Naruto: Reborn as Zoro

It takes quite a long time for the little girl to calm down. Once she calms down, her stomach grumbles again. All the energy she gets from the food has been used up for crying. So she eats again and continues her story.

"I never controlled a boat before, so I could only let the waves control it. It carried me so far away. I was hoping to meet anyone, but I didn't meet anyone because I was on the sea. After a day on the sea, my boat somehow entered a big river, so I tried to get ashore. I succeeded, but it hit some rocks and broke, so I couldn't use it anymore. I was afraid to enter the forest, so I stayed near the river. I tried to catch fish because I was very hungry, but I didn't get any. You were right, I only drank river water there. I didn't know how long I've stayed there and I thought I would have died. It was.... very scary. My body was cold, my stomach hurt, and everything was black."

She is trembling in fear when she remembers what happened to her before Zoro saved her.

Zoro suddenly pats her head tenderly. "You're okay now and you will be okay from now on, I promise."

She suddenly hugs Zoro without saying anything and starts crying again. He lets her hug him and also hugs her back because he knows she needs support now and this is the only thing he can do for her now.

Surprisingly, she falls asleep again while crying in Zoro's arms. He wants to put her down, but she holds his clothes strongly even though she hasn't recovered that much strength.

"Seems like she feels safe with you." Torao who has turned big again to let the little girl sleep on his stomach returns to his cat size form again.

"Well, I'm glad that at least she doesn't get scared by me. She looks like an 7 or 8 y.o at most, but she really has gone through something terrible. Gato, Gato, huh? That name really sounds familiar, but I can't remember it." Zoro thinks hard, but he still doesn't know who it is.

"Same here. We must have heard about it somewhere before but it wasn't too important so we ignored it." Torao also can't remember this Gato.

"Yeah, but it seems we'll have a business with him soon."

"He doesn't seem to be a strong person, just someone with a lot of money. So can I be the one who takes care of him? I was a Soul Reaper, you know. But I rarely do my old job here."

"Sure. I will take care of his men. I'm sure a rich man like him will have some shinobi as his guards, probably even missing nins with high bounty rewards because there's no way he would legally hire shinobi when he does illegal business. So we can also get their bounty rewards."

"Don't forget to rob the rich man."

"I don't know about that, mate. There must be more people that became his victims like her family. So maybe his wealth can be used to compensate them a little."

"Wow, you are thinking of doing that? How unexpected. You always take the valuables of the criminals you caught."

"Yeah, but their stuff was theirs or the hidden villages' items, not poor people's money. Besides, the amounts are different."

"Right, you can take some in the name of payment, but taking everything will feel like robbing from the people who got even their lives taken by that bastard."

Zoro and Torao already plan on killing Gato even though they don't even know the man's face. Just seeing how he made a child this young suffer this much has made their blood boil. And there must be more victims like her.

They aren't Saints, but they still have morals and sympathy. Despite having killed many people, Zoro never killed innocents, especially children. Yet this asshole is targeting weak people and even children ruthlessly, which is something Zoro really hates.

"Still, if she lived near the coast, that means she came from quite a far place. The sea is quite far from here."

They are currently on the Land of Rivers that as it name suggests, has many rivers. There are some towns and villages near the sea, obviously. But this girl seems to be someone from the Land of Waves.

When the little girl wakes up, Zoro confirms that she really is from the Land of Waves. Then he asks what she wants to do from now on. "Do you have relatives that can take you in? I can send you there."

"C-can I stay with you?" The little girl seems scared when Zoro mentions about relatives, which is strange.

"You okay? What's wrong, kid?"

"T-that's.... A-actually, the only relative I have is..... Gato. H-he was my mother's cousin."

"WHAT?! So he's your 2nd Uncle?"

Zoro never expects that the one who did this is her own family. That means Gato would kill even his family for his goal. Now this just makes Gato look worse in Zoro's eyes.

"You don't have anywhere else to go?"

"No, can't I stay with you?"

"Kid, you don't even know me, so how can you ask to stay with me. What if I'm someone worse than Gato?"

"B-but you are a kind person, uncle. You help me even though you don't know me. I-I will help you doing chores. Y-you know, I'm good at cooking and cleaning because I often help my mother. S-so please, take me with you."

She is holding Zoro's clothes while trembling, scared of being abandoned by him. Now he is very troubled by this. On one hand, he doesn't have the heart to leave this kid alone, but on the other hand, he never takes care of anyone else, especially a kid.

"What's your name, kid?"

"Hiyori."

"Alright, Hiyori, my name is Zoro and that cat is Torao. You might not know this, but I am a bounty hunter. I hunt and kill criminals to get their bounty rewards for a living. Maybe I've even killed more people than that Gato. So I'm not a good person, my life is full of danger and I never stay in one place, always going here and there. I don't think I can take care of someone with how dangerous my days are and I don't know how to even take care of someone else. So if you don't have a place to stay, I can help you find one, a good place that will properly take care of you until you can take care of yourself."

"N-no! I still want to stay with you, uncle. You are a good person because you kill bad people. Please, take me with you and teach me to become strong. I will do anything."

"Teach you to become strong? Why do you want to be strong?"

".... To kill Gato." Hiyori looks at Zoro with a very firm gaze despite still being weak.

"I see, you want revenge, huh? Well, I won't tell you to not do it because I would do the same if it happened to me. But how long do you think it will take for you to get enough power to do your revenge?"

"I don't care how long I need to train and how hard it will be as long as I can avenge my parents."

"Sigh, then how about this? I will kill Gato and his men for you. So you don't need to stay with me because it's too dangerous."

"W-why would you kill Gato for me, uncle?"

"Hmm, let's just say I hate people like him, and I think I can get some money by killing him. So how is it? If you agree, then Gato will die soon. You don't need to wait for years to avenge your parents."

Hiyori seems hesitant about letting Zoro take her revenge. But she also doesn't want Gato to live much longer and make more people suffer. So she finally agrees to let him kill Gato.

"Alright, we'll go to find your village tomorrow. For now, let's gain you some more energy. Ah! I want to show you something too. Torao isn't a normal cat, he is like those ninja animals that can do some tricks and Torao can turn bigger."

Torao then transforms into his tiger-sized form, surprising Hiyori. Zoro calms her down, saying Torao won't harm her as long as she doesn't hurt him. He just shows it to her because they will ride Torao to her village.

"Ah, right, he can talk too, so you can talk to him."

"Yo, kid." Torao greets Hiyori, surprising the little girl who doesn't know much about shinobi.

She is scared at first, but she gets used to Torao very quickly. Children's adaptability is really terrifying.

The next day, they leave the camp and go to the Land of Waves. They cross the river and sea by walking above the water, which impressed Hiyori who had never seen something like this before.

They find Hiyori's village after a day and they see a broken house beside the coast. It's Hiyori's house that Gato and his men destroyed when they tried to kill her family.

They go there and Hiyori seems very sad when seeing her destroyed house. Zoro looks around the surroundings from Torao's back while letting her cry in his arms. He can see some houses nearby, but there are no people and everything looks gloomy.

"W-who are you?"

Suddenly, an old woman comes out of a nearby house. She looks at Zoro suspiciously and asks warily while holding her cane as if she's ready to fight Zoro with it. This old woman sure is gutsy, but Zoro doesn't know how to react to it.

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Chapter 127. Orochimaru

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