He stared blankly at the massive man before him, disbelief and hesitation threading through his voice as shock crashed over him like a tidal wave.
It was undeniably Whitebeard. So why did he look so young?!
Could the current pirate world be during Rocks's era?
Or perhaps Roger's era?
Otherwise, why would Whitebeard be this young?!
"Pops, is this the mission target this time?"
"Look, he doesn't seem all that special to me."
While Uchiha Ten stood frozen in place, a man wearing a red straw hat, bare-chested with a perfectly sculpted physique, walked up beside Whitebeard and eyed Uchiha Ten with curiosity.
For this person, Uchiha Ten felt no unfamiliarity at all.
"A-Ace?"
Uchiha Ten's pupils contracted, his expression one of complete disbelief!
Impossible!
He didn't know exactly when Ace had joined the Whitebeard Pirates, but it was undoubtedly after the age of seventeen—when Ace had set sail at seventeen, Luffy had only been fourteen!
Ace had died at twenty in the main storyline!
Even if Ace were seventeen right now, Whitebeard would absolutely not be this young!
The timeline was wrong!
Way wrong!
So this was what the System meant by "world fate line deviation"?
This world was not the pirate world from his memories!
Could it be a parallel timeline?
That thought crossed Uchiha Ten's mind. He wanted to ask, but before he could speak, he heard Ace's voice.
"He does seem kind of special though—his eyes are actually red, and there are two komam in them!"
Ace said with rare interest.
Whitebeard had told them some things about the chat group, but not much.
Mostly he had shared information about other worlds.
When they learned that beyond this world existed what amounted to virtually countless others, they had been stunned.
So this time they'd actually encountered someone from another world.
Though the strength didn't seem all that impressive—maybe he was good at hiding it—his Haki hadn't detected any particularly powerful aura.
"The swirl-eyed ones are called Sharingan. Clearly you never paid attention during Pops's stories."
Cyan-blue flames scattered through the air as Marco, his pineapple-styled hair unmistakable, descended slowly from above. He gave Ace an exasperated look.
Ace could only scratch his head sheepishly.
Of all the stories Pops had told, he actually preferred the one about a protagonist named Kurosaki Ichigo.
The other stories? He hadn't listened all that carefully.
"How do you guys even know about the Sharingan?!"
Uchiha Ten's entire body was coiled tight, his question laced with mounting tension.
But before anyone could answer, his mind caught on what Ace had said earlier when he first appeared—*mission target.*
Mission?
Combined with the fact that they knew about the Sharingan…
Uchiha Ten's mind raced with limitless speculation.
"Was there a transmigrator here before me who published the Naruto world as a manga in the pirate world?"
"Did Whitebeard obtain a System?"
"Did Whitebeard join forces like the God of Destruction's Space, the Myriad Worlds Store, or a chat group?"
"—"
He ruled out the first one immediately. If it were merely a story, their reaction upon seeing him shouldn't be simple curiosity—it should be astonishment, skepticism, doubt about the manga's authenticity. And if that were the reason, there'd be no explaining why Whitebeard was this much younger.
The second possibility was relatively low. Even if Whitebeard obtained a System, he shouldn't know about the Naruto world—unless Whitebeard himself was a System-bearing transmigrator!
The third possibility was very high, because Ace had said "you all"—not just Whitebeard alone.
"Unknown energy blockade."
The only thing that could block a System was a more powerful System.
It wasn't that he looked down on the world consciousness. His System was the All-Heavens Transmigration System—the very ability to traverse countless worlds across the heavens was not something an ordinary System could compare to!
If it were some big shot from a fantasy or Primordial Chaos world, fine. But how could theHeaven of the pirate world possibly seal his System?!
If it were just a simple pirate world blockade, his System would have fled with him long ago.
No question about it—he'd been targeted by another System, and that System had a working arrangement with the pirate world.
The realization hit, and Uchiha Ten couldn't help but give a wry smile.
"Can't be saved, waiting to die" had been his own complaint. Now it was genuinely, truly hopeless.
He didn't know who else was involved beyond Whitebeard, but Whitebeard alone was already more than he could handle.
And this was a young Whitebeard—the world's strongest man in his absolute prime.
If they were at sea, maybe—and that was a very slim maybe—a water jutsu might have given him a chance. Seawater suppressed Devil Fruit users.
But this was an island. And he was an Uchiha. Fire jutsu? He could use it at a divine level. Water jutsu?
That was testing him!
"Kurokurokuro, so you've already given up resisting?"
"So even this old man has to admit—you've got terrible luck!"
Whitebeard looked at Uchiha Ten. The other's muscle-tightened body seemed, after some realization, to suddenly relax, as if the very thought of resistance had drained from him.
At this, he couldn't help but shake his head with a sigh.
Compared to the previous two transmigrator missions and Minato's abandoned Dark Naruto, Uchiha Ten had practically not had a single moment to grow after obtaining his System.
His Elite Chunin strength had come with the body itself.
Originally, he could have used the System's power and his knowledge of the plot to change his fate, become a powerful person, then set his sights on traversing the countless worlds of the heavens.
But now? He was facing a fate where death came before even a single step was taken.
"They're here."
Whitebeard's gaze shifted away from Uchiha Ten, and Uchiha Ten followed his sight to look at the empty void in the distance.
Abruptly, three massive black holes materialized from nothing—deep, pitch-black, as if they could devour everything. Yet from within the black holes came the clear sound of footsteps.
Uchiha Ten stared hard at all three black holes. Even in death, he wanted to understand why. At the very least, he needed to know by whose hand he would fall.
Into everyone's gaze, a man covered head to toe in wine-red armor flew out from the black hole, landing steadily on the ground below. The helmet plating covering his head retracted, revealing the face beneath.
"Eeya, quite a crowd."
Tony Stark swept his gaze across Whitebeard, Ace, and Marco, greeted the three of them, then turned with interest toward Uchiha Ten.
"So the first one's Iron Man."
Uchiha Ten, as if entirely unaware of Tony's gaze, muttered to himself before turning his attention to the second black hole.
Tony Stark's mouth twitched.
Wasn't this reaction a little off?
Where was the shock? The amazement? The disbelief?
How was there nothing?
Could he at least give some kind of reaction…
_(End of Chapter)_