As time passed, more and more students began filing into the classroom.
Seated alone near the back, Nerona Mihawk soon spotted the remaining members of Konoha’s future Rookie Nine.
Just as he had expected, he had been placed in the same class as Uzumaki Naruto and the others.
That was hardly surprising.
Only one class had been formed for the Ninja Academy’s new students that year, and every child who passed the entrance examination had been assigned to it.
Konoha was a large village with no shortage of children their age, but not everyone dreamed of becoming a shinobi. Even among those who did, many lacked the necessary qualifications.
Out of every hundred children who applied, perhaps eighty would be accepted into the Academy.
By the time graduation arrived, having fifty of them remain would already be considered an impressive result.
After all, passing the initial entrance examination did not guarantee that someone would eventually become a shinobi.
Learning to refine chakra was no simple task, and not every child could succeed immediately.
Chakra was an energy created by combining physical energy, which existed within every cell of the body, with spiritual energy accumulated through training and experience.
During the entrance examination, the Academy tested whether each applicant possessed the potential to refine chakra.
Those who met the requirements would then receive professional instruction from the Academy’s teachers until they could successfully produce it themselves.
Nearly half of the children currently sitting inside the classroom had yet to refine chakra.
This was the real shinobi world, after all.
Reality was nowhere near as forgiving as what had once been shown in an anime.
Once the classroom was nearly full, Umino Iruka entered.
As the instructor responsible for their class, he began by introducing himself. Afterward, he organized the students into orderly lines and led them toward the Academy’s entrance ceremony.
The ceremony was held on the training grounds.
Standing before the newly admitted children, the Third Hokage spoke to the village’s young seedlings about Konoha and the Will of Fire.
"Where the leaves dance, the fire burns. The fire’s shadow will illuminate the village, and once again, new leaves will sprout."
As Mihawk listened to those familiar words, he could clearly sense the excitement spreading through the children around him.
He had to admit that it was an inspiring statement.
Words like those could easily strengthen the sense of belonging that the village’s children and especially its orphans—felt toward Konoha.
Mihawk, however, was not among those affected.
His mental age was far beyond that of the children surrounding him. More importantly, among the worlds of the three great shōnen series he remembered, the shinobi world possessed the darkest and most complicated political structure.
The Third Hokage had already lost much of the resolve he once possessed as a shinobi.
Meanwhile, Shimura Danzō remained rooted within Konoha’s darkness, endlessly coveting the position of Hokage.
Next year, those two men would play decisive roles in the destruction of the Uchiha clan—the clan once hailed as the strongest in the shinobi world.
An era of peace could be considered both the worst and the best possible time.
The disadvantage was obvious.
Without a war forcing children to mature, Academy students were raised within the safety of a greenhouse. Geniuses capable of graduating at five or six years old were unlikely to emerge in such an environment.
The advantage was that even if Mihawk became the top student in his class, he would not attract too much unwanted attention.
As long as he did not reveal an unusual Kekkei Genkai or some equally valuable ability, he had little reason to fear being targeted by Danzō and Root.
Ever since awakening the Template System, Mihawk had already established a plan for the next six years.
He would remain inconspicuous and develop his strength in secret.
Completing his daily training increased the template’s progress by 0.02 percent.
That amounted to 7.3 percent in a single year.
Over six years, the total would reach 43.8 percent.
By then, nearly half of Hawkeye’s template would be unlocked.
His strength would undoubtedly stand far above anyone else in his generation.
As that thought crossed his mind, a sharp gleam briefly flashed through Mihawk’s crimson eyes.
The morning was reserved for distributing textbooks, so there were no formal lessons.
After collecting the required books, Mihawk followed the other students out of the classroom.
Eager to return home and continue his sword training, he declined several enthusiastic invitations from children who wanted to play with him.
Ignoring their disappointed expressions, he left the Academy and headed directly home.
The moment he arrived, Mihawk quickly changed into his training clothes.
He entered the dojo with a shinai in hand and immediately began his daily sword swings.
One thousand swings might not sound particularly difficult.
However, every movement and stance had to meet the system’s exact standards. Any swing performed incorrectly would not be counted.
The shinai was also considerably heavy for the body of a six-year-old child.
To avoid damaging his developing arms, Mihawk carefully controlled his pace. Each swing initially took him approximately ten seconds, and after several dozen repetitions, he needed to pause and rest.
Completing the daily task was only the beginning.
After finishing the required swings, he still had to enter the spiritual world and experience the newly unlocked fragments of Hawkeye’s template.
Once he had comprehended those experiences, he would continue practicing until he had fully absorbed the swordsmanship knowledge, combat experience, and insights he had gained.
Only then could the day’s sword training truly be considered complete.
Afterward, he still needed to spend time refining chakra.
Before enrolling at the Academy, arranging enough time for everything had not been particularly difficult.
Now, however, his classes occupied both the morning and the afternoon. Relying only on his lunch break and the hours after school was clearly not enough.
Every second had become valuable.
Mihawk also had a feeling that the daily task of performing one thousand sword swings was merely the beginning.
The system would never allow him to increase the template’s progress so easily forever.
As it turned out, his intuition was correct.
For a complete beginner who had only recently begun practicing swordsmanship, maintaining proper posture and executing one thousand correct swings was undeniably exhausting.
However, once the body developed and the movements became familiar, performing one thousand swings was no longer particularly difficult.
Nineteen days later—two months after Mihawk first obtained the system—the contents of his daily task changed.
[Daily Task: 2,000 Sword Swings]
The required number had doubled.
Even so, the new task did not place much pressure on Mihawk.
Over those nineteen days, Hawkeye’s template had reached an unlock rate of 1.32 percent.
The scenes within the spiritual world still consisted primarily of Hawkeye practicing swordsmanship and challenging opponents, but the nature of those battles had already begun to change.
Hawkeye was no longer exchanging clumsy blows with inexperienced children of the same age.
He had begun facing young swordsmen who had undergone genuine training.
The Dracule Mihawk within the template was no longer a complete beginner who had only recently picked up a sword.
He had already become a gifted young swordsman with a record of defeating an opponent sixteen years of age.
By experiencing those moments and assimilating Hawkeye’s comprehension, Nerona Mihawk’s understanding of swordsmanship had transformed completely.
In only two months, he had advanced from a complete outsider who knew nothing about the sword into a remarkably skilled young swordsman.
Every movement he performed during his daily task had become smooth and natural.
He no longer needed to consciously control the position of his feet, the angle of his shoulders, or the path of his swing.
Even a casual strike followed textbook form.
The daily training that had once required two or three hours gradually became shorter with each passing day.
Eventually, Mihawk no longer needed to stop and rest at all.
He could complete one thousand sword swings in approximately one hour.
Even after the system doubled the requirement, each swing now took him only around five seconds.
Completing two thousand repetitions required slightly more than two hours.
The rapid improvement in his swordsmanship also caused his confidence to grow stronger with each passing day.
His comprehension, perception, and ability to judge an opponent had all improved considerably.
The clearest proof appeared whenever he watched the older Academy students sparring on the training grounds through the classroom window.
Mihawk could immediately identify the flaws in their posture and movements.
Without even trying, possible counters would naturally surface within his mind.
He could see where to strike.
How to break through their guard.
And how to defeat them.
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