Hanzo

**Hanzō** (半蔵), feared as **Hanzō of the Salamander** (山椒魚の半蔵, *Sanshōuo no Hanzō*), is a legendary shinobi, and the leader of Amegakure during his lifetime.

## Background

At some point during Hanzō's childhood, he found a black salamander with deadly venom residing in his village. When it died, its venom sac was embedded into his body in the hopes of creating a venomous ninja who himself was immune to toxins. This required him to wear a mask constantly, in order to protect others from his venom-laced breath. At some point after this, Hanzō became well known and renowned throughout the shinobi world, so much that enemies have been known to flee at the very sight of him.

At one point, Hanzō confronted dozens of Samurai from the Land of Iron, who retreated after realising who they were up against except for one. Hanzō fought Mifune, whom he defeated and in the process, poisoned in their final clash by slashing his head. Hanzō spared his life, due to the samurai's strength and faith. He went as far as giving him the antidote to his poison to give him a fighting chance, but then left without treating Mifune's injury. Despite claiming to think he had killed him, in the back of his mind, Hanzō knew Mifune was still alive.

During the Second Shinobi World War, Hanzō fought some of Konoha's forces, with Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru being the only survivors. As a reward to them for this accomplishment, he named them *Konoha's Sannin* and told them to refer to themselves as such in exchange for letting them live. He also engaged in battle with Chiyo numerous times, allowing her to create an antidote to his salamander's poison. At some point after this, Hanzō lost his conviction and decided to stop pursuing peace, stopped honing his skills and became dull, and only became interested in preserving his power.

Years later during the Third Shinobi World War, Hanzō became aware of a group of ninja who began a quest to end war through unorthodox means within his country. Though Hanzō initially admired their strong pursuit for peace, Danzō Shimura had convinced him that the group was a threat to his power. Hanzō then teamed up with Danzō to kill the group's leader, Yahiko and captured Konan. He lured Yahiko to a meeting where he forced Nagato, Yahiko's team-mate, to kill Yahiko in exchange for Konan's life. However, Yahiko committed suicide by impaling himself upon Nagato's kunai to spare his friend the anguish and burden of killing him himself. Following Yahiko's death, Hanzō managed to cripple Nagato, but in a fit of rage he slaughtered all of Hanzō's forces and the Root shinobi aiding him. After a brief skirmish with Nagato, Hanzō fled the scene.

Following the confrontation, Nagato began a civil war within Amegakure against Hanzō's regime. During the civil war, Hanzō sent seven genin teams  to participate in the Chūnin Exams that were being held in Konohagakure. Sometime later, the Six Paths of Pain confronted and easily overpowered him and all his guards. As Hanzō expressed shock at being so outclassed and by one of the Paths looking like the presumed-dead Yahiko, Pain degraded him as trash for his selfish actions and how he had become a mere shadow of the man he once admired, before killing him. Pain then systematically slaughtered every person he was ever in league, or affiliated with; from family and servants, to even ambassadors of the villages who he was associated with. In the anime, as a further testament of Nagato's hatred for Hanzō, Nagato did not even bother to give Hanzō a proper burial.

## Personality

Hanzō was a very security-conscious individual, trusting no one. He was guarded twenty-four hours a day, and did not allow anyone in his presence, even children, without being thoroughly searched. He cared greatly about his position as village leader, and dealt with threats harshly. Although he viewed the Five Great Countries as his enemies, he was still willing to ally with foreign nations, even those who had caused him great harm, in order to remain in power. He was also willing to betray people without remorse, as seen by his leading the Ame Orphans and their team into a trap, then attempting to have them all mercilessly killed; this betrayal, ironically, led to his own demise.

Before his fall from grace, Hanzō had sought the ideals of "*peace*" and even attempted to achieve this belief through the unification of the Five Great Countries. His conviction was so great, the Ame Orphans, despite not being subordinates of his, wore his forehead protectors as proof of their dedication to his cause. Even more, before Danzō's deception, Hanzō was actually glad Akatsuki appeared and tried to resolve issues without violence, hoping it would help realise his dreams of uniting the Five Great Nations without violence. Upon learning the three founders were apprentices of Jiraiya, who Hanzō had fought but spared along with the other two Sannin, he even went on to say Akatsuki, with their compassion to help people, were the payment of a favour he was owed for sparing Jiraiya that day.

However, after deciding that such a method would only bring about perpetual war and thus, leave only death in its wake, he cast aside this conviction. Afterwards Hanzō became obsessively devoted to the preservation of the power he had previously amassed. Likewise, he had become so arrogant in the mighty skillset he wielded, he carelessly allowed it to dull considerably from lack of practice and refinement, completely unaware of negligence. Even by the time of his death, Hanzō still couldn't comprehend how someone he had once defeated, could have grown more powerful than himself.

A distinctive trait of Hanzō, however, was his belief in the faith of people. He believed that a strong faith would have survived the death of its owner, living on; faith, according to him, wasn't visible to the eyes, but could only be perceived through a fight. He had great respect for the ones with a strong faith, as seen when he spared the lives of many strong-willed opponents he defeated, demanding their names in order to call them heroes in spite of their defeat. If he also sees his defeated foes have potential, he will let them live and even give them titles in recognition of their strength and conviction and demand that they are to refer themselves to the title he gives them in exchange for their lives. In the anime, he seems to enjoy a decent battle, allowing opponents he sees potential in to live to become stronger and challenge him again one day. He claimed his faith laid in his will to bring peace to the world, which, despite his harsh words and his attitude in later stages of his life, seemed to have lived on, as seen when, before releasing a poisonous cloud from his venom sac and losing his free will to Kabuto Yakushi's Impure World Reincarnation, he entrusted his faith to Mifune.

At some point in the current era, a mysterious force resurrected him