I stood at the gates off Konoha, travel bag on my back, ready to start my journey to illusion Island when an arm dropped down around my shoulders. I looked up to see Ryuzo.
He arrived in the village at some point during the time me and Himari were meeting with Sasuke.
"Where're you going?" he asked, curiosity clear in his tone.
"To find someone," I replied, actually... I'm going to the Land of Illusion to bury Coco-Hâta, Tomoe, Mikana, Karia and Hayate.
"Aren't you retired? Shouldn't you have a guard since you're technically classed as an important person of the leaf?" he asked. Oh yeah, Kakashi did a big asshole move on me. The day that I met Sasuke, he decided to sign me as one of the new council members without even asking me for my opinion. It was to replace my father who was part of the council but obviously died and there was an empty spot. He took advantage of my retirement and decided to use it to make his work a lot easier while making my life miserable.
I don't want to be on the council and because of that, I'm classed as a high authority figure. I hate my life.
"I'm not stupid enough to go defenceless," I glared at him before pulling a kunai out faster than he could react, pressing it up against his throat, "my chakra may be as little as dead, but my reflexes, speed and physical strength are still the best in the village."
"R-right!" he put his hands up in surrender as he backed away, "w-well... I'm here for at least the next week so... how about we go on that date when you get back?"
I smiled and put my kunai away.
"That sounds like fun," I nodded, "I'll see you when I get back then."
He beamed and nodded like an excited puppy.
I chuckled and waved, also waving to Kotetsu and Izumo on my way out and beginning my journey to the Land of Illusions.
°🥢°
A few days of travelling later_
Land of Illusions_
I dispelled the illusion surrounding the island on myself and docked my boat. Once off, I began my walk through the area.
A sense of nostalgia washed over me as I looked around, memories of everything here playing in my head.
"Are you Shikarei Nara?" a woman's voice asked through the fog surrounding me.
"Yes," I replied, "are you who Lord third said can train me?"
"Yes," the voice echoed, and all the fog parted, in front of me a woman with long red hair and a closed third eye in her forehead. She had green eyes and wore a basic shirt and bottoms, a spear in her right hand and a stringed dagger in her left.
"My name is Karia, welcome to the Land of Illusion," she said before turning, "follow me."
I did.
"May I ask, isn't the fog supposed to by a defence mechanism? Why has it just disappeared?" I asked.
"The fog is a sort of illusion that happens to everyone, we can naturally break the illusion on anyone we want, and no one will notice that it is an illusion," she told me. Impressive.
"So, tell me, do you truly have the curse of time in your left eye?" Karia asked.
"Yes," I nodded, she stopped in front of a cliff that was just 100% sharp spikes.
"This is what we like to call the cliff of sins," she told me, "the first thing you will learn it to peer into the past for this specific location, we'll say to the most recent offender."
"Uh... How?" I asked, she looked at me seriously.
"Let's start with opening your eye," she rolled her eyes. I coughed and nodded, it was so obvious and I.. Wow I must look like an idiot right now.
I smiled as I passed the cliff and continued walking forward. It wasn't long before I reached the house.
"Let's get some food, shall we. You can meet the others as well," Karia said as we began walking.
"Others?" I repeated curiously as I followed her to a large building where four people were sat out on a platform, two of them playing (what looked like) an intense game of shogi while the other two were watching closely.
One of them looked up, it was a guy with half shaved half floppy black hair and piercing green eyes. He grinned.
"She arrived then?" he asked, Karia nodded.
"This is Shikarei Nara," she announced, the other watcher (a girl with waist long red hair and blue eyes) looked up.
"Hi! I'm Mikana Uzumaki," she introduced herself. Uzumaki?
"Are you related to Kushina Uzumaki?" I asked, she beamed and nodded.
"She's my cousin!" she basically shouted before going dull, "I miss her, I wish I visited before the nine tails attack..."
Oops... Touchy subject...
"I'm Tomoe Uchiha," one of the men (with black hair and dark eyes and the recognisable Uchiha symbol on the sleeve of his shirt) introduced himself, his eyes not leaving the shogi board in front of him.
"I'm Coco-Hâta Hyuga," the other girl (with short silver hair and pale eyes) introduced herself, throwing me a lazy wave, her eyes not leaving the board in front of her either.
"And I'm Hayate Koni," the floppy black-haired guy introduced himself, "I hope Karia wasn't too harsh."
"Well... My eye hurts but I'll survive," I replied.
"Good because training won't get any easier," Karia said bluntly before walking away.
It wasn't easy.
The training left me dead on the floor all the time. It hurt but it was worth it if I could control my eye.
"It's weird not having the eyes of time anymore," I muttered as I took in the pure beauty of the surrounding area that I couldn't really appreciate totally before.
I paused in the doorway, a small sigh escaping my lips as I reached out for the door.
"I'll dig the graves first," I muttered, moving away, and turning back the way I came.
I found a clearing not too far away and started digging.
About two hours later, I had five graves ready and returned to the house.
I just stood there for another ten minutes, trying to convince myself to go in.
"Ah! Just go in, will you?! We were just flattened by giant slimy toads, stop hanging out in the doorway," Hayate shouted at me as he grimaced, the slime from the giant toads dropping down from his hair to his face.
"R-right, sorry," I quickly ran inside, he followed right behind.
"Karia! I hate you so much for this!" Hayate shouted as he sprinted off to the guys bathroom and I went to the girls.
"Right. I'm going in," I nodded to myself, pushing the door open and seeing them all lying in the centre of the living room.
I sighed and looked down before giving a moment of silence for them before beginning to pull each of them to a grave. Once I'd covered them, I sat for about an hour and a half carving out headstones for them before wedging them into the heads of their graves.
"Thank you for everything," I smiled at their graves, grabbing my bag, and pulling out a small cup and a bottle of sake. I poured it and raised the cup up.
"You guys are amazing," I grinned before knocking back the drink, "though... I wish you all could've gone home... Back to Konoha. Back to your home where you can finally be finished of whatever mission lead you here. Now I hope you can finally rest and maybe even born into a calmer and easier life. Thanks for giving me my life back, drink up."
I poured out five cups and placed one on the top of each headstone before sitting down again and pouring myself another one.
And another and another until I ended up lying flat on the grass and staring up into the star lit sky.
"So much death surrounds me," I whispered as I spotted constellations dancing in the sky, "when will I be able to rest too?"