[Kamui Marecage, Salamander Poisonous Fog]
- A few hours ago...
Harumi was strolling in the Kamui Marecage, inhaling the delicious poison of Ibuse, Hanzo's salamander, with utmost satisfaction. The lethal toxins, usually threatening to the strongest shinobi, was a strong regent for Harumi who saw it as food. The more poison absorbed by her body, the strongest she became. Such was the true strength of the Hebikaze clan.
In a sense, Otogakure was a paradise for the Hebikaze. With Ibuse and so many strength-raising drugs from its laboratories, the Hebikaze's standards of shinobi was roughly chunin. Toru, a youth, was already a semi-kage-level figure, something that had never been achieved in the history of the Hebikaze clan besides her.
*CRACKLE*
A sound, a couple miles from her position, reached her ears. Her eyes, more snake than human, revealed a heat signature. Although no presence could be detected, heat, on the other hand, was blatant.
'An enemy? But to withstand the effect of the smoke...', she thought, but her instincts took over.
Initially, hosting Matatabi, the two-tails, had been quite a challenge. But she had tamed her savagery, partially, thanks to Danzo's continuous suppression seals. However, after making peace with the tailed beast and treating her as a true friend, she had returned as a massive predator, often wandering off to sneak on spies, bandits, and killing them for fun. In other words, Harumi was a true psychopath, a trait that she had tried desperately to hide from her husband.
Seeing that her enemy had not spotted her, Harumi leaked her lips
Hebikaze Arena Gate [S]
A gate appeared below the man, replacing the grounds. Falling into the purple chakra pool in between the gate, the man instinctively unsheathed his strange weapon, before being absorbed into the Hebikaze's sacred grounds: the Arena. A cemetry of shinobi who had fallen to Harumi's hunts.
As she dived into the gate, she realized that a big fish had entered her hunting grounds.
"Hanzo, the Salamander-less, the one-armed semi-god of shinobi?", Harumi hissed
"The Otokage's wife, as I recall", Hanzo smirked, "How kind of you to isolate yourself, two-tail jinchuriki?"
Harumi laughed: "Um? You are not afraid? How long has it been since I fought an enemy who was not shaking from my mere presence?"
Hanzo scoffed: "Fear you? It took three of you, in an ambush, to defeat me in the past, and I survived. What makes you think that a jinchuriki, alone, would make me afraid? I did not come here to start a war. I have heard of Otogakure's growing strength. I am merely hear to reclaim my title as Hanzo the Salamander. I will release Ibuse from its shackles and leave"
Harumi did not listen: "Oh! I know! Maybe the Takikage? He had been overestimating the effect of the hero water, and died! His limbs left a bad taste in my mouth, though...I wonder what you would taste, Hanzo..."
Hanzo smirked: "Talking will lead me nowhere, I suppose? I must thank you, jinchuriki. If you had not eaten my arm, I would not have been able to become stronger. The human body is inherently limited. Bones are never denser than metal. Skin is filled with weakness. However, steel?"
He revealed his torso. His missing arm had been replaced with one of steel. His skin? Replaced by plaques of oxyded iron. His teeth revealed a golden glim. Not quite a puppet, nor a human.
"Augmented human. This is what I like to call myself. Amegakure became much stronger, and this can only be attributed to Otogakure's contribution"
Harumi laughed: "AHAHA! Augmented? You believe in steel, while we believe in evolution. It is funny to see you walk a different, inferior path. In my opinion, you only burned your own potential, the iron corroding your body as I speak"
Hanzo stopped talking, not taking the insult.
Hanzo fired—a storm of senbon tipped with Amegakure's paralytic venom. Harumi melted, her body dissolving into a swarm of venomous snakes that slithered across the tombstone-littered ground. The snakes reconstituted behind Hanzo, coalescing into Harumi's form, her right arm elongating into a serpentine whip studded with bone spikes.
Hebikaze Bloodline Release: Bonefang Lash [A]
The whip struck Hanzo's steel-plated back, sparks flying as metal screeched. He staggered but pivoted, his leg firing to launch him skyward with a burst of chakra. From his waist, a chain-and-scythe weapon unfurled, its edge dripping with a viscous, chakra-disrupting substance.
Iron Rain [S]
The scythe arced downward, carving a fissure in the Arena's cursed earth. Harumi leapt, but the chain snapped sideways, wrapping around her ankle. Hanzo yanked—her leg dislocated with a sickening pop.
Matatabi's Fury: Blue Inferno [S]
Harumi's eyes blazed cobalt. Blue flames erupted from her pores, melting the chain. Her leg snapped back into place with a hiss of regenerating tissue. "Steel rusts," she purred, her voice echoing with Matatabi's growl. "Flesh evolves."
Hanzo detonated a smoke bomb laced with nanite particulates. The microscopic toxins swarmed Harumi, burrowing into her skin to neutralize chakra pathways. She convulsed, coughing black blood.
Unfortunately, this much damage was nothing to a jinchuriki like hers. Her veins bulged obsidian. Her body expanded, scales erupting across her skin as a serpentine tail sprouted from her spine—a partial bijuu transformation. Her real form, a snake hundreds of meters long, fangs dripping with lethal venom, scales burning in a mantle of blue fire.
Hebikaze One-Tail Transformation [S]
Matatabi's spectral form flickered around Harumi as a swirling orb of blue flame coalesced in her palm. Hanzo's remaining arm unfolded into a hexagonal shield of folded chakra-steel, its surface etched with anti-bijuu seals stolen from Iwagakure's archives.
The blue-fire bomb struck. The shield held for three seconds. Then the seals cracked, and the blast flung Hanzo into a crumbling mausoleum. His steel plating glowed molten red, but he rose, laughing through shattered teeth.
"You've grown reckless, jinchuriki," he spat, oil and blood mingling on his lips. "I was worried initially, your chakra reserves having grown tremendously. But...Ultimately, they did just that, the rest of your body is barely agile"
Harumi's tail retracted, her human facade snapping back into place—a mask of mock innocence. "You're already a relic. A puppet who thinks he's still pulling strings. I just tested you, but it is already too late"
Hanzo's iron arm detached, launching like a rocket fist aimed at Harumi's throat. She caught it effortlessly—only for it to explode, showering the Arena in shrapnel. When the smoke cleared, Hanzo's body could be seen attempting to run away, crawling.
His body, however, could not keep up. His chest had been replaced by a gaping hole.
Retracting her arm, Harumi licked her lips: "A tumor-heavy heart...Interesting"
She had just snatched her enemy's heart as if she had plucked an apple from an apple tree.
Hanzo could not believe his eyes: "Impossible...How could there be two of you?"
His last view was hundreds of Harumi Snake Clones escaping the shadows: "Two? Oh, it seems like losing your pet made you useless. There are not two of us, but a thousand"
On his last breathe, Hanzo cursed: "When?"
"Since the start. Senbons do not hurt me. The whole point of using the thousand-snake substitution technique was to create a thousand clones. This technique is annoying because of its load on my consciousness, but to think that two clones would be enough to take you down...I would not have used it", Harumi hissed, "Well, my husband will be happy about your downfall. Without its guardian, Amegakure clans will become our vassals"
Hanzo frowned: "Amegakure? So this was your target all along? Were you not satisfied with Takigakure?"
Harumi shook her head: "So persistent...Die already"
The thousand clones flicked their fingers, a column of blue flames engulfing his corpse. Rather than burning him, they petrified him in stone.
"Now I have done it...I ruined his body...Well, augmenting his body with iron and steel made him an unsuitable ingredient for chakra supplement injection anyway...", she muttered
Regrouping, she felt a wave of weakness, but picked up his scythe and marbled body, storing them in a scroll. Proof of her successful hunt.
As for the hunt...
It just happened that one of her husband's followers happened to require hearts of high-level shinobi. She wondered how much stronger Rin would get after absorbing Hanzo's heart...