88. Land of Waves

Luckily, Hiyori recognizes the old woman when she peeks through Zoro's arms.

"Grandma Suzu!"

"H-Hiyori?! Is that you? Oh my god! You are still alive? Thank god!" The granny looks very happy when she sees Hiyori.

Hiyori also gets down quickly and runs to hug the old woman. She must've been very relieved to see a familiar face after a long time.

"Where were you, Hiyori? We couldn't find you, so we thought Gato kidnapped you."

".... It's a long story, but this uncle saved me and took me back here."

"This kid? Hmm, he looks like a thug, but he is actually a good person, huh?"

"Granny, you look more of a thug to me." Zoro doesn't want to be called a thug by this granny with a mean face.

"Hoh! Look at you! Talking to a weak old lady like me with such a harsh tone. Only a thug does that, so I'm not wrong."

Zoro already has a headache talking to this old woman, so he chooses to stop talking about this topic.

"By the way, granny, what happened to Hiyori's parents? Did they survive by any chance?" Zoro quickly gets on the important topic.

It would be good if at least one of her parents survived. But Granny Suzu's expression says otherwise.

"Gato won't leave anyone who knows his secrets and becomes threats to him alive. We were trying to help, but he brought so many men with him, so we couldn't do anything. Some of us were even injured that night. Sigh, we could only retrieve their bodies. We searched for Hiyori too, but couldn't find her. We thought that maybe Gato caught her alive and spared her because she is still a child even though it's very unlikely to be the case knowing how ruthless he is."

"Grandma Suzu, w-where are my parents?" Hiyori looks at Suzu sadly.

She knows that her parents have died, so she is asking for their graves. Granny Suzu also looks sad and she grabs Hiyori's hand before taking her away without saying any words. Zoro and Torao follow them from behind while looking around at the gloomy village.

"Where are the villagers? I only sense some people here and they seem to be just children and elderly."

"Our people are mostly working for Gato's Company. It's more like we are forced to work there. Many have thought of quitting, but no one dares to do it now after what Gato did to Hiyori's family. He could even do that to his cousin, so we know he could do worse to other people."

"I see. So all of them are working now, leaving only children and elderly who can't work here. Is the country doing nothing about this?"

"Gato is the country itself. With his wealth, he can control everything here. Besides, we are a very small country, so it's easy for him to control it."

This country, the Land of Waves is a very small country on the south of the Land of Fire. They are separated by the sea, so this country is isolated. Asking for help from other countries is also difficult because Gato controls everything here.

After walking for a while, they finally arrived at the cemetery. There are 2 fresh graves that belong to Hiyori's parents. The little girl can't hold her tears anymore and cries on her parents' graves.

The adults leave her to cry while they talk. Torao stays with Hiyori in his cat size form though, so she won't feel alone. Zoro and Granny Suzu get a bit away from her to talk about something.

"You want to know where Gato is? Why?"

"I've promised Hiyori I will avenge her parents for her. So I will find him and take his life. It will help all of you too, right?"

"I-it surely will. But young man, you really shouldn't do it. Gato has many men and I heard he also hired some powerful shinobi."

"Don't worry about it, granny. I am much stronger than you thought. As long as there's no one as strong as the 5 Great Kages, then they won't be able to stop me."

".... Young man, you shouldn't let some small victories delude you."

Granny Suzu thinks that Zoro is being delusional, thinking that he is as strong as the 5 Great Kages. She looks genuinely worried that he can't even be mad at her even though he is pissed off.

"Just tell me, Granny. If I find out that I'm not strong enough, then I will retreat. Don't worry, I love my life because it's the only thing I have."

"You sure you won't overestimate yourself?"

"I am. Now just tell me."

"Sigh, fine. His main base is in the center of the island. But I heard he is now putting his attention to the woodworker village. Some of them were resisting him and I heard he also killed one of them to show his power. But there's someone who is still brave enough to oppose him and even wants to build a bridge to the mainland to help us recover our economy, which is against Gato's interest."

"Heh, how brave."

"Yeah, and foolish. I heard he was trying to hire some shinobi to take care of Gato and his men, but it must be expensive, and I'm not sure he will have enough money to hire those shinobi for that job."

"Hmm, at least he tries to fight. I like people like that. Alright, show me the way to Gato's place. I'll take care of this quickly."

"Sigh, fine, fine. Just make sure you won't die. Hiyori seems to like you. I don't want her to grieve for another person now."

Granny Suzu then shows Zoro the way to Gato's residence. She draws a crude map on the scroll that Zoro has. This map is for Torao to read though because Zoro's sense of direction is not dependable at all.

After a while, Hiyori is finally willing to leave the cemetery. They go back to Granny Suzu's house. She actually lives alone and it was usually Hiyori's family who took care of her. That's why Hiyori is like her own granddaughter.

At night, when Hiyori and Granny Suzu sleep, Zoro sneaks out of the house with Torao. They go to Gato's residence, following the map that Granny Suzu had drawn. Zoro doesn't tell Hiyori so she can rest comfortably tonight.

"Hey, Torao. Don't you think that what Granny Suzu said was oddly familiar? It's as if I've heard or even seen it somewhere, like a de ja vu. But I'm sure this is the first time I have come to this country."

"I think the same too. Land of Waves, building a bridge to connect 2 countries, hiring shinobi, Gato. Everything just sounds oddly familiar, but I can't recall anything."

"Right? It's such a strange feeling."

They keep getting this oddly familiar feeling since Hiyori told them about Gato and it somehow keeps getting more familiar after hearing Granny Suzu's story. But they still can't understand it.

"Well, maybe it's just something unimportant or maybe something similar happened somewhere else and we read it when buying information before hunting." Torao tries to brush the strange feeling off because it might affect their performance.

"Right. We can think about it later after finishing this."

Soon, they arrive in Gato's residence, which is quite a big mansion. It's very luxurious compared to the people's houses. They have passed through some villages and a lot of their houses are in terrible conditions.

"Like the house of a corrupt official." Zoro can't help but comment about it.

"Well, they are basically the same." Even Torao agrees with it.

"Yeah, scums, society's trash."

Both of them approach the residence without any worry. Zoro doesn't sense any shinobi inside. There are many people there, but all of them are normal people.

Many of them are quite strong for normal people though, so they must be the guards that work for Gato. Still, none of them is a threat for Zoro.

"WHO'S THERE?" The Gate Guards point their weapons at Zoro and Torao who suddenly appear out of nowhere.

"Is this Gato's residence?" Zoro still rides on Torao's back. The tiger-sized cat intimidates the Guards even without doing anything.

"W-who are you? What's your business with Master Gato?" The Guards are trembling in fear."

"I see. So this is really Gato's place. Do you want to do it, Torao?"

"Hell yeah." Torao grins sinisterly before attacking the guards.

He takes them out easily before breaking through the Gate and storms into the big house. It alerts everyone inside and all the guards show up to check what happens.

Zoro smirks while looking at them. "Great! All of you are here. Now I don't need to look for you. Time to clean the trash."

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Chapter 128. Zoro vs Orochimaru

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