I do not own Naruto
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"Come on, Yuki. I can tell you haven't eaten in a couple of days." Shikamaru sighed beside Naruto.
Stupid blonde used his Uzumaki puppy eyes on me to get me out of the house. Now I was stuck with Shikamaru, and Naruto as Ino and Choji had to leave. I probably woudln't have minded, but they were both trying to get me to eat something.
"I'm fine, and I'm not really hungry right now anyway." I said while pulling my hood up higher. "Anyway, weren't you gonna tell Naruto and I something?"
Shikamaru paused before turning to look at me fully. "How'd you know?"
"Shikamaru, you may be a great friend, and you may have come here to help Naruto and I, but I'm sure there is something else. Didn't... Didn't Grandpa Sage leave some kind of code or whatever with Granny Tsunade?"
Shikamaru stopped walking to look at me. "Tsunade-sama said you left the room in a daze, and you didn't get a chance to even see the code. How did you know?"
"Because, that is something he would do." I answered simply. "Now, are you here to tell Naruto and I that you guys can't crack the code, so you need our help?"
Shikamaru only sighed again. "I forgot how troublesome this can get. Yeah, I did also want to see how you two were doing though."
Naruto remained quiet, staring at me until I looked over at him. Quickly he turned his attention over to Shikamaru. "So, are we going to go look at the code?"
Shikamaru nodded, "Yeah, but one one condition."
I raised a eyebrow, "What do you want?"
Shikamaru smirked, "We go get some food afterwards. Like I said, Yuki, you need to eat."
"Whatever." I muttered.
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Naruto and I stood at a table in the library. Naruto had a concentrating look on his face as he had his arms crossed, staring at the picture of the old frog's back. I narrowed my eyes in thought as I stared at the picture.
"Well? You two haven't said anything in a while." Shikamaru said. "Do you two have anything? We went to the fifth, and Kakashi sensei, but they couldn't think of anything. In other words, I have a hunch that Jiraiya-sama left this for the both of you to solve. There must be something in it."
The woman with the big glasses spoke softly next. "If there's anything that stands out to you, please tell us. We're not asking you to decipher the code here on the spot."
"Why is the first character a letter, but everything is a number?" I asked, making Naruto look at me.
"I was thinking the same thing!" He smiled.
Shikamaru and the blonde woman blinked in shock. "What? Where do you see a letter?" Shikamaru asked.
Naruto pointed to the letter, making Shikamru look at us like we were idiots. "Isn't that the number nine?"
I sighed, "No, that was something I used to tell Grandpa Sage, but it's the character 'ta'." When Shikamaru looked at me doubtfully I spoke again. "Look, when we traveled with Grandpa Sage for those two and a half years, well fro me more like a year and a half, he wrote all the time. And when he wrote I noticed his handwriting was a little messy. One of the characters he used to write was 'ta', obviously, and it does look like a nine."
Naruto nodded, "Yeah, I always had a hard time reading his writings when 'ta' would show up. It always looked like the number nine."
"I get it! A handwriting quirk!" The blonde woman exclaimed.
"So it was just particular handwriting?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow while picking up a pencil and writing on a piece of paper. "So this is what you mean? When writing 'ta', Jiraiya-sama had the habit of shortening the first stroke, so his third stroke would always connect with the end of the first. And since he round off the second stroke, it would look like the number nine." Shikamaru showed us on the piece of paper, which I nodded to.
The blonde woman pulled out a book. "Here it is! Look, Jiraiya-sama's writing!" She pointed over to the character 'ta' in the book.
"It matches!" Shikamaru smiled.
"Jiraiya-sama knew that Naruto, and Yuki would be able to tell the difference between nine and his habitual 'ta'. To put it simply, that was the key between those three!" She smiled
Shikamaru slammed his hand on the desk, looking at me then at Naruto. "Why didn't you tell us something this important the second you found it?"
"I wanted to make sure I was right, and you kept talking for a bit, so I thought I would make you wait." I sighed. "Anyway, shouldn't we look through Grandpa Sage's books? I bet you he hid the answers there."
The blonde woman perked up suddenly. "You're right, Yuki! The answer is hidden in one of Jiraiya-sama's books! The numbers probably refer to the order of letters, number of lines, or page numbers. The key's defiantly relate to the codes!"
Shikamaru looked back at Naruto and I. "Naruto, Yuki! Which book was it?"
Naruto and I looked at each other. "How many Icha Icha Paradise books does he have?" I muttered, "I'm sure it would be one of those."
Naruto nodded, "Those were his favorite, but which one?"
"How many books did he have?" Shikamaru ordered.
I looked at Naruto, who looked thoughtful. "I don't know, maybe four, five?"
Shikamaru smirked, "Then we will just have to look through them all."
The window opened, making up all look over at it. "This is probably the book you're looking for." Kakashi said coolly.
I raised a eyebrow, "Were you listening the entire time?"
Kakashi paused, "No. I was dropping by out of concern and heard your voices coming from here. On my way here I think I heard of most of what was going on. This is the book you were looking for."
"Icha Icha Tactics!" Naruto exclaimed. "That's right! That was the erotic novel he was writing when he was training Yuki-chan and I!"
Shikamaru smirked, "So that's it. It was something only Yuki and Naruto would know."
"The character 'ta' is on the title. This is his only book with the character 'ta' on the cover." Kakashi said.
"Spoken like a true perv..." I muttered to myself.
Kakashi blinked and looked at me. "How does that make me a perv?"
"You know all of Grandpa Sage's books by heart, all his Icha Icha paradise books, which are pervy books." I gave a small smirk.
The blonde woman with round glasses spoke again, adjusting her glasses. "Now that we've found the use of the letter in the code, it might be the letter or line orders, but the normal strategy is to first look at page numbers. Now let's examine the numbers separated by the commas. 31, 8, 106, 7, 15. Six pages in total. The first would be page number 31, please open to that page."
Kakashi sat on the window ledge as he flipped through the book, muttering the page number. "There we go. Where do we look?"
"In a situation like this, we should start by looking at the first words. Please read out the first sentence from the top of the page." The woman kindly said.
Kakashi froze, his visible eye widening as his face turned red, which I had recently been informed was called a blush and not from a fever. "W-Wait... um.."
Naruto growled impatiently, "What?! Just hurry and read it for us!" He paused looking at me before pulling me over to him. "Hang on, I don't want to ruin her innocence..." I blinked when his hands went over my ears.
I stared at Kakashi as he began to sweat, his mask was moving, which meant he was talking. Shikamaru's face was starting to lose it's normal indifferent look as Kakashi continued to talk, seeming to pause as he would turn a couple of pages. All the while, Naruto didn't lift his hands from my ears.
Once Naruto's hands finally lifted from my ears, both Kakashi and Shikamaru looked deflated and as red as a tomato. I shrugged and looked over at Naruto, who seemed to snap his head away from my direction and to the blonde woman writing.
"How'd it turn out?" Naruto asked.
"If you read the first letter of each page, it becomes... The... Real... One... Is... Not...There." She said.
Naruto tilted his head to the side. "What does that mean?"
My eyes narrowed, 'The real one is not there? Wasn't he fighting more than one person... I could have that wrong as it's just what I've heard from other people though...'
"We'll contact the toad, Fukasaku-sama, from this point on. As someone who fought Pain, he may have an idea." Kakashi smiled.
"Then I'll get the fifth to summon him right away." Shikamaru informed us, as he looked over at Kakashi.
I turned at leave, my hands going to my pockets. My eyes widened when someone grabbed my hand, making me turn around. Naruto gave a small smile, "Ne, Yuki-chan, you're coming to see Granny with us, right?"
I looked in the other direction, "I... I don't really want to see Granny Tsunade right now..." Before he could object I softly pulled my hand from his and walked past Shikamaru and the blonde woman.
"Yuki." Kakashi's voice made me pause, "Do me a favor." I glanced back at him to see him give a small smile. "Say hello to Mai sensei for me."
I blinked before nodding slightly, "Sure, Kakashi... sensei." I didn't question how he knew where I was going as I continued to walk.
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My pace slowed down as I neared the large rock, one that was still missing a name. Slowly I bent my legs as I sat down, placing the now crystallized flowers on the K.I.A stone. I sat in silence staring at the large stone that almost seemed endless of names.
"Grandpa Sage..." I muttered, my gaze going from the rock down to the ground. "You idiot... You should have let me go with you... But you had to be a idiot, and now... now you're not here anymore. You promised me that you wouldn't leave Naruto and I." I paused, wiping the tears that had started to fall down my face. "But, I know that guy, Pain, he's going to be coming for Naruto. So, in order to protect him, and to get him back for what he did to you, Grandpa Sage, I'm going to fight him."
"I wanted to come here, since like my parents, your body wasn't able to be buried, this is my way to talking to you. I've already sent a letter to Granny, she know's I'm leaving, so you don't have to worry about that. I'm going to train, so then I can protect what you died protecting." I clenched the necklace, not my mother's but the one Jiraiya had given to me, as well as the one he gave back to me.
"So, bye, Jiraiya sensei." I paused to let the smile form on my face as I stood up, the warm tears still falling from my eyes. "I won't be seeing you around I guess, and you won't have me bugging you for a couple of weeks. Oh, and Mom, Kakashi sensei says hello." With that I adjusted the backpack I had already prepacked on my back and walked away, my civilian clothes already replaced by my ninja clothes. The red stash around my hip swayed as I neared the big green gates.
I didn't act shocked as I noticed Naruto and a toad there, as well as Sakura, Shikamaru, and Tsunade. They, with the exemption of Tsunade, looked shocked to see me. Sakura looked at me with slight sympathy, as she probably knew I hated that look, she tried to hide it.
"So, Naruto-kun, you're going too?" I muttered.
The blonde idiot must have taken it the wrong way, as he seemed to grin in surprise. "Wait, you're going to be trained by the toads too?! Wait... I thought you already knew senjutsu..."
I sighed, "I'm leaving Konoha for a couple of weeks. I... I just can't train her right now, not when I have something else I need to be training on."
"Tsunade-sama!" Sakura's eyes widened, "You're letting Yuki leave, by herself?"
Tsunade looked at me, before looking at Sakura. "Yeah, she already informed me earlier today."
"But Tsunade-sama-" Sakura was cut off by Tsunade.
"Enough, Sakura. I'll speak about this later." Tsunade said.
I walked over to Naruto, giving him a small smile. "I guess I'll see you... Now, you better master that senjutsu, or I won't let you live it down!"
Naruto chuckled, "No problem! You won't even be able to believe it, datebayo! The next time you see me, Yuki-chan, I'll be on a while other level!"
"You better be." I smiled softly.
"But you have to do me a favor now." I blinked at Naruto as he suddenly grew serious. "First, you have to make sure to eat something, I know how you get... Secondly, you have to make sure to master whatever you're going to be doing.." He paused as he suddenly reached out and grabbed my waist, tilting my head up as he pulled me to him. My eyes widened as his lips met mine before he let go and grinned. "And lastly, think about that. Bye, Yuki-chan!"
With that the old toad too that as a signal and poofed away, bringing Naruto with him. I stood frozen, my eyes wide as my lips were parted in shock. When realization finally hit me my face erupted in flames as I let my bands shadow my eyes. "B-Baka..." I whispered.
I ignored Sakura's squealing and Shikamaru and Tsunade's laughter as I finally started walking. "Yuki-san! Do your best!" Sakura finally shouted, as she got over her squeezing. "I can't wait to tell Ino... And rub it in Ichiru's face..."
I sighed, my face still burning as I started walking towards my now destination. Naruto's words still echoing in my mind. 'And lastly, think about that!' I gripped my skirt as I jumped up towards the trees, looking for the hidden route.
"How am I supposed to train if I'm thinking about that?" I whispered to myself as I jumped threw the trees. Suddenly pausing as I bit my thumb, "Shit, I almost forgot..." I performed handsigns before slamming my hand on the branch of the tree.
Once the smoke cleared a black and red wold with a red mark across his eye was sitting in front of me. He blinked before grinning a wolfish grin at me, "Yuki-sama! What can I do for you?"
"I need you to go back to Konoha. If anything happens there, and Tsunade sends you, come and get me. I trust that your nose is great at finding me, right?"
He nodded, "No problem! I've been training to be more of a tracker anyway, so this can really test me, Yuki-sama. Does Hokage-sama know I'm coming?"
"She probably does, as she will realize I forgot to summon you before I left. Thank you, Fang." I gave a soft smile as the wolf took off towards Konoha. Although, instead of thinking back to my plans, my mind was brought back to Naruto's kiss, which ended with my face burning and a frustrated scream from me.
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End of Chapter 61! I hope you guys liked it, especially the ending! :3 I'm getting pretty excited to write Pain's battle, so if my excitedness (I don't think that is even a word... but eh...) ends up making the next chapter or two a little boring or rushed then I appoligise and I will try my best not to make that mistake.
And, since it is summer, I will try to make another update under these conditions... I get ten votes, and ten comments, from different people this time :)
This is not edited...