Shinobi World.
Within the Land of Wind, the vast sea of sand and rolling dunes endured the blazing sun day after day.
The excessive heat made the air shimmer hazily, and every so often, one could spot the movement of snakes or lizards crawling across the sand.
This place.
It was less than two kilometers from the Land of Loulan. Walking a little farther and finding a steeper dune would allow one to overlook the thousand-year-old city, its pointed towers rising in clusters.
However, unlike before, when it had been completely empty, now that the World Government had "secretly" occupied Loulan, crude watchtowers that appeared to be made of packed earth had sprung up all around its outskirts.
Two black-clad soldiers stood atop each tower, dressed in full Army combat gear, holding heavy Automatic Rifles, and wearing sandproof masks over their faces as they constantly surveyed their assigned sectors.
Their appearance seemed utterly out of place in this world.
"How is it, Hiashi?"
Behind a dune roughly five hundred meters from the watchtower, four ninjas in Konoha flak jackets and uniforms sat in a circle beside a large brownish-yellow ninja hound.
The handsome blond, blue-eyed young man who spoke was Minato Namikaze, the captain of this mission team.
The person he had addressed was a black-haired young man with pale white eyes and bulging veins around his eye sockets.
He faced the scorching sand, wearing an expression of intense concentration as he observed something.
He was Hiashi Hyuga of the branch family of Konoha's prestigious Hyuga Clan.
The other two were Choza Akimichi of the Akimichi Clan and Inuzuka Ago of the Inuzuka Clan.
All four of them were Jonin.
This mission had been classified by Konoha as an Ultra S-rank mission, meaning "a top-secret mission matter involving international-level relations."