Chapter 25: To the Library

Natarii closed the window and locked it. She then walked over to the bed in which she had slept. "I need you to-" Natarii was cut off. She jolted her head to the doorway. Someone was coming. Someone was coming fast. The door slowly slid open.

Makina quietly entered the room, only to see Natarii in bed, fast asleep. Nothing seemed out of place. She smiled gently. "Maybe I was wrong," she whispered as she pulled a foldable chair up to Natarii's bedside. "I should've known you wouldn't go anywhere."

Sometimes I wonder how I became so smart, Natarii thought to herself as she stared blankly at the white curtain that separated her side of the room and the empty half next to her. If it were me, I would've completely seen through this little charade. She wanted to look over her shoulder to see if her mom was planning to leave the room anytime soon, but knew that would instantly blow her cover. I hope Naruto's not dying in the closet, Natarii continued to think to herself.

Someone get me out of here! Naruto sat in the nearest closet, crammed against various pieces of old, dusty equipment and fabrics.

Natarii glanced up at the nearest clock, which was on a wooden nightstand next to her bed. She tried to not rustle the sheets as she moved her head slightly to get a better view of the time. One thirty. There still might be time before morning. She cautiously moved her head back. The room was quiet, but only for a short moment. There was a subtle clinking sound. Maybe she's leaving, Natarii thought. But the sound continued. Nope. She's not leaving. Her heart started pounding.

Naruto peeked through a small hole in the closet door. What the crap?! She's knitting?! Leave already! He slapped his palm against his face. He still didn't know what Natarii was planning.

It felt as if hours passed. Natarii was growing tired as she continued to stare endlessly at the curtain listening to the clicking of her mother's knitting needles. I cannot believe this woman used to be a ninja, she thought to herself. She seems way too soft.

Suddenly, the clicking of the needles came to a halt, and all was silent. Natarii was itching to see what her mother was doing. There was a swish. Then a click. She had left the room. But when would she come back? Most likely in the morning, plus, she had Naruto with her. He was the key to her plan.

Slowly, Natarii sat up, rustling the sheets as she did so. She looked around the room, making sure there was no trace of any person who may possibly be watching her. The coast was clear. Natarii turned her head toward the closet and whispered for Naruto to come out of the closet.

"It's about time," he muttered as he stumbled out of the small alcove, trying not to trip over anything. "I've been waiting for you to explain why I'm here."

"Oh, right. I didn't get the chance to tell you. I need an accomplice."

"Accomplice?" Naruto repeated. He instantly seemed interested. "What're you planning this time?"

"I need you to use Henge no Jutsu to transform into me," Natarii answered.

Naruto looked at Natarii strangely. "What? Why?"

"I need to go to the library." Natarii wanted information about the Keimusho Seal. She assumed top secret information wouldn't be in the library, but the archives. However, she figured going to the library would be a good start, plus a good cover for Naruto, who wasn't supposed to know anything about her attempts to get the seal off on her own in the first place.

"What? No way," Naruto denied. "You dragged me out here just so you can go to the library? This isn't a time for checking out books."

Natarii was a little shocked. She assumed Naruto would've helped her without question. Then again, her request did seem quite troublesome. "I'm not going to check out any book. I'm looking for some information. Can't you just trust me?"

"When it comes to books, I'm not sure how much I can trust you. You get way too distracted around them."

Natarii pleaded Naruto with wide eyes. "Come on. Just transform into me and I'll be back by the time my mom comes back. You can even sleep if you want."

Naruto thought for a moment, liking the idea of being able to go back to sleep. But, he still shook his head in denial. "No good. I saw how hard of a time you had coming back with that bad ankle of yours. I can't let you go out like that."

"Well, would you rather me go out at night when everyone's asleep, or go out in broad daylight where my escape will be bright and clear?" Natarii came up with a clever idea as to what she would say next. "If you transform into me at night, you can just sleep. If you transform into me during the day, well...you may get tested."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Tested?"

Natarii nodded. "Yes. They've been doing quite a few tests on me. Maybe tomorrow they'll do more, and I won't even be here. You will."

Naruto huffed a breath of brief frustration. Natarii always knew how to persuade him in order to get her way. "Fine. You win."

"Really?" Natarii asked. "That's great!" She quickly rushed back and forth, limping, throughout the room, looking for her cloak made out of curtains. She found it where she had left it, bunched up in the closet where Naruto had been hiding. Natarii draped it over her shoulders once again and made her way toward a cabinet. While she was searching for a type of material for her cloak, she found medical wrapping tape inside. She questioned herself, wondering why she hadn't put the tape on earlier. After taking it carefully out of the cabinet, Natarii sat on the bed and began wrapping the tape tightly around her right ankle. The tape was stiff and strong. It would hold her ankle in place nicely.

Natarii stepped on her right foot, not even feeling a bit of pain. She hopped, then skipped over to her shoes. Her foot brought no pain. That was a relief.

Natarii looked back at Naruto, her head already buried in the depths of her hood. "I'll be back by six o'clock," she said to him.

Naruto gave a nod, hoping Natarii wouldn't be a second late. However, whenever she was given a designated time, she was never a second early, and never a second late. Her arrival was always on the dot. Without any hint of hesitation, Naruto made the signs: dog, boar, tiger. There was a puff of smoke that acted as a barrier to shield Naruto. Once it cleared, where Naruto originally stood, Natarii stood.

Natarii looked at her "clone" with satisfaction. She smiled back at Naruto. "Don't blow it," she said jokingly. She opened the window, and climbed out. Natarii looked left, then right, and then left again. She gave Naruto a thumbs-up sign, signaling the coast was clear. With that, she was gone.

Naruto sighed in Natarii's form. He walked over to the bed and sat on it, taking a blackish-blue pair of glasses off his face and setting them on the nightstand next to the bed. That's how Natarii would do it, right? Naruto thought to himself, not wanting to blow Natarii's cover.

He lay his head down on the pillow, Natarii's hair covering his face. Naruto quickly moved the hair out of the way, only for it to pile up uncomfortably under his head. Man, how do girls sleep like this?!

Natarii dashed down the empty streets as fast as she could without wasting her energy. She was surprised at how less her ankle hurt with the taping around it.

The library was in sight, lights on and everything. It was a little strange to Natarii that a library would be open every hour of the day, but when she thought about it, especially in the middle of a village filled with ninja, it seemed reasonable enough.

As Natarii walked in through the doors, a quick blast of warm air hit her skin. It wasn't cold outside, but the darkness of the night had made the temperatures considerably cooler than that of the day. Thus, the air felt rather nice.

There wasn't a soul in the room other than that of the person sitting at the front desk to Natarii's left. They were fast asleep. This was the perfect opportunity to do some thorough searching. Natarii removed her hood from her head to remove any signs of suspicion.

Her footsteps were silent as she walked around the library, trying to familiarize herself with the way it was organized. To the right were several shelves and isles that were mainly filled with fiction novels and other books, such as biographies and the select non-fiction stories people typically read for recreation. On the left side of the library was where all the informational books were. Separating the two sides was a barrier of tables and chairs, and there were also some along the walls as well.

Natarii glanced over to the man at the front desk. He was still fast asleep. Knowing this, Natarii felt more at ease. Any information about my family would be found in the appendices, Natarii thought to herself as she crossed the library, weaving in and out of tables. Remembering from her earlier exploring, Natarii went to the back of the library, for that was where the encyclopedias, appendices, and other informational record books.

Natarii walked into the isle of books. She was surrounded by their dusty, thick, dull colored bindings. She could tell they weren't looked at very often by the amounts of dust on them. Looking left and right, up and down, and then left and right again, Natarii scanned the bookshelves. The Kyuubi attack was sixteen years ago, Natarii thought. I need one from sixteen years ago. She found the book from the most recent year, which was five years in the past. She had to backtrack eleven more years. Eleven, ten, nine, eight...Natarii counted the numbers in her head as she skimmed her right index finger along the spine of each super thick book. Five, four, three, two, one. Natarii's finger stopped on a book, the one that seemed to have less dust and slightly faded color to it. It was a color with such a slim difference than the others, the average person would most likely not notice. This screamed to Natarii that this was the book that had been looked through more often than the others. It had to be the one.

Natarii put her finger on the spine of the book and pulled it off the shelf, catching it in her hand before it had the chance to fall. In her hands, the book was smooth, but gritty feeling from the dust. It was extremely heavy, weighing eight pounds at the least. But Natarii was used to this extreme weight that came from books. Propping it up on her right arm, she began flipping through pages. She sighed with relief when she noticed the majority of the book was describing the Kyuubi attack. There were even notes and comments scribbled into the margins of each page. The first book Natarii found herself examining turned out to be the jackpot. It even had brief descriptions of everyone's mission.

Natarii smirked. She never imagined it would be so easy. Plus, they would have such documents in a library! Unless there were more detailed and secret documents hidden somewhere else. But right now, there was no need to worry about that. All she had to do was find her parents' assignments. If she did that, she could possibly be a step closer to discovering something about removing the seal from her body.

Quickly, Natarii turned to the wall, looking for a clock. It was almost four o'clock. She had about two hours. That should be enough time to read through this thing. Natarii flipped to the back of the book. One thousand ninety-six pages, she continued in her mind. Maybe I'll get through half of it. Not wasting any time, Natarii opened the book, reading through everything that had happened that year. The beginning was quite boring; nothing out of the ordinary seemed to happen, even with the village being full with ninja. She was about a quarter of the way through the book, and she came upon the month of October. Already? Natarii thought to herself. It then dawned upon her that that's when the Kyuubi assault happened. Looking ahead of the page she was on, Natarii discovered the attack descriptions took on more than half of the book. There was a description of the battle, where they took the women and children to keep them safe, a list of each ninja's assignments, a fatality list, a casualty list, etc. Natarii skimmed the fatality list. She was curious about what she might find. Under the letter "N," she found Namikaze Minato, the Fourth Hokage, and Nara Shizuyo, her mom's childhood friend. She continued to skim down the list. Her eyes tripped up on two names under the letter "T." Her eyes widened with confusion and fear. Under the letter "T," were the names: Takanami Kazuki and Takanami Makina.

That's it for this week's chapter!

Next is: "Chapter 26: Lies!" Natarii's discovery in the library has her confused and itching for answers! Will she find them? Meanwhile, Naruto continues to cover for Natarii!

'Til next time!

- ChibiNinja45