Hello there my fellow fanfictioners! It's certainly been a while hasn't it? I apologize for the delay. At this point that excuse has just become my go to bread-and-butter response regardless of how much time has actually passed between postings.
Anyway, enough of my senseless prattling! Onto the story!
Disclaimer: I do not in any claim ownership to Naruto, Shippuden or anything Boruto. They all belong to the big man himself.
Those Who Are Found
Chapter 3
The Daughters of Sasuke Uchiha
THE FIRE CAPITAL – OHANA RIVERSIDE
"Shit."
What had she done?
Sarada cursed again even as she heaved her burden up the bank. In her arms, entombed within a nightmarish tangle of razor steel and rusted iron lay Himawari.
Boruto's sister.
Oh Kami.
Uncle Naruto, Auntie Hinata…
They're never going to forgive me for this.
Desperation fueled her limbs, allowing Sarada to ascend the embankment at an astonishing pace. Reaching the pavement of the riverside road, now devoid of all civilians as they'd fled for their lives, Sarada gently set the young girl down.
Her heart filled with dread as she gazed down at the damage she had wrought.
I'm so sorry Himawari.
Withdrawing a kunai from her hip, Sarada cut away enough of the chain-link mesh to access Himawari's chest. There was no movement, no tell tale rise and fall of the young girl's chest. Her skin was pale and clammy.
Panic shot her so suddenly that Sarada's muscles ached with tension of being pulled.
"No!"
Sarada practically jumped on top of the Uzumaki's youngest, hands flying to rest upon her breast.
"You don't get to die like this Hima!" Sarada bit out between clenched teeth, soft green chakra enveloping her hands even as she began pumping up and down in an effort to save the other girl.
"You're not allowed to die now! Not after we've just found you again!" Sarada cried, the words spilling from her in a torrent of choked sobs even as her vision blurred, hot tears escaping her to splash against Himawari's cold cheeks.
This was all her fault.
Why did I strike her like that?
A part of her mind, the logical part of it, justified it to herself. Mitsuki had been in danger. The image of Himawari in front of him, poised to deliver the final blow, had sent Sarada into a rage.
And so, she had treated Himawari like the enemy. To defend her teammate. she had struck to kill.
But there was another part of her. A part of her that knew that she didn't need to strike as she had. Sarada could've tackled her, restrained her or even distracted her. An even smaller part of her knew that she'd seen Himawari hesitate.
She could've been about to step away, perhaps even help Mitsuki. Sarada couldn't be sure and it was already eating away at her. The young Haruno had been able to spend a grand total of about five seconds making sure her friend didn't die before he yelled at her to save Himawari before passing out.
Dear Kami, don't let those five seconds have killed you, Hima.
"I-I'm so s-sorry Hima!" Sarada choked out. She could feel Himawari's ribs break beneath the force of her pumps, only to be stitched back together by the infusion of healing chakra.
Please live.
Pump, pump, pump.
You have to live.
Pump, pump, pump.
"Live!"
Why did this happen?
THE UCHIHA SHRINE
LAST YEAR
The sight of the great Uchiha Shrine still filled her heart with dread, even after all these years. The Shrine was large. So large in fact, that as they drew closer to it, it seemed as if the Shrine resembled a speartip rising from the ground in an effort to pierce the very sky themselves. As if it were meant to strike at Kami himself.
A fitting metaphor. If there were anyone who would try to attack the heavens it would be the Uchiha.
Sakura Haruno, formerly Uchiha, had never thought that she'd see this place again. If she could, she'd never have come back here.
But this wasn't about her.
Emerald eyes swivelled over to observe her daughter. Sarada was staring up at the shrine, an expression on her face that served to bemuse her mother even further.
Where the Shrine evoked a sense of dread in Sakura, as it did with most people, Sarada seemed fascinated instead.
"What is this place?" Sarada whispered, her voice filled with a wonder that worried Sakura. As Sarada reached out to touch the clan symbol embossed upon the door, it seemed almost… reverential.
She looks so much like him that it's scary.
"This is a shrine, dedicated to the Uchiha clan." Sakrua told her, working past the obstruction in her throat. Her voice came out slightly higher than normal and Sarada turned to look at her, concern in her eyes.
"It feels like a tomb." Sarada murmured, turning back to trace the Uchiha fan with her fingertips.
"It's that too." Sakura replied quietly. Moving forward, she pushed the door open, Sarada's fingers trailing away from the symbol as she did so, and led her daughter inside.
Sakura guided her daughter through the various twisting hallways, each filled with doors leading to rooms containing scrolls and relics pertaining to the Uchiha Clan, before they finally arrived at the grand hall. As they walked, Sakura began speaking. She told her daughter about the Uchiha and their history.
At least what little of their history she knew and what she had been able to glean from her husband. Sasuke had always been reticent when it came to talking about his family.
As Sarada sat in the throne, a great stone monstrosity that took pride of place at the rear of the hall, Sakura told her about her uncle.
The words flowed like water from an ewer. She spoke of Itachi, of his crimes against the Hidden Leaf. Of the effect that they had on Sarada's father.
For the longest time Sakura had believed what everyone else did. That Itachi had slaughtered his clan in the pursuit of power. She'd grown up on the horror stories of what had befallen the Uchiha Clan.
She used to have nightmares that the dreaded Itachi Uchiha would sneak into her family home and come for her and her parents next.
When she had chased after Sasuke all those years ago, that fear became anger. Even after the war, when Itachi had long been dead and buried, she had nursed that rage.
She only began to suspect that there might've been more to the story when she noticed that Sasuke no longer seemed to hold and hate towards his brother.
"That's… that's so messed up." Sarada whispered, slumping back in the throne with tears shining in her eyes.
"It's the Sharingan." Sakura told her. She'd always suspected it. Convinced herself of it over the years after mulling it over endlessly. It was the only thing that made sense.
If there were another truth, another reason as to why Itachi did what he did then Sasuke had never shared it with her.
Speaking of his brother only seemed to cause Sasuke pain and so she had let it be, thinking that perhaps, in this case, the past should stay buried.
"What do you mean?" Sarada asked, her breath hitching as she got her emotions under control.
"The Uchiha are all born with it inside them. The Sharingan isn't like other Bloodline Techniques. It gives the Uchiha such power. And when everyone is born with such power, power which is accessed and improved through pain and anger, it changes things." Sakura informed her.
"Power corrupts and absolute power? That corrupts absolutely." Sakura circled the throne dais, trying to figure out which doorway they needed to take next.
"Your father was deeply traumatized by what had happened to his clan. By the fact that it was his beloved older brother that had committed the massacre." Thinking back to those days pained her. Sasuke had gone from a happy child to a shadow of his former self.
"Sasuke went from a sweet boy to something altogether different. Destroying his brother became his life's ambition. When an Uchiha is set on revenge there is nothing in this world that can stop them. Sasuke dedicated his life to ending Itachi. He chose the path of power as so many Uchiha had before him. Even at the expense of his friends and his home."
"Your father left the village. Turned his back on us… left me." She hated how she choked at the end.
Damnit! It's been more than a decade! You need to move on!
"Things worked out in the end. It took many years and many trials, for all of us, but Sasuke got there in the end… somewhat."
"How is it that he was welcomed back to the village?"
"Your Uncle Naruto had a big part to play there."
"Your father also helped to save the entire world, nearly dying several times in the process. That helped his case too."
"He was also the last of the Uchiha. Letting one of the very first ninja clans simply die out without giving it a chance to start anew would've been a great loss to the ninja world. If your father had been imprisoned or executed then that's what would have happened."
"We all fought for him. As hard as we could to give him a chance at having a life."
It had been no small feat either. Even with all the support that Naruto had garnered over the years, there had still been a worrying amount of voices advocating for Sasuke's death. That the Uchiha line be ended once and for all.
They had fought like mad to save Sasuke's life. Naruto, Kakashi-sensei… so many others as well. They'd tried so hard. To build a future with Sasuke in it.
But you never forgot. A small voice inside her whispered. A part of herself that Sakura refused to acknowledge.
How could she? How could she just forget everything that had happened? Everything that Sasuke had done. Not just to her or the others but to himself as well. The life and choices of Sasuke Uchiha served as a grim warning. A life lesson to the wary on what choices not to make.
It mattered what he had chosen in the end. Of course it did.
But it didn't erase what he had done in the past. Nothing could truly erase the stain of his past choices no matter how he'd changed.
"I don't know how to respond to that, mom." Sarada admitted, snapping Sakura out of her musings. She smiled sadly, reaching out to cup her daughter's cheek lovingly.
"That's okay sweetheart." Sakura reassured her.
"You don't have to. I just wanted you to understand. To know a bit about the kind of man your father was." Sakura meant it too. There was no malice in her intent, in spite of everything that had occurred between her and Sasuke.
Dropping her hand, the pinkette's smile faded and her emerald eyes shone in the torchlight.
"Come on, I want to show you something." With that, Sakura walked deeper into the depths of the temple. Sarada hesitated for a moment before following after her.
Sakura led Sarada down the twisting passages of the temple until they at last came to a set of stone steps curving away down into darkness. The wall of the stairwell formed one long mural, depicting stone engravings. Individuals with the Uchiha fan emblazoned upon their backs battling nondescript shinobi from a myriad of other clans.
Senju, Inuzuka, Hyuuga. The deeper they descended, the more elaborate the carvings became. There were even images of Uchiha clansmen engaged in duels with monstrous chakra creatures possessing numbered tails.
The Tailed Beasts. The Uchiha always had a bloody history, especially when it involved those monsters.
"The Uchiha Clan, more than any other in the Elemental Nations, understand death." Sakura informed Sarada quietly as they descended. She was all too aware of Sarada's fascination with the history of her blood etched into the very earth. Sakura didn't have to look back to know that Sarada was trailing her fingers over the stonework.
Where Sakura could only see pain and death and be repulsed by it, she knew that Sarada would feel curiosity, morbid or otherwise.
"That's why their shrine, this temple, is also their tomb." Sakura continued speaking, lighting the torches in their sconces as they passed them by.
It took a few minutes but finally they took that final step and descended into the Memorial Catacombs.
"This is the final resting place for all the Uchiha ancestors." The next words still hurt her to say but she needed to say them.
Oh Kami but I wish you were only mine, Sarada.
"Your ancestors."
But Naruto and the others are right. Sarada deserves to kno
"I'm a Haruno!" Sarada hissed angrily and Sakura smiled. In spite of everything she had never been prouder of her daughter.
That's my girl.
"Yes. You are. But you're also an Uchiha. It does no good to deny that part of yourself." Sakura told her gently.
"You look so much like him." The words left Sakura's throat in a choked gasp. Suddenly the weight of it all hit her.
The loss of her first child, the change that came over her husband in that aftermath. It had only been a few months after that that Sasuke had decided that he couldn't take it anymore. Despite her urging that they simply try again.
He had been so angry when she'd suggested it. Sakura had fled their home that night in fear of him despite the fact that he had never raised his hand, or even his voice, at her. He'd just been cold.
Frozen her out. Out of his heart and out of his life.
The weight of it all…
"Mom…" Sarada mumbled in shock as her mother, the strongest person in her world, sank to her knees. Rivers of tears tracked down her cheeks to fall upon the cold stone floor. It was so unexpected, so unbelievable that all Sarada could do was stand and stare dumbly.
"I'm such a horrible person." Sakura sobbed, arms coming up to hug her siders as her whole body wracked with sobs.
"Mom!" The sight of it proved too much and Sarada shot forward, coming to rest in front of her mother, gripping her hands and holding them tightly.
"Don't you ever say that again!" The words came out with such feverish intensity that Sakura stopped sobbing out of sheer surprise. Tears continued to fall even as she stared into her daughter's eyes.
Beautiful chips of obsidian filled with love, trust and fear for her. A desire for her to stop hurting.
Beautiful eyes.
Just like his.
I was a fool for keeping this all from her.
She had to tell her. Sarada couldn't go on forever thinking what she thought. If Sakura didn't say anything now then her daughter might never forgive her.
It was that thought, above all others, that gave her the courage to speak.
"He doesn't know, Sarada." Sakura spoke quietly. She'd been carrying around that secret, kept from her daughter and most of her friends, for so long that she half-expected it to be torn from her. Instead, the words flowed from her lips like river-water and it felt as if a great weight had been lifted from her soul. Sarada's reaction put it right back.
Sarada snapped back as if she had been physically struck, her hands jerking away from her mothers as if to touch her had burnt her.
"What?" Her daughter whispered between frozen lips.
"He doesn't know about you." Sakura swallowed, her throat numb and a trickle of apprehension running down her spine. But she had to keep going. She had to.
It was time.
No more secrets. Not between us.
"When your father left, I didn't know I was pregnant with you." Sakura found that she couldn't bear to see the confused storm of emotions swirling in those black depths and tore her eyes away from her child's.
"I only found out a few weeks later. When it happened, I was overjoyed. I was so happy!" Sakura whispered, her voice growing stronger as she recalled that time. Sasuke leaving had both relieved her and left her in a dark place at the same time.
Before he left, Sasuke and her had spent one last night together. Sakura had hoped that it was a chance for them to start over. She'd only realized later that it was Sasuke's way of saying goodbye.
For those few weeks, life had lost all of its lustre. Not even her closest friends could pull her from the depths of her misery. Then she'd had her annual medical checkup and discovered the miracle growing inside her.
Being pregnant with Sarada had saved her. Given her a reason to live, to move on past Sasuke.
Without Sarada, Sakura feared she would've simply existed without truly living life.
"The chance to be a mother, I had to take it!" Being a mother had been a lifelong dream of hers. Losing her first child had cut her to her soul. Sakura had felt it was the universe punishing her for some unknowable offence. That she wasn't fit to be a mother. Then she'd discovered, in her darkest moment, that Sarada was with her too. A new baby… and a chance to start over.
"But I was also scared." That confession didn't come as easily as the others but Sakura forged on regardless.
"Scared? What were you scared of?" Sarada sounded taut and herself scared of what Sakura might say. Sakura swallowed, gathering her courage.
"When I miscarried, it…changed your father." Finally finding the strength to meet Sarada's gaze once more, Sakura did so only to find her daughter's head tilted slightly in puzzlement.
"He'd already lost so much… losing your sister hurt him." Sakura swallowed. She never spoke about the miscarriage. It hurt too much. It was easier to just put it out of her mind. Sasuke had done the opposite and it had eaten at him.
"He became closed off, colder than I'd ever seen him. Dangerous." That was an understatement. All the progress he had made over his life had been undone. Sasuke had always been a grim, dark and brooding individual but the loss of their child had made him regress. He sank ever deeper into the anger and despair his clan had been famous for.
At his worst, he reminded her of the man who had nearly killed her when they were younger.
"Dangerous?" Sarada echoed, a tinge of worry coloring her tone.
"He began taking the most violent missions. He was hardly ever home and sometimes when he did, he'd return covered in blood." One night in particular had terrified her.
That night, he'd stumbled into their bedroom during the height of a thunderstorm. His clothes had been so soaked in blood and gore that she couldn't see any other colors. She could've sworn that he had been crying before he'd wordlessly made his way into the bathroom to cleanse himself.
Sakura knew that no matter how he tried, Sasuke would never be able to remove the blood from his hands. The stain on his soul.
"We rarely spoke and when we did, I could feel it. He blamed me for the miscarriage. For losing our first child." They had never spoken about it. Sasuke had been on a hair-trigger when it came to that particular topic. Sakura hadn't wanted to talk about it either. It had hurt too much and so she'd preferred to treat it as if it hadn't happened at all.
Perhaps that's where things had truly gone wrong for them. Their fear and anger holding them back from working through their grief. Some wounds needed to be lanced and purged before they could heal.
Instead, they had both let it fester until their life together became too unbearable.
"That's unfair!" Sarada hissed in outrage, coming to life suddenly. Sakura smiled wanly.
That's my daughter.
Kami, but she loved her so much.
"We ended things between us. And then the next day he left Konoha for good." Sakura still remembered that day. She hadn't even known. There had been an emergency at the hospital and she'd been in surgery the entire day. Only when she'd been scrubbing out had Naruto come to her and told her the shattering truth.
I thought by ending things that it might push Sasuke to fight for me… for us.
But Sasuke never fights for his bonds. He only ever runs away from them.
'I wrote a letter to him after you were born. In it, I told him all about you. I also confessed my fears. Of the way in which he treated me. Of how he looked at me like he had most of our lives."
Sarada opened her mouth to respond but Sakura wasn't inclined to give her the opportunity. She needed to say these things or she'd never find the will to say them ever again.
The words had to be extracted now, like poison from a wound.
"Like I was weak. A failure." The words tasted bitter on her tongue. For most of her life she had chased after Sasuke. Sure that he was the man of her dreams. She'd obsessed over him and let him walk all over her as a result.
She remembered her wedding day. The words he'd said…
That was the happiest day of my life.
Then she remembered everything else and it brought reality crashing back down to her.
"In the end I hid the letter away. I was too scared that he might come back to the village. That he might take you away from me."
The truth of it was that if he wanted to, there'd be little she could to stop him either. Aside from being one of the Elemental Nation's most powerful shinobi, Sasuke was also the de facto head of one of the oldest clans. The last true wielder of the Sharingan. Many clan heads would support his claim on that basis alone. Naruto would argue on her behalf, bless him, but his voice alone wouldn't be enough. Not to mention the other support that Sasuke possessed.
Secrecy had been Sakura's defence. It helped that, though many people knew or at least suspected the truth, none had the means of even reaching Sasuke after he disappeared save Naruto.
And she'd ensured that the blonde wouldn't say anything until she was ready… or until the village truly needed Sasuke to return.
"Mom." Sarada began only to stop, shaking her head in disbelief.
Disbelief over what?
"Nothing in this world could take me away from you." Sarada told her fiercely, hugging her with all the strength she could naturally muster. To let her mother know exactly where things stood between them.
"I love you so much Sarada." Sakura whispered, drawing in her daughter for a hug.
"Ditto." Sarada mumbled into her shoulder.
Sakura took a few moments to collect herself before drawing back, taking Sarada's hands into her own and squeezing them gently.
"Come on. Let me introduce you to your other family."
You should have stayed Sasuke. You'll never have another daughter like Sarada.
KONOHA- THE HOKAGE'S OFFICE
LAST YEAR
The smell of cigarette smoke wafted through the air. Sarada had always hated the smell of tobacco. The scent of it alone was enough to prick the corner of her eyes and make her wrinkle her nose in distaste.
This time though, the smell was enough to bring her back to awareness. To blink her way clear of the shell she had hidden inside of. To try and understand, once more, what was actually going on around her. Since the moment they had left the Uchiha Shrine, Sarada had felt as if she were in a dream.
Every step had been as if moving through a sea of molasses. Every word she'd spoken and been said to her, taking on a strange muffled quality. As though she could only half hear, half understand what was being said.
The young Uchiha… or was it Haruno?
Kami above, she didn't even know what to call herself anymore. There had been too many revelations, too many questions for her to process in too short a time.
Their retreat back to Konoha had been fraught with tension. Her mother's face had taken on a shocking, pale white pallor, lined with strain and Sarada knew, from the worried, frantic looks her mother had kept shooting her, that she was similarly distraught.
Why was Himawari's name up on that wall?
Despite everything, they had traveled fast and light. It had taken three days to reach the village. The nights had been spent in absolute silence, both mother and daughter too lost in their own thoughts to strike up any conversation. That first night, Sarada remembered dully, that she had bled herself.
She'd clenched her fists so hard and for so long that her fingernails had actually pierced her palms. All the way up to now, the same thought kept looping around inside her head.
Why was Himawari's name up on that wall?
They'd been met at the gate by a jonin whose name Sarada couldn't even have hoped to remember. Sakura implored the woman to seek out Hinata and Shikamaru and to summon them to the Hokage Tower with all due haste.
Sarada had then followed her mother in a daze as they ascended the Hokage Tower.
Sarada dimly remembered a great deal of shouting as they'd barreled past Uncle Naruto's guards and interrupted some meeting or other. She couldn't even recall what words were exchanged between her mother and uncle before the room's other occupants had arrived.
Then Sakura told them what they had discovered inside the Memorial Catacombs.
Of how Himawari's name had been etched into the plaque next to Sasuke's. Sakura told them everything. No one questioned her, no one raised any doubts.
There'd be no point. Sakura wouldn't lie about something like this. One only had to glance in their general direction to know that they spoke the truth.
Sarada watched in grim fascination as Uncle Naruto, the strongest shinobi in the world, aged decades before her eyes.
Lines of strain carved deep grooves into his face and the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf collapsed into his chair. His head sagged down to his chest, the tension and relief he was experiencing felt by all in the room.
Save for Sarada at least.
She had no idea what she was feeling at the moment.
A sob escaped Auntie Hinata, lavender eyes already shining with tears as she stumbled her way over to her husband. Hinata laid a trembling hand on her other half's shoulder.
"She's alive, Naruto. Our baby is alive!" The words escaped the Hyuuga in short gasps of air as she tried to control herself, to no avail. It was enough to set Naruto off and his chest heaved with sobs of his own even as tears fell onto the ornate chestnut desk in front of him.
Naruto gripped his wife's hand tightly.
"She's alive, Hime!" Naruto whispered forcefully. "Himawari's alive!"
"And she seems to be under Sasuke's care at the moment." Shikamaru spoke up then. The Nara genius had lit a cigarette and just taken his first puff when Sakura dropped her bombshell. He too, had not been unaffected and the cigarette had been left to burn away to its base.
"No one can know about this Naruto." Shikamaru told them calmly, pulling the cigarette from his mouth only to gaze at it in disappointment.
The reaction to his words was… visceral to say the least. Hinata's Byakugan flared into life and her fingers flexed as if she were only just restraining herself from attacking her old friend.
Sakura's mouth dropped in shock and Sarada could only watch, remaining numb to it all. It was her only option.
Numbness was the only thing that was safe to feel right now. At least until she was back home and away from prying eyes.
Naruto's reaction on the other hand was more predictable and yet no less terrifying. The Uzumaki shot to his feet at the same time that his fist came down to smash into the surface of his desk. The air filled with the sound of splintering wood as the poor piece of furniture snapped in half like so much kindling.
"What are you talking about?! This is my daughter Shikamaru!" Naruto roared, his blue eyes flashing with a rage Sarada hadn't know he was capable of expressing.
To his credit, Shikamaru held his ground. He simply threw the cigarette down and crushed it beneath his boot before calmly lighting another and placing it between his lips. He took a deep pull of it before exhaling a cloud of smoke.
Sarada's nose wrinkled in di
.staste again.
Shikamaru met the Hokage's glare with a calculating gaze of his own.
"It's because she's your daughter that no one can know." Even as he spoke, Shikamaru gestured lazily at both Naruto and Hinata to indicate he meant both of them. Naruto went from red with rage to an interesting color bordering on purple.
His wife however…
Hinata went as white as snow, as if all the blood had been drained from her.
For a brief moment Sarada thought that her uncle would leap across the room to beat his advisor to death. Indeed, he might've if Hinata hadn't stepped in front of him.
"He's right." Hinata told her husband tremulously.
"How can you say that?" Naruto breathed, shocked at Hinata's unexpected defense.
"We're at war, Naruto. With an enemy we don't understand how to fight." Hinata reminded him. Every word seemed as if Hinata had to rip it out of her own mouth. Shikamaru jumped in when Naruto opened his mouth to retort, drawing the Hokage's attention once more.
"Exactly. And, given their methods, the less people that know where Himawari is the less likely the information will get out." This information brought with it a grim silence that no one could decide how to break.
Sarada knew all too well what Shikamaru was talking about.
The war with Oto had only escalated as time had gone by. What began as simple skirmishes on conflicting missions had devolved into espionage, assassinations… infiltrations.
Sarada had heard the rumours the same as everyone else. There were whispers all throughout Konoha that Oto had managed to infiltrate the Leaf itself.
That brought with it a deep-seated paranoia that those in leadership didn't want to admit.
"So, what am I supposed to do?" Sarada hated how small her uncle sounded in that moment. Shikamaru took another puff of his cigarette before moving to the window. He stared out at the village for a long time before finally turning back to the room.
By the time he did so, the cigarette had burned itself out again and he crushed it beneath his heel with a sigh.
They're going to make him clean that up later.
"You've had teams out for a while now in search of Sasuke anyways. I'd suggest that you simply make it more of a priority." Shikmaru finally spoke, grimacing at the incredulous looks he was met with.
"Assign additional teams to the task. But make them genin teams. Less likely to be a target for Oto." Shikamaru continued.
That was true. While no away teams were truly safe, Oto had a propensity for targeting teams of more experienced shinobi. After the third death, Naruto had made it policy that only teams consisting of four or more members were allowed to leave Konoha for extended periods of time.
"Their mission remains the same. Bring Sasuke back to the Leaf. If Himawari is with him… well you know the saying about two birds with one stone."
A pregnant silence fell as everyone awaited the Hokage's decision. Naruto's jaw worked up and down and all of them could hear his teeth grinding together as he considered his options. Sarada and her mother were tense and Hinata seemed to have aged a decade with worry. Shikamaru simply smoked and gazed out the window at the village, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he considered different strategies and contingencies.
"I'll inform the team leaders then." Naruto said, already reaching down for the phone where it lay on the floor amidst the ruins of his desk, intent on summoning the relevant shinobi to his office. Shikamaru bent down and casually unplugged the phone directly from its power source.
"You can't." Shikamaru informed him, shaking his head.
"Shikamaru, I-" Naruto started only for Shikamaru to raise a hand, stopping him.
"You know that this information can't leave this room." The Nara told him.
"We've been infiltrated before by Oto. We don't know how deep it goes. It's part of the reason that we're bringing Sasuke back into the fold in the first place. We can't risk a repeat of the Academy incident."
"The Academy?" Hinata whispered, her already pale skin somehow growing paler as she whitened in horror.
Shikamaru nodded with a grimace.
This was news to Sarada. She'd never heard of anything happening at the Academy.
"Then what happened at the Chunin Exams… and the missing Sensei?" Sakura spoke up then, her voice faint with disbelief.
"Those too. It's all connected." Shikamaru confirmed gruffly. Her mother somehow went paler and slumped in her chair.
"It's why I'm so onboard with bringing in the Uchiha. He'll either help me root out the bastards or his mere presence will scare the crap out of them. Uchiha's probably the only person that Oto truly fears." He confessed.
Then Shikamaru glanced at her, his eyes widening as if he'd only just remembered she was in the room.
"Sarada…" He began, rounding on her, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully for a split-second before hardening with resolve.
"Sarada, for Himawari's sake you cannot tell anyone."
…What?
"Not even Boruto."
THE FIRE CAPITAL- OHANA RIVERSIDE
PRESENT DAY
Himawari regained consciousness with a start. While, sadly, it was not even close to the first time that she had lost herself to the blackness, she had never awoken so suddenly before.
Her body's first instinct was to shoot upright. The sensation of cold metal against her bare flesh stopped her short however. A shiver ran down her spine as, only a moment later, hands began tugging at her.
Himawari became dimly aware of her surroundings. The air was filled with the sounds of running water and something akin to wet heaving.
Is that me?
She felt curiously detached from it all. Devoid of feeling save for the cold. She was so cold that she couldn't feel the barbed wire's teeth ripping through her skin. Then, suddenly, feeling returned to her. Himawari could feel the water being expelled from her lungs in great, heaving bouts. Her body jerked involuntarily as it attempted to expel water from her lungs. Her throat burned like acid with the effort.
She was cold.
She was so cold that she couldn't even shiver.
What a strange feeling…
The young Hyuuga couldn't even find the strength to open her eye.
The lake… I remember water… crushing darkness.
The memories were starting to come back to her as her mind sorted through the traumatic events that had led her to this point in time. Himawari remembered the blow that had struck her shoulder.
Not a lake but a river.
She wasn't back there, at the Valley of the End.
She was somewhere else. Her brain took a moment to sort out its own internal filing system before she recalled when and where she was.
The Fire Capital, and a year had passed since Batou and the blade flashing toward her neck.
The blow she'd just taken had pulverized her collarbone and sent her flying out the alleyway into the nearby Ohana River.
How the hell was that possible? It took all of my control just to throw a dumpster. Whoever attacked me sent me flying like a pebble.
Then she became aware of the crying. Wet drops fell, making contact with her forehead before trailing away into the roots of her hair. She could smell the salt of it mixed with the all too familiar iron tang that denoted blood.
Kami, I hate the smell of blood.
For the first time, Himawari became aware of the fact that someone was beating her chest, palms spread against her chest and trying to force her heart to start beating.
My heart's already beating. Haven't they noticed?
This sensation too, like all the others was muted. Drowned out by the sudden burning in her lungs.
Himawari's mouth shot open even as a stream of river water ejected itself from her lungs with the force of a jutsu. She hacked and coughed, ignoring the way that the barbed wire furrowed itself deeper into her flesh with every breath.
"Oh Kami!" A girl's voice sobbed from above her. Himawari couldn't make out anything about her through the red mist of pain that descended over her vision.
"Thank Kami you're not dead!" The girl breathed; her voice hitched with strain.
That voice… That voice sounds familiar. A girl?
Her rescuer removed her hands from Himawari's breast and the tears shifted too. Salty tracks splashed against the Hyuuga's cheeks as the woman above her moved around.
"I'm sorry Himawari. I'm so sorry! I didn't mean any of it!" The girl's words were tortured and broken, torn from her like a child from its mother's arms.
Himawari could only respond by retching up more and more river water in-between shuddering lungfuls of air. Every breath she took scraped at her raw throat and with each passing second the pain of her injuries made themselves known.
Eventually, the spluttering died down and Himawari recovered enough strength to open her eyelids somewhat. Her vision blurred for a moment before clearing. The first thing she could make out was the dagger, held by a still unfocused figure.
The strange girl began cutting away at her rusted iron prison, removing it a piece at a time with a kunai, the edge of which glowed blue with chakra. The blade shimmered beautifully in the moonlight.
At times, the flat edge of the black dagger would kiss her exposed skin so softly that Himawari couldn't help but shiver. Whether it was from the cold air upon her wet flesh or the blade she couldn't be sure.
The barbed wire bit at her even as she was extricated from it and her shoulder…
Kami above, her shoulder…
Suddenly, one of the strands of barbed wire snapped and Himawari whimpered as that piece of razor steel was peeled away from her body, leaving a line of red ruin in her left thigh. The girl tending to her cursed blackly and then apologized. Himawari didn't hear her.
She couldn't hear much beyond the blood pounding in her ears.
The pain from her injuries was so intense that she barely felt the infusion of healing chakra close the gaping wound in her thigh. This process repeated for each and every piece of the fence which had imprisoned her until Himawari lay, sobbing with relief, upon a blanket of meshed iron and steel.
"It's okay, I've got you." The girl soothed her even as she poked and prodded at the flesh of Himawari's shoulder. The skin moved like putty beneath her touch causing the girl to grimace.
"I'm so sorry Himawari!" The girl repeated, a tinge of hysteria coloring her tone.
Why would she be sorry?
As her injuries were tended to, the red mist finally lifted and Himawari's rescuer finally came into focus. What she saw did nothing to put her at ease.
It was her. The girl who had struck her with such force that she'd ended up in this mess in the first place.
A heart shaped face framed by thick locks of raven-dark hair, a thinned mouth and sharp, red rimmed glasses that flashed like a mirror whenever her head shifted to a particular angle. She was pretty, this girl.
So much so, that Himawari felt that all too familiar twinge of shame and the desire to cover up as much of her scars as she could.
There was something else about her that unsettled Himawari deeply. Some facet of her appearance which flickered to life a spark of instant dislike. Either way, it didn't matter. This was the girl who had attacked her.
The girl who, intentionally or not, had caused her so much pain. Had almost killed her. That made her the enemy.
If there was one thing that Himawari had learned in the past year, it was that there was only one way to do deal with an enemy. Himawari fought through the wave of exhaustion and returning agony to shift away from the girl.
"Are you crazy?! Don't move!" The girl cried in disbelief. Her hands remained encased in a cloud of healing chakra.
"Fuck off!" Himawari hissed blackly through clenched teeth. She'd accidentally put pressure on her ruined shoulder as she'd shuffled backwards and she gasped, her vision flashing white with agony.
The girl simply grunted before reaching out and gripping her shoulder firmly.
"You've certainly developed a mouth since I last saw you Hima." The girl muttered, letting out a shaky laugh which didn't sound convincing in the slightest.
Her name, coming out of this stranger's mouth, stopped the Hyuuga cold.
How do these people know me?
She could feel things shifting beneath the skin of her arm.
The sensation was terrifying and Himawari sucked in a gasp, her eye wide with unconcealed horror as her shoulder seemed to ripple in response to the healing chakra.
She could feel it.
She could actually feel all of it.
Himawari could feel the shattered remnants of her bones pulling themselves back together. Hundreds of shards knitting themselves back into whole pieces. Muscles that had been obliterated by the force of the girl's blow were reforming, stitching themselves back into shape.
This was beyond ordinary healing chakra.
This level of healing was…
Unnatural.
Himawari's gaze shot up to look at the girl once more.
She must be some kind of Witch.
The girl's forehead was covered in a sheen of sweat, her eyes narrowed in concentration upon the movement of Himawari's muscles.
"I really overdid it didn't I?" The girl laughed, clearly trying to diffuse some of the tension between them. All it did was raise Himawari's hackles even further.
"I'm not nearly as skilled as my mom but this should at least hold you together until we can get a professional to look at you." The girl kept talking, blathering on and on about some medicinal technique she was currently employing.
Himawari paid no attention to any of it.
"It's a good thing I've got special eyes too!" The girl joked weakly. "Helps a lot when it comes to copying and recreating difficult techniques."
That's when Himawari finally saw them even as her body was put back together. At first, she thought she must've been mistaken.
Perhaps it was a trick of the light. Or maybe, in her pain-induced haze she was seeing everything in red. It took her another minute to be sure of what she was looking at.
Sarada met her stare and that was when Himawari knew she wasn't imagining things.
Her Byakugan flared to life on instinct, silver fire meeting the dark crimson of the Sharingan.
Eyes which she'd only seen Sasuke possess.
In that moment, even as the last shard of bone slid back into place, Himawari knew exactly where she stood with this girl. What it was she needed to do.
"What's your biggest fear?" Himawari asked. She said it lightly, as if she had asked about the weather instead. Sasuke blinked slowly, his mind working to understand what he had just heard.
"That's a strange question." He replied slowly. Her eye shot toward him; pale silver streaked with mischief.
"How so? You said that if I ever bested you at a game of shogi then you would answer any question I wanted to ask." She replied with an innocent smile.
"That's not fair." Sasuke retorted, leaning back in his chair and proceeding to glare at the offending board between them.
"How was I to know that you were a shogi prodigy?" He muttered resentfully.
"Is it needles?" Himawari teased, enjoying the way his jaw clenched in irritation.
Earlier that day there had been a blood drive at her school. All the students and their parents had been expected to donate.
When it had come to their turn, Sasuke had resembled a stiff plank of wood more than an actual human being. The nurse drawing his blood had quailed and nearly fainted from the force of his glare. When they'd finished, the nurse practically threw the entire basket of cookies and a handful of juice cartons in his direction before fleeing for her life.
"I don't care about needles." Sasuke retorted shortly. Himawari merely raised an eyebrow in response.
She'd obviously stumbled across a touchy subject but, for some reason, she wasn't so inclined to let it go.
She'd won their game fair and square and she was entitled to her reward. Sasuke could grumble, glare and growl all he wanted but he'd still oblige her.
He kept the glare up for a solid minute and a half before he broke with a sigh.
"It's not needles I'm scared of… it's donating blood."
"You're scared of donating blood?" Himawari echoed in confusion.
"Almost all my life, people have been after my blood." Sasuke bit out after another lengthy silence.
"I'm the only person left in this world with true Uchiha blood running through their veins. There are many, far too many that want to make use of that."
"Make use of it how?" Himawari didn't even realize that she'd spoken aloud but leaned forward, hands on her knees, keen to hear more.
"To create more Sharingans." He told her.
The ensuing silence was so thick, Himawari swore she'd've been able to hear a pin drop.
"You don't want that." Himawari posited, invested in keeping the conversation flowing or else she knew that Sasuke would just clam up.
"You've seen what my eyes can do. There are those out there who would happily kill, bribe or even try to seduce me to obtain that power for themselves." Sasuke ground out, sparing her his glare and instead directing it at the shogi pieces. As if they were to blame for him revealing his secrets.
"Surely the Hidden Leaf Village would have protected you?" Himawari asked, wondering idly if a glare could melt a shogi board with enough intensity.
"Shortly before I left Konoha for the last time, I was put in charge of a mission to wipe out the last remnants of an extremist group inside the village. ROOT." Sasuke began, raising a hand to forestall the question on Himawari's lips.
"ROOT was a zealous group of ANBU and other elite ninja and influential figures. They held it as their sacred duty to ensure the dominance of the Hidden Leaf over all others. They used any and all methods at their disposal, regardless of whether such methods were moral or sanctioned.
Sasuke's mien became glassy, his mind's eye lost in memories of some horrific event. When next he spoke, he sounded more akin to an automaton than a man.
"The things I found in their base… malformed creatures in test tubes and vats all bearing twisted versions of my family's genes."
A part of Himawari wanted to reach out to him. Stop him from having to relive any more. It was clear that whatever he had seen haunted him. Instead, she found herself paralyzed, held hostage by a morbid curiosity to know what happened next.
"The last of the extremists unleashed the more fully formed creatures against my team. Those abominations were spiteful things, fuelled only by hatred."
A look of grief flashed over the Uchiha's face.
"I lost my team. Every one of my men… They were torn apart or driven insane by those creatures and their bastardized, uncontrolled versions of the Sharingan."
Sasuke snapped himself out of it, obsidian chips flashing up to clash with her gaze.
"That's the curse of the Sharingan. We hate and we love, with an intensity that none can compare with. It gives us power like none other. And it all too easily creates monsters of us."
"I had no idea." Himawari finally said, swallowing past the block in her throat.
"I'm so sorry." She added when Sasuke remained silent. Himawari meant it too. A part of her wished she could take it all back, ask him another question. Something innocent and carefree. Seeing her father hurt, hurt her too. Another part of her was glad to hear it though. Sharing in his pain made Himawari feel closer to him. The two of them were already connected by so many such threads.
"My greatest fear? I worry people will create more Uchiha clones. To use them as weapons." Sasuke laughed, the sound bitter and without humour.
"I'm the only one who can father Uchiha's. I'm the only one who should… because only I truly understand our curse. How devastating it can be and the paths it can lead to. And how not to fall under its sway." There was more to what he was saying, Himawari was sure of it but she didn't want to peel back that scar.
" But surely having more kin would be a good thing?" She asked instead. Other than Sasuke and the old man, Kouda, she'd been alone for as long as she could remember.
"What if it were you?" Sasuke shot back, his eyes flashing in annoyance. The question threw her and Himawari answered on instinct, without thinking it through.
"I don't understand." Were the words that came out.
"Think about it. What if it turned out you were the last person in the world with Hyuuga blood. The last true wielder of the Byakugan. What if everyone knew it?" Sasuke posed. "What do you think those people would be willing to do? For you and to you? To gain the power of the Byakugan.
If the events of last year were any indication, then Himawari already had some idea.
Still the thought was a horrifying one. If she were truly the last Hyuuga, the things people might do to ensure her power survived. The things they might be willing to do to her…
"When I married my wife… when we lost our child…" Sasuke continued, interrupting her train of thought. His voice heavy with grief as he spoke. "All people kept saying to me was I had to try again. For the good of the village."
"Everywhere I turned, I would run into another politicking clan leader who would remind me, in the depths of my grief, that I had a duty to continue the Uchiha line." His tone changed from one of grief to one of dark rage.
"Not even a day after I lost my daughter, my wife still recovering from nearly bleeding out and they approached me with an army of doctors."
Himawari could only stare at him, transfixed with horror. How could they be so cold? So insensitive to his pain and loss?
She knew why. Himawari already knew the lengths people would go to for power, or to have control over those who possessed it.
"They wanted my blood. An insurance policy in case I were to die." Sasuke growled resentfully. "Whether the Sharingan dies with me or not is of no concern to me. I just wanted a family."
A long silence fell between the two of them, Sasuke lost in unhappy memories and Himawari trying to wrap her brain around Sasuke's revelations.
'I'm so sorry." Himawari finally whispered. The words snapped the Uchiha out of his melancholy and he graced her with a small smile.
Shaking his head, Sasuke reached over and grasped her hand, squeezing it comfortingly.
"You don't have anything to be sorry for or about. Besides, in the end, I got exactly what I wanted. I wanted a family and now I have one. You and I, we are the last of the Uchiha, Sharingan or no."
The words brought tears to her eye and Himawari found herself choked up with a swell of emotions.
For this man.
This man who'd saved her, taken care of her and even given his name to her. Who'd never asked and never would ask anything of her that she wasn't willing to give freely.
She knew that Sasuke would die for her without hesitation. He'd nearly done so before.
And then he'd made her family, even after everything that had happened to him. That other people had tried to make him.
No one would ever do that to him again. They would have to deal with her first. And she'd kill them all if she had to.
"We're Uchihas. Now and always Dad."
That had been the first time she'd called him that.
"How dare you?!"
New strength flowed through her. Rage was a hell of an anesthetic. Himawari struck out with her leg, placing a blow to the back of the other girl's knee, knocking it out from under her.
The girl gasped, not expecting the blow and went down hard, the knee colliding with the cold, hard cobblestones. Himawari, not inclined to give her any time to recover, struck out again.
This time her foot connected with the Sharingan girl's chest. The impact sent her sprawling backwards with a soft 'whump' noise.
Himawari scrambled to her feet, rushing to place her feet into an appropriate fighting stance, arms raised with her palms outwards. The style was a mix of traditional taijutsu with the little of the Gentle Fist that Sasuke had seen and memorized with his eyes.
"Himawari, you need to calm down." The other girl wheezed, clutching her chest as she got her wind back.
The girl rose to her feet, albeit a bit shakily.
"You're too injured to fight me, Hima. You need to calm down and let me finish treating you." The girl told her. Her words were meant to be calming but they were said between clenched teeth and with an air of irritation.
"How dare you?!" Himawari repeated. Her Byakugan shone with silver vengeance, lighting up her opponent's chakra network like a Christmas tree.
From the way her chakra pulsed, 'healing' Himawari hadn't been so simple as she'd made it seem. It had taken a lot of chakra and the girl was running low.
Fitting. I'm physically injured and she's low on reserves. This is going to be anyone's game.
I wonder if her Sharingan's genuine or made from clone DNA?
"Himawari, don't do this! You know me! It's me, Sarada!" The other girl implored her, raising her arms into a defensive posture.
"You have no right to those eyes!" Himawari accused, ignoring the shattering pain in her ribs that blossomed with every breath she took. Said crimson orbs narrowed even as 'Sarada's' jaw dropped open in shock.
"No right?" Sarada muttered after a moment's silence. Then the Sharingan flared and Sarada snarled suddenly.
"I'm the only one with the right to it!" As soon as the words left her mouth Sarada saw that it had been the wrong thing to say. Himawari began advancing on her, chakra flaring into life around her palms.
"Himawari, I…" Sarada began, trying to backpedal, to try and deescalate the situation before they both did something that they'd regret.
"The Sharingan belongs to the Uchiha clan." Himawari hissed; hands poised like serpents to strike her down. "And of the two of us, I'm the only one with the right to that name."
KONOHA
LAST YEAR
It wasn't fair. None of it was.
The thoughts kept running around inside of Sarada's head as she struck slow, methodical strikes against the chakra-hardened oak of the training dummy.
How could Himawari be with her father?
She struck again. The dummy groaned on its stand beneath the impact of her blows.
It had been a few hours since they had left Uncle Naruto's office. Her mother had been called away by an unexpected emergency at the hospital. She'd tried to stay but Sarada had waved her mother off.
She knew how important her mother's work was to her.
It wasn't fair.
Why would her name be carved into a plaque in the Uchiha Shrine?
Another blow and the wood creaked, tiny cracks spiderwebbing outwards from the point of impact.
From the moment she'd gotten home, Sarada had immediately fled to the garden where she did all of her training. It had become a place of comfort whenever she needed to calm down or to think things through.
Today, she definitely needed to think things through. There was no need to calm down as she still enjoyed the numbness she'd felt since seeing Himawari's name at the Uchiha Shrine.
It wasn't fair.
Her name was carved next to her father's. Where Sarada's name should've gone.
Sarada had been out there for at least a few hours. In that time, it started raining.
She didn't care.
All that mattered was that the she thought things through. That she got the chance to finally wrap her head around it all. Then the summer rain became a torrential downpour and she found that she still didn't care.
She needed more time.
"It's not fair."
It felt good to say the words out loud. Saying them stoked a fire inside her. A burning, bubbling pot of rage that she knew she needed to let out. If she didn't let it out then it would consume her.
A rage and hurt that, she only then realized, had been building and building since seeing Himawari's name in the Memorial Catacombs.
Why?
Why was Himawari's name next to her father's?
That was her place.
Her father.
Why was Himawari's name there?
Why?
Bearing the name of Uchiha?
Why?!
The name that rightfully belonged to her.
She, Sarada. She was the daughter, she was the Uchiha, that should be her name etched in stone next to Sasuke's.
"Why?!"
It wasn't fair.
"It's not fair!" Sarada screamed. This time, when her fist connected with the training dummy, it was ripped right out of the ground. The force of the blow sent the mannequin sailing through the air like a bullet before it collided with a tree. The impact was so severe that the dummy simply exploded into a shower of splinters, though the blow cracked the great oak's hide in the process as well.
It wasn't enough to release the rage that she felt. The pain that had gnawed at her heart since she had been to the Uchiha Temple. Sarada fell to her knees, pummeling away at the very ground itself. If she did it enough times, then perhaps she might be able to feel a little bit better.
She kept at it. Hitting the soaked ground again and again until she was caked in mud and her knuckles split and bled. She still didn't feel any better.
That's when Sarada realized that, all this time, it wasn't numbness she'd felt. It had been hurt.
"Sarada!" Her mom's voice cried out over the rain. Sarada ignored her, the rain and her own exhaustion and kept on beating her fists against the muddied soil.
At least the rain hid her tears, the thunder masking the sounds of her cries of rage.
Sarada Haruno only stopped her assault when she felt warm, loving arms snake around her, holding her close.
"It's okay baby. It's okay, I'm here with you." Sakura whispered soothingly into her daughter's ear. Sarada stopped her morbid self-mutilation, ruined hands coming up to grip her mother tightly. A low keening wail escaped her as she let out the hurt inside her heart.
"It's not fair Mom." The young Haruno gasped out in between the wracking sobs that gripped her. Sakura said nothing, waiting for her daughter to continue.
"It should've been my name on that plaque." The words felt good to say. They were true. The sight of Himawari's name, crudely etched onto the plaque beside her father's… Where her own name should've been engraved. It had torn her apart once the shock had worn off.
Sarada's mind recalled the moment perfectly, the sight of it and the accompanying hurt playing on an endless loop inside her head.
"I know sweetheart." Sakura murmured, pressing her lips into Sarada's hair.
"Why was her name there?" The question fell from her lips with more anger than Sarada knew she possessed.
"I don't know." Sakura admitted, hating the way Sarada flinched in response. All her life, Sakura had had the answers that Sarada needed. The fact that she couldn't answer this one question was akin to a physical blow.
"I hate him." Sarada whispered, the last of her strength deserting her. It was all his fault; she just knew it.
A small part of her hated Himawari too. And it shamed Sarada more than she could understand.
THE FIRE CAPITAL- OHANA RIVERSIDE
PRESENT DAY
"You have no right to that name!" Sarada screamed, her features morphing into a mask of rage. Himawari ignored her.
Her own rage was a cold thing, fueling her to achieve her goal. In this case, to undo this insult to the Uchiha Clan.
Whoever was behind this. Whoever had stolen Sasuke's genetics and created this girl would pay and pay dearly. This, Himawari vowed.
Himawari moved with a speed that shocked Sarada. Spurred on by cold fury, Himawari allowed herself to feel the pain of her injuries. She used that pain to fuel her anger which, in turn, reinvigorated her.
All of a sudden, her injuries became insignificant to her. It was still there of course, but the agony became little more than afterthought.
Her opponent remained off guard as, Byakugan flaring, Himawari snuck through Sarada's guard to deliver a strike to her sternum. The blow sent the raven-haired girl sliding backwards
Himawari gave her no chance to recover, stepping inside the personal guard of the Sharingan wielder to continue her assault. The beauty of the Byakugan was that it excelled at extremely close quarters. Harassing opponents, battering at their defences until their bodies' chakra points gave out.
It was a style that threw most people off, unable to maneuver against such a closeup opponent.
"That right belongs to me! Only to me!" Sarada snarled as she struck back, a vicious backhand coated in chakra which, if it connected, could well take Himawari's head clean off.
If Himawari had been using only the Gentle Fist then such a blow may even have landed. But Sasuke had taught her to never rely so heavily on one technique.
She's angry. The thought flitted across her subconscious even as Himawari twisted beneath the strike only to turn the maneuver into an attack of her own. Quick as lightning, Himawari landed two more blows upon the older girl's shins.
The blows didn't land anywhere vital but were enough to throw her opponent off balance. Himawari took the opportunity to rip one of Sarada's kunai from her hip holster even as her other hand slammed up into the underside of Sarada's jaw.
The Hyuuga-Uchiha held the blade in a reverse-grip, the edge gleaming wickedly in the moonlight even as Sarada scrambled backwards for space, cursing blackly the entire way.
"Damn it Himawari! You just couldn't make this easy, could you?" Sarada hissed, glaring at the sight of her own weapon being levelled at her even as she spit out a tooth.
Himawari's Byakugan flashed silver, reflecting her own fury. The sight of the Sharingan, eyes which only belonged to one person, made her reckless.
So far it was working, but she wasn't fool enough to think that her luck would last forever.
Himawari knew that anger and adrenaline would only carry her so far. She either needed to end this quickly or retreat.
I'll deal with this imitator one way or the other. It's just a matter of when.
Another lesson she'd learned, from both Sasuke and her own experiences.
Patience is a weapon.
But for now, she'd rely on her recklessness.
Sarada found her Sharingan already stretched to its limits trying to keep up with the sheer speed of Himawari's attacks. The girl was practically nose to nose with her half the time. The Haruno's blocks weren't the well-honed blocks she had trained in since she could walk so much as they became half-blocks performed out of sheer muscle memory. This was no choreography of battle. It was her limbs flailing desperately to stop the younger girl from blocking her chakra points.
Each time Himawari struck such a point, it felt like a small, searing brand were lift imprinted upon her skin.
Sarada knew that, eventually, that pain would be replaced with numbness as her chakra network struggled and then failed to compensate.
When she managed to block a pressure point strike, Himawari's other hand would flash out, the kunai's edge scoring fresh cuts across exposed, unmarred skin. Sarada was bleeding from a dozen places and she could feel her strength starting to ebb.
She needed to end this now and there was one way to definitely do that. Sarada's Sharingan flashed crimson, the tomoe spinning as she projected a genjutsu.
Even if Himawari could break out of it, it would take her at least a few seconds to do so. Vital seconds in which Sarada could take the advantage and knock her out.
That's the downside of the Byakugan. Being all-seeing just makes it easier to entrap the wielder in an illusion.
To the Haruno's surprise, the jutsu didn't slow her down in the slightest. The illusion shattered instantly and Sarada's jaw dropped in shock a millisecond before Himawari's fist smashed into the side of it, sending the other girl sprawling to the ground.
"Genjutsu? Seriously?" Himawari snorted, unimpressed. The young Uchiha adoptee assumed a defensive posture. Sarada spat out a bloody gobbet of phlegm and glared murder at her.
"Where the hell did you learn how to do that?" The words came out in a strange timber and Himawari wondered if Sarada had bitten her tongue when she'd hit her. The missing tooth probably didn't help matters either.
Himawari's eye burned silver fire. The illusion that Sarada had sent her way had been pathetically weak and uninspired. Ever since the events of last year, Himawari's new eye had proven exceptionally resistant to ocular genjutsu.
When Sasuke had trained her to recognize and resist genjutsu, they'd discovered that only significantly advanced illusions were able to even affect her. Her dojutsu simply didn't register simpler illusions. The only reason Himawari even knew that a genjutsu had been sent her way had been by recognizing the flareup of chakra in the other girl.
But something made Himawari want to be mean. Some instinct, the same that garnered her an instant dislike to the other girl, made her say something spiteful.
"From a real Uchiha." Himawari retorted, having a good idea of the reaction such a statement would garner from her opponent.
The raven-haired girl didn't disappoint.
Sarada screamed and charged her. Himawari bent out of the way of a fist that would've turned her knee to jelly and struck back with a swipe of the kunai.
Sarada stepped back out of the blow but proved too slow, the edge of the dagger opening a deep line of crimson across her cheekbone. Himawari tried to follow through on the blow, prepared to drive the kunai through the girl's eye only to be shocked when Sarada countered.
The Sharingan girl's hands snapped forward, quick as a snake to catch her wrist.
Then she squeezed.
In less than a second, Himawari felt the bones in her hand pop and then break. The dagger fell from ruined fingers but Sarada kept squeezing. The kunoichi then drew back a single arm, the hand curling into a fist.
I have to get out!
Himawari knew that she couldn't take a blow from this freak. The unnatural strength she possessed would kill her instantly.
Kami above…
Sarada's grip tightened further and Himawari screamed in agony, tears pricking at the corner of her eye.
The sight of it made the other girl hesitate, a look of horror crossing her face. Suddenly, the grip vanished. A streak of black and blonde flitted into view a split second before Boruto barrelled into Sarada.
The pair went down in a tangle of limbs as Boruto wrestled his teammate to the ground.
"What in the hell are you doing?!" The blonde roared, grunting with the effort to keep Sarada pinned.
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm defending myself!" Sarada spat venomously. She had to get up or the little cow would strike them both down. Sarada had seen it in her eye. Himawari fully intended on killing her.
Boruto kept talking but Sarada couldn't hear him. All she could focus on was Himawari, taking advantage of their struggle to slip away. What she saw put a stop to Sarada's struggles.
The poor girl, Boruto's kid sister, was stumbling away down the cobblestone road, cradling her arm to her chest like some broken doll. Even from here, Sarada could tell that she'd gone too far. The trail of blood following behind her wasn't a good sign and neither was the way that Himawari stumbled from side to side, almost drunkenly.
"Oh God! Himawari… I'm-" Her words were lost on the wind as Himawari turned down a sidestreet and disappeared from view.
What have I done? What the hell is wrong with me?
Sarada began struggling with renewed vigor, this time for altruism's sake. Not that Boruto knew that. Not that he believed her no matter how loudly she screamed.
By the time they'd both calmed down and regained their senses, Himawari was long gone.
Please, Kami! Let me find her before it's too late.
I need to fix this.
What the hell is wrong with me?
Himawari wasn't sure how long she'd been walking at this point. Five minutes? Fifteen? Longer?
It felt like it had been an eternity. The adrenaline from their battle, short as it had been, had sustained her through her renewed flight but was finally beginning to wane. The pain of her injuries crept back slowly as did the burning in her muscles from overuse. Every breath she took was labored; every exhale felt like a blow to the ribs. Himawari took another step and her vision swam. All too familiar tendrils of darkness crept into the corners of her vision.
And her hand…
Himawari didn't want to think about her hand. What used to be her hand. Shards of bone stuck through the skin, leaking trails of blood with every step.
She'd tried to stem the bleeding, tying off her hand with a piece of her uniform but the material just wasn't designed for it.
Why does this world seem so intent on mutilating me at every opportunity?
It was late and in this part of town there were almost no pedestrians about, save for the odd barfly or drinking party.
I have to keep moving.
She was so close now. Close to her father's bar, just a couple of blocks away. If she could make it there then everything would be fine. She'd be safe and Sasuke would kill anyone who tried to take her away again. Himawari knew she was close enough now that Sasuke would be able to sense her so she started fluctuating her chakra in a specific pattern that she and Sasuke had agreed upon beforehand. A pattern that indicated, 'get over here already, I need help NOW.'
Dad will sense it soon… then I'll finally be safe again.
The thought was a comforting one even as her next breath came out more as a shuddering gasp of despair than the actual taking in of oxygen.
You're almost there Himawari! You have to keep moving!
She took another step and suddenly found herself staring up at the night sky, the stars twinkling merrily in spite of the light pollution. Her lungs were on fire and her collarbone screamed as if it were being shredded all over again.
She'd collapsed on that last step. Perhaps on a piece of uneven pavement.
"Hima!" A woman's voice screeched. The next thing she knew a feminine, heart-shaped face blurred into view. Long, red hair fell into her own and green eyes met her own silver one, swimming with panic and concern. That face… She knew that face.
Chiaki?
Himawari didn't realize that she'd spoken the words aloud until the woman nodded frantically.
"Don't move Hima!" Chiaki pleaded, looking around desperately for any other pedestrians who might be willing to help. Unfortunately, as seemed to be the standard for Himawari that night, the street was abandoned save for the two of them.
Himawari, despite the pain and the fact that her body, piece by piece was shutting down and refusing her commands, kept fluctuating her chakra as Sasuke had taught her.
Chiaki began rummaging around in her purse for something Himawari couldn't see, swearing blackly the entire time. The young girl, through sheer force of will, forced her lips to open and her jaw and tongue to move.
"My dad. You need to get me to my dad."
"I need to get you to a hospital!" Chiaki shot back, panicked. Cursing once more, the redhead knelt, seemingly ready to lift Himawari very bodily off of the ground.
"No hospital! My dad! Take me to- "That was the last thing Himawari remembered before the darkness, having been denied for so long, finally claimed her.
Holy smoke grenade, Batman!
That was a nice and long chapter!
I thought that it was a good time to introduce my take on what this AU version of Sarada might be going through as well as to provide some context on Konoha and Himawari and Sarada's first interaction.
Please keep in mind that I am not a Boruto expert. This is all my fantasyland idea on what could happen based on my version of timeline events. It's an AU for a reason.
Hope that you liked it and I'd appreciate a review or just some feedback in general. Am I doing okay or steering off a cliff here?
Until next time!