"It's amazing how quickly the desert stopped, and the forests began," Kanna exclaimed in amazement once we got back on the road—this time walking through the Land of Rivers.
I nodded slightly as I took in our surroundings.
Despite how long I had spent here in the Land of Rivers, I hadn't been to the border between Rivers and Wind before, and it was a remarkable place.
Sand turned into sandy ground, which turned to a sunbaked grassland. The sun was rather harsh on the yellow grass, but it was still among the more hospitable lands of Wind.
A thin region along their border where 90% of the people of Wind lived.
A region that changed into fields and forests, almost as if an invisible wall separated the two.
And it was invisible, because it was politics—the worst kind. Geopolitics.
Still, it was nice being back on our legs. Having been sitting inside a carriage for days on end, it was nice to be outside again.
Sure, my Ice Release had allowed us to escape the heat, and the carriage had protected us from the winds and sands, but it was still a horrid place to be.
One could question why Suna had built itself out of that hellish place.
But I had no doubt it was more politics, and the fact that Suna was tough to attack. Few would want to march their army through a desert only to siege a city out there.
It would be fine if you could capture it quickly, but if you couldn't, your forces would be drained of chakra by the sun and heat, and they would lose their ability to fight.
Still, that was all behind us now.
…
"Kaguya-hime? If the other villages want us—like with those ANBU from Konoha, and Kitsuchi-sama from Iwa—why didn't anyone from Suna speak with us?" Kanna asked as we stopped to rest for a bit.
I nodded softly. "A good question, and it really comes down to the fact that Suna knows they won't be able to afford us, nor would they dare to keep us. Suna knows it's too weak to take such risks."
Kanna didn't fully understand it; I could see that much from her expression, but she seemed satisfied enough with the answer.
She lacked the same curiosity that had Karin walk all over the place. She had only just recently mastered the ability to walk, and now there was no stopping her.
She didn't much like that she still had to be carried when we were traveling, but there was no other way around it.
Despite her ability to walk on her own, she couldn't keep up with us two adults—never mind the problem of stamina.
She might be an Uzumaki, but she was still not even two years old.
Still, with her starting to walk around, it was indeed becoming clear that we couldn't just continue to roam as we had been doing—at least not for a while.
Once she got older, she could walk with us, but for the next few years she would be too old to be carried, but not yet able to follow us, which was a problem.
One to be solved later.
For now, it was time to deal with a few other problems first—some more pressing ones.
Once done resting a little, we continued back toward the capital of the Land of Rivers. A large and wealthy city.
This might just be a small country, but it was able to take advantage of its much larger neighbor. With the protection of Konoha, it could charge Wind whatever it wanted, and it didn't hold back.
The capital reminded me of Venice—just with more trees.
Or maybe it was just the many small streams that ran through it. It wasn't something truly unique to Venice, but it was what I thought about as I saw the place.
Like always, we started out by finding a place to stay—though this time, after finding it, we split up.
Or rather, I formed a shadow clone to watch over Kanna and Karin while those two went to enjoy themselves a little. Or rather, while Karin went to have fun.
With a clone to ensure nothing could happen, I was free to do my own things. I admit, while I knew that this city had its own secret black market, I didn't fully know where it was located.
Thankfully, it wasn't hard to find. My Byakugan was more than enough to see the entire city all at once—seeing through all buildings, even the ground—making it effortless to find every secret hiding place.
Including the small series of rooms hidden underneath a used clothing store at the edge of town.
It was easy to determine what it was with all the shinobi down there, and all of them had that feeling of rogue shinobi—cold, brutal, and overall weak.
The entrance itself was laughably mundane.
A crooked wooden storefront, half-rotten sign creaking in the breeze, shelves stacked with threadbare coats and patched trousers that smelled faintly of mold and old sweat. A place so unremarkable that even suspicion would slide right off it.
It was a shop even civilians would stay away from; the only people who would enter such a place would be beggars—and those often wore large coats, rough ones, to shield them from the weather.
And another group who often wore that kind of stuff was rogue shinobi.
It was clever enough.
I stepped inside.
A bell chimed softly, and a hunched old man behind the counter looked up, his eyes dull and unfocused—too dull.
The result not of blindness, but of lenses.
"Looking for anything in particular?" he asked.
I snorted. He wasn't blind, so there was no way he didn't know I wasn't some clueless civilian who had wandered in by accident.
I didn't bother with him.
Instead, I walked past the shelves, my steps unhurried, and stopped before the far wall. To anyone else, it was solid—old planks nailed together poorly, paint peeling in strips.
To me, it wasn't.
Behind it lay stone, then stairs, then people.
"Open it," I commanded coldly.
The old man stiffened.
Just a fraction. Barely noticeable to anyone without eyes like mine.
His fingers paused on the fabric he had been pretending to fold, knuckles whitening as he slowly straightened his back. The dull, unfocused look vanished from his face like a mask slipping off.
"…Very well," he said quietly.
He didn't ask who I was.
That alone told me enough.
He reached beneath the counter, pressing his palm against a hidden switch. He flicked it, and I saw the hidden mechanisms in the walls move, and the wall before me shifted with a low scrape of wood against stone. A narrow opening appeared, just wide enough for one person to pass through.
I stepped forward without hesitation.
The air beyond was different.
Cooler. Heavier. It carried the familiar scent of oil, iron, and old blood—layers of it, soaked into stone and timber alike. A stairway descended into darkness, lantern light flickering below.
Two guards stood at the bottom.
Both froze when they saw me.
Their chakra flared instinctively, sharp and panicked, hands drifting toward weapons they never drew. The pressure I allowed to bleed into the air was minimal—barely a whisper—but it was enough.
Enough to tell them that drawing steel would be a mistake they wouldn't live long enough to regret.
They stepped aside.
Honestly, I didn't even know what the point of having guards was, but I barely spared the mystery a thought before I descended past them.
The underground space opened into a broad chamber carved deep into the earth, reinforced with stone and heavy beams. Lanterns hung from chains overhead, casting uneven light across rows of tables and stalls.
Weapons lay openly displayed—blades chipped and reforged too many times, scrolls sealed with marks that screamed stolen or incomplete. Pills sat in lacquered boxes, chakra signatures warped and unstable.
And people.
Buyers. Sellers. Brokers.
Some were shinobi. Some were civilians who had long ago learned that legality was a luxury. Some were neither, their eyes hollow, posture submissive, standing just a bit too still.
The moment I entered, the noise dulled.
Conversation faltered. Laughter died mid-breath.
Not because they recognized me.
It was instinctive.
Spines straightened. Breaths slowed. Eyes tracked me despite their owners' best efforts not to stare.
In a place like this—filled with rough, desperate men clad in worn cloaks and scavenged gear—someone like me did not merely stand out.
I disrupted the space.
A long dress of white silk flowed around my steps, unblemished by dust or grime. My hair, pale as fresh snow, spilled down my back to my knees, catching the lantern light with every movement. A black blindfold covered my eyes, stark against my skin—yet somehow making my presence more oppressive rather than less.
Beauty had weight.
And mine pressed down on the room like gravity.
A man rose from a table near the center of the chamber.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, his posture practiced rather than natural—someone used to command, or at least to enforcing it. Scars traced his arms and neck, some shallow, others deep enough to tell stories of battles survived rather than won. His chakra was stronger than most here, though still unremarkable.
But that little strength of his—it was his pride, and his spine.
He studied me carefully, eyes lingering on the blindfold, the fabric of my dress, the utter lack of visible weapons.
"…You don't look lost," he said.
"I am not," I replied calmly.
That earned a ripple of tension through the room.
"I'm also not here to buy," I continued. "Nor to sell."
The man's jaw tightened slightly.
"Then why are you here?"
"I'm here for information," I said, striding deeper into the room. He wasn't anyone important, but he would serve me well enough.
I could see him tense up as I got closer. I saw the chakra move inside him, ready to react.
But what came next was something he wasn't ready for.
Without warning—without any signs—completely out of nowhere, he was suddenly flung to the side, flying into a group of people watching us.
Everyone was shocked. No one had seen me do anything, yet clearly it was me; they knew that much.
And for shinobi, nothing was scarier than the unknown.
Information was the most important thing of all.
Well, right next to chakra.
"…Kaguya-hime," the leading market broker greeted me as I stepped in front of him.
Ah.
So my name had already arrived ahead of me.
Good.
"If it is information you want," he continued carefully, "then I believe I can help you. Perhaps we should talk somewhere more… private."
I tilted my head slightly.
"That," I agreed, "would be wise."
(End of chapter)
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