Chapter 73 (Patreon)

Sasori of the Red Sand stared at Mihawk, blood spilling from his mouth as the blade pierced the core embedded in his chest.

“You… How did you know?”

For an ordinary person, being cut in half meant certain death.

A swordsman with absolute confidence in his blade would rarely bother delivering another strike after dealing what should have been a fatal wound. Mihawk himself had held that same confidence during his battle with Kimimaro.

Sasori had expected no different.

He never imagined that after cutting his puppet body apart, Mihawk would deliberately drive his sword through the one place that still contained his living flesh.

Mihawk glanced at the two halves of Sasori’s body. Not a single trace of blood stained the severed sections.

“I’m not blind.”

With that flat reply, Mihawk returned his sword to its sheath.

He turned toward Chiyo. Grief covered the elderly woman’s face, but she made no move to interfere.

Mihawk walked toward the cave’s entrance, leaving only a quiet remark behind.

“He should remain conscious for a little while longer.”

Even as he walked away, Mihawk kept his Observation Haki firmly fixed on Chiyo. It was only after he had completely left the cave that he finally relaxed his guard.

In this world, a shinobi’s village truly seemed to come before everything else.

Even Chiyo had stood by and watched her own grandson fall to Mihawk’s blade.

Mihawk could not understand that kind of resolve.

Still, it was better that she had chosen not to attack. With Mihawk’s temperament, if Chiyo had turned her puppets against him, he might have personally shattered the alliance between Konoha and Sunagakure.

Stepping into the air with Geppo, Mihawk shot upward.

After climbing more than ten metres into the sky, he spread his Observation Haki outward like an enormous net, searching for the familiar presences of Hinata and Shino Aburame.

Twenty seconds later, Mihawk located them and changed direction.

He continued through the air for a short distance before descending into a forest. The moment his feet touched the ground, he switched from Geppo to the Body Flicker Technique and raced toward Hinata and Shino.

Over the past three years, Mihawk had mastered both Soru and Geppo.

Soru compensated for his lack of explosive speed at close range, while Geppo granted him the ability to fight and move freely through the air.

However, neither technique could be used without restraint.

Like Rock Lee’s Front Lotus, high-level taijutsu techniques consumed an enormous amount of stamina. The strain they placed on the muscles and bones was far more severe than the exhaustion caused by spending chakra on ninjutsu.

Unless he was in battle, Mihawk rarely used Soru or Geppo.

For ordinary travel, the Body Flicker Technique was more than enough.

Its effectiveness could not be underestimated, either. After mastering tree climbing, water walking, and Geppo, Mihawk felt as though there was no terrain in the world capable of stopping him.

As he sped through the forest, two familiar notifications suddenly appeared in his mind.

[You have killed “Sasori of the Red Sand” and gained 2.66% template progress.]

[Your “Hawkeye Mihawk” template has reached 75.55%.]

Hearing the final number, the corners of Mihawk’s mouth rose slightly.

“Seventy-five percent…”

Almost ten years had passed since the system first awakened.

When he was younger, gaining [0.02%] template progress from his daily task had been enough to cause a noticeable rise in his strength. It had not taken him long to surpass every child of his age.

During his six years at the Ninja Academy, the distance between Mihawk and his peers had grown to an almost ridiculous degree.

On the second day after graduation, he had easily defeated his team’s jōnin instructor.

However, once he became a shinobi, advancing further became increasingly difficult.

The higher his template progress rose, the more effort it took to draw out and master the power contained within it. A small increase that once produced immediate results now required long periods of training before it could be fully incorporated into his swordsmanship.

It was not until two years ago that his swordsmanship finally surged forward, allowing him to cross the boundary that had restrained him for years and enter the realm of a Great Swordsman.

Even so, Mihawk had spent most of the past two years stabilising that realm. A considerable gap still remained between his current strength and that of the true Dracule Mihawk.

Of course, he had not wasted those two years.

Had he relied only on the [0.02%] gained from his daily tasks, along with the progress provided by Kisame Hoshigaki’s Shapeshifting Technique clone and Sasori of the Red Sand, his Hawkeye template would currently have reached only around [72%].

The reason it had already climbed to [75.55%] was because Mihawk had led Team 8 on countless missions during those two years, killing numerous rogue and enemy shinobi along the way.

Even then, nearly a quarter of the template remained incomplete.

Mihawk had no idea how wide the gap between seventy-five and one hundred percent truly was. Judging by the strength he had already obtained, the final portion might take far longer to complete than everything that had come before it.

“I wonder what will happen once the Hawkeye template reaches one hundred percent. Will the system give me a second template?”

There was a trace of anticipation in his voice.

Mihawk remembered how the system had awakened, but he had never understood how he received the Hawkeye template in the first place.

Back then, after fighting those three children and watching members of the Hyūga clan take Hinata away, he had dragged his exhausted and aching body home. The moment he reached his room, he collapsed against the wall and fell asleep.

While his consciousness drifted between sleep and wakefulness, a notification had sounded inside his mind.

At first, Mihawk dismissed it as an illusion.

Only after waking and discovering that he could freely examine the template and mission panels in his mind did he realise that the system was real.

However, he still had no idea why the Hawkeye template had been given to him.

Because of that, Mihawk could not be completely certain that another template would appear.

Still…

There should be one, shouldn’t there?

After all, according to the information engraved in his mind, the system was called the Strongest Template System.

Mihawk slowly clenched his hands.

“There’s still about a year before the Fourth Shinobi World War. Even if I complete nothing but the daily task, that will give me another [7.3%]. And over the coming year, we’ll be fighting the Akatsuki…”

Daily training alone would not bring the template anywhere near completion.

However, the Akatsuki still had several powerful members. If defeating enemies like Sasori could provide this much progress, the battles ahead might allow him to close a large part of the remaining distance.

Whether he could reach one hundred percent before the war was another matter.

If a second template truly existed, he would have to earn the answer rather than simply wait for it.

Setting the thought aside, Mihawk increased his speed.

Ten minutes later, guided by his Observation Haki, he arrived at a clearing in the forest.

Team 7 and Team 8 had gathered there, standing around Gaara’s lifeless body.

Unlike the members of Team 7, who were visibly grieving, Hinata and Shino simply looked at Gaara in silence. They were remembering the Chūnin Exams several years earlier, as well as the encounter that had occurred during the mission to retrieve Sasuke Uchiha.

The moment Hinata noticed Mihawk approaching, she pushed those memories aside and hurried toward him.

She carefully examined his body for injuries. Only after confirming that there were no obvious wounds did she look up at him.

“Mihawk-kun, are you all right?”

Mihawk shook his head and gave her a reassuring smile.

“I’m fine.”

Hinata finally relaxed.

Shino Aburame approached next and adjusted his sunglasses with one finger.

“Mihawk, what happened to the opponent on your side?”

“He’s dead,” Mihawk answered.

Although he already knew what had most likely happened, he still asked, “What about yours?”

“That man detonated himself,” Shino explained. “Before the explosion could reach us, Kakashi-sensei used a space–time ninjutsu to transfer it into another dimension.”

The explanation matched the events Mihawk remembered.

He gave a slight nod.

It seemed Deidara truly was dead.