Chapter 11: Progress

Gaara looked at the progress that had taken place within the past few days. About a quarter of the rubble had been sorted through and cleared. He hadn't seen Kagome at all during that time, but she had told him she would be asleep for a few days to allow her body to recover. She had done a lot for the village.

He sighed as he looked towards the entrance of the village. No one had come through the gates and so far, there hadn't been any attacks from sound. He was thinking that perhaps the village could do with a change of layout. It would be a good time to do it, since they had to rebuild anyway. He was looking at the village map. He had copied the outline and where the hospital and Kazekage tower were. He wanted to have a square near the entrance that could be used for merchants. The perimeter of the square would be shops and hotels. Behind the shops and hotels, the houses and apartments would be set up. The farms would remain where they were, which was at the back of Suna.

He showed it to the architects and they nodded their consent. They would start as soon as more rubble had been cleared away. He looked through a few of the messages he had from Konoha and a few other villages, as well as reports from his ninja. It was always so much paperwork.

With Kagome

She groaned as she finally opened her eyes. Her body was slightly sore but it was expected after what had happened. She just stood and stretched her muscles out before moving down stairs. She first checked on her plants to see that they were doing well. She watered them and then moved to the kitchen, where she made herself something to eat from the produce she had purchased. It was a nice change. Then she pulled on her sandals and proceeded out of her house. The sun was bright and it was hot out. She went to where she could feel Kiyomei and Kanamei. They both seemed fine and it seemed Kiyomei was cooking with the other women.

"Kagome!" The woman ran and hugged her. "I was worried when I hadn't seen you for a couple of days."

"I had to recover," she said as Kiyomei pulled back from her. "All the healing took it's toll on me." Kiyomei nodded.

"Gaara is having everyone go through the rubble. There is a large amount of the dead, and it is starting to stink up the village," Kiyomei said. "No one has had time to identify the bodies, so he has put off taking care of the dead bodies."

"I should probably take care of it. People will get sick if the bodies aren't taken care of soon." Kiyomei nodded and watched Kagome walk towards the tower.

Kagome entered the Kazekage's office to see him looking through paperwork. "Gaara-sama," she started and he looked up at her.

"You are awake now." His heart seemed to lighten.

"That isn't why I am here. If the bodies aren't taken care of soon, disease can spread."

"The bodies haven't been identified yet," he remarked. "It would be hard for people if the did not know if their family was dead or not."

"I will take care of it. I just need access to the basic information of the citizens."

"I can't just..."

"I'm going to set their souls to rest and inform the families. I will be cremating everyone. Land is valuable right now. We do not have enough of it to bury everyone." He seemed to sigh. "I do not want their to be an epidemic if it can be prevented."

"Very well." He provided her a stack of papers. It had the pictures of everyone, as well as their names and information of their families. It also listed identifiers that could be found if their faces were completely destroyed.

"Thank you." She took the information and headed towards the morgue. She entered to see countless bodies. She started with the bodies that were mostly intact. She looked at the woman's face and had identified her almost immediately from the pictures provided. She numbered the body and circled the picture and placed the number to correspond with the body before continuing on. She noticed the woman was missing a majority of her right arm. It said that the woman had a tattoo on her forearm. She looked through the pile of limbs and found the woman's arm and numbering it before placing it with the body.

She went on for several hours just looking through the dead bodies. She had gotten used to it during her travels in the feudal era. She had buried many people. But now, she would be cremating them and blessing them. There had been a number of sound bodies and she had them placed off to the side. She had a few nin working with her and she had directed them to burn the bodies and to place the ashes in seperate jars and to label them with who was in it. Half of the bodies were taken care of, excluding the sound bodies. The bodies were organized already, but the cremation was going to take a while. She was provided a wagon and she loaded the urns into it to start the heart breaking task of informing the families. She would bless the ashes and put the souls to reach with the family to give them some closure. She would ask Gaara if she could make a monument for the dead somewhere in the village where people could pay their respects.

She stopped and looked at the first urn in her hand before approaching the elderly couple that had two children with them. She sighed and found the other urn that she needed to give them. She stopped in front of them and they almost knew immediately from what she held in her hands. "I am sorry for your loss," she whispered as she handed the family the two urns. She said a prayer with the family and blessed the ashes. The family broke down and started crying. The children were orphans now, losing their mother and father in that attack.

She continued on, giving the ashes of dead mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughter, and grandparents to devestated family members. She blessed every single one and put to rest the souls. It broke her heart to see so many people sad over the death of their family members. It had taken her hours to get the first set of urns taken care of.

With Naruto

He had gotten back to work, but could see Kagome walking around the village with a wagon. He had watched as she called one of the ninja to her to deliver what seemed to be bad news. The male had broke down and cried as he was told his pregnant wife had died. She glowed briefly before leaving the man with words of wisdom, stating his wife wanted him to live on. It was sad to watch so he went back to work. He had unearthed another corpse amoungst the rubble and the body was taken to the morgue to be identified.

The kyuubi told him that he had seen this kind of stuff with Kagome when they traveled. He had even told him of a time where they had stayed a while at a village just burying the dead of an entire village that had been attacked by demons, and how Kagome and a monk had blessed the village and set the restless souls at peace. He had been a kit then. He had been forced to grow up quickly when Kagome had been pulled from their world to here.

With Gaara

He had finished his paperwork and made his way to the morgue to see that the only bodies left were those of sound. There were urns on shelves and he looked at the label on one of them. It was Ebizo, Chiyo's brother. He picked up the urn and sighed. He had seen Chiyo in the tower. He decided he was going to tell her himself. He turned to see Kagome entering with the wagon.

"Come. You can continue after this is taken care of." She nodded and looked to the sound corpses. "Have the sound corpses cremated and cast into the desert," he told the others. "I don't care how you do it."

"Their souls have been put to rest so no harm should come to us," Kagome said and the nin nodded before doing as they were told.

He could tell she was following him. He made it to Chiyo and sighed heavily. "Chiyo-baasama," he said and she looked to him. He held forward the urn. She took it with a sad sigh.

"He knew his death was coming," she commented off handedly. She looked at the urn. "He wouldn't stop ranting about it."

"If you want, I can bless his ashes and lay him to rest," Kagome offered the old woman. She nodded and Kagome proceeded with the ritual she knew by heart. There was a glow and she looked to Chiyo. "He wants you to know that you were the best big sister anyone could ever ask for, even if the two of you argued all the time." Chiyo chuckled. "He wants you to continue to live and to remember him fondly." Chiyo nodded and the tears finally fell. She silently cried. She was the last one left of her family. She should have been the first one to die.

"Thank you," her old voice whispered. She held the urn fondly.

With Orochimaru

He was seething from the loss of his arm. Kabuto was just as injured as he, with a hole through his stomach. Their medics had little to no effect on their injuries. The woman was proving powerful and he was finding it hard to capture her. Sasuke had been unsuccessful, as had Kabuto and himself. Perhaps that Naraku character would be able to capture her. He seemed to know a lot about her.

He approached the room Naraku was in, to see the man completely recovered, when he had still missed his legs hours ago. He would have demanded an answer but the man was smirking at him.

"She did quite the number on you," Naraku commented as he took in Orochimaru's form. "It's to be expected."

"What is she? No one here has been able to do what she had."

"She is a miko." He smirked. "To have been purified by her, must mean you are tainted."

"You will capture her," Orochimaru said.

"There is no way for you to contain her or her power," Naraku said. "It would be pointless to capture her if you cannot control her." He could tell that his power was still a bit depleted. He would have to rest or he would have to absorb a few more tainted beings. "As it stands, I do not have the reserves to fight her yet. It will take time and preparation."

"I do not have time," Orochimaru seethed.

"There is always time." He watched Orochimaru storm out of the room.