Visiting Iwagakure makes Zoro very excited. But this place looks very gloomy. All the buildings here are made of stones and rocks. They don't paint the buildings at all.
"These buildings look very similar to each other."
"Many people said the same. Those who visit for the first time usually get very confused."
The ninja who guides Zoro talks quite friendly. Maybe because Zoro is someone from the Land of Iron that has a rather close relationship with the Land of Earth because both countries are located next to each other and have quite a lot of deals.
Zoro finally arrives at the office. There are some shinobi officers there. They have a lot of papers on their desks.
"You want to claim bounty rewards?"
"Yeah, they should be from your village if I don't make a mistake."
Zoro tosses a scroll to a ninja officer who then opens it to check the corpses. They look really surprised when they find out whose corpses are stored.
"T-these are...."
"There's no mistake. They are those notorious twin brothers. Yamakura Kei and Sei."
"H-how did you defeat them?"
The ninja officers can't believe what they see. After all, the twin brothers were strong even among Iwa ninjas. Yet they were killed by a young teen bounty hunter.
"That's a secret. I live by hunting wanted criminals, so I can't share my method. Besides, what's important for you is to have the criminals captured or killed, right?"
"R-right, sorry about that. Let's proceed with the payment then. We've confirmed that they are the criminals wanted by our village."
They process everything quickly and Zoro finally gets his rewards after a while. A total of 2.4 million ryo for the twin brothers' heads. Now he has quite a lot of money to spend.
"Oh, now that I am in Iwa, I can buy that. Excuse me, can I ask where the tool store is? Also, I wonder if you have blacksmiths here."
"The tool store is quite close, but the blacksmiths' workshops are on the outskirts because they are too loud when working."
They show Zoro the way to the tool store and tell him to ask people for the blacksmith workshops because it will be too complicated if they explain it now.
He thanks them and goes to find the tool store. It's really easy to find because it's located in the main street.
Zoro smiles as he enters the store. There are a lot more items here compared to the tool store in Iron Capital. This store also has a lot of weapon variety, unlike the one in Iron Capital that mostly filled with swords.
"Welcome. What do you need, customer?"
A young man greets Zoro from behind the counter.
"Do you have weights like these?"
Zoro shows the weights in his left wrist.
"Eh? Yes. Actually, those weights that you use were the ones made by our clan."
"Ooh, so your clan is the one supplying this thing to Iron Capital, huh?"
"You are from the Land of Iron?"
"Yeah. I really like these weights, you see. But they are expensive there."
"Haha, it must be because of the transportation fee from here to Iron Capital. There are taxes too."
"Right. So they should be cheaper here, right?"
The young man laughs awkwardly before telling Zoro the prices. Zoro is surprised when he hears the prices here that are almost half of the prices in Iron Capital.
So he buys quite a lot of weights and some new straps too. There's also a vest-type and belt-type to put the weights, which he buys too.
He even buys dumbbells with replaceable weight plates that obviously use weight manipulation seals so they can be very heavy even if they are small.
The young clerk is stunned seeing Zoro buy so many weights. If Zoro doesn't tell him he will use them himself, the young clerk will think that Zoro is a merchant who wants to resell these items.
What's more shocking is that Zoro uses some of the new weights immediately. And he doesn't use the light weights. He is using some 100 kg and 10 kg bars on his 4 limbs and body, making the store clerk's jaw drop.
"J-just how much weight are you putting there?"
"Hmm, I use 150 kg on each arm and leg. 200 kg on the vest and 100 kg on the belt. So 900 kg in total."
Zoro can use more, but he still needs to do things, so he only uses that much. He also needs to get used to the new weights first because previously he only used 100 kg on each arm and leg as those were the only weights he had.
However, it's still very impressive for the store clerk. He never saw anyone carrying 900 kg weights so easily like this.
Zoro then asks the clerk for the blacksmith workshop's location. The clerk draws a simple map for Zoro to follow which obviously he can't understand at all.
Well, he doesn't need to understand because the one who will read this map is Torao who waits outside the store.
After walking for almost half an hour because they take the wrong turns many times, Zoro and Torao finally find the workshops.
There are a few workshops here and they just choose randomly. A middle-aged woman welcomes them and asks them what they need.
"Can you do maintenance on my swords?"
Zoro shows his swords to the woman.
"Ah, yes, but you will need to wait. Let me ask my husband."
The woman opens the door inside and calls her husband. Soon, a muscular man with charcoal dust covering some parts of his body and clothes came out.
"What is it?"
"There's someone who wants to do sword maintenance."
She says it while pointing at the swords on the desk. The blacksmith comes over to check the swords. He inspects them one by one very seriously.
"Swords from the Land of Iron, huh?"
"You can tell?"
"I learned there for a few years. Their smithing method is different, so it's easy to recognize their swords. Come back in 2 days. I need to finish some orders first."
"Alright."
Zoro then leaves the workshop to go find an inn to stay until his swords are done.
The next day, he walks around the village while carrying bamboo swords on his waist. It just feels strange to walk without any swords, so he replaces his swords with bamboo swords.
People also feel more at ease with him carrying bamboo swords instead of metal swords. Many looked wary of him yesterday because he carried metal swords on the street, but now they don't seem to mind because he carries bamboo swords.
Zoro just walks around the village, tries some local food, and visits some recommended places. He is just being a tourist today without doing anything suspicious.
It's all because he has been followed by a ninja since he got the bounty rewards. The village must be wary of an unknown person who could kill 2 of their former jonins.
So they need to make sure he isn't a threat by sending a ninja, who must be an Anbu to follow him. That's why Zoro and Torao just do normal things to avoid being the targets of Iwagakure.
The only thing that makes the Anbu quite wary of Zoro is his training. He will only do physical training while in Iwa, but the weights he uses are just out of norm.
Zoro is lifting hundreds of kilograms weights while still having the weight straps on his body. The Anbu is surprised when he sees that. He never saw someone with such physical strength before.
"Maybe that's why he could defeat those twin brothers. Have we got confirmation from the Land of Iron?"
The Anbu has reported his spying result to the Tsuchikage. They also tried to confirm his identity by asking the Land of Iron.
"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama. He is indeed their citizen, but he is not a samurai and is not a wanted criminal either."
"What?! He isn't a samurai but has that kind of power and skills?"
"It's said that he has been a mercenary for a few years. He even won their swordsmanship tournament 2 years ago. Maybe his power and skills were gained from the battlefield."
"He won their tournament yet he wasn't recruited by them?"
"Yes. The ministers didn't agree because he has an unclear background even though the Iron Daimyo wanted to take him."
"Hmm, makes sense. But you sure he doesn't have any criminal records, right?"
"Yes."
"Alright then, leave him be unless he breaks our rules."
Zoro has avoided trouble despite never making any problem here. But from now on, he will have an easier time every time he visits Iwagakure.
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Chapter 53. Ship Again
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