The Lone Princess (A Naruto Fanfiction)

Chapter 30: There's More To Life Than Revenge

Akira's POV

     Could it be?

     Did the Akatsuki actually manage to capture Tiger???

     My head was in overdrive, and I tried to calm myself as the possibility scared me to the core. I shook my head and stood up again to face Jiraiya-sama, "That doesn't make sense! The only reason they'd take Tiger is because of the celestial beast within him. So why did they leave me? If they got Tiger, wouldn't it be easy to get me in my unconscious state?" I asked in confusion and panic. This time, Jiraiya-sama didn't say anything but was deep in thought with concern and confusion in his eyes.

     "Your celestial beast's uncommon silence could be a hint. But in any case, it's almost certain that the Akatsuki took him," Jiraiya said, "We should inform Lady Tsunade immediately!" 

     That's what we wanted, but she was currently in an important meeting with the elders regarding her being the hokage. She would be out in the next hour but how could I possibly wait an hour? Who knows what would have happened to him in the couple days I've been clueless. 

     I walked through the streets with a frown. I could barely keep my calm, and I had to wait for an hour. I decided to leave on my own, regardless of Jiraiya-sama's warnings of not leaving the village without permission. I can't just sit around and wait knowing Tiger could be suffering for the past few days. Even if there's a small chance of him being alive, I'm going to track him down and save him.

     I ran towards the hidden cave where we first met, to find it expectantly but hopelessly empty. I was about to leave before I spotted a shiny object in the dark. I proceeded towards the shiny object hidden in a large crack in the wall and peered at it to take a closer look. I tugged on the silver cylinder shape, pulling it harder when I realized it was jammed in there.

     When I finally secured it in my hand, I walked out of the cave to observe it in the sunlight and scrunched my face up in confusion seeing as it was nothing special. Just a stupid metal part of God knows what jammed into a crack in the cave. I scratched at it and felt it up to see if it was really nothing, and I felt a tiny bump -- different to the smooth texture of the cylinder -- against my finger. I felt around the bump to realize it went all around the cylinder, and was a possible opening to it.

     Getting out my kunai, I slammed it into the opening, making a large dent form, and a little crack of the opening. Cramming my kunai in, I used my strength and chakra to open it up. A tiny rolled up paper fell out, causing me to peer into the metal object to see nothing else, then stuffing it in my bag along with the kunai.

      I picked up the piece of paper, unrolling it in curiosity to see a jumble of messy letters and numbers:

     '4k1, 1'v3 b33n c4p7ur3d. N33d h31p!! H1d30u7 47 7h3 8453 0f 7h3 ch33ry 7r33 1n 7h3 m1r4c13 94rd3n 8r1d93. Hurry!!!'

     I scrunched up my face in confusion yet again, the only word registering in my head being 'Hurry'. Barely even, considering the messy and rushed handwriting. My eyes narrowed at the scribble on the paper, five seconds and my brain finally realized it as number coding. I've read about it once -- making letters into numbers that look similar to it. I quickly took out a plain sheet of paper and pen from my bag and slowly jotted down the sentence, making sure I'm right with decoding the number code.

     0 = o. 1 = l & i. 3 = e. 4 = a. 5 = s. 7 = t. 8 = b. 9 = g. So the sentence would then be, 

     '4k1, 1'v3 b33n c4p7ur3d. N33d h31p!! H1d30u7 47 7h3 8453 0f 7h3 ch33ry 7r33 1n 7h3 m1r4c13 94rd3n 8r1d93. Hurry!!!'