Set Post Naruto Gaiden.

Previous Chapter Summary: Sarada slowly uncovers more of the truth as she stumbles upon her mother again in the Sand Village. After finding out about Itachi and the Massacre, she is determined to continue on with her journey. Meanwhile, Sasuke is up to something back in Konoha, which results in his meeting with the mysterious voice in the white space..

A/N: I HAVEN'T GIVEN UP! Just have less time and more writer's block. Stay tuned!

Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto

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Journey Back In Time

Rewind III: You, Who Gave it All (Pt. 2)

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She had woken up way earlier than the pink-haired girl lying beside her in the small bed they slept in. The sun was just making its way out of its hiding, slowly creeping up from behind the cement houses and bumpy plains of the sand village. Strangely enough, there were people already roaming outside despite how early it was.

The Uchiha heiress withdrew her gaze from the circle-shaped window beside their bed. She sat herself upright on the mattress, leaning her back against the wooden headboard of the bed. She couldn't get much sleep last night, and it was evident in her newly formed eyebags.

Her gaze wandered over to the thin metal bracelet on her wrist, which looked like it hadn't even gotten a scratch.

It hasn't prompted me to go back yet. She thought, despite the fact that she spent a night at this time-point. It was good, though. Now that her mind was a bit more clear, she wouldn't go back even if it forced her to. Not until she figured everything out.

"What's that?"

Sarada jumped in her spot, slightly startled at the sudden voice breaking the silence in the room. She shifted her attention to the pink-haired girl beside her, who was still lying down on her side, but looking up at her with a nonchalant expression from her wake.

"Just a bracelet." Sarada smiled.

"Did someone give it to you?"

"Sort of.." She trailed off, unsure of what to say. "It's kind of the reason why I'm here, with you guys."

Sakura looked puzzled. "Do you have someone you want to find?"

Lost for an answer, the Uchiha heiress tried to imagine the face of her uncle, but there was absolutely nothing that even her wildest imagination could make up. She knew nothing about him. Instead, a picture of her father popped up in her head.

"More or less." She replied, unsure if that was a good thing to say.

"Well, I hope you find whoever it is soon." Sakura said as she slowly sat herself up from her lethargic position and ran her fingers over her tousled hair. Her expression turned sullen. "People must be worried about you back in Konoha. You showed up so randomly. Do you need us to send a message over to your family so they know you're with us?"

Frankly, she definitely would like to send a message to her parents back at home. She wondered how long it has been since they discovered her not being at home. Mom must be pretty mad. And who knew what Dad had to say about it.

"Er, no." Sarada shook her head. "They're alright."

Sakura chuckled lightly. "Okay. If it were my mom, she'd beat me to a pulp if I went missing for too long."

Sarada couldn't fight the smile on her face. It was definitely something her grandma would do.

"I hope you find him soon too." The Uchiha heiress whispered, answering her mother's earlier statement. She was responded with a benevolent smile, but she could still sense the sadness in the pink-haired girl's viridian eyes.

"Let's get up. We should get ready." Sakura jolted up from her resting position and swung her feet onto the cold floor. She gave herself a hard push on the mattress and helped herself up, shuffling her feet into her indoor sandals.

Sarada responded with a silent nod, but continued to sit in the bed and returned her gaze out the window.

The six of them, including Chiyo and Pakkun expertly navigated their way through the tall, lanky trees of the northern forest. They were still far from the Akatsuki hideout, but at the pace they were going at, they should be arriving in no time soon.

"Naruto, can I ask you something?" Sakura inquired, earning a nod from the blonde as she broke the silence of the group.

"How long has the Akatsuki been after you?"

The Uchiha heiress shifted her attention to the newly brought up conversation. Uncle Naruto was targeted by the Akatsuki? She thought, narrowing her eyes. Then that means..

Naruto looked as if he was in deep thought, but eventually closed his eyes in defeat. "I don't know."

.. He had the Kyuubi?

"Two members of Akatsuki once came to Konoha in an attempt to capture Naruto." Kakashi informed, letting Sarada's ears perk once more. "That was three years ago, and now they're moving again."

"Was it Itachi?" The Uchiha heiress asked with no hesitation.

"One of them, yes." Naruto replied, shifting his gaze to meet Sarada's dark orbs. "I thought you didn't know who the Akatsuki were.. Do you know him personally, Sarada-chan?"

She raised a finger to adjust her glasses. "I don't." At least that was the truth.

"Well, there's no way they're going to get Naruto." Sakura continued. "The Akatsuki may be strong, but our forces have gotten a lot stronger than before."

"Why exactly is the Akatsuki doing this?" Sarada inquired again, wanting to know more about the group her murderous Uncle was associated with. "I know they want to create something bad.. But how did they become like this?"

"We don't know for sure." Kakashi replied this time, and all heads turned back to him. "They have their own ideas of wanting to change the world. They're all rogue ninjas, but we don't know who got them like that."

Naruto let out a small chuckle to himself. "Heh. They won't have a chance to change the world or whatnot, not with me becoming Hokage real soon."

His remark earned a smile from the Uchiha heiress. She felt warm inside knowing that she resonated the exact same feelings as the future Hokage, the burning desire of her dream.

Meanwhile, the pink-haired girl let out a large sigh. "That's going to be a while from now, Naruto. Not with everything going on. Besides, don't you want to get married and have kids first?"

Immediately, everybody paid close attention to the blonde, awaiting curiously for his reply. Sarada immediately found this amusing.

"Eh..." Naruto squinted his eyes. His imagination wandered off to a scene where the future pink-haired girl would yell at him every morning and beating him to a pulp because he wanted to sleep in. "Not really."

Really? Sarada blinked. "Not even one?"

"Hn..." The blonde sank back into deep thought of mini-him's with pink hair running around the house, threatening to attack him if he didn't stay to play with them longer. "Heh.. I think I'm okay for now. Besides, all I want to do is become Hokage first!"

"But don't you want a kid that's just like you? Who looks up to you?" Sarada pressed. She was starting to feel a bit of frustration.

Naruto took a moment and paused. After a few seconds, he started again. "Nah. But I am going to become the number one ninja in the world so everybody looks up to me!"

Immediately, her expression turned into a large scowl.

"That's all you ever think about, Naruto." Sakura commented, shaking her head. "Really, maybe you should focus on becoming a Jounin first. And starting a family before you drown yourself in work."

"Well.." The blonde began. "I want to make my Hokage dream come true first. Then I can marry a super hottie and-"

"You think it's okay to put family second like that?"

The group turned to look at the Uchiha heiress, confused at the sudden fierceness in her tone.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, adopting a puzzled look. "Sar-"

"Being Hokage doesn't give you the excuse to neglect your family!" She burst, clenching her fists to the point where her nails were digging into the palm of her hands. "You made Boruto suffer so much because of your selfishness!"

A wave of silence broke out in the air with nothing but their shuffling movements being heard.

"Bo..ruto?" Naruto said slowly, letting the name linger against his breath. Sarada covered her mouth in dismay, but in a few seconds, Naruto's expression became more serious.

"Sarada-chan. You may not know this, but there's nothing I want more than to have a family." He said, his voice much stronger and stern than earlier.

Sarada took a large gulp and refused to look at her uncle Naruto's face. She had let her emotions take her over again at the thought of her other blonde friend. The countless nights where he would run away from home and sit at the small park in the corner of the village, the place where she would always manage to find him and he would act all tough about his family whenever she asked. In reality, she knew what was up. If anything, she was the same.

Naruto took his gaze off of the Uchiha heiress and stared at the ground below him, which was only a blur.

".. I don't know if it'll be like this years from now, but I don't want to bring my kids into this world we're in. Not where the nations are still not at peace and people have yet to save their own comrades." He says in a melancholy tone, his mind displaying the silhouette of his raven-haired friend's turned back. Sakura bit her lip at the blonde's words.

Naruto's gaze quickly darted back to Sarada, who was still reluctant to make eye-contact.

"That's why I have to become Hokage first. So to answer your question, Sarada-chan, no. I don't want a kid that's just like me." Naruto darted. "My kid is going to live in a world much better than mine, than this. And I'm going to make it for not just him, but all of Konoha's people."

Immediately, Sarada felt her heart sink to her stomach. At this moment, she felt very small. For a girl with big dreams, she felt like she had too little of a heart. She was definitely not able to measure up to her Uncle Naruto right now, not like this.

Her mind wandered to her own father and the countless nights he spent away from her and her mother.

Was he creating a better world for her, too?

"Stop."

Abruptly, Kakashi broke the tense atmosphere and darted back to the ground in a quick halt. His team members followed him closely until he shot his arms out from either side of him, stopping the group from further movement.

"Kakashi-sensei." Sakura started, walking closer towards the silver-haired man. "What-"

Immediately, she froze as her gaze followed her sensei's eyes towards the largest tree in front of them. She felt an enormous amount of chakra hidden behind it, one that she recognized from before.

In a split second, a dark figure revealed itself from it's hiding, disclosing a man in a long black cloak with a slashed headband across his forehead.

The Uchiha heiress widened her eyes as the man slowly walked his way out of the tree with his sideview completely exposed to the six of them, his bright red crimson eyes prominent. As he moved to his last step, he shifted his body towards the group, his eyes now fully locking in with her own.

"Uchiha Itachi." Naruto whispered, clenching his fists in anger.

Sarada's heart nearly stopped beating. The man before her was one she'd never seen before. The person who killed her entire family... their entire family. On a whim, she took her time in scanning his features. His hair was jet black just like hers, and he had the same strong stance as her father.

No doubt, they were definitely related. This was her Uncle.

"Careful." Kakashi says, immediately activating his Sharingan. "His visual prowess is more powerful than mine."

Sarada didn't care. She continued to stare at him dead-on.

"He must be here to stop us." Sakura said under her breath, just loud enough for everybody to hear.

The six of them stood in silence, on-guard and maintaining a defensive stance in the presence of the Akatsuki member. Suddenly, Naruto flinched as the elder Uchiha slowly began to raise one of his arms up in front of him.

"Hey, what-"

The girl with the red glasses took a small gulp as she realized her Uncle was holding out his palm straight at her, his fingers curling as if he was about to grab something in the air.

Kakashi widened his eyes, knowing what he was planning to do. "SARADA, GET OUT OF TH-"

Her feet remained frozen, despite the fact that she also knew he was about to pull her into a genjutsu. In mere seconds, she felt her body being tugged against her will.

The sound of her mother's voice yelling her name was the last thing she heard before she was completely sucked in by her Uncle's technique.

The next time her eyes blinked, she was no longer in the forest with her mother and the rest of her team. She shifted her body side to side in a defensive motion, keenly observing her surroundings. She felt like she was in a completely different world. It looked like an old, empty town, and the sky was dark and relenting.

Her head was pounding, and although her mind was ready for whatever was coming, her body wasn't.

Where is he? Despite her desire to search for her Uncle, her legs were shaking. He was here, somewhere in this genjutsu with her.

All of a sudden, she detected a large wave of a fearsome chakra immediately curling behind her. It was much stronger than the one her father had when she met him in the previous time-point.

She took a large, slow gulp. Trying not to make any sudden movements, she carefully began to turn her head to the side, just enough so that she could make out the presence from her peripheral vision.

As anticipated, Uchiha Itachi stood right behind her, his crimson eyes still bright as ever as they practically stared into her soul. When her orbs met his, she nearly wanted to collapse her feet.

And as if he had been expecting her, the elder Uchiha displayed a slight curve at the corner of his lips that could pass off as a smile.

"Nice to meet you, Sarada."