Hanzo of the Salamander?!
How could he be here?
The roar of battle—and more specifically, the earth-shaking bellows of the two Tailed Beasts—drowned out almost everything else. Yet, as seasoned veterans of a hundred wars, Hiruzen Sarutobi and Ohnoki both caught the most critical sound of all: the shifting of the tide.
"Big Nose, what's the call?!"
Hiruzen never expected Hanzo—the old venom-user who had just signed a peace treaty with Konoha—to pull such a silent, lethal backstab in the Land of Grass. For now, he could only shove his fury deep into his gut and shout across the clearing to Ohnoki.
"Hmph. Consider yourself lucky today, you old monkey!"
Ohnoki was fuming. He felt a wave of bitter resentment that the day's sudden turn of events had dismantled his "perfect" plan, but as stubborn as he was, he knew they couldn't keep fighting each other.
When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman catches both.
If they continued their duel, the Hidden Rain would simply swoop in and harvest what remained of the winners. The Five Great Nations might have deep-seated grievances with one another, but if anyone dared to challenge their collective authority, the response was always the same: a swift, merciless iron fist of violence.
There was a famous saying about how the great powers of the world responded to challenges to their status quo—a lesson any minor power who dared to tear up the "international charter" learned the hard way through blood and fire.
However, the real reason Ohnoki agreed to a temporary truce was his knowledge of Han's limit.
It had been a minute and a half since Han had entered his Full Tailed Beast state. Even by the most optimistic estimates, Han could only hold that form for another three minutes. If Ohnoki didn't want to lose the Five-Tails and a talented shinobi in one go, he had to end this engagement within that window.
Furthermore, he realized he had drastically underestimated the "Old Monkey" Sarutobi.
Ohnoki had tried to use the first three days of combat to lull Konoha into a false sense of security before unleashing the Tailed Beasts today. It seemed Hiruzen had the exact same idea.
The Leaf had been sitting on a young genius who had mastered the Flying Raijin—a technique as troublesome as they came—and had kept him in reserve for three days. Hiruzen had also been waiting for Iwa to grow weary and complacent before playing his trump card to shatter the stalemate.
In fact, the old monkey had nearly succeeded. Gari, the Explosion Corps' genius, had been caught completely off guard and slaughtered by that yellow-haired brat. If Iwa hadn't been prepared with their own gambit, that "sinister" old monkey might have actually pulled it off.
As the Salamander Toxin continued to spread, Hatani found himself surprisingly unbothered. As long as he kept Windrun active, he could stroll through a cloud ten times as concentrated as this without a scratch.
Winds that could deflect tempered steel had no trouble at all blowing away a few toxic vapors. It was a perfect example of how the "game mechanics" of the system evolved into even more useful advantages when translated into reality.
Yakushi Nonou, however, didn't have that luxury.
As a medical ninja, her Taijutsu wasn't her strong suit. She quickly followed in the footsteps of the other rank-and-file, falling to the ground as the toxin took hold. With her final strength, she cast a pleading look toward Hatani, hoping he would save her from this nightmare just as he had before.
She didn't realize that the only reason Hatani had saved her last time was because the bees surrounding her were essentially walking bags of Gold Coins for him to harvest.
The toxin acted quickly. Even though she had preemptively taken a standard antidote of her own making, her vision began to blur and darken.
Just as despair threatened to swallow her whole, Hatani's figure appeared by her side—exactly like last time. Her hope flared back to life.
In truth, Hatani had no desire to save a Root spy like Nonou. But he didn't have a choice. Sakumo Hatake was the kind of man who would abandon a mission before he abandoned a comrade.
Sakumo had no idea Nonou was a spy for Danzo. Even if he did, he probably wouldn't have hesitated. In the White Fang's eyes, even Root belonged to Konoha.
He didn't realize that while he treated everyone as brothers-in-arms, some of those "brothers" viewed him as an enemy—one they loathed even more than the shinobi of rival villages.
Under Sakumo's direct order, Hatani could only grit his teeth, scoop up the fading Nonou, and beat a hasty retreat before she lost consciousness.
Leading the joint forces of the Hidden Rain and the Hidden Grass, Hanzo of the Salamander stood tall, his face hidden behind his respirator, radiating an air of supreme confidence and ambition.
Today was his day. The day he would step over the broken bodies of Konoha and Iwa to crown himself the Amekage.
He had prepared for this for a long time. He had even put on a grueling half-month "performance" for Konoha's Nara Shikashin, feigning sincerity until the Nara was convinced the Rain truly wanted peace.
Then, he had capitalized on the desperation of the Sannin. Knowing Orochimaru and Jiraiya were hungry for a win after their previous defeats, he waited for them to lead their final forces into the Land of Grass. He had slipped in undetected, convinced the leader of the Grass, Tetsuya, to join him, and launched a pincer attack on the two warring giants.
Relying on the intelligence provided by Danzo, Hanzo believed he held all the cards. He had chosen the perfect moment to strike—the point where both sides had clashed for three days and were utterly exhausted.
He was almost successful.
If Hatani hadn't caught the scent of poison on the wind; if Minato hadn't mastered the Flying Raijin at the exact right moment; if the Iwa Jinchuriki hadn't both entered Full Tailed Beast mode; and if the two strongest leaders on the field hadn't been locked in a stalemate of pure Taijutsu...
Hanzo had believed Danzo's claim that he was willing to trade wartime intelligence just to secure his path to the Hokage's seat.
But he had overlooked one thing: Danzo might trade with him to get rid of a rival, but he would never trade with him to help create a "Sixth Shadow."
Danzo had sacrificed so much and worked so hard just to earn the title and status of a "Shadow." He would never allow someone else to use him to achieve that same legendary status so easily.
The only thing Hanzo could be grateful for was that even though Hiruzen and Ohnoki had declared a truce, there wasn't a shred of trust left between the Leaf and the Stone. Expecting them to truly cooperate to fight off the Rain-Grass alliance was pure fantasy.
As the toxin spread and the situation grew more dire, the "alliance" between Hiruzen and Ohnoki fractured immediately. After moving away from one another, they both gave the exact same order: Retreat.
Clearly, both old foxes intended to let Hanzo's forces exhaust the other side.
But the Rain-Grass alliance moved faster than either of them anticipated.
Before the Konoha and Iwa shinobi could even process the order to stop killing each other, the towering, monstrous form of the Salamander, Ibuse, rose to dominate their vision.