Across the vast and endlessly conflicted territory of the Shinobi World, the Land of Rain resembled a battered, heavily scarred outcast, mercilessly cast by fate between the three great powers of Earth, Wind, and Fire to serve as a natural bloody battlefield.
Year-round torrential rain fell like the silent, bitter weeping of this land, pattering down to drench every inch of scorched earth and soak every shattered dream. The smoke of war lingered, its pungent odor mingling with the rainy mist and driving countless residents to abandon their ancestral homes, dragging their families away to deep, remote, tranquil mountain forests or hidden caves where few humans ever trod.
The once bustling town streets now held only empty houses, their doors and windows groaning under the erosion of wind and rain like the sighs of aging men. These neglected dwellings instead became temporary havens for drifters like Shang Qi to escape the weather.
Chapter 16