It All Started With A Smell

Key

He had hoped that the code wouldn't be too difficult for the Leaf cryptographers to decipher. Surely Jiraiya would think to make the code something the Leaf would know. Apparently not. Shikamaru forced the Decipher Division in only for them to work themselves into the ground with no result. Shikamaru had brushed up on everything about codes and breaking them. He was trying to think of something that could help them but found it difficult when one of the cryptographers, Shiho, kept staring at him.

Finally, running his hands frustratingly through his hair and successfully pulling out the elastic, he turned to the head of the Decipher Division. After evaluating the intelligence of the man, he determined that the man knew how to do his job, and probably very well considering he wasn't particularly old.

"Jiraiya is a great spy master, so he wouldn't use the typical Leaf codes, especially when dealing with an Akatsuki. So how do you decipher a code from a great spy master?" Shikamaru crossed his arms, waiting for the man to think over the question.

"Well, usually they leave some sort of clue behind that we can use to figure it out. The key to the code." At Shikamaru's encouraging nod, the man went on. "Usually the key is something people who live in the same village and interact with them would know. But this code is strange, none of the keys we have thought of work. We tried the release dates of all his books, but none of them were realised on the ninth day, or the ninth month. No significant dates on the ninth... nothing that we can think of that is all numbers."

"Has anyone thought to check his apartment for clues?" Shikamaru asked, looking at the owlish stares he received in reply. With a sigh, he started heading towards the door. "One of you will have to come with me, since you will recognise the key better than I will."

"I'll go," Shiho volunteered in a chipper voice.

Lady Tsunade had given them a box of Jiraiya's personal belongings, including the keys to his apartment. Entering the place felt wrong. Of course, he had never been in Jiraiya's apartment but wasn't surprised that it was a small place, since he rarely stayed there. However, it was full of items. It wasn't cluttered, or even well-furnished. However, there were trinkets from his travels and photos. Shikamaru was surprised to see that Jiraiya had an entire wall in his living room covered in photos. The couch was facing it too, as though he sat on the lounge on the rare occasions he was home and stared at the wall.

As Shiho scurried around looking for anything that could be a key, squeaking in surprise when Shikamaru warned her not to break anything, he went to inspect the wall. There was nothing of particular note about the arrangement of the pictures, or the design of the frames. There was nothing that could be classed as a code within the wall. It was simply sentimental. To be sure, Shikamaru studied every photo. There was a mixture of oldest and newest with no real pattern.

There were pictures of Jiraiya's team with a much younger Third Hokage as his Sensei, there were pictures of him and Lady Tsunade at various bars, some with a white haired man in them as well, with his arm around Lady Tsunade. There were pictures of the Fourth Hokage as a child with his team, and Jiraiya lording behind him with a large grin on his face. There were ones of the Fourth as he grew up, like someone would expect a father to have on his wall. As the Fourth got older a red haired woman joined the pictures.

Shikamaru was surprised to see that next to a picture of the Fourth and the red head who was possibly his wife, or future wife, was a picture of Naruto and Shikamaru sitting on Shikamaru's porch playing shogi. He didn't even know the picture had been taken, nor did he know about the picture underneath it that had him and Naruto asleep in a hospital bed. It would have been taken moments before Jiraiya woke him up. There were almost as many pictures of Naruto as there was of the Fourth. Jiraiya even had, what Shikamaru assumed was a baby photo of Naruto. The baby had a tuff of bright blonde hair, whisker marks on her cheeks, blue eyes, and a swirling seal on her stomach.