7. Worries

Time flies and Zoro's training keeps going without a hitch. He trains almost every day and only takes a break once every week or when he is unwell. Torao never thought that Zoro would be this dedicated in his training.

His swordsmanship training still consists of the training in Genjutsu world with Instructor Moss Head and the training in the real world by himself to review what he learned in Genjutsu world. Torao increases the time he spends in Genjutsu world slowly as his skills get better.

He started with training just using 1 sword and now he finally trains using 3 swords after 2 years of training. Zoro needed to train from just 1 sword, then 2 swords, and lastly 3 swords because he needs to learn all from the basics.

Besides, he needs to train his hands' coordination and strength to use more than 1 sword. Holding a sword just with a hand means that the power of his attacks will be lower than using 2 hands. So he needs to make his arms and hands very strong to still able to use powerful attacks with just 1 sword in 1 hand.

He also needs to make sure his hands and arms can move as he wants, especially his left side. This issue is more difficult than just making both of his arms almost equally powerful. After all, it's like trying to write with his left hand as a right-handed person.

Anyway, Zoro's body is now the same as a 7 y.o boy. Torao says he should use that age as his identity in this world. Roronoa Zoro, 7 y.o, orphan. It will help in some situations if he has an official age in this world.

Zoro is used to living in the wild with Torao now. They still go to the town sometimes to sell whatever they catch or things they find. Going to the town is also a good way to collect information about the outside world so they can react when things might happen to them.

From his frequent visit to the town, they know that there is a big wad between shinobi villages now. They call it the 2nd Shinobi Great War and it started around the same time as Zoro's arrival in this world.

But Zoro never intended to get involved in that war or the future wars. Not only does it not benefit him, he is also still too weak to participate now. But he needs to keep updated about the war because there's always a possibility that it will reach this place.

This town is located in the Land of Lightning, one of the countries involved in this war. That's why there is always a possibility of the war to reach this town. It's still peaceful now, but no one knows what will happen tomorrow.

Zoro knows full well of that danger, so he keeps training. His survival chance will get higher the stronger he becomes. Although he never fights in real life, he has fought Instructor Moss Head many times in the Genjutsu world, so at least he knows how to fight a little.

After 2 years of swordsmanship training, Zoro is finally allowed to use real metal swords. Now he can really train to slash and cut the training dummies instead of just hitting them. Torao gives him 3 identical katana swords.

"They're heavier than I thought."

"That's why you have been training with bamboo swords that have weights tied on them. It was to train your arms and prepare you for the real swords' weights."

Zoro swings around the katanas to get used to them. He bites one of the katanas too because he uses 3-swords style. Of course, he has been training his bite and jaws using bamboo swords and weights so he can also attack with the sword in his mouth.

He has trained using katanas in Genjutsu world, but never in real world. Now he can finally use them in the real world and it obviously makes him excited. He keeps swinging his swords using the skills he has learned in the last 2 years.

Then after sometime, Torao summons a dummy for Zoro to try his katana. Zoro quickly tries using a cross slash on the dummy. He uses his full strength, but he can't cut the dummy in half, only manages to leave a rather deep cross cut on the dummy's body.

"Tsk! Using real swords is harder than I thought."

"If it's easy, then everyone will be a swordsman."

"Make sense."

Zoro starts training using real swords from that day, both in the real world and Genjutsu world. He needs to learn how to cut his targets using his swords because even with very sharp swords, cutting dummies or even living beings is still difficult without proper strength and skills.

It's difficult enough that Zoro needs to start slashing with just 1 sword using both hands. He tries slashing using real swords starting from basic techniques. He believes it will help him understand the slashes quicker and it really is.

Using just 1 sword with both hands makes slashing easier. It makes him understand how the sword should move to make a good slash. So after he can slash with just 1 sword, he starts using 2 swords and the feeling of slashing with just 1 sword helps him to understand how to slash with 2 swords faster too.

But a problem still remains. He needs to learn how to slash with the 3rd sword in his mouth as well. It is obviously much more difficult to do than slashing using the swords in his hands because he needs to train his jaws and neck to be as good as his hands and arms for that.

Still, he needs to learn it, so he keeps training to do it every day. But it isn't his main training because he still has a lot of things to learn. So he trains it after doing his main training to improve his 3-swords style swordsmanship's main skills.

Time flies and luckily the war doesn't reach this place even after 3 more years. He heard that the 2nd Shinobi War has been stopped recently, so Zoro doesn't need to worry about it. But it doesn't mean he can be careless because the danger isn't just war.

This world still has many dangers like the criminal shinobis that roam around the world. Akatsuki shouldn't be formed yet as of now, but they are not the only criminal group in the world. They are just more known in the story because they are the main antagonists for years.

Besides, while the war has stopped, it doesn't mean the conflict between hidden villages has stopped as well. They just stop doing it openly with a lot of people because they have lost too many men in the war.

But their desire to destroy other hidden villages and become the best hasn't disappeared. So there will still be fights between those villages until the next war starts. The 10 y.o Zoro can only hope that he won't get dragged into their never ending conflicts.

"Hey, kid. Do you want to leave this place?"

"Huh? Why are you suddenly asking that, Torao?"

Torao suddenly asks such a question to Zoro when he trains.

"I am getting bored of this place and our routines. Every day is almost the same."

"But you're the one who refused to live in the town even though I asked you many times."

"And I've told you that there are too many restrictions in the town like you can't train properly there, we need to pay rent, pay taxes too, it's noisy, and also we can't run away easily if something bad happens. We'll get trapped in the town if the war really reaches this place."

"Alright, alright. So what do you want to do?"

"Let's move to another town."

"Will we be fine though? I heard that there are many bandits on the roads between towns. Also, they say the number of rogue ninjas increases after the war, so the outside of towns are getting more dangerous because no one knows where those rogue ninjas are. They can be near our town and attack us anytime."

"W-well, that's dangerous indeed. Sigh, then let's stay here for now. But we need to plan on leaving sooner or later. We can't stay here forever."

"I know. If I want to get stronger, I can't just train alone like this. I need real experience, real battles. So I need to go on a journey to different places. But for now, I don't think my skills are enough to help us survive on our journey. I need to be strong enough first or I will die before even being as old as I was in my past life."

The time for Zoro's journey will come soon. So he needs to keep training until then to make sure he is strong enough to protect himself. After all, he isn't Naruto who can solve a lot of problems with just talking and he certainly doesn't believe he has that 'plot armor' thingy, so he needs to keep training and become strong.

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