A Small Interlude in the Rain

After more than half a month on the road, the transport convoy finally entered the Land of Rain after hurrying along day and night.

Less than two kilometers into the country, a torrential downpour suddenly descended. The rain crashed down as if someone in the heavens were dumping buckets of water. Even with raincoats on, everyone still felt soaked through. Katsuki and Kushina did not mind it much; Uzushio Village was located on an island, and its dampness was no less severe than this place's.

However, most of the students and even the genin, accustomed to the Land of Fire, found it unbearable. A small disturbance broke out in the convoy, but Tsunade and Orochimaru swiftly brought the situation under control. Only then did they continue forward, struggling through the rotten roads beneath the pounding rain. It was pure misery.

Compared to the Land of Fire's well-maintained roads, the roads in the Land of Rain were utterly terrible. The mules and horses had to struggle mightily to pull their hooves out of the mud, and their speed dropped to less than a tenth of what it had been.

"Have I had eight lifetimes of bad luck? Is the entire Land of Rain just one giant mud pit? Couldn't they make the roads easier to walk on?"

Otoha had fallen into another pit. With the heavy rain, visibility had been reduced to almost nothing, and they could barely see the road beneath their feet. People occasionally stepped into mud pits. It was not that those ahead failed to warn those behind; rather, the passing people and horses loosened the soil, leaving those who came afterward to suffer.

Among them, Otoha had the worst luck. This was already the third time he had stepped into a mud pit.

He cursed the Rain Ninja in grief and indignation, and only managed to pull his foot free with Katsuki and Hyuga Tenzan's help.

"The weather in the Land of Rain really is strange. The downpour came out of nowhere and caught everyone off guard." Katsuki wiped his face, but it was still dripping wet.

"Ugh! The important thing is, it feels like this rain will keep falling forever. That's the real problem." Hyuga Tenzan gazed anxiously at the sky. It was a heavy, inky darkness; though it was only a little after two in the afternoon, the sky was as dim as nightfall.

Katsuki sighed. There was truly nothing he could do about this awful weather. Luckily, he had not been born in the Land of Rain to soak in water all day, or in the Land of Wind to chew sand. Just thinking about it was miserable.

"...Did any of you hear something?" Katsuki's ears twitched. Amid the sound of the rain, he seemed to hear a great deal of chaotic noise.

"Huh? In rain this heavy, how could anyone hear a damn thing? Katsuki, aren't you imagining things?" Otoha curled his lip.

Katsuki could only shrug helplessly at Otoha's reaction. What the hell had happened? He used to be such a cool and aloof Uchiha disciple. How had he turned into such a goofball?

Hyuga Tenzan reacted decisively. He formed hand seals, activated his Byakugan, and looked around. Then his mouth fell into an O-shape as he pointed toward the wilderness on the left. "Over there, there are..."

"Stay alert! Stay alert! Enemies are approaching!" the chunin leading the convoy roared. He shouted himself hoarse, not because the attackers were especially terrifying, but because if he spoke any quieter, his voice would be swallowed by the rain.

The genin drew kunai, short swords, and all manner of weapons. Kunai were merely standard equipment; no one was required to use them. Katsuki and the others also drew their kunai on instinct, taking up combat stances.

This was not Katsuki's first time facing battle. He had clashed with the Mist Ninja once before. Though that encounter had ended in a crushing defeat and he had nearly lost his life, it had still been valuable experience. At the very least, he was not as nervous and excited as his two teammates. Instead, he steadied his breathing and listened carefully to the noise in the rain.

"They're here."

Katsuki's gaze sharpened. Figures shifted within the curtain of rain, and gleaming blades entered everyone's sight before their owners' faces did.

"Kill! Kill every one of these bandits! A bunch of fools courting death!" The chunin leading the convoy was an experienced veteran. Even when ambushed, he did not panic. He immediately directed the genin to move out and eliminate the bandits.

Newborn calves feared no tigers, especially when their opponents were nothing but small fry!

The ninja guarding the carts split into two groups. One group attacked while the other protected the supplies, rotating between the two. They were even using the battle as a training exercise.

Katsuki, Otoha, and Tenzan charged with the formation. Though they were still young, they had already refined chakra. Compared with ordinary civilians, they were practically a different species. Their kunai easily tore open the bandits' thick necks, and hot blood gushed like springs before quickly turning cold in the rain.

Mechanically swinging the kunai in his hand, feeling the blade slice through skin, sever muscle, cut tendons, and occasionally strike bone with an unfamiliar sensation, Katsuki felt his stomach churn. Yet when he looked around, neither Otoha nor Tenzan showed the slightest discomfort. Instead, they were filled with incomparable excitement...

Suppressing the unease in his heart, Katsuki's eyes turned cold. This was the true face of this world. If you did not kill others, they would kill you.

Some stubborn obsessions rooted deep in his heart, remnants of his previous life, began to fade away. This was no longer a world governed by law and reason. This was a land where might made right, and even the laws of his previous life had been founded upon strength.

He could not say that he suddenly saw the light, but the discomfort lingering in his heart vanished completely. The kunai in his hand moved with greater agility. Before entering the Land of Rain, he had already removed his weighted clothing. He could get away with wearing it on his own turf, but continuing to do so after entering the Land of Rain would have been suicidal.

Trampling through the chaotic mud, Katsuki advanced, retreated, and attacked with the group under the chunin captain's command. He did not seek to stand out, only to keep pace with the team. Otoha and Tenzan did the same. Neither acted recklessly because of their prestigious backgrounds. Everyone's strength merged together, becoming a cold killing machine that slaughtered every last one of the numerous bandits.

Aside from the first group wielding swords and blades, those behind them carried hoes, wooden clubs, iron hammers, and saws. Calling them bandits was giving them too much credit. They were merely farmers and craftsmen, each of them sallow and emaciated, yet fiercely charging forward without fear of death...

This was also a consequence born of war. The fighting between the Rain Ninja and Konoha had severely damaged the Land of Rain's already fragile economy. Large numbers of refugees had scattered into the wilderness, forced to turn to this kind of lawless robbery just to survive.

Yet once they failed, they had to pay with their lives.

This attack was merely a small interlude. More than two hundred refugee bandits were slaughtered to the last. Their corpses piled up in the wilderness, slowly turning pale and rotting beneath the rain. No one needed to clean them up; the wild dogs wandering the plains would gnaw the bodies clean. As for Konoha's transport convoy, it set off once more. Apart from a few unlucky people who twisted their ankles after stepping into mud pits, not a single person was injured.