Chapter 118 (Patreon)

“Hokage-sama, leave this man—who coveted power and tried to seize the Hokage’s seat—to me.”

After killing Torune Aburame, Mihawk pointed the tiny cross-shaped sword in his hand at Shimura Danzō without turning away from Tsunade.

As Tsunade gazed at Mihawk’s back, he appeared more dependable than ever.

She smiled and nodded.

“Then I’m leaving him to you, Mihawk.”

“Your strength has far exceeded my expectations.”

Danzō appeared completely indifferent to the deaths of his subordinates. In the same flat tone as before, he continued, “Your skill with a blade reminds me of someone.”

He was speaking of Sakumo Hatake, Kakashi’s father.

The name of Konoha’s White Fang had once resounded throughout the entire shinobi world. There was hardly anyone who had not heard of him.

His reputation had even surpassed that of the Legendary Sannin.

Sakumo’s strength had been so overwhelming that no enemy of his era had managed to defeat him. In the end, he had died by his own hand.

He had been one of the rare kenjutsu masters in the shinobi world and could be considered a true predecessor to Mihawk as a swordsman.

Anyone from that era who witnessed Mihawk’s swordsmanship would inevitably be reminded of Konoha’s White Fang.

However, Danzō’s schemes had also been hidden behind Sakumo Hatake’s death.

That secret history was precisely why Danzō had made the comparison.

“Whoosh!”

Mihawk had no interest in speaking with him.

Using Soru, his figure disappeared. It was a form of movement completely different from the Body Flicker Technique, achieved through sheer physical speed.

In an instant, Mihawk crossed the distance between them.

“Click!”

Danzō remained composed and removed the remaining golden metal braces from his right arm, revealing pale flesh embedded with ten three-tomoe Sharingan.

His hands swiftly formed several seals.

“Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets!”

Danzō inhaled before forcefully blowing out several nearly invisible blasts of compressed wind.

The bullet-like projectiles tore through the air toward Mihawk.

Mihawk did not even slow down.

The tiny cross-shaped sword moved once.

Shing—!

A thin silver-white streak flashed through the air.

Every Vacuum Bullet disappeared at the same instant, erased so completely that not even a trace of disturbed wind remained.

Danzō’s visible eye narrowed.

“So it truly can kill ninjutsu.”

Not far away, Tsunade stared at Danzō’s exposed right arm. The sight of the Sharingan embedded throughout it made her expression turn ugly.

“So this was what he was hiding beneath those bandages…”

Her eyes hardened.

“During the Uchiha clan massacre… did he take all those Sharingan for himself?”

After discovering this secret, what little regard Tsunade still possessed for Danzō sank even lower.

Danzō, however, had no time to concern himself with Tsunade.

Mihawk was already standing in front of him.

Too fast.

There had been no gradual approach, no exchange of movements.

One moment Mihawk had been several meters away.

The next, the tiny cross-shaped blade was already descending toward Danzō’s neck.

Danzō drew a kunai and raised it to intercept.

“Snap—!”

There was no metallic clash.

The tiny blade passed through the kunai as though it were made of paper.

The weapon split cleanly in half.

Danzō did not retreat.

Instead, he immediately reached toward Mihawk’s neck with his free hand.

The Self-Cursing Seal.

His intention was obvious.

Even if Mihawk severed his head, Danzō could use Izanagi to erase his own death. If he could touch Mihawk before that happened, he could leave behind the seal and restrict his movements after reviving.

It was a ruthless exchange.

But only if the opponent played along.

Mihawk’s eyes flickered toward the approaching hand.

The corner of his mouth rose slightly.

“Too slow.”

His sword stopped a hair’s breadth from Danzō’s neck.

Before Danzō’s fingertips could come anywhere near him, Mihawk’s right leg disappeared from sight.

BOOM!

A layer of Armament Haki coated his foot as the kick slammed directly into Danzō’s abdomen.

The impact folded Danzō’s body around Mihawk’s leg.

His feet left the ground instantly.

Then he vanished backward like a cannonball.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Danzō smashed through one tree after another, each trunk exploding apart on impact before his body finally plowed through the snow and carved a long trench across the frozen ground.

Mihawk had not been forced to abandon an opportunity.

He had simply chosen not to take Danzō’s head yet.

The hand carrying the Self-Cursing Seal had never been a threat.

Observation Haki had already shown Mihawk what Danzō intended long before the old man moved.

And even without it, the difference in their physical abilities was too great.

Danzō could possess a hundred hidden techniques and it would make no difference if he could not touch Mihawk.

In the original story, Danzō had nearly caught Sasuke Uchiha with the Self-Cursing Seal by deliberately allowing himself to be struck and using Izanagi to turn the exchange in his favor.

Against Mihawk, that tactic was useless.

Knowing what Danzō could do only made an already hopeless difference in strength even worse.

“Rumble—!”

Mihawk casually raised the tiny cross-shaped sword.

A dark-red Ranged Slash nearly ten meters tall erupted from a blade barely large enough to be called a knife.

The contrast was almost absurd.

The slash surged forward like a towering tsunami.

Danzō had only just forced himself upright when the crimson wave swallowed him whole.

BOOM!

The ground split apart.

Snow, stone, and shattered timber exploded into the air.

When the dark-red light faded, Danzō was gone.

A moment later—

“Whoosh!”

A figure rushed from Mihawk’s blind spot.

Danzō had reappeared without a single wound.

Izanagi.

He immediately drove another kunai toward Mihawk’s back.

Mihawk did not even turn around.

His hand moved.

Riiip—!

The tiny cross-shaped blade flashed beneath his arm.

Danzō froze.

A thin line appeared across his torso.

Then his entire upper body slid away from his waist and crashed into the snow.

Watching from nearby, Tsunade was momentarily stunned.

“He died… just like that?”

Ten seconds passed.

Just as Tsunade prepared to step forward, Danzō’s voice suddenly sounded from behind Mihawk.

“Wind Style: Vacuum Blast!”

The bisected corpse lying on the ground faded away like an illusion.

Danzō appeared behind Mihawk without a single injury and unleashed a massive crescent-shaped blade of compressed wind.

“As expected…”

Mihawk murmured softly.

“Even killing you isn’t enough to make you stay dead.”

He turned with almost lazy calm.

The tiny cross-shaped sword swept downward.

BOOM!

A dark-red Ranged Slash seven or eight meters tall erupted from the miniature blade.

The incoming Vacuum Blast shattered instantly.

The crimson slash continued forward without losing momentum and swallowed Danzō once again.

A thunderous explosion shook the forest.

Yet only moments later, Danzō appeared once more at his original position, completely unharmed.

One of the Sharingan embedded in his arm had closed.

Mihawk’s gaze briefly shifted toward it.

Izanagi.

So that was how Danzō intended to fight.

Rewrite every unfavorable result as an illusion and continue until the Sharingan sustaining the technique were exhausted.

A troublesome ability against an opponent close to his own level.

Unfortunately for Danzō, that was not the situation here.

The instant he reappeared—

Mihawk vanished.

Danzō’s eye widened.

A hand seized the front of his robes.

Before he could react, Mihawk lifted him from the ground with one arm and slammed him headfirst into the snow.

BOOM!

The earth cratered beneath Danzō’s skull.

Mihawk did not release him.

He dragged Danzō back out of the crater and hurled him through the air.

Before Danzō could travel even three meters, Mihawk appeared above him.

Another kick crashed into his back.

BOOM!

Danzō shot straight downward.

The frozen ground burst open.

His body disappeared into the newly formed crater.

A second later, a dark-red flash followed him down.

Riiip—!

The tiny cross-shaped sword sent a Ranged Slash directly through the crater.

Danzō’s body was cut apart before he could even climb back out and then it vanished.

At the same time, another Sharingan closed.

Danzō reappeared several meters away.

Mihawk was already waiting for him.

Danzō had barely regained physical form when a fist coated in Armament Haki struck him across the face.

CRACK!

His head snapped sideways.

Blood and broken teeth scattered across the snow as he was launched through the forest.

He struck the ground once.

Mihawk appeared beside him.

A kick sent him back in the opposite direction.

Calling it a battle was becoming increasingly difficult.

There was never any real exchange of advantage between them. Danzō could neither touch Mihawk nor properly follow his movements, and every Wind Style technique he unleashed was erased almost the instant it appeared.

Even the hidden sealing technique he had intended to use was seen through before he could bring it into play.

His greatest trump card, Izanagi, changed nothing about the gap between them. It could overturn his death again and again, but all it truly accomplished was giving Mihawk another chance to kill him.

Danzō reappeared again.

This time, he immediately jumped backward and formed hand seals.

“Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere!”

A massive blast of compressed wind erupted from his mouth.

Mihawk continued walking toward him.

He did not dodge.

The tiny cross-shaped sword flicked once.

Shing—!

The huge mass of compressed wind split apart and vanished.

Mihawk was already standing in front of Danzō before the old man could lower his hands.

Danzō’s pupil contracted.

Mihawk struck him across the face with the flat of the tiny blade.

Smack!

The humiliating blow snapped Danzō’s head sideways.

Before he could recover, Mihawk drove his knee into his stomach.

Danzō doubled over.

Mihawk caught him by the back of the head and smashed his face into the ground.

BOOM!

Then he dragged him back up by his hair.

“You rely too much on Izanagi.”

Danzō glared at him through blood running down his face.

Mihawk’s icy-blue eyes remained completely calm.

“It lets you undo death.”

The tiny cross-shaped sword moved.

Riiip—!

Danzō’s head separated from his shoulders.

“But it doesn’t make you stronger.”

His corpse vanished once again.

Another Sharingan closed.

Mihawk turned toward the place where Danzō was about to reappear before the old man had even materialized.

Observation Haki had already shown him everything.

Danzō emerged.

The first thing he saw was Mihawk standing directly in front of him.

For the first time, the old man’s expression visibly changed.

Mihawk’s hand closed around his face.

BOOM!

Danzō was driven backward through an enormous tree.

To Tsunade, it almost looked as though Danzō were trapped inside a nightmare.

No matter where Izanagi restored him, Mihawk was there.

At this point, Izanagi was no longer turning the battle in Danzō’s favor. It was only forcing him to endure the same defeat over and over again.

Amid the relentless slaughter, Mihawk continued observing carefully.

He could clearly perceive Danzō’s death each time his body was destroyed.

Yet Izanagi itself refused to die beneath his blade the way ordinary ninjutsu did.

That was the only thing about this battle that genuinely interested him.

Mihawk narrowed his eyes slightly.

Izanagi is still a jutsu. I can clearly perceive Danzō’s death, yet the technique itself cannot be killed as easily as ordinary ninjutsu.

His gaze shifted toward another Sharingan closing on Danzō’s arm.

The difference must lie in its origin.

Izanagi was a dōjutsu born from the power of the Sharingan, a diluted form of a technique once connected to the Sage of Six Paths.

Mihawk could perceive its death.

He simply could not yet reach it.

Is it because I still don’t understand the power behind the Sharingan deeply enough?

A possibility gradually formed in his mind.

He already understood enough about the Sharingan to trace its lineage back through the Uchiha, the Sage of Six Paths, and ultimately the chakra fruit.

But knowing where something came from and truly understanding its nature were two different things.

He knew almost nothing about the chakra fruit itself.

Even less about the otherworldly Ōtsutsuki clan from which that power originated.

Perhaps that was the boundary he was encountering.

Ordinary ninjutsu possessed concepts simple enough for him to grasp and kill directly.

But powers rooted in the level of the Six Paths were different.

The Rinnegan.

Izanagi.

Abilities inherited from the Sharingan’s deeper origin.

His eyes could perceive their death, but his present understanding was not yet sufficient to sever it.

Mihawk looked at Danzō as the old man revived yet again.

There was no frustration in his expression.

Instead, the faintest trace of interest appeared in his eyes.

That was fine.

After all...

Danzō still had three Sharingan left.

Which meant Mihawk still had plenty of opportunities to study Izanagi while beating him to death.