Rumble—
Dark clouds churned over the Land of Rain, accompanied by the muffled roar of thunder. The raindrops that had been gathering for some time finally began to fall.
"Pitter-patter..."
The pounding rain drowned out every other sound throughout Amegakure.
At the village's tall entrance, several Rain Ninja remained on guard, their eyes wary. Even as the rain poured down, they did not let their guard slip.
Yet some faint sounds were ultimately concealed by the rainfall, a sound most familiar to the people of Amegakure...
Inside a tall, black-rock-like building in Amegakure,
the walls of a large conference hall were splattered with blood.
"N-no... Please... I beg you... let me go... I... I want to live..."
A blood-soaked figure crawled weakly across the floor. Terror filled his eyes, and fresh blood trickled from the corners of his mouth as he mumbled incoherently.
Corpses lay scattered all around him.
A closer look revealed that each of them had suffered a fatal wound from a single strike. Their faces were all frozen in terror!
It was astonishing to see them like this, as if they had been caught off guard by their own injuries.
"Tap." "Tap"...
With soft footsteps, a tall figure seemed to approach the man crawling on the floor.
"To have survived is truly astonishing."
The blood-soaked figure on the floor was a burly, heavyset man. At the sound of that rich, magnetic voice, his pupils instantly shrank, and his eyes filled with fear.
Cold sweat covered his forehead. Whether from his injuries or his terror, his lips trembled as he mumbled,
"P-please... spare me... I... have... to... stay... alive..."
Just then,
a flash of lightning lit up outside, followed by a deafening clap of thunder!
"Boom!"
In the fleeting flash, the fat man glanced at the tall figure