Garp and the others moved much faster than imagined.
Perhaps because the matter involved Celestial Dragons, this time the holy land Mary Geoise didn't drag things out like usual.
Even the Celestial Dragons' exclusive bubble gondolas were arranged.
"This is the first time this old man has ridden one of these. Speaking of which, it's thanks to that kid, haha!"
On the bubble gondola, Garp laughed loudly as he spoke to Borsalino beside him, completely ignoring the green faces of the Celestial Dragon servants responsible for guiding them.
These guys had been completely mentally dominated by the Celestial Dragons, so when Garp spoke such "treasonous" words, they genuinely felt angry.
This could be considered another level of "when the master is humiliated, the servant dies," right?
Of course, if you really expected them to risk their lives to cause trouble for Garp, that was impossible. They didn't have that kind of backbone.
If they really had backbone, could they serve as dogs for the Celestial Dragons?
Fortunately, there were people in the group who could control Garp.
"Garp, shut up."
Vice Admiral Tsuru glared at him irritably.
This man who had been unreliable since his youth had caused Tsuru quite a bit of trouble.
Coming along this time was to prevent Garp from causing even bigger problems.
"That's right, little Garp, watch your words."
Vice Admiral Gion also chimed in from the side.
Don't let her appearance of being under thirty fool you. Gion had always called Vice Admiral Tsuru "sister," and when addressing Garp, she never used respectful titles like "Vice Admiral Garp" like others did.
This showed how deep her relationship with the two was... and this person's age.
Never mind, let's not meddle in beautiful women's affairs.
If they had taken the Navy's usual "gondola," plus approval and transmission time, they'd probably still be on the ground without having departed.
But the gondola only took about ten minutes to rise from below.
Naturally, Garp's group couldn't take their own warships this time. On the other side of the Red Line, warships had already been dispatched from the nearest Navy base in preparation.
After boarding Mary Geoise, what met their eyes was Mary Geoise, destroyed beyond recognition.
"How terrible..."
Yellow Monkey's deliberately drawn-out tone sounded sarcastic no matter how you heard it, but fortunately no one here took it seriously.
Instead, Garp patted his shoulder and pointed ahead, saying:
"Look, I've been here before. Now it's all been blown flat."
"Garp-san, Garp-san..."
Yellow Monkey was swayed back and forth by Garp's big hand but still tried to speak up.
Bang!
Vice Admiral Tsuru's fist smashed onto Garp's forehead, finally quieting down this old child.
Perhaps to save face for the holy land Mary Geoise, the reception staff didn't let them stay there long and led them away to the other side.
After the group boarded the warship prepared for them, Vice Admiral Tsuru immediately asked the commanding Navy officer:
"The nearby waters are all blockaded, right?"
"Yes! Everything is blockaded. Any ship surfacing from the seabed must undergo inspection."
From Fishman Island to the surface, there was generally a fixed surfacing area that was the shortest distance from the seabed.
This time, the Navy not only blockaded this area but even surrounded several nautical miles around it tightly with their warships.
Several unlucky guys who had just left Fishman Island preparing to welcome their New World journey saw a bunch of Navy warships.
They wanted to resist, but unfortunately their fate was the same as a certain "Depend-on-Ship King." Either captured or turned into seabed sediment.
Garp's group waited here for an afternoon and only caught a few small-time pirates.
By the second day, they couldn't even see the shadow of pirates.
No help for it. Sabaody Archipelago was blockaded, and the pirates in Fishman Island had basically all surfaced.
Garp was getting impatient, and Vice Admiral Tsuru realized they couldn't keep waiting, so she dispatched the garrison from Sabaody Archipelago to begin coating and diving.
They demanded entry to Fishman Island to search for the wanted criminal Naruto Uzumaki in the name of the World Government.
To avoid escalating the situation, when Namur and others discovered their warships, they immediately had their subordinates retreat.
The Navy wouldn't attack Fishman Island.
On the contrary, staying here would easily give the World Government an excuse.
The Navy's search mission went very smoothly. His Majesty King Neptune of Fishman Island was very cooperative, letting them search wherever they wanted.
He even dispatched Ryugu Palace guards to help with the search.
But when asked if they had seen someone named Naruto Uzumaki, the answer was uniformly "haven't seen him."
When searching Fishman District, this group of Navy encountered resistance for the first time.
It was a group of street thugs led by the fishman "Hody Jones."
King Neptune also stated that this group had broken away from Fishman Island's control. They didn't listen to him.
Correspondingly, attacking them wouldn't cause Fishman Island's hostility.
So this group of arrogant thugs suffered a dimensional reduction strike from official forces.
Don't think this group of Navy dispatched to search didn't have any notable figures, but they were the force searching for "great criminal" Naruto Uzumaki, equivalent to a proper Four Emperor fleet.
There was no shortage of high-end combat power among them. The commanders all started with Haki and would have individual scenes in the original timeline's "Marineford War."
And what kind of person was Hody Jones?
He was the real mastermind behind Princess Otohime's assassination, and also someone who inherited Arlong's will to "hate humans."
But in reality, he had never been wronged by humans in any excessive way.
All his hatred came purely from Hody Jones' own "imagination."
It was fortunate that Naruto didn't know this truth, or this guy would really be finely chopped into mincemeat.
And his subordinates were just a group of fishman thugs who relied on banned drugs to enhance their combat power.
Although relying on "Energy Steroids" and Fishmen's naturally strong bodies, they could fight back and forth with those Headquarters marines, even gaining the upper hand at times.
But once the Navy Headquarters' garrison officers made their move, this group either died or fled.
Leading Hody Jones never thought that just a few human Navy officers could destroy the large force he had carefully assembled.
Having stayed in Fishman District all along, he was just a frog in a well.
This rebellion that hadn't even begun was thus nipped in the bud by coincidence.
But the problem came again.
Now the entire Fishman Island had been completely searched by them, and there was no trace of the great criminal.
Where had Naruto gone?
At the same time, New World, O'Brien Island.
This place was also called "Maple Sugar Island."
As the name suggested, this island's specialty was all kinds of candy.
Because of this, it had also been included in Big Mom Pirates' sphere of influence.
Although it wasn't one of the thirty-four branch islands of "Totto Land," it still received Big Mom's protection, with the price being regularly tribute of candy.
And what about Naruto?
In fact, the one the Navy was thinking about was currently sitting in a tavern somewhere on Maple Sugar Island, drinking locally brewed rum.
"Phew... after going to so many places, your liquor here still tastes the best."
Putting down his glass, Naruto put down a stack of berries and ordered another large barrel of rum.
Since experimenting with directly generating bubbles and thrusters, Naruto simply transformed into a human submarine and swam directly from Fishman Island toward the distance. Because he could produce new resin bubbles, his diving time and landing distance were greatly extended, which was why the Navy came up empty.
Looking at the Eternal Pose in his hand, Naruto picked up that barrel of special rum and directly went out the door.
Soon, very soon.
Once he reached Totto Land, he could find out where that so-called "Akatsuki" organization was.
Taking out the scroll containing Orochimaru's body from his pocket, Naruto tossed it up and down a few times but still didn't fuse it with himself.
It didn't take up much space anyway. Better to carry it on his body.
He always felt that this old snake must still have some backup plan.