Flames of Duty

Chapter Six: Flames in the Desert

Naruto nodded at her before asking "Is this all your doing?"

A sad smile formed on her lips "No, simply when we met here, they decided to elect me as a spokesperson given my status in the village." she then took on a more serious expression "May I ask you a few question...?"

The former Captain-Commander remained silent for a few seconds but then nodded.

"There are many children who were born in the last eight years...from people brought back to life by Minato. Are you going to kill them too...?" asked Hitomi and several people looked at him with worried eyes, but Naruto shook his head.

"No, all those born in the last eight years don't fit into my task. Their parents will be purified and eliminated, but no physical damage will be caused to the new generation, independently of their parents." said Naruto with a calm but firm voice "And before you can ask, I don't intend to spare any of the people brought back to life. Mine is too important a task to be left unfinished. Obviously I would prefer that everyone behaved like you, but you can't always get everything."

"I see..." Hitomi looked at the ground for a moment before showing him a sad smile "In that case...I have no other questions."

Naruto followed her with his eyes as she returned among the group of civilians but then decided to start his task "Form a line and come to me, you will be purified one by one."

As requested, they formed a line and the first of them, a middle-aged man, approached Naruto, who drew his sword, frightening and intimidating many of those present.

"Fear not." said Naruto "I don't intend to use my blade, but the hilt. Although you are living people, your presence is the same as a Plus, so this method should work with you too." and without saying anything else, he touched the man's forehead with the tip of the hilt. A sign shone on his forehead and, under the bewildered eyes of those present, his body was covered with cracks before dissolving in the air. While they could only see that, Naruto saw the soul of man vanish along with the body, giving him confirmation that his Konsō had been successful.

In all honesty, he was not certain that those souls would have gone into the Soul Society, having been artificially created by the technique of Minato, but preferred to carry out his task in that way rather than exterminating all those who had been brought back to life.

One by one, the various people gathered were purified by Naruto until the last one was left.

Naruto looked at Hitomi with calm eyes "You have something to say, isn't it?"

Hitomi merely looked at him, showing again a sad smile "Years ago we never got to meet in person, even though I would have loved it. You probably don't know, but I'm Hinata's mother." if Naruto was surprised, he didn't show it "Since I was brought back to life, she told me a lot about you, how you helped her against those bullies when you were kids and how you inspired her to never give up. For that, I want to thank you."

The former Captain-Commander sighed "Are you going to ask me to spare your daughter?"

Those words seemed to surprise Hitomi slightly "You knew?"

"Yes. Let's say my eyes helped me find out about her. Among the various members of Konoha 13, as they are called, seven of them have been brought back to life. Sasuke in the first place, since I killed him eight years ago." Naruto paused briefly, thinking about how Minato had practically forced him to kill his teammate "The others are your daughter and her two teammates plus the whole Team Ten."

Hitomi could only nod, clutching her right hand with the left one.

"May I know how they died?"

The woman took a deep breath to check her heartbeat, but when she managed to speak, Naruto heard the fear in her voice "Four years ago, she was on a mission with Kiba and Shino. They had all been promoted to chūnin, so they were sent on a mission alone, after all it was a simple C-Rank mission." she paused, taking another deep breath "However they met a group of missing nin that aimed at Hinata's Byakugan...she and her friends managed to defeat most of their enemies, but then two...monsters appeared." she looked at him, with pure hatred in her eyes "Sasori of the Red Sand and Deidara the Mad Bomber, two members of Akatsuki, attacked Hinata, her friends and the remaining missing nin...they killed all of them and Sasori, that monster, he...he...he took the bodies of my child and her comrades. Despite the number of ninjas in the village, it was never possible to find Sasori to confirm my fears, but I am sure that that monster turned Hinata's body into a puppet."