青い骨の美 - The Beauty of Blue Bones

Chapter 36

Summer
Tuesday—8PM

Tsunade was going to kill him if she found out what he had been up to.

Naruto waved at the guards as he walked through the gates of Konoha. A small smile was on his lips as he signed in, letting them know that he was back from his 'mission' for a short while to speak with Kakashi and catch up with the others.

Of course, that had just been a lie so he wouldn't appear suspicious as he walked through the village. The sun had yet to fully set, and there were a few villagers out and about, but he kept to the rooftops.

His clothes, or his bright orange pants, had been traded in for a mute colour so as to not bring any attention to himself. Sasuke would absolutely beat his ass for failing the operation just because he wanted to announce his arrival by being an eyesore. [Seriously, why the hell did Sasuke even hate the colour orange? It was the best colour to ever exist.]

Slipping into the hospital was easier than he expected; then again, he was very well known and no one expected him to show up so he could steal some files for personal reasons.

The nurses smiled and waved at him; the patients greeted him when they saw him.

Taking the stairs down to the basement, the people he saw thinned out until it was just him walking around. The basement was dark and cold; it was usually where they kept the dead bodies and that thought made a shiver run down his spine.

"Just in and out." Naruto muttered.

It took him a few minutes to find the archive room, and when he did, he mentally gasped at the sheer size of the thing. He didn't think that the Konoha hospital was around for so long to garner such an extensive collection of files. The shelves went from floor to ceiling, and stretched for what seemed like miles.

"Who knew this space was under Konoha all along." He marvelled. "Alright, now I need to find files from two decades ago." He groaned. "Gah, I can't even summon any help without spiking my chakra." He patted his pockets, "and I forgot the sealing scrolls! Oh, Sasuke is going to be pissed."

The sound of footsteps made him freeze. Instantly finding himself in between some shelves, he was glad that his attire was mostly black as the person walked in. He couldn't get a good look at them, but he could tell that they knew what they were looking for.

Naruto held his breath as he watched the person walk further into the archives until they disappeared. Yet he didn't make any move until he saw them walk back out again with a file in hand.

Shuffling out of his hiding spot, he glanced at the door again and quickly ran down the aisles.

"I'm sure there's a clipboard somewhere—" His eyes sparkled as he caught sight of what he was looking for. Grabbing the clipboard, he flipped through the pages until he landed on the section he needed to find. "Thanks for your organization skills." He set the clipboard back.

With a few detours, Naruto finally found the section he was searching for. He, however, frowned upon seeing just how many files he had to deal with.

"It's just the birth and check up files, right? It wouldn't be something like broken bones or whatever." He fingered through the boxes. "I think it's these." He pulled down three boxes worth of paperwork and groaned. "I just had to forget the sealing scrolls, didn't I?"

"Use those godforsaken toads." Kurama groaned. "They have sealing abilities."

"Yeah, but I'd be using chakra, I don't want to alert anyone in the area. Sasuke's ability would have been really great right now."

"You're stupid."

"I'm not."

"How many shinobi are able to keep up with you if you run?"