Chapter 38
Grief
Land of Grass
Grassland
Naruto and Tayuya had left the Land of Earth in record time as both of them wanted to get the hell out of the country as soon as humanly possible and that had been achieved and in relative ease as well. There was a small moment when they stumbled across a Kazan patrol but Tayuya was quick to trap them in a Genjutsu so she and Naruto could easily pass them.
Crossing the physical borders to the Land of Grass was shockingly easy as something (Naruto's Infiltration) has made the Kazan pull back patrols to their own territory as such they managed to get out of the Land of Earth with relative ease and were now standing in what the Land of Grass is famous for huge plains of tall green grass.
"You know, whoever named all the countries was really uncreative." Naruto commented as he ran his hand over the hip length thin grass.
"I can't believe you're this bad at making conversation." Tayuya commented idly as they walked together side by side.
"What! It's true though! The Land of Grass is full of grass. Land of Earth is full of rocks and stone even the Land of Water are islands in the sea." Naruto was offended by that true remark.
"Is the Land of Fire full of fire?" Tayuya questioned him.
"Erh! Well, isn't it called that because almost everyone has a Fire Nature Affinity?" Naruto stumbled over his words as he wracked his brain for the information.
"Congrats." Tayuya mocked him. "You've got more than air between your ears."
"You're mean." Naruto commented petulantly.
"Boo-hoo." She continued.
After that little exchange, they fell into a comfortable silence as they walked through the grass field, the day was warm and there was a slight breeze that made the grass sway gently in the air.
It was one of the more beautiful places that Naruto had seen on his journeys and a more than welcome change of scenery compared to the cold rocky Land of Earth. This place was much closer to what he was used to in the Land of Whirlpools which had a temperate climate shared with the Land of Fire.
"We're getting close to the forest. We'll enter the forest and move southeast until we get to a river then I'll guide you to our old Clan compound." Tayuya told him as they got closer to the forest.
"Okay. I've never been to this country before." Naruto commented as he looked around.
"Not much to see. Just a lot of grass and trees with the occasional river and lake." Tayuya told him.
They continued their journey and had some small talk, along the way as they got closer to the forest Naruto noticed that Tayuya seemed to get more on edge and twitchy.
"Are you okay?" He asked Tayuya as they entered the forest proper, the trees were not the spindly kind like in the Land of Frost nor like the titanic monsters in the Land of Fire.
"I'm fine. Just be on the lookout for Fuma Ninja they'll have taken over all of our former territories." Tayuya answered as her eyes swung from left to right.
"All right." Naruto nodded and then he put his hands in a familiar cross Hand Sign.
"Kage Bunshin!" Naruto created a squad of Clones which took off into the trees and the surrounding area.
"They'll be our early warning." Naruto commented to Tayuya who was staring at him like he grew a second head.
"Good idea. The Fuma are sneaky bastards and they like ambushes." Tayuya replied to him.
"How much further do we have to go?" Naruto asked her as they manoeuvred through the forest.
"Not that much further. Once we get to the river it's very close." Tayuya said as she nervously fiddled with her flute which was almost always in her hand from the moment they crossed the border.
It wasn't long before they heard the rushing of water and soon enough they came across the river which unlike the one in the valley in the Land of Earth had a slow, sedate flow. It was clear and Naruto could see the riverbed which was made of small stones and mud, he could even see the fish swimming within.
"Wow, it's a lot better than the other one." Naruto commented as he jumped over the river, it was not particularly wide but a normal person would have had trouble crossing it without a bridge.
"Of course it is. This is the Land of Grass, not that dry hell hole." Tayuya snorted as she too jumped over the river.
"Looks like a good place to fish." He commented idly.
"It is. We used to come fishing here before everything." Tayuya told him, her eyes were glassy for a moment before she forced the emotion down as any good Ninja would.
'Is suppressing our emotions as people really for the best?' Naruto asked himself after catching Tayuya doing it.
From what Naruto had seen many of the Ninja Clans followed the Shinobi Rules to the letter and it seemed to be the one thing that all of them could agree on despite all the fighting and political manoeuvring.
'I think the world might need to change.' Naruto thought as he looked over to Tayuya who was walking but not paying attention.
She looked as if she were lost in her own memories, her brown eyes were glossed over and she seemed to get small smirks before they fell into frowns and a look that Naruto could only describe as despair it was a look of a complete loss.
'She's suffering, I know she's been having nightmares even when she was unconscious she looked hurt.' Naruto thought looking at the girl closely.
The idea was that Ninja were tools to be used and disposed of when they failed. This was the most common thought among most people, especially the Daimyo who employed Ninja but they feared those Ninja as well.
If there was one thing all of the Daimyo in the world feared it was rebellion and usurpation and that paranoia had doubled when the Great War broke out and Ninja fought in the Daimyo's court itself and when they saw the power of Ninja first-hand many thoughts turned to how easy it would be for Ninja to topple the government and take the power of rulership for themselves.
'If only the world was a little kinder.' Naruto reflected on the past of the Ninja and what the future would hold for all of them.
Land Of Grass
Former Shiin Compound
Naruto and Tayuya travelled in silence through the forest but after passing some invisible boundary Tayuya perked up once again and she began looking around in that paranoid manner again.
"Expecting something?" Naruto whispered to her.
"Yes. We're nearly there." Tayuya replied also whispering.
"Okay." Naruto pulled a kunai out at the ready.
The common practice for Ninja who defeated another Clan and took their land and compound was for a garrison force to be left behind mainly to catch any survivors and make sure the Clan in question didn't come back.
They moved slower and more deliberately after Tayuya gestured to him when she saw a building in the distance.
'That must be her Clan compound.' Naruto thought as he gestured to his Kage Bunshin to scout the surrounding area.
They came to a dirt path and both of them began to creep up the path and came to see stone walls emblazoned with the symbol of the Shiin Clan but the walls were overgrown with ivy and moss, it looked like the forest had reclaimed them.
"Hear anyone?" Naruto asked Tayuya as he looked around.
"No, it's strange I can only hear animals." Tayuya whispered back. The Shiin were specialists in music and as such, they had amazing hearing and according to Tayuya, her hearing was especially sharp.
They moved up slowly with eyes on any movement but once they reached the wall and peeked over into the main courtyard area and saw no one they relaxed a little.
"Check out the surrounding area." Naruto ordered his clones who nodded and took off to fulfil their orders.
"This seems so wrong." Tayuya said as she fiddled with her flute nervously.
"I know." Naruto said taking in the area.
It was obvious that the buildings had seen better times, all the windows were destroyed and there were a lot of burn marks and that was not even mentioning all the kunai, shuriken and Fuma Shuriken which littered the floor. But it also looked completely abandoned as plants were growing through stone and even going inside the buildings as well the entire place looked like it never even received a garrison.
"It was a brutal attack." Tayuya looked haunted at seeing everything in its dilapidated state.
"They came early in the morning during the shift change. They launched Explosive Kunai and their damn shuriken we tried our best but..." Tayuya was back in the past as her voice trailed off.
"Come on. We're not gonna find anything standing here." Naruto tugged on Tayuya's sleeve and brought her out of whatever she was seeing.
"What?" She asked dazed for a moment before regaining her bearings. "Yeah, you're right."
Both of them entered the main building at the head of the courtyard, the compound had a fairly standard layout with a central building along with two smaller buildings on either side. Naruto and Tayuya were heading into the central one and they had their backs to the destroyed entrance arch of the compound.
The doors were blasted off the hinges and they walked in with the wood groaning under their feet. The main room was empty with debris everywhere except for a small campsite right in the centre, however, it looked abandoned just like the rest of the building.
Naruto went over to inspect it while Tayuya walked around the room dazed and it looked like she was not really present again.
Naruto knelt next to the burned-out fire and ran a finger across the burned wood and his finger was only smudged a little as most of the black coating had flaked off.
"Looks like no one's been here for a while." Naruto muttered.
He checked the surrounding area and only found mouldy food leftovers that were obviously tossed away. It looked to Naruto that the Fuma did have a presence here but something made them leave.
It was while he was contemplating this that he just caught a small slip of white paper out
of the corner of his eye, it was partially covered by some destroyed wood.
Naruto walked over and picked it up and his eyes went over the words that were written plainly on the paper. Usually, Ninja would code their messages but there was one exception to the rule when the information was already something everyone knew.
"Tayuya got a note here." He called over to the girl who was running a hand over one of the carvings.
"Coming!" Tayuya ran over and near snatched the paper from Naruto's hand.
'She's not gonna like what's written on that.' He thought.
It was a simple message that said:
Kousuke,
Leave the Shiin Compound.
They went north and got destroyed by the Kazan.
No reason to remain there now.
Come back home.
Tsume.
Tayuya read the words then tore the paper to pieces and Naruto could even see tears in her eyes as she stood there.
"I'm sorry Tayuya." Naruto whispered. He didn't know why he was apologising but he felt like he had to.
"Don't Naruto. Just don't." Tayuya cut him off.
"None of this is your fault so don't bother apologising for it." She said to him and sat down on the floor uncaring about the dirt around here.
It was clear to Naruto that she wanted to be left alone and deal with her emotions.
"I'll be searching the rest of the compound, if you need me just shout." Naruto said and even patted her on the shoulder though Tayuya did not react.
"Hm." Tayuya nodded and Naruto left her with a Kage Bunshin watching over her.
Naruto created 5 more Kage Bunshin which appeared in puffs of smoke and now with the Chakra of 4 people he barely felt the drain on his Chakra now.
"Search the entire area and if you find something interesting or important dispel yourselves," Naruto ordered them. He would keep the other Kage Bunshin who were now watching the surrounding area for enemies active for now.
"Got it, Boss." His clones chorused and then went about doing the task they were given.
Naruto himself decided to check out the back area of the compound behind the main building he and Tayuya were in.
He walked outside to see a beautiful garden though it was completely overgrown due to being abandoned. There were flowers along with trees that had fruit on them and also a cracked stone path leading up to a distant small building.
'I wonder what's up that way.' Naruto was a curious boy and with something like this he could not resist the call to explore.
Naruto followed the path while taking care not to trip over any of the destroyed weapons or stones that littered the ground. Honestly to Naruto, it looked like the Shiin Clan Compound had been abandoned a hundred years instead of just a month or so. He still didn't know the exact timetable of when the Shiin were driven out of the Land of Grass by the Fuma Clan.
Naruto followed the path to the end and was confronted with a destroyed pagoda, it was made of wood but completely annihilated. The wood was burnt black and there were even bones trapped underneath the burnt wood.
"Oh no." Naruto whispered when he saw what was beyond the small hill that the pagoda was situated on.
Within eyesight was a huge black mound and from the distance, Naruto was seeing it just looked like a destroyed building. It was within the compound walls but was pressed right to the back like it was placed as far away from the building as possible.
Naruto got closer and after getting a good look at the huge mound he vomited.
"Gaaargh! Haaargh! Bleeeergh!" He vomited and gasped for breath before vomiting again.
The mound was no building it was a huge burnt pile of bodies. Men, Women and children all piled on top of the other and burnt black to a crisp.
It was all that remained of the Shiin Clan after the Fuma's attack. And it disgusted Naruto more than anything else he had ever experienced in his life before.
"Oh, Gods. Oh no." Naruto gasped as he got his breath back.
"I can't let Tayuya see this." He mumbled wiping his mouth.
"Doton: Kanbotsu." Naruto used one of his recently learned Ninjutsu. There was a slight tremor in the ground and then a hole opened up underneath the mound of bodies and they fell into it so it was below ground level.
"I'm sorry I couldn't bury you all properly." Naruto muttered as he brought his hands together in prayer as the ground moved and covered all of the bodies hiding them.
'This was far too much.' Naruto thought as he knelt down on one knee.
Naruto's head snapped up as one of his Kage Bunshin popped and the information was sent back to him. It appeared his Clone had found the Shiin family library and to his shock, a lot of it was still intact. He half expected those scrolls to be missing or burned like everything else was.
"I guess I could go tell Tayuya about that at least." He mumbled standing back up.
Naruto turned and walked a few steps before taking one last look at the now flat ground underneath which was the bodies of the Shiin Clan who were killed here.
He followed the stone path back and went back into the main building.
"Hey, Tayuya! I found something!" He called as he entered the main room again.
There was no reply.
"Tayuya!" Naruto called again with a little bit of worry.
"T-Tayuya!" He shouted with some fear.
He ran back to where he last saw her and was partly relieved but also partly horrified as Tayuya was laying in the rubble completely unconscious on her back.
Naruto jumped to Tayuya's side and put his head on her chest and one handheld by her mouth and nose. To his immense relief she was breathing steadily and her heart was pumping normally as well.
"Did the stress get to her?" Naruto asked himself as he shifted her on her side in case she vomited.
His other Clones popped and none of the information he got from them was as important as the scrolls he found. so he created two more and ordered one of them to seal up all the Shiin Clan's scrolls and the other to find a safe place for them to sleep that would be out of the way and hard to find.
Naruto gathered Tayuya up in his arms and picked her up, she was still as light as ever but even so, Naruto's arms felt heavy and so did his eyelids.
'This has been a bad day. I don't think we should have come here.' He thought as he walked out of the building once his Clone found a safe place for the both of them to sleep.
"A storage room huh." Naruto muttered as he processed the information. It was in the back of the kitchen, had a metal door and was also completely empty before it was probably a pantry of something similar.
"I'm really glad I have Fuinjutsu. I'll set up a barrier before I sleep." He planned out the rest of the day.
'Just in time though.' He thought looking up at the sky, the sun was beginning to dip and the sky was turning orange.
?
Tayuya sat in her favourite spot in the small forest that the Shiin Clan called home. It was a rock right by a small lake that was out of the way of the main Clan compound and very few of her family ever ventured out this way to find her.
She played her flute with practised fingers and the melody she produced was peaceful and calming to all who would have heard it.
"Tayuya! Out here again!?" Sasame called out interrupting her concentration.
"Damn it! Sasame! I was creating a new Genjutsu!" Tayuya's eyes snapped open and she glared at her orange-haired sister.
"Oh! Well, you'll make it next time anyway." Sasame said to her smiling.
"You're so annoying!" Tayuya complained pointing her flute at Sasame.
"If I'm annoying then you must be as well." Sasame teased her.
"What? How am I annoying?" Tayuya was crouched low ready to pounce.
"Because you're my sister." Sasame said as if that made any sense.
"Huh? That doesn't even make sense!" Tayuya jumped at her sister who anticipated such a move and dodged out of the way.
"We haven't played tag in a while have we?" Sasame asked herself as she landed up on a tree branch.
"We never play because I always win." Tayuya said with a twitching eye as she looked at Sasame with a dangerous glint in her eye.
"Really? I thought I always won." Sasame said back and she seemed to get a similar look to her sister.
"Shall we put that to the test then?" Tayuya asked dangerously.
"You'll never catch me." Sasame dismissed Tayuya with a wave.
"We'll see about that," Tayuya muttered and then she blurred forward and just barely missed grabbing Sasame's arm.
"Missed me~." Sasame teased as she ran from Tayuya.
"Get back here!" Tayuya shouted at Sasame as she followed.
Tayuya smiled as she dodged under branches and jumped high into the forest top as she chased after Sasame, it wasn't often they got to play like this.
Land of Grass
Shiin Clan Compound
Storage Room
The storage room was made of stone and after Naruto cleaned all the debris out made a perfect place to hide, eat and sleep. There was only 1 entrance/exit and after Naruto set up a simply Fuinjutsu Kekkai he could feel anyone approaching so it was ready for him to settle down now.
Naruto had got the sleeping bags out and placed Tayuya in hers. He was currently cooking some instant ramen and while he was waiting for the water to boil he looked over to Tayuya and to his surprise she was smiling in her sleep.
Not an 'I'm better than you smile' or a 'Smiling to cover up the pain' but a truly happy smile where she looked completely content.
"I hope you're enjoying that good dream Tayuya." Naruto said smiling at her.
"Because when you wake up it's back to the real world." He said darkly reflecting over the mound of bodies he found.
'The world has to change. And I'll be the man to change it no matter what, for a kinder world where parents don't bury their children and entire families don't get wiped out because of stupid conflicts.' Naruto mentally vowed what many would believe to be impossible.
Naruto was used to breaking the impossible after all it was supposed to be impossible to have 3 Kekkei Genkai but here he was with the Hyoton, Ranton and Yoton.
Indeed Naruto would be the man to change the world in the future.
AN:
Here's chapter 38 hope you all enjoyed it.
More down paced and a bit depressing but needed, I think chapter 39 will be the end of this little story and then I'm thinking of doing a 10000-word extra-large chapter to celebrate hitting 40 Chapters, this isn't set in stone but I do want to try it.
In other news, I have a gig to go to tomorrow so there probably won't be any chapters Tuesday or Wednesday so expect chapter 39 on Thursday/Friday.
Translations:
Doton: Kanbotsu=Earth Release: Sinkhole