Sleeping Slaves [Closed]

He pushed open the black iron gates and closed it behind him, allowing that squeaky hinging and unhinging sound to alert whatever particle of life was in this site of death. There weren’t many people around him, just three other families who are paying visits to their deceased loved ones. Musashi walked over to two graves which were laid right next to each other. They both had several things in common. They were both Konohagakure Jounin, killed on the same day. They were both Uchiha men, who honed their skills in the village and found themselves facing off a deadly enemy. And for their final similarity: Neither of their graves had their body buried underneath it. These were gravestones did not carry the corpse that they were dedicated to. Soma and Nero Uchiha were reported dead and their bodies missing; whoever had killed them took their bodies with them. Musashi remembered attending both of their funerals as he was Hokage. The elders were very concerned, that aside from the loss of two elite men, they also had lost two pairs of Sharingans. Not that Uchiha kekkei genkai was unique to the village anymore. It was scattered all around the world. Curiously, Musashi had a frequent tendency to honor graves without bodies with them. It was as if Death stripped away his right to honor their physical remains, and that only the abstract memory of them could be paid condolences, and the memory of one’s legacy always had to stand against the test of time. Those three Konohagakure Chunin never did return. He had always feared the worst when he sent them off, and off to their deaths they had dove to in the abominable Kirigakure. He could not establish graves for them, for they no longer existed, and joined the ranks of the Konoha dead who have sacrificed their lives to protect and promote the village’s interests. The ones who laid here, and the ones who weren’t laid here were the true foundations that supported and built the walls behind which his civilization resided. The Uchihas and trio’s deaths were connected in a very indirect way. There was one link, one commonality that was shared between the body-less graves. That link was always on Musashi’s mind, and he knew where to find it, and how to break it. He gave a bow before the graves, a bow of respect, a request for forgiveness, and a plead for strength as he commemorated inside his head the lives of the men who had lost their lives serving him.