In Tsunade's house, Zoro explains Hiyori's situation to both Tsunade and Shizune while she plays with Tonton and the cat-sized Torao in the yard. Both of their expressions turn grim as soon as they hear what Hiyori has been through.
"I see, so that's why you want to check if her body is really fine now. You make the correct choice." Shizune looks at the happy Hiyori with a sympathetic gaze.
"Shizune, quickly examine her. It has been days, so if she has a hidden injury or illness caused by her bad days, then it might have become a bigger problem, so we need to examine her quickly."
"Yes, Lady Tsunade."
Zoro calls Hiyori so she can be examined by the 2 experts. Tsunade is the one who checks Hiyori's condition while Shizune is ready to note everything. She checks Hiyori's pulse, touches her stomach with her green chakra-coated hands, inspects her mouth, asks questions, and other medical stuff that Zoro doesn't understand.
"She was mildly poisoned, probably because of the dirty water she drank. That dirty water also must be filled with parasites and worms because she is infected with some. The parasites are quite weak, that's why she doesn't show any symptoms of being ill while the worms have grown quite big in her stomach, so we need to take them out. There are some damages in her stomach because she didn't eat anything for days, but they are recovering slowly. The problem is the damage on her lungs and veins caused by the low temperature when she was stranded. Don't worry though, I can heal those, just won't be that fast because her body is still too young to receive the intense treatments."
"So you can fix all the problems, right?"
"Of course, but it will take time and she needs routine treatments, so I'm afraid you can't go anywhere for a while."
"Doesn't matter. I can stay still for months if it means you can treat her."
"Heh, you'll really be a good father. Well, it won't take months, so don't worry. Fortunately, she was healthy before that incident happened and didn't catch any dangerous illness there. You found her right on time and your first treatments were not bad, so she didn't get something worse. Besides, she has a great metabolism and immune system. Normal children won't be able to run around that quickly after almost starving to death."
"Really? But I was in my peak condition again after eating some moldy bread when I almost died because of starvation too. My situation back then was similar to Hiyori, so I thought it was normal."
Zoro is telling the truth and the 2 medical nins know that he doesn't lie. That's why they become speechless because he is really abnormal.
"It was my mistake to treat you like a normal person." Tsunade sighs before drinking the sake that Zoro gives her.
"Then I will go find an inn for us to stay. What time do we need to come for the treatment tomorrow?" Zoro wants to excuse himself.
"Why look for an inn? Just stay here. You won't even need to cook because Shizune will do it for you. 1,500 ryo a night." Tsunade smirks.
"Let's go find an inn, Hiyori." Zoro stands up without any hesitation.
The average inn is only 500 ryo a night for a single person, breakfast and dinner included. It will at most be 800 ryo with Hiyori too, or less because she is a child. So Tsunade is trying to rip them off, typical.
"W-wait! It also includes the medical treatment fee, you know, and 3 meals a day." Tsunade quickly stops Zoro.
Zoro looks at Shizune with a puzzled expression because it's so unusual for Tsunade to do this kind of thing even if she loves money.
"The 4th Hokage docks her salary this month because she borrowed too much money for gambling that the debt collectors are coming directly to the Hokage office."
"So she needs money?"
"Yes."
"That's why you brought me here?"
"..." Shizune doesn't answer because she is embarrassed with her hidden intention.
"Sigh, fine, this place should be better than inns anyway." Zoro sighs as he agrees to stay here.
"Great! Now pay for a month immediately." Tsunade is as shameless as ever.
"Daily, I'm paying daily." Zoro doesn't agree because he knows Tsunade will lose all the money quickly and then will do something to get more from him, which will surely be very troublesome.
She tries to persuade him to pay for a month immediately and even wants to give him a discount if he agrees, but he doesn't change his mind because Hiyori might get healed in less than a month which means they might not need to stay here for even a month.
"Tch! So calculative. Fine! Fine! Daily it is. Now pay for the 1st day." Tsunade reluctantly gives up because Zoro is more persistent than her.
Zoro gives her exactly 1,500 ryo and she immediately storms off after throwing the 500 ryo at Shizune. Both Zoro and Shizune know where she is going, but they ignore her because they can't stop her anyway.
With this, Zoro will stay in Konoha for a while until Hiyori is fully healed. He doesn't want to risk her health by doing his usual routine of going around the countries to hunt while she is still not healthy, after all, so it's better to stay here for now.
To enjoy their time in Konoha, Zoro takes Hiyori on strolls around the village every day. Tsunade also says it's alright for Hiyori to move around normally, but she shouldn't get too tired, so Zoro carries her on his shoulders sometimes.
During their strolls, Zoro sees many important characters in the story. After all, this is Konoha, the main location of the story, so it's normal for him to come across the important characters when he's here.
Well, it's not that important for him because his priority is Hiyori now. Zoro takes Hiyori to different places and tries different things like food, entertainment, watching shinobi, and the most important thing is shopping for her necessities like clothes.
Zoro really enjoys this too because it's his first time having a normal family. Torao is a family too, but he's a cat, so they can't do what normal families do. Besides, he is more of a partner while Hiyori is more of a little sister.
Still, he never expects that children need a lot of expenses. Just her clothes alone have cost a fortune. Now he understands why his friends who have kids can't be as rich as him even though they work harder and could be getting more money.
They just spend a lot more than him because of their families, especially their kids. No wonder too Granny Suzu saved a lot of money as her inheritance for Hiyori. She knew it would need a lot of money to raise a kid.
Every day, Hiyori receives a treatment from Tsunade or Shizune. She also receives some medicines and supplements to improve her health. She also gets medicines to kill the worms in her body.
Zoro thought they would need to do surgery to take out the worms. Turns out they can kill them with just medicines and it won't even take that long to kill those worms. Just a few days at most with Tsunade's prescription.
Their days in Konoha are quite peaceful. But the same thing can't be said to those like Kakashi, Asuma, and the others who are always forced to fight Zoro whenever they meet him. Guy is the only one who is always eager to fight him to this day.
Zoro actually also has other targets, but they are better at hiding from him than Kakashi's group. He has fought those like the clan heads, Itachi, Shisui, even Jiraiya and Tsunade. But they always know how to escape.
Itachi and Shisui always stay in Anbu HQ even when they don't have work just to avoid him. The clan heads always make business and those like Fugaku or Hiashi always stay beside Hokage as his advisors whenever he visits Konoha.
In the past, the clan heads could always win against Zoro. But just like Tsunade, they started losing a few years ago. However, Zoro keeps challenging them because he still can't defeat them easily, and it seems to scare them.
Zoro doesn't just do this in Konoha, but also in Kumo and Iwa. Though he still can't fight Tsuchikage because that old man never agrees to fight him, saying that it's useless and there's no benefit in fighting him.
That's really too bad because he really wants to face Tsuchikage's Dust Release Kekkei Tota. But Zoro never pushes it because Iwa has many missing nins and he doesn't want to lose another source of money.
Anyway, Zoro fights a few times with Guy, Asuma, and the others while he is in Konoha. Then one day, he hears about the Joint Chuunin exam that will be held soon. It's an interesting plot of the story, so he decides to wait and watch it.
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Chapter:
138. Wrong Answers
139. A Dense Protagonist
140. Not A Romantic Start
141. Shippuden
142. Matatabi
143. Hunt of 2 Tails
144. Kakuzu and Hidan
145. Yugito vs Immortals
146. Zoro Arrives
147. Immortal Killer
148. Back to Safety
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