Smoker stared hard at Naruto, his gaze heavy with a frustration he couldn't put into words, as if he had been holding back far too much for far too long.
"Then why didn't you just kill me? I don't have the Marines anymore, and the residents are gone too. What's the point of living like this?"
Naruto smiled, looking completely at ease. He clearly hadn't taken it to heart.
"Actually, I brought all of them into another small world. To put it simply, the Dragon Vein World is inside my body."
"You can go live with them, or you can stay here in these ruins. It's your choice."
Smoker stood before him and gave him a long look, as though reassessing him—or resigning himself to his fate.
"Looks like you had this planned all along, yet you still went out of your way to ask me. That's cruel."
"But even if I refused, I doubt it would change anything. You've already made up your mind."
"Take me in."
Naruto nodded and lightly extended his right hand. He touched Smoker, and Smoker vanished on the spot.
"Hey, Naruto, where'd he go? How did he just disappear? What kind of attack was that? That's ridiculous."
"You didn't actually kill him, did you? He's not a bad person at heart. I kind of like him."
Naruto looked up at Luffy calmly, his face giving nothing away.
"I'm not going to kill him for no reason. I'm not that cold-blooded."
"You don't need to worry about that. I just sent him where he needed to go."
"Anyway, what do you make of what happened? Things have gotten a lot more complicated."
"Overall, it's nowhere near as simple as you think."
"You need to prepare ahead of time. Going in without a plan would make