Three days later, within the Land of Rain.
Standing atop a barren hill, Uchiha Ren gazed at the oppressive clouds hanging in the sky, filled with complicated emotions.
Not long ago the sky had been clear and bright, stretching endlessly under the sun.
But shortly after entering the Land of Rain, the weather changed completely.
The brilliant sunlight vanished behind thick clouds, and the air grew heavy with moisture, as if rain could begin falling at any moment.
The Land of Rain was called that for a reason—
It rained almost constantly here, with sunlight rarely seen throughout the year.
The country bordered three great powers: the Land of Fire, Land of Earth, and Land of Wind.
Whenever a Great Ninja War erupted, the Land of Rain inevitably became the battlefield of those powerful nations.
The people of this country had done nothing wrong.
Yet they had been tormented by war for generations, never enjoying even a single moment of peace.
Because of this endless turmoil, the Land of Rain had never been able to develop.
Its citizens lived in perpetual poverty, struggling merely to survive from day to day.
The rain that endlessly fell upon the nation seemed like the heavens themselves weeping for its suffering.
Uchiha Ren let out a soft sigh.
At this moment, he found himself somewhat able to understand the actions of Nagato—and even Hanzo of the Salamander—in the original storyline.
In the original narrative, the perspective had always been centered on Konoha. Events in other countries were often mentioned only briefly.
But in the real world, the suffering endured by small nations like the Land of Rain was very real.
Hanzo had grown up during chaotic times.
After witnessing the hardships of the Land of Rain firsthand, he resolved to change its fate.
He understood that if the country wished to improve its situation, it first needed to end the constant warfare ravaging its land.
Otherwise, no matter how much the country developed, war would simply destroy everything again.
Internal disputes within the Land of Rain were not difficult to handle.
The real problem lay with the attitudes of the three great nations: Fire, Earth, and Wind.
Whenever those countries went to war, the Land of Rain became their battlefield, undoing all the country's efforts in an instant.
In order to declare the sovereignty of the Land of Rain and force those great nations to acknowledge its voice, Hanzo once dared to declare war against the three great nations by himself.
Unfortunately, he failed.
Although Hanzo was known as the Demigod of the Shinobi World, he was still not the God of Shinobi.
Facing the combined pressure of the three great powers, the Land of Rain remained the same helpless country it had always been.
If Hanzo had possessed strength equal to Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi, perhaps things would have been different.
As the successor who later ruled the Land of Rain, Nagato's ambition was even greater than Hanzo's.
Hanzo had sought peace for the Land of Rain.
Nagato sought peace for the entire shinobi world.
From the perspective of Uchiha Ren—a transmigrator who knew the story—Nagato's ideology was far more realistic than the vague ideal of peace preached by Naruto Uzumaki.
Nagato believed in deterring nations through overwhelming force, preventing them from ever starting wars again.
In some sense, this approach resembled the strategy used when the One Country, One Village system was first established.
At the suggestion of Tobirama Senju, Hashirama Senju distributed the tailed beasts among the major nations in order to maintain balance and prevent conflict through mutual deterrence.
In that sense, Nagato could even be considered the inheritor of Hashirama and Tobirama's philosophy.
Unfortunately, the power of the tailed beasts was not absolute.
This world contained many shinobi capable of fighting tailed beasts alone.
Hashirama himself could capture the Nine-Tails as easily as grabbing a chicken.
Because of this, the tailed beasts ultimately failed to deter the nations and instead became ordinary strategic weapons in their arsenals.
Learning from that failure, Nagato planned something different.
He intended to gather all the tailed beasts and create an ultimate weapon capable of destroying an entire nation with a single strike.
If he succeeded, the world would likely enter a relatively stable era of peace.
By contrast, Naruto's ideology of peace offered no concrete plan or method.
He merely insisted that he would continue searching for ways for people to understand one another.
It was beautiful in theory—but impractical and abstract.
Unfortunately, Nagato's own will was not truly unshakable.
Or rather, his conviction largely stemmed from his attachment to his deceased friend Yahiko.
Deep down, even Nagato himself was unsure whether his path was right or wrong.
That was why he was ultimately persuaded by Naruto's infamous "Talk no Jutsu."
And the path toward peace was abandoned halfway.
As for Madara Uchiha and Uchiha Obito, who treated Nagato merely as a pawn, their idea of peace was even more straightforward.
If you cannot solve the problem—
Then eliminate the one who raises the problem.
If you cannot stop wars—
Then eliminate the people who start wars.
Once everyone is dead, no one will be left to wage war.
It had to be said—their logic was flawless.
But the cost required was something no one could accept.
Living miserably was still better than dying.
As long as people lived, there was always hope.
Even a painful life was preferable to death.
Because of that, their path was destined to be rejected by the entire world.
A blazing light flickered in Uchiha Ren's eyes, like two burning torches.
He wanted to dispel the clouds over this nation and bring light to its people.
Not just to this country—
But to the entire world.
There was no particular reason.
Nor did he need one.
He simply wanted to do it.
In his previous life, Uchiha Ren had considered himself nothing more than a workhorse of society.
Yet someone had once described people like him as the rising sun at eight or nine in the morning.
Now that he had the chance to truly make a difference, he would not disgrace the title of "Sun."
He would shine as brightly as possible in this world.
Ren pulled a map from his pouch.
As he confirmed his current position, his mind began rapidly calculating the situation.
At present, Sunagakure had already withdrawn from the Land of Rain battlefield.
However, Konohagakure and Iwagakure still maintained camps inside the country, facing each other in a tense standoff.
Although neither side had launched large-scale battles recently, they sent numerous shinobi squads into the Land of Rain every day—fighting skirmishes and gathering intelligence.
Meanwhile, Amegakure had also deployed many patrol squads to monitor both sides, occasionally becoming entangled in those battles.
And then there was the organization founded by Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan—
Akatsuki.
Akatsuki members had been extremely active along the front lines, constantly advocating for a ceasefire.
At the moment, the Land of Rain was practically a boiling pot of chaos.
Many rogue ninja, bandits, and mercenaries had entered the country as well, hoping to take advantage of the disorder to plunder what they could.
"The most urgent priority is to determine Danzō's exact location."
Ren muttered quietly to himself.
The camps of the various factions inside the Land of Rain were relatively easy to locate.
But Shimura Danzō, that old schemer, was hiding in the shadows and stirring up trouble.
If the situation in the Land of Rain was to stabilize, the first step was to drag Danzō out of hiding.
However, Danzō's operation was extremely secretive.
The shinobi accompanying him were all Root operatives branded with the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal, preventing them from revealing any information.
For Ren's intelligence network to learn that Danzō had even left Konoha was already impressive.
Discovering his exact location was nearly impossible.
Ren sighed softly.
"Looks like the only option is to wait for him in Amegakure…"
"Set a trap—and wait for the rabbit."
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