The two weeks passed really fast, and I don't even know if I could really say I was preparing for anything at all. I spent most of my days resting and recovering, and I didn't even train once. One moment, I was sitting at Ichiraku or visiting Kushina, who was looking better and better, getting herself under control, especially after learning what had happened to her clan and that she would soon be let out to visit them... Even live with them, but I wasn't so sure about that part... Anyway... The next moment, I was standing at Konoha's main gate, surrounded by the most absurd traveling party.
At the very front of us was the Hokage, and to my surprise, he was dressed for travel in dark shinobi clothing, his armor hidden beneath a long cloak... I couldn't even see his big hat. Meaning, we were expecting the worst. Great! Of course, he wasn't alone, because four ANBU members surrounded him, dressed as usual. Then, coming in the middle was the White Fang, speaking quietly with one of the ANBU... I think he was outranking everyone else, maybe even Jiraiya-sensei, too; I couldn't really tell, as he looked unbothered by that, taking up the rear of our group. Honestly... this force alone probably could wipe out a city, huh? Not to mention, there was another addition, standing with us, with Minato and me, sandwiched between Sakumo and Jiraiya.
It was Ashina Uzumaki. He wore a set of dark-red robes and carried a wooden staff covered from top to bottom in tiny seals. He wasn't coming alone either, because two other Uzumaki accompanied him, probably somewhere around Sensei's generation or even above. Neither had introduced themselves beyond their names when we arrived, going by Kaito and Mina. When I asked, they were both Jōnin-level seal masters, aaaand that was it. Hmm... Something told me we were expecting a fight, so I wanted to ask Hiruzen: if that is indeed the case, why are we being brought along?
Two Chūnin... Okay... I'll shut up about it. So, I made sure my expression was as neutral as possible when we began traveling. We didn't use a carriage, even if I had half expected one, because this was a diplomatic delegation, after all. Nope. We traveled like shinobi, pretty much sprinting over tree branches, and I silently marked all the old men as fakers. Even if Ashina used his staff while walking, it for sure wasn't because he needed it, but because he had it for some kind of fashion statement. Showing himself to be weaker than he was or something, because he had no trouble flying through the forest.
After we left, we avoided most of the villages and settlements we passed, and by the second day they became less frequent, too. However, in their place were checkpoints where I watched Konoha shinobi inspect merchant caravans, and I even saw some of our old classmates doing that duty as genin. Naturally, we didn't say hi, and they never knew we'd passed by... but it told me we were already pretty much at war. At one crossroads, more than twenty wagons sat idle because the merchants weren't being allowed to continue toward the border.
On the third day, most of the grass disappeared, and dark stone began appearing more frequently on the ground. What was worse was that the skyline became dominated by thick clouds, turning the days much dimmer. It was getting depressing, especially when it started to drizzle, and then turned into a proper, heavy downpour. Fuuuuuck... A day later, there was no sense that it had started; it felt like it had always been raining like this and would never end. Bah!
We were now slowing down, hurrying along a path where rushing channels flanked us on both sides, thanks to all the rainwater pooling in one direction. I should have brought more underwear, because I was drenched from head to toe... But maybe it wouldn't have mattered at all. The cloaks we had meant nothing, too, when the wind changed, and you got sprayed in the face for an hour straight.
The first sign that we were nearing the main village was a squat concrete structure with pipes running along its walls and rainwater pouring from half a dozen drainage outlets. I don't know what it was for, but four Ame shinobi waited beneath an overhang there, stopping us, with their respirators hanging around their necks. It was a tense moment as one of our ANBU members walked forward to announce who we were, and after a brief back-and-forth, we were greeted and examined one by one before being let farther in.
We were also given metal badges stamped with Amegakure's symbol.
"Keep these visible while traveling within the inner territory," the captain explained to us. "Hanzo-sama has placed all access routes under heightened security until the summit concludes."
Great. So we were tagged and probably monitored. No wandering for us! Not that I wanted to wander around this wet depression simulator of a country. The farther we traveled into Rain Country, the worse everything looked; that was enough for me to see. I am not saying they looked poor, but... their design philosophy was to put metal tubes everywhere to divert the rain, because rusting, wet-smelling metal was so nice. It really drove up the property value.
So yeah, considering it all, I would call it a shithole. That was the word I landed on, and it may be harsh, but I think I would stand by it, because even Sunagakure looked okay compared to this. The fact that they didn't realize that wet metal leaves nasty marks on the white or grey concrete houses, like someone shat on it, and kept adding more after the first stain, was enough to tell me they weren't an artistic bunch.
At least the sandpeople had cool, earth-built houses, built underground to shelter them from the sun.
Anyway... My scoring didn't improve when we passed abandoned farmsteads and half-collapsed villages. It made me think, curious about how it all became like this.
"Sensei," I spoke up, letting my questions flow.
"Hm?"
"What was it like?"
"Hmmm...?" Jiraiya looked sideways at me. "What was what?"
"Here." I gestured around us. "During the war."
He didn't answer immediately, and I was curious if he was thinking about Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. They should still be here somewhere... No? Only older now. Teenagers? Young adults? My timeline calculations have become increasingly useless, so I don't know if they're already doing the Akatsuki thing or not. Probably... What if I run into them? Could I use Ashina to reveal that Nagato was an Uzumaki? I didn't have much time to think further, though, because Sensei began answering.
"Worse... Much worse. You really want to know?"
"Yes, I do." I shrugged, not really caring if anyone else was listening in. "We're attending a summit that's supposed to stop another war. Which it won't, I can tell that now, so, before all talks break down, I just want to put the coming third war into perspective for myself."
That earned me a long look from everyone else, but I simply looked back at them without a care in the world. Jiraiya nodded when he felt I wasn't going to back down, collecting his thoughts.
"Fair enough. For starters, the Second War wasn't a single war, but dozens of conflicts that added up to one. It all stemmed from border disputes, with old grudges often worming in as the reasons behind them. Then, it became retaliation for retaliation." He shrugged, shaking his head. "Eventually, everybody had enough reasons to hate everybody else that nobody remembered which reason came first and just kept fighting. We fought Suna the most, and Iwa got involved in places, dragging in the others when an opportunity arose. When that happened, smaller villages picked sides when they had to. As for Ame..." He gestured around us. "With its location, it got to be the road everyone used to move their troops around. And when that happens, it also puts them as the prime place to ambush your opponents. It's still Ame, and not one of the great nations' territory, so... No inherent advantage for any forces. Pretty much, it then boiled down to this: when battles erupted, it was around here."
"Why didn't Hanzo stop them?" I asked, thinking about it. He did in the end, no? Why not from the start?
"Well!" Jiraiya laughed, shaking his head. "He tried, and it meant that he had to fight everyone. Hanzo was already terrifying before the war, and throughout it, he had to perfect everything. He became ruthless, mastering poison, summons, and traps, to fight differently from the big nations. He took over the whole country by force first, killing everyone who was in any position of power, and by the middle and end of the war, he began attacking everyone openly."
"Ballsy..." I muttered quietly.
"Didn't save the civilians, though," Jiraiya added. "He took their food for his own troops, and many of the villages got burned because he suspected enemy shinobi were hiding there. Seeing no other way, he even went after his own bridges at the key points, wresting control from the other countries and destroying them. He knew he couldn't hold them, so he destroyed their own infrastructure, making the whole country a worthless target for even troop movements or retaliation. He pretty much ruined his own country to save it. So much so that, in the end, we fought him more than each other."
Fuck. He went hardcore...
"Is that where you became one of the Sannin?" Minato asked suddenly.
"Hmph," Jiraiya snorted, while Hiruzen glanced back at him over his shoulder. "That's what Hanzo decided to call us... and yes. It happened there."
"After beating you?" I asked cheekily, and even he smiled.
"We survived," Sensei said firmly. "And those he defeated were never coming home... So, were we defeated? Anyway... We were young... younger."
"How strong was Hanzo?" Minato asked, immersed in the story, too.
"Hm." Jiraiya became serious again, staying silent for a long time. "I am not putting him on any of the Kage's level. But he could hold his own... for a while."
Yum. That was great news... Or not.
"So keep those marks ready."
"I always do." Minato nodded, because all the way, while we were traveling, he had been putting down his marks at his limit, at intervals of where he could jump to in a sequence.
"So... after the war, what happened?" I asked a new question just then.
"What about it?" Sensei asked back, and I noticed he was a bit flustered, but he hid it well.
"I heard you stayed here."
The way they all looked at me... Wasn't that public knowledge? Probably... not? Oh man... I can't avoid these moments, can I? Haaah.
"Yeah." Sensei shrugged. Phew! Okay, it was not a big secret. Saved! "Tsunade and Orochimaru went home, but I didn't."
"Why?" Minato asked.
"There were people here who needed help." He answered simply, and it was a very, very... very honest answer. I could feel it. And I don't think he just meant the three kids he found. "A war doesn't end because someone signs papers," he added, looking out into the rain. "Some people are left behind fighting their wars even after that... Especially the orphans. Refugees." He added quickly after, "People with no homes. So, I stayed for a while to help. It was the least I could do after destroying so much."
"For how long?" Minato asked curiously.
"A few years."
"Years?" He blinked, not expecting the answer, and being the one who now got a knock on his head from him, and not me. Finally!
"Duh!" Jiraiya grinned at him. "You thought I spent my entire youth peeping through bathhouse fences?"
"Hah! Self-incrimination is the best one," I answered automatically and received a lightning-fast knock on my head. "OW!"
"Watch your mouth!" He snorted, and I was sure our companions were laughing, but hiding it well.
"Anyway..." I moaned, rubbing my head. "Did it help?"
"Hmmm?" Jiraiya looked at me through the rain, surprised by my question.
"Staying."
For a moment, he didn't answer, but then he smiled, nodding.
"Yeah... Yeah, it did." He whispered, and I saw his lips forming silent words that my eyes managed to catch. "I hope so."
After that, he said nothing more, and by late afternoon, the buildings became frequent as a city came into view. Concrete structures on both sides of the road, metal warehouses, numbered pumping stations, and their pipes. So many fucking pipes! They ran along, above and probably under the roads, too. Some were as thick as tree trunks, some like my arm, and they all formed entire webs around buildings.
Then, the closer we got to the center, the towers began appearing, massive, black silhouettes, sometimes with human-like figures on them formed from the piping, acting as some parody of an Art Deco building. It felt creepy... Especially because rainwater poured from their mouths. Oookay, that's... I don't know which is better, using peeing statues or the vomiting ones. The meaning was clear: The Hidden Rain Village was creepy. End of the discussion.
It was like this probably because the land was limited and hard to build on without worrying about the constant softening of the earth by rain. So, where they actually managed to erect a foundation, they simply began expanding the buildings upward. Thus, metal and concrete towers were erected one after another, with many of their upper levels connected by walkways and overhanging footbridges made out of... piping. Of course.
As we entered, my eyes kept moving, and I had to force myself to hold back my Sharingan. Even without it, I noticed the countless shinobi standing on rooftops, walkways, the pipes, everywhere, with gas masks hanging from belts, holding umbrellas or wearing cloaks.
"Thorough," Ashina-sama said suddenly, walking on my right, and I didn't even notice he was there until he spoke.
"I guess Hanzo is not in the mood to set his village up as a battlefield," I muttered, but the answer I got was not what I expected.
"He burnt his country to the ground to rebuild it..." Ashina said, and the old man was smiling despite it all. "Sacrificing this city for a goal he wants to achieve means nothing to him."
Thank you, Ashina-sama. Now I'm fucking sure that this meeting will go from 0 to 100 real fast. Yey...