Uchiha. The fire reflected in her eyes as Father's hand led her to the shrine. She gazed upon the symbol on his back, crimson as the blood they shed. Crimson as his eyes, whirling into a magatama pinwheel. "Father," she whispered, "What is a clan? Where do we come from?"
"Gods," he replied.
Yamori peered down at the stone path they walked upon. "If we come from beings so powerful, then why can't they protect us? Why can't they protect the people we love from being killed?"
He stopped and turned to face her, lips pressed together tightly. "The gods can't save us from everything, daughter. As shinobi, it's our duty to fight and to save ourselves. What little power we have, we use it to protect those we hold dear. That is what it means to belong to a clan, Yamori." His words were hushed, filled with reverence and yet a bitterness so deep that she could feel the depth of his frustration.
Above the two figures, a wooden archway welcomed their entrance into the shrine, a temple set so deep into the mountains that it had taken almost three days' journey to arrive. Among them stood monks with faces painted in gold, red dots dancing around their eyes and robes of the same dark shade clothing their frames. One of them stood staring at her, his eyes narrow and omniscient. She shivered under the weight of his shrouded gaze. "I don't like the way these monks are looking at me, Father. It feels so creepy."
Beside her, her father didn't even seem to hear her words. He was whispering to himself, head bowed and face pained. Yamori almost drew back. She'd never seen such a face before on her steady, strong father, the same father who had carried their family through famine, financial difficulty, and war. The old ache of eating recooked rice scraped from the bottom of pans from weeks past still hung a hollow ache in her chest. The water mixed in with blood, she'd never forget what her family looked like when they came back from fighting. What she looked like.
(Old blood and ancient wounds and eternal vengeance).
At last they were in the courtyard of the temple of death. Ahead of them lay the Gates to Heaven. But Yamori didn't want to leave behind her family. She looked down, past the stones that seemed to shimmer and fade away with each passing second. Beneath the place they now inhabited was her family, real and breathing and alive. She could see the sorrow etched on her mother's face as she grieved for her lost husband and daughter, the wrinkles staining her once smooth forehead. Next to her sat two heartbroken children in perfect seiza positions. Though their backs were straight and disciplined, their sobbing faces looked like they had lost more in one day than most do in their entire lifetime. Yamori longed to reach out and touch their shoulders, to tell them that everything was okay. She and Father were okay. If she could only tell them one last time.
"Oh, I don't want to go there. I don't want to leave Mother, Sister, and Brother. Father, can't we please go back?"
He seemed to want the same thing she did. His hands shook with emotion, clutching the katana at his side with barely suppressed intensity. "If there was a way we could take to go back to them, watch over them by their side…" His voice trailed off. "...Then how much we would sacrifice just to see them one last time…"
In front of her, the world seemed to spin. The temple spun around her eyes. It made her dizzy, the way it seemed to spin faster and faster. Some unknown force was propelling them forward until at last they stood in front of the Gates. The path into Heaven was guarded by two towering samurai, clasping their blades in front of them. A golden arch twice as tall as the last served as their chance to escape into the afterlife. An invisible hand pushed them forward, towards the point of no return.
"No!" Yamori shouted. "No! I don't want to go! I want to stay with Mother and Sister and Brother! Please - I need them!" She tried to tear away from the force, but it was as if iron locks were keeping her in place. Wrestling tumultuously against such power made her want to cry out loud, for it was impossible, but Uchiha were expected to keep their composure even into death.
"Stop, foolish girl," her father murmured quietly beside her. "There's a time for everything and this is our time to leave the world of the living. What is done cannot be undone."
They were almost at the Gates. She tried one last time to reach the people beneath her. Impulsive energy burst out through her lips. "Let's see each other soon!" she screamed, and for one moment, her mother's face really did seem to turn up towards the Heavens in a flash of joyful recognition. That was all Yamori needed to see. Regaining a proper appearance, she inhaled in the scent of burned incense and new beginnings as her and Father glided past the Gates of Heaven.
"At long last…"