Nin-To-Five : Intermission 4

Land of Rain, Closing Years of the Third Ninja War

Hanzo the Salamander

They had gotten bold in the waning hours of their latest scuffle, the ninja of the Five Great Nations. Bold enough to fight near the borders of the capital, bold enough to ignore the danger in their skirmishes, bold enough to ignore the predator looming in the waters around them.

Rain poured down as a group of ninja, supposedly enemies, threw themselves at him. They had set aside their differences the moment he arrived in vain attempts to fend him off. 

The entire south-western border was alight with battles, forcing him to roam widely and remind the intruders that their land is forbidden to them. The salamanders were kind enough to station watchers and alert him to their intrusions, but he could only be at one battlefield at a time. 

His scythe flashed, cutting a man from Konohagakure out of the air and sending him to crash into a muddy riverbank. He tugged it back, pulling the chain around to wrap around a man from Sunagakure and snapping his sword in the process. 

The salamander on his shoulder clicked her tongue twice. Two more intrusions for him to attend to. He’d have to cut this one short with a strong reminder.

He tapped his foot, telling the immense amphibian he was riding to open his mouth and spit out the captured ninja. A woman from Sunagakure.

“One minute has passed.” He called out to the crowd of intruders, his iron mask humming as it filtered the toxins from his breath. He tugged the chain free of its captured subject, flinging the ninja far back, skipping over the river and smashing into a large stone. “I trust that will be sufficient reminder. The Land of Rain does not welcome you.”

The injured ninja pulled themselves up with fearful and wounded expressions. Their will to fight on was broken. Crippled limbs, poisoned flesh, and spirits shattered under the weight of his killing will. 

They’d never stand against him again. “I suggest you leave quickly.”

He tapped his foot across Ibuse’s brow again, the massive salamander giving a low grumble and channeling chakra.

He vanished in a plume of smoke, and reappeared miles away. Ibuse’s bulk shook the ground as he landed, and the shock of their appearance briefly disrupted the eternal rain. 

A reverse-summoning to one of his many watchers. A tiny salamander leapt from a nearby tree branch and landed on his other shoulder. Ibuki, by her spotted hide. “Ninja of Iwa, Lord Hanzo.” She muttered in his ears.

“Thank you.” He muttered back as the smoke cleared around him. Six ninja from the Land of Stone stared at him with fearful expressions.

He drew up his mental energies again, one of a dozen times he had done so today. 

“It- its Hanzo! Hanzo the Salamander!” One of the ninja from stone declared fearfully.

“It doesn’t matter! Defensive positio-” One of the other ninja, an apparent squad-leader began, only to be cut off and start choking.

His killing will had descended upon them like a crushing weight. Most of them could barely breathe, let alone speak. Warriors of any age were all apiece- the majority were cowardly chaff. 

They died the moment their wills faltered against his. 

The salamander on his right shoulder clicked her tongue again. Another skirmish for him to attend to had already flared up. He tapped his left foot against Ibuse’s head.

The salamander drew his head back, built up a great inhale, and then exhaled a sweeping cloud of poisoned air. The ninja, paralyzed under his killing intent, could scarcely move to avoid it. 

Choking, sputtering, gasping as the venom strangled their lungs and dissolved their skin. Most of them died within seconds.

“My reserves are getting low, Lord Hanzo.” Ibuse rumbled up at him. 

“I know, Ibuse, and I apologize for pushing you.” Hanzo mumbled back. 

“Do not. There is none I’d rather serve, Lord Hanzo.” Ibuse rumbled back with a shake of his broad head. Ibuki leapt off and scurried back into position. “Merely offering a warning about my faltering strength.”

“Just a few more battles today, Ibuse. I’ll entrust the rest to my and your children afterwards.”

“Hmph. A dozen more then. We can’t let our sons show their fathers up, can we?”

A tiny smile came to his face, hidden under the iron mask. “We cannot.”

Ibuse rumbled, and they vanished again in a cloud of smoke. 

He had a meeting scheduled with a ninja from Konohagakure today, but he was already well and truly late for it. Allegedly regarding potential enemies within his borders. With how many fronts he was forced to attend to… If it was an amubush, he wouldn’t have the strength to handle it comfortably.

He’d simply not go then. “Ibaraki. Send a message to that Konoha ninja who wanted to speak with me, Kanzo. Tell him to root out these apparent enemies on his own and present their bodies to me as proof of Konoha’s desire for friendship.”

“Yes, Lord Hanzo.” The salamander on his right shoulder clicked her tongue. 

A salamander crawled onto his leg. Iboroki. “Ninja from Kusa, Lord Hanzo.” He mumbled up. 

He nodded, and started to swing his kusarigama around to build up momentum.

All the while, the chakra-laden rain poured down. 

—

Days later

The explosive sound of a summoning technique was impossible to miss, especially so close to the outskirts of the capital city. The foul, demonic roar that followed ensured that any who missed the initial summoning were certainly made aware of the sudden presence of something massive and terrible.

“Lord Hanzo- what is it?!” One of his subordinates called out, jumping hard to keep pace with him. Hanzo continued his sprint across the sides of the mechanical towers that formed Amegakure’s infrastructure. 

“I don’t know yet. Be alert!” Hanzo growled, lining himself up for a good trajectory. The cloud of smoke was at least a full kilometer beyond the edge of the great lake, and therefore at least two kilometers out from the city itself. For him to hear that terrible roar at this distance- whatever had just been summoned was enormous.

This was potentially the start of a full scale invasion. Unknown parties sneaking this far into the capital lands with the capacity to summon a beast that large? He had been slacking in his vigilance, he or his children. 

“Gather and then follow after, I will go ahead!” Hanzo commanded with a wave of his hand, rain splashing across his coat. His subordinate nodded quickly, and he turned from them to face ahead once more.

Two kilometers out… If he were a younger man, he’d find that distance trivial.

He grunted, flipping up to race across an immense statue’s raised hands. One of many that surrounded the city’s perimeter, currently a convenient place to vault from. 

He clapped his hands together and gathered an immense amount of his chakra, sending it coursing through his body in a technique he had fifty years of practice in. “Body Flicker.” 

His muscles tensed, his legs flexed, and his feet shot out, pressing off the tip of the statue’s fingers.

His vision blurred and darkened as the world raced past him, his ears rang as a shockwave deafened him, and his bones groaned in protest. A few long moments passed in this manner, and then the world began to clear, revealing where he was.

He grunted again, closing his eyes in mild frustration. He was barely to the far shores of the lake. His age was creeping up on him like a looming specter, and no amount of training he did could keep pace with it. 

He raised his legs to prepare for the impact. The moment after, his sandals smashed into the muddy shore with a tremendous boom. Waves of sodden soil were kicked into the air around him, like a shell of mud. A shell that was immediately split as he kicked into a running sprint.

His hands were still held together. He built another burst of chakra.

“Body Flicker.”

His vision blurred, his ears protested, and his bones groaned. 

He skipped along the soft earth, kicking off as he bled off speed and approached the site of the intrusion. Soft earth gradually hardened, turning into harder clay and then harder stone. The imperial quarry loomed before him, a broad canyon of rock and half-carved blocks, constantly drained with a rat’s maze of channels.

He stomped hard, speed rapidly falling off his frame as he approached the edge. He stopped just before reaching the end of his course, and now stood overlooking the quarry interior. 

A charnel field stretched out before him, littered with the corpses of unfamiliar ninja with white masks. In the middle of the battlefield, the statue of a demonic monk sat hunched over, maw agape, eyes covered by a broad blindfold. Its hands were slammed into the ground, and its lower half was buried in the raw rock, as if it had just clawed its way out from hell. 

Dozens of iron rods descended from the monks torso, impaling a slight figure with rich red hair. He was still standing, clutching onto a blue haired figure with desperation. 

Hanzo’s eyes narrowed. An orange haired man laid on the ground before them. He recognized this trio of colors- the leaders of the Akatsuki, a minor group of foolish peace-seekers that he permitted to exist within the Land of Rain. A sense of cloying nostalgia had stayed his hand.

That, and his grandson was fond of their leader.

He jumped forwards, off the cliff, and slid down the rock face on approach. He had to investigate further.

The red haired figure sensed his approach, jerking his head up and sending the red hair flying back, away from his face. “HANZO! DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS?!” He roared with fury, desperation, and grief choking his voice. There was an implied command that boomed in the echo of that voice, that he should answer correctly.

“You are far too young to threaten me, child.” Hanzo explained calmly, voice booming back with equal authority. The red haired boy had a spasm of rage, but the blue haired woman by his side restrained him. Hanzo continued to approach, guard raised, looking back and forth at the bodies of the ninja that covered the field. Konoha ninja.

That Kanzo… did he presume that the Akatsuki were working against him? Why bother destroying such a trivial group? 

“As to the matter of these ninja of Konoha…” Hanzo continued, pausing a respectful distance, nudging one with his foot to look at the mask. Blank rather than any kind of animal. Curious. “...No, I had no involvement.” He spoke honestly.

Turning away from the corpse and to the pair, and the demonic statue that loomed over them, he narrowed his eyes. “What happened here?”

The red haired boy breathed heavily, staring at him with strangely purple eyes. Hanzo narrowed his eyes further, squinting beneath the visor of his helmet. The red haired boy sighed and slumped forwards, breaking the rods that impaled his back off at the midsection. The demonic statue groaned and then disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving a deep crater in the stone. 

“They killed Yahiko!” The blue haired woman sobbed, supporting the red haired man with a shaking frame.

“I killed Yahiko.” The red haired man with purple eyes growled back, voice choking with grief. “I did it…”

He frowned beneath his helmet. That told him nothing. Keeping his weapon sheathed, he began to approach further, stepping over corpses as he approached. “Yahiko… That was the name of your leader, was it not?” He had heard that in passing once. 

“He was my friend.” The red haired man leaned back, hair falling back once more and letting the rain pour down across his face. “And I killed him…”

Bright, rich, purple eyes. Absent of any whites or discernable iris. He stood over the hunched and injured pair now, staring down at them.

Those eyes were ringed. His hand drifted up towards the spirals that adorned his vest- the symbol of the Imperial clan.

The Rinnegan…

“...Who are your parents, boy?” Hanzo asked suddenly. In the distance, his subordinate ninja finally began to reach the edge of the quarry, coming in a broad wave to secure the area. 

“...Dead.” The red haired young man said after a moment, breathing heavily. He fell to his knees, legs no longer able to support him, burdened by the iron spikes that were driven into his back. 

None of his questions would be meaningfully answered in this state. Hanzo glanced at the orange-haired corpse. Both of them were staring at it, listless and grief-stricken. 

“...I will see to it that your leader’s corpse is properly buried.” He offered a boon, beginning the negotiations. 

“I will handle it.” The red haired man refused with a shake of his head, teeth clenched with despair and firm resolve. “I will…”

Irritating. “Those eyes are the Rinnegan.” He stated plainly.

“...They are… You know about them?” The red haired young man replied, turning to face him, eyes set into a firm, almost hostile defensive manner. The blue haired woman grimaced, hand reaching for a kunai with teeth clenched.

They suspected him of foul intent on behalf of those eyes. Those blessed, miraculous eyes. 

He knew now why that Kanzo wanted the Akatsuki destroyed.

He spoke plainly. “I do. What is your name?”

“...Nagato.”

Long Lasting Gate. 

“Nagato. It is a good name.” He waved at his subordinates. “Fetch a medic! Get these rods out of this young man’s back!” He commanded, voice carrying over the downpour. A few of his subordinates broke off from the main group and dashed away, back towards the city to retrieve a medic. A few stepped forwards, reaching under their coats for field supplies to erect a tent and perform first aid. 

“...Thank you.” The blue haired woman replied, clutching onto Nagato. 

“You are not my enemy.” Hanzo stated bluntly. “And as inhabitants of the Land of Rain, it is my duty to protect you from outsiders. I was too late on this day.”

A possessor of the Rinnegan, under his nose this whole time. If the young man’s heritage was in accordance, then…

“You will be guests in my home for as long as you desire, to account for this failure.” And to give him time to investigate them further. “I have much work to do, in rooting out these foreigners that slipped by our sentries. You will be protected until then.”

A red haired bearer of the Rinnegan. He dared not allow his heart to beat out of rhythm, lest this proved to be merely another false lead. What fortune he did not listen to the ninja of Konoha. 

He almost made a terrible enemy in their little plot against Rain.