The next day Naruto took Misa to the Konoha graveyard. Maybe if we go see Mom and Dad it'll be a good time for me to bring up Gaara. I could pray for him in front of them or something. They bought a bouquet of flowers along the way, along with some incense.
Misa was a little scared to visit. She hadn't seen Mom since she was four, although she had gotten to talk to dad during and after the battle. What would she say? Hey Mom, guess what? I've been living like an animal for the past sixteen years and fell in love with a guy from a different village. What do you think we should do for flowers? The thought was frightening.
They reached the graveyard. There was no one else there except Kakashi, but he was always there, staring at the place where he had thought Obito was buried. Now, though, he just stared at Rin's grave. Naruto knew where to find their graves. Kages got special tombstones, and there were a few smaller ones around them, family members and such. He motioned Misa over. "One of the big ones is for Dad, since he was a Hokage. Mom's stone should be somewhere close by."
Misa found the big stone with "Minato" carved into it. She said a prayer of wellbeing for his spirit, then started reading the tombstones around the base, looking for Mom's. She found something else first. "Naruto," She turned around. Her face was white. "I'm dead." She was kneeling in front of a stone with her name on it.
She ran out of the graveyard and to the village library. She thrust her shoulders over the counter until she was nose to nose with the librarian. "Please, I need to see the fatality record for Konoha children. Do you know where I can find it?"
The assistant backed up, but said "Sure" and came out from behind the counter. "It's this way." She led Misa down a long aisle of shelves before turning into one. "This is where we keep the records for marriages, births, and deaths in the village. Were you looking for a particular year?"
She thought about the numbers on the tombstone and did some quick math. "How about sixteen years ago?"
The girl reached up onto one of the higher shelves and pulled out a thick scroll. "All the deaths from that year are listed here. It was the year of the Nine Tailed Fox's attack, so there were more deaths than normal. Do you need help finding anything else?"
"No, this is fine. Can you show me a place where I can sit and read?"
The girl said that she could and showed Misa an area full of armchairs. She settled into one and unrolled the scroll. The deaths were listed according to the times and dated they occurred. She searched through until she found a list of people who had all died on the same day, with the same cause. It said that they were killed in the attack of the Nine Tailed Fox. If the village had written her off, this was where they would have done it. With so many deaths, it would have been easy to cover hers up.
There! "Misa Namikaze, age four. A victim of the Nine Tailed Fox attack." This was it. This was her way out.
She ran to the check-out desk. "Excuse me, I'd like to check out this record." She threw the scroll at the man behind the counter.
He narrowly avoided the projectile and stammered, "We don't check out records, I'm afraid."
"Then give me something to write with!" He hurriedly handed her a piece of paper and a charcoal pencil. They weren't as elegant as ink, but they came in handy for situations like this. Misa found her name again, copied it out, and thrust the scroll back. "Please reshelf this for me." Then she tore out of the library headed straight for home.
She crashed through the doors and took the stairs five at a time. Luckily, she hadn't sent off the tube yet in case she'd wanted to add more to the letter. Oh boy, did she have something to add! She took out another of the seal papers, but then paused for a moment. What if she told him to come get her and it wasn't enough? What if the village still didn't let her go? She'd have to check with the authorities before getting his hopes up.
She took the stairs in one leap, barely avoided breaking the doors, and bolted for the Hokage's office.