Chapter 4

She is gone. Those three words keep ringing in Boruto's head, already losing all sense. She is gone. She is gone. She is gone.

She has bee taken. He thought that would never happen, especially from the moment he saw his father, his original form and not a clone, leave everyone protected in a glow of his yellow chakra, and head towards the enemy. He knew that if his father, along with Sarada's parents, fought that guy, there was no way he could beat them. They were the three strongest shinobi in the world, versus some guy no one had ever heard of. It was a no-brainer.

He had been wrong.

"We need to go rescue her," he tells his father as soon as he gets to the scene and sees their expressions and that Sarada and the enemies are nowhere to be seen. "Dad, we need to – She can't be – Dad!"

His father seems almost catatonic, as if he just could not believe he truly failed to protect the daughter of his two best friends, despite all his experience, his power, and his will. Boruto can't believe it either, but there is no time to dwell on it; they must act immediately.

"Where did they go?" he asks. "North, east, south? Maybe we can still catch up-"

"They went through a portal," Naruto replies, expressionless. "He has a Rinnegan."

"A Rinnegan?" Boruto repeats, incredulous. "Like uncle Sasuke's? Damn it. What else?"

"Byakugan. Wants Sarada's Sharingan. He... he is not a normal... being."

His father's perplexity and shock scare Boruto. There is something terrible in seeing your parent, who is usually who sure of himself that it comforts you, so confounded and vulnerable. His own certainty and courage being to evaporate, mirroring his father's.

Boruto shakes his head and tries to focus on solutions. Be rational, he tells himself, like Sarada always is! He goes over the facts. This is an enemy with a Rinnegan, a Byakugan, weird clones, and powers greater than the three Neo-Sannin's, as impossible as that seems. What else? What's his name? Where does he come from? Nobody seems to know. Even uncle Sasuke and aunt Sakura, the former standing a few feet from them and not moving at all, and the latter shaking slightly on her knees and hands, appear utterly lost. No knowledge, no information, no clues. What are they supposed to do in this case?

In need for some guidance, Boruto instinctively takes a few steps towards Sasuke, his sensei, his role model. When he catches sight of his face, though, he suddenly can't breathe. He has never seen his sensei in this state. There is no composure, no aloofness, no coolness at all left in him. Mismatched eyes wild, hair messy, eyebrows deeply furrowed, body as tense as a boulder... The man is visibly, irrevocably, understandably desperate.

Sasuke Uchiha's only and greatest weakness, Boruto realizes now, is his daughter.

He knows what happened in his sensei's life. He knows about the massacre, his older brother, and his revenge which later turned into a revolution. He knows partly from what he himself told him, but mostly from his father's own stories. He knows, then, that his deepest trauma is losing his family. That is why he is now like this.

That is why, Boruto thinks, he must do all he can to help.

As the portal closes swiftly, the black floating gate vanishing as suddenly as it had appeared, Sakura is certain that she had never been more afraid in her entire life.

That is more than considerable, as she is a ninja that had witnessed, and participated in, many horrible things – things that scar you for life and that have not drove her insane simply because she has grown used to it all – or rather, she has forced herself to grow used to it all since she was merely a teenage girl. Moreover, she is a medic ninja; she deals with death and pain more than she does with life and healing; she lives in blood, in wounds, in lights going off in people's tired eyes. Her heart is calloused; her mind anesthetized. She was sure she could handle practically everything by now, until today.

This is the first time in a long while – the first time since she was an innocent, pure child, perhaps – that she feels this... this vulnerable. Not even during the war, facing her husband's ancestor and then that ominous goddess, she felt like this. Not even in the many moments she bared her heart to the love of her life, and got it broken so many times until the time he fixed it himself came at last. Her heart is not just broken now; it's raw, burned, pulsing with pain like a deep, fresh wound.

Her knees are shaking. Her throat is tight, making her unable to emit another sound that is not her rapid breathing. It's panic, she understands suddenly. She's having a panic attack. And as her legs fold beneath her and she lands hard on her knees and hands, the rock ground beneath her scraping her skin, she closes her eyes and thinks: Stop.

And it stops. Time, that is.

Sakura focuses, hard and long, as if she were about to release her seal. She concentrates not her chakra but her thoughts, bathes them in rationality, represses the thoughts of the future that are making her lose composure like this.

She is gone, her heart says, and her mind answers, But I will bring her back. My baby girl has been taken away, her heart says, and her mind answers, And her captor will pay for that, with his own life. If I lose her I will die, her heart says, and her mind answers, I won't lose her; I won't die; no one will, except that man.

This pain is too much, her heart says, and her mind answers, I have to rescue her to make it go away.

That resolution echoes in her head as images of her daughter flash behind her eyelids. Images of her that are drenched in love. Images of her as a baby, as a toddler, as a child, as the teenager she is now. Her dark eyes and her dark hair, just like her father's. Her big, expressive eyes and her bright smile, just like her own. Their daughter. Their treasure. Sarada, Uchiha Sarada. Half her, half Sasuke.

Sasuke.

Her eyes snap open. For a moment, she reprimands herself. How selfish to focus on her own pain and ignore his, which is as great, as profound. How foolish to make herself deal with it alone, and to forget that they are in this together.

Shakily, Sakura rises to her feet. She does not know how many minutes have passed; they felt like many but were probably only a couple. Then, slowly, she turns to the man standing by her right. He is still facing the spot where the portal was, with wide-open, mismatched eyes and parted lips. The fear, the shock, the pain – it is all visible in his expression. His composure is also lost, and she did not expect otherwise. She understands him, as she always has tried to do, and mostly has succeed to do. He is the father and she is the mother – and they have lost their child.

No, not lost, she corrects herself. At least not in the definitive sense. Because they will bring her back.

"Darling," she murmurs, approaching him slowly, as if he were a wounded animal. He is not the type to react explosively, but this situation is not ordinary, so anything is possible. After all, she can barely predict or control her own reactions. It is costing her all her will power.

"Darling," she repeats, and when he finally snaps out of his trance, her heart sinks.

Desperation is something he, since his childhood, has been used to. It was part of his every day life since the day his entire family, and his brother's pure, kind heart, died. Desperation, mixed with despair and anger, adhered to his rotten soul. He was freed from it until Naruto saved him from his own self and he allowed Sakura's love to melt the ice in his heart, which made him finally regain his family, his hope, his happiness. After that, the feeling of desperation was only a nostalgic reminder of his dark past, of his redemption.

Today, that desperation has come back to life.

It is not the exact same, though. Sure, there is despair and anger, and pain, so much pain, as well as powerlessness – but it's different now. It's stronger. It's breaking him more easily than it used to. Maybe it's because he is older. Maybe he's grown weak now that, for more than a decade, he has been free of this feeling. That's why it's stronger now. That's why he's so afraid.

He might lose his family again. He already lost it once, and it was the greatest pain in his life. Having to go through it again, and this time more intensely, because it is his child, his baby... The mere idea makes his hands shake. He knows he looks just as he feels; he knows he is not able to remain stoic at this time, but he doesn't care. Nothing matters but this feeling, this dread. He might lose it all – he might lose her, his daughter, his light.

He might, but he won't. He ought to make sure of that. He ought to save her. He can't lose her. He wouldn't stand it, not this, not her. He wouldn't survive it.

"Darling."

Sakura's voice is like a splash of cold water to his face. He turns to his wife, and the fact that he had forgotten she was here too shocks him. He had forgotten about everything and everyone, consumed by this desperation. How selfish of him. How cruel.

"Darling."

This is the only thing in the world that manages to make him regain composure: remembering that she is here; he still has her. He forces himself to shove his own feelings aside and focus on his wife's. No one else matters in the world, after all. No one but her, and their daughter. He knows she thinks the same way. That is why he has to support her, to work with her, to stand by her. She's the only one who understands. She's the only one who can help him.

He puts his hand on her shoulder gently. He whispers her name, very softly, and she looks at him with moist, dark green eyes. He can see immediately the desperation in her gaze, and it the same as his. He realizes that she is breaking too. Tenderness washes over him, pinning him down to reality, like an anchor.

"What are we going to do?" she asks, voice breaking despite the absence of tears.

And he answers automatically: "Rescue our child."

It's all dark for what feels like hours. Then, there is nothing but white, blinding light – and pain.

She has hit the ground suddenly, all the air leaving her lungs due to the impact. Her cheek is pressed against the ground, and she groans as dirt gets into her mouth and nostrils. She can't feel her legs and she can't see a thing. Her first immediate thought is: It's over. They got me. They cut off my legs so I wouldn't run and then my eyes to steal the Sharingan. It's over.

Faint, muffled, she hears the voice of her enemy: "Take her to a cell while I prepare everything in the laboratory."

A moment later, there are hands on her, pulling her to her feet. She can't stand on her own; her legs are still there, it seems, but they are currently useless. So the hands drag her, brusquely, and she grimaces, thinking of all the bruises she will find in her skin later – that is, if she gets a chance to see them before they take out her eyes.

How could she be so stupid, so weak? How did she let herself get caught? She had her teammates, the Hokage, and her beloved parents, there, fighting to protect her, and in a slip of a moment, she ruined it all. They could have saved her. They could have protected her. It was her fault they didn't. It is own her fault she's now here.

Again, she hits the ground, but she barely feels it. Her body seems to have made itself numb in order to block all the pain, and for that, she is grateful. She lays there for several moments, breathing heavily, dirt still on her tongue. Then, slowly, she uses her arms and pushes herself up. She looks around. Indeed, she is now in a cell, and it's dark again, but not as dark as before. There is one single source of light behind her. She turns and sees it's a window; outside, it's night, and there is only one big, full moon, which light filters into the cell and allows her to see a little.

She blinks her eyes, tries to discern the silhouettes of her own limbs, but they are blurry. For a moment, that confuses her, until she realizes that her glasses are gone. She can't see well, even with the moonlight. She thinks that this guy is meant to find out that her eyes are not that good, after all; her eyesight is pretty poor. She smirks humorlessly at the thought. But her eyesight is only poor when she is not using her Sharingan. With her Sharingan, and without her glasses, she can see clearly enough. So maybe the guy won't be so disappointed after all.

How strange that she has already accepted the fact that she will definitely lose her eyes forever. How pathetic.

She takes a deep breath and tries to pull herself together. No more dreadful thoughts; no more weakness. If it was her fault she is here, it's now her responsibility to get herself out of here. She has to rescue herself, whether others try to rescue her or not. In the end, the only person so can truly, forever count on is... herself.

With that thought in mind, Sarada blinks her eyes into the Sharingan and concentrates a lot of chakra into her fist before directing it to the nearest wall.

He is wounded and she is exhausted. He has to be healed, and she has to spend the rest of her chakra to heal him and many others. But neither cares about any of that. They can't afford to care anymore about anything or anyone that isn't their daughter - not about physical discomforts, not about being practical, not about other people, and not even about themselves.

Fear and love mix, allowing them the fierceness and the courage that drive them to find a solution less than an hour after her disappearance, and to get going only minutes after that. Sasuke finds the solution more quickly than he expected: since the enemy had a Rinnegan, he resolves to jump through dimensions, like he has grown used to do, until he finds the place to which his daughter was taken. He also finds the dimension soon enough; it was not far from there, in fact, which proves that this enemy is not very experienced in the Rinnegan use. Perhaps that's because he collected this rare doujutsu just recently. Sasuke can't help but wonder from which innocent person he stole it – and then to picture his big, ugly, white fingers reaching out to steal one of his daughter's eyes.

Sakura's hand on his back bring him back from his fearful, raging thoughts. "Hey," she says, and seeing how that's not enough to totally ground him to reality, she says, "Sasuke-kun."

It works fairly well. Sasuke is pulled back to rality by the memories of his youth that his name before that suffix bring: twelve-year-old Sakura calling after him, innocent and full of love; sixteen-year-old Sakura screaming at him to stop, to return, to open his eyes; nineteen-year-old Sakura laughing and sighing and moaning under his body. It makes him remember all he has been through, all he has overcome, and that this is no time to dwell on his dreadful thoughts. He looks at his wife, takes a deep breath, and nods.

"We'll bring her back," Sakura says, to both him and herself, her hand sliding down his arm to find his and lace their fingers.

"I know," he replies, also in a shaky attempt to assure both of them. He squeezes his wife's hand and then looks up front, focuses the chakra in his right eye, and summons a portal before them.

The portal remains open after Sasuke and Sakura step through it, because they know that Naruto would want to follow them, to help them. They did not talk about it, because they knew they would not be able to convince Naruto to leave this all to them, and because they secretly feared they would not be able to do it on their own anyway. So Sasuke leaves the portal open, and Naruto understands: they want, and perhaps need, his support.

Although he is not as desperate as them, for Sarada is not his daughter, Naruto truly wants to bring her back. She is his best friends' child but, even more importantly, a child from his village. As the Hokage, it is his duty to protect everyone in the village. If he cannot protect one of them, what kind of Hokage is he? A failure, of course. After all, like he has told Boruto before, all the children here are also like his own children. That is why he will leave all his clones in the village, to protect it just in case, and go to the other dimension himself.

He glances back one last time at his wife, who stands a few feet behind, expression contorted with fear, sadness, and also understanding. She nods once to him, and he can almost hear her say it: Go, Naruto. I will wait for you. Be safe. He musters a smile, hoping to assure her it will all be alright.

Then, he looks around for his children. He remembers that Himawari, as she has not graduated from the Academy yet, is in a refuge with the other children and non-shinobi. He hopes she won't worry too much about him. He looks for Boruto – but he is not around.

Before he can ask aloud for his son, he hears his voice behind him. "I'm going too, Dad."

Startled, Naruto turns to him and exclaims, "Like hell you are!"

Boruto is furious. "I am! She is my teammate! I want to help save her!"

Suddenly, Mitsuki walks over to them. Calmly and coldly, like that kid always acts, he says, "I will go too, Hokage-sama. We are both her teammates and we care about her."

"You two are out of your mind if you think I will allow you to do that," Naruto replies, using his stern, authoritative, fatherly voice. "You will stay here in the village and you will leave it all to me and her parents."

"Why!"

"Because you are children. You are no match for that enemy. You will only be a burden if you go."

The pain that flashes through his son's face makes him regret his harsh words immediately.

"No," Boruto mumbles, glaring at the ground. "It's not fair."

"Boruto..." Naruto walks over to him, softening his voice. "Son, listen to me. It's too dangerous. You can get hurt. We don't want that, do we?"

Abruptly, his son looks up at him, rage and determination back on his blue gaze. "I could have gotten hurt when we fought those other guys two years ago, too, yet I didn't. I'm strong enough, Dad. And I am not a child anymore. I can take care of myself and of others."

"Boruto-"

"Weren't you my age when you fought in, like, tons of big battles? And didn't you win most of them?"

"It was different-"

"No it wasn't. You were my age, and you fought these battles to protect your teammates. You risked your life for them, because they – they were your friends. You cared about them. That's all that mattered!"

Naruto is momentarily speechless.

"Sarada is my friend, Dad," Boruto concludes. "I need to save her."

Mitsuki is looking at Boruto with the same admiration as him. Then, slowly, he smiles, looks up, and affirms, "Yes. I need to save my friend, too."

Naruto lets out a chuckle. How stupid of him, really. How stupid of him to underestimate any child from his village and, most importantly, his own son. This boy deserves not only a chance to save someone who is precious to him, but his father's trust.

Still smiling, Naruto puts his hand on top of his son's blond head, and says, "Alright. You two can come. But you will follow all my orders, understood? Now, let's hurry before that portal closes!"

The smile that breaks into his son's face is more radiant than the sun.