[Da-da-da-da-da]
[BOOM!][BOOM!][BOOM!]
It should have been a quiet night.
Instead, gunfire roared, explosions thundered, smoke filled the air, and cries of battle erupted everywhere.
The baleful aura of war and the scent of blood drifting on the wind shrouded every corner of heaven and earth.
Bright muzzle flashes spat out bullets too fast for the naked eye to see, forming a densely interwoven crossfire network.
From time to time, mortar shells and rockets could be seen streaking overhead, exploding across the vast sea of sand ahead in bursts of fire.
When the flames faded and the shockwaves subsided.
They were replaced by sand and gravel spraying through the air, dust clouds blanketing entire areas, and the mangled corpses of ninja.
An hour earlier.
They were within the Land of Wind.
While Aramaki was making a grand show of fighting Konoha Ninja Village alone over in the Land of Fire.
The nearly six-thousand-strong ninja coalition formed by Cloud Village, Rain Village, Grass Village, and Hidden Waterfall Village under A and Hanzō had also arrived in the desert near Loulan.
This place was located at the southern edge of the Land of Wind, less than ten kilometers from the coast.
Yet it was far from the Land of Rain, requiring them to cross nearly half the sandy expanse of the Land of Wind.
Thus, even though Hidden Rock Village and Sand Village were already locked in an intensely bitter battle, they had only just made it here after crossing the endless desert.
The desert night was tranquil.
The impossibly clear starry sky glittered with countless stars, forming a breathtaking, radiant Galaxy.
And the endless golden dunes visible during the day had now become blurred silhouettes.
But they had not come here to admire the scenery.
They had come to kill.
As ninja,