"The Land of Iron? What kind of place is that?" Xiao You asked curiously.
"The Land of Iron is said to be a nation of samurai. There are no ninja there; the entire village is made up of samurai," Yui explained.
"Since they're all samurai, I figured their ironworking should be pretty advanced. And it's on our way, so I can get my blade repaired!"
"There are actually villages made up entirely of samurai?" Xiao You sounded a little amazed. She had thought every village in the shinobi world was made up of ninja.
"So there are other kinds of countries out there."
"Yeah, hearing you say that, I'm starting to look forward to it!"
After explaining, Yui no longer felt like flying slowly through the sky.
"Xiao You, hold on tight..." She warned Xiao You, who was inside her sleeve.
She increased the chakra flowing beneath her feet, instantly doubling her speed as she headed toward the Land of Iron.
"Whoa, slow down, Yui-"
Elsewhere...
"Orochimaru, how much farther is it to the Land of Iron?"
Jiraiya asked helplessly.
Their figures darted through one stretch of forest after another, leaping between the trees at high speed...
They had left the village almost two weeks ago, yet they still hadn't reached the Land of Iron.
"I don't know. We should get there in another two days, I suppose!" Orochimaru sighed.
They were already traveling very fast.
If they hadn't spent three days in that small town, they would have finished the mission by now.
"We need to pick up the pace..." Dan Katō said with a frown.
"Our objective is to recover the ninja tools stolen by the rogue ninja..."
"We need to hurry. If the targets split up, we'll be in trouble!"
Jiraiya and Orochimaru nodded at his words.