Find This book (dragofox)

Naruto walked past the entrance of Peace Village. With a slice of bread in his mouth, Naruto looked around, the surrounding atmosphere the same as the village’s name was. There were kids playing around, and the adults went through their usual working routines. For the old people, in the other hand, most of them were busy having chats about something that the world didn’t very care about. Being old felt great to them, they didn’t need to think or worry about anything anymore. Sighing, Naruto swallowed the last piece of bread from the slice that was between his lips. “Well now, I’ve got to find an old woman’s house..”

Naruto wondered around, looking for his client’s house. The designs of the houses in the village didn’t differ much, only the obvious difference was always could be seen on the rooftops. Naruto continued the almost aimless walk, peeking at his job flyer now and then, reassuring himself of the job’s description. Near the path he was walking along, there were kids happily playing football.

It took long enough for him to find his client’s house, but Naruto still did not have any clue regarding his client’s house’s whereabouts. It was a bit tricky to find the real one, as the house’s description as told in the flyer was just something like ‘the house had a slight patch on it, yellower than the yellow color of the roof’, which was obviously not good enough to even be called a description. Naruto sighed, he can’t really blame the one who sent this flyer, as his client was an old woman, after all.

As he walked, the ball the kids were playing around got kicked too hard by one of them. It landed near Naruto, swaying from the range of field of the kids’ self-marked football field. “Hey there mister, can you help us with the ball???” Naruto looked at the kids, they were waving towards him. It was relieving to him, the sight of kids playing together regardless their genders was something rare at these modern times. “Sure!” Naruto smiled, kicking the ball back to the kids.

The ball landed right in front of the boy who was standing nearest to the blonde mage, with the boy accepting the pass nice and smooth. “Thank you!” the kids shouted, to which Naruto replied with a thumbs up. It was something nice to see, kids playing together with smiles on each of their faces. “Oh yeah, kids, can you tell me where this.. uh.. Mrs. Allain lives?” He shouted the kids a question, which took only one of them to answer. “It’s there, by the end of the second path!” Naruto nodded his head, thanking the boy who answered with a thumbs up. The boy replied with the same manner, both of them exchanging smiles before both of them continued with what they were doing.

Naruto took the second path that was right on the middle of the village, and had himself following the path along just like how the kid told him to. A few walks, and there it was, a house in the end of the path, with a slight patch on the roof, slightly yellower than the rest of the roof.

Naruto knocked the door, folding the job flyer he was holding. As he kept the flyer away in his pouch, the door slowly opened. There she was, standing in front of the opened door, looking old, with wrinkles and all on her face. She had a smile on her face however, something that pleased Naruto. “Uh, hello there, Mrs Allain.” Naruto smiled, breaking the silence. “I’m Naruto.” The old lady took some time to reply, but she did after a few seconds passed. “Oh, come in young man..” Slowly, she walked her way to the sofa in her living room. Everything looked old, or rather nostalgic. The way she decorated the whole house made it look like Naruto had just entered a 80s zone.

"My name is Allain..." Her voice was faint, a sign of oldness. Naruto nodded, telling her that he understood her. “So this book.. What was it again?” “Hm.. It’s a book.. not so thick.. the name is… uh.. Terraquille and the 3 keys.” Naruto nodded, it looked like even talking took much of her energy.

“Okay then, I’ve got much of the details.” Naruto said, the chat he had with the old granny told him pretty much everything about the book. Naruto stood up, ready to start his search. Allain looked at the young man with a smile, he reminded her much of her late husband. Naruto reached for the biscuit Allain had prepared earlier, taking approximately four sips of milk in the glass after. As he exited the house, he looked back, Allain wasn’t standing in front of the door, maybe too tired to move. “Rest, granny. I’ll do the rest!” Naruto said in his mind, nodding as he started walking.

It wasn’t a long walk for him to reach the village’s library from the granny’s house. He had reached the library sooner than he thought, something that had pleased him a little. Entering the library, Naruto looked around, there were 3 female librarians working inside, seemingly busy fixing the books back into their places on the many shelves. “Hey, u-“ “I’m sorry sir, but the library will not open today.” Naruto’s mouth opened wide, a sentence he didn’t expect to hear during the job. “WHAT!!??”

The first librarian wore a pair of glasses, her long purple colored hair made her look attractive. “Shh!” the sound came from the second librarian, this one with short silver colored hair. She looked dull in expression, something Naruto wouldn’t actually care about. “Well, apparently we’re having difficulty on the books’ misplacing.” The third one, a lady with blonde hair fixed with a ponytail answered and had a pair of noticeable blue eyes, politely. “B-b-but..” Naruto felt a huge sweat drop on his head, he had never anticipate such thing to happen. “Nevermind, I’ll just find this one book myself.” Naruto wanted to do things himself, and it seemed like the librarians didn’t had anything to say about it either.

With a deep breath, Naruto started the search from the furthest shelf, which was thrice as big as himself. “This’ll be hard, but.. It’s all for the granny.” Naruto smiled as he recalled the promise he made to Allain, and he didn’t intend to go back on it. The three librarians looked at him with a sigh, letting him do what he wanted as long as it wouldn’t cause any trouble to them.

Naruto found it hard to find the right book, everything was so messed up. He found a recipe book on the comic books only shelf, and had found something rather unpleasing and disturbing in the kids’ books section. Finding the book from the shelf it should have belonged to would be useful, but he did, and it was not there. The three librarians watched and after seeing him fail numerous times they agreed to help. With the four of them, covering the many books sections became easier, but after an hour of searching, the book was still nowhere to be found.

“Sigh..” Naruto sat on the floor, not exhausted but rather bored and annoyed. He thought he would just give up and tell the granny the book was nowhere to be found, but he slapped himself after having such thought. “What the..!!? No, I’m going to find it!” Naruto shook his head, standing up once again after to continue the search. The book was important to her, and Naruto could know it from the way Allain told him about the book before.

And so, the search continued. It had been 2 hours, and the three librarians who agreed to help earlier had gone for lunch. Meanwhile, Naruto was still with his unscathed determination, searching through every shelf that was available in the library. It was then he saw a book, slightly different from looks from the others. “Gold.. shiny.. blue stripes on the strap.” Naruto pondered for a moment. “Ah! That’s the book! Hell yeah!” Naruto rushed towards the book, and as he slowly bent over for the book that was lying on the floor, it got swooped away.

“Eh?” Naruto looked up, a kid was holding the book. “Lookin for this?” Naruto got annoyed at how the kid would make faces in front of him, replying with a nod. “Blergh!! Not letting you have it!” The kid ran away with the book after giving Naruto a tongue sticking, exiting the library. “Eh, OI!!!” Naruto stood straight quick, giving the kid a chase. The book was all he needed to bring to the granny’s house, but the kid was causing him problem by running away with it. “Stop!!”

“Oi, give that book!!” Naruto chased for the boy, he was smirking while he ran, holding firmly the book with his hand. It was something that Naruto had been searching for hours, and the fact that the boy easily ran away with it pissed him off to the peak. “Geez, this kid.” Naruto sighed, throwing his kunai to the flag pole that was hanging on the wall of the building he was running beside. The flag fell onto him, preventing the boy from seeing anything as he continued to blindly run. The failure to see anything took a toll on the boy, as he tripped over a rock as he ran.

Both the boy and the book fell onto the ground. Naruto stopped running after getting close to the boy. He took the book, but by the time Naruto turned away, the boy was already on his feet. “Sigh. Kid, don’t do that again geez.” Naruto looked at the boy with an annoyed face, but he held no anger towards him. The boy was aware of that, and he ran away after giving off a smile. “Maybe he just wanted some fun.” Naruto thought to himself, heading back to the library.

Back to in the library, the three librarians were already done with their lunch. From their faces, Naruto would guess that they had been wondering whether he had given up on the search and went back home. “Yo, I got what I want.” Naruto held up the book, whistling in delight. The three librarians smiled, his effort put them in great amazement. “Well, you did so much to find that book.. And since we’re closing anyway, you can have that.” The blonde librarian said with a smile, happy to find someone like Naruto who was still fond of books. “Oh really? Thanks then!” Naruto smiled widely, leaving the library with the book.

“Hm.. Terraquille and the 3 keys..” Naruto read the book’s title, and as he pondered, he had already reached the granny’s house. “Mrs. Allain, I found the book!” Naruto went inside after finding the door unlocked, the granny still sitting on the same sofa. “I’ve been waiting..” She looked alone, and from her face, Naruto could tell she just wanted the book so she could have something to accompany her. “Well.. the librarian gave me the book for free.. And it’s yours.. but..” Naruto shrugged, having another idea instead of leaving her with the book as soon as he brought it to her.

He sat on the sofa next to her, patting her on the shoulder after. “I’ll read it to you, just think of me as your grandson!” Naruto smiled, opening the first page of the book. “Once upon a time….” The old lady cried in delight, it was rare to find somebody as kind as Naruto himself. Naruto thought it would be best to stay with the old lady some more, and accompany her while he still had the time to. "Thank you.. my grandchild.."