Hello and welcome to the third chapter of Petals in the past. As always, I don't own Naruto, or any of it's affiliate plots, subplots, or sub-subplots.
I am back in the hut in Amegakure, staring down a legend.
"Tell me more about your plan."
"I need your vast amount of chakra to break the laws of the universe and travel back in time."
"You need my chakra?" I asked, not really understanding. How could I have something that the great Itachi Uchiha doesn't.
"Yes. My own chakra reserves are relatively small, and although I am skilled at working with what I have, I am nothing compared to your level of skill."
I could feel my face get hot. Did he just compliment me? I must have heard wrong.
"I think you are mistaken. My two team mates are the ones with real power. I pale in comparison to not just them, but plenty of other people have more skill than I do. Some of them are even alive still, you might be better off going to one of them for help."
"I am not mistaken." he said firmly. He sounds so convinced. I have never heard anyone believe in me this way. If I am being honest, not even Kakashi had this much conviction in me, that's why he instead chose to teach Sasuke individually. I was always just average.
As if reading my mind, he frowned. "You are not average, of that I am certain. You trained under the powerful Sanin Tsunade, and at only sixteen years old, defeated one of the Akatsuki with your own prowess and planning. Yes, you may have had a little help from his grandmother, but without your skill at medical ninjutsu and unprecedented talent for making antidotes, you both would have lost."
"You make me sound so amazing." I said, looking down at my feet. "But I'm not. Everything I have is because someone helped me get it."
He tilted his head, his once again dark eyes scanning me questioningly. "Is that not the nature of life? To grow, with companions. To learn from one another, and nurture each others talents? The world we live in now has no hope of that growth. I want to try and change it for the better. And I know that you can help me. No one else on this earth has the deep well of chakra that you do. Not even Tsunade herself could perfect the Strength of a Hundred seal as you have. I have come to the right person, I am sure of it."
"I hope you are right, Uchiha. Because if you aren't, I'll probably die helping you with this crazy scheme, and then I'll probably haunt you or something."
He let out a small laugh. "So you will help me?"
I sighed. What else did I have to lose.
"Yes, I will help you."
We stayed up all night perfecting the details. How we would go about stamping out all the threats we are facing now while they are still small. Kabuto, Orochimaru, even Danzo. To stop Sasuke, we needed to take down everything that set him on this path to destruction in the first place.
"I can't believe we are going to stop the Uchiha massacre." I said, my excitement clear on my face. "That's so amazing! I'll get to meet your parents."
He sighed, taking a small drink of water from his earthen mug. "Yes. My parents. I suppose my life will be very different with them alive and well."
"You don't sound happy." I said, confused. Shouldn't he be exploding with happiness?
"I'm not...unhappy. It's just, my family isn't filled with the best of people. They were content to let the village suffer just to free themselves from exile. I can't let that happen, but I don't know how to stop it. How can I convince them not to go around murdering innocent people?"
"I mean, there is one solution. They wanted out of exile. So get them out of exile. Your family was still in charge of the police force, and from what I understood about them, they still wielded a lot of power in the village. We should go to the Hokage and tell him and only him who we are, and get him to help us fix it. Then, your family would have no reason for the coup in the first place."
"That is dangerous, Sakura. If he doesn't help us, we could be exposing ourselves to a lot of unpleasantness. We would be interrogated, and most likely killed."
I can't help but let out a sigh of my own. He's not wrong. The leaf village likes to play the hero, and being the largest and wealthiest of all the nations makes for a large image to project. If someone found out that it was someone in the Leaf village that started the largest conflict and loss of life anyone had ever seen, they might just kill us, and little Sasuke, to prevent it.
"I don't seen any other options, though." I said. "We can't let a war break out while we are trying to prevent another one from starting."
"I am afraid you may be right. I am just worried that we will fail, and it will all be for nothing."
"So what?"
He looked up at me, startled. "What do you mean, so what? So what is we die, and the world goes to hell all over again."
"Maybe not. Even if we change just one thing, it could ripple. And, if we die, it won't be much different than where we are right now. I'm alone and hopeless, my best friend is dead, and I am basically running until Sasuke eventually finds me and kills me. You, my resurrected friend, are sitting here in a run down hovel in a dead village, with a paper body and dying eyes."
"How did you-"
"How did I know you are almost blind? I'm a medic, give me some credit."
He nods, a small smile playing at his lips. "Fair enough. I am almost totally blind, but my other senses are keen. I can only see when my Sharingan is active, but the pain is growing almost too heavy to use it. This 'gift', has it's give and take, I suppose."
"I want to make you a promise." I said, surprising him. He looked at me questioningly, so I pressed on. "When we go back, I will heal your eyes when they reach this stage. I don't really know the intricacies of your kekkai-genkai, but I am a quick study. I promise that I will heal you so you won't ever loose your gift."
Something soft set in his eyes, but I couldn't place it.
"You are a kind soul, Sakura Haruno. You don't need to care about my condition, I have managed it for years without anyone finding out. But I will take your kindness and in return offer you a branch of friendship. When we go back, no matter the odds or situation, I will stay by your side. We will not loose one another in the past. That is a promise."
I couldn't help but smile. I wasn't expecting that, to be honest I thought we would go our separate ways. He has much to cover, and I kind of thought he only needed me for my chakra. I thought once we got there, I would be on my own. His reassurance wasn't' something I thought I needed, but I guess it was.
"Alright then, Uchiha. How are we going to do this? Do we have to wait until the moon hits a certain phase, or the planets align? Like, what do we need to do?"
He laughed aloud then. "Nothing like that. I have the forbidden seal with me. All I need is some blood, and as much chakra as you can possibly muster."
"So, we can do this now?"
"Is there any better time?"
"I guess not." I pulled out a kunai knife, as he unrolled the scroll on the floor of the hut. I had expected a little more dramatic fanfare, to be honest, and was a little surprised. He stood up, as I sliced my palm, and I handed him the knife. He sliced his forearm, drawing the life giving liquid.
"Forearm hurts less." he said, eyeing my dripping hand. I rolled my eyes.
"Not for me." I smirked. I could heal it at any time instantly, after all.
We both focused our chakra as we held our arms over the scroll. When the scarlet drops hit the ancient parchment, the words started to glow a bright blue.
"Very dramatic." I teased. This was all too surreal for me. Am I really this calm? I am about to jump into a swirling vortex with a twice dead mass murderer, and all I can think about is how calm he is, and how it's centering me. Like, he has foreseen all possible outcomes, and he is still going through with it, so why shouldn't I? I still can't believe I am friends with Itachi Uchiha. It feels like a long time since I had one of those.
I could feel the pulsing from the scroll as we fed chakra into it. Slowly, a small hole opened up on the scroll, swallowing the writing. Inside it was...nothing. Just blank space. I took an involuntary step back, but felt a strong hand grasp my own.
"You can do this, Sakura. It's up to you now. My reserves are getting low. Remember to keep feeding the jutsu your chakra, and hold tight to me. We will prevail."
How can he be so confident? A flutter of panic shot through my chest. How can I possibly do this? I am just me. A stupid pink haired girl from a corrupt village with nothing to my name. I am no one.
"Don't doubt. I came to you because I knew you could do this. I believe in you. And you need to too. The world is counting on you."
His words hit me in the chest like an actual blow. Everyone I know and love is counting on me. He is counting on me. I need to do this. I can do this!
I closed my eyes, to the feeling of floating. The feeling of weightlessness was both a thrill, and absolutely terrifying. I used every sense to focus on reaching out to my chakra.
My life force.
My very essence of self.
It hummed in my ears like bees, until it was deafening. It was tempting to loose my mind from the sound, but Itachi's grip on my hand kept my mind clear. I had a job to do.
Pushing past the hum, I found what I had been looking for. My vast chakra pool glowed in my mind's eye, like an ocean. Blue and green energy crackled as my thoughts skimmed the surface. Searching even deeper inside myself, I dug until I spotted the shore. Yellow colored power buzzed between the boundary of my chakra and my consciousness.
Sage chakra.
The volatile power snapped at me, feeling alien in comparison to the energy I used every day. Steadily I began to wrap my focus around the Sage power, slowly infusing it into my natural chakra pool. It hissed like hot metal touching water, and I felt the burn of the Seal of a Hundred as it crossed my skin with it's black markings.
Achingly slow, I combined my reserves, and when my ocean glowed a vibrant orange, I made the necessary hand seals. I opened my eyes to meet Itachi's as he mirrored my hand motions, and when finished, we both slammed our palms to the parchment, completing the jutsu.
What had been weightlessness suddenly felt like a gravity bomb, and I felt the pressure like it was trying to crush me. Darkness enveloped us, as the jutsu took hold, pulling us from our time into another one.
Numbness started to spread from my fingertips up my arms and down my legs, and fear set in once again.
'Sakura.' came what was barely a whisper.
"Itachi? Where are you, I can't see anything!"
'Sakura, breathe. We did it. You succeeded. There isn't any need to be afraid. Just breathe.'
"I feel like I'm being crushed!"
'You aren't. Do you trust me?'
Choking back tears, I nodded. At least, I hoped I nodded. All the feeling had left my body and I had no idea what I was doing.
"Yes! I trust you, just please don't let me die. I'm not ready."
A soft chuckle permeated my dark shroud around me. 'I would never let you die, Sakura. Trust, and breathe.'
His voice was the last thing I heard before true darkness set in and I blacked out.
They finally made it! I had a lot of fun writing Sakura's chakra adventure, so I really hope you enjoyed it. To me, it was similar to meditation using visualization, so in a way, it was kind of therapeutic. Thanks for reading!
-Kurohime1024