The legacy of the yellow flash

Part-43

Naruto found a small hotel close to the centre of town with proximity to the Palace.

'This place will be perfect. Close enough to get in and out quickly, and I will give me a reason to scout the area as it would be a good route for an evening walk' Naruto thought as he paid for his room.

Naruto found his room and was pleasantly surprised to find it had a good view out over the palace. The room itself was only small with a single bed and a small bathroom and shower, but he had a balcony that would give him a good access point to be able to leave the hotel later that night without being seen.

Once evening came Naruto decided to go have some dinner and maybe ask some of the local's what they knew about Hikaru. Leaving his hotel Naruto made his way towards the market district of town figuring that would be where most of the restaurants would be.

'I should probably try a few different places, that was what Jiraiya sensei taught me to do when looking for information in a foreign village with no contacts Naruto thought as he looked around.

Naruto found an elderly lady who was currently looking in a small fruit stall and decided to start his investigation with someone who would have known the village before Hikaru came to power.

As the old lady left the fruit stall Naruto pretended to accidentally bump into the old woman. "Oh I am so sorry ma'am, I lost my way, I was looking for somewhere good to eat and I wasn't watching where I was going" Naruto lied if he hadn't seen the rather substandard quality of some of the ninja in this village he would have never even bothered with the excuse.

"Oh that's quite alright, I was not harmed at all, and... Oh my, that hair, that eye's it is like I am looking at a young Minato Namikaze" the old woman stammered once she saw Naruto's face.

"Yeah I guess I do look a lot like my father huh, actually the shape of my face is more like my mother's I have been told but the way I have my hair hides that from most people," Naruto said.

"The son of the Yellow Flash... Oh my. Your father saved my life during the third shinobi war. This village was attacked by Iwa's forces as they were looking to get a foothold to gather their forces on the outskirts of the land of fire, I remember Hanzo the Salamander had locked down Ame, and Taki had sided with Konoha, and was impossible to find. Most other countries were too close to either Konoha or Suna so our village was their chosen target" She said.

'This will be perfect, she already seems to trust me because of my father. And she is bound to know something of where Hikaru came from at least' Naruto thought. "What happened when Iwa attacked?" he asked deciding to keep her talking for a bit longer before asking her any questions.

"It was horrible, the Iwa shinobi seemed to grow out of the ground below us and swarmed up the trees from the forest floor. At the time we had a sizable military but they were no match for the highly trained shinobi that came from Iwa. Ninety per cent of the shinobi of the village were wiped out in under a day. We had lost all but the palace in the centre tree, and all of the civilians that could hold a weapon myself included were forced to fight them off, the others were held in the main hall. We were all so terrified that we might turn out the same way as the village of Uzugakure, and have the entire population slaughtered in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep. So we made sure to stay up around the clock to make sure that we were safe. By the end of the second day, we were losing hope, we had lost the courtyard and now the only thing that was keeping the Iwa ninja out was the reinforced chakra enhanced doors and what ninja remained to fire jutsu's down upon the enemy from the upper levels" she said.

"That's horrible, how did you manage to get out of that mess?" Naruto asked.

"Konoha's ninja forces showed up and saved us by the next morning, we had lost most of our military force but most of the civilians survived. I can still remember how your father sped around making sure everyone was safe, he was brilliant he just seemed to ooze an air of authority about him. Anyway what brings you here, we don't get too many visits from Konoha shinobi unless it is to renegotiate a treaty but we haven't had to do that in years" the old lady said.