Naruto remained silent for a moment, then suddenly extended his right hand toward Piccolo.
"Um-" Thinking Naruto was finally striking, Piccolo tried to dodge. No matter where he moved, Naruto's hand closed in. In the end, Piccolo shrunk his neck in fear and closed his eyes.
The anticipated pain never came. A large hand landed gently on his head.
"Whether you believe it or not, I have no intention of killing you."
Piccolo's eyes lit up. "Then let me go."
Naruto glanced at him, ignored the request, and continued, "I will teach you for a while."
"You want to teach me? Turn me into a good person? That's impossible. I am the child of the Demon King." Piccolo emphasized his identity once more.
"I am a inherently evil demon. From the moment I was born, my destiny was to become the great Demon King."
His words reminded Naruto of someone else who constantly spoke of destiny.
"Bullshit destiny," Naruto said with a laugh, shaking his head. "Who decided the child of a Demon King must become a demon?"
This Piccolo was different. The original Piccolo was the pure evil side of Kami. Although this child inherited everything from him, they were not the same person.
The current Piccolo was a blank sheet of paper.
He was just like Kami when he first arrived on Earth.
"Your father was a Demon King." Naruto paused. "Do you know what kind of person your father's father was?"
The question successfully captured Piccolo's attention.
"He was also a Demon King?" Piccolo asked uncertainly.
He had no memory of his grandfather. Not only did Piccolo lack this knowledge, but neither did the original Piccolo or the original Kami.
"Not really." Naruto shook his head. "Your grandfather was once a prodigy of your clan."
Piccolo beamed. "A prodigy of the Demon Clan?!"
Naruto spread his hands. "Unfortunately, no. He wasn't even a member of the Demon Clan. There is no Demon Clan, your father created and named them as such."
"There is a race from a world far from Earth. Contrary to what you imagine, they were a peace-loving people."
Katas, or rather, the Namekian Katas. He was a figure from the same era as the current Great Elder of Planet Namek, a prodigy of his world.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Piccolo thrust both hands forward and shouted. "How could the Great Demon King's father be a peace-loving person?"
"Believe it or don't. I'm just telling you what I know." Naruto didn't bother explaining further, besides, that was the extent of his knowledge.
After some deep thought, Piccolo said, "I understand now. You did all this to find an opponent for yourself and Goku, right?"
"As the son of the Demon King, I'm naturally the most suitable choice."
"I just wanted to teach you. That's all." Naruto truly did want to mentor Piccolo. "You should know, I am very strong, stronger than your father. Under my guidance, you can grow faster."
Piccolo asked tentatively. "Aren't you afraid I'll surpass you?"
"Beware, or I might kill you, you know."
"Don't overthink it. I'll only take care of you for three months. After that, I'll leave." Naruto spoke casually, dismissing Piccolo's threat. "That will be your liberation."
"Whether you survive or destroy yourself after that is no longer my concern."
"Also." Naruto leaned down and extended a finger, tapping it lightly against Piccolo's smooth, shiny green forehead. "Stop saying 'kill, kill, kill' all the time. Even if you become the Great Demon King one day, don't say things like that. It makes you look low and pathetic."
He continued, "Do you know what's most important to becoming a demon king?"
Piccolo thought for a long while before answering, "Strength?"
"Wrong!"
Naruto shook his head and stood up.
Two figures flashed through his mind.
One was a large, noseless bald man in a dirty black robe who chuckled constantly and threw around torture spells like candies (Voldermort) But had a lot of people wanting to betray him. The other was as still as a proper gentleman, yet moved with charisma of King of the World. (Gellert Grindelwald), where people were willing to sacrifice everything to support him.
"It's presence, and ideology."
Naruto slowly closed his eyes as he spoke.
"Otherwise, you'll always just be a low-level terrorist. You'll never become a true demon king."
From that day on, Piccolo began training with Naruto. Naruto's teaching style mirrored Goku's: everything centered on actual combat.
Piccolo ended every session completely worn out, but his strength surged. He changed visibly from one day to the next.
It was no wonder, given he was a Namekian. In less than ten days, his power reached a height an ordinary human could not achieve in a lifetime.
Beyond combat, Naruto used his spare time to teach Piccolo the basics of urban survival, including money and the law.
Training was not just about building the body. Broadening one's horizons and elevating the mindset were equally vital. Chasing strength while ignoring spiritual growth was like putting the cart before the horse.
Fortunately, in the Dragon Ball-verse, Earth was accustomed to the bizarre. Beastmen, werewolves, vampires, invisible men, and even demons roamed the world. Humans had long since stopped being surprised by demi-humans. Especially with King Furry in charge.
Piccolo was merely green. If he covered his head, people simply assumed he looked under the weather. Otherwise, he looked human enough, he had a nose and eyes, making him far more normal than the Three-Eyed or Noseless Humans.
Furthermore, because Piccolo quickly died after his wish, he had not spent his time conquering kingdoms or broadcasting the destruction of cities to the world as his father had in the original storyline. Few people recognized him.
Naruto taking Demon King Piccolo around the city barely caused a stir.
After a few trips, however, Piccolo admitted he disliked the smog. He preferred the fresh air of forests and plateaus.
It made sense. Namekians were essentially plant people. They did not need to eat, water alone sustained them. They could absorb sunlight and convert it into energy through photosynthesis.
"Stay right here. Don't move. I'm going to get you some oranges," Naruto instructed. He walked across to a fruit stand on the opposite side of the street.
"Yeah!" Piccolo nodded vigorously.
While Piccolo could survive on water and sunlight, he saw no reason to forgo gourmet food. He disliked meat but loved fruit, especially oranges.
The thought of sweet oranges made him salivate. As he waited, a family of three brushed past him.
"Dad, I got a hundred on my test! I want that!" A little boy tugged his father's sleeve, pointing at a shop ahead.
The shop sold cloud-like treats. Piccolo knew them as cotton candy.
Sickeningly sweet. Not tasty at all.
"Okay, okay, we'll buy it," the father laughed, pulling out his wallet.
The boy grabbed the cotton candy and bit into it with an eager yelp. His mouth filled with sugar crystals as the treat instantly shrank by a third.
"You spoil him," the mother told her husband, then turned to her son. "Be careful. Too much sugar gives you cavities."
Her tone was a scolding, but her eyes held only tenderness.
"What's wrong with that? My son got a hundred on his test. That's my boy!" The father laughed loudly and hoisted the boy onto his shoulders.
Piccolo watched their receding figures. A flicker of envy surfaced in his eyes, then vanished.
"Is this... family?" he murmured softly.
Piccolo did not know what family was, or what it felt like, because he had never had one. He did not even know what a mother was, Namekians reproduced asexually by laying eggs.
His father, the previous Piccolo, never gave him any paternal love. Instead, he constantly drilled one idea into him: conquer the world, conquer the world, conquer the world. Conquering the world was more important than everything else.
He didn't understand love, nor did he understand home. Not just him, even the previous Piccolo didn't understand.
Suddenly, Piccolo felt his head grow heavy. A bag of moderate weight pressed down on him, and the fresh fragrance of oranges wafted into his nostrils.
"What are you standing here looking foolish for?" Naruto shook the bag, then lifted it off Piccolo's head.
Naruto pulled a popsicle from the bag of oranges. It was a fruit-flavored twin-stick popsicle, the kind Naruto loved. With a slight push, he snapped it in half. He put one stick in his own mouth and held the other out to Piccolo.
"Eat."
"Hmph, don't think this can win me over." Piccolo's tone was full of disdain, but he didn't hesitate. He grabbed the popsicle from Naruto's hand and eagerly popped it into his mouth.
*Slorp, slorp, slorp.*
"It's sweet, isn't it?" Naruto asked with a grin.
"Sweet."
Piccolo answered by reflex, then realized what he'd done. He huffed in dissatisfaction and stopped talking. Only the sound of *slurp, slurp* remained as he ate the popsicle.
'Maybe this is what home feels like.'
Three months passed in the blink of an eye.
No feast lasts forever, and the day of parting arrived. Piccolo had gone from counting the days until he could get rid of Naruto to counting the days left before they had to say goodbye.
"The three-month term is up, it's time to part ways." On the final day, Naruto wore his signature smile as he spoke to Piccolo.
In those three months, Piccolo had grown from looking four years old to looking eight.
"Leaving already?" Piccolo looked at Naruto. A trace of reluctance flickered in his eyes, then vanished.
He wouldn't say anything to make Naruto stay. He was Piccolo.
"Go, go. I've learned everything you know. There's nothing left you can teach me." Piccolo snapped his head away, refusing to look at Naruto.
"Just wait, at the next Tenkaichi Budokai, I'll surprise you all."
"I, Piccolo, am the world's number one."
Naruto smiled. "I'll be watching."
Just as Naruto prepared to fly away, Piccolo spoke up.
"Hey, what's the point of this? Training the son of the Demon King."
Naruto didn't rush to answer. Instead, he pulled out the last orange and placed it in Piccolo's hand. "Life by itself has no meaning. But only by surviving can you discover interesting things, like how you discovered oranges, and I discovered you."
After parting with Piccolo, Naruto hurried to West City. With Piccolo's current abilities, he could easily survive on his own, in the original storyline, he had always lived in solitude.
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