Land of Water, Hidden Mist Village.
A hazy mist shrouded the small village.
Pedestrians hurried along the streets, with few stopping to linger. Only along the sides could the occasional beggar be seen, little more than skin and bones, leaning against a wall and staring blankly ahead.
Hidden Mist Village had many beggars. Most were disabled, and some were young children.
Under its bloody rule, many could not even stay alive. Those who escaped with disabilities were already fortunate.
The wars had also left countless children with no one to depend on.
They were like lone boats adrift in a tsunami, liable to be swallowed and capsized at any moment. They had lost their dreams and no longer knew what it meant to live.
Xia Le and his two companions walked slowly forward, wearing bamboo hats.
Compared to Konoha's prosperity and bustle, this place was the opposite extreme, offering only an eerie stillness.
"How pitiful!"
Sakumo sighed softly, his voice beneath his bamboo hat laden with complicated emotions.
Each ninja village in the Five Great Nations had its own methods of rule. Hidden Mist Village's were the most cold-blooded and cruel.
Yet he could not call those methods wrong. Amid years of warfare, such bloody practices made it easier to cultivate powerful fighters.
Nor could the root of all this necessarily be blamed on the rulers.
War was the cause of it all.
If the Ninja World someday achieved peace, the wars would naturally cease.
At that thought, Sakumo could not help looking at Xia Le.
With Hidden Rain Village's current pace of development, once it accumulated enough strength, it might even surpass the Five Great Nations.
When that time came, peace would have its best chance of arriving.
Yet this man outwardly displayed no ambition, and even seemed utterly