Chapter 125: The Death of Hanzo
Just as Sakumo Hatake's body began to crackle with lightning, he found himself freezing in place, his mouth hanging open in shock.
Before his eyes, the scene had taken a sharp, unexpected turn. Hanzo—who by all rights should have held the absolute advantage, or at the very least, been on the verge of mortally wounding Hatani—was actively retreating.
It wasn't a tactical repositioning, either. It was a panicked, clumsy withdrawal. Hanzo was forced to flee after taking two shallow but stinging cuts from Hatani's clones, looking utterly disheveled.
In truth, Hanzo was beyond frustrated.
He had expected that by unsealing his "ultimate weapon"—his toxic breath—he would end the fight instantly. Instead, he was met with the humiliating realization that this logic-defying brat was completely unaffected by the gas.
Worse yet, with Windrun active, Hatani's speed had surged even further, making him a lethal threat.
Though the concentrated gale allowed Hanzo to finally distinguish the real Hatani from the sea of illusions, the boy was no fool. Hatani, whose Kenjutsu and Taijutsu were technically far inferior to Hanzo's, simply used his clones as human shields. He sacrificed their "lives" to intercept every one of Hanzo's killing strikes, maintaining a perfect stalemate.
As Hanzo finally regained a modicum of composure, he was forced to admit the unthinkable: he was being suppressed by a child.
More importantly, now that he was thinking clearly, he realized that Hatani's bizarre cloning technique consumed almost no chakra. He had destroyed over a dozen clones since the start of the skirmish, yet Hatani showed no signs of exhaustion. Six or seven more illusions were still hounding him, their movements as vigorous as ever.
Hanzo weighed his options. With his current lack of intel, killing Hatani today was an impossibility. Making a snap decision, he allowed a clone to slice his arm and another to graze his shoulder—non-lethal trades—to create the opening he needed to trigger a Body Flicker and escape.
He finally managed to exhale a breath of stagnant air, his heart relaxing slightly as he widened the distance. Glaring back at the silhouette of Hatani, who was still shrouded in swirling winds, Hanzo felt a surge of bitter regret. He cursed himself for not setting an Exploding Flame Formation trap beforehand. If he had, the moment he blinked away, he could have detonated the ground and at least crippled the brat's legs.
He began to mentally simulate their next encounter, plotting how to kill the boy.
First rule: Never engage him in close-quarters Taijutsu. Today's humiliation proved that unless one possessed the freakish, lightning-fast lethality of the Raikage—no, even someone like the Raikage would be ground down by those infinite clones if they failed to land a decisive "one-hit kill" on the true body.
"Hatani, are you all right?"
Ignoring the resentment and wariness brewing in Hanzo's heart, Sakumo Hatake rushed to Hatani's side. He retrieved his White Fang tantō, his voice a mix of concern and genuine awe.
Hatani's performance had been nothing short of miraculous.
Sakumo's gaze lingered on the flowing "Wind Armor" still enveloping the boy. He had seen it before, but he never imagined it could act as a perfect filter against such potent toxins. He realized that in a few years, once Hatani reached his prime, he would become Hanzo's natural predator.
After all, Hanzo's greatest terror was his poison. If Hatani was immune, he was the legend's perfect counter.
(In another timeline, the Six Paths of Pain would prove this exact point. Aside from Nagato's god-like power, the fact that the six bodies were corpses made them entirely immune to Hanzo's most troublesome weapon.)
But Hatani didn't answer Sakumo. His eyes were fixed on the retreating figure of Hanzo.
Sakumo believed Hatani would be Hanzo's bane in the future. Hatani, however, wanted the man dead now.
He waited for the exact moment Hanzo exhaled—the moment the legend's guard, which had been stretched to its limit, finally suffered a momentary lapse after escaping the immediate combat zone.
In that heartbeat, Hatani's figure vanished into thin air.
It wasn't until Hanzo saw the wolf-like ferocity in the boy's eyes that reality finally caught up to him.
Then came the white-hot agony of his heart being pierced. His face contorted in a grimace of pain. With the last of his strength, he swung his sickle in a wide arc, a desperate, instinctive attempt to drag his opponent with him to the Pure Land.
But Hatani was ready. Having landed the blow, his form blurred into an indistinct haze, vanishing from Hanzo's sight once more.
It was that same nameless, bizarre cloning technique.
So... he really did know the Flying Raijin!
Everything else... the clones, the Wind Style... it was all just a feint to lull me into a false sense of security.
As the light faded from his eyes and the world grew cold and dark, Hanzo finally "understood."
But it was a realization that came far too late.
"Hatani... you... did you master the Flying Raijin as well?"
Sakumo Hatake looked at Hanzo's corpse. The "Legend" lay there, eyes wide and staring at Hatani even in death. Sakumo's expression was profoundly complex.
He wasn't entirely shocked that Hatani could learn the technique; they were brothers, after all, and shared a similar genius. But the sheer speed at which Hatani was manifesting new, high-level abilities was becoming hard to process.
Minato was impressive, but he was nearly fifteen and had been a Chunin for three years. Hatani had graduated less than a year ago.
The surviving member of the Hokage Guard stared at Hatani as if he were looking at a monster. He made a mental note to report every detail to Hiruzen Sarutobi—not just as the Hokage, but as the head of the Sarutobi clan. The need to tie the Namikaze brothers to their cause had just become a top priority.
"My Flying Raijin is still very crude," Hatani explained.
He had already prepared his excuse when he decided to reveal the Phantom Lancer's traits to kill Hanzo. Seeing that they were more focused on the "teleportation" than the bizarre nature of his clones, he leaned into the deception.
"I can only manage short-range bursts, and there's a significant cooldown. I'm nowhere near as proficient as Minato."
To prevent the loyal guard from "overselling" him to the Hokage, Hatani carefully weighed his words and emphasized his "limitations."
"To achieve this much in such a short time is already a feat for the history books," the Sarutobi guard interjected, offering a word of comfort before Sakumo could speak.
"I have no doubt that you will be as skilled as Minato in the future. When that day comes, the names of the Namikaze brothers will ring through the shinobi world, just like the White Fang himself."
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