Chapter 66 (Patreon)

November 11, Konoha Year 61

Snow blanketed the Land of Fire.

Beneath the pale winter sky, countless snowflakes drifted down, covering the mountains and forests in a layer of silver.

Among the many snow-covered peaks, two figures steadily climbed a narrow mountain path despite the fierce wind.

Snow struck the surface of a red umbrella, yet no matter how violently the gale howled, it could not tear the umbrella from the hand holding it.

A young man and woman walked beneath it.

The young man was strikingly handsome. His smooth, fair features were framed by long silver hair, loosely tied behind him, while several strands swayed around his face. His crimson eyes remained calm despite the freezing wind.

He wore a black kimono with a simple white scarf wrapped around his neck, seemingly unaffected by the cold.

Beside him, the young woman wore a thick white coat and a red scarf. Her long dark-blue hair flowed freely down her back, occasionally lifting with the wind.

One hand clutched the edge of his sleeve while the other shielded her eyes from the snow as she looked toward the mountain across the valley.

They were Nerona Mihawk and Hinata Hyūga.

Nearly a year had passed since the two of them left Konoha to travel through the shinobi world.

A year was not especially long, but it was more than enough time for people to change.

Both Mihawk and Hinata had grown noticeably taller. Mihawk now stood at approximately one hundred and seventy-two centimeters, while Hinata had reached one hundred and sixty-one.

Their hair had also grown down to their waists.

Mihawk wore his silver hair loosely tied back, while Hinata allowed her dark-blue hair to fall freely behind her.

However, Hinata had changed far more than Mihawk.

Beneath her thick white clothes, her figure had developed considerably. What Mihawk had once been able to hold comfortably in one hand had now grown well beyond that.

Although she still fell short of Tsunade’s legendary one-hundred-and-six-centimeter bust, Hinata had already reached approximately ninety-two centimeters herself.

And with another two years of growth ahead of her, there was little doubt that she would continue developing.

Mihawk could still clearly remember how slender she had been more than a year ago, with her delicate collarbones standing out beneath her skin.

The difference was astonishing.

Naturally, those rather ‘considerable’ changes had brought no shortage of affection, teasing, and intimate fun into their life as a couple.

But that was beside the point.

Hinata’s appearance was not the only thing that had changed.

The timid girl who had once struggled to meet another person’s gaze now carried herself with far greater confidence. Although her gentle nature and occasional shyness remained, she was no longer the fragile girl who constantly lowered her head and doubted herself.

Their long journey had allowed her to see more of the world, face countless hardships, and grow stronger with every passing day.

More importantly, the months they had spent traveling together had deepened the bond between them and filled their lives with countless precious memories.

However, they had not climbed the mountain simply to admire the snow.

They had come to test the results of Mihawk’s training.

Even while traveling with Hinata, Mihawk never once let up on his sword training or physical conditioning.

In fact, whenever they passed through a new region, he would make use of the local terrain and natural environment to increase the difficulty of his training.

He had made the surroundings part of his training—waterfalls, rushing rivers, steep cliffs, violent storms, even mountains buried beneath heavy snow.

The Mihawk standing here was completely different from the one who had left Konoha in January.

His progress over the past year spoke for itself.

[Your Hawkeye Template progress has reached 70.25%.]

Upon reaching the summit, Mihawk closed the umbrella and handed it to Hinata.

He then raised his head and stared through the heavy snowfall at the mountain on the opposite side of the valley.

“Whoooosh!”

The freezing wind howled past his ears like a blade.

Without the umbrella shielding him, snow quickly gathered across Mihawk’s hair and shoulders, covering his black kimono beneath a thin layer of white.

The storm continued to intensify.

Before long, the mountain across from him disappeared behind a dense curtain of snow.

Mihawk did not move.

He stared into the storm for several moments before slowly closing his eyes.

His right hand settled on the hilt of the sword at his waist, and his body naturally assumed a drawing stance.

“Thump… Thump…”

His heartbeat echoed within his ears.

“Whoooosh!”

The roar of the wind seemed to swallow every other sound.

Mihawk remained perfectly still.

Gradually, however, the chaotic noise began to separate.

The wind shifted from faint to powerful, from gentle currents to violent gusts. Each change entered his perception with extraordinary clarity.

An invisible field of awareness spread outward from his body, passing through the raging storm.

Mihawk heard his own heartbeat.

Then Hinata’s.

His emotions gradually settled, and his mind became as still as the surface of a silent lake.

It felt as though his consciousness had entered an isolated chamber, completely separated from the physical world.

From there, he looked down upon everything within several thousand meters as though observing it from high above.

The Breath of All Things filled his perception.

Countless distinct breaths appeared within his mind.

The snow beneath his feet.

The stone buried deep within the mountain.

The trees bending beneath the wind.

The frozen earth.

Even the enormous mountain hidden beyond the storm.

Every breath seemed to gather within his grasp, as though an invisible hand had closed around the entire world before him.

A soft metallic sound broke through the wind.

Mihawk did not draw his sword in a sudden burst.

Instead, he slowly pulled the blade from its sheath.

He raised it above his head.

Only then did his crimson eyes open.

His gaze was as sharp as the edge of an unsheathed blade, seeming to pierce straight through the curtain of snow concealing the mountain.

Mihawk swung downward.

The movement appeared simple.

Yet the instant the blade fell, the world before him erupted.

“BOOM!”

The atmosphere exploded.

The air twisted beneath the force of the strike, and a tremendous current blasted the falling snow aside.

For a brief moment, the raging storm directly in front of Mihawk was completely cleared away, revealing the mountain on the opposite side.

A massive dark-red Ranged Slash tore across the valley.

Its scale was beyond anything Mihawk had ever released before.

The slash struck the distant mountain directly through its center.

There was no resistance.

The enormous snow-covered peak was split cleanly in two.

But the Ranged Slash did not stop there.

Hinata raised a hand to her lips, staring upward in shock.

The once-white sky had turned strangely dark.

A vast ravine seemed to stretch across the sky above the divided mountain, resembling an enormous scar carved into the sky itself.

It truly appeared as though the sky had been cut apart.

Mihawk’s perception had covered several thousand meters. The range in which he could hear the Breath of All Things had no longer been limited to the earth beneath him.

It had also reached the sky.

When he brought his sword down, the violent air currents nearly a thousand meters above the ground had been severed as well.

The resulting distortion formed an enormous divide across the clouds and falling snow, creating the illusion that the sky itself had been split in two.

“Hah…”

Mihawk returned his sword to its sheath.

His body trembled.

Mihawk had already spent the day training without taking a proper break, and after climbing all the way to the summit, the exhaustion he had ignored finally caught up with him.

He slipped an arm around Hinata’s shoulders and leaned against her for support, no longer able to keep himself standing on his own.

Even so, his eyes never left the mountain split in two—or the enormous scar stretching across the sky above it.

A wide smile slowly spread across his face.

“Heh…”

His quiet laughter gradually grew louder.

“Hahaha!”

Unable to restrain himself any longer, Mihawk laughed with unrestrained joy.

“Finally…”

His crimson eyes shone with excitement.

“I’ve finally mastered it.”

From this moment onward, he had officially stepped into the realm of a Great Swordsman.

His swordsmanship had now reached a level where a single swing could cut through a mountain.

Eight years had passed since Mihawk arrived in this world.

For seven of those years, he had devoted himself to the sword.

Every swing, every wound, and every exhausting day of training had led him to this moment.

This was a feat that even Roronoa Zoro had not achieved before learning Armament Haki.

Yet Mihawk had accomplished it through swordsmanship alone.

Even without relying on Haki, his current strength had already surpassed what any ordinary shinobi could contend with.

Mihawk could feel it clearly.

Once his swordsmanship reached its peak, the next step would be to push his Observation Haki and Armament Haki even further.

And beyond them lay the power he had yet to awaken...

Conqueror’s Haki.

He could hardly wait to unlock it through the Hawkeye Template and eventually master the advanced forms of all three types of Haki.

Only after mastering those powers would he possess a reliable means of confronting the strange abilities of the shinobi world—techniques capable of ending a battle instantly if he allowed himself to be caught off guard.

Mihawk turned toward Hinata with an exhilarated smile.

“Hinata, let’s go home!”

With his strength completely exhausted, he climbed onto Hinata’s back and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

Hinata could feel the happiness in his voice.

“Mm.”

She nodded firmly.

A joyful smile appeared on her face as she carefully supported Mihawk and began carrying him back down the mountain along the path they had taken.