Naruto: Shinobi Hunters

Digi-Destined saga

Battle of Uzushio arc

Kurama no Kyubi: Like last chapter, this one will probably end up being a short one. However, in this chapter, we will get to see more of Zorro than last time.

Element-Overlord: Hmm, Good Chapter! I'm Surprised About Adding Pokemon, But As Long As It's Great, Then It's OK. And Which Haki Will Naruto Learn? I Suggest Armament Haki Since It's So Badass. And Had You Seen Either BlazBlue Or D. Gray-Man Or Fate/Stay Night Or Touhou?

GOOD LUCK!

Kurama no Kyubi: No, I haven't seen any of those. And as for what Haki Naruto will learn, well, first he's got to find someone to teach him, but I'd imagine that he'd probably learn all the different kinds.

Toa Solaric: I'm surprised you're adding Pokemons into the story. But when will Dorumon digivolved? Is Leomon, Minato's partner? If so...WTF! When will other Digimons of new Digidestineds' digivolved?

Kurama no Kyubi: A while from now. They will start Digivolving sometime in the fourth season, and we're now only approaching the end of the first season. Sorry if you can't wait that long, but I've already thought out and planed everything around the events which leads Dorumon to Digivolve, and I can't have those events happen earlier due to certain things that I can't tell you for now.

Guest: A vulpix and Snorunt for Naruto, a deerling and slakoth for Shikamaru, and a Numel and Skitty for Kurotsuchi.

Kurama no Kyubi: Well, the Vulpix for Naruto is more or less a given, but I don't know about the Snorunt, I will have to wait for other suggestions before deciding on anything. Deerling and Slakoth are both pretty good suggestions for Shikamaru, so I might give them both to him. As for Kurotsuchi, well I decided to have her be more of a Rock, Ground-Type trainer, so while Numel has a chance, I'm afraid that Skitty don't, however, I might give it to another Digi-Destined.

bankai777: does naruto reunite with tsunade senju in the future.

Kurama no Kyubi: Of course he'll meet with her again, he's still got a long life ahead of him. But wouldn't it be more interesting to know whether he'll reunite with his old friends or not?

"Digivolution." Normal speech

'Digivolution.' Normal thought

"Digivolution." Biju speech

'Digivolution.' Biju thought

Jodai: Kurama no Kyubi doesn't own anything but his OCs.

Chapter 17: Samurai Emperor, Zorro

There was a massive storm around Shikei Toride as the countless cyclones near the fortress continued raging on. Within the massive fortress, on a throne, was the Samurai Emperor, Zorro sitting. His mouth, twisted into a smirk as he was awaiting the arrival of his son.

Jodai's ship

"This is the Samurai Fortress, Shikei Toride." Jodai said as he, Naruto, and Zolo were standing at the ship's bow.

"Whoa! It's huge! Dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed as he looked up at the enormous fortress.

'Shikei Toride… I never thought that I'd ever be back here.' Zolo thought as he looked at the fortress.

Shortly after had they docked the ship at the dock where all the other samurai vessels were docked.

"Why's the dock so far away from the fortress?" Naruto asked as he looked towards the fortress which was at least 10 miles away, the only passageway to it being a wooden walk-way.

"Due to the constant storms here, it's very dangerous to sail all the way to the fortress, not to mention that if we were to dock closer to it, the ship would be torn apart by the next passing cyclone." Jodai said before beginning to walk across the walk-way.

"Then wouldn't this walk-way be in danger of being torn apart?" Naruto asked nervously as he and Zolo followed the Samurai Captain.

"This walk-way has the ability of having any part of it being retracted so that the cyclones can just pass harmlessly by. There are over one hundred cyclones in total, each one constantly being monitored from a control center within the fortress." Zolo said.

"You sure know a lot about this place." Naruto said as he looked at Zolo.

"Zoro-sama had everything you needed to know to rule this place hammered into his head at a young age, so it's obvious why he would know all of that." Jodai said.

Some time afterwards, they reached the final part of the walk-way which went in a zig-zag pattern up along the fortress' outer wall until reaching a large gate. Once they reached the gate, Naruto's eyes widened; before them were two giants that were dressed in samurai uniforms.

"Tatsumaki, Kaminari, open the gate." Jodai said and the two giants then turned around before pushing the large gate open, allowing the three to enter.

As the gate closed behind them, Naruto looked around in amazement. Before them was a bridge leading to a much larger wall while both to their left and right were staircases which went down to a lower level which appeared to resemble a town that had been built into the walls while there was a market in the middle of the street.

When they had entered through the gate on the second wall and come into a long corridor, Jodai turned to Naruto.

"Unfortunately you can't meet with Zorro-sama quite yet because certain preparations will have to be made. So I will take you to the guest rooms so you can wait there." Jodai said.

"All right." Naruto said and Jodai turned to Zolo.

"You can find your way to the throne room from here, right?" He asked.

"Of course I can. Do you think I'm an idiot?" Zolo asked.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. Which is why we've put up counter-measures for your sense of direction, or lack thereof." Jodai said before pointing to an arrow on the floor where it said "throne room".

"Just follow the arrows and you'll find your way there… eventually." Jodai said before turning in the opposite direction of the arrow and Naruto followed him as Zolo started following the arrows, though somewhere down the line he ended up walking in a completely different direction.

Shikei Toride, Prison Level

Naruto was thrown into a prison cell before Jodai closed and locked the door behind him.

"Hey, what're you doing?" Naruto asked as he rose to his feet.

"We know that you ninja are not to be trusted. You will spend the rest of your days here." Jodai said, showing disgust in his voice at the word "ninja".

Naruto merely looked at the samurai as he left before an unknown voice spoke up from the cell opposite to his own.

"A ninja, huh? What village are you from?" The voice asked.

"Who're you?" Naruto asked.

"Me? The name's Takeda." The man, now known as Takeda said.

Outside the throne room

Zolo was standing before a large gate which led into the throne room. The gate then suddenly opened up and he walked in before the gate closed behind him.

The room was in a rectangular shape and dark. On the other side was Zorro sitting with the top half of his body hidden in darkness.

"Welcome Zoro, my son. It's been far too long." He said.

"Father…" Zolo said.

North Blue, Elemental Nations, Land of Waterfalls

Karin, Fu, Tayuya, and Dorulumon were in the forest of the Land of Waterfalls, seemingly looking for something, or someone.

"Why did I have to come along?" Tayuya asked.

"Because you were once one of Orochimaru's Sound Four, so you've got to know a thing or two about tracking that you can add to the team." Fu said.

"Sorry, but if you want someone from the Sound Four with tracking ability, you should find that six-armed fucker, Kidomaru." Tayuya said before turning to Karin "Just who are we looking for, anyway?"

"Her name is Fukashi Hitomi, formerly a ninja of the minor village of Hoshigakure." Karin said.

"A missing-nin? Why would we want one of those in our village?" Tayuya asked.

"Look who's talking." Fu said.

"According to Robin's information, Hitomi has a Kekkei Genkai which gives her the ability to turn herself invisible. This ability could be very useful to the village, not to mention that she'd be ideal for infiltration and assassination missions." Karin said.

"But it's been months since shithead saw her here, right? What makes you so certain that she's still here?" Tayuya asked.

"Well, according to Robin's information, she is." Karin said.

"And what makes you think that Robin's information can be trusted? We hardly know anything about her." Tayuya said.

"Naruto-kun trusts her, and that's good enough for me." Fu said.

"And besides, she used to be a Konoha shinobi, so I don't see any reason she'd give us false information." Karin said.

"And so's that motherfucker Orochimaru, but I don't see you going around and trusting him." Tayuya said.

"Robin-san's not like Orochimaru." Fu said.

"And how do you know?" Tayuya asked.

"I just know, all right?" Fu yelled before Dorulumon caught the whiff of something.

"What is it, Dorulumon?" Karin asked.

"There's someone else here." Dorulumon said.

"You're right! I can't believe I didn't notice." Karin said.

'Wait! I know that smell.' Dorulumon thought.

Suddenly Tayuya was knocked back into a tree, letting out an "itai" on impact.

"What was that?" She asked.

"Tayuya?" Fu asked.

"We're being attacked!" Karin yelled before she suddenly felt cold, sharp steel against her throat.

"Why are you following me?" Their attacker asked as she became visible from the top down.

"Are you Fukashi Hitomi?" Karin asked.

"And if I am?" Hitomi asked.

"We've been looking for you. We're ninja from Uzushiogakure." Fu said.

'Uzushio?' Hitomi thought before recalling the offer that Naruto had given her all those months ago.

"If you don't have any place to go, you could always come with me to Uzushio."

"So you're from the same village as Naruto-kun? Well, why didn't you just say so earlier?" Hitomi said before letting Karin go and putting her kunai back in her weapons pouch.

That's when Fu and the others first got a good look at her; she had long silver hair and a matching pair of eyes. She wore a violet top which seemed to only barely manage to conceal her D-cup breasts, and her skirt seemed to be made from what was once her Akatsuki robe, reaching all the way down to her feet with an opening that showed more or less her entire left leg.

New World, Shikei Toride, Prison Level

"You've been here for ten years?" Naruto asked as he looked through the bars of his cell and towards Takeda's cell.

"Yes. About that long." Takeda said before Naruto's stomach suddenly rumbled, causing the blond to laugh nervously as he scratched the back of his head.

"Say, when's dinner time?" He asked.

"Never." Takeda simply stated.

"Huh?" Naruto looked at him confused.

"As soon as you're put down here, you might as well be dead already. The samurai don't care any about their prisoners, and just leaves them to starve to death." Takeda said.

"Nani?!" Naruto exclaimed before asking "Then if you've been here for ten years, how're you still alive?" Then realization struck him as he quickly crawled to the back of the cell in panic "A-a-are you a g-g-g-g-g-ghost?"

"Not quite." Takeda said before picking up a rock and said rock then suddenly turned into bread "I've got the powers of the Food-Food Fruit; a Devil Fruit that gives me the ability to turn anything solid I'm holding into food."

He then tore the bread in two and threw one half over to Naruto while starting to eat the other half himself.

"So wait… if you could turn… anything you touch into food… then why haven't you just… turned the bars into spaghetti or something… and run off yet?" Naruto asked as he took bites of the bread.

"Because the bars are made of Sea Prism Stone for one thing. And even if I had managed to get out, I wouldn't have gotten very far seeing as the place is swarming with samurai." Takeda said before finishing eating his half of the bread.

"So we can't escape?" Naruto asked.

"I wouldn't say that." Takeda replied.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"I might be powerless in the face of these bars, but not you, since you're not a Devil Fruit user." Takeda said.

"How do you know that I'm not a Devil Fruit user?" Naruto asked.

"Devil Fruit users give off a slightly different wavelength than normal people. The difference is so small, however, that only the most skilled with Observation Haki can feel it." Takeda explained before saying "Now then, why don't you use some Jutsu to break through those bars?"

"Right." Naruto said after finishing the bread and he rose to his feet while forming a cross-shaped hand sign "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Then a clone appeared in a puff of smoke and together Naruto and the clone formed a Rasengan before the clone puffed away and Naruto ran towards the bars.

"Rasengan!" He called out as the spiraling chakra sphere impacted with the bars before breaking through them like nothing. After getting out, he did the same thing to the bars on Takeda's cell, letting him out.

As Takeda walked out of his cell, Naruto got a good look on him for the first time. He had long, messy black hair and a pair of black eyes. He black clothes that were little more than rags due to having been in that cell for so long, and he had a slightly torn white jacket which he wore like a cape that had the word "justice" in kanji on the back.

"Yosh! Now let's go find Zolo-san. Dattebayo!" Naruto said.

Throne room

Zorro was watching as his son was surrounded by three samurai warriors, all three of which then charged at the teen. Zolo, however, swung his blades, cutting through all three of the samurai, though not killing them.

"You've gotten stronger, Zoro. But you're still not strong enough, not if you're ever going to take my place as the Samurai Emperor." Zorro said.

"Whoever said that I wanted that position in the first place?" Zolo asked.

"Fool! You've got no choice in the matter! As my only son, you have to be the one to take my position!" Zorro said in a commanding tone of voice.

"I told you that I don't want that position!" Zolo yelled.

"You have to take it! As a member of the Roronoa samurai clan, it is your duty!" Zorro said, getting slightly angry.

"I don't give a damn about the clan!" Zolo yelled, causing Zorro's eyes to widen slightly.

"Zoro, that's the first time in the history of our clan that anyone's ever said that. Clearly those shinobi must have brainwashed you. But don't worry, I'll soon bring you back to your old self." Zorro said before the gate to the room suddenly blew up.

"Sorry to tell you this, but Zolo-san's the same as he's always been." A voice came out of the smoke cloud and as said smoke cleared, it revealed Naruto and Takeda walking towards where Zolo was standing before stopping on either side of him.

"You must be Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto, leader of Uzushio." Zorro said before turning his gaze towards Takeda "Well, if it isn't Admiral Kuroken of Marine Headquarters. I thought that you'd be long dead by now."

"Sorry to disappoint you." Takeda said.

"What are you doing, Naruto?" Zolo asked.

"Exactly what I came here for. I'm going to have a little talk with your father." Naruto said.

"Don't bother, Naruto-san. Zorro won't listen to anything that a non-samurai has to say." Takeda said as he recalled what happened when he got there ten years ago.

Flashback

Admiral Takeda – also known as Kuroken – had come to Shikei Toride on orders from the World Government to negotiate an alliance with the samurai, though he had figured that it was probably just some ploy to get people closer to Raftel.

Takeda along with several of his men walked across the wooden walk-way before eventually reaching the fortress' main gate where the giants, Tatsumaki and Kaminari were standing guard.

"I'm Admiral Kuroken from Marine Headquarters. I'm here to negotiate an alliance treaty with the Samurai Emperor." Takeda said and the two giants looked at each other before proceeding to open the gate, letting the Admiral and his men come inside.

As they came in, however, they were met by a Samurai Captain along with an entire platoon of samurai warriors that had them almost completely surrounded, the only way out being back out the gate where the two giants were.

"I'm Admiral Kuroken from Marine Headquarters. I'm here to negotiate an alliance treaty with the Samurai Emperor." Takeda repeated.

"If that's so, then I hope that you'll be staying here for a while." The Samurai Captain said before a large explosion could suddenly be heard and several of Takeda's men turned around to see smoke coming up from where their ship should've been "Like, let's say, forever."

The samurai warriors then charged at the Marines, cutting them all down until Takeda was the only one left.

Flashback end

"So you want to talk, do you? Then talk, ninja." Zorro said.

"First, I want to know exactly why you sent Zolo-san away. And why you act like you suddenly care about him. Dattebayo!" Naruto said.

"I see no reason why I should explain myself to you, ninja." Zorro said.

"Then, tell me this." Takeda said as he took a few steps forward "If you hate ninja so much, then why do you have those eyes?"

'Eyes?' Naruto thought, wondering what Takeda meant.

Zorro then smirked before rising to his feet and stepping out of the darkness. He wore a black samurai kimono with golden shoulder guards which both had three red tomoe on them in a pattern similar to the Sharingan. On his back was the image of a purple ring with four rings within it in a ripple pattern and beneath it was a similar pattern except here where nine red tomoe included on the rings, three on each ring. While his hair was green like Zolo's, it was longer, reaching down to his shoulders. He also had an X-shaped scar between his eyes. What caught Naruto's attention the most, however, were his eyes; they were red with three black tomoe in each, the Sharingan.

"A Sharingan?" Naruto said in surprise.

"It's a story from the Third Great Ninja War. Zorro once ran into a Hyuga, killed him and took his right Byakugan eye. Then later he ran into two Uchiha brothers, and killed them before taking their eyes. He took the younger one's right eye and the older one's left eye before swapping those eyes with the two's other eyes." Takeda said.

"Wait, why swap his Byakugan for a Sharingan instead of having the Byakugan in one eye and the Sharingan in the other?" Naruto asked.

"I'm not sure, but according to rumors; his right Sharingan eye somehow absorbed the abilities of the Byakugan." Takeda said.

"The rumors are correct. Father does possess the ability of both Dojutsu." Zolo said.

As Naruto looked at Zorro's eyes, he recalled something; that whenever a non-Uchiha continuously used the Sharingan, they would get tired out rather quickly.

"Kakashi-sensei always got exhausted from using the Sharingan for too long, so how come Zorro's got both eyes open? Wouldn't that tire him out double as fast?" He said.

"Not in this case, for you see, the Roronoa are blood relatives of the Senju." Takeda said, causing Naruto's eyes to widen. Sure, while the word "Senju" wouldn't have meant much to him a while back, one of the books that Sakura had given him had some information on that clan, information he was actually interested in seeing as the Senju was also blood relatives of the Uzumaki.

'But with the body of the Senju along with the eyes of the Uchiha, he could potentially awaken that Dojutsu, which in his hands would definitely mean the end for any non-samurai.' Takeda thought before asking "Tell me, Zorro. Is your goal to awaken the ultimate Dojutsu? The Rinnegan?"

"And what if it is?" Zorro said with a smirk.

"I might not be a Marine Admiral anymore, but I can't let someone like you get those eyes." Takeda said as he started to draw his katana sword, which was at his left hip.

"Well, I don't know what this Rinne-whatchamacallit is, but it doesn't sound good." Naruto said before assuming a fighting stance as Zolo also put his hands on his swords.

"So, you're all going to try and fight me? Very well." Zorro said before raising his left arm with only his pinky extended "Gomen, but I don't have a finger smaller than this."

Chapter preview

Robin "Soon, there will be a great battle between the samurai and Uzushio. If they are to even stand the slightest chance, Uzushio will need a lot of help."

Hitomi "NARUTO-KUN! I missed you so much!" (grabs Naruto and hugs him tightly)

Uzushio nin "Get up, kid, Naruto-sama wants a word with you." (Akagami looks at the man out from the corner of his eyes from his position on the bed with his back to the tent's entrance)

Makarov "It's a mission request from Uzushio to help out in a war. And they've requested you 9 in particular."

Patty "This… this is…" (looks down at a letter)…"Everyone, set sail immediately! We're returning to Uzushio!"

Naruto "Next time on Naruto: Shinobi Hunters: Prelude to war."

Luu "Looks like it's gonna get ugly. Do you think they can win?"

Mavis "No. Not unless they get many more reinforcements."

Character information

Name: Roronoa Zoro/Zolo

Affiliation: Shikei Toride (former), Dopai's Kenjutsu Dojo, Uzushio. (Kurama no Kyubi: Dopai is the name I'll give Zolo's master until Oda reveals his actual name.)

Affinity: Swords.

Likes: Swords, Training.

Dislikes: His father, Shikei Toride.

Bio: Having been born as the son of the Samurai Emperor, it was almost as though the weight of the world was put on his shoulders, as every samurai expected him to become just as strong as his father. However, Zoro didn't hold up to their expectations, and was sent away to Samurai General Dopai's dojo in the East Blue to train. There Zoro met Dopai's daughter Kuina; the only one at the dojo except from her father that was stronger than him. During his time at the dojo, Zoro changed his name to Zolo due to his hatred for his father and the fact that he didn't want to be affiliated with him. Having resolved to become even stronger than his father, Zolo constantly challenged Kuina, who he could never beat, but on one fateful night they promised each other that they would both become as strong as they could be and then have a duel for the title of "World's Greatest Swordsman". However, the next day, Zolo found out that Kuina had fallen down the stairs and died, and with her now dead, he asked her father to give him her sword as he now strived towards become the greatest swordsman for the both of them. Years later, Zolo left Dopai's dojo on a journey to become the best, a journey which eventually brought him to the North Blue where he met Naruto and became a ninja of Uzushiogakure.

Kurama no Kyubi: As you guys know, I recently bought Pokémon X, but I think I might've done something wrong 'cause everyone in my team are already above level 90 and I still haven't gotten to the eight Gym.