The rain poured down in sheets.
The Land of Rain, a nation that saw no sunlight year-round, was now shrouded in icy rain.
Countless steel towers rose into the clouds, appearing and vanishing through the curtain of rain. The air was thick with the moldy smell of metal and the stale reek of blood.
A week had passed since Sasuke challenged Yuan in Konoha.
Sasuke wore a black hooded cloak, the Kusanagi Sword on his back, as he stepped across waterlogged steel pipes. Rainwater dripped from the edge of his cloak, and his deep black eyes were as alert as a leopard's in the rainy night.
He had left Konoha. He had told no one, and had taken not a single soldier with him. He knew very well that if he stayed in Konoha, he would only ever live in Yuan's shadow.
He would use his own way to dig out the truth buried deep in the dirt. About Itachi, about the clan massacre, about the village leadership that had played him for a fool for six years!
And the source of the intelligence was hidden in what had once been the Akatsuki's headquarters.
"Drip."
Sasuke's steps suddenly halted.
His Sharingan snapped open, three tomoe spinning in his eyes. He sharply sensed that from the abandoned warehouse ahead came a burst of rapid breathing and chakra fluctuations that did not belong to the rain.
Sasuke did not hesitate. His left hand formed seals in an instant.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
A huge fireball exploded directly through the rain curtain, its high heat instantly evaporating the surrounding rainwater into white steam before smashing hard into the warehouse's iron door!
Boom! The iron door was blown away, exposing the scene inside.
Three ninja in ragged gray robes, with black Cursed Seal