After leaving the Surprise Attack Division, Houka transformed into a bolt of lightning and sped toward the temporary camp of the Second Combat Division. But halfway there, someone blocked his path.
There were two of them. One was an old acquaintance—Sasori of the Red Sands.
As for the other, his appearance was rather distinctive. He wore black shinobi garb and armor, gripped a sickle in one hand, and a long iron chain hung from its base. At the other end of the chain was a... scale?
He also wore a gas mask over his head, with long grayish-white hair cascading down his back.
It was unmistakably...
"Hanzo of the Salamander, the Demigod of the Ninja World?"
Houka narrowed his eyes.
"You must be Uchiha Houka." Hanzo of the Salamander stared at him with gray eyes, a trace of regret showing on his face. "Unfortunately, I was already dead when you made your name. I never got to witness your brilliance on the battlefield."
Houka gave a cold smile.
Hanzo of the Salamander had always possessed a strange, contradictory personality. During the Second Shinobi World War, he had fought Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru. He could clearly have killed them, yet he showed mercy and even bestowed upon them the title of the Sannin, making them famous throughout the ninja world.
When he fought Mifune, he could likewise have poisoned him to death, but he still spared him in the end, even saying something like, "I greatly admire your bushido spirit."
Yet when faced with Akatsuki, the organization led by Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan that sought to raise up his own country, he brutally suppressed them without showing the slightest mercy!
Houka had little regard for that sort of "gentle to outsiders, harsh to his own" personality.
But there was no denying