Chapter 17 (Patreon)

“Clang—!”

Shigure Kintoki, transformed from an ordinary bamboo sword into a true blade, collided with the kunai in Kurenai’s hand.

Sparks scattered from the sharpened edge of the kunai.

Mihawk’s wrist suddenly relaxed.

Rather than continuing to struggle against Kurenai’s strength, Shigure Kintoki slipped free from the clash. The blade turned in his hand, and he swept its blunt edge toward Kurenai’s neck.

The advantage of a longer weapon immediately became clear.

Although Mihawk had deliberately used the back of the blade and controlled the force behind the strike, Kurenai did not dare let it touch her.

She quickly lowered her body and rolled to the side.

After several rotations, she stopped in a low crouch. Several shuriken had already appeared between her fingers.

Kurenai threw them without hesitation.

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

Mihawk swung Shigure Kintoki several times.

Every incoming shuriken was knocked from the air and fell to the ground, cleanly split into two pieces.

He immediately raised his sword again.

Then he brought it down.

“Shhk—!”

A familiar crimson Ranged Slash erupted from the blade.

It rose three or four meters into the air as it tore across the training ground toward Kurenai.

The attack moved with terrifying speed, and the force trailing behind it swept through the clearing like a violent gust of wind.

Faced with such overwhelming power, Kurenai had no choice but to evade.

Before she could properly regain her footing, she rolled sideways once more and sprang back to her feet.

However, while all her attention was focused on avoiding the Ranged Slash, she failed to notice the figure concealed directly behind it.

Mihawk had used the violent current of air created by his own attack to rush forward in its wake.

“Tap.”

The blunt edge of a bamboo sword suddenly came to rest against Kurenai’s neck.

“BOOM!”

A heavy crash shook the forest behind her.

For a brief moment, Kurenai stood completely still.

She looked at the handsome face directly in front of her, then listened to the destruction caused by the Ranged Slash behind them.

Her thoughts went blank.

“You lost, Kurenai-sensei.”

Mihawk did not immediately remove the cloth covering his eyes.

Instead, he reached toward Kurenai’s waist and took hold of the bells.

Genjutsu specialists were among the most dangerous shinobi in the world.

The smallest movement or moment of eye contact could pull an opponent into a false reality without them even realizing it.

Mihawk’s Observation Haki might allow him to sense Kurenai’s real position even after being caught in an illusion, but he had never formally studied how genjutsu affected the mind.

He was not willing to take an unnecessary risk.

That was why he kept his eyes sealed until the moment the bells were safely in his hand.

Once the most direct method of using her visual genjutsu had been denied, Kurenai had been forced to fight him in an area where she held no advantage.

The swordsmanship of the One Piece truly possessed an enormous advantage in the shinobi world.

Throughout the history Mihawk remembered, attacks resembling his Ranged Slashes were generally produced by Susanoo. The power to cut apart mountains had only been displayed by a Complete Body — Susanoo.

Mihawk’s chakra reserves were currently only around the level of a chūnin.

Even so, his overall combat ability was already enough to defeat certain jōnin.

Admittedly, Kurenai had been placed at a severe disadvantage because her greatest specialty had been restricted from the beginning.

However, this fight had still taught Mihawk something important.

Swordsmanship from the seas was extremely effective in a world where nearly every powerful technique depended on chakra.

His Ranged Slashes possessed tremendous destructive power without consuming any chakra at all.

As long as Mihawk could prevent his opponent from freely using their strongest techniques, the battle would immediately shift in his favor.

Once stripped of the abilities they relied on most, many shinobi—excluding dedicated taijutsu specialists and those with powerful kekkei genkai—were little more than physically enhanced fighters who could run faster and jump higher than ordinary people.

Warriors like that were common throughout the seas.

Kurenai’s performance in their brief confrontation had made that difference especially clear.

“You’re incredible, Mihawk.”

Kurenai made no attempt to stop him from taking the bells.

Her crimson eyes were still filled with amazement.

“I’ve never seen swordsmanship like that before. How did you learn to do it?”

Only after feeling the solid weight of the bells in his palm did Mihawk finally untie the cloth around his eyes.

His own narrow crimson eyes opened, carrying a faint smile.

“Honestly, I’m not completely sure.”

He continued with the explanation he had prepared beforehand.

“When Hinata and I were younger, we were training beside a river. I swung my sword, and the surface of the water suddenly split apart.”

Mihawk gave a small shrug.

“It frightened both of us at the time.”

“When you were still a child?”

Kurenai’s brows drew together slightly.

She began reconsidering the two attacks she had just witnessed.

Neither of those Ranged Slashes carried any noticeable chakra fluctuations.

Could it be some unknown kekkei genkai that doesn’t require chakra? Or is it not a kekkei genkai at all?

“Kurenai-sensei?”

Mihawk watched her distracted expression.

“What’s wrong?”

He had only offered that explanation to avoid giving her a real answer.

The Breath of All Things belonged to an entirely different system of power.

Without the assistance of his template, Mihawk doubted anyone in this world could reproduce it even if he explained the training method in complete detail.

“No, it’s nothing.”

Kurenai returned to her senses.

“I lost. That’s all.”

When she looked at Mihawk again, there was practically a golden glow in her eyes.

He really is a walking treasure.

She had only just become a supervising jōnin, yet she had already been assigned such a terrifyingly talented student.

Kakashi, Asuma… I win.

“Mihawk-kun…”

Seeing that the fight had ended, Hinata and Shino approached them.

Hinata looked directly at Mihawk without her usual hesitation.

Her pale eyes were filled with open admiration.

Shino adjusted his sunglasses before speaking in his characteristically calm voice.

“Mihawk, you concealed your strength extremely well.”

He paused.

“Had you wanted to, you could have graduated from the Academy years ago.”

His final sentence was not a question.

It was a statement.

“I still have a long way to go,” Mihawk replied quietly.

In truth, even Mihawk did not know the exact limit of his current strength.

Judging from this battle, a genjutsu specialist like Kurenai could not properly test everything he was capable of.

At the very least, he needed to fight an elite jōnin such as Kakashi Hatake before he could accurately judge where he stood.

Shino said nothing more.

He simply assumed Mihawk was being modest.

Kurenai clearly thought the same.

The appreciation in her eyes only grew stronger.

“Clap!”

Kurenai brought her hands together, drawing the attention of all three genin.

“The original purpose of today’s survival exercise was to observe how well you could cooperate without prior preparation.”

She smiled somewhat helplessly.

“I didn’t expect Mihawk to defeat me by himself.”

Kurenai raised the two fingers of one hand.

“Still, a promise is a promise. Meet me outside the Academy at six this evening. I’ll treat all three of you to barbecue.”

Her smile brightened.

“That’s all for now. Dismissed.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Kurenai’s figure vanished from the clearing.

Mihawk stared at the empty place where she had been standing, and a sharp glint passed through his eyes.

I nearly forgot about that.

The Body Flicker Technique.

A movement technique like that could easily allow an experienced shinobi to evade his Ranged Slashes.

Mihawk did not know why Kurenai had chosen not to use it during their confrontation.

Perhaps she had been too surprised by the unfamiliar nature of his attacks, or perhaps she had deliberately limited herself because this was only an assessment.

Whatever the reason, Mihawk committed the detail to memory.

In reality, he had also held back throughout the fight.

During the first clash, Shigure Kintoki had met Kurenai’s kunai directly.

Had Mihawk used his full cutting power, the kunai would never have survived the collision.

It would have been sliced apart.

When he attacked Kurenai’s neck, he had also used the back of his blade.

During their brief close-range exchange, Mihawk had found several opportunities to leave cuts across her body.

He had chosen not to take them.

This was only a survival exercise, and Kurenai was now his teacher.

There was no reason to injure her merely to prove that he could.

PS: Remember that the current Template Progress does not equal to the Mihwak in One Piece at the same level. The last percentages is the real deal.