The war starts very quickly and it affects almost everything in the Land of Lightning, the country where Zoro lives now. It affects many things even in this small rural village because it cuts off almost all the connections with the outside world.
Luckily, this village is self-sufficient, so they will be able to survive as long as the war doesn't reach this place. But there's no guarantee to it even though this village was always safe. There's always a possibility, so Zoro and Torao are still being careful.
If the war really reaches this place, then it will be a big disaster. After all, their opponents will be ninjas that can use ninjutsu while almost everyone here is a normal person. Even Zoro isn't sure he can survive if those ninjas really attack this village.
"Torao, do you have ways to defend against those ninjas?"
Zoro asks Torao while they set a fish trap in the river.
"The best way is by getting stronger so you can fight and kill them even if they come at you."
"Can't we make traps for them?"
"I don't know if that's possible. This village is located quite far from other countries. So if the enemies from other countries manage to reach this place, that means they are powerful. They should be at least Jonin level ninjas. If so, then our normal traps won't really work against them."
Zoro feels quite disappointed when he hears that and Torao tells him he should just focus on getting stronger.
"Only by getting stronger can you protect yourself from danger in this world. The only power you can trust is your own power."
"Sigh, okay, I understand."
Zoro starts training even more diligently than before. He was already training hard every day. But the danger of war increases his motivations and makes him more determined to get stronger. He is not smart, so he can only work very hard to cover for that.
His body is that of a 12 years old now, but he doesn't look like an average 12 years old. All his hard training has developed his body very well. He is a little taller than his peers and he has more muscle mass.
His muscles aren't big and bulging, but Zoro is already stronger than normal adults. Still, he pretends to be just a little stronger than kids his age to avoid scaring the villagers. They might think that he is a dangerous person trying to harm them, after all.
Anyway, there is still no news of the war coming to this place. Well, it's not like they can get any news about it with their information network with the outside world being cut-off. It makes them quite anxious, but it also eases their worries because they don't hear any bad news.
Days pass, weeks pass, and then months also pass. Zoro keeps getting stronger as time passes because he keeps training as hard as he can. His progress is very fast, especially the development of his physical strength because Torao keeps helping his body grow with Medical ninjutsu.
Torao keeps healing Zoro's muscles that get damaged during training. It makes Zoro's muscles get stronger every day and he can also train almost every day, which makes him able to learn more with little rest.
He may not be smart, but he is very hard working, and his talent in swordsmanship is no joke. While he can't understand what Instructor Moss Head explains in the Genjutsu world, he will understand quickly while trying the moves. He can also learn very fast by watching the moves taught to him.
Also, he himself doesn't realize it yet, but as he gets stronger, his sense of direction is getting worse. He was never lost in the forest that doesn't have any roads before. But now he starts straying out of the path and Torao even needs to guide him without his realization.
Well, it's still not thay bad now, but Torao knows it will jusy get worse. So he tells Zoro about it and Zoro doesn't believe what the cat says. "It must be your imagination." That's what Zoro says.
Anyway, one day, when Zoro and Torao are checking their traps as usual, something big happens. They find 3 dead bodies floating on the river. Those 3 dead bodies are tied with a rope and they wear different ninja vests.
Zoro is curious, but he doesn't want to touch those dead ninjas and just lets them get carried away by the current. "Those guys must've been killed by the same opponents and were thrown into the river after being tied up like that."
"How they die doesn't matter. What's important is this means that the battles of those ninjas have reached upstream of this river. It won't be strange if they come down here soon."
"What should we do? Should we tell the villagers?"
"It will surely cause them to panic, but it's better for them to know the truth. Let's tell the village chief, he will decide whether to tell the villagers or not."
"Okay."
They quickly go to the village chief's house and tell the old man about the 3 ninja corpses floating in the river. As they thought, it surprises the village chief and makes him think deeply. Both of them leave this problem to the village chief and go home.
They want to prepare for any unprecedented situation that can happen soon. If any of those ninjas really come here, then they need to be ready to escape anytime.
Zoro has trained hard for a few years, but he never fights in real life. Furthermore, there must be more than 1 ninja that may come because those ninjas always move in teams while he is just with Torao.
If those ninjas really come, then both of them will prioritize their safety. They have warned the village chief and it should be enough. There's nothing they can do to protect the villagers even if they want because they are still too weak.
"Torao, what's the chance of me defeating those ninjas?"
"Very low. If your opponents are still genins, then maybe you can win. You can escape if it's against chuunins, but if they are jonins, then you'll die if you fight them."
"So what should we do?"
"We need to show that we aren't threats to them first. They might ignore us if they know we aren't enemy ninjas. We need to dress up like real hunters."
"Ugh, I need to wear those clothes? They don't feel comfortable."
"It's the easiest way to avoid confronting the ninjas."
"Sigh, fine."
The clothes that Zoro means are clothes made out of the pelts and fur of the animals they caught. He has some sets of these clothes. They made these clothes in their free time and to make use of the stacking pelts in their storage.
The problem is those things don't feel good when worn and they make his body feel hot. That's why Zoro doesn't like wearing them because not only do they look bad, they aren't comfortable either. But now he needs to use them to stay safe.
Other than those clothes, he'll also change his weapons. He can't use swords because they aren't hunting weapons. He will change them to a crossbow even though he's not good with it. Well, he is a hunter that uses traps anyway, so it doesn't matter if he has bad bow skills.
Zoro starts wearing those things the next day. They never know when those ninjas will appear and they might not even realize the ninjas' presence even if they are close. So they need to be careful and reduce any chances of being attacked even if it's just a little.
His days become quite restless since Zoro knew about the ninjas being close to the village. He can't feel at ease when hunting and he can't even train properly to avoid being seen by the ninjas in case they are already here.
To make up for his reduced swordsmanship training time, he increases the time for his physical training and training in the Genjutsu world. He trains in the Genjutsu World during his sleep time, so he can train a whole night.
It puts a lot of burden to Torao that needs to maintain the genjutsu for so long. But Torao keeps doing it to make sure Zoro keeps getting stronger even for just a little. Zoro also focuses on sparring against Instructor Moss Head in the Genjutsu world to increase his battle sense.
Because he uses a lot of energy to maintain the Genjutsu, Torao needs to rest a lot during the day. He sleeps from morning to afternoon, so Zoro puts him in a small basket he carries like a bag. He can't leave Torao at home because if dangers come, they need to escape together immediately.
Nothing happens for a few days until something strange happens when Zoro checks his traps. One of the snare traps caught something, but their prey actually escaped. Though, Zoro knows that someone is releasing the prey because there are traces of humans near the traps.
He feigns ignorance and acts as if he doesn't know it's a human's doing. Zoro even swears quite loudly while saying his luck is really bad today, but it has happened a few times before, so he can only accept it while in fact, he is being very cautious in case the one who did it is a ninja.
'Only 1 person's traces are found here. I need to look around while checking the other traps to see if there are more people. Tch! This is getting very dangerous all of a sudden.'
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