"You're here looking for your brother, Goku? He also has a tail."
Under the pressure of Piccolo's overwhelming power, Raditz surrendered easily. He'd been ready to die in battle, but when living was an option, who would choose death?
'A human with a tail?'
Piccolo, carrying all of King Piccolo's memories, immediately thought of Son Goku the moment he heard that Saiyans were defined by their tails.
"He has a new name? You know my brother?" Raditz asked Quickly.
"I think I do know your brother." Piccolo swept his gaze over Raditz, a flicker of disdain crossing his face. "Your brother is far stronger than you."
Recalling past events he'd rather forget, Piccolo scoffed, then continued. "You have two choices. One, I kill you."
The cold killing intent radiating from Piccolo made Raditz shiver.
"Two, Submit to me. Become a subordinate of the Great Demon King."
"I choose two! I choose two!" Raditz blurted out without hesitation.
'Making Goku's older brother into a subordinate would be quite interesting,' Piccolo thought. He glanced at the Saiyan. His strength was lacking, but his potential seemed decent enough to develop.
The old Raditz would have rather died than submit. But after that battle, he had long since lost his Saiyan pride. The moment he heard he wouldn't have to die, he agreed instantly. As for the price of betraying Vegeta, hadn't they just seen Cui, whose combat power rivaled Vegeta's, get effortlessly destroyed?
Piccolo's expression remained unchanged, but the information he'd gathered stirred waves in his mind.
'Saiyan? Namekian? Hmph. So Son and I are both aliens. But none of that matters. I am who I am. I am the Great Demon King Piccolo.'
"Shura." Piccolo's gaze fell on the dying vampire.
Shura struggled to look up. "King."
He knew what Piccolo's presence here meant. Piccolo glanced at him, then turned away.
"Commit suicide."
Traitors to the Demon King could only die. However, hearing this, Shura breathed a sigh of relief. For demons, self-execution was the most merciful death.
A burst of crimson light flashed, and Shura vanished forever.
The surviving demons in the ruined city lay prostrated on the ground, trembling, waiting for Piccolo's judgment. In a sense, they were traitors too. But Piccolo had little interest in eliminating these low-level beings. He was a Demon King, not a tyrant.
"My king!" Devilman descended from the sky, carrying the Mummy.
Raditz couldn't measure their power, but his Saiyan intuition told him these two were dangerous. The Mummy couldn't even fly, yet his raw power already surpassed Raditz's.
"I arrived too late. Please forgive me, your speed was simply too fast," Devilman said hastily.
Piccolo waved a hand, indicating he didn't mind. "Come out. I know you're nearby."
"Piccolo." Naruto's figure slowly materialized from empty space.
"You've been lurking nearby this whole time!" The moment Piccolo saw Naruto, his face turned from green to an even darker shade of green.
The past few years in Naruto's gravity space had been brutal. Besides occasionally tossing bizarre monsters inside, Naruto had made them fight terrifying aliens. Their strength had grown rapidly, but they barely survived each bout.
"Here, take this." Naruto ignored Piccolo's glare. He pulled out a sleeping four-year-old child and tossed him over.
"Who's this kid?" Piccolo caught the child softly. "Don't tell me he's your illegitimate son. He doesn't look anything like you."
"He's Son Goku's son," Naruto said directly. "His name is Son Gohan."
"Goku's child?" Piccolo examined the boy's face carefully. He did resemble Goku. "What do you want me to do with him?"
'Son Goku that's my brothers new name, right? My nephew?' Raditz finally learned his brother's Earth name. He took a curious look at Gohan too. He didn't look much like himself, but he did resemble their old man. Why did he seem so weak, though? If Kakarot was that strong, shouldn't his child be strong too?
Naruto changed the subject. "In one year, two powerful Saiyans will arrive. They're Raditz's comrades."
Piccolo looked at Raditz, who nodded frantically. Raditz was inexplicably confident that Vegeta would come to Earth to avenge him. Vegeta and Nappa would indeed come, but definitely not to avenge him. If they learned Raditz had defected to a Namekian, Vegeta's pride would drive him to personally purge the traitor.
Piccolo withdrew his gaze and turned back to Gohan.
"So you want me to train this kid? To deal with the Saiyans a year from now?"
Before Naruto could speak, Raditz blurted out, "Impossible. Though Vegeta and Nappa are powerful, Vegeta is at best on Cui's level. He absolutely can't match the King Piccolo." Raditz had quickly fallen into character.
Naruto smiled faintly. "In their normal state, they indeed aren't his match. But Saiyans have mastered a technique that can instantly increase their power tenfold. The Oozaru transformation."
"The strongest Saiyan's combat power is 18,000. If multiplied by ten, his combat power will break through 180,000. Piccolo, such power exceeds even yours."
"The Oozaru transformation is powerful, but it has many limitations, it can never be a match for the King." Raditz was about to explain more, but under Naruto's stare, his voice gradually faded.
The transformation was one of Vegeta's trump cards, but because of the moon requirement, he rarely treated it as his ultimate weapon. The most critical flaw was the tail, if severed, the user reverted to normal.
"So you tricked me again." Piccolo stared at Naruto, his expression flat.
Naruto threw his hands up innocently. "You should know I've spent the last few years training in the universe. I've been to at least eight hundred planets, maybe more, so I know a thing or two about what's out there..."
'So that's why he knew Vegeta's battle power,' Piccolo thought. As one of Frieza's generals, Vegeta's battle power wasn't a secret, even the grunts knew it.
Two names in Naruto's account had captured all of Raditz's attention. One was 'Lord Slug,' the famed ruler of the Dark Galaxy, a being even the Frieza Force dared not provoke lightly.
'What? Lord Slug was actually defeated?'
Hearing Naruto casually describe his battle with Lord Slug, Raditz look with shock. His gaze toward Naruto carried a deep sense of dread. He knew the man was stronger than himself, Nappa, and Vegeta, but just how strong, he couldn't begin to imagine.
"In about a year, Frieza will bring his forces to your homeland, Planet Namek," Naruto said.
Based on the Frieza Force's pattern of invading and selling planets, leading an army to Namek wouldn't be to help it develop.
"What does that have to do with me?" Piccolo asked coldly.
Naruto shrugged. "Nothing. I just thought you should know."
Piccolo fell silent for a moment. "How strong is that guy?"
Both Piccolo and Kami cared deeply about their origins and Planet Namek. This was evident even in the original timeline.
Seeing Piccolo ask, Naruto's lips curved slightly. He answered seriously, "He's far stronger than me. At least ten times stronger."
At the same time, he added silently in his heart, 'In my base form.'
Hearing this, Piccolo's expression grew heavy. This was the first time since meeting Naruto that he had heard him admit someone was superior. He asked the crucial question, "Why would such a powerful being set his sights on Namek?"
Naruto held up a single finger. "Possessing a treasure makes you guilty."
Why would Frieza target Namek? The Dragon Balls.
"Planet Namek has a Porunga even more powerful than Earth's Shenron. Do you think Frieza wouldn't be tempted?"
Piccolo immediately shot back, "That kind of thing can't grant wishes beyond the maker's ability."
"But Frieza wouldn't believe it."
Even if Frieza only half-believed the rumors, he would definitely verify them himself. At that time, Planet Namek would surely face disaster. And while wishes couldn't exceed the creator's power, something like eternal youth was still possible. That alone was worth Frieza making the trip personally.
As long as Frieza existed, the legend of the Dragon Balls would eventually reach his ears.
"How would you know something like that?" Piccolo asked.
"This universe is bigger than you can imagine. Countless races possess miraculous abilities. It's not strange that some can see the future."
There were indeed races that could see the future, like the Kanassans. Seeing the future sounded powerful, but it wasn't always a gift. The future could change. If an ordinary person saw a tragedy but lacked the power to stop it, the ability became nothing but torment.
Piccolo nodded, convinced. Naruto had no reason to lie to him. More importantly, Piccolo trusted him.
"Follow Piccolo well. The moment you submitted to him, your fate already changed." Naruto suddenly patted Raditz's shoulder.
When their eyes met, Raditz felt a shiver run through his spine. His fear of the man who had taken down Lord Slug and claimed to see the future only deepened.
Still, he couldn't help asking, "What would have happened if my fate hadn't changed?"
"You'd die." Raditz fell silent.
After a pause, Naruto added, "And you'd die completely without value. You'd only appear in two episodes."
Without bothering with the sulking Saiyan, he turned back to Piccolo. "Train Gohan well. He'll become a decent warrior. See you in a year."
With a wave of his hand, Naruto vanished.
Piccolo stared at the empty space for a few seconds, then shifted his gaze to the sleeping Gohan, lost in thought.
Raditz asked cautiously, "You're not planning to eat him, are you?"
After all, the kid was his nephew. Compared to the early Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz actually cared slightly more about their comrades.
Faced with Piccolo's cold glare, Raditz forced out a nervous laugh. "I'm just joking."
Piccolo spoke faintly. "Since he says he has potential, I'll give raising him a try. The son of the hero who saved the world? Hmph. From now on, your identity is the apprentice of the Demon King."
He extended two fingers and pointed at Gohan. In an instant, Gohan's clothes transformed into a training uniform. Printed on the back was neither "Son" nor "Turtle," but a large demonic character.
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