112. The Demigod Attacks

Prison Square.

When Kisame changed clothes, Pakura blushed and turned her eyes away.

During that time, two figures quietly appeared in the square, gazing at Kisame with awe.

They were the prison warden, Mui, and his son, Muku.

A moment later, Kisame walked over.

“Is something wrong?” he asked casually, glancing at Mui.

Mui wore a complicated expression. He drew a deep breath, then suddenly bent forward and bowed to Kisame.

“Kisame… my lord, I came to thank you.”

The usually proud lord of Hozuki Castle lowered his head at that moment.

After Muku was rescued yesterday, he told Mui and the senior officials of Grass Village everything he had experienced after entering the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

Only after learning the truth did they finally realize how foolish their actions had been all along.

If Kisame had not intervened, Mui would have lost his beloved son by now. And someday in the future, when he opened the Box of Ultimate Bliss, he would surely have plunged Grass Village into an irreversible catastrophe.

Fortunately, such a horrifying event had been stopped in time and never came to pass.

To Mui, the life he had lived over all these years had been like an empty, insubstantial dream. Now, at last, that dream had ended.

Kisame passed by Mui and patted him on the shoulder.

“There’s no need for thanks. I suggest you pull yourself together quickly. The enemy will be here soon.”

At those words, both Mui and Muku, as well as Pakura standing nearby, froze.

“What enemy?”

“Have you forgotten the demigod from Rain Village?”

Kisame’s reminder caused Mui to tremble violently, and his expression changed at once.

Half a year earlier, Hanzo, the leader of Rain Village, had sent a ninja named Scarface to infiltrate Hozuki Castle disguised as a prisoner. His purpose had been to gather intelligence about the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

At the time, Scarface had used a supposed “prison-break plan” as a pretext. He intended to use Kisame to draw the guards’ attention while he sneaked into the depths of the prison to investigate. Instead, Kisame had outmaneuvered him, exposing him before Mui and the others.

After Mui sacrificed Scarface to the Box of Ultimate Bliss, Rain Village had made no further move. It seemed that Hanzo had received the warning and decided to withdraw in the face of difficulty.

No one had expected that the legendary demigod of the shinobi world had continued to brood over the matter.

Kisame had not forgotten the tremendous threat posed by Hanzo, either.

That was why he had summoned a large number of sharks around the island where Hozuki Castle stood, ordering them to patrol and scout the surrounding waters.

Several days earlier, Kisame’s sharks had discovered Rain ninja infiltrating the island and hiding outside Hozuki Castle, watching the prison from a distance.

They were clearly spies sent by Hanzo.

After hearing Kisame’s report, Mui’s expression became more solemn than ever.

After all, their opponent was the legendary demigod of the shinobi world, a figure feared even by the Five Great Shinobi Villages. If Hanzo attacked Hozuki Castle, Grass Village would likely have little chance of resisting him.

Fortunately, Kisame extended a lifeline to Mui.

“Don’t worry. I’ll help. I’ve wanted to fight this demigod for a long time. And while I’m at it… I’d like to borrow something from him.”

Kisame smiled, displaying a keen interest in Hanzo.

When he had discovered the Rain spies, he had deliberately refrained from acting. He did not want to alert them and risk Hanzo receiving the news and deciding not to come.

“The shinobi of Grass Village await Lord Kisame’s orders!” Mui exclaimed, overjoyed. He bowed deeply once more.

“Come on. Let’s catch a few rats first.”

After saying this, Kisame strode toward the prison gates.

Half an hour later.

In a forest outside Hozuki Castle, several explosions rang out. A Rain ninja with a conspicuous birthmark on his right cheek burst from the flames and fled desperately toward the sea.

His name was Sansho Shinda, Hanzo’s right-hand man. Several days earlier, he had led a small squad to infiltrate the island and monitor Hozuki Castle.

Kisame, Pakura, Mui, and the others had suddenly appeared and attacked them.

By now, all of Shinda’s companions were dead. He himself had suffered severe injuries and was at the end of his strength.

Boom!

A fireball shot from behind and struck Shinda squarely in the back. He let out a cry of agony and collapsed.

Kisame appeared and fired chakra threads from his fingertips, binding the half-dead Shinda.

“Let’s use him to set a trap,” Pakura suggested. “He is Hanzo’s most trusted subordinate, after all.”

Kisame nodded.

The following night.

An elite force of more than twenty Rain ninja crossed the sea and infiltrated the island.

Their leader was a man wearing a half-cloak and a diving mask, wielding a massive scythe.

Sanzo Hanzo had indeed come.

Half a month earlier, after the outbreak of the Third Shinobi World War, Grass Village had become a battlefield for the great nations, and the Land of Grass had been ravaged by war.

When Hanzo received the news, he realized that his opportunity had arrived and prepared to take advantage of the situation.

He had always been cautious, so he first sent his subordinate Shinda to investigate Hozuki Castle. Two days earlier, he had received a message from Shinda reporting that a red pillar of light had shot into the sky from within the prison.

It appeared that the Box of Ultimate Bliss had emerged.

Thus, Hanzo had secretly left Rain Village at the fastest possible speed with the covert forces of Rain Village and hurried to the island.

After coming ashore, the group soon reached the rendezvous point Hanzo and Shinda had arranged in advance.

Under the moonlight, Shinda stood alone with his back to them.

Something felt… wrong.

Hanzo frowned and asked in a deep voice, “Shinda, what’s the situation? Why are you the only one here? Where are the others?”

Before he had even finished speaking, Shinda suddenly turned around, drew his ninja blade, and charged at the Rain ninja.

At the same time—

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of explosions erupted without warning beneath Hanzo and the others. More than ten Rain covert operatives were killed almost instantly.

“Take them down!”

Mui led a group of Grass Village officials out of the forest and launched an attack on the Rain forces.

“Shinda, you dare betray me?”

Furious, Hanzo shot toward Shinda like lightning. In a single exchange, the chain attached to his scythe wrapped around Shinda’s ninja blade. Then Hanzo raised his scythe—

And struck downward.

This was Hanzo’s signature taijutsu technique: the Chained Scythe Two-Stage Strike.

The outcome was beyond doubt.

Under the swings of the death scythe in Hanzo’s hands, Shinda was killed instantly. He collapsed to the ground, dead.

Threads?

Hanzo’s pupils suddenly contracted. Only at such close range did he notice the several fine chakra threads attached to Shinda’s body, making him look like—

A puppet on strings.

Hanzo immediately understood what had happened.

Just then, several Scorch Release fireballs flew silently from every direction like ghostly flames, attacking Hanzo.

Faced with the ambush, Hanzo did not panic. He merely snorted and formed a hand seal with one hand.

The next instant—

Whoosh!

His figure blurred and vanished. When he reappeared, he was already more than ten meters away.

This was Hanzo’s signature Body Flicker Technique.

The Body Flicker Technique used by shinobi could generally be divided into three categories: movement techniques based on elemental transformation, high-speed taijutsu, and space-time ninjutsu.

Space-time Body Flicker techniques were the rarest. The most famous was once known as the fastest shinobi in the world—the Flying Thunder God Technique of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.

After all these years, even Konoha, a village filled with prodigies, had produced only one other person capable of learning the technique: Minato Namikaze, who had inherited the Second Hokage’s legacy.

Few shinobi used high-speed taijutsu techniques, because they placed tremendous demands on the body. The most typical examples were the Lightning Release Chakra Mode and the Eight Gates.

By comparison, elemental Body Flicker techniques were the most ordinary—so common that they could almost be found everywhere.

Their principle was simple: by forming hand seals, the user concentrated chakra in the soles of the feet and used it to move at high speed.

Yet even such a simple technique, when performed by Hanzo, became so fast that it was nearly invisible to the naked eye.

“Truly worthy of the title of demigod.”

Pakura emerged from behind a nearby tree, her voice filled with sincere admiration.

She had manipulated the Scorch Release fireballs to launch a surprise attack, believing she had sealed off every possible escape route. Only then did she realize how naive she had been.

“Who are you?”

Hanzo narrowed his eyes and studied the strange woman.

Pakura was bald, with a flaming dragon tattoo winding across her arm. Several ghostly flames floated around her, giving her a sinister and bizarre first impression.

“Pakura of the Scorch Release.”

Pakura announced her name. Before her voice had even faded, she thrust both palms forward.

A twenty-meter-long tongue of flame burst from her palms, intent on burning Hanzo to ash.

Hanzo neither dodged nor retreated. Once again, he formed a seal with one hand, and a Water Formation Wall rose from beneath his feet.

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

The flames collided with the rushing water, producing a shrill sound and generating a vast cloud of steam.

Concealed by the smoke, Hanzo once again used the Body Flicker Technique and vanished.

Where had he gone?

Pakura swept her sharp gaze through the darkness, searching in every direction. Then she suddenly realized that the ground beneath her feet had turned into a swamp and was rapidly sinking.

As the ground descended, rows of explosive tags were revealed. They swiftly attached themselves to Pakura’s legs.

Fire Release: Explosive Flame Formation.

This was one of Hanzo’s killing techniques. Not only was it extremely difficult to detect when activated, but its power was also astonishing.

During the Second Shinobi World War, Hanzo had nearly blown Tsunade to death with this technique. In the original course of events, he had also used it to severely injure Nagato’s legs, condemning him to spend the remainder of his life in a wheelchair.

Boom!

The thunderous explosion and blinding flames swallowed Pakura in an instant.

Hanzo emerged from the darkness and approached to confirm her death.

What he saw instead was a goddess of flame walking out of the blazing explosion and slowly rising into the air.

With no time to escape, Pakura had finally used her most powerful ability, transforming her entire body into flame.

In this state, she was immune to all Fire Release attacks. She could also reduce her body density and use the buoyancy of the air to fly.

“I underestimated you.”

Hanzo looked up at Pakura. For the first time, astonishment appeared on his face.

“Take this, Hanzo!”

Pakura cried out sharply, her voice carrying across the night sky.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Countless Scorch Release fireballs continuously separated from her body. Under her control, they descended upon Hanzo on the ground like a meteor shower.

“Flashy, but impractical.”

That was Hanzo’s assessment.

He once again used the Body Flicker Technique to dodge repeatedly, occasionally firing several blades of water into the air to counterattack Pakura.

From the surface, Pakura seemed to have completely suppressed Hanzo. In reality, however, that was not the case.

Her Scorch Release was tremendously powerful. If even one of the hundreds of fireballs struck Hanzo, the demigod would die on the spot, every drop of moisture in his body vaporized and his corpse reduced to a horrifying mummy.

But she could not hit him.

Her opponent was simply too fast.

In battles between shinobi, the faster side could always seize the initiative with ease. They could attack whenever they wished and retreat whenever they pleased.

Speed was the ultimate defense.

Before long, more than half of Pakura’s chakra had been depleted. She could no longer sustain her flight and fell from the sky.

Hanzo seized the opportunity. His hands moved rapidly through a sequence of seals as he released a ninjutsu.

“Roar!”

Amid a deafening roar, a massive water dragon flew out from behind him and swept toward Pakura, sending her tumbling dozens of meters through the air.

It completely extinguished her flames.

Hanzo’s Water Release was even stronger than his Fire Release. No one in the world could surpass his mastery over water.

Elsewhere.

Using the numerous traps they had laid in advance, along with Grass Village’s binding techniques, Mui and the others had already eliminated all of Hanzo’s subordinates.

“Quickly, save her!”

When they saw Pakura defeated, they immediately rushed over, intent on preventing Hanzo from killing her.

A cold smile appeared at the corner of Hanzo’s mouth. He formed another seal.

With a loud boom, a huge hole suddenly tore open in the ground ahead, and an enormous creature drilled its way out.

It was a grotesque salamander covered in bumps, with a white belly, gray skin, and bulging cheeks.

The moment it emerged, it opened its mouth and sprayed a vast cloud of purple poison gas toward Mui and the others.

Caught off guard, they had no time to dodge. Without exception, every one of them was enveloped by the poisonous mist, and a chorus of coughing broke out.

After the poison cloud dispersed, Mui, Pakura, and the others lay sprawled across the ground in disarray.

Their bodies were paralyzed. They could not move even a single finger.

Taijutsu, the Body Flicker Technique, Fire Release, Water Release—

And poison.

This was the power of the demigod of the shinobi world, Sanzo Hanzo.

He had mastered countless ninjutsu and taijutsu techniques and possessed almost no weaknesses. Throughout his decades-long career as a shinobi, he had not suffered even a single injury.

Faced with such a formidable enemy, Pakura and the others felt the same as the legendary Three Ninja of Konoha had once felt.

Despair.

Hanzo walked toward them step by step.

“Whoever hands over the Box of Ultimate Bliss will receive the antidote. You had better hurry, because once the salamander’s venom fully takes effect, you will all be dead.”

He took out a bottle of antidote and spoke in a low, cold voice.

The moment his words ended, Hanzo suddenly sensed an inexplicable danger. Without hesitation, he formed another seal and used the Body Flicker Technique to leave his position.

Sure enough, a bolt of golden lightning shot from the darkness and struck the place where Hanzo had been standing.

Another enemy?

Hanzo merely snorted in disdain, but he soon realized that the golden lightning flying from the darkness had only been a feint.

The true target was his summoned beast—the salamander.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Almost at the same moment that Hanzo’s attention was drawn to the golden lightning, countless chakra threads shot out from beneath the ground, forming an impenetrable net that tightly bound the salamander’s enormous body.

Sewing Needle Ninjutsu: Ground Spider Stitching.

Immediately afterward, one character after another appeared on the ground surrounding the salamander. A chain of explosions erupted.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Caught completely immobile, the salamander was blasted into critical condition by the tremendous force of the explosions. It lay on the verge of death.

“Ibushi!”

At that moment, Hanzo finally lost his composure and shouted the name of his beloved summoned beast.

Whoosh!

While Hanzo’s mind was shaken, Kisame, who had been concealed in the darkness all along, finally appeared. His index finger transformed into a long sewing needle blade, and he launched a fierce attack at Hanzo.