"Damn it!"
While Luffy is usually... to put it nicely, straightforward, and to put it bluntly, a bit simple-minded-
But in reality, he wasn't stupid.
When faced with genuine humiliation, he could get just as angry as anyone else.
"Gomu Gomu no... Bazooka!"
The moment he saw Naruto tank his punch with his face, Luffy immediately realized just how formidable his opponent's physical defense was. Without hesitation, he switched from a single-handed attack to a double-handed one.
Both arms stretched far back before snapping forward like cannons, tearing through the air as they shot toward Naruto again.
But Naruto merely tilted his head slightly, and the attack missed him by a hair's breadth.
"Too slow, kid."
Two moves have been given, and now, it is Naruto's turn to attack.
Of course, he wasn't going to get serious.
For one, he actually kind of admired this kid. And secondly, there was no way Shanks would let him off the hook if he went too far.
If he carelessly injured Luffy, the next time the two former crewmates met, it might just escalate into an all-out brawl.
After dodging the punch, Naruto lightly tapped the ground with his foot, and his body flickered like a blur, instantly appearing right in front of Luffy.
"So fast!"
Among the onlookers, only Zeff, Sanji, and Zoro could barely make out the faint afterimage of his movement.
And even that was only because Naruto was holding back immensely.
A simple, unadorned punch landed squarely on Luffy's stomach, sending him flying backward.
Luffy's eyes had begun to turn white while he was in mid-air.
Mid-air, Luffy's eyes rolled back, his body plowing straight through two mooring posts before crashing into a pile of cargo crates and collapsing motionless on the ground.
"Luffy!"
"Luffy!"
Zoro and Usopp both shouted in alarm and immediately tried to rush forward, but they never expected that Zeff would grab the backs of their collars and yank them back.
Zeff shook his head at them, signaling that they shouldn't interfere. But inwardly, he was a little puzzled.
'Isn't Naruto going a bit too hard? Is it necessary to target a rookie who had just set sail?'
He was the only one present who knew just how overwhelmingly powerful Naruto truly was. If such a world-class powerhouse really wanted to deal with a rookie pirate, he would definitely not go through so much trouble.
On the other side, Naruto waited a couple of seconds before sighing lightly.
'Is that all?'
Seeing that Luffy seemed to have lost consciousness, Naruto stepped forward, bending down to reach for the straw hat.
Snap.
At this moment, a trembling hand suddenly grabbed his wrist.
"...What do you think you're doing with my hat?!"
Seeing that the other party seemed to have woken up and stood up again, Naruto sighed in his heart.
'Dragon... in this regard, your son really takes after you.'
"Stop resisting. It's clear you don't have what it takes to wear this hat."
As Naruto spoke, he began to use more force, and Luffy was forced to retreat continuously under his pressure.
"If you don't let go, I'll have to get serious."
"Stop talking so much! I'm never giving you my hat!"
Naruto's attempts to demoralize him seemed completely ineffective. With a defiant shout, Luffy suddenly yanked his hand free and immediately launched into a frenzied barrage of punches.
"Gomu Gomu no... Gatling Gun!"
Countless fists blurred through the air, striking so fast that to the spectators, it looked as though Luffy had suddenly grown a dozen arms.
However, even this storm of attacks was useless against Naruto.
His muscular frame 'swayed' like a sheet of paper, effortlessly dodging every punch as if carried by the wind, untouched amidst the flurry of strikes.
"What kind of move is that?!"
Zoro stared in shock as every single one of Luffy's attacks was perfectly evaded.
Zeff glanced at him and said nothing.
But he was actually also a little confused in his heart, 'Since when did Naruto learn the Marines' Rokushiki techniques? Given his relationship with the Marines, who the hell would even teach him?'
Seeing that his continuous attacks couldn't land a single hit, Luffy seized the moment his fists retracted and suddenly raised his left leg high into the air.
"Gomu Gomu no... Axe!"
His leg seemed to turned into a literal axe, cleaving straight toward Naruto's head.
Bang!
But Naruto effortlessly caught the heavy strike with one hand, gripping Luffy's ankle before swinging him around like a ragdoll, smashing him left and right into the deck.
Boom, boom, boom-
The wooden planks shattered under the force, leaving behind seven or eight craters where Luffy's body had been slammed into them.
After a few more brutal swings, Naruto finally released him, letting Luffy collapse into the last crater, gasping for breath.
"You still have time to give up. The next hit… will kill you."
"NO!!!"
Luffy didn't even hesitate for half a second before roaring at the top of his lungs.
Staggering to his feet, his eyes burned with defiance as he glared at Naruto.
However, despite his tough talk, Luffy's mind was acutely aware of the gap in strength between him and his opponent.
'Continuing in my current state, there was no way I could beat this fox-faced uncle.'
'My attacks needed to be faster… Much faster!'
Then, as if struck by inspiration, an idea flashed through Luffy's mind.
It just goes to show that Luffy is, in fact, a battle genius.
Long before he would later learn Advanced Conqueror's Haki from Kaido '-sensei', he had already proven his adaptability… like when he countered Enel's [Mantra] with [Gomu Gomu no Baka] or used water to bypass Crocodile's Logia Physique.
Under the pressure of battle, Luffy always finds a way to break through his limits and create miracles.
Luffy knew there was no time to hesitate, so gritting his teeth against the pain wracking his body, he forced himself out of the crater and immediately dropped into a wide stance, pressing his fists against the ground.
Then, his skin and veins transformed into rubber-like material, and his heart began pumping like a high-speed hydraulic press.
More blood surged into his heart before being rapidly pumped out to his limbs. His skin instantly turned bright red under the strain, and steam began rising from his entire body.
Seeing this scene, faint, almost imperceptible smile appeared at Naruto's lips, and his admiration for Luffy grew just a little deeper.
"Gear Second! Jet Pistol!"
Luffy's body shot forward like a bullet, disappearing from sight in an instant.
This time, even Zoro and Sanji couldn't follow his movement.
"Not bad!"
Faced with this self-surpassing punch, Naruto slowly raised his hand. The muscles in his back swelled, and an invisible force made his robes, and the scattered debris around him, float upward.
Their fists hurtled toward each other.
But unlike Naruto, from Luffy's perspective, Naruto's fist, which was getting bigger and bigger in his field of vision and finally seemed to cover his entire vision, carried only one message:
"Death."
If this punch landed, he would definitely die.
But he still charged forward without hesitation.
There are some things that Luffy cannot back down from.
Bang!
The next instant, Luffy reappeared right in front of Naruto, his steam-wreathed fist slamming squarely into Naruto's chin and forcing his head back slightly.
"...H-hit. I hit him."
Luffy didn't feel any pain in his body and a smile appeared on his face.
But soon, he noticed the eerie silence around him.
When he turned around, he saw everyone else looking in the direction behind him with expressions of extreme shock.
Among them, the less timid guys like Usopp had already fainted from shock.
Even Zoro, Sanji, and Zeff had lost control of their expressions, looking as though they'd seen a ghost.
"Huh?"
At this moment, a drop of seawater landed on Luffy's head. He raised his head stupidly, still not fully processing the situation.
But the increasing sound of water droplets hitting the ground made him abandon any thought of continuing the fight.
Luffy slowly retracted his fist that was pressed against Naruto's chin and turned his head.
And then, he witnessed one of the most unbelievable sights of his life.
The sea itself had been split, as if pierced by an attack of unimaginable scale, carving out a massive trench wide enough to swallow an entire island.
What is even more horrifying is that on the distant small island on the horizon, its once-peaked mountain had been sheared clean off, as if some colossal force had scooped away the summit.
In that moment, after glimpsing the true power of the world's top powerhouse, Luffy felt, for the first time, how insignificant he was, like a mayfly seeing the sky.