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Hanzō was the Leader of Hidden Rain Village (Amegakure). He was a legendary Shinobi feared as, “Hanzō of the Salamander”.
He was a very security-conscious individual who did not trust people. He held high regard for people’s undying faith and often spared their lives for their sheer domain of faith.
| Name | Hanzō |
| Alias | Hanzō of the salamander |
| First Appearance in Anime | Naruto Shippuden episode 128 |
| Japanese Voice Actor | Ikuya Sawaki |
| English Voice Actor | Richard Epcar |
| Birthdate | February 12 |
| Sex | Male |
| Status | Deceased |
| Affiliation | Amegakure |
| Clan | Unknown |
Hanzō discovered a black salamander with lethal poison living in his town during his childhood. In an effort to produce a poisonous ninja who was also immune to toxins, the creature’s venom sac was implanted into his body as it died. He had to constantly wear a mask since his breath was filled with venom, endangering those around him.
After that, Hanzō rose to fame in the Shinobi world and at some point, his enemies have been known to flee at the mere sight of him. He once confronted a large group of Samurai from the Land of Iron, most of whom withdrew when they realized who they were up against.
Hanzō engaged in combat with Mifune, whom he ultimately vanquished by slicing off his head, poisoning him in the process. As a result of the Samurai’s fortitude and faith, Hanzō spared his life. He even went so far as to offer him the poison’s antidote in an effort to give him a chance, but he left without attending to Mifune’s wound. Despite claiming that he had murdered him, Hanzō was aware that Mifune was still alive.
During the Second Shinobi World war, Hanzō battled against Konoha’s Forces, where only Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru survived. Hanzō acknowledged them as Konoha’s Sannin for their accomplishment and told them to refer to themselves as such in exchange for letting them live. Hanzō also battled against Chiyo numerous times, allowing her to develop an antidote to his salamander’s poison.
Years later, during the Third Shinobi World War, Hanzō became aware of the group named “Akatsuki” who began a quest to end wars through dialogue and negotiations within his country. Hanzō admired their method to pursue for peace but Danzō Shimura convinced him otherwise, stating that the group posed a threat to his power.
Hanzō teamed up with Danzō, captured Konan and lured out Yahiko to eliminate him. Hanzō forced Nagato to kill Yahiko to spare Konan’s life. To spare his friend from the burden of killing him, Yahiko committed suicide by impaling himself upon Nagato’s kunai. Hanzō then attempted to kill Nagato but to his surprise, Nagato slaughtered all of Hanzō’s army and the Root Shinobi aiding him. Hanzō later fled the scene.
Later, Nagato started a civil war within Amegakure against Hanzō’s regime. Hanzō was confronted by the Six Paths of Pain, who smoothly overpowered him and all his guards. Pain degraded him as trash for his selfish actions and how he had turned into a mere shadow of the man he once admired, before killing him. Nagato did not even bother to provide a proper funeral to Hanzō.
Before the commencement of the Fourth Shinobi War, numerous Shinobi were resurrected by Kabuto Yakushi and used as pawns to fight against the Allied Shinobi Forces. Hanzō was one of them, he was in a team that Chūkichi formed with Lady Chiyo and Kimimaro. Hanzō’s team was confronted by the Surprise Attack Division.
Hanzō chastised Deidara for getting captured and said he wouldn’t have intended to free him if it weren’t for the accursed technique that controlled his actions. Hanzō focused on catching up with the Surprise Attack Division and when they came within his range, he summoned his salamander and ordered it to spew a deadly mist.
When the soldiers of the Surprise Attack Division were rendered paralysed and Hanzō moved in to deliver a deadly blow, Mifune intercepted and expressed the desire to fight against him. Hanzō kept his distance with his kusarigama, doubting his opponent’s devotion as the two battled in a brief but intense duel.
When Chiyo revealed the salamander’s techniques, Hanzō told Mifune to take cover underground and praised him for avoiding attacks, before explaining how he had long since abandoned his principles of “peace”. Mifune refutes Hanzō’s beliefs and prevents Hanzō from using ninjutsu by stopping him from making hand seals using laidō.
Hanzō attempted to counterattack after remembering his past by ordering Ibuse to swallow the samurai whole; as a result, Mifune nearly died in the toxic jaws of the creature. The two guys slashed through the salamander's head, each poised to strike the killer blow. Mifune splits Hanzō’s blade kusarigama in half and slashes through his opponent’s torso, destroying his respirator in the process.
The situation was completely reversed from their first encounter when both were young. Mifune then told Hanzō that his abilities had diminished due to the loss of his conviction.
Hanzō recalled his previous encounter with Mifune, revealing information about the latter’s infamous reputation and ultimately sparing the victorious samurai because of his fierce loyalty to his allies. He then revealed that despite being immortal, the weakness he had then still existed.
Hanzō shows incredible strength of character by placing his trust in Mifune and using his broken kusarigama to execute “seppuku”(stomach-cutting), defying the talisman that controlled his actions. Hanzō’s internal venom was punctured and as a result, a huge cloud of poisonous gas was discharged, paralyzing all his motions and providing a path for the Fifth Division to bind him for good. Mifune pledged to create a burial for Hanzō when the Fourth Shinobi World War was over, realizing that he deserves a place to rest.
Hanzō’s spirit was later transferred back to the afterlife with the release of the Impure World Reincarnation.
Hanzō was exceedingly paranoid about security and had trust issues. He was constantly surrounded by guards and didn’t let anyone near him, whoever wanted to see him was thoroughly checked, including the children. He dealt with threats harshly because he took leadership of the village very seriously.
His obsession with security led him to believe that he was preserving his skills, when in reality it was causing them to deteriorate due to lack of practice.
He saw the Five Great Nations as his foes but was nevertheless prepared to form alliances with them in order to maintain his position of power. Hanzō brutally slaughtered the Ame Orphans and their crew by luring them into a trap; tragically, this betrayal brought upon his own death. He was likewise willing to betray others without any feeling of guilt.
Hanzō was genuinely happy about Akatsuki trying to resolve issues without resorting to force in hopes that it would help him realize his dream of peacefully uniting the Great Five Nations. Hanzō even went on to declare that Akatsuki, with their love to aid people, were the payment of a favor he was owed for sparing Jiraiya. This was after learning that the three founders of Akatsuki were apprentices of Jiraiya.
In his youth, Hanzō desired the principles of “peace” and even attempted to bring the Five Great Nations together in order to realize his notion. The Ame Orphans wore his forehead protectors as a sign of their commitment to his mission despite not being his subordinates.
He abandoned this conviction, realizing that such a strategy would only lead to endless conflict and leave dead in its wake. Later, Hanzō became extremely focused on preserving his power which instead deteriorated due to lack of refinement brought about by practice.
Hanzō was unable to understand how someone he had previously defeated could become stronger than himself even at the time of his death when Six Paths Pain confronted him. On the other hand, Hanzō was characterized by his faith in people. In his opinion, strong faith would have survived the death of its owner and continued to exist; he believed that fighting was the only way to recognise faith because it was invisible to the eyes.
He had a tremendous deal of regard for people who had a strong faith, as seen by the fact that he spared lives of countless strong-willed opponents he defeated while still referring to them as heroes. He also granted titles in appreciation after recognising their potential and demanded they refer themselves to it in exchange for sparing their lives.
He spared the lives of foes he saw potential in, granting them a chance to live, become stronger, and face him again. He asserted that his faith rested in his desire to bring about world peace, which, despite his harsh words and attitude in later years of his life, appeared to have endured, as evidence by his trusting Mifune with his faith just before releasing a poisonous cloud from his venom sac and giving up his free will to Kabuto Yakushi’s Impure World Reincarnation.
Hanzō was a tall, rather hulking man with a large scar on his right cheek and long, golden hair that reached all the way to his back. His eyes were depicted as having a typical white sclerae and brown irides. He had a noticeable cross-shaped scar on the left side of his belly where a salamander’s venom sac had been inserted.
He wore a dark hat over his head, and his lower face was mostly hidden by a respirator that looked like a helmet. He used it to protect himself from his own poison, and it was different from the ones other Amegakure Shinobi wore, in that it was noticeably larger and had two filter cartridges instead of just one. Four indentations on the area concealing his mouth mirrored the four indentations on the upper portion of the mask, which features the emblem of his village.
He wore a loose, wetsuit-like garment that was typical of his town, bandages over his wrists and lower legs, a flak jacket with swirls on the chest-plate, traditional Shinobi shoes and dark cloak that extended to just below his waist. Underneath his wetsuit, he wore a black short-sleeved midriff shirt that revealed his lower abdomen.
He used a respirator with a single cartridge instead of two, and his hair was much shorter back then. In a previous battle with Mifune, Hanzō was depicted bare-chested, only clad in the lower half of his wetsuit-like outfit, with a pair of dark gloves.
Hanzō was widely regarded as one of the greatest Shinobi and an inspiration to the entire shinobi community. At his best, Hanzō was able to fight and kill every member of Konoha Shinobi unit all by himself with the exception of the soon-to-be-named Sannin, whom he spared because he survived his initial onslaught. Jiraya expressed extreme shock upon realizing that he had been defeated, especially by just a single person, due to his immense might.
Hanzō was implanted with a venom sac of the black salamander when he was just a child, granting him the creature’s poison-related powers. That includes a stronger resistance to poison and a change in his body’s chemistry that made him toxic to the point that even his breath was intoxicating to anyone nearby.
The poison he exhaled, forced his victims to suffer extreme pain until they got numb, further, symptoms would advance to complete paralysis and eventually death. Hanzō always used a respirator to breathe and carried an antidote to ensure the safety of others. The name, “Hanzō of the Salamander” was given to him because of the fear that this particular implantation caused.
Hanzō had a significant advantage over his enemies when fighting without his mask, but he also incurred a significant personal risk. Even though the venom is still not fatal to Hanzō, it would render him unconscious for numerous seconds if the venom sac were to burst after a direct wound, providing a large opening for his enemies to attack.
The mask fully reduced this risk, thus he made the decision to only take it off when facing weaker foes that he could easily defeat and keep it on while facing stronger foes that might have taken advantage of such a weakness.
Hanzō was known to possess a great physical strength and was also rumored to have the fastest speed in water. He also displayed exceptional skill and speed with the Body Flicker Technique, as he was the only person to evade Nagato’s enraged attack that killed countless Ame and Konoha shinobi.
He mastered the use of kusarigama when he was a youngster and even outperformed various formidable foes with this weapon alone, even the likes of the now-famous Mifune. Sometimes, he tended to use the sickle’s chain to swing it as he struck, rather than only the weighted end, which is normally thought to be the most efficient technique.
Hanzō’s lethal poison was embedded in his weapon’s blade, making a single stroke sufficient to eliminate foes. However, as Hanzō approached the end of his life, his proficiency with the kusarigama and the weapon itself had significantly finished due to his increased concern with maintaining personal security.
During his attempt to assassinate Nagato, Hanzō demonstrated his ability to mix explosive tags with his Fire Release to create a deadly explosion.
Hanzō was able to call forth the enormous salamander known as Ibuse, which was big enough for his master to sit on its head. Hanzō was strong enough to combat and eventually overcome all three of the Sannin in their childhood when battling alongside his signature beast.
Ibuse is a toxic salamander, just like his master, and can therefore, given enough time, store a huge amount of harmful gas inside its body, which can then be released from its mouth at Hanzō’s order.
Within seconds of inhalation, this potent enough to almost totally paralyze opponents, placing them wholly at the will of the user. Ibuse could also borrow below the earth to escape attacks and then resurface just beneath an enemy to swallow them while and kill them with the toxins stored within its body.
Hanzō is a playable character in the following Video Games :
A. After Nagato’s rampage, Hanzō fled the area and went into hiding; he was later killed by Six Paths Pain. Hanzō is defeated by Mifune during the Fourth Shinobi War after his resurrection.
A. During his fight against Konoha’s shinobi, Jiraya, Orochimaru and Tsunade were the only survivors while everyone around them had perished, Hanzō praised their faith and declared them as “Konoha’s Legendary Sannin”.
A. Hanzō was an antagonist, who dealt with threats harshly and he would betray his allies without any remorse once his cause was achieved.
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