“…Holy crap!”
Not long after Teach and Thatch passed by, an inconspicuous, sturdy wooden barrel on the deck nearly blurted out a curse.
Of course, a wooden barrel naturally couldn’t have any thoughts of its own.
The Transformation Technique was an E-rank ninjutsu and one of the compulsory courses taught at the Ninja Academy.
It was the first ninjutsu Shiranui Rei had mastered.
At its core, the technique used chakra to cover the entire body and create a transformation, allowing the user to take the form of humans, animals, or objects.
However, the Transformation Technique also had many limitations.
Physical impacts could easily disrupt the transformation, while sensory-type shinobi could see through the disguise with ease.
For an experienced jonin, trying to fool everyone with the Transformation Technique was no different from covering one’s ears while stealing a bell.
When Rei sensed footsteps approaching earlier, he had chosen to transform into a relatively common wooden barrel on the ship and hide in the shadows.
Although he had transformed into a barrel, his vision and hearing hadn’t been blocked.
Naturally, neither the conversation nor the appearances of the two men had escaped his perception.
“Six Paths Sage above, I didn’t hear that wrong, did I?”
Shiranui Rei was stunned.
Devil Fruits, Thatch, Teach, Ace…
Those keywords appearing together would have been perfectly normal.
But adding a jonin from Konoha in the Land of Fire to the equation made the situation extraordinarily abnormal.
What’s more, when the two men had passed by, they had been less than ten meters away from him.
Even at night, Rei had no difficulty seeing their appearances clearly.
One was a brown-haired man wearing a chef’s uniform with a pompadour hairstyle.
Shiranui Rei didn’t have a particularly deep impression of him.
But the appearance of the other man had left an extremely strong impression.
His body was tall and bulky, his appearance rough, and his chin was covered with thick, unkempt black facial hair.
His large yellow teeth were uneven and incomplete, making it look as though he would whistle through his teeth whenever he spoke.
Marshall D.
Teach.
The man who would one day seize the Yami Yami no Mi, betray the Whitebeard Pirates, and later become known as “Blackbeard,” one of the Emperors of the Sea who ruled over the New World…
Wait.
What future?
Judging from the conversation between Teach and Thatch, Teach’s seizure of the Yami Yami no Mi wasn’t some event in the distant future.
It was happening right now!
Shiranui Rei wasn’t slow on the uptake.
He quickly understood his current situation.
“So my Flying Thunder God Technique randomly sent me to the world of One Piece this time?”
He took a deep breath and couldn’t help laughing bitterly.
He had thought that having his Flying Thunder God destination deviate from his good brother Minato’s house and send him all the way out to sea was already absurd enough.
He had never imagined that this wasn’t some ocean within the shinobi world.
He had directly crossed over into the sea of another world.
Fortunately, he could still go back.
Rei sensed the Flying Thunder God mark he had left at Minato’s house and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the connection hadn’t been severed even after crossing between worlds.
Although the mark felt much more distant than it had in the shinobi world, he could still sense it.
It was as though an unbreakable thread was tightly connecting him to the Flying Thunder God mark.
He had to admit, the Flying Thunder God Technique was seriously impressive!
“Second Hokage-sama… No, Ancestor Tobirama, your Flying Thunder God is absolutely incredible. When I get back, I’ll definitely burn some incense for you!”
Shiranui Rei sighed inwardly.
If he calculated things properly, the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, was his teacher’s teacher’s teacher.
Calling him “Ancestor” wasn’t unreasonable.
Suppressing the emotions surging within him from crossing into another world, Shiranui Rei fell into deep thought.
There were two choices before him now.
The first was to leave immediately.
Although it would make him look somewhat cowardly, it was undoubtedly the safest and most cautious option.
The power systems of the two worlds were fundamentally different.
He had no idea how strong the people in this world were, nor did he know what level his own strength represented here.
What if someone like Thatch, a division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, already possessed strength equivalent to a Kage-level shinobi?
Wouldn’t he be completely screwed as a mere jonin?
The second choice was to go for it!
Although Teach hadn’t revealed the name of the Devil Fruit, Shiranui Rei was one of only two people aboard the Moby Dick who knew what that fruit was.
The Yami Yami no Mi.
A Logia-type Devil Fruit.
Just as its name suggested, its ability possessed limitless gravitational force and a space akin to a black hole, allowing the user to absorb, crush, and pulverize everything with the power of darkness.
When Blackbeard first demonstrated this ability, he swallowed an entire town into darkness in an instant, then released and blasted out countless pieces of rubble.
In one sentence, it was terrifyingly powerful!
If he took advantage of this opportunity to seize the Yami Yami no Mi…
At the thought of this, a fiery emotion surged within Shiranui Rei’s heart.
Gradually, the dangers of the future, the people he cherished, and his desire for greater power became heavy weights placed upon the scales of his heart, causing them to slowly tip toward one side.
The sturdy wooden barrel disappeared amid a cloud of smoke.
But the person who appeared in its place was not Shiranui Rei.
It was the brown-haired man with the pompadour hairstyle and chef’s uniform—Thatch!
A trace of madness was brewing in his eyes, like a thunderstorm gathering within rolling black clouds.
This time, he was going for it!
…
Inside the kitchen of the Moby Dick, Thatch put on his chef’s hat and rolled up his sleeves.
His movements flowed smoothly as he began preparing a cherry pie.
Teach stood expressionlessly behind him, much quieter than usual.
“Teach, same level of sweetness as usual, right?” Thatch asked without turning around.
“Ah, yeah. Same sweetness is fine!”
Teach forced a smile.
For some reason, he suddenly sighed emotionally.
“Captain Thatch, come to think of it, every time I get hungry at night and can’t sleep, I come looking for you, and you always agree to make me a cherry pie.”
Thatch’s hands didn’t pause for even a moment.
“After all, we’ve known each other for so long. We’re brothers on the same ship. It’s only natural.”
They were all members of the Whitebeard Pirates.
They were the sons of the Emperor of the Sea, Edward Newgate, and brothers who had shared life and death and stood together through thick and thin.
Well, that was how it should have been…
Teach suddenly grinned.
In the dimly lit kitchen, with half his face hidden in shadow, he seemed somewhat different from his usual self.
“Zehahaha! If I could pick one brother from Pops’ ship and bring him aboard my own ship, I’d definitely choose you, Captain Thatch!”
“Hm?”
Thatch was slightly surprised.
He vaguely sensed that Teach seemed somewhat different from usual.
Still, he didn’t turn around.
He simply focused on what he was doing, exposing his back to his friend without the slightest reservation, just as he always had.
After spending so many years together aboard the same ship, Thatch viewed Teach as nothing more than an unambitious and mediocre brother with a simple, honest personality.
He didn’t truly understand the deeper meaning behind those words.
Instead, he teased him.
“Are you planning to defeat Ace and become the captain of the Second Division, Teach?
“Then you’d better work a little harder.
If you actually manage to do it, I’ll make you a thousand cherry pies as a present.
“No, ten thousand! Hahahaha!”
After saying that, even Thatch couldn’t stop himself from laughing.
But in the very next instant, a piercing pain suddenly erupted from his chest!
Confusion, shock, agony, and disbelief surged through his mind along with the hot blood rushing upward.