Uchiha Gate: From Konoha to One Piece

(Bonus)

— — — — — 

"Kill!!"

Kaito didn't pause for a second, moving at lightning speed towards the center of the mountain hideout.

Even though he kept his performance at the level shown during their last assessment, for the bandits in this stronghold, it was nothing short of a massacre.

Let alone Kaito—Minato, Kushina, and Mikoto were there too.

In just a few minutes, the entire hideout, including the handful of Chunin and Genin present, was wiped out by them.

The stench of blood engulfed the hideout.

Among the carnage, they also found dozens of women who had been captured by the bandits.

"What should we do with these people?"

Kushina and Mikoto asked, turning to Kaito.

This incident had clearly shaken them, especially the miserable condition of those women.

It made them reflect: if they weren't born into prominent clans or didn't have the strength of a ninja, they too could've suffered the same fate—unable to control their own destinies, their lives determined by the whims of evil men.

That thought alone strengthened their resolve to train harder and grow even stronger.

They realized that only when they were powerful enough to face any threat could they truly feel safe. Even then, they wouldn't stop pushing themselves—they wanted to stand proudly by Kaito's side, to fight alongside him.

"I asked them," Kaito said, "they're mostly from nearby villages. Let's give them some money and food so they can return home safely."

"Got it!"

Kushina and Mikoto immediately agreed. They took some of the loot they'd confiscated and shared it with the women. After countless tearful thanks, the women left.

Next, Kaito and his group didn't rush to leave either. They gathered the bandits' corpses into a pile and stored the rest of the loot in their storage space.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

Without forming seals, Kaito stood a dozen meters away from the pile and exhaled.

A massive platinum-colored fireball, over ten meters in diameter, formed instantly and engulfed the pile.

The terrifying heat incinerated the hundreds of bodies in moments, leaving behind a massive half-spherical pit over ten meters wide.

Even the edges of the pit showed signs of vitrification from the intense heat.

"Damn!"

Minato and the others narrowed their eyes at the sight.

"Kaito, no matter how many times I see it, your Great Fireball Jutsu is just insane," Minato remarked.

"This kind of power—it's practically in the range of an A-rank Fire Style technique, isn't it?"

Not just its size—the key was its scorching temperature and the speed at which it formed. There was no way to dodge it.

Kushina giggled. "That's him holding back, you know! I've seen him go all out before. The fireball was 50 meters in diameter and burned blue-white—so hot it probably exceeded 1,500 degrees!"

"Fifty meters? Blue-white flames? That's easily S-rank level!" Minato exclaimed, his eyes wide in shock.

Turning a basic C-rank Great Fireball Jutsu into something like this...

Only Kaito could pull something like that off.

It seemed like every technique or training method became something unimaginable in his hands. They'd seen this happen time and again with him.

"It's not that big of a deal," Kaito said with a modest smile. "But this time, I had to control the power so we don't spook those Root ninjas—or the one behind them."

"Let's rest here tonight and head to the next mission point tomorrow," he added.

"Wait, why?"

Minato was confused. He glanced at the sky—it was still early afternoon, around three or four. "We could easily cover another hundred kilometers at our speed."

Before Kaito could answer, Tsunade suddenly appeared, flashing a grin. "You're staying because you want to ensure those women make it back safely, right?"

"Huh?"

Kushina tilted her head, puzzled.

"What does that have to do with their safety?" she asked. "We've already saved them. Are you saying they'd still face danger even after this?"

Minato, quicker to catch on, thought about it and began piecing things together from Kaito and Tsunade's expressions.

Kaito nodded. "Tsunade's right. I don't trust the Root or even the ANBU to have a shred of decency."

"I've heard from my mother that sometimes Root and ANBU operatives do things without any regard for morality or basic humanity. They might even kill those women under the guise of 'keeping secrets.'"

"So yeah, we're staying the night. With us here, they wouldn't dare make a move. By tomorrow, those women will have already reached home."

"At that point, even if Root wanted to, they wouldn't have the time or the means to find them. And honestly, they wouldn't risk causing trouble like that in the Fire Nation's heartland."

Minato and the others finally understood but felt even more frustrated.

"These bastards are truly despicable!" Kushina fumed. "It's all Danzo's fault! I swear, one day I'll wipe them out.

"No one as heartless as that should be allowed to exist!"

The thought of the women they saved possibly being hunted down after all they'd endured made her grit her teeth in anger.

It only strengthened her determination to become stronger—so she could one day cut down all injustice in her path.

It was clear to her—she needed to train harder and push her limits!

Only then could she cut down all injustices in her path.

"Agreed!"

Mikoto and Minato nodded in unison, showing their support.

"Alright, stop looking so riled up!" Kaito said with a chuckle. "Let's take a break, eat something, and settle here for now."

"Afterward, we'll each leave a shadow clone behind and head over to the Pirate World for training."

"Can't slack off—we haven't finished today's training routine yet!"

With that, Kaito led them to a cleaner spot nearby.

He smoothed the ground with an Earth Release jutsu, made some chairs, spread out a tablecloth, and then pulled out an assortment of food.

"Let's dig in!"

Since he planned to practice his Eternal Life Technique later, eating was a must to sustain his energy.

And as for feeling queasy about eating meat right after slaughtering so many people?

Not a chance.

Back in the Pirate World, he had already grown used to such situations.

The same was true for Mikoto and Kushina—they joined in without hesitation as soon as the food appeared, eagerly helping to demolish the feast.

About half an hour later, after several tables of food were polished off and they were feeling comfortably full, they cleaned up and headed to the mountain bandits' hall.

Each of them left a shadow clone behind, while their real bodies teleported to the Pirate World to continue their daily training.

— — — 

"Eh?"

Kuina, who was training when they arrived, stopped mid-move and looked at them with surprise. "Kaito, Mikoto, Kushina, Minato... didn't you say you'd be out on a mission today?"

"How do you still have time to train here?"

"Yeah, seriously!"

Perona's spirit form floated over, curiously circling them.

After years of training, Perona had learned to convert her physical body into a spirit form, rather than leaving her body behind and exposing a major vulnerability.

In the original timeline, she wouldn't have mastered this ability until years later—around two years after the Summit War.

But thanks to all the resources and help Kaito provided, her progress had been accelerated significantly.

Kushina chuckled. "Well, we finished today's mission early, so we left shadow clones behind and came here to train!"

"Miss me after a few days without seeing your big sister?" she teased, reaching out to pinch Perona's cheek with a hand infused with spiritual energy and the adamantine chains of the Uzumaki Clan.

"Of course, I did!"

Perona admitted defeat, nodding furiously.

But as soon as Kushina let go, Perona zipped away in a flash, hiding behind Mikoto for cover.

"Ugh, those adamantine chains and spiritual energy are such cheats!" she grumbled. "How can they grab my spirit form? It makes no sense!"

She had once thought her ghostly form was invincible—until she met Kushina and other members of the Uzumaki Clan.

"Hehe, you're already plenty impressive!" Kushina reassured her. "That Ghost-Ghost Fruit of yours is totally broken. Especially your Negative Ghosts—they're a nightmare for almost everyone!"

Her smile faltered slightly as she recalled something.

Because, well, even she had fallen victim to those Negative Ghosts before.

"Yeah, no kidding."

Minato and the others nodded, their faces darkening at the memory.

Fortunately, Kaito had taught them ways to counter Perona's ghostly abilities.

The most effective techniques involved using spiritual energy and certain sealing jutsu, like the Uzumaki Clan's Adamantine Sealing Chains.

Sadly, those techniques couldn't be learned by outsiders.

But there were similar sealing jutsu available, ones that didn't require the Uzumaki bloodline.

Though not as powerful as the Adamantine Chains, they were more than enough to deal with Perona.

— — — 

After several hours of training in the Pirate World, it was late at night when Kaito and the others finally wrapped up their session.

They bathed, ate, and got some sleep—not back in the ninja world, but on Shimotsuki Island.

The next morning, after breakfast and some practice, they returned to the ninja world and dispelled their shadow clones.

When their memories merged, they confirmed everything had gone smoothly. The Root ninjas hadn't dared move from their position five kilometers away from the hideout.

Kushina and the others let out a sigh of relief.

With that, the group set out for their next mission.

Nearly half a month passed.

By the time they completed their final bandit extermination mission, they returned to Konoha.

The long duration was mostly due to travel time.

As for the enemies? They didn't pose any real challenge to the group.

After arriving back in Konoha, they took a brief three-day break before accepting five more extermination missions from the Third Hokage.

— — —

Time flew by.

Before they knew it, nearly two months had passed since Kaito and his team had graduated.

On this day, they completed another mission and returned to Konoha.

Unlike their initial missions, which involved hunting bandits, their recent assignments included escorting, transporting supplies, gathering intelligence within the Fire Nation, and tracking spies.

Bandit extermination missions were no longer necessary.

At the start of wars, villages typically focused on clearing out local bandits to prevent enemy spies from blending in among them.

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