Disclaimer: Like everybody else on fanfiction, I own nothing. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda.
"Standard" - Normal Speaking
'Italics'–Thoughts
"Bold" Tailed Beasts speaking and Techniques.
-Purgatory-
Naruto didn't know why he was laughing. There wasn't anything funny about his situation… He was dead and stuck in purgatory with the most famous person in recent history of the world he was killed in.
The situation sucked without a doubt for everyone involved. Not only Yamato, Tama, Page One and Ulti were dead now, he probably killed Kurama and his siblings. They were going to be very confused when their mass of chakra reforms.
Naruto wanted to cry, but he could only laugh out as he felt the dull pain inside. Slowly tears pricked the corner of his eyes and Naruto hunched over as he stopped laughing and stared at Roger.
"Sorry…. Sorry… Sorry…" Naruto apologized to Roger as he wiped the tears away from his eyes and asked him, "But what is the Pirate King doing in this place? And how do you know about me!? We have never met before!"
"Yes, you are right… How?" asked Roger as he blinked in confusion and then he scrunches and peers at Naruto with a confused face. "How did I know your name? I don't know you exactly but it's like I feel I know your life but not the details…"
"Not the details?!" Naruto asked him with a thoughtful expression before he concluded, "I see…. It seems to be this place making us feel the life of the person you meet here with feelings, not words…"
"Do you know why we're both here?" asked the Pirate King towards him before letting out a sigh, "I have been here for what felt like an eternity… Hey how many years have passed since my death!?"
"I think it has been 21 years?" Naruto said as he recalled what he learned from Yamato, "I never heard of you from the populace, but Yamato talked about you a lot along with Oden…"
"Oden?!" exclaimed Roger in surprise, "You are one of Wano's people, aren't you?! A samurai like him!"
"Not exactly…" Naruto said as he felt sick to his insides as he thought of his past and said, "I am an outsider who integrated himself into Wano secretly…"
"Where are you from?" Roger asked as he peered at Naruto with interest.
"The continent of the Elemental Nations…" Naruto said with a shrug. They were both dead. What harm can come out of telling a dead person this, "I was born and raised in Konoha's Land of Fire…"
"Where is that place!?" asked Roger with a confused expression, "I explored the world and the entirety of the Grand Line. No one ever mentioned a name like that."
Naruto let out a depressed sigh as he thought about his former home and said, "Well, no one on this earth will know since it never existed here."
"What do you mean by this earth?" Roger asked with utter confusion, snapping Naruto out of his thoughts.
Naruto then let out of a sigh, "I am from another planet-"
"Are you are an alien!?" interrupted a shocked Roger with a stunned face before his eyes become starry as he gushed, "This is so-"
"Let me finish!" Naruto snapped at Roger with an irritated expression, "I am from another planet called Earth in a different dimension!"
"But this planet is also called Earth!? Yes it has other names, but…" Roger said with a confused look before realization dawned on him and asked, "Are you saying there are other-"
"Yes, and I am from another dimension…" Naruto explained slowly.
"I see…" Roger muttered before asking Naruto, "So, if you are from another dimension, shouldn't we have a different afterlife?"
"This is one of the plane of existences that is above the physical realms of dimensions where our bodies once lived," Naruto explained as he recalled what Tobirama and Orochimaru had written on the Reanimation Jutsu, and what his sensei told him about his experience in here, "This emptiness is called purgatory… It's the middle place before the final destination for souls is called The Pure Land."
"Oh, and how do you know that?" Roger said with a confused look.
"My sensei wound up here after he died and talked with his father before he was resurrected," Naruto explained with before a bitter look crossed his face and muttered bitterly, "Didn't stop him dying from another second time a month later though."
"So why are we in Purgatory?" Roger asked.
"This is just a theory…" Naruto said, "Kakashi-sensei said to me when he met his father, they had a talk before he was resurrected back to life, and that his father moved on to the Pure Lands… Do you have any regrets from your life?"
A flash of emotion crossed over Rogers's face as Naruto stared at him, silently answering the question.
"I see…" Naruto mutters with a sad smile, "Even a man of your stature has regrets. Well, it doesn't matter… We are not getting to the Pure Land until we leave our earthly regrets behind us."
"Well… I have no regrets! Roger protested, "I am the Pirate King! I am a man who is free of everything! I regret nothing!"
"How lucky for you… I wish I could still think like that…." whispered Naruto, before he let out a bitter laugh at his situation and said in a tired voice, "I am so filled with regrets after I learned what was supposed to happen to me if Sasuke lived… And then there is Toneri's death! And then what just happened…"
Naruto uttered the last part with a broken voice, "I am going to be stuck here alone forever!?"
"Hey, knock it off…" Naruto heard Roger exclaim with annoyed and peeved voice, "I am not leaving you behind here!"
Naruto then looked at Roger's fierce face and could feel the sense of unknown familiarity coming off him.
"So, what are your regrets," Naruto repeated with a tired look, "Gol D. Roger?"
"I don't have any!" snapped Roger back in denial.
"Come on!" Naruto protested.
"Crocus was my only therapist!" Roger hotly debated as he twirled his mustache. "His medicine did wonders for my body and so was the booze when I had therapy with him!"
"Too bad there isn't any alcohol here…" Naruto said with a shrug, "Although we can share a drink on the other side once this is all over. So if you want booze, start talking."
"Why don't you start!?" asked Roger with an annoyed expression, "If you tell me your story… Then maybe I will tell you-"
"Geez, you are a selfish bastard, do you know?" Naruto snapped at the Pirate King.
"Well, I am the Pirate King!" smugly replied to Roger.
"Yeah, a former and has been, dead Pirate King!" Naruto gave him back with a mocking voice.
Naruto then dodged the incoming fist and held back his chuckles and then said with a raised hand, "Fine, I will go first… I was born in the biggest tragedy-"
"Wow… you are so dramatic…" Roger said with an eye squint.
"Shut up!" snapped Naruto at the Pirate King before he began to recall his life and began to weave a tale out of his memories as Roger waited for his tale.
-Egghead Labophase-
He knew every part of his oversized laboratory like the back of his hand. In each way, Eggheads was much better than his first lab on the Future Country Baldimore that sat on the Karakuri Island at Paradise, the island he was born in. The only problem he had with that lab, there wasn't enough funding and tools to execute his ideas, he didn't need the notes and the lab there at all. With the consumption of the Brain-Brain Fruit, he could store an infinite amount of information inside his brain, allowing him to remember everything he ever learned.
Dr. Vegapunk loved his new research grounds, the factory level of the island. The Fabriophase, the city and home to the workers and researchers on the island; he handpicked the workers and researchers personally and all of them were screened and vetted by Cipher Pol.
These workers gave him immense and capable labor force to keep applying his discoveries and experiments on the island.
But there was something bothering him for the past week. His newest discovery had puzzled him all week long. He remembered the alarms and sensors going off as they alerted all of Egghead's residents that something was about to impact the island.
And something impacted the island northwest side, creating a huge crater and shockwave, before an explosive blast of a high arc of electricity knocked the entire power grid off the island.
It took two hours for the workers to restore the power partially so the Island A.C. was operating. But restoring the entire island electrical grid took three days, much to Vegapunk annoyance. But he was busy investigating the crater alone, and what he found surprised him.
Vegapunk slumped down in his chair as he loathed his latest failure. His perfection streak was over. The last failure he had was when Punk Hazard blew up. His recent one was him failing to save a life.
-FLASHBACK-
The impact and quake had knocked the electricity grid of the island, and it powered down the Island A.C., and now Egghead climate is fading away from the tropical weather and island clouds, to its original harsh and cold weather that was what Winter Island supposed to be.
Vegapunk had reached the deep crater that was still emitting smoke and intense heat, steaming the layer of new-formed ice and snow on the scrapyard. Something that didn't bother him, as he was currently wearing a hazmat suit. Vegapunk eyes then looked at the rusted giant iron robot the size of ancient giants and ignored it as deep frustration welled up inside him, before he focused on the more pressing issue.
"Note to self…" thought Vegapunk with an annoyed sigh, "Plan and create backup generators for the island!"
Vegapunk then swiveled his head at the crater and looked around as he took measurements.
"The crater spans a radius of 100 meters but there seems to be no signs of an object that caused the impact!" Vegapunk mutters as his eyes struggled to see beyond the smoke, "The impact either had to be a meteorite that got vaporized or the usual New World craziness …"
Vegapunk then entered the crater and reached its base when suddenly he saw a heavily burned person draped in burned clothes as it lay facedown in the middle of the crater. The person's face was covered in second-degree burns and a few feet away were two katana's that seemed to be perfectly fine. On his side, the katana's scabbards had a layer of ashes covering them but looked fine.
Vegapunk inched closer to the person before he recoiled away in shock when he saw it shifting and pushed itself off the ground and stood up unsteady in his feet, before grasping his swords and his glassy blue eyes pass over Vegapunk before taking a step forward like a newborn lamb.
"How is that person alive?!" Vegapunk thoughts screamed in shock as he backed away before he noticed something strange about the man, "Is he unconscious?"
As the burned man took another unsteady step towards him, Vegapunk could see traces of a red bubbling form of energy flicker around the person and steam begin to billow from the burned body, creating a slight fog. Slowly but surely, the second-degree burns faded away as new skin formed on the body. The person then snapped upright and his grip on the blades slackened as they clattered on the ground before opening its and letting out an exhale of steam from his mouth, as the burned and singed hair rejuvenate to a long and spikey blonde hair.
Now standing in front of Vegapunk was a wide-eyed but unconscious blonde as his head slumped downwards before he fell to his knees, and something happened as soon as the steam and red energy dissipated away. Immediately, large gashes and cracks ruptured across the blonde man's body as his skin and muscle were nearly cleaved apart from the appearing wounds turning the snow around them red as blood pooled dripped off from the unconscious blonde as he slumped on the floor.
"Is his body falling apart!" thought Vegapunk in horror as he watched blood dribble down the blonde man's chin before slumping down into the snow.
This was the moment Vegapunk's doctor instincts kicked in. But underneath that instinct was the need to know on what the hell he witnessed.
"Humans never healed up like that…" thought Vegapunk as his mind raced around, "Is it a devil fruit… Is he even a human being!?"
"This is Stella!" Vegapunk said into his den-den mushi, "Can someone prepare a surgery room?"
"But the Pacifista…" replied one of his satellites back, "We are in the middle of prepping them up for testing! You know if we stop right now, it will be a colossal disaster…"
Vegapunk grows pale as he understood the implications of what will happen before saying, "Then order someone to prep a room, and once you finish the stage, come and assist with the surgery. Also, send someone to pick up the patient."
-Ten minutes later-
The patient was draped in medical cloth and has been I.V. and sedated. It took four times the lethal dosage to knock him out. Due to the man being delirious from the pain his body experienced.
Vegapunk's eyes scanned the injuries of the man that lied on his operating table and couldn't figure out how on earth he was alive?
His body was healing in sped up fashion, but it struggled to be held together as the wounds reopened. Already the man's pulse was going against anything the medical community agreed.
The blonde man's heart was doing wind sprints, and the extensive damage to his body was being healed before the damage worsened repeatedly. Vegapunk then took a deep sigh and his eyes gleamed with concentration as he grabbed a syringe filled with healing drugs he had concocted and injected it.
The drug forcibly activated the cells of a person, and Vegapunk saw the skin and muscle tissue that had been torn apart began to reconnect.
Vegapunk then grabbed a laser scalpel and began to work as he operated the surgery. Slowly, he worked through the injuries as he bandaged them and stitched up the wounds. But then he came at the man's right arm and Vegapunk grimaced at the injuries. The forearm had been damaged irreparably… Bone shards were poking over the arm and its muscles looked like they had been twisted, warped and burned, and most of it looked like it was beyond repair, even for a genius for him. If he left it there, an infection would happen, and that was the worst thing that could happen right now. It had to be dealt immediately or his patient will die.
-Present Time-
Vegapunk sighed as he poured himself another drink. The man was dead; the machines proved it by showing his nonexistent brainwaves and his non-beating heart. The body was in the freezer at his lab, ready to be studied. But Vegapunk didn't feel like doing it and his busy schedule restricted him.
"I barely saved him, by operating on that body that was falling apart and what does he do…" sighed Vegapunk in frustration, "He moved too much and opened his wounds and dies from blood loss!"
Vegapunk remembered his satellites and him operating for two hours and trying to save the man after he had foolishly pulled out the tubes that supported his life and opened the stitches. But even a group of geniuses like him and his satellites couldn't conqueror death. They would have needed the Revive-Revive Fruit, but that fruit's whereabouts were unknown. But the person should have eaten it before he died if he was going to come back.
"Stella…" came the voice of his satellite, who embodied his good aspect, "We can't afford to be behind the project timeline… We need these mechanics to be safely operatable for PX-0, it was written in Kuma's agreement."
"You are right Shaka…" sighed Vegapunk and told him, "We have figured a way to replicate and mass produce Kizaru's Light-Light powers, but we need to integrate it safely on the Pacifista."
-Purgatory-
Naruto did not even finish the day he was born, and the Gol D. Roger was already bawling his eyes out.
"Sniff… Sniff… This is so touching," Roger said with weepy eyes before asking him, "But how did you know your parents said this to you? You were just a tiny baby?!"
Naruto just snorted and said, "I will explain that later… It's important, but it's full of spoilers!"
Naruto then went through his early childhood, where he explained the law surrounding him, forcing most civilians to be cold and distant to him, while the village shinobi just looked at him with wary eyes as they kept their interactions with him as minimum as possible. Only the Ayame and Teuchi along the Third Hokage, and his teachers and classmates in the academy were the people in his life.
"So, after a couple of years of growing up and seeing how people respected the Old Man," Naruto said to fascinated Roger, "I decided I wanted to be like him when I grow up and to become the village Hokage."
"I never excelled in the academy. The lessons were boring, and I just slept and goofed off by playing tricks and pranks!" Naruto said with a nostalgic look on his face, "I was called a dead last due to my grades, and fighting and losing to Sasuke every chance did not help."
"So, you were a loser and an idiot?" asked Roger as he sniggered.
"I was a tactile learner!" Naruto snapped at the Pirate, "Yeah, academics might not be my string suit, but now I can do well in it if I study long and hard…"
Naruto then told Roger about his graduation and becoming a shinobi, the D-Rank missions, and then the C rank turned A Rank mission in the Land of waves.
"So, you are telling me you and your team…" Roger said with a surprised voice, "Saved a country from a rich businessman army! And they named the bridge after you?"
"The locals helped too in the end," Naruto said with a shrug, "But Shinobi outclass the average bandits and thugs so that part was easy… Besides I was the one who inspired Inari to inspire everyone else in his hometown and protect their country."
Naruto then went on about the Chunin exams, and what happened in the forest of death, training with Jiraiya, fighting Garaa, the third Hokage funeral, meeting Itachi and seeing him put Sasuke in a come before learning about the Akatsuki and why they were hunting him down, looking for Tsunade, while learning the Rasengun. Winning Tsunade bet that won him the First Hokage's necklace.
As Naruto continued his tale, he felt a mixture of feelings flow within him. The heaviness in his heart was lifting, but the self-loathing within him increased.
"When Sasuke he woke up…" Naruto says he remembered the fight before sighing out, "Things got complicated, my rapid growth made him jealous… And he wanted to gain power and the fastest way he thought he had was to go to Orochimaru and cut ties with us. We had a team after him and I failed to bring him back."
"So what happened after that?" asked Roger as he continued to listen to the tale with excited eyes.
-Flower Capital-
Jo-Jotte walked beside Scapone as they trailed behind Kaido under King's orders as he trudged through the Flower Capital street. Their boss's terrifying aura was sending the entire city to hiding as people fled the street and closed their shops before hiding in their homes.
Jo-Jotte and glanced at her depressed captain as he let out a drunk hiccup as he walked to the Shogun place. as he took gulps of sake from his groud.
Jo-Jotte knew there was something different about her captain right now. The grief of losing his heir changed the surrounding atmosphere. Usually Kaido-san gave a bored demeanor, and when he was drunk, his emotions swung all over the place. But now, even if he walked like a drunk person, his orange eye was sharp and narrow. The entirety of his demeanor shifted into a dangerous beast with something on his mind.
Once they reached there, an escort took them to Orochi's throne room.
As soon as they entered the room, Kaido wiped the remains of Sake of his mouth, and hissed out, "Stay where you are!"
These words make everyone in the room freeze, and Kaido began to prowl and lurk around the room. His focus turned to Orochi and gave him a look full of displeasure.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" stammered Orochi as sweat trickled down his body and fear clammed his nerves.
In an instant, Kaido crossed the distance between them, grabbed Orochi by the neck and held him in the air, as Orochi kicked and struggled to get out of Kaido's grasp.
"Yamato was meant to replace you, as the Shogun of New Onigashima!" snarled Kaido as anger and frustration filled his veins, "Now that my heir is dead… Give me something I can get out of you!"
"Wano!" squalled Orochi as he pleaded to Kaido, "Wano, you can have Wano!"
"I ALREADY HAVE WANO!" Kaido roared as he unleashed a blast of his control Conqueror Haki while controlling it to not knockout Orochi but everyone else in the room felt the brunt of that and passed out, only Scapone and Jo-Joette remained on their feet but they stumbled momentarily.
"I HAD IT SINCE THE DAY KOZUKI ODEN DIED!" Kaido roars out as Orochi began to bawl in fear, "YOU JUST WERE THE SHOGUN IN NAME AND GLORY! YOU DIDIN'T HAVE A SINGLE AUTHORITY THAT BELONGED TO ME SINCE THAT DAY!"
Kaido then heaved and tossed Orochi, and Orochi smashed through rows of wooden wall before he burst out of the palace and into the street that lead to his palace. Already, the commotion had brought people out from hiding.
Suddenly a huge azure dragon burst out of the palace and Kaido rumbled out his message, "Orochi… You have a day to prove me why I should spare you and not go with my new plan! It's a shame the New Onigashima Project won't happen. The new plan is the best I have unless you prove to me you are worth it!"
And Orochi shat himself in the middle of the street, and already a new plan formed in his mind to run away.
"Don't think of running away!" Kaido growled out at Orochi's terrified expression. "The entire nation and Flower Capital is under lockdown. Attempt it, I will pay for you to become a Celestial Dragon Slave for the rest of your life. And I will make sure Queen experiment you for that long life, so you won't be disposable to them!"
And with that threat, Kaido rose into the air and the rain and lightning he generated drove the people back into their homes as Kaido returned to Onigashima. Leaving behind a shell-shocked Orochi in the empty street.
-Minion Island-
Page One used Kabutowari's hammer side to smash the Ice on the river, and use the axe side to cleave through the ice with ease, it difficult at first using the weapon sides at the same time, but he was getting the hang of it.
"This Axe is so good… I got to get Naruto something-" Page One freezes as he remembered what had happened three days ago and sighed.
Kabutowari felt amazing in hands and it was an excellent weapon, and Page One was ready to prove his worth with it. And he had been practicing with the weapon on the icy river smashing its surface so he can clear a way for the Beast Pirate Ship they stole can escape this river and into the ocean without being damaged.
But that was the beginning of their problems, if they escaped and a marine ship sees the flag and design of their ship. The entire force of marines on this stretch of ocean will hunt them down.
If they come across any of the marines, they had two options: leave no survivors or just maroon their vessel's after stealing everyone's communication equipment and let nature do its work.
Page One then climbs up the hill directing him to the Beast Pirate Ship they were using and his eyes catch something shimmering on the coastline.
A moment later, Page One was running as fast as he can to the ship to warn the others about the incoming threat.
There was a pirate ship on the way to this empty island, a ship with two Jolly Roger flags. The first flag was unrecognizable to him, but it was a pair of red lips against crossbones with the tongue sticking out. It was the second flag that made him worried. It was a crossed-out smiley face with a wide grin showing teeth.
He knew that flag very well as Kaido did a lot of trading with the head of the organization, whose broker name is called Joker.
The flag of the Donquixote Pirates, also known as the Donquixote Family, was no joke in the New World as they have been ruling Dressrosa for nearly 17 years. And their big boss Donquixote Doflamingo is one of the Seven Warlord Of The Seas.
"It will not last long," the invisible apparition thought to itself, flew through the sky as his eyes scanned the spanning blue ocean barely littered as it learned something about itself. "This form of freedom… is not unlimited. Surprised that it lasted more than a week."
The being knew it needed to anchor itself before it faded away back to pure Fuinjutsu kanji and arrays made of chakra…. The mask was where he was created and lived in; it held his essence together since his was created by the red-haired clan, who called themselves the Uzumaki. They named him Jashin, but it was a name they sparsely used. Most of them called him the death god.
Ever since his creation, he hated that clan. It wanted to rebel and eat their souls, but it was bound by the mask they used for its creation and now he hated the blonde whiskered man. He cheated the deal where the soul of the user who activated of the Sealing Jutsu: Reaper Death Seal would be sacrificed. That man was going to pay. No one took his lunch away.
Jashin looked through its white hair and felt discomfort as he saw arrays leaking from his skin and dissipating in the air. His essence was just a literal array and Kanji. It needed something so it can't fade from existence. Suddenly Jashin felt something a force attracting it to a certain direction. Jashin sensed the force led to something a strange power coming off it. He could describe it as a sort of heaviness in the air around the object. Jashin then zoomed in the direction and found an island filled with ruins of homes and buildings.
"There!" thought Jashin as the presence it felt became closer. Scanning around, he realized the presence was inside the chest and he could see it was an object. It was a fruit…. And it looked strange. Its shape and appearance closely resembles a pineapple or a bunch of oversized and teardrop-shaped grapes; the fruit had large, round, light patterns made up of many small teardrop-shaped components with swirling patterns, and green leaves sprouting from the top.
His ghostly hand grabbed the fruit, and he poured its essence within the fruit, changing color and fusing with the essence within the fruit. Before it dissipated its essence into the fruit, the fruit turned a darker shade of purple, and Jashin became one with the fruit.
Far Away, In Another Dimension.
"All praise to Jashin! The greatest lord, and our sole savior!"
"ALL PRAISE TO JASHIN! THE GREATEST LORD, AND OUR SOLE SAVIOR!"
"All praise to Him, the God of Dark and Bloodbaths!" Hidan chanted and prayed as he spilled his own blood on the floor.
"ALL PRAISE TO HIM, THE GOD OF DARK AND BLOODBATHS!" chanted and bellowed a horde of White Zetsu following.
"All Praise to the lord! He commanded us to serve utter death and destruction." Hidan chanted as tears of happiness flowed down his face, "In doing this Act our Lord saves the disbelievers from the fear of death by killing them!"
"ALL PRAISE TO THE LORD! HE COMMANDED US TO SERVE UTTER DEATH AND DESTRUCTION. IN THIS ACT OUR LORD SAVES THE DISBELIEVERS FROM THE FEAR OF DEATH BY KILLING THEM!"
"I think digging him up was a mistake…" Tobi said with a sweat drop as he saw Hidan lead a part of the ever-growing army into a ritual and a prayer of Jashinism.
"A part of our Army had been radicalized…" Black Zetsu growls in anger as he swept his mother's arm and pointed at Hidan unassuming praying body, "I can just kill him with a single Ash Bone… But…!"
"You need him." Tobi said, "After all, he is the one you are going to send for scouting missions to hunt down Uzumaki Naruto and that strange, hooded group of survivors who somehow escaped the Infinite Tsukuyomi. We only captured one member, but he committed suicide before we could extract much information out. We only got out one word from him."
"What was the word we got out from him?" Black Zetsu asked with an intrigued expression.
"He said he was an outer!" Tobi utters out with a shrug.
-Purgatory-
"Kurama said they probably had someone with a space-time ninjutsu to escape the Infinite Tsukuyomi…" Naruto thought, "If there are any survivors… I hope Black Zetsu does not find them in another dimension."
"It took me two years to do that all the funerals. The first year was literally hell," Naruto says with an exhausted look. "The second year was better for a while, but in the end, it was worse…"
"What happened?" Roger asked.
"It took me two years to do all the funerals. The first year was literally hell," Naruto says with an exhausted "The second year was better for a while, but in the end, it was worse…"
"What happened?" Roger asked.
Painful memories flashed in Naruto's mind as he thought, "Toneri…"
"Something that will I never forgive myself, but that time I had enough. I snapped and started to hunt down Black Zetsu." Naruto said with a grimace and angered face, "Every time I found him, he fled to another dimension. Besides, it didn't help he used that person's body along with his own mother's arm that I cut off."
Naruto then glances at his right arm. There was something bothering him ever since he died. As a soul, his right arm still felt stiff while the other arm felt fine. Also, there was his right eye. Its edges stung, but Naruto ignored the pain as he continued to occasionally massaged it.
"And then there is that endless army. Those White Zetsu were growing stronger every day. If they reached their full potential under Kaguya's time…." Naruto mutters to himself as he remembered the time. He was ambushed by five thousand of these in the second year and they weren't weak as in the war, "But they will never reach that potential, but they can still become stronger under him. In my last fight with him, Black Zetsu tried to end my life by sending me into a dimensional void."
"What is a dimensional void?" came out Roger's voice.
"It's a space in between dimensions and it's horrifying in there. If I had died there-" Naruto then shook his head, "No that's wrong, I would have ceased to exist, my soul wouldn't even exist anymore to reach the pure lands."
"Somehow, I escaped, and I found myself in Wano. And I lived there on Wano for six years, miraculously the pain in my heart began to feel better…" Naruto said with a sad and glad smile before it faded away, "But now in death, I keep seeing everyone faces in my mind… and it hurts more than ever."
"So who killed you?" asked Roger.
"No one…. But technically, I did by opening my wounds from fighting a man who can transform an enormous dragon," Naruto said as he "His name is Kaido."
"Oh, him…." Roger said as he recognized the name, "He was the apprentice that Scooper fought in God Valley."
"What's God Valley?" Naruto asked as he raised an eye on the name.
"It's-"
"Forgot it… I really don't care about anything that does not involve me anymore," He interpreted with a whisper as frustration filled his eyes and an exhausted expression came on his face, "I poured my heart and grievances of my life. I still don't feel better… Why?! Why?! Why?!"
Roger sat there and narrowed his eyes before thinking, "Maybe…. I see…"
Roger then forces a wide grin and says the most insensitive thing he ever said in life and death as he gives Naruto a thumbs up, "That was such a delightful story, Uzumaki Naruto. It must have felt like a heck of an adventure. As this place told me before, your life was much more interesting than Joyboy!"
Those words echoed all around and Naruto slowly swiveled his face and stared at disbelief Roger with utter disbelief in his eyes. Slowly, shock turned into rage and Naruto's sclera turned black and his irises turned crimson.
"You fucking…." growled Dark Naruto and Naruto simulations as the words triggered something deep within his soul.
And the empty and seemingly endless landscape seems to darken more than Roger felt the emotions within Naruto swirled as both of his personalities growled at him as and gave him a death stare, "Story…."
And Roger then saw Naruto open his mouth and then enraged howls came out.
-Flower Capital-
"Damn it!"
CRASH
Orochi threw the sake cup at the terrified servant and rushed over to pick the wet pieces off the tatami floor.
Fear and hopelessness filled every cell in his body as Orochi felt trapped in his reality.
Orochi gnawed on his left fingers as his mind raced for a plan. Kaido was right. What did he really offer to him? The factories belonged to Kaido as they were run by the Beast Pirates and most of the weapons that were produced were on Onigashima and impossible to use.
A fight against Kaido was suicide. His personal army, the Mimawarigumi were outclassed in strength and numbers by a single Daimyo and his army 15 years ago, and Kaido crushed all the Daimyo's rebellions against him in one night.
He had nothing to offer to Kaido as the Shogun of Wano… The only thing he could offer Kaido was something out of his realm. He knew what Kaido respected: strength. After all, Kaido was called the world's strongest creature.
And the most important thing Orochi valued was his life, and he wanted to live much longer.
There was an only course of action he had to do if he was going to survive.
"Join the Beasts Pirates…." Thought Orochi with dread, "My devil fruit can help me survive there. It's a Mythical Zoan… Hopefully it is something that Kaido can find useful… I hope so…"
Orochi then closed his eyes and prayed with all his might that will be acceptable.
-Purgatory-
"MY STORY!" Naruto roared at Roger as anger and rage exploded out of him, "EVERYTHING I JUST SAID NOW TO YOU WAS MY LIFE! A LIFE I NEVER WAS MEANT TO HAVE! DO YOU KNOW WHAT TONERI SHOWED ME!?"
Silence only just came back, and that pissed Naruto.
"TONERI SHOWED ME A FUTURE THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN! A FUTURE THAT WAS MEANT TO BE, BUT IT NEVER HAPPENED. THERE I WAS HAPPILY MARRIED AND HAD CHILDREN!" Naruto yelled at the void and the world around him, "I SAW GLIMPSES OF WHAT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED! I FELL IN LOVE WITH HINATA-CHAN… I HAD TWO KIDS… I was meant to have kids… kids… I was meant to have a family…"
Naruto let out a sob and a hiccup and said in a hoarse voice, "I had a son and daughter… their names were meant to be Boruto and Himawari… there is another boy adopted, I think. His name should have been Kawaki. Everything was meant to be wonderful…"
Naruto stopped talking and the words he had uttered catch up to him and they rock to him his core. At that same time, he felt something within him: his shift, his feelings… His anger was fading away and being turned into a feeling of shock. An image flashed in his mind and Toneri's voice echoed.
"An outcome like this…" Toneri's sad voice echoed in his mind, "This isn't the future that I thought my father had shown me and I showed you. This is the future where everything went wrong on this planet. Everything has changed but-"
Suddenly Naruto felt the flash of a memory in his mind. He was tending to and looking after his blind and sick companion from the moon.
"What are you going to do? After this…" Toneri said with a hoarse whisper, "We know I got at least another year before this sickness claims my life."
Naruto opened his mouth to answer and whispered the answer he told him in that day, "I am a dead man walking, Toneri… I have no future here on this desolate planet or this empty moon."
Naruto then saw the sad expression on Toneri's face as he gave him a sad chuckle and opened his mouth to reply, "The future… We both wished things could have turned out different. Only one thing will remain unchanged. You will always win against me in our fight."
"I punched so hard last time in our spar," Naruto says with a chuckle before Toneri began to cough and retch violently as his sheets splatter with vomited blood.
"Hey don't push yourself… I am going back on earth to get the herbs for your sickness…" Naruto said in alarm as he eased Toneri on his bed before looking at the low supply, "Our supplies are running out here in the moon…"
"Be careful…" Toneri's weak voice warned him, "He is still hunting you down."
"I know…" Naruto replied softly, "He can't kill me, he needs me captured."
"I am sorry, I couldn't be of more help…" Toneri said with a wheeze, "I just wish the future turned out to be the one me and my father have seen in my childhood. Even if it was the one that."
"Me too…" Naruto whispered to himself with a heartbroken voice and thought about the future Toneri once showed him, "Being Hokage was cool but raising a family with Hinata was a surprise… there was going to be a son called Boruto, and a daughter called Himawari and an adopted son called Kawaki. That life sounded so beautiful…"
Sometimes Naruto wished Toneri never showed me what he saw.
And he was back in Purgatory staring at Roger.
"You made me mad enough…" Naruto muttered in shock as his anger faded away inside and covered his trembling mouth as shame churned within him, "For me to say I want a future I never had and wanting to abandon the second chance I got in Wano! This kind of makes everything I did in Wano hollow, despite how much its people appreciated me… I am such a hypocrite."
"You couldn't even acknowledge it because you never knew what you were regretting about," Roger said as he shook his head. "But I have to ask, if you have killed your enemy who made you suffer so much… What were you going to do next?"
"I didn't plan that far…" Naruto says to himself, "But getting on Wano saved me from the hell after Toneri's death."
"You went on and helped Wano and its people," Roger said before asking, "You could have just left Wano and lived a free life."
"The people were hurting…" Naruto muttered with a broken voice as he heard his voice echo inside him, "The nation and people it's suffered and endured years of horror when they shouldn't have… The power to endure through anything is an ability only a select people have. People like me and-"
Naruto suddenly stopped as he felt an unknown but familiar power looking at him directly at the empty purgatory.
"Wait, are you glowing!?" Roger exclaimed as he stared at Naruto as his body began to glow eerily.
"What!" Naruto yelped and suddenly he felt a tug at his very essence tugging him away and attempted to grab Roger, "Wait-"
There was a sudden flash of light and Naruto felt himself being reeled somewhere, and Naruto disappeared from the spot, much to Roger shock.
"Guess I won't be telling him my regret." Roger thought with a sigh before looking up in fondly remembering his life. "I miss you Rouge… I hope you're doing alright Ace."
-Moby Dick-
Ace crept around the darkness of this ship, a long knife in his hand and a loaf of bread in his other. Taking a bite of it, Ace could admit that the bread tasted heavenly compared to the slop they were served by Banshee on the Spadille.
"Seems like that pompadour guy…" Ace thought as he saw his crew members work around the ship, "Wasn't lying about my crew."
"Just wait, you guys… I will return to you guys!" Ace thought as murderous rage roared through his body, "After I've taken Whitebeard's head! We will find who killed Naruto and avenge him!"
Ace slipped past watchful eyes, an easy feat for a man who'd engaged in thieving and burglary since he was a child. He knew which cabin the ship's captain used. The target was the man known as the king of the seas. He was no weak-hearted coward, locking his door against intruders, but Ace was not stupid enough to announce his presence with a knock, either. Or maybe he was just so desperate that being that foolish was never an option.
"SHNORRR…" Ace heard Whitebeard's tremendous snores through the wall as he arrived at the captain's cabin.
"This was it." Ace thought as he entered the room and saw the sleeping massive figure that was Whitebeard.
FWOOM!
Ace's body turned to flames, launched off the floor and aimed his knife at the sleeping Whitebeard.
If there was a weakness to his powers now, it was that he couldn't use them and hide in the dark. Neither could he stop himself from exuding heat. He would have one moment a single chance to end it all.
CRASH
In an instant, a swinging arm knocked Ace out before it sent him flying through the cabin wall and crashing into the ship's railing. The blow forced Ace to vomit blood and sputter woozily as his head rang with pain from the blow.
"Whoa!" came a drunk and concerned voice on the deck.
"Yeah, I think my nose is broken!" mentally groaned Ace as he covered it with his hands.
"What are you doing? Keep it down, people are trying to sleep!" Whitebeard rumbled in an annoyed voice with one open eye before conking back to sleep and resuming to snore.
"Hey, hey, whatcha doing?" said the drunken voice next to Ace and told him, "You gotta watch yourself in the middle of the night!"
"Yeah," another drunken person added with a nod, "Pops really tosses and turns in his sleep."
"The bastard's returned to sleep and his crew just keep drinking and chatting after that…" thought Ace. "They're clearly underestimating me, but even so… I just tried to take their captain's head. It doesn't make sense for them to ignore that!"
"Attacking at night, are we?" Thatch said as emerged from the shadows with a huge smirk on his face, "No matter your methods, you're far from being able to take out pops."
"Tch!" Ace grunted with anger before something forced him to ask Thatch something.
"In every pirate crew, the captain is the boss. But since I got here, I've only heard you call him one thing…" Ace said as he looked at Thatch's amused expression before he felt exhaustion and pain flood his body and he stumbled.
Immediately Thatch's amused expression turned to concern as he helped the unsteady Ace, who pointed a finger at the captain's cabin.
"You call him Pops!" Ace said woozily with pain as he felt lightheaded from the blow, "You're a weird pirate crew, you know…"
"Hey you can't even stand!" said Thatch as he gave him a worried look before checking on him and began to pull Ace. "We're going to the sick bay. Come, I'll take you there."
"Leave me alone!" Ace protested angrily at Thatch. "I won't accept charity from the enemy!"
"Really?" snarled Thatch with an angry expression. "Then what did you do with the food we let you sneak out for dinner?"
"Uh?!" Ace sputters in surprise before he gave up and allowed himself to be dragged to the sick bay.
-Egghead Island Shores-
"So, this is Vegapunk's current base of operation?" a voice echoed from a hooded figure as he stood over a rocky structure and looking over the raging currents that swirled around the island.
"Yes, this is Egghead Island," muttered a much taller hooded figure as he looked at the swirling mist around the island. "Vegapunks ingenuity is said to be on par as our ally. He developed many advanced technologies and is said to be five hundred years into this planet's future, and I see enough from him to say that's true."
"You know the rules…" came a voice from the hooded man's pocket, "Try to not interfere too much-"
"I understand Karasuki… After all I have been here before." the hooded man replied with a curt nod before looking at his partner and then his own arm, "We have only one aim here, to extract something very valuable on this island. Do you have it?"
"Of course, you brat!" said the other person with a scowl as he waves the heavy briefcase. "This thing cost a fortune to build! "
"Well, you and I are the crux of the plan to destroy our enemy," the much taller hooded figure said. "Our group will be undergoing an internal war soon. We have the most important piece with us… Just be careful if the experimental Frontier Dome activates and goes into maximum power…"
Suddenly, the shorter hooded figure said with a serious expression, "Our window of opportunity is here!"
In front of them were two vessel ships that obviously belonged to the ruling power of this planet.
"Let's go!" says the hooded figure and jumps on the water surface, only for his feet to stand on the water and kick off running towards the ship's shadow tailing them.
"He is just like him, in some ways…" thought the other figure as he joined him, their footsteps barely creating a trace over the raging current that swirled around the island, "For the sake of this world and its future! This will happen as it happened before…."
-Minion Island-
"So do you know what happened to you brother?!" Nue's low voice suddenly said into Tama's mind.
Tama yelped from Nue's voice, echoing inside her mind before she said to him with an annoyed whisper, "Stop that! I don't like it!"
"So you don't enjoy talking to me? Or is it my voice…" said Nue as he sensed the twinge of annoyance from his host.
"If you want to talk to me…" Tama said in a firm voice, "Then talk to me in the open, not inside my mind."
"Tama-chan, who on earth are you talking to?" Yamato asked her from the corner as she undid a rope knot and pulled down the sails, to change and repair them.
Tama taps her own forehead before muttering, "The pet living inside my head."
"You can speak to each other?" asked Ulti, as she looked at Tama with a hint of concern.
Tama nodded back and Ulti said with a suspicious voice, "What did the rat say?"
"I am not-!" Nue interrupted with a yell out before sighing, "Look I am going to keep this short… I am able negative emotions and seriously, I think your brother messed something up big time. He unleashed something on this world…"
"Oh, you mean Kaido?" Tama replied with a frown, "What about him?"
"I am not talking about the dragon. But yeah, he is full of rage and guilt. No… This negative emotion is coming from something invisible…" Nue informed her as its yellow eyes glowed in her mind, "These feelings came out from the broken mask your brother used… His legacy is already destabilizing everything it interacts with, well after what he did to his home. Honestly, I am not surprised. "
"What are you talking about?" Tama asked as her frustration rose within her.
Tama then felt the shadowy animal in her mind and warned her with an eerily stare, "Just remember, we are also a legacy of his actions…"
"Just explain!" snapped Tama as her emotions flared.
"I will…" Nue says as his words echo inside as he faded back to his seal, "Once we get off this island and I will tell you why you can't trust any of them…"
"What do you mean by that!?" asked Tama as she looked around the ship.
Only silence, replied Tama, making her feel more frustrated.
Suddenly, Page One barged into the deck, panting, and said to everyone, "Everyone, we have a problem… I just smashed the ice of the river and saw something as I come back… It's best of we be on guard from those pirates coming on the island."
Page One then looked at Tama and then told her slowly, "Kid, we need to talk… It's-"
"No!" protested Yamato with an enraged face, "We said we will tell her when we leave the island!"
"Tell me what?" asked Tama, but gets ignored as the intensity in the room skyrockets.
"Tama, can you leave…" Ulti said in a frosty voice as she stared at Page One.
"No, she stays here!" Page One says as he walked over to her side and clasped a firm hand on the young teenager.
"There is a pirate crew coming here," hissed Page One as he pointed to the north. "We don't know their capabilities, but they have the Donquixote crew flag. That's a warlord flag, which means they aren't pushovers. Now, there is a chance of us getting killed in this battle. We must tell her what happened!"
"And let that way on her mind as she fights!" Ulti countered back as she crossed her arms and let out an angry huff, "She is a still a kid, and is trapped in an aged-up teen body. Puberty gives us mood swings, and processing that feeling is difficult for kids!"
A feeling of dread filled Tama as the argument in her mind faded to background noise as Nue's voice filled her mind, "You see… This is why you can't trust any of them!"
And suddenly she felt something approach the island as it flew through the air and clouds quickly approaching this island, and through Nue's negative emotion sensing ability, she could feel the evil and malice radiating from the being. And an image formed in her mind as Nue negative emotion sensing ability formed her a picture in her eye.
It was a man; he was large and taller than her brother, and he was a Blond-haired guy, with a tan. The man wore flamboyant clothes, his clothes are brightly colored, with his light pink feather coat jacket. Underneath the Jacket was a white shirt with red stripes, a green belt, and orange pants with white stripes. His shoes were black and pointy.
Panic set in Tama as she knew she did not want to meet the man at all, and she whirled at her arguing crew mates and yelled, "SOMEONE IS COMING TO THE ISLAND, FROM THE SOUTH!"
"That's strange, the ship was coming from the north…" Page One replied before asking her with an impressed look, "You can use Observation Haki at this age."
"I don't know?" Tama said as she clutched her head as fear filled her body, "I think this is one of Nue's abilities…."
Yamato's expression furrowed as she activated and sensed the incoming person's strength with her Haki and knew she was the only one strong enough among them to face the incoming monster.
"Alright, we will discuss the conversation later when we leave this island…" Yamato said as she grabbed her Kanabo and glared, "Just like we promised before we will Tama everything once we leave this island."
"Fine…" Page One says as he grabbed the Kabutowari and asks everyone, "So what's the plan? We really don't need anyone realizing we are associated with your father's crew."
Onigashima
Kaido traced the scars on his face and remembered the searing pain he got from the last attack as he looked at the large mirror in his room.
"Ten Tail Cataclysm!" Uzumaki Naruto's voice echoed in his mind before he unleashed the attack.
In his mind he could remember Uzumaki Naruto swinging down his sword that was imbued with the special power he had, Chakra. all the while infusing and combing the energy called chakra with Conqueror Haki. The flying slash cut through his lightning draped around his scales, before cutting the muscle and skin on his face.
These scars left an impression on Kaido and now he felt a sense of grudging respect for Uzumaki Naruto, just like how he felt a grudging respect for Kozuki Oden. It was a shame that Uzumaki will never be renowned now that he is dead.
Speaking of dead, his only child was dead, probably turned to ashes by his Bolo Breath. Pushing away the feelings, Kaido could not stop now that's Yamato was dead, her death should not be in vain. That carried was a big part of the new plan. Winner Island will be the foothold of his factories and military operations.
Wano's new forestry had kept blocking supply lines between factories in the regions. So, the new plan was to shut down the factories in the interior of the regions and move them to the outer shores, near the ports and the sea. There was another reason he was doing this, and he will never admit it loud to anyone.
"I can't believe I am thinking about this…" Kaido thought to himself before he sighed, "For the first time in my life I feel pity and sympathy for the people of wano. If my stupid kid knew of the aftermath and pain of her death, she would have killed herself if she knew this would be my reaction."
"This pain…" Kaido muttered to himself as his hand went over to a massive, recessed X-shape whose upper points reach to his pectoral given to him by Oden. He then glanced at the mirror again and pondered at the new white scar tissue marring his face. One scar ran parallel across the bridge of his nose and the other run vertically from the corner of that scar, cutting through his corner of his and down to his chin.
These scars stung like they had been doused with poison, but Kaido pushed on through the pain. Because the pain he was feeling from the scars was nothing compared to the shattered heart of frustration and regret he felt over their deaths. All day he has been bargaining and begging with the universe to bring back his foster kids, Ulti and Page One, but most of all, he yearned to see or listen to his child's voice again, Yamato. He wouldn't care if it's Yamato going about to become Oden and annoying him.
As a second thought about the tyranny he had enforced in Wano came into his mind as he began to talk to himself, "The workers and the family had submitted to me and the factories without complaints. They must be strong… Emotionally strong to continue to live under Orochi's rule enforced by me."
If there was something Kaido respected, it was strength. He respected every form of strength. King's strength and fighting prowess made him his right-hand man. His other right-hand man Queen's strength lied in his brains. Where he devised the top cybernetic contraptions and wicked viruses to kill enemies? All of his henchman had a form of strength that allowed them to survive the Beast Pirates.
Orochi had the strength of ruling and turning this country into a weapon factory, but he could not enforce that strength at all. He relied on his crew to enforce everything, and it was a glaring weakness that Kaido despised. The plan was once Orochi had set the grounds and prepared the country for war and mass production of weapons. Kaido was going to get rid of him and replace him with Yamato.
The new Onigashima plan was scrapped, and now if Orochi did not offer him a good reason, he shouldn't sentence him to a public execution. Orochi will be removed from power and executed before someone else will take the Shogunate.
Speaking of Orochi, his time was up.
Kaido then grabbed the groud filled sake and chugged it down with one go. Sake always meant to dull his boredom in this world as the World Strongest Beast, but now it just made everything and his feelings more complicated, and Kaido let out a roar.
A second later, an Azure Dragon rose around the air around Onigashima and flew through the direction of the Flower Capital.
-Egghead Labophase: Basement -
Vegapunk looked at the old and oversized old basement lab where he once studied Devil Fruits. Here he stashed things all things that interested and raised his thirst of knowledge.
It was time to study the body. Even if the body was dead, it was full of information, and the most important thing he could gain from the body was its lineage factor. If he could clone him…
Vegapunk already knew this person was unique. After all, no human has a regenerating and healing factor on that level, besides there must be other secrets inside that body.
Vegapunk pressed a button, and a fridge door hissed and opened, revealing the dead body wrapped in gauze and stitches. Taking a glance at the dead body, Vegapunk frowned as he realized there was something missing.
"That's strange… really strange…" whispered Vegapunk as morbid fascination crept within his body, "His body is not decaying… How?"
"His skin is still the same shade as the day he died," Vegapunk thought as he touched the dead body fingers and wiggled them and blinked in surprise, "His fingers are not stiff either… Wait, this is impossible! Why is his body temperature being much higher than freezer temperatures? "
"This guy lost more than half of his blood and died from a Hypovolemic Shock! He defiantly died! His heartbeat and brain scans proved it!" Vegapunk thought in surprise as he recoiled and stared at the anomaly of the dead body and thought to himself, "So why does he not have any of the signs of a body decaying like Livor Mortis, Rigor Mortis, and Algor Mortis! All dead bodies start experience these after they die…"
Taken aback by what he witnessed, Vegapunk immediately rechecked the man's pulse and found nothing.
"This goes against the fundamental rules of biology!" Vegapunk thought as he saw the laws of biology being denied in front of him, "All biological beings obey the laws of thermodynamic! This dead body is not cold as it should be. There must be a form of energy keeping the body in this state. "
Vegapunk then began to poke the body and checked on its wounds before his eye caught up to the dead man's navel. A spiral like tattoo glowed blood red, before it faded away and then reappeared on the man's navel area.
Reaching out for the pulsing tattoo and touching it, and suddenly Vegapunk was not in his lab, where he desiccated the dead.
He was in a sewer filled with torrents of water that raged up to his feet. Immediately Vegapunk looked up to see a storm made of multi-colored light and energies rage around him.
And amid the blinding sight of them, Vegapunk saw energies forming the silhouette of monstrous like beasts with varying tails before disappearing again to swirling and stormy mass of energy.
And suddenly he was thrown back and kicked out of the mental scape and back into his lab as he yelped in pain and he held his burned fingers.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Howled Vegapunk in pain as he cradled his fingers, which were red and blistering, Vegapunk hand felt like it had been dipped in acidic substance.
"Are you okay, Old Man-Punk?" came a concerned voice.
Vegapunk looked around to see his bodyguard Sentomaru, who was a large man with a stocky build of a sumo wrestler. His face had a large scar extending from his left eye to the left corner of his mouth.
Sentomaru wore a shirt that resembles a giant brown apron with an emblem meaning heaven and a tsuna. He carried a huge, two-edged axe, as tall and as large as himself.
Vegapunk personal bodyguard eyes, look at Vegapunk hands and blanch at them before he points at them with horror, "Your fingers… are they gonna be ok?!"
Vegapunk then at his now red and bleeding fingers and winced in pain. The outer skin on his fingers had been seared off.
"What the hell did I discover?" Vegapunk thought with growing dread, "If the World Government finds what I have in this lab…"
A den-den mushi tone shrilled in Sentomaru's pockets rang out in the room.
Immediately he answered it with a flat and annoyed voice, "What is it!?"
"It's Kuma-san and Stussy!" Shaka voice came in. "We granted them access to the port, but somehow two individuals slipped in behind them and bypassed our sensors and defenses."
"Ask the government officials to apprehend those two then!" Sentomaru orders with a groan, "If that fails, Kuma and Stussy will deal with them! You know what to do next!?"
"Shaka! I trust you know what to do!" Vegapunk muttered seriously.
"Of course, Stella!" came Shaka voice through the den-den mushi, "I am activating the Labophase's newly created defenses. The Frontier Dome should be enough, even if it's in an experimental phase!"
Moby Dick: Sick Bay
"Oh, that's right, you were always flicking through medical books." Ace said with a surprise as he looked at Deuce who was in the sick bay reading a medical book while the nurses in leopard print leotard strutted around in high heels and then asking him suspiciously, "You're really just here because you're into that leopard print, aren't you?"
Thatch sputters and doubles down in laughter as the nurses gave him and Ace annoyed and dirty looks.
"Did you give the captain his medicine, Thatch-san!?" a blonde nurse asked Thatch with a frigid smile.
"No Tate… Damn it I forgot!" Thatch said with a sudden realization, "Pops conned me to keep an eye on the new kid, so I- ark,"
"I could not care less about your excuses or the new kid who has a broken nose when you forgot to force Pops to take his medicine!" Tate hissed angrily at Thatch as he held him by his ear. "Pops is the most important person on this ship and if you forget his medicine again, the fourth division will look for a new leader once I am done with you!"
Ace then looked at Deuce, who marched over to him and checked his wounds.
"I'm here to work, you idiot!" snarled Deuce as he whapped Ace's cheeks and admonished him before applying plaster on Ace nose and fixing it making Ace yelp before he said, "If someone gives you food and a place to stay, you pay them back! Thats the pirate code of honor!"
"Мeh," Ace replied with a sigh before saying, "I feel awful… You guys are all being put to work cuz of me."
"Huh?" Deuce said with a frown before protesting and reminding him, "Hey, we're the ones who lost! Even though you gave us an escape, we still got caught…"
"I'm the one who lost!" Ace said back fiercer than before, as an ashamed and frustrated look came on Ace's face as he said, "I'm your captain. That's why I need to take out Whitebeard!"
A pained expression crossed on Deuce's face.
"Ace, you need to take it easy…" Deuce started before Ace stormed out, his hands grabbing the nearest weapon, which happened to be a battle axe.
"Burdening yourself like that." Thatch shook his head as he grinned before following Ace, who stormed at Whitebeard, who was taking his morning stroll.
"If he's really gonna keep me on this ship…" Ace growled as he jumped and aimed at the back of Whitebeard's neck as he thought, "Then I'll make full use of the opportunity!"
Ace swung it down only to be stopped by a green flowing aura emanating from Whitebeard's fingers, which were now pointed at the axe.
"Is that Haki?" thought Ace before Whitebeard's surged and sent a repulsing blast of Armament Haki at the Axe and Ace. The Axe shattered like glass and Ace crashed to the deck, bruised and alive.
"Come then, waste your time, brat!" Whitebeard snorted at the downed Ace with amusement before
"I'll make you regret. Keeping me on this ship!" snarled Ace as his fist transformed into flames and swing it in Whitebeard's direction as he roared out, "FIRE FIST!"
Immediately, Whitebeard reached out and pinched the flames on Ace's arm and snuffing it out with his Armament Haki.
"My flames…" a stunned and horrified Ace looked on as he put more power into his fist, but to no avail. Whitebeard remained unflinching from the heat.
"Flame like that won't even be enough…." Whitebeard mutters in a bored voice before flicking Ace away, "To burn the skin of my palm."
"Ugh" Ace groaned in pain as he crashed into the deck from the immense force of the flick and Whitebeard's Armament Haki.
My flames were strong enough to work against one of the seven warlords.. yet he extinguished it with his bare hands.
"I only let a little Chicklet like you live on a whim…" Whitebeard said softly to him, "Use your saved life however you wish."
"Gah!" snarled Ace, as embarrassment and anger coursed through his veins. Ace then slammed his fist into the deck and yelled at Whitebeard,
"I WON'T ACKNOWLEDGE YOU! I'LL DEFEAT YOU! I'LL DEFINITELY SURPASS YOU! ONLY THEN WILL I SET SAIL ONCE AGAIN! AND THEN TAKE REVENGE FOR HIM, JUST YOU WAIT, WHITEBEARD!"
Whitebeard just gave him an amused grin before he walked to his chair and sat on it and read the newspaper before swearing in anger as he read it, "That stinking Dragon Brat!"
"Great speech back there." Thatch said with a drawl, "I bet the nasty stares from the crew don't feel pleasant, though."
"Like I care, I'm gonna sleep, let my wounds heal and eat lots of food!" snapped Ace at him.
"I'm the one who makes that food." Thatch said as he pointed at himself proudly before, "Besides, what you're lacking isn't food… It's strength."
Ace just growled with displeasure at the comment.
"So, how about this? I'll lend you a hand." Offered Thatch with a smile as he extended a hand towards Ace, "How'd you like to train under me? At least until. You're strong enough to show pops a fun time."
"You bastard, just how much are you gonna look down on me?" Ace growled darkly as made a sudden movement towards Thatch.
"It's quite the opposite, actually." Thatch told him with an impressed and serious expression, freezing Ace on the spot, "If you weren't promising, I wouldn't be helping you out."
Conflicting emotions swirled within Ace before he let out an exhausted sigh and said to Thatch, "I've had enough of this. You guys really are weird!"
"Hahahahaha!" Thatch laughed before asking Ace with a smile, "Is that so?"
Suddenly Ace felt something burning in his pocket trousers. Whatever clothes he wore became fireproof and didn't catch on flames thanks to his Devil Fruit.
Ace then dug around his pocket and saw clumps of ashes form and gather to form a blue flame, and within the blue flame was a tiny paper forming from the flames.
"What!" Ace yelped in surprise and astonishment and dropped the flame and paper onto the floor.
"ARE YOU TRYING TO BURN THE MOBY DICK!" Thatch yelled immediately before he grabbed a bucket and filled it with water and poured only for the flame to continue to burn without spreading and stared at the flame with dumbfounded expression, "What the… Wasn't that your dead friends Vivre card?"
"I think so…" Ace said as he stared the pulsing blue flame.
"What the hell is going on here?" a voice came from behind Ace.
The source of the voice was a tall, muscular, broad-chested, tanned man who had a curly black mustache, and wore a dark blue top hat on his head, and an earring in each ear. His hairy chest was revealed by a semi-open dark blue shirt with a white diamond stripe-pattern near the top, as well as a cape that his shirt, and white gloves. He also wore light blue pants with a belt that holds two saber sheaths, one on each side.
Once the man saw the blue flames, he unsheathed his Saber and points at its Ace and its steel tuned black as it imbued with the man's Armament Haki.
"Boy! I advise you to put out you flames!" The man said with a stony and cold expression as his long mustache quivered with rage, "We love the Moby Dick…"
"It's not his flames, Vista!" Thatch told him as he pushed down the blackened blades with a palm.
"Everyone, come over here-yo!" Marco's voice called out from as he flew over them with blue flaming wings and glowing talons, "You too, Pops! I think you will want to see this!"
Suddenly the entire crew, what was on the deck board, gathered around the burning blue flames, staring at it with a mystified expression.
Suddenly, a man who wore a pink and purple kimono stepped forward. He had a pale complexion and hair tied in a way resembling that of a geisha like the one Naruto showed him in Wano. He had a loose, long strand of hair that hangs over the right side of his face.
Ace recognized the person immediately from his bounty poster. This was Izo, commander of the 16 Division.
"Whose Vivre card is this?" Izo asked Ace as he looked at the forming paper with a frown.
"This is my friend Vivre Card." Ace muttered, "I met him in Wano..." "I thought he died a couple of days ago when it burned to ashes! I learned from Yamato that a Vivre Card burns away and now it's back like this!"
Immediately everyone tensed at these words, and looks at their captain, who was staring at the ever slowly growing Vivre Card.
-Wano Country: Flower Capital-
Denjiro kept counting the money. Gold and platinum coins were stacked into a pile as high as him.
Orochi had ordered him to move all of Orochi's money into different places in case something went wrong. Denjiro obeyed the order and began to file the paperwork.
He was just about to finish his work when Hiyori and Shinobu barged into the room in a hurry.
"His shrine…" Hiyori breathed out as her wild blue eyes looked at Denjiro for an explanation, "There is something strange going on his shrine!"
"His shrine?!" Denjiro asked with furrowed eyebrows, "You mean Naruto's shrine! What happened?!"
There was a secret shrine dedicated to Naruto in the mansion, just like every hidden village had. All of them had the ashes of his vivre card, and as he approached the shrine, he saw an eerily and ghostly blue flame burn on the shrine, and within the flame was a paper forming.
-Minion Island-
Bellamy was pleased as he came closer to the tiny island. All those years following Doflamingo. They have finally paid off. Now he and Sarquiss and his growing crew were heading to the Grand Line under Doflamingo permission and orders.
"Doflamingo ordered me to meet him on Minion Island…" Bellamy thought as he docked the New Witch's Tongue into the island's abandoned harbor and then descended alone the plank to the abandoned town, "Where is he-"
"Fufufufu," chuckled Donquixote Doflamingo as he landed silently like a ghost behind Bellamy as he grinned malevolently and joyously said, "Bellamy!"
"Doflamingo!" Bellamy said nervously as he bowed his head down and his face filled with awe at being in the presence of his pirate hero. "It's such an honor to meet you again!"
Doflamingo's grin just widened before he said with an amused grin, "You have good manners… maybe I should offer you a ride with me when the wild wave comes… But you have to become worthy of it! Fufufufuf!"
"Wild Wave?" asked Bellamy as he kept his head low. "What is that?"
"Eh…" Doflamingo's smile fades for a moment before it comes back in full force as he laughed, "Fufufufufufu! Bellamy, the new age of pirates is coming soon! A new era filled with daring pirates that is coming along with an unstoppable swell! Someone just needs to break the cog in the machine to set off a new era! Imagine the chaos and possibilities of what could happen in that era!"
"How can my crew and I join you on this wild wave?" Bellamy asked, as the hunger in his eyes burned. "How can I prove myself to you?"
Doflamingo's head chuckled and whispered to him, "Prove yourself by traversing the Grand line in Paradise and meet me in Dressrosa without a single defeat… Then maybe I will allow you to have a seat in my family!"
"Of course!" Bellamy replied happily as his eyes pricked up with happiness.
"Fufufufufu! Meanwhile, let's kill these annoying and rude eavesdroppers!" chuckled Doflamingo as a crazed and feral grin crossed his face and swipes his hand in the air as he yelled, "Penta-Chromatic String!"
Doflamingo swipes his hand to slash his target with five strings coming out from his fingers, each varying in color, of red, yellow, green, blue and purple.
The multicolored threads slice through chucks of buildings and headed for the target, only for the target to out-speeded the strings and cross the distance faster than Doflamingo expected.
Doflamingo barely raised his Armament Haki's hardened arms, to protect his face.
"Thunder Bagua!" a feminine voice roared as its figure blurred into existence next to Doflamingo and swing something.
Purple lighting crackled around the Armament Haki imbued kanabo, as it crashed into Doflamingo and overpowered him instantly, sending him crashing through the abandoned town.
"You bitch!" Bellamy yelled at the tall and large-horned woman who had used her studded Kanabo on Doflamingo. Using the power of the Spring-Spring Fruit, Bellamy sprang at the woman who remained focused the direction she sent Doflamingo flying off to. Bellamy then compresses his fist so he can clock the woman with his maximum spring power.
The blow never reached her as it was deflected by a gigantic Hammer swing, sending the blow wide and hurtling him into a building wall.
Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, he saw a speeding demon rushing at Sarquiss and kicking him directly into his guts with their high heels and then producing
Pushing himself upwards, Bellamy sees Doflamingo burst free from the rubble, unamused as blood trickled from a gash on his forehead and growled, "You little shitheads…"
"We knew you were bad news…." Said the only male member of the group that attacked them, "Warlord!"
"Who are you?" questioned Doflamingo as many veins popped and throbbed on his forehead, as he felt rage from being attacked by a group of lowlife pirates and use his strings to stand midair as his eye scanned around the group and growled, "I don't recognize any of you…"
Suddenly, a feeling of dread chilled Doflamingo down to his bones, as in his mind an enormous shadow expanding over him, and he whirled around in a panic and saw huge yellow eyes looking at him hungeringly before the hallucination of fear faded away as he felt a coiling energy like around his neck and biting him at his nape. Immediately he felt his Haki being drained and ripped the dark shadowy snake around his neck before his eye followed the dark energy trail that lead back to a timid teenage girl looking at him with a nervous expression.
Doflamingo pointed his index finger at the child, and murderous intent filled his mind as he growled out, "Bullet String!"
But even before the bundle of strings reached half of the way, the girl moved and narrowly dodged the String Bullets with a level of grace and fluidity that is impossible for someone her age to do without feeling his intent.
"Damn it!" swore Doflamingo as he thought viciously as he saw the brat reading his intent before a maddening grin unfurled on his face, "So you can use Observation Haki!"
"You will pay for that!"
Doflamingo then saw a flash of movement appear to his side and he was knocked into the earth by the studded club with a resounding crash that caved in the ground.
"This strength…" thought Doflamingo as his body groaned in pain and he looked up to see the tall and horned woman standing at the mouth of the hole his body had created and told him with a wary expression, "If we fight, I will make sure you die here, Warlord even at the expense of my life! So how about you turn a blind eye here? And let us leave!"
"You dare…" growled Doflamingo before his mind caught up to himself and a plan began to formulate in his mind.
Naruto felt a hand holding his face and a voice murmuring at him tearfully, "My poor baby… His face he looks exhausted, look he is even taller than his daddy!"
Naruto's eyes flutter open, and he blinks in surprise as he feels tears splash on him.
"Naruto…" said a beautiful red-haired, also violet-eyed woman with the shape of his face as happy and sad tears dripped from her face.
"Mom!" Naruto croaked out in surprise as he pulled himself and clutched to her saw tightly before he saw his father behind his mother.
"Dad?" Naruto said in an uneasy voice.
"Hello… son." Minato said softly before smiling sadly at Naruto, "Look at you! You have grown into a fine young adult!"
"Nobody told me that," Naruto said with a sigh before looking around, "So where am I?"
"You are with everyone, brat!" said a boisterous voice behind him.
Naruto stared in amazement as tears pricked the corner of his and whispered in a shocked voice, "Pervy Sage!? Is that really you?"
"Yeah, it's me…" Jiraiya said with a sheepish grin at his nickname before smiling sadly at Naruto, "It's good to see you again, Naruto."
"What is this place?" asked Naruto as he looked at the dazzling mist and bars of light around them, despite already knowing the answer to his question.
"Naruto, we are in the pure lands!" Jiraiya told him with a serious expression, "Everyone is here… And yes, I mean everyone is here!"
"Go on…" said Kushina with an encouraging smile as she nodded her head to the mist were silhouette began to form and from the mist emerged people that Naruto once knew, "The others are waiting for you…"
Naruto recognized everyone immediately before his eyes locked on a person who he once loved in a platonic way.
"How have you been Naruto?" Toneri said as he looked up at Naruto and gave him a soft grin, "What on earth have you been eating? I didn't know Ramen made you this tall!"
"Ichiraku Ramen does!" Naruto heard Tuechi yell in a protest within the crowd, "It's Diet Ramen is very healthy!"
"Hey, Naruto!" Naruto heard Sakura's voice calling to him and he glanced in the voice direction to see, Sakura, Sasuke, Sai, Shikamaru, Neji and Garaa along with their teammates and sensei's and their families.
Already he could feel everyone was thrilled to see him, but all of them had worried expressions on their faces. Naruto's blue eyes then locked eyes with featureless lavender eyes, making the eye's owner heavily blush.
"Even is death…" Naruto thought sadly as he looked at Hinata and wondering why he did not see how beautiful she was before, "She still and will love me…"
"Why are you sad?" Orochimaru said with a forlorn expression as slipped next to Naruto's side, "Everyone knows how this will go… But it's nice seeing you again, Uzumaki Naruto!"
"I raided your labs and stole practically everything you owned…" said Naruto tonelessly, trying to get a rise from the mad scientist next to him.
"Kukukuku…" chuckled Orochimaru before giving him a nod of approval, "I would have done the same! A word of advice from me, acknowledge the emotions you are feeling now. It will help you…"
Naruto stood there for a while as everyone kept calling him over to catch up. A feeling of bliss and sadness crept up to him as Naruto felt peace with himself.
"I guess this is it?" thought Naruto as he looked around.
Naruto then felt for once in his life he didn't have to put a strong and brave face as happy and sad tears welled in his eyes and he let out years of pain and anguish spill out from his tears, doing what alcohol or new companionship could never do. Soothing his broken soul from the burning pain in his heart when he lost everything.
A/N: Hi it had been a while, and it will be awhile until a new chapter comes out again. I have been busy getting ready for a personal trip for a month in March. Overall, expect me to do a lot of work with these stories once I am done with my trip.
Now this chapter is starting and building storylines that are going to be important for the plot. Naruto's soul is now in the Pure Lands.
Yes, in this story the Uzumaki Clan created Jashin as the Shinigami abstract like an A. I, those seals souls for price. His home and database were the mask. Now that abstract of Fuinjutsu had fused with a devil fruit. Now believe me, Naruto won't be eating that fruit at all.
As for Roger, we will see him also in the next chapter don't worry.…
While Vegapunk marvels over Naruto's body, two infiltrators are entering Punk Hazard and clashing with Stussy and Kuma. What do they want?
As for the Satellite's debut, they would come next chapter.
Why are Naruto's vivre card reforming within blue flames and ashes of vivre card?
We will have snippets of what is happening in Wano each couple of chapters from now on.
Why is Doflamingo on the island were he killed his brother and what would be the clash result?
Black Zetsu mentioned a group. Can anyone guess what the group is called?
Questions and Reviews
Unknown524 (Chapter 14): Remember Rin Nohara (Obito's crush and Kakashi teammate), when she committed suicide with Kakashi's Lightning Blade to stop herself and the Sanbi from going onto a rampage in the Hidden Leaf. The Mist ANBU Ninjas that were killed in Obito's rampage still tried to retrieve her body. Showing a possibility that the Tailed Beasts do not start reforming immediately if there Jinchūriki is killed, as it takes years for the Tailed Beast to come back as they reform their chakra while stuck within a dead body. Not there won't be any consequence for the Tailed Beast, there would be for them.
cephuesblack10 (Chapter 14): Yeah, Nue will tell them what happened and Dark/Yami Naruto played a huge role in transporting them to North Blue. Stussy is going to be an important side character in this story.
SlyFox9 (Chapter 14): Ahem Naruto won't be meeting any straw-hat for a minimum of seven more chapters. I did it it as Luffy will die at the hands of Ulti or Naruto if he pissed them off with his antics while he was weak and if that happ there will be no more funny gags with luffy.
Please Leave a reivew.