Before the Decisive Battle

Like the standardization of ninja uniforms, it was meant to prevent internal strife. The hatred accumulated over so many years among the Five Great Shinobi Nations could not be resolved simply by calling a truce, and pirates were even more prone to stabbing each other in the back.

Crocodile and Gecko Moria frowned. Although this proposal seemed fine on the surface, the larger a group's numbers were, the more it stood to lose under this arrangement.

Because there would inevitably be casualties in battle. If the Blood Eye Pirates lost one person, Gecko Moria would lose roughly a hundred, while Crocodile would lose more than a dozen. Gecko Moria's pirate crew had the most members, so he would suffer the greatest disadvantage.

All three had their own calculations for this war, each hoping the others would suffer as many losses as possible. Gecko Moria thought that Crocodile's and Uchiha Ye Han's pirate crews had few members, so losing even some would cripple them—perfectly in line with his plans.

Crocodile thought Gecko Moria's men were all small fry and cannon fodder, nothing to fear. Although Uchiha Ye Han's crew members were quite capable, there were simply too few of them to stir up much trouble.

Ye Han had no particular thoughts on the matter, because he knew these two arrogant fellows would never agree to this plan. There was therefore no need for him to continue explaining the measures derived from it.

Crocodile spoke. "My crew is used to fighting alongside people they know. Suddenly mixing in strangers could affect our combat performance."

"Same here. It would be bad if we accidentally eliminated some of your people. It might even cause conflict. What's the second option?"

Ye Han smiled after hearing Crocodile and Gecko Moria. "The second option is to divide