Who was "Liu Haizhu," anyway?
Depending on who you asked: a mage class player, a Luffy who fights with a kitchen knife, or one of the Pillars from Demon Slayer. Take your pick. (Just kidding.)
In the shinobi world, he might not be a mage. But he'd definitely learn jutsu eventually.
Hoshino Yu felt his brain go slightly numb.
Two years of searching for Luffy. Two years. And what he'd found was this guy.
He needed to complain to someone. Anyone.
...Though the quest had technically progressed, so. Fine. Whoever this guy was, he'd work with it. A reward was a reward.
He studied the face in front of him.
Sharp-cut features. Still a little young. No facial hair yet, obviously — they were kids.
The resemblance was almost offensive.
"He really does look like him..." Hoshino Yu muttered, the corner of his mouth doing something complicated.
"Look like who?" Minato asked.
"Lui— never mind—"
He didn't get to finish.
The crowd around them had already started buzzing. And the straw-hat kid had already spotted him — eyes going wide, one hand shooting up to point directly at Hoshino Yu, voice cracking with excitement:
"It's the author of The Grand Voyage!!"
"YU-KUN!! YU-KUN!!"
"AHHHHH!!"
The commotion snapped Hoshino Yu back to reality.
Every eye in the courtyard had swung toward him again. He clocked it immediately.
But unlike the feverish fan energy from the parents and students — some of the shinobi guards were looking at him with something considerably sharper.
Killing intent.
Right. This was an enrollment ceremony. Disrupt it, and you weren't just embarrassing yourself. Somewhere in these crowd were Anbu and Root operatives who probably had "eliminate disturbances" as a standing order.
There might also be some fans among them. Hoshino Yu preferred to believe that.
He and Minato were already bowing rapidly in every direction, mouthing apologies, when a single sound cut through the noise.
A cough.
"Ahem."
Hiruzen Sarutobi — the Third Hokage — cleared his throat once from the platform. That was all.
The courtyard went silent in under two seconds.
That was the weight of a man who had ruled the Leaf for decades. In his prime, Hiruzen's authority was second to none — he just hadn't had a war recently to remind people of why.
He let the quiet settle, then continued where he'd left off:
"I have watched countless shinobi give everything for this village. Their sacrifice did not vanish with time. It became the light that guides those who come after."
"Perhaps one day, each of you will stand as shinobi in your own right..."
"Yu," Minato murmured, once the order had been fully restored and he'd exhaled the breath he'd been holding. "What was that actually about? Who is that person?"
"Nothing. Don't worry about it." Hoshino Yu kept his voice low, eyes still locked on the straw-hat figure ahead. "I just need to introduce myself after this. That's all."
He said it for Minato. He was also saying it for himself.
One glance had pushed the quest to fifty percent. If he went up and introduced himself properly, it would complete. Simple.
Even if this wasn't the real Luffy, it didn't matter. What mattered was the reward.
And there was another angle worth considering: future quests would almost certainly involve this person. Whatever role "Luffy" was playing in this world, Hoshino Yu had a feeling their paths were going to cross again.
For now — get the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. Eat it. Then figure out everything else.
Minato, for his part, had caught the tone in Hoshino Yu's voice. He'd never seen his best friend actually flustered before.
From the day they met — two years old, neighbors, virtually inseparable since — Hoshino Yu had always carried himself with this unnerving calm. A maturity that didn't belong on a child's face. Like a full-grown adult wearing a six-year-old as a costume.
Every word calculated. Every action deliberate.
For something to crack that composure, even slightly?
Minato found himself genuinely curious about this straw-hat-wearing stranger.
"Children — you are the most precious embers of the Leaf. Grow strong beneath this tree. Let the Will of Fire burn forever in your hearts. Be the warmth for yourselves, and the light for others."
"Give it everything you have, little leaves. The future of Konoha belongs to you."
Hiruzen bowed deeply.
Thunderous applause rolled across the courtyard.
Then came the elders, filing up one by one to deliver their own remarks. Mostly the usual ceremonial filler.
Including a certain man with a long face and longer speech: Danzō Shimura, who would eventually become what the bingo books politely called the 5.5th Hokage.
Hoshino Yu stood through it like he was enduring surgery without anesthesia. Danzō's address was the verbal equivalent of a slow-moving glacier — vast, cold, and seemingly unstoppable.
Just let me find Kaito and collect my prize.
Mercifully, even glaciers end.
When the shinobi instructors finally began directing the crowd to disperse, Hoshino Yu moved immediately.
"Minato. With me."
He was already pushing through the crowd before the words fully left his mouth, cutting toward where he'd last spotted the straw-hat figure.
Minato followed without question.
They threaded through the dispersing mass of students and parents, bumping shoulders, squeezing through gaps, until they finally broke through into a clear pocket—
Right next to their target.
Hoshino Yu straightened up and deployed his most disarming smile.
"Konnichiwa! Hey, senpai — mind if we get acquainted?"
The straw-hat figure turned around.
And Hoshino Yu once again had to actively suppress the cognitive dissonance of looking at that face.
Too familiar. Way too familiar. Stop it.
Before he could say another word, the straw-hat kid's face went full red — the kind of red that started at the neck and climbed fast — and he jabbed a shaking finger at Hoshino Yu:
"Y— YU-KUN!! I'm a FAN!! I've been following The Grand Voyage since it launched — over a YEAR now — can you PLEASE sign something for me?! Anything!! Please!!"
...Bro. You're blushing over an autograph.
Hoshino Yu blinked slowly.
Then, as if the kid caught himself and remembered that dignity existed, he snapped his spine straight, pressed his heels together, and nodded with all the composure he could scrape together — which wasn't much, given that his ears were still glowing:
"Sumimasen!! My name is Kaito! Third-year student!"
Kaito.
Not Haizhu. Not Haichuu. Just — Kaito.
Hoshino Yu had been bracing for worse. He'd take it.
He matched Kaito's posture and extended his right hand cleanly.
"Kaito-senpai. It's an honor." A clean, easy smile. "I'm Hoshino Yu."
Kaito grabbed his hand like he'd been waiting his whole life for this moment.
And the moment their palms connected—
[Main Quest: Meet the protagonist of One Piece — Monkey D. Luffy, the Straw Hat Boy.]
[Quest Reward: Rumble-Rumble Fruit ×1 / Personal Attribute Panel: LOCKED]
[Current Progress: 100% — COMPLETE]
[Distributing rewards... Rumble-Rumble Fruit has been added to inventory. Personal Attribute Panel has been unlocked. Please check your Item Pouch in the Attribute Panel.]
"Yes."
The single word rang through Hoshino Yu's skull like a bell strike. His grip tightened instinctively — not that Kaito, who had three full years of Academy training behind him, felt any of it.
Hoshino Yu barely noticed. He was already pulling up the panel behind his eyes.
[Name: Hoshino Yu][Age: 6]
[Chakra Volume: 0.3 (Trace)]
[Five Stats — STR: 0.3 / SPD: 0.3 / CON: 0.3 / MND: 6 / SEAL: 0.7]
[Chakra Affinity: Lightning · Water · Fire · Yin · Yang]
[Ninjutsu / Taijutsu / Genjutsu: None]
[Items: Rumble-Rumble Fruit ×1]
[Unallocated Stat Points: 0]
(Reference baseline: An average healthy adult at age 20 scores 1 in all stats except Chakra Volume and Seal Speed.)
Classic kid stats. Strength, Speed, Constitution all at the floor.
He wasn't surprised. He was six.
Chakra Volume at 0.3... low, but not zero. Makes sense — I come from a shinobi bloodline, even a minor one.
It wasn't like he'd been sitting idle either. Over the past two years, he'd dragged Minato to the Academy library to dig up everything they could find on basic chakra refinement, and the two of them had been quietly practicing in private.
Having a transmigrator around who knew what to look for made that kind of early self-study possible. Technically it was "gifted child behavior." Practically it was cheating, but no one had to know.
Which was also why Minato, despite being six, had some measurable chakra already.
The thing that actually made Hoshino Yu pause:
Five nature affinities.
He'd expected one. Maybe two if he was lucky.
Lightning, Water, Fire — and then Yin and Yang on top of that.
He pulled up what he remembered from canon. According to the official data books, Minato's own chakra nature affinities were: Fire, Wind, Lightning, Yin, and Yang.
They were both missing Earth affinity.
Neither of us is a grounded person. Honestly checks out.
As for the absurdly high Mind stat — that was standard transmigrator territory. The mental strength required to survive the crossing and maintain memories across realities tended to sort itself out in the final numbers. Those who didn't have the mental fortitude simply didn't make it through.
One thing still nagged at him, though.
Why is a One Piece system generating a Naruto-world Attribute Panel?
Was this normal? Was it a bug? Was the system just improvising?
...Actually, knowing how this system launched, probably improvising.
Minato had materialized at his elbow, glancing between him and Kaito with quiet curiosity.
"Yu... this is?"
Hoshino Yu released Kaito's hand and stepped back, the excitement carefully back under lock and key.
"Minato, meet our senpai — Kaito. Third year."
Minato turned to Kaito with a polite bow and an extended hand.
"Kaito-senpai. Nice to meet you. I'm Namikaze Minato."
"Kaito." The older boy shook his hand — considerably more composed now than he'd been thirty seconds ago when meeting the famous author.
The contrast was noticeable.
Hoshino Yu filed it away with mild amusement.
The three of them had barely opened their mouths to continue when something shifted in the air.
A presence materialized beside them. No approach. No footsteps. Just — there.
Fast.
Both Hoshino Yu and Minato registered it at the same time. Their heads snapped sideways in unison.
That's chunin-level at minimum, Hoshino Yu clocked immediately, keeping his face neutral.
The newcomer's gaze swept briefly over Kaito, then settled on Hoshino Yu and Minato. Assessing. Unhurried.
"Hoshino Yu. Namikaze Minato." His voice was flat and even. "Come with me."
There it is.
Price for the ceremony disruption. Knew it was coming.
Can I at least eat the fruit first?
Hoshino Yu quietly surveyed the man in front of him. Leaf headband. Standard flak vest. No mask — which ruled out Anbu and Root immediately, that was something. Age looked mid-twenties. Not a jonin he recognized from his mental database of Konoha's named personnel, which likely meant chunin.
His nerves settled by about forty percent.
As long as it wasn't Root, he could handle whatever came next.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit was secured. The Attribute Panel was live. The stat points would come in time.
If he played it careful from here — developed steadily, stayed under the radar, built his strength quietly —
This world was workable.
He turned to find Minato already looking at him, a flicker of worry in those blue eyes.
Their gazes met.
Without a word, both of them straightened up and answered in perfect unison:
"Yes, sir."
TO BE CONTINUED