Walking alone in the desert is a green-haired man with 3 swords on his hips. He walks toward a village located in a valley, surrounded by tall rock cliffs. As he said in the rumor he spread, Zoro comes to attack Sunagakure.
When the village entrance is finally visible to his eyes, Zoro takes Enma out of its sheath. Then without saying a word, he swings Enma horizontally. He doesn't imbue it with haki, so it's just a normal slash.
But it's enough to create a giant slash attack that flies toward the rock wall. The village guards are surprised when they see a giant energy blade fly toward them. Then before they can do anything about it, the energy blade hits the village wall.
*BOOM!*
A very loud sound is created when the energy blade hits the wall. The attack creates a big long and deep cut on the very tall and thick rock wall. The very loud impact sound alerts everyone in the village and all Suna shinobi immediately runs to the village entrance.
When they arrive, they see the numerous chunks of rocks and debris that fall off the cut on the rock wall. They fall on the entrance too, blocking it quite nicely.
"WHAT HAPPENS?" The shinobi that finally arrives asks the guards that almost get buried by the falling rocks.
"A-A POWERFUL JUTSU SUDDENLY FLEW TOWARD US FROM AFAR AND HIT THE WALL."
"WE ARE BEING ATTACKED!"
"QUICK! FIND THE ATTACKER!"
The shinobi quickly rushes out of the blocked entrance with their weapons ready in their hands. They look around to find the one who dares to attack their village in broad daylight.
A moment later, they see a figure walk calmly from afar. This person doesn't even try to hide or even walk in a rush. He just enjoys his walk as if he doesn't have just challenged a whole village of shinobi.
"Who's that?" Even the shinobi can't see his figure clearly yet.
"NINJA HUNTER!? THAT'S NINJA HUNTER ZORO!" A shinobi finally shouts when he can see Zoro's figure clearly.
"NO WAY! HE REALLY COMES TO ATTACK US."
"IS HE CRAZY? HE REALLY COMES ALONE!"
"Or he is just stupid." Rasa the 4th Kazekage finally arrives.
Tens of thousands of the village's shinobi have arrived at the village entrance. Their opponent is just a single person.
"Are you out of your mind, Ninja Hunter Zoro?" Rasa who stands at the front calls out to Zoro.
"No worries, I'm perfectly inside of my mind."
"..... That's not.... Sigh, you are really crazy."
"Now that's correct. No sane people will attack a Great Hidden Village alone I think."
"You surely know that we won't let you leave alive after what you've done, right?"
"How about the opposite? You think I'll let you live after what you've done to me Kazekage?"
"I don't think I've done anything to you." Rasa still tries to deny his scheme.
"Who are you trying to fool here? There's no use trying to lie to me. Who do you think I am? As someone who basically lives in the hidden society of this world, I surely know how to find what I want to know. I can even find missing nins that you Great Villages can't find. Do you think it would be difficult to find the one who spread the rumor about me and this village? Nevermind that, what do you think about my payback? They are nice, aren't they?" Zoro smirks arrogantly.
"As I thought, it was you who spread those baseless rumors." Rasa grits his teeth angrily.
"That's what you get for pissing me off. Although I know your reason for slandering me, it doesn't mean I would sympathize and let you off."
Zoro knew the reason Rasa spread that rumor about him selling information to Suna was because this village is facing a crisis. The Land of Wind actually used Konoha's services more than theirs even though they are basically the ninjas of The Land of Wind.
Though Zoro doesn't understand why Rasa needs to use him like that. Then one of his brokers told him a very probable guess. It was to show that Sunagakure was great enough to recruit Zoro.
Zoro is very famous now, known as the strongest independent fighter. Villages and Countries tried to recruit him, but he always refused. So being able to recruit him would show that Sunagakure was a better choice than other Villages.
Another reason was to make the other Villages even more wary of Sunagakure. By saying that they bought information about other villages from Zoro, the other villages would be very wary of them because they don't know what kind of information that Sunagakure gets from Zoro.
Doing that would also show that they are better than other villages. So it will help them gain The Land of Wind's trust again. It was proved by how the Land of Wind finally started hiring their ninjas more after they spread the rumor.
"If your job was taken by Konoha, don't you think that it was because your skills are shit? Or maybe it was you who can't lead the village well and failed as a leader? Well, I'm not even surprised by it. After all, you can't even be a good father for your children. Using your child as an experiment by sealing a beast inside his body. How would the country believe a village led by someone who doesn't even love his son? Won't the country think that if you can't even love your son, you surely can't love the country? Well, you might not understand love, so let's make it simple. If you can even do such a thing to your son that led to your wife's death, then won't the country think that you can do worse things to them?"
"What bullshit. We are shinobi. Our lives belong to the village and country. I can do anything I want to my kin, but everything is for the village and country."
"I see. Shinobi mindset, huh? Then does that mean you are also just a tool for the country?"
"That's right."
"Hoho? Then why don't you seal Shukaku in your body? Why? You are afraid, don't you? I thought Kazekage is the strongest ninja in the village, but you don't even dare to seal the Tailed Beast inside your body even though if you do it, controlling it would be easier than if a kid who can't even control his chakra properly yet tries to control it. Don't your stupid ass ever think that if you are also a Jinchuuriki, you will become even more powerful? Won't that make you feared even more by other villages?"
"You sure have a lot of complaints about how I treat my own kid."
"Well, those are not my complaints actually. I only say what my friend wants to say to you." Zoro shrugs his shoulder.
"Your friend?" Rasa frowns while trying to look for the friend that Zoro means.
"You won't find her anywhere else because she's here with me." Zoro smirks while pointing down to his shadow.
A figure slowly emerges from Zoro's shadow. It's a cat.
"...." Rasa and Suna shinobi are at a loss of words.
"Hey, Torao, what should I say next?"
"About Pakura."
"Oh, right, you even sacrificed one of your best shinobi just for a short peace treaty with Kiri if I remember correctly."
"?!" Rasa is surprised that Zoro knows about how they sent Pakura on a fake mission to be killed by Kiri as a part of their peace treaty negotiation.
"Well, you must be curious how I found out about this. You might not know this, but I've been watching over Kirigakure's movements for years since we became enemies. They even put a bounty on me once until I made them cancel it with some threats. Do you think it would be difficult to know what they were doing when I kept buying information about their activities?"
Some years ago, Sunagakure sent Pakura on a fake mission. Then she was killed by Kiri ninjas on an ambush that had been planned. It was all a part of the peace treaty negotiation between Suna and Kiri, then Suna blamed her death on Iwa as an excuse to attack them.
It happened not long before Zoro killed Kiri's 7 Great Swordsmen. So Kiri was still very strong back then, that's why Suna didn't want to fight them. If it happened after the 7 Great Swordsmen's death, then Zoro would try to save her and make her his ally because she was one of the strongest shinobi at her time.
"How stupid of you to rather sacrifice Pakura, one of your best shinobi. Her Kekkei Genkai was feared by other villages, yet you still sacrificed her. Or maybe, you were afraid that she would take your title as Kazekage because she could be stronger than you. Heh, you have an inferiority complex, huh, Rasa-chan."
These smart talks aren't from Zoro, they are from Torao. Zoro simply repeats what Torao tells him in his mind. This former Soul Reaper might have turned into a cat, but his mind is still sharp.
Even Rasa whose emotion is unmoving like a giant stone has started to get pissed off. After all, Zoro's arrogant expression was just too annoying. His expression was like asking to be punched in the face.
But Rasa can't be too bothered with being mad at Zoro. It's because his men are starting to get confused and their hearts waver after hearing that their village sacrificed Pakura to Kirigakure.
After all, only the higher-ups know the truth, the people only know what they were told, that Pakura was killed by Iwagakure. She was one of their village's heroes, after all, so people are looking up to her.
Yet, now they hear that their hero was sent off to her death by their own village. It obviously shakes their hearts and they start to doubt their village, they start to doubt the 4th Kazekage too. Then, Zoro voices what they all are thinking.
"Do you understand what this means, Suna shinobi? If your village can sacrifice your Kazekage's son and your hero, then how many of you normal ninjas have been sacrificed and will be sacrificed from now on? Well, you all are tools anyway, right? That's the life of shinobi, so I guess you are ready to be discarded as tools anytime. Which means, it's okay for me to kill you all today, tools."
Zoro smirks while pointing a sword at the Suna shinobi. He is ready to start the war with Sunagakure.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
!! NEW!!
Read up to +40 CHAPTERS ahead in my patreon page.
patreon.com/creampuffs69
Chapter 121. The Beast Back
Please like and support this book too if you like it, thank you