"I remember you are..."
Hanzou seemed to recognize the identity of the ambusher.
The ambusher retreated, escaping from Ibuse's attack range, and took a deep breath.
"Long time no see, Hanzou, I'll be taking your head."
"Even you are joining my battle, Kakuzu?"
Hanzou snorted coldly, calling out the name of the ambusher.
"Because this is business. It's prudent to take you out before your head devalues."
"Then I'll send you off!"
Hanzou's eyes turned icy.
Kakuzu appearing here is definitely not simple; he's likely a trump card supported by Hidden Rock for Hidden Sand.
Colluding with underground black market bounty hunters, especially renegade ninjas like Kakuzu, only Hidden Rock would have such audacity.
"I'd love that, but your subordinates seem unable to hold on."
Kakuzu sneered coldly, full of murderous intent.
Hanzou turned to look, and sure enough, as Kakuzu said, despite the Rain Ninja's stubborn resistance, they were steadily defeating under Hidden Sand Ninja's surrounding offensive.
"Ibuse!"
Ibuse glared at Kakuzu with hatred, starting to charge toward the Rain Ninja battlefield.
Hidden Sand Ninjas kept stepping forward to block, but facing the raging Ibuse and Hanzou who hunted from the side using swordsmanship, they couldn't restrict their pace.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Bomb Jutsu!"
The massive water dragon roared out again, forcing the surrounding Hidden Sand Ninjas back, transforming into a flood crashing their bodies, turning the ground into a lake.
"Lord Hanzou!"
Kanzo jumped onto Ibuse's back, pulling out the broken blade inserted into his arm, standing by Hanzou's side covered in blood.
"Are you alright, Kanzo?"
Seeing his trusted aide in such a state, Hanzou couldn't help but feel distressed.
Kanzo wiped the blood off his face, smiled, and said, "It's alright, because it's Lord Hanzou's will."
"I'll lead you all back alive and then properly reform this country."
Hanzou said with determined resolve.
"I believe in Lord Hanzou."
"However, speaking of which, hasn't Konoha's support arrived yet?"
Hanzou showed a puzzled expression on his face.
"Konoha's support?" Kanzo thought for a moment and answered, "No, I think they won't come to support us."
"?"
Splatter!
The blade pierced through the chest, blood splattering onto Ibuse's back.
Hanzou's body stiffened, looking at the blade penetrating from behind to the front of his chest in disbelief, turning his gaze towards Kanzo.
"Kanzo, you..."
Kanzo turned and kicked Hanzou hard in the abdomen, making him roll off Ibuse's body.
Then, he leaped off Ibuse's back, quickly hiding among the Hidden Sand crowd.
"Sorry, Lord Hanzou, but I don't want to die with you. If only we had stayed hidden in the village as before, fearing death to the extreme, just barely surviving, why play the hero now?"
If that had been the case, he wouldn't have betrayed, Kanzo thought to himself.
Therefore, he deeply despised Hanzou.
If only you continued fearing death, why stand against it? Why drag his trusted aide to die together?
His body had aged to this point, with countless hidden injuries, opposing Hidden Sand was clearly a fatal scenario.
"Lord Hanzou!"
"Kanzo, you bastard!"
The Rain Ninja rushed anxiously, their angry curses spreading.
The medical ninja quickly proceeded to stop Hanzou's bleeding.
Yet, the blade pierced Hanzou too painfully.
Not only physical pain but more so mental anguish.
Why did Kanzo betray him?
He treated him as his closest aide, taught him swordsmanship, ninja techniques; even divided part of Hidden Rain Village's authority with him, confided in him...
Pain, loss...but no regret.
"It's over, Hanzou. Let me send you off with the last puppet drama!"
Chiyo sighed, taking out a scroll from her ninja tool bag.
Moments from past encounters with Hanzou flashed to mind; she truly didn't want to send her old friend away in this manner.
But to minimize Hidden Sand's losses, she had to proceed with Kanzo's betrayal using such despicable ghostly tricks to defeat Hanzou.
Because of this, she dared clash head-on with Konoha and Hidden Rain's alliance.
After killing Hanzou, it will be Konoha of the Land of Fire's turn.
For this, she will host a grand funeral for her old friend Hanzou.
The white scroll spread open mid-air, and on it was a distinct and peculiar talisman seal.
The scroll floated in the air, Chiyo quickly formed seals, the ten characters on the scroll immediately charged with purple chakra, wrapping and emerging from the scroll's paper.
The characters mingled with purple chakra transformed into substantial human-shaped puppets, uniformly adorned in white robes, wielding different weapons, appearing surrounding Chiyo, encircling her.
"Amazing, that's Elder Chiyo's legendary strongest puppetry White Secret Technique: The Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets!"
"Indeed, controlling one puppet with each finger, it's practically a living legend."
The puppet masters naturally showed excitement and thrill, even ninjas outside puppetry understood the difficulty of manipulating ten puppets, realizing the terrifying power unleashed.
"That's the old puppet lady's Ten Finger Jutsu, we're in trouble, cough..."
Hanzou painfully furrowed his brows, stood up from the ground, limbs chilled, almost devoid of sensation.
The body's poor condition was far more troublesome than Hanzou imagined.
Simply standing up now had already exhausted him completely.