Regarding Hanzo

Amegakure.

"No Sensory Barrier."

At a concealed drainage pipe entrance, Nishikawa Tetsu put away the sensory ninja tool he had used to scout the area.

"Hanzo may be suspicious, but for now he relies on traditional hidden sentries and patrols. He hasn't deployed a wide-area Sensory Ninjutsu that covers the entire village. That's good news for us."

"Don't let your guard down." Uchiha Fugaku lowered his voice, his eyes especially sharp in the darkness as they warily swept the surroundings. "According to the intel, his armory is in the center of the Lower District."

"Understood."

Namikaze Minato nodded, his expression grave.

Like ghosts, the three of them wrapped in Nishikawa Tetsu's specially made cloaks and used the rain to mask their footsteps as they silently infiltrated Amegakure.

Amegakure had a rigidly tiered layout. To avoid the dense patrols in the upper levels, Team Five chose to cut through the Lower District.

The sight that greeted them there horrified Namikaze Minato, who had never before ventured deep into enemy territory.

Both sides of the streets were lined with shacks built from scrap metal and wooden boards.

Countless ragged people huddled in the alleys, where filthy water streamed past.

They were gaunt, their eyes dull and vacant. Whenever Rain shinobi patrolled past, the people trembled like frightened mice.

"Waaah—"

A faint wail broke the dead silence of the rainy night.

Beneath a leaking eave, a skeletal mother held a baby and tried to nurse it, but it was clear that after going hungry for so long, she had no milk.

The baby's cries grew weaker and weaker, until they became a feeble, kitten-like whimper.

Not far away, two children of only five or six were fighting over a piece of moldy bread.

For that morsel, one of the children even sank their teeth into the other's arm. Blood ran down, mingling with the rain.

Namikaze Minato abruptly stopped.

He looked at the dying baby, then at the two children fighting like beasts. The light in his azure eyes trembled violently.

As a child who had grown up in Konoha, he had been born into an ordinary family, but Konoha's sunshine and prosperity had kept him from ever seeing such a bleak, hopeless hell.

"This is too awful..."

Minato's voice was hoarse. Without thinking, he reached for his Ninja Tool Pouch, where he kept a few high-calorie Ration Pills.

He wanted to help, even if he could only save the people right in front of him.

"Don't."

A hand seized Minato's wrist.

It was Uchiha Fugaku.

The young Uchiha clan leader's expression was cold. He stared straight ahead. "Put away that useless compassion, Minato. If you give them food now, the scramble that follows will get even more people killed. And if we give away our position, the mission will fail."

"But isn't Hanzo, the one who started the war, the cause of all this?" Minato gritted his teeth, anger toward the man the world called a demigod in his eyes. "If he hadn't declared war on the Three Great Nations, would these people have ended up like this?"

"Was it really Hanzo's fault?"

A calm voice cut in.

Nishikawa Tetsu stepped forward, placing himself between Minato and the refugees.

He didn't look at the refugees. Instead, he raised his head to gaze at the oppressive village, his eyes showing not anger, but a hint of admiration.

"Minato, do you think Hanzo is an absolute villain?" Nishikawa Tetsu asked.

"Isn't he?" Minato shot back. "He's militaristic, and he's even willing to make enemies of every great nation."

"You're wrong."

Nishikawa Tetsu shook his head. His voice carried through the rain, clear and composed.

"What kind of place is Amegakure? It's the only point where the Land of Fire, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Wind share borders. It's a natural strategic buffer zone."

Nishikawa Tetsu pointed to the mud beneath their feet.

"What does 'strategic buffer zone' mean? In peacetime, you're a buffer. When war breaks out, you become the battlefield!"

"The Three Great Nations went to war for their own interests, but didn't want to fight on their own soil. So, by tacit agreement, they brought the flames of war to Amegakure."

"If you were the leader here, watching the great nations rampage through your home and your villagers get trampled like weeds, what could you do? Could you stand for it?"

Namikaze Minato froze. He had never considered the issue from this perspective.

"Hanzo declared war on the Three Great Nations because, in my view, he'd been driven to the brink."

"Look at these people, Minato."

Nishikawa Tetsu pointed to the trembling refugees.

"Their homes were destroyed not because Hanzo started a war, but because we're fighting on their land. In their eyes—and even in ours—the shinobi of the Three Great Nations are the invaders."

Namikaze Minato froze. He had never considered the issue from this perspective.

All his life, he had been taught to "fight to protect Konoha," but he had never considered that this protection was built upon the suffering of other countries.

"The Three Great Nations turned this place into a battlefield, then left a small country to bear the disaster."

Nishikawa Tetsu continued, "He's trying to use force to bring this chaos under control, to show the great nations his strength and win back his country's sovereignty. That isn't madness. It's a leader's courage and sense of responsibility. He's fighting for survival."

Memories of Hanzo from his previous life flashed through Nishikawa Tetsu's mind.

Although Hanzo had become suspicious and mediocre in his later years, at this moment, at the height of the Shinobi World War, Hanzo of the Salamander was indeed the guardian deity of the Land of Rain—a hero who dared to draw his blade against the world for his country.

"So don't define war in simple terms of good and evil, or right and wrong. That's too naive."

Nishikawa Tetsu looked at Minato, who had fallen completely silent, and his tone turned serious.

"Hanzo has his own sense of justice, and we have our own position. We respect his resolve and understand his predicament, but that doesn't change the fact that we're enemies."

"War is a clash of positions. There's no right or wrong, only victory or defeat."

Uchiha Fugaku, listening nearby, gave a slight nod.

As the young clan leader of a powerful family, he understood this kind of politics, based on strength and interest, better than Minato did.

He looked at Nishikawa Tetsu with a hint of surprise. This common-born boy's insight was deeper than that of many clan elders.

"Well said." Fugaku spoke in a low voice. "Hanzo is an opponent worthy of respect. But he stands in Konoha's way, so he must be defeated."

Nishikawa Tetsu patted Minato on the shoulder, his tone softening.

"Minato, I'm telling you this not to make you doubt yourself, but to help you see reality clearly."

"We can't change the will of the great nations, and we can't save this country overnight. But there's one thing we can do—"

"End this war as soon as possible."

"As long as the war continues, the crying here won't stop. Destroying the armory and weakening Hanzo's ability to wage war will force him to return to the negotiating table sooner."

"That's the fastest and most merciful way to bring an end to this war—and to the suffering of these refugees."

Namikaze Minato took a deep breath and closed his eyes, as if absorbing words that challenged everything he believed.

A moment later, when he opened his eyes again, there was no longer any confusion in his azure gaze, nor any shallow compassion. In its place was a clear resolve, tempered by the weight of responsibility.

"I understand."

Minato spoke softly. "Since we're the invaders, then let's be the ones to end this. For Konoha—and so the rain here can stop sooner."