9. Peaceful Life

Their life in the village is much better than they thought. They don't need to worry about basic necessities here even if they fail to catch animals or don't have money. The villagers are always helping each other, so everyone here can go through hard times like winter safely.

Zoro also keeps training every day and his skills keep getting better too. His swords are also in better condition now because he asked a professional to help him take care of them. That professional is a blacksmith that lives in this village.

The blacksmith is not a swordsmith because his specialties are making daily life and farming tools. But that doesn't mean he can't take care of swords because he also makes knives, machetes, sickles, and other sharp tools for farming or daily lives.

The maintenance is mostly sharpening and fixing the damages on the swords. Those aren't really difficult for the blacksmith because he often did it to other sharp tools. Well, it's not as good as swordsmiths' works as they are specialized in handling swords, but it's obviously still much better than Zoro's maintenance skills.

With his swords fixed, Zoro's hunting and training also got better. Now he can cut the targets easier because his swords are sharper. He also doesn't need to worry if his attacks will break the swords because their damages have been fixed, so they are sturdier now.

To sharpen Zoro's skills, Torao forbids him from using chakra when attacking with his swords even though he has trained to coat his swords with chakra. Using chakra will increase his attack power, so it's great, but that will slow down his swordsmanship skills' progress.

If he can cut things easily without chakra, then he can cut even harder things when he uses his chakra. Currently, Zoro can cut small wood, but he still can't cut big trees using his swords. He can't do it even when he uses chakra.

He still lacks skills, physical power, and even chakra power. That's why he never skips his training unless at rest days. He never knows when danger will come at him, so he needs to prepare himself as best as possible.

His daily routines are still the same even in this village, except for him being more interactive with people now. Other things like training and hunting are still the same. Another change is maybe that Torao doesn't need to steal anything here.

Aside from them already having their basic needs to live, the villagers are also very kind to them. There's no way they can steal things from those people. Besides, if things start disappearing after they arrive here, then everyone will suspect them without a doubt, so it's best to not steal anything.

Time flies and everything seems to go well for Zoro and Torao. There's almost no big incident in this village. Every day is just very peaceful. The biggest problem here is just boars that feed on the villagers' plants.

But Zoro already helped them solve it by making a lot of big cage traps for boars. The villagers obviously helped him make those traps around the fields. These traps can't fully stop the boars from entering the fields, but they reduce the probability very significantly.

There were only a few cases of boars succeeded in entering the fields. Most of the boars were caught and ended up in the villagers' stomachs. That's why the villagers now become much friendlier with Zoro and Torao.

"Time sure flies fast, huh? It's already been 4 years since we moved to this village."

"Yeah, 7 years since your reincarnation in this world. You are 12 years old now in this world. Well, your body is 12 years old."

Yes, it has been that long since they live in this world. Their physical appearances don't change that much, except for Zoro being taller and bigger. Torao still looks exactly the same as he was 7 years ago.

"Hmm, I should already be a Genin if I am a ninja, right?"

"Around this time, most ninja kids become genins below 10 years old, unlike the time when Naruto's generation become genins."

"Oh, because of the war?"

"Yeah, they need more people in the war, so they send children to fight."

"They are very ruthless, huh?"

"That's how these hidden villages and ninjas operate. What's shown in the story is mostly from Naruto's perspective and ideal."

"Well, most of the main characters want to make a world without war, a peaceful world. It's just that they have different ideals and methods to achieve it. Also, now that I think about it, the 3rd Hokage that looked like a good grandpa is actually not a good person."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Well, he witnessed how Naruto's parents died and sealed 9-Tails in Naruto's body. So he was the village's savior. But despite that, the 3rd Hokage let Naruto suffer during his childhood even though his emotion can affect the seal and also, he is the 4th Hokage's son. Minato was the village's hero and so is Naruto. But they treated him like that. I don't know what to call that other than hypocrite and evil. Uchiha clan's destruction is also during the 3rd Hokage's reign, right? At least the 2nd Hokage was honest with his hate for Uchiha. Unlike the 3rd Hokage that all smile and sunshine on the outside, but so dark inside."

"Hahaha! You sure read that story seriously. Well, in the first place, you shouldn't believe that leaders of hidden villages are very kind people. Even Naruto who will become a Hokage shouldn't be seen that way. As ninjas, they surely have killed people."

"Even Naruto?"

"I'm sure yeah. Maybe they just never show those things. But it's almost impossible for ninjas to avoid killing because it's the consequence of their job. Also, even if he doesn't kill directly, he should've killed indirectly as a Hokage. There's no way konoha never killed anyone when Naruto became a hokage. Leaders of hidden villages need to be ruthless sometime or their villages won't survive in the competition."

"Make sense. But why are we talking about this difficult topic?"

"Weren't you the one who started it?"

"Did I?"

"Whatever, let's stop talking about it. I heard that old merchant is coming today, so let's check what he brought this time."

There is an old merchant that comes to this village every month to buy the harvest here and sell items too. Zoro always meets that old merchant to check the items. Another reason is because the old merchant is the only source of information from outside, so he needs to always meet that old guy.

"Hey gramps, did you get what I asked?"

"Oh, little Zoro, of course. I got what you asked for last month and your usual order."

Zoro quickly asks the old merchant about his order. He ordered a new futon because the one he uses now is already in bad condition. As for his usual order, it's newspapers. He always buys newspapers to cover a month's worth of news from this monthly old merchant.

Well, it's not him who reads the newspaper, but Torao. Just looking at those pages full of words has already made Zoro's head spinning. But Torao said knowing what happened in the world is important, so Torao reads the newspaper and tells Zoro if something important happens.

"Ah, right, I need to tell something to all of you. I may stop coming here for a while. Another Shinobi World War might happen soon."

"WHAT?!"

The villagers are very surprised to hear the sudden news by the old merchant.

"Another war? Wasn't the last one just finished a few years ago?"

"Yeah, but it was more like a ceasefire than a real stop. Though no one expected a new war will happen again this quickly. You guys need to be careful as well. Although it's unlikely for the war to reach this place, your village will still be affected. The easiest example is I won't be able to come during the war and you don't have other merchants coming here, so you can't buy things."

"W-when will the war start?"

"I don't know. It can be this month or next month or the next one. So this might be the last time I come here before the war. If it hasn't started next month, then I will come again."

"Sigh, this is worrying."

"Indeed. I can't even travel during a war because it's very dangerous to get out of the towns. Ninjas from other countries might suspect you as enemies and attack you."

Just when Zoro and Torao enjoy their peaceful life here, another war is coming.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Read up to 20 chapters ahead in my p@treon page

p@treon.com/creampuffs69

Please like and support this book too if you like it, thank you