Neji watched the group enter the building and he turned in the direction Natsumi had indicated. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them quickly. "Byukugan!"

His gaze intensified and he scanned the area until he recognized Natsumi's form. The technique that made her invisible cloaked her in an even layer of Chakra covering her body to reflect light and even altered the appearance of her Chakra. Her figure appeared fragmented, like stained glass, and blurred her form enough to make it difficult to pinpoint her Chakra points.

"This is a highly advanced technique... I've never heard of such a technique existing before..." His gaze followed her through the hallways as she stepped lightly with cautionary precision as multiple ANBU guards passed by her without detecting her presence. Taking a catlike stance, she followed the path and entered one of the vaults without drawing the attention of a single guard. "She's on an entirely different level than Naruto. It's difficult to believe that they are twins."

After several minutes of searching the room, Natsumi retrieved a small box from a low shelf and opened it. She examined its contents, reading a scroll contained within, and then returned it to the box. She cautiously retraced her steps, exiting the underground chamber and made her way back to the original meeting spot.

Still invisible, she reached out to poke Neji's cheek, though he scowled and knocked her hand away.

"Cheater." Natsumi giggled and became visible once more, smiling as she held the small box with one hand, resting it against her hip. Her eyes wandered over to the door of the public archives and Neji's sight returned to normal. "Huh. I didn't expect them to take this long."

She sighed and set the box gently down on the ground, then pulled off her wig and headband, muttering to herself. "Man, this thing gets really hot and itchy, ya know." Shaking her head, her hair fell down to her shoulders. Then she pulled a small case from a pocket, plucked out the red contact from her left eye, carefully stored it inside its case, and returned it to the pocket as she blinked.

"That's better." She muttered. "I didn't expect it to be so uncomfortable."

Finally, she unzipped the flak jacket and let out a breath, putting her hands on her hips. "How does anyone wear this all the time? It's too hot."

She caught Neji watching her from the corner of her eye and crossed her arms over her chest as she blushed.

"Did you wait out here for me just to peep?!"

His eyes widened slightly, then he scowled and turned away, remaining silent.

"Hmph. Closet pervert." Natsumi muttered and her gaze lingered on him for a moment, then she let out a breath and sat cross-legged in front of the box, removed its lid, and began to sort through its contents. Reading the first scroll she picked up, her expression turned serious as she concentrated. After a moment, she glanced back up at the Hyuga.

"You could sit down and help me go through this before they finish up, ya know."

He blinked and his cheeks warmed slightly at her blunt address, then, after a moment, he relented and sat silently, retrieving a second scroll from the box and began to read it.

Natsumi's eyes widened as she continued to read and she lowered the scroll with her mouth open. This is...! She reread the section and she smiled broadly. Wait until Naruto sees this!

The rest of their group appeared outside of the building several moments later, their faces missing some color. Naruto saw Natsumi, then smiled and ran toward her.

Natsumi leaped to her feet, rushing toward him until they met halfway and skidded to a stop before they crashed into one another.

"Wait until you hear this!" The twins exclaimed simultaneously, then they blinked and laughed.

"You go first." They echoed each other again.

"The Princess looks just like you!"

"The Princess was an Uzumaki!"

The twins blinked and paused, processing what the other had said.

"What?"

"The Princess!" Natsumi held up the scroll and pointed to the faded writing. "She was a member of the Uzumaki clan!" She grasped Naruto's shoulder with her eyes wide in excitement. "Do you know what this means?! There might be other Uzumaki out there, right now! We're not the only ones!"

Naruto's eyes widened and he looked over the passage intently. "W-We're... related to a Princess?'

"Well," Natsumi eyed the scroll again. "It was a pretty large clan, so our ancestors could have been one of the other ones, but—"

"Hee hee!" He grinned and put his hands on his hips, turning to the other Genin. "Didja hear that? We're descended from royalty!"

Sakura and Ino blinked, their eyes twitching. "W-What?"

"See?! See?!" Naruto pointed at the scroll. "It says right here! 'The Princess Akahime, of clan Uzumaki.'"

The group read the passage and made a face.

"N-No way! Naruto can't be descended from royalty!" Inner Sakura shook her head quickly, and she groaned out loud. "I can't believe it..."

Natsumi carefully rolled up the scroll and looked at Naruto. "What was that you said?"

"Huh?" He looked up, crossing his arms for a moment, then remembered and snapped his fingers. "That's right!" He grabbed her shoulders. "You look just like the Princess! You're identical, ya know!"

Natsumi's eyes widened. "I... what?"

"It's true." Shikamaru nodded. "That lady Oto showed us portraits of her."

"I... look like the Princess?" Natsumi paused. "Exactly like her?" The group nodded. "Wow..." She paused again. "That seems... strange."

"The resemblance was uncanny." Sakura looked at the girl. "If I imagine her hair longer, and if she wore that dress, it would be as if the Princess were alive again."

Kiba looked at Natsumi, realizing finally that she had unzipped the flak jacket. The dark shirt underneath clung tightly to her and he blushed as he was unable to tear his eyes away. "Jackpot!"

"Maybe you're a reincarnation or something." TenTen shrugged. "Since we're talking about ghosts and all, it wouldn't be too unusual for something like that to happen."

Me? A... Princess? Natsumi blushed and shook her head, laughing softly as she waved her hand. "Don't be silly... I'm not Princess material."

Natsumi laughed again, then rubbed her head. "So..." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, you should come look at what I've found."

They stared at her incredulously.

"Y-You mean...!" Naruto pointed at her. "You actually did it?!"

Natsumi nodded, smirking slightly. "I told you I could. It was a piece of cake."

"Wow..." Naruto grabbed her hand and stared at her. "My sister's so cool..."

Natsumi strode over the box, picking it up as the followed her. "It looks like there's a lot of useful stuff in here, but we should go somewhere more inconspicuous before we all start going through it." She held up a finger. "You never remain at the scene of the crime."

She smiled. "Come on; I know a great place we can go."

She turned quickly and leapt away, and they followed her after a moment of hesitation. She stopped inside of a large garden and made herself at home on the patio.

"Um... Natsumi..." Sakura looked around, pointing at the house. "Someone lives here."

She nodded and carefully laid out each of the items in the box. "This is Sena's place. It's empty now because she's at Kiri and Hana's big Halloween party." Natsumi giggled. "Knowing Kiri, she'll probably make Sena stay out all night, and then they'll come home in the morning and crash."

"Is it really okay to be here while she's gone?" Ino hesitantly sat into one of the recliners and then leaned back comfortably with a sigh.

"As long as no one trashes her garden, she won't mind." Natsumi unlocked the back door with the spare key she had, then retrieved an armful of snacks from inside. "Is anyone hungry?"

Choji's eyes brightened at the word and he happily eyed the selection, taking several of the bags and boxes from her and sitting down as he dug in.

"You're... eating her food?" Sakura crossed her arms and watched Natsumi open a bag of chips.

"This is practically my second home. Sena says I can raid her fridge anytime."

Sakura sighed and shrugged. "Alright, fine."

"Okay." Natsumi pointed at the evidence. "Ground rules— this stuff is incredibly old. No one with dirty hands can touch any of this. And if any of it gets crumpled or ripped, we're going to be in even bigger trouble than we already would be, so take care of it more delicately than you would a gift from someone that you like."

Ino and Sakura blushed at the analogy, and Shikamaru immediately set to reading over all of the evidence. They each set to work poring over the various scrolls and paperwork.

After some time, Natsumi set down her scroll with a sigh. Well, this one didn't have anything very useful on it...

She looked around to the other Genin and then cleared her throat softly.

"Has anyone found anything?"

They looked up at her, some of them nodding.

TenTen held up a thin folder. "This is the crime scene report for the initial attack on the Princess' carriage."

Sakura held up another folder. "This is the medical report for the guards' wounds."

"This talks about the Princess' memorial Lord First erected and her funeral." Lee held up his scroll, wiping the tears from his face with his forearm as he cried. "Such a beautifully tragic event..."

Shino set his scroll down in front of him and crossed his arms. "The guards' Ninja profiles."

Sasuke glanced down at the pages in front of him. "Letters between the Princess and her parents."

Ino held up the scroll in her hands. "This is a rough draft of a marriage contract. It seems that Lord Ichiro had planned on having his daughter marry Lord First's eldest son, Hakura, to strengthen their alliance."

"The... suicide note of the surviving guard." Hinata spoke barely above a whisper, holding a small scroll in her hands.

"The map of the route the Princess' convoy took." Shikamaru answered without looking up.

"The invitation from the Senju clan to Uzushiogakure to attend the Founding celebration." Neji answered simply and set his own scroll down, having nothing more to say.

"Mine is the order from Lord First for the brothers to escort the Princess." Natsumi sighed and made a face. "Nothing useful there."

Naruto chuckled and grinned. "Say, say! Mine has the most important information of all!"

The Genin all turned to Naruto, who held up the scroll with a smug grin.

"It's the Princess' family tree."

They sighed in disappointment and Naruto furrowed his brows. "Hey! This is important stuff!"

Natsumi looked at her twin. "It sounds interesting, but we're trying to solve her murder."

Naruto made a face at his twin. "You're going to be much more interested when I tell you what the name of the Princess' grandmother was."

Natsumi sighed softly. "Naruto..."

"Natsumi." Naruto grinned and his sister blinked.

"Huh?"

"That's her grandmother's name." He chuckled and pointed smugly at a name. "Natsumi Uzumaki. Says so right there."

Natsumi eyes widened and she quickly went to him and read the name for herself.

He's right! She bit her lip in thought. First I look just like the Princess, and now I just happen to share the same name as her relative... this is so strange.

Natsumi glanced back up at Naruto, who was chuckling to himself at his find.

What if he's right, and these are really our ancestors? We wouldn't be nobodies anymore...

"Strange..." She muttered out loud.

"This proves that we're royalty for real!" He puffed out his chest with a smirk.

"Natsumi isn't an uncommon name." Sakura pointed out. "It could be a coincidence." She pursed her lips. "Although... it's strange for there to be two cases of exceptionally rare coincidences in one day..."

"I'll find a way to prove it!" Naruto raised his fist into the air as he snapped at Sakura. "I'll find such good proof that you'll have to believe it!"

"Alright, let's get back to work." Shikamaru groaned and let out a quiet breath. "What a drag." He looked back to the map, then up at the others. "Alright, bring all that stuff here..." He trailed off, deep in thought, and they brought him their evidence.

Shikamaru was silent for some time as he studied each piece, holding his chin.

"Is something wrong?" Choji stuffed a handful of chips into his mouth, watching Shikamaru think and recognizing his expression.

Shikamaru nodded after a moment. "Maybe..." He sighed and crossed his arms. "Something just doesn't seem to be adding up here."

"What do you mean?" Sakura looked at him, and Shikamaru looked up, resting his hands on his knees as he addressed them.

"For starters, the exact location of the ambush is suspicious." He tapped the spot on the map. "It's inside the Land of Fire, quite a distance from any rival countries. If they were ambushed by their enemies, they must have been either already in the country, waiting for the convoy, or traitors to their own country who didn't trust the alliance with Uzushiogakure."

"Furthermore," he pointed at other evidence. "The Princess herself said 'assassin.'"

"So?" Naruto dug a finger into his ear, then tried to wipe his finger on Natsumi's shirt, who leaned away out of reach and swatted his hand away.

"An ambush on a royal convoy would have been much larger than one man."

"Unless he was just really strong." Naruto crossed his arms and rubbed his finger on his own shirt.

Shikamaru picked up the medical report and scanned it once more. "Each of the guards who died had fatal wounds- their throats were slit or they were stabbed directly into the heart. The survivor had many wounds, but they were all on his face, torso, and limbs, and none were truly fatal."

"You're thinking that he was the assassin, aren't you?" Natsumi spoke in a quiet voice, her expression unusually serious.

Shikamaru crossed his arms and nodded after a moment.

"It's likely."

"But... he would have been killing his own brothers." Ino commented. "Why would he do that?"

"It would have a choice between an amulet that granted near-invincibility and immortality, and his siblings. The answer would be simple for most."

Shikamaru set down the medical report and examined the suicide note again.

"And this... for someone who was supposedly traumatized and near-insane, his penmanship is neat. Not what you would expect from someone emotionally unstable."

"I don't understand." TenTen put her hand on her hip. "Why would he go so far as to kill his own brothers to take the pendant for himself, only to kill himself?"

"I was wondering that as well..." Sakura pressed her lips together.

Shikamaru thought for a moment. "The report says that he killed himself several days after the attack. My guess is that he wrote the suicide note in order to fake his death and escape with the pendant."

"And then something happened that made him really lose his mind." Natsumi added, and the group fell silent.

Shikamaru gathered the evidence and returned it carefully to the box, replacing its lid.

"There's nothing else of use in here, so we should check out his house like Oto suggested."

They nodded in agreement and Natsumi placed the box inside of Sena's house, then locked it once more with her spare key.

"Are we ready, then?" Natsumi looked at the others, then her eyes fell on Kiba and Akamaru, who were napping in the corner of the garden. She shook his shoulder gently and his eyes snapped open, and Akamaru woke up next.

"Ah!" He blushed and stared up at her. "Heh... Natsumi... h-hi."

Akamaru stretched and yawned and Natsumi giggled and scratched his chin.

"Aw, Akamaru, are you a sleepy doggy?" His tail wagged and he licked her face. "You're so cute!"

She looked at Kiba and held out her hand to him, helping him up. "We're going to go investigate the survivor's house now."

"T-Thanks..." His cheeks warmed as she walked away and he looked down at Akamaru and made a face, crossing his arms as Akamaru barked, muttering. "Hmph. Of course she doesn't like you more."