On the way there, Naruto and the fishwoman introduced themselves to each other:
"Miana's the name, by the way, though all my friends call me Mia… at least if I had any friends," She said, "What's yours?"
"Uzumaki Naruto," He answered with an eyebrow raised. He had never heard anyone be so nonchalant about that before, "And likewise, my friends call me Naruto,"
"I see, I see… Naruto… nice name," She nodded to herself, "But damn isn't it crazy that we both have no friends? I mean, what are the chances!"
Naruto agreed; what a small world we— wait that's not right.
He paused, turned to Mia, and said with an awkward look on his face, "I… do have friends, actually…"
"Oh!" Mia's cheeks became beet-red from her blunder, "I just thought… you know… since you said likewise and all that…"
He chuckled, "No worries, I totally get it. it's just…" He refrained from speaking further, choosing instead to change the subject, "So uh… I've been meaning to ask…"
Mia bit at the chance to talk about something else, "Mhm! A-And what's that?"
"How is this salt lake any different from any other salt lake?"
She answered instantly, "Well, that's because this is Decken-sama's salt lake of course!"
"I know that, but what did he do to make it so special?"
He saw her face scrunch up into a deep frown, as if she couldn't comprehend what he was saying. Eventually, after a couple more minutes of swimming, she got it.
"Ah! So that's what you mean!" He gave her a patient grin, to which she replied with one of her own.
She said, "I dunno the specifics of it, but every few months or so, he'd have a bunch of guys with giant metal rods go deep underwater. I was never allowed to go in there whenever they do, so I can't tell you what happens next, but when they resurface, they would always come up empty-handed,"
"Something to suck out the salt concentration, maybe?" He suggested as they reached one of Mia's checkpoints.
She shrugged, "Could be. It could also be for any other reason that I'm too stupid to figure out,"
Naruto accepted the answer at face value; it was plausible, he supposed, but he knew deep down that— hm… that'd be rude to even think about.
"Now that we're halfway there though, I'd be a no-good saboteur if I didn't tell you about the trouble with those berries you're looking for," She scratched her head timidly, a shameful look on her face.
"Oh? What trouble?"
She bit her bottom lip and looked at anywhere but him. However, she did speak up, even if she was hesitant at the start:
"A few years ago, when Decken-sama began this project, he used the flora and fauna of other aquatic ecosystems to jumpstart this one. It went fine at first.
Until the plants that were once regularly brought in as fish food were suddenly replaced with new, unknown ones. These newer types, or Newties as liked to call them, were a special breed, and your Maladonia berries fall under this category,"
She paused to gather her thoughts, then continued, "Unexpectedly, there was a certain species of fish that had taken a keen liking to them. They're called Gamu fish, and one of 'em was lucky enough to eat a Devil Fruit that'd just migrated,"
Ah. So that's the rub? A super-powerful fish is hogging all the berries, huh?
"We don't know what the devil fruit was exactly, but it gave the fish intelligence and the ability to communicate, so Decken-sama said it must've been a type of human-human fruit,"
"Okay, the fish can speak and think, but what does that have to do with us not being able to get even a handful of Maladonia berries? Shouldn't the ability to negotiate with it make the job even easier?"
She shook her head furiously, "Oh, but it has everything to do with it! Y'see, in addition to all that, the fish gained some truly terrifying powers. One of them being…"
"Conqueror's Haki!"
Naruto knew the significance of her claim right away. What does it mean for the world if it was discovered that a devil fruit could give someone the strongest form of Haki? It would be something countries would wage war for, something that would change the way people look at Haki forever. Worst thing of all though is… what if it fell into the wrong hands?
Certainly, he had no right to decide who deserved this knowledge — he was a pirate after all — but he knew it should never come under the capricious clutches of the Celestial Dragons. Terror is bad, sure, but organized evil is far more terrifying.
The world shall know… Pain.
He had heard stories. From Tsunade and her subordinates during the Akatsuki's invasion. Even now, after so long, the memory of her face as she recounted it to him still gave Naruto goosebumps…
That's why he couldn't let it happen again! Not on his watch!
"Miana, are you sure this wasn't due to something else? Are you absolutely sure it was gained through the Devil fruit?" Abruptly, he grabbed her by the shoulders, his intense gaze fixed squarely into her eyes.
"U-Uhhh…" She gulped, unable to immediately answer his question, "I-I don't know—!"
"And you fools don't need to know!"
"!" Naruto and Mia turned to the unwelcome addition to their conversation:
It was a monster, if they were to describe it in simple terms. Gross, big, unwieldy were all the words one would use when meeting face to face with such a thing. Exaggerated muscle layered upon exaggerated muscle; slimy scale upon slimy scale, and a swollen, disgustingly wretched face to match.
"You!" Almost instantly, Mia recognized who he was. That's right, he was the fish they were just talking about.
"Me?" He scoffed, his tone the direct antithesis to hers, "Hah! What about me?!" Because where he was cocky and brash, she was shocked, apprehensive even.
And yet, Mia didn't back down, "What are you doing here?! You're supposed to stay in the vineyard per our agreement!"
"Blame it on your friend," He grinned malevolently, the jagged rows of teeth previously hidden in his maw now on full display, "New blood always gets me excited,"
Naruto frowned at the slightly rude description of him, but was otherwise unaffected. Stepping forward, he said, "I have no interest in fighting, fish, even less needless murder. I'm just here for the Maladonia berries. Give that to us and we'll leave you alone,"
There was a pregnant pause after that, where neither party spoke. But as the seconds dragged on, Naruto couldn't help but get a bad feeling.
"You…" By now, his grin had been wiped clean off, "You want me to give you… my berries?"
Naruto nodded slowly, unsure as to why he had to—
"Hehehe…" Suddenly, a sound that brought chills to his bones rang out, "Hahahahaha!"
And then:
"You want to take what's mine?" The declaration. "Take it over my dead body!"
Naruto could feel it then, the familiar aura he sensed during Marineford. It was impossible to miss it when unconscious, how much more now that he was awake?
So this is what conqueror's haki feels like… Amazing. Naruto's eyes stared down the deep red slits of the monster before him. Both glared at each other fearlessly, but who blinked first…
"Impressive. At least you're not as useless as that worm over there," For a moment, his gaze travelled to his right, where Mia was. She had collapsed, though a thumbs up told him she was alright.
Of course, taking your eyes off the enemy was never a good plan, and taking advantage of this, the giant came barrelling down towards him, catching him by surprise.
Bang! The world spun left and right, up and down, around and around as Naruto flew back at bullet-like speeds. Luckily, he was in the water, making it relatively easy to right himself. What that didn't prevent though, was the pain of getting decked in the chest by a fist the size of a bowling ball.
He stumbled through his words, still dazed, "Cheap— hah… Cheap shot,"
In response, the fish shrugged and chuckled, "Whaddya expect? I'd never thought you'd be able to survive a blow from me; guess you learn something new every day, eh?"
Naruto bit back a swear, instead choosing to put his money where his mouth was, "Then you haven't seen anything yet," He assumed a fighting stance like something you'd see in a Jackie Chan movie.
"Hah! That's rich. You're barely standing and you still wanna fight?" The fish tsked when he didn't answer, "Well, it's your funeral…"
It didn't take long before they were at it again. Fists met fists, kicks met kicks and overwhelming speed warred with overwhelming power.
As the Gamu fish lumbered along with titan-like force, destroying everything he touched, Naruto was akin to an agile monkey: sliding in between punches and kicks with ease. But that wasn't to say he didn't have any difficulty — far from it.
For one thing, he was fighting underwater. And another thing, he was fighting underwater under the water! It turned out, to his surprise, that it was significantly harder to do battle while you were under five ships' worth of pressure. Hmm, who would've guessed?
"Argh! Stop moving ant!" He heard the Gamu fish bellow as he avoided its strikes for the umpteenth time, "Be still and die for me!"
Naruto felt cold sweat trickle down his back when he saw the Fuma shuriken-sized fists hammering down in a destructive haymaker. Instinctively, he raised both his arms up in a bid to, if not block the attack, mitigate it somewhat.
Boom! Thankfully, his arms were reinforced with senjutsu chakra just in time, preventing him from ripping a muscle. Still, it hurt like the devil.
That's it. Enough playing around. He scowled, his eyes transforming into those of a frog.
[Sage Mode!]
"Grr… Take this!" Naruto returned the blow with a punch of his own. Just as it was about to land, though, the fish was able to retreat with a quick backstep, leading to the punch missing completely.
"Hah! D'you think you can hit me just 'cause I'm bi—" Unfortunately for the Gamu fish, Naruto's technique wasn't a conventional one, so despite the clear distance between them, he was struck regardless and was knocked to the ground.
[Frog Kata Stance One: Frog Strike!]
Naruto stood impassively, his face sculpted into a slight grimace as he waited for his opponent to get up.
The moment it did, Naruto didn't hesitate any longer.
[Frog Kata Stance Fifteen: Amphibian Ax Kick!]
[Frog Kata Stance Twelve: Meridian Death!]
[Frog Kata Variant One: Horse Stance Strike!]
In quick succession, Naruto fired off three consecutive moves, the first being a brutal kick that landed straight onto the fish's skull. Next, with his index and middle finger outstretched, he struck where its heart was, leaving it gasping for air. And finally, dropping into the horse stance, Naruto wound up a ferocious punch that sent the fish spinning.
"Huff… Huff… This body doesn't handle the more advanced techniques too well, huh?" He shook his head when he saw his trembling fingers
The horse stance strike was… borrowed from the land of the Iron by Naruto and repurposed for use as a senjutsu martial art. However, due to its more complex nature, his body couldn't get used to it just yet.
"Oi! What the hell was that!?" He turned to the sight of Mia rushing towards him with stars in her eyes. She skidded to a stop right in front of him, animatedly moving about with the energy you wouldn't expect from someone who'd just fainted.
He answered modestly, "It's nothing; just a little trick I've learnt,"
At that, Mia's eyes grew even larger.
He smiled, "I can teach you if you—"
"Survive!"
Naruto paled. Spinning back around to the crater he'd left the fish in, he was shocked to find it still standing.
Impossible… he should be paralysed from the neck down! Naruto watched as it rose from the rubble, looking no worse for wear than before.
"Hehehe… I see that look on your face. I'm supposed to be dead or somethin' like that, yeah?" It raised its hand in a come-hither motion, beckoning Naruto to try again, "Come! It's gonna take a whole lot more than that!"