Piracy Of The Last Jinchuriki

by R8handman

Black Zetsu refused that his work all these centuries was for nothing and decided to destroy the shinobi world he influenced, and in doing so Naruto found himself in a Land eerily familiar to his home. Finding this Land is troubled and wanting a place to belong. Naruto decides to use the ruins of his past to help this country. His future is unknown in this pirates infested world.

21. Ace & Whitebeard Part 1

Disclaimer: Like everybody else on fanfiction, I own nothing. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and One Piece belongs toEiichiro Oda.

"Standard" - Normal Speaking

'Italics' - Thoughts

"Bold" Tailed Beasts speaking and Techniques

---

(Three Weeks Ago)

"You sure are a lively one, rookie."

"Shut up! Someone threw me out here while I was still sleeping!" Ace yelled before asking, "Where the hell are we!?"

"An enemy ship. They were laying waste to one of our islands- yoi."

"Blue regenerative flames..." Ace hears one enemy say with, "So that's the First Division Commander, Marco!"

"But who's the one next to him with the red flames?" asked another enemy in confusion.

"A new crewmate?" one of them mutters before recognizing Ace powers, "No way! that's Fire-Fist!"

With a simple flick of his wrist, Ace ignited his right fist, creating a swirling inferno. He then swung his fist, unleashing a scorching blast that engulfed a significant number of the enemy crew.

"Let's hurry up and crush them so we can get back to the ship!" Ace yells in annoyance at Marco.

"How dependable-yoi." Marco says with a smirk as he took off into the air.

Suddenly, a powerful blow shook the entire boat, as a gigantic person emerged from the scorching blast that Ace had created and was spinning around a huge knife that was bigger than Ace's body before he slashed at Ace. It grazed Ace's cheek as he narrowly dodged before he felt a sting of pain. Ace realized that the knife had been imbued with Armament Haki as he pressed his thumb against the cut that just formed right between his right eye and his cheek. Ace wiped the blood off with a frown.

"So fast and on top of that they can use Haki..." Ace thought with a grim expression before he muttered, "These guys are at a level where they can pick a fight with Whitebeard."

"If this is the level of pirates that causes you trouble..." Marco tells him with a chuckle as he observed the battle from above, "Then taking Pop's head is just a pipe dream."

"SHUT IT!

"I'm just saying you shouldn't growl if you can't bite harder than a puppy-yoi!" Marco tells him as he flaps his blue flaming wings and soared into the skies before he began to dive, bombing the enemy crew with lethal kicks that sent them crashing through different layers of ships.

"The thought of doing exactly what Thatch wants pisses me off. But..." thought Ace as he gritted his teeth before he swallowed down his pride and forced a grin on his face and yells at his opponents, "The battlefield is certainly the perfect place to sharpen my fangs!"

Using his own formidable Armament Haki, Ace gripped the colossal knife, feeling its weight resonate through his hardened hand. As he clenched the knife, it shattered in his hand. When two individuals clash using Armament Haki, the one possessing stronger Armament Haki will effortlessly penetrate the other's defenses or break and chip weapons, inflicting damage to the other side. Ace was just that stronger when it came into Armament Haki during Haki clashes.

Ace then noticed Thatch was abroad on the ship, keeping the fodder members of the enemy crew away from him. At the moment of his distraction, Ace noticed the gigantic shadow of his enemy stretched and morphed into

"The time has come for the heavenly judgement!"

"SWEET SEDGE KICK!" The Zoan giraffe user screamed as it swung his long neck around like a club, creating holes on the deck on the point of impact.

"How's that a kick!?" Ace asked with a deadpan expression on his face as he dodged these swings with ease.

"I don't recall permitting you to complain about what names I give to my techniques." His enemy growled in frustration.

"Well, that may be so," Ace mutters as he looked for any openings in his enemy so he can attack only to find none. All the openings his opponent had all seem to lead to a trap.

"Ace, you've... Been leaning too hard on the part of Haki you're best at, haven't you?!" Ace recalled one of Thatch's lessons after he got beaten up by Whitebeard again in one of his duels. "A pitfall of self study. You gotta expand the reach of your abilities and think creatively."

"Tch..." Ace closed his eyes as he calmed himself down to enter the best state of using Observation Haki. The voice he heard in his head formed a clear image of a giraffe leg swinging forward.

"It's funny how careless you Logia users are! Eat this, you weak buffoon!" The giraffe Zoan hybrid captain yelled as he attempted to swing his leg and yelled, "Kuzunoha Disorder Stab!"

"Just who..." growled Ace as he sent a perfectly timed blow with his flames to counter it, "Are you calling a weak buffoon!"

Ace flames pummeled the Giraffe Zoan user with such force that, burning him and sending him flying straight to the ship figurehead which he collided with a sickening crunch as he broke his neck on impact. The gigantic giraffe let out one last gurgle before it turned back into normal; albeit still a gigantic human that was dying.

"Great Observation Haki..." Thatch said in amazement before nodding to himself, "All thanks to my generous advice..."

"GRR..." growled Ace in annoyance as he felt his victory tarnished by Thatch gloating.

"It's alright, I don't need any thanks." Thatch rolled his eyes as he smiled at Ace's angry expression.

"Gya! Damn it, I got stabbed aah!" a voice shrieked across the battlefield.

"You got careless again huh, Teach?" Thatch calls across the ship before sighing to himself.

---

(A Week Later)

Ace's punch sent the enemy crashing through the enemy deck, damaging the ship further.

"The balance of power in the New World is shifting. It used to be all about Roger, Shiki the Golden Lion, and Whitebeard... until Roger and Shiki dropped out." Thatch explained, his hands on the side railing of the enemy ship, "Though, even back then, Big Mom's always had her own nation."

"Now it's Whitebeard, Big Mom, Kaido, and Red-Hair," said Ace, listing the names of the Four Emperors as he turned his right index finger into flames and sent a stream of flames into the other pirate face, who was sneaking behind him attempting to stab him. Ace then turned his hand into flames and pressed it into the heavily damaged mast.

"Red-Hair's once belonged to Roger's crew... but he doesn't seem to have any desire to carry on his old captain's will to be King of the Pirates. By comparison, Kaido's much easier to understand. If you ask me, he's less of a pirate than a hoodlum." Thatch said with a yawn as he watched the battle coming to a close.

His eyebrows shot up as the flames on Ace's hand ignited the mast, before he continued his lesson, "Big Mom's crew is similar to our crew, generationally speaking, but Charlotte Linlin herself is more like a landlubber pirate now. She lives in a castle, surrounded by a family of dozens, making her operation closer to a mafia than a pirate crew. The territory she controlled is her own nation. All the young folks who go into the Grand Line are just looking for a bit of adventure."

CRAAACK!

The mast crumbled downward, sail and all, into a wall of flame as Thatch continued, "If you get past the route through Fish-Man Island, where 70 percent of ships sink already, the New World beyond that is the hunting grounds of the four Emperors of the Sea, the strongest pirates with their own vast territories. It won't be easy to bring any of them low. The idiots who cannot understand the rules of this business are the first to paint targets on their backs."

The battle was over. A few dozen pirates from the crew they were dealing with lay at Thatch and Ace's feet. Some were dead, and some were struggling to get up.

"You... you are Fire Fist! The one who turned down the Warlords" gasped one of the enemy pirates on the deck, his face grimacing in pain.

Ace looked at the rookie pirates unaffiliated with any of the Yonko. Back in their homeland and in the "Paradise" of the first half of the Grand Line, they were no doubt big shots who'd made a name for themselves. But they lasted mere minutes against Ace and Thatch.

Ace never mocked Thatch for "just being a cook," but in truth, Thatch was more than worthy of the title of Fourth Division leader. He wielded a one-sided blade over three feet long that looked like one of the giant kitchen knives used for dressing large fish and animals, and it was terrifying in Thatch's hands in combat. Thatch fighting style was to find and create weakness in his enemy's fighting style, and those who he met on the battlefield always went down in less than ten blows.

The division leaders shared ritual cups that placed them on equal footing, none greater than any other. That meant there were at least more people on the crew of similar profile, a mark of the great depth of the Whitebeard Pirates. He claimed that the Fifth Division commander, Vista, was a far better swordsman, however.

"Has that rookie with over a hundred million bounty already bent the knee to Whitebeard?!" gasped the pirate.

"Hell no. But it's a complicated situation," said Ace with irritation. "What did these guys do anyway, Thatch?"

"They messed around in our territory." Thatch said with a shrug, "They ate and drank without paying. Happens all the time."

"Ah... yeah. That happens. So I've heard." Ace said with a sweat drop as he remembered pulling something similar on Fishman Island.

"And let me tell you something, Ace. Anyone who eats our food and doesn't pay up isn't our guest," Thatch reminded him with a smirk.

It was impossible to argue with that smirk that Thatch gave him.

These division leaders protected the town's flying Whitebeard's flag. In exchange, the crew received a stipend from those towns in various forms, such as valuables, food and fuel supplies, labor, and so on. If the common people couldn't get the help of the World Government and Marines, then they'd look to one of the Four Emperors for protection.

"I thought the Marines were like the world's biggest group of pirates catchers, but in the New World they're scarcer than ever," Ace noted as he scratched his chin in confusion. "Wouldn't it be the Marine's job to settle these issues?"

Thatch expression darkens and Ace could feel the anger in that face, even if it was well hidden.

"They have 'G' branches in place to protect vital facilities to the marines and the world government and it affiliated countries, but that's about it." Thatch growled out, "The Marine Headquarters is just a military force designed to do the bidding of the World Government. Their primary mission isn't to protect the population of the New World from pirates. Especially the ones who can't pay the heavenly tribute."

"Our job is to get rid of idiots like these and collect protection money. That raises the profile and power of our flag. And that's how our territory expands." Thatch explains with a shake of his head, "We don't deal with drugs or slaves in our territory. That's right out the window. Sounds pretty tame for one of the four baddest pirates in the world, eh?"

"So that how things are run here?" Ace said in deep thought as he now knew that the Whitebeard Pirates controlled the sea with their flag and backed it up by dispatching their forces here and there, before saying, "Well, I was never one for adventure or finding the One Piece, anyway."

"Oh, yeah?" Thatch questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"But I feel like I've got a better understanding of how this sea is ruled. That flag isn't something Whitebeard planted there through an act of force. It's something that the residents raised on their own," Ace mutters as bubbles of guilt and shame welled up in his throat, "So burning that flag on Fish-Man Island wasn't just an insult to Whitebeard, it was an insult to all the fish-men who lived there."

"You've figured that all out, but you're still going after Pops's head?" Thatch asked with a shake of his head and whispers to him, "You want to be more infamous than your father the King of the Pirates? But you have no interest in One Piece. You don't want to bend your own honor code. So, what does your flag of flame stand for?"

"I don't know," Ace mutters as he stares at his downed opponents, "Or at least, I thought I did once, but now I don't."

Thatch went silent for a bit and smiled. "You're pretty honest."

"Mm," Ace hummed with a nod, "Mountain bandits teach you when to lie, but Dadan and Makino taught me manners and, to be honest."

Thatch then gave orders to his division.

As Ace heard that they would seize all the goods, the ship would be sold on the secondhand market, the pirates they captured to be turned in for bounties through middlemen to the marines and asked, "I'm surprised that a division leader like you would get directly involved with this third-rate crew."

"When someone's back is to the wall, they'll easily resort to the stupidest course of action." Thatch sighs as he looks at the captured pirates and shakes his head with pity. "It's because they're third rate that a higher-up like me has to get involved and make an example of them."

"Is that how it works?" Ace asks him with a raised eyebrow.

"You bet," said Teach. "Leave it to the lower guys and see what happens. What should have been a simple job turns into—"

Suddenly, the wall of the above-deck cabin broke open, and a man as large as a bear emerged from inside of the ship.

"Zehahahaha! Is that the end of it?" laughed Teach. In his left hand was a man wearing a captain's hat—the enemy leader; Teach hand was gripped around the base of the neck and dangling the captain like a squid hung out to dry.

"Don't damage the ship too much Teach," said Thatch with a disappointed tut.

"Oh, right? This rinky-dink little ship for shrimps." Teach said with a grin that showed his few missing teeth.

Teach hurled the enemy captain like a bowling ball. The unfortunate captain of the attempted eat-and-run crew rolled over and over across the deck until he slammed into the mast. He appeared to be breathing—barely.

One of Thatch's men set up a transponder snail hooked up to a trunk-shaped device. He took a picture of the captain's face and sent it through the fax machine. After a little while, there was a return of communication.

Ace picked up the fax and examined it. A skull symbol was in the sender's field and recognized it. Skull the info agent, still performing his job admirably. Ace felt a bit annoyed and proud that his crewmates were still working, even if it was for a different crew.

"He's Raccoon the Possum-Player, from the West Blue. A bounty of 75 million berries," he tells Thatch.

"Ahh, that's not a paltry amount. We'll hand him over to the Marines, in that case," said Thatch, reading the fax.

"Would they actually pay out a cashed in bounty to other pirates?" Ace asked in confusion.

"No. There are special brokers you can go through," Thatch tells him with a laugh.

"Teach! Tie that guy up. And as for the others—"

BANG!

Thatch spun around at the sudden sound of a gunshot, his oversized knife in his hand ready to take down the teacher.

"Oh?" Teach placed a hand to his side. It came away wet and red. At his feet, the dying Captain Raccoon was clutching a pistol.

"Teach!"

"Aieeee! I've been shot!" shrieked Teach, shocked by the sight of his own blood.

"Tsk!" Ace was chagrined at the fact that they hadn't disarmed their target.

He pointed a finger, ready to ignite a Fire Gun at the enemy, but before he could there was an awful scream that he never wanted to hear again, like a giant frog being squashed.

"That hurt, you bastard," said Teach said as he lifted his foot of the now dead pirate, whose midsection was now crushed through the wooden deck, his hands and feet jutting upward. "Oh, great. Hey, you alive down there? Damn it! Too bad you died ... Zehahahaha!"

"You all right?" Ace asked him with a hint of concern. "You've been shot."

"Hmm? Oh yeah, Zehahahaha! Owwwwww!" Teach screeched as held a hand over his wound and howled, as though he'd just remembered it and then began to call for a doctor.

"Thatch! The flames are too strong. We can't put them out!" someone yelled out. The flames that had picked up when Ace was fighting were now starting to devour the wooden ship. This ship was doomed, and this was what Thatch meant when he said that having third-rate guys do the work spelled disaster.

---

After dispatching the wayward pirates, Ace, Thatch and Teach stopped at the nearest island for a drink and dinner.

"A toast! To Pops's flag!" Thatch said as he lifted the jug of beer.

"I'm not toasting." Ace muttered as he downed his beer in one go.

"Zehahahaha! Food after a job well done tastes so good. This feeling is to die for!" Teach chortled before drinking down his barrel of beer down in one go.

As they sat and ate, Ace remembered something Shanks told him, and he mumbled it out to Thatch.

"Really, Ace? Red-Hair actually said that?" Thatch asked him with an astonished face.

"Yeah." Ace said with a serious nod. "He pointed to the scars on his left eye and said, 'It was the Whitebeard Pirates who gave this to me.' It was one specific pirate under Whitebeard's flag, in fact."

A ring of silence filled the table as the mood turned serious.

"So who is it?" Ace asked with deep curiosity. "I'm kind of curious."

"Someone on our crew did that to Red-Hair? Hmm," Thatch thought as he strained his mind hard to remember something like that before shaking his head, "I don't know."

"Huh? You mean it's not a well-known fact with you guys?" Ace asked with a gasp. "I thought someone who put a scar on Red Hair would be a legend among you."

"You know about this, Teach?" Thatch asked Teach, "You have been here longer than me..."

"Eh? About what?" Teach said absentmindedly as he stuffed his face with the Traven pie.

"Someone on the crew put a scar on Red-Hair's face, apparently. I just can't believe it..." Thatch said with a shake of his head.

"That was me," said Teach, through a mouthful of pies.

Ace and Thatch stared at the large man before them in total shock. Teach shoved a whole pie into his mouth without cutting a slice. Then he washed it down with a swig of beer that emptied a small barrel.

"Just kiddin'." Teach said as he burped and ripped out a fart at the same time.

"That's what I figured," Thatch said with a nod.

"Yeah, no way." Ace nodded along with Thatch.

"Well, he told me that at a little party we were having," Ace sighed as he admitted, "Maybe Red-Hair saw me as a rookie and just wanted to scare me a bit."

Ace then took a swig of his drink. Thatch paid attention to the movement of his arm and noted, "By the way, Ace... what's with that joke of a tattoo you've got?"

It was something he'd been wondering about and used the drunken opportunity to ask. The question was one that Ace had heard many times over the years.

"Nah, never mind. Don't want to talk about it." Ace said with a sad smile, as it was a long tale to tell, and it wasn't particularly interesting.

"Oh, yeah?" Thatch asked him with interest.

"The X through the S is the symbol of my late brother. That's all." Ace recently told him before remembering his youngest brother, "I have another brother, though."

"Oh yeah? How old? What's he doing now?" Thach asked with a smile.

"Three years younger than me." Ace answered with a drunk grin, "We decided that we'd set out to be pirates when we turned seventeen. So he should be leaving any in three months."

"Is he strong?" Teach asked him with interest.

"My brother ate a Devil Fruit when he was a little kid." Ace tells him with a snort, "I didn't eat mine until after I was a pirate. But I never lost a fight to him, even back then."

"A Devil Fruit, huh?" marveled Thatch as he drank the beer. "We got a couple of guys with Devil Fruit powers, too. Marco, Jozu, Pops."

Ace felt a hint of annoyance at the mention of Whitebeard Devil Fruit powers. He couldn't get him to use them in all the duels he had been with him.

"The rule around here is, if you find the Devil Fruit, you get to eat it. You could sell it and make a hundred million berries, of course. But if I could choose a Devil Fruit to have, it would be yours, Ace."

"Why the Flame-Flame Fruit?" wondered Ace with a raised eyebrow.

"Your hands turn into fire, right? What more could a cook like me ask for?" Thatch said, his voice filled with yearning, "And I could make it whatever temperature I want. They say the cook's soul is his knife, but flame could be something like a lifetime partner."

"I get it. If only there'd been one for you, too." Ace said as he looked at his hands that briefly turned into wispy flames before becoming flesh again with Ace's will.

"It doesn't work that way, does it?" Thatch tells him with a shaking head. "There's only one of any kind of Devil Fruit in the entire world at a time."

"Yeah, that's right! If you really want to eat the Flame-Flame Fruit," Teach said, happily brandishing a table knife now that he had finished his barrel of wine, "You'll have to kill Ace... Zehahahaha! Once the person with the powers dies, the fruit will regrow somewhere else in the world."

"That's a bad joke. There's no fruit I want to eat so bad I'd kill someone for it!" said Thatch with a shake of his head before calling the barmaid. "Another wine over here, Miss."

"Then you'll have to forget about the Flame-Flame Fruit." Ace said with a grimace before asking, "What about another one? Let's say... an ice fruit, maybe. You wouldn't need an ice chest."

"No, that one's out, too. Aokiji ate that," said Thatch with a shake of his head.

"Aokiji? You mean..." Ace said as he recalled the name belonging to someone famous in the Marines.

"The admiral from Marines Headquarters." Thatch reminded him

"What about a knife? You could be a blade man who could cut anything," Ace suggested with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"That would be nice. But no, I think some assassin somewhere has that one." Thatch shakes his head. "Besides, I like sharpening my knives."

"Zehahahaha!" Teach laughed before saying with a chuckle, "Well, even after years and years of pirating, you just don't see Devil Fruits all that often!"

"What about you, Teach? What fruit would you eat?" Ace asked, turning the tables on him.

"Me? Let's see," Teach said as he took a swig from his barrel that looked too small in his hands.

"Oh, I bet I know which one you want," said Thatch, looking mischievous.

"What?! How do you know, Thatch?!" gasped Teach, suddenly looking shocked.

"Which one?" Ace asked with interest as he looked at Teach.

"You know the one, Ace. The legendary Clear-Clear Fruit!" Thatch says with a drunk laugh, "Whoever eats that fruit can turn invisible!"

"Really? There's a fruit that does that?!" Ace asked before he blushed at the first thought he got from that Devil Fruit.

"Zehahahaha! Ya got me!" laughed Teach, scratching his head and sticking out his tongue. "Even if it takes my whole life, I want to find it."

At that point, they realized several young girls had gathered at the table. Ace realized they were children from the port. Their parents could be seen outside the restaurant where the pirates were celebrating.

"What's this? We have such pretty young ladies here!" Thatch said, greeting them with a smile.

"This is a sign of our gratitude!" said the girls, presenting them with crowns of flowers picked from nearby fields.

"Oooh, such pretty flowers. Thank you," said Thatch smoothly, bowing his head.

"No, thanks... I'd rather not," said Ace, trying to push the flowers away with an embarrassed expression.

"C'mon, Ace! Don't embarrass these young ladies. They're trying to thank you!" Thatch reprimanded Ace.

Thatch took his flowers and Teach held out a finger to drape them over. Since Ace didn't want to make himself the bad guy, he hesitated and reluctantly allowed them to place the circlet over his head.

As Ace looked at the flowers, questions began to fill his head. "Had I ever received flowers before? I expected that even after I was dead in my grave, no one would come to place flowers at my headstone."

Another uncomfortable thought as he looked at his surroundings and at the island.

What made Whitebeard's rule stand out was its remarkable nature. The man wielded a powerful influence. He made use of that power to establish his own sea, which became the cornerstone of his territory. He ruled over a sea where the people warmly embraced his leadership. The young kids sought refuge in the presence of a man who was scarier than any demon, and they even expressed gratitude towards him. Power was a tool that could be wielded to fulfill one's ambitions. Occasionally, power engulfs others within itself, growing even stronger. Whitebeard earned the title of King of the Sea because of this.

"Are you guys good pirates?" asked one of the younger girls.

"Huh? I... uh," Ace stuttered as he thinks, "What was a good pirate? Was it a pirate who protected the people in his territory? To those from other locales, that same man might be considered a terrible pillager. And nobody who was truly a benevolent saint would get involved in the business of piracy."

"Listen up, girls," said Teach to the children with a grin. "There are no good or bad pirates."

Teach placed the flowers they gave him onto his plate of pasta and promptly began to devour his food, plants and all. The girls stared at Teach in shock; the last thing they expected was for him to eat their flowers.

"Mmm, these sure are good flowers! Gimme yours too, Ace!" Teach demanded with a grin.

"All right, that's enough of that!" said Thatch, clapping his hands loudly as he joked, "I'm sorry this old man and this young fellow are so boring and make little sense, girls. But thank you very much. If I come back in thirty years and retire here...no, twenty years, will any of you agree to marry me?"

"Ew! No!" a girl said with a shake of her head, "You will be an old man!"

Thatch and Ace just laugh at the girls' flustered answers as they ran back, and Ace grabbed a barrel to refill his jug of beer.

"Wait, wait, you can't open that one!" yelped Thatch with a panicked expression, "That's pops booze!"

"But this is the cheap stuff, right?" Ace asked with a confused expression.

"It's pops favorite," Teach tells him with a snort.

"Really? An Emperor likes this?" asked a stunned Ace.

"Since pops sends his share of the treasure back to his hometown." Thatch explained with a smile, "He prefers sticking to the cheap stuff."

"I hear it's a piss poor village," Teach said with drunken laughter. "They can't even pay their heavenly tribute to the Celestial Dragons, that's why the World Government won't protect them."

"It's the same for the island we are at," Thatch said with a glad smile. "That's why he lends them our flag instead."

Thatch smile turned one into extreme adoration and fondness as he looked at the island, "Our Pops, he's just... that kind of pirate."

"I don't care if they call me a villain!" Ace grits his teeth as a conflicted expression came to his face as he recalls the words he shouted that day, "I will make the entire world know my name!"

"He's a great person, right Ace!?" Teach chortles as he chowed down on a chicken leg, "The difference between you and him is like night and day! You are like a firefly compared to the sun!"

"Quit agitating him, Teach." Thatch admonishes him before looking at Ace's agitated and conflicted expression and sighs as Ace stood up and left the table.

---

-Moby Dick-

That night there was a resounding crash as Ace was defeated again by Whitebeard for the eighty-third time.

Ace's body ached as he slumped against the ship railings. The first time he wasn't knocked off the ship in those duels with the monster in front of him. He briefly glanced at Whitebeard back, his towering frame casting a shadow on Ace from the light of the candles on the ship. Ace looked at his sword, the Yondai Kitetsu lying a couple of feet away from him at him on the deck.

"I still couldn't even touch him, or make him use his power..." Ace thought as he felt miserable and ashamed by the struggle and the inner war he was in. "No matter what... his league..."

Whitebeard reaches for the barrel of booze that Ace delivered to him to let Whitebeard drop his guard down and chugs down the barrel down in one go.

"Thanks... for the liquor," Whitebeard thanks him with a laugh. "That fight felt somewhat worthwhile. Come at me anytime, you snot-nosed brat."

Ace looked at Whitebeard, stunned at those words, before he stares at the deck in a daze under the full moon and mutters out, "Just shut up..."

Ace just slumped there for a while, before he heard approaching footsteps and looked up to see they belonged to the First Division Commander who placed a plate of food next to Ace and told him, "From Thatch... He tells me you deserve it, you did a good job today."

"Why do all of you people call him Pops?" Ace whispered out to himself, not expecting an answer from Marco.

"Isn't it obvious?" Marco said with a chuckle before his eyes become extremely fond, "It's cause that man calls us his sons."

Marco then left Ace with his own thoughts.

---

(A Week Later)

"Hey did you see Fire Fist earlier..."

"Yeah, he had gotten pretty strong recently..."

"I hear their duels aren't completely one-sided anymore."

"They been getting pretty intense."

"HIT HIM BACK ROOKIE!"

"THIS WILL BE ANOTHER FLAWLESS VICTORY FROM POPS!"

These words resulted from the all the duels that were numbered in the 90s, and now they were on a random island in the new world, staring each other down in anticipation of the duel.

Whitebeard loomed over Ace, and Ace had a gleam of confidence, his Katana sheathed away for now as they stared at each other.

"What an annoying bunch..." snorted Whitebeard as he looked fondly at his adoptive sons either cheering for him or Ace. "This isn't for show..."

Ace shifted his leg forward, and Whitebeard warily looks at him.

"FIREFLY: FUNDAMA!" Ace yells as he creates with a splayed hand many small, glowing greenish-yellow fireballs that hovered in the air before swirling around Whitebeard, before one of them flew directly at Whitebeard and missed on purpose as it exploded behind the unfazed Whitebeard.

"Thought you would test my guts, did you?" Whitebeard mutters with a grin before he narrowly dodges a fireball that hurtled at him.

Cries of amazement among the crowd of the Whitebeard Pirates as Ace displayed his technique and skills of his Devil Fruit.

"I see delayed Fire Blasts..." thought Whitebeard as he blocked and deflected the swarm of attacking fireballs with his fists, "He is using Observation Haki to carefully place his attacks where I am going to move."

"That's a skillful technique you got, snot nose." Whitebeard complimented with a grunt as Ace continued the barrage of flaming attacks.

"Ace, you have been leaning too hard on the part of Haki you are best at, haven't you?" Ace remembered Thatch's words, lessons and his advice on using Haki. "A pitfall of self-study. You got to expand the reach of your abilities and Haki. Armament Haki is not the only Haki to exist."

Ace unleashed a curtain flame to block Whitebeard's line of vision as he recalls Deuce's words when they built Striker to leave the empty island, "We'll we use the coldest flames you can manage, so the flames spin the paddle..."

Ace shrouds his leg and feet in flames and uses it to propel himself into the air with immense force, and creates a wall of flames as a shield, a burning shield he becomes that going to crash into Whitebeard from above.

"No surprise attacks this time...." Ace recalls Whitebeard telling him this one of the duels he always loosed, and used his Observation Haki to read Whitebeard's movements and then used the flames on his feet to propel himself into his opponent with a speed he never reached before.

Ace crashes the shield of flames into Whitebeard right shoulder and it explodes in searing heat wall of flames the shake the entire island, Ace grinned as he landed a hit on Whitebeard, only to feel reverberations and vibrations ringing out in the surrounding air before it cracked and shattered as Whitebeard used his infamous devil fruit power, the Quake-Quake Fruit. The following Shockwaves hit Ace directly, and he unsheathed his Katana before he was sent hurtling across the island and into the air, before he landed skittishly with his Katana unsheathed as he stood a cliff of the now even more shaking island.

Whitebeard felt a searing pain on his shoulder and noticed the blood from the wound of a flying slash of Armament Haki that Ace had unleashed as he was blown away from the shockwave he created with his Tremor-Tremor power.

"Pops..." Marco mutters in stunned disbelief among the crowd before shouting in amazement, "Pops used his Tremor-Tremor power!"

"Heh... Hahahaha!" laughed Ace as he grinned proudly as he felt a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth and his nose bleeding profusely, "How is that! I final got you to use it!"

Whitebeard looked at his palm, which was covered in singes and first-degree burns with a serious expression as he recalls telling Ace, "A flame like that won't even be enough to burn the skin of my palm."

"Honestly," Whitebeard grins with pride at Ace as he chuckles, "He really is a handful!"

"Hehe..." a dazed Ace chuckled as he tittered closely to the edge of the cliff and mutters, "Next time I am going to overcome that ability of yours!"

Ace then passed out and fell into the ocean.

"Hey, he fell into the ocean!" a panicked voice calls out to the others.

"That must be the 100th time," a Whitebeard crew member mutters.

"Yeah, probably..." another agrees with him.

"No..." Deuce tells them with a smile, "That was only his ninety-ninth loss..."

Deuce then dived into the ocean to save Ace.

---

"WHITEBEARD!" shouts a bandaged Ace as he wakes up and jolts upright from his bed in the infirmary.

"Kya!" yelps Tate in surprise as she jumps a foot in the air before scowling at Ace and finished cleaning his bandages.

"No, that is a young lady. Look closely, it's Nurse Tate." Deuce says as he sits in a chair and wrote his novel on his desk that he was given for his role in the ship infirmary.

"Deuce..." Ace mumbles before he realizes with dread, "You are right. Whitebeard beat me again."

Ace swivels his legs over the bed and sits on it and then asked, "You are the one who pulled me out of the sea?"

"Yeah." Deuce said as he looked back at Ace with a grin. "After all, someone forced me into that role."

"Heh..." chuckled Ace before he slumped and become frustrated, "But... Dammit! That's another loss..."

"That was your best fight so far," Deuce says, giving him a pat on the back and an impressed look. "You even made him use his powers."

"Oh, you saw that!" Ace said happily as giddiness and excitement filled his body as he explained his plans. "Wasn't it great?! The plan I thought worked perfectly. But those abilities he has... No matter how hard I try. He got something else..."

Deuce looked at the extremely happy Ace with a glad smile, making Ace pause and ask him.

"What is it?"

"Well... you look like you are having fun," Deuce tells him with an amused smirk. "That's not the face of someone who had been losing repeatedly."

"Uhhh..." Ace breathed out with a confused expression.

"Ah, don't get me wrong. It's not like I blame you or anything." Deuce says as he placed a hand on Ace's shoulder, "Being the man you are, it really fires you up, Doesn't it? Challenging a man you have acknowledged."

Those words drive the hammer home into Ace as he sat there registering Deuce's words before denying them stubbornly.

"What..." sputters Ace vehemently, "He's the enemy, why don't you... QUIT TALKING CRAP!"

With that, Ace stood up with an angry expression while Deuce looked at him with amusement as Ace left the infirmary with a slam of the door.

"Sorry about that Tate." Deuce apologizes to the nurse, who was giggling in the middle of the infirmary. "I would take over for the rest of the night. Go to sleep."

"Oh, thank you! Doctor." Tate said happily and leaves Deuce there writing his novel in silence.

---

After Ace and Tate left, Deuce received an unexpected patient. Lately, he'd been taking on more and more duties from the head ship doctor; routine tasks like stitching up cuts and treating wounds.

"Ah, there you are, Doc. Perfect." Whitebeard said as he entered the infirmary cradling his right shoulder.

"Oh! Great... Master Whitebeard," said Deuce, awkwardly jumbling up his response to the other man out of shock and nerves. Ace was technically Whitebeard's guest, and the Spade Pirates would be considered something like his younger brothers, formally speaking. Deuce's captain was Ace—he couldn't start calling Whitebeard "Pops."

"Don't get all hung up on formalities. I want you to take a look at this," said Whitebeard, as he sat and extended his arm from the coat he wore loosely over his shoulder to reveal his palm, and then revealed his bleeding shoulder.

"You've got a burn on your palm, and a gash on your shoulder." Deuce said with concern, "Do you feel any pain? It doesn't look terrible, but you should probably keep it iced until the pain stops. How did you get it?"

Whitebeard said nothing. Despite having asked the question, Deuce already had a pretty good idea of how it happened.

"Was it Ace?" Deuce asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, it's pathetic... Don't tell anyone about this, Doc." Whitebeard said with a snort.

"Please, don't call me Doc. I'm only a medical student." Deuce said as he washed the afflicted area and treated it to encourage natural healing before stitching the gash on Whitebeard's shoulder.

"Infection is a concern, so keep your hand clean," Deuce warned with him with a tone of doctor.

"Thanks, kid." The old man said as he stood up and headed for the infirmary doorway before turning around and looked at him with a peculiar expression.

"That captain of yours," Whitebeard rumbled out softly.

"Y-yes?" Deuce replied with a quiver.

"He's gotten stronger." Whitebeard said with a chuckle, "I forget how many times we've fought now."

As Whitebeard stood up and smiled, he remembered the one-sided scuffle from today. For the first time, Ace landed a blow with his fiery fists and he responded with the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.

Deuce checked in his memo book to remind himself, "Today was the ninety-ninth time."

"You keep track in a book? Meticulous little snot, aren't ya?" snorted the captain of the Whitebeard Pirates.

"It's just the way I am. He's got one more shot. Will Ace get to you?" Deuce asked. He didn't expect an answer.

"Ah yes, it was only a hundred, huh? That's what Thatch or someone decided." Whitebeard said with a grin before smiling softly, "I don't care if we go to a hundred times or a thousand times. "

"Are you... training Ace?" Deuce asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't expect too much from me, Doc... Gurararara," Whitebeard laughed as he stood up before saying quietly, "I just like the sort of fools who try to tackle the New World. If he wants to stick around, so be it. And I promised his father, though Roger coming back as a ghost was unexpected. What's your captain's goal?"

"Ace wanted to make a name for himself. That's why he's been going after you," Deuce tells him.

"That's what I don't get. If he wants to raise his profile, the Seven Warlords should have been enough. If he wanted to hunt down an Emperor, he could've gone after Red-Hair. Or did he think that coming for the old man would be easiest?" Whitebeard snorts, asking a question that he knew the answer well.

"No. He followed the code with Red-Hair. They had a connection already, it seems. Shanks once saved the life of Ace's little brother." Deuce tells him with a shaking head.

"Ohhh." Whitebeard says as he nods in understanding.

"And Ace had another brother who died. I haven't heard much more beyond that," Deuce said, choosing his words carefully, before explaining what he knew of Ace life, growing up an orphan as Roger's son, and had a profound disdain for the Great Era of Piracy. How he was brought up by a gang of bandits. His brother, who embarked on a journey at sea to fulfill their shared dream of becoming a pirate, was unfortunately swiftly killed by Celestial Dragons.

"Ah, I understand," remarked Whitebeard, scrutinizing the young man he was responsible for. "So that is why he is after me. Roger's boy has a complicated relationship with himself and how he views himself. I see... that fiery boy didn't actually want to be a pirate. I think I understand him a bit better."

"Meaning?" Deuce asked Whitebeard, hoping to glean more about Ace from the old man's wisdom.

"He went to sea to fulfill an oath he took with his brothers. That is all. And then that happened with the Celestial Dragons... It's what continues to burn inside of him." Whitebeard tells Deuce with a faraway look, "That boy sought fame to overcome his deep-seated resentment towards his father. The purpose of becoming a pirate wasn't to be a pirate, but to achieving that fame."

"He refuses to be connected to his father but hates who badmouths Roger." Deuce whispers to Whitebeard with a careful look around before saying, "I think... Ace doesn't even understand who he really is."

"That's true of everyone. Especially when you're young," said Whitebeard. "The only ones who thought they know themselves are idiots who fancied themselves clever, and older adults who'd given up on finding themselves."

"Being here on the ship and providing medical care, I've started to realize something." Deuce tells him with a look of shame, "I gave up on medical school and went to sea as just to make my parents, who are doctors. It might be a stupid reason, but-"

"That ain't true. Parents can be a major issue for anyone, for any reason." Whitebeard interrupts with sighs as he remembered his years on sphinx island as an orphan.

"I met Ace, I met other companions, and I made it here." Deuce tells Whitebeard with a face of mixed feelings of admiration and shame, "That's all thanks to Ace. But all I've been doing is chasing after the sights that Ace has been showing me places that I would never reach on my own... and you..."

"You got a lot of complicated thoughts in your head, Doc... Gurararara," laughed Whitebeard. But he seemed to understand what Deuce was thinking.

"I ain't a wall, or anything of the sort. I can't take care of ya to that extent." Whitebeard tells Deuce as he stands up.

"I'm sorry." Deuce apologized for bringing up such a heavy topic. "I Can't tell who's helping care for whom at this rate. I just want to help Ace and be there for him... Just like he was for us."

"Listen, Doc. A wall's something you build in your own heart. People can only change themselves into who they want to be," Whitebeard tells him with a soft grin as he left the infirmary.

---

Ace's stomach rumbled, demanding for food as Ace walked across the Moby Ship deck.

"That traitor Deuce..." Ace thought with a frown, "He's wavering... Acknowledged? Psh! Who said anything about that!"

"Pops, you are overdoing it..." Ace heard Thatch's worried voice and stops in alarm as he hears the conversation at the walls of Whitebeard's room and cabin.

"I know I am the one who trained Ace..." Thatch says to Whitebeard before protesting "But fighting Ace at his current level day after day... That is too much for you."

"Are you asking me to stop fighting him..." asked Whitebeard before snapping at Thatch, "Quit talking nonsense. This isn't a fight, you can just stop."

"But..." said Thatch with a plea in his voice, "Although the medicine is giving you some relief. Your condition is getting worse."

Ace eyes widen in shock and surprise in response to that, and clenched his fist as he began to feel guilt.

"People's golden days don't last forever, Thatch." Whitebeard said softly to the chef before he grinned, "Could you really call me your Pops if I can't let a brilliant youngster cut their teeth against me! Whether it's the hundredth or the thousandth, I won't back down from his challenge! If I did, that reckless kid would rush off to his death somewhere, and that is not happening under my watch."

Stunned by those words, Ace turned away and looked at the starry sky, a rare sight because of the usual stormy clouds in the new world at night, feeling touched by Whitebeard words Ace recalled the words when they met on the battlefield, "It'd be a shame if you died here, kid. If you still want to wreak havoc on this sea, bear my name on your back and go wild as much as you like...! Become my son!"

"Wipe those tears Thatch..." Whitebeard told him in a fatherly tone, "Son... I won't die until my time has come, and that is the new age."

---

(Eight Days Later)

Become my son.

Whitebeard had extended his hand to Ace after the younger pirate tried to kill him. It was the way of the pirate life. The commanders of Whitebeard's various divisions had all shared ritual cups with him, making them father and sons. The captains of the various prominent crews under Whitebeard's umbrella had shared cups with Whitebeard or one of his commanders, making them brothers or kin as well. That was why everyone in the Whitebeard family called Edward Newgate "Pops."

The World Government ruled through a legal and judicial system. The pirate world was connected through a system of flags and ritual cups. And the person at the top of the pirating world was no mere destroyer. Ace found himself thinking often of the young girls who had brought them flowers. The Four Emperors of the sea were called that because they created their own little empires within the territory. They controlled a fact that Ace gradually came to understand as he traveled around Whitebeard's territory and fought on his ship.

"Become my son." The words echoed in Ace's head.

Father and son cups. In a literal sense, it meant becoming his subordinate, but to Whitebeard it meant literally. To Ace, being the son of Roger, the idea that anyone would choose to say "I will make you my son." came as nothing less than a total shock. Even if Whitebeard didn't actually know Ace's background back then, and now he did and still did not care about the fact he was Roger's son and still wanted him as a son.

"And what would happen to that offer of cups if I told him?" Ace grumbled to himself, sitting on the gunwale.

He hadn't ever really thought about how Whitebeard might have felt about Roger. The stories told that they were rivals... but they were pretty chummy when the ghost of his parents came on the ship, with the ghost of Naruto three weeks back.

"... and that's why Thatch ain't coming," said Teach, snapping Ace out of his stupor.

They were on a speedy midsize ship, sailing alone, without Whitebeard's flag overhead, on a secret mission to quell a trouble on an island before it become too big.

"Huh? Why isn't Thatch coming?" Ace asked in surprise as he looks around for the familiar chef.

"Do I need to loosen your jaw to make you listen? Huh?" Teach threatened before calming himself down and laughed, "Zehahahaha! We're on our way to an island! And we're gonna take care of the scumbag who dared to disrespect Pops's flag! We gotta beat some lessons into his thick skull about the pirate's honor code!"

"And it's up to me to perform that punishment," Ace dully said with a sigh.

"Zehahahaha... That's why Thatch ain't coming." Teach said with a laugh, "Pops, put this one on your shoulders, Ace."

It was in order to take a measure of who Ace was, Teach was there to observe and report back on his performance to Whitebeard and Thatch. A very simple arrangement.

An island was visible ahead. It was night—a black curtain spanning the sky overhead, sprinkled with dots of light that were the stars. And glittering off of the black water below was the reflection of bright lights like fishing lures. The town was a big one.

They were on the outskirts of Whitebeard's territory. There was a problem on this island that could not be ignored. Whitebeard had dispatched Ace to take care of it. And the price he would pay was their duel. The hundredth confrontation, and most likely the last...

"All right, people, listen up," Ace said to the pirates who were mostly composed of subordinates' crews railing under Whitebeard's flag. "This operation's under my command: Portgas D. Ace. But I ain't a captain of a subordinate crew or a division leader of the Whitebeards. Heck, I'm not even in the Whitebeard Pirates. Some of you might not like that. If you've got a problem with following my orders, remove yourself from the mission now."

His speech had the pirates eyeing one another. But this was all on their Pops's orders, so no one raised any complaints. They wanted to see what he could do.

"Then let's go. Wallace, Banshee," he said, calling two of his Spade Pirates.

"Captain Ace," Wallace said with a nod.

"You sure you want me?" said Banshee hesitantly.

"This was Deuce's idea." Ace tells them a sigh before grinning at them, "We could simply raid the place, but I don't wanna just follow orders, do you? I'm gonna check out the scene first. Help me do that."

---

-Port Chibaralta-

There were many ships moored at the dock of the bustling town that was Port Chibaralta. It was a place full of taverns and pleasure halls, a town that indulged all of a sailor's desires. And not just pirates, but the crews of passenger ships and Marines vessels as well—a place where the payment for completing a dangerous voyage could be spent within a week on booze and women. But such men would never advance from the position of deckhand for the rest of their lives.

This night was the annual Festival of Thanks.

The entire town was lit up with bright and garish decorations. Tourists wore whatever costumes they fancied, and adults and children headed out onto the streets. Photographers offered their services here and there. The roads were lined with merchants hawking all kinds of wares, and every store was packed. It was a vivid example of how money makes the world go round—in both legitimate and illegitimate ways...

"Hey, what's this glass of suds you're selling? Piss?!"

Here in a casino, the floor lined with old-fashioned tatami mats, a game of dice was unfolding.

Many sailors, both pirates and Marines alike, came and went from the game. It was an active one, because of the festival. And when the game got lively, trouble tended to follow.

"Dammit, I lost again! Every roll is backfiring on me. I bet it's your doing, you lowlife cheater." A marine growled as he looked at his earnings and salary disappear.

"Even a Marine man shouldn't go accusing people without evidence, Captain," said the man managing the game, attempting to soothe the drunken gamblers.

Swearing and insulting the quality of the refreshments was one thing, but there was no dirtier word than "cheater."

This only put the inebriated Marines captain in a fouler mood and he snarled, "What?!"

Things were getting out of hand. The staff of the gambling den stirred to action and began to prepare for trouble when another man appeared.

"How are you, Captain? Makin' a killing at the game, are we?"

It was... a gorilla.

A figure in a flashy striped suit, rippling muscles... and a gorilla costume mask, to be exact.

"Oh, is that you, Oliva? Your games are the most tightfisted I've ever played. They don't pay out squat!" grumbled the captain to the man in the gorilla mask.

"Ah...you've had too much to drink," said the Olivia, clapping his hands and hissed, "I need you to leave, sir. You're bothering the other guests."

"What?" growled the captain, even angrier at this unexpectedly formal treatment.

"Ahh, and I see here that you've built up quite a tab. Perhaps this would be an excellent opportunity to square up," Olivia said, clenching his fists until the joints popped. There were thick rings of pure gold on all of his fingers. A secretary nearby began to slide beads on an abacus to calculate his receipt. He had been losing tremendously—more than several years' salary for a Marines HQ captain.

"What the hell is this?!" shouted the Marine captain angrily.

"I can see why you're a captain at Marines Headquarters, sir." "You even lose like a real man."

"This is nonsense! I refuse! I won't pay a single berry to the cheaters trying to rip me off!" the Marine growled as his hand hovered over his cutlass.

"Captain... I'm sure you know whose flag flies over this town." Olivia said with a low threating voice.

Right outside of the gambling den, next to the swinging sign that identified it to potential customers, was the flag bearing Whitebeard's skull and bones. That threat intimidated the captain, but his pride willed him back to his feet.

"Whitebeard? Who cares?! I'm a Marine Headquar—brft!"

CRUNCH!

The man's mug of sudsy booze went flying.

Oliva pounded the Marines HQ captain from above. Just one punch sent the captain to the floor, unconscious.

The mark of those heavy rings left an imprint on the captain's cheek. Because of the blow, the bones themselves bent and the side of his face caved in.

Underneath the gorilla mask, the man took off to reveal... a gorilla face. His features looked about 30 percent human and 70 percent gorilla.

"Seize his goods." Olivia ordered coldly before saying gleefully, "Even a Marine Officer can't walk out of my—er, Whitebeard's gambling den without paying out his losses."

Oliva wiped his bloody fist on the captain's cloak, which was embroidered with the word "Justice," and commanded his employees to clean up the bothersome guest.

Two middle-aged women with sagging bellies and heavy makeup approached Oliva and handed him a mid-sized leather bag. It was packed with wrapped stacks of bills.

"Hey, hey, hey-hey-hey!" Oliva cried in rhythm, clapping twice to everyone in the casino. "Apologies for that disgraceful little show! This is the Festival of Thanks and it only comes once a year! It's time to play big or go home, my friends!"

In the casino room's corner was a blonde one-handed man who was making a large profit for himself, laughed to himself, presented his winnings, and all the players and the casino workers blanched as blood drained from their face.

"My winnings are like 50 Million berries..." Naruto tells them with a joyful expression before he felt the room atmosphere and he sighed, "You made my night., unless you betted with money, you really don't have."

Olivia just clapped his hands. "We don't keep that much money in the Casino, but I keep it in my office, follow me."

Naruto knew what was really going on, and was going to act, but before he could he glanced at the Whitebeard Jolly Roger and sighed, "Okay, take me there."

---

In a bar off the main road sat an assortment of fathers who'd sent their families off to march in the costume parade, mixed in with other unremarkable types who weren't taking part in the festivities.

Given the times, idle chatter among people with too much time on their hands always turned to pirates, eventually.

"How many decades ago did Gold Roger die?! Why haven't people moved on from all this King of the Pirates and One Piece stuff already?" said a disheveled, skinny hoodlum, leaning against the counter of the bar as though he were dispensing great wisdom.

"Yeah, Roger was a real low-down lowlife, the worst of the worst," agreed Ace.

Ace had his hat pulled low, and he wore a cloak over his shoulders to disguise himself as a simple wanderer. He was wearing a cheap, flimsy mask that was little more than a fake nose; a cheap trinket he'd purchased from a roadside stand, as though he's just needed something to allow him to take part in the festivities. In fact, the nose had a long mustache attached. Only after he bought it did he realize it was probably supposed to be a Whitebeard mask.

"Oh? You think so too, pal? That's right, it ain't the era of brute strength anymore!" the hoodlum said in a whining voice, "Adventure? Treasure maps? Are those things really worth putting your life in danger?"

"Drink up, pal," said Ace, pouring more booze into the mug of the hoodlum, who was already quite red-faced.

"Thanks for the refill, friend... What were we talking about again?" the hoodlum said cheerfully, with a thankful grin.

"The guy who runs this town," said Ace. He'd picked out the hoodlum in the bustling center of the town, hoping to get the word straight from the street.

"That's Oliva, of course! After the old boss passed away, the kid took over his position." The hoodlum answered him with a grin.

"Yeah, you said that before. What was the old boss like?" Ace asked with a hint of interest.

"Oh, he was... um, an old-fashioned pirate, in all the good and bad ways. When he forged ties with Whitebeard and brought prosperity to Port Chibaralta, that was great." The hoodlum said before his voice become sour and bitter, "But he was real big on rules. Don't do this, don't do that, blah blah blah."

"Certain things are taboo in Whitebeard's territory. Like drugs," Ace tells him with a voice that betrayed no emotions before he added, "And slaves."

"People and ships come through Port Chibaralta all the time. Money changes hands here every second of the day. Casinos, fights, concerts, all manner of entertainment..." said the hoodlum as he explained things to Ace, "Even a little bar like this one does a lot of business. But the old boss outlawed all buying and selling of slaves in this town, in exchange for the protection of Whitebeard's flag,"

Now that he was drunk, he was a complaining machine, and began to tell his life story. Apparently, he'd previously been a successful broker for slavers, but now he was reduced to small-time jobs to get by.

Ace pressed further to get more information about the island, and he learned that Port Chibaralta's fortune was built upon the profits generated by gambling and entertainment at the port. The bars and taverns, hotels, shipbuilders, public markets... all of them fell under Oliva's racket. And by paying a portion of that up to Whitebeard, he received the protection of a flag backed by tens of thousands of soldiers. And the World Government and Marines had no control there. They couldn't interfere. Marine ships stopped at the port from time to time, of course, but it was always handled with hush money under the table; each side, trying not to cause trouble with the other. Though of course, given their position as the attack dogs of the government, the Marines were always looking for a chance to carve up the Four Emperors' territory and weaken their stranglehold on the New World...

"See, there's so much money rolling through this port!" the hoodlum said proudly, "So when Oliva took over, he started to reform the old ways and loosen those regulations!"

"Yeah, that's what I wanted to ask about," said Ace. He looked around carefully and brought out a picture.

The hoodlum held his breath. "Hey pal, that's a mermaid!"

It was a picture of a young mermaid—along with a single mermaid scale, still fresh.

"You bet. One of the girls who used to be a hit attraction at the Mermaid Café."

"You mean," the hoodlum gasped, his voice a whisper now, "you've got a young mermaid?"

He couldn't hide his excitement. The only people legal to sell as slaves were criminals like pirates, and residents of countries who were not members of the World Government. A slave's price could vary quite a lot by race and sex, but young mermaids were some of the most valuable, worth up to tens of millions of berries. If you put one on auction at the Sabaody Archipelago, a Celestial Dragon was likely to push up the price as high as necessary to win.

"Yeah, and I'm not sure how to sell her off. I heard some stories about this place, so I came here. See, I'm technically under Whitebeard's care at the moment. I don't want to do anything that breaks his moral code, but-"

"Moral code, shmoral code! Whitebeard's just another stupid pirate." Snapped the hoodlum as he began to start a drunk rant. "What makes him any different from hooligans like us? He steals, and pillages, and kills... and kills and kills and kills until he stands atop all the other villains in the world. And then he wants to get on his high horse and say 'Don't sell slaves'? What a hypocrite! All of us live by taking things from one another! Pirates take lives! And slavers take freedom... So what's the difference?"

Ace fixed the hoodlum with a hard stare, despite the stares they were getting right now.

"Let's say, hypothetically... that my mermaid got away without me knowing, and got sold to someone else. That's not my fault, right?" Ace says.

"Nope. Not your fault at all, friend."

"I can go fifty-fifty. I just want her off my hands," Ace said, laying out the bait.

"Seventy-thirty." Counteroffered the hoodlum.

"Don't get greedy." Ace tells him with a frown.

"Who's the greedy one? I'm the guy sticking his neck out." The hoodlum protested.

"Fine, fine... When you see her in person, your eyes'll pop out," Ace said, sticking the photo and scale into the hoodlum's pocket.

The photo was one that Ace's crew took at the Mermaid Café on Fish-Man Island. And the scale was from a mermaid he knew.

"Oooh, that nice, huh? You haven't been messing with her at all, right?" whispered the hoodlum before saying, "Well, Oliva will decide the price, anyway."

"And when can I meet this Oliva guy?" Ace drawled.

"Tonight's the Festival of Thanks; it's a once-a-year business opportunity, and Oliva's a busy man. But a mermaid will change the dynamic entirely. Just you wait, I'll put in the good word for you!" said the hoodlum ingratiatingly, and rushed off to speak with his boss.

Ace grinned as he then calls into his mini den-den mushi and says, "The trap has been set."

---

Naruto's grin stretched across his face as he took in the lavishness of Olivia's office, his curiosity sparked by the extravagant surroundings. He had walked into the lion's den willingly, fully aware of the risks but undeterred in his quest for answers. As Olivia turned his attention to Naruto, the atmosphere crackled with an unspoken tension, each man sizing the other up with a mix of curiosity and suspicion.

Naruto had been here for three days already, thanks to Kuma landing him on the beach in his one of his bubble paws.

"Wait a moment as my men get the money from my vault," Olivia remarked, his gaze lingering on Naruto with a hint of intrigue. "Have a seat. Can I get anything else?"

Naruto's smile remained firmly in place as he stepped further into the room, his demeanor relaxed yet alert and sat in the lavish chair made out leopard skin and told him, "Not really, unless you can get me a direct ticket into north blue."

"That is frankly an impossible task for most..." Olivia said with a grunt as he lit a cigar and puffed on it, "I can ask some marines to pull a favor in for the right price... but it's going to be expensive. What made you come to Port Chibaralta?"

"Just passing through, thought I'd see what all the fuss is about in Port Chibaralta," he replied casually, his tone belying the gravity of his intentions. "Heard your name mentioned more than a few times. I wanted your attention, so I win a prize big enough to get your attention."

Olivia's lips curved into a knowing smile; his eyes gleaming with interest. "Well, you've certainly caught my attention, Naruto," he said, his voice smooth and measured. "So, what do you want?"

"A drink for now would be good." Naruto tells him with a smirk, "I can collect my winnings later. Meanwhile, get rid of your men outside the room. I mean no harm. I just want to ask you some questions."

The tranquility of the office shattered as the door exploded inward, gunmen flooding into the room with guns blazing. Their pistols and rifles spat lead and iron, filling the air with a cacophony of deafening gunfire. But Naruto was already moving, his instincts kicking into overdrive as he danced between the flying bullets.

With each step, Naruto dodged and weaved, his movements become a blur of speed and precision. Bullets whizzed past him, tearing through the expensive furnishings of the room. But Naruto remained unfazed, his focus razor-sharp as he zeroed in on his attackers.

As Naruto closed on the gunmen, his muscles coiled like a spring, ready to snap. With lightning-fast reflexes, he reached out and snatched a bullet out of the air, the metal hot against his palm. With a savage grin, he flicked it back at his assailants; the projectile tearing through flesh and bone with sickening precision.

The gunmen screamed in agony as Naruto descended upon them like a vengeful demon, with a singular raised fist that turned into a blur of motion as he delivered bone-crushing blows with ruthless efficiency. Blood sprayed across the room in crimson arcs, mixing with the stench of gunpowder and death as their heads were caved in by Naruto punches.

With each strike, Naruto reveled in the raw brutality of combat. His senses heightened to a fever pitch as adrenaline surged through his veins. The gunmen fought back with desperate fury, but they were no match for Naruto's skill and ferocity.

One by one, they fell before him, their bodies broken and lifeless as Naruto stood amidst the carnage, his chest heaving with exertion. Blood dripped from his left hand, staining the pristine floor in dark, glistening pools.

As the echoes of gunfire faded into silence, Naruto turned to face Olivia, his eyes burning with a primal intensity.

"Looks like your guards were up to the task of dying," Naruto growled, his voice dripping with contempt and sarcasm.

Olivia's expression remained stoic, but there was a glint of fear in his eyes as he regarded Naruto. "You may have defeated my men," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "But you will never defeat me."

Sporting a chilly smile, Naruto moved towards Olivia, keeping his left hand close to his Nidai Kitetsu.

As Olivia lunged forward with a desperate punch that was extremely slow in Naruto's eyes with a swift, fluid motion, Naruto drew his cursed sword from its sheath, the blade gleaming in the dim light of the office. In one seamless movement, he parried Olivia's attack and countered it with a devastating stroke of his own.

The razor-sharp edge of Naruto's Nidai Kitetsu sliced through the air with deadly precision, its trajectory guided by years of honed skill and instinct. With a sickening crunch, the blade connected with Olivia's outstretched hand, cleaving through flesh and bone with brutal efficiency.

A spray of blood erupted from Olivia's hand as several of his fingers were severed clean off, the digits tumbling to the ground in a grotesque cascade. Olivia let out a guttural scream of pain, his face contorted in agony as he stumbled backward, clutching his maimed hand to his chest.

"Wait till I tell Whitebeard about this!" shrieked Oliva as he whimpered on the floor.

Naruto's expression remained impassive as he regarded his wounded enemy, his grip tightening on the hilt of his Katana and said coolly, "I didn't just cut your fingers for this... I just want to ask why are you using this harbor to distribute drugs and slaves when you fly Whitebeard flag for protection."

"How..." Olivia asked with a shocked tone, "How did you know?"

"Your father shared cups with Whitebeard for the flag protection." Naruto said, ignoring Olivia whimpers and question before snapping at him angrily, "Back in Wano, and the Yakuza in my world, this transgression would have cost you a couple of your fingers if you did not want your life to be forfeit!"

Naruto then tells him, "The only reason I know is because I was here and you were not sloppy. I already sent word to Whitebeard about your actions. I just took the initiative to stop your crimes before they harm any more innocents.".

---

(Three Days Ago)

-Port Chibaralta-

Naruto landed on the beach inside a paw-shaped bubble created by Kuma's Devil Fruit ability. Which popped immediately as it touched the sand. Stepping out onto the sand, Naruto noticed the paw imprint left behind before focusing on his surroundings as he shouldered his belongings.

"Naruto..."

Immediately Naruto's eyes widen as he was in his mindscape and looking at an extremely exhausted Kurama who was bleary-eyed and looking like had not slept for thousands of years.

"Kurama..." a shocked Naruto said as before he looked at the other tailed beasts, and to his disappointment, they were still sleeping.

Kurama huffed out a sigh of annoyance and relief and then gave him a tired glare as he said, "You are looking pathetic there, Naruto, what happened to your arm?"

Naruto was about to explain but he was cut off by Kurama saying, "Listen Naruto... I don't have much time before I go back to sleep again."

A look of understanding crossed Naruto before he said seriously, "Go ahead, I just missed hearing your voice after so long."

"When you died..." Kurama said with a glare, "We were going to dissipate into nothing and our souls would have been freed from our chakra. Expect that didn't happen because of our intervention of keeping your body in a state between life and death with our combined chakra. The effort was tiring, and delayed our awakening."

"I already know that..." Naruto said to Kurama with a nod.

"Good, but this isn't the reason I am talking to you right now," Kurama said with a tired huff. "I need to teach you something else."

"Teach me what?" Naruto asked him.

"Exchange..." Kurama said before his voice become heavy with warning, "and Baryon... No, that will come later when I wake up. Okay, so here is Exchange."

Suddenly, Naruto lost half of his chakra in his reserves and felt it flowing into Kurama before he felt a small portion of Kurama chakra entered his chakra network. The amount of chakra he lost was much more than he gained, but Kurama chakra was more potent, stronger, and denser than him.

"We trade our chakra..." Kurama said with a heavy yawn, "Our chakra doesn't have the same value... so I need to take much more chakra to give you an equal value for my chakra. With this, you can access our abilities, but I heed you to use this sparingly. There are more drawbacks than benefits when using exchange."

"Like what?" Naruto asked him with a frown.

"It delays our awakening and if you are not careful when you exchange our chakra and make them collide you can accidentally trigger Baryon Mode and that can potentially kill you and all of us." Kurama as he closed his eyes before giving Naruto a warning, "Be Careful Naruto, that island is filled with a huge amount of negative emotions."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked Kurama, only for Kurama to not respond as he went back to sleep in a comatose state.

Exiting his mindscape, Naruto found himself back on the beach of Port Chibaralta island. Naruto let out a deep sigh before tapping into the power of the Kurama chakra. As he did, his entire body became enveloped in a vibrant golden chakra that resembled golden flames and the chakra formed two wispy horns on top head, six magatama markings around his neck, a swirling symbol that looked similar to the Uzumaki crest over his stomach, and various other lines extending along his body that was wreathed with the golden chakra.

It lasted less than 20 seconds before the golden chakra shroud dissipated, but it was enough for him to sense every negative emotion on the island and it disgusted Naruto to his core.

---

"Do you know what I found?" Naruto said with a look of extreme disgust, as he looked at the island, "Smuggling rings filled with slaves who had been sold and not fed well. Children were there too. Drugs too."

Suddenly, a person burst into the office shouting, "Sir! I found a person willing to sell us a young live mermaid!"

Naruto deadpanned at him before he kicked a chair in the idiot direction and it knocked him out, before staring at Olivia and told him, "Now I don't want to torture you but I need your off-the-record books."

Olivia took one look at Naruto's face before he caved in and blabbed something about the hidden compartment in his desk, which Naruto found pretty easily.

Naruto scanned and flipped through the book and frowned heavily and thought, "This stuff goes pretty deep and reaches pretty far to the North Blue."

A shadow clone dispelled itself and its information turned Naruto's frown into a smile. "Ace is on the island! Whitebeard must have sent him."

Naruto grabbed Olivia by the collar and grabbed the gorilla man who was squealing like a pig and disappeared with him in a burst of speed before suddenly returning with Oliva and snapped at him, "Every piece of money that is dirty and what you owe me, hand it over to me."

When Olivia didn't respond, Naruto slapped him and he hurried over to do what Naruto ordered him. Only for a middle-aged woman with heavy makeup and a secretary to come in and take one look and faint at the sight of the broken bodies.

Naruto sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he found more accomplices in Olivia's crimes.

---

It was late at night. There was a large circus tent set up in an open space some distance from the center of Port Chibaralta. During the day, it was a popular tourist attraction for families, but it was closed now, without a soul around. Until a figure appeared on the darkened path, pulling a cart. The cart contained some very large wooden boxes. There were shackles on the ankles of the man pulling it. Behind the cart were more men in chains, carrying heavy boxes of their own.

Ace led the cart and its procession through the entrance to the circus tent and into the rear area where the hoodlum from earlier awaited. Ace looked at his cargo. The man who pulled the cart fell to his knees with exhaustion. One box on the cart had the word MERMAID written on the top for easy identification.

The funny thing, it all a pretend, this was all an elaborate scheme that Deuce came up for Ace, so he trick Oliva into revealing his traitorous nature and how deep he went.

Suddenly, a beaten up man dressed in a flashy striped suit was dropped right in front of Ace's feet. He was darkly tanned, with a sharply defined undercut. From thumb to pinky, his right hands were covered with rings, but his left was still bleeding profusely.

"Wish the circumstances are better but it is nice to run into you here Ace." A very familiar voice said to Ace as the owner of the voice emerged from the shadows.

"Naruto?" Ace gasped before a huge smile formed on his face. He let out a whoop of delight. "What are you doing here?"

A grinning Naruto accompanied by three other shadow clones, each carrying something, a middle-aged woman, a secretary and a bag that seemed to be filled with money, valuables, and gold.

"Deuce's plan didn't account for something like this..." Ace sighed as he felt like his vice captain got his plan wasted.

"Deuce plan... Oh, I get it. This is a good one. You were going to set up a sale so you can find where the slaves were going to be hidden." Naruto said with an impressed nod before he said, "You probably didn't need my intervention then."

"I won't tell you where I hid them!" Olivia shouted at Naruto and Naruto just kicked him.

"I already got what I need from you. Be thankful I didn't kill you yet. That's Whitebeard's job. You wrote every dirty deal in here. And where you kept your slaves. But this is where you keep your favorites." Naruto said to him as he rapped the black book that held the records of all slaves and drugs that had been bought and sold in this port, "Bastard was also willing to sell the island to the World Government."

A stunned silence filled the space before intense anger and dislike by everyone on Ace's side was filled in by Olivia's actions. Naruto then beckoned the secretary to enter the tent, where walked over to a switch on a tent-pole and flipped it. The lights inside the tent turned on.

Ace gasped. A mountain of metal cages surrounded them. A circus was a wild animal show, after all. There were lions, bears, even elephants in these cages. And among the animals were human slaves. And other races as well. Some of them shrank away in fear at the sight of Oliva, others were as still as the dead, and a few slammed the metal bars in fury.

"He was keeping a part of his slaves in the circus..." Naruto mutters in disgust.

It was a sickening sight for Ace. When he thought about the slave trade, he first thought was the Celestial Dragons, not a circus.

"It's a traveling circus, you see." Naruto tells them with a frown, "When you've got this many cages, no one really seems to pay any heed to the fact that there are a few slaves mixed among them.

"Say...you one of Whitebeard's men?" Olivia asked Ace.

"Nope," said Ace. "I'm not Whitebeard's, but I know his code. There's no slave trade under his flag. I can turn a blind eye to everything you've been doing. Just fold up this tent, come clean to Whitebeard, and apologize. The old man would probably exile you from his territory, though."

"If you ain't one of Whitebeard's men, then why are you doing his dirty work for him?" snarled Olivia at Ace and Naruto.

"I've been eating his food." Ace said with a sigh.

"And I can't turn a blind eye to something like this," Naruto said with a sigh.

"And I've got to work to pay for my meals." Ace told him as Naruto laughed at those words before nodding.

"Why don't you come and eat on my dime, then?" Olivia offered Ace with a smile, "There's a festival tonight. Or are you thinking my food's not good enough for you?"

Ace just rolled his eyes and told him, "You-"

"Hold on, I just want to see how deep he is going to dig his own grave." Naruto whispered to Ace, "This guy is pretty stupid that he doesn't know that he already lost. We already got a written confession. Now we will just get a public one with a lot of witnesses."

"There are three other emperors aside from Whitebeard, you know? In fact, you don't even gotta fixate on the Jolly Roger at all." Olivia said before fixating on Naruto and Ace, "There are corrupt countries, dirty Marine officers looking for side business, and even Celestial Dragons!"

"Oh, I see now..." said Ace with a heavy frown, "You sold the territory to the World Government."

"Technically, I've been in talks with the government to see if I could throw away the ritual cups from Whitebeard," Olivia snarled at them.

It was hard to believe. But this was indeed the source of Oliva's confidence. At the very least, this was what led him to act this way. He was selling out the ritual oath his own father made with Whitebeard to someone else...

"If you've got a cup from someone, then that means you follow a parent. Your old man received a cup from Whitebeard." Ace said with a frown, "So as his heir, that means that symbolically speaking, your father's father is Whitebeard. And now you're throwing that ritual cup for the world government? You know that's—"

"That's a serious offense." A voice suddenly said.

There was a positively crackling energy in the air. As the voice emerged from the wooden box, all the caged animals stirred uneasily. The cart trembled, and then its wheels abruptly burst off.

CRAKCRAKCRAKCRAK

An enormous creature emerged, breaking out of the wooden box from the inside.

"A bear?!" cried Olivia.

"No, man, that's obviously a festival mask," Ace sighed as he looked at Teach, who wore a bear mask as part of a costume,

"Hey, you little brat! You really gonna waste the cup you received from Whitebeard?" Teach snapped angrily at Olivia.

"Did you have to destroy that crate..." Ace tells him with a frown, "Everything is already over."

"What?" said Teach, turning atop the broken cart to look at Ace with a fiery desire to fight. "Why? I mean, why not? It was, uh, whaddaya call it..."

They knew where the slaves were being kept, and they knew what Oliva was up to. Now was the time to set things straight.

Wallace and the other pirates who had pulled the cart in removed their own shackles and picked up weapons hidden inside the boxes. Meanwhile, Oliva's forces rushed into the tent from the outside.

Banshee removed her own shackles too and threw him aside so she could get back to Ace. The pirates surrounded Oliva, and Oliva's troops surrounded the pirates.

"Oh, we're making a killing tonight." Olivia laughed as he ran towards his troops. "You were setting a trap for me from the start! Very bold move... but I've got hundreds of armed men out there, with more arriving by the minute. No matter how strong you no one can deal with a thousand mercenaries."

"I don't care how many hundreds you have," snarled Ace as he felt all the weak mercenaries outside with his Observation Haki.

"Without a flag for them to fly over their heads, they're all a worthless rabble... Zehahahaha!" Teach laughed. He was ready to let loose with his fists at any moment.

But it was Ace who gave the final notice. "So, Oliva... You're not going to apologize, then?"

"Why the hell would I be the one to apologize?! I'm gonna tie weights to all your feet and toss ya into the depths! Hey, you... go and unleash the secret weapon!" Oliva commanded. His secretary rushed away and pulled a lever on one of the cages.

Clank! The heavy lock on the massive cage clicked and opened.

BRRRRMMMM...

A black shadow rushed forward, quicker than most people expected. There was a massive impact, and Ace was thrown clear through the tent fabric and into the night. Ace traced a burning line through the sky, his body already halfway turned to fire, and recovered his balance in time to land on his feet.

"What was that?!" Ace exclaimed as he looked back at the tent in shock.

"That's an entelodont! A hell-pig!" roared Oliva's underlings.

"Get them! That beast will attack and devour anything it sees! It's a carnivorous pig!" another underling said, before telling the others. "We're supposed to be shipping that one to Impel Down! To it, humans are just a meal!"

Ace stared at the entelodont. In terms of size, it was about the equal of a rhinoceros. It was porcine and looked like a warthog, with long tusks and sharp teeth.

"Aaaagh! Don't run at us!" screamed Oliva's men, as the entelodont began to charge in their direction.

"Serves you right, you idiots," muttered Ace, putting himself into the path of the charging beast.

Ace extended his palm toward the entelodont and attempted to subdue it. His Conqueror Haki flared, making the pig abruptly stopped short in its charge. The bristling, snarling beast suddenly calmed, as though under a magic spell. It sat down on the ground and looked at Ace with eyes that were bigger and cuter than they had initially seemed.

"Whoa, whoa... Heh, why am I saying that? You're not a horse. What are you supposed to say to calm down a pig? I guess it doesn't matter," Ace said as he rubbed the snout of the now tame entelodont.

"I guess they were poachers, or wild game hunters. We met our wildcat Kotatsu when it was caught in a hunter's trap in the forest. I guess they had you in a cage so they could sell you to someone else," he said, reminiscing about how his crew came together.

Oliva's soldiers were stunned at the sight of the young man with the nose mask who had just tamed the ferocious monster.

Ace glared at them. He didn't bother to hide his distaste for those men.

"You know... I don't like people who do that sort of thing." Ace said as he removed his fake nose and let the fire wreathe his hand.

"Aieeeee!" one man shrieked as he recognized Ace.

"Is that... F-Fire Fist?!" stammered another.

It was only a matter of seconds. The result was total annihilation. Ace used his Conqueror Haki to knock out those of Oliva's troops who were outside the tent, breaking their will to fight. Then he looked toward the circus tent and saw it was swaying and heavy, "Oh no! Teach!"

Inside the tent was a horror scene. Bodies lay everywhere, victims of a disaster that felled them with overwhelming power. Naruto just stood there in the tent's corner watching Teach with morbid fascination.

Everyone on the, including the secretary and the older woman, had been seemingly attacked by Teach. Even the iron support pillars were leaning askew from Teach's punches and blows.

"Zehahahaha..." Teach laugh echoed around the tent as he towered over Olivia.

"Makin'...a... killing..." gasped Oliva, who was on his last legs. He had some confidence in his own skill as a fighter. But him against Teach was truly a battle between a giant bear and a tiny monkey.

"I'm not in a friendly mood right now." Teach's fingertips squeezed that held enough strength that could crush a human neck like an apple.

"Urg... ghl..." Olivia croaked out as he struggled to remove the death grip on his neck, failing because of his missing fingers.

"What was that you were saying? The end of the era of strength? Was that it? Zehahahaha!" Teach laughs at the face of the struggling Oliva.

"Gonna make a killing... starting with...you..." Oliva said as managed to point his pistol at Teach.

"Zehahahaha! Remember this!" Teach said with a savage grin.

BAM!

Teach slammed Oliva's body to the floor and tells him with a jeered at him, "All you do is talk."

Oliva's entire body twitched and shuddered, driven entirely through the stage below. Teach's hand clenched harder around the man's neck.

"Would be cruel to only leave you half-dead..." Teach said as he savagely Oliva pounded right through the floor again.

"That's it, Teach! We're done! Stop!" shouted Ace, intervening at last as he saw Teach was taking things too far.

"Ace..." said Banshee with a horrified expression.

"Captain Ace..." added Wallace, both of them looking stunned.

"Zehahahaha, Zehahahaha!" Teach laughed as he grabbed Olivia again and lifted him in the air, ignoring Ace's order.

"That's enough," Ace repeated with a firmer tone.

"I don't think so. This one tried to serve two masters. He broke the code and insulted Pops. There needs to be a reckoning," said Teach with a glint of fury in his eyes as he began choking the life out of Olivia.

"That's true. But while he might have been in the slaving business. He doesn't understand the code. He's just a stupid kid. Allowing him to apologize for what he's done and make things right should be considered." Ace tells Teach calmly.

"Make things right? Not even a kid would expect mercy after disrespecting the flag!" Teach roared as he began to twist Olivia's head off slowly, "See, a flag is like a god! Who's been shedding blood to ensure Whitebeard's flag means what it does? That's right, we have! You gotta understand, money alone ain't gonna win you any wars!"

Ace's hands suddenly lit up with flame. "Right at the start, I said that anyone who didn't want to follow my orders should stay home."

He was dead serious. Teach recognized that, smirked... and released his death grip on Oliva's neck and grinned confidently.

"What did I say earlier? I just got carried away." Teach said as he calmed down and grinned at Ace, "I'm your tester. I've seen what you've done from start to finish. All that's left is for me to tell Pops exactly what I saw."

Teach then laughed as he said, "You did an excellent job, Ace! Don't worry, I only have positive things to tell Pops about you!"

"Oh, really?" Ace asked him as he felt a grin forming on his own face.

"Are you gonna challenge him again when we go back? It ain't easy to get a leg up on others! Zehahahahaha!" Teach laughed as he left the tent as it made a creaking sound. It wasn't going to last long. Ace looked at Naruto, who just sat back and watched everything going on and glared at him.

"Why didn't you intervene?" Ace asked Naruto with a heavy frown.

Naruto just points at the cages and shows him the shadow clones freeing the slaves, animals and tending to them.

"Felt like it was a Whitebeard Pirates business to deal with him when they are here, if you guys weren't here I would have killed Olivia by now," Naruto tells him with before saying, "How can I interfere when I am not officially a pirate yet. Besides, I am not saving scum like them unless they are willing to change."

---

-Moby Dick-

Glancing at Ace, Whitebeard's expression softened, and he let out a hearty laugh. "You are causing trouble again, eh?" he said, his tone a mix of sternness and fondness. "Always keeping things interesting."

Then, with a twinkle in his eye, Whitebeard turned to Naruto. "You've got guts, kid. Join my crew," he said, extending a massive hand in invitation. "You'll be one of my sons, just like Ace here but it still a work in process for him."

Marco, observing the scene with a rueful shake of his head, couldn't help but chuckle at the familiar exchange. Whitebeard had a way of seeing potential in unexpected places.

But Naruto, ever steadfast in his resolve, declined the offer with a respectful bow. "Thank you, Old Man, but I already have a crew waiting for me in North Blue," he explained. "They're missing their captain."

Whitebeard's grizzled face broke into a grin.

"Stubborn brat, I see," he said before shaking his head, "My invite is open... You'll always have a place here."

With a nod of gratitude, Naruto accepted the offer, knowing that he had found allies in unexpected places. Whitebeard may not have called him by his name, but his respect for their strength was clear.

Whitebeard turned his attention to Ace, his gaze piercing yet paternal. "And what about you, Ace?" he inquired, his voice carrying the weight of authority. "When's the next duel?"

Ace met Whitebeard's gaze with determination. "When everyone of my crew that you scattered among the fleet is gathered, along with the subordinate captains and crews under your flag, even Jinbei." he replied confidently. "No matter what the result of the duel is... I want them to witness it."

Whitebeard laughs before he stood up and left for his cabin and Marco followed him.

As they were Ace then tells Naruto, "Hey let me show you around. I bet you heard a lot about Whitebeard and the Moby Dick."

"Yeah..." Naruto tells him with a nod of his head, "I only know a bit about him, from Yamato words, and Oden's tales in the afterlife."

Ace took him in the infirmary, and he knocked on the door.

"Deuce..." Ace says as he enters the room with a grin, "Guess who I met on the Island."

Ace then beckons Naruto to enter the room.

Deuce took one look at Naruto and laughed with delight as he said, "I think my autobiography novel got much more exciting. More exiting than usual!"

Naruto looked around before asking, "Where is the rest of the crew?"

"They are on the other ships of Whitebeard Fleet. Under other division commanders." Deuce answered.

"Ah what happened?" Naruto asked.

"I- we lost to whitebeard..." Ace said with an abashed face before he looked away at the ocean to hide his red face.

Naruto then stares at the sword by Ace's side and said fondly, "I see you have been taking care of Yondai well."

"Yeah, he is stubborn sometime..." Ace snorted before giving Naruto a thankful look, "I couldn't have asked for a better cursed sword."

"Speaking of curses," Naruto mutters as he kicked back and lied on the infirmary bed as his eyes become distant, "I have one hunting me down, I know he and his army will find me one day and when they do... They will come for everything."

"What are you talking about?" Ace asked with a raised eyebrow.

"My origins. My life and death. My tale." Naruto tells with a whisper.

Deuce just dropped his pen and stared at Naruto. "Can I write this down?"

"If you are willing to hear about it." Naruto tells them with a shrug before he laughed, "It may seem fantasy to you but it is very real."

Suddenly, a glowing golden light orb formed and expanded in the middle of the infirmary, reacting immediately. Naruto draws his katana as he felt trace unmistakable chakra that he couldn't recognize.

A masked and hooded person emerged from the golden light holding a turtle; one look at them, Naruto recognized him. This guy was one of the people who raided Egghead when he got resurrected back to life.

"You are," Naruto says with a glare, "Musasabi aren't you?"

"Kurasaki... Did you just send me to the wrong place at the wrong time? You know where I meant to be after I gave her that streaming den-den mushi in Elegia..." growled Musasabi in frustration as he stared at Ace, and Naruto, who were in a fighting stance ready to take action if necessary.

"Apologies," an autonomous voice echoed from the turtle before its shell opened and it began to glow again.

Ace made a move to attack but Deuce stopped him with a yell, "YOU CAN'T DESTROY ANYTHING HERE, ACE! WHITEBEARD DEPENDS ON THIS ROOM FOR THE TREATMENT FOR HIS ILLNESS!"

Naruto stared at Musasabi with an intense expression, "Why the hell are you named after my namesake... Musasabi, that name never existed in my world! It's not in the archives or the records! It's a fictional family name that Pervy Sage made for his main character that was inspired by Nagato! Who are you?"

"Ah... Spoilers are not fun." said Musasabi just let a low chuckle before he told him, "Uzumaki Naruto... in the future, this world will ask a question to you. Will you answer it?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Naruto growled as chakra began to leak out of his body in anger, "I asked you a question! Answer me!"

"I am the same as you," Musasabi says as he brings a book that Naruto is very familiar with.

Naruto's eyes widen at the signed copy of 'The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi', Jiraiya's first book that didn't sell well.

"We share the same namesake, so let's play nice Uzumaki Naruto." said Musasabi as he looked at a stunned Naruto and grinned before disappearing in a flash of golden light along with the turtle

"Who the hell was that?" Ace asked warily as he looked at the spot where Musasabi disappeared.

"I don't know..." Naruto says with a livid expression, "But I know he belongs to some group called Kara. I ran into them once before... but what I don't understand is how did they survive or escape from the Infinite Tsukuyomi?"

Naruto then slumped as he sat down, "First Black Zetsu... now this... what the hell is going on?"

"Can you still share your story with us?" Deuce asked before saying, "If you don't want to do it right now, I am okay with that. But I think this will relive you from what just happened."

"I got nothing better to do right now" Naruto tells them with a sigh before he began recounting the history of his world, "So see long ago on my world, there was a tree- Actually I got something better to do."

Naruto sets up the white den-den mushi that Vegapunk had gave him, and dails in the number he meant to call a couple of weeks ago. Once the otherside of the call was picked up with a confused, "Hello?"

Naruto smiled as he recognized Page One voice and said, "It's me... Sorry for not calling in for a while. Something came up, I am on my way to meet you, might take a week or two for me to reach you."

There was a brief struggle on the other side for a while until someone cleared thier throat and spoke into the microphone of the den-den mushi.

"NARUTO!" a pissed of yell came from the den-den mushi that had mimicked Yamato voice.

"Calm down... I had a very good reason to not call..." Naruto tells before he was cut off by an angry Yamato ranting which stopped midway when she paused and said, "Come back... I miss you. Everyone does..."

"I know, so how have thing been..." Naruto said awkwardly before thanking her, "Thank you for being the responsible one, Yamato. You too Ulti."

"How did you know?" Ulti voice came from the snail mouth.

"I just do..." Naruto says with a smile, "Otherwise I can't call myself your Captain. Can you head south, an island close to the calm belt?"

"We can try, but it will take two weeks." Page One tells him as he answered.

"Where is Tama..." Naruto asked them wondering why she has not spoken to him yet.

"She is asleep... we train her everyday. Her training is mostly consisting of dodging and countering." Yamato tells him before she said, "I don't trust that thing inside of her."

"You mean, Nue?" Naruto said with a frown, "I will deal with him once I come over."

Suddenly there was a huge commotion on the other side and Yamato groaned, "The inn we are staying is very annoying. We been here for four days... and the amount of fights in here is ridiculous, they have to call the royal guards to break up the knights every time they butt heads in here . I will come back, wait for a moment please. You get paid a lot of berries if you stop them from brawling by knocking them out, like 100,000 per fight. Ulti yesterday did it."

Naruto just sat there winced as he heard Yamato manhandling those knights and then tossing them into the streets. Before returning to the den-den mushi and winked at him.

"So where were we at?" Yamato asked Naruto with a smile.

---

A/N: Hello R8handman is here... I have uni exams coming up soon, so here is 17K word chapter for you. So what do you think? Musasabi is someone who has an unknown connections to Naruto. I told you he is not an OC. I will slowly build up the reveal for he really is. For how strong he really is... Nope cant tell you.

So this chapter focused on Ace and Whitebeard, their relationship is very important in this story, as for Naruto's crew and his journey as a pirate by association, that is coming soon. After my exams. As for those who hating on the Boruto part, you need to understand it pretty disrespectful to Kishimoto, this was always meant to be the Naruto part 3, where they explore about the Otususki and Naruto was meant to be the MC, but Kishimoto was too burned out as a mangaka by that point. Boruto is the second attempt of part three. I like Boruto becuase he is not Naruto, and Boruto manga is not disrespecting Naruto nor it's characters and I am writing my fanfic with it. If you think it hurts my story, thats a you problem not me. I just can not start a story arc and leave it unfinished.

Now for Reviews:

gmhribrahimsoleh89 (chapter 4): I thought I fixed that part. I will

gscott529 (chapter 20): Kaido is not getting redeemed at all. I already planned for his glorious end.

Samuel Santillan (chapter 20): The world goverment was not told by Doffy that he was defeated in battle. As for Uta yeah, her story will be pretty important and so will be some of the movies of One Piece.