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Chapter 159: The Hidden Rain Takes My Life, I Take the Hidden Rain's Heart
Hanzo fell silent.
He looked at the young boy before him, an inexplicable sense of absurdity rising in his heart.
A child in his teens, talking to him about the nation, about reform?
"Matters of state are not a game of house for you brats."
Hanzo snorted coldly, his tone carrying a trace of disdain, and also a trace of undetectable exhaustion.
"Do you think I don't want to make the Hidden Rain strong?"
"Do you think I don't want to drive the Three Great Nations out?"
"But this is the Land of Rain! If we want to survive, we must learn to bow our heads, learn to maneuver!"
"The village has it hard too."
"To maintain this false peace, how much blood and sweat has this old man paid? What do you understand!"
"I don't understand?"
Dragon suddenly laughed out loud.
The laughter pulled at his wounds, making him cough violently, but he continued to laugh.
Laughed until tears streamed down his face.
"I only see that you yielded our land to the Three Great Nations to use as a battlefield."
"I only see that Iwagakure ninja can levy grain at will in our village."
"I only see that when Konoha ninja kill our civilians, you still send people to apologize to them!"
Dragon suddenly raised his head, his gaze like a knife, piercing straight into Hanzo's heart.
"This is what you call 'having it hard'?"
"Placing dignity on the ground for people to trample, handing over sovereignty with both hands."
"What use is there in keeping such a village, such a leader?!"
Hanzo's breathing became rapid.
The face under the mask twisted with anger.
How many years had it been?
Since he was called "Demigod," no one had dared to speak to him like this.
Even the Daimyo had to be respectful when meeting him.
But today, in this dark interrogation room.
A prisoner was peeling open his bloodiest scar.
"Insolent!"
Hanzo roared.
Terrifying Chakra erupted instantly, and the ground of the entire interrogation room cracked inch by inch.
"I am the god here! It is I who protected this country!"
"I am interrogating you now! Not letting you lecture me!"
The violent airwaves blew Dragon's hair into a frenzy.
But he was like a reef in stormy seas.
Motionless.
"Because you have no grounds to interrogate me!"
Dragon faced Hanzo's terrifying killing intent and shouted sternly.
At this moment.
It was as if he were the high-and-mighty judge.
And the man known as "Demigod" was just a prisoner awaiting sentencing.
Hanzo stared fixedly at Dragon.
Killing intent boiled, but beneath this killing intent, there was a trace of... something he himself was unwilling to admit.
Fear.
Yes, fear.
Not fear of this youth's power.
But fear of every word that came out of this youth's mouth.
Those words were like sharp knives, accurately piercing into the deepest, darkest corners of his heart.
Corners he had carefully covered for years with the fig leaf of "bearing humiliation for the greater good."
A long time passed.
The Chakra storm in the interrogation room gradually subsided.
Hanzo took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the turmoil in his heart.
He was a formidable figure after all.
He wouldn't be easily crushed by a few sentences.
"Arashi... is it."
Hanzo's voice returned to calm, only with an added trace of age.
"You are very talented."
"That kind of demagogic eloquence, that keen insight."
"If you are willing to submit to me, I can let bygones be bygones."
"Even..."
Hanzo paused. "I can take you as my disciple, make you the future successor of Amegakure."
This was the biggest bargaining chip Hanzo could offer.
It was also his final probe.
He was giving this youth a way to live, and also finding a way out for his own shaken beliefs.
As long as this youth bowed his head.
It would prove that he was right.
Reality would eventually crush ideals.
However.
"No need."
Dragon answered crisply, without even a second of hesitation.
Hanzo was stunned.
"Do you know what you are refusing?"
"Power, status, strength, and... life."
Dragon leaned against the wall, his gaze passing through the blinding spotlight overhead, as if seeing the girl folding paper flowers in the rain, seeing the orange-haired boy talking big about dreams in the pipes.
"My comrades are still outside."
"We rose up together, swore together to change this country."
"If I live on ignobly now, it is betrayal."
"I cannot be an exception."
Hanzo looked at him, his expression complex.
"For those ethereal ideals?"
"For those ignorant civilians?"
"If you die now, you have nothing."
"Your ambition, your talent, will all turn into a rotting corpse in this sewer."
"Is it worth it?"
Dragon slowly stood up straight.
Even though his legs were trembling, even though blood was still flowing.
But he stood ramrod straight.
Like a flag planted on ruins.
He looked at Hanzo, and in those black pupils burned a flame that would never be extinguished.
"Hanzo."
"Do you think killing me ends all this?"
Dragon took a step forward.
The chains tightened, making a clanging sound.
"You are wrong."
"My death will become a spark."
"It will ignite this sky-filling curtain of rain, will burn through your high-and-mighty tower."
"You will see thousands upon thousands of 'Arashis' stand up."
"They will use your fear to cast a new order."
Dragon's voice wasn't loud, but every word was like thunder, exploding in the depths of Hanzo's soul.
"The Hidden Rain takes my life."
Dragon stared into Hanzo's eyes, pronouncing each word distinctly.
"I take the Hidden Rain's heart!"
"You aren't afraid of death."
Hanzo's voice sounded like it was squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying the chill of grinding metal.
"Death?"
Dragon smiled. Blood slid down the corner of his mouth, dripping onto his dusty military boots.
"In this country, living requires more courage than dying."
"If I die, I just return to this land. But you, Hanzo, you will live in fear forever. You will suspect everyone who passes by, you will fear every pair of eyes watching you, you will dream every night that this sky-filling rain has turned into a sea of blood demanding your life."
"Shut up!"
Hanzo let out a violent shout.
The sickle swung down.
Cold light tore through the dim space, also severing that last shred of tranquility.
Splurt.
Blood splashed, dyeing red that spotlight on the verge of extinguishing.
Dragon's voice stopped abruptly.
His head drooped powerlessly, but those black eyes remained wide open, staring straight at where Hanzo had just stood.
No begging for mercy.
No screams.
Not even a final sigh.
He died quietly just like that, like a statue that had stood there for a thousand years.
Hanzo maintained the posture of swinging the blade, breathing rapidly.
Hot blood splattered on his mask, sliding down his goggles, drawing scarlet curtains before his eyes.
The interrogation room returned to dead silence.
Only the sound of blood dripping on the ground.
Drip.
Drip.
Hanzo slowly straightened his back, the sickle in his hand falling to the ground with a clang. He looked at the gradually cooling corpse on the chair, feeling not a shred of the pleasure of victory in his heart, but instead a surge of unprecedented emptiness and chill.
He had killed a child.
A child powerless to truss a chicken, yet who had utterly defeated him in spirit.
"Someone come."
Hanzo's voice was so exhausted it sounded like he had aged ten years in an instant.
The iron door was pushed open, and two personal guards wearing Rain forehead protectors walked in. Seeing the miserable state inside, both were visibly stunned, then quickly lowered their heads, daring not look more.
"Lord Hanzo."
Hanzo turned around, back to the corpse, not wanting to see those eyes again.
"Hang him outside."
"Hang him from the very top of the tower."
The guards were startled, and one of them asked carefully, "My Lord, this is just a... rebel element. Dealing with it directly is fine, isn't hanging him on the tower a bit too..."
"Do as I say!"
Hanzo turned his head violently, his eyes fierce as a ghost's.
"I want everyone to see, this is the end for those who resist me!"
"I want the rats of this Hidden Rain Village to know, in this country, only I, Hanzo of the Salamander, am the sole ruler!"
Only in this way.
Only by using this kind of extreme brutality could he cover up the fear in his heart.
Only by stepping this youth into the mud and hanging his corpse high for public display could he convince himself that he was still that invincible "Demigod."
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