Third movement, Part 3

Another three months has passed and the caravan was preparing to depart from Amegakure, but Mayuri was still in no condition to travel. To Lupa and Heikuro's relief, she had recovered a bit. She ate at regular intervals and took walks with Lupa under the sun, though she had to wear a veil in public for the sake of her reputation. Especially since word has spread that she had eloped with an unknown ninja.

Her bodily functions work, but her mind and heart have shut off, Lupa thought sadly as they sat together at the town square. They sat on the warm stones of the fountain where Mayuri used to like to soak her feet in.

The sun was shining brightly, the birds were signing, the people were busy, and the children were laughing, everything would have brought a brilliant smile to Mayuri's face before, but now she only sat there and stared from the inside of her veil as if she were a phantom that didn't belong, a ghost that should have left with her lover. Instead she was left here, incased in this body was imprisoned her soul, her spirit.

She knew how much Lupa and Heikuro worried after her. Even Shin and Kagura had come to visit and see her a few weeks ago. People from the tribe came with gifts and kind words, congratulations and condolences. She knew the proper thing to do was thank them and move on, but she couldn't pull herself out of this world of fog and mist as if there was a vacuum in that world of hers that kept her from returning to reality and a repellant that kept her from the afterlife. She was the monkey in the middle, she mused remembering that wretched game the caravan kids used to tease her with.

She cried every night remembering all the moments she spent with him and then thinking of all the times she wouldn't be able to spend with him. Would he have taken away from Ame to his own home? How would he have reacted when she told him about their first child? How would they have celebrated each other's birthdays? How would they have spent their first anniversary? The pain of dreaming of something she could never have was worse than death.

"Mayuri-san," Lupa said, giving her a shake and was pleased when Mayuri turned her head in reponse. "Do you feel tired? Do you want to go back now?"

"Okay," she muttered quietly with her mouth when her soul screamed to be free.

Her friend helped her up and they walked back to her inn, the second layer of prison. Surrounded by things that only reminded her of him, the instruments they both loved, and the place they had their first experience of love.

"Just rest for a little while," Lupa instructed as she helped Mayuri lower down onto the mattress as if she were eighty rather than twenty. "I'll be in the next room, call me if you need anything."

Lupa left and Mayuri didn't call her until it was six o'clock and time for Mayuri's dinner. After dinner, Heikuro came again and left an hour after and soon Lupa left for bed. And Mayuri was left to wallow alone in her pain.

But this night was different. Mayuri laid in her bed in a strange awkwardness and felt something stir in her. She thought it was just her imagination, so she closed her eyes and readied herself for another round with tears and hurt. But she felt that sensation again and opened her eyes. And there it was again, the feeling of a puppy squirming in your hands.

Mayuri sat up and touched her belly. As if all her senses had awoke at that very moment, she tried to remember the last time her period came. Just as quickly, her hand flew to her mouth and her eyes grew wide.

The first question that entered her hand was: how long? She needed to get out. She needed to get out for the sake of her baby.

Getting up for the first time on her own in months, Mayuri crept out of her room, tip toed passed Lupa, before she left though she remembered to grab the kokyu she hadn't touched. There was a thin layer of dust on the top of the cases.

"I'm sorry for leaving you all alone," she whispered to her instruments. "I'll be sure to wipe you all clean tomorrow."

She wandered without exactly knowing where she went. But the cold air felt nice against her skin. She didn't remember feeling the wind in a long time. Oh yes, she remembered, it was because she had to wear a veil, to cover her face because the grief she felt was too terrible.

Piece by piece, she felt the heaviness of her body break way like shattering glass, her insurmountable prison breaking away like shattering glass. It felt as if it had been forever since she had been able to take a deep breath of fresh air. The world of shrouding mist faded away to a clear night with a sky set with a million sparkling diamonds.

She found herself at the foot of a grassy hill where a lonely cherry tree was standing. Its petals danced around her as if the tree, the flowers, and the grass were welcoming her back. Though there was no one there, she could vividly imagine a tall dark man waiting by the roots.

Her feet floated up the hill until she stood where her phantom stood. She looked up at the branches where they once sat at and tears welled up in her eyes. She put the case down and took out the kokyu. The strings needed to be tuned and the bow needed resin, so was patient with the rituals of the production of clear sound.

When she was finished she played on her instincts and followed the notes to create a sad melody. The baby in her stomach moved again, as if in response to her sadness. She was so absorbed into the music she didn't even notice another person coming up.

"It's a lovely song," Konan said.

Mayuri whipped around. She recognized the woman, the barer of her unfortunate circumstance and in her heart she hated this other woman even though she knew it wasn't right.

"I'm sorry, I know you've already introduced yourself, but who are you again?"

Konan observed the girl, barely out of her teenage years, and already a widow. "When you aren't crying your eyes out, you are exactly as he described you to be."

Mayuri played around with the strings of her kokyu, nervously.

"My name is Konan. I'm very sorry for your loss. I left your friend a note for collect Uchiha Itachi's body, but no one ever came for it. It would have been disposed with, but it didn't feel right with me for his body to be discarded that way. If you want, I've kept his body in a freezer; you can come collect it now if you want. "

Mayuri hesitated, but she decided it would be best to say good bye one last time. "Yes, please take me to see him."

The journey wasn't long, but in order to keep the hideout a secret, Mayuri had to wear a blindfold as Konan guided her. Soon, Konan led her into a cold room and untied the blindfold.

"Here we are," she said. "I'll leave you alone for now. When you're ready to move him just knock and I'll guide you back out."

Mayuri nodded, keeping her eyes closed until she heard Konan leave. Her heart beat loudly and tears stung her eyes again. She took three steps forward until she felt the edge of the gurney he was laid upon. The cold metal burned her like fire and she opened her watery eyes.

He laid there, covered by a thin sheet to hide the scars from the autopsy Konan explain that had been done to him. His body apparently held too many secrets that needed to be unraveled. To the world he was a menace, a treasure chest, an asset. To her, he was irreplaceable.

She touched his face, cold as stone. There were still the dark circles under his eyes, and his lips had become purple. She had seen enough of this cold man; she wanted to see his healthy side again. The side he showed her.

She backed away, her eyes unable to leave his body and knocked on the door. Konan came in promptly.

"Finished already?"

"Please help me take him away. I know a place; I would like to wash him before burial. I can take care of everything else, just please let me take him with me."

"Fine, his body is no longer useful to us. Do with it what you will."

Konan blindfolded her again and led her out of the base and back into the world. Then Mayuri led her to an abandoned shrine.

"This is an old shrine of a water spirit no one remembers anymore. There is a fresh water spring there that's said to rejuvenate the body."

"Are you trying to bring him back to life?"

"No. I just want him to look more like a human rather than a stone statue when I say my final good bye."

The paper clones Konan had conjured up laid his body gingerly into the shallow spring as light from the morning flooded the land with its glory and warmth.

"Thank you so much for everything. I know you went out of your way for me. I'm forever in your debt."

"You can pay me back, by make sure the future generation lives in peace," she said, pointing at Mayuri's stomach. "Raise the child so that it will learn to be peaceful rather than fight, in the hopes that there will be more wars."

"I understand, and in every way I plan to raise this child with love and care. Can you do one thing for me? My friend is resting in my room at the inn, can you please send her a message to help me prepare for a funeral?"

"Of course."

With no more words between them left to say, Konan left and never saw Mayuri again.

Mayuri waited for the sun to rise a little more and searched the old shrine for ointments that were left behind by the monks who used to life there before she stepped into the water wearing only her white sleeping robes. With the clear spring water and the cloth she used to condition her instruments with, she washed his body of the smell of decay. Taking the oils and ointments, she covered it over his face and body and rinsed his body again.

She felt a presence as she washed his hair. She looked up into the shadows of the shrine's gate. She saw red eyes, the same red she had seen in Itachi's eyes.

"You," she whispered, the beloved younger brother. "Sasuke-san."

She remembered the last words he said to her before he left her. "Take care of my brother. He's the only blood relation I have left in this world. Help guide him, as you helped guide me."

Mayuri stepped out of the water and saw that Sasuke had glanced down at the ring on her finger again. She took a step forward and felt his guilt and fear.

"Who are you?" he growled.

"Shh, it's alright," Mayuri said softly as she wrapped her haori around her shoulders and advanced a few more steps. She felt as if she were walking toward a frightened animal.

"I asked you are you?" Sasuke screamed.

She understood the fear, the guilt he felt. Somehow those emotions he felt poured into her, the heavy blood on his hands.

"They call me Shinpi, but your brother called me Mayuri. He married me in secret."

She was now only a few inches away from him and she reached out with the cloth she cleaned Itachi's body with hoping to show him that she didn't hate him as he's thinking she would, to show him that his brother loved him dearly, enough to die for him. But he backed away as if should she touch him he would have disappeared.

She had forgiven him completely. She wanted to tell him about his nephew, about the child she bore. About a new chance, to have the family he should have had as a child. The life his brother wished for him.

But before she said those words she saw a shadow behind him, the face of a mask, and the presence of a man that Itachi had warned her about.

"Uchiha Madara." Those words dripped out of her mouth like poison. She looked into Sasuke's dark eyes. "Why are you with him? Why are you with Uchiha Madara? Have you lost your mind? Or are you too confused to understand right from left? Did your own brother's death mean nothing to you? The message he left behind? Nothing?"

She beat his chest as if trying to beat the fact that Madara was evil into him. That he had made the wrong decision. Can't you understand, she thought.

"Sorry," she heard him say before he left her.

Mayuri sank down onto her knees and cried over words not said. If only she had said the words she thought rather than those she had actually said. Sasuke would have stayed with her. He was looking for salvation, salvation that Itachi had instructed Mayuri to give. But she failed him.

Lupa came soon in the morning. She had a note with her; the same lacquered paper Konan's clones were made up of. She helped Mayuri carry Itachi out of the water and helped her dry him. The local monk and Heikuro came soon after and continued with the funeral procession after Mayuri explained.

Lupa and Heikuro were dressed in formal black since they were notified beforehand.

"I can go back and get you something black to wear," Lupa said.

"No, it's fine. I'll wear white and perhaps he'll know that I'm doing much better now, that I won't grieve over him for too long, and that I will move on. It's what he'll want. It's what I must do, for myself and for my baby."

Lupa gasped. "Are you sure?"

"I felt the baby move last night and had a little morning sickness before you came. I'm going to ask Heikuro to check more accurately later. I'm actually sort of excited about having this baby."

Lupa smiled. "I'm glad for you. I haven't seen you smile in too long."

"Sorry for worrying you."

The monk turned to the two girls sitting at the sides after he finished his chanting. "Would you like to say a few words?"

"Yes, please."

The room emptied out and there was only Mayuri left.

"Hey," she started and sniffled. She blinked back tears, because she had promised herself she would cry. "I'm going to be fine. I won't cry for too long, but I still will, because I love you so much." She wiped the obstinate tears away. "I'm going to keep playing. Kaimu told me once that music is something that connects this world with the other worlds, so maybe you'll be able to hear me play sometimes.

"I'll take care of your child, since it's something you left for me. If he's a boy I hope that he's as handsome as you. If she's a girl then I hope she'll still have your black hair. I won't have our child looking so much like a foreigner. It's a very harsh life I tell you. More or less the child will probably end up being a ninja, but I'll still take the time to teach them music. It's too important to me.

"Oh, I'm babbling now. What I want to say really is that we'll be fine. So you don't have to worry too much,just watch over us every once in awhile." Mayuri wiped the tears away with her sleeve since her hands weren't enough to stop the flood. "I love you. Good bye, my love."

He was buried next to the cherry tree and a wooden post was fashioned for him. His name was not written, in fear that his enemies would tarnish his grave. Instead Mayuri had written a poem in hopes of encouraging anymore trysts that might take place at this cherry tree.

Here sleeps a gentle hero

Who set his life down

Who wished for love

Who hoped for happiness

Here sleeps a gentle hero

May all who come here

Find what they seek

Whether it be love or peace

Here sleeps my gentle hero