The transition from the Land of Rivers into the Land of Wind wasn't a fade; it was a hard cut.
One day, the sky was the color of a cerulean spring, soft and humid, surrounded by waterfalls bleeding out of mossy rock. The next, it was a blinding, relentless white-blue that stretched forever, smelling of dry sage and baking minerals. The road dissolved from packed earth into a seemingly endless pit of sand, pebbles, and heat that shimmered in the distance like a hallucination.
We had been traveling for four days since leaving Saisei.
The carriage, which had felt cozy on the way out, now felt like a mobile prison cell designed by an interrogator. The suspension was shot—likely destroyed by Chōji's expansion jutsu during the escape—so every pebble on the road registered as a personal attack on my spine.
Bump. Creak. Ouch.
"Are we there yet?" Naruto groaned from the floorboards.
He was lying upside down, his feet propped up on the seat next to me, blood rushing to his head until his face matched the color of a tomato.
"If you ask that one more time," Anko-sensei called from the driver's seat, her voice tight with dehydration, "I'm going to tie you to the roof rack. You can be the hood ornament."
"But it's hoooooot," Naruto whined, rolling over.
It was hot. The kind of dry heat that didn't just warm you; it desiccated you. It sucked the moisture right out of your skin, leaving your lips cracked and your throat feeling like you'd swallowed a handful of chalk.
I adjusted my sunglasses. Asuma-sensei had bought them for me from a border peddler. They were round, dark, and made me look like a blind jazz musician, but they kept the glare from stabbing my still-sensitive retinas.
Next to me, Ino was fanning herself with a large palm leaf she'd found two provinces ago. It was dry and crunchy now, clicking with every wave.
"My hair is going to frizz," Ino lamented, checking her reflection in the flat side of a kunai. "The humidity in Sound ruined the volume, and now the desert is sucking out the moisture. I'm going to look like a tumbleweed by the time we meet the Kazekage."
"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered.
He was trying to sleep sitting up, his head bouncing rhythmically against the window frame with every pothole. Thunk. Snore. Thunk. Snore. It was a testament to the Nara laziness that he hadn't woken up with a concussion yet.
"I think you look nice," Chōji offered, though his heart wasn't in it. He was out of chips. He had been out of chips for six hours. He was staring at the horizon with the thousand-yard stare of a man withdrawing from MSG.
Asuma was riding his horse alongside the carriage, looking stoic, though I noticed he had unzipped his flak jacket halfway. Even the smoke from his cigarette looked lethargic, drifting straight up in the still air.
And in the very back, squeezed between the luggage and a sleeping Shikamaru, was a Sannin.
Jiraiya was sulking.
"I don't see why I have to ride in the kiddie carriage," the Toad Sage grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "I am a legendary figure. I should be conducting solo reconnaissance. There are hot springs in this region known for their... restorative properties."
"You're in the carriage because you tried to sneak off to a 'Hostess Bar' three towns back!" Anko shouted over her shoulder, not looking back. "Tsunade said to bring you back, and I'm bringing you back. Even if I have to put you on a leash."
Jiraiya huffed, looking out the window at the endless dunes. "No respect for the arts. Or the needs of a wanderer."
I leaned my head back, closing my eyes behind the dark lenses. The rhythm of the carriage was hypnotic, despite the bumps. Clack-rattle-clack.
We were essentially a traveling circus. The loud one, the hungry one, the smart one, the pretty one, the blind one, the smokers, and the pervert.
"Hey," I said, sitting up straight.
My sensory perception, magnified by my lack of sight, picked up a vibration in the earth. It wasn't the rhythmic thud of the Sound factory, or the slow plodding of our own horse.
It was fast. High frequency. A rhythmic drumming.
"Something's coming up behind us," I warned.
"Enemy?" Asuma asked from outside, his hand instantly drifting to his trench knives.
"No," I frowned, tilting my head to triangulate the sound. "It feels... smooth. Fast. And expensive."
"What does 'expensive' sound like?" Naruto asked, flipping right-side up.
"Like high-quality suspension and horses that eat better than we do," I muttered.
A cloud of dust appeared on the horizon behind us. It grew rapidly, tearing down the road at a speed that made our tired mare look like a statue.
It was a carriage. But not a standard merchant cart. This thing was sleek, painted a glossy black lacquer that reflected the harsh sun like a mirror. The Konoha leaf symbol was stenciled in silver on the door. It was being pulled by four massive stallions—muscles rippling, coats gleaming with sweat, hooves thundering in perfect unison.
"Whoa!" Naruto scrambled to the window, jamming his head out. "Look at that thing go!"
Ino and Chōji crowded the other window. Even Shikamaru opened one eye.
The black carriage roared up beside us. It didn't slow down. It was overtaking us like we were standing still.
The window of the passing carriage was open.
Time seemed to slow down for three seconds.
In the driver's seat, reins held loosely in one hand, reading a bright orange book with the other, was Kakashi Hatake.
He looked over at us—at our dusty, battered wagon, at Anko sweating in her trench coat, at Asuma looking tired on his horse.
Kakashi's visible eye crinkled into a U-shape. He gave a cheerful, lazy little wave.
"Yo," he seemed to mouth, though the wind snatched the sound away.
But it was the passengers that made my jaw drop.
Framed in the passenger window were three faces.
Neji Hyūga sat facing forward, his arms crossed, his expression one of stoic suffering. He looked like he was meditating to block out his reality.
Sitting opposite him, staring out the window with his chin resting on his fist, was Sasuke Uchiha.
He looked... healed. His arm was out of the sling. He wore a high-collared black shirt. He looked cool, composed, and utterly miserable to be sitting that close to Neji. They were radiating matching auras of "I am too elite for this conversation."
And between them, leaning out to wave frantically, was Tenten.
She spotted us. Her eyes lit up. She grinned, waved with both hands, and then stuck her tongue out at us as they blurred past.
ZOOM.
The black carriage rocketed ahead, kicking up a massive cloud of sand that instantly engulfed us.
"COUGH! HACK!"
Naruto flailed, trying to roll up the window, but it was too late. We were coated in a fresh layer of grit that tasted of limestone and horse sweat.
"HEY!" Naruto shouted at the retreating dust cloud, shaking his fist. "SASUKE! YOU JERK! WAIT UP!"
"Was that... Neji?" Ino coughed, waving her hand to clear the air. "And Sasuke-kun? He's healed?"
"He looked annoyed," Shikamaru observed, wiping dust off his forehead. "Probably because Tenten is talking his ear off. Or because Neji keeps lecturing him about destiny."
Up in the driver's seat, Anko-sensei snapped.
She stood up, stomping her boot against the dashboard, shaking her fist at the shrinking black dot on the horizon.
"WHAT KINDA HORSES DOES THAT ONE-EYED SCARECROW HAVE?!" Anko shrieked, her voice cracking with indignation. "THOSE WERE THOROUGHBREDS! WE HAVE A DONKEY IN A HORSE COSTUME!"
"It's a mare, Anko," Asuma pointed out calmly, shielding his cigarette from the dust.
"IT'S A TRAVESTY!" Anko yelled, slamming back down into the seat. She cracked the reins. "Hya! Go! Move, you glue-stick! Don't let the Cyclops beat us!"
Our poor horse let out a tired whinny and sped up by approximately zero miles per hour.
Jiraiya chuckled from the back, leaning his head back against the seat.
"Kakashi always did have style," the Toad Sage mused. "Though, I suspect he's speeding to get away from Guy. I heard the Green Beast was threatening to race him to Suna on his hands."
I cleaned my sunglasses on my shirt, watching the dust settle. The heat shimmer was already reclaiming the road ahead.
"Well," I said, putting them back on. "At least we know Sasuke is okay."
"Yeah," Naruto grinned, settling back down, his eyes fixed on the horizon where his rival had vanished. "And now we gotta catch him. Race you to the desert, Teme!"
The carriage rumbled on, slow and steady, chasing the dust of the elites toward the horizon of the Great Sand Sea where Suna was waiting.