Mihawk noticed the change in Hinata immediately.
Only moments earlier, she had been lowering her head timidly, barely able to meet his gaze.
Now, the hesitation in her pale eyes had been replaced by a quiet determination.
Although Mihawk did not understand what had caused such a sudden change, his expression remained serious.
"I’m coming," he warned. "I might hurt you by accident, so be careful."
"Yes."
Hinata nodded.
The two raised their hands and formed the Seal of Confrontation.
Hinata then settled into the distinctive stance of the Hyūga clan’s Gentle Fist, her small face filled with concentration.
Mihawk did not waste time exchanging unnecessary words.
The instant the match began, he rushed straight toward her.
"Hah!"
As Mihawk closed the distance, Hinata stepped forward and thrust her palm toward him.
Her strike was much faster than most people would have expected.
If Mihawk continued charging recklessly without adjusting his speed, her palm would land squarely against his face.
Hinata might have appeared timid and fragile, but that did not mean she was genuinely weak.
Although she would eventually lose to her younger sister, Hanabi, that defeat was largely caused by Hinata’s inability to strike someone she cared about with genuine intent.
The same was true when she had been surrounded and bullied by three children more than two months ago.
Hinata’s kindness made it difficult for her to fight back.
Her natural aptitude for the Gentle Fist was by no means poor. Among the Rookie Nine at their current age, very few could defeat her if she fought without hesitation.
Now, because she wanted Mihawk to remember her, Hinata had temporarily suppressed her usual timid nature.
Her taijutsu ability was easily among the top three students in the class.
Anyone without genuine combat experience would have been struck by that opening palm.
Mihawk, however, reacted the instant she moved.
Smack!
He raised one hand and struck the underside of Hinata’s wrist with the back of his own, knocking her palm away from its intended path.
Hinata’s concentration faltered for only an instant.
That instant was enough.
Mihawk seized her arm with both hands, turned his back toward her, and pulled her across his shoulder.
Hinata’s feet left the ground.
With a clean over-the-shoulder throw, Mihawk brought her down onto the training ground.
Before she could recover, he dropped one knee lightly against her chest and placed a hand around her neck without applying any pressure.
Hinata had been completely restrained.
"That’s enough!"
Iruka immediately raised his voice from the side of the field.
"Nerona Mihawk wins! Both of you, form the Seal of Reconciliation."
"So fast!"
"It ended before I even understood what happened!"
"Mihawk-kun is amazing!"
The watching students erupted into astonished whispers.
Most of them had barely processed Hinata’s first attack before the match was already over.
The girls who had previously developed a crush on Mihawk stared at him with shining eyes.
Mihawk removed his knee and stood.
"I’m sorry. Are you hurt?"
He extended a hand toward Hinata, his voice gentler than before.
"N-No... I’m fine."
Hinata answered with a stammer.
She did not dare take Mihawk’s offered hand. Instead, she hurriedly pushed herself up from the ground and lowered her head, hiding the disappointment written across her face.
At the same time, a faint sense of admiration began to grow within her heart.
As expected of Mihawk-kun.
I couldn’t do anything against him.
In truth, Hinata was not weak.
Among children their age, only a few members of the Rookie Nine could currently defeat her if she cast aside her kindness and fought seriously.
Even Mihawk could not claim to surpass her in taijutsu alone.
He had won because Hinata lacked genuine combat experience.
Mihawk’s response, on the other hand, had been swift, precise, and decisive. He had identified the opening in her attack and ended the match with a single counter.
After facing one another, Mihawk and Hinata formed the Seal of Reconciliation.
They then stepped aside as Iruka looked down at the assessment sheet.
"Next match—Inuzuka Kiba versus Toda Motoki."
The two students whose names had been called entered the open area.
Once their match ended, Iruka announced the next pair.
"Yamanaka Ino versus Nishikawa Megumi."
Unlike Mihawk’s match against Hinata, which had ended almost instantly, the other students were generally close in strength.
Even children from established shinobi clans, such as Nara Shikamaru and the others, had not yet developed enough to completely surpass their classmates.
Matches continued one after another as time slowly passed.
By the time the final pair had decided a winner, the sky had already been dyed in the colors of dusk.
Iruka recorded the last result and dismissed the class.
After leaving the Academy, Mihawk did not immediately return home.
Instead, he began his usual run around Konoha.
Two hours later, he finally stopped.
Exhausted and hungry, Mihawk dragged his tired body toward a nearby restaurant and bought a boxed meal to take home.
Once he returned, he took a bath, ate his dinner, and sat down to meditate and refine chakra.
It was not until after eleven o’clock at night that Mihawk ended his meditation.
He opened a cabinet and removed a scroll from inside.
When he unrolled it, the contents revealed the technique often regarded as one of the most useful shortcuts for training.
The Shadow Clone Jutsu.
As his chakra reserves continued to grow, Mihawk felt that it was time for him to master the technique.
Once he could create stable shadow clones, he planned to leave most of his Academy attendance to them.
The Shadow Clone Jutsu itself was not especially complicated.
It required only a single cross-shaped hand seal.
Its true difficulty lay in distributing chakra.
The chakra had to be divided evenly, and the amount assigned to the clone had to be sufficient.
If the distribution was uneven, the shadow clone would be unstable and disappear easily. If it did not receive enough chakra, it would disperse as soon as that limited supply was exhausted.
Mihawk practiced for more than half an hour.
After failing repeatedly, he finally managed to create an imperfect shadow clone.
Poof!
White smoke filled the room.
When it cleared, another Mihawk stood before him.
However, the clone resembled him by only about sixty percent. Its appearance was distorted in several places, making it obvious that the technique had not been performed correctly.
The clone did nothing but remain motionless.
Even then, it lasted for only thirty minutes before disappearing in a burst of smoke.
Mihawk had consumed nearly one-third of his chakra to create it.
He had first learned how to refine chakra when he was five and a half years old.
His current chakra reserves were already considerably larger than those of most ordinary children his age.
Despite that, all he could produce was an unstable shadow clone that lasted for half an hour.
Even if he gave the clone half of his total chakra, Mihawk estimated that it would remain active for no longer than an hour.
That was nowhere near enough.
When the clock reached midnight, Mihawk abandoned the idea of continuing his training and went to sleep.
Morning soon arrived.
Mihawk woke at the sound of his alarm clock.
As usual, he completed his morning exercises, ate breakfast, took a bath, and headed toward the Ninja Academy.
The next several days were dedicated to assessments.
During the final lesson of the morning, Iruka unexpectedly announced an examination of the Three Basic Techniques.
Unlike taijutsu, shurikenjutsu, and kunai combat, the Three Basic Techniques did not require the class to visit the training grounds.
The students could demonstrate the Clone Jutsu, Transformation Jutsu, and Substitution Jutsu inside the classroom.
Unsurprisingly, Mihawk received the highest score.
His mental age was already mature, and he had lived in the shinobi world for more than a year.
After adapting to its rules and learning system, his comprehension might still have fallen short of extraordinary prodigies such as Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi, but ordinary children of six or seven years old could not compare with him.
That afternoon, Iruka held another assessment focused on shurikenjutsu.
On the morning of the third day, the students took their theoretical examination.
The afternoon was once again reserved for close-quarters combat with kunai.
Mihawk achieved the highest score in every assessment.
The combat experience contained within Hawkeye’s template, along with the state of mind tempered through countless battles, had given Mihawk exceptional perception and composure.
Whether the assessment involved taijutsu or kunai combat, he defeated each opponent almost immediately.
His shurikenjutsu had also improved enough to rival Uchiha Sasuke’s.
In the theoretical examination, he received a perfect score.
On the fourth day, Iruka stood before the class and announced the final results.
As expected, Nerona Mihawk had ranked first.
He had officially become the top student in the class.
The result caused Mihawk’s popularity to rise.
He had already become well known throughout the Academy because of his striking appearance. Now that he had taken first place in every assessment, the girls who had previously been discouraged by his cold attitude began gathering around him once again.
Even several older Academy students came to the classroom simply to see him for themselves.
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