Sunagakure.
Hanzo's speed far surpassed everyone else's. He arrived at Sunagakure two or three days before Kan.
Unlike Iwagakure, Sunagakure did not have a village-wide barrier. The entire village relied on this single defensive line.
A towering wall, like a desert version of the Great Wall, encircled the whole village, leaving only the main gate as an opening.
Normally, the top of the wall would have been crowded with shinobi. But because of the war, the defensive density was much thinner now.
"So this huge village doesn't even have a barrier…"
Forget a heavy defensive barrier like Iwagakure's—even a basic sensory barrier like Konoha's was absent. That genuinely surprised Hanzo.
Still, the wall at the One-Line Sky was clearly specially constructed. It not only blocked the drifting sands from entering Sunagakure, but also possessed extremely strong defensive power.
"This wall… it'd take at least three Water Dragon Jutsu to break through."
"And those shinobi on top—if I killed them all, that'd still take a bit of time."
"Not bad. Compared to Iwa and Konoha, they've got their own strengths."
He remembered that in canon, this line of defense had been broken by Yūra, the Suna spy planted by Sasori. The guards at the entrance had all been eliminated by him.
The key issue was that Hanzo was currently just a Shadow Clone, and he had already used a fair amount of chakra. Better to conserve what he could.
And since he had come to secretly investigate why Sunagakure attacked Amegakure, it wasn't appropriate for him to show himself directly.
"There are quite a few sensory shinobi stationed on top of that wall, so sneaking in underground with Earth Release isn't ideal."
"I remember Deidara got in from above. Looks like I'll have to wait until night."
"Then I'll just float in with the Lightened Boulder Jutsu."
...
Nightfall...
Hanzo descended into Sunagakure from above.
None of the six aerial sentry posts noticed him.
"Now then… where do I start?"
His gaze turned toward the Kazekage Building. After using a Body Flicker to get close, he spread out his sensory field.
"Five… no, four hidden guards? That's easy enough."
At the moment, Ebizō was sitting inside reviewing documents, but his thoughts had drifted to the Land of Earth.
He thought of Sasori's parents. To resolve the Wind Country's urgent crisis, the two of them had resolutely taken part in the mission to ambush Iwagakure.
The mission had clearly succeeded. Since Iwagakure's supply line had been destroyed, a large portion of the border forces had already withdrawn, leaving behind only a small surveillance force.
If the Second and Third Tsuchikage hadn't suddenly appeared, Sunagakure would absolutely have been able to pin those Iwa forces down—leaving them without supplies, trapped until they were ground to death.
According to the final intelligence report, the Second and Third Tsuchikage had suddenly appeared and tied down everyone on the border.
Especially the Second Tsuchikage. In full view of the Suna army, he split himself into more than ten bodies and then cast a large-scale Earth Release Jutsu with all of them at once, completely altering the battlefield terrain.
Together with Ōnoki's Earth Release and Dust Release, the two of them had actually stalled the Suna army for nearly two hours—long enough for the Iwa forces to retreat.
After exhausting their chakra, the two men had turned into streaks of white light and ascended under the eyes of the Suna shinobi.
"The ones covering the retreat were the resurrected previous two Tsuchikage… which means the Fourth Tsuchikage, Rōshi, has already gone back."
"You two had better be careful."
"If the two of you also lose your lives… how am I supposed to explain that to my sister? And what about that child, Sasori? How am I supposed to face him after that?"
Breaking free from his sorrow, Ebizō looked out through the window at the full moon overhead.
"…Strange. Why is it so quiet?"
Ebizō was still a jōnin. He quickly sensed that something was wrong.
The entire Kazekage Building was silent. Not even the faintest whisper of wind could be heard.
Silent, deathly silent.
Like a graveyard. The kind of silence with no living presence in it at all.
An indescribable fear instantly surged into his heart. Goosebumps rose across his arms, and a chill ran from the soles of his feet straight up his spine.
Clink.
The crisp sound of a chain came from behind him.
A scythe was already resting against his neck.
"I took care of the guards in the Kazekage Building ages ago, and you're only just now noticing?"
"What were you thinking about? You were completely out of it."
Cold sweat ran down Ebizō's face. He looked behind him and took a long moment to process what he was seeing.
"Hanzo… of the Salamander!"
---
Meanwhile, Hanzo's Main Body.
Hanzo's real body was currently turning in a mission at the underground bounty exchange.
"Has Danzō struck it rich lately? He's spending money without blinking."
"That sort of thing isn't our concern," one of the staff members replied. "We only handle mission distribution."
"Besides these few targets, Danzō-sama has two priority targets he'd also like to entrust to you."
The Root operative took out two sheets and handed them to Hanzo. Hanzo glanced over them and immediately identified the two names.
Dan Katō.
And…
Uzumaki Mito.
His eyes narrowed.
"As long as the money's there, I can kill anyone. I won't comment on the first mission since it's on the Mist front."
"But the second mission…"
"Uzushiogakure? That far away? Do you have any idea how much time it would take me just to get there? And after that I'd still have to search for her. How much effort do you think that costs?"
"I've heard of this name before. Uzumaki Mito—the wife of Konoha's First Hokage, a survivor from the Warring States era, and the original Nine-Tails jinchūriki."
"Her strength is no weaker than your Hokage's, is it?"
"Twenty million?"
"Do you think I'm an idiot?"
An old man like Uchiha Madara had still terrified the world—his strength was enough to crush Kage-level opponents even in old age.
If Hashirama Senju were still alive, he would be in his seventies now too. Even if the Five Kage joined forces, he might well still have slaughtered them all.
Uzumaki Mito wasn't quite at that level, but the Uzumaki clan's natural life force, their vast chakra reserves, the Strength of a Hundred Seal on her forehead, and the Nine-Tails chakra she had taken for herself—all of that had elevated her power enormously.
Nine-Tails Chakra Mode alone would multiply her combat ability several times over. In that mode, chakra control could reach an extreme level of finesse. Naruto had once been able to form a miniature Rasenshuriken with a single finger.
With just one finger, he could perform both shape transformation and nature transformation at once, compressing an enormous amount of chakra into a shuriken not even the size of half a fist.
The density of that chakra spoke for itself.
And during the Ten-Tails war, after Naruto ran out of Nine-Tails chakra, he needed three people working together in Sage Mode just to throw a Rasenshuriken. That alone showed the overwhelming advantages of Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.
And Uzumaki Mito also knew Nine Masked Beasts and Great Rasen Ring. The latter's destructive power was not much weaker than Shinra Tensei.
She had taken the Nine-Tails' abilities and developed them almost as far as possible short of becoming a perfect jinchūriki.
Her combat ability was absolutely not below Naruto's in the war.
"Tell Danzō this: Uzumaki Mito is priced no lower than a Hokage."
"He's not offering enough."
"And don't think you can fool me. That only makes me look down on his generosity—and wastes the goodwill I had toward him."
"And I still have to go all the way to Uzushiogakure. Have you even thought about how much time that mission would cost me?"
"You think I can just ignore Amegakure?"
"Without proper compensation, I won't touch that mission."
"Understood. We'll relay your exact words to Danzō-sama," the Root operative said.
"If you have no objections to the other missions, then please begin. Danzō-sama is very much looking forward to your results."
Hanzo gave a low snort and turned to leave.
"They actually want to kill Uzumaki Mito? Do those people have brains?"
"She hasn't even taken revenge on Konoha yet—that alone is generous enough. And they still want her dead."
His chakra reserves had already been compared to a tailed beast by the Five-Tails—they were roughly on the level of the Four-Tails.
Even with that level of chakra, Hanzo had felt no advantage when facing Uzumaki Mito. A Nine-Tails jinchūriki was the last person on earth who would ever lack chakra—especially one who had already robbed the Nine-Tails once.
That pressure from her sheer chakra volume…
Combined with Adamantine Sealing Chains, Nine Masked Beasts, and Rasen Ring…
If they had truly fought to the end back then, Hanzo might not necessarily have won.
But with his speed, he wouldn't have lost either.
"What a pity I didn't leave her any way to contact me. If I could've passed this information to her, it would've been hilarious."
"Would she drop a Great Rasen Ring on Konoha?"
After thinking it through, Hanzo used Flying Thunder God and returned to the Mist front.
Dan Katō…
If he remembered correctly, he was Tsunade's lover.
Hanzo wasn't most concerned about that, though.
What he really cared about was another target altogether:
the Ghost Transformation Jutsu.
"I wonder if that brat carries the secret technique scroll with him. If he does, that'd be a huge profit."
"…No."
"That technique really does kill unseen. In terms of lethality, it's no worse than the Reaper Death Seal."
"Wait…"
"Danzō doesn't know I have this intelligence."
"Did he deliberately bury a trap for me?"
Root's method had always been to dispose of anyone who was untrustworthy or no longer valuable. Kabuto and Nono were the best examples of that.
Hanzo had been earning Danzō a great deal of war merit lately, which also meant leaving behind a fair amount of evidence.
Who knew when that would become a problem.
When a handle like that was in your hands, it was like holding a blade to Danzō's throat.
How could he not be afraid?
"If he feeds Dan Katō intelligence in advance and gets him to kill me, that removes the hidden danger."
"Then he kills Dan Katō as well, and Danzō can sleep soundly."
"The Ghost Transformation Jutsu is a soul attack. Against soul-based ninjutsu… I have no countermeasures at all."
"The odds of me getting killed by it… are high. Very high."
Hanzo shook his head.
Working with someone like Danzō without thinking things through was asking to be exploited.
Fail to keep one eye open, and you might end up dead.
He would need to hold something back.
---------------------------------///
Advance Chapters on Patreon!
p(a)treon(.)com/HudaLin
-Remove the parenthesis to access patreon normally
Thanks for the Support!