Chapter 72: Records

Rin nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard someone speaking behind her, addressing her from the window. "And I presume you have an explanation for your injury, Rin?" Orooon asked softly from where he peered in the window.

She turned to look at the kitsune, feeling guilty. She always felt guilty for those mysteriously occurred injuries. Mostly she felt bad because she simply wasn't sure what she'd done to deserve them. "Not really," she said quietly. She watched him swiftly enter the bathroom through the window.

It seemed Orooon wasn't going to listen to her and stay on her new property. She wasn't sure if she was surprised or not. The city was keeping an eye on her with their ANBU guards dogging her every movement. Why would Orooon leave her safety up to chance?

"Let me see," he told her firmly. It didn't take long for him to assess the damage and flick her forehead in chastisement. "You cause so much damage to yourself, girl. Stay here, and don't bump it. I'll go get something to splint the injury."

The red head quickly returned with straight branches and he used the gauze from the bathroom's first aid kit to hold her splints in place. "Why does it happen, Orooon?" she asked the fox, watching his pointed ears twitch.

"I do not know. Perhaps it is not happening to you; perhaps these injuries are the mirror of your brother." He leaned back. "Perhaps what you feel are his pains… I have no explanation otherwise."

"If this is the pain Naruto feels, I'd gladly take it so that he doesn't have to." She sighed. "Today, I meet the clansmen who will 'swear fealty' to me. It's really a load of hogwash, Orooon. Not a single one of them are going to be happy…"

"You cannot please everyone." Orooon told her. "Just do what you feel is right, and seek guidance where you can afford it."

xXx

Neji frowned. He was once more down in the basement of Hokage Tower, in the hall of records. This time he had come prepared, with a bigger idea of what to look for. He was determined to figure out what the Uzumaki blood trait was, even if he regretted it later on. He had bits and pieces that made no sense. But he was determined to figure this out.

He took the Uzumaki clan White book and Black book to a table and sat down at it with a pen and paper. The empty graves of Yondaime Hokage and his wife bothered Neji greatly. Neji wanted to know what Hiyashi had known, and he wanted to be aware of why it was Hiyashi hated Naruto and Rin so much.

And damn it, why in the name of Fate's mother did Neji have to be involved in all this? He had a perfectly normal life. He realized, of course, that all his internal whinging was getting annoying—even to him! Not, of course, that he was complaining or allowing anyone to know that this whole situation really bothered him… no. He wasn't bothered.

The place to start, Neji was certain it was here. There was no such thing as mere coincidence. There was something to be known about the births and deaths. The clan records went back as far as H.E. 224. The names they used at that time were rather ridiculous and honestly barbaric sounding, but the clan at that time had a huge number of births.

Neji counted the number of registered births that year. Since every birth was twins, he was easily able to presume the clan was enormous… probably even in the thousands. Some of the names of those registered were Huitzilin, Chimalpopoca, and Acamapichtli. He wrote those names down, determined to find out what origin they were.

He compared the log of deaths with the log of births. Very few people seemed to die for the next twenty years—in fact, so few seemed to die, it was almost ridiculous. In H.E. 244-246, the clan saw a record number of deaths; over one thousand people died. Neji wrote that down, wanting to research why those people died.

Every year following H.E. 246, the younger twin died within ten days of their birth. Why? He was sure he would find the answer…

H.E. 250 was where the logs suddenly stopped providing very much detail. It was as if thousands of people suddenly weren't having children… Thousands of people weren't bothering dying. Every fifteen to twenty years, twins were born. Within ten days, one of them would be recorded dead… Was this their blood trait?

Neji wasn't sure if he was making any sense of this like he wanted to, or if he was just confusing himself more. Having the information from the White and Black books that he needed (he just hoped he didn't get caught coming here without permission…) he left the clan hall of records.

He wanted to understand this. For two hundred years, it seemed the clan dwindled down into next to nothing. It went from being larger than all the other clans combined at the time of Konohagakure's birth, to being barely three people alive at once. Now in H.E. 466, the clan was 'growing' again…

He wondered how likely it was that any of these people would be loyal to Rin and Naruto? Neji wasn't precisely a loyal subject of the clan. He had a job to do, and either he could do it willingly or in extreme pain, but one way or another, his job would be done. He couldn't go against Hiyashi.

But really, why would he want to go against Hiyashi? Why would he even consider it, when it was his freedom he would gain from all of this? The caged bird seal would be removed, and he could return to his clan a free man. It was what every branch Hyuuga dreamed of; that freedom to do what they wanted.

He wasn't even entirely sure what he was looking for at this point; more than he was scrambling for details he didn't even know existed. He just kept going over the facts in his mind… Everything that he knew, that he found out, but that didn't make sense.

Thinking about all the things he had come across, Neji soon found himself at a table in a small café, his notebook out once again and trying desperately to piece the details together into something that made sense.

First things first: Rin Uzumaki. She appeared out of nowhere. Where the bloody hell did she come from? It was like she simply appeared. Finding out where she was all these years, and why no one knew about her would be the first step in finding out what the hell was going on.

So what did he know about Rin?

Well he knew she had no shame. That was the most prominent feature in his mind about her. She may have been raised by citizens with lesser values… perhaps in a less fortunate district. Everyone knew that the crime rate was higher in some districts in Konohagakure. It didn't help the people there at all that due to a higher crime rate and a need for more patrols in the area, they were taxed higher and thus had a more difficult time saving money to move.

She disliked constrictions, abhorred footwear, and her back was littered in old scar markings. Those traits could also be from how she grew up. He'd seen many people in various low income districts. The men, women, and children were generally unwashed, underfed, and wore scraps of clothing where they could afford it. Those sorts of people did not generally leave their districts and being born to such places was almost like being born into slavery.

It was those small details that made him presume her low upbringing. However, if she was in fact from one of the slum districts, which one was it? More importantly, how did she manage to get out? Who brought her to believe she was an Uzumaki? There was still a chance that she was a fake… but given the birth records, twins was highly predominant in the Uzumaki bloodline. He thought about going back to find out if there was a single birth anywhere in the records, but decided it was better simply noted for now. Surely such a birth would have stuck out at him with how closely he'd pored over those records.

He knew Rin had strange tattoos on her body as well. As he ate his lunch, not entirely sure of when he'd ordered the food, he drew an image of the tattoos and wrote down a description of where it was on her. He'd never seen those markings before, anywhere, in any records.

The markings might even be something that Hiyashi would want to know about too. There was that strange photo of Rin—he was positive it was Rin in the picture… Rin, with Yondaime Hokage, another woman who looked like her, and …a demon who looked remarkably similar to Naruto.

But it couldn't be her. That picture was dated sixteen years ago. And though that barbaric creature in the photo looked like Naruto, there was really no way it could have honestly been the bubbly blonde dolt.

What else did he have to look at? And why was he looking at this stuff again? He did have a natural and rather insane curiosity about the Uzumaki now.

He did know there hadn't been a single death in the last century to be recorded on the Memorial Stone, and he could presume that Naruto's father had been Yondaime Hokage. Something strange he found was that if Naruto's father was indeed the Yondaime, then he wasn't recorded on the Memorial Stone. No… There was a statue of him but even that didn't say his actual name. It was as if the Yondaime Hokage had become nothing but a legend, and a fleeting one at that.

Neji might be able to fit more pieces in this mystery if he found out more about the Yondaime Hokage, because that was a curious mystery. No one ever questioned who the Yondaime was, if he was truly alive or dead. The suggestion of the empty grave could indicate he didn't have a body to bury, or that maybe he was still alive and the burial was a cover up for whatever reason.

From what they had been taught growing up, Yondaime Hokage was killed sealing the demon Kyuubi away… Sealing the demon in Naruto. His son? Of all the people to choose from in the city… hundreds of babies, he chose Naruto. Why? Was that even significant?

Neji had seen Naruto's bare ass enough times to know that Naruto didn't have the same markings Rin did. Those memories were ones Neji could do without, but regardless they were there. Neji would have preferred very much if Naruto would start having a care for propriety. Somehow he doubted Naruto would for anyone's sake.

The barbaric names of the first recorded Uzumaki clansmen, and the… Damn, Neji's life had taken such a boring turn… Not that he was normally Mr. Excitement, but what did he have to show for his life recently other than a notebook full of the most ridiculous and presumptive ideas that anyone could possibly have come up with…

There was no way that Yondaime Hokage could possibly still be alive, because the seal he was said to have used on Naruto was one that would have killed him. There was no other way around it. Neji sighed. Seriously, what was he thinking?

xXx

"I'm telling you, it's not coming off." Naruto complained as Sasuke kicked at a vent shaft grate. It felt like they'd been in the vent for hours. Naruto was feeling incredibly grimy, and he didn't doubt Sasuke felt exactly the same.

The vents were coated in thousands of years worth of dust and sand from where parts of the city must have collapsed and the desert above got into the city. Naruto wasn't entirely sure how the sand might have migrated to seemingly every part of the city vents, because the air was stagnant, but that was merely in the back of his mind especially when he saw Sasuke slump in front of him, breathing shallowly and holding his rib cage slightly.

"Hey, you okay?" Naruto asked his friend.

Sasuke sent him a baleful glare, his face illuminated by the beams of light from their flashlights. For once, Naruto really took a moment to look his friend over. Sasuke's face was paler than usual and little beads of perspiration had formed on his forehead and his black eyes were shadowed with pain.

And, as usual, Sasuke responded with a snippy tone of voice almost as if he were king of the world, and how dare Naruto ask such a stupid, ridiculous question. "Do you think I'm okay? It's thanks to your idiocy I may have broken ribs."

"Like I'm any better off!" Naruto snapped, affronted by Sasuke's accusing words. "My arm is broken!"

"My ribs could pierce my lungs, and I could drown to death of my own blood." Sasuke shot back. "Shut up and help me kick off this grate."

"If it wanted to come off, it would have by now. Clearly it doesn't want to come off." Naruto was tired, his arm hurt like nobody's business, and he honestly just wanted to sit for a moment and catch his breath. He figured they had to have crawled for miles in the vents, running into dead ends, collapsed sections of the vents that were either just sealed off by fallen rubble or else their vent shaft opened into vast nothingness and they would stare down at a huge canyon leading into the depths of the earth.

"You're speaking about a vent grate, Naruto. It doesn't have a choice in the matter. I want it off, therefore, we are going to get it off. I'm tired of being in this vent, okay?" Sasuke said through grit teeth.

"What's the purpose of getting it off? You saw how easily this old hunk of ruins falls apart. For all we know this could be one of the dead ends leading into the center of the earth and that huge, gaping black hole of death that wants to eat us alive." Naruto argued.

"Why is it every time you want to argue or do something, you end up completely overdramatizing it?" Sasuke demanded. He kicked at the grate again.

"I do not!" Naruto retorted, holding his preciously broken arm to him.

"Our first mission." Sasuke said. "You stabbed yourself."

"I didn't stab myself! If I recall correctly, I had to use my best shirt to stop you from bleeding to death."

"What are you even talking about?"

Naruto growled and glared at Sasuke. "That old bag's cat clawed you near to death!"

"Oh for fuck's sake. You don't seriously consider finding the cat a real mission…" Sasuke trailed off, "Right. This is you. And if I am recalling correctly, it was a tiny scrape on my arm; there wasn't even any blood."

As Sasuke smashed his heel on the grate again it started to come off the wall. Naruto winced. "Sasuke, stop. We'll find another—"

Sasuke pounded on it some more.

"Another what, Naruto? You think we might find signs somewhere in this vent saying, 'This way to stairs'. Right. You go ahead and keep searching. I am getting out of here." With every other word, he hit the grate again, and at last it came off. Sasuke heaved out a breath and relaxed. "This is worse than hell." He moaned as they heard the grate hit water below them.

Curious, Naruto crawled around Sasuke, peering out the hole. Probably fifteen feet beneath them was a rather stagnant water source; the only movement the water saw was where the grate had gone through it. "Sasuke… I think we're a lot further down in the city than we ougtta be."

"Oh, so now you're suddenly an expert?"

Naruto looked up at the open air outside the vent, his flashlight lighting up long, circular tube shafts. "I never said I was an expert! Damn, Sasuke, why do you always have to do that?"

"Do what?" he asked, shifting so he could peer out the hole as well. "Take charge of the situation and try to find a way out of it?"

"No, you always--… Never mind…"

"Never mind what?" Sasuke asked. "Because there you go. Chickening out when you've got something to say."

"What are you saying?" Naruto demanded.

"Just shut up and get out of the vent." Sasuke said.

"Get out of the vent into nasty ass water? Who knows how far down that goes, and my arm's broken. I can't swim with a broken," Sasuke grabbed Naruto's ear, pinching the foxy appendage. Naruto did not see the advantage of having the extra ears, especially when Sasuke had such a good grip on it. "Ahhh! That fucking hurts!"

"Use chakra to keep yourself up!" Sasuke snapped.

"Yeah, because we saw how well that worked on the wall!" Naruto retorted.

It was at that point that Sasuke practically rolled himself out of the vent, like he had something to prove to Naruto. The blond reached out to grab his friend but he wasn't fast enough. Thankfully Sasuke was fine; he landed on the water, held up by his chakra. Naruto frowned and carefully inched toward the edge of the vent as Sasuke's flashlight beam lit on his face. He really didn't feel like jumping out of the vent, fearing the incredibly likely chance he'd jostle his painfully broken arm, but he no longer had an option.

He did it anyway, nearly losing balance when he did jostle his arm. He bit his lip as Sasuke steadied him. They walked around on the water for what felt like hours, Sasuke giving Naruto the silent treatment once again.

Well of course that didn't matter. One minute they were walking on the scummy water, the next they heard a scream from above. Naruto and Sasuke tried to locate where the scream originated, and then with a thud and a splash, Sasuke was suddenly sinking into the liquid.

Naruto turned around, seeing bubbles and the murky water had been disturbed, but his friend was distinctly gone. "Sasuke?" he searched around, looking for the raven. Then Sasuke burst out of the water, coughing and choking, spitting up nasty brown liquid. "Sasuke, you okay?" Naruto asked him.

Another head burst out of the muck, gasping for air. The beam from Naruto's light hit that dirty head and Naruto was stunned. "Hey! You're that girl I was chasing." Naruto insisted. He quickly went to help her, pulling her out of the brown nastiness. Meanwhile, Sasuke was attempting to glare at Naruto for not helping him. He had brown goo in his eyes, which made glaring difficult.

Naruto continued to ignore him as he helped Kagome out of the muck. "Ew. So gross." Kagome said.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked her. "Did you hurt anything?"

"Me." Sasuke grumbled. "Now my ribs really hurt."

Naruto did not pay attention to his "silent treatmenting" friend. If Sasuke wanted to play games, Naruto would play back. "Oh, I'm alright, I think." Kagome said quietly, wiping her face of with her equally filthy arm. "Ugh, so gross."

Sasuke pulled himself on top of the water, steadying himself with chakra. "Thanks for your concern, Naruto. I feel the love."

"Yeah? Well, you felt the love last week. Oh wait, you were too drunk to remember."

"I'll thank you, but I remember every detail." Sasuke said, spitting more goop out of his mouth.

"Like how you were the girl."

"Hello guys, but please?" Kagome asked impatiently, clinging to Naruto's good arm. "Where are we? Have you seen Aoife?" At that moment, another body flew into Sasuke from above, knocking him down into the muck again. "Oh, there she is. Your friend seems to be poorly positioned."

Naruto glanced upward. "Is that the last of you guys?"

"Mhm." Kagome nodded.

Hi. I've been stuck lately on all my stories. I've got starts to several of them and hope to keep the flow going but I feel that something is missing here with my work. Any ideas to push me going again would be greatly appreciated. If you don't have ideas or help for me, please expect the next chapter will be slow coming. Thank you.