For ages, the people of the Land of Rain had seen its rain as the silent weeping of a country ravaged by war and crippled by weakness.
The cold rain seemed endless, washing over muddy roads and dilapidated buildings, washing away the faint hope of peace in people's hearts, and making life even harder for crops that already struggled to survive.
Yet everything had changed since the man who called himself a "god," the man who possessed the Rinnegan, took control of Amegakure.
Pain had changed the Land of Rain.
The rain was no longer an endless lament.
Through his will and power, Pain had forcibly altered the laws of nature in the skies above this land.
Now, rain fell in the Land of Rain only on Sundays.
The other six days were either overcast or blessed with rare clear skies.
Regularity brought order, and it also brought life.
The residents of Amegakure could build, trade, and venture out on days without rain.
More importantly, the crops that had once struggled to survive the relentless rain finally had a chance to recover and grow.
Although the country remained closed off and mysterious, its vitality was slowly, painfully returning.
The rain had gone from a "symbol of weeping" to a predictable, recurring natural phenomenon that carried something of a "divine decree."
Today was Sunday.
A torrential downpour arrived on schedule, enveloping all of Amegakure.
Fat raindrops battered the towering steel buildings, the crisscrossing pipes, and the gloomy water below, raising a deafening roar.
Rainwater gathered and rushed down steep eaves and rusted pipes, washing this ninja village into an even colder, more forbidding place.
Atop the tallest steel spire, Deva Path Pain stood motionless, his short orange hair and impassive face framed by an Akatsuki cloak, like a stone statue devoid