What Was the Best Way to Meet Hanzo?

However, Hyuga Qinglan simply looked at him in silence. Her pure white eyes held not the slightest ripple.

That calm gaze was what finally made Heiji start to lose his composure.

"Forget it..."

He coughed, his tone softening a little.

"It's normal you didn't recognize me. After all, the last time we met, you were just a brat standing behind Aburame Ryoma..."

"Sorry, I'm terrible with faces."

Hyuga Qinglan dispelled her chakra, and the long hair behind her shoulders fell smoothly back into place. "It's mainly because you and Lord Hanzo really do dress alike."

"Heh, hahahaha! Well, I am Lord Hanzo's right-hand man's right-hand man, after all..."

As he spoke, Heiji suddenly pulled a slightly damp paper talisman from his robes and waved it in front of him.

"Back in the day, I used my Cigarette Smoke Technique to single-handedly take down Jiraiya's little squad of Byakugan users..."

The more he talked, the more excited he became. A nostalgic gleam even appeared in his eyes, as though one of the Sannin, Jiraiya, were nothing more than a nobody he could deal with at a moment's notice.

Listening to this fellow, dressed almost exactly like Salamander Hanzo, brag about his "Cigarette Smoke Technique" and ramble on about his past exploits,

Hyuga Qinglan finally remembered who he was.

Salamander Hanzo's right-hand man's right-hand man...

One of Yakushi Kabuto's failed Impure World Reincarnation experiments.

Heiji of the Rain Shelter...

"Young man, when you're on the battlefield, you have to stay alert at all times. Don't think you can do whatever you please just because you have the Byakugan..."

"..."

"Thank you for the advice."

Hyuga Qinglan smiled faintly and didn't continue the conversation. He simply nodded politely, then turned and headed toward Aburame Ryoma.

Heiji of the Rain Shelter...

He had the scent of plants on him, too?

As he walked, Hyuga Qinglan quietly pushed his Otsutsuki Clan sensory abilities to their limit.

To his senses, a faint trace of nature-type chakra seemed to cling to Heiji and several of Salamander Hanzo's trusted men around him, to the ground beneath their feet, to the damp soil all around them, and even to Heiji himself.

"That's probably White Zetsu..."

Hyuga Qinglan silently reached his conclusion.

The resonance of Otsutsuki chakra allowed him to sense White Zetsu to some extent.

In other words, Madara Uchiha's people had been watching Hanzo all along.

But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

Nagato was a vessel for the Rinnegan, and those eyes were beyond precious to the decrepit Madara Uchiha.

Yet Nagato was now in the Land of Rain, within Salamander Hanzo's sphere of influence.

How could Madara, who was desperate to advance the Eye of the Moon Plan, let anything happen to that vessel?

The Rinnegan...

He really did want to make those eyes his own, but Madara Uchiha was still alive.

Even if he looked like an old man who needed to be hooked up to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path just to stay alive, and could barely walk steadily.

Hyuga Qinglan knew all too well that even a Madara with only one Three-Tomoe eye left, reduced to a flickering candle in the wind, had immeasurable ocular power.

The Kirigakure Anbu whom Madara had controlled and sent after Kakashi and Rin were proof enough.

"Madara... Obito..."

Now wasn't the time to think about that.

Hyuga Qinglan came to stand beside Aburame Ryoma, his gaze involuntarily drifting toward Salamander Hanzo and the Amegakure forces.

What was the best way to meet Hanzo?

Ideally, he would let Hanzo rise to the very top, then watch him fall from that peak...

Hyuga Qinglan considered his options, his gaze flickering beneath the rain.

"Lord Hanzo, we should get going,"

Aburame Ryoma's gaze paused on Hyuga Qinglan for a moment before shifting away and returning to the man across from him, shrouded in shadow and mist.

"Mm..."

Salamander Hanzo let out a low grunt. His voice came muffled from behind his gas mask.

He stood on high ground and looked down over the crowd.

Three Konoha Ninja.

Aburame Ryoma, a young man from the Hyuga Clan, and another ordinary jonin whose name he couldn't even be bothered to remember.

Danzo, that bastard...

A blaze of resentment churned in his chest.

He was Hanzo, the Salamander, the man who had led Amegakure to greatness single-handedly.

And yet he had fallen so low that he had to join forces with a new organization that had sprung up within Amegakure just to fulfill Danzo's terms?

What infuriated him even more was that Danzo hadn't even bothered to come in person.

He'd sent only a few subordinates to negotiate...

But in the end, Hanzo forced his anger back down.

For the village to rebuild from the ruins of war, and for the country to regain its vitality,

he, Salamander Hanzo, endured it.

"Aburame Ryoma, tell Danzo that Amegakure has sent its forces as agreed..."

Salamander Hanzo strode at the head of the group, with a large crowd of Amegakure ninja gathered behind him. Their black cloaks stretched out in a continuous mass, like a bank of clouds moving along the ground.

"If Danzo doesn't honor the agreement we reached..."

His voice suddenly dropped, and the sickle in his hand gleamed coldly.

"Then he shouldn't blame Amegakure for turning against him."

Despite his words, Hanzo understood the situation better than anyone.

By this point in the Third Shinobi World War, Konoha was practically fighting four nations at once.

The shinobi of the Land of Fire were contending with the four great nations of Wind, Earth, Lightning, and Water, while the Land of Rain, caught in the middle, was merely suffering the collateral damage.

The fighting had truly reached their borders because of the advancing fronts of the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth.

He had no choice but to repel the invaders on his own land, again and again.

Compared to those lunatics from Iwagakure, who casually blasted the ground into a cratered wasteland with Explosion Release and Earth Release...

Konoha's conduct had been restrained—one could even call it "gentle."

If Iwagakure ultimately gained the upper hand in this war...

He had no doubt he could hold off that stubborn old man, Ōnoki. But wars had never been decided solely by the strongest fighters at the top.

The ones who always suffered were the defenseless civilians of the Land of Rain.

Why should ordinary people who couldn't even use ninjutsu have to give their lives for the ambitions of the great nations?

By comparison, Danzo was detestable, but he hadn't taken advantage of the crisis. Instead, he had sat down at the negotiating table and discussed the terms with Hanzo one by one. He had even offered to fund Amegakure's reconstruction.

Hanzo didn't know what Danzo's true purpose was, and he didn't care.

As long as it helped Amegakure prosper, none of that mattered.

"Of course..."

Aburame Ryoma replied coolly, then turned and glanced at Hyuga Qinglan.

Hyuga Qinglan understood at once. He nodded slightly and silently vanished into the rain.

By the time he returned, the Amegakure ninja had already gathered their gear and set out. The long line of black-clad figures wound along the muddy road and disappeared into the distance.

Hyuga Qinglan quietly fell in behind Aburame Ryoma, keeping his pace almost perfectly in step with his.

Aburame Ryoma glanced sideways at him but said nothing. He silently followed the main Amegakure force toward the distant Rock Battlefield.