Tsunade's eyes lit up. "That's a good thing. If the golden gate can absorb Devil Fruit powers, then doesn't that mean you could have dozens, maybe even hundreds, of Devil Fruit abilities?"
Rowan shook his head. "It doesn't work like that. The golden gate has requirements for Devil Fruits too. It can't absorb just any of them."
"Because the golden gate can carry me across worlds, it leans toward time-space attributes. Only Devil Fruits with some kind of time-space property can be absorbed by it."
"The Door-Door Fruit is one of them."
"Other than that, the ones that probably qualify are things like the Time-Time Fruit, the Teleport-Teleport Fruit, and a few other rare Devil Fruits."
Nico Robin said, "What about the Castle-Castle Fruit? It turns the user's body into a castle-like space and lets them shrink and store subordinates, cannons, and other things inside."
"The user can even enter that castle space themselves, so it also seems related to spatial abilities."
"Would that one work?"
Rowan's eyes flickered. Stroking his chin, he said, "Logically, it probably should. But whether it actually works or not would need testing. And I'm not too willing to test it."
The reason was simple: if it failed, Rowan would become a Castle-Castle Fruit user.
And he really did not like the Castle-Castle Fruit. He would rather eat the Bomb-Bomb Fruit than the Castle-Castle Fruit.
Tobirama said, "If we're not sure, then don't test it. Let's stick to the original plan. First, we study the power of Devil Fruits. Once we've cracked their essence, we go find Brook, the user of the Revive-Revive Fruit, and replicate that fruit from him so Rowan can eat it."
Orochimaru nodded. "That's the safest approach."
No one else objected.
They had already lost a fair bit of time because of the Door-Door Fruit. Now it was time to get back to researching Devil Fruit powers.
And as it happened, they now had a few extra fruits on hand to use for experiments.
Just then, Rowan suddenly said, "Oh right, there's one more thing I forgot to tell you."
Everyone turned to look at him.
Rowan said, "After the golden gate absorbed the Door-Door Fruit, it gave me some feedback. I think I can head to a new world again now."
"So soon?" Tsunade blurted out.
A flash of surprise and delight appeared in Tobirama's, Orochimaru's, and the others' eyes.
A new world again.
A new world meant new powers, new knowledge, and maybe even something that could speed up their Devil Fruit research and make them stronger.
But no one rushed blindly toward the new world right away.
There were too many of them. If the new world turned out to be dangerous, they would stand out too much. And if that drew danger their way, what if they all got wiped out?
So after some discussion, they came up with a plan.
Tsunade, Tobirama, Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Shizune would return to the Naruto world and continue researching Devil Fruits.
Nico Robin would stay behind and look after Nami and Karin.
As for Hashirama, Kanae, and Minato, the three of them would go with Rowan into the new world.
If they ran into danger, Hashirama would hold the line while Minato immediately took Rowan and Kanae and fled.
And if Rowan got hurt, then it would be Kanae's turn to step in.
Of course, that was the worst-case scenario.
Because Rowan had already mastered the Door-Door Fruit's power. If things really went bad, he could just use it to escape with the others.
Rowan had no objection to the plan, because it was exactly what he had been thinking too.
As long as he wasn't instantly killed, getting a few people out would be easy.
Once the decision was made, Rowan first sent Tsunade and the others back to the Naruto world.
Then he spent a full day familiarizing himself with the Door-Door Fruit's power, trying to make sure he could actually use it in real combat.
The next morning, Rowan pushed open a door in the air. On the other side was not the new world, but the Baratie.
That was one of the Door-Door Fruit's abilities as well.
It could open doors in midair and create spatial movement.
In the original story, Blueno had used that very ability on the Sea Train to move through space, defeat Sanji, and abduct Robin.
After spending all of yesterday getting used to it, Rowan had already mastered the trick.
Before heading to the new world, he decided to first send Nico Robin, Nami, and Karin to the Baratie.
"Be careful."
As Robin stepped into the Baratie, she gave Rowan a quiet reminder.
Nami was still completely confused. Yesterday, after being knocked out by Hashirama's Haki, she had only woken up near midnight and missed a lot of what had happened.
She didn't understand where Rowan was going, but that didn't stop her from worrying. After all, Rowan was her benefactor.
"I have no idea what you're planning to do, but be careful, okay?"
"I will." Rowan smiled.
Karin clutched at her mother's clothes and said timidly, "Please be careful, Mom… and big brother too."
Kanae lowered her head and stroked Karin's hair. "Don't worry. Mom will be back soon."
Then she handed Karin over to Robin. "Please take care of her."
Robin nodded.
After saying their goodbyes, Rowan closed the air door, cutting off the view of Robin, Nami, and the others.
The air door vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed.
Rowan turned and looked at Hashirama, Minato, and Kanae beside him. "Ready?"
All three nodded.
Rowan raised his hand again and pushed open another air door, connecting to a brand-new world.
The air door opened.
Beyond it was a huge study, packed with all kinds of books.
But that wasn't the most striking thing in the room.
The most striking thing was the woman sitting cross-legged on a stone chair.
She had a petite frame, but long golden hair. There was a braid at each side of her face, and another braid behind each ear.
She wore a long white robe with flesh-toned trim and shorts underneath. The short inner robe she wore beneath it was fastened at the center by an oval green gemstone.
But even those features weren't as noticeable as her ears.
They were long, pointed ears, with a pair of brown ear clips near the tips.
Those were definitely not human ears.
Human ears simply didn't grow that long.
They were the ears of an elf.
In other words, the woman sitting in the chair was a real elf.
"Oh? What unusual guests."
The moment Rowan saw the elf, she saw the group too.
"To slip past the barrier and come straight into my study… who exactly are you people?"
~~~
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