Joseph and Johnny

Garp was coming to the East Blue?

Leiyin thought it over and realized it made sense. The East Blue was known as the weakest of the Four Seas, and the navy forces in all four regions were already weak (the elite forces were mostly stationed along the Grand Line and in the New World). So-called inspection was mainly an excuse to send someone powerful enough to intimidate those lawless pirates.

Who was Garp?

He was an elder-level figure at Navy Headquarters, a vice admiral with the strength of an admiral, the father of Dragon, the leader of the Revolutionary Army, and a man known as the "Navy Hero." He was a legendary figure in the navy who had driven the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, into desperate situations several times. The world also called him "Iron Fist Garp." His true strength was unfathomable.

But all of that seemed to have little to do with him. Leiyin set the newspaper aside and continued considering his own strength.

The reason Leiyin had been able to rise from Academy Student to Genin (Advanced) in such a short time was not only because he had been cultivating all along. He had also constantly experienced battles and accumulated experience points. This had not only increased his combat experience and personal strength, but also his chakra.

However, although Leiyin now possessed a certain level of power, his speed was still far behind. That was his greatest weakness at present.

Among the enemies he had fought before—Kaby, Buggy, the Two-Tailed Saber-Toothed Lion, Anderson, Andrin, and the others—although they had been several times stronger than ordinary people, none of them had possessed outstanding speed. That was why Leiyin had been able to defeat them so quickly.

At present, if he wanted to become stronger, he had to increase his speed. At the very least, he had to reach the level of [Six Powers—Shave].

According to his system, that meant he had to obtain the [Flying Thunder God Technique].

In Naruto, any technique that achieved rapid movement akin to instantaneous teleportation was called a Body Flicker Technique. These included space-time ninjutsu, Martial Arts, and transformation techniques.

There were several representative examples.

Kamui could transfer oneself and surrounding objects back and forth between a separate dimension and the real world, creating high-speed movement. In the original Naruto, this was a unique ocular technique belonging to Uchiha Obito and Hatake Kakashi. It required the [Sharingan] to learn.

Teleportation Jutsu could move someone to a designated location as long as the target was locked onto with the [Sharingan].

The Fourth Raikage's [Lightning Cloak] and Might Guy's [Eight Gates] could also achieve high-speed movement.

However, the best Body Flicker Technique was still the [Flying Thunder God Technique]. The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, had mastered this technique to perfection, which was why he had trained his speed to a level unmatched by anyone before or after him. He had consequently earned the title of [Yellow Flash].

Which Body Flicker Technique would he obtain? Leiyin could not help but look forward to the future.

Bang! Bang!

Just as Leiyin was deep in thought, two sounds of impacts against the ship jolted him back to reality.

He hurried to the railing at the ship's side and saw two people sprawled atop two damaged planks, staring at him in a miserable state. One had the character "sea" tattooed on his face, wore a forehead protector, and had red hair. The other had the character "pirate" tattooed on his face and wore sunglasses. Both had curved swords hanging from their waists.

What was this?

Joseph and Johnny?

They were Zoro's two lackeys from the original story, weak fighters but highly loyal bounty hunters who hunted pirates.

Judging by their condition, they had either encountered a disaster at sea or been attacked by other pirates.

Given their strength, surviving at all was already a stroke of incredible luck.

Red-haired Joseph looked miserable as he stared at Leiyin standing on the deck. "Kid, please save us! We've been drifting at sea for two days already."

On the ship, the two men wrung out their seawater-soaked clothes. Leiyin asked them, "What happened to you? Did you encounter a disaster at sea?"

"Don't remind me." Johnny shook his blue shirt, his face bitter. "Two days ago, we were attacked by [Admiral] Krieg. Our ship was sunk. Luckily, we had our lives and escaped his clutches."

"Oh, so it was that guy." Leiyin casually placed both hands behind his head.

[Admiral] Krieg was a pirate from the East Blue. If Johnny had not mentioned him, Leiyin would have forgotten that such a character even existed in One Piece.

Joseph looked at him. "Hey, kid, what do you mean by 'that guy'? Could you not say it so casually? Krieg has a bounty of thirteen million Beli. He's the foremost great pirate in the East Blue, with over three thousand subordinates and more than thirty warships. He's the leader of the largest pirate crew in the East Blue, and you're saying it so lightly? You clearly have no idea what's going on."

Hearing this, Leiyin fell into thought. He remembered that when Luffy had set out to sea, Krieg had been the leader of the largest pirate crew in the East Blue, with a bounty of seventeen million Beli at the time. He had not expected the man to have become famous so early. And judging by the timeline, there were still many years before Luffy would set sail.

Seeing that Leiyin said nothing, the two assumed he had been frightened. Johnny laughed. "See? Now you understand how formidable Krieg is, right? Just hearing his name scared you this badly."

The moment he finished speaking, three warships came sailing toward them in a grand display, leaving Joseph and Johnny dumbfounded.

By sheer coincidence, the flag of the Krieg Pirates was flying proudly from the ships.

As the saying went: once bitten by a snake, one feared a coiled rope for ten years. Joseph and Johnny had suffered terribly at the hands of the Krieg Pirates just two days ago. Now that they had encountered his fleet again, the two could not help hugging each other and trembling.

However, it appeared that Krieg himself was not among the fleet. His own warship, the Dreadnaught Sabre, was not one of the three ships.

But the Krieg Pirates were notorious throughout the East Blue for their evil reputation. Brutal, domineering, and savage, they would sink any ship they saw at sea without hesitation. At that moment, a Krieg Pirates officer stood on the deck of the middle warship. He looked toward Leiyin's ship and ordered his men to push the cannons into position and load them.

The cold muzzles pointed mercilessly at them. Leiyin had already noticed everything.

Before the Krieg Pirates could finish loading the cannons, Leiyin had already concentrated chakra in the soles of his feet. He leaped off the ship and stepped across the surface of the sea as if it were solid ground, charging forward at his fastest speed. At the same time, he gathered a blue chakra sphere in his hand.

"Great Ball—Rasengan!"

He first reached the front of the middle warship. The energy sphere in his hand suddenly slammed into the hull. In an instant, the [Great Ball Rasengan] exploded with overwhelming force, unleashing a howling sound as it tore through the air and blasted the ship into pieces.

Before anyone could react, Leiyin used the same method to suddenly blow apart the remaining two warships.

The sight left Johnny and Joseph utterly stunned.

What kind of monster was this kid?