His request to spar against some strong Konoha ninjas has been approved and Zoro finally can fight someone the next day.
He is picked up by an Anbu in the morning and is guided to a training ground where some people have waited.
Minato can't come because he is busy, so he sends Tsunade and Fugaku who have become Hokage advisors along with Hiashi.
Shikaku is Hokage's personal assistant while Jiraiya refuses to be an advisor because he prefers working outside the village to gather intel.
"You already found an opponent for me?"
"Yeah, and some people will come to watch, is that okay with you?" Tsunade asks while Fugaku just stays silent behind. He is leaving it to Tsunade who is more senior than him.
"No problem. It's not like my abilities are National secrets and I'm sure no one can imitate my abilities." Zoro smirks while looking at Fugaku, making the man frown a little.
"Ho, you seem very confident that your abilities are very unique to you."
"Well, you'll see."
Tsunade and the others have heard from Minato about Zoro's Haki which impresses both Minato and Kushina who saw it. Although Minato doesn't know its name, he still can describe how it is.
Well, he only knows that it's a defensive ability which he thinks to be ninjutsu, a Kekkei Genkai to be precise. Though he doesn't know the details like what nature transformations made that Kekkei Genkai.
Those who heard from Minato are very curious to see the defensive ninjutsu that could even block 9 Tails' attack. That's why Minato sends Fugaku, so they can learn more about Zoro's Haki with sharingan.
But Zoro is confident that Fugaku won't understand how he uses Haki. It's because Haki isn't made of chakra while sharingan works by seeing how someone controls their chakra to use their jutsu.
Torao also has assured Zoro that no one in this world can use Haki other than him. It's because this ability is unique to One Piece world and the reason he can use it is because his body originates from there.
So even if by chance Fugaku can understand how Zoro's Haki works, he will never be able to copy it no matter what, even if he masters all kinds of nature transformations perfectly.
Even Sage of Six Paths or Otsutsuki clan won't be able to copy any of the 3 types of Haki. Maybe the only ones who will be able to use it are Zoro's descendants because they will have his genes, but even Torao isn't sure if it will be the case.
Well, he can think of that in the future when he has children. He doesn't even have a lover and hasn't even used his hose to spray his white liquid into any women's chambers yet.
Back to the training ground, Zoro's 1st sparring match opponent is a boy around his age. This boy has silver hair and a cloth mask that covers almost his entire face except for his right eye.
It's hard to recognize who's who when Zoro sees the characters in real life because he only knows them from 2D drawings in the books before.
But he doesn't need to ask to know who this boy is with such distinct characteristics. He's sure this boy is none other than Hatake Kakashi, Minato's student as well as Naruto's teacher and team 7 leader.
"My name is Hatake Kakashi, I've been tasked to be your sparring match opponent today."
As Zoro thought, it's Kakashi. He even talks with an uninterested tone. Zoro knows Kakashi isn't the arrogant kid he used to be now, so it must be because he lost his 2 friends that he still acts quite cold now.
"You can just call me Zoro. When do you want to start?"
"I am ready anytime."
"Wait! I told you there will be some spectators, right? Let's wait for them, they should arrive soon."
As Tsunade says, more people are coming a while later. Some of them are teenagers around Zoro's and Kakashi's age.
Tsunade introduces them. Guy, Asuma, Kurenai, Genma, and Ebisu. Zoro is quite surprised to see some important characters here.
There is also the 3rd Hokage who has been stripped of all authority and becomes a normal old man now because he is the one who allowed Danzo to have all those authorities that were destroying the village.
Minato is lenient enough to only do this much even though there are a lot of serious troubles that happened in the Village's government body under the 3rd Hokage's leadership.
If not for all the contributions that the 3rd Hokage made to the village, then he might have been imprisoned for his bad leadership.
Minato always and still sees the 3rd Hokage as a kind person. But that makes him realize that kindness isn't enough to make one a good leader. Though he also still needs to be kind as a leader as to not become a dictator.
Anyway, the 3rd Hokage is here to watch the match because he is also very curious about Zoro's power. He didn't see much of it during the 9 Tails incident because he was late.
Kushina is also here in her wheelchair as she lost her lower body function after getting Kurama extracted out of her. She is still glad she survives that incident by getting half of Kurama's chakra back even if it means she becomes disabled.
On her arms is a blonde baby with 3 stripes of whiskers on each of his cheeks. It's obvious who he is, Naruto, the main character of this world.
Behind Kushina is a black-haired woman and a black-haired baby tied on her chest. They are Uchiha Mikoto and Uchiha Sasuke. Mikoto is Kushina's close friend and she helps Kushina come here by pushing her wheelchair.
Zoro is feeling quite strange surrounded by all these important characters. It makes him feel like he's finally entering the main story of this world.
After getting ready for a while, Zoro's spar with Kakashi finally starts. The spectators are putting some distances to avoid disturbing the fighters.
Right after the match starts, Kakashi throws some smoke bombs to the ground, blocking Zoro's sight so he can hide.
"Eh? That Kakashi is avoiding direct confrontation in the beginning?" Guy is quite surprised.
"I guess he is trying to gauge his opponent's strength first. He is not you who will charge head on every time you fight, Guy." Genma answers Guy while also teasing him, so they start quarrelling.
"Shh! You are disturbing us. Stay quiet!" Kurenai reprimands them and hits their head, stopping their idiot fight.
Everyone looks at Zoro who doesn't move from his spot. He only places his left hand on a sword and doesn't take out that sword yet.
Then suddenly, kunais and shurikens are flying toward him from different directions. He still stays there and everyone sees him swing a sword with his left hand to deflect all the flying weapons without moving from his spot.
What surprises them is that he can deflect the ones coming from behind without even looking back. He only swings his sword behind him to deflect the kunais and shurikens without even looking.
Even more surprising, he deflects the ones with paper bombs on them stronger than the others so the paper bombs will be thrown further before they explode.
"Can he see all of those flying weapons? It's like he also has eyes on the back of his head." Tsunade rubs her chin while looking at Zoro seriously.
"I don't think he sees the flying weapons like how the Hyuga clan's byakugan works. He probably uses another technique that allows him to sense the incoming attacks. It can be something like his hearing sense that is very sharp, allowing him to hear the flying weapons. But I am not too sure either." Fugaku who watches the fight with his sharingan gives his opinion.
"Hmm, that makes sense. He doesn't seem to have any dojutsu, so it can be something else. That's impressive."
When they are discussing, Zoro suddenly jumps to avoid the hands that suddenly come out of the ground to grab his ankles.
Now they are more sure that Zoro has a sensory ability seeing how he can avoid such a surprise attack that not many can dodge.
Though Kakashi also surprises them with his skills. He suddenly throws some kunais that have wires attached to them and throws them from different hiding places to bind Zoro who is still in the air.
Too bad for Kakashi, Zoro easily cuts all the wires with a few swings of his sword. Zoro already knows those attacks are coming because he has sensed the real Kakashi and his clones since the match began.
"Hmm, you are better than I thought. But...."
Zoro suddenly swings his sword to a tree on his left. He creates a flying slash attack that cuts the tree easily. Everyone is surprised by how easily he cuts that tree, but they get even more surprised when Kakashi appears near the cut tree.
The real Kakashi was hiding there and was forced to dodge that flying slash attack, so he comes out and shows up now. Zoro grins before continuing what he says.
"That's not enough to defeat me. So try harder, ninja."
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Chapter 78. Escape
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