In the snow-blanketed village, the tall central building was the only structure that truly stood out.
Though the Land of Snow was not small, the number of mission requests it received was pitifully low. One reason was that Yukigakure had only been founded recently, so it had very few shinobi. The other was that the common people were poor and simply had no money to spend on commissions.
Slipping past the two guards at the entrance, Hanzo found that aside from the receptionist, the mission hall on the first floor held only a few scattered people.
Hiding with Camouflage Jutsu.
After turning himself transparent, Hanzo walked straight up the stairs to the second floor. Inside, Rōga Nadare was reclining in his chair with his eyes closed, enjoying a lazy rest.
Creak—
At the faint sound of the door, he opened his eyes, irritation immediately appearing on his face.
"Didn't I tell you to knock before coming in? How many times do I have to say it before you remember?"
"My apologies, but I'm not one of your Snow shinobi."
A figure in a white cloak stood in the doorway.
His body was wrapped from head to toe in white strips of cloth, leaving only a pair of orange-yellow eyes visible.
"Who are you?!"
Rōga Nadare sprang out of his chair and instantly took a guarded stance.
"Are those guards idiots? Someone actually made it in here?"
"Guards! Guards!"
Hanzo waved a hand, signaling him to stop shouting.
"I already placed a soundproof barrier over this room. Your voice isn't getting out."
"What pitiful awareness. Your vigilance as a leader is appallingly weak. I was outside for that long and you never noticed. If I'd wanted to kill you, you wouldn't even know how you died."
"So stop with the pointless little tricks. From where I'm standing, that's childish. I only want to ask a few questions."
Even as Hanzo spoke, Rōga had already slipped a hand into his weapon pouch and pulled out a few shuriken.
"Ice Style: Tsubame Blizzard!"
Frost coated the shuriken, shaping them into swallows as they shot toward Hanzo. At the same time, Rōga Nadare leapt backward, trying to dive out the window and escape.
As far as he was concerned, this intruder had passed up the perfect chance to strike. That made him nothing more than an arrogant fool.
The cramped office was far from ideal terrain for him. Once he lured the enemy outside and summoned the village shinobi to surround him, he would make sure that ninja died.
"Didn't I already say it… I only want to ask a few questions."
Hanzo's eyes didn't waver in the slightest.
His figure simply disappeared.
Just as Rōga was about to reach the window, an overwhelming force suddenly clamped around his throat, nearly suffocating him. A moment later, the back of his head slammed into the wall with brutal force.
Hanzo's right hand pinned him there. In his left hand, the ice swallows were frozen in place, their wings still twitching helplessly.
Choking, Rōga clawed at Hanzo's arm, trying to pry it away.
It didn't move at all.
"Looks like this isn't a good place for conversation. Let's talk somewhere else."
With one use of Flying Thunder God, Hanzo vanished together with Rōga.
The office door, which had been open moments ago, had somehow already swung shut.
---
Beside a frozen lake, Rōga now hung from a crooked tree.
His chakra had been completely sealed away, and the special rope binding him was far beyond anything he could break free from.
"I'll ask you two questions. If you answer them, nothing happens. If you don't, the technique around your neck tightens one step further."
"And if you feed me false information…"
"I'll kill you."
Hanzo paused, then added flatly:
"No—"
"I'll torture you to death."
Looking at the struggling man, Hanzo spoke in a calm tone.
"Don't even think about killing yourself in front of me. That isn't an option."
Using natural energy, Hanzo continuously compressed the chakra in the surrounding air against Rōga Nadare's throat.
"Only two questions."
"First, your Snow Village developed a set of Chakra Armor, didn't it? Where is the research facility?"
"In your dreams, you bastard! Even if I die, you'll never get it! Yukigakure won't let you go! Aah—!"
Rōga fought with all his strength, but the restraint around his neck tightened sharply. The suffocating pressure surged over him in an instant.
"You still have one chance."
Hanzo waved casually toward the lake.
The ice covering its surface split wide open with a thunderous crack.
"Second, where is your village's Ice Release scroll?"
"Dream on… don't think… you'll ever—I'd rather die than tell you…"
His consciousness had already started to blur. Dizziness, suffocation, nausea—they all gnawed away at his will.
The questions had been asked, yet he refused to answer even at the edge of death.
If he would rather die than speak, then that simply meant:
He would only talk if he was still alive.
"You should understand the difference between us."
"To me, you're nothing but a bug I can crush whenever I feel."
"I'll give you one final chance. This is the last value your life still has."
As Hanzo spoke, the constriction around Rōga Nadare's neck suddenly loosened.
Cool air rushed into his lungs.
"Speak… and you live."
He was the leader of Yukigakure. He had spent half his life clawing his way up to this position.
He still wanted to lead the Snow shinobi and someday make Yukigakure stand alongside the Five Great Nations.
And yet here he was, reduced in someone else's eyes to a thing with almost no value.
By what right did this man get to decide his worth?
"You bastard…"
Rōga managed to rasp out the words through his haze.
"Good. Strong will."
Hanzo nodded, almost in approval.
"Then go die."
At the same moment, the branch suspending him snapped with a crack.
Rōga plunged into the freezing lake.
With his chakra sealed and his body bound, struggling was useless. He could only sink.
The icy water surged into his mouth at once. The bone-deep cold shocked his fading mind back to clarity in an instant.
Mud from the lakebed smeared across his face, like a hand dragging him down into hell itself.
He couldn't even close his mouth anymore. Bubbles streamed upward as the drowning pain and the crushing terror of death devoured him.
I'm such a fucking idiot. I want to live—I want to live!
That was Rōga's final coherent thought.
"That should be about enough."
Watching the bubbles rise, Hanzo swept a hand across the lake.
A Water Dragon burst up from beneath the surface, Rōga clamped in its jaws.
His mind barely cleared again before beginning to fade once more. His eyes were open, but all he could see was the vague outline of a figure before him.
"I wouldn't mind letting you feel that again," Hanzo said, his voice like a whisper from death itself.
"One last time."
"Speak, and you live."
Hanzo drove a kick into Rōga's stomach. The man convulsed weakly, coughing lake water from his mouth in great heaving bursts.
"I'll talk—I'll tell you everything."
For the first time, Rōga Nadare understood what real happiness was.
To be alive.
To keep breathing.
To hell with dignity. To hell with the village.
Right now, all he wanted was to live.
Even with his mind still foggy, he forced the words out:
"The Chakra Armor… it's only a prototype. Still being developed… at the research lab."
"The Ice Release… the Ice Release scroll… I hid it in the secret compartment behind my office."
Hanzo looked at him.
"Where is the research lab?"
"Northeast of the village… at the base there… they're still developing it…"
At this point, Rōga's eyes held nothing but desperate hope of survival.
"Good. Congratulations."
"You lived."
The moment Hanzo said that, the surge of emotion hit too hard. Rōga's already shaky consciousness collapsed completely, and he passed out cold.
"You really should've just talked from the start. Would've saved yourself all this suffering."
Hanzo injected a trace of senjutsu into his body to keep him alive, then turned and left.
With a single Flying Thunder God jump, Hanzo returned to the office, looted the secret technique scrolls, and headed straight for the research base outside Yukigakure.
(Note: In the Pain's Assault arc, Konan also suffocated quite a few Konoha shinobi to death with paper.)
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