Great Famine, Corpses Piled in the City Moat

Rustle, rustle, rustle...

Within the curtain of rain, only gray and white remained, thunder unable to rouse the silent world from its slumber.

The once bright sunlight had turned gloomy and oppressive, filtering down through the gaps in the thick clouds.

Yet, amidst this desolate scene, there were figures—thin and gaunt.

Their expressions numb, they trudged forward, like ghosts.

But they were not ghosts; they were people, civilians fleeing disaster.

Boom!!

Thunder followed the flash of lightning, and someone trembled, collapsing to the ground, never to rise again.

The faces of the others held only numbness, their dull, lifeless eyes fixed ahead, not turning back to look at those who fell.

Because such cruel deaths happened every moment in the Land of Rain.

People like them died, like water vanishing into water.

As civilians of a small nation, only numbness remained in their hearts.

They didn't know if there was truly a way forward, but stopping meant certain death, so they could only stumble aimlessly toward the capital, untouched by war.

Like mud-caked stray dogs...

No, like straw in the fields, falling with a single gust of wind, or even without it, teetering on the edge.

But there were also some who differed from those nearly mindless walking corpses.

"Hey, that..."

"Yahiko! Use a respectful title!"

"I, I know! But..."

Hearing the two little ones muttering behind him, Yun Chuan, following at the rear of the refugees, turned his head and gave the awkward Yahiko a deep look, then smiled faintly. "If you don't mind, call me Yun Chuan. I'm not much older than you."

Hearing this, Konan behind him froze for a moment, then quickly waved her hands. "Th-this won't do! You saved us..."

Not paying attention to Konan's fuss over titles, Yun Chuan turned back to look at the desolate road ahead.

"Don't worry, we're almost there."

They had walked who knows how far; though the land was still barren, cart tracks and hoofprints now appeared beneath their feet.

The horses hadn't been eaten, meaning there were people ahead, and food wasn't scarce there.

The number of refugees was visibly increasing, unlike before when corpses were everywhere, clearly gathering toward this place.

Perhaps, in their minds, reaching the capital meant survival.

"Konan, Yahiko." Yun Chuan didn't look back as he asked, "Were you planning to go to the capital to trade for some food before?"

"Yes, Yun, Brother Yun Chuan." Konan hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded.

"No need to think twice—at a time like this, only the capital is safe. Only Lord Daimyo can shelter some people!" Yahiko blustered, then muttered darkly, "Damn ninja, if it weren't for them..."

"Yahiko! That's enough!" Konan quickly tugged at his sleeve, signaling him to stop.

After all, in their eyes, the youth before them was also a "ninja."

"Ninja" were all cruel and heartless beings, indifferent to civilian lives, and they were the ones who brought war to the Land of Rain.

Yahiko had always believed this, yet he was saved by the very "ninja" he despised, leaving him conflicted toward Yun Chuan.

Under Yahiko's subtle influence, Konan had once thought the same, but now she inexplicably felt...

"Brother Yun Chuan... seems different from those ninja."

Watching the figure walking ahead, recalling his earlier gentleness, Konan's pupils trembled slightly.

"...Brother Yun Chuan." After a moment of silence, Konan asked softly, "Do you mean that even if we reach the capital, the two of us will still struggle to survive?"

At these words, Yahiko, who had been clutching his ninja tool pouch tightly, shouting about exchanging it for bread, fruit, and a full meal at the capital, choked up instantly, turning to Konan in disbelief.

How could Konan have such a thought?

"I can tell you've never been to the capital."

Yun Chuan just chuckled lightly and shook his head. "But easily denying the possibility of your survival isn't in my nature."

"Go see for yourselves. I happen to be passing through the capital anyway..."

With that, Yun Chuan said no more, ignoring Yahiko who seemed about to speak, his slightly curved eyes—devoid of any smile—fixed on the stumbling figures ahead.

Unlike the anxious Yahiko, Konan caught the subtle meaning in Yun Chuan's words.

"Passing through the capital..." Konan lowered her head slightly, thinking to herself, "That means he doesn't live in the capital?"

Though both followed the one-country-one-village system, the situation differed from the Five Great Nations.

Because the country's territory was pitifully small, the Land of Rain's ninja village wasn't separate from the nation; Amegakure was within the capital's bounds.

Thus, the capital, gathering all of Amegakure's ninja, was the safest place in the Land of Rain.

Given the ability Yun Chuan had shown earlier, he would surely be treated well in Amegakure, yet he chose not to stay in the capital?

Why?

Just as Konan was lowering her head in thought, she noticed Yahiko beside her suddenly stop in his tracks.

"We're here. The Rain Capital."

Hearing Yun Chuan's voice, Konan instinctively looked up.

But the moment her gaze landed, her face twisted into the same expression as Yahiko's beside her.

As if frozen by a binding spell, they stood rooted in place, their youthful brows and eyes filled only with blankness.

Before their eyes, beyond the capital, there was nothing but desolation and barrenness.

A black curtain of rain washed over their vision. The houses to the left and right were mostly dilapidated and broken. Near dusk, not even a wisp of cooking smoke could be seen. Among the weeds in the crumbling walls, rats and insects scurried everywhere.

This scene was nothing like what Yahiko and Konan had imagined before.

In fact, even the stench of decay and the piles of corpses here far surpassed anything Yahiko and Konan had ever seen before.

The Rain Capital was surrounded by a moat dozens of meters wide and bottomless, with only a single bridge leading into the city. But the city gates were tightly shut, clearly under lockdown—no one could enter or leave freely.

Yet the commoners, desperate for a sliver of hope, kept gathering in greater numbers, heedless of the chilling rain soaking their bodies.

Countless figures slumped against the city walls, their heavy eyelids barely able to lift, their dazed, numb faces withered like dead wood.

Their bodies were nothing but skin and bones, eyes sunken deep, like living skeletons. Stick-thin arms hung limp at their sides, trembling incessantly.

More breath out, less breath in—they looked like lamps running out of oil, on the verge of death at any moment.

Some were already dead. Others still had breath.

As for those still alive...

Sniff! Sniff sniff!

Konan and Yahiko instinctively wrinkled their noses, catching the endless reek of rot swirling in the air.

But beneath the stench of decay, there was another strange smell.

The smell of meat.

A scent of meat that even the rotting corpses could not mask.

"Ugh!!"

Finally, Konan collapsed to the ground, unable to hold back her vomiting.

Yahiko's face was equally pale to the extreme, his body trembling as he stared at everything outside the capital.

"I don't know if future generations will record this war, or how they will describe the harm it inflicted on the common people."

Yun Chuan's eyes held a faint trace of pity, the frost on his face colder than the deepest winter. He said softly, "But to describe it with a line I once saw..."

"When the great famine came, the people leaned against the city moats to die. Captives and corpses were eaten, thousands per day. They set up a hundred giant mortars, grinding bones and skin into pulp in the troughs, and devoured them!"