The scene shifted outside the village.
Vast stretches of towering ancient trees, battered by raging wind and sand.
Had been stripped away, leaving nothing but desolate sand.
The air was thick with dry yellow sand and the earthy stench of rotting leaves, choking throats dry.
Sasuke lay motionless between two shattered boulders.
The sand had shredded his black training outfit until it looked like a beggar's rags.
His once-crimson Sharingan had reverted to ordinary black eyes.
With his chakra and stamina drained far beyond their limits.
He no longer had the strength even to lift his eyelids.
His palms were slick with cold sweat and gritty mud, his fingers dug into the soil and bleeding dark red.
"Sasuke... please wake up..."
Sakura crouched beside him, her clothes and hair soaked through with muddy water.
She kept wiping away tears in her panic.
And not far away, up in the air.
Naruto stood atop the head of an enormous dark red toad.
Gamabunta.
He clenched a battered wooden pipe as thick as a small tree trunk in his mouth, its surface coated in sticky gray tar.
"Hey! Naruto, you little brat!"
Gamabunta's voice rumbled like thunder, making Naruto's ears ache.
"Our opponent this time is that notorious lunatic, the One-Tail!"
"How many offerings did you prepare for me?! What gave you the nerve to summon me as your shield?!"
Naruto rubbed his aching nose, which was still running.
Then casually wiped the snot on his old short-sleeved shirt.
"Boss Gamabunta! Now isn't the time for that!"
"If we don't wake up that weirdo with the gourd, we'll all end up as dried-out corpses in this sand!"
Across from them.
Shukaku the One-Tail's enormous, hill-sized body, formed entirely of yellow sand and eerie blue markings.
Crouched amid the ruins, letting out ear-piercing