The massive ship carrying the Whitebeard Pirates and their allies gradually pulled away from the ruined Marine Headquarters, carving a growing distance between themselves and the battleground of Marineford.
Meanwhile, Naru's sharp eyes caught sight of the twisted, triumphant smile stretching across Blackbeard's face. His actions were anything but subtle, and everyone who still had their gaze locked on the battlefield could see it too, that Blackbeard and his men were pulling out a suspiciously ominous black cloth from seemingly nowhere.
Deep within her, Naru's instincts screamed in warning. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. And her instincts had never once failed her. Without a shred of hesitation, she moved to stand protectively before Whitebeard's lifeless, cooling body.
"Whatever sinister trick you bastards are planning," she said icily, her voice slicing through the tense air like a sharpened blade, "you'll have to go through me first."
The contempt and fury in Blackbeard's eyes were instant and unfiltered. He bared his teeth at her.
"You!" he hissed, his voice trembling with hatred.
From the moment she had stepped aboard the Moby Dick years ago, this woman had been nothing but a thorn in his side. Becoming close with the old man and those fools in the crew, she had always seemed to see straight through him, as though her gaze could pierce into the deepest, ugliest parts of his soul.
Blackbeard despised her for it. He loathed how her gaze stripped him bare, how her presence made his skin crawl. Despite his age and cunning, despite his lifetime of deceit, he could never shake the suffocating sense of being prey whenever she was near. And deep down, in the rotting pit of his heart, he knew the truth, that if it came down to pure power, Kitsune was far above him.
That was why he always avoided her like the plague. Every time word came that she would visit the ship, he would fake a fever or some stomach illness and lock himself away in his quarters until she was gone.
He needed to get rid of this woman first!
"KILL HER!"
As for Blackbeard's crew, perhaps the long confinement in the prison had left them out of touch with recent events, or maybe they had grown overconfident, but seeing that their target was only a young woman who didn't look that strong, they didn't hesitate to charge forward.
However, before they could even take a second step, an invisible force seized their hearts. A creeping, suffocating chill wrapped around their souls, anchoring them to the ground as if they were rooted in stone.
Seeing his men suddenly freeze in place like broken puppets, Blackbeard snarled, "Oi! What the hell's wrong with you lot?! I said kill her! Are you deaf?!"
But no matter how much he barked, none of them answered. No one even blinked.
Panic began to bloom across their faces.
It was not that they refused to move. They simply could not!
Their bodies were no longer under their own control, and worse, they could not even tear their eyes away from the "harmless" looking woman standing before them.
And in that frozen silence, every man there realized the truth.
She was not harmless at all.
Gone was the cool blue of her irises. In its place, a terrifying, bloody crimson glow radiated from her eyes, casting a horrifying reflection across the battlefield. A dense, malevolent red aura began pouring out of her, growing heavier, more suffocating by the second.
This time, it was not just them, but everyone else was also able to see her red aura.
The ominous aura thickened, gaining shape and form until a colossal fox head emerged, grinning menacingly at Blackbeard's crew. Then the rest of it materialized into a giant, reddish-orange fox, far larger than anything short of the Sea Beasts themselves. It loomed with terrifying majesty, its nine monstrous tails flicking lazily behind it like titanic whips.
The battlefield fell deathly silent.
Everyone recognized the creature instantly. Just like the phoenix, it was also known as a mythical creature.
Standing protectively over the Uzukage and Whitebeard's body, the shocking thing about the whole image was most definitely the nine long tails swaying behind the fox.
The Nine-Tailed Fox.
"T-This… could she have eaten a Zoan-type Devil Fruit?!" a trembling marine stammered.
"Idiot!" another barked back. "If that were true, she'd be the fox herself, not summoning one out of thin air!"
Sengoku stiffened, his veteran instincts screaming at him that this was no ordinary ability. Automatically, he turned toward Garp, looking for an answer.
But the old Marine hero simply raised his hands defensively and shouted, "Don't look at me! Hell if I knew she could do that!"
On the ship speeding away, Ace gawked at the sight before him. His mind raced, memories flashing back to the stories Naru used to tell him and Luffy the stories about powerful beasts from another world. A single name echoed in his mind.
Kurama...
Elsewhere, disbelief rang out.
"Holy shit! Isn't that the grumpy fox of our boss?" Nikolas exclaimed in surprise. Having been with Naru for almost a decade, of course he was familiar with her foxy partner.
Naru never hid Kurama's existence from her team, but she never explained the Jinchuuriki concept to them either. Therefore, whenever Kurama came out of her body, they thought that she was simply just 'summoning' a spirit from another realm. As to why she had this kind of mysterious ability, well, they did not bother ask. It was simply just another mysterious ability of their mysterious leader.
But they did not expect that the fox could grow that big! Heck, he even grew an extra eight tails!
Yue and Barlow, typically stoic and unshakable, betrayed nothing, but even they were stiff with disbelief.
Meanwhile, Yuzu's heart was hammering against her ribs so hard she thought it might burst. She clutched her chest, her wide, sparkling eyes fixed on the person she had admired since she was twelve, the person who had saved her, inspired her, and now, stood revealed in her truest form. The surge of excitement, pride, and loyalty blazing in Yuzu's heart was something only she would ever fully understand.
And there was someone else who was absolutely thrilled by the revelation.
Doflamingo, whose face and body were bloodied thanks to a certain crazy woman, had the biggest grin on his face ever since he decided to join in the fun of today's battle. Looking at Dorothy, who had changed her name into something similar to the country she was serving, he saw the similar flash of excitement and worship in her eyes that he also had in his, though hidden quite well behind the pair of glasses that he wore.
Behind his bloodstained glasses, his eyes glittered with manic anticipation.
'Mary Geoise must be losing their damn minds right about now,' he thought, nearly vibrating with excitement. 'The Nine-Tailed Fox has finally appeared!'
Back on the battlefield, Naru calmly stepped closer to Kurama's enormous paw and brushed her hand over his fur, her expression serene. She turned back to the stunned crowd and smiled.
"Relax," she said brightly. "He won't bite."
'Like hell he won't!' everyone thought in horrified unison, staring at the monstrous teeth glinting in Kurama's mouth as he continued to growl lowly at them.
Instead of biting them, that monster would just swallow them whole without a second thought!
Raising her voice, Naru declared, "Let me introduce you to my partner, and the protector of Uzu!"
At her words, Kurama unleashed a deafening roar. The sheer force of his voice shook the air itself, sending shockwaves tearing across the battlefield. Those with weak spirits and frail wills collapsed where they stood or were thrown backward like rag dolls, some skidding across the ground with shrieks of terror.
"Pleased to meet you, humans," Kurama rumbled, his deep, wickedly amused voice sending fresh waves of terror into the already petrified onlookers.
'It can talk!' was the collective thought flashing through countless terrified minds.
Blackbeard and his gang were completely petrified out of fear. After all, they were so close to the beast that they could be eaten or get impaled by those terrifying looking claws anytime soon!
Naru's expression turned cold. "I don't care what you were planning, but don't think I'll let you defile Whitebeard's body. The only reason I didn't interfere earlier was because of the respect I have for him."
That smile, cheerful and polite, was more terrifying than any scowl. Blackbeard and his men flinched instinctively, their faces contorting with sheer terror.
"Get lost," Naru said coldly, her voice ringing with finality.
The next instant, Kurama spun around and, with one powerful flick of his nine massive tails, sent Blackbeard and his entire crew soaring through the sky. They smashed through the already-ruined Marine HQ, plowed through the remains of the city beyond, and vanished as tiny dots on the distant horizon.
The entire battlefield fell into stunned, disbelieving silence.
Ignoring the shell-shocked faces around her, Naru knelt down and, with a few swift, practiced seals, carefully stored away Whitebeard's body, his naginata, and his legendary coat. She rose to her feet and turned her calm, unflinching gaze to Sengoku as her team stood straight behind her and Kurama looming like an avenging god above them.
"There are a few reasons we came here today," she began calmly, her voice carrying clear across the battlefield. "The main one, of course, was for my brothers. And no," she added with a pointed glance at Sengoku, "I haven't joined anyone's side. Not the Yonko, and certainly not the World Government."
Sengoku's brow furrowed deeply. "Then...are you aligning yourself with your father's forces?" he asked cautiously, suspicion lacing every word.
Naru laughed lightly, shaking her head in amusement.
"Don't be ridiculous," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "He is who he is, and I am who I am. Just because he's my father doesn't mean I'll blindly follow him around like some lost puppy. Sure, we have common interest, but our goals? They couldn't be more different if we tried."
Flashing a wickedly confident grin, she declared, "No, what I mean is that my empire stands on its own power. Today, we came here to announce ourselves to the world."
A ripple of confusion surged through the crowd like a stone thrown into still water.
What was she talking about?
She was not joining the Yonko. She had no interest in piracy. She was not even part of her father's army, nor did she seek any alliance with the World Government. So then... what the hell was she planning?
Was she trying to forge a new power in the world, independent of the Three Great Powers?
That must be it!
The realization slammed into those present like a punch to the gut, and they shared stunned glances, now viewing the woman in a very different, far more serious light.
Sengoku clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles went pale.
"Don't think for a second that we'll just let this matter go, Uzukage," he warned darkly.
"It doesn't matter," Naru replied smoothly, her voice a siren's call of challenge. "If you believe that you have the means to do so, then feel free to do whatever you can. I'm more than willing to give up some of my precious time and attention to entertain you guys. However, I don't think you folks can even handle what I have in store for you."
Sengoku's face darkened as the blatant threat settled over the battlefield like an ominous storm cloud. Still, he forced himself to ask, "What do you mean by that?"
Naru did not bother answering with words. Actions, after all, spoke louder.
With a slow, controlled inhale, she tapped into the deepest well of her power, entering Kurama Mode, the form her team affectionately referred to as God Mode. In that instant, she transformed into something breathtaking and terrifying all at once, stealing the breath from every witness still conscious on the battlefield.
In less than a heartbeat, she became a living sun.
Her entire body ignited with a magnificent golden radiance that poured off her in shimmering waves. The ocean blue of her eyes melted into a brilliant, blazing ember that resembled molten gold, the pupils narrowing into sharp, predatory slits. The three whisker-like markings on her cheeks thickened and darkened, becoming far more pronounced, almost tribal in their intensity. Intricate yin patterns unfurled around her collar, and the stripes along the bottom of her once-orange cape deepened into a pitch black
Beside her, the great nine-tailed fox underwent an equally awe-striking transformation. Kurama's enormous body blazed with the same divine golden light, every strand of fur gleaming as if forged from celestial fire. The fox that had already been terrifying in its natural form now appeared impossibly more majestic and overwhelmingly powerful.
Naru rose from the ground with effortless dominance, ascending until she hovered just above Kurama's massive head. The two of them, bathed in radiant gold, shared matching feral grins that promised devastation on a scale no one had ever dared to imagine.
The entire battlefield fell into a stunned, trembling silence.
Slowly and with absolute purpose, Naru raised one glowing arm toward the heavens. Above her outstretched palm, a swirling, ominous black orb began to form. It churned like a tiny storm, its dark surface laced with streaks of volatile blue and red light that crackled like lightning trapped inside a sphere. At the same time, Kurama opened its colossal jaws and began gathering a second sphere of energy. This one grew at an alarming pace, expanding into a monstrous orb so large it defied logic. Even the legendary cannonballs that Garp had once thrown with his bare hands seemed pitifully small in comparison. Kurama's sphere dwarfed even Naru's own creation.
No one among the marines, pirates, or remaining onlookers could understand what was about to occur, but every instinct screamed that whatever was coming would be catastrophic.
It was not going to be good.
It was not until the sharpest minds, those among the highest-ranking Marines and Shichibukai, tracked the direction of the Uzukage and her fox's aim that the terrifying truth sank in.
The Mary Geoise.
Sengoku felt the blood drain from his face. He opened his mouth to shout a warning, but the chance to prevent this had already passed.
A thunderous boom split the air.
With an earth shattering roar, Naru and Kurama unleashed their twin Bijuudamas.
The world erupted.
The twin blasts tore through the sky with a force that seemed capable of ripping apart the very fabric of the heavens. The booming sound was deafening enough to rupture eardrums, and the shockwave sent tremors rolling across the ground. Marines braced themselves instinctively, throwing their arms over their heads, clenching their teeth, and praying that the blast would not obliterate them where they stood.
Meanwhile, Doflamingo let out a manic laugh. "Fufufufufufu! Those stuck-up fools must be trembling now!"
Marineford may have stood near the Red Line, but Mary Geoise was still thousands of miles away. Whether the attacks would actually reach their intended target was uncertain. However, that did not matter. The mere act of releasing such world-shaking power sent a chilling message. These attacks could erase entire islands from existence. The statement alone was more devastating than any hit could ever be.
The blasts carved a violent rift through the sea, cleaving the waters apart with impossible force and hurling colossal waves outward. Towering walls of water crashed outward like furious spirits unleashed from the depths.
By some miracle, the destruction halted just short of Marineford, sparing the thousands still gathered, including the helpless Devil Fruit users who would have drowned instantly had the waves swallowed the battlefield. Even the retreating Whitebeard Pirates, now miles away, were fortunate enough to avoid the wrath of the sea.
When the ocean finally calmed and the trembling of the ground faded, every pair of eyes swung toward the Uzukage.
She greeted them with a sweet smile that looked like it belonged on the face of a demon wearing an angel's disguise.
With a single, effortless display, she had shown that she could wipe out an island whenever she pleased. Compared to that level of power, the Marine Buster Call that once inspired dread felt like a childish tantrum.
The Marines swallowed thickly as the truth settled into their bones. Had the Uzukage decided to turn her power against them at full strength, none of them would be here. They would not even have had time to scream.
Still glowing as brightly as a celestial being, Naru turned her gaze to Sengoku and offered a leisurely grin.
"Like I mentioned earlier," she said with a playful drawl, "if you really want to test yourselves against me, be my guest. But don't act like I've never tried to warn you first. And honestly, this little performance? This was just me saying hello. First impressions, you know."