A long road will teach you more about yourself then one hundred years of introspect.

And a long road it had been, for Kashiki, for Nova, for Sunagakure, and for the people of the Land of the Wind. For some, more then others, but this had been a journey for everyone. The fond memories of Konohagakure floated through Kashiki's head as he walked along one of the paths across the desert, whistling as he went. It had been a long road for him, maybe more then others but not more then everyone. He had trained as hard as he possibly could for the chunin exams, for his one chance to bring glory to himself and to his village. Then he threw that chance away. Of course, the road he walked down was also quite long, and it was teaching him plenty about himself. Such as the fact that he hated the sun, for instance.

Word travels faster then you'd think in the Land of the Wind, and he had heard about Nova's rebuilding only days after it happened. He had already walked most of the way, and as he crested the hill the marble city glistened in the distance. He could finally see it, his homeland the Village Hidden in the Sand, it was finally rebuilt! He continued to walk towards the marble city and as he approached he noticed how empty it looked and sounded. Some people were there for sure, but it was no bustling city like Konohagakure, it was barely more people then had been in the village he had been staying at.

Kashii approached the entrance to the city, a little disheartened by it's apparent emptiness, but still excited to see his family's homeland and to see Nova, the person who made this possible.

WC: 298

Ragna had spent a lot of her time on the road and traveling around the Land of Wind. There wasn’t much she could at this point. It didn’t matter how many times she completed a job. It just kept getting old. She heard rumors of about something going on in the middle of the desert. Though, there wasn’t much that would draw her there. It beat just sitting around in the capital. Plus, she had spent a good bit of her ryo on booze and cigars. It wouldn’t have hurt to check out what was going on. Occasionally, she would purchase water and supplies at nearby villages. Then she almost got ran out of a military camp trying to get food. Yeah, she hoped whatever she found would be worth it. The journey was long and hard. Along the way she heard rumors of Sunagakure getting rebuilt. It made her eyes widen as she wasn’t sure if she was to be excited or concerned. She was headed in the right direction, so she wasn’t too far off from where she was.

The trek became harder as time went on. She ended up being down to her last two cigars and half a canteen of water. Ragna had a hardened scowl on her face from her being quite miserable. She wasn’t sure what to do as she already started to hallucinate every now and then. Ragna truly believed that this was going to be it. Her and Ontzag were going to be done for. The blade seemed to get heavier and heavier on her back. She wasn’t sure what was going on or how much longer she had to walk. The last thing she wanted to do was die, but what choice would she have at his point. Ragna would pull her last cigar and light it with a match. Matches tasted so much better than using a lighter. The lack of chemicals made it heavenly.

A patch of smoke would float from her mouth as she would force herself up a hill. She would almost drop the cigar out of her mouth at what she saw. Was this the village, she would think to herself or was she hallucinating again? She would quickly take the remaining water in her canteen and knock it back. The water tasted slightly of white liquor. There had definitely had been alcohol in it previously, but she wasn’t sure how long ago. Ragna would slap her face a couple of times trying to snap herself out of whatever trance she was in. What she saw was correct. A city made of marble. It was definitely artistic and astounding. She wasn’t sure what to make of it. Though, she noticed that she wasn’t the only one here. There was a boy that stood to her right. She raised an eyebrow. The boy looked a bit familiar. Did he see him before? Chunin Exams was it? It mattered not.

Looking down at her waist, she took a look at her Suna headband. It brought back some nostalgic memories. If this was truly the new village, she would be ready to begin working and or finding a new place to live. She was curious about what to do. It was still uncertain to her what she was to do next. Ragna looked toward the direction of the boy again and decided that she would attempt to walk up to him. There was no excitement in her steps as she was already exhausted. She figured that it wouldn’t hurt to ask a question or two. Though, she decided to follow the boy toward the city instead. She had to take another break or two.

Ragna would walk forward pulling the weight of her body and blade on her back. The walk seemed like it took forever. She was already starting breath heavily. She was finally able to catch up to the boy as she entered through the gate. Ragna took note that the village was sort of empty. It was to be expected. It almost broke her heart that she didn’t stick around to help out. It would be almost impossible for her to know about it’s construction. Outside of sticking around the capital, she had traveled to other countries trying to learn different medical techniques. She learned quite a lot and was willing to bring what she learned with her to Suna. The Shinkai wasn’t too fond of new starts, but this would be better than nothing. Ragna decided to approach the boy to see what he thought.

“Hey kid, what do you think of this place? It doesn’t quite feel like home, but it’s better. Is this really Suna?” she inquired to the boy as she took a puff of her cigar.

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