Kizaru slowly withdrew his glowing foot.
Hawkins' pupils contracted.
He knew… his life had just been spared.
Kizaru turned his head slightly, his gaze falling on Naruto and Mei Terumi—strangers, both in appearance and chakra signature.
"Unfamiliar eyes… unfamiliar faces… and unfamiliar powers."
He tilted his head. "This is really weird~"
That lazy, drawling voice made Mei Terumi frown instinctively.
"Hmph! Kizaru, don't act so smug!"
Jewelry Bonney stuck out her tongue, making a face.
"I'm not scared of you!"
Kizaru ignored her, his gaze sharp beneath half-lidded eyes.
"You're not a Supernova, and you certainly don't look like a pirate," he said to Naruto.
"So, what exactly are you?"
Kizaru slowly removed his hands from his pockets.
"Who am I?" Naruto echoed with a slight smile.
"I'm someone who will one day liberate this world."
He paused before speaking clearly.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto."
Kizaru raised an eyebrow. "Uzumaki… Naruto?"
"Oh~ I see."
"I'm Kizaru. As for this so-called liberation... You planning to go after them, too?"
Naruto smiled faintly. "Of course."
"I'll deal with your Marines—and the pirates as well."
"The Marines serve the Celestial Dragons. The pirates prey on the weak.
This so-called justice... is nothing but a bad joke."
"So, I figured… Why not wipe it all clean?"
His words hung in the air.
A heavy silence descended.
Bonney stared at him in disbelief.
He had actually said that—in public—right in front of Kizaru, one of the Marine Admirals.
Sure enough, the faint smile on Kizaru's face vanished.
There were too many eyes watching.
Too many ears listening.
If he didn't respond, and word got out, it would damage the Marines' credibility from every angle.
But that was when everyone noticed something else—
The blonde man in the strange outfit…
He wasn't just standing there.
There was an oppressive aura emanating from him.
A suffocating pressure that made even seasoned warriors break into cold sweat.
It felt like he could end anyone's life at any moment.
The pirates and marines alike suddenly realized:
This man made even Admiral Kizaru wary.
The Marines who'd come with Kizaru gawked.
Their mouths and eyes were wide open as they whispered among themselves:
"Did he really say that…?"
"Take out both the Marines and the pirates?"
"And… did he insult the Celestial Dragons?"
They looked at each other, bewildered.
Kizaru's voice turned cold.
"Young man… there are some things you shouldn't say out loud."
But just as he finished, a Marine officer suddenly pointed and shouted:
"Admiral Kizaru! He's a pirate!"
"Why else would he be with Jewelry Bonney?!"
Naruto turned, looking toward Bonney—who had reverted to her normal form.
"You carry the blood of the Celestial Dragons," he said.
Bonney's expression darkened.
She clenched her teeth. "I know."
"There are too many hidden truths in this world," she added. "Everyone has their own burdens."
Mei Terumi placed a hand on Bonney's trembling shoulder.
Softly, she said, "Don't worry. It won't be long. Naruto will free this world."
Bonney didn't fully understand what that meant.
But she remembered Naruto's words clearly.
He wanted to eliminate the Marines… the Celestial Dragons… and the pirates.
Then what about the Revolutionary Army?
Her thoughts were interrupted by Kizaru's casual tone.
"Oh~ You people are terrifying."
"First, it was all about becoming the Pirate King. Now it's about tearing down the entire world."
Kizaru's indifferent expression returned.
Hands back in his pockets, chin tilted up slightly.
But Naruto's earlier remark had already unsettled him.
The Marines exist to protect the Celestial Dragons.
That one sentence made something stir deep in Kizaru's mind.
And then Naruto had the gall to say he'd deal with the Celestial Dragons.
He kept his face calm, but his heart was no longer at ease.
"Tell me," Kizaru said, eyes narrowing.
"Have you ever… been kicked at the speed of light?"
Woom—
Light gathered around his foot as Kizaru lifted it slowly.
Golden energy surged as he prepared his iconic kick.
But the wind-up was long.
Too long.
Mei Terumi had already formed hand seals.
In an instant, her figure flickered—
"Boil Release: Vapour Style – Corrosive Mist Jutsu!"
Fssshhh—!!!
She exhaled a dense, acidic mist—thick enough to melt even a fully armored Susanoo.
The corrosive cloud surged forward.
Kizaru paused for a fraction of a second and immediately adjusted his position—
Boom!
He kicked forward, a beam of light tearing through the air.
Zing—!!!
It shot straight through Mei Terumi's body.
Yet she remained unfazed, still releasing wave after wave of acidic mist.
"What a strange jutsu…"
Splurt—
Light passed through her illusion.
Kizaru's body suddenly shimmered and turned completely golden—fully elementalized.
Boom—Boom—
The force of his Light-Speed Kick crashed into one of the towering Yarukiman Mangroves in the distance.
The shockwave echoed, shaking the battlefield.
In a flash of golden brilliance, Kizaru's light-speed kick tore through the air—splitting yet another Yarukiman Mangrove tree in half.
Massive trunks crashed down with thunderous force, sending tremors through the battlefield.
But where Mei Terumi should have been, impaled by the blinding attack, there was only a puddle.
Water Clone.
Kizaru narrowed his eyes. "A user of special techniques?"
"Never seen this one before…"
As he spoke, the acidic mist descended.
Ssszzz——
Kizaru's body shimmered and shifted into golden light—elementalized through the power of the Pika Pika no Mi. He avoided the area-wide attack with practiced ease.
But others weren't so lucky.
"Aaaahhhh—!!!"
Screams erupted as pirate underlings and navy soldiers alike were caught in Mei Terumi's Boil Release: Skilled Mist Technique—a corrosive acid capable of melting even Susanoo.
Hawkins, still lying on the ground, cried out as the edge of the mist seared into him. But before the damage could worsen, ripples of space-time curled around his body.
Kamui.
In the blink of an eye, he vanished—drawn into the safety of the Kamui dimension.
Bonney, wide-eyed, turned to Mei Terumi. "Logia-type users like him can turn into elements. Normal attacks don't work."
But before Mei could respond—
Whoosh!
Kizaru appeared behind her in a burst of light.
A light-speed kick lashed out.
Mei's pupils shrank in horror.
Bonney gasped.
The admiral didn't care about Bonney. The kick was aimed squarely at Mei Terumi.
But just before impact—
Boom—!!!
A hand caught the kick midair.
Naruto stood between them, calm and composed.
Kizaru's perpetually lazy expression faltered, surprise flickering across his face as his foot was stopped dead.
Golden light surged around his form. In an instant, he dematerialized into photons and flashed away to a safe distance.
"That speed... That power…" Kizaru muttered, astonished.
Naruto didn't even glance at him.
Instead, he looked to Mei Terumi and spoke softly, "It's alright. He's fast, and Logia defenses make him tricky, but I've got this."
Mei Terumi nodded, steadied by his presence.
Kizaru raised his leg again, golden light gathering at his heel.
Light-Speed Kick.
He launched another attack at Naruto.
It came fast.
But Naruto simply raised his hand.
Buzz—
The kick disappeared on contact.
Kizaru's eyes narrowed. His hands slipped from his pockets—cautious now.
A golden Rinnegan opened in Naruto's palm.
"You…" Kizaru muttered, stunned.
Naruto spoke coldly, "Didn't you say speed is weight?"
Buzz——
A burst of golden light surged from Naruto's palm.
"Then take yours back."
Fwoosh—!
The enhanced light-speed kick—amplified by Naruto—blasted toward Kizaru.
Bonney stood frozen in shock. Mei Terumi grabbed her and dragged her back from the blast zone.
Kizaru's eyes widened. His body moved instinctively, tilting his head just in time. The golden light scorched past his cheek.
Zsshh—
He reached up to touch his ear. His fingers came away red.
"Blood?!"
The sight made him momentarily doubt reality.
He'd been injured.
"Could his ability... reflect attacks? No—amplify and return them?"
Kizaru grew wary. He hadn't bled in years. This mission had seemed trivial at first.
Yet now...
He couldn't figure it out.
How had Naruto—who didn't even have Haki—injured him?
'Just don't let him touch you with that eye-covered hand,' Kizaru thought warily. 'Without Haki, there's no way to hurt a Logia like me.'
He took a breath, nerves settling slightly.
But then—a sudden chill pierced his spine.
Every hair on his body stood on end.
A sense of death loomed—cold and absolute.
His heart raced.
He instinctively turned to face Naruto.
The young shinobi hadn't moved.
His expression was calm, unreadable.
But Kizaru felt it—an overwhelming pressure that defied logic.
So strange. So wrong.
Even Kizaru, an admiral of the Marines and wielder of light itself, felt the creeping edge of fear.
Kizaru's eyes narrowed the moment he sensed it—a strange pressure, unlike anything he'd encountered.
Observation Haki.
Buzz—
Before he could fully react, an invisible pull surged through the air and latched onto his body.
'Impossible!'
His expression twisted in shock.
He immediately tried to elementalize, his body flickering with golden light as he invoked the power of the Pika Pika no Mi.
But it was too late.
The suction had already locked on.
Even in his elemental state, his form was dragged uncontrollably toward Naruto—as if the very space around him was collapsing inward.
Naruto slowly raised his hand, the golden Rinnegan in his palm spinning open, glowing with divine power.
Kizaru's instincts screamed at him—he couldn't afford to get pulled in.
With gritted teeth, he poured every ounce of his light-speed fruit power into escape, his entire body exploding into photons in a desperate bid to break free.
Pff—
The recoil hit him hard.
The backlash from resisting the gravitational force slammed through his body like a hammer.
A metallic taste rose in his throat.
He staggered back, face pale.
A thin trail of blood slipped from the corner of his mouth.
The battlefield froze.
Pirates and navy soldiers alike watched in stunned silence.
Admiral Kizaru… was bleeding.
"What… just happened?"
Even Kizaru himself looked rattled, his usual carefree demeanor replaced by disbelief.
'That pull… it bypassed my elemental state?'
"Even when I transformed into light, I couldn't escape it?!"
His heart sank.
Retreat.
That was the only option now.
Kizaru had never encountered such a technique—something that ignored the laws of Logia-type defense.
In the world of pirates, Logia users could only be hit when imbued with Haki.
That was the unshakable rule of this ocean.
But now—
This strange, otherworldly force didn't seem bound by that logic.
Unfortunately for Kizaru—
This wasn't the ocean.
It was the domain of the ninja world, where entirely different rules applied.
And Naruto Uzumaki wasn't someone who played by pirate laws.
...
TN:
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