Chapter 5: I Want to Invite Itachi to Join the Crew
The scene unfolding before them left every member of the Straw Hat crew momentarily speechless.
"That... Ita... Itachi! What DID he just release?!" Luffy stared at the fading afterimage of the water dragon, completely dumbfounded.
"It looked like a water dragon!"
"Didn't he turn into crows before? How can he control seawater now?!"
Zoro's shock was evident. "Hey Luffy—aren't Devil Fruit users supposed to be weak against seawater? What's happening here?"
"I don't know either!"
Asking Luffy such a question was, as always, an exercise in futility.
"I've never heard of any Devil Fruit that can control seawater," Robin mused, then her expression shifted. "Is it possible that this Uchiha Itachi genuinely knows... ninjutsu?"
"Ninjutsu on THAT scale?" Sanji's voice carried disbelief.
Caribou had collapsed completely, a broken man on the deck. "Hey, Straw Hats... where did you FIND a crew member like that?"
"He's not our crew member! Shut up!" Zoro punctuated his words with a fist to Caribou's skull.
Itachi had already returned to the Sunny, wasting no time. "The current significantly reduced the water dragon's impact. That technique won't cause lasting damage to such a large creature. We should depart quickly."
"Water Dragon?!" Chopper's eyes sparkled as he pressed himself against Itachi. "Itachi! Itachi! Your move's name is SO cool!"
"Yeah, Tear-Stripe Guy! Is that your name? It's SUPER cool!" Luffy bounded over, practically vibrating with excitement.
Franky remained at the helm, but thanks to Itachi's timely intervention, he'd managed to ready the Lion Wheel Cannon. "EVERYONE! HOLD ON! We're retreating!"
"RETREATING?!"
Hearing this, Luffy immediately bounded to the bow.
"Wait, Luffy," Zoro called. "What are you planning?"
Luffy fixed his gaze on the enraged Kraken, which was already recovering and turning toward them with murder in its ancient eyes. A grin spread across his face.
"I'm going to tame it."
"TAME IT?!" Usopp's eyes rolled so far back they nearly disappeared. "Are you insane, Luffy?! How do you tame something THAT big?!"
"First step: beat it flat. THEN tame it."
Luffy cracked his knuckles—or tried to, given his rubber composition.
Itachi raised an eyebrow at this declaration. "If taming it is your goal, Captain Luffy, that's one approach." His voice remained calm, measured. "But if it threatens the ship's course, I can kill it instead."
The temperature on the deck seemed to drop several degrees.
"Itachi... are you serious?!" Usopp couldn't quite process the calm way this stranger discussed murdering a legendary sea monster.
"Itachi-san... how frightening!" Brook shivered, though his skeleton made the gesture somewhat comical.
"I am not joking."
Itachi's gaze remained fixed on the approaching Kraken. His eyes had already shifted—the telltale pattern of the Sharingan spinning slowly. If necessary, he would take it a step further. He could feel it: with his restored physical body, his Mangekyō Sharingan had returned to its peak condition.
"Of course," he added, "if I must intervene, it will be... unpleasant for the creature. Prolonged suffering."
Luffy's grin only widened. "Don't worry, Tear-Stripe Guy! I've got this!"
Zoro and Sanji moved forward, flanking their captain.
"Hey, Luffy," Sanji asked, "how exactly do you plan to beat this thing?"
"That goes without saying..."
Luffy raised his arm, preparing to inflate it.
"WAIT! WAIT! WAIT!"
Caribou scrambled forward, chains rattling. "If you're going to fight it, I have an idea!"
Moments later, following Caribou's suggested method, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji had donned bubble-coated diving suits and stood ready at the Sunny's edge.
"Hey, everyone—this guy's our enemy! Can we really trust him?!" Usopp worried.
Caribou sidled up to him, lowering his voice. "I've wanted to run since the beginning. But do you think Straw Hat Boy would ever listen to 'run away'?"
He gestured at the three figures preparing to engage a sea monster. "Isn't this better than letting them fight on the ship and pop our bubble?"
"WELL!"
Usopp's expression transformed instantly. He grabbed a flag and became a one-man cheerleading squad. "LUFFY! SMASH THAT SEA MONSTER TO PIECES!"
"Wait, Luffy! Fasten the safety rope or you'll be swept away!" Nami held the rope's end, but the three had already burst through the Sunny's bubble.
"Sanji! Zoro! Buy me some time!" Luffy called, already inflating his arm for Gear Third.
Sanji, hearing Nami's worried shout before the bubble closed, immediately erupted in a fountain of nosebleed. "Nami-san is WORRIED about me! Ahahaha—"
"I don't need to 'buy time'—I can just cut it now!" Zoro's hand moved to his swords.
"NO! I still need to tame it!" Luffy insisted.
Itachi watched the three with a mixture of concern and curiosity. "Can they truly manage this?"
"Ah... well..." Nami rubbed the back of her neck. "Generally speaking... we trust them."
Itachi exhaled softly, his expression suggesting reluctant acceptance. He had already calculated multiple contingency plans should things go wrong—each one designed to retrieve the three idiots currently charging a mythical sea monster.
Sanji reached the Kraken first. Tentacles lashed toward him, but the cook was already spinning.
Mutton Shot!
Flames erupted from his legs—far more intense than two years ago.
"Do you have ANY idea how I've spent the past two years?!" Sanji roared, unleashing a flurry of kicks. "Every single day, chased by HORRIFYING monsters! Running! CONSTANTLY running!"
Concassé!
His leg connected with a tentacle, and the heat was so intense that the appendage began to cook.
"Compared to THOSE monsters, this thing is CUTE! Let me vent some FRUSTRATION!"
Fire Release... manifesting from his feet? Itachi observed with genuine interest. No hand signs. No chakra he could detect. Yet flames, nonetheless.
These people are not shinobi, he reminded himself. Their abilities operate on different principles.
"It's not bad," Zoro commented, having joined the fray. "But this thing is nothing compared to those gorillas I fought for two years."
Onigiri!
His blades traced arcs of death, and another tentacle fell in severed pieces.
"The Three Sword Style... Six Paths Crossing!"
A third tentacle disintegrated under Zoro's assault.
"They've both grown so strong!" Chopper cheered from the Sunny.
The Kraken, wounded and enraged, thrashed wildly. Three tentacles—each larger than the Thousand Sunny itself—rose high and swept toward the ship!
"CHOPPER! FRANKY! ROBIN!" Nami screamed.
Chopper transformed instantly, fur bristling as he expanded. Franky raised his arm, rockets launching from his augmented frame. But Itachi was faster—far faster.
He burst through the bubble before anyone could react.
The Mangekyō Sharingan spun.
In an instant, a massive skeletal arm materialized around Itachi's own—purple, translucent, and enormous. The spectral limb reached out and caught all three tentacles as they descended.
With a single, contemptuous gesture, Itachi lifted the Kraken—tentacles AND body—and hurled the entire creature backward!
"WHAT KIND OF ABILITY IS THAT?!"
Nami's scream echoed the thoughts of everyone on board.
But even Itachi couldn't stop all the attacks. One tentacle had already swept past him, arcing toward the Sunny—
Diez Fleurs: Gigantesco Mano!
Robin's arms bloomed across the ship's hull, forming massive hands that caught the sea cliff and used it as leverage to block the blow.
"Everyone really HAS gotten stronger," Luffy observed with genuine happiness.
He glanced toward the ship, toward the dark-haired stranger who had just casually tossed a sea monster like it weighed nothing.
And that Tear-Stripe Guy... I still don't know how he ended up on our ship, but he's REALLY strong.
An idea sparked in Luffy's mind. A wonderful, terrible, completely Luffy idea.
I want him to join!
Decision made, Luffy raised his arm high, stretching it beyond the bubble's protection.
"GEAR THIRD!"
His fist expanded to monstrous proportions.
Haki: Armament Hardening!
The giant fist darkened to gleaming black.
Itachi, having returned to the Sunny, watched this display with interest. The technique reminded him somewhat of the Akimichi clan's expansion jutsu—but different. Fundamentally different.
"Luffy's grown THIS strong?!" Usopp was ecstatic.
"And Zoro and Sanji—I couldn't even follow their movements!"
"Ah, and Itachi-san! That enormous arm he manifested was truly amazing!" Brook added.
"Look out! Here it comes!" Nami shouted.
"GOMU GOMU NO..."
Luffy's giant fist descended like the hammer of a god.
"ELEPHANT GUN!"
The impact was catastrophic. The Kraken's head—already dazed from previous assaults—was flattened completely. The legendary sea monster's eyes crossed, and it began to sink.
"That was underwater! How strong HAS that idiot become?!" Nami couldn't believe it.
"What difference does being underwater make?" Itachi asked, genuinely confused.
"Itachi! Don't you know seawater weakens Devil Fruit users?!" Usopp stared at him as if he'd grown a second head.
Before Itachi could respond, Chopper shouted: "LOOK! WHAT'S THAT?!"
As the Kraken sank, something emerged from within its tentacles—a shark, but not just any shark. This one wore clothing. It swam directly to Luffy and... bowed?
"That's a big shark," Zoro observed.
Luffy was panting, the strain of using his powers in the sea visible. "Why's it wearing clothes?"
"I think it's thanking us," Robin said thoughtfully. "It seems... educated."
Itachi studied the shark with the same analytical intensity he applied to everything. "Is that a summoned beast?"
"A what?"
He asked Nami, but the term clearly meant nothing to her.
Before anyone could pursue the matter, the current shifted violently. The downward momentum increased dramatically, and Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji—still outside the bubble—suddenly plummeted, their safety ropes snapping taut.
"LUFFY!"
Nami braced herself against the railing, but the force was immense. The Thousand Sunny itself began to tilt, dragged by the combined weight of the current, the sinking Kraken, and three crew members hanging on for dear life.
Itachi moved toward the edge, Mangekyō already spinning—
But Luffy's voice reached them through the chaos, somehow still carrying that idiotic, confident tone:
"I'M FINE! Just... give me a minute..."
This captain, Itachi thought despite himself, is either the bravest man I've ever met... or the most foolish.
Perhaps both.
(End of Chapter)
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