The scene shifted to the Land of Rain, thousands of miles away.
An endless cold rain poured from the sky, relentlessly washing over the muddy earth. Murky puddles lay everywhere, and the damp air reeked of rotting vegetation and a faint hint of blood.
Shamon, the Second Kazekage, personally led three thousand Sand Ninja across the Land of Rain, pushing toward Amegakure's heartland.
Naturally, their advance was far from smooth. Amegakure squads kept springing out of the rain, using the winding river valleys, dense forests, and other favorable terrain to set ambushes.
Scattered skirmishes broke out everywhere. Wind Release howled as it tore through the curtain of rain, Water Release churned up muddy waves, and the Chakra Threads controlling puppets flashed coldly in the downpour.
Sunagakure's forces advanced while clearing away the Amegakure ninja who kept blocking their path. Every step forward cost them casualties. The wounded were continually carried away, while the bodies of fallen ninja were destroyed on the spot, since corpses often yielded valuable intelligence. Blood mingled with rainwater and seeped into the soil, staining the ground beneath their feet a dull reddish brown.
After several fierce battles along the way, compounded by intermittent raids from Amegakure squads, the army of three thousand ninja had already suffered considerable losses.
Perhaps Amegakure's ninja were individually weaker than those from a major village like Sunagakure, but the Land of Rain's terrain greatly enhanced their Water Release, and they occasionally used poison as well. Sunagakure was fighting on foreign soil, and a shortage of medical ninja plagued every ninja village in the shinobi world. Many ninja did not die outright from their wounds, but because they could not receive treatment.
Shamon stood at the head of the army, clad in his Kazekage robes.
A dark green, snake-shaped tattoo coiled down