heritage

Chapter Nineteen: Dissonance

 "...and though the chasm between them may let them drift..."

          It begins with the absence of sound. Where there was once at least something, there is now nothing, and that makes all the difference. It leaves Sakura on edge. Eveyything made noise. Even the barest whisper of stale air, stagnating in the atmosphere. Even in places scarcely touched by mortal hands. Yet Motoyo-sama's test began in an emptiness beyond that.

It makes everything Sakura can feel even more visceral.

She is left in that silence for some time. The true duration is something she will never quite be able to tell. A quality this place retained even before Motoyo-sama had altered it for her use. Yet now it is somehow more. So overwhelming that she almost can't count her breaths.

But it does end, eventually. Just as Sakura can't quite remember how Motoyo-sama sounded, the silence breaks. First with a miniscule airflow. And then, so quickly it almost seems violent, her ears are pierced with the wails of a baby. She clutches at her ears, lips twisting into a grimace. It takes her a long moment to get used to the sound. But when she does, she realises there is something odd about it.

The baby's cries have an almost... crackly quality to them. Not quite fake, but instead as if the audio is playing from a tinny speaker in another room. A thing of the past. But there is no such thing. Not in this place.

Sakura gathers herself. Then, when she her ears stop burning, she turns toward the sound. Her eyes widen.

There is context missing, in this scene. Only the baby whose cries she can still hear, an Uzumaki woman, and an ominous shinobi wearing a swirled mask.

They aren't corporeal. More wisp than person, as far as she can tell. They appear in tones of black and white, aside from a few other, muted colors. Nothing bright or too distinct. But she can see them. Despite the monochrome of this space, they are distinct from their surroundings. If she works at it, she can feel the echo of a memory. Whose? She doesn't know.

Staring at the blonde babe makes it obvious enough that it is not her own, however.

"Turn away and you will turn the page." The suddenness of the declaration itself does not startle Sakura as much as it should have, though her unfamiliarity with the speaker does leave her on edge. Sakura is sure she has never heard such a voice before. It is nothing like Motoyo-sama's, not even with the way her mind can't quite recall how the kami herself had sounded. Her new instructor pays no heed to Sakura's bristling, however, and simply continues. "Each page a new beginning that ends the next."

Sakura resists the urge to turn toward it. If what it is saying is true, then she will lose her chance to study this scene. Her jaw clenches, her teeth clamping together.

"How will your heart fair, little priestess?" Whatever... endearment... it uses to address her at the end of the comment is incomprehensible to her human ears. Even with chakra enhancing her hearing, it sounds like two to a thousand words all at once, the intonation inhuman. Still, she has a feeling that if she did know what the instructor had said, she would still be irritated. Just based on how it has treated her so far.

As was the same with the signature of Motoyo-sama, Sakura cannot sense the instructor's presence. She does not know if they remain or if they have left. But they do not speak again after their little remark, so she assumes that she is safe to study the scene without being interrupted, for now.

Her eyes re-focus, and Sakura takes in the finer details of the 'page.'

As if sensing her attention, the scene begins to move beyond the short cycle Sakura is used to, playing out the event in full.