Ren and nearly two hundred jonin had originally planned to head straight for the main camp of the stationed forces.
But they spotted signal flares along the way, so Ren decided to send his two reporters to notify Konoha's troops.
He himself led the others toward the place where the flares had been launched, only to find signal flares being fired one after another from different locations along the way.
They split into groups of three and headed to separate locations. In the end, Ren arrived at the site of the first signal flare with Xuanyue and Naoto.
Though Ren had not witnessed what happened earlier, having experienced war himself, he could more or less guess what had taken place.
There was nothing new under the sun. The Will of Fire, treated as a tool by Konoha's upper ranks.
In the hearts of countless low-ranking ninjas, it was the greatest driving force supporting them in battle.
No Konoha ninja who had experienced war fought without carrying their comrades' hopes on their backs.
Now there was simply one more ninja who firmly believed in the Will of Fire. Perhaps one day in the future, he too would pass it on to a new generation of Konoha ninjas in the same way.
Xuanyue and Naoto quickly dealt with the enemies and brought the bodies back.
Although Scarface was already dead, the young ninja's eyes remained filled with hatred whenever he looked at him.
It was no longer hatred for Scarface alone. That hatred had now shifted onto the Kirigakure ninjas.
Ren could not help recalling what Pain had once said to Naruto in his memories. What path was I pursuing?
Before long, Ren came back to his senses and stopped dwelling on that unanswerable question.
"Let's return to camp."
Late at night,