Hanzou is an outlier in the Ninja World.
Being in a small place like Amegakure, he grew into a demigod that even the Five Great Nations had to acknowledge.
Under his leadership, Amegakure could directly face the Land of Fire, Land of Earth, and Land of Wind, and his title of demigod was well-deserved.
If it weren't for the fact that Amegakure only had him as an outstanding figure, perhaps the Land of Rain could have leaped to become the sixth great nation after the Five Great Nations.
However, if only one person is powerful while others cannot keep up with his pace, the more ambitious one is, the more disaster it will bring to the country.
When Hanzou was young, perhaps he hoped to let the Land of Rain escape the fate of being a buffer zone for war, which is why he resolutely declared war on other countries during the Second Ninja World War.
It's just that he couldn't make the Land of Rain truly strong; relying solely on himself was clearly not enough to protect the entire country.
As a result, Hanzou, crushed by the cruel reality, slowly changed from a hero who protected the country into a dictator who only knew how to maintain his own position.
He viewed the Akatsuki Organization, which could challenge his status, as a threat, and would rather cooperate with Danzo to eliminate these organizations that advocated peaceful ideals from his own country.
Yet he did not expect that although he solved the leader of the Akatsuki Organization, he let a real monster escape, who was finally killed by the "God" who came for revenge.
Originally, with Hanzou's strength, even if he couldn't defeat the opponent, he should have been able to save his life and escape.
However, in the process of maintaining his own power, he lost his past beliefs, making his movements sluggish.
After learning about Hanzou's past, Fūmori Masaki took it as a warning, telling himself to be firm in his beliefs.
Even if he encountered obstacles in the process of promoting those new ideas, he must never give up; otherwise, Hanzou's ending might be Fūmori Masaki's ending.
Now, seeing this Hanzou who, like him, attempted to challenge the existing situation of the Ninja World and vainly tried to change it, Fūmori Masaki felt a sense of lament.
At this moment, Hanzou's eyes were sharp, and one could see the strong will contained within, yet such a person eventually turned into an old man who only worried about whether he would lose power.
"This person's skills are quite good," Danzo glanced at the Hanzou squad following not far away and said to Fūmori Masaki in a low voice.
Since he was called a demigod, Hanzou's talent was naturally extremely outstanding.
One must know that he didn't have any Bloodline Limit; the only special thing was the Giant Salamander poison sac implanted in his body during his childhood, which caused the air he exhaled to be toxic.
This was indeed an advantage, but how could the title of demigod be obtained just by relying on this kind of thing?
People with the strength of Fūmori Masaki and Danzo could naturally judge the opponent's approximate strength from Hanzou's posture, walking gait, and breathing method.
The result Danzo obtained was that Hanzou's ability could basically be compared with them, the disciples of the Second Hokage, at least in terms of physical ability.
"Indeed," Fūmori Masaki said.
"I didn't expect such a character to exist in a place like Amegakure," Danzo's brows furrowed slightly.
"Being able to produce a master like Hanzou is probably the limit of Amegakure; with its scale, it is impossible to support more masters," Fūmori Masaki said.
A Ninja's strength certainly depends on talent, but it also requires other things, such as the inheritance of Ninjutsu, reasonable diet, and correct training methods, etc.
These all require the foundation of a Ninja Village.
Why can Iwagakure, Kumogakure, Sunagakure, Hidden Mist, and Konohagakure become the five most powerful Ninja Villages?
It is precisely because these Ninja Villages are composed of those powerful Ninja clans, with deep foundations, and can provide young Ninjas with very good guidance, while the Ninja Villages of those small countries cannot.
Hanzou could grow to this point in a backwater like the Land of Rain; he didn't know how much blood and sweat he paid, and he didn't know how many resources of Amegakure he occupied, but at least it can be determined that Amegakure can never cultivate a second demigod, absolutely impossible.
After being promoted to Jonin, Danzo could not just focus on improving his own strength; he began to gradually come into contact with the daily management of the Village.
Moreover, Tobirama intended to treat his disciples as the second generation of high-level officials of Konohagakure, so he also knew a lot of things and understood where his own Village's advantages lay, and Amegakure could not provide these.
"That's true. If it were just him alone, Amegakure wouldn't count as a big threat," Danzo's brows slowly relaxed.
If he knew that Hanzou could take the entire Amegakure to deal with three countries, Danzo would probably be terrified, Fūmori Masaki thought to himself.
Although the final result was failure, Hanzou still preserved the entire country, and before Nagato's revenge, he was still able to maintain his own power and status.
After approaching the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Wind, the surrounding area became increasingly turbulent.
This was basically a frequent area for war.
As they walked, they could see corpses lying on the ground.
The Land of Rain's control over the country was not high; even without external war, it was not certain that these corpses would be dealt with by anyone, and they were thrown on the ground casually like trash.
In the weather of the Land of Rain, even the corpses were not properly disposed of, which would basically trigger large-scale infectious diseases.
Remembering that the Land of Rain itself was a high-incidence area for epidemics, Fūmori Masaki's heart moved slightly, realizing that this might be an opportunity to bring the Land of Rain closer.
Epidemics are like floods and wild beasts, always feared by the common people, and this is even more so in high-incidence areas like the Land of Rain.
If they could help the Land of Rain properly deal with the problem of epidemics, they would certainly be able to eliminate those voices of dissatisfaction.
On the other hand, it could also allow the medical level of Konohagakure to develop; wouldn't that be the best of both worlds?
Therefore, when they were about to leave the Land of Rain, looking at the Hanzou squad that had been monitoring them along the way, Fūmori Masaki asked the others to wait for a moment, walked forward, stood in front of Hanzou, and said: "Hanzou, along the way, a large number of corpses have been discarded on the ground. I think they should be dealt with, otherwise, it might trigger an epidemic."
"Epidemic?" Hanzou was a little surprised.
Although people in this era knew about epidemics, they did not know what caused them; it was the first time he heard that corpses could cause epidemics.
"Well, perhaps epidemics are frequent here, so it's not easy to understand, but in the Land of Fire, places where epidemics are generally prevalent have basically experienced large-scale wars, and corpses have not been properly disposed of."
"Although I don't know why, untreated corpses are definitely one of the causes of epidemics," Fūmori Masaki said.
Hanzou believed it a little.
Although epidemics were frequent in the Land of Rain, in places where armed conflicts had occurred, epidemics would definitely happen; since even that rich Land of Fire was like this, perhaps there was really this reason.
"However, we don't have many people here who can deal with these corpses; even the people who fight are not enough, let alone dealing with so many corpses," Hanzou said.
"We can help. Your people in the Land of Rain are often troubled by epidemics, right? If you don't mind, we can send Medical Ninja to treat them. Of course, the price is negotiable; depending on the situation, it can even be free of charge."
Fūmori Masaki knew that he had a suspicion of acting first and reporting later, but he felt that he could persuade Tobirama, so he gave Hanzou a blank check directly.
"Really?" Hanzou was moved.
He was not yet only concerned with himself, but cared about the safety of the entire country.
Epidemics had always been the executioner that plundered the lives of the people, and the Land of Rain, with its backward medical level, simply couldn't handle it properly; once infected, they could only wait for death.
If Konohagakure, which was much stronger than Amegakure, sent Medical Ninja, it would definitely be able to save many people's lives, especially the sentence Fūmori Masaki said—it can even be free of charge—made Hanzou feel even more favorable.
The regular army of the Land of Fire at that time helped the Land of Rain because of orders, but used various seemingly positive reasons to plunder the people's property.
He was a little worried at first that Fūmori Masaki was also using the name of treating illnesses to exploit the people of the Land of Rain, but after hearing this sentence, he knew it was a case of judging a gentleman's heart with a villain's measure.
"If you can really help solve the epidemic, I, Hanzou, will treat you as a friend," Hanzou said seriously.
"The Land of Rain will also firmly stand on the side of the Land of Fire and help you win this righteous war!"
"Rest assured, it will definitely happen," Fūmori Masaki smiled.
Immediately, Fūmori Masaki returned to the squad and began to enter the Land of Wind.
While running, Danzo asked him what he said to Hanzou.
Fūmori Masaki said it simply and smiled at Danzo: "Look, isn't my method easier to win the hearts of the people of the Land of Rain than violence?"
Danzo gave a soft "uh," and even if he wanted to argue, he had to admit that Fūmori Masaki's method could easily win the support of the people of the Land of Rain.
Although it required the time and energy of Medical Ninja, it was deeper and more solid than the support obtained by violence.
The only thing he could argue about was that the energy required for violence was shorter, but from the result, the former seemed to be better.
Danzo, who was a bit concerned about face, made a smart decision; he did not choose to answer but changed the subject and began to discuss the route forward.
In this regard, Fūmori Masaki shrugged.