Chapter 130 (Patreon)

When the commanders of the five divisions appeared, all eighty thousand members of the Allied Shinobi Forces fell silent.

Each division contained shinobi from all five great nations. Those whose commander came from their own village naturally felt proud and excited to see one of their people chosen to lead them.

The shinobi from the other villages, however, felt uneasy.

Many of them had once fought one another as enemies. They did not trust the commanders standing above them, much less the unfamiliar teammates beside them.

Such distrust was deadly on the battlefield.

No one could fight without reservation if they were unable to entrust their back to the person beside them.

Among the five commanders, the youngest, Gaara, faced the greatest skepticism.

Murmurs of dissatisfaction spread through the crowd. One complaint was overheard by a nearby Sand shinobi, and the resulting argument nearly erupted into a fight.

Similar confrontations were taking place throughout all five divisions.

Through the Third Eye he had formed from sand, Gaara witnessed everything.

Just as one of the arguments was about to turn violent, clouds of sand appeared between the shinobi and blocked every attack.

Standing above them, Gaara remembered the hatred he had once harbored toward the entire world.

He remembered Naruto Uzumaki, who had once faced him as an enemy yet still cried for him. Naruto had gradually changed him, allowing Gaara to find redemption and eventually become Kazekage.

Then Gaara remembered the pain he had experienced when Akatsuki captured him.

If they lost this war, his friends would suffer the same fate, and the entire world would be destroyed.

As the Kazekage—the pride and protector of an entire village—Gaara lowered his head before the eighty thousand soldiers gathered below.

He spoke not merely as their commander, but as someone asking them to help him protect a precious friend.

“...If you still cannot forgive the Sand, then once this war is over, come and take my head! But right now, the enemy is trying to take away the friend who saved me. If they capture him, this world is finished!”

“I want to protect my friend. I want to protect this world... But I am still too young and inexperienced to do it alone!”

“So... please lend me your strength!”

“OOOOOOH!”

The moment Gaara’s sincere and impassioned speech ended, the entire battlefield erupted.

The roar of eighty thousand soldiers pierced the heavens.

A powerful and untainted emotion swept through the assembled forces, making the entire world seem to tremble.

Standing within the Second Division, Mihawk once again felt the same atmosphere that had filled Sunagakure when Gaara returned.

However, this time was different.

Now, all five great nations had united, and the hatred separating them had given way to a shared resolve.

The impact far surpassed what Mihawk had felt that day.

Resting his left hand on the hilt of his sword, Mihawk looked up at the Kazekage who was now admired by countless people and sighed softly.

“Back then, his eyes were filled with nothing but hatred. He looked as though he wanted to kill everyone standing in front of him... Yet somewhere along the way, he grew this far.”

Standing beside him, Shino Aburame pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose.

“He is a hero, just like you and Naruto.”

“Yes.”

Hinata nodded in agreement.

“Everyone who shares my resolve, follow me! The Fourth Shinobi World War... begins now!”

The moment the commander-in-chief of the Allied Shinobi Forces made his declaration, the five commanders vanished in a blur.

When they reappeared, they were already beyond the army, leading the advance.

The five divisions immediately formed long columns and followed their respective commanders toward their assigned battlefields.

The war zone stretched across the region between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning.

It covered coastlines, forests, open plains, and mountain ranges.

Each division had its own objective.

Once they reached a certain point, the commanders leading the five divisions changed direction, taking their respective forces toward different battlefields.

The Second Division followed Kitsuchi into a dense forest and raced toward the other side.

After approximately an hour, the division emerged from the forest and gathered atop a cliff.

A vast green plain stretched out below them, but there was not a single enemy in sight.

“Spread out,” Kitsuchi ordered. “All sensory-type shinobi, check the ground below for an ambush.”

The moment his order fell, numerous figures flashed away in different directions.

Among them were Mihawk and the other members of Team 8—Hinata, Shino Aburame, and Kiba Inuzuka—as well as Neji Hyūga.

“Hinata, prepare for battle,” Mihawk reminded her.

His brow furrowed slightly.

For some reason, his mind had gone completely blank. He knew he had forgotten something, but he could not remember what it was.

In the original story, who had the Second Division fought besides the White Zetsu?

Being unable to recall that part of the story put Mihawk in a slightly worse mood.

However, he did not dwell on it for long and quickly cleared those thoughts from his mind.

Regardless of what happened, the ultimate opponents of the entire Allied Shinobi Forces were still Obito Uchiha and Madara Uchiha.

“Yes! They’re here... There are so many of them.”

Hinata had no idea what Mihawk was thinking.

The moment she heard his warning, her beautiful pale eyes transformed, revealing the blue-and-white flower-like patterns of the Tenseigan.

Its astonishing visual power pierced through the earth, allowing her to see a massive number of White Zetsu moving beneath the ground.

At the same time, Kitsuchi received a report from the command center.

He and his daughter, Kurotsuchi, immediately leaped from the cliff.

“Earth Style: Opening Earth Rising Excavation!”

BOOM!

As their voices rang out together, the entire earth began to shake violently.

Moments later, a massive cone of earth rose from the ground like a towering volcano.

Countless White Zetsu were blasted out of the earth and hurled high into the air as though they had been caught in a volcanic eruption.

“There are approximately twenty thousand of them...” Hinata reported.

SHING!

At that moment, a dazzling dark-red light shot into the sky.

A crescent-shaped Ranged Slash measuring thirty to forty meters streaked through the daylight like a meteor, tearing through a vast section of the airborne White Zetsu.

Every White Zetsu caught within the Ranged Slash died instantly.

Countless corpses rained down upon the battlefield, announcing the beginning of the war.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Neji Hyūga shot forward, their bodies disappearing into blurs.

Within moments, only Mihawk and Hinata remained at their original gathering point.

Mihawk did not rush forward.

He held his sword in his right hand while steadying the scabbard with his left.

“Hinata, pull them over. I’ll leave that to you.”

“Yes!”

Hinata immediately understood what he intended to do.

Her blue-and-white patterned eyes focused on a random cluster of White Zetsu, and she raised one pale hand.

An invisible gravitational force seized seven or eight White Zetsu from a great distance and dragged them through the air.

An icy-blue light flashed through Mihawk’s eyes.

The lines of death within the surrounding currents of air immediately appeared before him.

With a casual flick of his blade, a Ranged Slash followed those lines and swallowed every White Zetsu flying toward him.

Mihawk then stepped in front of Hinata.

His calm voice carried across the entire battlefield.

“Everyone from Konoha, as well as our comrades from the other nations—to prevent you from being caught in my attacks, do not enter the area in front of me from this moment onward.”

BOOM!

The moment his words fell, Mihawk swung his sword.

A seventeen-to-eighteen-meter Ranged Slash tore across the battlefield, instantly becoming the most eye-catching attack in sight.

It carved a ravine several meters wide and deep through the earth, displaying Mihawk’s overwhelming strength.