“Damn, the map they gave us shows we have a long way to go,” Imikamaru said to the others, ”If we want to get there soon we’re going to have to ride by train or the old fashioned way, horse. On the other hand I can just summon my dragon Kruziikrel,” he paused, “or you can try your new spell.” Ikkus yawned widely, their fangs glimmering white, “Whichever way is fine with me… Just whatever can give me some rest. Testing out that spell seems interesting…” “I think we should save that spell for another time. We wouldn’t want you to mess something up and hurt yourself or us two,” Imikamaru suggested, “I’ll just use mine. SUMMONING JUTSU!”

They got on the dragon and flew away. They soared through the skies, with the cities fading away into badlands, “Keep a watch out, now that we’re out of city limits there’s somehow going to be even more people out for our heads…” Ikkus grumbled sleepily, this was proved as a sudden ballista bolt came shooting right at the said travelers. “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT,” Imikamaru yelled. Kaze looked calmly over and realized they were not flying but instead falling; and towards a pit of pointy rocks, he sighed.

“Surge sursus! Surge sursus! SURGE SURSUS!” Ikkus’s words were swept away by the winds, unable to slow their rapid freefall, “Oh no…”. “EVERYONE, GRAB ONTO ME,” Imikamaru yelled, “TELEPORTATION JUTSU!” Then, another bolt came and messed up the Jutsu, so Kaze did the only reasonable thing: he used his devil fruit to level the dragon so they wouldn't die.

The acid made it so they didn’t get impaled, instead falling hard onto the rocky ground. “That was quite the emergency landing there,” Ikkus said as they flew down with their wings “Here, let me heal you two up that must have hurt quite a bit…” “Why didn’t my jutsu work,” Imikamaru mumbled. As Kaze inspected the bolt he got weak and noticed that there was a weird machine and it was also made out of sky stone. “Ah, that’s why.. The bolts were infused with Sky Stone, neither of you two should touch it, it can seriously weaken you..” Ikkus muttered, studying the bolts closely, “This is worrying, be careful the attacker may come and track us down….”

“I’m out of chakra so I can’t summon anything, or teleport us away,” Imikamaru informed. Just as the group looked around they were surrounded, but not by people. The creatures looked like humans, yet their hollowed eyes and sandy white skin that gave away to the wind, stumbling over the rocky slopes their harsh moaning cries echoed through the valley. “Dammit, I know what these things are,” Imikamaru stated, “They’re Dust-Crawlers.”