(Book the Fourth) In the Shadow of the Red Dawn

Prologue

I'm back! To be honest, the ending of Naruto has had me down in the dumps. Not that I'm completely depressed, but I've been experiencing writer's block. A lot of it. I don't know how often I will be able to publish. Thanks for your patience!

Heads up to kieramikuzaski for suggesting a title for the book. I didn't use it, but it was a pretty good one! 

Enjoy!

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"Failed? What do you mean you failed?"

A tall man grunted in annoyance, "We searched and searched for the target, until I finally decided to risk our cover by asking the person running the bounty station. He said someone had already brought the criminal in." The tall man waited for a reaction, "...Leader?"

"It's strange..." the supposed Leader turned his head away,  "at least two other pairs had recently shared the same story. Not to mention our old work partners are now accusing us of destroying their villages and taking all the people within them." The speaker turns to the tall man, "At least two people, are messing with our business. We need to find them, and question them. Then we eliminate them."

"Do we take the job?" there was a nervous voice, 'Without any bad intentions, Leader-sama, I would like to take a short break from..." the man glanced at his towering partner, "Um."

The Leader sighed, "You two have been working hard, although it was fruitless. You can do whatever you want until I call for you again. I'll send another pair to investigate this situation. Be gone."

"Y-Yes!" 

***

A few days later.

"Leader."

"What is it?"

"He's killed his partner....again."

"....somehow, I am not surprised. Has Deidara and Sasori come back yet?"

"They will, in a few days."

"Dispatch them to find the one taking all our prey. As for Itachi and Kisame....send for them to find a new partner. I have an idea of who can it be, the criminal had cut his ties from the Hidden Steam Village..."

***

A boy let go of the hair of a woman as she fell to the ground. He panted, "Shit...I let a few escape. It's going to be really crappy if people know what I look like. Although I've already killed plenty ninja." The boy looked around at the empty and bloody village, "This makes 179...only tweny one more to go... I can do this....stop being so silent, you nocturnal bastard, it's too quiet in this village..."

"Because you killed every one."

"Not like I wanted to," the boy sheathed his weaons, "let's move on to the next village to end this quickly."