Chapter 15

"Hold up here guys! There's someone just ahead of us!" Rose spoke out to the boys as he knelt down behind a crate on the port and waved back to the rest of the group to follow her actions and do the same. Everyone kept suit and knelt down, seeking cover behind various cargos and crates.

Reeve then crawled a little closer to Rose. "What do you see Rose?" Reeve whispered to her from a prone position

"I see four men loading up a barge." She responded as she peeked out a little from behind her crate before sliding herself back into behind it. "Komurasaki told us that we need to get on one of these ships to get to Onigashima, what's the plan to get on?" Rose asked as he looked at her captain

Naruto pondered on a plan for a few seconds before looking back at his crew, but before he could say anything Reeve beat him to it. "Why can't we just take out the people loading the ship and hijack it? It seems easy enough." He suggested as he pointed towards the ship from behind the crates

"Too many things could go wrong with that plan when we arrived at the island. Just think, they would probably have some kind of team waiting at the port at Onigashima to unload all of this cargo and what happens if they see a ship carrying outsiders or worse no one at all. The'll probably alert one of Kaido's officers, or worse, Kaido himself." Pedro explained from his knelt down position behind Naruto

Naruto nodded along, "Pedro's right. If we want to get to Onigashima without the knowledge of any of Kaido's forces we'll need to either sneak on that ship or swim there underneath the water."

"Do you really intend for us to swim there!?" Reeve questioned him with shock

Naruto grinned, "Well no exactly swim. My plan is that we submerge ourselves under the water and grab onto the boat and it'll bring us to Onigashima." He told his crew as Pedro and Rose nodded their heads as Reeve facepalmed

"How do you expect for us to hold our breath for tens of minutes at a time!?" He asked Naruto with an audible whisper

Naruto smiled at the younger boy, "I can manipulate water kid, have a little faith in your captain." The older man told Reeve as he avoided eye contact from embarrassment

"Alright, since we all know what we're doing let's go. They look like they're going to set off to the island soon so we gotta get a move on." Rose told the group as she was about to walk towards the ship

Before Rose could get moving Pedro spoke up, "Wait Rose!" He whispered

"Yeah what is it Pedro. We got to go!" She told him quietly

He sniffed the air, "I detect a fifth person, but this new person seems different. He reeks of the smell of blood." Pedro explained as they saw a much taller man walk over to the four others. The man wore a dark blue kimono that hung a little loose on his muscular figure; the man also had very dark purple hair, almost a raven colour, that was tied into a messy top-knot which made his hairstyle resemble that of a pineapple (think Shikamaru's hairstyle from Naruto). He carried a katana at his waste that looked to be a very high grade sword based on looks alone. However, the man's most stand out feature was his lack there of; his face had been completely hidden by a sort of clay mask that resembled the face of a dragon, coloured in white and red.

"B-boss Kinshiki! W-w-what are you doing here!?" Asked one of the henchmen, very nervously

The now named Kinshiki casually inspected the crates as he pulled one open to take a look inside. The crate revealed food, water and various other necessities that had been robbed from the people of Wano by Kaido's men. Kinshiki then looked up from his inspection and stared at the henchmen, "If you men were thinking about taking these supplies to Kaido-sama himself then don't. He has been killing slime like you left and right in his rage as of late, and I'm afraid if you brought all of this to him it would only be soaked in your blood. But then again, why would I care what happens to you fools anyway." He told them in a deep, serious voice as the four men started to sweat profusely

The "leader" of the four then stepped forward to speak, "Then w-what will you h-have us do B-boss?" He asked

"Hmmm, go to Onigashima and find more underlings like yourselves and then return here. Once back, take all of these supplies to my safe house on the outer skirts of the Flower Capital for storage for the time being." Kinshiki told the group as he began to take his leave

"But Boss, i-isn't that a little bit of a w-waste of time! Don't you t-think this plan of yours is a little foolish-" The henchman said as he was interrupted by the blade of Kinshiki's katana

The katana sliced right across the man's chest as he fell backwards with blood leaking out of his torso at an accelerated rate as his body twitched on the ground. "This is me being open to your suggestion slime, next time you won't be as lucky as to keep your life." He told the downed man as he looked onto the others, "You three! Get him on the ship and sail to Onigashima and do as I said. Unless any of you have any more 'suggestions' for my plan?"

"No way boss! We're going right now!" The three of the echoed as two men picked up the downed henchmen's arms and the other picked up his legs and carried him onto the ship and began to set sail to Onigashima

Kinshiki watched as the ship was finishing getting ready to sail and walked over to the crates behind him to take a closer look at the goods inside. Once he got over there he saw a trail of footprints in the small puddles of sand that had managed to have been blown onto the dock and looked back to the ship sharply. The ship had already began its short voyage to Onigashima, but before it was out of sight, Kinshinki saw what looked to be head descend below the waterline right behind it.

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With Naruto's group. . .

The small group had successfully managed to find a way onto Onigashima, though it would not be considered a normal means of travel from anyone aside from the groups captain. Naruto had led them all into the water and underneath the boat and had used his Devil-Fruit to disperse all of the water around their heads to make a breathable bubble of air around their heads. However, the astonishment of Naruto's ability was only short lived as the group rapidly approached the island of Onigashima.

The three men then unloaded their comrade onto the shore and picked him up and carried him towards the giant skull-shaped fortress, that wasn't that far away, to medically attend to him and gather more men to fill out Kinshiki's orders. Rose peeked her head out of the water just as they left the ship at the dock and then alerted everyone below the waterline the coast was clear of any guards.

One by one all of the Whirlpool Pirates ascended from the water and swam up and onto the shore with Rose and began to dry off a little. "Wow that was one of the coolest things I've ever done! Being underwater for that long! It was awesome!" Reeve told his crew in enjoyment as he shook his head to get rid of any leftover water.

"It certainly was very fascinating to do something like that." Pedro agreed with the younger boy as he too attempted to dry himself off

Naruto raised his hands out to the three and they all watched on as water droplets began to come out of their hair and clothes and fall to the ground, which in the process, left them completely dry. "It's good that you liked it guys but we're in enemy territory now. So what do you guys think we should do to obtain what we came here for?" Naruto asked his crew, looking for any suggestions

Pedro and Reeve were quiet but Rose was quickly to speak up. "I got a gadget that might be able to help us find the correct location of the Ponoglyph inside of the fortress without giving away our location." She told them all

"What is this gadget Rose?" Pedro asked which Naruto nodded along to, also wondering the same thing

She smiled as she presented a gold disk to the boys as they all looked on in confusion, "It's only in the prototype phase but it can help us with finding a safe passage to the Ponoglyph, away from the eyes of Kaido and his men." Rose explained as the disk opened up to reveal a six-legged robot with a small camera at the front of it. "I call this machine the recon infiltrating machine or RIM for short." Rose continued to say as RIM spun around in her hand showing what appeared to be some level of excitement as it looked back onto the boys.

"This- this is incredible Rose! I never knew someone could be capable of designing and creating a robot such as this one." Naruto praised her as he inspected the robot. "However, RIM. Can you sneak into the fortress and relay us the information as to where the Road Ponoglyph is located?" Naruto questioned the small robot as it beeped and spun around in a quick circle

Rose smiled, "He says he can." Rose translated to the rest of the group

"You can understand that thing?" Reeve asked her with a little attitude which caused the robot anger and arch itself like it was prepared to pounce on the young boy

Rose laughed a little at Reeve's words, "Well of course I can! I built him after all!"

"Back to the point, are you positive he can find where the Ponoglyph is hidden from within the fortress?" Naruto asked Rose in a serious tone of voice, only batting and eye towards the robot

Rose smiled, "I'm positive!" She expressed to her captain

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With RIM. . .

The little robot had managed to find a way to sneak into the main area of the fortress and was currently crawling around on the ceiling of the structure. There were many small cracks and weird grooves inside the ceiling which allowed the same robot and easy way to grip itself as it travelled further and further into Kaido's base of operations. Eventually, RIM came to a room that had three different doors that had split off in various directions along with having two people below in said room, a man and a woman.

"What do you mean Zabetso came back from the mainland injured?" The woman questioned the man with a shocked expression adorning her face

The man sighed as he nodded along, "Indeed, he came back with a deep wound going across his chest. I thought it was someone trying to get back at Lord Kaido by going after one of us but that wasn't the case." The man explained as he folded his arms

The woman raised a brow, "Then what exactly happened? That wound didn't magically appear onto his chest like magic." The woman asked the man, eager to hear the true story behind Zabetso's wound

"From what I heard Boss Kinshiki gave it to him." The man told her which caused her to nod in understanding

She nodded along, "That makes sense, he really is an unforgiving person. All of Lord Kaido's Allstars don't exactly show immediate respect towards us but they understand our importance in numbers. Even the headliners like himself treat us with dignity, he's the only one in this whole damn crew who seems to try and take out as much of us as he possibly can." She told the man in frustration

"I know what you mean, but as long as he isn't here on Onigashima with me I could really care less what he does." The man told her as he walked over away and picked up a small chest

"Same here, but what's that that you're holding?" She questioned him as he laid it in her arms

The man then patted his hands together and then folded his arms back together, "That right there is a little bit of treasure that Boss King managed to recover from some thief who was caught stealing from Orochi's residence. Instead of bringing it back to Lord Orochi he decided to just put it in our vault, and since he told me to do it and since I outrank you you'll be doing it." He explained as he started to walk away

She sighed, "What fun." The woman then started to make her way down the door on the far right to put the treasure in the vault. Seeing this, RIM jumped off of the ceiling and and followed through the door and followed the woman all the way up to the vault door. She then keyed in a simple combination and opened the door and tossed the chest onto the piles of gold and jewel present in the room. RIM peeked in and saw through its lens the bif red cube sitting right in the middle of the room. After spotting what it came for, RIM climbed back up onto the ceiling and within a few seconds a little antenna sprouted from the backside of the robot and started to blink red.

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Back with the crew. . .

Rose's watch on her arm began to blink red as she tapped it to open up a message. The rest of the crew looked on to she what she was looking at but couldn't really make up the words that were on the message.

"What does it say?" Reeve questioned as he tried to make heads or tails of the message

"I can't make out one letter on that thing." Naruto told everyone as he peered over Reeve's shoulder

Pedro blinked, "Me neither." He stated, agreeing with the others as he looked over his captain's shoulder

Rose chuckled at the scene in front of her of all the boys present looking closely at her watch trying to make sense of it. "Alright you guys. It's just RIM, it's telling me that it has located the location of the Road Ponoglyph and it has sent me directions on how to get there." Rose told them as Naruto shot his arms up

"Yes! Let's go and get this thing!" The captain said with enthusiasm as he started to run towards the fortress only to notice that no one was following him. "What's wrong guys, why aren't you coming with me?" He asked to the group

Pedro sighed, "Do you know where you're going captain?" He asked Naruto

Naruto then brought a hand up to the back of his head and then he made a face of embarrassment as he scratched the back of his head, "No I guess not."

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Minutes later. . .

A few moments had passed and the Whirlpool Pirates had made their way through the maze that was Kaido's fortress and had finally arrived to where RIM's beacon was going off. The robot then dropped from the ceiling onto Rose's shoulder and then did a spin of excitement which made its creator giggle.

Each crew member then looked forward and saw the vault door that was in their path to getting the Ponoglyph. "Well that's fantastic! How do you guys suppose to get through a door like that!" Reeve complained as he shot his hands up in the air

"Well with a combination of course! RIM do your thing!" Rose told the robot as it jumped onto the locking mechanism and deployed a metal claw which attached itself to the dial on the door and then began to make it spin rapidly before the door clicked open

"Wow RIM, you're incredible!" Naruto exclaimed as he stared in awe of what the tiny robot just did

Pedro smiled, "Truly spectacular!" The jaguar mink said

"Pfft, show off!" The youngest spoke out as he folded his arms over his chest

The robot then directed everyone through the door and accepted the praise from the group until Reeve was walking through and the robot deployed a tiny taser and shot it at the young boy giving him quite the shock and making him complain which only fell on deaf ears.

Naruto and company then walked up to the giant red cube in the middle of the room and took in the sight of it. "I-I've never seen one of these before! Look at that strange language inscribed all over it! What does it say?" Rose question out loud as Naruto prepared to get an etching of the Ponoglyph

"I got no idea, but I plan to get it translated sometime soon." Naruto told the girl as she nodded, not taking her eyes off of the cube

A few moments passed and the Yonko completed the etching of the Road Ponoglyph as he then folded up the paper and deposited it into Rose's backpack for safe keeping for the time being. "All right guys I think it's time we took our leave." Naruto told them as they all began to make their way out only to find someone blocking the door

The person blocking the door was none other than Kinshiki, the man that they had seen strike down a member of his own crew in cold blood. He stood there as he unseathed his katana and prepared it in front of himself to get ready for a fight. "Might I ask why it is that you've come into Kaido-sama's treasure room?" The masked man questioned as he walked a few steps closer with his sword positioned to attack

"What does it look like. We came here to get a copy of the Ponoglyph." Naruto simply explained to the man as he kept his sword up, ready to strike

"Well then I can't let you leave!" The man spoke as he vaulted towards the group and slashed his sword at the group, only for it to get caught in a block of ice that had formed on Naruto's arm to stop the attack.

Naruto pushed back against Kinshiki as he pushed forward with his sword to try and force his way through the ice in hopes to hit the group with an attack. "I didn't want to fight anyone while I was here and have to deal with another Yonko, but if I must then I will." The Captain of the Whirlpool Pirates exclaimed as he let water drip out of his other hand before freezing it rapidly, forming a sword of his own.

'Another Yonko?!' Kinshinki thought as he jumped back, avoiding the strike from Naruto's ice sword. 'So then this man in front of me must be the new Yonko, the Water Titan, Portgas D. Naruto! How did I not recognize him sooner! This could be my big chance I can't blow this!' Kinshiki told himself as he landed a few metres back

"Universal Pull!" Naruto yelled out as Kinshiki began to be pushed towards Naruto, much to the man's disliking. Being a quick thinker, Kinshiki drove his sword into the ground which acted as an anchor to prevent him from going any closer to the Yonko.

"Wait!" Kinshiki shouted out as he dropped onto two knees and lowered his head. This sudden action caught the whole crew off guard as they all looked onto Kinshiki in a puzzled look as they continued to watch the man. "I need your help Portgas D. Naruto. I know that you may all see me as one of Kaido-sama's goons but trust me I'm not such thing! In reality I plan to bring down the monster that is Kaido and help save all of Wano no kuni from his and Orochi's rule!" Kinshiki spoke with determination

Naruto then had a question mark pop above his head along with the rest of the crew as they looked onto the man. "Do you really expect us to believe that! You just attacked us a moment ago saying that you can't let anyone in 'Kaido-sama's' vault!" Reeve shouted back to the man as Naruto held his hand up to his chin

"I too agree. You were attacking the captain not even a moment ago and now you've pulled a 180 and decided that you need our help, how do e know this isn't just a trap." Pedro told the man

Kinshiki 'tched' behind his mask as he continued to argue for himself, "I didn't know who you were when I first encountered you. Right after the Yonko said that dealing with Kaido would be the second Yonko he's had to deal with I immediately knew it was Portgas D. Naruto. And only a Yonko can take on the full might of Kaido and survive!" Kinshiki explained

"Even if what you say is true, we couldn't help you with your task, we don't have the man power to take on Kaido at the moment." Rose explained to the man

Kinshiki paused, "I doesn't matter how long it would take for you to gain strength in numbers, Komurasaki and I have been plotting against Kaido for a long time now and we can wait in the shadows for a little while longer. But I beg of you, please help us!" Kinshiki continued to plead

The Whirlpool Pirates raised a brow once hearing Komurasaki's name being brought up, Reeve was about to respond to him but Naruto stuck his hand out in front of the younger boy and then said what he wanted to say. "I've met Komurasaki, and had the opportunity to talk to her a little about this little rebellion of yours. She had told me that she had two inside men working along side both Orochi and Kaido, and it would seem that you were the one working with Kaido. But that aside, I too don't agree with what is going on in the land of Wano with Kaido and Orochi, so to help the people of Wano I'll put me trust in you and help you against Kaido. But it cannot be done anytime soon, my crew is still on the small side and it would take time to gain forces."

"Thank you so much for your gratitude! I will gladly come with you and assist you in any way I can!" Kinshiki expressed as he bowed deeply to the captain of the Whirlpool Pirates as Naruto walked over to the man and offered him a hand, which he took, and smiled joyfully as he then swung his arm around Kinshiki's neck and welcomed him to the crew.

Rose and Pedro were a little taken a back by their captain's immediate trust in a former enemy as Reeve just smiled and shook his head. "What's so funny Reeve?" Rose asked the boy

"It's just he was the same with all of us on the crew, he trusted us immediately with no questions asked. I guess he just has a way of making friends with new people." Reeve spoke as he smiled some more

Naruto then waved back to the rest of the crew, "C'mon guys! We're getting out of here!"