A Peace-Loving Clan

Uchiha Yoru kept blinking at Shisui.

Shisui sighed helplessly.

He set down his teacup and turned his clear eyes to Hancock. His tone was as gentle as ever, but carried an unusual seriousness.

"Your Majesty."

At Shisui's voice, Hancock immediately lowered her chin and turned slightly toward him, her cheeks flushed.

"Just call me Hancock."

"All right, Hancock. I'd like to head out to sea too. May we travel on your ship?"

"Of course. You're welcome aboard. I wouldn't even object to offering the Kuja Pirate Ship as a wedding gift."

The Empress cupped her cheeks in delight and shyly avoided Shisui's eyes.

Shisui: A wedding gift???

Both the Uchiha and the Kuja Tribe were quick to act. At a word from the Empress and Yoruichi, their people sprang into motion.

Within a few hours, both groups had boarded the Kuja Pirate Ship.

For his first voyage, Yoru did not bring many of his clansmen.

Fugaku volunteered to stay behind and look after the clan, so Yoru took only a dozen or so members who had awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

Six Sea Kings followed them through the deepest waters.

Sea Kings might not have much brainpower, but their sheer size made them difficult to control.

The Three-Tomoe Sharingan alone could not control them at all.

Only Yoru, Shisui, and Fugaku, who possessed the Mangekyo, could each control two. Itachi could control four by himself.

They left four Sea Kings to guard their base and brought the other six as escorts. That was plenty.

Besides, Sea Kings had an overwhelming advantage against ordinary pirates, but a top-tier fighter would probably kill one in an instant.

Well, Shanks excepted!

"Set sail!"

Once everyone was aboard, the Empress sat on her lofty chair, swept a hand forward, and called out to her crew.

Before long, the Kuja Pirate Ship drew slowly toward the Marine warship stationed ten kilometers offshore.

On the warship, Vice Admiral Momonga gripped the rail and watched the approaching Kuja Pirate Ship, forcing himself upright despite the pain still wracking his body.

The strong in the Pirate World truly were built to take a beating.

After Kakashi was hit by Tsukuyomi, he spent more than half a month in the hospital before recovering.

Yet Vice Admiral Momonga could barely stand again after just a few hours.

Of course, it helped that brilliant doctors seemed to be everywhere in the Pirate World.

The ship's doctor on every vessel was absurdly skilled!

When Momonga spotted the group on the bow deck, all dressed in black with dark hair and strikingly different bearing, his pupils contracted.

Uchiha Itachi, the man who had defeated him, was among them.

He really was closely tied to the people of Kuja Island.

"Boa Hancock!"

Momonga's voice was hoarse with weakness, but it still carried a Vice Admiral's authority. "Who are these people? Why are they aboard your ship?"

The Empress did not even look him in the eye. She lounged against the armrest of her throne, winding a lock of black hair around one slender finger.

"That is none of your concern. You have no authority to give me orders. Lead the way."

The Empress lifted her chin and pointed imperiously at Vice Admiral Momonga.

"Oh! You must be the famous Vice Admiral Momonga!"

Uchiha Yoru stepped forward with a perfectly measured smile.

His Sharingan looked like ordinary black eyes now, making him seem utterly harmless.

"I heard my younger brother had a little misunderstanding with you. Please don't take it to heart. I've already given him a talking-to!"

Yoru dipped his head politely, yet something about him sent a chill through Momonga.

"We're new residents of Kuja Island. We're joining Her Majesty on a voyage to see the world."

"New residents?" Momonga's gaze sharpened. "Kuja Island never accepts men. That is an ironclad rule."

"Times change."

Yoru shrugged, his smile unwavering. "Besides, that's between us and Kuja Island. It has little to do with the Marines, does it?"

Just then, Rear Admiral Yuma hurried over and whispered a few words in Momonga's ear.

The Vice Admiral's expression darkened further. He stared hard at Yoru, then turned to the Empress.

"You controlled Sea Kings to attack a Marine warship? That's a provocation against the World Government!"

"Attack?"

Yoru raised an eyebrow, looking innocent. "We merely demonstrated our ability to defend ourselves. If we had wanted to attack..."

He paused, and his voice abruptly turned cold.

"...you wouldn't be standing here talking right now, Vice Admiral."

Before the words had faded, a deep rumble rose from beneath the sea. Enormous shadows glided slowly through the blue water.

An eerie silence fell over the sea.

Even the sound of waves striking the hull seemed to vanish, as though the entire ocean were holding its breath.

Uchiha Yoru stood at the bow of the Kuja Pirate Ship, his black robes stirring without wind.

His earlier smile was gone. He slowly raised his eyes—

In that instant, crimson flooded his pupils.

Three Tomoe emerged against the scarlet and slowly revolved, like a gaze awakening in the abyss.

But that was only the beginning.

Behind Yoru, more than a dozen Uchiha clansmen stepped forward together.

Whoosh—

Without a word between them, pair after pair of eyes ignited crimson at the same instant.

Deep red, dark red, blazing red—each pair bore a slightly different shade, but all held those three uncanny Tomoe.

The air suddenly felt heavy.

The Marine soldiers felt an inexplicable suffocation, as if invisible hands had closed around their throats.

Those eyes were not even looking directly at them, yet the crushing pressure made even the most elite Marines instinctively retreat half a step.

Cold sweat beaded on Vice Admiral Momonga's brow.

He had survived countless battlefields and witnessed the intimidation of Conqueror's Haki, but this pressure was different from all of it.

It was not an overwhelming force of will. It was something more fundamental: the feeling of being watched.

As though every secret, weakness, and fear they held lay bare beneath those uncanny eyes.

"Of course, we Uchiha are a peace-loving clan. We don't go around picking fights!"

Just as the confrontation reached a breaking point, Uchiha Yoru abruptly resumed his usual tone.

His Sharingan faded back to ordinary black eyes.

Seeing this, his clansmen withdrew their Sharingan at the same moment.

The air seemed to flow again, as though that suffocating pressure had been nothing more than a shared hallucination.

But Momonga's knuckles had turned white around the railing.

He had just been threatened?!

He was a Marine Vice Admiral, one of the strongest men on the seas, and he had been threatened by a group that had come out of nowhere?!

He wanted to draw his sword in fury and show them the Marines would not be insulted.

But his body...

"Now then, will you lead the way, Vice Admiral?"

Uchiha Yoru spoke with gentle courtesy, as if he could not see the look on Momonga's face.

The Empress sat high on her throne, resting her cheek on one hand, an amused smile curving her lips.

She looked at the deathly still Marine fleet, then at the brazen Uchiha. Her red lips parted to deliver the final word.

"My guests do not have much patience."