Flames of Duty

Chapter Two: Eight Years

"Thank you." and with that Naruto lifted his spiritual pressure, letting all the ninjas faint around him.

'You haven't lost your touch I see.'

'It is now a part of me, and I still have to understand how many years have passed since my death. If I'm right, now I have thousands of years of experience over them.'

A loud laugh echoed in his mind 'It will be the first and only time I will say this, but right now I would like Uchiha Madara to be still alive just to see you reduce him to ashes!'

Continuing to walk with his eyes seemingly closed, Naruto grinned 'I'll take that as a compliment.'

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FLAMES OF DUTY

Chapter Two: Eight Years

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'Well, it seems that Konoha has grown a lot.' thought Naruto while staring at the second ring of walls of the shinobi village. Apparently, during his years of absence, Konoha had also expanded geographically and now occupied much more space than before, so much that outside the original walls they had built other houses and then another circle of walls. He could still see the Hokage Mountain, which now consisted of five heads, but was definitely farther away.

Ignoring Kyuubi's comment that the former Hokages had built a large village to compensate with something else, Naruto started toward the big gate in front of him, and after a few minutes, he saw two familiar faces to him.

'Those two...?' Naruto wondered looking at Kotetsu and Izumo, both near the entrance 'I have the impression that not much time has passed since my death...that, or these two haven't yet risen in rank.'

"Halt! State your business!" said Kotetsu raising one hand to stop Naruto.

Sighing to himself, Naruto approached them with the speed of an elder "I'd like to come in and spend a couple of days in Konoha. Many years have passed since I last stayed here and I would like to see what has changed."

Izumo smiled at him "Well then you will surely be surprised! Konoha has made enormous progress in recent years!"

"I can see that. Last time I was here, there were only three faces on that mountain." lied Naruto but he had to give the impression of being very old, in order to avoid problems.

"You've been here a few years ago! We weren't even in service at the time!" noted Kotetsu with surprised eyes.

'Even if they had been on duty, they would still be guarding this gate...' Naruto could only agree with the fox.

After a few minutes, he was given a temporary pass and so Naruto could finally enter Konoha after years of absence. The first things he saw didn't impress him as much, after all he was still in the part called 'New Konoha', but compared to the beauty of the Soul Society, his old village was definitely not impressive. However, as he walked along the streets so full of life, he noticed how the population had increased a lot.

'Do you think these people were brought back to life?'

'Hard to say. Even with our abilities, I can't tell if these people have always been alive or not...' said Kurama but, after a moment, he growled 'No, now I'm sure of it, we can't recognize them...'

'How did you get it?'

'Uchiha...'

Surprised by that word, Naruto looked around and, not far away, saw a small family of three, all with dark eyes and hair 'Are those...?'