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"Bastard! Damn it, bastard! I'm gonna kill you!" Hanzo's furious roar echoed out. "Summoning Jutsu—Giant Salamander!"
With a thunderous boom, a massive salamander materialized, its huge body coiled across the ground. Four thick, muscular claws dug deep into the dirt, while a massive tail whipped through the air and slammed down with a force that made the earth tremble.
Inside the ruins of the old mansion, the giant salamander loomed over its opponent—Hayato. The two stood facing each other like monsters from a nightmare. But even in this grotesque standoff, the salamander's size dwarfed Hayato's current form.
Whoosh!The beast's tail lashed out like a battering ram, swinging straight for Hayato.
With a roar, Hayato spread his arms wide and caught the tail in a crushing grip. But the sheer power behind the blow still ripped his feet from the ground. If he hadn't been clinging on with all his strength, he'd have been sent flying like a ragdoll.
Bang!Even holding on, he was smashed into the ground with bone-rattling force, the earth shaking under the impact.
Hanzo couldn't help but sneer. So what if this ninja was strong? No amount of skill could match the raw, overwhelming strength of a summoning beast this size.
But just as his smug grin spread, Hayato let out a deafening shout. His body—already large—bulked up even further, muscles swelling and straining as he kept his iron grip on the salamander's tail. His arms tightened, and with a sudden surge of power—
BOOM!—he swung the colossal creature off its feet and slammed it to the ground with an earth-shaking crash.
The ground rumbled like an earthquake as Hayato heaved the salamander up again, pivoted, and smashed it in the opposite direction. Over and over, he whipped it around, pounding it into the earth until the terrain was pockmarked with massive craters.
"You've gotta be kidding me…" Hanzo stared, utterly dumbfounded. The strength… the sheer brutality was insane.
The poor salamander was all but dazed, its armored scales shattered and falling away in chunks. Black blood gushed from its body, leaking from its mouth as well—its venom sacs crushed to pulp inside.
"You bastard! Die!" Hanzo's face twisted with rage as he saw his summoning beast on the brink of death. Ripping off the respirator clamped between his teeth, he opened his mouth wide and exhaled a thick, choking cloud of poison straight toward Hayato.
This was no ordinary toxin—strong enough to sicken even Hanzo himself, who had an immunity to the salamander's venom. Its potency was beyond anything a human could withstand.
The poisonous fog engulfed Hayato completely. Hanzo smirked coldly. No one had ever survived his poison before—no one.
But then—A massive fist, as big as a water barrel, burst through the swirling miasma and shot toward him in the blink of an eye.
Thud!Gritting his teeth, Hanzo thrust his arms upward and caught the incoming blow above his head, stopping it just before it smashed him into the ground.
But catching it didn't mean surviving it. The force drove him waist-deep into the earth, his bones shattering under the pressure. The impact ripped through him, tearing muscle, damaging organs—his body breaking apart from the inside out.
"Huuh!"
Hayato's massive fist came crashing down, and Hanzō the Salamander's arm went limp, completely shattered. He couldn't even lift it anymore—his body simply wouldn't respond. All fight had left him.
Bang!
The enormous fist smashed into Hanzō's body from above with bone-crushing force. Blood splattered.
Hanzō the Salamander—the leader of the Hidden Rain. The man once called a demi-god of the ninja world. At this very moment… he lay dead under Hayato's massive fist.
"Lord Hanzō!"
"Bastard! You killed Lord Hanzō!"
"Revenge! Kill him!"
"Charge!"
Among the remaining Rain ninja, some turned and fled the instant their leader fell. But the ones who were truly loyal to Hanzō let out furious cries and rushed straight at Hayato.
Hayato glared at the oncoming shinobi, let out a roar that shook the air, and raised his giant fist again.
Not far from Hanzō's estate, a small snake had been watching the whole time. The moment it saw Hanzō die, it flicked its tongue with a faint hiss, then burrowed into the ground and quickly vanished.
Elsewhere, in the middle of his fight with the Iwa-nin, Orochimaru's eyes narrowed, a strange smile creeping across his face.
"So it's true… not even Hanzō's poison can touch him. Impressive… Hayato," he murmured, his gaze burning with interest.
It turned out Hanzō's conflict with Hayato hadn't been pure coincidence. Orochimaru had been pulling strings behind the scenes. He hadn't done much—just a subtle nudge here and there—because he knew both Hanzō's and Hayato's personalities well enough. All it took was a little push, and the situation spiraled into what was happening now.
Typical Orochimaru—calculating to the core.
Back in the Rain Country, Hanzō's estate was nothing but a field of torn limbs and scattered bodies, many so mangled they no longer looked human. A massive green giant stood in the middle of it all. Apart from him, only three survivors remained—three children.
Konan and the others stared at Hayato, eyes wide with horror. His wild, berserk fighting style didn't distinguish between friend or foe. More than once, they had almost been killed by the shockwaves of his attacks.
"....."