The Burned Letters

When the windows on the third floor of the Hokage Building exploded, they lit up half of Central Street.

Charred scraps of paper drifted down from the night sky. A few landed on the long table, their edges still glowing. Uchiha Tekka caught one and saw half an Uzumaki Clan crest. The rest of the writing had burned away.

Naruto looked up from the scrap.

The Advisors' Office.

The sealed cabinet.

It had caught fire just as Mitokado Homura finished speaking.

The timing was too perfect, as if someone had been waiting for those words.

Several dark figures sprang from the side of the Hokage Building through the firelight and fled toward the rooftops.

They weren't dressed as ANBU.

Nor were they ordinary Chunin.

They wore unmarked gray ninja outfits and disposable cloth masks. They moved fast, splitting up toward the administrative district and the supply warehouses instead of heading out of the village.

More than one group was destroying evidence.

A Chakra tail lashed out from behind Naruto.

The first figure had barely leaped onto a roof when a Chakra arm wrapped around his ankle and yanked him down into a water vat beside the street.

The second threw a smoke bomb.

Gold flashed in Naruto's eyes. Nine-Tails Chakra pierced the smoke like a spear of fire, driving through the man's shoulder and pinning him to a wall.

The third was about to reach the administrative district.

Uchiha Tekka chased him down with the Konoha Military Police Force and swept his scabbard across the man's knees, breaking them.

The fourth was the slyest.

He didn't run far. Instead, he slipped into the crowd, took off his mask, and tried to pass himself off as a villager watching the commotion.

Naruto turned toward him.

The man's face went pale, and he bolted.

Naruto didn't give chase.

A Chakra arm shot along the paving stones, seized the back of his neck, and hauled him back to the long table like a chicken.

The four arsonists were thrown to the ground.

Two tried to bite into poison capsules, but Naruto sealed their jaws shut first.

Mitokado Homura slumped nearby, his face ashen.

Utatane Koharu leaned on her cane. For the first time, fear showed in her eyes.

Naruto walked over to the man who had tried to hide in the crowd and crouched.

"Who told you to burn them?"

The man kept his mouth shut.

Naruto picked up a charred page from the table and pressed it against his face.

Ash clung to his skin, leaving a black streak.

"These are the letters my parents left me."

"Did you know that when you burned them?"

The man's eyes flickered.

He knew.

Naruto had seen it.

He pressed a hand to the man's forehead, and an Uzumaki Sealing Technique bored into the edge of his consciousness.

It wasn't mind reading.

But it was enough to pry open the Cursed Seal.

The man wasn't from Root.

He was an operative kept by the Advisors' Office.

The Hokage Advisors had no command over the army, but they had their own people.

A system notification sounded.

[Clue to the Advisors' Office's secret ledgers detected.]

[Stage objective updated: recover parents' letters and seal off the Advisors' Office.]

Naruto stood.

"Tekka."

Uchiha Tekka returned with another arsonist in custody, his expression grim.

"Yes?"

"Seal off the Advisors' Office."

Tekka looked toward the Third Hokage.

This had gone beyond the Konoha Military Police Force's authority.

The Third Hokage said nothing.

Naruto looked at him.

"Third Hokage, you have two choices."

"Let the Konoha Military Police Force investigate."

"Or I'll tear the whole Hokage Building apart to investigate it myself."

Smoke still rose from the third floor of the Hokage Building.

Administrative Ninja stood outside, unsure whether to put out the fire or evacuate the records.

The Third Hokage closed his eyes. When he opened them, his voice was hoarse.

"Investigate."

Utatane Koharu shrieked, "Hiruzen!"

The Third Hokage looked at her.

"You'd better hope there's nothing else."

He wasn't defending them.

He was cutting them loose.

Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu both understood.

Naruto paid no attention to their expressions.

He headed for the Hokage Building.

The crowd parted again.

This time, he was followed not only by the Konoha Military Police Force, but also by several Konoha Jonin and Administrative Ninja who had volunteered to help.

They wanted to know how much else the Hokage Building held that couldn't bear the light of day.

The Advisors' Office was on the east side of the third floor.

Its door had been blown open, and smoke billowed inside.

When Naruto stepped in, half-burned documents lay scattered across the floor. The sealed cabinet by the wall stood open, its lock visibly forced.

A female clerk from the Advisors' Office knelt in a corner, clutching a wound on her arm. Her face was deathly pale.

She wasn't an arsonist.

She had tried to stop them and been stabbed for it.

Naruto walked over.

"What was in the cabinet?"

The clerk's lips trembled. She looked first at the Third Hokage, then at Mitokado Homura.

Naruto blocked her view.

"Look at me."

Tears spilled down the clerk's face.

"Three letters... and a copy of Lady Kushina Uzumaki's personal notes, and a draft of Lord Fourth Hokage's postwar arrangements."

Naruto's fingers paused.

"What did the draft say?"

The clerk shook her head, crying.

"I only handled storage. I wasn't allowed to read it. But six years ago, the Advisor personally took it out, then brought it back. When the fire started today, I saw someone take a small iron box before setting the cabinet on fire."

A small iron box.

Naruto turned toward Mitokado Homura, who had been brought in under guard.

Mitokado Homura forced out, "I don't know anything about an iron box."

The clerk jerked her head up.

"The cabinet was opened with your personal seal!"

Mitokado Homura's expression changed.

Utatane Koharu snapped, "A lowly clerk dares slander an Advisor?"

Naruto walked up to her.

"Shut up."

Utatane Koharu went rigid.

Naruto didn't touch her. But the look in those golden, slit-pupiled eyes chilled her more than a blow would have.

Uchiha Tekka searched the burned cabinet and soon found a piece that had fallen from the iron box's lock.

A faint trace of a seal lingered on it.

Naruto took it, and a formula lit up in his palm.

Golden lines extended from the lock fragment, pointing behind the Hokage Building.

Not to the Advisors' Office.

To a supply warehouse.

Tekka immediately said, "I'll take a team."

Naruto shook his head.

"I'll go."

He leaped out the window.

Nine-Tails Chakra spread behind him like a burning cloak, carrying him down toward the warehouse.

Two guards already lay on the ground outside.

Black smoke seeped from beneath the door.

Naruto kicked the warehouse doors open.

Old records and supplies inside were burning.

Deep in the flames, a masked man held an iron box. An explosive tag was in his hand, already pressed against the lid.

He saw Naruto and immediately moved to detonate it.

Naruto vanished from the doorway.

An instant later, he appeared before the man and caught the explosive tag between his fingers.

The Sealing Jutsu froze the tag in place.

The man's pupils contracted.

Naruto shattered his mask with one punch.

Underneath was the face of an Administrative Ninja.

Naruto didn't recognize him.

But a bronze badge from the Hokage Advisor Office hung on his chest.

Naruto seized the iron box.

The lid was already hot from the fire.

He opened it. Inside lay two half-charred letters and a tiny charm braided from yellow hair.

Only half of the third letter remained.

Naruto picked up that half-sheet.

A few lines were still legible.

"If Naruto ever asks about us, please tell him he isn't the Demon Fox."

"He is the child Minato and I gave everything to protect."

The signature had burned away.

But Naruto knew who had written it.

Kushina Uzumaki.

Outside the warehouse, the Third Hokage and the others arrived.

Naruto stood amid the flames, the half-burned letter in his hand.

Firelight played across his face.

He turned to the Third Hokage.

"She asked you to tell me."

"Did you?"