12. Struggle to Escape

Zoro and Torao find a hidden spot after getting away from the riverbed.

"Let's leave quickly, Torao."

"Alright."

Torao claps his paws while still staying in Zoro's shirt. Then they suddenly sink slowly into their shadows as if it's a quicksand. Both of them disappear, leaving no trace on the surface of the earth.

Then as they thought, they are being tracked. A while after they disappear, the old village chief and some of the old people from the village suddenly appear there. There are some wounds on their bodies and some of them aren't here either, so it's clear that they won, but with some price.

The village chief looks confused because Zoro and Torao suddenly disappear without any trace. Previously, when they ran away from the village, the village chief put a mark seal on Zoro's back neck without him knowing it.

That mark seal is a tracking technique that leaves a trail of very thin chakra. Only the village chief can detect it because this jutsu uses his chakra. But the chakra trail suddenly disappears on this spot.

"Did he get someone to help him?"

"As I thought, that kid is dangerous. We shouldn't even accept him in the village. He must be the reason why we were found."

"Stop it. We've talked about this already and even investigated him thoroughly. He isn't affiliated with any hidden village and the reason we are found is because someone with a high position who knows about us betrayed the village. My guess is he comes from that place."

"That place?"

"You saw his swordsmanship skills and his sword types, right?"

"!? Do you mean...."

"Yeah, I think he comes from The Land of Iron, he must be a disciple of a Samurai. His master probably sent him out to experience the world. But because the situation has turned out to be too dangerous for him, he is forced to return."

"Can a samurai disappear like a ninja though?"

"Well, he's most likely being guarded by a rogue ninja hired by his master and it seems that ninja is very skilled."

"So what do we do now?"

"There's nothing we can do if it really involves the Land of Iron. Let's just go to the village."

They leave immediately after wrongly assuming that Zoro is a samurai disciple. It's a good thing for him anyway because now Kumogakure won't trouble him. Being targeted by a big hidden village is not something that he can handle.

Meanwhile, Zoro and Torao have run away from there through the shadows. They can move very fast in the shadows, but the shadows need to be connected. So they need to come out if there's no shadow.

But there is a solution for that. Zoro will stay in the shadow while Torao gets out. So Zoro will stay in Torao's shadow as Torao runs to find another shadow. No one will suspect a cat, so Torao can move around freely.

"Where will we go, Torao?"

Zoro asks from inside Torao's shadow.

"To the best place for you to learn and train your swordsmanship in peace, The Land of Iron. You are supposed to be that country's citizen, so it's better to go there."

The old village chief suspected that Zoro is someone from The Land of Iron and it's true, officially. Zoro has legal documents that prove him as a citizen of the Land of Iron, so he will be safe once he gets there.

However, The Land of Iron is far, so it will take a long time to reach that place. It will be even harder to move with the war still raging on. Torao can't move them inside the shadows forever too, so they will need to come out once in a while, which is quite dangerous.

"Where is that place located?"

"I don't know. That's why we need to find a map or even better, a transport that can take us directly to the Land of Lightning."

They decide to go to a city quite far from here to avoid being found by their pursuers that they don't know to have given up. It doesn't take that long for them to arrive in a rather big city because they can move very fast in the shadows.

Torao sneaks them into the city and they hide in a small storehouse to rest. It's a very tiring day that exhausts them physically and mentally, so they really need to rest. They fall asleep very quickly even though they just sit on a hard floor and lean on a hard wall.

Luckily for them, the mark seal has lost its power because it worked by releasing the chakra stored in it slowly to leave a trail and now it has run out of chakra. So they won't be found even if the old village chief is near this place.

The next day, they are collecting information to find the route to the Land of Iron. They find a map, but they have a big problem. Zoro is direction blind and Torao can't read a map. So even if they have a map now, they don't know where to go.

".... Let's just follow our feelings."

"Let's not."

"But what other choices do we have? It's better than nothing."

"It's better to just do nothing than follow our feelings, especially yours. Your sense of directions keep worsening each day. You even got lost in a straight path, so how can I believe in your sense of direction?"

"..... Then what should we do?"

"For now let's hide here while we keep gathering for information. I'm sure there will be people who will go to other towns and if we're lucky, we'll find those who are going to the Land of Iron."

"There's no way it will be that convenient. Especially with how far the Land of Iron is."

Zoro may not have the ability to navigate too, just like Torao. But he surely can understand how far the Land of Iron is. They will need to cross several countries including a big country, The Land of Earth, and that is after they get out of this Land of Lightning which is a big country too.

"Maybe we should go through the sea. I'm sure that people use ships to go there."

"Will it be safe to use ships when there is such a big war? I'm sure those shinobis will try to weaken each other, so they may hinder even merchant ships, and there will be tight security in the ports. But it certainly is a better idea than going through towns when we don't know where to go."

They agree to use that method and start looking for people who will go to a port town like merchants. But their luck is not so good. They can't find anyone going to a port town even after 2 weeks.

So they can only stay hiding until they decide to just go to another town to try their luck. They sneaked into a caravan group using Torao's shadow move to get them into the luggage cart. When people check, they just hide in the shadow again until they can come out again.

In this new town, they immediately find a lot of merchant groups that are going to the port. Turns out this town is a trading town, so there are a lot of needs for goods that come and go everywhere. This town also has a route to the port, while the previous town doesn't, which was the reason they couldn't get anything.

Both Zoro and Torao feel miserable when they find out about this. But they can't stay depressed forever, so they quickly sneak into another merchant group that will go to the port. They choose the one with rather low security because they don't want to be found.

The shinobi war turns out to be of help to them because these merchant groups usually hire shinobi for guards. But now they can't do it because the shinobi are going to the war. Well, at least shinobi that are affiliated with the 5 Great Hidden Villages.

Some small villages also join the war, but obviously not all. The merchants are hiring shinobi from those villages that don't participate in the war. Obviously, not just any hidden villages, but those that are allied with the Land of Lightning because they are in the Land of Lightning's territory, and there's the war too.

The good thing is, these shinobis aren't as skilled as those from the 5 Great Hidden Villages. They don't even detect Zoro and Torao who hide in the luggage cart. But both of them need to hide in the shadow anytime they pass through checkpoints where skilled shinobis from Kumogakure are checking the carriages.

Then after a long journey and a lot of hide and seek games, they finally arrive at the port town. Now they just need to find a ship that can take them to The Land of Iron. But of course, it won't be as easy as they want.

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