The rain continued to fall — thick, unyielding — erasing any boundary between sky and earth. Hanzo — or rather, the Shadow Monarch — stood motionless. His dark armor, slick with water, seemed to absorb the flashes of lightning that briefly lit the battlefield.
"You arrogant shinobi from the great villages… Do you look down on my Amegakure!? Slaughtering my shinobi, turning my land into your battlefield? Then…"
Without warning, he formed a rapid hand seal. Hands clasped, he inhaled deeply, and the water pooled around him began to tremble. The ground itself shuddered slightly, as if Amegakure was holding its breath.
"Die!"
Suiton – Deluge of the Abyssal Dragon!
A colossal wave erupted behind him, rising like a towering wall of liquid that swallowed the entire street. The Konoha shinobi, caught off guard, hastily formed seals to erect defenses. Domes of earth rose, barriers of wind screamed in resistance, but the impact was monstrous. The sheer mass of water crushed them, sweeping away those too slow to react in a violent surge of foam and mud.
Hanzo took advantage of the chaos. His feet sank slightly into the rain-soaked ground as he gripped his scythe with both hands. In one smooth motion, he leapt backward to gain momentum, then shot forward like a dark arrow.
The blade sliced the first ninja clean in half before the man even realized what had happened. A spray of crimson mingled with the rain, dissolving instantly. Hanzo spun on his heel, the shaft of his scythe rotating with the precision of a seasoned shinobi, and decapitated a second foe with a swift backhand swing.
The Konoha shinobi tried to respond. Three of them hurled kunai simultaneously, aiming for his head and torso. But Hanzo suddenly leaned to the side, his movement so fast that his outline seemed to blur, and the blades passed within mere inches of him.
Without slowing, he grabbed the chain attached to the base of his scythe and spun it, creating a deadly circle around him. The chain whistled through the air, and each time it struck an enemy, it ripped through flesh in a crimson burst. One ninja tried to slip behind him to deliver a dagger strike, but Hanzo stepped back sharply, smashing the attacker's arm with the scythe's shaft before driving its tip into the man's throat.
His fighting style was a brutal mix of pure taijutsu and the precision of an assassin. Every step, every rotation of his body turned the rain and mud into allies, slowing his foes while amplifying his own strikes.
Damn, I feel alive! he thought, exhilarated, savoring the adrenaline and thrill of battle. The fusion with Hanzo's memories had indeed altered his personality.
The shinobi attempting to surround him had no time to coordinate their attacks; he shattered their rhythm, forcing them to react too late.
Doton: Swamp of the Underworld!
The ground beneath his feet suddenly gave way, sinking as though he had stepped into an artificial marsh. Mud closed around his ankles, dragging him down with each passing second.
"A swamp technique…" he murmured, raising his eyes toward his opponent.
Jiraiya, drenched but resolute, stood a few meters away. "Catching a fish in the mud is easy…" he said with a smirk.
Hanzo let out a faint chuckle.
"How childish."
But before he could move, a shadow lunged at him from the right. A massive serpent burst forth, fangs bared. With a cold reflex, Hanzo spun his scythe and severed its head — but in the instant before the blade connected, the serpent transformed into a blonde figure.
"What!?"
BOOM
Tsunade's fist slammed into his chest with crushing force, sending a shockwave through the mud and bursting the water around them into the air. Even with the impact, Hanzo managed to raise his scythe just in time to absorb part of the blow, but her raw strength still hurled him backward, his body slicing through the rain like a stone flung at high speed.
He steadied himself in midair by gripping the scythe's chain and spinning it above him. The weapon traced gleaming arcs, deflecting projectiles from enemy shinobi hoping to finish him off.
He landed heavily, water splashing up to his knees. His mask lifted slightly, revealing a cold smile before he set it back into place.
"It seems… I've underestimated you… the three Legendary Sannin…"
His voice rumbled like distant thunder through the rain.
"En garde!"