"This should be our first meeting, Hanzo…"
Looking at Hanzo, who was on full alert, and seeing how his gaze remained locked with his yet drifted slightly, trying to find some possibility of escaping Rei's senses while using the Root remnants forming up around him as shields for a large-scale compound ninjutsu attack and slipping away in the chaos, Rei Kaguya sighed.
Then he shook his head with some regret.
Before officially meeting Hanzo, Rei had once wondered if Hanzo at this point in time still had not fully worn away the spirit that made him a demigod.
He had wondered if Hanzo still retained some insistence on his original purpose.
He had wondered if the man still had some of the heroic bearing from those days, when he tried to make the Land of Rain the sixth great nation through his own strength.
But the facts proved otherwise.
The things that had formed Hanzo the Demigod, who stood at the peak of the shinobi world—
His ambition, his heroic spirit, his appreciation and praise for young people, his belief in upholding his own ninja way—
All of them had been left behind together with the Land of Rain's final defeat in that war.
The time of the Land of Rain's hero had stopped.
What remained was nothing more than an empty shell called Hanzo.
A shell that had lost its drive and its insistence on its original ideals, thinking only of preserving his position in the Land of Rain.
"The dignified demigod of the shinobi world, Hanzo of the Salamander, the hero who once granted the title of Sannin to outstanding shinobi from an enemy nation, has now fallen to the point of colluding with traitorous Root remnants wandering outside the village to scheme against a neutral peace organization like Akatsuki…
"This really is one of those cases where the man is worse than his reputation."
Hearing Rei's words, which carried sharp thorns beneath their regret, Hanzo's gaze became much gloomier.
While giving an order to the salamander beneath his feet, commanding his summoning beast to begin gathering poison mist, he responded coldly.
"This old man's actions need no explanation to others.
"You are nothing more than a junior who relied on Konoha's exhaustion from consecutive battles to complete something not much different from what this old man accomplished back then.
"Do not take yourself too seriously, Rei Kaguya!"
"Whoa. What a frightening aura, demigod Hanzo…"
Rei smiled and floated backward by two steps.
Then he narrowed his eyes and lightly asked in return,
"Then, in the Third Shinobi World War that just ended, the Land of Rain should not have become another country's battlefield again, right?
"After the war ended, Amegakure must have signed many treaties with Konoha and Sunagakure favorable to Amegakure's development, right?
"Under your leadership, the shinobi of the Land of Rain should also possess a firm will to challenge even gods in order to protect their village, right?"
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
Having been struck in a sore spot, Hanzo's gaze turned ferocious.
He rapidly formed seals and used the Water Dragon Bullet Technique, gathering the moisture around him that had not yet been seized by Rei into a huge water dragon that attacked Rei in the sky.
As for Rei, who stood beneath the sea above the clouds, he kept the provocative smile on his face and responded with the same Water Release.
Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet.
Over the past ten-plus years, Hanzo had always been considered the strongest Water Release user in the shinobi world, unmatched by anyone.
He was also one of the shinobi standing at the peak of the world.
But those two reputations should originally have belonged to the Mizukage.
The Second Mizukage, Gengetsu Hozuki, had died early and did not need this evaluation.
The Third Mizukage was directly Madara Uchiha's puppet, with neither the qualifications nor the motivation to compete for this title.
But for the Fourth Mizukage, Rei Kaguya, who planned to recast Kirigakure's glory, bringing the reputation of Water Release's pinnacle back to Kirigakure was obviously somewhat valuable and meaningful.
A roaring, enormous water dragon stretched out from the sea above the clouds.
Howling, it collided with the water dragon rising from the ground.
The water dragon Hanzo had formed first showed signs of collapse the instant they touched.
However, before Hanzo could launch a follow-up variation, one Root shinobi nearby very tactlessly added his own support to Hanzo's Water Dragon Bullet.
"Lightning Release: Thunder Ball!"
Rampaging lightning used the water dragon as a medium and blasted toward Rei in the sky with lightning speed.
"Why is it this move again…"
Looking at this familiar linked attack, Rei rolled his eyes speechlessly.
What was going on?
Why did every person who saw a Water Dragon Bullet think of adding Lightning Release into it to raise the Water Dragon Bullet's power?
Was the only routine in their brains "electrocution"?
Could they not change their thinking and throw in a stronger Fire Release to test the vaporization effect instead?
Although none of it would be useful against him, at least it would look a little different on the surface…
While thinking this, Rei changed the seal in his hands.
This is a top Water Release shinobi 1v1 man's battle. What are Root trash without even a unique secret technique coming here to join for?
…
At the same time, Mount Myoboku.
"Please let me go back, Fukasaku-sama, Shima-sama. I must return to my Akatsuki companions right now, immediately."
Nagato had just relied on the antidote Mount Myoboku had prepared for Jiraiya to barely suppress the poison inside his body.
Immediately afterward, he made this request to the two Toad Sages who had come to look after him.
"Sorry, I cannot agree to that request."
Fukasaku shook his head.
Looking at Nagato's frighteningly pale face, he sighed and said, "Little Jiraiya sent you to Mount Myoboku in the first place so we could protect your safety…
"If we let such a weak you return to that dangerous battlefield, would that not waste Little Jiraiya's kindness?"
"I cannot endure a situation where my companions are suffering and facing a dead end, while I am protected in an absolutely safe place."
Nagato shakily supported himself against a stone frog beside him and stood up.
His pale purple Rinnegan shone with a bright, firm light.
"Please send me back so I can fight side by side with Akatsuki's companions, both of you.
"If you insist on stopping me, then once something happens to Yahiko, Konan, and the others, I will transfer my anger and blame to Mount Myoboku."
Hearing the trace of threat already appearing in Nagato's request, Shima leaped angrily onto the stone frog in front of Nagato.
Pointing at his nose, she shouted,
"Then have you considered this? In your current state, even if you go back to join the battle, what can you change?!
"You are only going back to die for nothing! Value your own life a little more, brat!"
After listening to Shima's words, which sounded like a scolding on the surface but were really a persuasion, Nagato forced a faint smile.
Then he pointed at his own eyes and said,
"Even if my body no longer obeys me, I still have these eyes, Shima-sama…
"As long as the will to protect my companions has not disappeared, the Rinnegan will definitely respond to me."
"Are you an idiot?!"
Shima was so angry she hopped on the spot.
"Why would you gamble your life on something so uncertain?!"
"If the Rinnegan's power does not respond to my will to protect my companions, then it means I am not the Child of Prophecy Jiraiya-sensei was looking for. I am only a man who amounts to nothing more…
"But at the very least, I fought together with my companions until the end."
Nagato barely squeezed out a free and easy smile.
Then he looked toward Fukasaku, whose expression had already started to waver, and bowed deeply to him.
"So please, Fukasaku-sama…
"Please send me back to the Land of Rain. Send me back to Akatsuki's companions, who are fighting Root and the Amegakure shinobi."
"You will not regret it?" Fukasaku looked at Nagato and asked in a low voice.
"If I stay here, it will be more than regret."
Nagato gave his answer without any hesitation.
"Dear, you aren't…"
Shima looked at Fukasaku, who had closed his eyes in thought, with a deeply troubled expression.
"It is one thing for this child to be impulsive, but you cannot be impulsive along with him."
"Perhaps Nagato's thoughts truly are not rational enough…"
Fukasaku sighed.
Then he leaped in front of Nagato and brought his hands together with a clap.
"But demanding that humans remain rational at all times is itself an extremely difficult thing.
"Rather than forcing Nagato to rationally stay in Mount Myoboku according to the thoughts of old fellows like us, and making him resent us because of it, I would rather believe, just a little, in his possibility as the Child of Prophecy."
"Prepare yourself, Nagato!"
"Thank you very much, Fukasaku-sama."
Nagato looked at Fukasaku gratefully.
Then he took a deep breath, bit his finger, and prepared to return to the battlefield and face Hanzo together with Jiraiya-sensei.
Even though his movement was currently impaired by the weakness from the poison, relying on the power of the Rinnegan and the aerial mobility of the Yatagarasu, he should still be able to provide some support for Jiraiya-sensei in defeating Hanzo—
Poof.
White smoke dispersed.
Nagato, riding the Yatagarasu, returned beneath the skies of the Land of Rain.
However, before Nagato could take advantage of his high vantage point to clearly see the current battlefield situation, he heard a person who should not have been here speak in a cold tone.
"Ice Release: Senbon Rain."
Nagato instinctively raised his head.
Then he saw countless fine ice spikes, dense as a torrential downpour, falling from the sea in the sky above him.
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