"Summoning Jutsu!"
Hanzo twisted aside from an incoming Great Fireball, hands flashing through seals before slamming his palm down.
Boom!
A massive shape erupted from the smoke—like a small mountain crashing into the battlefield.
Ibuse.
The colossal salamander swept its body in a brutal arc, knocking several Root shinobi flying like broken dolls.
"Poison Mist!"
At Hanzo's command, Ibuse opened its jaws.
A torrent of deep violet toxin cascaded outward like a waterfall, spilling across the valley floor and rapidly thickening into a suffocating haze.
"Careful! Hold your breath!"
A Root operative shouted—
Only for a streak of silver to flash through the mist.
His head separated cleanly from his body, eyes still wide in shock as it spun through the air.
Hanzo moved within the purple fog like a phantom of death.
Each step.
Each swing.
Another life ended.
Root's elite were formidable—
But they were not Hanzo.
Forced to hold their breath, oxygen draining from their blood, their reactions slowed. Against the so-called "Demi-God of the Shinobi World," that was a death sentence.
Counterattack
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
One Root jōnin, risking the poison, exhaled a massive gale in an attempt to disperse the mist.
But Ibuse's toxin clung with terrifying persistence.
The wind thinned it—
Only to spread it wider.
The battlefield grew even more treacherous.
Then—
"Summoning Jutsu!"
With another puff of smoke, a grotesque, elephant-like creature materialized.
It shrieked, maw opening wide.
"Baku…" Hanzo muttered.
Danzō's summoning beast.
Hanzo understood its ability instantly.
The creature inhaled—
And the air itself twisted.
The poison fog reversed direction like a flooding river, surging violently into Baku's gaping mouth.
The suction didn't stop there.
Hanzo felt his body dragged forward by an overwhelming pull.
The Ambush
"Wind Release: Vacuum Wave!"
A figure appeared behind him.
Danzō.
He exhaled a crescent blade of compressed wind.
BOOM!
Hanzo's body shattered into splashing water.
"Water clone?" Danzō narrowed his eye.
He immediately turned, hands forming seals.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Bullets!"
Like a machine gun, compressed wind rounds tore through the battlefield in rapid succession.
Hanzo emerged elsewhere, erecting a wall of water.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
The barrage slammed into the surging curtain.
Water exploded outward in violent sprays.
Danzō's mastery of Wind Release was extraordinary—his control over nature transformation far beyond that of an ordinary jōnin.
Only Hanzo's equally refined Water Release allowed him to hold the line.
In the next instant—
Hanzo flickered through the falling water curtain.
His chained sickle screamed through the air toward Danzō's face.
Metal clashed.
Danzō drew his blade in time.
They crossed.
Separated.
Turned.
Faced one another again.
Something Wrong
Hanzo's eyes narrowed.
Danzō's severed arm—
Was back.
His breathing steady.
No trace of poison.
Izanagi.
Hanzo's gaze shifted subtly to the bandaged eye.
Danzō did not yet possess the grotesque arm full of Sharingan.
Which meant—
He only had one.
One use.
Izanagi's duration was roughly a minute.
Which meant Danzō was likely still within its effect window.
Hanzo changed tactics instantly.
He turned away from Danzō—
And charged the remaining Root shinobi instead.
The True Target
After:
Explosive Flame FormationPoison MistHanzo's massacre within the fog
Root's elite forces had already been cut in half.
Those still alive showed varying degrees of poisoning.
Now—
They were at their weakest.
If Hanzo eliminated them first—
Danzō would stand alone.
"Damn it!"
Danzō understood immediately.
He sprinted after Hanzo.
His face remained expressionless—
But inside?
He was burning.
That Sharingan—
That Mangekyō—
Had belonged to his former comrade, Uchiha Kagami.
He had acquired it at immense cost.
And now—
It had been wasted before its true power was even used.
And those Root elites—
Decades of cultivation.
Resources.
Loyalty forged in blood.
All crumbling before his eyes.
Danzō's vision nearly turned red with rage.
If Hanzo killed the remaining forces—
He would not win this battle alone.
No matter how ambitious his dreams were—
No matter how fiercely he desired to reshape Konoha—
Without Root,
He was nothing.
He had to stop Hanzo—
At least until the poison fully dissipated.
Or this valley—
Would become his grave.
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