The Land of Rain, between the mountains and fields.
As usual, it was raining heavily, as if the country were crying.
Kirito was walking in a black raincoat on the muddy mountain path between the mountains and fields.
The body he was using was naturally the White Zetsu clone, and he was walking as a Ame-Nin who had become a robber.
His main purpose for coming to the Land of Rain this time was to see the country devastated by war and to see the current owner of the Rinnegan.
More than a month had passed since the end of the war, but the country still showed no signs of recovery.
Along the way, all Kirito saw were deserted farmlands, heavily destroyed villages, and displaced civilians.
Due to the war, the entire Land of Rain had been almost completely destroyed, and the only place that had remained relatively intact was the capital, which Amegakure had heavily fortified.
Kirito arrived at a village that was still inhabited.
Like the village he had seen earlier on the road, it had also been severely damaged. A large number of civilian homes had been destroyed, and only a small amount of the crops in the fields had survived.
Due to his identity as a Ame-Nin at this time, he was not hostile towards the ragged villagers in the village, but he was not welcomed by them either.
Kirito saw fear and vigilance in their eyes.
"You hurry up and leave our village, we don't welcome you here,"
Suddenly, a young boy rushed out of a dilapidated house, shouting at him angrily and bravely throwing stones at him.
"I'm sorry, Ninja-sama, please forgive him. His parents were killed by bandits yesterday. He doesn't know any better. Please forgive him."
As soon as the young man yelled at Kirito, a gray-haired old man quickly ran over from a nearby house. He used his hand to force the young man's head into the mud, forcing him to kneel on the ground. Then, he also knelt on the ground, kowtowed to him, and said with a pleading face.
Kirito heard what the old man said, and he instantly understood the reason for the young man's anger towards him.
No surprise, the so-called bandit was Ame-Nin, or to be precise, a Rogue ninja from Amegakure who had fallen to banditry.
Facing the mighty Konoha, not all Ame-Nin were brave enough to challenge them. Many were overcome with despair and fear after witnessing Konoha's formidable strength, and ultimately chose to flee with their tails between their legs, becoming shameful deserters and living in hiding.
Ninjas do not engage in production; they are essentially a group of mercenaries.
The Ame-Nin who became deserters naturally could no longer return to Amegakure. They had all automatically become rogue ninjas, and having lost all normal supply channels, they had no choice but to become even more disgraceful bandits in order to continue living.
Villages like this, which have lost their guardian forces, are their favorite targets.
They couldn't beat the Konoha ninja and couldn't protect their homes, and now they were hurting their own homes in return. What a travesty.
"Don't worry, I'm not like those scum. I won't take anything from you,"
Kirito let out a long sigh and spoke.
Afterwards, he walked past the old man and the boy kneeling on the ground and continued on, quickly leaving the village.
However, as soon as he had walked a short distance outside the village, he found himself surrounded.
Five Konoha ninja appeared one after the other and surrounded him.
Relying on his spiritual perception, he had actually known for a long time that he had been followed. As soon as he had left the village, these five people had been following him in secret.
It was no surprise that these five Konoha ninja had just been lurking in that village.
Five chūnin.
This was Kirito's judgment based on his natural energy perception of the amount of chakra in the five bodies.
"Our Amegakure and your Konoha have already ceased fighting. We have no reason to fight anymore, so let me go,"
Kirito persuaded, in the hope that the Konoha ninja would not fight.
But as soon as he finished speaking, a chūnin with one blind eye shouted angrily, "Who said we've ceased fighting with you Amegakure? Don't be wishful thinking."
Upon hearing this, Kirito immediately knew that this matter could not be resolved amicably today.
He was out of luck, and this time he had encountered the radical hawk faction of Konoha's ninja who opposed the cessation of hostilities.
The Konoha hawk faction was also divided into factions, which could be divided into moderate and radical factions. The moderate faction advocated resistance through negotiation as much as possible, while the radical faction advocated direct resistance through violence.
There is no doubt that on the battlefield of the Land of Rain, among the Konoha ninja who are still here today, there are many radical hawks. After they saw that Sandaime refused to accept the surrender of Amegakure, some of them were determined to restart the war in their own way.
And the simplest and most direct way to restart the war between the two ninja villages is undoubtedly to create killings, so that the hatred between the two sides continues to grow.
Today, the ninja of the two ninja villages still harbour deep hatred for each other. This tinderbox needs just a little spark to be set off.
At that time, the war will resume.
Obviously, his intention of meeting these five radical hawk faction ninjas this time was to restart the war by killing the Ame-Nin.
"Don't waste time with him, kill him quickly, we can't stay here for too long, the Ame-Nin territory is nearby,"
said another middle-aged ninja coldly.
As soon as the words fell, several kunai and shuriken shot towards Kirito quickly, and one of the kunai was still carrying a lit exploding charm.
Kirito could only helplessly engage in battle when he saw this.
He slapped his hands together, and a wall of water instantly appeared from the ground to block the kunai with the exploding charm, and then used the kunai to knock down the remaining incoming kunai and shuriken.
Water Release: Water Wall!
At the same time, four water clones split off from his body and quickly rushed towards the four Konoha ninja.
Water Release: Water Clone Technique!
"This guy is really strong. I'll use my full strength and hold him off while you guys attack."
The pineapple-headed ninja among the five of them looked at Kirito release two water escape ninjutsu without seals. He immediately realized that they had encountered a formidable enemy this time, and exclaimed, before forming two hand seals and using the Nara Secret Technique.
Shadow Imitation Technique!
The shadow beneath him quickly extended, pointing directly at the shadow beneath Kirito.
At this time, Kirito began to cast another ninjutsu. This time, he finally completed the hand seal, but to the horror of the Nara clan, he only managed to form five seals and successfully cast a Water Release jutsu. A very powerful and typical ninjutsu.
Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!
A huge water dragon instantly formed from the nearby accumulated water, and then pounced furiously at Pineapple Head Chūnin.
Pineapple Head Chūnin had to break the shadow imitation technique to dodge, but it is not that easy to avoid the attack of the water dragon. He was bitten by the water dragon and a large amount of high-pressure water hit him, washing him away.
The other four Konoha ninjas tried to go to his aid, but they were caught up in Kirito's four water clones.
One of the jōnin, who was good at using swords, finally defeated one of Kirito's water clones, but then he saw Pineapple Head Chūnin spitting blood and collapsing, unable to fight anymore. He couldn't help but angrily rush towards Kirito with his ninja sword covered in chakra.
Just as he managed to hit Kirito with the ninja sword, the Kirito in front of him suddenly turned into a stream of water.
It was a water clone.
The Jōnin knew at once that he had fallen into a trap. He tried to withdraw immediately, but it was already too late. The water that had formed the clone wrapped itself around him as if it had a life of its own.
A huge water ball instantly trapped the Jōnin.
Water Release: Water Prison Technique!
"Stop, I have your comrade in my hands. If you don't want him to die, stop."
Kirito emerged from the ground behind Jōnin, stuck his hand into the water ball, maintaining the water prison technique, and said to the remaining three Konoha ninja who had already dealt with the water clone.