Wind Granma
"So where are we off to now Dragon?" Naruto asked as they sailed through the sea. While he still felt a bit sea sick, he was getting more used to being at sea. It had been a few weeks since they left Alabasta and his encounter with the woman known as Nico Robin. Dragon had given him some details about her and her past. How her home had been destroyed by the Marines because they dug those nose too deep into some lost knowledge that they wanted to keep buried.
It angered him that the people who were supposed to be protecting the weak were instead using their power to oppress and manipulate the story to make the people of Ohara look like monsters. From what Dragon had told him, not even civilians who weren't involved with the researcher were spared. Nico Robin had been the only survivor.
"Sabaody Archipelago, we got a tip that a particularly large shipment of slaves were going to be auctioned off soon. Some of them are members of the Revolutionary Army that got captured during a failed mission at a Marine Base," Dragon told the blond as he wanted to save his subordinates on top of the rest of the innocents that had been captured. He knew how cruel the Celestial Dragons were, especially to people they knew hated them. "I have little doubt that if they are sold to the World Nobles, they'll be tortured for their own amusement," he almost growled out.
A heavy scowl appeared on Naruto's face when he heard that, "You know the more I hear about these bastards the more I just want to punch one in the face," he commented as everything he had been told about these people made him sick to his stomach. How they treated those under them. How they saw themselves as above humans, above the law even. As far as they were concerned the law was made for their own benefit and didn't apply to them. And the Marines just accepted it.
Dragon chuckled lightly, "Careful, if you want to get an Admiral called on you, punching a World Noble will typically do the trick," he warned lightly. While he wouldn't mind punching a few of the World Nobles himself, he knew that getting an Admiral called on them wouldn't exactly be the best idea. A full on fight with the Marines wouldn't exactly be something he wanted in the middle of an highly populated island.
It was that cautiousness that prevented him from talking to Nico Robin when he found her with Naruto in Alabasta. He doubted he would have enough time to convince her to join them before the place was swarmed with Marines. They barely made it out without major conflict to begin with. A wasted opportunity as Nico Robin would have furthered their goals greatly, but escape was his top concern.
"Well then, let them come," Naruto said, slamming his fist into the palm of his hand with a wide, confident smirk. He didn't know how powerful these Admirals would be, but he figured that if he could fight people like Madara or Kaguya, then he doubted that these Admirals would be that much stronger given what he had seen from this world so far.
"Admirals are no joke Naruto, I would recommend not taking them too lightly," Dragon told his alien companion. While he doubted that Naruto had shown him his true power and from what he had already seen, the blond was exceptionally powerful, he didn't want to take the chance of him underestimating the three Admirals and getting in over his head. He didn't even know if Naruto had a way to hit them since he assumed that Haki wasn't a thing where he came from.
"Hm, well anyways what's the plan?" Naruto asked as he saw the bubbles of the island appearing in the distance and growing ever closer. He had been growing a bit anxy from being on a ship for so long and he couldn't wait to stretch his legs on land.
"We're going to try and break into the auction house and liberate those being held there. A team will try to sneak in through the back entrance, but we'll need a distraction to lure the guards and Marines away from there. Our contact on the island said that a Shishibukai will be guarding the World Nobles attending," He said knowing that whoever would take the job of distracting those who would try to stop them would likely have their work cut out for them. Fighting one of the Warlords wasn't an easy feat for most people. He figured that he would probably have to do it himself given that his other commanders were out on their own missions for now.
"I'll do it," Naruto said casually, feeling that he might as well just go strong with these Shichibukai. He was never one to hide and that Admiral had already seen him use the Rasenshuriken. In reality he wanted to figure out where he stood in this world powerwise. Most of the people on the Wind Granma didn't really pose much of a challenge for him and Dragon was too busy for a serious spar against him.
Dragon didn't seem too convinced as to letting Naruto go up against someone like a member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Of course he knew who would be the Shichibukai that would be there already. His spy had told him that Bartholomew Kuma would be the one with the World Nobles. It so happened that Kuma…was also his spy. So he would have to put up a convincing fight against whoever went up against him or risk blowing his cover. "Are you certain? Members of the Shichibukai have been known to be able to take on entire fleets on their own," Dragon asked to make sure Naruto was certain he wanted this.
Normally Dragon would outright refuse someone so new volunteering to perform such a dangerous job, but Naruto had proven himself the strongest among his subordinates. However the smirk on the blond's face -filled with such confidence- swayed him ever so slightly. He could see a strange golden energy starting to rise from the shinobi that made his skin tingle. "Trust me Dragon, I can more than handle myself! After all, I fought a goddess before. How bad can one person be?" he claimed much to the amusement of all the crewmembers who overheard him.
"A goddess he says, Dragon I think the new guy has gone loony!" One of the men laughed out loud. They all knew that the whiskered blond was exceptionally strong, but to claim to have fought a goddess was absurd.
"I'll show you!" Naruto growled, holding his fist up, ready to clobber whoever doubted him.
"Enough," the commander of the Revolutionary Army said, ending any discourse on his ship. "Naruto, if you feel that you can hold your own, then I'll put my faith in you," he told the blond, silently hoping that he wasn't making a mistake.
Sabaody Archipelago
Having docked their ship in one of the many ports, Naruto followed behind Dragon through the several areas of the tree-made island. While Naruto was still wearing the outfit he bought in Alabasta, Dragon had pulled his cloak's hood over his head. Apparently despite the Marine base on the island, the island has a rather prosperous dark side.
"So where are we going?" Naruto asked the older man who weaved around people, his face covered by the shadow of his hood. Naruto didn't know exactly where they were going, but Dragon had insisted that they head to some bar before they did anything else on the false island.
"We're going to see a few people of interest, no need to think too much about it," Dragon replied not seeing a need to go more into it as he was certain that Naruto being from another world wouldn't know who the people they were going to talk to were. "We're here," the dark haired man said as they arrived at a building with a green ball for a roof.
"Shakky's Rip-off Bar?" He asked with a flat look on his face.
Dragon chuckled as he pushed the doors open and entered the bar, Naruto following closely behind him. Looking around there were some rather strong looking pirates around drinking. Behind the counter was a woman with dark hair in a bob-cut smoking a cigarette. Walking closer to the bar counter, Dragon sat down. "Anything you'd recommend?" Dragon asked the woman who looked at the man with a questioning look.
"Not everyday someone like you comes around," She said before her eyes flickered to Naruto who sat next to Dragon and gave her a warm smile. "Must have something to do with the slaves that just got shipped in," the woman commented, placing two beers down for them. "And the new revolutionary, Uzumaki Naruto," she said, having seen the updated posters being delivered around the island a few days ago.
"How do you know my name?" Naruto asked, wide eyes by the fact that she knew his name already.
"Given you have a wanted poster? It's not that hard to guess," she replied in a teasing tone as an older looking man with long white hair and beard walked out from the back. The man looked at the two and sat down next to Dragon.
"To get a bounty of a hundred million Beri right off the bad, you must have done something pretty bad," the man commented as he looked at the blond who chuckled and scratched the back of his head.
"Not really, I just stopped…what was his name? Aokoji was it? He tried to freeze our ship," Naruto asked, looking at Dragon who facepalmed at the fact that the shinobi had forgotten the name of one of the three Admirals.
"Aokiji," Dragon corrected.
The older man laughed out, as the woman handed him a beer as well, "So young and facing the Admirals? The new generations really are something else, right Shakky?" he asked the woman with a wide smile on his face as he couldn't help but respect any youngster who had the balls to get between an Admiral and his target, granted he figured that Dragon would have been able to handle it. "So how can we help you two?" the man asked.
"We were hoping that you and Shakuyaku would have some information about the auction house Rayleigh," Dragon replied to the former right hand of Gol D. Roger. While Kuma had been able to get them a date and time, as to when the slaves would be on the island, he hadn't been able to give them more details due to having needed to be around the World Nobles attending the auction.
Shakky took a drag of her cigarette as she seemed to contemplate the request from the revolutionary leader. "From what I heard, there is a back room entrance that's typically only guarded by a few Donquixote Pirates that Doflamingo left on the island last time he was here to keep an eye on the establishment. It's a straight shot towards there they hold the slaves, you just need to find a way to remove the explosive collars," she told the two members of the Revolusionary Army.
"And of course there is Kuma who has been spotted on the island with a group of World Nobles, not exactly an easy opponent for the average person," Rayleigh added as he looked at Naruto.
"Anything I should know about him?" the blond asked wondering what he would be walking into. He of course wanted to make sure that he didn't underestimate his opponent too much. Dragon had told him about many of the Devil Fruits that existed, he didn't want to run the risk of running into something that could put him in a bad situation if he didn't handle it properly.
"Bartholomew Kuma, he ate the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi. In essence it allows him to repel just about anything he touches. This includes air, people, and long ranged attacks. He's even able to push out the pain and fatigue in people and push it into another. He's also been modified by the World Government using cybernetics, making him a cyborg," Rayleigh answered, figuring that the blond was going to be the one to take on Kuma. While he was still green, his starting bounty spoke for itself, he had to have done something that really grabbed some attention. "He typically attacks by pushing the air in ranged attacks, and can condense a large amount into a bomb of sort. He however needs to be able to touch whatever he's repelling with his hands, so they're tie up; he can't use them to block or attack," he mentioned, figuring that the young boy could use all the help he could get against one of the Warlords. "Dragon, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to talk to you in the back," Rayleigh said motioning for the tattooed man to follow.
Dragon nodded and looked at Naruto, "Stay here until I return," he ordered, wanting to make sure that the blond didn't try to leave the bar and get into trouble. Seeing Naruto nod his head, he followed after the older man who closed the door behind them.
"Dragon, are you sure that kid can handle this? I'm not typically one to get involved with your business, but I've never heard of him before the wanted posters dropped. Does he even know how to use haki?" The former hand of the pirate king asked, worried that Naruto would be getting in over his head against someone like Kuma.
"As far as I know, he doesn't know how to use Haki, but I have seen him repel an attack from an Admiral while heavily injured. Now that he's fully up and healthy, I need to know where he stands in terms of strength if he's going to continue being part of my army. And if Kuma is too much of an opponent, then I'll step in myself and let the others handle the slaves," Dragon replied beliving in Naruto after what he witnessed on the ship when Aokiji caught up to them. The sheer devastation of his 'Rasenshuriken' and his claims of having fought against a goddess needed further investigation.
"You're using a Shichibukai as a test for your new recruit?" Rayleigh asked not sure if he heard right before chuckling. "Well, there is probably a good reason. Where did you find this kid anyways?"
"He fell from the sky," Dragon replied, smirking as he left the back rooms only to find that Naruto had beaten up several men with swords. "What happened…"
"A few guests got a bit rowdy when they got their bills, but he managed to clean them up," Shakky replied with a smirk as the blond shinobi had taken care of the pirates with ease. She had been rather surprised with how easily Naruto had been able to deal with the ten pirates. It looked like he hadn't even tried despite them having pretty sizable bounties.
"Well good job," Rayleigh said looking at the people who attacked his wife. None of them were dead, instead they all had been knocked out without taking too much damage. From the looks of it, they had each been knocked out with just a hit or two. Dragon had mentioned that he couldn't use Haki, meaning he beat them all with his natural strength as far as he knew.
Dragon rubbed the bridge of his nose, "We better leave before the Marines arrive here," he said, pulling his hood down and putting the money down for the drinks they had but Shakky pushed it back towards him.
"Consider it a thanks for whiskers taking care of those punks," she said, having taken a liking to Naruto during the time that Dragon and Rayleigh.
Flashback
Watching the two men walk to the back to talk about who knew what, Shakky looked at the blond who drained his beer with less intensity than she was used to compared to others. "So why did you join the Revolutionary Army?" Shakky asked the blond while gave her a warm smile.
"Frankly, it's mainly because Dragon took care of me when I was at my lowest. When he found me, I frankly had nothing. I saw that he had a point when it came to this world's corruption," Naruto said knowing what he felt when he accessed his power to sense negative emotions. Dragon had felt like someone he could trust while the world itself felt horrible due to the corruption of the World Government.
Shakky took another drag of her cig as she listened to Naruto, "Just understand that once you directly go against the World Nobles by helping Dragon with this, there won't be any going back for you, especially if you end up hurting one of them," she warned knowing that those people never let anything go. Once you got on their bad side, you were going to stay there until you died.
"If the World Nobles and Marines are as bad as I've heard and seen, then I don't care if they hate me," he responded, feeling that the government that managed the majority of the world was extremely flawed. He didn't think that everyone in the Marines were bad, but they were complicit in the atrocities they commited. Dragon had told him about what happened back on Ohara when he asked about Nico Robin.
To wipe out everyone, even those who weren't involved in the 'crimes' committed that got the Buster Call ordered, that was insane.
"I see, well I don't particularly disagree. I've seen a lot of shitty things in my life. What do you seek to accomplish?" She asked him wondering if he was just another of Dragon's lackeys or if he had his own goals in mind.
Naruto's smile turned somber at the question, almost as if he was remembering something fondly from his past. "I want to bring peace to the world, so no one has to die a needless death. Where everyone can live in harmony," he told her honestly as he thought back to his time with Jiraiya before his death at the hands of Nagato.
"Live in harmony huh? Sounds nice, but given how people are I say that might just be impossible," She said as the drunken men looked at their bills in shock and began to get riled up by just how much they were being charged by the owner.
Naruto smirked, "I've been known to make the impossible, possible ya know," he told her confident that he would one day be able to do it. He didn't know how, but he had seen back in his homeworld how people could all band together. If it could be done once, it could be done again, he was certain of it.
"Hey bish! Whaz wit these pieces!" He slurred out, clearly drunk beyond being able to talk and walk normally as he stumbled against the counter, his bill in hand showing an extraordinarily high total.
"That's your bill, so pay up," Shakky insisted as she wasn't about to lower the prices for these scumbags.
"Fuk off!" The man yelled as he pulled his sword out but had his face slammed into the counter by Naruto.
"Captain!" The crew yelled as their leader was knocked out by the blond man who stood up and cracked his knuckles, the man sliding off the counter and onto the floor. The rest was over quickly, despite being vastly outnumbered, Naruto managed to get out completely unscaved from the altercation.
Flashback End
"It was nothing," Naruto replied with a wide smile as Dragon motioned for him to follow as he took the money back and went for the exit. Given how much the woman charged for her services normally, he wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. "See you two later!" the blond shinobi called out as he walked after the olderman.
Rayleigh smiled as he watched the two leave, "It's rare for you to take such a liking to someone so quickly," He said to her as he leaned back against the bar counter.
Shakky smiled as she looked at the blond walking alongside Dragon, or maybe Dragon was walking alongside him. "I have a feeling he will help change the world one day," she told her husband. There was just something about him that made her want to trust him. The way he spoke with such conviction and certainty in his beliefs. "He said he wants to bring peace to the world," Shakky said with a chuckle, "What a dream."
"People have achieved the impossible," the older man replied, recalling his past alongside Gol D. Roger.
Wind Granma
Dragon and his crew were going over the plan one last time before they begun their operation to free their friends and the rest of the slaves from the auction house. "Naruto will start by causing a conflict to bait out Bartholomew Kuma from inside," the tattooed man said looking at the blond who was leaning against a wall. "Naruto, I can not stress it enough that you do not kill him if it gets to that point. Try and incapacitate him as best you can, but killing is completely out of the question," he stressed, knowing that shinobi from Wano typically went for the kill. Naruto claimed not to be from there, but he figured they might have some similarities.
While he might be posing as their enemy, that was mainly for show. Kuma was one of his most trusted comrades who had helped him on countless missions. He was currently risking everything by getting so close to the World Government and he couldn't risk blowing his cover. It was why he would try and push Naruto away if he could make it seem realistic, if not then Dragon would step in and save the blond teen.
"Killing isn't really my style," Naruto replied, having avoided killing many people throughout his career as a shinobi. Sure there were times where had no other choice, but typically he tried to keep his opponents alive.
"Good, then a small team of us will infiltrate the auction house and make our way to the cells where they're holding the slaves. Luckily we know how to safely remove the slave collars without setting them off," Dragon said as they had someone who knew how to undo the collars.
Naruto stopped listening half way as he decided to talk with Kurama.
"Really getting into this huh?" Kurama asked as he didn't expect his partner to go so head long into this whole revolutionary deal.
"Not like I have many other choices. I'm kinda already a criminal according to the people who run this place. From what I've seen our options are to stay here and try to help people, become pirates and rob people, or join the Marines and scam people, or explore and hope we end up doing anything. But our best chance of bringing peace to this world is with Dragon," Naruto said, having thought about what he could do if he decided to leave the Revolutionary Army. His choices were kinda limited.
"Fair points," Kurama replied as he could see where Naruto was coming from. "I guess it would be good for us to know how we compare to these Shichibukai if we're going to try and help this world. If we find ourselves lacking, then we'll likely need to focus more on training," The Kyuubi stated as he knew that they wouldn't get that far if they were defeated fairly easily. Dragon had mentioned something about the Yonko, which seemed to be almost like the Kage of pirates. They would most likely be opponents they would have to face at some point in the future.
"I'm sure we can take him, I refuse to let our dream die," Naruto replied as he was confident that if Dragon had been willing to let him fight, then he expected him to be able to at the very least survive against this Kuma person. After all, he would be a piss poor distraction if he died instantly…
"How are you going to go about it? Will you use my chakra?" The titanic fox asked the blond who contemplated how far he would go against Kuma.
"I think I'll start off with Sage Mode, given what that Aokiji guy did when he attacked our ship I don't think going in without at least that might bite us in the ass," Naruto told Kurama as he knew that being punched while in Sage Mode was a very different from being punched in his base form. A punch that would knock him out normally would only knock him back while in Sage Mode.
"Dismissed," Dragon said as he finished going over the plan with the crew of the ship. Walking out of the room, Naruto walked to the room he had been given onboard the Wind Granma. Getting into bed, he looked up at the ceiling and steeled himself knowing that tomorrow he'd have his first major fight in this world.
Chapter 3-The Fox and the Bear
And we're back! We'll let's just jump right into it lol
Naruto took a deep breath as he stood on the roof of a building overlooking the auction house. He could see people starting to enter it, some people wearing strange suits with bubbles around their heads. "So those are them uh? I guess Dragon was right, they feel so superior that they refuse to breathe the same air as everyone else," Naruto thought to himself as he looked over at the man who was following behind them.
His eyebrow twitched once again at just how tall the man was. He had finally reached a height where he was taller than most of his friends and now here he was in a world where half the people were MASSIVE.
"So that's Kuma huh, like everyone else he lacks any chakra," Kurama said as he sensed that despite being so large and supposedly powerful, Bartholomew Kuma didn't have any chakra in him. This made it hard to gauge just how strong these people were since ordinarily those with a lot of chakra tended to also be very powerful.
"Naruto do you read me?" They heard Dragon's voice coming through the watch they had been given that had a 'Den Den Mushi' inside. Apparently this world used snails for long range communication. Strange…but whatever worked.
Bringing the snail closer to his face, he cautiously replied, "I hear you Dragon," he said to the snail which he assumed would send the message to Dragon's own who would speak it in his voice.
"Whenever you're ready, we're in position now," The revolutionary leader told him, giving him the clear to attack.
"Right," The blond said as he began to pull in Nature Energy from the surroundings, orange markings appearing around his eyes and his eyes shifting to resemble a toad's with amber irises. With his Sage Mode active, he created two more clones to leave behind and gather energy while he fought. "Let's do this," Naruto said to himself before vanishing in a burst of speed.
Slave Auction House
"I wonder what kind of slaves they'll have today~" One of the men with a bubble around his head said cheerfully as he was looking forward to buying a new toy for his son. He heard that they had some special products today that they had just gotten in. Like the vast majority of Celestial Dragons, he didn't see anyone who lived outside of Mary Geoise as nothing more than slaves and tools for his pleasure.
"Maybe we can acquire a Mermaid, we need one for our pond after the last one died, a worthless waste of money," The woman beside him said, angry that the mermaid they had bought to keep as a pet had died after their kids decided to play with it. "Couldn't handle a few cuts," she scoffed as she felt that for the price they paid, the creature should have been able to handle a few cuts.
Kuma didn't say anything as he stood behind the two silently seething at what he was hearing. However he knew that had to pretend to be loyal to the World Government for now. As they were going to enter the building, he suddenly turned around and brought his hand up, repelling whoever had attacked them. "Get inside," he said firmly as he got a good look at who Dragon had sent to fight against him.
He had never seen the teen in front of him. Spiky blond hair and whisker marks on his cheeks. Then was his eyes, Kuma noted that they looked like those of a toad. A Zoan Fruit user?
Naruto slid to a stop as he looked at his fist, he figured that was Kuma's power to repel anything that hit the palms of his hands. "So you're the Shichibukai Bartholomew Kuma huh," Naruto said, standing back up and rolling his shoulders. Up close he could really see just how massive this man was, standing at over twenty two feet tall.
"Uzumaki Naruto, a member of the Revolusionary army," Kuma said in a cold voice, putting his bible away. He didn't want to risk it getting damaged in a fight against someone he knew nothing about. The only thing he heard about him was that he was able to stop Admiral Aokiji's attack, something which was impressive on its own. "Why are you here?"
"To kick your ass," He replied before rocketing forward towards the man, cracking the ground behind him. Kuma narrowed his eyes as his cyborgetics kicked in to keep track of the incoming blond. Ordinarily he would have used his fruit to push his opponent farther away, but he needed for this fight to go on long enough so Dragon could finish his mission.
As Naruto neared him, he swung his hand at him to swat him away before his fist could connect. When he had blocked his previous punch, he'd sensed two things coming in contact with his palm. He couldn't tell what the other thing was, his sensors hadn't picked up anything. He hadn't seen anything either with his Observation Haki. He didn't want to find out what that was, but he figured it was part of Naruto's Devil Fruit.
The slap connected with Naruto, but upon contact the blond teen was replaced with what looked to be a log that got knocked away instead. "What?" Kuma thought before feeling the wind shifting above him. He barely jumped out of the way when Naruto slammed down from the sky holding a ball of blue energy in his hand. Never in his life had Kuma seen such an attack. And that just raised more questions.
How did he substitute himself with a log?
What was that ball in his hand?
'Dragon, who is this kid?' Kuma asked in his head as he thrusted his palm at Naruto, sending a paw shaped bubble of condensed air at the blond who used the force of the attack to blow himself out of the way of his Pad Ho.
"You're pretty quick for someone so big," Naruto commented with a smirk on his face as he was starting to get a sense for how this guy fought. His power had uses both in up close and in ranged combat. Summoning six kunai from the seals on his wrist he threw them all at Kuma, spreading them out. 'Sasuke if I ever see you again, you're a genius for this,'
Kuma swung his arm, pushing the air away in front of him to knock the blades away but they exploded when the air hit them creating a massive smokescreen of black smoke. He ducked as a kick cut through the smoke, blowing it away with the force it had behind it. Kuma turned and slammed his palm into Naruto's abdomen, pawing him straight back through a building only for the ground under him to break and the blond erupting out, slamming his fist into his jaw in a powerful uppercut.
Even with his enhancements, the force of the blow was enough to lift him up off the ground and into the air. A copy of the blond came down doing a spinning heel drop towards his chest. Kuma brought his hand up and blocked the kick with his pawed hand, but only blew away only smoke that took the place of Naruto. Landing on his feet, he rubbed his chin as he didn't expect the uppercut to be so heavy. Looking back at Naruto, he noticed that there were two now in front of him.
"He's pretty sturdy," The Naruto clone said as he felt just how hard the man's chin was when he punched it. "You sure we don't need Kurama's chakra?" he asked, figuring that they could probably wrap things up much faster if they borrowed the fox's chakra to fight.
"Nah, we can take our time," the original one said since Dragon hadn't given them the signal that everyone was out. He didn't want to mess up his first major mission after all.
"Multiple abilities?" Kuma questioned as he tried to wrap his head around how someone could use so many unconnected powers. It was unheard of. One explanation was Haki, but he had never heard of Haki making clones. Part of him was happy that someone so strange and powerful had joined the Revolutionary Army instead of the Marines. However, part of him was irritated that he wasn't given a bit of information about just who he was going to be going up against.
"You've never fought someone like me," Naruto replied as the two rushed towards Kuma who got into a stance to counter the two. Slamming his hand into the ground, he used his power to cause a massive shockwave to blow back everything around him. The two Naruto saw this in time to reach by jumping back, out of range of the wave.
"Senpo: Fūton-Daitoppa!" The clone called out as he ran through the hand signs for the jutsu before exhaling a massive gale out of his mouth towards Kuma, enhancing the normally basic wind style jutsu with the senjutsu chakra within him.
"Senpo: Katon-Gokakyu no Jutsu!" The real blond yelled, breathing out a massive fireball that seared towards the Shichibukai. As the two jutsu met, the wind amplified the flames causing the fire to rapidly expand and grow in power.
Kuma held his hands up towards the incoming inferno and began to compress the air around it, trapping the fireball in a massive paw shaped bubble that started to shrink into Kuma's hand. The fireball inside followed suit as it condensed with the air until Kuma held a bright orange paw-bubble in his hands, the flames contained within. "Urususu Shokku" Kuma said as he pushed the bubble away from himself and towards the two blonds.
Naruto's eyes widened as Kuma condensed his entire attack along with the air around it into an attack before throwing it back at him. His clone rushed into action and got in the way of the bubble. As it hit the clone, the air and flames inside rapidly decompressed, resulting in a massive explosion that blew away several buildings and sprayed fire across the area.
"Senpo: Doton-Doryūheki!" Naruto said as he slammed his hand down on the ground, a large wall of earth rose up in front of him to protect him from the Urususu Shokku. His Sage Mode faded as he used the last of its power to reinforce the wall so it could withstand the combined force for the Kumo's attack and his own combined jutsu. Popping one of the two clones he left back to gather Natural Energy, his Sage Mode returned to him as the wall crumbled.
"You underestimated him, had that attack hit you it could have done some real damage," Kurama chastised as he felt that if Naruto had thought things through more, he would have realized that Kuma could realistically just push back his jutsu. Had Naruto's own attack landed against himself, it would have likely caused a bit more damage than either wanted to admit, luckily the clone had sacrificed itself to help muffle the blast.
"I wanted to see if there was a time gap between his pushes like Nagato had, but it seems he can go straight from one to another," Naruto responded, figuring that as long as anything touched Kuma's hands, he could push them back and even condense things with them like he did to his jutsu. Crossing his fingers he created two more clones of himself at his sides as Kuma rushed towards him, thrusting his hand towards the middle blond only for the the two clones to intercept, each grabbing one of his arms and janking them back while the original launched forwards and slammed his fist into Kuma's stomach, sending him flying back.
Slamming his feet into the ground, Kuma planted himself to stop his flight. Looking up he saw the three blonds rushing at him, attempting to flank him from both sides while one ran straight towards him. Raising his arms up, he began to rapidly thrust them at the shinobi, unleashing a barrage of pressurized air bubbles. The three Narutos smirked as they each threw down a red ball that exploded in red smoke.
Kuma's attack repeatedly pierced through smoke, leaving holes until the smoke had been completely blown away but the Narutos had vanished as well. Kuma looked around the area, making sure to keep in mind the area under him as Naruto had already shown that he could attack from underground as well. The blond was proving himself increasingly more tedious to fight against. He had yet to use that attack that blew away Aokiji's ice as well.
"From behind!" Kuma thought as his sensors picked up a sudden movement from behind him. Turning around he saw Naruto throwing a giant shuriken at him, raising his hand he prepared to use Puni against the blade and knock it away. However as his Devil Fruit pushed away the large weapon, a second one came right after, hiding in its shadow that transformed into Naruto holding a Rasengan in each hand.
His eyes widened as he quickly tried to swing his other hand at him but a golden claw of flame-like energy came out from one of the ruined buildings and pulled his arm back. "Senpo:Rasenrengan!" The Naruto before him yelled as his slammed the two spheres into his stomach, blood came bursting from his mouth as the attack tore apart his shirt, pushing directly into his skin. Wind whipped around them as he felt the orbs drilling into him before they exploded, sending him spiraling away into a nearby shop.
The golden arm retreated to a Naruto cloaked in golden-orange energy, his hair lightly spiked up to resemble horns. Joining the two clones, Naruto looked at where Kuma landed with a hard look. Kurama's chakra radiated off him as he waited to see if Kuma would get up or not. He needed something to catch Kuma off guard in order for his Rasenrengan to land, and he doubted that he'd expect his extended chakra arm.
His body tensed as he saw a large red paw-bubble burst out of the dust screen and zoom towards Naruto at incredible speeds. Naruto quickly moved out of the way of the paw but was met with a frenzy of light beams that came out from Kuma's month like a machine gun. Explosions rang about as the beams struck out at random, destroying the two clones and managing to hit the cloaked Naruto with sheer numbers.
Kuma limped out of the ruined building, his shirt in tatters and with two large circular wounds on his stomach where Naruto had hit him. Blood dripped from his chin as he stood tall. Despite having pushed out the pain he felt from the Rasenrengan, the damage he suffered remained and he could tell that a few of his organs had been ruptured. Had he been unable to push out the pain he felt, he likely would be unable to move now.
"You're a tough bastard," Naruto said as he stood back up with a smirk. Despite having been hit a few times, he seemed relatively unharmed thanks to Kurama's chakra cloaking him. "But you're out of your weight class," He said as several chakra arms came out of his back, each one with a large Rasengan in hand. Kuma stood his ground as he prepared to fight against the monster Dragon had sent him.
However as Kuma took another step forwards, he fell down as his legs gave out.
"You stupid pirate! You could have killed us!" The Celestial Dragon yelled as he stepped out of the auction house that had been hit by a stray beam from Kuma. The man walked towards Kuma and aimed his gun at the man's head. "If you can't beat one measly rebel then you're as good as dead!" The man yelled as he went to shoot the injured Kuma in the head.
However before he could pull the trigger, he felt his arm snap back, the sounds of bones breaking filling the air as Naruto crossed the distance in a second and slapped the gun away. The force behind such a simple act had been enough to nearly tear off the man's arm. "How about you shut up," Naruto said, his eyes burning into the egotistical man as he bellowed in pain.
"H-how dare you!? How dare you touch a god!" The man yelled in fury and agony as he held his arm.
"A god?" Naruto asked as he felt annoyed by the man. "I have faced plenty of people who claimed to be gods. People who could blow away entire cities in seconds. People who could drop meteors on a whim. People who could warp reality with their power alone," the glowing blond stated as he recalled everyone he fought who had called themself gods. "Compared to them, you're nothing," Naruto said, having enough of the man.
"Die! Trash like you have no use but as slaves!" the man yelled as he grabbed the gun from the floor with his good arm and shot at Naruto only for the bullet to drop down from his cheek. "H-how?" he stuttered as his Seastone bullet did nothing against the man. It should have killed any Devil Fruit user without fail! The man kept trying to shoot Naruto, but all of his bullets fell to the ground, flattened.
Naruto looked down at the man as he pulled the gun out of his hands and crushed it in his palm. The man paled as he saw his only weapon destroyed and his bodyguard defeated. "Now scram," Naruto growled as the World Noble decided that he would rather not fight against someone who took down a Shichibukai and instead wait for an Admiral to arrive and take care of that scum for him. As he ran back to the auction house, the smell of piss and shit wafted over them as it was clear that the man had lost control of his bowels. "I made him shit himself…"
"He deserved it," Kurama stated as he felt that the man should have died for what he did. The man felt foul. How many lives had he ruined? How many people had he killed? Likely countless…and unlike many of the people they faced in their home reality, he did it all selfishly. Not seeking world peace or to right a wrong, but rather to just show that he was above others.
Above all, Kurama hated people who forced their authority on others. Having been sealed away as a weapon time and time again. Seen as a source of power for humans to tame. Kurama almost felt a personal fury against these 'Celestial Dragons'.
Naruto sighed as he looked at Kuma who laid motionless beside him, "Naruto we're all set," Dragon's voice came through the snail in his watch.
"Just in time," Naruto said as he turned to leave only to come face to face with several Marines who were shaking in their boots as they saw that not only had the glowing man taken out one of the Shichibukai, but he assaulted a World Noble! Many of them felt that it was useless to face the man, but refused to run away as proud Marines.
"Uzumaki Naruto! You are under arrest for acts against the World Government! Surrender and you'll be allowed to live…for now," the man who seemed to be in charge of the Marine squad declared, but wasn't able to promise that Naruto would live for long since he attacked a Celestial Dragon.
"Sorry! But I have to go now!" Naruto said before vanishing in a flash of speed, rushing away from the Marines and towards the Wind Granma much to their surprise.
"Naruto what the hell did you do?!" Dragon's voice yelled through the snail as Marines started to flood throughout the island. "Get here asap! We need to leave before an Admiral shows up!" The leader of the revolution commanded, wanting to deal with an Admiral at the moment. If he did, he'd likely have to go all out against them to make sure that his crew could get out of their range safely.
"Just leave! I'll catch up to you!" Naruto yelled as bullets started to fly around him. His eyes narrowed as a wave of smoke sweeped towards him, forcing him to flip back. The smoke gathered into a man with gray hair smoking two cigars at once. From the outfit he was wearing, he seemed like a higher ranked Marine. Behind him a pink haired woman smoking a cigarette jumped into the roof to join him and the smoke-man.
"Stay safe Naruto," Dragon said, acknowledging that Naruto was willing to let them leave without him in order to keep them safe.
"So who are you two?" Naruto asked as he looked between the man and the woman. From their outfits, it was clear that they were Marines, but of a higher rank than the grunts.
"It's Commanders Smoker and Hina!" The troops below yelled out joy as the two arrived to face him.
"You're under arrest," Smoker said roughly, smoke escaping from his mouth, or maybe he was doing that on purpose with his Devil Fruit? He didn't really know or care. However he didn't particularly feel like dealing with them at the moment.
"Look, my business here isn't with the two of you or the Marines. But if you get in my way, I'll have to push you out," Naruto told them as he was ready to fight against the two commanders. He saw no reason to power down from his Nine-tails Chakra Mode just yet. From what he had just seen, the gray haired man seemed to have eaten a Logia Devil Fruit, supposedly the strongest kind of Devil Fruit.
"It became our business when you assaulted a Celestial Dragon," Smoker said scowling at the glowing blond who just sighed knowing that he would likely be unable to just walk away from the conflict.
"Well, try your best," Naruto said as the two Marines jumped into action, Hina rushing towards him with her arm extended as if attempting to closeline him while Smoker extended his arms towards him, bellowing smoke at him to ensnare the rebel. "Too slow!" the shinobi said as he moved out of the way of Hina, spinning around her and kicking her in the back. His eyes widened as her body bent around his leg, wrapping it in iron.
The smoke moved around Hina as if it were alive and wrapped around Naruto. "Got you," Smoker grunted before he saw a smirk forming on Naruto's face. The commander's eyes widened as his smoke started to twist and swirl around Naruto like a gray storm. Pain shot through his arms from the smoke, like something was grinding against them. "Haki?!" He asked as he knew that one of the few ways to hit a Logia user besides their elemental weakness was through Haki.
Raising his hand, Naruto showed that his Rasengan had been the source of the distortion in the smoke, forcing it to move around due to the wind it was whipping up. "Haki? That's the thing Dragon said could be used to hurt Logias right Kurama?" Naruto asked as he dispersed his Rasengan, the burst of air blowing away Smoker's smoke. Flexing his leg, he shattered the iron that Hina had locked around it with ease.
"I don't sense anything different about you," Kurama replied as he didn't know why Naruto had been able to hit the normally untouchable smoke-man. Dragon had discussed getting Naruto a seastone sword in order to fight against Logias, but getting one was harder than just wanting. Perhaps his chakra was interacting weirdly with their powers? Or maybe it was his senjutsu?
Smoker retracted his smoke back to his physical form, showing that his arms looked like they had been rubbed against the Rasengan. "The hell? He infused Haki into his Devil Fruit?" Smoker questioned as his arms hurt to move from the lacerations all over his skin.
"He broke Hina's cage so easily…" Hina lamented as her iron had been too weak to hold the blond for even a second. She could tell that they were completely outclassed by the revolutionary. He had beaten Kuma, and he had shown them that even with their Devil Fruits, they weren't strong enough to face him in battle. They had no chance against him.
"Damn it…" Smoker growled as he hated feeling so weak against a criminal. He would admit that he underestimated Naruto. Someone who could beat a Shichibukai wasn't a weakling. They had hoped that he'd be exhausted from fighting Kuma, but it seemed that he was still up and ready to go. Below the lower ranked Marines were starting to panic as one of their commanders had been severely injured and the other seemed disheartened.
Naruto looked at the two before turning towards the ocean where the Wind Granma was sailing. "Like I said, my business today wasn't with you," he said as he leaped off the building towards the docks. He knew that an Admiral would be on his way soon and he didn't exactly want to test his luck today.
"Hina we have to keep him busy until Admiral Akainu arrives," Smoker said as his body started to turn to smoke again. However before they could move they sensed a powerful presence washing over them. As Naruto looked back over his shoulders with blood red eyes, they could see the massive silhouette of a long eared fox with nine tails swinging wildly behind it. The pressure was crushing. They could see flashes of instances of them dying against him. Different ways in which he could kill them without breaking a sweat.
By the time that feeling of dread faded, Naruto was gone.
Hina dropped to her knees and vomited, her cigarette extinguished by her puke.
"You didn't have to do that Kurama," Naruto said to the fox within him as they reached the pier.
"They would have kept on coming if I hadn't, at least now we can go without any other interferences," Kurama replied as he admitted that he had used a bit more killing intent than intended. But those two were 'commanders' from what the grunts had said, he figured that they'd be stronger than that.
Running off the docks, he landed on the water and began to run towards the Wind Granma much to the shock of everyone watching. It was rare that a man covered in flames came running around. It was unheard of that they would go running in the ocean!
Reaching the ship, he ran up the side of it and landed on the deck much to the shock of the revolutionaries on board. Dragon walked over to the blond, intrigued by his flaming form. As far as he knew, the Mere Mere no Mi had already been eaten, so he assumed that this was one of Naruto's many other worldly powers. He was rather irate that Naruto had attacked a World Noble, but in the end what was done was done, but he also defended Kuma.
"You were reckless," Dragon commented as he kept an eye on Naruto's form before it seemed to fade away. "But you got the job done," he admitted, having seen that his newest recruit had managed to defeat Kuma in battle. Something that he didn't really expect in reality. He felt bad for his long time friend, it was clear that the finishing move Naruto used had done a rather large amount of internal damage to him. Even after pushing out his pain and fatigue, the injuries had been too much to keep going.
He would have to ask about that new form he showed off later in private. So far no one knew that Naruto was from another universe aside from himself and a few of his top ranking officers. The panic it would cause would likely be unimaginable if it was found out that there existed other worlds.
"I couldn't let that asshole shoot Kuma, even if I was fighting against him he didn't deserve that," Naruto told the dark haired man who nodded in understanding. It was around that time that posters started to drop down from the sky.
Chapter 4
Wind Granma
Looking at the poster, Naruto saw a picture of a dark haired man with freckles wearing an orange hat and no shirt. "Portgas D. Ace, wanted dead or alive," the blond read as he looked over the poster. He did feel a small hit to his pride when he saw that his bounty was actually higher than his one hundred million Beri bounty. "Damn, wonder what he did," he asked as Dragon grabbed one for himself and looked at it with an expressionless look.
"Hm," Dragon hummed as he didn't seem to know how to feel about the poster.
"Someone you know?" Naruto asked, seeing that Dragon didn't look particularly pleased or upset. The man was normally hard to read at face value due to his generally stoic appearance, however using his powers, he could sense that he wasn't angry.
Dragon glanced at Naruto before looking back at the picture of Ace, "Just someone my son knew," he said plainly, figuring that if Naruto was going to be honest with him, he might as well open up a bit in return. The fact that they shared a last name wouldn't go over the heads of most people who knew who he was.
"YOU HAVE A SON?!" Naruto questioned loudly.
"The man appears to be older than your father was when he had you, it's not that big of a shock that he would have a family," Kurama said to his host, irritated by the was just trying to take a nap and it was damn hard with the obnoxious blond speaking so loudly.
"Grumpy fox," The shinobi muttered before turning back to Dragon. "I guess I never really asked if you had a family anywhere. But damn, this guy's bounty is pretty big…" He said, figuring that if a bounty exceeded his by so much then he had to be rather good.
That earned a chuckle from Dragon at the nativity of him thinking that Ace's bounty was actually that big. "You do know that there are people in the world with bounties that are over one billion Beri right?" he asked, knowing that the alien blond wouldn't have any real idea just how much money the Marines would be willing to pay out for the head of an Emperor, their top officers, or even his own head.
"BILLIONS?!" Naruto shouted with widened eyes.
"Hey! Why don't you two stop talking about work and come celebrate with us the freedom of our comrades!" One of the revolutionaries yelled as he came over flushed with two mugs filled with beer and handed one to each of the men. "Loosen up Dragon! We showed those assholes that they're not untouchable! Hell, you saw what Naruto did to that bastard's arm?! I thought it was gonna come clean off!" He exclaimed as he had managed to catch Naruto swatting the gun out of his hand.
Dragon sighed before taking a sip of his beer and smiling at the young blond, "I guess we are due to celebrate a mission accomplished, even if there were a few hiccups along the way," the man said, earning a cheer from his more intoxicated allies. "Let's relax for the night, we'll have time to talk tomorrow," Dragon told Naruto with a small smile on his face as the two joined the rest of the crew. Not knowing the storm that was coming their way.
Marineford
Looking out over the ocean, a tall man with a black afro and a long braided beard sighed as he looked down at the two posters he had in his hands. His outfit appeared to be of a high ranking Marine with several decorations dotting his left side with a white long coat over it all. It had been a few days since the incident at the Sabaody Archipelago where a World Noble had been seriously injured and publicly embarrassed.
He felt like he would never hear the end of it from his higher ups. How the man responsible should be brought to justice immediately. But that risked going into an up front conflict with the Revolutionary Army. Something that he was certain would end in their favor, but would likely result in a massive amount of casualties on their side.
The two pictures on the wanted poster had one thing in common between the two. In both…the men appeared to be on fire. Something that should have been impossible with how Devil Fruits worked at the moment. "Uzumaki Naruto," the man said looking at the picture of the flaming blond, his bangs spiked up to resemble horns. He could see the cross shaped pupils in his eyes.
The teen had appeared out of nowhere.
No criminal background.
No place of birth.
Nothing at all.
The Revolutionary Army had out of nowhere showed up with someone who could not only stand against one of the Shichibukai, but win. Someone who had seemingly been able to use multiple Devil Fruit abilities without much trouble. What had been reported to him seemed like something out of a fairytale. They were lucky, and the augmentations to Kuma's eyes had allowed him to record the entire battle against the strange blond.
He went against everything they knew about the world. Eating more than one Devil Fruit was impossible as far as they knew. Anyone who had tried had died a horrific death as a result. Yet here was someone who could clone themselves, control the wind, breath fire, create balls of energy, and swapping places with other objects. Several of those powers already had users. Hearing a knock on his door, he returned to his desk and put the two posters down.
"Come in," Sengoku said loudly as he sat down in his chair.
The door opened to reveal Smoker with his heavily bandaged arms. The Fleet Admiral recalled that Smoker had been one of the few Marines who openly engaged Uzumaki Naruto after he defeated Kuma and broke Saint Zafos arm to put it mildly. Normally he would have chastised them for engaging someone so potentially dangerous recklessly, however they had been able to learn that he seemed to be able to use Haki.
His orb attack had seriously hurt Smoker when he tried to wrap around him in smoke form. So not only could he use Haki, but he was advanced enough to apply it to his Devil Fruit. And that fruit was another matter entirely as they had no knowledge of what fruit could give the user so many abilities. Given the implications it might be just as dangerous as Whitebeard's Gura Gura no Mi or the fabled Hito Hito no Mi, Model:Nika.
"Commander Smoker, I see you're up already," The Fleet Admiral said, feeling that the Commander should be taking more time to recover from the damage done to his arms before returning to duty.
"I don't have time to rest, not when I let that criminal go," Smoker said, feeling determined to finish what he started and bring Naruto to justice. He had been caught off guard when the glowing blond revealed that he had Haki and was able to hurt him despite being a smoke-man. He wouldn't make that mistake again. Smoker wasn't stupid, he knew that at the moment he was severely outclassed against him. It meant that he would have to train harder than before in order to close that gap.
Sengoku pinched the bridge of his nose when he heard that Smoker wanted to resume duty so soon. "You will rest until you're fully recovered Commander. It doesn't matter how much drive you have to bring someone to justice if they'll just kill you because you're still recovering," Sengoku commanded as he wasn't about to lose a Marine with as much potential as Smoker. His Logia abilities alone made him a commendable fighter, being able to subdue most enemies who lacked Haki. His potential would only grow as he trained and moved up the ranks.
Smoker clenched his fists and prepared to retort but one look from the Fleet Admiral stopped the words from slipping from his lips. "Yes sir," he said reluctantly.
"Now, tell me anything you saw during your fight with Uzumaki Naruto," the afroed man ordered.
Smoker recalled his brief encounter with the rebel. "It was almost as if he didn't know why he hurt me. When he created that orb in his hand, he seemed to know that it would create wind, but seemed confused when I was in pain. He also seemed to be rather reckless, he attacked Hina without knowing her Devil Fruit's ability. But he's also extremely strong, shattering her iron cage around his leg by flexing it," he said before recalling the final moments where he stunned both him and Hina with a look. "He also seems to have Haoshoku Haki, it made…us see this mirage of a fox with nine-tails standing behind him. Hina told me, and we both saw the same thing. That monstrous fox, killing us time and time again," Smoke included.
That final statement made Sengoku think. Haoshoku Haki had many applications. It had been used in many diverse ways by pirates and marines alike. From knocking out those weaker than them to infusing it into their weapons to make them even stronger. But to use it to inflict visions of death…that was unheard of. "Was there anything that you noticed that might link his abilities together?" he asked, hoping that Smoker might have some idea of what Naruto's Devil Fruit was.
"He wasn't actually on fire," Smoker said as he had noticed one thing during their battle. "Despite looking like he was covered in fire, it wasn't hot at all. More so, he had all these strange markings on him," He told his superior who listened to what the Commander had to say with rampant attention.
"Hmmmm, well that certainly is interesting," Sengoku replied as he wondered what it could be. They didn't have enough information at the moment to make any conclusions, and it would be dangerous to tell their men something that might not even be true in the end.
Smoker looked at the poster on the table and saw the image of the blond, coated in his 'flames'. "Three hundred million Beri?" Smoker asked as he saw that Naruto's bounty had tripled from its previous one. An extreme increase for a second bounty.
Sengoku nodded his head, "For someone as formidable as him, a higher bounty was needed to attract stronger bounty hunters. Plus having attacked a Celestial Dragon has incurred the wrath of the Gorosei," The Marine leader told Smoker who took a drag of his cigars as he stared down at the picture. The cross shaped eyes piercing into him, that smirk mocking him. He swore to himself that he would be the one who would bring Uzumaki Naruto to justice.
Getting up, Smoker turned to leave the room despite not being dismissed by the Fleet Admiral. He needed to train harder if he wanted to beat the strange rebel. Sengoku didn't stop him as he knew that nothing he said would stop Smoker from going off training.
He had already sent out someone to chase down the blond so as long as Smoker didn't do anything beyond reason.
Wind Granma
Naruto looked out to the sea as they rushed forward into a part of the ocean that was called the 'New World' by the rest of the crew. Apparently one of their ships had gotten into conflict with a group called the Big Mom Pirates who were under the leadership of one of the Yonkos. It was disastrous turn of events for them after the high of saving the slaves from the auction house. Their forces were still scattered across the ocean and unable to drop everything to respond to the emergency.
"I can't believe we're gonna go up against Big Mom…I heard her crew is made up of her monstrous children," one of the sailors of the Wind Granma said, worried about their safety when going up against such a fearsome foe. Marines were one thing, most of them were regular humans. But they weren't talking about regular humans then it came to the Big Mom Pirates.
"You guys worry too much," Naruto said as he walked over to join the conversation. "You have me and Dragon on board," the blond said with a contagious sense of confidence as he felt pretty good about his ability to fight against the powers of this world after beating Kuma without having to go all out against him. He had yet to reveal Kurama's full power, let alone the true strength of his Six Paths Sage Mode.
The group turned towards the newest member of their army, feeling a bit more secure with the blond around. While he'd only joined a few weeks ago, Naruto had already proven himself when he helped save their allies from the auction house. "You're right, but still you have to realize that the Big Mom Pirates have several pirates who are just as strong if not stronger than Kuma. We're going to have to be very careful when engaging," one of the women in the group said in response. She knew that Naruto was strong, he had proven that time and time again, but just because he was strong didn't mean they all were.
Dragon came out of his cabin holding a small Den Den Mushi in hand. Looking at his face, anyone could tell that he was rather stressed out. This had been the first time that Naruto had seen the revolutionary leader seem so irritated. "Sabo managed to get a call in, they're being attacked by one of Big Mom's Sweet Commanders, Charlotte Smoothie…" Dragon informed the crew of the Wind Granma who paled at the revelation. They had been expecting to take on maybe a few ships that had been off on their own, not one of the strongest members.
"Why is she attacking them?" Naruto asked, wondering why they would just attack a ship without being provoked.
"We don't know," Dragon replied as Sabo didn't have enough time to explain the full situation to him before the call was cut off. Even while they talked, he could hear the sounds of fighting and explosions going off in the background. "Regardless, we need to protect our allies. Even if we don't know the reason, losing so many people is unacceptable," He said, willing to risk his own life to protect those of everyone on those ships. The gale that pushed their ship forwards roared around them, rushing to battle as quickly a possible.
Naruto walked up to the rail and looked off, using Kurama's ability to sense the conflict off in the distance. He could feel the despair coming from the weaker side. They were outnumbered badly. They wouldn't be able to hold out long enough for them to arrive, even with the wind blasting them forward. If they didn't hurry up then there was a good chance that all of them would die or be captured. "I'll go on ahead then," Naruto announced as he wouldn't let people die needlessly. "Being able to run on water, I should be able to make it there much faster than the ship," he told the tattooed man who contemplated the idea.
A Sweet Commander was likely far stronger than Kuma. Smoothie was likely the third strongest member of the Big Mom Pirates behind her older brother Katakuri and Big Mom herself. However Naruto had yet to fail him. Stopping Aokiji's attack and defeating Kuma were no small feats. He was certain that Naruto would be able to at the very least stall them.
"If you can make it to them before us then go! Do whatever you need to do to save them," Dragon said, willing to do anything to save Sabo and his men.
"Right!" Naruto responded with a smirk as a golden aura coated his entire body, however this time it was different from the one he used against Kuma and those two Marines. This one had a black bodysuit under the golden-orange coat. His skin was still the same color but his hair was spiked up and glowing. His eyes turned orange with those same cross-shaped pupils but without the orange markings around the eyelids. Lastly, his whisker-marks thickened into six solid bars. And behind him, ten black orbs formed out of thin air.
He didn't want to risk being too slow and showing up a second too late. No, he would go all out and fly there as quickly as possible. "That's different from before," Dragon noted as his eyes were similar to how they were when he countered Aokiji, but his body glowed like his prior form. Perhaps they were separate abilities that he was able to mix together.
Throwing back a smirk, Naruto took off into the air much to the shock of everyone on the ship.
"Is there anything that guy can't do?" one of the men asked as he scratched the back of his head. He let out a laugh before looking at the rest of the people gathered around, "Back in positions! We can't just let Naruto do all the work!" He shouted as everyone got to work trying to speed the ship up. Dragon in my meantime just stared off at the glowing form of Naruto as he streaked through the sky like a comet.
Sabo was kicked through a wall, grunting as a pick of wood jabbed through his side. Looking up he glared at his attacker. Her stark white, wavy hair. Her exotically long legs. The tattoo of a rose running up her right thigh. It was Charlotte Smoothie, fourteenth daughter of Big Mom and her thirty fifth overall child. In her hand was her sword that dripped a light blue liquid.
The blond looked severely dehydrated as Smoothie had managed to cut him a few times, draining his body of its fluids. His pipe had been twisted and juiced by Smoothie, leaving it useless in battle. Tearing his coat off him, he stood up and picked up a saber that was laying near him. He needed to hold her off until Dragon showed up with reinforcements to help them fend off the Big Mom Pirates.
"Just give up, you've lost," Smoothie said as she approached him. She towered over him thanks to her long legs and the amount of juice that she had squeezed out of his allies, leaving husks scattered around the battlefield. "You'll die if you keep fighting. You lost the moment you stole those cookies," the long-legged woman said, raising her sword up to strike down the blond teen. She didn't particularly want to fight against these guys, but they had taken her mother's treats, and she demanded they be captured or killed.
"This whole thing is over cookies!?" An irate voice yelled before Smoothie's Kenbunshoku Haki kicked in, seeing an attack coming towards her at extreme speeds.
"Senpo:Dynamic Entry!"
Leaning back she saw a gold and black blur sped past where her head was but landed on the boat. But before she could reply, she felt an enormous pressure slamming against the side of her face, forcing her off her feet and flying towards the glowing man. 'I dodged?!' she questioned in her mind as she was certain that she evaded the attack, but it still felt like a heavy kick had slammed into her cheek.
The man turned around, holding a glowing blue orb in hand that he moved to thrust into her stomach, but using her sword, she released a mast of fluids to propel her away from him. Her hand went up to her cheek where she had been struck, still confused as to what had hit her. Normally her Haki would warn her of an incoming attack, but she hadn't sensed anything before the strike hit. However, looking at the man, she recognized him from the wanted posters.
"Uzumaki Naruto," She muttered, recalling the image of strange cross shaped pupils and those glowing, horn-like bangs.
"That's the name…woah you're huge!" Naruto yelled, noticing just how large Smoothie was at the moment. She was taller than even Kuma! "What is with the people in this world being so massive…" he grunted as he felt short all over again.
Sabo smiled as he recognized the name of the glowing being. Dragon had informed him about the strange man he had found floating in the sea. Someone who had powers like a Devil Fruit user and yet could float in water without drowning. Two of his men came and helped him away while Smoothie was distracted with the newcomer.
Smoothie bristled slightly at the comment about her size. Typically it wasn't something people who confronted her just blurted out. "So yet another power," Smoothie said as she realized that he had flown to them. Word had reached their crew about the newest juggernaut of the Revolutionary Army after his defeat of Bartholomew Kuma. Multiple abilities and strong Haki. A worrisome enemy to say the least should he grow stronger.
"Look, we don't need to fight," Naruto said as he powered down to show that he was willing to talk things out without any more conflict between the two groups. However if one would look into his eyes, they would notice that they were still orange with cross-like pupils, ready to fight if things went south. "Especially if this is all over…cookies…" he added on, still confused why they would go so far for something so stupid. He wondered if the Kage back in his home reality were this petty as well at times.
"You don't seem to understand how serious this is," Smoothie said, knowing that from the outside, causing this whole conflict over cookies might seem insane, but to their crew their mother's hunger was a top priority. The last thing they needed was her going on a rampage and killing someone because she got hungry. "These cookies had been specially ordered by our crew, when your little group raided a Marine base, you ate them," she explained as the Marines had confiscated the treats when they learned that the baker had been working with pirates, only for the Revolutionary Army to come in and eat them during an attack.
However, the look on Naruto's face showed that he still didn't really get it.
"If it helps, I'll go with you guys in exchange for ending this whole mess and I'll talk to your captain myself if that's what you want," He offered, willing to let himself go with them in exchange for Sabo and the remaining members being allowed to go free. Unlike the rest of them, he wasn't restricted to travel by ship. He could fly and run on water if he needed to. Worst case…he could always unleash Kurama's full power.
Smoothie considered the offer. It would certainly make her life easier if they didn't have to continue this mess. If Naruto had been around then that meant that Dragon was nearing as well as they two had always been spotted near one another. That meant reinforcements against them and she didn't want to try her luck against the most dangerous criminal in the world. Naruto seemed pretty strong, meaning if her mom took his soul…he would make a rather strong Homie. "Very well," she said, accepting his offer. "But you must wear seastone cuffs the entire journey," Smoothie added, feeling it was needed to negate his Devil Fruit in case he tried to run away from them.
"Sure," he replied with a smile.
Sabo looked on with horror on his face as Naruto seemingly sacrificed himself for them.
"Hey, Sabo right?" Naruto asked, looking at his fellow blond. "Tell Dragon not to come after me, I'll be fine. Just focus on saving anyone you can," he requested, hoping that it would cut off any possibility that Dragon would think of chasing after them to save him. The blond reluctantly nodded his head in response.
"Stay safe," Sabo said to Naruto. He was angry at himself. He had let his crew get caught off guard and defeated by the Big Mom Pirates. Now this man he had never met but he had heard so much about was letting himself get captured for their sake. The only saving grace in his mind was that he was certain that the pirates didn't know Naruto's secret. That he had no Devil Fruit and those cuffs would be useless on him.
"Just leave it to me," Naruto said giving Sabo a thumbs up.