Naruto looked on calmly, his eyes never leaving Whitebeard's face despite the naginata sitting comfortably next to his face. Internally though, it was a very different story:

'Ohshitohshitohshitohshit! Whatthefuckdoeshemeanbyhimbeingayonkooooo! DamnyouAjaaaaaaxxxxx!'

"Gurararara..." The old man chuckled, seeing the blank look on Naruto's face, "Cat got your tongue, eh boy?"

His remark snapped Naruto out of his thoughts, and after some quick computations, he answered, "According to my information, you aren't one of the Yonko; I apologize for the confusion—"

He paused to push the blade away from his face. Whitebeard didn't stop him, allowing Naruto to move it without opposition, "...Allow me to clarify: I am looking for Big Mom, Kaido, Shanks and Blackbeard. Would you happen to know their location?"

"..."

Nobody answered him, their brains still struggling to comprehend what was just said. Eventually though…

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAAAAAAAY?!"

For the second time in the war: everyone's brain aligned, and they reacted.

"Did he… did he just say pops isn't a Yonko?!" A random pirate screamed, and soon, everyone began jeering at the confused shinobi, throwing indignant insults and jabs…

"Enough!" Whitebeard shushed the crowd, "We can do this later! Remember... we still have a war to fight!"

There was an odd silence… before everyone's cries rang out and they resumed fighting, no longer caring about Naruto.

"Oh yeah! I just remembered! I have to save my brother!" Luffy reminded himself before jumping off the ship, all the while shouting at the top of his lungs, "Seeya later, weird guy! You should still totally join my crew!"

"...My, my… What do we have here?" Suddenly, before anyone could react, a shadow formed overhead.

Naruto's eyes narrowed, his gaze locked onto the man that appeared, 'Wait… is that… natural energy? No, he isn't in sage mode… then that means he's probably like Juugo,'

As he was sizing the man up, so too did he. Slowly, the man addressed Naruto:

"Hmm… Stranger, I don't care about your goals... but I can't help but hear you say something about killing the Yonko... what do you say we work together and beat him together?" He smiled lazily, lowering himself on Naruto's level— and even then, he towered over the other in size.

Naruto sweatdropped, 'Why can't people just be my size… ugh... my neck's killing me from all this looking up...'

Still, he shook his head and said, "No can do..."

"Kizaru,"

"Kizaru. I only engage with my targets. I don't kill random people unless they attack first, so as far as I'm concerned, he's innocent," He pointed at Whitebeard.

The man named Kizaru nodded his head in understanding, "So you're just like me, only following orders, huh? I can respect that," He sighed, "Too bad my superiors don't seem to think so..."

In a flicker of movement, Kizaru charged at Naruto, his body a light shade of yellow, "Nothin' personal; everyone not in a marine uniform is considered a pirate. Plus, I have to deal with Whitebeard next..."

Naruto stood stock still, his body not moving so much an inch, as if he didn't even react to Kizaru flying for him. And you'd be forgiven for thinking that, after all, only his colleagues and a select few other individuals wielded the necessary reaction time to counter him.

-Poof!-

"!?" But contrary to his expectations, when his fist connected with Naruto's body, he disappeared into a cloud of smoke!

Looking around, Kizaru scratched the back of his head when he couldn't locate him, 'Where did he—'

[Rasengan!]

His eyes widened, and almost instinctively, he turned his entire body into light. Soon, his gut feeling was proved correct, as a blue ball of energy literally flew out of his gut and hit the railings.

-Crack!-

With a loud boom, the ball destroyed the railings and a part of the hull, creating a large cloud of dust in the process...

"Hoh? It seems… you do have a few things up your sleeves," Kizaru whistled as he admired the destruction, "I guess… I have to take things a bit more seriously,"

Saying this, he raised his hand before activating busosushoku haki, "Try this one on for size," And punched the air, where a split second later: Naruto appeared, and his fist connected.

'Hmm…' He could feel it, the force of the blow rippling through the boy's skin, but he felt no satisfaction as...

-Poof!-

'Hum… again with this smoke thing, it's getting really annoying,' He looked around warily, trying to use his kenbunshoku haki to predict where he would appear next. To his dismay, he kept drawing up blanks, like his opponent wasn't even present in the fight—

"Gurararara!" Suddenly, the loud, instantly recognizable laughter of Whitebeard echoed across the ship. Turning around, he saw the old man grin at him in pure schadenfreude.

"What's so funny… hmm?" Kizaru tilted his head sideways, curious as to what this pirate found so funny.

"Gurararara… the kid's long gone!" Whitebeard chuckled, wiping a tear off his face, "Never have I seen someone of the younger generation fool an admiral like you so badly! Gurara... I'll never forget this moment till the day I die!"

Kizaru— of course, didn't find this nearly as funny, and in a huff, he sped back to his seat, constantly looking out for any sign of the runaway sage…

"You can come out now," Whitebeard said, turning to look at the crow's nest.

Appearing in a swirl of leaves, Naruto briefly scanned his surroundings before turning to Whitebeard, a look of relief on his face.

He smiled at the captain, "Thanks for covering my escape, he probably would've found me if it were—"

"Why lie to him?"

Naruto didn't react to the question, the smile no longer on his face.

"You may have fooled him with your little speech, but I can see it in your eyes," Whitebeard gazed sadly at him, "I see the eyes of a man who's willing to do anything to get what he wants, lives of innocents be damned,"

"So… why lie?"

There was a pregnant pause after that, both parties too busy resizing the other up to care about the question. Eventually, Naruto did speak:

"Truth be told… my targets extend to the admirals too," Naruto revealed, "And I'd rather not have both sides breathing down my neck,"

"Hrnn… Who is your employer? What's his goal?"

Naruto shrugged, "He's a mysterious guy, but he calls himself Ajax. He wanted me to assassinate them for his 'entertainment',"

"Oh? And you're going along with this, why?"

"To go back and fix my mistakes," Naruto answered cryptically, his fist clenching so hard his nails drew blood.

Whitebeard merely grunted, his eyes an amalgamation of condolence and sympathy.

"I don't need your pity," He spat, "But I need info..."

"Ask away,"

Naruto nodded, "I've been deployed here because a lot of my targets were going to be present, but I only see the marines. Where are the other Yonko?"

"Charlotte Linlin isn't interested, Kaido, according to my intelligence: is being intercepted by shanks, and I am standing right here,"

"This leads me to another inconsistency: according to Ajax, Marshall D. Teach is a Yonko while you aren't. Why doesn't it match up?"

Whitebeard banged the butt of his naginata against the floorboards(startling Naruto) in rage, the veins on his neck visibly bulging, "That traitor is no Yonko, and if he appears here, I'll make sure of it myself!"

As Naruto was going to continue, he was interrupted by an earthquake-like impact hitting the ground that shook the whole island and crushed large swaths of people on both sides. To his surprise, it was giant chunks of ice from the frozen tsunami that was the source of all this chaos.

"It seems we cannot continue talking any further," Whitebeard jumped off his ship, engaging with a group of vice-admirals, "It's almost time…" Leaving Naruto to his own devices.

Naruto looked around the battlefield, and oddly, he was reminded of the great shinobi wars(not the fourth, that was just one guy versus everyone else). It saddened him to think that, even now, even in a different universe, humans were still fighting against one another…

'Well, it's none of my business...' He thought offhandedly before disappearing in a flurry of leaves…

Kizaru reconvened with his superior, Fleet Admiral Sengoku, who stood on the execution platform, observing the state of the battlefield.

"Yo…" He appeared behind the stoic man, his yellow-tinted aviator glasses shone from the sun's rays.

"How was it? Did you discern the man's intentions?" Sengoku didn't bother turning his head, still preoccupied with the fighting.

"Hmm… Well, I don't think he's a part of the enemy, but he isn't on our side either..."

"So, did you eliminate him?"

He shook his head, "I lost him during our fight… but I did incapacitate twenty or so pirates on my way here,"

"I see," Sengoku said simply before going silent. Seeing this, Kizaru saluted and made his way back to his seat, where his colleagues were waiting.

The quiet seemed to stretch on for eternity after that— so much so, even the normally composed executioners were sweating.

"I'm impressed; you were able to hide from an admiral," He stated, and to everyone there, it looked like he was talking to the air.

"But you won't be able to hide from me, please stop hiding under the platform," It was this sentence that finally triggered a reaction from the hidden intruder.

In the blink of an eye, Naruto stood before the fleet admiral, shocking the rest of their little audience in the process.

One of them, a beaten and bloodied man, widened his eyes at the appearance of Naruto, "Y-You..."

But Naruto didn't seem to hear him, keeping his focus entirely on Sengoku.

"How did you find out?" He studied the man: he wore the attire like many of the marines below him, pure white everything. Coat, hat, pants, shirt, they were all white. Of course, the difference was the words on the back of his marine jacket, reading: 'Fleet Admiral' instead of 'Justice'.

Sengoku shifted to face him, his hands snugly in his pockets, "I sensed your will," He paused to fold his hands and cut straight to the chase, "Who are you… and what do you want?"