heritage

Chapter Twenty-Two: Subsequent

 "New beginnings are endings, too."

           The light is unexpected. It illuminates her eyelids, lightening the black into a dark red before Sakura gives into the urge to try and cover her eyes. The movement reveals that she is not alone, her elbow bumping into someone else's arm. She is leaned up against them, back to back. It doesn't take much to figure out who they are. She breathes in slowly, allowing the cool, crisp air to fill her lungs. It feels cleansing, almost.

She can hear the distant chirps of birds. The sounds come in on a soft breeze, the wind gently billowing into the room. It brushes past her cheek and arm. Her skin prickles with goosebumps despite the warm sunlight draping across her.

Mornings like this are rare in Konohagakure. At least, in the summer. It makes her almost doubt that she has been returned home. Except she can feel the trees welcoming her back. Their chakra pings her sensory net with excitement, the echo of their emotions bouncing down the invisible strands and drawing a smile onto her face.

She opens her eyes, careful to block the sunlight with her hand. She is met with a familiar sight. Though the archway in front of her his sandwiched between two walls that extend beyond her sight, what matters is what she can see through the opening.

A lake.

The lake.

Her stomach twists as she recognises the platform bobbing within the center. The obelisks protruding from every point of the seven-sided slab of stone. It is a distant, blurry picture. But she remembers it with a cruel clarity. She would close her eyes, but... seeing the platform empty is easier to handle than watching the memories she knows will flash across the back of her eyelids. She also knows from training with Team Seven that to lose one sense is to enhance the others. She doesn't need to hear the faint screams of that day any more than she already is.

She breathes slowly through her nose. She can feel every pulse of her heart beating against the inside of her chest. Her thoughts roll tumultuously over one another, unable to finish. All run along the lines of the same question.

She doesn't know if she can bear to properly recognise it, however. So she lets them tumble past the forefront of her mind and forces them away.

Ignoring the platform allows her to recognise the distant building of the Aburame clan compound. The short, long buildings are draped in morning fog. The lake is too, Sakura notes after a moment. Thick, misty air crawls atop the water's surface from one side of the lake to the other. She can't even see the stone staircase. Absently, she hopes whoever comes to get them is careful of the slick steps.

She looks away from the lake, instead choosing to study the mosaic crawling up the walls and into the ceiling of the room. She takes a slow breath, scraping her teeth across her tongue as she mulled over what would happen next. She and Obito would not remain unknown forever, but...

It will take them a while to realise someone is here.

The Sora no Nami, like the other two shrines, is filled to the brim with seals. Many are barrier seals, though only the array within the lake could... Sakura shakes her head gently. The point is that many of the seals will mute their presence and their voices. Only certain Aburame, as the caretakers of this shrine, would open the gateway and allow others a safe path into the shrine.

As early as it is, though the sun is awake, the kikaichu[2] are not. Not this deep into the summer. And the Aburame wake up with the first chirp of their hive. This will give Obito and her a few more hours to talk. They'll need it, Sakura thinks with an unwavering certainty. She blinks slowly, bringing her chin down and returning her gaze to the horizon beyond the lake.