Black Arm Zephyr

Inside the Sealing Space.

The Nine-Tails, who was picking out a skin, and Wolffy, who was watching a werewolf tutorial, both looked toward the cage.

"Who's that? Wolffy, do you know him? Don't tell me that's your wife?"

The Nine-Tails pointed at the cage and asked with a grin.

"Get lost... That's obviously a human male! Stupid fox!"

"Who are you calling a stupid fox?!"

"Whoever answers!"

Ignoring Kurama and Wolffy's argument, Naruto walked up to the cage and carefully studied the person inside.

The man in the cage watched Naruto and the arguing fox and... possibly wolf behind him with a mixture of confusion and wariness.

The man was powerfully built, with short purple hair that stood up like steel needles.

Aside from that, his most striking feature was his right arm-a mechanical arm.

There was nothing delicate or elegant about the mechanical arm. Instead, it radiated brute violence.

Naruto recognized him. He was Zeff, the former Navy admiral from One Piece.

Even among the characters in One Piece, Zeff was a tragic figure.

In his youth, Zeff had been known as the admiral who never killed. Pirates who fell into his hands were arrested and sent to prison rather than killed.

But in middle age, his wife and child had been murdered by pirates. Their deaths made him hate pirates, and he tendered his resignation. Yet his superiors persuaded him to stay, and because he still held a little hope for the humanity of pirates, he chose to retain his admiral rank and teach recruits at Navy Headquarters.

As an instructor, Zeff helped train a large number of Navy officers.

Practically every vice admiral of any renown had been his student.

Not just the vice admirals-even the three admirals had been trained by him.

Yet fate still refused to spare a man like him.

While he was taking his students on a training voyage, pirates attacked their ship. Only two students aboard survived, and Zeff himself lost an arm.

When he learned that the World Government had actually appointed the pirate who killed his students to the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Zeff lost all faith in both the World Government and the Navy.

In his despair, Zeff's personality changed drastically. He founded the Neo Navy and mercilessly killed every pirate he encountered.

Then Zeff met the protagonist, Luffy.

He fought a fierce battle with Luffy, then another with his former student Kizaru, and was ultimately killed at the age of seventy-four.

After reviewing Zeff's life in his mind, Naruto introduced himself. "Hello, Mr. Zeff. My name is Naruto Uzumaki."

"The wolf and fox over there are Wolffy and Kurama!"

"Do you know me?" Zeff's somewhat low voice rang out from inside the cage.

"I wouldn't say I know you. I've just heard of you!"

Zeff looked at Naruto and asked, "Is this the world after death?"

That question told Naruto that the Zeff before him had probably already fought Kizaru.

In other words, as far as he knew, he was already dead.

Knowing that, Naruto figured Zeff would be much easier to deal with than Wolffy. After all... Zeff had already died in Pirates World.

Being here amounted to a second life. Another way to put it was that he had transmigrated...

Then... Naruto explained Zeff's current situation to him.

"So... I died in my own world, then transmigrated here?"

Wolffy was unhappy when he heard Naruto's explanation.

"Hey, hey... I never died!"

"I know you didn't! I'm talking about Mr. Zeff!"

"Heh, heh, heh... So I've already died once!" Zeff murmured to himself.

"Yes! Mr. Zeff, let me get you out first!"

As he spoke, Naruto stood on tiptoe and prepared to peel the sealing strip off the cage.

Was Zeff dangerous?

As far as Naruto was concerned, Zeff was even more harmless than Wolffy.

First, he wasn't some vicious pirate. Second, he was only a little kid...

He opened the cage, and just as Naruto had expected, Zeff made no untoward moves. Instead, he began surveying the entire Sealing Space.

For some reason, the Sealing Space had expanded considerably again after Zeff appeared.

Just as Naruto was wondering about that, Zeff spoke.

"Naruto, was it? Is there any liquor here?"

Naruto hadn't expected the first thing Zeff wanted after leaving the cage to be a drink.

Was that simply what people from Pirates World were like?

Producing liquor in the Sealing Space took nothing more than a thought from Naruto.

A moment later, all kinds of baijiu, wine, sake, beer, fruit wine... appeared before Zeff.

Although surprise crossed Zeff's face at the sudden appearance of so many drinks, he didn't question it. He simply picked up a bottle that caught his eye and began drinking.

As he drank, he muttered to himself.

"Ah... I'm getting old. Even at death's door, I changed my mind again. Didn't I swear to kill every pirate? Why... why did I let that Straw Hat Boy go?"

Listening to Zeff's murmuring, Naruto thought, Obviously, because Straw Hat Boy Luffy is the protagonist.

Of course, although he thought it, Naruto certainly wasn't going to say it aloud.

Just then, the miniature Nine-Tails and Wolffy came up beside Naruto.

The Nine-Tails poked Naruto. "Who's that? I can sense something very dangerous about him!"

For even the Nine-Tails to sense danger, Zeff's strength was easy to imagine.

Zeff was different from Wolffy. Wolffy had no supernatural power such as chakra or Haki, so in the Nine-Tails' eyes, this wolf who walked upright and invented all kinds of miraculous objects with a hammer was weak.

And Zeff? His Haki placed him among the very strongest people in the entire One Piece world, so naturally, the Nine-Tails sensed danger from him.

Seeing that Wolffy and the Nine-Tails both wanted to know more about Zeff, Naruto nodded. He glanced at Zeff, who was still drinking, then took Wolffy and the Nine-Tails over to the computer on the other side.

Naruto put on the One Piece movie, The Strongest Enemy: Z.

In just over an hour, the three of them finished watching the movie.

Naturally, this was Wolffy and Kurama's first viewing, while Naruto had rewatched it countless times across his previous life and this one.

"So... is this Zeff's future too?"

Kurama asked with a frown.

The little Nine-Tails looked so adorable when he frowned that Naruto instinctively pinched his cheek.

The Nine-Tails glared at Naruto, bared his teeth, and backed away two steps.

"Heh..." Naruto laughed awkwardly. "Couldn't help myself. Couldn't help myself!"

After laughing, Naruto grew serious again.

"Actually, it's not just the past and future of the Hokage world that I know. I also know some things about plenty of parallel worlds."

"For example, Mr. Zeff comes from a world full of oceans, and he was once one of the strongest people on those seas."

"Tch..." The Nine-Tails curled his lip. "One of the strongest, and he still got killed!"

"Look at me, Kurama, the strongest tailed beast. Did I get killed?"

Naruto: ...

"You're pretty cocky for someone who's sealed away!"

Naruto felt that Kurama's personality had changed quite a bit over the past month or so.

Although he was still prickly, he sometimes spouted outrageous lines, and he was even getting increasingly proficient at trash talk!

"Sure enough... competitive games change everyone!"

Naruto figured that if Kurama ran into Shukaku the One-Tail now, whom he found so irritating, he wouldn't even need to bring up the number of tails.

He could just unleash his toxic gamer trash talk and roast Shukaku to shreds.