The next day, Tenten comes alone to Zoro's training spot. She asks Zoro to train her after hearing his advice yesterday.
"Why don't you ask Guy?"
"That, uh.... He spends half of his day on physical training like walking around Konoha, on his hands. After hearing your advice, I realize I need to train my skills more for the exam because it's already close. So I ask for your help because you seem to know what I must improve. Also, Guy-sensei is the one who told me to ask you. So please."
"Hmm, sure, it's boring training alone all the time, so it's good to do something different."
"Yeay! Great!" Tenten is happy that she can finally train properly.
"By the way, what training are you doing here?" She is curious about Zoro's training because there doesn't seem to be anything unusual around here.
"Nothing much, just physical training and swordsmanship. But I can't break things because this is Konoha's ground. So I just polish my skills without using power. You can say it's more like reviewing to find what improvements I can do to my moves."
"Can I see it? Maybe I can learn something."
"Sure, but I don't know if you can learn anything though."
Tenten moves to the side and Zoro starts training his skills with wooden swords. The way he holds 3 swords surprise Tenten who has never seen it before. She thought he only used 2 swords and the other 1 was a spare, but he used all 3 swords at once.
Zoro starts trying his moves from simple slashes and stabs to different angles. As he says, he barely uses power on his moves and he moves quite slowly, so Tenten can see everything clearly.
But as he says, Tenten can't understand the depth behind his moves. They simply look like normal slash and stabs that everyone can do. Though she isn't proficient with swords, so she can't really judge it.
Then after a while, Zoro's movements suddenly change. He simply uses basic movements before, like normal training. But now he suddenly moves his swords as if he is fighting someone.
He still moves his swords slowly without power on them. But all of his moves feel so fast and strong. It truly looks like he is fighting a strong opponent in a real battle, it's similar to shadow boxing.
Right now, Zoro really imagines fighting someone that's very strong and skillful. He is fighting the shadow of the original Zoro that taught him swordsmanship through the dreams that Torao made since he has just started training in this world.
They call the original Zoro in dream as Instructor Moss Head to differentiate him with the real Zoro from One Piece world because Instructor Moss Head is just like a data, a copy of the real Zoro that was made to teach our Zoro in the dream.
Instructor Moss Head's level keeps increasing as Zoro gets stronger too. Even his new skills and understandings are copied perfectly by Instructor Moss Head. So he can never defeat Instructor Moss Head until this day and maybe he'll never win.
But thanks to that, Zoro will always have someone stronger to fight. Seeing his skills that are copied by Instructor Moss Head also helps him understand them more and find ways to improve them.
He has learned everything that Instructor Moss Head could teach. So now all they do is fight in the dream. But because their skills are the same, it makes the fight look like Zoro is fighting his stronger version.
Zoro has fought his stronger version so much that now he can even imagine fighting that version in real life, not just through dreams. He often trains by imagining his stronger self as his opponent like what he does now.
His aura and seriousness in this shadow fighting actually makes Tenten can see a thin silhouette of the opponent that he fights. She thinks she is hallucinating, but she still can see the imaginary opponent even after wiping her eyes.
Both Zoro and the imaginary opponent are moving slowly, but somehow Tenten can feel that their fight is very intense. If Guy or other strong fighters are here, they will see more than Tenten who is still weak and inexperienced.
Her being able to even see the imaginary shadow opponent is already a great feat at her current level. Though it's mostly thanks to Zoro's powerful battle spirit that he exudes even though he only fights an imaginary opponent.
Tenten can only stand on her spot with amazement. Her eyes are glued to Zoro's "battle". She even starts imagining herself using the same movements as Zoro, but she can't keep up.
"Don't try to be me. It's okay to learn what I do, but be your own self, use your own weapons. Learn the intentions behind my moves, try to understand them, don't just copy them as they are because that won't take you far."
Zoro knows what Tenten is experiencing now because it also happened to him in the beginning of his training with Instructor Moss Head.
"You aren't a swordsman like me. So you can't copy me. But if you try to understand the intentions behind my movements, then you'll be able to integrate what you learned into your own fighting style using your own types of weapons."
What Zoro says isn't that easy to do. Tenten tries to imagine herself using different weapons to do what Zoro does, but they all break apart.
"It's alright, no one can get it right the first time. Even if you have sharingan, it will still be very difficult to understand it completely immediately. So take your time and think calmly."
"Yes!" Tenten is very serious right now. She just watches Zoro, but she feels like she has learned a lot already.
Zoro finishes his shadow fighting after 2 hours and Tenten just watches obediently from the side while listening to his lesson.
"Alright, now why don't you show me your skills. Unlike yesterday, I will block all of your attacks to understand the power of your skills. Don't hold back and come to me with the intention to kill me because if you attack half-heartedly, then I won't be able to learn anything and give you any advice."
Zoro says it while putting away the wooden sword in his mouth. He will only use 2 swords to fight Tenten and maybe even 2 swords are already too much. But he has some points he wants to show her, so he uses 2 swords.
Tenten nods before taking out a wooden bo-staff from a scroll. She gets into a stance before attacking Zoro with her bo-staff. It's a good choice of weapon to fight against Zoro who uses swords and is taller than Tenten because it can even out their range of attacks.
She can move quite fast and nimbly, typical of most shinobi who are trained to be fast. Her skills with the staff are also good for her age, so Zoro is quite surprised. Though he obviously sees some problems.
"Using a staff reduces your speed a lot because your movements are wider than when you use shorter weapons. So you must be careful of opponents faster than you when you use a staff. You must be ready to defend anytime because their attacks might suddenly reach you."
Zoro says it while tapping his left wooden sword on her neck while his right sword is blocking her staff. He doesn't move that fast, but he finds a gap in her defense because she's too focused on attacking, so he can pass his attack through.
Tenten sighs and changes her weapons to a nunchaku or a double sticks. She spins it as she charges toward Zoro and attacks him again. Her skills with nunchaku are actually better than with bo-staff because she can showcase her speed and agility more with it.
Nunchaku is also harder to face than bo-staff because it can be unpredictable. But Zoro has fought many people who used nunchaku and they were more skillful than the current Tenten, so he can stop her attacks without any problem.
He keeps giving her advice as she fights him with different weapons and styles. Now he knows that she is trying to find her main weapon by trying out different things. So he helps her know her performance with each weapon.
Zoro actually enjoys this now. Teaching someone like this is actually fun in its own way. But he knows it will be much better if he can teach swordsmanship. It makes him excited thinking about getting a disciple and he already has 1 in mind.
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Chapter: 153. Zoro vs Tobi
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