The Transformed Rain Country!

Splash!

A fine drizzle fell from the sky, leaving the Rain Country shrouded in darkness and dampness year-round.

Figures and caravans draped in felt cloth and cloaks lined up to enter and leave this city of rain, its metal pipes standing everywhere.

It was called Amegakure, but in truth, it was a city.

Compared to years ago, however, present-day Amegakure had undergone a qualitative leap in both population and size.

To put it in numbers.

Its population used to be only around several tens of thousands, but now it numbered in the hundreds of thousands, no fewer than Konoha.

Normally, there was no way it could compare to Konoha.

But Amegakure was not merely a ninja village; it also served as a "capital."

In other words, the Rain Country's capital was also Amegakure. Coupled with the fact that anyone looking to make a living had to come here, its large population was hardly surprising.

And that number only referred to Rain Country residents. If outsiders were included, it was not impossible for its population to exceed Konoha's.

Such an enormous change naturally came down to one thing.

The Black Market!

Whether it was bird droppings from the Land of Birds or Black Oil from the Fire Wind Border, most of it was traded here.

Both commodities were traded on a massive scale, with astronomical profits involved, so it was hardly strange that they had brought such drastic changes to the Rain Country.

Using those profits to purchase vast quantities of grain from elsewhere and sell it at fair prices, they could naturally support so many people in Amegakure.

It could be said that this Black Market had allowed the Rain Country to live far more comfortably than in the original plot.

At the very least, the group known as "orphans"