Chapter 49: The Rain Village's Number One Shinobi Group Finally Welcomes Its First Batch of Trainees
"The border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain really is on a completely different level."
Kenichi Amamiya stood at the boundary line and could not help commenting to himself.
On the Land of Fire's side, the border guards were relaxed and casual.
Some were chatting, others were smoking. If not for the guard posts and patrol routes, you would never guess they were standing on the edge of a great nation.
On the opposite side, the shinobi of the Land of Rain looked completely different.
They were tense and stiff, shoulders drawn tight, not even daring to glance toward the Land of Fire.
Kenichi had a pretty good idea why.
The pillar of the Land of Rain, the demigod Hanzo, had vanished and was presumed dead.
With their god of war gone, it was natural that the Rain shinobi felt uneasy.
But that had nothing to do with him.
Kenichi passed through the checkpoint easily with his travel permit and stepped into the small country bordering the Land of Fire.
He soon noticed that the environment here really was different.
The towns of the Land of Rain were far smaller than the towns in the Land of Fire, and they all shared one special feature.
Their walls were built surprisingly high, much higher than the typical walls back home.
"It is like trying to guard your honor with a thin sheet of cloth," Kenichi muttered, shaking his head.
Against the three great powers nearby, what were these walls really good for?
Even if they built them as tall as the fortress walls of the great strongholds, they would still be useless against shinobi level combat.
This was probably just how people from small countries gave themselves a little psychological comfort.
Kenichi had no intention of pitying anyone.
He entered the nearest small town, quickly sold off his cargo at a fair price, converted everything into usable funds, and left.
The merchant identity from the Land of Fire had only ever been a disguise to avoid trouble on the road.
Now that he was in the Land of Rain, there was no need to keep pretending.
Kenichi bought a fox mask from a street stall, pulled it on, and then set off at high speed toward Amegakure, the Hidden Rain Village.
As he ran, he took a moment to check the status of his latest research project.
[Current research subject: Chakra Parasite]
[Research progress: 0.05 percent]
After deciding to treat this like opening a blind box, he had chosen to study the parasites sealed inside the amber. To avoid the ridiculous situation of only studying the amber itself, he had taken the time to melt it down first.
Once the research started, his ability had revealed the name of the creature.
Chakra parasite.
The name made Kenichi think of the Aburame clan.
But the Aburame insects did not look like these at all, which only made him more curious about what these parasites were capable of.
With a name that directly referenced chakra, they definitely should not be limited to ordinary humans.
"It will probably take a while," Kenichi thought. "Hopefully not too long."
Compared to the vast Land of Fire, the Land of Rain was small.
Before long, Kenichi reached the outskirts of Amegakure and came to a stop.
It was raining over the Hidden Rain Village.
Rain in Amegakure was hardly strange, but this downpour was different.
Kenichi could sense a faint chakra presence in every falling drop, and with his Sharingan, the flow of that chakra became even more obvious.
A normal shinobi would not have even noticed and would have simply treated this as an ordinary rainy day.
"This should be the Rain Tiger at Will Technique," Kenichi mused. "A very subtle surveillance jutsu."
If he barged in now, Nagato and Konan would probably come personally to invite him in for tea.
"Konoha shinobi, what is your purpose in coming to Amegakure?"
Before Kenichi could decide what to do, he realized he was already surrounded.
Pain and Konan stood in front of him, while the Hell Path and the Preta Path appeared in the remaining two directions, forming a four point encirclement with him at the center.
Kenichi's lips twitched.
Talk about a warm welcome.
He had not even triggered the rain curtain yet, so how had Nagato and Konan found him so quickly?
"First of all, let me make one thing clear. I am not a shinobi of Konoha anymore."
Kenichi reached up and removed his fox mask.
He had originally intended to let them recognize his Sharingan, but then remembered he was still wearing the false face of a merchant.
So he reached up and peeled off that disguise as well, revealing his true face.
The Akatsuki organization had to have at least some information on him. His betrayal of the village was hardly a secret in the shinobi world.
Konan's gaze lingered for a moment on the discarded face, then her eyes sharpened as she matched his real features with the intelligence in her memory.
"Kenichi Amamiya," she said. "A rank rogue shinobi of Konoha."
Kenichi nodded as soon as he heard her answer and straightened his back slightly, a hint of pride flickering in his eyes.
That was right.
He was an A rank rogue of Konoha.
It was just a pity he was not S rank yet.
Then again, as long as you did not start at C rank, it was not too bad.
Although, when he thought about a certain bald monster in another world who had started as a C rank hero and still ended up invincible, even C rank did not sound so shameful.
"Wait a second," Kenichi thought. "Do rogue shinobi even have C rank classifications?"
"Konoha rogue shinobi, state your purpose in coming to Amegakure."
Pain, the leader, stared at Kenichi and repeated his question.
He already knew who Kenichi was.
But the one who truly interested him was Orochimaru, the S rank rogue shinobi who would surely be useful to his plans.
"Is Akatsuki recruiting right now?"
Kenichi smiled.
"My teacher Orochimaru, S rank rogue of Konoha, and I have both heard of Akatsuki."
Konan and Pain paused for a heartbeat.
They clearly had not expected this A rank rogue from Konoha to immediately ask to join Akatsuki.
Nagato was indeed planning to recruit powerful figures after dealing with Hanzo, building up the organization to prepare for the future.
He just had not expected prospects to walk up to his doorstep on their own before he even started recruiting.
"Yes," Nagato replied after a brief silence. "Your teacher has enough strength to join Akatsuki."
Under those divine eyes, he had no fear of whatever Kenichi or Orochimaru might try.
"Then what about me?"
Kenichi asked with obvious anticipation.
He knew Akatsuki used rings as symbols, and there were only so many rings to go around.
"Fight me," the Preta Path stepped forward and said. "If you can defeat me, you can join."
Kenichi looked at the Preta Path and almost laughed out loud.
Good grief.
He knew this one.
The scene of Pain destroying Konoha had been turned into countless memes and parody songs in his previous life, full of nonsense lyrics about carrying sacks of rice up flights of stairs and people face planting in the mud.
So when Kenichi saw the Preta Path, he instantly remembered what this body was capable of.
This guy could absorb chakra.
And in Kenichi's eyes, that made him a very convenient practice dummy.
"Right. This one can absorb chakra," Kenichi thought, an idea flashing across his mind.
"Then I can practice Sage Mode as boldly as I want."
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