Tsunade's daughter (A Naruto original fanfiction)

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Deciphering the Code

The following day, Naruto left his apartment early in the morning with Kei. She had spent the night with him, and as he hadn't been able to sleep, he had just watched her sleep peacefully. 

He took one of the books written by Jiraiya with him that Mai had given to him once, the one which had inspired his name and went to sit in some quiet spot. 

He hadn't had the occasion to read it yet, so he though now would be a good opportunity to start, to keep him busy. 

He sat Kei on his lap carefully before taking the book and began studying it. He first took a good look at the front cover before opening the book.

"When you are old enough, I'll ask your parents to teach you to read with this book," he said to the girl tenderly, even though she couldn't understand. 

He then started leafing through it, taking his time as he did so. 

But as he thought he would be all alone, he was soon joined by Mai. She went to sit next to him. 

Naruto noticed her but didn't say anything. 

"Did she spend the night with you?" Mai asked him as she glanced at her daughter. 

The boy looked up from his book and turned his head to lock eyes with Mai. 

"Yes. Is that a problem?" he asked, fearing Mai might scold him.

He had thought that she knew at least where her daughter was and who she was staying with, even in those tragic circumstances.  

"No, not at all."

Naruto nodded slowly before looking away. 

"Have you found anything yet?" 

"Found what?" 

"Clues. To decipher the secret code."

"Huh? Hmm... Honestly I wasn't looking for anything. I was just leafing through the book out of nostalgia."

"Oh I see. Well, it's alright. I just came to the conclusion that those numbers corresponded to book pages. Otherwise, I have no idea what they can refer to. Do you mind if I have a look at it?"

"No," Naruto said before handing the book to her. 

Mai took it and leafed through it, looking for the pages that corresponded to the numbers. She looked first at page 9, then 31, then 8, then 106, then 7, then 207, then 15. 

But nothing seemed to correspond. 

"Damn... That's impossible..." Mai said out of frustration. 

"What's up?" 

"This doesn't help," Mai stated solemnly. 

Naruto stared at her with a very serious look.

"Do you have a photo of this code?" he then asked her. 

"Yes, but not with me. So we should go get it now."

"Alright." 

With that, the two stood up and directly went to where the Konoha Cryptanalysis Team was located since they had one. 

"Hokage-Sama," Shiho said when she noticed them coming in , seemingly surprised to see her there. 

Shikamaru was with her.

"So could you find something?" Shikamaru asked Mai as he noticed the book she had in her hand. 

"No. Not for now."

"Shiho, could you give a photo of the code to Naruto, please? He'd like to examine it."

"Of course, Godaime-Sama," Shiho replied before hurrying to get the photo.