Forgotten Uchiha

十

U Z U M A K I   I C H I Z O K U

      Joyous laughter echoed around me. In the distorted haze, fragments of light travelled across the surface to bring memories to my feet. With each drop of water, each bar of laughter, I started to register the sound. It was a delightful hum that I hadn't heard since my youth. 

      Moonlight seeped through the space between the sliding door and the mat of my room. I awoke slowly to the soft padding of feet against wood. Instantly, I pulled my blanket over myself as a feeble defence mechanism.

      Choju, my mother, stood in her shrine maiden robes. Her clothes consisted of an orange silk kimono with bulbous jade beads handing from her shoulders. It amazed me how her meek frame didn't collapse under the weight, I surely would have. I didn't question why she had disturbed me at such an hour, I simply relaxed as she extended her milk-white hand to me.    

      Despite my eagerness to spend time with her, I was reluctant to place my hand in hers. Choju was a beautiful woman, Matsumi and I were well aware of that. She held all of the Uzumaki traits which any man would find exotic almost. Choju's red hair curled down to her waist when away from the Ichizoku, but when in service her hair would be tamed into a bun, kept in place with a floral pin. The only gene I inherited from her were her charcoal eyes that reflected no light. 

      "Hurry Hika–Chan," Choju beckoned.

       Choju's soft skin was cold against mine as he guided me across the wood towards the bamboo curtain. 

      "Where are we going?" I rubbed my eyes.  

      "All will be explained in due time Hika–Chan," we wound through a narrow path through some green leafed pines before a temple rose from the earth holding the Uzumaki Mon above its gateway.

      Choju walked me through the outer gate and up towards a shrine filled with masks that looked like demons. I gasped and hid behind her kimono as Choju's index finger counted the rows of masks.

      Once she found the right one, she reached up and slipped it from the row. She then rummaged inside her kimono and replaced the mask with a vaguely similar one, except the colouring was different.

      "Do you remember the stories I used to tell you about the Reaper?" Choju asked as she placed the mask over her face. By doing this, we were able to proceed deeper into the catacombs of the complex.

   I nodded.

      "Well," Choju pulled on my hand. "I'm going to teach you some more about him."

      We reached a vacant room at the end of a painted hallway of unmarked clans fighting the Uzumaki. I stalled and looked at the mural; a ghostly figure hovered over the Uzumaki and the opposing clans between them with purple skin, white hair and bright red fangs.

      "Hurry Hika–Chan, what I must teach you is vital for you to survive in this cruel world," Choju clapped her hands in agitation. 

      I was silent and allowed Choju to explain why she dragged me into a temple in the middle of the night.

      "Your father sees you as a tool to strike back at the main branch of the Uchiha. You're his chosen child, he knows Matsumi is too weak," she paused. "I married your father for one purpose, and that was to have you. I want you to bring peace to this world, to the Uchiha, to all clans."

      I frowned.

      "However, if I'm wrong then what I'm about to do tonight will be a waste," Choju sounded like she was going to cry. "I'm going to summon the Reaper, Shinigami. By giving it my soul I'll bargain with it  when I seal it within you."