The Straw Hat shinobi looked around the inside of the giant castle. It was dark and incredibly cold.
A constant flow of freezing cold air coming from an unknown source.
"OOOOOOOO It's huge in here!" Luffy yelled.
"I-I-I-I-I-It's F-F-Freezing in here! Was it this cold the last time you were here Kraken?!" Usopp asked.
Without turning around, Kraken spoke.
"Yes, it was this cold last time. It's apart of Duboi's defenses.
"How many defenses does this guy have?" Sasuke asked.
"Just the tragedies and this extreme cold. It will only get colder the closer we get to him." Kraken chuckled, "Funnily enough."
"THIS ISN'T A TIME TO JOKE!" Akainu yelled.
"Without being so brash.. we must do what we came here for quickly, before we're frozen solid!" Franky added.
"We won't be frozen solid, but we'll definitely feel that way! Let's keep moving." Kraken said.
Everyone continued to walk through the castle, which actually looked like the inside of a a church.
"So this guy's epithet, "Pope" is he some sort of preacher?" Kakashi asked.
"He sure was. This already put him on bad terms with the other elders of the time." Kraken explained.
"You said he killed two former elders right? The elders we fought weren't the original five?" Sasuke asked.
"That's right. Dubois killed two former elders back in the day.." Kraken confirmed.
"Imagine how strong he has to be to do something like that... it took everything we had to defeat one of those guys." Sakura said.
Naruto looked down.
"What's wrong Naruto?" Kraken asked.
Naruto shook his head.
"It's just... I haven't really had time to think about it but... that mustached elder... he killed me." Naruto said.
Everyone looked back at Naruto with surprise, especially his team.
Hinata ran up to Naruto to check him out.
"Are you okay, Naruto-kun? Why didn't you tell us?" Hinata asked, touching Naruto's cheek. Naruto grabbed her hand.
"I-I didn't want to worry you guys! Plus I'm fine now... someone... saved me." Naruto said.
"Sanji you're the one who found Naruto! Why didn't you tell us you had to save him!?" Nami snapped.
"When I found him he was already up!" Sanji said, "By the time we got back to the courtyard everyone was waiting for us..."
Everyone stood silent for a moment. Who could have saved Naruto? As everyone thought, Law had a shocking revelation.
"The only other person... who was there that could have saved whiskers-ya..." Law paused.
"Was Psycho." Sasuke finished.
Instantly a burst of cold air blasted into the room the group was in.
"YAAAAAAAAA! It's freezing!" Usopp yelled.
"Come on we can talk about that later!" Kraken yelled, running further into the castle towards the cold.
Everyone braced themselves and ran down the long corridor to a giant door.
"He should be here... are you all ready?" Kraken asked.
Everyone nodded their heads.
They've gone through a lot to get here, and the man they've been looking for is just behind this door, but it couldn't possibly be that easy, could it?
"Naruto, Luffy, give me a hand." Kraken asked.
Naruto and Luffy ran to each side of the door. Naruto used chakra mode to grab one of the giant handles, and Luffy used gear 3 to grab another. Kraken turned his arms into tentacles and shot them at both handles.
"Now!" Kraken yelled.
The giant, old doors creaked loudly as the three used all their muscle to slowly open the doors to cold air blasting into the corridor!
Everyone felt so cold they couldn't move!
"Kakashi!" Sasuke yelled.
"Right!" Kakashi yelled back.
"Fire style: Fire ball jutsu!" The two yelled in unison as they breathed fire at the cold air.
"No!" Kraken yelled as the fire was frozen immediately as it touched the air, freezing the fire solid and coming down towards the group!
Kraken, Naruto, and Luffy retracted their arms as fast as they could.
"We won't make it!" Luffy yelled.
"Grgh! Hang on guys!" Naruto yelled.
"Trafalgar! Use your room to get that thing out of here!" Franky yelled.
"Where would I teleport it and with who you fool!?" Law yelled angrily.
Mihawk scoffed.
"Okua." Mihawk said.
"Oh, right!" Okua said.
Mihawk and Okua stepped up and drew their blades.
The brothers stepped forward as they spun gracefully and sent two mighty slashes up at the frozen fire!
SLICE! BOOOOOOOOM!
The frozen fire crashed on both sides of the group.
"That was amazing!" Naruto yelled.
"WOOO HOOOO! If only Zoro was here to see that!"
"How many monsters do we have on our team now?..." Usopp asked himself, scared tears coming down his face.
"That was awesome Okua! Where the hell was that 10 minutes ago!?" Lionel yelled.
"Cyclone is a lot tougher than a ball of ice Lionel Newgatge-san!" Okua said.
"Everyone did what they could, young Lionel! Cyclone is far from your average opponent." Jimbei said, his hand on Lionel's shoulder.
"That was nothing. Let us continue." Mihawk said.
"That was amazing. Just what kind of swordsmen roam these lands?" Kakashi asked.
"The straw hat's swordsman, Zoro, let himself be set on fire with amaterasu to finish off one of DEATH's generals in the desert. I'm not surprised." Sasuke said, walking.
"HE DID WHAT!?" Kakashi yelled with shock.
The group walked into the room behind the door.
Huge would be a massive understatement. The room was dark, but pews lined the room as well as a long red carpet that led to what looked like a giant chair in the middle of the room. Something was in the chair.
Usopp's face was filled with fear, but he covered his mouth so he wouldn't scream.
"There he is..." Kraken whispered, "From now on, we are not going to use his name. We're in his territory now. There's no telling what kind of tragedy would happen here."
The group walked slowly towards the giant chair in the middle of the room, until a loud grumble stopped them all in their tracks.
"Mmmmmmmm..."
"What the hell was that..." Usopp asked, Usopp looked up and almost screamed.
Kraken stared up with slight fear at the giant shadow in the chair.
The group was about halfway between the entrance to the room and the end of it. Sasuke, Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto, and Hinata all looked up with shock. Law, Franky, Brook, Usopp, Chopper, Nami, Sanji, Fujitora, and Jimbei all stared up with shock as well.
Akainu stared at the shadow with anger.
"COOOOOOOOL!" Luffy thought.
"So... here he is... right in front of me!" Akainu thought with anger.
"Woah... cool..." Lionel said in awe.
"Oh heavens..." Okua said.
Mihawk sucked his teeth in annoyance.
The shadow was revealed to be at least twenty something feet tall sitting down!
"He's... He's about as big as big mom... were the other elders even close to that height!?" Usopp asked in a panicked whisper.
"No... the elders were all ten feet tall." Kraken whispered back.
"What makes this guy so great?" Franky whispered.
"He's part giant-part human... another reason the elders wanted to kill him..." Kraken said.
"Geeze if they wanted this guy dead so bad why'd they even make him an elder to begin with?" Lionel whispered.
"So how are we going to do this Kraken?" Kakashi asked.
Kraken looked back at Kakashi and then up at Dubois.
"Yeah, what'd you do last time big bro?" Luffy asked.
Kraken thought for a moment.
"He hasn't noticed who we are so he's still on defense... but he asked me to bring you all here. If I tell him who we are and why we're here we should be in the clear. I'll have to be very particular about the words I use so his ability doesn't activate and get us all killed." Kraken said.
Kraken turned to face Dubois, but before he could speak, Dubois spoke.
"Is someone there? The cold... is escaping." Dubois grumbled in a deep voice.
Everyone except Akainu and Mihawk froze.
"HE'S TERRIFYING!" Usopp screamed to himself.
"Who's there? You should leave..." Dubois said.
"Kraken say something!" Nami yelled in a whisper.
"I-I can't just tell him yes, his ability will activate!" Kraken said nervously, "I'm scared too ya know!"
"You're basically an admiral you're not allowed to be scared!" Nami yelled in another whisper. Kraken sweat from his head and held his hands up.
"SHE'S TERRIFYING!" Kraken yelled to himself, turning back around to face Dubois.
"You...you're not here to pursue me? Are you?" Dubois asked sisterly, "Beacuse that's exactly what you're doing right now... you know that's what it's called, right? "pursuit," What you're doing right now? Those movements you're making..."
Kraken froze.
"EVERYONE STOP!" Kraken yelled in a loud whisper.
Everyone froze in their tracks.
"WHAT?! WHAT!?" Usopp yelled back in a whisper.
"Nobody take another step towards him... tragedy will strike!" Kraken whispered back.
"So now we can't even walk towards the damn geezer!?" Franky yelled, "What the hell kind of ability is this!?"
Duboi's eyes were hidden behind shadow, but they shot down to Franky.
"What a shame..." Dubois grumbled.
Everyone looked up at the giant man.
"You can't pursue me any further. You're.. deep in the flow of tragedy." Dubois said.
"Damn it!..." Kraken yelled to himself.
"When someone tries to pursue me, tragedy turns to harm them. All you had to do was not pursue me, and you could be living a happy life right now..." Dubois explained.
Akainu shook with rage.
"How dare you talk down to me...!" Akainu said to himself out loud.
Luffy stared up with anger. Two rings around his pupils while he clenched his fists tightly.
Law grit his teeth. Sasuke and Kakashi glanced at each other. Sakura walked up next to Sasuke and punched her hand.
"Let's show him what we're made of." Sakura said.
Sasuke smirked and widened his eyes, readying his sharingan and rinnegan.
Kakashi sighed and grabbed a kunai from his pocket and also readied his sharingan.
Mihawk stared up at Dubois with a straight face.
Fujitora couldn't see Dubois but he felt his power!
"Who am I standing in front of right now...? Who is this man?" Fujitora said softly.
Chopper was terrified and clung on to the top of Sasuke's head.
"I want to go back to Sunny!" Chopper cried to himself.
Nami made her way to Sanji as Sanji brought his arm out to bring her close.
"I won't let anything happen to you, Nami-san... or any of us here." Sanji said with a smile.
Nami smiled back.
"I know, Sanji-kun."
Hinata stood next to Naruto. Naruto looked at Hinata.
"I've got your back, always, Naruto-kun." Hinata said.
Jimbei stared up at Dubois with a serious stare.
"We are the same people that are supposed to defeat Psycho and Cyclone... I cannot let this man scare me!" Jimbei yelled to himself.
"This is bad! Real bad! OW!" Franky yelled.
Usopp stared with absolute fright at the man.
"We're dead..." Usopp said.
Boa walked next to Luffy.
"Luffy.." Boa said, "I'm with you..!"
Kraken stared back at the Straw Hat Shinobi who all stared up at Dubois with determination.
A tragedy could strike at any moment, and not a single sign of fear could be seen on their faces.
Naruto stepped up next to Kraken and punched his hand. Determination in his eyes. Kraken was filled with awe.
"What were the shinobi like?" Kraken asked.
"The shinobi?" Iwataka asked, "The bravest people I ever met."
Kraken continued to stare at Naruto and the other shinobi.
"They just keep going... no matter what they go through." Iwataka said.
Kraken smiled to himself and then also became determined and looked up at Dubois.
Dubois remained silent for a moment.
"You-You can't be serious?... You want to continue to pursue me? Do you know who I am?" Dubois asked rhetorically.
"If you hadn't tried to pursue me, you'd be living a happy life!... you can't do something as simple as that?" Dubois asked again.
"Dubois!" Kraken yelled. Everyone looked to their lefts and rights. To the ceiling and the floor, getting ready for the next tragedy.
Dubois looked down at Kraken through shadowed out eyes.
"It's me, Monkey D. Kraken! Do you remember? We're here because we want to talk about Psycho! We are not pursuing you!" Kraken yelled, "We're screwed!" Kraken thought.
Dubois was silent.
"Kraken? Psycho..." Dubois mumbled. Ice started to encase the room slowly. Everyone got on guard.
"That's right! And I've brought them! The shinobi!" Kraken yelled.
Dubois eye widened.
"Tragedy is coming." Dubois said softly as a giant ice spike fell off the ceiling and fell towards Sasuke!
"Sasuke!" Kakashi yelled, but Sanji was already on it and kicked the ice spike towards Dubois.
"Take that you damned mummy!" Sanji yelled.
Dubois sat motionless as the spike flew past his face and into the wall.
Kraken looked back at Sasuke then up at Dubois.
"Dubois stop this! I told you why we're here!" Kraken pleaded.
Dubois looked down at Kraken again.
"I told you what would happen if you pursued me... you fell into the flow of tragedy the moment you decided to come after me..." Dubois said.
Kraken grit his teeth.
"That's just how this works.. I don't have any say in what happens next, seriously!" Dubois said as the ice spike in the wall began to crack up the wall into the ceiling and send more spikes falling down towards Sasuke.
Sasuke grit his teeth and tried to jump out the way but his foot was frozen in place.
"What!? When-" Sasuke barely had time to process it as he looked up to see the spikes were about to crash into him.
SLICE!
Mihawk sent a slash at the spikes cutting them and stopping them from crashing onto Sasuke.
"Thanks! Look out!" Sasuke said, as another spike crashed into the floor and blasted rocks towards Mihawks body that impacted like bullets.
"ARGH!" Mihawk coughed up blood.
"Mihawk!" Okua yelled, running for Dubois.
"OKUA NO!" Kraken yelled.
Okua readied his sword when a bat flew past and Okua knocked it away, but when he did, his fingers came off.
Okua stopped in his tracks.
"Wha-What!?" Okua yelled.
"GRRRRR RAHHHH!" Lionel yelled as he blasted a beam straight for Dubois.
"LIONEL!" Kraken yelled, "STOP GOING RIGHT AT HIM YOU'RE ASKING TO GET KILLED!" Kraken yelled angrily.
A giant rock fell from the ceiling and destroyed the ceiling at the right time and the blast exploded in the room creating a massive cloud of smoke.
Lionel winced as he noticed something coming towards him. A small pebble shot at him from the exploded rock and shot right through his head.
"LIONEL!" Kraken yelled.
"NOBODY MOVE ANOTHER DAMN MUSCLE!" Kraken yelled.
Immediately, Naruto and Luffy blitzed past Kraken.
"I'VE HAD IT WITH THESE TRAGEDIES!" Naruto yelled.
"DIE ALREADY! OLD MAN!" Luffy yelled.
The two hot heads jumped into the cloud of smoke.
"NO!" Kraken yelled.
On the other side of the smoke, Dubois watched the cloud of smoke as a shadow slowly got bigger and bigger.
Softly drums could be heard. They got louder and louder and louder until...
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! Dum dum dum dum- dum dum dum dum! Dum dum dum dum- dum dum dum dum!
Luffy emerged out the cloud of smoke laughing while in gear five, his left arm hardened with haki, Naruto in crystal fox form, smiled as he had just got done forming a massive rasengan in Luffy's giant hand!
Duboi's eyes widened big!
"Joy boy! That was you!" Dubois yelled to himself.
"Gum Gum..." Luffy started.
Duboi's eyes widened even wider.
"WHITE STAR RASENGAN!" Luffy blasted his gear third arm towards Dubois at speeds so massive the arm and rasengan caught on fire! Dubois's eyes widened.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The massive rasengan blasted Dubois through his seat and into the wall in the far back.
The entire area exploded with debris and fire! Naruto and Luffy landed on the ground as everyone watched them with amazement.
"WOOO HOOO LUFFY AND NARUTO SAVE THE DAY AGAIN!" Franky yelled.
"THAT WAS AMAZING!" Usopp, Chopper, and Nami yelled.
Sakura and Hinata smiled as they patched up Lionel and Mihawk's wounds. Boa smiled softly.
"Luffy... you are amazing..." Boa said softly.
Sasuke and Kakashi stared with awe.
"Those two..." Sasuke said.
"It's like they were destined to fight with each other..." Kakashi said.
"What is the deal with these two... it's truly amazing." Fujitora said.
Akainu's fist shook with anger.
"A shinobi and a pirate working together... nothing makes me more SICK!" Akainu yelled to himself.
Rumble...
Everyone tensed up. Slowly Dubois grabbed his head and sat up.
Naruto and Luffy were shocked. Ice quickly rushed over the fire and froze it in place.
"He got up from that like nothing!" Naruto yelled.
Luffy was worried even in gear five!
"Ughhh... that was quite the attack... I haven't been hit like that in a long time..." Dubois said, standing to his feet.
Everyone stared with shock at just how massive this man actually was. Dubois wore long black boots with a dark grey suit and matching pants.
Dubois wore a black vest with a white collared shirt underneath and a black tie to keep it together.
Dubois also wore a long black coat over his shoulders like a cape. His hair was a long smooth grey with a long grey beard and bushy mustache.
Moonlight crept through one of the windows and Dubois was revealed to be missing his right eye, the wound stapled together.
Dubois had his left hand in his pocket, his other arm was gone. Everyone stared up with shock.
The ice in the room grouped up behind Dubois and formed a giant ice chair for him to sit in. Dubois sat down slowly.
"You're.. the ones I've been waiting for. Only you two can defy the flow of tragedy itself..." Dubois said, looking at Naruto and Luffy, Naruto was back go normal while Luffy was old and tired.
"Joy boy... Hogoromo... it's been ages." Dubois said.
Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, and Hinata were all shocked to hear that name.
"Hogoromo? The sage of six paths?" Kakashi asked.
"Joy boy?!..." Jimbei asked out loud.
"JOY BOY!? HOGOROMO!?... Who are they?" Okua asked.
"Do not worry young swordsman.. your questions will be answered.. I'm uhhh-I'm sorry about your fingers by the way.." Dubois saidz
"POPE" SIMON D. UBOIS.
"Mr. Dubois... Can you really tell us Psycho's history? And the history between the World Government and Shinobi? Why do they hate us so much!?" Naruto yelled.
Kakashi lightly touched Naruto.
"Hey Naruto take it easy, don't want to trigger another tragedy!" Kakashi said with a nervous sweat.
"As long as you don't make any notions of pursuit from here on out you are safe, Kakashi." Dubois said.
Kakashi was shocked.
"You.. know me?" Kakashi asked.
"Oh I know every last one of you very well..." Dubois said with a hint of sorrow in his voice.
"Why does the World Government hate us Mr. Dubois? Something about some treaty or whatever? For something we did centuries ago?" Naruto asked.
Dubois looked down at Naruto.
"The World Government... hated the Shinobi world for their loyalty to Joy boy. When Joy boy's kingdom was attacked.. beginning the 100 year war, the shinobi were right there beside him.. yhat's why they were banished after they lost, but that wasn't good enough to the World Government.." Dubois said angrily.
Everyone became uneasy.
"Enough with this "draft" talk, they are kidnapping shinobi and forcing them to become marines. Brainwashing them even, if their loyalty to the shinboi world was too great." Dubois explained.
Kraken just observed everyone's reactions, he had heard this all before.
"One of them stands among you. I feel bad for him, he doesn't even remember where he came from." Dubois said, staring at a particular man.
Everyone looked around.
"Sakuzuki Senju, but you go by Akainu these days correct?" Dubois asked.
Everyone became filled with complete shock as they looked at Akainu.
Akainu was pale, sweaty, and filled with rage.
"NEVER! THERE IS NO WAY I WAS EVER A SHINOBI!" Akainu yelled at the top of his lungs.
Kakashi thought for a moment and then remembered.
"I remember hearing stories as a kid.. that a boy from the Senju clan was kidnapped by unkown captors... he was never found... I was 7 at the time, that means Sakuzuki would have been kidnapped around 14 years old." Kakashi said softly.
"Looks like their brainwash works like a charm." Dubois said.
"Wait, Issho, you got brain washed too didn't you?" Kakashi asked.
"No, I only acted like I was disloyal to the shinobi so I could do my own inside damage." Fujitora said.
"You're a smart man, Issho." Dubois said, "Ironically... the shinobi that were banished past Alabasta were the lucky ones." Dubois said.
Everyone became shocked.
"There are shinobi... already over here!?" Naruto asked.
Dubois looked down at Naruto.
"There are still shinobi who know the ways of the time back then in the Grand Line, yes. In Wano." Dubois said.
The shinobi's eyes widened.
FLASHBACK
And don't even get me started on the Shinobi in Wano." Cyclone said.
The Shinobi straightened up. Cyclone smiled an evil smile. Kraken became nervous.
"Go ahead Kraken, tell them to not listen to a word I'm saying! Because when I tell them I wouldn't be surprised if they join my team!" Cyclone yelled.
"What is he talking about Kraken?" Sakura asked, worried.
"Kraken... what haven't you told us?" Kakashi asked.
"Kraken?" Hinata said softly.
Naruto and Sasuke stared at Kraken. Kraken had mentioned Wano when he brought up Mifune being a DEATH member. But he didn't tell the Shinobi what was going on in Wano right now.
Kraken's expression hid behind his hat.
END OF FLASHBACK
"The shinobi in Wano only know of pain and suffering. They don't know nor do they understand the power they have in their bodies. You know it as Chakra. Wano is filled with misery and untapped potential. When the shinobi were exiled from the North Blue where they resided, most were sent to the lands outside Alabasta and the rest? Sent to Wano. To be watched over by an evil tyrant." Dubois explained.
Naruto's fist shook with anger.
"That is the reason for the World Government's hatred. Joy boy and Hogoromo were the best of friends, such good friends one of them would join a raging war against an enemy he didn't know." Dubois said.
"I couldn't tell you the truth about Wano before fighting Cyclone... sorry guys. It would have been too much." Kraken said.
Everyone silently understood.
"Now.. what about Psycho...?" Naruto asked.
Luffy stared up at Dubois with anger and determination.
"Psycho?" Dubois asked rhetorically, "Respectfully, let's stop calling him that. That's not how I knew him."
Everyone stared up at Dubois, eager to hear what he had to say next.
"Torebion Teira... the kindest spirit you would ever meet in your life... that's the man I knew." Dubois said softly.