A few words if you will
You know…there are many things that I took for granted, one by one that I lost. Once to be the innocence hidden in a smile, lost to me at a young age even if others saw it as innocent still. Nii-san was still able to see such traces however, and bring back what innocence I had almost lost entirely. I never would've thought something as simple as exploring would lead to it coming back. Madara had always known what was best after all, when it came towards keeping my humanity intact.
We had been fairly young, maybe I had seen seven winters by that time?
Perhaps so, but we had explored….and surprisingly enough, come across many bushes. Bright red berries scattered the ground, though we both knew not to touch them, it didn't prevent as from running about them. It was a strange sound that crossed my lips, one I can not exactly make quite the same any longer.
It was laughter, sweet and innocent as a child's should be. It was neither tainted nor bitter, death and hatred did not extend its reach so far deep to strangle the voice of an inner child. Not yet. Not yet at least.
This same laughter rung throughout my elder brother's voice as well and the sound was firmly planted into my memory. It was a good thing it had…..as the years passed further, such laughter faded from his throat, war reaching deep within…..and burning away the sound of the child. It burned it out, and tore it apart, where such innocence would remain no longer. Madness crept in, like a spider on the wall, and like the younger brother I had been…I desperately tried to destroy that very spider.
I didn't want my Nii-san to grow up into a man of war. Lost to himself like the elders had been, senile with old age, clinging to war as it was the only thing they had ever known.
I can not say I had success entirely, but I did try, and to an extent, I managed to gain back a portion of that memory we had both lost. The memory where we had run berries beneath our feet, before blackberries had been found by mistake.
I still remember the violet smudges in Nii-san's skin, stained lightly even thereafter. He had unexpectedly gone too fast, turning too sharply and crashing beyond my sight. He had yelped and I followed shortly thereafter, laughter grabbing hold of us both. It was a lucky find, no insects had burrowed into the flesh of the berries….and the taste still remains on my tongue even now. We had taken a handful each, beaming, black eyes sparking with a light only children could possess.
Of course that was all that had been taken, taking more down to return to the Clan with, uprooting the bush to grow in the campgrounds.
We had been given a small cup in turn, filled with the same berries.
The seeds are somewhere…..slipped within a small pouch, dried and ground to dust. They're most likely gone by now the pouch lost…..but….it was a wonderful memory. I know Nii-san remembers….I see him, from time to time…..slipping a berry into his mouth. Sadness takes over his- our eyes then, but that innocence, the memory and joy that exists within, that too can be seen.
Perhaps…..that is enough, to make it better. To ease his pain.
I can only hope, even though I know full well the truth.
Farewell, Uchiha Izuna
