Come on obviously time passed. Although it would probably have been better if we got a narration thing, but then again that never happens in Naruto so...
Valley of the End really isn't that far from their previous location. VoTE i'm pretty sure is at the border of the fire country and the land of rice paddies (within the land of rice paddies is the hidden sound village, where sasuke defected to after fighting naruto.)
Land of rice paddies borders the land of lightning. So it could have been as little as a few miles.