That strong looking burly man is the pirate captain. The pirates cheer seeing him joining the battle, but Zoro doesn't care.
When everyone is distracted by the man's sudden appearance, Zoro uses this chance to kill more pirates. He runs even faster between the adults, using them as covers so the pirates can't find him easily as he attacks and kills them.
But the screams of the defeated pirates attract everyone's attention. The pirate captain is obviously angry that someone dares to kill his men even when he finally shows up.
He sees a green haired kid holding 2 swords in his hands and a sword in his mouth running around the deck, attacking his men. Angers swells up in his heart and he rushes to attack Zoro.
His steps are so loud as his heavy body makes the ship's wooden floor creak with every step he takes. So Zoro can hear him coming very clearly and stops attacking the small fries.
The pirate captain jumps at Zoro while raising his big twin blades high. Then to Zoro's surprise, the blades are glowing with bluish light. The pirate captain actually can infuse chakra into his swords.
Zoro jumps to the left, dodging the blades that slash down at him. The blades hit the floor and break it easily, leaving quite big cutting holes there.
"Chakra blade? A ninja?"
The first thought that enters Zoro's mind is the pirate captain being a ninja. As for being a samurai, Zoro doesn't think that to be the case because this guy's swordsmanship is too rough to be a samurai who lives for swords.
"You damn slippery kid!"
Zoro's guess is proven to be true when the pirate captain suddenly uses Clone jutsu to make a clone. It's a normal clone jutsu, so the clone is just an illusion, but it's still good to confuse his opponents.
The pirate captain and his clone move to attack Zoro from 2 sides. They charge at him and send cross attacks with their chakra infused blades from above.
Zoro jumps and rolls forward before quickly turning around. The real one and the clone hit each other with their blades, making an obvious result where the clone is destroyed.
"As if you can hit me with such slow attacks."
Zoro charges at the pirate captain and makes a diagonal slash from below with his right sword. The pirate captain isn't as agile as Zoro with his big body, so he can only block Zoro's sword.
What follows is a barrage of sword attacks from Zoro. The pirate captain may not be a good swordsman, but he sure has good battle skills. He can keep blocking Zoro's attacks using his good sense and reflex.
Even so, he is being pushed back by Zoro who is faster and surprisingly stronger than the pirate captain who is a few times bigger than him. It makes the pirate captain question just how a kid like Zoro can have such strength.
'Fiercer! My attacks need to be fiercer and more efficient! He can block my attacks even though I'm faster than him. That means my movements are still not efficient enough. I still have waste movements just like what the instructor always said.'
Zoro's swordsmanship is being honed in this real battle. Fighting with his real body is vastly different than just using a fake body in the genjutsu world. The sensations of the swing, the recoil, and even the worry of being hit back are much more stimulating in real life.
Everyone else looks at the battle with wide eyes. They can't believe a small kid like Zoro is pushing a big muscular man like that pirate captain. Furthermore, that man uses chakra on his swords while Zoro doesn't, but Zoro is on the winning side.
Then suddenly, under everyone's astonished eyes, Zoro's sword falls on the pirate captain's body. The man fails to block Zoro's attacks that have gotten even faster and stronger as they fight.
That slash makes a deep diagonal cut on the man's front body. He spits blood and staggers backwards with widened eyes as he sees another attack coming toward him.
The pain makes him unable to react on time as the sharp katana slashes his throat, cutting his neck, separating his head from his body. Zoro kills the pirate captain without getting a single wound on his body.
Everyone is speechless by this scene. But then cheers erupted from the merchant ship crew while the remaining pirates fell on their knees with disbelief expressions. The captain they fear so much is killed quite easily by a kid.
With their captain defeated and many of their crewmates killed, the pirates can only surrender. The merchant crew detains them and loot the pirate ship before sinking it.
"They are so poor."
Zoro frowns as he looks at the small pile of goods they get from the pirate ship.
"Pirates usually don't have much wealth because when they succeed in their piracy, they usually spend what they get quickly for pleasure. Also, they never put all their wealth on their ships and usually hide them in secret locations."
A middle-aged man who is the merchant ship's captain says it while looking at the loot with Zoro. They are here to check the looted items and divide them.
Zoro will choose first because he contributed the most. He checks everything with Torao to see if there are good things here. But there's nothing that catches their eyes in that pile of items, so they just choose some jewelry that seems to fetch good prices.
After everything is over, the merchant crew continues their way to the Land of Iron. There's no other dangerous fight against humans after that. Only a fight against the sea as they encounter a storm the next day.
But the ship crew members are professional sailors, so they can pass the storm without any problem. Then after another day, they finally arrive at the Land of Iron.
This country is cold, so everyone starts wearing thicker clothes. The sea around the port is covered with thick ice and the port town is full of snow. Just like everyone else, Zoro is also wearing thick clothes made of animal pelts as they enter the port.
Zoro doesn't need to hide anymore now because even though the security at this country's ports are also tight, it's not as tight as the ones in the Land of Lightning. As long as one is not a criminal, then they can enter this neutral country.
Besides, he has legal documents from the Land of Iron. That God somehow made these documents for him but decided to not send him to the Land of Iron upon reincarnation.
"Hey, Torao, I've been wanting to ask this for a long time but keep forgetting. Why didn't God just send me to this Land of Iron instead of the Land of Lightning. Won't it be much easier for us since my identity is this country's citizen?"
"That is..... Well, that's because he used the wrong coordinate when sending your body here. He even made a mistake with the year. You were supposed to be the same age as Naruto, but now you are even older than Kakashi."
"... He made such blunders and still dared to punish you?"
"When higher ups made mistakes, they will just laugh it off, and sometimes even blame their subordinates. I'm just glad that he didn't put the blame on me and punish me by sending a divine judgment. Both of us will get destroyed by that just to cover for his mistake."
".... Heh, so this is the Land of Iron, huh?"
"You-.... sigh, yeah, this is the place."
Zoro decides to just leave that topic and talk about the Land of Iron. This is a neutral country, not involved with the shinobi world affairs. So the shinobi war won't reach this place and he will be safe.
If the shinobis dare to hurt or kill this country's citizens, then they will make an enemy of the Land of Iron and even the 5 Great Shinobi Villages don't want to anger them.
Well, doing all that for just 1 person may be too much. But the real benefit is he can go almost anywhere with this identity. Citizens of this country are welcomed in almost every other country because of their neutral position and it's good for Zoro's future plan.
"So, what is our next step?"
"Did you forget already?"
"Eh? Have you told me?"
"Sigh, it seems your muscles really absorb all the nutrition from your brain."
Zoro doesn't say anything because he never wins an argument against Torao, so it's better to stay silent and accept whatever the black-white cat says.
"This is the land of swordsmen, so you should hone your swordsmanship here."
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