I Will Become the Wind

CHAPTER 30 | Hollow Sound

Jiraiya was right: they did not make it all the way to the Sound village without stopping. But he was also wrong, because they could have.

Naruto's Sage Mode ran out halfway there, which was still an impressive distance by any estimation. After that, the lead he'd maintained over Jiraiya was reduced to nothing, and they had just crossed over into the Sound when Naruto stopped to catch his breath.

"What, stopping already?" Jiraiya feigned surprise. "We aren't there yet. We're only back to where we started."

"I wanted to see... if I could have make it back faster." Naruto sat down on the cold grass, then flopped backward. He was breathing hard and his skin prickled, but the all-out exertion felt nice after days indoors.

"It still wouldn't have been fast enough." Jiraiya sat down cross-legged beside him.

"Yeah, I know."

"I guess we'll stop soon," Jiraiya said after a moment of companionable silence. They had burned through the evening, and it was already night. "Hopefully you wore yourself out enough to get back to sleeping like a normal person."

"I can sleep anywhere, anytime."

"Don't I know it. Sleep anywhere, and eat anything. So what's our next move? By that I mean, something that doesn't involve having a chat with Madara."

"Let's go to the town we went before, where that informant guy was." Naruto stretched out on the ground and then let out a wheeze. "Ahh, I'm starving."

They went the rest of the way at a slower pace. Though they were not going to the Hidden Village itself just yet, crossing over into the Land of Sound always meant an extra layer of caution.

This town was one they had stopped at a handful of times before—it was from there that Jiraiya had initially decided to take them further east along the coast. Whenever they went there, they hid their shinobi gear and wore threadbare mantles over their clothes to avoid standing out. Not exactly a disguise, but it gave no one a reason to hassle them.

It was never a problem because the people there tended to keep to themselves. But that night, the mood in the town was completely different.

It was not yet late, but even so, there were far more people on the street than they'd ever seen before. Warm light poured from open doors and slatted windows, and there was a bustle of good-natured talk and laughter. Huge paper lanterns with tassels dangling from them lined the main road. Multicolored streamers and string lights crisscrossed overhead, creating a twinkling canopy. Stringed instruments were playing from somewhere further down the street, mixing in with enticing aromas.

"What's going on?" Naruto wondered aloud as they easily slipped in among the streams of people.

"Let's get some food and watch."

They went to a hot-pot place they'd visited before. For the first twenty minutes after they were served, Naruto's main concern was getting as much of the food from the pot into his stomach as possible.

From snippets of conversation around, it sounded like people were celebrating the return of a noble family from the former Land of Rice Paddies. How and why they were back, and why it was a reason to throw a party, wasn't very clear to Naruto. But Jiraiya looked serious, and spent more time listening than eating.

"I'm going to have a look around," Jiraiya said after they ordered a second pot. "Just stay put, I'll be back before long."

"You're not skipping out on the bill, are you?" Naruto snapped his chopsticks at Jiraiya suspiciously.