Hanzō

- Hanzō's appearance when he was younger. - Hanzō's full appearance 1/2 Hanzō was a rather muscular man of above-average height, with long blond hair reaching down to his back and a prominent scar on his right cheek. In the manga, he had unusual eyes that displayed dark sclerae and light coloured irides, similar to Kakuzu's. In the anime, his eyes were portrayed with a normal white sclerae and brown irides. On the left-side of his abdomen, he bore a distinctive cross-shaped scar received from implanting a salamander's venom sac within his body. He had a dark hat on his head and his lower face was mostly obscured by a helmet-like respirator, which he used to keep his own poison at bay and that differed from the ones worn by other Amegakure shinobi, as it was notably larger and featured two filter cartridges instead of the typical one. The upper portion of this mask bore the symbol of his village and was mirrored by four indentations on the part covering his mouth. His typical attire consisted of a loose wetsuit-like outfit typical of his village, accented by bandages wrapped around his wrists and lower legs, a flak jacket with swirls on the chest-plate, standard shinobi sandals and a dark cloak that reached down below his waist. Underneath this wetsuit, he donned a dark, short-sleeved, midriff shirt which exposed his lower abdomen. In his youth, his hair was significantly shorter and he wore a respirator with only a single cartridge instead of two. During his fight with Mifune in the past, Hanzō was shown bare-chested, wearing only the lower section of his wetsuit-like clothing, complemented by a pair of dark gloves covering his hands.

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 later convinced him that the group was a threat to his power, using the bodies of dead Root members who Nagato had killed upon unwillingly summoning the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path as proof, Danzō claiming they were members of Hanzō's own clan. Hanzō then teamed up with Danzō to kill the group's leader, Yahiko and captured Konan. He lured Yahiko and Nagato 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 with the Fire Release: Extinguishing Curtain Field with Nagato rescuing Konan, 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 this, Hanzō continued to keep in regular contact with Danzō via messages, being one of few people the Ame-nin trusted at all. 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. However, because of his secret communications with Danzō, was the only one spared from Nagato's purging of associates. Likewise, the sudden ceasing of messages between them led the Root leader to believe Hanzō had died despite Nagato's efforts to keep up appearances of otherwise. In the anime, as a further testament of Nagato's hatred for Hanzō, Nagato did not even bother to give Hanzō's remains a proper burial.