Chapter 2: The Future of the World Government
"I have no reason to lie to you," Naruto said as he stood up again, brushing off the nonexistent dust from his clothes. "The thing is, this gate really allows me to open the way to other worlds—a good number of them, actually… but we need to completely conquer the previous world before we can do that."
"Sounds good to me," Gunko remarked. More worlds meant more slaves to satisfy her whims, and who knew—maybe these new worlds would have some genuinely good music to listen to from time to time.
As for Imu, their line of thought was far more complex, one that finally ended when their eyes showed an emotion they hadn't felt in nearly a thousand years of existence: anticipation and genuine desire.
"Take me to see it," they said in a deep voice, barely able to hide the sheer longing that filled them at that moment.
"Alright," Naruto replied with a simple nod.
Not long after that, the trio stepped directly through the golden gate, feeling a wave of dizziness and disorientation flood their bodies—only for it to vanish moments later as they emerged on the other side, arriving in what was clearly a desolate city whose streets were stained with patches of dried blood.
"You brought us to a war zone," Gunko said flatly.
"I don't choose where we show up," Naruto replied in the same dry tone. Damn it, if he did get to choose, it certainly wouldn't have been in the middle of a damn war zone… though this one didn't exactly look like one.
After all, as far as he knew, war zones didn't usually have recently abandoned civilian vehicles, and the city didn't appear nearly as damaged as one might expect. It looked mostly intact—except for the lower floors, whose windows were shattered—while the upper levels of the tall buildings remained in surprisingly good condition.
Moreover, there were figures staggering about everywhere—slightly decayed bodies that made Naruto groan.
"Don't tell me this is a damn zombie world," he complained once he identified the shambling figures.
"Geek," Gunko said curtly. Honestly, she didn't understand why her charge was so fond of those mediocre horror stories. Flesh would rot away in, what, a few days at most?
Imu, on the other hand, was completely absorbed by the scene before them. It was true that, as ruler of the world, they had seen countless breathtaking, grim, and even downright impossible landscapes—but even for them, this place was simply fascinating.
The buildings stretched skyward as if trying to touch the heavens; the strange four-wheeled vehicles scattered below them… none of it existed in their world. And for someone who had lived over eight hundred years, seeing so many new things was a truly marvelous feeling—one that confirmed beyond any doubt that this was no longer their world. On the contrary, it was a completely new one, just as their descendant had said, who was now busy in one of his usual bouts of bickering with Gunko.
Still, they needed to confirm what they had heard.
"What is a 'zombie world'?" Imu asked.
Hearing the question made both Celestial Dragons stop what they were doing and turn to answer.
"It's a genre of fantasy fiction," Naruto explained calmly. "It usually involves a world destroyed by zombies that seek to infect or devour the uninfected—generally humans… mostly due to some virus or parasite."
"Geek," Gunko repeated.
"I see…" In truth, Imu was more puzzled than anything, though they understood the general idea. How could anyone think an apocalypse of the living dead would actually work?
"How do you know all that?" Imu asked.
"Too much free time and a lot of writer-slaves," Naruto replied casually. True, he didn't own any slaves himself, but Gunko did—and plenty of them. A few even had some useful talents… and well, he was constantly bored since he couldn't leave the Holy Land.
Imu found that to be a perfectly reasonable answer. Besides, they had heard that one of the current Warlords of the Sea commanded something like an army of undead in his base within the Florian Triangle, so they didn't pry any further. Whatever their descendant chose to read in his free time, after all, wasn't their concern.
For now, there were far more interesting things to contemplate. With their eyes gleaming with excitement and their heart pounding stronger than ever, they reflected that their days had long been spent in the deepest boredom and, to be brutally honest, they only remained on the throne out of sheer protocol. And, to be brutally honest once more, most of the descendants of their former comrades were a bunch of inept fools. The Gorosei were merely the least inept among them.
But now, with the emergence of this new world to behold and explore, their existence might finally find some excitement. And at the same time, Imu had already begun to form in their mind hundreds of ways to extract every possible resource from this world.
"As you said, we need to conquer and colonize this world. To do that, we'd have to get rid of these zombies, right?" Imu asked.
"Technically," Naruto replied, who honestly didn't want to get rid of them. They were cheap labor—free, even—if they could be domesticated and given back a minimum of intelligence. Something he was more than certain Dr. Vegapunk could accomplish. And if a few of them died in the process, it wouldn't be a great loss.
Nevertheless, Imu simply raised a hand and pointed their index finger toward a group of zombies that, somehow, had stayed away from them until now. Without making any visible movement, they released a pulse of something neither Naruto nor Gunko could see. With the unmistakable sound of an explosion, a large group of zombies was reduced to little more than bone, flesh, and rotting organs… Fortunately, none of it landed on them.
"They don't seem like much," Imu commented indifferently.
"They don't need to be strong; they usually overwhelm through numbers," Naruto said dryly before shaking his head. "Besides, the fact that they're weak puts us at an advantage, doesn't it? It'll take us much less time to get rid of them."
That made perfect sense. Not to mention that, from what he had seen of some of these creatures, their bodies—even in such an advanced state of decay—had clearly not belonged to powerful people when they were alive.
Moreover, it was highly unlikely that even if these were the kind of zombies designed as biological weapons and genuinely powerful, they could ever stand against an existence like Imu—who was, indisputably, the most powerful being in their entire damn world.
"Yes, you're right about that," Imu said, who was not at all opposed to the idea. The weaker the enemies, the easier it would be to conquer their worlds. And if they happened to find a strong one… well, then it would be time to return to the good old reliable politics. And for some reason, their soul seemed to vibrate at the thought of sitting once again at a negotiation table.
"For a change," Gunko muttered, earning one of Naruto's best "not now, old hag" looks.
"Let's head back for now," Imu said, not wishing to remain in that new world any longer—partly because the stench of blood was starting to give them a headache, and partly because they needed to inform the Gorosei and the Supreme Commander of the Kami no Kishidan about what they had just witnessed.
Naruto merely nodded upon hearing that. Honestly, he didn't feel like staying there any longer either; the groans of the zombies and the cries for help he could hear several kilometers away were getting on his nerves.
Without needing to say more, the three soon returned to their original world, where, without a moment's hesitation, Imu took one of the most encrypted and secure Den Den Mushi in history—a line that connected directly to the Five Elders, who, naturally, didn't take long to answer.
"Master," Naruto wasn't surprised that it was Jupiter who responded. Being the one who least enjoyed sitting still, he was also the most alert to even the slightest change in his routine. Naturally, a call from Imu was the kind of thing that would break his usually monotonous day.
"Come here," Imu ordered simply. In their opinion, that alone was enough to make those idiots rush to their presence.
"As you command," they replied before hanging up.
"That could be considered rude," Naruto commented.
Both Imu and Gunko shrugged; frankly, neither cared enough to be offended. After all, it was better to prioritize efficiency over tedious formalities.
"When they arrive, I need you to be the one to explain everything you showed me," Imu ordered Naruto, who simply nodded, having no real reason to object. Besides, it gave him the opportunity to lie a little, to at least partially achieve some of his short-term goals.
Morally questionable, of course. Did he really care? Not at all. In his eyes, the means didn't matter—only the result: becoming the god of this world. And frankly, this was the best way to stabilize the chaotic government those idiots had allowed to decay over the past eight hundred years… well, more like five hundred, since in its early days things hadn't been as bad as they were now.
Fifteen minutes later—and after a meticulously planned speech by Naruto—the Five Elders finally arrived, as always, all together. Naturally, they bowed before their master, each one voicing a respectful:
"Imu-sama."
And with the most important person acknowledged, and after being dismissed, the Five Elders rose to their feet. Only then did they allow themselves to acknowledge the presence of the other two in the room. If they wondered why the pair was there, none voiced it, knowing their master surely had a reason for including them in the meeting.
Finally, Nusjuro—the eldest member of the group—was the one to ask the question that he and his companions all had in mind at that moment.
"Imu-sama, why have you summoned us? Has something important happened? Do we need to extinguish a light?"
Naruto honestly hoped not. The last time these six idiots had the brilliant idea to "extinguish a light," they had started the Great Pirate Era by publicly executing Roger—of all the damn pirates! Seriously, how the hell had they ever thought that was a good idea?
"Proceed," Imu said to Naruto, forcing him out of his thoughts by the direct order of his ancestor.
Without bothering with any grand explanations or unnecessary theatrics, Naruto simply summoned the golden gate before the Five Elders, who looked upon it in slight shock. Especially because, to them, it made no sense that they had been summoned just to discuss an ability like opening portals.
However, once he explained the truth about the gate and the new world, the five finally understood that this was, without a doubt, something completely world-shaking for the World Government.
"Do other worlds truly exist besides our own?" Ju Peter—normally so stoic—was astonished. Not even in his wildest dreams had he imagined such a thing existed. And to be honest, right now, he felt incredibly small.
Yet soon that shock gave way to what was undoubtedly the greatest sense of excitement and anticipation they had felt in a very long time. For with a door open to new worlds, a golden age for the World Government was surely upon them.
Now they understood why their master had summoned them so suddenly. This was, without question, far more important than any other matter at hand—whether it was dealing with the aftermath of Roger's execution, the growing Revolutionary Army, or even Ohara. All of that paled in comparison to this.
With the doors open to new worlds—literally—the World Government would only expand and grow even more powerful. Naturally, they couldn't help but feel utterly thrilled at all the possibilities.
"Before you start making plans, there's one more thing," Imu said, noticing that this group of inepts was already several steps ahead of themselves.
Duly chastised, the Five Elders bowed once more before their master.
"Please, enlighten us with your orders," they said in unison.
"From this day forward, everything related to the new world will be under Naruto's supervision and control," Imu declared. "And eventually, he will become the next king of the World Government."
"Excuse me?" said Naruto, who had just watched his carefully laid plans get royally wrecked by that single statement. Somehow, even when things were going well, these fools always managed to make his life harder. His plan hadn't been to become king of the world yet—he needed time to learn everything wrong with the system so he could at least fix some of its biggest flaws.
"We agree," the Five Elders replied, without the slightest trace of actual objection.
"Shamrock's going to love hearing this," Gunko remarked, knowing her boss would be thrilled to learn that Naruto was finally moving his lazy ass and doing something truly worthwhile… though he was also going to be incredibly jealous.
End of Chapter.