Author's Note: Updating now because I have a headache and might not have the energy to do it at 9. As usual, unedited until I can get to it.
Also, I'm not saying you should be familiar with my story Samsara for this chapter, but it will offer some perspective/Easter eggs.
When Sarada wakes, she is floating.
It takes longer than she would like to force her eyes open, and when she does she feels only confusion. The world around her is lit by a dim violet light, but everything beyond it is a black, overwhelming darkness.
Am I…am I dead…?
She remembers a knife and then falling, and then…nothing.
I must have hit the ground. I have to be dead.
Slowly, she sits up, frowning at the water surrounding her, rippling outward. Somehow, it doesn't soak her skin or clothes, almost like it's not really water but someone's abstract concept of it. As she gets to her feet, it falls away from her, leaving no trace of it beyond the sensation of silken sheet sliding away.
The air suddenly feels heavy, and she tenses. Whirling around, she is shocked to see Teisōko standing beside her, also looking utterly unharmed.
No! She should be dead! I felt her die…!
The other girl looks as if she is as confused as Sarada, but it lasts less time.
"You!" she hisses, and lunges, eyes narrowed and palm flat for a blow to the throat.
Sarada braces her feet in the ankle length water, hoping she won't slip, and prepares for the incoming blow. Which is why she is shocked as the other girl is suddenly stumbling into the water behind her with an ungainly splash.
Did she…miss? No, that's not it. She went right through!
"What?" Sarada whispers, staring down at her hands. They seem solid enough to her, but…
"Fighting one another is useless," a cool voice says, echoing within the vast expanse of distant black. "Your minds and souls are beyond your physical bodies."
Sarada whips around to face the owner of the voice, and Teisōko jumps to her feet as well, as if expecting an attack. Neither of them is quiet expecting the sight before them.
A woman and a man stand before them, having appeared out of nowhere. The woman is petite, with grey eyes and dark skin, dressed in pale colours but for a blood red obi tied in the front. Sloe black hair is arranged in a complicated headpiece, and a pink cherry blossom kanzashi that look very similar to one that Sarada's mother has.
Maybe my mind is compensating? Sarada wonders, but when she studies the man, she decides she would never have been able to imagine him.
Beside the woman, he is much taller, and unsmiling beneath dark, wild hair. Somehow, he looms like a shadow even though he wears all white. Six magatama border his robe, reminding her of giant versions of a Sharingan's tomoe. And speaking of a Sharingan…
He has it! And it looks exactly like Papa's!
"Who are you?" Teisōko demands, getting to her feet to face the strangers. Sarada would like to ask the same thing, but something stops her.
There's something…about these two…
The man looks down his nose at Teisōko. "I was, I am, I will be the grasping, devouring shadow of despair."
"I was, I am, I will be the given sacrifice to bring about hope," the woman intones.
"We are the avatars of time and space, though the faces we have chosen are borrowed."
"We have taken forms you can grasp so that we can speak, though it limits us."
"We can no longer see the consequences of what it to come and can only offer counsel."
"But that…" Sarada begins, "that doesn't answer. Who are you?"
"Don't you know, little one?" the woman asks her with a motherly smile. "Did your Papa never tell you our story?"
Sarada tenses, and a memory surfaces from so long ago she had forgotten until now, her father's voice washing over her.
"…Indra was wounded in battle and used the last of his strength to bring himself far away from Asura and his father. He found himself lying on a shore in a distant land, weakened and unable to heal himself. It seemed, for a time, that he was meant to die."
"Did he die, Papa?"
"No. He was found one day by a very young girl with a kind heart, who took pity on him."
"What was her name?"
"…Shachi."
Sarada's eyes widen. "Then you're…!"
"The progenitors of the Uchiha," Teisōko says, her fists clenching. Rage and hatred spark in her eyes, but being insubstantial, there is nothing she can do about it.
Not that she could, anyway, Sarada thinks vaguely, staring up at the tall man with renewed unease. The stories about him are terrifying, and she can see why when he levels a cold glance at Teisōko.
"By your actions, you have destabilized time," he says flatly. "It ought to have corrected itself, the way most time loops do, however your battle broke through many times and caused more damage than expected."
"Everything is unravelling," the female avatar—or, Shachi—laments. "All of time and space will soon cease to exist, if not for you two. The forces of Hope—"
"—and Despair."
"I don't understand," Sarada says. It's the second time they've used those words, giving them some reverence that she can't parse.
"Every living creature has a destiny that contains infinite possibilities. Those have been all but erased now."
"Your presence outside of your time frayed the web of time; travelling through so many, you might as well have cut the threads completely," Indra continues. "You must both make a choice, which will determine the fate of this world and where you go from here."
"You mean we're not dead yet?" Sarada questions, something like hope flaring in her stomach.
"You are beyond the state of life or death," Shachi tells her. "For now. But your choices may change that."
"Choices?"
"Will you walk the Path of Needles, or the Path of Thorns?" Indra asks.
Teisōko sneers. "Is that meant to be a riddle?"
"These are the paths that remain to you both," Shachi explains. "But know that even if you choose to walk the same path, your eventual fate will not necessarily be the same."
"You may also abstain," Indra says, "but then you will remain in this realm for eternity, never able to move on." He frowns. "I do not recommend that option."
Shachi's expression is sad and she bows her head.
"This is nonsense," Teisōko spits out. "I will not remain a prisoner here! Death or no, I intend to be free." She takes a step forward, bearing her teeth at them. "I have suffered under too many needles in my life. A thorn's pain is fleeting."
Indra studies her. "Is that your choice?"
"Yes," she says, resolute. "I will walk the Path of Thorns."
"So be it," Shachi says gravely.
Indra approaches Teisōko, his face unreadable, while she glares up at him. Then, he nods.
"You will gain what you desire," he tells her. "The pain you have lived with for so long will be at an end."
Then, he suddenly reaches out, and his hand goes right through her forehead. Unlike earlier, when Teisōko passed through Sarada harmlessly, his action brings with it pain. Teisōko's eyes go wide and she screams, a shrill, agonized sounds that has Sarada clapping her hands over her ears.
Indra appears unmoved by her distress, because he only draws back after several long drawn out seconds, his movements unconcerned and languid. In his hand, he cups something gleaming, red and insubstantial. It looks a little like a Sharingan, but Sarada can't be sure.
As soon as Indra steps back, Teisōko—empty-eyed and limp—falls to her knees. An instant later, she vanishes completely.
"What just happened?!" Sarada demands. She doesn't care about the other woman—she's been trying the entire day to kill her—but her fate suggests Sarada's future might not fare much better.
"She went on," Shachi tells her gravely.
"Went on? Where is 'went on'?"
"This we cannot say," Indra tells her, studying his hand; whatever he took from Teisōko gleams from within his fingers. "Our knowledge is limited by these forms."
"Her suffering was momentary," Shachi tells her. "Will you choose the same?"
Chills reverberate up Sarada's spine, and she takes a step back.
Choose the same? And end up…just disappearing?
The avatars are watching her expectantly, and she swallows nervously. If only she could have more time to think about it. Of course, she could always choose to stay here, then she will have an eternity of time to think.
"Can you…can you give me a hint about my choices?" she asks tentatively.
Shachi looks almost amused. "There is not much that we can see. These forms are limited."
"But is there's anything you can tell me?"
"The other one was not given a choice," Indra points out.
"The other one did not think to ask," Shachi replies serenely. "Impulsive decisions are a quality the Uchiha have always had. Too often it has been the source of their undoing."
This time something like guilt flashes across Indra's face, but it happens so fast that Sarada isn't sure if that's what she actually saw.
"Hn." The man folds his arms, but he doesn't argue. Then he closes his eyes, and concentrates. After a beat, he says, "The timeline remains clouded. I see stone faces sundered and only the Wielder of the Pure Eye standing between salvation and the end of an era."
"Two pillars crumble," Shachi adds. "Sun and Moon vanish, and the Earth is shrouded in darkness."
Sarada's mouth goes dry.
That didn't answer my question at all! It's just vague words and ambiguous forecasting!
"You're not going to tell me which path leads to all that, I'm guessing?" she manages with a pained smile.
"We do not know," Shachi says. "We are—"
"Limited, I know," Sarada sighs. She thinks it might have been better not to have gotten that hint. At least she would have felt less pressure.
Alright, so…Path of Needles or Path of Thorns…
As painful as Teisoko's end looked, it might be a relief after everything Sarada has gone through today. It's a tempting thought, to just be finished. As Teisōko said, a prick of a thorn is nothing.
Then again, the avatars said she might not end up with the same fate as Teisōko even if she chose the same option. What if her fate is destined to be worse? What if instead of 'going on', she's just erased from everything completely? What if 'going on' means being erased from everything?
And beyond that—though she's exhausted to her very soul, her decision cannot just be about her. It concerns time. Either everything will become completely unravelled and vanish, or there's something bad coming in the future.
Assuming their predictions are literal and not just speculation, Sarada muses. They said themselves they can't see everything. That could be part of a larger picture. Think! Path of Needles or Path of Thorns!
Neither sound like pleasant options. It's natural to think only of the damage they might both do, but what if she considers other qualities?
Thorns protect, Sarada thinks. They keep flowers from being eaten or destroyed. And needles…well, needles can be used as weapons. So, one of them defends, the other attacks? No. Wait, needles have another function!
She is the daughter of a medic, after all, and has seen first hand the good that needles can do. They are used to give people life-saving cures, to transfer blood or chakra, to mend flesh as well as fabric.
Like maybe…the fabric of time? Sarada wonders. It can't be that easy!
She wants nothing more than to heal the timeline from the damage that's been caused, and it's tempting to choose the option that is in line with the metaphor. But then again…
Needles are as bad as thorns, because once they've punched a hole in something, the hole stays there. At least in terms of fabric. If it's skin, I suppose the skin heals over. But then, the same can be said for a wound from thorns—
"Ugh!"
Her eyes clench shut, and her hands ball into fists, frustration and fear surging through her.
With every further thought, she gets drawn further into a study of riddle and wordplay. Trying to see beyond the meaning of the two words is paralysing her here. Perhaps she is destined to stay her forever after all…
No! Sarada decides, her eyes snapping open. No, I will not stay here! If there's even a chance of making sure Mama and Papa, and their past selves, and everyone have a future, I have to make a choice.
It seems she is going to have to take a page out of Boruto's book and just go with instinct.
"Alright," she says, squaring her shoulders and taking a step forward. She fixes Indra with a defiant look, not quite as fierce as Teisoko's, but still somewhat insolent. "I've made my choice."
"Speak it, then."
"I choose—"
ナルト
There is nothing but white in Sarada's field of vision, and a splitting pain in her forehead. Someone's voice—someone she should recognise—echoes in her mind.
You walk with gods, little one. Mind your step.
Awareness returns to her then, the feel of air rushing past her and her eyes spring open. She stares up in dismay at the cliff that is getting steadily further away from her, her right hand clawing at it in futile desperation.
Her body begins to flip in the air, and she's already been here before, hasn't she? Only this time, her reactions are dulled from the lingering unconsciousness, and the ground is getting closer and closer.
"Sarada!"
Almost the instant she hears her name, something seizes her hand in a strong hold.
Blinking up in shock, she stares at the swirling portal in front of her, the violet chakra mingling with orange and green fire. She's hanging below the rip in the sky and can't see beyond the portal, but the hand holding hers is unquestionably her father's.
"Papa!" she calls in amazement and relief.
"You have to…haul yourself up," he shouts to her, and she hears a strain in his voice. It's as if he is in great pain. "We're already using…everything we have…to keep the portal open."
Her eyes flick to the swirling flame, and notes with concern that it seems to pulsate, growing smaller one minute, before widening again. Each time it happens, the diameter shrinks.
"I'll…I'll try!" Sarada says, although even as she does, she feels weakness disperse over her entire body. She's already put her body through so much today, she doesn't know if she has the strength for this. With her other arm hanging uselessly by her side, and the kunai still buried in her gut, pulling herself up the length of his arm seems impossible.
"Hold on, Sarada!" she hears Boruto yell from somewhere beyond the rushing sound of the portal.
A half-second later, his father's past-self adds, "Come on, Sarada! You can do it!"
"Yeah, Sarada! Come on!" the past Sakura calls.
"Don't you dare give up!"
Her head snaps upward at the order from the young Sasuke Uchiha—the repressed, stubborn boy who has been avoiding acknowledging any connection to her all day—and resolve floods through her.
I won't give up!
Gritting her teeth, she strains upward, throwing her energy into the most difficult one-handed pull-up ever. Her joints scream, and her bones shake, and she concentrates all of her chakra to her hand. She has to be careful, not wanting to accidentally shatter the bones in her father's arm or disintegrate her own muscles from the force.
There's no time to inch her way up with her fingers and so, with a final wordless scream, she swings herself until she can get the momentum to throw herself up.
Flying upward, she has a vague sense of colours and shapes before her, coalescing into familiar figures.
Papa with his arm out to her, Mama and Uncle Naruto on either side of him, their Byakugō and Senjutsu respectively activated, and their hands on his shoulders. In the background, their past selves and Sarada's team watch anxiously.
The portal is closing faster now, and Sarada lingers for a moment in the air, weightless and completely conscious that if she doesn't grab hold of her father's upper arm at just the right moment, she's done for—a stain on the ground, left to rot somewhere in the past.
She reaches out—
And misses.
Sarada inhales in disbelieving desperation, sensing the exact moment when her body begins to shift from its upward current to the pressure of gravity. There are cries of disbelief from her loved ones—
And then, out of nowhere, two arms thrust through the portal and wrap around her—several times over.
I know these arms! Sarada thinks with giddy relief, eyes snapping through the portal to stare at her teammate.
Sarada doesn't have long to take notice of him—expression of concentration on his face, and a strange blue chakra crackling over the surface of his skin—before she is being pulled forward into the swirling, violet vortex.
She is back in the dank underground cavern again.
"Now!" she hears Uncle Naruto yell, and then her mother gives a snarl of effort.
The portal snaps shut behind Sarada just as she clears the threshold, slicing neatly through the heel of her sandal. She is dizzy and has the confusing sense of falling into a heap of bodies—Boruto is shouting her name, Mitsuki's arms retract—and then suddenly Aunt Hinata calls out, "It's coming!"
Sarada becomes aware of a growing roar, and a suffocating wave of energy moving forward.
Before she can regain her wits, someone—Konohamaru—grabs a hold of her. The past versions of Team 7 are urging their future selves to their feet, Kakashi ushers Boruto and Mitsuki back, and Papa is opening another portal just behind them. A vast sea of sand appears beyond the barrier, and he snaps, "Everyone, go!"
Genin and jōnin, past and present, make a beeline for the opening. Carried carefully by her instructor, she stares in wide-eyed horror over his shoulder as an explosion of golden chakra barrels toward them.
Only in the instant just before it hits them does the portal snap closed.
Silence hangs over them, feeling abrupt and uncomfortable in the wake of the roaring noise, like a thread suddenly snapped off in the middle. It lingers for several moments, like a breath being held in at the highest point of its inhalation.
Sands swirls around them, an endless desert stretching out upon every horizon.
Then the reality of things sets in.
"Phew!" Uncle Naruto exhales, falling to one knee.
Papa staggers backward, looking like he's about to pass out, but Mama catches hold of him, her arm scooped around his shoulders. Both of them have blood on their faces, she notices with concern, but despite radiating exhaustion, there's an instant of that nameless something passing through them.
Warmth floods through her.
They're okay. Everyone's okay.
On the heels of that relief, awareness of her body returns to her. Along with the searing pain in her abdomen. She coughs then, blood slipping over her lips, and the world tilts to on side.
"Sarada!" Konohamaru sets her down on the ground. Instantly Mama is by her side, a little slower than normal, a little paler; Papa also tries to stagger toward her, but his legs give out beneath him. Boruto and Mitsuki try approach, but Kakashi and Aunt Hinata hold them and her parents past squad back.
A warm hand rests on Sarada's front, and the tingling sensation of her mother's healing chakra radiates through her. Mama is straining more than usual, as if eking out every last shred of healing chakra. Sarada can barely see the diamond-shaped marking on her forehead anhymore.
"Mama…don't worry about me…" she mumbles nonsensically, but her mother just mutter something under her breath as she carefully removes the kunai.
"You've lost a lot of blood, and your chakra is completely tapped out," she tells her in a quiet, soothing voice. "But you'll be alright." She looks up at Papa. "She'll be alright."
Loud cheering breaks out then; squinting beyond her mother's body, Sarada watches Boruto and the young Naruto high-five each other.
"She did it! We did it!"
They clap each other on the back, and young Sakura squeals with glee and hugs young Sasuke around the neck, while he gasps for breath. He doesn't push her away though, Sarada notices. Aunt Hinata hurries over to Uncle Naruto, and he kisses her in front of everyone, earning a raised eyebrow from Kakashi and an embarrassed chuckle from Konohamaru.
Then Sarada, the once mortal wound in her belly, still tender but mostly healed, is pulled up and into Mama's arms. Relieved and exhausted, tears gathering in her eyes, and Sarada presses her face into her mother's soft curves. Papa finally manages to get to them and falls into a sitting position beside them, breathing hard. His eyes remain rivetted on Sarada, however, like he's evaluating every bruise and scratch that hasn't yet been healed.
"Your arm," he says, a statement and a question.
She shrugs her left shoulder, barely feeling that movement anywhere below her elbow. She knows she won't get anymore use out of it until Mama has the strength back to fix it. "Now we match."
His mouth quirks a bit upward at that.
"—did it! We did it! We did i—wait," Boruto cuts off, and then frowns. "We did do it, right? We won't stop existing when we portal back to our own times?"
"Will we even be able to get back to our times?" young Naruto wants to know, looking suddenly worried.
"Well, there's one way to check," Kakashi says.
He bites into his thumb, pulling out a scroll with the other, and pressing it to the ground. "Kuchioyse no jutsu!"
There's an explosion of dust, and when it clears, Pakkun the Ninja Hound sits in front of them.
He squints up at Kakashi. "Well, boss, this looks…um…slightly better than where you were before." His eyes linger on the barren wasteland. "Not much better, though."
"Of course!" Sakura cries. "They're linked in our present! So, Pakkun should be able to get us back to our time, which means it's still there!"
"And once he gets his second wind, Sasuke can bring us back to where we belong," Uncle Naruto says as he and Aunt Hinata stand up. Boruto has thrown himself at his mother, wrapping an arm around her waist, and then moving aside so that she can offer Mitsuki a hug as well. Uncle Naruto puts a hand on either boy's head.
"Honestly, Sarada, how many times am I going to have to fix your arms today," Mama scolds lightly, but there's no real annoyance in it.
"Hopefully no more," she replies gamely, and grins up at her teammates. "Mitsuki…you saved me."
"Well, you and Boruto and Konohamaru-sensei had an eventful day," he replies mildly. "I felt it was my turn."
"Don't act like it's nothing!" Boruto guffaws.
"And here I thought it was only Boruto you would risk your life for," Sarada teases, survival and adrenaline making her giddy.
"Well, you are one of my teammates."
"Such a fine display of comradery," Konohamaru murmurs, eyes teary and a fist clenched. "It makes your sensei proud."
"What happened before we found you?" Papa wants to know, and it's obvious he's asking about Teisōko, and whether she's still wandering around somewhere in the past.
Everyone, including the dog, is watching her now with expectation.
With the adults recovering themselves, there's not much else to do but tell them. Slowly, and pausing every now and then to allow for outraged exclamations or questions, she explains about following Teisōko through different time periods, and their long battle. All the while, the adults fan out amongst one another, checking wounds and healing one another—or at least trying to.
Mama appears to be tapped out after whatever she did earlier, and fixing Sarada as well as she could, but between Aunt Hinata and Uncle Kakashi's basic healing abilities, they help stabilize her. Colour returns to her face, but the Byakugo doesn't, and Sarada thinks Mama might be a little weak for the next few days.
Sarada finally ends her story with her last desperate vault towards Teisōko, before trailing off. Her mind feels like it's garbled somehow, a snarl in a thread.
"That's the last thing I remember," she says, frowning. She has the distinct feeling that time passed between her last attack on Teisoko and being rescued from her fall off the cliff but can't call it up despite every effort.
Mama squints at her. "Well, you definitely have a concussion. That could explain you blacking out for a bit. It will be a while before I can check for sure, but we should be safe if we treat it as that."
"You must have done something badass," Boruto says, punching his fist in the air. "You came back, but that Teisōko chick didn't."
"That might not be a good thing," Mitsuki points out. "If she's somewhere in the past, she could still cause damage."
"No, she's dead," Sarada says, earning surprised looks. "I don't…I don't remember how, but I'm sure she is."
"I bet you took her out, huh?" young Naruto says. "You gave her the old one-two, right?"
He mimes boxing motions, and Boruto shoots him a disparaging look. "You're so lame."
"Is it possible she's been placed under a genjutsu?" Sakura wants to know, inching a little closer to the Uchiha family.
Papa gets up, shaking his head at Mama when she makes a motion to help him, and studies Sarada. "If there is, it's not one that I can sense. Most likely my wife is right—it's a concussion."
Sakura gasps a little, gazing up at Papa with shining eyes.
"Did you hear that?" she whispers to Sasuke, whose face has gone furiously red. "He said 'my wife'."
"Tch."
"Speaking of genjutsu, though," Papa says, eyes focussing on the two genin in front of him, showing no sign of having noticed the interaction, "if it wasn't, it means someone else might have gotten involved in matters."
He takes a few steps toward the past version of him and his wife, until he is gazing down at Sakura. Sasuke glares at his adult self, and Sarada gets the distinct impression he doesn't like his future self. Papa either doesn't notice the look, or doesn't care, because his attention is on Sakura.
"When I was trapped in the time barrier, I saw how Jikken was defeated. That was no ordinary crow. There was no time to speak of it before, but…there is something I need to know."
Sakura's eyes widen at being addressed so seriously by any version of Sasuke, and then when he kneels down in front of her so that they are at eye-level, her face goes as red as her tunic and her eyes flick away from his.
"I…I…"
"If you'll allow it," he adds. "Please."
At which point, Sakura promptly faints.
As her teammates hurry to catch her before she hits the ground, Mama sighs. "Darling, it's really not fair of you to do that..."
Papa has the decency to look confused.
つづく
Yeah, I totally pulled a Kishimoto and brought in the Mysterious Other Worldly Figure Meeting. That happened. And yet another Uchiha is undone by their impulsive, ask-no-questions personality...arrogance has a cost :P
And for those of you freaking out that the scene cut off just before Sarada made her choice...that's done on purpose. The two choices she is given lead to two story branches, the canonverse (Path of Thorns) which will follow the Boruto: Next Generations canon, and my headcanon verse (Path of Needles). I might write an introduction to both of those where you actually get to see the choice, but for this fic, I left it ambiguous so the reader could decide which path she chose.
(Full list/chronology of both series will be updated on my profile page, as I'm in the process of making sure all the stories that should be there are there.)
Yosh! One more chapter and an epilogue!
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