The sky gradually darkened, and the setting sun cast ripples of crimson light across the sea's surface as the evening breeze stirred the waves.
This tranquility didn't last long before a small boat cut through the water like scissors, splitting the reflected glow on the sea in half.
On the boat, Luffy, who had recovered somewhat, walked to the bow and curiously asked Naruto.
"Fox-faced old man, do you know that what's-his-name... Arlong?"
Hearing Luffy's words, Naruto, whose emotions had gradually calmed, looked at him with mild exasperation.
"I told you to just call me Naruto—forget it, call me whatever you want."
Shaking his head, Naruto slowly explained.
"It's not really about Arlong himself. It's mainly because I promised someone I'd take good care of his people."
"This idiot thinks he can do whatever he wants in East Blue."
"He doesn't realize that his stupid behavior is trampling on all the efforts fishmen and merfolk have made over the years."
"And he has the nerve to call himself a companion of Jinbe."
Jinbe and Arlong had both originally been thugs from Fishman Street.
But the former, in order to obtain amnesty for other wanted fishmen and ease tensions between fishmen and humans, had swallowed his pride to join the Seven Warlords of the Sea, agreeing to serve the World Government.
The latter, after being spared, still refused to behave and instead continued tormenting even weaker villagers in East Blue.
It could be said that if Arlong's actions were exposed and magnified, all of Jinbe's hard work over the years would be wasted.
Luffy's simple mind couldn't process all this information, so he just tilted his head and looked at Naruto.
"Don't really get it, but we just need to beat him up, right?"
"...That's not wrong either."
"Hehehe, then it's simple!"
Looking at Luffy's silly grinning face, Naruto stopped being angry and just stared at him for a while before sighing deeply.
Really, even in this aspect he's so much like Captain Roger.
Just then, a voice came from behind.
"Hey! You guys, dinner's ready."
Sanji came onto the small boat's deck carrying plates, and a large table of delicious food was already set out before him.
He had ultimately agreed to Luffy's invitation, perhaps because he saw the courage Luffy and Zoro showed when facing setbacks, or perhaps simply because he wanted to achieve his own dream.
In any case, after a tearful farewell with Zeff and the other chefs at Baratie, he had officially joined the Straw Hat Pirates.
Before leaving, Naruto hadn't forgotten to casually use his Haki to deal with Krieg and his remaining crew.
He let Boss Zeff take these pirates to collect the bounty, considering it payment for his meal this time.
Come on, anyone who asked around knew that Naruto Uzumaki had been sailing for so many years—when had he ever dined and dashed?
The Yakiniku Q incident didn't count, since that restaurant wasn't on the sea.
Besides, didn't Iruka-sensei help pay the bill?
Thinking of this, Naruto remembered.
Next time I go back, I need to remember to pay back the money Iruka-sensei covered.
After all, dining and dashing when broke was unavoidable, but after completing this mission, he could get quite a bit of payment.
Additionally, he had picked up quite a few unclaimed precious jewels and cash from Gato's treasury. Even with his appetite, eating for three to five years shouldn't be a problem.
Having Iruka, such a good teacher, spend his already modest salary to clean up after him still made Naruto feel somewhat guilty.
While thinking this, Naruto pressed down the frantically competing Luffy with one hand, then very elegantly stuffed an entire arm-thick lobster tail into his mouth.
"Ah! Fox-faced old man, you're too sneaky! That was the meat I had my eye on."
The whole boat headed toward Cocoyasi Village in this noisy atmosphere.
Marineford, Navy Headquarters
Fleet Admiral Sengoku looked at the documents in his hand with a growing headache, then placed all those papers at the edge of his desk.
At this moment, a goat that didn't look particularly intelligent slowly walked over and ate the papers marked as Navy classified documents.
Everyone else in the room was already used to this scene, so no one said anything.
Crunch, crunch...
Hearing that grating crunching sound, Sengoku, who was already exhausted by the World Government's endless demands, couldn't hold back and slammed the table.
"Garp! Didn't I tell you not to eat rice crackers in here, you bastard!"
On the sofa in front, Vice Admiral Garp, known as the "Hero of the Navy," sat sprawled out.
As if he couldn't hear Sengoku's roar at all, he continued reading the newspaper on the table while cheerfully stuffing rice crackers into his mouth.
Crunch crunch. After chewing a few times, rice cracker crumbs fell all over the sofa, making Sengoku even more annoyed.
But aside from yelling a few times, he didn't have any other way to deal with this old fool.
"Huff—"
Forcibly calming himself, Sengoku regained his composure as the "Resourceful General."
Just then, Vice Admiral Tsuru, sitting on another sofa, suddenly spoke.
"Sengoku, take a look at these two intelligence reports."
After saying this, she placed two papers in front of Sengoku.
The content on the papers wasn't much, but it made Sengoku frown deeply.
"Revolutionary Army leader Monkey D. Dragon appeared in East Blue, suspected to be related to rebellion in a certain kingdom."
"Former crew member of Gol D. Roger, Naruto Uzumaki, appeared in East Blue and defeated the Krieg Pirates."
Two simple lines of text contained information that could throw all of East Blue into turmoil.
Whether Dragon or Naruto Uzumaki, neither was a peaceful character.
Each one was more troublesome than the last.
At some point, Garp had put away his snacks and was standing beside Sengoku, also looking at those two intelligence reports.
Sengoku completely ignored this somewhat presumptuous behavior.
On the contrary, he wanted to know what this old fool was thinking.
After all, one of these two time bombs was his biological son, and the other also had some connection to him.
"Hahahaha, so both of them came to East Blue—come to think of it, I haven't seen them in many years."
Hearing this, Sengoku really wanted to slap those two papers onto Garp's face.
He knew this old fool obviously didn't want to get involved, so he turned to look at Tsuru.
Vice Admiral Tsuru seemed to have anticipated this.
"If I remember correctly, Naruto Uzumaki had contact with the Revolutionary Army in his early years, and even back then at Mary Geoise..."
Speaking of this, seeming to realize she shouldn't mention a certain past event, Tsuru's words paused, then she continued.
"These two dangerous individuals with mysterious movements suddenly coming to East Blue at the same time—there's a high possibility they're planning something big."
"We must immediately act to arrest them!"
Sengoku's attitude was crystal clear.
Of course, he also knew the possibility of actually capturing these two was slim, but at least they had to prevent their conspiracy.
Unconsciously, Naruto and Dragon had already been lumped together in Sengoku's mind.
This absolutely cannot be a coincidence!
"Then let's dispatch an Admiral directly."
Tsuru's suggestion was very reasonable. After all, sending Vice Admirals against these two would just be delivering them to slaughter.
"Let Sakazuki go."
She said this because although Admiral Akainu Sakazuki's methods were always too harsh, his results were quite satisfactory.
Unlike a certain Admiral who let survivors escape even during a Buster Call.
However, Sengoku rejected Tsuru's suggestion.
"He's currently in the New World and can't make it back in time."
"Then Kizaru—"
"He's at Sabaody Archipelago..."
So we can only choose between Garp and Aokiji?
Shaking her head, Tsuru chose to close her mouth. It seemed Sengoku had already made his decision.
"Go notify Kuzan and have him pursue Naruto Uzumaki."
After issuing this order, Sengoku sat back down and rubbed his temples.
Meanwhile, Garp, seemingly completely unaware that he was being snubbed, pulled out rice crackers again and started crunching away.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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