The technique had reshaped the entire battlefield. Everyone watching felt their eyes widen.
"So this is Wood Release? It's insanely powerful!" Jiraiya muttered, disbelief written all over his face.
He had known Tsunade had reached Kage Level before he and Orochimaru had, but he had never understood just how strong she had become.
Now he could see she had pulled far ahead of them.
Perhaps because Hanzō had just spared them, Tsunade did not send the trees after the vulnerable Rain Ninja. She focused every attack on him.
Hanzō's pupils contracted. He slapped a hand against the ground, and Ibuse appeared beneath him, his skin rough from head to tail.
Half of Hanzō's strength came from Ibuse, his summoned beast. His deadliest weapon was poison!
The Rain Ninja knew what was coming when Hanzo of the Salamander summoned Ibuse. They hurried to flee the battlefield.
Hanzo of the Salamander watched the trees grow around him and lunge toward him. He tapped his foot lightly against Ibuse's back.
"Poison Mist Spray!"
Ibuse threw back his head and opened a mouth nearly as large as his skull. Thick purple smoke billowed out, and poison gas flooded the area.
The stench of rot and decay reached them even outside the poisonous mist.
The trees touched by the mist turned an unnatural purple. Within seconds, they crumbled and dissolved before everyone's eyes.
Those trees had been created with Tsunade's Wood Release, yet they could not withstand the poison. It was terrifyingly potent!
"What a vicious poison. Hanzō wasn't even fighting us at full strength?" Jiraiya's face fell, as though the realization had struck him hard.
"True. If Hanzō had used that poison from the start, we'd probably all be dead," Orochimaru said, flicking out his tongue to lick the corner of his mouth.
"Poison