Hanzou, known as Hanzou of the Salamander, was a legendary ninja and former leader of Amegakure who rose to prominence during the Second Great Ninja War. He's best known for his iconic battles against Konoha's three Sannin—Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru—which he fought alongside a giant summoned salamander. Despite facing all three at once, he held his own so impressively that he voluntarily offered them the title of Konoha's Legendary Three Ninja, essentially naming them himself.
Hanzou was obsessively paranoid about security, keeping guards around him at all times and subjecting anyone who wanted an audience to thorough searches. This paranoia would eventually become his downfall. When a group of young idealists led by Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan began preaching about ending war through unconventional means, Hanzou saw them as a threat to his authority. Rather than face them directly, he conspired with Danzō of the ANBU Root to ambush and kill Yahiko. It was a cowardly move that would haunt him.
The plan worked in the moment, but it created a monster. Nagato's grief and rage over losing Yahiko transformed him into Pain, and his vengeance was absolute—he hunted down and slaughtered virtually everyone connected to Hanzou. Pain himself eventually killed Hanzou in a one-sided battle, though the exact details remain unclear. Danzō, surprisingly, managed to slip through the carnage unscathed. That Jiraiya was shocked to learn Hanzou had been defeated at all speaks volumes about how fearsome he'd been; in the end, though, his own insecurity and cruelty made him expendable.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
