Only Time Can Tell

SILVER

CHAPTER 18
SILVER

BORUTO UZUMAKI

The scraping continued down the stairwell. I saw everyone tense up, they knew that someone was there, and they knew that I was the closest one to it. I was still to frozen to see who it was. But then I felt something. A cold point. Whoever it was had pressed a kunai into my back. The pressure woke my senses enough to react. With a shiver, I spun around and met the eyes of...
"You!" He quickly moved his hand to grab my throat holding his kunai right under my adam's apple.
"Don't move Boruto." Sai warned me. "Who are you?"
"Ha!" My captor laughed. "I did my job, you don't even recognize me!"
Sarada's eyes widened with horror. "You're that guy. That guy...with the staff! One of the bandits!" Yes, he was that guy. The one that tried to run away when we caught them making a pass at us. The one that had cowered in fear in front of Sarada. Sure, he looked the same physically, but his face was totally transformed. His eyes were dark and treacherous like black holes. Touches of silver spread from the center to the edges of his irises. Surely no visual prowess that I knew of. He didn't have a particle of fear about him. He was completely focused. I knew that if we wanted to, he would press that kunai into my throat until I died. He went from a cowardly thief into a creature of darkness, a murderer, whose every move was completely unpredictable.
"This lovely lady knows what she's talking about!" The man laughed. His staff was strapped to his back, it's branches casting dark shadows over his face. I knew that his staff and his kunai were not the only weapons this guy had.
I felt his hand close around my throat and I gagged, finding no air in my lungs. "What you looking at, Boruto?" He said releasing my throat so I could respond.
I gasped for air. "How-How do you know my name?"
"I know everything about you." He smiled with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "I know that the little miss is Sarada Uchiha daughter of one of the greatest ninja of all time. I know that Sai there has a kid and family that he needs to protect. I know that Neji is dead. I know that you are the son of the Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, though you want more than anything to have a different father." He leaned close so only I could hear. "How's your mama doin', kid?"
His words filled my heart with flames. "Who the hell are you?!"
"Well, I've gone by many names. Sage of Time, the Gray Shadow, Shinobi of Immortality, Fred, Minoru, Shiro, Tsuneo, Daichi, Hajime, Yuu, but none of them mean anything to me anymore. I've been called many things, names hold no meaning once you've lived a thousand lives."
"Fred?" I hacked.
"Why are you doing this?" Sarada commanded, no fear in her voice. She had composed herself, good for her, at least she didn't have knife pressing into her neck.
"Well, when you can get a group of important people in one room what would you do? Get their autograph? I've lived a thousand lives miss, and every one of them have been ruined by the people in this room and their affiliates."
"What?" Neji said.
"Once I got this scroll, I realized." As he spoke I saw a scroll peaking out from in his pouch, I knew that it must be the same scroll that got us here. The man licked his lips. "I could kill anyone I wanted. From anytime. Of course, you can't be too picky." The man sighed. "I would have rather had Sasuke and Naruto, even Itachi in here. Minato, Jiraiya, Madara too. All of them have great punishment waiting for them. Once you got to the other side I also realized that i had really lucked out, what greater way to hurt them than to kill whom they love the most? To hurt them the same way they hurt me."
I felt the knife dig deeper into my neck and I struggled to breathe, I felt blood drip from where the blade was pressing into my flesh. "You don't realize it, that some of the greatest heroes are some of the biggest villains to some people. You...you guys," He laughed. "Are just so damn one-sided."
All the sudden I noticed a movement, Sai trying to get my attention. He used his kunai to send a reflection of the candle light to the dark ceiling. He was trying to get my head straight. Then I watched as he pulled 3 fingers behind his back and slowly counted down from 3.
3.......2.........1. I shoved the man's wrist up, while he was busy ranting, causing the kunai in his hand to cut me from my throat to my chin. I hissed in pain, and swung my leg out behind me, hooking my foot around his ankle. Sai grabbed his shoulder, and as I pulled his feet out from under him, Sai shoved him down. The guy promptly fell on his ass and Sai pulled me away from him.
Sarada raced forward, she kicked him pushing him out of the stairway. His head knocked hard against the wall. And I knew from the sound of the contact that it would have knocked me out for sure. Neji planted his foot into his chest while Sarada raced up the stairs, he gestured for Sai and I to go first, and clutching my throat I ran with Sai up the stairs, I heard Neji follow close behind.
Sarada was almost out of the temple by the time we made it up the stairs. I could hear strange noises coming from the downstairs, crackling like thunder and lighting. Suddenly my leg felt heavy, like it had been filled with leg, and I couldn't move it. I was stuck on the last stair.
"Damn it!" I screamed as Sai raced ahead of my towards the door. A look of horror was in his eyes as he saw me unable to move. I looked down at my leg and saw what was so terrifying. Black tendrils like pitch and smoke wove around my leg up to the knee, where he had cut me with his staff previously, I had never seen this happen before, and I watched as my leg slowly purpled and then darkened. "Oh my God..." I murmured.
"Boruto!" Neji called from behind me. He pushed me forward, unlatching me from my spot. "Your leg!" He said looking down. "Can you move?" I shook my head in horror. He grabbed my hands and stepped in front of me, pulling my arms around his neck. He pulled us forward at limping speed.
From the noises downstairs I could tell that we weren't going to make it. And it that moment I could see that Sai knew that too. "Sarada the scroll!" He called. Sarada ran over the scroll in hand, she was so fast I must not have seen her take it. She threw it to him, part of it unfolding in the air. I saw a look of relief on his face, it meant that the scroll was blank. It was the scroll we were looking for. Not a fake.
"It won't matter anyway." I heard rumble from behind me. I looked back, Neji still dragging me forward as fast as he could towards the others. In the dark of the temple all you could see were the silver splinters in his eyes. "You won't make it." Dark tendrils of darkness spread from all around him. Crashing and thundering like a storm, so loud it made my ears ring. I could feel the electricity. Quickly his storm spread to the only exit, blocking out the only light. The room turned pitch black.