Konoha Yellow Monkey: The salary is in place, and Wukage is useless!

Chapter 468: Hashirama's Progress

"You make the first move, Lieutenant General Gion." As the general, Hashirama stood in place and signaled Gion to make the first move.

Gion did not feel looked down upon by this. A smile appeared on her beautiful face, and she pulled out her long sword Konpila with her right hand resting on the hilt.

Under Garp's order, many of the new recruits standing around the playground watching were little fans of Gion. When they saw Gion drawing his sword, many of them let out low cries and hearts appeared in their eyes.

Gion was not interested in these little brats at all. At this moment, she only had eyes for Hashirama.

"Be careful! Hashirama, my knife is very sharp!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Gion raised his sword and slashed it down, with the armed color domineering wrapped around the blade, and a flying slash amplified by the domineering, rushed towards Hashirama.

Gion's slash was extremely fast. Almost in the blink of an eye, it arrived in front of Hashirama with a sound of breaking through the air.

Faced with such a rapid slash, Hashirama could have dodge it if he wanted to, but this time he chose to confront it head-on.

With his arms full of Haki, Hashirama put his hands in front of him and blocked the slash with his flesh and blood.

After the sound of metal colliding, the shock wave of the slash spread out. Hashirama stood in place, his feet retreating half a sole's distance in the mud. He lowered his hands, and a white mark was left on the palms of his hands that collided directly with the slash.

Hashirama's relaxation this time made many of the recruits who were watching exclaim in surprise. Although they were recommended by local branches and excellent recruits selected by the headquarters, and they all had a good foundation, they had only been exposed to the Six Styles and Haki for a short time.

It was the first time he saw someone blocking the attack of a great swordsman like Vice Admiral Gion with just his domineering aura, so naturally he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

Gion, the person involved, was a little surprised when he saw this scene, "Your domineering power has improved again?"

On the day of the competition, Gion witnessed the fight between Hashirama and Marshal Akainu. At that time, Hashirama's domineering skills could only be considered good, but he definitely could not reach the level he has today. The reason he was able to tie with Akainu and become an admiral was more due to his secret technique of controlling plants.

"I have received a lot of guidance from seniors recently, and I have gained more experience in the use of Haki." Hashirama admitted generously with a sunny smile.

Gion felt helpless after hearing this. Facing a pervert like Hashirama always made others feel frustrated. It had only been a short time since he joined the navy, but his domineering ability had improved so obviously. With such qualifications, he could only be described as a monster.

Gion complained in her heart, but did not give up the fight. Instead, she became more determined to fight. She raised her sword and rushed towards Hashirama, holding the hilt with both hands. The armed color domineering was wrapped around the blade, and she appeared in front of Hashirama and swept across like a gust of wind sweeping away fallen leaves.

Faced with Gion's fierce attack, Hashirama did not dare to delay. He dodged backwards in time, keeping some distance and avoiding Gion's attack.

Immediately afterwards, Hashirama began to counterattack. In an instant, he appeared behind Gion and kicked out with his right foot while she was putting away her sword.

The moment Hashirama appeared beside her, Gion discovered him, but she had not had time to retract her blade after it swept out, so she could only turn sideways and flip in the air to avoid Hashirama's whip kick.

At the same time, she took advantage of the inertia of her body turning, held the knife in her right hand, and slashed with it. The force was not great, but the speed was very fast, not to hurt the enemy, but only to stop him.

Gion's response was excellent, but the only point she overlooked was that Hashirama's strong physical fitness and outstanding Haki skills were enough for him to use Haki to protect his body, so he took the slash and took a step forward to pursue, punching out.

Hashirama threw a heavy punch, and although his fist did not actually hit Gion because Gion's sharp blade pierced his abdomen, the shock wave from the heavy punch still knocked Gion, who had just landed and was in an unstable posture, away.

The powerful shock wave caused Gion to fly back several meters and fall to the ground.

Hashirama showed no mercy and took advantage of the situation to pursue her. He leaped forward and sprinted to Gion's side. Amid the exclamations of the surrounding recruits, he raised his right foot and stepped down with domineering aura.

Gion, who fell to the ground, did not give up. She rolled on the ground without caring about her image, avoiding Hashirama's heavy step. She quickly squatted up, grasped the hilt of the sword with both hands, and stabbed upwards like a poisonous snake spitting out its tongue in a very stealthy manner.

Hashirama reacted in time and turned his head to avoid the fierce counterattack.

Gion swept the blade horizontally, slashing towards Hashirama's neck.

Hashirama tilted his head downward, and with the help of his Armament Haki, he directly caught the sweeping blade.

Seeing this scene, Gion couldn't help but reveal a look of shock. His big eyes looked in surprise at Hashirama's head and neck that were wrapped in the armed color domineering.

"Don't be distracted!" Hashirama tilted his head and reminded with a smile. At the same time, he stretched out his hands, grabbed Gion's blade directly, pushed it outwards, took half a step forward, and kicked out with his right hand again.

This time, Gion had no time to dodge and could only raise her free left arm to block the left side of her head. She was ready to face the huge impact, but to her surprise, Hashirama's right leg kicked out quickly and stopped a few centimeters in front of her left hand. She only felt a gust of wind blowing past.

Gion looked up at Hashirama and found that Hashirama had retracted his legs, bent over, and extended his right hand to him.

"Let's end today's competition here!"

Faced with Hashirama's sincere smile and expression, Gion did not feel the slightest bit of anger in her heart. She stretched out her left hand, placed it in Hashirama's palm, and was pulled up by Hashirama.

"I lost." Gion stood up, straightened his appearance, put the Konpila back into the scabbard, and said to Hashirama.

She knew her own limits. If Hashirama's last whip kick had landed on her with full force, she would not have been defeated outright, but she would have been injured and her fighting power would have been impaired. The final result was self-evident.

"You have quick reactions and are good at seizing opportunities. Now you just need to keep practicing and push the limits of your body and domineering." Hashirama commented proactively.

Gion nodded. She had been in the navy for so many years and was Tsuru's younger sister. Naturally, she received guidance from people like Garp and Sengoku. She also understood what her current problem was.

To put it bluntly, her physical fitness and domineering skills have reached their current limits. If she wants to become a general and a truly top-level combat force, she can only accumulate through long-term practice until she breaks the current limits.

Just like Vice Admiral Garp did back then, he practiced boxing with warships and mountains, and it took him three years to flatten the peak of an island, breaking through the upper limits of his body through the most extreme training.

Gion recalled that in recent years, after becoming a candidate for admiral, he was busy catching pirates and carrying out missions on the sea. Although he had honed his swordsmanship and made considerable progress in the battles with pirates, he also missed out on training to improve his body.

This defeat and Hashirama's comments made her realize once again the importance of physical foundation.

Above the sea, the real strong ones all possess top-level physical fitness and domineering cultivation. Only these two points are the core that determines the upper limit of a strong man.

Gion looked at Hashirama and said very seriously: "I have indeed been slacking off recently. I will practice hard in the next period of time and I will challenge you again next time."

"You are welcome anytime." Hashirama said with a smile, and added with concern, "If you have any questions during training, feel free to come to me."

Hearing this, Gion smiled again, looking at the man in front of him with a great deal of affection in his heart, "General Hashirama, I will trouble you from now on."

At the end of his speech, Gion smiled playfully, then restrained his expression, turned around and walked towards where Sister Tsuru was outside the playground.

The new recruits outside the playground were still immersed in Hashirama's final fierce performance. Facing the sharp blade swept by the great swordsman, they dared to choose to clamp the blade with their heads and shoulders. This was not simply described as bold, but represented absolute confidence in their own strength and domineering.

Compared to the recruits discussing the strength of the new admiral, Hashirama, Garp and Tsuru were more concerned with the communication between the two after the battle.

Garp, the frivolous old man, had quietly come to Tsuru's side, and asked curiously, "Tsuru, are you trying to bring Gion and Hashirama together? They seem to be a good match."

Before He could say anything about Garp's gossip, Gion, who was approaching, had already overheard it with her Observation Haki. She put one hand on her waist and lectured him unhappily, "Garp-chan, you should pay more attention to your grandson! I heard that he has been with that 'Empress' recently. There are only women on Nine Snake Island."

After hearing the news about Luffy, Garp was still concerned, but on the surface he pretended to be indifferent, "I'm not the grandson of a pirate!"

Crane glanced at his old friend, then said teasingly: "Sakaski is very dissatisfied with the Empress for protecting the Straw Hat Boy and is going to send someone to question him. Why don't you lead the team and personally chase the Straw Hat Boy back to the Navy and send him to Impel Down. I believe that with your strength, it should be no problem to capture the Straw Hat Boy, Garp."

Facing his old friend's teasing, Garp could only laugh a few times, and then used the excuse of educating the new recruits, "These new recruits still cannot do without me. Besides, I have already retired to the second line, so the battle against pirates should be left to the young people! Hahaha!"

Hashirama also came over at this time. He only heard the second half of what Garp said. Out of kindness, he took the initiative to say, "Chief of Staff Tsuru, are there any difficult pirates? You can leave it to me to solve. I happen to have nothing to do recently, so I am going to go out to sea to hunt pirates."

After Hashirama finished speaking, Garp could no longer laugh, but Tsuru and Gion started laughing. Tsuru glanced at Garp, then at the confused Hashirama, and helped his old friend out by saying, "It's not a difficult matter. It's just that when the navy was arresting World Destroyer Wald two days ago, Sakaski discovered that the Empress, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, was acting with the Straw Hat Boy, so Sakaski planned to send someone to Nine Snake Island to question Hancock."

"Forgive me for that." Hashirama nodded, then changed the subject, "I've heard of that empress. I heard that she's one of the less obedient of the Seven Warlords of the Sea."

"That woman hasn't done anything bad, but she has a simple personality and is not easy to deal with," He explained.

"I understand. I happen to have nothing to do recently, so leave the mission to Nine Snake Island to me!" Hashirama took the initiative to take over the task.

The main reason why he was so proactive was that before leaving the East China Sea, he learned from Kizaru that the Nine Snake Island represented by Empress Hancock had formed an alliance with the Kingdom of Light.

Hashirama was still willing to take care of his allies, so he was prepared to take the initiative to take on the task and go to question them himself to prevent the Nine Snake Island and the Navy from erupting impulsively and triggering a war.

Hashirama's departure was well-intentioned, but Garp, who was standing by, had mixed feelings after hearing this. He looked at Hashirama, then at Tsuru. As an old marine, he did not say anything to stop them, but just said, "Hahaha, this is not bad!"

After Garp finished speaking, he swaggered back to the camp where the new recruits were. (End of this chapter)