"And there we go, all the poison has been removed from his body." said Haku with a smile while looking at the unconscious form of Kankuro "Now he needs rest but I think he will be back in full force within a couple of days."

"I...I see, thank you very much!" said Temari bowing toward her, while keeping a worried expression on her face. She was not only worried about her brothers (obviously that thought was at the top of her worries) but she was dumbfounded by the technique used by Haku to treat Kankuro and the other wounded.

'That wasn't Iryō Ninjutsu, I'm sure about it. I wonder what it could be...' her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a sudden heat wave that was felt by the whole village. Temari fell to her knees feeling her throat dry as well as the rest of her body 'W-What is this?! T-This heat is not normal!'

Around her, everyone seemed to feel the effects of the sudden rise in temperature, except for Haku, who looked out of a window with calm eyes. Fortunately, the incessant heat only lasted for a few seconds and, much to everyone's confusion, the sunlight seemed to disappear slowly.

"What now...?" breathed Temari walking toward a window before gasping at the sight of the sky covered with black clouds "T-This is...?!"

A drop of water fell against the window glass, shocking her, and then another and another one. In a few moments, the whole village was covered by a heavy downpour, leaving everyone speechless, especially those who had never witnessed such a phenomenon. The rain lasted for a few minutes but was enough to cool the air and Temari continued to stare at the village with incredulous eyes.

"What happened...?"

"I think I know." said Haku surprising her "But to be sure, it's better to go. We'll be back with Gaara soon, don't worry." and with that, she disappeared in a Shumpo, leaving behind a decidedly confused Temari.

§ - § - § - § - §

FLAMES OF DUTY

Chapter Seven: Unexpected Guests

§ - § - § - § - §

[With Naruto]

Naruto sheathed his sword as the temperature slowly dropped. Around him, for miles and miles, the desert had become an expanse of glass and around him, that glass had even melted due to the temperature produced by his Bankai. His clothes, wet from the rain generated by the use of such powerful flames, were slowly drying thanks to the residual heat, but he didn't notice, simply looking at what was left of his opponent.

'I am glad that my powers haven't been weakened by the process of rebirth.' said Kurama in his usual deep voice 'However I am surprised that there is something left of that ninja. His body was not made of flesh and blood but of wood and metal after all.'

His words were truthful, since only a partially melted metal skeleton remained of Sasori but Naruto, having already seen that material in the previous days, recognized the metal that made up the Sasori skeleton.

"Chakra metal."

'Chakra metal? Mh, that makes sense.' nodded Kurama 'Although rare, that metal is able to resist the Bijuu chakra, which is extremely corrosive and destructive, so I think it is normal that it survived all that heat, albeit in part.'

Naruto looked around, noting that all the Sasori puppets had been destroyed in those few moments, even though there were some partially fused parts belonging to several puppets. Shaking his head, he closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated on locating his friend and the other Akatsuki member. When he opened his eyes, he could only sigh "I would have expected something more, but apparently the children of this world are not as fast as they think." and with those words, he disappeared with a Shumpo.

[With Deidara]

'I must notify the others immediately.' thought Deidara with drops of sweat trickling down his face and worried expression. His clay bird was flying at maximum speed to reach their lair where the Ichibi should have been extracted from Gaara's body, but a few minutes after he separated from Sasori, the missing nin of Iwa had been hit by a wave of monstrous heat, well above the desert standards. It had lasted only a few seconds, but they had been enough for Deidara to understand that it had been released behind him and in his mind he had already given up his partner for dead.

'That monster is well beyond our reach! Perhaps only Leader can face him and hope to defeat him, hell I don't think even that old man of Ōnoki could fight against him and survive!' the blond gritted his teeth but a wave of relief washed him when he saw the canyon where the entrance to their hiding place was. Once inside, he would activate all possible barriers to hide his presence.

When the missing nin was above the canyon, the clay bird swooped down but when it was at ground level, Deidara suddenly stopped it, turning pale in seeing what, or better to say, who was waiting for him.

There, sitting on a small stone in front of a giant boulder, there was Naruto with his sword pointed at the ground and both hands crossed on the tip of the hilt. His head was slightly bent forward, so Deidara could not see his eyes, yet he could feel the enormous power contained in the body of the former Captain-Commander.

'Shit! How did he get here before me?!' thought Deidara before noticing that Naruto had not yet reacted to his presence 'Maybe Sasori has tired him enough and since I haven't made any noise yet, maybe he didn't hear me. I can take advantage of it to kill him!'

Without hesitating, he placed both hands in two special bags hanging from his waist and pulled out two large amounts of white clay. The mouths placed on the palms of his hands began to chew the clay before spitting out a dozen small birds. After a deep breath, he threw all the birds towards Naruto and his creations suddenly grew to become as big as the one he was standing on.

A grin formed on his face when his creations were now very close to Naruto and, with a single hand-seal, made them explode, generating a powerful explosion that shook the whole area. Without wishing to risk, he created other clay creatures and used them in the same way. For several seconds, powerful explosions were heard in the air as the missing nin of Iwa used all the clay supply and after a full minute he decided to interrupt the attack.

Unconsciously, Deidara held his breath when the smoke generated by his explosions began to clear and, when he saw the result of his attack, his heart lost a beat.

Naruto was completely unharmed, surrounded by a sort of cubic light barrier that became invisible after a few seconds.

'What?! No damage at all?!' he thought in a panic and, worst of all, Naruto hadn't moved at all, as if he hadn't even perceived his attack 'Is he mocking me?!' but then, thanks to the special device mounted on his left eye, he noticed something: Naruto was moving even if imperceptibly. His head lowered by a few centimeters before returning to his initial position, only to fall again after a few seconds.

A large vein began to throb on Deidara's face 'He...he...HE'S SLEEPING?! Is he trying to ridicule me?! That's it! No matter how strong you are, I'll blow you up with my special C4!'

However, at that very moment, Naruto woke up raising his head and his calm eyes met Deidara's furious ones for a moment "I see you have finally arrived."

"Fuck you! Are you trying to ridicule my art with your sleeping act?!" shouted the missing nin but Naruto didn't react to his words.

"It took you longer than expected."

Deidara gritted his teeth "I've been here for-!"

His speech was interrupted when his head was sent spinning into the air after being severed by a sword slash, courtesy of Haku who was standing behind him with a little smile.

"Forgive me, Naruto." said Haku with a little bow "Their attack had wounded more people than expected and I admit I stopped for a second to admire the result of your Bankai."

Naruto sighed before standing up "I see you've decided to use a move of Zabuza."

Haku nodded with the smile still on her face "Silent Killing is what made him famous during his years as a Kiri shinobi. Having all his memories, I decided to use this art of which he was a master."

"If I was only based on your chakra, I probably wouldn't have heard you coming." admitted Naruto before picking up Gaara "Let's go. When he gets better, I will talk to him about the expanse of glass he must destroy to recreate the desert. It shouldn't be difficult for him."

Haku giggled a bit "Or he could make you pay a fine for damaging the desert."

Naruto just snorted before disappearing with Haku using a Shumpo, leaving Deidara's corpse behind them, whose head still had an angry look on the face.

[Konoha]

Minato finished signing the last document before sighing and leaning against the back of his armchair. The situation in the last few days had been...stressful, so to speak. After Naruto had announced his intentions during the festival, the reactions of the various ninjas and citizens had been roughly predictable.

Most of the civilians had pleaded Minato to stop Naruto with every means available, a certain number had turned out to be undecided about this, and a small slice of this last group had decided to accept his son's proposal. Obviously Minato could have stopped them, but he didn't want to look like a tyrant who ordered others how to live their lives. He had brought them back to life and he would have done it again, if only he could, but if they wanted to end it like that, they were free to do it, same story for his shinobi.

Jiraiya's spies had reported that they had seen Naruto in other places, such as Taki and the Land of Waves, but had failed to find out why. Minato had then hypothesized that, being allies of Konoha when he was still alive, Naruto had wanted to check if there were people brought back to life even in those places.

Then, a week had passed since Naruto's return and about a hundred people had mysteriously disappeared, even though Minato already knew what had happened. Hiashi had entered his office with a worried look and told him that his wife, Hitomi, had disappeared and had taken a small amount of money with her. The Hokage had then received a detailed report from Itachi on what had happened and had therefore deduced that Hitomi had used that money to bribe the guards of a gate so that they didn't stop her or the others.

Minato had been particularly concerned about finding that Haku, whose identity had been confirmed by Itachi, had managed to fight on a par with the head of the Uchiha clan, and that Tsukuyomi had had no effect on her, except to make her angry. The appearance of her sword was also worrying but, after a quick check, it had been confirmed that the Kubikiribōchō was still in the Land of Waves and no one had moved it in the last years.

The only positive note was that, according to the leader of Taki, two members of the Akatsuki had died trying to capture the Jinchuuriki of his village.

The incredible heat wave perceived the day before, in the direction of Suna, was also worrying but Jiraiya's spies were still working on it so Minato would have to wait before he discovered anything.

"Hey kid! I have something about what happened to Suna!"

Or maybe not.

Turning quickly to his sensei who was entering through the window, Minato asked him what he had discovered.

"Apparently the other night, two members of the Akatsuki attacked the village to capture the Kazekage so as to be able to extract the Ichibi, and they also succeeded in the first part, leaving behind a good deal of wounded." said Jiraiya with a serious face "However, at dawn, Naruto and his partner arrived at Suna and while he went to save Gaara, Haku remained in the village and treated all the wounded very quickly, and we are talking about Tsunade-like speed."

"Therefore she is a skilled healer as we had expected." said Minato with his sensei nodding.

"According to that old report, she managed to heal Zabuza using only local herbs, which is no small feat if you ask an expert. If that Haku received a power up like Naruto, it is safe to assume that her medical skills are now equal to or greater than Tsunade's." said the Toad Sage before adding "My spies failed to find out what kind of technique he used, but the results were impeccable."

Minato nodded for a moment before asking "What about Naruto and the Kazekage?"

"After less than an hour from his departure, Naruto returned with Gaara and Haku, who joined him after treating all the wounded." sighed Jiraiya while shaking his head "Apparently now in the desert there is an area of several miles covered with glass, probably the point at which that heat wave came. Remains of molten skeletons made of chakra metal have also been found and it is very likely that Sasori of the Red Sand died in that place, although they have no news regarding his companion."

"I see..." the Yondaime Hokage rubbed his tired eyes with one hand "Your thoughts...?"

"Honestly? Naruto has done the world a favor if we are to be honest. Despite having Itachi on our side, we were not able to eliminate even one member of the Akatsuki and even knowing that their real base is in Ame, we couldn't discover anything new. Invading that village would involve a new war and, despite having a big advantage over the other villages, now that we can no longer count on the Shinigami we could be in trouble." said the Sannin "On the other hand, Naruto has potentially eliminated four of their members. If we count Sasori, his partner Deidara and the famous 'Zombie Brothers'."

"How do you know it was Naruto who eliminated those two?"

"Because in the place where they fought against the Jinchuuriki of Taki, there was a large area completely burned and, even though Kakuzu had the possibility of using Katon jutsu, it is something outside of his possibilities." Jiraiya told him "On the side note, I confirmed that Taki's Jinchuuriki is now in the Land of Waves."

"So she went there then...most likely Naruto helped her since he was a Jinchuuriki." said Minato with a sigh "How's the training going?"

"I would say well, Itachi has decided to join us and has already reached a good point. What about you and Kushina?"

"We are working day and night to create the most powerful seals possible and we have made a lot of progress starting from the ones I created to control the Shinigami." Minato then looked at a map hanging on the wall "Mito-sama left with some members of her clan for the Land of Whirlpools in the hope of finding something in their old archives."

"Good news, I'm sure they will find something useful." nodded Jiraiya when a toad suddenly appeared in front of him in an explosion of white smoke. The small amphibian gave him a scroll and then vanished after saying goodbye to the two toad summoners.

"News from your spies?" asked Minato with a raised eyebrow. In the past few years, all of Jiraiya's spies had received special seals where they could seal scrolls and send them instantly to Mount Myōboku, where the toads then took them to Jiraiya after making sure that the Sannin was not in a dangerous or important situation.

Jiraiya looked up from the scroll with a serious face "We know where Naruto is."

Minato looked at him with shocked eyes "Really?!"

"Yes, one of my spies saw him together with Haku as they passed through a small town in the Land of Tea."

The Hokage looked at him with a worried face "The Land of Tea...but...over there..."

"Yes..." Jiraiya nodded grimly "There were some of our ninja on a mission. I don't know how Naruto found them, but apparently he eliminated them all."

"Possibly thanks to the Dōjutsu that Itachi told us about...even if we don't know all the effects." the blond man sighed again.

"But now we know that even the special Henge-seals you created are not enough to deceive those eyes...and now we have lost eight ninjas, including three jonin." the Sannin sighed as well before asking one crucial question "What are you going to do?"

Minato looked at his desk for several seconds without saying a word, then moved a hand and pressed an intercom button "Please Yuki, contact Orochimaru and tell him to show up in my office with Kabuto and the Five Gates as soon as possible. Tell him it's extremely urgent."

"At once, Hokage-sama."

Jiraiya looked at him with confused eyes "You want to use them?"

"With our help Orochimaru has perfected his Cursed Seal. My idea is to send the Five Gates with Kabuto for cover in order to find out as much as possible about Naruto and in the hidden hope that they beat him...even better. But I need Orochimaru to know if the seals I intend to apply to them will create problems with his own Cursed Seal." explained Minato with a serious face "I will also follow their movements with the Tōmegane no Jutsu (Telescope Technique) in order to know when to teleport them here to Konoha so as to save them in an emergency."

His former sensei nodded before approaching the window "I'll go and call somebody else, better have more eyes to better understand Naruto's skills."

"Thank you." when he was alone, Minato looked at the lone picture of Naruto "I really wish there was a way to fix all of this..."

[Several miles away from Kusa]

Naruto and Haku were walking along a lonely road, intent on heading towards Kusa where Naruto had sensed the presence of some people brought back to life. Apparently, when he was still only Naruto Uzumaki, he could have become an excellent sensor and this ability was transmitted to his new body. Thanks to his experience with reiatsu, Naruto was therefore able to concentrate enough to be able to perceive the presence of people brought back to life, thanks to their extremely different aura which was similar to that of the Shinigami, even miles away.

However, at that moment he could perceive five of those people approaching him at great speed and, if he had deduced correctly, they came from Konoha.

"Haku." she looked at him "We've visitors."

A few seconds after he said those words, five people appeared in front of them several meters away and despite his calm, Naruto raised an eyebrow at seeing those familiar faces.

Orochimaru's bodyguards, whom he had met eight years ago during the mission to bring Sasuke back, were all present, including that albino who could fight with his bones. Compared to the last time he had seen them, they now wore clothes similar to those of Konoha ANBU albeit with some modifications, such as the absence of a mask.

"Well...this is a surprise." said Naruto with a calm voice while Haku was staring with surprised eyes at Kimimaro, having recognized him thanks to the memories of Zabuza "I hadn't imagined that Minato had brought you back to life, but I probably should have thought of it when I found out that Orochimaru returned to being a ninja from Konoha."

"We are Orochimaru-sama's bodyguards, the Five Gates. Our orders are to stop you here and now, before you can kill other ninjas of Konoha." said Kimimaro with usual emotionless voice.

Naruto merely tilted his head to the side "I'm pretty sure that last time you were the Sound Four."

"We changed our name, Shithead!" shouted Tayuya glaring at him.

"Oi Tayuya don't go and piss him off. You saw what he did to Konoha." said Kidomaru looking at her with worried eyes.

"I don't give a fuck about what he did!" replied the red-haired woman "He destroyed part of a mountain! Big deal! Over thirty people in the village can do the same thing!"

The others sighed resignedly while Kimimaro continued to observe Naruto with a calm but determined expression. The former Captain-Commander looked at him as well before bringing a hand to the hilt of his sword, with Haku doing the same.

"Since all of you have been brought back to life, I can't let you go." Naruto glanced at all of them with cold eyes "I hope you are ready to die again."

"We will not lose. Orochimaru-sama's name would be covered with shame by our defeat." said the leader of the group creating two long blades of bones from the palms of his hands.

"So be it." Naruto and Haku they drew their swords while the Five Gates prepared to attack, but at the last second both former Shinigami looked upwards with surprised eyes. Their opponents looked at them confused before Tayuya shouted "Hey where the fuck are you looking?! Do you want us to believe that there is something above us?! Are you fucking retarded?"

"Uh...Tayuya..." said Kidomaru looking up with a pale face.

"What? What's your fucking problem?!" growled Tayuya but then Sakon grabbed her face and forced her to look up. Her long list of insults and curses died in her throat when she saw a long black line forming completely out of nowhere in midair.

In a few moments, the sky itself around the line seemed to swell before opening.

The sky was literally opening up from that line up and down, showing a black abyss beyond that chasm.

Under the shocked looks of the Five Gates and the now serious ones of Naruto and Haku, a small group of people seemed to walk towards them and then stop at the edge of that gash in the sky.

Despite their complete shock, the five bodyguards of Orochimaru could distinctly hear the word that escaped from Naruto's lips.

"Arrancar."

TO BE CONTINUED...

And here we are! Chapter Seven already done although, as you may have noticed, it is much shorter than the others but I had already decided in the past to finish it this way. At the very least, by doing so, the chapters will come out faster don't you think?

Now it's time to address several topics that came out in the last chapter and that will probably come out in this one too.

Naruto/Yamamoto's Bankai: Starting from the fastest thing, the Bankai will NOT suffer nerf of any kind. It will undergo a modification (since it is possible to modify the Bankai) but you will see it only at the end.

Secondly, many wanted to show me how Yamamoto would never use his Bankai against Sasori, while others said it was wasted on Sasori. To explain things a little from my point of view: Yamamoto is OP, we all agree on that, don't we? Now, since he is so OP why should I write the whole fic with him who uses his katana directly (without even using the Shikai) or his fists to slaughter everything and everyone? It would be monotonous, boring and more predictable than usual, like One Punch Man. For this reason, Naruto will not use his Bankai only against Minato but also against other people (and before you tell me he should not spam it, I warn you that, before Minato, you will see his Bankai again maybe two people, if not only one).

Now, for the "wouldn't use it" thing, I'd like to remind you of what he did when he met the Quincy who had stolen his lieutenant's Bankai. He was only sliiiiiiiiightly pissed off like a beast, obviously due also to the bond he had with his lieutenant. Now, he's ALSO Naruto so part of his personality is part of the package by now and Naruto cared about his friends. He's not so ignorant as to blame Kiba, Hinata, Shino etc...for what happened to him, so being that they were his friends, I think it's obvious he'd be pissed off seeing their bodies turned into puppets by someone.

Last thing, obviously I wasn't going to let you see the fight with Sasori. As many of you wanted to point out (even knowing it already) the Bankai of Naruto would have simply burned him instantly since he had no way of regenerating himself like a Quincy.

With the part on the Bankai closed, I would just like to specify that Haku was NOT fighting to her full strength, nor was Itachi during their battle. Obviously, in terms of basic strength, Itachi is inferior to Haku/Unohana for this he had to use his EMS.

And yes, Haku's Shikai is simply the Kubikiribōchō, with the same "power" of the canon sword and that is "use the iron in the blood of the victims to repair itself".

Last little things: Minato & co could not go to dig out the Akatsuki because they became more wary after Itachi left, besides Minato doesn't want a war and that's why he didn't invade Ame to fight the Akatsuki. The Five Gates is a name I decided not to use Sound Four, since they are now Konoha's ninja and, for those who were wondering, Oto became Konoha's ally but was not absorbed.

Well that's all! See you around!