The Fox's Son

Chapter 48 - Research

Naruto had been inside the room for two hours now, looking through the shelves for an ancient demon that the demon slayer doubt existed. Speaking of said demon slayer, the woman felt her patience begin to wane as she stood at the entrance, waiting for the red head. She was already tired from working on her weapon and standing in one place for a long period of time wasn't helping her situation.

"Have you found it, yet?" Sango called out from the entrance.

Naruto gave a simple 'Hn' as he continued to search through the scrolls on ancient foxes. He sweat-dropped to himself at how Uchiha-like he sounded at the moment. In his searches, he haven't exactly found what he was looking for. Many of the foxes he had found had just pissed off a lord or two for stealing heirlooms and stuff of that nature. Others had just pissed off a few villages. He sweat dropped again at this. None of them could truly come close to the being he desired.

Despite of that disappoint, Naruto had to admit that the slayers archives were quite impressive. The cave chamber they were currently in was about 50 feet in diameter and about 20 feet in height with scrolls stacked on top of each on shelves in an organized fashion. They were arranged by the most recent demons being near the entrance and the older ones being deeper within the chamber. They had everything from dogs to wolves to snakes, having information on an innumerable amount of other demonic specimens.

The red head sighed as he was about to give up when an old, worn dusty scroll placed in a back corner, caught his eye. He grabbed it and inspected scroll, knowing that it definitely old, possibly the oldest one there from the looks of it.. He coughed as dust from the scroll flew in his face as he unrolled the scroll.

Sango noticed this and immediately walked over, much to the suspicion of Naruto. "Found anything?" she inquired.

Naruto sent her a glance before shrugging his shoulders. "Let's see." he said as he paid full attention to the open scroll in his hand. The kanji were blurred and worn from moisture and time, but some things where slightly legible.

Eight beasts with ulim - power - Bri - eath - struction - greater - dis - gone - nine - The end of all things.....

Well that most certainly answered his question. It definitely was the scroll he was looking for. However, the kanji were too worn to be read correctly. At that thought, he unrolled the scroll some more to be greeted with the sighting of a painting. He immediately recognized the two beast portrayed in it - Shukaku and Gyuki. They were all arranged in a circle. However, that is not what caught Naruto's attention.

In the middle of the circle, was a background of flames that seemed to form 9 fox tails. The picture was blurry so the figure couldn't be made out clearly to the naked eye. However, Naruto knew who or what it was. It was the Kyuubi. It was him. It was his father. Naruto sighed as he rolled the scroll back up before placing it back where he found it. 'Well that definitely affirms Midoriko's story....' he thought to himself as he stood.

He turned to Sango and smiled as she looked at the scroll curiously. "Well, I couldn't find anything of value, unfortunately. But, thanks for helping, Lady Sango." he said.

Sango smiled and nodded. "You go ahead. I want to look up something." she said. Naruto shrugged with indifference and walked away, knowing just what the tajiya planned on looking up.

Once Naruto was gone, she immediately moved to pick up the scroll he had been previously reading. She unrolled it fully and began to scan the text. She immediately noticed the picture, Naruto seemed to be studying earlier. She looked at the faded drawing in the middle. It wasn't eligible enough to recognize, however, she did see flames sprout out that took form of nine tails. This peaked her curiosity even more.

She looked at the kanji writing that was smeared and worn. Looking on, two kanji caught her eye immediately. 'Jinchuriki' and 'Kyuubi' were one of the few words that were eligible enough to read, but nonetheless, it was there. Sango narrowed her eyes in thought as her eyes traveled back to the blurred picture. She began to go inspect the nine flames that appeared as tails. Tails.......

'Wait a minute.......' she said to herself before her eyes widened in recognition. 'Aren't those fox tails?!' she exclaimed to herself. Her eyes traveled back to the two words she had highlighted in her mind. 'There must be a connection......' she thought inwardly as she looked back to where it said jinchuriki and tried to read the broken text.

-Jinchuriki only o- the-- stop --- nine.......

It wasn't favorite, but more or less, it gave her an idea. From what she could make out, the jinchuriki supposedly were the only ones that could beat these creatures. Perhaps, that was what Naruto was looking for. Maybe he was looking for this creature to defeat it. To her, it seemed rational considering that he was powerful, something that was still yet unknown to her. If that were so, why did he say he differently?

Maybe she should take this to Kagome. Perhaps someone from her time could find a way to read the scroll. She silently rolled it up and pocketed the scroll, out of sight from the red head........or so she thought. As she made her way back to Naruto, Naruto smirked under his mask. 'You know people have a bad habit of always underestimating me....' he mused to himself as she approached him.

"Ready?" Sango asked, smiling at Naruto. Naruto nodded and the duo made their way out of the chamber.