Naruto: Trash Station

Ace was astonished. "How is that possible?! I wanted nothing more than to kill Rayleigh and the others. Why would I help them? Kōgorō was one of Rayleigh's people, so I took him out. But I never expected Kōgorō to be one of the Five Elders' children! Of course..."

Before he could finish, Ace paused. With a thoughtful look, he said viciously, "Could all of this have been arranged by Rayleigh?"

Ace thought of a possibility, and fury burned in his heart. If Rayleigh had deliberately sent Kōgorō over so Ace would kill him, anger the Five Elders, and then use Ace to tie down the World Government, buying time for Rayleigh and the others... then Ace had been used! The more Ace thought about it, the angrier he became. After all, there were truly very few people in this world capable of tying down the World Government. Ace was one of them!

Ace was furious, breathing heavily. Ren knew what Ace was thinking and merely said, "Probably not. Rayleigh isn't that devious. Besides, he wouldn't frame his own companion, so this was completely an accident. All that can be said is that Rayleigh was too confident—confident that Kōgorō could persuade you. Unfortunately, he never could have imagined that Kōgorō's appearance would lead to his death. You could say this was entirely unintentional!"

Ace fell silent before finally sighing. "Sigh... after all that, I actually helped Rayleigh indirectly. What a pain!"

Ace felt somewhat regretful. Killing people had felt great, but helping Rayleigh made him feel awful. Although the Revolutionary Army's attack had bought Rayleigh and the others quite a bit of time, Ace's actions had bought them even more.

The more time Rayleigh and the others had, the more people they could gather. After all, Roger was Roger. The