Flames of Duty

Chapter Six: Flames in the Desert

"Is this report accurate?" asked Pain staring down at the form of Zetsu.

"Yes! Of course! We could never lie about something like that!" said the white half of Zetsu with a scared and worried voice.

"We only recovered Kakuzu's ring from what's left of his body, even that thing inside him is dead!" added the black part with an angry voice "There was no sign of Hidan, but much of the battlefield was completely burned!"

"And from what some ninja from Taki have said, their Jinchuuriki has disappeared!"

"Even though they claimed to have felt the chakra of the Bijuu for a while."

Konan looked from them to the orange-haired man "Pain, this is undoubtedly the work of the son of the Yondaime Hokage."

"Yes, there is no doubt. According to our reports, the Jinchuuriki of the Nanabi wasn't able to control the power of the Bijuu, therefore Hidan and Kakuzu should have easily defeated her." he narrowed his eyes "But apparently Naruto Uzumaki has discovered and eliminated them."

"What shall we do now?" asked the woman with a calm voice.

"We should converge on him and eliminate him! He cost us two members!" growled Zetsu but Pain shook his head.

"No, if we were to attack him all together, it's possible that he would be able to eliminate some of us, and this would slow down my plan further." said their leader before looking at the rain outside "Zetsu, I want you to discover the Nanabi's Jinchuuriki position. Once identified, let me know immediately, I'll go and capture it myself."

Zetsu nodded before disappearing into the ground as Pain went out on the tongue of a large statue, going to sit on the tip. Konan watched him for a few seconds before turning back and leaving the room.

'I wonder...will you be able to defeat a God like me, Naruto Uzumaki?' thought Pain looking up at the sky 'You will inevitably clash with our clan and then we'll see if you can stay true to your justice.'

§ - § - § - § - §

FLAMES OF DUTY

Chapter Six: Flames in the Desert

§ - § - § - § - §

[Konoha]

"Well, this is a surprise." said Naruto looking at the people standing in front of him. His most probable prediction had been that of not finding even one person waiting for him, and instead he was pleasantly surprised to see about a hundred people gathered in that clearing. Obviously it was a small number compared to the number of people brought back to life by Minato, but it was still a start. From what he could see and perceive, they were all civilians, no ninja among them.

Taking a few steps forward, Naruto looked at the various people gathered and noticed some familiar faces. He didn't know any of those people personally, but he was sure he had seen them during his life as Naruto Uzumaki.

'If I were to venture a hypothesis, I would say that those people died during the invasion of Konoha during the chūnin exams.' thought the former Captain-Commander with calm eyes before stopping when a woman with long purple hair approached him and Naruto immediately noticed her particular eyes 'Byakugan...curious, I didn't expect to find a member of that clan here.'

"Greeting, Uzumaki Naruto." said the woman, bowing before him "My name is Hitomi Hyuuga and you can think of me as the...representative of this small group."