Sasuke avoided Konoha. Other than giving Naruto updates on his various missions he quickly gathered what supplies he needed and then promptly left. He never stayed more than a night, and he never stopped at the home he supposedly shared with Sakura.
He didn't want to see how the village was developing, and he didn't care for most of the citizens, whether he knew them or not. He did his duty because of his loyalty to Naruto and nothing more. Konoha was...not someplace he really wanted to be, at any given time. The memories of the massacre of his family compounded with the village elders' participation in the matter doesn't necessarily make him feel at home, whether Naruto was there or not. And lately, even the pull of seeing the blond wasn't enough to convince him to stop by more often than he needed to.
Sasuke usually stayed away from most of the great shinobi villages. He didn't have a particular reason for that, he just had an inkling that seeing Naruto's many comrades would be more trouble than it was worth. None were too fond of the Uchiha, due to actions of his past. Which was more than fine, for Sasuke. The fewer people near him the better he seemed to do anyway. Avoiding all of Naruto's friends and acquaintances probably made travelling harder than it needed to be for him (as he avoided stopping many places for that very reason, no matter how convenient it would be to resupply more often), but he grew tired of the mildly annoyed gazes thrown his way and the obvious distrust. The Uchiha trusted only one person himself, but being faced with the expressions of those that adored Naruto but only found Sasuke to be a nuisance was...annoying. He wouldn't say so, but it discouraged a lot of social interaction that Sasuke may have attempted otherwise.
The Uchiha stuck better to the shadows.
So, in his efforts to avoid Naruto's friends, he's less than thrilled when he has to stop in Sunagakure for supplies. He kicks himself internally for his carelessness, and for not planning better to avoid this. He'd been pursuing an enemy of the leaf Naruto had tasked him with finding and capturing, but he hasn't been paying attention to his supplies, or lack thereof.
And now he needed to stop in the large desert village, as it was the village closest to where Sasuke set up camp.
The Uchiha adjusts his cloak and runs his hand over his pack slung over his hip. Almost empty. He needed food, bandages…
Mismatched eyes land on the entrance to the village, and the man's exhausted brain tries to shift through several other options. None are ideal, but he could wait and make the trip to a smaller, more remote village where no one would look twice at him…
He can't. He knows he can't. Sasuke knows it's not tactically wise. The smart thing would be to get what he needs, ignore the stares and whispers about 'Konoha's former missing nin' and get out. There was no guarantee he'd have a bad experience just trying to gather his supplies and leave, but Sasuke isn't sure he wants to risk it.
And then there was the biggest obstacle. The Kazekage. One of Naruto's closest friends and the leader of said desert village.
Gaara would know immediately of Sasuke's presence, if he didn't know that Sasuke was already in the desert to begin with. The years he'd known the man taught him that the Kazekage was able to use his sand to sense who was where, though he rarely used it.
Sasuke simply grits his teeth and walks through Suna's gates.