Journey of Discovery

Chapter 18 - Into the Light

After the dust settled Sarada saw the two teenagers lying unconscious at the base of the waterfall. They were on top of the rubble from the two giant stone statues collapsing.

Sarada's hands covered her mouth in shock as the saw the state they were in. There was a pool of blood between them from the ragged remains of their arms, the blood pouring steadily.

"You okay Sarada?" Sakura asked gently. Sarada nodded her head silence as she looked down on the two of them. Their faces badly swollen and bruised, so much so they each had an eye swollen shut.

'So this is how Papa loses his arm. And Lord Seventh.'

They watched as the sun continued to set, the area around them growing darker and darker. Sasuke woke up suddenly, immediately wincing in pain and sucking in a sharp, ragged breath. He looked to the sight of where the pain was the most intense and his eyes widened in shock.

"You've finally come to" Naruto said in relief. He had been quietly laying there, staring up at the stars. "Don't move. As you see, if we move too much we will bleed out and die."

Sasuke settled for not being able to fight, but we was able to argue. He kept asking Naruto why he would go to this length, why didn't he just cut ties like everyone else and leave him in the darkness.

"Because I'm your friend" Naruto answered him softly. The two teenagers laid silent for a moment before losing consciousness once more.

As the sun was coming over the horizon Sasuke woke. His face wasn't twisted in pain, anger, or confusion. This time he was calm, almost serene. Naruto groaned awake, surprised to realize he was alive. Neither of them could move still, too weak from their battle and the blood loss.

Sasuke admitted to Naruto that he lost, a genuine smile on his face. It was more than just him losing; he was acknowledging to Naruto that he knew he had been wrong in his actions.

"I want you to end the Tsukoyomi, give my left eye to Kakashi or someone else, and then I'll put an end to myself" Sasuke said, his mind made up.

Sarada felt a comforting hand on her shoulder, she turned to see it was Sasuke. "I may have understood that I had been wrong, but I didn't think anyone could forgive me and accept me back into the village. I had thought that was the only way."

"I fought hard to make him realize that he was wrong" Naruto followed up. "That's why I never gave up on your father. I knew that he was manipulated into feeling the way that he did. I wanted to show him that it didn't have to be that way."

Sakura laid her hand on Sarada's other shoulder, "Naruto had promised me that he would bring Sasuke back. I saw all the pain and suffering he went through because of that promise. That's why I did what I did at the bridge, I thought that it would end all of our suffering."

Her attention was turned back to the two of them, lying there in a puddle of their own blood. Naruto was shouting at Sasuke for what he had said.

"If you're willing to die then you should be willing to help me end all of this fighting!"

Sasuke turned his head to look at him. His gaze softened but brows furrowed in uncertainty. "I can't promise I won't stand against you again" he said. "I know you won't" Naruto replied, " I wouldn't let you."

Sarada watched as Sasuke's eyes slowly filled with tears, turning his head away as they overflowed to run down the side of his face.

The two of them didn't say anything further. Their wounds continued bleed, although slowly, it had created a stream down the rocks they laid on to pool beneath them.

In the distance, up on the cliffs, two people appeared. There was a girl with pink hair and a man with white.

"Mama! Is that you?" Sakura nodded her head in response. Sarada watched her mother jump down to crouch between the teens. Her sleeve was torn off and her arm badly burned. She began to heal the two of them, a hand on each of their wounds.

"Thank you Sakura" Naruto said gratefully, a smile on his lips.

Sasuke remained silent for a moment, studying Sakura. He couldn't believe she was healing him after what he did to her. He didn't deserve to be treated by her.

"Sakura, I-"

"Be quiet. I need to concentrate."

"Listen" he begged softly, "I'm sorry."

Sarada could see her mother visibly tense. She didn't move her eyes from the task at hand, not even for a split second. "Sorry? What for?" she asked coldly. She had never seen her mother treat her father this way; she had never once seen her be angry at him or even speak so cold to him before.

"Everything" he whispered, his voice raw with emotion. It hit Sarada that this was the moment her mother had told her about. Sakura's shoulders shook from her sobs. "You should be."

The view before faded to black.

• • • • •

"We are back in Konoha" Sarada said aloud as she looked up at the Hokage's office. While it had changed, she could still recognize it. They were taken deep down underground beneath the office.

It was dark, the only source of light were some lamps mounted on the stone walls along with a few hanging from the ceiling.

"You got a visitor!" called out a rather large man as he descended the stairs into the basement. He wore a bandanna, with the Leaf Insignia on it, and an oversized trench coat. His face was also adorned in large jagged scars. Behind him, Kakashi.

Sarada peered a little closer into the cell he was unlocking and saw Sasuke, bound from shoulder to toes and a seal placed over his Rinnegan.

"Sasuke, congratulations. You're being released on a probationary basis." Sasuke didn't react, he didn't even raise his head to look at his former Sensei, now Hokage. "This is the part where you say 'thank you'."

Ibiki walked into the cell and grabbed Sasuke by his shoulders and pulled him into a standing position. He removed the seal from Sasuke's eye and loosened all the buckles and straps on his restraints. "You're free to go" he told him.

Sasuke took a few steps, shaking from where he had been bound for so long, "Are you sure about this?"

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't. Let's go" Kakashi said before turning his back to Sasuke and walking back up the steps. "There's someone that's been waiting to see you."