So! All of you readers, follows, favorites and reviews have inspired me to write another chapter! Tada!
EDIT 1/12/2015: This story now has a beta and with this note, what you are reading is the beta'd version. All betaing has been done by bleeding-roses 16
EDIT 18/12/2015: So, bleeding-roses-16 pointed out that a ninja would want to find out who buried their friends and would look for them thus at the end, I have a little extra! I hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I do own the plot!
Wandering from place to place has its own unique charm that I must admit. It is the memory of aching joints and muscle cramps that make the movement of travelling, of walking feel so...energized. The charm of wandering is not just from knowing what my joints will feel like when I'm old and crippled; rather it is the freedom that comes with it. I am free to go where I please, of course there are limits of food and money but I survive how I chose to and if I wanted to, I could easily go with the wind in to nowhere. Going to the town of Yuni was one of those choices.
The people there are vibrant; they have that familiar sturdy feeling as those from who are from my home village, where the people endure the storms and crowd together like forests to help each other, if at times they can be a little bit overbearing. The owner of the cafe in Yuni, Sadao is one such man. He bends in the wind to keep himself from breaking, but sheltered the staff of his cafe from the...lewd actions of the occasional rowdy patron. Sadao also embodies the meaning of his name very well, when he makes a decision he will stick to it thick and thin but this does not mean he doesn't acknowledges his mistakes. My first meeting of the man was a memorable one, and certainly one I will share with my children should I have any.
I had just walked into the cafe on an impulsive decision and came across a most unusual scene that will forever have me in giggles. It is the scene of a short, stout man in a professional dress of suit and tie strong arming a full height man, who was at least two heads taller than me, and successfully throwing him out the door, of which I had sidestepped in time. Though I didn't know at the time what the man had done to warrant such behavior it certainly was amusing but during that moment I was in shock. Sadao, seeing me standing there in silent admiration quickly ushered me inside and sat me down at one of the tables.
"Hello Ma'am, my apologies for the scene but what can I get you today" He asked me, snapping me out of my shock. In a hurry I stood up again, I was there for a job not to be served.
"I saw your advertisement for a waitress and I would like to apply for the job" I blurted out in a hurry. His expression smoothed out into a smile and he sat me down again expect this time he sat with me.
"Well I am in need of a waitress, let us discuss the details" And that was the start of my stay in Yuni. Throughout that month I had made many new acquaintances and friends too, Sadao was one of the first and later I had asked about the technique he had used to throw out that man, who I was told groped some of the other staff, as it looked similar to some wrestling from my other life and as it turned out it was right. It was a form of wrestling learned from the Land of Earth and the many bars from the Hidden Stone village. Something that I have become well versed in. It hadn't taken long to learn but it was certainly enjoyable. However I still had to leave as the ache got stronger the longer I had stayed.
Excerpt from the Memoirs of Akiko Hatake nee Reko
Page 12
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Death was not something that Akiko was unfamiliar with. She had seen the bodies of the deceased elders of her village and the funerals that came after, the unfortunate accidents of those in the logging business, she killed game animals to survive. So death was not a foreign concept. This experience, however, did not stop the retching that occurred when she passed a small scale battle ground two weeks after leaving Yuni to follow the boarder of the Land of Earth.
Akiko had come to notice the smell of decomposing bodies that had gotten stronger as she continued to follow the border threading her way between the tall structures of stone that signified the beginning of The Land of Earth. Unable to help her curiosity, she followed the smell weaving her way through the walk able areas of the foot of the mountain range which were shrouded in trees. She came across the bloodied weapons first, the dark red substance staining not just the weapons but the ground below them, various kunai and shuriken littered the ground and embedded in several tree trunks and even in a few boulders. Akiko shivered as a chill ran down her spine, a sudden irrational fear of her surroundings, and felt weary of the lack of bird song in the area. Akiko took a shallow breath to calm her heart before she continued to follow the smell. The closer she got the more signs that a battle took place. There were holes in the ground from explosions, gathering water that couldn't have come from a nearby river, pieces of earth in different shapes, such as the form of sharp spears and others were the shattered pieces of walls. Akiko could feel her skin prickle with energy, she could feel it in the air giving the atmosphere an oppressive and heavy feeling, but still she continued on.
The trees surrounding the area became darker the closer she got, suddenly wishing she was back on the road. Here she had no comfort as she was confronted with the brutality of this world she had willingly forgot. The mountains that towered above her, some of which were splashed in blood and covered in scorch marks of fires and explosions. There bodies strewn in what would have been considered a peaceful clearing if not for the corpses and stench of death. Each of the bodies had different head bands. The few she could recognize without touching were of the Hidden Leaf.
'This must have been some of the border skirmishes that occurred after the war.' Comes the realization. With curiosity that getting the better of her, Akiko inched closer before promptly vomiting what little breakfast she had this morning. In both her lives, Akiko has never seen violence to this scale. Of course she had seen the news, or watched the television but they were all scripted and she had the knowledge that it was fake. This was different, here, these were real people living their own lives, having their own problems and searching for and living their own happiness. Logically, Akiko knew that even if she intervened with the future that she had seen, there would still be deaths. That was a fact and completely unavoidable for everyone. Of this Akiko held no delusions, knowing that in time she too would die. That didn't make it any easier to handle though. It was one thing to die of natural causes, or even a quick death, but a whole other matter to die like these people did.
The bodies were covered in blood, some still had their eyes open and their faces eaten by maggots, others were missing limbs, burnt skin and melted faces. The smell made her eyes water and Akiko cursed her curiosity for getting her into this situation. Instead of leaving, Akiko ventures closer to the bodies, feeling somewhat obliged to help, that it is her duty to give rest to these souls because even though she doesn't have a faith to follow she has her own beliefs. It takes her four hours to gather up six bodies in total and as many body pieces as she can. Akiko piles them together after closing their eyes, her mother's voice in her ear. 'When people die with their eyes open, it means that they died a violent and sudden death. We close their eyes so their spirits can be a peace rather than being stuck in such violence and pain.'
Akiko can feel her stomach rebel and churn uneasily; threatening to reject what little fluid she has in it as she touches their clammy, cold skin. Shrieking when some of the skin peels off as she moves them, feeling tendrils of disgust which she tries to smothers quickly. These were not people she knew and while it may repulse her Akiko would not disrespect these people by reacting on such emotions, firm in her belief, she continues with her self-appointed task. Once the six bodies are in a pile, as undignified as it was, Akiko gathers the dry wood and places it around them something akin to that of camp fire. The small and easily burnt stuff like leaves and bark at the bottom and what large pieces of wood she could hack off with her knife surround the bodies at a tilted angle. Akiko knows there may be the possibility of an easier way to start a fire in the waist pouches but she doesn't go through them, both because it is disrespectful to the dead and because there may be poison or traps. She just doesn't take the risk.
With her pieces of flint, she strikes a small spark that slowly turns in to a flame, the gases of the decomposing bodies adding fuel to the fire and soon the bodies began to burn, leaving a long thick spiral of black smoke in the sky. Akiko knows that soon some ninja will come to check the sight but her work is not yet done. These bodies have no identities but their head bands so she gathers twelve sticks and binds them into crosses using the twine of small shrubs and gently hammers them into the ground with the butt of her knife. Once that is done, Akiko takes great care in tying each of the head band to each cross as the only sign of a grave. Three are of the Leaf village and three are of the Stone.
'Two three man squads...' her mind echoes numbly and with a prayer to the souls, she gathers her bag and moves further away from the site and back onto the road. Her mind thinks over what she had just seen and done, it served as a harsh reminder that even though her country had been fortunate enough to escape the Third War unscathed, others were not. It reminded her of the tension between the villages that she had seen on screens as a child, that the shinobi world was littered with the dead and hatred was easy to find. It had left her with an uneasy weight in the back of her mind only lightened by the thought that at least those shinobi had gotten a burial and a release of their spirits.
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Four stone shinobi quickly travel through the mountain pass, following the large column of black smoke in the sky. When they arrive at the source they are greeted by a still burning pile of bodies, however it is not that keeps them silent, it is the six crosses three bearing the forehead protector of the Hidden stone village and three of the Hidden leaf. Unbiased as whom ever had done this as each cross is seen to be put together with tender care and respect, giving all the shinobi that were in battle a respectful burial. The squad of the Hidden stone send silent prayers to the spirits of their brethren and to the person, their silent thanks.
After their prays were given, the Rock ninja exchanged glances with each other as they were curious about the person who had prepared a burial for their men that would erase the villages secrets. One man with a stern visage nodded to his teammates and they vanished into the trees in search of the mystery person who would do this.
It didn't take long for the four man squad to locate the only person for miles and they were quietly surprised when each of them got a good look at the person.
It was a woman. A woman with dark orange hair that shifted colours to that of a sunset when she passed under the small gaps of light. She wore a shirt that was a size too big with faint stains of dirt splattered across it, deep brown farmer pants that brushed her ankle as she walked and a pair of black enclosed shoes with only a slit at the top.
It was a strange thought of a woman making her way along the boarder, one that had the shinobi frowning slightly. They were sure that she was the one that burned the bodies for the smell of fire, ash and burnt flesh clung to her clothes and wafted to them in the wind, there was also the slightly dazed look in her eyes as she stared ahead.
The team leader nodded to his comrades, passing on the command to remain observing this...civilian until more information could be found. All with the same thought in their minds.
'Why did she help them?'
So a word of warning, there is some badly described gore (to me any way), just a heads up. And as I said, Akiko is not your typical SI character. Instead of dying at a young age, she has lived a full life and probably slipped away in sleep that is why she seems more mature and speaks of aching joints. Also just because she has the memories of living til around eighty, doesn't mean she is. In her current body, she is a teenager with teenaged brain chemistry and even through she has the experience of a long life she will still make impulsive decisions which will be mistakes.
So there is it. I know it seems like Akiko isn't affected by the bodies and stuff, but it'll go more in-depth of her thoughts in the next chapter.
Please leave a review and let me know what you think!