"You think it's the next progression? Or you know?"
"I would say the probability is high. In the clan legends, it is called Ōmiyanome. It gifts its wielder with the ability to slip through the cracks in time. By minutes or hours, if enough chakra is expended. It differs from Izanagi in that instead of simply creating a powerful illusion, a person might punch a hole through time itself."
"Which is dangerous," Sarada concludes. "And that's why no one in the clan could know about it?"
"Exactly. If such an ability were common knowledge, certain members of the clan would have gone to great lengths to ensure everyone could use that ability. More than that, outsiders might attempt to capitalize on it," he says. "To ensure that didn't happen, the secret was guarded. Should someone from the clan awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan and inherit the ability to shape time, they were dealt with swiftly and quietly."
"You mean..."
"Execution," Itachi confirms neutrally. "If they were so unfortunate as to have children as well, they too were eradicated."
"That's horrible!" Sarada gasps at his clinical attitude toward the whole subject.
She has always known that as a member of a prestigious clan, there are certain traditions and practices from the past which are now considered inhumane. She's seen if with the Hyūga, where some of the older generation still possess brands upon their foreheads from the time when they were practically enslaved by the main family.
She just never considered what her own family's brutal history might entail.
"It was horrible," Itachi agrees softly, "but necessary. Human beings are too controlled by their emotions, and would no doubt be tempted to change reality to suit their own purposes. The Uchiha were particularly prone to favouring emotion over pragmatism. When one incident nearly resulted in the entire clan being destroyed, the council deemed these executions necessary. And they were meticulously enforced."
Sarada swallows her next remark—that the Uchiha council's ruling would ultimately be useless thanks to the man in front of her—and forces herself to keep her mind on the mission.
"So if you can't use Ōmiyanome, and neither can my father, and all the other Uchiha who could use it are dead..." she muses, trailing off. Following her own logic, a horrible thought occurs from her. "Hold on—could it be me?" She doesn't give him a chance to respond before rambling on. "Maybe in the future, I unlock the Mangekyō, and it's me that gets the ability. And then I change something in time, and it causes this whole mess, and I'm so busy trying to fix it that—"
Itachi's headshake is as effective in stopping her progressively agitated tone as if he had verbally cut her off.
"There is a less than one percent chance of you acquiring a recessive gene like that," he assures her. "And even if you did, the chances of you ever developing the Mangekyō Sharingan to begin with are slim."
"I don't follow..."
"I know my brother. And from what I have seen of your mother, both outside of this genjutsu and through you, I imagine you parents will move heaven and earth to spare you the opportunity."
"But it's still not impossible."
"Even if you had it, you don't strike me as the type of person that would selfishly put the entire world at risk just to go back and change your personal circumstances."
Sarada isn't so sure about that. There are quite a few aspects of her life that she would change if she could. Quite a few realities she wouldn't mind altering, not just for her own sake but for that of the people she loves.
Itachi notices her uncertainty.
"Answer me this: would you risk everything you know and love, everything you have now, just to go back and change it all?"
"To save someone, maybe," she answers honestly.
"Even if it meant that the person—or perhaps, several persons—that you care for might cease to exist due to your own actions?" Sarada opens her mouth to reply but finds that she is even less certain now. Itachi nods as if he expected this. "Exactly. That is the risk you take when you change time. And only someone who has never experienced caring for another would make that decision."
Which is a pretty good point, actually.
If something happened to her parents or friends, Sarada would of course jump at the chance to go back and save them. However, if something in her travels caused her to lose them anyhow?
"Alright. I guess it makes sense," she concedes slowly. "But that brings us back to my question from before: who's doing it? If it's not any of the us, and any Uchiha with the ability was already killed off..."
"Anyone that was recorded by the clan, at any rate."
"Right, anyone that was... wait. What's that supposed to mean?"
"There's only one person whose fate was never accounted for," he says grimly, "but it's impossible, because that person can't have survived."
"Survived when you...?"
She doesn't want to say the words again.
"No." Itachi's eyes flash. "I mean, they can't be alive any longer because it has been centuries since she is said to have existed."
"I don't understand."
"The origin of Ōmiyanome was an Uchiha clanswoman. Teisōko Uchiha." The name is unfamiliar, but by now, Sarada expects that. "She was a prodigy, according to the stories that were passed down. Powerful, strong and the pride of her people."
"And she's the one who figured out how to travel in time?"
"Yes. When it was discovered she could move through time, the Uchiha believed they had birthed their saviour. She would be the matriarch of a new generation, a woman who would bear warriors that would make the Uchiha the most powerful clan in the world."
"So what happened? If she were that important, wouldn't she have been mentioned in the history books?"
"Not necessarily."
Which isn't surprising, given what Itachi has said and how closed-lipped her father is about their ancestors. Sarada is familiar enough with the wars between the Senju and the Uchiha from her days in the Academy, but not in any amount of depth.
"The popular story is that she fell ill," Itachi tells her. "She survived but was rendered barren. Without being able to have children who could inherit her particular skills, her value in the clan went down."
"But that's not fair! It's not like she got sick on purpose! And obviously there were still other people who had the same ability without her having children! I mean, you said before that they kept being born into the clan!"
"Yes. There were those who shared her ability to slip through time, but she was the only one to master it completely. Instead of minutes or hours, she could travel back days. Weeks. Some say months. It was her mastery that the clan wanted to breed into their descendants, and without that, she became obsolete."
"Hold on," Sarada makes a face. "They wanted people who could change time? I thought you said before that the ability was too dangerous."
"Circumstances change. During the height of the wars between the Uchiha and the Senju, such a quality was desired. In times of peace, however feeble, anyone who might use Ōmiyanome was a threat."
"Right..." Sarada considers all of this. "Is that why they killed her? Because she could potentially change the past?"
"Not exactly. She fled the clan and no one ever heard from her again."
"Why?"
"One of her relatives had at that point discovered the secret to unlocking the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan and sought to take her eyes."
"Unlocking the what?"
Itachi tilts his head to one side, frowning. "Your father hasn't explained."
"He explained what the Mangekyō Sharingan was, not the thing you just said," Sarada defends, "He told me all about it after I awakened the Sharingan. I wanted to know why ours looked different. He said his was more advanced, but that it came at a great price. And then earlier, he—well, the younger version of him—said that to get it he would have to...he had to kill the person he...wait..."
With every syllable, she finds herself arriving at a very disturbing possibility. One which grows even more likely as she watches her uncle's expression. He does not look surprised or even resigned, but rather like her words are exactly what he expected.
"No," she whispers.
"He has to kill me," Itachi confirms calmly, maddingly unruffled by this news. "I suppose it's a small comfort."
"How is that a comfort?" Sarada chokes.
"I slaughtered my own family," Itachi reminds her tonelessly. "Death is the least of the penalties I deserve. For it to come by Sasuke's hand is fitting."
"It sounds like you're using him to commit suicide," Sarada tells him, feeling sick. When Itachi says nothing, her eyes widen. "That's it, isn't it? You knew what you were doing was horrible and that you had to be punished for it. But the only one who would ever be able to do that was my father." She clenches her fist. "But if you knew it was wrong, why did you do it in the first place?!"
His jaws firm and he shakes his head once, a clear refusal to answer.
Sarada wants to scream in frustration.
Itachi Uchiha is a walking contradiction, utterly reserved in one instant, but with eyes that betray someone whose soul may once have been pure. He clearly feels regret and even pain over the deeds of his past, but at the same time he refuses to apologize for them or even elaborate. Even her father, reticent as he is, is capable of expressing remorse for his past deeds.
Deeds that can't have been as horrible as massacring their entire family.
Sarada clenches her fists, takes a deep breath and fights back the never-ending sea of irrelevant questions that threaten to explode out of her. Instead, she focusses on things he is required to answer.
"What's the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan?" she asks. "And don't say I have to wait for my father to tell me, it's completely relevant to what we're doing here."
He nods his head once, grim.
"You've heard of the Mangekyō Sharingan and you know the immediate price, yes?"
"Yes. You have to kill the person you love most."
"That, or witness the death of the person you love most," Itachi confirms, his eyes momentarily going out of focus as if he is thinking of something long past. "But in the long-term, there's another price: the more you use it, the quicker you will lose your sight."
Sarada's eyes widen and she reconsidered Itachi in shock, studying his features. Suddenly the odd squinting she noticed earlier made sense.
"You mean...you...?"
"If I am lucky, I'll retain my vision for another year. Possibly two," he dismisses.
"Does Papa—does your Sasuke know?"
"No. Not in this time, at least. I gather he knows about it in the future, however."
"How do you know?"
"Is your father blind?"
"What? No."
"Then he has attainted the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, which can only be done by taking the eyes of another, blood-related Mangekyō Sharingan user and transplanting them."
"And the only other Mangekyō Sharingan user in the world is...no."
Sarada stares at her uncle in horror. Thoughts flit through her brain in rapid succession—her observations earlier that her father's eyes seemed strange. She believed it was because the younger version doesn't possess the Rinnegan, but now that she thinks about it, the real difference were the eyes themselves.
A memory hits her of meeting her father for the first time in ten years. On their way back to Konoha, she kept sneaking glances, committing everything about him to memory, and she remembers thinking that their eyes were different and not just because she wears glasses. With her newly awakened Sharingan, she noticed the colour wasn't completely identical. At the time she shrugged it off as something that changed with age.
The young Sasuke Uchiha's eyes are cold and hard and an unyielding black, but her father's— there's something different about the coloring, a shade lighter, something warm that she can't identify.
But which she is staring at right now as Itachi watches her putting together the pieces.
"He has your eyes," she breathes.
"So it would seem."
"Does he know that has to happen?"
"I don't think so. If he does, he did not mention it the last time we met."
"And you didn't bring it up?"
"We were...otherwise engaged."
Sarada decides that's a conversation she doesn't want to have with him. In fact, the information is veering into territory that makes her stomach quiver.
I wanted to know, she chides herself, deciding that perhaps her parents were right not to answer her questions when she was younger.
"So...so this Teisōko person," she murmurs faintly, changing the subject, "she had a Mangekyō Sharingan. And someone wanted to steal it to make themselves stronger?"
"The practice was very common in the past centuries."
"No wonder she ran away," Sarada mutters. Privately, she thinks that if the Uchiha clan were like this, it's for the best that they were destroyed. Within seconds of this idea, however, she feels guilty and embarrassed for thinking it.
Once again, Itachi seems to guess her frame of mind.
"Not every Uchiha was so narrowminded or sought power above all things. Some fought and died to protect their loved ones and the village above all else. My friend Shisui was one."
"But you killed him anyway."
"No." Itachi's answer is sharp, and almost angry. "I would no more be able to kill Shisui than I would ever be able to kill Sasuke. Would you be able to kill your own brother?"
"I don't have a brother."
Itachi offers a barely-there shrug of acknowledgement. "That might change, one day. Restoring a clan takes more than one talented daughter."
Warmth rushes to Sarada's cheeks and she crosses her arms.
"Don't think complimenting me is going to make me forgive you," she warns, although there's less iron in her tone than before. "And those are my parents you're talking about right now—gross."
"I suppose I have been indelicate."
"Right," Sarada agrees with a firm nod of the head, inwardly chiding herself as well. "So everyone who might have the ability was killed, and the only person to ever have any small chance of travelling through time disappeared?"
"Yes."
"Ugh." She rubs her temples to try to ease the oncoming headache. The motion is more out of habit than any true relief, as within this genjutsu world of her uncle's, she can't feel anything. "And there's absolutely no way the stories were wrong? Like, maybe she could still have children and went off somewhere to have a secret family?"
It's a common plot to those horrible television shows ChōChō makes her watch.
"If the records are correct, her womb was removed."
Sarada makes a face. "Where is all this written?"
"That is something else—"
"—my father will have to tell me," Sarada grumbles. "You have a real problem answering questions directly, don't you? I bet if I asked you what your favourite food was, you'd tell me to go ask my father."
"Actually, it's dango."
Sarada opens her mouth to retort, then closes it, and squints at him. "Okay, I didn't expect that."
"In any case, given the fact that Teisōko was so important to the Uchiha, locating her body was paramount. It was one of the clan duties for several generations after the initial disappearance."
"But you said yourself, she could travel in time," Sarada points out. "What if—just to get away from whoever was trying to steal her eyes—she stepped through time? Only, instead of ending up a month or so in the past or future, she ended up here." Sarada clasps her hands in front of her, fingertips to her chin in what her mother calls her "thinking pose". "It's probably stressful if your own family is trying to kill you. You might make a lot of miscalculations with your abilities and using your chakra. I've had friends who over-exerted themselves, and they accidentally tapped into strong abilities, but the burn-out right after was bad. The first time Boruto tried to use shadow clones, he knocked himself out for three days."
"It would be a long trip," Itachi agrees, picking up her train of thought. "It could have weakened her, to the point where even a genin of negligible talent might subdue her. And if the individual in question who stumbled upon her was Orochimaru—"
"—who is definitely involved somehow, if only because his insane experiments are causing trouble for everyone—"
"—it would simply be a matter of incapacitating her and running his experiments," Itachi concludes, and despite the softness of his voice, there is a dangerous note running through it. Sarada can detect something like anger for the first time. "That individual is a reoccurring nuisance. I should have killed him long ago."
"You can't do that," Sarada tells him. "He's...well, he's sort of my father's sensei, so...killing him would probably cause some kind of paradox."
Itachi doesn't look entirely pleased with this information, but he doesn't pursue the matter.
"Do you think she's trying to get back?"
"Hm?"
"Teisōko. Do you think the reason that there's this time-travel bubble is because she's somehow trying to get enough power to return to whatever time she came from? I mean, if that is what's going on here, because right now it just sounds like a really complicated, unbelievable guess."
"There is no other theory that would be even half as plausible," Itachi replies. "And as for her motives... that would be anyone's guess. The legends never really indicated the woman's exact frame of mind."
"If she has any left. I've met enough of Orochimaru's experiments to know they don't exactly represent the ideal picture of sanity," Sarada says, shuddering at the memories of Shin Uchiha, Mumyōi and the unnamed ghost that threw her off a cliff. "Could he have played with her brain or something so he could gain control of her time-travel abilities? Or stolen her eyes, or cloned her?"
"Perhaps. It doesn't account for the amount of chakra it would take to create the circumference of this time distortion. Unless he's managed to augment it somehow."
"The guy managed to replicate Lord Fourth's Hiraishin and lock an army of crazy curse seal monsters underground. I wouldn't put it past him," Sarada deadpans. "So what's the plan?"
"The plan?"
"The fix all this."
"To stop the phenomenon, whatever is technology or device Orochimaru is responsible for needs to be stopped from augmenting the distortion. Once that's done, the origin of the distortion, if it is Teisōko, must be destroyed."
"So that's what you're going to do?"
"No."
Sarada's mind practically grinds to a halt at this unexpected response.
"Wh-what? What do you mean, no?!"
"I already told you, Sarada. I cannot be here longer than necessary. And given what you mentioned about your father and his team, they will likely continue to investigate this. I cannot put myself into a situation where Sasuke and I meet again. He will try to kill me, and I'll be forced to incapacitate him again. That's the last thing needed at this juncture if there's a chance of putting the world back to rights."
"Are you kidding me?! What we're dealing with could be stronger than all of us, and you're supposed to be a genius! My parents both say so and we need your help! Are you saying you can't figure out a way to put aside you're...whatever...between you and Sasuke long enough to save the damn world?!"
"I cannot interfere. Not more than I already have. In fact, it's best that I leave as soon as I release you."
"But...but you came here specifically to figure out what's going on!"
"And now that I've found out, I have to leave. I'm not meant to interfere in this."
"Why not?"
His mouth tightens in annoyance. Likely he isn't used to having his decisions questioned very often. Now he definitely looks like her father. "Because of the complication."
"Then uncomplicate it!
"The longer I am in contact with you and what you represent, the harder it will be for me to make myself forget!" Itachi snaps, and suddenly the calm, composed demeanour is gone.
Her uncle stares down at her wildly, his entire frame radiating frustration and agitation. It's a shocking change, not least of all because Sarada suspects he is not one to raise his voice even when he is furious.
"If I were to go with you, and we somehow managed to find your father and his team, and if somehow my brother managed to put aside his hatred for me long enough to work together to stop this and knowing what I know now—" He cuts himself off, swallows convulsively, and visibly comports himself. "You are a symbol. The final, utterly underserved, recompense for the deeds I carried out. You are the future of the village, the proof that Sasuke will one day, at long last, be happy. Even more than that, more than I would ever expect, you are the proof that I will one day be forgiven. And every second that I am here with you, that truth become more real to me, closer to my heart and more tempting to hold on to. And that could put everything at risk."
"But what if you're supposed to know?" Sarada counters. "What if the you my father talks about already knew all this the first time and did everything he's going to do despite it all?"
"Then he would be a better man than I know I am," Itachi answers softly, and the naked pain in his eyes tells Sarada that what he said is no exaggeration.
He has been more affected by their meeting than he has said, even with this last outburst. And as much as she doesn't want to forgive him for his past sins, it's hard to be completely heartless in the face of his admission of weakness.
She suspects it's more than her father ever got.
This is something else she can't push, and although it frustrates her to do so, she nods in acceptance.
"Isn't there another way for you to help, without getting involved?" she asks instead. "M— Sakura and I are in trouble right now. And even if we find our way back to the others, Uncle Kakashi doesn't even know what's going on or what to do."
"I've already told you what must be done. When I release you from this place, find a way to contact your father. If he can travel dimensions, he will either be informed of what's going on or he will sense the dimensional shift."
"And you?"
"I will be unconscious when you wake up."
"Huh?"
In answer, Itachi raises an arm, as if reaching for something. The red sky suddenly spins, black shapes blossoming against it and whirling closer. Sarada squeaks and ducks as several black shapes head straight for them, converging on Itachi. When she looks up again, there is a large crow sitting on his shoulder.
She startles when it trains an eye on her—an eye that swirls red and black with a Mangekyō Sharingan.
"What...?" she takes a step back.
"This is only an image," he tells her, "a representation of one with whom I have a contract. The Sharingan implanted in this crow can forcibly erase memories and implant false experiences. Kotoamatsukami . When used to its fullest ability, it might make a person believe they are doing things of their own free will. Luckily, for my purposes, there's no need to activate it fully, and its power won't be completely diminished. I simply need to forget having stumbled upon you and the girl and get far away from the temporal phenomenon."
"But won't you realise something happened when you wake up?"
"I experience black-outs occasionally. It's one of the reasons I take frequent absences from my partner, so as not to be a burden—or to be vulnerable beside one who might become an enemy at any point," Itachi tells her.
Sarada bites her lip. "You're sick, aren't you? It's not just the blindness, but something else."
Her uncle purses his lips and waves the crow away.
"My real summon awaits its opportunity in the real world. As soon as you and the girl wake up, it will knock me out and erase the memory. Get as far away from me as possible, hide your tracks. Travel through the water to ensure it."
Sarada sighs.
Guess I shouldn't have expected a straight answer...
"Get to the epicenter of the phenomenon," Itachi continues. "That's where whatever is causing all of this will be. Whether Teisōko is still alive and functioning, or just being used, she will be dangerous."
"She has to be destroyed, right?" Sarada asks, not really liking the idea of having to kill someone. She doesn't have blood on her hands, and the idea that her first kill with be an Uchiha is unsettling.
Again, Itachi proves that despite not being a mind-reader, he can sense her thoughts.
"Not by you. Your father—or Kakashi, if Sasuke doesn't make it in time. They're the only ones with a chance of doing it. And make sure, if you can't do anything else, to destroy the eyes. You know Katon?"
"Of course!"
"Use it to get rid of her body. It's the only appropriate method for an Uchiha." He reactivates his Sharingan, the wheels spinning into blades that signify he is about to release her from his Tsukuyomi.
"Wait!"
Itachi pauses, and Sarada feels panicked.
In hits her that this is the last time she will ever be able to speak to her deceased uncle. There are so many questions she still has, things only he would know. There's too little time to ask him any of those, and she knows it, but she must try. After all, she doesn't want her only memory of him to be unpleasant, filled with harsh truths about their family and his own deeds.
If her father can find something about this man that is pleasant, something to remember him in a good light, she wants that as well.
"Can you...can you tell me about Papa?" she requests tentatively. "Just something. Anything you remember. About when he was little, I mean. Not the way he is now, at my age. He's unpleasant...and unlikeable. But he wasn't always like that, right? You knew him before he was that way."
Itachi considers her a long moment, and this time he does smile.
"He used to be very clumsy," he tells her quietly. "Always in a hurry. Always tripping over his feet. I had to carry him everywhere. I'm rather certain he faked half of those instances simply to get me to look after him."
Tears blur Sarada's eyes, and she feels a lump in her throat.
"He's very similar to our father. He has trouble expressing his feelings—not like our mother. Not like that girl. I suppose I should call her my sister-in-law? Spirited." He chuckles. "She's a good match for him. A good balance. Even if I had never..." His smile fades, and the sadness returns. The look he gives Sarada now is apologetic. "The Sasuke of my time has to be as you described for now. It's the only way the future will happen as it needs to. He may never explain to you why. I hope he doesn't—but if he does, I can only hope you can take the time to understand. And if you feel the need to judge me harshly even then, it's no more than I deserve."
The lump in her throat becomes bigger, and tears run down her cheeks now.
Sniffing, Sarada considers for a moment, and then makes up her mind. Warily, she takes several steps forward until she's inches away from the man.
"You hurt my father," she tells him bluntly. "A lot."
"I know."
"But I wish he could have been the one to see you today," she tells him. "Because he would have known what to say or what to do."
Itachi nods. "I would have liked to know the man he will become one day. And to know you better as well."
She bites her lip, trying to keep composed.
Then she throws her arms around his middle and buries her face in the cloak he wears.
The body in her arms goes completely rigid for several long seconds that might as well be days, and then ever so slowly, she feels thin but strong arms wrap around her from behind.
"This doesn't mean I've forgiven you," she tells him, although the words are muffled in thick fabric of his cloak.
"Nor would I expect you to," he tells her, tone gentle.
"As long as that's clear," she croaks.
Itachi shifts then, and she loosens her grip on him.
He slowly kneels down until he is eye-level with her, and she startles when she feels the hand on the back of her head, pulling her forward until their foreheads rest together. This close, she can see the lines in his face: worry lines that a young man shouldn't have, the sign of someone forced to grow up too quickly.
"You don't have to forgive me," he tells her. "No matter what you decide to do from now on, I am your uncle. I will always love you and be proud of you." Pulling back, his Mangekyō Sharingan swirls and he gives her a last tap on her forehead. "Protect your father for me."
"Always," she promises, as the world swirls and dips.
The red and black of the Tsukuyomi world leech away, returning her to the real world.
Sarada can't help think if it weren't for everything, she would have gotten along very well with her uncle.
It is forever and a moment before Sakura succeeds in dispelling the genjutsu. Even then, as she blinks up at the stars that slide into focus, she feels a depressing certainty that she was only able to because the illusion itself became weaker.
Now that she is free, Sakura battles with confusion. She feels drained, on edge, and her head throbs as if it is too full somehow. Her heart is practically galloping, as if she's been running a race; in a way, she has been.
Trapped in the lie of an overwhelming forest, she recalls desperately trying to catch up with her teammates. Sasuke and Naruto were far ahead of her, as usual; he could only see their backs as they got farther and farther away. No matter how much she ran, she could never join them.
It's her own deepest fear, and barely surmountable on a really bad day.
But today hasn't exactly been normal.
"My mother is a talented warrior...she did that all on her own...so if you want to get stronger, do it for yourself..."
Sakura is fairly certain if she hadn't met Sarada—if she hadn't heard the words her future child said about her—she may not have been able to keep her awareness that it was genjutsu. Not that knowing made it easier to escape. Itachi Uchiha is a genjutsu genius, after all, and creating a multilayered illusion is not impossible with such simple subject matter. But remembering Sarada's words, it made it all that more important to escape to ensure the other girl is alright.
She doesn't know what she expects to see upon pulling herself into a sitting position, but it's not this:
Sarada and Itachi face each other across several feet, both of their Sharingan activated. Neither moves a muscle, and it's as if they are trapped in a battle of wills. Before Sakura can stand—all she needs to do to get Sarada out of whatever illusion she is trapped in is to make her feel pain—both Uchiha startle.
They blink, rapidly, as if waking up, and as awareness returns to him, Itachi's eyes flit toward Sakura. She imagines an imperceptible nod, which makes no sense, and then his attention is drawn to something beyond her.
His entire body suddenly goes rigid, and then against all logic, those terrible eyes of his roll back and he collapses heavily to the ground.
"What's going on?" Sakura gasps, eyes practically bulging from her skull at the sight of an S-ranked criminal lying supine within spitting distance. "What just happened?"
Sarada's shaky gasp is the only answer she receives, and Sakura looks over to see tears are trickling down the other girl's cheeks.
The mystery of Itachi Uchiha's inexplicable unconsciousness takes a back burner.
"Are you okay?" she demands, staggering to her feet. "What did he do to you? Did he...did he put you in that world if his? Like he did with Sasuke?"
Sarada shakes her head, slowly, almost as if she doesn't quite hear Sakura and takes a tentative step forward. Her hand reaches out, as if to confirm that he is asleep.
"He's my father's brother," she murmurs quietly. "He's my..."
The torn, confused expression on Sarada's face makes Sakura's stomach flip, an uncomfortable sensation settling there. It's almost as if she's intruding on something deeply personal, which makes no sense considering he's a known murderer.
Sakura blinks at this, abruptly coming back to herself.
Right. Murderer. Who is now unconscious.
Rather than let Sarada possibly wake up said murderer, Sakura scrambles into action.
"We have to go," she orders, snatching their drying clothes with one hand and grabbing Sarada's good arm with the other.
They need to get far, far away.
"The river..." she hears Sarada murmur, dazed, as if she's repeating what someone else said, "We have to go through the river...our tracks...!"
Sakura doesn't question this, heading for the water; she can't help throwing a cautious look over her shoulder, though, to ensure Itachi Uchiha is not about to come after them. He remains, motionless, on the ground, as a black bird circles over him. As she turns away, she wonders if she imagined the creature's burning red eye.
Holding their damp clothes above their heads, the girls wade through the shallows of the river, following it back to its origin. They can't follow it underground where they came from but climbing the hills in the general direction is good enough until they reach the tree-line again. Once there, the girls leap into the trees and disappear into the foliage.
Hopefully no one will think to follow us now.
Sakura glances at the other girl every few seconds, wanting to ensure she's alright. Mentally she seems a bit confused, but physically she's keeping up. In fact, she seems more energetic than before. Sakura barely has to keep a hold of her or steer her through the trees.
For about half an hour they flit through the forest. Every so often Sakura leads a false trail, terrified that she's going to look up at any moment and see those red eyes again. Eventually, though, they are forced to stop. Cold and out of breath, they find a patch of overgrown bushes and Sakura pulls them down to crouch beneath them. They're as safe as can be, considering somewhere in the vicinity and unconscious S-class criminal may or may not decide to come after them.
"Are you okay?" Sakura asks, once her heavy breathing doesn't interrupt her words.
Sarada nods.
"Good." Sakura swallows and then fixes the other girl with a fierce look. "Whatever you do, don't tell Sasuke."
Sarada's eyes widen.
"Why?" she asks, sounding surprised and a little wary. Sakura can understand this. The last thing she wants to do is lie to Sasuke and keeping things from him is a lie of omission. "He'd want to know, wouldn't he?"
"It doesn't matter. He can't."
"He's going to forget all this anyway. Assuming we all survive, of course."
"You can't tell him," Sakura insists firmly. "He'll drop everything and try to find his brother and if he does...I...I can't lose him."
She swallows painfully, fighting back the urge to cry. The heavy pressure in her head won't go away.
Sarada sighs in defeat. "That's what he said, too."
"Who?"
"Itachi."
Sakura tenses. "He spoke to you?"
"Yes. In my head."
"Don't trust a word he says. I don't know what you know about him—"
"More than I did, still not a lot."
"—but he can't be trusted. He says and does things to hurt people, even if they are family. I'm surprised he didn't kill you!"
"It's...a little more complicated than that," Sarada says, wincing. When Sakura crosses her arms in front of her, expectant, the other girl sighs. "He pulled me into his genjutsu world, but it wasn't to hurt me. He was curious. And he wanted to talk." She lowers her voice, looking around nervously, and barely above a whisper she says to Sakura, "He said there are people watching. It had to look like he was just checking us for information before moving on."
"But he was unconscious," Sakura points out.
"He did that to himself."
Sakura shakes her head, not buying it. Sarada opens her mouth to protest, but Sakura silences her by holding up a hand and orders, "Stop. Explain all this from the beginning.
What follows is a concise, albeit very confusing, account of Sarada's conversation with her infamous uncle. It's obviously not everything—Sakura suspects it's because Sarada herself doesn't understand everything that just transpired—but from the vague details, Sakura can't help feeling some of her distrust and apprehension ebb away.
"...and he kept telling me to get my father to explain it to me," Sarada finishes. "But other than that, it was him that figured it out. The next step. And if we don't do something about it, things are going to get really bad."
"Alright...say this is completely true and he didn't lie to you," Sakura says slowly, "What are we supposed to do about it?"
"Obviously, we have to find out way to the epicenter of the time phenomenon and stop it."
"I got that part. How?"
"It will be in the direct center of everything. We just have to figure out where that is, which shouldn't be too hard with the stars and a map."
"What map? We don't have one."
"No, but we had our GPS devices."
"Your what devices?"
"Oh. Right. Future technology. Okay, it's basically like a map on a computer. I memorized it when I saw it. Perks of a Sharingan," Sarada says, reaching for a broken twig and clearing a spot in the dirt. "If I recreate it here and we use the stars to position ourselves, we can probable figure out where the origin is. We head there and stop whatever's causing the temporal distortion."
"What about finding the others first? We can't do this alone."
"I know, but we don't have time to try to find them now. Especially if they're still underground somewhere. And we definitely don't have time to retrace our steps. If we're lucky, we'll meet up with them anyway. In the worst-case scenario, we find them after we stop this thing."
"No, the worst-case scenario is we all die."
Sarada makes a face. "You're usually more optimistic."
"I usually have super strength, according to you," Sakura replies. "I'm not her. I'm not your mother yet. I don't have super powers or...or anything like that. I've never done anything like this without Kakashi-sensei there, or at least Naruto and Sasuke. I'm just a genin."
"So am I."
"But you're a genius. And even then, you're also pretty weak right now."
"I can walk, which is a start," Sarada contends stubbornly. "And I'm going to do this, with or without your help. If you really want to go find the others, fine, but I have to stop what's going on."
"You're crazy if you think I'm letting you go anywhere on your own!" Sakura snaps. "Aside from the fact I'd be a horrible mother if I let you do that, Sasuke would kill me!"
Sarada smirks. "So we're agreed, then?"
If that's what he looks like when he gets his way, it's a good thing he never smiles, Sakura decides inwardly, although outwardly the grumbled her assent.
There's not much else to do right now but trust Sarada's judgement.
And try not to remember she's only met the girl today. And that Sarada only met Itachi for several minutes, but apparently it was enough time to have an entire mind conversation with her.
Sakura swallows heavily.
We're all going to die.
つづく
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