Disclaimer:Like everybody else in fanfiction, I own nothing. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda.
"Standard" - Normal Speaking
"Italics" - Thoughts
"Bold" Tailed Beasts Speaking and Techniques
-Bold- - Places
- Onigashima -
"THWACK!
"GAH!" Page One grunted as he was sent flying across the mountain roadside surrounding Onigashima, "That Kanabo of yours hurts," Page One groaned as he massaged his aching before hastily picking up the axe dropped when he landed on the roadside.
"Takeru is more blunt than my Father's Hassaikai," Yamato informed Page One as she leaned on her Kanabo club and looked at Page One, "Suck it up, Hassaikai's spikes hurt a lot more than my Takeru's studs."
"You can't compare your father's strength to yours, it's not fair," Ulti frowned as she watched the training spar from the sidelines, "You may have Kaido-sama blood and inherited his raw strength, but it's nothing compared to his,"
"Speaking of Kaido-sama, when will he return?" Page One asked.
"Two months until he returns, this expedition he took on is huge; every officer, All-Star and Tobiroppo, to the sea in a fleet for numerous goals."
"I think we are the strongest ones among those in Onigashima," Ulti said while eyeing the roadside where a group of low-ranked members walked skittishly around them while patrolling the island.
Agreed, Yamato, with a nod, "Yeah, you two improved a lot. You guys are Headliners level in raw strength and speed." Agreed, Yamato, with a nod, "The scariest part is your durability and endurance. You can survive in this crew easily if you don't aim for the higher ranks or make enemies."
A shadow of silence fell on the siblings as they traced back their growth over the past three years.
"Tch, but it's still not enough in my father's eyes," Yamato said before explaining the problem to the siblings. "I mean, Ulti, you can only currently use Armament Haki, while your brother can only use Observation Haki."
"Hey it's not easy to learn or master Haki in this short time." Ulti protested in an angry outburst, "I mean, didn't you say it took 14 years to learn the basics of Haki?"
"Well, I had no help," Yamato said with a bitter chuckle. "Father's training sessions with me were only one-sided beat downs in an attempt to break my spirit like Oden. He only started being nicer to me once you guys showed up."
An uncomfortable atmosphere hangs over the group, broken by Page One bisecting a large rocky boulder with his axe like it was made of butter.
"It's hard to please him if you are not an officer," Page One sighed as he kicked a stray pebble, "I guess Kaido-sama is even harsh on his son."
"Even my current growth in the last three years is a disappointment to him," Yamato said sadly, disappointment tingling her heart. "I don't really know if he loves me like any parent or tolerates me. Because I am his flesh and blood."
Yamato then stopped her pity ramblings, grabbed her Kanabo, and muttered, "Enough with the pity talk… We need to make the most of these two months before they return. Especially Jo-Jotte." Yamato uttered the last part with a distasteful look on her face.
"Oh, right?" Page One remembered before turning at Yamato, "You and Jo-Jotte have this big stint thing going on,"
Yamato just gave him a huff and pretended to be very interested in the rocks that littered the road.
"It's been three years since we met and I don't understand what's between you two." Page One asked Yamato with a contemplating glance, "Sometimes you and her brawl all over Onigashima, other times you just make faces at each other,"
Yamato just bit her lip and looked away.
"Last time, you asked me to order a pig plush under my name, asked Queen to turn it into a bomb and then gave it to her," Ulti said while ticking her fingers as she counted the incidents over the years, "After she tricked you into walking onto your father in the baths."
"My eyes still burn when I remember what I saw," "You missed a day of training because I hid somewhere traumatized," Yamato told them.
"Well, you were brought up in a violent, naïve, sheltered life," Ulti said, shaking her head in pity.
"I will never forgive her for that," Yamato moaned out in frustration. "I just don't want to be near her."
"But Jo-Jotte is kind of nice to you sometimes, and she treats Ulti and me well enough that we don't hate her," Page One says as he gives Yamato a look of pure exasperation.
"That's enough," Yamato warned them with an annoyed expression. "Let's continue with the training."
Ignoring Yamato's request, Ulti continued, "Pay-Pay is not wrong. Remember that time she directed Kaido-Sama away from you after you pissed him until he calmed down?"
THWACK
"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Ulti yelled at Yamato as she rubbed the sore spot on her head before grabbing Yamato and whisking her down to her level.
For her part, Yamato did not resist that and allowed Ulti to pull her down till they were face to face and gave her an annoyed look.
"I can't stand her, and Jo-Jotte knows that I hate owing her favors," Yamato snapped at Ulti before sighing. "We have been at each other's throats since we were fourteen years old, the day when I accidentally told Jack her biggest secret."
Ulti was curious as she asked Yamato, "What's the hell was that secret?"
"Forget it, Ulti," Page One tells his sister before Yamato could answer, "None of us had even found a devil fruit to eat yet. Even you, Yamato, did not get a Devil Fruit. When do you think we will get them?"
"That is one of the reasons my father left for the expedition to find good Devil Fruits for the crew." Yamato explained to them, "Whenever we will get any devil fruits-"
"Yamato-sama," a voice interrupted as it hollered down the roadside. A pirate subordinate was running towards them. In his hand was a Tanashi Snail that carried the design of Orochi's hair and his crown. The snail's looks and expression mirrored the same on the other end of the call.
"Orochi-sama wants to speak to the highest ranked person here," the subordinate explained as he handed the snail to Yamato.
Immediately Yamato yells at the Tanashi Snail, "STAY AWAY!"
The yell ended the conversation before it could start, and soon, the curses and words began flying from the other end. Yamato blatantly hung up the snail, probably ticking Orochi even further and bringing a smile to Yamato's face as she looked at the amused expression of her trainees.
- Kuri: Okagakure (Village Hidden in the Hills) -
In between the green hills of Kuri, a distance away from, lay a village snuggly hidden between the shadows hills, making it very hard to find. The center of the village had a building that served as the headquarters and mansion for Naruto.
In his office, Naruto sneezed and woke up to the rays of dawn hitting his sleeping face.
"Huh…." groaned a waking Naruto as his eyes aimlessly wandered at the paperwork full of bureaucratic work.
Looking out the window, he looked at the dawn shining on the small but growing, bustling hidden village he founded in Kuri.
Not only was he the founder of this hidden village, but he also founded and built three other hidden villages in each region of want. The only land he did not establish a hidden village was in Udon and the Flower Capital, as the villages would have stood out like a sore thumb in those regions.
Only Ringo, Kibi, Hakumai, and Kuri had hidden villages built in them in the last three years that were named; they were hidden and protected through any means. Their location was an essential factor, and so was the multi-purpose barrier that served as camouflage, sensing, and protection from outsiders and enemies.
Naruto took one look at the ever-growing village that he founded and built with the help of his clones. He and Ashura, along with his brigade of thieves, used their experience of turning the once lawless Kuri into a prosperous place by Kozuki Oden. Ashura and his men worked tirelessly with Naruto and his hundreds of shadow clones to build a hidden village, following Naruto's instructions.
Once they were done, skilled carpenters loyal to the Kozuki Clan were brought in by Shinobu and began constructing residential areas. When they were building the residential area, Naruto began to set up the necessary seals for the barriers that would protect the village.
It was powered by a small separated section of the Tenseigan energy vessel from his world moon, each the size of a book compared to the building's main energy vessel.
The main Tenseigan energy vessel remained in a pocket dimension only accessible through a seal Toneri gave him before his death. In contrast, the separated small Tensingan energy vessels used their accumulated chakra to power the village barrier and the mostly autonomous puppets that now served him after Toneri's death.
Speaking of puppets, one was coming right now, carrying a cup of green tea. These puppets helped in security and menial tasks in the mansion. The villagers heard of them and called it sorcery first when they saw bodies move without support.
Other places these puppets were stationed were the sealed lab under his old hut in the current empty Amigasa Village.
"O-Tama should be waking up for school right now," Naruto thought as he drummed his fingers on the short-legged table before taking a sip of the green tea. One of Naruto's first orders was establishing a school in each village to bring the Wano literacy rate back up after being decimated under Orochi's rule. Now the adults in the villages can work without any hindrance from children as the school was teaching taking care of them.
Some men were doing their morning drills and spars as Naruto overturned Orochi's prohibition that banned the use of weapons and all martial-arts dojos to deprive the resistance in the Wano populace. Even in the other villages, old samurai and retainers are training teenagers and men in the way of the sword.
Naruto stood up soberly and muttered in a tired voice, "Another night here again."
Suddenly, his mind recalled last night's events as a flash of movement entered the room.
Naruto then looked at the white puppet who brought him the tea and ordered, "Check on the barrier seals. It's not perfect yet. I plan to update them this week."
The puppet snapped his head in his direction as he issued the command. Then, with a crackle of mechanical limbs, the puppet left the room to convey the order.
There was one glaring flaw with the sensory barrier. People did not possess any trace of chakra or chakra network in this world, just like the average human being in his world in the days before Hagoromo spread his chakra across his followers. Hagoromo and his followers' children inherited the ability to use and mold chakra, and within time, nearly all humans in his previous world had the power to use chakra. So he was the only person to be able to use chakra on this earth. Instead, humans here had a dormant power called Haki, which Wano called Ryou.
It took work to re-modify the seals to pick up people who don't possess the ability to even get chakra. Instead, the seals, now powered by chakra from the Tenseigan orb, picked up the sense of Haki within those people. His Uzumaki heritage and the vast mental library made it possible to create something like this. Still, there were a few kinks to fix.
Speaking of Haki, Naruto drew his sword, the cursed blade of Nidai Kitetsu, closed his eyes, and tried to put his willpower into it. Opening his eyes, Naruto hoped to see the katana turn black. Instead, Naruto slouched in depression as he saw the blade remained the same.
"Three years of training with Shadow clones. With Ashura's advice, I still can't even use one form Haki. So maybe I am not supposed to be able to use Haki or Ryou,"thought Naruto with a depressed outlook as he ran a finger across the flat of the cursed blade.
Naruto remembered his conversation with Yamato three years ago on the rooftops as she told him about Haki and its types. Also, there was a promise he was still in the middle of figuring out.
- (FLASHBACK THREE YEARS AGO) -
-Onigashima: Skull some Rooftop
After briefly introducing the Land of Fire and its similarity to the Land of Wano to Yamato, Naruto asked, "These idiots kept asking me how many Devil Fruit I ate. Swirly marks and patterns on a fruit that gives you power. I have never eaten or seen fruit with that description."
"I guess Wano is really isolated if you don't know what Devil fruits are," Yamato told him before giving him a thoughtful look, "But you just told me you are not from Wano and that you are from someplace called the Land of Fire, don't they have Devil Fruits out there?"
Pinching the bridge of his nose, "Yes, I told you I am from somewhere else. Over there we never heard of devil fruits. Somehow one day I just woke up in the Land of Wano," Naruto said trying to disclose a minimum amount of information about his origins as he thought, "After being sent to a void between dimensions and opening a hole in space-time to get here."
"Because it's boring here," Yamato complained, "I told you I have been stuck here bored with nothing to do until my father handed my two teens to train with."
"I want to visit and explore everything out in the sea as much as I can and that even includes your home," Yamato told him as she looked at the sea, "That is my dream, along with opening Wano borders."
"It's unlikely for me or you to go to my country of origin," Naruto told Yamato with a glazed look over his blue eyes.
"Why?" demanded Yamato, her eyes looking at him sharply.
"Because it no longer exists and its remains are in another world entirely." Naruto thought sardonically before lying to Yamato, "First, I don't know the way back to my home and second I have personal reasons to not return until I am ready."
"Oh, come on!" Yamato complained, "And then what about the legend of those beasts and that sage of something? Are they even real?"
"Oh, they are real, they just live inside of me but in a coma," Naruto thought before telling her, "They are just a legend passed down from my country, to scare the children from not leaving the bed. I never saw any of them, but they say if you piss one of them off, consider your country doomed."
Yamato just gave him a disappointed pout before she stared at the ocean longingly. Then, slowly, she looked at Naruto, who tilted his head as he contemplated something before asking.
"Do you know how to use Haki?"
Naruto shook his head in confusion and told her, "You mentioned it when we fought, I think? But I really don't know to use a thing called Haki."
"Oh, it called Ryou here," Yamato corrected herself, "That the term samurai use in Wano call it, so you should know it too?"
"What's Haki or Ryou?" Naruto asked her with a raised eyebrow. "Is it something important I should know?"
"You don't know what Haki is?" Yamato asked incredulously, "How on earth have you not heard about it?!"
"That's what I am asking. It's my first time hearing about it!" Naruto muttered with a frown.
"Never thought I will have to explain this another time," Yamato said under her breath, "Ulti and Page One were enough."
Yamato clapped her hand, grabbing Naruto's attention, "So Haki is a power that lies dormant in all creatures of the world," Yamato explained, "Presence, Fighting Spirit, and Intimidation are not different from the things humans can naturally perceive. Do you understand?"
"I think understand but I need more to be sure," Naruto tells her with an understanding nod.
"Haki is hard to master, and most people can use two types of Haki…." Yamato trailed off before sighing and rubbing her head, "It is hard for me to put in words,"
Naruto deadpanned and thought, "Maybe I shouldn't have asked someone who was trapped on an island nearly their entire life. Her social skills are pretty low in the interaction part."
Yamato snapped her fingers as she collected her thoughts and gave him a grin. "Got it."
Briefly, her orange eyes turn into a tint of red before the red color fades into orange, "Observation Haki is independent of the body's senses to sense many things. People who can use it, use it to sense intent, emotions, and the presence of other people," Yamato told him before her eyes were hardened. "Also, Observation Haki can measure the Haki of others and their strength."
"I see." Naruto nodded as he thought, "So it's like being a sensory type shinobi, but chakra can only sense chakra, but I wonder what about Haki?" Nodding in thanks, Naruto begins to mold chakra within him and asks Yamato, "Can you sense my chakra within me?"
A confused look flashed over Yamato's face before she asked, "You mean that weird energy inside you? It's called chakra?"
Naruto gave her a silent nod before Yamato closed her eyes and muttered, "I can sense something that's not Haki inside of you, but it's very trick to sense it."
"Well, how about now?" Naruto asked as he willed his chakra to burst out of him. Immediately, dense chakra exploded in shockwaves that surprised Yamato and created small fissures in the surrounding rocks before they cracked.
"Woah, woah, woah, that's enough before someone comes and checks what happens here," warned Yamato with widened eyes.
Naruto immediately calms down his chakra network and asks her, "So could you feel that better?"
"I could feel that amount of that energy even without Haki," Yamato informed him with a hint of wariness as her irises turned red momentarily, "I mean can feel this with my physical senses, I can still feel traces of it in the air with my Haki, it's like your presence being spread over before fading."
"Well, even untrained civilians without chakra can sense a large amount of chakra and even powerful chakra being unleashed," recalled Naruto before making a mental note,"I better be careful when using chakra here."
"The other type is Armament Haki." Yamato's hands and arms briefly glowed before turning gray-black. She then proceeds to softly press on the ground, leaving an imprint of her fists on the hard surface of the skull dome.
"Ashura did that with his blade when I fought him," realized Naruto.
"Coating yourself with Armament Haki or imbuing your weapon provides them with incredible offensive and defensive capabilities." "Notably, this type can be used to injure Devil Fruit users that are otherwise immune to ordinary physical attacks, such as Logia users."
"Logia users?" asked Naruto with a confused face, as he was unfamiliar with the terms.
"People who ate a Logia type, it's a very rare type of Devil Fruit, so there is no need to worry about it," Yamato said with a dismissive wave.
Naruto was about to thank Yamato for what he learned from her when her expression turned serious. "There is another, a third one, and it's very rare," Yamato said.
"It's called Conqueror's Haki. It's a rare form of Haki that allows the user to exert their own willpower over others. Only one in several million people are born with this ability and no amount of training would let you posses this ability," said Yamato before warning Naruto, "Brace yourself."
Naruto nodded before snorting, "I am not weak."
Suddenly the air shifted, and Yamato unleashed a wave of energy that felt the same compared to the tremendous surge of energy from Kaido when he unleashed it in the VIP Room a couple of hours ago after Yamato drew his ire with her outburst. Still, Yamato's Conqueror's Haki seemed much weaker than her father, Kaido.
"That's Conqueror's Haki," Naruto said with a tense voice. "Your Father did it too in the VIP Room."
"So using Haki, what does it require?" Naruto asked while thinking, "It could be a nice backup power for me and I can fight these devil fruit users, if my jutsu does not work on them."
"All the world's creatures are capable of learning Haki through training, except Conqueror's Haki," Yamato informs him. "That's what I was told by my dad."
"Every creature of this world," Naruto thought before scratching his mind mentally, "Well, I am not one of them. Hell, how do I fit into this world as a species?"
Naruto was interrupted from his thoughts by Yamato staring at him with an unreadable expression, "There you have it, I told you about Haki." she told him before glancing at the doors on the rooftop, "I better go back before they start searching for me and it's you should leave, it's best for you not to be captured alive."
Naruto stood up and walked over to the roof's edge before looking at the whirlpools he was swimming through tonight.
"Hey Yamato, can you please keep what happened here a secret," Naruto requested with a tilt of his head.
"Of course, no need to create unnecessary trouble," Yamato said with an understanding nod before a thankful smile. "Well, it was nice to meet you too," Yamato replied with a grateful smile, "And thanks for saving Page One and Ulti."
Recognizing the names, "It was nothing really, well I should be thanking you for your silence, Yamato."
"Oh, I can't say anything about this without getting in trouble, so there." Yamato said with a shrug.
"Still, I will pay you back one day," Naruto promises her as he stared at her shackles.
"Huh? What do you mean by that?"
"I will find a way to free you from this one day, freedom for you and the Land of Wano." explained Naruto as he tapped his wrist, indicating the explosive cuffs that bound Yamato to Onigashima.
"Really?!" Yamato happily cried out, "If you can do it… If you can…."
Yamato's words were cut off by a shudder running through her body as she fell, kneeled and huddled herself. Slowly the shudder turned into a tremble, "Do you… Do you have … any idea how long I waited to hear this from someone…" Yamato hiccuped in a hoarse voice soon, her voice had turned into broken sobs, "I never…. thought someone will…. say this to me …. and from a stranger…. no less."
Naruto gave Yamato space as she cried out years of frustration and said to her, "Hey, I prefer something else than stranger Yamato,"
"Well, what do you prefer?" Yamato asked as she wiped out the tears from her eyes.
"Well, how about a friend," Naruto tells her with a grin.
"Huh? Whatttt!" came the confused squeal from Yamato.
"If you want us to be friends," Naruto said with an embarrassed blush, knowing how cheesy the next line was as he extended his hand for a handshake, "Then I will be your friend, Yamato."
Yamato immediately clasped his hands and whispered to Naruto in an excited voice, "I would love to be your friend."
"Usually when I become friends with someone," Naruto tells her with a chuckle, "It's not in enemy territory or the leader's enemy daughter. But I don't care about that."
"So, were you serious about freeing me?" Yamato asks with a hopeful voice.
"I will free you, Yamato, one way or another." Naruto promised, "You can count on me because I never go back on my word."
Yamato takes a deep breath and tells Naruto, "I will hold on to that promise, Uzumaki Naruto."
"I will see you in a year, if I get invited to this golden festival again?" Naruto says to Yamato with a grin and a two-finger salute before weaving hand signs before disappearing from her sight, replaced by a flurry of leaves.
Exactly three years had passed and in that time, he guarded Komurasiki from her stalkers and unwanted suitors. He built and ran the village in his spare time. If he had free time, he would train on how to use Haki. But he ran into a pretty big problem.
Either Naruto had no Haki, or he just sucked using it. Besides that, Naruto pushed his Haki training to the side when poor but skilled people moved into the village, bringing valuable skills. Restaurants began to open, and commercial trading started between the villages using tunnels Naruto and his clones drilled and excavated through repeated Rasengan and Earth Release Jutsu.
Food sources were not limited as agriculture and water of higher quality were being shared instead of the spoiled food from Official Towns. Still, there was a backup ration for emergencies. As a result, most of Amigasa's villagers become farmers, tilling and working on the soil to provide food to the village and earn a salary from the village.
Hitetsu was visiting Ringo in Shimogakure, the village Hidden among the Frost. Helping the residents forge new blades and sharpen them and using the blades that Onimaru collected from the graves in the cemetery. All for the next battle against Kaido and Orochi.
Shinobu was currently in Hakami talking to the representative assigned to Akigakure:Village Hidden Among The Autumn. Naruto found the man representing that village in Ebisu Town working. Observing him for a while among the poor people in Ebisu town, Naruto recognized the signs of nobility in the man and invited him into his circle.
All of those people in each village looked at him as his savior, something that Naruto had conflicting feelings about.
"Me being called a savior,"Naruto thought bitterly, "Huh, that's hilarious, I am no savior. A savior should have saved his people first."
Naruto sighed and then muttered, "Back to the Paperwork." Taking one look at the pile he did not finish last night, Naruto paled and took a shuddering breath as he thought, "How did any of the Hokages deal with even busier villages that require more paperwork to govern and run? Dad, Grandma Tsunade, old man, save me from this hell I created!"
Forcing himself through the paperwork, Naruto sighed relief after an hour and a half. All the paperwork was done.
"Man, I want to return to the lab in Amigasa Village," Naruto said as he shuffled the paperwork off his desk and placed it on the pile.
Thanks to things Danzo's Root researchers and scientists left behind, the main project was going very nicely. Soon, the village will have a guardian beast that will protect it from intruders.
"Maybe I should speed the progress of the project?" Naruto thought before he muttered, "I am taking a nap." Naruto lay down on the tatami floor, closed his eyes, and dozed off.
Kuri: Amigasa Village
"Something is wrong," thought an individual as he looked at the abandoned village. "Why is a village empty?" The individual began to tug his hair as his fear was confirmed. "If this village is empty, then the other reported areas… Fuck this shit. I need a drink."
An individual is a gigantic man with tanned skin and a long, wild mane of light hair. His face is covered by a purple gorilla-like mask that has round red eyes and horns at the top. The man is outfitted with a blue kimono, which is open at the front, showing part of his chest covered in netting.
"It never happened before." Muttered the individual as his mind traced back the country's history.
In the Land of Wano, a river splits and divides the land into six regions. In the past, six prominent families ruled Wano. The shogunate was headed by the Kozuki Clan and ruled the Land of Wano from the Flower Capital. While the leaders of the Shimotsuki Clan, Kurozumi Clan, Uzuki Clan, Amatsuki Clan, and Fugetsu Clan each served as daimyo over one of Wano's regions.
However, several decades ago, the ruling leader of the Kozuki Clan had no heir. If the Shogun had died without an heir, the five daimyos were top candidates to succeed him. However, the Kozuki leader did father a child. That child was the previous Shogun of Wano, Kozuki Sukiyaki.
After the birth of Kozuki Sukiyaki, the Kurozumi Clan fell out of power. Due to a plot that came into the light detailing, the Head of Kurozumi Clan had poisoned the other daimyos to usurp power in the land by becoming the Shogun. The betrayal and deaths resulted in the disgraced clan leader of Kurozumi being punished by seppuku by the Kozuki Clan. As a result, the clan was stripped of its standing, thus resulting in a shakeup in regional governance. The Shimotsuki Clan ended up ruling over two regions, Ringo and Hakumai.
However, despite its downfall, the Kurozumi Clan made a resurgence with Kurozumi Orochi as its head and his clan members seizing power by having the support of Kaido and his crew. This eventually led to Kurozumi Orochi's dictatorship, which usurped the shogunate simply for revenge, forcing countless citizens through horrible living conditions and having them die of hunger as retribution.
Under Orochi's rule, factories to manufacture weapons across Wano were established in the following years. The Kozuki Clan was seemingly driven to extinction after Kuri's daimyo, Kozuki Oden, was executed by Orochi. Taking no chances, Orochi hunted Oden's family and his retainers and burned down Oden Castle.
Due to Orochi's actions, all daimyos staged a rebellion against Orochi, resulting in his ally Kaido wiping them all out. As a result, all regions had lost their rulers and were now under the rule of Orochi and Kaido.
"That was what was supposed to be going on," thought the individual as he faced the contradicting village.
The village wasn't in shambles or decay. In fact, it looked much better off than the poverty towns which surrounded the towns where high-ranking officials lived, only allowing essential tradesmen and merchants to remain. But a village like this to be abandoned so suddenly and in this state was impractical.
Suddenly, a huge and thick man sprang to the individual side. The man wears a yellow mask over his face that exposes his eyes and has a skull design on the forehead. In addition, he is clothed in a yellow kimono with shuriken designs and a light green scarf. His entire body below his head appears covered in dark green netting.
"Hanzo," acknowledged the individual with a nod before saying, "I am glad you are here."
"I was around the area," said Hanzo. "Shutenmaru raided the paradise farm last night again."
Hanzo then notices the empty village with a disturbing look and asks the individual with a mutter, "What the hell happened here, Sarutobi?"
Sarutobi's eyes just stare at the empty village as he muses for a while before saying to his fellow shinobi, "I don't know, but it's like I heard, all over the regions of Wano." Then, finally, Sarutobi looks at Hanzo and whispers to him in a ghastly voice, "It seems that people are vanishing into thin air."
"Does Orochi-sama know about this?" Hanzo asked.
"No, and if he did, do you think he would care?" replied Sarutobi, his voice full of sarcasm.
"Good point." Hanzo nodded before asking his colleague, "When did this start?"
"Reports came in from officials in each region at different times. The earliest in Kuri was two years ago, and Ringo followed by Ringo within six months. The latest region to report the missing was Udon a month ago." Sarutobi explained as he recalled reading each report with growing dread, "In each region, an average of 500 men and their families had disappeared into thin air. There are no signs of struggle, but just empty huts and homes in abandoned villages."
"That number won't hamper the factories, will it?"
"The land of Wano has an estimated population of four million people. Fifteen percent of them live in the capital. The rest of them live in the other regions. Even with those missing people, we still have a surplus of workers in the weapons factories. It won't hurt the production of weapons."
"We should have known about this the moment it happened," exclaimed Hanzo before whirling at Sarutobi with anxiety. "Why wasn't this brought to our attention sooner?"
Sarutobi lets out a frustrated sigh from behind his mask. "It seems the reports were deemed to be unimportant and ignored by the officials in the region until one of our ten thousand members noticed the reports and talked to Fukurokuju-sama about it." Sarutobi informed his respective comrade, "Immediately, Fukurokuju-sama became worried about it. He ordered me to look into it."
Hanzo then said as he scanned his surroundings, "Let's look around. There are bound to be clues about what happened here."
Both Shinobi of the Orochi Oniwabanshu entered the unfamiliar territory, looking around and wondering about the fate of those who went missing.
After a while of searching for clues,
"This is useless." gritted out Hanzo in frustration. "We should move on to another village. They either covered their tracks well or just vanished from the face of the earth."
Suddenly, both men froze as they heard a voice being carried by the wind. The wind came from the direction of the shores. Both Ninjas strained their ears to listen to the votes being carried by the wind.
One sentence was enough to make a thought race through their minds: "Pirates." Both ninjas thought and immediately scrambled into action.
Kuri: Okagakure (Village Hidden Among the Hills)
Ashura Doji woke up to the sound of excited yells and the whooping laughter of a child.
In the last three years, things changed a lot. He and his band no longer raided the starving people of Wano. Instead, he raided the paradise farm at random times, like yesterday.
Ashura Doji smirked as he remembered last night's event.
The village leader gave him a bet that Ashura Doji would go on a drunken raid to the paradise farm and bring back supplies, and guess what? Last night, he won that bet by securing a good haul of food supplies from the paradise farm. The food from the farm will be shared all over Wano by using the hidden villages and the tunnels to distribute it.
CRASH
"That child is pretty hilarious," chucked Ashura as he knew who caused the crash. "I wonder what she did this time?"
Getting dressed and grabbing his sheathed blade, Ashura left his compartment of the mansion that served as headquarters, and he ran to one of the other residents of the manor, Shinobu.
Shinobu has aged well in the last three years. She lost the extra weight she gained after years of inactivity. She had begun to train again, and her once turning stout body had reverted into a lithe muscled older woman. Surprisingly, her matured looks regained the attractiveness she held in her younger days.
"You did sleep in today," huffed Shinobu before giving him a praising look. "Excellent job on the raid yesterday. People outside the village will be happy with the high quality food you brought in. Why did you go on an unplanned raid alone?"
"Well, I had my orders from Narutomaki-san," Ashura told her before shaking his head and smiling. "Actually, it was a bet, and I won it."
"So…?" asked Shinobu with an asking glance.
"Temporary break from my advisor duties," Ashura answered happily and began to whistle out a tune.
Shinobu frowned at the mentioned prize before pinching the bridge of her nose and letting out a deep sigh, "Ashura… We are helping to run this village and this headquarters that connect other villages in the other regions."
Ashura winced as he felt guilty before whispering to Shinobu, "I know and I kind of feel bad for taking a break."
"Our leader is literally being overworked despite our requests for him to take a break," hissed Shinobu as she pointed in the direction of Naruto's office.
"His clones may handle the day-to-day affairs, but he gets their mental exhaustion and fatigue, once they go poof," Shinobu finished.
"Shinobu, I hate administrative positions. Even back when Oden-sama was alive, Denjiro and Kinemon and even Kiku were in charge of that stuff. So I just led the men and controlled the Yakuza in Kuri when Oden left for his five-year voyage."
Shinobu just sighs. "Still-"
"O-Tama chan," came a frustrated yell from the outside, "Don't make me summon the headmistress here."
Ashura poked his head out the balcony only to see a teacher huffing and puffing in front of the mansion, looking like she chased O-Tama from the classroom to the village headquarters mansion.
Ashura stares at the teacher's pleading expression before asking, "I will deal with O-Tama. It's best for you to not leave your students for too long."
The teacher let out a grateful smile and bowed in thanks, "Ashura-sama, I can not thank you enough," before giving a pleading look to Ashura Doji, "O-Tama-chan is one of my best students. But she sometimes gets out of hand, make sure she has a talk with Narutomaki-sama."
"May I ask what she did this time?" asked Shinobu.
"She somehow replaced the ink with invisible ink for the classroom." Explained the teacher, "She was caught when she started giggling after all her classmate's written work disappeared in front of their eyes, then made a run for it."
"That's a new one," said a weary and disappointed voice. "O-Tama shouldn't be acting like this at school."
The voice seemingly came from Hitetsu, who apparently returned from Ringo.
"Go fetch O-Tama before she causes any more trouble," Hitetsu said with a glare. "Why did she take on his mischievous qualities?"
"Well, she won't be a problem, as the respected headmistress is here." Shinobu said as she stared down the hallway.
Ashura turned around to see a sight he had always feared, the aura of anger surrounding a thin but tall lady with a prominent nose, light brown eyes, and black hair styled in a shimada style with a gold crane-shaped hairpin. In the past 16 years, she has aged gracefully since her husband disappeared, Kin'emon's wife, Tsurujo.
She was currently the village school's headmistress, where more than three hundred students enrolled, and she was a stricter than all teachers there combined.
"O-Tsuru san," greeted Shinobu with respect.
"Shinobu-chan," the headmistress nodded back in greeting, "I have a girl skipping out in her classes. I know she entered this building."
"Knowing her, she is holed up in the leader's office," Ashura told her
Tsurujo just gave him a look before turning to Shinobu with a scary smile on her face. "Well, let's get her. We can't afford her messing around when her brother is working hard for all of us."
A quick nod of agreement came from Shinobu as she told the other woman, "Well, I am going there too."
Hitestu, silent for most of the conversation, told Ashura, "Tell Narutomaki to go to my forge before evening." With that, he left the building. He headed in the direction of his forge.
"I will," Ashura responded.
A brisk walk into the middle of the building, they found the white doors emblazoned with three black ring circles in the outer circle holding the respective Kanjis of Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth, and Water in a cycle. In the middle circle stood the kanjis of Yin and Yang, and in the inner circle stood the boldest letter, Kage.
They opened the door and came to a surprising sight. Narutomaki was taking a nap amid the completed piles of paperwork and repeatedly muttering in his sleep, "Ramen,"
On the other hand, Tama was doodling on Naruto's sleeping face with a brush. Once she saw Tsurujo and the others enter the office, she yelled out in desperation, "BIG-BRO NARUTO, HELP ME!"
Naruto immediately snaps awake to her voice and jumps at the sight of his advisors and the headmistress before rubbing his eye and letting out a yawn, which he covers before asking, "What's going on? Do we have a meeting or something?"
He was met with an awkward silence from his visitors as they stared with gobsmacked expressions at his face. "Do I have something on my face?" he asked them.
Ashura let out a snicker while the rest nodded, and immediately Naruto grabbed a bronze mirror to check the reflection.
Somebody doodled on his face, and that somebody was Tama, who was slowly inching out of the room.
Naruto immediately washed his face with a bowl of water, grabbed a cloth to wipe the remains of the ink on his face, and turned to O-Tama, who was whistling and pretending to be innocent, but still, she held the center of attention in the room.
Naruto then asks Tsurujo, "Otsuru-san, what did she do this time?"
"She swapped classroom ink for the invisible inks.
Naruto promptly stares at Tama with one happy thought. "I am impressed. She is learning well."
Still, he decided to put his foot down. He frowned at O-Tama and began to tell her off, "If you did it another time or place. I will have been delighted with the prank, O-Tama."
O-Tama's face told her she was unexpected to be betrayed by her brother. He bailed her out of many pranks and attempted to give him futile puppy eyes that Naruto ignored as he continued, "So there is no Kunoichi training this week with Shinobu, and instead, you will focus on your studies. Now go back to the school with Tsurujo-san and please stay out of trouble for me."
Tama stared at the ground in shame as Tsurujo gave an approving nod. "Come, O-Tama chan, let's go back to school. If you behave well and do good, I may convince your brother to let you train with Shinobu-chan."
"Okay," sniffed Tama before processing her headmistress's words and questioned Tsurujo with a relieved laugh, "Really?"
"Of course," smiled the headmistress, prompting Tama to sprint back to school, making the headmistress smile softly.
Naruto stared at the sight and smiled before saying, "O-Tsuru-san,"
The headmistress whirled in surprise and faced Naruto as he addressed her.
"Thank you for looking after the students." Naruto said, "Now I know I chose the right person for the job."
"No, we should thank you," Tsurujo said as she bowed gratefully. "You are the best leader we have had in fifteen years. Even the only former living daimyo agrees with this. So thank you, Narutomaki-sama."
"Well, Yasuie-dono is-" Naruto whispers with a smile.
"I have a report from Yasuie-sama," Shinobu informed with a severe expression, "There is a less activity from the Beast Pirates in Mogura Port at Hakumai."
Naruto stood up and faced the thought, "It seems the rumor that Komurasaki told me is true, she said that heard Kyoshiro say that Kaido took an expedition overseas."
"Prepare a meeting in a month with other representatives." "It's going to be our first meeting to discuss important manners."
Shinobu nods and leaves the office, leaving Naruto and Ashura alone.
Naruto looks at Ashura and chuckles, "Good work on the raid yesterday, as I promised. I owe you some time off."
Ashura just smiles and then tells him, "Hitetsu-san asked me to ask you to come by the forge in the evening."
"Okay," Naruto nods as he heads outward, intending to check on the sealed lab in Amigasa Village.
-Hakumai: Akigakure (Village Hidden in the Autumn)-
"I see, an official meeting with the other representatives and the founder Narutomaki-sama," chuckled the man with a radiant smile, "Good, I am very happy with this, Shinobu."
After years of malnutrition, the short man was recovering his height with tremendous signs of recovery, and he had a tiny blush on his happy face. His trademark was his thick blue afro spiked like hedgehog spines. The man wore a red kimono with black dots, and on his lap was a child with pink hair he had adopted from Ebisu town.
"It's best to use the tunnels that connect the village," Shinobu told him through the Tanashi Snail, "Do not use the roads in Wano. We don't want any suspicions being raised, Yasuie-sama."
"Of course…." muttered Yasuie as he stared at the relaxed village he represented, "We don't want his hard work to be undone."
-Kibi: Arashigakure (Village Hidden in the Storms)-
A huge downpour of rain happens in Kibi each month. But the place where it stormed all year round was the most challenging part of Kibi. Arashigakure was led by Jibuemon after Naruto saw his value. Jibuemon is an old man with several wrinkles on his face, a beard, and a two-part mustache. He has long hair with a ribbon tied over his head, and he wears a kimono with the sleeves collected and circular prints at the bottom.
Jibuemon was a former retainer who served Kozuki Sukiyaki and was the first to break from Orochi to retain his honor and loyalty. For 16 years, he remained steadfast, hoping to be the matriarch of the Kozuki Clan word. Lady Toki's final words were a prophecy that told the Dawn was coming to Wano.
Surprisingly, the first lights of Dawn came much earlier than expected in the form of a man. A good man that successfully attempted to create safe havens in each region for the struggling people and improve those who couldn't enter the haven that was those hidden villages. The man, much younger, was an excellent warrior who seemed to prepare for war once the other members of the Kozuki Clan returned from the time power Lady Toki had.
So when a call came to him that summoned him to the headquarters to meet the Narutomaki in one month with other villagers, he accepted immediately.
-Ringo: Shimogakure (Village Hidden in the Frost)-
Onimaru nods at the words coming through the river snail before transforming into Gyukimaru and replies, "Of course I will come."
Onimaru is a Komagitsune, a creature that heavily resembles a giant fox. He had a flaming composition on his fur and tail. His pointy ears have a swirly appearance, and his fur is light, with his legs dark below the knees.
Once he transforms into Gyukimaru, he becomes a giant man with a face resembling a mask. He wears a dark kimono, light pants, and a light cape and carries many weapons deemed unworthy by their owners on his back. He also wears a huge bead necklace around his neck.
Onimaru met Narutomaki, who was punching the daylights out of grave robbers while muttering to them, "Show the dead some decency, you bastards," Well, after seeing that, Onimaru liked him. He liked him even more after he fed him to fish. It seemed that Narutomaki had a soft spot for foxes like him.
The man was seemingly searching for something, so he transformed into Gyukimaru and asked him for a flat plain to build residency. So he took him to the coldest area in Ringo, north of the graveyards of Ringo, where he stored all the weapons for the Kozuki Clan and Kawamastu the Kappa. In a short year, the man built a village and asked him to be the representative. He looked out at the graveyard where some of his villagers cleaned and respected the graves.
He owed the man a debt when Narutomaki requested to visit the headquarters at Kuri in one month. He agreed wholeheartedly.
-Kuri-
On a beach, a large ship lay marooned on its side. The ship's figurehead was a flaming horse's skull, with chains linked to the Skull and sides of the ship. The mainsail was severely damaged and torn apart to read, while the back sail on the top contains the word "SPADE" and has the crew's flag on top of it.
The beach was littered with crates of supplies and their inventory of firepower, cannons, and gunpowder. Also, random objects that seemed were scarred across the beach from the spillage of supplies and inventories.
A tall, muscular young man paced around the marooned vessel as a group of people around him awaited his decision.
The tall, muscular young man had curly black hair and sported a splash of freckles across his cheeks. The man was bare-chested but wore a red beaded necklace and an orange hat that had two blue smileys, one frowning and one smiling, and a string of red beads sitting above the rim. Two long orange side straps hung down the sides of his hat and met at a large medallion of a bull's Skull with orange tassels.
He also wore black boots, black knee-length shorts with an eyelet-studded orange belt, a blue pouch belted around his left leg, and a second short belt with a large red "A" on the silver buckle over his right hip. Still, it was left unfastened and threaded accessible along the back of his shorts. A dagger in a green sheath hung at his left hip. His upper left bicep arm has a tattoo spelled out ASCE vertically, The S itself was crossed out, and he also wore on the same arm a Log Pose and a red and white striped bracelet around his wrist orange elbow guard.
Portgas D. Ace was stumped on what to do. After chasing a giant Koi Fish in an attempt to eat fresh carp for lunch, they led him to string it as it climbed a waterfall, and it pulled their vessel upward into the waterfall and into the crazy whirlpool. They sank into the whirlpool, knocked out by the landing impact.
They woke up on an unknown island beach, assessing the damage and picking up their spilled supplies.
"Now what do we do, captain?" one of his crew members asked him. "The Spadille is damaged from the whirlpools after climbing the waterfall."
Deuce's defining feature is the mask he wears over his eyes to hide his identity. He is a muscular man with spiky long light blue hair and wears a very long open coat that stretches down to his knees and leaves his chest exposed. He also wore a belt diagonally across his chest, trousers with a rose design on the bottom left held up by a belt, and a pair of dark boots that go up to his knees. "Ace, I think this is the first time we got lost on our journey as pirates."
"We are in the New World, Deuce," Ace said with a sigh. "Things like this were bound to happen. Hell, it happened to others in paradise who were too weak to survive in it."
"Anyway, where the hell in the New World are?" Deuce asked Ace as they looked around.
Immediately both men froze as their Observation Haki kicked in and told their crew in a union, "LOOK OUT!"
A shower of kunai and shuriken projectiles pelted towards their crew, which all dodged and reflected with ease by the spade pirates.
"It seems the natives are not friendly," Deuce muttered as he stared at the two hidden shinobi before challenging, "Come out and face us before we are forced to hunt you down.
One of them seemingly immediately aims a barrage of shuriken at Ace's bare chest with the intent to strike him down. The crew had seen this countless times, but their current enemies' jaws dropped to the ground as the shuriken went through Ace creating holes in the cloud of flames that was Ace's body.
"That wasn't very nice," Ace growled in annoyance as his hand bursts in flames and was about to incinerate his attempted killers hiding in the trees at the edge of the beach.
"Ace, don't kill," Deuce said as he stopped his captain. "They can tell us where we are."
The flaming hands cooled down as the Ace sensed his attacker's strength with his Observation Haki dusted his hands with a disappointing slump and turned to his tactician and first mate, "They are too weak for both of us, Deuce. Let someone else deal with them."
"Oh, can I go," said a skull-faced man from Ace's crew, "I love one-sided fight. Nobody interferes with this fight."
"Go ahead, Skull," Deuce said before warning him with a knowing grin. "Just look out for tricks. You are bound to fall for them."
"FOR THE LAST TIME, I DON'T REMEMBER THAT HAPPENING AND I AM ONE OF THE SMART GUYS IN THE CREW," Yelled Skull in anger before he decided to take his anger that stemmed from the biggest embarrassment in his pirate career.
A large yellow masked man jumped out to face Skull, while the other hidden one left in a hurry.
"Not Good," thought Ace, "It's best they don't bring in reinforcement. Bah, the only ones who are a threat to my crew are the Yonko and their top crew members, and it's not like we are in their territory."
A/N: Hello Hey, R8HANDMAN is here. This is kind of short chapter. Buts it the first chapter of the time skip in which Naruto built four hidden villages with Ashura and Shinobu help.
Ace is now in Wano and due to Amigasa village being abandoned for the new hidden village, the villagers never had a chance to meet Ace and his crew when they shipwrecked on the beach.
Anyway I have finals coming up so this story may not be updated for a while.
Please leave a review. It helps me a lot when I write the story.
A/N2: Done.