"Haah..."
Hanzo of the Salamander could not help but sigh.
Akatsuki Organization had been founded by a young man named Yahiko.
The organization was full of vitality and idealism.
Many young people from the Land of Rain had thrown themselves into it.
Watching them grow stronger by the day, Hanzo had come to see them as a thorn in his side.
Now that he had encountered an outstanding young man who had refused to join Akatsuki—
he could not help but feel moved.
"Then, would he be willing to join Amegakure?"
"I invited him, but he seemed to have matters to attend to. He said we would meet again if fate allowed..." Asuka replied.
"He did not refuse, but neither did he agree right away..."
Hanzo nodded slightly, silently committing this information to memory.
"What is his name?"
"Mingren... Amakawa Mingren."
Asuka spoke that pleasant, seemingly magical name.
That handsome face, and those resolute eyes burning with Black Fire, seemed to appear before her once more...
Autopsy, the Konoha High Command's Decision
One day later...
At the heart of the distant Land of Fire lay Konohagakure.
It was daytime, yet thunder and rain raged outside.
Inside the Morgue, the air reeked with a pungent stench.
This was not Ibiki Morino's first time in a place like this.
Ever since graduating, becoming a Chunin, participating in the Third Shinobi World War, and joining the Interrogation Division—
Ibiki had dealt with countless corpses.
Yet when he saw the bodies before him, he still felt deeply uncomfortable...
Makoto, Shikahide Nara, and Tetsuya Senju lay side by side on the examination tables.
The trays around them were filled with all sorts of surgical, dissection, and autopsy tools, along with signs of their use.
These fallen shinobi had been brought back from the Land of Rain by Kakashi Hatake.
Autopsies—
were sometimes part of the Interrogation Division's duties as well.
At the same time, members of ANBU had joined today's examination.
"How brutal..."
Ibiki Morino frowned.
Kakashi had been his classmate. Both of them were Konoha shinobi.
Ibiki Morino held the rank of "Special Jonin."
At such a young age, that alone was already remarkable.
But his old classmate Kakashi had earned the qualifications of a "Jonin" long ago. He was a true genius.
Wiping the blood from his gloves,
Ibiki Morino looked toward his colleagues and superiors.
"Makoto, the youngest, had his neck snapped directly. Judging from his expression, he was killed before he could react at all."
"Shikahide Nara reacted slightly and raised an arm to shield himself, but his skull and hand bones were smashed to pieces together. The killer struck repeatedly and accomplished this through immense brute force... Preliminary judgment: his strength was even more terrifying than that of many Jonin..."
Every shinobi's promotion was evaluated.
Once their overall abilities reached a certain level and they passed the tests, they could receive the corresponding rank... such as Genin, Chunin, Special Jonin, and so on.
Among a shinobi's overall capabilities, some stood out in Chakra reserves, while others excelled at Genjutsu.
Then there were a small number of people... whose strength stood out.
"Based on the handprints and fist marks left by the attacker, he was likely around thirteen or fourteen years old."
Ibiki Morino stared at the corpses as he gave his assessment.
His colleagues and superiors nodded repeatedly, clearly satisfied with Ibiki's professional skills.
"The killer was not Hanzo's Granddaughter, unless she possessed extraordinary natural strength. If he was an Amegakure shinobi, he was likely a guard or ANBU agent Hanzo had secretly dispatched..."
Ibiki Morino concluded.
"The most horrifying death was Tetsuya Senju's..."
Ibiki Morino walked over and used his gloved right hand to move Tetsuya Senju's broken left leg.
"Tetsuya Senju was a shinobi of the Senju Clan. He naturally possessed powerful Yang Release, as well as Water and Earth affinities... In theory, even if he could not win a fight, he should have been able to escape with Earth Style when faced with danger... But his left leg was broken beforehand, and then Fire Oil was used on him..."
"Wait... even if his left leg was broken, that should not have stopped him from forming hand seals with both hands." Kakashi, his expression dark, stepped forward and asked in a low voice.
During that sudden mission, he had failed to bring his teammates back.
Kakashi blamed himself deeply for it.
"Correct. That is exactly what I was about to discuss..."
Ibiki Morino nodded.
When it came to reading corpses, he was an expert.
"Based on the strangulation marks left on the back of the corpse, the attacker tightly held the deceased with both arms, preventing him from forming hand seals. In the end, Tetsuya Senju was burned alive..."
Ibiki Morino shook his head.
"Tetsuya Senju was very strong, but the attacker was even stronger. If it was not extraordinary natural strength, then it was most likely some kind of technique—perhaps even a Kekkei Genkai."
Otherwise, the killer could not possibly have endured the flames.
Rumble!!
Thunder crashed outside.
Rainwater poured down.
Everyone's faces were illuminated an eerie white.
Ibiki Morino was just about to continue.
Hurried footsteps came from outside.
Soon, another corpse was carried in.
The deceased was a member of the Reconnaissance Squad.
Many of the Konoha shinobi present knew this comrade.
He had also taken part in the military operation in the Land of Rain.
Reconnaissance Squad missions often required a single person to operate alone.
By the time his body had been discovered, he had already collapsed in a pool of blood...
"Every bone in the corpse is broken. His body was shattered alive, punch by punch..."
Ibiki Morino, Kakashi, and the others understood everything after only a single glance.
"Judging from the size and shape of the fist marks, we suspect it was the work of the same person... That bastard!"
Ibiki Morino clenched his fingers.
"Who the hell is the killer?!"
"..."
The two comrades who had brought in the corpse exchanged glances and shook their heads.
"Hmph! There is no need to say more. No matter what, this has gone far beyond normal methods of combat."
A Jonin from the Senju Clan stepped forward, his face full of rage.
"This was clearly an act of revenge! Those bastards from the Land of Rain! They must pay for this in blood!"
The furious crowd's sentiments soon reached the Konoha High Command...
Not long afterward, in the Hokage Building at the center of Konoha.
An emergency meeting was convened.
Seated at the head was the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, wearing the Hokage's hat and known as the Shinobi God.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was in his prime, and his strength had reached its peak.
Even his name was one that inspired awe and fear.
"It seems that peacefully resolving this matter by capturing Hanzo's Granddaughter will be rather difficult..."
The report from Ibiki Morino's side indicated
that the killer possessed exceptional strength and was unafraid of flames.
It was highly likely that he possessed some kind of Kekkei Genkai... in other words, a bloodline.
The Five Great Shinobi Villages under the Five Great Nations—Konoha, Iwagakure, Sunagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure—possessed the most advanced military power.
But some smaller shinobi villages belonging to minor nations also had their own unique advantages.
Many shinobi with special Secret Jutsu or bloodlines had grown up in those smaller villages.
And Amegakure was the strongest of all the small shinobi villages in the Ninja World.
It was not strange for it to produce shinobi with special Kekkei Genkai.
Hanzo of the Salamander, the Amegakure Village Leader, was even known as the Demigod.
Over the years, through three wars, the major shinobi villages had failed to break this hard bone.
Instead, they had kept one another in check, dragging the situation into a mire.
On one hand, Amegakure was indeed difficult to deal with.
On the other hand, Konoha, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure all had similar ambitions. Each wanted to conquer Amegakure, and in the end, none of them gained anything.
Because no village wanted another to gain control over all of Amegakure.
This situation
had turned around last year, when ten thousand Stone Ninja surrounded the Third Raikage, only to be completely annihilated...
Iwagakure no longer had enough troops to fight over Amegakure's territory.
Then there was the Kannabi Bridge Battle, which had also occurred last year. A thousand Stone Ninja had attempted to cross the Land of Grass and launch a surprise attack on Konoha, only to have the bridge destroyed, cutting off their supply line and forcing them to retreat in defeat.
It could be said that Iwagakure had completely lost any hope of winning the war.
At the very least... they would no longer be Konoha's match.
But Iwagakure was still one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.
If Konoha wanted to launch a direct assault, it would still have to pay an enormous price.
That was why their high command wanted to win Hanzo over as an ally.
As long as Amegakure became Konoha's barrier against Iwagakure,
Konoha could free up its manpower and energy to deal with Sunagakure, which was likewise eyeing Amegakure greedily.
Moreover, the battlefield of the Third Shinobi World War was not limited to the Land of Rain.
Before you continue