Let It Begin

16. Aftermath of Itachi's Truth

Sakura was standing in the middle of the forest wrapped in the night haze. It was completely dark and she couldn't see anything. All she saw was the red moon in the sky and the feeling of being observed from everywhere. She felt a presence in the tree, behind the rocks, and in the wind that was whispering like a ghost.

From the depths of the dark, she heard some heavy footsteps coming close. She tried to flee, but her legs had sunk into the ground and couldn't move. She threw a kunai to defend herself. The moment it was pierced, the body in the dark turned into countless crows that were carried away by the wind and then disappeared.

As the glow of the full moon started to shine brighter, she was suddenly inside a dark room. There Itachi stood, stained with his father and mother's blood. He looked at her with his Sharingan. She turned around and saw a little boy on the ground. Itachi was tormenting his little brother with visions of his parent's and the clan's death.

On the verge of breaking, Sakura crouched unto the ground and held her ears with eyes closed. She didn't want to see it anymore. She didn't want to hear it anymore. Suddenly she felt a stab from behind, along with lightning coursing through her body. She coughed out blood and collapsed on the ground.

Just when her head hit the ground, Sakura jerked up from her bed, gasping for air. She looked around and saw she was neither in the dark forest or in the dark room with bodies and blood on the ground. Instead, she was in a safe place. A room she had rented while she was on a journey with Sasuke.

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It had been a week ever since Sasuke had come to know the truth behind Itachi's action. Itachi had warned her that she would face some side effects of the Tsukuyomi and right after, a near-death experience. And he was right, she had been having nightmares where she is stuck in the Genjutsu and right after, received a near-fatal wound. However, whenever she wakes up, she felt the pain right where she received the wound from her dream.

Sakura wasn't the only one who had nightmares ever since that day. Itachi had given Sasuke some space to let him process everything alone and make a decision without him being manipulated, but Sasuke was also having nightmares. Not that he would admit it, at first. Sakura had noticed something was bothering him and kept asking him to tell her. After a long time, he finally confessed. He wasn't only having difficulty to process everything he had learned, but also had a slight irritation with his eyes.

Sakura had told Sasuke that she had bought some eye drops for him at a special shop. But they had soon run out, and the shop did too. The shopkeeper had given her a piece of paper with the location and the name of the shop he had originally bought the eye drop from.

She had requested Sasuke to join her to get the eye drops he needed. She even pleaded for him to join and eventually succeeded too.

And so they went on their own to get the eye drops. Karin was really furious after hearing that Sasuke was going to be alone with Sakura. They left a day earlier than they were supposed to, before Karin could sneak out and follow them, and headed towards a village called; the village of the Wolf's Cry.

Once they left, they headed south. After walking for eight days, they got to the sea. Due to Sasuke's condition, they had decided to stay for the night again before continuing.

His head was still hurting and the pain in his eyes took a turn for the worse. Once in a while, his sight blurred and suddenly saw white. To prevent it from getting worse, they frequently rented a nearby inn to rest before continuing traveling.

Sakura looked herself in the mirror. She wished her nightmares would stop soon. How long did she have to go through this? She didn't have time for this. She wanted to focus all of her attention towards Sasuke, but with her nightmares in the way, she always felt tired and couldn't concentrate at all.