and ran for his boat, leaving behind the vice admiral and his men.
The four of them watched him go from their spot. Finally, Garp picked up his jacket from the ground and draped over his shoulder.
"Who was that, sir??" It was impossible for Coby to contain his curiosity at this point. First a guy fights on par with the Vice admiral Garp and gets the position of rear admiral! Who wouldn't be curious??!
"Uzumaki Naruto, a pirate hunter who captured 'Mad Monk' Urouge who had a bounty of 108 million! Apparently he wanted to join the navy!" it was Bogard who had answered for his superior.
"Kid's interesting! Wouldn't you say Bogard?!" Garp said as he led their party back to the HQ.
"Absolutely, sir! He didn't use any kind of haki but still fought so well! Did he perhaps have a devil fruit?"
"If he did, he didn't use it!" Garp picked his ear with his pinky. "By the way, what are you two doing here? I gave the rest of the day off, didn't I??"
As soon as Garp said that, Coby's eyes widened as he remembered why he was actually there in the first place. To think that he almost forgot something so important! "Sir, there's report from Sabaody! Luffy attacked a celestial dragon and admiral Kizaru was sent there to bring him in! There was someone else there too, he was masked and he kidnapped two celestial dragons!! It's emergency, many of the troops are being deployed at the archipelago!" Coby said everything in one breath. Practically huffing at the end.
"Did Kizaru catch Luffy??" Garp asked.
"Um...no. Apparently the masked man interrupted and Luffy's whole crew vanished!"
"Bwahahahaha!!!" despite the situation that was his only response. "I hope they have beef left!" he said with a grin. Leaving both of his young apprentices flabbergasted with his attitude towards such a serious situation. No one had ever attacked a celestial dragon before! Like, ever! In recent memory, Fisher Tiger was the only person to ever defy them. And vice admiral was acting like it was just another day at the office!
Fleet Admiral's Office, Navy HQ-
In the large office of the Fleet Admiral, two old friends were sitting at the table, putting final touches to their plans for the upcoming war. Fleet admiral Sengoku had thought all of his preparations were complete but out of nowhere, today a certain wildcard had appeared. Thus this extra meeting to discuss the potential impact of the that said wildcard should he decide to interrupt the war.
"So, he can make giant toads appear out of nowhere instead of transforming like any other zoan type fruit user, he can make a sword out of lightning and is a good enough swordsman to fight toe-to-toe with Kizaru while matching him for speed, can make at least two copies of himself, can travel underground, he can immobilise even a skilled logia user without even using haki and is durable enough to tank Kizaru's laser head on without so much as a scratch on him!" Tsuru read out the list of abilities Sengoku had written down, she let out a long sigh and put a hand to her temple, "Are you sure these are abilities of a single man?! Maybe there were more than one there, one guy that can make toads appear from nowhere, another one that can travel underground." Even as she said it, it was more of a hope than anything. Because the other possibilities just didn't make sense, no fruit could give so many powers to one person, no one could eat more than two fruits and there was no way other than devil fruits to gain abilities like these that she knew of.
"Borsalino says it was just one man that did all of this." Sengoku said, sounding not happy at all at his own words. The incident was a disaster, there was no other way to put it. Sure, Kizaru captured a lot of pirates on the archipelago out of frustration, but that was too little too late. The masked man's toad had already ate the two celestial dragons of Roswald family, the man had confessed to Kizaru that the celestial dragons were alive but Sengoku wasn't sure if that was better or worse.
"What did Vegapunk say?" Vegapunk was the foremost expert on all things devil fruits, Tsuru was hoping that he would have answers to their questions and maybe a solution as well, but even she knew that was highly unlikely. But one could hope.
"He told me that it might theoretically be possible to gain multiple devil fruit powers by manipulating the lineage factor, but even he hadn't hadn't tried messing with it yet. It's beyond even him at this point!"
Shock was clear on the experienced old face of the Great Advisor, "You mean to tell me that there's someone out there that surpassed even Vegapunk in the area of lineage factor that was just discovered by the man himself?!"
Just a solemn nod of the Fleet Admiral's was her answer. "And even he has no explanation about the toad, says it might be a special awakening or something."
Tsuru let out a long sigh, "Guessing the source of that masked man's abilities isn't going to get us anywhere!" she said finally, "In war, we have to hope for the best and prepare for the worst."
"The worst would be, the masked man fights for Whitebeard." At a normal glance, based on his actions one would have thought that the masked man was a member of the revolutionary army, but the navy had never heard of him before and also he didn't fit their M.O- he didn't fly the revolutionary flag, neither did he try to rally the people against the world government. He just came in, did what he wanted and left. They had no idea who he was working for, or if he was acting on his own accord, but it was highly likely that he was Whitebeard's trump card, a way to distract their forces just before the battle. Whitebeard certainly had the cunning to orchestrate something like this and both Tsuru and Sengoku knew that! if Edward Newgate was really behind this then the enemy had already made their move before the battle even began. On top of that, the masked man was a complete and total wildcard with powers they never heard of and they had to calculate every possible situation that would arrive because of this new mystery man.
"In that case, we'll assign one of the admirals to take him down. Either Kuzan or Sakazuki." Just like Tsuru said, Sengoku began to prepare for the worst, "If, for some some reason, all of the admirals are tied up then either Momousagi or Chaton will go after him." Sengoku had already drawn a rough map of Marineford bay and was putting crosses on where the admiral and vice-admirals would be stationed. He had moved both Momousagi and Chaton so that they were a lot closer to the execution platform now.
Tsuru nodded in approval of the plan, of course this extra precaution was If the masked guy was a member of the Whitebeard pirates, but still it was better to be prepared. "Kuzan would be the better choice to engage him first, we'll need Sakazuki and Borsalino to focus on Whitebeard." Thus the two greatest strategic mind of the Navy began to finalise the last details of the war that could change the whole world.
With Naruto-
The two hostages were brought out of their slumber by a bath of bucket full of ice cold water. The siblings, woken up abruptly began to scream at the top of their lungs, clutching each other for support like a boogeyman was coming to get them. Which was true, from their point of view.
"Relax, It's just water." Naruto said calmly, once again in his ANBU gear. He tapped his foot and the flesh at his feet rose and formed a makeshift chair. The two hostages were downright shivering at this point. "How are you two holding up??" he asked like he was catching up with some old friends or something. The brother and sister were still holding onto each other for dear life.
The girl gathered a little courage and pointed a shaky finger at him, "Y-you y-you'll never get away with this!! They'll send an admiral any minute now!!"
"Y-yeah you'll be a dead man if you don't let us go right now!!" her ugly brother too spoke up in support.
Naruto scoffed, "Should you really be making threats right now? Given your situation, you should start begging for your life!" He said in an even tone, sending a shiver down their spine. "Oh by the way, I forgot to mention, they already sent an admiral! He went home empty handed!" When they heard that, both of them turned pale as a ghost. It was their last hope, their one bargaining chip. And it was already gone. Again, they both began to wail at the top of their lungs.
Naruto fought back the urge to stuff his ears win his fingers, "Alright shut up!" they continued to shout for their father, CP0 and all kinds of things. "I said, SHUT UP!!" both of them clamped their hands on their mouth, their tears were still flowing though and they were still scared shitless.
"Thats better. Now, if you behave and answer my question I'll let you go! How's that sound?"
"Anything, anything!! Please don't kill us! We'll tell you what you want to know!" the girl was frantic to the point Naruto could barely make out her words.
"Good. Now first, you called yourself a god back at the auction house, if I remember correctly." Naruto pointed a finger at the girl. She nodded. "Why do you call yourself a god?? Is there something special about your bloodline? Your ancestors??" he asked.
"Yes!" the girl replied, immediately drawing Naruto's curiosity. "We are descended from the twenty kings that built the world 800 years ago!"
"Kings? Not gods?"
"They were kings first, but we are gods now because our rule is supreme! There's no one above us." So it was just a superficial title. Just like the one on Skypiea. Naruto controlled his groan. To think that he hoped they were descendents or the Otsutsuki or something! But in reality these stupid shits had their heads so far up their asses that they were just calling themselves gods and not because they were actual gods. There was so much wrong with that mentality but Naruto decided to leave it for now.
"Next question, why were you buying slaves? You are the rulers of this world aren't you? Isn't it your responsibility to look after the people, rather than use them as slaves?"
"Like my sister said, we are gods descended from the twenty kings who formed the world government. Our word is divine law. Our ancestors built this world as it is today, that means we can do as we please!" Again with the twenty kings stuff! Naruto almost slammed his hand on his face. Those twenty kings formed the WG 800 years ago and these shitheads were still bragging about it today!!
"So the descended of all twenty kings rule from Marijoa?"
"Yes. But we leave day to day duties to the Five Elders in Pangaea castle." Naruto liked that they were talking with just a small threat. He was glad he didn't have to resort to torture of anything because frankly, he sucked at torturing people. He was horrible at it.
"And the last question, how many slaves do you have right now??"
"Father has his pirate captain collection and a few fishmen. Big brother Charlos has eight wives right now at home plus a few human slaves. And I have a dozen slaves, all of whom are artists." the girl answered in a hurry. Naruto could see the hope in her eyes that she'd eb free after she asked this last question.
Naruto got up from his sit and the flesh of he toad sunk back to its original shape. "Get up!" he ordered and they both hastily scrambled to their feet. As soon as they were standing, Naruto hit them in the back of the head, putting them into unconscious sleep.
He left both the celestial dragons in the stomach of the toad and came out of it alone. "Stay here for a few more hours. After that go dump them somewhere near the navy base of the archipelago." He told his toad.
Grove 20, Sabaody Archipelago-
"I'm sorry sir, but the culprit has vanished since he fought admiral Kizaru, we don't have any lead about his whereabouts." said a man in a white suit and a long white coat on his shoulders. He had a white bowler hat on his head and white makeup on his face with his right eye painted white and left one completely black. He had a transponder snail on his palm whose face looked a little old and wrinkled. He was surrounded by ten other people who wore similar clothes and masks of different shapes.
"Keep searching, we have to find those two children at any cost! It'd be an embarrassment if that person were to get away with kidnapping two celestial dragons!" a voice said from the other end of transponder snail. They had gotten the report from the marines that the two were in fact alive, the kidnapper apparently had confessed such when he fought admiral Kizaru. But still, those that saw this happen in the auction hall did not know and the news had spread like wildfire that two celestial dragons were killed.
"I'm afraid the criminal might be long gone from the mangrove, sir. It'd be best if we sent some people to all nearby islands." the man with white bowler hat said in the transponder snail.
"That's already been taken care of, other ciphor pol agent are searching nearby islands as we speak," a different voice spoke from transponder snail this time, "You just focus on the archipelago."
"Understood. Any specific order if I find him?"
"Shadow him and try to get the whereabouts of Saint Roswald's children. Avoid fighting, he might be a bit too much for you."
"In the meantime, eliminate anyone who was witness at the auction house. Don't let the news spread."
"Alright." the guy with white makeup said as the transponder snail went back to sleep. He made a gesture and the ten people surrounding him vanished in blurs to search the whole island once again but even they knew it was pointless. The criminal had a mask, no one even knew what color was his hair let alone what he looked like, but orders were orders and it was their duty to follow them. At least they'd be able to eliminate the witnesses that were in the auction house at the time of incident, but Morgans was probably already printing about it. Someone had to make it to the headquarters of 'World Economic Journal' to stop Morgans from spreading the news to the whole world. Even as they went to complete their assigned tasks, they knew deep in their hearts that it was probably too little too late.
With Naruto-
Naruto was currently flying at top speed from the archipelago to the red line. For now, his original mission had taken a backseat. There were people in Marijoa that were living the life of slavery right now, he had to go there and take them out of there as soon as he could. Leaving them alone to their fate was completely out of the question, afterall he had come here because of the people. Because he wanted to save people from the Otsutsuki. And in his opinion, slavery was worse fate than what would have happened if the Otsutsuki came. He had already left behind Marineford and the red line was clear in the view now. He activated his sage of six paths mode and increased the speed even further.
He rose sharply upwards when he got close enough to the red line, ascending towards the sky with incredible speed. The city of Marijoa was at top, some 6-7 km high up. Naruto made a beeline for it. He increased his speed even further. It took just a few moments for him to reach the top. He stopped in the sky when he was high enough and took in the layout, even though some details were hidden due to the clouds covering the city, the gigantic castle was clearly visible. It was quite frankly the biggest building he'd seen in his whole life! And probably the most beautiful as well. It had six floors that he could see with lots of towers and had a giant fortified wall surrounding it. The castle also had forest and rivers to it's sides and was seperated from the rest of the city. Other buildings were quiet beautiful too, they were big as well but nowhere near the size of the castle. Compared to the main castle, the rest of the city looked rather ordinary with trees and fountains and pristine roads. It was still the most beautiful city he'd ever seen though. Shame, the people here were scum of the earth!
Naruto landed on one of the roads of the city. He could sense a lot of people right under his feet, so the road must be hollow. He made a shadow clone who sunk right through the concrete with the 'hidden mole jutsu' while the original moved forward. He walked over to a fountain that was at a small square. He took a paper bomb from his pocket and slapped it on the gleaming white marble. Naruto put his hands in cross ram seal and 500 identical versions of himself appeared, filling the empty street with black clad Narutos with white porcelain masks.
"Scatter!!!" with one command all the clones spread out all over the city with the original Naruto himself making his way over to the castle where the five elders lived.
The first clone entered the home of a celestial dragon that was the closest to him. The inside was as lavish and luxurious as you'd imagine, decorated with pretentious paintings and ornate art works of gold and precious gems. Naruto clone made his way inside the empty living room, he sensed more than a dozen people beneath the floor. Probably a basement so most likely they were slaves. Naruto didn't waste another second and sunk through the floor and straight into the basement. It was pitch black there with no light of any kind, with only a small window for ventilation. With eye sight so poor, Naruto gathered some chakra into the palm of his hand and changed the nature to fire. The room was instantly filled with yellow light and the sight that greeting him almost made him loose all of his lunch. There were men with their hands tied up scattered all over the room. They covered their eyes from the harsh light and immediately stood up. Each and everyone of them was skinny to the bone with their faces sunk and eyes almost sockets. Their clothes were torn and dirty to the point they could be described as rags. To top it all off, they were all scared to death, he could sense. Maybe they thought he was their owner.
Just then, one of the men lost his balance and fell forward. Naruto caught the poor guy before he could reach the floor. He was on the verge of passing out, probably due to lack of food. His lips were dried out as well. Naruto gently laid him down on the floor and with his non fire hand he reached inside his back pocket and pulled out a water skin. He slowly and gently poured the water inside the man's mouth who eagerly drank every drop. The scene confused the rest of the slaves however, they didn't know what to make of it. What this some new kind of sick joke? Was he going to kill the guy?! They didn't know what to make of it.
When the man drank his fill, Naruto turned to the rest of the slaves there, "Relax, I'm not here to hurt you." But the slaves did not look convinced. Some of them looked at his water skin eagerly but were too afraid to say anything. Naruto guessed what they wanted extended the water to them, "Come on, take it! It's okay, I'm here to take you all out of here!" One guy that was brave enough stepped forward and cautiously took the bottle out of his hand. He watched the masked face Naruto out of the corner of his eye as he slowly put it to his lips. When Naruto didn't make any move and simply let him drink it, others stepped forward as well.
"T-Thank you!" the first guy said, tears already running down his face. "Thank you so much!"
"It's okay, I'm going to get you out of here!" For the first time he came in the basement, the people their looked like they had some hope in their eyes. Maybe this was where their suffering ended? Getting rescued by a stranger in scary clothes when they were ready to gladly accept even death compared to their current situation. To prove his words, Naruto removed all of their collars one by one, proving that he was serious about what he said.
"Where's the door?" he asked, lifting the flames in his hands a bit higher.
"This way!" the slaves quickly scrambled towards the door of the dungeon. It was a big iron door. Naruto grabbed it with his free hand and ripped it clean off It's hinges.
"Let's go! Stay by my side and don't be afraid!" he told them. Naruto led them through the long stairs of the dungeons and to the living room he was in earlier. "Is there anyone else here?" he asked them.
"Yeah, the girls!" an elderly man told him, "They are probably in the bedroom!"
"Alright, you guys wait here. I'll be back in a minute!" Naruto sprinted up the stairs and towards the bedroom where he had sensed about a dozen people inside. The door to the bedroom was wide open, he calmly stepped inside. The sight here was no less heart wrenching. A fat man was snoring away on the large bed while eleven girls were locked inside a cage. They all had collars around their necks and clothes barely enough to cover their modesty.
Naruto wanted to give the fat man the most gruesome death he could imagine but the ladies were the priority now. He made his way over to the cage, grabbed the lock and ripped it off. The loud sound of metal woke up the ladies in an instant. They all looked at him and Naruto watched them in return, some of the ladies had fear in their eyes, he could see complete misery in others while some looked like no life was left in their eyes.
Naruto removed his mask so they could see his face and put it back on. He did that so that they would trust him. Or at least not fear him. "It's okay." he said, "I'm here to help." he crouched down to their level. He reached over to grab the collar of the nearest girl but she shirked away in fear. Naruto immediately put up both his hands to show that he meant no harm. "Hey, hey, I'm not here to hurt you. I need you to trust me a little. Can you do that?" Naruto asked in a soft voice. The girls exchanged a look among themselves, apparently they were still having some trouble trusting him.
So Naruto did the only thing he could think of to get them to cooperate, he removed their collars with his magnet release. Only when the explosive collars where off their necks and lying on the ground, did the ladies allowed themselves some hope. Naruto grabbed the one nearest to him by the hand lifted her to her feet.
"What is your name??" he asked her.
"M-Mary." she sounded like she was going to break down into sobs any moment now.
"Mary, I need you to stay strong for a bit, okay? From this point on, no one's going to hurt you. I promise." Hearing his words, Mary covered her mouth with her hand so as not let any sobs escape. She nodded her head eagerly, though her eyes glistened with tears. After seeing this, the rest of the girls helped each other get up.
"Come on, let's go out of here!" He led the girls out of the cage one by one. Their collars and chains rattling as they were unceremoniously dropped and left behind. Just as they were about to exit the bedroom, Naruto heard a shuffle behind him.
"Hey, who are you??? Where are you taking the girls??!!!" the fat man had woken up apparently. Naruto stopped and turned around.
"Are you from CP-0?? are those girls a danger to me??" the fat man kept asking while trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes.
At first, Naruto was just going to get the people and get out of there. But just listening those words from the fat man made his blood boil. Normally, he was a man of peace, he believed in Jiraiya's teachings whole heartedly but even he had his breaking point. And watching this half naked scum of the earth prattle on was the last straw. He didn't care what his ancestors did, that fat fuck had no right to treat people this way. Like animals. Naruto didn't say anything, his anger had grown so much that he was speechless. Unknowingly a tear had formed in his eye. He put his index finger in his holster and pulled out a kunai. With incredible precision, he threw it at the half naked douchebag. The kunai hit right in the centre of his forehead, burying itself till the ring and killing him instantly. Naruto left the dead man bleeding on the carpet and went back to the people downstairs.
There, he met up with the guys that he had freed earlier, the girls had already gathered there and were waiting for him. "Come on, follow me!" he said as he led them outside the mansion.
When the group got outside, they saw that other similar groups were coming out of other mansions as well. Led by someone who looked exactly like the guy that had freed them. One by one, the mansions were being emptied and were led to the outskirts of the city and towards the bondolas.
The Hall of Power, Pangaea Castle-
A lone soldier clad in steel armor and carrying a large spear was running frantically through hallways and staircases of the castle. Huffing and puffing with each step due to the weight of the armor but still keeping pace to reach the hall of power where the five elders resided. Avoiding tripping on the stairs and dodging his fellow soldiers, he ran as fast as his legs could carry to deliver the news to his masters. It wasn't far now, just one more floor, his adrenaline fueled the last few meters and reached the imposing door of the hall. Normally, it would be unthinkable to interrupt the Five Elders when they were in the middle of their work, but it was a dire situation now. If there was any time the five elders were allowed to be disturbed, it was this. He ran at full speed and threw his body at the door, opening the large door at once.
The sudden loud voice startled the highest authority in the world as they scrambled to their feet and their gaze fell on the culprit of the insolence.
"What is the meaning of this, soldier!!!" one of the elders bellowed from his position on the couch.
"A-Apologies, my lord. B-But the city, there are hundreds of men in black!!" the soldier sputtered out at the same time he was trying to breath.
"What men in black???!!" the elder with the sword and round glasses said.
"T-They are covered from head to toe and they are freeing the slaves!"
"What?? How is this possible?!" the blond elders stood up from his sitting position on the couch.
"Another one?!!" the elder with long white hair and long beard and moustache exclaimed. Everyone knew what he was referring to, of course, Fisher Tiger's rampage throughout the holy land of Marijoa was still fresh in everyone's mind. After all, how could they forget their greatest failure in recent history. It hurt their reputation quite a bit back then and if the history were to repeat itself, the fallout of such an event would be much much worse.
"Contact the navy HQ, have them send all three of the admirals and whoever else they wish to send." the blond elder said as the old dude elder with the sword made for the transponder snail.
"Nuh-uh! I wouldn't do that if I were you, old man!" the voice stopped him cold in his tracks.
"Who are you?" the elder asked.
"It's him, my lord! One of the men I told you about!!" the soldier pointed his spear at him, ready to attack.
"Put that thing away or I'll shove it so far up your ass-"
"-leave us." the elder commanded the soldier, who dutifully obeyed.
"Thank you, old man. I like privacy too!" He said as he made his way over to them and plopped down on the couch. "This is a nice couch, how much did it cost? I bet it cost a forture, didn't it??"
The five elders exchanged glances with each other, unsure of what to make of this stranger. "I'll ask you once more, who the hell are you??"
"Ah what's it matter who I am??" Naruto said in a carefree tone as he put his feet on the table in front of him. The old dude with the transponder snail apparently didn't hear him the first time as he picked up the transponder snail once again. "Seriously dude, put the snail down, I won't say it again." his voice was completely serious with a hint of threat in it. "I'm in no mood to play with the admirals right now. If you insist on calling them, I'll blow up this whole city!" He did not mince his words with that one. The five elders didn't react one way or another to his words, none of them even moving from their place. I didn't look like they were taking him completely seriously.
"You don't believe me? Take a look outside the window! Go on, do it!"
Two of the elder reluctantly did as asked, when they were looking outside, Naruto put his hand in half ram sign and detonated the paper bomb he placed on the fountain earlier. The whole fountain was blown up in an explosion that was clearly visible from the castle. The elders clenched their fists in rage.
"That was just one! And it was placed in the empty street away from people." Naruto's voice made their heads turn back towards him. "I have a bomb in every building of the city. If you don't do as I say, I'll kill every world noble there is in this shitstain of a city!" Naruto bared his threat plain and clear. The elders had no choice but to listen to him for the time being. The guy with the sword put the transponder snail and took his seat in front of Naruto.
"What do you want?" the guy with dreadlocks asked him, he was leaning his weight on his cane.
"Believe it or not, I only wanted to talk when I got here. I didn't want to rely on threats, but I'm told that I have a short temper, you could say you brought this on yourself really." Naruto said as he straightened up on the couch.
"Hmp you abduct two innocent children, barge in the home of gods and you only wanted to talk?? Like anyone would believe that!"
"You heard of that already? How nice. And innocent children? Those 'innocent children' made slaves out of living human beings!!"
"So it was your people responsible for incident at auction house." the blonde elder finally took his hands out of his pockets and talked to him.
"Guilty." Naruto confirmed the obvious for them.
"You still hold them captive, don't you? Are you here for ransom??"
"Pfft what do you take me for, old man? I'm here to make a simple request!" Naruto said.
"And what would that be?"
"Let the slaves go in peace, don't pursue them and never make a slave out of anyone ever again!" he could clearly see it in their faces how ridiculous the idea sounded to them, so he continued, "You guys are the rulers of this whole world aren't you? Why do you insist on doing something so inhumane? Are your thrones so high up that you've lost touch with humanity??"
"This is the way of the world. Gods do as they please." the elder with the long beard said like it'd be ridiculous to even suggest otherwise.
"My, benevolence is practically oozing from your words old man!" Naruto laughed dryly. "That may have been the way the world until this day but it ends now!" His words were stern and left no room for argument.
"The world nobles will never agree to it. You're asking them to change them their way of living!"
Naruto let out an audible sigh. "You act like it's impossible for you to live without slaves!" He got no response from them. "I know for a fact that not all of you are rotten to the core. I met a guy earlier, Donquixote his name was, with green hair. There wasn't a single slave owned by his family."
"Ah yes, Mjosgard has been quite vocal about that. Unfortunately, others aren't very interested in what he has to say." the old man with the long beard said as if he was commenting on the quality of his tea.
Their casual attitude pissed him off to no end, "Don't take it so lightly, you stupid geezer! When I first saw the slaves here I was going to kill every world noble I could find and put an end to this. That Donquixote guy said he had a change of heart and found his humanity once again, so I have hope that the rest of you will as well." Naruto got up from the sofa, "It's already late for one fat man, If you insist on doing this...you'll regret it."
The five dudes looked at each other like they were having a silent conversation with each other. "We will think about what you said. But first, you'll have to return the children of Roswald family." Their priorities were clear. Slaves were of no importance to them but the if a celestial dragon was to be killed in the outside world...that could possibly have very far reaching consequences.
Naruto let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, there was a small relief in his heart from their words, at least these fuckers cared about someone! He didn't know whether they'd follow it up or not but right now all he could do was hope. Because he didn't want to go down the alternative path. That wouldn't end well for anybody. "Thank you. I'd love chat with you more but right now I have to take those people home. So, if you don't mind, I'll take my leave now." He turned on his heels and began walking but was stopped by the voice of one of the elders.
"What about the Roswald children?" the guy with glasses asked him before he could go out the door.
"The navy base of Sabaody will find them tomorrow. I'm a man of word, you keep your promise and those two will return to you safely." he said and grabbed the handle of the door to open it, "Oh and one more thing, I'll be taking one of your big ships I saw earlier at the port. And think about what I said, I'll drop by again sometime. If you want to change like Donquixote that's awesome but if you keep making slaves out of people, I'll be more than happy to go to war with you!" Naruto waved them goodbye and slammed the door behind him as he left.
The five elders all let out their held breaths once Naruto was gone. "Where are the CP-0 when we need them?!" the elder with the sword grit out.
"Don't blame them, it was us who sent them to Dressrosa, and rest of them are searching for this very man right now. After all who would have thought that such a thing could happen!"
"Are we really considering his demands?" the blonde elder put words to what everyone else was thinking just then. They couldn't just simply ignore this incident like the previous one, this one was far more serious.
"For now, yes. He has the whole city hostage right now, in case you forgot." Now that they were by themselves, the elder with glasses took his sword out and began polishing the blade.
"Not to mention, hundreds of his accomplices infiltrated without us knowing! Who's to say they won't do it again!" the blonde elder clenched his fists till his knuckles turned white.
"This is the second time it has happened."
"At least Fisher Tiger escaped like a criminal, but this one..."
"He doesn't fear the might of world nobles at all!!!"
"Shall we inform Im-sama??!"
"Yes, we will have to report about this!"
"It looks like we will have to comply for the time being. At least until we can improve our security!"
"If you ask me it was long time coming. We should have done that after Fisher Tiger incident!"
"No point complaining about past right now. First we'll have to find the bombs those people placed in the city."
"This headache has come at worst possible time when the Navy can't afford to spare a single person worth mentioning."
"Yes, the coming war will prove to be quite troublesome as well. The navy simply can not afford to loose to Whitebeard."
"I have trust in Sengoku, he's proved himself a capable commander in the past. I'm sure he'd be able to overcome those barbaric pirates!"
"All the more reasons to comply with this masked man's demands." elder with sword said, drawing everyone's attention back, "He said he's willing to go to war with us, I don't think he was bluffing!" he clarified further for his fellow elders.
"That does raise another concern," this time the attention was on the blonde elder, "If he was serious about going to war with us, that means he has enough power to at least challenge us!"
"Ah yes, even Dragon doesn't directly confront us yet! That is indeed concerning!"
"Does this mean that there is another great power on these that we aren't aware of??"
"Perhaps. That's a possibility. Revolutionaries would never do something so reckless and a pirate would never go out of his way to come here just to free slaves!!" This was just the begining of their troubles with 'the masked shadow' as they would later call him. And this was just the first night they would spend discussing how to deal with their enemy.
Sorry for the late upload and Thank you for reading! Have a nice day!