Inheritance

CHAPTER 24

"This has everything Itachi knows, an explanation about my own circumstances, and our plans from now. I can't stick around any longer. We need to have disappeared before Akatsuki realise we've gone and start sending people after us." Kisame stood up and picked up his sword and started to leave, before turning back, grin completely absent from his face.

"Uzumaki Naruto... He had better turn out to be something special. If not... he's as good as dead."

And with that, Kisame walked out of the tavern, leaving the Sannin to read, and consider.

Naruto paused as he allowed his eyes to adjust to the gloomy darkness of the attic space he found himself in. The genin was clearly the first to set foot in the room in a very long while. A heavy layer of dust coated the numerous boxes and odds and ends that filled the dank and musty room, and thick cobwebs, many of them themselves gathering dirt and dust, stretched between almost all of the gaps between boxes and furniture. Across the room Naruto could see the trapdoor into the East Wing itself; sheets of light escaping into the attic from below between the gaps in the floor and door, illuminating the dust that fell to the floor like dreary, grey snow.

Naruto took a deep breath, holding back a cough as he took in a mouthful of the room's musty aroma, and carefully began to make his way across the attic, eying the floor and room ahead of him carefully as he he walked. Suddenly, the blond froze, his body stiffly held in place like a statue.

Not even an inch in front of him, almost at eye level, was a paper thin, clear wire, stretched between the two stacks of boxes he was passing between. He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding before passing underneath the wire, and quickly moved the rest of the way across the room, his eyes straining in the darkness even more than they had been before.

Of course they wouldn't leave the only other entrance to the building completely defenseless. That would be much too easy.

He paused at the trapdoor, and examined it for any obvious traps. Seeing none, he carefully pulled it open by no more than an inch, before wedging a kunai between the trapdoor and floor of the attic. Peering between the gap, Naruto found himself incredibly glad he had started to read up on designing and building traps, as well as spotting them in the field.

Attached to the trap door was another thin wire, that when pulled a certain amount, activated an alarm mechanism on the floor that Naruto could only barely make out from his vantage point. If he had opened the door much further, he would have set off the alarm. Fortunately, this kind of trap was relatively easy to circumnavigate. Reaching between the gap, being careful not to set the alarm off, he used the kunai he had wedged the door with the cut the wire, enabling him to safely open the trap door, and drop down into the room right at the back of the East Wing, and the first of the archive rooms he needed to search.

Immediately Naruto was forced to squint slightly as his eyes adjusted to the shock of such a brightly lit room after the incredibly dim attic, and the question as to exactly why this room would still have the lights in it turned on came into the blonde's mind almost instantly. He quickly glanced around the room to make sure he was alone, and darted quickly over the door, making sure to be aware of any potential booby traps as he did so, and backed up against it, pressing his ear against the wood of the door.

He couldn't hear any sound on the other side, which hopefully meant that no-one was really close to the door itself. However, the fact that the lights were still on made Naruto nervous. It meant that somebody could be using this room, and therefore would be back quite soon.

Reaching into his sleeve he took out yet another tool that Jiraiya had provided him with before they had separated. It was a small, stainless steel rod, about the size of a pencil, and affixed to the end was a small mirror. It was perfect for seeing round corners, and would allow Naruto to scout around outside the door to make sure nobody was in the immediate vicinity before he started searching the place.