Iwao Genyako had lived in Gelin City for two months.
They had been the most perilous, tense two months of her life—two months in which her life had been at risk every single moment.
After being attacked, Iwao Genyako had initially tried to flee the city, return to Sunagakure, or smuggle herself out of the Land of Wind and back to the Land of Water.
But she quickly discovered that a large number of government-affiliated samurai were searching Gelin City for her, while inspectors were stationed at every entrance and exit.
Smuggling herself out was even less feasible.
Smugglers cared only about money, not people. The moment Iwao Genyako approached them, she would be sold off before the day was over.
Since she could not escape, she considered calling Sunagakure for help or sending a carrier pigeon directly to Kirigakure to ask for rescue.
Iwao Genyako was soon glad she had not done so.
After asking around, she learned that cities in the Land of Wind differed from those elsewhere. Ordinary carrier pigeons could not fly across the desert; only desert hawks specially bred by the authorities could do so.
The telephone lines, meanwhile, were monitored at the source.
By then, Iwao Genyako understood that she was trapped within this enormous oasis city.
She could neither escape nor contact the outside world.
All she could do was keep herself safe as best she could and wait for her friends in Kirigakure to notice that something was wrong.
The Land of Wind was vast, possessing the largest territory in the entire Ninja World. Yet because so much of it was desert, agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry had been unable to develop at all.
Its only redeeming feature was the minerals and oil buried beneath the ground.
For generations, the civilians and