The snow in the Land of Iron was mute.
Lin Ye parked the Ark in the drift-ice belt beyond the Tsugaru Strait and walked fifteen kilometers before reaching the outskirts of Frost Harbor. There were no chakra-sensing arrays, no Anbu waiting to receive him. Even the lanterns hanging outside the taverns used the old craft of tung oil and cotton wicks. The samurai here had written "share no techniques with shinobi" into their ancestral code. Every ninja tool carried by visitors was locked inside bronze cabinets at border inspection: bracers, pendants, terminals, nothing was exempt.
Lin Ye did not hesitate when he handed over the Purification Prism. The young samurai guarding him stared at his old Uchiha forehead protector for a long time, then finally pretended he had seen nothing and pushed the bronze cabinet back into the wall with a click.
Acting Samurai Commander Kikyo received him. She was a woman with an iron cover over her left eye who spoke as quickly as a blade being drawn.
"From Konoha? I hear you had an Evil Moon outbreak over there, and quite a few people died." She set a pot of scalding genmaicha heavily on the table, her tone devoid of sympathy. "Lord Mifune is getting on in years. The Land of Iron will not participate in any joint defense proposal for supernatural epidemic zones. You came with that glowing iron ship in the sky, but you'd better not expect us to lend you the backing of our swords."
"I didn't come to ask for troops." Lin Ye tucked the Team 7 photograph Sakura had developed beneath the teacup and slid it toward her. "Soval-the 'scholar' your intelligence reports say has recently been circulating shinobi war histories on the black market-breached the paper-rubbing room of the Frost Harbor archives