White Moon Reminiscence

It was as if his mind had remained stuck in the past, in those rich and full days he spent by Sakura's side. Meanwhile, his body had aged to the point that he was surprised to see how worn out he looked in the mirror one day.

His time had stopped when she told him not to wait for her to come back.

So when he entered the abandoned playground, Gaara heard a woman's bubbly laughter.

It was so familiar, his breath had caught in his throat. But he didn't dare hope for a miracle.

Slowly, he made his way past the overgrown trees and grass, closer and closer to the single other presence that he sensed.

And then...

Jade met emerald.

In this old and decrepit playground, the appearance of one as beautiful as she was... seemed like an angel who happened to be resting her wings in secret, and he had accidentally stumbled upon her.

That hair, those eyes, those lips... she was obviously no longer a thirteen year old girl. But there was no mistaking it.

It was her.

Sakura.

And just like that, time began to move once more.

His eyes flickered to the other swing with longing. He didn't want to impose on her like this...

Why was he acting so timid? He was an experienced diplomat who has conversed with other intellectuals around the world. What was it about her that could reduce him to the unbearably shy little boy he was in the past?

And yet. And yet...

Gaara was so hyper aware of her presence next to him, he couldn't focus on his book at all. That was why, when she knocked over the last beer can, he was already there, catching it with his fingers.

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"I'm sorry, but have we met before?"

Her question only confirmed his suspicions.

She truly didn't recognize him at all.

...Or maybe, it wasn't really her. She only resembled Sakura, and Gaara was mistaken.

It all just confused him. Seeing her in a playground, just like that day in Suna, long ago. Yes. Maybe that was it.

But what if it really was her? Even if he introduced himself, would she even recognize him?

Did it really matter if she knew him or not? He already found her. Wasn't that good enough for him?

Eventually, he told her his answer.

"Perhaps."

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She flashed him a smile and made to leave.

"Would you stay?"

His voice stopped her before he could consider his words carefully.

"If it rained, until the end of the world, would you stay?"

Of course, she didn't answer him.

Just what was he expecting when he told her that?

And...

Why did he say those things when he had already decided never to impose on her life?

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He had been so happy to be able to meet her again the next day. Even though they weren't talking to each other.

"I can see it in your eyes. You think I'm nuts."

He recovered at an admirably quick rate, but she didn't stop and kept talking right over whatever he'd been about to say.

"It's okay. I promise I'm saner than most. I'm just another human being, full of little quirks and flaws."

"I believe you."

He really did.

And as they talked, he couldn't help but wonder-

Why did she come to this playground, just to drink? Drinking so much that her eyes can barely focus on his face.

And why... did she always looked so pained?

He had been nervous when she did not come back to the playground the next day despite the cloudy weather.

Or the day after that.

Or after that...

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Boruto gulped. He hadn't said or done anything ever since Gaara had begin telling his tale.

"Kazekage-sama?"

The Kazekage had suddenly stopped talking and just stared at his hands. Watching him sit there, surrounded by the paper cranes was becoming very creepy and weird. And yet Matsuri wasn't even visibly affected by the atmosphere!

At long last, the older man whispered:

"...I finally found out later that she'd committed suicide in her home. According to the autopsy, she had been dead ever since the day I last saw her. She was in her bedroom, and she'd induced her own body into a deep, deep coma that she would never wake from."

The blue eyed ambassador gasped.

"No way... she killed herself?!"

Suicide victims aren't allowed to have proper burials. It was the law in Konoha. Tsunade herself had claimed that she had been strangled to death, murdered in her home. So Sakura had gotten a funeral twenty years ago.

And the one who was found guilty of killing Sakura was Gaara...

Gaara himself admitted to killing Sakura.

So many details that the Rokudaime Kazekage had told him so far was contradicted a lot of things, and at the same time was supported by others.

Sakura had met Gaara in Suna under supposedly impossible circumstances. They had met again, sixteen years later, and by that time Sakura was already divorced. And Sakura didn't even recognize Gaara. There was no time to have any affair, either. Who fabricated the story? Why?

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"Th- thank you for your time, Kazekage-sama..."

"Whether or not you believe this to be true or not is entirely up to you."

The blond bowed respectfully. He turned to leave the room.

But the Kazekage stopped him.

"Uzumaki Boruto, let me ask you a question. Why are you so interested in this? What do you stand to gain from hearing this story? A truth in exchange for another truth."

"The truth? Uhh, well..."

Boruto took a deep breath. It was perfectly okay to reveal this. That was what he'd been planning to do from the start in order to convince the Kazekage to tell him the truth of the events twenty years ago.

"Long story short, I need to collect as much information as I can so I could be fully prepared for the journey I'm planning to make."

"A journey, to where?"

The blond hesitated, and then slid back his sleeve, revealing an intricate seal pattern. With a few blurred hand seals, the fuinjutsu markings began to glow, and something popped out of Boruto's arm.

He held up a little obsidian cube for Gaara to see. It looked very insignificant to the Rokudaime, but anyone could tell how important this object was.

Boruto cleared his throat.

"What you're seeing now, Kazekage-sama, is the product of several years worth of study and experimentation. Long story short, this little box is actually the key to a wormhole through time and space. With this, and the proper coordinates, I can theoretically jump through time itself into the past, under certain limits. And if all goes well... a miracle could happen."

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Later, back inside his hotel room, Boruto put the finishing touches on his manuscript. Well, it wasn't really a manuscript even though it looked like one. It was actually filled with many events and dates that were true to life. It also outlined his own plans in regards to these times and dates.

Talking with the Kazekage really revealed a lot of things he never knew before, but now...

Now, he was sure of what he needed to do, and how he would go about it.

He quickly flipped to the back of the notebook and highlighted Haruno Sakura and Sabaku no Gaara with an orange highlighter. He then drew an arrow from Gaara's name to Sakura's name with a pen, and then scribbled a question mark next to the name Hatake Kakashi.

With a sigh, he closed the notebook where his 'manuscript' was written.

The lamp light illuminated the label on the front cover.

Work-In-Progress title: A Little Black Box

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White Moon Reminiscence

The End

TBC...