Rasa's heart instinctively skipped a beat as he poured everything he had into covering his back with gold dust...
But he was still too slow!
Hanzō's high-speed purple water wheel sliced cleanly through the muscles of Rasa's back. The water blade, spinning at an astonishing speed, tore open a massive wound in an instant, and poison immediately seeped inside!
Poison Water Release: Hard Vortex Water Blade!
After Hiruzen gave Tobirama's collection of secret Water Release techniques to Hanzō, the latter, already highly skilled in Water Release, treated them like priceless treasures and quickly absorbed their essence.
He had even incorporated his own signature element into them—the Salamander's poison, enhanced and made controllable...
In theory, the current Hanzō no longer needed to wear a respirator.
He had simply worn one for so many years that it had become a habit, somewhat like Kakashi keeping his mask on even while eating...
It was part of his character.
"How despicable!"
The Third Kazekage's pupils contracted. An enormous mass of iron sand rose around him and, under the effects of Magnet Release, instantly transformed into sharp shapes before hurtling toward Hanzō at tremendous speed!
"A physical attack?"
Hanzō sneered. His entire body merged with the water beneath his feet, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
The violent barrage of iron sand struck nothing.
'I see...'
The Third Kazekage's heart tightened. He finally understood why Hanzō had been so aggressive about opening the dam.
Although this area was a buffer zone between Sunagakure and Amegakure, it was still within the Land of Rain. Flooding the Sand shinobi meant their own land wouldn't escape unscathed either...
They were essentially stabbing each other with the same knife.
But the advantages it brought were enormous.
Just as he and Rasa stockpiled gold dust and iron sand, Water Release and Magnet Release were both types of ninjutsu whose power could multiply when the terrain worked in their favor.
Iron Sand Drizzle!
The Third Kazekage manipulated his iron sand, tearing apart Sunagakure's central command tent as razor-sharp sand needles blanketed the sky and swept toward Hanzō!
The Sunagakure shinobi throughout the formation finally reacted as well.
An enemy attack!
"You can still locate me after my Water Body Flicker?"
"Not that accurately, but still impressive. I suppose that's to be expected from the leader of a village..."
Hanzō dodged the Third Kazekage's attack with mild surprise.
Was it Magnet Release's sensory capability?
By now, the battlefield occupied by Sunagakure had already been submerged by the floodwaters.
The water wasn't as deep as a lake, but it was still nearly two meters deep.
Combined with the force of the released floodwaters, the Sand shinobi had no choice but to divert some of their attention toward concentrating chakra beneath their feet just to remain steady on the water's surface.
But to the Rain shinobi, this wasn't even as bad as the flooding that occurred during the Land of Rain's most extreme weather.
The Rain shinobi were excellent swimmers, and in this environment, their mobility was actually even greater than usual.
After Hanzō and Sakumo used the force of the dam's release to strike Sunagakure's command center at extreme speed, the Rain shinobi arrived shortly afterward.
The two sides plunged into fierce battle!
...
"Are you all right, Rasa?" The Third Kazekage glanced at his beloved disciple.
"I'm fine, Kazekage-sama. I can still fight..." Rasa's face was pale as he pressed down on the pill beneath the base of his tongue.
First, his back had been torn open, leaving a wound that wouldn't stop bleeding, and then poison had seeped into his body.
As a shinobi who didn't specialize in physical toughness, if Chiyo hadn't developed a broad-spectrum antidote during the Second Shinobi World War, Rasa might not even have been able to remain standing...
Even so, Rasa could feel that mobilizing the chakra inside his body had become extremely difficult, while his limbs were already showing obvious signs of paralysis.
Using poison really was despicable!
His own village's puppet masters didn't count...
Forget it. They weren't exactly good people either...
The Third Kazekage's heart sank.
In Rasa's current condition, he clearly couldn't contribute much more to the battle...
And because Sunagakure's financial shortages had forced it to pursue an elite-force strategy, the individual quality of its shinobi that it had worked so hard to improve was now being nullified by the terrain...
"Come on, brothers! Follow me!"
"As the right-hand man of Hanzō-sama's right-hand man, I'll be charging at the very front!"
"Everyone, Hanzō-sama said Hokage-sama prepared medical chakra scrolls for us! We'll also get to enjoy part of the benefits guaranteed to our Konoha brothers!"
"Those who distinguish themselves can even receive the full package! Just like Nagato-sama, you can become registered shinobi of both Amegakure and Konohagakure!" shouted the Amegakure jōnin nicknamed "Heiji of the Rain Shelter."
After cooperating with Konoha for so long, the Rain shinobi had gradually come to understand something...
Whether it was the nobles, the Daimyō, or even the Rain shinobi themselves, they had all come to recognize Konoha's strength and immense financial resources, and they desperately wanted access to its technology and institutional guarantees...
But benefits and obligations went hand in hand.
If you wanted to enjoy those benefits, there was no way you could get them without paying a price.
And Heiji was saying all of this under Hanzō's instructions.
He had already discussed it with his sworn brother, Sarutobi Hiruzen...
At that moment, the Rain shinobi charged the Sand shinobi as though they'd all been injected with Hashirama cells, fearlessly throwing themselves forward and exploiting the terrain to unleash Water Release and all manner of other attacks like madmen!
To Rain shinobi who had known poverty for far too long, dying with guaranteed benefits would once have practically counted as a cushy assignment.
To put it in the darkest possible terms, a cold family member would turn into a warm string of numbers...
The Sunagakure shinobi facing them, meanwhile, already had poor morale because of internal disagreements.
Once the Rain shinobi launched their charge, the Sand forces as a whole were easily and comprehensively suppressed.
This happened to validate the logic Genji had once used when analyzing Konoha.
Organizational cohesion was an important measure of a hidden village's combat strength.
Sasori's sudden rise had badly damaged Sunagakure's internal cohesion, to the point that everyone was already on edge.
That was only true of the Third Kazekage's faction, however. The puppet-master faction remained extremely united...
And at that moment—
Chiyo arrived, controlling the "White Secret Technique: Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets."
Even though her grandson Sasori was openly opposing the Third Kazekage and Rasa...
As an Elder of Sunagakure, she still couldn't simply stand by while the Kazekage was attacked. That would look far too disgraceful.
"White Fang and Hanzō..."
"The two people I hate most, and now I get to see both of them on the same battlefield..."
"Live long enough and you'll really see everything!"
She had a blood feud with Sakumo, while Chiyo and Hanzō had also faced each other directly during the Second Shinobi World War.
Chiyo had neutralized Hanzō's salamander poison, while her Puppet Technique had in turn been countered by Hanzō's swordsmanship.
"You damn old hag. You've got even more wrinkles on your face now..."
Hanzō rolled his neck and removed his respirator. "You could crush mosquitoes between them..."
Chiyo instinctively wanted to fire back and call Hanzō an "old poison-gas geezer with a breathing tube."
But when she took a closer look, she froze.
How did he look considerably younger than he had during the Second Shinobi World War?
"A Kinjutsu? Or something else..."
Chiyo frowned deeply.
"Living in a desert full of yellow sand, your body is constantly being worn down by it..."
"Stay in a miserable place like yours long enough, and there's no way you can keep yourself in good condition..."
Hanzō smiled faintly. "Forests and plains are much more comfortable. Konoha's air really does wonders for you!"
After undergoing a complete overhaul by Konoha's Research Department, Hanzō—who had originally been smashed into what amounted to a "total loss" by Sarutobi Hiruzen—had instead turned misfortune into fortune and received a full system upgrade...
Chiyo's expression darkened.
For a taijutsu-oriented shinobi like Hanzō, a younger body meant an improvement in virtually every respect.
And Hanzō was deliberately showing Chiyo this to put psychological pressure on both her and the Third Kazekage.
"We're all old acquaintances. We've talked enough—now let's kill each other!"
Hanzō suddenly roared.
Ibuse and a swarm of salamanders erupted from beneath the ground all across the battlefield.
The instant they emerged, they opened their mouths and violently spewed clouds of deep-purple poison mist!
Once the salamander poison mist touched a Sand shinobi, it immediately paralyzed their entire body and left them unable to move.
The deep-purple poison mist was also absorbed into the water's surface, turning the floodwaters into the fastest and most convenient medium for spreading the toxin.
Through that medium, every Water Release technique used by the Rain shinobi effectively evolved into "Poison Water Release"...
The Rain shinobi's expressions turned serious. They immediately rummaged through their ninja tool pouches, pulled out Tsunade's specially made "Enhanced Antidote Pills," and pressed them firmly beneath the base of their tongues. The medicine's effects rapidly spread throughout their bodies.
This was a specialized antidote Tsunade had developed from salamander antiserum.
With Hanzō and Ibuse cooperating, there was enough raw material to produce it in abundance.
Not only was it more effective, there was enough to equip every Amegakure chūnin and jōnin.
Unlike Chiyo's antidote, which could only be produced in limited quantities and therefore only supplied to senior figures such as the Kazekage and Rasa.
White Secret Technique: Three Treasures Suction Crush!
The moment the salamanders attacked, Chiyo immediately entered the battle as well.
Three puppets engraved across their chests with the characters for "Enlightened One," "Teachings," and "Seal" formed a triangular formation. A violent white hurricane instantly swept toward Hanzō!
Hanzō's expression turned serious.
This was precisely why he was wary of Chiyo...
Although she was a puppet master, Chiyo was also highly proficient in Fūinjutsu and had incorporated large amounts of "sealing" and "poison" elements into her puppet techniques.
When properly used, Hanzō's Hydrification Technique could make him immune to physical attacks, but it was highly vulnerable to Fūinjutsu.
Or rather, throughout the shinobi world, sealing techniques simply had the highest priority...
But at that moment—
A massive crescent-shaped blade of light came hurtling in from the side at tremendous speed, severing the chakra threads connecting Chiyo to her puppets in an instant!
A faint blue-white glow appeared around Sakumo as he shot toward Chiyo like a bolt of lightning. A layer of Storm Release chakra, compressed to the absolute limit, gathered along the edge of the White Fang Short Sword in his hand...
Even with the same Kekkei Genkai, different people developed it in different ways.
Take Magnet Release. Fugaku had chosen to use it to temper his body and generate a field.
Sunagakure's Magnet Release school focused on manipulating objects.
When developing Storm Release, Sakumo hadn't emphasized "compression and range" the way Hizashi had.
Instead, he had amplified the lightning-nature aspect contained within Storm Release and combined it with the Lightning Release Chakra Mode to develop a "Storm Release Chakra Mode" unique to himself!
In this state, Sakumo's speed increased dramatically, and his Storm Release swordsmanship became even more ferocious.
It was as though condensed aurora light had wrapped itself around his blade, allowing every swing to unleash a terrifying Storm Release slash!
Chiyo's ten fingers danced.
The metallic Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets lunged at Sakumo simultaneously from every direction!
The chakra threads stretched into a dense web, but just as Chiyo tightened her fingers, countless blade lights swept horizontally across the air!
All ten chakra threads snapped at once. The puppets instantly froze in midair, then crashed heavily into one another under their own momentum.
Chiyo's heart tightened.
That chakra threads were a puppet master's weakness was common knowledge throughout the shinobi world.
But specially reinforced chakra threads were actually extremely tough.
In the past, even swordsmen as powerful as Sakumo and Hanzō couldn't claim they could sever large numbers of chakra threads with every slash, and Chiyo could also maneuver her puppets to evade their blades.
But the problem was...
Sakumo's slashes were ranged attacks now!
He could completely cover multiple angles within a very short period of time...
Chiyo moved rapidly, barely finding openings within the web of slashes as she reconnected her chakra threads to the puppets.
But Sakumo had already closed in on her!
Chiyo yanked both hands back with all her strength, and the Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets rushed back at top speed to protect their master!
Sakumo gave a cold laugh. With Storm Release enhancing him, he was fast enough to evade the puppets' attacks with relative ease.
Instead of immediately attacking Chiyo herself, Sakumo first located the puppets that formed the "Three Treasures Suction Crush."
His short sword cut diagonally. Several more blade lights crossed through the air, instantly disabling the chakra threads controlling them.
In the blink of an eye, the joints of all three puppets were sliced away, spinning through the air before crashing into the water.
With a smooth turn, Sakumo brought his blade down heavily on another puppet!
Another member of the Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets was destroyed...
The masterpieces passed down from the first puppet master, Monzaemon, looked almost helpless before the perfect combination of Hatake swordsmanship and Storm Release.
'I'm completely countered!'
Chiyo's heart sank, and she couldn't help recalling the argument Sasori had always insisted upon.
'If puppet masters want to make any further breakthroughs, they can't remain limited to ten fingers as their control units. Chakra threads are simply too outdated...'
'Flesh brings suffering. Only through puppets can we ascend to the limit!'
Chiyo had previously thought Sasori was being too extreme. Partial modification should have been enough...
But looking at things now, perhaps she was the old woman stubbornly clinging to outdated ways!
Konoha's technology could already turn back the clock for Hanzō and give Sakumo Storm Release...
Meanwhile, she was still playing around with old-fashioned puppetry...
Puppet Mechanism: Chakra Shield!
Faced with Sakumo's short sword coming straight down at her, Chiyo's arms abruptly split apart into one mechanism after another.
A large amount of light poured from them, instantly forming a deep-blue protective barrier.
The blue-white blade light slammed into the shield with a deafening metallic crash, instantly covering its surface in spiderweb cracks.
Sakumo was mildly surprised.
So this old woman had finally started modifying her own body after all?
She had turned parts of her limbs into puppets...
Her current appearance certainly looked intimidating, as though mechanisms could be hidden anywhere across her body.
But Sakumo wasn't pressured by it in the slightest. He simply focused entirely on hacking at the barrier again and again!
Body modification?
It might have been rare in other hidden villages, enough to intimidate inexperienced shinobi and create pressure through an information gap...
But Sakumo had long since grown accustomed to such things back in his own village.
Kakuzu with black threads covering his body and five hearts, Orochimaru with his soft-body modifications, Hiruko with who knew how many Kekkei Genkai by now, Uzumaki Shio with her Tailed Beast transformation, Jiraiya with Sage Mode...
Even Danzō had developed a Wind Release Chakra Mode. Practically every Konoha Council Member had a "second stage"...
You could almost say that if you couldn't "transform" in Konoha, you didn't even qualify as one of the village's top-tier fighters!
The instant "Puppet Mechanism: Chakra Shield" shattered, Chiyo violently flicked her sleeves. Dozens of senbon coated in deadly poison shot toward Sakumo's face like a torrential downpour!
Sakumo chuckled, his short sword spinning into a blue-white wheel of light.
The silver needles were precisely deflected, clattering onto the sandy ground and instantly corroding small pits into it.
But that brief moment of respite was already enough for Chiyo to regain control of her remaining puppets.
She increased the density of her chakra threads to the limit, making every thread considerably thicker.
Yet all of it was futile.
Sakumo's Body Flicker Technique was already fast enough to leave layers of afterimages behind. Blue-white blade lights streaked back and forth through the puppet formation, and with every swing of his sword, several chakra threads were severed, immediately followed by puppet parts flying through the air...
Chiyo's puppets were rapidly dwindling in number.
And in this battle where she could do little but endure a one-sided beating, Chiyo's chakra consumption was already nearing its limit. Flying puppet fragments and slashes had also carved several wounds into her body deep enough to expose bone.
'If I make it back alive this time...'
'I absolutely have to support Sasori in developing new forms of Puppet Technique!' Chiyo thought regretfully.
The Puppet Technique she took such pride in—the White Secret Technique that had once made the entire shinobi world wary of her—was completely helpless against the strengthened Sakumo, utterly countered without even the ability to fight back...
Not far away, the battle was just as one-sided.
Rasa's complexion had turned dark blue. Enduring the burning sensation in his internal organs, he forcibly erupted with chakra!
A golden wave of sand surged outward.
The Third Kazekage hovered atop his iron sand, forming hand seals with both hands.
The black iron sand condensed into countless razor-sharp spears that rained down on Hanzō like a meteor shower.
This was a combination Magnet Release technique used by the Kazekage and his disciple!
It combined pinpoint strikes with wide-area coverage. In the deserts of the Land of Wind, it had suppressed countless invading enemies, and even the One-Tail could easily be kept under control by it.
But Hanzō merely sneered as his figure instantly transformed into a watery shadow.
"Ever seen the Water Release Body Flicker improved by the Second Hokage?"
Hanzō's mocking voice came from every direction.
"Your large-scale ninjutsu really is powerful. It's a weapon of war. But unless you can use your sand to soak up all the water from this dam in one go, you'll have a hard time even touching the corner of my clothes..."
The instant Hanzō finished speaking, Rasa's expression changed and he spun around.
Hanzō appeared behind him like a water ghost. With enough water around him, he could instantly shift from one point within it to another.
The kusarigama swept toward Rasa from a bizarre angle, dancing through Hanzō's hands like a venomous snake as it constantly twisted and changed the direction of its attacks.
Rasa gritted his teeth. His gold dust formed a greatsword, and he actually began trading blows with Hanzō!
Perhaps because the life-or-death pressure had pushed him beyond his usual limits, combined with the floating gold dust he could call upon as a shield at any moment, Rasa somehow managed to withstand Hanzō's ferocious swordsmanship through four or five lightning-fast exchanges!
Something stirred in Hanzō's mind.
'This kid isn't useless after all. No wonder he's rumored to be the strongest contender for Fourth Kazekage...'
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