Only Time Can Tell

THE SCROLL

CHAPTER 10

THE SCROLL

SAI

The kids were crowded around me, all throwing out questions at once. I almost didn't want anyone to know that I was awake just to avoid this onslaught, but this is pretty much inevitable anyway. I was concerned to find out that no one else had woken up yet, and that their conditions were even worsening. Especially in Sakura's case.

"Sarada!" A nurse called, running past my room, "It's happening again!" Sarada stood up with a blank look on her face. She left again. Her mother was dying. Again. Still Sarada was so shocked she had lost the ability to react. It reminded me of when I wasn't about to react to Shin's death.

"Boruto..." I said silencing him. "Look after Sarada, okay? Sakura would want you to." Boruto's eyes widened, but then he nodded solemnly.

"Hai."

"What was it like?" Inojin said, he was still holding my hand even hours later. He was still worried that I would slip away again. But I felt fine, I felt marginally weaker, but I could move, speak, and most importantly, breathe.

"It was horrible." I said, trying not to think back. "You were forced to think about all your past memories of pain, and experience them all over again. Except when your memories moved on towards the present, the pain of the past memories remained. The pain just built up until you wanted to..." I looked over at Inojin and stopped. "I'm just glad I'm here now." I said smiling, I squeezed Inojin's hand to reassure him. He smiled weakly back.

"Do you think the other's are experiencing the same thing?"

"Yes." I said, absolutely certain. "We all fell ill at the same time, it would be too big of a coincidence for us all not to be sharing the same ailment. We all experienced similar symptoms as well. I just happened to wake up first."

"Do you think that the others will wake up soon?" Boruto said quietly.

"Maybe. I can't be sure. Some might have more memories of pain than others. I was able to overcome mine just because for a long time I wasn't allowed to feel pain at all."

"What do you mean?" Inojin said.

"I'll tell you sometime." I promised. Inojin nodded. In this moment, I couldn't help but seen Ino in him. He had her eyes, and I know that if she were here, she would be reacting the exact same way. She probably is freaking out at home right this very minute.

"Do you have any idea why it happened?" Shikadai said lazily, leaning back in his chair.

"It must have something to do with the time frame that we're in. Because we went back in time, we were forced to experience all of our pain again, I'm not sure, but that's the only sense I could make of it." I shook my head. My head was throbbing with one of the biggest headaches ever.

"Why didn't we experience it, then?" Boruto protested.

"Possibly because you don't even exist during this time." Boruto went silent. "If both your present self and current self were connected on the same time plane then..."

"I see." Shikadai said, closing his eyes. "All of this is so confusing with there being multiple...ugh, I won't even try to explain it anymore...this is just..."

"Damn it!" Boruto burst suddenly. "My shitty old man, there's no way that he'll wake up in time to help us, is there?" I didn't say anything. Boruto's fists were clenched in his pockets, with an ugly expression on his face. I could tell that he was panicking on the inside. He knew now that his dad was going through unimaginable pain. He likes to believe that his father doesn't play a role in his life, but deep inside he couldn't deny it. In this moment, he shares his father's pain. Nothing that I said would do any good.