Lord Madara Had Barely Left When Danzo Came Along to Stir Up Trouble!

The wind and rain poured into the top of the tower.

Hanzo the Salamander slumped on the cold floor, his body still trembling uncontrollably.

The chill of the air against his face—a sensation he hadn't felt in decades—filled him with waves of panic.

His mask was gone.

The mask that had been with him for decades, protecting others from the poisonous gas he exhaled, had been crushed by that man as easily as a cookie.

He touched his face, his fingers coming away slick with the cold sweat brought on by his sheer terror.

Uchiha Madara...

The legend who should have been buried alongside the First at the Valley of the End was still alive!

And he had the First's Wood Release! He had the legendary Rinnegan!

Worst of all, he knew everything about Hanzo!

He knew that Hanzo's grand ambitions had vanished, turning him into the coward he once despised. He knew about Hanzo's dealings with Danzo, and his plans for the Akatsuki!

Before him, Hanzo—the so-called "demigod"—was like a clown stripped naked and thrown into the snow. All his secrets, all his dark deeds, lay exposed.

"Lord Hanzo! Lord Hanzo, are you all right?"

The surviving Anbu member came scrambling over, his voice choked with tears.

"Get lost!"

Hanzo kicked him away and struggled to his feet.

No. He couldn't panic.

He was Hanzo the Salamander!

He had crawled out of the mountains of corpses left behind by the Warring States Era and ruled this country for decades!

Even Uchiha Madara couldn't make him simply surrender!

"Cancel the plan...or else..."

The man's words still echoed in his ears.

Hanzo's expression shifted between light and shadow.

Cancel it?

How could he cancel it!

He had already made contact with Danzo's side. Konoha's elite Root operatives had infiltrated Amegakure, and the net had been cast. All that remained was for the Akatsuki brats to walk straight into it.

If he canceled now, how could he explain himself to Danzo?

More importantly, once the Akatsuki learned that he planned to move against them, there would be no chance of reconciliation. Not with that red-haired brat's temperament!

What would the Akatsuki do to him, with Uchiha Madara backing them?

The more Hanzo thought about it, the more cold sweat trickled down his back.

He was caught between a rock and a hard place!

Just then—

A masked shadow appeared silently in the darkness of the room and knelt on one knee.

"Lord Hanzo, Lord Danzo has an urgent message."

It was a shinobi from Konoha's Root.

Hanzo's heart skipped a beat. He forced down his panic and said in a low voice, "Patch him through."

The Root shinobi produced a scroll and formed a hand seal. A blurry image of a face appeared on its surface.

Shimura Danzo's sinister voice came from the scroll.

"Hanzo, I heard there's been quite a commotion on your end. What happened?"

Hanzo took a deep breath and recounted what had just happened as briefly as he could.

Of course, he left out the humiliating details—that he'd been scared half to death and had his mask crushed right in front of him. He only stressed that the man had claimed to be Uchiha Madara and possessed Wood Release and the Rinnegan.

Danzo fell silent on the other end of the scroll.

A full ten seconds passed before he let out a cold laugh.

"Uchiha Madara? Absurd!"

"Hanzo, you lived through the Warring States Era. How could you be fooled by such a pathetic genjutsu?"

"How could a dead man come back to life? And possess both Wood Release and the Rinnegan? Do you honestly think that's possible? It's obviously one of those Akatsuki brats, using some genjutsu he picked up somewhere to put on a show and scare you off!"

Genjutsu?

Hanzo's face darkened.

That feeling, as though his very soul had been crushed—that overwhelming pressure that felt so real—could it really have been genjutsu?

"But he knew about what was going on between us..."

"So what?" Danzo cut him off. "Our dealings were never an absolute secret. Those Akatsuki brats have Jiraiya in their corner. It's no surprise they managed to dig up some information."

Danzo's voice seemed to carry a strange magic. It gradually soothed Hanzo's fear even as it stirred up his deeper suspicions and ambitions.

"Hanzo, think about it."

"If Uchiha Madara really had returned, would he have simply left after giving you a verbal warning?"

"Why didn't he kill you outright? Why didn't he wipe out the Akatsuki and take back the eyes of that so-called 'successor' of his?"

"There can only be one explanation!"

Danzo's tone grew more emphatic.

"He's bluffing! He—or rather, the Akatsuki—doesn't have the power to face you head-on. That's why they came up with this trick to make you back down!"

Hanzo's breathing gradually quickened.

Danzo was starting to sway him.

That was true. If this really was the legendary Asura of the Ninja World, how could he have been so "kind"?

"Think about it. If you back down now and cancel the plan, then tomorrow the entire Amegakure—and the whole Ninja World—will know that you, Hanzo the Salamander, were scared off by a few brats!"

"Then the Akatsuki's reputation will soar, and countless shinobi will flock to them. And you? Your title as the 'demigod' will mean nothing!"

"You know what happens to a leader who loses his authority. I don't need to spell it out, do I?"

Every one of Danzo's words was a needle, stabbing right into Hanzo's most sensitive nerves.

He feared death.

But he feared losing everything he had even more!

"That man...gave me a three-day deadline," Hanzo said hoarsely.

"Three days?" Danzo laughed coldly again. "Why wait three days? Doesn't that prove he's trying to buy time?"

"Hanzo, listen to me. This is our only chance, and we can't afford to wait!"

"Carry out the plan at once! Today! While they think you've already been scared off and their guard is at its lowest, wipe them all out!"

"Once we capture that brat with the Rinnegan and get our hands on those eyes, what would we have to fear from some fake Uchiha Madara? Even if the real Uchiha Madara came back to life, what could he do to us?"

Capture Nagato and take the Rinnegan!

Those words struck like lightning, cutting through the fog in Hanzo's mind!

Right!

Those eyes!

Whether or not that man was Madara, the power of the Rinnegan was real!

As long as he got those eyes, he could free himself from his dependence on poison gas—and might even gain power surpassing the First's!

Then Uchiha Madara, the Five Great Nations—everyone would tremble beneath his feet! No one would dare turn the Land of Rain into a battlefield ever again!

Bottomless greed instantly overwhelmed his lingering fear and the last remnants of his reason. Hanzo forced himself to believe he was doing this for the bright future of the Land of Rain!

The flames of madness and resolve rekindled in Hanzo's sinister eyes, just as they had when he declared war on the great nations.

"I understand."

He spoke to the scroll, each word deliberate.

"The plan goes ahead as scheduled!"

Dozens of kilometers from Amegakure.

Lin Feng sat cross-legged on a floating boulder, happily counting his spoils.

"Whoa, not bad!"

[S+-Rank sudden event 'Demigod Intimidation' completed.]

[Acting Assessment: S+. Character Consistency: 99%. Outstanding overall performance, the three-hit combo of 'Breaking Through the Ceiling,' 'Genjutsu Intimidation,' and 'Shattering the Mask to Their Face' successfully created an image of an absolutely overpowering, wantonly domineering overlord, completely shattering the target's psychological defenses.]

[Reward Settlement: +15000 Acting Points. Rinnegan Eye Technique 'Genjutsu: Samsara' proficiency increased to 'Mastery'.]

Fifteen thousand points!

Lin Feng nearly drooled as he stared at the number on the system panel.

That was way more than he'd earned after spending half a day acting in Konoha!

As expected, the best way to get results was to make them himself!

"System, system! Come on, open the shop! I'm ready to spend!"

Lin Feng eagerly opened the shop and fixed his gaze on the item he'd been coveting for ages.

[Uchiha War Fan (High-Imitation Version): Contains a miniature 'Uchiha Reflection' technique formula, capable of blocking and reflecting B-Rank and lower ninjutsu. Price: 8888 Acting Points.]

It was only a high-quality replica and could reflect B-rank ninjutsu at most, but it sure looked cool!

How could Lord Madara make an entrance without a gunbai?

"Buying it!"

Lin Feng waved his hand, and the points were deducted in an instant.

A moment later, light flashed in his hand, and a massive flame-patterned gunbai, identical to the one in his memory, appeared out of nowhere.

The fan's surface was antique and weathered, and a long chain hung from its handle.

Lin Feng hefted it in his hand and nodded with satisfaction.

"Not bad, not bad. Now I've got the full set."

He was about to keep browsing the shop to see what else he could buy with the points he had left.

Suddenly, he froze, his brow furrowing slightly.

He slowly raised his head. His purple Rinnegan pierced through layers of rain as he gazed toward the center of Amegakure.

With the Rinnegan's extraordinary vision, he "saw" everything happening in Hanzo's tower.

He "saw" the Root shinobi.

He "saw" Hanzo and Danzo's conversation.

He "saw" the change on Hanzo's face, from fear to greed.

Lin Feng's lips slowly curled into a chilling smile.

"Interesting."

"Old Danzo really is a troublemaking bastard."

"I gave you a chance to live, but you just had to throw it away."

He slowly stood and rested the enormous gunbai on his shoulder.

"Fine. I was going to let you live for three more days."

"Since you're in such a hurry to die..."

His figure began to fade where he stood.

"Then I'll personally send you on your way."

Meanwhile, on the other side of Amegakure—

Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan had just arrived at their agreed meeting place with Hanzo: an abandoned gorge.

"Has Lord Hanzo not arrived yet?" Yahiko looked around, anticipation and nervousness showing on his face.

But Konan felt a sudden pang of unease. The paper butterflies she'd sent out had sensed a large number of unfamiliar Chakra signatures around the gorge.

"Yahiko, something's wrong!"

As soon as she spoke, countless figures appeared on the walls on either side of the gorge.

On one side were Amegakure's Anbu, wearing breathing masks.

On the other were Konoha's Root operatives, all dressed in white robes and wearing animal masks!

At their head stood Hanzo the Salamander, alongside a sinister old man with a bandaged eye, leaning on a cane—Shimura Danzo!

They were surrounded!

"Lord Hanzo! What does this mean?" Yahiko shouted, shocked and furious.

Hanzo didn't answer. He only looked at them as if they were already dead.

Danzo cackled. "What does it mean? Ask the King of Hell when you see him, brat!"

He abruptly waved his hand.

"Move! Capture the redhead! Kill the rest!"

"To keep that brat with the Rinnegan from pulling any tricks, let's send them this first!"

At Danzo's command, dozens of elite Root shinobi pulled something from their robes at the same time.

They were kunai covered in Explosive Tags!

Without hesitation, they hurled the specially prepared "gifts" toward the three figures at the center of the gorge, sending them flying in a vast, cascading barrage!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The next moment, deafening explosions rang throughout the entire Land of Rain!