Journey of Desires

The situation in the Land of Earth was similar to the Land of Fire. Various villages, cities and a large ninja village hidden in the local landscape. Although part of the territory is covered only by rocks and gorges, somewhat reminiscent of America to our time travelers, a fairly large part is occupied by forests and a few plains, there is also a very small section of desert that runs from the Land of Wind through the countries of Fang and Claw, eventually touching the territory of the Land of Earth.

So it just so happened that the first point of visit in the Land of Earth was a rather large city located on a plain surrounded by forest on three sides, and the fourth extends for several more kilometers from the city into the distance, smoothly turning into a canyon.

The five have been in this city for two days already, if for Ban and Kilia this city does not represent anything interesting at all, due to the fact that it is incredibly similar to one of the Western cities of the world of the seven deadly sins. And Hikari herself is very calm and not particularly interested in such things, but Naruko and especially Hinata were delighted.

In her past life, Uzumaki did not travel at all, and for the first time seeing a large city of this world, she began to gradually understand why her brother and sister, who decided to help her, decided to travel.

It is trivially interesting, impressive and gives a lot of emotions.

Hinata, living in a conservative clan in constant tension, began to feel freedom for the first time in her life. Yes, of course, she is in "captivity", but during these days that they traveled from the Land of Fire to the Land of Earth, she was not particularly limited in anything, she even had the impression that she could leave at night and no one would notice, and in the morning they would not even look for her. But where can Hyuga go without the seal of a bird in a cage, and at the age of 12, and alone, in a territory that she doesn't know at all, for her, meeting any understanding ninja is at least a guarantee of losing her eyes, after all, the Byakugan on the black market costs a lot of money.

There were, of course, many more options that she hadn't thought of due to her age, for example, selling Hyuga in Kumogakure would also bring in a lot of money, but the girl would have a fate that was clearly much worse than simple death or blindness.

In short, Hinata, although young, shy, untrained, but not stupid at all, understands that it's not worth leaving this company, which for some reason they decided to take her with them.

In the day that they were already in this city, the two young kunoichi managed to walk around half the city, Kiliya decided to keep an eye on them. True, the thousand-year-old girl herself was not in a very good mood, and all because of Ban, who, while traveling through the land of rain, could not find anything interesting for himself, and the country of the earth is still similar to some cities of the world of sins.

In short, Ban is returning to a state of melancholy, boredom, and his hands really want to arrange some kind of fight, but there is no reason or goal yet. There is no point in climbing to ordinary men or guards, they are too weak to extinguish this obsessive desire for battles. And worthy opponents can only be found in the village of Hidden Stone, but considering that this is a ninja village, he will be able to satisfy his desires without getting involved in a fight, but simply by studying the village, as far as he remembers from the anime, the village of stone at least looks completely different from absolutely all the places he has been before.

In recent days, Ban had become similar to Hikari, which all members of their squad noticed, but except for his sister, they didn't pay much attention, some because of their shyness, some thought it was just a mood swing, and some got their thoughts in the wrong direction and began to think that it was she who influenced him with her behavior, although the latter still decided to clarify regarding this situation.

Kilia understood what was happening, but nothing could be done, she had already tried and this desire for more and more new sensations seemed to have become a part of this immortal man. Neither mental nor spiritual magic can help, since for some reason such a state has dug into the very essence of Ban, and until they got out of purgatory and a peaceful time came, when he began to feel bad, no one even noticed such changes similar to curses, and then it was too late, now trying to fix something like this is either erasing the memory for the last 600 years, or trying to divide Ban's soul into pieces and cut out this curse from it, but even Kilia will not take on such work, and with her skills and conceptual spells, her magic can only be interrupted by magic that is itself an antipode, and which is on the same level of concept.

The result of interference in Ban's state by his sister can be anything, from a complete change in personality to literally the impossibility of collecting his soul back, turning him into a living corpse. But neither brother nor sister would ever trust another master who specializes in curses, it is too dangerous to trust someone other than yourself or someone with whom you are spiritually connected.

***

Ban was lying on the couch in the hotel room they had rented in the city of the Earth country. He was in such a bad state that he didn't even remember the name of the city, and there was simply nothing to write in his book about the cities of the ninja world. He heard the steps of a man who came up to him from behind, then walked around and sat down on the sofa opposite him, there was silence for a couple of minutes, after which Hikari's voice was heard.

- Ban... Tell me, what's going on with you? Just a week ago you were like the sun jumping from mountain to mountain and causing chaos with its rays, and now you're like a fish on a counter.

- Ha, a funny comparison, in general this is normal, ask Sister.

Ban's answer was short and without any emotion except for a note of amusement in the first words, Uchiha was dissatisfied with such an answer, she was already used to the fact that if this man starts to say something, then he can shut up only if someone else starts telling him something that is interesting to him. Shaking her head from side to side, which Ban, although he did not see, roughly felt by the sound, she continued.

- No! This will not do, you are too similar to me... As if another person, the trio left to explore the city, and I want to hear the answer now.

- Mmm...

In response, she heard only a dissatisfied moan, after which Ban nevertheless deigned to remove the pillows from his face and, opening one eye, looked at the girl.

- I travel for the sake of emotions, without new sensations I become the way you see me, in a couple of days we will be in another city, maybe we will find something interesting there, I will feel better.

- Okay. And tell me, do battles also help you?

- Yeah.

Having heard what she wanted, she stood up and went to the window of the room, after which she opened it and returned to the man, and taking him by the shoulder, she used shunshin, which she had recently raised to a new level thanks to the notes about Shisui Uchiha from the scroll of techniques borrowed from the Hokage's office. After a dozen appearances and disappearances in the leaves, the silhouette of a teenage girl holding an absolutely unresponsive body of an adult man gradually shifted towards the eastern part of the forest located outside the city.

***

Entering the room, the three girls did not find the rest of their company, only an open window and a couple of leaves on the floor hinted that someone had left the room using shunshin. However, the hint turned out to be too subtle and imperceptible, which is why the girls simply went to check other rooms, and never found the rest.

- Kilia, do you know where they could have gone?

- I don't have the slightest idea, in his brother's condition he definitely won't want to go anywhere, there are few options: either Hikari took him somewhere, or they came up with some fun and possibly dangerous activity, another option I would consider is that someone tried to get into our room, and they, sensing the excitement of the chase, decided to play tag, although judging by my feelings a kilometer around, they are definitely not there... Mmm, Ban is somewhere on the eastern side, I can't say anything else.

Because of her abilities, the girl could roughly sense the direction of the location of those with whom she is connected by contracts either energetically and spiritually, and her brother just fell under these conditions.

- Should we worry?

The question was asked by Naruko, while Hinata was just standing with a bag full of various clothes, jewelry and a couple of books that, in the blue-haired girl's opinion, might interest Ban.

- Ha! What's more, I haven't worried about my brother since I was 30, even when we fought with... Ahem, but this story is too funny to tell without Ban, you'll hear it later.

Hinata, hearing the words that the girl hadn't worried about her brother for a long time, and also the clarification that it was about 30, wondered, how old are these two?

- Aa... mmm...

- Yes, Hinata? What's wrong?

- How old are you, Kilia-san?

The question was unexpected, in her entire life she had been asked about her age incredibly rarely, in the world of sins it simply did not play any role due to the fact that there are many races that have lived for thousands of years and at the same time look like children or teenagers. And in the Shinobi world, no one had ever asked such a question, judging her by her appearance at twenty years old, Naruko can generally see such information through the system.

And the answer was heard not from the one to whom the question was asked, but from Uzumaki.

- One thousand five hundred sixty-four!

- Huh?

Hinata looked confused, but after a couple of seconds of thinking, she thought that Naruko was talking about something regarding the things they bought, but understanding her thoughts, Uzumaki continued.

- Her age is one thousand five hundred sixty-four years!

Here, having already caught the error screen, Hinata looked at Kilia, and she in response waved her head as a sign that it was true and decided to explain.

- You remember that in the battle in Konoha, my brother received injuries that healed in moments?

Realizing that they wanted to hear an answer from her, Hinata nodded affirmatively.

- So, he and I have been connected with the help of my abilities since I was twenty, well, more accurately, I was twenty then. And Ban is immortal, with super regeneration, and the ability to recover even from blood dust. And this feature of his was passed on to me because of the connection, and in exchange, spiritual and mental invulnerability is passed on to him, in fact, our abilities perceive us as a single entity, because we are too strongly connected. It's like when a mage makes an equal contract with some very strong familiar, and when the mage dies, the familiar dies, and the same is true vice versa. Souls are as if stitched, or rather fused.

- So because of his immortality, neither you nor he age and cannot die from wounds?

- Right! Here's a candy for your wits.

Having thrown Hinata a treat from the world of sins, she turned around and headed for the exit of the room, she needed to order food for dinner for Ban and Hikari's return.

***

In the forest to the east of the city, Hikari was running at a fairly high speed, trying to find something like a small clearing or a place to stop.

Having seen exactly what she was looking for, she activated the Mangekyo Sharingan and, covering herself with Yachihoko's aura, threw Ban with all her might towards the huge Spruce, who had forgotten something in such a climate, perhaps this was the result of some technique, or maybe a quirk of the local nature of this world.

When she threw Ban, the chakra aura immediately died down, and the Mangekyo changed to a regular Sharingan with three tomoe. Then using shunshin she was already at the bottom of the clearing while Ban was still flying towards the tree.

With the thought "It will hurt, but overall I don't care", the blue-haired man crashed into the Spruce, starting to gather needles on himself.

As a result, Ban fell to the ground with a not very loud thud, then slowly starting to get up he only asked a question.

-Why?

Hikari saw that he was covered in blood, his clothes were ruined, and the left side of his body, especially his palm and face with neck were covered in tree needles. Gathering her courage to speak out, she made a serious face and explained...