After showing off the power of the Rinnegan, Kaito withdrew his ability. The vast wall of seawater he had just lifted now came crashing down from the sky.
Everything returned to calm, but Crocus would never forget the sight of seawater reversing upward into the heavens.
He knew—even someone like the Golden Lion with the Float-Float Fruit couldn't possibly cause such a massive volume of seawater to rise like that.
Crocus muttered,
"Is this the power of a god?"
Kaito didn't respond to the remark. The Rinnegan was already known as the "Eye of God," so possessing divine power was nothing strange.
And that was only a fraction of his strength. If he went all out now, he could even create a moon, just like the Sage of Six Paths had.
Of course, such a moon couldn't compare to the one in the Blue Star world. The moon in the Naruto movie was obviously much smaller.
Having successfully shocked Crocus, Kaito asked calmly,
"With this kind of power, do you really think I'd care about something like the so-called One Piece?"
"…"
Crocus was speechless. He could only nod dumbly.
After a pause, when he looked at Kaito again, his gaze was filled with awe.
He no longer tried to hide anything and spoke up,
"Raftel isn't actually in this world. It's located in a separate space."
Kaito frowned. So Raftel was in a place like Kamui's dimension?
If that was the case, then how did Roger's crew, none of whom had Devil Fruit powers—let alone space-related abilities—even get there?
Crocus immediately gave an explanation.
"Captain Roger had the ability to hear the voice of all things. Even after learning where Raftel was, he couldn't find a way in—until one day, a mysterious person came to him."
"A mysterious person? Do you know what he looked like?"
Crocus shook his head.
"He wore a black cloak and had a slender build. Even his voice seemed deliberately disguised, so you couldn't tell if he was a man or a woman."
That disappointed Kaito, but he gestured for Crocus to continue.
"He must've had a Devil Fruit ability. With his help, we entered Raftel—and there, we saw the truth of history!"
As he said this, a flush rose to Crocus' face, as if he'd been transported back to that moment when they first stepped into Raftel.
It wasn't until Kaito's face turned slightly sour that he came back to his senses and asked quickly,
"Don't you want to know the truth of history?"
"Not interested."
Kaito's reply was blunt. He wasn't some scholar from Ohara. What he wanted to know was what the One Piece actually was—the thing that tied the entire Pirate King saga together.
Crocus was once again at a loss in the face of Kaito's attitude, but he didn't dare say more. He continued explaining what Roger's crew saw on Raftel.
At last, he brought up the One Piece.
But when he did, Crocus didn't show joy—only deep, inescapable fear.
He said in a trembling voice,
"It's a black monster… with ten tails. And it had a blood-red, eerie eye. The pattern in it looked like…"
Suddenly, Crocus froze. He stared fixedly at Kaito's right eye—the Rinnegan with six tomoe.
That memory had terrified him so deeply that he'd subconsciously chosen to forget it over the years. But now, speaking of it again, he realized—
The pattern in that monster's eye was exactly the same as Kaito's Rinnegan!
The only difference was that the monster's eye was blood-red, while Kaito's was deep violet!
Kaito, who had been nodding off a little, instantly perked up at the mention of "ten tails" and "blood-red eye."
Because an image popped into his mind—a creature from Naruto…
The Ten-Tails!
Now this was getting interesting!
But Crocus had stopped mid-sentence, which annoyed Kaito. He frowned and asked,
"Looked like what? Just say it!"
"Like your eye!"
Crocus spoke the words and then stared at Kaito with sheer terror, as if Kaito was that monster.
Kaito ignored him. His expression had turned ecstatic.
He never expected the legendary One Piece… to actually be the Ten-Tails.
And from the way Crocus described it, it was still in its "seedling" phase!
That meant it hadn't yet borne the God Tree Fruit—and he might actually have a chance to eat it!
Kaito's excitement grew, and his expression became increasingly unrestrained. Crocus's heart thumped wildly as he feared Kaito might eat him next.
But Kaito had zero interest in this old man's meat. The God Tree Fruit was his true goal!
His excitement didn't last long, though, as a rather awkward question came to mind.
Sure, the Ten-Tails was here, but in order for it to bear the fruit, it needed to consume an Ōtsutsuki.
And that was the problem.
Where was he supposed to find an Ōtsutsuki to feed to the Ten-Tails?
Was he supposed to go back to the Naruto world and grab one?
Kaito's expression flickered between light and dark. Eventually, he sighed.
Oh well, having a Ten-Tails was still better than nothing. He could figure out the Ōtsutsuki problem later.
Besides, there were still things he didn't fully understand.
Coming back to his senses, Kaito looked at Crocus and ignored his fearful little gaze.
"So what did Roger do with the monster? And what happened to the mysterious person?"
Crocus gulped and replied,
"The mysterious man saw the creature and said, 'I finally found you.' Then he left. Captain Roger used the Voice of All Things, but he never told us what he heard. He just led us back out through the entrance the mysterious man had used."
I finally found you…?
Kaito wasn't particularly interested in Roger's part of the story, but that one line from the mysterious person caught his attention.
Because from that phrase, it seemed clear that the stranger knew what the Ten-Tails was.
Could that mysterious person be… an Ōtsutsuki?
As for which Ōtsutsuki?
A name floated to the front of Kaito's mind.
He looked toward the Red Line and muttered,
"Ōtsutsuki Imu?"
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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