Salt in the Wound

It is a sacred place now. A place to mourn, a place of warning. People came forth to see and revel, asking themselves, “how could something so terrible happen?”. People got down on their knees and prayed for the souls of the people that died so many ages ago.

It was known by many names. The Burning Light Massacre, The Slaughter at the Light, and so many more. But to me, it was simply the end.

The end of everything I had ever known.

My people. My village. My own life.

The ruins of my village are a place of fear today. No one sees the beauty that I once did. No one can feel the happiness, the power, and the unity that we all had. All they see is sadness. Lives, lived and lost.

No hero.

No happy ending.

Just…an end.

But I remember. The way the light shone every day and how the trees almost seemed to sparkle, I remember it all. And sometimes, when I’m alone, I go back there in my mind and relive the life I once had, before everything fell to pieces…

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“Where is father?” I asked, looking towards my mother who had her face in her hands. Upon no reply, I stepped towards her, bewildered. “What happened?” My hands touched hers and her sobbing slowed.

“Your father heard news of another attack.” She took a small breath and looked up at me. “He went with the counsel to help determine our next move.”

“So why are you crying?” I questioned with ease, all too well aware that she might as well be a ticking time bomb when it came to my father.

“Because Ishiko, your father is going to get himself killed!” She stood up suddenly. “He is trying to stand in where he is not needed! All we need is another attack and you know all too well how involved he would be. As if the last incident wasn’t enough to shake his nerves.”

It was to everyone else. My father had been struck with a kunai. Straight to the stomach and the bleeding didn’t stop a long while, we all thought he would die. Considering how out of the entire Hitomi family I have been the only one to become a Chuunin, he had no experience to try and fight along the others. My mother and father were merchants. Running a local grocery store along with my two younger sisters. It was their wishes that I follow in their footsteps and inherit the store, but no, I followed my own path.

The one of the ninja.

And I felt like I was making my way along nicely. Determined to be away from my angry mother, I went outside into the cloudless air. The Village Hidden in the Light was a prosperous village, so it was no wonder why we had as many attacks as we did. We held power. But we were no easy target.

With an elite team of Jounin, the best trained in any other village, we were envied but hardly ever touched. They were dead before they even had time to call out orders. Aside from our military power, we also had a sense of unity that could not be overcome. We worked together in a flawless system that other villages had tried and failed at. We were a different group.
It probably didn’t help that the scenery was to die for as well.

I jumped into the tree, resting in the highest branch that overlooked the village. It was something to see, the sun setting over our utopia. Every tree glistened, every bird sang, and every human being there flowed with a sense of pride that could not be matched.

Which was why this feeling of unease greatly disturbed me. Lately I had not been able to shake this feeling, almost to that of great pain. Something terrible was going to happen. And only I could sense this.

Waiting until it got dark, I headed back home. My father was back and didn’t notice me slip through the door as he fought with my mother.

“Ishiko, make them stop.” Kimiko’s startling grey eyes looked up at me from her bed. She cradled a stuffed cat in her arms and tucked her legs in beneath her. “I can’t sleep.”

“I can’t make them stop Kimi. Give them time and they will resolve it, they always do.” I gave her a wink and tucked her in. The smaller one, Sumiko, was already deep asleep and oblivious to the screaming right outside our door. “Besides, it’s early to fall asleep anyway.” With my hands behind my head I closed my eyes and managed to block out the noise. Unintentionally falling asleep myself.

I had been dreaming the same nightmare for the past three months. It was vague and frightening. In every direction of my sight, I saw fire. Screaming…so much screaming. And the smell of death, lingering over my every nerve. But what got to me the most was the mere glance of those eyes.

Those bright turquoise colored eyes that stared at me through the darkness of death. Never moving, only watching me from a far. As soon as they came, they left. I was left staring into my sister’s own grey eyes.

It took me a minute to realize I was awake. Maybe it was the fear in her eyes that finally jolted me alive. Or maybe it was the many screams of terror outside our home that did it.