Nengshen Jingang recently contracted a severe skin condition. From his neck to his chest, a thick layer of ringworm had grown, itching unbearably day and night. When he scratched with his hands, flakes of skin fell off in rustling droops, yet even when he tore the flesh raw and blood flowed freely, it did not relieve the itch.
Once the skin was torn raw, the wounds began to ooze yellowish fluid. Amegakure rained year-round and the climate was humid, a weather condition that made the wounds even harder to heal. He sought out several medical-nin and applied goodness knows how many ointments. With great difficulty, the bleeding stopped and scabs formed, but once healed, another thick layer of ringworm appeared, repeating in an endless cycle with no end in sight.
However, the itch of this ringworm ailment was not what troubled him most.
Ever since he took over as the Rain Shadow, he always felt something was not quite right, yet he could not put his finger on it.
In the present Amegakure, there was no disturbance of the flames of war, nor any starving refugees making a fuss. The surrounding neighbors were amicable, the treasury was well-stocked, and the pending documents piled on his desk every day never exceeded ten pages, taking at most an hour or so to approve.
Every month he collected the two million ryo in taxes from the Hourglass Group, spending it however he pleased, and during festivals and holidays, private gifts were presented to him. The thing he spent most of his time doing every day now was offering condolences to the family of the previous Rain Shadow.
Ruling by doing nothing and governing from a position of serene dignity, he even felt for a time that he might become the most successful Rain