Chapter Text
The fire in the hideout popped and hissed, casting long, dancing shadows against the cave walls. Outside, the wind howled across the barren wasteland that the Land of Fire had become.
Sarada tightened the strap of her high-heeled sandal. Click.
She stood up, the movement sharp and decisive. She checked her gear one last time. Finally, she slid her arms into the oversized black jacket. The red interior flashed briefly—color in a world that had gone grey.
"You don't have to go," Boruto said. He was leaning against the cave entrance, his sword resting against his shoulder. He looked tired. They both were.
"We’ve been over this," Sarada said, adjusting her choker. She touched the circular metal pendant, grounding herself.
"We can’t fix this timeline. The roots run too deep. The Divine Trees are already waking up. But we can ensure another timeline doesn't suffer the same fate."
Boruto sighed, pushing off the wall. "The Karasuki relic has enough energy for one jump. Just one. I can try to use my Jōgan to lock onto your chakra signature across the temporal branch and pull you back, but..."
"But the odds are fifty-fifty," Sarada finished for him. She turned to face him, her expression unreadable behind her glasses. "I know. I might get stuck there. I might live out the rest of my life in a past that isn't mine."
"You'll be alone, Sarada. No me. No Mitsuki. Just ghosts who look like your parents."
"I won't be alone," she corrected him softly. "I'll have a mission."
She walked over to the stone table where the relic sat. It pulsed with a faint, blue light. Her mission parameters were clear: Go back to the 'Golden Age'—the era of the Fourth Hokage’s legacy, the relative peace before the Otsutsuki invasion began in earnest.
Objective: Accelerate the village's preparedness. warn the key players (Sasuke and Naruto) earlier. Prevent the loss of Kurama. Save the Rinnegan.
Constraint: Do not alter the timeline so drastically that her future knowledge becomes useless. She had to thread a needle—save lives without erasing the events that made them strong.
"Remember," Boruto warned, stepping closer. "If you go back looking like that... you’re going to stick out. They won't trust you."
Sarada smirked, a dangerous glint in her eyes. "Good. I don't want to blend in. I need them to see me as something other. Something powerful. If I show up wearing a standard flak jacket, they'll treat me like a soldier. I need them to treat me like a warning."
She placed her hand on the relic.
"If I don't come back," Sarada said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Don't come looking for me. Just... survive."
Boruto hesitated, then gave a sharp nod. "Give 'em hell."
Sarada channeled her chakra. The distinct, dense chakra of the Vortex era poured into the relic. The world twisted. The cave dissolved into streaks of light.
The sensation of being torn apart returned, but this time, she embraced it.
She wasn't falling. She was diving.