Blood of the Broken, Scars of the Spiral (there are whirlpools in our veins)

Chapter Eight

I will read ashes for you, if you ask me.

I will look into the fire and tell you from the the gray lashes

And out of the red and black tongues and stripes,

I will tell you how the fire comes

And how the fire runs as far as the sea.

- From "Fire Pages" by Carl Sandburg

//

It was odd, Naruto thought bitterly, how fast happiness could turn to sorrow.

The funeral plot before him was small and marked only by a smooth, round stone with the kanji for Aiya's name engraved upon its grey surface. It was unremarkable and that seemed unfair to him, for Aiya deserved so much more than just a stupid stone.

It had been two days now since he had found Aiya's body in the shrine. He had been released from the cell after the first day and returned to the orphanage by ANBU, where he was met by a grim-faced Toshiko and a member of the Konoha Military Police Force.

There had been an investigation into Aiya's murder, he had been told, and the culprit found. The guilty party was a man who had lost his wife and children in the Kyuubi attack; he had been vandalising the shrine when Aiya had arrived to pray and give the offerings to Inari-sama. She had confronted him and he had reacted by bludgeoning her about the head and face.

Naruto wasn't sure if he believed him, he smelled far too much like lies and crusted blood, but he wasn't sure if it even mattered; either way, it was Konoha who had murdered Aiya. And he would never forgive the village for his sister's death.

Naruto wasn't quite sure what to do. He alternated between feeling numb and feeling furious. In the days following her death those were his two main moods, sometimes he felt like screaming, and other times he could barely bring himself to eat.

The funeral service for Aiya was a simple one; a number of the orphans had attended, so did Aiya's carpenter boy. Naruto wore a black yukata lent to him by the older orphans. His face felt raw and red as the tears poured down his face as he screams and for the first time in his life Naruto truly, deeply, hates.

Something in his stomach roars, angry and possessive as the rage settles in his gut.

It was dark by the time all the children returned to the orphanage, exhausted, shivering from the cold air, and dirty from kneeling in the soil. Naruto wanted nothing more than to curl up in Aiya's arms and fall asleep, but as he approached the doors to the orphanage, Toshiko stepped out to meet him, a bag in her hands.

"I'm sorry," she said, and her mouth was twisted in a thin, unhappy line, her buzzing energy churning furiously under her skin, "but you're not welcome here anymore."

Naruto blinked dumbly up at her, not able to process her words. "What?" he asked and Toshiko dropped the bag, letting it fall to the ground at Naruto's feet.

"You're not welcome here," Toshiko repeated. "I can't have you getting another one of my kids killed."

Naruto felt like he'd been stabbed; he stumbled backwards, staring up at Toshiko with wide, shocked eyes.

Her face was hard, as were her eyes, no emotion in them to soften the harsh blow of her words... except her buzzing was wrong. It was twisting and angry, but that anger wasn't directed Naruto the way he expected.

Despite her words, despite how she appeared...Toshiko was not angry at him.

But she was kicking him out.

His gut churned, something was wrong, he could tell.

"Why, did I do somtin' wrong? Whatever it 'as I won' do it no more, promise." Naruto was getting anxious now, heart thundering rapidly in his chest.