Whoosh, whoosh...
A violent wind swept up yellow sand that filled the sky, turning the noonday heavens dim and murky. A roughly hundred-man advance unit of the Allied Shinobi Forces struggled onward through the sandstorm.
At that moment, a sensory ninja in the unit reported to the captain, "Captain, still nothing!"
"Damn it, what the hell is going on?!"
The captain's expression darkened as he spat on the ground.
Not long ago, they had still been able to sense tens of thousands of chakra signatures in the desert ahead. Yet all of a sudden, those chakra signatures had vanished into thin air.
The movement of tens of thousands of shinobi was no small matter. Under normal circumstances, there was no way they could simply disappear without a trace.
After pondering for a moment, the captain asked, "Any news from headquarters?"
"Not yet," the sensory ninja replied.
The captain gritted his teeth. "Keep moving. The Five Kage are right behind us. There's nothing to fear!"
The advance unit's duty was to scout out the enemy. Now that the enemy had mysteriously vanished, they had no choice but to press on with the search until new orders arrived from the rear.
Suddenly, another sensory ninja in the unit shouted, "Captain, I think I can sense a chakra signature ahead!"
"I sense it too!"
"That's right, it's a very unusual chakra!"
"There seems to be only one person!"
Before long, more and more sensory ninja in the advance unit detected the enemy.
Whether by coincidence or not, the sandstorm gradually subsided. The sky cleared, and everyone's vision returned to normal.
Only then did the advance unit spot a ninja clad in red armor, standing silently atop a massive boulder in the distance!
"Is that an enemy?"
"He doesn't look like an Akatsuki member!"