Zoro wakes up in the hospital after a while since he passes out. B is standing beside his bed while Yugito and Samui are getting an earful from Raikage.
"What happens?" Zoro asks B with a low voice.
"Y-you wake up, ya fool. W-well, we were training on an island for a few weeks. We needed to do everything ourselves including cooking and both of them were bad at it. Suck! Suck! Suck!" Even B is rapping in a low voice.
"Huh? I don't think their food was that bad."
"Ya fool! They learned a lot since then and kept forcing us to test their food." B rubs his bulging stomach.
"So they fed you every day, huh? Was that why you hid when they made me eat their food?"
"8 times a day, yo! Who won't get sick of that? They've gotten better, but that doesn't mean I can eat that much every day." B wants to puke just by remembering that.
"..... I see. So they changed their target to me and you just watched."
"Sorry about that."
"Seems like I can't stay here for too long then. I will leave tomorrow." Zoro doesn't want to be their food tester either, so he decides to leave as soon as possible.
"N-no! Please, no! They'll force us to eat again." B seems like he is about to cry as he hugs Zoro.
"You're a big guy, you'll manage somehow." Zoro tries to push him off.
"No! We'll get fat if this keeps up. Please, you must make them stop!" B even stops rapping because he is so desperate.
Suddenly, Raikage stops his lecture. He and the girls approach Zoro who's being hugged by the crying B. They apologize with dropped faces.
"Sigh, I've heard the problem from B. Honestly though, your food was good. Well, not as good as professional chefs' food, but they were good. It's just that I couldn't enjoy your food when you shoved everything at once into my mouth. We can't enjoy even the best food if we don't have the time to taste them properly, can we?"
"D-do you really mean it?" Yugito seems sceptical.
"Why would I lie? You can taste it yourself if you don't believe me."
"B-but it won't be fair. We will be biased to our food."
Zoro slaps his forehead. "... Then ask a professional. How about this? Cook something and bring it tomorrow. Let's ask a real chef's opinion. But don't shove the food into their mouth."
They nod while Zoro sighs. He can't believe they can be this childish even though they are already adults now. He doesn't even remember them being these types of characters in the story.
Seems like his presence and interactions with people don't just change the story plot but also their character developments, which is really interesting.
What he doesn't know is that the girls' character developments are massively affected by their feelings for him. But a wall like him won't understand it even though he thinks he is not a dense protagonist.
Luckily, his advice for the food is good. The next day, the girls bring their cooking and Zoro asks the innkeeper of his favorite inn to taste the food. She tastes the food and says that their food is good enough, making them happy.
B sighs in relief because now they won't force him and the others to try their food again. The other guys even shed tears when B tells them this news, which makes Zoro think why they didn't do this from the very beginning.
"Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! Ya fool! They only agree because you were the one who asked." B looks at Zoro with disdain.
Zoro tilts his head, doesn't understand what he means at all. Everyone slaps their forehead while sighing and looking at Zoro with eyes full of pity.
"There's really no perfect human." Atsui, Samui's brother who is the greatest victim of his sister's cooking shakes his head before leaving.
Everyone else also leaves. Only B stays behind because he plans to drink with Zoro who is dumbfounded because he still doesn't understand what happens.
But he forgets about it quickly when he starts drinking with B. Just like the original Zoro in One Piece, he also enjoys drinking alcohol. He thought he wouldn't, but now he is an alcoholic.
Fortunately, he knows his limitations and won't drink too much. It's just that his alcohol toleration level is high, so he doesn't get drunk easily.
Anyway, Zoro does some training with B for the next few days. It's their usual routine. They rarely have chances to fight powerful swordsmen, so they always do some sparring matches every time Zoro comes to Kumo.
Then, during a sparring session, Zoro hears an intriguing news. Be tells him that Kiri is in a mess now. Their Mizukage suddenly changes and does a lot of strange things.
Zoro realizes that Obito must have started manipulating the 4th Mizukage. That guy wasn't being manipulated yet a few years ago when Zoro defeated the 7 Swordsmen of Mist, that's why he couldn't sense anything wrong with Mizukage.
Though he's sure that Madara and Black Zetsu must've done something years ago to make Kiri seal the 3 Tails in Rin's body. It was a way to make Obito awaken his Mangekyo and join his side, after all.
But now, Obito finally manipulated the 4th Mizukage, most likely using genjutsu because Akatsuki will start the plan to capture the Tailed Beast in a few years. This must be one of the preparations.
*****
A few days later, Zoro is collecting information in the black market when he hears that Kisame has joined Akatsuki. It makes him wonder who will be Kisame's partner because Itachi doesn't leave Konoha.
It will be interesting to find out because Akatsuki is on his hit list. Their members are criminals with high prices on their heads. As a bounty hunter, there's no way he won't be tempted by those juicy rewards.
Currently, Orochimaru is still a member of Akatsuki. Zoro doesn't remember why Orochimaru left Akatsuki in the series, but it might be trickier to deal with Orochimaru who still has the backing of Akatsuki.
"I guess Orochimaru will fill the gap that doesn't get filled by Itachi. Both of them are strong, but with different types of skills. Either way, they are still annoying opponents if I need to fight them."
Zoro reads the information he collects about Akatsuki. That group already has their main members who are known in the series including Deidara who has just joined them, except for Itachi whose presence is replaced by Orochimaru.
Zoro thinks that Orochimaru must have his own agenda in Akatsuki because that snake isn't the type that will just follow orders. So maybe Orochimaru won't really cooperate with the Infinite Tsukuyomi plan if it doesn't benefit him.
"Should I start messing with them? Hmm, but maybe it's still too early."
He always wants to mess with Akatsuki, but he still has a concern, Obito. Zoro still doesn't know how to face Obito's Mangekyo ability which is a big problem.
That doesn't mean he is afraid because he's sure he can avoid being transported to another dimension by Obito's eye. The problem is he can't hit Obito. If he can't hit, then he can't win.
Obito's ability isn't something like devil fruit's invincibility, so Haki won't help Zoro touch Obito's body. Even with Haki, it will be useless if Obito's body is not in the same dimension as him.
Although Obito still hasn't "joined" Akatsuki as Tobi, he is still overseeing it from the shadow. So if Zoro wants to deal with Akatsuki, he needs to think of ways to deal with Obito too.
*****
Days later, when Zoro enjoys the deer meat he hunts in the forest, he feels a familiar faint presence.
"What do you want now, Zetsu?"
A Zetsu clone comes out of the ground. The real Zetsu doesn't dare to come near Zoro anymore because he almost killed both White and Black Zetsu a few years ago as they kept annoying him.
Akatsuki is still trying to recruit him even after he refused them so many times and even killed their members. Even Zetsu almost died in his hands, yet he still comes to recruit him.
Though White Zetsu only sends his clones to try recruiting Zoro and stalks him. But Zoro's senses are still too sensitive so they can't follow to collect information him at all.
"Don't worry, Ninja Hunter. We aren't here to recruit you again, we've given up on that."
"I see. Is that why you bring someone with you?"
"Fufufu, you are as sensitive as always."
Suddenly, Zetsu clone's mouth widens and someone comes out of his mouth. It's a man with orange hair and peculiar eyes that have circles on them.
"That must be Rinnegan. Then you must be Pain."
However, this Pain is not Yahiko, it's someone else who has long hair on his right face and tied the remaining hair strands on top. This is the Animal Path Pain that gets defeated by Jiraiya in the series and later gets changed with a woman's corpse.
"Well then, see you later, Ninja Hunter." Zetsu clone smirks before turning into dirt.
The Animal Path Pain slaps his hands on the ground and a big seal appears. Thick smoke appears and then the other 5 Paths of Pain appear there.
"Well, this looks bad."
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