Chapter 132 (Patreon)

As the war intensified, time continued its silent march.

Before anyone realized it, dusk had already fallen.

The sun sank beyond the western horizon, dyeing the sky a deep crimson.

Across the front stretching between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning, fierce battles raged along the coastline, through the forests, and over the plains.

Both the scale and intensity of this war were unprecedented.

High-level ninjutsu that would rarely be seen under normal circumstances appeared one after another across the battlefields.

Explosive tags detonated, ninja tools clashed, and agonized screams echoed beneath the darkening sky.

BOOM!

A thunderous explosion shook the earth. Despite the considerable distance between the battlefields, the sound still reached the Second Division.

“What happened over there?”

Mihawk and the others, who had been cutting down the White Zetsu army, momentarily turned toward the coastline.

The First Division was responsible for that battlefield.

What could have happened to cause an explosion that powerful?

Shhk!

The Black Blade Nemesis carved a dark arc through the air.

With a sound resembling tearing cloth, several White Zetsu lunging toward Mihawk were sliced apart.

The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception remained active, their unnatural blue glow standing out against the darkening battlefield.

Mihawk had been fighting since morning, but there was not the slightest trace of fatigue on his face.

The White Zetsu posed no threat to him. Even their overwhelming numbers meant little.

If Mihawk had wanted to end the battle quickly, a few large-scale Ranged Slashes would have been enough to tear through the entire army.

The only reason the battle had lasted this long was because he was deliberately using the White Zetsu to train his Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.

The Mystic Eyes consumed neither chakra nor magic power, and keeping them active placed no meaningful strain on him.

The challenge was not endurance.

It was learning to instantly distinguish countless intersecting lines of death while thousands of enemies moved across a chaotic battlefield.

Every White Zetsu became a moving target for his training.

Mihawk calmly observed their lines of death and severed them one after another. Every swing of Nemesis was effortless, precise, and fatal.

At the same time, he listened to the Breath of All Things, ensuring that even the White Zetsu hiding underground could not escape his perception.

Hinata, however, had begun to show signs of fatigue.

Her chakra had already reached the Elite Jonin level several months ago. After awakening the Tenseigan, it rapidly surged to the Kage level.

Even so, repeatedly manipulating gravity had consumed a considerable amount of her chakra.

Of course, she had yet to resort to using any military ration pills.

Despite Hinata’s chakra consumption, the results they had achieved were astonishing.

White Zetsu corpses were piled everywhere around them. In front of Mihawk was a ravine more than ten meters wide and equally deep, its depths filled with pure-white bodies.

The White Zetsu army on this battlefield had originally numbered around twenty thousand.

Between seven and eight thousand of them had fallen at Mihawk and Hinata’s hands alone.

More than a third of the entire force.

This couple team had reduced the Second Division’s casualty rate to the absolute minimum.

The surrounding shinobi, whether they came from Konoha or the other villages, now looked at them with undisguised admiration.

Once this war ended, their achievements would undoubtedly earn them a place among its greatest heroes and cement their names among the strongest shinobi alive.

As night fell, the several thousand remaining White Zetsu suddenly turned and retreated.

At the same time, the White Zetsu and Edo Tensei forces on the other battlefields also began withdrawing one after another.

The sudden truce left countless shinobi momentarily confused.

However, it also gave them a precious opportunity to rest and catch their breath.

Once the enemy had withdrawn, recovery teams began gathering the bodies of their fallen comrades.

Meanwhile, the Sensory Division at the Allied Shinobi Forces’ headquarters silently began tallying the casualty reports from each battlefield.

The final number was enough to leave everyone breathless.

The Allied Shinobi Forces had suffered approximately forty thousand casualties.

Nearly thirty thousand of those losses had occurred along the coastline controlled by the First Division.

Some had fallen to the White Zetsu and Edo Tensei forces, but most had been killed by the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path during Obito Uchiha’s surprise attack.

On the enemy’s side, nearly fifty thousand White Zetsu had been destroyed.

The forces on both sides had almost been cut in half.

And this was only the first day.

The brutality of this war was now painfully clear.

After watching the White Zetsu army retreat, Mihawk sat down beside Hinata while she rested.

The other shinobi did the same.

Aside from Mihawk, nearly everyone had been pushed to their limit after fighting for an entire day. Their physical strength and chakra had been drained, while the mental strain of taking lives again and again weighed heavily on them.

“Release!”

Poof!

Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Neji Hyūga approached Mihawk and Hinata.

Shino pulled back his sleeve and pressed two fingers against the portable sealing tag wrapped around his wrist. His fingers swept across the character for “seal.”

A cloud of smoke appeared, revealing a large storage scroll in his hand.

Shino opened the scroll and formed another hand seal.

Several bottles of mineral water and packages of dry rations appeared before them.

Shino adjusted his sunglasses.

“Let’s eat something.”

Mihawk and Hinata nodded.

Neither of them was surprised that Shino carried a storage scroll. This was far from the first time he had done so.

Mihawk picked up a bottle of water and rinsed the dust from his face. He then wiped away the droplets gathering near the corners of his eyes.

“The enemy’s retreat feels strange,” he warned. “White Zetsu can move underground, so they may launch a surprise attack tonight. Stay alert.”

“Understood.”

Kiba and the others quickly nodded.

They ate their rations and drank their water in silence.

Hinata’s chakra gradually began to recover, while some of the exhaustion weighing on the other shinobi faded.

“…”

At that moment, Mihawk’s expression shifted slightly.

Hinata, who had been watching him, immediately noticed.

“Mihawk-kun, what’s wrong?”

Mihawk placed the last of his rations into his mouth, chewed it, and washed it down with water.

After swallowing, he slowly said, “I may have to leave this battlefield.”

“What happened?” Kiba immediately asked.

Shino and Neji also turned toward him with questioning looks.

“Headquarters just contacted me through a Yamanaka telepathy technique,” Mihawk explained. “The First Division was attacked by Madara Uchiha and suffered severe casualties. Captain Kitsuchi has been ordered to lead reinforcements from the Second Division to support them.”

He took another sip of water before continuing.

“Most of the reinforcements being transferred to make up for the First Division’s losses are coming from the Fourth Division.”

Mihawk rose to his feet and pulled Hinata up beside him.

“Now that we’ve broken the force of twenty thousand White Zetsu here, Hokage-sama and the Fourth Raikage have ordered me to reinforce the Fourth Division.”

He looked toward Kiba.

“I’m taking Hinata with me. I’ll leave this battlefield to you.”

“You’re leaving now?” Shino asked, glancing toward Hinata. “Shouldn’t Hinata rest a little longer?”

“She can recover while we’re moving.”

Mihawk turned his back to them and led Hinata into the darkened forest.

With that, Nerona Mihawk and Hinata Hyūga withdrew from the Second Division’s battlefield.