The Past Hanzo

Amegakure, tall tower.

"Mitsutoshi-sama, that guy Whitebeard really gets on my nerves. He killed five of our three-man squad again! Two of them are Jonin!" Yuto Sagi said furiously.

Mitsutoshi frowned and asked, "How did that happen? How can we lose so much manpower? You're dragging our reputation into the mud."

Jonin was rare even in the Five Great Shinobi Country, let alone in a small village like Amegakure.

Although Amegakure was the strongest small village, losing two Jonin right off the bat was worrisome.

After Hanzo was intimidated by Nagato and became paranoid to leave the village, and most of Amegakure's administration was left to Mitsutoshi.

Of course, in the end, he still had to ask for Hanzo's approval.

However, even if that were the case, Mitsutoshi felt like he had the authority that he had never had before.

Because Whitebeard did not seem that much of a threat considering he had only killed a few Chunin before, Mitsutoshi did not pay too much attention to him. Instead, he focused more on searching for Akatsuki. After all, that was Hanzo's order.

It seemed Nagato really did a number on Hanzo last time. He was too scared of Nagato that he didn't even want to come to his office.

Since his office was at the tallest tower in Amegakure, it was too conspicuous, and because of that, he would be found easily by Nagato. 

That was why Mitsutoshi focused more on finding Akatsuki. He left Whitebeard to his subordinate instead. He didn't expect that he would lose two Jonin because of this. This was something Mitsutoshi didn't expect.

"Mitsutoshi-sama, I'm sorry. This is my fault." Yuto Sagi hurriedly apologized.

"However, it is not that my men come back completely empty-handed. We have captured Whitebeard's son, Tsugatsu. According to the information, Whitebeard loves his two sons very much. We can use his son to restore our reputation!"

"Tell me about it." Mitsutoshi decided to give Yuto Sagi a chance.

After all, he was also one of Amegakure's genius Jonin. He even dared to challenge Hanzo if he believed Hanzo made a wrong decision!

At that time, Hanzo was still a broad-minded skilled. Even though Yuto Sagi went against his decision, Hanzo did not kill him. In fact, he even praised Yuto Sagi's courage and promoted Yuto Sagi.

"If you think I'm not good enough, then you can try it yourself."

This was what Hanzo said to Yuto Sagi.

"We will announce to the public that we will publicly execute Whitebeard's son for Whitebeard and his son's evil deeds. Considering how much Whitebeard loves his son, he will definitely come to save him without hesitation, even if he knows it is a trap. If Whitebeard comes, we will surround and kill him with all of our forces. If Whitebeard doesn't come, at the very least, we can make his son an example not to mess with Amegakure. Moreover, aren't you looking for Akatsuki recently, Mitsutoshi-sama? We hit them hard last time, and they're definitely not happy about it. He may also come to stir up trouble when we execute Whitebeard's son.

"This way, we can get three birds with one stone." Yuto Sagi said his plan.

Mitsutoshi thought about it and felt that Yuto Sagi's plan was not bad.

It just so happened that he had been searching for Akatsuki for so long to no avail. This time, he would change the method.

"This plan is not bad. I will go and tell Hanzo-sama later. If you manage to draw Akatsuki out, you will get the credit for sure." Mitsutoshi replied.

"It's the least I can do for Amegakure's great cause." Yuto Sagi said.

Mitsutoshi nodded and dismissed Yuto Sagi.

Not long after, Mitsutoshi also went out and walked toward Hanzo's house.

Right now, the most guarded place in Amegakure was neither their Anbu Base nor the tower office, but Hanzo's house.

Even Mitsutoshi had to be thoroughly checked before he could enter.

"Hanzo-sama." Mitsutoshi greeted Hanzo.

"What do you want to report? Have you found any lead about Akatsuki?" Hanzo asked.

"We haven't found any lead regarding Akatsuki yet," Mitsutoshi said as he lowered his head.

Bam!

"Then what are you doing here? You can't find any lead even though you have so many people?" Hanzo said as he slammed the table.

He had dreamed of a scene where Nagato suddenly summoned a huge monster and spat out a chakra dragon several times. In that dream, his and Danzo's subordinates instantly died without any chance to fight back.

The reason why Hanzo was afraid was that he could not fathom Nagato's power.

He was afraid that he would also instantly die at the hands of Nagato like his men.

He ruled the entire Amegakure and everything in Amegakure basically belonged to him. He obviously did not want to die just like that.

"Hanzo-sama, I have a certain proposal..." Mitsutoshi told Hanzo about Yuto Sagi's plan.

"Since there's a chance this plan can draw out Akatsuki, let's do it!" Hanzo quickly agreed.

He didn't care about Whitebeard. Whether it was Whitebeard or Blackbeard, they were just minor characters that he had never heard of. He only wanted Nagato and Akatsuki to perish.

"Alright, Hanzo-sama. I'll work out the plan." Mitsutoshi walked out with his head lowered.

Even he could not help but feel a little disappointed with the current Hanzo.

Even after hearing this plan, the only thing on Hanzo's mind was drawing out Akatsuki, not Amegakure's reputation.

He couldn't understand why the one he believed as the strongest Shinobi was so afraid of Nagato and Akatsuki.

It seemed that since their failure at the Second Shinobi World War, Hanzo had lost confidence in himself and Amegakure.

In the past, the sentence that Hanzo liked to say the most was to break past the Five Great Shinobi Countries and become the Sixth Great Shinobi Country.

It had been a long time since he heard these words from Hanzo.

After Mitsutoshi returned to the tower, he gathered all the higher-ups of the various divisions for a discussion and soon formulated a specific plan.

On August 1st, he'd publicly execute Whitebeard's son, Tsugatsu, and invited Kusagakure to attend the execution since they had a grudge against Whitebeard, too.

He brought back a large number of Amegakure Shinobi who were searching for Akatsuki.

He thought it was a clever plan.