Only Time Can Tell

CAN YOU IMAGINE

CHAPTER 27

CAN YOU IMAGINE

NEJI HYUGA

The sky was grey, swirling with darkness, like the sky was just a disgusting soup. The ground shook, and I knelt to steady myself as I watched a form grow on the horizon. My eyes widened in horror and shock. A giant beast, hand-like tails swirling around it, bigger than anything I had ever seen. It seemed to swallow everything else around it. It commanded your attention with just it's look. It's roar was ear piercing, I watched as a wooden rain fell upon the waiting troops. I have no idea where I am.

"Where is everyone?" I looked all around me, my eyes always pausing over the sight of the beast. "Byakugan!" I said activating my visual prowess. My vision sharpened and fluctuated as I scanned the field for a familiar chakra. There were so many people I could see, my stomach clenching as I saw the chakra-less bodies of the dead. Searching through the chakra, I couldn't help but be distracted by the few major sources of chakra, one above all the others.

Something in the back of my mind recognized it. I squinted as I watched it, it's chakra burning like a fire, its flames drifting far into the sky. It's vessel stood closest to the beast. No fear was with it. There was something familiar about it, as I watched it, I squinted when I began to see 2 different chakras. One orange, one blue, within this one person. I've seen this before. Twice now. Once when I met Boruto and now again. I had seen though, even before I met him. There was only one person that could have a chakra like that.

"Naruto..." But then I watched as his chakra wavered and his body collapsed. Another chakra form stood in front of him, protecting him, quickly accompanied by one I knew very well. I didn't have time to process it as I saw another chakra form fall from the sky. It was Sai. And the other chakra...it was me. How...is this possible. I watched as Sai, stood but then fell.

"SAI!!!" My head grew impossibly heavy, and I fell to my knees, my vision swirling with black. I saw the scene like I was there....which I actually was. But this time, I saw something else. I saw myself, but older, step between Hinata-sama and the round of attacks from the Ten Tails. I felt a pang in my head as I watched, myself die, Hinata crying, Naruto holding me as he desperately call for help. I died. In this just passed moment, I was supposed to die. But Sai...Naruto...Hinata....my head was spinning, I felt an invisible pain rip through me, like spears digging slowly through my body. I was supposed to die. Not him.

I heard thunder crack and I saw my vision clear. I looked up.

I felt fear rise around me in an almost tangible way. It felt like my lungs were slowly being squeezed, and I could hardly breathe. His appearance had changed entirely. His once cropped brown hair had changed to white, and pooled just past his shoulders, his eyes had turned to a black that resembled an inescapable abyss. His robes were long and black, draping over his now toned body. His hovered over a black cloud raked with lightning, the sky had turned a black that I had never seen. It seemed like the black could somehow glow. His face was contorted in a look of anger and rage. But what was most terrifying was the blood dripping from his eyes, and the rain that fell from the cloud, turning the landscape red.

"How?!" He echoed. "This isn't right!" His hands spread away from him, looming over all below him. "The cowards..." A guttural cry came from him, lightning crackling more and more intensely. "You!" He said, my heart stopping when his eyes fixed on me. "You're supposed to be dead! You were supposed to die!"

"They were supposed to be haunted by your ghost forever. Why?!" His face spasmed uncontrollably. "It doesn't matter..." He began to laugh, thunder and lightning crackling and roaring from the storm. "I'll kill you myself!!!"

I didn't understand anything he was saying. I was supposed to die? They were supposed to be haunted by your ghost forever? What does he have to do with me?! "I DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!" He roared, his voice echoing over the decimated terrain. "How could that weakling, how could he do it?!"