Chapter 41: Salamander Hanzo vs. Sarutobi Hiruzen (Part 3)
The smoke gradually dissipated, and the onlookers quickly looked towards the battlefield, only to find that Hanzo and the salamander were already gone.
Only Kiyoshi, relying on his powerful sensory abilities, calmly looked behind Sarutobi Hiruzen.
"Boom!"
Accompanied by a loud explosion, the ground behind Sarutobi Hiruzen cracked open, and the figure of the salamander Ibuse appeared, its large mouth opening wide towards Sarutobi Hiruzen, and purplish-black poisonous smoke rapidly spread out.
"Wind Release: Air Current!" Sarutobi Hiruzen thought with a sense of foreboding, quickly forming hand seals and spitting out a violent gust of wind from his mouth.
Although it was just a simple C-rank Wind Release, its advantage lay in its rapid activation. Moreover, Sarutobi Hiruzen's purpose was only to quickly blow away the poisonous smoke.
Hanzo also took this opportunity to attack Sarutobi Hiruzen. It was important to know that Hanzo was immune to the salamander's poison.
When Hanzo was young, there was a highly venomous black salamander in the Hidden Rain Village. After the venomous black salamander died, its poison sac was used as an experimental subject and implanted into Hanzo's body by Rain Village ninjas. As a result, Hanzo developed resistance to poison, and with every breath he exhaled a massive amount of poisonous gas. This was the reason why Hanzo constantly wore a breathing mask.
While Sarutobi Hiruzen was blowing away the poisonous smoke, Hanzo had already quickly approached him under the cover of the smoke.
However, due to carelessness, or perhaps a lack of experience in fighting humanoid summons, Hanzo forgot and overlooked the fact that there was still an Adamantine Staff beside Sarutobi Hiruzen that possessed its own consciousness and could transform back into the old monkey at any time.
"Ninja Art: Adamantine Prison Wall!"
Caught off guard, Hanzo was firmly restrained in place by the old monkey.
"Got you!" Enma shouted, "Sarutobi!"
"Shadow Clone Technique!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen joined the index and middle fingers of both hands together, crossing them horizontally and vertically to form a cross. A puff of white smoke appeared, and Sarutobi Hiruzen summoned four Shadow Clones. As soon as the Shadow Clones appeared, they quickly scattered in all directions. Sarutobi Hiruzen's main body and the four Shadow Clones spread out remotely from each other, surrounding Hanzo, who was restrained by the Adamantine Prison Wall, from five different directions.
Sarutobi Hiruzen and his four Shadow Clones began to synchronize their hand seals. Sensing Sarutobi Hiruzen's violently fluctuating Chakra aura, Hanzo, realizing something was wrong, also began to desperately unleash his own Chakra in an attempt to escape.
But this was a cage conjured from the body of the Monkey King Enma, a summon that was also Kage-level and possessed an indestructible body, through ninjutsu transformation. How could it be broken free from so easily?
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet!"
"Lightning Release: Lightning Dragon Bullet!"
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
"Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet!"
"Wind Release: Wind Dragon Bullet!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen and his Shadow Clones respectively used ninjutsu of five different attributes—Fire, Lightning, Water, Earth, and Wind—simultaneously attacking Hanzo, who was trapped in the center and unable to move, from five directions.
At this moment, Hanzo, who was firmly restricted and unable to move, became Sarutobi Hiruzen's best target. There was no possibility of missing.
"Five Elements: Great Consecutive Shots Technique!"
In the last second before the attacks were about to hit, Sarutobi Hiruzen proactively canceled the Summoning Technique, sending Enma back.
The combination of five B-rank ninjutsu with different attributes, mutually reinforcing and countering each other, erupted with power comparable to an S-rank ninjutsu or even an S-rank forbidden jutsu, ultimately creating a devastating explosion at Hanzo's location.
The deafening explosion deeply shocked everyone present. No one had expected that the seemingly small body of the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen could unleash such a powerful attack!
"If you were hit by that, you'd probably be reduced to ashes!" The onlookers were all shocked.
"The ultimate secret technique of the Sarutobi clan, the Five Elements: Great Consecutive Shots Technique, I've finally seen it today. This trip was worth it!" Kiyoshi, who had only seen the Great Consecutive Shots Technique of the previous head of the Sarutobi clan, Sarutobi Sasuke, in memories, finally witnessed this shocking scene with his own eyes.
The smoke and dust gradually dissipated, revealing the ground that had been plowed by the Great Consecutive Shots Technique. The center of the attack had sunk down by about twenty meters.
"Hanzo wouldn't really be taken out, would he?" Kurare Kushimaru, who had come to observe the battle with Kiyoshi, asked, his tone filled with amazement and fear at the power of the ninjutsu.
Kiyoshi smiled without saying a word, shook his head, and then looked at Ao, who also had a look of shock on his face, and said, "Ao, what do you think?"
Hearing his immediate superior ask a question, Ao came back to his senses. Out of caution, he didn't answer immediately. Instead, he formed hand seals, closed his eyes, and continuously extended his senses towards the battlefield. After a while, Ao suddenly widened his eyes. "This... this... this...!" He was so surprised that he couldn't utter a complete sentence for a long time.
"Hehe!" Kiyoshi smiled and explained to the four new recruits, Kurare Kushimaru, Munashi Jinpachi, Biwa Juzo, and Ao, "The current Hanzo can be said to be one of the strongest ninjas of this era. How could he be killed so easily? Don't underestimate a ninja who can become the leader of a village, even if he doesn't have the title of Kage right now."
Kiyoshi, with his powerful sensory abilities, could clearly sense that Hanzo's aura had changed, but this was only because the battle had consumed a portion of his Chakra, causing his aura to weaken slightly, and the decrease wasn't very significant.
Looking at Sarutobi Hiruzen again, his aura had already begun to decline significantly after using his ultimate technique. Although the sensing wasn't very clear, it was evident that Sarutobi Hiruzen had consumed at least half of his Chakra.
With such an obvious comparison, Kiyoshi had already clearly judged the difference in strength between Salamander Hanzo and Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Having a clear impression of the strength of the powerful individuals from various eras over the past millennium in his memories, and combining it with the sensing just now, Kiyoshi could easily determine Hanzo's strength level. At this time, Hanzo possessed an extremely firm ninja way, and the combination of ninja and samurai made Hanzo's strength infinitely close to the limit of the Kage level.
-----------------
(The original depiction of Hanzo is really too scarce, only giving him the title of demigod, and the introduction is that he was regarded by ninjas as the pinnacle of the ninja world during his lifetime. As for why the later Hanzo was so weak, even with the blessing of an immortal body after being reanimated, he didn't have any impressive achievements and showed no demigod demeanor at all. The official explanation is that one reason was that he was old and past his prime, and his strength declined. The other most important reason was that Hanzo lost his belief as a hero of the Rain Village and no longer adhered to his ninja way, which also led to a significant decline in his strength.)
-----------------
"Battlefield principle: never underestimate any ninja. Never lower your guard until you are certain you have killed your opponent. This is the first lesson I, as your squad leader, am teaching you," Kiyoshi continued to instruct the new recruits.
Along with Kiyoshi's words, Hanzo silently appeared directly in front of Sarutobi Hiruzen. Seeing Hanzo, who appeared completely unharmed, Sarutobi Hiruzen and the observing ninjas other than those from the Hidden Mist all had their pupils violently contract.
Some of the observing ninjas had thought that Hanzo might survive such a powerful ninjutsu, but he would likely be severely injured. After all, if they were to face that move with their own strength, they would probably be reduced to ashes.
However, no one except Kiyoshi and the Hidden Mist members taught by Kiyoshi could have imagined that Hanzo would appear completely unscathed.
Time returned to just now.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's ultimate technique, the Great Consecutive Shots Technique, was already close at hand. Hanzo, who had unleashed his full Chakra, suddenly noticed that the Adamantine Prison Wall restraining him had disappeared. Overjoyed, Hanzo seized this one-thousandth of a second opportunity, formed the Snake hand seal with one hand, and immediately activated the Body Flicker Technique, disappearing the moment the ninjutsu brushed against the corner of his clothes.
●●●
● 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
● https://www.patreon.com/c/Devmaya
(Just remove the hyphen to access patreon normally)