Chapter 19 — Garp Has Everything
On the very night Madara left, a tremendous explosion rang out from Vice Admiral Garp's office. No one knew what had happened.
The official statement from Headquarters was that a pirate had disguised himself and infiltrated Marineford with the intention of assassinating Vice Admiral Garp. In the end, Vice Admiral Garp killed the pirate, but he himself suffered minor injuries and was currently receiving treatment in the Headquarters hospital.
The Marines could only sigh at how ferocious pirates had become in the Great Age of Pirates, to think they would dare attempt to assassinate the strongest Vice Admiral, Garp.
Of course, the truth was that after Madara failed in his attempt to silence Garp, almost everyone who knew Madara had somehow heard the rumor that Madara actually liked smiling quite a lot, he was just a little embarrassed about it—and that everyone should try their best to get Madara to smile more often.
On the very night Garp was discharged from the hospital, those audacious pirates struck again, launching a second attack on Vice Admiral Garp.
The newly appointed Fleet Admiral Sengoku flew into a rage and immediately issued an order, assigning the Head of the Marine Strategic Cooperation Department, Konoha's leader, the Hokage, Uchiha Madara, to investigate the matter thoroughly and restore justice for Vice Admiral Garp!
It was said that Vice Admiral Garp had repeatedly tried to persuade Fleet Admiral Sengoku to revoke the order on the grounds that it was a waste of Marine resources. This left many Marines sighing in admiration—this selfless spirit of Vice Admiral Garp was exactly the kind of spirit the Marines ought to emulate.
Over the following days, nearly every day brought another bold pirate assassination attempt against Vice Admiral Garp.
And every single time, those attempts were jointly repelled by the suddenly-appearing Uchiha Madara and Vice Admiral Garp.
Even Uchiha Madara's only disciple, Gion—the younger sister of Vice Admiral Tsuru—took part in these events.
She was found multiple times in Garp's office, bravely fighting pirates and fearlessly protecting the safety of Vice Admiral Garp's personal property!
Sadly, Gion was still young and no match for the pirates in the end, which led to a large number of Vice Admiral Garp's secretly stored rice crackers and donuts being stolen.
....
Naturally, only a small portion of the Marine higher-ups knew the truth.
Still, through all this, Madara gained the admiration of quite a few Marines. Setting everything else aside, just the fact that he could chase the strongest Marine, Garp, around and beat him up was already enough to earn their respect.
Among them was Vice Admiral Garp's son, Monkey D. Dragon.
As Garp's son, Dragon had long harbored deep resentment toward him and thoroughly despised Garp's educational methods, which seemed to involve hitting people at the slightest provocation.
After this incident, Dragon directly became Uchiha Madara's number one fanboy, running to Madara's house every few days and loudly declaring that he wanted to become Uchiha Madara's disciple.
To achieve this, Dragon put in a great deal of effort. He constantly hovered around the brat Gion, and after some time of communication, the two of them successfully established the Will of Fire Great Filial Child Alliance.
At that moment, Uchiha Madara was in the kitchen, practicing Satan's Dinner, when a spiky-haired young man wearing a coat of justice burst in without even knocking and greeted Madara loudly:
"Hahahahaha! Yo~ Master, didn't go beat up my old man today?"
For the first time, Uchiha Madara began regretting why he had beaten up Garp in the first place over some face he had already lost beyond recovery. He hadn't gained anything from it, and instead ended up being pestered by Garp's son.
At once, Uchiha Madara felt a pounding headache.
That damned old fossil Garp had somehow produced this troublesome little creature. Like a strip of dog-skin plaster—once it stuck to you, you couldn't shake it off no matter how hard you tried.
"My disciple is only the brat. Keep pestering me, and I'll beat you half to death and throw you outside."
Dragon had just opened his mouth to say something when a burst of clattering came from upstairs, followed by Gion running down in a little dinosaur pajama suit and shouting at Dragon:
"Wahaha! Junior Brother Dragon is here! Did you bring your Senior Sister something tasty?"
Dragon reached out and rubbed Gion's head, then handed over a huge bag of snacks before lightly clearing his throat.
This was the secret signal the two had agreed upon.
Every time Dragon brought Gion food, as long as he coughed once, Gion had to say a few good words about him.
In exchange, Dragon had to bring Gion enough snacks to last at least three days, so that she could survive Uchiha Madara's cooking.
Stuffing chips into her mouth with one hand, her cheeks puffed up like a hamster's, Gion mumbled:
"Master, my junior brother is so sensible. Can't you just accept him?"
Madara glanced at Gion.
The brat was talking, yes—but her hands had never stopped moving once. When she noticed Madara looking over, she even became wary and quietly shifted herself in front of the snack bag.
Seeing Gion like this, Madara felt somewhat deflated.
His cooking had already improved quite a lot, but no matter what, this dead girl refused to eat it a second time.
"If you eat properly, I'll consider it."
The instant Gion heard those words, she dumped the rest of the chips into her mouth in one go, hugged the snack bag, and stuffed it right back into Dragon's hands.
"Major General Dragon, I still think we need to keep some distance between us."
Dragon could only respond with a bitter smile.
Gion herself was panicking a little inside.
She'd only said a few nice words for him, and this evil old Uchiha was already trying to take her life again.
The main reason was that recently, Uchiha Madara had been trying every day to tempt her into eating Satan's Cuisine, saying that his cooking had no problems anymore and insisting she give it a try.
But was that the kind of thing you proved with words?
Every time he brought it over, it was still bubbling purple. Madara himself wouldn't even touch it. The only possible use for that stuff was probably to sneak it onto Vice Admiral Garp's dinner plate.
Madara walked up to Dragon and held out his hand, gesturing for him to hand over the snacks.
Dragon's face lit up with joy.
He thought this meant Madara was finally going to accept him, so he quickly offered up the snacks.
Madara promptly stuffed them into Gion's arms, then grabbed Dragon by the collar and threw him out the front door.
It was obvious that Gion still didn't want to eat his cooking, which made Madara a little annoyed.
Only after landing on the ground outside did Dragon process what had happened.
"Master, that's not honorable! You took my snacks and still threw me out! You could at least have let me stay for a— ...never mind. I'll come back tomorrow. Tomorrow."
Dragon had only gotten halfway through his complaint when he noticed the glint in Madara's eyes and seemed to realize something. He shivered, swallowed the rest of what he had almost blurted out, got to his feet, dusted himself off, and left.
Madara looked slightly disappointed but said nothing more. After returning inside, he plunged straight back into the kitchen to continue researching his cooking.
At that moment, Madara was in the middle of considering whether or not adding some chocolate sauce to pan-fried fish might improve the flavor when Gion walked in.
"Master, I start school tomorrow! You know where my schoolbag is?"
Madara froze.
A schoolbag?
Did going to school require that kind of thing?
He then shook his head, indicating he had no idea.
Gion wore a face full of question marks.
"You don't know, and you're still not going to buy one? How am I supposed to go to school without a schoolbag?"
Madara… returned an equally questioning expression.
The two stared at each other for a long while.
In the end, Madara gave in first and said to Gion:
"Tell me… do you think Garp might have one?"
Gion froze, then seemed to realize something and nodded somewhat reluctantly.
"He probably… does."
"Then I already prepared one for you. I left it at Garp's house. I'll go get it."
As he said this, Uchiha Madara walked out the door still wearing his apron.
Watching this, Gion shook her head and sighed.
"╮(╯▽╰)╭ Ahh~ Master and Vice Admiral Garp really do have such a good relationship. I just hope he can 'get' a bag that looks a bit nicer."
....
Meanwhile, Dragon was walking home absentmindedly.
His attempt to become a disciple had failed again today.
Even though it had only been three days, Uchiha Madara's attitude had already stripped away most of his confidence.
As he walked, he suddenly sensed someone behind him.
He immediately drew his sword and turned around.
Under the dim streetlights, Uchiha Madara stepped out in silence, still wearing his bloodstained apron.
"Master?"
As Uchiha Madara drew closer and closer, the pressure Dragon felt also increased more and more. He gripped his sword tightly, cold sweat appearing on his forehead.
It wasn't that Dragon lacked courage.
But after witnessing Madara chase his own father around and beat him senseless, he truly couldn't summon much will to resist.
Seeing Dragon stand there like a sweating wooden post, too scared to do anything, Uchiha Madara was quite satisfied with his reaction.
This was what a normal person's response to him ought to look like.
Sure enough, the little girl in his own house was the abnormal one. Sometimes Madara genuinely suspected that the brat didn't even possess nerves in the first place.
"Help me with something."