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Chapter 160: Dragon Reincarnated
The rain in Amegakure seemed to be falling harder.
Rumbling thunder rolled deep in the clouds, and purple lightning occasionally tore through the firmament, illuminating this steel-forged jungle.
The tallest tower located in the center of the village was like a black sharp sword, piercing straight into the clouds.
That was the symbol of Hanzo's power, and also the forbidden ground looked up to by civilians of the entire Land of Rain.
At this moment, beneath the spire.
A corpse was rudely suspended from a crossbeam.
Cold rain ruthlessly washed over the thin body, diluting the remaining bloodstains, which flowed down the walls of the tower and merged into the filthy drainage ditch below.
The corpse swayed slightly with the gale.
That young and pale face appeared exceptionally piercing under the illumination of the lightning.
On the streets.
Civilians who had been rushing about stopped in their tracks.
Patrolling ninja raised their heads.
Orphans hiding in alleys begging widened their eyes.
Countless gazes passed through layers of rain curtains, converging on that corpse.
No one spoke.
The entire Hidden Rain Village seemed to have been pressed on mute.
Only the sound of rain.
Splash.
Splash.
That was the weeping of this country that had never ceased for thousands of years.
Yahiko and the other two mixed into the crowd, pressing their hat brims low, shrinking their bodies as much as possible.
The closer to the central tower, the thinner the air became, and the stronger that suffocating oppression felt.
The crowd stopped at the square under the tower.
Everyone looked up, watching that high-and-mighty place.
Yahiko squeezed through the crowd, his heart beating so fast it felt like it would break his chest.
He didn't dare look up.
He was afraid to see the scene he least wanted to see.
"Is that... is that that child?"
An old woman nearby covered her mouth, her trembling voice drifting over.
"What a sin... only in his teens, right..."
"Shh! Do you have a death wish? That's a rebel! That's the end for resisting Lord Hanzo!"
Someone scolded in a low voice, but the tone was equally filled with fear.
Yahiko felt the blood in his whole body freeze at this moment.
He slowly raised his head.
Rain hit his eyes, stinging.
Beneath that spire symbolizing the highest power of Amegakure.
In that place where Hanzo looked down on all living things.
A thick crossbeam extended out, hanging a corpse.
The wind was strong.
The corpse was like a rag doll, swaying helplessly in the wind and rain.
A blinding lightning bolt cut through the sky.
The pale light instantly illuminated the face of that corpse.
Black short hair plastered to the forehead by rain.
Eyes wide open.
Those black eyes that were once calm, profound, seemingly able to encompass all pain, were now hollowly gazing at the multitude of living beings below.
No luster left.
No warmth left.
Only dead silence remained.
"Brother..."
Konan let out a broken wail.
She looked as if her spine had been removed, collapsing softly into the muddy water.
A hand firmly covered her mouth.
It was a hand covered in oil stains and mud, trembling violently.
"Don't make a sound."
Yahiko's voice rang in her ear.
Konan struggled to look back.
She saw a twisted face.
Yahiko's teeth bit through his lip, blood mixing with rain flowing down. His eyes were red, eyeballs covered in bloodshot veins, yet so dry they couldn't shed a single tear.
"We'll be discovered."
Yahiko gripped Konan's shoulder tightly, the force almost crushing her bones.
"Arashi said... if something happened to him, everyone goes silent."
"We have to live."
"Carrying the hope he nurtured."
Nagato shrank behind the two, red long hair covering most of his face.
He didn't cry, nor did he move.
He just stared fixedly through the gaps in his hair at the corpse swaying in the wind on the tower.
Those pale purple Rinnegan eyes gleamed with a bizarre luster in the dim rain curtain.
A heart-palpitating Chakra fluctuation scurried madly within his body; the surrounding rainwater, the moment it neared his body, actually stagnated bizarrely in mid-air.
"Go."
Yahiko growled low, forcibly dragging Konan up from the muddy water.
He didn't dare look again.
Looking one more time, he feared he wouldn't be able to stop himself from rushing up to throw his life away.
Then he would truly let Arashi down.
The three were like startled rats, heads lowered, mixing into the dispersing crowd, stumbling as they fled the square.
Behind them, the wind chimes on the tower rang shrilly in the gale.
As if seeing off these three frantically fleeing figures.
The nascent Akatsuki obtained growth they could hardly bear at this moment.
Cold rain poured in through the collar, taking away the remaining warmth on the body surface.
In the muddy trench, mixed with the smell of blood and the scent of rotting earth.
Dragon snapped his eyes open.
Entering his vision was no longer the blinding spotlight of the interrogation room, nor Hanzo's nauseating mask, but a gloomy gray sky and sandbags turned white from being soaked in rain.
He was still alive.
Or rather, he was reincarnated.
Dragon subconsciously clenched his fist.
Crack.
The knuckles let out a crisp popping sound.
That feeling of weakness, of lungs burning with every breath, was gone. Replacing it was a power filling his limbs and bones.
Although not up to his peak, that familiar feeling was recovering.
Armament Haki flowed slowly in his blood vessels like a slumbering beast. Observation Haki spread out instantly; the rustle of wind and grass within a hundred meters, even the trajectory of falling raindrops, were clearly reflected in his mind.
Fifty percent.
Dragon silently assessed the state of this new body.
This reincarnation, the system released half of his strength sealed. This is to help him survive this time, by unlocking his 50% original strength.
For this so-called Ninja World, this was already shocking enough.
Although death would reduce the dungeon final rewards, he did not regret it.
"Hey, Captain, how long are you going to sleep?"
A gruff voice interrupted Dragon's thoughts.
Dragon turned his head.
Squatting beside him were two men wearing Rain Ninja uniforms. One was wiping a kunai, the other was huddled in the corner smoking a cheap rolled cigarette.
The one speaking was the man wiping the kunai, his face full of transverse flesh, with a hideous knife scar at his left eye.
"Those mad dogs from Iwagakure could creep up anytime. If you hadn't woken up, I was planning to throw you out," Scarface spat, his tone unfriendly.
Dragon ignored his provocation and slowly sat up from the muddy water.
Memory fragments in his mind reassembled rapidly.
In this life, his name was "Matsu."
A Chunin of Amegakure, responsible for the defense mission of a frontline stronghold.
This was the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Earth, and also the meat-grinder-like frontline.
"Don't be so hot-tempered, Gangzi."
The man smoking in the corner pinched out the cigarette butt, his voice somewhat hoarse. "Matsu was just too tired. Yesterday, to cover the retreat, he held off an Iwagakure squad by himself."
The man stood up, patting the mud off his body, revealing a face full of weather-beaten frost.
He looked about forty years old, temples graying, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes hiding exhaustion.
The moment Dragon saw this face, his pupils contracted violently.
This face, he had seen countless times in the memories of his previous life.
Although older, more haggard, the contours of those brows and eyes, that gentle yet bitter gaze...
That was "Arashi's" father.
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