Chapter 1- Do you know me?
'. . .where am I?' Zoro thought to himself.
He was sitting in the middle of a forest, his three swords clattered on the ground beside him. Zoro collected his three katana (1) and hung them in their rightful spot on his right hip. After organizing himself a little, he stood up and began to wander around, pondering. How did he get here? Where were his nakama (2)? And, most of all, why was he a 12 YEAR OLD? All Zoro remembered was him and all of his nakama falling through a black hole during a battle with Blackbeard . . . and here he was. Alone.
Zoro heard a rustle of leaves and turned around quickly. He saw a boy who looked around 12 with blonde hair, strikingly blue eyes, and whisker-marks on his cheeks. He was examining Zoro with curious eyes. Zoro, sensing no threat from the boy, proceeded to stand up and brush the dust off his black pants.
"Why are you wandering off from the meeting place, dobe," muttered a voice that didn't belong to the blonde-haired boy. The owner of the voice landed on the ground from the top of a tree. It was a boy that had black hair, dark eyes, and pale skin. The black-haired boy walked until he was standing beside the blonde, giving Zoro a calculating stare.
"Kakashi-sensei is always late, so I thought I would do SOMETHING rather than just wait for him and waste my time! So I came here to explore the forest, and . . . I saw this guy," Naruto answered, pointing at Zoro rudely.
Zoro glanced at the two boys and asked in an unintended intimidating voice, "Who are you?"
The raven boy smirked when his blonde companion flinched and replied in a cool voice, "I'm Sasuke. This dobe beside me is Naruto."
"Hey!" Naruto pouted in protest. "You're the idiot, teme (3)!"
Sasuke, suppressing his annoyance, ignored the blonde and looked at Zoro expectantly. However, the green-haired boy was looking to the side, deep in thought.
'I heard those two names before . . . oh yeah! They were the two characters in the series Robin was reading recently . . . I think it was called Naruto, huh?' Zoro thought to himself. 'Does that mean I've entered that story? How can that happen? I need to find out how to escape this world . . .'
Sasuke squinted his eyes in annoyance when Zoro didn't get the hint and introduce himself.
"So what's your name, eh?" Naruto blurted out to break the awkward silence.
This awakened Zoro from his thoughts. He replied smoothly, "Zoro."
Then Zoro heard an annoyingly high-pitched voice that was steadily approaching.
"Guys! What are you doing, running away from our meeting place? I know Kakashi sensei is always late, but-," the pink-haired girl's voice cut off when she saw Zoro.
'He's so . . . so . . . handsome! Even more than Sasuke!' the girl thought to herself, blocking a nose bleed with her hands.
"I'm . . . I'm S-Sakura! Nice to meet you!" stuttered the pink-haired girl, blushing slightly.
Zoro stared at the girl and stated simply, "Zoro."
"Oh god . . . his voice is so nice too!" Sakura crooned, not bothering to keep her thoughts to herself.
Sasuke looked at Zoro with pity while Naruto was on the ground in an OTL position. Zoro contemplated the situation, then decided to ignore the girl. He turned to Sasuke again, as Naruto was still scrunched up in a depressed ball on the ground.
"Do you know where there's a close village?" he asked the raven boy.
"Konoha Village is 10 minutes away," Sasuke answered.
Naruto jumped up and offered in a loud voice, "Hey! We can lead you to the village! We were going back anyway!"
This awoke Sakura from her trance as she snapped back, "NA-RU-TO! We need to finish our D rank mission before going back!"
"But, Sakura-chan~. It's only a D-rank mission, and surely escorting people is more important than weeding the pastures of some old hag!" whined Naruto.
Sakura turned to look at Zoro and blushed again. "I guess. . . today it will be fine. Let me lead you to the village, Zoro-kun!" she said in her fan-girl voice. She wasn't one to be discouraged by Zoro's lack of reaction.
"Someone's here," Zoro muttered, surprising the three ninjas.
A man with silver hair and a mask covering the majority of his face revealed himself with a poof behind the three young ninjas, startling Naruto to jump three feet in the air, Sakura to let out a strangled scream, and Sasuke to squint his eyes.
". . . how incredible. Even among the high-rank ninjas I am known for my stealth. You must be a sensing type."
"Kakashi sensei!" growled Naruto and Sakura, pointing an accusing finger at him. "You're late!"
However, Kakashi wasn't listening to his two pupils. He was staring at Zoro intently. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at this.
Zoro was confused at the intense look Kakashi was giving him. However, he hid his emotions and looked back with an intimidating glint. At last the silver-haired man opened his mouth to speak.
"Are you . . . Roronoa Zoro?"
Zoro was surprised. Kakashi could have eavesdropped and heard his first name, but Zoro never said his ENTIRE name out loud.
"Do you know me?" Zoro asked Kakashi. He never remembered seeing Kakashi before.
Zoro's eyes widened slightly as he saw the silver-haired man do a few hand motions so fast they were barely visible and shout, "Chidori!" Kakashi's right arm was now surrounded with blue, electric . . . thunderbolts? Zoro didn't know how to describe it, as he never saw something like it before. The skill was also making a weird sound as if a thousand birds were screeching their guts out . . . quite unpleasant. Zoro knew that the silver-headed man's right arm was now extremely dangerous, so he pulled out his three swords and arranged them; one in his mouth and the two others in his hands.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, on the other hand, were shocked. Why was their sensei using one of his most powerful jutsu, Chidori, on this boy who was around THEIR age? Was this boy named Zoro that strong? And was he an enemy to them? They were gaping at the two males who were menacingly glaring at each other.
'Damn it . . . I don't even know if I can fight as well as before since my body is 7 years younger . . . will my skills be limited to the body of a twelve year old?' Zoro thought as he took out the sword in his mouth for a few seconds to tie his bandana on his forehead, his eyes never leaving Kakashi.
Zoro saw Kakashi raise his headband to reveal his left eye. He heard soft gasps from the three ninjas as the now revealed left eye flared red with three dots rotating around the center.
'. . . What the heck is that?' thought Zoro to himself, staring at the red eye. 'A red eye? Is he tired?' Then he quickly looked away from the eye. 'Whatever it is, it seems dangerous, and I probably shouldn't be staring at it directly.'
Then Zoro heard Kakashi speak under his breath.
"Roronoa Zoro . . . I will take you back to the village, no matter what."
To be continued! Please rate and review!
