Chapter 48 (Patreon)

“What’s wrong? You surrounded me, but none of you intend to attack?”

Nerona Mihawk stood atop the remains of a collapsed house, his black katana held loosely in his right hand.

With the fingers of his left hand, he brushed aside the silver hair hanging over his forehead. The blood clinging to those strands stained his palm red.

Beneath his feet, shattered roof tiles and broken chunks of stone had been soaked in blood. Dust covered the scattered intestines and internal organs lying among the rubble.

More than a dozen corpses were piled around him, each one killed in a gruesome manner.

Yet aside from the blood staining his face and silver hair, Mihawk appeared completely unharmed. His kimono had not been torn or damaged, and not even a speck of dust clung to it.

His ruby-red eyes swept across the more than twenty enemy shinobi surrounding him. There was no attempt to hide the contempt in his gaze.

“Come.”

A faint, mocking smile appeared on his face.

“One at a time, three at a time, five at a time—or all of you together. It makes no difference.”

Mihawk raised his katana slightly.

“Come at me with the intention of killing me.”

“M-Monster...”

Instead of provoking their killing intent, his words caused one of the shinobi to stumble two steps backward.

The kunai in the man’s hand trembled uncontrollably as he stared at Mihawk in terror.

“He isn’t wearing chainmail, and he’s only a genin...” a Sunagakure shinobi cursed under his breath. “This goes far beyond being called a genius. Where did Konoha find a monster like him?”

If he had been alone, he would have turned around and fled without hesitation.

The boy in front of them was nothing less than a killing demon.

His swordsmanship was incomprehensible.

That slender body did not appear to contain much physical strength, yet a casual swing of his completely black blade was enough to cut a human body cleanly in half.

Combined with his incredibly fast Body Flicker Technique, there was almost no way to defend against him.

Mihawk looked at the enemy shinobi who were too frightened to step forward.

“What happened?”

His smile widened slightly.

“Are you afraid?”

He calmly returned his sword to its sheath.

“In that case, how about I give you an advantage?”

Mihawk reached inside his kimono, took out a strip of black cloth, and tied it over his eyes.

“Now you won’t have to worry about me seeing you.”

“Now!”

One of the Suna shinobi’s eyes lit up.

He immediately formed hand seals.

“Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!”

A violent gust of wind erupted from his mouth.

The compressed blast tore through the ruins like an air cannon and rushed straight toward Mihawk.

The fierce wind whipped Mihawk’s silver hair behind him.

Still blindfolded, he smiled calmly.

“This wind is rather refreshing.”

His hand moved toward the hilt of his sword.

Shing!

A silver-white flash burst from the blade.

The roaring blast of wind was instantly torn apart, dispersed by an even stronger force.

A dark-red Ranged Slash, nearly eight meters tall, ripped through the ground and swallowed the Suna shinobi who had used the jutsu.

The slash continued for more than ten meters, tearing through two houses before finally disappearing.

A trench more than ten meters long and two to three meters wide remained carved into the earth.

Of the more than twenty enemy shinobi, three or four had vanished completely.

The remaining shinobi stared at the destruction in silence.

Their bodies froze as though their minds had stopped working.

“I can hear your heart beating.”

A calm voice, as light as a passing breeze, suddenly came from behind one of the shinobi.

The man’s trembling gaze slowly moved away from the trench and returned to the top of the ruined house.

Mihawk was no longer there.

“Relax.”

That gentle voice sounded almost comforting.

“It will only hurt for a moment.”

Yet to the shinobi hearing it, it sounded like the whisper of a demon claiming his life.

Shing!

A brilliant silver flash passed through several shinobi standing in a row, like a shooting star cutting across the night.

Chakra gathered beneath Mihawk’s feet.

His body shot forward like a gust of wind as his sword moved again and again.

Silver-white flashes mixed with the dark gleam of his black blade.

Every swing sent severed limbs flying through the air.

Thick and thin streams of blood erupted one after another, splashing across the ruins.

“Aaaaah!”

Screams echoed throughout the area.

Mihawk’s silver hair and face were stained red.

At some point, the cloth covering his eyes had fallen away, revealing ruby-red eyes that shone through the blood.

To the enemy shinobi, he looked like a demon.

Their courage shattered completely.

One after another, they died while screaming in terror.

“Th-That’s terrifying...”

Several Konoha shinobi watching from a distance swallowed nervously.

“That kid... No, who exactly is that person?”

“A genin,” Ibiki Morino replied.

The commander overseeing the support forces could not hide the shock on his face.

“A terrifying genin.”

At the same time, Jiraiya stood on a nearby rooftop, watching everything from above.

He had kept his attention on Mihawk from the moment the boy entered the central area of Konoha.

“I never expected a monster like that to be born in this era.”

Jiraiya let out a quiet sigh.

“What a shame.”

He did not mean that Mihawk’s existence was unfortunate.

Rather, he thought it was a shame that the boy had been born during an age of relative peace.

Had a monster like Mihawk appeared during the Second or Third Shinobi World War, the entire shinobi world would have been forced to remember his name.

A trace of doubt appeared in Jiraiya’s eyes.

“There wasn’t any noticeable chakra fluctuation, but that attack was comparable to—or perhaps even stronger than—an S-rank ninjutsu.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“How did he do that?”

Was it a Kekkei Genkai?

Or perhaps a secret technique that required an incredibly small amount of chakra?

Jiraiya continued observing Mihawk carefully.

“He doesn’t look tired at all after using an attack like that. A Kekkei Genkai seems unlikely, but no secret technique could produce that much power without consuming chakra.”

He raised a hand to his chin.

“Could he have developed a form of swordsmanship that has never existed in the shinobi world before?”

After speaking, Jiraiya’s expression became serious.

“A monster even more frightening than the White Fang of the Leaf...”

His gaze hardened.

“We cannot allow someone like him to fall into darkness.”

Mihawk knew nothing of Jiraiya’s thoughts.

At that moment, he had entered a state he had never experienced before.

Never had the Breath of All Things sounded so clear.

Every breath around him reached his ears.

The bodies of his enemies.

He could feel them all.

No matter where his blade landed, he knew the enemy would be cut apart.

That sensation filled him with an excitement he had never felt before.

Warm blood splashed across his face.

Mihawk could clearly feel its heat against his skin.

The violent instincts that had been restrained by the laws of his previous life were finally released.

For the first time, Mihawk truly understood how fragile human life was.

Killing someone was no more difficult than cutting through a piece of fruit.

He could feel it.

The range in which he could sense the Breath of All Things was expanding.

I understand now...

Mihawk tightened his grip around the hilt of his sword.

Is this my swordsmanship?

Shing!

His afterimage streaked forward like a beam of light.

In the next instant, Mihawk appeared behind the few remaining enemy shinobi.

The excitement disappeared from his face, replaced by his usual calm expression.

He slowly returned the black blade to its sheath and continued walking forward.

Behind him, the bodies of the remaining shinobi split apart as easily as thin sheets of paper.

Within a radius of one hundred meters, the ground was covered in broken corpses, severed limbs, intestines, and scattered internal organs.