The air outside the Land of Rain was unnaturally stagnant.
Damp, cold, yet carrying an indescribable pressure.
As if a prehistoric beast lay buried beneath the earth, merely slumbering for now.
Orochimaru stood deep in the shadows, his serpentine pupils contracting as he watched a figure slowly approaching in the distance.
The man wore a straw hat and monk's robes, leaning on a black staff.
His steps were slow, yet each one left ripples vibrating in the air.
As if space itself was making way for him.
Orochimaru licked his lips, seemingly feeling an instinctive panic at the sight of this strange individual.
The monk stopped, revealing half of his gloomy face beneath the hat.
Jigen.
His mission was singular: to find the suddenly emerged Ōtsutsuki mutant and the mutated Ten-Tails within the Land of Rain, and retrieve them.
And he had been pursuing this for years.
"So... you've been here all along."
His voice was low, yet filled with killing intent. He had personally fought against it before.
In the end, the target had escaped, and Jigen never understood how it could hide so thoroughly.
Until today, when he saw the Land of Rain with his own eyes.
This land had completely transformed into a fusion of two forces:
Cocoon of Death, Tree of Life, World Tree Root Veins...
"So... the Land of Rain has become entirely under your control."
Jigen tightened his grip on the black staff. "Far more dangerous than I imagined."
Without hesitation, he took a step toward the Land of Rain.
The ground sprouted massive white roots from below, coiling like the tentacles of a giant beast to block his path.
Jigen snorted coldly and raised the black rod.
The tip of the staff instantly transformed, as if solidified black chakra had sharpened into a spear.
In an instant—
Jigen forcibly thrust the black rod into the earth's veins.
BOOM!!!!!
The ground seemed to tear apart.
The forest appeared to snap.
The World Tree emitted a deep resonance at that moment.
Then, above the great waterfall at the outskirts of the Land of Rain...
A rift appeared.
Space had been forcibly torn open.
Jigen's lips curled slightly. "Found you."
"My clansman, you can no longer hide."
He stepped into the rift.
Nearby, Orochimaru watched all of this, pondering the specific meaning of "clansman."
...
The moment Jigen entered the Land of Rain
As soon as his feet touched the ground, he sensed something was wrong.
The entire spatial region had mutated.
The ground, sky, air, water molecules, spatial structure...
All arranged and distorted in a manner completely unlike the Shinobi World.
As if he had stepped into a heterogeneous world being constantly rewritten.
For the first time, a slight warning arose in Jigen's heart.
"...Has space been severed?"
He looked up.
The sky of the Land of Rain was disconnected from the outside world.
As if someone had brutally sliced it in half.
"So that's why I couldn't find the God Tree back then."
Jigen spoke, his voice laced with killing intent. "You hid it... in another dimension?"
But before he could finish his words.
The ground beneath his feet suddenly began to rotate.
Space Transfer!
Jigen attempted to leap away immediately, but he was a second too late.
A flash of white light.
Jigen fell into an unfamiliar wasteland.
There was no sky, no trees, no soil...
It was like an abandoned space drained countless times.
The air was thin and oppressive—even an Otsutsuki couldn't replenish energy from it.
Jigen felt discomfort for the first time.
But he quickly regained his composure.
"A Transfer Cage?"
Jigen raised his hand, attempting to tear through space.
Yet space felt like rusted gears, completely unyielding.
Then, he heard the faint cracking of his own bones...
This was the backlash his body endured from forcibly using Chakra and Otsutsuki Energy.
Jigen's pupils contracted.
...Forcing his way out of this place would destroy this vessel.
According to calculations, it would take about ten years to gradually transfer out of this space.
Then, Shiroishi's final words appeared before him:
"You came too early."
"I don't wish to meet you yet."
Jigen gripped his staff tightly, veins throbbing at his temples.
If he forced his way through space, everything would be over.
He had no choice but to endure.
In ten years, I will tear you and this entire nation apart.
In truth, Shiroishi had long been prepared.
Ever since exposing the Land of Rain and the entire alliance to this continent,
Shiroishi had been ready for Jigen—or rather, Isshiki's—arrival.
Thus, he specifically set up this simple trap.
Directly confining Jigen for ten years.
He hoped that in a decade, he would find a way to eliminate this threat.
After dealing with Jigen, Orochimaru wore a peculiar expression before following Shiroishi's instructions to unroll a prepared scroll.
The moment he stepped into the Land of Rain, the air, light, and temperature... everything felt different.
He had expected to enter the grim, oppressive, and damp forests of traditional Amegakure,
but instead found the world ahead inverted from its roots, as if space had been flipped over.
The mist vanished, the gloom receded,
replaced by an unimaginably vibrant world.
What truly made Orochimaru halt was the city.
The Amegakure he remembered was an industrial fortress of countless pipes, steel frames, steam, and black towers—
a dark cage corroded by war, rain, and poison.
But now, the city seemed uprooted, cleansed, and remolded.
The once-dense iron towers had all disappeared, replaced by brightly colored, softly contoured structures:
Pokémon Centers in red and white stood at the city's four corners, like guardian formations.
A massive domed building, called the Alliance Center, loomed in the distance. The roads were so clean they seemed freshly washed by rain, carrying the scent of renewal.
Orochimaru stood at the city's entrance, his face eerily silent for the first time.
"Heh... what an... unexpected transformation."
Step by step, he ventured deeper into the city.
Children led newly hatched Pokémon, stirring a long-forgotten thrill in Orochimaru's heart.
He quickened his pace.
At the city's center stood a skyscraper piercing the clouds.
Its streamlined structure, draped in green vines covering the exterior,
made the entire building resemble an extension of the World Tree's branches into the city.
Orochimaru entered the building.
The interior was even more astonishing than the outside: beams of light crisscrossed, and the space felt larger than the building's volume.
Rows of Hatching Rooms, Research Rooms, and Ecology Pods lined the floors.
He swiftly ascended through the levels, finally reaching the rooftop terminal.
There, the wind whispered softly.
Shiroishi stood with his back to him at the edge of the rooftop, the new city of the Land of Rain unfolding beneath his feet.
Orochimaru approached, a smirk curling his lips:
"I never expected you to transform the Land of Rain into this in such a short time."
Shiroishi gazed at the sky: "The wonder of ninjutsu lies in its ability to accomplish such architectural miracles so quickly."
Wood Release and Earth Release could both be used for construction projects.
To build the city of his ideals—this brand-new Land of Rain—was to be the future headquarters of the Akatsuki Organization as envisioned by Shiroishi.