Zoro's excitement is cut short because his opponents decide to ignore him. The 5 of them don't even consider him their opponent and only fight among themselves.
"What the hell? They are looking down on me?"
He understands their reason well, though. He is just a kid, after all, so they surely think he is an easy opponent they can dispose of anytime.
"They realize that I passed the 1st Qualification Round, right?"
But well, even some independent swordsmen also passed the 1st round. However those people were defeated easily by official samurais. That's why they don't think much of Zoro either.
"Sigh, whatever then."
Zoro sheathes his swords and sits on the ground, waiting for them to finish. There's no need to waste his energy if the opponents decide to ignore him. If they can't even realize his power, then their levels are just that much.
He watches their battles and confirms his previous thoughts. These samurais are focusing more on speed.
After a lot of investigations, Zoro found out that the reason samurais can fight shinobis well is because they can disturb shinobis' ninjutsu preparations.
By attacking when the shinobis are making hand seals for their jutsu, the samurais can prevent them from executing their jutsu and make them unable to fight.
But to do that, they need to be able to reach the shinobis. That means they need to be fast because strong shinobis can make hand seals in a very short time.
These samurais are fast, but he still can see their movements. He keeps watching to learn more of the samurais' techniques. Zoro might not be smart when it comes to other things, but if it's about swords, he can understand things very quickly.
Then after a while, the 5 samurais finally finish their battles. The winner is a long-haired man with a small scar on his forehead. He raises his hands triumphantly as if he has won the round.
"Finally my turn, huh?"
Zoro stands up while cracking his neck. The man looks at him with a raised eyebrow.
"What's this? You are still here, kid?"
"Well, I haven't lost, so...."
"Sigh, get out of this arena quickly. I don't want to bully a kid."
"Oh, what a coincidence. I don't want to bully a weakling, so you better step out of this arena."
"Huh? What did you say?"
The man looks pissed by what Zoro said.
"You hear me. Step out and I won't hurt you, pretty hair."
Zoro smirks while unsheathing just 1 sword now.
"Heh, so you know the beauty of my hair, huh? You have potential, kid."
"....."
The man who doesn't know that Zoro intended to insult him sways his hair proudly. To be fair, his hair is very shiny and pretty. Even the girls in the audience are jealous of him now.
"Sigh, whatever. Let's just finish this, pretty hair."
Zoro walks forward while holding one of his swords' scabbard in his right hand.
"Hmph, so you want to fight me, huh, boy? Very well, I'll respect that choice and show you the mercy of a samurai."
The long-haired man holds both of his swords and gets into a stance. His right hand is above with the sword pointing down while his left hand is below with the sword pointing up. He spreads his legs, lowers his body and leans forward a little.
"Let me, your senior, teach you a valuable lesson. A lion never holds back even when hunting a rabbit."
Just after he says that, the long-haired samurai coats his swords with chakra. Zoro just keeps walking forward calmly with left hand holding a scabbard and his right hand holding its hilt.
Then the samurai finally charges at Zoro who still looks calm.
"Samurai's Iaido (sword drawing technique), if I'm not wrong, it should be like this, right?"
Zoro stares at the long-haired samurai who has gotten close to him with a calm but sharp gaze. Then all of a sudden, he disappears from his spot and appears 3 meters behind the samurai who now has his eyes wide open.
He is in a low stance with his right leg at the front and left leg at the back. The sword he holds has been drawn and pointed to the sky right-above, at a diagonal angle.
"N-no way! That's- *GAHK!*"
Before he can finish his shaky words, the long-haired samurai coughs some blood and falls forward unconsciously.
Mifune on and some high-ranking samurais also have their eyes wide open. By now, they know Zoro is a mercenary, an independent samurai. But the technique he used just now was Samurai's Iaido.
"That's.... That kid knows how to use Samurai's Iaido?"
"Does this mean his master was a samurai? A retired samurai? Or maybe even a rogue samurai?"
"But what that kid said before attacking, is it possible that he learned our Iaido by watching the samurais used it?"
"No way! Mifune, even if it's a basic technique, there's no way someone can learn it that easily and execute it almost perfectly in his first try."
"No, it's possible. There are geniuses who can learn techniques after watching it a few times or even just once. Just because we never saw such a talent, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. After all, we always heard such stories from Shinobi Great Clans. There were also such tales in our history like the Great Samurai Ryoma who fought a Tailed Beast alone long in the past."
"Do you mean to say that this kid is at that level?"
"I just say that it's possible to have such talent. We'll still need to see if he truly has that great of talent in the next rounds."
"Right, we can't conclude everything yet."
The old Daimyo gets even more interested in Zoro after hearing the high-ranking Samurais. He thought this tournament would be boring because it almost looks the same every year.
So the appearance of an interesting fighter will surely make this more entertaining. The Iron Daimyo also learned swordsmanship in his youth, so he knows quite a lot of things and can tell that Zoro's skills will spark a bigger flame in this tournament.
As he guessed, the other fighters who pass to the next round and those who will fight next are intrigued by Zoro's victory.
Although some people say that Zoro's victory was a fluke because his opponent was tired after fighting 4 people, the strong ones know that anything can happen in battles and one needs to use everything to their advantage.
If the long-haired samurai lost because he looked down on Zoro, then it's his fault. If he was tired, then it's his weakness that led to his defeat.
But these strong ones know that Zoro's victory wasn't a fluke. At the very least, they know the long-haired samurai was serious when attacking Zoro and even if he didn't, the fact that Zoro's single attack could defeat him shows that Zoro's attack was powerful.
Even if they are careless, they won't get defeated by just a single attack if it's not strong enough. They have trained for years and went through many battles, so they won't get defeated that easily unless the attack is really strong.
Zoro can sense a lot of gazes as he leaves the arena after being announced as the winner. He grins as he looks at the powerful presence watching him from the audience seats.
'I want to fight them too.'
'It's still too early for you.'
Torao suddenly sends him telepathy from his shadow. The cat has hidden in Zoro's shadow since the tournament started to keep Zoro safe in case he gets in danger.
'We never know unless we try.'
'Sigh, do you remember Mifune from the story? He is among those people. That guy fought Hanzo the Salamander a few years ago. He lost, but that defeat made him able to grow a lot. Do you remember that in the Naruto story, Mifune fought the reanimated Hanzo and won? That Mifune has become old, so I'm sure his power has declined. But the current Mifune seems to be in his prime, so you won't have a chance to defeat him now.'
'Well, it will still be a valuable experience. As long as I fight him in a friendly spar, I'm sure he won't kill me even if I lose. At most I will be hospitalized, right?'
'You-.... Sigh, whatever. But you can't fight him today anyway. So just focus on the tournament.'
'Fine, fine."
Zoro enters the waiting room and watches the next battle groups. As expected the winners of other groups are official samurais. He is the only independent swordsman who enters the top 16, the underdog of this tournament.
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Chapter 43. Danzo
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