Even though he had no idea what the three of them had just discussed, the moment Orochimaru and Jiraiya vanished with Body Flicker—leaving only Gojo Yoru facing him—Hanzō the Salamander immediately understood their intent.
He didn't get angry. Instead, he watched Yoru draw a chakra blade from a storage scroll and asked, out of the blue:
"Kid. Where did you go a while back—and what did you go through?"
It was the question on everyone's mind.
People had seen "sudden power-ups" before. In battle, under certain conditions, shinobi sometimes erupted with strength far beyond their usual level.
But those bursts were temporary.
Yoru's sudden leap was permanent.
And that drastic increase in chakra proved he hadn't been hiding his strength—he really did become stronger out of nowhere.
Worse, it wasn't just "a little more chakra." It was a total metamorphosis, like he'd been remade from the inside out.
Allies, enemies, and even the outside forces watching from the sidelines were desperate to know what had caused that change.
"Where else would I go?" Yoru smiled, pointing the blade at Hanzō. "Secret training, obviously."
Then he added, grin widening:
"Thanks to the pressure you put on me. I got tired of running, so I had no choice but to become stronger."
"Save that line for kids your age," Hanzō scoffed. He drew a straight ninjatō—not the chain-linked sickle—and lowered his stance. "Let's see just how much you've changed."
The atmosphere instantly turned heavy.
They stared each other down from a distance—one tall, one shorter—locked in a cold duel of intent.
With their custom masks on, the only sound was the dense patter of rain striking the earth.
Then, without warning, they both vanished.
So fast there wasn't even an afterimage.
A harsh clash of metal shattered the rain's monopoly on sound.
From where Orochimaru and Jiraiya watched, Yoru and Hanzō looked like they'd thrown away the identity of "shinobi" and were fighting like Iron Country samurai.
No nin-taijutsu.
Just raw technique and physical ability.
In strength and pure skill, Hanzō—still in his prime, a veteran butcher of countless battles, a man so terrifying that Iron Country warriors would turn and run at the sight of him—easily suppressed Yoru.
But only just.
Every time his strike was about to land on Yoru—who wasn't wearing a flak jacket or armor, whose body seemed full of openings—Yoru would slip away at the last instant, or barely raise his blade to block.
Once or twice could be luck.
Every single time? That was ability.
If Yoru's goggles weren't hiding those ice-blue eyes, Hanzō might've thought he was fighting an Uchiha.
And it wasn't just "good dynamic vision."
It was worse: his reaction speed was absurd.
Not only could he respond—he could correct mistakes mid-motion and recover instantly.
Hanzō, who'd spent the last year trading ambushes and assassinations with Yoru but hadn't truly fought him head-on, finally understood how this kid had learned Flying Thunder God… and how he'd slaughtered fifty-five Sand shinobi.
Only reflexes like this could link seamlessly into space-time movement—killing the target before they even realized they were dead.
Pure talent domination.
In nothing more than a basic sword duel, Hanzō saw something in Yoru: the potential to stand at the very top of the shinobi world.
And that was only the beginning.
Not even twenty exchanges in, Yoru stopped playing defense and began turning proactive.
Hanzō seized what looked like an opening and stabbed in—only for Yoru to catch the thrust with the flat of his chakra blade, slide with the momentum, and snap into an upward slash aimed at Hanzō's torso.
Hanzō Body Flickered back, opening distance.
He stared at the boy across from him—eyes flashing with a rare spark of shock.
Because that "ordinary" rising slash wasn't ordinary at all.
Terrifying reading ability. Terrifying memory.
The kid… was growing inside the fight.
In under twenty exchanges, Yoru had already mapped Hanzō's rhythm and routes. He'd even baited a clean opening to flip from defense into offense—nearly scoring.
In the distance, on a cliff edge, Orochimaru's eyes trembled.
Since Yoru's return, Orochimaru hadn't fought alongside him—only heard reports that he'd changed drastically, that he'd developed new Lightning Release techniques, that he'd ruled the battlefield so completely Rain-nin fled at the sound of his name.
Now, watching Yoru trade blades with Hanzō—even in a simple duel—Orochimaru couldn't find the old Yoru anywhere.
Back then, even with Phantom Body Flicker, he'd only been "annoying."
Change the terrain with Earth Release, and Orochimaru could smother him with experience.
Even after Yoru learned Lightning Release "cell activation," it only bumped his speed a notch—and if he didn't use his space-time bloodline, his movement still had that faint, telltale stiffness.
That flaw even prevented him from using Phantom Body Flicker properly, because he couldn't smoothly flip the phantoms from intangible to tangible and back.
But now?
Without using his space-time bloodline.
Without using Lightning Release cell activation.
Just swordsmanship and physique—
Yoru had gone from being suppressed for nearly twenty exchanges… to nearly injuring Hanzō.
Compared to last year, it didn't even look like the same person.
Orochimaru couldn't help thinking: Does the growth of a space-time bloodline also reshape the body that much? Is his reflex speed… because he can sense space itself?
Clang—clang—clang!
Metal rang again and again through the rain.
Different chakra natures collided, kicking up pressure waves that carved out brief vacuums in the downpour.
That rising slash ended the "pure sword duel." The fight escalated into nin-taijutsu.
Unlike Eight Gates—which simply removes the body's limiters—nin-taijutsu is a special combat style that fuses taijutsu or kenjutsu with chakra.
You refine chakra to stimulate the body, achieving high-speed movement and amplified strikes—no hand seals required.
In practice, most people pick one of two routes: Lightning or Fire.
Lightning is faster. Fire has greater range. Both hit hard.
Normally, if you learn nin-taijutsu, you choose one and commit.
But Hanzō was called a demigod for a reason: he did what ordinary people couldn't.
Yoru's entire body crackled with blue-white lightning. His speed became true lightning—no trace of the old stiffness.
His chakra blade, coated in Lightning nature, turned into a blue-white edge. When he swung, it looked like he was wielding a bolt of lightning itself.
Every Body Flicker was a flash of white—like lightning ripping across the sky.
For an ordinary jōnin, facing that speed would be a death sentence.
But Hanzō not only blocked Yoru's lightning-charged, piercing strikes with a sword wrapped in flowing water chakra—his speed matched him.
The only difference was the flavor: their chakra natures shaped the visuals and style of the fight.
Zzzzzt—!
After multiple rapid flashes, Yoru's reflexes and enhanced reading ability finally caught a real opening.
His lightning-coated chakra blade shrieked with the piercing cry of a thousand birds.
As Yoru Body Flickered into a charged thrust, his blade shot forward—
Whoosh—
The strike became a blue-white laser, blasting out in a straight line.
Chidori Sharp Spear.
Its speed was absurd.
In an instant, it punched clean through Hanzō's body.
But the next moment, Hanzō dissolved into a splash of water.
At the same time, the sound of a blade cleaving air rang out behind Yoru.
From Orochimaru and Jiraiya's perspective, Hanzō was teleporting—appearing behind Yoru without a trace, feet skating on water like shoes made of flow itself, his Body Flicker just as silent.
Knowing how ridiculous Yoru's reflexes were, Hanzō didn't aim for the neck.
He went for the waist.
A clean bisect.
Yoru became "two-point-five Yoru" before he could even react—so fast it looked like there wasn't time to use Flying Thunder God.
Zzzzzt—!
Before the severed halves even hit the ground, both halves erupted with blinding blue-white lightning.
"Lightning Release Shadow Clone… when did—" Hanzō's eyes widened.
That half-beat of surprise was enough.
The blue-white flash in his vision vanished—replaced by a black flicker—
—and his sight tilted as his body split cleanly down the middle.
Plop. His halves hit the air, then turned into water.
Not a Water Substitute. Not Water Body Flicker.
"Shadow clones with Lightning… and water shadow clones… assassins really are disgusting," Jiraiya muttered from afar, chills crawling up his spine.
Orochimaru exhaled softly.
"Yoru's already surpassed us."
He knew this day would come—he just didn't think it would come this soon.
Hanzō's nin-taijutsu mixed with assassination techniques had toyed with Orochimaru for a full year. If Jiraiya hadn't been there to cover him, Orochimaru would've had his mask broken—or taken wounds.
Then Hanzō would summon the salamander, flood the area with poison, and Orochimaru would be forced to burn antitoxin.
That had been their reality all year.
Yoru's role was mostly to appear at critical moments with Flying Thunder God, denying Hanzō the clean killing blow. In every other way, he couldn't "fix" their disadvantage.
So in a sense, the two veterans had been both Yoru's opening-makers—and his shackles.
Now, without those shackles, Yoru in a straight fight no longer lagged behind Hanzō.
Not in nin-taijutsu.
Not in assassination exchanges.
Even the two spectators couldn't tell when the switches to Lightning shadow clone and water shadow clone had happened.
Even without space-time bloodline abilities, Yoru's overall strength had climbed above theirs.
His lightning was basically a second White Fang of Konoha.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—
Back to the moment Yoru swapped positions via Flying Thunder God transfer and used Flying Thunder God Slash to split Hanzō's water clone—
Several sharp whistling sounds came from behind Yoru.
A heartbeat later—
BOOOOM! Explosions roared in succession.
A massive fire-dragon surged straight at Yoru.
Hanzō's signature explosive-tag fire style.
To become a true "master" of an element, you need not just elite nature and shape transformation—you need a personal style.
Orochimaru turned Earth Release into an entire ecosystem of tricks, with his basic extensions bordering on divine.
The Third Raikage did the same with Lightning.
And Hanzō's water-based nin-taijutsu, assassination, and this explosive-tag fire style were exactly that: his own signature.
It could blow targets apart, or use the flames created by tags as the fuel for further techniques—how he did it wasn't something even Yoru fully understood.
If it were easy to read, Hanzō wouldn't be a fire-style grandmaster.
If Konan could learn this trick… Yoru's mind flashed.
Paper Release + Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags + explosive-tag fire style…
He couldn't even imagine how terrifying Konan's area damage would become.
She'd be one of the strongest fire-style shinobi in existence.
While thinking that, Yoru didn't slow down.
He slipped into "Black Lightning mode."
The blue-white blade in his hand quietly shifted into black-and-white.
With a casual swing, he sliced the roaring fire-dragon neatly into two halves.
Rustle—rustle—rustle…
The sound of paper flipping suddenly rose.
Something seemed to creep under Yoru's feet.
He didn't look down.
Instead, he glanced toward ten o'clock—
About fifty meters away, atop a giant rock like a miniature mountain, Hanzō stood with hands pressed together in the Serpent seal and barked:
"Fire Style: Exploding Flame Formation!"
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—
A chain of massive blasts tore up the ground, throwing dust and heat into a glowing mushroom cloud.
Hanzō shifted his hand signs and activated sensory jutsu to lock onto Yoru's chakra.
Then his face changed.
He looked down.
A black-and-white "electric serpent" was climbing toward him from below.
Not straight—zigzagging like real lightning.
So fast it was a blur: the black-and-white trace hadn't even faded before it was already nearly under his feet.
Hanzō didn't have time to build a full Body Flicker burst. He detonated chakra, launching like an arrow into the air—then turned midflight to look back.
The nearly ten-meter-tall rock he'd stood on had been cut into chunks—each cut surface smooth and perfectly flat.
And at the top, that black-and-white "electric serpent" became Yoru.
Whoosh—
Yoru threw a Flying Thunder God kunai wrapped in crackling current straight at Hanzō.
With Lightning chakra boosting it, the kunai flew so fast Hanzō didn't have time to block with a technique.
He drew his sword and hurled it at the incoming kunai—
Then, with his other hand, he snapped out several kunai with explosive tags tied to their ends, aiming to intercept.
If Yoru used Flying Thunder God to jump to that kunai, he'd be inside the blast radius.
Hanzō kept his sensory jutsu running, locking onto Yoru's position to prevent him from switching to some other marked point.
His fingers stayed ready—prepared to change hand signs into fire control or water techniques at any instant.
"Looks like…" Yoru said, raising one finger toward Hanzō, "…you're the real one."
A black-red glow condensed on his fingertip, forming a tiny star.
With a sharp pew, the star became a black-red laser beam and shot forward.
Everything it touched—Flying Thunder God kunai, thrown sword, explosive-tag kunai—was severed cleanly, not even slowing it for a hundredth of a second.
It was so fast it looked like someone dragged a black-red line across the sky with a pencil.
Even Hanzō barely managed to shift his body—
—and the beam punched through his right chest.
BOOM—
~~~
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