Moonlight spilled across the rolling waves, making the vast ocean look like a piece of silver-patterned silk fluttering in the wind.
Shiranui Rei lay bewilderedly on the deck of a gigantic ship.
Compared to the enormous vessel, he was as tiny as a sesame seed on a plate.
The salty tang of the sea breeze washed over him, making him question his entire existence.
“The smell of the ocean… Am I east or south of the Land of Fire?”
Shiranui Rei remembered that the Land of Fire only bordered the sea in the east, where it faced the Land of Whirlpools across the water, and in the south, where it approached the ocean.
But whether he was in the east or the south, if he was by the sea, then he was a long way from Konoha.
He considered an even worse possibility and immediately sucked in a cold breath.
“Don’t tell me this sent me all the way to the Land of Water?”
Even with a ninja’s pace, getting back to Konoha from the Land of Water would take quite some time.
After all, crossing the ocean required a ship, and transportation in this era was hardly well developed.
What Rei clearly hadn’t considered was that his current location might be much farther away than he imagined.
“Getting from Minato’s house all the way out to sea… Isn’t this Flying Thunder God going a little overboard?”
Shiranui Rei sighed helplessly.
At the same time, his dark eyes swept across his surroundings vigilantly, his gaze calm and composed.
Big.
Really big.
He had carried out quite a few missions along the coast and at sea, and had even escorted merchant ships from the Land of Fire several times.
But among every ship he had ever seen, he would have to call this one the largest.
That, however, actually put his mind somewhat at ease.
There were indeed wandering ninjas who formed pirate crews and preyed upon ships at sea, but the strength of such rogue ninja varied greatly, and there were very few powerful shinobi who possessed jonin-level strength or higher.
A giant ship of this size clearly couldn’t belong to ordinary pirates.
It was either a vessel belonging to one of the great nations or a ship owned by some wealthy merchant.
That was the conclusion he had reached based on the circumstances of the shinobi world.
As a battle-hardened jonin, Rei first checked the supplies and weapons he was carrying before deciding what to do next.
One kunai, ten shuriken, two explosive tags, five soldier pills…
That was more or less everything in his ninja pouch.
Today, he had merely gone to visit Minato.
He hadn’t been heading to a battlefield or setting out on a mission, so he hadn’t brought a particularly large supply of equipment.
Still, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem, right?
Only then did Shiranui Rei realize something.
They said that after three days apart, one should look at a person with new eyes.
The current him no longer needed to rely solely on his legs to travel as he had before.
He had been able to come here using the Flying Thunder God Technique, so naturally, he could use it to go back as well.
However, just as he was about to sense the Flying Thunder God mark he had left at Minato’s house and return to Konoha, voices approaching from a distance suddenly reached his ears.
“Hm?”
Shiranui Rei raised an eyebrow and instinctively looked toward the passageway outside the nearby cabin, where the voices were coming from.
The moment he clearly heard what they were saying, he was struck as though by a bolt of lightning.
…
Five minutes earlier.
Inside one of the ship’s rooms, a brown-haired man wearing a chef’s uniform and sporting an exaggerated, towering pompadour sat at a table, staring at a small box placed before him.
The box was open, and inside lay a strange-looking dark-purple fruit.
Knock, knock, knock—
The sound of someone knocking on the wooden door rang out.
A simple, honest voice came from the other side.
“Captain Thatch! Are you asleep?”
“That voice…”
Thatch snapped out of his distracted state.
He carefully closed the box, then stood up and hurried to the door before opening it.
Standing outside was a burly man with a heavyset build and abundant body hair.
He grinned foolishly, revealing a mouthful of large, uneven teeth.
“Teach, why are you coming to see me so late at night?” Thatch raised an eyebrow.
Before the other man could answer, he suddenly grinned.
“Hey, you didn’t get hungry again in the middle of the night and come looking for cherry pie, did you? You need to watch your weight!”
As he spoke, Thatch reached out and patted Teach’s large belly.
“Captain Thatch’s cherry pie is just too delicious. Sharing it with everyone during the day wasn’t nearly enough.”
Teach scratched his head with a foolish grin.
He didn’t seem bothered at all by Thatch’s teasing as he patted his stomach.
Instead, he looked at the other man with undisguised admiration.
“There’s really no helping you…”
Thatch helplessly spread his hands.
As the ship’s head chef, however, he clearly enjoyed the compliment about his cooking, and the smile on his face grew considerably wider.
“Come on. Let’s go to the kitchen. But remember, you’re washing the plates and utensils afterward, Teach!”
Thatch stepped out of the room, then turned around and closed the door, casually reminding him.
“Hahahaha, of course, Captain Thatch! Same as always!”
Teach’s face was filled with the joy of having his wish for more cherry pie granted.
But his shifty eyes secretly peered through the gradually closing gap in the door toward Thatch’s room.
The small box sitting neatly on the table made his heart skip a beat, and his breathing became noticeably heavier.
Only after the door had completely closed did Teach reluctantly withdraw his gaze and lumber after Thatch toward the kitchen.
“Captain Thatch, you haven’t eaten that Devil Fruit yet?”
He asked as casually as he could.
“Huh?”
Thatch paused slightly.
But this wasn’t exactly a secret, so he didn’t think much of it.
“We don’t know what ability it has yet.
It’s not listed in the Devil Fruit encyclopedia we have aboard the ship, either.
“But I asked Pops about it today. He said he’d use his connections to find us a more comprehensive encyclopedia. Hopefully, we’ll be able to figure out what kind of fruit this is by then.”
“Really? Pops sure cares about all of us kids.”
Teach spoke with apparent emotion.
But at some point, the honest expression on his face had completely darkened.
A Devil Fruit encyclopedia was not something a person would deliberately collect unless they had a particularly strong obsession with a specific fruit.
Moreover, because the sea was so vast, Devil Fruit encyclopedias had different authors and sources, and their degree of completeness varied.
So it was perfectly normal that their pirate ship couldn’t immediately find an encyclopedia containing information about that particular fruit.
But with the resources of the Whitebeard Pirates, perhaps in the not-too-distant future…
“Still, if it’s a good fruit, I should probably eat it. After all, becoming stronger would let me help Pops even more.”
Thatch stroked his chin thoughtfully.
Devil Fruits were cursed by the sea, so whether or not to consume one was indeed something that men of the sea had to consider carefully.
The instant those words fell, Teach, walking behind him, froze.
Something deep inside him seemed to crack.
A struggle and a hint of ferocity appeared on his dark face, but the moment Thatch turned around and looked at him, his expression once again became simple and harmless.
Thatch patted him on the shoulder.
“Teach, you need to work hard too! Help that guy Ace shoulder some of the pressure! You’re even older than him!”
“Me?
Hahaha!
“I could never compare to Captain Ace. Leave the fighting to you guys. I just want to stay aboard the ship, properly take care of Pops, and eat more cherry pie!”
Teach wore an innocent, harmless smile as he shamelessly revealed his utterly unambitious aspirations to his friend.