In the next few days, Minato sends more young promising ninjas to spar with Zoro. But all of them are crushed even when they fight him together.
It's not that they are weak. Zoro is just much better than them and he keeps improving every day as he fights them.
Fighting ninjas with different battle styles has helped him improve his skills. He also starts finding his own battle style that's not copying the original Zoro's battle style.
While the original Zoro's style focuses more on strength, he wants to have balance between strength and speed because his opponents are mostly ninjas who can move at high speeds.
Strong Swordsmanship that emphasizes strength and Gentle Swordsmanship that emphasizes speed. He wants to combine both of them, but for now he needs to train his speed because he has been focusing more on strength so far.
But he also doesn't neglect his speed. It's just not his focus and most of his speed training is for body movements like running or dodging, not battle movements where he swings his swords around at high speeds.
To use his swordsmanship skills at high speed, being able to move fast alone isn't enough. He needs to train his agility too so that he can move however he wants at high speed.
Right now, he can do iai technique, or the Acting Draw technique at a very high speed. But it's easy because the movements are simple. He just needs to draw his sword from its scabbard, swing it, and put it back to his scabbard.
But it's still very difficult to make complex movements at high speeds. Iai is also a planned move, so it's easier. He needs to train moving spontaneously at high speeds.
The hard part is doing what his brain thinks of. He can think of what to do to respond to his enemies' high speed attacks. But his body can't follow what his brain thinks of, so he often can't respond to his opponents' attacks.
Now he's thinking of a way to train his speed, agility, reaction speed, reflex, and all things that will help him fight well at high speed. But he also needs to make sure his attacks are strong, not just fast.
Most people who chase speed neglect their strength. Attacking at high speed will increase attack power. But if those attacks also have strength in them, then they'll be even more powerful.
The problem now, Zoro can't think of a way to train his speed for fighting. He can run at high speed, thanks to his strong leg muscles. But using that speed for fighting is different and he doesn't know the training for it.
Well, he can only think of 1 method, fighting opponents who are fast. He can polish his high speed battle skills by fighting opponents who are much faster than him like Raikage.
His battles with Raikage and even Guy have helped him improve his speed in battle and even his senses. So he knows fighting against fast opponents will help him improve his fighting speed too, that's the only thing he can think of.
That's why he actually wants to have a match with Minato, but the guy is extremely busy with his work as a Hokage.
Minato keeps sending young ninjas to fight Zoro instead of the strong adults. Zoro knows that Minato wants to train these young ninjas through these matches, but they are not enough to pressure Zoro.
So after a few days, Zoro plans to leave Konoha and continues his bounty hunting job. He plans to hunt missing nins that are known to be fast even among ninjas so they can help him train.
But before he can leave, Minato calls him to the Hokage office.
"I heard you took a commissioned job from Kumogakure."
"Yeah, I was a mercenary, after all. I just switched to bounty hunting because mercenary jobs don't pay high enough for my skill level. But it doesn't mean I will just take any job."
"Then, will you take this job?"
"That depends."
"Alright, you can decide after hearing it, but never let it out of this room. Zoro-kun, are you familiar with the underworld society?"
"I basically live there, why? It has something to do with the underworld?"
"Yes, the job is to deliver a very important scroll to someone in the underworld. But we can't send our men to him for a while because other forces are starting to suspect our relationship. We need to keep our connection a secret."
"That feels really strange. You surely have a lot of ways to still make contact with him even if many are suspecting your connections already. Don't you think sending an outsider like me for this kind of mission is even more dangerous than using other methods like sending your Anbu or those specialized in this kind of thing. Surely you won't say that your specially trained Anbu can't even hide their identities, right?"
"Ugh, well, it's true that they can deliver the document without being caught. Seems like I can't fool you that easily, huh? Well, the true purpose of this mission is to make you have a connection with him."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Basically, I want you to meet him in front of others and make one or two deals so people will think that you have connections. If people see you have connections with him, then the suspicion of him working for us will shake. Also, I actually want to stay in contact with you through his underworld group so I can commission some jobs for you in the future. In exchange, you can get important information from his group for lower price or maybe even free. That group is one of the best information broker groups in the underworld, so you'll surely like it."
"I see, you say it in a roundabout way, but you just want to introduce me to this underworld broker group that has a tie with Konoha so that you can commission jobs that Konoha can't do themselves like if you need to hide your involvement. Also, it is a good way to monitor my activity and see if I will be a threat to Konoha, right? Is it because I seem to get closer to Kumogakure?"
"Haha, you think too much about it, Zoro-kun. I just want to stay in contact with you through that group so we can offer jobs for you just as I said before."
Minato is surprised Zoro can uncover the real reason that much. Zoro doesn't look like the smart-type and he really isn't smart. He is a muscle head, so there's no way he can understand that much just from a little talk.
Everything he said was told by Torao who hid in his shadow. Torao and Zoro are not simply comrades or a pet and its owner. They are partners created by God at the same time with their souls bound to each other, and they can use telepathy between them to communicate.
Torao who always kept himself hidden in Zoro's shadow because it was relaxing was hearing everything Minato said. He quickly understood what Minato wanted, that is to keep being connected with Zoro.
The cat assumes that it's because of Zoro's strength and potential. He's also someone with a good relationship with the Land of Iron and not to mention his "Kekkei Genkai" a.k.a Haki.
All those things are too good to be ignored. So Minato thinks they need to keep the good relationship they have with Zoro and improve it by staying in contact with him even when he is going around the continent.
"I really don't mean anything bad, Zoro-kun. What I want is just to stay in touch with you. Konoha wants to stay on good terms with you. Also, it's true that we plan to offer you some jobs as a mercenary in the future because there are things we can't do ourselves."
"Figures." Zoro understands this much. A lot of organizations are using outsiders to do things for them to hide their involvement. Most of those things are illegal or can cause war between organizations, that's why they hire outsiders.
Zoro agrees to Minato's proposal, but he also makes sure he can refuse the jobs offered to him. Minato agrees because it's normal. Then after making the deal, Zoro finally leaves Konoha to hunt more strong opponents.
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Chapter 82. Soloing Sunagakure
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