RETURN TO EAST BLUE-1
After the entire episode with White Beard Pirates, Naruto became extremely popular among the marines. His crew spread the story regarding how he defeated Fire Fist Ace before Naruto could stop them however he managed to just intervene in the nick of time and change the story. He later warned the crew from telling anyone that he had marked Ace. The crew followed Naruto's order and changed the story into one according to which White Beard got involved before Naruto could mark Ace.
This resulted in Naruto's popularity among the marines sky-rocketing. Pirates became more wary of him than ever before. Afterall someone who could defeat the 2nd Division Commander of the Shirohige Kaizoukadan, who was once considered by the World Government for a Shichibukai was not someone to be trifled with.
Over the course of the next one year, Naruto captured several more pirates and was inching closer to the 1,000,000,000 beli mark which would promote him to Vice Admiral rank.
That was when the Navy HQ received a call from Shells Town in East Blue. The Commander of the Marine Base in Shells Town, Captain Morgan had turned out to be a dictator and had been taken down. He had been defeated by Straw Hat Luffy. He had been accused of abusing his position and causing suffering to citizens. The World Government wanted him to undergo court martial for the crimes he committed as Marine Captain.
Sengoku upon receiving the call ordered Garp to capture the former Marine Captain. Naruto requested to tag along since he wanted to see what this former captain had done to his home town. Naruto decided he'd get there faster. He'd teleport to Logue Town first with Ain, send his next book with the Chunin exam arc to his publisher and then from there he'd take a ship to Shells Town.
He was a bit pissed at Garp, since the very reason he had joined the Marines was because Garp promised that he would ensure the safety of Shells Town. However when he heard that Monkey D Luffy was the one who defeated the Marine captain, Axe Hand Morgan, Naruto calmed down. Naruto knew that Luffy was Garp's grandson and made sure to tell Garp that Luffy was the reason why he wasn't lashing out at Garp for not protecting Shells Town like he promised.
Naruto first teleported with Ain to Logue Town using the knife he'd given to his publisher. He sent his new manuscript with the Chunin exam arc before teleporting with Ain to Smoker using one of the many seals he'd placed on Smoker during their spars. Smoker who was taking a bath at that moment didn't expect Naruto to teleport next to him with Ain. Despite the smoke from Smoker's devil fruit powers and his cigars, certain parts were visible to Naruto and Ain since they teleported right next to him. Ain who was blushing up a storm, ran away in embarrassment. Naruto who saw Smoker naked began laughing uncontrollably. This led to another spar between Naruto and a naked Smoker, which the former won easily extending his undefeated streak to 99 wins.
Ever since he appeared next to Smoker, Naruto couldn't shake the feeling that there was someone extremely strong out there at Logue Town. His Kenbonshoku Haki was going wild. Naruto ever since he joined the marines was used to having stronger people around him- some of whom, he surpassed and some who were still stronger than him. However an unknown person stronger than him always put him on guard.
The news regarding Monkey D Luffy had just reached Logue Town. After Smoker had put on his pants, a Petty Officer (Gocho) entered and informed Smoker regarding Luffy and his bounty. Smoker didn't even bother checking the picture. Another Gocho barged in and told Smoker that a pirate crew probably Luffy's crew had entered the Island.
Smoker turned to Naruto and said, "You may be a Rear Admiral, Naruto. But I don't want you getting involved here. I'm the one in charge of this base. Not you. This is my fight. Don't even think about getting involved."
Naruto really didn't want to fight Luffy. He felt like he owed Luffy. Naruto decided that he won't help Luffy or Smoker. He was more concerned regarding the unknown stronger presence. He was sure that the strong person wasn't Luffy. Afterall whoever that person was, he was definitely stronger than even Ace.
Naruto was also a bit concerned for Luffy. He didn't want the journey of his hometown's new savior to end at Logue Town. He wanted to fight Luffy himself once the pirate was strong enough. He had heard about Luffy's Rubber-Rubber fruit. Naruto was sure that the Paramecia type Devil Fruit won't do him any good against Smoker Logia type unless the pirate used Haki. The chance of someone from East Blue using Haki at that age was too low. Naruto was just an exception to that.
Naruto however decided to tag along. The duo came across a pirate crew and Smoker took them out with ease. One of the Gochos following the duo immediately saluted and said, "Congratulations Smoker-Taisa, you've taken out the Luffy pirates."
Naruto immediately started laughing and said, "These aren't Luffy or his crew."
Smoker nodded as he said, "Naruto is right. There is no way that these fools are worth 30,000,000 beli."
Just then Smoker and Naruto noticed a boy wearing a straw hat looking around. Naruto having seen the bounty picture and recognizing the straw hat that Shanks once wore, knew immediately that the kid was Monkey D Luffy. However since Smoker didn't want him getting involved Naruto didn't say a thing.
Luffy walked up to them and asked them for directions to the execution platform where the Pirate King's life ended. Smoker assuming that Luffy was a tourist told him to follow the smoke from his cigars which he had directed towards the platform.
After searching for a while, Smoker and Naruto went to the Bar they'd visit whenever they were in a friendly mood. The bar's name was Gold Roger Bar, named after the Pirate King himself who was a frequent customer there and the owner was Raoul, who was an old friend of the Legend. Raoul hated Smoker since the man had ruined his business. He liked Naruto because he was a big fan of his books.
The marine duo noticed that Raoul had a customer earlier as Smoker began drinking and telling the story of the Pirate King's execution. Just then a Gocho stepped in to stick a new bounty on the walls- the bounty of Monkey D Luffy. Naruto laughed as Smoker ran towards the execution platform after seeing the picture.
Naruto decided to finish his drink and then see how Smoker was faring against Luffy. Just as Naruto stepped out of the bar, he looked up, only to see Luffy soaring through the air towards the opposite direction from the Platform.
Naruto couldn't help but see too much of Garp in the kid. Just as he was thinking about Garp's ditzy moments, he felt that powerful presence again. He looked around. For a second he thought he saw a man on a roof with a dark green cloak. When he looked again in that direction, the man had disappeared.
Meanwhile, Ain who had run away after seeing a naked Smoker was searching all around the town for Tashigi. Ever since they met for the first time, the two had gotten along well despite the differences in their rank, skills, abilities and experience. She desperately needed some girl time that only Tashigi could provide her with. After searching all around town, she finally found a katana shop where she'd have begun her search. After mentally berating herself for not thinking straight, Ain looked in through the glass and saw Tashigi standing next to a man.
The man suddenly threw a katana in the air and raised his arm in the katana's way. Ain wanted to jump in but she found herself blocked by the glass of the shop. She could have made it through had she used her devil fruit powers, but she wasn't thinking straight. As the katana landed, it missed the man's arm and cut deep through the floor. Ain couldn't believe what she had seen. She knew then and there that she'd just met a real swordsman. She watched as the shop-keeper gave the man another sword which looked legendary. She continued to watch on as the shopkeeper sold the swords free of charge.
As the man walked out of the store, Ain spoke, "When I came here, I didn't expect to see a true swordsman. I saw your performance there. That was truly impressive. Can you tell me your name?"
The man turned towards her and said, "You seem strong as well on first glance. It's not polite to ask another person's name without introducing oneself."
"Sorry. My name is Ain. Marine Captain Ain." She said in reply.
The man kept his guard on, ready to pull out his swords at any moment as he said, "I'm Zoro. Roronoa Zoro."
Zoro was quite infamous in East Blue, but for someone heading from the Grand Line like Ain, a bounty less person like Zoro was pretty much unknown. Ain simply replied, "I'll remember your name" before walking into the shop to greet Tashigi.
Zoro sighed in relief. While he was itching for a fight with his new swords, he definitely didn't want to fight a Marine Captain straight away. Besides it'd have caught the attention of Tashigi, the ditzy marine girl who wanted to take his swords away from him and reminded him too much of his old childhood friend, Kuina.
Ain and Tashigi began walking towards the base while chatting along after Tashigi had recovered her bearings. As they reached the office, Smoker immediately yelled out, "Where the hell were you, Tashigi?"
Just then Naruto teleported next to Smoker and said, "Cut her some slack. She must have been busy with something. Right, Tashigi-chan?"
Tashigi immediately saluted her superiors as she said, "Yes, sir. I had to fix my broken glasses and also get Shigure back."
Naruto raised an eye-brow as he asked, "Who's Shigure?"
Tashigi began hugging her sword as she said, "Shigure is this sword of mine."
Everyone couldn't help but sweat-drop at her actions. There has to be a limit to how much you could love swords.
It was at moments like these when Tashigi reminded Naruto of his old friend, Tenten. Tenten like Tashigi used to get all dreamy thinking about swords and other weapons.
Just then two Gochos came in saying that they were attacked by Roronoa Zoro.
"Why would he attack you guys?" Smoker and Ain asked the two.
Just then the room full of Marines noticed some commotion going in the city. They turned towards the window and noticed Luffy was being held down by Buggy. Buggy was about to give Luffy a public execution at the same platform where the Pirate King had died. There were several pirates belonging to the Buggy pirates standing under the platform watching the execution.
Smoker seeing this began giving out orders to his men, "Don't attack. Let the pirates kill one another. Surround the area. Once Luffy dies, attack all the pirates. Don't let anyone escape. Also go and destroy their ships. Burn them down. We don't need any pirate escaping from here."
Just then dark clouds began covering the skies and Naruto felt the strong presence again. Naruto too would have issued the same orders as Smoker had he been in the Captain's shoes. But he knew that something weird was definitely going on. If it rained soon, Smoker's men wouldn't be able to burn down the ships.
Ain who noticed Naruto's worried look asked, "What are you so concerned about, Naruto-san? You seem a little nervous. These pirates shouldn't be a bother for Smoker-san. Even I should be too strong for them."
Naruto decided to tell Smoker and Ain about the presence, "Yes, Ain you are definitely the fourth strongest person on this Island. None of the pirates are stronger than you either. Luffy who is the strongest among the pirates here is about as strong as you but doesn't have your experience. You didn't complete your Haki training. So you obviously can't feel it. My Kenbonshoku Haki is sensing someone other than any of those pirates there or any of the Marines here. This person is strong. Even stronger than me. The three people here who are stronger than you in this town are Smoker, me and this mysterious person in ascending order."
Smoker knew first-hand about Naruto's mastery of Haki and so asked, "Who is this person? What is he doing in this Island?"
Naruto turned to Smoker with his frown still in place, "I don't know and that's what worries me. A person with this amount of strength should be in the New World, not anywhere around here."
Just then there was further commotion as one of the Petty Officers announced, "Roronoa Zoro is here and has entered the fight."
Luffy who noticed his crewmates yelled out in delight, "Zoro! Sanji!"
Tashigi and Ain looked even harder through the window upon hearing the announcement regarding Zoro. They noticed Zoro and another blond man wearing a black suit going through the pirates one by one. But even then, the duo was too far away from the execution stand.
Just then they all heard Luffy yell, "I'M GOING TO BE THE PIRATE KING."
Luffy's yell shocked everyone. The civilians couldn't believe the guts of the guy to shout something like that in Logue Town. Naruto, Smoker, and the rest of the pirates and marines couldn't believe the situation in which a pirate would yell something like that.
They continued watching as Buggy was bringing down the sword down on Luffy's throat. Luffy as he was about to die yelled out, "Zoro, Nami, Ussop, Sanji, Sorry. I'm dead."
As Luffy said his last words, he smiled broadly-an act that shocked Smoker. On the very same execution stand, Smoker had seen Roger sport the same smile as he died.
Just then lightning struck the stand. The sword Buggy was holding conducted the electricity giving Buggy a serious shock. The lightning was strong enough to nearly bring down the entire platform. Naruto realized that because of Luffy's body is made up of rubber which doesn't conduct electricity, Luffy had no problem whatsoever in surviving that lightning attack.
Naruto turned towards Smoker and said, "Smoker, do you believe in God."
Smoker who himself was shocked turned to Naruto and asked, "Huh?"
Naruto continued looking hard as it began raining, "I for one never believed in things like fate and destiny. I've never believed in God. But if there is someone up there, he/she definitely wants that kid to survive. Aside from the lightning strike that saved him, the rain should have dampened the gun powder by now, making it impossible to destroy their ship. To make things even crazier, there is an excellent tail wind that would aid anyone heading for the Grand Line via the Reverse Mountain."
Smoker was still focused on the smile as he thought, 'Why did he smile...? Why? Did he know he would be saved? No. In that instant, he must have understood that his life was going to end. Death. He accepted it. He was fully prepared for it and smiled.'
He turned to Naruto and asked, "Have you ever seen anyone smile as they were being executed?"
Naruto turned towards the window again to look at Luffy as he said, "Nope. He probably doesn't fear death. The only similar case I've heard about is the execution of the Pirate King from your story."
Smoker felt more rage than ever as he ordered his soldiers to attack the pirates. Smoker himself got on to his bike, called the Billower Bike, the engines of which worked on his devil fruit powers as he rounded up Buggy, Alvida and nearly every single member of the Buggy Pirates.
Naruto turned to Ain and said, "Come with me, Ain-chan. I'm beginning to sense the presence of that person I mentioned about even more strongly now. I suspect that he/she is responsible for all the events that transpired here today. I can't help but feel that if my suspicion is indeed true, then that person would help Luffy get away from Smoker. I won't let Smoker get hurt if that happens."
Naruto and Ain took off to the roof tops. They were both skilled in the Rokushiki move, Geppo which allowed them to fly by kicking the air with their legs. Soon Naruto and Ain caught up with Smoker, who had Luffy pinned down. Smoker was about to take his jitte and nail Luffy down with the Sea Stone tip at the end when suddenly Naruto felt someone appear at next to Smoker. The man held Smoker's jitte and was smiling down at him.
The man was covered in a dark green clock and Naruto immediately knew that this was the person whom he had been searching for. Naruto was about to appear right next to Smoker, when suddenly an extremely powerful gush of wind came by that blew away everything and everyone including Luffy, Smoker, Naruto, Ain and all the other marines. Just before the wind blew him away, Naruto who sensed something coming with his Kenbonshoku Haki instinctively threw a knife and got it lodged into the ground.
Luffy used his Gomu-Gomu no mi Rocket to get Sanji, Zoro and himself on the ship. Naruto using his devil fruit powers managed to grab Ain, Smoker and Tashigi and teleport to the knife he'd thrown.
Smoker turned towards Dragon and asked, "Why did you help him, Dragon?"
Dragon looked towards the Going Merry as he said, "I don't see any reason to stop a man from sailing."
Naruto who finally recognized Dragon knew the actual reason because of Garp's drunken rant and decided to let it be known to Dragon as he said, "Blood is a powerful bond indeed."
Dragon frowned as he turned towards Naruto and asked, "You are the new Marine prodigy, Jaguar D Naruto. Aren't you?"
When Naruto nodded, Dragon continued, "It's nice to meet you. The stories regarding you have been most impressive."
Naruto bowed his head slightly as he said, "Thank you for the compliment."
Smoker turned to Naruto and asked, "Oi Naruto, what does that statement mean?"
Naruto turned towards Smoker, "Someday, you'll know. Anyways, with that your perfect record is over. What are you going to do now?"
Smoker who was still extremely angry ordered his troops, "Prepare a ship. I'm going after him."
One of the Petty Officers behind him spoke up, "But Sir, this is where you have been posted."
Smoker yelled out in anger, "Don't give me orders."
Tashigi who was also extremely angry because of her quick defeat to Zoro and his decision to not kill her because of what she thought was a lame excuse yelled out, "I'm also coming with you. I cannot ever forgive him, Roronoa Zoro."
Naruto after hearing Smoker's and Tashigi's decision spoke up, "In that case prepare two ships. There are about 210 soldiers here. Forty of you will go with Smoker and twenty of you are coming with me and Ain-chan. The remaining 150 will stay here."
Smoker immediately yelled out, "I thought I told you that I'm in charge here, not you. Besides, why do you need a ship and a crew when you can just teleport around?"
Naruto argued back, "You stopped being in-charge here the moment you decided to leave for Grand Line. As your superior officer, I approve your decision to go to Grand Line. However as your superior officer, I'm also taking charge for now. My original purpose here was to go to my home town and oversee the arrest and transfer of a Rogue Marine Captain. I'll however be taking a detour. I'm going to straighten things here in East Blue in the next few days before heading back over to Shells Town. The next time we'll be meeting in the Grand Line, Smoker, Tashigi-chan."
Smoker found himself unable to argue. Dragon who was watching the interactions spoke up, "Good decision, young Marine. East Blue certainly needs some straightening. If it's you, maybe you can do it. From what I've heard, you are a rather broad-minded individual. I look forward to our next meeting."
Dragon then suddenly vanished with another lightning strike. Smoker who noticed that Dragon had disappeared reminisced as he said, "Twenty-two years ago, during Gold Roger's execution, the man appeared in a flash of lightning and disappeared almost immediately in another flash. I suppose he is the strong person you've warned me about, Naruto."
Naruto simply nodded in reply as the Petty officers completed the preparations for the two Marine ships to leave Logue Town.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
I know that some of you, if not most of you would be a little disappointed in the lack of action in this chapter. Return to East Blue was supposed to be one chapter with both part-1 and part-2. Th e problem was that the total word count for both the chapters put together had exceeded 10000 words. I'm nearly done with part-2. I'll be uploading it shortly after finishing off a couple of paragraphs as well.
