Yellow sand flew past as a long defensive line came into view. According to Old Master Kahiko, Sunagakure—the Village Hidden in the Sand—was situated behind this natural defensive barrier.
As they walked through the narrow passage, feeling a brief moment of cool shade, the members of the merchant caravan couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Even with hired ninjas, traveling as a merchant was inevitably a nerve-wracking experience. When traversing a place like the Land of Wind, the most dangerous threat wasn't actually ninjas, but the harsh climate. This season was relatively mild; sandstorms were basically unseen. If they were to come a few months later and their luck was poor, they would have the distinct misfortune of witnessing what a true natural disaster looked like. Beneath a sky-obscuring sandstorm, whether one was a ninja or not became irrelevant. Once caught within such a sandstorm, no one stood a chance; there was only one outcome—death!
After walking through the narrow passage for several minutes, Naruto finally saw Sunagakure, nestled amidst the yellow sands. Unlike Konoha's wooden architecture, Sunagakure's buildings were all constructed from sand and stone. At a glance, the brownish-yellow houses of varying heights created a uniquely striking visual impact.
"Not bad, right?" Kahiko said with a gentle smile, recalling his own first visit to Sunagakure as a merchant, when he too had been powerfully struck by the distinctive architectural style.
"Welcome to Sunagakure. We wish you a prosperous venture," their Suna escort said before vanishing into the crowd.
Ninja villages were economic entities extremely reliant on the outside world. The Five Great Ninja Villages, including even the most affluent Konoha, were no exception; none possessed the ability to be completely self-sufficient and had to depend on externally transported goods for stable development. If this was true for the resource-rich Konoha, it was even more so for the barren Sunagakure.
For every merchant caravan willing to come to Sunagakure to do business, everyone in the village, from top to bottom, welcomed them with open arms. In Kahiko's words, the returns from doing business in Sunagakure were the highest; goods never failed to find buyers, the only concern being whether one had prepared insufficient stock. The harsh climate directly deterred many aspiring merchants beyond the borders of the Land of Wind. A blue ocean market was every merchant's dream.
"I remember you mentioned you were looking for a friend, young man. Would you like to continue with us?" Kahiko asked with a smile.
"No need to trouble you." Naruto shook his head, then nimbly jumped off the ostrich the caravan had lent him. He handed the reins to the old man and said with a smile, "We'll meet again if fate allows."
"Grandfather, why did you choose to bring a stranger along this time?" a young woman sidled up to the old man and asked softly.
"Just forming a good karmic connection," Kahiko chuckled, petting the ferret on his shoulder. The young woman looked at the old man, then at the ferret on his shoulder, completely baffled.
Though not on par with Konoha, Sunagakure was, after all, one of the Five Great Hidden Villages; its scale was naturally not small. Finding a single person in such a place was undoubtedly like searching for a needle in an ocean. But since Naruto had chosen to enter Sunagakure, he naturally had his own methods.
"How's the scenery in this place?" In his mental space, Naruto, casually sprawled on Kurama's belly, asked.
"Smells like a tanuki through and through," Kurama harrumphed, propping his chin on one paw.
"You two have such similar personalities; how come you just can't get along?" Naruto chuckled. Over this period, he had visited the shared mental space quite a few times and had met several of the Tailed Beasts. Kurama and Shukaku had the most similar personalities, yet these two, surprisingly, got along the worst.
The mental space was a common ground for communication among the Tailed Beasts. As long as one Tailed Beast entered it, they could all sense each other, yet they rarely used it. Perhaps it was because the Tailed Beasts had all experienced vast eons and already understood each other extremely well, or perhaps it was simply because, being sealed within jinchuriki, they felt embarrassed for the others to know of their predicament. Before he started using it, this communication space had been deserted for a considerably long time. Recently, perhaps because he and Kurama frequently entered and exited this space, it had piqued the curiosity of the other Tailed Beasts, and they too had begun to enter the mental space. Thus, Naruto had also gotten to know quite a few Tailed Beasts.
Regarding Kurama bringing his jinchuriki into the mental space, the Tailed Beasts who witnessed it expressed that it was an incredibly outrageous development. Among the nine Tailed Beasts, Kurama's short temper was well-known to all. The fact that he could actually engage in mental communication with a human was, to all the Tailed Beasts, the most preposterous thing to have happened since their very creation.
"Aren't you looking for that little tanuki brat?" Kurama harrumphed.
"According to what Shukaku said, Gaara is still making amends for the Chunin Exam incident and is most likely still busy running around outside. So, I'll search slowly; no rush," Naruto said, shaking his head. "It's not often I get to come to Sunagakure, so I should at least see the sights, right? Who knows when I'll get to come next time."
"And if you can't find him?" Kurama asked.
"Can't find him? Then I won't look for him." Naruto shrugged. "Who told him he hasn't managed to get friendly with Shukaku yet? If they could contact each other in the mental space, would there even be this much trouble?"
"…" Kurama's brow twitched. This fellow's words were getting increasingly presumptuous.
Outside, Naruto asked a passerby for the location of a nearby inn. Within the range of his Mind's Eye of Kagura, there were no familiar chakra sources. This was what he was relying on: his recently awakened Kekkei Genkai—the Mind's Eye of Kagura.
Kurama, though a stay-at-home fox, had previous jinchuriki of no low status. Under their indirect influence, Kurama could be considered quite knowledgeable. When Naruto described the strange sensory ability he had awakened, Kurama had merely listened to his description before stating that he had awakened the Kekkei Genkai of the Uzumaki clan.
When Naruto heard this, he was, to put it mildly, completely dumbfounded. It couldn't be helped; he was just an unlucky fellow who had to scrimp and save on every meal and lodging. What was a Kekkei Genkai? That was something only nobles could afford to play around with. For an 'unlucky fellow' to suddenly possess something that only nobles should have, no matter how good his mentality, a sense of shock was inevitable.
Sunagakure covered a vast area, but the perception range of his Mind's Eye of Kagura wasn't small either. Naruto felt that if he just wandered around a bit more, he might very well be able to track down Gaara.
"Hm?"
Suddenly, within the perception range of his Mind's Eye of Kagura, an extremely bizarre chakra source intruded. Chakra was formed by the fusion of spiritual and physical energy, and ninjas were naturally attuned to this energy. But this chakra he was sensing had a foreign energy mixed in between the spiritual and physical components, like pouring gasoline onto clear water, making one instinctively feel uncomfortable.
The chakra source wasn't far from him and, moreover, was rapidly approaching.
Two minutes later.
Naruto's peripheral vision caught sight of a man, so thin his bones were visible, walking into the street. Although he was a ninja, he gave off the impression of a thin bamboo pole that had overindulged in carnal pleasures and might collapse at any second.
Seeing the man disappear around the street corner, Naruto rubbed his chin. Though he was very curious about what on earth that man's body had been through, he also hadn't forgotten that he was still in someone else's main territory and decided not to meddle.
He found an inn that had a reasonably good reputation among traveling merchants and checked in. He had two days. After two days, Old Master Kahiko's caravan would leave Sunagakure and head to the next trading post. Although staying longer wasn't out of the question, being able to leave Sunagakure with Old Master Kahiko's caravan would save him a lot of trouble.