Clearly, Zoro was training Ryuma in Observation Haki, requiring Ryuma to react to Zoro's sword strikes based solely on his perception: his perception of Zoro's spirit power. After getting hit by Zoro's wooden sword, Ryuma's stance faltered. A sharp sting spread through his arms, but he gritted his teeth and focused, trying to feel Zoro's presence so he could predict and parry the next attack. Yet, Ryuma was unable to feel anything. Zoro continued striking him without mercy, landing one blow from the left, another from the right, followed by one from above. Ryuma could only raise his sword instinctively, but it was never enough.
Smack!
"Ow!"
Thwack!
"Ow!"
For the next ten strikes, Ryuma was hit constantly, the training ground echoing with the sound of wood colliding with flesh alongside his pained cries. Many parts of his hands, chest, shoulders, and back had already turned red from being struck. Yet Ryuma refused to give up. He continued concentrating despite the pain, striving to grasp the elusive feeling Zoro had described.
Then, after the tenth strike, he felt it for a brief moment: a faint sensation, a presence, an instinctive warning. Ryuma reacted immediately.
Clang!
The wooden sword in his hand collided with Zoro's wooden sword. Although his arms trembled from the impact, a grin appeared on Ryuma's face; he had finally managed to sense one attack.
For the next thirty minutes, Zoro continued attacking Ryuma relentlessly from different directions. Sometimes the strikes came one after another without pause; other times, Zoro deliberately struck multiple areas in rapid succession, making defense almost impossible. Ryuma continued to struggle. From time to time, he managed to feel Zoro's presence for a brief instant and barely reacted in time to block, but most of the time he still failed. Even so, compared to the beginning, there was visible progress.
When the training session finally came to an end thirty minutes later, Ryuma had successfully parried twenty attacks. That number was small compared to the hundreds of strikes launched during the session, but for Ryuma, it was undeniable progress.
Ryuma removed the black cloth covering his eyes and looked at Zoro, who was standing in front of him with a slight smile. Zoro is definitely enjoying beating me, even if I don't have any proof of it, Ryuma thought. Lowering his gaze to his bruised hands, aching arms, and battered chest, he comforted himself: At the very least, I improved by ten parries compared to yesterday.
Zoro looked at him and said, "Well, stop dawdling. Let's get on with your Flying Sword Slash practice."
Ryuma nodded, picked up his three swords from the side table, placed them at his right side, and unsheathed Wado Ichimonji.
"Begin with 36 Pound Ho," Zoro instructed.
Nodding again, Ryuma bent slightly into his familiar stance, folding his arms and pointing his sword upward while supporting his sword-holding arm. Taking a deep breath, he swung powerfully and shouted, "One Sword Style: 36 Pound Ho!"
A powerful, twisting Flying Sword Slash shot forward, spinning through the air. Though it only traveled a few meters before collapsing and dispersing, it was a clear improvement. Just three days into training, his Flying Sword Slash could travel several times farther while maintaining its form, whereas before it barely managed a single meter. It was far from perfect and nowhere near Zoro's capability, but seeing that tangible progress made all the bruises and pain feel worthwhile.
For the next month, Ryuma continued training inside his mental space under Zoro's relentless guidance. Day after day, the routine remained the same: training, getting beaten, training again, and getting beaten even harder. At first, every attempt to sense spirit power felt like grasping at smoke, but slowly he began to recognize the faint presence surrounding living beings. Fleeting moments gradually turned into something he could consciously perceive, until Ryuma successfully awakened and mastered the basics of Observation Haki.
The moment he truly grasped it, the world felt different—not visually or physically, but spiritually. For the first time, Ryuma could clearly feel his own will, his spirit, and the power hidden within it. Now that he could feel it, the next step was learning to channel that spirit power into his body and sword to harden them through sheer will: Armament Haki.
Zoro immediately transitioned his training in that direction. Armament Haki proved no easier than Observation Haki, and if anything, it was even more frustrating. Again and again, Ryuma tried to guide his spirit power through his body, only to fail when the energy dispersed or his concentration slipped. But under Zoro's merciless training, Ryuma pushed forward, and two months later, he successfully mastered the basic hardening of Armament Haki. Although still at a beginner level, he had officially stepped into the realm of Haki users.
Around this time, while returning home from the fields one afternoon, Ryuma overheard a conversation among a group of villagers.
"The Hokage-sama's wife is pregnant."
"The wife of the Fourth Hokage?"
"Yeah, Kushina-sama."
The moment Ryuma heard those words, his footsteps paused as a chill ran through him. Kushina Uzumaki is pregnant, he thought. That means the Night of the Nine-Tails is approaching.
Ryuma immediately became alert. When will it happen? A month from now? A few weeks? Tomorrow? He had no idea, as Kushina's pregnancy timeline was highly classified; the news had only spread because her growing belly had become visible.
From that day onward, a constant sense of urgency settled inside Ryuma's heart. To prepare for the upcoming Nine-Tails incident, he devoted even more time to training. Anything could happen that night, and he needed enough strength to protect himself and his family. He trained every day with the conviction that the attack might happen tomorrow.
However, one week passed, then another, and then a month. Nothing happened—no Nine-Tails attack, no disaster, and no warning signs. Life in Konoha continued as usual. Ryuma remained vigilant initially, but as weeks turned into months, that sharp sense of urgency gradually began to dull. He never reduced his training intensity, but maintaining that level of mental tension for months was exhausting. The thought of the impending attack slowly drifted to the back of his mind as his brain adapted to the waiting.
Nearly five months passed. One evening, after completing another exhausting training session, Ryuma felt completely drained. His body was sore and his muscles ached as the cool evening breeze brushed across the fields. Unable to resist his exhaustion, Ryuma lay down directly on the field, closed his eyes, and fell asleep within moments.
Suddenly, a deafening roar shook the Konoha: "ROOOOAAAAARRRR!!!"
The sound reverberated throughout Konoha like a thunderclap, causing the ground to tremble and the air itself to vibrate. Ryuma's eyes snapped open instantly, his heart skipping a beat. As a second distant roar echoed across the night, the realization struck him like lightning: the Night of the Nine-Tails had begun.
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