There was a loud knock on the large wooden door of the Hokage's office.
"Come in" the Godaime Hokage said with a defeated voice.
She was tired of all the paper work she had to do and just when she was about to convince Shizune, her secretary, to let her take a break and give back her bottle of sake, a ninja came to report a strange incident.
She hoped there was nothing too big going down because she had no jounins to spare and involving anbu in this was out of the question. However she couldn't be sure just yet, so the best thing she could do was to call team Kakashi and hope that they would get to the bottom of this incident.
The door to her office opened and three teenagers entered the room, the last one to enter closing the door behind him with a loud thud.
"What's wrong sensei?" the only girl in the group asked. She knew the Hokage well, after all she was her teacher, but she had never seen her sensei so worried before. Something bad must have happened she thought as she looked at the Godaime. Her brows were furrowed and her elbows propped on her desk, the chin resting against her laced fingers which covered her red lips from the girl's view. Her eyes were fixed on the paper lying in front of her that the girl assumed was a report.
"I'm not sure" the Godaime shifted a little looking at the group. "There was a weird report from the library this morning."
"The library?" a boy with blonde hair asked confused as he looked at the Hokage with wide blue eyes getting everyone's attention. For as long as they had been ninjas the three had never heard of missions that came from the library except for D ranks that involved organizing books and scrolls on categories which were some of the most boring missions the blond could think of. Nothing big ever happened there even though they did have a section with forbidden scrolls. It wasn't as interesting as the one in the Hokage Tower though, in the blonde's opinion. He knew that because he had sneaked in the small library in the Hokage Tower more than once.
"They reported some scrolls missing" the Hokage explained "The problem is that those particular scrolls are holding secret information about forbidden jutsu and kekkei genkai. They had been found in Orochimaru's hideout before he was declared a nukenin." That could have been a problem indeed. It was known all throughout Konoha that Orochimaru, one the three sannin had carried genetically experiments, trying to reproduce different kekkei genkai.
"You think he came back after them, baa-chan?" the blonde spoke once again.
The Godaime changed her mood in a second and hit the table with both fists making cracks in the oak wood. She would have to change the table again, for the second time in a month, but she didn't care.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that, brat?" she spat at the blonde boy but her fit didn't affect him at all. He was used to this kind of treatment from the threatening woman in front of him.
She sighed and took a deep breath to calm herself once again. It wasn't as if getting angry would do any good. The boy in front of her would never listen to her anyway not when it came to showing respect to his elders.
"He may be, but there is more to it. The guard from the library said that the scrolls were stolen by a boy who was using douton. Apparently he forced his way in with earth jutsu, stole the scrolls and ran into the woods. The guard followed him but as soon as they entered the woods he vanished into thin air."
"What's the big deal?" the blond asked again "Kakashi sensei does that all the time." Indeed there was nothing special in a teleportation jutsu. Ninjas used it all the time even in their every day life.
"The guard said that there was a blue light when the boy vanished. It doesn't sound like a normal teleportation justsu. I want you three to investigate this and report to me as soon as you have some information."
The three ninjas nodded, knowing that the conversation was over and they were dismissed, they left.
They all followed the guard from the library in the woods up to the place where the boy vanished. To their surprise the place was within village boundaries. If anyone would have tried to enter or escape the village during the night the anbu patrolling the outskirts of the village would have noticed. It would have been a difficult task even for a jounin.
"You can leave now." The third member of the group, a black haired boy, dismissed the guard "We'll take it from here." The guard nodded and bowed politely then disappeared leaving a trace of smoke behind him.
The girl noticed something on the ground and kneeled down beside it to examine it closer.
"What is it, Sakura-chan?" the blonde asked getting closer to his team mate.
"It looks like some sort of seal. I've never seen anything like it before though." The blonde gave the strange image on the ground, barely detectable due to the grass, a puzzled look confirming what Sakura previously said. It was odd that it was even there since it didn't look like it was drawn or scratched in the ground.
"It's as if it was…burned…in the ground!?" The blonde tried to express his feeling but was at a loss of words in front of the strange design.
"Then there is nothing we can do here" the black haired boy said as he turned to leave. Sakura used to be the best student in class during their academy days and if she didn't know anything about this, then there was no reason to waste time there any longer.
"Hey, teme, we have a mission here. You can't just leave like that without even trying!" the blonde shouted.
"And I suppose you have a better idea, dobe?" the boy stopped in his track and turned around to give his friend a questioning look.
"Um….no." The blonde looked at the ground defeated. The black haired boy searched his pockets and took out a scroll and a pen, writing something down.
"Then let's go!" he said as he rolled the scroll. "Sakura…will you send a kuchiose with this at the Hokage?" The girl quietly nodded as she took the scroll he handed over to her.
"Will you tell me what's going on?" the blonde asked a bit frustrated as Sakura was making hand seals for her summoning jutsu.
"We're going to the library to look for information about that seal. We don't know what it is so we might have to look in the forbidden archive and we need permission from the Hokage for that." She filled him in.
"Oh…" the blond scratched the back of his head as he looked embarrassed at his friends. "That sounds like a plan…."
"Not really but it's better than anything you would come up with" the raven muttered loud enough for the blonde to hear.
"Hey, I heard that smart ass!" the blond shouted back but the other didn't bother to give him more attention.
They had been searching through books and scrolls about seals for hours now and yet they found nothing. The blonde had given up looking a long time ago and was leaning over the table with his head on top of his folded hands, a bored expression plastered on his face.
"It's no use" Sakura sighed "There's nothing here. We might just as well start with the forbidden scrolls right now. Naruto, why don't you make yourself useful and bring here some scrolls from the forbidden section?" The permission from the Hokage came not so long ago and the librarian opened the door to the forbidden section for them but Sakura wanted to be sure that she didn't miss anything of importance before she entered the previously looked room.
The blonde got up from his comfortable seat, glad that there was finally something for him to do that he didn't find deadly boring. "Sure thing Sakura-chan" he added before disappearing in the next room.
A few minutes later he was back with a handful of scrolls about seals and put them on the table for his friends to examine in detail "I'll go get more" he added before he disappeared again in the next room.
He looked around for scrolls and books that might have information about seals, searching each shelf in the dusty room and coughing every time dust fell from the shelves irritating his nose. Getting the scrolls out of the shelves and unrolling them raised a lot of dust in the room making it hard to breathe. Cleaning all this dust would be a good D rank mission he thought, although he knew that no D rank would involve the forbidden section, but hey, a bored boy can dream.
"Seals…..let's see…..no…not here either…." Then his eyes landed on a book covered in black leather. The only strange thing about the book was the fact that there was nothing written on the cover, no title, no author, nothing. Naruto grabbed the book and whipping the dust off of it carefully he opened it. Based on the yellow color of the pages and the faded color of the writing he could tell it must be old.
On the first page there were four drawings representing four elements: earth, fire, air and water. He looked confused at the book, scratching the back of his head. Why were there only four elements? They had to be five, right? There was also lightning, he was sure about that. Naruto had never been the smartest guy around but even he knew that much. He turned to the next page where the first chapter of the book was and started reading but eventually concluded that he understood nothing. The book was talking about some veil mumbo jumbo and he didn't recall learning anything about that at the academy, but then again he knew better than to trust the amount of information he did remember from his school days. It might be a better idea to show Sakura the book. After all she used to be the best student in their class when it came to theory.
Deciding that, he closed the book and took it to Sakura.
"Hey Sakura-chan, look at this book! It's weird. It mentions four elements but for some reason it doesn't mention lightning." The girl was about to shout at Naruto for disturbing her for something stupid but then she thought again. It was a forbidden book after all, it couldn't be something stupid.
She took the book from the boy's hands and started reading. After studying the book for a while she broke the silence once more.
"Sasuke, Naruto, you should take a look at this" The two boys went next to her, one to her left and the other to her right, and looked at the symbols she was pointing at.
"These resemble the seal from the forest, don't they?" They weren't identical but from her fuuin jutsu experience she knew that some seals had more than one layer. The pictures in the book looked like layers of the seal from the forest. "We should take this to the Hokage."
Naruto gave the drawings a careful look. Sakura was right, they looked like layers of the fuuin in the forest but it still wasn't enough. The seal in the forest had more layers they knew nothing about.
An hour later they were back in the Hokage's office waiting for the blonde woman to tell them something. She started reading as soon as they handed her the book and up until now she said nothing. Then suddenly, without further notice she closed it.
"I never thought it would be this complicated" she said "I haven't heard of anyone to cross the veil since shinobi started to combine the elements with their chakra, and even that is an ancient legend." She sighed "I'm afraid that you would have to go on the other side and find the scrolls."
"Wait" Sasuke said "What legend are you talking about?"
"The legend says that the Sage of the Six Paths was the first to find a way to cross the veil to a different world. When he came back he created the bases of fuuton, douton, mokuton, suiton and raiton. It is said that the people on the other side of the veil had known how to control the elements for much longer than us. As far as we know now, this boy wasn't even using douton" she concluded.
"And how are we supposed to get on the other side?" Sakura added. "The seal from the forest is much more complicated than the seals in the book."
"I'll leave that part to Naruto." The Godaime said not at least concerned. Naruto's companions however were giving the two odd looks. Had the Hokage gone completely crazy from the pressure? This was a difficult task and they needed a fuuin jutsu expert not some idiot like Naruto. "Take the book and study it well then report to me when you are ready. You are dismissed!"
Naruto took the book that lay on the Hokage's desk and left the room, his team mates however pretended not to hear that they had been dismissed and stayed even after the echo of the blonde's footsteps faded in the long hallway.
"With all the respect sensei how can you leave this to Naruto? He's an idiot!" Sakura shouted not being able to control her annoyance anymore.
"Enough!" To her surprise the one to talk was not the one she shouted at in the first place. She turned to look at her team mate and saw him with his fists clenched and his head tucked down, long, black bangs covering his eyes from her view. "You have no right to call him that." He added on a lower tone. "Still, I too wish to know why you made such a decision, Hokage-sama."
"Well, I shouldn't be the one telling you this. And if Naruto didn't tell you then I suppose you didn't earn his trust, so it's your fault that you don't know why I made this decision." The Godaime sighed after scolding them. However she knew that she has to tell them something after all or she will never get rid of them. "Minato, Naruto's father was one of the best fuuin users that Konoha ever had and so were the Uzumakis. After finding out who his parents were Naruto became interested in fuuins. Now, his interest in fuuins is the only connection he has with his father." The blonde sighed and rested her chin on her hands once again. That brat always made her worry even though she knew very well that this was the last thing he intended. He needed to open up to people, to let them know his true self instead of hiding everything behind a happy-go-lucky mask.
He was a complicated character with a complicated life and perhaps she cared for him too much for her own good.
Somehow that didn't surprise Sasuke. He had known for a long time that there was more to Naruto than he allowed to be seen. What he hated however was the fact that other people didn't bother to try and see behind that mask of his. That's what annoyed him the most at Sakura. She was always too preoccupied to give Sasuke attention and never gave Naruto a closer glance. She easily assumed that he was an idiot because he was always fooling around.
He decided to leave things as they were for now and not ask the Hokage more questions. What she had said earlier made him feel uneasy because he knew she was right and he didn't put much effort to change things up until now, but he made a promise to himself to find the real Naruto behind the mask of the idiot.
AN: please R&R