"Now don't say that I didn't give you a chance. I will be protecting everyone who is inside here so you all can get lost."
Garp's sudden appearance first startled the hundreds of Iwa-nin. But the next words that came out of his mouth instantly enraged every single one of them.
"Who do you think you are?
You say you'll protect them and that's it? You think the Land of Earth listens to you?
You think you're the Third Tsuchikage?"
Jonin Higashi's face darkened as he glared at Garp.
"About that… you can go back and ask that brat Onoki yourself."
Garp grinned. Without any noticeable movement, his figure suddenly vanished from atop the rocky ridge.
And in nearly the same instant, he reappeared out of thin air right in front of Higashi, as if he had simply teleported.
"In the Land of Earth… is it his word that counts, or this old man's?"
Garp looked down at Higashi from above.
He used his right index finger to casually dig his nose, and then, under Higashi's shocked, furious, and nearly collapsing expression, wiped it on his forehead.
"I will kill you!"
Higashi roared through clenched teeth.
Forming hand seals, he summoned boulders that erupted around his right arm, coating it fully and turning the entire limb into a massive stone arm before swinging it at Garp's face.
"Wait, Higashi, don't act rashly."
Since Garp had revealed himself from within the encirclement of hundreds of Iwa-nin, Kitsuchi had remained silent, deep in thought. But now he exclaimed abruptly.
"Looks like you won't get the chance to ask Onoki anymore.
But that's fine, ask Ishikawa and Mu instead."
Garp spoke leisurely as he raised his hand and slapped Higashi's stone arm.
Crack!
Under Higashi's disbelieving gaze, and the stunned stares of hundreds of Iwa-nin, Garp shattered Higashi's technique with a barehanded slap.
Before Higashi could resist or run, Garp grabbed him like a chicken, easily lifting him into the air with one hand.
And, the almost three meter tall Garp made him look like a child being manhandled by an adult.
With the overwhelming visual contrast, the Iwa-nin finally realized just how tall and how massively built Garp truly was.
"W–who on earth is this old man…?"
"In my entire life, I've never seen a man this massive."
"Gods… compared to him, even those muscleheads from the Yotsuki clan look like skinny bamboo sticks."
The Iwa-nin looked from Higashi to Garp.
Nearly three meters tall, so muscular that his black suit was on the verge of bursting at the seams…
Forget comparing him to Higashi, even those brutes from Kumogakure couldn't hold a candle to him.
"Ah..."
While the Iwa-nin were still stunned, Higashi, dangling in Garp's grip, let out a cry of pain.
Garp had accidentally used a bit too much strength with one of the fingers pinching his neck, nearly crushing his entire throat.
"Haven't fought anyone in too long… and my strength's increased quite a bit compared to the Warring States Period. Controlling my power really is getting harder."
Garp frowned slightly, then relaxed.
After all, when he first transmigrated to the Naruto world, he overshot and ended up in the Warring States Period. But as a transmigrator, he naturally received a cheat like power.
Upon arrival, he got an enhanced version of the Monkey D. Garp template.
Not only did he gain Garp's full strength, but he also possessed an unique special ability:
Unaffected by age. His strength would never decline due to aging. And because it was the enhanced version, he grew stronger the older he got.
Every day he lived naturally made him stronger.
Afterward, he single-handedly swept through the various major ninja clans of the Warring States Period, earning the title of the Hero of the Shinobi World.
He became the only legend of that era who, all by himself, could stand on equal footing with the two clan heads of the strongest families, Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara.
When the Warring States Period ended, after savoring victory, glory, and the thrill of having no equals in the shinobi world, Garp found himself bored.
He accepted the invitation of the Senju brothers and retired to live a peaceful shinobi life in Konoha.
No opponents, no excitement… and since he didn't need to train or fight, growing stronger simply by living each day, he figured it was a good change of pace.
After all, fighting every day during the Warring States Period had become tiresome.
And so he enjoyed retirement all the way until the Third Great Ninja War.
Not until recently, when Hiruzen and the other council members came to ask him to return, did he finally feel the itch to stretch his muscles again.
"Nobody moves."
Just as Garp was reacquainting himself with the immense power he had accumulated over decades of retirement, far surpassing even his peak in the Warring States, Kitsuchi suddenly barked out the most forceful command of his life, stopping all Iwa-nin.
"I am Kitsuchi. My father is the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki. May I ask if you are the hero of the shinobi world… Garp the Fist?"
Kitsuchi stepped out from the crowd of Iwa-nin, walking until he stood twenty meters before Garp, then asked in a deep voice.
"Hero of Shinobi World…?"
"Garp the Fist…?"
"You mean this old man, no, this man right in front of us, is the legendary warrior spoken of in the same breath as Hashirama and Madara?"
Hundreds of Iwa-nin listened wide-eyed, every face filled with shock.
This was a living legend.
None of them imagined that such a figure not only still lived, but was standing right in front of them.
"There's no mistaking it. His abnormal height, unmatched physique, and that outfit so unlike any shinobi's…"
Kitsuchi secretly observed Garp, his appearance, the black suit, the white shirt.
This was the signature attire of the shinobi world's hero during the Warring States period.