Chapter 21 Looking for Answers
Naruto finally made it back to his apartment, and it felt like he had made countless assurances to convince Iruka-sensei that he was fine and just needed sleep.
He felt a little guilty about lying, mostly because he had no intention of sleeping tonight.
Now, he was extremely glad that he had been using the Nine-Tails Chakra for a long time and had become accustomed to the constant chronic pain.
The burning sensation emanating from the seal was stronger than usual, but he was used to it, and if it weren't for this, sitting still in class would be a torture for him.
Although he was awake this time, he didn't listen to anything Iruka-sensei said. His mind was full of thoughts about what to do.
And he did think of a solution.
The restricted area of the archives room, the room that only a jonin or the Hokage could enter, held scrolls of every known medical ninjutsu in the village - it was recorded in the administrator's log.
Even if there was no cure for the Kyuubi's disease there, there might be some clues that could tell Naruto what was going on.
Regardless, it was his only option.
Figuring out this part of the plan was easy, the rest required a little more thought, since knowing where the scrolls were and getting them were two different things.
Naruto had already stumbled upon the hardest part - the door inside the archive room required two chakra-infused keys.
The first one is kept by an active jonin and can open the gate.
The second, which only the Hokage had, opened a hidden lock that deactivated the chakra alarm - so that even if someone managed to steal a jonin's key and unlock the door, the alarm would sound and notify all ANBU within a five kilometer radius.
But Naruto didn't need the jonin's key at all, because in addition to the key that could disable the alarm, Hiruzen also had a key that could open the box in his desk that contained spare jonin's keys.
All Naruto had to do was get the two keys from Hiruzen.
This might be a problem for others, but not for Naruto.
Not only did Naruto know the chakra alarm settings in Hiruzen's office, he also knew that Hiruzen kept all of his important stuff in the compartment underneath his calligraphy easel.
The biggest obstacle was that he needed more time to look through any scrolls he could find, so he couldn't sneak in during the early hours of the morning like he usually did—and to make matters worse, he had to hide from the chunin administrators.
However, he had one last trick up his sleeve.
Naruto was 100% sure that there was absolutely no bathroom in the librarian's room.
The chunin was a huge fan of sweet black tea, as Naruto always found bottles of the drink on his desk and in the trash can behind him.
Naruto immediately placed a case of sweet black tea on the porch outside his door. Now he just had to wait for Hiruzen to leave his office.
He sat in the branch of a large oak tree just outside the window, close enough to see the old man but far enough away not to be seen by patrols.
He used this time to practice the skills he needed to succeed.
Chakra resonance.
He remembered clearly Kyuubi's teachings on this, and how it related to covert operations.
"Most high-level ninjas rely not on their eyes but on chakra sensing when detecting threats," Kyuubi had told him, "Match your chakra to that of your surroundings, and even the most skilled ninja will pass right by you."
He practiced matching his chakra with the chakra of the surrounding trees, and when he felt he had mastered the skill, he sat on a branch close to the patrol route and waited for the test.
The jonin on duty didn't even slow down.
He could have been more proud of this, but the pain in his abdomen always distracted him the moment he wasn't paying attention, and every burning pain reminded him of the pain Kyuubi was in at the moment.
The Nine-Tail was very dear to him.
It had been almost a year and Kyuubi had been taking care of him, and he couldn't let Kyuubi suffer in vain.
So he drew strength from that power, from that flame of will, and sharpened his focus.
Ten minutes later, Hiruzen stood up from his desk and rubbed his back as he pretended.
He knocked on the table twice, which was a signal to the Anbu guards.
The two guards who had been standing outside the door immediately appeared beside him - judging by their masks, they were Rabbit and Falcon, which was normal.
He waited a full fifteen minutes after they left, until the patrol passed him for the third time and the dying candle on Hiruzen's desk went out, before he quietly passed through the window and walked over to the calligraphy easel. He traced his fingers under the wooden frame until his nails touched an odd groove and pressed down.
There was a slight click and the panel moved slightly.
When Naruto pulled it open, a drawer popped out from the bottom of the easel, shallow but about the length and depth of Naruto's forearm.
He opened the drawer and scanned the compartments for the key he needed when his eyes fell on something else.
It was a set of picture frames. The first one was old, made of oak, and had rough edges.
The photo shows the third generation when he was young. At that time, his hair was brown and there were no age spots on his face.
He had a frivolous smile on his face that Naruto had never seen on the now reserved Hokage, and was standing behind three children that Naruto didn't recognize.
They were all not much older than him; the boy on the far left had ragged white hair and a mask that gave him a smile almost identical to Hiruzen's old one.
The boy in the middle had shiny black hair, pale skin, and a strange pair of narrow eyes that were a poisonous yellow-green in color.
The girl on the right had long blonde hair that was four shades lighter than Naruto's own, tied into a pretty ponytail, and eyes that were a warm, creamy brown.
It looked like a picture of a genin team, but Hiruzen never mentioned being a genin.
Naruto was sure that if he had seen these faces in the village, he would remember them even though they were older now.
There was another picture underneath it, and despite the time constraints, Naruto couldn't help but sneak a peek, gently pinching the edges of the first frame to avoid leaving fingerprints on the glass.
The second photo is more recent. It is made of polished mahogany, but there is a dent in one corner of the frame and the glass is broken, as if it had been dropped or thrown at something.
Naruto's breathing quickened.
The photo shows a man and a woman, again standing behind the three children.
The man stroked the head of a masked, white-haired boy who was glaring at the black-haired boy opposite him.
The woman put her arms around the boy's neck and ruffled his hair vigorously, and judging by the boy's expression, it must have hurt.
A cute girl stood among them, giggling, the square family crest on her cheek wrinkled with laughter.
The man had blond hair and blue eyes. His smile was kind, gentle and loving, and his eyes were full of love.
The woman had hair as bright red as the sunset glow on Konoha, which almost reached her ankles and was tied up high behind her head.
