251. Recovering

Jon wants to return immediately, but he has spent too much chakra. So he rests for a day, but he still gets information about his crewmates through White Zetsu's connection. He has made sure that he can rest easy until he recovers, so Jon can relax for now.

His crewmates wanted to help him and almost left Red Hair Pirates' base. But they stopped when Jane told them that even if they move as fast as they could, they would still need at least a week to reach Alabasta. They were still insisting until White Zetsu reported that Jon has defeated most Blackbeard Pirates members in a short time.

It calmed them down because it meant Jon will take care of everything quickly. Then Jane also reminded them that Alabasta has a secret ninja organization that Jon helped to make. They will surely help Jon as they are also a powerful group.

The White Zetsu that stays with the Straw Hat Pirates keeps updating the situation on Alabasta. Everyone listened quietly, including the Red Hair Pirates. It is an important matter to all of them because it involves Jon of Straw Hat Pirates, Alabasta Kingdom, and Blackbeard Pirates.

They all sigh in relief and cheer when White Zetsu told them that Jon has defeated Blackbeard Pirates. Shanks also smiles, but he looks quite bitter as he touches the scars on his eyes. After all, he has some grudges against Teach too.

The Straw Hat Pirates wanted to celebrate, but they need to talk about Bartolomeo now. Luckily, it's not as serious as they thought because The Red Hair Pirates were just giving small punishment to Bartolomeo and his crew. Though the punishment seemed harsh, it was actually the agreement of both sides.

Shanks didn't want to make things hard for Barto & co because these dudes are Luffy's followers. But he also can't just let them go because they endangered his people, so he gave them some punishment upon agreement. It's just that Bartolomeo exaggerated a little when Jon found him because this maniac just wanted to get Jon's attention.

Besides, Barto & co wanted Straw Hat Pirates to be the best. To achieve that, they think their idols need to defeat all Emperor Crews, including Red Hair Pirates. That's why at first, they wanted to defeat the Red Hair Pirates themselves without knowing that the Red Hairs are Luffy's friends.

Jon who gets the report about this from White Zetsu curses Bartolomeo and swears he will make that idiot pays for deceiving him. But at least now he is relieved because there won't be a war between Red Hair and Straw Hat Pirates. Jon likes to fight, but he doesn't like unnecessary battles.

Shanks also thinks the same and his crew also doesn't want to fight the Straw Hat Pirates. Not only they are friends with Luffy and Yasopp is Usopp's father, they also don't have anything to gain from a war against the Straw Hat Pirates. Pirates like them don't like things that don't give them benefits.

"Luffy, you can have that Straw Hat completely now, no need to return it to me. Everything you've done have proven that you are worthy of that Straw Hat."

Shanks suddenly says that, which makes Luffy happy, but the other Straw Hats are confused because they don't really know what's so special about that Straw Hat for Shanks to treat it like that. It might be very special for Luffy, but they don't know its value for Shanks.

"Do you know, Luffy? This Straw Hat was Captain Roger's Straw Hat that he wore when he started his Pirate Crew with Rayleigh-san."

Now the Straw Hat Pirates are truly surprised to know that the Straw Hat was owned by the Pirate King and used in his early days as a Pirate. It finally makes sense to them as to why Rayleigh was very fond of Luffy. Maybe his personality matters, but that Straw Hat surely reminded Rayleigh of his late friend.

Shanks giving it completely to Luffy can only mean that he believes Luffy can achieve what Roger achieved or even surpass it. Well, the Straw Hat Pirates have done a lot of great things that make them worthy to be called as the Greates Pirate crew today.

But Luffy still can't be called the Pirate King without reaching Laugh Tale even though his crew has defeated 3 Emperors of the Sea and the World Government. They might've defeated the greatest forces in the world, but they haven't won against the Sea itself.

Only by reaching Laugh Tale can they be called as the Conqueror of The Sea. Being able to reach the last island, Laugh Tale will show that they have the ability to go anywhere in the world. It's also the place where the Pirate King Roger left his legacy, after all.

"Can you reach Laugh Tale, Luffy?"

"Of course. We must reach Laugh Tale."

"It won't be easy. Even if others won't hinder you, the sea itself will try to stop you."

"We are ready to face anything since we decided to walk on this path."

Luffy smiles confidently, making Shanks and the Red Hair Pirates smile too.

"Then, let's have a party while waiting for Jon to return. It's only right to celebrate a victory even though we weren't involved directly, HAHAHA!"

They really hold a big party even though they didn't fight at all. Jon can only sigh when White Zetsu reports it to him. He knows that those guys just wanted an excuse to have a big party, so they use his victory.

"Well, it doesn't matter. At least I don't need to fight again after such a tiring war. Then I will rest here for a while before returning. I get some good spoils in this war that I can use to strengthen the ninja squad."

Jon thinks that Alabasta's ninja squad is still too weak now. They almost failed protecting the Royal family in Levely and have failed to protect the civilians when the Blackbeard Pirates attacked.

Defeating Blackbeard Pirates is too much for them, but at least they should have the power to save the civilians. Well, Jon can't ask too much from a group of people who have just started their ninja training 2 years ago without any cheat like him.

So he won't ask too much from them and will just think of ways to make them stronger. Even he and his crewmates need more than 2 years to reach their current levels. Most of these ninjas that he trained didn't have good basics, so there's no way they would be as strong as Emperor crew members in just 2 years unless they have peerless talents, but sadly none of them have it.

Anyway, Jon is pondering which devil fruits he stole from Blackbeard Pirates can be given to the ninjas. All of these devil fruits are extremely valuable and can grant great abilities even among all devil fruits. It's especially so for Darkness Darkness Fruit and Quake Quake Fruit he stole from Teach.

"Hmm, should I sell the Quake Quake Fruit to former Whitebeard Pirates? They will surely love to get their pop's devil fruit back. But what use it would have even if they have it? It's not like their pops would come back to life, right?"

Jon keeps pondering while resting to let his body recover. His current self doesn't need to heal his body actively using medical jutsu. Just some rest and all his injuries will heal really fast. He only needs to use medical jutsu when he needs an instant healing like when he were in battles.

After some consideration, Jon decides to just give the ninjas 3 fruits. The Clear Clear Fruit, the most valuable fruit for ninjas because it gives them the ability to be transparent. It will be a very valuable ability for a ninja whose job is to infiltrate places.

Next is the Sick Sick Fruit which can be used in battles against large numbers of enemies. It's also very useful for assassination, one of ninjas' jobs. Though the user must have vast medical knowledge to maximize the devil fruit's potential because it utilizes the power of disease.

Lastly is the Sake Sake Fruit that can produce alcohol. This is also a good ability if used correctly. They could make all their targets drunk by spreading alcohol in the air, making their jobs easier. Jon thinks that this fruit's potential is for sneak attack, not direct battles, so it's more suitable for the ninjas.

As for the rest of the devil fruits, he still can't decide yet. They are flashy and too valuable to be used without much consideration. So he decides to save them for now and wait to find suitable users. Maybe he can even save them for his kids when he have them, or maybe his crew's kids too.

"Kids, huh? It doesn't sound bad to have a few kids. But it surely is too early for me to think about it right now. Not only we still haven't reached our goal, Vivi and I are still too young to have kids. I will consider it after maybe 10 years after I enjoyed my free life. There's no use to fight for freedom if we don't have time to fully enjoy it. I still have many places I want to visit and I want to take Vivi there, so we can't have kids before we finish exploring the world. Well, that's my plan. Hopefully nothing will go wrong."