"Senju, huh? Nice to meet you, cuz. Where are the others? Didn't think Konohagakure would send just one ninja. No offence, of course."
"None taken. My squad got ambushed, and we scattered. Others are spread around the coast to look for the Uzumaki. Ironically, you found us first."
An approaching presence ended the conversation between Nawaki and Shinji. All four ninja grabbed their weapons as the individual landed a few feet away.
Nawaki was the first to relax as he knew who the two were. Shuji and Kenzo were mostly intact as they arrived before the group. He a several cuts, which were patched with bandages from the small med kit all ninjas carried.
Kenzo, on the other hand, was in a rougher state. He had two large cuts which were weeping through the large amounts of gauze that had been wrapped around his torso.
"Welcome back. Seems like your opponents gave you a run for your money. Barbeque is on my when we get back."
"Sounds like music to my ears. Hear that, Kenzo? All the meat we can eat when we get back."
The large injured wolfhound barked, and his owner sat down to give him well-deserved attention. Now that he was back with his group, Shuji could fully relax.
Enjoying the scratches, Kenzo laid his head on his lap.
Takara didn't bother talking to Shuji but went to Kenzo to join in on the petting. "Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy."
Like any dog, Kenzo rolled onto his side to get belly rubs from the stranger. Based on its partner's body language, it knew there wasn't any danger in this place.
Nawaki laughed at the girl's behaviour while the other Uzumaki shook their heads.
Shinji just raised an eyebrow at the girl's casual behaviour towards his ninken before raising his eyebrow at Nawaki.
"Looks like you found the Uzumaki; they're as carefree as I've heard. Also, what the hell did you do around here? It looks like the Uchiha decided to burn the forest down but got distracted."
"Actually, we found him first. The area was already burnt to shit when we got here." Takara answered without taking any attention from the dog. Kenzo looked like he was in heaven with how fast his tail slapped the ground.
"I may have gone a bit crazy with an overcharged jutsu." Nawaki sheepishly scratched the side of his head.
On the other side of the clearing, an ugly black scar stretched over 100 meters. It started around the center before shooting off straight into the forest, reducing trees in the path down to stumps.
"You call that just a bit crazy?! I hope I never see what happens when you officially lose it."
The shinobi couldn't help it as their mouths went dry from imagining how much fire was needed to create such destruction.
"Yeah, it was tough to keep up, but I hung in there just long enough to take down the duo. Sadly, their bodies were burnt to shit, couldn't even ID them."
Shinji just chucked and shook his head. "Only someone with reserves as insane as you can be so casual about this. Anyways, have you seen Katsumi?"
Nawaki shook his head.
"Who's Katsumi?" Osamu asked.
"He is the third member of our squad for the mission. I guess we should look for him," said Nawaki.
Performing a hand seal, three bursts of smoke appeared around Nawaki. A second later, three perfect copies of Nawaki jumped out of the smoke and started running in the opposite direction Shuji came from.
Shinji glared at him in jealousy. "Of course, you have enough juice left to send out shadow clones. It's not like fighting two elite shinobi by yourself is supposed to be hard to do or anything."
Nawaki shrugged at his sarcasm and sat down. "It's the fastest way. And it's only three I made, nothing too crazy."
After a few minutes of small talk later, Nawaki shot to his feet with a serious expression.
"Katsumi didn't make it. Follow me."
The four shinobi and Kenzo ran after Nawaki.
Two minutes later, Nawaki arrived near a small area blanketed by a mix of living and dead insects.
There were three corpses. Katsumi was stabbed through the heart with a short sword while the two Kirigakure ninjas were lying within piles of bugs.
Shuji, Kenzo, Takara, Osamu and Shinji landed on the scene a few seconds after Nawaki. It didn't take long for the Konohagakure shinobi to understand what happened.
"Man, those Aburame are terrifying. Just because you off the ninja doesn't mean their bugs won't come after you." Shuji tried to lighten the atmosphere, but it had little effect.
Nawaki unfurled a storage scroll and took all three bodies. Bringing back Katsumi's body was the least he could do; the other corpses were there in case they were entered into the bingo book.
"We're done here. Can you lead us to your camp? The others will track us down tomorrow when we're a no-show at the meeting point."
"For sure! Takara, Osamu, lets go." Shinji replied.
It took 10 minutes of running before their camp came into view. There were two huge groups of red-haired Uzumaki; each camp was set up in a large circle.
Several fires were set up, along with some structures that looked too robust for a temporary camp.
As they got closer, questions popped up in Nawaki's head. 'How can there be so many of them? This camp is not mobile in the least. Are they not afraid of attacks?"
Arriving on the ground, they passed a few dozen statues of shinobi, many of whom had battle-ready weapons in their hands. The detail in them was rather unnerving. They even got the engravings on their headbands.
Nawaki and Shuji exchanged a look and became more cautious with their steps.
The squad escorting them noticed this and wasn't surprised. They'd also be cautious if they didn't know the reason for all these statues.
"Stop here," Shinji said to the two Konohagakure shinobi.
"Why?" Shuji asked suspiciously. His instincts were screaming at him that this was an extremely dangerous place.
As if responding to his owner's mood, Kenzo raised his hackles.
"Relax, Shiji." Nawaki tried to calm the hot-headed man. "They wouldn't lead us all the way to their camp just to kill us."
Shinji was the only one waiting for the two Konoha shinobi, Osamu, and Takara had already entered the camp. Osamu seemed too eager to get back to his tea.
"You have to wait here because we need to have the seal master grant you permission to cross the barrier. If you force your way in, you'd end up like the other statues scattered around here."
The Uzumaki's words brought chills down the spines of the duo.