The weather was perfect—sunny skies, not a cloud in sight.
Over the vast East Blue, more than thirty pirate ships sailed smoothly.
And on these ships—normally filled with lawless rogues—every pirate was diligently working for once.
Each time they passed the blond youth, their hearts skipped a beat.
"How many captains are there now...?"
One pirate gulped and looked at his companion beside him.
The other man twitched and replied, "I counted earlier. We passed thirty-two different captains already… scared the hell out of me."
Both men had bitter expressions.
Back when Krieg was in charge, they could slack off, drink, and pillage nearby villages.
But ever since Uzumaki Naruto took over, their lives became pure suffering.
Not only were they sailing nonstop to some unknown destination, they couldn't even slack off a second without running into their new captain.
"Think there's a chance we could just…"
One pirate made a throat-slitting gesture, his eyes flashing with a trace of killing intent.
They were pirates after all—used to doing whatever they wanted. No way they'd tolerate this kind of constant surveillance. They'd killed a captain before—what's one more?
His partner slapped him across the head in panic. "Are you an idiot?! He's got a 300 million bounty! Look over there—"
He pointed ahead to one of Naruto's shadow clones.
That clone was holding a sky-blue sphere that began to morph. The edges slowly stretched and began forming what looked like a blue spinning shuriken.
But the chakra was clearly unstable.
Just before it exploded, the clone casually hurled it into the sea.
"Failed again. Shaping wind chakra is harder than expected… I'll need to be more precise…" the clone muttered.
The instant the Rasenshuriken hit the ocean, it exploded—launching water dozens of meters high.
A violent shockwave swept over the surface, creating a small-scale tsunami.
"Hissss…"
The two pirates turned ghostly pale and stopped talking immediately.
Time passed quickly.
After two full days and nights of nonstop training from nearly 2,000 shadow clones…
"It's done."
Naruto looked at the blue shuriken in his palm and smiled.
"Fūton: Rasenshuriken (Wind Style: Rasengan Shuriken)."
It looked like a shuriken, but it was no simple throwing star—it was built from wind release.
At its core, it was still a Rasengan, but it had undergone a wind chakra transformation.
Though spherical in shape, it housed billions of microscopic wind blades capable of slicing through cells.
"This jutsu's seriously dangerous… It's basically a cellular virus…"
Naruto exhaled deeply. He'd shredded countless of his own cells training for this forbidden technique.
If it weren't for his current enhanced physique, he'd probably be bedridden for years.
"Captain, we've arrived!"
Krieg Pirates' navigator ran up with excitement. "Captain, we've reached Cocoyashi Village!"
"We're here?"
Naruto raised a brow, then casually tossed the Rasenshuriken away and stepped toward the edge of the deck.
BOOOOM!!
The ocean exploded with a tidal surge over a hundred meters high.
Two Krieg ships weren't fast enough to dodge and were instantly smashed to splinters.
The navigator turned pale as a sheet.
Naruto didn't care. To him, these pirates were scum anyway—just temporarily useful.
He looked at the distant island, raising a brow.
"Not bad at all…"
The island was lush and green, with visible villages and common folk nearby.
It was close to the sea, and plenty of villagers were out fishing.
Most notably, at the village center was a large grove filled with orange trees.
"Alright. Tell everyone to disembark."
With that, Naruto leapt from the ship onto the island.
The pirates cheered, thinking they were about to raid the village, and hurried off the ships after him.
The villagers, seeing them approach, went pale and scattered in panic.
In the ocean nearby, a blue-skinned fishman frowned as he watched.
"The Krieg Pirates… such a powerful crew, why would they show up on a remote island like this?"
"I need to inform Arlong right away…"
He dove beneath the waves and vanished into the depths.
"Pirates! Pirates are coming!!"
"Run! There are so many pirates!!"
"Damn it, it's the Krieg Pirates—they're worth tens of millions in bounty! Why are they attacking our little village?"
"Quick, tell Arlong! This is his territory—we pay protection fees every year!"
"No use! Even the fishmen retreated—they don't want to clash with the Krieg Pirates…"
Chaos engulfed Cocoyashi Village.
Naruto spotted some familiar figures in the crowd—like the village sheriff who looked after Nami.
The man stood trembling at the village entrance, clutching a rifle.
Naruto ignored him and walked up.
The sheriff's face was pale, his body shaking—but he forced himself to speak:
"P-Pirate-sama… This village is under Arlong's protection… We're part of his territory."
Naruto nodded. "Good. I'm here for him. Let me through."
They're together?!
The sheriff's heart sank. He quickly added in a low voice,
"S-sir… We already pay Arlong every year… We really don't have anything left…"
"I'm not here for money," Naruto said calmly. "I'm looking for a girl named Nami."
Even worse…
The sheriff felt despair wash over him.
He knew that Nami often left the village to steal money in hopes of freeing Cocoyashi… and now she'd offended a pirate of this level?
Naruto saw the man's hopeless expression and shook his head.
"You're really good at jumping to conclusions."
Not bothering to explain further, he stepped into the village.
At that moment, a girl with bright orange hair ran over, breathing heavily, chest heaving as she shouted:
"Pirate-sama! I have money! Please… just don't hurt the people of this village!!"
(End of Chapter)
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