The rumbling echoed throughout the valley, and the ground below was highly sensitive to the tremors.
Ibuse was the first to sense it. The enormous salamander relayed what it had discovered to Hanzo.
At the same time, Yan, who was absorbing the Altar's power, was drawn to the disturbance. "Hanzo, what's happening outside? Why is it so chaotic?"
Hanzo bowed slightly and apologized. "I don't know yet. I'll go investigate."
Ōnoki was smashing the ground with brute force alone, without using even a trace of Chakra.
So Hanzo, underground, hadn't noticed him. He wasn't particularly skilled at sensing things in the first place.
Ōnoki had been pounding away for less than a minute when even more violent tremors came from beneath the earth.
A moment later, a giant salamander burst through the ground, with Hanzo standing on its back.
Hanzo was clearly shocked and bewildered when he recognized Torifu's face.
"Damn it, why is it you? How did you get here?" Hanzo was more than a little panicked. Though he was confident in his strength and believed himself comparable to Senju Hashirama, facing three Kage at once was a serious problem.
"Wind Shadow, Earth Shadow, Fire Shadow—what brings the three of you to this valley?"
Though Hanzo seemed to be asking a question, the salamander beneath him had already begun moving.
It crawled toward them at incredible speed, releasing a large amount of mucus along the way and leaving Torifu and the others with far fewer places to dodge.
The three Kage weren't pushovers, either. Hanzo was only a little stronger than Kage Level; he was nothing more than a stepping stone for them.
Torifu's real purpose had nothing to do with Hanzo. All he could think about was Yan, who was cultivating underground!
He didn't know what Yan was