"Who are the undercover CP9 agents?"
"I'll never tell you," Schollzo yelled while Minato walked behind the man. "Just kill me already."
'Can't. Answers die with the dead.'
Minato released the kunai, leaving it to float in the air. He circled in front of the man, infusing his right hand with armament haki.
"Tekkai!" Schollza hardened his body with one of the six powers techniques, Iron Body.
Keeping his fingers pressed together, he thrusted and shattered Schollzo's collarbone. The man roared in agony.
Minato pressed a firm hand against the man's broken bone. "When was the last time you've been to Blueno's Bar?"
Schollzo gasped. "I've never been there. You know where the Franky Family goes to drink."
'He's denying ever being there? This confirms Blueno is a member of CP9. Is that the reason my suspects haven't been there in over seven months? CP9 is operating under a no contact rule.'
"Nico Robin is here in Water 7," said Minato, lifting a finger to command his marked kunai to return.
Schollzo hung his head, long purple hair covering his face. His shoulders began to vibrate as a sick and twisted laughter brewed. "Then we've already won. Whatever information I can offer you doesn't matter because phase two has begun."
"Phase two?" Minato repeated.
He snapped his head upward, revealing an exaggerated grin at Minato. "Executing both disciples of Tom and Nico Robin by sending them off to Enies Lobby for a proper death. A broadcasted revelation as judgement for those who dare rise up against the world government."
'The world government isn't going to kill them.'
"I could give you their names but it's not going to change a thing," said Schollzo, arrogantly.
Minato took off his mask. "You're right, because their identities never mattered."
"What?! It's you? Iceberg's butt sniffer that got defeated by the Square Sisters." Schollzo's eyes widened as he tried to put the pieces together. Desperate to figure out Minato's plan before dying by the man's hand. "You're lying."
"Kalifa, Lucci, Kaku, and Blueno," revealed Minato.
"What? How…How did you know?" Schollzo asked in disbelief.
'Well, I wasn't one hundred percent certain but now I am.'
"Neither of Tom's disciples nor Nico Robin will die."
"Why is that? It doesn't matter how strong you are, you can't raid Enies Lobby alone," Schollzo replied, gaining some confidence. "You can't save them!"
"Who said I am going to do it alone? Do you know who Nico Robin came here with?"
He shook his head.
"The kind of person who would do anything for a friend…" Minato purposefully trailed off.
Once again his eyes went wide. "What idiot would storm one of the world government's major strongholds and wage war against them?!"
Minato shrugged. "Not sure."
Before Schollzo could ask his next question about Minato's true plan or whom he operated under, Minato stabbed him in the chest, watching the life drain from his eyes.
After disposing of the body, Minato returned to Iceberg's Mansion. Immediately sensing something wrong, he exited out of a different closet and ran. Ascending a set of stairs and then turning a corner to halt in front of Paulie's tattered body. His back was punctured with finger sized holes. Minato summonded a medkit from his Essential Tool House and began applying anesthesia and wrapping clean bandages.
Paulie woke up, batting his eyelids as hopeless tears streamed down his face. "Damn. Traitors. All of em."
He spoke in between deep breaths.
"Who? What is going on?!" Minato asked, acting to be ignorant as he already knew the answers. But it never came as he fell unconscious.
Minato snapped his attention toward the mayor's office. All of CP9 and Robin, who held Iceberg at gunpoint. His body was restricted by many hands sprouting from his own body.
'She is going to shoot him!' Silently, Minato sprinted and jumped straight for the wall in front of him. Using his Space-Space Fruit, Minato became intangible, phasing through the room and became tangible again, landing in an office two away from Iceberg's.
Robin pressed the trigger, shooting Iceberg in the abdomen. He screamed, blood escaping from his lips.
Minato continued his momentum and executed the same maneuver to phase through the wall, entering Kalifa's office.
"I'll ask one more time, where are the real blueprints of the ancient weapon, Pluton?" Rob Lucci asked.
Iceberg wheezed and coughed. "I don't know anything about ancient weapons."
"If you don't, maybe someone else will. Didn't Tom have another disciple? "What was his name?" Rob Lucci pondered out loud. "Frank–No. Cutty Flam. Does he have the blueprints?"
Iceberg lifted a hand at the man. "Franky has nothing to do with this."
"So, they are the same person. You were right, Kalifa," said Kaku.
She readjusted her glasses. "Naturally."
Kaku raised his hands in confusion. "Then how did he survive? Wasn't he hit by a Sea Train?"
"Doesn't matter." Rob Lucci answered.
"Doesn't matter!" Hattori repeated on his shoulder, lifting a wing.
"Please," Iceberg whispered. "Leave him out of this."
Minato shut his eyes and pressed both palms together, concentrating.
"Give us the blueprints," Rob Lucci demanded. Iceberg remained silent. "Mr. Iceberg, you may have been a brilliant master shipbuilder and the mayor of a great city…But no ordinary citizen can defy the will of the world government."
Blueno walked to the side of the office, placed a hand against the concrete and opened a Door, using his Devil Fruit. Kaku and Kalifa entered, vanishing to a different dimension.
Lucci went to follow. "Finish him."
CP9 disappeared while the Door remained.
She stepped across from Iceberg, pointing the barrel directly at his heart.
'SPACE-SPACE…'
Robin pulled the trigger. As soon as the round projectile penetrated an inch into his skin.
'ANNIHILATION!'
Minato's Devil Fruit ability swallowed and annihilated the bullet. Due to its small size and seeing twenty seconds into the future, he used this technique which only worked on non-living objects.
The blunt force from the pressure knocked Iceberg unconscious and the blood dirted his shirt convinced Robin of his death.
Coldly, Robin turned away and exited through Blueno's Door.
Minato jumped into the office, ran to the desk and pulled open the first drawer. Tyrannosaur's hiding spot.
He pressed a finger to his lips. "Don't tell anyone."
The mouse squeaked and jumped onto his hand.
Minato's gaze turned toward Rocky Cape. 'Luffy and Zoro are no match for Lucci and Kaku. Robin is saying her final goodbye to the crew, Kalifa is preparing to arrest Franky, and Blueno is searching for Schollzo.'
Minato placed his free hand on Iceberg and teleported to a marked hospital bed. Instantaneously, the dying mayor landed on the bed.
"Mayor Iceberg has been shot! Come quickly!" He shrieked, altering the sound of his voice and before any nurse or doctor could see who brought the man, Minato vanished leaving a yellow orb of light.
—6 Hours Later…
"Naruto, come inside," called a nurse, finally allowing Minato to enter.
Minato bursted into Iceberg's hospital room. Collapsing on a bedside chair, then latched onto Iceberg's leg.
"Doctor, will he be okay?" Minato cried.
The doctor wiped the sweat off his forehead. "He will survive and make a full recovery."
As the doctor's hand reached for the door, Minato jumped to his feet. "Doctor!"
"What is it?" The doctor and nurse flinched. "I understand your worries but please keep it down. Mr. Iceberg needs to rest."
"Then I have a terrible request, but it is necessary for Mr. Iceberg's life."
The doctor straightened. "Okay?"
"For Mr. Iceberg's safety, we should announce that he succumbed to his injuries and passed," said Minato.
"What!" The doctor and nurse said in an uproar.
Wiping fake tears from his eyes, Minato pulled himself together and focused his attention on Iceberg's vulnerable condition. "Think about it, someone wanted our mayor assassinated. What if they find out they have failed? What's stopping them from coming here to finish the job?"
"But, lying about his death…the people."
"I know. But once it's all over, we can explain the situation with a living and healthy mayor." Minato reached out and held his hand. "The citizens will come to understand. I hate to make this decision without Paulie's presence but if he were here, he would do the same thing."
'No chance. Paulie would plaster it all over the news of Iceberg's heroic survival and dare those sons of bitches to try again,' he thought.
Minato sensed the two looking at each other and silently agreed in favor of his proposition.
The nurse collapsed onto a second chair. "But, I'm staying here. I am a terrible liar."
'It's not that hard,' Minato inwardly mocked, playfully.
The doctor left to deliver the news.
"I will share the truth with Paulie." Minato said, rising from Iceberg's side. He stopped by the door. "As soon as Mr. Iceberg wakes up, let me know."
—The Next Morning…
The nurse bursted out of the room. "Mayor Iceberg is awake!"
Minato, Paulie, Tilestone, and Peepley Lulu rocketed off their seats, sprinting as if competing to greet their mayor first. Once inside, they crowded the bedside as Iceberg gained full consciousness.
Minato placed Tyrannosaurus on Mr. Iceberg's shoulder.
"How are you, Boss?" Paulie winced from moving due to his injuries. He threw his standard jean jacket over the layers of bandages.
Iceberg rubbed his chest wound. "I was attacked. They…she, tried to kill me? How am I alive?"
"A miracle, sir," Tilestone commented, flexing his muscles.
"Tell us everything you remember, Mr. Iceberg," said Minato, handing him a glass of water.
Iceberg recalled the incident. Rob Lucci, Kalifa, and Kaku's betrayal, Nico Robin's involvement and her assassination attempt, and Franky as their next target. Except he left out Pluton's blueprints, substituting for knowledge of a weapon Tom may have built.
"Ms. Kalifa? Traitor?" Minato questioned in disbelief. Paulie placed a comforting hand on Minato's shoulder. After a second it became less reassuring as he began squeezing his shoulder from anger. Quickly, he slipped out of his grip. "World government agents? I worked underneath her for a whole year. We shared business ideas and jokes about one day quitting together. I had no idea."
Iceberg's mouth opened and then closed about Minato's joke about quitting.
"Nobody did, kid," Paulie said, clenching his fists. The look in his eyes reddened. "And don't go blaming yourself for this either, we were all played. They were our friends, but they lied to us. We are nothing to them."
Tilestone used Paulie's excess bandages as a tissue to blow his nose. "We are going to kill those betraying bastards."
"But how? They left the island?" Lulu asked?
Paulie smacked Tilestone away, then put on a serious expression. "But first, Boss, we have something to tell you."
Iceberg–with Minato's assistance–sat upright, Tyrannosaurus climbed down onto his lap and with one finger, he petted the animal. "What is it?"
"The citizens of Water 7 believe that you were actually killed in the attack. It–"
"What!" Iceberg shouted, aggravating his wounds and frightening the animal. The mayor's foremen and Minato hung their heads in shame.
Paulie shared a glance with Minato. "It was my decision, Boss. I believed your life was in danger and still do. If they were willing to attempt an assassination in your own office, then I think they would have rushed this hospital to finish the job if they found out you were alive."
His employees nodded in agreement.
"Forgive us, Mr. Iceberg," added Minato.
'Thankfully, my plan worked. CP9 has already left the island along with Robin, Franky, and unfortunately Usopp. Sanji snuck on board but he shouldn't be enough to stop them.'
"I understand and I deeply appreciate it." Mr. Iceberg sighed. He looked to the nurse. "Go tell everyone, Iceberg lives."
"We gotta kill those, Straw Hat Pirates," said Tilestone, banging his fists together. Paulie and Lulu were quick to agree but Minato side-eyed Iceberg, gauging his response.
"No," Iceberg muttered. "She is just protecting her friends. It is the curse of being enemies with the world government."
—2 Hours Later…
"ICEBERG!!" Luffy screamed, causing a ruckus from the bottom floor of the hospital, making his way to the fourth floor.
Paulie sparked a cigar, inhaled and then blew out smoke. "What is that fool doing?"
Minato casually snatched the cigar out of his mouth and used the faucet water to kill the tiny flame.
"Let him in," said Iceberg. Lulu nodded then reached for the door handle.
Luffy barged through the door, almost killing Lulu at the same time. "Ice Guy, we need a train to save Robin!"
Iceberg was stunned. "So, you won't abandon her?"
"Of course not," Luffy shouted, slamming his fists. "I will send that Pigeon Guy flying and then bring her back."
"Lucci? Not before I kill him first." Paulie said to him then turned to face his boss. "But, they took the only sea train. We have no way of getting to Enies Lobby."
"Old Lady said he had an extra train," Luffy pointed at Iceberg.
"Rocketman," Iceberg replied with a sense of nostalgia. "He is in no shape to cross the seas."
"Then fix it so we can get going," said Luffy, casually.
"Mr. Iceberg is in no shape to walk, let alone fix a sea train," countered Minato.
'He just survived an assassination attempt,' he thought.
"ICEBERG!!!" Another shout and more commotion stormed through the lobby all the way up to the fourth floor. And once again, Lulu almost died as Zambia barged through the door.
"Uncle Iceberg, Franky has been captured by… Uh, what are they now?" Zambia shook his head, realizing that it's not important. "We need to save Big Bro!"
"I agree." Iceberg groaned, sliding his legs over the mattress. Minato rushed to his side, getting underneath his armpit to help him stand. "Let's go save them."
Luffy and Zambia cheered and then stopped, becoming aware of each other.
Grabbing his right bicep, Luffy prepared to fight. "You broke all of Usopp's bones."
"You nearly killed us all and destroyed our Big Bro's factory!" Zambia got in Luffy's face.
"Stop it! Settle your differences," Minato interrupted, limping with Iceberg attached to his hip. "Whoever throws the first punch will not be boarding the sea train which will guarantee failing at saving either of them."
Both of their tempers deflated. Luffy grabbed Zambia's wrist. Zambia latched onto Paulie's wrist and Paulie completed the triangle by grabbing Luffy's wrist.
"We have comrades waiting for us, we will save them together!" Luffy shouted.
"Yeah!"
Thirty hours later, the Straw Hats, Galley-La Company, Franky Family, and Minato as Naruto Uzumaki boarded the Rocketman Sea Train toward Enies Lobby.