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The Land of Wind's distinctive dry, sandy scent, mingled with the smell of sun-scorched rock, rushed over him. Completely unlike the moist, lush Lands of Rivers and Fire, this endless golden sea of sand now carried an indescribable sense of familiarity... and heaviness in Shaye's eyes.

The escort team slowly passed through Sunagakure's enormous, solid stone gates. The guards at the entrance recognized them. As their gazes swept over the wounded companions on the stretchers, some missing limbs entirely, complex emotions appeared in their eyes—sympathy, gravity, and a trace of numbness born from familiarity.

Shaye had no time to spare for anything else. He directed the guards and swiftly handed the wounded over to the medical unit waiting at the gates. More than ten severely injured people, including Captain Jing Liang, were carefully transferred onto proper medical stretchers and sent to Sunagakure Hospital for long-term treatment and rehabilitation. Seeing the hollow, exhausted look in Captain Jing Liang's eyes as he was carried away, Shaye felt as though a huge stone weighed on his heart.

By the time the tedious handover procedures were complete, dusk was approaching. Shaye stood alone outside the rather deserted mission handover office, gazing at the village dyed gold and crimson by the setting sun.

It was the forty-eighth year of Konoha. Without realizing it, more than half a year had passed since he had left the village for the Land of Rivers front lines. These past months had seemed longer than several years before that. He had experienced too much, lost too much, and... changed too much.

He took a deep breath and headed home. The streets seemed quieter than he remembered, and the faces of passersby held fewer smiles and more worry beneath the shadow of war. After Fourth Kazekage Rasa had met with the