Jixo
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473 Adopted by the Second Hokage!
🕑 Added 2026-01-08 06:10:01 +0000 UTCA few days later.
"Poison Master, aren't we going to attack the Ninja Alliance yet?"
Hanzo the Salamander lay on the ground, turning his head to look at Renya basking in the sun beside him, unable to hold back the question.
He had been in the Land of Water for several days now. Every day, aside from eating and sleeping, he did nothing but follow Renya around to sunbathe.
"What's the rush?" Renya had his eyes closed and didn't even glance at him.
"Your Land of Rain rains every day. I think you should get more sunlight, or sooner or later you'll end up with rheumatism."
Hanzo the Salamander: "..."
Is this really the time to worry about rheumatism?
Shouldn't they be discussing how to snatch the Six-Tails jinchūriki from the Ninja Alliance?
Faced with Renya's bizarre train of thought, Hanzo was completely out of ideas.
Hanzo had reason to suspect that Renya was deliberately stalling for time!
"Renya-sama, let's hurry up and capture the tailed beast!" Tobi really couldn't stand it anymore and urged anxiously.
"Madara-sama didn't leave us much time."
Uchiha Madara had given them only twenty days in total, and Renya had already wasted several of them.
The Ninja Alliance was massive in number; he couldn't guarantee that the White Zetsu army would succeed in one go.
Without enough time for trial and error, the mission was very likely to fail!
They had already failed once before—Tobi didn't want to disappoint Madara-sama again...
"Nag, nag, nag—always nagging." Renya shot it an annoyed look. "Don't you know how important it is to rest and build up strength?!"
Tobi was really too much of a nuisance.
Looks like he needed to find an excuse to get rid of it, or it would keep chirping nonstop.
A classic case of the eunuch being anxious when the emperor isn't!
"But... you've already been resting for several days..." Tobi said weakly.
Although Renya's plan was to wait for the right time, this wasn't how you waited!
If he let this go on, the mission would never be completed.
It seemed necessary to report everything Renya-sama had been doing during this time to Madara-sama, down to the smallest detail.
It wasn't that he didn't want to complete the mission—it was just that Renya-sama wasn't pulling his weight!
Yes, that's right.
Seeing this, Renya knew he couldn't keep dragging things out any longer.
Otherwise, Tobi would definitely tattle to Madara...
"Three days from now, we launch a surprise attack on the Ninja Alliance encampment!"
As soon as he said this, Hanzo the Salamander and Tobi were instantly invigorated.
At last, it was starting?
"I'll discuss the battle plan with you. Tobi, you're responsible for gathering a small number of White Zetsu to harass the Ninja Alliance, while Hanzo the Salamander and I take the opportunity to infiltrate the camp."
"Understood!" Tobi said excitedly.
It had a secret it had never told Renya—that it had already secretly gathered a thousand White Zetsu.
When the time came, using them all to draw attention would definitely earn Renya-sama's praise!
For a task assigned by a superior, exceeding expectations was perfectly normal.
Just imagining the plan succeeding and receiving praise from both Madara-sama and Renya-sama made Tobi's grin stretch almost to its ears.
"Hanzo, remember—when infiltrating the camp, you must conceal your identity. So you cannot use weapons or poison mist!"
Renya specifically reminded him again.
Hanzo the Salamander: "???"
If he couldn't use weapons or poison mist, then what the hell was he infiltrating for?
Who didn't know that Hanzo the Salamander was famous for poison?
Without the salamander's poison mist and his trusty weapons, his combat power would be reduced by at least forty percent!
He would drop straight from a Kage-level powerhouse to an utterly unremarkable jōnin.
In that state, if he were discovered infiltrating the camp by the Ninja Alliance, he'd definitely be hacked into minced meat by the elite jōnin inside!
Hanzo the Salamander finally saw it clearly—Renya had invited him here purely to die...
If he hadn't already given his word to the Poison Master, he would have turned around and left on the spot.
Renya seemed to see through his thoughts and spoke softly.
"If you don't hide your identity and let the Five Great Nations know that the leader of Amegakure is involved in capturing tailed beasts, do you think, in their fury, they wouldn't send troops to wipe your country out?"
"Hanzo, you don't want the people of your nation to suffer because of this, do you?"
This wasn't empty talk—it was something extremely likely to happen.
All Five Great Nations knew that tailed beasts were key to Uchiha Madara's 'Eye of the Moon' plan, and the Eye of the Moon was a brutal, inhumane plan to destroy the world.
If the Six-Tails wasn't captured, fine—but if it were taken, and the Five Great Nations discovered that Amegakure had also participated, they would surely fly into a rage and send troops to attack the Land of Rain.
Hearing this, Hanzo the Salamander fell silent at once.
He knew Renya wasn't exaggerating—it was very likely to happen.
Seen this way, hiding his identity was the only option.
"Poison Master, you're right."
"Here, the equipment was prepared for you long ago." Renya opened a storage scroll, inside which lay an extra-large mask and a set of black robes.
The mask had been widened and enlarged; even with a gas mask on his face, it could still be worn smoothly.
He had called Hanzo the Salamander over merely to use him as cover.
He never truly intended to have him help.
Hanzo the Salamander couldn't use poison mist, and a few hundred White Zetsu would be useless anyway.
And Renya himself was a seasoned actor.
It could be said that as long as they followed the established plan, mission failure would be perfectly normal.
...
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Renya and Hanzo the Salamander sneaked to a spot not far from the Ninja Alliance encampment.
Even at night, the Ninja Alliance did not let down its guard.
The Five Kage were well aware that the mysterious man would surely return, so vigilance had to be strengthened!
"Poison Master, if I unfortunately die on the battlefield, could you help me find a qualified leader to continue guiding the village?"
Hanzo the Salamander suddenly said.
Unable to use poison mist, his combat power was greatly reduced.
He couldn't guarantee he could hold back thousands from the Ninja Alliance, and in his heart he had long prepared himself for death.
He wasn't afraid of dying—only afraid that after his death, the village would continue to suffer oppression from the great nations.
Having foreseen his own death in battle, Hanzo had already begun making arrangements for the future.
"Don't be so pessimistic. Who said you're going to die?"
"If you really can't win, you can run."
Renya looked at Hanzo the Salamander with a strange expression, thinking to himself: why does this guy have so much inner drama?
He was just dragged over to make up the numbers, not to be sent to his death...
Wasn't this a bit too pessimistic?
Hanzo the Salamander: "???"
That was an option?
He had always thought that Renya had called him here because capturing the Six-Tails jinchūriki was mandatory, even at the cost of his life.
Now it seemed that wasn't the case...
"If we really can't win, can we truly abandon the mission?"
Hanzo the Salamander asked tentatively.
Renya looked at him as if he were an idiot and retorted irritably.
"Otherwise? Knowing you can't win and still fighting to the death—wouldn't that be stupid?"
Only when driven into a dead end with no way to escape would one choose to fight to the death.
Otherwise, what kind of sane person fights to the death for no reason?!
