"Hiding in the Mist Technique… don't fight him inside the fog, and don't split up and let him pick you off one by one. Regroup—now!"
With visibility cut down by the thick fog, Orochimaru instantly understood Hanzō's intent and shouted.
The words had barely left his mouth when Orochimaru's pupils shrank and his back turned cold.
There was no time to form seals for an Earth Substitute. Without hesitation, he spun and fired a golden beam from his hand.
CLANG!
Hanzō's ninja blade collided with the Sword of the Thunder God, screeching sharply—yet there were no sparks, no struggle of force.
The moment the two blades touched, paper seals—explosive tags that seemed almost alive—crawled up Hanzō's wrist. His body turned into a puddle of water, leaving behind only the sword plastered with explosive tags.
BOOOOOOM—!
A chain of explosions erupted, blooming into dazzling firebursts inside the rain and white fog.
Hanzō's use of explosive tags was frighteningly refined.
Orochimaru never expected the "discard the blade and detonate" trick. He still couldn't cast in time, and he couldn't move with Hanzō's speed. He could only force chakra into his feet and jump backward with everything he had.
Even then, the shockwave from multiple tags shattered Orochimaru's goggles—thankfully his gas mask remained intact.
Whoosh—
While he was still airborne from the jump, a shrill tearing sound suddenly cut past his ear.
Before he could even turn toward it and judge whether it was a jutsu or a weapon—
Shhk! A sickle tip punched through his heavy armor and into flesh, twisting his face in pain.
Then—
RIP—! accompanied by clink-clank-clank—the sound of chains being yanked.
A long, bloody line tore across Orochimaru's back, and he couldn't hold back a scream.
"AAH—!"
"Orochimaru!"
That scream finally let Tsunade and Jiraiya lock onto his position and rush toward him.
Tsunade instinctively reached to heal and stop the bleeding, but Orochimaru immediately urged, "Don't heal me—get out of this area right now, or we all die!"
Roooooar—!
Before Tsunade and Jiraiya could shoulder Orochimaru and Body Flicker away, another roaring sound surged—this time not chains.
It was—waves.
In the next instant, water swallowed the three of them.
From a distance, it looked as if a lake had formed out of thin air across the rocky ground.
The torrent finally dispersed the thick fog—but it also robbed the Konoha Sannin of mobility.
And then, in shock, they saw three Hanzōs streaking through the water like arrows toward them, in a formation like Dance of the Crescent Moon.
Chiyo's "old man with a breathing tube" wore a special mask—functioning like an oxygen tank—allowing him to move freely underwater. Combined with his near-divine Water Body Flicker, no one could outpace him in water.
Those three Hanzōs were so fast the Konoha Sannin didn't even have time to form seals.
Perhaps out of sheer shared instinct, the Sannin all thought of the same thing at once:
Gojo Yoru's Rasengan.
If they survived this fight, they had to learn that new hand-signless jutsu.
If all three of them could use Rasengan, then even trapped inside Water Release, even facing Hanzō's absurd underwater speed, they would have a way to resist.
And maybe because they all thought of Yoru at once—
A black flash appeared out of nowhere.
Gojo Yoru really did appear in front of them, a blue-white sphere in his palm. He thrust it forward.
The Rasengan's unregulated, high-speed rotation instantly dragged tons of water into motion, forming a rapidly spinning water tornado—like Water Release: Water Fang Bullet—ripping toward the three Hanzōs.
Those three Hanzōs were terrifying not only because they moved like monsters in water, but because they could also cast Water Release instantly while moving.
After Tobirama's death, the shinobi world's best Water Release user wasn't Kirigakure's Mizukage—
It was Hanzō.
His Water Release was so refined he could reduce Water Dragon Bullet from forty-four hand signs to four.
On Land of Rain terrain, he could create a lake-scale water technique in an instant.
His nature transformation had reached the peak—he could turn a single droplet into a cutting projectile.
With Water Body Flicker and a special mask, aside from lacking the chakra reserves and not knowing Water Shark Bullet that could devour jutsu and drain chakra, Hanzō's underwater combat power and intimidation surpassed even the future Kisame Hoshigaki.
Yoru's blink-in with Rasengan, turning it into a water tornado, happened in nearly an instant.
And in that tiny instant, the three Hanzōs simultaneously controlled surrounding water into several equally high-speed water pillars that collided with the tornado.
Then several massive water blades curved around the tornado and pillars and shot straight toward Yoru and the others.
Yoru was briefly stunned. He hadn't expected that his surprise strike—against three Hanzōs who were obviously shadow clones or water clones—would not only be blocked, but countered.
That Water Release mastery… that terrifying battle experience…
So this was the shinobi demigod's level?
No wonder Orochimaru and the others were nearly wiped out before Yoru could find an opening to kill the salamander.
It looked like the canon "Hanzō vs the Sannin" had been holding back a lot.
If Hanzō hadn't already decided war victory wasn't worth fully offending Konoha, he might've really killed them then.
Now, with Yoru's butterfly effect pulling "demigod vs Sannin" forward, this pinnacle-level monster had truly developed killing intent.
The elite-jōnin-level Sannin were separated from him by a chasm.
No wonder Enma would later blame Hiruzen for not killing Orochimaru back then.
These different "strongest" types… really could kill the Sannin with ease.
Since Yoru couldn't teleport all three at once, he was about to cast to block the incoming water blades—
When a water dragon swept overhead, devouring the wind blades and swallowing the three Hanzōs—turning them into smoke.
Orochimaru hadn't been watching—he used the tiny window Yoru bought and completed his seals for a counterattack.
After clearing the three Hanzō clones with a single jutsu, Orochimaru signaled Yoru and then dove down to reposition.
Yoru, meanwhile, teleported Tsunade and Jiraiya away one after another.
Soon, the four regrouped at a massive boulder Yoru had previously marked with Flying Thunder God.
Since one had escaped via Earth Body Flicker and the others vanished by teleportation, it wouldn't be easy for Hanzō to find them quickly.
"The original plan is canceled. We cannot fight him in Land of Rain."
As Tsunade used Mystical Palm Technique to treat Orochimaru, he spoke rapidly:
"The rain, the water, the moisture in the air—this entire environment is a natural buff for Hanzō. Here, his Water Release—whether huge-scale techniques or Water Body Flicker—functions almost like instant-cast."
"Even if poison mist is harder to disperse in the forest, we still have to lure him into the forest. Otherwise we'll die even faster."
Jiraiya suddenly suggested, "How about… we retreat?"
Seeing all three staring at him, Jiraiya glanced at Yoru—who had swallowed a soldier pill and was racing to recover chakra—and gave his reasoning:
"Even if I don't know what trump card the Gojo kid is hiding, Hanzō is clearly wary of it too. After Hiding in the Mist, we can't tell which one is his real body."
"The Yamanaka in the sensing unit didn't use Mind Body Transmission to warn us either, which means even they don't know where Hanzō's real body is."
"Trying to assassinate the shinobi world's number one assassin is basically impossible."
"And the salamander's defense can tank a lot of elemental jutsu. When hit, it can instantly return to the summoning realm. Honestly, killing it feels even harder than killing Hanzō."
"So why not do what Suna does—play hide-and-seek first. Once we develop the antidote formula, boost our strength, then come back and wash away today's humiliation?"
Orochimaru and Tsunade both wavered.
Running from the shinobi demigod was never shameful—it was wise.
Staying to fight Hanzō to the death, unless you were covering a retreat, would be so stupid that even dying with your name on the memorial stone would feel like an insult to the fallen.
Orochimaru had believed Yoru's Dimensional Slash first-strike might let them accomplish what even the Five Great Villages couldn't: kill Hanzō or the deadliest poison beast.
Instead, these three seniors had dragged Yoru down.
Now, hearing Jiraiya, Orochimaru felt it made sense.
There was no need to rush.
None of them had fully matured yet—not the three of them, and not Yoru.
Once they developed the antidote formula and could carry large supplies, they could ignore the salamander's poison. Then perhaps they truly could fight Hanzō.
And this fight had already given them valuable intelligence—what assassination tricks Hanzō favored, what Water Release power he wielded, and what they needed to strengthen to counter him.
Orochimaru was just about to nod and agree—
When Yoru suddenly spoke.
"How about… let me try one more time."
Under the eyes of the three seniors, Yoru only looked at Orochimaru and said words only they would understand:
"I have a new technique. It might stop the salamander from returning to the summoning realm after being hit… and maybe even kill it."
Orochimaru's eyes lit up. He immediately decided.
"Then we try again. We'll keep covering you. We'll go out and draw Hanzō's attention."
"This time I'll act fast—just buy me a few minutes."
Leaving that line, Yoru sank underground.
Tsunade could no longer hold back her curiosity. While continuing to treat Orochimaru, she asked, "Orochimaru… what trump card is that kid hiding? Why are you so confident in him?"
"Yeah," Jiraiya added, curious as well. "Is it some secret art? A bloodline limit? I don't think the Gojo family has a secret art tradition, and they're not a bloodline clan. Before Mio married Sa, she was from a plain family with no surname. Could her ancestors be special? Or is the Gojo family like the Kurama clan—one of those super-rare bloodline limits that only appears every few generations?"
Orochimaru only smiled. "Sorry. I promised Yoru I'd keep it secret. Unless he chooses to reveal it himself, or the entire shinobi world figures it out, I won't tell anyone—including Sarutobi-sensei."
"So mysterious—does it really go that far?" Jiraiya couldn't help complaining.
Tsunade couldn't help complaining too. "Katsuyu says that, you say that—aren't you just making it itch even more?"
Orochimaru's eyes sharpened. He turned to Tsunade. "Katsuyu… also knows Yoru's secret?"
"Yes. Katsuyu said that Gojo brat is a 'new miracle of the shinobi world,'" Tsunade grumbled. "Besides my grandfather, I can't think of who would qualify as the previous 'miracle.' Gojo brat… don't tell me he awakened Wood Release too?"
Jiraiya stiffened.
Hearing "sage" made him think of the Great Toad Sage's prophecy.
A "miracle of the shinobi world"… wasn't that the Child of Prophecy?
Different wording… but the same meaning?
If so, did that mean Gojo Yoru was the prophesied child he'd been searching for?
But—Gojo Yoru wasn't his student. That didn't match the Great Toad Sage's prophecy.
Orochimaru didn't know what Jiraiya was thinking and continued, "And you didn't ask Katsuyu?"
"I did. Katsuyu refused. Said Shikkotsu Forest doesn't dare offend that kid," Tsunade replied.
That made Jiraiya's heart tremble again.
That evaluation matched the prophecy even more.
The Child of Prophecy would bring enormous change—either unprecedented peace, or unprecedented destruction.
Could the prophesied child really be Gojo Yoru?
And then Orochimaru delivered the true knockout.
"Katsuyu is right," he said firmly. "All you need to know is: once Yoru grows up, he will be the new God of Shinobi. Before he matures, I will be his guide."
Jiraiya: "…"
Great Toad Sage… were you dozing off and got the prophecy wrong?
Were you actually trying to pull Orochimaru into Mount Myōboku back then, but you grabbed the wrong person and pulled me instead—the teammate—right?
Tsunade was shaken, and her curiosity about Yoru reached its peak.
So much so that she couldn't help recalling the scenes in the cave—
The kid's impossible height and maturity for his age, his aggressive attitude toward her that was nothing like normal children, and that terrifying potential to become the pinnacle of the shinobi world—no, a new God of Shinobi…
All of it condensed into a strange, subtle emotion that even Tsunade herself didn't notice.
Orochimaru didn't know what the two were thinking. He assumed they were simply stunned.
Feeling the stabbing pain in his back finally fade, Orochimaru stood and said seriously, "Move. Be careful this time—buy Yoru enough time."
"Right!"
Tsunade and Jiraiya snapped back and nodded together.
Out of trust in their comrade, in Katsuyu, and in the Great Toad Sage—
For once, the Konoha Sannin reached a shocking consensus: absolute trust in Gojo Yoru.
Three afterimages shot out, sprinting across rock tops at high speed, quickly drawing Hanzō's attention.
"Water Release: Hiding in the Mist Technique!"
Hanzō used the same tactic again, creating dense fog that limited the Sannin's vision.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh—
A rapid series of tearing sounds reached their ears.
Then BOOM BOOM BOOM—explosions echoed.
Hanzō didn't close in for an assassination. Instead, he threw a barrage of kunai with explosive tags tied to their ends, bombarding them from range.
With vision cut by fog, chakra everywhere, and sensing half-blinded, the Sannin were still at a disadvantage.
But their mission was to buy time for Yoru. So they deliberately "played along," making themselves even more passive to lure Hanzō closer.
Unfortunately, Hanzō was too cautious. This time he had no intention of closing the distance, only continuing long-range attacks.
While dodging, a question flashed through Orochimaru's mind:
Why weren't any of these ranged attacks using the chain-linked scythe from earlier?
That scythe could pierce jōnin armor with ease—it clearly wasn't ordinary. It was like a chakra blade, maybe made of an even rarer material with special properties.
Was Hanzō toying with them?
Or was he wary of Gojo Yoru—whose chakra could vanish beyond even the strongest sensing—and thus didn't dare throw away his personal weapon?
Or…
Was this Hanzō still not the real body?
Orochimaru wanted to test it, but Hanzō gave no opening.
Seeing his own village's signature techniques used to perfection by an enemy, Orochimaru finally understood how the Iwa-nin he'd killed must have felt.
Disgusting.
Still, since Gojo Yoru's target wasn't Hanzō himself, Orochimaru's mood improved slightly, and he kept playing along with the Hanzō—whether real or clone.
…
Unlike the Sannin, who were being suppressed and had even considered retreating, the four summons fought in a constant white-hot state.
Beasts' organs were different from humans'. Their breath-holding was astonishing. For salamander poison to fully enter them—to the point that it forced them to return to the summoning realm—would take time.
And forcing a return through physical "break defense" was even harder.
Katsuyu looked the easiest to bully, but her soft body, corrosive slime, and natural energy made her defense the strongest on the field.
Next was the salamander itself—older than Gamabunta and Manda, second only to Katsuyu.
Despite the "fish" in its name, the salamander could physically burrow and dig tunnels.
It could also use a special ability to "swim" through earth like a sea.
The second method consumed energy and reduced how long it could stay in the real world, but its speed was terrifying—one major reason Yoru had struggled to find an opening earlier.
Besides poison and speed, its massive size gave it immense defense. Explosive tags and ordinary elemental jutsu struggled to break through.
Its tail was even harder and more powerful than Manda's. A single hit could send Gamabunta or Manda back to the summoning realm.
Combined with its cautious nature, the salamander used a kiting battle to toy with Gamabunta and Manda until both were furious.
"You useless toad! Aren't you supposed to spit oil? Use fire on it! Why are you spitting water balls in this heavy rain?!"
"I can spit oil, not fire!"
"Then why the hell are you holding that pipe?!"
"Can't you see it's raining? The tobacco's already out. Normally Jiraiya lights it for me."
"Trash. I really want to eat you in one bite."
"What did you say, stinking snake?!"
The toad and snake bickered so hard they nearly felt like defecting to the enemy just to kill their teammate, leaving the salamander's brain momentarily "crashed," unable to understand what was happening.
If it had a human face, it would've looked utterly confused.
And by sheer coincidence, their arguing created an opening for Gojo Yoru.
While the salamander froze—maybe watching the "show"—the ground suddenly bulged, rapidly forming into a figure who reached toward the salamander's belly.
From the salamander's perspective, it was a blind spot.
It should've been too late to react.
And indeed, the salamander didn't move—like it hadn't noticed Yoru at all.
Just as Yoru's hand was about to touch it—
A single clear droplet seeped out of the salamander's white belly, indistinguishable from any raindrop.
But as that droplet emerged, black lines suddenly spread across the salamander's pale belly.
The lines formed rectangles; then the black strokes expanded into "爆" characters—"explosion"—sparking with fire.
BOOM BOOM BOOM—!
A chain of detonations roared. Firelight swallowed Gojo Yoru. Dust surged into a mushroom cloud several meters high.
The salamander leapt out of the cloud and landed on a massive rock shaped like a false mountain—clinging like a giant gecko.
Then it blew a huge gust at the blast site—not poison, but raw airflow—clearing the dust cloud.
The Gojo Yoru who'd been there had turned into a puddle of mud.
That "Yoru" had clearly been only an earth clone.
While destroying the earth clone, the salamander and Hanzō also gathered intelligence about Yoru's "hidden ability":
Underground, it could perfectly conceal chakra presence—so well that even the salamander, skilled in burrowing, couldn't find him.
But he always had to surface eventually, and that was when he'd reveal chakra.
As long as they pre-laid explosive flame arrays like the ones on its belly—on its limbs and tail base as well—blocking the Flying Thunder God marks, then this hidden ability was nothing to fear.
If the salamander had a human face, its next expression would have been priceless.
Because above that puddle of mud, Gojo Yoru suddenly appeared out of thin air, suspended in midair as if lying sideways.
His left hand gripped the elbow of his right arm. His right hand pointed toward the salamander in a two-finger stance.
At the junction of his thumb, index, and middle finger, a marble-sized energy orb shone with dazzling light.
It was a compressed, high-speed rotating sphere—primarily black, tinged with purple from extreme compression, and threaded with a hint of blue: a tri-colored glow.
Yoru's ice-blue eyes reflected those three colors as well.
That prismatic gaze, paired with his handsome face, carried a faint divine radiance.
"—This."
Yoru spoke the name of the technique calmly, then flicked his fingers.
The marble-sized sphere shot forward.
And a horrifying sight unfolded.
Where it passed, ripples formed in space—circles expanding rapidly, spinning like a shuriken.
Unlike Wind Release: Rasenshuriken's harsh screeching, these shuriken-like patterns were made of spatial ripples—nearly transparent and silent.
And unlike Rasenshuriken's horizontal rotation, the ripples on this orb expanded both vertically and horizontally.
So a marble-sized orb produced an absurdly large effective kill zone.
When the spinning spatial ripple merely grazed the ground, the cratered rocky terrain opened into a clean-edged circular void.
If Yoru had fired it level across the ground instead of upward toward the giant rock, it would have carved a long, deep trench.
The "evolution" of the orb seemed slow in description, but once launched it transformed into this state instantly.
The smooth-edged circular void appeared less than three meters in front of Yoru.
The tri-colored "meteor," wrapped in rotating spatial ripples, flashed forward like a shooting star, reaching the false-mountain rock in an instant.
Before contact, the ripples were already shredding the rock face. Stone fragments were pulled into the ripples, ground down along the path, and then drawn into the orb itself—either reduced to dust or swallowed like by a black hole, erased into nothingness.
Even the salamander—absurdly fast—couldn't react in time. It couldn't dodge.
Its instinct was to dismiss the summon and return to the summoning realm.
But the rotating spatial ripples severed the space–time connection to the summoning realm.
Unable to return, the salamander's mind went blank as it stared at the tri-colored meteor coming for it.
Just when it thought it was doomed—
Its enormous body suddenly became a massive surge of water, and it—together with the giant rock—vanished into nothingness.
The small-black-hole-like tri-colored meteor continued onward, still carrying momentum, and disappeared into the rain-soaked night sky like a falling star.
If someone had night vision, they would have seen the rain curtain along its path split open like paper—leaving behind a line of emptiness.
But the energy in the orb was too small, and its size too tiny; it couldn't fly very far or very high.
Otherwise, everyone watching the battlefield might have witnessed the clouds being blown open with a massive hole.
Even so, the three summons nearby—and the Konoha Sannin, whose fog had strangely dissipated—saw the scene clearly.
For a long moment, three people and three beasts stood frozen.
Then they finally snapped back.
Jiraiya's voice trembled. "Th-that… what was that? A meteor? A laser?"
Tsunade swallowed hard, too stunned to speak.
Orochimaru's eyes shook as he tried to analyze the technique's principles—feeling deep regret.
It was night. He couldn't see clearly.
If it were daytime, he might have been able to infer at least some effect and mechanism.
Even if he couldn't learn it, this new space–time application would have given him tremendous insight.
"...What the hell?!"
Gojo Yoru, the one who shocked both humans and beasts, still wore a cold, expressionless face on the outside.
Inside, he screamed in his head.
What did he just see?
That salamander—so massive—and it used Water Body Flicker?!
Was he the one cheating… or was that damn fish cheating?!
With his space–time chakra now at empty and the space–time Strength of a Hundred Seal automatically fading, Yoru immediately burned his last trace of space–time chakra to blink back beside Orochimaru.
"Orochimaru-sensei—run!"
And then a "filial teacher-and-student" scene played out: Yoru ditched the Konoha Sannin and led the retreat straight toward the forested "center tower."
The Sannin snapped out of it, dismissed their summons, and rushed after him.
Far away, atop a rock peak, rainwater gathered and formed Hanzō's silhouette.
From that distance, he stared at Gojo Yoru—whose chakra strength looked no higher than chūnin, yet had used that technique while consuming less than half his chakra. Hanzō's gaze trembled.
Until he understood that technique and found a way to counter it, Hanzō didn't dare pursue.
He was afraid Yoru would fire another one.
From the start of the battle, Hanzō's attention had never been on the Konoha Sannin.
After testing their strength, he created that lake and stopped fighting with his real body, sending clones to deal with them one after another.
His real body had secretly hidden inside the salamander.
Anyone else would have been killed by the poison, but Hanzō—who had implanted a poison sac in his body—was unaffected.
With his strength and speed, Hanzō had believed there was no way Yoru could hurt him.
Flying Thunder God's terrifying feature was that it could place marks on people and objects that supposedly never faded.
From beginning to end, Yoru's target had been Hanzō's partner—the salamander.
Hanzō had played along, secretly laying explosive flame arrays on his partner's body—blocking Flying Thunder God marks and blowing Yoru up at the same time.
It "worked"—but only blew up an earth clone.
He'd thought that earth clone was only a probe. He didn't realize it was a smokescreen for that technique.
Like the salamander, Hanzō's first instinct had been to dismiss the summon and vanish.
He hadn't expected that technique could interfere with Summoning Jutsu, preventing the salamander from returning.
If he hadn't been inside his partner, if he couldn't use Water Body Flicker with it, he and the salamander truly would have gone to the Pure Land together.
Even with Water Body Flicker, his partner still lost its toughest tail—erased by that orb's invisible halo.
After escaping, the salamander immediately returned to the summoning realm for treatment and couldn't be summoned again for a while.
The missing tail had been erased into nothingness; the cut edge was unnaturally smooth. Who knew if it could ever regrow?
If it had been even slightly off, his partner might have been critically wounded, and he—hidden within—might also have been erased into nothingness!
That boy… was absolutely not "just" a Flying Thunder God user.
Hanzō recalled Yoru's black-flash teleportation, the way the Sannin addressed him, and murmured:
"Gojo kid… Yoru… Gojo Yoru…"
"I will carve that name into my heart forever."
"I will never make that near-death mistake again."
~~~
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