That's right.
Just a moment ago, Uchiha Hikari had popped back to the Naruto world and brought Naruto along from the Hidden Leaf Village.
It was Naruto's first time in another world—heck, his first time even leaving the village—so while he was a bit nervous, his eyes sparkled with curiosity.
That same curiosity was mirrored in Tanjiro and the others.
The iron-headed kid immediately dragged his sister over to Naruto, introducing himself with a booming voice:
"Hey! You must be Mr. Ever-Bringing-His-Sister's son, right? Nice to meet you! I'm Tanjiro Kamado, and this is my sister, Nezuko!"
"Uh, h-hi…" Naruto stammered, a bit overwhelmed.
"Remember me, little Naruto? It's been, what, half a year since we last saw each other?" Bulma chimed in, her tone warm but composed.
"…Big Sis Bulma! Hey!" Naruto grinned.
Compared to Bulma's relatively calm greeting, Yamato was a whirlwind of excitement. She scooped Naruto up into a bear hug, rubbing her cheek against his spiky blonde hair. "Whoa! I finally get to meet Minato's kid! You're so cute! Just call me Yamato Namikaze!"
"Urk… Hikari-nee, save me! I can't breathe…" Naruto flailed, his face practically buried in the valley of Yamato's chest.
Seeing the little blonde whirlwind struggling for air, Hikari sighed, stepped in, and gently pried him free while calming Yamato's overzealous energy.
Funnily enough, in the original One Piece story, Yamato had pulled a similar stunt once—with Momonosuke. Back then, she'd been so obsessed with being "Kozuki Oden" that she treated Momo like her own son. By comparison, this face-in-chest assault on Naruto was downright restrained.
"…Alright, looks like everyone's pretty much here," Hikari said, once the initial excitement settled down.
She glanced around at the group gathered on the deck, then gave Bulma a nod. "Time to get started, Captain Bulma." She put a playful emphasis on "Captain."
"…Ahem, hearing you call me that actually feels kinda embarrassing," Bulma said, her cheeks flushing slightly. Still, she stuck to the plan, activating the [Group Live Stream] and drawing her sword, raising it high. "Alright, everyone! As of this moment, today, the 'Dimensional Pirate Crew' is officially formed! …Set sail!"
---
A flag bearing the emblem of the Dimensional Pirate Crew was slowly hoisted.
The anchor was raised.
With a gentle sway of the deck, the retrofitted destroyer began gliding out to sea.
As the cool, salty sea breeze brushed past, everyone—Hikari included—wore expressions of wonder. Tanjiro and Nezuko, being the youngest, dragged Naruto to the edge of the deck, leaning over the railing to gawk at the ocean, chattering excitedly.
"Hey, you kids, be careful! Don't fall overboard," Hikari called out from behind.
If this were just a normal sea, falling in wouldn't be a big deal. But this was the One Piece world, home to Sea Kings and all sorts of massive sea monsters. Tanjiro had grown a lot stronger since his Dragon Ball training, but against those beasts? It was hard to say who'd come out on top. And with Nezuko and Naruto—two little ones—by his side, Hikari had no interest in diving into a sea monster's stomach to fish them out.
"I'll keep an eye on them," Yotsuya Miko volunteered. "I don't have much else to do, and if anything happens, I'll let you know right away, Miss Hikari."
"Sounds good," Hikari said with a smile.
She stretched her neck, then waved to Esdeath and a few others nearby. "C'mon, Esdeath. Let's check out the gravity training room. Eri, you coming? What about you, Akame, Leone?"
"Count me in!" Esdeath replied eagerly.
---
The gravity training room on the Blue Planet was something Hikari had tried out on her last visit.
How to describe it… It was spacious, for one. And fully equipped with all kinds of training gear: dumbbells, punching bags, parallel bars, treadmills, rowing machines, and even a small swimming pool.
The gravity itself was adjustable, ranging from 2x to a whopping 100x. To prevent accidents, anything above 5x required a specific voice command and password.
At first, Hikari worried that Eri and the others might struggle to adapt. So she started them off at the lowest setting—2x gravity—to gauge their reactions before deciding whether to crank it up.
To her surprise, 2x gravity was a breeze for them. They barely seemed fazed.
Well, it made sense. Eri was a royal-class hybrid, Akame had been trained as an assassin for the Empire since childhood, and even Leone, the weakest of the group, wielded the Lionelle Teigu, giving her an exceptional physique. As for Esdeath? Hikari figured she could handle at least 10x gravity without breaking a sweat. 2x was basically nothing to her.
"Hm… There's a cabinet over there with weighted sandbags for training, ranging from 200 kilos to 10 tons. Feel free to use them if you want," Hikari said. "But don't overdo it. If you tear a muscle, I don't have enough Senzu Beans to fix everyone."
---
Time slipped by.
Before they knew it, two or three hours had passed, and the clock on the wall showed noon. The intense training session left Hikari and the others drenched in sweat—even Esdeath, with her top-tier physique, was no exception.
"Let's hit the showers and change before heading back out. I remember there's a bathroom around here," Hikari said.
She'd used the bathroom once before, but that time she was alone, and the training session was short, so she'd only done a quick rinse. This time, though…
"Oh? Only two showerheads in here?" Esdeath remarked, eyeing the small bathroom.
"Yeah, this one's just for quick rinses. There's a bigger communal bath near the living quarters," Hikari explained.
"I see," Esdeath said with a nod. Her gaze subtly flicked to Hikari's sweat-dampened face and the delicate collarbones peeking out from her collar. A sly smile curved her lips. "Guess we'll have to go in pairs to shower… We're all pretty sweaty. Need a hand scrubbing your back, Hikari?"
"Uh…" Hikari hesitated for a moment.
By then, Esdeath had already undone the top two buttons of her shirt, revealing a glimpse of her impressive curves. "I could use someone to scrub my back, too. Mind helping me out?"
"…Sure," Hikari said with a nod.