Hidden Leaf, Hidden Talents 88 (Patreon)

Smoke everywhere. Thick, gray, smelling like ash and someone's very bad afternoon. It curled through the clearing without any hurry, and I watched it move, waiting for what was about to step out of it.

Nobody tells you how much easier round two is when you actually paid attention in round one. The first time, you're blind. You don't know their patterns, their tells, their favorite tricks, and that ignorance gets people killed more often than actual skill gaps ever do. But the second time, you've got data. You've taken your notes, done your homework, and maybe even shared some of those notes with two teammates who weren't exactly pushovers in a fight. So that's what I did. On the way here, I'd given Tsunade and Orochimaru the full rundown on Hanzo. His kusarigama, the reach on that thing, how he whipped that chain around to keep you exactly where he wanted. His poison, what it did, how fast it worked. His shunshin, which I'd described as "faster than anything I've ever seen" and had to spend a few minutes convincing Orochimaru that I wasn't exaggerating.

Point being, we had a game plan this time. Tsunade would handle the poisoned, keep our people alive long enough to stay in the fight. Orochimaru would pressure Hanzo at range, keep him from dictating the pace. And I'd do what I did best. Make clones, blow them up, and be extremely annoying about it.

Not to sound cocky, but Tsunade and Orochimaru probably had better odds against Hanzo with me here than they would've had with Jiraiya. That lousy old man of mine being absent for once actually worked in everyone's favor. Lucky them.

Anyway.

The smoke shifted.

A figure stepped through. Tall, armored, mask covering the lower half of his face. The kusarigama hung at his side, chain links clicking softly against each other with each step. He moved slowly like someone who knew they had all the time in the world because nobody was dumb enough to attack first.

Hanzo stopped when he saw me.

For a moment, neither of us moved. Just stood there, looking at each other across the clearing. Him probably trying to figure out how I was still alive. Me definitely trying to figure out how to stay that way.

"You again." There was something like mild interest in his voice. "I thought my poison had taken care of you."

"Almost," I admitted. "My teacher's pretty good at what she does."

"A medic who can purge my toxin." He said. "That's rare. Very rare."

"Rare's one way to put it." I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. "She's around here somewhere. Pretty sure she'd love a chance to study your poison up close. From the source, I mean."

Hanzo didn't respond immediately. Just looked at me with those flat eyes, letting the silence stretch until I started wondering if he'd even heard me.

Then, very slowly, his head tilted to one side.

"From the source." He repeated. "You're standing there telling me you're going to cut me open and let your medic root around in my corpse?"

"I didn't say that." I held up my hands in innocence. "You said that. I was just making conversation."

"Were you."

"Absolutely. Just two professionals chatting before a fight. Very civilized."

Hanzo's fingers curled around his weapon. "You've got a mouth on you, boy."

"I get that a lot."

"I'm sure you do. Most people who talk like you don't live long enough to make it a habit."

"And yet here I am." I spread my arms. "Talking."

"You are." His eyes narrowed slightly. "Coming back after what I did to you. That takes something."

"Thanks. While we're exchanging compliments, I should mention I'm actually surprised you survived all my clones exploding in your face. You're the first person who's walked away from that. Congrats. Makes me think the rumors about you might actually be—" I paused, tilting my head like I'd thought better of it. "You know what, never mind.”

He went very still. "Might actually be what?"

"Forget it." I waved a hand. "Rude of me. I shouldn't say."

His eyes went cold. "Boy, if you think you can—"

He never finished the sentence.

Snakes erupted from the trees above. Dozens of them, thick as logs and fast as whips, slamming into the ground around Hanzo in a writhing mass of scales and fangs. The earth shook from the impact. Dust and debris exploded in all directions.

Orochimaru didn't believe in fair fights. Neither did I, come to think of it. Which was why my clones were already adding to the chaos, hurling katon and raiton at Hanzo while Orochimaru layered in wind blades and water jutsu from the flank. The air filled with streaking projectiles. Hanzo flickered through them, shunshin carrying him between the gaps, firing back with his own jutsu whenever he found half a second to form seals. Didn't stop the snakes though. One lunged for his legs. His kusarigama came down and split it in two. Another went for his throat. He flickered sideways and cut it out of the air. Two more shot up from the ground beneath him. His chain swept low and scythed through both. Each one he cut just revealed two more behind it, Orochimaru's summons pouring from the treeline in an endless tide of coiled muscle.

That was my cue.

I gave a small gesture with my fingers. Six clones got the message and hit Hanzo from three angles. Two from the left, two from the right, two from above. They hit Hanzo all at once, steel flashing, chain rattling. Purple mist began spreading from Hanzo's position, because of course it was. The man couldn't throw a punch without turning the surrounding air toxic. I kept my distance, circling the perimeter, hand on my sword. Watching. Waiting. My clones were good. Good enough to give Hanzo a headache, good enough to keep him on his toes. But good wasn't the same as strong enough to put him down. Clones carried a fraction of my chakra, a fraction of my speed, a fraction of everything that made me dangerous. If anyone was going to finish this fight, it had to be the real thing.

So I watched. My clones swarmed Hanzo while Orochimaru pressed from the flank. Steel meeting chain meeting fang meeting fist. Every time my clones tightened the noose, Hanzo flickered free. Every time Orochimaru cornered him, he'd cut through and counter. The momentum kept shifting, nobody able to hold the advantage for more than a few seconds.

A couple of our Konoha jonin tried to jump in, and it went about as well as you'd expect. One of them managed to land a few jutsu before the purple cloud drifted his way and forced him back. Another lasted a bit longer, trading blows alongside my clones for a good few seconds before Hanzo caught him with a kick that sent him flying. He was still trying to get up when the poison hit. I saw his hands go to his throat, choking as the toxin flooded his lungs, and Hanzo's kusarigama was already coming around for his neck. But I was already there. Chain met blade in a shriek of sparks, my steel guiding his arc wide. The sickle kissed air instead of throat. Hanzo's wrist flicked, chain coiling back for another angle, but Orochimaru's futon was already screaming toward him. He flickered sideways to dodge, landed, and immediately had to flicker again as two of my clones rushed him from behind. That bought the poisoned nin enough time to stumble backward, still alive, still suffering.

One of my clones scooped him up and sprinted toward the spot where Tsunade was patching people up.

Tsk. I clicked my tongue.

Hanzo's shunshin was better than I'd expected. And I'd expected a lot. Every time Orochimaru predicted where he'd land, he just didn't land there. Every time a jutsu was already flying toward his projected trajectory, he'd blink somewhere else and keep moving.

Still, Orochimaru wasn't doing badly either. Actually, he was doing pretty damn well. This was my first time seeing him fight in action, and the guy didn't disappoint.

He was good at reading movement. Better than good. The way he tracked Hanzo's patterns, anticipated where each dodge would end up, and already had something flying toward that spot before Hanzo finished moving. More than fast. Every move had thought behind it, layers of it. He'd throw one jutsu to force a dodge, then have a second jutsu ready for wherever the dodge took Hanzo, then a third to catch the counter-dodge. Layer after layer of prediction, each one building on the last.

And he could spam. That was the other thing. Orochimaru's chakra reserves were ridiculous. Jutsu after jutsu after jutsu, barely a pause between them, hands flying through seals like his hands were on autopilot while the rest of him watched. Water bullets, wind blades, more snakes, earth spikes, something that might have been lightning, all of it flowing out of him in a constant stream.

No wonder they were going to call him a Sannin someday. The guy was a beast.

I glanced back at Tsunade'. She wasn't in the fight, just like we'd planned. Her job was keeping people alive, and she was doing it. Three nin were already laid out around her, green chakra flowing from her palms as she worked on their systems. Two days of poking and prodding at my poisoned body had given her plenty of practice with Hanzo's toxin. Now she was putting that research to use. A couple of my clones were handling the wounded who weren't poisoned, patching cuts and stabilizing breaks so Tsunade could focus on what only she could fix.

So far, so good. The plan was holding. Which was exactly when I spotted him from the corner of my eye. Ame nin in the trees to my right, thinking he was being clever.

Shunshin carried me across the gap in a crackle of blue-white sparks. The Ame nin was mid-jutsu, hands frozen in seals, attention locked on Orochimaru's back. He never knew I was there until my wakizashi was already through his spine.

He fell from the branch in a tangle of limbs and blood, crashing through leaves on his way down. Dead man falling, except he didn't know it yet. Or maybe he did, because his hand was already going for his belt. Explosive tags. Enough of them to make a mess. He looked up at me with eyes that said he knew exactly how this was going to end and he was fine with it as long as I came along.

Shame I had other plans.

I flickered after him. My hand blurred and suddenly he was falling in two pieces instead of one, both tumbling through the air along with the pack of tags he never got to use. I snatched the tags before they could disappear into the undergrowth, one flick of the wrist and they disappeared into my storage seal.

Waste not, want not.

I pulled back into the shadows, keeping to the treeline as I circled back toward Hanzo's position. Through the tangle of branches and hanging vines, I watched the main event, and what I saw made me pause.

Orochimaru was pinned. Hanzo had closed the gap and locked him there, too close for ninjutsu, too tight for tricks. Nothing but fists and elbows and knees, trading at speeds that made everything else look slow. And here was the surprise of the day, Orochimaru wasn't losing. Wasn't winning either, but the fact that he was keeping up at all was impressive. His body moved like it didn't have bones in the usual places, bending and twisting around strikes that should have landed, slipping through gaps most people wouldn't even see. Hanzo threw a combination that would've killed most people three times over. Orochimaru slithered through it like the snake he was.

Didn't last, though. Nothing good ever did.

Hanzo found an opening. His heel crashed into Orochimaru's chest and suddenly the snake user was airborne. One of my clones was already there, catching him mid-flight and spinning him away from the follow-up that was definitely coming.

It came.

Hanzo's kusarigama found the clone's neck instead of Orochimaru's.

The clone didn't panic. Just smiled.

Bang.

The explosion swallowed everything in a ten-foot radius. Hanzo flickered back, fire and debris tearing apart the air he'd just left behind.

I let out a breath. Of course it wasn't going to be easy. I'd known that going in. But the question wasn't whether we could beat him. The question was how long he could keep this up. As if on cue, more of my clones dropped from the trees, swelling the numbers again.

Steel flashed. Chain sang. Everything became a whirlwind of violence that blurred together if you blinked. Hanzo cut down one clone, kusarigama ripping through its chest. Three more dropped from the branches to take its place. He poisoned another, watched it choke and pop into smoke. Three more landed behind him. The numbers kept climbing.

Hanzo was strong. Hanzo was fast. Hanzo was a legend. But legends still got tired. This was attrition, and the trick to winning a war of attrition was simple. Don't run out first. I had clones stationed further back doing nothing but keeping the numbers up. Hanzo could swing that kusarigama all day. Wouldn't matter. Every clone he cut down just meant he was a little more tired for the next one. Every replacement was a reminder that I could do this all day.

And it wasn't just my clones anymore.

More Konoha nin were trickling in now, the ones who'd finished mopping up the scattered Ame forces with my clones' help. They weren't stupid enough to charge Hanzo head-on. Instead they fell into a support role, letting my clones play vanguard while they threw kunai, shuriken, and jutsu from the back line. A fireball here. A wind blade there. Nothing that would kill Hanzo on its own, but enough to keep him guessing, keep him moving, keep the momentum firmly on our side.

Good enough.

I pulled back from the front, letting my clones handle the grind, and made my way over to where Tsunade was working.

Orochimaru was laid out on the ground next to her, looking paler than usual. Which was saying something, considering the guy's default complexion was "hasn't seen sunlight in years."

"How's Orochimaru-san doing?" I asked.

"Poison got him." Tsunade didn't look up from her work. "Not too bad though. Five minutes and he'll be good as new."

"Good as new might be generous," Orochimaru murmured. "I'll settle for functional."

"You'll take what I give you." Her tone didn't leave room for argument. "Now stop talking and let me work."

"Five minutes, huh." I raised an eyebrow at her. "That's plenty of time. By then I'll have either killed Hanzo or sent him running with his tail between his legs."

"Sure you will." She didn't bother hiding her skepticism. "Last time you 'fought' Hanzo, I spent two days keeping you alive."

"Two days well spent, sensei. I came out of it smarter."

"Confidence is a valuable trait in a shinobi." Orochimaru managed a weak chuckle. "At your age, even more so."

"Don't encourage him." She didn't look up from her work. "His head's big enough already." She paused, then jerked her chin toward me. "Make yourself useful. Get some clones over here. I could use extra hands dealing with all this poison."

"The poison cases too?"

"Your clones can handle a little multitasking." She shot me a look. "Pull some from wherever. Good learning opportunity. Hanzo's toxin isn't something you see every day."

Hard to argue with that logic.

I raised a hand and made a small gesture. A handful of clones that had been holding the perimeter dropped down and jogged over to Tsunade's position, already rolling up their sleeves.

Two minutes later, Orochimaru pushed himself up on one elbow, color slowly returning to his face, which meant he'd graduated from "actively dying" to merely "having a terrible afternoon."

"Feeling better?" I asked.

"Better is relative. But my legs are working again, so that's something."

"Hanzo's poison is brutal," Tsunade muttered. "You're lucky you didn't inhale more of it."

"Lucky." Orochimaru smiled thinly. "Yes. That's the word I'd use."

He sat up the rest of the way, slowly, and looked around. Clones running supplies. Wounded being patched up. The faint sounds of fighting in the distance where my clones were keeping Hanzo busy. Orochimaru took it all in, then his eyes slid to me. "What's happening on the other fronts?"

I went quiet for a second, sifting through the memories trickling in from clones scattered across half the country. Battlefields. Supply lines. Skirmishes. And one very big fight happening far to the west.

"Hokage-sama and the Kazekage are still going at it," I said. "Stalemate so far. Hard to tell which way it'll tip."

"Stalemate." Orochimaru's eyes narrowed slightly. "That's a generous reading. A stalemate between two Kage tends to favor whichever side has more bodies to throw at the problem."

"Good thing that's us, then." I shrugged. "Look, I can't see the Third losing to the Kazekage. Either he takes it outright, or Suna and River bleed enough that pulling back starts looking real attractive. Either way, all we need to do is keep Hanzo pinned down long enough for—"

The ground shook under my feet, cutting me off. A deep rolling vibration that traveled up through my legs and into my chest, followed by a roar that didn't sound like anything human.

Everyone turned sharply toward Hanzo's location.

"W-what was that?" One of the wounded nin asked, voice cracking.

I didn't answer right away. We were too far to see anything, but the sound alone painted a pretty ugly picture.

"That," I said slowly, "would be Hanzo getting tired of playing around." I let out a breath. "He's bringing out his salamander. Things are about to get significantly worse."

Tsunade glanced at me. "Then pull back. You don't need to be anywhere near that thing. Your clones can handle it." She paused. "Better yet, head back to the village we passed. The wounded there are in rough shape, and the clones you left behind could use the real you. You'd be more useful there anyway, and it's safer."

"Nice try." I crossed my arms. "You're not as subtle as you think. The answer's no. I'm staying."

"This isn't me being protective. It's simple logic." Her voice got harder. "Your clones are already handling it. You showing up in person is just risk with no payoff."

"Risk with no payoff, she says." I glanced at Orochimaru, who was still looking pale and horizontal. "You're not very convincing, sensei. Orochimaru-san is lying right there, paralyzed, because you're the only thing keeping him from staying that way. And you want me to leave you both behind?"

Tsunade's jaw tightened. "That's different."

"Is it?" I chuckled and shook my head. "No way am I leaving my sensei alone with a giant salamander stomping around. What kind of student would that make me?"

I turned to Orochimaru. "Get back on your feet soon, Orochimaru-san. I'll keep things warm for you."

Then I flickered toward Hanzo's location, Tsunade's voice calling after me fading into the distance behind.

I didn't get far before I spotted trouble coming my way. Four of my clones, each one carrying a paralyzed nin over their shoulders, moving fast in my direction. Their bodies were stiff, limbs locked up, faces frozen in expressions that said they'd seen something they really wished they hadn't.

So Hanzo had finally brought it out.

I made a gesture with my hand. The clone trailing behind me nodded once and vanished, heading back to tell the production line to pick up the pace. We were going to need a lot more bodies for this, especially with the stomping getting louder by the second.

Each step I took brought worse shaking. Not tremors anymore. The ground was bucking and heaving like it was trying to throw me off, and the noise was getting uglier.

Then I saw it.

The salamander was massive. Building-sized wasn't an exaggeration. It filled the clearing, dwarfing everything around it, four thick legs holding up a body that could crush a house without noticing. Hanzo stood on top of its head, arms crossed, calm as anything while his pet did all the work. My clones were scrambling, dodging left and right as the thing stomped around trying to turn them into paste. A few Konoha nin weren't fast enough. One got caught under a massive foot and just... stopped being a person. Red smear on the dirt, armor flattened into the mud. The salamander kept going, not even pausing.

Purple fog was spreading through the forest now, rolling out from the creature in thick waves.

I pulled back to the edge of the fog's reach, where more of my clones were already waiting. They knew what was coming without me having to say it. Fourteen of them lined up beside me, fifteen total, and we started forming seals together. Hands blurred. Seals formed. Fifteen mouths opened at the same time.

"Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku."

Fifteen streams of fire became one. It merged, fed on itself, and became a wall of destruction that ate the clearing alive. The heat rolling back was enough to sting my skin. The swamp ahead didn't burn. It evaporated. And the salamander, that building-sized monster, let out a shriek that told me we'd gotten its attention.

I signaled for the clones to spread out. Some drew their blades and crept toward the smoke, while others circled wide, tightening the noose around the blast zone.

Then the ground trembled again. Different this time. Coming from below.

"Underground!" I shouted.

We scattered. Most of us made it.

The salamander burst from the ground with a speed that shouldn't have been possible for its bulk. Its jaws snapped shut on two of my clones before they could react. A third got swatted out of the air by a leg the size of a tree trunk. They tried to detonate. Hanzo didn't let them. His kama flashed, one, two, three, and three headless clones popped into smoke without so much as a spark.

Then it charged.

Trees shattered against its body as it barreled through the swamp, not even bothering to go around them. And from its mouth came a cloud of purple, spraying out in a wide cone that moved way faster than I'd expected. Four of my clones got caught in it before they could react, bodies seizing up as the poison hit their systems.

I didn't wait to see if they'd recover.

I triggered the clones.

Four explosions went off simultaneously, the combined blast big enough to rock the salamander sideways. It roared, louder and uglier than before, and I felt a bit of satisfaction as I flickered away.

"Hey, Hanzo!" I called out, already moving in the opposite direction from Tsunade and the wounded. "Hope you like your pet well-done! I'm just getting started!"

Hanzo took the bait. The salamander wheeled around and came after me, which was exactly what I wanted. See, the thing about being bait is that it only works if you're worth chasing. And right now, I was the most annoying thing on this battlefield. Every second Hanzo spent trying to squash me was a second he wasn't spending on Tsunade and the wounded. So I ran, and I kept the clones coming.

The next wave didn't bother with subtlety. Katon from the trees above, explosive clones rushing in from the flanks. When the salamander tried to escape underground, my clones followed it down and turned the tunnel into an oven. The thing burst back to the surface looking worse than when it went in. It roared and thrashed and snapped at shadows while my clones just kept appearing, kept burning, kept exploding against its hide like the world's most persistent mosquitoes.

Ten clones in, and the salamander was starting to look crispy around the edges. Nine more, and it was trying to back away from the fight. Nine after that, and Hanzo finally decided his pet had suffered enough.

The salamander disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind nothing but scorched swamp and the distinct smell of overcooked amphibian.

I slowed down and turned around, catching Hanzo's expression from across the swamp. Even with half his face covered, the sourness was obvious. He was not happy about what had just happened to his pet.

The salamander was supposed to be his finishing move. His "I win" button. That thing was the reason he could solo three future Sannin and walk away with a cool nickname to hand out. Size, poison, durability, the ability to go underground and pop up wherever it wanted. On paper, it was terrifying.

On paper.

In practice, against a guy who could make infinite copies of himself that exploded on command and weren't afraid to chase a giant lizard into its own tunnels? The salamander was just a big target with nowhere to hide.

Some fights came down to who was stronger. This one came down to who had the worse matchup.

Spoiler: it wasn't me.

Still, no reason we couldn't be civilized about this. I held up my hands, palms out, and let a gentle smile settle on my face.

"Hanzo, buddy." I put on my best friendly neighbor voice. "How about we talk for a second?"

He kept approaching, but the fact that he wasn't already swinging at me was encouraging.

"Think about it," I continued. "You and me, we don't have any real beef with each other. Konoha didn't start this mess. We're just here because Suna and River dragged everyone into it." I shrugged. "You know who's been raiding Ame villages? Burning homes, stealing supplies, killing civilians? It's not us. It's them. Suna and River. They've been using your country as a highway and a pantry this whole time." Probably. Hopefully. I was actually not a hundred percent sure Konoha hadn't done something similar at some point because war was war and nobody's hands stayed clean forever, but Hanzo didn't need to hear that part.

Hanzo's pace didn't change. His eyes didn't leave mine.

"Konoha would love to help Ame get some justice for that," I said. "We've got a common enemy here. Doesn't make sense for us to keep killing each other while the real problem walks away clean." Pretty good sales pitch, if I did say so myself. If I ever got tired of being a shinobi, maybe I had a future in politics.

And for a moment, I thought he might actually consider it. His steps slowed. His head tilted slightly, like he was weighing the words.

Then he started sprinting.

"Worth a shot," I muttered, and flickered back just as his kama sang toward my neck.

He tried to chase. Nine flickers of lightning stopped him, converging around Hanzo in a loose circle, electricity still dancing off their shoulders. They didn't wait for him to react before swinging, and just like that, Hanzo became the center of a hurricane. Chain whipping in circles, feet never still, hands a blur as he blocked, parried, killed, blocked again. Clones popped into smoke. More took their place. Every time he cut one down, two more would pile on from different angles.

The man was a monster, no question about it. But even monsters had limits. I kept my distance. Every time Hanzo flickered my way, I flickered the other way.

Hanzo was fast. I'd give him that. Probably the fastest person I'd ever crossed blades with, and I'd crossed blades with some annoyingly quick people. But there's fast, and then there's Yellow Flash fast. Guess which one Hanzo was. He wasn't "blink and you're already dead" fast. He was "blink and you might be dead if you're not paying attention" fast, and I was grateful for that gap.

The first time Hanzo and I went at it, right after I'd gotten my hands on Chiyo, things had been very different. He'd caught me with my pants down, metaphorically speaking. Ambushed, alone, scrambling to make clones while a legend was doing his best to separate my head from my shoulders. That hadn't been a fight. That had been me desperately trying not to die while the universe laughed at my misfortune. This time? This time I had a clone factory pumping out bodies somewhere in the trees behind me. Every clone Hanzo cut down just meant another three were already on their way. I had chakra for days and enough spare bodies to fill a cemetery. Victory wasn't a question of if anymore. Just when.

Even if I couldn't take Hanzo's head home as a souvenir, I could still win this. Chakra ran out eventually. So did stamina. Hanzo might be a legend, but legends still got tired. All I had to do was keep the pressure on until he slipped up. And here's the funny part. Even if I could kill him, I probably shouldn't.

Hanzo was a problem for Konoha, sure. But he was also a problem for Suna. A problem for Iwa. A bigger problem for them than he was for us, actually. The guy had been holding Ame together through sheer reputation for years, and that reputation came from making everyone else's life miserable. Take him out of the equation, and suddenly Konoha's situation got a lot more complicated. Better to let him live and keep being a thorn in everyone's side.

Politics. Even in the middle of a fight, you couldn't escape politics. But enough of that. I had a legend to cook. I raised my hand, and six clones got the message. They didn't stop attacking. If anything, they got more aggressive, crowding Hanzo, forcing exchanges, keeping his kusarigama busy. Hanzo's chain sang. So did their blades. One clone dropped into a spinning sweep. Another came high. Hanzo caught both and shoved them back, already turning to deal with the next. Then his eyes caught it. Gold. Glowing from every socket around him. Six clones, still fighting, eyes lit up like lanterns.

They went off together. Twenty feet of forest disappeared in a roar of fire and force, the shockwave flattening everything around it.

The debris was still falling when I saw Hanzo looking at me like I'd spat in his breakfast. Was he breathing harder? Maybe. A little. I wanted to say yes, but the guy had a mask covering half his face, so who really knew. Could've been exhaustion. Could've been allergies. Ame had a lot of pollen this time of year. Probably. More importantly, were we even halfway through his reserves yet? I'd thrown a small army's worth of clones at him and the man still looked like he could go another three rounds.

But enough about Hanzo's health. A clone near the back just popped and gave me the update. Tsunade and Orochimaru were incoming, and they weren't alone. Looks like sensei got tired of waiting.

I couldn't help myself. I really couldn't.

"Hey, Hanzo." I raised my voice, making sure he could hear me over the crackling fires. "Just thought you should know. My sensei's on her way here with a lot of friends. Might want to consider a tactical retreat while you still can."

Hanzo's expression didn't change. If anything, it got flatter. "More nonsense from your mouth."

"I'm being serious here. Genuinely trying to help you out. One enemy to another."

"You expect me to believe—"

The ground exploded with snakes, and for a split second Hanzo's eyes went wide, thinking that the brat was actually telling the truth. He flickered left as the first wave lunged for his ankles. Flickered right as the second tried to catch him mid-shunshin. A third erupted directly under his feet and he twisted midair, kusarigama slicing them apart before they could coil. For a second, I thought he might actually slip away. Then the fourth wave hit.

They came from every direction, too many to dodge, too fast to cut. They caught his legs first and yanked. Hanzo hit the ground hard, mud spraying, and before he could push himself up, more snakes were on him. Arms pinned. Torso wrapped. His body dragged a few feet through the muck before they locked him in place. He struggled against the bindings, muscles straining, but the snakes held firm.

Then the sky got dark.

I looked up just in time to see Tsunade falling from the sky like an angry comet, leg cocked back, heel ready to introduce itself to Hanzo's face. The amount of chakra she'd loaded into that kick was frankly excessive. In the best way possible.

Hanzo saw it too. And even wrapped up in snakes, even with his arms pinned, he didn't panic. His hands twitched. Strained. Then, with what must have been a great amount of raw strength, he forced his palms together through the coils.

He clapped.

The ground in front of him erupted. His salamander burst out of the earth, jaws wide open, and swallowed Tsunade whole before her kick could land. Which, as it turned out, was a mistake. Not because she'd fight her way out, though she probably would. But because her kick had already been loaded with enough force to level a small building, and catching her mid-swing just meant the salamander absorbed all of it. Its belly bulged grotesquely, the force rippling through its body from the inside, and suddenly the summon was airborne, flying straight toward Hanzo.

Hanzo tried to move. His muscles bulged as he strained against the coils, raw strength tearing through snake after snake. But not fast enough.

His own summon crashed into him like a scaly, half-cooked wrecking ball, and suddenly Hanzo and his salamander were rolling across the dirt like the world's ugliest tumbleweed.

I didn't wait for them to stop.

I hit the lightning shunshin hard, electricity crackling across my body as I closed the distance. Hanzo hadn't even stopped bouncing when my blade was already coming for his throat, lightning dancing along the edge.

He blocked it.

Even tumbling through the air, even tangled with his own summon, the man got his kama up in time. Sparks exploded between us.

I kept coming. Slash, parry, sparks. Slash, parry, sparks. Again. Again. Again. Our blades became a storm of steel and lightning, ringing so fast the sounds blurred into one continuous scream. My arms were burning. I ignored it. Faster. I pushed more lightning into my limbs, felt my muscles protest, ignored them. Faster. Another slash. Another. Another. My vision tunneled down to nothing but Hanzo and his kama and the space between us that I refused to let him have.

Which made me miss the chain wrapping around my ankle until it was too late. Hanzo yanked. The world spun. I was hurtling toward a tree faster than any human body should travel sideways. A clone flickered in before I got there, caught me mid-flight, twisted with the rotation, lightning arcing off both of us like a spinning top made of electricity, and launched me back even faster. The air split with a crack as I rocketed back at Hanzo, lightning screaming along my blade. Hanzo's eyes widened and he flickered. Fast enough to dodge a killing blow. Not fast enough to dodge everything. My edge kissed his cheek as he shunshin'd away, leaving sparks and singed flesh behind.

Blood ran down his cheek. He didn't even flinch. If anything, it made him angrier. He pressed in hard, kama a blur, and for a few seconds I was on the back foot, blocking and weaving and looking for openings that weren't there. Then Hanzo flickered left. I read it and was already there to meet him. That's when Orochimaru came in like a missile from below.

He burst from the ground in an explosion of mud and snakes, body corkscrewing upward, foot driving toward Hanzo's chin. Hanzo aborted his attack on me and bent backward to avoid it, his whole torso curving like a drawn bow. Orochimaru didn't stop. He twisted midair, converted his momentum into a spinning heel drop aimed at Hanzo's chest. Hanzo crossed his arms to block. The impact drove him down.

I was already falling toward him from above, blade screaming with lightning.

He saw me coming. Tried to flicker away. Orochimaru's snake caught his ankle mid-shunshin, buying me the split second I needed. My wakizashi came down. But not yet. Not yet. I poured more lightning into the blade. More. More. The steel started glowing. My arm was on fire, and I didn't care. More voltage. The black metal shifted to orange, then yellow, then blinding white. My nerves were screaming. I was screaming. The blade came down like a falling star.

I should've known it wouldn't be that easy. Hanzo’s palm slammed into the ground even as Orochimaru's snakes tightened around him. Doton. A wall of compressed earth shot up between us. That wasn't all. The earth behind the wall exploded. The salamander burst from the ground in a spray of mud and rock, swallowing Hanzo before diving back down, trying to escape.

‘Trying’ being the key word. It saved Hanzo. It didn't save itself.

The falling star was faster. Faster than the wall. Faster than the salamander. Faster than the pain screaming up from my palm where the handle was melting into my glove. I swung anyway.

White-hot steel kissed stone first, carved through it like paper, then kept going into scales. The cut burned as it opened, flesh sizzling, blood evaporating before it could spill. The arc of my swing carried past the salamander, the residual heat slicing clean through every tree in its path. They toppled in silence, their cut ends glowing orange, while the swamp water around us flash-boiled into steam. The salamander shrieked, a sound I'd never heard from it before, its side split open deep enough to see organs.

It dove back underground immediately, fleeing, the earth cracking and splitting in its wake as it tunneled away.

One pet down. One Hanzo still very much alive. I didn't relax. My eyes scanned the churned earth, blade still smoking in my grip. The salamander might be out of commission, might even be dead from a wound like that, but the man who summoned it was a different story. Would he come back? Guys like Hanzo didn't know how to stay down. The ground stayed still. No rumbling. No eruptions. Nothing. I was starting to think maybe he'd had enough for today when I caught Orochimaru in the corner of my eye. He was swaying on his feet, face paler than usual, which was saying something.

Then the cough hit me.

My lungs tightened, muscles cramping right behind them. Must've been the salamander's poison. My legs felt like they were filled with lead and my chest was doing its best to turn itself inside out.

Every step was a negotiation with gravity. Orochimaru wasn't doing much better, pale as a sheet and moving like his joints had forgotten how joints were supposed to work. Between the two of us, we had maybe one functioning body, and even that was generous.

Then a hand grabbed the back of my collar.

Another grabbed Orochimaru's.

And suddenly we were moving.

Not by choice, and definitely not by our own legs, more like two ragdolls being dragged by a very pouty woman. The fog whipped past us as Tsunade hauled us out of the swamp at a dead sprint, and I'd have been impressed if I wasn't busy trying to keep my feet under me. Orochimaru had given up on that entirely, his boots scraping the mud like a kid being pulled away from a candy store.

"I can't believe I'm carrying two grown men out of a swamp," she muttered.

"Pretty sure this counts as dragging," I wheezed, bouncing off a root. "Carrying implies more care."

We cleared the fog line and met the incoming squad halfway, a mix of Konoha nin and a handful of my clones. Tsunade released us like she was dropping two sacks of rice, and I stumbled forward a step before my knees remembered they hated me.

Tsunade took one look at us and her hands were already glowing green. "God, you're a mess. Both of you."

"Love you too, sensei," I muttered.

"Shut up and let me work."

I shut up and let her work.

…

AN: See, i can be nice, theres no cliffhanger this time. I wanted to fit in a Danzo or Jiraiya side of things too but the fight ended up going way longer than i thought it would lol