Chapter Four: Dragon Veins

Flashback

He hurdled over the last dune—the most abundant thing in the Land of wind. Sannoto was sure that they had thousands, if not millions of the annoying buggers. Even for a seasoned veteran of war like himself, they made the journey across the Land of Wind exhausting. Squinting his eyes, while cupping his hands around his face in response to the blistering rays, he scanned the horizon, and in the distant he saw it: Sunagakure. Though transformed from his last visit, well over six decades, there was no mistaking the village. After-all, it was the only thing out in this portion of the desert. The rest of the towns were situated near the Nanmen Ocean, towards Iwagakure where the terrain was more mountainous, or just near an oasis. Sunagakure was packed in the middle of the blazing desert. At times, Sannoto felt bad for these people, but their location was the reason why they have suffered very few attacks from foreign ninja or countries. It’s simply too hard to sustain a battle here, between the vicious heat, skin dissolving sandstorms, and lack of food. Sannoto was fortunate that Otogakure packed him well for this trip.

As expected, a caravan awaited him at the top of the dune just as the letter detailed. Thirty shinobi stood there, equipped with weapons, large fans, puppets rolled in toilet paper, face paints, and such things that were native to the village. If there was one thing that was impossible, it was mistaking a Sunagakure ninja for another. They have an identity so central to the village that their headbands aren’t often needed to discern them. It’s what made infiltrating so difficult: no tan, no puppet rolled in toilet tissue, no face point, fan? Yeah, if you didn’t have that stuff, you weren’t a Suna-nin. Sannoto was the exact opposite. While they had dark hair, brown eyes, brown tanned skin, he strutted fairy skin, blonde hair, and deep blue eyes. On top of that, his arms and legs were hairier than that of a Yeti. It was obvious he came from somewhere that experienced actual seasons. He was sure to stand out.

“Sir,” the shinobi saluted, “You’re caravan awaits.” Two others opened the doors to his rather large caravan. Sannoto nodded, and wasted very little time preparing himself. No questions, not even a bit of hesitation, he simply stepped inside and planted himself on the soft silk cushions exhaling a large breath. “Phew..I’m beat.” The other ninja couldn’t help but whisper among themselves: This is Sannoto Senju? I thought he was supposed to be powerful; the best shinobi of his generation I heard. Finally, one spoke—“What if he heard us?” That alone scared them. They all stood their paralyzed with fear, before one eventually garnered the courage to apologize. He swiftly opened the door, and opened his mouth, but fell silent. He turned around, facing his fellow peers. “He’s sleep.” They all sighed. Gearing up, they took their respective positions, and off they went towards Sunagakure. End Flashback

“That’s not how it happened at all,” a kunoichi spoke. She was dressed in Sunagakure’s standard attire, fairy tall, though incomprehensibly short compared to the Senju, with blonde, spiky hair and teal eyes. She was one of the only Suna-nin who Sannoto knew with blonde hair, but she wasn’t a suna ninja anymore at least. “I found you in the middle of the desert passed out. You were lucky I found you, especially since I found a scorpion nibbling on your ass,” her tone was as brutal as the skin piercing sun.

He sneered, “Why’d you have to go and ruin my fun? These people know that it didn’t happen. It’s called a story, Temari. Because it isn’t true.”

“A story can be true or false. Next time, say beforehand that I got my ass saved by a passing lady, but I wished this happened instead.” Temari sighed and looked the other direction. The crowd gathered around the two simply laughed and giggled at their ridiculous bickering. Sannoto folded his arms, closed his eyes, and turned the other direction. Under his breath, he mumbled, “I wouldn’t have to if she’d see me already.”

“She would have!” Temari quickly retorted, her voice getting louder with each word. “But. You had to go and get yourself poisoned!!” Not only was she standing up, but she was screaming directly into the man’s face. People continued laughing, Sannoto turned red; it’d be a lie if he said that he had never been so embarrassed in his life, but he had several times by people of all kind: children, women, men, even summoning creatures. Living things liked yelling in his face. It was a knack of his. He just hoped that his name would be called to enter the office of the Kazekage, and quick.