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It's not like everything about the shinobi world can be so carefully explained. There are some things that just are, and the less you delve into the why of it, the better you are, the better everyone is.
It's easy to fall into the world of what you know, when you live in a land well-travelled and explored. There are mysteries right at your doorstep if you open your eyes and look for them - the old Inuzuka caves, the forest of death, the Naka River. It's easy to forget those old things are there, that they are unexplainable in their own right, because they live right beside you.
It's not that people stop being fearful of those things that they cannot explain, it's that they just become familiar with the sensation, and understand enough to be weary.
Still, that same weariness doesn't seem to extend beyond Konoha.
Maybe it's the fact that they don't have the privilege of living right by its doorstep to know the mysteries of it, that they are not privy to the local’s experiences. It is foolish, not to investigate it as intensely as possible before sending shinobi into a situation headlong with no idea what is ahead of them.
The Land of Frost, for as small as it is, remains largely a mystery.
Sai thinks that it's no wonder that they've remained quiet all this time, even if their black ops have attained a reputation that's nothing less than ruthlessly formidable.
After all, when the land itself is a monster, humans don’t seem that frightening.
He makes it to the first village with ease. It's not too far into the Land of Frost. What he isn't expecting is for there to be not a soul around. It stands still and quiet, windows boarded up and doors bolted shut.
There are people here. Sai can feel the muted, tiny heat of chakra pulsing in most of the houses.
He has no plans to stop here for any longer than it will take him to orientate himself and continue to the meeting point, but the scene in front of him falls into a category of wrong that he cannot shake.
The buildings stand close together, pressed and almost touching, like they are themselves human, huddling for warmth. The wind whistles by his ears in a quiet, desperate roar, moving through the town, drifting past each house like a watchman, poking each crevice, finding a way in. Sai stays still, lets the wind knock his cape up, flap through the breeze as he himself is assessed, broken down to his bare essentials. It wraps around his neck as a warning, tightens, and Sai does not move.
Then it drifts on, the main body of it, invisible, but that does not seem to matter, because it tells him where it is going - away. The wind moves on, behind him. Sai does not look behind him, he does not look - he does not look.
There is a distinct moment that the wind leaves, that the wind, leaves. It still billows his cape up and behind him, but there is no threat there, no warning, just the same cold chill whipping against his clothes that he has felt since stepping across the border.
Sai moves only when the roar turns into a nothing more than an indistinguishable noise than when the wind blows through the trees of Konoha. He is not yet in the town, just away from it. He breathes in, inhaling the harsh coldness like a breath of fresh air and turns - there is nothing there. Just his own barely-there footprints, and the expanse of snow that stretches as far as he can see.
He turns back to the town, and he thinks he understands. Even if he doesn't understand the what or the why, but that's inconsequential. Sai can understand a threat, and he understands when to fight and when to run.
He does not think even the shinobi can fight the wind. He does not think anyone can fight the land itself you live on.
The ground beneath his feet growls much like Captain Yamato's jutsu. The thought does not comfort him.
If his captain's chakra is a part of the very land itself, connected to it in a way that Sai cannot understand, then what is the Land of Frost? A beast on its own?
He remembers thinking to himself, that if Captain Yamato stopped moving for long enough, he'd surely become one of the old trees, like the only thing stopping him from becoming the forest was his will.
It's not something he can properly grasp, and he does not think that his captain understands much of it either, although likely, he has a better understanding of it. Still, the Land of Frost moves under him, lifting up and down and up and down like it's breathing, even though the ground itself does not move, it is telling Sai it is. He can feel it, just as well as he can acutely feel his own chakra.
Sai thinks that it could kill him, he understands that he is a fly, and this land is the hand that crushes him.
It's like the forest.
The ANBU catches himself on the branch, hunkered down upon a withered tree. His weight must be distributed carefully, so the branch doesn't snap.
Sai knows this man is his target. Interesting that this is the mission he was sent on, it's not like ANBU are known to be the hospitable, let alone Sai, and he would have thought that the exchanging of information between two shinobi would want to be made as friendly as possible. No use forming a further rift between two countries.
Sai breathes in carefully through the limits of his mask, the wind still bites his throat, raw and blistering. Sai does not shiver, chakra simmering at the surface, keeping himself from freezing.
The Shimo ANBU detangles themselves from the dying branch, landing in a crouch.
He blends into the surroundings even without moving. Sai stands out. His uniform is made for the forest, for dark browns and greens and shadows. Even with the white coat over his shoulders, he is a stranger. This ANBU's uniform is made for the snow, white and grey and Sai is sure they could disappear into the wilderness with a few steps, and Sai would be blind to find them.
They are deep in the Land of Frost, and Sai is not scared, but he is not foolish enough to think this is a land that wants him to stay longer than he is prescribed.
The ANBU straightens. He is taller than Sai, build wiry and tight, all his muscles tightly coiled and hard, like Sai himself.
"You made it," the ANBU says, deep and gravely, their voice pulls Sai's gaze up to his mask and holds him there.
It's a titbit of information that the ANBU very clearly intended to say, with all the meaning behind it - a test.
"I should consider myself lucky, I suppose," Sai doesn’t move, keeps his voice light and friendly. Naruto thinks that makes him scarier. So be it.
The Shimo ANBU hums out a noise, neither a confirmation nor a rebuttal.
"Maybe it's the forest," the ANBU's left hand is reaching behind his back, and Sai watches him, ready to reach back for his tanto, but the ANBU signs quickly - safe, scroll - and produces it as such. It's small. Fitting in the palm of his hand. "It must understand your intentions," he says, and does not elaborate. Sai does not ask.
He closes the gap between them, reaching out to the scroll and the Shimo ANBU lets him.
Sai thinks of the forest of Konoha, how it looms, and groans and could kill even the most well-trained shinobi if it wants. He thinks about the frost, rising and falling beneath his feet.
Maybe there's not much to understand. Just what you know and what you know is a threat. When the threat lives under your feet, you learn to tread carefully. When the threat lives inside you, is a part of you - Captain Yamato - Sai isn't sure how to assess that. Supposes it doesn't matter, as long as the Captain doesn't let the forest swallow him.
Sai sends a pulse of chakra outward, containing it to stretch through the scroll, feels the signature, confirming it to be the correct piece.
"Thank you, ANBU," Sai says, he nods his head, and hopes the land underneath his feet understands he is grateful. He does not think he would survive more than a few steps if he conveyed an intention to injure the Shimo shinobi.
It rears beneath his feet, not in any way that is physical, but Sai acknowledges it all the same It is an understanding, a temporary arrangement where Sai is not considered a threat. He was given a path in, he will be given a path out. Nothing more.
The Shimo ANBU returns the nod, easily and looks up the sky, like he can see something else there.
The shinobi slips his arms into his coat, the most visible part of him is the slight divots in his mask, and the grey material that covers his eyes - engineered specifically for this environment - that Sai thinks make up a fox. He blends into the snow like he is only tethered to Sai's presence by a string.
"Head straight back, and do not stop, don't look. It's a fickle thing, this land," the ANBU fades into the snow, disappearing entirely, and Sai doesn't waste the chakra to reach out and find him.
Sai believes him.
He tucks away the scroll, and he runs.