At this moment, Salamander Hanzo was probably at the height of his confidence.
He had just driven off the samurai of the Land of Iron and seized a large haul of steel supplies, weapons, and ninja tools. The satisfaction of winning his first battle filled Hanzo with confidence.
Because the Sand Ninja were bound by Konoha's ceasefire agreement, Konoha had forced them to deploy a large number of ninja troops along the border between the Land of Wind and the Land of Rain.
This left Salamander Hanzo feeling as though a thorn were lodged in his back and a bone stuck in his throat.
A man couldn't sleep soundly with a stranger lying beside his bed.
Although Hanzo didn't know that old saying, he understood the feeling all too well.
"Once the war begins, we'll cripple the Sand Ninja first!"
Finding a way to resolve the battle on the southern border first was Salamander Hanzo's best option.
If he went into a prolonged confrontation with Konoha first, the Land of Rain's elite fighters could easily get bogged down and be unable to break free.
Salamander Hanzo had always treated Konoha's combat strength with caution.
If Konoha tied them down, the Sand Ninja would inevitably attack them from behind.
If that happened, he would lose all initiative in the war.
In Salamander Hanzo's eyes, the Shinobi World was just that—the Shinobi World, devoid of even the slightest warmth.
Every inch of land in the Shinobi World was governed by the rule of the strong devouring the weak.
In an age of great turmoil, the great ninja villages were constantly waging war and forging alliances. The strong thrived, and the weak perished.
To cling to the old ways and scrape by for a time as a neutral minor nation was no different from waiting for death.
Many ninjas from the Land of Rain were wavering, but Hanzo wasn't!
The surrender faction and the moderates believed that declaring war on a great nation was no different from throwing an egg at a rock.
But Salamander Hanzo was clear-eyed.
If they kept dragging things out, they wouldn't even get the chance to throw that egg.
The Land of Rain was now at the peak of its power!
If they missed their chance, the Land of Rain would be trapped in its tiny territory and doomed to destruction.
As for their strategic plan, it was naturally to "conquer the weak first, then the strong."
First, destroy the Sand Ninja, then seize Konoha's fertile lands, and ultimately become the Shinobi World's sixth great nation.
That was Salamander Hanzo's dream, as well as the "ultimate shinobi way of the Land of Rain"—something the country had spent more than a decade pursuing, training ninjas and instilling in them day after day.
Were the Sand Ninja weak?
From the Land of Rain's perspective, they certainly seemed weak.
Just look at the recent war between the Sand Ninja and Konoha.
The Sand Ninja had been thoroughly defeated.
Their combat forces were the smallest of the great ninja villages.
The Land of Rain's advance troops also seemed convinced that the Sand Ninja were weak.
Even Salamander Hanzo had misjudged their true strength.
The Third Kazekage hadn't even joined the battle.
A single puppet master, Chiyo, had been enough to inflict heavy losses on the Land of Rain's advance forces.
The 550 ninjas from the Land of Rain had gained no advantage at all against the puppet masters led by Chiyo. Instead, they'd lost nearly half their force to the enemy.
That crushing blow sent Salamander Hanzo's blood pressure soaring.
What angered him most was the various salamander toxins he'd issued to the units.
Those poisons had failed to inflict significant losses on the Sand Ninja. Worse, the Land of Rain's forces had lost nearly fifteen elite ninjas to Chiyo Poison.
They had no obvious wounds, yet the tenacious Chiyo Poison spread from an injured hand to the forearm; cut off the forearm, and it would infect the entire arm.
It spread again and again, like a worm burrowing into the bone.
The terrifying toxin also made the injured ninjas' wounds difficult to heal, causing them endless pain and blood infections.
Before long, the terrifying "Puppet Old Hag" had become a source of lingering fear in the hearts of the Land of Rain's ninjas.
Fortunately, Salamander Hanzo was nearby. He'd stationed the Land of Rain's elite fighters on the Sand Ninja's side from the very start.
Hanzo's formidable combat strength soon turned the front line between the two sides into a tangled, jagged mess.
The first clash between the Land of Wind and the Land of Rain quickly escalated into a large-scale battle involving more than a thousand fighters.
The central battlefield also became deadlocked.
Today, Chiyo used her puppet army to wipe out four forward outposts belonging to the Land of Rain.
Tomorrow, Salamander Hanzo would summon a giant Ibuse and kill a flank unit from the Land of Wind.
This back-and-forth gave the Land of Rain a basic understanding of how to treat Chiyo Poison.
Meanwhile, Chiyo, the Land of Wind's puppet master, developed a fast-acting medicine to counter salamander toxin.
The poisons that both sides relied on most gradually lost their effectiveness in small-scale battles.
During this period, Salamander Hanzo and the puppet master Chiyo clashed several times.
Although Hanzo clearly surpassed Chiyo in ninjutsu and personal strength, the puppet army's immunity to poison and its extreme tactic of trading puppets for lives left him feeling as if his hands were tied.
He always felt constrained, unable to fight freely, with a frustration he couldn't put into words.
That detestable "Puppet Old Hag," Chiyo, even gave Salamander Hanzo an infuriating nickname.
"Ventilation Pipe Old Man!"
The nickname nearly made Salamander Hanzo, who called himself a demigod, blow a gasket.
The Sand Ninja's resilience and strength far exceeded Hanzo's expectations.
That also gave Konoha's ninjas a major advantage in joining the battle early.
While the Sand Ninja and Salamander Hanzo were locked in combat, Konoha seized the opportunity. Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade led a large force in a swift advance across the Land of Rain's border.
Along the border, the Land of Rain's ninjas were outnumbered. They could only rely on the difficult terrain and harsh weather to repeatedly contest territory with Konoha's ninjas.
During this period, Uchiha Fucheng took advantage of the relatively low-intensity battles to encourage the Uchiha ninjas taking part to conduct targeted combat drills.
Uchiha Fucheng brought out his "four great battle artifacts."
Naturally, he had special ninja tools custom-made thanks to his "foresight."
The first was a half-face gas mask with multiple layers of activated-carbon filtration.
This gas mask was an important ninja tool for fighting in the Land of Rain.
Fucheng knew that Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade would most likely end up being knocked down by Hanzo's poison.
This time, Uchiha Fucheng had invested a great deal in preparing for Salamander Hanzo.
He equipped every Uchiha ninja with a gas mask.
The second item was a pair of Acid Fog Goggles.
Ninjas from the Land of Rain learned a number of specialized "rain, mist, acid, and haze" jutsu.
These techniques could all counter the Uchiha's Sharingan Kekkei Genkai.
A simple piece of gear, the Acid Fog Goggles protected the eyes from acid mist, acid rain, and toxins.
They soon became an essential, life-saving item for every Uchiha ninja.
Fucheng's foresight made the Uchiha ninjas cry out, "Our clan head is brilliant!"
The third battle artifact was a special ninja tool that used chakra as an energy source to boil water quickly.
Although this kettle, which converted chakra into fire release to heat water, wasn't particularly advanced, the Uchiha Clan generally had fire-release chakra, and they soon fell in love with this humble little kettle.
With two hand seals, they could hold the kettle by its handle in both hands. In just fifteen seconds, it would produce a kettle full of boiling water.
In the damp, filthy Land of Rain, it was the ultimate tool for drinking boiled water.
Thanks to the Chakra Boiling Kettle, the Uchiha ninjas kept their rates of diarrhea and illness extremely low.
Uchiha Fucheng had also made the Uchiha Clan the ninja family in the Shinobi World that loved drinking boiled water the most.
Uchiha: tea first!
If "Konoha Pot Fucheng" had never been born, the Uchiha would have been lost in endless darkness. (Hands on hips, Uchiha laughing wildly.JPG)
Whenever Fucheng met Uchiha ninjas in camp, they would beat their chests, salute him, and shout "Loyalty!" with high spirits.
As for the final "special Uchiha battle artifact," well, that brings us to the thirteen Misaka Sisters who had already been successfully converted...
Before you continue