TW: Mentions of dead bodies, vague depiction of the aftermath of sexual assault, vague mention of infant death.

Needless to say, this is a pretty rough chapter. Please skip this chapter if anything mentioned above is a trigger!

I know things are rough now, but things will start to change for Kiku starting next chapter! Thank you all so much for your support for this story. I'm glad y'all are enjoying Kiku's journey like I am!

"This is the library," Ren says as he leads me into the large yellow building. When we enter, it's clear to see that the building was deliberately targeted. Entire shelving units are on their sides, torn out pages from books litter the floor. I feel myself start to shake and suddenly a gust of wind sweeps the pages near us up into the air in a frenzy. My anger dissipates from the shock and suddenly the wind is gone. I hear Ren let out an amused huff and turn my attention back to him.

"What the hell was that?"

"You," Ren says simply before he starts walking forward.

"Me? I didn't do that, I don't even know any wind jutsu 'ttbane!"

"You're home, Kikuko." I feel like my feet are rooted to the floor below me. I knew my chakra natures, but I still hadn't been able to really learn how to use any elemental jutsus. Did I really do that? So naturally? "Kikuko, this way," Ren says as he looks at me over his shoulder. I force myself to follow him through the wreckage.

The papers cut through the air again as we pass what was obviously the children's section. The walls are painted in bright colors, some even have murals of the sea and the creatures that live in it. The shelves are smaller in this area, each of them are painted in different colors, children's toys and puppets are strewn across the floor. Children's drawings cover the walls without murals. I feel hot tears run down my cheeks at the sight.

I feel something brush against my shoulder and look up to see Ren. He doesn't look at me, but he pushes against me gently. I follow his lead and move away from the children's section. But I can't help but look back at the small line of fuinjutsu stations that seem to be untouched in the far corner of the children's section. I stare at it until I hear the sound of an old wooden door opening.

I turn back to see Ren has pushed through a door that had definitely not been there a second before. I shake my head before pushing through the door myself. When I enter the room, I'm in shock. The room is small, but it's filled with floor to ceiling bookcases made of charred wood. The dark black of the wood contrasts with the deep ocean blue ceiling and floor.

In the center of the room is a single, simple table and a few basic stools. I stand beside it as I turn to look around at all the untouched books in the room. Along one wall the shelves are different. At the top of each shelf is an engraved symbol of each type of elemental jutsu. Water, wind, earth, fire, and lightning all have their own shelves. But beside them is a shelf that has a seagull engraved at the top of it.

"What is this for?" I ask Ren as I walk up to the bookcase.

"That is a shelf reserved for sage techniques," he says.

"Sage techniques?" I ask, turning back to him. "Wait, Kairi and Soma-"

"Were the former summons of the Uzukage," Ren finishes.

"Sweet sage," I whisper to myself. I shake my head as I walk away from the shelf. No wonder Kairi was so angry earlier. Not only was she a summons, but she was the summons of the Uzukage. Of the heart of Uzushiogakure.

"This room was hidden by multiple seals. I've deactivated them now that you are here, but should the library ever be restored, new seals will need to be put in place," Ren says. "This room contains copies of the most essential books and scrolls for Uzushiogakure. It was created in the case that something may happen to the island."

"Thank you for bringing me here," I tell him. I take a deep breath before I start reading the spines of some of the older books in the room. A History of the Way Finders, Cultural Diffusion in Uzushiogakure, Basics of Boat Making, Navigation Through the Stars. By the time I make it through the first bookcase, my mind is almost mush. But at the same time, for the first time since I've been on the island, I'm excited.

I get to learn the history and the culture of my people by my people.

"Hey, Ren?" I ask as I turn to him. He tilts his head slightly in acknowledgement. "Do you know where any books on burial customs may be? I-I want to do this right, ya know?"

"There should be a couple over here," Ren says as he walks towards a bookcase a few feet away from me. I follow him and scan through the shelves until I find a full shelf dedicated to burial practices and celebrations. The Spirit Guide: sitting with another as they begin their next journey, Traditional Clothing for Peace-time Burials, Traditional Hairstyles for War-time Burials, Guide to War-time Burials, Guide to Peace-time Burials. The list continues, with some of the books written in another language, what I can only assume to be the language of Uzushiogakure.

I pull Traditional Clothing for Peace-time Burials, Traditional Hairstyles for Peace-time Burials, and Guide to Peace-time Burials off the shelf before I sit down at the table in the center of the room.

"It would be easier for you to focus on the war-time burial information," Ren says as he looks over my shoulder.

"Uzushiogakure wasn't at war when she fell," I say.

"It will be long and hard work," Ren sighs.

"You made that secondary stasis seal right? That should hold up until I'm finished, right?"

"It should," he nods.

"Then I'm doing it the right way," I say as I open up the hairstyle book. I flip through the pages until I see a similar hairstyle to Hiroto-oji did for me when I was with him last. While that hairstyle was for the death of a long life according to the book, this new hairstyle was for a life taken too soon.

I bite my wobbly lip as I form the tiger hand seal. I look to my right to see two water clones of myself. I nod towards the book and one immediately begins reading it as the other picks up the traditional clothing book I point towards.

I pull my left sleeve up, and pull the storage scroll with my dolphin pins out. I carefully pull out my hair pins before putting the storage scroll back in the seal. I start reading the peace-time burial book as one clone begins to work on my hair.

"Is there a place where I can find some of these clothes?" One of the clones asks Ren.

"There might be some that fit you in the basement of the Uzukage tower," he says. The clone nods, taking off after she put the book back down on the table. The more I read, the more I realize why Ren recommended the war-time burial book. I'll have to do two different types of burials.

Water burials for the Uzumaki, Ueda, Ueo, Uesugi, and wait. The Umino? Did Iruka sensei know his family was from Uzushiogakure? Is that why he was interested in learning more? I shake my head, I can worry about that later. For the water burials I'll also have to leave a stone along with the other burials on the island. For the other clans and individuals from no clan, I'll have to do a burial similar to Konoha's, but instead of the body being put in a casket, I have to put it directly in the ground.

Regardless of the type of burial, I have to make sure they're in clean and whole clothing, and to make sure there is no blood on them. I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths before I hear the sounds of Ren's hooves against the floor. I wait for the clone doing my hair to finish before I turn around. I'm hit with her memories as she disappears.

Of course she did it right as the other clone holds out a yukata with intricate embroidery depicting the sea. I stare at it for a moment before she walks over and puts it in my arms. She drops the sandals on the stool beside me before she disappears as well. I'm hit with a brief flash of a small room filled with bright and ornate traditional clothing.

I take a second to orient myself back to the present. Ren walks out of the room, the door shutting behind him as I take off my backpack. I carefully remove my regular clothes before stuffing them in my bag.

And then, I focus on putting on the Yukata carefully. After a few minutes, it's finally on. The fabric is smooth against my skin and I relish the brief moment of comfort I feel as I wear it for the first time. For the first time, I'm wearing something made by someone in my village. I blink hard before I turn to slip on my sandals. I put the books up except for the guide to burials before I grab my bag and walk out of the small room.

I drop my bag off at the Uzukage tower along with the book. Along the way I picked up a large bucket and a woven basket. I plan to start at the front gates, hopefully summons will be nearby to help me with determining what clan someone is from.

The island, unlike my visions, is completely silent, completely still. The only sounds I hear are the clacks of my sandals hitting the cobblestone streets. Even the plants within the village have died. While the plants coming up the the gates were as bright and vibrant as ever, the plants and trees within the village have dried up. The water ways that cut through the island don't flow, they're still.

It makes me more than uneasy.

But I keep walking forwards.

I stop by one of the water ways and fill up the bucket with clean water. I stop at one of the shopping stalls and grab cleaning cloths, filling the woven basket with them. I continue to walk until I finally reach the gates once more. And then, I turn back around towards the village and finally allow myself to look down.

And all I can see is a sea of blood.

The process is slow. Much slower than what I assume the war-time burial option would be. I try to remain calm as I talk to the summons that come up to me as I approach their summoner. Frogs, butterflies, beetles, iguanas, crabs, turtles, the list goes on and on.

I lose track of the days. I work until Ren forces me to do something to keep me going. I thought it was hard for me to sleep before this, but now sleeping seems almost impossible until I eventually get so tired I can't fight it anymore.

It's the same process each time so far.

Wait for a summons to approach me near a body, ask their name, write their name down on a waterproof sheet of paper. Tell a clone to follow the summons to their home, grab any salvageable clothing, write the name of the people who lived in that home and leave it just inside the doorway. While the clone does all of those things, I carefully wash the body if there's blood. When the clone returns, I put the new clothes on the body and move them to one section of the island.

For the land burials, there's a large field where the previous graves and memorial stones are. It's in a remote part of the island. It's a thirty minute walk on the only flowing water on the island. It's the one place the invaders couldn't get to. Only someone from Uzu, or someone with Uzu reserves would be able to get there.

I don't bury the bodies in this area, yet. In Uzu, it was custom for families and close family friends to be buried near each other. I didn't want to mess up and not have enough room for someone by their family.

For the water burials, I take those bodies down the streets to sit in an area shaded by some of the buildings by the docks. I'll need to weave canoes out of some of the leaves along the edge of the beaches for them.

I take a deep breath and pull myself back to the present. I don't need to worry about everything I have to do in the future. I need to focus on taking care of the woman in front of me. It's clear she fought to the end. Her arms and hands are covered in blood that's not her own. I feel my throat swell up when I look to her shorts. They had been cut open. I barely see the trail of blood that runs down her legs through my blurry eyes.

I run to the side of the road and throw up until I can't anymore. I dry heave as my body shakes. It was one thing to learn about this thing happening in the books I read. Why hadn't they told us how brutal this really was in our Kunoichi classes? Why hadn't they prepared us for this? Because they needed girls for seduction missions later on. If we really knew what could happen to us, we wouldn't have continued.

I force myself to stand back up at that thought. I turn back around and walk straight towards my cousin, Uzumaki Kasumi. I carefully remove her clothing, wash her body thoroughly, and clothe her in the ornate kimono my clone brings to me. The kimono she was set to wear the next day at her wedding. I carry her to the docks and lay her body down carefully.

An hour later, I lay her fiance next to her. I carefully braid both of their hair into a traditional Uzumaki braid, the braid that Kasumi would have woven into Yui's hair after their vows.

I refuse to let Shimura Danzo take this away from them, too.

I eventually finish taking care of everyone who was outside during the attack. I've lost track of how many, but each of their names and faces swirl inside of my head each time I try to lay down to sleep. I'd taken to sleeping outside, curled up against Ren as he watched over me throughout the few hours I would sleep.

I was too afraid of what I would find inside the buildings. Uzushiogakure was attacked at night. So far, I had only buried the shinobi. But now, it's time to bury the civilians.

I start like I had before, at the gates of the village. The first house I enter is a small, one story building. It's bright orange on the outside. I feel a pang in my chest when I see my brother's face flash in front of me. My entire body shakes as I push open the door. The house seems empty at first. No one is in the front room, the bathroom, the kitchen. But as I enter the bedroom, I see two bodies in the bed.

I look to the first one. From the wrinkles on his face, it's clear to see he's an old man. But his hair wouldn't show it. His red hair is still a vibrant maroon. It looked like he didn't struggle. Had he even known Uzu was being invaded? Had he still been asleep? Much like him, the older woman laying beside him has a smile on her face, her white hair is held secure in curlers. I force myself to start moving again.

I go through much of the same process as before. Although, this time, I'm the one to write their names on the paper inside of their house, not my clone. I work through the first few homes this way, all of them were older people. All of them were most likely asleep when they were murdered. Halfway through this row of homes, a pangolin summons tells me this is the retired shinobi housing.

Retired shinobi would sit on stools or swings outside of their home. The younger generations would provide for them, help them if they needed anything. And in return, the older generations would sit outside of their homes throughout the day. They would be the last people active shinobi would see on their way out, and the first ones those shinobi would see when they returned. Always there to give support and encouragement when they were needed most.

And they were the first ones targeted during the attack.

I forced my anger away. That was the last thing I needed when doing this important work. I continued to work through the retired shinobi housing for the next two days.

After the retired shinobi housing, there's shinobi housing. I work through the jonin apartments first. There are only two left in the building, both seemed to have injuries from before the attack. I move onto the chunin apartments next, there's three in the chunin apartments, with older injuries like the jonin. There are no genin apartments.

A small beetle summons tells me that the genin were placed in the homes of shinobi with family, or in the homes of their sensei. So they didn't have to start their shinobi careers off alone. So they could have time to build a true community.

I keep moving forward.

There are a few empty homes, homes of shinobi I had already taken care of.

And then, there's the hospital. One of the taller buildings in Uzu, the second tallest to the Uzukage tower. It takes another day to clear the hospital.

The next day, I move onto the building across the street from the hospital. A small, purple building. The Uzushiogakure symbol that most likely hung proudly above the door is splintered on the ground near it. I regret entering the building as soon as I step into it.

A mountain lion stands protectively beside what looks to be an intake table at a hospital. But I had just finished working in the hospital. What could this be?

"My name is Ichika," the lion says as she turns to walk through the door she's blocking. "My summoner was the lead doctor here at the clinic."

"This is a clinic?" I ask quietly. "Across from the hospital?"

"A hospital is a stressful environment to have a child," Ichika says. "This clinic was for the high-risk cases. Most women in the village had their children at home."

Ichika begins to lead me through the clinic. She tells me the name of each Mother, father, and grandparent as we walk by the closed doors. I follow her to the final room at the end of the hall. She carefully pushes the door open, revealing three covered bassinets.

"We tried to care for them, but they were already so weak-" Ichika turns her head to the floor and walks out of the room. I stare at the bassinets for I don't even know how long.

I turn from the room, closing the door behind me quietly. I walk back down the hall to find Ichika back in the waiting room. I fall to my knees on the floor beside her. I bury my face into her shoulder and my hands through her fur.

We shake together in silent sobs until the next sunrise.

Ichika stays with me after I've taken care of all of those in the clinic. We walk from house to house together. She catches me each time I collapse from exhaustion or grief. Each night I'm tucked firmly between her and Ren.

She chases me when I run from a house. The face of the child overlapped with the face of my brother as I struggled to breathe. It took two days before Ichika and Ren let me get back to work.

I eventually finished working through all of the residential areas in the village. All that was left was the Uzukage tower. I focused first on the Uzu shinobi in the building. Then I put all of the Root shinobi in body seals. I want proof of what they've done to my village if I ever return to Konoha.

After the Root agents are in the seals, I turn to the Uzukage and her husband. I take my time carrying them both outside of the Uzukage tower. I follow the same ritual I had with all the other shinobi. Only this time, one of the bodies would be buried in the Uzukage robes. I was going to include the Uzukage hat, but Kairi flies it back to the office in the Uzukage tower. I carry Uzumaki-Nara Shinya and Uzumaki Kahana to the area by the docks as well.

I eventually moved back towards the the field for the land burials. Although this time, I made sure to bring supplies for a few days, as well as a couple of shovels. Ren offered to teach me a earth style technique to create a large grave, but I refused. I would follow as much tradition as I could. Which meant digging the individual graves.

It took two weeks before I was able to finish all of the graves. Some of the summons on the island did help with engraving stones to place at each grave. They did the same for the water burials as I made the canoes.

With my clones, it wasn't too difficult to make the canoes after I did the first few. Soon it became second nature to weave the leaves together to create the small canoe. Each night I would send out the canoes I made earlier in the day. The fish, dolphins, and sharks made sure to guard the canoes as they went out into the sea.

Another week later and I was almost done.

Tonight I only needed to send off one more canoe.

Most canoes I made were for one person. But the last one was for Shinya and Kahana. I took my time, making sure that each weave was strong and secure.

I look off the side of the dock. The waves are calm near us, but the waves outside of the barrier crash against it violently. The sea is just as angry as I am. I feel Ichika rub against my side and I lean into her.

"Is Ren on his way?"

"He is, Cub."

"And Soma and Kairi?"

"Here!" Soma says as he swoops down. He lands on one post beside the canoe as Kairi lands on the other. I hear clacks against the wooden dock behind us and turn around, Ren walks towards us, a large wreath hangs off one of his antlers. He walks by me before he carefully places the wreath over Shinya and Kahana's chests. He takes a step back and for the first time I can see the grief in his eyes. He nods slightly and I take that as my cue.

"Thank you for everything," I bow to the canoe. Just as I had before each burial before this one. My hands shake as I push the canoe out to sea. I sit on my knees on the dock until we can no longer see the canoe. But then, the sea outside of the barrier begins to grow even rougher than before. Soon I can see whirlpools form before suddenly a large wave crashes over the entirety of the barrier.

Everything is completely dark. I feel panic well up in my chest until there's a weight on both of my shoulders. I look to my left to see Soma and to my right, there's Kairi sitting on my right shoulder. I force myself to breathe as the wave begins to descend. Light slowly begins to appear again until eventually, the waves are violent only outside of Uzushiogakure as they were earlier.

"You've done well to your ancestors," Kairi says quietly.

I take a shaky breath before the sobs begin again.