Chapter 145 (Patreon)

Pitch-black lightning converged around Nemesis as Mihawk stared at the army of towering blue warriors surrounding him.

Through the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, the Perfect Susanoo no longer appeared as separate opponents. Dark lines covered each of their enormous bodies, yet every one of those lines ultimately led back to the same source.

Although Madara’s Wood Clones had created them individually, they were all extensions of the same technique.

Future Sight revealed the next few seconds to Mihawk. More than a dozen enormous katanas would descend simultaneously, sealing every path of escape beneath a storm of mountain-splitting blades.

Before that future could become reality, Mihawk moved.

He held Nemesis horizontally and swung once.

Whoosh!

A circular dark-purple Ranged Slash erupted from the blade and rapidly expanded in every direction.

At the same moment, every Perfect Susanoo brought down its katana.

Boom!

The sky shook as more than a dozen gigantic blades collided with the dark-purple ring. For a moment, the two forces remained locked together. The combined pressure drove Mihawk several meters downward, making his arm tremble, but cracks were already spreading across the Susanoo’s enormous katanas.

Then the Ranged Slash crossed the single line connecting them all.

Riiip!

A tearing sound echoed across the sky as the blue katanas shattered one after another. Thin dark lines flashed across every Perfect Susanoo, and the first towering warrior twisted violently before splitting apart. The second followed, then the third, until every Perfect Susanoo began collapsing at once.

Their wings broke apart, their armored bodies separated, and their enormous forms dissolved into streams of blue chakra. The Wood Clones hidden inside them were severed at the same time, sending countless pieces of broken wood raining toward the desert.

In a single attack, the enormous formation covering the battlefield vanished.

Only Madara remained.

As the Perfect Susanoo surrounding his original body disappeared, Madara began falling toward the desert below. Mihawk had already seen his next movement through Future Sight and immediately stepped against the air with Geppo, descending after him.

Madara twisted his body in midair and formed a hand seal with one hand.

“Impressive... you actually managed to find my real body.”

Two Wood Clones emerged from him and rushed forward to intercept Mihawk, but Mihawk did not slow down. Nemesis flashed twice, severing both clones before their feet could touch the ground.

Madara’s lips curved into a faint smile.

“Hmph... So you were not intimidated after all.”

Mihawk continued descending directly toward him, his icy-blue eyes already fixed upon the dark line running from Madara’s right shoulder toward his waist.

Madara’s expression changed. He raised his remaining hand and released an overwhelming repulsive force.

“Shinra Tensei!”

Boom!

The air distorted as the invisible wave erupted from Madara’s body and struck everything around him. However, Mihawk had already seen the attack through Future Sight. A fraction of a second before Shinra Tensei activated, he completed his swing and sent Nemesis across the line upon Madara’s right shoulder.

The repulsive force struck Mihawk immediately afterward.

Whoosh!

He was hurled several hundred meters through the air, but repeatedly kicked against the air with Geppo, slowing himself until he finally came to a stop.

Something spun through the sky between them.

Madara’s severed right arm.

It fell into the desert and struck the ground with a dull thud.

Madara landed several moments later and looked down at the empty space beneath his right shoulder. Ordinarily, an Edo Tensei body would have begun restoring itself immediately.

White dust should have gathered around the wound and reconstructed the missing limb.

This time, nothing happened.

Madara frowned.

“Kabuto’s information was accurate, then.”

Mihawk had not merely cut through the flesh of his reanimated body. By severing its line of death, the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception had killed the arm itself. As far as Madara’s body was concerned, his right arm no longer existed.

When Madara raised his gaze toward Mihawk, the admiration in his eyes remained, but it was now mixed with unmistakable caution.

He did not become angry over the loss. Madara had spent most of his life pursuing Hashirama and understood better than anyone that strength decided the outcome of a battle. Whenever an opponent proved superior in a particular exchange, he acknowledged it without making excuses.

If Mihawk had lacked the strength to threaten him, Madara would have killed him without hesitation. Now the opposite had occurred.

Mihawk had broken through everything Madara used against him and taken his arm in the process.

That was simply the result of their respective abilities.

More troubling was the nature of Madara’s reanimated body. Kabuto had not restored him exactly as he had been at the moment of his death. He had enhanced the body with Hashirama’s cells before bringing Madara back in his prime.

If the Mystic Eyes had severed his arm on a level deeper than flesh and chakra, Madara could not be certain the damage would disappear after his true resurrection.

The loss of one arm would not prevent him from fighting, but continuing this battle carried the risk of losing far more. He had already obtained the information he needed. Mihawk possessed the power to destroy ninjutsu, sever an Edo Tensei body beyond its ability to regenerate, and contend with an entire army of Perfect Susanoo.

Until Madara reclaimed his true Rinnegan and acquired the power of the Ten-Tails, continuing this battle would be needlessly reckless.

His killing intent gradually receded.

“Mihawk,” Madara called, his voice carrying across the ruined battlefield. “You have won this round.”

Ōnoki stared at him from a distant rock formation, unable to believe what he had just heard.

“Madara... admitted defeat?”

He had witnessed the legendary Uchiha overwhelm entire armies and summon meteorites without the slightest concern. Yet Mihawk had forced that same man to retreat.

The surrounding members of the Allied Shinobi Forces were equally stunned. No one had expected Madara’s first defeat after returning to the world to come at the hands of a single young swordsman.

Still suspended in the air, Mihawk kept his icy-blue eyes fixed upon Madara.

“Are you planning to run?”

“Call it whatever you wish,” Madara replied without anger. “In this body and in this battle, my power was inferior to yours.”

A confident smile returned to his face.

“But this is not the full extent of Uchiha Madara. When I reclaim my Rinnegan and obtain the power I seek, you will witness the true power of the Sage of Six Paths.”

Mihawk’s expression remained unchanged.

“Then survive long enough to show me.”

Madara’s smile widened, but before he could respond, pillars of transparent white light suddenly appeared across the distant battlefields.

Everyone turned toward the sky.

The Edo Tensei had been released.

White light emerged from the cracks covering Madara’s body, and the surface of his reanimated form began breaking apart.

Countless fragments of dust rose into the air as he looked down at his remaining hand.

“So Kabuto failed after all.”

The white light surrounding him intensified, and his legs began dissolving. Despite this, Madara calmly formed a sequence of one-handed seals.

“There is one weakness to the Edo Tensei. If the reanimated shinobi knows the release seals, they can sever the summoning contract themselves.”

Madara completed the final seal.

“Edo Tensei—Release!”

The flow of transparent light surrounding him suddenly reversed. Every fragment of dust that had begun drifting away was pulled back, rapidly reconstructing his dissolving body.

Within seconds, Madara had completely stabilized his reanimated form and severed Kabuto’s control over him.

Boom!

The moment the process ended, an enormous wall of trees erupted from the desert. Thick trunks and tangled branches surged into the sky, separating Madara from Mihawk and the Allied Shinobi Forces.

Several Wood Clones immediately scattered beneath the cover of the forest, fleeing in different directions. Each one possessed Madara’s appearance and chakra.

Mihawk spread his Observation Haki across the entire area and pursued them with Geppo.

However, the multiple identical presences repeatedly changed direction, weaving through the forest and beneath the ground.

Dark-purple slashes tore through the trees and destroyed several fleeing Wood Clones, but by then, Madara’s original body had already placed considerable distance between them.

Mihawk stopped above the ruined forest.

He could continue the pursuit, but hunting Madara across an active battlefield while the remaining Edo Tensei were disappearing would leave the surviving members of the Allied Shinobi Forces exposed to whatever came next.

“For now, then.”

Mihawk lowered Nemesis. The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception faded, returning his eyes to their ordinary red color.

As the strain from maintaining the Mystic Eyes and Future Sight simultaneously settled behind his eyes, a dull ache spread through his mind. He raised one hand and briefly pressed two fingers against his brow.

“Mihawk-kun!”

Hinata flew toward him from the edge of the battlefield. She had watched the entire confrontation without interfering, just as Mihawk had asked.

“Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine.” Mihawk lowered his hand. “Using the Mystic Eyes and Future Sight together placed some strain on my mind. Nothing more.”

Hinata carefully studied his face before finally releasing a quiet breath of relief.

“Did he escaped?”

“For now.”

Mihawk descended with Geppo and landed upon a nearby rock formation. Hinata followed him down, and once he had taken a seat, she removed the sealing tag wrapped around her wrist and retrieved a storage scroll.

After unsealing several portions of dry food and bottles of water, she handed them to him.

“Eat something and rest while you can.”

Mihawk accepted the water.

“Thank you.”

Hinata sat beside him while Mihawk drank, his gaze drifting toward the distant horizon.

“You should rest as well,” he said. “Tonight will not be as quiet as yesterday.”

Hinata immediately understood the seriousness in his voice.

“Do you believe another battle is coming?”

Mihawk nodded.

If events continued along the path he remembered, the war was rapidly approaching its final stage. The previous Hokage would soon return to the battlefield. Obito and Madara would each become the Ten-Tails’ jinchūriki, while Naruto and Sasuke would receive the power of the Six Paths from Hagoromo.

After Madara would come Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.

Then the reincarnations of Asura and Indra would bring their thousand-year conflict to its final conclusion.

Tonight and the following morning would decide the fate of the entire shinobi world.

Once Madara reclaimed his Rinnegan and became the Ten-Tails’ jinchūriki, he would cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi across the world. Mihawk could not remain outside that battle.

The mental strain from the Mystic Eyes would fade with enough rest, and his Haki would recover quickly. He needed to be ready before Madara returned with power far beyond anything he had displayed today.

Mihawk closed the bottle and looked toward the darkening sky.

“The real battle is still ahead of us.”

Hinata followed his gaze, her expression becoming firm.

“Yes.”