Chapter 12

"I can't believe that I got stuck doing this!" Reeve spoke out as he for the second time was pressing paper up against a giant inked surface

Instead of being tasked with fighting Big Mom's crew like the rest of his friends, Naruto had assigned Reeve to infiltrate the treasure room located underneath the chateau and steal the information on the Rio ponoglyph. Naruto had also told him to look for the blue prints for any ancient weapons but so far he hadn't found any, but he had succeeded in getting not only the information on the giant red cube but the etching of a blue ponoglyph as well.

Reeve then took a step away from the two giant cubes of ancient history and then began to fold up the etchings and make his way out until the sound of a familiar voice caught his ear. "Hey Reeve! Where are you?!"

Reeve looked over the railing and saw the familiar jaguar mink walking through the entrance of the treasure room, sword drawn. "Hey Pedro! Up here!" The boy yelled as he waved to get the mink's attention

Pedro looked up and spotted the youngest member of the crew and smiled, he then found his way up to his level and met up with him. Pedro was in awe at the amount of treasure that Big Mom possessed, even for a Yonko the collection of gems, coins, and other things were insanely bountiful.

"Pedro, why did you come down here? Are the others ok?!" Reeve worried as he questioned Pedro

Pedro just looked upon the young man and cracked the slightest of grins, "Yea they're fine. Kiji sent me down here to come and assist you with whatever you might need."

"Oh got ya. Well I've already searched for any blueprints and couldn't find any and etched the ponoglyphs so maybe we should take some of these gold and gems. It never hurts to have a little more money on ya!" Reeve explained as he and Pedro started to gather gold and gems and store them in their backpacks

All of a sudden a huge tremor hit them as the ground started to wobble, without warning the ceiling cracked which allowed water to flow in from above. They took this as a cue to leave and got their full backpacks and ran as fast as they could out of the main entrance.

Once they made it out of the treasure room they looked at the chateau behind them to see their bloody captain standing high above a downed Big Mom and gasped at the sight.

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With the rest of the crew. . .

"Dammit! Why can't I hit you wench!" Oven yelled as he missed yet another strike at Lucy

"You gotta be quicker than that!" Lucy answered Oven as she dove at him to try and claw him with her talons

Oven saw this coming and was fast enough to grab her bird leg and then heated up his arm as hot as he could to deal the maximum amount of damage he can. Lucy felt extreme pain as she used her other leg to try and free herself by clawing at the man's face.

"Damn my leg!" Lucy spoke as she separated from Oven's grip and once again got her distance from him

Oven held his face as it dripped blood from Lucy's last attack, letting out a violent scream of pain while doing so. Once he removed his hands and looked at Lucy she was shocked to see all the damage she had done to the man. Seeing his face, Lucy saw that fresh talon marks now ran down the centre of his face with one mark running right overtop of his eye.

Before Oven could regain his composer Lucy extended her wings in either direction showing her full wingspan and then pushed all the air she could at the giant man. The air created a sort of x as it flew like a blade at Oven at a very high pace. Once the blades of air made contact with Oven's skin, his chest was cut open and then began to start bleeding rapidly. The male Devil-Fruit user had lost so much blood from his injuries that he had fallen over on his stomach and had fell unconscious.

Daifuku and Russ were in a similar situation in their fight, both were exhausted and were just trying to outlast the other. The marksman had managed to land multiple shots on Daifuku's arms and legs but had yet to hit him in the head or chest. As of right now, Daifuku was using his Devil-Fruit to safeguard his body and watch ou in any direction that Russ may attack from.

Due to Daifuku being extra defensive, the marksman had almost no opportunities to land any shots on the giant man. However, Russ did manage to craft an excellent plan to use against the son of Big Mom. It consisted of using some ammunition and timing it to go off when Russ had made his way to another spot out of Daifuku's sightline; this should bait the man's genie to go and attack that location and then it'd leave Daifuku's body wide open for Russ to shoot him.

Luckily for Russ the plan worked out like a charm and Daifuku was hit square in the chest with an explosive round, courtesy of Russ's modified revolver, which knocked the giant man unconscious.

"W-what is that! A-at the Chateau!" Cinnamon yelled making everyone nearby stop their fighting and immediately look towards the chateau to see Naruto standing high above a fallen Big Mom

Lucy immediately smiled and both of her arms shot up, "Way to go Captain!"

Russ lifted up his revolvers and let a few shots loose as celebration for seeing that his crew was victorious. Kiji just smirked as he crossed his arms across his chest. Yuri started clapping his hands and dancing around while Rose laughed and clapped as well. As for Gem he smirked at the sight as he lit himself a cigarette.

"B-but no one can defeat Mama! She's invincible!" Mont-D'Or yelled out as Gem quickly explosive punched him in the side of the face which knocked him out cold on the ground a few metres back

Both Yuri and Rose made quick work of their opponents with the moral boost given to them by Naruto and his defeat over Big Mom which just left Kiji to finish his fight with Perospero.

"Just because your lucky captain had managed to take down our Mama, doesn't mean that you'll be able to take down me you dirty fish-man!" Big Mom's eldest son exclaimed as he stared down Kiji

Kiji smirked, "We'll just see about that!"

In a blink of an eye Kiji managed to get behind the candy man and grab on to his arm. Without warning, Kiji pulled with all of his strength on Perospero's arm which tore it clean off of his body. Seeing this as good enough to call a win, Kiji punched the man with as much force he could put into a punch and launched him back into a building. The crew then ran off to go and meet up with their captain at the chateau.

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At the chateau. . .

Cheering could be heard from all across the island and many had gathered at the chateau to see the man who had single handedly taken down the tyrant Big Mom. However, the only thing on Naruto's mind was escaping the island. He knew enough about the Big Mom pirates to know what would happen next if they stayed. The rest of the Charlotte family would be summoned along with a giant mess of guards as well and the Naruto along with his crew couldn't take on an army in their state.

The Water-man had made his way down to the base of the chateau and had found that moving now was very hard. He had exhausted himself in his fight with the Yonko that now lay unconscious before him and had found himself only being able to move at a staggering speed. Eventually among the wild crowd, Naruto had found himself in the presence of his entire crew once again.

Before he could say anything Lucy hugged him, "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"T-thanks Lucy but we need to move!" Naruto responded through heavy breathing

"Why? We won didn't we? Shouldn't that be it?" Rose questioned her captain while Yuri nodded along

Naruto got comfortably on Kiji's back so that they could get moving as he looked back over at Rose and Yuri, "Big Mom has several children, each extremely loyal to her. Word of her defeat will travel fast and in a matter of minutes they could all potentially coming for us. So we need to leave."

"Got it! Pedro and I have what we came for and some more stuff too!" Reeve spoke as he faced his captain

Naruto cracked a small smile, "Well done Reeve, and you too Pedro. But we can discuss this later, we need to move."

"Roger!" They echoed

On the move towards the ship, the crew found little resistance other than a few guards in their way. Things were so lax at this point that Lucy and Russ started to count the number of guards they had both taken down and started a game over it.

"That's 15 for meh birdy! Gonna have to do a lil' better than that if ya wanna' catch up!" The marksman yelled back to Lucy as he ran with the rest of the crew towards the Great Wave

Lucy gritted her teeth as she looked at the boasting man before her eyes, "You're cheating! You know my leg is hurt from my fight and you're just out pacing me and farming them for your score!"

"I don't make the rules feathers!" Russ laughed back towards Lucy

"Wait what's that ahead!" Gem said as he drew the attention to the tall woman standing in their way

"It looks like a really tall woman! Can we get around her?" Rose questioned as she looked around for another exit

Kiji gritted his teeth, "Doesn't appear so. Looks like we gotta take her out then!"

"I got this ladies and gents! Just hold on to your butts!" Russ was about to attack again until Naruto yelled at him

"Russ! No! That person in our way is Charlotte Smoothie! She's one of the Sweet Commanders of Big Mom!" He yelled out

"Gimme a break. I just want to get back to the ship so I can relax and now we gotta deal with another Sweet Commander!" Gem expressed as he put a palm to his face while running

"Don't worry! I got this!" Naruto exclaimed as he prepared himself on Kiji's back

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN! YOU'RE INJURED REMEMBER!" They all yelled at Naruto with shark teeth aside from Yuri who simply nodded in agreement

He laughed a bit, "Lucy! Just pick me up when I'm done!"

"O-okay I guess?" She spoke with a questioning tone

"Cease your escape vermin!" She exclaimed bringing out her sword

Without any warning Naruto kicked himself off of Kiji's shoulder like a bullet from a gun and shot straight towards smoothie. She didn't have enough time to raise her sword as Naruto's haki-coated hand connected with the side of her head and launched her out of the way and into a nearby building. Naruto landed on the ground only for Lucy to swoop down in her bird form and pick him up with her no injured talon. The crew managed to evade the clutches of a second Sweet-Commander and made their way back to the ship were they will finally escape.

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A few days later. . .

Naruto had been sleeping for the last couple of days to try and regain his energy from his fight with Big Mom and had done so with great success. All of his injuries had almost or completely healed themselves and he had now began to move around again. Lucy's leg had also been cleaned of its burns from Oven and the rest of the crew had recovered from the injuries they had sustained from their respected fights.

Currently everyone could be seen on the deck of the ship enjoying the sun and Yuri's cooking which had come as a surprise to most. Gem had decided to do what he loves best and take a nap in the shade and Kiji had decided to relax a little from his usual tough self to sit next to Pedro and enjoy a game of chess. Yuri had brought out various drinks and liquids from the ships storage and was currently mixing drinks for his crew as he watched the calm waves. Lucy had decided to put on a swimsuit and try and tan a little bit and had even convinced Rose to do the same thing. Of course once seeing this Russ had stare non-stop at their "assets" which prompted a swift beating from Lucy. Reeve had been watching Yuri in awe as he mixed the drinks in creative different ways. As for Naruto, he had decided to kick back on a lawn chair he had brought up and just watch the clouds go by.

However, no one had noticed the chaos going on in all four corners of the globe.

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In Foosha Village. . .

"Lady Rouge! Lady Rouge!" Makino ran into Rouge's house where she saw the lady in question talking to the mountain bandit Dadan, her eyes then looked towards the ground and saw Luffy tied neck down in rope.

"Yes Makino, what is it?" Rouge questioned looking at Makino

Makino was puzzled as to why Luffy was tied up and decided to ask why, "Uhhh why is Luffy tied up on the ground?"

"That brat tried to take more of my meat again! I just don't understand why you can't be more calm and collected like Ace or Naruto Luffy!" Dadan spoke out as she scolded the tied up Luffy

"Shishishishi! What can I say!" Luffy laughed as he rolled back and forth in the rope

Rouge sighed as she saw Dadan and Luffy then get into a heated argument over some other nonsense and then looked back at Makino. She spoke, "What were you saying earlier Makino?"

"Look at this!" The other woman exclaimed as she handed over a paper to Rouge

Rouge and Dadan looked upon the paper and were shocked and then Luffy managed to get up and hop over to see what was on the paper for himself. Upon looking at it he began to laugh histarically.

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The Land of Wano. . .

"L-Lord Kaido!" A man yelled out as the behemoth of a beast turned around to look at him, drinking some sake in the process

He pulled the giant bottle of sake from his lips as he looked down at the man before him, "What do you want pest!?" He voice boomed

The man just held up the paper to him as he responded to his question, "The paper sir! L-look!"

Kaido then lifted up the paper being shown to him and briefly looked at it before throwing the giant bottle of sake against the floor in a fit of rage and punching some boulders around him.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" Kaido screeched at the top of his lungs

Some Island on the Grandline. . .

"Captain did you see the news?" A man asked his leader who wore an orange hat

The man with the orange hat turned around to face the man who spoke to him, "Why what's in the news? Something important?"

"I'll say! Take a look captain Ace!" Another replied as he handed Ace a copy of the newspaper

Ace's face smiled with joy upon reading the newspaper and then he looked up towards the clouds and promptly fell asleep leaving all of his crew to be shocked out of their minds at the sight of him resting so suddenly.

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Back on the Great Wave. . .

The crew had begun to relax and tell each other of stories from their lives before they had all met one another until a flock of news birds flew over head. Everyone looked up to see the familiar sight and then saw that one bird had dropped a rolled up paper which fell right in Lucy's lap. She then picked it up in her hands and unrolled the parchment to see what it read. Once seeing what it said her mouth was wide open and she was left with a look of pure shock on her face.

"What is it Lucy?" Reeve questioned as he stood up from his seat

She then threw the paper onto the ground and everyone looked at it and expressed the same level of shock except for Naruto who started to laugh.

In big bold letters the paper read,

Big Mom Defeated!

The Fall of a Yonko and the Rise of Anew!

Portgas D. Naruto is the New Yonko!