I stared at the black swirling vortex. It stared down at me with all its unknowingness. The lump in my throat refused to move as I watched Sasuke follow Carver and Raiden into the beast's mouth. Sakura then turned and looked at me waiting. I slowly moved to it investinging its black swirling teeth. I looked back at Sakura taking in a deep breath and stepped through it.
I felt like I was falling. I couldn't control anything and I felt helpless. My body had hot tingles crawling all over. The tingles clawed their way under my skin as my stomach turned, my heart was in my throat. I had my eyes open; I think. I couldn't tell it was all dark, I reached out for something, anything but I felt nothing. My heart felt like it was outside my rib cage pounding in fear!
I felt like a child again, sitting on that old swing with people trying to get far away from me as they looked at me with disgust and fear in their eyes. As quickly as all these emotions hit me, they all left in a swift motion. I opened my eyes feeling warm air breathe on my face.
It was bright, we were standing on a dirt path. Thick trees were all around us, they were lush and full of deep green leaves, they almost put our trees which is what we were known for to shame. I watched as everyone slide off their jackets, scarfs and gloves. I didn't understand why until I felt the heat slip under my clothing and wrap around my body. I followed their actions quickly; it was so fucking hot! Sakura came through the portal, it evaporated behind her.
"Where are we?" I asked looking around, it quite beautiful wherever we were. Before anyone could answer my question there was a rushel in the bushes behind us. I jumped with Kakashi and Sasuke. We had no weapons to defend ourselves, why the hell did we come here so unprepared?! I looked behind me and had to do a double take. Sakura, Raiden and Carver were already walking away from us!
"Hey-Hey?" I called, "What are you guys doing?" I was confused.
"We are safe." Sakura called not looking back on us. What? I looked back and almost fell onto my face, a light bunny hopped out into the dirt path ignoring us.
"Be careful!" Raiden called over his shoulder, "It can smell fear!" He was enjoying my misery!
"Where are we?" I repeated only to be ignored again, I growled annoyed. I looked at Sakura. Something seemed off about her; her eyes were sharp and hard like stone. Her face was twisted with an emotion I couldn't place my finger on. Raiden and Carver had the same look, what was this place? Out of nowhere Sasuke grabbed his head and leaned forward, he cried out in pain.
"Sasuke!?" Igasped touching his shoulder. "What's wrong?"
"My-My head." He bit out.
"Your fine." Sakura called sounding bored.
"What did you do to me?" Sasuke called out looking a little sweaty. She stopped walking and turned,
"I gave you the coordinates to this place." She answered.
"What? Why would I want that?" Sasuke asked sounding a little snarky.
"It's the only reason she brought you with us." Carver said.
"Because your brother is buried here." Raiden said so casual and they began to walk up the dirt path.
"My...brother...?" Sasuke breathed, he looked a little sick but he quickly moved to follow the four ahead of us. I watched him feeling a little worried, he looked shaken and Sasuke never looked stirred.
After like four miles up a freaking hill we finally came to a clearing. Bright apple trees were all around us. There was a clearing on the right side, of me, overlooking the scenery I think we were on a cliff. I could hear the slight sounds of a waterfall trickling not far from us. I could hear birds singing their song freely. It was a beautiful place until I seen the crosses. They held names and a head band on every single one of them.
Amethyst, Piper, Percy, Finn, Lance, Octavia and Isadora...I knew that last name I didn't know the others, but I know that one, why? There was another cross I had not read, Sasuke was on his knees in front of it. I walked up beside him and read Itachi's name, his older brother was really buried here. Sasuke appeared broken, I could see the cracks in his armor, and it broke my heart. I wanted to reach out and fix him, but I couldn't fix what had broken inside him...
"Why is he here?" Anger was laced Sasuke's voice, wait why was he mad? Didn't he leave his brothers body to rot? Shouldn't this be making him really happy right now?
"Along time ago." Carver started, "When the Reapers first attacked the Waterfall Village making themselves known, they knew how to hit us hard, they crippled us in just a night." Carver laughed, "That is why the Nine was created." The Nine...their team...these people were their dead teammates!
"I wasn't supposed to be on the Nine." Sakura took over the story which surprised me, "They were hired by me and not the Waterfall Village, but I got into a fight with Kaguya I sealed her inside one of my domes and I took off with them." Sakura smiled sadly at her memories. "The Nine's main mission was to find the Reaper's hideout and then bring them down. After we discovered the Reapers hideout was not in this dimension, we jumped at random as a sad attempt to track them."
"I-" I didn't even know what to say, it wasn't every day Sakura shared her past so I quickly shut up and let her continue.
"That's how we found this place, there are no people here just a few animals and nature. Our teammate Amethyst fell in love with this place. She would bug me nonstop to bring her back here, it was so fucking annoying at the time. When not running after the Reapers we came here, Amethyst was the first to die out of all of us." She said looking back down at the crosses. "When she died, we brought her body here. She loved this place so much I knew she would have wanted to be buried here. But soon after she died the others started to fall as well, and after Amethyst everyone agreed this was where they wanted to be laid to rest."
"So, when one of our comrades died-" Raiden took over, "-We tracked their bodies down and honored their wish."
"This place use to be a safe haven for us, it stood for everything we fought for but now it is a graveyard for our fallen friends." Carver added,
"Itachi was one of us." Sakura turned to Sasuke, "This is where he wanted to be buried."
"What do you mean he was one of you!?" Sasuke stood, "How could he want to be buried here?!"
"Wait..." I spoke up, "Were you guys there when Itachi was..." I trailed off not knowing if I should be asking this question.
"Yes." Carver nodded. "We were there when Itachi was killed."
"What?" Sasuke breathed.
"He wanted to be killed by Sasuke, so who were we to stand in the way of that?" Raiden shrugged,
"We waited-" Carver agreed, "We waited for our friend to be killed so we could bury him and honor his last wishes."
"I want to show you all something." Carver held his hand out for Sasuke who was in shock. Sasuke looked up at Carver and then took his hand. Carver wrapped and arm around Sasuke and led him through that opening in the trees, that I thought was a cliff. Raiden grabbed Kakashi and dragged him. I looked over at Sakura, seeing she was not following, she turned and nodded at me to follow, after a moment I did. I quickly ran through the opening only to stop in my tracks. It was not a cliff it was a hill and hundreds of graves laid in front of me.
I blinked a few times as if I could make this sight vanish.
"Naruto!" I looked forward seeing Carver calling me, he and the others were already at the bottom of the hill. I jogged to catch up with them.
"Carver!" I gasped "What is all this?!" I could feel how full my eyes were. Carver smiled at me weakly and patted the top of my head.
"You are looking at the members of the Nine."
"What?" Sasuke and I asked together, Carver nodded.
"Just because our name was the Nine, doesn't mean there was just nine of us." Raiden half joked.
"What happened?" I breathed.
"What do you think?" Carver asked, "War."
Carver sighed as he looked at each grave sadness in his eyes "These were our family, our friends and we buried every single one of them." I looked at Sasuke and Kakashi I didn't know what to say here, they were going to have to step up.
Why is my brother here?" Sasuke broke the silence.
"Your brother cracked his deal with Sakura, he kind of became a spy for us. Sakura and Itachi became close after that. Itachi saw what we were doing, trying to connect all the villages together he loved it he wanted to be a part of that. And when Itachi saw that none of us held a village, that we fought for all of them that was what sold him on the deal. He became a member in a heartbeat. He wanted a better future for you Sasuke. He said it over and over again." Carver groaned showing how annoyed he was at hearing those words.
"Why didn't you stop the fight." Sasuke whispered, a tear falling down his cheek. Sasuke never cried, I have only seen it once, back when I had to kick his ass to snap him out of wanting to destroy the leaf village. "Why didn't you stop me from killing my brother?"
"Itachi was a great man-" Carver said. "-but what he did to your family, it was killing him inside it ate at him from the inside out. When I got to know him, and when he let his guard down and allowed people in anyone with eyes could see just how much guilt he was holding on his shoulders. The only person he felt that he deserved to die by was you." Carver said looking at Sasuke, "We could have swooped in and stopped the fight, but to prolong Itachi's pain would have been just too selfish. He was barely hanging on by a thread, he loved you Sasuke he loved you so much more than the leaf village. He made Sakura swore that she would protect you, to keep that seal on you. He made all of us swear to watch over you."
"Trust us Sasuke, Itachi wanted to die by your hand." Raiden said, "Don't hold the guilt, do not let it eat at you. That is not what Itachi would have wanted." Raiden said as he went to sit against a tree trunk. After a long time of everyone looking around and trying to wrap our heads around this new information someone finally broke the silence, but it just had to be Raiden the most random person I knew.
"I think I will die by a Reaper, maybe the second in command." Raiden said looking up at the sky.
"Wh-What?" I laughed.
"Yeah." Raiden said looking at me. "That is how I think I will die."
"You're not going to die." I laughed.
"Yeah, I am." Raiden said as all the humor drained off his face.
"What are you talking about!?" I yelled at Raiden, "Are you insane!? How-"
"Calm down." Carver yawned. How could I calm down?! It was so close to Christmas and is not cheerful holiday talk!
"I had that same look on my face Naruto when Sakura told me how she was going to die." Carver stretched, "But in this life when you are traveling alone as much as we do. You start to think...you start to think about anything and everything, you think about your life and the choices that you have made. You think about it all. And after a while, after a few weeks of always looking over your shoulder, of walking none stop and sleeping in trees and after all the weeks of the cold seeping into your bones, and the stupid energy bars that is every meal you start to think about how you are going to die. Because you see it every day all day. You think about how you will go, you think about when, where, who and by what. You can look at us like we are crazy and that is fine, I didn't believe it at first either, but it gets you..it really does it is one of the risks."
"Risks." Sasuke scoffed, "You guys keep talking about risks, what risks do you guys have to deal with?" He laughed, "You guys get to travel the world! You guys get to-"
"We do not get a home or a warm bed." Carver cut Sasuke off. "We have to travel the world! We do not get to make friends or have families that we can go home to at night. We are always on the move, always looking over our shoulder waiting for the next fight, waiting to see if that is going to be the last one, and some shred of us hopes it is. The only friends we have are other people of the nine, who we only get to see every few months. We are always on our own no village to call home, no safety net. We do not exist. Everyone you see here did not exist! No one knows their names, or who they were or how they died protecting them! No one calls us a hero; we do not get our actions recognized and we do not get praised we are the strangers walking on the sidewalk that no one bats an eye at. No one will know when we die, and no one will miss us when do."
"You guys are not going to die!" I laughed. "Why do you keep saying that?!"
"Naruto...everyone laying here knew they were going to die before their time was up. Everyone here did not die a peaceful death, and they all knew that was going to happen. Like how I know and how Raiden knows that we will die in battle, and we will be buried here. That is a risk we all know we are taking when we sign up. I understand that you do not understand this because you get to think that you will live till you are in your eighties and that you will probably die peacefully in your warm bed. And that is why we are fighting. So, you can think that. But we know that's not true for us, we are not crazy or insane we are just realistic." I looked down. I never once thought about how I would die, I always thought no one could ever take me down. I never thought about who or when or how I was going to die, but they do and they were ok with it, they made peace with it.
"How do you think you are going to die?" Sasuke asked Carver who looked up at the hill.
"Sakura." He said.
"Sakura!?" Kakashi coughed out. "Why do you think Sakura?!" Carver laughed a little.
"Honestly...I don't know how she is still standing." I looked over at where Sakura was. "Sakura has been doing this alone for almost two years before the Nine was put together. She was the only one fighting for the villages on top of Kaguya and her own soldiers. She has been through so much more fucked up shit than we have, she has fought so many more battles and she has buried a lot more people than I have and yet, there she stands strong as ever even though she has gone through so much more than we have and we are barley holding on." Carver said looking at the flower he had picked out of the dirt. "But Sakura fights harder, she protects to many people. She gives too much, the seal that she holds it does give her the strength to be the Reaper of Reapers, but it is a double-sided blade. So yeah, I think I will die fighting Sakura to protect her from herself or something will happen where we flip sides and I have to face her but something inside me, something deep down is telling me that I will die by her blade, and I am strangely ok with that." Carver laughed looking up at us. As Carver and Raiden leaned against the old tree, I could see how tired they were. How tried they were of fighting and traveling and how they just wanted a home and a bed to go to at the end of a long day.
"If you guys are so tired, why don't you stop?" Sasuke asked. "You know you are more than welcome in the leaf village."
Carver smiled. "I know." He looked back at the top of the hill. "I want too, Raiden wants too..."
"Then why don't you!?" I asked feeling a little excited.
"Sakura."
"Sakura?" I asked I looked over at Kakashi. "I am sure she wants to stay in the village."
"She does." Raiden said. "Well...some piece of her does."
"Then why don't you guys!?" I smiled.
"Sakura." The two said.
"Huh?" I asked confused.
"Sakura will not rest until the Reapers have been ripped apart, and no one can blame her for wanting that. I mean look around the Reapers have killed so many of us, and Sakura made a vow to the Waterfall Village, she will not walk away from them that is what makes Sakura...Sakura." Raiden explained.
"She's been running that village-"
"I know Naruto." Carver said cutting me off. "She can run the village without being there, she does it all the time. But Sakura also has a target on her back, she has a price on her head and if she stations at the leaf village...the Reapers will burn it to the ground, and she knows that, we all do."
"We can protect ourselves." Sasuke said.
"I know you guys can, but Sakura will not station at the Leaf Village, there is just too many people trying to get their hands on her."
"Well..." I said thinking for a second. "I will join the nine! Together we will take the Reapers down and then you guys can come home!" Carver smiled but shook his head slowly.
"I will get back to you on joining the nine in a moment, but it is not just the Reapers that want Sakura."
"Who then?" Kakashi questioned,
"Sakura's seal can bring the human race to its knees and destroy us all. I have seen her do a lot of fucked up shit with seals that have been forgotten and torn out of the ninja world because they were so dangerous. That is why they were all shoved into a seal and casted away. I don't know how Sakura got the seal, but she did and I can tell you hundreds of people who would love to get their hands on her and try to force her to tell them every single seal she knows. It has happened, it could happen again if anyone figured out, she lives anywhere other than the Waterfall Village."
"What do you mean it has happened before?" Kakashi asked,
"What?" Carver asked confused for a moment, "Oh! Sakura was captured about three years ago by I honestly don't know who they were, but they tried to break her by torture, but she didn't break but they tried...point is you all forget that Sakura is a high-priced target. She will be for the rest of her life." Carver looked at Kakashi, "Are you ready for that?"
"I am" Kakashi nodded determination in his eye. I smiled; he really did love her.
"Why did we come here today?" I wondered, "Why couldn't it wait?"
"We always come here on Piper's birthday; it has been our tradition but with everything going on we lost track of the days." Raiden yawned.
"Come on, let's get back to her before she gets bored." Carver waved. Kakashi, Sasuke and I nodded and started our way back up the hill. I looked back with the smiled on my face, but it melted seeing Carver and Raiden looking around, sorrow laces all over their face. They looked around at all the graves, at all their friends. Their family who they had to have missed more than anything. Then it clicked, the look on Sakura's face as we were walking here, the look on all their faces...they hated coming here. It pained them too. But they still came to honor their fallen friends. Carver and Raiden soon followed us, and we made our way back to where Sakura was, who was still standing right where we left her. She was in deep thought or maybe she was lost in her memories. I looked around at the names again. Isadora, why did I know that name?!
"Isadora." Raiden said as he stood next to me. "She died in the first war against the Reapers at the Waterfall Village. She fought beside Sakura I know they were close, I never met her, but I heard all good things. Isadora was Sakura's second in Command before Dawn. Sakura watches over her daughter now I believe." Raiden trailed off looking at Sakura. I remembered! In the waterfall village there was that small red headed girl, Annistyn the short butler guy told us that Sakura watched over her because her mother had died. I looked at the cross again. Sakura has buried a lot of the people she has come to know.
I looked at her, how did she do it? How is she still standing? Carver and Raiden are barely hanging on and yet there she stood strong as ever looking down at her fallen friend mourning her loss like she has done so many times before. I looked at her for a long moment, how did she think she was going to die? Carver placed in hand on Sakura's good shoulder.
"We should get going, we have been away for a long time." Sakura nodded at Carver's words, saying nothing as she turned away. Kakashi wrapped an arm around her. We all made our way down the dirt path. Sakura, Carver and Raiden all looked back a few times, pain on their faces as they left their friends graves.
The rest of the night was quiet and still, the holiday spirit kind of died.
Sakura, Carver and Raiden were all in a weird depressed state. When we all returned home, and after I calmed Hinata down who was freaked out because we all vanished for hours without telling anyone where we were going, why we left or where we were, we all collected in Kakashi's apartment.
Sakura took one look around before she decided on going to bed. Kakashi smiled, he kissed for forehead and followed her into his bedroom. He looked back at me, seeing my worried face he nodded telling me he had her, that she would be ok. I nodded back and he closed the bedroom door. After that everyone drifted off home to do their own thing, I soon went to my own bed and went to sleep with Hinata beside me.
It was a very long emotional day.