Chapter Text
Pale hands wrapped around the hardcover of a well worn book, light dust detached itself from its surface as it floated about her slender hands. The letters adorned across the book's spine read its title, Sarada read it, then flipped it open, reading the first lines.
“Some things are meant to be, but his life never was. The night stole what he had left of his life, robbed him of his mind. No one was there to catch his fall into that cold lake. His wife didn't even know he was out there.
So when he woke up a week later, memories gone, and heart cleansed. She vowed to never let him stray so far ever again.”
Sarada drummed her fingers against the spine, sighing as she took in the words.
“Sounds a bit poetic” she mumbled to herself.
“Whatcha readin?” Blue eyes disturbed her vision and calm surroundings. Boruto’s hands were attached to her hips as he leaned forward into what she was reading.
“U-uh just some novel, is there something you need?” The duo had found the old storage site on a list of owned Uchiha estates, and quietly ventured out into the woods to find it. They’d found the decaying building built of brick and rotting wood. Inside boxes upon boxes laid to waste, but old broken books were of plenty.
“Just some book, might try reading it honestly” Sarada stated, closing the book and placing it under her arm. Before Boruto could respond, a scroll in the far corner of the storage site caught her eye.
The Uzumaki caught her line of sight, seeing the scroll wrapped in a velvet candle wax Uchiha design. Of course the blonde runs to it, like a child to candy. Sarada gives him a look he can’t see, one that would probably make him blush if he saw her making it at him. Those charcoal eyes always seemed to judge him with a heart so kind that he was terrified of disappointing her.
So when his fingers slipped across the scroll, and he made contact with the emblem, it began to glow, and his own heart began to itch with worry.
“Um, hey Sarada I think something’s up with it?” Boruto said, turning a bit back to look at her.
Her dark eyes were turnt down back into the novel, the pages flipped back to the last page, her eyes skimming over the end.
She seemed just a bit sad.
Then she looked back up, her eyes overtaking his, until they shifted downward. Sound didn't reach his ears as she suddenly jolted forward, yelling at him.
It was strange how quietly loud she was, he felt vibrations in the wood below them as her feet slammed against it. The Uzumaki felt strange, like his insides were being lifted, his heart beating out of sync.
“Boy, turn around.” Dark thoughts cross Boruto’s head, a mind that isn't his own commands him. The blonde turns to face the wall he stood adjacent to, the wall had been chipped away in mere moments. Wood from the boxes surrounded him, and the wood underneath torn asunder. It was like a shockwave waiting to happen, but Boruto didn't understand why it hadn't yet.
His mind thought back, to just days before, when he stood in front of Momoshiki, his father and Shikamaru frozen beside him. Light emanating from the scroll coursed slowly through the air, enveloping Boruto’s form. Fear finally set in as Boruto swung around back to face Sarada, whose voice was finally beginning to reach him. Her arms both thrown forward as she leaped for him.
A dull boom quietly made its way through the lonely woods. Sarada’s back crunched harshly against the crumbling brick, a gasp escaped her as pain overtook her senses.
Boruto was gone, simple as that, so was her book. Sarada’s eyes scrunched up and shut closed as she acknowledged the loss of her glasses, taking her vision. Crawling forward she stumbled to her feet, wood collapsing around her, driving thick dust into her senses.
Boruto was gone, and the light that stole him was eating at the site. “Boruto, where are you?!” something was wrong, like the oxygen in her lungs wasn't quite meeting its quota. Sarada stumbled once more, and fell to her knees. She had to focus on breathing, or she’d pass out. Rain began to pour into the holes of the roof, It was all too much, Sarada was overloaded.
A scream sounded out, one filled with rage at the suddenly dire situation. She had to run from this dangerous light, but Boruto was lost somewhere, she was simply unable to leave him.
He was at the center of the blast, and she needed to find him.
Thunder and Lightning. Then sunny skies, and rain.
Sarada didn't know if she was crying or if it were rain slipping down her face, she needed help, anyone really. But there was no time, if time could still be referenced in whatever this was.
Boruto was likely injured somewhere, her sharingan wouldn't deactivate for some reason.
The light didn't seem interested in her, but last thing she saw was it wrapping around him, so she was quite interested in it.
“Dammit… fuck.” Sarada stood up, winds whirling about her, as the weather raged on.
“I'm coming, boruto.” Her eyes turned black, and her heart beat fast. Pounds against broken wood, followed by another incredible boom filled the silence in the forest.
-
Sakura slammed open the Hokage door, walking with haste as she slammed both hands on Naruto’s desk.
“Where the fuck are they, Naruto?” Threads of worry were interwoven into her voice, her fingers curled as she bore into her friends eyes.
Naruto sighed, leaning forward as he pinched the bridge of his eye. Sakura and Sasuke went on a single trip out of town for their honeymoon, and when the messenger birds reached them, they’d made their way back home within a week. Boruto and Sarada have been gone for about 11 days now.
“We don't have much.” Naruto began, unsure how to tell another mother that they barely had even any leads to their children’s location. “A vicious and powerful light based being is raging through the northeast forest, we don't understand where it came from. Any contact made with it flings them away. Harshly.” Naruto didn’t need to explain that part to her, Sakura briefly visited the hospital before coming here, and saw damn near dead shinobi lying in the cots.
“How exactly did so many get hurt?” Sakura didn't understand how something so damaging occurred. So much blood, as if something was torn through them.
“The light reacts when made contact with, the leading theory is that it’s taking chakra from those it touches, and uses it to move farther faster.” Naruto’s tired blue eyes finally look back up from the edge of his desk to her.
They’d tried destroying it with fire, they’d tried going under and over, hell they’d even tried using Kawaki. Naruto scowled as he got out of his chair, turning around to the window as he gazed at his village.
“When I used sage.. I felt Boruto and Sarada.” He said, his voice hitched. Anxiety.
“And?” Sakura said, her heart beating harder with worry when she felt genuine fear from her friend.
“It was like the light was pulsing with their chakra, using it like fuel. Burning it into the air like Baryon did Kurama, and I've been checking on and off the past few days.” Naruto paused, debating how to tell her.
“I think they're getting weaker.”