"The difference between the Fire Country and the Rain Country is… kinda insane."
Amamiya Kenichi stood at the border line and couldn't help sighing.
On the Fire Country side, the border outpost looked like a lazy roadside rest stop.
Some shinobi were chatting.
Some were smoking.
One guy was clearly dozing while standing.
If you didn't see the flak jackets, you'd think it was a bunch of bored security guards outside a mall.
On the Rain Country side?
Everyone was stiff as boards.
Backs straight, eyes forward, not even daring to glance over the border, as if just looking at Konoha might get them killed.
Kenichi could guess why.
With Hanzō the Salamander dead and no word coming back, the Rain ninja had lost their "half-god." No pillar, no sense of safety—just anxiety.
But that had nothing to do with him.
With a perfectly forged travel pass in hand, he passed the Fire Country inspection, then the nervous Rain nin, and stepped into the small, battered nation.
It didn't take long to see the difference inside, either.
The towns here were smaller. Narrower.
And the walls were high—much higher than those in Fire Country.
Their presence was impossible to miss.
"It's like trying to protect your 'dignity' with one sheet of toilet paper," Kenichi muttered. "Feels secure, but one poke and it's over."
Against three neighboring great nations, those walls were nothing more than emotional support.
Still, people needed something to cling to.
He didn't waste time pitying strangers. He went into the town, quickly sold off all the "merchant goods" he'd hauled here, exchanged them for cash, and slipped back out.
The trader disguise had been for Fire Country's roads.
Now that he was in Rain?
Didn't matter anymore.
Kenichi bought a cheap fox mask off a street vendor, slid it onto his face, and sprinted toward Amegakure.
As he ran, he pulled up his "research panel" again.
[Current Research Target: Chakra Parasite]
[Progress: 0.05%]
Once he'd decided, he'd gone all in.
To avoid the system trolling him by "studying the amber" instead of what was inside it, he'd even melted the fossil open.
The instant he locked it in as his research object, a line of information surfaced in his mind:
Chakra Parasite.
The name alone made him think of the Aburame clan.
But their bugs looked nothing like this.
Even dead and frozen in resin, this thing gave off a completely different vibe—older, stranger, more dangerous.
All the better.
If something had once been rumored to threaten Sage of Six Paths-era shinobi, it wasn't going to be a normal bug.
"Please don't turn out to only work on civilians…" Kenichi muttered, watching the microscopic progress bar.
It would clearly take time.
The Land of Rain wasn't large.
Compared to the vastness of the Fire Country, it felt cramped—like a narrow alley between giants.
Before long, Kenichi reached the outskirts of Ame.
And there, he stopped.
Because the moment he stepped into range, he realized:
It was raining.
Perfectly normal for Amegakure… except it wasn't normal.
With his three-tomoe Sharingan open, Kenichi could clearly see it:
A faint, uniform pattern of chakra woven into the falling rain.
If he didn't have those eyes, he might have brushed it off as just "ninja senses tingling."
With the Sharingan, it was obvious.
Rain Tiger at Will—Nagato's signature wide-area surveillance technique.
If he just strolled into the village like this, he'd be sitting down for "tea" with Nagato and Konan in five minutes.
He was still trying to figure out the least suicidal way to approach when—
"Leaf shinobi. State your purpose in Amegakure."
Voices came from four directions at once.
Kenichi's body tensed. He looked around…
And saw them.
One in front, three behind. A neat triangle plus a support.
Tendō Pain.
Konan.
And two other bodies—Naraka Path and Preta Path.
The full welcome committee.
Kenichi's mouth twitched.
"…This is one hell of a reception."
He hadn't even touched the rain yet. How did they pick him up so fast?
"First of all," he said slowly, raising his hands in a non-threatening gesture, "I'm not a Leaf ninja anymore."
He took off the fox mask.
Then realized he still had the borrowed merchant face technique layered on.
Right—that would confuse things.
Kenichi placed his fingers on his cheek and peeled away the false features, revealing his real face beneath.
If Akatsuki had done their homework—and he was sure they had—this was the face they'd know.
Konan's eyes narrowed.
"This face…"
She flipped through her mental ledger, cross-referencing names and wanted posters.
A moment later, she had it.
"Konoha missing-nin. A-rank. Amamiya Kenichi."
"Present," Kenichi replied, straightening slightly, chin tilting up a bit in pride.
Yes. That was him.
Konoha's A-rank missing-nin.
Shame it wasn't S-rank yet—but hey, a certain bald world-ender had started as C-class. Rank inflation was real.
…Wait. Did missing-nin even have C-rank?
"Leaf missing-nin," Tendō Pain said, his gaze flat and godlike. "State your purpose in Amegakure."
Kenichi took a breath, then smiled.
"Let me ask something first—" he met those rippled eyes head-on, "—is Akatsuki recruiting?"
Konan and Nagato both visibly paused.
"I," Kenichi continued happily, "and my teacher—Konoha's S-rank missing-nin, Orochimaru—have heard of Akatsuki's reputation."
He spread his hands.
"So I came to ask if you're accepting new members."
The silence that followed was almost funny.
They were prepared for spies, assassins, Leaf envoys, bounty hunters…
They were not prepared for a wanted criminal to walk up and ask:
"Hi, do you have any open positions?"
Konan exchanged a brief glance with Tendō.
Nagato thought it over.
He'd killed Hanzō and seized control of the village. He was planning to gather elite ninja to advance his "peace through pain" plan.
He just hadn't started active recruitment yet.
Now one had walked straight to his feet and knocked on the door.
"…We are recruiting," he said at last. "Your teacher's strength qualifies him for Akatsuki."
"And me?" Kenichi asked, eyes bright. "Can I join too?"
A short pause.
Then Preta Path stepped forward.
"Fight me," he said calmly. "If you can win… you may join."
Kenichi looked at him properly this time.
Bald head. Piercings. Those same Rinnegan eyes.
He knew this one.
When Pain invaded Konoha in the anime, this guy was everywhere in memes.
One bag of rice on how many floors?
QQ yaoni?
And so on…
But beyond the jokes, Kenichi remembered something very important about him:
This was the Path that absorbed chakra.
Preta Path.
He'd once thought of him just as "annoying to fight."
Now, a different idea sparked in his mind.
Wait a second.
This guy can absorb any chakra, right?
Ninjutsu, raw chakra, even sage chakra—
"…"
Kenichi froze for a heartbeat.
Then, inside, a grin slowly spread.
So if I use him as a 'safety valve'…
Doesn't that mean he could go all-out with Sage Mode training without worrying about turning into a statue?
Now that
was an opportunity.
***********
Note: Early access up to chapter 99+ is on patreon.com/nakai01. A Power Stone = more chapters for you.