Chapter 3: Great Movements
Naruto had honestly hoped that at least one of them would object. Damn it, a normal person would at least try to rationalize such a decision instead of blindly accepting it. But apparently, these people were so idiotic that they agreed without a single word of protest.
Well, what was done was done. And now he was, ironically, bound to become the next king of the world before he was even remotely ready for it. It was true that he considered himself far more intelligent and rational than most people—but that didn't mean he felt prepared to rule the world. He still needed to learn and grow stronger before feeling capable of doing so, though he supposed he could always fall back on the old strategy of learning as he went.
And if anyone was dissatisfied, he'd just resort to the tried-and-true tactic of proving through action that he had earned his position by merit, not by blatant nepotism. Not that anyone would dare oppose him, anyway: with the Gorosei backing him, very few would risk it. And if he managed to have Garling on his side, then the Kami no Kishidan would follow as well.
Having accepted that there was little to be done about that particular matter, he now had to focus on what was truly important: the conquest and development of the new world's colony—which, honestly, would have been his top priority if they hadn't just forced the throne upon him.
"Everything in the new world will now revolve around your decisions."
Apparently, while he had been lost in thought, Imu and the Five Elders had been in discussion. Well, he'd ask Gunko for a summary later—or maybe he wouldn't. He seriously doubted it was anything important.
"So, young master, would now be a good time to provide more details about the new world and how you can open doors to other worlds?" Gunko asked in a lightly mocking tone. Apparently, the woman had realized he hadn't been paying attention and wanted to tease him a little. Unfortunately for her, he was quite good at improvising.
Luckily, the greed and anticipation in the Five Elders' faces were so obvious that it was almost endearing. After all, the little he had told them about the new world was enough to make them incredibly gullible. In the end, he was the only one who knew how to open new worlds—well, him and the overgrown lizard who had given him the gates, but that one didn't count; it could only speak, not act.
"Unlocking new worlds is actually far more complex than it may seem," Naruto began. "It requires two things: completely conquering the opened world, and…"
At the deliberately dramatic—and utterly unnecessary—pause, seven pairs of eyes looked at him expectantly. Well, six of them; Gunko knew him well enough to realize he was about to lie, but as long as it wasn't anything serious, she wouldn't call him out on it. Besides, she could always blackmail him with it later.
"…faith from the people."
"Faith?" Mars asked, frowning slightly, not understanding how on earth faith played a role in opening new worlds. At first, he didn't get it—until an idea dawned on him. "You mean faith in the deities?"
"Indeed," Naruto said with a nod, glancing sideways at Gunko, who was watching him with faint amusement in her eyes. He just hoped the old witch wouldn't call him out for his blatant lie. "The Gate is a gift from the Dragon God to bring this world back into order; only through people's belief and faith will I gain the power to open the gates to other worlds."
It was only partially true, but the matter was far more complicated than he planned to explain right now. He'd fill Gunko in later, in private. They teased each other all the time, sure, but they were almost like siblings—and he was confident he could get her on his side once he explained everything… and made her one of his goddesses.
Naturally, the Five Elders—utterly unaware of the truth and believing Naruto had no reason to deceive them—simply assumed everything he said was true. After a moment of contemplation, Warcury was the first to speak:
"If you truly need that kind of faith, it shouldn't be difficult to obtain. After all, we are the descendants of the gods; we have the authority to establish religious institutions centered around you and spread them across the seas. With that, I believe we could soon gather enough power of faith."
Naruto wanted to laugh—he really did. There was simply no way that man actually believed such a thing would work. The lesser beings of the seas literally feared and hated the Celestial Dragons; they saw them as demons, not gods. Still, calling him an idiot wouldn't serve his plans, so he looked for the best way to make him realize how absurd his proposal was—without laughing in his face.
"That… would be incredibly complicated," he said, shaking his head and struggling to contain the loud laughter that threatened to escape his lungs. "Maybe with that method we could deceive a few and open the gate to a second world; at best, a third. But it would be impossible to reach a fourth, let alone a fifth or sixth."
—Faith is belief in something. People on the seas fear us because, let's be honest, those who stoop to go down to the sea are… a bunch of idiots who kill others for pure pleasure, —Gunko said curtly. She truly didn't understand how they still failed to see that this only reinforced the Dragon's reputation. The Revolutionary understood the idea that, as gods, they stood above the law and such; but there was a difference between being above the law and being a complete, incompetent idiot who actively courted his own death.
Naturally, Nusjuro understood immediately what she meant.
—You mean that, eh? —he asked.
Naruto simply lifted the corner of his mouth in a small smile as he looked at the elder. Things were going to fall into place; he genuinely appreciated that these men were greedy and ignorant enough to be played like a fiddle.
—Of course… the people of the sea assume that anything connected to the Celestial Dragons brings pain and suffering, and in more than one sense they're right. Naturally, being associated with that behavior means the faith we could gain would be… really very low. And if we hide my identity as a Celestial Dragon and it's revealed later what I am, that faith would collapse instantly.
He was right. The Five Elders wanted to refute him, but realized he had the purest, most absolute truth; so they fell silent, waiting for their new master to offer a solution.
—There's no short-term fix, but if we can improve our image progressively, we need to show the best among us.
—I understand, —Mars said, rubbing his long beard. Naruto doubted he truly grasped it; damn it, he himself was improvising his plan on the fly and was struggling to keep his arguments logical and credible—. What we should do is forbid the Celestial Dragons from leaving the World Government's seat. At the same time, we'll enroll everyone in an education program that will allow them to go down to the seas only if they learn to behave properly. What do you think?
Naruto was slightly surprised: that would help his long-term plans a lot, but it would be incredibly difficult to implement.
—It could work, but I don't think we should be so radical as to ban them from going down, —he answered. —I really want these idiots to stop sullying the term "Celestial Dragon," but forbidding them to go ashore would be counterproductive.
—Why do you say that? —Saturn asked, genuinely puzzled.
—Because they've been coddled so much they'd literally throw a tantrum and find a way to sabotage our efforts out of sheer pettiness, —Gunko said. She'd been enjoying watching Naruto sweat over his words; but in the long run, his approach was better and would, in some way, guarantee a more stable government. After all, she'd read his notebook and he was right: an oppressed people eventually fight back because they have nothing left to lose.
—Exactly, —Naruto agreed, surprised she was helping him, but not seeing the hidden fang in the gifted horse. —Besides, we can use their stupidity to our advantage. Put it this way: if one of them does something stupid, that gives me the chance to intervene and reprimand them harshly. That way, besides keeping those idiots distracted by their own foolishness, I improve my image by using my status as a Celestial Dragon to punish the fools among us. I can prove that those who now fawn are just spoiled children and morons… We could even use Shamrock and Gunko to reinforce the idea that not all of us are a bunch of idiots.
Normally Naruto wouldn't turn to Shamrock's help, but if he really wanted this plan to work he'd need all the assistance he could get; whether he liked it or not, the redhead was one of the few who—despite being a colossal idiot—would be rational enough to understand and help for the right price.
The Five Elders saw it as a sound plan to improve the Celestial Dragons' image in the medium and long term; besides, it saved them headaches they hadn't foreseen when Mars suggested locking the Celestial Dragons in Mariejois until they behaved properly.
As for Imu, they watched him with a mix of amusement and respect. They had noticed the boy was lying; one doesn't become king of the world simply by letting the descendants of your old comrades run wild. But they knew Naruto sought the greater good of the World Government, so they wouldn't call him out on his lie. If the boy wanted to play god, they'd let him—and would stop him if it went to his head. For now there was nothing wrong with letting him play.
Moreover, the boy really had a point: the people of the sea saw the descendants of their former comrades as vile and detestable beings. No matter how outraged or furious they were at the actions of a Celestial Dragon, they could do nothing for fear of dying at the hands of an admiral. That, in the long run, would fuel the dragon's revolution and bring far greater problems to the World Government.
But with his current plan—even if it basically meant letting the boy play at being a god for the time being—it would, in a way, help improve the Celestial Dragons' image among the people of the sea. At least to some extent, which, of course, would make people look upon him with gratitude and, to some degree, faith: faith that he would protect them from the oppressed. In a way he would become a Joy Boy figure, but seeking to preserve the order and stability of the World Government rather than overthrow it… and the very idea, in truth, delighted him.
And the cost, honestly, was low enough that he had no problem letting it proceed. After all, the boy only wanted to be a god and to punch a few of his fellow Celestial Dragons from time to time to vent his frustrations—so he had no intention of stopping him in the short term.
At the end of the day, the Celestial Dragons were nothing more than a bunch of fools he tolerated because their stupidity entertained him. Sacrificing a few of them to gain far greater power was something he was more than willing to do. It was despicable, and he knew it—but honestly, he didn't particularly care. After all, these were not the comrades he had fought with eight hundred years ago; for the most part, they were horribly inept.
The Five Elders truly believed his words and, to be honest, saw no problems with his reasoning. For them, opening the doors to new worlds was worth sacrificing a few Celestial Dragons; it was a price they were more than willing to pay.
"Let's leave that aside for now; focus on developing the new world," Ju Peter said. "That's more important at the moment; you'll have time to solve the problems of your own world later."
"Eh, I already have a plan," Naruto said, raising three fingers. "First: we need to establish a new branch of the military dedicated to land combat. The new world has continental-level landmasses and the Navy won't be enough to reach every corner. Second: we need to send research teams to the new world to study the zombies. Third: deploy some Marines and CP units as preliminary reconnaissance teams to search for survivors."
The Five Elders nodded at that; everything made sense, but there was one point they truly needed to pause over.
"I understand the first and second points. A local force would certainly be a good source of information, but why investigate the zombies?" Saturn asked. "Honestly, I don't see the point of focusing on them. After all, from what our young master told us, they're incredibly weak; at least by the standards of our world, even an ordinary citizen could defeat them. I see no benefit in studying such beings."
"It's quite simple," Naruto replied. "Based on the little we saw in the new world, the zombies number in the hundreds of millions—if not billions. If we somehow investigate the virus and develop a kind of cure that restores part of their reasoning, we could have free labor that can work twenty-four hours a day, because zombies don't tire."
"What good would that do…? Those things will eventually rot," Gunko asked. "Even if you returned some reasoning to them, they remain reanimated corpses; eventually they would fully decay."
"Details that can be solved, old hag," Naruto said dryly. "Honestly, if Moria could halt corpse rot, I'm sure Vegapunk could do it as well. If we solve those problems we could have a workforce that would allow us to rapidly improve infrastructure… and stop using live slaves by the hundreds, which in the long run would save us millions. I wouldn't say I'd abolish slavery—because I wouldn't; nobody would want a corpse serving them—but it would massively reduce costs."
Naturally, hearing that they could save hundreds of millions in slave labor for the construction industry made the greedy eyes of the Five Elders shine with anticipation and excitement. If it was truly possible, they would secure it at any cost. With that, and with nothing more to discuss, the meeting dissolved and the Five Elders headed straight for their chamber to begin mobilizing.
Meanwhile, Naruto and Gunko returned to his residence. Along the way Gunko looked at him with a mixture of amusement and mischief. Of course she wouldn't yet discuss the price of her silence: she preferred to keep it hanging over him a while longer; in the long run it would benefit her more.
"Would you prefer to be the equivalent of Artemis, or do you like Hera better?" Naruto asked.
Oh — apparently Naruto had already pictured her in his plans as one of his goddesses. Well, they'd discuss it at home, after he convinced her to go hunt some zombies; after all, she'd always wanted to kill a few.
XXXXX
Far from Mariejois, the World Government moved swiftly. From the highest ranks of the Navy to the leaders of the various CP branches, every single one of the most important figures within the World Government had received the order to assemble immediately at headquarters.
And, naturally, a mobilization of such massive scale was something that simply could not go unnoticed. For a time, the entire world was left speculating about the reason behind such a large-scale deployment of the World Government's forces. The theories were as wild as they were surprisingly close to the truth. Among them, the most far-fetched of all was that the World Government was planning a massive incursion into the New World.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" murmured a red-skinned Fishman to himself as he read the news with a grim expression. "It seems I'll have to wait a little longer."
End of Chapter.