"M-Mihawk-kun..."
Mihawk was still swinging Shigure Kintoki, sending slash after slash across the stream, when a faint voice reached him from behind.
His blade stopped.
Turning around, he saw a small figure cautiously emerging from behind one of the trees.
"Hinata?"
Surprise flickered across Mihawk’s face.
"Mihawk-kun, you..."
Hinata gathered her courage and stepped closer. Her pale eyes moved between him and the sword in his hand.
"Don’t you go to the Academy anymore?"
Mihawk did not answer immediately.
Instead, he looked toward the path behind her.
"How did you find this place?"
His gaze returned to her eyes.
"Have you already learned to use the Byakugan?"
Hinata stiffened.
"I-I didn’t mean to follow you!"
She hurriedly waved her hands, panic spreading across her face.
"I just happened to see two of you, and then..."
Her voice grew smaller.
"I followed one of them."
The more she spoke, the more anxious she became.
Her eyes began to glisten, as though she feared Mihawk would become angry and tell her to leave.
She had not intended to spy on him.
Hinata had only recently learned how to activate her Byakugan. That morning, while passing near Mihawk’s house on her way to the Academy, she had wondered whether he had already left.
When she looked inside, she discovered two identical chakra signatures.
Hinata knew that Mihawk lived alone.
Confused, she hid nearby and watched as two identical Mihawks left the house one after another, each heading in a different direction.
Unable to suppress her curiosity, she followed the one who entered the forest.
Seeing her frightened expression, Mihawk softened his voice.
"It’s fine. I’m not blaming you."
Hinata slowly raised her head.
"I was only wondering how you managed to find me."
"Mm..."
The tension left her shoulders.
However, the moment her fear disappeared, her usual shyness returned. Hinata lowered her head and began nervously pressing her fingers together.
After a brief silence, she gathered enough courage to speak again.
"Mihawk-kun..."
"How long have you been sending a shadow clone to the Academy?"
"More than half a year."
Hinata’s eyes widened.
"More than half a year?"
Mihawk nodded.
"That’s amazing..."
The admiration in her voice was impossible to miss.
Mihawk paused.
Hinata had always left a good impression on him.
She was quiet, gentle, and far kinder than most children raised in the shinobi world.
Even when others treated her badly, she found it difficult to respond with hatred.
That kindness was also why Mihawk had stepped in when he saw several children bullying her more than a year ago.
At the time, he had acted without thinking.
After awakening the system, however, Mihawk had devoted nearly every moment of his life to becoming stronger.
In the shinobi world, strength determined whether a person could control their own fate.
Without power, even protecting the people beside him would be nothing more than an empty wish.
Mihawk refused to live that way.
Still, pursuing strength did not mean he intended to abandon everything else.
He did not reject friendship or affection.
He simply refused to let either distract him from the path he had chosen.
Since Hinata had come to find him herself, Mihawk did not mind speaking with her.
The two sat beside the stream and talked for a while.
Most of the conversation was carried by Mihawk.
Hinata answered only occasionally, her voice so quiet that it was nearly drowned out by the waterfall.
Every now and then, she would secretly glance toward him.
Whenever Mihawk happened to meet her gaze, Hinata immediately looked away, her face turning red.
Mihawk found her reactions unexpectedly amusing.
"Ah!"
Hinata suddenly looked toward the sky.
"I-I’m going to be late!"
She quickly stood.
"Mihawk-kun, I have to go."
"Go ahead."
Mihawk nodded.
Hinata took several steps before stopping.
She hesitated, then turned back.
"Mihawk-kun..."
"Are you really not coming back to the Academy?"
"Probably not."
Mihawk rested Shigure Kintoki against his shoulder.
"I’ll attend the important examinations, but I don’t have much reason to sit through the usual lessons."
Hinata lowered her eyes.
Mihawk noticed the disappointment on her face.
"You can come here again."
Hinata looked up.
"We can train together whenever you have time."
He glanced at her stance.
"Your taijutsu is good. It would be useful to have someone to spar with."
"R-Really?"
Her pale eyes immediately brightened.
"Is that really all right?"
"Yes."
Hinata nodded so quickly that her hair swayed.
"Then I’ll come!"
As if afraid that he might change his mind, she hurriedly turned around.
"I-I’ll be going now!"
She ran back toward the village.
Mihawk watched her disappear between the trees and gave a faint smile.
Then he turned toward the stream and raised Shigure Kintoki once more.
Slash after slash split the flowing water.
After completing his daily task, Mihawk jumped into the stream and washed away the sweat from his body.
He then left the valley, returned to the village for breakfast, and entered the spiritual world to experience the next part of Hawkeye’s growth.
Time passed quickly.
By the time dusk settled over Konoha, Mihawk finally ended his training and returned home with Shigure Kintoki.
However, his shadow clone had not returned.
The Academy should have dismissed its students long ago.
Even if practical training had been cancelled, there was no reason for the theoretical lessons to continue so late.
Mihawk found it strange, but he did not dwell on it.
He left the house to eat dinner.
When he returned, the shadow clone was already waiting inside.
Mihawk released the technique.
Poof!
The clone vanished in a cloud of smoke.
Its memories flooded into his mind, followed immediately by all the exhaustion it had accumulated throughout the day.
Mihawk’s body became heavy.
He took a bath and went straight to bed.
For once, he did not meditate or refine chakra before sleeping.
When he opened his eyes again, morning had arrived.
More than a year of following the same routine had trained his body to wake at the same time every day, no matter how tired he had been the night before.
After completing his morning exercises, Mihawk left the house alongside his shadow clone.
Only then did he learn why the Academy had dismissed its students so late.
The Uchiha clan had been massacred.
The clan once considered one of Konoha’s strongest had been destroyed in a single night.
According to the official report, Uchiha Itachi had murdered his entire clan before fleeing the village.
Only two members remained.
Uchiha Itachi, now listed as an S-rank missing-nin and his younger brother, Uchiha Sasuke.
That was the version known to the village.
Mihawk knew the truth was far more complicated.
Two people had carried out the massacre.
Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Obito.
However, the tragedy had not begun with them.
Years of mistrust had pushed the Uchiha clan further away from the village, while the clan’s planned coup had brought Konoha to the edge of internal conflict.
Trapped between his clan and the village, Itachi had ultimately chosen Konoha.
Sasuke had been the one person he could not sacrifice.
Itachi accepted the hatred of the entire shinobi world, abandoned his name, and entrusted the future of the Uchiha clan to his younger brother.
From that night onward, he would live as a criminal while secretly keeping watch over the village from within the shadows.
The truth surrounding the massacre could not be reduced to a simple question of right and wrong.
Too many people had played a part in it.
Too many decisions had led to that night.
In Mihawk’s eyes, Itachi embodied the cruelty of being a shinobi more clearly than almost anyone else.
Even so, the matter had nothing to do with him.
He was still too weak to involve himself in conflicts of that scale.
For now, becoming stronger mattered more than anything else.
Mihawk had lived in Konoha for little more than a year.
Because his mind was far more mature than those of the children around him, he had never formed any deep connection with his classmates.
Hinata was the only exception.
As for Konoha itself, Mihawk felt no particular loyalty toward it.
The Will of Fire might have inspired those born and raised beneath the Hokage Monument.
But to him, they were still only words.
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