Konoha: The thirty-year-old Uchiha is not motivated.

"start up!"

The emotionless electronic voice echoed across the battlefield. The Rain Ninja, who were seeing such a commotion for the first time, looked at each other, their eyes filled with utter bewilderment.
"Start what?"

"Ape God is awesome!"

"I am xxxx's dog!"

"Everyone, stay alert and don't let your guard down!"

As Xiao Zi slowly inserted a card, its light shimmering brightly, into the driver, Hydrangea glared at the whispering Amegakure behind her, her delicate brows furrowing into a beautiful "川" (river) shape.

"Let me end this boring war."

The power of the Tailed Beast Card within the slot was instantly transformed into scalding magma that floated around Komurasaki. He raised one hand to his chest, and with his other hand, which was gripping the Driver, he pushed hard.
"Sun Wukong! Four-Tailed Sun Wukong! The enraged Monkey God!"

"henshin!"

The transformation sound effect rang out, and dark red lava poured down, instantly engulfing Little Purple's small figure.

"boom!"

A scorching heat shot into the sky, tearing a gaping hole several meters long in the rain above Xiao Zi's head.

The evaporating steam spread out, and everyone's faces were drenched in sweat from the heat.
"Boom!"

Once the mountain of lava had cooled, a large crimson hand burst forth from the smoking embers.

"Is this the legendary Four-Tailed Knight?"

Hydrangea stared wide-eyed at the figure emerging from the volcanic ash.

At first, their expressions showed surprise, but as time went on, they became more puzzled.
"Why is it different from what was described in the intelligence?"

The reason is simple: Komurasaki's transformed form is vastly different from Onoki's.
While both are crimson armor, the Four-Tailed Knight transformed by Xiao Zi is much heavier, exuding a stronger sense of power and visual impact.

The most significant difference lies in the mask; Xiao Zi's mask perfectly inherits the features of the Four-Tailed Fox, with the same headband decoration on its forehead as Sun Wukong's.
"Is it different? I don't know, maybe it's because Lao Sun and I are a better match."

Xiao Zi stretched her thick wrists and teased in a calm tone,

After transforming using the driver, he was now clear-headed and spoke clearly, showing no trace of his earlier rage and impatience.

"Come on, let's continue the unfinished battle."

His gaze swept around the room, finally settling on the silent Hanzo.

"boom!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than everyone heard a roaring sound, similar to a volcanic eruption.
A figure emanating molten lava plowed a scorched trench in the ground, moving so fast that no one could react in time.
From the hydrangea's perspective, a blazing flame brushed past her, the ends of her hair falling across her forehead curling slightly from the sparks.

"Oh!"

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Only when the dull thud rang in her ears did Hydrangea realize that Hanzo beside her had vanished, leaving only two charred footprints where he had stood.
"Lord Hanzo!?"

"There it is!"

A sharp-eyed rain ninja followed the charred marks on the ground and found Hanzo, whose throat was being choked by Komurasaki with one hand.

"Well…"

Under the pressure of the iron-like hands, Hanzo, who was beginning to lose oxygen, let out painful groans.
Under the threat of death, he instinctively clenched his fist and slammed it heavily onto Xiao Zi's thick breastplate.
"Oh!"

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

Blow after blow, until her swung fists splattered with a bewitching spray of blood, Xiao Zi casually brushed the dust off her chest.

"What can such a weak fist save?"

"Well……"

"Release Lord Hanzo!"

Seeing their leader being ruthlessly ravaged by the enemy, the Rain Ninja, who had seemed timid and cowardly just minutes before, drew their swords and charged forward.

Nearly a hundred people split into three groups and launched an attack on Xiao Zi from different directions.
"No matter how many ants there are, they are still ants."

Xiao Zi gently shook her head, and with a slight tightening of her fingers gripping Ban Zang's neck, scorching lava flowed from between her fingers.

"Sizzle..."

Under the scorching heat, Hanzo's body began to convulse violently, and a nauseating smell of burning filled the air. The Rain Ninja who witnessed this scene all had bloodshot eyes.

"asshole!"

If they cowered in the face of Xiao Zi's blatant provocation, they wouldn't be Rain Hermits.

"Since you want it, then we'll give it back to you."

Confirming that Hanzo was near death, Komurasaki flung Hanzo's tattered body in front of the Rain Ninja who were waiting in ambush.
"Lord Hanzo!"

Hydrangea leaped forward, looked at Hanzo's neck, which was already eight-tenths cooked, and collapsed to the ground with a thud, her eyes lifeless.
"It's over. Yu Yin is finished."

The carotid artery, trachea, and esophagus were all charred; such injuries generally do not warrant any further treatment.

"Avenge Lord Hanzo!"

Seeing the hydrangea's reaction, the Rain Ninja, still clinging to a sliver of hope, erupted with astonishing killing intent after a brief silence, unleashing a variety of escaping techniques and hidden weapons simultaneously.
"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"

"Whoosh whoosh!"

"Boom!"

"."

The one with more fighting spirit abandoned defense altogether, wielding his sword with both hands and slashing down at Xiao Zi's head, ready to fight to the death.

"You Iwa ninja brat, take this!"

"Humph!"

Faced with the overwhelming onslaught, a mocking smile curled at the corner of Xiao Zi's mouth beneath her purple mask.

He clasped his hands together, and the ground beneath his feet emitted a low growl or roar reminiscent of an ancient behemoth, as if it were about to burst forth from the earth at any moment.

"Secret Technique: Lava Escape - Cliffside Sword".

As the Rain Ninja, wielding his sword, drew ever closer to his target, a hint of glee flickered in his almost crazed eyes.
"boom!"

However, before his smile could even appear, the ground beneath Xiao Zi's feet suddenly cracked open, and a huge stone cone covered in magma rose from the ground.

The Rain Ninja, wielding his sword in mid-air, was unable to dodge in time and was the first to be smashed into mincemeat by the lava rock spike.
Then came the second one, and the third one.
"what!"

Screams filled the battlefield; before this power, comparable to a natural disaster, humanity was as insignificant as ants.
"Lady Hydrangea, we'll hold them off here. You quickly take Lord Hanzo's body and retreat!"

The surviving Rain Ninja urged the hydrangea, who was slumped on the ground, to leave quickly.

"Retreat? Where can I retreat to?"

Hydrangea, snapping out of her daze, gave a bitter smile. Now that Hanzo was dead, Amegakure had completely lost its bargaining power in negotiating with Iwagakure.

Is this the tragedy of small countries?
"hungry"

Just as Hydrangea was sinking into despair, a barely audible murmur reached her ears.

"Ok?"

Following the sound, she discovered that the abdominal flap sewn onto Hanzo's waist was still gently twitching.

"Still alive?" Startled, a glimmer of hope suddenly rekindled within her. She lunged forward and cautiously reached out to touch Hanzo's chest, which was no longer rising and falling.
Calming herself to block out the piercing screams around her, she pricked up her ears and listened intently to the rhythm of life.

"Splash. Splash. Splash!"

A few seconds later, a slow but rhythmic beat struck the hydrangea's heart hard.

"Still alive!"

Lord Hanzo is not dead yet!
With a gleam in her beautiful eyes, she quickly used medical ninjutsu to try and heal the fatal wound on Hanzo's neck.

The abundant life energy poured in, but received no response whatsoever, as if a stone had sunk into the sea. Instead, it exhausted the hydrangea, leaving it drenched in sweat.

"call"

Wiping the fine sweat from her brow, the flickering flame of hope in her eyes began to waver again.
What should I do?

"hungry"

"Hungry, hungry, hungry! It's all your fault, you wretched thing! If it weren't for you, Lord Hanzo wouldn't have ended up like this!"

The half-open belly of the baby was still crying out for milk, which made Hydrangea so angry that she almost slapped it.

In her view, Hanzo's puppet-like appearance was entirely due to his internal organs.
Originally thought to be some kind of transformation device that could replace the Driver, it turned out to be Hanzo's death warrant.
"Transformation. That's right, there's also transformation!"

Seeing Hanzo's body, with only his heart still beating, Hydrangea gritted her teeth and quickly pulled a small box, no bigger than a palm, from her ninja tool pouch behind her.

At this point, we have no choice but to try anything, even if it seems hopeless.
Upon opening the box, she found three vials of pale red liquid—the Tailed Beast reagent she had been researching for many years.
This crystalline liquid, refined from the chakra of tailed beasts collected in forbidden areas, requires only one milligram to grant an ordinary person power approaching that of a Chunin for a short period.
However, the price is not small; at best, it can lead to paralysis, and at worst, death from body explosion.

"I'm hungry! Let's eat!"

Holding the Tailed Beast reagent, Hydrangea was still having a final internal struggle, while her mouth watered at the delicious aroma and she almost stuck out her tongue.

It can't chew chakra pills, and it can't gnaw on the tailed beast's outer shell, but it can at least drink the slurry, right?
You want this?

"Chirp chirp chirp!"

Upon noticing that the ventral cavity seemed to have an unusual craving for the reagent in its hand, the hydrangea shook the reagent, which was full of crystalline particles, in response to the ventral cavity's ingratiating murmur.
"Lady Hydrangea! We can't hold on much longer!"

On the other side, after unleashing the Cliff-Shattering Sword, Komurasaki launched a one-sided massacre against the surviving Rain Ninja. Faced with the overwhelming power of the Tailed Beast Riders, the Jonin were nothing more than a string of cold numbers.

"Let's give it our all!"

Hearing the increasingly faint sounds of battle around her, Hydrangea steeled her resolve.
Since we're going to die anyway, we might as well take a gamble!
Gritting her teeth, she unscrewed the reagent, and a surge of violent and chaotic chakra erupted forth, even causing Komurasaki, who was cleaning up the surviving Rain Ninja, to turn her head in surprise.
"Old Sun, what's that?"

"What a chaotic aura, like a stew made up of all of our chakra."

Sun Wukong sniffed the mixed aura within the Tailed Beast Elixir from the void, and a strange look appeared on the ferocious beast head.
"Eat it!"

Hydrangea aimed at the half-open mouth at the abdomen and poured the entire tube of Tailed Beast reagent into it.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

The reagent entered his mouth, and his greedy stomach seemed to have drunk some kind of nectar. After slurping a few mouthfuls, his half-open mouth stretched into a big hook.

Why isn't there any response?

After pouring out nearly ten milliliters of reagent, the hydrangea, full of anticipation, waited for a moment, only to find that there was no movement from its abdomen.

There was no glamorous transformation as she had imagined, only the lingering smacking sound of half-open mouth.

"You bastard! You freeloader!"

Annoyed, Hydrangea raised her little fist and slammed it hard into the stomach, which seemed to be mocking her. A pale red halo spread out as her fist landed.
"Drink it."

"what?"

The hydrangea, thrown back by the halo, scrambled to her feet in surprise. To her disbelief, the halo emanating from her abdomen grew increasingly intense, as if draping Hanzo in a light red veil.

"cough"

A moment later, a familiar soft cough startled her so much that she couldn't speak.

"Ahem. This is..."

Suddenly awakened, Hanzo sat up and looked at the hydrangea closest to him, his eyes full of inquiry.

The charred wound on his neck healed rapidly under the pale red glow, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
"Lord Hanzo?"

Seeing the human touch in Hanzo's eyes, Hydrangea finally dared to believe that the person who had awakened was indeed her well-known boss.
"Hydrangea, am I not having surgery?"

Sensing the strong stench of blood around him, Hanzo, who had been filled with confusion just a moment ago, suddenly turned serious, and an intense aura emanated from his body.

"Lord Hanzo, now is not the time to explain these things, the Iwa ninja have broken in!"

With the battle situation critical, Hydrangea had no time to recount the past to Hanzo. She pointed to Komurasaki, who was wreaking havoc not far away, her eyes filled with sorrow.
"Iwa nin?"

Following the scorching heat, Hanzo saw that the ground beneath his feet was littered with the scattered corpses of Rain Ninja. His eyes flashed with murderous intent.
"Tailed Beast Rider? You've already chosen your own path to death!"

"You're alive again? You're pretty hard to kill, aren't you?"

With a casual snap of an Amegakure's arm, Komurasaki watched with interest as Hanzo's aura gradually rose.

"Lord Hanzo, watch out!"

Worried that Hanzo might repeat his mistakes, Hydrangea couldn't help but remind him.

"Hydrangea, was my surgery a success?"

After staring at Xiao Zi's heavy knight armor for a long time, Hanzo suddenly changed the subject and asked a strange question.

"The surgery? It must have been successful."

Hanzo did not experience rejection after the surgery, so theoretically it should be considered a success.

"So, can I transform now too?"

He glanced down at the black abdomen with its alluring purple markings writhing at his waist, and continued to press for answers.
"Theoretically speaking, it should be possible, but we are currently lacking the most important transformation item."

Hydrangea hesitated for a moment, then explained in a low voice,
The abdominal transplant is only the first step in Amegakure's artificial rider project. Once Hanzo adapts to the abdominal transplant, she can then tailor-make the transformation tools needed for him, which is also the most important energy source.
"Don't you have any transformation items?"

He gently touched his abdomen, and Hanzo's brows furrowed tightly. He could clearly feel his abdomen demanding something from him.
"Yes, the purification technology for Tailed Beast Chakra is not yet perfect, and more experiments are needed to solidify it."

"I remember you said that as long as there is a sufficient energy source, it can support transformation, right?"

"Yes, but this kind of energy source."

Hanzo nodded thoughtfully. If we're talking about energy sources, he does have one within him, but it only lasts a short while and its sustainability is poor. If he could take drugs…
Drugs!

"Hydrangea, give me the Tailed Beast reagent you made."

"what?"

Seeing Hanzo extend his hand towards her, Hydrangea hesitated for a moment, but still handed over the Tailed Beast reagent she was holding.

"Pfft!"

He picked up the syringe at the other end of the vial, half-hidden in Xiao Zi's surprised gaze, and forcefully injected the pale red medicine into the poison sac on his side.
As the drug was administered, the pure tailed beast chakra frantically stimulated the venom sacs to secrete highly toxic energy. Purple chakra, infused with toxins, erupted from Hanzo's body.

"eat!"

It caught a whiff of that alluring scent, and its mouth opened to an exaggeratedly large size. A dense concentration of purple energy was visibly sucked in at an astounding speed.

"Thud~"

A few seconds later, the highly toxic energy mixed with tailed beast chakra, under the powerful digestive ability of its abdomen, transformed into a dark purple swell that fell to the ground.
Bending down to pick up half of the savage-produced fish, Hanzo looked at the adorable salamander on it, a barely perceptible hint of nostalgia on his face.
"Old friend, I'm counting on you again this time." (End of Chapter)