Blizz wiped the sweat from his brow, fingers still tingling with leftover chakra. He'd been at it all morning—jutsu drills, chakra control, and sealing arts. The deck beneath his feet was scorched in places, slightly damp in others, the aftermath of his experiments scattered like breadcrumbs.
"I need to clean every thing before usopp finds out"
He stretched his arms overhead with a groan. "Alright… Exploding Water? Check. Mist? Check. Lightning Wolf—still bites. Electromagnetic Murder? Sharp as ever."
He rolled his shoulders. "Next is… Great Fireball Jutsu."
He closed his eyes and focused chakra into his soles again, stepping lightly off the deck and onto the ocean's surface. It rippled under his weight but held steady. He inhaled, then formed the seals.
Tiger. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
He exhaled—and the air before him ignited into a swirling orb of flame the size of a beach ball. It soared across the water in a flaming arc, crashing into the waves with a hiss and a burst of steam.
From the deck, Luffy leaned over the railing. "Wooooah! Blizz's fire is getting bigger!"
Nami, lying nearby with a sunhat over her eyes, muttered, "Fantastic. One more way he can destroy the ship."
Blizz laughed, winded but satisfied. "Getting better."
He walked back aboard, dripping slightly but glowing with pride,his arsenal was growing.
The sun crept toward the western horizon, turning the sea into a canvas of molten gold. Dinner was winding down aboard the Merry—Sanji had outdone himself again, and the scent of spices and roasted meat lingered in the air like a comforting blanket.
Luffy lay belly-up on the deck, arms flopped out, full and satisfied. "I can't move."
"Good," Nami said flatly, sipping her tea. "Stay like that for the rest of the trip."
"Why does your tea smell like money?" Usopp asked suspiciously, eyeing her cup.
"Because I drink profit, Usopp."
Meanwhile, Blizz sat by the railing, arms crossed, watching the sun dip below the waves. His jutsu list had been narrowed and reinforced. Chakra reserves were getting stronger. But he still felt… lacking.
The sealing arts still felt foreign. The ones he had were simple—storage, a few pre-prepared paper bombs—but he hadn't tapped into the real potential of sealing. The kind of stuff people like the Uzumaki clan had done. Massive barriers, chakra absorption, cursed tags. He hadn't even begun.
"I need more ink," he muttered to himself. "And time. A whole room. Maybe a quiet forest."
A large wave bumped the Merry gently, rocking the ship. Zoro's snores echoed from the crow's nest above, and Luffy was poking his own cheek out of boredom.
Blizz sat cross-legged at the bow, steam curling gently off his body as he finished a set of intense chakra control exercises. His hands were blistered, his eyes a bit bloodshot, but he felt sharper—like a blade that had finally seen the whetstone.
He opened his scroll again, fingers dancing across the surface. This time, he pulled out something new: a sealing tag etched with unfamiliar markings.
"This one's experimental…" he muttered, narrowing his eyes. "Sealing paralysis into a tag… I'll need a test dummy."
Right on cue, Usopp peeked around a barrel. "Hey, Blizz, whatcha working on?"
Blizz's smile was slow and evil. "Come closer and I'll show you."
Usopp immediately ran the other way, screaming.
But there was no time to laugh—because just ahead, something finally broke the endless stretch of ocean.
An island.
Massive. Ancient. Covered in towering jungle and strange rock formations that seemed almost sculpted by giants. This was no ordinary place. This was—
"Little Garden," Nami confirmed from the helm, her voice taut with tension.
"Looks like the log pose stabilized again," she added. "But that place… feels wrong."
Zoro stepped up beside her, squinting at the treeline. "I smell beasts."
"Big ones," Sanji said, flipping a cigarette into the sea.
"I hope they're too big," Luffy grinned, already grabbing his hat and preparing to jump. "I wanna fight a dinosaur!"
Usopp paled. "D-Dinosaur?!"
Blizz, standing now at the front, narrowed his eyes.
"This is where it really starts," he muttered. "Mr. 3. Candle Wax. Giants. Time traps. And the plan to kill Vivi… all in motion now."
He turned back to the crew. "We need to be careful."
The Going Merry drifted slowly toward shore, the jungle growing larger and darker with every wave. Flocks of strange birds scattered as the ship pulled into a secluded cove.
By the time the crew dropped anchor, the air was thick with tension—and the smell of something ancient.
Towering vegetation loomed in the distance—leaves as wide as sails, vines as thick as ropes, and trees that touched the clouds.
Nami squinted at the green wall beyond the mist. "I mean, everything is huge. I've never seen plants like these—not even in the fanciest parks."
Suddenly, a loud shrrrk-RAWWWWK echoed overhead.
Nami shrieked. "What was that?!"
Luffy tilted his head up. "Was that a lizard?"
A massive creature—part bird, part lizard—swooped low over the ship with leathery wings and glowing eyes. Usopp hit the deck faster than a cannonball.
"DOES THAT LOOK NORMAL TO YOU?!" Nami yelled.
"It's more like a volcano blew its top and grew teeth," Usopp mumbled from behind a barrel.
"I say we don't set foot on that island," Nami declared, crossing her arms. "We wait here. We let the Log Pose reset. Then we get the heck out of here. We've got to get to Alabasta fast."
But Luffy… was already halfway to the rail.
"I need a box lunch!" he shouted.
Sanji rolled his eyes, lighting a cigarette. "A box lunch?"
"A pirate box lunch!" Luffy corrected, raising his fist. "I smell adventure!"
Blizz leaned over the railing beside him, adjusting his scarf. "I smell something too. Smells like danger and giant mosquitoes the size of Usopp."
"HEY!" Usopp popped up. "That's not funny!"
"It kinda is," Zoro muttered.
Nami stomped toward Luffy. "WAIT a minute—where do you think you're going?!"
"Wanna come?" Luffy asked with his signature grin.
Nami exhaled sharply. It's hopeless. He's too wound up.
Luffy cupped his hands to shout again. "SANJI, MY LUNCH!"
"Okay, okay! Keep your hat on," Sanji called, grabbing a lunchbox and hurling it across the deck like a grenade.
"Hey—can I come too?" Vivi asked, stepping forward.
"Yeah, yeah—sure!" Luffy said.
"Not you too!" Nami groaned.
"Why not?" Vivi said with a playful grin. "Let's face it. Around here, this will keep me busy while the Log Pose resets."
"YEAH! Let's go!" Luffy shouted.
He and Vivi leapt from the ship and disappeared into the underbrush like excited kids chasing butterflies.
Zoro stood, stretching. "Got time to kill. I think I'll take a walk."
Sanji snapped to attention. "Zolo, wait! We're out of food! If you come across anything that looks edible, bring it back!"
Zoro waved lazily. "Will do. I'll bring something you could never kill."
Sanji's eyes narrowed. "Hold it right there. You think you can bag a bigger beast than I can?"
"Definitely," Zoro said without turning around.
"I challenge you to a hunt," Sanji growled, stepping up to Zoro with a sharp glint in his eye.
Zoro's smirk widened. "You're on, curly-brow."
Usopp raised a hand. "Uh—what if you don't come back?"
"Then you're captain," Zoro said flatly.
"Deal," Usopp said instantly. "I accept full responsibility for the ship. And the food. And Nami's finances."
Nami bonked him on the head with a log book. "Try that and I'll bury you under the emergency potatoes."
Without another word, the two stormed off in opposite directions, tension crackling between them like flint and steel.
Suddenly, a voice called out from the deck behind them.
"Hey! I'll join the hunt too!" Blizz shouted, hopping down from the railing. He landed smoothly, a playful grin tugging at his lips. "Might as well enjoy myself for now… Mr. 3 can wait."
Zoro and Sanji paused mid-step. They turned their heads at the same time.
"Sure," they said in unison.
They locked eyes, glaring.
"Stop copying me," Sanji snapped.
"I said it first," Zoro muttered.
They huffed and turned back around, marching into the jungle with renewed determination—now not just to out-hunt each other, but to make sure Blizz didn't win either.
Blizz chuckled, already flickering ahead like a shadow in the trees. "This'll be fun."
Blizz moved through the undergrowth like a phantom.
Zoro and Sanji had bolted ahead, already turning their so-called hunt into a competition. He let them go. The truth was, he didn't care about the hunt. He wasn't here for dinosaur steaks or bragging rights.
He was here to train. To get ready.
He stepped into a clearing bordered by trees the width of cannons and tossed his cloak onto a branch. Then, he cracked his neck and began.
A blur of hand signs.
Ram. Tiger. Ox. Boar.
"Body Flicker Jutsu."
He vanished. Reappeared twenty meters away in a blink. Again. Again. Faster.
Leaves swirled in the wake of his afterimages. Each time he moved, the sound of his displacement was softer. He was refining it—not just vanishing fast, but vanishing quiet. He wanted to be a ghost. A whisper.
After an hour of movement drills, he stopped beneath the shadow of a tree and focused on chakra control. He walked up the tree vertically, upside down, testing his balance on a thick branch before leaping down and landing on one foot—chakra perfectly distributed.
He reached into his pouch, pulled out an apple-sized fruit, and took a bite, watching the treeline with half-lidded eyes.
"Let Sanji and Zoro fight each other over who can drag home the biggest T-Rex," he muttered with a grin. "I'll save my energy for the real fight."
Still, his senses were up. He didn't trust how quiet things had gotten.
Blizz crouched at the edge of a moss-covered ledge deep in the jungle, sweat clinging to his brow. The heat was relentless, the air thick with humidity and buzzing insects, but he paid it no mind. He had time before chaos erupted, and he wasn't going to waste it.
This wasn't a hunt for him—not like Zoro and Sanji. This was training.
Real training.
He sat cross-legged, placed a single leaf in the palm of his hand, and began.
"Wind chakra…" he muttered under his breath. "Shape and nature. Don't force it."
He remembered the scroll's instruction: wind chakra splits. It divides, tears, slices. But controlling it was like threading a blade between two grains of rice—it had to be sharp, but precise.
He pushed chakra into the leaf.
Nothing.
He tried again. This time, the leaf trembled… then curled at the edge, blackening from the heat of unfocused energy.
Too much force, he noted. Not enough shape.
Dozens of leaves later, the best he got was a small nick in one, barely visible. But it was something.
"At this rate, I'll be lucky to make a paper cut," he said, chuckling dryly.
He cursed under his breath. "Naruto had the Nine-Tails, and the shadow clone jutsu and it still took him weeks. I've got chakra reserves, but no shortcuts."
But that was fine. He wasn't here to master it in a day. No ninja worth their forehead protector did that.
Then came the hard one: lightning chakra.
He knew this one would fight back.
He stood and held his hands out in front of him. Palms open. Eyes shut. He visualized the feeling of static against skin, the prickle of a storm rolling in—lightning wasn't just energy. It was sudden, wild, fast.
He focused chakra into his fingers.
For a brief second, a weak crackle formed—a few tiny blue sparks danced, then fizzled out.
"That's it… sort of."
Again, and again. Minutes turned into an hour. The sparks would form… then vanish. His fingertips grew numb from the strain.
He cursed under his breath. "Naruto had the Nine-Tails, and it still took him weeks. I've got chakra reserves, but no shortcuts."
He sighed, pacing near a tree, then marked a nearby stump with his kunai—a rough target.
"If I can even jolt it once, I'll call that progress."
He charged his chakra again, forced the nature into lightning, and slapped his palm against the stump.
Nothing.
No flash. No pop. Just a dull thud and a sore hand.
"…Still counts as trying."
He dropped onto a rock and leaned back. Despite the minimal progress, there was a spark of satisfaction inside him. Not the electric kind—yet—but the kind that came from building something real, piece by piece.
Then he heard the distant sound of something crashing through the forest.
Blizz sat on a thick branch, the jungle sprawled beneath him like a restless sea. A single leaf twirled in his hand—sliced cleanly down the middle.
He smirked.
The leaf fell from his fingers, caught by the wind.
"I think training's over," he muttered, standing and stretching. "It's time to go."
His body blurred into movement. With a flicker of chakra and a burst of speed, he disappeared from the treetop canopy in a gust of leaves and motion.
Dust hung in the air. The jungle clearing was deathly still—until a sudden thud shook the ground.
A limp body rolled to a stop in front of Luffy, pinned under a massive rock. His eyes widened in horror.
"Karoo!!" Luffy shouted, veins bulging on his forehead.
Mr. Five and Miss Valentine stood smugly across from him, grinning like predators. Mr. Five gestured casually toward the crumpled duck.
"You can have him back," he said coldly. "We've finished with him."
Miss Valentine let out a cruel, lilting laugh.
"Karoo!" Vivi screamed, rushing forward.
"Why would you do that?!" she shouted, eyes wide and trembling with fury. "He had nothing to do with this!"
"Who are these freaks?" he added, stepping back warily.
"They were at Whisky Peak," Luffy growled, teeth clenched.
"That's right," Mr. Five said with a shrug. "That bird? Totally innocent. Doesn't matter to us."
Usopp's eyes widened. "Then it was you! You rigged the ale barrels to explode!"
"Huh?" Mr. Five arched a brow. "Yeah, that was us. So what?"
"You ruined the giants' battle," Luffy hissed, trying to shove the massive rock pinning him. "That was you. You ruined it!"
"I'll rip you both to pieces!"
Vivi drew her peacock slashers, fury blazing in her eyes. "You're the ones who are going to get rubbed out!"
"Oh?" Mr. Five sneered. "So you do wanna fight, Miss Wednesday?"
Miss Valentine twirled her umbrella and giggled. "You really think you can beat officer agents of Baroque Works? That's cute."
Without another word, Vivi and Usopp lunged, coordinated in their fury.
Vivi's blades sang through the air; Usopp let loose a barrage of projectiles from his slingshot.
But the agents were fast.
Mr. Five casually flicked a booger-bomb at the incoming projectile, causing it to explode midair and knock Usopp off his feet. Miss Valentine danced through the sky, her umbrella catching the wind as she ascended and prepared for a crushing dive.
"Ten-ton press," she whispered, preparing to crash onto usopp.
Usopp was exposed.
Then—
A crack of thunder split the air.
A blur of motion slammed into Miss Valentine mid-dive, sending her flying sideways through the trees with a flash of blue light.
She hit the ground hard, skidding across the dirt, her parasol sparking.
Blizz stood in the clearing, eyes sharp and stormy. Arcs of lightning danced between his fingers, crackling and alive.
He didn't say anything.
He didn't need to.
Mr. Five snarled. "So it's you the lightning guy."
"You hurt Karoo," Blizz said flatly, stepping forward. Each step pulsed with suppressed energy.
Mr. Five snorted. "So what? You're next"
Lightning hissed between Blizz's fingers as he snapped his hands into a seal.
"Lightning Release: Thunder Wolf."
A blazing wolf of pure electricity howled into existence beside him, blue fire in its eyes, its body flickering with barely contained energy.
Miss Valentine scrambled backward, eyes wide with terror. "N-not again!"
Mr. Five stood his ground—but his smirk faltered.
Blizz's gaze didn't shift.
"Let me show you what happens when you mess with my crew."
The wolf exploded forward. Mr. Five braced, but he never stood a chance.
The impact was instant—electric fire surged across his body, hurling him through two trees and into a jagged boulder. The forest lit up with white-blue light as the wolf exploded on contact.
Miss Valentine tried to float again, but Blizz flickered beside her in an instant—no hand seals, just pure speed.
He struck her parasol with a lightning-infused palm, and the surge blasted her from the sky. She tumbled across the jungle floor, groaning before collapsing in a twitching heap.
Silence.
Then, slowly, Luffy began to laugh—still pinned, but grinning wide.
"Heh… Blizz… that was awesome."
Vivi rushed to Karoo's side, tears streaming. "You're safe… You're safe now…"
Blizz turned, the electricity fading from his limbs as he knelt beside them.
"Sorry I was late."
Usopp blinked. "You call that late?! That was like a storm god showing up!"
Karoo whimpered as Vivi stroked his feathers gently. Usopp was still gawking at the crater Blizz had left in the earth.
Blizz walked over to where Luffy was still pinned under the massive boulder, arms wriggling comically but uselessly beneath the weight.
"Hey… Luffy," Blizz called out, crouching beside the rock.
"Yo!" Luffy grinned sheepishly from under it. "A little help maybe?"
"You're really stuck under there, huh?"
"Yeah! I was gonna punch my way out but…" Luffy's voice strained as he tried again, the rock budging a few inches before settling. "Okay. Not working."
Blizz exhaled.
"Alright. Hold still."
He clapped his hands together, then pressed one palm to the dirt.
"Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole."
A subtle rumble passed through the ground, and the soil began to soften beneath Luffy. In an instant, the Straw Hat captain's body was swallowed by the earth—then reappeared behind the rock as if he had been sucked through a tunnel.
Luffy flopped onto the grass, blinked a few times, then sat up with a huge grin.
"WHOA!! That was awesome!"
Vivi, and Usopp stared wide-eyed.
"What… what just happened?" Vivi said slowly.
"He pulled Luffy through the ground…" usopp murmured.
Luffy leapt to his feet, brushing dirt off his vest.
"That was so cool!"
Usopp ran over to inspect the ground. "There's not even a hole left! What kind of trick is that?!"
"Earth-style jutsu," Blizz replied casually. "Great for moving underground. Or rescuing reckless captains."
"Hey!" Luffy pointed. "That's me!"