The Man Called the "Demigod"!

The relentless rain and endless damp chill made the Kikaichū on his body extremely uncomfortable. Bugs liked moisture, but not excessive moisture. They liked coldness, but not freezing cold. Aburame Shiqing said nothing as he traveled beneath the earth using Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage.

Years of training in Root had given him a level of endurance ordinary ninja lacked. Though the bugs in his body were restless, they remained confined within him. Not a single one escaped.

The journey to the Land of Rain was filled with torment.

The rain carrying unusual chakra never stopped. Only underground could he evade its surveillance.

After expending two-thirds of his chakra, Aburame Shiqing would lie dormant in the soil and let the Kikaichū crawl out. The insects gathered scarce oxygen, trace minerals, and nutrients from the earth, feeding them back into his body.

Once his strength gradually returned, he would continue traveling underground... He had forcibly turned an Earth Style Ninjutsu meant for ambushes into a technique for stealth and travel.

He was a genius!

After bypassing the fiercest fighting, crossing the entire Land of Grass, and entering the Land of Rain, the bugs on his body finally brought him good news:

The chakra in the rain had vanished. The rain here was ordinary rain. He remained beneath the earth for quite some time before emerging from below.

Through the curtain of rain, towering concrete buildings rose black and grim, like sharp swords piercing the clouds. They looked like monstrous beasts.

Amegakure's distinctive, austere architecture resembled a forest of steel.

At this moment, it was dead.

"Finally..." Aburame Shiqing's body and mind rarely felt so lively. He openly ran toward Amegakure.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Three senbon needles blended into the raindrops and silently approached, piercing the mud in front of Aburame Shiqing's feet with faint drilling sounds. Three Amegakure ninja wearing gas masks and holding oil-paper umbrellas swiftly closed in. "Stop. Who are you?"

The three were exceptionally wary. One held thirteen senbon between his fingers, while another had already begun forming hand seals, ready to launch ninjutsu at any moment.

The leader, however, pointed his umbrella at Aburame Shiqing.

Aburame Shiqing pulled out a forehead protector from his pocket and showed it to them. "I am a ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village. I have come specifically to see Hanzo of the Salamander—this concerns the safety and survival of the Land of Rain. Please lead the way!"

"Come with us." The three Amegakure ninja did not dare let down their guard. They cautiously kept him between them and brought him into the village.

They first arranged a room for Aburame Shiqing and instructed him not to make any suspicious moves, nor to leave the room under any circumstances, before going to report his arrival.

"Lord Hanzo requests your presence." Before long, a ninja brought him good news and led him to Hanzo of the Salamander.

Hanzo of the Salamander wore black clothes beneath a suit of armor. He was clearly somewhat old, yet his sharp edge remained undiminished. His eyes, like sickles, swept across Aburame Shiqing's body.

"Young one of the Hidden Leaf Village's Aburame clan, what do you wish to say as a representative of the Hidden Leaf Village?" His attitude was exceedingly arrogant.

He, Hanzo of the Salamander, was the Demigod of the ninja world. He had once single-handedly subdued Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru, the strongest of the Hidden Leaf Village's younger generation, before granting them the title of the "Three Ninja"—being able to hold out beneath the Demigod's hand was already their glory.

His arrogance came from his strength.

Unfortunately...

People would grow old eventually.

The bugs in Aburame Shiqing's body were thrown into restless agitation by the Demigod's imposing aura, but Aburame Shiqing remained expressionless. As he suppressed and soothed the insects within him, he said, "Lord Hanzo, compared to when you crushed the Three Ninja during the Second Shinobi World War, you have grown old."

Hanzo of the Salamander said nothing, but his killing intent surged in an instant, pressing down on Aburame Shiqing like a blade drawn from its sheath.

Several Kikaichū actually crawled out from the tiny pores of his body and fell to the ground. Every last one had been scared to death.

Their backs lay against the ground, their bellies turned upward, reduced to corpses.

When the Demigod was angered, he did not even need to move. His killing intent alone was already so terrifying.

"Very good," Hanzo of the Salamander said. "Just this ability to suppress your insects makes you unique among the Aburame clan.

"Everyone grows old. But an aged Demigod is still a Demigod. What, then, is an aged Hiruzen Sarutobi?

"A Demigod exists in relation to a god. Now that the god is dead, this Demigod is the ninja world's only true god. The Land of Rain may be small, but with a Demigod, it is currently the strongest nation in the ninja world. Do not use such boring rhetoric—

"It is laughable to say such things before me."

Aburame Shiqing bowed. "Lord Hanzo sees across ten thousand miles and perceives the smallest details. I was ordered to come for only one reason: to inform you—

"There is an organization in Amegakure called Akatsuki. It is currently active on the battlefield and has caused considerable trouble for both of us. You may be powerful, but the Land of Rain is a small nation. You must consider the consequences of this matter. Lord Danzo..."

"Oh? What did that old dog say?" Hanzo of the Salamander neither confirmed nor denied anything. Aburame Shiqing felt a flash of anger at his insult toward Danzo, but it passed just as quickly.

He said, "Lord Danzo asked me to ask you: Have you considered this carefully? Do you want the Land of Rain to be doomed beyond redemption? The three great nations of Fire, Wind, and Earth are contending with one another. Does your tiny little country also wish to test its edge?"

Hanzo said nothing. After a while, he merely waved his hand. Aburame Shiqing was taken back to his original room, where his movements were restricted once more.

Not until the next morning did Hanzo see him again. Instead, he sent someone with a message: "Lord Hanzo asks me to inform you: have that old dog come discuss this matter himself." Then Aburame Shiqing was escorted out of the Land of Rain.

Aburame Shiqing spent another day returning to Danzo and delivering the message. Danzo hesitated for a long time before finally making up his mind.

"Let's go to the Land of Rain!"

Over those same two days, Yahiko and Konan had each made a trip between the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth, achieving some modest "progress."

Both sides gave the same explanation: "We will do everything in our power to ensure that innocent people are not harmed and to minimize the losses suffered by the people of the Land of Grass. However, if the other side insists on causing destruction, there is nothing we can do... After all, during wartime, we cannot account for everything."

Yahiko's words, however, were somewhat weak. "Our organization will supervise both sides!"

At last, the rain stopped half a day later.

The sky quickly cleared.

Before long, the blazing sun dried parts of the ground, baking out a fine layer of white sand. Jasmine was overjoyed, happily drawing a huge smiling face on the ground with her kunai. "Captain, the weather has finally cleared."

"Yeah. The weather has finally cleared." Uchiha Kin smiled as well, thinking, The sky has cleared, and the war is about to begin again.