Orochimaru looked at the battlefield. Still not enough people, though this was probably the limit.
There was only one main battlefield, but others dragged into the fight might be battling elsewhere too.
It was simple—Marines were heading this way, and so were the pirates. They were bound to run into each other.
And once that happened, there would be no need to talk—just fight.
So right now, it looked like there was just this one big battlefield, but in reality, the fight was spreading outward from this spot in every direction.
And as time passed, the huge red will of the New World was starting to stir. This wasn't just Shanks' power anymore.
To be honest, Shanks alone couldn't pull this off. At most, he could just imprint his will onto the Dragon Veins in the New World—like putting a tag on them.
But actually awakening the full will of the New World? Even if it killed him, Shanks couldn't do it.
And now, as the war in East Blue dragged on, the New World's will was slowly being pulled into action.
At this point, Orochimaru could already feel the touch of the Dragon Vein's energy—but just barely.
"It's too far! These people alone still aren't enough.
But if we keep dragging this out, the battlefield losses are just going to get worse."
Orochimaru was sure now—Shanks had overestimated things. The timing was perfect, but the will of the New World simply couldn't come down here.
Right now, their side still had the upper hand, but with more Marine reinforcements coming in, the pirates were going to be pushed back.
And once they were pushed back, it would all fall apart.
The top fighters like Orochimaru could still escape. If he wanted to leave, no one could stop him. But the others would die here.
"Shanks really overestimated these guys, didn't he?"
Orochimaru looked over the battlefield at the pirates. To be honest, they weren't weak—but they still weren't strong enough.
Most of the first wave of pirates had already gone into the New World, and the old pirates left in East Blue—there really weren't that many of them.
The only upside was that there were a lot of pirates here, but even then, it wasn't enough to keep up this level of fighting.
This era wasn't one where people could fight alone anymore. Even someone like Orochimaru had to think about preserving fighting strength.
*Buzz!!*
A massive chakra ball, several dozen meters wide, flew toward him. Chojuro followed right behind, forming another chakra ball on his blade.
"Not a good time to get distracted, Orochimaru!"
"Interesting."
Orochimaru sneered. He didn't think this group had the right to say anything like that. Even with Kakashi there, Orochimaru still felt confident enough to face all these fighters by himself.
In the next moment, the Kusanagi sword in his hand suddenly grew larger, bursting with fire and lightning. With one powerful swing, he forced everyone back.
At the same time, Orochimaru's left arm began to swell, dragon scales appeared, and in a flash, his arm turned into a huge, menacing dragon claw.
From the rolling clouds above, a massive bolt of lightning struck down in the direction of Orochimaru's attack—fast and insanely powerful.
It was on a whole different level compared to the rest of the battlefield.
But under Orochimaru's lightning strike, a white flash of blades exploded through the twist in the air—Kakashi had shattered the lightning.
The white slashes completely cut and crushed the lightning. Kakashi's power was not to be taken lightly either. But Orochimaru's defense was just ridiculous.
His left hand was instantly covered in black Armament Haki, and he blocked Kakashi's strike with his bare hand.
Of course, Orochimaru didn't get cocky—right after blocking the attack, he quickly moved to another spot.
Kakashi chased after him right away.
With Kakashi leading the charge, a group of fighters clashed with Orochimaru again. But Orochimaru's goal wasn't to win—he was simply stopping them from entering the battlefield.
He wasn't in a hurry. And the longer he fought, the more he realized just how strong Haku really was.
If Orochimaru hadn't shown up, Haku would have had to hold off all these people by himself—and thinking about that, it hit him just how terrifying Haku's strength had become.
And in fact, Haku was a bit overpowered now. On the battlefield below, he was the only one totally dominating.
It wasn't just an advantage—it was a total one-sided beatdown.
But even Haku started wondering: why hasn't the New World's will shown up yet?
According to the plan, it should've been easy for the New World's will to come down here. There were plenty of pirates, and the war had already reached this point.
"At this point, even retreating from the center of the battlefield is hard. We don't even know what's going on outside."
Like Orochimaru—or maybe even more so—Haku was good at looking at the whole picture. He was better at reading the battlefield.
The goal of this war wasn't to beat the Marines—it was to shift East Blue's power over to the New World.
To build up even greater strength in the New World.
"The Revolutionary Army hasn't shown up yet. That's not right. Looks like something is holding back their main force."
"And now even the will of the New World isn't responding. That's probably being delayed too. If this war keeps dragging on, it's going to be even harder to pull out."
"What a pain."
Haku had already figured out a lot. But actually connecting with the will, under the current situation, was nearly impossible.
On the other side, things were going pretty much how Haku had guessed.
The main force of the Revolutionary Army had been completely blocked.
This war had Chiriku's fingerprints all over it. As one of the Revolutionary Army's own, Chiriku wouldn't allow their forces to be wasted in a fight like this. So instead, he assigned troops just to keep the Revolutionary Army busy.
At the same time, more troops from other areas were being moved in as support.
Right now, almost all the forces from East Blue were heading toward the mainland. And not just them—even troops from the Land of Iron and the Land of Thunder had been called in too.
Back at the Marine base in the Water Capital, besides Chiriku, there were over ten daimyos and several sages present.
The reason so many people had shown up? Honestly, they didn't fully trust Chiriku. They came to watch him personally.
Even the sages came to keep an eye on things.
"Fleet Admiral Chiriku, isn't this too many Marines for one operation? It's one thing to call in East Blue, but you even pulled our garrison from the Land of Thunder."
The daimyo from the Land of Thunder finally spoke up.
"If we want to quickly settle the chaos in East Blue, we'll need more strength. And that strength is also to prevent anything unexpected from happening."
"What kind of unexpected things could these pirates even pull off? The biggest threat is just Orochimaru, right? As long as we stop him, the rest of the pirates can be taken care of easily."
The new Daimyo of the Land of Water spoke up.
Orochimaru might be powerful, but not to the point where he can't be handled. With the forces they currently had, it should be more than enough to deal with him.
All that talk about other surprises sounded like nonsense.
But Chiriku was still part of the Revolutionary Army. And when the Marines were being sent toward the Land region, some of the Revolutionary Army had already started spreading into other areas.
Given the situation in East Blue, there was no way he was going to let the Revolutionary Army's main forces step into that battlefield.
"Report!!"
While everyone was still arguing, a voice came in along with the fast footsteps of a messenger.
"Speak."
Chiriku waved his hand. News like this didn't need ceremony.
"Fighting has started in the Land region. We've received a lot of calls for help.
There are too many pirates. And on top of that, a member of the Blade-less Pirates—who work under the Red-Haired Pirates—has appeared on the battlefield."
As soon as the words "Red-Haired Pirates" were spoken, the entire room went silent. All the Daimyo sat up straight.
"Red-Haired Pirates?"
"No—not the Red-Haired Pirates directly. Just a member of the Blade-less Pirates. But the Blade-less Pirates are part of the Red-Haired Pirates' group."
The messenger added more details. Just hearing that name made everyone in the room tense up.
Because if it really *was* that man, the outcome might be something none of them could handle.
"How many of them?"
"Just one. The vice-captain of the Blade-less Pirates—Haku."
When they heard it was only one person, everyone let out a sigh of relief. As long as Shanks himself wasn't there, it was fine. Shanks was the one who could truly shift the whole war.
But at that moment, Chiriku—who was sitting at the head of the room—fell silent, clearly deep in thought.
"Is the vice-captain of the Blade-less Pirates really that strong?"
The Daimyo of the Land of Fire asked. They didn't know much about these people, but based on Chiriku's reaction, it was clear this guy wasn't just anyone.
"It's not about strong or not."
Chiriku pulled out Haku's bounty poster. That young face stood out—it didn't look like it belonged to a pirate at all.
"Haku, the vice-captain of the Blade-less Pirates, is said to be someone Shanks himself recognized for his talent. People call him the 'Blue Pheasant.'"
"Back when Shanks first showed up in the ninja world, Haku was still young and inexperienced, but he already had a clear view of how things worked at sea.
This person isn't just strong—he also has the brains to change the direction of a war."
Chiriku laid out all the rumors about Haku.
The more he said, the more sweat formed on the Daimyos' foreheads.
They weren't fools. They could see what this meant.
Back then, Haku had nothing, but he could already read the situation in the Land of Waves. Now, with more experience and power, who knew how strong he had become?
This was a real war. If the World Government lost, no one here could afford the cost.
If it was just Orochimaru, that would be one thing. But now there was also someone Shanks had personally backed.
Now, the situation had completely changed.
Normally, losing a battle isn't the end of the world. But this time, the young elites of the World Government — even the gifted heirs of the world nobles — had gone to the frontlines.
If they died… that would be a total disaster.
The thought alone made the Daimyos' faces go pale. If those people really died, they'd be dragged down with them.
"Fleet Admiral Chiriku, I think we need to send even more forces. We absolutely can't afford anything to go wrong in this fight."
"There are still people from the Land of Water. If needed, Fleet Admiral Chiriku, we can send troops from there right away."
"Chiriku, this war *cannot* end in failure. If it does…"
In an instant, the attitude of all the Daimyos shifted completely. But Chiriku had already prepared for this.
At least, that's how it looked to everyone else.
"Killer Bee is already on the move to support the battle. I've also sent the troops from the northeast to reinforce that area."
"As long as we don't make any mistakes, we can hold out until the pirates retreat."
Chiriku said calmly.
He had everything planned out. There wouldn't be any major issues. Even Haku's sudden appearance fit neatly into the plan, without messing anything up.
At that moment, everyone finally understood.
"This guy might be hard to deal with, but he's definitely someone who does things seriously."
"No wonder Konoha pushed him out. Chiriku really doesn't care about anyone else's feelings when he does things."
"…"
Everyone fell silent.
They were even a little impressed with Chiriku's foresight.
But as for Chiriku, everything he was doing was actually to help the Revolutionary Army.
He had already figured out who the traitor inside the Revolutionary Army was. And now was the perfect time for the Revolutionaries to make a big move — they just needed the right moment.
What really mattered was how to find the best path forward in this big mess.
As Chiriku saw the reactions from the others, he got ready to go all in. And this time, no one stopped him from sending troops to East Blue.
But before his order to deploy could be issued, a shadow came flying from the sky in the distance.
The two Elders standing beside Chiriku suddenly looked alarmed — and in the next moment, that shadow came crashing down.
*Boom!!*
The flagpole over Marine HQ, standing behind the wall, was crushed flat. One Elder, covered in blood, dragged himself out of the rubble.
"The Revolutionary Army is here!!"
"The main force of the Revolutionary Army has arrived — gather the Guardians right now!
The leader, Uzumaki Nagato, is the reincarnation of Asura. And Uchiha Itachi from their side is the reincarnation of Indra."
"The intel is confirmed — hurry! We need backup!"
The Elder passed out right after saying that.
At that moment, everyone's mind went blank.
Not just Chiriku — even the Elders next to him felt like their heads were about to explode.
This was supposed to be the World Government's weakest moment — and now you're telling me Asura and Indra just showed up and beat us down together?
This isn't about fighting them—this is clearly aimed straight at the Celestial Kingdom on Earth.
"Fleet Admiral Chiriku, it's urgent! Please gather the World Government Guardians immediately!"
"No way—both Asura and Indra are with the Revolutionary Army."
"This is bad. Don't tell me those two are really..."
At that moment, Chiriku quickly realized what was going on too.
In the next second, a huge shadow appeared above Marine headquarters, and Guardians all across the ninja world saw the image of the Celestial Kingdom appear in the sky.
Their faces turned pale, and they all moved at full speed.
"Asura and Indra have appeared! Return at once!"
That final message was sent all the way to the New World.
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