Maya - a Naruto Fanfic

37. Dead and Buried

The world is... strange. Faded, and drained of colour. As I look around me, it's like the landscape flickers out of focus, hiding from my gaze. It should make me sick, but even as I look down at myself and watch my own body swim in and out of focus, I feel fine. 

"Child." A voice calls. My head snaps up, and I am face to face with what must be a demon. I should be afraid, but I stare up at it calmly, no familiar quickening of pulse, no cold flushes, just soothing familiarity. It holds out a hand to me, and I raise my own to take it automatically. 

I'm led through what might be a forest, following a path twisting down a hill towards a river. The demon steps into it, but when I move to follow, some invisible force stops me. 

"Wait!" I call out, but it continues across the river into a thick fog, leaving me alone on the river bank. 

"You wish to follow?" I whip around to see the old woman standing behind me. I nod, and she holds out her hands to me. 

"Give me your clothes." 

"My clothes?" My fingers hesitate at the binding of my kimono. Why does she want my clothes? I haven't much longer to think before her gnarled fingers are prying my kimono from my shoulders, stripping me with cold efficiency until I'm left totally bare. Thankfully the air is warm on my skin. 

"You may ascend now." She says, but when I try to cross the river again, that force is still there. 

"How?" I ask. 

"You must build a tower. That, you can climb and enter paradise." She tells me. Why does that sound so familiar? 

"But there are no bricks." At that, she bends down and scoops up a single, black pebble from the riverbank. 

"Use these." She presses it into my palm, and walks across the river, following the same path as the demon from before. 

"Pebbles?" I turn the stone over in my hand, then look up. How do I build a tower high enough to reach into the sky? Still, I place the pebble back on the ground anyway and start looking around for more. If I still had my clothes, I could collect more, but the old lady took them with her across the river. I must spend hours walking along the riverbank collecting pebbles to add to my little stone tower. I've managed to build it up to waist-height when, after leaving it to find more pebbles, I return to find it has been knocked into the river. 

"No!" I cry, dropping to my knees and scrabbling in the dirt trying to save even a few pebbles. I see some just below the surface of the river, and though I press as hard as I can, I still can't get past the force that blocks me. Frustration wells up in my chest, overwhelming me, and I curl up and sob into my knees. 

The soft chiming of bells makes me raise my head and watch with puffy eyes as a man dressed as a Buddhist monk slowly walks towards me, the metal hoops on his staff bumping together and causing the pretty sound that now fills the air. 

"Who are you?" I call out to him. He doesn't reply until he's only a few feet away from me. 

"My name is Jizō. What do they call you?" Now I can see him more clearly, I see how kind his eyes are. 

"Maya. Did you knock down my tower?" I ask, wringing my hands in front of me. 

"I did not. That is the work of demons, and your penance." For whatever reason, I believe him instantly. 

"My pen- is it because I ran away?" Misery and guilt weigh heavy on my chest, and I bow my head. 

"Perhaps. It is more for the grief you have caused your parents." There's no accusation in his tone, but it still makes my stomach turn. 

"I didn't mean to! I swear! I want to go back, but now..." I trail off, finally making the connection, "I'm dead, aren't I?" 

"Yes. And yet not." Why must old men always be so cryptic?! 

"Huh?" I frown. It's all I can manage without snapping at him. 

"Your body still lives, though it is weak." He turns his head suddenly, staring out across the river with narrowed eyes. 

"You must come with me now, child. The demons will return soon and you need to hide." 

"Wha - hey!" He grabs my arm and pulls me away from the river and towards the tree line, ignoring my cries of protest and pain as I cut my feet on broken branches and sharp stones. 

"Hush." He orders, and it's like all the words die in my throat. In the forest, he opens up his robe and I take a step back, watching him suspiciously. 

"Do not be afraid, you must hide in here or they shall find you." He urges. Sure, he's wearing another, plainer robe underneath that but still... 

"No offence, but I'm not gonna do that. I'm naked." I say, as if that weren't obvious. 

"I care not. Hurry, child." 

"I'm almost 13." I huff, but go and stand close anyway, and he ties the robe back into place around me. 

"This is never gonna work." I whisper to him. 

"Perhaps. It is usually younger children trapped on the banks." 

"That is so wrong." 

"I am no threat to the children. I have made vows." 

"Not really much comfort." 

"Hush!" He orders again, and once again I'm forced into silence. How does he do that? 

"Jizō." Something hisses, and the monk tenses. 

"Come no closer." He warns. 

"Return the girl to us." 

"It is not yet her time." 

"She is here. It is her time." The creature insists. 

"Her body lives." 

"Not for much longer." 

"Not without a soul." Jizō corrects them. 

"Give her to us!" The creature snarls, and Jizō's arms come up as he starts to shout; 

"Rin, pyō, tō, sha, kai, jin, retsu, zai, zen!" And creature screams in some kind of agony before falling silent. 

Jizō drops his arms and releases me from his robes. 

"I shall return you to the gates. You must pass through them, or you will truly be dead." He tells me. I nod, and follow him through the trees, to the path I followed the demon down before, and towards a torii archway guarded by two stone dogs and hung with a shimenawa. 

"Here." He stops a few feet away from the gate. 

"Uh..." I hesitate just before the gates. 

"Your body is still clothed." He reassures me, and I sigh in relief. 

"Thanks." I bow quickly to him and move to pass through the torii. 

"Wait," I turn to face him, "you are fortunate this time, child, that I found you before your body died. Next time you shall not be so fortunate. Caution is not your enemy." 

"Right," I smile at him, "thank you, Jizō." 

And with that, I step through the gate, and into bright, white light. 

A/N: the amount of research on Japanese myths and Buddhism I had to do for this chapter is insane. For those who don't want to do their own research: the old woman who took Maya's clothes is SUPPOSED to do that. Her name is datsue-ba, according to wikipedia. Jizō is a monk who, according to wikipedia, protects the souls of dead children from being made to pile stones on the riverbank for all eternity by hiding them in his robe. The mantra he said is a Generic Buddhist Mantra TM that I also found on wikipedia. Torii are those red archways outside temples, and shimenawa are the ropes you sometimes see hanging from them (this one is from the BBC so it's probably right). I don't know how reliable the information is, or how accurate, but hey, I tried. 

Ta-ta~