Naruto: Reborn as Zoro

The Top 16 battles are held the next day, so the fighters can rest and prepare for it. But they won't know their opponents yet because they'll draw sticks again tomorrow.

Zoro returns to his apartment that he decided to rent since he planned to join the tournament 2 months ago. Staying in an inn for 2 months will be more expensive, so he rented a small apartment.

On his way back from the tournament, he feels someone is following him. But he doesn't feel any malicious intent from the stalker and the guy actually hides very well.

Torao guesses that this person is a ninja, but not a very skilled one apparently. Though to be able to send a ninja, it must be someone with a high position that sends him to investigate Zoro.

They keep a close eye on this ninja, but the guy only watches them from afar without disturbing them. So they ignore him and the 2nd day of the tournament finally comes.

All 16 fighters draw a stick to decide their opponents. Zoro is matched with a middle-aged samurai with long blonde hair. The man looks like a lazy person, but Zoro knows he can't underestimate this guy.

He remembers this guy was fighting like a crazy person yesterday. It's like this man has a switch to change his personality when he fights.

"I watched your fight yesterday, boy. You were indeed a very talented kid. When I was your age, I wasn't nearly as strong as you. But it's still too early for you to get on this stage. Your skills are good, but you don't have the experience that we samurais have. I hope you don't put me on the same level as that idiot you defeated yesterday, or you will pay a hefty price for it."

The lazy-looking samurai suddenly yaps something before the fight. Zoro smiles when he hears that.

"Seems like you samurais really love to talk before fighting. Prove your points with your swords, old man. We aren't playing mind games here."

As he says that, Zoro unsheathes 2 swords. He doesn't want to show his 3 sword-style to these people yet. Though him carrying 3 swords has already made people curious.

His opponent gets shut by what he says and stops talking. Just like Zoro, the man also unsheathes 2 swords. But the man's swords are short and as Zoro thought, the man uses chakra to make longer chakra blades/swords.

The referee finally starts the match and both fighters rush at each other.

Then just like the previous day, the middle-aged man's personality switch is activated. He suddenly changes from a lazy-looking middle aged man to a crazy serial killer that rushes at his opponent like a hungry wolf.

Zoro isn't surprised and instead smiles as he is hoping for a good fight. In a short time, he almost reach his opponent, so he swings both of his swords diagonally from bottom left to top right.

Seeing it, the middle-aged samurai tries to counter it with just a sword and attack with another. However, the sword he uses to counter gets pushed back strongly.

So he can't continue his attack and jumps to the side. He never thought Zoro would have the strength to push him back. Even if he was using just 1 hand to counter, he was confident it could block Zoro's 2-handed attack.

"What a monstrous physical strength. You are even stronger than most adult samurais, at least physically. Never thought those 2 skinny arms could release such great strength. It seems I still underestimate you, kid."

Without waiting for any responses, the man charges at Zoro again. Now he is the one starting the attack. He slashes his swords in a cross shape from above.

Zoro counters it by holding his swords side by side and swings them forward. 4 swords colliding against each other, creating an impact that swipes the dust on the arena.

'As I thought, their chakra swords are taking physical forms. That's why even without using chakra, my swords can still touch theirs. If they don't exist physically, then they will pass through my swords and cut me instead.'

Zoro is confirming his thoughts about the samurais' chakra swords/blades. He wonders whether they can bypass physical objects that don't contain any chakra or not, so he tried attacking and defending.

'So this means I can treat them like normal swords, not magical swords that can't be touched.'

'But you still need to be careful. Chakra swords' powers depend on the users' powers. If this guy is skillful, then his chakra swords might be stronger and sharper than your swords, so they might break.'

Torao warns Zoro from inside his shadow. Zoro agrees with Torao, so he really needs to be careful of these chakra swords. He can use his chakra blade technique as well, but he feels that he doesn't need to use it yet.

Besides, if he depends too much on his chakra blade technique, then he feels like can't improve his swordsmanship nicely because he will just depend on his chakra blade technique's power instead of trying to improve the true essence of his swordsmanship.

So Zoro decides to not use his chakra blade techniques. This is a tournament anyway, not a life and death battle where he needs to use all he has to stay alive.

Both of them exchange attacks after attacks which surprise the audience. They never thought Zoro would be able to match an experienced samurai like this middle-aged guy.

Almost 5 minutes have passed and Zoro thinks he has seen enough of the middle-aged samurai's skills. He learns quite a lot. Most of this man's skills are basic, but they have been polished to good levels.

However, this man lacks power and doesn't have or at least hasn't shown any powerful moves. Zoro doesn't want to wait any longer, so he wants to finish this soon.

He holds both of his swords parallel to each other horizontally, pointing to the right in front of him with a lower stance.

"Nitoryu: Nigiri!"

(Two Sword Style: Two Cutter!"

Then he dashes at the man who also runs toward him.

"Toro!" (Climbing Tower!)

Zoro slashes his swords upwards, hitting the samurai's swords that are crossed to block. But they're pushed upward by Zoro's attack. A pair of faint slash energy also comes out of Zoro's swords.

"Tch! Still too weak."

Zoro is now able to create slash energy just from his swordsmanship skills and physical strength without using chakra. But it's still faint and isn't that strong yet if being launched, so he still needs to attack his opponents directly with his swords.

"Otoro!" (Reply Climbing Tower!)

He continues his attack, slashing his swords down. The samurai can't move his swords to block on time, so his body gets slashed by 2 swords vertically.

*Gahk!*

A pair of straight vertical deep wounds appear on the samurai's body. He flies back while coughing blood before he falls on the ground.

Zoro chases the samurai to finish his combo attack and then slashes his horizontally from the left side.

"Hirameki!" (Flash!)

It almost hits the samurai, but a pair of unknown chakra swords suddenly block it. The one who blocks it gets pushed back quite a bit.

Zoro frowns and looks at the one who blocks his attack. He's surprised to see that the blocker is the referee.

"That's enough, Roronoa Zoro. The match is over."

Although he is surprised because Zoro's attack could push him back, the referee still calmly tells Zoro that the match has finished while pointing at the middle-aged samurai who's gritting his teeth because of the pain.

The wounds are on the left and right side of the samurai's body, close to his arms. Now he can't lift his arms because of the pain and the cut on his muscles.

The referee realized this, that's why he stopped the match and blocked Zoro's swords. He announces Zoro's victory to conclude the match, so Zoro sheaths his swords and leaves the arena.

This match's result is a shock to many people. They never thought that a 12 y.o could defeat an experienced samurai and without even using chakra blade technique at that.

But some people with real skills have different thoughts.

"Did you see that, Mifune? He didn't use the chakra blade technique but managed to create energy slashes."

"Yes, Daimyo-sama, those slashes were faint, but he still could make those without chakra blades. And I never saw his techniques. Just who is his master?"

People have different opinions about him, but now they all know that Zoro is a strong contender for the winner of this tournament.

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Chapter 44. Changing Konoha

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