Cocoa West

Holding a sea chart, Gato fumbled with it for a long time before finally figuring out the direction.

Fine, he admitted that he truly had no talent for navigation. It would be better to leave this sort of thing to professionals in the future.

"Cocoyasi Village. Once I find it, I'll be able to learn where the Fish-Man Pirates' main base is, right?"

This sea chart was extremely crude. The ship dealer had thrown it in for free when he bought the boat, and many places were not marked on it. Fortunately, Gato spotted Cocoyasi on it—Nami's hometown.

Once he got there, he could follow the trail and find the Arlong Pirates' base.

After leisurely spending more than a dozen days aboard the ship, he successfully reached his destination.

He had to admit, having a ship really did feel different. Such a large vessel gave Gato a spacious place to train, and its comfort was utterly incomparable to the raft he had used before.

Gato was now full of energy every day. His training in the Lightning Living Body Technique had entered a slow stage of progress. His body had gradually adapted to the stimulation, making explosive breakthroughs much harder to achieve.

His swordsmanship had also stagnated. After all, greater insights into it could only be gained through battle. Over these days, he had merely reinforced the foundations of his swordsmanship.

Still, solidifying those basics made his swings feel smoother and more natural. He had never received any swordsmanship instruction before, so even this was a rare and valuable improvement.

His chakra reserves had progressed the most. As the source of a ninja's strength and his greatest reliance, it was only natural that he devoted the most effort to it.

He felt that his chakra reserves had reached some kind of bottleneck. Perhaps he needed a battle, or perhaps just a fleeting insight during meditation. Then his chakra reserves would naturally break through to the level of a Chunin.

If he faced Drake again now, he was confident he could defeat him within ten moves. Though he was not much stronger than before in any single aspect, taken together, his progress was immense.

His target this time, Arlong, naturally posed no pressure to Gato. Even if the entire Arlong Pirates attacked together, they would not be able to threaten Drake, much less him.

Of course, he would not let his guard down. Even a lion used its full strength when hunting a rabbit. Gato was the lion, while the Arlong Pirates were no rabbits—at the very least, they were venomous snakes.

Arlong's group was definitely stronger than their bounties suggested. Arlong colluded with corrupt Marines, which kept his bounty far below his true strength and allowed him to thrive in the East Blue.

Cocoyasi Village was a relatively prosperous town. Even after the Arlong Pirates had extorted exorbitant protection fees from it for eight years, they had not managed to ruin the place.

Even so, its streets were not particularly lavish, completely unbefitting the income of its residents.

After dropping anchor, Gato found a place to disembark and entered this place, where the oppression of the Arlong Pirates had drained people of their smiles.

Gato found a local resident and wanted to ask how to get to Arlong Park.

To his surprise, the moment he introduced himself as a pirate—before he could even explain why he had come—he sparked panic among the crowd.

"P-Pirates! Pirates are here again!"

"What? But it's not time to collect protection money yet!"

"Don't be afraid. He isn't a fish-man, and he isn't from the Arlong Pirates."

Only after someone calmly pointed that out did they stop panicking.

Though the residents here had long suffered under the oppression of the Arlong Pirates, and the terror of pirates had been ingrained in their hearts, they remained remarkably calm when other pirate crews invaded.

In their eyes, the Arlong Pirates were invincible, an unbeatable force. Arlong was a great pirate with a bounty of 000 million Beli. As long as they raised the Arlong Pirates' flag, pirates seeking to invade this place would flee in terror.

"Pirate! Cocoyasi isn't a place where just anyone can run wild!"

For a moment, the crowd was fired up. The villagers quickly gathered a large group and charged at Gato.

They had lived under the Arlong Pirates' brutal rule for so long that their opinion of pirates was less than zero. Unable to resist Arlong, they were willing to use the Arlong Pirates' name to vent their frustrations on other pirates.

It was tragic, and pitiful—the helplessness of the weak.

But they did not deserve much sympathy either. Pitiful people always had something hateful about them.

Even a young girl like Nami had been striving, joining the Arlong Pirates in search of a way to save everyone. What about the other adult villagers?

They all knew what Nami had taken upon herself, yet they passively waited for a girl to save them, calling it respect for her plan.

Perhaps they had once lived prosperous lives and had all been capable people, but in the end, they were nothing more than a pack of cowards.

In the end, Nami's efforts bore fruit when she met Luffy, while this pack of cowards could only wait for a savior to appear.

Now these weaklings were actually using the name of Arlong, who had tormented them for years, to show hostility toward Gato, a true beast. It was foolish in the extreme.

Gato had not expected such a poor start. He had barely stepped off the ship before receiving such a "warm" welcome from the villagers.

Seeing that he was alone, the villagers grew even more excited. They all hated pirates to the bone, but not every pirate looked as isolated and vulnerable as Gato.

Sometimes, they could only rely on the Arlong Pirates' reputation to drive away invading pirates. How could that possibly compare to giving such pirates a proper beating?

"A mere pirate dares set foot on this land? Everyone, get him!"

The crowd roared in agreement, raising hoes, machetes, and all manner of weapons as they surrounded Gato.

Gato truly did not want to lower himself to the level of these weaklings. It was beneath him. But neither was he a kindhearted man. Unlike Luffy, a pirate who was more like an adventurer, Gato had never shied away from killing.

Gato had not been some great humanitarian in his previous life in the Naruto world. Otherwise, how could he have maintained such a large power base in that lawless land?

He had no sympathy for anyone who dared offend him or raise a blade against him, regardless of whether they were noble or lowly, whether they had a tragic past, or whether they had some reason they could not help.

If they wanted him dead, they had to be prepared to die.

Likewise, as someone holding a weapon capable of threatening others, he had also prepared himself for death. Dying in fierce battle was far better than the fate of his previous life, when he had been unarmed and unable to avoid death even by begging for mercy.

Even if he were killed, it would only mean that he was inferior. Perhaps he could not call it without resentment, but he would never regret the path he had chosen.

"Fools. Prepare to accept death," he said.

He used no ninjutsu, no swordsmanship, and not even his full strength. With nothing more than a simple draw slash, the villagers charging at the front suddenly collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony.