The day after the Staircase Mountain Treaty was signed, Chiyo assembled a thousand Sand Shinobi to form a joint force with Fugaku Uchiha and the others stationed in Sunagakure.
They called it a joint force, but the two sides acted more like separate armies. They even traveled one behind the other. Too much hatred had built up between them.
They had been fighting to the death only days ago. They could not simply join hands against a common enemy now.
Sunagakure had agreed to send troops largely because it had been forced to. Nearly half the village had already been destroyed.
If it refused, the whole of Sunagakure might end up demolished and rebuilt. No one in the Land of Wind wanted that.
Fugaku led his group in front, while Chiyo's Sand Shinobi followed behind. This time, they went straight through the Land of Rivers rather than the Land of Rain.
They would reach Outside Konoha from the Land of Rivers, rest there, then head from Konoha to the Land of the Moon.
The force moved slowly. At this pace, reaching Konoha would take seven or eight days.
The officials from the Land of Fire who had attended the negotiations were traveling with them, as were Homura and Nara Shikaku. The officials were ordinary people, so speeding up was out of the question.
Seven days later, the force entered the Land of Fire. Homura sent two teams of elite Ninja to escort two ministers back to the Capital, while Fugaku and the others headed into the village to rest.
The Sand Shinobi camped Outside Konoha and were given considerable freedom, though large numbers of Konoha Ninja were stationed around them in case they tried something desperate.
At Konoha Gate, Elder Shinsuke had brought some of the village's Ninja to welcome