I own neither Naruto nor One Piece.

On a relatively calm day by the standards of the Grand Line, the island of Jaya was experiencing a rare moment of peace. A state of ordinary happenstance that might seem common in other parts of the world where people could regularly enjoy the tranquillity of life but was, in fact, rarer than an honest pirate set about to conquer the Grand Line around these parts.

The island was made up of vast expanses of dense rain forests, with its populations being centered around the only port encircled by a sprawling town dependent entirely on its harbors known as Mock Town, infamous for being full of pirates.

Normally, one could easily find dozens— if not hundreds of pirate ships anchored at the docks alongside thousands of pirates roaming about. The town had long grown used to the miscreants of society and the scrouge of the Four Seas who usually only stayed long enough to drink away their troubles at the island as their Log Pose reset. At any given moment, it would not be hard to find hundreds of robbers, thieves, murderers, and rapists who knew no law inside the island alongside the occasional demons who desecrated the order of human society.

When numerous pirates came together, it was only a matter of time before rivers of blood sparking like streams of rubies flowed but thankfully, even lawless scumbags knew better than to harm the innocents of the island. As the saying went— What was the point of treasure if one could not spend it?'

No one knew when or how it had started but Jaya had been a safe haven for pirates and criminals since the dawn of the world government when twenty kings had together brought civilization to the greater world and it remained so for centuries to come only because the navy and the world government could not be bothered to come and deal with small pirates who had taken refuge in a distant island deep into the paradise with no economic, geographic or cultural significance to speak of.

It was a waste of resources in their eyes— too much expenditure with no meaningful gains according to the world government, though Sasuke was sure that the women who wept with sorrow beside the rivers of blood created by these outlaws would surely disagree.

The world government had no qualms about closing its eyes through it all, their weapons untouched in their sheath and their armadas lay abandoned on the seas for the sake of a few resources as they let the people they were duty sworn to protect be pillaged and exploited. What was the use of such an international organization, Sasuke often wondered, if they refused to help the very people they were sworn to protect.

He had been on the island for no more than a single week and he had already been reintroduced to the depravity of human minds. It sometimes surprised him— the cruelties humans were capable of.

Many times, Sasuke had found himself faced with perhaps one of the hardest crossroads a shinobi might face in their paths which may yet determine their worth as a ninja sworn to the Hokage. It was the willingness to make the hard choices.

Not the evil choices, because inflicting rape and war, and pillage on a village was easy. Not the complicated choices, for there was difficulty in carrying out simple solutions and seeing them through. The hardest choices were the necessary actions one did not wish to commit, whether due to sentiment or morality or fear in all its forms. Yet, did these things make action any less necessary?

If Sasuke wanted to, he could have murdered every scum in Jaya over the course of a single night but he knew could not hold the island and thus chose the right answer over the easy one, morally wrong though it may have been

Murdering pirates so insignificant that the world government itself ignored them, adamant as it was on its idealized concept of 'justice', would accomplish nothing more than creating a power vacuum that some other tyrant would soon occupy after waging needless bloodshed once again.

Today was a rare day because there were only a handful of pirates on the island. There were no drunken fights, no back alley murders, and relatively small property damage for it would be unreasonable to expect pirates of all people to be reasonable. It was not much for those who were used to order and safety of normalcy but for the natives of the island, all the peace in the world was gathered on Jaya.

An occurrence rarer than storms on the calm belt, all things considered, but one the locals were thankful for nonetheless…

Jaya had been seeing these rare days for the complete duration of Sasuke's stay here, though nobody so far had attributed the sudden peace to the stranger in dark robes who had recently arrived on the island. He preferred it that way for the minute good it did him.

For the past week, Sasuke had spent most of his time gathering as much information as he could, as he often did ever since he had been thrown into this new world.

Kakashi used to say that one must look underneath the underneath, subtly Sasuke also understood that it to mean a competent shinobi must hide even deeper, in a layer even underneath.

Insight into society comes from listening intently to the spoken words of common men. The charisma of a ruling organization, their charm, the dramatic flair, and even their physical propaganda as Sasuke had found shortly after his arrival, was more often used to persuade audiences, as they use these stealthy tools of disguise and deception.

He would disguise himself as a numerous random bystanders, men who could walk around any part of Jaya without arousing even the barest of suspicion. These men would drink at bars, visit brothels, and walk the streets for hours at a time. Always vigilant, and always listening…

At night, Sasuke would think about all he had learned during the day.

By the end of the week, he had gathered enough information to intricately know how this world worked as well as any native could, perhaps even more so— pirates were the scum of the seas who plundered the common and the world government ruled most of the world with impunity through the authority granted to them by the providence of the so-called Gods who had created the known world.

He learned of basic geography, read about ancient kingdoms, and knew of almost every important person he might encounter— The emperors of the Seas and the Kings of the World Government.

Strange birds dropped newspapers that brought him news and bounty posters that warned him of threats to be watched, and from that he created his own bingo book. He knew of the many small wars between the infamous Whitebeard pirates and atrocious Beast pirates in the New World which had started over some samurai whose name was hidden even from his reach and the Admirals of the World Government who could do naught but watch as they wreaked hell blaze onto the nations caught unaware by their apparent cold war.

Apparently, these two were the infamous Emperors of the Sea: there were four in total who ruled the seas of the New World, which was on the other side of the Grand Line. They were warriors supposedly so strong that even the Navy would not dare callously confront them.

He had asked everyone he met if they knew of a goddess that came from the stars or a divine tree, subtly, of course! So as to not raise any suspicion. But sometimes he just asked bluntly. So far no one had any information on either of them.

It was not until the seventh day that he heard something that could possibly be a lead that might just offer some rare insights into his unprecedented situation. It was merely a rumour, a quiet tale that had been whispered of outside the dark bars that no normal man would tread upon but at this point, Sasuke was glad for any clues whatsoever, wrong though they might be.

An island in the sky and a city of gold…

Even hearing it spoken out loud seemed to indicate a connection to those infamous Lunar races which remained obscure even with the information he had obtained throughout his stay here.

He had heard about this in a bar, two drunk men were talking about how one of the Seven Warlords of the sea— a savage worse than scum known as Doflamingo made a pirate named Bellamy murder his own first mate for apparently bringing shame to the Warlord's flag.

The recent incident which had occurred just a few days before he stepped foot on the island was retribution for the dishonour Bellamy had brought upon the Warlord when he was knocked out in a single punch by Straw Hat Luffy. This altercation had apparently occurred because Bellamy made fun of the Straw Hats for daring to imagine that an island in the sky could actually exist.

Sasuke too was one of the men who would have doubted the existence of people living in the sky right above his head. But then he remembered the village hidden in the sky and knew at once that these rumours were far from merely being the heresy of the ignorant. As people say, smoke seldom rose without fire and every tale had a truth hidden behind it.

This world had taught him to always expect the unexpected and he had learned better than to be surprised by the eccentricities of this strange world by now.

Moreover, Sasuke was also made to understand with much enthusiasm that Straw Hat Luffy had initially let Bellamy beat him without so much as raising a finger before confronting him seriously at night because of some sort of theft.

A facet of information he could have done without. Pirates were irrational men, and their actions seldom made sense. Sasuke could not be bothered about a bar fight between degenerate two pirates, even though it intrigued him a bit. It was the reason behind the fight that interested him.

Sasuke had found, much to his ever-increasing annoyance, that those of this world had an annoying penchant for straying from important topics at hand. Ironically, the only one who could ever annoy him to the point where he lost control over his composure had been the person who had eventually been put on his team. Uzumaki Naruto possessed a tenacity in which the Uchiha felt it was extremely satisfying to destroy and as such only the blonde dobe could ever get a rise out of him.

These pirates were many things but they were no Uzumaki Naruto.

Sasuke sighed and stood up, knowing that staying inside this bar would serve no purpose now that it was clear he would get no further information. Most importantly, he had better things to do than sit down in a room filled with moronic pirates that would never know the true meaning of sacrifice.

None of them had fought a war for those they loved or were in the midst of fighting one yet almost all of them had taken a life, most had taken many. None of them had gone through hell for the sake of their clan or village, none of them had fought in battles for a greater purpose and none of them would survive three minutes against an experienced shinobi. They were practically sheep. Useless in the eyes of the world and in the grand scheme of existence!

Sasuke honestly felt as if he were Uzumaki Mito forced to sit in a fuinjutsu class of academic retards, taught by a blind old man whose eccentricity had far outstripped the limits of senility. Each and every minute was a minute wasted in which he could be doing something more. Moreover, he found the teenagers of this world to be severely lacking in any form of idiosyncrasy, they all moved and thought the same way, all followed the same path leading to a sub-standard life of dirty labour and dishonest work, in an attempt to derive the money they needed to live.

"Giving up already, eh?" said a man, obviously the largest present, bar the barkeeper himself— wearing a cocky grin below a thick black that was embroidered with a white skull above a flaming diamond, a pirate of course. "Most men here last a few barrels but then again you must be more of a pussy than I thought first."

The man's underlings, from their position by his sides, shared a laugh with their leader. The insult had a basis, though. Most people in the room were of the same sort as the man, regardless of allegiance. Each capable of drinking entire settlements to the ground with rigorous tenacity that may seem seemed out of place in a normal world, but here it was common enough.

He levelled the man a cool look, a single raven visible even as the other was hidden behind smooth raven locks. He considered a response, but settled for ignorance as placed a handful of bellies on the counter and made to turn around to leave himself, but paused after a step as he heard a throat clearing behind him.

The noise had come from the man who had addressed him whose smug smile had quickly turned into a scowl, though it was an unsurprised one. These pirates did not take kindly to being disrespected for some reason.

"Hold it," he said. "You know, being a pussy and a lesser man, I figure it might just be too hard to survive around these parts with pirates and whatnot so I think reaching home might be difficult for someone like you.

Sasuke paused, knowing it was an obvious bluff as if the lackeys who had stood up in a manner that so blatantly displayed their bulging muscles with cocky smirks on their faces were not obvious enough.

"Now, I'm a nice guy and am willing to offer protection even to the weak " continued the man, cocksure grin doing little to help the facade of innocence, "Of course, a little extra to help smooth things over would be appreciated."

Grins flashed on the faces of the man's underlings as they realized what their boss was after and a few of them made to step closer to him, hands drifting towards the weapons on their sides.

The muscled barkeeper who seemed too old for someone of his stature grumbled something about the younger generation but otherwise made no move to interrupt. The other customers who were by now used to such occurrences, frowned and whispered but continued with their business.

The Uchiha sighed when he heard several familiar sounds of metal being drawn as knives, swords, and guns were all pulled out of their sheers and pointed towards him even as their dirty glistened with mad insanity.

Sasuke cast a bored glance towards the minor threat, closing his lone eyes slightly. The advance of the men was halted when he glanced back at them. "This again?"

"You pirates seem to be misunderstanding something. I am not the one in danger." Centimetres before the weapons of metal could impact with him, they froze in mid-air as the Uchiha snapped his eyes open and shot a raging glare at the offending projectiles. "I am the danger!"

Killing intent radiated through the building like an ethereal phenomenon, the lit candles whose light shone upon the bar were killed as the fire was snuffed out by an inhuman pressure that had encompassed the manor. The cups on the counter rattled as though they had been subjugated to the fierce winds of a raging thunderstorm, and the building groaned like the downfall of a mighty deity.

The weapons clattered to the floor alongside their owners, clinking like the hollow echoes of rusted bells as they remained motionless, allowing silence and quietness to once again return to the establishment.

It was the slightest application of killing intent that all shinobi knew of and the one thing that thankfully required no chakra to use, was focused with deadly accuracy on the man and his followers and slammed into them with the force of a train.

Had anyone spotted the Uchiha's face at that moment, they could have sworn his normally passive expression had subtly changed as his eyes widened in astonishment.

Something had erupted from inside him, something that had forced those before him to bow over whether by consent or by force, the subjugation of a conquered gazing upon his subjects with the cold apathy of a tyrant.

This was…

Sasuke did not suppress the small smile that threatened to show on his lips as he walked out with his hands in his pockets, slowly closing the door behind him as he pulled up the hood of his dark cloak.

'First things first, I must analyze my surroundings and ascertain what kind of people live here,' Sasuke thought as he ascended above the clouds, high in the sky where the stars flowed and the moon glowed even as the shrieks of the heavens as he tore through the sky resounded inside his ears.

It was the standard procedure for any shinobi where base factors could not be calculated. To gather all information that they could, for truths and hearsays could break nations and decide the course of wars. Those of the Elemental Nations knew this truth well and shinobi guarded information with their lives. Even the tiniest slip-ups could lead to the destruction of an entire hidden village.

But Sasuke had to admit, there was a certain charm to the scenery before him. An alluring whisper of sweetness that tempted him with promises of beauty and charm which brought out the temptation that lay buried in the back of his head that told him to let go of duties and burdens that bound him with purpose.

He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars.

Even as he ascended the heavens and got their good tidings. Nature's peace flowed into him just as sunshine flowed into trees. The winds blew their own freshness into him, and the storms their energy even as his cares dropped away like the leaves of autumn.

It was so unlike him, to appreciate the world around him with nary a care and worry. So much so that Sasuke almost paused in surprise when he realized what he had been doing.

Leaving the familiar for unknown terrain was like a gamble with death for a shinobi and feeling this level of finality should snap anyone back to senses, for life had a greater meaning in the face of death. Yet how ridiculous and how strange was it of him, of all people to be surprised at anything which happens in his eventful life especially when his world was likely being threatened by gods in the most literal of senses.

He thought about those upon whom he based his ever-shifting moral compass on.

Uchiha Itachi was the epitome of shinobi. He was a dependable, perfect man of sacrifice and love who always protected him without any regard for himself. He had always been Sasuke's role model, the one thing Sasuke wanted to become, the one thing he wanted to be better than.

Naruto Uzumaki had always been removed from the image of a shinobi, loud and bright as he had always been. But at the same time, he was an unstoppable machine of sheer willpower and impossible tenacity who had changed the world with grit alone. He had been the one who had always chased after Sasuke, the one thing that had always been a step behind him and the one who had never abandoned him.

A man who Sasuke had always chased after and the boy who had always been chasing after him. Both of them had changed him in ways that Sasuke would forever remain grateful for.

And there was no way in the world that either Uchiha Itachi or Uzumaki Naruto would be defeated by something as inconsequential as a minor setback. It was his trust in them, Sasuke realized, that let him keep his calm even in the most arduous of situations with no hope for furtherance in sight.

He believed— knew with absolute certainty that Naruto would defeat them, those Otsutsuki that threatened the order of his world. No matter what may come, with the power of the Rinnegan in his hands, the chances of his friend losing were absolutely zero.

Perhaps it was this fact that let him be careless even when stuck in another world entirely. Sasuke cursed slightly under his breath for his ineptitude, knowing that these thoughts would be the doom of him. Perhaps his battle sense had been dulled throughout the years.

After the war, when all the shinobi nations united, when bridges were made and friendships across the nations were made possible as peace had descended across the world, and Naruto was proclaimed the hero of the war, he decided to travel the world on a journey of repentance. To see the world of what he has been blind to, and also to investigate Kaguya's origin while he was at it.

But so far in his travels, nobody really wanted to fight the Last Uchiha for the entire world knew who he was and what his deeds were, especially the negative ones. They dared not touch him lest they suffer death worth of being whispered about for years to come for he was the former S–ranked criminal who had slaughtered countless innocent men, the nuke-nin who had created rivers of blood underneath his shadow cast upon the world. A mass murderer and monster— a vengeful psychopath who would cut down precious lives without a second thought all for the sake of accomplishment of his goals. The villainous defiant known as Sasuke Uchiha.

But he digressed, though the songs sung about him may have been true once during a darker era he was not that cruel and merciless… at least not anymore.

Sometimes, he would visit a village to rest for the night or simply purchase some supplies and enjoy a decent meal at a decent place while he was at it. They were always welcoming at first, all of them were— at least until these civilians got a good look at him or at the Uchiha crest at the back of his cloak which had been infamous even before the Fourth Great War. They would then realize that this was the rogue S-ranked ninja capable of bringing the world to its knees, the Sasuke Uchiha they knew and hated. The better of them scampered away from the raven-haired former outlaw, hiding behind the safety of their homes and other random establishments that hadn't yet locked their doors for the fear of him entering it, and the least he spoke of the worse ones the better.

Parents protectively shielded their sons and daughters at the sight of him before quickly trying to escape the Uchiha's peripheral vision not realizing that he had senses far beyond the simple sight granted by his almighty eyes, thanking the gods that the murderer did not kill them just for daring to breathe before him and grown men grew weak at their knees as he passed him by, shaking from their very cores as the icy hands of terror gripped at their heart. Even the few who actually had enough guts to be in his presence always kept a considerable distance away from him.

It sometimes seemed amusing, but mostly Sasuke felt that the reaction was ridiculous…

He genuinely thought they were overreacting, but given his past status and wrongdoings, it was somewhat understandable.

His nefarious actions were without a doubt widely known throughout the Elemental nations even before that abdominal war had started. Even the glory of his contribution could not cast shade over his deeds that had shaken the common man. Perhaps he might be forgiven several years later when his mettle would become tested and true as his deeds proved what words could not.

But that future now lay beyond him even though he doubted that he would ever be truly forgiven though. Not that he cared, of course.

His last true fight had been when he had borne his fangs at the world and challenged his best friend for the right to enact peace— his peace over the world and rarely any had drawn steel before him barring a few ignorant thug groups, and that Dark Thunder group who had been in the process of ruining his already atrocious image because of their pompous leader and her doujutsu. Though he had dealt with them fairly trivially and was even kind enough to pardon what the Chinoike heiress had done. But if there were actually people who would willingly —foolishly fight him, even then they would never even be a warm-up for him

Not once after that had he fought anyone at all. He imagined that years without fighting, strategizing, and assassinating slightly had truly mellowed his fighting instincts and senses. Which was what allowed him to relax even during such a situation.

Though he did train occasionally if not every day, so at the very least he was not as rusty as his rival. The pinnace of power was an awfully boring position all this considered.

Such was his life.

Sasuke scowled, dragging his mind away from irrelevant thoughts once he realized that his ascent was starting to slow as the roar of the wind shearing against his face lowered in intensity and the hands of gravity started dragging him downwards towards the vast blue seas.

The muscles on his legs clenched as Sasuke took a deep breath and prepared himself again, slowly and carefully calling upon the power within him.

It answered immediately, embracing every cell in his body with its warmth as it rushed towards his arms. It hummed as it flew through his hands and started taking shape, encasing them in an invisible lance that only haki users could have seen.

A single drop of sweat rolled down his cheek as Sasuke gracefully flowed through movements practiced a thousand times before he kicked the air beneath him.

BOOM!

The cloud was larger than a certain eternal forest and made up of water vapour gathered from the four seas, bearing a weight that could be measured in thousands of tons. It was a natural formation created by the eternal cycle of water, each droplet within having crossed a journey of a hundred years that started from a vast glacier atop a mountain and ended in the boundless skies above.

And with just a light tap it imploded.

Flying was something considered rare in this world, accomplished only by the rarest of jutsu such as Susano or those of the Six-Paths but here it was something that could be accomplished merely by kicking the air hard enough.

As he had soon found, the very atmosphere of this world was worked in a way that did not match what the common sense of his world dictated. The air here was dense enough that one could jump on it if they used enough might to do so, the pure might of unparalleled force that is.

In just two jumps, Sasuke had crossed the boundaries that separated Heaven and Earth as he tore through the clouds in his path and made his way toward the mythical island where his answers awaited him.

The people, forests, and then the island itself had grown smaller and smaller as he had ascended and now Jaya was but a green speck, barely visible on a vast blue sea as he flew higher at speeds that far surpassed that of sound.

It was not long before he passed through a thick white cloud that contained numerous types of strange-looking flatfishes that resembled kites, huge octopuses which floated in a manner resembling balloons, and weird shellfish of all kinds of colours.

He had grown used to the strangeness of this world but he was yet again astonished to see creatures that one might only hope to encounter inside the deep depths of the ocean below in the clouds so high.

What would have been considered wonders of nature back in his home world in this world were no more than humdrum happenstances here. Sasuke had to admit, sometimes the most scenic roads in life were the detours one did not mean to take.

As he came out of the cloud, the foremost thing Sasuke could observe was the huge forest. The famed island above the sky island did not resemble what he had imagined. He had seen a city in the sky before and thought that it would resemble something of that sort but once again this world had betrayed his expectations.

Sasuke had a vague picture in his mind of how this floating island would look, but he never would have thought that he would discover an actual landmass hovering above the clouds, complete with its forests, rivers, creatures, and oddly enough a giant beanstalk.

It was beautiful, astounding in a completely different manner but beautiful nonetheless.

He came to a stop high above and dropped down upon a tree before starting to jump from branch to branch, quickly approaching the direction that most probably led to civilization as far as he could ascertain with his senses.

Even after a full decade, his childlike wonder over the Sharingan never left him. It was something incredible. A sharp burning sensation grew in his eye, one that had been steadily growing for a while since his arrival in this world, something that reminded him of the burning hellfire his eye once contained. Sasuke did not know what would happen if he pushed his eye any further, but it did not take a genius to realize that the burning pain was not a good sign.

Removing Sharingan from him was like being plunged into the dark after standing under the noon sun. Where once he could see everything now all he could see was what lay before him and even that was limited to the light spectrum of the human eye. After the vision of the Sharingan, he may as well have been blind.

But even without his dojutsu, his vision still lay beyond the limits of humanity and reached the realm of superhuman even by the standards of his world. With it he could see every inch of land before him, the entire island was laid out before his eyes. Sasuke could not even know where to begin to describe to someone without a dojutsu what he was seeing, what was it like to see everything.

To say he had a bird's eye view of the land before him would be incorrect because it implied that he was only looking in one direction at one time. His eyes attuned to the granted him the ability to see everything in his range of sight from every angle as if he had an entire model of the island imprinted inside his head. The sheer scale of what he could see was almost overwhelming.

He could see in every direction with perfect clarity as if the events happening entire forests away from him were occurring right before his eye. His eye could see an ant climbing a branch four kilometres away with perfection, just as he could see the fly flapping his wings in slow motion six kilometres away above a rotten corpse of what seemed to be a decaying hog.

His powers may have been taken away but his observation remained strong as ever, in the mere moments when he lay suspended above in the air he had perfectly assessed his surroundings.

His sharp onyx eye had seen a bunch of tents and huts neatly paddled together, alongside what seemed to be people who were busy constructing new homes. Either they were just moved from someplace or their original homes got destroyed somehow— refugees or migrants.

Sasuke hoped that they were the latter, for he had seen too much destruction before and he was loath to see it once again.

The layout of the town was a simple one with average tiny homes constructed at the edge of large ruins— what appeared to be the remnants of an abandoned ancient city. Almost every house had some form of totem pole in front of it and then there were some torches burning atop crossed spears as well.

One would think of it as another normal human town that just happened to be located high ten up in the sky but even then, there were some features about this place that clearly stood out in a sharp contrast to what one might imagine when they pictured a town in their minds.

The first thing that drew his notice and dragged his attention just as a magnet drawn to iron were the feathered appendages that protruded from the backs of these people. They resembled pristine white wings that were on the backs of humans instead of any sort of bird as one might normally expect.

The second one that demanded his notice and planted the seeds of curiosity in his mind was the giant beanstalk that was cut down and the huge golden bell near it at the centre of the soon-to-be village. It was large, to the point where it could not be described just by the word huge, for that would be an insult to the sheer proportions its dimensions represented. The bell was simply humongous— to the point that people who were near it looked tiny.

The bell was hung above a platform, supported by huge columns. The columns, the platform that they rose out of, and even the stairs that led onto the platform appeared to be completely made out of gold.

Were the people on this island above the sky so rich that they could carve such large accommodations with the gold of all metals? Or maybe gold was nothing but a meagre object for everyday use in this land.

The dark-haired shinobi mentally made a note not to forget to bring as much gold as he could with him when he returned to the surface if that were so.

In the makeshift town, men and women were busy with construction, even as some children played atop a giant blue snake—comparable to some of the larger ones he had seen— and were using its gigantic back as a slide of all things.

A giant snake was a known sight for him who held the snake contract. But seeing one behave so friendly was unusual, to say the least. Sasuke wondered if this snake could talk or even possessed some sort of consciousness. The snake did not seem to mind the least bit about the fact that human children playing on its back, and was actually smiling! A sharp contrast to the giant snakes he was used to.

But it was not the sight of these people that drew most of his attention. No, that would be the thunderous sounds that reverberated across the forest floor. Sounds— he was intimately acquainted with for he had spent a better part of his life enshrouded within them.

They were the sounds of fighting…

His lone eye narrowed, and his form blurred as it sped across the forest with unimaginable speed.

On his way he saw a surprising diversity in the wildlife that indicated the existence of an entirely separate ecosystem— large packs of wolves that could break boulders with their claws, pure snow-white foxes that seemed to be almost too beautiful, insects large enough to dwarf entire ships, and colourful but strange looking gigantic avians that flew high above. There were even some clouds that resembled rollercoasters that could be found throughout the forest.

It reminded him of the Forest of Death back home in Konoha, except the trees here were marginally huger and wildlife even more untamed.

Within a small frame of time that could be measured in mere seconds, he crossed kilometers of distance with his exceptional speed that would have been praiseworthy even in his old world, he soon reached the source that had ignited the curiosity that had drawn him away from the bustling town that was being constructed and the civilization that most probably held the answers he sought— the clash of warriors which reverberated throughout the forest.

About twenty men adorned in clothes that resembled what he had been able to ascertain as the garb of the people from the town near the golden city were clashing with twelve others who were all wearing robes that resembled the formal garb of monks near the end of the backside of the platform that housed the enormous golden bell.

The men from the town seemed to have the upper hand despite being greater in number and in overall strength compared to the other group but the advantage was not substantial, all thanks to a huge man carrying a large column— a man that had been constantly grinning.

Sasuke did not need to make assumptions to know him he was the leader of the group. He was almost twice as huge as he was with a scruffy beard on his face and white wings on his back. The man was wearing a necklace of red beads— prayer beads over an orange robe. Based on appearances, Sasuke would have thought him to be a monk in seclusion if not for his actions proving otherwise.

There were a lot of men lying unconscious on the ground, bleeding and injured even as their comrades fought on with nary a care. It was a scene he had grown accustomed to, Sasuke morbidly thought— a scene he felt comfortable being a part of knowing that right here, inside a battlefield he was the one in absolute control.

Just a quick glance allowed him to observe the various weapons both sides were using, most of them ones never seen before—a bazooka that spat blue flames that resembled lasers, small shells that absorbed impacts attacks and launched them back with twice the intensity, boots that let allowed the user to hover across any the surface, and spears that burned red hot.

Amidst all this, Sasuke once again observed the huge man with the column and the three that were fighting him, all heavily injured to the point where only the man with the bazooka could stand without quivering in agony. Even an amateur could tell that they were about to be defeated for continuing to fight in that state was all but incomprehensible, especially against someone that had put them in that condition to begin with. The defeat was certain for someone in their situation.

Blood seeped out of them akin to water and smoke rose from their beaten forms. They were injured and bleeding and wounded, limbs burning with excretion and wounds screaming in agony. Yet, they continued to stand…

Sasuke had seen enough— a single burst of speed and his form flickered into existence, appearing right before the combatants before either of them could move. So quick, that it took a moment for both of the parties to notice him.

"Do you require assistance?" Sasuke plainly asked, enjoying the way eyes widened at his appearance.

Before the three men, most probably members of some sort of force that protected the island, could say anything the huge man spoke, his grin ever-present as ever "And who might you be? You don't look like a Skypiean."

"Hn." Sasuke grunted his trademark dismissal, and the grin plastered on the huge man's face widened minutely as something dangerous flashed through his eyes at the dismissal. "Do you not know that it is customary to introduce yourself before prying into the affairs of strangers?"

"I am Urouge." The man replied in an even tone that seemed too calm for the situation. "Leave now if you know that is good for you. I do not want to beat them nor do I want to beat you, but you will know death if you insist upon it. I just want that bell, and if they let me have it then I would leave in peace!"

"Over..." The other men panted, exhausted and wounded beyond measure, but picked up his bazooka once again nonetheless. Like hell was he going to let someone just take away the light of Shandora!

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, finally understanding the gist of the situation. He had known that the huge man was most probably a pirate from seconds of observation but had not known the exact circumstances behind the predicament. This cleared up many of his doubts…

"That bell seems to be very important to these people." Sasuke coldly noted, even as the one known as Urouge lifted the column in his hand high up to strike the man who unflinchingly stood before him.

"I need gold to conquer the blue seas!" Urouge grinned and swung the column in his hand with contemptuous ease and speed that defied its stupendous size. Even as the man opposing him jumped out of range with the help of his skates.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the annoying reply. As he had expected, the man before him was just another one of the scum pirates. Sasuke loathed these kinds of men, those who disregarded the honour of others for the sake of his selfish wishes. Perhaps because he too had been one of them ages ago…

In a burst speed that defied his bulky appearance, Urouge caught up to the retreating man with trivial ease, his opponent was injured and thus slower than before. The pirate grinned malevolently and swung the huge column as disdainfully as one would swing a paper fan.

His opponent ducked the first blow, the second came downward for his head but he barely managed to evade it by leaning out of the way. The third time, however, his luck seemingly ran out as a shiver of agony clawed through his body slowing his moments by a factor that might have been considered too low to even be regarded under normal circumstances but far too grave for a duel to the death.

He closed his eyes, accepting the inevitable but standing proud nonetheless—

BOOM!

A shockwave tore through the surroundings, thundering across the grounds, where a dozen and more warriors drew steel against each other. It tore through the grounds and crashed against the trees as it echoed throughout the forest. The sound even reached the nearby people as they stopped their individual fights for a moment to look towards the cause of such a reverberation.

"That's impressive strength!" The grin of Urouge had not left his face for a single moment, even as his eyes widened in surprise. "That was my favourite column! But then again, this proves you're a strong one! That is good, I would not feel as bad when you meet death at my hands."

The mad monk swung his right leg at Sasuke, but the shinobi dodged the blow by gracefully leaning away from the blow with a grace and elegance that even mighty warriors seldom held.

Sasuke leaned sideways to evade the following punch by a narrow margin even as a shockwave of air passed millimetres away from his face, all the while not moving an inch from his place.

The next attack was a simple punch aimed straight at his face, moving so slowly that Sasuke could have moved a hundred times before it could ever reach him. The strike was intended to hit his chest if he could not stop it. But no matter how fast Urouge moved, he himself along with everyone else watching, knew that Sasuke would be faster.

Pulling his shoulder back and pivoting on his back leg, he elegantly succeeded. He pulled back far enough that the strike missed by an inch and then casually watched the thick arm that barely grazed his face with a bored expression on his face. Sasuke then spun around, using the momentum of Urouge himself against him as he gently grabbed the arm that was meant to crash into his face before he tugged downwards.

Urouge barely had any time to react, his eyes widening by a miniscule as he was sent crashing into the ground.

CRASH!

Once again, the ground below them imploded with impunity. The rock formations around them crumbling from the force of the impact as the pirate crashed into the earth below. Trees were uprooted and boulders crushed as a man larger than a house was launched into the surface with the force of a thousand cannons.

It was a miracle that the spine of Urouge had not yet crumbled…

But contrary to Sasuke's expectations, not a hair on his opponent's face was harmed as just moments later, the Monk dusted his robes, ignoring the blood coming from his mouth as if he had not just been launched through the ground at speeds that broke the barriers of sound itself. Once he rose up, Urouge cracked his knuckles and got ready to fight once again, his disturbing smile still carved onto his face.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and became guarded, carefully considering his opponent. He did not want to take this carelessly and drag out this fight more than needed neither did he have any interest in finding out the tricks of Urouge either. But he was curious, curious to know why had the monk just increased minutely in size.

"Hehe…" Urouge who kept grinning spoke, that constant smile was beginning to annoy him, "One good hit does not mean anything. If you are stronger than me, then I would simply take that strength and use it against you. I have not come this far to lose."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, as the huge man once again came at him but this time with speeds, he knew should have been impossible for someone such as him to achieve before. Had Urouge been holding back all this time or was this something else entirely?

The ground below was torn to pieces as the sheer force of his movement ripped a trench into the earth. A loud clap resounded across the clearing as the sound barrier was ruthlessly desolated by an unstoppable force that held no elements of any grace or elegance.

It startled him for a second, that exponential boost in power had almost increased his parameters tenfold. Sasuke was well aware of the fact that this kind of surge was not normal, for even he had only seen it seldomly before and even then only in users of Curse Marks, Eight Gates, and Jinchuriki. Besides, his words…

What exactly did he mean when he said that he would take his power and use it against him?

"You can absorb energy and use it to increase your own strength," Sasuke observed even as Urouge grinned wider in response, confirming his thoughts.

These kinds of powers were not foreign to him. He had fought users of Preta Path before and knew how to deal with men such as him.

So, when Urouge came upon him once again, Sasuke did not simply dodge as he had been doing all along. Instead, he pulled his shoulder and once again pivoted on his back leg, only this time using the momentum of his movement to spin around with his left foot outstretched.

It was a kick incomparable to any other Urouge had seen before, crashing into him with the force of a thousand elephants as his jaw snapped shut close, and vision almost went black as every organ in his body shook in agony.

But before Urouge could even gather the time to collect himself, Sasuke moved just again. His foot that had been used to kick Urouge had barely even touched the ground before he used it to kick the ground jump high above gracefully and landed on the shoulders of the pirate with a flip that was executed with practiced ease.

A simple tap on the bundle of nerves above his jaw from his right hand stole from Urouge the capability to speak, as his jaw was locked into place beret of all movement. Using his other hand, Sasuke gripped the nose of the pirate and squeezed.

"Argh!"

With a jaw that could not be opened and a nose that was blocked, the pirate was left with no conceivable way to breathe.

If Urouge could absorb the energy from the impact of Sasuke's strikes, then he would simply choke him to death. It was already too late by the time Urouge realized what Sasuke had planned. He did not possess the skill not had not yet absorbed enough power to escape from the grip of the shinobi who held him with elegant ease.

All his struggles were hopeless beyond this point...

Sasuke watched with cold eyes, occasionally dodging the blows crudely thrown at him from an angle too awkward to even make him bulge had they connected, as the struggles of Urouge continued to weaken and weaken.

Finally, a moment or two passed as the eyes of the pirate rolled to the back of his head and his huge body dropped to the ground with a resounding thud…

Sasuke did not need to look at his surroundings to know everyone had stopped fighting and was looking at him strangely. The men in robes who were most probably the companions of the now unconscious monk had already thrown their weapons to the ground, for they had already lost their will to fight after seeing their captain being so soundly defeated and promptly surrendered, it was clear as day that they were afraid of him and they were not the only ones.

The fighters of Skypiea too had fear in their hearts, he could sense it as clearly as he could sense the warmth of the sun on his back.

It was the injured man who he had saved who first hobbled his way toward him, he had something in his hands. Sasuke could see what and raised a simple brow when he reached it. The man extended his hand, he had handcuffs made of stone.

I corrected some of my mistakes so the chapter should be better. Thanks for reading.

Power levels in one piece take steep jumps as the story progresses- Luffy had major trouble with a single Pacifista but beats one in a single attack after the time skip, Kaido beat G4 Luffy with a casual attack even when that form was strong enough to contend against a Yonko Commander. Beating early series Urouge in one attack is something that even base time-skip Luffy should be capable of.

So in my personal opinion, Sasuke defeating him with ease is not something worthy of note.

Sasuke has entered Skypiea using Geppo which seems rudimentary enough that I think he very well could have learned it accidentally as Sanji did. I think it's safe to say he also knows the Soru and other Roukushiki moves.

Jumping on air, kicking the ground for a burst of speed, exponentially hardening muscles, instinctively dodging attacks, and kicking hard enough to create blades of sharp air are all feats that people in Naruto are capable of through sheer physical strength alone should they be strong enough for example- Might Guy and Momoshiki.

Sasuke as a peer physical opponent should be more than capable of doing the same, especially if he experiments with Taijutsu. Something he is bound to do when placed in a situation where he cannot use his chakra.

Finally, this story happens after the Toneri incident. Sasuke and Sakura have not entered a relationship yet and our avenger should be about twenty years old, which should make him about as old as the current Luffy. Also, his Rinnegan is absolutely gone.

Thanks for reading.