Capítulo 45: PART 2.
Darkness embraced the underground room. The atmosphere was claustrophobic, the air thick and rarefied, although still breathable. They were all crammed into the small space, barely enough to house them all.
Sarada, frowning with worry, crouched in a corner, checking Boruto's condition. Wasabi, the feline companion, helped her, illuminating the gloom around them with her small reflective eyes.
The smell of earth permeated the air, a dense mixture of moisture and dust that stuck to their clothes and seeped into their nostrils, but despite the lack of ventilation, they still had enough oxygen to breathe.
Anxious murmurs flooded the small space. Mitsuki was trying to get information out of Hoki, the Anbu boy, who seemed equally confused by the situation. Tsubaki, the samurai girl with her characteristic formal dialect, broke the murmur with an authoritative but serene tone.
His call echoed through the narrow room. "We must keep quiet, please. We cannot waste oxygen with our worries and questions. Grandma will be back soon and we'll have answers, I don't doubt that.
His voice resonated with a calmness that belied the palpable tension.
This situation does not have to be the work of the enemy. He continued, trying to instill serenity among his companions. "We must have confidence in the wisdom of the Great Grandmother. She knows what she is doing and will protect us.
Tsubaki's warning was a call for prudence and patience. His words, filled with a calm but firm tone, echoed through the room, defying the growing chaos that was beginning to brew between them.
An anxious groan slipped between them, echoing through the cramped space like an uncomfortable echo. Namida, her voice trembling but full of determination, broke the oppressive silence.
"Does anyone know what that was in heaven?" His question clung to the air, evidencing his internal struggle between fear and the desire for calm.
The sound of his breathing, raggy and uneven, mingled with the worried whispers that flooded the space.
Metal Lee, in an attempt to dissipate the tension, laughed nervously and replied in a forced voice:
"I'm sure you... It's a normal thing from the past, isn't it? I mean, maybe it's... some kind of phenomenon that has already occurred."
Metal Lee's tone, steeped in uncertainty, failed to alleviate the general concern. However, Namida nodded slightly, trying to convince herself. He clenched his fists tightly, as if holding back the fear that threatened to overflow.
Renga, among the tallest of the group and with an unwavering seriousness in his expression, spoke firmly from the back.
"We cannot have any illusions. What we saw definitely has a relationship with us. We must remember all that the Great Grandmother has taught us."
Fear invaded the small shelter again. Namida and Metal Lee dropped their shoulders simultaneously, a shared gesture of contained despair. They both agreed in their fears, slipping a whisper of fear into the rarefied air around them.
You could hear even in the corner of the small cobbled space, the chatter of the teeth of the two Human jellies of the Child Squad. Metal Lee and Namida had decided not to be a burden to their companions, and not to repeat their performance in the desert when they were ambushed.
But their heads did not stop making scenarios where they had to risk their lives, or in the worst case, lose in them.
"Boruto!"
Sarada's call was able to distract them from their fears for a few moments. After all, the space was small, enough for everyone to be cramped and suffocate to death.
However, for some unknown reason, you could feel the air seeping through tiny holes in the stone around them. It might be another Great Grandmother work, but that was not a major thing now.
After all, even if Sarada had whispered her childhood friend's name as a personal call, she would still have been heard by her other classmates. Absolutely everyone turned in the direction of the voice, although almost no one could see each other, not even their own hands in the funereal darkness.
It's like a Coffin disguised as a Bunker.
Other Children joined Sarada, being careful not to get more crushed than they were. The One Uzumaki moaned his head in Sarada's lap, and he didn't seem to be fully conscious right now.
"Why did Boruto faint?" "For this time, it was Wasabi who left the inconclusion in plain sight. From the way he was heard in the Darkness, he had stepped into his Chunin Paper and drilled prudence with his words. "Those things that appeared on our foreheads... That moon. Boruto seems to have been affected by it."
"It can't be... If it had been true, so have we...?" Tsuru, one of the Girls of the Ibiki team, tried to theorize.
However, all who were willing to continue were silenced by the sound in denial of the Uchiha.
As Boruto seemed to regain consciousness, Sarada lay silently in her seat on the floor. His tone of voice was reduced, but it was adequate enough to alert Wasabi. Without even asking, others like Denki and Hoki, had approached from where Sarada could be heard.
It didn't matter if most of them were Genin, and if this was a topic only for Chunin. They were all victims, and they couldn't hide things from each other.
"Boruto... There's something..." Sarada tried to say, whispering.
Denki, who had crouched beside him, blinked. It was as if he was trying to get used to the Darkness so that he could visualize his companion Chunin.
"Something?" He asked.
Sarada said with a sound.
The Bunker was in a sepulchral silence, and Sarada saw no better opportunity to touch on the taboo subject, which even she was afraid to discuss, even with her own father, another of the minds who knew in depth the subject to be discussed.
"Boruto-kun has something..." Denki repeated. He sounded worried.
"Yes." Sarada nodded again. In the darkness, she looked up with restraint. "Do you remember our first exam Chunin? Truth?"
While everyone had different reactions, snorting or muttering their answers, Chou Chou was the one who raised her voice the most. The cowering tremor was a sign that he was trying to keep his composure.
"Of course. It is the only one in which we were attacked by space beings." She says. "And... Isn't it obvious? It's faithful to the curse that is spoken of..."
Sarada was silent for a few seconds. I had never heard anything like it.
"Damn?" She asks, but it's Wasabi who answers.
"It's true... You're always with Boruto, aren't you?, it's normal for you to disappear from the other circles if you spend time with him." The Cat Girl told him, a little embarrassed to refer specifically to Sarada as someone Incompetent for Social Life. "You see, a long time ago Konoha was also attacked, and it happened on the same day as the Chunin Examination tests."
Sarada expected something more when a "Curse" was mentioned, but she knew that, if she had really heard something like that, then it would not be surprising if she forgot it too.
He knew of that attack, for the perpetrator was Orochimaru, the Killer of the third Hokage-sama. But Sarada had her own circumstances for not talking about it.
Mitsuki was an irreplaceable Friend. So he promised himself not to bring up that subject when he was around, even though Orochimaru's actions had nothing to do with him, and Mitsuki himself accepted it, Sarada was unhappy to speak in that way of her partner's father.
As Chunin of his team, there must have been no differences.
"To all this." Enko spoke from behind Tsuru. "What does the Examen have to do with Boruto-kun?"
"..."
The Uchiha saved a few moments to think carefully about the words she would use.
"Don't tell anyone else about this. It has to be kept top secret." He recalled. Shikamaru had ordered them to be completely discreet, right after Sarada witnessed the power of the Ōtsutsuki within Boruto.
She took a breath, and under her almost broken glasses, she observed the figure of her friend in her lap. I hoped he wasn't making a bad decision by telling others.
If everyone was in danger from external enemies, everyone must also know the truth. Lying to them was not an option, it would make things worse if they found out in other circumstances.
Even so, if the case of being abandoned by others were seen, Sarada would not do it. He would follow Boruto to the end, without neglecting his other teammates.
I had to be quite cautious.
"An Ōtsutsuki...?"
"Kawaki-Kun... And Boruto-kun?"
"The seventh knew all this. That's why he asked us to be friendly with Kawaki... I see."
"So... Boruto has..."
"That's right." Sarada said amid the tumult of murmuring voices. "Boruto... it is not very similar to us. He has an Ōtsutsuki inside him."
"That's impossible! It can't be true!"
Many of his friends gave their opinion at the same time. Sarada had told them everything, omitting only a few things she thought personally. But no further, he described everything, everyone; No exceptions.
He told them how Boruto had faced an Ōtsutsuki along with the seventh and Sasuke, but that the detail of the Ōtsutsuki inside had not been discovered until much later, and had been hidden from the public to protect Boruto.
Shikadai was the only one, besides Sarada, who confirmed this, for he had been present when Boruto left in the company of the Kage.
He told them how after that battle, Boruto returned home with a strange mark on the palm of his hand.
Similar to the one Sarada's mother had on her forehead, and although the darkness did not allow her to show it as such, she told them how the god Ōtsutsuki used to manifest himself, and how dangerous it was to allow it.
Boruto had the will to keep him at bay, but he couldn't do anything once his chakra was spent to a hundred.
He told them the way to bring him back, which was to give him more Chakra so that Boruto would wake up, and he also told them, with some hesitation whether to tell them or not, how Boruto was under threat of over-control.
Or at least, that was what Sarada suspected. He didn't hesitate to explain to them how his Father, Boruto's Master, used to leave out the details of Boruto's situation.
Last but not least, he explained to them the mission in which they met Kawaki.
He was afraid to see how others would take it. But given the perpetual silence in the place, I couldn't tell if they were stupefied or focused on his words.
Sarada tried to make Kawaki look good, and give an explanation for his behavior. How Kara treated him, the importance of him for the organization. He even explained to them how Shikamaru had acquired an ally from the Organization, and that, thanks to him, he also made another ally manufactured by him.
Again, Shikadai confirmed this. Whenever Sarada said something, they expected her to do it. And it was not because they distrusted her, but because Shikadai was the only Son of Shikamaru. Therefore, he had to know at least some more details that escaped them like ordinary Genin.
Wasabi was the closest to Sarada, as she was helping her with Boruto. But even she froze. Instead, Hoki seemed to be the only cool-headed one, who added his opinion without smearing.
"Sarada, if I'm not mistaken, are you trying to tell us... that Boruto could have been affected differently by the Invocation?" He asked. "Thanks to "Karma"?"
The Uchiha made an affirmative sound.
"What are you basing yourself on?" Denki asks.
Sarada was silent for a few seconds, sorting out the salient situations in her head.
"When we were all Invoked... We couldn't move for a while. In my case, my body felt stiff... It was painful, but it was more exasperating not to be able to move."
"Me too!" Hako, Hoki's female companion, mentioned. "It was more than tiredness, it was like there was glue in our muscles."
"It's true..."
"I felt that way too..."
The others were in favor of Hako.
"Do you also remember what Boruto said at that time, guys?" Sarada left the doubt in the air, waiting for some answer in her favor.
Everyone had silenced him, when at the same time, only those who were close to Boruto at the time, remembered him.
"No. I don't feel anything." Sarada quoted Boruto's words. "At that moment, I was so disoriented that I hadn't noticed. But, Boruto was one of the first to be here more than there, as if we were all hit in the face by a flashing light; Everyone, except him."
His friends had their mouths shut, as if Sarada had let loose the worst of secrets. He had talked too much, but even with all that lake of classified information, they seemed to be more attentive to Boruto now, holding firm to a single question.
How Does the Invocation of the Past Affect Boruto?
Does the God Ōtsutsuki have anything to do with it?
To all this, it was Tsuru and Enko's partner who decided to join the serene unknowns, those without any harm in between. Although he was almost invisible from the lack of lighting, his cap had been refurbished, unstitching the Konoha metal baked into it, and replacing it with an old patch.
"Even if you tell us all this, isn't Boruto from the same future as us?" Sarada is thinking about it. He must have had a bad image in the head of the brown boy, because immediately he bristled with the crude silence. "I mean...!, we're training exactly to be equal, right?, that's why Iwabee is usually the first, and in order of age we have to follow him... If Boruto, in some way, was different from us because of that Ōtsutsuki... Wouldn't he alter our Group?"
Doushu had earned Sarada's attention.
He, who in the past was one of the many students who spoke behind Boruto's back about the "Ease" that Boruto had to achieve things thanks to being the firstborn of the Hokage, had above his head, a small recognition of the Uchiha.
Well, she could understand if anyone was afraid of Boruto now, but she wouldn't forgive not being listened to carefully, and instead, Doushu didn't even look scared.
Will History believe? Perhaps it is underestimating the power of that God... Sarada herself had seen it. With his own eyes, he saw how Boruto was almost killed by a member of Kara, and Momoshiki's consciousness took over the body of his childhood friend.
He finished off an enemy that Sarada had a hard time weakening, in the blink of an eye.
Being in the body of a twelve-year-old Genin.
Its power was not to be underestimated. Sarada had heard from her father how repellent and arrogant these beings were, and that their pulses did not tremble when it came to murder. Somehow, she had to warn her classmates of this, but without affecting how they see Boruto.
There has to be a way...
"Is that the reason? why Boruto fainted?" Unexpectedly, Namida had brought up her own theory. She must have been choked by the silence, so she hesitated in her words. "If Renga-kun is right, and that thing about heaven has to do with us... Why did only Boruto faint? Why did the Great Grandmother rush and hide us here?"
The atmosphere became tense in the corner from where Namida stood. The one Suzumeno stood next to Metal, just as crushed, but closer to the stone hatch above her head.
Her tender, tiny voice took on a taciturn tone, and Sarada could describe her feeling as being embraced by a breeze that foreshadowed a drizzle.
"Why...?" Namida continued. "Did those things appear on our foreheads?" Reliving the memory firsthand, he put a hand to his forehead. Many of his classmates had done the same. "Half-moons... and that blinding glow of the real moon, that explosion from the sky... And Boruto...!"
"On that, there is something else." Sarada's Firm voice burst the blackened bubble of the two-pigtailed girl's. "Shikadai."
The mere mention of the Nara lit a flame of interference in others. Did Shikadai also know about classified things? Are there darker things? But all thought was dispelled when even the boy himself didn't know what to answer.
Sarada decided to make another attempt.
"Before the adults started behaving strangely, do you remember that a girl named "Eida" had arrived?" He asked.
A small shudder was heard from the right side from where Sarada was. The darkness did not allow it, but he could know that the owners of those sounds were none other than the Ino-Shika-Chou trio, from Moegi-sensei.
ChouChou's awkward groan was heard underneath Shikadai's reply.
"Yes."
The others let out air. Sarada assumed that they knew that too, since the Jōnin in charge of the teams had played an important role in the subject at hand. However, everyone found it curious why Sarada specifically interrogated Shikadai.
"Do you know its power?" Sarada asks. His heart was starting to pump a little faster than normal.
Followed by a break, Shikadai responds.
"My father told me that he had the ability of "Omniscience". And that he was able to see everything he wanted from wherever he went, he could even see the past." The information was more than interesting to his companions, who, Incredulous, murmured to themselves. "However..." he warns slowly. "He also told me that he could not see facts before his own birth."
"Uwa..."
The instant Shikadai had gained everyone's attention, ChouChou had sighed. The Uchiha had been surprised... ChouChou had been quiet for a long time, facilitating her own annoying or tired comments. But, this time, something of the ChouChou from before had leaked.
"She was very pretty..." She says. "Don't you remember...?, His eyes, his hair, his skin... There was a lot of spark in it. Hey, don't you remember?"
"Huh?! Tch...!, Don't bother...!" Joke Inojin next to him. Apparently, he had been elbowed by the dark-skinned Genin. "Don't ask me, she wasn't so beautiful in my opinion."
"But what do you say...?!, You looked like a tomato itself when you saw it!" Akimichi joked more loudly. Inojin's startle was heard, audibly embarrassed. "You clutched your chest because you felt like your heart was going to burst!"
"Huh?! I...! That's not true!"
"Yes it is, Sarada and Shikadai saw you!"
"Shut up! Stop being so scandalous, Seal!"
The small exchange of words, seemed to be a secret between the two. However, his joke and spit in the air echoed in the confined space, and everyone had witnessed the encounter they had had with the aforementioned girl.
Eida: The girl who had won Sarada's interest, someone dangerous. Even Sarada was surprised to remember the fear he felt when he had her around. He didn't need to put a Kunai around his neck to make him tremble like that. It was enough for him to know that anyone could be under his control.
Who knows what would have happened if Shikamaru-san hadn't had her as an ally for Konoha.
"And that...?" Hoki tried to question, somewhat tiredly, to continue the subject.
"That's another of your powers." Shikadai replies. He received a sound from Hoki. "I don't quite understand... But apparently, she can keep everyone who sees her in the eye under her control. They may fall in love, or they simply cannot see her as someone to destroy. This is not limited to men or women."
"What do you say?" Renga, with his arms crossed, Inquira with concern. "It's madness, there can be no such power..."
Sarada silences him firmly, something that only her voice can provoke. "Besides, Shikadai, you need to know one more thing.
The green-eyed Nara frowns.
"One more thing?"
"That's right." Sarada says. He tried to discern Boruto's face in his lap. His eyes are used to the light. He could make out the whiskers on his cheeks. "That strange power has limitations. It does not affect people with the same blood, or Ōtsutsukis."
The small hiding place soon dropped in temperature. The vast majority were in a cold sweat. Even those whose score as a Ninja did not exceed Genin's level were competent enough to make some sense of Boruto's unexpected fainting in that meteor shower.
Shikadai, in particular, was judged as someone who had been bearing a weight on his heart since morning. Sarada wanted to believe that it was... the normal, his father, his family, the cataclysm. So he feared that this feeling would affect his critical thinking.
But, contrary to what was expected, and reconfirming his thoughts of Shikadai's ability, the boy spoke after the tumult of doubts.
"And you, then why didn't it affect you?" He asked.
"What do you mean that Sarada has not been affected?" Denki asked.
Shikadai went on to explain this situation to them.
The day they met Ada, everyone fell for her charm as soon as she got off the train.
Team ten, impatient with the things they had heard secretly from their parents, went to see who it was;
"Who is that strange visitor?"
"They say she's very cute!" said the Yamanaka and Akimichi of the trio when they arrived next to Sarada and Mitsuki.
Shortly before her Sensei approached the place, Eida had made an appearance. Sarada had heard of its power before, she knew how dangerous it was, and that, from the moment you fall under its spell, you can't run away from it.
She waited and patiently to her own heartbeat when she saw her in the distance. But the murmurs of the Yamanaka and the Akimichi beside her woke her up.
"She's so pretty..." ChouChou sighed.
"M-my heart...!" Inojin snorted.
Sarada had questioned the efficacy of that power. She too has fallen, and her reaction is different, he had thought so, when Shikadai said:
"Damn... I couldn't see anything."
"Could it be that I didn't see her well?" She had asked herself. "Is that why it didn't affect me? Just because I didn't see her well?"
Shikamaru knew of Sarada's newfound advantage. As soon as Shikadai was added as a possible individual countering Eida's divine technique, Sumire joined in. Now there were three weapons, capable of ending Eida once and for all!
Or at least that's what Sarada thought. Because, once the three of them entered at Eida's request, it was made clear that, in fact, Shikadai had not seen her well the previous time, and was ruled out as the third person capable of ending Eida.
Now there were only two. If you counted Kawaki and Boruto, there would be four, but those two were under the spotlight of Eida's younger brother. Her power was another thing that Sarada had to explain, seeing that Shikadai was unable to describe the feeling when she saw Eida for the first time.
"I see... then you and the delegate..." Hoki summarized cautiously. "I understand. It makes sense why the seventh was so cautious about that issue."
"Didn't you know?" Sarada asks.
We knew of someone who came from that organization, but they never told us exactly who it was.
"Hm. The seventh was careful." Sarada whispers. She remains Absorbed in her thoughts, and goes on. "I think we should consider that, the "Limits" of Eida's ability."
Someone comes closer to his side, even sitting on the ground. Clearly it was Denki, who was willing to be of use to Boruto.
"But, Sarada-san... if the Cataclysm destroyed everything..."
"Eida is a really strange person, until the seventh she was careful not to cross her path because she was afraid of being affected too." The Uchiha replies. But, from then on, she was someone important, an important ally.
The girl was silent for a few seconds, sighing uneasily.
"The one who destroyed our Village was Code. He and Eida were allies for quite a short time, until she was convinced by Shikamaru-san and came to our village. It's obvious that they won't let her die so easily, not when her enemy is Code; Someone who was minimized before her power."
Eida had been presented as a girl with enormous power. Her ability was treated as a divine technique, which affected the reactions and emotions of the people around her more. Even someone of that caliber was a constant threat to the seventh.
But Code... His name was not yet known to many. Only for those whose teachers were fully immersed in the subject. Team Ten, like Team Seven, were more than aware. The rest only knew of their existence and techniques, thanks to rumors spread among the Ninjas older than them.
"Code..." Hako spoke. "Is it Jōnin's Assassin?"
Like Sarada, the vast majority refrained from commenting on anything, for fear of remembering the fateful night. It was thanks to the Great Grandmother that some could remain in the dark without blinking with fear, but not having her by their side... and many were not even able to speak.
"Hey, hey." Renga whispered to him next to him.
Their haste to stop the cart gave indications of knowing more things that involved Code, because like Anbu, they were the first to act. His companions were the first to perish, before any other Jōnin.
"To say that in these circumstances..."
"Leave her, Renga." Hoki says firmly. Rather than scolding him, he sounded resigned. He closed his eyes in the darkness. "To put all that aside, and pretend that it never happened... Just as ignoring the fact that we are in the past, is like ignoring the sacrifice that our people made for us. It would be an aberration to live in ignorance. Even if it hurts... and scares us."
About eight days had passed since then. The world should be turned upside down if the tales that their presences are like very strong waves were true. They could be dangerous to people of the past, but the fear persisted.
It was normal for a Ninja to be afraid. Even more so if he has already lived through a Cataclysm.
Hoki was adamant to be the binocular of his companions. Despite not speaking to the majority many times, and only exchanging a few glances with the minority, Hoki had not given up. Listening to the Great Old Woman seemed to give her a goal to pursue, and Sarada wasn't able to see it.
He wondered... If she would also be able to have a goal, now that she no longer belongs anywhere.
Being Hokage was no longer a path.
Sarada was too deep in her thoughts. So much so, that he did not realize what his companions exchanged through words. I still hoped that Boruto would wake up now, and tell of his experience at the moment he fainted.
"Is Code that powerful?" Denki asks, adjusting his broken glasses.
Before Sarada could answer, Shikadai spoke with a plausible heaviness in his voice. He was sane, or so Sarada discerned. However, something in him merited some haste in answering Denki's question before anyone else.
That interested him.
"Code can be transported by its scratches... he also comes from the same place as Kawaki." That information was as if a tear gas canister was activated in the locked place.
Many closed their mouths, as if they avoided saying a word about the aforementioned one. Sarada could deduce why this behavior.
"His hand does not tremble to kill... it is very cruel, and clearly insensitive. If he was the cause of this..."
"That can't be. Tsubaki opined with a calm concern." His decision to remain calm was still afloat. "We don't know at all, but... Didn't that Chunin tell Mirai-san that the Adults of the Village planned this to avoid the attack?... it would only be impossible luck if Code had survived."
"That's what I wanted to get to with my inquiry into Eida." Sarada adds.
Apparently, only a few, such as Shikadai (who was somewhat more thoughtful), and Denki (whose curiosity towards Eida had been maximized), waited for Sarada to reach that point.
"His powers were not entirely clear, not even to Shikamaru-san." He says. It seemed that it aroused a small tension in its vicinity. "His power levels were already immense, even his brother's. As I said, someone so powerful would not be discarded by Shikamaru-san. But when you consider that they rewound the world with us to protect us from those who destroyed everything, it wouldn't make sense to bring a pair of god-like techniques back in time. We know what happens, and we know how things end. The sum of Eida and his Brother would be to call for another cataclysm, to call for war. And that also includes Code. If Code really is alive, then... All those who fought to bring us here will perish again."
Sarada gently nudges the Kaminarimon on her side. The child hesitates for a moment, not knowing whether to treat it as an accident or a cry for help. Sarada asks him with actions to take care of Boruto while he got fully involved in informing others and sharing his speculations.
While everyone was left waiting for clarification for the last word, Boruto's head rested on Denki's lap, and he was watched by the care of a sharp-eyed and alert Wasabi. Sarada got up, and set all the gears in her head in motion. Scenes, conversations, rumors, suspicions.
Everything he experienced before the Cataclysm was outstanding right now.
I wouldn't spoil it. As someone who aspired to be Hokage, he will be useful to others.
"I know I'm no one to say something like this... And I know I'm not strong enough to prove that I'm capable of doing something similar." Sarada tells them. He swallows and continues. "If I were..." Shikamaru-san, would definitely take advantage of Eida.
"Huh?"
"Would Shikamaru-san do something like that?"
"It's not possible..."
Again, his friends went ahead to murmur. But it was His second teammate who interposed with great serenity flashing in his yellowish eyes, which were moderately visible between the heads blackened by the illumination, of his friends.
"Would Shikamaru-san take advantage of Eida's ability?" He wonders aloud. Automatically everyone seems to be speaking through him. "Shikamaru-san is someone who is extremely intelligent and analytical... But how would Eida allow that?, If we take into account their alliance, she would not have come to the Village if Kawaki was not there to begin with."
"Kawaki-kun...?" Namida questions next to her in a whispering way.
But Sarada grumbles quietly.
"Now... This is not the time to talk about that." He says. His freeze towards others was like the personification of his lineage, and he refrained from continuing with it. "Anyway. I don't know what Shikamaru-san did to buy Eida... but, that light in the sky... It definitely has to be her."
"Are you sure?" "Iwabee wants to know. He supported others by staying close to the hatch, in case he had to face something unexpected. He muttered something audible to Sarada. "I haven't seen it myself, but Shikadai said that everyone fell into his power, right? Isn't that his power? How can Falling in Love cause that in heaven, although you don't have to be so intelligent to know that it's connected to us..."
Metal Lee and Namida slumped their shoulders again, side by side, as their cowardly souls seemed to come out of their mouths in a snort.
"No." Sarada denies firmly. His teammates are in a cold sweat. "That's not your power, Boruto himself told me."
Again, Sarada summarized the encounters Boruto had with that god Ōtsutsuki. They were something that was revealed just before the Cataclysm, at the request of the Seventh himself. Sarada told how not even the god himself had knowledge of this ability, and it was discarded as a divine technique.
His Friends were left with their mouths open. The presence of a God was much more than they could have resisted in the past, but after experiencing in their own flesh the sliding of the world, they kept terrifyingly calm, except for a few who did not avoid letting out their moans of fear when it was already too much to digest.
"I don't know what Eida's other technique is, but... if it really has anything to do with heaven, then Code must be alive. That is why Shikamaru-san must have brought her along with us in some form." Uchiha explains.
She could not see herself, but she spoke little by little in all directions, to seek to be heard and understood by all her interlocutors.
"I doubt that Eida wanted to die, just like that. She's a bit of a selfish girl, and her intentions are very clouded. But if Code managed to leak out, then it's possible that Eida was brought in to counter it. She and her brother are perfect to knock him out."
"But hey, Sarada!" Wasabi exclaims behind her, Sarada turns around. "Aren't you getting ahead of yourself?, Code... or whatever his name is, he could be dead!, Why bring more people who endanger the past?, that is not a thought of someone like Shikamaru-san."
"I'm afraid I'll be with Wasabi this time, Sarada." Iwabee joins in a snort. "That still doesn't convince me."
"Hm..."
I wasn't going to yell at them, they didn't deserve it. They had reason to doubt her.
Sarada, who aspired to be Hokage, was known to everyone for being obsessed with rules. He guessed that they interpreted his rush to find an answer as a reason to remember and miss the seventh Hokage, the person he admired the most, after his mother.
If that were the case, then what was he doing wasting saliva?
Something was not right there. Even if they all argued, they would believe at least a word of what any of them would say, Fellowship, that was what Shino-sensei taught them before they were Genin!
It was then that Sarada realized a painful truth.
They were no longer children of the academy. They had their own equipment, and they trusted them more. Although the seventh always told them, "Trust one another!", clearly, the priorities differed from one another.
Was she just someone else's priority?
It would be selfish just to think about that.
She had clenched her fists, her excitement now fading away to continue, when her friend Chou Chou made a comment that pricked up the ears of those who became Chunin, and they were meticulously analyzing what Sarada had brought to light.
"Now that I think about it more closely..." he said. Inojin raised a spiritless eyebrow beside him. Chou Chou hesitated. "Hm...?, What...? W-Wait!" he exclaims in a whisper. "But—how—?"
"ChouChou...?"
"Uh?"
Responding to Sarada's call, ChouChou only frowns vaguely to try to see her in the dark.
"What's wrong with you?" His companions asked the same question.
"Oh, it's just that... Isn't it strange, I just realized that... Eida-san is... very generic."
"That's why you're making such a fuss?!" Inojin whispers. He hoped not to be heard. "The Chunin are trying to find an explanation for our problems, focus a little more. Do you want?!"
"B-But, But!"
A small argument was about to form, being stopped by a joke from Shikadai. However, every word uttered by ChouChou was the current priority of Sarada's listener.
"You don't understand my feelings!" The Akimichi had launched into the Yamanaka's personal space to highlight her bewilderment. "I know well that what I felt at that moment was not normal, and now that I remember it, it's like... if I saw someone else's story movie. Do you understand me?!"
"That's obvious." Inegin spits at him. "With everything that has happened..."
"I don't mean that!"
"ChouChou!"
Sarada's voice bounced off the walls, filled with furious determination. Everyone gave in to this, and the Uchiha approached her orange-eyed friend.
"Could you repeat it one more time?"
"Huh...? What?"
"What you said just now!" Hurry up Sarada. "Very generic, what did you mean by that?!"
Inojin and Shikadai were dumbfounded by the question. When Chou Chou seemed to do the same for a moment, he hesitated before turning to the friend with whom he hardly exchanged a word since that night.
"Ah, I meant that Eida-san is... Beautiful, but not as beautiful as I think I remember it."
"Could you be more specific?"
Chou Chou folds his arms, and struggles to rewind the memory. Only those closest to her knew what kind of face she was putting on now. Squeezing her eyebrows and nose, while her lips curve downwards with her eyes closed.
"Let's see..." he murmurs. "To begin with... when you reminded me of Eida-san, I know I remember her as a completely beautiful shining goddess. But... As I tried to make sense of such beauty, I realized that it was not as scandalous as I thought."
"Don't you remember her well?"
"Oh, yes, I do!" She was really beautiful!" ChouChou hastens to confirm in a tone of obviousness. "But that's it. She was someone very pretty and dressed fashionably... but it just didn't make sense to my reaction at the time. I don't even know why I made such a fuss... It is as if the reflectors and stars that were on it have faded from my memories. The girl put a hand to her chest. - I don't even feel my heart bounce when I remember it... Strange."
An analytical silence deepened among the Chunin. The Genin of the teams said nothing, as they were aware of the space they had to give their team leaders. They were confident that they would not stay to study something for no reason.
Sarada clenched her fists in anticipation, she seemed to be looking for someone next to Chou Chou.
"Shikadai, Inojin." They both made a sound in response. "How are you?"
"Ah? What are you saying?"
"About Eida!" He replies to Inojin. "You two who also saw it, do you remember the same thing as ChouChou?"
"I don't understand what you're saying!" Inojin defends himself in a hurry, putting his hands in front of him. ChouChou grimaced beside her, knowing that everything about Girls was like a taboo for ash hair. "I remember her! That's it!"
"It's not that..."
"What Sarada means is if you feel the opposite of what you remember."
Hoki's voice approached his surroundings. His footsteps were inaudible. It was a surprise to live that small experience, and to witness her talent as Anbu, even in the least unnecessary situations.
Hoki was attentive to everything, and the care in his steps allowed Sarada to know that he was able to listen and analyze a conversation while staying alert.
Typical of an Anbu.
Inojin did not hide his discomfort. His history with the chestnut tree was very brief, and they were not so confident that he would speak to him with such confidence. But since they had other priorities, he kept quiet.
"Sarada is leaving because of the possibility that, somehow, you no longer see Eida as someone superior." He said. Even in the dark, I knew I was calming my gaze. "In other words... May you no longer be under his power."
Exactly!, the one with the Onyx eyes allowed herself to take a break. The masked man had seen through her, enough to find the answer before anyone else.
Unexpectedly, Hoki had had a very good development since he last saw him in the Cunin exams.
Confident that he had provided the correct answer, all he did to respond to the doubtful faces of the trio of friends was to fold his arms and snort silently as he pondered Sarada's theory.
"This boy looks more and more like him every day... The Sixth?" Sarada wondered, but she dismissed that thought. Now was not the time.
Instead of dragging out the questions, Hoki spoke in Sarada's favor.
"Ever since Eida was mentioned, ChouChou has been in the clouds. But that doesn't seem to be the case anymore." He said. He went more to Sarada this time. "Perhaps our arrival in the past has also altered our bodies in some way. Don't you two feel something different when you remember Eida?"
Inojin could only give a slight startle in response. Her understanding was still vague, and Sarada could only blame her unpleasant situation. As a student of Konohamaru-sensei, she could know more or less how the members of team ten, led by Moegi-sensei, were doing.
So I could deduce more or less how Inegin was, so between the Great Elder's training and the rules they had to remember, it would be most expected that he would be mentally tired.
"Now that you say it..." Shikadai murmured calmly. Sarada pricked up her ears. She didn't need the Sharingan to be able to spot the Nara a few meters away from her. "You may be right... I remember her, but not much more than a dangerous Ally."
"Oh." Being also one of those closest to surprise, Inojin thought to himself and answered. "Hm... N-I'm not going to tell you that I wasn't pretty!, But..."
"You don't remember it as you used to." Sarada concluded.
But Hoki didn't think this had just stayed that way.
As soon as Sarada brought up his conclusion, the masked brown-haired man felt a little sick when he noticed his relieved tone. Something in him was in conflict with another part of him, and he closed his eyes tightly when something invisible in the darkness struck his sight, like a bad omen.
He wished with all his might that what he had thought would not happen. That no matter how much secrecy is kept, such a separation does not take place. That was his biggest fear, but he didn't know exactly who it was aimed at.
Sarada's back was in front of him. An Uchiha, daughter from the main branch. He raised his hand, intending to put it on the jet's shoulder.
But she swerved, and simply made a gesture. One that was not visible to anyone.
"W-With that, that would be all, wouldn't it, Sarada?" He said.
The aforementioned made a sound in response to her listening.
"All with what?!, I don't understand anything!" Tsuru said uneasily.
"Don't you notice, this is a test!" defended the boy Anbu. "Proof that Sarada may not be wrong. There may be a possibility that Eida is alive... and, consequently, Code as well."
Shikadai paled in place. Was it really possible that this Assassin was still alive?
The truth was that he didn't want to believe it... I didn't want to believe it. He could have defended Sarada, because one vital thing that had been instilled in him as a student of Moegi, was that "All possibilities could be the right one, and only one could be the most feasible of all."
Why did he hesitate?, it was a shame to have done so, still being able to defend Sarada with arguments that he himself took into account during all these days of training, in which he spent most of his free time rewinding everything, with regret and pain, finding cracks.
To begin with, why did the Ninjas from the other Villages specifically come to Konoha just to attack?
Were they under anyone's control? Were they being manipulated since they left their villages?
The Konoha Ninjas (the last ones left standing just before the scroll was opened), were being manipulated as well, because they began to kill each other. He brought Shikadai to a crossroads.
So, what was the difference between the Ninjas who summoned them in reverse, and those who fell under the control of the enemy?
Code's target seemed to be the Jōnin. Code didn't count on him and Mirai being summoned to the past, because otherwise they would have shared the same fate as their father at Code's hands.
But... If Code was taken by surprise, how did he survive?!, But as every possibility was an option with the reality of being at the table in the past, the doubt also arose in a spider's web: Did Code also know this, and could he sneak into some scroll?, Did he also try to do the same?, the latter was discarded only because Shikadai did not see it feasible for him to go to Konoha to do what he did. He could do it without killing anyone.
But with the addition of Eida... The possibilities were now endless.
Eida was a dangerous ally, but a valuable ally. All of Code's movements were narrated in detail by her, and reported at the same time to both the seventh and her father, Shikamaru.
Perhaps Code learned of the provenance of the members of the "Cult" who supported Konoha, and left with the intention of destroying them before rewinding everything.
But even so, everything ended at the same point.
Why?! Nothing makes sense in this damn story!
Someone is lying, someone must have lied. Just like Mirai is doing now. Even if it was a tiny lie, it was an obstacle to be knocked down if they wanted to understand everything.
Where did the first knot in the entanglement come from?
From Konoha and adults?
His father?
Perhaps, it could have been that Tanaka-san had lied to Mirai for her own sake?
Or...
"..."
He didn't want to think about it too much. His shoulders had slumped, being only a physical presence before the exchange of words of his companions. But, mentally, Shikadai wasn't there.
"Eida's true power is unknown, so we cannot rule out that it was her from heaven." Think. His expression was itself an empty one. "Boruto is himself an Ōtsutsuki, right, that makes him immune to his powers, and differentiates him from us. What if it was that difference to us that made him faint? What if it was really Eida who caused that in the sky, and Boruto had a kind of reaction?
The voices of his friends were a distant echo. Shikadai unraveled the sea of unknowns that gnawed at him.
"No... It can't be that!" He refuses. "Sarada is also immune to it for some reason. Under that logic, couldn't she have fainted too?"
All possibilities could become one. It was a thought that Shikadai often criticized.
"Maybe Sarada is Immune for something else, but it's only Boruto who is affected, since Sarada for some reason is an exception. So, with our bodies trapped in time, will our memories be too?, Is that why we don't remember to fall into Eida's trick?, Does that mean that we are now immune to her power?, Does that put us in the same situation as Sarada?"
The gears in his head clicked, as the tallest girl's eyes resurfaced from his memories. His soft skin and lips like apples, looking at him with drooping eyes and wavy, almost alive hair falling down his back. That time, it was in Eida's hands, he was no longer an opponent for her.
But now the roles seem to have been flipped. Shikadai had found a possible answer, but he couldn't verbalize it in time when two things happened.
A voice coughed and coughed insistently, as if the person was going to vomit at any moment. He immediately heard Wasabi say the person's name, while from outside his hiding place, just above them, many footsteps could be heard approaching.
"Boruto!" Wasabi bellowed with alteration.
Sarada was about to do the same, when the sound of the stone moving aside above them made the top of her hiding place tremble.
They knew that layers of stone were being pushed aside to find the hatch that would give them freedom, and that work could only be possible by a single person, the only one who knew where they were, and who they were.
When everyone was frozen waiting after the inactivity of those above, a small cloud of pale earth caused Namida to tighten her arms against her body more, while the light from the torches filtered through to completely illuminate them as the small door was opened. The shadows of the younger ones danced behind them.
Boruto gave one last cough, and then Sarada and Mitsuki approached him. The boy could only keep quiet, absorbed in something that kept him frozen while Sarada sought to exchange glances with him.
Those who looked at the Great Elder turned pale.
"Gather your things! We're leaving here as soon as possible!"
His exclamation bounced off the small hiding place, and he even went out through the corridors full of his subordinates. The old woman raised a torch to see all the children, her small figure made her look somewhat dominant if you took into account her voice.
"The desert is no longer safe!, I will guide you through the tunnels to the nearest forest. We will move between tunnels and surface for a while, but we will not stop until we are in the middle of a lush forest! Moonlight is no longer safe for you!"
"Ehhh??!"
"What...?"
"Boruto...!"
The little shock did not go unnoticed in the old woman's ears. While the other Genin were like ghosts without an imposed path, it turned its attention to the small group that swirled around the blond boy in the background.
Wasabi looked at the grandmother in a cold sweat, while beside her, both the Uzumaki teammates and Denki were frozen by the Ancient Woman's hasty order, but they also did not want to leave Boruto behind.
The Grandmother could only keep her eyes closed by wrinkles, in the direction of Boruto.
In his mind, only a few troubling words passed by, facilitated by a sacrificed soul.
" As soon as I looked into her eyes, I knew I had seen what was consumed by the cycle. To see the eyes of someone who saw a stretch in expiration, or in birth, or to be born... it is something unmistakable. It is a brand that never goes away."
The grip on the torch tightened, and he felt the tiny splinters sinking all over his palm and finger skin.
His Master, of all people, was the only one who abhorred forgetting. She loved him, because she didn't have to remember them, of course. What good would it do to waste space in your brain, when you can walk freely without any worries?
But that man did not want to live like this. And until the day of his death, he kept his word, without having told the woman exactly how it felt to forget himself in the last moment of life.
She could not tell whether she was upset, but the nerves of what was going on outside were attacking her, and though she herself was the personification of calm, she would be sinning in her teachings if she did not have in her own flesh such emotions as fear and anguish.
Boruto managed to exchange glances with Sarada when she gave him a light slap on one of his cheeks. His expression was one that did not know his current location.
He did not know if he was here, there, or as his Master loved to say to him: There.
It is something unmistakable, the look of someone who was in the "There".
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