[56] Marine Matters

Chapter 56: Marine Matters

—

“Marianne. Get ready, we are going to Marineford.”

Marianne Uzumaki. It was the name given to her by her father. Though her father said the name was pre-chosen before her birth by her grandparents whom she never got to meet.

Walking behind Tsunade, into the marine warship, Marinna couldn’t help but look back. How did she come here?

Marianne, now almost 16 years old, was a Marine Rear Admiral.

It was pure luck that she met Tsunade Senju that day, two and half a year ago, on a traveling ship. That single encounter changed her life.

Looking back, how crazy was it? Perhaps, this is what people meant when they said the word ‘fate’.

Tsunade’s parents and her own parents were siblings, so Tsunade was her cousin. More than two decades ago, the Senju Pirates were attacked by an Admiral and disbanded. While Tsunade’s full family managed to escape, Marianne’s father too managed to escape without notifying anyone.

After that, the man led a normal life. He met a normal woman, fell in love, and had Marianne. He also taught her the [Fuinjutsu: Colors Trap] that he had made himself. Unfortunately, death claimed him and his wife when Marianne was 12 years old. It was a disease that infected the island she lived on, and killed nearly everyone there.

She, her mother, and father, all of them were infected.

While her parents died, Marianne’s metabolism seemed to be strong enough to resist it. She remembered her father said something along the lines of that- while she didn’t receive much chakra from her Uzumaki side, she did receive the Senju body of her grandfather. So her immune system was stronger.

Marianne didn’t want to leave the island, scared that she might spread the disease to everyone outside the island. Sadly, her parents made her promise them that she would leave and find a cure for herself. As it was their last promise before death, Marianne couldn’t refuse.

Marianne set sail into the sea.

Sadly, she got captured by a pirate crew just a day after.

She worked as an errand girl on their ship and didn’t even receive proper human treatment due to her sickness. The people feared that they might catch it too if they touched her.

Then, in the second month since she was captured, her pirate ship attacked a traveling ship. That was the end of that pirate crew’s career, and the start of Marianne's better living hood.

Tsunade Senju didn’t only rescue her, she didn’t just cure her disease either, she remade her entire self into a greater version.

Her existence felt better and greater, as if she was reborn. Now she was taller, hotter, and an overall killer.

Now she could do anything she wanted, get married to a great man like her father had wished for her. Sadly, after spending nearly three years with Tsunade, Marianne may have built some forbidden feelings for that woman, so she couldn’t live by her father’s wish.

She was ready to look over that wish and end up with Tsunade. Yet,

That woman was only fawning over her brother.

Seeing Tsunade sad and depressed, drinking alcohol like crazy, and smoking cigarettes like a mad woman, for the last few days, Marianne felt upset.

‘Hashirama Senju…’

Truthfully, she didn’t hate that man. Ever since she and Tsunade met, she had been hearing about him on every occasion from Tsunade. The stories sounded… fun, and full of life. She could also see Tsunade smiling her biggest smile of the day when she got to talk to Hashirama at night, no matter if the day was a sad or happy one.

So it would be wrong to say she hated Hashirama, even though he seemed to have said some bad things to Tsunade this time.

In truth. Marianne was envious. Envious of a man who could make a woman like Tsunade cry her eyes out.

A large part of Marianne wanted to see him in person, that Hashirama Senju.

“We are here.”

So, as per Tsunade’s order, she had followed her here where the warship started to dock.

“Marine HQ, Marineford.”

*  *  *

Two and half a year ago, Tsunade and Marianne came to Marineford and attended some tests to evaluate their powers. After that, after being assigned under Vice-Admiral Tsuru and slowly climbing the ranks, the duo rarely came here.

“Stay here, I will go in.”

Tsunade told the little girl beside her, who nodded. They were in a waiting room just outside the Fleet Admiral’s office, and Marianne took a seat as Tsunade went a bit further inside where the door was.

– Knock Knock Knock

“Tsunade Senju reporting.”

Tsunade said, and a deep voice replied from inside.

“Ah. Tsunade, come in. Good timing.”

Tsunade wondered what he meant by that and pushed the door open. Walking inside and maintaining a plain face, she hid her surprise, as she realized what he meant by ‘good timing’.

Vice-Admiral Garp was there. That was a good thing, however, another Vice-Admiral was there as well.

Vice-Admiral Vergo. He was present inside the office.

….

Earlier, Garp was chilling inside his best friend, Sengoku’s office as per usual.  Eating his rice crackers, he was crackling up every now and then when Sengoku got frustrated from work.

‘Hah! You should have listened to me when I told you not to accept the promotion. Now get rekt.’ –was Garp’s classic line inside this office, and today he had already used it once.

Hashirama Senju. The first person with a bounty of 100 million from the get-go. Sengoku was frustrated by that news because he knew what another Senju Pirates meant for the world and the Marines, and he was also frustrated because this young man was the younger brother of a fine Marine officer.

The two old men were discussing the matter, right when a certain Vergo came to the office.

That man had a request.

“Vice-Admiral Vergo wants to go after Hashirama Senju. I have not yet accepted his request, and was waiting for you, Tsunade.”

Sengoku said, all his aloof personality were nowhere to be seen in front of his subordinates.

Standing in front of the Fleet Admiral’s desk, Vergo turned to look at Tsunade with an indifferent face.

….

‘Look at that bastard.’

Tsunade maintained a calm expression and glared at the spy bastard. She knew his identity, she recalled his face from that attack that day, when her parents were killed. If only she had proof, she could have put him in prison by now.

…No, in truth, getting proof wasn’t that hard. Why she didn’t do that was that she wanted to kill him with her own hands. Just prison wasn’t enough.

Tsunade looked away, unwilling to sour her mood any further.

There was Vice-Admiral Garp in the room as well, sitting on a chair in front of the desk, eating rice crackers. He smiled a little seeing Tsunade, and Tsunade had the courtesy to return the smile.

‘This is good. With his support, I should be able to overrule Vergo’s request.’ Tsunade noted.

The ‘Big Three’ of Marines from the last generation were Garp, Sengoku, and Tsuru. Tsunade had past connections with Sengoku, and she had worked under Tsuru for a year and a half. As for Garp, he was a little more special.

Tsunade supposed calling him her ‘Master’ wouldn’t be wrong. The first time she and Garp met and he noticed her fighting style, he gave her a few tips. It was probably because he noticed how similar her style was to his, and so he wanted to help a soldier of one of his close friends, Tsuru.

Since then, every time they met, Garp shared some of his techniques. In fact, when she was first promoted to Vice-Admiral, it was Garp who took the ‘test’ to see if she deserved the title. They fought for quite a while, as Garp gave him quite a lot of pointers.

After that, she had gone through a two month training session under him. Those were one of the hardest days of her life… but those were days well spent. She was proud of how strong she was now, and naturally, she had earned Garp’s favor.

That was why she was the 3rd in command of ‘SWORD’ – the secret marine division under Garp. That’s why she wanted to bring Hashirama into the marines, because this place wasn’t as bad as he thought it was.

Garp greeted Tsunade, “Ay, girl. I knew you’d be here for your brother.”

Tsunade nodded. She was about to speak, but then Sengoku spoke first. With his chin pointing at Vergo, he began speaking.

“I was planning to call you soon about that since Vergo was planning to go after Hashirama Senju. I didn’t accept his offer, knowing you might want to hunt him down yourself.”

Tsunade nodded. “Yes, sir. Please give me a few days. As you know, he had done nothing bad as of yet. He and Vivi are friends, I would know, and so I think the ‘kidnapping’ is just them playing.”

Sengoku hummed. “I suppose. I wouldn’t usually allow an officer to go after their family member, as they might intentionally let them go, but Garp here convinced me earlier.”

Garp shrugged his hands. “Tsuru doesn’t easily praise people, yet she did back then when your little brother defeated Crocodile. For a young man to risk his life for the sake of his country, I do think he can be redeemed—if this isn’t all a misunderstanding to begin with. And I do think you would want him to redeem himself, so you won’t go easy on him. Ayoh, this reminds me of my grandson, ugh.”

While Garp rubbed his temple, Sengoku shook his head and spoke.

“I suggest you capture him fast before he does something really bad. He has the power to do so, for sure. If you can capture him before that, I am sure I can work something around. Remember this is a special case, thanks to his own achievements and yours too, I made this exception.”

Tsunade nodded. “Thank you. Does that mean I can leave in search of him?”

“You can. Be quick about it.”

“But sir,”

Sengoku had just given Tsunade the permission, just as Vice-Admiral Vergo spoke.

“I requested the mission first. Isn’t this basically giving my achievements to her?”

Sengoku didn’t need to speak; it was Garp who groaned out.

“Fuck you and your achievement, brat. This is a matter of family, where for once ‘duty’ can help. She can handle this.”

Vergo stayed motionless at being cursed. He didn’t really have the courage to talk back to the Hero of the Marines.

Sengoku sighed. “I apologize, Vergo. But I hope you can understand. If Tsunade goes, there might not even be a need for battle. While if you go, there may be a bloodbath. I know you are strong, but so is Hashirama. You might get hurt, even if I am confident you’d win. So I see no reason to take that risk.”

“…I understand.” Vergo nodded.

With that, Vergo left, and Tsunade gave the two Marines Heroes a grateful smile.

“Thank you. I have no lead currently, but I will make sure to finish this soon.”

Sengoku nodded and Garp waved his hand, as Tsunade quickly took her to leave with a broad smile on her face. If they didn’t allow her this mission, she would have gone on her own, but this was better.

“Marianne, let’s move.”

Marianne got up from her chair and nodded, quickly following Tsunade who walked with her overcoat fluttering behind her.

*  *  *

Vice-Admiral Vergo was disappointed by the events. Things didn’t go as per Doffy’s plans. So he quickly reported back to Doffy.

Standing under a tree, away from the other people, he dialed a pocket snail and explained the situation.

“That’s all that happened.”

– “Hm, I see.”

There was silence from the other side for a while, before Doffy chuckled and told a new plan.

– “Listen, Vergo. I will order one of our ally pirates to wreak a little havoc in Paradise, and that’d allow you to request a mission to go after them. I will order the pirate crew to roam around Jaya, and that’d give you an excuse to go to Jaya and then proceed according to the prior plan. Fuffuffuffu…”

Vergo’s expression was as indifferent as usual, a spoon stuck beside his lip, as he registered the plan in his head and hid a smile.

It’d be awkward if Tsunade found him killing Hashirama, but a part of him hoped for that to happen. Just so he could rub it on her face.

“All right. I will move as planned.”

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