Shukaku keeps cursing Zoro after getting his replica body chopped. He doesn't die because it's not his real body, but a replica made out of sand. Still, it angers him when a human shames him like this.
Zoro doesn't listen to the angry raccoon and just climbs the giant head. He approaches the sleeping Gaara before slapping the kid back and forth to wake him up. Shukaku tells Zoro to stop, but he doesn't care.
After a while, Gaara wakes up from his sleep and Shukaku gets sealed again. Gaara is surprised when he sees Zoro and wants to attack with his sand. But Zoro grabs his face and pulls him out of Shukaku's replica.
"Don't even try, kid, or I will crush your head." Zoro says it while using a little Conqueror Haki to intimidate Gaara.
Gaara is a ruthless kid around this time and he'll really kill anyone if he wants. That's not his real nature, but the result of Rasa's bad teaching and treatments. After all, Gaara and his siblings quickly become good people once Rasa dies, so that asshole is the cause of their bad personalities.
But even the ruthless Gaara is nothing but an angry kitten in Zoro's eyes. Just a little intimidation is enough to scare Gaara to the core and stop him from trying to attack Zoro. Even someone like Kakashi will piss himself if Zoro intimidates him with Conqueror Haki, not to mention a kid like Gaara.
Zoro drops Gaara who has stopped fighting back and Shukaku's head replica breaks apart after Gaara can't control his jutsu anymore. So now the battle is truly over and obviously, Zoro won't kill Gaara.
"Hey, kid. You are Rasa's son, right?" Zoro's question makes Gaara flinch and back away.
"No need to be that scared of me, I won't do anything to you. The one I have a problem with is your asshole father and your village's elders, not you. Too bad though, that asshole has died and it's annoying that I wasn't the one who killed him."
"What?!" Gaara is surprised to hear that his father has died.
"Rasa has died, Orochimaru killed him. The one that comes to Konoha is Rasa, but not the living Rasa. I don't know what Orochimaru has done to him, but that Rasa is not alive." Zoro still tries to hide the fact that he knows about Edo Tensei.
"W-what do you mean? How do you know if he's alive or not?" Gaara still can't believe Zoro.
"Well, because I have a special sensor skill that can help me differentiate the presence of people. Rasa's presence is obviously not something I feel from a living person. Also, he could recover his body after being obliterated completely by Shukaku's attack. Then, he suddenly disappeared like being summoned by someone even though I know he can't use teleportation like Minato. So obviously, he isn't a living person. If you don't believe me, then we can check once we return to Konoha. The problem is, I don't know how to get there."
This is the problem that Zoro realized once he arrived here. He was sent here by Minato using teleportation, but he doesn't even know where this is. Sending someone with the worst sense of direction to an unknown place is the same as killing that person.
Torao who always helps him find ways isn't here either because the cat needs to protect Hiyori. So Zoro is really lost and doesn't know what he needs to do or where he needs to go. His only chance to return to Konoha is Gaara now.
"Yo, kid, are you surprised to hear your annoying father has died or are you just that scared of me?" Zoro raises an eyebrow seeing Gaara is silent and shocked.
Now it seems he can't depend on Gaara to return to Konoha. He also can't ask for anyone's help because he can't contact anyone. Now he really wishes there were phones in this world.
People can use birds to send messages, but Zoro can't even use the Summoning Technique, so he can't send anything. He can use telepathy with Torao, but the distance is too far now.
"DAMN IT, KID! GET A GRIP OF YOURSELF!" Zoro knocks Gaara's head because he's really pissed off seeing the scared boy.
Gaara is more scared of him now instead of being concerned about Rasa's death. Well, it makes sense because there's no way Gaara will mourn for that asshole who has made his life very miserable and Rasa was the one who taught him to not love anyone anyway.
Also, it might be the first time after such a long time for Gaara to feel this much fear towards someone. He could see what happened when Shukaku was in control, so he saw how Zoro overwhelmed the Tailed Beast and it really scared him.
Even Rasa couldn't overpower and defeat Shukaku alone. When Gaara lost control in the past, Rasa would fight and seal the beast together with other shinobi. But Zoro defeated Shukaku alone without any help, which is terrifying for the boy.
Zoro sighs and sits after seeing how the boy looks very terrified. He really feels bad for Gaara now because he knows Gaara becomes like this because of his asshole father's and village elders' fault, the same with other Jinchuriki.
In this regard, Zoro actually respects Raikage and Kumogakure about how they treat their Jinchuriki. Although it's more because of B's personality and attitude that made him likeable. He also became the village's hero in the war, which made people love him more and it helped Yugito too as a result.
Konoha also treats their Jinchuriki quite well now because as the Hokage, Minato really supports his son. So at least people won't treat Naruto badly that openly. Meanwhile, Rasa treated his own son as a tool and would even traumatize him by making him kill the only person who loved him genuinely before, his uncle.
"Sigh, hey kid, do you want to hear a secret? That uncle of yours, who's his name again?" Zoro can't remember Gaara's uncle's name.
That question actually makes Gaara flinch because he still can't forget about his uncle's last moment. After all, that was the biggest betrayal that Gaara has ever faced and it changed his life forever.
"Hmm, nevermind, his name isn't important. You know that I hated your damn father, right? He really annoyed me and I truly wanted to kill him when I attacked your village. So, I've investigated a lot of things before I attacked your village at that time and found out a lot of things, including about what Rasa has done to you and your uncle. You know, when I found out about how he made his own son into a Jinchuriki, I already felt annoyed, but not that mad. After all, I expected him to treat his son nicely, just like how the 4th Hokage treated his Jinchuriki son. But when I knew that he only treated you as a tool, it really pissed me off. I just can't understand how a father can treat his own flesh and blood like that. Furthermore, he even made you believe that no one truly loved you while it was not true."
Gaara doesn't react to what Zoro says because he already knows it. But the next part is not what he expected.
"You know, in my investigation, I found out that he actually sent your uncle to be killed by you. While it was true that your uncle hated you at first for causing his beloved sister's death, it was said in the investigation report that he came to love you after taking care of you for a while. He realized that you weren't the cause of his sister's death. Like, of course. How could a newborn baby kill an adult? And a strong kunoichi at that. He also realized that his sister would still give birth to you even if she knew it would kill her because that's how mothers are. Well, at least mothers who love their kids and she surely was one of them."
Zoro pauses for a while to check if Gaara is listening before continuing and he surely is. Gaara looks disturbed at the mention of his uncle's and mother's love for him.
"So anyway, your uncle loved you and your father found out that it made you soft. He thought that your uncle's care made your emotion unstable and weakened Shukaku's seal or something like that. What he and the village's psychos wanted was a strong weapon that would do anything they ordered, not a kind child who won't even kill a fly. So they set up a plan to make you an emotionless weapon that won't lose to anything, even your own desire because they think that love weakens you. They sent your uncle to attack you and try to kill you. He couldn't disobey them as the village's shinobi. But of course, your uncle couldn't kill his beloved nephew, so he chose to be killed by you. He knew that they wanted to kill you because they thought you failed as a Jinchuriki for being unable to control your emotion, so he thought that it was better to make you don't believe and love anyone because then you will control your emotion better. He thought that it was better than you being killed by the village. He did that because he didn't want to kill the proof of his sister's existence."
Zoro doesn't really remember the details though, so he doesn't know if everything he says is true. But the essence should still be true. Besides, his purpose is to make Gaara believe that there are still people who love him and it seems to work because Gaara is breaking down now.
"If you don't believe me, then you can investigate it yourself. Rasa has died, so you have more freedom now. But you need to think about it seriously. Will you be the person that your father who doesn't love you want or what your mother and uncle who clearly love you want? You are free to decide."
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Read up to +50 CHAPTERS ahead in my patreon page.
patreon.com/creampuffs69
Chapter: 169. The Previous Kages
Please like and support this book too if you like it, thank you