Stopping Kumoko from rushing ahead took some effort. Even if we were in a time crunch, we couldn’t just pack up and go. We updated Emina on our plans. I collected my table and chairs. Back at the caravan, I left a few more sweets for the kids. We checked for injuries, and only then did we set out to hunt.

With Kumoko sniffing for a trail, we couldn’t rush ahead. That might cause her to lose the ferret’s scent. The trail she found was a meandering thing. It went generally toward Wind, away from River: messy, erratic, like you’d expect from a ferret. Then there was Kumoko’s speed.

I knew from the previous time I summoned her that Kumoko had training as a ninja, but she wasn’t fast. Her max speed was barely more than a normal person running, and she couldn’t keep that speed for long.

Yes, I knew why now that was the case, but it didn’t help much when we were in a hurry.

Offering to carry her almost ended in disaster. The only reason she didn’t leave, I think, was because she was under orders to obey me. She was offended, however. So much that I was sure if I pushed the issue, all the progress I had made in the past months would go down the drain.

In the end, saner minds prevailed, or more experienced minds.

“Rushing ahead will only cause problems,” Tsunade said after a few moments of intense staring between me and Kumoko. “If the destination is that fortress you mentioned, better we pace ourselves and avoid getting tired.”

I understood her very well. I don’t even know why I was so anxious about this. Was it because I know how bombastic Naruto’s movies could be?

The meandering path continued to lead ever closer to Wind. We pushed forward until the sky darkened, then finally stopped to rest. We slept in shifts. No nightly shenanigans with Ino. Not even a peck. Tragic, really.

Night turned to day, and we started running again.

Bit by bit, the grassy areas and trees gave way to dried earth and cracked soil. It wasn’t the desert proper, just the beginning of a barren, broken land. The situation only got worse the more we advanced.

There was something very wrong here, even if I couldn’t place my finger on what.

“The chakra,” Karin said after we had stopped to rest. “There’s no chakra anywhere.”

“What do you mean?” Tenten asked.

Karin waved her hands around. “It’s like this whole place is dead, no chakra. It’s suffocating.”

I finished cooking and served the meal.

Tsunade and the others were already seated at the table, waiting. “Take out the map,” she ordered, then took a mouthful of food.

I did as requested. Immediately, I saw what she probably already knew. We shouldn’t be that far from Wind’s border based on our direction, but the area we were in was considered a death zone. Nothing lived here. No animals, not even vegetation. The notes on the map, with small tidbits of information added, provided a few contextual details. Some locals considered the place cursed and avoided it as much as possible.

“A death zone?”

Tenten froze, food halfway into her mouth. “What? Is it dangerous?”

I shook my head. “Not that kind of death zone, just barren land. Nothing lives there, no animals, plants, or anything.”

Karin turned to Kumoko. “And that’s where the trail leads.”

Kumoko kept slurping her meal. Her tail’s lashes were halfway between excited and annoyed. Only after the silence grew too uncomfortable even for her, that the she-devil answered. “The skunk went this way.”

“Ferret,” I corrected, but an annoyed tail lash was my only response.

“You think it has anything to do with this mine?” Ino asked. She had opted out of the broth, gobbling down from her private supplies of cupcakes.

“It would make sense,” Tsunade said before I could. “It would also explain why no one else ever found it, if everyone avoids this place.”

I couldn’t deny the logic made a twisted sort of sense. We weren’t even fully into the death zone, and I wanted to leave it already. It was hard to explain, but it was like having sand rubbing against my skin, or that my lips were splitting because I hadn’t drunk water in a while. Nothing I could point a finger at exactly, just a general uncomfortable feeling.

It was near the end of the day when something changed.

“Chakra,” Karin said, stopping abruptly.

We grouped around her, waiting for the information.

“Why have we stopped?” Kumoko asked, looking from me to the direction we were following.

“Did you find anything?” Tsunade pressed.

Karin didn’t seem to be paying attention to us. Her eyes were wide, scanning the same direction we were going. I walked to her, placed my hands on her cheeks, and turned her face until she looked at me.

“What did you sense?”

Karin opened her mouth, shut it, then opened it again. “Chakra, a lot of it.”

“Explain, please?” I asked, but I still didn’t release Karin’s face. She kept trying to look back toward whatever she was sensing.

In the background, I heard Tsunade asking questions, maybe to Tenten. “What is happening?”

Then Tenten’s answer, explaining Karin’s ability. I paid no mind to that. My attention was on Karin.

“Like Nerugui and your stone, only…” she shuddered. “It’s so much more.”

The mine, then. “Anything else?” I pressed.

“Lots of shinobi as well.”

“Those people with the stone?” I coaxed, turning Karin’s face until she was facing me again.

“No, I can only feel four like those, but about a dozen other shinobi, and there’s another one,” Karin looked behind me, at Tsunade. “He’s like Naruto.”

I nodded. Most likely she was sensing Gaara of the Desert. What was he doing here? I asked a few more questions, trying to understand everything I could. Then, before I could explain to the team, I had to hold Karin, because she kept moving toward the chakra, almost like she was in a trance.

“We found the enemy,” I said, arms wrapped around Karin.

“What’s wrong with her?” Tsunade asked, walking closer and placing a hand on Karin’s forehead. The redhead didn’t even seem to notice it.

“The mine, she found it.”

“Then let’s move.” Tsunade turned without hesitation.

The others followed, but Karin lagged behind, drifting forward like a sleepwalker.

“Wait!” I called, rushing back to her side. “Karin, are you alright?”

She didn’t answer. Just kept walking.

I grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. Moments later, the team circled back.

“What’s happening?” Tsunade demanded.

“This chakra always hits her harder than us. I think it’s overwhelming her.”

“What do we do?” Ino asked, walking closer and checking on Karin.

“Maybe she should stay behind?” I offered.

Tsunade arched an eyebrow. “Alone?”

Yeesh, Grandma. You don’t have to test me like that.

“No,” I turned to Ino, but she cut me off.

“I’m not staying behind.” There was no room for negotiation in her voice.

Tenten stepped forward and took Karin from me. “I’ll stay with her.”

It felt wrong to leave Karin, but she was in no shape to fight, and we were in a time crunch. We said our goodbyes, then moved.

Now that we had a clear direction to follow, I scooped Kumoko up and settled her on my shoulders. She grumbled, but didn’t resist. Progress.

As before, we heard it before we saw it: the grinding of machinery, the roar of chakra-based techniques.

A jagged valley opened before us, scarred and hollow. Embedded in the far rock wall was something that once looked like a palace entrance, now fractured, blasted open. The mobile fortress had crashed against the stone. From the top, what looked like a giant drill broke the stone, giving access to the interior.

Outside, a legion of golems clashed with Suna shinobi. Explosions, sand lances, lightning strikes, and cyclones tore through the battlefield, yet the golems didn’t fall, and more and more golem poured out of the fortress.

Off to the side, a wave of sand rose and crashed into a massive, armored figure crackling with lightning. She retaliated with thunderbolts from both hands. Above, the screech of the batwoman.