When he turned around again, he discovered that Ace's crewmates hadn't left, instead, they gritted their teeth and charged back onto the ship.
"You've got a lot of nerve!" Madara's voice was icy cold, his gaze sharp and chilling as he spoke.
"Give Ace back to us!"
"You can't take our captain!"
"We, the Spade Pirates, are no cowards who'd abandon our captain and run away alone!"
The Spade Pirates shouted loudly. Even though some of them were clearly afraid of Madara's overwhelming power, not a single one backed down in that moment.
Madara fell silent. After a while, he glanced at the unconscious Ace lying nearby. His lips curled slightly, but his expression quickly returned to its frosty calm.
"Get lost. I don't want to kill you."
The pirates grew anxious and were about to charge in recklessly when Madara spoke again.
"I heard that at the end of this sea lies a place called the Sabaody Archipelago. I'll wait for you there." As soon as he finished speaking, Madara's body trembled slightly. A powerful repulsive force erupted, instantly blasting the Spade Pirates away.
After driving off the group, Madara sat down cross-legged beside Ace without a care in the world.
"Madara San, why did you keep this guy?" Qin Lin asked curiously.
"How is he?" Madara didn't answer the question. Instead, he asked one of his own.
"This guy's in great physical condition. He's just passed out and should wake up soon." Yang Yi had just finished examining Ace and responded accordingly.
"Hmm." Madara nodded coldly and said no more.
Since he wasn't talking, Qin Lin and the other two exchanged glances and also fell silent.
At that moment, the three of them felt... complicated.
How to put it? Ever since they arrived in this world with Madara, their safety had been basically guaranteed. With him around, they were practically overflowing with a sense of security.
Their journey up until now was pretty much all thanks to Madara.
But his war-loving personality meant they rarely had the chance to gather intel. So even though it had been three months, they still didn't know much about this world.
All they knew was that the world contained Marines, Pirates, the World Government, and the Shichibukai, four major powers. But in terms of power structures, political situations, or major nations, they were still completely in the dark.
An hour later, Ace sat up, holding his dazed head.
"I'm... still alive?"
Shaking his head, Ace's eyes cleared when he saw Madara sitting in front of him.
"As long as I don't let you die, you won't die." Madara said indifferently.
"My crew... where are they?" Ace suddenly remembered and asked anxiously.
"I drove them away." Madara replied.
"And the ship?" Ace asked again.
"It sank."
Those two indifferent words made the atmosphere turn oddly tense.
"Ahem, Madara San, I think we really should start gathering some intel. Otherwise, when His Majesty arrives, we'll have nothing to report!" Qin Lin tried to persuade him earnestly.
"Once we infiltrate their ranks, intel will come naturally. What's the rush?" Madara coldly refused.
The three generals fell silent, then turned to look at Ace. After exchanging glances, Fang Lan smiled and spoke up.
"Little brother Ace, would it be alright if we asked you a few questions?"
Seeing that Ace's face had turned pale and his expression grim, clearly in no mood to answer anything, Qin Lin stepped in again.
"Don't worry. Your crewmates are fine. Madara San agreed to meet them again at the Sabaody Archipelago."
Upon hearing this, Ace's expression brightened immediately.
"Really?"
"Of course. General Qin would never lie to you." Yang Yi nodded.
"So then, may we ask you a few things?"
Striking while the iron was hot, the three generals saw an opening, they intended to use Ace as a breakthrough to finally get some intel about this world.
Over the past three months, they had indeed encountered many people from this world, but most of them were enemies. And Madara, being the kind of person he was, impatient and prone to brute-force solutions, would usually defeat opponents before they had a chance to extract any information.
Add to that the wonders of this strange world, which constantly piqued their curiosity, and they ended up spending a lot of time just sailing around and playing. They had wasted a lot of time.
But lately, they were beginning to feel that Qin Yi was about to arrive, so they were starting to panic.
"Whatever questions you have, save them for later."
Just then, Madara suddenly spoke. His sharp eyes locked onto Ace, and his entire presence became solemn and focused.
The three generals exchanged glances. Something felt off here. They had never seen Madara this serious before.
"Now, kid, I have a question for you," Madara said coldly.
"Ask away." Ace was still a bit upset, but he had to admit this man was powerful. He respected the strength, just not the terrible attitude.
"Do you want to become my disciple?"
'Huh?!' Qin Lin and the others were stunned. Their ears perked up in disbelief.
'What kind of joke was this? Madara wants to take on a disciple?! And not just anyone, this random outsider he'd just fought?'
Ace was equally dumbfounded.
"If you don't want to, I'll kill you." Madara's right hand dropped to the hilt of his short blade.
Ace's eyes widened in fear. "I do! I do! I do!"
'Holy hell, what kind of bad luck was this? It was bad enough to get beaten up, but now he was being forced to become someone's apprentice?! This cold, strange old man had instantly been marked by Ace as the most dangerous person he had ever met.'
Qin Lin and the other two finally snapped out of it. They were visibly excited, their eyes gleaming.
"Madara Aan has finally figured it out! Looks like he's going for the emotional route, win the kid over, and get some intel from him in return!"
But what followed next from Madara and Ace's conversation left the three generals completely disappointed.
"Your taijutsu is pathetic. Your reaction speed also disappoints me. The only things worth praising are your flame-controlling Kekkei Genkai and your innate resistance to physical damage. But against a true expert, you're still weak."
His ruthless words crushed Ace's already fragile ego.
"I will train you. I will help you grow stronger."
Madara, surprisingly, said a few more words than usual. Perhaps it was their shared affinity for fire, or something else, but when he first saw Ace, he felt a strange attraction. Madara believed this kid had potential.
Even back in the Naruto World or Qin's Nation, there were very few people Madara considered worthy.
But Ace stirred something in Madara's heart. The boy seemed to possess a dormant power deep inside his body, still unawakened... yet very similar to Madara himself.
From then on, Madara began seriously training Ace.
He didn't teach him chakra training techniques, as this was a different world, so there were different rules. Madara still held onto a trace of caution.
But when it came to fundamentals, tactics, taijutsu, and fire control, he taught without holding back.
Ace quickly realized that this cold old man was genuinely serious about teaching him, and his heart slowly filled with respect.
Meanwhile, the three generals would always take the opportunity to ask Ace about the world whenever they had a free moment, something that secretly puzzled Ace.
"My master and the three generals... they don't seem to know anything about this world."
"Could they be... aliens?"
(End of Chapter)
You can read ahead up to 15 chapters on my Patreon, and I've also activated a (date-to-date) subscription model on my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395