A man slept in a small dinghy, enjoying the gentle rocking of the sea moving his rowboat along at a measly pace. He was around six foot three with wild, unruly blonde hair. He had the lithe, strong build of an experienced sailor, and had the tan to prove it. His hair was held back by a cloth headband with a weird, swirl insignia on it. In his boat was a bag, a large sword that was as tall as the man, and had bindings all over it, and a chest that could barely hold a small melon.

His blue eyes snapped open and he sat up when he heard gunfire. He observed a marine ship engaging some pirates, and decided they weren't worth his time and went to lie down. But before he could a marine saw him in his peripheral vision, and made the poor decision to fire at him. Suddenly, all of the fighting stopped as the men started to shake in fear from a humongous killing intent.

Every sailor onboard turned to face the source, and the older sailors were shocked by what they saw. The green horns turned to attack, when their captains ordered them to stop. "Captain…who is that man?" The Marine captain was pale and shaking, and managed to whisper a response that both crews could hear. "Gold Roger's own prodigy…b-but h-how? He was supposed to be at the bottom of the sea…"

His originally blue eyes were now red, and as he smiled at the unlucky sailors, his form began to grow. When he stopped growing, he was three times the ships size, and his silhouette was hidden behind fiery-red energy. The sea echoed with screams of the poor sailors for miles around as each and every man there, met there end.

A marine ship slowly drifted through the wreckages of the two vessels. They had been reports of unearthly screams in this area, and they now new of the reason why. They safely floated through two ships worth of lumber. There was not enough wood left in one piece to make a small raft, and the only piece, still in one piece, was the mast of the marine vessel, which appeared to be clawed out by a giant animal. Some red fur proved some more level-headed and rational marines were right when they said it was no Sea King. As the Marine in charge looked on upon the flotsam he smiled. He had long awaited the return of this man, and now was his time to leave this idiotic, army of bureaucracy and do what he loved the most. Spread the name of his god.

"Commodore Hidan! There are no survivors, or a trace of the perpetrator. What are our orders?" Hidan smirked and looked out to the horizon. "Full speed to Marineford. We have orders to prepare for the upcoming war." As his crew hurried along his tasks, he picked out some of the more powerful crew mates who might just wish to leave the Marines. 'Wherever you are captain…your nakama are waiting.' With that thought Hidan turned and walked back to his quarters. Whatever tomorrow brings, his taichou will make sure, he and the rest of his nakama, end up on top.

Naruto was sleeping soundly in the form of a fox. When Kyuubi was fully absorbed he was able to shift into a small regular fox at will. And now he was taking advantage of that form to get more comfortable in his boat. With his honed senses, used extensively during his times as a ninja, he was able to sense the incoming projectile, which was heading straight for his boat. As he leapt up he found that the projectiles were actually two stretched out arms. Before he could react the arms pulled his boat aboard a marine vessel. He was then hoisted by his ankles above an open mouth, and was almost bitten in half. He barely had enough time to bite the hand holding him and jump away, before the jaws closed. He was surprised to see the inhabitants of the boat were actually pirates, and prison escapees as seen by their prison uniforms, for he never heard of anyone escaping Impel Down. Except for his old rival Shiki, but that man was just plain insane.

He looked over all the escapees and was startled to see a familiar face, and old fish man friend Jimbei. As he continued to scan the crew for any familiar faces, he was interrupted by a Den-Den Mushi. It said something along the lines of pushing an execution time further ahead. All of a sudden the deck was in a chaotic swarm of motion; everyone was trying to get the boat to go faster. Naruto watched from the sidelines, and was the first to notice a tsunami coming straight for their vessel. He calmly walked to the main mast, and gripped it with his claws and closed his eyes. He heard their yells and shouts of surprise at seeing the oncoming wave of death, and snickered at some of their remarks. He thought he heard a voice that resembled one of his nakama but couldn't be to sure.

He watched as Jimbei expertly maneuvered the craft to rest at the top of the wave, and blinked in surprise when it froze. He gripped the pole tighter as he watched them break the ice. He went into a spread eagle position to slow his descent, and used his tail as a rudder to maneuver himself. He started to gain speed and sent himself rocketing to the Moby Dick, Whitebeard's main ship, and landed safely on all fours. Just when he was about to transform to his actual form, he saw a stream of sand flying towards Whitebeard. Recognizing the use of the Suna-Suna no mi, he stopped the attack with a Haki punch, it was then pushed aside by a Gomu-Gomu no mi user, surprisingly by the one that picked him up. Before the Rubber man could cause more damage to the Sand man, he intercepted, and redirected, the attack. He watched as his subordinate's face morphed into shock, and he sniggered, as he transformed in front of the entire forces. He smirked when he heard what his first-mate said, "Captain, is…that really you?"

Naruto felt truly happy for the first time in a long while. He was home with his nakama, and the whole world would be theirs for the taking.