Land of Rain

After resting for a while longer, Yin Jie endured the pain and struggled to his feet in the torrential rain once the bright blue energy within him—very likely chakra—had circulated through his meridians several more times. Staggering, he headed toward the edge of town, toward those dilapidated houses that looked relatively "intact."

As time passed, a pitch-black curtain silently enveloped the entire world amid the downpour, robbing the already incredibly dim sky of its last trace of light.

Darkness seeped into every corner of the town like ink.

Night.

Had fallen.

"Creak!"

The old wooden door, soaked through by rain, let out a dry, grating groan as Yin Jie pushed it open—a sound like the moan of something overburdened, or a drawn-out sigh.

Amid the rasping scrape of wood against wood, Yin Jie felt his way inside by the flashes of lightning that split the night sky. It was the first house he had found whose exterior was relatively intact and capable of sheltering him from the torrential rain.

Once inside, Yin Jie, whose body and mind had both long since reached their limits, could no longer hold on. He dropped straight to the floor and fell into a deep sleep.

The following morning.

The sky had cleared.

Sunlight filtered softly through the thin clouds, and Yin Jie opened his sleepy eyes beneath its gentle glow.

After a full night of deep sleep, his body still felt somewhat heavy and his mind a little muddled, but Yin Jie could tell that he was in much better condition.

He slowly raised his arms and silently stared at his hands. They were utterly unlike the rough palms he had possessed in his previous life. Though still stained with blood, one could see the fair, supple, youthful skin beneath it. Everything that had happened the night before resurfaced in his mind once more.

I really did transmigrate...

Yin Jie let out a dazed sigh deep in his heart, but quickly put those complicated feelings away. A trace of determination flashed through his eyes.

Since he was here, he would make the best of it.

No matter what, he had to keep moving forward.

After all, there had been no deep bond worth mentioning in the world of his previous life.

Everything from that previous life was, to him, merely his previous life. What remained was nothing more than fleeting smoke preserved in his memories.

After finding some dry, hard bread in the house that was barely edible and using it to fill his stomach, Yin Jie stepped outside to investigate the surrounding area.

Although all his attention the night before had been focused on finding suitable shelter, during his slow journey from the center of town to its edge, he had still confirmed that this ruined little town contained nothing but endless deathly silence.

"This is..."

Pushing open another wooden door so battered it seemed ready to fall apart at any moment, Yin Jie froze at the sight before him and instinctively retched.

Then his pupils contracted sharply, his breathing abruptly stopped, and his heart seemed to skip a beat.

Two mangled corpses lying in dried pools of blood crashed directly into his view!

That settled it. There was no doubt anymore!

His guess had been right!

Yin Jie instinctively backed out of the house, yet he swiftly suppressed the discomfort in his heart at the same time, as though this were not his first time seeing such a scene.

"So it really is the shinobi world!"

Yin Jie spoke silently in his heart, his expression turning somewhat grave.

One of the corpses lay face-up on the ground, its entire body riddled with shuriken. Wrapped around its arm was a forehead protector engraved with an hourglass-like pattern. Beside it lay two puppets that had been smashed to pieces!

The other corpse had been nailed firmly to the wall by a long blade. On its forehead, it wore a protector marked with something resembling an abstract leaf!

Hidden Sand Village!

And...

Hidden Leaf Village!

In his previous life, Yin Jie had rewatched Naruto several times over.

As such, he recognized at a glance the shinobi forehead protectors on the two corpses, representing the Hidden Sand Village and Hidden Leaf Village respectively.

And that was proof that this truly was the shinobi world he had suspected it to be!

So the question he needed to consider now was which country this deserted town was in, and exactly where in the timeline he currently was.

Only by gathering more information could he survive better in the shinobi world.

After all, the shinobi world was far too chaotic.

Even jonin from the Five Great Shinobi Villages, and even Kage, had not come to good ends in war.

Not to mention the schemers and hidden masterminds lurking in the shadows, plotting a "great" plan that spanned a thousand years.

Still, for Yin Jie, who knew the plot of Naruto so well he could practically recite it backward, he already had a vague guess in his heart.

There were only a few possible explanations for dead Hidden Sand and Hidden Leaf shinobi.

But Yin Jie needed more intelligence to support his conclusion.

Very quickly, after roughly two hours, Yin Jie had explored the entire abandoned town.

And during that search, he finally confirmed the information he wanted.

The good news was that the point in time he had transmigrated to was still far from the official beginning of Naruto's story.

That meant he had plenty of time to familiarize himself with this world, which was no longer merely an anime but reality.

Although he could not recall his earlier memories, Yin Jie knew clearly from the chakra flowing through his meridians, as well as his seemingly instinctive lack of surprise upon seeing the corpses, that in those memories he could not remember, he was most likely already a shinobi!

Thus, he could make use of this abundant time to improve his own strength and obtain the power to change everything—and control his own fate.

After all, to Yin Jie, who knew the plot so well, he truly was one who "knew everything"!

Of course, all of that depended on whether he could survive.

As for the bad news, the current timeline was the period of the second large-scale conflict between villages since the shinobi world had entered the era of shinobi villages: the Second Shinobi World War!

Moreover, this abandoned town was located in the Land of Rain, the main battlefield where the Hidden Leaf Village, Hidden Rock Village, Hidden Sand Village, and Hidden Rain Village were locked in a chaotic melee!!!

The reason Yin Jie came to that conclusion was actually very simple.

Aside from those two corpses, he had discovered more bodies around the town and inside other houses.

The shinobi forehead protectors worn by those corpses belonged not only to the Hidden Leaf Village and Hidden Sand Village. Quite a few bore the symbol of four vertical lines.

That was the mark identifying Hidden Rain shinobi.

So it was obvious.

Shinobi from the Hidden Leaf, Hidden Sand, and Hidden Rain Villages had all died in the same place. Combined with the unending torrential rain from the night before, and the weather that had been sunny not long ago but had now turned overcast and seemed ready to rain again at any moment...

Yin Jie immediately thought of the main battlefield of the Second Shinobi World War—the Land of Rain!