The Gold Pirate

Chapter 12: The Departure

Naruto sat in Dadan's house as he thought about what had happened earlier. He could only remember bits and pieces, but he remembered being angry, angrier then he had ever felt before. He recalled seeing white light, black fire consuming everything, the sounds of screams, then waking up in High Town surrounded by dead bodies where he waited until his sister came and got him.

Acia had explained everything to Luffy, Dadan and the others; In contrast, Luffy had simply been happy Naruto was alive and had hugged him, all the mountain bandits had kept a safe distance from him, although they had expressed happiness at him being alive.

Naruto sat in the corner of the house, looking at his hands while his sister tried to soothe him, telling him that he did nothing wrong.

"You didn't mean to do it, Naruto." Acia assured him for what seemed like the hundredth time. "Besides, they all approved of the burning of the grey terminal; they would have killed you without a second thought just because you rent a noble. Remember what Sabo's dad did? How he was ready to have Bluejam kill us? We aren't even human to them."

"Acia..." Naruto muttered as he looked at his sister.

"Before Shanks brought me here, Everyone in my home village called me a demon. They told me I killed their loved ones and innocent newborns. At first I didn't believe their words but now I understand. They were telling me the truth, I am a monster..." he said.

Everyone was in shock at what he told them. Dadan as vicious as a mountain bandit could be wouldn't dare say such things to child. Acia thought those people were scum and began to sympathize with him. Luffy wanted to beat up the mean people Naruto talked about.

"You aren't!" Acia stated loudly. "I keep telling you you don't have to feel bad about it!"

"That's the thing," Naruto said calmly. "I know what I did was bad, but I feel perfectly calm." He had felt panicked at the time, but now he was perfectly calm as if it was just another ordinary day. It was as if the grief and anger had already passed.

"That's good."

"Is it?" Naruto wondered why it was that he was so calm about all this. It had to be his devil fruit; ever since eating it, he had changed; he never cried anymore when he was sad. Even when Sabo had left, he hadn't cried. Instead, whenever he felt grief, it was quickly replaced by anger. "What if I stop caring about you? About everyone? I shouldn't be this calm; I killed people, hundreds perhaps thousands, and I feel..." It was hard to describe how he felt. He knew what he did was terrible; he knew that he shouldn't have done it. But the grief that had consumed him when he woke up from his rampage had passed.

"Am I a Dragon or a human?" He asked himself and everyone in the room.

"You're my brother." Acia answered finally. "And that's all I care about."

Luffy nodded too and Naruto hoped that he would never make Acia regret saying that.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Garp watched his adopted granddaughter and adopted grandson spar in a field outside of Foosha village. He paid close attention to Naruto, who had sprouted a long black tail from his lower back, and utilized it in the fight by using it to strike at Acia while his normal human limbs played defense.

So much had happened in the last few months that Garp wasn't sure what to do, he was considering retiring from the marines entirely with how chaotic things were getting.

His grandson lost control and killed a world noble and damn near every noble in the Goa Kingdoms High Town. Garp hated the world nobles; it was the main reason he refused to become an admiral since admirals were at the beck and call of those useless piles of filth. While he wasn't sad that one had died or that Goa's nobles had died, he felt terrible about the innocents who got caught in the crossfire. There was also the fact that his grandson did it after losing control of his devil fruit.