Hoshiyomi gave Orochimaru a small smile, then turned back, keeping his focus on Hanzō while saying casually:
"That trap? It was just a bonus.
If you'd fallen for it, great—we'd profit.
But if you didn't, we lost nothing."
Facing Hoshiyomi, Hanzō's lips curled into a faint smile, but his eyes grew sharper.
"Such composure and talent… If you don't die young, your na will one day shake the entire ninja world."
And those weren't empty words.
At Hoshiyomi's age, being able to stand toe-to-toe with soone like him was already remarkable.
But even more impressive was his mindset and insight.
Hanzō couldn't help but believe this boy might surpass him soday—perhaps even beco one of the strongest in the entire shinobi world.
And precisely because of that, Hanzō's heart stirred with the intention to kill.
He wasn't shy about acknowledging genius.
But the ones he "cherished" were always the geniuses who posed no threat to him.
That's why he let the likes of the Legendary Sannin and Mifune walk away alive, yet ruthlessly eliminated the early Akatsuki.
It wasn't about talent—it was about control.
Mifune, for example, adhered strictly to the code of the samurai, bound by the neutrality of the Land of Iron.
He'd never invade the Land of Rain.
Orochimaru's inherent coldness and darkness would ensure he stayed on the fringes of Konoha's political system.
Jiraiya was too carefree, Tsunade too emotionally fragile.
Even if they rose to power in the future, they were unlikely to ever pose a threat to Agakure.
But Yahiko was different.
From the very beginning, Yahiko's goal had been to seize Hanzō's position and carve out a piece of the pie for himself.
That was unacceptable.
So Yahiko had to die.
Even if Danzō hadn't interfered, Hanzō would've found a way to destroy the Akatsuki regardless.
But Hoshiyomi?
He was another matter entirely.
With Hoshiyomi, the problem wasn't his current strength—
It was the fact that Hanzō couldn't read him.
There were too many variables.
Too many unknowns.
Hoshiyomi was like a ticking ti bomb, and Hanzō had no idea when—or where—he'd explode.
A cautious man like Hanzō couldn't allow such an enemy to continue growing unchecked.
If Hoshiyomi had the potential to one day threaten Agakure's existence, then Hanzō wouldn't treat him the sa way he did Tsunade or Jiraiya.
Hoshiyomi naturally picked up on the subtle threat hidden in Hanzō's tone.
He frowned slightly, his hands tightening as he pushed aside Hanzō's chained sickle, calmly replying:
"Whether or not I die young isn't up to you.
And in case you've forgotten, we're still the winners here.
Maybe take a look at how many of your subordinates you've got left?"
At those words, Hanzō instinctively glanced back.
That's when he realized—the Agakure troops he'd brought were already falling apart under Jiraiya's assault.
Casualties were piling up.
The lines had broken.
His forces were in chaos.
Hanzō clenched his teeth.
Anger burned in his chest, but the desire to retreat was already taking root.
He'd spent years training these subordinates; he couldn't afford to throw them away here.
Agakure's future couldn't rely on him alone.
If they wanted long-term survival, they needed more than just Hanzō's strength.
With that thought, Hanzō reluctantly set aside his killing intent.
He gave Hoshiyomi one last look and said:
"Hoshiyomi Gekkō…
Next ti we et, it won't be this easy for you.
We'll see how you handle then."
As he spoke, he subtly exhaled a thin mist of poison.
Hoshiyomi could've easily used his Wind Reversal technique to absorb the poison into his blade and press the attack—
But he chose not to.
It wasn't the ti to reveal all of his cards.
Better to keep a few tricks up his sleeve.
There was no need for a final showdown with Hanzō just yet.
Thinking this, Hoshiyomi quickly changed his expression, stepping back alongside Orochimaru.
Hanzō seized the mont, activating Shunshin and vanishing from sight.
In just a few flickers, he reappeared beside his remaining Rain shinobi, swiftly dispatching several nearby Konoha ninja with a few well-placed strikes.
Then he released a large cloud of poison mist and shouted:
"Fall back!"
With that, Hanzō led his subordinates into a hasty retreat.
Jiraiya didn't pursue.
Instead, he focused on using his Needle Jizō technique to save as many people as possible.
And just like that—
The battle ended in an abrupt, unsatisfying way.
Thanks to Hoshiyomi's tornado, Tsunade and the dical corps had an unusually light workload afterward.
Very few people were poisoned this ti.
Only about a dozen ninja had inhaled poison while pursuing the Rain shinobi, but Tsunade quickly used Delicate Illness Extraction Technique to draw the toxins from their bodies.
This battle marked the smallest loss of life for Konoha since entering the Land of Rain.
Konoha suffered only twenty to thirty casualties.
On the other hand, the Rain side lost over a hundred n—
Konoha's first major victory in the war against Agakure.
With this success, the front lines would likely have at least two weeks of relative stability.
And that gave Tsunade ti to continue her research into salamander's poison.
The truth was, Hoshiyomi and the others had no intention of forcing a decisive battle today.
They knew that if the fight dragged on, Hanzō's poison would eventually cause unacceptable casualties.
For now, they were just buying ti.
According to Tsunade, she needed at least three months—six at most—to develop an antidote.
She didn't need to achieve complete immunity to Hanzō's poison.
All she needed was to grant the Konoha shinobi temporary resistance, enough to keep a core force in fighting condition.
The day that antidote was completed—
That would be the day they challenged Hanzō again.
And perhaps the day this war with the Rain Village finally ended.
...
When news of the victory reached the defensive command post, Danzō—acting as supre commander—didn't bother to ask who earned the credit.
Instead, he imdiately gave orders:
"Push outward.
Expand the front lines while we have the chance.
The bigger our occupied territory, the easier it is for our intelligence division to operate.
The more we squeeze Hanzō, the closer he'll be to surrender."
Even though Hoshiyomi and the others were annoyed by Danzō's high-handedness, they still followed orders and launched expansion operations.
After all, the true purpose of war was resource acquisition.
They'd won a major battle—there was no reason to just sit back and do nothing.
Konoha's expansion was relatively civilized, all things considered.
They went from village to village, searching for any remaining enemy ninja.
If they found shinobi, they killed them.
If they found civilians, they relocated them to the rear lines, assigning them simple labor like repairing defenses and transporting supplies.
Most of the ordinary people had already fled when the war began.
But there were always so who left behind houses with valuables or supplies they hadn't had ti to take.
If Konoha shinobi found those items, they considered them spoils of war.
Even the most upright people—like Hoshiyomi—turned a blind eye to this kind of scavenging.
At least they strictly forbade the killing of civilians or rape, which was already considered rciful during warti.
It gave those willing to stay behind a chance to survive.
Compared to Konoha's policy, the way Iwagakure and Sunagakure handled occupied zones was far worse.
There, it was truly—
"The white bones lay exposed for miles;
Not even a chicken's cry could be heard."
Still, no matter how rciful Konoha's policy seed, expansion inevitably brought conflicts and misunderstandings.
That was just the reality of war.
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