A New Path - Chapter 205

On a rooftop somewhere on Sabaody, five people appeared from nowhere. It was one of those moments where there was nothing, then suddenly there was something. Five something’s in fact. Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other and both nodded, so understanding the nod, Sasuke disappeared again.

“Where did he go?” Sanji asked and sat down on the elevated ledge of this rooftop. Zoro stood up ready to fight and Franky fell down thanks to his head spinning like crazy.

“He is going to get the rest of your crew. So, sit tight, blondie!” Naruto said not realizing how ironic his nickname was.

“Whatever, way too many weird things have been occurring ever since we took in Robin. It’s that damn emperor who keeps harassing us, I’m sure.” The spiral eyebrow blondie looked Naruto up and down before saying. “Thanks for saving us!” Naruto just nodded, and right then Sasuke appeared now with the rest of the Straw hats in hand.

“I’m freaking exhausted!” He said and sat down and leaned against the ledge. “Next time, you’ll be doing the transportation, Naruto.” He said. And, at that Robin perched her ears immediately.

“Naruto? Is that you?” She had never met this boy, but she only knew about one person with such a unique name.

“Been a long time coming, nice to finally meet you, Robin!” He waved while sitting down on the ground with a smile.

“Why am I not surprised you know him too?” Zoro said with an exhausted tone. “Someday, we will sit down and you will tell me all about yourself.”

“Not her fault, really. Most members of the Gotei are forbidden to talk about other members and their duties within it.” Sasuke said while glaring at Zoro. The disdain between them was immediately apparent.

“You’re with the Gotei as well?” Nami asked, now somewhat clear-headed. Teleportation could cause severe headaches or dizziness for first-timers.

“Haha, if you only knew!” Naruto said cockily with slight playfulness. Sasuke shook his head and said, “He is Gotei’s own personal moron!”

“Funny!” Naruto tried kicking the sitting Sasuke in the head, but the kick was blocked by his hand. “This grumpy one here is, Sasuke. My manservant!” Naruto flashed a cheeky smile. Sasuke’s aura exploded and rocked the foundation of the entire house they stood upon.

“Take that back, moron!”

“Calm down, or you’re gonna kill us all!” Robin stepped in and said with a stern tone of voice. “It’s an honour to meet you, Naruto. Grandpa told me a lot about you.” Robin bowed slightly like you would in front of royalty.

“Stop that, Robin. If he told you anything real about me, then you should know I hate all that young master trash talk. Just stick with casual and we’re good.”

“How about you fill us in now?” Zoro asked and also sat down now that the atmosphere was no longer tense.

“That’s Naruto. Grandpa’s son!” Robin dropped a bombshell on them and the Straw hat’s reacted appropriately. The cowardly trio felt like fainting as they were spiralling further down a dangerous rabbit hole.

“Adopted son. Dad and I met when I lived in an orphanage and I moved in with him when I was three.” Naruto started to further explain their relationship.

“So, how old are you? You both look very young!” Franky asked curiously.

“Fourteen, soon to be fifteen!” Naruto said proudly, and Sasuke simply leaned back on the wall without confirming what Naruto said.

“Fourteen? You blocked an Admiral, and escaped successfully as well? Are you telling me a fourteen-year-old did that?” Sanji expected them to be around his age and not that young.

“Dad had trained me since age three. What you saw back there was nothing, though. Sasuke and I could kill Kizaru if we fought together, right Sasuke?” Naruto was getting more heated and his bragging intensified.

“Sure, whatever, I’m gonna take a nap. Do NOT wake me up!” He said and closed his eyes.

“Ugh, I don’t know why I became a pirate. This is too much!” Nami complained.

“Wait, how come you two haven’t met before?” Nami asked suddenly. She was also not the only one that picked up on that and was curious about it.

“Our family is quite big, and the world is large. That’s about it!” Naruto shrugged it off as not a big deal.

“Yeah, I would say it’s indeed like that. Naruto and Sasuke belong to a special unit. So do I, or used to before I joined you guys.” Robin didn’t think of it as a big deal either.

“Plus, we’re not the only ones. I rarely, if ever meet my other siblings. We are rarely in the same place together. I don’t think that’s ever happened.”

“How many of you are there?” Nami asked.

“A few. But, as for me, I’m closest to Gildarts, my big brother. I should visit him someday soon.” Naruto drifted off as he started thinking about Gildarts. Robin had to snap him back to reality.

“Sorry, I drifted away there,” He scratched the back of his head. “Now, where do you guys need to go? We will take you.”

“I think back to Rayleigh would be best,” Sanji said, and Zoro nodded. “Yeah, I think so. He was pretty confident that his place was gonna be safe from Admirals and any other threat out there. Also, Luffy is supposed to meet us there, but I don’t know if he ever remembers the way.” Zoro dreaded going back for him and running into Kizaru again.

“Don’t worry about your captain. We have him covered as well. Even Kizaru will have trouble reaching him.” Sasuke said. Suddenly, a bright light appeared on the rooftop and a second later, a very tall man in a striped suit stood there staring at them.

“Will I know? How interesting.” He appeared in front of Sasuke and tried splitting his head open like a watermelon but failed because Naruto clad his hands in Haki and blocked the kick. “Everyone, jump off the roof, NOW!” Naruto yelled and all of them on pure instinct jumped off the roof. Naruto was left on the roof with Kizaru and Sasuke summoned his Susanoo and wrapped all of them in it as to protect them from the fall.

“My, oh my, you boys are growing more interesting every second. Such mastery of haki at such a young age. If Sengoku hadn’t ordered your execution, I would try to recruit you.” Kizaru put more force behind his kick and Naruto was flung off the rooftop. Kizaru appeared in mid-air above Naruto. His leg shone with a bright light and he was ready to kick Naruto but strange yellow energy covered the boy, and a long and massive tale appeared and swept Kizaru far away into the distance.

“W-W-WHAT’S THAT!!?” Usopp almost fainted when the gigantic nine-tailed fox landed in front of him. The fox released a roar that shook the ground the stood on. Sasuke immediately summoned his entire full-body Susanoo and now a massive fox and equally big demon-man stood beside each other facing the Admiral.

“What kind of devil fruit is this?!” Zoro was beyond stunned. He floated together with everyone inside the head of the Susanoo and observed the massive titans standing there proudly.

“Nothing like I’ve ever seen before,” Robin said quite calmly.

“Is this what they said when they warned us about the New World. Is this the new normal over there?” Sanji asked and looked at Robin.

“I can promise you,” Sasuke started saying, “This power doesn’t exist anywhere else.” He looked at Naruto that calmly floated in the head of the fox.

“Sasuke, you focus on protecting them, I will focus on dealing with that guy!” Naruto saw Kizaru standing on the ground a ways away observing them.

“Let us fight too, the least we can do is act as a diversion,” Sanji said. He and Zoro hated not being able to do anything other than floating here just watching.

“You all, sit down and shut up! I don’t wanna hear a peep from you, especially not now. This is an Admiral.” Sasuke said coldly and sternly before making his Susanoo draw his sword. “Naruto, he’s coming!”

“I know!” Naruto and Sasuke were using haki to track Kizaru. When his light travelled through the air and all around them, they could mostly keep up with it. The fox let out another power-filled roar that shook the ground. Sasuke’s Susanoo grew two more arms and it slammed those together and a massive ring of black fire spread all around them, including Kizaru. All three of the combatants were present inside the giant ring of Amaterasu flames.

“That’s dangerous, better not touch it,” Kizaru observed the fire and noted them to be on the same level as the fire Amell could summon, or at least around that level. Which meant it probably took a lot out of him to summon them.

Sasuke’s eyes rotated and lit up in red light. The black flames started moving and spears made out of that fire shot out from the ring of fire against Kizaru. “Naruto, go now, I can keep his movements restricted pretty well!” Sasuke kept shooting all kinds of things made from that dangerous black fire.

“Good work!” Naruto dove straight for Kizaru, or he tried. Kizaru was fast, very fast, so Naruto manipulated his tails to follow Kizaru wherever he went. Everything inside the ring got destroyed quickly as his tails could stretch almost infinitely and they held amazing power.

“Screw this guy!” Naruto did a hand-sign and summoned four other identical nine-tails to the battlefield.

“HE SUMMONED FOUR MORE! THIS IS CRAZY!!” Usopp, as well as all of them, had never seen a fight this high-level before. This was way beyond Paradise sea level.

Kizaru occasionally shot beams at Sasuke. The flames were annoying and very restrictive to how he could move. And, thanks to them he was forced to keep using his fruit or else he would get hit, for those flames were also imbued with haki. On of the nine-tails clones placed itself in front of Sasuke to block Kizaru’s attacks, which worked very well. Kizaru couldn’t focus on accuracy on doing a lot of damage so the attacks were easily stopped by the clone.

“Kurama, I’m too slow using full transformation. Take control of it and support me as I go in for melee.” Naruto’s body was clad in a flame-looking full-body cloak. As he heard the nine-tailed fox confirm the command he left the fox head and dashed at Kizaru with just his body.

“Finally, one of you left the comfort of your beasts,” Kizaru said and appeared in front of Naruto. Unlucky for him, both Kurama and Sasuke predicted it, so he was forced to abandon the attack otherwise he would have gotten hurt really bad.

Naruto had already appeared where Kizaru landed on the ground, and finally, they got a hit in on him. Naruto’s fist was firmly planted on his back and sent him tumbling forward. In the Susanoo head, the cowardly trio started singing victory songs.

“Shut up! Are you stupid? Do you think he’s an Admiral for nothing?” Sasuke was on full guard, as was Zoro and Sanji. They were all fully aware that a punch like that was good, but not nearly enough to take down an Admiral. This would be a long fight still.

“You have clones? Well, let’s make this even.” Several lights left Kizaru’s body and transformed into other Kizaru’s. “Now, let’s see how you fare.” All of them disappeared at the same time. Naruto jumped back just in time to dodge a fatal kick to the head. His five foxes now fought their Kizaru, while the real one dealt with Naruto. Sasuke also had his version of Kizaru to deal with.

Explosions occurred everywhere and the Straw Hats could barely see the giant foxes move around. That was just how much smoke and dust covered the area. They had to rely on Sasuke to protect them from the light clone. And, Naruto was now fighting the real Kizaru. Kicks and punches were being thrown at lighting speed. Naruto was on the losing side in the exchange. He couldn’t keep up with Kizaru’s stamina and strength. If it wasn’t for him controlling the nine-tailed fox, he would have died a hundred times over already.

‘Kurama, how are you doing? Are you alive?” Naruto asked his pet fox. He felt himself getting weaker every second. Kizaru obviously noticed this because the attacks got even faster and stronger the longer they fought. Naruto was almost at his limit and Kizaru was pressing him as much as he could now that he felt that the boy was close to losing all strength.

“I’m immortal. A being of pure energy! Don’t worry about me, worry about yourself instead!” The giant fox fighting one of the clones said in a loud growl-like voice. His worry for Naruto grew ever so high, but he couldn’t do anything. Naruto wasn’t strong enough to handle all his power, so he could only use a limited amount of it, and they still weren’t in perfect sync. That took many years to achieve, they were close to it, which is why they can fight an Admiral for this long. What to remember is that Naruto is fourteen and Kizaru has passed forty. His experience in battle is four times that of Naruto and yet, the boy can hold his own for quite some time.

Just when things looked most grim and the clones were close to killing their opponents, dark red tentacles penetrated the Amaterasu fire from the outside and wrapped themselves around the clones before they could react. The tentacles moved at close to light speed. Kizaru didn’t notice them until his clones were caught by them.

Through the fire, a dark red humanoid-shaped person came walking. He walked through the fire as if it didn’t exist. He had no face, only two bright red eyes. Everything other than his eyes was just a dark red outline of a male human body. He looked like a spirit projection.

“Feels good to be on the outside.” Said the shape in a monotone voice that sounded like death itself. Kizaru jumped away from the exhausted Naruto and turned his attention to this new individual. He sensed extreme danger from him. The same level of danger he would when Kong or Garp fought.

The mysterious individual looked at the light clones and they got crushed to nothing more than light particles. “Show me what the real one is capable of.” It said before disappearing and Kizaru got kicked in the stomach and sent flying. He stopped himself just before the black flames.

“How dangerous,” Kizaru wiped some blood from his lips that he had involuntarily spat up. That kick was Garp level of dangerous. He could not take many more of those before dying. So, he raised his alarm level to the extreme and tunnel-visioned on his new opponent. Yet, that didn’t help, the glowing individual appeared in front of his face immediately and wrapped a tentacle around Kizaru. He used it to throw Kizaru overhead and slammed him down on the ground.

“This is not good.” Kizaru used is fruit to appear far away. He looked at the mysterious person currently kicking his ass. He coughed up some blood and turned into light and disappeared from inside the ring. No one did anything to stop him.

Naruto reverted to his normal form and Kurama disappeared and so did the giant clones. “Hey man, thanks for saving our asses. Who are you?” He talked casual but stayed at a distance, not that it would matter with how fast this individual was.

“You’re welcome. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to talk. My time is up!” He said and disappeared in a flash. Sasuke undid his Susanoo and immediately fell down unconscious on the ground. He had kept all that up for ten minutes so his chakra supply was basically drained.

Up in the sky far above the group, that mysterious individual appeared again. Except now he wasn’t alone. There stood another man there with him, and that man was smiling proudly. “Well done, Vaatu. How was the outside world?” He asked the dark red spirit.

“Good. I now long for the day where I hopefully can stay out permanently.” As he spoke, he disappeared and was sucked back into the man.

‘For that to happen, I will need to fully master energy bending.’

‘Then I will wait for that day however long it takes. Thanks for letting me stretch my legs today, Amell. I needed that.’

‘No problem, Vaatu. More fun is to come. Look forward to it.” Amell said and disappeared.

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End