heritage

Chapter Thirteen: Family

 Dear Naruto,

Don't ever believe you're alone. You're an Uzumaki. My cousin. My brother in all but blood. Sasuke too. His mom was best friends with Kushina, you know that? I love you.

—Sakura

—

"They are the hearth that warms your soul."

          A breeze flows through, ruffling Sakura's hair. The sky has lightened, revealing the whole of the shrine. The previous atmosphere has been replaced. When she looks up, the great expanse is now a beautiful, pale blue canvas dotted by small clouds every so often. It brightens the mood of the shrine considerably. The chime of bells is carried on the wind. She takes in a deep breath. She can feel a weight lighted, her wet cheeks drying now that she is exposed to the sun.

No one has come yet. A sure sign that the barrier is still functioning despite the change. The tip of Sakura's ear twitches, the voice of stone now melding with the gentle waves lapping at the lakeshores.

"Come."

It draws her attention to the lake that sprawls out in front of her. It is as beautiful as she had imagined it to be. The water is clear, almost impossibly so. She can see the bottom from where she stands; large stretches of sand shuffled by the fish swimming tirelessly underneath the ripples. She cannot even begin to fathom how deep it truly is.

Pillars sprout from the lakebed, easily reaching the surface. She can't quite tell the type of white stone they are carved from, but the shapes are uniform with seals engraved into the flat tops of them. The shadows from their edges make them easy to see. Perhaps they are still illuminated, like the ones from the pond, but the new brilliance shining upon them keeps Sakura from being able to tell. It is no serious loss.

Her eyes follow the pillars to the centre of the lake. There she sees a gazebo made from much the same material, a rich maroon wood making up the roof. It appears to be in the middle of a floating platform. There is ample room around its perimeter for someone to walk, and rails around the platform itself to keep anyone from falling in. A quick glance at the overall structure and Sakura surmises that both the gazebo and the platform are heptagonal.

Just like the platform within the Sora no Nami.

Before the fear can completely seize her heart, however, Sakura's mind picks out the lantern hanging from the righthand post of the entryway. The position of the sun behind the gazebo casts a shadow on it. A shadow dark enough that if that lantern were to be lit, she would be able to see it.

And she sees it.

She is just barely able to make out the weak teal glow of a seastone. The wisp of a clear blue on white.

Her heart beats rapidly in her chest, her mind scrambling yet again. Because it's important. The fact that the lantern is lit—that's important.

She can feel it in the thump of her chest, in the adrenaline shooting through her veins. It almost feels like she isn't awake. The ground is indistinct, the spray of water from the lake too warm to ground her. She can't even tell if she's breathing. If she's actually seeing what she thinks she is.

It takes her a moment. A long, anxious moment. She places a hand on her chest to check her breaths. It moves, and the motion is what gets it to dawn on her. Like the flick of a switch. Or a poke to the forehead.

When the lantern is lit, that means someone is there.

Someone is there.

And who else could it be? Their voices still linger in her ears. The warmth of their song still pools in her ribcage. The passage is mere inches behind her. She doesn't need any more time to think about it.