Two days of walking later, she was still on the same route. If she had been running, it would have taken her a day and even less if she flew. However, she wasn't in a hurry, so why not enjoy the trip?
It gave her time to practice her Earth manipulation, whose next phase of training consisted of making a wall of dry earth appear from mud. She would have needed to be in one place, but Kurama told her she could grab some dirt in her hands and try turning it into different forms as if it was clay first with her chakra, which made her able to continue walking. Though she admitted it was kind of messy and she didn't want to meet others, as walking around with mud on her hands didn't give a first good impression.
Luckily, there was no other person around.
Still, she entered sage mode to check around every couple of hours, making sure no ninjas were nearby. There weren't. Though what she guessed was a caravan was still in the same place for some time now. She remembered that a couple of hours ago; they were at the edge of her senses and now they were one hour away from her if she walked, unmoving.
'Do you think they need help?'
'They are alive, so I'm sure they would be fine if nothing has happened to them until now.'
'Doesn't mean they don't need help.'
Kurama rolled his eyes. 'Okay, busybody. Go at it, then.'
Naruto huffed but went running, anyway. She still grumbled, 'I'm not a busybody.'
It took her ten minutes to reach them, mostly because she didn't want to go full speed and startle them. She made sure her steps were loud when she was close enough to be heard, too. They didn't seem to notice her as they were arguing, but she was fine with it as it gave her time to analyze their situation, which was as dire as she thought, but still troublesome anyway.
She was right in that it was a caravan that she sensed, but it wasn't a merchant one. They seemed to be a troupe of artists for the pretty women and funny men she was seeing around. The problem was that it seemed one of their horses that pulled a carriage was injured. There were two horses for every carriage, true, but from what she heard, it seemed that the argument stemmed from what to do.
Some wanted to continue their way, even if it would put more pressure on the one horse that wasn't injured. Others wanted to distribute the weight among the other carriages, even if it would take up space and make some of the people walk next to the carriages, instead of resting inside of them. A small number even said to go to the nearest village and buy another horse.
Anyway, it was a mess.
She would have made herself known, but at that moment, one young boy turned his head, annoyed by the arguing, and saw her accidentally.
She waved at him with a smile, but instead of reassuring him, it made him gasp. "A ninja!"
That made everyone look at her in surprise, which was fair. Ninjas tend to tree-hop around these parts when they want to go anywhere. They don't use the merchant routes unless they had a bodyguard mission.
She still tried to not make them panic. "Hi?"
It didn't seem to work well because they still looked anxious as they glanced at each other. When they saw she wasn't attacking, they relaxed minutely. It still took them a minute for one of the men to walk forward.
"Good morning, I'm Tsuyoshi," he said grimly, looking like they had sentenced him to death. "Is there something you need, Miss Ninja?"
Naruto didn't want to laugh, but still couldn't help but lift her lips up. "Hi! My name's Ashura. I was passing when I noticed your problem. Is there anything I could help you with?"
That seemed to surprise all of them. The man, Tsuyoshi, dealt with the surprise the quickest. Still, he looked suspicious as heck, not knowing how to answer her. Luckily for her, as she was starting to feel weirded out by the stare-off, the young boy who noticed her first was the one who spoke, "What's in it for you?"
"Tomio!" one of the girls shouted, scandalized. She went to him and hugged him close, looking at Naruto with fear. Tsuyoshi stepped closer. "I'm sorry if Tomio offended you, we mean—"
"No, no! It's okay!" Naruto waved her hands before smiling at them. "Don't worry about it. I'm also glad he spoke—"
"You like the abuse, then?" the kid asked lowly. Though the girl who hugged him before was covering his mouth, it was too late. She heard it.
Naruto's right eye started twitching. "Even if he's uncute, I think it's better if we talk without feeling too guarded. Again, sorry for surprising you. I just wanted to help."
Tsuyoshi narrowed his eyes at her, looking her up and down. She was wearing a small orange jacket with the crop top Yue gave her alongside some black pants with orange embroidery that Yuiko did herself. It was of a nine-tailed fox and looked so cool.
But yeah, her outfit, plus the bandages around her leg for her kunai pouch and the sandals screamed ninja. So she was surprised when the man asked. "Are you a ninja?"
She wanted to rub the back of her head, but remembering that even if she cleaned her hands, they still had some dirt on them, she stopped. "Well, more or less. Look, I can heal your horse. Want me to do it, or not?"
"We don't have much to give you, Miss Ninja," he said with a shrug. She was going to answer with a 'don't worry about it' when Kurama stopped her.
'They will be more suspicious if you don't ask for anything!' He didn't give her a chance to ask for advice on what, when he said, 'Think about something yourself!'
"Well, er… I could do with some company?" She heard Kurama's facepalm, so she added, "Also, I'm curious about your skills, so if I could learn, that would be awesome!"
"… Our skills?" he asked, ignoring her first company.
"Yeah, like acting. I'm not well-versed in lying, so maybe you could give me some tips."
"Aren't you a ninja?" he once again asked, which annoyed her a little.
"I said, more or less of a ninja, didn't I? Besides, I'd accompany you until you reach the next town."
He looked around and when he received a couple of nods, he smiled and said, "Sure, Miss Ninja."
She grinned. "Call me Ashura and you've got a deal."