Naruto God of The Shinobi

CHAPTER 15

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Chapter Fifteen

High within the mountain reaches of Kaminari no Kuni (Land of Lightning), there lays a monastery, ancient beyond words yet holding as strong as the day the final piece of mortar was laid. Had it been accessible to the outside world, it would have stood as one of the oldest buildings in existence, but it wasn't. Seals, inscribed into the stone upon which it was made, protected the area from the eyes of those that aren't meant to see it.

The mountain temple, for over three millennia, has had three occupants, with an occasional forth that came into visit from time to time. Through winters, summers, autumns and springs, the three occupants stayed inside the temple, never venturing out for food or clothes.

'After all,' Naruto thought, 'What good are food and clothes to the dead?'

Within the garden of the monastery, past the almost overflowing abundance of flora, there is a single bamboo tree, serving as a grave marker for the original Kami no Shinobi, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki. The entire grave was a simply affair, there was no gold encrusted coffin as some would believe, no giant tomb, and no great treasure hidden in Hagoromo's grave, simply the bones of someone who had long since passed from the world.

The death of his brother, had probably been one of the saddest things that Naruto had experienced, besides the death of his first wife, Rina. Now though, Naruto could safely say that neither of those two things could compare to having to bury the bodies of his second family.

Naruto didn't know how he managed to make the graves of his children, he'd never done it for either Kazama or Mushina, allowing both of their bodies to rest near their own families. Now he stood before three new graves lying next to the resting place of his brother.

Naruto stood before the four graves and, for the first time in what seemed like centuries, free of any illusions or disguises that hid his form. Two horns sprouted from his forehead, the tips coming to a stop several centimetres above his skin. His Byakugan was on full display as it gazed at the graves, the white eyes helping him to keep all of his emotions hidden from the outside world. Dressed in his original kimono, the one that was adorned with magatama along the edges, and with plain black pants, Naruto was still, not moving an inch.

He wondered what Hagoromo could say if he could see him. His brother was more the philosopher than him, Hagoromo would say some phrase that would make him feel better. Either that, or he would simply be there for him. Hagoromo had always been a good brother like that.

A part of Naruto wondered what his mother would do, his mother would always tell him what she thought, without sugar coating it, which was something he could use right now. Would she tell him that it was meant to be? That it was his fault and that he should get over it? Thinking of his mother, Naruto's gaze travelled left, over to the grave marker of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, the woman that had raised him since he was but a child, not the crazed shell of a person who had tried to take over the world. It was further beyond the burial places of his brother, wife and children. She was buried at the base of a large and twisting tree with roots that buried deep, it had always been her favourite. There was no body in the grave, but that didn't matter. The grave was to help Naruto remember that while she hadn't been the best mother, she was human, and that's what mattered in the end.

Naruto then looked over to the right of where he was standing, to a jasmine bush, it was nothing truly special, much like all of the graves in the garden, but it still signified something to him. It was the make-shift grave stone for Rina, for his first wife. His eyes lingered on her burial place longer than he had at his mother's. Much like his mother and brother, he wished he could hear her voice. Would she tell him that it was okay that he did what he thought was right? Or would she tell him that he was an idiot keeping his abilities hidden in a world where walking on water was considered common place?