63. Informant

Zoro's bounty hunting job's strategy is different now. Previously, he was hunting those who are close by and have decent power. But now he will even hunt those who are far enough as long as they are known to be fast and strong.

He does this to train his battle speed. Now that he has found his preferred battle style, he becomes determined to train it very seriously until he masters it.

It's been a while since he thought of finding his own battle style instead of just copying the original Zoro's style. So now that he has found it, he becomes very excited.

After all, he can finally feel himself improving again after being stagnant for quite a long time. It's like he finally can fix his car that breaks on the way and now it can move again after he works hard to fix it.

That's why he is very eager to fight people who can fight at high speeds because they can stimulate his battle speed and show him ways to fight at high speeds.

But before finding those kinds of prey, Zoro needs to find the person that Minato asks him to meet. This is an introduction to an information broker disguised as a job.

Zoro wasn't too interested at first, but if the guy he's supposed to meet is great at his job, then Zoro will have a great source of information that can help him with a lot of things.

He has met a lot of information brokers who are bad at their jobs. A lot of them also ask for too much money even though their information is unreliable.

That's why finding good broker groups that are trustworthy and give fair prices for fair levels of information is very important, but it's not easy because the underworld is full of those with malicious intents like scammers.

So when Minato told him the guy he's supposed to meet was an information broker, he got quite excited. It is his chance to find a reliable information broker that can help him with his bounty hunting.

Zoro goes to the place that Minato told him, a small town in the Land of Water that is not too far from the Land of Fire. He looks around to find the building where the broker runs his business.

After looking around for a while, Zoro finally finds it, an old book store. He quickly gets inside and looks around the store, waiting for the customer that really buys a book to finish his transaction.

After the customer leaves, Zoro approaches the shopkeeper and says the codes that Minato told him. The codes are quite a hassle because it's like a long conversation.

Zoro is bad at memorizing this kind of thing, but he can say everything perfectly thanks to Torao who tells him what to say through telepathy while hiding in Zoro's shadow.

The shopkeeper then lets Zoro enter the back door under the pretext that he is ordering a rare book before and he can check the book inside. He says it loud enough to be heard by the 2 people who are checking books on the shelves and seem to be real customers looking for books.

Behind the door is a small book room. Someone is sitting behind a desk while working on some papers. He glances at Zoro for a moment before pushing a button under his desk.

A book shelf suddenly slides to the left, revealing stairs that lead down. Zoro follows the stairs and arrives in a rather big underground room. There are many stacks of papers there and some people are working on them.

Suddenly, a woman approaches Zoro and asks what he wants. So he just says the code that has been told to him. The woman seems surprised and then leads Zoro to a room furthest on the back.

"Master, you have a guest."

"Get in."

The woman opens the door and Zoro enters the room before she closes it. Now he is alone there with a middle-aged man who has lost his left eye. There's a big diagonal scar there which seems to be caused by a sharp weapon.

"A new face. Who are you, kid?"

"A courier from the woods."

"..... Are you for real now?"

"I am, Mr. Woodpecker."

"..... So you're not lying. Sigh, why did they send an outsider now? Fine, give me the token."

Zoro tosses a scroll that is tied with a red rope. There's a small round wood coin attached to the rope. It has a lot of black writings on it which seem to be a seal.

The man makes some hand seals and the seal quickly disappears. Minato told Zoro that this seal is very powerful and only those who know it can break it easily, so this guy is really the one he's supposed to meet.

After breaking the seal, the man with the codename Woodpecker opens the scroll and reads its content. He reads it quickly and then sighs while looking at Zoro.

"I see, that's why they send an outsider. Seems like we need to be much more careful from now on and increase the business with outsiders. Alright kid, here's the reward."

Woodpecker throws a black metal card at Zoro.

"That's the card for the highest priority members in our group. You can basically get every information here."

"I see. Then, can I get information about missing nins who are known to be fast and strong?"

"S-Ranks?"

"Let's go for A-Ranks for now. I just need them to test something."

"Okay."

Woodpecker rings the bell in his desk and the woman from before enters the room. He tells her Zoro's request and she nods before leaving the room to start looking for the information.

"Are you planning to hunt bounties more frequently now, Ninja Hunter, Roronoa Zoro?"

Ninja Hunter, that's Zoro's nickname that he earned a while ago because he has been hunting a lot of missing nins alone and a lot of them are high-ranks.

"So you really know me, huh?"

"Well, I am a top rank information broker. If I don't even know the infamous Ninja Hunter, then I should've just quit my job. Anyway, it is said that you will receive commissioned jobs through me. But how will we contact you?"

"Yeah, but I won't just accept any job."

"Of course. We will only offer jobs that won't put you in difficult situations like making you an enemy of hidden villages and countries."

"Good. Well, I usually visit black markets to buy information. I will just buy them from your group from now on. You have branches in many places, right?"

"Yeah, I'll give you the list. But for easier communication, I will give you this necklace. The pendant has a seal that can be sensed by our trained hawks. We'll send the hawks to you when we need your help. For now, we don't have any job for you, so you can do what you want."

"Alright."

Someone suddenly knocks on the door and enters the room. It's the previous woman. She returns with a stack of papers filled with the information that Zoro asks.

"Here. You can take this information for free. Take it as a down payment for our cooperation. But we'll appreciate it if you hunt the ones wanted by Konoha and the Land of Fire."

"Fine by me."

Zoro takes the papers and checks them roughly. They put the criminals wanted by Konoha and the Land of Fire on top, followed by those from other villages and countries.

The information on the criminals is much more detailed than what he normally gets from black markets. Maybe it's because he becomes a priority member that they give him such detailed information.

Well, it's good either way because the more he knows about his targets, the better it will be for his hunt. His job is dangerous and having enough information is important for his success and survival, that's why he always gathers information before hunting.

Zoro wants to leave to start his hunt, but he stops for a moment to say something.

"Oh, right. When I hunted a criminal a while ago, I heard him talking about an organization called Akatsuki. Seems like they are gathering strong missing nins from different villages."

"Hmm, it's normal for missing nins to form groups to increase their safety. But I'll keep it in mind. That organization is also making quite a ruckus in Amegakure. But if they are gathering missing nins from different villages, then maybe they will expand their operations to other villages as well."

Zoro nods before leaving. He decides to just give a little warning about Akatsuki to them.

Currently, Akatsuki is still a small organization that isn't seen as a threat by the hidden villages. They will really be seen as a dangerous organization after a few years when they gather S-Rank missing nins and start their grand plan to collect Tailed Beasts.

So Zoro can't say too much now. But he can give them a little warning to make them aware of Akatsuki. Maybe it will make some effects for the known future even if they are small.

"The future. I really want to see how it will change with a lot of things already changing now. Screwing Black Zetsu's thousand years plan seems fun."

Zoro grins as he goes to hunt his target while riding on Torao's back.

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Chapter 83. Zoro vs Rasa

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